Unit 18

Assessment types and tasks

 In this unit I have learnt important things about assessment before to start with it I am going to give a definition for this relevant word in teaching then Assessment means judging learners’ performance by collecting information about it. Within this part we can assess our students in informal or formal way. Let’s talk about informal assessment is when we observe learners to see how well they are doing something while for formal assessment is when we assess learners through tests or exams and them give them a grade or mark.

On the other hand, there are several reasons why we want to assess learners formality then for that we use some types of assessment for instance we have a diagnostic test we use it at the beginning of a course it helps teachers to see what students know or do not know in order to decide what to teach and what learners need to improve whereas, a placement test we apply it to decide what level of class the learners should go into.

Another way of assessing learner’s work through the use of a portfolio this is very common for teachers to use it since it is the collection of learners’ work done during the course one of its advantage is let learners to revise and improve their work.

Regarding to achievement test or summative test, they are used at the end of a course to see how well learners have learnt the contents of the whole course. Finally we have proficiency test it is used to see how good learners are at language in other words it measures the learners’ general skill.

In conclusion assessment takes a significant part in classroom all the time either in a formal or informal way in order to see the learners’ progress.

Here you have some links which contain useful information:

http://www.finchpark.com/courses/tkt/Unit_17/assessment.pdf

http://app.griffith.edu.au/assessment-matters/docs/assessment-methods/tasks

Unit 17

Practice activities and tasks for language and skills development

One of the most significant aspects that the teachers must recognize or get familiar is to know what are practice activities and tasks for language and skills development?  In fact they are designed to give learners opportunities to practice the language through the use the new vocabulary, functional exponents or grammatical structures, or of the subskills of reading.

Let’s tackle controlled activities give students repeated practice in accuracy and the forms of language which allow students to make few mistakes through the use copying words, jazz chants ad drills. Meanwhile free activities, allow students to use whatever language they wish in order to complete a task, however teachers need to take into account that they cannot use these activities to give practice in specific language. Finally, freer activities in which teachers can predict to some extent what language the students will need to use by applying role plays information-gap activities, gap-fills, surveys.

As conclusion, teachers really need to use several kinds of activities in their lessons add variety since it helps to keep lessons more interesting and motivating. 

Here you have some links which contain useful information:

http://www.cambridgetkt.com/tkt-module-1/background-to-language-teaching/practice-activities-and-tasks-for-language-and-skills-development/

Unit 16

Presentation techniques and introductory activities

As future teachers we must really know how to start the class in order to promote students’ interest and attention then in this unit I could learn some presentation techniques and introductory activities which are so useful and helpful for the teachers.

Regarding to presentation techniques, they are the ways used by teacher to focus learners’ attention on the meaning, use and sometimes form o new language.  Let’s have an example of them; Presentation Practice and Production (PPP) a teacher firstly sets up a context for presenting the new language which help students to get familiar with it, after that he/she models the target language for students by using drills and finally the lesson moves on to practice stage.

Referring to introductory activities they are the activities a teacher uses to introduce a lesson then let’s have some examples about them; warmers are often used to raise students’ energy levels or to make them feel comfortable before the lesson starts. Meanwhile lead- ins, introduce the content of the lesson their aim is to focus and motivate students and make a link between the topic of the lesson and students’ own lives.

In order to create a good environment of learning teachers should use some of those presentation techniques and introductory activities since they are based on important aspects about how to teach a second language in a practical way.

Here you have some links which contain useful information:

http://teacheraleupbc.blogspot.com/2009/05/presentation-techniques-and.html

Unit 15

Approaches to language teaching

As every single teacher know there is not a perfect approach or method to teach a language since it depends on how well teachers use each of them to make the learning meaningful and successfully. However, in this unit the terms approaches and methods will be used interchangeably as they are in the TKT to refer to views of language and language learning.

Let’s mention some of those methods and approaches by citing the most important aspects from each of them for instance:

Presentation, practice and production (PPP) it is based on grammatical structures and functions the main parts of language this also involve some useful classroom practices such as: lessons move from the presentation stage to the practice stage to the production stage and typical activities are situational presentations and miming at the presentation stage, drills at the controlled activities. Meanwhile, for lexical approach it is focused on vocabulary which consists of individual words and different kinds of chunks such as collocations, idioms and fixed expressions. Finally, content and language integrated learning (CLIL) in it the language serves to communicate meaning referring to view of language learning it is learnt mainly through acquisition whereas the syllabus is based round learning about the subject matter an cognitive(thinking and learning) skills relate to a school subject.

