Didáctica Específica I

WHY DO PEOPLE LEARN LANGUAGES? Success in language learning (Harmer)

Motivation: students who want to learn will succeed whatever the circumstances. Motivation is a kind of internal drive that encourages somebody to pursue an action. If we perceive an ambitious goal, we will be motivated to do whatever is necessary to reach it.

There are goals of different types: short-term goals (ex: to pass a test) and long-term goals (ex: to get a better job, or to be able to communicate with members of a target language). Students with long-term goals are easier to teach than the others.

Motivation is divided into: extrinsic motivation, which is focus on factors outside the classroom, and intrinsic motivation, which is focus on what takes place inside the classroom.

Extrinsic motivation: two types: integrative and instrumental. Integrative motivation: students need to be attracted by the culture of the community, and their wish is to integrate. Instrumental motivation: students believe that mastery of the target language will be instrumental in getting a better job, position or status. Factors have a positive or negative impact on student's level, for example: if parents are in favour or against the culture of the language.

Intrinsic motivation: many students have negative feelings about language learning. For them what happens in the classroom will be important. Factors affecting intrinsic motivation:

(a) Physical conditions: have a great effect and they can be positive or negative. Classrooms that are badly lit and overcrowded can be de-motivating. The visibility of the board is important. Teachers can improve the atmosphere with posters, students' works.

(b) Method: has effect on their motivation. If they find it boring they will become de-motivated, whereas if they have confidence they will find it motivating. A motivated student will succeed whatever the method is used. The student's confidence in the method is in the hands of the teacher.

(c) The teacher: two teachers using the same method can have different results. Teacher's personality matters a lot. Teachers need to do everything to create a good relationship with their students.

d) Success: or lack of it plays a necessary part. Both failure and success may be de-motivating. The teacher's job is to set goals and tasks at which most of their students can be successful. To give students high challenge activities or low challenge activities can be de-motivated. Both extremes are negatives.

Motivational differences: not everyone in the class will have the same motivation. It is a mixture of different factors. It is possible to make statements for age and levels.

Children: are curious, which is motivating. Their concentration is less than an adult. Children seek teacher approval. They need exciting activities which stimulate their curiosity. Need to be involved in something active and to be appreciated by the teacher.

Adolescents: are the most interesting students to teach. Teacher can’t expect any extrinsic motivation from the majority of them. Students' attitude is influenced by others around them. Adolescents are brittle. They won’t be inspired by curiosity. Teacher approval is not important but peer approval is.

Adult beginners: are the easiest people to teach. They have a high degree of extrinsic motivation. They will often succeed quickly. Goals within the class are easy to perceive and to achieve.

Adult intermediate students: may be motivated extrinsically. They may have positive feelings about the way they are treated in the classrooms. Success may be motivating. One problem is that beginners perceive success; since everything is new, but intermediate students already know a lot and may not perceive any progress.

Adult advanced students: are highly motivated. They will find progress more difficult to perceive. Much of the time they may not be learning anything 'new' but learning better how to use what they already know.

Teachers must realise the important that success has on motivation. Success should not be too easy or too difficult.

Intrinsic motivation in the classroom (Brown)

Motivation is the extent to which you make choices about goals to pursue and the effort you will put in to that pursuit.

A behavioristic definition: Skinner or Watson stresses the role of rewards in motivation. In Skinner’s operant conditional model, human beings will pursue a goal because they

perceive reward for doing it. This reward serves to reinforce behavior. A behaviorist defines motivation as the anticipation of reinforcement. Learners pursue goals in order to receive rewards (gold stars, certificate, and financial independence).

Cognitive definitions: three different theories:

a) Drive theory: motivation stems from basic innate drives. There are six: exploration (fulfill students’ needs to probe the unknown), manipulation (to control our environment), activity (physical, mental, and emotional), and stimulation (incentive them all the time), knowledge (is necessary for the students, if it is easy, they get bored, to desire for answers and questions) and ego enhancement (opinion of ourselves, to build our own self-esteem).

b) Hierarchy of needs theory: Maslow describes a system of needs. It goes from the satisfaction of physical needs up through safety and communal needs, to needs of esteem, and finally to self-actualization.

c) Self-control theory: Hunt focus on the importance of people deciding for themselves what to think, feel or do. We define ourselves by making our own decisions. Motivation is highest when one can make one’s own choices. When learners have opportunities to make their own choices about what to pursue or not, they are fulfilling this need for autonomy (classroom).

Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

There is a distinction between integrative and instrumental orientations. The first one is a desire to learn a language from a positive affect toward a community of its speakers. It was linked to success in learning a second language. The latter is the desire to learn a language in order to attain certain career, educational, or financial goals. Gardner focused on orientation not motivation. Orientation means a purpose for learning: motivation refers to the intensity of one's impetus to learn. An integrative orientation means the learner is pursuing a second language for social or cultural purposes. In an instrumental orientation, leaners are studying a language in order to further a career or academic goal. Integrative and instrumental orientations are not to be confused with intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Integrative/Instrumental orientation refers to the context of learning, Intrinsic/ extrinsic motivation has to do with the intensity of feeling or drive.

Edward Deci says that intrinsically motivated activities are ones for which there is no reward except the activity itself. People seem to engage in the activities for their own. Extrinsically motivated behaviors are carried out in anticipation of a reward from outside, (money, prizes, and grades). Maslow claimed that intrinsic motivation is superior to extrinsic

Intrinsic motivation in education

Tests and exams are imposed on students with no discussion. The praise of content, product, correctness, and competiveness has failed to bring the learner into a process of competence–building. A curriculum can be modified to include student -centered learning and teaching, to allow students to set some of their own learning goals, and to individualize lessons and activities. The result: higher student self-esteem, greater chances for self-actualization. Class discussions can focus on a critical evaluation of society so that students aren’t forced to accept some way of thinking or acting. The result is a sense of belonging. Tests and exams can incorporate some student consultation and peer evaluation. Teachers can help students to view tests as feedback instruments. Students become motivated by the experience and by achieving self-knowledge.

