Edutainment, Gamification and CLIL in the 21st century -Primary school-
Chapter I
-
Edutainment and Gamification in English in primary school Motto: ,, Another language, another man.”- German proverb
,,Speaking foreign languages is elegant - it is a sign of education and nobility and can represent a key of admittance into the high society.”1 In all countries is studying a foreign language; it is necessary today due to the development of communications and international collaborations, development of tourism, science and technology, development of political and economic relations, etc. By learning a foreign language is aimed at developing intercultural students. So it begins in kindergarten with learning a foreign language and in primary school the students learn the second foreign language. Today the world’s international language is English. Today in our society English is a necessity, it's a core competency, not only an international language. Child enters the school environment is a crucial moment in his life, because of relationships with adults and with his colleagues, because of the new activities that target all previously acquired knowledge and skills which encourages further progress in the sphere of cognitive, affective and psychomotor. School aims to develop writing, language, intelligence nurturing, stimulating creativity, integration skills in the community. Psychologists say that children think ,,with eyes, ears and hands”. As we observe, school students’ interest decreased and teachers resort to new and attractive methods in teaching activities.
Studying English in primary education was introduced recently and it will continue until the end of high school. Knowledge of a foreign language brings to student undeniable benefits. By studying them, it follows the acquisition by students of language acquisition which will allow them to communicate with foreigners in any country where they will visit. At the age of 6-7 years may be problems in teaching English because they quickly lose patience, they prefer playful activities. Without teaching materials and games, activity is low. Teacher have to use worksheets, images, audio-video materials. 1 A.Vizental,, Strategies of teaching and testing English as a foreign language”,ed. Polirom, pg.13 1
In order for students to acquire the linguistic information, the teacher must propose various and attractive activities and so the objectives set will be achieved. At preparatory class and first class can appear some problems in teaching a learning foreign language, because students can stay concentrated for a long time at the same activity and teacher must play many games with them. The most important difficulty in teaching English at the preparatory class is the considerable quantity of teaching material necessary for the course hours. In our schools we hardly find teaching materials or means modern communication such as: illustrative dictionaries, story books, imagines, laptop, computer, etc . Teacher must support students throughout working hours, to finish the given tasks. Games make working hours more funny and banish monotony.
I.1 The concept of Edutainment „ I hear, I forgot. I see I understand and I do remember”(Chinese proverb)
Origin of edutainment is from edu(cation)+(enter)tainment and is
also called
infotainment. This term is Amer. and it was used in 1970-1975. The known definition of Edutainment (ed·u·tain·ment- ĕj′ooo-tān′mənt, ĕj′ə-) from the free dictionary is: 1. The act of learning through a medium that both educates and entertains; 2. Any of a various media, such as computer software, that educate and entertain; the presentation 3. Noun-
of
informative
or
educational
material
in
an
entertaining
style.
computer games, television programmes, or other material, intended to be both
educational and enjoyable. ,,It can be argued that educational entertainment has existed for millennia in the form of parables and fables that promoted social change. In Christianity, for example, Jesus Christ used parables extensively to convey his moral messages[…]Modern forms of edutainment include television productions, film, museum exhibits, and computer software which use entertainment to attract and maintain an audience, while incorporating deliberate educational content or messages. Toys are perhaps the earliest "edutainment" objects a person encounters, as many toys have also an educational aspect beside their aesthetic appeal. They can teach 2
children literacy, numerical, conceptual or motor skills. Many toys (e.g. a miniature piano) are simply colorful, scaled-down versions of more complex objects, and thus can base children in skills and benefits associated with the latter. It is up to grown-ups to guide children to the toy's proper use in order to make the most out of it”2. I present another explanation for this concept : ,, Edutainment is a neologism (new term coinage), similar to infotainment, that expresses the marriage of education and entertainment in a work or presentation such as a television program or a Web site. The most educationally effective children's programs on television (Sesame Street, The Electric Company, Mr. Rogers) could be classed as edutainment.”3
For a child/ a student games are the most important and serious than anything else. Games have many goals: fun, competition, involve speaking, develop fluency of speacking. “Fun gets the neurons charged up and ready to pack away deep learning into the long-
term memory. Games are also much more challenging to the mind and therefore engage higher level thinking skills. Whether students are trying to solve puzzles, find missing information or play the detective, their minds are fully engaged in both language production 2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_entertainment
3
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/edutainment
3
and strategic problem solving. That’s what we call whole-brain learning & optimal neuronal functioning.If games help the class to get in sync, and the learners on task, difficult grammar or vocabulary can be internalised much faster as focus is better, right-brain functioning increases memory, and there is no boredom.”4
I.2. The concept of Gamification Gamification is defined as ”a number of psychological concepts, especially regarding motivation, behavior, and personality. Deep fluency and understanding of these concepts is one of the most important keys to proper gamification implementation. In today’s digital generation gamification has become a popular tactic to encourage specific behaviours, and increase motivation and engagement. Though commonly found in marketing strategies, it is now being implemented in many educational programs as well, helping educators fiind the balance between achieving their objectives and catering to evolving student needs. The gamification of learning is an educational approach to motivate students to learn by using video game design and game elements in learning environments. The goal is to maximize enjoyment and engagement through capturing the interest of learners and inspiring them to continue learning. Gamification, broadly defined, is the process of defining the elements which comprise games that make those games fun and motivate players to continue playing, and using those same elements in a non-game context to influence behaviour. In educational contexts, examples of desired student behaviour which gamification can potentially influence include attending class, focusing on meaningful learning tasks, and taking initiative”5 Ben Leong tells ,,that there should be a clear understanding that gamification is independent of knowledge or skills. Gamification directly affects engagement and motivation and it indirectly leads to acquiring more knowledge and skills. Gamification encourages students to perform an action; for example, motivating students to practice computer
4
http://www.sylviasenglishonline.org/courses/edutainment/
5
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamification_of_learning
4
programming will increase their skill and motivating students to memorize consistently can increase their knowledge.”6 For many students the term ,,work” means ,,homework and school” and the term ,,play” means ,,games/video games”. Modern education takes into account the students’ involve in various tasks for stimulating their interests, retaining their attention, maintaining their positive attitude. For that it is necessary o good communication between teachersstudents, students –students, there are necessary interactive activities so teachers can obtain the wanted feedback. Through the interactive activities it created ,,fun” learning situations. Education Gamification can do using DuoLingo. DuoLingo is the easy way to learn a foreign language while translating the Web. It can offers the documents, too. There are lessons for beginners which start out with basic elements/sentences. So, the student can be educated by games, the education can be gamified! „While the concept of gamification may be simple, effectively gamifying a concept isn’t. However, it can be simplified, by following a five-step process: 7
1.Understanding the Target Audience and the Context
2.Defining Learning Objectives
3.Structuring the Experience
4.Identifying Resources
5.Applying Gamification Elements
,,Understanding the Target Audience and the Context analys the target audience which will help us determine factors like age group, learning abilities, current skill-set, etc., analysing the context can provide you with details of the student group size, environment, sequencing of skills. Stages and milestones are powerful tools that enable teachers to sequence knowledge and quantify what the students need to learn and achieve by the end of each stage or milestone. Students who are unmotivated to push onto the next stage may be experiencing fatigue or boredom. In this context, a push is defined as the motivation to advance from one stage to the next. Students who have difficulty in completing a stage may lack the knowledge, or skills needed.
6
http://ii.library.jhu.edu, article ,,What is gamification?”, Posted on May 13, 2014
7 W.H-Y.Huang and D.Soman, ,,A Practitioner’s Gamification of Education “, pg.7 5
Gamification become somewhat in vogue and many industries benefited from its principles, not only schools. Learning profesional can add game elements like curiosity, challenge, storytelling to the learning we develop. We learn professional knowing gamification. In the whole world, Gamification seems to be an emerging trend in business, health, education, management, etc. It appears in different contexts and it has a variety of purpose: it promotes fundamental things like learning, employee performance, customer engagement, change behaviours and support innovation. After 2013, Rickinson &May identified the following fundamental methodological steps: scoping, re-/searching, selecting, analysing synthesising and reporting. Gamification contains the terms increase, improve and talk about who demonstrate that gamification is linked in some way to added value in learning processes.The terms motivate/motivation and engage/-ment are frequently used.These terms often appear in the definition of gamification itself. We can see there is ,,a strong relationship between Gamification and Education and the result is major, is excellent: the students learn easier”8. Once the stages/milestones have been identified, the teacher can more easily judge which stages, if any, can be gamified, and how. Questions of teacher should think about while considering gamification include. The gamification process in education comes down to the elements that are applied to the
learning
program.
As
mentioned
earlier,
gamification
is
the
addition
of
game-like-elements, also called game mechanics, in non-game settings. Game mechanics can be classified as self-elements or social-elements. Self-elements can be points, achievement badges, levels, or simply time restrictions. These elements get students to focus on competing with themselves and recognizing self-achievement. Social-elements on the other hand, are interactive competition or cooperation, like for example leaderboards. These elements put the students in a community with other students, and their progress and achievements are made publics.”9
8 Busch Carsten, „ European Conference on Games Based Learning”, pg 51 9 W.H-Y.Huang and D.Soman, ,,A Practitioner’s Gamification of Education “, pg. 10-13 6
The videos average around 3 minutes each and then the student can take a pop quiz to refresh his or her understanding of the information conveyed. A challenge is then introduced by allowing the student to take what they have learned and play it in a game setting.
