TEACHING AND LEARNING VOCABULARY

Today, we have continued learning how to teach and learn vocabulary. But firstly, we have to know what exactly vocabulary is: The lexical items (single- or multi-word items) of the language (aka content words) (nouns, verbs, adjectives & adverbs) vs. the grammatical items (aka function words) (pronouns, determiners, prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs...). 

For communicative purposes, vocabulary is more important than grammar in the early stages.

Although vocabulary can be learnt incidentally (by listening/reading/interacting…), in the context of formal schooling it has proved inefficient; we need to plan for deliberate vocabulary teaching.

What learners need to learn in order to acquire a word?

•  Form: pronunciation & spelling
•  Meaning (but some words may have different meanings)
•  Collocation (the way words tend to co-occur with other words or expressions – e.g.  Tell the truth, do your homework…)
•  Grammar (e.g. the past from of irregular verbs)
•  Connotation (e.g. skinny)
•  Appropriateness (to the context/situations; e.g. lady (instead of woman)).

What determines the difficulty of a lexical item?

•  Spelling & Pronunciation (the easier a word it is to say & spell, the more quickly it will be remember)
•  Similarity to L1
•  Similarity to English words already known (unfriendly - friendly)
•  Multi-word items (e.g. sports car, put someone up)
•  Collocations (e.g. wounded/injured people but damaged things)
• Appropriate use

Some tips to teach vocabulary efficiently:

•   Introduce the vocabulary in the context of vocabulary the learners have already met
•   Don’t teach more than 5-7 items at a time
•   Teach new items early in the lesson
•   Recall at the end of the lesson
•   Learners remember words better if they have some personal significance or emotional connection: giving personal examples, providing experiences with the words or having students create images & relate them to their own lives

There are a lot of techniques to teach new vocabulary as:

•  Look, say, cover, write, check.
•  Display the new vocabulary (semi-) permanently
•  Vocabulary is best learned (& taught) in groups of related words (lexical sets, word families): word maps.
•  Pay attention to the word shape.
•  Get students to use vocabulary notebooks/picture dictionaries.
•  Teach learners to group words into categories (meaningful to them).
•  Find some who (has got a pet of your choice).
•  Guess the picture.

Finally, we have to talk about the importance of recycling: Vocabulary needs to be met and recycled at intervals, in varied contexts and activities. Researchers claim that we need at least 6, maybe as many as 16, re-encounters with an item in order for it to be properly learnt.

When reviewing vocabulary, teach (DO NOT test) (give learners opportunities to listen/read the vocabulary again, read their vocabulary notebooks, picture books, work in collaboration…)

PHONICS

                              

The english language has a complicated relation between its oral and written form. Therefore it has not been an easy task to achieve an agreement about the best way to teach how  to read and write english.

Phonics is a method that native english speakers use to teach children how to read and write. It is based on the sound of the letters, making the students aware of the existing relation between the phonemes and graphemes, instead of the whole language approach, where words had to be learnt by heart.            

Nowadays, phonics is gaining more followers, particularly synthetic phonics, which is the most popular method used in the UK and Australia.

                           

Synthetic phonics is a method of teaching reading which first teaches the letter sounds and then builds up to blending these sounds together to achieve full pronunciation of whole words.

In contrast, Analytical Phonics, also known as the Whole Word approach, involves analysis of whole words to detect phonetic or orthographic (spelling) patterns, then splitting them into smaller parts to help with decoding

LEARNING STRATEGIES

Today's class, we started talking about the exam that we have to do in February if we want to pass the subject. In this one we will have to answer two kind of questions. Some of them will be theoretical and anothers will be practical. We hope to be so lucky as the guy that we can see on the right.

After that te teacher show us a powerpoint about learning strategies. Most of the contents were in spanish, althoung there were some in English too.

