UNIT 18 ASSESSMENT TYPES AND TASKS

ASSESSMENT TYPES AND TASKS

One way to check students' understanding about the language or the topic they have learned, teachers use assessment to judge learners'performance. there are two ways to assess a student like formal through test and informal through observation when they are on their performance. There are some and each of the have different purposes depending on what we want to have at the end of the test, maybe a dignostic to know prior knowledge, placement to place students in the right course, progress to check how they progress into the syllabus. Teachers have to take into consideration that each test either formal or informal, at the end students will have a feedback on what they have done good or bad. Test are developed in an objective way with multiple choice and just one answer is correct or subjective where teachers use rubrics to grade students' thoughts.

This web page is useful for you to check the types of assessment

  Lepi, K., Lepi, K., Dunn, J., Dunn, J., Carey, J., & Lepi, K. et al. (2014). The 6 Types Of Assessments (And How They're Changing) | Edudemic . Edudemic.com. Retrieved 6 December 2014, from http://www.edudemic.com/the-6-types-of-assessments-and-how-theyre-changing/ 

UNIT 17 PRACTICE ACTIVITIES AND TASKS FOR LANGUAGE AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

PRACTICE ACTIVITIES AND TASKS FOR LANGUAGE AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

Activities beyond the book are useful for students because they will reinforce what they have learned with exercises, tasks in order to use their language and produce new vocabulary through the subskills of the main ones. Teacehrs shouls start with controlled activities and little by little let students to produce free the language. Where controlled activities will help to practice on accuracy and form, like in choral, individual, substitutions and transformation drills. Inthe ither hand we have free activities that let students to have different interaction patterns such as dialogues, role-plays, interviews. So teachers have  to use a lot of tasks and activities to have a practice time in students instead of be so bored with the book.  

In the following link you will have the difference in controlled, semi-controlled and free activities:

User, S. (2014). Heads Up English | ESL Lessons - Controlled to Free Activities.Headsupenglish.com. Retrieved 6 December 2014, from http://www.headsupenglish.com/index.php/esl-articles/esl-lesson-structure/310-controlled-to-free-activities

Slideshare.net,. (2014). Intermediate German Blending Project. Retrieved 6 December 2014, from http://www.slideshare.net/kraemera/intermediate-german-blending-project

UNIT 16 PRESENTATION TECHNIQUES AND INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITIES

PRESENTATION TECHNIQUES AND INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITIES

In order to get student's attention , teacher should use some techniques like introductory activities that help us to introduce the new topic where students will focus on meaning instead of form. there are two ways to present a topic, PPP where teacher follos a process and presents a situational presentations rather than sentence isolated, so students will have a meaningful learning through student centered in eliciting, and also controlled practice like in choral drill. in the other hand, there is Task-based learning in which students have to complete a tasks from teacher's situation, and students will have a comprenhension about the topic and fell comfortable to produce the language. At the end it will be a confidence-building approach through activities like realia, viasul aids, and so on. Teachers should not forget to start the class with a warm-up to wake up students and raise up energy and also lead in to introduce the topic.    

To do not forget about the use of warm-up, review the next web page wher you sill find some of them to apply in class:

Scoop.it,. (2014). English Language Teaching in Practice. Retrieved 6 December 2014, from http://www.scoop.it/t/english-language-teaching-in-practice

See this video of how you can Introduce class and warm-up activities:

YouTube,. (2014). Introducing class and warm-up activities. Retrieved 6 December 2014, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKVc3w6HICg

UNIT 14 LEARNERS NEEDS

LEARNER NEEDS

The learner needs depends basically on the age because between adults, teenagers and children differ on their goals, expectations and also have different learning styles at the moment of learning a language. Teachers need to pay attention to the learner needs because all of them can affect to students in the classroom. So teachers have to be careful when they choose an strategy or a topic to teach, because it must be according with the level of students and cover different interaction patterns to share their ideas among the class and the pace should be suitable to the level. If teachers focus their attention in the learner needs they could develop a variety of activities where students integrate their four skills. the best strategy here is CLIL (Content and Language Integrate Learning) because teacher has to prioritaze relevant information for students and through motivation they can get the students'attention. We as professionals can cover personal, professional and learning needs, if we use the right approach to teaching. 

First, at the beginning of the class, teacher should ask what are the expectations for the course and from that, teacher should plan the following classes. Second, teacher should try to role-plays, and interview to have interaction patterns and see how students develop in some situations.

Watch this video to know five general needs for students

  YouTube,. (2014). 5 Student Needs. Retrieved 6 December 2014, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoyQh1VJbCY

Analize this graphic organizer about students' needs.

