off the WAL

Back to School
Originally uploaded by Danarah
Welcome back to school, teachers and students! With all of this fall’s discussion about Bellevue School District’s Curriculum Web, we wanted to take a look at how curricula are created for our local ELL classes.
We hear from teachers in our ELL Endorsement program all the time about the curricula [...]

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Wednesday Morning Sunrise at Kerry Park
Originally uploaded by Cap’n Surly

From the World Languages dispatch desk, here’s a rundown of the World Language news. Read on for an update of our class schedule – now with more schedule options! And don’t miss info regarding WAL joining the twenty-first century online!
For those of you busy folks whose [...]

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As activities coordinator for our international students at WAL who are learning English as a Second Language, I have a lot of fun. Plus, a lot of “on the job” adventures to share. Let me tell you about one…
A few weeks ago, a small group of students and I went to Seattle Premier Outlets in [...]

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The Force of Silence
Originally uploaded by amaroak – quite a life
Our mission at WAL is to facilitate cross-cultural communication. But is all communication achieved through speech? No, people communicate through silence as well as spoken language. It is a way to express oneself non-verbally and it can be very powerful.
Different cultures understand silence in [...]

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Close up of The Thinker
Originally uploaded by marttj
What have I learned about second language acquisition?
1. That it is systematic, rule-governed and yet it is a creative process of discovery.
2. It involves acting on received language input by trying to make responses and by making plenty of mistakes in the new language.
3. It involves interacting with [...]

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