In the presentation we learnt about the different learning strategies by O'Malley:

Strategies which require planning for learning, thinking about the learning process as it is taking place, monitoring og one's production or comprehension, and evaluating learning after an activity is completed. Among the main metacognitive strategies, it is possible to include advance organizers, direceted attention, slective attention, self-management, functional plannin, self-monitoring, delayed production and self-evaluation.

 

 

 

Cognitive strategies are more limited to specific learning tasks and they involve more direct manipulation of the learning material itself. Repetition, resourcing, transaltion, grouping, note taking, deduction, recombination, imagery, auditory representation, key word, contextualization, elaboration, transfer, inferencing are among the most important cognitive strategies.



They are related with social-mediating activity and transacting with others.

When the teacher finished the presentation she gave us an activity in which we had to analyse to transcripts in terms of the information provided by the teacher to the pupils.



After that we played BINGO!!!! The day before the teacher sent us an e-mail explaining that we had to make some bingo cards to bring it today. Here you are some of the bingo cards that we made:

 

 

 

 

Finally in the practice lesson we had to do an activity in which we had to choose 3 activities from the Carol Read's 500 Activities for the Primary Classroom book and fill in a table for each activity. We had to upload the activity to the CV forum on "Learning strategies and learner independence". We want to share with all you the activity here too, we hope you like!.

 

 

 

 

DIFERENCES BETWEEN TASK, EXERCISE & ACTIVITY

READING RESOURCES; TEACHING AND LEARNING WRITING

Today, the teacher started the classroom showing us reading resources. She has taught activities like this:

-Number activity

- Class objects activity

- Extraterrestrial activity (you have to write the dialogue)

- Yo-yo activity (listening and reading)

There are cognitive activities that have the difficulty to know which group to put it.

Then, teacher has explained teaching and learning writing.

The teacher should give feedback to improve their writing. She/he has to scaffold  the writing task.

• Starting point --> conected text for a purpose and a reader.

• Differents ideas about writing:

      -Graubert (1997) --> Consolidates and reinforces laguange.

      - Raimes (1983) --> Writing reinforces the grammatical structures.

      - Porte (1996) --> As writing involves finding the right way of expressing something.

Teaching of writing must aim at building the student's communicative potential to produce whole text:

Writing: struggle to convert                           Writing: linguistic                               Writing has a language

thoughts and ideas into language.                  experience --> need to take               potential: discover of how

                                                                    risks and experimental with                language works.

                                                                    the language.

Writing process 3 important question must be considered:

• The content: what you are writing.
• The addressee or reader: who you are writing to or for.
• The purpose: why you are writing.

COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH

Today we have started with Communicative Approach. Communicative Approach is focused on communication, it also promotes interaction and language items are selected on the basis of what the learner need to know in order to get things done through language (in order to perform linguistic functions).

We have also learn the difference between functions and forms:

• Functions of languages are the purposes for which language is used.
• Forms are the linguistic means through which functions are accomplished.

So, as teachers, how should we proceed when selecting the language to teach? Firstly we identify general functions and notions and then, we select linguistic forms to express those functions and notions.

Communicative Approach also uphold that you have to appropriate your language to the context.

And the last characteristic about Communicative Approach is that it should be guided by these principles:

• The information gap principle.
• The information transfer principle (from one format to another).
• The correction for content principle.

Big mistakes are communication content mistakes, not linguistic mistakes. We not only have to be good at using proper linguistic content, we have to be able to use linguistic content accroding to the situation (social markers, politeness conventions...).

READING STRATEGIES

Today, the teacher started the classroom showing us some of the bookmarks that we added in Diigo. The one that she chose was the next bookmark:

 http://www.rong-chang.com/nnse/snse/snse013.htm.