I.3 Edutainment vs Gamification I presented the meaning of these terms and I want to clarify that any of the above are not bad things. Recently, in the 21-st century we use educational games, ,,games for learning” which are fun, attractive and their goal is education. Edutainment refers at games that happen to educate along the way; is the use of entertainment activities for teaching based concepts. Gamification is the use of game thinking, game mechanics to solve problem; is a system that make gaming enjoyable applied to real life; it comes out of the videogame industry. We must put learners in authentic enviroments in which they can practice their skills and gain immediate feedback on peogress and accomplishments of students. Both edutainment and gamification are used into classroom learning, or after-school spaces to obtain the standards and learning objectives. We need to implement gamification in education! We have to make more edutainment and the students will learn more efficiently! ,,For students, gamification serves the purpose of minimising negative emotions that they usually encounter in traditional forms of education. It lets them approach knowledge and skills, using the learn-by-failure technique that is popularin game-like environments, without the embarrassment factor that usually formsa part of classroom education. Instructors on their part can efficiently achieve their set objectives and use currency-based tracking mechanisms to get feedback on their students’ progress.”10 ,,Gamification is a concept that needs to be part of every learning professional’s tool. Gamification is the ideal process for creating engaging learning environments.”11 10 Idem, pg 24 11 Kapp,Karl „The Gamification of Learning and Instruction: Game-based Methods”,pg 1 7
I.4 Game types in teaching English Gamification and edutainment are the future of education, but we can see both perils and promises. We are in the century of technology where the computer prevails and the game can be associated with learning. Educational games that combine collaborative work and technology can be one of the most valuable educational tools for teachers in the classroom. ,,Gamification can contain multiple levels such as mini-game and other techniques to bring a learner from a lower place in the knowledge hierarchy to a higher place. A gamification effort can start teaching basic facts and then progress to concepts and rules.”12 There are attractive educational games with educative values. The 5 ways of development of students (cognitive, motor, social, language and self-confidence) represent a huge importance and there are related to each other. Here is the development scheme: 13
self-confidence Language cognitive
motor social
12 Idem, pg 167 13 S.Goldberg ,,50 de activitati interactive pentru dezvoltarea copilului”, ed.Polirom,pg 17 8
The teacher guided the learning of English using the pleasent method: the game. Simple games help teachers and are easier to develop, are more impactful for a particular type of learning than elaborately developed complex games. Games are an active and participative methods involving activism, intrinsic curiosity, the desire to be seen, explain, explore, discover. Those are considered active participatory methods that mobilizes energies of students who are helping them to focus attention, to arouse curiosity. Active and participative methods focus on operational knowledge, on action learning, bring students in direct contact with real life situations. These methods have educational character. Game focuses exclusively on student and is decisive in shaping his personality. It involves developing certain capabilities to cause certain types of intellectual processes. These represent different resources of each student to be involved personally in the act of learning. In the case in which more calls to thinking, develops convergent or operations involving search and finding a simple and correct answer; or operations involving divergent thinking that reach the issue of possible responses to an openended situation; or an evaluative thinking who leads certain judgments based on implicit or explicit criteria; So, some are calling on creative skills that would require ability to develop ideas; and some are calling on critical thinking which is based on analysis, interpretation and exploration capacity. “Trends in teaching methodology are (apud C Cucos, 2006):
implementation of new training methods and ways to resolve appropriate learning situations
(using standard methods of brainstorming) wider use of active-participative methods, by activation of cognitive and operators structures of students and by resorting to passive methods only when needed; fructification aspects size
and "quality" of the method. formative education,the growing trend of teaching method; expanding search methods and identification of knowledge methods and not transmitting their own account; continuous selfeducation methods; promoting effective methods that help students in the desired direction; suitability methods of the existing reality(p.288- 289).”14 A good learning is done through the beauty of the game, through the student fun during teaching, learning and assessment activity. The 5 ways of development of students 14 A.Margaritoiu &A.Brezoi, ,,Metode interactive de predare-invatare”,suport curs, 2006 9
realized early, from de early age, to be consolidated as students grow: colors, numbers, letters, reading, self-confidence, etc. ,,Repetition and familiarity with the foreign language are essential elements of learning. Learning through discovery involves activities who lead the students to experiences that they can take advantage.”15 ,,Children’s games are buds of whole human life; through them they reveal their hidden qualities. The whole life of man has its sources in this epoch/age of existence…”16
A.S.Makarenko gives the game similarities with work by: - physical and intellectual effort; - pleasure after success, passion for playing; - responsibility; - compliance of rules, etc. Psychologists say that game has many and various definitions such as: - it prepares the student for the later work, as an adult; - is a bridge between activities and learning; - is a valuable way, a method of education and training; - is an organizational form of learning activity and student’s life; - is organized in limit of learning psychology, taking account by age of the student, etc The student who does not play in a group of friends and who refuses company of another child may behave introverted when he will be great. So at school the student will be motivated to develop social skills that he will continue outside of the school, at play, in the park, in the family . Forward I will present a few types of games used to little students and big ones: I.
A classification is made from different points of view:
* by content; * by objectives; * by teaching materials; * after groups of structure and psychophysical processes. II. The most significant are by the contest and objectives like: 15 ibidem, pg.36 16 M .Taiban, ,, Probleme psihologice ale jocului si distractiilor”, Ed. EDP,pg. 58 10
Games who develop speech Games knowledge of environment Mathematical games, Musical games Motion games III. Other classifications: A. Games with rules – are transmitted in social frame from student to student; games are the more important as the students grow up; Such games are full of energy and learning is more enjoyable. B. Group games – are based on cooperation and discussions, understanding is trough words and common discipline C. Symbolic games - targeting the relationship between me and the reality. These games eliminate conflicts, lead to a change of role: obedience, authority and self-release. D. Simulation games – require spontaneity, creative thinking; challenge the patience, skills, courage, caution that proves student; fallow the assumption of roles, social and cultural spirit of responsibility/duty. E. Games rolls – are relaxing, are entertainment, full of energy, send ideas, eliminate monotony. F. Computer games - are the most popular games and students love them: Verb Dash (for learning irregular verbs), Swap Mania (for vocabulary consolidation) , Speed Pix and Word Rescue, English Attack, etc Claparede E. says that ,,game type is determined on the one hand by the needs of the student and on the other hand by the degrees of its organic development. Undoubtedly is the fact that any activity chosen by the student without force and without restraint involve the assertion of will and the development of personality. Games are related to instinct in sense that games trigger by internal or external stimulus unknown activities, so, the instinctive impulse can be appreciated ”17 The main function of the game is to allow the student to individualize his ego, to show his personality. Another function which Claparede finded is physiological and psychological function. According to his theories, games are divided into two categories: 1. the first category includes sensory, motor and mental games.
Sensory games are typical, explore reality: colors, sounds, taste, music etc
17 Claparede.E, ,,Psihologia copilului si psihologia experimentala,, Ed EDP, p.64 11
Motor games develop coordination of movement, timeliness of movement and speech
(game ball, gymnastics, throwing target , etc). Mental /intellectual games are based on the comparison and recognition, on curiosity and desire to know/to learn, on creative imagination (rime, poems, lego, riddles, puzzle, etc).
2. the second category includes social, imitation, family games.
Emotional games includes strong emotions, even the negative one: the pain during the game is funny for students and they accept it and don’t exceed some limits. In this second category I may indicate some games:
Fighting/hunting games- they practicing their force and skills
like discussions . Social games develop social instincts: walking , camps, collective relationships, sport,etc Imitation games aimed to find specific elements to fulfill the game and imitation, too. Student imitate for pleasure, for his improvement , to acquire knew knowledge.
,,Game is the best introduction to the art of work.” 18
Cognitive games help
mental and emotional development of the student and
they grow in complexity depending on the age of the student.With the game student develop their executive functions: Memory - he move his attention from teacher to other students and vice versa; Language - he remembers rules their order and what to do; Attention –he knows commands, understands the meaning of words such as: up, right, explain, repeat,etc. Fun games of pupils are considered educational games, though sometimes parents do not agree with them and restricts their child when he’s at home. Educational games are loved by students and they want to repeat them, or students do these games at home with friends or alone, if it is possible, if they have necessary materials or they adapt to what they play. The classification of games is not unanimously accepted by all specialists because games can have different approaches. So Querat divided games into three categories: 1. Games with hereditary character (force, fight, huntinggames, etc) 2. Imitation games regarding human activities (the visit, the family games, etc) 3. Imaginative game( to tell a story). Imaginative and imitation games can’t be separated because they have common elements and imagination can’t be without imitation. Imagination is in all students’ activities. It implys independence, a rich fantasy which animates things and who personify reality.
18 Ibidem, pg 34 12
All these games, no matter how we classify, are intended to development the language/vocabulary considering the pronouncement, the grammar structures, the contextual and correct speech, to development independence and initiative. Independence and initiative are two important elements of personality . Conversation with student is a way of knowing him, of observing how he thinks, of observing his stock of knowledge. The communication by game or theatre makes students to
express more easely, and drama do that because it commnucates through the caracter. The theater develops creativity, teamwork, discipline, punctuality, organizational spirit and they issued their own anxieties accumulated.
