Didactics II - photocopies

INTRODUCTION

Halliwell - Working with young language learners

Young children do not come to the language classroom empty-handed. They bring with them an already well-established
set of instincts, skills, and characteristics which will help them to learn another language. For example, children:
-are already very good at interpreting meaning without necessarily understanding the individual words:
-already have great skill in using limited language creatively;
-.frequently learn indirectly rather than directly;
-take great pleasure in finding and and creating fun in what they do;
-have a ready imagination.

Children's ability to grasp meaning

We know from experience that very young children are able to understand what is being said to them even before they
understand the individual words. Intonation, gesture, facial expressions, actions and circumstances all help to tell them
what the unknown words and phrases probably mean.
Children come to primary school with this ability already highly developed. They continue to use it in all their school
work. For example, even through their mother tongue skills are already well established, they may well find it difficult to
follow purely verbal instructions and information. When this happens, or sometimes simply out of laziness or inattention,
children will tend to rely on their ability to “read” the general message. Particularly in terms of language development.,
their message-interpreting skill is part of the way they learn new words, concepts and expressions in ther mother tongue.
So when children encounter a new language at school, they can call on the same skill to help them interpret the new
sounds, new words and new structures. We want to support and develop this skill. We can do this by making sure we
make full of gesture, intonation, demonstration, actions and facial expressions to convey meaning parallel to what we are
saying.

Children's creative use of limited language resources

In the early stages of their mother tongue development children excel at making a little language go a long way. They are
creative with grammatical forms. They are also creative with concepts. The four-year-old British child who said “don´t
unring” when she wanted to tell a telephone caller to wait, was using her existing knowledge of the way the negative
prefix works in order to create a meaning she needed. Children also create words by analogy, or they even invent
completely new words which then come into the family vocabulary.
This phenomenon is fundamental to language development. We see it in all children acquiring their mother tongue. We
also know it in ourselves as adults when we are using another language. Sometimes, for example, we don´t know the
word or the grammatical structure for what we want to say. So we find other ways of conveying the meaning. Sometimes,
we just make up words or even just say words from our mother tongue in a foreign accent. We stretch out resources to the
limit. In the process, we may well produce temporarily inexact and sometimes inept language, but we usually manage to
communicate.
This process would appear to be a very deep-rooted human instinct. It actually occurs in the language classroom even
without out help. For example, it occurs naturally when the need to communicate has been temporarily intensified by
some activity which generates real interaction or calls on the imagination. So in order to make the most of the creative
language skill the children bring with them, we have to provide them with occasions when:
-the urge to communicate makes them find some way of expressing themselves;
-the language demanded by the activity is unpredictable and isn´t just asking the children to repeat set phrases.
That is why games are so useful and so important. It is not just because they are fun. It is partly because the fun element
creates a desire to communicate. The desire to communicate also ties in with the next capacity that children bring with
them to the classroom, namely their aptitude for indirect learning.

Children's capacity for indirect learning

Even when teachers are controlling an activity fairly closely, children sometimes seem to notice something out of the
corner of their eye and to remember it better than what they were actually supposed to be learning. This capacity can be
turned to our advantage in the language classroom. It is part of the rather complex phenomenon of indirect learning.
Language activities which involve children in guessing what phrase or words someone has thought of are very good
examples of this phenomenon in action. As far as the children are concerned, they are not trying to learn phrases, they are
concentrating on trying to guess right. However, by the time they have finished the repeated guessing, they will have
confirmed words and structures they only half knew at the beginning. They will have got phrases firmly into their minds.
They will probably even have adjusted their pronunciation. Guessing is actually a very powerful way of learning phrases
and structures, but it is indirect because the mind is engaged with the task and is not focusing on the language. The
process relates very closely to the way we develop our mother tongue. We do not consciously set out to learn it. We
acquire it through continuous exposure and use.
Both conscious direct learning and subconscious indirect learning, or “acquisition”, are going to help someone internalise
a new language. Conscious direct learning seems to encourage worked-out accuracy. Unconscious indirect learning, or
acquisition, encourages spontaneous and therefore more fluent use. Ideally we want both accuracy and fluency to develop.
So in the classroom we need to provide scope for both systems to operate. Within our lessons there will therefore need to
be times for conscious focus on language forms and times for indirect learning with its focus on making meaning. There
will be times for both precision and for rough and ready work. You may also notice that in your class you have children
who are temperamentally more inclined to operate in one way than the other.
In general terms, however, it is probably true to say that at primary school level the children's capacity for conscious
learning of forms and grammatical patterns is still undeveloped. In contrast, all children, whether they prefer to “sort
things out” or “muddle through”, bring with them an enormous instinct for indirect learning.
For this reason, we can see why it is a good idea to set up real tasks in the language classroom if we can. Real tasks, that
is to say worthwhile and interesting things to do which are not just language exercises, provide the children with an
occasion for real language use, and let their subconscious mind work on the processing of language while their conscious
mind is focused on the task. We can also see again why games are more than a fun extra. They too provide an opportunity
for the real using and processing of language while the mind is focused on the “task” of playing the game.

Children's instinct for play and fun

Children have an enormous capacity for finding and making fun. They bring a spark of individuality and of drama to
much that they do. When engaged in guessing activities, for example, children nearly always inject their own element of
drama into their hiding of the prompt cards and their reactions to the guesses of their classmates. They shuffle their cards
ostentatiously under the tabñe so that the others can't see. They know perfectly well it isn't “real” but it doesn't stop them
putting effort and drama into it. Here, as in the guessing activities, their personalities emerge, woven into the language
use. In this way, they make the language their own. In this way, through their sense of fun and play, the children are
living the language for real. Yet again we can see why games have such a central role to play. But games are not the only
way in which individual personalities surface in the language classroom. There is also the whole area of imaginative
thinking.

The role of imagination

Children delight in imagination and fantasy. In the primary school, children are very bruising making sense of the world
about them. They are identifying patterns and also deviation from that pattern. They test out their versions of the world
through fantasy and confirm how the world actually is by imagining how it might be different.
Language teaching should be concerned with real life. But it would be a great pity if we were so concerned to promote
reality in the classroom that we forgot that reality for children includes imagination and fantasy. The act of fantasising, of
imagining, is very much an authentic part of being a child. So, for example, describing an imaginary monster with five
legs, ten pink eyes and a very long tongue may not involve actual combination of words that they would use about things
in real life, but recombining familiar words and ideas to create a monster is a very normal part of a child's life. Similarly,
claiming a dinosaur in a list of pets is hardly in purist terms but perfectly normal for a nine year old with a sense of the
absurd.
If we accept the role of the imagination in children's lives we can see that it provides another very powerful stimulus for
real language use. We need to find ways of building on this factor in the language classroom too. We want to stimulate
the children's creative imagination so that they want to use the language to share their ideas.

The instinct for interaction and talk

Of all the instincts and attributes that children bring to the classroom this is probably the most important for the language
teacher. Let us just say that this particular capacity can surface unbidden and sometimes unwanted in all classrooms. It is
one of the most powerful motivators for using the language. We are fortunate as language teachers that we can build on it.
Even so, you will sometimes hear teachers object “But I can't do pairwork with this class. They will keep talking to each
other!” Far from being a good reason for not doing pariwork with them, this is a very good reason why we should.
Children need to talk. Without talking they cannot become good at talking. They can learn about the language, but the
only way to learn to use it is to use it. So out job to make sure that the desire talk is working for learning nor against
learning.

Building programs on a solid foundation: from theory to practice - Curtain and Pesola

Children have the reputation for being natural lg learners since they have learnt their native lg with apparent ease, and by
the time they are six years old they have brought it to a level of fluency that is the envy of nonnative speakers. Parents
who bring their children into a second lg setting and immerse them in a new situation often experience a kind of miracle
since after more or less six months their children begin to function successfully in the new setting and at a linguistic level
to which parents cannot hope to aspire. The best thing to do is simply to place the child in the target language setting and
then stay out of the way to let the miracle happen.
There is both linguistic and psychological theory to help explain children‟s seemingly effortless second-lg acquisition and
to provide insights that can make the classroom a better place for such lg acquisition to take place.

SECOND-LANGUAGE ACQUISITION - krashen

Second language acquisition theory may help to explain the situation of children who acquire languages more quickly and
apparently with much less effort that do their parents when placed in a lochal school in the SL environment. The children
are in a setting in which they are surrounded by lg that is made meaningful because of the context and because of the way
teachers speak to them. They are given time to sort out the lg that they hear and understand, until they are ready to begin
to use it for their own expressive purposes. Their parents, on the other hand, are usually busy learning rules and they
attempt to apply them later to a setting in which they have something to say.

● Acquisition vs Learning: there are two independent systems. The acquired system is a subconscious process very
similar to first lg acquisition. it requires meaningful interaction in the target lg in which speakers are concentrated in th e
communicative act. the learned system is the product of formal instruction and it comprises a conscious process about lg,
grammar rules.
● Natural Order Hypothesis: the structures of a lg will be acquired in approximately the same order, regardless of
what is being taught in a formal setting.
● Monitor Hypothesis: the monitor is a trigger in the brain that applies rules that have been learnt in order to accurately
produce or interpret a msg in the target lg. The monitor makes the speaker aware of the mistake or it triggers awareness of
the error in time to prevent making it. For it to work effectively, the speaker must know the rule, have time to think of it
and apply it.
● Input Hypothesis: the most important factor in the amount of lg acquired by a learner is the amount of
COMPREHENSIBLE INPUT to which that learner is exposed. The learner can fully understand it, plus a little more i+1.
The learners must always be challenged, but never to the point of frustration. When sts are not familiar with a word, input
can be made comprehensible through the use of gestures, examples, illustrations, experiences, and caretaker speech.
According to Krashen, human beings acquire language in only one way: by receiving comprehensible input. Acquisition
is achieved by massive exposure, when learners are exposed to the language. The quality of the input children are exposed
to should be I plus 1, a little bit beyond our learners current level of competence. If I cannot modify the input to the
learner´s level, then its going to be noise, and it's going to result in demotivation.
● Affective filter Hypothesis: sts are likely to resist learning when it is unpleasant, painful.The filter goes up in the
presence of anxiety or low self-confidence or in the absence of motivation. The filter goes down and the input can come
through when motivation is high, when a student is self-confident, and when the learning takes place in a relatively
anxiety-free environment. The affective filter is a barrier or a block that impedes input to come in. When the affective
filter is up, the learner may understand what he is reading or listening, but the input will not reach the LAD. This occurs
when the learner is unmotivated, lacking in self confidence, or anxious. The affective filter is down when the learner is
not concerned with the possibility of failure in L2 acquisition.

-Conditions for second lg acquisition

According to Krashen and other researchers, Lg acquisition takes place most effectively when the input is
MEANINGFUL and INTERESTING to the learners, when it is COMPREHENSIBLE (i+1) and when it is not
grammatically sequenced. The lg to which learners are exposed to should be as natural as possible. The key point in the
usefulness of input is whether it is comprehended or not. Meaningfulness and interest for the learner may well be the
most significant factors of all.
Michael Long suggests that acquisition takes place best in a setting in which meaning is negotiated through interaction, so
that the st has influence on the message being communicated. This suggests the T that there must be early attention to
providing sts with the ability to communicate messages such as “I don‟t understand, Can you repeat, please?”.

-Comprehensible output
Merrill Swain has taken Krashen‟s idea one step further and suggests that sts acquire lg most meaningfully when they also
have the opportunity for COMPREHENSIBLE OUTPUT. They need to have the setting in which their attempts at
communication are valued and shaped to make them acceptable and understandable, through communicative rather than
grammatical means of correction. Correction is important to the MEANING of the message rather than the form.

