វិទ្យាស្ថា នជាតិអប់រ ំ

National Institute of Education

Revision Session
How can teacher do to make writing easier for students?
 It is done little and often.
 It is interesting and fun.
 It is relevant to students lives.
 It is not too difficult for the students.
 It is not too easy for the students.
 Concentrates on one thing at a time
(e.g. capitalization /spelling /ideas /lay-out or punctuation).
 Students have a chance to talk about what they are going to write before writing.
 Students work together in pairs/groups.
 Gives students a good model.
 Makes sure students know what they are doing and why they are doing it.
 Takes care to build up students' confidence.
Things the teacher needs to focus on when marking students’ writing.
 Be fair to all students.
 Correct the mistakes selectively.
 Write the correct answers in the margin.
 Use correction codes in the margin.
 Underline all errors of one type (e.g. all verb tense mistakes, all spelling
mistakes).
 Write nothing. Discuss the work with the individual students.
 Use correction codes.
…
 More writing activities
Describe and guess
- Students think of a person / a place or a thing. They write a description of them / they read out and others
students guess.
- Surveys / Reports
- Running dictation
- Introducing each other ( write about their partners)
- draw a picture and then write a description
- Reported Speech
- Listen-Write= Dictation
- Story Rewriting
- Visualization
- Watch-Write
- Read-Response
- Sequencing
- Read and Summarize
- Opinion / Essay
- Giving Advice (Students read a problem)
 Writing-for-learning (WL)
WL is the kind of writing we can do in every class session in order to:
write for fun and for language practice
increase fluency and confidence
develop creativity
experiment the language
explore and figure out new ideas
personalize students’ writing and find their voices in English.
(e.g. write 3 sentences using the “going to” future)
 Writing for writing (WW)
WW is the kind of writing we do to :
build the students’ writing skills.
practice writing many different kinds of texts, writing genres.
(e.g. writing advertisements, writing a narrative…)
assess whether students have learned what we have taught . If we
use only short answer exams, we do not get a truly clear picture of
whether students have a genuine understanding of course concepts
and how to apply them.
 Writing-for-learning and writing for
writing
WL ------------------------------------------------------- WW
Writing as a habit

Frequent WL improves WW.

Using WL and WW strategies have had a positive effect on the
development of foreign language proficiency.
 We can promote instant writing by:
dictating half a sentence which students have to complete
(e.g. Before I am thirty I would like to…)
getting students to write 3 “Don’t” sentences for a new school
(e.g. Don’t run in the corridors)
getting students to respond to music by writing about how a piece of
instrumental music makes them feel
asking students to fill in the form about 3 things they like, 3 things they do
not like
getting students to list 5 guesses about the other students in the class
(e.g. Sock's father’s job is interesting).
We can include WL as integrated skills in different types of lessons:
Listening
Reading
Speaking
Grammar
In the beginning
Before a learning experience
 Get students to think and write about what they acquired in a previous lesson.
 Ask them to write about what they know or feel about a new text or topic
 In the middle
During a learning experience to get students to “check in” by thinking about
 What they understand.
 What connections they are making.
 What they are unsure about.
 What questions they have.
At the end
After a learning experience get students to:
 summarize
 evaluate
 explain what difficulties they have had
 write about what they learned that day and
how they could use this in their life.
Age and Second Language Acquisition
Is it better to learn a second language when one is younger or when one is older? Why?
Critical Period Hypothesis
 This hypothesis states that an individual must acquire a language by a certain age
(before adolescence) or it will be difficult to acquire a language.
 The main advantage of learning a language when younger is that the individual is
more likely to acquire a native-like accent.
Proficiency: What is it?
 When is a person proficient in a second language?
 How do you know a person is proficient in a second language?
Proficiency:
 Grammatical Competence
Mastery of language code such as pronunciation rules, grammar rules and spelling
 Sociolinguistic Competence
Mastery of appropriate language for different contexts such as when to use formal language
and when to use slang
 Proficiency: How long does it take?
If you want to learn a second language, how long do you think it will take you to
speak and understand that language? How long will it take you to read and
write?
 Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS)
• Ability to converse and understand every day discussions
• 2 to 3 years
 Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP)
• Ability to read, write, speak, and listen at an academic level
• 5 to 7 years
 Stages in Second Language Acquisition
 Pre-production/Comprehension Stage Characteristics
• Silent period
• Can respond non-verbally
• Will be able to understand more than they can produce
 Early Speech Production
Characteristics
• Can understand more than can produce
• Can produce one or two words at a time
• Will make lots of errors
 Interlanguage occurs (a mixture of vocabulary and structures from both languages)
Speech Emergence
Characteristics
 Will be able to understand more than they can produce
 Interlanguage continues to occur
 Longer utterances
 Decreases in errors
Intermediate Fluency
Characteristics
 Appear orally fluent
 Errors are the same errors as native speakers make
 Struggle with content area reading and writing
 What is the difference between acquiring a language and
learning a language?
Language acquisition does not require extension use of
conscious grammar rules, and does not require tedious drills
Acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target
language- natural communication- in which speakers are
concerned not with the form of their utterances but with the
messages they are conveying and understanding
Stephen Krashen
 Learning
Conscious activity
Use grammatical rules
Study lists of vocabulary
Depends on attitude/ behaviors
Simple to complex order of
learning
 Involves practice, perhaps
reinforced practice
Acquisition
subconscious process 
unaware of grammatical rules/feel
Depends on aptitude/skills
Similar how kids learn
Don’t need to be aware of the learning
process
Stable order of acquisition
Source of natural communication.
 The acquisition-learning hypothesis
Acquisition: we acquire L2 knowledge as we are exposed to samples
of the L2 which we understand with no conscious attention to
language form. It is a subconscious and intuitive process.
Learning: we learn the L2 via a conscious process of study and
attention to form and rule learning.
Krashen argues that “acquisition” is a more important process of
constructing the system of a language than “learning” because
fluency in the L2 performance is due to what we have acquired not
learned.
 SLA & Teaching
As a teacher do you need to know about SLA?
Why or why not?
How can this information help you in the
classroom?
(Group discussion)
(Poster)
SLA will help us to know:
 how to approach to the material taught

