THE TEACHING OF THE VOCABULARY
PRESENTING VOCABULARY
The teacher’s aim will be to explain the new word as quickly and as effciently as possible and the following aids can help to do this.
REALIA; this is the word we use to refer to the use of real objects in the classroom.
PICTURES; can be used to explain the meaning of vocabulary items; the teacher might draw pens and balls on the blackboard. A Picture can also be used to creat a situation or contex.
MIME GESTURE AND ACTION: action are probaby better explained by mime. Gesture is useful for explaining words or indicating that the past is being talked about.
CONTRAST; sometimes a visual element may not be sufficient to explain meaning and contrast can be used.
ENUMERATION;the word “vegetable” is a difficult word to explain visually.If the teacher lists a number of vegetables, the meaning will become clear.
EXPLANATION;When the items are used explanation should include information.”do” means to perform but information would have to be given about what words it is used with as opposed to “make”.
TRANSLATION;If students do not understand a word and the teacher can not think how to explain it,he can quickly translate it but it should be used with caution
They may be used in combination e.g.pictures and mime, translation and enumeration.
TECHNIQES FOR TEACHING FOR BEGINNERS
a) Pictures and flashcards
b) Explanation in first language
c) Defination in simple english by means of the vocabulary
d) İtems that students already know
e) Commands
f) Real objects
g) Drawings
FOR INTERMEDIATE
a) Defining new words by means of simple english
b) Presenting new words in a context
c) Presenting new items for pre-game like activity
d) Using pictures to demontstrate the meaning of words
e) Teaching social meaning through stories
FOR ADVANCED
a) Using dictionaries
b) Using reading passages
c) Brainstorming
d) Role plays for the students’ own use in speaking
e) Picture/drawings/ graphs
TECHNIQUES FOR TEACHING FOR BEGINNERS
The vocabulary lessons should contain words for persons and things in the classroom like window, door, desk, wall, boy, girl.That helps students to make the objects concrete.The more the student’s senses are put into learning the better she learns.
Students are often slow to learn foreign words for familiar objects.Because they also have the word in their native language.The teacher should give the impression that the foreign word is also important and they need it.A feel of need must be created by the teacher
TECHNIQUES FOR TEACHING FOR INTERMEDIATE
Like lessons for beginners, the intermediate vocabulary lessons include many words for things and persons in the learners daily life
• Defining new words by means of simple english
• Presenting new words in a context
• Presenting new items for pre-game like activity
• Using pictures to demontstrate the meaning of words
• Teaching social meaning through stories
Compared with beginners what are the advantages for intermediate in vocabulary learning?
• They have learned a large number of english words
• Native language is less used in intermadiate classes
• The students learn the words in the sentences that are already known
Characteristic of intermediate students
• Learn vocabulary related to comman areas.
• Simple english explanation for introducing new words
• Differant activities for individuals and small groups.
• Techniques should increase interest and courage.
LEARNING VOCABULARY FOR ADVANCED
• Aims for advanced:
• To prapare student for the kind of english used by and for native speakers.
• To help students become independent, responsible for their own learning
LEARNING ADVANCED VOCABULARY FOR USE
• Vocabulary is learned in the advanced for comprehension what is being read.
However there are also words to be learned for the students’ own uses or production in speaking and writing
Some class activities which require the use of english words for communication
• Paraphrases and summaries:Expressing the main ideas of an article or an essay briefly
• Group composition:Working together.The members of each group compose a paragraph on the assigned topic
• Letters to speakers of english :To have a friend with whom it is necessary and interesting to use english.
• A wall newspaper :Members of the class contribute articles and other items to a newspaper which is taped to the classroom wall.
TECHNİQUES THAT ARE FUNCTIONAL AND FUNNY
In vocabulary teaching humor is not our responsibility but to the extent that humor can assiat us in the facilitation of language acqusition and learning.It seens a valuanle tool in our teaching tool kit.The teacher should try to open up the classroom environment so that learning and fun can be mixed in.Making learning process more enjoyable can asist in making it more effective.
LİSTENENİNG
• Riddles
• Commands
• Pre-recorded comedy types; some comediance have viggnettes on tape about language , marital life, memories, so on that can fit into general EFL. Also some english comedy TV programs can be used.
READİNG
• Cartoons
• Short reading:Such reading includes humorous column in newspapers and magazines.
• Comedy clozes:Wanting students fill in the blanks using clues from context.
WRİTİNG
• Creativity corner:An abstract figure is drawn and students are asked to come up with as many as ideas as possible on what the figure could be
• Exaggerated advice column:Usually have people writing to complain about their problems and asking for advice
• Funny stories:Students can be asked to write funny stories
SPEAKİNG
• Pronunciation power:Teachers have various options from which to choose in dealing with students who have pronounciation problems.Humour in this setting can help to ease the pain of embarrasment while working as an effective mechanism to encourage correct pronounciation
• Comic-drama:Roleplaying with a comic twist can be used to highlight a variety of communicative needs and also can help shy students to show their vitality
SOURCES
www.ingilizceögretmenligi.com
www.wikipedia.org
www.englishclub.com
Harmer,Jeremy.The Practice of English Language Teaching.London,1989
Allen,Virginia French.Technics in Teaching Vocabulary.Newyork,1983
Sarıçoban, Arif. The Teaching of Language Skills.Ankara,2001
Maurice,Keith.English Teaching Forum.Bangkok,1988
Songül utkun
Melike açıkgöz
Ayşe can
Saturday, June 12, 2010
INTRODUCTION
Human being needs to communicate whereever he lives, however he is, whoever he is.
For communication, man should know a language,nevertheles it isn’t enough to know only a language,because there isn’t only one country or race on earth and they don’t all speak one language.In some cases, we need to use other languages such as the growth of international trade, scientific research, tourism
The purposes to teach a foreign language to our students are;
To make our students to gain listening, speaking, readibg, and writing skills,
To improve our students comprehension skills,
To inform our students about cultural information of the target language,
To know where to teach, when to teach, who to teach, what to teach and how to teach.
The problems of large classes;
1)Discomfort:there are some students who dont want to participate to the activities,the teacher cannot manage all students,s/he has to talk very loudly.
2)Control:as the class is very crowded, teacher cannot control it,thus the class is very noisy,this causes teacher to be worried,tired, hopeless.
3)Individual attention:since the class is crowded, some students can be ignored by the teacher.
4)Evaluation:teacher cannot evaluate all students equally,it takes a long time to control their papers,so s/he cannot give appropriate feedbacks.
5)Learning effectiveness:the classroom physical atmosphere can have an impact on selecting the course materials, if it is not the ideal one then it can causes some problems.
6)Motivation:Students are not aware of why they are learning a foreign language,they should be informed about the ultimate goal.
7)Foreign language environment:students don’t have the opportunity to practice foreign language outside of the classroom.
Suggested precautions to prevent problems
1)Discomfort:physical environment of the classroom can be changed,semi-circle sitting can be used,it provides teacher-ss,ss-ss interaction.
2)Control:the class could be divided into groups or pairs and the ss could be given some sort of responsibilities such as; grammar leader,speaker leader,vocabulary leader.they can learn by the input of each other.
3)Providing individual attention:the teacher can use the names of the students’ names to take their attention.
4)Evaluation:teacher can use students help by using peer correction,by this way,teacher doesn’t have to read lots of papers.
5)Learning effectiveness:both teacher and school organisation shoud act together in order to find new effective ways to apply.
6)Motivation:students should be aware of goals of foreign language.
7)Foreign language environment:teacher should bring real life situations into the class for the students to practice.
The effective in-classroom characteristics of a good language teacher
a)knowledge of field : A good language teacher should know the essential concepts , principles, techniques, methods and approaches; give appropriate and sufficient answers to the learners` questions; be able to use the audile and visual materials effectly.
b)Instructional period: A good language teacher should write a clear and well- organized plan and state the aim of the lesson by determining the appropriate methods, techniques, materials and evaluation. Also, s\he should use time efficienty, give feedback, eye contact and clear explenations, think the individual differences, interact with all students; speak naturally and fluently; ask appropriate questions.
c)Classroom management: Agood language teacher should make introduction to the lesson, motivate the sudents,use oral rewarding, give information about the next lesson and homework.
d)Communication: Agood language teacher should establish an effective communication among the learners, ask quastions tothink and comment the students, use of oral body language effectively.
e)Evaluation: A good language teacher should give feedback,keep a record a daily advencement, use appropriate measurements such as multiple-choice tets,true\false tests, close tests, matching tests, dictation.
f)Professional knowledge: A good language teacher should be open to comments, be a model and aware of the official articles, rules related to his profession.
THE ROLES OF THE TEACHER
THE TEACHER AS CONTROLLER
The teacher is totally in the charge of the class. He controls everything that students do and controls what they should speak and the language they use. S/he contrrols what is to be said, when it is going to be said, and who is going to say. But controlling all of the actions of the students will not give any opportunity to them to use the language freely, and this prevent them to be autonomous students. It prevents creativity. The students have less time to speak English and it is not good for developing the students’ abilities of using the language. So, the teachers should give their students much time to speak English.
THE TEACHER AS ASSESSOR
The main work a teacher should do is assessing the learners’ study and knowing whether they study well or not. If no, the teacher should change the way he taught. There are two ways for assessing: correcting and feedback. The teacher should use ‘gentle correction’, s/he shouldn’t correct the student directly and rudely. So when a teacher is correcting the students’ mistakes, s/he should pay his/her attention to the way s/he speaks. Otherwise the students may lose their courage and dare not speak English. Feedback is assessing the students’ work when they finish it so that they can see the extent of their success or failure.
THE TEACHER AS ORGANISER
It is very difficult for an English teacher to play the role “organizer”. If the teacher organizes the class-game well, the class-game is successful. The teacher pays attention to the role of organizer, making sure that every student know what they will do. If it is necessary, the teacher can say the instructions in mother tongue. S/he should be ready beforehand because it is also necessary for the teacher to spend much more time on thinking of how to organize the students when they do the preparation otherwise it can be disastrous.
THE TEACHER AS PARTICIPANT
“Participant” is that the teacher thinks of himself/herself as one of the students and takes part in their games, not that he/she looks at the students at the platform. It could cheer up the atmosphere of the class and offer the students chances to speak to someone who knows more English. By taking part in the games by the teacher. “there is no love and there is no education”. The love of the teachers is that the teacher understands the students’ spiritual world, learning to think as a student and studying together with the students. At the same time, the teacher may get something which can help him when he explains the problems to the students.