-Use of lg
In a classroom designed to encourage 2nd lg acquisition, there is an emphasis on communication. The teacher provides sts
with an environment in which they are surrounded by messages in the target lg that communicate interesting, relevant
information in lg they are able to understand. Part of creating comprehensible input for lg consists of using strategies such
as motherese, caretaker speech, teacherese and foreigner talk. They are characterised by:
· The slower rate of speech
· More distinct pronunciation
· Shorter, less complex sentences
· More rephrasing and repetition
· More frequent meaning checks to make sure the listeners is understanding
· Use of gesture and visual reinforcement
· Greater use of concrete referents
· Scaffolding (the T surrounds the learner with lg, treating the sts as if they were participants in a conversation. In
early stages of lg acq, the T provides both parts of a conversation. Later, the teacher embellishes one and two-word
responses by the learner into complete utterances in a natural and conversational manner, at the same time modeling
extended discourse and providing meaningful listening experiences).

PAYING ATTENTION TO THE BRAIN

Rote learning, habit formation and observable outcomes are being replaced by an emphasis on meaningfulness,
metacognition and process. Behaviourist psychologists considered sts as passive subjects to be manipulated through
reinforcement techniques and drills. The cognitive psychologists, in contrast, sees sts as active participants in the learning
situation, controlling and shaping their own learning processes. In a behaviourist classroom the student responds tu
stimuli and reinforcement, while in a classroom based on cognitive psychology the students´own internal motivation
drives the learning process. The sts‟ own internal motivation drives the learning process. One of the most important
principles of cognitive psychology is that info is best learned and retained if it is made meaningful to sts.

Glover and Breuning summarize six major principles for cognitive psychology as they relate to instruction:
· Sts are active processors of information
· Learning is more likely to occur when information is made meaningful to sts
· HOW sts learn may be more important than what they learn
· Cognitive processes become automatic with repeated use
· Metacognitive skills can be developed through instruction
· Internal motivation is important
· There are vast differences in students‟ information-processing abilities.

Brain-based learning
The brain is a sophisticated, sensitive pattern detector, constantly engaged in the active process of imposing patterns on
everything it encounters in the environment. According to the brain-based learning theory, learning is the process of
extracting meaningful patterns from the rich input of the environment and shaping them into a fixed sequence of
behaviours.

James Asher developed the Total Physical Response (TPR) approach to lg teaching as a response to the different tasks
performed by the two hemispheres of the brain. Sts respond with physical activity to increasingly complex teacher
commands, and they are not expected to speak until they feel ready. TPR was intended to encourage use of the right-
hemisphere processes. Some people have advocated the use of music, rhythm, drama and games as methods to stimulate
the right hemisphere and thus facilitate lg acquisition.

Beliefs about the whole lg may be examined in three categories, each with potential application to second and foreign lgs
as well as to native lg instruction: beliefs about lg, beliefs about lg development, and beliefs about learning.
Beliefs about lg:
● Lg takes several forms-oral, written, sign-and they are all valid. None is dependent on the other and they can be
developed simultaneously.
● Lg is a supersystem made up of interdependent and inseparable subsystems.
● Lg‟s use depends on a social context. It is intentional, there is always a purpose for using it.
● Lg is predictable and the function of the predictability is to make sense, to find meanings.
● Lg is esthetic, its musical and poetic qualities are always present and available.
Beliefs about lg development:
● Lg is learnt through actual use to achieve personal purposes. It is not learnt through drills and practice for its own
sake.
● Lg learning is both natural and social. It is natural in that it is a by-product of some important use to which lg is
put. It is social in that it occurs through social interaction and develops in order to facilitate that interaction.
● Learners constantly test hypotheses and make errors. Learning of both oral and written lg occurs through actual
purposeful use.
Beliefs about learning:
● Learning is a social process, interaction with the environment and collaboration in learning bring learners to levels
of understanding and skill development that would have been unattainable through individual efforts in isolation.
● Learning is best achieved through direct involvement and personal experience. Learners construct meanings rather
than a passive activity in which Ts transmit information.
● It‟s the learner‟s purpose and intentions that drive learning.
● Learning involved hypotheses testing.

FRAMEWORK FOR CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

This Framework for Curriculum Development for FLES Programs is designed to to guide decisions encountered in the
process of curriculum development and as a starting point for curriculum and program evaluation. There are certain
elements to take into account while planning according to the Framework for Curriculum Development for FLES
Programs (Pesola):
- Learner and teacher characteristics: all curriculum planning has to take into account the level of the learners and
their different learning styles, their linguistic and experiential background. The T‟s lg skills and experiences with the
target culture will have an influence in the decision and areas of personal interest and enthusiasm will be natural choices
for emphasis in the curriculum and in daily lessons.
- Thematic center: it is based on the ts and learners‟ interests, relationship to the goal of the curriculum for the age
of the class, potential for integration with the culture of the lg being taught, and potential for the application and
development of appropriate and useful lg functions. Lg functions and basic vocabulary are encountered and reinforced
from unit to unit, due to the spiral character of the general elementary school curriculum.
- Curriculum components: there are three major groups of outcomes that give substance to the thematic unit:
- outcomes for lg in use, or functional lg outcomes: lg necessary for dealing appropriately with the
theme.
- subject content outcomes: reinforcement and extension of concepts and goals from the general elementary school
curriculum.
- culture outcomes: experiences with patterns of thinking and behaviour that are distinctly representative of communities
in which the target lg is used.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LEARNER

● Piaget and the stages of cognitive development (+ "theory of cognitive development")

Piaget belongs to the cognitivism movement. Within cognitivism, he belongs to constructivism. He refers to learning in
general. As he is a developmental psychologist, he believes that people develop by interacting with the environment and
by doing. Developing comes before learning according to Piaget. You learn as a consequence of developmental changes
and interacting with the environment.

Piaget studies how children build knowledge. What cognitive processes intervene. As the child grows he establishes
relationships between age and cognitive maturation.
We believed that we construct our cognitive abilities through self-motivated action in the world, involving with the
environment. Piaget‟s theory is based on learners passing through a series of stages.
He proposes that cognitive development from infant to young adult occurs in four universal and consecutive stages:
● Sensory-motor stage (from 0-2 years): children explore the world through the senses, hearing, touching, smelling.
In this stage, the child tries to explore the environment through testing, through using his senses. Biologically speaking
through his mouth. Children start learning that their action can cause another action. They kick the ball and it moves.
During the latter part of of this stage, the child develops object permanence, i.e they understand that objects exist even if
they are not within the field of vision.Language appears by the end of this stage.
(Fotocopia theory of cognitive development) According to Piaget, this stage marks the development of essential spatial
abilities and understanding of the world in six sub-stages.
-The first sub-stage occurs from birth to six weeks and is associated primarily with the development of reflexes. Three
primary reflexes are described by Piaget: sucking objects in the mouth, following moving or interesting objects with the
eyes, and closing of the hand when an object makes contact with the palm (palmar grasp). oVER these first six weeks of
life, these reflexes begin to become voluntary actions; for eample, the palmar reflex becomes intentional grasping.
-The second sub-stage occurs from six weeks to four months and is associated primarily with the development of habits.
Primary circular actions or repeating of an action involving only ones own body begin. An example of this type of
reaction would involve something like an infant repeating the motion of passing their hand before their face.
-The third sub-stage occurs from four to nine months and is associated primarily with the development of coordination
between vision and prehension. Three new abilities occur at this stage: intentional grasping for a desired object, secondary
circular reactions, and differentiations between ends and means. At this stage, infants will intentionally grasp the air in the
direction of a desired object, often to the amusement of friends and family. Secondary circular reactions, or the repetition
of an action involving an external object begin; for example, moving a switch to turn on a light repeatedly. This is perhaps
one of the most important stages of a child's growth as it signifies the dawn of logic. Towards the late part of this sub-
stage infants begin to have a sense of object permanence.
-The fourth sub-stage occurs from nine to twelve months and is associated primarily with the fevelopment of logic and the
coordination between means and ends. This is an extremely important stage of development, holding what Piaget calls the
“first proper intelligence” Also, this stage marks the beginning of goal orientation, the deliberate planning of steps to meet
an objective.
-The fifth sub-stage occurs from twelve to eighteen months and is accosiated primarily with the discovery of new means
to meet goals. Piaget describes the child at this juncture as the “young scientist,” conducting pseudo-experiments to
discover new methods of meeting challenges.
-The sixth sub-stage is associated primarily with the beginning of insight, or true creativity. This marks the passage into
the preoperational stage.

● Pre-operational stage (2-7 years): during this stage the children have not yet mastered the ability of mental
operations or abstract thinking. They have not the ability to think through actions. They depend on concrete objects to
learn. Children are considered highly egocentric, they engage in collective monologues, in which each child is talking, but
not interacting with other children. They have not developed reversible thinking but develop memory and imagination.
Another important aspect is the acquisition of the skill of conservation: children understand that the amount of something
remains the same even if its appearance changes. This stage is when the child's thought become more flexible and when
memory and imagination begin to play a part. They can live situations that are not totally real. They can be other
characters but they know they are not. They play different roles. More vocabulary is introduced. They don't learn
grammar explicitly but they are able to make correct grammatical sentences. The teaching implications in this stage
would be: she includes lots of concrete things, the teacher being the model of students. She should demonstrate things,
never ask them to do something without demonstrating first what they have to do. As she gives the instruction she has to
show them how to do it. If not, they won't follow her. They follow because they are great imitators.
Mental operation: any procedure for mentally acting on objects. Any procedure to operate or influence on any kinf of
object. In this stage there is very logically inaequate mental operations.
(Fotocopia theory of cognitive development) This stage includes the following processes:
-Symbolic functioning: is characterised by the use of mental symbols, words or pictures which the child uses to represent
something which is not physically present.
-Centration: is characterized by a child focusing or attending to only one aspect of a stimulus or situation. For example, in
pouring a quantity of liquid from a narrow beaker into a shallow dish, a preschool child might judge the quantity of liquid
to have decreased, because it is “lower” that is, the child attend to the height of the water, but not the compensating
increase in the diameter of the container.
-Intuitive thought: occurs when the child is able to believe in something without knowing why she or he believes it.
-Egocentrism: a version of centration, this denotes a tendency of child to only think from own point of view.
-Inability to conserve: through Piaget‟s observation experiments (conservation of mass, volume and number) he
concluded that children in this stage lack perception or conservation of mass, volume and number after the original form
has changed. Eg: they will believe that a tall thin 8-ounce cup has more liquid than a wide fat 8-ounce cup.

● Concrete operational stage (7-11 years): sts learn best through hands-on discovery learning, while working with
tangible object. Reasoning processes also begins to take shape. The three basic are: identity (person or object remains the
same over time), compensation (one action can cause changes in another) and reversibility. Children begin to realize that
operations can be reversed, ex: that ice that melts into water can be frozen again into ice. This enables children to go
beyond the information given, but is still dependent upon concrete rather than abstract examples. They always need a
concrete reference (abaco, botones).
This stage occurs from 7 to 11 years old, and is characterized by the appropriate use of logic. Important processes during
this stage:
- Decentering: where the child takes into account multiple aspects of a problem to solve it. Eg: the child will no longer
perceive an exceptionally wide but short cup to contain less than a normally-wide taller cup.
- Reversibility: where the child understands that numbers or objects can be changed, then returned to their original state.
Eg: 4+4=8 and then 8-4=4 again, the original quantity.
- Conservation: understanding that quantity, length or number of items is unrelated to the arrangement or appearance of
the object or items. Eg: when a child is presented with 2 equally-sized, full cups they will be able to discern that if water
is transferred to a pitcher it will conserve the quantity and be equal to the other filled cup.
- Serialisation: the ability to arrange objects in order according to size, shape, or any other characteristic. Eg: if given
different-shaded objects they may make a colour gradient.
- Classification: the ability to name and identify sets of objects according to appearance, size or other characteristic,
including the idea that one set of objects can include another.
- Elimination of egocentrism: the ability to view things from another‟s perspective, even if they think incorrectly. Eg: if
they read a comic in which Jane puts a doll under a box, leaves the room, and then Tom moves the doll to a drawer, and
Jane comes back. A child in this stage will not say that Jane will think the doll is in the drawer.

