Temario de oposiciones oposiciones
INGLÉS Cristina Rodríguez Díaz
Primaria
Temario de oposiciones de
INGLÉS PRIMARIA Pura María García Pérez
Primera edición, 2016 Autor: Pura María García Pérez Maquetación: Jessica Sánchez Gavilán Edita: Educàlia Editorial Imprime: SERVICECOM ISBN: 978-84-92655-55-7 Depósito legal: V-3159-2016 Printed in Spain/Impreso en España. Todos los derechos reservados. No está permitida la reimpresión de ninguna parte de este libro, ni de imágenes ni de texto, ni tampoco su reproducción, ni utilización, en cualquier forma o por cualquier medio, bien sea electrónico, mecánico o de otro modo, tanto conocida como los que puedan inventarse, incluyendo el fotocopiado o grabación, ni está permitido almacenarlo en un sistema de información y recuperación, sin el permiso anticipado y por escrito del editor. Alguna de las imágenes que incluye este libro son reproducciones que se han realizado acogiéndose al derecho de cita que aparece en el artículo 32 de la Ley 22/18987, del 11 de noviembre, de la Propiedad intelectual. Educàlia Editorial agradece a todas las instituciones, tanto públicas como privadas, citadas en estas páginas, su colaboración y pide disculpas por la posible omisión involuntaria de algunas de ellas.
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ÍNDICE THEME 1: Language as communication: spoken language and written language.
5
Factors dening a linguistic situation: sender, receiver, functionality and context.
THEME 2: Communication in the foreign language class. Verbal communication. Non-verbal communication. Extralinguistic strategies: non-verbal interactions in different contexts.
14
THEME 3: Developing linguistic skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing, the communicative competence in english
25
THEME 4: Assessment of the knowledge of foreign languages as a means of communication. Interest in linguistic variety through the knowledge of a new language and its culture.
37
THEME 5: Geographic, historic and cultural overview of English-speaking countries.
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Didactic application of the signicant geographic, historic and cultural aspects.
THEME 6: Contribution of linguistics to foreign language teaching. Language learning
50
process: similarities and differences between rst and foreign language acquisition.
THEME 7: Oral foreign language. The complexity of global understanding in oral interactions: from hearing to active and selective listening. Speaking: from imitative repetition to autonomous production.
55
THEME 8: Written language. Approximation, maduration and improvement of the reading-writing process. Reading comprehension: extensive and intensive reading techniques. Writing: from the interpretation to the production of texts.
61
THEME 9: Description of the English Phonological System. Learning models and techniques. Perception, discrimination and sound emission; intonation rhythm and stress. Phonetic correction.
72
THEME 10: Orthographic codes in the English language. Sound-spelling relationship. Proposals for teaching the written code. Applying spelling to written production.
86
THEME 11: Lexical and semantic elds in the English Language. Necessary lexicon for socialization, information and expressing attitudes. Typology of activities related to teaching and learning vocabulary in the classroom.n.
94
THEME 12: Essential elements of morphology and syntax of the English Language. Elementary communicative structures. The gradual use of part-of-speech categories in oral and written productions to improve communication.
101
THEME 13: History of didactic evolution of the foreign languages: from the grammartranslation to current methods.
110
THEME 14: Methods and techniques focusing on the acquisition of communicative competence. Methodological basis for teaching English.
117
THEME 15: Epochs, authors and literary genres suitable for instructional application in the English class. Text typologies.
126
THEME 16: Children’s literature in English. Didactic techniques for listening comprehension. Introducing and encouraging reading habits and appreciating the poetic function of language.
135
THEME 17: Songs as a poetic and literary creation in the classroom. Song typology. Techniques for using songs for phonetical, lexical and cultural learning.
145
THEME 18: Function of games and creativity in FLL. Denition and typology of games
154
for language learning and prociency. Games as play an creative techniques to
achieve foreign language communicative competence. THEME 19: Motivational and expressive techniques as a resource for FLL. Real-life situations, role playing and storytelling. Group work in creative activities. Teacher’s role.
168
THEME 20: Foreign language subject in the ofcial educacional curriculum. Criteria to
177
be reected in the school educational project and in the school curricular project.
THEME 21: Programming in the FL area: planning units. Criteria for sequencing and scheduling contents and objectives. Selecting the methodology to be used in learning and evaluation activities.
186
THEME 22: Features to take into account when managing the English class: grouping students, organizing organizing space and timing, methodology selection selection and teacher’s teac her’s role.
197
THEME 23: The elaboration of curricular materials for the English class. Criteria for the selection and use of textbooks. Authentic documents: limitation on their use. Students’ collaboration for designing materials.
209
THEME 24: Technological and pedagogical aspects of the use of audiovisual materials.
218
Computers as an auxiliary resource for FLL and prociency.
THEME 25: Student-centred FL learning and teaching process: bases and applications. Identifying motivation and attitudes towards English language: practical applications.
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THEME 1 LANGUAGE AS COMMUNICATION: SPOKEN LANGUAGE AN AND D WRITTEN LANGUAGE. FACTORS DEFINING A LINGUISTIC SITUATION: SENDER, RECEIVER, FUNCTIONALITY AND CONTEXT. 0. Introduction 1. The origins of language and communication. communication. 2. Oral and written language: differences differences and implications in teaching. 3. Factors dening a linguistic situation.
4. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). 5. Theme overview. 6. Legislation 7. Bibliograph Bibliography. y.
0. INTRODUCTION The main aim of ELT according to the Organic Law for the improvement of quality in Education is developing students’ communicative competence. This implies adopting an approach based on communication: The Communicative Approach. This approach considers language as a means of communication and consists in providing the students with enough communicative practice to develop their ability to use the language in a variety of situations. Although the communicative competence not only refers to the ability to use the language, but also to aspects related to the communicative contexts. The social dimension of language is also taken into consideration. As I have just said, our current educational system establishes that learning a language in Primary Education has a practical objective which is to be able to communicate in that language. But communicating in a language is a complex activity that implies using the following skills with ease: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Communicative competence is, therefore, acquired by being competent in the four linguistic skills. The title of this rst theme is intended to imply the mutuality of both “language” and “communication”. The denitions of each imply the other; that is, any denition of language must include a communicative function, and it is equally impossible to dene communication without reference to
a linguistic component. But it is communication that provides the more general frame of reference. Language serves communication. Language is only useful or practical to the extent that it ministers to communicative goals. This, as we will analyze through the theme, has some important implication in language teaching, especially when we deal with foreign language young learners.
1. THE ORIGINS OF LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION. 1.1. THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE. People use the way we speak to draw conclusions about who we are, and they act on those conclusions. Language “marks” our identity and is the most important communication tool we have. When we speak any language we are using a system of sound that have developed and evolved over a long period of time. The language we learned growing up is called natural language. In other
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words, it is not an articial language or one up made by humans for computers, machines or some
special purpose. Natural human languages are very technical and governed by rules, but on the other hand, natural languages are sensitive to people and the communities they live in.
Another way to say it is that languages have both structure and function. Structure is concerned with language as a specic and unique system of sounds that have meanings. It also concerned with the sequential organization of words, which is called syntax.
The structure of a language is more formal and either never changes or changes very slowly. Most people do not know very much about language structure. Just as we can drive a car without understanding what is going on under the hood of the car, we can speak a language without understanding very much about how a language works. As people interested in communication, we want to know how language works. We want to know how create new meanings, express ourselves well, recognize when we are manipulated, and to know what language tells us about people and their thoughts.
1.2. THE ORIGINS OF LANGUAGE. All cultures have a language origin story. Although the facts of the story are irrelevant and certainly apocryphal, the existence of the stories and the elements they share are interesting. The sun goddes s, Amaterasu, was the creator of language in Japan. In China, the son of heaven was Tien-tzu, and he gave language and the power of words to man. From these collections of stories and myths come reports of similar experiences and behaviours. It is possible to interpret the myths as saying that language accompanied reason. Through the centuries, many scholars speculated about the relationship between language and people. The question about language originated became so frustrating that some academic organizations banned its discussion. Nevertheless, Nevertheles s, as we move toward the modern time, the study of language was assumed to be a natural evolutionary process and not a gift from God. In 1755, Kant explained that language was the result of gradual evolution and natural causes that inuenced the
development of humans. Many evolutionary linguists believe that all human languages have descended from a single, primitive language, which itself evolved from the grunts and noises of the lower animals. The single most inuential theory of the evolution of human language was proposed by the famous linguist
Noam Chomsky, and has since been echoed by numerous linguists, philosophers, anthropologists, and psychologists. Chomsky argued that the innate ability of children to acquire the grammar necessary for a language can be explained only if one assumes as sumes that all grammars are variations of a single, generic “universal grammar”, and that all human brains come “with a built-in language organ that contains this language blueprint”.
Chomsky has championed the idea that humans are born with a built-in “universal grammar” which is a series of biological switches for complex language that is set in the early years of childhood. This is why children can grasp elaborate rules, even at an early age. He noted: “The rate of vocabulary acquisition is so high at certain stages in life, and the precision and delicacy of the concepts acquired so remarkable, that it seems necessary to conclude that in some manner the conceptual system with which lexical items are connected is already in place”. 1.3. WHAT IS COMMUNICATION? We can look up the origin of the word. Communication comes from the Latin communis, “common.” When we communicate, we are trying to establish “commonness” with someone. That is, we are trying to share information, an idea or an attitude. Looking further, we can nd this type of denition: “Communication is the mechanism through which human relations exist and develop”. This broad denition, found in a book written by a sociologist,
takes in about everything. In contrast, some people limit their denitions of communication , saying “communication is the process whereby one person person tells another something something through the written or spoken word”.
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Some denitions fall in between these two extremes. Carl Hovland, a well-known psychologist, said stimuli (usually communication is “the process by which an individual (the communicator) transmits stimuli verbal symbols) to modify the behaviour of the other individuals (communicates)”. This denition describes what many extension workers hope to achieve. You’ll be trying to change behaviour. Some object to this denition. Their T heir objections centre on the phrase “modify the behaviour.”
They say there are numerous occasions when they communicate, in their family and social lives for example, with no intention of attempting to modify behaviour. But, we most likely do modify others’ behaviour even though that may not be our intention.
2. ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE: DIFFERENCES AND IMPLICATIONS IN TEACHING. A spoken language is a human natural language in which the words are uttered through the mouth. Most human languages are spoken languages. Spoken language stands in contrast to sign language and written language. From the point of view of linguistic evolution, spoken is prior to written language. The writing system of any language is developed or “invented” by its users to record speech when the need arises. Even today, there are many world languages that can be spoken but have no standard written form. Writing is learned later. For modern linguistics, spoken language reveals many true features of human speech while written language is only “revised” record of speech. Thus linguists’ data for investigation and analysis are mostly drawn from everyday speech, which they regard as authentic. Even from the point of view of grammar, spoken language usually has its own set of grammar which sometimes may be quite different from that in written language.
Sign languages have the same natural origin as spoken languages, and the same grammatical complexities, but use the hands, arms, and face rather than parts of the mouth as their place of articulation. Spoken languages also stand in contrast to computer languages, which are distinguished by their articial origin.
The development of spoken/oral language normally occurs without formal teaching. It develops as a result of exposure to spoken language. Problems with language development may not be recognized for a long time unless the child simply fails to begin talking. Oral language is the basis for learning reading and written language and for beneting from instruction in other areas. It is important to identify children whose language is not developing normally so that more specic stimulation and
actual intervention can begin as early as possible.