The name of this web is "SUPER EASY READING FOR ESL/EFL BEGGINERS". The activity chosen was horrible, because there were only a few sentences withouth cohesion. Another aspect was that there wasn't any graphic information about the sentences, and finally there wasn't a context, for example, the statments are talking about "he", but...who is he?. Here you are the activity:

 

 

 

13. His Imaginary Friend

He has an imaginary friend. He talks to his friend. His friend listens to him. His friend is smart. His friend is funny. His friend gives him advice. His friend goes everywhere with him. He and his imaginary friend are best friends. He is never alone. He is never lonely. His friend is always with him.

 

 

After that we saw some activities from the Sara Phillips' books: "Young Learners".

 

 

It was funny because we had to do the last activity and finally we corrected it in the digital board, and it was the first time that somebody had used it. In the activity we had to guess information about some people related to the floor of the flat where they live and the objects that they had lost. It was a funny challenge.

 

Then the teacher started to explain the different reading strategies that we have to teach our students.

After that we were talking about the text of "Diwali" and how children can get the meaning of words that they don't know yet.

 

After that we were watching some videos from the British Council web. Then we had to desing reading strategies acording  to a text that we had chosen.

Finally in the practice session we started a group activity. Firstly we have to choose a long text, and make six questions about it. Four of them have to develop higher order cognitive abilities and two of them lower-order cognitive skills. We also have to develop four activities to develope reading strategies.

That's all, have a nice long weekend!!!!!

 

CONTINUING WITH "AICLE" // "CLIL"

Today's class started with teacher asking about the second voicethread activity because some of our partners haven't made yet. After that she told us that we have to start to speak to ourself in english because is a great way to improve our fluency.

 

Then we made a questionnaire on the Taxonomy in which all students could participate simultaneously. After that we continue seeing the powerpoint of "AICLE // CLIL". In the next box you can see it.

 

 

 

During the exposure of the topic, the teacher made a stop and started  a questionnaire about AICLE. It was funny because sometimes some of us didn't know the answer so few people answered the questions.

After that the teacher showed us a "PREZI PRESENTATION",  this one was about "Claves, pautas y pistas metodológicas para la confección de una secuencia AICLE" by Alicia Ruiz Godoy.

 

 

We didn't know anything about "prezi" but after we saw it, we can say that is very dizzy, because templates are always in movement from right to left, from lef to up, expanding the image, reducing it...as I say before it is very dizzy but we have learned another resource to make different things.

 

Finally  the teacher show us a AICLE Didactic Sequence by Junta de Andalucía...and we realized that this one was horrible because people who elaborated it forgot the main point of AICLE//CLILL, develop hihg order cognitive activities. However, the activitys were very oppossite at this point of view. These ones only work low order cognitive activities. In the next link you can see the Didactic Sequence:

http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/educacion/webportal/web/aicle/contenidos;jsessionid=F72D410068E5CB5F4532380480FA57E4.blade144

In the practice session we had to provide a feedback about the PEPP Teaching Sequence. We had to use these items to evaluate it:

 That's all for now.Thanks you for visit our blog!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

READING SKILL

                                 

Until now, our experience as English students in primary school has not been very successful. That includes our experience improving reading skills. Generally speaking, our reading classes followed a similar structure, starting with an aloud text lecture (embedded in a weak context provided by the textbook) and a battery of questions, about content and/or questions with linguistic purposes (find verbs, synonyms…).

This approach is focused just on an intensive reading, and not on extensive reading, which fits more with the idea of reading a text with a communicative purpose, as we do it in real life, to get information from a text. To do so, we read guessing what’s next (jumping from word to word) and we do not concentrate in every single word on the text (we forget small words like in, and, so…), it is a lexical process.

The problem is that, for language learning we also need to focus on language, not only in text meaning. Therefore, we have to plan our lessons in a way that both kinds of reading are included, first with extensive reading, to get familiarized with the text (Top down questions), and then with an intensive reading focusing on language (Bottom-up questions).