● Formal operations (11 onwards): in this stage abstract reasoning becomes increasingly possible. children apply
logical reasoning to all problems, think abstractly and draw conclusions using deductive reasoning abilities. People in this
stage utilize many strategies and resources for problem solving. They have developed complex thinking and hypothetical
thinking skills. Through hypothetico-deductive reasoning, one is able to identify the factors of a problem, and deduce
solutions. As part of their cognitive development, children also develop schemes, which are mental representations of
people, objects and principles. These are assimilation (information we already know) and accomodation (adapting one‟s
existing kn to what is perceived).
This stage commences at around 11 (puberty) and continues into adulthood. It is characterized by acquisition of the ability
to think abstractly and draw conclusions from the information available. Here the child is able to understand such things
as love, values. Biological factors may be traced into this stage as it occurs during puberty and marks the entering into
adulthood in physiologically, cognitive, moral, psychosexual and social development. Many people do not successfully
complete this stage, but mostly remain in concrete operations.
General info regarding this stages:
- although the timing may vary, the sequence of the stages does not.
- Universal (not culturally specific)
- Generalizable: the representational and logical operations available to the child should extend to all kinds of
concepts and content knowledge.
- Stages are logically organized wholes.
- Hierarchical nature of stage sequences (each successive stage incorporates elements of previous stages, but is
more differentiated and integrated).
- Stages represent qualitative differences in modes of thinking, not merely quantitative differences.

Challenges to Piagetian Stage Theory:

First, development does not always progress in the smooth manner his theory seems to predict. “Decalage”, or
unpredicted gaps in the developmental progression, suggest that the stage model is at best a useful approximation. More
broadly, Piaget‟s theory is “domain general”. predicting that cognitive maturation occurs concurrently across different
domains of knowledge (such as maths, understanding of physics, of language, etc). However, more recent cognitive
developmentalists have been much influenced by domain specificity or modularity of mind, under which different
cognitive faculties may be largely independent of one another and thus develop according to quite different time-tables. In
this vein, many current cognitive developmentalists argue that rather than being domain general learners, children come
equipped with domain specific theories, sometimes referred to as “core knowledge”, which allows them to break into
learning within that domain.

❖ Kieran Egan and layers of educational development

He describes development in terms of the characteristics that determine how the learner gains access to the world. He
thinks of educational development as a process of accumulating and exercising layers of capacity for engaging with the
world. As individuals develop, they add new layers of sophistication without shedding the qualities characteristic of
earlier layers. Each stage contributes to sth necessary to the adult‟s ability to make sense of the world and human
experience. His stages development are not rigid stages, he speaks about layers. One layer does not eliminate the other,
one layer comes over the other. The second one becomes more prominent, but there is always something left of the
previous layer.
● The Mythic Layer (ages 4/5 to 9/10): the name of the stage has a reason. Mythic comes from myth. When we think
of myth we think of idealizations. No scientific evidence of what you want to explain. This is typical of children. They are
not going to analyze the world in a scientific way, they tend to believe in fiction and they cannot differentiate fiction from
real life. The child begins to understand the world in terms of their own vivid mental categories which are emotional and
moral. If you present children with realistic or scientific facts is knowledge that is meaningless.
-Emotion is important since children want to know HOW TO FEEL about whatever they are learning,
-Simple binary opposites provide the easiest access towards the subject they are learning (good/bad, love/hate). They
cannot think in terms of grades, its black or white, they cannot see the different shades in between. Examples: stories,
there is a lot of fantasy, characters who can do fantastic things, such as flying. There is always a villain and a hero.
-The child often perceives the world as feeling and thinking like the child. Example: they hit the table and say malo.
-Children in this layer interpretes the world in terms of absolute categories,
-The story form is the most powerful vehicle for instruction (it‟s got a beginning, a middle and an end, binary oppositions,
absolute meaning, emotional and moral categories).
● The Romantic Layer (ages 8/9 to 14/15): romantic in a sense of literature. Romantic in a sense of bravery, courage.
The key is the search for the transcendent within reality, the need to develop a sense of romance, of wonder and awe. The
romantic layer learner is in search for answers to the general question: “what are the limits and dimensions of the real and
the possible?”.
-Children develop the concept of OTHERNESS (an outside world different and separated from him).
-The world is perceived as threatening and alien.
-Children learn best when new info embodies qualities such as courage, genius, energy, creativity.
-They confront the task of developing a sense of their distinct identity. They say well, Im like this,they get their identity
and they want to affirm their identity.
-Children at this layer seek out the limits of the real world looking for the binary opposites within which reality exists,
thus the learner is fascinated with extremes. Example: marvel characters, superheroes.
-Romantic learners are fascinated with realistic details, the more different from their own experience, the better. Example:
Harry Potter, it gives them very realistic detail but in a world that is totally different from them. He his boy like them, but
in a world that is totally different. HP is a hero for them.
-Children prefer stories and story form incorporate realistic detail and heroes and heroines with whom the learner can
identify, who embody the qualities necessary to succeed in a threatening world.
-Students experience overwhelming sentimentality, and defend themselves against it through extreme outward
conformity.
● The Philosophic Layer (ages 14/15 to 19/20): They are looking for general laws. Children at this age create their
own philosophy, they believe that they know everything judging from their own philosophy. the students develop the
capacity to generate “general schemes”, the ability to generalize and organize information. Characteristics include:
-Students begin to understand the world as a unit of which they are a part.
-Focus in this layer is on the general laws by which the world works.
-Sts like to develop hierarchies as a means of gaining control over the threat of diversity,
-They become confident that the know the meaning of everything. They think they have the power to do anything they
want. They defy everyone.
-The general schemes give control and order to the encyclopedic accumulation of fact and detail of the romantic layer,.
-The teacher guides sts in the process of acquiring knowledge to feed the development of their general schemes, and then
elaborating their schemes to best organize their particular knowledge.
● The Ironic Layer (ages 19-20 throughout adulthood): they start questioning all the rules they have made before,
they started realizing that what they thought may not be that way. They realize that they don't know everything. They
realize that there are different versions. The major task is to control the capacities of all previous layers. These learner s
are in the best position to develop an objective mental image of the world.
-They recognize that the general schemes are not in themselves true, but are necessary tools for imposing meaning on
particulars. Particular knowledge is dominant rather than the general scheme.
-This layer is made up of contributions from all previous layers under the control of this key ironic perception. The ironic
learner is a mature adult learner.

According to Kieran Egan, everything has to be taught through stories, this is the best way students learn mathematics,
science, language.

CHARACTERISTICS OF ELEMENTARY AND MIDDLE SCHOOL LEARNERS

● Preschool sts (2-4): they are in a sensitive period for lg development. They absorb lg effortlessly and are adept
imitators of speech sounds. As they are self-centered, they do not work very well in groups, and they respond to learning
situations related to their own interests and experiences. They have a short attention span, but they have great patience for
repetition of the same activity or game.
● Primary sts (5-7): they learn best with concrete experiences and immediate goals. Most of them are still in the
preoperational stage. Vocabulary is more meaningful if presented as binary opposites. Children like to name objects,
define words, and learn about things in their own world, they also have vivid imagination and respond well to stories of
fantasy. They need to know how to feel about sth in order to learn it well. They learn through oral lg; they are capable of
developing good oral skills, pronunciation and intonation when they have a good model. They learn well through play,
role play and story form with strong beginning, middle and end. Bc of their attention span, they need to have a variety of
activities, but the T should remember that these kids tire easily. Ts should give structured and specific directions and build
regular routines and patterns in the daily lesson plan.
● Intermediate sts (8-10): children are at a maximum of openness to people and situations different from their own
experience. Global emphasis is important bc it gives them an opportunity to work with info about countries all over the
world. They begin to understand cause and effect as they are in the concrete operational level. They work well in groups.
They can begin a more systematic approach to lg learning, but they still need firsthand, concrete experiences. The
phenomenon of “boy germs” and “girl germs” begin to develop during these years. They continue to benefit from
experiences with imagination and fantasy, emphasis on binary opposites, and strong emotional connection to what is
learnt, as well as stories. They benefit from themes related to real life heroes and heroines.
● Preadolescent sts (11-14): they are undergoing dramatic developmental changes. The preadolescent must learn to
deal with a variety of experiences: emerging sexuality in a changing body, multiplying and rapidly shifting interests, a
need to rework interpersonal relationships with adults, turbulent emotions, extreme idealism, a need to assert
independence, a powerful peer group. A major goal is the encouragement of positive relationships and a positive self-
image. They need the opportunity for broad exploration. Exploring the limits of real world is very important so sts will
respond well to opportunities to learn about subjects that interest them in exhaustive detail. Heroic figures with qualities
that transcend threats are good choices for emphasis. Need learning experiences with a strong affective component.

K Eagan ARTICLE: Teaching as storytelling.

-Neglect of children's way of thinking throughout history (irrational, pre-operational, primitive). As if they couldn‟t
operate with their minds to think.KE is against all that, children are not irrational or primitive, they just have a way of
thinking that is different from adults. This way of children actually reflects the characteristics of oral cultures, the ancient
cultures that had not the writing system. Before writing was invented cultures had to transmit their knowledge from
mouth to mouth.
-Actually it reflects the characteristics of oral cultures where knowledge had to be transmitted orally from generation to
generation through memorization. Through memorization they had to know what the previous generation knew.
This was facilitated by the use of:

lessons
-Rhyme COGNITIVE become
-Rythm TOOLS more
-Meter (mental devices
-Proverbs and that help us think
formulae shape
and learn more knowledg
-Meraphor effectively)
-Story form e into

Rhyme is a very effective cognitive tool to memorize. Example: poems, songs. We remember a lyric of a song.
Another cognitive tool is proverbs and formulae- Example: better late than never. We always tend to remember proberns,
they are set phrases. Or formulas: last but not least.
Metaphor: we ted to learn and remember things using metaphors.
Story form: the most powerful is the story form according to KE. We still remember the story cinderella, snow white, the
three little pigs. A very powerful tool to learn things. We as teachers should use all these cognitive tools to teach.
If we use these tools as teachers: lessons become more interesting and shape knowledge into forms in which young
children are predisposed to learn it. Children are like those oral cultures because they are still illiterate.
Children are especially predisposed in their minds to learn using these tools.
If you put some rhyme, rhythm you will remember it much better. We should use these cognitive tools with children,
because that would be more meaningful and they will remember it for a longer time.

Characteristics of stories
1) Based on powerful abstract concepts that children already understand (values). They transmit values such as the
concept of bravery. They understand these values through the actions of the characters. They are not explicit.
2) Concepts/characters come in binary oppositions. There is always a good and a bad one.
3) Stories always falls the same structure, this is the logical development of any story:
beginning: sets up a conflict or expectation
middle: complicates it
end: resolves it.
Whenever we present a story to our students we should always find these three moments.
4) It encourages emotional commitment to it as well as transmitting content. There is always some characters we like and
others we hate. There is an emotional reaction to them, and that helps them to learn.
5) Use of metaphor, humour: develops imagination, enables people to understand one thing in terms of another. Many
stories have humour and metaphors. They enable people to see one thing by seeing it in terms of another, to think it
another way.

