UNIVERSITATEA LIBERA INTERNATIONALA DIN MOLDOVA (CATEDRA LIMBA $f LITERATURA ENGLEZA, ANAGOREA DIDACTICA PREDARII LIMBH ENGLEZE CChisinas 2000UNIVER’ TEA LIBERA INTERNATIONALA DIN MOLDOVA, CATEDRA LIMBA $I LITERATURA BNGLEZA, ANA GOREA DIDACTICA PREDARH LIMBH ENGLEZE de eo penta si Chisinin 2000Before starting the course it is worthwhile discussing briefly the difference between three words, which are often used when talking about teaching languages: technique, method and approach. fe use the word approach we mean that an idea in theory teacher does, certain theoretical principles are always borne in mind. When we talk about a ‘we mean @ procedure used in the classroom. Finally, a m nique, tod is a set ‘of procedures or a. col cchniques used in 2 systematic way ‘which it io hoped will result in efficio A technique then is the narrowest term, meaning one single procedure, A method will consist of 2 number of techniques, probably arranged in a specific order. The word approach is much more general teacher uses, he/she doce he/she b srefore have a hierar theory in wi we that different approaches may share the same techniques and even the same methods; and different methods may share the same techniques. Before proceeding furthe U5 remember about your exp: about studying a language or your mother tongue when you were Dbabies. What is done with language first? Do we spoak it since ws fare born? No, we listen to it first. For about a year we 5 language and then begin to pronounce cf words, simple sentences and by the age of three lables, simple combi already tel] whole stories, But this is not everything we language. At about the age of 6-7 riothers begin to worry abou: of her child. Which is that? Yes, 1 schoo! children learn to read and write. So, these are ‘we, humane, do with a language and this is event in the ‘want to learn a foreign language, Theee are called Four ‘Skills, which come in the fl sing natural ordar: Lisersng, § Reading, Writing. Two of thera and namely Listening and Reading are ive and the other twe Speaking and Writing are productive ‘approaches in teaching a foreign language that are known ime are characterved by what emphasis they put om the development of this or other ei So, ihe following chapter will examine the diversity of approaches found in language teaching today. But ‘would agree that one of st teachers to communicate in the 8 to the reans they should use te achieve “There is no single acceptable way to go ebout teaching languages today”. This quote from Disna Larsen-Preeman’ w ear chance to try speaking the mew language. Others, more reserved prefer to listen and understand before speaking, some find that studying the grammar is an important step, others never study the the teacher uses different es taken from a variety of sources. By varying the technique each student aall be given the chance to shine ‘some of the time,(Chapter One. Approaches in Language Teaching. 1. Traditional language teaching” a) Grammar Translation Method ) Direct Method ) Audiolingual Method I. Communicative language teaching 4) Communicative approach ») Total Physical Response ©) The Natural Approach 4d} Competency-Based Approach HI. Innovative language teaching a) The Silent Way. ») Community Language Learning *) Suggestopedii @ radional Langage Teaching The Grammar Translation Method, the Direct! Method and! they Audiolingual Method still. strongly inffuence foreign language instrostiominmany:perta.of the workday eee piety ‘The Grammar Translation Method was the offspring of German ‘method was commonly used in Europe to teach Latin in schools. It has had different names. At one time it was called Classical ‘Method since it was first used in the teaching of classical languages, Latin and Greek. At the beginning of the XX century the method was grammar of the target language, students would become more familiar with the grammar of their native language and that the familiarity ‘would help them speak and write their native languiage better. Finally, it was thought that foreign language learning would help students grow intellectually; it woe recognized that students would probably7 Gouin had been one of the first of the 19th century reformers to ‘attempt to build a methodology around observation of child language learning, that is to naturalistic principles of studying a language, ‘Among these who tried to apply natural principles to language lasses in the 19% century was LSauveur (1826-1907), who used intensive oral interaction in the target language. Sauveur and other Delcvers in the Natural Method lgued that aitoreiga language cou | In the United States Maximilian Berlitz used this method succesfully in commercial language schools (though Berlitz referred to the method as Berlitz Method). n | i i yoy iH :Direct, Method, written for: children cause problems. ‘They:are not, _Susrantecd,to,be,culturallysaccessibie. A textbook used in Africa describes children having comflakes for breakfast, putting on their Wellington boots because itis raining and catching a doubledecker bbus to go to school. The teacher’ role is to provide the necessary cultural translation. i 2 In a book called Verbal Behaviour, the psychologist, Skinner. applied this theory of conditioning to the way humans acquire first lenguage. ‘The entry of the USA into the Second World War had a rons gal apgvcesi ly fechas Maced PLEA Richy significant effect on language teaching in America. To supply the U.S. could best be taught by using it actively in the classroom, rather than uusing analytical procedures that focus on explanation of grammar rules in classroom teaching, teachers must encourage direct and use of the foreign language in the classroom. Learners il tel Bao See HE Hi in bas eo programs for military personnel. Thus the Army Specialized Training systematic attention to pronuncia tion, Known words could be used to Program was established in 1942, Fifty.five American universities teach new vocabulary, using mime, demonstration and pictures. were involved in the program by the beginning of 1943. ‘The objective of the army personnel was for students to attain conversational proficiency in a variety of foreign languages. Since this ‘was not the goal of conventional foreign language courses in the US, new approaches were neceseary. Linguists, such a= LeonardBloomfield at Yale, had already developed training programs as part of their linguistic research that were designed to give lingulsts and languages. The technique Bloomfield and his colleagues used was Sometimes known as the “informant method”, since it used a native ‘speaker of the language ~ the informant ~ who served as a source of phrases and vocabulary and who provided sentences for imitation, and a linguist, who supervised the learning experience. ‘The Army Specialized Training Program lasted only about two years but attracted considerable attention in the popular press and in the academic community. But the linguists who developed ASTP were not interested primarily in language teaching. The “methodology” of the Army Method, derived from the intensity of contact with the target language rather than from any well-developed methodological basis. It intensive, oral-based approach to the learning of a foreign language. Linguists and applied linguists during this period were ‘becoming increasingly involved in the teaching of English as a foreign Janguage. America had now emerged as a major international power ‘There was a growing demand for foreign expertise in the teaching of English. Thousands of foreign students entered the United States to study in universities, and many of these students required training in English before they could begin their studies. These factors led to the ‘emergence of the American approach to ESL, which by the mid-fities had become Audiolingualism. Distinguishing features..fn the Audiolingual Method, skills aze ‘taught in the natural-order: listening, speaking, reading, writings.y Audiolingual classes begin with a dialogue, which introduces the Jesson’s sentence patterns. The students memorize this dialogue, then Practice grammar in drills such as listen and repeat, substitution, chain, and traneformation NSGSPSP IAI PRORUAIAton is emphasized and fostered through minimal pair diils where students lain to Aierentiate between sounds such a8 the vowels in ‘ship’ or ‘sheep’, ‘uit'and ent, “st and ‘eat: SSR ‘vGraiiatioa complesigy. Translation, considered to cause interference from the mother tongue, ie not allowed SHAS tightly controled by the teacher, sho fllows the text closely, _ Soy the Audiolingnal Method, 1. Forel language learning is basically a process of mechanical habit formation: Good habits are formed by giving correct responses rather than by micking mistakes, By. memoriring dialogues and performing patter drils the chances of preducing mistakes are minimized. Language ie verbal behavior ~ that i, the automate production and comprehension of utterances ~ and can be learned by inducing the students to do lense 2. Uanguage’sklisvare learned more effectively if the ltems to be, _ leamed invthe-target language arc presented in spoken form befage @ theyrare,seenin.writtenform’ Aural-oral training is needed to provide the foundation forthe development of other language skills 9: Analogy provides Better foundation for language leaning thap [TaRAIYSiaY Analogy involves the processes of generalization and discrimination. Explanations of rules are therefore not gven until students have practiced a pater in a variety of contexts and are taught 10 have acquired @ perception ofthe analogies, Hence, the pproach tothe teaching of grammar is essentially inductive rather than deductive guonrecransagne in fo aaapacee “Tbignage (Rivers 1964:19-2)identify the language needed in a variety of someone immigrating to Common Market countries. sought to evaluate how language itself is used, how nati ‘2 major impact on the teaching of ‘Teachers and curriculum designers began to look at content, at the kind of language needed when greeting or shopping. The emphasis on form, on explicitly learning grammar rules or practicing grammatical patterns, was downplayed in favour of an approach designed to mect rs’ needs when using the language in daily interaction. The table that follows shows some of the differences between Grammar ‘Translation, Audiolingual and Communicative Language Teaching, A comparison of distinguishing features of three approaches to language teaching Grammar Audiotingual Communicative Translation Method Lang Teaching Grammar rules —| Central Not explained | Explained when | feature Necessary | Meaningfal Not important | Limited Central feature Communication = Pronunciation | Not considered | Target __~) Target, = "| native-tike | comprehensibie | ee of wanalation | Central Forbidden [Used when’ feature i ‘Sequencing —_of | Follows lessons linguistic | complexity ‘Teacher student | Teacher- Roles centered “Attitudes to errors | Accuracy ‘Aecuracy Errors part of| emphasized | emphasized | learning Balance of Reading and| Listening and] Skills taught [Brome ss “Torte pea" atang Se ee [emphasized [emphasized _| learners’ needs | Communicative approach The emphasis i placed on using the target language to accomplish @ function such as complaining, advising, or asking for information. Attation is also pad to the social context in which this fonction takes place. For