HOW TO DESCRIBE LEARNING AND TEACHING

HOW TO DESCRIBE LEARNING AND TEACHING

All children who are in contact with a language will in normal circumstances learn it. They do this unconsciously.

Most adults can learn a language without studying it when they are in contact with a language. However, not all adults who are in contact with a foreign language learn it, and they may have more trouble with the pronunciation and grammar than younger learners, although they may be able to communicate fluently.

The language learners need to be motivated, be exposed to language, and given chances to use it. Therefore there are three elements need to be present in a language classroom to help students learn effectively:

Engage: This is the point in a teaching sequence where teachers try to arouse the students’ interest, thus involving their emotions.

Children need to be amused, moved, stimulated and challenged with the activities prepared by the teacher. When students are Engaged, they learn better than when they are partly or wholly disengaged.

Study: Study activities are those where the students are asked to focus in on language (or information) and how it is constructed.

Students can study in a variety of different styles: the teacher can explain grammar, they can study language evidence to discover grammar for themselves, they can work in groups studying a reading text or vocabulary, but whatever the style, study means any stage at which the construction of language is the main focus.

Activate: this element describes exercises and activities which are designed to get students using language as freely and communicatively as they can.

The objective for the students is not to focus on language construction and/or practice specific bits of language (grammar patterns, particular vocabulary items or functions) but for them to use all and any language which may be appropriate for a given situation or topic. Thus, Activate exercises offer students a chance to try out real language use with little or no restriction- a kind of rehearsal for the real world.

Typical Activate exercises include role-plays (where students act out, as realistically as possible, an exchange between a travel agent and a client, for example), advertisement design, debates and discussions.

 These ESA elements need to be present in most lessons or teaching sequences, but this does not mean they always have to take place in the same order. The last thing we want to do is bore our students by constantly offering them the same predictable learning patterns, is our responsibility to vary the sequences and content of our lessons.

One type of teaching sequence takes students in a straight line “Straight Arrows” : first the teacher gets the class interested and Engaged, then they Study something and they then try to Activate it by putting it into production.

Straight Arrows can be used in the lower levels for straightforward language, but it might not be so appropriate for more advanced learners with more complex language.

Another type of teaching sequence of the ESA elements is a “Boomerang’ procedure”: In this sequence the teacher is answering the needs of the students.

Boomerang procedure may be more appropriate for students at intermediate and advanced levels since they have quite a lot of language available for them ate the Activate stage.

In straight arrows sequences the teacher knows what the students need and takes them logically to the point where they can Activate the knowledge which he or she has helped them to acquire. For the boomerang sequence, however, the teacher selects the task the students need to perform, but then waits for the boomerang to come back before deciding what they need to Study.

ACTIVITY 1

Reflection about a lesson plan

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B8CI22jdT8ghdzQwSGNKWmg5dGM

TEACHING GRAMMAR

            TEACHING GRAMMAR 

OTHER ACTIVITIES

 

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B8CI22jdT8ghVEc2bjFRZGt2eUU

TEACHING GRAMMAR

The role of grammar in the classroom

Traditional grammar instruction, as it was commonly called, was criticized or its long-winded teacher explanations, it’s drills and drudgery, and its boring and banal exercises. Traditional methods that related on extensive drilling and merorization of grammar avoked a backlash in the 1970, which resulted in new methods that included grammar instruction in favor of “natural” communication in the classroom, new teaching methods appeared that replaced grammar exercises with meaningful communicative environments.

Implementing language awareness techniques: Language awareness have been found to be especially useful, user-friendly, and affective. These techniques should be sequenced as follows:

·         The student is exposed to oral or written structured input where the initial focus is on the meaning of the text.

·         The student notices the target structure and the context in which is occurs, this can include observation of syntactic patterning, judgments and discriminations, and the articulation of rules.

·         The student checks that the rule holds against further data and, if not, revises the rule.

·         The student uses the structure in a short production task.

 There are many techniques where can raise learner's consciousness of the form and function of targeted grammatical items, but we are going to mention some of them.

 1) Linguistic problem-solving

2) Error detection and correction

3) Restoring C-texts

4) Cloze procedure

5) Paraphase

6) Propositional cluster

7)Sentence combining

8) Grammaring

9) Dictogloss

10) Language games.

WORK IN GROUP

ACTIVITIES

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1icBIUGxoVdpuVfRQWXOHKtuZdN_b6vURvHlf7Gjtm7M/edit


https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MS_cMf2ykvBBHFPOOqYunWaM8GS_dvNejORo3Ip6OdU/edit

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B8CI22jdT8ghX2pLUEZ3aDdsVU0

LEXICAL APPROACH

                          LEXICAL APPROACH

The lexical approach is typically applied in psychology as a way of studying the way humans format language and communicate. The basic idea is that humans store language information in clusters called “lexical chunks”. These chunks are phrases with words that are very commonly found together.

·         Formulaic phrases

·         Chunks

·         Frozen expression

·         Prefabricated phrases

·         Collocations.

MY LESSON PLAN

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B8CI22jdT8ghcUVZMUgtODZuR0U      Audio    Exotic Food Video

CALLA INSTRUCTIONAL SEQUENCE GUIDELINES

Work in group:

We worked with Aldo’s Lesson Plan

METACOGNITION

METACOGNITION

It refers to higher order thinking which involves active control over the cognitive processes engaged in learning.

·         We engage in metacognitive activities everyday.

·         Metacognition enables us to be successful learners (critical role in successful learning).

·         It has been associated with intelligence.

·         It’s an asset for everyone to know they learn the best.

