TEACHING METHODS

TEACHING METHODS
Teaching Across Ages, and Proficiency Levels
Rhina Arely Bentez Diaz

2013

School of Arts and Sciences

1. In a chart, using the language function "COMPLAINING" describe what and how you will develop each of the four elements of communicative competences (grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse, strategic) in your students. Highlight all elements per competence; for example, when dealing with the grammatical competences, sub area: lexicon, write the most useful phrases that are used to complain.

Communicativ Language e competence Function Complaining Grammatical Sub area Phonological

Description/ Solution

Teacher, I dont The main problem is that the student does not know how to perform understand the the first activity because he/she does not have enough vocabulary first activity about seasons and the weather, so it is difficult to understand what he/she is going to do if there is a lack of knowledge about the topic. The solution is that the teacher provides resources that help the students and all those who do not understand the activity to learn vocabulary about the topic. This web site is very helpful to learn how to say the different season and weather, which is what the teacher requires in classes, so the students will have a better understanding about the topic. http://quizlet.com/1762914/weatherseason-vocabulary-flash-cards/

Morphology

Teacher, I dont The situation is that the student have problem to build sentences understand the using the present simple, this structure is very basic but the student simple present have some troubles at the time to make sentences because he/she feels that what the teacher explains is not enough. The solution is that beside the explanation given in the class, here are some websites to visit in order to learn about some grammatical structure. For kids: http://www.anglomaniacy.pl/index.html Teens or adults: http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbtenses_present-simple.htm This is a very common problem, this happens in any level, not only with beginners but also in all levels because there are always new words, so this kind of complain has to do with the semantic area of grammatical competence, in which students sometimes do not understand the meaning of some words, maybe some of them are not Teacher, I do for the level in which the students are, so the teacher has to be careful not understand when using words that maybe the students find hard to understand, the meaning of not also the meaning of it but the usage and the function that it has in a sentence. some words

Semantics

By: Rhina Arely Bentez Diaz

- The solution for this problem is that the teacher needs to provide enough explanation, and uses clearer examples, so in this way they are going to know what some unknown words mean. http://www.vdictionary.com/ Also, the following website can help students not only to learn new word but also to improve their English since basic until Advanced level. http://www.duolingo.com/

Discourse Sub area Phonetics

Teacher, I didnt understand, did you say work sheet or word sheet?

In this case, the main problem is that student did not get what the teacher said, the pronunciation of the word Work confused the student, and this happened because he or she has a lack of knowledge about Minimal pairs. Teacher need to explain that there are words that sometimes they sound almost the same but they are not, and then practice the pronunciation of some similar words. Here is a website where students can learn and practice minimal pairs and to know what differs in words that sound almost the same http://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/minimal-pairs.htm

Discourse Sub area Coherence

Teacher, I dont know how to make questions in English

The main problem is that the student does not know how to make questions in the right way, he/she ask questions without any sense or coherence, the reason is because he/she has not develop the skill to give sense to sentences and question in order to make a different between them at the time to speak. The solution is that it is necessary to explain the different way to say or pronounce sentences and questions, and make the students remember that the question mark ? plays a very important role besides the word order, and also the intonation given to the question to emphasize it. Watch this video to learn basic questions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed28acYrWF0

Sociolinguistic Teacher, I dont The problem here is that student is lacking of knowledge about get the meaning slangs and the use of pragmatics. The phrase means to order and Sub area of get my ducks organize everything efficiently and effectively, but the student does in a row! Pragmatics not use this kind of phrases too much. Slang By: Rhina Arely Bentez Diaz -The solution would be that this student starts searching on the web the usages of slangs, idioms, and the use of pragmatics. This link

leads the students to a Pdf document in which he or she can learn some of the most common slang.
http://www.uwplatt.edu/university/documents/international_student_handbook/ slang.pdf

Sociolinguistic Teacher, I dont get the phrase: Idioms, Blue Moon, do pracmatics I have to take it literally?