Intrinsic motivation in the second language classroom

A teacher mustn’t deliver information to their students but be a facilitator of learning whose job it is to set the stage for learning, to turn them on to their own abilities. For example, teacher has to set a personal example, create a pleasant atmosphere, present the tasks properly, promote learner autonomy, and personalize learning process.

The role of the teacher (Richards and Lockhart)

The contexts in which teachers work have an important influence on teaching. Different teaching settings involve teachers in different roles. Teachers have the responsibility for how they teach. Some teachers see their role in organizational terms. They spend a lot of time planning their lessons, monitoring their teaching, and managing student learning. Others see their role as a facilitator.

The nature of roles

A role is the part taken by a member in any act of communication. In some interactions, roles are fixed whereas in others, roles are temporary and open to negotiation. Role’s characteristics: They involve different:

• kinds of work and levels of responsibility.

• kinds of relationships, interaction and communication.

• power relationships.

Wright says that roles are defined by what people do, while others are defined by the kind of interpersonal relationships. Teachers interpret their roles in different ways depending on schools, teaching methods, their personalities and cultural backgrounds

Roles reflecting institutional factors

Different teaching settings: create particular roles for teachers based on the institutions, its culture and its teaching philosophy. In a "traditional" school, the senior teachers make most of the key decisions. The teachers do what they are asked to do. The students have a little choice. Other schools function differently, a private language institute. There is no a fixed hierarchy. Teachers have to serve as coordinators, but these roles rotate. There is no fixed curriculum. The content of the course is negotiated between teacher and students.

The roles of the teacher include:

♦ Needs analyst: determines students' individual needs following institutional procedures.

♦Curriculum developer: develops their own course plans and syllabuses based on student needs.

♦Materials developer: develops their own classroom materials.

♦Counselor: identifies students who are having problems and offers them assistance.

♦Mentor: assists less experienced teachers with their professional development.

♦ Team member: works together as a team and take part in cooperative activities.

♦Researcher: conducts a research related to language learning and teaching.

♦Professional: continues with professional development.

When teachers assume these roles, new skills are required and institutional support may be needed. Teacher assistance is required in the following areas:

♦Needs assessment skills: requires instruments and procedures for conducting needs analysis.

♦Course guidelines: request a framework to use in developing the curriculum.

♦Bilingual assistance is requested to enable teachers to negotiate the curriculum with their learners.

♦Continuity in the Programme: prevents the needs-based model from leading to a fragmented program.

♦Educational counseling: teachers request the support of educational counselors because of the student needs.

♦Conflict resolution: the negotiated curriculum led conflicts which teachers have to solve.

♦ Teacher role specifications: in their roles.

Roles reflecting a teaching approach or method

The role of a teacher may be influenced by the approach. Teaching methods define specific roles and suggest the behaviors:

•Direct Method is the first oral-based methods to be used in foreign language. Teacher's roles: Never translate: demonstrate, never explain: act, never imitate mistakes: correct, never speak too much: make students speak much, speak normally.

•Active Teaching focuses on the teacher's ability to engage students on learning tasks during lessons. Teachers must: communicate clearly by: giving directions, obtain and manage engagement by promoting involvement, monitor progress by reviewing work and provide feedback.

• Cooperative Learning: the methodology relies less on cooperative group work and pair work activities. The teacher's role is share the responsibility, stimulate interactive language use, coordinate group activities and provide feedback.

•Audiolingualism: The role of the teacher is central and active. The teacher models the target language, controls the direction, pace of learning, and monitors and corrects the learners' performance.

•Communicative Language Teaching, the teacher roles are facilitate the communication process and act as an independent participant within the learning-teaching group and to be a researcher and learner.

•Total Physical Response method: the teacher is the director of all student behavior. The students are imitators.

Roles reflecting a personal view of teaching

The way the teachers teach is a personal interpretation of what they think works best. A teaching approach is something personal which they develop through experience and apply in different ways. Teachers create their own roles based on their theories of teaching and learning.

Teachers may select such roles for themselves as:

♦Planner: sees planning and structuring of activities as fundamental to success in teaching and learning.

♦Manager: organizes and manages the classroom environment and student behavior.

♦ Quality controller: maintains the quality of language use in the classroom.

♦ Group organizer: develops an environment in which students work cooperatively on group tasks.

♦ Facilitator: helps students discover their own ways of learning and to work independently.

♦ Motivator: improves students’ confidence and interest in learning and builds a climate classroom

♦ Empowerer: takes little control over the lesson and lets the students make their own decisions.

♦ Team member: a team, teacher and students and they interact.

Teachers can’t be all things to all people, and the teacher’s role may change during the lesson. Teachers' personal view influences how they respond to the dimensions of teaching:

♦ Classroom management and organization: establish classroom routines, procedures, and rules

♦ Teacher control: maintain a performance in the classroom

♦ Curriculum, content, and planning: approach lesson planning, lesson organization, and structure.

♦ Instructional strategies: teaching approach and classroom activities teachers prefer.

♦Motivational techniques: strategies to use to create classroom climate and motivation.

♦Assessment philosophy: assessment procedures teachers use.

Cultural dimensions of roles

In some cultures, teaching is viewed as a teacher-controlled and directed process. In Western education, teachers focus on individual learner creativity, encourages to facilitate independent learning.

Describing teachers (Harmer)

What is 'teaching'?

Dornyei and Murphey see “teaching” as the exercise of group leadership. One main responsibility is foster good relationships with the group that they work together. They suggest that a conscious teaching style involves an increasing encouragement and the facilitation of autonomous learning. When teachers and groups first meet, students expect leadership and direction. This makes them feel secure. Teachers have to be democratic and let students participate in decisions.

In the classroom

The way we dress and our attitude make an impression on students. We need to make a distinction between who we are, and who we are as teachers. We should be able to adopt a variety of roles to facilitate learning.

The roles of a teacher

•As a facilitator who is democratic, fosters learner autonomy through pairwork activities and acts as a resource.