Stages of the game are: a.) organizing the material base of the game b.) the content and tasks game c.) to establish rules of the game and their explanation (demonstration) d.) the sequencing game(action game), their demonstration e.) control solving and the respect of the game’s rules f.) the final assessment of the conduct and results of games; g.) any guidance for receiving game and imagining variants of the game. The basic rule remains that without weakening the demands of teaching-learning (especially in first class) will be achieved by plaing everithing may take the form of learning activity. As a result, the game teaching or just some elements of it can be used in any time of the teaching activity. Drama means involvement in the educational aspects, stimulating and involving feelings, imagination of students.Thus enrich their learning through experience, by practicing at a deep and high-level. Wessels says "drama in education using the same tools which are used by actors in the theater. In particular, she uses improvisation and pantomime. But while the theater everything is arranged for the benefit of viewers in classroom everything is planned to gain students.”19 ,,Scrivener(1994:69)
proposes
the
following
list
of
activities
that
drama
typically found in teaching English as a foreign language:
19 http://eotvos.nyf.hu, Wessels, Ch. Drama. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987, pg 8 13
1. Role-playing allows students to step outside their real world to accept and change into another character. Students either improvise or that their create your own character, they receive some cards with roles. In either case, it has a stimulating effect and students feel freer to engage in the process of learning. Rol-play is a popular classroom activity that starts from a text ( from literature or written by a student or the teacher) and leads to interactive communication. The students may choose in a rol-play a character from the text or may replace it with the real one and they are have to use their imagination , have to act aut a conversation. This is a technique that involve both the teacher and the students. The students are enjoying because it’s entertaining, it’s easy to organize and leaves freedom for individual initiative, it’s one of the best ways of reducing the learner’s anxiery. 2. Simulation - In the initial stages of learning students get acquainted with different roles from the simple,usually those that are used in everyday life,such as mother, father, client, tourists, before accepting more complex roles, such as consultation, problem solving, plays. ”For a stimulation to work it must have the folowing characteristics:
reality of function - the students must not think of themselves as students, but a real
participants in the situation a stimulated enviroment - the teacher says that the classroom is in park, for exemple. structure - students must see how the activity is constructed and they must be given the nrcessary information to carry aut the stimulation effectively.”20
3. Dramatic games - Wessels shows that ,,dramatic games' should' lead action, imagination exercise, involving both learning and acquisition, and allow them to express their emotion.”
21
All such items helps students become involved learning helps dynamic learning
experience. There are many forms of games with various functions: 'icebreakers' , warm-up exercises, concentration games, etc 4. Directed improvisation - In this type of exercise teacher guides students in the initial stage of an activity.When students join and become part of the activity in progress, they use their imagination and improvisation, then the teacher comes out of activityand he becomes more an observer to help if necessary. 5. Interpretation scenario. The script is prepared by the teacher or students and provide pace where students use their talent, They enrich and exceed their fears.The script must be 20 Harmer Jeremy The practice of English Language Teaching, ed Longman, pg 275 21 Idem, pg 29 14
well analyzed, interpreted and evaluated, it becomes effective learning tool, becomes strengthening the knowledge and foreign language. 6. Drama preparation is improvised from fairytale or reality; it involves 5 sides of development: cognitive, motor, social, language and self-confidence. Students are responsible for their work. The activity involves small groups of students to have a beneficial learning and success.
I.5 Advantages and disadvantages of computer in educations Motto: ,,When teaching folds on the needs and interests of students, their attitudes change and get better results’’.(Cotton)
,,Audio-lingual method was applied to teaching foreign languages and it have seen great progress in the initial study. It also has a negative aspect as: exaggerated extension of the oral period which leads to lack of explanation and creative exercises,,22 Before computer games in schools we used slides which
were
organized
themetically: Our house, Our school, Shopping, etc. Every slide contained 35-40 images and they are an excellent speech development. Audio-lingual method de was developed during the 2nd World War, such as, in the form of dialogue, grammar and vocabulary are learned through repetition and imitation. Grammar is learned through inductive mode. Role-playing is often used in developing the capacity of developing oral and written message. The advantage of this method is that through the interaction between teacher and student, appeared mistakes are corrected immediately. Today we used computers to teach and learn a foreign language. We live in the era of technology. Computer games are useful for the students in learning a foreign language, but can not replace various experiences that teacher offers them and interaction is important in acquiring the skills and aptitude.
22 Gălețeanu,G. and Comișel,E. Indrumator metodic”, Ed.EDP, Bucuresti, pg.9 15
“The computer is associated with videotext and video disc and is used in teaching activity in different forms:
training sequences for transmission of information, solving exercises, graphic design,
drawings, practical applications, etc. stimulating educational games, teaching evaluation and self-assessment of knowledge organizing and directing learning based on independent learning programs with workprogram. Computer training programs provides information for different themes, to have a dialogue, to recognize and correct mistakes. The programs contain information methodically organized that can be learned active and conscious, using learning through discovery, simulation and didactic games.” 23 Using computers the student develops his visual sens while other games gives him the opportunity to touch, to smell, to listen. Motor development refers to the coordinated movements of the body and this educational activities should be done in one large space sa the students can jump, can walk. The advantages are various: students can touch the objects with his fingers and the motor development is faster. The disadvantages of using computers
are the fact that it limted the faster
development because the student limited to movement of joystick, to touch the keyboard, to few and repetitive movements. Social development refers to everithing that relationship can mean: family, groups, adults, collective,etc. The student’s relationship with his family is very important in his psychological development: when a family is communicative, keeps close relationships with relatives and friends, pay visits, etc and then the child will be emotional, sociable, communicative . Social game on computer has its disadvantages because they represent a solidary experience and not a social one, the computer, computer does not show affection, it responds as it is programmed. The language represent comunication which aims at transmitting information, messages to obtain a written or oral reaction: expressive language – E, receptive language - R. Teaching activities focus on skills associated with speech, writing, reception, reading. For students teachers must be create a stimulating atmosphere, supervised one to achieve these objectives: T.V, computers, games, moves. All these help students to develop their language because 23 Stoica, Marin Pedagogie si psihologie pentru definitivat, pg 154 16
communicate through language, but don’t allow reactions and interactions. Computer limited visual and emotional communication, limited touching hands and smile, etc.
The readings by pictures we used as another valuable means of cognition and language development, a favorable environment to exercise creativity, communication and thinking. This was possible by involving children in interpreting what images offer them, in valuing representations, previous experience, expressing more clear, fluent and expressive their ideas. The reading by pictures and conversations are a methods for practicing the language and
thinking of children.
With
the support questions
and answers,
child's speech will be permanently oriented by educator’s interventions, like: "Why?", "What do you think would happen if ...?". So, Children are put in a position to think logically, to find various solutions and express their thoughts. Stories are another effective means of development thinking and language. Through them children acquire many representations about objects, phenomena, facts, events, situations that can not be perceived as such. The story mobilizes thinking manifested in instances of playing through language. Teacher must be a model of creativity, thinking and communication, who need to transform the student into an active participant in activities. Drama is a method to enhance the experience , a method of acquisition of the foreign language. Tere are a lot of advantages of drama in teaching a foreign language, but I’ll ptresent some:
Language is used in meaningful situations in an attractive context for students.The teacher is the one who guides and advises students in such activities. He gives all students the chance to get involved, to cooperate for applying to and stimulate creative talent. Here the most
important is the student motivation and emotional involvement. Learning becomes enjoyable, stimulating, full of charm and full of combined words. Here students overcome their fear of speaking in a foreign language in front of others,
overcome their fear of error and they are corrected immediately. The language used is strengthening its learning. The teacher must be attentive to the sours of inspiration for using a complex vocabulary in order to involve all his students. In schools we ,,use the computer as an auxiliary of the interactive activities for children, not as a substitute for it.”24 Self-confidence targets feelings of self-worth and teacher can give this feeling to the students by:
respect and verbal appreciaction or prizes and rewards;
24 S.Goldberg ,,50 de activitati interactive pentru dezvoltarea copilului”, ed.Polirom, pg 41 17
appreciation of the uniqueness, of his quality; gently correcting the mistakes to avoid their repetition; transformation errors in chances.
