Communication is process knowledge of the forms of language is insufficient. The goal is enable students to communication in the target language. To do this students need knowledge of the linguistic forms, meanings, and functions.
In this role, one of his major responsibilities is to establish situations likely to promote communication. During the activities he acts as an adviser, answering student’s questions and monitoring their performance. He might make mote of their errors to be worked on at a later time during more accuracy-based activities. At other times he might be a communicator engaging in the communicative activity along with students. Students are, above all, communicators. They are actively engaged in negotiating meaning-in trying to make them understood and in understanding others-even when their knowledge of the target language is incomplete. Also, since the teacher’s role is less dominant than in a teacher-centered method, students are seen as more responsible managers of their own learning.
The most obvious characteristic of CLT is that almost everything that is done is with a communicative intent. Students use the language a great deal through communicative activities such as games, role, plays, and problem-solving tasks. Another characteristic of CLT is the use of authentic materials. It is considered desirable to give students an opportunity to develop strategies for understanding language as it is actually used. Activities in CLT are often carried out by students in small groups. Small numbers of students interacting are favored on order to maximize the smile allotted to each student for communicating.
The teacher may present some part of the lesson, such as when working with linguistic accuracy. At other times, he is the facilitator of the activities, but he does not always himself interact with the students. Sometimes he is a co-communicator, but more often he establishes situations that prompt communication between and among the students. Students interact a great deal with one another. They do this in various configurations: pairs, triads, small groups, and whole group.
One of the basic assumptions of CLT is that by learning to communicate students will be more motivated to study a foreign language since they will feel they are learning to do something useful with the language. Also, teachers give students an opportunity to express their individuality by having them share their ideas and opinions on a regular basis. Finally, student security is enhanced by the many opportunities for cooperative interactions with their fellow students and the teacher.
The culture is the everyday lifestyle of people who use the language. There are certain aspects of it than are especially important to communication-the use of nonverbal behavior, for example, which might receive greater attention CLT.
Students work with language at the suprasentential or discourse level. They learn about cohesion and coherence. Students work on all four skills from beginning. Just as oral communication is seen to take place through negotiation between speaker and listener, so too is meaning thought to be derived from the written word through an interaction between the reader and the writer. The writer is not persent to receive immediate feedback from the reader, of course, but the reader tries to understand the writer’s intentions and the writer writes with the reader’s perspective in mind. Meaning does not, therefore, reside exclusively in the next, but rather arises through negotiation between the reader and writer.
Judicious use of the student’s native language is permitted in CLT. However, whenever possible, the target language should be used not only during communicative activities, but also for explaining the activities to the students or in assigning homework. The students learn from these classroom management exchanges, too, and realize that the target language is a vehicle for communication, not just an object to be studied.
A teacher evaluates not only the student’s accuracy, but also their fluency. The student who has the most control of the structures and vocabulary is not always the best communicator. A teacher can informally evaluate his student’s performance in his role as an adviser or co-communicator. For more formal evaluation, a teacher is likely to use an integrative test which has a real communicative function. In order to assess students writing skill, for instance, a teacher might ask them to write a letter to a friend.
Errors of form are tolerated during fluency-based activities and are seen as a natural outcome of the development of communication skills. Students can have limited linguistic knowledge and still be fluency activities and return to them later with an accuracy based activity.
Selasa, 18 Mei 2010
Senin, 17 Mei 2010
Techniques for Teaching Speaking and Listening
Techniques for Teaching Speaking
Students often think that the ability to speak a language is the product of language learning, but speaking is also a crucial part of the language learning process. Effective instructors teach students speaking strategies -- using minimal responses, recognizing scripts, and using language to talk about language -- which they can use to help themselves expand their knowledge of the language and their confidence in using it. These instructors’ help students learn to speak so that the students can use speaking to learn.
1. Using minimal responses
Language learners who lack confidence in their ability to participate successfully in oral interaction often listen in silence while others do the talking. One way to encourage such learners to begin to participate is to help them build up a stock of minimal responses that they can use in different types of exchanges. Such responses can be especially useful for beginners.
Minimal responses are predictable, often idiomatic phrases that conversation participants use to indicate understanding, agreement, doubt, and other responses to what another speaker is saying. Having a stock of such responses enables a learner to focus on what the other participant is saying, without having to simultaneously plan a response.
2. Recognizing scripts
Some communication situations are associated with a predictable set of spoken exchanges -- a script. Greetings, apologies, compliments, invitations, and other functions that are influenced by social and cultural norms often follow patterns or scripts. So do the transactional exchanges involved in activities such as obtaining information and making a purchase. In these scripts, the relationship between a speaker's turn and the one that follows it can often be anticipated.
Instructors can help students develop speaking ability by making them aware of the scripts for different situations so that they can predict what they will hear and what they will need to say in response. Through interactive activities, instructors can give students practice in managing and varying the language that different scripts contain.
3. Using language to talk about language
Language learners are often too embarrassed or shy to say anything when they do not understand another speaker or when they realize that a conversation partner has not understood them. Instructors can help students overcome this reticence by assuring them that misunderstanding and the need for clarification can occur in any type of interaction, whatever the participants' language skill levels. Instructors can also give students strategies and phrases to use for clarification and comprehension check.
By encouraging students to use clarification phrases in class when misunderstanding occurs and by responding positively when they do, instructors can create an authentic practice environment within the classroom itself. As they develop control of various clarification strategies, students will gain confidence in their ability to manage the various communication situations that they may encounter outside the classroom.
Structured Output Activities
Information Gap Activities
The gaps in a schedule or timetable: Partner A holds an airline timetable with some Filling of the arrival and departure times missing. Partner B has the same timetable but with different blank spaces. The two partners are not permitted to see each other's timetables and must fill in the blanks by asking each other appropriate questions. The features of language that are practiced would include questions beginning with "when" or "at what time." Answers would be limited mostly to time expressions like "at 8:15" or "at ten in the evening."
Completing the picture: The two partners have similar pictures, each with different missing details, and they cooperate to find all the missing details. In another variation, no items are missing, but similar items differ in appearance. For example, in one picture, a man walking along the street may be wearing an overcoat, while in the other the man is wearing a jacket. The features of grammar and vocabulary that are practiced are determined by the content of the pictures and the items that are missing or different. Differences in the activities depicted lead to practice of different verbs. Differences in number, size, and shape lead to adjective practice. Differing locations would probably be described with prepositional phrases.
