ID054 – WRITING SKILLS AND ACADEMIC GENRES

FINAL TASK
GENERAL INFORMATION:

This unit assignment consists of doing the task presented below. This assignment must
be done individually. It must be submitted according to the official submission
procedure described on the web page where this file was downloaded. Assignments
sent directly to the tutor by email will not be corrected. The work must fulfil the following
conditions:

 Type of font: Arial.

 Size: 11.
 Line height: 1.5.
 Alignment: Justified.
 Margins: 2.5 above and down, left and right 3 (usual default configuration)

The assignment has to be done in a Word document. Please, do not write the answers
in bold, in order to simplify the distinction between them and the activities’ statements.
On the other hand, the assignment must still fulfil the rules of presentation and edition,
and follow the rubric for quoting and making a bibliography in the Study Guide.

It is very important to read the assessment criteria, which can be found in the Study
Guide. This final task for Unit 6 will evaluate the conditions of presentation presented
below, the assessment criteria and, especially, the accomplishment of the objectives of
this unit:

 Analyzing and comprehending essay tasks with common instructional and content
words.
 Summarizing information from multiple sources properly and paraphrasing
information to be included in academic essays.
 Creating an academic essay with a categorical structure
 Integrating the strategies and conventions studied both in Module I and Unit 6.

The tasks which do not fulfil the terms of submission will not be corrected.

 Student: Marta Santonja

 Group: 2022-11
 Unit: Writing Skills and Academic Genres (WSAG)

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 Tasks:
You are going to write an essay on teaching young foreign language learners new
vocabulary. Complete the tasks below.

TASK 1:

Read Teaching Young FL Learners New Vocabulary: A Comparison between the

Efficiency of Keyword Method and Total Physical Response by Dacian Dolean
and Andreea Dolghi.

Now, summarize in your own words section 2.1 The Keyword Method, and
paraphrase the first paragraph in section 2.2 Total Physical Response.

2.1 The Keyword Method.

The Keyword Method (KWM) is one of the most extensively researched mnemonics
used in teaching FL vocabulary. Several empirical studies (e.g., Atkinson & Raugh,
1975; Beaton, Gruneberg, Hyde, Shufflebottom, & Sykes, 2005; Sagarra & Alba, 2006;
Shapiro & Waters, 2005) have shown that the retention of a new vocabulary word in a
FL (e.g., the Spanish word carta, meaning letter) can be substantially increased when
the learner associates its sound to a keyword in his/her native language (e.g., the
English word cart), and then creates a mental image combining the two words (e.g., a
letter in a cart). Some authors found it helpful, especially in teaching children, to
facilitate the formation of the mental image by providing learners with an interactive
picture of the two words (e.g., Avila & Sadoski, 1996; Wyra, Lawson, & Hungi, 2007).
However, the KWM proved to be very effective even without the emphasis on the
interactive imagery, as long as certain criteria were considered in the selection of the
two words. These criteria include, a high degree of phonemic overlapping, a high
imagery value, and a high concreteness value (Dolean, 2014).

Although the efficiency of the KWM is generally recognized by most scholars, some
critics indicate that the method is less efficient than traditional learning methods when it
is used by experienced foreign language learners or older students (Hogben & Lawson,
1994; Van Hell & Mahn, 1997; Wei, 2015). Indeed, the KWM tends to be more efficient
when it is used to teach young students than when it is used with their older peers
(Dolean, 2014). These findings support the use of the KWM to explicitly teach new
vocabulary words in a FL to children registered in early elementary school programs.

Summarizing in:

Research on the teaching of Foreign Languages describes a new method for learning
vocabulary, it is called the Keyword Method (KWM). Some authors maintain that this
form of sound and keyword association facilitates the retention of a new word, in
addition to creating a mental image of the vocabulary. When teaching children a new
language, this method makes it easier for students to understand two words by giving

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them an interactive picture of the word. In addition, several studies consider that by
using keyword methods, there is a better understanding of the phoneme-word.