Some differences between oral and written language comprehension. A traditional view of reading comprehension has been that it is the sum of oral comprehension skills and decoding skills, the educational corollary to this belief has been a heavy emphasis on the teaching of decoding. At this point, we will examine some important differences between oral and written language. We hypothesize that, while many of children’s highly-developed oral language skills serve them well in the context of reading comprehension, additional processes are necessary for their understanding of text. Some of the more obvious differences between oral and written language are the following: • the presence of stress and other intonation features in speech; • presence vs. absence of shared spatial and temporal context; • the predominantly interactive mode of children’s oral language; • paragraphs structure in text; • the permanence of written language and different syntactic; • Discourse structure of conversation and text. These intermediate points represent tasks requiring a partial t ransition from oral conversation skills to reading skills. Two of the dimensions in this analysis are spatial and temporal commonality. Children’s conversational experiences generally assume a shared spatial and temporal context. As a result of this consistency, children may develop comprehension (and production) strategies that take advantage of the fact that they and their listener are in the same place, at the same time and can see the same objects, as well as each other. ISBN: 978-84-92655-55-7
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Features of oral and written communication ORAL COMMUNICATION
WRITTEN LANGUAGE
• It includes many incomplete sentences. • Active forms are more frequent than passive ones. • There is little subordination. • It includes repetition of the same syntactic forms, pause or rephrasing. • It uses less formal vocabulary, colloquial and generalized vocabulary items. • Production is more demanding than in writing: the speaker must monitor the addressee’s reaction to his words, while planning the next utterance. • Expressive possibilities. When speaking, we can vary the tone, the accent, and the speed of our words to underline the most important word in our speech, or to show our attitude towards what we’re saying. We can show our interest, apathy, irony or scorn. • Use of gestures and body language to support the basic meaning of the message. • Speech usually is less organized than written language. It contains less densely information but more interactive markers.
• It includes metalingual markers to mark relationship among clauses. • The syntactic structures are more varied and elaborated. • Sentences are usually structured in subject predicate form. • The writer can only refer to information items which are known by the reader or those which have been already mentioned by the writer. • The vocabulary used tends to be richer, more formal and selected. • We can distinguish two situations that require written language: *The addressee is not accessible to speech because he is physically absent but he is known by the writer. *The writer does not know who the addressee is; he is both absent and unknown.
3. FACTORS DEFINING A LINGUISTIC SITUATION. To communicate effectively, we need to be familiar with the factors involved in the communication process. If we are aware of them, these factors will help us plan, analyse situations, solve problems, and in general do better in our work. Thus, in the English classroom it’s necessary to keep these factors in mind, since it is through small communicative acts that we will introduce language structures and vocabulary. The communicative approach s based not only on creating communicative situations in the classroom as models for learning the language, but also on developing appropriateness. I’m going to analyse the factors that take part in a communicative act and the pedagogical implications derived from them.
3.1. SENDER AND RECEIVER. They are the participants in the communicative act. The sender is the author of the message and the receiver is the person or people to whom it is directed. In an oral communicative act, the participants can see each other, like in a face to face conversations, or not, as in the case of a telephone conversation. Gestures and body language will be more usual in a face-to-face conversation, while a conversation on the phone will be full of expressions, which indicate that the receiver has no problem in following the message. In daily life, we are continuously changing roles as senders and receivers. In an English classroom we should also try to vary the interactions, so that the communicative act is as genuine as possible. The communicative approach, in fact, rejects the traditional pattern: teacher-student, and advocates the creation of varied interactions (teacher-student/s; student-teacher; student-student/s).
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3.2. CONTEXT. Linguistics distinguishes between linguistic context and situational context. LINGUISTIC context refers to the context provided by the linguistic system itself; it is the text –e.g. the words, phrases, sounds, etc.- that accompanies the particular sentence. SITUATIONAL context refers to the place and the moment in which the communicative act is developed. The situational context will inuence the language type that is used in a communicative act (e.g. a
family context, where the language is colloquial or a conference, which is a formal context where the grammatical constructions are complex and the vocabulary is ample and erudite). In the English class the student should not only be able to communicate a message; s /he should also learn how to select the language form to use in a certain context. Students should learn that the imperative is more informal, and that courtesy formulas are used in more formal situations. In the English class role-plays are very useful to recreate a situation. Students imagine that they are in a certain place and time, and they have to communicate in that context in an appropriate way.
3.3. PURPOSE. The purpose is the intention of a message. Senders in a communicative act want something to happen as a result of what they say or write. They may want to give some information; to express pleasure or to apologize. The purpose will vary the election of the words of the sender. When learning English, the students should have a purpose or desire to communicate. In other words, they should be using language in some way to achieve an objective. The concepts of purpose and desire have an important methodological implication: if the students have a communicative purpose then communication will be effective, and they’ll learn the language.
3.4. TOPIC. The topic is the matter about which the interaction develops. Topics can be varied: toys, seasons, animals, family, food, house, feelings, clothes, sports, transports, etc. In order to have successful communicative activities in the English class it is essential for the topics to be based on the students’ interests. If we use topics of their interest about which students can express ideas and feelings, the communicative act will be successful.
3.5. MEDIUM AND CHANNEL. The medium is the means by which a message is transmitted. As far as language in concerned, there are 2 types of media: speech (phonic medium) and writing (graphic medium). The channel is the technical means of transmission: phone, TV, radio, etc. The form of the message will change depending on the medium and channel we choose. A FL student should know the formulas and rules of use in each means. The cultural differences in the use of the medium and channel are important, because their ignorance can not only cause an inadequate use of the language, but also misunderstandings.
3.6. CODE. The code is the communication system shared by sender and receiver. Language is the most frequent code used. But there are also other extralinguistic codes, such as the facial expressions, body language or intonation that we use to make our message come through easily. Non-verbal communication is very important in the 1st year of learning the spoken language, because students still have very little communicative competence. Facial expressions help the message to be transmitted and understood.
3.7. FUNCTIONALITY. We use language to communicate our ideas and feelings, but it isn’t the only function of language. Linguistics have identied many other functions of language.
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One of the most inuential models has been that of the Swedish linguist
Roman Jakobson, who has
found 6 general functions: a) Emotive function. This is the expression of feelings and attitudes. The most common expressions are usually: “Wow!” or “Oh, my God!”. b) Conative function. This is used to draw the receiver’s attention. For example, a common expression to get the other’s attention would be “ Excuse me!”. c) Referential function. It is the communication of ideas or facts. d) Poetic function. This is the language used for aesthetic purposes (poetry) or as verbal play (crosswords, word searches, jokes, riddles, tongue twisters). e) Phatic function. This is based on the human being’s need for showing signs of friendship. For example: “Good morning!”, “How are you?” are used as courtesy formulas or as ice-breakers. f) Metalingual function. This is used when explanations are requested for clarication. For example, “I don’t understand”. These functions of language have the following pedagogical implications: the English language teacher should not only teach the language for students to communicate their ideas (referential function), but s/he should also teach expressions, phrases or interjections to help them maintain relationships (phatic function), enjoy the language (poetic function) or to understand the language better (metalingual function). The British linguist Michael Halliday believes language exists to full certain human needs, such as the need to make sense of the world or to relate to others. His model of language is called functional or systemic grammar. Halliday identies 3 principal functions of language: a) Ideational function. This function emphasizes language as an instrument of thought with which we represent the world to ourselves. We use the language to conceptualize the world: language refers to real or imagined objects, persons, events, etc. b) Interpersonal function. This function emphasizes language as an instrument of transaction by which we represent ourselves to other people. We use language as a personal medium: to establish or maintain social relationships. c) Textual function. This function emphasizes language as an instrument of communication with which we construct sentences cohesively and coherently. We use language to form texts, whether spoken or written. Today, FLT has incorporated the functional and communicative potential of language into teaching. Language reaching now focuses on communicative prociency rather tan on mastery of structures.
Several pedagogical implications can be derived from this view of language: • The language presented to students must be contextualized in realistic and natural situations. • Students are expected to interact with one another through pair and group work in order to experience communication. • Syllabuses should be organized around the notions and functions that learners may need in order to communicate successfully, such as expressing likes and dislikes, asking, identifying, accepting/declining invitations, etc.
4. COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING (CLT) The Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), also called Communicative Approach, appeared in the 1970’s. The person responsible was Noam Chomsky. He was struck about language because of its creativity, that is, the capacity to generate completely novel sentence s, endlessly. He proposed a theory of language learning and argued that sentences are not learned by imitation and repetition but are generated from the learners’ competence. Learners, then, should be encouraged to use their innate and creative abilities. British functional linguists such as Michael Halliday as we’ve seen previously emphasized its functional and communicative potential. They saw language learning as the learning of communicative prociency rather than the mastery of structures. The work of these scholars had a signicant impact on the development of a Communicative
Approach to language teaching. The Council of Europe incorporated this communicative view into a set of specications for a rst-level communicative language syllabus called “Threshold Level English” in the 1980s. These specications
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have had a strong inuence on the design of communicative or
functional language programmes
and textbooks in Europe. Thereby, the main aim of ELT according to the Organic Law for the improvement of quality in Education is developing students’ communicative competence. This implies adopting an approach based on communication: The Communicative Approach or Communicative Language Teaching Approach. Thus, the main focus of the CLL is on the development of oral skills rather than the use of the written word and on the development of the so called communicative competence. One of the main purposes of CLL theories is to help teachers to broaden their repertoires of techniques, techn iques, so that they can enable learners to communicate more effectively in a foreign language. Th at means to suggest activities through which teachers can help learners to go beyond the mastery of the structures of a foreign language, to the point where they can use them to communicate meanings in real situations.
4.1. COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE. Communicative competence is a concept introduced by Dell Hymes and discussed and redened by many authors. Hymes’ original idea was that speakers of a language have to have more than grammatical competence in order to be able to communicate effectively in a language; they also need to know how language is used by members of a speech community to accomplish their purposes. Nowadays, Foreign Language Teaching in a lot of countries is mostly based on the idea that the goal of language acquisition is communicative competence : the ability to use the language correctly and appropriately to accomplish communication goals. The desired outcome of the language learning process is the ability to communicate competently, not the ability to use the language exactly as a native speaker does. The linguists Canale and Swain expanded the previous description of Hymes, establishing 4 dimensions or subcompetences of the communicative competence: • Linguistic competence is knowing how to use the grammar, syntax, and vocabulary of a language. • Sociolinguistic competence is knowing how to use and respond to language appropriately, given the setting, the topic, and the relationships among the people communicating. • Discourse competence is knowing how to interpret the larger context and how to construct longer stretches of language so that the parts make up a coherent whole. • Strategic competence is knowing how to recognize and repair communication breakdowns, how to work around gaps in one’s knowledge of the language, and how to learn more about the language and in the context.
4.2. COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES. Communicative activities refer to the tasks and exercises that the student carries out for real communication. These activities focus more on the message than on the linguistic features of language. Children learn how to speak without wi thout knowing what verbs, adjectives or verbal tenses tens es are. The communicative approach believes that the practice of communicative activities will produce the unconscious learning of the structures of the language. A communicative activity must be: • Interactive. Two or more people are involved in the communicative interaction. • Unpredictable. A communicative activity must create the necessity and the desire to communicate. • Within a context. This refers to the situational context (place, circumstances, time, channel used…) as well as the linguistic context (cohesion in linguistic forms and in vocabulary). • Authentic. The language used should be genuine, that is to say, similar to that of an Englishspeaking person.
4.2.1. Purposes of Communicative Activities. It may be useful to consider what the teacher might hope to achieve through communicative activity in the classroom, since this will determine his own attitude towards it and what place he gives it in ISBN: 978-84-92655-55-7
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his overall methodology. Littlewood summarises, under 4 headings, some of the contributions that communicative activities can make to language learning. • They provide “whole-task practice”. • They improve motivation. • They allow natural learning. • They can create a context that supports learning.
4.2.2. Types of Functional Communicative Activities. The principle underlying functional communication activities is that the teacher structures the situation so that learners have to overcome an information gap or solve a problem. Both the stimulus for communication and the yardstick for success are thus contained with the situation itself: learners must work towards a denite solution or decision
We can group functional communication activities according to the two main u ses of language just mentioned: (a) using language to share information and (b) using language to process information. We can take the following activity, named Identifying pictures, as an example of functional communication activity for sharing information.
Learner A has a set of four, ve or six pictures which are all very similar in content, but contain a number of distinguishing features. For example, the pictures below all show a living room but differ in the colour of the curtains, the number of chairs, the position of the radio, etc. Learner B has a duplicate copy just of one of these pictures which he has either been given by the teacher or selected himself from a complete duplicated set. Learner A must nd out which of the
pictures learner B is holding, by asking him questions about it.
5. THEME OVERVIEW To conclude we will remember that our responsibility as teachers is to develop in learners the capacity for communicative behaviour in the language they are learning. Our aim must be to teach language for communication, considering that communication is not a simple matter of acquiring knowledge of language items. Besides, the function of the message and the factors that intervene in a communication act are aspects that must be included in the methodology of the FL. Somehow or other, we have to develop a methodology which will lead the learner to engage in language use as a dynamic problem-solving activity in the connes of the classroom.
6. LEGISLATION The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (2001) which describes in a comprehensive way the competences necessary for communication, the related knowledge and skills and the situations and domains of communication.