Teaching implications
1) Stimulate children´s orality and respect their intellectual ability. We should never thik that children cannot change, they
think differently.
2) Change the curriculum to use the story form, to teach even mathematics, science.
3) Teachers: story tellers. They should become storytellers.
We should help children become literate and rational without losing their imagination and the vivid freshness of
childhood perception.

Task: Enter google and write stories to teach English. “Kids and stories, teaching English, the British Council.

Children's development - Chapter 1 - CUADRO

There are different areas of child's development.- Incluir cuadro al resumen.

(Activity: present continuous. How to teach according to each stage.

Some considerations on 1st and 2nd language acquisition

From studies of 1st language learning, it is clear that both children and parents intuitively develop strategies that promote
acquisition of the 1st language and there is also some evidence to suggest that young children will apply the same
strategies when learning a 2nd language.

CHILDREN (innate mechanisms) (interaction) PARENTS (talk to and with children)

-Hear language again and again; then try to say it -Talk about a concrete present situation.
themselves (learn to comprehend before speaking).
-Imitation, repetition, formulaic speech and
incorporation.
-Need to communicate, take part in social context.
-Communicate their wants by reaching and
pointing, pushing away and rejecting, smiling,
frowning and crying.
-Establish a small range of first words between 12
and 18 months; from the age of 2 they begin to put
words together.
-Produce one-word utterances to communicate a
range of meaning followed by two-word utterances
with certain regularities and rules of word order.
-Need to see and hear the language being used
(language learning is experimental not analytical)
-Follow a natural order through which grammatical
structure develops.
-Utter their first words in combination with
gestures; use vocalization to call attention rather
than transmit information. Communicative
competence appears before linguistic competence.
-At 2 years of age they learn to coordinate
vocalizations to serve the purposes of
communication (true language).
-Two types of first words: names of concrete
objects (things they manipulate) and words for
social interactions.
-Concept development and language development
are interdependent; they only talk about what they
know.
-12-15 months telegraphic speech which increases
in grammatical difficulty (eg: statements before
questions).
-Imitate only the utterances that express their own
communicative intentions.
-Make mistakes because there is an active process
of rule formation.
-Talk paralleled by gesture and action, tone of
voice and stress.
-”Motherese” or “caretaker speech”
-Interpret and respond to the meaning of
children's utterances and provide models for
children to hear.
-Attach meaning to the baby's sounds, forming
first “words”.
-Encourage the child to try again by repeating
words clearly.
-Incorporate the word the child says in a
colloquial complete phrase.
-Negotiate meaning rather than correct.
-If a child wrongly names an object, they give the
appropriate name.
-Fill out the child´s telegraphic utterance and
then address the meaning.
-Reformulate ill-formed utterances and then
address the meaning.
-Stimulate children to think and communicate
further ideas.
-Introduce alternative structures and way of
expressing similar meaning.
-Involve their young children in conversations.
-Provide positive affective feedback-

Teaching young learners

1.1 First language - second language
Knowing how children learn their first language can help us teach them a second language.
All children can speak at least one language when they come to school. Think about how they learn this first language.
Think about babies and young children. Most mothers talk a lot to their children.

-Babies:
-hear voices from the time they are born
-respond to the voices of their mother, father, or carer
-listen to a lot of sound
-play with sounds and practise making sounds
-begin to associate the sounds with what they can see and understand
-begin to use language to interact with others and get what they want.
-Young children
-say what they hear others saying
-pick up the accent of those around them.

Read this transcript of a mother talking to her little child of 16 months. Notice how much language she uses and how she
talks about what is happening to the child:
MOTHER: Now we're nearly dressed...OK now over your head….good boy...put in your other hand….now shoes. Where
are your shoes?
CHILD: Sus….
MOTHER: Yes. Your shoes. Where are they? Oh there. Look...your shoes...on the chair.
CHILD: Sus. Sus.
MOTHER: Yes shoes.
This kind of talk is called caretaker talk; parents as carers talk to help the development of their child's language.
Teachers in school can do the same with their learners. Think about young children learning English as a second language
when they go to school.
Young children will:
-only acquire the language they hear around them
-need to hear a lot of English
-look on you-their teacher-as their new carer
-listen to you and try to make sense of what you say
-sound like the people they listen to.

Listen to the teacher talking to her class about the Christian festival of Easter. It is important in many Western countries.
Children have holidays and get chocolate eggs. The teacher is eliciting the phrase chocolate eggs. The teacher is with
eight to nine year olds.

TEACHER: And it's a holiday, isn't it =

CHILDREN: Yeah.
TEACHER: Yes. And on Easter Sunday he brings us what? Em?
CHILDREN: Chocolate.
TEACHER: Chocolate? Uh uh chocolate. Eh, chocolate… ice-cream=
CHILDREN: No.
TEACHER: No, no it's not chocolate ice-cream. Eh...chocolate---eggs? Chocolate eggs- Yes?
CHILDREN: Yes.
TEACHER: Do you like chocolate eggs?
CHILDREN: Yes, yes.
TEACHER: Mm… yum yum yum, yes?
CHILDREN: Yes, yes.
TEACHER: Chocolate eggs. OK
(later in the class)
TEACHER: And he brings? He brings? Yes?
CHILDREN: Chocolate eggs.
TEACHER: Do you like chocolate eggs? Do you like chocolate eggs? I love chocolate eggs.

Strategies the teacher and the mother use:

-Firstly, both mother and teacher talk a lot more than the children do.
-Secondly, they provide a secure and supportive environment which gives the children confidence to try out language.
-They repeat phrases said earlier.
-Keep children's attention by asking them questions.
-React positively to what children say even if words are not complete or perfectly pronounced.
-Add to or improve what children say.

These features of caretaker talk can help learners acquire new language naturally. So they are very good things for
teachers to do when teaching English in class

Teaching tips: (helping children learn a new language:

-Use English in class as the main language for communication.
-Use gestures, actions, and pictures to help children understand.
-Children often need to talk in order to learn - let children use their mother tongue for communication especially to start
with.
-Recast in English what children say to you in their mother tongue.
-Answer children in English as much as possible.
-Use their mother tongue for support when you do a new activity or if no one understands.
-Talk a lot in English to your pupils - they need to hear English.
-Talk about: where things are, pictures or things children can see, what you and your pupils are doing in class, what you
want your pupils to do next.
-And remember: the more English the children hear, the more they will learn. They will learn gradually, they wont say
everything perfectly to start with. Encourage them by responding positively.

Children need:
Affective support: emotions affect they way they learn. Related to the affective filter hypothesis by Krashen. (
sts are likely to resist learning when it is unpleasant, painful.The filter goes up in the presence of anxiety or low
self-confidence or in the absence of motivation. The filter goes down and the input can come through when
motivation is high, when a student is self-confident, and when the learning takes place in a relatively anxiety-
free environment. The affective filter is a barrier or a block that impedes input to come in. When the affective
filter is up, the learner may understand what he is reading or listening, but the input will not reach the LAD.
This occurs when the learner is unmotivated, lacking in self confidence, or anxious. The affective filter is down
when the learner is not concerned with the possibility of failure in L2 acquisition.)

Cognitive support: related to some theories. Ausubel concept of scaffolding. When the building is safe
enough then you remove the scaffolding. And this is related to the concept of Mediation - Vygotsky: (This is a
term used by psychologists of the social interactionist school to refer to the part played by other significant
people in the learners´ lives, who enhance their learning by selecting and shaping the learning experiences
presented to them. Basically, the secret of effective learning lies in the nature of the social interaction between
two or more people with different levels of skill and knowledge, usually a parent or teacher, but often a peer, is
to find ways of helping the other to learn. So, every function on the child's cultural development appears twice:
first, on the social level, and later on the individual level. The first time I discover a concept, it's because I´m
interacting with people, interaction will help me to acquire it. Once I´ve done this, the concept is mine, so I can
use it independently. If I need to learn something new I need help and that's the role of mediating. Other
people would help me to make sense (help from sb who knows more). This important person in the child's
learning is known as a mediator. So, learning occurs through social interaction with a SKILLFUL TUTOR). .
 UNIT 1
Teaching the system of the language: teaching sounds, teaching vocabulary.

-Harmer. Teaching pronunciation.

-Moon. Chapter 6, 8.
-Curtain Presola (210-25). Element to consider when planning activities. Context, the importance of having a context, the
characteristics of a context.
-Scriviner: chapter 12. “Grammar”.
-Slattery and Willis. “Reading and telling stories”
-Roth. “Action games”.

Teaching pronunciation (guía de preguntas)

1) In what ways does the age factor affects pronunciation.
2) What are the most difficult sounds for Spanish-speaking learners.
3) When should we teach pronunciation.
4) What's the teacher's role in teaching pronunciation?
5) How many aspects of pronunciation should we take into account?
6) What techniques/activities are suggested in coursebooks to teach sounds/word/stress/sentence stress/intonation?
7) Which of them are the most appropriate for children?
8) What is intelligibility? What factors affect it? How does this concept relate to 2nd language learning?

1) Factors that affect pronunciation learning:

-Age factor: If we talk about pronunciation, the age becomes a key factor. We know the problems that we may have with
children and the problems that we may have with adults. Age is a factor. Producing, pronouncing sounds involves
multiple muscles and some points of articulation. With age,those muscles loose plasticity. So, it's more difficult for the
adult to develop/learn new habits, some sounds, those that belong to his L1. Age brings about a problem of plasticity in
the vocal organs that intervene in the production of sounds. At the same time, as we grow older, we lose our power of
discrimination. That's why when you correct your adult learners pronunciation, he will say “yes, I said that” and you
heard a different sound, but he cannot see the difference.

-L1: is another problem because there is always a lot of interference. The mother tongue, if there is an aspect of linguistic
competence, or language learning that has a role, is when dealing with sounds. Plosives, bilabials, fricative that we do not
have in Spanish are more difficult.

-Amount of exposure: we always have little exposure, it's not enough. Whether the learner is living in an English-
speaking country or not. But obviously we cannot talk simply in terms of residency. Many ppl live in non-English-
speaking countries but use English in many areas of their lives, such as work or school. However, it is not merely
exposure that matters, but how the learner responds to the opportunities to listen to and use English.

-Phonetic ability: some ppl have a better ear for foreign languages than others. Aptitude for oral mimicry: some ppl are
able to discriminate between two sounds better others, and/or are able to mimic sounds more accurately.
-Attitude and identity: adolescents are reluctant to L2 because they have built their own identity. Factors such as a
person‟s sense of identity and feelings of group affiliation are trong determiners of the acquisition of accurate
pronunciation of a foreign language.

-Motivation: some learners seem to be more concerned about their pronunciation that others. This concern is often
expressed in statements about how bad their pronunciation is and in requests for correction. It may even be reflected in a
reluctance to speak. The desire to do well is a kind of achievement motivation. Learners may also be unconcerned bc they
don‟t know that the way they speak wis resulting in difficulty, irritation or misunderstanding for the listener. Adults may
be less motivated to learn pronunciation. Some people reject this idea of being taken as a native like and they prefer to
retain their accent.

