GRAMMAR TEACHING

TEACHING GRAMMAR FROM RULES

Teaching grammar from rules means teaching in a deductive approach. The teacher starts the class usually with some examples which are used to explain a rule, if it is necessary in the mother tongue. In such a lesson we can include all the skills, and the fact that we explain the rules in the student’s mother tongue does not mean that we continue the rest of the class speaking it. We can and should use the target language (English) to give the students further practice and a necessary input of the language. In fact many students books that actually use the deductive approach have all their explanations and exercises in English.

We have learned so far that teaching in a deductive approach has its advantages and disadvantages, however we as teachers should use what we know and our experience to decide what approach we are going to use. This decision is not to be taken recklessly but under a deep analysis of our teaching situation, this means our students’ needs, background, age, level and preferences as well as the kind of rule we want them to learn. Some are easily pick up from contexts while some other need more detailed explanation.

In order to analyze rules we can follow Michael Swans’ criteria to diagnose them. These criteria involves if the rules is true, if it has limitation it means that it should show when to use it; clarity, simplicity, familiarity and relevance.

Any rules explanation may be divided in two parts: the rules of form and the rule of use. Teachers usually use in their procedure to teach some techniques to check students’ understanding.

There are also some approaches to teach grammar in a deductive way. These are:

· Using a rule explanation: In the lesson analyzed we can see that in the step 1 the teacher seeks to create familiarity of the terms introduced: subject, verb and object. That is a good start. The teacher started with an example that will be relevant in the followed rules explanations. The example which is in past tense is simple and clear. In the second step the examples are displayed on the differences of how to elaborate questions from subject and object but this is not explained deductively to students in a first instance, the teacher elaborate the two kind of questions and ask students to think about the rule. In step three the teacher explains the difference. With this students are aware of the limitation of the rule to make questions and when the word order change and when it does not.

Although the effectiveness of a lesson is difficult to measure, I can perceive that this lesson is effective because it entails a simple and well organized explanation. The teacher does not give exceptions just deal with the rule, he illustrates it to a better comprehension, make the students practice the rule introduced and gives further practice.

On the other hand I think it is a very controlled practice since they develop the activities with the same sentence they just do a substitution; to avoid bareness I think it is a good idea to insert the alternative questions the teacher suggests in step 5. This lesson is not very specific on how the teacher corrects mistakes; I would do it by mirroring repeating the students’ utterance correctly as this is oral practice.

Regarding to the appropriate factor, we need to see what kind of students this lesson is directed to. As it is developed in a deductive way it is more appropriate for adult learners who can deal more with the rules and grammar terminology. It is also important to distinguish what kind of learning style the students have and which are their interests.

In conclusion, this lesson is suitable for adult learners who are accustomed to grammar rules explanations. This way this lesson might be effective if the teacher explanation is clear enough as it seems. Finally, the explanation of the rule fulfills with the criteria proposed by Michael Swan.

· Using translation

· Using grammar worksheets: In the sample plan given I can see that it is not a deductive lesson because the rules are not explain at the beginning of the class nor it is an inductive lesson because students are not exposed with examples in which they need to deduce the rule. They instead are asked to answer a worksheet but later they are given the rules which they need to read and apply.

This lesson is very interesting taking into consideration the information gap activity that is developed in which students need to explain other students. I think this is really effective because it is not the same to understand something for us that to understand to explain to others, it absolutely reinforces what they learned. Besides it encourages students to self correction when they compare and share their answers they can have the chance to correct themselves based on the rules.

The appropriacy factor definitely belongs here for young learners who need to communicate and teach themselves. Of course, the teacher must be attentive if they need something or misunderstood a rule to give immediate help. He must monitor all the time and acts as a resource to any learner’s questions or doubts.

Analyzing deeply the lesson is relevant because they get their questions answered, most importantly only those questions they need to carry out with the task. If they were given a great quantity of exemptions they might get overwhelmed and the effectiveness would not be the same.

This lesson plan does not provide how the rules were written and explained, that is why it is difficult to say if they are clear and simple.

In the third step the teacher check the answers and make the students to explain why, this is really relevant to a deep understanding and notice the limitation of the rule since they explain why they used one article or the other.