The problem is that the student ignores the uses of idioms, this kind of social language is use in pragmatics, and many students do not know how to interpret them, and most of them avoid using this because of the lack of knowledge about it. A solution for this problem is that the teacher has to explain the function of the idioms, and how or when use this kind of social language, the teacher provide this link to visit a website to learn the meaning of some idioms, and stop complaining about it.
http://www.idiomsite.com/

Strategic Sub area Heuristic

Teacher, I dont know vocabulary about the weather, why it is necessary to be used?

The situation is that the student is complaining because the teacher is asking to use vocabulary referring to the weather in one of the activities that they are going to perform in a class, but this student does not know words of that topic, so he/she is having problems at the time to do the activity. The solution is to search on the web for some websites and documents that contain weather vocabulary, so this will help the students to learn more and classify climate states per season. This link leads to a website which contains season and weather vocabulary, and there the student can practice some exercises. Click on this link to learn weather vocabulary:

http://www.saberingles.com.ar/lists/weather.html

Sub Area Phonetical

Teacher, I cant pronounce Autumn can I say it in a different way?

The problem is that the students cannot pronounce the word in the right way, so he/she is looking for another way to refer to that without losing the sense of the conversation. Fortunately, the word fall has the same meaning as Autumn, so replacing the word can be a good strategy when the student cannot say or pronounce a word in the right way, but it is important that they practice the pronunciation.

By: Rhina Arely Bentez Diaz

2. Explain how you are going to design a lesson plan when facing the Leaner Variable I: Teaching Across Age levels; who are the learners? Do a lesson plan for each type of learner taking in consideration the structure of a lesson plan. According to the pamphlet Learner Variables I: Teaching Across age levels, a key aspect of effective teaching is to have a plan for what will happen in the classroom each day. Creating such a plan involves setting realistic goals, deciding how to incorporate materials, and developing activities that will promote learning. Teachers have to design a lesson plan per each class and according to each age level, as they should know, teaching is a very complex area, so it is necessary to be careful when designing a lesson plan. It is not the same to design a lesson plan for children, teenagers, and adults because they have a different manner of learning, and also the understanding of each age is very different. In the teaching area the teacher has to identify many things for example: the topic for the lesson plan, the linguistic content, the communication task, the learning strategies, and the goals that he or she has set when is designing the lesson plan. TEACHING CHILDREN The first one is how teachers are going to design a lesson plan to teach children, this is a big challenge because it is not easy to teach people who have a lack of easy comprehension, and their behavior sometimes is hard to control, so teachers need to be very patient and their lesson plan have to be well-structure, and well-done, taking into account all the requirements that it involves. Remember that when teaching children you as a teacher have to be also a child, how come? Sometimes it is necessary that teacher behave in that way to get childrens attention , to joke, and make them laugh; the teacher has to know that children are interested in things like games, to play with things that they can see or touch, so things in the classroom can be very useful resources to teach them different kind of interesting and fun topics, but also the virtual things are very important to take into account, remember they are digital natives so their learning can be easier if teacher provide them virtual resources to learn. One important thing is that when your purpose is to get students attention very easy, you need to use entertaining things, if you want to teach a bit about grammar to children you need to use coloring objects, videos that are adequate for their age, and also choose topics that they would like to learn. The following lesson Plan shows an example of how to prepare a class for children in which the level, topic, goals, and activities make the difference to teaching children.

By: Rhina Arely Bentez Diaz

UNIVERSIDAD CAPITAN GENERAL GERARDO BARRIOS. Usulutn School of Arts and Sciences LESSON PLAN Teachers name: Rhina Arely Benitez Diaz - Date: Dec, 02nd, 2013 Time: 45min. Subject: English Section: A Unit: 2 Level: A 2

TOPICS TO BE COVERE D FOR THIS UNIT

ACTIVITY RECALL PREVIOUS LEARNING The round.

TO WARM UP LESSON ACTIVITY OBJECTIVES

LANGUAG E STRUCTUR E

ACTIVITIES PRODUCTION PRACTICE

FOR TIMING AND

WRAP UP ACTIVITY

Make a circle and choose students randomly, one of the chosen Seasons students will say and the how is the weather. weather by seeing some pictures. Then Ask each student to say the type of weather they know. The vocabulary they dont know will 5min be presented after all the pictures are shown. 5min

All the students stand up and they are going to take a paper and each of them repeats the vocabulary about the weather which is in the paper, they do this with five different types of weather.