-Critical period hypothesis: children can acquire a language more easily and can get a native like accent. When
they become adults it becomes more difficult to acquire a native like accent. Bc of the plasticity of the young brain,
and the process of lateralization also affects this (the different two hemispheres of the brain . left logical one, right
creative one). This lateralization occurs in the critical period → less flexibility in the brain.

-Self identification: adolescents are creating their own self identification with their country, and the adult has already
developed that identification and may not want to develop a new pronunciation or accent.
Child’s ego → is dynamic and flexible. They are less aware of lge forms and less afraid. Adults becomes more aware
and more afraid to produce.

Disadvantages brought by age:

-Reduced plasticity for language acquisition
-Inferior power of monitoring our performance
-Reduced power of mimicry
-Increased shyness
-Greater reliance on writing
-Reduced ability for discrimination (to differentiate sounds)
-Children are better acquirers of pronunciation.

Presentation of sounds: teaching and learning pronunciation.

.
2) What are the most difficult sounds for Spanish-speaking learners?
Most of the sounds are difficult for Spanish-speaking students bc in English there is no correspondence between words
and pronunciation. L1: is another problem because there is always a lot of interference. The mother tongue, if there is an
aspect of linguistic competence, or language learning that has a role, is when dealing with sounds. Plosives, bilabials,
fricatives (eg: voiced alveolar fricative) that we do not have in Spanish are more difficult.

3) When should we teach pronunciation.

As regards the age:

The critical period hypothesis:

Most discussions about age and acquisition center on the question of whether there is a critical period for language
acquisition; a biologically determined period of life when language can be acquired more easily and beyond which time
language is increasingly difficult to acquire. The Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH) claims that there is such a biological
timetable. Initially the notion of a critical period was connected only to first language acquisition. Pathological studies of
children who failed to acquire their first language became fuel for arguments of biologically determined predispositions,
timed for release, which would wane if the correct environmental stimuli were not present at the crucial stage. However,
researchers like Lenneberg and Bickerton made strong statements in favor of a critical period before which and after
which certain abilities do not develop.
Second language researchers have outlined the possibilities of extrapolating the CPH to second language contexts. The
“classic” argument is that a critical point for second language acquisition occurs around puberty, beyond which people
seem to be relatively incapable of acquiring a second language. This has led some to assume, incorrectly, that by the age
of twelve or thirteen you are “over the hill” when it comes to the possibility of successful second language learning.

NEUROLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS

One of the most promising areas of inquiry in age and acquisition research has been the study of the function of the brain
in the process of acquisition. How might neurological development affect second language success?

Hemispheric lateralization
Some scholars have singled out the lateralization of the brain as the key to answering such a question. There is evidence
in neurologica research that as the human brain matures, certain functions are assigned, or “lateralized” to the left
hemisphere of the brain, and certain other functions to the right hemisphere. Intellectual, logical, and analytic functions
appear to be largely located in the left hemisphere, while the right hemisphere controls functions related to emotional and
social needs. Language functions appear to be controlled mainly in the left hemisphere.
While questions about how language is lateralized in the brain are interesting indeer, a more crucial question for second
language researchers has centered on when lateralization takes place, and how that lateralization process affects language
acquisition. Eric Lenneberg suggested that lateralization is a slow process that begins around the age of two and is
completed around puberty. During this time the child is neurologically assigning functions little by little to one side of the
brain or the other, included in these functions, of course, is language.
Thomas Scovel extended these findings to propose a relationship between lateralization and second language acquisition.
He suggested that the plasticity of the brain prior to puberty enables children to acquire not only their first language but
also a second language, and that possibly it is the very accomplishment of lateralization that makes it difficult for people
to be able ever again to easily acquire fluent control of a second language or at east to acquire it.
Producing, pronouncing sounds involves multiple muscles and some points of articulation. With age,those muscles loose
plasticity. So, it's more difficult for the adult to develop/learn new habits, some sounds, those that belong to his L1. Age
brings about a problem of plasticity in the vocal organs that intervene in the production of sounds. At the same time, as
we grow older, we lose our power of discrimination. That's why when you correct your adult learners pronunciation, he
will say “yes, I said that” and you heard a different sound, but he cannot see the difference.

“Age and acquisition” Chapter 3 Brown

4) The teacher‟s role in teaching pronunciation:

-Helping learners hear: learners will have a strong tendency to hear the sounds of English in terms of the sounds of their
native language. Each lg has its own set of categories. Teachers need to check that their learners are hearing sounds
according to the appropriate categories and help them to develop new categories if necessary.
-Helping learners make sounds: some sounds of English do not occur in other languages. Sometimes learners will be
able to imitate the new sound, buf if they can‟t then the teacher needs to be able to give some hints which may help them
to make the new sounds.
-Providing feedback: the teacher must tell learners how they are doing. Info about progress is a crucial factor in
maintaining motivation.
-Pointing out what’s going on: learners need to know what to pay attention to and what to work on.
-Establishing priorities: learners will be aware of some of the features of their pronunciation that are different, but they
will not be able to tell if this is important or not.
-Designing activities: consider what types of exercises and activities will be helpful.
-The T should teach the phonemic symbols only when necessary. The T should be a model of pronunciation.
-The importance for the T of knowing the system of phonetics.
-Sometimes we tend to slow our articulation so much that we distort the lge. Be careful with that.
-Every teacher has to judge what speed of speech she should adopt. Sometimes you have to speak slowly for sts to
understand but do not distort the pronunciation, rhythm, stress pattern, and the vowel qualities.
-We should be as natural as possible, if not the only thing sts are going to learn is a slow rate of speech.

5) How many aspects of pronunciation should we take into account?

How to pronounce sounds, showing where sounds are made in the mouth, stress, intonation, rhythm, linking features.

● Sounds: they may be meaningless on their own but when they are rearranged they make words. All words are made up
of sounds, and a speaker of a language needs to know the sounds of that language. Indeed, many problems are caused
when people speak foreign languages because they cannot reproduce the correct sounds. The native speaker os Spanish,
for example, often has difficulty with the /v/ in English, and may say “bery” instead of “very.”

-Stress: a native speaker knows which part of a word is more important. For example, in the word “photograph”not all the
parts are of equal importance. We can divide the word into 3 parts: “Pho”, “to”, “graph”. The native speaker of English
will say “PHOtograph”, making the first part, or syllable, more important and stronger than the other. The situation
changes with the word “photographer”, however, and we get “phoTOgrapher” with the stress falling on the second
syllable. Stress is also very important in sentences. For example, if I say “I can RUN” I am probably telling you about my
ability to run. But if I say “I CAN run” I am probably stressing the word can because someones has suggested that I am
not able to run. The native speaker unconsciously know about stress and how it works.

-Intonation: the tune you use when you are speaking, the music of speech. For example, if I say “You´re from Australia,
aren't you? and my voice drops down on the words “aren't you”, this will indicate to the native speaker that I am simply
stating a fact about which I have no doubt. If I say the same sentence but make my voice rise on the last two words the
native speaker will understand that something has made me doubt the listener´s nationality and I am asking the question
to try and confirm what I originally thought. Intonation is vitally important in spoken language, and the native speaker
knows how the intonation in his own language works and therefore knows how to use it to create the desired effect.

What a native speaker knows - ch 2 - Harmer

6) What techniques/activities are suggested in coursebooks to teach sounds/word/stress/sentence stress/intonation?

It is perfectly possible to teach sounds without using any symbols. We can get sts to listen to the difference btw long and
short vowels just by repeating words many times. We can also describe how sounds are made. However, because of
problems of correspondence, for some sts it makes sense to be aware of the different phonemes by using the symbols.
Other reasons to use the symbols are:
- dictionaries provide pronunciation suing them
- it is easier for the teacher to explain how a word is pronounced
- for games and tasks

8) What is intelligibility? What factors affect it? How does this concept relate to 2nd language learning?

Intelligibility refers to the speaker making himself understood in a given situation. Is it concerned with speakers
producing output that is “close enough” to the target language. The more words the listener is able to identify, the more
intelligible the speaker is. This means that the listener is not going to have any problems with matching the sounds
produced by the speaker. So, foreign speakers need to be intelligible so that they communicate.

Harmer Teaching pronunciation

Pronunciation teaching should not only make sts aware of the different sounds, but can also improve their speaking
immeasurably. Concentrating on sounds, showing where they are made in the mouth, making sts aware of where words
should be stressed - all these things give them extra info about spoken English and help them achieve the goal of
improved comprehension and intelligibility.

● Perfection vs intelligibility Intelligibility implies that the students should be able to use pronunciation which is good
enough for them to be always understood. „Perfect' pronunciation seems to depend very much on their attitude to how
they speak and how well they hear. There are a nº of psychological issues which may affect how “foreign” a person
sounds. For example, many sts don't want to sound like native speakers, some may want to retain their accent because it is
a part of their identity. Under the pressure of such cultural considerations it has become customary for lang teachers to
consider intelligibility as the prime goal of pronunciation teaching. If intelligibility is the goal then it suggests that some
pronunciation features are more important than others. Some sounds, for ex, have to be right if the speaker is to get their
msg across (for example /b/ vs /v/) though other may not cause a lack of intelligibility if they are confused. Intonation is
an important meaning carrier too, and it should be taught. However, many sts may want to sound like native speakers, and
we should not deny them that.

● Problems
- What sts can hear → Speakers of different first languages have problems with different sounds, especially where
there are not the same two sounds in their language. For Spanish speakers this occurs with, for example, /b/ - /v/
and /s/ - /z/. There are two ways of dealing with this:
1. we can show sts how sounds are made through demonstration, diagrams and explanation
2. we can draw the sounds to their attention every time they appear on a tape or conversation. In this way we gradually
train the sts‟ ear.
- The intonation problem → no matter how difficult it can be, we should teach intonation. One of our tasks is to
teach sts how to recognize different moods (bored, surprised, enthusiastic) and intentions (asking for info,
confirming). We can get sts to imitate the way these moods are articulated, even though we may not discuss the
technicalities of intonation patterns. The key is to have students listen and notice how English is spoken.
- Aspiration
- Rhythm: Example → “He lives in the house at the corner” → stress-timing “El vive en la casa de la esquina” →
syllable-timing. In English there are words that are stressed and others that are not, but in spanish we devote the
same amount of time to every word and the loudness is also the same.
● The phonemic alphabet: to use or not to use?
It is perfectly possible to teach sounds without using any symbols. We can get sts to listen to the difference btw long and
short vowels just by repeating words many times. We can also describe how sounds are made. However, because of
problems of correspondence, for some sts it makes sense to be aware of the different phonemes by using the symbols.
Other reasons to use the symbols are: - dictionaries provide pronunciation suing them - it is easier for the teacher to
explain how a word is pronounced - for games and tasks

● When to teach pronunciation

Teachers are the ones who decide when to introduce pronunciation teaching into their lessons. However, there are some
alternatives to consider:
- Whole lessons: though it would be difficult to spend a whole class working on one or two sounds, it can be worth
working on connected speech concentrating on stress and intonation over a period. Focusing on pronunciation during the
whole class also includes listening.
- Discrete slots: some teachers insert short, separate bits of pronunciation work into lesson sequences. For example, one
day students can work on all the individual phonemes, another on intonation and another on contrast between sounds.
These slots provide variety during a lesson. However, as pronunciation is not a separate skill, teachers should integrate it
into longer lesson sequences.
- Integrated phases: when students listen to a tape, for example, teachers can draw their attention to certain sounds, how
they are produced and accurate pronunciation.
- Opportunistic teaching: sometimes there are good reasons to stop what we are doing and spend some minutes on
pronunciation issues that arise during an activity. Teachers should consider the kind of activity the students are involved
in.