The advantage of omputer games is that they enhance educational experiences but not replacing them, are not as effective as interactive activities that coordinates learning . In teaching and learning activities computers have an important role, but a limited one for the 5 elements of development. That don’t means computers don’t help at students’ education.,,The development shouldn’t be taught, but must be stimulated” 25
because it creates new
connections as the student learns, speaks, sees, hears, touches the real world around him, so learning comes naturally. Computer games represent a new and modern method but can not be used without applying and traditional methods: dialogue, explanation, conversation, Grammar translation method, Practice, Production, Direct Method, Comunicative Language Skills. These methods are designed to focus on learning conscious and the ability to perceive is taught. English forms the fundation to many aspects of life and it’s a fundamental skill that is taught to children in school around the world. Through gamification, English is a process of activ construction where students are assumed to control their learny and activity. “Game is an attractive way of integrating the structures in well-defined situations; students choose their utterances depending on their intention of studying language material.”26
25 Ibidem, pg 43 26 Gălețeanu,G. and Comișel,E. Indrumator metodic” pg 55 18
Chapter II - Edutainment and Gamification - How to Teach the Four Skills with Fun and Games Moto: ,, The game is a preparation for later life, but above all, it is child life itself.” (Mc. Dougle)
II.a Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) is a term created in 1994 by David Marsh and Anne Maljers as a methodology similar to but distinct from language immersion and content-based instruction. It's an approach for learning content through an additional language (foreign or second), thus teaching both the subject and the language. The idea of its proponents was to create an umbrella term which encompasses different forms of using language as the medium of instruction.CLIL is fundamentally based on methodological principles established by research on language immersion. The European Commission has therefore decided to promote the training of teachers to "...enhancing the language competences in general, in order to promote the teaching of non-linguistic subjects in foreign languages".27 ,,CLIL can be seen as an educational approach which supports linguistic diversity, and a powerful tool that can have a strong impact on language learning in the future. CLIL is an innovative approach to learning, a dynamic and motivating force with holistic features. It constitutes an attempt to overcome the restraints of traditional school curricula, i.e. the teaching of individual subjects, and represents a shift towards curricular integration”28 „In ELT, forms of CLIL have previously been known as 'Content-based instruction', 'English across the curriculum' and 'Bilingual education'. Languages will play a key role in curricula across Europe. Attention needs to be given to the training of teachers and the development of frameworks and methods which will improve the quality of language education. The European Commission has been looking into the state of bilingualism and language education since the 1990s, and has a clear vision of a multilingual Europe in which
27
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_and_language_integrated_learning
28 http://www.ub.edu/filoan/CLIL/teachers.pdf 19
people can function in two or three languages. CLIL is based on language acquisition rather than enforced learning. The advantages of CLIL are:
Introduce the wider cultural context Prepare for internationalisation Access International Certification and enhance the school profile Improve overall and specific language competence Prepare for future studies and / or working life Develop multilingual interests and attitudes Diversify methods & forms of classroom teaching and learning Increase learner motivation.
There is no doubt that learning a language and learning through a language are concurrent processes, but implementing CLIL requires a rethink of the traditional concepts of the language classroom and the language teacher.”29 In CLIL classroom we meet one of the basic principles: language is used to learn as well as to communicate. The communication can be divided into five stages: 1.Knowing and making communication needs. People are not really trying to communicate unless they have a purpose. 2.Codification of the oral message is instantaneously, and the writing one can be thoroughly and take into account the following: What I want to communicate; How to convey the message; What are the needs of the Receiver 3.How to encode the message, depending on the time, cost, distance, hierarchy, existing privacy and precedents. 4. Sending the message. 5.Receiving and decoding the message. Communication in the school’s context implies: art of speaching, art of listening, art of writing, art of silence, art of acting. In teaching comunication are used two kinds of communication: oral and written communication. These two are interacting with each other. Here we have to highlight three aspects : aspect of syntax (to guides after well determinated
29
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/content-language-integrated-learning
20
rules), semantic (all must have a sense, a certain reality, a meaning) and pragmatic ( the signs must have an influence on Receiver ). Oral communication apears after the nonverbal one, and has an encoded information and the word is used in lexical, morphological and syntactic texts, using the auditiv and visual chanals. The vocabulary has an important role in the oral communication, in the creation and reception of the message. Teachers view language learning as a process: ”learning the language in order to use it and using the language in order to learn it, ex: the student must learn the foreign language by struggling to communicate.”30 A successful CLIL lesson should combine elements of the following: Content - Progression in knowledge, skills and understanding related to specific elements of a defined curriculum Communication - Using language to learn whilst learning to use language Cognition - Developing thinking skills which link concept formation (abstract and concrete), understanding and language Culture - Exposure to alternative perspectives and shared understandings, which deepen awareness of otherness and self. In a CLIL lesson, all four language skills should be combined. The skills are seen thus:
Listening is a normal input activity, vital for language learning Reading, using meaningful material, is the major source of input Speaking focuses on fluency. Accuracy is seen as subordinate Writing is a series of lexical activities through which grammar is recycled. CLIL lessons exhibit the following characteristics: Integrate language and skills, and receptive and productive skills Lessons are often based on reading or listening texts / passages The language focus in a lesson does not consider structural grading Language is functional and dictated by the context of the subject Language is approached lexically rather than grammatically Learner styles are taken into account in task types Modern methods (for exemple the Direct Method) allow teachers to use the real
world, the imagination, the pantomime. As I mentioned, grammar is taught in inductive mode and all four dimensions of English Language Teaching are developing. 30 A.Vizental, Strategies of teaching and trsting English as a foreign language, pg37
21
The teacher has the role of the student's partner in learning. He must speak to give students suggestions, to interact; the student has a chance to self-correct. Here the emphasis is on continuous assessment. G.Lazanov invented the method ”Suggestopedia”, method who develops the understanding capacity of taught concepts by creating an stimulating and relaxing atmosphere, through music, through dialogue, by practicing various games and dramatizations. Using this method, the emphasis is on learning vocabulary and it develops oral or written expression capabilities. Also it assesses student’s performances in class, “the student's native language is used only if necessary. Mistakes are not corrected immediately, the student focus on fluency.”31 Every teacher, whatever he teaches, must develop to their students the ability of verbal or written communication. The teacher has to:
listens what the student says; guides them to the useful answers; observs, structured, takes part of the student-group communication; makes observations regarding: the language of the students, his activity involved, their
reactions to others opinions; gives them simple/difficult exercises for requesting their independence in thinking and expression;
talks, listens and helps them when it is necessary; asks and accepts questions , encourages them to communicate; puts them to pay attention to details. be well organised, be honest, be patient be enthusiastic and inspire enthusiasm has good sense of umor, give clear positive feedback and does not complicate things unnecessarily be authoritative without being distant
To be understood and to makes himself/ herself understood, the speaker takes into account the fallowing characteristics of the message: clarity, emphaty, proper appearance, speed of speech. Teachers must focus on their activities with the students and must use techniques and procedures in such ways that students can communicate/ learn to communicate in a conscious way. Language learning means interaction, interpersonal activity and helps us to mantain a relationship with society. Regarding to educational communication we have the 31 Oprescu M., Metode moderne si traditionale , din Revista de cercetare in stinte ale educatiei, 2 nov. 22
informational, emotional, motivational and control functions, which are important and ofen used in schools, in educational contexts. When theachers have this three qualities – respect, empathy and authenticity - the relationship whith their students becames stronger and deeper, the communication between people is more open and honest, the educational climat becomes positive. ”Authenticity is the most important characteristic - be yourself ! by being vulnerable and human and honest.”32 When teacher has begginers in teaching practice must use combinations of gesture and language because the new speakers need basically acquisition of language. For a good teaching, the teacher and their students benefit from techniques of the audio-lingual methods, dialogues, pattern practices, memorization, etc. At the advanced level Theacer must develop them the ability to use language independently, to produce results with the grammar-translation method,etc. For all levels it can be use the communicative activity: interaction, express filings, using material and work individual/groups, must creat a positive atmosphere for easely learning/teaching. ”In a student-centered class, at different times, students may be working alone, in pairs, or in groups: 1. Working alone, preparing ideas or making notes before a discussion, doing a listening task, doing a short written assignment, or doing grammar or vocabulary exercises; 2. Working together in pairs or groups, comparing and discussing their answers, or reading and reacting to one another’s written work and suggesting improvements 3. Working together in discussions or in role-plays, sharing ideas,opinions, and experiences 4. Interacting with the teacher and the whole class, asking questions or brainstorming ideas Also in a student-centered class, students may be teacher-led:
Before students work together, their teacher will help them prepare to work together with
explanations and pronunciation practice. While students are working together, their teacher will be available to give advice and
encouragement. After they’ve finished working together, and the class is reassembled, their teacher will give them feedback, offer suggestions and advice, make corrections, and answer questions. When students are working together in English, they 32 Scrivener, Jim Learning Teaching, ed Macmillian, pg 24 23
Talk more Share their ideas Learn from each other Are more involved Feel more secure and less anxious Use English in a meaningful, realistic way Enjoy using English to communicate
But some of them may
Feel nervous, embarrassed, or tongue-tied Speak English and make a lot of mistakes Speak in their native language, not in English Not enjoy working together”33
“ Common to all version of Communicative Language Teaching is a theory of language teaching that stars from a communicative model of language and language use, and that seeks to translate this into design for an instructional system, for material, for teacher and learner roles and behaviors, and for classroom activities and technique.”34 To be a well-educated person requires to allways improved a good communication, to have a good grammar translation, writing or listening. Teachers have learned to adapt the traditional procedures of teaching to the students’ needs and teachers exploit strategy which might/ have to generate a positive reaction from the students. CLIL can be implemented at learners of different ages, can be incorpotated in different type of activities through a variety of modalities. CLIL can be used for certain time periods, as tasks within the overall school curriculum and educational framework or implemented as optional subjects in secondary schools. Subjects, modules and projects can all be taught through CLIL who involved schools, teachers, learners, parents. Advantages for the school and the learners: • CLIL implementation within the school curriculum will raise the profile offoreign language learning throughout the school. It can also support the school’s development and make it more responsive to local needs. 33 Jones, Leo The student-centred classroom , ed Cambridge University Press, pg. 2-3 34http://www.lmg.ulg.ac.be 24
• through the exposure to more interesting, authentic (i.e. real world) contents CLIL leads to greater involvement, helps learners increase their motivation • Moreover, invaluable experiences have been gleaned in subjects with avocational orientation such as nursing, health care, home economics,woodwork and metalwork. • through the interactive and co-operative nature of work CLIL helps boost selfconfidence, raise self-esteem, build learner independence and teach learners organisational skills • through the greater number of contact hours with the foreign or second language CLIL helps learners upgrade their language skills and thus leads to enhanced language proficiency „The planning of the CLIL curriculum depends on the philosophy of each school and on the image the school aims to offer to parents,students and the local community. For example, a primary school may wish to provide learners with a large range of extracurricular activities in each field, in order that students can experience diversity and choose freely between different areas. In this case, the school can offer short “linguistic showers”, in a range of projects and workshops (computer skills, simple scientific experiments, etc.).Other schools may wish to specialise in modern languages, so they will introduce CLIL as complementary to formal language teaching.