THE TEACHER AS PROMPTER
“Prompter” is a teacher role which makes the student the center. He lets them study by themselves but when they are confused her/his responsibility is to encourage them and make them active. Teachers are to lead and encourage students and help the students but only when it is necessary.
THE TEACHER AS RESOURCE
The teacher whose role is as resourse is to be a kind of walking resource centre. S/he should be readyto offer help if it is needed because he can not help in all of the activities. For example speaking activity must be done by the student herself/himself.
THE TEACHER AS HELPER
To the students, a teacher is a dictionary, a tool book and a computer. Whenever they meet problems, they will ask the teacher to help them. When students do oral communication games, reading and writing, they will meet with many many problems; they will ask the teacher to help them understand them. Besides, one’s confidence and attitude determine if his English is poor or well. So, when the students lose their heart in learning English, the teacher should say something to comfort them; when they make advances, the teacher should praise them; when they have problems, the teacher should help them in time.
STUDENT GROUPINGS
1) LOCKSTEP
It is a class grouping where all the students are working with the teacher, where all of the students do the same activity. It is traditional teaching situation. The teacher’s role is as controller and assessor. It is accepted that all of the students can understand hear which is said by the teacher. But the students get little chance to practice or to talk. It is not ideal for communicative work. And for shy and nervous students it works extremely bad. There is too much teaching and too little learning
2) PAIR WORK
The teacher is assessor, prompter, resource. Pair work allows the students to use the language and also encourages student co-operation which is very important for the atmosphere of the class and for the motivation and for the opportunity to use language and learning with others. This can be used in many of the activities such as speaking, writing, reading.
3) GROUP WORK
Group work helps the students communicatewith each other, and helps them to co-operate among themselves. Because of the number of the students in the group students have more opportunity to discuss. It has also the great advantage of allowing different groups of students to be doing different things in the same classroom.
4) INDIVIDUAL STUDY
It is a chance for students to work on their own thanks to this they can relax from outside pressure and they can rely on themselves not the others.
DISCIPLINE
Discipline is a code of conduct which binds a teacher and a group of students together so that learning can be more effective. It doesn’t take action when things get out of hand ensures that things never get out of hand. The important point is that it is necessary for both the teacher and the students.
CAUSES OF DISCIPLINE PROBLEMS
1) THE TEACHER
a) Don’t go class unprepared
b) Don’t be inconsistent
c) Don’t issue threats
d) Don’t raise your voice
e) Don’t give boring classes
f) Don’t be unfair
g) Don’t have a negative attitude to learning
h) Don’t break the code
2) THE STUDENT
a) Time of day
b) The student’s attitude
c) A desire to be noticed
d) Two’s company
3) THE INSTITUTION
PREVENTION RATHER CURE
a) Establishing a code of conduct
b) Being fair and consistent
c) Being well-prepared
d) Being adaptable and interesting
ACTIONS IN CASE OF INDISCIPLINE
a) Act immediately
b) Stop the class
c) Reseating
d) Change the activity
e) Using the institution
f) After the class
REFERENCES
Harmer, Jeremy.’Class Management’. The Practice of English Language Teaching.
Sarıçoban, Arif. ‘Introduction’ The Language of Language Skills.
www.education4skills.com
PREPARED BY: ZEKİYE GÖKSU-AYŞEGÜL KARADOĞAN- GÖKÇEN EVREN
Human being needs to communicate whereever he lives, however he is, whoever he is.
For communication, man should know a language,nevertheles it isn’t enough to know only a language,because there isn’t only one country or race on earth and they don’t all speak one language.In some cases, we need to use other languages such as the growth of international trade, scientific research, tourism
The purposes to teach a foreign language to our students are;
To make our students to gain listening, speaking, readibg, and writing skills,
To improve our students comprehension skills,
To inform our students about cultural information of the target language,
To know where to teach, when to teach, who to teach, what to teach and how to teach.
The problems of large classes;
1)Discomfort:there are some students who dont want to participate to the activities,the teacher cannot manage all students,s/he has to talk very loudly.
2)Control:as the class is very crowded, teacher cannot control it,thus the class is very noisy,this causes teacher to be worried,tired, hopeless.
3)Individual attention:since the class is crowded, some students can be ignored by the teacher.
4)Evaluation:teacher cannot evaluate all students equally,it takes a long time to control their papers,so s/he cannot give appropriate feedbacks.
5)Learning effectiveness:the classroom physical atmosphere can have an impact on selecting the course materials, if it is not the ideal one then it can causes some problems.
6)Motivation:Students are not aware of why they are learning a foreign language,they should be informed about the ultimate goal.
7)Foreign language environment:students don’t have the opportunity to practice foreign language outside of the classroom.
Suggested precautions to prevent problems
1)Discomfort:physical environment of the classroom can be changed,semi-circle sitting can be used,it provides teacher-ss,ss-ss interaction.
2)Control:the class could be divided into groups or pairs and the ss could be given some sort of responsibilities such as; grammar leader,speaker leader,vocabulary leader.they can learn by the input of each other.
3)Providing individual attention:the teacher can use the names of the students’ names to take their attention.
4)Evaluation:teacher can use students help by using peer correction,by this way,teacher doesn’t have to read lots of papers.
5)Learning effectiveness:both teacher and school organisation shoud act together in order to find new effective ways to apply.
6)Motivation:students should be aware of goals of foreign language.
7)Foreign language environment:teacher should bring real life situations into the class for the students to practice.
The effective in-classroom characteristics of a good language teacher
a)knowledge of field : A good language teacher should know the essential concepts , principles, techniques, methods and approaches; give appropriate and sufficient answers to the learners` questions; be able to use the audile and visual materials effectly.
b)Instructional period: A good language teacher should write a clear and well- organized plan and state the aim of the lesson by determining the appropriate methods, techniques, materials and evaluation. Also, s\he should use time efficienty, give feedback, eye contact and clear explenations, think the individual differences, interact with all students; speak naturally and fluently; ask appropriate questions.
c)Classroom management: Agood language teacher should make introduction to the lesson, motivate the sudents,use oral rewarding, give information about the next lesson and homework.
d)Communication: Agood language teacher should establish an effective communication among the learners, ask quastions tothink and comment the students, use of oral body language effectively.
e)Evaluation: A good language teacher should give feedback,keep a record a daily advencement, use appropriate measurements such as multiple-choice tets,true\false tests, close tests, matching tests, dictation.
f)Professional knowledge: A good language teacher should be open to comments, be a model and aware of the official articles, rules related to his profession.
THE ROLES OF THE TEACHER
THE TEACHER AS CONTROLLER
The teacher is totally in the charge of the class. He controls everything that students do and controls what they should speak and the language they use. S/he contrrols what is to be said, when it is going to be said, and who is going to say. But controlling all of the actions of the students will not give any opportunity to them to use the language freely, and this prevent them to be autonomous students. It prevents creativity. The students have less time to speak English and it is not good for developing the students’ abilities of using the language. So, the teachers should give their students much time to speak English.
THE TEACHER AS ASSESSOR
The main work a teacher should do is assessing the learners’ study and knowing whether they study well or not. If no, the teacher should change the way he taught. There are two ways for assessing: correcting and feedback. The teacher should use ‘gentle correction’, s/he shouldn’t correct the student directly and rudely. So when a teacher is correcting the students’ mistakes, s/he should pay his/her attention to the way s/he speaks. Otherwise the students may lose their courage and dare not speak English. Feedback is assessing the students’ work when they finish it so that they can see the extent of their success or failure.
THE TEACHER AS ORGANISER
It is very difficult for an English teacher to play the role “organizer”. If the teacher organizes the class-game well, the class-game is successful. The teacher pays attention to the role of organizer, making sure that every student know what they will do. If it is necessary, the teacher can say the instructions in mother tongue. S/he should be ready beforehand because it is also necessary for the teacher to spend much more time on thinking of how to organize the students when they do the preparation otherwise it can be disastrous.
THE TEACHER AS PARTICIPANT
“Participant” is that the teacher thinks of himself/herself as one of the students and takes part in their games, not that he/she looks at the students at the platform. It could cheer up the atmosphere of the class and offer the students chances to speak to someone who knows more English. By taking part in the games by the teacher. “there is no love and there is no education”. The love of the teachers is that the teacher understands the students’ spiritual world, learning to think as a student and studying together with the students. At the same time, the teacher may get something which can help him when he explains the problems to the students.
THE TEACHER AS PROMPTER
“Prompter” is a teacher role which makes the student the center. He lets them study by themselves but when they are confused her/his responsibility is to encourage them and make them active. Teachers are to lead and encourage students and help the students but only when it is necessary.
THE TEACHER AS RESOURCE
The teacher whose role is as resourse is to be a kind of walking resource centre. S/he should be readyto offer help if it is needed because he can not help in all of the activities. For example speaking activity must be done by the student herself/himself.
THE TEACHER AS HELPER
To the students, a teacher is a dictionary, a tool book and a computer. Whenever they meet problems, they will ask the teacher to help them. When students do oral communication games, reading and writing, they will meet with many many problems; they will ask the teacher to help them understand them. Besides, one’s confidence and attitude determine if his English is poor or well. So, when the students lose their heart in learning English, the teacher should say something to comfort them; when they make advances, the teacher should praise them; when they have problems, the teacher should help them in time.
STUDENT GROUPINGS
1) LOCKSTEP
It is a class grouping where all the students are working with the teacher, where all of the students do the same activity. It is traditional teaching situation. The teacher’s role is as controller and assessor. It is accepted that all of the students can understand hear which is said by the teacher. But the students get little chance to practice or to talk. It is not ideal for communicative work. And for shy and nervous students it works extremely bad. There is too much teaching and too little learning
2) PAIR WORK
The teacher is assessor, prompter, resource. Pair work allows the students to use the language and also encourages student co-operation which is very important for the atmosphere of the class and for the motivation and for the opportunity to use language and learning with others. This can be used in many of the activities such as speaking, writing, reading.
3) GROUP WORK
Group work helps the students communicatewith each other, and helps them to co-operate among themselves. Because of the number of the students in the group students have more opportunity to discuss. It has also the great advantage of allowing different groups of students to be doing different things in the same classroom.
4) INDIVIDUAL STUDY
It is a chance for students to work on their own thanks to this they can relax from outside pressure and they can rely on themselves not the others.
