¡Descarga UNITS 1-7 ELT METHODOLOGY y más Apuntes en PDF de Filología Inglesa solo en Docsity!
Unit 1
1.1. English teaching today: English as an International Language (EIL) and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) English as an International Language (EIL)
- What does^ EIL^ mean? - English is a global means of communication - English has no particular national owner (e.g. not owned by a particular nation, no longer seen as the language of the UK or USA) (!!!!) The speakers of English whose L1 is another language (i.e. speakers using English as a Lingua Franca ) largely outnumber native English speakers ELF = English as the means of communication among speakers of different first languages. - How have EIL and EFL affected the principles and practice of English language teaching? It changes in 4 main areas: -Language standards -Native vs Non-native teacher -The place of reading texts from English-speaking countries in course materials -The place of the L1 in the classroom
1.2. Language teaching approaches and perspectives 4 main ideas on how we acquire second/foreign languages:
1. Intuitive acquisition: We learn an L2 in the same way as our L1, by means of extensive exposure to the L2 in the authentic communicative situations (based on the Krashen’s (1982) model of L2 acquisition) 2. Habit formation: Language is a set of habits: we mimic, memorise and drill the patters of language until we produce the correct forms automatically (based on Skinner’s theory of Behaviourism) 3. Cognitive process: Language involves the understanding of underlying rules: if we master them, we will be able to apply them in different context (based on Chomsky’s (1957) Innatist theory) 4. Skill-learning: Language is a skill that we learn was any other skill. We are taught the rules and then we practise them until we master them and use them fluently and skilfully. (Johnson, 1996) The most popular approaches and methodologies used for teaching English: Grammar-translation: -Explanation of grammar rules by teacher in the L -Translation of texts from and to target language -Focus on the written form of the language and more formal registers -Emphasis on accuracy rather than on fluency
The post-communicative approach: -Holds the idea that primary function of language is effective communication -Activities should include using language in a meaningful way -Incorporating techniques from previous methodologies (explicit instruction of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, form-focused exercises, or spelling) and translation or even memorisation of dialogues -Widely used nowadays Total Physical Response (TPR): -Based on the theory that memory is enhanced through association with physical movement -Students are required to carry our the instructions by physically performing the activities (e.g. walk to the window, pick up the pen) 1.3. Motivation and gamification 1.3.1. Motivation Motivation involves 4 aspects (according to Gardner, 1985):
1. A goal 2. Effortful behaviour 3. A desire to attain the goal 4. Favourable attitudes toward the activity in question Types:
- Integrative and instrumental (Gardner, 1991): Integrative motivation: The learner wants to integrate in the community (and culture) of speakers of that language
Instrumental motivation: The learner wants to learn for material or educational benefit (e.g. get a better job, pass an official exam, etc.) -Intrinsic and extrinsic: Intrinsic motivation: Motivation is associated with “the activity of language learning itself” (interesting, personally fulfilling). Extrinsic motivation: Learning is “based on the perceived benefits of success in learning and penalties of failure”. Self and personal identity -The concept we have of ourselves (i.e. how we see ourselves now and in the future) also plays a crucial role in motivation. -E.g. a student who sees herself as a member of an international/ intercultural community will be more willing to learn. -E.g. a student who sees herself as a high-achiever is likely to invest more effort in learning an L2. How can we increase our students’ motivation? Three main ways:
1. The importance of English: Remind your students of the importance of English for EVERYTHING (e.g. work, entertainment, intercultural communication) 2. Fostering their self-image as successful language learners: Be supportive (e.g. when giving feedback) 3. Interesting classes: Try to make your classes varied and interesting (e.g. using appealing topics, songs, games)
1.4. Classroom discipline According to Ur (2012) “Classroom discipline exists when teacher and students accept and consistently observe a set of rules relating to classroom behaviour in order to facilitate smooth and efficient teaching learning.” (p.244) “The teachers who are most successful in maintaining discipline in class are not those who are good at dealing with problems, but those who know how to prevent them from arising in the first place.” (p.249) Dealing with discipline problems: Tips (I): Before the problem arises (Ur, 2012) -Make an agreement with the class about what is and is not acceptable at an early stage (e.g. rules and penalties displayed on a poster or discussed with students). -Plan the lesson carefully so that students feel there is a purpose and keep focused. Prevent “gaps of nothingness”. -Give clear instructions: too much hesitation on the teacher’s part may distract students and diminish their confidence in the teacher’s authority. -Keep in touch with your students: “scan” the classroom, monitor, try to prevent students from losing interest or from getting distracted. Tips (II): When the problem is beginning: -Deal with the problem quickly and quietly, without making a big fuss (e.g. if your student hasn’t opened the book, you can do it yourself). -Don’t take it personally: What need ti be attacked and dealt with is the problem (not the student). -Don’t use threats: they are often a sign of weakened. Avoid using the formula “if you… then…” to intimidate students. -Try to develop an interpersonal connection with your students (no recipes here, just good will!).