To sum up, many teachers want to know which approach to teaching is better but in fact it is difficult to say that one approach is better than another since each of those methods and approaches are focused on different purposes to teach the language the key is that teachers have to choose the ones which can help students in their learning process.

Here you have some links which contain useful information:

http://es.slideshare.net/emma.a/language-teaching-approaches-and-methods

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/knowledge-database/approach

UNIT 14

Learner needs

As future teachers we must really know what are learner needs? In order to use helpful and practical methods that can help our students in learning a foreign language since there are different kinds of learner needs might affect what teachers do in the classroom.

Let’s talk about kind of needs, personal needs involve praise, movement, goals, learning expectations and other psychological or physical needs and also in this part the reason needs include cultural or educational background, motivation and personality. On the other hand, learning needs take an important part in students’ learning process and progress since those refer to the use of specific target language, specific language subskills by taking into account the learning styles. Finally, professional needs teacher should pay attention in specific subskills, specific use of vocabulary and grammar but mainly specific use of functions since they help students to use a language for specific purpose.

As a final and significant point to mention is that adults or older teenagers with specific professional, general or academic goals for learning English need courses that meet their needs for instance we have a series of one to one lessons over eight weeks on business presentation skills.

In conclusion, teachers can address learners’ needs by taking into consideration such as; choose a suitable materials and topics, approach to teaching, pace of lessons but mainly they should integrate more interaction patterns which help students to develop their confidence in use the language.

Here you have some links which contain useful information:

http://www.itma.vt.edu/modules/spring11/efund/lesson3/learneranalysis.pdf

http://es.slideshare.net/hbeetham/learner-needs-v1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRKJFEtyKP0

Unit 13

Learner characteristics

To effectively choose teaching methods and help students learn, teachers must first know learner characteristics since they could come from very different backgrounds and have various learning needs. In fact, those characteristics involve learning styles, learning strategies and maturity.

Let’s tackle learning styles they describe the way people process new incoming information . On the other hand, they relate to the physical sense we use to learn, our way of interacting with other people and our style of thinking. There are three types of learning styles. Learners receive process and retain information by using visual, auditory or kinesthetic learning styles.

Regarding to visual learners learn best through watching and looking,  body language, gestures and facial expression of their teachers to. Meanwhile, auditory learners learn best by listening and hearing as well as they prefer to thoroughly discuss materials and often pay close attention to the pitch, tone, words and speed of which teachers deliver their messages. Finally, kinesthetic learning involves the need for a student to touch and feel elements of their surroundings in order to retain information. 

Referring to learning strategies are the ways that learners choose and use to learn language by taking into account that the right strategy at the right time can help us learn the language better.  Let’s cite the most useful learning strategies; asking the teacher or others to give you feedback on your language use and thinking about how to memorise all the new words you meet in each lesson.

Let’s talk about maturity involves becoming grown up physically, mentally and emotionally. Children, teenagers and adults have different levels of maturity which means they learn in different ways.

In conclusion, teachers must know all of those characteristics to help and guide their students successfully however it is not possible for the teachers to match the learner characteristics of each learner all the time. Across a number of lessons teachers can try to vary how they teach so that they can match learner characteristics of a range of learners.

Here you have some links which contain useful information:

http://coerll.utexas.edu/methods/modules/learners/01/characteristics.php

http://es.slideshare.net/clarindabrown/skill-acquisition-characteristics-of-the-learning

Unit 12

Differences between L1 and L2 learning 

The relationship between how people learn their first language (L1) and how they learn their second language (L2) differ in many ways since when we acquire our first language we learn from exposures while when we learn the second language through input.

On the other hand, there are some differences between L1 and L2 learning such as:  how you get a language, amount of time, the age, the setting and motivation for using the language. First of all, there is the difference in the way to pick up a language such as acquiring for L1 or learning for L2, but L2 could also be picked up as a native language if the person lives in a country where the target language is used; there is also another in factor such as time for picking up L1 and L2, of course L1 is learnt faster for picking up L1 is learned more meaningfully than learning L2.

Another big difference between L1 and L2 learning is that L1 learning is nearly always fully successful, while L2 learning varies a lot in how successful it is.

