Tema-1 “ LANGUAGE AS COMMUNICATION: ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE. FACTORS DEFINING A COMMUNICATIVE SITUATION: LISTENER, CODE, FUNCTIONALITY AND CONTEXT “
In this unit we are going to study language and its major functions: * We will show how Communication is one of these Functions. * We will show how learning a language is not only a grammatical process but also a Social Process. * We will also analyse the differences between Writing and Speech. * We will discuss some important Communicative Theory defining their key factors. * Finally, we will show how important it is to create Real Communication Situations in our Classrooms in order to improve language teaching. A conclusion summing up what has been said throught the unit will follow, ending up with the bibliography used for the elaboration of this discussion.
INTRODUCTION
We must point out that language is not just a “subject” in the sense of a package of knowledge. It is not just a set of information and insights. It is a fundamental part of being human. Traditional approaches used to treat a language as if it were a free-standing package of knowledge by analysing and observing it. Many of us learnt a language that way. But this process is a very abstract one and experience has shown that it does not appeal to everyone. To learn to use a language at all well for ourselves rather than for textbook purposes, most of us have to become involved in it as an experience. We have to make it a human event not just a set of information. We do this by using it for real communication, for genuine giving and receiving of messages.
* Now that we have introduced this particular topic we are going to deal with the study of language as Communication, its functions and the concept of communicative competence. The word language has prompted many definitions. For example; Sapir said that “ language is a purely human and non instinctive method of commicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols “. Hall defined language as “ the institution whereby humans communicate and interact with each other by means of habitually used oral-auditory symbols “
As we can see with these two definitions it is difficult to make a precise and comprehensive statement about formal and functional universal properties of language, so some linguists have tried to identify the various properties that are thought to be its essential defining characteristics. The most widely acknowledged comparative approach has been that proposed by Charles Hockett. This set of 13 design features of communication using spoken language are as follows: 1. Auditory-vocal channel: sound is used between mouth and ear. 2. Broadcast transmission and directional reception: a signal can be heard by any auditory system within earshot and the source can be located using the ear’s direction finding. 3. Rapid fading: auditory signals are transitory. 4. Interchangeability: speakers of a language can reproduce any linguistic message they can understand. 5. Total feedback: speakers hear and can reflect upon everything they say. 6. Specialization: the sound waves of speech have no other functions than to signal meaning. 7. Semanticity: the elements of the signal convey meaning through their stable association with real world situations.
8. Arbitrariness: there is no depency between the element of the signal and the nature of the reality to which it refers. 9. Discreetness: speech uses a small set of found elements that clearly contrast with each other. 10. Displacement: it is possible to talk about events remote in space or time from the situation of the speaker. 11. Productivity: there is an infinitive capacity to express and understand meaning, by using old sentence elements to produce new elements. 12. Traditional transmission: language is transmitted from a generation to the next by a process of teaching and learning. 13. Duality of patterning: the sounds of language have no intrinsic meaning, but combine in different ways to form elements, such as words, that do convey meaning.
* After having studied the main properties of language, and communication, we will now see how the learning of a language involves a Social Process. The most usual answer to the question of “why we use language” is to communicate our ideas, and this ability to communicate or communicative competence will be studied in the next part. But it would be wrong to think of communicating our ideas as the only aim for
which language is used. Several other functions may be identified where the communications of ideas has a marginal or irrelevant consideration. One of the most common uses of language, the expressive or emotional one, is a means of getting rid of our nervous energy when we are under stress, when we are angry, afraid, etc. We do not try to communicate because we can use language in this way whether we are alone or not. Malinowski termed the third use of language we are studying Phatic Communication. He used it to refer to the social function of language , that is, to signal friendship or lack of enemity. Also, to maintain a comfortable relationship between people. The fourth function we may find is based on Phonetic Properties. The persuasive cadences of political speechmaking, or the chants used by prisoners or soldiers have only one apparent reason: people take delight in them. They can only be explained by a universal desire to exploit the sonic potential of language. The fifth function is the Performative one. A performative is an utterance that performs an act. This use occurs in the naming of a ship at a launching ceremony, or when a priest baptises a child. We can also find other functions such as: - recording facts - instrument of thought
- expression of regional, social, educational, sexual or occupational identity.
The British linguist Halliday grouped all these functions into three Metafunctions, which are the manifestations in the linguistic system of the two unique manifestation purposes which underline all uses of language, combined with the third component (textual) which breathes relevance into the other two. 1) The Idealistic Funtion: is to organise the speaker’s or writer’s experience of the real or imaginary world. 2) The Interpersonal Function: is to indicate, establish or maintain social relationships between people. 3) The Textual Function: which serves to create written or spoken texts which cohere within themselves and which fit the particular situation in which they are used.
Now we shall study the function of communication or what is named Communicative Competence. Chomsky defined language as a set of sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements. An able speaker has a subconcious knowledge of the grammer
rules of his language which allows him to make sentences in that language. However, Dell Hymes thought that Chomsky had missed out some very important information: The Rules Of Use. When a native speaks, he does not only utter grammatically correct forms, he also knows where and when to use the sentences and to whom. For Hymes the Communicative Competence had four aspects: 1) Systematic Potential: This means that a native speaker possesses a system that has a potential for creating a lot of language. This is similar to Chomsky’s competence. 2) Appropriacy: This means that the native speaker knows what language is appropriate in a given situation, according to: setting, participants, purposes, channel and topic. 3) Occurence: This means that the native speaker knows how often something is said in the language and acts accordingly. 4) Feasibility: This means that a native speaker knows whether something is possible in the language.
These four categories have been adapted for teaching purposes. Thus, Real Decreto 1006/1991 of 14th June, which establishes the teaching requirements for Primary
Education nation-wide, sees communicative competence as comprising five subcompetences: 1) Grammar Competence. The ability to put into practice the system of grammar rules by which a language operates.
2) Sociolinguistic Competence. The ability to produce appropriate utterances in different sociolinguistic contexts depending on contextual factors such as status of participants, purpose of the interaction.... 3) Sociocultural Competence. This is understood to be the knowledge of the social and cultural context in which the language is used.
4) Discourse Competence. The ability to produce unified written or spoken discourse that shows coherence and cohesion in different types of texts. 5) Strategic Competence. The ability to use verbal and non-verbal strategies to compensate for breakdowns in communication, or to improve the effectiveness of communication, as for example, the use of paraphrase, tone of voices or gestures.
On the other hand, Canale defined Discourse Competence as the aspect of communicative competence which describes the ability to produce unified written or spoken discourse that shows coherence and cohesion and which conforms to the norms of different genres.
* Up to this point we have studied the concept of language as means of communication, amongst other functions. Now, let us move onto another important aspect of this unit, which deals with the main differences between writing and speech. Before summarising the main differences between spoken and written language we will outline their main features independantly. On the one hand we have spoken language, which is the most obvious aspect of language. Speech is not essential to the definition of an infinitely productive communication system, such as is constituted by language. But, in fact, speech is the universal material of language. Man has almost certainly been a speaking animal. The earliest known systems of writing go back perhaps some 5000 years. This means that for many hundreds of thousands of years human languages have been transmitted and developed entirely as a spoken means of communication. The description and classification of speech sounds is the main aim of phonetics. Sounds may be identified with reference to their production, their transmission and their reception. These three activities occur at the physiological level, which implies the action
of muscles and nerves. The motor nerves that link the speaker’s brain with his speech mechanism activate the corresponding muscles. The movements of the tongue, lips, vocal chords, etc, constitute the articulatory stage of the speech chain, and the area of phonetics that deals with it is articulatory phonetics. The movement of the articulation produces disturbances in the air pressure called sound waves which are physical manifestations. This is the acoustic stage of the chain, during which the sound waves travel towards the listener’s ear. These sound waves activate the listener’s ear drum.
On the other hand we have written language which evolved independently at different times in several parts of the world. We can classify writing systems into two types: 1) Non-Phonological Systems. These do not show a clear relationship between the symbols and the sounds of the language. They include the pictographic, ideagraphic, uniform and Egyptian hieroglyphics and logographics. 2) Phonological Systems. These do show a clear relationship between the symbols and the sounds of language. We can distinguish between syllabic and alphabetic systems.
In a syllabic system each grapheme corresponds to a spoken syllable. Alphabetic writing establishes a direct correspondance between graphemes and phonemes. In a perfect regular system there is one grapheme for each morpheme. However, most alphabets in present day use fail to meet this criteria. At one extreme we find such languages as Spanish, which has a very regular system; at the other we find such cases as English and Gaelic where there is a marked tendency to irregularity. Now let’s study the main differences between writing and speech. The most obvious is the contrast in physical form. Speech uses phonic substance typically in the form of air-pressure movements, whereas writing uses graphic substance, typically in the form of marks on a surface. As writing can only occasionally be thought of as an interaction, we can establish the following points of contrast: 1) The permanence of writing allows repeated reading and close analysis. The spontaneity and rapidity of speech minimises the chance of complex pre-planning, and promotes features that assisst speakers to think standing up. 2) The participants in written interaction cannot usually see each other, so they cannot make clear what they mean. However, in speech interactions feedback is possible. 3) The majority of graphic features presents a system of contrasts that has no speech equivalent. Many genres of written language, such as tables, graphs and complex formulae, cannot be conveyed by reading aloud.
4) Some contructions may only be found in writing, others only occur in speech, such as in slang and swear words. 5) Finally we can say that writing tends to be more formal and so it is more likely to provide the standard that society values. Its performance provides it with a special status.
Despite these differences, the written and spoken language have mutually interacted in many respects. We normally use the written language in order to improve our command of vocabulary, active or passive, spoken or written. Loan words may come into a country in a written form, and sometimes everything we know about a language is from its written form eg: Latin. It is true that writing has derived from speech in an historical sense, but nowadays their independance is mutual.
* Now we have examined the differences between speech and written language we shall concentrate on the theory of communication, and those factors defining a communicative act. According to Ivor Armstrong Richards, “communication takes place when one mind so acts upon its environment that another mind is influenced, and in that other mind an experience occurs which is like the experience in the first mind, and is caused in part by that experience.”
From this definition we can conclude that any communicative act necessarily happens among persons or between a person who acts as a speaker and a listener or between various people who act as receivers. Besides these people there are other elements in a communicative act: * The Message The content of information that the speaker sends to the listener. * The Channel The place through which the message flows. * The Code A limited and moderately wide group of signs which combine according to certain rules known by the speaker and by the listener. * The Context The situation in which the speaker and the listener are in, which sometimes helps to interpret the message.
* As we have seen communication is the exchange of meanings through a common system of symbols. Now it is time to ask ourselves: “What does communication in the classroom imply ?”
Many studies of classroom language have shown that in most native speaker ? is used for function rather than for direct teaching. These extra functions include: greetings, discussion, health, attendance,the weather and so on.
Barnes (1969), in his description of classroom language, labelled these functions “social”. Social interaction also takes placein foreign language and 2nd language classrooms, but in many such classrooms native language is used for this purpose. Fanselow (1977) attempted to set up a system for observing and recording different types of communication in the language classroom. He established five headings in the form of questions: 1) Who communicates ? 2) What is the pedagological purpose of the communication ? 3) What mediums are used to communicate content ? 4) How are the mediums used ? 5) What areas of content are communicated ?
All of these questions are useful in thinking how language is used in the classroom.
The first of these areas, Language, concerns those times when a teacher is explaining or illustrating the language, or when the pupils are asking questions about the language, or practising pronunciation or structures. In most English language classes, this part of the lesson is conducted in English. The second, Procedure, concerns those times when the teacher is managing the classroom, explaining what to do next, how to do it and so on. Some teachers use English for classroom management, and others use the children’s mother tongue, at least during the early stages. The third of Fanselow’s categories, Subject Matter, concerns those times when the language is being used to convey some specific topic as a part of a lesson. For example, if the teacher tells the story “The Frog Got Lost”, the subject matter is the frog and its adventures. In this case the teacher’s aim might be to illustrate the use of the past simple tense, but the content area of language used in that part of the lesson is not tense but the tale of the frog. In the language classroom, this part of the lesson would be conducted in English. The final content category identified by Fanselow, Life, concerns communication between teacher and pupils about Real Life Matters, not directly about the lesson. This category embraces the type of questioning that Barnes called “social” as well as any other type of communication about the real world. Thus, for example, if the teacher directs a particular student to “open the window” or asks another who has nothing to write on “Where is your notebook?”, or genuinely asks another “Is your brother in the football match on Saturday?”, then he/she is using language about the real world that is part of the learner’s direct experience. This is a great opportunity for real communication in the English classroom through English. When speaking to children
in English, it is important, as it is when they are learning their first language, to support communication through the use of gesture, facial expression and action because this gives children clues to the meaning of what they hear and so draws their attention to and helps them to become familiar with the sounds, rhythm and stress of the second language. Strategies that parents use intuitively to draw children into the use of the first language must be used deliberately by the teachers to draw children into using the second language. Research has shown that parents generally speak more slowly, articulate more carefully, and use gesture, facial expression and tone when talking to young children to aid their understanding and to encourage them to produce.
CONCLUSION To conclude, we could bear in mind that an important aspect of interaction in the English classroom is that it must be managed by the learners as well as by the teacher. That is to say that learners must be confident enough to initiate communication in English, and not merely respond when they are addressed by the teacher. A pupil that has something to say, an apology or a request to make, a question to ask, a greeting to give, should be encouraged to express him/herself in English. If resources are not to be wanted and opportunities to be missed, children must learn English in the same way they learnt their mother tongue, as a living language that can be used for active communication as much as for establishing personal relationships.
BIBLIOGRAPHY The bibliography used for the elaboration of this topic is as follows: * “Teaching the Spoken Language” by Gillian Brown and George Yule C.U.P. 1997. * “Teaching English to Children” by Christopher Brumfit, Jayne Moon and Ray Tongue. Longman 1992. * “Teaching English in the Primary Classroom” by Susan Halliwell. Longman 1992.
TEMA 1 LA LENGUA COMO COMUNICACIÓN: LENGUAJE ORAL Y LENGUAJE ESCRITO. FACTORES QUE DEFINEN UNA SITUACIÓN COMUNICATIVA: EMISOR, RECEPTOR FUNCIONALIDAD Y CONTEXTO. 0. INTRODUCTION. 1. LANGUAGE AS COMMUNICATION. 1.1.
Language definitions.
1.2.
Language functions.
1.3.
Communicative competence.
2. SPOKEN AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE. 2.1.
Spoken language.
2.2.
Written language.
2.3.
Historical Attitudes.
2.4.
Differences between writing and speech.
3. COMMUNICATION THEORY. 3.1.
Communication definition.
3.2.
Main Models.
3.3.
Key factors.
4. BIBLIOGRAPHY.
0. INTRODUCTION. Traditional foreign language teaching concentrated on getting students consciously to learn items of language in insolation. These bits of information would be mainly used to read texts and only occasionally for oral communication. The focus was not on communication but on a piece of language. Following Krashen’s distinction between acquisition and learning we can say that people got to know about the language (learning) but could not use it in a real context (acquisition). The British applied linguist Allwright tried to bridge this dichotomy when he theorised that if de language teacher’s management activities were directed exclusively at involving the learners in solving communication problems in the target language, then language learning wil take care of itlself. We may or may not agree with this extreme rendering of the Communicative approach, but we all agree nowadays on the importance of letting ous pupils use English for real communication during at least, the production stage. In this unit we are going to study language and its functions to see that communication is one of thes functions. We wil then posit that learning a language is not only a grammatical and lexical process but also a social process. We also analyze the differences between writing and speech; and finally we will discuss the most important communication theory models, defining their key factors. 1.
LANGUAGE AS COMMUNICATION.
1.1. Language Definitions. The word language has prompted innumerable definitions. Some focus on the general concept of language (what we call lengua or lenguaje) and some focus on the more specific notion of a language (what we call lengua or idioma).
SAPIR (1921) said that “language is a purely human non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols”. HALL (1964) defined language as “the institution whereby humans communicate and interact whith each other by means of habitually used oral-auditory arbitrary symbols”. As we can see in these two definitions it is diffi cult to make a precise and comprehensive statement about formal adn functional universal properties of language so some linguists have trien to indentify the various properties that are thought to be its essential defining characteristics. The most widely acknowledged comparative approach has been the one proposed by Charles HOCKETT. His set of 13 design features of communication using spoken language were as follows: -
Auditory-vocal channel: sound is used between mouth and ear.
-
Broadcast transmission and directional reception: a signal can be heard by any auditory system within earshot, and the source can be located using the ears’ direction-finding ability.
-
Rapid fading: auditory signals are transitory.
-
Interchangeability: speakers of a language can reproduce any linguistic message they can understand.
-
Total feedback: speakers hear and can reflect upon everything that they say.
-
Specitalization: the sound waves of speech have no other function than to signal meaning.
-
Semanticity: the elemens of the signal convey meaning through their stable association with realworld situations.
-
Arbitrariness: there is no dependence of the element of the signal on the nature of the reality to which it refers.
-
Discreteness: speech uses a small set of sound elements tha clearly contrast whith each other.
-
Displacement: it is possible to talk about events remote in space or time from the situation of the speaker.
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Productivity: ther is an infinite capacity to express and understand meaning, by using old setence elements to produce new sentences.
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Traditional transmissión: language is transmitted from one generation to the next primarily by a process of teaching and learning.
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Duality of pottering: the sound of language have no intrinsic meaning, but combine in diferents ways to form elements, such as words, than do convey meaning.
After having studied thje main properties of language (what is language?) we will now see its function (whats language for?). 1.2. Language Functions. The most usual answer to the question “why do we use language?” is “to communicate our ideas” and this ability to communicate or communicative competence is studied in the next part. But it would be wrong to think of communicating our ideas as the only way in which we use language (referential, ideational or propositional function). Several other functions may be indentified where the communication of ideas is a marginal or irrelevant consideration. One of the commonest uses of languages, the expressive or emotional one, is a means of getting rid of our nervous energy when we are under stress. We do not try to communicate ideas because we can use language in this way whether we are alone or not. Swear words and obscenities are problably the most usual signals to be used in this way, especially when we are angry. But there are also many emotive utterances of positive kind, such as expressions of fear, affection, astonishment...
MALINOWSKY (1844-1942) termed the third use of language we are studying “phatic communication”. He used it to refere to the social function of language, which arises out of the basic human need to signal friendship, or, at least, lack of enmity. If someone does not say hello to you when hi is supposed to, you may think hi is hostile. In these cases the sole function of language is to maintain a comfortable relationship between people, to provide a means of avoiding an embarrassing situation. Phatic communication, however, is far from universal, some cultures prefer silence, eg, the Aritama of Colombia. The fourth function we may find is based on phonetic properties. The rhythmical litanies of religious groups, the presuasive cadences of political speechmaking, the dialogue chants used by prisoner or soldiers have only one apparent reason: people take delight in them. They can only be explained by a universal desire to exploit the sonic potential of language. The fith function is the performative one. A performative sentence ins an utterance that performs an act. This use occurs in the naming of a ship at a launching ceremony, or when a priest baptizes a child. We may also finde other functions such as: -
recording facts. Instrument of thought Expression of regional, social, educational, sexual or occupational identity.
The British linguist HALLIDAY grouped all these functions into three metafunctions, shich are the manifestation in the linguistic system of the two veryu general purposes shich underlie all uses of language combine whith the rhird component (textual) shich brethes relevance into the other two. 1.- The ideational function is to organize the speaker’s or writer’s experience of the real or imaginary world, i.e. language refers to real or imagined persons, things, actions, events, states,etc.
2.- The interpersonal function is to indicate, establish or mantain social relationships between people. It includes forms of address, speech function, modality ... 3.- The third component is the textual function which serves to create written or spoken texts which cohere within themselves and which fit the particular situation in which they are used. 1.3. Communicative competence CHOMSKY (1957) defined language as `a set of sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements. A capable speaker has a subconscious knowledge of the grammar rules of his language which allows him to make sentences in that language’. However, Dell HYMES thought that Chomsky had missed out some very important information: the rules of the use. When a native speaker speaks, he does not onlu utter grammatically correct forms, he also knows where and when to use these sentences and to whom. Hymes, then, said that competence by itself is not enough to explain a native speaker’s knowledge, and he replaced it with his own concept of communicative competence. HYMES distinguishes 4 aspects of this competence: - systematic potential - appropriacy - occurrence - feasibility Systematic potential means that the native speaker possesses a system that has a potential for creating a lot of language. This is similar to Comsky’s competence. Appropriacy means that the native speaker knows what language is appropriate in a given situation. His choice is based on the following variables, among others:
Setting Participants Purpose Channel Topic Occurrence means that the native speaker knows how often something is said in the language and acts accordingly. Feasibility means that the native speaker knows whether something is possible in the language. Even if there is no grammatical rule to ban 20-adjective prehead construction, we know that these constructions are not possible in the language. These 4 categories have been adapted for teaching purposes. Thus, the Royal Decree 1006/1991 of 14 June (BOE 25 June), which establishes the teaching requirements for Primary Education nationwide, sees communicative competence as comprising five subcompetences: -
Grammar competence (competencia gramatical, o capacidad de poner en práctica las unidades y reglas de funcionamiento del sistema de la lengua). Discourse competence (competencia discursiva o capacidad de utilizar diferentes tipos de discurso y organizarlos en función de la situación comunicativa y de los inetrlocutores). Sociolinguistic competence ( competencia sociolingüística o capacidad de adecuar los enunciados a un contexto concreto, atendiendo a los usos aceptados en una comunidad lingüística determinada). Strategic competence ( competencia estratégica o capacidad para definir, corregir, matizar o en general, realizar ajustes en el curso de la situación comunicativa). Sociocultural competence ( competencia sociocultural, entendida como un cierto grado de familiaridad con el contexto social y cultural en el que se utiliza una determinada lengua).
The terms grammar, sociolinguistic and sociocultural competence are quite self explanatory so we will only analyze discourse and strategic competence.
CANALE (1980) defined discourse competence as an aspect of communicative competence which describes the ability to produce unified written or spoken discourse that shows coherence and cohesion and which conforms to the norms of different genres. Our pupils must be able to produce discourse in which successive utterances are linked through ruoles of discourse competence. Strategic competence may be defined as an aspect of communicative competence which describes the ability of speakers to use verbal and non-verbal communication strategies to compensate for breakdowns in communication or to improve the effectiveness of communication. 2. SPOKEN AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE It is traditionl in language study to distinguish between spoken and written language. Before summarizing their main differences we will outline their main features independently. 2.1.
Spoken Language
The most obvious aspect of language is speech. Speech is not essential to the definition of an infinitely productive communication system, such as it is constituted by language. But, in fact, speech is the universal material of human language. Man has been a speaking animal from early in the emergence of Homo Sapiens as a recognizable distinct species. The earliest known systems of writing go back perhaps 5.000 years. This means that for many hundreds of thousands of years human language were transmitted and developed entirely as spoken means of communication. The description and clasification of sounds is the main aim of phonetics. Sounds may be identified with reference to their production, transmission and reception. These three activities occur at a physiological level, which implies the action of nerves and muscles. The motor nerves that link the speaker’s brain with his speech mechanism activate the corresponding muscle. The movements of the tongue, lips, vocal folds, etc. Constitute the articulatory stage of the speech chain, and the area of phonetics that deals with it is articulatory phonetics.The movement of the articulators produces
disturbances in the air pressure called sound waves, which are physical manifestations. This is the acoustic stage of the chain, during which the sound waves travel towards the listener’s ear-drum. The study of speech sound waves correspons to acoustic phonetics. The hearing process is the domain of auditory phonetics. This can be seen in the following table:
SPEECH CHAIN
BRAIN
SPEECH MECHANISM
SOUND WAVES
EAR
BRAIN
Activity psychological physiological physical physiological psychologicals stage linguistic production transmission perception linguistic Phonetics
articulatory phonetics
acoustic phonetics
auditory phonetics
In this table we can see how phonetics is the study of all possible speech sounds. This is not the most important task for linguist, however. A linguist must study the way in which a language’s speakers systematically use a selection of theses sounds in order to express meaning. In this activity he is helped by phonology. Phonology is continually loking beneath th surface of speech to determine its underlying regularities. It is not interested in sounds but in phonemes, ie. Smallest contrastive phonological units which can produce a difference in meaning. The study of speech is therefore, the field of both Phonetics and Phonology. 2.2.
Written language.
Myths and legends of the supernatural shroud the early history of writing. One point, at least, is fairly clear. It now seems most likely that writing systems evolved independently of each other at different times in several parts of the world –in Mesopotamia, China... There is nothing to support a theory of common origin.
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We can classify writting systems into two types: Non-phonological. Phonological.
Non-phonological systems do not show a clear relationship between the symbols and the sounds of the language. They include the pictographic, ideographic, cuneiform and egyptian hieroglyphic and logographic. In the pictographic system, the graphemes or pictographs or pictograms provide a recognizable picture of entities as they exist in the world. Ideograms or ideographs have an abstract or conventional meaning, no longer displaying a clear pictorial link whith external reality. The cuneiform method of writing dates from the 4 th. Millennium BC, and was used to express both non-phonological and phonological writing systems. The name derives from the Latin, meaning ‘wedgeshaped’ and refers to the technique used to make the symbols. Egyptian hieroglyphic developed about 3000 BC. It is a mixture of ideograms, phonograms and determinative symbols. It was called hieroglyphic because of its prominent use in temples ad tombs (Greek, ‘sacred carving”). Logographic writing systems are those where the graphemes represent words. The best known case is Chinese and Japanese kanji. The symbols are variously referred to as logographs, logograms or characters.
Phonological systems do show a clear relationship between the symbols and the sounds of language. We can distinguish syllabic and alphabetic systems. In a system of syllabic writing, each grapheme corresponds to a spoken syllable, usually a consonant-vowel pair. This system can be seen in Japanese Kataka. Alphabetic writing establishes a direct correspondence between graphemes and morphemes. This makes it the most economic and adaptable of all the writing systems. In a perfectly regular sustem there is one grapheme for each morpheme. However, most alphabets in present day use fail to meet this criterion. At one extreme we find such languages as Spanish, which has a very regular system; at the other, we find such cases as English and Gaelic, where there is a marked tendency to irregularity. 2.3.
Historical attitudes.
Historically speaking, written language was considered tobe superior to spoken language for many centuries. It was the medium of literature, and literature was considered a source of standards of linguistic excellence. Witten records provide language with permanence and authority and so the rules of grammar were illustrated exclusively from written texts. On the other hand, spoken language was ignored as an object unworthy of study. Spoken language demostrates such a lack of care and organization that cannot be studied scientifically; it was said to have no rules, and speakers have thought that, in order to speak properly, it was necessary to follow the correct norm. As this norm was based on written standards, it is clear that the prescriptive tradition rested supremacy of writing over speech. This viewpiont became widely criticized at the turn of our century. Leonard Bloomfield insisted that "writing is not language but merely a way of recording language by means of visible marks". This approach pointed out several factors, some of which we have already mentioned:
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Speech is many centuries older than writing
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It developes naturally in children Writing systems are mostly derivative, ie, they are based on the sounds of speech.
If speech is the primary medium of communication, it was also argued that it should be the main object of linguistic study. Actually, the majority of the world's cultures' languages have never been written down and this has nothing to do with their evolutionary degree. It is a fallacy to suppose that the languages of illiterate or so-called primitive peoples are less structured, less rich in vocabulary, and less efficient than the languages of literate civilization. E. Sapir was one of the first linguistics to attack the myth that primitive peoples spoke primitive languages. In one study he compared the grammatical equivalents of the sentence "he will give it to you" in six Amerindian languages. Among many fascinating features of these complex grammatical forms, note the level of abstraction introduced by the following example: Southern Paiute Maya-vaania-aka-anga-'mi= guve will visible-thing visible-creature thee Many linguistics and ethnographerstherefore stressed the urgency of providing techniques for the analysis of spoken language and because of this emphasis on the spoken language, it was now the turn of writing to fall into disrepute. Many linguistics came to think of written language as a tool of secundary inportance. Writing came to be excluded from the primary subject matter of linguistic science. Many grammarians presented an account of speech alone. Nowadays, there is no sense in the view that one medium of communication is untrinsically better. Writing cannot substitute for speech, nor speech for writing. The functions of speech and writing are usually said to complement each other. On the other hand, there are many functional para llels which seem to be increase in modern society. We cannot use recording devices to keep facts and communicate ideas. On the other hand writing is also taken the social of phatic function typically associated with the immediacy of speech. Despite these parallels we can obviously find striking differences.
2.4.
Differences between writing and speech
Research has begun to investigate the nature and extent of the differences between them. Most obviously, they contrast in physical form: -
Specch uses phonic substance typically in the form of air-pressure movements Writing uses graphic substance typically in the form of marks on a surface.