Tips (III): The problem has “exploded”: -Catch your students by surprise by “exploding” yourself. You can utter a quick, loud command but without losing your temper. However, it is important not to overuse this strategy or it will lose its effect. -Give in. If they really don’t want to do an activity, it’s okay to give in and change to a plan B. It’s good to avoid showing hesitation here (try to be quick). Again, don’t overuse this strategy. -Make them an offer they can’t refuse. Avoid confrontation by “negotiating” an alternative with your students. Strategies: postponement, compromise or arbitration. -Call in assistance from a higher authority (only if absolutely necessary since it may appear to diminish your own authority in class) but then discuss it with your students to try to reach an agreement so that the problem does not happen again.
2.3. Interaction patterns Most common type of classroom interaction: “IRF” = Initiation - Response - Feedback (assessment, correction, comment) Sinclair and Coulthard (1975) refer to it as the “elicting exchange”, where three moves (initiating, responding and follow-up).
- Characteristic of teacher-fronted classrooms. Example: T: Peter, is the boy happy or sad? S: He is happy. T: Yes, he is happy. Very good. Interaction patterns: Teacher talk Choral responses Open-ended or closed-ended teacher questioning (“IRF”) Full -class interaction Student initiates, teacher answers Individual work Collaboration Gruop work Self-access Types of questions: -Closed-ended or open ended questions -Eliciting short or long responses -Requiring lower-order thinking (simple recall or basic factual information) or higher-order thinking (analysing, comparing, evaluating) -Genuine or display questions Some notes on the diasctintion between genuine and display questions: Genuine questions promote authentic communication. The teacher really wants to find out the answer. They are normally open-ended. E.g.: What would you like to do after high school? Display questions are not authentic communication. They ask students to demonstrate knowledge (i.e. are they are used to check if students know the answer). They are normally closed-ended and require short responses. E.g. What is the past tense of “take”? Tased or took?
The importance of questions Questions are essential in the EFL classroom. Classroom questioning should include different types of questions and should be effective Effective teacher questioning (Ur, 2012):
- Clarity
- Interest
- Accessibility
- Level of answer
- Learning value
- Teacher reaction Practical tips:
- Wait-time
- Echo 2.4. Homework Types of homework tasks:
- Routine review (e.g. grammar exercises, learning a list of lexical items, re-reading texts)
- Previews and preparation for the next lesson (e.g. read a text or find information on the Internet).
- Creative assignments (e.g. creating questions to add to an exercise).
- Preparing presentations to give in class.
- Projects (usually culminating in oral presentations in class or posters displayed in the classroom). The role of homework: -With younger students (especially children), homework should be used as reinforcement of what has been done in class, where most learning takes place. For example: -Finishing tasks they haven’t finished in class -Re-reading a text (which they have already read in class) -The older the students, the more important homework becomes, as it helps them to continue learning outside the class and to foster their autonomy as learners. For example: -Essay writing -Recommended readings
UNIT 3: Teaching vocabulary and grammar
3.1. What and how to teach vocabulary?
3.2. Vocabulary assessment
3.3. What and how to teach grammar?
3.4. Grammar assessment
3.1. What and how to teach vocabulary? What is vocabulary? Vocabulary: Generally speaking, it refers to the words in the language. Nevertheless, a useful convention is to talk about vocabulary “items” rather than words, as this term covers not only single words but also compounds and multi-word expressions. Lexical items vs grammatical items: Remember that lexical items (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs are “open sets”, whereas grammatical items (e.g. determiners, pronouns, prepositions) are “closed sets”. What aspects of vocabulary do students need to learn?
- Form: pronunciation and spelling
- Meaning: denotation
- Connotation
- Grammar (e.g. avoid + ing)
- Collocation (e.g. do homework, make money)
- Appropriateness (is it a very common word or a rare word? Formal or informal?)
Other ways of associating meaning: part-whole (head, hand >>>body; same context or semantic field: university, schools, teacher, students >>> education). Teaching / learning vocabulary In our L1 we acquire vocabulary mainly in an incidental way (e.g. through listening, reading, in conversation); however, can L2 learners acquire a large vocabulary incidentally? In the context of a formal school course, they also need to be taught through deliberate vocabulary teaching procedures. -Aiming at teaching new items:
- Select the items to teach
- Present the items
- Aiming at reviewing vocabulary (note that reviewing is different from testing):
- Principle^ of^ “expanding^ rehearsal”^ (Baddeley,^ 1997):^ a^ given^ item^ should^ be^ first reviewed soon after it has been learnt. If students can remember it, then the delays should be systematically increased. Eventually, the item becomes part of their permanent vocabulary.