It is necessary to define long-term goals and to take into account: a)
the available resources, in terms of: • teachers and their competences • administrative support in the school • materials and resources (handbooks, second language books, magazines,
newspapers, visual and multimedia materials, TV channels, …) • local community resources (native speakers, exchanges with other countries, business activities, …) b)the number and typology of students: their age, needs, interests and general linguistic competence.
25
c)
parents’ interest and students’ motivation to learn a specific modern language (as instrumental in vocational studies, for example) and their sensitivity to plurilingualism and
European citizenship d) specific learning objectives and expected outcomes e) how to link CLIL to the subject curriculum: such links and
practised
permanently,
for
instance
in
history
can
modules
be
defined
which
can
be developed in a second language. However, it is possible to link CLIL to special topical events and to school projects, such as international exchanges, music, theatre, sporting events, art exhibitions, partnerships, etc.”35 Starting from the objectives of language education, from the teacher’s freedom to choose his means of achieving and work tools, from the use of language skills in the communication process teacher used the framework offered by the didactic games and exercises of language, offered readings after images, memory and stories. Children imitate the games world surrounding them, imitate adults and adapt to the realities of life. Active learning is done through grammar/mathematics games, computer games and dramatization. Through these stimulating teaching, they form different skills.
II.b The listening and speaking skills through games “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” – Benjamin Franklin
To learn English involves the following: listening and speaking, writing and reading.
As mentioned previously, communication in English is done orally. Priority is given to developing skills of speaking and listeng. Reading and writing are not neglected.
35 http://www.ub.edu/filoan/CLIL/teachers.pdf 26
J. Harmer said that there are three rules we must should condider in a communication: 1 Sociocultural rules referes to talk in everyone’s termes to know how formal to be; how loud to speak; how closet o stand to each other.The sociocultural rules and habits change over time. 2. Turn-taking – everyboady knows when should speak by knowing the signals: verbal or visual. 3. Rules for writing – we must knoew the rules of each language that we speak / write. Writing exercises ar speaking in lessons are good for the students, but this don’t represent a productive skill. To teach productive skills is closely bound up with receptive skill work. The listening and speaking skills have the folowing targets:
To name the knowing objects, image, things,etc To name colours To name actions after some images To make logical sentenceses To listen a message and then to be able to answer, to say his opinion To reproduce a message To produce active listeners /readers the theacer must communicate to the students
only in English, so they can developed their own ability, the real-world language skills. As reading, it’s exensive and intensive listening. Intensive reading or listening is more concentraded, less relaxed and is often dedicated to the achievement of a stydy goal; is often done with the help of the teacher. Extensive reading or listening takes place when the students are on their own. Extensive listening helps students to aquire vovabulary and grammar.We found easely the material we need for intensive listening, because many sources simplified all by publishing on tape/disk/ CD. Many students enjoy reading and listening at the same time. The material is made at their level of knowledge. In intensive listening we can use taped material to hear the different kind of accents / voices, the contain, etc. ”It allows students to hear a variety of different voices apart from just their own teacher’s. it gives them the opportunity to meet a range of different characters, especially where real people are talking. But even tapes contain written dialogues or extracts
27
from plays, they offer a wide variety of situations and voices. For this reason, the coursebooks contain tapes/CD and teachers rely on CD to provide a significant source of language input. A disadvantage can be the poor accoustics in big classes, the speed is directed by the CD not by the listeners, there is no interaction with the CD speakers. Dispite the disavantages, the teachers will want to use tape material at various stages of lessons for all its advantages.”36 ” Listening involves three main sub-skills: 1. hearing means the R’s ability to recognize the oral message, to identify most of the vovabulary, the role of the stress and intonation as clues from decoding oral messages and interpret the E’s attitudes. 2. understanding means the R’s ability to interpret the E’s form of the language: functions of certain utterances and paralinguistic clues. 3. responding means the R ’s ability to react: non-linguistic or linguistic ways.” 37 We can’t learn/teach English without using both teaching and listening. There is an interdependence between the four skills:
listening and speaking develop skills of a correct and easier pronunciation. writing and reading grammatically correct develop skills of oral and written communication by doing structural exercicses and conversation exercises. Correct pronunciation comes first when you learn English. Learning a foreign language in schools involves a lot of practical skills based communication, pronouncing words. Training and skills development verbal communication is closely linked to the development of creative ability, is related to concerns and care to learn to speak correctly, to respect and cherish beautiful and literary language, to use creative and expressive paying attention to the volume and qualityof the vocabulary. Also it is closely related to the ordering of a flowchart of a correct grammatical structures, related to the quality and expressiveness of expression, to the ability to communicate in different situations. We meet two categories of reasons for reading and listening:
36 Harmer Jeremy The practice of English Language Teaching, ed. Longman, pg 229 37 A.Vizental, Strategies English as a of Teaching and Tasting Foreign Language, ed.Polirom,2007,Iasi, pg.143-144 28
* Instrumental (helps us to achieve some clear aim: instructions from tikets,technical support, etc). It can be plasurable, too: about somthing we are interest for. * Pleasurable (we read/ listen with greate pleasure:read magazines, listen to the radio, T.V, etc.) This different skills depend on what purpose we have to read / listening for: * Identify the topic; * To predict or guess what is comming; * For general understandibg; * For specific informations; for detailed informations; * To interpret the text (literal meaning of words in a passage). In classes activities,to teach English we fallow the three levels: 1. receptive skills: listening and reading 2. linguistic skills: vocabulary and grammar 3. productive skills: speaking and writing. These skills go hand in hand, they complement each other with communicative and culltural skills for a good understanding. Teaching / learning involves interactions in class time such as: - Student - teacher: The student can relate his / her own idea, composition, real events, etc. - Student – student: He must colaborate with his colegues; He reads aloud; He tells a story / film / book, etc.; He takes part on didactical games, etc. - Student – small group: They discouss and all of them participate; - Student- big group: Here can appear confusions and can discuss all of them; - Student – adult: Another than theacher ( interview,etc.). In teaching we will use the statements not lists full of words. The skills of pronouncement must be the fun ways that the teacher chooses takind into acount the level of knowledge: beginner, advanced. Oral communication development has two issues: a.) auditory aspect (sound message identification); b.) articulatory aspect (sending a message). The first step in learning English is hearing the simple words, poems, contrasting orders that accustom the students with the flow of the language sound. The repeatition is the 29
basic exercise for skills development of pronouncement. Representation of sounds is in sounds structure, not isolated. They can repeat the words, the statements together or individual maintaining intonation, the stress and the rhythm. Basis of phonetic language must be well formed and well consolidated from small group to large group and it is also known that the link between hearing-pronunciation and writing-reading work is undeniable. Educational games have been efficient: "The game vocalizations" or "Guess who came to us" in which children easily repeated sounds, imitating vocalizations: bazzz, vajjj, morrr, ssss, brrr, can be resumed under other variants such as: "Repeat after me" or "Who does so?”. 1.Ali Baba’s farm
2.Baby cats are called kittens
Ali Baba, he has a little farm,
Baby bears are called cubs
On his farm he has some little lambs.
Baby dogs are called puppies
Baa,baa sing his little lambs
A pigeon’s a squab!
On the farm of Ali Baba.
A girl horse is a filly
Ali Baba he has a little farm,
A boy horse is a colt.
On his farm he has some little cows.
A possum’s a joey.
Moo,moo talk his little cows
A chicken’s a poult!
On the farm of Ali Baba.
A penguin’s a fledgling
Ali Baba he has a little farm,
A reindeer’s a fawn
On his farm he has some little pigs.
A turtle is a chicken
Oink, oink cry his little pigs.
It makes no sense at all!
Only the students from 2st to 4th grade can try to write down some words. Any exercises that sutdents do, must be pronouncing one. Any exercises which they are doing in class with teacher’s help are titing, so the teacher takes care to alternate activities: poems, song, games, gymnastics exercices: Ex: gymnastics exercices : Close your eyes! Touch your nouse! Sit down! Stand up! Song, gestures and movement: If you’re happy…Calpp your hands! Intonation exercises: Mary eats ice-cream. Mary eats ice-cream! Eats Mary ice-cream?