The Organic Law for improvement of Quality in Education 8/2013 of 9th December, which is the current education law in Spain. The Royal Decree 126/2014 of 28th of February which establishes the basic curriculum of Primary Education in Spain.
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7. BIBLIOGRAPHY: AITCHISON, J. (1996): The Seeds of Speech: Language Origin and Evolution. Cambridge Approaches to Linguistics. BREWSTER, JEAN et al. (1992): The Primary English Teacher’s Guide. Penguin. BROWN, H. D. (1980): Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. Prentice Hall. CANALE, M. (1981): From communicative competence to communicative pedagogy. Prentice Hall. HARMER, JEREMY (1991): The Practice of English Language Teaching. Longman. LITTLEWOOD, W. T. (1978): Communicative Language Teaching. Audiovisual Languages. RICHARDS, J.C & SCHMIDT, R.W. (1983): Language and communication. ERIC. RIXON, S. (1999): Young Learners of English. Longman Webgraphy: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk http://www.britishcouncil.org/ http://abcteach.com http://www.english-zone.com http://www.learnenglish.org.uk
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THEME 16 CHILDREN’S
LITERATURE IN
COMPREHENSION.
ENGLISH. DIDACTIC
INTRODUCING
TECHNIQUES FOR LISTENING
AND ENCOURAGING READING HABITS AND
APPRECIATING THE POETIC FUNCTION OF LANGUAGE .
0. Introduction 1. Children’s literature in English. 2. Didactic application techniques for listening comprehension. 3. Introducing and encouraging reading habits. 4. Appreciating the poetic function of language. 5. Theme overview. 6. Legislation 7. Bibliography Bibliography..
0. INTRODUCTION The main aim of ELT according to the Organic Law for the improvement of educational quality is developing students’ communicative competence. This implies adopting an approach based on communication: The Communicative Approach. This approach considers language as a means of communication and consists in providing the students with enough communicative practice to develop their ability to use the language in a variety of situations. As I have just said, our current educational system establishes e stablishes that learning a language in Primary Education has a practical objective which is to be able to communicate in that language. But communicating in a language is a complex activity that implies using the following skills with ease: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Communicative competence is, therefore, acquired by being competent in the four linguistic skills.
One of the functions of language is the poetic function. This means that it can be used for aesthetic reasons, for pure enjoyment of language. But listening or reading literary texts isn’t just a pleasurable activity, it’s also a communicative activity in which attitudes, values and socio-cultural aspects are transmitted. Material such as stories, poems and rhymes are valuable teaching aids that will help our students attain this communicative principle. They offer the teacher opportunities to encourage the learner to acquire the language in a natural way. Thus, it is important to consider how to introduce different types of literature to EFL children. There is an abundance of children’s literature to choose from so a teacher must be very careful to research what s/he incorporates in the classroom. Another objective established by the law is fostering students to read. Th e teacher will have to design activities to initiate and motivate reading habits. Through this theme, we will review children’s literature which can be very useful in the EFL class, especially when teaching English to young learners. After analyzing some of the most important guidelines to choose the right tittles and the most suitable texts for EFL classroom, I will propose some approaches to use the main types of text for effective reading and language teaching.
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1. CHILDREN’S LITERATURE IN ENGLISH. Children’s literature is a really valuable tool in introducing children to different cultures. It is a great way for second language learners to share their different cultures with the class and experience new ones as well. The high-quality books published for children, the visual appeal of their illustrations, and the enjoyment their stories bring readers is a very good reason to have literature as the basis of instruction. But literature as a basis of instruction goes beyond appeal of the book. The T he support begins in the early literacy environment and progresses throughout the school years as literature effects language development, reading achievement, and writing in literature-rich classroom settings. Research afrms the benets of using literature as a foundation of literacy instruction both in the
home and in the classroom.
Literature is authentic. It is not usually written solely to teach specic structures or vocabulary. Instead its structures and vocabulary grow naturally out of the ideas, plots, dialogues, and situations developed. Literature enhances language development. Reading and listening to a variety of books increases interest and motivation in learning to read. The language of literature assists in language development while children feed their “linguistic data pool” from encounters with stories. Exposure to quality writing through literature leads to a wider oral and written vocabulary as a child matures (Hancock ). ). Literature provides memorable contexts for the language. Text is much easier to reproduce, understand, and recall if it is structured episodically. Literature uses characters and plot lines so students are engaged cognitively and emotionally. Literature also demonstrates correct language for specic situations. From literature ESL children can learn the skills of turn taking and what vocabulary
and structures to use in a new language.
Literature helps children connect to other cultures. Literature can expose children to new ideas and different people and things in a powerful way. Whe n literature comes from the students’ rst cultures
it helps to connect between the familiar and the new. Literature can be a source of pride for children by seeing their own values and traditions reected in what they read. Literature often has universal
themes that any child can relate to. Literature is a good pivot for critical analysis, discussion, and writing. Literature naturally encourages children to interpret and draw their own conclusions, and develop their own opinions regarding personal, social, and political issues. Literature can stir up strong emotions that lead to critical analysis and reection. Literature is a valuable basis for discussion, writing, and research.
1.2. USING LITERATURE IN THE EFL CLASSROOM. Children’s literature can be dened as literature written specially for children; however, many books that were originally intended for adults are now commonly thought of as works for children, such as Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe” and Swift’s “Gulliver Travels”. Often no consensus is reached whether a given work is best categorized as adult or children’s literature, and many books are multiply marketed in adult and children’s editions; an example of this is the Harry Potter series, which was published in separate editions for children and adults. Why Use Literature? There are many good reasons for using literature in the classroom. Here are a few: • Literature: - Presents language in context. Contextualization helps learners to understand meaning and promotes the learning of vocabulary and structures effortlessly and unconsciously. - Is a powerful resource for teachers to use as a focus for language teaching. - Can be incorporated with several other teaching tools such as: the Internet, lm, drama, music, author studies, and writing. - Helps children connect to other cultures. Literature can expose children to new ideas and different people and things in a powerful way. - Provides authentic language. It is not usually solely to teach specic structures or vocabulary, instead its structure and vocabulary grow naturally out of the ideas, plots, dialogues and situations developed. - Encourages interaction. Literary texts are often rich is multiple layers of meaning, and can be Prohibida la reproducción total o parcial sin permiso escrito del editor
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effectively mined for discussions and sharing feelings or opinions. - Expands language awareness. Asking learners to examine sophisticated or non standard examples of language (which can occur in literary texts) makes them more aware of the norms of language use (Widdowson). - Educates the whole person. By examining values in literary texts, teachers encourage learners to develop attitudes towards them. These values and attitudes relate to the world outside the classroom. - Is motivating, because it is close to students’ interests, and are a source of enjoyment and pleasure. - Is a good pivot for critical analysis, discussion and writing. Literature naturally encourages children to interpret and draw their own conclusions, and develop their own opinions regarding personal, social, and political issues.
Different Models Of Teaching Literature In Class There have been different models suggested on the teaching of literature to EFL students ( Carter & Long). How the teacher will use a literary text depends on the model they choose. • The cultural model views a literary text as a product. This means that it is treated as a source of information about the target culture. It is the most traditional approach, teacher-centred. • The language model aims to be more learner-centred. As learners proceed through a text, they pay attention to the way language is used. • The personal growth model is also a process-based approach and tries to be more learnercentred. This model encourages learners to draw on their own opinions, feelings and personal experiences.
Suitable Texts For The EFL Class Some of the most well-known Reading Projects developed criteria for selecting appropriate texts, and exemplied these criteria through some booklists and through different teaching sequences. Four categories of texts are included in the booklist: picture books, traditional tales, poetry and ction.
• Picture books: Good picture books have an extra dimension that stimulates a child’s imagination: the text and pictures work together to tell the whole story. • Traditional tales: Folk tales have a particularly important role to play in developing children’s narrative education. Such stories link the oral tradition of storytelling with the literary styles and rhythms of written language. • Poetry. It can be poetry written in verse such as nursery rhymes, humorous rhymes and riddles. • Fiction: Fiction is above all the genre that lets us enter e nter many different lives and worlds, and itself contains many genres, from realism to fantasy, from mysteries to graphic novels. Unfortunately the choice of international ction available to children in the primary school is much narrower
than it is for older students.
Brief historical children’s literature background: Once the concept of children’s literature and the suitable texts for the EFL class have been state, a historical background must be provided, in order to show the development of the children’s li terature within literature in English. Because of the difculty in dening children’s literature, it is also difcult to trace the history of children’s
literature to precise starting point. Children’s literature emerged as an independent genre only two centuries ago. Prior to the mid-18th century, books were rarely created specically for children, and children’s reading was generally conned to literature intended for their education and moral edication rather than for their amusement. Religious works, grammar books, and “courtesy books”
(which offered instruction on proper behaviour) were the only books directed at children. By the early 18th century interest in children’s literature (and a rise in ilteracy) led to new markets and a ourishing of new publishers, particularly in England. The 18th century saw the translation into
English of the classic fairy tales such as “Cinderella” and “Little Red Riding Hood” and the beginnings of the English novel with Daniel Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe” and Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver Travels”. While these may not have been written specically for a young audience, the adventure stories
appealed to readers of all ages.
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Newbery’s 1744 publication of “A Little Pocket-Book” is considered a landmark fot eh beginning of pleasure reading marketed specically to children.
The 19th century witnessed the institutionalization of the idea of childhood as a period distinct from adulthood. During this century, many of the classics of children’s literature in English appeared, including Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women”, Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island”, Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry n”, and
Rudyard Kipling’s “Jungle Book”. This period also saw the emergence of the picture book, in which the illustrations – and the artist’s vision – were at least as important as the text. The contributions and innovations of the 19th century continued into the 20th century, achieving a distinct place in literature for children’s books. Children’s books have become very popular in this century; this is due to major changes in both the marketing and content of children’s books. On the other hand, there has been an increasing involvement of the parent’s in their children’s reading process. This has produced a bulk of titles classied by gen re, age and type that aims at fullling fulllin g the
great demand of children’s books.
2. DIDACTIC TECHNIQUES FOR LISTENING COMPREHENSION (LEARNING TO LISTEN) 2.1. STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPING LISTENING SKILLS. Language learning depends on listening. Listening provides the aural input that serves as the basis for language acquisition and enables learners to interact in spoken communication. Effective language teachers show students how they can adjust their listening behaviour to deal with a variety of situations, types of input, and listening purposes. They help students develop a set of listening strategies and match appropriate strategies to each listening situation. Listening to English is hard work especially for youngest students. In the early stages of their learning, they will normally spend much of their time listening to the teacher or to tape-recorder materials with songs, rhymes, games and so on. It is very important to bear in mind that our pupils will concentrate more during a listening activity if this activity is meaningful, so storytelling appears as the perfect alternative to develop this skill. If we want our students to engage actively in a listening activity, they must be either interested in what they are going to listen to or they must nd it useful. In both cases,
they must have expectations about the content of the listening text. Another important factor to consider before dealing with listening is the students’ psychological characteristics. The process of listening isn’t simply a passive hearing of sounds; it’s a complex active process, during which the student should understand the meaning of those sounds by discriminating words and phonemes, recognizing intonation, processing the meaning meani ng of the spoken chain… We must build buil d up their condence letting them know they do not have to understand every single word. Recognizing
the complexity of what seems so simple in our mother tongue, we should train the learner’s ear to understand stories and texts in English. Therefore, if we want to help them feel condent about listening activities, we must also teach our children to develop specic strategies that will facilitate
their listening comprehension.
Listening strategies are techniques or activities that contribute directly to the comprehension and help the way in which input is received. Listening strategies can be classied by how the listener
processes the input:
listener based; the listener recovers information from his/her background knowledge of the topic, the situation or context, the type of text, and the language; and this helps the listener to interpret what is heard. Top-down strategies include: listening for the main idea, predicting, drawing inferences, summarizing. Bottom-up strategies are text based; the listener relies on the language in the message, that is, the combination of sounds, words, and grammar that creates meaning.
Top-down strategies are
Bottom-up strategies include: listening for specic details, recognizing cognates, recognizing
word-order patterns.