instance, diferent language will be used ‘when complaining 19 teacher than when complaining to @ close frend _Disunguishing-featurés, All four language skills are taught from the beginning. In "speaking the amis tobe understood, not to speak lke a native Inthe _settencing of lessons, priory is given to earner interests and needs, ‘This is the contrast to a grammar driven method, which may start with verb tenses, and work through from the present simple to the condtionals. In a Communicative approach if learner needs to know how to give advice (I I were you, T would...) then this conditional is action between speakers and listeners or readers and the root of all activities. Chapters on teaching Speaking, tening give many examples of the kind of activities to be found in a classroom following the communicative approach Leamers “usually work in pairs or groups for role play, information sharing of problem solving, » Exercises using authentic materials are a hallmark of the Communicative approach. Authentic materials, such as newspapers | eames nen ereatonnte oelecind oo shat jeerneseicensprentige language in real situations where possible.belt that (a) comprehension abilities precede productive sills in learning a language; () the teaching of speaking should be delayed "anti comprehension skis are established; sils acquired through listening transfer to other skile; (d) teaching should emphasize meaning than form; and (e) teaching should minimize learner stress. Distinguishing features,’ language acquisition. Learners are gven diferent commands Hike “Go to the blackboard. “Look at the box’. They are to full the commands. Afer the first stage of listening to the teacher, the students will be ready to speak. During the second stage, they will take over directing the teacher or other students in parts of or in the whole ation sequence. In 1977, Tracy Terrell, a teacher of Spanish in California, ‘outlined “a proposal for a ‘new’ philosophy of language teaching which he called the Natural Approach”. This was an attempt to develop a language teaching proposal that incorporated the “naturalistic” principles researchers had identified in studies of second language acquisition. The Natural Approach grew out of Terrell’s experiences teaching Spanish classes. He joined forces with Stephen Krashen, an applied linguist at the University of Southem California and claborated a theory for the Natural Approach. -sofflanguage;,,and since their approach focuses on teaching ‘communicative abilities, they refer to the Natural Approach as an example of a communicative approach. Language is viewed as a vehicle for communicating meanings and messages. Hence, they state ‘that “acquisition can take place only when people understand messages in the target language’. They developed lanai I the next stage"(1989:32). Krashen refers to this as the formulaF+4” fe. Krashen also sees the learner's emotional state or attitudes as, ‘an adjustable filter that freely passes, impedes or blocks input necessary to acquisition. A low allective liter is desirable, since it Jimpedes or blocks less of this necessary input."encouraged to produce as much language as possible. Blements of [SOIR pricey thouancekeichartecstelea jenaire rods, grew educational designer (cuisenaire rods were leveloped by George Cuisenaire, a Buropean educator who used them for the teaching of math. Gattegno naire and this gave him the idea for their use in hares a great deal with other learning theories and educational philosophies. Very broadly put, the learning hypothesis underlying Gattegno's work could be stated as follows: 1. Learning is facilitated if the learner discovers or creates rather than remembers and repeats what is to be learned: 2. Learning is facilitated by accompanying (mediating) physical objects. 3. Learnifig is facilitated by problem solving involving the material to be learned, which represent Benjamin Franklin's words: In the Silent Way learners are actively responsible for their own learning. Learning a language is seen not as a process of habit formation, as is advocated by the Audiolingual Method, but rather al process whereby the learner discovers the rules of the target language land then applies those rules to understand and use the language: In other words, learning is more effective iflearners discover the rules for themselves, rather than just remembering and repeating what is to be “leamed. A basic premise of the Silent Way is that the teacher should talic as litle as possible and should encourage the learner to speak as ‘mush as possible. Mistakes are considered part of the process of discovering the rules, and the teacher should not interfere in the _ process by correcting the learner's mistakes. All four language skills are taught from the beginning, though, reading and writing are sequenced to follow what has been produced sound-color chart, The teacher and students make up sentences, point to words on the chart and read the sentences they have spoken. ‘Third, there are sounds of the language with their spelling. For example, @y’, ea, ci, and ‘igh’, which are all different spellings of the sound [i] in English, they ae listed and color coded together Ciusenaire rods (bite of wood of varying length ond differing colours) are used to introduce vocabulary and structures. At the beginning level they can be used to teach numbers and colors (take two red rods"). At an intermediate level they can be used to teach comporatives (The blue rod is bigger than the red one"). At a later stage they can be used to teach conditionale (FT had a blue one, 1 woul give i 0 you") ‘The Silent Way is designed to be used with small groups. Teachers using this method usually undergo intensive training in its technique ‘and philosophy. What can be useful in this method is that what learners discover for themselves is retained and owned in a more permanent and meaningful way than are materials which have been Packaged and only require students to memorize them. Second, is the dea of peer coaching in a noncompetitive environment. Having presented the material, the teacher stands back and lets his students experiment with the rules and generate talk in English, The teacher's role during this group work is to make sure that the group atmosphere is open to the contribution ofall its members,‘28 Counseling-learning. Community Language Leaming represents the use of Counseling Learning theory to teach languages, In Community Language Learning, the aim is to involve the leamer's whole personality: Affective and intellectual well-being are given equal weight. CLL draws its insights and rationale from counseling techniques. The teacher it the counselor who aves seit strecoportttalnienen EME: TH+ teacher's role is to understand the learners’ fears and vulnerabilities a they strug to master another language By blog tensive othe are yh teacher an tun tenga ener ofthese re 1. Translation. Learners form a small circle, A learner whispers a ‘message or meaning he or she wants to express. The teacher ‘translates it into the target language, and the leamer repeats the teacher's translation. 2. Group work ‘Learners may engage in various tasks, such as small group discussion of a topic, preparing a conversation, preparing a summary of a topic for presentation to another “seoTranserion. Students transcribe utterances and conversations they have recorded for practice and analysis of the linguistic, forme. Students analyze and study transcriptions of the target language sentences in order to focus on particular lexical "usage or on the application of particular grammar rales, 6: Reflection andl observation. Learners reflect and report on their experiences, a8 a class or as a group. They usually consist of expressing feelings ~ sense of one another, reactions to silence, concer for something to say, ete. “Ts Uistenings, Students listen to a monologue by the teacher involving elements they might have elicited or overheard in class interactions. | 8: Free conversation Students engage in free conversation with the teacher or with other learners. This might include discussion of what they learned as well as feelings they had about how they learned, Like the Silent Way, CLL is a method which works best in small ing lively activities, which make learning fun. Second, CLL ‘encourages learners to produce their own materials. By helping the students to write their stories which are then published in the school magazine, organizing them to write and act plays or skits, and developing project work, the teacher may accomplish two goals: to give students a sense of ownership and pride and to sidestep the problem of trying to teach with few or inadequate textbooks.Suggestopedia is a method developed by the Bulgarian paychiatrist- educator Georgi Lovanov. Suggestopedia is a specific set of learning recommendations derived from Suggestology, which Lozanov describes as a *..science ... concerned with the systematic study of the nonrational and/or nenconscious influences" that Jhuman beings are constantly responding to. Lozanov believes that language learning can be made more efficient if the psychological order to make better use of learners’ capabilities, Lozanov has developed process of “desuggestion’, which he has applied to x learners’ fear into positive energy and ‘enthusiasm for language learning. __ Distinguishing features. In Suggestopedia, great attention is paid to the environment. ‘The seating is as comfortable as possible, the lightening is not harsh, and music plays in the background. Colourful posters and charts are pinned on the wall: The posters chow attractive sights in the target language country. The charts contain grammatical information which, in causal readings, the students will absorb without conscious effort. The Suagestopedia teacher's tone is slays calm as students aze seassored that language leaming is easy and fun. At the beginning of the lesson, the teacher briefly presents the vocabulary and the grammar. The text for the day is _ ¥en tothe students; nthe Jef column the text i in the target "language; in the right column it is in the students’ mother tongue. ‘The teacher reads the text, while music plays in the background. The students relax, close their eyes and listen. For homework, the students are asked to read the text juat before going to bed and on setting up inthe morning, The teacher leads the class in role play, ‘question and answer, and other activities based on the text. During these activities, students are invited to use their imagination and to take on new names and new personalities in the target language. ‘They are encouraged to visualize themeelves as succeseful people in their new identities, with exciting jobs and a good standing in the community. One of the main principles of Suggestopedia is that the learners’ environment has a powerful impact on their learning. This principle raises interesting questions for the teacher. You may bring some posters of English-speaking countries to hang on the walls, your own tape recorder. You may also make charts with certain grammar points you have recently presented. This will add ceajoyment and novelty to Having deseribed in short some of the methods of teaching English as a foreign language, we may conclude that no one is sulficient on its own. While teaching different learning styles have to be taken into consideration, and especially those you feel that ‘work with your students in definite surroundings. The main thing is that your students should be interested in learning the language. Chapter One. Check-up questions, 1. Which are the distinguishing features of the three mentioned Language ‘Teaching Approaches (Traditional, Communicative, Innovative)? 