Differences of structure and use are the product of radically different communicative situations. Crystal (1987) pointed that `speech is tme-bound, dynamic, transient, part of an interaction in which, typically, both participants are present, and the speaker has a specific addressee in mind´. Writing is space-bound, static, permanent, the result of a situation in which, typically, the producer is distant from the recipient and, often, may not even know who the recipient is. As writing can only occasionally be thought of as an interaction it is just normal that we can establish the following points of contrast: 1.- The permanence of writing allows repeated reading and close analysis. The spontaneity and rapidity of speech minimizes the chance of complex preplanning, and promotes features that assist to think standing up. 2.- The participants in written interaction cannot usually see each other, and they thus cannot rely on the context to help make clear what they mean as they would when speaking. As a consequence, deictic expressions are normally avoided. On the other hand, feedback is available in most speech interactions. 3.- The majority of graphic features present a system of contrast that has no speech equivalent. Many genres of written language, such as tables, graphs, and complex formulae, cannot be conveyed by reading aloud. 4.- Some constructions may be found onlu¡y in writing, such as the French simple past, and others only occur in speech, such as `whatchamacallit´, or slang expressions.
5.- Finally we can say that written language tends to be more formal and so it is more likely to provide the standard that society values. Despite these differences, there are many respects in which the written and the spoken language have mutually interacted. We normally use the written language in order to improve our command of vocabulary, active or passive, spoken or written. Loan words may come into a country in a written form, and sometimes, everything we know about language is its writing. 3. COMMUNICATION THEORY. 3.1. Definition Communication, the exchange of meanings between individuals through a common system of symbols, concerned scholars since the time of ancient Greece. In 1928 the English literary critic and author Ivor Armtrong Richards offered one of the first definitions of communication. Since about 1920 the growth and apparent influence of communication technology have attracted the attention of many specialists who have attempted to isolate communication as a specific facet of their particular interest. In the1960s, Marshall McLuhan, drew the threads of interest in the field of communication into a view that associated many contemporary psychological and sociological phenomena with the media employed in modern culture. McLuhan's idea, `the medium is the message´, stimulated numerous filmmakers, photographers, and others, who adopted McLuhan´s view that contemporary society had moved from a print culture to a visual one. By the late 20th century the main focus of interest in communication seemed to be drifting away from McLuhanism and to be centring upon: 1.- The mass communication industries
2.- Persuasive communication and the use of technology to influence dispositions 3.- Processes of interpersonal communication as mediators of information 4.- Dynamics of verbal and non-verbal (and perhaps extrasensory) communication 5.- Perception of different kinds of communication 6.- Uses of communication technology for social and artistic purposes, including education 7.- Development of relevant critism for artistic endeavours employing modern communication technology. In short, a communication expert may be oriented to any number of disciplines in a field of inquiry that has, as yet, neither drawn for itself a conclusive roster of subject matter nor agreed upon specific methodologies of analysis. 3.2. Models Fragmentation and problems of interdisciplinarity outlook have generated a wide range of discussion concerning the ways in which communication occurs and the processes it entails. Most communication theorists admit that their main task is to answer the query originally posed by the U.S political scientist H. D. Lasswell, `Who says what to whom with what effect?´. Obviously all of the factors in this question may be interpreted differently by scholars and writers in different disciplines. Scientists may make use of dynamic or linear models. 3.2.1. Dynamic models. Dynamic models are used in describe cognitive, emotional, and artistic aspects of communication as they occur in sociocultural contexts. These models do not try to be quantitative as linear ones. They often centre attention upon different modes of communication and theorize that the messages they contain including messages of emotional quality and artistic content, are communicated in various manners to and from different sorts of people. Many analysts of communication such as McLuhan assert that the channel actually dictates, or severely influences, the message, both as sent and received. For them, the stability and function of channel
or medium are more variable and less mechanistically related to the process than they are for followers of Shannon and Weaver. 3.2.2. Linear models: Shannon and Weaver's. Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver's Mathematical Model of Communication is one of the most productive schematic models of a communication systems that has ever been proposed. The simplicity, clarity, and surface generally of their model proved attractive to many students of communication in a number of disciplines. As originally conceived, the model contained five elements arranged in linear order:
-
An information source A transmiter A channel of transmission A receiver A destination
This model was originally intended for electronic messages so, in time, the five elements of the model were renamed so as to specify components for other types of communication transmitted in various manners. The information source was split into its components to provide a wider range of applicability: -
a source an encoder a message a channel a decoder a receiver
Another concept, first called a `noise source´ but later associated with the notion of entropy was imposed upon the communication model. Entropy diminishes the integrity of the message and distorts the
message for the receiver. Negative entropy may also occur in instances where incomplete or blurred messages are nevertheless received intact, either because of the ability of the receiver to fill in missing details or to recognize, despite distortion or paucity of information, both the intent and the content of the communication. But not only negative entropy counteracts entropy. Redundancy, the repetition of elements within a message that prevents the failure of communication of information, is the greatest antidote to entropy. Redundancy is apparently involved in most human activities, and, because it helps to overcome the various forms of entropy that tends to turn intelligible messages into unintelligible ones, it is an indispensable element for effective communication. We can see that the model, despite the introduction of entropy and redundancy, is conceptually static. To correct this flaw, Norbert Wiener, the father of cybernetics, added the principle of feedback, ie, sources tend to be responsive to their own behaviour and to the context of communication. Interaction between human beings in conversation cannot function without the ability of the message sender to weigh and calculate the apparent effect of this words on his listener. We will now analyze each of these key factors. 3.3. Key factors This unit title mentions some of the key factors affecting any communicative interaction such as the sender and the receiver. After putting them in the broader framework of the Mathematical Model of Communication we will analyze the intended effects of our communicative interactions (speech acts) and the environment in which they are exchanged (social context).
The information source selects a desired message out of a possible set of messages. The transmitter changes the message into a signal which is sent over the communication channel where it is received by the receiver and changed back into a message which is sent to the destination. In the process of transmission certain unwanted additions to the signal may occur which are not part of the message and
these are referred to as noise or entropy; negative entropy and redundancy counteract entropy. For somo communication systems the components are simple to specify as, for instance: -
information source: a man on the telephone transmitter: the mouthpiece message and signal: the words the man speaks channel: the electrical wires receiver: the earpiece destination: the listener
In face-to-face communication, the speaker can be both information source and transmitter, while the listener can be both receiver and destination. 3.3.1. Speech acts. J.L. Austin (1911-1960) was the first to draw attention to the many functions performed by utterances as part of interpersonal communication. He distinguishes two main types of functional potential: -
performative contative
A performative is an utterance that perform an act: to say is to act, as we have already seen when studying language functions. Performatives may be explicit and implicit performatives, which do not contain a performative verb. Constatives are utterances which assert something that is either true or false. In speech act analysis the effect of utterances on the behaviour of speaker and hearer is studies using a threefold distinction:
A locutionary act is the saying of something which is meaningful and can be understood. For example, saying the sentence `shoot the snake´ is a locutionary act if hearers understand the words `shoot ´, `the´and `snake´ and can identify the particular snake referred to. An illocutionary act is using a sentence to perform a function. For example `shoot the snake´may be intended as an order or a piece of advice. A perlocutionary act is the result or effect that is produced by means of saying something. For example, shooting the snake would be a perlocutionary act. Austin´s three-part distinction is less frequently used than a two part distinction between the propositional content of a sentence and the illocutionary force or intended effects of speech acts. There are thousands of possible illocutionary acts, and several attempts have been made to classify them into a small number of types: -
representatives directives commisives expressives declarations
In declaratives the speaker is committed in varying degrees, to the truth of a proposition. In directives the speaker tries to get the hearer to do something. In commissives the speaker is committed, in varying degrees, to a certain course of action. In expressives the speaker expresses an attitude about a state of affairs. In declarations the speaker alters the external status or conditions of an object or situation solely by making the utterance.
As we can infer from the examples there are some fuzzy areas and overlappings between different types of illocutionary force. But an utterance may lose its illocutionary force if does not satisfy several criteria, known as felicity conditions. For example the preparatory conditions have to be right: the person performing the speech act has to have the authority to do so. Ordinary people automatically accept these conditions when they communicate. If any of these conditions does not obtain, then a special interpretation of the speech act has to apply. Both normal and special interpretations of utterances have much to do with the context in which they are made. 3.3.2. Context. Context is defined by the Collins English Dictionary as: 1. The parts of a piece of writing, speech, etc, that precede and follow a word or passage and contribute to its full meaning. 2. The conditions and circumstances that are relevant to an event, fact, etc. The first definition covers what we may call linguistic context, but as we can infer from the second definition, linguistic context may not be enough to fully understand an utterance understood as a speech act. In fact, linguistic elements in a text may refer not only to other parts of the text but also to the outside world, to the context of situation. The concept of context of situation was formulated by Malinowski in 1923. It has been worked over and extended by a number of linguistics, specially Hymes and Halliday. Hymes categorizes the communicative situation in terms of eight components while Halliday offers three headings for the analysis: CONTEXT OF SITUATION HYMES 1. Form and content of text 2. Setting
HALLIDAY 1. field 2. mode
3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Participants Ends Key Medium Genre Interactional norms
3. tenor
We will now analyze Halliday´s more abstract interpretation as it practically subsumes Hymes´s one. The field is the total event, in which the text is functioning, together with the purpose activity of the speaker or writer; it thus includes the suject matter as one element in it. The mode is the function of the text in the event, including therefore both the channel taken by the language, and its genre or rethorical mode, as narrative, didactic, persuasive and so on. The tenor refers to to the participants who are taking part in this communicative exchange, who they are and what kind of relationship thay have to one another. It is clear that role relationships, ie, the relationship which people have to each other in a act of communication, influences the way they speak to each other. One of the speakers may have, for instance, a role which has a higher status than that of the other speaker or speakers. 4. BIBLIOGRAPHY. -
Collins English Dictionary. Collins. Glasgow, 1992.
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Crystal, D. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. CUP. Cambridge, 1987.
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Encyclopaedia Britannica. Enc. Brit. Inc. Chicago, 1990.
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Halliday, M. A. K. Spoken and written Language. Geelong, Vic. Deakin University Press, 1976.
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Halliday, M. A. K. Language as social semiotics. Arnold. London, 1978.
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Halliday, M. A. K. Functional grammar. Arnold. London, 1982.
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Halliday, M. A. K and Hasan, R. Cohesion in English. Longman. London, 1976.
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Richards, J. C, Platt, J., and Platt, H. Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics. Longman. London, 1992. Materiales para la Reforma. Primaria. MEC. Madrid, 1992.
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Steinberg, D. D. Psycholinguistics. Longman. London.1982
Tema 1 LA LENGUA COMO COMUNICACIÓN: LENGUAJE ORAL Y LENGUAJE ESCRITO. FACTORES QUE DEFINEN UNA SITUACIÓN COMUNICATIVA: EMISOR, RECEPTOR, FUNCIONALIDAD Y CONTEXTO.
1. INTRODUCTION Traditionally, theories of language have concentrated on the study of its different components in isolation, such as grammar, semantics, phonology, seeing language as a system that included all of them. However, when language is first acquired in childhood, is merely by means of communicating with the people
around. In this sense, new approaches in the last third of the 20 th C, paid attention to language as communication. We, as human beings, need to communicate, and as most of us live in a literary society, we normally use oral and written language to transmit or receive information. As far as oral communication is concerned, most human beings speak using oral language in order to exchange information and interact with other people, but the use of oral language entails the knowledge of certain particular elements, norms, routines, formulae and strategies that are put into work when we are in conversations. On the other hand, writing and reading require formal instruction, and children face a series of difficulties when learning these skills, because they have to comfort oral to written discourse, adapting rules, learning spelling, dividing speech chains into chunks called words, etc. However, learning to write and read is probably the most fundamental step in education, because is the basis for future instruction and access to many fields of knowledge. In this unit, we are going to review the main characteristics of oral and written language, and then we will analyse the factors that define a communicative situation, namely the sender and the receiver of the message, the functionality and the context.
2. ORAL LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION Among all the communication codes which are used by human beings (music, kinesics, sign language), written and oral language is the most efficient for the transmission and reception of information, thoughts, feelings and opinions. In addition, these linguistic codes are exclusively human and make us distinct from animals. But written and oral language are different processes: whereas we learn to write through a formal instruction, speaking and listening come naturally along different stages of the child´s evolution. Therefore we can say that oral language comes first in our history as individuals. Therefore, speech and writing are not alternative processes, but rather we must consider them counterparts: all oral language should have a good representative system in a written form.
From a psychological point of view, oral communication is a two-way process in which both speaker (encoder) and hearer (decoder) must be present in the same situational context at a particular time and place (unless we talk about special cases of oral communication such as phone conversations). The functions of oral communication are, as we said before, to communicate or exchange our ideas or to interact with other people. Unlike written communication, in oral interaction we can monitor the reactions of the hearer through the feedback so that we can our speech in the course of the communication, as well as use different linguistic and non-linguistic features (gesturing, intonation...) to make our messages clearer. However, as it takes place in a particular place and time, the interlocutors have to make their contributions at a high speed, without much time to think, unlike writing. Along history, the study of spoken language has not much tradition, unlike written language, due to several reasons: -
it was considered a secondary type of language as it was not reserved only to cultivate people. unlike written language, there was a lack of permanent records of oral language during our past history. it presents more mutability in the understanding and interpretation of what it is said than in written lg.
Halliday was among the first linguists to study oral language, saying that it was not a formless and featureless variety of written language. Since then, there has been an increasing interest to which it has contributed the inventions of audio, video and computer devices. In oral communication, we distinguish two different types: Prepared speech The formal setting is organised as writing (syntax, lexis & discourse organisation) It is memorised or written down before (lectures, speech, oral poetry) Spontaneous speech Speaker has not thought or memorised the message beforehand. It may present inaccuracies, hesitations, silences and mistakes
As spontaneous speech is the main form of oral communication, and directly reflects real communication processes with different demands and situations, and prepared speech does not allow for feedback and monitoring, the analysis and study of oral communication should concentrate on spontaneous speech, where the negotiation of meaning plays an important role for the communication purpose to be correctly achieved. But because of its pervasive and everyday nature, its scientific study has proved particularly complex. It has been difficult to obtain acoustically clear, natural samples of spontaneous conversation, especially of its more informal varieties. When samples have been obtained, the variety of topics, participants, and social situations which characterise conversation have made it difficult to determine which aspects of the behaviour are systematic and rule-governed.
2.1. ELEMENTS AND NORMS THAT RULE ORAL DISCOURSE Linguistic elements STRESS When we talk we have to bare in mind there is a regular distribution of accents along words and sentences. However, if we want to give special emphasis to a particular word or phrase, we change that regular pattern of stress and accent in order to make more prominent what we want. RHYTHM It is the relationship we make between accents (chunks of words) and silences. Rhythm can range from very monotonous one (in quick or prepared speech) to rhythm with contrasts in order to give expressiveness and sense to our speech. Pauses are also important, because sometimes are made to divide grammatical units and other times are unpredictable and caused by hesitations.
INTONATION is the falling and rising of voice during speech. Any departure from what it is considered “normal” intonation shows special effects and expresses emotions and attitudes. Normally, falling tones show conclusion and certainty, whereas rising tones may show inconclusion or doubt (I´ll do it / I´ll do it... ) Paralinguistic elements We cannot consider oral verbal communication without remembering that the whole body takes part. In fact, many times, a person can express sympathy, hostility or incredulity by means of body and facial gestures. This “body language” is normally culturally related & is learnt the same way as verbal behaviour is learnt, although it allows for spontaneity and creativity: we use head, face, hands, arms, shoulders, fingers... Other linguistic features that characterise conversational language are: Speed of speech is relatively rapid; there are many assimilations & elisions of letters; compressions of auxiliary sequences (gonna); it can be difficult to identify sentence boundaries in long loose passages; informal discourse markers are common ( you know, I mean); great creativity in the vocabulary choice, ranging from unexpected coinage (Be unsad) to use of vague words (thingummy). 2.2. RULES When we use language, we do not only utter grammatically correct sentences, but we know where, when and to whom we are addressing our utterances. This is the reason why a speaker needs to know not only the linguistic and grammatical rules of a language (Chomsky´s linguistic competence) or rules of usage, but also how to put into effect these rules in order to achieve effective communication, so that we also need to be familiar with rules of use.
Rules of usage In order to produce and understand messages in a particular language we need to be familiar with: PHONOLOGY We need to know the organisation, characteristics and patterns of sounds to communicate. MORPHOLOGY We need to know the word formation rules and types of combinations of bases & affixes. SYNTAX We need to know how words are put together to form sentences and which are their relationships. SEMANTICS We need to know how words can be combined to produce the meaning we want or to understand the meaning expressed by others, even if it is nonliteral, methaporical or anomalous. Rules of use To be communicatively efficient, we need to show our linguistic competence in real speech through: APPROPRIATENESS or knowledge of what type of language suits best in a given situation, taking into account the context with its participants and their social relationships, the setting, the topic, the purpose.. COHERENCE or ability to organise our messages in a logical and comprehensible way to transmit meaning. COHESION or capacity to organise and structure utterances to facilitate interpretation by means of endophoras and exophoras ( references to linguistic & situational contexts), repetitions, ellipsis... 2.3. ROUTINES AND HABITUAL FORMULAE Man´s ability to be creative with language is something obvious, but there are times when we choose how, when and why not to be creative, to repeat what has been said or heard many times, often in exactly the same form. Linguistic routines are fixed utterances which must be considered as single units to understand their meaning, and they are of a learned character (Hi! familiar or empty How do you do?), the
process through which we acquire ritual competence being perhaps the most important socialisation we make of language. Understanding routines & formulae require shared cultural knowledge because they are generally metaphorical in nature and must be interpreted at a non-literal level. People are often quite opposed to routines, formulae and rituals because they are meaningless and depersonalise our ideas, because literal semantic value is largely irrelevant. Some typical routines and habitual formulae are used in funeral condolences, religious ceremonies, weddings, graduation ceremonies...
2.4. STRATEGIES SPECIFIC OF ORAL COMMUNICATION Particular attention has been paid to the markers of conversational turns: how people know their turn to speak. In formal dialogue, there are often explicit markers, showing that a speaker is about to talk; in debate, the person in the chair more or less controls speakers´ turns. In conversation, however, the cues are more subtle, involving variations in the melody, rhythm, and speed of speech, and in patterns of eye movement. When people talk in a group, they look at and away from their listeners in about equal proportions, but when approaching the end of what they have to say, they look at the listeners more steadily, and in particular maintain closer eye contact with those they expect to continue the conversation. A listener who wishes to be the next speaker may indicate a desire to do so by showing an increase in bodily tension, such as by leaning forward or audibly drawing in breath. In addition, there are many explicit indications, verbal and non-verbal, that a speaker is coming to an end (Last but not least...), wishes to pass the conversational ball (What do you think?, staring to someone), wishes to join in (Could I just say that...), leave (Well, that is all...), change the topic (Speaking of Mary...), or check on listeners´ attention or attitude (Are you with me?). The subject-matter is an important variable, with some topics being “safe” in certain social groups (in Britain, the weather, pets, children, and the locality), others more or less “unsafe” (religious and political beliefs, questions of personal income such as How much do you earn¿). There are usually some arbitrary
divisions: for example, in Britain, it is polite to comment o the taste and presentation of a meal, but usually impolite to enquire after how much it cost. In Grice´s view, we cooperate in a conversation in order to produce a rational and efficient exchange of information, so that to reach a good final result in a communicative process, we apply 4 cooperative principles or maxims: - Maxim of quality: Our contributions have to be sincere, believing what we say & avoiding things we lack evidence of - Maxim of quantity: We should make our contributions as briefly, orderly & informative as required for the exchange. - Maxim of relevance: An utterance has to be relevant with respect to the stage the conversation has reached. - Maxim of manner: Which concerns the manner of expression (avoiding obscurity, ambiguity...).
3.WRITTEN LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION Written communication is a type of communication, and as such, its main purpose is to express ideas and experiences or exchange meanings between individuals with a particular system of codes, which is different to that used in oral communication. In written communication, the encoder of the message is the writer and the decoder and interpreter of the message is the reader, and many times, this interpretation does not coincide with the writer´s intended meaning. When we write, we use graphic symbols, which relate to the sounds we make when we speak. But writing is much more than the production of graphic symbols, just as speech is more than the production of sounds: these symbols have to be arranged, according to certain conventions, to form words, and words to form sentences. These sentences then have to be ordered and linked together in certain ways, forming a coherent whole called text.
Since classical times, there have been two contradictory approaches to speech and writing: firstly, the view that writing is the primary and speech the secondary medium, because writing is more culturally significant and lastingly valuable than speech; and secondly, the view that speech is primary and writing secondary because speech is prior to writing both historically and in terms of a child´s acquisition of language. But leaving aside this dichotomy, the first thing we must notice is that speech and writing are not alternative processes: speech comes first, but writing demands more skill and practice, and they have different formal patterns. Most important of all, however, is that written and spoken language are counterparts: a writing system should be capable of representing all the possible wordings of a person´s thoughts. This implies that both systems could be regarded as the two sides of the same coin. From a psychological point of view, writing is a solitary activity, the interlocutor is not present, so we are required to write on our own, without the interaction or the help of the feedback usually provided in oral communication. That is why we have to compensate for the absence of some linguistic features which help to keep communication going on in speech, such as prosody and paralinguisic devices such as gesturing, intonation, etc. Our texts are interpreted by the reader alone, and we cannot monitor his or her reactions, unlike the speaker: we have to sustain the whole process of communication and to stay in contact with our reader through words alone, and this is why we must be very clear and explicit about our intentions when we write. However, not all the acvantages are on the side of the oral communication: in writing, we normally have time to think about what we are trying to express, so that we can revise it and re-write it, if need be, and the reader, to understand a text, can also read and re-read it as many times as wanted. 3.1. STRUCTURE AND FORMAL ELEMENTS OF WRITTEN COMMUNICATION There are some features characteristic of written language, but this should not be taken to imply that there ´s a well-delimited dividing line between writing and speech. However, the extend to which each of them makes use of different resources is directly related to the nature of the two channels: speech is the
language of immediate communication, and writing is a type of communication with a distance in between. This is the reason why written texts present the following formal elements: Linguistic features of written language at a time, so that: -
A good writing system must be fixed, flexible, and adaptable
it must provide a codified expression for the elements expressed by oral language: each idea = a written form it must provide means for creating expressions for elements not codified yet: neologisms, borrowings...
Syntactic features of written language speech are: -
markers and rhetorical organisers for clauses relationships and clarity (written texts are more permanent) use of heavily pre-modified NPs , SVO ordering and use of passive constructions and subordinate phrases
Lexical features of written language feedback: -
The syntactic elements which make writing different from
In order to compensate the absence of paralinguistic devices and
more accuracy in the use of vocabulary, avoiding redundancy and ambiguity (due to its permanent nature) use of anaphoras and cataphoras, repetitions, synonyms... to signal relationships between sentences
-
there is more lexical density in writing than in speech (more lexical items than grammatical ones)
Graphological implications Texts can be presented in different ways, as our culture value many times more the form than the content. To compensate for the absence of feedback and paralinguistic devices, written texts need to be accurate in spelling, punctuation, capital letters to mark sentence boundaries, indentation of paragraphs, different fonts to call attention (italics, bold...) and in poetry or texts to draw attention, exploitation of resources such as order and choice of words, variations in spelling (Biba la kurtura). In any case, what is most characteristic of written communication is that we see it (the organisation, length...). 3.2. TYPES OF WRITTEN TEXTS: NORMS GOVERNING THEM, ROUTINES AND FORMULAE In writing, communication also takes place following system and ritual constraints: this is the reason why when we look at a text we can distinguish and obtain information regarding different types of organisation, different purposes and different lengths. Traditionally, written texts were divided following the classification of genres. Then, linguists linked their rhetorical mode to the syntactic structures, routines and formulae that characterised them, and established the following classification: Postcards
Pieces of writing normally directed to friends or family when travelling ,and sometimes used for congratulations and greetings. We just write on one side and the language used is colloquial.
Letters
They can be formal (to enterprises or someone we are not closed to) and informal (to friends or family) There are some routines to write letters: apart from the writer´s address on the top right-hand corner, the date, the first line (dear + name/sir/madam/Mr/Mrs...), the
closing (Yours...) and the signature, present in both types of letters, each type of letter follows this structural organisation into paragraphs: Formal: 1st = reason why writing, 2nd = what you want from addressee, 3rd = conclusion. Informal: 1st = introduction, 2nd = reason, 3rd = additional info, 4th = conclusion. There are also directive letters, to provoke some reaction on the reader, using imperatives & remarks. Filling-in forms Consist of answering what you are asked, as briefly as possible, so no writing style is needed to do so. Curriculum vitae Consists of a clear summary to give the academic knowledge and experience someone has on a certain matter, so it includes personal details, current occupation, academic qualification and professional experience. Summaries
Brief résumés of articles, booklets and books that due to their special form of composition and writing they allow the reader to gather the main information about the original work without reading it.
Reports
They are used to present clearly and with details the summary of present and past facts or activities, and sometimes of predictable future facts from checked data, sometimes containing the interpretation of the writer but normally with the intention of stating the reality of an enterprise or institution without deformative personal visions, and can be expositive, interpretative & demonstrative
Narrative texts The most universal of all the types of written texts, refer back to the story-telling traditions of most cultures. In fact there seem to be some basic universal structure that governs this type of texts: - Orientation (time, place and character identification to inform reader of the story world), Goal. Problem. Resolution. Coda and sometimes a morale at the end.
For this characteristic structure, some of the routines and formulae used are presentatives (there is...), relatives, adjuncts of place and time, flash-backs, different narrative p.o.v., narrative dialogues, etc... Descriptive texts They are concerned with the location and characterisation of people and things in the space, as well as providing background information which sets the stage for narration. This type of texts is very popular in L2 teaching, and all types have the same preestablished organisation. Within descriptive texts we might find: - External descriptions, presenting a holistic view of the object by an account of all its parts - Functional descriptions, which deal with instruments and the tasks they may perform - Psychological descriptions, which express the feelings that something produces in someone Some of the most characteristic structures are presentatives (there...), adjuncts of location, stative verbs (look, seem, be...), use of metaphors, comparisons, qualifying adjectives and relative sentences. Expository texts They identify and characterise phenomena, including text forms such as definitions, explanations, instructions, guidelines, summaries, etc...They may be subjective (an essay) and objective (definitions, instructions), or even advice giving. They may be analytical, starting from a concept and then characterising its parts, and ending with a conclusion. Typical structures are stative verbs, “in order to”, “so as to”, imperatives, modals and verbs of quality. Argumentative texts They are those whose purpose is to support or weaken another statement whose validity is questionable. The structures we find are very flexible, being this the reason for the existence of several types:
Classical/Pros & cons zigzag/One-sided arg/Ecclectic appro/Opposition´s arg first/Other side questioned There are sometimes when we choose how, when and why not to be creative with language to repeat what is normally used in a given situation: we use linguistic routines and formulae. These are defined as fixed utterances or sequences of utterances which must be considered as single units, because their meaning cannot be derived of them unless considered as a whole. In written texts we find different types of routines and formulaic expressions, which vary depending on the type of text, as we have been previously seeing. Understanding them usually requires sharing cultural knowledge, because they are genarally metaphorical in nature and must be interpreted at a non-linguistic level (for instance, Dear in a letter does not always carry affective meaning). All those phrases and sentences that, to some extend, have a prescriptive character, can be considered as routines and formulaic expressions: to consider all the different existing routines would take too long, but some examples are, in letters & postcards (Yours sincerely) in C.V´s, the organisation of info in different blocks, in narration (Once upon a time) in descriptions (on the left, high above),etc... All in all, we can say that they are sometimes very useful but often meaningless & depersonalise our expressions & ideas.
4. THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS Definition Generally speaking, communication is the exchange of meanings between individuals through a common system of symbols, and this has been the concern of scholars since the Greeks. Communication refers to the transmission of information (a message) between a source and a receiver, using a signalling system.
At the turn of the century, the English literary critic Ivor Armstrong Richards offered one of the first definitions, saying that communication takes place when one mind so acts upon its environment that another mind is influenced, and in that other mind an experience occurs which is like the experience in the first mind, and is caused in part by that experience. The study of human communication in all its modes is known as semiotics. There are several types of communication, and although in principle any of the five senses can be used as a medium of communication, in practice only three (tactile, visual and aural) are implemented in both activeexpressive and passive-receptive ways. Tactile communication involves touch (e.g. shaking hands, grasping the arm) and the manipulation of physical distance and body orientation in order to communicate indifference or disagreement, and is studied by proxemics. Visual communication involves the use of facial expressions (smiling, winking..., which communicate a wide range of emotions) and gestures and body postures of varying levels of formality (kneeling, bowing...). Visual non-verbal communication is studied by kinesics. Often, visual and tactile effects interact closely with verbal communication, sometimes even conveying particular nuances of meaning not easy to communicate in speech (such as the drawing of inverted commas in the air to signal a special meaning), and most of the times culturally related. The chief branch of communication studies involves the oral-aural mode, in the form of speech, and its systematic visual reflex in the form of writing. These are the verbal aspects of communication, distinguished from the non-verbal (kinesics and proxemics) aspects, often popularly referred to as body language. The term language, as we understand it, is usually restricted to speech and writing, because these mediums of transmission display a highly sophisticated internal structure and creativity. Non-verbal communication, by contrast, involves relatively little creativity. In language, it is commonplace to find new words being created, and sentences varying in practically infinite complexity. In this respect, languages differ markedly from the very limited set of facial expressions, gestures, and body movements.