In conclusion, this lesson integrates a learner’s responsibility to their learning with a grammar awareness of rules to make learners analyze and apply the grammar rules.

· Using self-study grammar

These approaches can be evaluated in the light of the E-factor to know its effectiveness and the A-factor to know its appropriacy.

With all the previous criteria in order to wide our knowledge about teaching grammar we now will be able to select an approach which fits with our reality to make a profit of it.

REFERENCES

· Scott Thornbury, How to Teach Grammar. Longman. 2002. pp. 25-28, 32-33, 34-36, 41-42.

GRAMMAR TEACHING

TEACHING THE LANGUAGE SYSTEM

It is undoubtedly to say that grammar is an important branch of any language. We use grammar all the time, when we write and when we speak. We also teach grammar all the time through what is called input data. We have two paths to teach grammar explicitly or to create situations for our students in which they need to discover grammar, what is also called ‘’discovery learning’’. The second one might be more complicated and the result is not reliable in many cases. We have widely discussed its advantages and disadvantages and we have come up to the conclusion that depending on the grammar item we can use one or the other approach.

After reading ‘’teaching the language system’’ I can say that teaching explicitly has more benefits for learners widely speaking. It has been argued that it accelerates the learning process as the students focus on form. I have experienced that I do not have enough time to cover the curriculum my school has; and when I try to teach inductively I really feel I am wasting time. I am not saying that students do not learn but they do it slower and some think that I do not want to explain or even worse that I do not know how. I have the thought that the curriculum I am following is specially designed to teach deductively. So, I have made a mix of the two tending more towards the rule-driven path.

What I might be doing wrong is that I have a lack of contextualization in my presentations. Students need to connect the rule with its most common uses and make meaning of it. By creating a good context, interesting and meaningful we can create what is called generative situation and a great quantity of examples come up which we can use for further practice within the same context. It is also important to distinguish the different language styles for each situation we may face in real life since grammar is not only for academic purposes, it is for life.

Another aspect I will incorporate is recycling structures each time adding more functions and uses, it is very common to find lineal curriculums; however, it is very important to integrate what we have previously studied in a transversal curriculum and most important to try to automatize the language structures by practicing them.

REFERENCES:

· Tricia Hedge. "Teaching the language system" in Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom. Hong Kong. 2000. OUP. pp.146- 164

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Discourse Analysis

Discourse analysis is an important branch of applied linguistics which emphasis is on making it easier to understand written and spoken texts; these pieces of language that are commonly called speeches. Discourse is defined as a continuous stretch of language larger than a sentence, often constituting a coherent unit such as a sermon, argument, joke or narrative. (Crystal 1992:25).

The main domain of discourse analysis focus on what should be taught in the classroom in order to facilitate learners to comprehend and produce more native like speech participating in real conversations.

Most of the time language classes are taught only at the grammar and vocabulary level; however, what is missing there is a full understanding of cohesive devices, frames and phrases that are used in the real world. Students might understand a single sentence; nonetheless, when they are put together in a speech the might pass a hard time trying to fully comprehend the message, and that is because the sum of the parts is not equal to the whole. This knowledge is really helpful for second language teachers when teaching this features that will facilitate students interaction, in an oral and written form. In the same way learners benefit from knowing and using these pieces of language that many times are strategies to fill gaps, continue the speech, gain time to think and process information, and moreover to know certain linguistic devices that help make the same utterance or sentence sound more or less formal depending on the contexts it is used.

Discourse analysis is also concerned with how students are involved in the learning process; being established that students must interact, negotiate meaning, request for explanation in order to acquire a language, it is also necessary to teach different skills on the grounds of discourse analysis’ offerings (Trappes-Lomax 2004:153). Discourse analysis’ study helps us to interpret better written texts and by consequence to teach features that are necessary in order to understand what the writer wanted to express, features such as types of texts, arranging and cohesive devises.