2. Which method would you like to choose for yourself, considering the class of students you teach and the circumstances? 3. Which method do you consider the most efficient? What is good ‘about i? 4, Which method was used while you were taught English? Did it ‘work? What would you have liked to change?Chapter Two. Child Developmental Principles and Age Characteristics Developmental characteristics of young learners Working with young learners Working with middle schoo! learners Working with adults Abilities that help 1. Developmental cherzeteristies of young Ys why it ie iy ‘which will help the teacher in planning his/her work. In the chart that follows you can observe some of the characteristics of young learners and those are the co ‘sown that learners beneSt from a longer, uninterrupted guage study ‘opmental characteristics of children ages 6-10 © Concrete operational (ages 7-10) children stil need concrets experiences, but they can solve problems more logically; they ‘can think beyond the idea of ‘set, ‘According to the Canadian educator Kieran Egan , children ages four/five to nine/ten are in the “mythic” stage of development, in emotions, such as love, hate, fear, joy; and morals, such as good or bad, In order to plan effective learning experiences for children in the mythic stage, Bgan suggests experiences thatshe/ 2) be real 4) j 4) choose the style to st 1. enable leamers to interpret what they are learning in terms of ng qualities: lustrate clear, unambiguous meaning, such as good or evil ‘Since children in the mythic stage are open to imagination and hhich help them learn another language. They: are already very good at interpreting meaning without necessarily understanding the individual words; take groat pleasure have d ready imagination; above ail take great d ‘The task of the teacher is to be able to build om al don't expect children to be angeles ‘oti’ a clase and which ‘settle’ thems "8 minds and whieh keep ) know whieh act ) Know whish a them physically occupied; the mood. 1's one thing when the fst and another, if lesson is Bs iren come to your class after Physical Trainings rense the materials rouse a core of ideas, her's voice should not be angry, not nagging, powerful; mportant, repetition; be creative with the textbook; } after each lesson think about what went welll and whys 1) encourage industry, use praise and criticism, 8. Working with middle school leamere Middle school learners view issues in terms of right or wrong: demonstrate a strong sense of| tice and work continuously for an important cause; - are fascinated with the extremes of what exists and what is known; are able to memorize and retain massive amounts in details strive to define themselves as indi gain identity by bec - look at adults as being ‘The lessons conducted - student-contored, students should be encouraged to tale rise, negotiate meanings, try new learning strategies, express their ideas, respect different points of view, interact with peer a sense of interactive and communie: - folow 2 spiral approach. Previously taught material should be re- entered and new expressions and more complex language of learning, euch as aural, visual, kinesthetic; appeal to students’ curiosity and fascination: should be taught through a focus do but why they do that way; «each lesson should feature a balance between skill-getting, skill: using and strategy training activities. only of what people ‘The teacher shou have « positive + demonstrate warmth; cept; be optimistic, enthusiastic, flexible, spontaneous;- sccept students as individuals; + demonstrate awareness of developmental levels; + use a variety of instructional activities and matesials; use concrete materials and focused learning strategies; incorporate indirectness 1 teaching: incorporate “success-building” behavior in teaching. 4. Working with adults Working with adults is qui ask "What is the cheapest, ea her thing. The adult will always that?" Working with adults the envionment must be physically and peychologically comfortable. The adult learner is characterized by the allowing: ‘improve competencies; serates new ideas with what he/she already knows; takes errors personally and is more likely to let them affect seit: cetecrn; + has expectations, + brings a great deal of life experience into the classroom: - learns well and much. 5. Abilities that help lrsespective of the age group all learners possess some abilities that help them in mastering a foreige language, and these are: 1. Ability to grasp the meaning. ‘This is the ability when learners are able to understand what is them what the unknown words and phrases probably mean. By understanding the message in this way they start to understand the language, which is a findamental part of human communication. The teacher's task is to support and develop this stall by making full use of gesture, intonation, demonstration, facial expressions to convey meaning parallel 1 what he/she is saying. 2, Creative use of limited language resources. Jn the early stages of their mother tongue development children excel at making a litte language go a far way. They art ing”, The same phenomenon happens when learning a forcign, language. Remember how many times you used a mother tongue word “with a foreign ending. We find other ways of conveying the meaning ymunicate. In doing so we are actually Dullding up our grasp of the language because we are actually recombining and constructing it for ourselves. 3. Capacity for indizect learning. Even when the teachers are controlling an activity fairly closely, learners sometimes seem to notice something out of the corner of their ‘eyes and to remember it better than what they were actually supposed. to be learning. At times this can be a frustrating for the teacher but this capacity too can be turned to our advantage in the language classroom. Guessing is actually a very powerful way of leering phrases and structures, but it is indirect because the mind is engaged with the ‘task and not focusing on the language, The process relates very closely to the way we acquire it through continuous exposure and use. Roth conscious direct learning and subconscious indirect learning, ot‘acquisition’ +o help someone internalize a new language. Experience tells that we all seem to have something of both systems in 4. The instinct for play and fun, It is more characteristc for Ueie children but adult learner will also be delighted to have fun fr to time, Through fun and play learners are living the language for real 8, The role of imagination. It is also true of learning a language. A person without 2 rich imagination doesn’t excel much. The teacher should be able to 8 che learners’ creative imagination for developing their speaking stalls. Chapter Three, Planning your teaching WE CANNOT DIRECT THE WIND BUT WE CAN ADJUST THE SAILS |A major responsibilty of any teacher involves mapping out the long-term goals for the course and the school term, as well as the ‘outlines and plans for each lesson. The function of testing is then to check that goals and objectives have been met. At one point in “Alice in Wonderland”, Alice meets the Chesiire Cat, sitting on the bough of a tree in the fork of @ road. Should she go left or right Alice wondered, “Cheshire Puss", she began, “would you tell me please, which way T ‘ought to walk from here? “That depends & good deal on where you want to get t0,", said the cat “Idon’t care much where...” said Alice “Then it docen't matter which way you walle” eaid the Cat. “So long as I get somewhere,” Alice added, as an explanation, “Oh, you're sure to do thet,” said the Cat, “if you only walk jong enough.” Unfortunately Alice's approzch is shared by some teachers, who ‘think that if they just begin a lesson and talk long enough they are bound to get somewhere. However, working without lang-term goals land short-term objectives leads to lessons that lack focus and from prompts, asking and ‘Reading. Students read a text and answer questions or do a simple task {complete a table). Listening, The teacher reads @ text or dialogue while puy land answer questions, Where it is possible students may ¥) ‘cassette Review. The teacher reviews the language learnt in an earlier lesson to refresh pupils’ memories as a preparation for a new presentation. lt must be borne in mind that stages are in no fixed order. The teacher can plan the lesson as he feels to be better. Each stage could occur several times in a single lesson, When we talle abo tages of & lesson, we are thinking of the main focus of the lesson. It is important for the leazners to know the aim of the lesson as a whole and the purpose of each stage. For the teacher important to introduce each stage of the lesson, by eaying "Now, we are going to do this or that. TIL Writing a lesson plan ‘To write @ plan is very important and it should be written not for the benefit of the inspector or head teacher, its main purpose should be to help the teacher. Writing a plan helps the teacher not only to ropare for the lesson and to decide exactly what he has to do at every stage and how to do it, but also to appreciate what has been done and how was done. So, looking at the plan again after the lesson the teacher can use it to evaluate what happened (Did he do what be planned? Was each stage successful? What could he do to improve the lesson?) Here is an example ofa Lesson Plan. ‘Aien: To practise talking about clothes, materiais and colours, New vocabulary: Adjectives: woolen, leather, cotton, nylon, plastic, ‘Structures: Present ring . 1, Review. Show pictures of clothes, Students give words: cuat, hat, shirt, skirt, dress, etc 2. Presentation. Show objects mate of wool, leather, plastic. Present new adjectives: write them on the beard. 3. Practice, She's wearing a green cotton dress, Pair work: A. What's she wearing? B. She's wearing a green cotton dress. 4, Weiting. 1. Write on the board: last week-end { was wearing 2.Students write sentences about themselves. 3. Collect about 10 students’ papers. Read them out, Others guess who wroie them, 5, Reading, Read the text about whet people wear in different ‘countries. Ask and answer questions on it, very teacher may choose his own way of writing a lesson plan. For a teacher beginner it is absolutely necessary to write a more detailed lesson plan and for a more experienced teacher a schematic one would do. The main thing is for the lesson to have an al, to be divided intostages, to have all necessary visual aids prepared. Plans may be kept ain to teach the same material to other classes another ‘time, if the textbook doesn't change. You may always improve them, add new things and materials to them. Check-up Questions 1. What is necessary for the teacher to know before going to a lesson? 2. What questions must the teacher answer while planning the lesson? 3. Which are the main stages ofa lesson? 4, In what order must the stages be presented? 