● Examples of pronunciation teaching

Sts need help with connected speech for fluency and the correspondence btw sounds and spelling.

- Working with sounds → asking sts to focus on one particular sound allows us to demonstrate how it is made and
show how it can be spelt. We can make sts identify which words in a list have the sound /3:/. They are then asked to
identify the consonant ® which is always present in the spelling of words with this sound. We can also show the
position of the lips when this sound is made. We can contrast two sounds which are very similar and usually
confused. There exists a “phonemic chart”, which is laid out in relation to where in the mouth the sounds are
produced. In its top right-hand corner little boxes are used to describe stress patterns, and arrows are used to
describe the five basic intonation patterns. The teacher can point to the squares and ask sts to produce the sound.
Some teachers play bingo with sounds (symbols).
- Working with stress → stress is important in words, phrases and sentences. Teachers should mark the stress of a
word as soon as she teaches it. We can write sentences on the board and, as we read them, mark the stressed
syllables. We can also write the same sentence twice but stressing different words, and we can ask students what are
the changes in meaning. Many teachers make sts read texts outloud and then focus on those phrases or sentences sts
have problems with. - -Working with intonation → we need to draw our sts attention to the way we use changes in
pitch to convey meaning and mood. One way of doing this is to show how many different meanings can be
squeezed just by saying one word. Exercises like this raise the sts’ awareness of the power of intonation. Some
teachers like to get their sts to make short dialogues without words (humming the “tune” of what they want to say
in such a way that the other student understands what they mean)
- Sounds and spelling → the fact that there is no correspondence btw sounds and letters causes many problems for
sts. Sts can be asked to listen to a list of words and to identify how many different pronunciations are for the “ou”
spelling. - -Connected speech and fluency → good pronunciation does not just mean saying individual words or
even individual sounds correctly. The sounds of words change when they come into contact with each other.

We can adopt a three-stage procedure for teaching sts about features such as elision and assimilation:
1. Comparing: we can start by showing sts sentences and phrases and having them pronounce the words correctly in
isolation. Then they listen to the whole phrase and spot differences.
2. Identifying: sts can listen to recordings of connected speech, and they have to write what they hear.
3. Production: encourage sts to listen and imitate fragments of connected speech.

Moon - Children learning English Chapter 6.

● Ways of supporting children's language learning

Here is an actual example of a teacher providing support for her learners in the classroom. Let's consider how it assists
language learning.
Aishah, a malaysian teacher, is teaching a class in their second year of learning English (eight to nine year-olds). Her unit
of teaching is based on the topic of wild animals. Her overall aim in the lesson is to get children understand and practise a
dialogue about animals. This contains some of the key structures and vocabulary to be practised in her teaching unit.
The dialogue which she wants the pupils to practise is:
Yani: What animal is that?
Yapin: Oh, it's an elephant.
Yani: An elephant. Wow it's so big! Is an elephant a wild animal?
Yapin: Yes, it is.
Yani: Where does it live?
Yapin: In the jungle.
Yani: How about its food?
Yapin: It eats leaves and bark and fruit and vegetables.

Lesson transcript:
T: Where can you find animals?
Pps: Zoo.
T: Ok. Have you been to the zoo before?
Pps: Yes.
T: What kinds of animals can you find in the zo? Yes?
P: Tiger.
T: Tiger, good.
P: Monkey.
T: Monkey. Yes, Rudi?
P: Elephant.
T: Elephant.
P: Crocodile.
T: Ok, crocodile. That's good. You´ve been to the zoo. Last week your friend Yapin (T holds up picture of a boy) and….
this is Yani (holds up a picture of a girl. They went to the…?
Pps: ...zoo.
T: Yani never been to the zoo before...uh she's never been there, (makes shaking gestures with hands to indicate “never
before”) So yapin took her along the… around and round the… (shows action of walking around holding pictures in her
hand).
Pps...zoo (pupils complete the sentence).
T: While they were walking, suddenly Yani saw a big… (makes gesture with two hands to whos how large).
P: ...elephant.
T: Yes, a big elephant. I think she didn´t know what is...was the animal (points to Yani´s picture) animal.
Pps: Animal. (repeating teacher´s last word)
T: Animal… so big. Ok (holds up a picture of a large elephant).
P: Wow! (expresses wonder at the picture).
T: (places pictures of Yapin and Yani on board. Then a few minutes later…). So when Yani saw the elephant she was so
surprised (makes a gesture of surprise) What is she so surprised at? What do you think Yani would ask Yapin?
P: What is the animal, Yapin?
T: What animal is that Yapin? (holds up a sentence card) Can you read the sentence?
Pps: What animal is that Yapin? (pupils chorus after teacher)
T: What animal is that? (sticks sentence on the blackboard)
P: that Yapin
T: Ok so Yapin said… (holds up a sentence card)
Pps: Oh, it is an elephant. (pupils read in chorus)
T: yes it is an elephant. (sticks up the sentence on the board)
P: it is a big elephant.
T: Then Yani wants to know more and more about the…=
Pps: ...elephant
T: ….elephant.
P: What….? (pupis begins to make up a question).
T: so she asked Yapin, her brother )show sentence card)
Pps: Where does it live? (pupils read aloud).
T: Where does it live?
P: It lives from… in jungle.
T: where do you think the elephant lives?
Pps: elephant live in jungle.
T: yes in the….?
Pps: ...jungle.

The teacher provides support for the pupils in the language she uses. She adjusts her language to suit the level of the
pupils, as parents do. She…
-Repeats pupils´answers which confirms the answer and provides reinforcement.
-Rephrases answers (where she adds the article which pupils have omitted)
-Prompts through a rise in her intonation.
-Frames sentences and end encourages pupils to finish them. This keeps pupils involved and provides support for less able
pupils who may not be able to frame complete sentences.
-Uses gestures and actions to support and show meanings.

She also provides support through the techniques and resources she uses.
-She uses pictures of the characters involved to help to make the meaning clear.
-She activates background knowledge about the topic so that pupils can link new knowledge to what the already know.
The knowledge they already have about zoos and animals enables them to anticipate what is to come. Therefore they are
ready to receive the new information.
-She responds positively to pupils´contributions.
-She creates a meaningful purpose for using language (She draws on a familiar context of a visits to a zoo and creates a
situation where a young sister has not seen an elephant before.)
-She encourages pupils to predict. This allows them to draw on their background knowledge. It gets them more actively
involved in thinking about the topic and brings in some of the vocabulary needed.
-She confirms answers so pupils know if they were right or wrong which provides feedback to them.
-She provides the written forms of the questions and answers as a visual reinforcement of what has been said.

We can summarize the different types of support which teachers can use to help their pupils as three main types:

-LANGUAGE
This refers to all the things the teacher does through speech or gesture which provide support for children in carrying out
a learning activity:
-Using language at children's level, eg choosing words and structures they will be able to understand, such as “put the
book on the table” rather than “place the book on the table”
-Adjusting one's language to help children understand, eg repeating, rephrasing, extending what a child says.
-Adjusting one´s speed and volume; using pausing to give children time to think.
-Using gestures, actions, eg spreading your arms wide to show that something is big, a nod of the head for “yes”, facial
expressions, making noises, eg noise of a hen “cluck cluck”, noise of a bus “brm, brm”, to help understanding.

-TECHNIQUES/RESOURCES
This refers to all the techniques and resources the teacher uses to help pupils to do the activities:
-Moving from known to new, from concrete to abstract, eg showing a tow bus and later talking about a bus using only
words.
-Focusing on things, actions, events which children can see, eg “Look at these puppets you made. What colour are they?
-Using practical “hand-on” activities in which language is supported by action, eg action games, making paper animals.
-Giving children a clear and understandable purpose for doing activities, eg “Let's find out what happens at the end of the
story”-
-Revising vocabulary or language needed for activities, eg colour words for the clown activity.
-Providing language prompts or models to help pupils carry out the activity, eg a “fill in the gap” activity with words or
phrases to choose from, flash cards, wall charts containing the words needed.
-Giving clear feedback on pupils´ responses and on learning activities.
-Using visual support to help pupils understand a story or dialogue, eg pictures, objects.
-Providing a clear situation or context for language activities, which is familiar to children, eg a story, a visit to a park.
-Providing opportunities to learn through a variety of senses, eg hearing, seeing, touching, feeling, smelling, moving.
-Demonstrating and modelling for children how to do an activity.
-Creating activities which are interesting to children, eg games, drama, making things and personalizing activities so they
relate to children's own experiences.

-CHILDREN THEMSELVES
The support that children provide for each other is so obvious that we often forget to acknowledge it. Children can get
support by working with other children:
-Learning by watching other children (as models).
-Learning by listening to and getting help from other children (as tutors).
-Learning by practising with other children (as partners).
 ● How to adjust and reduce support gradually
It is important to gradually reduce or adjust support as children become familiar with the procedures and skills required
for doing a task. For example, in using TPR activities involving familiar actions, we can gradually decrease the amount of
gesture we use so that children have to rely more on following our words. If we provide support when it is not required, it
reduces the level of challenge and children may not make progress. Once they have developed the skills, the language or
the concepts required to do an activity, we can give them opportunities to try out and transfer their new-found skill or
knowledge to similar but more challenging tasks in slightly different contexts.

Moon - Chapter 8

Teacher's activity Pupil´s activity Notes

Warm 1. Brief revision of colours using a team 1. Pupils stand in lines behind flags of
up game. different colours. As teacher says a colour,
pupils behind the flag of that colour crouch
down.
2. Pupils gather round tank and contribute
what they know about fish. They tell about
2. Bring in goldfish or picture of a fish to their own fish. Remember to
introduce topic to pupils. Discuss fish, what bring in fish
it looks like, its colour, its parts. Check who and arrange
was a fish at home. classroom.

3. Tell pupils you are going to tell them a 3. Pupils try to guess what will be in story. Arrange
story. Get them to predict what will be in the pupils on mar
story. for story.
Remember
picture of eel
or black sock.

4. Explain the activity, ie pupils have to 4. Group leaders/monitors give out crayons Get pupils to
colour their fish as the little fish in the story and blank sheets. share if not
requests. Give out colours and blanks of fish enough. If
drawing. warm-up
revealed
problems
with colours,
spend a few
minutes
revising as
crayons are
given out.

5- Tell first part of story with actions and 5- Pupils colour in fish following Check that
pictures. Continue story with instructions for instructions. pupils know
colouring. what to do.

6. Get pupils to compare drawings. 6. Pupils compare to see if they have the Go round and
same. see if
drawings are
 the same.

7. Go around the class getting different 7. Some pupils say the colours of the fish,
pupils to describe the colours of the little eg his face is….
fish. Use sentence prompts, eg his face is….

8- Ask pupils what they thought about the 8. Pupils give their opinions.
story in L1, if necessary. Ask whether the
big black eel was right not to give the little
fish colour for his lips.

9. Display pupils´coloured fish on the wall. 9. Pupils write their names and help teacher
to display.

The little fish who wanted to be beautiful

Once upon a time there was a little fish. He lived in a big river with many other fish. But he was not happy. All the
other fish were very beautiful. Their bodies were of many different colours, red, blue, green, and so on. His body was
white. He felt very sad. “I want to have a beautiful body like those other fish, he said.
So one day he went to see the king of the river, a big black eel who lived in a big black hole at the bottom of the river.
He swam down and down and down to the bottom.
“Who's there=” said a loud voice.
“It's me, little fish” said the little fish.
“What do you want little fish?” said the big eel.
“Please sir,” said the little fish, “make me beautiful like the other fish.”
“hmm, hmm” said the big black eel. “Alright. What colours do you want?”
“Please make my body red”, said the little fish. And his body became red.
“Please make my tail yellow,” said the little fish. And his tail became yellow.
“Please make my fins green,” said the little fish. And his fins became green.
“And make my lips red” said the little fish.
“You rude little fish. You did not say please.” said the big black eel. “I won't give you anymore colours.
And so the little fish has white lips. But he was very happy because his body had many colours. He was very beautiful.

