Treuchtlinger Kurier on BGE

The Treuchtlinger Kurier (a local daily) has published a very nice article on Basic Global English today.

 

Joachim Grzega

LdL site now hosted by ASEcoLi

ASEcoLi now hosts the LdL internet platform. We will soon be able to offer you some new type of training in LdL.

Merry Christmas and thanks to all who have supported ASEcoLi this year.

Joachim Grzega

 

BGE nominated for award for innovation in adult teaching

ASEcoLi was honored for BGE by getting nominated for the Innovationspreis of the Deutsches Institut für Erwachsenenbildung (DIE). Nominated were 19 out of 60 projects from all over Germany. (Here is the German DIE press release.)

Joachim Grzega

BGE partner school awarded with the “Europe Certificate”

Last Friday my BGE partner school, Alexander-von-Humboldt-Schule in Goldkronach, was bestowed with the “Europaurkunde” (“Europe Certificate”) by Emilia Müller, the Bavarian minister for European Affairs. – for international school projects incl. the use of Basic Global English in Classes 1 and 2 and the use of the internet communication plattform eTwinning. The event was hosted by myself (assisted by Bea Klüsener). Here is the link to a press release (in German).

Joachim Grzega

German materials of “Welcome to the World!” at Amazon

For self-teaching Basic Global English, Germans can now purchase the accompanying material to Welcome to the World! at amazon.de.  The core material is still available for free at the BGE website or via ASEcoLi.

 

Joachim Grzega

The Socioeconomic Power of Language Policies

My latest work on the field of socioeconomic linguistics has now appeared in the International Journal for the Sociology of Languages. The empirical study is entitled “On the correlation between socioeconomics and policies of languages in official contexts”. The article deals with the question of how the socioeconomic performance of countries is correlated with the kind and number of languages for official contexts.

“Hello World” at Amazon

Our book Hello World! Teacher Handbook Basic Global English (BGE) is now also available at amazon.de, amazon.com, amazon.co.uk and amazon.ca.

Joachim Grzega

Hints on the Language Workout Method

I have said in my last entry on the Language Workout Method that at the beginning one should use word-types that the mother-tongue, proper names and words from the core vocabulary to teach the pronunciation and the sound-letter-equivalents to the learners in a structured way, embedded into sentences. I would like to stress that this last remark is important. According to my observations, it is important that the learners get the experience that they can already say a few useful sentences already after half an hour. This can include sentences for saying thank you, please, hello, good-bye and the presentation for oneself and other people. If need be, the demonstrations of the many internationalisms and the teaching of foreign sounds (if their number is high for a specific learner group) can be spread over several lessons.

 

I have also said that it is also imaginable to exclude a source language and use only the target language—especially if the learner group is linguistically heterogeneous. I have mentioned the importance of pantomiming and drawing here. I would also like to point out two picture dictionaries that may be useful here: ICOON – Global Picture Dictionary and Point It: Traveller’s Language Kit.

 

Joachim Grzega

A New Language Teaching Method on the Occasion of the European Day of Languages

September 26 is the European Day of Languages. It aims at celebrating the multilingualism of Europe, thus encouraging the multilingualism of Europeans. As the creator of Basic Global English, I would like to take the opportunity to remind readers that BGE is not a concept—in contrast to what some believe—that is conceived as making other languages dispensable. Just on the contrary, BGE is an element in my concept of global triglossia: Everyone should be competent in his mother tongue, Global English (successful global communication being the model), and at least one more language (a native variety of that language being the model). As a matter of fact, I have also said that it could be Europeans’ goal to be competent in even more languages. Since I could prove BGE to be an effective way to reach competence in global communication up to an intermediate level, I have tried to focus more on improving teaching other languages.

Based on my previous experiences in teaching and learning language I am suggesting a new language teaching method for beginners here, which I would like to call “language workout method”.

Introduction to Linguistics by Joachim Grzega

My materials for the introduction to linguistics have now been published as a book at LINCOM. If students order it directly at LINCOM, they will get it at a special discount clearly below the prices for other introductions of smaller size.  The book’s full title is Introduction to Linguistics from a Global Perspective: An Alternative Approach to Language and Languages. It is based on a 10-plus-year-long teaching experience. 10 chapters