5. What does 2 good lesson depend on? tones 1 Teaching Pronunciation 2. Presenting vocabulary 2) Presenting New words ) Vocabolary expansion ¢) Presenting new structures 4) Showing meaning through a situation ¢} Using the blackboard Jn the Direct and the Audiolingual Methods, a great deal of attention is paid to achieving native-like pronunciation, This attention takes the form of drills such as minimal paire (ship’~ ‘sheep’, ‘hit’ ~ ‘heat, etc.) communicative language teaching, on the other hand, places more emphasis on language being understood, rather than being taken for a native speaker of English. When teaching pronunciation we should first identify the areas students have difficulties in being understood, and that may be: 2) separate sounds (vowels, consonants}; a When students have difficulties with sounds we, as teachers, have to undertake the following actions: Here are some examples of minimal pairs exercises: i fe (al " sy Bird dored bard bud bird Shirt short heart hut burt curt court cart cat curt card cord lark Tuck turk Word ward dark duck dirt develop communicative tasks that incorporate the given sound; think of tasks so that students can review the problem and provide them with the practice of the difficult sound in new context. This is called So, for the Romanian or Russian speakers the sounds that provoke difficulties will be the ones missing in the mentionedsounds of English individually. Learners are able ‘to pick ‘sound system of the language by listening to the teacher (cassettes, ‘TV) and by imitating and practicing words and structures. Another pronunciation difficulty in English is to teach the leamers the stress and rhythm, English is a stress-timed language, because, unlike other languages, it has strong stresses or beats at more or less regular intervals, The gre the numbers of wealk-stressed syllables “Goto Vohn. “Goto the ‘door, “Going to the ‘game. ‘They are all pronounced in the same amount of time, though they contain a different quantity of syllables. Learners find great difficulty if they are used to a syllable-timed pronunciation and they tend to stress cach eyllable: ‘Go “a'way ‘from ‘the ‘door. Word-stress is usually invariable and the learner thould always learn the stress pattern of a new word as well as its meaning. It is ‘more important to get word-stress right than even intonation, because if it is wrong the listener may fall to recognize the word altogether, even if the vowels and consonants are correctly pronounced. Stress can also be meaningful, Read the following words by changing the stress from the first to the second syllable: conflict, contrast, record, insult ‘The following words have two different stresses, one is primary, the other is secondary: engineer, personnel, cigarette, magazine, understood. ‘When teaching the sentence stress the teacher should: aad ») isolate and repeat stressed syllables only ) tepeat the whole phrase again. « Ithelpe a lot if the teacher uses gestures, or beats the rhythm. Ifyou read the sentence “Arriving “Monday ‘Need “Car’ you stress each word, because each of them are equally important, it's a telegram. In the sentence “Janet has ‘gone to the ‘market we stress only the important words like: Janet, gone, market. disb x the intonation has two main functions: a} indicates grammatical meaning and b) changes meaning. Inthe sentences: He lives in Chisinau. ‘Do you come from. Chisinau? By varying the intonation we change the grammatical meaning (statement, question) Read the following sentences and observe the change in meaning, depending on the intonation used: want to see your son Harry. want to see your son, Harry.My brother who lives in London has just got married. ‘My brother, who lwes tn London, has just got married. Mary said her mother had gone to the cinema. Mary, said her mether, had gone to the cinema, He tives in: Caiual. Where? (which part) He lives in Cahul. “Where? (Pardon, F didn't hear) Learners should be taught that different types of questions are pronounced with a different fatonation depending on its type. So, the ‘YES/NO questions will be always pronounced with a rising tone, while special questions 4 falling tone, Alternative and disjunctive questions have a combination of risingfalling and falling-rising lon. Normal statemer tone. The easies commands are also pronounced with a ners to practise stress and Presenting Vocabulary One of the first thing that the teacher does when starting teaching beginners is to present words. Words may be presented many different ways. Here are some techniques for teaching new words. a} Presenting new words word clearly and write it on the board. Get the class to repeat the word in chorus, ‘Translate the word into the learners! own language. Ask learners to translate tae word. Draw a picture to show what the word means. Give an English example to show how the word is used in context Aske questions using the word, To teach the meaning of words is best in context and can be Jintroduced by showing real objects such as ‘window’, oor, ‘desk’, ‘pen’. Here is an example how to introduce the word ‘watch ‘Teacher: Look, this is a watch (pointing to a watch} Awateh, a watch, Learner: A watch ‘Teacher! What is this? Learner: A watch. New words may be presented by showing pictures, which may be drawn on the board, such as tree’, ‘cow’, ractor ete, or found in books and magazines. Sometimes words may be presented by miming, using actions land facial expressions, such as ‘sneeze’, ‘stumble’, ‘smile, ‘happy’ ‘worried Words may be presented in a context, For example: Houses are buitdings, This school is also a building, In big cities there are many large buildings. There are hotels and offices and cinemas ‘They are all buildings of different kinds. Sometimes it is easler to introduce a new word in a simple sentence instead of giving complicated explanations. ‘A combination of techniques is also good to show the meaning of a ‘word. To introduce the word ‘emile’ we may draw a picture, use the facial expression and say: “Look. He's smiling. Look am smiling. We mile when we are happy.” Using pictures is interesting and learners can remember words easily. Facial expressions give meaning clearly. In the example above the words “smile” is used to show how it is used as a verb. The ‘ransiation is used to make sure that everyone understands, After presenting new words it is necessary to consolidate them by asking questions. Let's imagine that the teacher has just Introduced the word ‘market’. Now she is asking questions using the new word: Does your mother go to the market? Do you tive near the‘Another situation. You have a bieycle and you are going to clean it. ‘But the weather is going to tur bad. So it would get dirty again, What ‘could I say? Las There is Jeaning the bicycle. Ts Very good, By giving several diferent examples the teacher helps the class to Draw a picture on the board. A woman ie clock. Then have the following dialogue with ‘Ts What’s the woman doing? ‘T. Look the bus is coming. And the woman has been waiting for a long time. How long? Can you tell? 1: One hour. used with words that have @ singular and plural form (a book ~ books}, and ‘how much’ with uncountable nouns. Well-chosen ‘ceamples are the clearest way to show how a structure is used. Rules bbe useful by providing a kind of “short cut” for they should be seen as an aid in leaming as " Only Imowing rules will not help students use the language. Explanations should be always as clear and simple as possible. 4) Ive got some bread. I haven't got any bread. ) Pye seem that film. I saw the film last week, ©) I they build a reservoir, there will be plenty of water. fe and Subjunctive Moods. The Subjunctive shows that the ill not really be realized. As for the Grst, the speaker is sure that a reservoir will be build. 1. Listening skills. 2. Listening activities. 3. Prelistening activities said to them. The language may also be listened to while watching films, listening to radio programs, or when listening to foreign visitors. To develop this ability learners need plenty of practice in listening. 9g starting with radio and music and finishing with lectures, talks, instructions, directions, announcements, conversations,debates, stories, jokes, sounds like footsteps, laughter, screaming, ng involves more skills and these may be: phoneme discrimination, word recognition, identification of stress, intonation, Ifthe teacher uses a cassette recorder she must make sure that the ‘200d, that the recorder functions well, that there is going to be electric power, when she plans to use it ‘There are some advantages and disadvantages in using a cassette recorder! + variety of voices, native speakers; = recorded material is useful for listening to dialogues, interviews; ~ is more difficult, as there is no eye contact, no elues, no gestures, no lip movement; in a class with bad acoustics, listening may be difficult; ~ the cassette can be stopped and played back, ‘Types of listening tasks mi ‘Tony Lynch in “Listening” (Anne Anderson and Tony Lynch, OUP, 1966) proposes the following listening tasks:\y During or after listening, students are asked to perform some pponlinguistic action: numbering a drawing, completing a map, ordering items in a list, matching items, labeling, ticking, Listening to a story or a poem. | Histen end flow :Matching what learners hear with a visual. Students may have a ‘map or a picture and have to follow a route according to the tape. Affective response. Students listen and are then asked whether they liked /distiked the text, who they sympathized with, etc. Students have to find answers to questions: true/false; Wh- questions, multiple choice, ete. Listening for (dissimilarities between two (or more) language inputs, Inputs may be language inputs (e.g, jigsaw listening) or @ mix of tape and print materials, eg. radio and press reports on main incident. Gap-filing. Cloze-type exercises; listening cloze (with words) masked by noise. Partial text provided and students have to anticipate the next move or outcome. What will Mrs X say next? How will Mr respond? How ‘will the story end? Students have a printed text, which they alter to match the spoken For example, students take notes as they listen, in order to prepare a summary, or to reach agreement as to what was said (also ictation} = tape as information source for oral interaction. Deduction or assessment of information, problem-solving, et. “Listen and react,’ Expressing value judgments, Students are asked to evaluate opinions given or actions described on tape; e.g. Did X do the right thing? -— Pretistening activities ‘The teacher has © prepare very wel if she wants to gve students a listening task. 1 is suggested that students are gen to full a number of tasks that can be caried out before listening, wile listening or after they listen M. Underwood in “Teaching Listening” (1989) suggests the fol is mmfree" Post-listening activities | = dictation + summarising; | ‘Samples of listening tasks ‘The teacher reads a texts and makes stops to let students predict ‘what happened next “A few months ago, 1 was asleep at home as usual, At about three | found to my dismay that the cold water pipe had burst and water was pouring all over the floor... (So, what did I do?). So I got a bucket and put it underneath ... (What should I have done?), I went into the hall and turned off the mains tap.” Asking questions keeps the class involved and is also a way of ‘checking that the students are following the story Chapter Six. Teaching Speaking "1. Classroom interaction ! 