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Other listening strategies are:
• Recognizing sounds (phonemes, stress, intonation…). These are called ear-training skills. • Predicting what s/he is going to listen to. When one listens, s/he usually has an idea of what is going to be heard. This expectation is very important in order to understand the message. • Use their general knowledge about the topic of the story they are listening to deduce the meaning of unfamiliar words. • Recognizing marks of speech is an important part of understanding how a text is built up. Sequencing words such as “frst, but, and, or ” offer clues about what is coming next in a text, thus helping us to understand a sequence of events in the story. • Storing information in our memory and knowing how to retrieve it later. In addition of these strategies, if we want the students to be efcient listeners in English we must give
them enough practice in both intensive and extensive listening. Extensive listening: requires a specic search of sounds, words or facts within a context. Intensive listening: requires identifying the main idea of what the students’ are listening to, that is to say, global understanding.
We as teachers must bear in mind these strategies when using listening activities in the classroom, but it is also important to know when to use them, that is, in which stages the activity best t. The main listening activities are: • Pre-listening activities: to prepare students for what they are going to hear and create expectation. This can be achieved through prediction, vocabulary and grammar exercises. • While-listening activities: must be matched with the aims of the exercises and the students prociency level. These activities may include true/false, gap lling, matching pictures, etc.
• Post-listening activities: to check comprehension and evaluate. Following on the listening passage, a lot of activities are possible: extending lists, summarizing, matching with a reading text, etc.
2.2. STORYTELLING. Storytelling is an oral sharing of a personal or traditional story, told using the essence of the tradition from which it originates. As a shared experience between teller and listener, i t offers natural language experiences for students. Storytelling can be an enjoyable activity for both tellers and listeners and should be engaged in at all grade levels. The teacher should model storytelling before expecting students to tell stories. Storytelling allows students t o internalize important aspects of story beginnings and endings, settings, characters, and plot lines. It provides practice in expressing ex pressing ideas in thought units, using usin g colourful and descriptive language, developing ideas in sequence, and choosing effective action words. The speech abilities needed for storytelling are essentially the same ones required for all speaking experimen t with voice, tone, eye-contact, gestures, and activities. Storytelling encourages students to experiment facial expressions. It also lets them practise techniques for holding audience attention. Storytelling encourages reading motivation and aids listening listeni ng comprehension. It can lead directly to story writing.
Criteria for selecting literary texts. may be the most difcult, and most important, part of teaching literature. Selecting the right book may According to Ellis, storybooks are carefully selected from the world of authentic children’s literature mainly from the lists of British publishers.
Teachers look for stories that have gained an international reputation and contain rich and authentic examples of English, as well as literary devises commonly found in children’s literature such as repetition and cumulative content, rhyme, onomatopoeia, humour and suspense, etc; and which allow us to implement a story-based methodology structured around the familiar three stages of pre, while and post storytelling. We look for stories with high quality and varied illustrative styles and illustrations which synchronise with the text to support children’s understanding and to develop their visual literacy. Therefore, we have to bear in mind the criteria for selecting children’s books to be worked on in the English classroom. Teachers must take into account 2 types of related considerations: ISBN: 978-84-92655-55-7
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a) With the children: We should bear in mind their age, their level of English, their tastes and interests and prior knowledge of the subject. b) With the stories: • The length and complexity of the story. Simple, short stories with repetitive language that promote participation and encourage prediction work best for young EFL learners. • Thematic content. The subject should be appropriate to the level of children, regarding the educational contents, be interesting, motivating, easy to remember and familiar to the child. We should also look for stories through which students can learn about other subjects and cultures. • Does the book look overwhelming? Type that is too small, or too many words on a page, can intimidate young students. • The level of vocabulary. Text shouldn’t be too easy or too difcult for the student’s level of English. How much of it will be review for your students? If students know less than 75% - 80% of the vocabulary, they may lose condence in their ability to understand the story.
• Illustrations should be interesting, attractive and colourful and should help students understand both the vocabulary and the story. • Potential for follow-up activities. The text must provide a starting point for language practice such as role-plays, practice activities, written exercises, etc., in order to reinforce vocabulary, pronunciation and structures in a meaningful and memorable way. • Finally, select a book that you think you will enjoy. It will be difcult to convince students to be enthusiastic about a story you don’t like.
Guide for approaching storytelling. Listening to stories are activities for global understanding. Children are used to listening to stories in the mother tongue; it’s hard work, however, in a foreign language. The teacher must ensure that their understanding is clear. Visual support, facial expressions, voice expression and gestures are essential elements in storytelling. We must also build up their condence by telling them that it’s OK not to
understand every single word. Here’s a simple guide for approaching storytelling:
a) Pre-listening stage: Activities to arouse children’s curiosity and expectations: • Identify elements in the pictures. Children can list the words they already know. • Deduce from their observations. • Reviewing vocabulary or grammatical structures. • Give opinions about their observations. • Predict what they’re going to listen to. b) While-listening stage: The students are now ready to listen to the story. The teacher can play the story or read it out. • Listening with visuals. • Checking off items in a list lling in graphs and charts. • Searching for specic clues to meaning following a route on a map. • Completing cloze (ll-in) exercises.
• Distinguishing between formal and informal registers. Using a recording has the f ollowing advantages:
• The voice provides a model of English spoken by a native speaker. • It provides a variety of voices. • Some recordings provide sound effects, which are motivating and helpful for the understanding of the story. If the teacher is the storyteller, there are other advantages:
• It allows closer proximity to children. The teacher can involve the children actively in the story by asking them questions, for instance. • The teacher can use gestures, intonations, repetitions, pauses, slow down the narration to encourage them to predict what happens next or to clarify a language item, increase expectations, etc. • The teacher can alter his/her voice for different characters to help convey meaning and to attract the students’ attention.
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Irrespective of the way in which the children will listen to the story, the teacher will have to tell or play the story more than once. Students love hearing stories over and over again. Furthermore, repetition helps to retain structures and vocabulary.
c) Post-listening stage: • Mime the story. • Describing characters and places of the story. • Role-play. This is a more difcult activity, since it involves the students speaking. The teacher can adapt the dialogues to the students’ comopetence. • Read the story out loud. • Comprehension questions about the story. • Pronunciation practice: practicing difcult sounds, intonation patterns, etc. • Sequencing the pictures of the story. • Dictation of words or expressions from the story. • Drawings. • Handicrafts. Students can create their own masks, hats or puppets, as well as models of streets of forests inspired by the characters and places.
3. INTRODUCING AND ENCOURAGING READING HABITS (learning to read) 3.1. INTRODUCING READING HABITS. Reading comprehension is of great importance for the LOMCE. It highlights the importance of the reading skill in Primary Education as an essential content to learn. Therefore, primary teachers will have to encourage the development of reading habits by teaching efcient reading techniques.
Reading instruction takes into consideration the general developmental needs of the students as well as their individual reading abilities. When considering the students’ reading n eeds, it is important to realize that all readers (ineffective readers, average readers, and procient readers) differ
considerably in their interests, aptitudes, personalities, backgrounds, and learning styles. Students have to develop reading strategies, so that they can make the most of their reading experience. Reading strategies share some characteristics with listening strategies as they both are receptive skills. The main feature they have in common is that reading comprehension is a complex active process in which meaning of graphs should be decoded. But reading is more than the decoding of written words into sound. Reading is a complex communication process which requires thought and individual construction of meaning. The reader is in a more privileged position than the listener: they can read at their own pace and reread the text over and over again. Reading in English in the early stages usually remains remain s at the word or simple structure level. At this stage they’ll need to rely on visual information to provide a context for understanding the written word. Useful activities are: spelling and word-recognition activities, associating the visual form with the word and games. After students practice word-recognition activities, they’ll become more condent in
reading the written word without visual support. At this stage, we can ask students to search for detailed or specic information through intensive reading techniques or getting the general idea of a text through extensive reading techniques. Getting the general idea, which is called “ skimming” in reading, and getting specic information, which is called “ scanning” in reading, are equally important in both listening and reading. Reading strategies can be divided into 3 different categories: prereading, while-reading and post-reading. • Pre-reading strategies help students familiarize themselves with the topic of the story. One of the main aims of these strategies is to create expectations and arouse students’ interest. We should motivate the students by relating the topic to the students’ personal experiences or to the knowledge they have about it. Jeremy Harmer emphasizes the importance of creating expectations and arousing the students’ interests towards the subject matter of the written text. • While-reading strategies help students check their comprehension as they read. The purpose for reading determines the appropriate type and level of comprehension. • Post-reading strategies can be considered a follow up work. The main objective of these activities is to provide practice of the language. This way students internalize and acquire the language of the text. ISBN: 978-84-92655-55-7
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co pe with a variety of texts that The ultimate goal of reading in FLT should be to enable the students to cope are useful to them. We can use authentic materials or simplied materials that are materials adapted
to the learner’s age, level of English and interests. In the following I present the types of text suitable for reading instruction: There are six distinctly different types of texts that can be used for reading instruction, also in EFL teaching: • Wordless books, which text is composed only of illustrations or photographs (f.e. the sn owman). • Predictable texts, which texts utilize a repeated pattern of some type. They may be authentic literature or created text. • Controlled high-frequency vocabulary texts, which text is written specically for beginning reading instruction using a core of high frequency words that have been carefully introduced. • Decodable texts, which text is written using words that utilize decoding skills students have been taught • Authentic literature, that are stories and informational texts where no attempts have been made to control the words, patterns, or decoding elements used in the text. The text is in the original form written by the author. • Created, easy-to-read texts, that are stories and informational texts that have been written to control the level of difculty and some aspects of skill application.
Students should experience a variety and balance of reading materials during the course of each grade. A variety of communication forms (literary, informational, and journalistic) serve as the means through which students learn about language, learn to use language, and learn through language. Students should also read other forms of written communication such as newspapers, magazines, informational books and articles, and electronic information. All forms of communication serve as vehicles for language learning as well as means of exploring ideas about life and human nature.
3.2. ENCOURAGING READING HABITS: ORGANIZING A BOOK CORNER. The most obvious way of directing students’ attention towards reading is to have a set of authentic and adapted books of different levels available for borrowing. A book corner in the classroom allows students to look through books of their own choice, at their own pace. Borrowing books also provides an introduction to the written word in English.
Jean Brewster establishes useful tips to set up a book corner: Displaying books with the cover showing; it will make the selection of a book much easier. done by the students, inspired by the stories they have Decorating the corner with any artwork done read. Getting the students to write comments about different books and to stick them on the wall. This will motivate other students to read that book. Keeping a class record of books that have been read. At the end of the school term, students can see what the most popular book is. Involving students in the organization of the book corner. This encourages the development of responsibility. Devising a lending system. The teacher has to prepare a notebook in which students write their names, the title of the book, date borrowed and date returned.
4. APPRECIATING THE POETIC FUNCTION OF LANGUAGE (learning to appreciate the poetic function) We have already seen that the use of literary texts has many advantages in the English class. A further one is the poetic function, the enjoyment of language. Literary texts enable children to be initiated in the appreciation of the value and beauty of literary language. Thus, we as teachers have to make students aware of the existence of the poetic function of language. Students can become aware of the rhythm, the use of rhyme, special word order, alliteration and other stylistic effects. Nursery rhymes, for example, contain a considerable variety of literary gures
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The poetic function of language is referred to those messages which recall emotions and feelings that depend on the form rather than on the content of the message. We must ask our students to obtain pleasure with books and to be able to value the literacy worth of what they are reading. In order to do so, the reading experience must be something special for them, not simply another boring activity aimed at developing grammatical structures. If we want the students to pay attention to the poetic aspects of a text, we should select suitable texts, such as simple short poems, prose passages with a repetitive structure, etc. However, we should not forget that these types of tasks are difcult to the students and that practice will remain at an
elementary level. Let us consider how to introduce the students to the appreciation of poetic language: • Rhythm. Nursery rhymes have a marked rhythm and musicality, enabling children to grasp rhythmic patterns. Rhythm is the rst stylistic feature children will notice.
1st children are introduced to the type of rhyme they are going to learn, its cultural background, key words, pictures related to the topic… 2nd children listen to the rhyme to hear the natural rhythm of the verse. They can clap as they say the rhyme. 3rd children imitate the model verse by verse. First all at once, then in groups and later individually. Also a group can perform the rhyme for the rest of the class. • Rhyme. Children are familiar with the rhyme. We can now make them focus on how the verses rhyme. - Children look for the words of the verses that rhyme. - They can think of other words that rhyme with the ones they have found. - They can invent new verses for a rhyme. • Stylistic features. Once the rhyme has been learnt, the teacher can explain the semantic effect of the images expressed by words. The gures to be studied will depend on the children’s age.