•Controller: they are in control of the class and the activity and are leading it. They see themselves as a transmitter of knowledge. It denies students access to their own experiential learning and cuts down on opportunities to speak. There are times when

acting as a controller makes sense, ex: giving explanations, lecturing, making announcements or bringing a class to order.

•Prompter: make somebody do something. We are keen to encourage the students to think creatively. This may not make the students feel sure. When we prompt, we need to do it sensitively and encouragingly.

•Participant: let the learners get on with the activity and intervene to offer feedback and correct mistakes. The danger is that they can easily dominate the proceedings.

•Resource: teachers don’t know everything about the language. What they should be able to offer is guidance. The important job is to encourage students to use resource material for themselves. Teaches have to say they don’t know an answer and gives them the information the next day.

•Tutor: combination of prompter and resource. It implies an intimate relationship. The learners have a real chance to feel supported and helped, the atmosphere is enhanced.

Organizing students and activities

Teachers have to organize students to do activities, to get students involved, engaged and ready. Once the students are ready, teachers will give instructions. They have to use the right level of the language and to demonstrate what is to happen. Then they initiate the activity. Students need to know the time they have and to stop the activity when the students have finished or for other factors. It is important to organize content feedback.

Engage instruct (demonstrate) initiate organize feedback.

The teacher as performer

Teachers are performers. Their performance would describe one kind of teacher role. Teachers perform differently.

Activity How the teacher should perform

1- Team game: Energetically, encouragingly, clearly, fairly

2- Role play: Clearly, encouragingly, retiringly, and supportively

3- Teacher reading aloud: Commandingly, dramatically, and interestingly.

4- Whole-class listening: Efficiently, clearly, supportively

Rapport: relationship between the students and the teacher. Successful rapport derives from the students' perception of the teacher as a good leader and a successful professional (confidence in the teacher) It also depends on the way that we interact with students. Successful interaction:

• Students want their teachers to know who they are.

• Students respond well to teachers who listen to them.

• Correcting students is a delicate event. If we are too critical, we risk demotivation, if we praise them, they may need approval all the time. Respect is important.

• Being even-handed: a good teacher is who asks the people who don't always put their hands up. Treating all students equally.

Scrivener suggests that teachers can create a positive learning atmosphere to establish rapport, for ex: showing respect, being fair, listening to the students, giving clear feedback and being oneself.

Harmer lists four capacities that make it up: recognizing, respecting and listening to students, being even-handed.

The teacher as teaching aid

Specific ways to help students both hear and understand language:

♦ Mime and gesture and expression: to convey meaning and atmosphere. Mime and expression work best when they are exaggerated. Gestures do not have universal meanings.

♦ The teacher as language model: Students get models of language from textbooks, reading materials and from audios, but they can also model language themselves.

♦ The teacher as provider of comprehensible input: how much teachers should talk and what kind. The ways in which teachers use their voice, model language and employ gesture and expression are all important teaching skills.

Native speaker teachers and non-native-speaker teachers

Non-native-speaker teachers have more advantages than 'native' colleagues. They had the same experience of learning English as their students are now having, and this gives them

understanding of what their students are going through. Non-native-speaker teachers are more familiar with learning styles than visiting native speakers are. Native speakers have the advantage of a linguistic confidence about their language in the classroom which non-native-speaker teachers lack.

Teacher roles (Nunan)

Richards and Rodgers suggest that learner roles are related to the teacher’s functions. Teacher roles are related to: ♦ The types of functions teachers are expected to fulfil. ♦ The degree of control the teacher has over how learning takes place ♦ The degree to which the teacher is responsible for content. ♦ The interactional patterns between teachers and learners. In some situations, it is necessary a consultation and negotiation between teachers and learners.

• As an actor - • as a controller - • as a facilitator - • as a participant (not all the time) -• as an observer and learner: learning how to teach.

The roles of teachers and learners are complementary. The teacher has three main roles in the communicative classroom. The first is to act as a facilitator of the communicative process, the second is to act as a participant and the third is to act as an observer and learner.

Roles and teaching materials

1- Teachers act as a resource when they are needed. The students can proceed at their own speed, benefiting from the chance to work alone and consults the tutor. Students learn by working in groups to solve a problem or make a decision.

2- Teachers act as a controller: the student must be trained in the four basic language skills: understanding, speaking, reading and writing.

3- Teachers act as a tutor: they aren’t needed.

Settings: classroom arrangements specified or implied in the task. Nunan distinguishes between two different aspects of the learning situation, 'mode' refers to whether the learner is operating on an individual or group basis and 'environment' refers to where the learning takes place.

Educational technology and other learning resources (Harmer)

The technology pyramid

Classroom situations where teacher and students have anything at all in terms of educational technology or other learning aids. Jill and Charles Hadfield represent these differing realities in a 'reversed pyramid' of resources.

The students were used as source material, whether as participants in quizzes about the real world, as informants in discussions about families or as imaginers of river scenes based on teacher description. They propose turning the pyramid the other way up.

The students themselves: The most useful resources are the students. Through their thoughts and experiences they bring the outside world into the room. In multilingual classes, we can get them to share information about their countries.

Objects, pictures and things: A range of objects, pictures and cards can be used for presenting and manipulating language.

♠ Realia: the use of real objects.

♠ Pictures: facilitate learning (flashcards, large wall pictures, cue cards, photographs or illustrations). They can be used for:

•Drills: flashcards are useful for drilling grammar items, for practicing vocabulary.

• (Communication) games: pictures are useful for communicational activities. Teachers sometimes use pictures for creative writing to invent a story, for example.

• Understanding: presenting and checking meaning.

• Ornamentation: pictures are used to make work more attractive.

• Prediction: pictures are useful for getting students to predict what is coming next in a lesson.

•Discussion: pictures can stimulate questions.

♠ Cards: different uses:

• Matching and ordering: matching questions and answers or two halves of a sentence. They are good for kinaesthetic learners.

• Selecting: cards work when teachers want students to speak or use particular words or phrases.

