Integrating four skills

This is the combination of four skills, reading, speaking, listening and writing into the whole language. Some people think that integration of four skills diminishes the importance of the rules of listening, speaking, reading and writing that are unique to each separate skill. They are given a chance to diversify their efforts in more meaninful tasks. So we may be wondering why courses weren't always integrated in the firs place:

 

1. In the pre-CLT days of language teaching, the focus on the forms of language almos predispose curriculum designers to segment courses into the separate language skills.
2. Administrative considerations still make it easier to program separate courses in "reading" and "speaking"
3. There are certain specific purposes for which Ss are studying English that may best be label by one of the four skills.

However the most important is that integration is the only plausible approach, this is because:

1. Production and reception are quite simply two sides of the same coin
2. Interaction means sending language and receiing messages
3. Written and spoken  often bear a relationship to each other.
4. The interrelationship of written and spoken language is an intrisically motivation reflection of language and culture and society.
5. By attending primarily to what learners can do with language, and only secondarily to the forms of language.
6. Often one skill will reinforce another, we learn to speak, and we learn to write by examining what we can read.

Theme-based curricula can serve the multiple interest of Ss in a classroom and can offer a focus on content while still adhering to institucional needs for offering a language course.

 

What is important is to put principles of affective learning into action, this principles are:

• The automaticity principle
• The meaningful learning principle
• The instrinsic motivation principle
• The communicative competence principle.

All these principles are served by theme-based instruction courses that are able to get Ss exited and interested.

 

Numerous ESL texts books at the intermediate to advanced levels, offer theme-based courses of study; such text books catch the curiosity and motivation of Ss with challenging topics of real-life issues from simple to complex, they also focus on improving their linguistics skills. One of the topic, you are sure to find immediate intisnsic motivation.

Experimental learning

Closely related to conten-based and theme-based instruction is experimental language learning. This includes activities that language both left and right brain processing, that contextualize language, integrate skills and real-world purposes. What experimental learning highlights for us is giving students concrete experiences through which they discover language principles.

Experimental learning emphais on the marriage of two substantive principles of effective learning, principles exposed by John Dewey:

1. One learns best by doing, by active experimentation
2. Inductive learning by discovery activities strategies that enable Ss o "take charge" of their own learning progress.

Experimental learning techniques tent to be learner centered by nature. Experimental learning tends to put an emphasis on the psychomotor aspects of language learning by involving learners in physical actions into which language is subsumed and reinforced.

The episode Hypothesis

Episode hypothesis the text will be easier to reproduce, understand, and recall, to the extent that it is structured episodically. By this the presentation of language is enhanced if students do not get disconnected series of sentences throw at them, but rather sentencs that are inteconnected in an interest-provoking episode.

Task-based teaching

Task-based teaching makes an important distinction between target tasks, which Ss must accomplish beyond the classroom and pedagogical tasks, which from the nucleus of the classroom activity.

Pedagogical tasks include any of a series of techniques designed ultimately to teach Ss to perform the target task. This include formal and fuctional techniques.

Task-based curricula differ from content-based, we have in task-based teaching a well integrated approach to language teaching that asks you to organize your classroom around those practical tasks that language users engage in out there in the real world.

The principal idea is that all your techniques should be identified with just one of the four but rather that most successful interactive techniques will include several skills areas.

 

Methods to help the teaching of a foreign language

The necessity of learning another language has pointed out to our society. We lived in a world where the power has everything under its control. Each person has the ability of dominating more than one language. Considering this is important to say that everybody has different abilities when is learning a language. The teachers who teach the English language must observe the ability that every student has for making easier the learning.

 

There are several methods which help the learning of another language, especially English, like: Total Physical Response, Audio-Lingual Method, Direct Method, Suggestopedia Method, Communicative Approach, Grammar-Translation Method for saying something.

 

The Grammar-Translation method is used to help the Students toread and value the foreign literature; to speak and write better language that is learning. This method produce a good mental exercise and learn the grammatical rules of the foreign language. With this we can watch it does not to pay attention to the listening and pronunciation.

The Direct Method is not used in all schools, just in the private schools. The oral interaction, spontaneous use of the language, no translation between first and second language and the little or not analysis of grammatical rules help the learning in natural way of the English Language.

 

The Communicative Approach promote the communicative competence knowing when and how to say what to whom. With this method, the students are able to communicate efficiently and they manage the process of negotiating meaning with their interlocutors.