Reading activities will have to be divided in three different stages:

-       Activities to do before reading the text, Pre-reading

-       Activities to do while reading the text, While-reading

-       Activities to do after reading the text, Post-reading

To begin with a question is always a good start, as it gives students a reason for reading. Questionnaires and debates are good options, in pre-reading and post-reading, always depending on how the teacher wants to lead the class.  Guessing games are a good example of while reading activities, like guessing the order of isolated sentences from text, or reading the first paragraph and guess what’s next…

It is essential that teachers become aware of the importance from the questions they prepare, as they should achieve higher cognitive levels to promote critical thinking (Bloom’s taxonomy).

 

 

WHAT IS CLIL?

CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) is a relatively new language learning approach that involves content learning (from different subjects such as history, geography or science). It doesn't do without the specific L2 teaching, it complements it. Its methodolgy is its main characteristic. It appears as a consequence from our actual globalized world and the increase of our technologic dependence. To face this constant change we should invest in innovation, investigation and education.

 

This approach can be easily misunderstood, CLIL is not a FL lesson, neither content in a FL (this would just be as any lesson in a foreign school).

 

Why CLIL?

Cognition Communication  Content  Culture (CCCC)

Among its multiple benefits we could mention the amount of input, the meaningful context or the motivation that students achieve. But this will be able only if it is properly implemented.

 

We, as students of Primary Education, have a huge responsability, because we will be in charge of its right aplication and its succes, which will be proved in future years.

 

We would like to share a couple of links. In the first one you'll find a lot of interesting and motivating ideas of activities that you could adapt for CLIL lessons:

 

 http://camillasenior.homestead.com/resources.html

In the second link you will find plenty of information about clil in general (materials, different experiences, interesting information for teachers...)

 http://clil.wordpress.com/category/clil-primaria/

We hope you'll find it usefull, ;)

 

 

"You cannot teach a language, only create the condition under which it might be learnded"

Von Humboldt 1898

Today we discuss in class about mistakes and errors.

Firstly, we learnt the difference between them:

An error is related to knowledge, to the lack of knowledge. For instance: “I go to the cinema yesterday”. Instead of “I went to the cinema yesterday”. In this case the student didn’t know the correct form of a verb.

A mistake is related to forgetfulness, carelessness and lack of attention.

The big question was: Do we have to correct every single mistake or error that students make?

The answer is NO, because if we rectify everything, we are cutting the STT (student’s talking time), we are not letting them to finish a whole sentence. Moreover, if you correct everything, the children will lose attention. Remember that you are correcting a mistake, you are correcting a person.

Something we would like to highlight is the tip given for "How do we correct?"

The tip consists of using “hot cards” or “invoice books”, which we typically see that are used by the waiters to write down what it is ordered.

TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE & DRILLING

In today’s class, the teacher explained what is Total Physical Response. We had some ideas from last year. TPR is a method focus on oral competence which affirms that it is very effective to combine the spoken language with phisycal activity, therefore the students respond physically to verbal commands given by the teacher. The role of the teacher is to be like a film director.

The Benefits of TPR:

 - High-speed understanding of any target language
 - Long-term retention
 - Zero stress (Game like movements reduce stress)
 - With this method teachers emphasise meaning rather than form
 - Enjoyable for teachers as well as students

Later on, we watched a video of TPR, in which firstly the teacher gives instructions and makes gestures with the students, at the same time. Secondly, the teacher gives instructions but students have to make alone the gestures. And finally the teacher provides instructions out of order.  As we can see, each steps requires more attention due to the fact that they are becoming more complex. 

Then we watched a second video that showed the Drilling.  Drilling is a mechanical activity based on behaviourist psychology that consists of listening and repeating. The lesson showed in the video was a very highly control one (very mechanical). Children had to repeat lots of times “No, it isn’t”, and the teacher put a lot of emphasis in each word and moved her hands when saying a word:

T:  |No|  |it|  |isn’t|

So, as we can see, it wasn’t a real communicative situation.