According to Harmer, the characteristics apply to every communicative situation is that a speaker/writer wants to communicate, has a communicative purpose, and selects language, and a listener/reader wants to listen to something, is interested in a communicative purpose, and process a variety of language. Models In order to study the process of communication several models have been offered; fragmentation and problems of interdisciplinary outlook have generated a wide range of discussion concerning the ways in which communication occurs. Most communication theorists admit that their main task is to answer the question Who says what to whom with what effect? The most important models are: Dynamic Used to describe cognitive, emotional and artistic aspects of the different modes (narrative, pictorial, dramatic...) of communication as they occur in sociocultural contexts in their various manners and to and from different sorts of people. For those using this model, the stability and function of the channel are more variable and less mechanically related to the process than the linear models. Linear Proposed by Shannon and Weaver, though very mathematical, its simplicity, clarity and surface generality proved very attractive. Originally intended for electronic messages, it was then applied to all sorts of communication. In its conception it contained five elements arranged in linear order: information source, transmitter, channel, receiver, destination. Then, the five elements were renamed so as to specify components for other types of communication, and the information source was split into its components to provide a wider range of applicability: source, encoder, message, channel, decoder, receiver. Key factors In theory, communication is said to have taken place if the information received is the same as that sent. In practice, we have to allow for all kinds of interfering factors, such as entropy (noise distorsion) which can be counteracted by negative entropy (receiver´s ability to clear blurred messages), by redundancy (used by the encoder), or by feedback (the sender calculates and weights the effects on the receiver and acts accordingly); and then we have the context, which covers the references to the linguistic aspects of the message or endophora (anaphora and
cataphora) and the external aspects of situation or exophora (such as the field, or total event and purpose of the communication, the mode, or function of the text in the event, including channel and genre, and the tenor, which refers to the participants and their relationships). 5. FACTORS AND FUNCTIONS OF A COMMUNICATIVE SITUATION The most usual answer to the question “why do we use language?” is “to communicate our ideas”. But it would be wrong to think that communicating our ideas is the only purpose for which we use language. Several other functions may be identified where the communication of ideas is marginal or irrelevant. We hardly find verbal messages that would fulfil only one function , although the verbal structure of a message depends primarily on the predominant function; Following Jakobson, we agree that language must be investigated in all the variety of its functions, but an outline of these functions demands a concise survey of the constitutive factors in any act of verbal communication: the ADDRESSER sends a MESSAGE to the ADDRESSEE that to be operative requires a CONTEXT referred to and to be grasped by the addressee (either verbal and situational, a CODE, fully or partially common to the addresser and addressee, and a CONTACT, a physical channel and psychological connection enabling them to enter and stay in communication If the main purpose of our use of language is to communicate our ideas, concentrating on the context to which these ideas refer to, then we are dealing with the referential or ideational function. If there is a direct expression of the addresser´s attitude toward what is being communicated, tending to produce an impression of a certain emotion, that is the emotive or expressive function (also very common), which differs from the referential one in the sound pattern, and it flavours to some extend all our utterances. If we orientate our message towards the addressee because we want a certain reaction, we are dealing with the conative function, syntactically and often phonetically deviate from other functions (vocatives and imperatives).
We talk about the phatic function when the language we use is for the purpose of establishing or maintaining social relationships, to check if the channel or contact works, to attract or confirm the attention of the interlocutor or to discontinue communication, rather than to communicate ideas, and is normally displayed by ritualised formulas (Well..., How do you do?). If we use the language to talk about the language, such as when checking if addressee is using the same code as the addresser (Do you follow me? Do you know what I mean?), we talk of the metalingual function. If, on the contrary, the focus is on the phonetic properties of the message, althogh not being the sole function of the message, we say that we are using the poetic function of language. To end up, we will say that Halliday grouped all the functions into three interrelated metafunctions: ideational, to express ideas or experiences, the interpersonal to indicate, establish or maintain social relationships, and the textual, to create written or spoken texts that fit in the particular situation in which they are used. 6. FUNCTIONALITY AND CONTEXT: THE NEGOTIATION OF MEANING However, if communication were simply a matter of applying the adequate schema, we wouldn´t have to worry about the addressee´s response to the communication process. Therefore, we need procedures to integrate these abstract schemata into the concrete process of discourse itself. All communication depends on the alignment and adjustment of each interlocutor´s schemata, and the procedures we use are the interactive negotiating activities that interpret the directions provided and enable us to alter our expectations in the light of new evidence as the discourse proceeds , and this procedural ability which traduces the schematic knowledge into communicative behaviour is called capacity (inference, practical reasoning, negotiation of meaning, problem solving...). This capacity apply to two different dimensions: one referred to the kind of schema that is being realised, and the other to the kind of communicative situation that has to be negotiated, that is, to the way in which
the relationship between the schemata of the interlocutors is to be managed. We find that there are occasions in which we use procedures to clear up and make more explicit and evident the frame of reference, or use rhetorical routines to specify more accurately our illocutionary acts (the intended effects of our utterances) or that felicity conditions are not satisfactory so that we must use those procedures. Other procedures, this time on the part of the addressee, are interpretative (as in A-“I have two tickets for the theatre” B- “I´ve got an exam tomorrow”). In some occasions, however, negotiation is too long, too difficult or even fails (as in interethnic interaction) because the schemata are very different, so that interlocutors may use other signalling system (e.g. pictorial), or use (re)-formulation procedures (So what you say is... Now let´s put it straight..)
7. CONCLUSION Communication is , therefore, the main purpose of a language, and the use and function that fulfils depends greatly on the characteristics of the information or the form of the message. In any case, for a communication process to be complete, it is necessary that both addresser and addressee negotiate the meaning of what is being transmitted, overcoming any possible obstacles difficulting that process.
8. BIBLIOGRAPHY Halliday, M. A. K. Tannen, D. MacArthur, T.
An Introduction to Functional Grammar Conversational Style
Chapter 9 1985
Chapter 8 1984
The Oxford Companion to the English Language OUP Oxford 1992
Hedge, T.
Writing.
OUP. Oxford. 1993
UNIT 2: COMMUNICATION IN THE LANGUAGE LESSON. LINGUISTIC AND NONLINGUISTIC COMMUNICATION 1. COMMUNICATION Communication abilities at a very early stage are one of the primary aims of foreign language teaching. Modern approaches to communication do not include only linguistic production but gesture, behaviour, mime and other aspects occurring in first language communication. The communicative use of the visual and tactile modes in their non-linguistic aspects is referred as “nonverbal” communication or “body language”. Communication means to say something to someone with a communicative purpose and in an appropriate way. 2. COMMUNICATION IN THE CLASSROOM The main aims in language teaching are: • Using oral and writing language in classroom actions. • Using idioms and sentences (congratulations, greetings,…) • Using extralinguistic strategies (gesture, body language,…) And these are the contents: • Conceptual (linguistic): identifying, greeting, describing, asking, expressing needs and emotions, quantify, object location, requesting, denying, offering,… • Procedures (non-linguistic): acting, doing what they are commanded (total Physical Response) • Socio-cultural: knowing games, sports and traditional songs in that language. Communication goals: The learner gets a social and linguistic development: • Gets an internal linguistic consciousness • Takes part in a social interaction • Gets a cultural knowledge of that society and their habits, and also a way to science, technology and international relations
• Gets practice in everyday activities Learners can understand much more that they can speak, so current language ca be used in the classroom. 3. COMMUNICATIVE LEARNING AND TEACHING ACTIVITIES There is almost an unlimited range of activities within the communicative approach (information sharing, negotiation of meaning and interaction) Most communicative techniques operate by providing information and holding it from the others, creating an information gap. Every communicative activity has these characteristics: • A desire to communicate • A communicative form • A variety of contents and language The teacher’s role must be to facilitate the communication process and be involved as a participant within the group, analysing needs, counselling, managing the process and organising resources. Learners must interact within the group. Successful communication can only be achieved through group interaction. 4. NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION The communicative event is not based on the verbal component only. It also implies paralinguistic devices such as gesture, facial expression, body language, sight. They are information and emotional sources. These non-verbal acts are culturally related. Different cultures may use different gestures (hand using, head movement, …e.g.: nodding in Hungary is opposite to everywhere else) There is also the silent language like the physical distance maintained between individuals, the sense of time appropriate for communication under different conditions… The sight directs very well communication. If we do not like someone we put our eyes away, insecurity makes eyes go down or if we are very interested our eyes are widely open to make the speaker go on. 5. EXTRALINGUISTIC STRATEGIES The most common strategies of language learning are: • Learning grammar rules and using them • Imitating linguistic habits
• Learning vocabulary and structures by heart • Finding out strategies, making hypotheses, contrasting them and getting the knowledge Non verbal reactions to messages in different contexts: • Games: guessing games, drawing games,… • Drama: acting, miming, … • Role play: using sentences as a native speaker, which is funny and vividly remembered. • Total Physical Response: is a teaching method built around the co-ordination of speech and action. It attempts to teach language through physical activity. The more intensively a memory connection is traced the stronger the memory association will be and the more likely it will be recalled. It makes second language learning a process like first language acquisition. Comprehension abilities precede productive skills but they transfer from one to others. The speech directed to children consists mainly of commands. Most of the grammatical structures of the target language and hundreds of lexical items can be learned from the skilful use of the imperative. The lower the stress is the greater the learning is. Successful learning normally occurs in stress controlled classrooms, in pleasurable experiences and low anxiety situations. Grammatical features and lexical items are selected according to the classroom situations and the ease they can be learnt. Total Physical Response is uses after language presentation and practice in order to consolidate structures and vocabulary. The teacher is the director of the stage play and pupils are the actors. The teacher decides what to teach, how to present the new material, how to select materials. Correction should be used only when our pupils will really benefit from it. in the beginning the learner cannot attempt efficiently to the corrections because all attention is directed to producing utterances. Learners listen attentively and respond physically to our commands. Teachers monitor and encourage to speak when learners fell ready to speak. Procedure: • Warming up or introductory review • Introduction of new language, new commands and new items • Simple questions which can be answered with a gesture such as pointing • Pupils utter commands. Manipulating teacher and pupils’ behaviour.
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Reading and writing activities (blackboard, notebooks, …). Writing, reading and acting out the sentence. It is very suitable for our primary lessons. It is only valid for beginners. When our pupils’ knowledge is very limited we do not expect them to talk: they have to watch, listen and act. Our main objective is to provide children as much understable listening as we can while they are doing an enjoyable activity. The use of gesture allows them to talk when they cannot speak. Commands can be responded by physical actions (e.g.: point)
“COMMUNICATION IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM: VERBAL AND NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION. EXTRALINGUISTIC STRATEGIES: NON VERBAL REACTIONS TO MESSAGES IN DIFERENT CONTEXTS”.-
INTRODUCTION.Communication is a key word for us as English teachers. Not only is it the essence of human interaction, it is the centre of language learning.
Chomsky was one of the first language investigators to try to explain why a child learns language; he says that the enfant begins to produce language by a process of deduction using the input received and with natural resources construct an internal grammar. But later, linguists such as Hymes, noted that a child doesn´t know just a set of rules. He/she learns how and when to use them, and to whom.He says that when a native person speaks, he or she takes into account factors such as: 1. Systemic potential. Whether something (word, structure...) works grammatically or not if it fits into the grammatical system. 2. Appropriacy. Whether a word or structure is suitable in the context according factors such as the relative social class of the speakers, regional variations, age and status differences, the topic being discussed and so on. 3. Feasability. Knowing whether a construction is possible or not. It may be possible grammatically but seem ridiculous in real use such as the use of six adverbs together. 4. Occurence. A knowledge of how often something appears in the language (example: foreign learners of English from latin countries often use more latinsounding words than a typical native speakers). Halliday considers that language is, indeed, learned in a functional context of use. To summarize all the above, a communicative context governs language use, and language learning implies an acquisition of these rules of use. Grammar is not enough, as we can be grammatically correct and socioculturally incorrect or with ill-designed strategies. And so communication breaks down.
Canale and Swain developed the idea of communicative competence, a design taken on by the M.E.C. as the basis for objectives in the curricular design and as a guide for teaching methodology. This communicative competence consists of 5 subcompetences: grammatical, discourse, sociolinguistic, strategic and sociocultural. - GRAMMATICAL or the ability to use the rules of the language system. (example: the position of the adjective in English). systemic potential. - DISCOURSE or the ability to use different types of speech o writing based on the situation and to do it coherently and cohesively. - SOCIOLINGUISTIC or the ability to adapt utterances to a particular social context (socialclass, regional languages, registers). appropiacy. - STRATEGIC or the ability to influence the course of the communicative situation (body movement, intonation). Related to redundancy. The aim is to mantein the channel of communication open or to improve the reception. - SOCIOCULTURAL – being familiar with the social and cultural context, the background where the language is spoken.(example:when we say “milkman” we understand all the contexts such as: Who is the milkman?, When does the milkman deliver the milk? and so on). This communicative competence and its subcompetences seeks to help children to provide opportunities for gaining real language in real use. Communication is the activity or process of giving information to other people or to other living things, usign signals such as speech, body movements or radio signals.
Communication is then the basis of a foreign language class from the basic curricular design and aims to lesson plans and methodology. In the 20 th Century worl of international travel, commerce, culture, technology and news/information, communication needs to be optimun and our pupils will want to, or need to have the four skills in language on many occasions for communicative purposes. We shall now look at what this means in terms of verbal and non verbal communication. This is part of their preparation for life in general, and for their development as people. VERBAL COMMUNICATION: This consists of two skills, namely listening and speaking. LISTENING precedes speaking. It consists of the decoding of sound according to acquired rules.It can be defined as the process of discriminating the sounds of the English language through a process of hearing and understanding them. Listening is related to PHONOLOGY This science studies the phonemes, the relationship between units of sounds and differences in meaning. We need to remember that there are differences between the Spanish sounds and the English sounds. We must allow the children to be clear on these differences, using accent, rhythm and entonation.
All material used in teaching sounds and meaning should be based on its usefulness in real communicative interaction. There are many ways of presenting material so that it can be a means of helping children in oral-comprehension. We may use flash-cards, real objects, pictures from magazines, gestures, mime, language laboratory, radio, t.v., fims, tape-recorder and so on. SPEAKING is the encoding of the acquired sounds, deduced by listening, into signals.The end of this is to communicate something to someone and is related to PHONETICS The study of sounds: how they are produced and how they are received. Pupils need a lot of practise in comprehension (listening) in order to hold a conversation in English. Both skills (listening and speaking) are linked in the learning process, since the people need to absorb the elements of a message if they are going to contribute to a conversation. This encoding and decoding is not only on a grammatical level, as Chomsky inferred at first, but as Guiraud affirms a process which takes logic from phonology, semantics, etc, but also subjective experience and social rules. So, we will begin talking about oral-comprehension techniques. If we want to develop this ability in our children we shall need to observe the processes used by the learner in listening comprehension. At first, the pupil hears a series of noises and he/she can´t tell what the difference is between them. After some time, he/she begins to note that the sounds are in some sort of order, with regularity in the pauses and voice pattern.
As he/she learns some simple expresions, he or she begins to see that there are recurring sounds, and he/she associates them with meaning. So, he or she is starting to recognise familiar elements, but doesn´t see all the relationship. He/she does not really understand. As he or she becomes more familiar with the language, he/she recognizes the different elements, but doesn´t remember what he/she recognized. This is because he/she is recognizing single elements and not the whole message. The mind is eliminating information which it can´t take at first; only a certain amount can be taken into short-term memory. The receptive system in the brain then takes these selected elements into long-term storage. But only a small part of the total message will be remembered, this is why pupils seem to be able to understand very little at first. They have to concentrate very well to be able to take in not only the sounds, but their meaning, the brain is not able to do this too fast, and we must remember this. That´s why we help our pupils by giving them short sequences of sounds so that they can get the meaning easily and store it automatically. So, REPETITION is essential for acquiring this process The LOGSE, in its 9 objectives of the curricular design, reflects the importance of proficiency in these skills. No child can ever really communicate in English without some ability to listen and speak. In traditional “Grammar Translation” these skills were often neglected.
The reason for this neglect was that some people consider speaking and listening to be primitive skills. They saw that children acquired these abilities naturally and so it was felt that verbal communication was less sofisticated than the written form of the language. So, more importance was given to a study of the written language and for many years verbal communication was nor considered to be worthy of study. This is reflected in the approaches to teaching of languages wich followed a classical methodology imitating latin and greek approaches which by their very nature center on reading and writing. In this century however, and thanks to the contributions on social anthropologists and linguistics we have come to understand that the spoken form of a language is a valuable communication tool full of sophisticated rules of use and which is a vehicle for social interaction. We can think of Vigotsky studies on ethnic groups where he demonstrates how complex the verbal communication is within societies which some people consider to be primitive. So, speaking and listening are complex skills and even though they are acquired in an apparently natural way there is a process involved which is intricate. As an example of this we can look at some of the features which are unique to verbal communication.
Goffman highlited some of these. We could mention that in verbal communication there are signals which the adresser and adressee recognize as open-close signals such as the word “well” or a cough to open and there are other non-verbal signalssuch as hand movemet to open or close a conversation. We could also think of the fact that in verbal communication there is an inmediate and constant response from the adressee which we don´t have in written communication. This leads to the possibility of the speaker using strategies to ensure the message is being received. These strategies include back signals such as the hearer nodding his/her head or expressions such as “really” or “umhm”. These demonstrate to the hearer that the message is being received. If he or she feels that the adressee is having difficulty in receiving the message because he/she notes a lack of interests,comprehension, etc, he/she may choose to use strategies such as raising the voice, repetition or gestures to improve attention or understanding. We can not do this in written communication because the adressee is not usually present and we can´t judge the receiver´s response and then react. Further to this in verbal communication speakers and listeners pay attention to the norms of what is acceptable in a given context as regards quantity, for example.We could imagine that a British conversation consists of shorter exchanges than in an anaerobic context.There are also, of course, complex rules of what is socially and culturally
acceptable in specific contexts depending on the relative age, social class and regional origin and so on of speaker and hearer. For example, the speaker is aware of taboo words or topics and of conventions which are appropiate in a given situation.It would be inappropiate, for example, to use some swearwords in polite company. In written communication the writer does not always know who will read the message and cannot always select suitable exppressions, topics and vocabulary. Taking the above into account we can affirm that when a child begins to listen with understanding and to speak with intelligibility he/she is acquiring very useful social skills for everyday use. These skills are not primitive instruments but elaborate competences which society demands and values. Within verbal communication we recognize that there are non verbal elements. We will now look at these aspects of spoken communication. NON VERBAL COMMUNICATION. In all verbal communication we are aware that the message is sent through a code that is made up of sounds travelling trough the air, having been emitted trough the articulation of the speaker´s speech organs. But this message is communicated by non verbal signals too real componets of normal communication. The following are typical contextual non verbal elements.
Knapp clasifies the non verbal aspects as follows: 1. Body movements: includes gestures, movements of the body, limbs, hands, head, feet, facial expressions (smiling), eye behaviour such as blinking, direction of sight and also posture. 2. Physical characteristics: includes physical appearance, general attraction, body scents, height, hair, skin ton (these characteristics are constant). 3. Paralanguage: refers to how something is said and not what is said. It uses the non verbal vocal signs surronding speech (tone, qualities of the voice, rythm). 4. Proxemics: is the manner in which man uses space as specific cultural product, the study of use and perception of social and personal space. The individual determines his own space base on social and personal rules (perception and use of personal and social space). 5. Tactile conduct: kissing, hitting, guiding ... 6. Artifacts: include the manipulation of objects, which can act as non-verbal stimuli, with interacting persons.These artifacts can be: perfume, clothing, lipstick ... 7. Surroundig factors: this category includes those elements that intervine in human relations which are not a direct part of it: furniture, interio decoration. The purpose of non verbal communication is to be part of the functional aspect of communication: a) to communicate emotions b) to regulate communication/conventions. c) To interpret. d) To identify social status, etc.
The cultural specificness of these elements should highlited (Spanish and English gestures are different). Meaningful language includes a knowledge of these aspects for true communication. The importance of drama, mime, action songs, role-plays, simulation of real life situations to include as many non-verbal elements as possible cn not be underestimated. EXTRALINGUISTIC STRATEGIES: NON VERBAL REACTIONS TO MESSAGES IN DIFFERENT CONTEXTS.In this part of the topic we will see how the use of extralinguistic elements is linked not only to achieving grammatical and sociocultural competence but to strategic competence. This is the ability to plan and adapt communication, so that the desired end is achieved. In different contexts different strategies are required. We should make some points here: 1) Strategies develop and are sought when a need is seen. Children look for extralinguistic help when they are interested in, or enthusiastic about, or are seeing the advantage in communicating.
2) We shoul put children in different situations of verbal communication and help them to develop non verbal aids with games and activities which link non-verbal elements with the context and communication need. 3) This acquisition of language skills and non-verbal strategies requires an atmosphere of relaxation, with no tension, ridicule, pressure. 4) Children should see how language verbal and non verbal changes in different context, ruled by situation,climate, social class, age, formality and informality and so on.
One method which focuses on the aid of non-verbal communication is Total Physical Response. Every extralinguistic resource its use is developing communication beginning with the listening skills, where imperatives are inferred by movements, actions, etc. Though we may not wish to use a TPR methodology with all its implications, the contributions it makes to the teaching-learning process as part of our methodological plan in an eclectic approach can be valuable. As teachers we will be aware that elements such as furniture, space, decorations and so on can help or hinder communication. There will be occassions when we will want to re-arange desks, chairs, decorations, posters or other objects, so that they can help in a communicative process. For example, if we are perfoming a play we can set up various objects as scenary so that the children fell contextualized. For instance, in a play about Goldilock and the three bears we could put a table in the centre of the classroom with three
different-size chairs beside it.This extralinguistic elements help children, who can use them as aids in communication. To give an example of a Total Physical Response methodology which uses extralinguistic strategies we can consider for instance the game of “Simon says” where, in the context of a game, children learn to understand simple imperatives along with associated parts of the body. They obey the orders of the teacher only when he or she speaks on behalf of Simon. To help the children the teacher performs the action, which the children initate. Eventually they do not need this extralinguistic back-up. From the very first days of learning a foreign language, children become accostumed to deducing meaning from the context, which is full of extralinguistic clues. When we say: - “ close the door, please” pointing to the open door and miming a closing movement. This is a very simple but effective T.P.R. activity. Not only do children learn to understand spoken messages in this way. They begin to try to communicate using non-verbal and stralinguistic strategies at their disposal, from gestures to mime and with the use of other artifacts. CONCLUSION.In this topic we have attempted to demonstrate the nature of verbal communication. The spoken language in each productive and receptive forms depends not only on the understanding of sounds or the creation of these sounds.
The context of this communication includes many elements which are aids in the process and we should be aware of how we can maximized verbal and non-verbal items to encouraged children to infer meaning and to use all sorts of extralinguistic strategies to improve communication. By means of meaningful, motivating activities which use aspects such as bodymovement, gestures, artifacts, the five senses, we can motivate our young learners of English to believe that communicating in the English language is within their reach.
TOPIC 3 DEVELOPMENT OF THE FOUR BASIC LINGUISTIC SKILLS: LISTENING, SPEAKING, READING AND WRITING. COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE IN ENGLISH I will start with a short introduction to let you know what this topic is about 0. INTRODUCTION In the society where we live, the possibilities of cultural interchanges studying abroad, watching TV, so on, determines that, communication, at least one foreign language is a necessity. - With our educational reform, according the GENERAL ORGANIC act 1/1990 of 3 of October of Educative System, its are persuades THREE AIMS: • A WIDER EDUCATION: compulsory and free education are extended up to the change of sixteen, which also coincides with the labour ages. • A BETTER EDUCATION: the number of teachers and school resources are increased; the teacher-in-service training courses
are promoted, school resources and vocational guidance programmes are improved. • MORE USEFUL EDUCATION: a new model of vocational training with greater practice knowledge and with a greater relation with the labour market are proposed, and the necessites of our present society.
In the General Organic Act 1/90 of 3rd of October of Educative System, we can find in the 2nd Chapter, article 13-b that, in Primary Education, among the capacities to develop in our pupils is “ to understand and produce easy messages in a foreign language”. We also have in the RD 1344/91 of 6th of September about Teaching Requirements in the territory managed by the old Ministry of Education and Culture, in the Art.4 that the objective a) is “understand and produce oral and written messages in Spanish, language of the community and in a foreign language “ and continuous “The ability to communicate in a foreign language and the knowledge of this language give a good help for a better comprehension and learning the own language”. So,for these reasons, compulsory education must attend to this social need and give pupils a communicative competence in a foreign language.
Within this communicative competence, we as teachers have to develop the four main skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Thus, in this topic, I will talk about them in the following points: 1. DEVELOPMENT OF THE FOUR BASIC LINGUISTIC SKILLS: LISTENING, SPEAKING, READING AND WRITING 2. COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE IN ENGLISH. 3. CONCLUSION 4. BIBLIOGRAPHY.
1. DEVELOPMENT OF THE FOUR BASIC LINGUISTIC SKILLS: LISTENING, SPEAKING, READING AND WRITING In the RD 1344/ 91 of 6 of September about teaching Requirements in the territory managed by the old Ministry of Education and Culture, we can read that” the development of the basic linguistic skills it has to be seen as a process of integration. In the real life, communicative acts use different skills, so, it’s not logic, to treat them in an aisle form.” Now I am going to talk about these skills, and I will start with listening.
1. Listening or learning to listen in order to hear and understand properly. -First of all, there are several general principles in teaching / learning listening comprehension, and these principles are: I. Listening comprehension lessons, it must have definite goals, carefully stated. These goals should fit into the overall curriculum. II. Listening comprehension lessons, it should be constructed, with a carefully step-by-step planning. This implies that the listening tasks progress, from simple hearing based activities, to more complex understanding based ones as our pupils gain in language competence. III. Listening comprehension lessons should teach not test IV. Listening comprehension lessons structure it should demand active pupil participation. And finally V. These lessons should stress conscious memory work. -We can use several STRATEGIES in order to develop listening comprehension such as: SCANNING, SKIMMING, RECONSTRUCTION OF ORAL DISCOURSE, PREDICTION, RECOGNIZING INTERNAL STRUCTURES AND CONNECTORS, GUESSING FORM CONTEXT, and, EXTENSIVE and INTENSIVE STRATEGIES. 1. SCANNING or looking for specific details. It’s better to say questions before the listening practice.