I consider very important the way we teach vocabulary in the classroom, how can help students if we teach synonymy, homonymy and collocations to make it easier for students to manage the target language lexis. ‘’It is most profitable to teach new terminology paying close attention to context and co-text (phrases that surround a given word) that new vocabulary appears in which is especially helpful in teaching and learning aspects such as formality and register’’ (McCarthy 1991:64)

A second language teacher must have a wide range of knowledge not only in the target language itself but in strategies that facilitate this exceptional area of human development ‘’language’’ , discourse analysis is a way of researching many aspects of how we create language and how we can better understand and use better a second language.

REFERENCES:

· http://www.tlumaczenia-angielski.info/linguistics/discourse.htm

· http://eamonfulcher.com/discourse_analysis.html

· http://www.stolaf.edu/depts/cis/wp/johnsoja/whatisdiscourse/index.html

· http://grammar.about.com/od/d/g/discanalysisterm.htm

COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE DOMAIN

ACTIVITY BASED ON THE BLOOM’S TAXONOMY

‘’SOLVING A PROBLEM’’

There is an activity in which students can use the Bloom’s taxonomy in the six levels. They need to search for a topic; it needs to be a problem they have in their communities. Explain causes and consequences as well as to give solutions. Students present their research in a power point presentation. With this activity they practically apply the six levels of Bloom’s taxonomy.

1. KNOWLEDGE: Students are going to talk about a problem that is currently happening in their country. They search for the topic and gather information.

2. COMPREHENSION: they read and understand the material consulted in order to identify the pros and cons about it.

3. APPLICATION: students need to look for pictures to explain the problem.

4. ANALYSIS: students analyze the information and talk about causes and consequences making a good use of conditionals.

5. SYNTHESIS: students elaborate a power point presentation in which they need to synthesize the information as well as to give some suggestions.

6. EVALUATION: students present a PPP and explain the problem, cause, consequences and solutions.

Students can read an article so as to have enough vocabulary to develop the activity.

Material:

http://planetark.org/wen/54297

KRATHWOHL'S TAXONOMY

Krathwohl's Taxonomy provides a set of criteria useful to classify the learning results related to the way students think and perceive stimuli in their affective domain.

In my own opinion we can use this taxonomy in our classes to evaluate students’ affective domain which is also related with the cognitive one. It is logic that it depends on what students receive they are going to give. This relation is not always equitable; however, we as teachers need to care about students ‘feelings and our behavior with them. We must respect their individuality and their own opinions if we want to receive a fairly behavior as consequence of what they just received. I am talking about the first two levels of Krathwohl's Taxonomy: receiving and responding.

In the receiving stage the teacher is the stimuli and in the responding level students look for activities in which they feel satisfied with their own participation. In the third level, valuing, they get involved and committed and indeed influence their peers to a certain value they perceived. In the organizing stage, they construct a system of attitudes, beliefs and values and finally the last stage which is characterizing by a value or set in which students can apply the values in their life to different situations.

Krathwohl's Taxonomy is useful in a teenagers’ class since adolescents are very sensitive by external stimulus and their learning outcome is strongly related to it. Hence, we must pay attention to this stimulus and how students respond and are affected by this. The idea is to develop classes based on this taxonomy in which students are conducted and supported in their feelings so as to take advantage of this part of their characteristics, their emotional influence.

We cannot separate cognitive processes from emotional feelings, so if we pretend to target a successful learning outcome, we must take into consideration both the cognitive and affective domain.

It is not under discussion if the affective domain is relevant but is the Krathwohl's Taxonomy is appropriate to use with teenagers. I consider the levels can be interchangeable, for example teenagers create a system of attitudes, beliefs and values before they receive and respond. Of course, this system is changing according to the stimuli they receive. And then can apply the values in their life before they are set, they can apply the values they had before.

An adaptation would be useful to this taxonomy, we as teacher might want to know if it really works in our classes. He could give or class and make a journal to register our observations about teenagers learning outcomes. Observation in my own opinion is the strongest tool we have to evaluate this domain, we know our students, we know their reactions and if we implement some changes in our classes we are able to evaluate them and make a comparison taking into consideration the cognitive and effective domain to see if some improvements are needed.

I want to conclude saying that the chat activity was very useful to be aware of the role and influence of external factors such as the ones explained in the Krathwohl's Taxonomy as well as the Bloom’s taxonomy and what are the pedagogical implications of such classification of thoughts and feelings.