DISCIPLINE
Discipline is a code of conduct which binds a teacher and a group of students together so that learning can be more effective. It doesn’t take action when things get out of hand ensures that things never get out of hand. The important point is that it is necessary for both the teacher and the students.
CAUSES OF DISCIPLINE PROBLEMS
1) THE TEACHER
a) Don’t go class unprepared
b) Don’t be inconsistent
c) Don’t issue threats
d) Don’t raise your voice
e) Don’t give boring classes
f) Don’t be unfair
g) Don’t have a negative attitude to learning
h) Don’t break the code
2) THE STUDENT
a) Time of day
b) The student’s attitude
c) A desire to be noticed
d) Two’s company
3) THE INSTITUTION
PREVENTION RATHER CURE
a) Establishing a code of conduct
b) Being fair and consistent
c) Being well-prepared
d) Being adaptable and interesting
ACTIONS IN CASE OF INDISCIPLINE
a) Act immediately
b) Stop the class
c) Reseating
d) Change the activity
e) Using the institution
f) After the class
REFERENCES
Harmer, Jeremy.’Class Management’. The Practice of English Language Teaching.
Sarıçoban, Arif. ‘Introduction’ The Language of Language Skills.
www.education4skills.com
PREPARED BY: ZEKİYE GÖKSU-AYŞEGÜL KARADOĞAN- GÖKÇEN EVREN
LANGUAGE TEACHING MATERIALS IN ELT
Aims, level, age,interest, background, methods, environment are the features that have to be taken into consideration while preparing a teaching material. The basic and most frequently used language teaching materials can be categorized as three groups.
1.THE COURSEBOOK
These are the qualities of good coursebook.
1.Should have practicality.
2.Easily obtained and affordable.
3.Appropriate for learners’ language level, level of education, age, social attitudes, intellectual ability and level of emotional maturity.
4.Should be motivating.
5.Should be flexible.
6.Should have both situational and linguistics realism.
These are the reasons of why teachers prefer using coursebooks.
They are written by experienced and well-qualified people.
They ensure some continuity between grade levels and also help the teachers in the process of material selection.
They relieve teachers from the pressure of having to think of original material, since a good coursebook often contains lively and interesting material for motivation, fun and reduction of barriers to learning.
They are used to make the best use of time and to avoid unintended repetition in the classroom.
They are concrete materials for learners and students feel secure as they include the topics they will learn and have the chance to revise the old ones.
2.SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS
Provides additional work and exposure to language for the learner.
Materials are;
Teacher’s Book :
Gives outline of each unit/lesson in the coursebook and shows the steps to be followed in each unit/lesson to the teacher.
Work/Exercise Book :
Provides wide range of exercises and activities.
Provides further optional activities
3.SUPPORTING MATERIALS
1.Visual : Theacher themselves, blackboard , real objects, flashcards, cards.
2.Audio : Phonograph, tape-recorder, radio, language laboratory.
Ellis and Thomlinson divide visual materials into four groups;
1.Theacher :
Use of mime, gestures, pointing, dramatisation, etc.
Self-confidence and imagination.
Students will be startled into attention and will undoubtedly remember the meaning of an unfamiliar word.
2.The Pupils:
Games, mimes, dramatic dialogues, comparisons, etc.
Enjoyable useful lessons.
Practices of both the form and the function of the language items.
Do not expose sensitive pupils to ridicule
3.The Environment
Bringing variety of familiar objects.
World, action and objects outside.
Out of confines: different parts of the school or local community.
4.Manifactured Visual Aids
The Blackboard
Pictures
Flash cards/Charts
Real Objects
Over-head Projector and Transparencies
Flannel Board:
Widely used.
Easily prepared by gluing and pinning flannel fluffy material to a piece of cardboard.
Cut-outs, pictures and figurines may be backed with sandpaper or with flannel so that they will stick to the flannel.
Used in new vocabulary or grammatical structure teaching(Özen 1978:224).
Word and Picture Pockets
Opaque Projector
Slides
Film Stripes
3.Audio –visual: Films, videotapes, TV, computer, multimedia.
Tuğçe BIÇAKÇI - Sidal ÖNER - Gülizar YAHŞİ
1.THE COURSEBOOK
These are the qualities of good coursebook.
1.Should have practicality.
2.Easily obtained and affordable.
3.Appropriate for learners’ language level, level of education, age, social attitudes, intellectual ability and level of emotional maturity.
4.Should be motivating.
5.Should be flexible.
6.Should have both situational and linguistics realism.
These are the reasons of why teachers prefer using coursebooks.
They are written by experienced and well-qualified people.
They ensure some continuity between grade levels and also help the teachers in the process of material selection.
They relieve teachers from the pressure of having to think of original material, since a good coursebook often contains lively and interesting material for motivation, fun and reduction of barriers to learning.
They are used to make the best use of time and to avoid unintended repetition in the classroom.
They are concrete materials for learners and students feel secure as they include the topics they will learn and have the chance to revise the old ones.
2.SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS
Provides additional work and exposure to language for the learner.
Materials are;
Teacher’s Book :
Gives outline of each unit/lesson in the coursebook and shows the steps to be followed in each unit/lesson to the teacher.
Work/Exercise Book :
Provides wide range of exercises and activities.
Provides further optional activities
3.SUPPORTING MATERIALS
1.Visual : Theacher themselves, blackboard , real objects, flashcards, cards.
2.Audio : Phonograph, tape-recorder, radio, language laboratory.
Ellis and Thomlinson divide visual materials into four groups;
1.Theacher :
Use of mime, gestures, pointing, dramatisation, etc.
Self-confidence and imagination.
Students will be startled into attention and will undoubtedly remember the meaning of an unfamiliar word.
2.The Pupils:
Games, mimes, dramatic dialogues, comparisons, etc.
Enjoyable useful lessons.
Practices of both the form and the function of the language items.
Do not expose sensitive pupils to ridicule
3.The Environment
Bringing variety of familiar objects.
World, action and objects outside.
Out of confines: different parts of the school or local community.
4.Manifactured Visual Aids
The Blackboard
Pictures
Flash cards/Charts
Real Objects
Over-head Projector and Transparencies
Flannel Board:
Widely used.
Easily prepared by gluing and pinning flannel fluffy material to a piece of cardboard.
Cut-outs, pictures and figurines may be backed with sandpaper or with flannel so that they will stick to the flannel.
Used in new vocabulary or grammatical structure teaching(Özen 1978:224).
Word and Picture Pockets
Opaque Projector
Slides
Film Stripes
3.Audio –visual: Films, videotapes, TV, computer, multimedia.
Tuğçe BIÇAKÇI - Sidal ÖNER - Gülizar YAHŞİ
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
ADAPTING AND DEVELOPING LANGUAGE TEACHING MATERIALS
The course book or certain materials which are chosen for the teacher may not be suitable for learners. Here the teacher has the responsibility to modify the materials according to learners’ needs, ages, interests, motivation, etc which effect the process of learning.
Or the teacher may find the material doesn’t satisfy the needs of learners as well as his goal of teaching. He must produce new materials to fix this problem; but creating a material isn’t a simple task. Teacher should be equipped with enough pedagogic knowledge and make a need analysis before creating a material.
While developing a material, these points must be regarded:
# Learner’s needs, ages, interests, levels, cultural/educational backgrounds, social status should be identified
# Teacher should decide on the content of the book equally on teaching points(grammar, vocabulary, pronounciation) and skills(reading, writing, speaking and listening). So according to these points different syllabus types should be prepared.
# The materials should be recycled to enable learners the chance to learn what the material includes adequately. In this way, learning will be much more effective by recycling.
# The dialogues should be communicative. A dialogue mustn’t mean that two students read a written text aloud but they can feel as if they’re talking to each other outside. So the dialogues should include something interesting to get the attention of the learners. Students will find something from themselves and be eager to learn.
# All selected materials should be in a clear and authentic language. Learners shouldn’t have difficulty in understanding the material and the material should be interesting to the learners. This will increase the tendency to learn.
# The material should serve the aim of the teaching process and be parallel to what teacher and learner expect from the class.
Class And Homework Activities
As models for good communication, we should set the tone for the class by showing respect for students, by heeding what they communicate through the spoken word and other communicative channels, and by assuring that our own messages to them are appropriate in every way to their intellectual and social levels and needs.And finally as resource persons, we should provide whatever assistance they need to solve their language, communication, and learning problems.
Krowitz, Mary Jo A TEACHER’S PERSPECTIVES ;Washington, 1988, pg85
Division Of Class Time
• Management :
Up to %10. Teacher takes this much time to establish human contact and set up activities of the day
• Communication :
50% or more. This much time used for student-controlled communicative and problem-solving activities.
• Feedback :
Up to 40%. This is time for feedback from the teacher or on teacher-guided, problem solving and instructional activities.
MANAGEMENT
Establishing Contact :
• human contact
• Having equipment ready
• Set up activities and schedules
• Making sure students know (1)what they are to be learning (2)for how long, (3)most important, why.
Establishing Groups :
Let students form their own groups and in activities roles shouldnt be forced on people if they dont want to assume them.
Control of the Classroom:
The essence of being a manager is to avoid taking control, to communicate the task, purpose and organizational schme clearly and to get out of the way so that communication and laerning take place
Krowitz, Mary Jo A TEACHER’S PERSPECTIVES ;Washington, 1988, pg90
Communication Activities
a) Communication about subject (oral skills)
Where language is merely the means of learning something from visiting speakers, from class participants as speakers or from panel discussions and reading.
b) Problem solving activities (written skills)
Require careful communication to solve either linguistic problems or non-linguistic problems.
Krowitz, Mary Jo A TEACHER’S PERSPECTIVES ;Washington, 1988, pg91.