30
In teaching phonics, theoretical explanation should be avoided. The teacher's role is to guide teaching, to correct students; he is a model to be imitated. Pronouncing exercises have a special role in classroom activities. Usually, the first time teacher repets ,,the greetings“ for 5-6 minutes with his students and then asks them general questions. Ex: What’s your name? Where are you from? How old are you? What’s your mother/ father’s name? Ex:
- Good Morning, Dear Teacher! - Good morning! How are you? - We are all very happy To say: 'Hello! ' to you.
a. Auditory aspect. The students will practice many repeat exercise, sound recognition exercises in different words which contain diphthongs and contrasting sounds. Compared with Romanian language this words have difficult pronouncement. Ex: [ i:] - [ i ]
[ e]
- [æ]
[ ^] - [ Ə: ]
heat – hit
bet - bat
hut – hurt
beat – bit
bit – bet
shut - shirt
With this exercises they can learn and use the intonation, rithm, the stress. Short poems – Nursery Rhymes - will help them. Poems for children delight them through musicality, through concision with which convey facts, ideas, pictures or feelings. With varied themes, poems can be used in the work of the students, not only for their simple storage and reproduction, but also to stimulate creativity, ability to communicate correct, fluent and expressive.
Seasons Spring is green, Summer is bright, Autumn is yellow, Winter is white.
Two, two, two,
-Pussy-cat, pussy-cat,
The dog is after you,
where have you been?
Three, three, three,
- I've been to London to
Three birds on a tree,
look at the Queen.
Four, four, four,
- Pussycat, pussycat,
Four cats on the fluor!
what did you do there?
One, one, one
- I scared a little mouse
Please, cat, run!
under her chair.
31
b. Articulatory aspect. Nursery Rhymes gives the fun aspect of learning English language. It is very important that the students understand and know the meaning of the words. After they repear the poems toghether, the teacher changes the way of teaching by putting them to repeat alone the poem. Short orders will grow gradually as students move on to another level of learning, they can use verbs. Ex: - Come here ! Come to the blackboard ! Clean the blackboard ! -Go to the door ! Go back to your desk ! Go there ! -Open your books ! Open the window ! Shut the door! Another way to teach students to understand the materials which the teacher is using the material intuitive, real images: It is a pen! - It’s a pen! This is my hat! There are three type of pronouncement exercises, according to G. Gălețeanu and E.Comișel: ,, In the first two years of studing , the pronouncement exercises folow: - training hearing - understanding the message - issuing accurate sound structure The first two objectives are realised by combining exercise of identifying the sounds by listening and executing some simple commands; the third goal is relised by repeat exercises.”38 First, in teaching activity of pronouncement, the students learn a sound, which they hear it in short words and then in short sentences, so they can identify and pronounce the sound. For a good understanding the teacher should show them pictures. Ex : [ i ] pig , pin, tin It’s a pig. It is a pin tin
[ e ] pen, peg , bell It’s a pen. It is a peg bell
Pronouncement exercises remain important in studying English. With advancing, the study of phonetic problems become more complex.
The Ruth Miskin method recomanded mnemonics – to stimulate memory using illustrations , "a fun way for your child to learn the letters and sounds that make up words ” so the student must focus on sound to pronounce the new word correctly. For example she use cards where there are images like a polar bear and on the reverse of card she wrote ,,ow” 38 Gălețeanu,G. and Comișel,E. Indrumator metodic”, ed. EDP, pg 26 32
and so she is informed about the sound. O another card she has the simply words: blow, snow, slow, show, know and flow. ,,These are green words. There are also red words, challenge words, speed sounds, and pink and purple banners. There are stories, too, in which, for example, a gingerbread man ran away from Dan, past a cat and a man in a van, and then got on Fran's pram. After a speeling sound we have blending sound, so the students learn to read easely. While we're teaching them this nightmare alphabetic code, we should give them simple books to read, but the richest books to hear. Phonics is just the quickest route to reading real books. The thing is, if you learned reading easily, you don't really remember how you learned. But if you struggled, you'll always remember the torture. I want to spare children that torture."39(electronic sours Metoda Ruth Miskin de citire si scriere in limba engleza) "Look, it's not like we've got the most transparent language in the world. But if English isn't phonic, what is it? It has a million words and you can't teach them all one by one. English isn't the best phonetic language, but it does have a code. For years and years, we just weren't teaching it.”40 As in Romanian language, in English language the stress, the rhythm and intonation are important and students have to learn to accentuate, to pronounce the words correctly. As before the teacher must use intuitive material for the students to better understand. They will pronounce simple words hwo have the stress on the first element, on the second one. Ex:
[ / _ ]
[ _ / ]
[ _ / _ ]
apple
address
attention
sister
police
potato
mother
repeat
tomorow
window
correct
November
They will practice compound words, too and then they try different combinations with adjectives, nouns, pronouns or verbs in sentences : Ex: a) bedroom, armchair, grandmother, grandpa, classroom, playground. b) It’a a big bedroom. blue armchair.
c) Ask him! Repeat it!
39 http://www.theguardian.com , article, A tonic for the phonics queen 40 idem 33
large playground.
Tell us!
black dog.
Stop her!
Nursery Rhymes are the simplest exercises and methods to teach the students and to learn about the stress, the rhythm and intonation. O short poem is learned in one or two hours of lecture. They can clap their hands for a better hearing of the sress, the rhythm and intonation. 1. One, two, three, four, Come in, please, and shut the door.
2. Rain, rain, April rain,
Five, six, seven, eight,
Bring the flowers back again,
It is time for school; you are very late.
Sun is yellow, sky is blue
Nine, ten, nine, ten,
And the trees are blossom, too.
Do not be late for school again 3. Little moon, little star, You are so far,
4. Little mouse, little mouse,
You are so high,
Where is your little house?
Come to us, sit and sing,
B: Here is the door,
You will get a golden
Under the floor!"
Poems and songs from my exemples can help students to acquire corectly the stress. Also it’s recomandated by methodists that teacher practices Special Questions: Ex. Johny, Johny Johny, Johny Yes Papa, Eating sugar? No Papa Ex: Where is your friend?
Telling lies? No Papa Open your mouth Ha! Ha! Ha! How old is your mum?
What is your mother?
Is it your hat?
Why are you eating?
Is that your book?
Where are you from?
Are they your friends?
34
Music and Songs are a powerful stimulus for students, because songs speak directly to our emotions, because a pice of music can excenge the atmosphere in a classroom or in teching activities. Songs can amused and entertain. The teacher will practice some dialogues with their students, will encourage the students to ask questions, to reproduce sentences not only sound, because intonation is very importantaint in a foreign language. ,,The combinations of words in sentences are according with rules of the system, creates linguistic context integrated into a situational context, through which is realizing the connection between substance and form of language with extra-linguistic situaton.”41 In time was a collaboration between teachers and methodologists in order to improve teaching activities – learning of a foreign language . They agreed to use morphological and syntactic terms in sentences, so the students from 2st to 4th grades can easely learn to write or pronounce: I
like music.
S
P
Ann eats ice-cream.
c.d
I don’t like music.
S
P
c.d
Ann doesn’t eat ice-crem.
The students recapitulate phonetic exercises each year of study and than they began to repeat after teacher the sound and after that they solve exercises too: the plural of the noun, the verb’s form at the 3rd person at the present time. Ex: verbs: He does; She teaches; She washes; He eats; He runs; She drinks nouns: church - churches
house - houses
potato - potatoes
cat - cats
fox - foxes
window - windows
class - classes
school - schools
In practice, productive skills cannot be separated from receptive ones. It’s quite easely to get the students to understand oral a foreign language, but it’s difficult to put the students to take part into a conversation. To speak or write is not a learning activity ; to activate the learner, two things are essentialy: motivation and practice. The students can consolidate their knowledge learned through competition that is entertaining. The winner is the one who tells more words from objects school, fruits and vegetables, family members, the months of the year, the numbers, etc. Doing that, the students practice the accent, reproduce specific sounds. 41 Gălețeanu,G. and Comișel,E. Indrumator metodic”, Ed.EDP , pg 12 35
Speaking a foreign language is not easy, because to speak you must understand the message and then you must to be able to transmit your message, to produce it using a corect answer, too. Spontaneous speech is maked by the use of a number of common lexical phrases, especially in the performance of certain language function.The students need to ask for clarification when they are listening to someone else talk,so the teacher have to offers them explanations, some synonyms/antonyms for a goog understanding. The most used modern methods are the methods of communication. Interogative methods have many forms depending on the content of teaching activities. Introductory conversation prepares students to start class. Previous knowledge checking conversation is by asking questions, the teacher asks the definitions and troubleshooting exercises. The conversation is used as a means of deepening knowledge. The conversation is centered on knowledge to fix reference competent, is used to finish work by questions of synthesis. ”The main important goals are fluency and confidence, because there is no point knowing a lot about the language if you can’t use it, aren’t able to conjugate a verb or to answer to a question.”42 By oral communication through expository methods (description, explanation, description) students acquire formative valences methods follow expressiveness and clarity of the language. The expositional mode is used to comunicate, to interact, to make the students to speak fluently and freely, to describe something, to tell a story, to express opinions. The language must be both accurate and appropriate (it must be
correct gramaticaly and
stillistcaly). Using the expositional mode the students present freely in front of the class some informations on a given subject. They have to use the foreign language which must be grammatically correct, adapted to the topic, must be well organized so the speaker can have a logical presentation and show their body language and paralanguage. Expositions can be informative, narrative, descriptive or persuasive which involve, as a class technique, storytelling, description of a image, a picture, an object, expressing opinions, the speeech. ,, There are two basic models of speaking activites: 1. The conversational (dialogic) mode is interactional and comunicative, relise on a permanent transference of meaning between two or more interactants - speaker and listener. 2. The expositional (monologic) mode is realised with one speaket who present his ideas. 42 Scrivener, Jim Learning Teaching, ed Macmillian, pg 146 36
Each mode consists of a wide variety of discourse type: question-answre (is the conversational mode) and summarizing (is typical for the expositional mode). These types develop the students’ speaking skills which are monitorized by the teacher in his teachinglearning activities. In the classroom, the the conversational mode usually takes the form of questionanswer exchanges, brainstorming, conversatyion, simulation, role-play, improvisation, debates. Such activities are enjoyable, absorbing the students’attention,stimulating their imagination and reducing their anxiety.”43 The question-answer exchange and the brainstorming are methodes who involve the students and activate their knowledge of language and ot the word. The most dificult for the little students are Wh-Questions because they involve the free communication and just the best student can answer them easely. Ex. When do yo got o scool? What is your brother hobby? How often do you eat ice-cream? Why do you like the blue colour? Games which are designed to provoke communication between students frequently depend on an information gap so one of the students has to talk to his partner in order to solve a puzzle, a picture, to put things in the right order, etc. Also brainstorming is used with simulation, role-play or improvization, because they are efficiently after the students read a text and then practice the nwe material to induce learning. John
father
Ex: brainstorming
grandpa
mother Tommy cousin
family
Ben
sister
Julya aunt
uncle
grandma
With stimulation and role-play the students act dialogues from their memory, they interact and comunicate as if they were in a real world. The students learn easely with these techniques because are entertaining, are easy to organised, are a kind of childrens’game and it’s the best way to reduce anxiety. 43 Vizental,A. Strategies of teaching and testing English as a foreign language, ed.Polirom,pg. 208-209 37
Improvization and dramatization are similar with the role-play method but is more atractive, more creative and complex. They requires a rich imagination and inventiveness on the part of the students. The teacher choose for his students both literary or non-literary texts (with a real-life event, with a political/military/love conflict). Dramatization means ,,interpretation,, of a dialogue or a narrative text where the scenes can be transformed in a dialogue from the students. Exercise method is a conscious repetition of activities aiming skills training, strengthening knowledge and developing intellectual capacities.