Jigsaw Activities
In one fairly simple jigsaw activity, students work in groups of four. Each student in the group receives one panel from a comic strip. Partners may not show each other their panels. Together the four panels present this narrative: a man takes a container of ice cream from the freezer; he serves himself several scoops of ice cream; he sits in front of the TV eating his ice cream; he returns with the empty bowl to the kitchen and finds that he left the container of ice cream, now melting, on the kitchen counter. These pictures have a clear narrative line and the partners are not likely to disagree about the appropriate sequencing. You can make the task more demanding, however, by using pictures that lend themselves to alternative sequences, so that the partners have to negotiate among themselves to agree on a satisfactory sequence.
More elaborate jigsaws may proceed in two stages. Students’ first work in input groups (groups A, B, C, and D) to receive information. Each group receives a different part of the total information for the task. Students then reorganize into groups of four with one student each from A, B, C, and D, and use the information they received to complete the task. Such an organization could be used, for example, when the input is given in the form of a tape recording. Groups A, B, C, and D each hear a different recording of a short news bulletin. The four recordings all contain the same general information, but each has one or more details that the others do not. In the second stage, students reconstruct the complete story by comparing the four versions.
Communicative Output Activities
Role Plays
Prepare carefully: Introduce the activity by describing the situation and making sure that all of the students understand it
Set a goal or outcome: Be sure the students understand what the product of the role play should be, whether a plan, a schedule, a group opinion, or some other product
Use role cards: Give each student a card that describes the person or role to be played. For lower-level students, the cards can include words or expressions that that person might use.
Brainstorm: Before you start the role play, have students brainstorm as a class to predict what vocabulary, grammar, and idiomatic expressions they might use.
Keep groups small: Less-confident students will feel more able to participate if they do not have to compete with many voices.
Give students time to prepare: Let them work individually to outline their ideas and the language they will need to express them.
Be present as a resource, not a monitor: Stay in communicative mode to answer students' questions. Do not correct their pronunciation or grammar unless they specifically ask you about it.
Allow students to work at their own levels: Each student has individual language skills, an individual approach to working in groups, and a specific role to play in the activity. Do not expect all students to contribute equally to the discussion, or to use every grammar point you have taught.
Do topical follow-up: Have students report to the class on the outcome of their role plays.
Do linguistic follow-up: After the role play is over, give feedback on grammar or pronunciation problems you have heard. This can wait until another class period when you plan to review pronunciation or grammar anyway.
Discussions
Prepare the students: Give them input (both topical information and language forms) so that they will have something to say and the language with which to say it.
Offer choices: Let students suggest the topic for discussion or choose from several options. Discussion does not always have to be about serious issues. Students are likely to be more motivated to participate if the topic is television programs, plans for a vacation, or news about mutual friends. Weighty topics like how to combat pollution are not as engaging and place heavy demands on students' linguistic competence.
Set a goal or outcome: This can be a group product, such as a letter to the editor, or individual reports on the views of others in the group.
Use small groups instead of whole-class discussion: Large groups can make participation difficult.
Keep it short: Give students a defined period of time, not more than 8-10 minutes, for discussion. Allow them to stop sooner if they run out of things to say.
Allow students to participate in their own way: Not every student will feel comfortable talking about every topic. Do not expect all of them to contribute equally to the conversation.
Do topical follow-up: Have students report to the class on the results of their discussion.
Do linguistic follow-up: After the discussion is over, give feedback on grammar or pronunciation problems you have heard. This can wait until another class period when you plan to review pronunciation or grammar anyway.
Techniques for Teaching Listening
Instructors want to produce students who, even if they do not have complete control of the grammar or an extensive lexicon, can fend for themselves in communication situations. In the case of listening, this means producing students who can use listening strategies to maximize their comprehension of aural input, identify relevant and non-relevant information, and tolerate less than word-by-word comprehension.
Focus: The Listening Process
To accomplish this goal, instructors focus on the process of listening rather than on its product.
They develop students' awareness of the listening process and listening strategies by asking students to think and talk about how they listen in their native language.
They allow students to practice the full repertoire of listening strategies by using authentic listening tasks.
They behave as authentic listeners by responding to student communication as a listener rather than as a teacher.
When working with listening tasks in class, they show students the strategies that will work best for the listening purpose and the type of text. They explain how and why students should use the strategies.
They have students practice listening strategies in class and ask them to practice outside of class in their listening assignments. They encourage students to be conscious of what they're doing while they complete listening tape assignments.
They encourage students to evaluate their comprehension and their strategy use immediately after completing an assignment. They build comprehension checks into in-class and out-of-class listening assignments, and periodically review how and when to use particular strategies.
They encourage the development of listening skills and the use of listening strategies by using the target language to conduct classroom business: making announcements, assigning homework, describing the content and format of tests.
They do not assume that students will transfer strategy use from one task to another. They explicitly mention how a particular strategy can be used in a different type of listening task or with another skill.
Integrating Metacognitive Strategies
Before listening: Plan for the listening task
Set a purpose or decide in advance what to listen for
Decide if more linguistic or background knowledge is needed
Determine whether to enter the text from the top down (attend to the overall meaning) or from the bottom up (focus on the words and phrases)
During and after listening: Monitor comprehension
Verify predictions and check for inaccurate guesses
Decide what is and is not important to understand
Listen/view again to check comprehension
Ask for help
After listening: Evaluate comprehension and strategy use
Evaluate comprehension in a particular task or area
Evaluate overall progress in listening and in particular types of listening tasks
Decide if the strategies used were appropriate for the purpose and for the task
Modify strategies if necessary
Using Authentic Materials and Situations
One-Way Communication
Materials:
Radio and television programs
Public address announcements (airports, train/bus stations, stores)
Speeches and lectures
Telephone customer service recordings
Procedure:
Help students identify the listening goal: to obtain specific information; to decide whether to continue listening; to understand most or all of the message
Help students outline predictable sequences in which information may be presented: who-what-when-where (news stories); who-flight number-arriving/departing-gate number (airport announcements); "for [function], press [number]" (telephone recordings)
Help students identify key words/phrases to listen for
Two-Way Communication
In authentic two-way communication, the listener focuses on the speaker's meaning rather than the speaker's language. The focus shifts to language only when meaning is not clear. Note the difference between the teacher as teacher and the teacher as authentic listener in the dialogues in the popup screens.