Designing classes in which we consider these taxonomies would be a good start to improve our role as teachers in the classroom and evaluate our performance based on the students’ learning outcomes.

REFERENCES:

· Adriana Norato Peña and Jeny Mirella Cañon. Developing Cognitive Processes in Teenagers through the Reading of Short Stories.

· Berg, M. (2011). On the cusp of cyberspace: Adolescents’ Online text use in Conversations from the International Reading Association.

· http://det.wa.edu.au/curriculumsupport/giftedandtalented/detcms/navigation/for-teachers/provision/teaching---learning-models/taxonomy-of-affective-domain/?page=1&tab=Main

· http://www4.uwsp.edu/education/lwilson/curric/newtaxonomy.htm

· http://classweb.gmu.edu/ndabbagh/Resources/Resources2/krathstax.htm

· http://www4.uwsp.edu/education/lwilson/curric/newtaxonomy.htm

· http://www.scribd.com/doc/7223018/Blooms-Original-Revised-Taxonomy-Pyramids

TEACHING ENGLISH TO TEENAGERS

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES AND THEIR RELATION WITH SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING IN CHILDREN, TEENAGERS AND ADULTS.

Individual differences (ID’s) is an area of psychology that has been preoccupied by how people respond in a different way facing the same or similar circumstances. This fact applies to the teaching and learning process. In this report I want to emphasize in the matter of acquiring or learning a second language.

According to Zoltn Drnyei (2005) Individual differences have been closely related with the success or failure in a L2, producing relationships with language attainment in instructed settings mainly because of psychological differences which lead to behavior, attitude, aptitude and motivation.

This concern started to take place at the end of the nineteenth century, Sir Frances Galton (1822-1911) is said to be the first to investigate ID’s scientifically followed by Alfred Binet (1857-1911) constructing the first intelligence test together with his colleague Theodore Simon in 1905. Other techniques were developed to design test of personality, attitudes, specific cognitive attitudes and other psychological constructs.

Regarding to the acquisition of a second language, it has been observed there is a wide variation among language learners in regard to their success in mastering a L2 a line of research dating from the 1960’s up to date have shown that in order to succeed in a L2 besides attitude and motivation together with creative participation it s needed the application of individualized learning techniques. Peter Skehan’s proposed ‘’learning strategies’’ in 1989 and ‘’learning styles’’ in 1991.

According to my own experience in teaching English as a second language to students between 15 and 18 years old, I have observed some differences since the psychological point of view. Some ask for explicit instruction while others seem to deal better with abstraction. With this respect I need to accommodate my teaching according to these differences; however, to be honest I have found it something difficult to achieve.

The first difference we found has much to do with age and brain maturity. And, with this respect there are many myths and theories, still I will try to embrace the main differences.

Children learn Speaking according to the amount of input they receive in the classroom and outside of it. Some children present the phenomenon: ‘’language loss’’ since they forget their first language, this is called ‘’subtractive bilingualism’’ the objective if that they experience ‘’additive bilingualism’’. In general they can acquire a second language if they are long exposed to it with relatively little interference.

Regarding to the writing skills, writing is a skill that must be taught as nobody learn to write ‘naturally’ in contrast with speaking. Normally, children are willing to write when they have a reason, when their writing is directed to someone and they know someone is going to read their message. Still, there is a difference between the children content knowledge and their writing proficiency.

Second language learners often need help in order to express what they want in a paper. I do not have experience with children, however I teach my six-year old daughter and I have faced this particularity in her. She often needs a visual context before she can write, her most common writings are letters, and poems all of them directed to family and friends.

Children needs motivation and that someone believes in them. Researchers demonstrate that young children's writing skills develop best when the teacher believes they are able of expressing their thoughts and opinions on paper, when they have frequent opportunities to communicate meaningfully in writing (Graves, 1983; Harste, Woodward & Burke, 1984; Hudelson, 1984; Peyton, 1990; Schickedanz, 1986).

Often children write for meaningful communication before they have mastered oral language or are capable of reading.

Another characteristic of childhood is that they learn without a grammar instruction and they seem to learn a great quantity of words between the age 2 and 5, in spite of that students struggle when trying to write a piece of paper of something they were asked. Some strategies can use as brainstorming, visual aids, the steps of drafting, revising and editing as recursive processes.