5. THEME OVERVIEW Literature is a cultural aspect that we should introduce in our teaching practice. In order to do so, we should take into account the age and level of our students, choose a suitable type of text according to the students’ needs and interests and most important of all, we should design motivating and fun activities using communicative strategies. All teachers need to be knowledgeable about the different types of texts described in this theme and know how to use them to meet the varying needs of students. Multiple types of texts are needed to accomplish the many different purposes of an effective literacy program. Literature can be incorporated with several other teaching tools such as: the Internet, lm, drama,
music, author studies, and writing. When designing literature based units it is important to use a combination of individual, small group, and whole group activities. Therefore, literary texts offer a great source of teaching possibilities, since language is presented in a meaningful and attractive context. But simply reading a story out loud or reciting a rhyme could be disastrous without careful preparation. If a teacher selects an appropriate text and plans its exploitation carefully, s/he will be developing the students’ communicative competence and purposeful receptive and productive skills will be developed.
6. LEGISLATION The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (2001) which describes in a comprehensive way the competences necessary for communication, the related knowledge and skills and the situations and domains of communication.
The Organic Law for improvement of Quality in Education 8/2013 of 9th December, which is the current education law in Spain. ISBN: 978-84-92655-55-7
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The Royal Decree 126/2014 of 28th of February which establishes the basic curriculum of Primary Education in Spain.
7. BIBLIOGRAPHY: BREWSTER, J et al.: The Primary English Teacher’s Guide. Penguin. 1992. ELLIS, G., BREWSTER, J. (1991): The Storytelling Handbook for Primary Teachers. Penguin Longman ELLIS, G., BREWSTER, J. (2002): Tell it Again! The New Storytelling Handbook for Primary Teachers. Penguin Longman. DAY, R. A & BAMFORD, J. (1998): Extensive Reading in the Second Language Classroom. Cambridge University Press. HARMER, J. (1991): The practice of English Language Teaching. Longman. HILL, D. R. (2001): Graded readers. ELT Journal, 55. KRASHEN, S. (2000): The Power of Reading. Libraries Unlimited Colorado. MOSS, JOY F. (1984): Focus Units in Literature: A Handbook for Elementary School Teachers. National Council of Teachers of English, 1984. NUTTAL, C. (2003): Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language. Macmillan Oxford. Webgraphy: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk http://www.britishcouncil.org/ http://abcteach.com http://www.english-zone.com http://www.learnenglish.org.uk
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THEME 17 SONGS
AS A POETIC AND LITERARY CREATION IN THE CLASSROOM.
TYPOLOGY. CULTURAL
T ECHNIQUES LEARNING.
SONG
FOR USING SONGS FOR PHONETICAL, LEXICAL AND
0. Introduction 1. Songs as a poetic and literary creation in the classroom. 2. Song typology. 3. Techniques for using songs for phonetical, lexical and cultural learning. 4. Theme overview. 5. Legislation 6. Bibliography Bibliography.. Anexos (opcional: ver CD)
0. INTRODUCTION The main aim of ELT according to the Organic Law for the improvement of quality in education is developing students’ communicative competence. This implies adopting an approach based on communication: The Communicative Approach. This approach considers language as a means of communication and consists in providing the students with enough communicative practice to develop their ability to use use the the language in a variety of situations. As I have just said, our current educational system establishes e stablishes that learning a language in Primary Education has a practical objective which is to be able to communicate in that language. But communicating in a language is a complex activity that implies using the following skills with ease: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Communicative competence is, therefore, acquired by being competent in the four linguistic skills. Current research in the eld of FLT states that students ‘motivation and interests are amongst the most
important factors when learning a FL. One of the ways of raising students’ motivation and improving teaching effectiveness is the use of songs. Traditionally, songs have been used as llers for slack classroom time, rewards for rapid assimilation
of the day’s lesson or changes of pace from a routine procedure in a lesson. But his approach to songs undervalues their teaching potential. Their usefulness is recognized nowadays by specialists in language teaching, especially in Primary Education. If songs are carefully chosen, they can help with learning and consolidating linguistic elements, developing communicative skills, the appreciation of some stylistic features and the learning of socio-cultural elements. All these elements are reected in the current educational system, which
emphasizes the use of authentic, motivating and familiar materials in the English class for the students to achieve communicative competence. Through this theme, we will look at reasons for using songs and the criteria for selecting them, as well as their typology and didactic application.
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1. SONGS AS A POETIC AND LITERARY CREATION IN THE CLASSROOM. When considering the importance of music, and songs and chants, one question arises: what a better and quick way to gain knowledge and condence in oral language than through music?
M. Rahman suggests that young children seem to be naturally ‘wired’ for sound and rhythm. Songs are very valuable in developing powerful access to the new language by being enjoyable, fostering condence, and, increasing attention span and motivation to learn.
The enjoyment aspect of learning language through songs son gs is directly related to affective factors. Music Music has always been a way for children to remember stories and learn about the world around them. Using music as a stimulus can affect one’s emotions and make information easier to remember. Most teachers use songs that have connections with the structure or part of speech they are teaching. They may reform a lyric or delete words to suit the level of ability. They can begin with different rhyming patterns and other written texts. The effects of music (including all types of rhymes and songs) on the emotions are comm only known, but the effects of music on the brain and thinking are also demonstrable. Research has shown that during an electroencephalogram (EEG), music can change brain waves and make the brain more receptive to learning. Music connects the functions of the right and left hemispheres of the brain so that they work together and makes learning quick and easy. Brain function is increased when listening to music and studies have shown that music promotes more complex thinking. It can make connections between emotions, thinking and learning. 1.1. REASONS FOR USING SONGS IN THE ENGLISH CLASS. K. Schoepp afrms that songs have been part of the human experience for as long as we can remember. Songs have become an integral part of our language experience, and if used in coordination with a language lesson they can be of great value. Fortunately, with the expanding prevalence of the Internet and specically the World Wide Web into both the classrooms and lives
of students, access to music and lyrics has been made easier. This paper will focus on the reasons for using songs by demonstrating their effectiveness as a learning tool. There are two processes involved in listening, and both can be utilized when songs are used in the classroom. The activity which is selected for a particular song will determine which of these processes is active. Cullen (1999) states that: The rst is
bottom-up processing where the listener builds up the sounds into words, sentences and
meaning. The second is top-down processing where the listener uses background knowledge to understand the meaning of a message. Practicing both of these processes is essential for developing listening comprehension. The affective, cognitive, and linguistic reasons for using songs which follow, are all grounded in learning theory, and provide insights into the benets of songs in the classroom.
Affective Reasons The Affective Filter Hypothesis is one of ve proposed hypotheses developed by S. Krashen. Basically, it is an explanation of how the affective factors relate to language learning. It is particularly appealing to teachers because it provides an explanation to why some learners learn and others do not.
Teachers have long recognized the need for students to have a positive attitude in regard to learning. Krashen (1982) explains that for optimal learning to occur the affective lter must be weak. A weak affective lter means that a positive attitude towards learning is present. If the affective lter is strong
the learner will not seek language input, and in turn, not be open for language acquisition. The practical application of the Affective Filter Hypothesis is that teachers must provide a positive atmosphere conducive to language learning. Songs are one method for achieving a weak affective lter and promoting language learning. With the affective lter weak, Saricoban and
Metin (2000) have found that songs can develop the four skill areas of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Eken (1996) states that songs can be used:
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• To present a topic, a language point, lexis, etc. • To practice a language point, lexis, etc. • To focus on common learner errors in a more direct way • To encourage extensive and intensive listening • To stimulate discussion of attitudes and feelings • To encourage creativity and use of imagination • To provide a relaxed classroom atmosphere • To bring variety and fun to learning
Cognitive Reasons Songs also present opportunities for developing automaticity which is the main cognitive reason for using songs in the classroom. Gatbonton and Segalowitz (1988) dene automaticity as “a component
of language uency which involves both knowing what to say and producing language rapidly
without pauses.” Using songs can help automatize the language development process.
Linguistic Reasons Besides automatization, there is also a linguistic reason for using songs in the classroom. Some songs are excellent examples of colloquial English, that is, the language of informal conversation. The majority of language most EFL students will encounter is in songs informal. Thus, using songs can prepare students for the genuine language they will be faced with.
Finally, two studies, Domoney and Harris (1993) and Little (1983) investigated the prevalence of pop music in the lives of EFL students. Both studies found that music is often the major source of English outside of the classroom. The exposure to authentic English is an important factor in promoting language learning. It relates directly to both the affective lter and automaticity.
If students are exposed to songs which they enjoy, more learning is likely to occur since they may seek out the music outside of the classroom. The repetitive style of songs then helps to promote automatization of colloquial language. Furthermore, the theory on Multiple Intelligences developed by the American psychologist Howard Gardner, establish that there are eight different types of intelligences. One of them is the musical intelligence, that is, the ability to perceive, discriminate, transform and express musical forms. Children with this intelligence like to sing, whistle, hum or create rhythms with their feet and hands and they need rhythmic chants. Thus, songs offer the teachers opportunities of fostering this type of intelligence.
1.2. WHY USING SONGS AND CHANTS WITH YOUNG LEARNERS? According to S. Phillips, music and rhythm are an essential part of language learning, especially for young learners. Children enjoy learning and singing songs and older students nd working with current or well-known pop songs highly motivating. Music and rhythm make it much easier to imitate imi tate and remember language than words which are just ‘spoken’.
When talking about chants, we can say that they are like li ke songs without music, or a poem with a very ve ry marked rhythm. There are many different songs and chants, from traditional ones to specially written material for young language learners. Traditional songs and chants often contain obscure or out-ofdate language which may outweigh their usefulness, usefulness , but they do have the advantage of being part of English-speaking culture. Some songs are good for singing, others for doing actions while music sounds. Teachers can use songs and chants to teach students the sounds and rhythm of English, to reinforce structures and vocabulary, or as Total Physical Response activities.
To sum up, using songs to teach can save teachers’ time. Songs Son gs help young children learn information informatio n quickly and accurately. Through songs, children store and retrieve information more quickly and they can access this information over longer periods of time. Songs can be an effective way of teaching children and can encourage them to become actively involved in their learning.
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There are some important reasons to use songs with this age group: • Children like songs. • Songs can be integrated into language learning - listening, singing and doing activities around the songs. • In many cultures songs are used to introduce or practise mother tongue with young children, so this is a medium that children are very comfortable with. • Songs are memorable. • Songs often include a lot of repetition that helps to make language memorable. • Songs contain chunks of language that children can remember and use. • Because songs must be sung at a reasonably fast speed they encourage natural phonological features like linking and weak forms. • Children will be actively involved in their learning, even at a very young age, rather than passive. • Children have energy and want to make noise. Songs will channel these natural inclinations positively. • Parents will enjoy hearing their children singing in English. • Singing is a happy and stress-free activity that will add to a positive classroom learning environment
1.3. CRITERIA FOR SELECTING SONGS. As we have just seen, there are many arguments in favour of using songs in language teaching. Songs must be carefully chosen four our teaching purposes – many can be unsuitable. They may have difcult language, or have unnatural stress patterns, and sometimes words aren’t pronounced properly to t in with the tune. Here are some guidelines:
• Students’ age. The teacher must consider his/her students’ age. A 6 year-old child doesn’t have the same interests or language competence as an 11 year-old student. Students from 6 to 9 years-old will be more interested in traditional and children’s English songs, whereas students from 10 to 12 years-old may be more interested in folk and pop songs. English teachers must be aware of their students’ musical tastes, even though they might not share them. In this respect Penny Ur stated, “ students are unlikely to attend well to songs they do not like but equally, the teacher should enjoy the songs s/he uses, otherwise s/he will not teach them very well”. The choice of songs, then, will be based on a balance between the teacher’s
didactic aims and the students’ likes. • Level of vocabulary, structures and functions of words. The songs shouldn’t be too easy or too difcult for the students’ level of English, and the language must be connected to the course
syllabus. • Potential for follow-up activities. The lyrics of the song s ong must provide a starting point for language practice, as well as the introduction of socio-cultural aspects. We must choose a song because it’s suitable for teaching pronunciation, intonation, grammar, vocabulary… • Authentic vs. adapted songs. Both types of songs have advantages if they’re carefully selected: - Authentic songs. These are genuine songs in English, so the language has not been selected or graded. They provide examples of “real” language and can be very motivating: children can experience a strong sense of achievement at having learnt a “real” song. - Adapted songs. They’re specically written for the teaching of English as a foreign language, so language has been selected and graded. They’re useful for pedagogical reasons, since they adapt to the children’s level of competence.