Students often think that the ability to speak a language is the product of language learning, but speaking is also a crucial part of the language learning process. Effective instructors teach students speaking strategies -- using minimal responses, recognizing scripts, and using language to talk about language -- which they can use to help themselves expand their knowledge of the language and their confidence in using it. These instructors’ help students learn to speak so that the students can use speaking to learn.
1. Using minimal responses
Language learners who lack confidence in their ability to participate successfully in oral interaction often listen in silence while others do the talking. One way to encourage such learners to begin to participate is to help them build up a stock of minimal responses that they can use in different types of exchanges. Such responses can be especially useful for beginners.
Minimal responses are predictable, often idiomatic phrases that conversation participants use to indicate understanding, agreement, doubt, and other responses to what another speaker is saying. Having a stock of such responses enables a learner to focus on what the other participant is saying, without having to simultaneously plan a response.
2. Recognizing scripts
Some communication situations are associated with a predictable set of spoken exchanges -- a script. Greetings, apologies, compliments, invitations, and other functions that are influenced by social and cultural norms often follow patterns or scripts. So do the transactional exchanges involved in activities such as obtaining information and making a purchase. In these scripts, the relationship between a speaker's turn and the one that follows it can often be anticipated.
Instructors can help students develop speaking ability by making them aware of the scripts for different situations so that they can predict what they will hear and what they will need to say in response. Through interactive activities, instructors can give students practice in managing and varying the language that different scripts contain.
3. Using language to talk about language
Language learners are often too embarrassed or shy to say anything when they do not understand another speaker or when they realize that a conversation partner has not understood them. Instructors can help students overcome this reticence by assuring them that misunderstanding and the need for clarification can occur in any type of interaction, whatever the participants' language skill levels. Instructors can also give students strategies and phrases to use for clarification and comprehension check.
By encouraging students to use clarification phrases in class when misunderstanding occurs and by responding positively when they do, instructors can create an authentic practice environment within the classroom itself. As they develop control of various clarification strategies, students will gain confidence in their ability to manage the various communication situations that they may encounter outside the classroom.
Structured Output Activities
Information Gap Activities
The gaps in a schedule or timetable: Partner A holds an airline timetable with some Filling of the arrival and departure times missing. Partner B has the same timetable but with different blank spaces. The two partners are not permitted to see each other's timetables and must fill in the blanks by asking each other appropriate questions. The features of language that are practiced would include questions beginning with "when" or "at what time." Answers would be limited mostly to time expressions like "at 8:15" or "at ten in the evening."
Completing the picture: The two partners have similar pictures, each with different missing details, and they cooperate to find all the missing details. In another variation, no items are missing, but similar items differ in appearance. For example, in one picture, a man walking along the street may be wearing an overcoat, while in the other the man is wearing a jacket. The features of grammar and vocabulary that are practiced are determined by the content of the pictures and the items that are missing or different. Differences in the activities depicted lead to practice of different verbs. Differences in number, size, and shape lead to adjective practice. Differing locations would probably be described with prepositional phrases.
Jigsaw Activities
In one fairly simple jigsaw activity, students work in groups of four. Each student in the group receives one panel from a comic strip. Partners may not show each other their panels. Together the four panels present this narrative: a man takes a container of ice cream from the freezer; he serves himself several scoops of ice cream; he sits in front of the TV eating his ice cream; he returns with the empty bowl to the kitchen and finds that he left the container of ice cream, now melting, on the kitchen counter. These pictures have a clear narrative line and the partners are not likely to disagree about the appropriate sequencing. You can make the task more demanding, however, by using pictures that lend themselves to alternative sequences, so that the partners have to negotiate among themselves to agree on a satisfactory sequence.
More elaborate jigsaws may proceed in two stages. Students’ first work in input groups (groups A, B, C, and D) to receive information. Each group receives a different part of the total information for the task. Students then reorganize into groups of four with one student each from A, B, C, and D, and use the information they received to complete the task. Such an organization could be used, for example, when the input is given in the form of a tape recording. Groups A, B, C, and D each hear a different recording of a short news bulletin. The four recordings all contain the same general information, but each has one or more details that the others do not. In the second stage, students reconstruct the complete story by comparing the four versions.
Communicative Output Activities
Role Plays
Prepare carefully: Introduce the activity by describing the situation and making sure that all of the students understand it
Set a goal or outcome: Be sure the students understand what the product of the role play should be, whether a plan, a schedule, a group opinion, or some other product
Use role cards: Give each student a card that describes the person or role to be played. For lower-level students, the cards can include words or expressions that that person might use.
Brainstorm: Before you start the role play, have students brainstorm as a class to predict what vocabulary, grammar, and idiomatic expressions they might use.
Keep groups small: Less-confident students will feel more able to participate if they do not have to compete with many voices.
Give students time to prepare: Let them work individually to outline their ideas and the language they will need to express them.
Be present as a resource, not a monitor: Stay in communicative mode to answer students' questions. Do not correct their pronunciation or grammar unless they specifically ask you about it.
Allow students to work at their own levels: Each student has individual language skills, an individual approach to working in groups, and a specific role to play in the activity. Do not expect all students to contribute equally to the discussion, or to use every grammar point you have taught.
Do topical follow-up: Have students report to the class on the outcome of their role plays.
Do linguistic follow-up: After the role play is over, give feedback on grammar or pronunciation problems you have heard. This can wait until another class period when you plan to review pronunciation or grammar anyway.
Discussions
Prepare the students: Give them input (both topical information and language forms) so that they will have something to say and the language with which to say it.
Offer choices: Let students suggest the topic for discussion or choose from several options. Discussion does not always have to be about serious issues. Students are likely to be more motivated to participate if the topic is television programs, plans for a vacation, or news about mutual friends. Weighty topics like how to combat pollution are not as engaging and place heavy demands on students' linguistic competence.
Set a goal or outcome: This can be a group product, such as a letter to the editor, or individual reports on the views of others in the group.
Use small groups instead of whole-class discussion: Large groups can make participation difficult.
Keep it short: Give students a defined period of time, not more than 8-10 minutes, for discussion. Allow them to stop sooner if they run out of things to say.
Allow students to participate in their own way: Not every student will feel comfortable talking about every topic. Do not expect all of them to contribute equally to the conversation.