2, Communicative activities / S. Samples of communicative activities! In the Communicative Method of teaching speaking has the leading ‘ole. To communicate is to use language in real life. There are a lot of interesting ways of making learners use the language without feeling embarrassed. Let’ look at some examples of using epeech: 3. = What is there in the room? + There's a table, two armchairs and a single bed.\When might these dialogues take place in real life? In the first ease it is a dialogue between a mother and her daughter maybe, in the second when someone is being engaged as a secretary, in the third ‘when comeone wants to rent a room, 1 wie steamy, evens penleace yeieity III, | iormatonThe's something tht one person does net Koow and son has a ‘communicative need’. Very often we people things they do not know, or to find things cout from other people. TEACHER CONTROLLED WHOLE CLASS SS > aoa > ° eoORnans <0 2 0 t | [PAIR WORK © GROUP WORK | eee TEARWER DIRECTED A Accuracy activities controlled by the teacher and done with the whole class. 'B Accuracy actives directed by the learners and done in pairs (or rou) © Fluency activites controlled by the teacher and done with the ‘whole class D Fluency activites directed by the earners and done in groups (or pairs In the table below you can see the types of activities done during different classroom interaction: | TEACHER CONTROLLED ‘WHOLE CLASS A ‘A Drills ~~ € Conversation F c Racaes Discussion L Je | cimrotetcomeraion | aratin | le Listening dmaeal = n | Wing soyetne | A Listening ie | c Writing Iz iy 'B Exercises D Discussion — || contatetcoreratin | canes | | aaauy | rae py | =|. ‘ooum Prost wt || omtonnae Dene || ening dace | | Writing Reading | wane PAIR WORK = GROUP WORK __seanwem piesers | | 2. Communicative activities ‘There are many available, or any teacher, ways of making learners ‘speak. A wonderful one is to practise using pictures. Pictures mayserve as an endless source of telking. Here are suggested some how to use pictures. 1. Predict the picture. ‘You may teil your learners that you have ¢ picture but don’t show in the picture there ig a man, 2 woman find out exsclly what the picture is ‘Yes/No questions, you may taice « more complicated picture, instant thea ask questions of the type: Where do you takes place? What have you seen in the picture? Everybody is given the opportunity to say What he thinks he saw in the picture, After everybody gave his/her opinion show the picture to the class and the learners give their opinions of what they think it suggests, 2, Put the pictures in order. ‘This is a very interesting way of making learness talk. There should be a series of pictures connected by the same content, each picture showing a different action, They are cut separately and each student gets one, They shouldn't show the pictures to each other. Students teke tums in describing what they see in their pictures. When one student talks the rest must listen attentively as later they will have €o decide on the correct sequence of the actions. When everybody sned describing, students get engeged in discussing what, in their be the correct sequence, they may ask any questions, show the pictures yet. When they believe they reach hey fed upon. During the activity the teacher is sie the ree face up in the sequence they ‘and present the words beforehand, In the end the teacher may give the glue, The most important thing about such an activity is that everybody has the chance to speai and participate in the discussion, Guessing is not central though. Ive a wonderful way of practicing, grammar, such as Present Continuous Tense, Present Perfect, ete 3. Spot the differences. For chis activity itis necessary to have two identical pictures but which contain some slight differenc in them, it maybe the colour, 2 missing button, a different position, ete, the teacher should have enough copies of pictures to give to eat students will ask questions and the other the differences are 5 1's good to tel nd, 4. Complete the drawing. 10 2 good activity especially for learning the use of prepositions, differences they has furniture. By asking questions the student that has the empty pi room must guess where it stands and complete his drawing, s0 that it is identical with the other student's 5. Photos. ‘Any photos can also serve as means of developing speech habits, ‘They may be photos of leamer’s families, old photos with their grandparents. They may speak about the people in them, the way they look like, the way they are dressed, what relatione are among them, when the photo was taken, what was the aceasion, ete 6. Guessing. Guessing is @ perfect way of making learners ask questions and ‘Practice grammar. The teacher may, for example, want the learners to repeat asking general questions in the Past Simple Tense. She comes into the classroom and says: “Yesterday I went somewhere and | did something. Guess where I went and what I did.” Learners talee turns {n asking questions of the type: Did you go to the market? Diel you go to the hospital? Did you go to the post-office? The teacher might have¢ she went to the bank to pay some bills, If students guess ¢ be continued by asking them to guess how the bank. “Did you go by bus? Did you go by bike? ‘themselves have the role of the ones who think of something to be guessed. 7. Guess who Tam? A student may that he/she is a famous person and the rest le type “Are you dead or alive? Are you English? Are 1 they guess who the person pretentied to be. Miming is another way of guessing especially when practicing Present Continuous. One student mimes an activity and the rest have te guess the situation: mending a puncture, opening a ce, changing the light bulb, mending a plug 9. Unfinished sentences. 1's @ source of beginning a conversation. Students are given 2 list with unfinished sentences and picking any at their choice they have to develop in into a discussion. The sentences may be composed according to the age, pupils! 10. Find someone who. ities and the taught topies. ‘This kind of conversation implies moving too, getting @ list of suggested actions students have to walk round the class talking to the clasernates and find tvo other people who do the suggested activities in the list. 11.Who scores more? ‘The class may be divided into two groups and asleed to of different things that begin with the same letter of the alphabet. That may be the nasne of an insect, a kind of sport, an object, an article of clothing, an animal or bird, a town, @ means of transport, a color. If both groups name the same word, each gete one point, if they name liflerent things they get two points. In the end the total number of points is counted and the winner is announced, ‘The success of the speaking activities will greatly depend on the teachers’ abilities of organizing the work. Speaking activities should be practioed as ofter: as possible. Speaking may be also done on the basis of a reading or a listening activity, even writing Chapter Seven, Teaching Reading Reading a text ‘Teaching basic reading. Pre-reading, while reading, post-reading activities Sample question types. Saraples of reading task. {In real life we do not normally read because we have to but because we want fo. We usually have a purpose in reading: there is something we ws to find out, some information we want to check or clarify, some opinions we want to match against our own. We also hhave a purpose in reading when we read stories for pleasure, we want to find out how the story develops “What happens next?" We do not usually begin reading with a completely empty mind, we hhave some idea of what we are going to read about. We will usvally have some certain questions in our mind (things we want to know} and we may also be able to make a number of predictions or guesses {things we expect to find out about) Newspaper headlines, Chapter headings, book titles often make us think about the text before we begin to read. If, for example, we have a newspaper headline “Plane crashes in desert” we think that the article «ill probably give detaile ofthe erash, explain how it happened, what ‘caused it, ete, then we ask questions that we may have in mind: Whish desert? Where? Any survivors? How di it happen? Whose fault? Which sirtine? Was anyone I know involved? Questions and guesses make us want to read (because We want {o know theanswers), and they also help us read (because we are looking for reading, .¢. to make them understand the written form of the word. “The best way to make them do this is to write the words on wordcards. A wordcard may be made in the following way. Its necessary to take a shect of paper, fold it in the middle, waite the word on it, like it is shown below. TABLE Hold the wordeard, point to it and say the word. Ask the class to repeat once. Do the same with other cards. Then, hold the wordeards ‘up again in a different order. This time say nothing, and pause to give the whole class a chance to look at the word. ‘Using wordcards makes the activity flexible: the teacher ean show ‘a word and then hide it or show words in diflerent sequences, or show ‘combinations of words together. They may also be kept and used ‘again and again. ‘The technique of using wordcards is called “Look and Say”. The teacher may also make wordscards like the following and ask children to “look and do” Put your hands ‘on your desks. Put your pen under your desks, Put your book ‘on your head. ‘An important thing to be kept in mind by the teacher while teaching basic reading is READING RULES, Because of the great difference between how the word is spelt and how itis read makes it learners to understand why the word is spelt in one read in another. The most important rules are necessary to be leamt. In our schools itis customary to teach the transcription signs as well, to facilitate the reading. I's a good help for the teacher. Reading a text Atlater stages of reading, there should be kept in mind that, reading is not “barking at print’, but it is part of the process of ‘channel, or bridge between the writer and reader. As the basis and focus of all communication ts meaning, reading is the process by which an actual reader and writer engage in a discourse, If we view reading in this way, we can see that what goes on in the mind of the reader is as important as what is visibl ‘As with all language teaching, reading is best taught by a ‘movement from meaning to language, at the earliest stages this may be through visual stimuli, which are eventuslly provided with the ‘written text. Later, it can be through using what is familiar in a text to reach what is unfamiliar. Reading is communication: therefore, the reading lesson can be expected to be very active, and full of discussion ‘and co-operation. A reading lesson typically calls upon learners to be active, to use all thelr skills in the new language in their efforts tomake new discoveries about how texts work: listening and speaking his head, but instead we are ‘The reading classroom n variety of texts (authentic wherever possible}, topies and tasks: learners are different, and variety will ensure something of appeal to ‘everyone. Grading can be achieved through topic and text-type selection, and also through grading of tasks. The same texts can be for less support to Leamere can parti reading