WIAOC(U) 2009: Webheads in Action Online Convergence Unconference

Hi Everybody,

I'm doing a presentation of Real English with the Webheads.

Webheads in Action Online Convergence May 24, 2009 at 15:00 GMT. Click on "15:00 GMT" to see the time where you are.

My presentation is about the New Real English Lessons, and of course, the videos. But see the link below about all the other interesting events.

My Presentation: I will first cover the basics for those unfamiliar with Real English and move on quickly to the pedagogy of self-graded learning, and hopefully make clear how images, text, and sound files, in addition to the videos, make it possible for students to learn English based upon natural, spontaneous speech, despite all the difficulties that true spontaneity involves as learning content.

Check out all the other Webhead Presentations: thanks to the generous efforts of Vance Stevens and Many Friends, the Webhead community is, without a doubt, the most intellignet, active EFL/ESL community on the Web. You can learn a lot, both teachers and students.

If you have any questions about how to participate, please leave a comment.

Note: The Webheads are primarily teacher-based, but many advanced students are also active members.

My Bio: Born and raised in New Jersey, I help run a brick and mortar language school which I created in in the south of France in 1976 with the help of my wife. I found the company clients and teachers, she did everything else, such as managing the school when we started to develop and began to need a serious financial/legal back office. I've spent approximately the first half of my life in the USA and the second half in France. I've always been fascinated by videotaping. Before going to grad school, I was a high school teacher in 1969/1970. That was the first time I interviewed people, or rather helped my students interview interesting local people, in and around Traverse City, Michigan.

I continued videotaping and editing in the 70s and 80s before starting Real English in the 90s. Several of our teachers happened to be very funny actors, so every weekend during a 4-year period we filmed grammar-based sketches and "drills" written by Ben Johnson and Charlie McBride. The result was "The Adventures of Charlie McBride", used by a lot of language schools in France and Spain in the 80s. We also did a comical film in collaboration with Longman France, called "We Mean Business". Unfortunately, by the time the digital revolution began, the original tapes of our early work did not survive the test of time, and never made it onto the internet.

I will finally be on vacation in 3 days, and I will film people in the streets of 2 different cities in the USA. If you have any questions you would like me and my friends to ask people in the street, please add a comment.

I will be back in front of my computer in France, in time for all the presentations