Do topical follow-up: Have students report to the class on the results of their discussion.
Do linguistic follow-up: After the discussion is over, give feedback on grammar or pronunciation problems you have heard. This can wait until another class period when you plan to review pronunciation or grammar anyway.
Techniques for Teaching Listening
Instructors want to produce students who, even if they do not have complete control of the grammar or an extensive lexicon, can fend for themselves in communication situations. In the case of listening, this means producing students who can use listening strategies to maximize their comprehension of aural input, identify relevant and non-relevant information, and tolerate less than word-by-word comprehension.
Focus: The Listening Process
To accomplish this goal, instructors focus on the process of listening rather than on its product.
They develop students' awareness of the listening process and listening strategies by asking students to think and talk about how they listen in their native language.
They allow students to practice the full repertoire of listening strategies by using authentic listening tasks.
They behave as authentic listeners by responding to student communication as a listener rather than as a teacher.
When working with listening tasks in class, they show students the strategies that will work best for the listening purpose and the type of text. They explain how and why students should use the strategies.
They have students practice listening strategies in class and ask them to practice outside of class in their listening assignments. They encourage students to be conscious of what they're doing while they complete listening tape assignments.
They encourage students to evaluate their comprehension and their strategy use immediately after completing an assignment. They build comprehension checks into in-class and out-of-class listening assignments, and periodically review how and when to use particular strategies.
They encourage the development of listening skills and the use of listening strategies by using the target language to conduct classroom business: making announcements, assigning homework, describing the content and format of tests.
They do not assume that students will transfer strategy use from one task to another. They explicitly mention how a particular strategy can be used in a different type of listening task or with another skill.
Integrating Metacognitive Strategies
Before listening: Plan for the listening task
Set a purpose or decide in advance what to listen for
Decide if more linguistic or background knowledge is needed
Determine whether to enter the text from the top down (attend to the overall meaning) or from the bottom up (focus on the words and phrases)
During and after listening: Monitor comprehension
Verify predictions and check for inaccurate guesses
Decide what is and is not important to understand
Listen/view again to check comprehension
Ask for help
After listening: Evaluate comprehension and strategy use
Evaluate comprehension in a particular task or area
Evaluate overall progress in listening and in particular types of listening tasks
Decide if the strategies used were appropriate for the purpose and for the task
Modify strategies if necessary
Using Authentic Materials and Situations
One-Way Communication
Materials:
Radio and television programs
Public address announcements (airports, train/bus stations, stores)
Speeches and lectures
Telephone customer service recordings
Procedure:
Help students identify the listening goal: to obtain specific information; to decide whether to continue listening; to understand most or all of the message
Help students outline predictable sequences in which information may be presented: who-what-when-where (news stories); who-flight number-arriving/departing-gate number (airport announcements); "for [function], press [number]" (telephone recordings)
Help students identify key words/phrases to listen for
Two-Way Communication
In authentic two-way communication, the listener focuses on the speaker's meaning rather than the speaker's language. The focus shifts to language only when meaning is not clear. Note the difference between the teacher as teacher and the teacher as authentic listener in the dialogues in the popup screens.
Techniques for Teaching Reading and Writing
Techniques for Teaching Reading
The teacher wants to produce students who, even if they do not have complete control of the grammar or an extensive lexicon, can fend for themselves in communication situations. In the case of reading, this means producing students who can use reading strategies to maximize their comprehension of text, identify relevant and non-relevant information, and tolerate less than word-by-word comprehension.
Focus: The Reading Process
To accomplish this goal, teachers focus on the process of reading rather than on its product.
They develop students' awareness of the reading process and reading strategies by asking students to think and talk about how they read in their native language.
They allow students to practice the full repertoire of reading strategies by using authentic reading tasks. They encourage students to read to learn (and have an authentic purpose for reading) by giving students some choice of reading material.
When working with reading tasks in class, they show students the strategies that will work best for the reading purpose and the type of text. They explain how and why students should use the strategies.
They have students practice reading strategies in class and ask them to practice outside of class in their reading assignments. They encourage students to be conscious of what they're doing while they complete reading assignments.
They encourage students to evaluate their comprehension and self-report their use of strategies. They build comprehension checks into in-class and out-of-class reading assignments, and periodically review how and when to use particular strategies.
They encourage the development of reading skills and the use of reading strategies by using the target language to convey instructions and course-related information in written form: office hours, homework assignments, test content.
They do not assume that students will transfer strategy use from one task to another. They explicitly mention how a particular strategy can be used in a different type of reading task or with another skill.
By raising students' awareness of reading as a skill that requires active engagement, and by explicitly teaching reading strategies, instructors help their students develop both the ability and the confidence to handle communication situations they may encounter beyond the classroom. In this way they give their students the foundation for communicative competence in the new language. Teachers can help their students become effective readers by teaching them how to use strategies before, during, and after reading.
Before reading: Plan for the reading task
Set a purpose or decide in advance what to read for
Decide if more linguistic or background knowledge is needed
Determine whether to enter the text from the top down (attend to the overall meaning) or from the bottom up (focus on the words and phrases)
During and after reading: Monitor comprehension
Verify predictions and check for inaccurate guesses
Decide what is and is not important to understand
Reread to check comprehension
Ask for help
After reading: Evaluate comprehension and strategy use
Evaluate comprehension in a particular task or area
Evaluate overall progress in reading and in particular types of reading tasks
Decide if the strategies used were appropriate for the purpose and for the task
Modify strategies if necessary
Strategies that can help students read more quickly and effectively include.
Previewing: reviewing titles, section headings, and photo captions to get a sense of the structure and content of a reading selection
Predicting: using knowledge of the subject matter to make predictions about content and vocabulary and check comprehension; using knowledge of the text type and purpose to make predictions about discourse structure; using knowledge about the author to make predictions about writing style, vocabulary, and content
Skimming and scanning: using a quick survey of the text to get the main idea, identify text structure, confirm or question predictions
Guessing from context: using prior knowledge of the subject and the ideas in the text as clues to the meanings of unknown words, instead of stopping to look them up
Paraphrasing: stopping at the end of a section to check comprehension by restating the information and ideas in the text
Techniques For Teaching Writing
Introduction
Students need to be personally involved in writing exercises in order to make the learning experience of lasting value. Encouraging student participation in the exercise, while at the same time refining and expanding writing skills, requires a certain pragmatic approach. The teacher should be clear on what skills he/she is trying to develop. Next, the teacher needs to decide on which means (or type of exercise) can facilitate learning of the target area. Once the target skill areas and means of implementation are defined, the teacher can then proceed to focus on what topic can be employed to ensure student participation. By pragmatically combing these objectives, the teacher can expect both enthusiasm and effective learning.