classroom should be ‘while providing the sense of security we all need before we will tales risks, , stimulating and chal So, how to-use a reading text depends on the pi ‘want {0 use it: Is it to develop comprehension s presenting new words and structures? Is it a basis for language practice? There are three poscible ways of reading a text in class: the teacher reads aloud, while the learners follow in their books; the learners all ead silently to themselves, at their own speed; ~ learners read aloud in tum, Reading aloud can be useful at the earliest stages of reading (recognizing letters and words}; it can help students to make the connection between sound and spelling. Reading aloud at later stages, focuses the attention on pronunciation, not on understanding the text. Ifthe teacher wants the learners to read aloud, it should be the ‘inal activity at the end of a reading class. ‘There are also known ‘wo types of reading: skimming and scanning. Scanning is a speedy reading technique which is used when the reader wants to locate « particular piece of information without necessarily understanding the rest of the text, je. get only the general ‘dea without paying attention to details and to new words which learners may encounter. We can scan the timetable of train departures at a station ‘Skimming is a type of rapid reading which is used when the reader ‘wants to get the main idea or ideas from a passage, For example a reader may skim-read 9 chapter to find out if the writer approves or disapproves of something. Prevreading activities io important to introdu learners to read down 5 questions, which you hope the text will answer” or “You ‘are going to read a text about the earthquake in the picture. Try to imagine what the text will tell you about: buildings, hills around the city, boats, trains.” Or “You are going to read a text about an earthquake, Here are come words and phrases from the text, Can you Imagine how they are used in the text? (eea-bed, sre scale, a huge wave, massive shocks, having a bath). Here is alist of suggested pre-reading activities: 1, Helping learners with cultural background a) reading or listening about the author's life or historical and cultural background of the storys 3, the Rienterbj if library facilities are available learners can do a mini-project on the social and historical background of the story; 2. Creating learners’ interest in the story a} learners make very general predictions about the story, using. pictures or cover of the book from which it is taken; >) group discussion about what the ttle of the story suggests; 6 prediction about the story based on reading the first paragraph only: €) general discussion questions about some of the themes which he story. 3, Preeaching voosbulary ‘White-reading activities Hore isa list of suggested activities to be done while reading a ing learners to understand the plot 8) providing learners with two or three overall questions to check they ‘understand the gist of the story; D}learners write a brief summary of the plot; ¢]leamers provide tities for each paragraph; Allearners are given a series of jumbled sentences which summarize the plot: ¢] sentence completion activity (learners are given the beginning of a sentence about the story which they then complete. This helps them understand ‘cause-effect’ relationshipe within the story) 2. Helping learners understand the characters a} learners use from a list of adjectives which anes are most appropriate for describing a particular character; bj learners ranicthe characters in the story according to certain example, which character is least active, passive, aggressive, gentle, decisive, ete | students write ‘references’ for different characters as if they were applying tor a particular jobs 3. Helping learners with dificult vocabulary ') give the text t0 one student or group in advance. Let them look up any difficult words in a dictionary and prepare a glossary for the others; | provide multiple choice questions to encourage the guessing of meaning from context; ©] provide definitions for certain words in the text —leamers match, \words with definitions. 4, Helping. 6) textual analysi JIanguage and style jon of the test; ext focus on a particular gram: 1 that learners may have; for example, blanking out all verb forms and asking questions to supply correct tenses, The learners’ version is then compared with the original, and thelr differences discussed. Post-Reading activities 1. Interpretation of the main idea of the story 8} providing the leamers with diferent critical interpretations of the story which they then discuss; b) providing general questions to ‘debate’, focusing on any contentious points in the storys ¢] asking learners questions to note down any lexical areas which might take on a symbolic meaning in the story (e.g. darkness might be 4 Kind of metaphor for death in a particular story). Learners then, speculate about possible symbolic associations for these sets, 2. Helping learners to understand the narrator's point of view2) leamers write diary entries or a letter deseribing the events of the , a8 if they were one of the characters ofthe story; the story is told by a first person narrator, then learners write @ brief character description of the narrator based on the evidence fn the text S.Writing activities 9) writing a few paragraphs using certain stylistic features of the story: ) writing a review of the story 4.Discussion 9) reading and discussion of eritical story oF his or her works in gene ay or acting aut of a scene from the story, ©) critical discussion or debate about the world-view of values which ‘seem to be depicted in the text. rary writings about the author Sample reading tent and question-types Besides the above-mentioned activities, which may be useful when working on a text, many types of comprehension bbe used, The following list is certainly not exhaustive but giving an idea of the most commonly used kinds of exercises. ‘The story "The Unicom in the Garden" by James Thurber serves 4 basis for most of the exercises. ‘THE UNICORN IN THE GARDEN (Once upon a sunny moming, a man who sat st his breakfast looked ‘up from his scrambled eggs to see a white unicorn with a gold horn quietly cropping the roses the roses in the garden, The man went up to the bedroom where his wife was still sleeping and woke her, “There's @ unicorn in the garden,” he said. “Rating roses”. She opened fone eye and looked at him. “The unicorn is a mythical beast", she ‘aid, and turned her back on him. The man slowly walked downstairs and out into the garden. The unicorn was still there; he was now ‘browsing among the tulips. “Here unicorn,” said the man, and he Hed up a lily and gave it to him, The unicorn ate it gravely ight heart, because there was a unicorn in his garden, the man upstairs and roused his wife again. “The unicorn”, he eal, “ate His wife sat up in bed and looked at him, coldly, "You are a boo ‘she said. “and 1 am going to have you put in the booby-hatch". ‘The man, who had never liled the words ‘booby’ and ‘booby hateh’, and who liked them even less on @ shining moming when there was a unicom in the garden, thought for 8 moment, “Well see about that’, be said. He walked over to the door. “He has golden hom in the middle of his forehead,” he told her. Then he went back: to the garden to watch the unicorn; but the unicom had gone away, The man sat among the roses and went to sleep. [As soon as the husband had gone out of the house, the wife got up and dressed as fast as she could, She wee very excited and there ‘was a gloat in her eye. She telephoned the police and she telephoned a she told them to hurry to her house and bring a straight- jacket. When the police and psychiatrist arrived, they sat down in. chairs and looked at her, with great interest. “My husband,” she said “saw a unicorn this morning”. The police looked at the psychiatrist land the psychiatrist looked at the police. "He told me it ate ably,” sbe said, The psychiatrist looked at the police and the police looked at the peychiatrist. “He told me it had a golden horn in the middle of its forehead,“ she said. At a solemn signal from the psychiatrist, the police leaped from their chairs and seized the wife. They had s hard, ‘ime subduing her, for she put up a terrific struggle, but they finally subdued her. Just as they got her into the straight-jacket, the Iusband came back into the house. paychiat “Did you tell your wife you saw a unicorn?” asked the police, “Of course noe, said the husband. “The unicorn is a mythical beast.” “That's all I wanted to know,” said the psychiatrist. “Take her away. 1 am sorry, sir, but your wife Is as crazy as a jay bird.” So they too her away, cursing and screaming, and shut her up in an institution. The Isuoband lived happily ever after,‘Moral: Don't count your boobies until they are hatched. (Prom “The Thurber Carni A, Here is a pos pation. he title, what ean you infer from it? What is a unicorn? What do you think the story is about? ay of dealing with the text 2.Organization Is the text organized in a logical argumentative chronological way? What link-words or expressions reflect this organization? S. There is obviously a great difference between the behavior of the husband and of the wife in the story. Read it again, paying pat tention fo the various ways thie difference ie revealed, wife7Rasband [The surroundings i i | Wow cows the wocabulary/aie retleat Sear | the differences in their rhythm of ie? | [How oa interpre er behavior? 4. Pind another title for the story 5. Find another moral ©. In what “literary genre” would you classify the story? a} short story b) fairytale) legend) tale BB, Here is ¢ list of main question-types that can be used 1. Multiple-choice questions Under @ similar appearance, multiple-choice exercises ean cover very different types of activities and involve very different skills 8) The aim of the multiple-choice questions may differ. They may be sed: 1 1e students’ comprehension of the text 2.t0 help the students understand what would otherwise be too ifficult to understand. It may. For instance, give a chue to the ‘students who would not have been able to infer the meaning of a word. Bg. In the semience *You are a booby”, the word ‘booby" means: an animal person who i il ‘a person who is mad 1m this case two possibilities cut of three can easily be eliminated udent Is therefore given a clue as to the meaning of the word ‘booty’ 3. to help the students think about the word and infer its meaning, or think about the text, their attention being drawa to an idea ~ exprested or implied - which they might not have noticed otherwise. (Bven whea the students understand every single word in the text, it ‘may be interesting to make them discover the particular connotation. of & word in a given context. Most words potentially have dozens of Slightly diferent ‘meanings’ and ake on one or two of these aspects in ‘a given context} A multiple-choice question may then be useful to draw the students’ attention to the real value of the word in the sentence. In the introduction to his book "Read and Think’, John Munby advocates a different kind of multiple-choice questions from the ones commonly used, He thinks that iTtwo answers are possible, or at least correspond to two different ways of reading the text, then the ext ‘will require the to thin about fand mentally