Finally, learning a second language is really difficult but if teachers use some practical strategies, methods or techniques they could help their students to learn the language in a helpful way. For example, in the classroom, praising learners can be very motivating especially for younger learners respond well to praise since they keep working when receive something.

There are some links below which are useful to increase your knowledge in this topic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDkvkbHUP7E 
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/knowledge-database/second-language-acquisition-sla 

Unit 11 

The role of error 

Are mistakes good or bad?

Let me say something obvious first: mistakes are bad. If one had a choice between saying a sentence correctly and saying it with a mistake, nobody in their right mind would choose saying it with a mistake and no teacher would recommend that. However there are some reasons that teachers sometimes say that mistakes shouldn’t be avoided is that they believe one of two things (or both):

1. Those mistakes are an inseparable part of the learning process; therefore, the only way to avoid language mistakes would be to avoid speaking and writing in a foreign language, and that would be bad. (the “Mistakes are inevitable” group)
2. That making mistakes, and having them corrected, is a good way to learn a language. (The “Mistakes are good” group.)

In addition, making mistakes plays a significant part in language because it allows learners to experiment with language and measure their strengths and weakness in communicating.

On the other hand, teachers need to know that mistakes are divided into errors and slips. To have a clear idea of what refer each of them let’s gives a definition; error occurs when a learner uses language unconsciously in order to understand and learn it but they cannot correct errors themselves because they do not understand what is wrong. Meanwhile, slips occur as result of tiredness, worry or everything can disturb students’ concentration which makes them to commit slips it could be when they are speaking or writhing.

Another important point why learners make errors is the influence of learner’s first language (mother tongue L1) on the second language L2 this is called interference or transfer. In this part teachers should be aware that learners sometimes use the second language in the same way that they use their mother tongue it includes lexis or grammatical structures.

As a final relevant aspect from this unit and it is fossilation of errors may be the result of lack exposure to the L2, the result of a learner’s conscious or unconscious lack of motivation to improve their accuracy.

In conclusion, making mistakes is a good way to learn a language since it can helps learners to improve or realize what they are doing well or wrong with language but of course teachers take a significant role in this due to they should correct those mistakes in a positive way. 

Here you have an interesting video about the role of error 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cipFuDxiF2Y

This is a good power presentation about this topic:

http://es.slideshare.net/MelissaFerrer/learner-errors-and-error-analysisppt-rev

Unit 10 

Exposure and focus on form

 In this article we are going to mention some useful ways of how to achieve it. For instance we have exposure according to some experts they say that we can learn a language by hearing or reading it all around us and without studying it. In fact, the persons who learn their first language in this way are children since they learn it unconsciously by imitating sounds patterns or repeating words articulated by their exposures such as: parents, relatives or environment

On the other hand, experts say that to learn a foreign language as adults, exposure to language is not enough since we need to focus on the form of the foreign language it means that we need to know or get familiar with its correct pronunciation, the use of grammar, spelling and the correct use of vocabulary as well as we need to know that an effective an useful way of learning a language is to use it to interact.

Let’s tackle three main ways in which we learn a foreign language. Firstly, language acquisition in this way the learner concentrates on the communicative act and not on the form or correctness of the language it means that acquisition of a language is very similar to the way children learn their first language and constitutes a simple but natural way of language acquisition.

Secondly, another way to learn a foreign language is interaction this is one of the most relevant aspect since we can learn from others for example we may start a conversation with a native speaker once we finish our conversation we could notice if he/ she understood what we were saying but if they have not understood us we may use other language in this case paraphrasing it can be helpful until we can achieve a successful conversation and also we can use chunks or structures to be direct or understood.

Thirdly, as we know learning a language is not an easy job since we have to take into account its formal features such as: pronunciation, word order, and grammatical structures due to it helps us to use the language appropriately.

What are some tips that can help us to acquire a foreign language?  In fact, there are many tips but we are going to mention the most useful ones for instance; we need to hear or read a wide variety of language since it can help us to increase our vocabulary. Another tip to acquire language is to do project works since they let us investigate new terms, as well as develop our reading and writing skills. While if teachers want their students focus on the form they may ask them to highlight conjunctions in a text which make them think in what is a conjunction , how does it work in a text.

Finally, acquiring a foreign language is difficult but if we have a good exposure with it we could learn without many problems and also is significant to point out that we can learn a language by focusing on form of it, it means that we need to pay attention not just to the meaning of language but also to its formal features.