lunes, 27 de abril de 2015

EXTRA UNIT FROM LEARNER - CENTERED TEACHING BOOK

                 


        

                        

 THE PURPOSE AND PROCESS OF EVALUATION




Resultado de imagen para assessment

This chapter is about evaluation, where teacher measures students’ knowledge with assessment. There are different types of test to assess students. For example, proficiency test (to assess overall language ability), achievement test (to assess learning at the end of a course), placement (to place students on the right level) and so on. So, students are tested with formal assessment (class test, it gives a grade) and informal assessment (observing students where they are creating activities tasks, promotes a variety of washback). However, teachers need to give grades for the test taken because teacher need to know if the students are able to restore information in their long term memory. For that reason, teachers can take an accumulative test to analyze if the students are able to achieve in their learning process.
As teachers need to know different teaching methodologies to teach students. Beside of methodology, the best way to know if the student learned is applying different evaluation processes in the class. It will be formal (test) or informal (asking questions, giving task to develop). Doing these activities can activate students´ knowledge and make them to become critical thinker.

Watch this  video for more information 







EXTRA UNIT FROM LEARNER - CENTERED TEACHING BOOK

THE ROLE OF THE TEACHER







This chapter is about the role of the teacher. As teacher we have to play different roles in the classroom like: planner (teacher prepare and reflects on lesson before teaching), manager (teacher provides an environment to teach the class), monitor (manage the class seeing that all students are working on the task provided), facilitator (teachers provide an amount of useful material in the classroom), and assessor (teachers measure students’ knowledge preparing the test, it will be formal or informal assessment). But all these roles depends on the types of teaching approaches that teacher uses in every lessons. Each roles is designed according the students need and also considering their learning styles.  A good teachers are like. Conductors, guides, and coaches because they are guides other what they have to do. They model or give clues what to do. Besides of, types of teacher roles. Learning a new language requires discovery and invention what to learn in order to activate our knowledge. Manipulating things can learn more things.  Students must manage their communicative competence in the class. To apply this knowledge with my pupils, I will analyze students’ needs and their learning styles. After that, I will begin to choose some activities that help them to accomplish their necessities as students. For example, as monitor I will provide group activities where they can analyze and compare ideas. So doing these activities I will gain students rapport in the class.

 References for additional information

What Is the Role of Teachers in Education?

 ·        Work - Chron.com,. (2015). What Is the Role of Teachers in Education?. Retrieved 28 April 2015, from http://work.chron.com/role-teachers-education-8807.html


The Teacher's Role in Implementing Cooperative Learning in the Classroom






viernes, 24 de abril de 2015

UNIT 8: SPEAKING

SPEAKING


Resultado de imagen para what is SPEAKING

Resultado de imagen para SPEAKING



In this chapter we refer to speaking, speaking is a productive skills which involves using speech to express meaning to the people. When we speak we use intonation, sentence stress, fluency and contractions. We speak for many different purposes such as: ask for clarification, greet people, paraphrase and sing. However, when we speak we use body language as gestures, facial expressions and eye contact to convey meaning at the moment of the communication. Also, in speaking skills we have some features that will be take in to account when we speak, register it means the level of formality that each person has at the moment of speak. Most people speak formal while others speak informal or colloquial. It depends on different situations that they are and with whom they are talking. In order to practice our speaking skills with our students, it is better to know the activities that it follows. As we can see, as first activity we have lead- in, second, practice activities and the last activity is post- task activities. It means that each activity has its functions into the speaking. To apply this knowledge with my students, I will use dialogues, discussion, and dramatization with them because these activities help them to practice their speaking. Also, I will use tongue – twister to help them with the fluency of the language.

References for additional information

Essential Speaking Skills

Speaking Into the Air

Watch these videos to find more information 






jueves, 23 de abril de 2015

UNIT 7: LISTENING


Resultado de imagen para what is listening

LISTENING

In this unit we checked about listening, as everyone knows listening is another important skill that language has. First, listening is a receptive skills, it involves responding to language rather than producing. Listening is receiving information through the ears. It involves making sense of the meaningful sounds like: communication, conversation and speech, and after that to produce words and sentences. It involves understanding spoke language.   Spoken language is different from written language because it is less planned than the written language. Spoken language is naturally free   , it has a process to understand the sound. Both spoken and written language have different features because each of them is produced and understood in different circumstance. When we speak we make fillers, our utterances are complex or simple it depends on situation. Sometimes we send incomplete message. Second, the book teaches us the listening subskills, these are listening for gist, specific information, and detail or infer attitudes. Also. We can find others ways of listening like: intensively and extensively. Finally, listening is other type of skills that focused on understanding sounds and accent of the different dialects. In order to teach my pupils listening skills, I will use CD´s because in that way they can enrich they listening skills.

Resultado de imagen para what is listening



References for additional information

 Speaking & Listening Skills

Listening

What is listening?


