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Note taking can be distracting at the best of times. Listening to the teacher or lecturer and trying to concentrate and understand what he is saying is difficult enough. Then trying to scribble down copious notes which you then can't decipher afterwards just compounds the problem.
If the subject matter is partly visual - maybe some complex formulas on a whiteboard or a scientific experiment which cannot be drawn easily, then the task of writing down and visualizing the session is double difficult.
If you have some form of sensory disability or learning difficulty then the challenge just got even harder. Then there are the foreign language students who come from Asia to study in the UK. A Glaswegian or Tyne side accent may be quite difficult for them to understand and quite unlike the English that they have been taught in their home country. So for them the challenge of comprehension and note taking is similar.
For the last twenty years students with a specific learning disability have ...

How Certificate IV in EAL Helped Me, A Nigerian, Enhance My Life In Australia and My Career Route?
I should say that English has always been a major roadblock in my career. I have failed at many interviews. I ruined great many chances to gain success. 
I am a Nigerian and I speak Yoruba. I have always faced difficulty in speaking English properly.
Am I in Australia Now?
I have been in Australia for over 10 years now. I should say that I was actually brought here by my parents. I should say that we have a small community here so when we speak, we speak our language and I think that brought for me the problems, I didn’t surmise.
I should say that life in this country was a great test of patience for me. I was not able to communicate with the people in English.
I wanted to pursue higher education and wanted to go into one of the top colleges in Australia. But, poor communication skills stood my way, forcing me to go back or try out something else. Then, I began to pay more attention to ...

“I can’t believe it!” My colleague stated as he entered the office, after teaching the third hour.
“What is it that you can’t believe?” I asked.
“I spent the entire first hour explaining that vocabulary word. I wrote on the board, put in a sentence, and saw the students take note. However, I asked them about it, none of them remember it.” My colleague expressed his frustration.
This conversation is not unique to my colleague. Most teachers have experienced similar situations and were left asking themselves why the students couldn’t recall the vocabulary.
My colleague’s remarks brought forth Dr. Krashion’s theory of providing the learner with a fine-tuned comprehensible input. According to Dr. Krashion explaining a concept doesn’t mean that the learner acquires it.  Explaining is the process of presenting the information or “omitting” the information, while learning is the process of “internalizing” the information.  According to Dr. Krashion to internalize the information, the teacher ...

~~Talking about the future in English can be difficult as technically there are no future tenses in English. The future is not fixed – it does not exist yet. So in English we use a number of forms and structures to express the future. It is usually the degree of certainty about the future decides our choice of structure or tense. But the distinction between choices is not always clear.
Native speakers of English vary their future forms depending on:
* variety, to avoid repetition
* formality, use “will” instead of “going to”
* type of text, “will” is generally used to make weather predictions
Ways of talking about the future in English.
* Will
For unplanned future events/instant decisions – I’ll get it!
For expectations/predictions that are not based on present or past evidence – England will win the match
To make promises – I’ll see you tomorrow
* Going to (be + going to + verb)
For predictions based on past or present evidence - She’s going to have a baby
For pre-meditated ...

~~Drama activities provide good practice of the target language, variation in the lesson and, through fun, stimulate the learners. Drama activities provide good practice of the target language and good variation in the lesson. These activities needn’t occur all the time but the more familiar learners become with drama activities the more successful the activities will be.
Drama activities need careful setting up and lots of encouragement and can involve materials production as well as very basic writing and reading skills. To be really successful the activities need props or realia and almost certainly prompt or flashcards to help the learners.
* Simple actions, structures & words can be practised through movement and chanting activities
* Mime & action games can be used as team activities – e.g. one team (A) selects an action for an opposite team (B) member to perform – team (B) have to say what the action is
* Change the settings of basic role-plays to make the activity more ...

The following is an article response to the discourse between two prominent researchers, Noam Chomsky and Jean Piaget, who debated on the psychogenesis of knowledge and its epistemological significance (Beakley, & Ludlow, 1992). The premise of the debate, led by Piaget, was to argue that the hallmark of cognitive development is "construction of the new", a constructivist concept. According to Piaget, constructivism explains how individuals are actively involved in a constructive exchange with the environment through assimilation and accommodation which contributes to the acquisition of learning and of knowledge (Piaget, 1980).
Piaget argues against those notions of association because those models do not support how anything can be produced from nature, since individuals, as emphasized by John Locke, are born with a 'blank slate'. These anti-empiricist and anti-behaviorist notions are challenged by Chomsky. Chomsky disagrees with Piaget's notion of constructivism and he claims ...

Motivation to study is when you have the eagerness to study with your desire to have great marks. Eagerness to study comes when you have a future vision about your life and where do you want to be after graduation from college, without having such eagerness, studying could be challenging.
A recent study showed that students who have a future vision so that they know what life looks like after graduation are more motivated than those who don't have a future vision. Here are some points to motivate yourself to study:
1.      Know your destination: while studying at high school, give yourself some time to search for colleges that you feel that they are appealing to you so that you can have a better view for your choice to know what is the college that better suits you. Knowing your destination by knowing the best college that suits you will motivate you to study more at high school and will make you have better grades.
 
2.     Live in your future: you can apply this on any school year. ...

IGCSE is expanded as International General Certificate of Secondary Education. It is a popular international certification for the secondary school. It is also referred to as O-Level or year 11 or fifth form in respective schools and countries, prior to proceeding to advanced levels such as the sixth form or A-level or 12 &13 year or even the pre-university studies.
IGCSE was previously University of CIE, Cambridge International Examinations, in 1988. In fact, since 1858, University of Cambridge is the UK local examination board. The term "IGCSE" is a trademark registered of University of Cambridge. Normally, when someone says IGCSE, it is taken as the IGCSE Cambridge from the CIE board.
The curricula of the IGCSE are similar to O-Level rather than the GCSE UK national curriculums. Thus, the examination basis is considered rigorous and more challenging.
Recognition
IGCSE is now offered in independent schools and private international schools in more than 120 countries. The IGCSE ...

Deciding on to become an English teacher abroad is one of the best decisions one can make as it will offer him/her with a life of teaching and travelling, given that the person is passionate about it. Anyone who’s deciding on to teach English in Europe, need to start on their next level planning i.e. to decide where in Europe do they actually want to teach. The continent of Europe is home to a number of beautiful countries and the difference can be seen ranging hugely. It is a crucial to know which country is right before venturing out to make it the new home. One of the most attractive things about Europe is its ideal work environment. In many important European counties, the pace is slightly slower compared to most parts of the world though expectations for quality teaching remain the same. Students learning English are eager to learn quickly, while they also take up enough time as to fully absorb the new language. The work environment in most of Europe includes time for relaxation, ...

~~What should I teach?
The first thing a teacher needs to decide is WHAT they want to teach. What do children need to learn?
• Vocabulary - These should be concrete items in the children’s environment, grouped by category, as vocabulary is easier to remember that way.
• Functional Dialogues - Things children say every day.
• Listening - Children learning a foreign language can understand more than they can say.
• Grammar - Simple, useful structures that children can substitute vocabulary items into and make their own sentences. It is important to include statements as well as questions and answers.
• Phonics/Reading/Writing - Children learning English need lots of support, reading and writing are hard skills to master and require patience and practice.
The Lesson Plan
A basic lesson plan makes planning easier. Lesson plans are needed by the learners in order to provide structure and routine to their learning, the parents need one in order to have confidence in the teacher.
Below is a ...