2. SKIMMING or to identify the principal ideas. F. instance, we want that our pupils ask themselves, what is this text about?. And to guess the type text (poem, folk tale), settings (place, street), characters (formal, informal, neuter), and key words. 3. RECONSTRUCTION OF ORAL DISCOURSE: after we refer to the first listening, the teacher can make a conceptual map on the blackboard, considering a word or sentence as the listening key. 4. PREDICTION, pupils can predict what will be the next one that they are going to listen. 5. RECOGNIZING INTERNAL STRUCTURES AND CONNECTORS: this strategy gives us clues about the content. F. example: • FALL/RISE INTONATION, and the particle BUT indicate contrast expression • SO + FALL INTONATION indicate “RESULT” • FIRST, THEN, FINALLY, help us to identify and arrange sequences in different parts. 6. GUESSING FORM CONTEXT: is to find out the meaning of unknown words. We can use gestures, pictures… and, the two last ones are 7. EXTENSIVE and INTENSIVE LISTENING EXTENSIVE LISTENING will be a focused or general feature of the styles of discourse. The language level in this kind of listening is, inside the student’s capacity, and they
listen for pleasure and interest. This strategy, can be used for the representation of already known material in a new environment and it can also serve the function of introducing new language. INTENSIVE LISTENING is closer to ear training, and it’s the most widely used for listening practice in classroom. Students are asked to listen a passage, with the aim of collecting and organizing the information it contains. This strategy, can be used for the focus of language items as part of language teaching programme, and for general comprehension and understanding. - And, finally, in this point, I will talk about PLANNING CONSIDERATIONS. First of all, these are a number of steps that we have to bear in mind when planning the listening work for our class: 1. choose the listening text. 2. check that the activities are suitable 3. adjust the difficulty level of the activities, if we need to 4. consider, whether the listening work you are planning will fit the time available or not 5. think about visual aids 6. decide whether any special equipment will be needed
7. make up our mind about what procedure you will adopt for the listening session 8. if you are planning, to present the listening text “live” practice reading it aloud -Once we have taken these steps, we must teach our children to develop skills, and according to Harmer, we can divide these skills into TWO TYPES: GENERAL UNDERSTANDING and SPECIFIC UNDERSTANDING: a. GENERAL UNDERSTANDING is concerned with the treatment of a text as a whole, and includes the following microskills: PREDICTION: because it is useful to encourage children to predict what they think might come next in a spoken message. This means that they then listen to checks whether their expectation matches the reality of what they hear. EXTRACTING SPECIFIC INFORMATION and GETTING THE GENERAL PICTURE of an activity of listening and, b. SPECIFIC UNDERSTANDING, which involve a detailed comprehension of the text. They also include the following microskills: - INFERRING OPINION and ATTITUDE because an awareness of stress, intonation and body language, such as facial expressions or gestures, will help the children work out meaning, specially in dialogues or story- telling. - DEDUCING MEANING FROM CONTEXT because although the teacher might like to gloss new words before the children listen to something, she
also needs to encourage them to use pictures and their general knowledge about a topic to work out the meaning of unfamiliar words. -And RECONGNIZING DISCOURSE PATTERNS and MARKERS: words such as first, then, finally, or but, so, give important signals about what is coming next in a spoken text. This is especially important when listening to a sequence of events, such as in a story or a set of instructions. -About LISTENING ACTIVITIES,, we make sure the children are clear about why they are listening. This means spelling out which part of the message they need to focus on and what they are going to do before listening, while listening or after listening. So, to develop these skills, are commonly divided into THREE CATEGORIES: PRE-LISTENING, WHILE and POSTLISTENING. o PRE-LISTENING ACTIVITIES have as a main aim to arouse our pupils’ interest and include MAKING LIST OF IDEAS or LABELLING. o In WHILE LISTENING ACTIVITIES we have TRUE/FALSE or SPOTTING MISTAKER and o POST- LISTENING ACTIVITIES include SUMMARIZING or DICTATION. An activity type could be for instance: -Listen and perform actions/ follow instructions: this kind of activity is used with action songs, rhymes or games such as “ What’s the time Mr. Wolf?” -Purpose: listening for enjoyment and to improve memory and concentration span.
-Materials: instructions for games. According the book “The Primary English Teacher’s Guide “ by Brewster, Ellis and Girard, existing methods and materials for primary school English contain recorded phrases for use in the initial classes. However, it is primarily the teacher who, by conducting the class in English, will provide the opportunity for the pupils continually to improve their listening ability in as natural a manner as possible. There are other simple ways of training pupils to listen effectively such as the teaching of numbers and letters with dictations, or visuals aids, such as pictures of plants, animals or people, can also be used by the pupils to respond to dictations involving the names of objects. 2. Speaking, or learning to speak in order to be understood -First, I will say several GENERAL PRINCIPLES in SPEAKING SKILL: 1. The beginning of oral expression will start when the pupil can understand the meaning of language’s first elements. 2. Thus, we will use short dialogues and its will attack attention of them, both the topic and the attractive form to present it. 3. In relation with the first syntactic structures (which we can present in first or second cycle), they are principally GESTALTS or PREFABRICATED LANGUAGE, for instance a greeting like ‘how are you’.
4. Before preparing our activities we have to consider several aspects as COMPETENCE level, if our pupils ARE GOING TO USE A BOOK, AGE, CONTENTS. - An oral lesson is often divided into STAGES commonly known as PRESENTATION STAGE, PRACTICE STAGE and PRODUCTION STAGE: PRESENTATION STAGE has as a main aim to give our pupils the opportunities to realize the usefulness and relevance of the new language and their need to learn it. In the initial stages, first lessons often focus on teaching simple greetings and introductions, f.ex: “hello”, “What’s your name?”, “My name is”. In the early stages of learning, not much spontaneous speech can be expected from pupils. Such speech (language) consists of: -Simple greetings: hello, how are you -Social English: have a nice weekend? -Routines: what’s the date? -Classroom language: listen, repeat, sit down, good -Asking permission: Can I go to the toilet? We have to bear in mind that once we have chosen a context for the presentation, we must decide on a procedure, which includes points in this order: a) First, build up the situational context by means of pictures and tapes
b) Elicit the new language. c) Focus our pupils’ attention on the model sentence, and (to) get the repetition both chorally or individually. d) And, check students’ understanding. The teacher’s main role during this stage is as INFORMANT In PRACTICE STAGE our pupils assimilate and memorizes the new language by means of activities such as repetitions. The teacher’s role is mainly those as CONDUCTOR and CORRECTOR and In PRODUCTION STAGE, the main aims are to give learners the opportunities to integrate the new learnt language into previously learnt language in an unpredictable linguistic context, and to provide both, teachers and pupils, with feedback about the learning and teaching process. The teacher’s role is as FACILITATOR. According to Brewster the main thing is to be understood without the listener being obliged to go through a series of mental gymnastics in order to discover what the pupil was most probably trying to say. From a psychological point of view, it’s a good idea not to force things and to let each pupil start to contribute when they feel ready. -Some speaking activities that we can use are REPETITION activities like “Chinese whispers (the teacher whisper a word a sentence in the pupils’ ear and this message will be transmitted in the same form to whole class. The last pupils has to repeat aloud what he has just listened or ASKING AND GIVING INFORMATION it can consists of the repetition of certain structures with
minimums changes which have been practised previously in class to complete a questionnaire, posters, etc … For instance, an activity type could be: Look, listen and repeat: the teacher shows a picture, says the word and pupils repeat: look! An elephant. Repeat. When the teacher is satisfied with her pupil’s pronunciation she can move another word. Once several new items have been introduced, the teacher can check by showing a picture and asking, what’s this? And pupils reply. Purpose: to introduce new vocabulary or structures. Materials: picture cards, for example animals. Food, colours, actions 3. Learning to read and write • Learning to read a foreign language is obviously not a primary aim of early learning of English. Nevertheless, the two skills of reading and writing are learning tools, which it would be wrong to ignore, as they occupy a position of fundamental importance in the objectives of primary school education and in the activities of the pupils. • Learning to read in English will gradually give young beginners an ability to read autonomously as they acquire both the necessary ability and the taste for reading. There are publishers specializing in English as a foreign language that offers illustrated readers for children. The
adventures of the animal and human heroes in these books excite the interest of the children and encourage them to read on. • We have TWO TYPES OF STRATEGIES to develop reading comprehension: ACCORDING TO THE SENSE USED and ACCORDING THE ACTIVITIES. ACCORDING TO THE SENSE USED we have READING BY EAR and READING BY EYE READING BY EAR: we can’t read without the phonic element, that’s to say, reading is a lineal process and we advance identifying and reproducing the phonic elements of texts. This strategy is very important in the first stage of learning a foreign language. READING BY EYE: the relation between written word and signification is direct. Thus, the words are read as units with meaning without the participation of an intermediate mechanism. This strategy is used with pupils who have a certain reading fluency and. ACCORDING TO THE ACTIVITIES USED we have SCANNING, SKIMMING, FOLLOW A SEQUENCE, SURVIVAL READING, PREDICTION, INFORMATION TRANSFER. 1. SCANNING or looking for specific details such as a friends address. It’s better to say questions before reading. 2. SKIMMING or to identify the principal ideas. F. Instance, we want that our pupils ask themselves, what is this text about?. And they can
identify type text (poem, folk tale), settings (place, street), characters (formal, informal, neuter), and key words. 3. FOLLOW A SEQUENCE: it’s useful to understand instructions or identifying. F. Instance the life phases of famous people. 4. SURVIVALS READING: it’s referred to localization of text, which help us to find something that we are looking for in an urban context. F. instance: traffic signals with sort text (ONE WAY), or informative signals (EXIT, MIND THE GAP) 5. PREDICTION, when we can use clues which show. What’s going to the next f. instance, we say: ‘there was an Englishman, a Frenchman, and an Irishman. 6. INFORMATION TRANSFER: this strategy permits us to translate determined facts of a text to different ones. F. Instance: a travel, or adventure story can be transformed in a comic or map. • About READING SKILLS: and according to Harmer we can divide these skills into two types: GENERAL UNDERSTANDING and SPECIFIC UNDERSTANDING. -GENERAL UNDERSTANDING are concerned with the treatment of a text as a whole. They include the following micro skills: PREDICTION, EXTRACTING SPECIFIC INFORMATION, and GETTING THE GENERAL PICTURE. -SPECIFIC UNDERSTANDING are subsequently and involve a detailed comprehension of the text. They include: INFERRING OPINION AND
ATTITUDE, DEDUCING MEANING FROM CONTEXT, and RECOGNIZING DISCOURSE PATTERNS AND MARKERS. • We can also talk about READING ACTIVITIES, and are commonly divided into THREE TYPES: PRE- READING, WHILE READING and POST- READING ACTIVITIES. o PRE- READING ACTIVITIES have as a main aim to arouse our pupils’ interest in what they are going to read. They may include: PRELIMINARY DISCUSSION, HEADLINESS AND TITLES, and SEQUENCING PICTURES. o WHILE READING ACTIVITIES for general and specific understanding. They may include: SUGGESTING A TITLE, UNDERLINE THE INFORMATION REQUIRED, and CHART COMPLETATION. o POST- READING ACTIVITIES can be thought as a follow up work. They may include PREPARE A SIMILAR NEXT, PARTICIPATE IN A ROLE-PLAY BASED ON THE NEXT MAKE A DRAWING. • Finally to say that reading in English in the early stages will usually remain at the word level, where children play simple games as dominoes, snap or bingo. • For instance, an activity type could be: Playing games such as odd- one out or spot the difference. Pupils identify similarities and differences between letters or words.
Purpose: to develop phonic skills and sight recognition of words. Material: flashcards or worksheets with words grouped in three or fours. And about the last skill, writing, we can say that in the early stages of learning English, the pupils will generally write very little. It is a good idea to use copying in a way, which encourages pupils to think, this means using crosswords, and matching, sequencing or classifying activities. We also have in this skill several stages: 1. First, FAMILIARIZATION AND CONTROLLED WRITING: at the beginning, words and expressions won’t be presented isolated, but with a lot of contextual aids, wallcharts, flashcards. We can use activities such as FILLIG CROSSWORDS, PUTTING UNDER PICTURES the right sentences (with routines expressions) 2. The second stage is GUIDING WRITING and we use precommunicative activities to reach out the free composition of short texts. We have for instance, INFORMATION TRANSFER STRATEGY: with excursion photographies which give us material to produce texts (they have to write about what they see) and
3. The third stage is FREE COMPOSITION that can be introduced when the previous ones have been filled and with activities such as FILLING CHRISTMAS or BITHDAY CARDS + According to Matthew, writing skills can be divided on: 1. GRAPHIC SKILLS which include aspects such as PUNCTUATION or SPELLING 2. STYLISTIC SKILLS refer to our pupils’ ability to express precise meaning in a variety of styles and registers( to say “hello” sad or happy 3. ORGANIZATIONAL SKILLS which involve the sequencing of ideas (by using connectors such as “first”, “finally” 4. GRAMATICAL SKILLS refer to our pupils’ ability to use successfully a variety of sentence patterns and construction and (negatives or affirmative sentences) 5. RHETORICAL SKILLS refer to pupils’ ability to use cohesion devices in order to link part of a text into logically related sequences (more or less as organizational) An activity type could be: Snap: Materials: 24 playing cards with common words written on them. The words need to be grouped into families which have two or three letters in common, for example: at, hat, mat, cat; the, other, mother, another.
Method: the cards are divided equally between two players. Each player places the card face down in the usual way. When a player says “snap”, she/ he has to say why the two cards are linked. No single letter matching is allowed. The winner is the first player to collect all the cards. And with that I finish the first main point in this topic. Now, I will talk about the other main point. 2. THE COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE IN ENGLISH Chomsky defined language as a set of sentences each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements He said that a native speaker has a subconscious knowledge of the grammatical rules of his language, which allows him to make sentences in that language. This is what Chomsky called COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE. However, DELL HYMES thought that Chomsky had forgotten some very important information about the rules of use, because when a native speaks, he doesn’t only utter grammatically corrects, he also knows WHERE, WHEN, and to WHOM to use these. He said that competence by itself is not enough to explain a speaker’s knowledge, and, replace it with the concept of communicative competence. He distinguished FOUR ASPECTS of his CC: systematic potential, appropiacy, occurrence and feasibility
SYSTEMATIC POTENTIAL means that the native speaker possesses a system that has a potential for creating a lot of language. This is similar to Chomsky competence. APPROPIACY means the native speaker knows what language is appropriate in a given situation. His choice is based on the following variables: SETTING, PARTICIPANT, PURPOSE, CHANNEL and TOPIC OCURRENCE means that the native speaker knows how often something is said in a language and acts accordingly FEASIBILITY means the native speaker knows whether something is possible in a language or not + These four categories have been adapted for teaching purposes + Thus, the Royal Decree 1006/91 of 14 th of June which establishes the teaching requirements for Primary Education nationwide sees Communicative Competence as comprising five subcompetences: GRAMMAR C, DISCOURSE, SOCIOLINGUISTIC, STRATEGIC AND SOCIOCULTURAL COMPETENCE. GRAMMAR C.: the ability to put into practice the linguistic units according to the rules of use established in the linguistic system DISCOURSE C: the ability to use different types of discourse and organize them according to the communicative situation and the speakers involved in it.
SOCIOLINGUISTIC C: the ability to adequate the utterances to the specific context, in according with the accepted usage of the determined linguistic community. STRATEGIC C: the ability to define, correct or in general, make adjustments, in the communicative situation. SOCIOCULTURAL C: which has to be understood as a certain awareness of the social and cultural context in which the foreign language is used. Finally and 3. CONCLUSION of this topic, to say that the integrated education of the four main skills, beside to permit us the use of material for practising different linguistics activities, it answer to natural phenomenon in our everyday life: sometimes we talk (orally way) not only what we see, listen, but we also talk about something that we have just read, or, we write about something that we have heard or read. Any practice, thus, about a determined linguistic skills, must be completed and rested on the other ones. 4. BIBLIOGRAPHY The royal decree 1006/91 of 14th of June about teaching requirements for Primary Education. “The Primary English Teacher’s Guide” by Brewster. Ed. Penguin. English 1992
“The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Language” by Crystal. Ed. Cambridge. University Press 1987 “The Practice of English Language Teaching” by Harmer. Ed. Longman. London. 1983 UNIT 4: FOREIGN LANGUAGE AS COMMUNICATION INSTRUMENT. INTERNATIONAL AND MULTILINGUAL REALITIES. INTEREST FOR A NEW LANGUAGE AND CULTURE. 1. FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION. Language can be a barrier to communication. The most usual way to go round is to find someone to interpret or translate it. there are many problems because exact equivalence is impossible and there is always a loss of information, even with an accurate translation. On the other hand some people have created new artificial languages, neutral, standardised, easy to learn, with a lot of functions, etc, but people cannot identify with a language nobody speaks. There is another solution, using a natural language for communication between different groups of people. For centuries Latin has been used but nowadays is English the one that is getting that position. It is due to the political, economic and military power of the UK first and the USA later. Trading, industry, science and literature have contributed to it. English is a live language, changing and developing quickly. There are many linguistic loans from all languages and the meaning of some words change quite easily. In addition to that, verbs system is simple and English has not got genre. Some people, most of them from countries with important languages, are reluctant to learn a second language. But foreign language learning becomes a necessity nowadays: • The European Community: meeting people from other countries on equal linguistic terms. And also the possibility for workers to move from country to country. • People travel a lot and languages help to cope with different situations and give the opportunity of interaction with natives. • There are more and more cultural exchanges. Science, technology and trading demand foreign languages.
•
Languages promote understanding, tolerance and respect for the cultural identity, rights and values of others. They broaden our minds, because we find other ways of thinking about things. • Foreign language learning prepare students to cope with an ever-changing environment. They face up to social and personal demands. • Linguistic awareness is getting more and more accurate with foreign language studying. Mother tongue gets also better. So, teaching a language means also showing the linguistic aspects and knowing about the culture. The language is a vehicle for it. 2. TEACHING LANGUAGE AND CULTURE New materials include increasingly information about different aspects of the target language community (geography, social values, sports,…) It can help the contrast between foreign community habits and pupils’ own habits. They must be aware of the different ways of behaviour and also reduce the risk of intolerance. Meaning is not an isolated property of the text, it does not only appear in discourse, it is relational. Pupils must know about the context where the text is shown. Being English is a part of a person. We must also mind sex, age, social class, ethnic background,… The teaching of English culture is not only a matter of words. We must not reduce culture to stereotypes. We are educating people for a more tolerant world and the civilised acceptance of difference. Our task is to encourage people to take an interest and develop a positive attitude towards the foreign country and its people. 3. CONTENTS Sociocultural expressions are shown mostly in traditional material (e.g.: songs: “I love sixpence”, “Teapot”) Traditional games and sports also help. Establishing differences and contrasts in: • Some jobs (e.g.: milkman) • Social politeness (Mr., Mrs., Miss, Excuse me, please…) • Everyday activities (meals, time, school timetable) • Weather (clothes, seasons)
• Sociocultural distinctions (driving on the left) • Celebrations (Halloween)
THEME 4 THE SECOND LANGUAGE AS A MEANS OF COMMUNICATION AMONG PEOPLE AND NATIONS. GENERATING AN INTEREST IN LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY THROUGH ANOTHER LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
OUTLINE PART ONE: TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 2. CONTENTS 2.1.
Language and communication
2.2.
Language and different cultures
2.3.
Language as an instrument of holistic learning
2.4.
The importance of having materials in the resource room to achieve a good intercultural atmosphere
2.5.
‘Immersion approach’ to second language learning
2.6.
How to experience the culture of the English-speaking world in the classroom
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
PART TWO: PRACTICAL DEVELOPMENT 1. LEVEL 2. TIME OF SESSIONS 3. OBJECTIVES 3.1.
General
3.2.
Specific
4. METHODOLOGY 5. THE TEACHING UNIT: SPECIFIC CONTENTS 6. ACTIVITIES AND TASKS 7. MATERIALS 8. FINAL TASK 9. EVALUATION
PART ONE: TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION Modern textbooks take into account the linguistic aspects of a second language. In Fanfare, for example, Barbara Wilkes cites the following as her aims and objectives: to create an initial interest and enjoyment in foreign-language learning; to develop a positive attitude towards foreign cultures and people; to develop and awareness of the link between language and culture; to develop an awareness of language as an instrument of communication (Wilkes 1994: 8-9). Thus, in addition to contributing “to the process of the development of the child’s intellectual, social, emotional, and physical skills,” and fostering “improved learning skills”, teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) should also include aspects related to intercultural appreciation and communication. 2. CONTENTS 2.1.
Language and communication
Louis Porcher has observed that one of the objects of teaching a foreign language “is to give the learner some measure of communicative competence in that language. This competence may correspond to a future need of the learner (1980: 18).” In effect, that the mastering a second language has become a need for most people today is no longer a debatable issue. Schools not only have the responsibility of teaching a second language as a linguistic system, but also as a social system to be used by the learner.
Hence, communication should begin in the school where the learning of a second language is taking place. Porcher maintains that since all teaching is itself a message, “It must therefore be suitable for those for whom it is in fact intended (19).” For the author, a language is a social practice, a part of a people’s history. Thus, it becomes necessary to educate pupils in the socio-cultural context which is characteristic of the countries in which the foreign language is the mother tongue. It is evident that inter-culturism is fast becoming an essential dimension in all teaching. The Modern Languages Programme of the Council for Cultural Co-Operation of the Council of Europe has specifically defined the political objective which guides the programme in the following manner: “to facilitate communication and interaction among Europeans of different mother tongues in the service of European mobility, mutual understanding and cooperation, and in order to overcome prejudice and discrimination (Trim 1981: I).” The following members of the CDCC Project Group 4, D. Coste, C. Edelhoff, R. Bergenthoft, J. L M. Trim, each other has something to say in this respect. Daniel Coste writes, “As far as we are concerned, ‘learning to communicate’ does not involve learning something totally new: all language learners are communicators already; what foreign language learning involves is learning to communicate differently and to communicate with a different set of people." Coste holds that different ways of communicating have to be learned (and not just linguistic ones). Furthermore, it is his belief that in order to learn to communicate with a different set of people, one must also learn about them. Hence, communication is inseparable from a cultural context. The learning process itself becomes one of learning to communicate: “For adults, adolescents and children alike, learning is a process which, however slightly, involves and changes the whole individual as a person and
social agent; when it comes to learning a different language to communicate differently with a different set of people, it is a fair assumption that the changes and the involvement will be all marked (34).” 2.2.
Language and different cultures
Christopher Edelhoff feels the attitude of learners is as important as their linguistic knowledge and skills. “Teachers teaching a communication curriculum must be ready to accept that communication is free interaction between people of all talents, views, races and socio-cultural backgrounds and that foreign language communication, especially, is there for international understanding, human rights, democratic development and individual enrichment.” In order to achieve this end the learner needs to have an attitude which reflects open-mindedness and respect for others; attitude must also include respect for the history, environment, and views of other people (76).” Rume Bergentoft reminds us, “In the final Act of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe, signed in Helsinki in 1975 by the heads of state of the participating nations, the latter expressed their conviction regarding the role now played by a knowledge of languages in connection among other things with closer international cooperation. It was decided that a wider knowledge of languages was needed to promote world peace and cooperation (33). Finally, J. L. Trim warns of the “classical paradigm” of language teaching and “elitism” in traditional language teaching at school. “The ‘classical paradigm’ continued to dominate grammar schools until recently, and is till strong in many member countries...” The author explains that the ‘classical paradigm’ tends to extend certain values and attitudes, which reflect the classics to the languages and
cultures of modern Europe. He points out that from this perspective, the study of a foreign language is but an intellectual discipline, based on the translation of passages from the classics which have little bearing on the real world in which learners actually live. Trim further declares, “This ‘classical paradigm’ is avowedly elitist.” He feels that it creates barriers to communication which tend to reinforce and perpetuate divisions in society. However, Trim concludes that, though the classical paradigm continues to be powerful, contemporary creative writing no longer employs the criteria of clarity and refined taste “to which the classical paradigm attaches the greatest importance (p. XX-XXI).” Other authors have taken similar positions. Earl W. Stevick refers to a language class as being “one area in which a number of private universes intersect one another (1980: 7).” He feels that each learner, though a total individual, is in fact affected by what the others do. The teacher should be aware – and sympathize with the fact- that there are times when a learner will resist learning something which violates certain peer norms. For example, learners may at first reject the language simply because of its foreignness. Teachers should therefore be aware that the fear of losing support from those closest to the learner (peers, parents, etc.) may be an inhibiting factor. Stevick refers to a “world of meaningful action”, which, he says, tends to draw peers, family members, and life-goals during the language learning process. He concludes, “Foreignness, shallowness, irrelevance, and the subordinate position of the student –all may be obstacles to a learner’s feeling of ‘primacy in a world of meaningful action’ (10).” 2.3.
Language as an instrument of holistic learning
Paul G. La forge affirms, “Language learning is people: this is the basic social process in learning ( 1983: viii).” By this he means that the acquisition of second language is the result of an interpersonal
relationship which includes the teacher and the group of students. For La Forge, the interactions are dynamic and contribute to a personal growth for all involved. Their relationship becomes modified as a result of the learning of a new language. Furthermore, he recognizes the significance of the social process in twentieth-century language development: “A process view of language has opened the route to an understanding of mankind, social history, and the laws of how a society functions (1).” This means that EFL learning involves social, historical, cultural, and individual interconnections. Gertrude Moskowitz defends a system of “Humanistic Education”, which she describes as “combining the subject matter to be learned with the feelings, emotions, experiences, and lives of the learners (1978: 11).” She is concerned with educating the whole person, both intellectually and emotionally. In the author’s opinion, second language learning not only stimulates better human understanding, but it also leads to greater independence and self-steem. By learning another language, learners care more both for themselves and others. Caleb Gattegno believed in “the spirit of language.” He felt hat by learning another language one absorbs the culture and history of the language users. Human beings incorporate into their languages conscious or unconscious collective aims, passions, and vision, which are taken on by the learner. He suggested that languages are reflections of the various modes of thought of a people: “The spirit of each language seems to act as a container for the melody and the structure of the language and most users are unconscious of it (1978: 19)”.
2.4.
The importance of having materials in the resource room to achieve a good intercultural atmosphere
Brumfit and Finocchiaro suggest that acquiring a language also implies acquiring “enough knowledge about the culture of the target community to participate fully in a conversation at the beginning of a stay in a foreign country”. Additionally, they hold that EFL teaching should provide “the implicit and explicit learning of culture and language varieties through a multi-media approach and an active methodology based on creative use of language (1985: 26)”. In order to achieve this they suggest using the following resources: radio broadcasts, television, tapes, cassettes, documentary, recreational films, pictures, and short dialogs dealing with everyday situations. Furthermore, paralinguistic features need to be considered as well as gestures and facial expressions. The authors insist that learners cultural insights are a must in EFL learning. 2.5.
‘Immersion approach’ to second language learning
H. H. Stern alludes to an area of investigation, language teaching for younger children, which came to the fore around 1960 when UNESCO organized meetings in Hamburg in 1962 and 1966 with the purpose of stimulating comparative research in different countries. However, he sadly concludes that within ten years most of the resulting enquiries had “not always produced the clear-cut finding that had perhaps been expected from them when they were initiated (1984: 56)”. The two UNESCO-sponsored international meetings were intended to promote research on early language teaching and on the effectiveness of an early start. These meetings centred on the feasibility of an early start in school systems and revealed that young children responded to second language teaching in a positive way (364).
On a similar note, Stern asserts that two of the most interesting research endeavours in the seventies were the Council of Europe Modern Languages Project and the Canadian French immersion experiments, of which he was a participant. The Council of Europe Project, which was initiated in 1971, involves the co-operation of school-ars in several countries. The French immersion research programme in Canada, which began in 1965, “illustrates the effectiveness of an ‘immersion’ approach to second language learning (1984: 66)”. In both studies, communication or communicative competence was one of the prime objectives. Stern further points out that the term “communicative competence”, is a term which is used a great deal. Hymes was the first to employ the term, in contrast to Chomsky’s “linguistic competence”. “Communicative competence” reflects the social view of language. The concept of communicative competence is integral with communicative language teaching. It has become a central focus for EFL teaching, which involves the study and practice of functional, structural, lexical and sociocultural aspects. The learning experience itself should be personal and engage in a direct use of the language and contact with the target language community (Stern 1984: 26). 2.6.
How to experience the culture of the English-speaking world in the classroom
Finally, to develop cultural insights, Finocchiaro suggests the classroom should “reflect the culture of the English-speaking world (1974: 94)”. She submits that the following aspects be incorporated into EFL teaching: maps and posters, a bulletin board with newspaper and magazine clipping, including comic
strips, proverbs and pictures; a table or shelf with objects such as stamps, money, artifacts, and a library corner. She also recommends the carrying out of “projects related to English-speaking culture which will then serve for class reporting and discussion (95)”. Such projects might include the following: preparation of maps, travel itineraries, floor plans, menus, calendars indicating holidays, scrapbook, flimstrips or pictures, play readings, a book fair. Additionally, culture may be experienced through songs, festivals, poems, multimedia resource material. She also suggests, “A pen pal project should be initiated very soon after the students learn to write (97)”. 3. BIBLIOGRAPHY FINOCCHIARO, M.: (1974). English as a second language: from theory to practice. Reprint ed. New York: Regents. FINOCCHIARO M. And BRUMFIT, C.: (1985). The functional-notional approach: from theory to practice. Reprint ed. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. GATTEGNO, C.: (1978). Teaching foreign languages in schools: the silent way. 2nd ed. New York: Educational Solutions. LA FORGE, P. G.: (1983). Counseling and Culture in Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
MOSKOWITZ, G.: (1978). Caring and sharing in the foreign language class: A sourcebook on humanistic techniques. Rowley, Massachusetts: Newbury House. PORCHER, L.: (1980). Reflections on language needs in the school. Strasbourg: Council for Cultural Cooperation of the Council of Europe. STERN, H. H.: (1984). Fundamental concepts of languge teaching. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. STEVICK, E.W.:(1980). Teaching languages: a way and ways. Rowley, Massachusetts: Newbury House. TRIM, J. L. M., project adviser: (1981). Modern languages programme 1971-1981. Strasbourg: Council for Cultural Co-Operation of the Council of Europe. VILKES, B.: (1994). Fanfare. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
PART TWO: PRACTICAL DEVELOPMENT 1. LEVEL Third cycle (6 th grade) 2. TIME OF SESSION Four periods of class, one week before Christmas. 3. OBJECTIVES 3.1. -
General To recognize the communicative value of learning a foreign language, showing a positive attitude of understanding and respect for other languages and cultures.
3.2. -
Specific Students will be able to increase their understanding of and compare Christmas customs in English speaking countries.