2. SONGS TYPOLOGY. There’s a great variety of English songs that can be used in the English class. We should choose songs that: • Contain simply, easily understood lyrics. • Link with a topic or vocabulary that you are studying in class. • Children can easily do actions (to help emphasize meaning).
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2.1. SONGS CLASSIFICATION: a) Children’s songs and rhymes. The songs of this section are all short, have simple grammatical structures and reduced vocabulary, and most of them can be accompanied by actions or miming. • Counting songs. These are especially suitable for the youngest pupils, those from 6 to 9 years-old, since they enjoy counting and repetitive lyrics. Examples of these songs are “ 10 in the bed” and “ten green bottles”. They offer good counting practice, since it takes extra concentration to count backwards. Pupils can act out the song by standing in a line and turning round before everyone, one person at a tie, leaves the line. • Action songs. The emphasis on actions in foreign language teaching has a positive effect on the acquisition of the language. (In fact, the Total Physical Response (TPR) method developed by James Asher is entirely based on the principle that language is learned through physical activity). Examples of these songs are “If you’re happy” for practicing actions (the imperative); “Head and shoulders” to practice remembering the names for parts of the body; and “ This is the way” to practice the simple presents, expressing routines. • Traditional songs. These are popular songs. The teacher must choose those that t in with certain grammatical patterns, vocabulary items or stories that are being taught. The words of these songs mustn’t be too archaic or too childish for the age group. Examples of these songs are “Old McDonald” about farm animals, each verse introduces a nex animal and the appropriate animal noise; “ I am a Music Man” about musical instruments; and “Three crows” about the crows that live in the Tower of London. Many traditional songs have connections with historical or social events. • Nursery rhymes. The origin of nursery rhymes is very ancient and obscure. Many of them are sung, and they all have a humorous and nonsensical content. English children enjoy nursery rhymes; they have a long tradition in England. Examples of these songs are “ Twinkle, twinkle little star ” or “ Solomon Grundy” , useful for practice the days of the week. b) Jazz chants. Jazz chants are a type of rhyme with rhythm as an essential element. The beats are clear and steady, and can be easily followed. The language is the natural language that children use. The topics and situations are also related to children’s experience. They are meant to improve speaking and listening comprehension skills, but they’re also a useful tool to reinforce specic grammar and pronunciation patters used in context.
c) Songs for special occasions. These are songs that are sung only on special occasions or at certain times of the year. They’re useful to give an insight into English culture. Examples are “ The birthday song” or the Christmas songs. d) Folk and pop songs. These songs are more appealing to older students (from 10 to 12 yearsold). They’re from British and American folklore, and most of them have become world-famous. Examples of these songs are the Sea shanties , songs with a strong rhythm sung by sailors when doing their work; Western songs, these songs tell stories of everyday life and work through simple, lively melodies; Spirituals, songs from the Southern of States of America where farming or large plantations were the main industry, Negro slavery became widespread and protable, so much of the plantation work was accompanied by the singing sin ging of spirituals; and Pop music. Pop music can
be considered an internationally valid cultural phenomenon. English pop songs have become known worldwide and many students might have listened to them, read the titles or heard about the singers and groups that perform them. The problem with these songs is that the words can be more difcult than children’s or folk songs. The teacher should then take care in choosing those
that are more appropriate for Primary Education. e) Adapted songs. Adapted songs are written specially for the teaching of English. The words have been graded to the students’ level of competence. These songs can be found in most textbooks and foreign language teaching materials. They focused on lexical, grammatical or phonetical aspects of the language. Examples of these songs are Alphabet songs or Colour songs. The teacher can also invent his/her own songs, chants or rhymes.
3. TECHNIQUES FOR USING SONGS FOR PHONETICAL, LEXICAL AND CULTURAL LEARNING. We have seen that songs are a valuable teaching tool to use in the English class. But we need careful preparation to gain full benet from the potential of a song. Preparation includes choosing
appropriate songs material, CDs, lyrics and so on.
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The procedure in listening comprehension of songs should be:
Pre-listening stage. This is a motivating stage in which the teacher presents the song the students are going to listen to. In this stage: • Students can give a brief account of the song. • The students can deduce the content form the title. • The teacher can pre-teach vocabulary.
While-listening stage Students are now ready to listen to the song. The teacher should ensure the listening conditions are as pleasing as possible.
How to introduce songs to young learners • The learners should hear it rst a couple of times. times. If we are not condent with singing then we will need to nd a recorded version.
• Once they’re heard the song a couple of times they can start to join in. If it is an action song they can watch you us the actions from the very rst time and join in with them as soon as they
feel ready. • Sing and do the actions and emphasize the last words of each line. The main aims should be: a) Lexical level: meaning of words. b) Phonetic level: pronunciation of the words. c) Cultural level: knowledge of the cultural background of the song. Thus, the techniques to learn the phonetic, lexical and cultural aspects of English through songs will be the following ones:
a) Lexical level. In this level, the students concentrate on the meaning of words. Words are combinations of sounds which form together to give meaning. A word is uttered in syllables, usually one emphasised syllable (the stress) and the rest weak (unstressed). Why are words difcult?
• Even when the same words exist in both languages, the number of syllables is not always identical. • Each English word has its own stress pattern, with very complex ‘rules’ to guide learners. • Weak syllables are central to English, though students often nd this hard to believe.
Moreover, focusing on these can result in over-emphasis (not weakening) of these syllables. How songs can help • Words in songs t the music, helping learners associate the number of syllables / stress in
these words, with memorable rhythms. • The relaxed atmosphere songs create can expose students to this difcult pronunciation
area, without their realizing. • Songs contain endless examples of weak syllables, helping to convince learners of the way English is pronounced. In this level in the rst listening, the students get the general idea of the song, what is called extensive listening.. In the following listenings, the students listen to specic words, what is called intensive listening listening.
Examples of these activities are: • Line order. The words of the song are all jumbled up. The students are asked to rearrange the words in the correct order. • Missing words. Some words of the song are missing. The students have to ll the gaps In some cases it’s best to write the missing words in a box. • Miming. Students are asked to mime the song or to act out its meaning. • Pictures in order. The song could be played in conjunction with viausl aids (pictures or drawings). These could be put in the right order. • Guess the meaning. The teacher asks the students to imagine the meaning of vertain words. This Th is could be a group activity involving discussion. • Multiple choice. The teacher gives out a text with blanks. For each blank, there are several possibilities to choose from. The students underline or circle the correct form.
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• Find out known words. Students have to nd out words from a given semantic eld (e.g. listen to the parts of the body, school objects, etc). • Spot the mistake. Students are asked to look for wrong words in the text. • Listen and sort out. Children are given the words from 2 different songs mixed together, and they have to sort them out. • Appreciation of stylistic features. The analysis of some stylistic features will contribute to the understanding of the meaning of words. It is also useful for initiating the students in literary language and poetry.
b) Phonetic level. We can use songs to focus on sounds. Sounds are the smallest unit from which words are formed and can be categorised as vowels and consonants. Thus, students can practice through the songs recognition and pronunciation of words. Songs and rhymes are especially useful to focus the students’ attention on the segmental and suprasegmental features. The segmental features are: vowels, consonants and diphthongs; the suprasegmental features are: stress, rhythm and intonation. Why are sounds difcult?
• As languages differ in their range of sounds, students have to learn to ‘physically’ produce
certain sounds previously unknown to them. • Learners can nd sounds difcult to pick out, and may not see the point in focusing on them.
However, incorrectly pronounced sounds strain communication, sometimes even changing a phrase’s meaning. How songs can help.
• Songs are authentic and easily accessible examples of spoken English. • The rhymes in songs provide listeners with repetition of similar sounds. • Students often choose to listen to songs time and again, indirectly exposing them to these sounds. Examples of these activities are: • Ear-training activities. The children are asked to distinguish between certain sounds, or rhythmic and intonation patterns. For example, the sense of rhythm can be developed by clapping as they listen to the rhyme. • Fill in vowels or consonants. The students are given words in which some vowels or consonants are missing. They have to complete the words. • Look for similar sounds. Students have to nd words that rhyme in the song. • Listen and repeat. The students repeat line by line. The systematic repetition consolidates the pronunciation and memorization of the song. The imitation of the model can be rst done by the
whole class, then in groups and later individually. • Performing. Students perform the song or the rhyme in groups for the rest of the class. • Singing. Singing for the sake of singing – singing to relax, without having to perform a task.
c) Cultural level. Students learn the socio-cultural background of the song: history, culture, traditions, ways of life and beliefs reected in the song. This stage is also useful to develop positive attitudes and values towards
the foreign language and the people who speak it. The teacher can use these resources to help students understand and learn socio-cultural aspects: • Pictures. The teacher can look for or draw pictures that reect socio-cultural aspects. The
students can also make their own pictures to illustrate the words of the song. • Realia. The teacher can bring real objects related to the song to the class. • Video. There are videos on the market in which our students can watch British children performing children’s songs and rhymes. • Make an English songbook. Students can make their own songbook, in which songs will be classied according to their cultural background: Christmas songs, children’s songs, Western
songs, American songs, rhymes, etc. • Discussions on the subject. The teacher and the students can discuss the historical, social or cultural issues that may arise from the words of a song.
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Post-listening stage. Further follow-up activities. The teacher should design activities that encourage skill integration, that is, activities that relate oral and written skills. After the students have listened to and sung the song, the focus can shift to other skills for them to acquire higher communicative competence.
Here are some examples to consolidate written skills (reading and writing)l: • Reading activities. - Answering true/false questions about the song. - Answering Yes/No questions.
- Answering Wh-questions. • Writing activities. - Writing a summary of the song. - Writing a description of a character or a place. - Writing new verses.
Applying new technologies to songs The use of new technologies in Primary Education is an aim in the current educational system, as the Digital Competence is one of the 7 Key Competences included in the LOMCE. Thus, Primary School teachers must encourage their students to be familiar with current equipment, because an important feature of today’s world is the development of technological resources and global communication. Besides, the students’ motivation towards English will increase, because young learners enjoy trying new things out. There are some suggestions: • CD player. After the blackboards, the CD player is probably one of the most commonly used pieces of equipment in the English classroom. It provides a model of English spoken by native speakers; it also reproduces songs, melodies, sound effects… The CD player has a high quality of sound reproduction. • DVD set. The visual quality of DVD is high. It combines the visual and the auditory aids. It has a further advantage: it provides the possibility of reading the lyrics in both English and Spanish. • Computers. The use of computers is increasing so rapidly that they’re becoming essential in our daily lives. Computers are an interactive audiovisual resource and they can offer a variety of tasks when using songs: listening to songs from CD-ROMS or the Internet, looking for information in web pages about songs or singers…
4. THEME OVERVIEW Through this unit we have analysed the potential of songs as teaching tools. They are motivating materials that help learners to practise the English language in an enjoyable and effective way. If songs are carefully chosen and used, they’ll provide the learning of linguistic elements such as vocabulary, grammar, functions…; the development of communicative skills, (listening, speaking, reading and writing); the appreciation of poetic language and the acquisition of socio-cultural knowledge. Therefore, the effective use of songs helps to develop the students’ communicative competence, which is the nal aim of the Organic Law for the improvement of quality in education.
5. LEGISLATION The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (2001) which describes in a comprehensive way the competences necessary for communication, the related knowledge and skills and the situations and domains of communication.