Speaking and Listening
Students talks should be a frequent occurance. This is because successful speaking and listening skills are acquired over time and with lots of practice. It's sometimes frustrating for students because there are no rules as in grammar teaching. If the class is large and the course is short , we can carry out speaking and listening activities in groups. Each student , speaking to his own small group and recording on a tape recorder, has a chance to monitor his own progress over four or five talks through the courses. In addition to moving around as observers, teachers can also use tape recorder to keep track of these activities .
http://www.euclideanspace.com/software/language/speaking/index.htm
In listening activities encourage students to watch a film, or listen to a song, but not to watch an entire film or listen for whole songs in english. Students should often listen, but they should listen for short periods - five to ten minutes. This should happen four or five times a week. Even if they don't understand anything, five to ten minutes is a minor investement. However, for this strategy to work, students must not expect improved understanding too quickly. The brain is capable of amazing things if given time, students must have the patience to wait for results. If a student continues this exercise over two to three months their listening comprehension skills will greatly improve.
http://www.euclideanspace.com/software/language/listening/index.htm
Writing and Reading
• The most important factor in writing exercises is that students need to be personally involved in order to make the learning experience of lasting value. Encouraging student participation in the exercise, while at the same time refining and expanding writing skills, requires a certain pragmatic approach. The teacher should be clear on what skills he/she is trying to develop. Next, the teacher needs to decide on which means (or type of exercise) can facilitate learning of the target area. Once the target skill areas and means of implementation are defined, the teacher can then proceed to focus on what topic can be employed to ensure student participation. By pragmatically combing these objectives, the teacher can expect both enthusiasm and effective learning.
Glendinning & Holmstrom ,1992 , chap. 5.
Choosing the target area depends on many factors; What level are the students?, What is the average age of the students, Why are the students learning English, Are there any specific future intentions for the writing (i.e school tests or job application letters etc.). Other important questions to ask oneself are: What should the students be able to produce at the end of this exercise? (a well written letter, basic communication of ideas, etc.) What is the focus of the exercise? (structure, tense usage, creative writing). Once these factors are clear in the mind of the teacher, the teacher can begin to focus on how to involve the students in the activity thus promoting a positive, long-term learning experience.
Glendinning & Holmstrom ,1992, chap. 5.
Types of Oral Activities that Will Support Writing:
• 1. Expand my sentence. For this activity, you start with a basic sentence and take turns expanding the sentence.
• For instance:
Person 1: "I have a dog."
Person 2: "I have a big dog."
Person 1: "I have a big black dog."
Person 2"I have a big, black dog named Dodger."
Person 1"I have a big, black dog named Dodger who loves people.
• 2. Another activity that can be done orally is to take any object or item and tell as much about it as possible.
• For instance: Dogs are friendly. Dogs are furry. Dogs like to eat bones. Dogs can really hear well. (When the child exhausts everything they know, you move to a different object/item or topic
http://esl.about.com/cs/teachingtechnique/a/a_twrite.ht
• 3. To help children understand the 4 types of sentences, you will want to help them understand what they are:
• Declarative, which makes a statment:
Close the door.
• Imperative, which expresses a command:
Finish eating your dinner.
• Interrogative, which asks a question:
Would you like to go to the park?
• Exclamatory, which makes an exclamation:
That roller coaster ride was really scary!
Take turns orally making sentences while the other states what type of sentence it is, or give the type of sentence and get the child to come up with that type of sentence. However, keep the oral language fun and as the child progresses, written language is the next logical step.
http://esl.about.com/cs/teachingtechnique/a/a_twrite.ht
• Reading activities can be an arduous task to apply as it is often difficult to know how to improve student skills. One of the most obvious points about reading is that there are different types of reading skills.
• Skimming - reading rapidly for the main points
• Scanning - reading rapidly to find a specific piece of information
• Extensive - reading a longer text, often for pleasure with emphasis on overall meaning
• Intensive reading - reading a short text for detailed information
• http://esl.about.com/cs/teachingtechnique/a/a_treading.ht
Identify the reading skills required in the following reading situations:
• The TV guide for Friday evening
• An article in National Geographic magazine about the Ottoman Empire
• A good friend's homepage on the Internet
• The opinion page in your local newspaper
• The weather report in your local newspaper
• A novel
• A poem
• A bus timetable
• A fax at the office etc..
http://esl.about.com/cs/teachingtechnique/a/a_treading.ht
Problem solving activities and Games
• Cloze procedures
The cloze is a type of synthesizing exercise that has gained attention in recent years primarily its use as a testing device.
To prepeare a cloze test, simply take any written passage, remove every fifth or tenth or ….th word and replace it with a blank space, which the student fills in with any item that seems grammatically and semntically appropriate.
Krowitz, Mary Jo A TEACHER’S PERSPECTIVES ;Washington, 1988, pg96.
• Cloze procedures as group activities :
Any student who doesnt find an answer to one blank will at least have been trying and must judge appropriateness of his colleagues’ answer. He may be the one to find next answer. Disagreements produce interesting question for teacher to reply (teacher serves as real source). And it is wise to have patterns of group cooperation already well established before starting work on cloze tests and to remind students they must talk to each other to find and agree on their answers.
Krowitz, Mary Jo A TEACHER’S PERSPECTIVES ;Washington, 1988, pg96.
Fill in the blanks with ONE word only.
• Alex Ferguson is a forty-two year old over-weight farmer. His wife Darry is a thirty-nine year old housewife.
• They have __________(1) three bright obese children. __________(2) names are Timmy, Penny and Carlos.
• Timmy __________(3) a six-year old, round faced, freckled, ginger __________(4) boy. He has got gig, brown
• __________(5). Penny is an 8 year old, short straight haired, fair and tall girl. She’s got green eyes like her
• mother. Carlos is an 11 year old curly haired, scruffy boy. __________(6) has got glasses. They all like eating,
• so Darry is usually in the kitchen to cook delicious __________(7) for __________(8).
GAMES
GUESSING GAMES
NUMBER GAMES
SUSAM SOKAĞI
Some Do’s and Don’ts for Exercises
1. Dont use exercises simply as something that cant do students any harm or that keep the student busy. That kind of thinking can cause plenty of harm to the teacher student relationship.
2. Use exercises sparingly and in response to teacher/student-diagnosed and student-felt needs.
3. Dont require exercises when a student doesnt want to do them or isnt sure why he should do them.
4. Differenciate between the kind of exercises :
a.Repetitive practice, requiring no real decisions. The student only recognizes the pattern and follows it. There are rarely of value.
b.decision-involving, requiring a choice between two or more paterns it is valuable only when the student has been confusing patterns.
c.Open ended, requiring a number of decisions. These can be quite good if their content at the students’ intellectual levels.
Krowitz, Mary Jo A TEACHER’S PERSPECTİVES ;Washington, 1988, pg.118.
Feedback
• Feedback makes students what they are doing wrong, so that they can make changes in some aspect of their internal grammar. The result is usually positive change in their communicative or linguistic behavior which make the form of a bad communicative strategy avoided, a discourse connector, idiom, grammatical structure, or word used appropriately; a sound pronounced corectly etc…
Krowitz, Mary Jo A TEACHER’S PERSPECTIVES ;Washington, 1988, p113.
• http://www.euclideanspace.com/language/index.htm
• http://esl.about.com/cs/teachingtechnique/a/a_twrite.ht
• Krowitz, Mary Jo A TEACHER’S PERSPECTIVES;Washington, 1988.
•
Writing Activity
CABBAR’S DREAMS
A. Make complete sentences using the clues and parts given below.
1. will/ I/from/Gaziantep University/ graduate/next year
I hope…………………………………………………………………………
2. sure/ am/I/ will/civil engineer/ a/ good/ be/ I
……………………………………………………………………………….
3. I/build/ will/in/Gaziantep/ skyscrapers/probably
……………………………………………………………………………..
4. rich/ be/ I/will/
………………………………………………………………………………
5. buy/ I/ a/ house/ car/ a/ will/ and
………………………………………………………………………………
6. a / beautiful/ girl/ Antebian/ marry/ I/will
Maybe,……………………………………………………………………..
7. we/ have / will/ three/ children
I think………………………………………………………………………
B. Now, write a paragraph using transitions such as,” and, then, after that, but, because” etc…
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...........................................
Erhan Şen- Tevfik Gülter- Teymurhan Ahmedov- Serdar Darğın- Mustafa Kılıç- M.Emrah Şirinkaya- Tuğrul Kardaş
Or the teacher may find the material doesn’t satisfy the needs of learners as well as his goal of teaching. He must produce new materials to fix this problem; but creating a material isn’t a simple task. Teacher should be equipped with enough pedagogic knowledge and make a need analysis before creating a material.
While developing a material, these points must be regarded:
# Learner’s needs, ages, interests, levels, cultural/educational backgrounds, social status should be identified
# Teacher should decide on the content of the book equally on teaching points(grammar, vocabulary, pronounciation) and skills(reading, writing, speaking and listening). So according to these points different syllabus types should be prepared.
# The materials should be recycled to enable learners the chance to learn what the material includes adequately. In this way, learning will be much more effective by recycling.
# The dialogues should be communicative. A dialogue mustn’t mean that two students read a written text aloud but they can feel as if they’re talking to each other outside. So the dialogues should include something interesting to get the attention of the learners. Students will find something from themselves and be eager to learn.
# All selected materials should be in a clear and authentic language. Learners shouldn’t have difficulty in understanding the material and the material should be interesting to the learners. This will increase the tendency to learn.
# The material should serve the aim of the teaching process and be parallel to what teacher and learner expect from the class.
Class And Homework Activities
As models for good communication, we should set the tone for the class by showing respect for students, by heeding what they communicate through the spoken word and other communicative channels, and by assuring that our own messages to them are appropriate in every way to their intellectual and social levels and needs.And finally as resource persons, we should provide whatever assistance they need to solve their language, communication, and learning problems.
Krowitz, Mary Jo A TEACHER’S PERSPECTIVES ;Washington, 1988, pg85
Division Of Class Time
• Management :
Up to %10. Teacher takes this much time to establish human contact and set up activities of the day
• Communication :
50% or more. This much time used for student-controlled communicative and problem-solving activities.
• Feedback :
Up to 40%. This is time for feedback from the teacher or on teacher-guided, problem solving and instructional activities.
MANAGEMENT
Establishing Contact :
• human contact
• Having equipment ready
• Set up activities and schedules
• Making sure students know (1)what they are to be learning (2)for how long, (3)most important, why.
Establishing Groups :
Let students form their own groups and in activities roles shouldnt be forced on people if they dont want to assume them.
Control of the Classroom:
The essence of being a manager is to avoid taking control, to communicate the task, purpose and organizational schme clearly and to get out of the way so that communication and laerning take place
Krowitz, Mary Jo A TEACHER’S PERSPECTIVES ;Washington, 1988, pg90
Communication Activities
a) Communication about subject (oral skills)
Where language is merely the means of learning something from visiting speakers, from class participants as speakers or from panel discussions and reading.
b) Problem solving activities (written skills)
Require careful communication to solve either linguistic problems or non-linguistic problems.