-
Learn the lyrics and music of popular Christmas Carol and sing it.
-
Experience and extract information from the song in the past tense.
-
Interact with other cultures.
4. METHODOLOGY
The methodology used should be suitable to a communicative approach to teaching English as a foreign language. That is, taking into consideration the age, ability and needs of the students, as well as the criteria specified in the overall objectives of the course, the EFL teacher should apply leaning strategies which are based on learning by doing, i.e., task oriented strategies. The tasks required elicit a participative attitude on the part of the learners and a guiding role on the part of the teacher. Additionally, the teacher should help the students to learn both to think and to do in the target language. 5. THE TEACHING UNIT: SPECIFIC CONTENTS Conceptual: -
vocabulary (Specifics words from the song and Christmas words)
-
phonological aspects (practise the pronunciation of the consonant –r-).
Procedural: -
Christmas environment.
-
warm-up activities
-
listening tasks
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Productive activities
Sociological aspects: -
Curiosity for different customs.
-
Respect for different cultures.
6. ACTIVITIES AND TASKS
6.1.
Brain-storming: The students (SS) say any English words they know which are related to Christmas.
6.2.
The teacher (T) shows them how to make a calendar of events.
6.3.
SS work in groups (four to five people) and make one calendar for each group.
6.4.
Using a cassette recorder, T plays Christmas carols while SS work with the calendars.
6.5.
SS hang their calendars on the walls and T uses them to go over the meaning of words.
6.6.
T plays the song Rudolph the red-nose Reindeer and while SS listen carefully.
6.7.
SS read the lyrics of the song with missing words (listening task).
6.8.
By listening and discussing SS find the missing words and start memorizing the lyrics (day by day).
6.9.
T gives SS a text from “Mary’s Diary” which tells what Mary did last Christmas.
6.10
Using their own native language (L1), SS discuss in how the Christmas customs narrated in
Mary’s diary compare with customs in Spain. 6.11
At the end of the short-term series, the classroom is decorated. SS give each other presents
and they sing together the song “Rudolph the red-nose reindeer”. 7. MATERIALS -
A cassette tape of the song “Rudolph...” and a cassette recorder.
-
Wrapping paper, glue, scissors, coloured markers and optional material (tacks, staplers, etc.).
-
A textof Mary’s diary talking about Christmas customs in her country.
8. FINAL TASK SS write about what they did last Christmas: The pages will go into a class diary that everyone can read. 9. EVALUATION (See thematic number 14)
TEMA 5: GEOGRAPHIC, HISTORIC AND CULTURAL FRAMEWORK OF THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING CONUNTRIES. DIDACTIC APPLICATION OF THE MOST MEANINGFUL GEOGRAPHIC, HISTORIC AND CULTURAL ASPECTS.
1.- INTRODUCTION: English is spoken in all continents. English is the most widespread language on earth. English speaking is established in the British Isles, North America, Australia and North Africa. The English speaking is uncertain in Africa, Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. We will draw a
geographical, historical and cultural outline of the most important English-speaking countries. We will study the importance of sociocultural competence to the acquisition of communicative, and list activities to reach it.
2.- GEOGRAPHIC, HISTORIC AND CULTURAL FRAMEWORK OF THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING COUNTRIES. 2.1.- EXTENT AND SIGNIFICATION OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. English has spread all over the world. Currently English is spoken and understood in the whole continent. It is the international language of commerce, science and research. It is easier to learn for Asiatics and Africans, but France wants to avoid the use of English words. In Spain there have been campaigns against the American “contamination” in papers, radio, TV or cinema. We can say that in South America, English is widely spoken. Many Caribbean countries are bilingual, they speak English and Spanish. This demand of English, all over the world, has caused an economic phenomenon, a military expansion, the scientific advances and the power of media.
2.2.- ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. The Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes, imported English from the continent when they invaded “Great Britain”, after the arrival of the Roman Empire in the 5 th century. The language of these three peoples was basically the same, and the know dialects of Old English developed after their setting in the isles. The Norman Conquest in 1066 caused tremendous linguistic changes from that moment on we will talk about Middle English. Characteristics of Middle English were: •
Reductions of inflections.
•
Disappearance of the grammatical gender.
•
Rigidity in sentence word order.
•
Fight among dialects.
•
French orthography.
The influence of French and Latin terms modify the structure of the English Language. About 1250, when the Normans lost Normandy and French language took and important paper, it began to be questioned whether English should be used as a representative national language. Which dialled should become the standard language? Around 1350 the London dialect was about to become the “winner”. The political predominance of London as a governing centre facilities the spreading of this dialect thought the country.
From 1400 onwards French is reduced to the aristocracy and as a vehicle of commercial transactions with the continent. From 1650 to 1850 there is a change in the attitude of English people towards their own language. There have been some changes in the Standard English, they are a consequence of the diversification of the “social dialects”.
2.3.- GEOGRAPHIC, HISTORIC AND CULTURAL FRAMEWORK OF THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING COUNTRIES. English is the most spoken language in the world after Chinese. We are going to talk about the general characteristics of the English-speaking countries. A.- THE UNITED KINGDOM. In full the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Is made up of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It’s a member of the Commonwealth and European Community. The capital is London. The currency is sterling pound. It is a constitutional monarchy, with two houses: House of Lords and House of Commons. The chief of state is the sovereign, and the head of government is the prime minister. Its geographic situation has marked its history, characterized by its independence to the continent. Nowadays this distance has disappeared with the building of the channel tunnel. Industry has always been the main economic source, here the industrial revolution took place. Commerce has also been the basic for their prosperity. The UK dominated the maritime routes. The British monarchy was founded in 1066 by William the Conqueror, it has been a system, with a small break of ten years corresponding to the republican government imposed by Oliver Cromwell. At the present moment, the monarch is Elisabeth II; she is also the head of the Anglican Church.
There are two big political parties: the conservative party and the labour party. The principal river is the Thames. The highest point in UK is Ben Nevis (1343) in Scotland. The population grew in 1950 with the arrival of Commonwealth emigrants. They came from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
B.- THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND. This nation occupies the largest part of an island situated west of Great Britain. The national language is Irish, but the official one is English. The major religion is Catholicism. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland is an unitary multiparty republic, with two houses: senate and the house of representative. The chief of state is the president and the head of government is the prime minister. Currency is Irish pound. The highest point is carrantuchill; the major river is the Shannon. Ireland belongs to the European Community. Ireland obtains the independence from Great Britain in 1921. The Irish economy is based on the agriculture. It has not got important mineral resources. The religious conflict: Catholics and Protestants, The majority of the population in England is Anglican, the main features of the Anglican Church are the subordination to the Queen and its positives rejection of the Pope authority. In Northern Ireland, most of the population is Catholic. In Belfast, the capital, Catholics and Protestants cause almost daily victims. The IRA, Irish Republican Army, commits terrorist attacks. The IRA wants the Protestants to abandon Northern Ireland. They want to get the self-government for the Ulster.
C.- THE UNITED STATES. English language is an universal language because it has been established in many countries. This export began in 17th century with the birth of the colonies in North America. The main reason of the status of English is the great number or inhabitants in USA and the massive emigrations on the 19 th and 20th century. The USA is a federal republic formed by 50 states.
Two legislatives houses: senate and the house of representative. The head of state and government is the president. Its capital is Washington. The first river is Mississippi river. The currency is American dollar. Religion: there isn’t a principal religion. Protestantism is, perhaps, the most practised. It is a nation of groups, where the minorities try to get equal rights and opportunities. The language is English, but there are minorities such as Spanish or Asians, trying to keep alive their language. It is a very rich country, with important metallic and energy sources. The USA obtains the independence from Great Britain in 1783. From more than half a century ago the USA is the 1 st world power. Its history is a long and constant territorial progress, with a great political and military development.
D.- THE BRITISH EMPIRE The Victorian Era (1837-1901) was a period of prestige for Great Britain. In the 16th century Great Britain developed its commercial capacity, by conquering every strategic point along the mercantile routes. During the 18th and 19th centuries, they became a great empire. All these territories were controlled by generators who imposed their language, their culture and laws. Most of these territories were colonies for the exploitation, which originated the British richness and splendour. The population was formed by emigrant who wanted to start a new life. The different territories got their independence, but some of them were not prepared for self-governing and have became 3rd world countries ruled by dictators.
E.- THE COMMONWEALTH. It was founded in 1931 to carry out the dissolution of the British Empire. It is formed by 32 independent nations, they maintain the English crown as their Head of State. The reason for this institution is the economic interest of the countries that belong to it.
States members: UK, Canada, Trinity and Tobago, Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia, Australia, New Zealand, etc.
F.- PHILIPPINES. The republic of Philippines is an independent state since 1946. Language: Tagalo; English as a commercial language. Religion: Catholic. Capital: Manila. Spain lost the colony in 1898, under the domain of USA in 1935, it was constituted as a sovereign state under the North American supervision.
G.- THE COMMON LAW. An amazing fact about the English legal system. There is not a penal or civil code. They have the common law. The sentences are based on previous trials. The juries are formed by citizens coming from different social classes, they consider if the accused is guilty or innocent. In USA, there are federal jurisdictions, every state has its own laws, courts and police.
3.- DIDACTIC APPLICATION OF THE MOST MANINGFUL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORIC AND CULTURAL ASPECTS. The teacher of a modern language must teach not only the foreign language but also the civilization of the countries and people who speak that language.
Apart from history and geography, our pupils must get familiar politics, mass media, etc.
3.1.- HOW CAN WE TEACH ENGLICH CIVILIZATION? There are 3 different procedures: 1. Interpretative reading. First we must know the level of the group before planning any activity. There should be a correspondence between the level of the text and the level of the group. Different types of texts. The important result is that they get the signification about the society or social aspects reflected in the textExample: journey around the world in 80 days. The typical gentleman. 2. Practices of oral expression. We can offer our pupils photographs showing different aspects of British life, they must say whatever they suggest to them. We can use a dramatization of a dialogue, eg. “An English breakfast” (foods, timetable, courtesy sentences), “a tourist visit” (we can use postcards or photographs). We can mention Christmas, Thanksgiving Day, American Independence). 3. Didactic use of songs. They are a pedagogic support for the teaching of civilization. The songs must have certain characteristics: -
correspondence with the level of the pupils.
-
Interesting for the pupils
They can learn some structures with the songs.
INTRODUCTION Every aspect of language is enormously complex. Yet, children learn most of the intricate system of their mother tongue before the age of six. Before they can add 2+2, children are putting sentences together, asking questions, negating sentences, using the syntactic, phonological, morphological, and semantic rules of the language. Children are not taught language as they are taught arithmetic. They learn language in a different way. LINGUIST COMPETENCE AND COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE We are far from completely understanding the language acquisition process. We are just beginning to grapple with those aspects of the human neurological and biological make up which explain the child’s ability to acquire language. Certainly it is clear that the child is equipped from birth with the necessary neural prerequisites for language and language use. Our knowledge of the nature of human language tell us something about what the child does and does when acquiring a language: 1) Children do not learn a language by storing all the words ant all the sentences in some giant mental dictionary. The list of words is finite, but no dictionary can hold all the sentences, which are infinite in number.
2) Children learn to understand sentences they have never heard before, and to construct sentences, most of which they have never produced before. 3) Children must therefore learn “rules” which permit them to use language creatively. 4) No one teaches them these rules. Their parents are no more aware of phonological, syntactic, morphological, and semantic rules than the children are. Children, then, seem to act like very efficient linguists equipped with a perfect theory of language, who use this theory to build up the grammar of the language they hear. In addition to acquiring the complex rules of the grammar (that is, linguistic competence), children must also learn the complex rules of the appropriate social use for language, what certain scholars have called communicative competence. These include, for example, the greetings which are to be used, the “taboo” words, the polite forms of address the various styles which are appropriate to different situations, and so forth.
STAGES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION IN CHILDREN Linguists divide the child’s acquisition of a language into prelinguistic and linguistic stages. There continues to be disagreement
as to what should be included in these periods. But most scholars agree that the earliest cries and whimpers of the newborn cannot be considered early language. Such noises are completely stimuluscontrolled; they are the child’s involuntary responses to hunger, discomfort, the feeling of well-being, etc. THE BABBLING STAGE Usually around the sixth month period, the infant begins to babble. The sounds produced in this period seem to include the sounds of human languages. The role of babbling is not clearly understood, but it is absolutely clear that in order that the language develop finally, the child must receive some auditory input. THE HOLOPHRASTIC STAGE Sometime after children are one year old, they begin to use same string of sounds repeatedly to “mean” the same thing. Most children seem to go through the “one word=one sentence” stage. The child
uses just one word to express concepts or predications which will later be expressed by complex phrases and sentences. THE TWO-WORD STAGE Around the time of their second birthday children begin to produce two-word utterances like: “allgone sock”; “bye-bye boat”; “it ball”; “hi mommy”; “dirty sock”; mummy sock”. During this stage there are no syntactic or morphological markers; that is, no inflections for number, tense, or person. The two words a child utters can express a number of different grammatical relations which will later be expressed by other syntactic devices. TELEGRAPH TO INFINITY There does not seem to be any “three-word sentence” stage. When a child starts stringing more than two words together, the utterances may be two, three, four, or five words or longer. The words in a “sentence” are not strung together randomly; from a very early stage, children’s utterances reveal their grasp of the principles of sentence formation. These first utterances of children which are longer than two words have a special characteristic. Usually, the small “function” words such as to, the, can, is, etc, are missing ; only the words which carry the main message –the “content” words– occur. Children often sound as if they were reading telegrams,
which is why such utterances are called “telegraphic speech”. For example: “Cathy build house”; “No sit here”; “Car stand up table”.
As children acquire more and more language, or more closely approximate the adult grammar, they not only begin to use function words but also acquire the inflectional and derivational morphemes of the language. There seems to be a natural order of acquisition of morphemes. It seems that the suffix –ing is the earliest inflectional morpheme acquired. Eventually all the other inflections are added, along with the syntactic rules, and finally the child’s utterances sound like those spoken by adults.
THEORIES OF CHILD LANGUAGE ACQUISISTION
IMITATION There are those who think that children merely imitate what they hear. Imitation is involved, of course, but the sentences produced by children show that they are not imitating adult speech. Even when children are deliberately trying to imitate what they hear, there are unable to produce sentences which cannot be generated by their grammar.
POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT Another theory suggest that children learn to produce “correct” sentences because they are positively reinforced when they say something right and negatively reinforced when they say something wrong. This view does not tell us how children construct the correct rules. Whatever “correction” takes place is based more on the content of the message than on its form. That is, if a child says ”Nobody don’t like me”, the mother may say “Everybody likes you2. Besides, all attempts to “correct” a child’s language are doomed to failure. Children don’t know what they are doing wrong and are even unable to make the corrections when they are pointed to them.
CREATIVE CONSTRUCTION The reinforcement theory fails along with the imitation theory. Neither of these views accounts for the fact that children are constructing their own rules. Different rules govern the construction of sentences as the grammar is learned. The “imperfect” sentences children use are perfectly regular. They are not “mistakes” in the child’s language; they reflect his or her grammar at a certain stage of development. The child seems to form the simplest and most general rule he can from the language input he receives, and is so “pleased” with his “theory” that he uses the rule whenever he can. The most obvious example of this “overgeneralization” is shown when children treat irregular verbs and nouns as if they were regular. We have probably all heard children say “goed”, “singed”, or “foots”, “childs”. These mistakes tell us more about how children learn language than the “correct” forms they use. The child couldn’t be imitating; children use such forms in families where parents would never utter such “bad English”. The child’s ability to generalize patterns and construct rules is also shown in the development of the semantic system. For example, the child learns the word “daddy” and later applies it to other men.
Thus, a third theory suggests that language acquisition is a creative construction process, and that children have to “construct” all the rules of the grammar. According to the famous linguist Noam Chomsky., “it seems plain that language acquisition is based on the child’s discovery of what from a formal point of view is a deep and abstract theory – a generative grammar of his language”. Children seem to be equipped with special abilities or with a “language acquisition device”, residing principally in the left side of the brain, to know just what they can ignore, to find all the regularities in the language. The details of this “innate” device are far from understood. As we gain more information about brain functions and the preconditions for language acquisition, we will learn more about the nature of human language.
LEARNING AND ACQUISITION OF A SECOND LANGUAGE As we compare a child’s acquisition of his mother tongue with the learning and acquisition of a second or foreign language, it becomes evident that the processes and theories involved seem to be, at least to a certain extent, parallel. Other aspects, on the other hand, keep less similarity , as it the case with the stages that children go through.
The learning progression does not take place in a linear way, by successive appropriation of the different subsystems implied, but rather by a global approximation which in the initial stages implies a considerable simplification and an exclusion of peculiarities that are not perceived as essential. Progress consists then in a continuous process of completing, polishing and enriching this global apprehension of the new communication system. Thus, the teaching and learning of a foreign language should not be viewed so much in terms of a series of elemental units of content which are perfectly apprehended before proceeding to the next, but in terms of a communication system which is globally elaborated and whose complexity and communicative potential increases in a progressive form. It should be pointed out that the information processing mechanisms often work efficiently even when the student is not producing utterances. During the first moments in the learning of a foreign language, there are often silent periods during which the student does not produce at all. This silence, however, cannot unmistakably be interpreted as a lack of learning; it often covers an intense activity that cannot be directly observed and which sometime in the future, will let him produce utterances which reflect the internal representation that he has built during those silent periods. If we accept that creative construction can take place without generating an immediate production, we will have to admit that receptive activities specific
comprehension competencies can be developed, but also, what is not so evident, the general communicative competence that is behind every linguistic system. The above explained makes clear that the process of language learning is complex and that this process takes place in a personal and distinct way for each individual since the strategies which let the subject receive and transform the input he receives are always used in a particular way.
SECOND LANGUAJE ACQUISTION THEORY According to Krashen there are five hypotheses, which try to explain the process of acquisition of a second language: THE ACQUISTION-LEARNING HYPOTHESIS Acquisition in a not conscious process in which the person is not aware of the grammar or the rules he uses. In many ways acquisition can be compared to the process by which a child becomes proficient in his mother tongue. In this way, fluency is progressively gained as the proficiency in consolidated. Errors are accepted as a normal part of the process.
Learning occurs consciously, we have to study the rules which govern a given language. We are not responsible for our fluency since we depend on the activities suggested by the teacher. Learning has only one function: as editor or as monitor, that is, to make corrections and change our output. THE NATURAL ORDER HYPOTHESIS This Hypothesis states the grammatical structures are acquired in a fairly predictable order in L1 native language and L2 (second language). In other words, just as children learn their native language in a natural order, so students of a foreign language learn structures in a predictable way. Nevertheless two points can be made against this hypothesis: a) We do not have information about the order of acquisition of every structure in every language. Besides, there are individual variations. b) The existence of a natural order of acquisition does not imply that we should teach second languages following this order.
THE MONITOR HYPOTHESIS The monitor hypothesis states the relationship between acquisition and learning. Acquisition plays a far more important role than learning because learning is used as editor or monitor only. The function of monitor is to make self corrections and change the output before of after speaking or writing. But in order to use the monitor, three conditions need be fulfilled: a) Time: in order to make a self-correction we need time. Self correction can hardly be used without altering fluency. b) Focus on form: we have to be aware of the grammar forms we are using and know that there is a choice of forms. c) Finally, once we have stopped and concentrated on the form, it is necessary to have a correct knowledge of the rules so that the proper correction can be made.
Thus, it can be easily deducted that monitor “overusers” may have difficulty in acquiring fluency. Monitor, however, can be a great help if used for grammar tests and writing.
THE INPUT HYPOTHESIS We acquire language by understanding input that contains i + 1 “i + 1” means a step by step progression. In order to progress the input (i) should be only a bit beyond (1) the acquirer’s current level of competence. We understand language that we do not “know” by using context, extra-linguistic information, and our knowledge of the world. In the same fashion, language is made understandable to us through the use of devices such as simplified, visual clues, key words and phrases, gestures or familiar topics. We do not teach speaking directly Speaking fluency emerges on its own over time, thus, the best way to “teach” speaking is to provide comprehensible input. For the same reason, early speech is typically not accurate. Direct error correction should be avoided. The “best” input should not be “grammatically sequenced” It is enough by providing genuinely interesting and comprehensible input. Teachers should organize content on the basis of themes or topics which are relevant to the students’ needs and interests (communication-based syllabus or curriculum).
THE AFFECTIVE FILTER HYPOTHESIS It deals with the effect of affective variables on L2 acquisition. They are variables like anxiety, motivation or self-confidence. The affective filter produces a mental block which prevents inputs to enter the “language acquisition device”. Krashen summarizes his five hypothesis with a single claim: “Comprehensible input is the only causative variable in second language acquisition. People acquire second languages when they obtain comprehensible input and when their affective filters are low enough to allow the input in”. AGE DIFFERENCES IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION Older acquirers are faster in the early stages of second language acquisition because: a) they are better at obtaining comprehensible input as they have good conversational management; b) they have superior knowledge of the world, which helps to make input comprehensible; c) they can participate in conversation earlier, via use of first language syntax.
Younger acquirers tend to attain higher levels of proficiency in second languages than adults in the long run due to a lower affective filter.
IMPLICATIONS FOR SECOND LANGUAGE TEACHING The five hypothesis about L2 acquisition predict that any successful L2 teaching program must have the following characteristics; a) It must supply input in the L2 that is: -
Comprehensible.
-
Interesting and relevant to students.
The goal is, thus, to transmit messages, not to practice grammar. b) It must not force students to speak before they are ready and must be tolerant of errors in early speech. We improve in grammatical accuracy by obtaining more input, not by error correction. c) It must put grammar in its proper place. Some adults, and very few children, are able to use conscious grammar rules to increase the grammatical accuracy of their output; and even for these people, very strict conditions (time, focus on form, and knowledge of the
rule) need to be fulfilled before the conscious knowledge of grammar can be applied, given the monitor hypothesis presented above. ROLE OF THE FIRST LANGUAGE IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS HYPOTHESIS The first language has long been considered the major cause of a learner’s problems with the new language. It “interferes” with the learner’s acquisition of his of her L2. If a structure in L1 differs from that of L2, errors that reflect the structure on the L1 will be produced. This process has been labelled interference or negative transfer. Spanish structure: adj + noun:
La casa grande
Interference with English:
*The house big
If a structure in both languages is the same, there will be positive transfer or zero interference, and there will be no errors in L2 performance. Spanish plural marker “-s”:
libros
English plural marker “-s”:
books
The contrastive Analysis treatment of errors was popular up through the 1960’s. A large part of the rationale for the Contrastive Analysis hypothesis was drawn from principles of behaviourist psychology.
There are two central concepts in transfer: a) the automatic and not conscious use of the old behaviour (habits) in new learning situations (behaviourist view); b) the use of past knowledge and experience in new situations (other educational and psychological views). In recent years there have been enough data accumulated to place the L2 learner’s first language in a “respectable” role. Present research results suggest that the major impact the L1 has on L2 acquisition may have to do with accent, not with grammar. ERROR ANALYSIS MOVEMENT Many teachers and researchers noticed that a great number of the errors that students make could not possibly be traced to their native languages. The theoretical climate of the late fifties and early sixties provided the ultimate rationale for the error analysis approach: Noam Chomsky’s, Review of B.F. Skinner’s Verbal Behaviour (1959) questioned the very core of the behaviourist habit theory which accounts for language learning. Chomsky’s views, along with Piagetian psychology, succeeded in highlighting the previously neglected mental make-up of learners as a central force in the learning process, not a habit formation.
Interlingual and developmental errors The term error is used to refer to any deviation from a selected norm of language performance, no mater what the characteristics or causes of the deviation might be. In the Error Analysis view, errors that reflect the learner’s L1 structures are not called interference but interlingual errors. Development errors are errors similar to those made by children acquiring their native tongue. For example, students of English as a foreign often say things such as: He cans play football very well. This error is also found in the speech of children acquiring English as their first language. Researchers have consistently found that, contrary to widespread opinion, the great majority of errors made by second language learners are not interlingual, but developmental. Although adults tend to exhibit more L1 influence in their errors then children do, adult interlingual errors also occur in small proportions. Implications of error analysis for L2 learning Error Analysis has yielded insights into the L2 acquisition process that have stimulated major changes in teaching practices. Studying learner’s errors serves two major purposes:
a) it provides data from which interferences about the nature of the language acquisition process can be made; and b) it indicates to teachers and curriculum developers, which part of the target language students have most difficulty to produce correctly and which error types detract most from a learner’s ability to communicate effectively. INTERLANGUAGE Interlanguage is the linguistic system that a learner constructs on his way to the mastery of a target language. Methodologically, interlanguage may be said to incorporate the assumption of both Contrastive Analysis and Error Analysis. While Contrastive Analysis contrasts the learner’s native language and the target language, and conventional Error Analysis involves contrast between the learner’s performance and the target language, interlanguage take all three elements into account, explicitly incorporating the contrastive analysis of the learner’s interlanguage with both his native and the target language.
Tema-6 The unit under consideration is entitled: "INFLUENCES OF LINGUISTICS ON THE TEACHING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES. THE SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE ACQUISITION OF THE FIRST SCHOOL LANGUAGE AND THAT OF THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE" We will start our discussion with a sort of introduction and continue with the first point that deals with the influences of Linguistic Language Teaching, as well as the influences of other sciences. At this point from a definition of Linguistics, we then move onto Compared Linguistics. Two linguistic theories are also looked into: Structuralism and Generative Grammar. Sociolinguistic is also defined. We will finish this block with the contributions of other sciences such as Pedagogy and Psycology to the process of foreign language teaching. Secondly, we will look into the language learning process and we shall try to find the differences between the acquisition of the mother tongue and the learning of a foreign language. Within this block, we will also refer to the Curriculum, and the Constructivist Model proposed by it; the difference between acquisition and learning is established and different suggestions to avoid problems in the second language learning. A conclusion summing up what has been discussed throughout the unit will be followed by the bibliography used for the elaboration of this topic. As a sort INTRODUCTION we shall point out that in the last twenty years the need for change in language didactics has been analysed along the following lines: 1-Change of the concept of Education, where a stronger a stonger focus on communication is given; 2- the need for the study of foreign languages through a better education;
3- how the technological progress and the development of audivisual aids have contributed to the modernisation of teaching; 4- the students demand of an active learning of foreign languages. Teachers have to take advantage of the large numbers of pedagological theories and approaches and choose those that can be best applied in their students' specific situation. Therefore, the teacher has to develop an eminentely creative task and learn how to incorporate into his methodology the latest findings in the field of Linguistics, and the contributions of many other sciences. Once having begun the unit we are going to deal with the first block of our discussion; which considers the influences of Linguistics on FLT. The teaching of any subject must be supported by a series of general disciplines that are common to the teaching of any subject, such as Psychology, Sociology and so on. In LT these disciplines assist in the teaching from any perspective. Linguistics are included here, or more accurately Macrolinguistics, which includes Sociolinguistics and Microlinguistics. The findings from these disciplines used on the teaching of L, help us to make decisions to overcome the problems involved in teaching. The so called, Linguistic Science or Linguistics, that is, the study of language is a very recent science. For centuries, the interest was only centred on the research of a universal grammar. In the 19th century Compared Linguistics, appeared which established that the relationship among language can be explained in a scientific way. Nowadays, however Applied Linguistics deal with collecting data from those disciplines whose objectives are the study of language, its learning, its use, and to utilise those facts to clarify the factors related to LT. Let's move on now to consider what Applied Linguistics is for. It collects data and interprets the results that may achive its aim and uses its findings to carry out its own experimental research. Applied Linguistics has to do with all those theories that analyse how they can be useful LT and then proceed with their pedagological application. This knowledge is use to build grammars, to do comparative analysis between two or more languages, to carry out research on the illiteracy rates of the population and to study languages and their regional varieties.
The most interesting field of study deals with second L learning and acquisition. Applied Linguistics uses these findings from other sciences and applies them to LL. We are going to consider some sciences on which the concept of FLT is based. The most important theories are Structuralism and Generative Grammar.These theories are example of how research in Applied Linguistics can be helpful in explaining the process of mother tongue acquisition and second LL. Structuralism first appeared with Saussure in the 19th century. This theory defends that language is a social phenomenon which is useful because it works in a community. This approach implies a psychological perspective, its study is centred on speech and not on grammatical structures. He made a distinction between language ( the system ) and speech ( the individual of the system ). They begin with an active study of all speeches, arriving at the general rules. All these structuralistic principles have in commonthe assumption that grammar does not consist of a system of rules that govern the isolated elements of language, but of a set of structures that have to be taught, especially those that are different in the learners' first language. The application of structuralism in LT was developed after the 2nd World War. Linguistics examined and classified the structure of the first L and the second L being studied. They analysed which structures were similar to that language and which offered interference, they made drills. Structuralism is based on "behaviourist psycology stimulus answer response", and its attitude towards teaching is based on the premise that 2nd L acquisition is the result of habit and condidional reflexes, we learn by imitation and repetition. Against this theory appeared Chomsky with his "Generative Grammar" Theory. Chomsky observed that structuralism did not explain how the child was able to produce sentences that he had never produced before. Chomsky's generativist theory postulated the existence of a specific ability in the child, an ability that allowed him to generate an infinitive number of rules. A creative person who can create an unlimited number of sentences with just a few linguistic elements. The child hears his first L and is able to develop a series of increasingly global and correct hypothesis about that language system. Before Chomsky students were given correct grammatical examples, nowadays students can compare sentences with and without errors, and they are allowed to make mistakes because that is understood as an important step in an autonomous process of learning. This theory gives special importance to free expression and creativity.
