BGE material for sale!

We are happy to announce that ASEcoLi now offers teaching and learning materials, in part in cooperation with Lulu.com,

• for primary schools (Hello World!)
• for self-educated German-speaking learners (Tickets to Basic Global English – Englisch in 111 Tagen)

See the following list or the ASEcoLi Website (Section “Publications/Material”).

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Print 15.00 EUR – eBook 4.50 EUR (Preview at Lulu.com; hand-outs in other languages for free at http://www.basicglobalenglish.com)

Joachim Grzega (with the assistance of Marion Schöner and Katja Weber) Hello World! Teacher Handbook Basic Global English (BGE)for First-Year Learners of Age Group 7-10 ASEcoLi Publications by the Academy for SocioEconomic Linguistics 1.1

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Print 15.99 – eBook 5.50 EUR (Preview at Lulu.com)

Joachim Grzega (with the assistance of Marion Schöner and Katja Weber) Hello World! Learner Materials Basic Global English (BGE) for First-Year Learners of Age Group 7-10 ASEcoLi Publications by the Academy for SocioEconomic Linguistics 1.2

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* download all files  (783 MB!) (7.50 EUR) > Contact ASEcoLi * download textbooks + flashcards (84MB!) (5 EUR) > Contact ASEcoLi * all files on DVD (10 EUR) > Contact ASEcoLi * textbook + flashcards on CD (5 EUR) > Contact ASEcoLi * WAV-files part 1 as audio-CD (4.50 EUR) > Contact ASEcoLi * WAV-files part 2 as audio-CD(4.50 EUR) > Contact ASEcoLi

Joachim Grzega Tickets to Basic Global English – Englisch in 111 Tagen ASEcoLi Publications by the Academy for SocioEconomic Linguistics 3 Consists of: 1. Textbook, 2. computerized German-English flashcards for Phase-6, 3. audio files (WAV-format + MP3-format) Here is a look into the preface and the instructions (in German)

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BGE slowly goes global

There is a good chance that Basic Global English is not only an “ideally global”, but also “really global”. People from Egypt, Brazil, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe e-mailed that they are interested in integrating BGE at primary schools in their country. The important point will be to convince curricular authorities; this seems at least the case for Egypt.

Joachim Grzega

BGE lesson #7 in Lindau

I received good feedback for the latest lesson at the Akademie Schönbühl. Participants are happy that they not get the expert-group materials one week in advance (together with a German translation). Also the introduction of the new vocabulary in a suggestopedic way (which was done by one of the future BGE instructors) was welcomed as a nice change. Tomorrow we will have our final lesson and a form of test to see how well I have done as a teacher.

BGE lesson #6 in Lindau

“It must have gone well today, judging from your smile,” the director of the Akademie Schönbühl said when he entered the room after the lesson. Indeed, last session in Lindau was very good again. The learners’ performance during the pronunciation section was good as never before. One of the members said that this may have been, because I acted as such a great motivator today (and before the lesson people weren’t sure what they had to expect after last session’s discussion).

It is surprising, though, that it is still extremely hard for people to understand the sandwich technique, that it is also hard for them that they simply have to stick to what is written on their expert worksheets in order to present their material, and that it is also quite hard to speak slowly, clearly and loudly. But this is part of training intercultural competence. Also of note, the vocabulary section dealt with emotions this time and in order to memorize the words more easily learners were asked to also play the words (sad, angry etc.); not everyone felt at ease with that.

All in all, however, there was a very relaxed atmosphere in class. And learners also said that they feel they keep improving.

Joachim Grzega

Stumbling in my adults’ BGE Lesson #5

While Lessons #3 and #4 at the Akademie Schönbühl went well, the plan for #5 led to an unplanned and highly emotional evaluation-discussion. After I had the participants write a fax (like a written test, which most of them managed quite well), I had the usual preparatory section. Already during that phase, two groups complained that the topics were too demanding: the group that had to present “how to talk about things in the past” (i.e. simple past) and the group that had to present “how to contrast things” (i.e. comparative). Then there was first a revision and then a vocabulary group (I used the vocabulary exercise also to revise old vocabulary). Then, during the “past tense” group’s turn, people seemed so stressed that I broke up the lesson and started a discussion/evaluation.

It was strange that all of sudden people did not remember words that we have had in every single lesson. They claimed that there were so many unknown words and so few revision exercises (while I, in contrast, had noted that they didn’t even fully use the revision offers in class properly). Back home, I first had to correct the diagnosis. What I could draw from their impressions and feelings is, that it must indeed be stressful for the presenters to pay simultaneous attention to (1) the language, (2) the voice/presentation style, and (3) the contents, and that it must indeed be stressful for the listeners (1) to decode the words and (2) to process the contents. Therefore, I have decided to provide the worksheets for the experts with a German translation in small print and, for the rest of the learners, to intersperse complex contents with more explanations in the learners’ mother tongue. Also, most of the participants seem to have forgotten how to learn, so I will probably have to repeat my teaching advice more frequently.

Let’s see how it will work tonight.

Joachim Grzega

BGE, LdL and socioeconomic linguistics in dissertations

A German student contacted me because she wants to write her Master of Education thesis on BGE and LdL. A student from Singapore is writing his Ph.D. thesis on the use of English in China and aims at integrating BGE and my ideas on socioeconomic linguistics. That is a fantastic development.

Joachim Grzega