discuss} the possibi tn that way, reading becomes a much more active process. In addition, correcting the exercise in the class may give rise to discussions and justifications. eg. The husband said he had never seen a unicorn because:he dln’ ike peychiatrists and did nat want to tell them the truth; he was hoping to get rd of his wife that way; he didn’t remember what had happened to him in the mornings fhe had never seen. a unicom and had told his wife a lie, knowing she id be shut up nan institution. »b) The function of the multiple-choice questions can also vary, 1. In @ multiple-choice question such as the following the student is asked to understand what was actually said in the text, He may have to think in order to understand the structure or ty to infer the meaning of unfamillar words, but he is basically asked to retrieve ‘some information from the text At the end of the text the husband euccceds in getting rid of his wife; the wife succeeds in obliging her husband to admit he'd never seen a both husband and wife gain something, 2. Consider how the following rmultiple-choice question: ‘The police and the paychiatrist looked at his wife with great interest because: they were interested knowing more about the husband; they were already quite sure she was crazy: & was part of their job to seem interested in what people told them. Here, the answer is not actually given in the test. However, if one reads the beginning of the second paragraph again, one will see that the wife's excitement, the ‘gloat’ in her eye, must have led the police and the psychiatrist to suspect her from the very beginning, so that the second answer must be the correct one. This second type of ‘multiple-choice question may be a litle more difficult but is essential to help the student to read ‘between the lines" it is possible to go one step further and ask questions the answers of which have to be deduced from the text. For instance, this is the ‘case when we ask the student to generalize, Le. to extend the meaning, of the passage and draw some kind of rule from it. eg. The railway clerk demanded a 10 pence lost-property fee from secretary Sandra Henelden, before he would return her lost handbag, ‘Trouble was, Sandra's money was in the bag. The clerk was adamant ‘no money, no bag. Tes the rules’, he said, So, Sandra borrowed 10 pence from a porter, retrieved her bag and repaid the porter. ‘The passage suggests that: a} one should never go out without one's purse; ) some administrative rules are very helpful; } most railway clerks are very helpful; 4) you can get into trouble if you lose your property. ‘Some other multiple-choice questions may lead the student to and evaluate what he had read. This type of questions often, admits of more than one correct answer, which leads to discussions of interpretations, ©) Finally, the multiple-choice question can be focused on: 1. just one word of the texts 2. an expression, a clause or a sentence; 3. one or several paragraphs; 4. the whole text Whatever the type of multiple-choice question used, it is essential that the students to not consider them as a question game and to encourage the class to j their rejection of the others. It is important because it will be an incentive to amore careful consideration of the text (it may even, in ‘many cases, lead to a change of opinion) and it will also be a link with oral production. When desing with multiple-choice questions in the class, it may be @ good idea, after the etudents have worked on thelr ‘own, to ask them to discuss their answers in pairs or groups. Bach, ‘pair or group will then explain not only tell to the rest of the class the solution they have agreed on. Whatever the type of multiple-choice question, it must be clearly ‘explained to the students 2. Right or Wrong (True or False) their choice of one answer andind of exercise, the student is given a list of statements, ‘about the text and he must docide whether they are true or false. ‘There are several possibilities aja be found In the text and th re either right or wrong, The answers can. students must write R or W next to each Fee. The man found it hard to belleve there could be a tunicom in the garden, ‘The wite didn’t believe in unicorns, ‘The wife told her husband he was stupid The wife was worried when she called the police and the payehiatrist, b) An extension of preceding exercise consists of asking the students to justify their answers undemeath. They can do so by ‘quoting a few words from the text when i is possible, or by briefly giving their reasons, in their own words, This is a process the exercive (a) what one thinks clearly and concisely will lead the 0 a closet scrutiny of the text ©} One may also ask the students to rewrite and correct the statements that are faloe. eg, The wife was worried when she called the police and the psyebiatrist: W The fas happy to call the police and the psychiatrist, 'm all cases the more interesting statements will obviously be ‘those that are wrong since they will necessitate a justification. (The students can just copy a sentence from the text when the statement is conect. @) It is also possible to include statements that are neither right nor wrong which we cannot check because we are not given enough Information in the passage. In that case, the students are asked to write D (don’t Imow) or ? next to the sentence. In the case of the Unicom in the Garden, the following statements would enter the category. ‘The unicom is in fact @ neighbour who disguised himself. ‘The police and the psychiatrist knew before arriving that it was the ‘wile ~ not the huusband- who was mad. ‘The additional possibility usually permits more general statements, which will oblige the student to think about the passage. 4) 2 variation of this exercise consists of giving statements that are all ‘ight’ but that cannot be justified eastly by referring to one word or cone smiail section of the text. Instead, the student will have to find his justification in different parts of the text or in a passage where the idea is expressed in tea different way. eg The wife is definitely moro materialistic than her husband {Because she only believes what she sees, and deean't question the existence of the unicorn; because she ‘belongs’ in the modern ‘American society of her environment: the telephone, the potiee, the paychiatrist). 4) H.Widdowson in “Teaching Language as Communication” suggests Inserting the statements in the reading passage itself so that the reader may check his interpretation of the passage as he is reading, He further suggests accompanying the statements by solutions that the students must work our (by completing statements} 8. Can you tell? ‘This kind of exercise is somewhat related to 2(4). the student is _ven a list of points to look for in the text. The answers t0 some of the ‘questions will be obvious; in other eases the information will be more difficult to find. But it will not always be possible to find an answer as there may not be enough evidence in the text. eg. Can you tell - whether the unicorn is real? - what the wife told the police and the psychiatrist on the telephone? + why the unicorn went away? + whether the husband was sincere when he said: “The unicorn is @ mythical beast”?-what happened to the wife after the police took her away? 4.Find the reason al ind of exercise, the students are provided with rom the text, deseribing an action, an eve quoting @ character. What they must do is briefly explain wi ‘happened that way. The interest of the exercise lies in the is not often given in the text and must be inferred from the 32 information given. e.g. How would you ex} the underlined expres in the following statements (particularly jownstairs (parag. 1), sat down in chairs and looked at her with great interest (paras CIA variation of this exercise is to give a list of adjectives and asic the class 10 find out who/what they 1 aa oi ave a Boa 5. Expanding statements eg Find as many adjectives as you can to expand the following ~The man had never liked the words “book” and ‘boeby-hatch’. = “Tm going to have you put in the booby-hatch.” ‘This exercise may be useful to show how different parts of a text ‘may contribute to convey the same idea since the students will find ‘supporting details all through the passage, 6. Find the linke- word, The students are asked to supply the missing fink words in @ series of sentences. Several are structurally and semantically possible ‘but only some (and their equivalents) are in keeping of the text. the meaning ‘e.g: Supply the missing link-words so thet the sentence reflects the ‘meaning of the text ‘The wife telephoned the police... her husband was asleep ia the garden, he wife looked excited, the potice and the psychiatrist thought ‘she was crazy, she wanted the police to arrest her husband, she was arrested het 7. Complete the summary ‘The students are given a summary of the text in which certain ‘words, expressions or sentences have been leit blank, The exercise will be more interesting if it requires a global understanding of the text and if the summary has to be completed in the students’ own words Besides encouraging them to draw out the main information in the text, the exercise will help the weaker students by outline and focusing their attention on what is essential in the passage,e.g This Is the story of a man who, one day, ou. in his garden. Hig fest reaction is .....bat she When he goes back t0 the garden and she ie so happy and excited that ..However she threatens £0 ...When he wants to gee the unicorn again, 8. Complete the sentences Instead of asking the students to complete a summary one can ask them to complete a number of sentences that some of the characters in the text might have said. ‘This may be a different exercise, involving a good understanding of the characters. ‘There is a number of var a} Instead of complet cone -sied conversation. 1 of the a summary, the students can complete eg A friend of the husband phones him and asks him a lot of questions about what happened t0 him, some of them very general (eg. What happened to your chers more detailed (e.g. What id you say the unicorn was like?}. the students must supply the husbend's answers. 1} A choice of words or expressions can also be given instead of leaving the students free to ill she blanks as they wish. One can, for instance, give them @ choice of verbs which would be grammatically and sem: ly acceptable in the sentence, although only one allows them to form a sentence in keeping with the meaning of the text. eg, At the beginning of the story the husband ......quite mad, ‘becomes is considered as i pretends co be ‘At the end of the story the wife .....88 erazy as a jay-bird ‘becomes 4 believed to be believes she is 4) calle her husband In the first example, both (c} and (d} are possible according to the interpretation one gives to the text. 9. Find the errors For this exercise, the stadents are given @ summary of the test in. which a certain number of errors have been inserted. It ie a variant of the ‘right or wrong’ exercise but may appear more difficult as the summary thus created may seem perfectly coherent. eg, When the husband went out, the wife left the house as quickly ‘as she could and called the police and the psychiatrist. When they ‘arrived she told them there was a unicom in the garden and they realized ehe wae sad. They finally jamped on her and bad no liculty putting her into the straight-jacket, ‘The stuclents must rewrite and correct the summnary. 