Chomsky establishes a distinction between competence (the knowledge that the person has about his mother tongue) and performance, that is the effective use of this knowledge in his normal speech. We should point out here an essential aspect of the research of applied linguistics, that is, to what extent can the process of first L acquisition be equivalent to the process of 2nd L learning. Thus it can be seen that the process is the same, 2nd Language learners draw hypothesis about the L system, apply the rules and modify them according to the feedback they receive. A 2nd L learner learns from his effort to communicate. If what the learner wants to communicate lies within the possibilities of his system, he will have no problems. The problem arises when he wants to communicate something that is not in his system. Therefore, he can choose to follow other paths, such as using gestures, or transfering the limits he knows, in other words, he will take a risk. We could conclude from the above that errors that students make reveal the state of development of his system. We must give him enough information on the success or failure of his communicative attempt. He requires input to contrast his production. The student then learns through the process of communicating; he who takes a risk will be the one who learns most. Up to this point we have shown some of the linguistic theories which help us to explain the acquisition of a mother tongue and the learning of a FL. Now let us move on to mention the importance of another science: Sociolinguistics. This science studies and states the relationship between the possession of a L and the control of reality. The social level of the family conditions the development of speech abilities and level of performance. The classroom can be a useful substitute for a poor linguistic environment. We should also mention the studies of some linguists, like Firth and Martinowsky. They spoke about the concept of situational context, that is the meaning of an utterance is a consequence of the cultural and situational context where it takes place. In the Eighties many programs in ELT were developed. All of them were based on the consideration of a L as an instrument of communication. The threshold level, for instance, whose author is Wilkins, established a program model for a European adult student of foreign L in terms of his communicative needs. It was intended to
create a program based on the areas of his interests. In Europe L teaching was slowly changing. Linguistics were mainly concerned with oral language as a means of communication. Learners were taught to comprehend and then to speak. The interferance of the first L had to be avoided. Conversation was the main focus of the class. The process of LT goes parallel to the learning process. In the 70s special attention waspaid to this learning process. The concept of interferance, introduced by Corder, refers to the problems of interferance caused by the mother tongue on the learning of a foreign language. Now, we shall study the contributions of other sciences to the process of foreign LT. On the one hand, we find Pedagogy whose contribution to the teaching of foreign L and to the concept of modern education is the following: that the educational principles are flexible, and should be adapted to every social change. An individualised teaching is required, as well as the formation of an integral person with special attention to his creative ability. Group work, collaboration and the participation of students in all the educational process should also be considered. On the other hand, we find he science of Psycology. Some important studies are the following: in the teaching of foreign L motivation is very important. Apart from motivation a deep knowledge of the pupil's psychological characteristics is required; we need to know the student's abilities and rhythm of learning to better adopt the structure of the subject to his structure of knowledge. So the teacher will be able to allow pupils to learn more depending on their own needs and rhythm. Summarising, we could say that the most important contribution of Pedagogy and Pedagogy to foreign L teaching is that the teaching must be centred on the pupils' needs and personality; creativity whilst imagination should be developed through motivation. After having dealt with some of the contributions of Linguistics and other sciences to FLT, we shall analyse the process of L learning and the similarites and differences between the acquisition of the mother tongue and the learning of a foreign L. The starting point of the theoretical basis of the conception of 2nd L learning is found in the Curriculum: " The foreign L acquisition process can be characterised as a creative construction process during which the student, relying on a set of
natural strategies, based on the input received, formulates hypotheses in order to make up the internal representation of the new L system." Knowing a L implies knowing its sociolinguistic, discourse and strategic aspects. The sociolinguistic aspect implies the knowlwdge of the rules related to a given sociolnguistic context; the discourse aspect organises cohesion and coherence in different spoken and written statements; the strategic aspect is responsible for completing the interaction when taking into account the objective of communication. The Contructive Model proposed by the Curriculum is based on the following aspects: 1- The student is considered the centred of the teaching process; 2- The student has a certain knowledge that adds to the new information and combines them to produce significant learning. Another important aspect of the contructive model is that of learning through discovery. L functions as regards rules are learned by a process of discovery. The students generates hypotheses himself and check that they match the established rules. Before moving on to study some of the theories on the L learning process, let us focus on the differences between the acquisition and learning. Krashen in his book Language Acquisition Hypothesis makes a clear distinction between acquisition and learning. According to him, the acquisition is a natural process whereas learning is conscious formal process. Acquisition implies an implicit knowledge of rules in contrast with learning which implies the explicit knowledge of rules. Acquisition is the way a child acquires his mother tongue, whereas learning is the way students learn a foreign language. After having looked into the differences between acquisition and learnig, we are going to study some of the theories on the acquisition and learning of a second language.
Vigotsky establishes three main stages in language acquisition. The first one is when language is only a means of external communication in a child, both in form and function. The third one is when language is interiorised and becomes verbal thought and then guides cognitive development. Today it is believed that the first statements of children are due to their individual system, independent from that of adults; language is built or rebuilt by the child who gradually makea a system of rules, an implicit grammar and a set of communication rules with which he interprets what he receives.Thus, the child produces statements correctly but these are mere repetitive routine. The interesting aspect is that the child makes incorrect statements which shows that he is trying to create a language using his own linguistic mechanism, according to certain opearating rules that he himself has generated, it is an internal implicit grammar. The second language acquisition process goes through three different phases: 1.- Cognitive elaboration: the learner centres his attention on types of models presented to him in the 2nd L. He has an attitude towards comprehending or remembering the different aspects of the models presented. 2.- Associate phase: the child begins to form hypotheses about the input received, as well as its organisation and arrangement, contrasting them with his knowledge and exemplifying them with the production of such models in similar contexts. 3.- Autonomy phase: the child can use what he has learned spontaneously.In order for this phase to take place, a great amount of previous practice is required. Another important aspect of the constructive model is that the student has an active role in which he will have to implement certain strategies similar to those used in first L acquisition to adapt, generalise, correct rules and so on. Lastly an assumption in the previous model is that in any learning process there is a semantic motivation. There is a natural predisposition for producing meaning, which is motivating when learning a 2nd L. Moving on, another section of this topic concerns the basic differences and similarities between the acquisition of a mother tongue and the learning of a foreign L.
Firstly, we will examine the similarities. They are three: -the interlingual development, -the subconcious mental process and -the variation. We are going to explain now what we undertand by the interlingual development process. When a language is learned, the learner is not ready to use it for some years. Interlingual development is the process a learner must go through before is able to speak fluently or as well as a native speaker. The second similarity is the subconcious mental process; the brain organises the input received to allow the mechanisms to speak. The third similarity is the variation. Not all language learners follow the same path. There are individual variations which make some students learn slower than others. Phychological personality and others also come into play here. Now, let us consider the differences. There are three important differences between the acquisition of the mother tongue and the learning of a FL. These are: -the age, -the phenomenon of fossilitation and -the transference. According to many authors, age is a factor that determines the success or failure in 2nd LL. Today there is absolute unanimity in the fact that is approximality in puberty when the ability to acquire L under natural conditions is lost. Another difference is the phenomenon of fossilitation. Many 2nd L learners never quite learn the L correctly. Thie causes may be due to the type of teaching is given, the problems of motivation or the students personal characteristics. The third difference is the transference. When we speak a 2nd L, it is almost impossible not to make mistakes influenced by our native L.
As we have explained, a basic difference between the acquisition of a mother tongue and the learning of a FL is that the first one is a natural process which does not need a methodology, whereas the 2nd one does; the FLL happens in a classroom and not in social life. In mother tongue acquisition there is a continuos linguistic information, and a direct contact between the L and its cultural envirinment; the correction of errors appears after training and effort. On the contrary, we find that FLL involves planning with special objectives and a specific didactic method. We should finally point out some suggestions to overcome problems in the 2nd LL process. Firstly, we should not change the natural order of the interlingual process. Secondly, pupils must receive a high input. We must respect a silent period and allow children to express themselves in a spontaneous and natural way. Finally, regarding how to overcome the fossilitation phenomenon, we find different opinions by different authors. Some of then think that pupils should be push to produce, and grammar should be taught. Others state that grammar should be taught in an inductive way, without forcing pupils to use it correctly. Summarising, we can point out the following. In this unit we have presented some of the most important contributions to FLT; especially the principles of Linguistics, Structuralism and Generative Grammar. After that, we have looked into the most important differences and similarities between the acquisition of the mother tongue and the learning of a FL. BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1- The Teaching of English as an International Language by Abbot, G and Wingard, P. Collins, 1981. 2- Approches and Methods in Second Language Learning by Garner, R.C. and Lambert. Rowley Press Newbury. 3- Linguistics in Language Teaching by Wilking, D. Edward Arnold, 1972.
UNIT 6 CONTRIBUTIONS OF LINGUISTICS TO THE TEACHING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES. THE PROCESS OF LINGUISTIC LEARNING: SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE ACQUISITION OF THE FIRST LANGUAGE AT SCHOOL AND THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE.
CONTRIBUTIONS OF LINGUISTICS TO THE TEACHING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES. The teaching of foreign languages has always developed along with Linguistics,although it has been in this century when the traditional conceptions of science of language has been transformed by a widening and specializing of its knowledge. On the other hand, in the current situation of Linguistics, there is an intention to overcome the contradictions of previous beliefs, in order to elaborate a new model, much more eclectic and useful for the process of language teaching and learning. A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW: DIFFERENT APPROACHES AND METHODS. The theoretical aspects upon which the main methods and approaches are based and studied in the field of Applied Linguistics, and a first systematization of these theoretical principles at the beginning of the 19th century. Before that, the methodology used in the language teaching processes in the 17th and 18th was Grammar-Translation Method whose techniques were based on the model of Latin teaching, when this was already a dead language. This model was, in fact,unsuitable to teach living languages,as it was a mere adaptation of techniques belonging to a prestigious discipline.
However, just from the second half of the 19th century the first applied linguists appeared, looking for some theoretical basis on which they could support the language teaching processes. To do so, they observed the children´s acquisition mechanisms of their first language, the importance of oral communication, and the first steps done in the studies of Phonetics. Although these first principles had less impact at the moment, they served as an influence on later works. Thus, they are very related with the second researching line, the Reform Movement which supported, on the one hand, the adoption of an inductive approach in which oral production was considered more important than written production, and on the other hand, a deep study of Phonetics in order to introduce more efficient exercises to improve pronunciation. In the 19th century appeared the Direct Method, based on the model of the first language acquisition. According to this approach, the best way to learn the second language was the practice of oral production just since the beginning with the help of non-verbal strategies to explain the meaning of some of the words or phrases which were likely to appear. In the 20th century, the works of Applied Linguistics on the field of language teaching point out to their application on academic contexts, and they require the adoption of teaching techniques which take into account the classroom reality. At the end of the World War II, the American Army had to organize intensive language courses in order to prepare the military staff to work as translators or interpreters in the occupied countries because the Reading Method which was most used, did not guarantee enough fluency in oral comprehension and production, they appealed to the structuralist linguists´ experiences such as Bloomfield. After the World War II, the Audiolingual Method appeared, partially based on the Army courses. In this method there is a relationship between Structuralism (Bloomfield) and Psychological Behaviourism (Skinner), whose stimulus-response-reinforcement theories would have a great influence on the layout of the mechanic exercises which are characteristical of the Audiolingual Method. For this method, oral production is more important than written and the order for practising the skill is: aural comprehension (listening), oral production (speaking), written comprehension (reading), and written production (writing). In Great Britain another linguistic school appeared, which worked independently from the Audiolingual. It developed a very similar method of teaching foreign languages: The Situational Language Teaching. It is based on Structuralism but much more formal in their linguistic references.It gives more importance
to the situational context and to a selection of vocabulary. Nevertheless, the exercises of both methods do not prepare the students for real situations of communication. In the Sixties, a new approach appeared in Great Britain: The Communicative Language Teaching in which the situational component of the Situational Language Teaching is the frame for communicative interactions and not only for the practice of structures. In this approach, the term communicative competence was coined by American linguist D.Hymes to refer to the ability of using the linguistic system in an efficient way to communicate in society. From the decade of the 60s,other approaches have appeared which have contributed to development of Applied Linguistics. These methods are interested in the cognitive processes and in the affective and contextual conditions which must take place for the learning or acquisition of the foreign language. The first one is the Total Physical Response, based on J.Asher´s methodological criteria. One of the main principles of this new approach is that pupils remember more easily those utterances which they can relate with actions made by themselves. Thus the comprehension of meaning the orders that the teacher asks the pupils to do lead them to produce no-verbal responses such as getting up,opening the door,drawing,etc. Following the same line, the Natural Approach, based on S Krashen and T.Terrell works, propose the possibility of acquiring a second language in an academic context if the conditions which are similar to those which can be found in the process of acquiring the first language by young children are fulfilled. Language learning as a conscient process lead children to acquire some knowledge which will help them to correct their mistakes, what is called Monitor Theory. Finally, it is important to quote some approaches, such as The Silent Way, which looks for the learners´ hard concentration on the utterances; Suggestopaedia, which uses relaxation and suggestion as helpers for language learning; and the Community Language Learning, based on group therapy and which uses the target language as a means of expressing feeling.
THE MAIN LINGUISTIC SCIENCES. Phonetics and Phonology. These two sciences deal with sounds and how they can combine to make meanings. Phonetics works the whole sound body of a language, studing its phonic elements in a systemic way. It gives the representation of sounds which helps to pronounce the language in a correct way. The main parts of Phonetics are: Articulatory Phonetics, which concentrates on how the sounds are emitted by speakers; Auditory Phonetics, which studies those sounds in relation to the listeners; and Acoustic Phonetics, which deals with the physical part of sounds by using different instruments to register them. Phonology deals with the function of those sounds in the communicative process and gives an exhaustive analysis of the rules of the sound system within the language. Phonetics is ,together with Linguistics, one of the main sciences concerned with language and arose in the 16th century as the science that studied the relationship between spelling and sound. In 1886 the International Phonetic Association (IPA) was founded. This association devised a phonetic alphabet, or set of symbols that would serve to represent the sound of any language. This alphabet is now widely used in textbooks and pronouncing dictionaries. As our present objective is the teaching of a foreign language, the most useful view for this purpose is to regard Phonetics and Linguistics as the two Linguistic Sciences. Both of them study language, but from different angle. Phonetics is interested in sounds and how they are organized and transmitted,whereas Linguistics is concerned with how language is structured grammatically and semantically. Grammar.
Within Grammar we can find two sciences: Morphology and Syntax. Morphology studies the form of the words of a language, and deals with the word flexions of genre, number and case, and with the problems which may arise in this area. It also studies among others, the changes which are produced in meaning by the influence of affixes. Syntax established the rules for sentence combination and analyses the different of the words within the sentences. Grammar has two main objectives; it gives the rules necessary to generate the meaningful chains or strings which are characteristical of a language. On the other hand, it gives rules useful for the speaker to verify that a chain of meaning belongs to the language s/he speaks. The most important ideas in the field, nowadays, are given by Chomsky´s Generative Grammar, which sets up that a language is built upon a finite vocabulary corpus, this being a group of symbols which combine to make sentences.
Semantics. Semantics studies the meaning and sense of words, and it applies its researches to three important fields: • Structural Semantics, based on Saussure´s works. He claimed that the signification of a sign is not only limited to the relationship between the signifier and signified parts of it, but also between this sign and the others. • Distributional Semantics, in which the meanings of the linguistic units are in relation with the contexts in which they appear. • Generative Semantics, which does not take into account the different elements of the sentence but the sentence itself as a model. Pragmatics.
It is a modern science which considers speech an act by itself, because language is inserted in a productive context. This context is the communicative situation and knowledge shared by the speaker and the listener. The speech act is regarded as a cooperative process in which the participants´intentions must be interpreted. H.P. Grice established in his book Logic and Conversation,that, in every speech act, there is a conventional meaning given by speakers´knowledge of the language rules, and an implicative meaning, given by the speakers´intention towards their message and towards the listeners, as well as by the context. In this sense, Grice´s Cooperative Principle established that speakers cooperate in their engagement in conversation, their engagement being on four maxims: • • • •
The maxim of Quantity, which says: Make your contribution as informative as it is required. The maxim of Quality, which says: Make your contribution true; be sincere. The maxim of Relation, saying: Make your contribution relevant; do not be unconnected. The maxim of Manner: Avoid obscurity, ambiguity; give order to your speech.
Normally, speakers fulfill these four maxims in their speech acts. However, when one or more of them are broken up intencionally, this fact gives place to what Grice calls a conversational implicature, that is, an implication made by the speaker who intends to say something, in an indirect way, to the listener. THE PROCESS OF LINGUISTIC LEARNING. The experiments carried out about the learning of the first language lead to the conclusion that only before puberty the child´s brain has a great plasticity that allows him/her perfectly the languages that s/he hears around, but when puberty comes, that plasticity seems to decrease gradually. Nevertheless, this conclusion says nothing about what happens in the person´s brain when learning a language, nor does it explain how some people after puberty have achieved a mastering of one or several languages, even with a great degree of perfection. Moreover, the methods and techniques of foreign
language teaching are exclusively based on the results of teaching experience, but never on a precise knowledge of how the individual´s internal mechanisms work, although, on the other hand, as the process of learning the mother tongue coincides with the first years of life, when the child experiments the most spectacular physical and mental development, it is natural to think that there exists a narrow relationship between these two processes: the first and the second language learning. THEORETICAL APPROACHES ON LANGUAGE LEARNING. Although, up to now, the several researches that have been undertaken on this matter have not been able to explain appropiately how second language learning process works, they have shown that some methods and techniques are more efficient than others. In order to establish a solid scientific basis, these researches have leaned on learning processes in general, and on the process of first language acquisition. There are essential differences between the learning of a second language and the acquisition of the first language. When children acquire their native language, they are answering to their vital necessity of dominating the environment in which they are inserted. When they have this tool, their purpose to learn another language is very different. Indeed, the circumstances in which we acquire our L1 are very different from those in which we learn a L2. Three important theories can be applied both to the acquisition and the learning of languages: •
SKINNER´S Behaviourism, which is based on experiments made with animals. According to behaviourist researchers, the way how animals and human beings learn is similar. The theory on human speech says that every speech act is produced as a response to a stimulus. This stimulus can have different origins, such as the environment, the speaker needs and another speech act made by an interlocutor. Besides, if the appropiate answer is to be produced, it is necessary some sort of reinforcement. In our case, this reinforcement can be the speaker´s desire to be understood or simply to communicate. The behaviourist researcher regards language learning as the acquisition of several habits which can only be acquired by repeating the adequate answers in different situations. During this process of continuous repetition the student of a second language adopts a participative role. What is important
for Behaviourism is not the meaning of the spoken chains, but the authomatic production of responses to the different stimula. - CHOMSKY´S Innatism appeared in the 60s as a contraposition to Behaviourism. For him, all human beings have innate universal grammatical rules just from before they are born. These rules are valid for all languages. When the child starts speaking s/he applied them to the language s/he listens to around him/her. At the same time, s/he makes his/her own grammatical rules of his/her own language and during the whole process of acquisition , these rules are adapted to the general concept s/he has. •
ASSOCIATIONISM, for its part, include these factors in its researches. This theory claim that communication factors transmit aditional information which children associate with a concrete situation. In this sense, they make relations between expressions that they may hear and the objects or actions which accompany those expressions. Their need to fall back on these relationships decrease as they memorize the associations. Thus, the end of this progression is in their use of the linguistic system without appealing to extralinguistic elements. Associationism coincides with Behaviorism in making relations between words and object. However, in Associationis, the process is not mechanical, but it result as a consequence of the individual´s intelligence. In this sense, s/he is active participant in the communication process and in the learning processes because s/he is able to draw his/her own conclusions. It is important to say that, to speak a language, we have to know both the vocabulary and grammar of that language, and that children lean on their own intelligence to establish the rules which will help them to make suitable speech acts. During the whole learning process these rules are continuously revised. On the other hand, if we want to learn a second language, it is necessary to mention the importance of the teaching process, which is of less relevance in the process of acquisition.
FACTORS. When learning a second language, people have different purposes and the achieve different result. This fact make us suppose that there exist different factors which make influence on this process. Several
studies have given place to some conclusions and they set up three main factors which are of great importance in the second language learning process. 1. Motivation. Motivation seems to be the most interesting factors of all three, because it does not make any influence on the L1 learning processes. The L1 acquisition allows children to get into relation with their environment and to satisfy their needs. As they get to master the use of their first language, they discover the possibilities they have to cover up other necessities and functions which may appear. If the L2 is learnt when older, the concepts belonging to the L1 language are already settled up and they are used by adults in their L2 learning process. If there is an interest in learning the L2, this teachinglearning process will be followed in a very efficient way because knowing another language implies knowing another culture. At a glance, it seems that if the learner stays in the host country of the language s/he is studying. S/he will find it easier to learn that language. However, this is only true if the learner is actually interested in participating in social contacts with native speakers. His/her wishes to control the environment are more important here than the teaching aspects. When speaking about motivation, it is not only important to appeal reward, in the behaviouristic sense of the word, but we must also include human psychological needs. Among them we can find essential ones, such as hanger o fear; and some others dealing with personal security, feeling of belonging to a community, self-confidence and relation with the other members of the community we belong to. Apart from the motivation in satisfying these psychological needs, every individual is more encouraged as his/her objectives are more important for him/her, as for example, those referring to cultural interest, family well-being, etc. Researches have shown that there are two types of motivation: •
Integrative motivation, referring to the students´feeling of belonging to the community of native speakers of the language they are learning and of participating in their cultural environment.
•
Instrumental motivation, dealing with the learners´need to learn the second language to apply for a job or to study abroad.
This second type of motivation is very common in Primary Education, and as teachers, our role is to encourage in our students the integrative motivation. To do so, there are a series of techniques: bringing to the classroom material (pictures,brochures,leaflets,...) about the country; organizing competitions on sports characteristical of the country; or accompanying the students to shows (films,plays,concerts,...) in the foreign language. On the other hand, teachers must have in mind that children are better receivers of these kinds of activities than adults, and that they are easily encouraged to participate in tasks where they can play an active role (dramatizations,games,mural making,..). Language aptitude. It has been shown that there are some people who can learn a language more easily than other people,who, in turn, find it rather difficult to get enough competence in that new language. A lot of research has been made in this sense to find the relationship between our own aptitude or inner ability and the results achieved in our learning process. Thus, it has been shown that there is no direct connection between our intelligence and our aptitude for language learning. On the contrary, it seems to exist a dependence on series of factors, such as the brain ability to record and memorize certain phonetical material; our own faculty to tackle grammatical information; our capacity to remember new words; and our ability to discover or infer, without help, linguistic forms and rules. The Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT) is used to measure these abilities, although it is only based on linguistic elements. Besides, it seems that this test only gives us 50 per cent of certainly, and that is the reason why the Language Aptitude Battery (LAB) was also used to measure language aptitude, but including other extralinguistic elements such as motivation. According to the results given by this test, the students who get satisfactory results in the other subjects usually get good qualifications in foreign language. Indeed, this is usually true, but there are other students as well who are very good at foreign language, but not at rest of the subjects. In conclusion, there does not exist definitive criteria for us to base on when dealing with this matter.
However, the fact that intelligence does not make great influence over foreign language acquisition does not mean that teacher leave it aside. On the contrary, it is important to take intelligence into consideration when choose the appropiate methodology in class. Thus, for less intelligent students, the most useful method seems to be that of repetition, whereas a methodology based on explanation of what they are learning seems to suit better to cleverer pupils. Age. Here, the question is, “which is the appropiate age to start learning a second language?”. According to some studies the best age to foreign language learning is between four and eight years, because the child experiments an intensive process of evolution characterised by his/her ability to learn through mere exposition to data. Nevertheless, there some teachers who think that children should not start learning a second language until they have enough fluency on their first language. They even say that an early start in L2 learning can prevent children from acquiring their L1 efficiently. All these opinions leads us to analyse the advantages and disadvantages of foreign language learning early start. In order to do that, we can have a look at those cases of emigrants´children who get competence in a L2. As opposed to them, those children who learn a foreign language at school do not usually achieve that degree of perfection. For all this, one of the main reasons to introduce L2 learning in Primary Education is the better assimilation of phonetical elements that children have at this age. Besides, children usually are less reticent to participate actively in class, just as they do not have the adults´sense of ridiculous, although adults normally have less dificulty on getting concentrated. All these age factors, however, should not interfere on the teaching-learning process, and we should think that, wether younger or older, the human being has mechanisms of every type to acquire foreign languages if they are motivated to do so. What, in fact, should worry us is the fact that the little success which the student may have in Primary School is, unfortunately, due not to the factors of age, aptitude or motivation, but the teacher´s low level of preparation in relation with how to let the students into a foreign language.
SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE ACQUISITION OF THE FIRST LANGUAGE AND THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE AT SCHOOL. According to Chomsky, the difference between acquisition and learning is that acquisition can only take place up to a certain age because when we have already got the mechanisms which allow us to register those cncept, procedures, and pieces of information in order to use them in our daily lives for different purposes,all which we can get afterwards is not tackled through our mechanisms of acquisition, but through our learning processes. It is just during acquisition when children make their own grammar, by verifying which rules are correct and which are wrong. This checking process is made through their analysis of input data which are contrasted with their own innate rules. Chomsky´s theories on this field are nowadays considered and followed when dealing with how children acquire their first language, and they are very useful to study those processes which give place to foreign language learning and to put them into practice when teaching that foreign language at school. MOTHER TONGUE ACQUISITION. When they begin speaking, children produce certan utterances which they have not heard before. Thios fact leads us to think that there must be an inner mechanism which, basing itself on the outer linguistic data, allow the production of different grammatical structures. From this generative-transformational point of view (Chomsky´s) these phenomena can be explained through the Language Acquisition Device, which make childen know the linguistic universals (word order,linguistic categories, etc), as well as the procedures which are necessary to acquire a language. Mother tongue acquisition begins in the very moment the child is given birth, when s/he hear the first sounds,voices and even his/her own cry. When s/he is three or four years old, s/he has already got hold of the way how his/her language works, and is able to communicate more or less effectively with the speakers of the same language. The innate ability to oral communication is characteristical of all human beings, except from those who suffer from some sort of serious congenital illness or disability. As it has been said before, intelligence is
not directly related to language acquisition because those people who are not relatively clever have been succesful in acquire their native language. Within the whole process of mother tongue acquisition, there exist some steps followed by children: • • •
•
•
Prelinguistic stage: From birth to the age of eight months, children acquire spontaneously the use of auditory mechanisms. It is the stage when they produce non-symbolic sounds. First word production: When they are 11 months old, children produce a voice sound which is somehow symbolic for them. This is the stage in which they give names to people or objects placed around them. Second year: Children´s messy vocalic structures begin to get shape and they begin to participate into communicative exchanges. Their parents´role gets more and more important. However, it is not a matter of repetition of what they say, but beyond that, children create by themselves sounds which they regard as correct or wrong depending on the adults´reactions. These criteria of validation help the child to take or opt out the different strings of language they are giving birth to. Those strings which s/he considers to be correct are the same that the ones produced by adults and are reinforced by means of continuous repetition. Between 3 and 4 years old: The process of acquisition keeps on developing. This a period of great creativity and less difficulty for auditory discrimination, and for imitation. The essential aspects of the process of acquisition are developed in full. The following grammatical system children build on are very similar to those which respond to the adults´grammatical rules. Entering school: The school substitutes their parents in the acquisition process and provides them with written code. It is just in this moment when the process of learning behings, and it will all their lives.