• Card games:

♠ Cuisenaire rods: they are useful for word stress, prepositions, colours, comparatives, superlatives, etc.

The coursebook

•Benefits: good coursebooks are prepared to offer a coherent syllabus, language control, motivating texts, audio CDs and video/DVD material, and extra resource material. They are attractively presented. They provide procedures for the lesson, offer suggestions, extra activities and resources.

•Restrictions: coursebooks, used inappropriately, impose learning styles and content on classes. Many of them rely on Presentation, Practice and Production as their main methodological procedure. Units and lessons follow an unrelenting format so that students and teachers become demotivated.

♠ Using coursebooks: teachers to try to engage students with the content they are going to be dealing with.

• Omit and replace: we can omit or replace the coursebook material.

• We can change or re-order some activities in the coursebook.

Ways of showing

♠ The board

•Note-pad: teachers write things up on the lesson.

• Explanation aid: used for explanation.

• Picture frame: used for drawing pictures.

• Public workbook: teachers write mistakes they have observed on the board.

• Game board: games can be played using it.

•Noticeboard: teachers and students can display things on boards.

♠ The overhead projector (OHP): we can show whole texts or grammar exercises, pictures, diagrams or students' writing.

♠ The flip chart: are useful for making notes, recording the main points in a group discussion, amending and changing points. They are portable, cheap and demand no technical expertise.

♠ Computer-based presentation technology: computer and a data projector.

Ways of listening

Students get language input from listening to each other and from any visiting teachers, lectures or classroom guests. Cd’s recorders are useful, cheap and convenient.

Ways of finding out

♠ Dictionaries: (book form or CD-ROMS).

•Paper dictionaries: an be either bilingual or monolingual.

•CD-ROMs: you can type a word or phrase and it will appear with its collocation, examples.

• Electronic pocket dictionaries: small electronic dictionaries.

• Online dictionaries: they are available online

♠ Concordancer: they are useful sites for students and teachers who want to do word research or to design material.

♠Searching the Internet: both teachers and students can find anything they want on the Internet.

•Using encylopedias: there are a number of encyclopedia sites on the Internet.

• Webquests: a particular type of information is provided by a webquest.

Practicing language on the Internet and on CD-ROM

There are many websites on the Internet for students to practice language. Some of them are based on a school or an organization. Practice material is also available on CD-ROM.

Ways of composing

♠ Word processing, word editing: microsoft Word is used for writing letters, putting books together, composing reports, completing homework assignments and making lists.

♠ Mousepals, chat and blogging: students can be involved in chatting online. They send e-mail instead of letters. A blog is a public diary which anyone can read.

♠ Authoring: allow teachers to key in or import their own text and, create a variety of different exercises.

♠ Designing websites: teachers design their own websites and get students to make their own class websites.

Virtual learning: from emails to simulated environments

There is Internet-based software programs designed to offer teaching, training environments online and online courses.

♠ Using soundwaves: soundwave software is useful in helping students to 'better appreciate English stress timing.

Introducing new language structure (Harmer)

What do we introduce?: Our job is to present the students with clear information about the language.

The presentation of meaning and use: teachers not only show students what language means but also how it is used. Students need to get an idea of how the new language is used by native speakers, present language in context. A good context should be interesting and provide the background for use.

Types of context

Context: the situation which causes language to be used. The students' world can be a major source of contexts for language presentation. We can use the physical surroundings (classroom, school or institution) and the students' lives (families, friends and experiences). The outside world provides us with rich contexts for presentation and

teachers can create situations and stories. Formulated information refers to all that information which is presented in the form of timetables, notes, charts etc. The context we choose will depend on the type of language being introduced.

The presentation of structural form: One of the teacher's jobs is to show how the new language is formed- how the grammar works and how it is put together.

Forms and patterns: before to introduce any new language teachers should analyze the form they are going to teach and the grammatical pattern. The idea of changeable units is that they allow teacher to create models for the students to work with. A model is an example of the pattern. The teacher needs to be clear about how the language to be presented is said and written.

A general model for introducing new language: the model has five components: lead-in, elicitation, explanation, accurate reproduction, and immediate creativity.

Lead-in: the context is introduced and the meaning or use of the new language is demonstrated. Some students may become aware of certain key concepts. In the case of formulated information, students have to understand those concepts. The teacher can demonstrate the course of an interaction showing the new language in use.

Elicitation: the teacher tries to see if the students can produce the new language. If they can, they will move to the explanation stage.

Explanation: teacher shows how the new language is formed.

Accurate reproduction: students repeat and practice models. They focus on accuracy. Drill is important but not all the time.

When the students are confident they can move to immediate creativity. They try to use what they have learned to make new sentences. The teacher can see if the students have understood meaning, use and form.

If the students perform well during elicitation the teacher can move to immediate creativity.

Explanation techniques: there are two procedures for explaining the form of the new language. The intention is to demonstrate to the student what the construction grammar is. ◘ Explaining statements ◘ Explaining question forms. ◘ Using hands and gestures: teachers use their hands to make grammatical form clearer.

Accurate reproduction: give students controlled practice in the form of the new language.

a) Choral repetition: repeat the model together. It gives the students a chance to say the new language.

b) Individual repetition: three stages; teacher nominates a student, the student responds, and the teacher gives feedback.

c) Cue-response drills: the students are working with more than one model. When we have presented the first model and organized choral and individual repetition we will elicit the second model. Three stages: 1. Instruct: Tell the students what you want them to do. 2. Cue: Indicate which model you wish the student to say. 3. Nominate: Select the student you wish to give the response.

Correction: 2 stages

a) Showing incorrectness: we will indicate to the student that a mistake has been made. Techniques:

1-Repeating: to ask the student to repeat.

2- Echoing: to echo the complete student response, stressing the part of the utterance that was incorrect.

3-Denial: to tell the student that the response was unsatisfactory and ask for it to be repeated. It may be discouraging.

4- Questioning: to ask any student in the class if what the student has said is correct.