Choosing The Target Area
Choosing the target area depends on many factors; what level are the students? What is the average age of the students, Why are the students learning English, Are there any specific future intentions for the writing (i.e. school tests or job application letters etc.). Other important questions to ask oneself are: What should the students be able to produce at the end of this exercise? (a well written letter, basic communication of ideas, etc.) What is the focus of the exercise? (structure, tense usage, creative writing). Once these factors are clear in the mind of the teacher, the teacher can begin to focus on how to involve the students in the activity thus promoting a positive, long-term learning experience.
Purpose Choosing The Target Area
Having decided on the target area, the teacher can focus on the means to achieve this type of learning. As in correction, the teacher must choose the most appropriate manner for the specified writing area. If formal business letter English is required, it is of little use to employ a free expression type of exercise. Likewise, when working on descriptive language writing skills, a formal letter is equally out of place.
Planning In The Class
With both the target area and means of production clear in the teacher's mind, the teacher can begin to consider how to involve the students by considering what type of activities are interesting to the students: Are they preparing for something specific such as a holiday or test?, Will they need any of the skills pragmatically? What has been effective in the past? A good way to approach this is by class feedback, or brainstorming sessions. By choosing a topic that involves the students the teacher is providing a context within which effective learning on the target area can be undertaken.
Finally, the question of which type of correction will facilitate a useful writing exercise is of utmost importance. Here the teacher needs to once again think about the overall target area of the exercise. If there is an immediate task at hand, such as taking a test, perhaps teacher-guided correction is the most effective solution. However, if the task were more general (for example developing informal letter writing skills), maybe the best approach would be to have the students work in groups thereby learning from each other. Most importantly, by choosing the correct means of correction the teacher can encourage rather discourage students.
Have you ever walked into a classroom expecting students to be prepared and begin learning and instead found them looking at you like you are an alien from another planet for even expecting their rapt attention? Unfortunately, low expectations have become the norm for both teachers and students. Many teachers do not want to fight against the expectations that students have because realigning their thinking is both time consuming and difficult.
Students might come into your classroom with expectations of how you are going to act and what they will be expected to do. However, just because they harbor these beliefs does not mean that you have to conform to the mediocracy that has become much of teaching.
How do you do this you ask? By setting up an academic environment from the first day and always keeping high expectations. What this means is that you as a teacher have to make a committed effort to be consistent, fair, and firm.
Consistency means that you come into class on the first day of school and assume that learning begins that day. You let students know right away that they might play in other classrooms but not yours. And then you follow through! You do not come to class unprepared (you wouldn't expect your students to!) You instead come with a lesson that begins at the beginning of class and ends at the end. (Believe it or not, this seems foreign to some students and teachers). Further, you act the same every day. You might not feel the best or you might be having a bad day because of something going on at home or at work, but you do not change your demeanor or, more importantly, they way you handle discipline problems. If you are not consistent, you will lose all credibility with students and the atmosphere you are trying to create will quickly disintegrate.
Fairness goes hand in hand with consistency. Do not treat kids differently. Sure, you will have personal likes and dislikes for different students, however, never let this bleed into your classroom. If you are unfair, you will quickly lose students who will not trust you. And trust is paramount for an effective academic classroom.
What this means is that you need to help the students understand that what you say is what you mean. And you must also help the students see that you believe in their abilities. Tell the students you know that they can learn what you are teaching, show them by your rapt attention, and then reinforce this by praising authentic achievements.
Which brings up the point: do you really believe that your students can learn? Many teachers have become cynical over time, believing that their students just can't do it or that their lives get in the way. Hogwash! We are wired so that we can learn! With that said, obviously students need to have completed the prerequisites for a course. You can't teach calculus to someone who has just finished Consumer Math. My point here, however, is that you need to examine your attitudes because they bleed through into class. Try not to say phrases like," This is just too advanced," or "We just won't spend the time trying to learn this." While these might sound innocuous, instead they are just off putting.
Finally, this brings up to the term firm. Discipline in your classroom should never be about raised voices and confrontations. It should be about consistent application of established rules. Further, learning will occur in a safe environment if the teacher establishes from the beginning that they will be fair but firm.
We are representatives of our discipline. It is our responsibility to commit ourselves to teaching an academic course of study. It is a sad state that students are surprised when teachers come in and actually expect their students to learn - not just to regurgitate the facts that they read in a text. However, if we fail to create an academic environment, we leave students with the implicit knowledge that school and therefore learning is not that important or it is for the 'brains' of the school and not them.
The teacher wants to produce students who, even if they do not have complete control of the grammar or an extensive lexicon, can fend for themselves in communication situations. In the case of reading, this means producing students who can use reading strategies to maximize their comprehension of text, identify relevant and non-relevant information, and tolerate less than word-by-word comprehension.
Focus: The Reading Process
To accomplish this goal, teachers focus on the process of reading rather than on its product.
They develop students' awareness of the reading process and reading strategies by asking students to think and talk about how they read in their native language.
They allow students to practice the full repertoire of reading strategies by using authentic reading tasks. They encourage students to read to learn (and have an authentic purpose for reading) by giving students some choice of reading material.
When working with reading tasks in class, they show students the strategies that will work best for the reading purpose and the type of text. They explain how and why students should use the strategies.
They have students practice reading strategies in class and ask them to practice outside of class in their reading assignments. They encourage students to be conscious of what they're doing while they complete reading assignments.
They encourage students to evaluate their comprehension and self-report their use of strategies. They build comprehension checks into in-class and out-of-class reading assignments, and periodically review how and when to use particular strategies.
They encourage the development of reading skills and the use of reading strategies by using the target language to convey instructions and course-related information in written form: office hours, homework assignments, test content.
They do not assume that students will transfer strategy use from one task to another. They explicitly mention how a particular strategy can be used in a different type of reading task or with another skill.