 at what age the individual is more likely to acquire a native-like accent when studying a second
language
 stages in second language acquisition

 in what ways we can help learners become proficient in a second language

 different kinds of mistakes made by language interference: positive transfer and negative
transfer (the influence of L1 on L2 Learning
e.g. by looking at L1 to explain errors made in L2)
 the difference between acquiring a language and learning a language

 “acquisition” is a more important process of constructing the system of a language than

“learning”
 comprehension and acquisition will occur, if the input level of competence in the language is
(i+1)
Qualities of a good test
 Reliability:
Does the test give fair and consistent results every time it is used?
There are three aspects on reliability:
• Test taking circumstances
• How the test is marked
• The uniformity of the assessment it makes
 Validity:
Does the test measure what it is intended to measure?
• Content validity: concerned with what goes into the test. Does the test reflect the syllabus?
• Face validity: concerned with what teachers and students think of the test. Does the test
look good?
 Practicality:
Is the test usable for the teacher?
• Not excessively expensive
• Stays within appropriate time constraints
• Relatively easy to administer, and
• Has a scoring/evaluation procedure that is specific and time-efficient
Reasons to monitor
- The teacher will know if the students are on task or not.
- Teacher can make the decision about whether correction is needed.
- To see how well the students are getting on and how individual Ss within
the groups are reacting.
- Teacher knows which students need more time or further help.
- ….
What do we have to do before, during and after the activity?
Roles of teacher
The presentation stage: the teacher is as an informant/ manager/ language resource
 Serves as a kind of informant by giving information/ eliciting the answers
 Selects the new material to be learnt
 Presents something and make its meaning as clear and memorable as possible.
 ………
Roles of teacher
 The practice stage: the teacher is as a conductor/ a monitor/ a helper
- Provides/ limits time for the students to practice
- Monitors and takes note of the students’ common mistakes
- Helps students when they have problems
-…
Roles of teacher
 The production stage: The teacher is as a guide/ a contributor/ a monitor/a helper/ a facilitator
 Takes on the role as a guide or an adviser
 Helps the students whenever they need
 Takes note with common mistakes
 Corrects the mistakes as a whole class
 Conducts feedback
In which stage can teacher correct the students mistakes?
 How can we correct them?
How to integrate skills in the lesson
In speaking stage
 the teacher introduces the topic, perhaps by showing a picture and elicits what students know
or think about the subject.
 The students could discuss what they would expect to find in an article on the topic in question.
In the reading stage:
 The students read the newspaper article
 Tasks could focus on assisting comprehension and perhaps a more detailed study of some of
vocabulary, or on the style of the article.
In the writing stage
 The students could write a letter to the editor in response to the article, or write an article on
the same subject from a different perspective, or in a different style.
Advantages of the integrated skill approach
This approach
 exposes English language learners to authentic language and challenges them to interact naturally in the
language
 stresses that English is not just an object of academic interest nor merely a key to passing an examination;
instead, English becomes a real means of interaction and sharing among people.
 allows for the practice of language in a way which is closer to the real world
 assists in the development of a full language user
 is less bitty but more satisfying for learners (one thing leads to the other)
 The lesson has more variety
 allows teachers to track students’ progress in multiple skills at the same time.
 promotes the learning of real content, not just the dissection of language forms.
 can be highly motivating to students of all ages and backgrounds.
 It gives an opportunity for a topic to be fully explored and for vocabulary connected to the topic to be
practiced and recycled
 One context or one text can be used for another activity (teacher does not have to spend time setting up
something new)
It is a good idea to choose reading and listening texts that are generative – that can be used for lessons in
which a number of skills are integrated.
Revise
 Techniques for teaching Vocabulary
 Techniques for control, less controlled and Free activities.
 Techniques for concept check