Krowitz, Mary Jo A TEACHER’S PERSPECTIVES ;Washington, 1988, pg91.
Speaking and Listening
Students talks should be a frequent occurance. This is because successful speaking and listening skills are acquired over time and with lots of practice. It's sometimes frustrating for students because there are no rules as in grammar teaching. If the class is large and the course is short , we can carry out speaking and listening activities in groups. Each student , speaking to his own small group and recording on a tape recorder, has a chance to monitor his own progress over four or five talks through the courses. In addition to moving around as observers, teachers can also use tape recorder to keep track of these activities .
http://www.euclideanspace.com/software/language/speaking/index.htm
In listening activities encourage students to watch a film, or listen to a song, but not to watch an entire film or listen for whole songs in english. Students should often listen, but they should listen for short periods - five to ten minutes. This should happen four or five times a week. Even if they don't understand anything, five to ten minutes is a minor investement. However, for this strategy to work, students must not expect improved understanding too quickly. The brain is capable of amazing things if given time, students must have the patience to wait for results. If a student continues this exercise over two to three months their listening comprehension skills will greatly improve.
http://www.euclideanspace.com/software/language/listening/index.htm
Writing and Reading
• The most important factor in writing exercises is that students need to be personally involved in order to make the learning experience of lasting value. Encouraging student participation in the exercise, while at the same time refining and expanding writing skills, requires a certain pragmatic approach. The teacher should be clear on what skills he/she is trying to develop. Next, the teacher needs to decide on which means (or type of exercise) can facilitate learning of the target area. Once the target skill areas and means of implementation are defined, the teacher can then proceed to focus on what topic can be employed to ensure student participation. By pragmatically combing these objectives, the teacher can expect both enthusiasm and effective learning.
Glendinning & Holmstrom ,1992 , chap. 5.
Choosing the target area depends on many factors; What level are the students?, What is the average age of the students, Why are the students learning English, Are there any specific future intentions for the writing (i.e school tests or job application letters etc.). Other important questions to ask oneself are: What should the students be able to produce at the end of this exercise? (a well written letter, basic communication of ideas, etc.) What is the focus of the exercise? (structure, tense usage, creative writing). Once these factors are clear in the mind of the teacher, the teacher can begin to focus on how to involve the students in the activity thus promoting a positive, long-term learning experience.
Glendinning & Holmstrom ,1992, chap. 5.
Types of Oral Activities that Will Support Writing:
• 1. Expand my sentence. For this activity, you start with a basic sentence and take turns expanding the sentence.
• For instance:
Person 1: "I have a dog."
Person 2: "I have a big dog."
Person 1: "I have a big black dog."
Person 2"I have a big, black dog named Dodger."
Person 1"I have a big, black dog named Dodger who loves people.
• 2. Another activity that can be done orally is to take any object or item and tell as much about it as possible.
• For instance: Dogs are friendly. Dogs are furry. Dogs like to eat bones. Dogs can really hear well. (When the child exhausts everything they know, you move to a different object/item or topic
http://esl.about.com/cs/teachingtechnique/a/a_twrite.ht
• 3. To help children understand the 4 types of sentences, you will want to help them understand what they are:
• Declarative, which makes a statment:
Close the door.
• Imperative, which expresses a command:
Finish eating your dinner.
• Interrogative, which asks a question:
Would you like to go to the park?
• Exclamatory, which makes an exclamation:
That roller coaster ride was really scary!
Take turns orally making sentences while the other states what type of sentence it is, or give the type of sentence and get the child to come up with that type of sentence. However, keep the oral language fun and as the child progresses, written language is the next logical step.
http://esl.about.com/cs/teachingtechnique/a/a_twrite.ht
• Reading activities can be an arduous task to apply as it is often difficult to know how to improve student skills. One of the most obvious points about reading is that there are different types of reading skills.
• Skimming - reading rapidly for the main points
• Scanning - reading rapidly to find a specific piece of information
• Extensive - reading a longer text, often for pleasure with emphasis on overall meaning
• Intensive reading - reading a short text for detailed information
• http://esl.about.com/cs/teachingtechnique/a/a_treading.ht
Identify the reading skills required in the following reading situations:
• The TV guide for Friday evening
• An article in National Geographic magazine about the Ottoman Empire
• A good friend's homepage on the Internet
• The opinion page in your local newspaper
• The weather report in your local newspaper
• A novel
• A poem
• A bus timetable
• A fax at the office etc..
http://esl.about.com/cs/teachingtechnique/a/a_treading.ht
Problem solving activities and Games
• Cloze procedures
The cloze is a type of synthesizing exercise that has gained attention in recent years primarily its use as a testing device.
To prepeare a cloze test, simply take any written passage, remove every fifth or tenth or ….th word and replace it with a blank space, which the student fills in with any item that seems grammatically and semntically appropriate.
Krowitz, Mary Jo A TEACHER’S PERSPECTIVES ;Washington, 1988, pg96.
• Cloze procedures as group activities :
Any student who doesnt find an answer to one blank will at least have been trying and must judge appropriateness of his colleagues’ answer. He may be the one to find next answer. Disagreements produce interesting question for teacher to reply (teacher serves as real source). And it is wise to have patterns of group cooperation already well established before starting work on cloze tests and to remind students they must talk to each other to find and agree on their answers.
Krowitz, Mary Jo A TEACHER’S PERSPECTIVES ;Washington, 1988, pg96.
Fill in the blanks with ONE word only.
• Alex Ferguson is a forty-two year old over-weight farmer. His wife Darry is a thirty-nine year old housewife.
• They have __________(1) three bright obese children. __________(2) names are Timmy, Penny and Carlos.
• Timmy __________(3) a six-year old, round faced, freckled, ginger __________(4) boy. He has got gig, brown
• __________(5). Penny is an 8 year old, short straight haired, fair and tall girl. She’s got green eyes like her
• mother. Carlos is an 11 year old curly haired, scruffy boy. __________(6) has got glasses. They all like eating,
• so Darry is usually in the kitchen to cook delicious __________(7) for __________(8).
GAMES
GUESSING GAMES
NUMBER GAMES
SUSAM SOKAĞI
Some Do’s and Don’ts for Exercises
1. Dont use exercises simply as something that cant do students any harm or that keep the student busy. That kind of thinking can cause plenty of harm to the teacher student relationship.
2. Use exercises sparingly and in response to teacher/student-diagnosed and student-felt needs.
3. Dont require exercises when a student doesnt want to do them or isnt sure why he should do them.
4. Differenciate between the kind of exercises :
a.Repetitive practice, requiring no real decisions. The student only recognizes the pattern and follows it. There are rarely of value.
b.decision-involving, requiring a choice between two or more paterns it is valuable only when the student has been confusing patterns.
c.Open ended, requiring a number of decisions. These can be quite good if their content at the students’ intellectual levels.
Krowitz, Mary Jo A TEACHER’S PERSPECTİVES ;Washington, 1988, pg.118.
Feedback
• Feedback makes students what they are doing wrong, so that they can make changes in some aspect of their internal grammar. The result is usually positive change in their communicative or linguistic behavior which make the form of a bad communicative strategy avoided, a discourse connector, idiom, grammatical structure, or word used appropriately; a sound pronounced corectly etc…
Krowitz, Mary Jo A TEACHER’S PERSPECTIVES ;Washington, 1988, p113.
• http://www.euclideanspace.com/language/index.htm
• http://esl.about.com/cs/teachingtechnique/a/a_twrite.ht
• Krowitz, Mary Jo A TEACHER’S PERSPECTIVES;Washington, 1988.
•
Writing Activity
CABBAR’S DREAMS
A. Make complete sentences using the clues and parts given below.
1. will/ I/from/Gaziantep University/ graduate/next year
I hope…………………………………………………………………………
2. sure/ am/I/ will/civil engineer/ a/ good/ be/ I
……………………………………………………………………………….
3. I/build/ will/in/Gaziantep/ skyscrapers/probably
……………………………………………………………………………..
4. rich/ be/ I/will/
………………………………………………………………………………
5. buy/ I/ a/ house/ car/ a/ will/ and
………………………………………………………………………………
6. a / beautiful/ girl/ Antebian/ marry/ I/will
Maybe,……………………………………………………………………..
7. we/ have / will/ three/ children
I think………………………………………………………………………
B. Now, write a paragraph using transitions such as,” and, then, after that, but, because” etc…
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...........................................
Erhan Şen- Tevfik Gülter- Teymurhan Ahmedov- Serdar Darğın- Mustafa Kılıç- M.Emrah Şirinkaya- Tuğrul Kardaş
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Translation in ELT
The need to learn foreign language is almost as old as human history itself.The origins of modern language education are in the study and teaching of Latin in 17th century. Latin had been domaniant language of education, commerce, religion and government in much of the Western world,for many years but it was displaced by French, Italian and English by the end of the 16 th century, so in this century translation gained importance while translating literary ,historical texts written in Latin. Translation was also the basis of language teaching for a very long time and then rejected as new methodologies started to appear. Translation was a key element of the GTM ,which was derived from the classical method of teaching Greek and Latin. However GTM was criticized so much , as it made learner memorize huge lists of rules and vocabulary and translate whole literary or historical texts word by word. New methods such as DM was established in Germany and France around 1900 as a response to the obvious problems associated with GTM. In DM the teachers and learners avoid using native language. Like DM later Audio Lingual Method tried to teach language directly without using the L1 to explain new items.Also new approaches such as Silent Way, Total Physical Response, Communicative Approaches started to be used in the teaching of English.
WHY USE TRANSLATION IN ELT ?
Translation in ELT helps learners develop their knowledge of English , so it is a means to an end ,not an end to be achieved translation enables the learners to gain proficiency in both languages , the native language and the target language. While making translation from target language , learners also study on the grammer rules, sentences structures , vocabulary of their own language. If properly designed , translation activities can be used to enhance the four skills and develop accuracy and flexibility.In reading activities translation is used to clarify the text and make the learners to internalize the subject matter in listening activities and enjoyable story can be told and learners are required to translate the story part by part.
In translation activities a teacher is expected to have following skills:
Be organized and inform the students about the syllabus
Be confident, admit mistakes
Have translator’s skills
Have a good command of pedagogical techniques
Be prepared to use new methods
Listen to students’ suggestions
Consider translation as a form of linguistic exploration
Have proficiency in both languages.