The Organic Law for improvement of Quality in Education 8/2013 of 9th December, which is the current education law in Spain. The Royal Decree 126/2014 of 28th of February which establishes the basic curriculum of Primary Education in Spain. Prohibida la reproducción total o parcial sin permiso escrito del editor
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6. BIBLIOGRAPHY: BREWSTER, J et al. (1992): The Primary English Teacher’s Guide. Penguin. GARDNER, H. (1993): Multiple intelligences: The theory in practice. Basic Books. GRAHAM, C. (1979): Jazz Chants for Children. Oxford University Press. MEDINA, S. (1993): The effect of music on second language vocabulary acquisition. FEES News. National Network for Early Language Learning. MORGAN BOWEN, BETTY (1982): Look Here! Visual Aids in Language Teaching. Macmillan. Webgraphy: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk http://www.britishcouncil.org/ http://abcteach.com http://www.english-zone.com http://www.learnenglish.org.uk
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THEME 19 MOTIVATIONAL AND EXPRESSIVE TECHNIQUES AS A RESOURCE FOR FLL. REALLIFE SITUATIONS , ROLE PLAYING AND STORYTELLING. GROUP WORK IN CREATIVE ACTIVITIES . TEACHER’S ROLE. 0. Introduction 1. Motivation in EFL. 2. Real-life situations and role playing. 3. Storytelling and motivating young learners. 4. Group work. 5. Teacher’s roles. 6. Theme overview. 7. Legislation 8. Bibliography Bibliography.. Anexos (opcional: ver CD)
0. INTRODUCTION As Dornyei (2001) notes, “teacher skills in motivating learners should be seen as central to teaching effectiveness”.The issue of motivation, particularly in EFL settings, is so important that other considerations about teaching methodology seem to pale in comparison. t is important to think about motivation as the essence of language teaching because of the stark realities of learning English for most of our students. All of the conditions that we know contribute to successful second or foreign language acquisition are lacking in most EFL contexts: there just isn’t enough English input in the environment, there probably aren’t enough opportunities for interaction with English speakers, there usually aren’t enough strong role models promoting the learning of English, and there may not be widespread enough social acceptance for the idea of becoming procient in
English. Because of these adverse conditions, a learner has to have extraordinary motivation in order to succeed at learning English. Through this theme, we will examine different strategies and activities to motivate foreign language learners and young learners all of them related to group processes and to teacher-students and student-to-student interaction. After examining motivation strategies, we will dene the characteristics of the most used
techniques and storytelling activities.
drama
Finally, we will end this theme up by describing teachers’ roles and some guidelines to organize group work in the classroom.
1. MOTIVATION IN EFL. Prior to analyzing some of the motivational strategies, it would be of relevance to say a few things about the teacher/learner relationship. Whichever way we look at it, this relationship is riddled with power and status. For many, power plays a large part in the relationship. The rights and duties of teachers and learners are related to power. For example, many teachers might assert that they have the right to punish those learners who misbehave. Prohibida la reproducción total o parcial sin permiso escrito del editor
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relationships “which are ar e In any social encounter involving two or more people, there are certain power relationships almost always asymmetrical” (Wright, 1987). Social psychologists distinguish between three different types of power - coercive, reward-based, and referent. The basis of coercive power is punishment. Some individuals or institutions have the authority to punish others. The basis of the second type of power is reward. Some individuals or institutions have the power to reward what they deem appropriate behaviour. For example, business organisations reward employees with a salary, a bonus, etc. The basis of the third type of power is motivation. In this case, individuals or institutions appeal to the commitment and interest of others. In view of this three-fold paradigm, it is of importance to concern ourselves with the fostering of learner motivation, as it is considered to be the most effective and proactive, so to speak, power relationship. According to Thanasoulas, a discussion of motivation and motivational strategies would not be complet without a consideration of group processes, considering as there is usually a group of people that we as teachers are called on to motivate. Tuckman established that a group went through four stages from its formation, which has important implications for the study of the classroom and the use of group activities during teaching. • Stage 1 Forming: At rst, there is some anxiety among the members of the group, as they are dependent on the leader (that is, the teacher) and they have to nd out what behavior is
acceptable. • Stage 2 Storming: There is a conict between sub-groups and rebellion against the leader. Members of the group resist their leader and the role relations attending the function of the group are questioned. • Stage 3 Norming: The group begins to develop a sort of cohesion. Members of the group begin to support each other. At his stage, there is co-operation and open exchange of views and feelings about their roles and each other. • Stage 4 Performing: Most problems are resolved and there is a great deal of interpersonal activity. Everyone is devoted to completing the tasks they have been assigned. Experience shows that almost every group goes through these 4 (or even more) stages until it reaches equilibrium and, thus, taps into its potential.
1.1. A FRAMEWORK FOR MOTIVATIONAL STRATEGIES. One central question in designing a framework of motivational strategies is to decide how to organize them into separate themes. The following taxonomy is based on the process-oriented model by Dornyei and Otto. The key units in this taxonomy are as follows: • Creating the basic motivational conditions, which involves setting the scene for the use of motivational strategies. • Generating student motivation, which roughly corresponds to the pre-actional phase in the model. • Maintaining and protecting motivation, which corresponds to the actional phase. • Encouraging positive self-evaluation, which corresponds to the post-actional phase.
1.1.1. Creating the basic motivational conditions. Motivational strategies cannot work in a vacuum, nor are they set in stone. There are certain preconditions to be met before any attempts to generate motivation. Some of these conditions are the following: a) Appropriate teacher behavior and good teacher-student relationship. Whatever is done by a teacher has a motivational, formative, inuence on students. In other words, teacher’s behavior is a powerful “motivational tool”. For Alison, a key element is to establish a relationship of mutual trust and respect with the learners, by means of talking with them on a personal level. b) A pleasant and supportive classroom atmosphere. To be motivated to learn, students need both ample opportunities to learn and continuous encouragement and support of their learning efforts. Because such motivation is unlikely to develop in a chaotic classroom, it is important that teachers organize and manage classroom as an effective learning environment. c) Cohesive learner groups characterized by appropriate group norms. There are several factors that promote group cohesiveness, such as the time spent together and shared group, history, learning about each other, interaction, intergroup competition, common threat, and active presence of the leader. ISBN: 978-84-92655-55-7
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1.1.2. Generating student motivation. Ideally, all learners exhibit an inborn curiosity to explore the world, so they are likely to nd the learning experience per se intrinsically pleasant. In reality, however, this “curiosity” is weaken by such inexorable factors as compulsory school attendance, curriculum content, and grades. Another ways to generate motivation in students are the following: • Increasing the learners “Goal-orientedness”. In an ordinary class, many, if not most, students do not understand why they are involved in an activity. It may be the case that the goal set by outsiders (i.e., the teacher or the curriculum) is far from being accepted by the group members. Thus, it would seem benecial to increase the group’s goal-orientedness, that is, the extent to which the group tunes in to the pursuit of its ofcial goal. This could be achieved by allowing students to dene their own personal criteria for what should be a group goal.
• Making the curriculum relevant for the learners. Many students do their homework and engage in all sorts of learning activities, even when whe n a subject is not very interesting. Obviously, these students share the belief of the curriculum makers that what they are being taught will come in handy. In
order to inspire learners to concern themselves with most learning activities, we should nd out
their goals and the topics they want to learn, and try to incorporate them into the curriculum. • Creating realistic learner beliefs. It is widely acknowledged that learner beliefs about how much progress to expect, and at what pace, can, and do, lead to disappointment. Therefore, it is important to help learners get rid of their preconceived notions that are likely to hinder their attainment. To this end, learners need to develop an understanding of the nature of second language learning, and should be cognizant of the fact that the mastery of FL can be achieved in different ways, using a diversity of strategies, and a key factor is for learners to discover for themselves the optimal methods and techniques.
1.1.3. Maintaining and protecting motivation. Unless motivation is sustained and protected when action has commenced, the natural tendency to get tired or bored of the task and succumb to any attractive distractions will result in demotivation. Therefore, there should be a motivational repertoire including several motivation maintenance strategies. Let us have a look at 2 of them: a) Increasing the learners’ self-condence.
In an inherently face-threatening context, as the language classroom is likely to be, it is important to nd out how to maintain and increase the learners’ self-condence. There are 5 approaches that try to help to this end: 1. Teacher can foster the belief that competence is a changeable aspect of development. 2. Favourable self-conceptions of FL competence can be promoted by providing regular experiences of success. 3. Everyone is more interested in a task if the feel that they make a contribution. 4. A small personal word of encouragement is sufcient.
5. Teachers can reduce classroom anxiety by making the learning context less stressful.
b) Creating learner autonomy. Many educationists and researches argue that taking charge of one’s learning, that is, becoming an autonomous learner, can prove benecial to learning. This assumption is premised on humanistic psychology, namely that “the only kind of learning which signicantly affects behavior is self-discovered, self-appropriated learning”. Benson distinguishes between 5 types of practice fostering the development of autonomy: 1. Resource-based approaches, which emphasize independent interaction with learning materials. 2. Technology-based approaches, which emphasize independent interaction with educational technologies. 3. Learner-based approaches, which emphasize the direct production of behavioiural and psychological changes in the learner. 4. Classroom-based approaches, which emphasize changes in the relationship between learners and teachers in the classroom. 5. Curriculum-based approaches, which extend the idea of learner control over the planning and evaluation of learning to the curriculum as a whole.
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1.1.4. Encouraging positive self-evaluation. Research has shown that the way learners feel about their accomplishments and the amount of satisfaction they experience after task completion will determine how teachers approach and tackle subsequent learning tasks. By employing e mploying appropriate strategies, the latter can help learners to evaluate themselves in a positive light, encouraging them to take credit for their advances. Dornyei presents 3 areas of such strategies: 1. Promoting attributions to effort rather than to ability. 2. Providing motivational feedback . 3. Increasing learner satisfaction and the question of rewards and grades.
1.2. MOTIVATING YOUNG LEARNERS. Educate to motivate or motivate to educate? According to Lobo, M. when motivating children, we are building up the way for their education. Of course this applies not just to the teaching of English as a FL but to teaching in general. A lot has been said about the importance of motivating learners in order to achieve good results in class. Easy to say. Probably not so easy to accomplish. In the case of English one thing is clear: young learners are very motivated towards English when they come to our classes for the rst time. It is the
teacher’s responsibility to make that motivation grow. But how does motivation happen? What helps the teacher to motivate learners? There are many complex factors that intervene in the process of increasing children’s motivation in class. We will concentrate here on the teacher as motivator of young learners and on the materials used in the classroom by following Lobo’s suggestions.
a) The motivating teacher. When dealing with young learners, the teacher becomes the key motivating factor that can make education and motivation be very closely linked. The younger the children are the more relevant the gure of their teacher is at all levels. Here are some of the features that will identify the motivating teacher: • Likes his/her job. S/he is ready to help the children grow personally, cares for children’s personal circumstances, knows the children’s psychology, is patient, tries to be fair in all situations, caters for different needs, abilities and capabilities. • Is friendly. S/he creates a good atmosphere in the classroom. • Is positive. S/he sees the “+” side of situations, tries to nd a solution/alternative to difcult
situations. • Makes her/his explanations easy to follow and understand. S/he uses language that is accessible to pupils, uses all kinds of materials and resources to make input comprehensible to children, speaks in a clear voice, is organized. • Has a good knowledge of English, of useful materials for the class, of school life, of cultural issues.
b) Classroom materials and motivation. The materials used in class will play an essential role in increasing children’s motivation. Whatever materials we choose for a particular lesson, project, teaching unit, term or school year, those materials must be varied, attractive, interesting, accessible, challenging, encouraging, surprising and, ideally, the must lead the children to achieve some kind of outcome. Only by accomplishing all these requisites will materials be motivating and therefore successful in a class of young learners. Besides, in order to be both educational and motivating, materials must foster creativity and imagination, they must cater for different needs, abilities and capabilities, they must help develop general learning skills as well as social skills, and they must present good models of behavior. We could say that ANY materials can be used successfully in class as long as they are carefully chosen and used with a clear purpose. Among the most successful materials and activities with young learners Lobo mentions the following ones: TPR activities, stories, games, songs, chants, rhymes and poems, puppets, arts and crafts, computers, magic, drama activities, puzzles and problem solving activities, and any other material that at certain stage can make the learning of English a motivating memorable experience.
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It is desirable that the materials used in the EFL class are presented in the form of teaching units in class, not as isolated activities. Within a teaching unit, the activities and materials mentioned above must be nicely linked and one activity must lead into the next so softly that children will not even notice. To sum up, learning English with young learners must always be a joyful, memorable, motivating experience for the children in which the teacher becomes a key motivating element that makes education and motivation be very closely linked.
