Assessment types and tasks Unit 18

In teaching we have to kinds of assessment that are formal and informal. Informal Assessment is when we observe students all time in the classroom, how they interact and use the language. While formal assessment is when the students made a quiz or any piece of work that has to be graded.

Into formal assessment we have many tools that can be apply to our students like: diagnostic test which are done at the beginning of the course to know the level of the student, other is the placement test where we can know in which level the students can be or move according the knowledge of the language. The one which is very current is the progress test which is done in every unit of the book and teacher can give feedback to the students to satisfy the lacking of knowledge of certain content. Other types of tests are the achievement or summative which is taken at the end of the course. Finally, we the proficiency test the one which grated language competence of a student; inside of a those tests we have many questions like multiple-choice questions, gap-fill that require specific information, this kind of question are named objective tasks because they  have just one answer. On the other hand, we have the subjective tasks that do not have a specific answer and it is a student’s production.

 It does not matter what kind of test we as teacher use, only objective of those it to know how fluent and accurate is a students in the target language, and also to find possible problems or misunderstanding that students can acquire in the learning process.

Use these links for more information:

• http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monograph_reports/MR836/MR836.ch3.pdf
• http://www.flinders.edu.au/teaching/teaching-strategies/assessment/tasks.cfm
• http://education.qld.gov.au/staff/learning/diversity/teaching/assessment.htm
• http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/assessinglearning/07/

Practice activitites and tasks fro language and skills development Unit 17

In unit 17 it is shown how a teacher can create their own tasks to make students develop their skills.

How to put grammar structures in order to make students aware of their knowledge, for that we have a controlled, less controlled practice and a very free activities, also their focus is different language aspects like in the interaction, or grammar forms. However, they all want to achieve an accurate form of a language from the students in the target language that most of the time has to be guided by the teacher, first give the model and then let students perform their own production. The practice part can be done by drills which help students to be in content with the new content and practice in order to be more familiar with it. For motivate the interaction we can apply role-plays, information gaps, surveys or simple dialogues.

A teacher should be aware that interaction is essential in an EFL classroom because it is the only place where students can be in contact with the target language for that reason we need a variety of activities that can match with the students interests that can integrate all the skills to help them become competent with the language.

For more information:

• http://www.finchpark.com/courses/tkt/Unit_16/activities.pdf
• http://teacheraleupbc.blogspot.com/2009/05/practice-activities-and-tasks-for.html
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQmZbImkmV0

Presentation techniques and introductory activities Unit 16

Many presentation techniques are used for teachers to catch the students’ attention on the meaning or form of a word for the fist time; and introductory activities are the one which teachers use to give an introduction to the nest topic to the students.

Presentation, practice and production (PPP) is one of the most known techniques for a lesson, here we have the three stages that is the introduction, then lesson´s content and finally the students production; in here the teacher should put the target language in a situational presentation then have a choral drill, controlled practice and question that students have about the lesson content  other is the Task-based learning lesson where students have a model to follow in order to make their own production, but, everything start when teacher contextualize the topic. All the techniques here want to achieve the students’ confidence, then it thinks about the comprehension of the topic and also it promotes those students the work out activities. Activities like: ice-breaker or warm-ups help to activate the prior knowledge of students.

At the end teacher look for grammar structures, or functional exponents that can be meaningful, personalized or relevant for the students and the use of learning styles in class with the correct resources that support the contents on the coursebooks.

If you need more information:

• http://www.finchpark.com/courses/tkt/Unit_15/presentation_techniques.pdf
• https://prezi.com/favx3bysftea/what-are-presentation-techniques-and-introductory-activities/
• https://es.scribd.com/doc/77753211/Presentation-Techniques-and-Introductory-Activities
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5b9gHSPiB8

Approaches to language teaching Unit 15

In an EFL classroom, teacher should manage in a fluent way all what about approaches or methods that are used to teach a language, but, nowadays the communicative approaches are popular because their aim is to make students use the language in real situations, by using communicative activities.

Here it is the structural approaches where the language is concentrated on the structures and there are many controlled practice and the oral skill is learn before writing. And in Task-Based learning where the communication is used by functions and discourse, so the language is learn by its use in problem solving tasks. However, we have a variety of methods and approaches to teach like the PPP (presentation, practice and production) were the language is learn in context with guided tasks, inputs. In the presentation stage is a brief introduction to the topic and then the lesson is full of drills, information-gap tasks and other activities. The lexical approaches where chuck, idioms, collocations are taught. Functional approach which the language is aim in the daily needs of the students to communicate. Communicate approaches in where students need to be accurate with the language by using authentic materials in order to force the interaction in the class. And other more like: grammar translation, total physical response, guided discovery, content-based learning and content and language integrated learning. 