By raising students' awareness of reading as a skill that requires active engagement, and by explicitly teaching reading strategies, instructors help their students develop both the ability and the confidence to handle communication situations they may encounter beyond the classroom. In this way they give their students the foundation for communicative competence in the new language. Teachers can help their students become effective readers by teaching them how to use strategies before, during, and after reading.
Before reading: Plan for the reading task
Set a purpose or decide in advance what to read for
Decide if more linguistic or background knowledge is needed
Determine whether to enter the text from the top down (attend to the overall meaning) or from the bottom up (focus on the words and phrases)
During and after reading: Monitor comprehension
Verify predictions and check for inaccurate guesses
Decide what is and is not important to understand
Reread to check comprehension
Ask for help
After reading: Evaluate comprehension and strategy use
Evaluate comprehension in a particular task or area
Evaluate overall progress in reading and in particular types of reading tasks
Decide if the strategies used were appropriate for the purpose and for the task
Modify strategies if necessary
Strategies that can help students read more quickly and effectively include.
Previewing: reviewing titles, section headings, and photo captions to get a sense of the structure and content of a reading selection
Predicting: using knowledge of the subject matter to make predictions about content and vocabulary and check comprehension; using knowledge of the text type and purpose to make predictions about discourse structure; using knowledge about the author to make predictions about writing style, vocabulary, and content
Skimming and scanning: using a quick survey of the text to get the main idea, identify text structure, confirm or question predictions
Guessing from context: using prior knowledge of the subject and the ideas in the text as clues to the meanings of unknown words, instead of stopping to look them up
Paraphrasing: stopping at the end of a section to check comprehension by restating the information and ideas in the text
Techniques For Teaching Writing
Introduction
Students need to be personally involved in writing exercises in order to make the learning experience of lasting value. Encouraging student participation in the exercise, while at the same time refining and expanding writing skills, requires a certain pragmatic approach. The teacher should be clear on what skills he/she is trying to develop. Next, the teacher needs to decide on which means (or type of exercise) can facilitate learning of the target area. Once the target skill areas and means of implementation are defined, the teacher can then proceed to focus on what topic can be employed to ensure student participation. By pragmatically combing these objectives, the teacher can expect both enthusiasm and effective learning.
Choosing The Target Area
Choosing the target area depends on many factors; what level are the students? What is the average age of the students, Why are the students learning English, Are there any specific future intentions for the writing (i.e. school tests or job application letters etc.). Other important questions to ask oneself are: What should the students be able to produce at the end of this exercise? (a well written letter, basic communication of ideas, etc.) What is the focus of the exercise? (structure, tense usage, creative writing). Once these factors are clear in the mind of the teacher, the teacher can begin to focus on how to involve the students in the activity thus promoting a positive, long-term learning experience.
Purpose Choosing The Target Area
Having decided on the target area, the teacher can focus on the means to achieve this type of learning. As in correction, the teacher must choose the most appropriate manner for the specified writing area. If formal business letter English is required, it is of little use to employ a free expression type of exercise. Likewise, when working on descriptive language writing skills, a formal letter is equally out of place.
Planning In The Class
With both the target area and means of production clear in the teacher's mind, the teacher can begin to consider how to involve the students by considering what type of activities are interesting to the students: Are they preparing for something specific such as a holiday or test?, Will they need any of the skills pragmatically? What has been effective in the past? A good way to approach this is by class feedback, or brainstorming sessions. By choosing a topic that involves the students the teacher is providing a context within which effective learning on the target area can be undertaken.
Finally, the question of which type of correction will facilitate a useful writing exercise is of utmost importance. Here the teacher needs to once again think about the overall target area of the exercise. If there is an immediate task at hand, such as taking a test, perhaps teacher-guided correction is the most effective solution. However, if the task were more general (for example developing informal letter writing skills), maybe the best approach would be to have the students work in groups thereby learning from each other. Most importantly, by choosing the correct means of correction the teacher can encourage rather discourage students.
Have you ever walked into a classroom expecting students to be prepared and begin learning and instead found them looking at you like you are an alien from another planet for even expecting their rapt attention? Unfortunately, low expectations have become the norm for both teachers and students. Many teachers do not want to fight against the expectations that students have because realigning their thinking is both time consuming and difficult.
Students might come into your classroom with expectations of how you are going to act and what they will be expected to do. However, just because they harbor these beliefs does not mean that you have to conform to the mediocracy that has become much of teaching.
How do you do this you ask? By setting up an academic environment from the first day and always keeping high expectations. What this means is that you as a teacher have to make a committed effort to be consistent, fair, and firm.
Consistency means that you come into class on the first day of school and assume that learning begins that day. You let students know right away that they might play in other classrooms but not yours. And then you follow through! You do not come to class unprepared (you wouldn't expect your students to!) You instead come with a lesson that begins at the beginning of class and ends at the end. (Believe it or not, this seems foreign to some students and teachers). Further, you act the same every day. You might not feel the best or you might be having a bad day because of something going on at home or at work, but you do not change your demeanor or, more importantly, they way you handle discipline problems. If you are not consistent, you will lose all credibility with students and the atmosphere you are trying to create will quickly disintegrate.
Fairness goes hand in hand with consistency. Do not treat kids differently. Sure, you will have personal likes and dislikes for different students, however, never let this bleed into your classroom. If you are unfair, you will quickly lose students who will not trust you. And trust is paramount for an effective academic classroom.
What this means is that you need to help the students understand that what you say is what you mean. And you must also help the students see that you believe in their abilities. Tell the students you know that they can learn what you are teaching, show them by your rapt attention, and then reinforce this by praising authentic achievements.
Which brings up the point: do you really believe that your students can learn? Many teachers have become cynical over time, believing that their students just can't do it or that their lives get in the way. Hogwash! We are wired so that we can learn! With that said, obviously students need to have completed the prerequisites for a course. You can't teach calculus to someone who has just finished Consumer Math. My point here, however, is that you need to examine your attitudes because they bleed through into class. Try not to say phrases like," This is just too advanced," or "We just won't spend the time trying to learn this." While these might sound innocuous, instead they are just off putting.
Finally, this brings up to the term firm. Discipline in your classroom should never be about raised voices and confrontations. It should be about consistent application of established rules. Further, learning will occur in a safe environment if the teacher establishes from the beginning that they will be fair but firm.