Despite the criticism of the method by some linguists, saying that the keyword method
is less efficient when learning a foreign language in old students, if compared to the
traditional method, it is justifiable to use KWM to teach new languages. vocabulary
words to children between 6 to 12 years old.

2.2 Total Physical Response.

Another popular mnemonic strategy used for teaching FL vocabulary is the Total
Physical Response (TPR) developed by Asher (1966). When using this method, FL
instructors give a series of commands in the target language (e.g., jump and clap your
hands), while learners are expected to respond with whole-body movements (e.g., to
jump while clapping their hands). TPR is supported by several theoretical approaches
to learning situations. For instance, Dale’s (1969) Audiovisual Methods in Teaching
claims that students learn most efficiently when all of their senses are engaged in the
learning process, while The Natural Approach (Krashen & Terrell, 1986) claims that
children learn a second language more effectively when they learn it naturally, in a
stimulating environment that facilitates a low affective filter and encourages a
progressive development fromlanguage comprehension to language production.

Paraphrasing in:

Another famous method of teaching language or vocabulary concepts by using

physical movement to react to verbal input is, as Asher (1966) defined Total Physical
Response (TPR). It is the process in which teachers give oral instructions while
students respond through body movements.

Different methods to develop learning situations such as Audiovisual and Natural

Approaches protect the TPR. The first alleges that students learn better when all
physical and mental capacities are active in the process of learning a second language.
The latter, defined by Krashen and Terrell (1986), says that it is important to take into
account the socio-affective context of the students for a better understanding of the
language.

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TASK 2:

Now, follow the instructions for your essay below.

Teaching Foreign Languages

Instructions

Based on the article by Dolean and Dolghi (2016), compare and contrast the
efficiency of the Keyword Method and Total Physical Response for teaching new
foreign language words to young learners. You may want to find further
information on these approaches in an online academic database to include more
sources in your essay.

Length: 500 words.

You can use the information written in Task 1.

Note: Remember that you should use all skills, conventions, and strategies
learned in this course (Module I included).

Teaching Foreign Languages

Teaching a foreign language should be enjoyable, interesting, reptetitive and

understable. In doing so, there should be appropriate methods for teaching. This essay
aimed to identify as clearly as possible the pedagogical strategies in teaching learning
process of a foreign language (FL) for elementary students. In acquiring a language,
there is a need to learn new vocabulary to understand it. In this document is analysed,
comparing and contrast, two mnemonic strategies in teaching FL vocabulary.

On the one hand, the Keyword Method (KWM) is a way to memorize a new word and
its definition by making a mental image of each word and then, mixing the two images
into one picture. In other words, this linguistic strategy is defined by Atkinson (1975) as
a mnemonic technique in which a new word is associated with a similarsounding
familiar word, or keyword.

It is good for learning foreign vocabulary and for scientific and technical words.
Nevertheles, there are some weakness in this approach, due to the fact that words
often have multiple meanings, so keyword searches often return irrelevant results
(false positives), failing to disambiguate unstructured text.

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Thus, the Keyword method cannot be used with all the words the student has to learn,
but only with the ones that student finds difficult to remember. Words and phrases are
remembered more effectively if they are accompanied by a drawing.

On the other hand, Total Physical Response (TPR) is the method which tries to
introduce language skills or components in an action, giving students’ opportunity lose
the shame to speak and to feel ready. This method attempts to center attention to
encourage learners to teach target language thorugh physical activity. nd commands

As Asher (1966) defined, the TPR is a ntaural methods since secong language
teaching and learning should reflect the naturalistic processes of first language
learning. Since TPR is made up of commands, one of the drawbacks in this method is
that students cannot express their own thoughts in a creative way. Moreover, TPR may
be ineffective when teacher uses it as a unique activity without changing the way to
teach vocabulary.

To summarize this essay, both strategies are useful in teaching FL vocabulary, through
the use of commands and visual interpretations that help students to effectively
understand the new language. Teachers must know how to introduce these methods,
using various activities and strategies depending on what they want to teach and how
to carry it out in order to adequately develop language acquisition.