There are many types of exercise: subjects after they accomplished: Individual exercises, group/team exercises after their function: introductory exercises, basic exercises after the teaching’s way of the teacher: directed/guided exercises, free exercises by their pursued goal: communication exercises, training exercises of the intellectual skills, creativity and self-control exercises.
II.d The reading and writing skills through games Motto: ”The roots of learning are bitter, but the fruits are sweet” (russian) Reading and writing are essential tools of intellectual work, are tools of learning so the students will acquire these skills correctly and will broaden their horizon of knowledge. These skills are the fundamental condition of the educational process in school. Reading and writing are correlated with elements of communication development, development that is a constant concern. It’s important and it’s the fundamental condition of a successful extensiv reading that the students read their materiale which they can understand it. The teachers encourage their students to read; most students will not do a lot of extensive reading by themselves, so the teacher’s role is crucial. Reading is often a prelude to a speaking or writing activity. Teaching reading involved the students in both intensive and extensive reading. Extensive reading materials offer them the chance to read a lot but it offer them programmes which include appropriate materials, guidance, tasks, portable libraries of books, etc. Students do a lot of extensive reading if the teacher said that or encouraged them. Intensive reading depends on theacher, too. It is important to meke the student to read enthusiastically in clase, to creat interest in the topic and tasks. Here, the teacher has to be : * an organiser; 38
* an observer; * a feed-back organiser (to check that they have completed the task successfully); * to prompt / direct them as controllers. By reading, teacher involes and encourages the students to read for every word or general understanding, giving them a time limit, words / phrases limit and meaning consensus. They can work in groups, in pairs or individual. Reading skills have the folowing targets: correct pronunciation of sounds and words to read fluently the words made up of two or three syllables to read fluently the sentences using intonation and the accent to understand the correct meaning Incorrect Spelling can affect the reader’s judgement. A single sound may have different spelling: paw, poor, pour, etc. Educational resources can be integrated anytime in teaching lessons, because they have to suport the expressive and suggestive explanations of the teacher. ”In the first stage of English language teacher gives priority to drive ear to recognize specific sounds of language, to differentiate them from what resembles them. The next step is forming theskill of talking then proceed to the reading skills. Reading is done only after the material has been treated orally.[…] When the students are able to read a text fluently and correctly in terms of the pronunciation and intonation, then we can say that the students have formed their reading skills.”44 In reading activity, the teacher have to explain to his students some new words from the text, some keywords. Sometimes the teacher can explain the words in Romanian, so the students can aunderstand what the teacher says: Ex : Peter goes to school - The steps are: 1) The teacher says the sentence clear, rhythm, intonation and pronunciation normal. Peter goes to school. He can do a few times if he thinks it necessary; 2) The Professor "isolate" the word that contains the item "new": - Goes, goes - and he pronouces several times; 3) Professor distort this item "new" : - Go .... (z), ... go (z) - gives increased (z) ; 4) The teacher returns to the floor isolated: - Goes, goes - it gives the normal ; 5) The teacher introduces the new "model" normally: Peter goes to school.
44 Gălețeanu, G. and Comișel, E. Indrumator metodic”, Ed.EDP , pg 70-71 39
The oral presentation can support and strengthen the writing on the board and where termination is enclosed in a small square, usually drawn with a different color, which usually does not apply in preschool: Peter goes to school. Teacher must convince students read and they do not have it memorized. Using comprehension questions, the teacher can easely verify them what they understand after reading the text. The type of questions are the same from vovabulary teaching, are general questions (yes- no or true - false). First, at the beghiners, the questions’ answers may be given by reading exactly from text, so the students can give the correct answer.The students from 1 st and 2 th grades can read very well a text (they have short sentences), but they can aswer the questions after they listen a tape or a CD, after they see a movie/ image. Ex: Look, read and answer yes or no: Can he jump? Do they love vegetables? Can she climb? Does she play? Can it sweem? Do you like dentists? To the advanced students, the teachers use questions so the students have to think to give correct and logical answers, must to thinkat what the text implies. “Here the understanding and the answer can be simple or complex one, oral or written: a.) true – false sentences (wnswer was choos from more variants) b.) understanding through questions and answers made by the students c.) summary d.) highlighting main ideas from the text. Doing that, the theachers helps the students to memorate facts from the text. Regardless of the class activity occurs, the student must comply with pronunciation and intonation when reading the text.”45 At the beghiners students, the theachers used the pre-reading activity who aims to familiarize them with reading and writing. Pre-reading activity can be done through games and drawings that make the little students to pay attention to detail, to things that resemble or differ. What’s missing game is very attractive and a student has to answer after he looks at the image/objects and then he closes his eyes, so the theacher can move the objects. The objects have to be known by the students. Ex: The pig is inside the cage.
The pen in on the desk.
… outside…
The book …
45 Gălețeanu, G. and Comișel, E. Indrumator metodic”, Ed.EDP , pg73 40
This is a duster. …a desk. There are generalities about this kind of skills
but there are also significant
differences between reading and listening. ”When we are stimulated by particular words, discourse patterns,or contexts,schematic knowledge is activated and we are able to recognise what we see and hear because it fits into patterns that we already know. Conversation helps participants to communicate. As the conversation continues the speakers and listeners draw upon various schemata to help them make sence of what they are hearing. .”46 Writing conventions are separated from speaking because apart from grammar and vocabulary, involve texts, words manifested by handwriting, spelling, layout and punctuations. Writing: is the main way of writing communication means of transmitting informations. means of verifying students' knowledge means of learning that can not be ignored. In English teaching can not overlook and ignore the writing language, because it is essential in written communication, it is important to reinforce previously learned skills. Using writing, the teacher can verify the knowleadge of his students. So, writing represents a method of evaluation.Writing has its dificulty : native-language orthography is very different from English letters. By written comunication is made the cultural/literature/grammar informations.
By training and developing writing skills aims: Writing skills training and learning the rules of English graphics system Learning writing skills and knowledge of writing to express ideas in writing. Reading and writing or reading and speaking are productive skills. The students can modify the writing or the speaking messages, they can encode the messages and that can be realised because the students know the grammar or the vovabulary rules. There is a huge interdependence of these productive skills – speaking and writing. To speak is not so easy as to write, and that’s way the students learn first the oral communication. A student who knows to pronounce and to read correctly a word, won’t have any difficulty in writing it.
46 Harmer,J ”The practice of Enhlish language teaching”,ed.Longman,2006, pg.199. 41
The fallowing modern methods are used in a teachinh/learning activity: worksheets; pictures / flashcards; CD-s; DVD-s; games; poetry; role-plays; projects,etc Learning pyramid shows us the activity with the highest rate of memory:
Games are the most pleasent activities and it’s an interractive method. This method has many advantages and its only desadvantage is that there is not sillence in the class time. It is used as a method of teaching-learning-assessment. It aims to develop a child's physical, personality training, modeling him. Writing can be difficult for the students whose native-language ortography is very different from English.Writing is more and more important in ourdays : we use very often written communication: on computer: Internet, Facebook, exams, letters, etc.
