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Miracle in the Andes

Submitted by Nikki on

A plane wreck in the middle of the Andes in the 1970s. Stranded survivors from a Uruguayan rugby team. Resorting to cannibalism to avoid starvation.

Sound familiar? Likely: the story was originally told in the bestselling book Alive, which was later made into a movie.

Topics: 
libros
Tags: 
memoir

Direct Method/Berlitz Method of language learning

Submitted by Nikki on

The Direct Method or Berlitz Method was created by...you guessed it, Maximilian Berlitz and Francoise Gouin. The Direct Method was a late 19th century response to the Grammar Translation approach which was prevalent at the time. This was the first time in which no mother tongue was used in the classroom and provided total immersion. The first goal of the Direct Method is speaking and then later students work on reading and writing. To convey meaning, teachers directly communicate through mime and gesture.

Grammar Translation method of language teaching

Submitted by Nikki on

In the 18th and 19th centuries Grammar Translation (GT) was the dominant method for teaching languages. The approach started in Europe, and was used in public education in the United States until as recently as the 1960s, eventually to be replaced by the Audio-Lingual method. The approach was often used for Latin and Greek, and focused on the written language, while hardly any attention was paid to speaking or listening. Student's mother tongue was used to teach the language, often through word for word translation. Students had to memorize bilingual word lists and grammar rules.

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