To identify the different Simple weather present, vocabulary in English. I like____ It is____ To compare climate states Wh on different questions seasons. and statements

Students will listen to a song about the weather in English, 8min and then they will sing along and learn the weather names in a fun way.

Students will watch a video 10min about the weather in different seasons, and then they will say what weather belongs to certain season E.g. What depending on what they 10min do you like watched in the video. about fall? Students will write down in Is it sunny their notebooks how the in___? weather in this country is, using the language structure. No, it is____ They say 3 different types of weather.

After they finish writing short sentences about the seasons and weather, students will read what they have wrote in the notebook in front of the class. 7min

TEACHING TEENS They are not little kids, nor are they adults. They are teenagers, hurricanes of hormones and emotions transitioning from adolescence to adulthood as fast as they can in an increasingly malicious world. Teaching teens is of course a big challenge for the teacher because the methodology used for teaching them is very different than teaching children or adults, due to many reasons that teacher has to know, for example, the variation of attitudes vary, remember that they through a very hard age, but also the designing of a lesson plan for Teenagers has to be different than the one that is designed for children because teenagers are in a different age, and it means that their behavior, abilities, comprehension skill, communicative skill, and capacity of learning is higher than childrens. A lesson plan for teens has to include things according to their age, remember that most of them are interested in technological things, fun topics but without childish things, all those staff that has to do with the nowadays lifestyle are good to teach . Teacher has to design a lesson plan that include those kind of things to make the students learn in a way that they feel comfortable, using new devices to catch their attention, including relevant topics, and choose entertaining staff in which they feel that the learning process is easy and interesting, it is necessary to take into account that, students learn more when they do the activities. It is important to remember that many students are in different levels but the methodology is the same for all of them, because they are in the same age, so their behavior or way of thinking may be the same. This lesson plan is an example of how to prepare a class for teens in which the topic have interesting and fun content and activities in which they will feel the process something easy. During the development of the class they will start to develop some communicative competences because there is too much speaking in the activities, also some comprehension skills will be develop by using methods that supports the necessary skills.

UNIVERSIDAD CAPITAN GENERAL GERARDO BARRIOS. Usulutn School of Arts and Sciences LESSON PLAN Teachers name: Rhina Arely Benitez Diaz - Date: Dec, 02nd, 2013 Time: 45min. Subject: English Section: A Unit: 2 Level: A 2 TOPICS TO BE COVERED FOR THIS UNIT ACTIVITY TO WARM UP RECALL ACTIVITY PREVIOUS LEARNING Interactive Ask for a letter Video. of the alphabet, The students students will watch a Seasons say the video, about and the alphabet until how is the weather. they reach the weather in letter pointing different at each student countries per letter. The around the student who is world, and pointed when then they will reached the mention the letter will say weather in a few words of each country what they they already know watched, and about the share ideas of weather what they vocabulary. think about 5min it. 5min LESSON OBJECTIVES LANGUAGE STRUCTURE ACTIVITIES FOR PRODUCTION WRAP UP AND PRACTICE ACTIVITY

To mention the differences in the climate states of the countries around the world. To analyze why the weather is different according to seasons.

Simple present,

They will share ideas of what they know about Seasons and the weather. Then Students will watch I like____ slides about the different seasons It is____ during the year in different countries, and after they will Wh questions discuss about the differences and between their ideas and the statements slides.10min E.g. What do Students will watch a video about you like about the weather, and talk about which fall? climate state they like and which they do not like.5min Is it sunny in___? Writing exercise. Students will write sentences about the weather No, it is____ in different countries that were shown in the video. They will make a poster with drawings and colors with the weather corresponding to the right season.10min

Students will read what they wrote about weather, and present the poster with the seasons and the corresponding climate state, then share it with their classmates. After, the students will vote for which season they like the most. 10min