- Reviewing tasks: single items or items in context.
Crucial questions to ask ourselves when designing or selection vocabulary items
- Does the test check receptive knowledge of the target items (i.e. just that the item is understood) or does it tell us whether they can also produce the items in an oral or written form (i.e. testing spoken or written knowledge)?
- Does it require students to contextualise the item, or just to understand it and produce it in isolation?
- Does it assert aspects other than meaning and form, e.g. connotations?
- How practical or easy is to design and administer?
- How easy is it to check and grade?
- Does it provide for objective assessment or does it require a more subjective kind or judgement (objective tests are easier to grade). Teaching and assessing vocabulary: Do and don’ts: 10 Dos &don’ts for teaching vocabulary in any content area: Do this:
- Select words to teach.
- Use strategies to engage students in words study.
- Help students to come up with their own definitions.
- Assess student use of words in authentic writing and speaking. Not that:
- Assign long lists of words (six to eight a week is recommended) but never teach about the words selected.
- Have students look up lists of words in a dictionary, write arbitrary sentences, or copy words multiple times.
- Have students simply copy definitions.
- Give students matching tests that show only memorisation of definitions. 3.3. What and how to teach grammar? How best to teach grammar: explicit and implicit approaches Explicit teaching: Grammar rules are explained: explanations + focused practice Implicit teaching: Grammar rules ate not explained. Students are provided with opportunities to hear, read and use the correct grammatical forms
-Krashen’s (1999): grammar is best acquired implicitly, through comprehensible input (listening and reading). Connection with the “Input Hypothesis” (Krashen, 1985). -Evidence showing that students who receive explicit grammar instruction perform better than those who do not (see Norris and Ortega, 2001). -Ideally, we should mix both types of procedures (implicit and explicit). Presenting and explaining grammar Some guidelines and trips (Ur, 2012):
- Place grammar explanations towards the beginning of the lesson.
- Before explaining the target feature, provide students with examples in meaningful contexts rather than using an isolated phrase on the board.
- Both say and write examples.
- Teach both form and meaning. If appropriate, use pictures or realia to make the explanation memorable.
- Decide^ whether^ to^ use^ grammatical^ terminology^ depending^ on^ your^ situation^ and student’s age.
- Obvious exceptions should be noted but too many details may confuse students.
- Use the L1 to explain the grammar, unless students are proficient enough to understand the grammar explanation in English.
- If there are substantial differences between English and the L1, it can be useful to compare and contrast the meanings of the structures in both languages.
- Get feedback (don’t just say “do you understand?”)
- You can follow an inductive process for teaching the grammatical rule (i.e. giving first the examples and letting the students work out the rule for themselves) or a deductive process (i.e. giving the rules yourself and then working on examples). Does practice makes perfect? Why do students continue making mistakes despite practice?
- One of the explanations for this phenomenon is the teachability hypothesis (Pienemann, 1984): L2 learners acquire grammatical structures in a fixed order, regardless of the order in which they are taught.
- Thus, teaching a grammatical item for which the learner isn’t developmentally ready will not result in learning.
- Nevertheless, there is evidence that practice improves performance.
- Practice may not make perfect but it definitely helps!
Open-ended: Advantage: Students really show they can produce the required grammar item. Disadvantage: More time consuming (it takes more time to grade) and, sometimes, it’s difficult to assess. On the use of translation in grammar testing:
UNIT 4. TEACHING LISTENING AND SPEAKING.
4.1. Goals and problems in teaching listening. The main goal of teaching listening is to enable our students eventually to cope with the natural listening situations that they are most likely to encounter in real life. As teachers, we should teach our students about the features of spoken language. It is ok not to understand everything, instead we should teach them to look for the relevant information, as we do in our L1. The features of spoken languages are:
- Vocabulary: -Use of imprecise and vague terms. (stuff, something...). -Use of informal terms and prefabricated chunks.
- Grammar and syntax: -“Somewhat” ungrammatical (unfinished sentences, changes of structures). -Clauses joined into long sequences by coordinations. -Discourse often broken into short chunks (short sentences and phrases).
- Pronunciation: -It is often slurred and may differ from the phonological representation. -Weak forms are common, as well as elision or the (dis)appearance of sounds, especially in informal spoken exchanges.
- Other features: -“Noise”:Bits of discourse that cannot be understood and become meaningless. -Redundancy. -Varied accents. -Facial expressions and body language. 4.2. Designing listening activities. When designing a listening activity, we should consider if it prepares our students for real- life listening situations and how practical it is to do in the classroom. Often, however, this issues clash. Tips when designing: -Provide students with the topic of the listening in advance and with a clear purpose so that they activate previous knowledge and listen selectively for relevant information. -Make sure the activity is interesting and manageable.