 

Suggestopedia Method, this method help the students to learn new vocabulary without translated words into their mother tongue. This is a relaxing method, so it makes students to absorb the knowledge of the foreign language. Decoration, furniture and arrangement of the classroom, the use of classical music, the authoritative behaviour of teachers and literature plays are the key elements of this method.

Task Based Learning approaches students to the different context of languages so they have the opportunity to interact. By interacting with others, they get to listen to language which may be beyond their present ability, but which may be assimilated into their knowledge of the target language for use at a later time.

 

The Audio-Lingual MEthod emphasized the comprehension of texts. Teachers based their teaching on a book containing short reading passages in their foreign, preceded by lists of vocabulary.

 

The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis. Like its name said, there is a hypothesis about how people can learn a language or if theu acquire the language. The acquisition is when somebody lives the language in a natural way, without grammatical rules, speaking rules, they just imitate the people that are arond they. And the learning is based on the all kind of rules about the language that they are studying, and many times this depends on what they want learn better.

 

Behaviourism this method says that everything can be explained in terms of natural laws ans man has no soul and no mind, only a brain that responds to external stimuli. This method teaches that man is nothing more than a machine that responds to conditioning and also says that we are not responsible for our actions.

 

Community Language Learning makes students interact with the teacher in many ways, the teacher gives advices, assistance and suport to the students who has a problem or is in some way in need. This method works with the translation, transcription, recording and group work to make a class more interesting.

Cognitivism Method says that there are a finite number of grammatical rules and with the knowledge of this finite number of sentences can be performed in the language. So the students are often encouraged to use rules to create sentences of their own.

 

First and second language. There are a difference between the first and second language learning, because how many we use a determined language and for what we use our mother tongue or a foreign language. The first language is that we acquire to speak first as child by behaviours. And the second language is that we use for social functions, for example to education, government or business.

 

Considering all this methods I think the best or one of the best is the TPR, because this method combine speech, action and achieve the goal of comprehension through physicial activities. This provokes a possitive mood to the learning.

When we are children to learn another language is imposed by our parents, and this is not good for the learning process, because is not for pleasure, then the teachers must look for a method where the children feel good in class and are interested in the learning of the foreign language.

 

the material used in the class is so important, for example, the books, pens, cups, furniture, evertything that the learninf process requires to the children learn better. The teachers selects the material for classroom will be used and they decide what and how to teach. They must consider the voice, actions and gestures, and the attitude for the children are interesting in the learning and that facilitates the learning process.

 

Finally, I would say that the variety of advantages of learning another language has permitted that the average of people who are learning a foreign language is increasing, which generates a complete society as for education and cultural knowledge. And the old people should be worried our children to they has a better education in their schools.

Is grammar the main goal of a second language learning?

It is known that a teacher of a foreign language has to develop all skills of a language in his students and at the same time he has to train his students for getting a good fluency and accuracy of the language. It is not easy work, because to have a higher level of language the students and teacher have to take into account that grammar has an important place in any language. However, there are different opinions on teaching or not teaching grammar explicity.

 

As we have been learning in the course of Principles English Language Teaching III, there are many theories about how to teach grammar. Certainly all theories have worked in different periods of time and have had their benefits for developing something new, which helps to learn and teach a foreign language. The believes about the bes way to learn whether teaching or not teaching grammar are varied for each people and  also it has to do with the purpose that people have about the language that they are learning.

 

According to the text "Should we teach grammar? (Part II)", grammar is similar to have sex and for this reason it is important in the life, I think that what the text mentions is tru because grammar is always presented in everything that we speak, listen to, read or write and it is supposd that the same occurs when we use a second language. I said it is supposed because not all the learners when speak or write the foreign language use an accurate language. It is for that text mentions that is necessary to take into account the three important elements, which are the goal of instruction or the time instruction, the structure of the target language and the style of the learner. The first one has to do with the time that teacher has for developing the course, because time could be determinating in the level that students get of language. More time instruction gives more input and a higher level. On the other hand, less time instruction does not give enough input and the level of the language is lower. The second one mentions that grammar should not drive the curriculum, because all languages are different in its structure. Finally the third one which is related to the age of students and for that reasons it says that each learner has different interests.

 

All those factors have their importance and will be good that each teacher has this in his mind. However those are not the only factors for taking into account, there are more like those which also are focused on more things and have different perception about teaching grammar.

