Unit 4 FUNCTIONS

Functions 

According to Spratt, Pulverness, & Williams, (2012) on page 27, Functions “is a reason why we communicate”. Unit four was about functions. It was interesting because there is close relationship with lexis and the context with the exponent. The context refers where is used or in which situations and the exponent the language we use for that situation. As teacher, I consider that the function of the language must be taught in the classroom according to the level of formality whereas at the moment of speaking or writing. The exponents we use is the classroom most of the time affect the way students will communicate when they grow up. For that reason I consider that is necessary to teach the different kind of exponents such as colloquial, neutral, according to the register used it. Moreover, the class has to be emphasis in the communicative approach which nowadays is more effective because it involves the use of the structures learning in grammar.  

Bibliography:

Spratt, M. Pulverness, A. Williams, M. (2012). Language and background to language learning and teaching. The TKT Course. (2^nd ed.) Cambridge University Press

Talaat, M. (2002). The form and functions of English in Pakistan (Doctoral dissertation, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan).

Retrieved from: http://eprints.hec.gov.pk/1631/1/1191.HTM

video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mS7w_np2Nw

unit 10 LESSON STUDY

Lesson study

This process was created by Japanese teachers in order to develop their classes and goals more effective. This study lesson involves planning, teaching, observing, and evaluate the lesson. For example, teachers join together to develop a lesson in a classroom. While a teacher teaches the lesson, some others are observing. Then, they join together and have a discussion about their observations. After that, another teacher implement the same lesson but in other classroom while other teachers are observing. Finally, they have another meeting to discuss the new observations and produce a report of what the study lesson have tough them. It gives them out an autonomy preparation for class. Lesson study provides an opportunity for teachers to benefit from one another's pedagogical knowledge.   

   

Bibliography:

Teachers college. Lesson Study. Columbia University.

Retrieved by: http://www.tc.columbia.edu/lessonstudy/lessonstudy.html

Lesson Study Guides. Design the Lesson. 

Retrieved by: http://www.uwlax.edu/sotl/lsp/guide/designlesson.htm
video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f58eP_S1hLc

unit 9 Bloom`s Taxonomy for writing lesson objectives

Bloom`s Taxonomy for writing lesson objectives

            Bloom`s Taxonomy is a list of verbs that help teachers to write their objectives at the moment to do lesson plans. It is often quite difficult to relate inputs to outcomes in the world of education. Traditionally, much work has been done to develop and provide inputs into the process of education. Those verbs are well-organized into six categories which are; knowledge or remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, create. Each category has its list of verbs which align with each level. According to Benjamin Bloom “Bloom’s taxonomy is a powerful tool to help develop learning Objectives, because it explains the process of learning. Before you can understand a concept, you must remember it. To apply a concept you must first understand it. In order to evaluate a process,, you must have analyzed it. To create an accurate conclusion, you must have completed a thorough evaluation”. The committee identified three domains of educational activities or leaning (Bloom, 1956). The first one is cognitive. The second is affective and the last one is psychomotor.

Spratt, M. Pulverness, A. Williams, M. (2012). Language and background to language learning and teaching. The TKT Course. (2^nd ed.) Cambridge University Press

Gower, R. Phillips, D. Walters, S. (2010). Teaching Practice. A handbook for teachers in training.

Scott, D. (May 13^th, 2014). Using Bloom’s Taxonomy to Write Learning Outcomes. Pearson.

Retrieved by: http://www.pearsoned.com/education-blog/using-blooms-taxonomy-to-write-learning-outcomes/
video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGXANN3MUsg

Unit 8 SPEAKING

Speaking

Unit 8 from TKT book is about speaking. Speaking is an ability developed by a group of people. Its purpose is communication among the members of any society because it is a productive skill, especially for students because they need to practice it with the objective of make a foundation to communicate with foreigners. Even in speaking there are features such as pronunciation, accuracy, fluency, grammar, vocabulary, and comprehension that students have to be able to use in an intelligible way. We must define speaking as an interactive process where people construct meaning, receive and process information. I believe that the goal of speaking is to communicate well in English. So, competent teachers must not think on use traditional methods where they give the material and explain it, then give examples and give exercise about it. The general idea is not to spend a lot of time in textual material, but motivate them to learn English specially speaking.