We are representatives of our discipline. It is our responsibility to commit ourselves to teaching an academic course of study. It is a sad state that students are surprised when teachers come in and actually expect their students to learn - not just to regurgitate the facts that they read in a text. However, if we fail to create an academic environment, we leave students with the implicit knowledge that school and therefore learning is not that important or it is for the 'brains' of the school and not them.
Total Physical Response
Teachers who use TPR believe in the importance of having their students enjoy their experience in learning to communicate in a foreign language.TPR is develop in order to reduce the stress people fell when studying foreign languages and thereby encourage students to persists in their study beyond a beginning level of proficiency. The way to do this is to base foreign language learning upon the way children learn their native language.
The teacher is the director of all student behavior. The students are imitators of her nonverbal model. Usually after ten to twenty hours of instruction some students will be ready to speak. At that point there will be a role reversal with individual students directing the teacher and the other students.
The first phase of a lesson is one of modeling. The instructor issues commands to a few students, then performs the actions with them. In the second phase, these same students demonstrate that they can understand the commands by performing them alone. The observers also have an opportunity to demonstrate their understanding. The teacher next recombines elements of the commands to have student s develop flexibility in understanding unfamiliar utterances. These commands, which students perform, are often humorous. After learning to respond to some oral commands, the students learn to read and write them. When students are ready to speak, they become the ones who issue the commands. After students begin speaking, activities expand to include skits and games.
The interaction is characterized by the teacher speaking and the students responding nonverbally. Later on, the students become more verbal and the teacher responds nonverbally. Students perform the actions together. Students can learn by watching each other. At some point, observers must demonstrate their understanding of the commands in order to retain them.
One of the main reasons TPR was develop was to reduce the stress people feel when studying foreign languages. One of the primary ways this is accomplished is to allow learners to speak when they are ready. Forcing them to speak before then will only create anxiety. Also, when students do begin speak, perfection should not be expected. Another way to relieve anxiety is to make language learning as enjoyable as possible. The use of zany commands and humorous skits are two ways of showing that language learning can be fun. Finally, it is important that there not be too much modeling, but that students not be too rushed either. Feelings of success and how anxiety facilitate learning.
Just as with the acquisition of the native language, oral modality is primary. Culture is the lifestyle of people who speak the language natively.
Vocabulary and grammatical structures are emphasized over other language areas. These are embedded within imperatives. The imperatives are single words and multi-word chunks. One reason for the use of imperatives is their frequency of occurrence in the speech directed at young children learning their native language. Understanding the spoken word should precede its production. Often do not learn to read the commands they have already learned to perform until after ten hours of instruction.
TPR is usually introduced in the native language. After the introduction, rarely would the native language be used. Meaning is made clear through body movements.
Teachers will know immediately whether or not students understand by observing their students actions. Formal evaluations can be conducted simply by commanding individual students to perform a series of actions. As students become more advanced, their performance of skits they have created can become the basis for evaluation.
It is expected that students will make errors when they first begin speaking. Teacher should be tolerant of them and only correct major errors. Even these should be corrected unobtrusively. As students get more advanced, teacher can fine tune-correct more minor errors.
The teacher is the director of all student behavior. The students are imitators of her nonverbal model. Usually after ten to twenty hours of instruction some students will be ready to speak. At that point there will be a role reversal with individual students directing the teacher and the other students.
The first phase of a lesson is one of modeling. The instructor issues commands to a few students, then performs the actions with them. In the second phase, these same students demonstrate that they can understand the commands by performing them alone. The observers also have an opportunity to demonstrate their understanding. The teacher next recombines elements of the commands to have student s develop flexibility in understanding unfamiliar utterances. These commands, which students perform, are often humorous. After learning to respond to some oral commands, the students learn to read and write them. When students are ready to speak, they become the ones who issue the commands. After students begin speaking, activities expand to include skits and games.
The interaction is characterized by the teacher speaking and the students responding nonverbally. Later on, the students become more verbal and the teacher responds nonverbally. Students perform the actions together. Students can learn by watching each other. At some point, observers must demonstrate their understanding of the commands in order to retain them.
One of the main reasons TPR was develop was to reduce the stress people feel when studying foreign languages. One of the primary ways this is accomplished is to allow learners to speak when they are ready. Forcing them to speak before then will only create anxiety. Also, when students do begin speak, perfection should not be expected. Another way to relieve anxiety is to make language learning as enjoyable as possible. The use of zany commands and humorous skits are two ways of showing that language learning can be fun. Finally, it is important that there not be too much modeling, but that students not be too rushed either. Feelings of success and how anxiety facilitate learning.
Just as with the acquisition of the native language, oral modality is primary. Culture is the lifestyle of people who speak the language natively.
Vocabulary and grammatical structures are emphasized over other language areas. These are embedded within imperatives. The imperatives are single words and multi-word chunks. One reason for the use of imperatives is their frequency of occurrence in the speech directed at young children learning their native language. Understanding the spoken word should precede its production. Often do not learn to read the commands they have already learned to perform until after ten hours of instruction.
TPR is usually introduced in the native language. After the introduction, rarely would the native language be used. Meaning is made clear through body movements.
Teachers will know immediately whether or not students understand by observing their students actions. Formal evaluations can be conducted simply by commanding individual students to perform a series of actions. As students become more advanced, their performance of skits they have created can become the basis for evaluation.
It is expected that students will make errors when they first begin speaking. Teacher should be tolerant of them and only correct major errors. Even these should be corrected unobtrusively. As students get more advanced, teacher can fine tune-correct more minor errors.
The Community Language Learning
The goals of teacher who use the community language learning method want their students to learn how to use the target language communicatively. All of the objectives can be accomplished in a no defensive manner if a teacher and learner(s) treat each other as whole persons, valuing both thoughts and feelings.
The teacher’s role initial role is primarily that of a counselor. This does not mean that the teacher is therapist, or that the teacher does not teaching. Rather, it means that the teacher recognizes how threatening a new learning situation can be for adult learners, so he skillfully understand and supports his students in their struggle to master the target language. Community Language Learning methodologists have identified five stages in this movement from dependency to mutual interdependency with the teacher. In stages I, II, and III, the teacher focuses not only on the language but also on being supportive of learners in their learning process. In stage IV, because of the students’ greater security in the language and readiness to benefit from corrections, the teacher can focus more on accuracy. It should be noted that accuracy is always a focus even in the first tree stages: however, it is subordinated to fluency. The reverse is true in stages IV and V.