5- Expression: to indicate that a response was incorrect by their expression or by gesture.

b) Using correction techniques: techniques:

1- Student corrects student: we can ask if anyone can 'help' the student who has made the mistake.

2 -Teacher corrects student(s): we should take charge of correction because the students are mixed-up about what the correct response should be.

The importance of meaning: understand the meaning of the new language the students are learning. Checking meaning can be done in three ways

a) Information checking: the teacher will need to find out if students have understood the information in the lead-in. (To say sentences which are incorrect)

b) Immediate creativity and different settings: to ask students to produce sentences of their own.

c) Translation: quick and efficient but it is not possible with groups of different nationalities and is not always possible to translate exactly.

Discovery techniques: how students discover the meaning of the words.

The position of writing during presentation: used as a reinforcement. For ex, the students might be shown model sentences and then be asked to write similar sentences of their own.

Introducing new language: examples: language presentation

The students' world:

a) Physical surroundings: use thing of the class to present a new topic.

b) Likes and dislikes: involves students in talking about themselves.

c) Student lives: students can be used to help the presentation of new language.

Stories: a story and some picture prompts provide the context for the practice. Teachers can also construct stories which will provide the raw material for language models.

Situations: language presented in situations.

Language examples: students are shown examples of sentences or phrases and asked to identify grammatical and functional differences.

Formulated information: the information that is used for presentation and practice is formulated as a chart, in a graph or tabular form.

Teaching Grammar: Scrivener

Approaches to grammar

In the first approach, we need a methodology that finds ways to present or input small pieces of language that have been selected by the teacher to exemplified structures. Each

new item will be practice until the students are familiar with it and incorporated into their language. This is called “PPP” Presentation- Practice- Production.

In the second, we need a methodology that exposes the students to authentic language and use their own intelligence.

False- beginners are those adult learners who had studied English at school but have forgotten it. Many students bring some knowledge of English into class. New grammar may not be completely new for them. It is also useful for them giving the chances to be exposed or to use the language.

Analyzing language: form: grammar is concerned with the form of the language: the pattern, the regularities. Some common items have names: reported speech and countable nouns, for ex.

Grammar: restricted use activities: are defined by their focus on limited options for use of language, limited options for communication and accuracy. Examples:

♣Drills: provide oral practice. They are based on the behaviorist believe that through repetition students can be trained into automatic responses. The aim is to improve accuracy.

♣Written exercises: give students concentrated practice of language items.

♣Elicited dialogues: short dialogues with examples of specific items to be practiced.

♣ Grammar practiced activities and games: grammar activities; to focus on the use or particular items of grammar. Games; to revise vocabulary and grammar.

Analyzing language: meaning: if the teacher explains clearly, the students understand the meaning.

Grammar: clarifying and focusing: different approaches

♣Presentation: we focus on the form and meaning by giving explanations in different ways (using the board or coursebooks)

♣Self- directed discovery: the teacher needs to ensure that the learners have sufficient information and experience to be able to work out their own rules and explanations.

♣Guided discovery: teacher’s job; to create the condition in which the information can be learned.

Grammar: planning effective lessons: there are 3 components: Clarification and focus, restricted use activities and Authentic use (opportunity to use the language to communicate).

Clarification and focus, restricted use, restricted use, authentic use (CRRA) is the same as PPP.

Analyzing language: communicative function: we use language to express meaning, and the language we use is different in different situation and people.

Phonology: the sounds of English

♣Sounds: phonemes.

♣Word stress: is noticeable by being louder, longer and higher in pitch.

♣Sentence stress: stress marks out the content-carrying words in the sentence in order to mark out a rhythm. Unstressed words tend to be pronounced quite fast.

♣Intonation: it’s referred to as the music of the language.

Teaching vocabulary (Harmer)

Language structure and vocabulary

Teachers choose their words carefully in certain situations, but they are less worried about choosing structures carefully - unless we are in a language classroom. Then structural accuracy seems to be the dominant focus. Grammatical knowledge allows us to generate sentences. Methodologists and linguists have been paying their attention to vocabulary, stressing its importance in language teaching and reconsidering some of the ways in which it is taught and learnt. The acquisition of vocabulary is just as important as the acquisition of grammar.

Selecting vocabulary: One of the problems of it is how to select what words to teach.

Frequency, coverage and choice: to decide which words should be teach on the basis of how frequently they are used by speakers. The selection of vocabulary is that of coverage. A word is more useful if it covers more things than if it has one specific meaning. The

decision about what vocabulary to teach and learn will be influenced by information about frequency and use.

What do students need to know?

Meaning: Vocabulary items have more than one meaning, so students need to understand the importance of meaning in context and about sense relations (words have meaning in relations to other words)

Word use: word meaning is stretched through the use of metaphor and idiom. It is also governed by collocation - that is which words go with each other. We often use words only in certain social and topical contexts.

Word formation: words can change their shape and their grammatical value. Students need to know how to twist words to fit different grammatical contexts, how suffixes and prefixes work, how words are spelt and how they sound.

Word grammar: nouns: countable and uncountable, etc. Verb complementation, phrasal verbs, etc. Adjectives and adverbs: position, etc.

Teaching vocabulary: is more than presenting new words.

Active and passive: active: refers to vocabulary that students have been taught or learnt and which they are expected to be able to use. Passive: refers to words which students will recognize when they meet them but which they will not be able to produce.

Interaction with words: Experiments suggest that students remember best when they have done something with the words they are learning. Teachers should get students to interact with words, to 'adopt' words and to use.

Discovery techniques: students have to work out rules and meanings for themselves. Discovery techniques used with vocabulary materials allow students to activate their previous knowledge and to share what they know.

Examples of vocabulary teaching- Presentation

a) Realia: presenting words using real objects.

b) Pictures: using charts, flashcards, magazine pictures.

c) Mime, action and gesture

d) Contrast 'empty' contrasting with 'full'.

e) Enumeration: listing

f) Explanation: explaining the meaning of a word.

g) Translation:

The importance of dictionaries: The dictionary provides one of the best resources for students who wish to increase the number of words they understand. Bilingual dictionaries do not provide sufficient information for the students. Monolingual dictionaries give information about pronunciation, spelling, word formation, metaphorical and idiomatic use.

