Stimulating languages and learning addresses contemporary issues in languages education from a glocal perspective. It is research based and presents a compendium of exemplars of practice that provide deep insights into the key issues that continue to face language teachers and learners, and curriculum and policy developers today.

This book explores the issues and concerns many language teachers have in not just helping able students to learn a foreign or second language but more importantly how to get reluctant learners to become interested in language learning. Tin proposes ‘interest’ as an important construct that requires investigation if we are to understand second language learning experiences in a modern globalised world. The book offers both theoretical explorations and empirical findings arising from the author’s own research in the field. Chapters demonstrate how various theoretical and empirical findings can be applied to practice so as to raise the awareness of the importance of interest in language learning and teaching. For teacher trainers and educators, researchers, and practising language teachers, this comprehensive study provides tools to stimulate student interest in language learning for successful language learning.

Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.

Offers techniques and strategies for increasing income while cutting work time in half, and includes advice for leading a more fulfilling life.

This book will give you the skills to learn to speak any language with confidence. It uses techniques that can easily be incorporated into your daily life, while making use of whatever resources you have available. Whether you are starting out with your first foreign language or wishing to add to your repetoire, you'll find a wealth of easy-to-follow advice and achievable goals. Discover how to: -Speak with greater confidence and accuracy -Effectively learn vocabulary and grammar -Use time on the internet and social media to learn a language -Read real books, websites and articles in a foreign language -Pass exams that certify your language skills

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • For anyone who wants to learn a foreign language, this is the method that will finally make the words stick. “A brilliant and thoroughly modern guide to learning new languages.”—Gary Marcus, cognitive psychologist and author of the New York Times bestseller Guitar Zero At thirty years old, Gabriel Wyner speaks six languages fluently. He didn’t learn them in school—who does? Rather, he learned them in the past few years, working on his own and practicing on the subway, using simple techniques and free online resources—and here he wants to show others what he’s discovered. Starting with pronunciation, you’ll learn how to rewire your ears and turn foreign sounds into familiar sounds. You’ll retrain your tongue to produce those sounds accurately, using tricks from opera singers and actors. Next, you’ll begin to tackle words, and connect sounds and spellings to imagery rather than translations, which will enable you to think in a foreign language. And with the help of sophisticated spaced-repetition techniques, you’ll be able to memorize hundreds of words a month in minutes every day. This is brain hacking at its most exciting, taking what we know about neuroscience and linguistics and using it to create the most efficient and enjoyable way to learn a foreign language in the spare minutes of your day.

If you have struggled to learn another language or you are looking for better ways to do it, look no further than this book. It looks into and explains why so many people have difficulties in learning foreign languages despite the fact that all of us learned our first with relative ease. It tells us what we need to do if we are to improve our language learning. It also provides a whole host of free downloadable resources to help learners implement some of the suggested practices. It can be used by itself, if you are an independent kind of learner, or it can be used in conjunction with courses so you can gain maximum benefit out of them.

Shows parents how to help their child communicate and learn language during everyday activities.

The long-anticipated new version of the internationally recognized Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale®, ECERS-3, focuses on the full range of needs of preschool- and kindergarten-aged children. This widely used, comprehensive assessment tool measures both environmental provisions and teacher-child interactions that affect the broad developmental needs of young children, including: Cognitive Social-emotional Physical Health and safety ECERS-3 also includes additional Items assessing developmentally appropriate literacy and math activities. Designed for preschool, kindergarten, and child care classrooms serving children 3 through 5 years of age, ECERS-3: Provides a smooth transition for those already using ECERS-R. Emphasizes the role of the teacher in creating an environment conducive to developmental gains. Is designed to predict child outcomes more accurately and with greater precision. Provides a stronger method of distinguishing between good and truly excellent programs. Offers a complete training program with ongoing support available at the Environment Rating Scales Institute (ERSI) website (www.ersi.info). ECERS-3 is appropriate for state and district-wide QRIS and continuous improvement; program evaluation by directors and supervisors; teacher self-evaluation; monitoring by agency staff; and teacher education. The established reliability and long term evidence of validity of the ERS family of instruments make this new version of ECERS particularly useful for RTTT-ELC accountability and research. Suitable for use in inclusive and culturally diverse programs, ECERS-3 subscales evaluate: Space and Furnishings Personal Care Routines Language and Literacy Learning Activities Interaction Program Structure

The Way of The Linguist, A language learning odyssey. It is now a cliché that the world is a smaller place. We think nothing of jumping on a plane to travel to another country or continent. The most exotic locations are now destinations for mass tourism. Small business people are dealing across frontiers and language barriers like never before. The Internet brings different languages and cultures to our finger-tips. English, the hybrid language of an island at the western extremity of Europe seems to have an unrivalled position as an international medium of communication. But historically periods of cultural and economic domination have never lasted forever. Do we not lose something by relying on the wide spread use of English rather than discovering other languages and cultures? As citizens of this shrunken world, would we not be better off if we were able to speak a few languages other than our own? The answer is obviously yes. Certainly Steve Kaufmann thinks so, and in his busy life as a diplomat and businessman he managed to learn to speak nine languages fluently and observe first hand some of the dominant cultures of Europe and Asia. Why do not more people do the same? In his book The Way of The Linguist, A language learning odyssey, Steve offers some answers. Steve feels anyone can learn a language if they want to. He points out some of the obstacles that hold people back. Drawing on his adventures in Europe and Asia, as a student and businessman, he describes the rewards that come from knowing languages. He relates his evolution as a language learner, abroad and back in his native Canada and explains the kind of attitude that will enable others to achieve second language fluency. Many people have taken on the challenge of language learning but have been frustrated by their lack of success. This book offers detailed advice on the kind of study practices that will achieve language breakthroughs. Steve has developed a language learning system available online at: www.thelinguist.com.