Stories like the little fish story provide meaningful contexts in which to expose children to language input. Through this
story, they will encounter new vocabulary and language, eg “sad, happy, tail, fins, his face is blue” but in a situation
which they can relate to. They enjoy stories and are keen to find out what happens, which gives them a meaningful reason
for listening.

The main activity for pupils is to follow a set of instructions and colour in the parts of the fish, and all the other
activities are linked to this. An alternative would be for pupils to point to or hold up the appropriate pictures as the
teacher told the story or to sequence a set of pictures in groups or individually. However, this listen and colour activity
involves children physically and mentally while the story is being told.

The main reason for preparing pupils to do the activity is to provide them with support so that they can carry out the
activity successfully themselves. The reacher does this by:
-Activating pupils´background knowledge about the topic by bringing in a real fish to discuss or using a picture.
-Introducing the kew vocabulary needed in the story, i.e body parts and also revision of colours through discussion of the
fish.
-Getting pupils to predict what will be in the story.
The purpose of the Notes section is to provide a checklist to prompt your memory during the lesson. I find such a section
useful as a reminder, particularly for young learner lessons, which normally involve the use of a range of activities and
resources. It contains reminders about materials needed, about organization of pupils, etc.

Why beginning with a story: K Eagan characteristics of a story. The best way.

The story has a pattern which recurs many times. This makes the language more predictable and so enables children to
be able to join in. It also helps them to be able to guess what will happen in the story. Children tend to join in the repeated
parts of the story for example: “Please make my bod red. And his body became red.” “Please make my tail yellow. and
his tail became yellow”. Children might possibly pick up the polite requests, as they have a distinct pattern, are short, easy
to understand and can be easily extended for use in other stories and games.

Language and children: making the match. Curtain and Pesola. (210-215).

Elements to consider when planning activities.

Three big instances:

-WARM UP: each elementary or middle school foreign language class period should begin with a brief warm-up. This is
a time for communicative use of completely familiar lge.

▪ It provides a review and basis for new material to be introduced.

▪ It provides a transition from the instructional time the sts have just experienced in their native L to an intensive
experience of learning and thinking in the TL.
▪ Because of the relatively easy level at which it is conducted, it helps sts to build or regain confidence in the TL.
At some point in the warm-up, every child should have the opportunity to say sth in the target L, either individually or in
groups.
▪ It provides a time during which teachers and students alike can share dimensions of their personality and their interests,
as they talk about likes and dislikes, families, weather. And they can personalize applications of material they have
learned earlier in a more structured setting,
▪ Activate not only familiar language, but also knowledge of the topic (schema).
▪From a cognitive point of view: we need to activate old info in order to present the new one. It is necessary to activate
certain nodes in the long-term memory that will “interact” with new info. From a linguistic point of view: pre teaching of
necessary vocabulary. From an affective point of view: it lower sts‟ anxiety, it gives them a sense of achievement, they
feel involved in the lesson, it motivates sts to start the lesson.
▪In the warm up we activate knowledge (mclaughlin). Also, related to present grammar with known vocabulary. Use
language that they already know. Activate not only language that they know, but also knowledge about the topic
(schema,...).
▪Important moment: you can catch their attention or you can lose it forever. Arouse their curiosity, catch their attention,
motivate them.

-BALANCE OF OLD AND NEW MATERIAL:

▪ Every class period should contain some new and some familiar material.
▪ The T must plan for many different contexts within which to practise, in order to prevent boredom and to provide the
child with a sense of progress- the old always seems new, because the message to be communicated has a new context
and the need to communicate that message is also new.
-INTRODUCING NEW MATERIAL: when introducing new material, the teacher tries to build on what students have
already learned. This contributes to increase students´ self confidence. For example, when the class hears a new song,
poem. story or another message for the firt time, the teacher may invite the students to identify familiar words and
phrases. We cannot think of introducing new material out of context. It has to happen within a context. There has to be a
context.

-ROUTINES AND VARIETIES: On the one hand, routines lower their anxiety, they make them less anxious. but at the
same time they get bored very easily so there has to be variety in the lesson.
▪Variety is a key concept in children's lesson. There should be a lot of varied activities, due to their short attention spans.
The more variety of activities, the better. Variety in every possible aspect: Variety in the kind of activity, variety in the
pattern of interaction (act where they work individually, in pairs, in lockstep), variety in the skill they are practising (they
have to read, write, listen). Variety of seating arrangement.
▪Routines are essential also. They give them a sense of security and confidence, of being partly in control of what its
going on, and at the same time it saves the teacher a lot of time, just by mentioning it they know what they have to do.
She doesn't have to explain again. Example: if you say storytime they know that they have to sit in a circle. Routines are
in the ltm.

The Practice of English L Teaching, Harmer + Teaching Practice handbook, Gower and Walters

Language that has been presented for the first time will normally need to be practiced orally by the students. At first, a
particular item is isolated and highlighted for practice and the students clearly have no choice as to which piece of
language to use. Later, the item will need to be set in other contexts in a wider range of language. The students may have
far more choices as to the language they can use. Later still, the students will need opportunities to use the language you
have presented far more freely, in contexts which lend themselves naturally to its use. The students may in fact choose not
to use the language at all.
Practice goes then in gradual relaxation:

1. CONTROLLED
2. LESS CONTROLLED
3. CREATIVE
Whatever activity the students are involved in, if it is to be genuinely communicative and if it is really promoting
language use, it should have certain characteristics. These characteristics can be seen as forming one end of a continuum
of classroom avtivity in language teaching, and they can be matched by opposite point at the other end of the continuu,.
Not all classroom activities are either “communicative” or “non-communicative”; there are many activities that fall
somewhere somewhere between the two extremes.

THE COMMUNICATION CONTINUUM

NON-COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES
-No communication desire. -A desire to communicate.
-No communicative purpose. -A communicative purpose.
-Focus on form, not content. -Focus on content, not form.
-One language item. -Variety of language.
-No information gap. -Information gap.
-Teacher intervention. -No teacher intervention.
-Materials control. -No materials control.
Both controlled and creative practice may take various forms: repetition, oral drills, games, information gap activities,
discussion, reaching a consensus. problem solving, role play, etc. In controlled practice correct tightly but pay less
attention to errors that do not directly relate to the target structure. When the students are communicating during an
interaction activity, assess the students´ability to use the language accurately and fluently, as well as note how well
students get across what they want to say and how well they understand each other. Assessment is likely to be
“diagnostic” rather than lead to immediate corrections.

Introducing new language structure

Presentation is the stage at which students are introduced to the FORM, MEANING and USE of a new piece of language.
What study techniques may be used to achieve this?

Warm up/Lead-in: every class should begin with a brief warm up. It is a time for communicative use of completely
familiar language. It provides a review and a basis for new material to be introduced. It helps students to build confidence
in their ability to work with the TL, personalizing applications of material they have learnt earlier in a more structured
setting. It must be carefully planned to include different material and strategies.

Context: context means the situation or body of information which causes L to be used. It should be:
- Clear: it should show what the new L means and how it is used, Sts should have no difficulty in understanding the
situation.
- Interesting: it should get the Sts interested and involved.
- Appropriate: it should be a good vehicle for the presentation of the meaning and use of the L being introduced.
- Productive: a good context will provide the background so that Sts can use the info to generate a lot of L use.

Types of context:
- The Sts‟ world (physical surroundings/ Sts‟ lives)
- The outside world (stories/ situations)
- Formulated information (timetables, notes, charts)

3. Elicitation: Eliciting ideas from the Sts about a context or some vocabulary or structure related to it gives a class the
necessary and motivating feeling of being encouraged to invest part of itself, give some of its opinions and contribute
some of its knowledge so that what happens seems to depend partly on the students themselves. It has the advantages of:
-Getting the students involved in the context and activating the nodes of their LTM.
-Increasing the amount they talk.
-Telling you how much they already know about the language.

4. Consciousness raising/noticing/focusing: The Sts‟ ability to observe accurately, and perceive similarity and
difference within target L data which is most likely to aid the acquisition of the grammatical system.

5. Explanation and/or discovery: the way we offer explanation to our students will depend upon the language form we
are focusing on and the age, level and preferences of the class. We may use visual demonstration, diagrams, gestures,
explanation of rules, etc.
Sts can be encouraged to understand new L forms by looking at grammatical evidence and discovering how the L works.
After this there should always be systematization:
- Semantic systematization: to check understanding and focus on the meaning of the new form.
- Structural systematization: to check understanding and focus on the form of the new structure.
- Pragmatic systematization: to check understanding and focus on the function of the new form
6. Checking meaning: all teachers need to know that students have understood any new language tjey are presenting. So,
you will need to set a task or ask a series of questions that check that they understand structural, functional and lexical
concepts. Any questions that check L concepts usually need to be:
- simple and short
- varied and numerous
- constructed in a way that you don‟t expect Sts to produce the new L.
- in L that does not include the item being checked.
- asked often and spread around the whole class.

Scriviner - CH. 12 What is grammar?

When thinking about grammar, many people will picture a book full of explanations and rules. That‟s one kind of
grammar but it‟s not really what we are talking about when we say that we are “teaching grammar”. We can predict how a
sentence is going to end or the possible words that might come next because we have a sort of mental list of possible
patterns of English. This, of course, is the kind of info you‟ll find systematically arranged in a grammar reference book or
in a book for learners. However, instead of being a dry record of facts and rules, the info in your head is a living resource
that allows you to communicate and be understood. For this reason, learning grammar rules by heart (reciting them and
doing ex) is probably not “learning grammar”. These things are only useful if there‟s some way that sts can transfer this
studied knowledge into a living ability to use the lg. To be able to start making any new grammar item part of their own
personal stock of lg sts need to:
● to have exposure to the lg. (includes reading and listening act. Should include realistic texts i+1)
● to notice and understand the items being used. (help learners notice, for ex with the repetition of the item)
● to try using the lg themselves in “safe” practice ways and in more demanding contexts.
● to remember the things they have learnt. (pay att to how sts record items and revise them)

Restricted output: drills, exercises, dialogues and games

Although T often spend a lot of time on “input” stages, the real learning experience is when sts try to use the lg
themselves. ROA are defined by their focus on (a) limited options for use of lg, (b) limited options for communication
and (c) a focus on accuracy.
➢ DRILLS → provide intensive oral practice of selected sentences, giving sts a chance to practice the lg
without worrying about meaning. Involve simple repetition. They are usually discredited but drilling is important
for “getting your tongue around it” problems. There has been a reassertion of the value of experimenting and
playing with lg even where the lg doesn’t represent realistic communication.

Variation of drills:
● Substitution drills: T: “He‟s going to drive the car” Sts: “He‟s going to drive the car”. T: “bus” Sts: “He‟s going to
drive the bus”
● Transformation drills: the sts make their own sentence based on a model and info given by you. T: “He‟s standing
beside the swimming pool” Sts: “He‟s going to swim”.
● True sentences: sts give real info in their answers.
➢ WRITTEN EXERCISES → a common and useful way of giving sts concentrated practice of lg items.