In translation activities a student is expected to have following skills:
Sensitivity to language
Ability to write neatly, plainly and nicely
Good knowledge of cultural background
Master the text being translated
Good reading knowledge
DISADVANTAGES OF TRANSLATION IN ELT
1)The skills involved in translation may not be suitable for all kinds of learners. It may, for example, be best for learners who are more analytical or have preferences for verbal-linguistic learning strategies. It may not be suitable either for young learners or lower levels.
2) Most of time translation can be a difficult activity to apply as both teachers and students take into consideration a range of other issues, including form, register, style, and idiom.
3)Translation requires a motivated class.
4)The teacher needs to have a sophisticated knowledge of the L1 and the L1 culture. Without this translation can create more problems than benefits.
5)Translation encourages learners to use L1, often for long periods of class time, when the aim of modern teaching is to remove it from the classroom.
ADVANTAGES OF TRANSLATION IN ELT
Invites speculation and discussion.
Develops qualities that are essential to all language: accuracy, clarity and flexibility.
The teacher can select material to illustrate particular aspects of language, and students can see the links between language usage and grammar.
Lets students practice a variety of styles and registers.
TRANSLATION ACTIVITIES
FOR BEGINNERS :
In this level only basic Linguistic Approach can be applied in Word and Basic Sentence Level. It is easy for beginners to find equivalence in the target language for the items in the native language.
FOR HIGHER LEVELS :
In those levels , especially from intermediate level compound and complex sentences can be studied in terms of contextual level. As for the advanced level the higher aspects of languages such as culture and metaphorical expressions should be taken into consideration.
Translation teaching can be handled through the techniques such as :
A) Group Teaching
1) brainstorming
2) pair and group works
3) micro teaching
B) Individual Teaching
1) individualized teaching
2) programmed teaching
3) computer supported teaching
THE ROLE OF TRANSLATION IN LANGUAGE TEACHING
Lexical contributions : In translation lessons, students also practice morphological knowledge they have acquired in vocabulary lessons teachers control whether or not their students are familiar with various word formation processes, such as coinage, borrowing, compounding, blending,clipping ,acronym, derivation etc.
Grammatical and Syntactic Contributions of Translation : Students should practice the grammatical and syntactic knowledge they acquired in grammar and writing courses. They should learn how to disambiguate sentences that present a syntactic ambiguity.
Semantic Contributions of Translation : In translation courses students should study lexical items such as metonymy , synecdoche, euphemism , hyperbole practically and learn whether or not it is possible to translate such expressions from English to Turkish or Turkish to English. Students should be aware of the fact that it is impossible to find exact equivalents of such Turkish stereotyped sayings as Allah razı olsun ‘ God bless you’ ,Allah rahmet eylesin ‘ May he rest in peace’ .
Stylistic contributions of translation : Students should study different ways of expressing things via translations of different types of texts. They practice translating formal, informal, casual styles of speech in translation courses.
Cultural contributions of translation : In translation courses student should become familiar with the characteristics of the target language by translating diffrent types of text from English to Turkish. They sould study everything related with the culture of a foreign language in terms of its traditions, superstitions and other cultural values.
Bilingual Immersion :
Translation is widely used in bilingual immersion programs in many American schools. In this programs learners deal with both their native language and English. In this way they are exposed to sentence structure, grammar rules and vocabulary of two languages. These programs follow different language formats, the most popular ones are the 50/50 and 90/10 models. The 50/50 model incorparates students receiving equal amounts of target language and native language, whereas 90/10 model emphasizes time spent on target language.
Coteaching :
In this approach there are two teachers. One of the teacher is English teacher and the other is the native Language teacher. Learners receive two hours of English instruction in a week by English teacher with minimal translation and the other hour taught by their own native teacher with drills and pair practice in English.
Sarıçoban,Arif. The Teaching of Language Skills.
Translation in ELT_Maurice Claypole.htm
Kasmer , Walter .The role of translation in ESL Classroom.
J THANKS FOR LISTENING J
EBRU GÖKDEMİR
HAFİZE ERGİNÖZ
FATMA TALAY
Friday, May 21, 2010
READING in ELT
- Is reading a passive or an active skill?
not only a receptive skill, but an active one including;
predicting/guessing
checking
asking questions
working of cognitive process
ELT teacher in teaching of reading
- Designing and preparing meaningful exercises leading to assist communication between the writer and reader
- Flexible and varied activities
- Suitable reading comprehension activities
questions
multiple-choice questions
true-false questions
SCHEMA THEORY
An interactive process between the readers’ background and the text itself
nincludes two parts;
1- bottom-up process: a form of information processing that is guided by input, and proceeds in subsequent stages. It is called as “data driven”. A teacher can move from grammar points and vocabulary to drive the learners to the point.
2- Top-down process: an information processing guided by higher level mental processes as we construct perceptions, drawing on our experiences and expectations. It is called as “conceptual driven”. A teacher can give some ideas to form generalizations about the topic to process the information
READING TECHNIQUES
1.SENSITIZING : designing activities and exercises for learners to improve their reading strategies, and activities studied in reading classes;
. synonyms and antonyms
. related words in the reading passage
. relations between parts of a reading passage by the help of lexical items
. fill in a chart or a table…
a) Inference:
requires to make use of syntactic, logical and cultural clues to discover the meaning of unknown words.
teaching via inference
1.The students can be asked to deduce the meaning of unknown words through contextual clues
2.They can be asked to provide the missing keywords(cloze type)
3.They can be asked to read faster and recognize words quickly
4.They can be required to recognize the word formation and derivation to deduce the meaning
teaching via linking sentences and ideas
- Understanding the function and value of connectors and linking words
- Completing the text with the missing linking-words
- Transforming a series of statements and prepositions into a coherent text by joining the sentences and adding connectors
- Recognizing and understanding reference to capture relations between parts of a text
- Giving a succession of sentences which the students should connect and write to produce a coherent text
2) FROM SKIMMING TO SCANNING
a)predicting:
- Making predictions and guesses in reading a text,
- Predicting, i.e where the sentences should stop,
- Predicting what certain words should be used in a certain sentence or paragraph for a certain context
- Finishing an incomplete passage.
b) previewing: is a technique involving using;
. the table of contents,
. the appendix,
. the preface,
. titles
. tables, charts…etc
c) anticipation:
. thinking about the theme of the reading text
. making use of the pictures, the title, the key words, ideas and the background knowledge to anticipate the content.
d) Skimming and scanning
skimming: reading for general comprehension
- skimming to recognize the key words and sentences to get an overall understanding of the text
- providing the untitled reading passage with a suitable title
- Looking for the main information
scanning: reading for detailed comprehension
- looking for specific information
- Looking over the text until we find what we are looking for ; may be a certain name, a date, or a certain thing.
WHO TO TEACH READING
STAGE 1: Elementary:
Short passages
Vocabularies
Certain structure points
Reading aloud in normal speed and intonation
Silent reading
Pronunciation activity for the new words in the passage
True-false questions
Matching
Yes-no questions
Wh- comprehension questions
STAGE 2: INTERMEDIATE:
New vocabulary and structure points requiring to guess the meaning
Reading the passage at a normal speed, intonation, pronunciation
Clarifying some new vocabulary and structure items but leaving certain items for recognition Making individual reading
Asking questions leading comprehension
STAGE 3: ADVANCED
Advanced material including content words, complex grammer points, and cultural patterns of real life
Magazines, newspapers, shortstories, other literary pieces can be used as material
Silent reading is preferable
Full understanding of printed materials
The Three-phase Approach
A) Pre-reading:
Introducing and arousing interest in the topic
Motivating learners
Searching students’ preoccupations about the topic
Preparing the students for the context of the text
Helping to develop students’ reading strategies
Talking about the title
Commenting on the pictures
Drawing students’attention on the new vocabulary
Setting the scene
B) While-reading:
Helping to understand the writer’s purpose
Helping to understand the text structure
Clarifying the text content
Helping the students on judging and inferencing
Helping the students to examine the unknown words by giving clues
Helping students to discover cross-cultural diffferences
Helping them to develop their linguistic and sociolinguistic knowledge
Extracting the main idea
Skimming and scanning
C) Post-reading:
Reflecting upon what has been read
Relating the text to the learners’ interests
Being able to use what has already been learnt
Helping students’ reading skills for the development of other language skills
Helping them to integrate in the foreign culture
Answering some of the comprehension questions
Classifying information
Using classroom games (scrambled sentences, jigsaw reading)
JIGSAW TECHNIQUE
Heterogeneous groups of 4-5 ss
Group name.
“home teams” or “home groups”.
roles such as leader,illustrator,speaker and encourager.
Leader: mature.
Speaker: representator
Illustrator: is the one who makes illustrations to help them explain the text.
Encourager: motivator
“ expert teams” or “ expert groups”
Going back to the home groups.
Teacher’s role: facilitator
At the end of the session , the teacher gives a quiz on the material and the ss realize that this session is not for fun .
BENEFITS OF JIGSAW TECHNIQUE
having opportunity to teach themselves
having practice in self-teaching and peer teaching
having a chance to contribute meaningfully to a discussion
REFERENCES
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jigsaw_(teaching_technique)
http://www.esljigsaws.com/free-sample/
http://www.onestopenglish.com/section.asp?catid=59858&docid=155087
Sarıçoban, Arif. The Teaching of Language Skills, Ankara: Hacettepe-taş, 2001.
http://www.readingmatrix.com/articles/tilfarlioglu_basaran/article.pdf
....Prepared by Hilal AÇIKYILDIZ, Ümmü DİKEN, İkbal Çağla İRİS
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Metdos&Approaches
HOW CAN WE USE METHODS AND APPROACHES EFFECTIVELY?
What Is The Relationship Between Feelings For The Teacher And The Learning Process?
Four group of students are reached according to a report(Exploratory Practice) which shows the relationship between feelings for the teacher and the learning process.Essays,diaries and observation tecniques are used while making the research.According to this research,effective education is found when the learner is regarded as a person to be respected,nurtured,strengthened,and stimulated,rather than as an intellect to be trained.
For the 1st group:The learners have positive feelings for the teacher because of his/her relationship with the learners(interest in learners’progress,encouraging,supporting)character(enthusiastic, helpful, interesting and teaching abilities.All these properties affect their learning process;they study harder and become more successful not only for themselves but also for their teacher.Their success level rises when they have positive feelings towards the teacher.