In any case they could be useful in the classroom if the teacher uses the correct motivation, resources to complete the students’ expectations. 

Go to these links for more information:

• http://es.slideshare.net/emma.a/language-teaching-approaches-and-methods
• http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/knowledge-database/approach
• http://moramodules.com/ALMMethods.htm
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r-DRmN42fE

Learner Needs Unit 14

The learners needs, is very different when we talk about teaching other language because they have different motivation be in the classroom, many of them need praise to feel confident with themselves, so recognize and take part on the students’ needs is really significant to become into a good teacher.

In this unit we have two categories that are: kind of needs and reason for needs. In the topic called kind of needs we have the personal needs like goals, expectations or physical needs, too. Other is the learning needs that have to be with the specific way how students learn the subskills or the autonomy that they have during the learning process and finally we have the professional needs like: specific grammar, functions or text types. While in the reason we have aspects like age, gender, motivation, learning experience and professional requirements. For that reason many schools or high schools in our country use the CLIL, which a program where the subject that are taught in the mother tongue are switched into the target language to make the course more relevant.

Teacher should make students work in their skills, and apply all the knowledge about learning strategies in order to keep the pace of a lesson and the interaction pattern in a class.

Here more information:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMDI9lO12_4

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMLAgXDdL0Q

• www.ph-ludwigsburg.de/html/9e...s.../Milstein.pp

• http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/resources/p/professionaldevelopmentpacks/genericresource_tcm4645026.asp

Learner Characteristics Unit 13

In this unit we can recognize the different characteristics of the students that a teacher has to take into account into a lesson planning for an EFL class, there are many aspects in which those element can influent inside of a class and will be determiners for students’ progress.

Here we have the learning styles which determine that kind of activities that can be set for a class; here are some of the learning styles like: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, group, individual, reflective and impulsive. Which the best ways are and how students learn in the classroom; here we have also some learning strategies that can be use are: repeating, taking risks, and guessing meaning, peer-evaluation, paraphrasing. Teacher should take in consideration the maturity that is the students are divided in three categories that are children, teenagers and adults, and these categories are useful because are selected by the physical, mental and emotional maturity the ones that lest a teacher know what kind of content can be taught to the students. A teacher may realize that a student has something like “past language learning experience” it is something that every student has before start English class with a teacher, your pupils will have learn in a different way the grammar structures or vocabulary, so, it can cause some troubles with them until they get accustom with your way of teaching.

Finally, it may say that no matter how well a teacher knows their students in a EFL class cannot be many students because they are not the same at the end and it could be considered as a big obstacle in a class in order to arrange the correct activities for all of them.

Here some links with more information:

• http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/seven-characteristics-good-learners/
• http://elearningindustry.com/8-important-characteristics-of-adult-learners
• http://www.itma.vt.edu/modules/spring11/efund/lesson3/learneranalysis.pdf
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQdMxq1FHps

Differences between L1 and L2 Unit 12

In unit 12, we talk about the differences of L1 and L2, and how it varies depending of the age, context and ways of learning. Let’s do just a remainder that L1 is referring to the mother tongue, while L2 is the target language.

According to the age we have in L1 everything starts when we are babies and this go on in our childhood years and it lasts until our adolescence, because our cognitive skills come along with our age, so students are motivated to interact with people around them. While, we talk about L2 the view change a lot, it starts at the school age and with teenager their attitudes to learn a language is not mature enough, on the other hand, the adults have enough maturity and their expectations are high about learning second language. In the context and the way of leaning the two language are really different in L1 the exposure is all the time a the language can be pick up easily, we learn chunks since we were born, the motivation comes from the necessity of interaction and the use of the vocabulary is simple and we get praise and encouragement from our home all the time. However, in the L2 teachers we are in charge of teach specific structures in a classroom where the exposition to the language in minimums quantity, the practice is controlled by the monitor.

So, we must concentrate on grammar, learning styles and preferences inside the classroom because it is the only place where students can get in contact with the language, teachers have a huge responsibility on their back because they are teaching to communicate and they should do it fun and interesting for all-aged students to become or have a successful EFL classroom.