The third video also related whit drill, showed us drill but in context; the teacher paints a drawing of a house in the blackboard in order to contextualize the story and provide new vocabulary. She make lots of gestures and sounds.

We want to share this video that demonstrate how to produce the drilling, which it is also related to "exposure" and "practice" (PEPP approach). 

PROVIDING SUPPORT

Hello everyone, today we are going to share with all of you the first group activity that we had to do for the subject "Dsarrollo del Currículo de Lengua Extranjera en Educación Primaria".

 

In this one we had to choose a kid's song. After that we had to write down the information of the song and finally we had to do a teaching sequence about it.

It was a good experience because it was the first time that we worked together, and It was amazing, every of us gave his/her own opinion so we could make a good job.

A few days after we had to change the activities between the different groups to give a feedback about the activity. It was good because we put in practice evaluation and assessment. So here you are the review version of our group activity number 1.
 

We hope you like it! See you!!!

 

 

LESSON PLANING AND UNIT THEME

In Friday’s class, we learnt the assessing to learn and learning to asses.

 

Steps

1. Locate the lesson.

      What prior learning has there been? What are the overall objectives of the teaching unit?

2. Identify the essential intended learning out come.

      These many come from you schemes of work.

  

      3. Structure the lesson as a serie of episodes.

      Remembering that each episode should be introduced and reviewed.

  

      4. Decide how to teach each episode.

      Choose activities that relate directly to achieving the learning objectives.

 

5. Ensure coherence between episodes.

In the second part of the class, we did a unit theme related to animals in danger. We wrote the objectives, language lexis structures and analysis, crosscultural and pronunciation focus, key competences and finally, communicative function: listening, speaking, reading, writing.

ASSESSMENT VIDEOS

Hello again, this is our second post today, this one is related to the videos that we had to watch about assessment. After that we had to make a visual template, this one had to be creative to draw the attention of people.

 

We hope you like!

 

 

 

 

DESIGNING A LISTENING ACTIVITY

Hello everyone, today we are going to share with you one of the group activity that we had to do for  the subject "DESARROLLO DE COMPETENCIAS DE COMUNICACIÓN EN LA LENGUA EXTRANJERA". In this one the teacher gave us a document with some listening activities and we had to choose one of them to create pre-listening, during-listening and post-listening activities.

 

We think this kind of activity is very important for us because it must us to think, imagine and create new activities, which is one of the most important thing for us as future teachers.

 

We hope you like!.

 

 

THE P.E.P.P. MODEL

In today’s class, we have learnt the PEPP model.

This model is divided into two parts:

Firs stage à presentation – exposure.

Second stage à practice – production.

Presentation (Introduce new language items).

The teacher has to create a context in which students perceive the need for the language before it is presented. The input must be comprehensible and the teacher directs the pupil’s attention. The teacher has to introduce the new language using language they already know. To be a good presentation, children have to listen to the word many times and learn vocabulary related to the topic.

 

 

Exposure (to new language items)

The teacher exposes the learners to the new language in different contexts and activities. Students have to use the oral form of the new language. Furthermore, activities like yes/no question and instructions are good to implement comprehension of the new language.

Example:

- Flashcard activities 

- Action songs

- Action stories

- Games

- Stories

  

Practice.

The aim is to shape the language produced by the pupil, so that it conforms to the model provided by the teacher (or other source of input). The common features are imitation, repetition, drilling and correction. This part ends when the students are able to produce the vocabulary without prompting.
 

  

Production.

The aim is to development of automatized and communicative language use. Common activities are pair and group activities (memorize and order flashcard, read lips and guessing words, finds someone who... ‘dialogues, etc). Teacher’s role is to monitor the learner’s performance and to check that communication is taking place.

 

Finally, we watched the next videos about PEPP:
 

We can say that the teacher has to give them the vocabulary they already know, she teaches new vocabulary and then she gives instructions in English with gestures. Also, is very important to attract the child's attention. Ultimately, checking for understand.