For the 2nd group:These learners have positive feelings for the teacher like the 1st group learners.However,they are unsuccessful.The reason is their lack of knowledge,but this reason doesn’t stop them.They willingly study,because they like their teacher and want to be succcessful.So,we may think that positive feelings towards the teacher provide high willingness to study,ambition and determination to get high marks.According to this result,their feelings for the teacher affect their learning process positively.
For the 3th group:These learners have negative feelings for the teacher,i.e.his/her character,teaching abilities and relationship with the learners..However they are successful.The reasons lie behind these: 1)they have to be successful in order to reach their aims,2)they are clever enough,and 3)they have the capacity to understand the lesson although they do not like the teacher.So, it may be seen that negative feelings of this group do not affect their personality.But they feel themselves anxious,nervous and unhappy in the lesson.As a result,feelings affect their learning process.
For the 4th group:These learners have negative feelings for the teacher like the 3rd group learners,but the difference is they are also unsuccessful.According to their writings the reasons of their unsuccessfulness are unwillingness to study the lesson because of the negative things that they feel towards the teacher also lack of knowledge.So,there is a correlation between the feelings for the teacher and their learning process.
Finally,the results of the essays reveal that there are 4 different groups,and so there are 4 different types of relationship between the feelings for the teacher and the learning process.
THE INFLUENCES THAT SHAPE TEACHERS ATTITUDES TOWARD TEACHING AND LEARNING
There are many positive and negative effects that shape teachers’ attitudes toward teaching and learning. Some of these effects are:
The Usual Classroom Setting:Many teachers use one method or one book in their lessons.The belief in a particular method or sequencing of materials most often grows out of experience with large number of students in each class,large numbers of classes,and lack of time.Under the pressure of the typical load(of more than 100 students each day),discipline or motivation problems tahat are probably almost beyond control.The teacher may barely have time to be aware of what is happening in individual learners and may feel unable to give up the center stage of continous control over each and every classroom activity.So,the teacher becomes unseccessful in the face of so many obstacles.
The Limiting Effect of Tests:Students everywhere spend years studying a language,trying to get good marks on vocabulary,pronunciation,and grammar,in a multiple -choice tests by learning this item and that item.Their motivation,whatever it may have been in the begining,is soon warped towards getting good marks.The joy of communicating in the new language,experiencing what it is like to master a new kind of behavior,feeling the inner power that permits continued growing mastery is a goal that all too few learners reach.
The Teacher’s Own Experiences In Language Learning:Most of teachers have had language learning experiences that they recall with pleasure or distaste.From these impressions,they may have shaped some of their teaching concepts.Without having specifically concentrated on method or style of interaction in the language class,teachers are not likely to have a more dependable interpretation.As candidate teachers dealing in the changing and expanding aspects of students’lives,we should be open to new learning experiences,new methods and informtions.Thus,our beneficiency will increase towards our students.
THEORIES OF LANGUAGE LEARNING
Today there are two main approaches in Teaching English as a foreign Language: the structural approach and the communicative approach.
•Structural Approach
1)This approach assumes a way of teaching in which the teacher always acts the role of the questioner, initiator, teacher and formal instructor (teacher-directed).
2)Language learning is habit formation.
3)There are repetition drills
4)Learner acts the role of the listener, respondent, or formal class student.
•Communicative Approach
1)It does focus not only on the grammatical competence, but also communicative competence.
2)Meaning is important.
3)Learner-centered
4) It is used activities and given tasks with each activity, not only the grammatical rules are given.
5) Interaction between SS-SS, SS-T.
CURRENT TEACHING PRACTISES
Structurally Based Teaching
Before the structural approach, teachers used classroom techniques, i.e GTM, reading methods, vocabulary-based methods, and direct method.Teachers’ preferences of techniques was subjective.There was little systematic us of teaching and the lesson was just ‘CHALK AND TALK’ .
With the introduction of structural approach, many new techniques appeared.The teachers,even the less qualified ones, were able to handle their jobs more easily.Since almost all the teachers are non-native speakers, they benefited from the tape-recorded materials of native speakers’.The students were able to use English inside and outside the classroom.
However, in the classroom, teachers don’t use only one approach all the time.Naturally, there are times when students will be engaged in learning new words or grammatical items; but there are other times when students will be engaged in role-playing,dialogue,acting scenes...As a result :
Major items of Structurally Based Teaching :
1)Situational Teaching:
-Language learning is habit formation
-Mistakes are bad and should be avoided
-Language skills are learned more effectively if they are presented orally first, then in
written form.
- Analogy (making comparisons) is a better foundation for language learning than analysis
-The meanings of words can be learned only in a linguistic and cultural context.
For example: The teacher brings some materials to classromm such as books,cups,eggs, pens, keys….Then S/he demonstrates them like ‘ This is a book’ and ‘That is a pen’ using objects near to him and far away from him.When the objects finish, s/he begins to use pictures…....
2)Contextual Teaching:
-teaching directly related to the life experiences
-problem-based: Lesson can start with a real problem.Students use critical thinking skills
-project-based learning
-learning with groups
-self-regulated learning:Students must become lifelong learners. Lifelong learners are able to seek out, analyze.
For CT (Contextual Teaching) to be effective, all strategies must be present in the teaching/learning experience. Implementation of CT may not require drastic changes in practice for all educators. It may require enhancement of practice in one characteristic and not another. Continual use and reflection on CT processes broadens and deepens educators’ knowledge and ability to facilitate learning.
MOTIVATION AND LEARNING
1) Needs and Expectations
Teacher intervention:
-identify, assess and translate learner’s needs into skills to be developed in
order to meet his expectations
-help students be aware of the nature and their needs
2) Motivation
(desire to act, a psychological state which is seen in learner’s attitude towards the learning process)
Teacher intervention:
-Create a motivating atmosphere making the learner aware of communicative
needs and real-life situations
THE EFFECTIVE SIDE OF LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING
To understand our role as teacher’s we must look at an aspect of our students that we seldom consider,although everything else is dependent upon it.This is the effective side of language learning in adult students: how our students feel about themselves ,about the target language and culture,and about their teacher as representative of both determines how well they can learn.
The Articulate Non-native Speaker:
We all know nonnative spekers who are more fluent in English than the vast majority of native speakers.Many have exposed to two (or more)languages early in life,often from childhood.Possibly for that reason,they assume that learning a language is natural an deven easy.They also tend to be secure and self confident,individuals who can afford to be flexible who dont feel threatened by either the language or the culture it represents.Their bilingual-bicultural backrounds,realistic expectations,and feelings of security seem to promoto good attidutes toward language learning.
What We Learn From Childeren:
Childeren are great learners;we also know that they aren’t always capable of adapting or adjusting in short learning especially in classroom.Some childeren for example,called as ‘slow’.Usually they live up to their label.And correcting teaching doesn’t help them unless they develop feelings of confidence,both in their teacher’s trust and,consequently in their own ability.
Professionel Adult Students In The Classroom:
Teachers sometimes fail to see adult students as as whole persons ,would compare them openly to small childeren,treating them like small childeren by not trusting them with the responsibility for their own learning and using materials at an intellectually juvenile level.Our trust must be genuine;our attidutes and the way we treat our students in the classroom is a vital factor in their adjustment to the learning situation.
The Expectations We Unwittingly Communicate
The expectations we communicate to our students are a product of our views on language learning and their abilities as students.These three factors influence our behaviour in the classroom in crucial ways that determine whether we make it difficult or bring out the learning of a foreign language so differant from he continuos process of learning our native language ,or do we teachers make it differant?By what we do or not do in the class we influence our students learning behaviour;This influence may be negative if we are not mindful of the following:
• We should not define the English narrowly as a subject.
• We should not treat language as a mechanical skill or a habit structure.
• We should not mention to our students about the difficulty of learning a language.
• We should not mention about the age and learning relation
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CHANGING BEHAVİOUR:FLEXIBILITY
It is difficult to change behavior.Not because people are in the habit of doing things as a certain way,but because their behavior fits into a whole pattern of thinking of self and the world, a pattern according to which that behavior is logical and reasonable.Changing ones behavior involves changing ones’ pattern of thinking.Extremelly authoritarian family ,educational,social,or political structures sometimes produce personalities that do not readily adapt to new or differant learning approaches.So flexibility in teaching without forcing to change his or her learning pattern is the best way in teaching process.
The Role Of Awareness:
The new challenge of classes indeed gives us reason to take heed,to expand our awareness.True security in the classroom comes not from simply repeating techniques that have been succesfull in the past,but from a coherent or developing theory of how language learning ,works and what the nature of language communication is.This means widening our awareness and attampting to answer all the nagging doubts.
Asking Ourselves The Wrong Questions:
We can call it also fallacy.Let’s try to explain fallacy:
Teachers and students alike objects sometimes to having the students hear each other’s errors:they belive this reinforces the errors.On the contrary ıt is not true.Students come to class motivated to attain a certain level of proficiency.they are intelligent.They know where to look for improvement.Even within the classroom ,the teacher can provide contact with good language models in many ways,without saying a word.The collective and cooperative effort of the entire class to express themselves beter only if they are given the chance to express themselves.
Security or stagnation:
We teachers must feel secure in our classroom.We must also be aware of the difference between security and stagnation.The little questions teachers have-the doubts about why this student didn’t learn and that student didn’t do as well as she should have,why they tried and true method isn’t working as well as before,or why the explanation that seemed so clear last time didn’t work so well this time- all these questions should not be pushed aside.let’s each define our problems:
Teachers’ preoccupation with what they themselves are doing prevents them from seeing what their students are doin.or are not doing.We need distance and time to observe.We need to ask questions not so much about the learning process.The psychology of learning is well within the scope of our profession.
Our Students’ Language-Learning Behavior:
Almost all of the prblems in students are caused by inflexibility and lack of awareness,and both of these have to do with self-image and security.
The Limits Of Awareness:
It is about the students’ knowing and being aware of , in which level he is,what he knows and what he should learn in the language learning process; these are all related with the limits of awareness.
Prepared by
Fatma ÇALIŞKAN
Zehra DEMiR
Ali SUCU
What Is The Relationship Between Feelings For The Teacher And The Learning Process?
Four group of students are reached according to a report(Exploratory Practice) which shows the relationship between feelings for the teacher and the learning process.Essays,diaries and observation tecniques are used while making the research.According to this research,effective education is found when the learner is regarded as a person to be respected,nurtured,strengthened,and stimulated,rather than as an intellect to be trained.