Nwlink.com,. (2014). Learning and Training Needs Assessments in Instructional Design. Retrieved 6 December 2014, from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/isd/assessment.html

UNIT 13 LEARNER CHARACTERISTICS

LEARNERS CHARACTERISTICS

The learners have different characteristics that influences at the moment of learning the language and the teacher need to focus on them in order to have students'attention. Each student have a particular learning style that identify the way they learn, maybe they are visual (need pictures), auditory (need explanations) and so on. So teacher should apply various strategies in the class to develop all fo them for students, and don't think that the learning style that the teacher has should be applied in the classroom whitout taking into account the students'needs. Also the class should be developed according to the maturity of students based on age, if they are children, you should try to do a lot of activities because of their short attention span, if they are teenagers they pay attention to the form and meaning instead of experiences as children and adults their motivation is councious a diffrence with children and teens. Using motivation, maturity and learning styles, the class will be interesting and students will learn easily because they are learning the language through comfortable activities and students will feel confident.

For more information see on:

YouTube,. (2014). Learning Styles. Retrieved 6 December 2014, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXb0Bj97yDU

Other way to recaognize the learning style of your students is through a survey, so check this link
Odessa.edu,. (2014). Retrieved 6 December 2014, from 

http://www.odessa.edu/dept/govt/dille/brian/courses/1100orientation/learningstyleinventory_survey.pdf 



    

UNIT 15 APPROACHES TO LANGUAGE TEACHING

APPROACHES TO LANGUAGE TEACHING

There are many approches that teachers can use in the classroom depending on what they are going to teach and the type of students they have. We have different communicative approaches that suit students within the classroom in order to get the language through communicative activities based on speaking and fluency. Within all the approaches we see many characteristics that represents each of them, like in structural approah where language are structures, in Task-based learning where there ir students center because they develop language to solve problems, PPP (presentation,practice,production) where grammar structures and functions are basic for learning trhough drills, miming; lexical approach in which students learn vocabulary with individual words or in chunks, collocations. Also we have Functional approach where the function is the main purpose, TPR(Total Physical Response) based on grammar structures and vocab mainly following instructions. the oldest one that is Grammar translation that wants students memorize the rules and use tranlation. It is difficult to choose an approach and sometimes we use elictis approach that help us to combine the best part of each approach that fit in the classroom to have positive results. Finally, we can get students interested in the classroom or lose them if we dont choose the correct strategy.

Check this page to know about Current approaches and teaching methods; and Bilingual
programmes.
Www4.ujaen.es,. (2014). Retrieved 6 December 2014, from http://www4.ujaen.es/~gluque/Chapter4HANDBOOKDEFINITIVO.pdf

Also here you have a video about approaches to guide you about communicative approaches

• YouTube,. (2014). CELTA - Different approaches to teaching language -PPP to TBL. Retrieved 6 December 2014, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r-DRmN42fE
• 
  

Unit 12 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN L1 AND L2 LEARNING

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN L1 AND L2 LEARNING

          The L1 that is the first language is easier to learn than L2 for everyone because, the language is part of our natural enviroment, it is talked at home with our family and at school through academic writings, while the L2 is taught  at school, highschool and sometimes in the adulthood but this is esporadically. L1 is learned by exposure and we pick up the language uncounciously while L2 needs intructions from a teacher or tutor who can give us grammar structures in order to learn. Here is important the motivation that students have because with L1 they dont feel frustated because they can interact with people around them but in L2 they feel desmotivated because there are moments where they can not express what they want, so they feel stress.
          To overcome the difficulty of learning L2, teachers should expose students to the language as much as possible and pay attention on the form of grammar structures but reformulating what students say in a right way in order that they dont feel bad, so they are motivated and have confidence at the moment of producing the language. Teacher has to provide situations in the classroom where students feel comfortable and they are interested in, because they could produce an answer and a conversation. Students feel familiar with the topics and they talk more and develop their L2 as L1.


Read the following page in order to solve the Problem of L1 vs. L2 in the Immersion Classroom
Carla.acad.umn.edu,. (2014). Retrieved 26 November 2014, from http://www.carla.acad.umn.edu/immersion/acie/v

In this video you have some tips to reduce the use of L1 in the L2 class, so they have more opportunities to produce L2.