Teaching the productive skills

The nature of communication

When two people are engaged in talking to each other, they have some reasons: They want to say something. They have some communicative purpose. They select from their language store. These generalizations apply to the spoken and written communication.

There is a desire for the communication to be effective both from the point of view of the speaker and the listener. There are reasons for breakdown in communication: -They want to listen to 'something'. -They are interested in the communicative purpose of what is being said. - They process a variety of language.

The information gap: Speakers have a communicative purpose and that listeners are interested in discovering what that purpose is. There is a gap between the two participants in the information they possess, and the conversation helps to close that gap.

The communication continuum: If students do not want to be involved in communication, it won’t be effective. There are:

Non-communicative activities: no communicative desire, no communicative purpose, form not content, one language item, teacher intervention, materials control.

Communicative activities: a desire to communicate, a communicative purpose, content not form, variety of language, no teacher intervention. No materials control.

Stages in language learning/teaching: three stages

Introducing new language: the teacher works with controlled techniques, asking students to repeat, performs in drills, insists on accuracy, correcting mistakes.

Practice: the teacher may intervene to guide and to point out inaccuracy. Practice activities can be non-communicative or communicative activities.

Communicative activities: Students are involved in activities that give them the desire 'to communicate and a purpose.

The relationship between the different stages

If teachers introduce new language they will want to practice it in a controlled way. After an introduction stage, they use a practice technique to give the students a chance to use the new language in a controlled environment.

Integrating skills: one skill cannot be performed without another.

Writing (Hammer)

Literacy: Literate people are those who can read and write in certain situations and for certain purposes. There are different literacies and teachers need to decide what kind of writing they expect from students.

♦ Handwriting: communication takes place electronically. Handwriting is a personal issue. Students don’t use the same style. Teachers should encourage students with problematic handwriting to improve.

♦ Spelling: bad spelling is perceived as a lack of education or care. Spelling is difficult for English’s students because of the difference between the sound and the way the word is spelt. Teachers should get their students to focus on a particular variety of English (British or American). Help students to improve through reading.

♦ Layout and punctuation: Different writing communities obey different punctuation and layout conventions in communications such as letters, reports and publicity materials.

Approaches to student writing: Teachers will want to build the 'writing habit'.

♦Process and product: teachers can focus on the product or on the process itself. When concentrating on the product, we are interested in the aim of a task and in the end product. Many educators are promoter to the process to write. Pay attention to the stages of writing (pre-writing phases, editing, re-drafting and producing a finished version). One

of the disadvantages of the process is that it takes time. The writing process is as important as the product.

Genre: it represents the norms of different kinds of writing. A genre approach is appropriate for students of English for specific Purposes. Students who are writing within a certain genre need to consider a number of different factors. They need to have knowledge of the topic, the conventions and style of the genre, and the context in which their writing will be read. Asking students to imitate a given style could be seen as a form reproduction rather than as a creative act.

♦Creative writing: suggests imaginative tasks (poetry, stories and plays). Students find writing imaginatively difficult because when they have nothing to say, they feel demotivated and frustrated.

♦Writing as a cooperative activity: students can take advantages of writing with others. Cooperative writing works well whether the focus is on the writing process or on genre study. Writing in groups can be motivated for students, not only writing, but also research, discussion, peer evaluation and group pride.

♦Building the writing habit: some students are unconfident and unenthusiastic writers. Teachers need to help such students to build the writing habit. One way is to give them interesting tasks. Building the writing habit can be done with a range of activities, for ex: ask them to write three Don't sentences, pieces of music or describe a part of a film scene. Pictures can also provide stimulation, for ex; creating a story.

♦Writing-for-learning and writing-for-writing: Writing-for-learning is the writing teachers do to help students learn language or to test them. When teachers get them to write a narrative, it is their ability to write a story that counts, not just their use of the past tense, that is writing-for-writing.

♦ The roles of the teacher

•Motivator: motivate the students, creating the right conditions for the creation of ideas.

•Resource: teachers need to tell students that we are available and prepared to look at their work as it progresses, offering advice and suggestions in a constructive way.

•Feedback provider: giving feedback on writing tasks demands special care.

Writing lesson sequences (examples)

Portfolios, journals, letters: teachers get students to keep portfolios of examples of their written work over a time. These can be used as a way of encouraging students to take pride in their work. The European Language Portfolio has three parts:

• Language biography: reflect what students can do and language.

• Language passport: 'public' version of the biography. It benefits those who speak more than one language, and it reinforces students' pride in their language(s) profile.

•Dossier: students keep examples of their work - projects, reports, diplomas, PowerPoint presentations.

Speaking (Harmer)

Elements of speaking: If students want to be able to speak fluently in English, they need to be able to pronounce correctly, use appropriate stress and intonation patterns. They will have to be able to speak in different genres and situations.

♦ Different speaking events: distinction between transactional and interpersonal functions. Transactional function its purpose is conveying information and facilitating the exchange of goods and services. Interpersonal function is all about maintaining and sustaining good relations between people. Purpose of the speaking event: interactive (conversation that takes place when we buy a newspaper) or non-interactive (Ieaving a message on an answer phone). Difference between speaking that is planned (a lecture) and unplanned (spontaneous conversation)

♦ Conversational strategies

•Conversational rules and structure: conversational openings (How are you?), interrupting (sorry), topic shift (by the way) and closings (bye).

• Survival and repair strategies: if face-to-face conversation is to be successful, students need to be able to ask for repetition, paraphrase and appeal for help.

• Real talk: if students are to be involved in spontaneous conversation with native speakers, they need to be exposed to more than questions that are found in coursebooks.

To raise their awareness, teachers can get students to analyze transcripts of real speech, how to respond to the questions of others, etc.

♦ Functional language, adjacency pairs and fixed phrases: Fixed and semi-fixed phrases crop up functional exchanges. Functional exchanges work well because they follow a set pattern. One pattern is the adjacency pair. When teaching speaking, teachers need to make students aware of these. We can do this by teaching functional exchanges.