BILINGUALISM AND MULTILINGUALISM. The fact that children start acquiring their mother tongue when they are babies suggests that it would be quite a good idea to take advantage of this ability to make them acquire some others. Indeed, there are people in many places who are bilingual since they were born, this ocurring in families where two or more languages are spoken at the same time. Besides, we must take into account that, from a phonetical and
auditory point of view, children have all the biological characteristics to be able to acquire naturally more than one language just from their childhood. In some cases children can acquire simultaneously their mother tongue and their father tongue. However, “bilingualism” does not mean “same lingualism”, that is, both languages being used with the same frequency of time. On the contrary, their use depends on the circumstances around, and normally, one language is more often used that another. On the other hand, several researches have shown that it would be of great help for children to be bilingual since the beginning, in terms of psychological development. However, this is only possible whenever the contact with their parents´languages is as more natural as possible; if not, there may exist a possible slowing down in their acquiring process. Bilingualism is essentially the result of family circumstances, or of other natural ways of contact with different languages, such as those cases in which children live long periods of time in a foreign country, or in which two languages coexist in the same country. Nevertheless, those bilingual or multilingual countries, such as Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, or Spain, can not always offer their citizens the possibility to take advantage of this situation when they are acquiring their first language/s. The main reason for this is that those languages often compete among them, that is, they are rivals, and people belonging to one of the linguistic communities often have a negative attitude towards the other/s, as it is case of Canada. It is in Canada where an inmersion program was put into practice in 1965. The experiment began in a little village called Saint Lambert, and it was completed and assesed by the psychological department of the University of Montreal. The program consisted in the alternation of French and English. Children spoke English at home, but at school, they were taught French by using it in the different subjects they had to study. This project had great relevance and has given place to a lot of research in that country. With regard to Europe, only in bilingual countries can this program be put into practice. Luxemburg is a case apart, because it is a trilingual country: Luxemburguese is spoken at home, German is taught from the first year of Primary Education, and French, from the third year. This early trilingualism is completed
in Secondary Education with the teaching of English. The citizens of Luxemburg, where there are not universities, have the possibility of choosing among those universities of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Canada and the United States. This situation is very difficult to achieve in many other European countries. However, something similar is what is called bilingual education, which implies the teaching in a foreign language of one or more topics well kown by the pupils. The methodology is being carried at school in Netherlands, Germany, France and Scandinavian countries.
TOPIC 7: SPOKEN LANGUAGE. LISTENING COMPREHENSION: FROM HEARING TO ACTIVE AND SELECTIVE LISTENING. SPEAKING: FROM IMITATION TO FREE PRODUCTION. I.- INTRODUCTION II.- SPOKEN LANGUAGE 1.- Characteristics
The need for accuracy Addressee in mind Same situational context Spontaneity and the speed
Linguistic features Grammar and vocabulary
III.- LISTENING 1.- Definition of the process 2.- Stages of the process 2
Identify the phonic and syntactic patterning Identify and select them without retention Identification and guided selection with short term retention Identification and selection with long term retention
3.- Planning a listening lesson
What to be learnt How to teach What material to use What activities will be done
4.- Guidelines to develop the listening skill
5.- Listening subskills
Listening to confirm expectations Listening to extract specific information Listening for general understanding Inferring the speaker’s attitude
6.- Listening materials 3
Songs Video recordings Tapes The teacher
7.- Listening activities Pre-listening activities • Prediction exercises • Vocabulary exercises • Grammar exercises While-listening activities • Ear training activities • Global-listening exercises 4 - Completing diagrams
5 - Problem solving • Selective-listening activities 6 - Answering display questions 7 - Following instructions 8 - Completion-type activities 9 - Identifying mistakes or contradictions Post-listening activities IV.- SPEAKING 1.- Definition of the process 2.- Planning a speaking lesson 3.- Speaking activities Activities based on repetition and imitation • • • •
Repetition drills Substitution drills Transformation drills Guessing drills
Controlled activities • Question and answer
• • • • • • • • •
Right / wrong statements and corrections Stating consequences Model dialogue and key words Gapped dialogues Cuewords Picture cards Language games Decision-making activities Questionnaires
Autonomous interaction • Functional communication • Social interaction V.- SUMMARY VI.- REFERENCES
I.- INTRODUCTION In this topic, we’ll start from the idea that the Foreign Language Area Curriculum mentions a sequence which must be followed when teaching the different skills: the oral skills (listening and speaking) are stressed over written skills (reading and writing). That's because learning to speak and to understand means learning the language, whereas reading and writing implies that the language is already known and that we are using its graphic representation. Although it's better to teach a FL following this sequence, teachers have to take into account that every skill should be reinforced by the rest and none of them can be taught in isolation. In this topic we'll concentrate on the oral language, analysing in the first part the main characteristics of it and the differences with the written language. In the second part of the topic, we'll go into detail about both types of oral language, listening and speaking skills, examining some of the activities we can do in order to improve them. We’ll take into account that listening is a receptive skill, while speaking is a productive skill.
II.- SPOKEN LANGUAGE
Let us concentrate on the spoken language. We'll explain its characteristics analysing, at the same time, its differences with the written language.
1.- Characteristics •
•
•
•
Perhaps, the most important difference between writing and speaking is related to the need for accuracy. Native speakers constantly make mistakes when they are speaking: they change the subject in the middle of a sentence, hesitate an say the same thing in different ways,… These mistakes, except in extremely formal situations, are considered as normal. However, it's expected that writing should be "correct". Another characteristic is that speech is time-bound, dynamic and transient. It's a part of an interaction in which both participants are present, and the speaker has a specific addressee in mind. Meanwhile, in most of the cases, the writer doesn't know who the addressee is, so that there is a little expectation of a reply. In this regard, participants are in a face-to-face interaction and share the same situational context; as a result, they can rely on non-verbal devices, as body language, facial expression and gesture, as well as rely on the context, in order to help make clear what they mean. This does not happen in speech. Another characteristic is that speakers do at least three things at once: planning what to say next, saying what they have planned, and monitoring what they are saying in order to check that it is what they meant to say. On the other hand, in the speech prevails the spontaneity and the speed, so it's more difficult to engage in complex advanced planning. Whereas, writers can be more precise and organised about what they have to say, and also because they have more time for planning and revision.
• Talking about the linguistic features, a speaker has a great range of expressive possibilities, since he can vary his intonation and stress. The writing system cannot directly represent the prosodic features of speech. Only a very few graphic conventions relate to prosody, such as question marks.
• As grammar and vocabulary regards, the syntax of speech is much simpler than the syntax of writing. The lexicon of speech is also often vague, using words which refer directly to the situation (deictic expressions, such as that one, in here, right now). In written language these expressions are very unusual.
III.- LISTENING 1.- Definition of the process Let us concentrate on the listening skill. It is a receptive skill and it wasn't until the development of the Communicative Approach in the 70's when the listening skill took importance in the language acquisition. Some previous methods, such as the Direct Method and the AudioLingual Method, put emphasis in the oral comprehension, but listening was concentrated on the lower levels. The Communicative Approach postulated the use of realistic and authentic language and learners were trained to match what they heard into a context; the context helped them to understand the meaning. Nowadays it is accepted that listening plays an important role in Foreign Language Teaching because it provides a great input for the learner, it allows introducing new language and it can provide enjoyment.
2.- Stages of the process The process of writing goes on through different stages, which we'll analyse as follows.
• Firstly, the pupils have to identify the phonic and syntactic patterning, that is, to recognise the familiar elements in the mass of speech without being able to recognise the interrelationships within the whole system. • Then, the pupils must identify and select them without retention, that is, listening for pleasure with no questions to be answered. • After that, SS must do an identification and guided selection with short term retention, that is, they are giver a prior indication of what they are going to listen. They demonstrate their comprehension immediately in some sort of exercise. • An the last stage is the identification and selection with long term retention, that is, SS demonstrate their comprehension developing activities which require the use of the material previously learnt.
3.- Planning a listening lesson In order to achieve a successful development of the listening skill, it is essential to plan it very carefully. A listening lesson involves considering five aspects: • What to be learnt; we have to decide the listening skills to be developed. In the early stages we should concentrate on listening at the level of recognition. • How to teach; the procedure to follow. • What material to use; we have to make a choice regarding materials, and it has to be made according to two criteria: - The linguistic difficulty of the listening text; the text should be within the students language proficiency range. - The learners’ motivation; the materials used should be motivating for the students. We should remember that the teacher can also be a source of spoken language, he / she can also provide input.
• What activities will be done; they should also be motivating and relevant to the students needs.
4.- Guidelines to develop the listening skill There are some guidelines that may be useful when planning how to develop pupils' listening skill, which we’ll mention as follows: • Firstly, we must try to give children the confidence; the SS should be told that they cannot always be expected to understand every word. • Secondly, we must help the SS to develop the strategies for listening; the most important strategy is the use of "intelligent guesswork", that is, they can use their background knowledge to work out the meaning of a word. They can also use other strategies such as predicting, working out the meaning from the context,… The SS should be encouraged to notice the body language or the way the speaker use his/her voice. • Finally, we must explain them why they have to listen; this means spelling out which part of the message they need to focus on and what they are going to do before listening, while they listening or after listening. We will now focus on two of the aspects when planning a lesson, the listening subskills and the listening materials.
5.- Listening subskills The listening subskills are: listening to confirm expectations, listening to extract specific information, listening for general understanding and inferring the speaker’s attitude.
• Listening to confirm expectations. We can ask students to predict what they are going to listen and then, listen to it to confirm their expectations. In this way, the students’ interest is aroused and they have a definite purpose for listening. • Listening to extract specific information. Extracting specific information when listening is a major subskill since a great deal of what is said in conversation in redundant and unnecessary. • Listening for general understanding. Students listen to conversations in order to get a general idea of what the main points are. The students’ task is fairly simple but it is a vital skill (because they listen to authentic spoken language) that they must develop. • Inferring the speaker’s attitude. An awareness of stress, intonation or any body language, such as facial expression or gestures, will help the children to work out meaning.
6.- Listening materials Talking about the listening materials, the most useful ones are the songs, the video recordings, the tapes and the teacher. • Songs are an important source of motivation. They may be used to change the pace of the lesson or to introduce cultural aspects. They reinforce the learning process since they are very useful to review and learn vocabulary, pronunciation, grammatical structures and patterns. • Video recordings: When using the video it is essential to choose the right technique depending on the purpose: recognition, production or a combination of both. There are several reasons for using video to develop listening skills: -
It is a motivating type of material. The pupils’ imagination is fostered. This sort of communication has an image context. Paralinguistic features help comprehension.
• Tapes: We can use tapes adjusting the level to the pupils’ needs. • The teacher: as a matter of fact, can also provide input. The pupils listen to the teacher most of the time, so he / she must have a good pronunciation.
7.- Listening activities The listening activities can be divided into pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening activities. Let us see each one separately.
Pre-listening activities These activities aim to warm SS up and prepare them to achieve the most from the passage and to arouse their interest. We can distinguish three types of pre-listening activities: prediction activities, vocabulary exercises and grammar exercises. Prediction exercises encourage the SS to draw inferences and increase the amount of language recognised at first hearing, for instance: • The SS are told the topic of the listening passage and are asked to guess some of the words or phrases they think they might hear. • The teacher plays the first few sentences of the recording and challenges the SS to work out what is going on. The SS call out their ideas, which are discussed. Vocabulary exercises, for example: • The SS are given a list of words that might occur in the listening text and are asked to listen for which ones occur and which do not. • The pupils do a picture and word matching exercise. This has two advantages. Firstly you can bring certain words into the forefront of the SS’ minds, and secondly, you can ensure that they
know the meaning of new words. It is not necessary that all the words which appear in the exercise should appear on the tape. Grammar exercises, such as gap-filling exercises, involving grammatical structures. The sentences will be taken from the listening passage. The SS will check the answers from the tape.
While-listening activities While-listening activities aim to guide the pupils to handle the information in the passage. Three types of exercises are to be distinguished: Ear training activities help SS in distinguishing between key sounds, stress and intonation patterns. They are most suitable in the early stages. Global-listening exercises are aimed at helping SS to construct an overall sense of a text and they include: • Completing diagrams • Problem solving activities in which SS match or recognise information in a text, for example: - The SS compare what they hear with the information given to them in a picture. They listen to see how far the information the speaker provides agrees with, or contradicts, the information they were originally given. - Another problem-solving activity is storyline pictures sets: the SS listen to a story or set of instructions referring to a number of pictures and are asked to recognise the pictures described and to put them in the correct order according to the passage. Selective-listening activities are designed to help SS derive specific information from a text, for instance:
• Answering display questions; questions testing understanding of detail. The questions can be answered individually or in groups and may take various forms: open-ended questions, multiple choice questions, true/false statements. The questions should be read and understood in the pre-listening stage. • Following instructions, that is, listen-and-do exercises in which they must listen to what someone says, understand it and complete a task. They include picture dictation, where SS have to draw a picture which the teacher or another S talks about without showing it; completing a map or picture; tracing a route on a map in order to arrive at a particular place. These activities involve careful listening without requiring a verbal response. • In completion-type activities SS have to complete a version of a story, a description or a song while they listen. • Another kind of while-listening activity is Identifying mistakes or contradictions: SS hear two versions of a story or two accounts of an event and have to identify the points of difference. Many games depend for their success on SS listening carefully to each other, e.g. Simon says, in which a S in front of the class gives commands, some preceded by the words Simon says and others not. The class obeys the former only.
Post-listening activities In post-listening activities SS take the information they have gained from the listening passage and use it for another purpose (composition, discussion). Some extension work can also be done based on the content of the passage.
IV.- SPEAKING
1.- Definition of the process As follows, we'll concentrate on the speaking skill. During the first half of this century, this skill was neglected, since in the FL teaching, the emphasis was on the written skills. Moreover, speaking has received more attention in the last twenty years. Although in the Direct and the Audio-Lingual method the emphasis was on oral communication, students could not do free activities until they have mastered the new language in controlled exercises, in drills. Now it is accepted that some sort of dynamic and meaningful exercises should be included in speaking lessons from the beginning. When SS are learning a FL, they want prompt results and speaking is the aim when they come to class. They want to speak and that's the most important thing to them. When listening, the input received can be in a higher lever than expected; in contrast, when speaking, the speaker choose the language according to his/her level and that's an easy aspect in comparison with listening. Although the speaker can choose the level, speaking is one of the most problematical skills since successful oral communication involves many things: • • • • •
To know some grammar and vocabulary. Ability to make the foreign sounds correctly. To master the suprasegmental features. Fluency. Some listening skills.
When a child is learning a FL, he usually makes mistakes. A solution would be to guide oral practice to avoid the SS' mistakes, or at least to try that they make as few as possible. Then, the
psychological aspect is important, because when children realise that they can speak without mistakes, they'll be motivated to go on speaking properly. The main goal of speaking will be fluency, which can be defined as the ability to express oneself intelligibly, reasonably, accurately and without too much hesitation.
2.- Planning a speaking lesson When planning a speaking lesson, we must bear in mind that speaking activities should fulfill certain requirements: • Activities must provide opportunities for language practice. • They must be interesting. • As regard to the subject matter, it must be within the students' experience; it must be close to their lives.
3.- Speaking activities Speaking activities fall into the following three categories: activities based on repetition and imitation, controlled activities and autonomous interaction.
Activities based on repetition and imitation
Littlewood’s structural and quasi-communicative activities belong to this group. They are preparatory activities, intended to prepare learners for communicative activities. The former focus on the grammatical system and on ways in which items can be combined. The latter consist of two or more conversational exchanges. Drills are an example of this type of structure-orientated exercises. They help to assimilate facts about new language and enable the student to produce the new language for the first time by helping him master the basic structural patterns of the language. They are usually very controlled and have a fairly limited potential. They shouldn't be used either too frequently or for too long. The teacher will insist on accuracy, correcting where SS make mistakes. In addition, the SS' talking time can be notably increased in large groups. There are different kinds of drills: • Repetition drills; SS have to repeat the sample pattern accurately and quickly; e.g. "I went to the market and I bought…" • Substitution drills; SS are required to replace a word or phrase of the model sentence by the cue word/phrase provided by the teacher. • Transformation drills; e.g. putting affirmative sentences in the negative or active sentences in the passive. • Guessing drills; they get SS to try to find out through guessing. They are thus based on the information gap principle. Some examples are: - SS think of something they did the previous weekend and then they take turns to find out what it is by asking. - SS imagine that they have been ill and they take turns to find out each other’s illness by asking.
Controlled activities
Controlled activities help SS develop confidence and the ability to participate in simple conversations. Texts (dialogues and prose passages) can be exploited for oral practice. The advantage of the activities based on them over the drills we have looked at is that they offer a well-defined context for practice. • Question and answer practice is one of the commonest ways of giving language practice in the classroom. • Other techniques are right / wrong statements and corrections. SS are asked to say whether a statement is right or wrong within the context of the text and, if it is wrong, they give the correct version; or they are asked to correct statements. • A third technique can be stating consequences, in which the SS have to say what happened as a result of an event or action described. T: Columbus discovered America. S1: Other people followed him. S2: It changes the story of the world. Pairwork activities provide SS with a greater amount of meaningful practice. There are various types of pairwork activities: model dialogue and key words, gapped dialogues, cue words, picture cards, language games, decision-making activities and questionnaires. Let us outline each one of them: • Model dialogue and key words: SS work with a set of 4-5 dialogues related to the same theme together with a list of key words which they can use to produce different dialogues. • In gapped dialogues one of the speakers has to supply the missing utterances. The speaker’s missing words may also be cued by indicating what functions he has to express, e.g. A.- .......... (invite somebody to go out with you). B.- Sorry, I’m busy.
A.- .......... (suggest another day). B.- Yes, that would be fine. A.- .......... ( suggest a time). B.- All right. See you then. • Cuewords: SS are given cards with a number of cuewords on them, around which a dialogue can be modelled, and a model dialogue to work with. • Picture cards can be used for a range of activities: - Finding uses; SS have to find uses for an object within a particular environment, to compare the uses for an object in two environments, or to find two uses for an object, one normal use, the other absurd. - Association activities; SS have to link two objects e.g. in terms of use, material, etc. • Language games also help to improve speaking skills, e.g. Hide and seek, where SS “hide” and object somewhere in a picture. They then take turns to find out where the object has been hidden by asking questions like Is it on the bookcase? Is it under the TV? • Decision-making activities require SS to make certain decisions. They employ the information gap principle, that is, SS have to try to find out what each has decided. For instance, they are given a set of numbered places and they write the numbers on a street plan to indicate their positions, which their partners have to guess. Non-pictorial aids such as maps, menus, radio and TV programmes are another way of getting SS to interact using fairly controlled language. For example, with maps SS can practise giving directions. With menus they can decide what they are going to eat and drink. With TV and radio programmes they can discuss what they are going to watch or listen. • Questionnaires with mixed structures are effective ways of getting SS to draw on all their linguistic resources. They involve identifying somebody who corresponds to a requirement of the questionnaire. For example, the questionnaire may read: Find someone who: - is wearing black socks
NAME
- likes flying - can’t swim - has never been abroad - would like to go to the moon
Autonomous interaction The last type of speaking activities is related to the autonomous interaction, that aims to get from the students a free production of language. Communicative activities provide the learners opportunities to use the language for themselves. The opportunity to say something has to be given to them, so that they can see for themselves the value and use of what they are learning. The activities must be geared to the learners’ needs and the teacher should formulate the tasks in terms that SS can understand and ensure that the instructions are clear. If the task is very complex, it is advisable to set up a rehearsal before asking SS to start. Moreover, the teacher should: • make sure that everybody speaks English and that everything runs smoothly. • set up mixed ability pairs/groups because SS learn from one another. • elicit or pre-teach the language SS will need during the activity. • monitor the task discreetly. H / S should intervene only if he/she is quite certain that learners cannot manage on their own. • should not keep correcting and demand too high a standard of accuracy. Littlewood distinguishes two types of communicative activities: functional communication and social interaction. a) Functional communication activities involve the communication of information. They have to overcome an information gap or solve a problem. By ‘information gap’ Littlewood means a type of activity in which one or more of the SS has to get information from someone else. Some examples of these activities are the following:
♦ Discovering identical pairs: one S has to find which of four other has the same picture as his. ♦ Discovering missing information: two SS each have an incomplete table and each has to get missing information from other. ♦ Discovering secrets (guessing games). These games are accuracy-focussed games chose purpose is to reinforce what has already been taught. For example “Twenty questions” (one player thinks of a famous person or place and the others try to find out what by asking no more than twenty questions). b) Social interaction activities involve simulation and role-play. In a simulation SS act as themselves (giving directions to a passer-by outside the school), while in a role-play they act as someone else. For role play the class is usually divided into small groups who are given situations and roles to act out. They are different ways of providing a framework for role-play practice: ♦ Open-ended dialogues, e.g. dialogues which leave the learners free to decide how to develop them. ♦ Mapped dialogues: SS are given functional cues on separate cards. We may define the relationship between the two speakers, e.g. they are friends. 1 Invite B to go out with you 1 Decline 2 Suggest another possibility 2 Accept 3 Confirm arrangements 3 Agree ♦ Role instructions describe the situation and tell the participants how they should interact. Example: you go into a bookshop to buy a book (describe author and title). Ask the bookseller is he has the book. If the book is not available, decide whether to order it.
Other activities are discussions and fluency-focussed games, i.e. games in which SS use language rather than simply practise it, for example in a debate to choose the SS that will controll the class library.
V.- SUMMARY To summarise, in this topic we have dealt with the oral skills (listening and speaking), which, in the Foreign Language Area curriculum, are stressed over the written skills (reading and writing). We've given some guidelines in order to make a proper planning and we've suggest some of the activities we can do when teaching both skills.
VI.- REFERENCES • • • •
The techniques of Language Teaching by Billows, F.L. Teaching Language as communication by Widdowson, H.G. Oxford University Press. Teaching Oral English by Byrne, D. Published in 1986. Getting Students to Talk by Golewiowska, A. Published in 1990.
TOPIC 7. FOREIGN LANGUAGE SPEECH. THE COMPLEXITY OF GLOBAL UNDERSTANDING IN ORAL INTERACTION: FROM HEARING TO ACTIVE LISTENING. SPEECH IPRODUCTION: IMITATIVE REPRODUCTION AND AUTONOMOUS REPRODUCTION. INDEX
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
INTRODUCTION D.A. WILKINS AND J.A. VAN EK SPECIFYING THE DISCRETE LINGUISTIC-CULTURAL ITEMS AUDIOLINGUALISM AND NEO-FIRTHIANISM THE INTERPERSONAL SPEECH ACT AUTONOMOUS INTERACTION LISTENING AND SPEAKING
1. INTRODUCTION Speech, or spoken language, is the most obvious aspect of language, it is the universal material of human language. For many hundreds of thousands of years human language was transmitted and developed entirely as spoken means of communication. Using a foreign language eefectively requires having a number of different abilities. Linguistists have identified four major abilities, which are called linguistic skills. They are: listening, speaking, reading and writing. (about their classification and their integration, see topic 3). In this unit we are going to study the listening and speaking skills, first how our pupils evolve from hearing to active listening, and second, from imitative speaking to autonomous talking. 2. LISTENING COMPREHENSION: FROM HEARING TO ACTIVE LISTENING Listening in a foreign language is hard work. It is a principle that listening should precede speaking. Clearly, it is impossible to expect our pupils to produce a sound which does not exist in their mother tongue or a natural sentence using the stress, rhythm and intonation of a native speaker of the foreign language without first of all providing them with a model of the form they are to produce. It is not possible to produce satisfactorily what one has not heard. The logical step, then, is attempting to achieve oral fluency or accuracy is to consider our pupils´ ability to listen.
At first sight it appears that listening is a passive skill, and speaking is an active one. This is not really true, since the deconding of the message calls for active participation in the communication between the participants. A receptive skill is involved in understanding the message. Understanding is usually signalled in a face-to-face conversation by the nods, glances, bbody-movements and often phatic noises of the listener. This visual and verbal signalling confirms to the speaker that listening and understanding has taken place so, while hearing can be thought of a passive condition, listening is always an active process. Studies of classroom interaction show that children spend a large part of their time listening – listening to the teacher, to each otther or to pre-recorded material. Problems are likely to arise if teachers do not teach children how to listen, so that they can cope effectively with these demands. Besides, our work as teachers of young learners is much easier if the children are motivated and enjoy what they are doing. It is up to us to ensure that the activities they are engaged in are interesting and/or fun. We also have to be clear that our students cannot understand everything they hear. We should provide purposeful activities where learners are asked to focus on specific points. We must ensure that the children´s learning is supported wherever necessary. Learners will also of course listen just for fun, without having to do anything with what they hear. FROM HEARING TO UNDERSTANDING The first stage in the listening skill learning process is ear-training, if we cannot hear we will not understand. Later on we must help our pupils develop their aural understanding abilities. If we want our pupils to be efficient listeners in English we must give them enough practice in both intensive and extensive listening. Intensive listening is closer to ear-training. If we feel that our pupils are not producing satisfactorily a certain sound or they have not encountered it yet, we can get them to listen carefully for the sound in a given passage, as a first step towards imitation, then production of the sound. This is called intensive listening. Onn the other hand, we may be aware that our pupils cannot understand ordinatry English of the type that is used in our coursebook tape. In this case a more general familiaritty with the lexis and grammar
of the listening texts is required so we must prepare aural lessons which will not focus on a sound or two but on general features of the style of sicourse materials. This is called extensive listening. EFFECTIVE LISTENING Language comprehension is generally seen as part of an interactive process arising from the complex interplay of the three main dimensions of interaction: the social, the cognitive and the linguistic. Studies of young learners´comprehension skills show that many aspects of listening are mastered at an early age, particularly in supportive, conversational contexts where social skills are highlighted. However, when the listening focus involves more demanding cognitive skills, such as processing information or monitoring the adequacy of a message, children frequently encounter problems. Many authors currently take the view that there are several parallels between the processes involved in L1 acquisition and L2 learning. It is felt that children have the ability to transfer some of the skills and strategies in their L1 acquisition to second language learning. The kinds of information source used in comprehension can be summarised under two main headings: a. knowledge about the content of the spoken message - general knowledge to do with facts and information - sociocultural knowledge to do with topics, settings and participants in interaction - procedural knowledge about how language is used, for example, knowing that questions generally demand responses b. knowledge about the language used in the spoken message - recognition of items of vocabulary and sentence patterns - understanding of phonological features such as stress, intonation and sounds The role of the teacher is to encourage children to draw upon different information sources, skills and strategies in order to learn how to help themselves understand. Once the teachers are aware of these processes, they will be able to include in their planning interactive or specific listening tasks focusing on one or more of these strategies. Six types of strategy are given below, described in the context of listening to a story:
1. Getting the general picture: this strategy is used when children are being encouraged to listen to a story simply for pleasure. In this case the learners do not attempt to focus their attention in or remember details but to listen for gist to get a general idea of what the story is about 2. Predicting: this strategy is useful when children are trying to follow the sequence of events in a story. If the children are motivated and have some support for their understanding, they can be encouraged first to predict and then to check whether what they hear matches their expectation. This is an example of a learning context where knowledge of the language system and general knoowledge based on previous experience of L1 stories work together to facilitate comprehension 3. Extracting specific information: the focus here is on recognising specific components of the language system, such as selecting relevant adjectives to describe particular characters in a story to fill in a tick-chart or recognising specific verbs and nouns when matching pictures with events in a story. If the aim of the activity is listening comprehension rather than memory testing, for this strategy to work the learners need to know what kind of information to listen out for. The support materials (pictures and charts) help the learner distinguish relevant from irrelevant parts of the message. 4. Inferring opinion or attitude: an awareness of stress and intonation, combined with knowledge of lexical items and grammatical patterns, enables the learner to determine whether a character is happy, angry or sad and therefore to work our some of the context of the story 5. Working out meaning from context: it must be made clear to children learning English that they will not be able or expected to understand every word in a story. Thus the teacher needs to develop their confidence in facing texts with new vocabulary. Key words may be glossed beforehand while visual support or written framewords (charts, for instance) will help the learners understand detail. Some learners might be able to draw upon their knowledge of the langauge system. 6. Recognising discourse patterns and markers: every story will have certain story-tellinng conventions, for example an introduction beginning, “Many years ago there was a wicked witch…” The recognition of discourse markers used in logical relationships, as well as the use of appropriate intonation, will help learners to work out some of the storyline. THE LISTENING CLASS It is important to make a distinction between the teaching and testing of listening. The practice of asking the childrren to listen to something with no support other than questions to answer after
listeniing has many drawbacks. It concentrates too much on the testing of comprehension or memory rather than encouraging children to develop strategies to coping with the spoken message. This kind of methodology tends to overload the child´s capacity for porcessing and retaining information. Thus the emphasis is placed on assessing what the children have understood rather than in supporting their understanding so that they can show that they have understood. It is only when teachers direct the children´s attention to the pupose of the listening task beforehand and procde a suitable framework for providing acees to the spoken message that they can be said to be teaching listening. Possible frameworks to be used can take the form of pictures, charts or questions which aim to create interest and supply motivation and support for the successful completion of the task. This kind of methodology reflects the view that the listening process is a form of interaction between the listener and the text. The meanings which learners construct in this interactive process depend on the one hand on their “set” to the text and on the other hand on the content and the language contained in the ttext. The “set” can be described in terms of what the learner brings to the text, that is, the schematic knowledte described earlier such as background knowledge and feelings, attitudes or interest. The content of the text will of course draw upon linguistic items such as vocabulary and grammar as well as discourse geatures such as refference, lexical relations, logical connectors and intonation. The linguistic content may serve to refer to events, people, animals, places, objects, feelings, attributes, concpets and so forth. With the help of the teacher, who creates a context and a purpose for liistening, the focus of the comprehension activity can be on any of these aspects. The teaching of comprehension is said to have three phases: pre-, while- and post- listening activities. The first stage is an introduction or orientation to the text during which the teacher might elicit what the children already know about a topic by asking them questions, or create interest by relating aspects of the content to the children´s own experiences. The second stage involves an explanation of the pupose of the listening task so that the children are quite clear what their role is and whether they need to focus on specific aspects of the text. The purpose mau be simply to listen and enjoy a story, song or rhyme in which case they can participate if the teacher wishes. If the listening purpose is to extract specific information it is at this point that the teacher will explain the task and refer to any visual or written support he/she has planned. The learners
will then listen to the text, which may be pre-recorded or spoken by the teahcer or another child, and complete the activity. The stage after this is then concerned with checking information by asking questions (oral or written) or by asking for feedback on any other outcomes the learners may have produced, such as completing a game, finding the correct sequence of events or drawing and labelling a picture. THE ROLE OF THE TEACHER It requires patience, imagination and skill to create an interesting environment for young learners to develop confidence in listening. The teacher´s role is this respect is fourfold: 1. Planning for listening 2. choosing appropriate texts and tasks: 3. Providing support 4. varying the learning context 3. LISTENIING AND SPEAKING Listening and speaking tasks should always be properly introduced: the context of the text and the task involved needs to be clear to the students before they start an exrecise. Teachers should beware of setting artificially high standards of correctness. Experienced teachers accept different degreees of variation from the “perfect” model. Additioanlly, there are teachers who use “teacher talk” at certain moments of the lesson. “Teacher talk” is using a very simplified version of the target language so that the students can understand better. There is no harm in doing this, as long as studnets also receive natural language input as well. A teacher might use “teacher talk” when presenting a langauge item; an unnaturally slow pronunciation would help the students to identify the sounds better. However, during the development session, oral drills practice should be done using natural speech patterns. As for fluency and accuracy, the listening and speaking skills should be approached from both of these perspectives: there are moments in the lesson when accuracy is imperative. For example, when a language item is presented, accuracy is of the utmost importance; it is equally important during oral drills sessions. However, during productiooon, especially during free pair work and groups work activities, practice for fluency is
preferable. The teacheer can monitor the production of the studnets, noting language weakness which need to be dealt with in subsequent class sessions. Listening entails the following aspects: guessing the meaning of unknownn vocabulary; folowing the main ideas of something spoken using natural speeach; summarizing a speaker´s intention; recognizing style and register differences; identifying the structures of a spoken statement; making inferences; formulating a personaly opiniionn about a text; formulating an intellectual attitude and an emotional attitude towards a text; taking notes while listening to a speech; identifying the amin phonological aspects of the English language (vowels, dipthongs, tripthongs, consonants, rhythm, stress, intonaation, word junction); comparing prekowledege with what is being said; the speaker´s intention; the speaker´s attitude; phonological aspects. Speaking entails the following aspects: formal and informal manner; preparing and giving oral reports; asking and answering questions (interviews); telling a story and expanding narratives; connecting sentences; dividing speech into paragraphs and main ideas; constrciting dialogues; making correclty formed declarative and interrogative statements; interpreting a picture story; summarizing a peech hard using notes taken; paraphrase what another person has ssaid; tell a story (invented or retold).