TEACHING ADULTS When teaching adults, teacher has advantages and also disadvantages; one of the advantages is that it is easier to catch their attention because they have a certain level of maturity, so when teacher is explaining something in the class, they are concentrated in what the teacher is saying; one of the disadvantages of teaching adults is that when they are beginners it is a littl e bit difficult that they develop some skills like pronunciation, many adults mispronunciate some words, so the teacher has the challenge to correct those pronunciation mistakes, also something that is hard for them is to get American accent, at the difference of children and teens that they get a better accent, adults find a little bit difficult to have an authentic accent. . Teacher needs to be prepared for diversity of cultural background, age, previous formal education, and previous exposure to English, life experiences, and current life situations. It is important to be comfortable with the subject matter that is being taught, and teacher has to communicate enthusiasm for the subject matter and the role as a teacher, and that enthusiasm has to be reflected in the preparation of the class taking into account the age of the students, in this case are adults. The following lesson plan shows how the class is prepared when teaching adults, the resources, the content and the activities are different because the way of learning is also different. This lesson plan contain a basic topic, and the activities are for the age of the students, it does not contain childish content, nor games, but it include activities in which they feel comfortable to learn in serious way, it is important to be focus on what to teach to this big students

UNIVERSIDAD CAPITAN GENERAL GERARDO BARRIOS. Usulutn School of Arts and Sciences LESSON PLAN Teachers name: Rhina Arely Benitez Diaz - Date: Dec. 02nd, 2013 Time: 45min. Subject: English Section: A Unit: 2 Level: A2 TOPICS TO BE COVERE D FOR THIS UNIT ACTIVITY TO WARM UP RECALL ACTIVITY PREVIOUS LEARNING Conversation. Teacher The students presents a work in pairs work sheet and establish a with weather conversation Seasons vocabulary talking about and the and other the weather in weather. different this country. words, Then they will students debate with would have to the other find and circle students and the vocabulary classify and of the weather, best and worst and then climate states. classify them in their 5min corresponding season. 5min LESSON OBJECTIVES LANGUAGE STRUCTURE ACTIVITIES FOR AND PRACTICE PRODUCTION TIMIN G WRAP UP ACTIVITY

To learn the vocabulary used to mention each season and the weather.

Simple present, I like____ It is____

Students will make mimes; they will choose a paper containing a climate 5min state word and mime it. They cannot speak; only using body language and the rest of the class will try to guess which type of weather they are miming.

Wh questions To use the and Students will present pictures, and weather statements then in their notebooks, they will write vocabulary in down the name of the seasons and the 10min the daily life. E.g. What do weather they saw, in the end they will you like compare their answer with their about fall? classmates. Is it sunny Students choose a specific Season and in___? weather from a vocabulary bank and ask each other questions using the No, it is____ language structure, that are related to 5min seasons and the weather they chose : What do you like about___? Is it ___ in your city? Students create a word map with the different seasons and their 5min corresponding weather.

Speaking Practice. Each student will say all the seasons in the year and how is the weather in each season. Students will choose what season and weather is their favorite, saying the reasons. 10min

3. Explain how are you going to deal if you have class with the Variable II Teaching Across Proficiency levels. Teaching is a very complex area in which teachers have a big challenge in every class because they have to face with different kind of situations in which they have to be very careful. It is well-known that in order to teach teachers have to know that have to design a plan for each age, and also for each level and sometimes this is complicated because in the classroom the teacher can find a variety of levels, and the preparation of the class has to be different, taking into account what is needed to teach depending on the level. Teaching beginning level This level is the most challenging of language teaching, because it is more difficult to treat with people who do not know anything about the target language. In this level, grammar translation method is very used because beginners do not understand full English, and it is not correct that the teacher pretends to speak as if they are advanced; teacher has to mix both languages, Spanish and English. One of the most important things is that the teacher has to explain as many times as the students need until they understand what is pretending to be taught, so teachers have to be patient with them, and make repetitions until students get the word, phrase, or sentence. Teachers have to prepare interesting and fun classes as well in order to the students feel that they can learn in a good way. You have to go slowly with beginners because they are expecting to learn in an easier way, and it is not good to try to push them because they would feel frustrated, so the class has to be understandable, fun, and with a fresh environment in which students feel like there are at home, so the learning process would be interesting for them. For beginners is of course necessary that teachers teach only basic topics, to get teach the most common words used in English like words t introduce themselves, greetings, days of the week, seasons, the alphabet and things like that, the language has to be authentic. Fluency is something that is developing through the time and practice that is why teacher as to provide resources and help them to practice the vocabulary they learn in each class. Feedbacks are necessary because in this way they refresh what they learn in the previous classes. The techniques that are used in this level are simple but entertaining, it is not necessary to push the students, and do not assign them too much task, instead of that it is better to ask them to perform activities, so they will learn by doing which is the best way. Teaching intermediate levels Teaching intermediate levels is different from teaching beginning levels because at this level students have a better understanding of the target language and they have already developed some skills, so what they need is to learn more and improve the skills that they have develop. For teachers could be better because intermediate classes are more interactive, teachers and students