Bibliography:

Spratt, M. Pulverness, A. Williams, M. (2012). Language and background to language learning and teaching. The TKT Course. (2^nd ed.) Cambridge University Press

Gower, R. Phillips, D. Walters, S. (2010). Teaching Practice. A handbook for teachers in training.
video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRzrbmfeFcQ

UNIT 7 LISTENING

 Listening

Unit seven from TKT book is about listening which is a receptive skill. This skill for most students is the most difficult one since they are not exposed at all to real-speakers audios. They are just accustomed to their teacher speech, intonation and pronunciation, and pace.  Acceding to Spratt, M. Pulverness, A. Williams, M. (2012) on page 43 “listening involves making sense of the meaningful sounds of language”. The process on listening has three stages; before listening or pre-listening where teachers work with students making prediction, pre-teaching vocabulary, asking questions and setting up the purpose of the listening. The second step is during listening. In this time students take notes. The final step is after listening where the teacher checks answers, make debates, discussions, describe characters, summaries the speech and other activities that can fit with the audio. What I have learned is that even though we have to follow grammar structures, in real conversation it is acceptable to use incomplete sentences, utterances, hesitations, sadden topic change, simple grammar and general vocabulary.         

Bibliography:

Spratt, M. Pulverness, A. Williams, M. (2012). Language and background to language learning and teaching. The TKT Course. (2^nd ed.) Cambridge University Press '>Bibliography:

Spratt, M. Pulverness, A. Williams, M. (2012). Language and background to language learning and teaching. The TKT Course. (2^nd ed.) Cambridge University Press

Ur, P. (2010). Grammar Practice Activities. A practical guide for teachers. (2^nd ed.) Cambridge University Press.
video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2bXeP5dhqI

Unit 6 WRITING

Writing

Unit six from TKT book is about a productive skill which is writing. What I have learned in this unit was about text types. Those have different characteristics like degrees of formality, different layouts, structure, and order of information, level of complexity in grammar (it depends on to whom you write the letter), register and range of vocabulary. Something that caught my attention was the word layout. It is the scheme how a text look likes. For example, the format of an essay is completing different with a format of a letter. There are two sub kills; related to accuracy (spelling, correct vocabulary, punctuation, and using grammar correctly), and related to communicating (ideas, appropriate style and register, and appropriate functions). As English teachers, we have to point our objectives to the approaches of writing which are; product approach, process approach, genre approach (showing examples), and process-genre approach (do the writing together). There are also some steps for writing like drafting, editing, proofreading, and re-drafting. The writing text should be well-structured by coherence (logical) and cohesion (organization of sentences. How ideas are linked). With all of those characteristics and tips, we can adapt on our students.  

Bibliography:

Spratt, M. Pulverness, A. Williams, M. (2012). Language and background to language learning and teaching. The TKT Course. (2^nd ed.) Cambridge University Press

Ur, P. (2010). Grammar Practice Activities. A practical guide for teachers. (2^nd ed.) Cambridge University Press. 
video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbZUKAamXDU

Unit 5 READING

Reading

Unit 5 is about reading which a receptive skill is. It has some types of reading such as extensive reading (reading for pleasure), intensive reading (purposed for language studies), silent reading (which is focusing in comprehension), and aloud reading (which check pronunciation, intonation, rhythm,). Reading has its own process which consist on three steps; pre-reading, reading, and post reading. The first step is to activate students` knowledge about the context, and also to combine the text with previews experiences. At that time, teachers used to ask base questions, teach essential vocabulary, make students guess the content through the picture (if the reading has), and also using the title. The second step is the time reading. In the latter step, teachers make students summaries the reading, maybe any activity like role plays, discussions, debates, among others. This step may be focused in communication.  The sub skills are the following; skimming (main idea of the text), scanning (reading for specific information), inferring (realize the author`s feelings or opinion), and deducing meaning from the context (try to work out that word from context). As teachers we can apply all of those sub skills in only one reading and make students little by little get accustom with the techniques. 