2. REAL-LIFE SITUATIONS AND ROLE PLAYING. Drama is a useful technique for developing certain language skills. It’s used after language items have been presented to the students, during the communicative practice stage. Drama provides our students with direct experience of what they have been taught. Role play is a drama technique that provides the opportunity for students to develop and revise their understanding and perspectives by exploring thoughts and feelings of characters in given situations. It involves acting. Students take roles and pretend they’re someone else In a particular situation. Acting in language learning is valuable because, in some way, we are actors when speaking a foreign language. Role-playing makes students get used to performing in front of others, which is what they will have to do outside the classroom. This technique will help them to overcome the nervousness which this situations produces.The teacher may take a role, becoming an active participant in promoting independent thinking and co-operative learning. The difference between role play and drama in context is that role play is a strategy for exploration and does not attend to structure or aesthetic concerns. Role play can be used to ending episodes. Closure can be achieved through reection or debrieng, rather than through a specic ending in
the role play. There are 2 types of role-play exercises: • Guided role-play: this is a controlled activity that can be used in the early stages, when the students’ competence is not very high (1 st, 2nd, 3th and 4th grade). The teacher provides the language for the students to use. Students are asked to say the lines of a dialogue, but we have to bear in mind that the activity would be quite useless if they simply read each line out loud: the teacher must make sure that the students say the lines meaningfully and that they look at the person they’re addressing. • Freer role- play: this goes a step further, and should be used with older students (5 th and 6th grade). Here, the students are given their roles in detail, accompanied by useful language structures; they can use the language more freely, although they’ll have some cues. They’ll then make up the whole dialogue, in pairs or small groups.
Role play helps students to develop: • Empathy as they examine others’ ideas, feelings and points of view. • Oral expression and interpretation skills as they use language to describe des cribe perceptions, emotions and reactions. • Decision-making and problem-solving skills as they gain experience in independent thinking and co-operative learning. SOME OF THE ADVANTAGES OF ROLE PLAY TECHNIQUES FOR YOUN LEARNERS ARE: • they help break down inhibition in children. • They gets them moving about the classroom. • Via the physical movement, their minds are stimulated. • They gives children the opportunity to develop their imagination in a controlled and creative way. • They help to clarify meaning and use of target language in a creative and realistic context. • They can often bring reality into the classroom; where otherwise would be just a dry exercise. • It makes task negotiation fun. • It encourages interactive communication, and risk taking.
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3. STORYTELLING AND MOTIVATING YOUNG LEARNERS. According to David Vale and Anne Freunten in “Teaching children English: A training course for teachers of English to children”, kids start developing their identity as readers and listeners from the age of 3 or 4, because they start constructing their world of meaning and imagination when they are st exposed to different stories of life. It is vitally important that we, as teachers, support this
development.
3.1. CONSTRUCTIVE AND CREATIVE COMPREHENSION. According to Ielmini, P., storytelling is a kind of reading which requires children to be active participants in the construction of meaning. Children get fully involved while listening to a story and they also feel joy and satisfaction. As language teachers, we are always tempted to regard the teaching of reading and listening only as a variety of comprehension activity but in doing so we sometimes discourage children from becoming “good” readers of English. Using storytelling in class, children develop a constructive and creative comprehension.
What constructive and creative comprehension implies? When children listen to a story, in terms of comprehension response, they get involved in different types of mental processes. Firstly, they create a mental picture of what they are listening to. Then, they can imagine what is going to happen next. Children also identify themselves with the characters and situations in the story relating them to their own experiences. Last but not least, children apply their own values to those found in the story. Therefore, each child’s response will be unique because it will demonstrate individual interpretation, it will relate to the whole story and it can be also discussed and shared with others in class. Making it happen. We can choose a story or write one of our own. When we make the selection, we must think on the age level and prociency level of our students. We may use a well-known fairy tale, a scary story or any suitable reader we nd in the school-library.
3.2. STORYTELLING – BENEFITS AND TIPS. What can storytelling offer? According to Stoyle, P., children have an innate love of stories. Stories create magic and a sense of wonder at the world. Stories teach us about life, about ourselves and about others. Storytelling is a unique way for students to develop an understanding, respect and appreciation for other cultures, and can promote a positive attitude to people from different lands, races and religions.
Storytelling and intercultural understanding. There are a number of ways in which storytelling can enhance intercultural understanding and communication. Stories can… • Allow children to explore their own cultural roots. • Allow children to experience diverse cultures. • Enable children to empathize this unfamiliar people/places/situations. • Offer insights into different traditions and values. • Help children understand how wisdom is common to all peoples/all cultures. • Offer insights into universal life experiences. • Help children consider new ideas. • Reveal differences and commonalties of cultures around the world.
Storytelling and intercultural understanding. Stories… • Promote a feeling of wellbeing and relaxation. • Increase children’s willingness to communicate thoughts and feelings.
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• Encourage active participation. • Increase verbal prociency. • Encourage use of imagination and creativity. • Encourage cooperation between students. • Enhance listening skills.
4. GROUP WORK. The classroom is not the best place to learn a language. It has space and time limitations that prevent real communicative situations. In fact, it is outside the classroom where a language is learnt better: in an English-speaking family or in the country where that language is spoken. The circumstances surrounding a family or country favour communications: a great variety of interpersonal relationships, plenty of time for practice, varied situations. Group work has been introduced into the EFL teaching repertoire with the communicative methodologies in the 1970s to come to grips with a particular problem. Group work make make it possible for the teacher to devote more time to the students’ oral production, which perhaps before had not been a priority of the FL classroom. Thanks to group work, less condent students get the chance to
put their knowledge of the new language into practice in a non-threatening environment, away from the critical eye and ear of the teacher. Meanwhile, the teacher is left free to discreetly monitor progress and give help, advice and encouragement where and when it is needed. Pair and group work are important techniques to improve the students’ use of English and they are very useful in large classes, where students have few opportunities to participate. These techniques involve the whole class working separately, in pairs or small groups at the same time. Using these activities in the study and activate stages allow students to talk about their opinions, ideas and interests; in fact, uency is developed with this type of groupings.
In many classrooms, pair or group work may be a new ne w way of teaching and learning, but the current dominant theory on language teaching, the Communicative Approach, emphasizes the role of the learner as an active participant rather than a passive receptor. All drama techniques require the use of these groupings.
Dealing with group work demands just as much tact and sensitivity. The teacher may have to decide whether to intervene to bring an enthusiastic discussion onto a more linguistically fruitful path, or to stay in the background to allow the students s tudents to make their own discoveries about the language and the best way to learn it. Should groups be of mixed ability, so the more able language learners help the weaker ones, or would same-ability groups be preferable, so that faster learners can progress at their own pace, while the teacher gives extra help to individual learners in the slower groups. Like any kind of praxis, group work can lose its meaning if it is handled in an automatic and unthinking way. It was developed under particular circumstances to solve a particular problem and it is not per se intrinsically better than any other technique. No technique is the panacea of all our teaching problems and its value should be reviewed from time to time.
4.1. ADVANTAGES OF USING PAIR AND GROUP WORK. a) Pair work Although it can be complicated at the beginning, pair work is a very good method to practice in a lively way what has already been learnt. The main advantages are: • More practice. If the students practice a linguistic form simultaneously, the time they spend speaking is greater than if they had to speak one by one. • It improves personal relationships. Relationships within partners improve thanks to communicative interaction: they get to know each other better, they can share their knowledge and they have the opportunity to help each other. • Similarity with real life. The situation of being face to face with a speaker is more similar to real life than being asked by the teacher all the time. self-condence. Pair work increases self-condence in the student because they • Increased self-condence. don’t feel any pressure from the teacher. In general, the student feels more relaxed when speaking with a partner, thus achieving greater uency.
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Pair work also presents problems: more noise, loss of time during organization, impossibility of correcting all couples, risk of them using their mother tongue, etc. – but, all in all, the advantages of pair work outweigh the disadvantages.
b) Group work If students are used to pair work, they will wil l have had great training for working in groups. In group work there’s three participants or more involved in an activity – this is ideal for activities of freer production. In fact, uency is developed with this type of grouping.
Just as in pair work, there are many reasons for using group work in the class: • It provides a richer climate for interaction than pair work, because there is greater scope for discussion. • It is potentially more relaxing than pair work, since the latter puts greater demands on cooperating closely with only one person. • It increases the amount of student talking time. • It gives students the sense of using the language communicatively. • It increases self-condence in the use of language.
5. TEACHER’S ROLES Nowadays, the role of the teacher is far removed from the authoritarian attitudes of traditional teaching. The role of the teacher has changed because the role of the learner has changed. As a consequence, the teacher now has a less dominant role in the classroom, although this doesn’t mean that s/he will lose the respect of the class, or will have problems controlling the class. Several roles are assumed for teachers in current language teaching: • Organizer. The teacher facilitates the communication process between the students. S/he organizes the communicative activities and the students’ interactions. • Participant. The teachers are an independent participant within the group. Not only do they organize resources, they’re also a resource in themselves. • Encourager. The teacher must make sure that, once the activity has started, everyone’s involved. Students also need to receive encouragement; they like to hear how well they’re doing. • Language consultant. The teacher should be on hand to help the students with what wh at they want to say. The teacher must be a source of information of vocabulary or structures. • Monitor. The teacher should observe students’ performances and make a note of major errors. Errors might be treated in subsequent lessons. However, at particular times, such as in controlled practice activities, a certain amount of correction is advisable. We can summarize the teacher’s roles saying that it is understanding students’ needs and engaging them in their learning experiences, which include: • Learning about the students and their interests, abilities and learning styles. • Planning classroom environment and routines. • Organizing classroom facilities and resources. • Planning and organizing for instruction. • Planning and organizing for assessment and evaluation. • Planning for communication with students’ families. • Reecting upon the effectiveness of their planning, instruction and assessment as a means of gathering information about their students’ progress and instructional ne eds, and success of their practice.
6. THEME OVERVIEW In general, motivation is the “neglected heart” of our understanding of how to design instruction (Keller, 1983). Many teachers believe that by sticking to the language materials and trying to discipline their refractory students, they will manage to create a classroom environment that will be conducive to learning. Nevertheless, these teachers seem to lose sight of the fact that, unless they accept their ISBN: 978-84-92655-55-7
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students’ personalities and work on those minute details that constitute cons titute their social and psychological make-up, they will fail to motivate them. What is more, they will not be able to form a cohesive and coherent group; unless they succeed in turning most “ curriculum goals” (goals set by outsiders) into “group goals” (goals accepted by the group members, that is, students). Learning a foreign language is different to learning other subjects. Therefore, language teaching should take account of a variety of factors that are likely to promote, or even militate against, success. Language is part of one’s identity and is used to convey this identity to others. As a result, foreign language learning has a signicant impact on the social being of the learner, since it involves the adoption of new social and
cultural behaviours and ways of thinking.
Talking about the importance and benets of storytelling , we are fully convinced that storytelling s torytelling from teacher to student or from student to student carries many benets. Students can lose themselves
in the characters, plots and situations, they lower their anxiety levels and at the same time, they increase their self- condence and esteem. As they progress, the students can improve their abilities
to comprehend and later produce the target language.
Young Learners share a remarkable variety of personal experiences experien ces, values and ways of understanding. The language they learn in the classroom is the tool they use to shape their thoughts and feelings. It is more than a way of exchanging information and extending ideas it is their means of reaching out and connecting with other people. Stories can link not only between the world of classroom and home but also between the classroom and beyond. Stories provide a common thread that can help unite cultures and provide a bridge across the cultural gap.
7. LEGISLATION The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (2001).
LOMCE. Fundamental law for the improvement of quality in education. 8/2013 9 th of December, which is the current education law in Spain. Royal Decree 126/2014 28th of February about Basic Teaching contents for Primary Education.
8. BIBLIOGRAPHY: CHAMBERS, G. N. (1999): Motivating language learners. Multilingual Matters. HAYCRAFT, J. (1986): An Introduction to English Language Teaching. Longman. MALEY, A. & DUFF, A. (1982): Drama Techniques in Language Learning. Cambridge University Press. (C.U.P.) MCRAE, J. (1985): Using Drama in the Classroom. Pergamon Press. PHILLIPS, S. (1996): Drama with children. Oxford University Press. RICHARDS, J. & ROGERS, T. (1998): Approaches and Methods in Language teaching. Cambridge University Press. VALE, D. & FEUNTEUN, A. (2001): Teaching children English: A training course for teachers of English to children. Cambridge Teacher Training and Development Materials. WENDEN, A. (1991): Learner strategies for learner autonomy. Prentice Hall. WESSELS, C. (1987): Drama. Oxford University Press. Webgraphy: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk http://www.britishcouncil.org/ http://abcteach.com http://www.english-zone.com http://www.learnenglish.org.uk
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