YouTube,. (2014). Reducing L1 in the L2 Classroom. Retrieved 26 November 2014, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRg-LEIzw0w 

Unit 11 THE ROLE OF ERROR

THE ROLE OF ERROR

          As learners, we have a lot of mistakes at the moment of producing the language, but we need to recognize if they are errors (say something beyond our current level) or slips (we are aware of the grammar but we make mistakes because of the lack of language). I understood that errors can be produced when students are influenced by first language L1 on the L2, so they tend to have an interference between both languages within grammatical structures, sounds, lexis. Also students work out on the language but in a wrong way because they mix the grammatical rules from Spanish to English or they try to overgeneralized the rules given, as add -ed in all the verbs in past. Sometimes the errors get fossilised, and at this point is difficult to change it, but not impossible because teachers can correct them with class activities. Teachers should help students to overcome this erros through readings (if we are teaching verbs in past, we should start from irregular verbs and then regular verbs, so students dont get confused). While teachers promote interaction between classmates, they can give feedback on the form when students have errors, the teacher reformulate what they said in a right way but not directly, so students develop their confidence.

For example teacher writes a topic on the board, then asks students to share ideas with their classmates, teacher asks students what they share, so teacher pays attention to the errors and if they have errors, tutors reformulates what ss said and correct students in an incounciously way. Or if they have slip and dont affect the communication, teacher should ignore those mistakes       

To more information, please check this page in order to know how to deal with fossalized errors throught techniques.
Constantinides, V. (2011). How do you deal with fossilized errors and help students improve their accuracy? #ELTchat Summary 23/02/2011.ELTchat. Retrieved 26 November 2014, from 
http://eltchat.org/wordpress/summary/how-do-you-deal-with-fossilized-errors-and-help-students-improve-their-accuracy-eltchat-summary-23022011/


See this video to find a fun way to overcome errors:

YouTube,. (2014). Error Correction in Speaking - The Fun Way: Herbert Puchta (Teaching Teenagers Tip #4). Retrieved 26 November 2014, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znswuO4goYg

            

                    

Unit 10 EXPOSURE AND FOCUS ON FORM

EXPOSURE AND FOCUS ON THE FORM

       There are several ways to learn the language, and one of them is through exposure, where students acquire the language by hearing and reading from their surrounding uncounciously way. We dont need to study the language, for children they just pick it up the language naturally but adults need more than that. Adults need to focus on form of the new language like (grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation written form, etc.) Into the classroom teachers should provide to the students a lot of interaction in order that they get the language without stress. Obviously, we have to give students a silent period where they have to work out the language internally and then they produce it loosely.

         In the process of acquiring the language, the exposure is the best way to teach in the classroom, because teachers can use role plays, where students interact between them and teacher can pay attention to the mistakes and provide feedback and make students notice grammatical forms, also teachers can bring to the class: magazines,  books, lyrics in order to learn from authentic material. So students learn in classes and outside it, they can read materials for graded readers or listen audios easy for them to understand. As example, teachers can present a movie, the students have to takes notes about the phrases that are new for them and then teacher explain them and finally students should use those phrases into a role play. 

For more information   about principles to to teach the sencond language through exposure see: 
Transparent.com,. (2014). The Five Principles of Effective Second Language Acquisition. Retrieved 26 November 2014, from http://www.transparent.com/about/second-language.html

Also you can review this video to get more familiar with focus on the form: 

YouTube,. (2014). Shaping the Way We Teach English: Module 02, Building Language Awareness. Retrieved 26 November 2014, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-LkN-Pm_zA
          


            

   

Unit 9 MOTIVATION

MOTIVATION

Throught this unit, I have learned that motivation in the classroom is very important because if we have both kind of motivation intrinsically(personal motivation) and extrinsically (external motivation), students will have a reason to study.  

The second one is of our interests, because teachers will be who provide this external motivation, and so we will have appropriate enviroment for mutual learning, where both sides, students and teachers contribute ideas to the class because of their interest in the same.

 

Sometimes students are demotivated because the teacher does not show interest in what the student wants to learn or because maybe you need to use other strategies to help students. At this point teachers should use the motivation in their favor in classes for students to have confidence at what they do during the activities.

In orden to use motivation in the classroom first, we must take into account what are the interests of students depending on the class. If they are adults, they want to study in order to have a job or achieve their goals for the semester and there are other students who want to learn the target language through history, song lyrics, culture or movies. So once we have recognize what students wants, the teacher must thus be able to use this to draw the attention of students and have all their interest. We can use work in groups with similar topics, with individual works giving them independence and autonomy.

In the following link, you will find strategies to use motivations and diffrent kind of motivation. 

Peoplelearn.homestead.com,. (2014). Retrieved 26 November 2014, from http://peoplelearn.homestead.com/beduc/chapter_8

  Also you can see this video to motivate your students.

YouTube,. (2014). Motivational Video For Students. Retrieved 26 November 2014, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mb-0qbq984