Spelling is an obstacle to write correctly, because is a difference between the sounds of the word and the way it is spelt . In the beginners’textbook we met many listening exercices on the tape as the soundbite where students can learn more easely to pronounce and write the words.They also learn who make the difference between words- pronounce and writing. Ex. son-sun-soon, heared ; Communication in the school’s context implies: art of speaching, art of listening, art of writing, art of silence, art of acting.
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In teaching comunication are used two kinds of communication: oral and written communication. These two are interacting with each other. a. Written communication used a cod which must be known by the E, the one who used it, and the R, too. The R must be able to decode the message. In written communication we have to take account for ratio between the informations and time. It’s obiectives are: * understanding * perception of different levels of abstraction of types of language variants * understanding the relationship between values and the syntagmatic lexical * distinguish essential-accessory in a written text * learning techniques based on information written work, dictionaries, books, etc. * mastering the techniques of formulating questions * ability to summarize and draw a conclusion Intellectual processes of writing are the same as reading. Training exercises are necessary for learning and development of writing. Those exercises can be:
Copy Exercises – are the first step in writing language, are like imitation exercices in the graphic plan, made before: speaking-reading. Copy Exercises can be very attractive when are used in various games: the teacher divided into 2 groups the students and makes a contest ” who copies a given text without many mistakes”? They can do copy exercises that have mandatory requirements:ex. to underline the verb ending in -s/ -es or the plural of the noun.
Completing exercises help the students to fix their knowleadge about grammar or vovabulary problems from a text. Here, the students can read some sentences and then they try to put them in order/ to write down the missing words. These exercises can be done with the missing words. If the students are at the advanced level, they can complet sentences with grammar elements. Ex.
we -
read well
Mary - go to the zoo.
can: We can read well. can: Mary can goes to the zoo.
Recall exercices represent a game: the teacher writes a sentence on the blackboard which contains only known words by the student. After they read it about 3 times and they understand its meaning, the teacher deletes one, two, three words that students have to rewrite it, till the students have to rewrite it all.
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Answer questions from a text represent a writing exercise and the students have to copy some questions, to understand the message and then they have to try to give correct answers.We meet this kind of exercises from the 3 rd grade and the difficulty of the questions increase as the students assimilate more knowledge and enrich their vocabulary. The teacher must accustom them to formulate questions (written or oral one) based on the text, so the students
realise to compose sentences considering the parts of sentences and grammatical notions. Dictation is a complex exercise and aims to develop capacity of listening comprehension, it aims memorizing sentences spoken by the professor and colleagues, it aims to educate visual
memory and the students can spell the words. Reproduction consists of writing memorized text, usually is short text and is a dialogue that
has been practiced oral in teaching activities by the students. Directed composition is a very complex exercises because the students have to take into account the main ideas for having an order of the presented events. For this purpose is
realized exercises of completing sentences. Paraphrase is another method of enriching vocabulary, method of writing expression. The students have to read and write a sentence using the same ideea but another words. This
method give the students the opportunity to express their thoughts. Free composition is a writing activity which develop written expression skills. ”Creative Writing suggests imaginative tasks such as writing poetry, stories or plays and the students feel pride in their work and wanted to be read. Creative writing represent self-discovery, selfdiscovery promotes effective learning . While the students are writing a simple poem about someone they care about,or while they are trying to construct a narrative or a tell storie of theior chidhood, they are tipping into their own experience”47 The computer in schools represents many good reasons for the students to write. A word-processing package: - removes the problem of poor handwriting that some students suffer from. - allows the competent user to edit his/her material at great speed and with great
-
facility - spellcheckers cane ase the task of achieving correct spelling if students are working in groups , a computer screen can sometimes be far more visible to the whole group than a piece of paper might be.
II.e Grammatical structures are taught through games in the 1st to 5th grades. It uses the technique of conversation and structural exercises because the students end by fixing their knowledge through practice. 47 Harmer Jeremy The practice of English Language Teaching, ed Longman, pg 259
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Always in any activity of teaching foreign language learning, the teacher must choose favorable method for students to form their written communication skills ( it depends on how much they studied from the material ) and oral communication skills. These skills represent a means of documentation and information in a foreign language. Direct method is used at the end of the 19th century was born as a reaction to
traditional methods. This method has its priorities, according to Gălețeanu G: oral expression phonics -“language is made from sounds not from letters” grammar inductive learning through utterances - “language is from sentences, not from words”.
learning vocabulary based on illustrations, to mimic, computer.
After the 20th century appears mixed method that combines direct methods with traditional ones. Then everything starts to the audio-lingual elaborated method. There are 4 ways of structural exercises: a. b. c. d.
repetition substitution invention transformation.
a. The first step in learning any foreign language notion is repetition, in structural exercises. The students repet some sentences after the teacher or after a CD which theach them some gramatical or lexical notions. It’s very important that the students listen carefuly about 2-3 times the CD and then they can try to repet.Repetition became a conscious exercise, not one did automatically, not just an imitation. After they all repeat toghether , they will try to repeat each other, so the teacher can correct their mistakes. With this kind of exercises the students have to think before to resolve the exercises. Ex: Repetition : teacher - My teeth /… student - My teeth /…. my teeth
I’m washing.
a song
I’m singing.
A simple substitution: I am washing my hair.
I am washing my teeth. I’m singing a song. I saw you.
my hands.
my cousin.
my dool.
a rabbit.
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A complex substitution: I am beautiful. / Shara Shara is beautiful. / They They are beautiful. Using the subdtitution exercises, the students learn easily all the morphological notions in their syntactic context. b. Also the teacher use the invention to teach them to substitute two elements from a sentences. After he says to the students the two elements / stimuli, the students have to make a sentences, based on the relation between the elements. The scope of the exercises is to fix their knowleadge, to use the vocabulary in new contexts. Ex: teacher: sing – a song
student:
learn - a poem
I’m singing a song. I’m learning a poem.
or I’m eating an apple. / milk
I’m drinking milk.
I buy a ball today.
...a car…./ ..an umbrella…
or a dool
I’m playing with a dool.
The teacher helps the students by showing them flash-cards, object, image or by telling them verbs as elements: I drink…/ I play../ I go… They practice atractive substitution exercises which are closeed to the real situations, which are refered at themselves. c. Through transformation exercises are involved different changes of structures: the change of verbal shape, of time,/person or adds a new element in the sentence.These exercises are similar with the substitution one. The relation between the stimulation sentences and the transformation sentences has a double role: grammatical and semantic. Ex: I eat apple every day. Do I eat apple every day? I don’t eat apple every day. All these exercises ,,come alive,, by reference to the daily occupations and hobbies of the students. Dialogue is a form of the transformation exercises. When the students answer to the teacher’s questions, when they involve in the teaching activities, the teacher must do verbal apreciations – That’s good!, All right!, Congratulation!, etc - to encourage the students, to do jokes, to say a poem, etc. 46
Vocabulary learning is by similarity, difference and opposition between the meanings of words. Decoding the sense of the words using context, activates the students thinking that gives qualitative valences of memorizing. ,,Decoding the sense of the words is made by synonyms, antonyms; derivation and composition represents another means of decoding using by the advanced students.’’48 The teacher practices the same 4 ways of exercices as well as grammatical structures. Games are always present in students practices / activityes. Ex: You lose your pen.
He drives a car. = He is a driver.
You find your pen.
He acts a play. = He is an actor.
You win the prize.
I write a book. = I am a writer.
tall - short
quik – quikly
sugar - salt
big – small
bad – badly
go - stop
bad – good
certain – uncertain
wrong – well
obey – disobey
The students learn to do small description of an object, a person or an image using adjectives /verbs/ adverbs as antonyms or synonyms. As I mentioned, games are very important in teaching activities, have a specila role because helps the students to learn vocabulary. Games are often used at primary students as competition in oral and writing activities. There are songs or poems to learn vocabulary and riddles are very exciting. Ex: teacher - It’s shining on the sky. student - It’s the Sun. Riddles and Crosswords increase the passive vocabulary of the students, attract them in their learning activities. It always beats and hops, It never sleeps or stops, I have legs - one, two, three, four
Life-long we don’t part With our little... (heart.)
What month do soldiers hate?(March.)
48 Gălețeanu,G. and Comișel,E. ,,Indrumator metodic”, Ed.EDP , pg 65 47
What stays hot even if put in a refrigerator?(Pepper.) But I cannot walk across the floor. (A chair) What are two things people never eat before breakfast?(Lunch and supper.)
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Chapter III - Let the Games Begin!
It is essential for assimilating a foreign language that the lessons to be attractive and then the progress will be visible to students. To motivate more children, they have to follow all the courses and in the end the result will be the expected one.Through small competitions and role plays, teachers develop competitive spirit, and children learn English in a fun way, they are proud of their achievements and are motivated to its current level. Another advantage of games is that while improving their skills, they will improve teamwork and creativity. Education should be conducted continuously throughout life, so that students develop their personality, they will be able to cope with the social and professional problems. Acording to Cristea S., education represents psychosocial activities projected to level of educational finality that performs continuous training and development of human personality. Intellectual education requires self-knowledge and requires to know the society’s problems. Psychological needs focus on positive attitudes in order to use the knowledge and skills. Intellectual education is the basis of moral, physical and aesthetic education. Teaching game helps students to use the word through questions, answers, explanations, guidance or feedback. The game includes teaching tasks that help students build their skills, to consolidate knowledge and to leverage their creative side. The game develops the students' psychic, the game becomes a form of activity increasingly more complex.