The beginning class, which is what we observed, students typically have a conversation using their native language. The teacher helps them express what they want to say by giving them the target language translation in chunks. These chunks are recorded, and when they are replayed, it sounds like a fairly fluid conversation. Later, a transcript is made of the conversation, and native language equivalents are written beneath the target language words. The transcription of the conversation becomes a text with which students work. Various activities are conducted (for example, examination of a grammar point, working on pronunciation of a particular phrase, or creating new sentences with words from the transcript) that allow students to further explore the language they have generated. During the course of the lesson, students are invited to say how they feel, and in return the teacher understands them.
The nature of students-teacher interaction in the Community Language Learning Method changes within the lesson and over time. Sometimes the students are assertive, as where they are having a conversation. At these time, the teacher facilities their ability to express themselves in the target language. Building a relationship with and among students is very important. In a trusting relationship, any debilitating anxiety that students feel can be reduced, thereby helping students to stay open to the learning process. Students can learn from their interaction with the teacher. A spirit of cooperation, not competition, can prevail.
Responding to the students feelings is considered very important in Counseling-Learning. One regular activity is inviting students to comment on how they feel. The teacher listens and responds to each comment carefully. By showing students he understands how they feel, the teacher can help them overcome negative feelings that might otherwise block their learning.
Language is for communication. Curran writes that learning is persons, meaning that both teacher and students work att building trust in one another and learning process. At the beginning of the process, the focus is on sharing and belonging between persons through the language tasks. Then the focus shifts more to the target language which becomes the groups’ individual and shared identity. Curran also believes that in this kind of supportive learning process, language becomes the means for developing creative and critical thinking. Culture is an integral part of language learning.
In the early stages, typically the students generate the material since they decide what they want to be able to say in that target language. Later on, after students feel more secure, the teacher might prepare specify materials or work with published textbooks. Particular grammar points, pronunciation patterns, and vocabulary are worked with, based on the language the students have generated. The most important skills are understanding and speaking the language at the beginning, with reinforcement through reading and writing.
Students’ security is initially enhanced by using their native language. The purpose of using the native language is to provide a bridge from the familiar to the unfamiliar. Where possible, literal native language equivalents are given to the target language words that have been transcribed. This makes their meaning clear and allows students to combine the target language words in different ways to create new sentences.
The evaluations of this method are first, teacher made classroom test would likely be more of an integrative test than a discrete point one. Second, students would be asked to write a paragraph or be given an oral interview, rather than being asked to answer a question which deals with only one point of language at a time. Third, teachers would encourage their students to self evaluate to look at their sown learning and to become a ware of their own language.
For giving a respond to the students, the teacher repeat correctly what the students has said incorrectly, without calling further attention to the error. Techniques depend on where the students are in the five stage learning process, but are consistent with sustaining a respectful, nondefensive relationship between teacher and students.
The teacher’s role initial role is primarily that of a counselor. This does not mean that the teacher is therapist, or that the teacher does not teaching. Rather, it means that the teacher recognizes how threatening a new learning situation can be for adult learners, so he skillfully understand and supports his students in their struggle to master the target language. Community Language Learning methodologists have identified five stages in this movement from dependency to mutual interdependency with the teacher. In stages I, II, and III, the teacher focuses not only on the language but also on being supportive of learners in their learning process. In stage IV, because of the students’ greater security in the language and readiness to benefit from corrections, the teacher can focus more on accuracy. It should be noted that accuracy is always a focus even in the first tree stages: however, it is subordinated to fluency. The reverse is true in stages IV and V.
The beginning class, which is what we observed, students typically have a conversation using their native language. The teacher helps them express what they want to say by giving them the target language translation in chunks. These chunks are recorded, and when they are replayed, it sounds like a fairly fluid conversation. Later, a transcript is made of the conversation, and native language equivalents are written beneath the target language words. The transcription of the conversation becomes a text with which students work. Various activities are conducted (for example, examination of a grammar point, working on pronunciation of a particular phrase, or creating new sentences with words from the transcript) that allow students to further explore the language they have generated. During the course of the lesson, students are invited to say how they feel, and in return the teacher understands them.
The nature of students-teacher interaction in the Community Language Learning Method changes within the lesson and over time. Sometimes the students are assertive, as where they are having a conversation. At these time, the teacher facilities their ability to express themselves in the target language. Building a relationship with and among students is very important. In a trusting relationship, any debilitating anxiety that students feel can be reduced, thereby helping students to stay open to the learning process. Students can learn from their interaction with the teacher. A spirit of cooperation, not competition, can prevail.
Responding to the students feelings is considered very important in Counseling-Learning. One regular activity is inviting students to comment on how they feel. The teacher listens and responds to each comment carefully. By showing students he understands how they feel, the teacher can help them overcome negative feelings that might otherwise block their learning.
Language is for communication. Curran writes that learning is persons, meaning that both teacher and students work att building trust in one another and learning process. At the beginning of the process, the focus is on sharing and belonging between persons through the language tasks. Then the focus shifts more to the target language which becomes the groups’ individual and shared identity. Curran also believes that in this kind of supportive learning process, language becomes the means for developing creative and critical thinking. Culture is an integral part of language learning.
In the early stages, typically the students generate the material since they decide what they want to be able to say in that target language. Later on, after students feel more secure, the teacher might prepare specify materials or work with published textbooks. Particular grammar points, pronunciation patterns, and vocabulary are worked with, based on the language the students have generated. The most important skills are understanding and speaking the language at the beginning, with reinforcement through reading and writing.
Students’ security is initially enhanced by using their native language. The purpose of using the native language is to provide a bridge from the familiar to the unfamiliar. Where possible, literal native language equivalents are given to the target language words that have been transcribed. This makes their meaning clear and allows students to combine the target language words in different ways to create new sentences.
The evaluations of this method are first, teacher made classroom test would likely be more of an integrative test than a discrete point one. Second, students would be asked to write a paragraph or be given an oral interview, rather than being asked to answer a question which deals with only one point of language at a time. Third, teachers would encourage their students to self evaluate to look at their sown learning and to become a ware of their own language.
For giving a respond to the students, the teacher repeat correctly what the students has said incorrectly, without calling further attention to the error. Techniques depend on where the students are in the five stage learning process, but are consistent with sustaining a respectful, nondefensive relationship between teacher and students.
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