interact each other but there are always questions in students mind, it does not mind that teacher will not answer but beside the explanation that you as a teacher give, students look for their own resources. They have already learned many different things, and have cross the line from being beginners to go to a new level in which the language is more penetrated in their brain, so the step to go to an advanced level is short. Their skills a better developed at this level. The methodology that is used is different and more extensive. At this level, the native language has not to be allowed in the classroom, so as the teacher you have to avoid speaking Spanish, and when they use Spanish make them to ask questions and say comments only using the target language, which is English. Teaching advanced levels Due to students are in this level, they can understand better, because their skills are better developed, so they can keep a long conversation without making too much mistakes. Deal with students at this level is sometimes an easy task because they have a better understanding of the language, but the activities to develop in the classroom are more complex due to the level, it requires having more analytical task than to be playing in the classroom. Advanced students are more focused on learning more than structures and vocabulary, so it is also a challenge for the teacher to prepare a good class, in order that these advanced students can learn something new. It is important to take into account the experiences that these students already have, but it does not mean that your students know more than you just because they are in an advanced level, so as a teacher you have to take your place and do the best to help those students to improve in any area that they are lacking of knowledge. This not completely easy but, in comparison to beginners, it is kind of easier to teach in an advanced level that teaching to beginners.

By: Rhina Arely Bentez Diaz

4. Choose digital resources you will include and describe how it will help students learn English according to your lesson plans. This page will help the student to learn vocabulary referring to the season and the weather, including the pronunciation and translation. http://quizlet.com/1762914/weatherseason-vocabulary-flash-cards/

This page if for children, in which they can learn some about grammar, they can practice taking the test that the website provides. http://www.anglomaniacy.pl/index.html

A very useful digital resource in which students can learn more, and also improve their English since basic to an advance level. http://www.duolingo.com/

By: Rhina Arely Bentez Diaz

This page will allow students to get information about the formation of the simple sentence, which one of the language structure of the lesson plan, visiting thins page will help you to understand better the structure of simple present. http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_present-simple.htm

Students can use this dictionary online to know the meaning of words that they do not know. http://www.vdictionary.com/

This video is about weather, so it would be very helpful for all students who want to learn about it. But not only this video, there many more to be watched to learn new vocabulary.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVuKr5y9AbY

By: Rhina Arely Bentez Diaz

Bibliography
Alberta Government. (s.f.). Supporting English Language Leraners. Recuperado el 30 de November de 2013, de Supporting English Language Leraners: http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/eslapb/about_communicative_competence.html H.G Douglas Brow. (2001). Teaching Across Age levels. En H.G Douglas Brow, Teaching Across Age levels. Longman. shares, S. (01st de November de 2011). Slide shares. Recuperado el 30 de nov de 2013, de Slide shares: http://www.slideshare.net/tefainfo/teaching-across-age-levels-9968312 Vagaric, V. (30th de September de 2008). Defining communicative competences. Recuperado el 30 de november de 2013, de Defining communicative competences: hrcak.srce.hr/file/42651

By: Rhina Arely Bentez Diaz