Here some link with more information:

• http://homepage.ntlworld.com/vivian.c/SLA/L1%20and%20L2.htm
• http://www.powershow.com/view/1ffdd9-MzA2Z/SECOND_LANGUAGE_ACQUISITION_powerpoint_ppt_presentation
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT4jfwwlhz0
• http://www4.ujaen.es/~gluque/L1L2compared.pdf

The role of errors Unit 11

The role of error in the leaning process is important and useful especially in a foreign language. Here we have the mistakes that students commit during their language use and production. Mistakes are divided into two main subcategories that are: slips and errors.

Slips are produce because of tiredness, temporary emotions or worries, they are made because of the lack of concentration; these do not mean that the students do not know the language, and they are corrected by themselves once they recognize the slips. On the other hand, there are the errors which mainly occur because of the mother tongue influences or interferences in the target language production, students make assumptions according to the sound, lexis or grammar structures that seem to be similar to their L1. Other reason that teachers should take into account is the level of language that students have, this can cause that students start to commit developmental errors which are helpful during the process, a good example of this is the overgeneralization which means that students add a specific prefixes or suffixes on words like: played, goed, writed; this is known as interlanguage which means that students create their own version of the language. For this teacher has to be careful when, how and where is correct to correct mistake, because this can have a huge impact on students that can make them lose their confidence at all with the target language, that is why we have the reformulation and prompting, these help us to make the mistake correction softly for students.

In conclusion, teachers have to know when a mistake can be forgiven and when it has to be corrected in order to avoid the fossilization which can cause many problems to the students in higher levels.       

Here some links that can help you:

• http://teflbootcamp.com/tefl-skills/correcting-errors-in-efl/
• http://www.usingenglish.com/articles/well-balanced-use-error-correction.html
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b3tqm2LbYk
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znswuO4goYg

Exposure and focus on form Unit 10

Exposure and focus on form is a unit which shows us many ways that were used and are used to teacher a foreign language. For a foreign language is important the exposure that we can give to our students inside the classroom, so the more language we give the more they can pick up, especially with children. However, it depends on the audience, for example with adults is better if we focus on form because the exposure is not enough for them, as teacher we also have to promote the interaction amount students.   

For the language acquisition is mandatory to know how our brain works, and what kind of methods or approaches we can use with our students such as: grammar-translation a method which is old-fashioned but teacher can use in certain occasions or a method which is the most used nowadays called communicative approach, the one which encourage students to interact with each other, it is necessary to know as teachers that he learning process has many steps and periods and one of the most relevant is the silent period, where students by reading and listening pick the language up; so, after that they are able to produce the language by feeling comfortable and confident with their own knowledge. In addition, we have some strategies that help during the learning process like: paraphrasing, or the use chunks to learn more vocabulary.

Finally, after all those steps the student can achieve the next level that is comprehend all what is he or she doing or production in the target language, and they start to figured out the use of some language forms or features such as: affixes, grammar structures, vocabulary or spelling.    

Here some sources that can help you:

• http://www.eslbase.com/articles/acquisition
• https://aguswuryanto.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/approaches-and-methods-in-language-teaching.pdf
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX2-HR-ZVUY
• http://www.novitasroyal.org/Vol_4_1/baleghizadeh.pdf

Motivation Unit 9

MOTIVATION UNIT 9

The unit 9 is about Motivation, this unit is defined what is motivation and who are the main participants of it, motivation has to be focus on the target language culture meanly. Teachers should promote the self-confidence on students to learn successfully a language; this process also helps to build students’ independence. 

A teacher has to personalize the learners’ process and contents in order to achieve the lesson´s goals. In the classroom, teacher and students are the active part of the learning process; that is why a teacher should look for activities that match with the students’ interests and those topics maybe relevant for their daily lives, too. 

To create a good environment inside of the classroom, we have to look for a comfortable one; in order to activate students’ brain and creativity, which helps to make a lesson active and productive, so the knowledge can be acquire easily and faster, this has to be really important for an foreign language learning classroom because it demands a lot effort from the students and teachers.

As many coursebooks show many activities and contents we as teacher are able to choose the most relevant one to keep our students interests. So, we have to identify the differences between unmotivated (no motivation at all) and demotivated (lost the motivation during the process) students to look for the most appropriate contents and activities for our students.

Here are some links that will help you with more information about Motivation in the classroom:

• http://busyteacher.org/6943-teachers-top-10-ways-to-motivate-students.html    
• http://www.crlt.umich.edu/tstrategies/tsms
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtIMpLbOxAA
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9yOOwGYYfU