➢ ELICITED DIALOGUES → these are short dialogues which contain a n° of examples of specific items to be
practised. The items are placed in a typical or useful context, integrating practice of newer grammar w/
practice of items previously studied, social English expressions and pronunciation. They are often an amusing

and enjoyable way to enable oral practice of lg.

Clarification
Clarification or presentation is when you have reached a point in your lesson where you want learners to really focus in
on a piece of grammar, to see it, to understand it and to become much clearer on its form, meaning and use. We could
differentiate 3 gral categories within the broad heading of “clarification”:
● EXPLANATION: (T tells the St) (Explanations shouldn‟t be the driving force of the lesson. So as to avoid this, the T
should plan her explanations carefully)
● GUIDED DISCOVERY: (T helps the St to tell himself) (An alternative to giving explanations. GD allows sts to
generate their own discoveries and explanations. T questions will “nudge” the sts towards key points)
● SELF-DIRECTED DISCOVERY: (the St tells himself) (sts study on their own)

Present and practise

Presentation usually refers to ways of introducing “new” lg to sts, and typically involves exposure alongside other lg info
via T explanation, elicitation and guided discovery.
Practise refers to the stages in which the sts get to try using the lg themselves. If we want to plan a well-focused grammar
lesson, we need to decide:
● which of these areas we want to spend time on.
● how long we want to give to each one.
● what the best sequence is to have them in.
CLARIFICATION: ➩ RESTRICTED ➩ RESTRICTED ➩ AUTHENTIC
EXPLANATION OUTPUT OUTPUT OUTPUT

1. Lead in: T shows pictures of the topic.

2.Clarification: T gives/elicits ex. of the lg.
3.Restricted output: oral practice.
4.Restricted output: written practice.
5.Authentic output: T gives opportunities to use the items.

SITUATIONAL PRESENTATION: lg is introd via a context that the T has created. (The T should establish the context,
the meaning of the target item, introduce and practise the lg, generate more sentences, record them in sts‟ notebooks and
move on to more practice)

Other ways to grammar

-TEST-TEACH-TEST
What would happen if we “turned around” the „present-practice‟ lesson, and put a practice stage first?
LEAD IN → PRACTICE → CLARIFICATION → PRACTICE
(restricted output) (guided discovery) (restricted output)
This suggests that we set the sts a task to do that requires them to use lg and then, as a result of monitoring them while
they work, we offer input, explanations, etc. In this way, we find out what sts need to know by 1st testing what they can
use, then teaching those things that revealed problems or were absent but needed, then letting sts try again to use the lg.
(test-teach-test) The T can also set sts a general speaking task without restriction of lg, in this case sts may reveal much
more unpredictable set of errors.
-TPR
Is in fact a whole methodology and has proved to be very successful especially at low levels. Initially sts are given
restricted exposure to a large n° of instructions. Gestures and demonstrations quickly help sts to understand the meaning,
and sts then do what they are asked to. Sts are not required to use the lg themselves until they want to and feel ready. Only
RESTRICTIVE EXPOSURE

-TBL (TASK-BASED LEARNING) Is a gral term for some more variations on the “exposure-test-teach-test” lesson
structure. Lessons are centered round a task e.i the sts have to do a particular assignment. This task will be “real
world” rather than “lg focused”. The lesson will often start with the task itself and may include other stages such as
“listening to a recording of competent lg users doing the same task”. AUTHENTIC EXPOSURE → ACTIVITIES
THAT PROMOTE ‘NOTICING’

- TEXT STARTS Authentic texts could be used as a way of providing lg exposure, but you need to plan it carefully since
they have not been designed for lg sts. An authentic text will often be more useful for drawing attention to a range of
various lg points in action rather than a single larger point.
AUTHENTIC EXPOSURE → ACTIVITIES THAT PROMOTE ‘NOTICING’ → CLARIFICATION (GD)

100% EXPOSURE The T might engage the sts in lots of real activity and conversation and hope that sts “pick up lg”, just
as someone going to live to a country who does not know the lg. AUTHENTIC EXPOSURE

Slattery and Willis - CH 8 Reading and telling stories

Children love stories. They:
- are always eager to listen to stories
- know how stories work
- want to understand what is happening
- can enjoy hearing stories in English when they start English lessons
- enjoy looking at story books by themselves
- can reread stories they like when they can read in English themselves
Young learners acquire language unconsciously. The activities you do in class should help this kind of
acquisition. Stories are the most valuable resource teachers have. They offer children a world of supported
meaning that they can relate to. Later on you can use stories to help children practise listening, speaking,
reading and writing.

Stories:
- help children relate new things to what they know already
- help children to look at the real life from different viewpoints and imagine what it feels like to be
someone else
- can introduce the child to other cultures and attitudes
- let children share their experiences with the group- everyone listens and feels sad or happy
- can link to other subjects the child is learning about in school
- help children develop their thinking skills
- are interesting and enjoyable, and can be fun.

Stories for language teaching:

- can be told with pictures and gestures to help children understand
- help children enjoy learning English
- introduce new language in context
- help children revise language they are familiar with
- help children become aware of the structures of the language
- help children acquire intonation and pronunciation by listening
- can help bring English into other subjects
- can lead on to lots of activities using listening, speaking, reading and writing
Stories are first of all for enjoyment. Children need to understand something about the story (the main gist) if
they are going to enjoy it. Pictures and gestures help a lot, but your intonation and the way teachers tell it or
read it are very important. Using body language, gestures and actions is very important to young learners.
When children act and perform a story they quickly become familiar with the language you use. By telling the
story, the teacher involves the students and helps them connect the language they are hearing with what they
are doing.

Telling a story ≠ Reading a story

-you speak spontaneously -you repeat and rephrase in a natural way

-use natural intonation to help make the story
-are looking at the children and you can see
-can use your face and body to make gestures
-practise first and have some support
-don‟t need to worry if you make mistakes
(children are unlikely to notice)
-stop and talk to the children about what is
seem real happening
-stop and show pictures and talk about them
if they understand
-talk to individuals about an aspect of the story

When you tell a story to children you can help them understand by
-using a book with pictures
-showing them real things that are talked about in the story
-miming what happens in the story to help children understand meaning
-make the sounds for things that are talked about in the story(it's a swimmingggg competition)
-repeating key words and phrases
-asking and answering questions about the story

Retelling a story
When children have heard a story once, you can tell it again. Each time you retell a story, children will become
more familiar with the language of the story, they will be able to participate more and in different ways.
When the children are listening, you can:
- stop telling the story and see if children can remember what happens next
- put up some pictures of scenes from the story. Ask children to point to the picture of what or who you
are telling them about
- ask the class to stand up and mime all the actions as they happen
- divide the class up so that each group can pretend to be one of the main characters. Each group
becomes that character and only mimes the action he/she does
- act out the story as you tell it, and later get some children to take parts, come out to the front, and act
with you
- let the children sit in groups. Give a set of pictures from the story to each group. As you tell the story,
ask the groups to put the pictures into the right sequence
- ask children to listen carefully, then make some deliberate mistakes/changes.
Making up a story
If you make up a story, you can:
-make it more personal and local - about people/animals/places the children know well
-include language the children are familiar with
-include topics they are learning about
-use materials you have already used but in a different way
-prepare it so that the children can do follow-up activities such as colouring or mime

Roth- Richmond 1998 GAMES: Teaching very young children,

GAMES
● L and activity is an authentic combination for learners.
● The L used in games is repetitive and uses basic structures.
● There is a real purpose for using the L.
● Children tend to forget they are learning so they use the L spontaneously.
●As children will happily play games again and again, they are ideal for practising new vocabulary and structures.
● Games create a sense of closeness with the class.

Games should:
● be relevant linguistically.
● be simple to explain, set up and play.
● be devised in a way that everyone is able to participate.
● be fun.

The T should:
● play the game with one or two pupils in front of the class as a demonstration.
● place the children where they should be to play.
● always have several trials before starting a new game and tell the children they are trials.

PICTURE DICTATIONS:
● Sts simply listen carefully and draw what you tell them. It is an excellent act for developing listening and
comprehension skills, as well as a useful way of evaluating your Sts‟ understanding.
● Correct the dictation by drawing the outline on the board and asking some Sts to describe the dictation again while
others go to the board and draw.

VIDEOS:
● teach the main new vocabulary items before you show the video.
● stop the video after an example of some new L and ask: what did he say?
● ask the children to play the part of a character
● describe a character and ask the children to guess who he is.
● get the children to draw a picture from the video and tell you or the class about it.

RHYMES, SONGS AND DRAMA:

● They develop the ear which is the first, and one of the most important steps in learning a L.
● they teach pronunciation, intonation and stress in a natural way.
● they teach vocabulary and structures.
● most songs and rhymes use repetitive L with different words added in particular places.
 ● rhymes and songs are a good way of giving children a complete text with meaning, right from the beginning.
● they are always well accepted by children and they are fun. Children enjoy the rhyming sounds and also the strong
rhythm used in most rhymes and songs, and because they enjoy it they assimilate it easily and quickly.
● they make the children feel close to one another.
● if a child likes a song, he will often sing it by himself, over and over again, outside the English lesson.
● children of all L abilities can join in, which helps build confidence.
● children do not need to see the words to learn them.
● children have met much of their L1 through traditional rhymes.
● use rhymes and songs to introduce or practise new L.

Vocabulary practice activities and games

▪ Back to the board: the T writes a word on the board and her team must define the word or give examples of its use
without saying the actual word itself.
▪ Category list: the T does an example first: she slowly reads out a list of ten items and the teams must guess what the
title of the list is, what the connection bet the items is.
▪ Word thieves: the T reads a passage aloud once only and they must try to catch and write down every word they hear
that fits the topic (e.g. cars). Their aim is to catch the most vocabulary they can in this lexical area.
▪ Word seeds: The T dictates a list of about 20 words which the Sts all write down. Their task then is to work in small
groups and orally prepare a story that uses all the words, exactly in the form dictated.
▪ Word dominoes: the T prepares a set of cards, each with a different picture on. After the first picture has been placed,
the game is continued by the next player putting another picture next to it- and justifying the placing by explaining a
connection of some sort that links the two words.

▪ matching pictures to words

▪ matching words to other words (collocations, synonyms, opposites, sets of related words)
▪ classifying items into lists ▪ using given words to complete a task
▪ filling in crosswords, grids or diagrams
▪ filling in gap sentences
▪ memory games

Plan: análisis
There is a lot of information that is not necessary for the story. You are not leading the students to the story.

There is no context. Is it animals in the farm or in the woods? The warm up is too long. Its better to be concrete, to the
point. The instruction is too wordy. “Listen carefully and pay attention”.
The warm up is a good moment to use language students have learned. She could have elicited more information from the
story. The teacher could have stuck some pictures of animals on the board. When they listen to the story, if they not
appear we could take them out.
Always you should have in mind what you have to teach and then plan the warm up. You first have to know what you
have to present, and from there you go back to the warm up. Here the warm up is unconnected.
To plan participation you should be sure that they know what you elicit. (colours, parts of something, feelings). The
participation must be carefully planned. Predict what happens next. Telling the story with gaps. Guide them little by little
until they can tell the story for themselves.
Feeling shave not being activated, and they are a key part in the story. She should have activated feelings at some point in
the warm up,
13. It refers to have. The structure we usually teach is I've got .
14. Replace will by can. I can fly.
17: When it says “flew” or “ wings”she could have made a gesture to indicate what wings are, or a at least a description to
make the story more comprehensible. I dont know if they are sure what wings are. Also its a too long paragraph. Also
there is a constant change of tense. She could have used only the present, to make it more vivid and to be consistent. Too
much narration. Use more direct speech. “Oh what's that, my little bird is crying.