   

Bibliography:

Spratt, M. Pulverness, A. Williams, M. (2012). Language and background to language learning and teaching. The TKT Course. (2^nd ed.) Cambridge University Press

Carrell, P. (1984). Schema theory and ESL reading: Classroom implications and applications. The Modern Language Journal, 68(4), 332-343. 

Retrieved from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-4781.1984.tb02509.x/abstract

video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wfH99DeKfY

Unit 3 PHONOLOGY

Phonology

TKT book module 1 unit three is about Phonology. Phonology is a subject that I took in third level. Phonology is the study of the sound features. Those features are for example phonemes, word stress, sentences stress, and intonation.  According to the module, “a phoneme is the smallest unit of sound that can make a difference to meaning in a language”.  Each phonemic symbol represents only one phoneme. You can study with the phonemic chart with is adapted from Sound Foundations by Adrian Underhill, Macmillan 1994. The phonetic symbols could be voiced sound if they have a vibration in the throat like /b/, /g/, and unvoiced sound if they do not have a vibration like /p/, /t/. I also learned about stress. There are word stress, main and secondary stress, sentence stress, and contractive stress. The latter was that call my attention because I did not know about it. It is used to clarify a piece of information in a sentence.  

Bibliography:

Spratt, M. Pulverness, A. Williams, M. (2012). Language and background to language learning and teaching. The TKT Course. (2^nd ed.) Cambridge University Press

Roach, P. (2007) English Phonetics and Phonology articles.

Retrieved from: http://www.phon.ox.ac.uk/jcoleman/PHONOLOGY1.htm

Mejia, P. (2009). English Phonology. Universidad Central del Ecuador

video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGpSysRcVdI&list=PL382E64F02FB6A899

UNIT 2 LEXIS

LEXIS

TKT book module one unit two is about lexis. Lexis is related with vocabulary. This class was very interesting because I did not know what lexis means and I learned what it is. As Spratt, Pulverness, & Williams (2012) said “lexis refers to individual word or sets of words” (p. 16). Lexis is important because it refers to units of vocabulary that have specific meaning. In base words we can add words at the beginning (prefixes) or at the end (suffixes) to form anew word. As a future teacher, I found this important because we can teach students how to form new words and they can acquire more vocabulary which is essential at the moment of produce the language. For example in reading students will be able to identify fixed expressions like idioms or the join of two words such as compounds. Moreover, lexis helps in the other skills too like writing, speaking or listening. If students know how lexis works, they can identify the meaning of the words. Finally, I think the best way to teach a language is by chucks where students can form long sentences and by affixation where students can make new words brainstorming the base word. 

Bibliography:

Spratt, M. Pulverness, A. Williams, M. (2012). Language and background to language learning and teaching. The TKT Course. (2^nd ed.) Cambridge University Press

Teoh, L. N. (2009). Lexis in compositions of ESL students in a selected University College in Nilai, Malaysia (Doctoral dissertation, Universiti Putra Malaysia).

Retrieved from: http://psasir.upm.edu.my/5771/
video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQQE2hWrl98

UNIT 1

Grammar

TKT book module 1 unit one is about grammar. In my opinion, grammar is how we combine words to make meaning. According to Scott Thornbury (2007), “grammar is partly the study of what forms (or structures) are possible in a language. Thus, grammar is a description of the rules that govern how a language`s sentences are formed” (p. 1). Grammar contains forms and uses. Form refers how words are made up and presented in speech or writing and use refers how grammatical structures are used to convey meaning.  Part or speech is identified in grammatical forms with contains prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions, determiners, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and exclamations. I have also learned that many grammatical forms have more than one use. For example if I talk about present simple structure, the uses could be to describe present actions, routines, to tell a story, to refer the future. The harder job I had to do was identify structures, their terms, and their forms. An example of structure could be I hate doing my homework. Its term is verb + gerund. Its form is subject + verb + gerund + object. 

Bibliography

Spratt, M. Pulverness, A. Williams, M. (2012). Language and background to language learning and teaching. The TKT Course. (2^nd ed.) Cambridge University Press

Thornbury, S. (2007). How to teach Grammar. Pearson Longman

Ur, P. (2010). Grammar Practice Activities. A practical guide for teachers. (2^nd ed.) Cambridge University Press. 

video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec-4vt8Xgik