Recently it has occurred to me that a lot of what language teachers can offer is curation. This is, of course, as well as their subject specialism and feedback. They act as a kind of cultural and subject-specific guide through the area to nudge you towards areas that are a good next step in advancing knowledge and encouragement to return to aspects where weaknesses lie. A book or online course will also do this to an extent, albeit without the personalised guidance. As a curator a course, book or teacher will pick out the key stepping stones into the language and show you how to navigate these, without which it can be time consuming and challenging to find your way. |
| http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/curate-2 |
Given that every learner has his or her own particularities and needs, there is also a requirement on the student to work his or her way through what's available and useful whatever the source. Since learning a language has such complicated subjective and experiential aspects the learner sometimes need to be his or her
own curator and navigate what's available online and off.
It is with this in mind that I went to seek out podcasts to develop my listening skills. I will share more on these in the next post.