 

This is the case of what H.D. Brown (1994) mentions in his book "Teaching by principles". He makes a question saying if teachers should or not teach grammar in language class and how to teach it. He also mentions that grammar and some techniques for learning a language have been a central parto in the history. He talks about the variables that Celce-Mauricia(1991) did about the role of grammar. For instance, the learner variables like the age, which makes grammar varies. Children do not care about grammar so it is not important for them. On the other hand, for adults is the main thing; beginners do not focus on it, but advanced learners do it; something similar happen with preliterate people that think grammar is the most important thing for learning a language. In the case of instructional variables skills like listening and reafing the grammar is less important, nevertheless fr writing it is the most important thing; the same occurs in formal conversations which focuses on fluency and on the contrary the inforal ones like speech demands grammatical accuracy and this is related to the porpuse that people have.

 

The importance of understanding and paying attention in all those factors should be taken a big place in teaching a second language. Besides this, the book of Thornbury, Sccot "How to teach grammar" (1999) says that all the learners are different because of their needs, interests, level ad goals and also he mentions that the evaluation of the activities has to be appropriate with the criteria of efficiency and taking into account some factor, for example the age, level size of the group, how the group is integrated, their needs and interests, their experince affects a class in different ways, so as each group is different teachers can not evaluate in the same form.

 

In conclusion, as we can see the three text that mentioned talks about meny factors related to whether teaching or not teaching grammar, nevertheless at the same time all of those are the same but with different names and they are divided into many ways; however they mean te same but in other words. Personally I think all those factores are too important for teachers, because it lets see the variation that they could have in their class and that not all the classes should be focused on grammar. It is true that grammar is important in language; in addition students should know the bases of this, but the purpose of learners is variable so teacher would make an evaluation about the group in order to know what are the goals and needs of the students, so that teacher can determine how much grammmar teach or whether teaching or not teaching grammar.

 

By: Miss Boop

The importance of studying English

Nowadays, English is no longer viewed as a foreign language; it is the global means of communication: the language of communication wherever a deal is being done internationally. Oficially, English now has a special status in more than 75 countries, with a total population of over 2 billion speakers, where 1 out of 4 speaks English to some level of competence.

 

As Englsih language has become the most widespread language in the whole world, it has been ranked in place number 2 after the Mandarin one. This is obvious another reason why English should be learnt in order for communication to turn out.

 

Taking into account the toll of population who speaks English, it is sufficed to say that some of the different reasons why people study a foreign language, such as : the advencement, which is that people think that English offers a chance for progress in their professional lives. The knowledge of language skills set them apart from other employees, becoming better candicates for promotion and work on new projects, pursuing in this way their professional goals.

 

According to the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH), which proposes that up to a certain age, language may be acquired easily and occurs the firs eight to ten years of life. (Suffice it to say that some authors argue that this phenomenon appears around puberty) After this period, the LAD begins to deteriorate and provoke traumatic loss of language ability. (Lightbown and Spada, 1993).

 

For this reason, we considered that it is extremely essential that a child starts the process of learning, at an early age in order for him/her to get used to the language. The more a student gets familiarized with the language, the more effective and rewarding will be his/her academic development in a near future.

Razgos distintivos de los sonidos lingüísticos (resúmen)

 Entre la gran variedd de sonidos que puede emitir un hablante, es posible reconocer lo que representan el mismo sonido, aunque las formas de pronunciarlo resulten distintas desde el punto de vista acústico; a la vez se pueden distinguir los sonidos que señalan una diferencia de significado. Cada vez que se emite una palabra, no se realiza de la misma manera, por que cada emisión depende de los otros sonidos que la rodean.

Los sonidos adquieren valores distintos según la función que ocupen en un contexto dado; sin embargo existen unos rasgos que no varian y que permiten reconocerlos si confusiones en cualquier posición. Por otro lado, los sonidos que componen una palabra son las unidades mínimas que la hacen diferente de otra. Una prueba sencilla que lo demuestra es la comparación de lo que se llama segmentos portadores de significado de los llamados pares mínimos; los sonidos que forman la palabra más pueden ser sustituidos por otros y al hacerlo se forman palabras diferente.

 

Por este prodecimiento se pueden aislar las unidades mínimas que distinguen los significados, es decir, los fonemas.

 

Cada fonema se describe siguiendo unos criterios físicos y articulatoríos, en fución del punto de artiulación o de su carácter de sonoro o sordo.