Teenagers pass through many psychological and cognitive changes in this stage that also affect their learning ability in a positive and negative manner. Their cognitive ability is better; however, their ability to learn a second language starts to diminish as Erin Lennegerg pointed out: ‘’ changes in language acquisition ability are linked to stages in brain maturation.’’ According to the ‘’critical period hypothesis’’ there is a biological timetable ideal for learning a L2. The critical time occurs around puberty. This is base on the apparent evidence of the plasticity of the brain. Since birth all functions are located in one or the other hemisphere. The language function appears to be in the left hemisphere, the term ‘’lateralization’’ is used to refer to the assignments of these functions. After the lateralization occurs it is more difficult to learn a second language to the point of mastery. (Thomas Scovel: 1969). The question of matter is when does this lateralization occur?

According to Eric Lenneberg (1967) lateralization starts at the age of 2 to finish around puberty. Certainly, there are other arguments about this matter Norman Geschwind (1970) believed this happened much earlier while Krashen (1983) suggested that this lateralization occurs around 5 of 6 years old.

On the other hand, teenagers have an advantage when learning a L2 and this is because at this stage of puberty, the student pass through the operational stage of intellectual development becoming capable of abstraction and of formal thinking.

So, how do teenagers learn English? they have many similarities with children, the input they receive is still important for the speaking skill. One difference is that they can have a formal instruction on grammar combined with the other skills.

Teenagers need to be highly motivated in the classroom and to feel what they are doing is important for their general development. They can expand their vocabulary with reading; in fact this skill provides many benefits not only for vocabulary acquisition but for writing, grammar and spelling.

I have observed they are reluctant to read if they are told what to read. I have tried to give my students options, I offer at least three titles so they can chose and this way they are more willing to engage in the reading section.

In pronunciation, they can pass a hard time trying to produce a native like accent, what I do is to show them how they must move their tongue in order to produce a certain sound; then we practice with different words containing that sound. They have fun trying to imitate me. Since the time of instruction is very short, I provide them with some links of web pages where they can listen and practice their English, I also suggest to watch movies with the audio and subtitles in English as well as to listen to songs. When they really are engaged in all this practice they progress much faster.

Another advantage we have when working with teenagers is that we have a great quantity of topics to work with in contrast to children, their general knowledge and culture is bigger and we can take advantage of this to make an interesting class.

Teenagers still learn quickly and if we know how to approach them it is a rewarding experience. I personally love working with them.

Finally, I want to talk about adults learning a second language; the main disadvantage is that their interference is bigger that in adolescence although interference can also be useful. They can have a hard time trying to grasp correct pronunciation as their first language is strongly set up in their brains. Besides English input they need a conscious effort in contrast to children. In their case there is no language acquisition but language learning.

Adults can use their literacy in their L1 to transfer it to the L2 in reading and in writing, if they are highly motivated and have the enough time to study and practice they can master the language, the only disadvantage in pronunciation as it has been observed it is difficult for them to acquire a native accent. Since my point of view this is a little and non important as far as they understand and express in communication what important can be not to have a native like accent?

In my own experience, I learned English as an adult, I was 21 years old and I felt free to express myself, I remembered once one teacher told me in my first year of learning my English was very good but I had a strong accent, now I understand. On the other hand, I think I have improved it a lot because I teach myself with specific books, audios and a lot of input.

I consider we need to have great motivation and attitude not only as learners but as teachers; many times we can motivate students with our attitude as well as with our teaching techniques. We need to believe in them and teach creatively without distinction of the age, of course taking into consideration their uniqueness as individuals.