20. Sentence-building 4a) The students aze given all the elements (words or expressions) of a sentence but they have been jumbled and nmust be reordered. e.g. ~ more / husband the poetic/ wife/is/the/ than. = erazy/ paychiastist/ never was believed that/the husband life/in enjoyed /the/an/live /had/his /usband/ wife/his/after/ tion /gone. b) Another possibility is to give only key-words of the sentences which have to be formed. eg wife/want/tusband/asyium ‘man /not/question unico /garden o) Another possiblity is to ask students to match elemente from ifferent columns in order to build sentences. 4) The same exercise can be done with more then two columns. [Another way of rendering it more complex is to associate it with a reordering exercise. After matching the elements and finding thethe students have to reorder them fan example will be Inferring what happened before this kind of exercise, iudents ere asked to use the mn in the text to make deductions about facts and events ‘hat are not actually mentioned. 32, Could they have said it? Another way of encouraging students to deduce meaning is to give them several opinions (some derived from ideas in the text, others quite ieren ind to ask them to decide whether one or several characters in the text would agree or disagree with these opinions. in some cases, the students may decide that they cannot posstBly tel 13. Open questions Questions can obviously be more or lees open. They can be interesting as ast attention to one otherwise aint only at a tond to be of information given in the text iy help the studen: less and lese What does the wife think of unicorns? ‘What happens when the husband goes back to the garden for the second time? answers Whet made the psychiatrist and the police suspect the wife? What did the husband say he hadn' seen a unicorn? One of the disadvantages of euch questions, however, is that the sctivity required of the students is one of production az much os comprehension, and it may be difficult far the reader to decide whether wrong answers are due to a failure to understand the text, or the students’ inability to express themselves properly. 14. Drawing a list eg, In the second part of the text, ist the words that show the wife's excitement, Find three words or expressions showing how violent the wife becomes at the end of the text ‘This can also be done by asking students to underline, box, oF sing ‘words or expressions in the list. 15. Classifying Students can be given a list of words, expressions, names, etc. ym the text and asked to classify them according to various e.g ~classilying words under two or tree snain ideas; - classifying expressions according to their degree of politeness, strength, formality, ete. + classifying characters according to their reactions, 16. Selecting words or expressions to their reactions The list can be 2 list of people, events, actions, from which the students have to make a choice. e.g The following verbs all appear in the text. Which one of them implies most hatred? Scream e.g Underline the odd man out seream tell subdue curse 17. Find the equivalent centeace Find the sentence or clauses equivalent to the following: = twas difficult t0 calm her.+ Your wife is completely mad. + They put her into an asylum. 18. Find the equivatent eg Read the following paragraphs ‘and expressions which mean the sam eating to wake somebody un happily + amedman + imaginary 19. Find the right word ) carefully and find words gs a8 ‘This exercise Is very similar to the previous one but instead of being given an equival sword they have to fine. e.g Find the words which mean: the students are given a definition of the a lunatic asylum ~ to wake somebody up ‘This exercise can also take the form of matching exercise, the words being given in one column, the definitions, or equivalents , out of order, in another: 20. Find the opposite eg Read paragraph 2 carefully and find words or expressions which mean the opposite of + toencite « st someone go free ‘twas easy for them to = she did not resist 21. Choose the right adverb ‘The aim of this exercise is to make the students ask themselves ‘questions about the degree of intensity of certain feelings, ideas, etc J the passage. Several possibilities will often be correct and this may lead to interesting discussions in the class or between groups when comparing answers. tt is also extremely useful to familiarize the studente with a mumber of commonly used adverbs e.g. The wife is aimost happy at the idea of sending her husband to rather ‘2 booby-hatch’ very extremely 9 When the husband told his wife held seen a unicorn, she regarded. tim sadly 22. Matching ‘This exercise can take several forms, For instance: matching words and definitions; characters and adjectives; events, actions and characteristics; characters and attributes, jectives: in front of cach of them, sou think they best charactopize {the hushand? The wife? The police and paychiatrist2) ‘Some adjectives may not apply to anybods poetic ~ interested, - ind = cold matter-of-fact 23. Find the reference eg Explain whet the underlined word refers to in the following sentence: “Well see about that” ‘This exercise will gain interest ifthe reference is not immediately apparent (e.g. reference to a single word mentioned just before). ‘There may be other interesting kinds of questions by the help of which your students can understand the text better and which ‘cane help them enrich their vocabulary and speech habits. ‘The cones above were suggested by Francoise Gellet in “Developing Reading Skills” (CUP, 1981)Chapter eight. Teaching Writing In everyday life an educated person needs to have good writing, skills ¢8 well. There are lots of instances when we are asked to do some piece of different pieces of les that inchade: Taking notes, brary research, summarize articles, deseriptions comparison and contrast, pro and con, academic argument, analysis, evaluation essay. foreign language dictations, reproductions, teste and compositions were used, Writing and speaking are the two productive language skills, Writing is not just speech written down on a sheet of paper. There are a number of ways that writing and speaking 1, According ta Finegan (1994) there are four differences between writing and speaking: 1, Speaking has su gestures to convey inform: channels as intonation, voice pitch and whereas writing has only words and syntax 2. Writing requires more time that speaking in term 3. Sposiers and addressees are often face-to-face, while writers and readers are not 4, Speaking tends to rely on the context of the interaction more that writings 3, Weiting can be returned back to, checked, corrected, changed. 1 is important to keep in mind that writing helps out students learn. How? Rirst, writing reinforces the grammatical structures, leloms, and vocabulary, that have been taught. Second, when students write, they also have a chance to be adventurous with the language, to be beyond what they have just learned to say, to take risks, Third, when they write, they necessarily become very involved with the new language, the effort to express ideas and the constant use of eye, hand, and brain is @ unique way to reinforce lea ‘There are ienown three types of writing: Controlled Directea Free Controlled writing Controlled writing is, generally used with beginners end it is very structured. It is used to practice grammar, spelling. vocabulary and sentences structure. As a rule, students are given the vacabulary, grammar and all they have to do is to organize the concentrate on the language, not on the content. and allows students to feel more comfortable about the langage. So, students lds confidence With more advanced anudents, ccan be used before free writing, for them to practice a grammatical point or a source of vocabulary, Idioms and organization to help them plan their own piece of writing, or, problems students have and assign controlled task to give them practice with problern arcas. can be used after a free writing exercise, when we see what Controlied compositions provide students a passage to work on and rewrite it making specific changes (e.g. change singular into plural, present tense into past tense). Students do not have to be concemed with content, organization, finding ideas or forming sentences, rather it focuses their attention on specific features of the language. Activities for controlled uniting may include, but not be limited to the following: + Straight copying. Delayed copying: reading from the board, erasing parts of the text, writing it over; wall dictation Matching: pictures with words, words with definitions, sentence halves, fil-in-the blanks texts‘+ Organizing and copying: sentence strips + Copying from the book + Dictations Directed (guided) writing Guided writing is less controlled. It gives the students some but not all tae content and form of the sentences they will use, The finished product of the students will be similar but not exactly alike, Students are given = frst sentence, a last sentence, an out 1e to Al out, a series of questions to respond to, or information to inchude in their pieces of writing, Students should be able to discuss, make notes, shace findings and plan strategies together before they begin to write ‘We can guide students in two ways: by giving a short text as a model and by doi Some of the acti fs for guided writing may include: > Combining sentences + Writing instructions descriptions guided compositions (Character wheel. My sentence, your paragraph, poems) is the creative writing, Before starting any free writing has to answer the following questions: Why am 1 writing this? Who will read if? How do [write this? How oI get started? A, Writing can be done based on: 1 facts you already know 2. facts you read about 3. facts you discover on your own B. Types of papers: 1 Bssays 2. informal 2. Reports 3, Research papers Informal essays are written from your own experience and mowledge for a general audience, They are revised to improve ‘content, organization, and mechanics (s , promunciation, sentence structure, and grammar}. These essays are written in friendly, personal, everyday language and can be handwritten oF ‘typed. Formal cssays are written for an academic audience for a specific purpose. The language is formal. Like informal essays, they are revised many times to improve the content and organization and to correct errors in mechanics {speiling, punctuation, sentence structure end grammar), They might use information from other ‘sources. They are usually typed. ‘The appearance includes where you put your name, date ond ‘lass name on the paper. This information is called @ heading. The appearance also inchudes the proper place for the title, capitalization of the title, the margins, and the font you use. In addition academic papers are written on only one side ofa sheet of paper. ‘THE ACADEMIC WRITING PROCESS includes the following stages: GETTING STARTED PREWRITING GATHERING INFORMATION ORGANIZING THE INFORMATION WRITING THE FIRST DRAFT REVISING AND REWRITING EDITING AND REWRITING 1. GETTING STRATED A, Get the assignment 1. Understand the assignment (What should you do?) 2. Underetand the purpose (Why is this necessary? What will you team?)