 

 Por rasgos distintivos se describen todos los sonidos que constituyen una lengua. La teoría de los rasgos distintivos se formuló en primer lugar dentro de la escuela estructuralista; está incorporada a la teoría generatíva que trata de construir una explicación fonológica dentro de la teoría general de la gramática. 

La Formación del Método Lingüístico

En este capítulo de la antología nos habla primeramente de los precursores que decían que el punto de partida fue la revelación del Sánscrito a los sabios occidentales; esta lengua permite analizar fácilmente la palara en sus constituyentes y esto dejaba libre el acceso al corpus de los gramáticos hinúes, tesoro de observaciones presisas, particularmente instructivas para la clasificación de los fonemas y las teorías sobre la raíz y la formacion de las palabras.

 

William Jones: señalaba las afinidades de formas entre el latín, el griego y el sánscrito, afinidades que probaban que esas lenguas venían de un origen común y que serían inexplicables.

 

 

Fredrich Schlegel: esclareció la relación del sánscrito con las otras lenguas, que es la estructura interna de las lenguas, que nos dará informaciones enteramente nuevas sobre la genealogía del lenguaje, así como la anatomía comparada ha alumbrado la historia natural.

 

 

Rasmus Rask: demostró el primer modelo de las leyes fonéticas sobre las cuales descansa la lingüística histórica.

 

 

En la segunda generación de coparatistas August Schleicher introdujo  en la lingüística el considerar las lenguas como organismos naturales que nacen, crecen y se desarrollan de acuerdo con reglas determinadas; después envejecen y mueren, manifestando la serie de fenómenos que es designada con la palabra vida. También expuso un concepto de la fragmentación del indoeuropero.

 

 

Dice el texto que la clasificación de las lenguas del mundo esta repartida en tres clases: lenguas aislantes, aglutinantes y flexivas, basada en criterios internos lingüísticos, la estructura morfológica de las lenguas consideradas.

 

Wilhelm Schlegel, dice "las lenguas se dividen en tres clases: las lenguas sin ninguna estructura gramatícal, las lenguas que se valen de afíjos y las lenguas con inflexiones.

 

La situacion de las lenguas del mundo es bastante más conpleja de lo que imaginaron los promotores de aquella epoca. Las lenguas indoeuropeas parecen ser, por exelencia, lenguas flexivas.  El ingles moderno, ha ido rechazando en gran medida dos de las características principales del grupo indoeuropeo.

 

En resúmen, si en una medida más o menos grande la clasificación morfológica aislante- aglutinante- flexica a veces pueden ser conservadas como una de las características de ciertas familias de lenguas.

 



Naturaleza del signo lingüístico

Este téma me pareció muy interezante, en el texto nos habla del signo  lingüístico el cual une un concepto y una imágen acústica, qu es la psiquica de un sonido material y es sensorial.

 

El signo lingüístico es una entidad psiquica de dos caras y puede ser representada de la siguiente manera:

CONCEPTO

IMÁGEN ACÚSTICA

 

Nos mencina, el texto, dos elementos que están intimamente unidos y se requieren recíprocamente: Concepto e Imágen Acústica, a esto se le llama SIGNO.

 

El signo lingüístico posee dos caracteres primordiales. Podemos decir que el signo lingüístico es arbitrario por que el significante puede variar dependiendo del hombre (hablante) y sin embargo  es el mismo, es decir que cada nación adopta un significante diferente para cada significado; por la idea es la misma.

 

En esto es importante señalar dos objeciones: la primera podría apoyarse en la onomatopeyas para decir que la selección del significante no es siempre arbitraria. Esto, debido a que las onomatopeyas no son nunca elementos orgánicos de un sistéma lingüístico. La segunda es la exclamación, muy cercanas a las onomatopeyas, estas dan lugar a observaciones análogas.

El significante, se desarrolla sólo en el tiempo y por lotanto tiene los caracteres que toma el tiempo. Eso hace que los significantes acústicos se presenten unos tras otros, formando una cadena.

El valor lingüístico es un elemento de la significación, y es difícil saber cómo ésta se distingue de aquél estando al mismo tiempo bajo su dependencia.

 La sincronía conoce sólo la perspectiva, la de los sujetos hablantes y consiste en recoger su testimonio; para saber en qué medida una cosa es una realidad, habrá que buscar en qué medida existe para la conciencia de  los  sujetos.

La lingüística diacrónica, por lo contrario, debe distinguir dos perspectivas, una prospectiva, que siga el curso del tiempi y otra retrospectiva, que lo remote.