   Watch these videos for listening skills



miércoles, 22 de abril de 2015

UNIT 6: WRITING

 WRITING
Resultado de imagen para writing skills

Resultado de imagen para writing skills

 Writing is other of the four skills. It is a productive skills, it means that it involves producing language rather than receiving it. When you write you are communicating through the message, symbols and letters. In writing also you can find the degree of formality but it depends on who you are writing to. You can write different text types according the situation also the vocabulary that you choose should be at the same level. Complex vocabulary should be a problem for whom don’t know much English. Good writing should be accurately, comprehensible. The paragraphs have to follow the sequence and the sentences have to have accuracy. Writing has subskills related to accuracy and communicating ideas. Related to accuracy are: spelling correctly, forming letters, joining letter together, punctuating, using correct layouts, choosing right vocabulary, using grammar correctly and so on. Writing subskills related to communicating ideas are: using appropriate style of register, organizing ideas, appropriate functions to express meaning and so on. Good writer needs to apply all these writing subskills at the moment to write. Also, in writing activities we need to follow some stages of writing: Drafting (first version), Editing (correcting and improving the content), proofreading (checking mistakes) and Re- drafting (final version). To teach writing first it is better to model what they have to do in each activities provided. After, I will make a group then I will provide many activities that help students to practice accuracy, for example, gap filling, sentences transformations, note- taking and ask them to create a graphic organizer so doing it they can practice writing.


References for additional information
Writing Skills 
  British Museum - What is writing?
Video
 




UNIT 5; READING

 READING

Resultado de imagen para what is reading

Reading is a receptive skill. Also, it is the process of looking at a series of written symbols and getting meaning from them. Trough it you receive information and understand what the text is about. To gain our reading skill successfully it is better to use different reading subskills. Scanning (reading for specific information), reading for detail (getting meaning from the text), deducing meaning from the context (to get meaning from the unknown word), understanding text structure (understand the types of text is develop), skimming (get a general idea), inferring (get meaning from the context ), predicting (to guess what a text may be about). Also, in the chapter we discussed about the extensive and intensive reading. Extensive reading (reading for pleasure), it is long pieces of text; article and story. While the intensive reading is reading for language study. In reading skill we can find some activities that will be developed step by step: first, Pre- reading, while reading and Post- reading. To teach students is better find appropriate activities that follow the reading lesson. Also, the reading subskills are important here because students need to be familiar with of them. After that, I will give to the students some texts where they can read silently and understand what the text is about. Then, I make groups and ask them to share ideas from the text.

References for more information

Reading (process)
·         Wikipedia,. (2015). Reading (process). Retrieved 22 April 2015, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_(process)
What Is Reading? An Excerpt from Reading for Understanding - National Writing Project
·         Nwp.org,. (2015). What Is Reading? An Excerpt from Reading for Understanding - National Writing Project. Retrieved 22 April 2015, from http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/787

Video 





v

UNIT 4: FUNCTIONS

 FUNCTIONS

Resultado de imagen para functions of language
This chapter refers to functions. Function is the reason of communication. We exposure our language for apologizing, greeting, clarifying when someone does not understand what do you say. Even thought that function describe how we use the language in different context or situation, we make that situations. For example, if we want to invite someone to go to the cinema with us, we just say, would you like to go out to the cinema?  Also, we discussed about the exponents. It express different functions of language, it also depends   on the context it is used.  The exponents express different level of formality. Formal (socially distant), informal (socially casual) and neutral of the language. Each exponents of the language is used in different situation that people want to use. I consider that these aspects of the function of the language are important in our communications. How I will apply it in teaching, everybody knows that students come here with values that they learned at home. In the classroom what do we have to do as teachers? We as teachers need implement others values that will be for them.  


References for additional information

Jakobson's functions of language
·         Wikipedia,. (2015). Jakobson's functions of language. Retrieved 22 April 2015, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakobson's_functions_

Functions of Language
·         Educ.ualberta.ca,. (2015). Functions of Language. Retrieved 22 April 2015, from http://www.educ.ualberta.ca/staff/olenka.bilash/b
bcbc

Watch these videos to find more information 












UNIT 3: PHONOLOGY

PHONOLOGY


  
IIn this chapter I learned about phonology, how important it is in our language to communicate meaning. Phonology is the study of how sound features are organized and used in natural languages. Also, There are some English features that include in the chapter: phoneme (the smallest contrastive linguistics unit of sound system), word stress (words that have more emphasis in the language), sentences stress (show us which parts of our sentences are the most important), and intonations (the level of the voice or a variation of spoken pitch). Then, the book has two aspects that will be essential for us; phonemic symbols (correct pronunciation) and the phonemic chart (show in writing). In to phonology we find others aspects of communication. Each of them plays an important role in the language. Vowels (sounds made without air stopped), consonant (the flow of air is partly blocked), stress etc.  At the moment to teach phonology to students is important to know our native language phonology in order to discriminate between two languages. So, after do that I will use videos or voice recording to help them phonology. These activities help us to discriminate the sound of words. So, students  students can recognize which sounds are.


References for additional information
Watch these videos to find more information