Students and speaking

♦ Reluctant students: they are reluctant to speak because they are shy and are not predisposed to expressing in front of others. Things to help them:

• Preparation: students record presentations of what they are going to make, transcribe, correct it and hand it over to the teacher. There will be times when teachers want and expect spontaneous production from students, but at others teachers will allow them to prepare for the speaking.

•The value of repetition: it allows students to improve on what they have said before, think about how to re-word things. Repetition works even better if students get a chance to analyze what they have already done.

• Big groups, small groups: they find themselves having to talk in front of a big group, making sure that they get chances to speak and interact in smaller groups.

• Mandatory participation: examples jigsaw reading activities and story-circle writing, when all the students take part.

♦ The roles of the teacher

•Prompter: teachers help the students when they get lost by offering suggestions without forcing students out of role.

•Participant: act as participants when they are in a dialogue with the class, the teacher and students may talk together as near-equal participants.

• Feedback provider: when students are in the middle of a speaking task, over-correction may inhibit them. Helpful and gentle correction may get students out of difficult misunderstandings and hesitations.

Classroom speaking activities

♦Acting from a script: ask the students to act out scenes from plays, their coursebooks, and dialogues written by themselves.

•Playscripts: drama helps to build student confidence, contextualize language, develop students' empathy, and involve students in problem-solving. It also practices gesture, facial expression, eye contact and movement.

•Acting out dialogues: If students work on their dialogues, they will gain much from the experience.

♦ Communication games: • Information-gap games: depend on an information gap. • Television and radio games:

♦Discussion: • Buzz groups •Instant comment. •Formal debates. •Unplanned discussion. •Reaching a consensus.

♦ Prepared talks: student makes a presentation on a topic of their own choice. We need to give them time to prepare their talks. The teacher and the class can give them feedback. The point is have to involve active listening as well as active speaking.

♦Questionnaires: are useful because, the questioner and respondent have something to say to each other. Students can design questionnaires on any topic that is appropriate.

♦Simulation and role-play: they can be used to encourage general oral fluency or to train students for specific situations. When students are doing them, they need to know about the background and what the situation is.

Speaking lesson sequences: examples

Making recordings: examples. The most important is getting everyone involved in the activity.

Receptive Skills:

Although reading and listening are performed with different media, they have similar characteristics in practicing the language.

Content: interest (enjoyment, pleasure and intellectual stimulation) and usefulness (to want or need to know something). We may well read sth that is useful and find that it is interesting.

Purpose and expectations: people read or listen because they have a purpose in doing it and/or they have expectations.

Receptive skills:

a) Predictive skills: people predict what they are going to hear and read. The process of understanding is achieved when the predictions match with the content of the text.

b) Extracting specific information: we read or listen to sth because we want to extract specific information: scanning.

c) Getting the general picture: we want to have an idea of the main points: skimming.

d) Extracting detailed information: a reader or listener has to be able to access texts for detailed information.

e) Recognising functions and discourse patters: understanding how a text is constructed.

f) Deducting meaning from context: deduce the meaning of unfamiliar words from the context.

Reading or listening in a foreign language creates barriers for the learner which may make these more difficult to use. Teachers have to reactivate them.

Methodological principles for teaching receptive skills:

Receptive and productive skills: receptive skill: students receive and process the language to extract meaning. Productive: students produce the language.

Authentic and non- authentic text: authentic texts: designed for native speakers; they are real texts. A non-authentic text is written for language students. Reasons for giving students reading and listening material:

a) The more listening and reading teachers give them, the better they will become at reading and listening.

b) Acquiring language: improves their general English level.

c) Success: when teachers choose the right kind of material, the students are successful.

What we need are texts which students can understand the general meaning of, whether they are authentic or not.

Purpose, desire and expectations: we read or listen because they have the desire to do it, some purpose to achieve and have some expectations.

Receiving and doing: expect students to use what they have heard or read in order to perform a task, to do sth with the text; giving opinions, following instructions or summarizing.

Teaching receptive skills: teacher has to train students in a number of skills. We can divide these skills into type 1: the students have to get the general picture, to perform a task or to confirm expectations and type 2: the students have to look at the details in a text.

A basic methodological model for the teaching of receptive skills: five stages:

Lead-in: the students and the teacher prepare for the task and familiarize with the topic.

T directs comprehension task: the teacher explains and directs the students’ purpose.

Ss listen/ read for the task: the students read or listen to a text to perform the task the teacher has set.

T directs feedback: teacher gives a response.

T directs text-related task: organize some kind of follow-up task related to the text.

Reading material: the brain has to work out the significance of the messages. A reading text moves at the speed of the reader. Extracting information can be performed even though students do not understand the whole text. Reading is static. Students can read in order to confirm their expectations, to extract specific information, foster a communicative interaction of some kind, to skim to get the general picture, to find detailed information or understand the way in which texts are structured and to recognize the functions.

Listening material

An audio or video tape happens as its speed, not at listener’s. In a speech, we can find some phenomena, for ex; hesitation, reformulation, redundancy and topic change. Most of this shows the speaker re-drafting what they are going to say. Teachers have to train students to ignore these phenomena and focus on the message. Listening material is presented through cd or mp3 recorders, they are small and portable. Difficulties:

a) Lead-in: give a clear explanation.

b) The use of visual material: give students a visual setting for the audio.

c) Listening tasks: designed to help students to listen effectively.

d) The equipment: make sure that the device and cd/mp3 are in good condition.

There are a number of different types of listening material:

Listening with video: students can see people speaking. Exs:

•Silent viewing: predictive exercise. • Freeze frame. •Sound only •Jigsaw viewing.

Listening to confirm expectations: teacher elicits information from the students about what they know/don’t know about sth. Then, the teacher asks the students to listen to confirm expectations.

Listening to extract specific information: students listen to find particular information.

Listening for communicative tasks: to listen in order to perform a real communicative task.