Metacognition has three stages.

v  Planning: How to approach a given learning task.

v  Monitoring comprehension.

v  Evaluating progress toward the completion of a task are metacognitive in nature.

Metacognition  is often simply defined as “thinking about thinking”

·         The term has been part of the vocabulary of educational psychologists .

·         The concept has been able to reflect on their cognitive experiences.

·         There are some distinctions between definitions, but all emphasize the role of    executive processes in the overseeing and regulation of cognitive processes.

·         Flavell further divides metacognitive knowledge into true categories: Knowledge of person variables , task variables and strategy variables.

Metacognive Knowledge

ü  Knowledge of person variables refers to general knowledge about how human beings learn and process information. (If your study session will be more productive if you work in the quiet place than where there are many distractions. On the other hand you have to be aware if you read and comprehend a science text it will take more time for you than if you read and comprehend a novel.

ü  Knowledge about strategy variales include knowledge about both cognitive and metacognitive strategies, as well as conditional knowledge about when and where it is appropiat to use such strategies.

Coginitve Regulations

§  Metacognitive experiences involve the use of metacognitive  strategies or metacognitive regulation.

§  Metacognitive strategies are sequential processes that one uses to control cognitive activities. And to ensure that a cognitive goal (e.g. understanding a text).

§  These process help to regulate and eversee learning and consist of planning and motoring cognitive activities.

Cognitive vs. Metacognitive strategies.

§  Most definitions of metacognition include both knowledge and strategy components. One major issue involves separating what is cognitive form what is metacognitive strategy. The distinction lies on how the information is used.

§  Metacognition is referred to as thinking about thinking and involves overseen  whether a cognitive goal has been met.

§  Cognitive strategies are used to help an individual achieve a particular goal (understanding a text).

§  Metacognitive strategies are uses to ensure that the goal has been reached

Metacognition and intelligence

§  The ability to control one’s cognitive processes (self-regulation)has been linked to intelligence.

§  Metacomponents are responsible for figuring out how to do a particular task or set of tasks, and then making sure that the task or set of tasks are done correctly.

§  The executive processes involve planning, evaluating and motoring  problem-solving activities.

§  The ability to appropriately allocate cognitive resources, such as deciding how and when a given task should be accomplished, is central to intelligence.

Metacognition and Cognitive  strategy  Instruction

Cognitive  Strategy Instuction (CSI) is an instructional approach which emphasizes the development of thinking and processes as a means to enhance learning.

§  The objective of this is to enable all students to become more strategic, self-reliant, flexible, and productive in their learning endeavors.

§  CSI is based on the assumption that there are identifiable cognitive strategies, previously believes to be utilizes by only the best and the brightest students.
§  Use of these strategies have been associated with successful learning
§  Most individual s of normal intelligence engage in metacognitive regulation when confronted with an effortful cognitive task.
§  Individuals can learn how to better regulate their cognitive activities.
Simply providing knowledge without experience or vies versa does not seem to be sufficient for the development of metacognitive  control

                                           HOMEWORK

2) Possible ways to foster metacognition

·    Making a plan for learning something.

·    Monitoring/Checking your own understanding

·    Time management.

·     Evaluating progress in completing  a task

·    Maintaining motivation

·    Focusing attention

·    Selecting the right strategies for a learning task

·    Organize your thoughts.

Complementary ideas.

There is a set of rules and effective strategies an individual can use in learning about domain-specific subject, such as reading, writing, mathematics. These strategies may include error detecting, effort and attention allocating, elaborating, self-questioning, self-explanation, constructing visual representations,  activating prior knowledge, rereading difficult text sections, and going back to revise.

·    Model strategies using the think-aloud method.

·    Guide students in using strategies in the classroom.

·    Encourage children to apply strategies in order to develop their own learning.

4) Research about automaticity and cognitive load.

In your own words, what is automaticity?

Is the ability to do something without thinking about it. For example are common activities such as walking, speaking, driving a car.

How do we develop automaticity?

When an activity is sufficiently, learned, practiced and repeated we develop automaticity.  We can focus the mind on other activities or thoughts, for example holding a conversation or planning a speech while driving a car.

What is cognitive load?

Cognitive load refers to the informational load that is being processed in working memory. When cognitive load is increased beyond our working memory capacity, learning is depressed (blocked).

Create an example of how teachers can change the amount of “extraneous cognitive load” on an assignment?

When the teacher explains the contents and then he/she gives to the students the instructions for making a portfolio with different activities related with what students had learned in class.

When have you felt that you had a “full” cognitive load?

I had a full cognitive load when I had to study different subjects for giving three tests in the same day. I was almost collapsed.

CATEDRA LESSON PLAN

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aUBP5TVoBUZa6bP6eaOoKvQPVjAILzFi9gE6HhxkVCk/edit

REFLECTION

·    I chose these aims, because first I think they are possible to get for a student in 8^th grade.

·    I am emphasizing the listening and peaking skills.

·    It is important to introduce the students to a global world with people speaking other languages and with other cultures to be known and respected.

·    My closure represents that minimal objective, I want to get from my students, that is to identify continents and places around the world. We are not alone.

·    I think that one of the problems might be pronunciation, because we could need more time to get the proper sounds. The teacher could solve this introducing the next class with a review of the contents see in the previous lesson, emphasizing pronunciation aspects that more difficult.

·    The reflective component is presented by the student being able to recognize how much about the names of continents and languages he knows through the oral interaction.

·    My favorite activity was the map in which the students had to check the countries, continents and regions they know in which there are people speaking English.

·    I will include ICT using the data and my computes with a recording material to present names of the continents, countries and regions.