REFERENCES:

· Zoltn Drnyei, The Psychology of the Language Learner - Individual Differences in Second Language Acquisition, 2005, pp 1-7

· Blanche Perotta. Writing Development and Second Language Acquisition in Young Children. Childhood Education, Vol. 70, 1994. Retrieved at: http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5002207069

· Comparing and Contrasting First and Second language Acquisition. Retrieved at: http://www.literature.freeservers.com/image_polat/ccfsla.html

· Acquiring English as a Second Language. What’s ‘’Normal’’, What’s Not. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Retrieved at: http://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/easl.htm

· Judie Haynes. Getting Started with English Language Learners. Chapter 1. Key Concepts of Second-Language Acquisition. Retrieved at: http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/106048/chapters/Key_Concepts_of_Second-Language_Acquisition.aspx

· Language learning by adults (the so-called "second language acquisition"). Retrieved at: http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ling201/test4materials/secondlangacquisition.htm

· Teaching Diverse Learning. Writing. Considerations for ELL’s. Retrieved at: http://www.lab.brown.edu/tdl/elemlit/writing.shtml

MOTIVATION

MOTIVATION AND SELF MOTIVATION

It has been observed that regardless the method we use as teachers or the effort students make on their own, there are differences in success on the second language acquisition. By discovering what is the key to success in some learners we could have a considerable advance in the knowledge we have about issues of second language mastery. The question relies on what is the relationship between personality variables and learning success?

It has been accounted that extroversion and neuroticism have a negative effect with learning achievement. In the former, it is explained that introverted students have a better ability to consolidate learning, they can concentrate easier and they have better study habits. I agree with this point of view, I consider myself more introverted and I could say I have good study habits; I was always one of the best at school. On the other hand, I have observed that extroverted students take more risks for example when it comes to speak in a foreign language they are more willing to try being this an advantage for learning. About extroversion and introversion, Skenhan (1989) explains that both can benefit from their personality, it all depends of the tasks they need to do. When it comes to talk in order to practice and to try out new language extroverts have a benefit as they are always ready and are not inhibited at all. On the other hand, introverts might have an advantage for other kind of tasks for example when they need to study and analyze language, they are more conscious when writing and do it more carefully and organized.

It is important to mention that this personality traits influence academic learning in a small percent influencing other factors such as motivation, attitude, anxiety and perceived competence. MacIntyre, Clément, Dörnyei, and Noels (1998) proposed a personality component in L2 ‘’Willingness to Communicate’’ (WTC).

On a survey directed by Lalonde, Lee and Gardner (1987) more than 83% of the teachers rated the good learner to have prominent personality features, they found eleven traits specially related: meticulous, persevering, sociable, independent, inquisitive, involved, organized, active, flexible, assertive and imaginative. Swain and Burnaby’s (1976) found that parents considered certain personality traits important qualities for success: happy, cheerful, talkative, and having a tendency toward perfectionism being this significant to L2 performance.

Ability and motivation are two ID variables that had been related with most of the variance among students in academic performance. Motivation is effort, desire and attitude toward learning (Dörnyei, 1994b). In my own opinion, we are really wasting time in the classroom if students are not motivated. Should be motivation one of our goals when teaching? I say yes, if we only devote time to teach we are missing a great part of our obligations as teachers. We can start by

· Setting goals so students know what we expect from them

· Creating an appropriate classroom atmosphere so students feel comfortable

· Increasing student’s self-esteem by praising their effort and any achievement they have.

· Letting them know what are their strengths and how they can overcome their weaknesses

· Increase our own motivation as teachers and show a good attitude in the classroom

· Providing motivational feedback

· Creating a good rapport with students being always fare and avoid any kind of preferences

· Planning excellent classes with material and according to their level and style

· Providing interesting and motivating tasks

Learning a second language is strongly related with many aspects of personality and its variables. Many of these variables have not been totally understood yet. We can work with what we already know and continue observing in our daily practice to contribute with some insights that might be useful for further research. One of the personality variables we must work on is learners’ motivation as this influences directly learning success. We could try many practices in order to approach student’s motivation and target their success in L2.

REFERENCES:

· Zoltn Drnyei, The Psychology of the Language Learner - Individual Differences in Second Language Acquisition, 2005, pp 10-29, 65-118.

· Judie Haynes. Getting Started with English Language Learners. Chapter 1. Key Concepts of Second-Language Acquisition. Retrieved at: http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/106048/chapters/Key_Concepts_of_Second-Language_Acquisition.aspx

· Comparing and Contrasting First and Second language Acquisition. Retrieved at: http://www.literature.freeservers.com/image_polat/ccfsla.html