Listening for general understanding: to listen to a conversation in order to get a general idea.

Listening for details: information and discourse structure: to listen in order to get specific information and a greater understanding of the language used.

Making your own tapes: Some teachers find difficult that listening suits the level or interests, so that they can produce their own tapes.

Dealing with listening problems: panic and difficulty because they are faced with a challenging task. The individual’s lack of success can be demotivating. Some things to make tapes adaptable: Don’t play all the tape straight away. Give students the first third of the tapescript, they can read it and then discuss how it is going to end. Give one group a tape recorder and give other groups different sections of the tapescript. Preview vocabulary: teach some key words. Cut the tapescript into paragraphs and the students have to put in the right order. Give students the interviewer’s questions.

Reading (Harmer)

Extensive and intensive reading: Students need to be involved in both, extensive (to encourage students to choose what to read and to do it for pleasure and language improvement) and intensive reading (teacher chooses and directs the material). It is designed to enable students to skim and scan.

Extensive reading

•Extensive reading materials: students should read material which they can understand. Teachers need to provide books specially written for the students. To encourage students to read literature we need to act:

• Setting up a library: build a library of suitable books.

• The role of the teacher in extensive reading programmes: teachers need to promote reading and persuade students of its benefits. Teacher will act as an organizer and tutor.

•Extensive reading tasks: students will choose their own reading texts. Students can ask questions, tell their classmates about books, write short book reviews, oral interviews.

Intensive reading: the roles of the teacher

• Organiser: tell students what their reading purpose is and give them clear instructions.

•Observer: give students space to read without interrupting.

•Feedback organiser: when students have completed the task, teachers give them feedback to check the task. It is important to be supportive.

• Prompter: encourage them to notice language features within the text. Teachers may also act as controllers, directing, clarifying and making them aware of issues.

Intensive reading: the vocabulary question

Teachers have to encourage students to read for general understanding, without worrying about the meaning of every single word. They need to limit the amount of time spent on vocabulary checking in the following ways:

• Time limit: give a time limit, for searching vocabulary.

• Word/phrase limit: answer questions about five or eight words or phrases.

• Meaning consensus: get students to work together to search for and find word meanings.

Intensive reading: letting the students in

The comprehension tasks teachers ask students to do are based on task in a coursebook. Students will be more engaged in a text if they bring their own feeling and knowledge to

the task. Another way of letting the students in is to allow them to create their own comprehension task.

Reading lesson sequences: reasons: skimming: reading for general understanding or scanning: reading to extract specific information. Teacher may get students to read texts for communicative purposes. They may start by having students read for gist and then get them to read the text again for detailed comprehension.

Examples of reading sequences

Listening (Harmer)

Extensive and intensive listening: Students can improve their listening skills through extensive and intensive listening material and procedures. Listening improves student’s pronunciation.

Extensive listening: helps students to acquire vocabulary and grammar and it make them better readers. Extensive listening will usually take place outside the classroom: in the students' home, car or on MP3 players. Sources: cd, mp3, radio. In order to work effectively with a group we will need to select appropriate audios. To encourage students to perform well they can record their responses, fill in report forms, assess the level of difficulty and summarise the contents of a recording.

Intensive listening: using audio material

• Advantages: allows students to hear a variety of different voices. Audio material is portable, available and cheap. Most coursebooks include CDs.

• Disadvantages: in big classrooms with poor acoustics, it is difficult that all the students can hear equally well. Everyone has to listen at the same speed.

It is certainly true when listening for the first time, students have to extract the general idea and then, they listen again for specific information. Listening practice is not the same as testing listening. The teacher’s job is to help students become better listener and more confident.

Who controls the recorded material?

• Students control stop and start: some teachers get students to control the speed of recorded listening.

• Students have access to different machines: listen to different machines in small groups; they can listen at the speed of a small group.

• Students work in a language laboratory or listening centre: all students can work with the same recorded material, but they have control of their own individual machines.

Intensive listening: 'live' listening: is when the visitors come to the class and talk to the students. It allows students to practise listening in face-to-face interactions. Students can indicate if the speaker is going too slowly or too fast. Live listening can take the following forms:

• Reading aloud: allow the students to hear a clear spoken version of a written text and it can be enjoyable.

• Story-telling: teachers tell stories providing listening material.

• Interviews: live interview, where students think up the questions.

• Conversations: invite a colleague to hold conversations in English. Students can watch the interaction.

Intensive listening: the roles of the teacher

• Organiser: we need to tell students what their listening purpose is and give them clear instructions.

• Machine operator: teachers need to be efficient when they use the audio player, for example: finding the segment they want to use.

•Feedback organiser: when the students have completed the task, the teacher should lead a feedback.

• Prompter: when students have listened to a recording for comprehension purposes, we can prompt them listen to it again in order to notice a variety of language and spoken features

Film and video: there are many reasons for encouraging students to watch while they listen. For example, how intonation matches facial expression and what gestures accompany phrases.

Viewing techniques:

• Fast forward: the teacher fast forwards the sequence silently so the students have to guess what they were saying.

• Silent viewing (for language): the teacher plays the film without the sound.

•Silent viewing (for music): teachers show a sequence without sound and ask students to say what kind of music they would put behind it and why.

• Freeze frame: freeze the picture and ask students what will happen.

•Partial viewing: only a partial view of the pictures on the screen is seen.

Listening (and mixed) techniques

• Pictureless listening (language): the students listen to a dialogue and have to guess where it is taking place and who the speakers are.

• Pictureless listening (music): students can listen to it and then say what kind of scene they think it accompanies and where it is taking place.

• Pictureless listening (sound effects): in a scene without dialogue students can listen to the sound effects to guess what is happening.

• Picture or speech: divide the class into two so that half of the class faces the screen and half faces away. Students who can see the screen have to describe what is happening to the students who cannot.

• Subtitles: one way to enable students to listen to authentic material is to allow them to have subtitles to help them. Alternatively, students can watch a film extract with subtitles.

Listening (and film) lesson sequences: examples