For the 1st group:The learners have positive feelings for the teacher because of his/her relationship with the learners(interest in learners’progress,encouraging,supporting)character(enthusiastic, helpful, interesting and teaching abilities.All these properties affect their learning process;they study harder and become more successful not only for themselves but also for their teacher.Their success level rises when they have positive feelings towards the teacher.
For the 2nd group:These learners have positive feelings for the teacher like the 1st group learners.However,they are unsuccessful.The reason is their lack of knowledge,but this reason doesn’t stop them.They willingly study,because they like their teacher and want to be succcessful.So,we may think that positive feelings towards the teacher provide high willingness to study,ambition and determination to get high marks.According to this result,their feelings for the teacher affect their learning process positively.
For the 3th group:These learners have negative feelings for the teacher,i.e.his/her character,teaching abilities and relationship with the learners..However they are successful.The reasons lie behind these: 1)they have to be successful in order to reach their aims,2)they are clever enough,and 3)they have the capacity to understand the lesson although they do not like the teacher.So, it may be seen that negative feelings of this group do not affect their personality.But they feel themselves anxious,nervous and unhappy in the lesson.As a result,feelings affect their learning process.
For the 4th group:These learners have negative feelings for the teacher like the 3rd group learners,but the difference is they are also unsuccessful.According to their writings the reasons of their unsuccessfulness are unwillingness to study the lesson because of the negative things that they feel towards the teacher also lack of knowledge.So,there is a correlation between the feelings for the teacher and their learning process.
Finally,the results of the essays reveal that there are 4 different groups,and so there are 4 different types of relationship between the feelings for the teacher and the learning process.
THE INFLUENCES THAT SHAPE TEACHERS ATTITUDES TOWARD TEACHING AND LEARNING
There are many positive and negative effects that shape teachers’ attitudes toward teaching and learning. Some of these effects are:
The Usual Classroom Setting:Many teachers use one method or one book in their lessons.The belief in a particular method or sequencing of materials most often grows out of experience with large number of students in each class,large numbers of classes,and lack of time.Under the pressure of the typical load(of more than 100 students each day),discipline or motivation problems tahat are probably almost beyond control.The teacher may barely have time to be aware of what is happening in individual learners and may feel unable to give up the center stage of continous control over each and every classroom activity.So,the teacher becomes unseccessful in the face of so many obstacles.
The Limiting Effect of Tests:Students everywhere spend years studying a language,trying to get good marks on vocabulary,pronunciation,and grammar,in a multiple -choice tests by learning this item and that item.Their motivation,whatever it may have been in the begining,is soon warped towards getting good marks.The joy of communicating in the new language,experiencing what it is like to master a new kind of behavior,feeling the inner power that permits continued growing mastery is a goal that all too few learners reach.
The Teacher’s Own Experiences In Language Learning:Most of teachers have had language learning experiences that they recall with pleasure or distaste.From these impressions,they may have shaped some of their teaching concepts.Without having specifically concentrated on method or style of interaction in the language class,teachers are not likely to have a more dependable interpretation.As candidate teachers dealing in the changing and expanding aspects of students’lives,we should be open to new learning experiences,new methods and informtions.Thus,our beneficiency will increase towards our students.
THEORIES OF LANGUAGE LEARNING
Today there are two main approaches in Teaching English as a foreign Language: the structural approach and the communicative approach.
•Structural Approach
1)This approach assumes a way of teaching in which the teacher always acts the role of the questioner, initiator, teacher and formal instructor (teacher-directed).
2)Language learning is habit formation.
3)There are repetition drills
4)Learner acts the role of the listener, respondent, or formal class student.
•Communicative Approach
1)It does focus not only on the grammatical competence, but also communicative competence.
2)Meaning is important.
3)Learner-centered
4) It is used activities and given tasks with each activity, not only the grammatical rules are given.
5) Interaction between SS-SS, SS-T.
CURRENT TEACHING PRACTISES
Structurally Based Teaching
Before the structural approach, teachers used classroom techniques, i.e GTM, reading methods, vocabulary-based methods, and direct method.Teachers’ preferences of techniques was subjective.There was little systematic us of teaching and the lesson was just ‘CHALK AND TALK’ .
With the introduction of structural approach, many new techniques appeared.The teachers,even the less qualified ones, were able to handle their jobs more easily.Since almost all the teachers are non-native speakers, they benefited from the tape-recorded materials of native speakers’.The students were able to use English inside and outside the classroom.
However, in the classroom, teachers don’t use only one approach all the time.Naturally, there are times when students will be engaged in learning new words or grammatical items; but there are other times when students will be engaged in role-playing,dialogue,acting scenes...As a result :
Major items of Structurally Based Teaching :
1)Situational Teaching:
-Language learning is habit formation
-Mistakes are bad and should be avoided
-Language skills are learned more effectively if they are presented orally first, then in
written form.
- Analogy (making comparisons) is a better foundation for language learning than analysis
-The meanings of words can be learned only in a linguistic and cultural context.
For example: The teacher brings some materials to classromm such as books,cups,eggs, pens, keys….Then S/he demonstrates them like ‘ This is a book’ and ‘That is a pen’ using objects near to him and far away from him.When the objects finish, s/he begins to use pictures…....
2)Contextual Teaching:
-teaching directly related to the life experiences
-problem-based: Lesson can start with a real problem.Students use critical thinking skills
-project-based learning
-learning with groups
-self-regulated learning:Students must become lifelong learners. Lifelong learners are able to seek out, analyze.
For CT (Contextual Teaching) to be effective, all strategies must be present in the teaching/learning experience. Implementation of CT may not require drastic changes in practice for all educators. It may require enhancement of practice in one characteristic and not another. Continual use and reflection on CT processes broadens and deepens educators’ knowledge and ability to facilitate learning.
MOTIVATION AND LEARNING
1) Needs and Expectations
Teacher intervention:
-identify, assess and translate learner’s needs into skills to be developed in
order to meet his expectations
-help students be aware of the nature and their needs
2) Motivation
(desire to act, a psychological state which is seen in learner’s attitude towards the learning process)
Teacher intervention:
-Create a motivating atmosphere making the learner aware of communicative
needs and real-life situations
THE EFFECTIVE SIDE OF LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING
To understand our role as teacher’s we must look at an aspect of our students that we seldom consider,although everything else is dependent upon it.This is the effective side of language learning in adult students: how our students feel about themselves ,about the target language and culture,and about their teacher as representative of both determines how well they can learn.
The Articulate Non-native Speaker:
We all know nonnative spekers who are more fluent in English than the vast majority of native speakers.Many have exposed to two (or more)languages early in life,often from childhood.Possibly for that reason,they assume that learning a language is natural an deven easy.They also tend to be secure and self confident,individuals who can afford to be flexible who dont feel threatened by either the language or the culture it represents.Their bilingual-bicultural backrounds,realistic expectations,and feelings of security seem to promoto good attidutes toward language learning.
What We Learn From Childeren:
Childeren are great learners;we also know that they aren’t always capable of adapting or adjusting in short learning especially in classroom.Some childeren for example,called as ‘slow’.Usually they live up to their label.And correcting teaching doesn’t help them unless they develop feelings of confidence,both in their teacher’s trust and,consequently in their own ability.
Professionel Adult Students In The Classroom:
Teachers sometimes fail to see adult students as as whole persons ,would compare them openly to small childeren,treating them like small childeren by not trusting them with the responsibility for their own learning and using materials at an intellectually juvenile level.Our trust must be genuine;our attidutes and the way we treat our students in the classroom is a vital factor in their adjustment to the learning situation.
The Expectations We Unwittingly Communicate
The expectations we communicate to our students are a product of our views on language learning and their abilities as students.These three factors influence our behaviour in the classroom in crucial ways that determine whether we make it difficult or bring out the learning of a foreign language so differant from he continuos process of learning our native language ,or do we teachers make it differant?By what we do or not do in the class we influence our students learning behaviour;This influence may be negative if we are not mindful of the following:
• We should not define the English narrowly as a subject.
• We should not treat language as a mechanical skill or a habit structure.
• We should not mention to our students about the difficulty of learning a language.
• We should not mention about the age and learning relation
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CHANGING BEHAVİOUR:FLEXIBILITY
It is difficult to change behavior.Not because people are in the habit of doing things as a certain way,but because their behavior fits into a whole pattern of thinking of self and the world, a pattern according to which that behavior is logical and reasonable.Changing ones behavior involves changing ones’ pattern of thinking.Extremelly authoritarian family ,educational,social,or political structures sometimes produce personalities that do not readily adapt to new or differant learning approaches.So flexibility in teaching without forcing to change his or her learning pattern is the best way in teaching process.
The Role Of Awareness:
The new challenge of classes indeed gives us reason to take heed,to expand our awareness.True security in the classroom comes not from simply repeating techniques that have been succesfull in the past,but from a coherent or developing theory of how language learning ,works and what the nature of language communication is.This means widening our awareness and attampting to answer all the nagging doubts.
Asking Ourselves The Wrong Questions:
We can call it also fallacy.Let’s try to explain fallacy:
Teachers and students alike objects sometimes to having the students hear each other’s errors:they belive this reinforces the errors.On the contrary ıt is not true.Students come to class motivated to attain a certain level of proficiency.they are intelligent.They know where to look for improvement.Even within the classroom ,the teacher can provide contact with good language models in many ways,without saying a word.The collective and cooperative effort of the entire class to express themselves beter only if they are given the chance to express themselves.
Security or stagnation:
We teachers must feel secure in our classroom.We must also be aware of the difference between security and stagnation.The little questions teachers have-the doubts about why this student didn’t learn and that student didn’t do as well as she should have,why they tried and true method isn’t working as well as before,or why the explanation that seemed so clear last time didn’t work so well this time- all these questions should not be pushed aside.let’s each define our problems:
Teachers’ preoccupation with what they themselves are doing prevents them from seeing what their students are doin.or are not doing.We need distance and time to observe.We need to ask questions not so much about the learning process.The psychology of learning is well within the scope of our profession.
Our Students’ Language-Learning Behavior:
Almost all of the prblems in students are caused by inflexibility and lack of awareness,and both of these have to do with self-image and security.
The Limits Of Awareness:
It is about the students’ knowing and being aware of , in which level he is,what he knows and what he should learn in the language learning process; these are all related with the limits of awareness.
Prepared by
Fatma ÇALIŞKAN
Zehra DEMiR
Ali SUCU
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