UNIT 8: LEARNING TO READ AND WRITE. READING COMPREHENSION: EXTENSIVE AND INTENSIVE READING. WRITING: FROM INTERPRETATION TO PRODUCTION. 1. WRITTEN LANGUAGE Speech uses phatic substance and writing, graphic substance. Speech is considered to be part of an interaction which both participants are present and the speaker has a specific address in mind. On the other hand, in written language the producer is distant from the receiver and sometimes even do not know who the receiver is. While speech is time-bound and dynamic, writing is space-bound and static. So writing allows repeated reading and close analysis. It needs careful organisation and structured expression. Some words must be avoided when the meaning relies on the situation. Ambiguity must also be minimised in writing, as there is no possibility of asking for immediate explanation. Some constructions might be fond only in writing (formal) and others, in speech (slang, swear words, …)
2. LEARNING TO READ AND WRITE IN THE FIRST LANGUAGE There are many different methods to teach reading: • Phonic approaches try to identify the regular sound/letter relationship. Permitted vocabulary is restricted. • Global approaches try to recognise individual words as wholes without breaking them into constituent letters or sounds. It is based on meaning. Nowadays there are some mixed schemes, integrating the strength of each. Fluent reading needs some strategies: • Rapid and selective techniques (scanning) • Silent techniques (skimming) For writing is necessary to acquire the motor skill of sequencing letters, using different shapes and sizes, word spaces, spaces between lines, margins, etc. But writing is more than that automatic exercise, it is the ability to use the structures of the language in an appropriate and mature way. There are different stages of writing acquisition: a. Basic motor skill and principles of spelling system are developed. b. Using the writing system to express what they can already say in speech. c. Writing and speech split up, and writing develop its own pattern and organisation. d. Writers can make stylistic choices and develop a personal way of expressing. 3. LEARNING TO READ AND WRITE IN THE SECOND LANGUAGE Reading is to distinguish the meaning of a chain of words in a text, quite quickly. English spelling is different from sounds, so words and structures must be worked first in an oral way. Before reading, children must know most of vocabulary structures and have some knowledge about the topic, culture and situation. Reading techniques Children need some techniques in order to get the maximum information from a text with the minimum of misunderstanding: • Extensive reading: getting a global picture, a clear idea of the overall meaning of the text (skimming) • Intensive reading: paying attention to the details, getting particular points (scanning) • Having an interpretation of the text based on reader’s own experience. • Guessing many unknown words by simply studying the context.
• Predicting what they are going to read next, recognising discourse linkers (although, but,…) • Inferring opinion and attitude, based on the recognition of linguistic style and appropriate purposes. After reading comprehension learners must interpret the text: • Picking the author’s intention • Distinguishing facts and opinions • Finding relations with personal experience. Reading activities (three stages) • Pre-reading tasks: to familiarise with the topic. Looking at previous knowledge. It is necessary to create expectations in order to increase their interest. They will read to confirm expectations and that is motivating. (describing photographs or covers of the text, informal dialogues about the topic, prediction of the content, giving a tittle, …) • While-reading tasks: • Skimming: reading a text to get the gist of it (suggesting the tittle of the passage, matching text tittles with series of short texts,…) • Scanning: extracting specific information from the text (underlining information required, completing an information form, classifying under different headings, tick in a list of objects already read, …) • Combining both, skimming and scanning (answering questions, describing main characters physical and emotionally, completing a drawing, anticipate actions,…) • Making inferences: recognising opinion and attitudes (questions of possible interpretations) • Post-reading tasks: the main aim of these activities is to internalise the language of the text (crossword, drawing comics, role play, carry out a survey, summarise, change the end, continuing the story, preparing a similar text, boarding games,…) 4. WRITING: FROM CONTROLLED PRACTICE TO FREE PRODUCTION Traditional methods used writing to fix linguistic forms in memory. There was no intention to teach the learner to express anything of himself through the new language. Nowadays we need to identify the needs of communication of our pupils. Our pupils will spend most time completing tightly controlled written exercises. Sometimes they might be encouraging to produce free writing.
Writing needs some abilities: • Graphical or visual skills: includes spelling, punctuation, capitalisation and format. • Grammatical skills: to use successfully a variety of sentence patterns. • Stylistic or expressive skills: to express precise meanings in a variety of styles and registers. • Rhetorical skills: cohesion and links of parts of the text into logical sequence. • Organisational skills: sequencing the ideas, summarising relevant points and rejecting irrelevant information. Writing activities might be these ones: • For practice: • Making lists, personal vocabulary • Completing crosswords • Matching labels to pictures • Classifying words under headings • Writing speech bubbles for cartoons • Explaining surveys or questionnaires • Correcting mistakes • Copying sentences that have been matched • Answering questions • For communication: • Writing games (descriptions of famous people) • Exchanging letters (playing a role) • Story construction (small pieces of paper) • Writing reports and advertisements) Correction of written work can be done by both, teacher and pupil. The teacher must show positive aspects, showing the pupil where the work was effective and where it was not. The teacher can underline the error and write in the margin the type of error it is: concordance, wrong word order, unclear meaning, …
THE WRITTEN FOREIGN LANGUAGE. APPROXIMATION, MATURATION AND IMPROVEMENT OF THE READER-WRITER PROCESS. THE READING COMPREHENSION: TECHNIQUES FOR GLOBAL AND SPECIFIC COMPREHENSION OF TEXTS. THE WRITTEN EXPRESSION: FROM THE INTERPRETATION TO THE PRODUCTION OF TEXTS.
INTRODUCTION.
In this unit, I am going to explain the reading-writing process. In first place, I will explain some aspects of this process in general, the relationship that exists between both of them and how can be develop this process in order to acquire the English language. In the last part of the unit, I will explain both skills, reading and writing. In addition, all its features like the importance of the authentic or non-authentic material which is used to do the exercises. Another important aspect that I am going to be in mind in the last part is the techniques and activities, which can be carry out in class to improve both skills. THE READING-WRITING PROCESS. In the first part of the unit, I am going to explain the relationship that exists between the reading and writing skills. Both terms are narrowing linked because these skills are present
from the first stages in the approach of the foreign language. The language is firstly heard and then it is read. Reading, is an important skill, which can contribute to the accomplishment of a language in posterior stages. This skill can be useful in order to achieve vocabulary, or it can be a motive to read for pleasure. The additional lecture, which is read in a voluntary way, offers the opportunity to learn in an unconscious way aspects like culture from the foreign language. The main advantage of the reading for the students is that it improves their general English level. We have as teachers to encourage the complementary readings, which has to be chose by the students. We have to realise that, when we are going to teach a language in the first stages, our students do not have knowledge about grammar or syntax. Due to that, the teacher will be the guide in the learning. Teachers will have to use some strategies like the comment of the illustrations, the chose of easy situations… In the first stages, it would be advisable direct to our students with patters, which has the same structure. In order to improve the reading-writing process, we can use a great variety of activities and techniques. It is obvious that we have to start from easy to texts that are more complex. We will try to offer to the students short tales with familiar situations related to their daily life, alternating with fantastic stories like adventures with monsters. In class we have to exploit the illustrations, because they are very important in order to understand the context of the situation. In a great variety of activities, the introduction of the teacher will help the students to understand the aim of the activity. Then, the teacher can ask some questions to check if they have understood what is pretend in the activity. After that, we can do the reading. In the first curses, the texts are read aloud to continue to silent reading, and later, to the summaries. Then, we can do the comprehension exercise: - questions made by the teacher, from open to more close answers,
- judgements made by the teacher, which can be true or false and - summaries of texts using synonymous and paraphrases of a text. It is advisable that, whenever possible, the teacher relates the current situations that is carry out to more familiar situations.
In more advanced levels we can use: - charts, - questionnaires and surveys where the object is to interview a classmate, for example according to their likes, dislikes, preferences, - role-plays: these activities are connected with dialogues and performances. The students are appointed a certain role and they must ask according to it. In these advanced levels, it would be advisable: - the use of the dictionary and - the preparation of their own vocabulary in personal dictionaries. In the last cycle is advisable that the students try to infer the meaning from the context.
THE READING COMPREHENSION.
Now, it is time to discuss the reading comprehension. Reading in the foreign language must start from the first year when the language is studied. We have to interact with the text in order to understand the message, even where the text contains language which the students are not able to produce.
One aspect of reading that concerns many teachers, is the difference between authentic and non-authentic texts. The authentic texts are designed for native speakers, not for language students. This kind of material can be newspapers, advertisements or radio-programmes. A non-authentic text in language teaching terms is one that has been written especially for language students. Such texts sometimes concentrate on the language they wish to teach. In these texts appear some particular grammatical structures, vocabulary or some particular tenses. When teachers choose the right kind of material and the students are successful, then the benefits are obvious. What we need, therefore, are texts where the students can understand the general meaning of, whether they are truly authentic or not. The job of the teacher is to train the students in a number of skills which they will need for the understanding of reading and listening texts. These skills can be divide into two groups. a) Type one skills, are those operations that students perform on a text when they tackle
it for the first time. The first thing the students are asked to do with a text concerns it treatment as a whole. Thus, students may be asked to look at a text and extract specific information. They might read or listen to perform a task to confirm or check expectations they have about a text. Type 1 skills are: - Predictive skills: efficient readers or listeners predict what they are going to read and hear. (enfrentar)
- Extracting specific information: students have to focus on the specific information they are searching for. This skill, when is applied to reading is called “scanning”. - Getting the general idea: we often read or listen to things because we want to “get the general idea”. When applied to reading this skill is often called “skimming”. b) Type 2 skills are those that are subsequently used when studying reading or listening material and they involved detailed comprehension of the text. They are practised after type 1 skills have been worked on. They are: - Extracting detailed information like: what does the writer mean? What precisely is the speaker trying to say? How many…? - Recognising functions and discourse pattern. To recognise some discourse markers are an important part of understanding how a text is constructed. We need to make students aware of these features in order to help them to become more efficient. - Deducing meaning from context. It is convenient that in class, the student gets used to extensive and intensive reading. For the intensive readings, the students will work with short texts, from which they understand basically all the words. In the extensive reading, students make the effort to understand the message using all kind the strategies. These are some ideas of reading activities: - PRE QUESTION: A question is given before reading, to find out a piece of central information. - DO IT YOURSELF QUESTIONS: Students compose and answer their own question.
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PROVIDE A TITTLE: Students can suggest an alternative tittle. SUMMARISE: Students summarise the content in two or three sentences. CONTINUE THE TEXT: Learners suggest what might happen next in a text. PREFACE: Learners suggest what might happen before. GAPPED TEXTS: Gaps are left which can only be filled in if the texts have been understood. MISTAKES IN THE TEXTS: Towards the end of a text, there can be some mistakes. Students have to know in advance how many mistakes there are in the text. COMPARISON: There are two texts on similar topics, students note points of similarity or difference. RESPONDING: The text is a letter or a provocative article and the students discuss how to respond to the letter or write an answer to the article. RE-PRESENTATION OF CONTENT: The text gives information and students represent its content through different graphics mediums.
WRITTEN EXPRESSION. In the last part of the unit, I am going to explain the written expression. Frequently, writing is relegated to the status of homework. This is a pity since writing, especially communicative writing, can play a valuable part in the class. Reading has a notable influence in the writing expression, the more we read the better we write. It can be said that, there is a better level in the written expression in those students who use a more variety of written texts in their daily life. When we are going to planning the written activities, we have to consider the following aspects:
a) Contextualization: when we write a message in real life, we always do it within a context or situation, because who writes presupposes certain aspects determined by the situation. We have to be in mind aspects like the type of the register. b) Aim: writing has always a purpose, according to this, there will be determined the expressions, vocabulary, etc. The purpose has to have a meaning for the student. Due to that, the students need to know different kind of writings and practise them in order to connect with the possible reader. c) Creativity: it seems convenient to provide the student with occasions where they can create their own texts and feel that it is the product of their will and personal effort. d) Motivation: the essential objective in language production is to provide the student with motivation to learn. If the activities are motivating, the students will feel an inner satisfaction to learn, to communicate with others and carry a task they like. e) Integration: in a communicative approach of writing, it is necessary the integration with other skills which contributes to several purposes: - allows the practise of the some linguistic or functional contexts in the same skills, - develop two or more linguistic skills within the same context and - approximates the use of the language to the real world. A receptive or an oral activity can precede the writing activity.
The types of writings can be divided in two groups:
- Personal texts: ♦ for personal use: shopping lists, dates, recipes ♦ direct to other people: messages, letters, invitations… - Institutional writings: commercial letters, information request, magazines… Another kind of division can be: a) Activities where it is only necessary to copy a written text. b) Activities designed to encourage student’s creativity. To practice handwriting, spelling and new vocabulary at word level we can:
a) b) c) d)
Make lists. Make personal dictionaries. Completing crosswords. Classifying words under headings.
In addition, under the sentence level students can: a) Write tittles for pictures. b) Write speech bubbles for cartoons. c) Matching halves of sentences and copying. d) Sequencing sentences and copying. e) Correcting mistakes in written sentences. f) Answering questions. There are a lot of techniques to help students to develop their writing expression, from the very controlled expression to the free writing. Some techniques are: - Writing guides with model and visual stimulus (description of a person). We can use photographs, drawings, magazines…
- Writing guides from a stimulus. Transferring information from the oral to the written language, (the elaboration of questionnaires can be an example). - Writing guided by the establishment of a situation and give instructions to write a text. Leaving or taking messages can be an example. - Free writing, in order to develop the student’s imagination (creation of novels, short tales, stories, diaries about the English class…). - Diaries can be interesting for the teacher. Thus, the teacher can obtain interesting data about the student’s attitude.
UNIT 8-
LENGUA EXTRANJERA ESCRITA. APROXIMACIÓN, MADURACIÓN Y PERFECCIONAMIENTO DEL PROCESO LECTOESCRITOR. LA COMPRENSIÓN LECTORA : TÉCNICAS DE COMPRENSIÓN GLOBAL Y ESPECÍFICA DE TEXTOS. LA EXPRESIÓN ESCRITA : DE LA INTERPRETACIÓN A LA PRODUCCIÓN DE TEXTOS.
Introduction The written foreign language: aproximation, maturation, and improvement The reading comprehension The written expression Conclusion
As a way of introduction is worth considering that the efectiveness in the use of a language requires we have different skills, which are, called “linguistic skills”. We can find two kind of skills. On one hand, the skills which are acquired by means of oral interaction, listening and speaking, and on the other hand, the skills acquired by means of visual interaction, reading and writing. If we want to achieve a communicative competence among our students, we must work simustaneously the four skills. In relation to the written foreign language we have to bear in mind we can find three different styles according to writing purpose; the expresive style focuses on the expression of the writer´s personal feelings; the trasactional style focuses on logical statements and the poetic style which expresses imaginative experiences. In the same way, we can find a serie of stages in writing. They´ll be the preparatory stage where principles of the spelling system are acquired; the consolidation stage in which children begin to use the writing system to express what they can say in speech; the differenciation stage where the students diverge from speech and develop their own and finally, the integration stage where they have a good command of language and they can vary their stylistic choices.
Along the Primary Education we pretend students get basical necessities of written language. Moreover, they must be able to answer in usual situations of written language, they must express communicative intentions and recognize the characteristics in each situation. As for the approach to reading-writing it is convenient to begin to develop the reading-writing capacity of the foreign language through simple and superfluous texts, descriptions and brief narrations, class instructions, children and popular songs, tales encouraging the pleasure to interpret the written texts and enjoy with the reading. The reading allows the gradual addition of vocabulary and the motivation for second language learning. Some methods present a book for additional lecture. If the student reads texts spontaneously and in a voluntary way, the success will be complete, as the readings will also give him the opportunity to know and assimilate easily the culture from the foreign country. At the beginning, the contexts of the new lessons must be easy; in this stage, the reading will be confined, most of the time, to repeat words and structures seen in the lesson (in class), offering new combinations, visual help as pictures, etc. The teacher will read aloud several times and he´ll ask them questions in order to answer yes or no.
As for maturing of the reading-writing process we have to take into account as the course advances, the reading-writing exercises will be, logically, more complex. They´ll serve to assimilate the structures we have just seen and review the previous ones. The procedure to follow could be based on an introduction of the teacher where the students observe a picture, the teacher asks them some questions and then he relates the text to other situations. The next step will be listening and reading the text and finally we´ll present a comprehension exercise using questions which can be open, that is, the answer expected can change, or close where the expected answer is yes or no. Teacher: Where did mummy put the cake? Student: On the cupboard. Teacher: Is the cupboard small? Student: No, it´s big. Reaching this point, the student is able to interpret a complementary text. We’ll try to offer the student short tales with familiar situations, related to their daily lives, alternating with fantastic stories in order to get the success and arise the student´s interest.
We can work out different types of activities: in class, the teacher will comment superficially the plot and then he will read the text; the first texts are read aloud, to continue gradually to silent reading and later to the summaries or brief written commentaries. After the reading, the teacher suggests a series of judgements that will have to be determined as true or false. We can propose different endings or return to writing the text but under another point of view, composition of a text whose sentences appear disarranged, etc. We are going to continue with the improvement of the reading-writing process. We have to consider the texts will present a greater difficulty, they may be more long extended and, in some occasions, without pictures. When finishing these readings, a simple comment will help understand and place the text. We´ll elaborate in class a summary, we can divide the text in parts with subtitles, the students can answer questions and they can explain their personal opinions about the central idea. On the other hand, we can use complementary readings. The additional text will consist on a reading already chosen by the student, although we can provide him with comics, series of cartoons, magazines, etc.
The traditional tales and the easy poems are a good source of reading materials. Now that the possibilities of the students reading-writing are better, it is advisable the use of the dictionary, the preparation of their own vocabulary and the elaboration of his own notebook where he can register in alphabetical order. In relation to reading comprehension we have to bear in mind that the reading capacity of the students from Primary Education, starts to acquire a more systematic characteristic. It´s convenient the student gets used to extensive and intensive reading. For the intensive reading, the student will work with short texts, from which he will understand basically all the words (labels, advertisements, letters from friends, etc.). In the extensive reading, the student will make the effort to understand the messages although he may not known the meaning of some words. In this case, he can ask for the teacher´s help, other classmates, basic bilingual dictionaries and other communication strategies (inference by the context, similarity with the mother tongue...). In the foreuign language class we can practise activities of different kind focused on global or specific comprehension. At first, the short of games proposed will be in relation with with what the student already knows in his mother tongue so he can infer from his previous experience the sense
of formal or referntial elements (headings, presentation...) which allow him to formulate hypothesis about the content. We can work out a great number of clues which help the comprehension as photographs, charts, pictures, presentation of the text, the headings, words in the text which are repeated, familiar words, ask the students questions: Who? When? How? The age to start reading must start from the first year when the language is studied (from the beginning). The techniques will be suitable to the student´s level, the complexity will vary as he is acquiring more knowledge and promoting to new courses. Firstly, they’ll read short sentences and later they´ll achieve the interpretation of a brief and simple text. We can find a serie of advantages in reading, which consists, have learn other cultures, review structures and vocabulary and a better-written expression. In the same way, we must distinguish three types of pupils. Those who find difficult to get a global idea, those who don´t pay attention to details (quick reading) and those who are imaginative readers because they interpret the text as they like. As result, we have to be careful with the texts we choose. We have to adapt the readings to the group and the individuals.
In relation to the techniques for the global comprehension, skimming, we have to consider that it can be achieved using the following strategies or techniques: - The student relies on the clues previously mentioned who writes? When? Where? Why? -
The text will be adpated to the student´s level.
- Comprehension of the main idea in the text being neccessary to make student understand that is perfectly possible to understand the main idea without knowing all the words completely. Nouns and verbs have more important meaning than other words. - Deduce the neaning of unknown words from the context. - Register the vocabulary in a notebook. - Look up words in the dictionary. - Identify relations between sentences by connectors. - Recognise discourse patterns (conjuctions, etc.) As examples we can include reading based on the inference system, reading carried out by the teacher in aloud voice, reading made by the students in class, reading aloud and normal reading.
As for the techniques for specific text comprehension, scanning, we´ll take into account reading performs by the teacher in aloud voice where the students have the text and repeat it. Also, they can infer, deduce a specific information by means of clues, questions, etc. The students reading in class aloud would be another strategie provided them with narrative or descriptive passages or short poems; reading at home as an enjoyable activity, not as a school task. Advertising will be interesting at the time of finding specific information. The teacher could bring a written example, preferably original and with drawings or colour photos. The scanning is a technique related to the speed in reading and involves the attainment of information by means of searching words or key propositions. It´s a very productive exercises where the student answers questions reading the text very quickly. Finally, it is important to point out that although there are different techniqes for the global and for the specific comprehension of texts, both will have to be always together or integrate in order to achieve a better acquisition of the foreign language. We are going to continue with the written expression. Firstly we are going to expone a serie of writing skills visual or graphical as spelling, punctuation and capitalization; grammatical as sentence pattern and constructions; expresive using different styles;
rethorical in order to link parts of the text into logical related sentences; organisational rejecting irrelevant information or summarizing relevant points and finally the fact of knowing formal structures. Also it´s important to emphasize that the more we read the better we write. Krashem develops the hypothesis that the written skill is acquired in the same way as the speaking skill. The student would request a given language, comprehensive input, in a quantity enough to develop his capacity. This input should be accomplished for pleasure and interest, so his attention would be focused on the message or content and not on the form how the message is expressed. We have to follow a serie of criteria for planning activities of written expression, which consists of contextualization, because when we write a message in real life, we always do it within a context or situation. The place where the written activity is generated may be as well a determinant element of it. If this takes place in a relaxed atmosphere, the result will be very different that the outcome obtained in an examination atmosphere.
An another criterion is the aim, that is, writing has always a purpose which determine the expressions, vocabulary, etc. The type of register is also important according to descriptions, informal or formal letters, etc. The creativity since when we write we elaborate ideas trying to express the contents by means of words or sentences. It´s important to provide the student with occasions where he can create his own language and feel that it is the product of his effort. We suggest the
importance of programming activities, where the student writes spontaneously short messages or informal notes in the target language, we´ll select subjects about which the students have read or had a personal experience and therefore are interesting for him. It´s interesting the reasoning of the writers and the integration with other skills in order to aproximate the use of the language to the real world, develop two or more linguistic skills within the same context so the students aware of the written text, the resources to achieve, the conventions of personal or institutional writings, headings, address, greetings,etc. The last criteria we are going to comment is to provide the student with a motivation to learn. We can develop two kind of motivation, intrinsic and extrinsic. If the activities are motivating, the student will feel satisfaction to learn, to communicate with others and carry out a task he likes. In relation to the step from interpretation to text production we are going to consider some activities or preparatory techniques as well as techniques of written expression. Firstly we have to bear in mind we can find two main kind of writings. On one hand the personal writings for personal use which appear reflected in shopping lists, telephones
and adresses, dates, reading books, recipes, etc. Or directed to other people (messages, invitations, letters, postcards, etc.) On the other hand, the institutional or public writings that are found in daily life: commercial letters, biographies, posters, songs, puzzles, crosswords, games, compositions, etc. The preparatory techniques are related to the development of reading comprehension. We may emphasize the inference technique of the meaning of a word in the context, or the ones guessing the meaning of unknown words and the meanings implicit in the text, and the techniques of predicting the content of a text from the knowledge of one of its parts. In the first place, the students are provided with a text where there are a key word missing. We ask them to pay attention to the context surrounding this word (vocabulary, structures, idioms, etc.) to infer the meaning. In pairs or small group, the students try to guess which word it is. Other technique is the “linguistic reflection”, which help the student to perceive specific aspects from the text.
Later, the students can write letters to the students from another class or formal letter to travel agencies. The next activity is based on “braimstorming” and helps the student to remember and learn the vocabulary necessary to develop a subject. The students are asked to say the words they can think about a topic and later they will write a composition using the vocabulary noted down. After the preparatory techniques, we suggest techniques to help students to develop their written expression, so the task they carry out will be attractive and easy. These will vary from the very controlled to the free writing. In most of the activities the student is encouraged to write his own communicative text with his experiences, interests, feelings, etc to a possible reader. We can work out activities following a model where we can present an illustrative drawing as orientation and stimulus, transferring information activities as elaboration of questionaires, activities from a situation and given instructions to write a text, activities without specific support (creation of tales, short novels, writing diaries, etc.). As conclusion of the topic we consider very important students feel the interest and curiosity towards the written text as well as the capacity to elaborate them. The bibliography used has been:
- Bello y otros. Didáctica de las segundas lenguas. Aula XXI Ed. Santillana. Madrid. 1990 - Harmer. The practice of English Language Teaching. Longman. Burnt Mill. 1983 - Byrne. Teaching writing skills. Longman. Burnt Mill. 1988 - White, R. Process Writing. Longman. London. 1991 - Cajas Rojas
TEMARIO A: TEMA 9 Sistema fonológico de la lengua inglesa II: Acento, ritmo y entonación. Comparación con el sistema fonológico de la lengua o lenguas oficiales de la Comunidad Autónoma correspondiente.
CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 1. Phonetics and Phonology 2. Phonemes and Speech Sounds 3. Stress/Rhythm and Intonation 2. STRESS 1. Degrees of Stress 2. Position of Stress 3. Stress in the Canarian Dialect/ Spanish language 3. RHYTHM 1. Weak and Strong Forms
2. Regularity of Rhythm 3. Rhythm in the Canarian Dialect/ Spanish language 4. INTONATION 1. Falling Tone 2. Rising Tone 3. Fall-rise Tone 4. Rise-fall Tone 5. Level Tone 6. Fall+rise Tone 5. TEACHING IMPLICATIONS
1. INTRODUCTION The most noticeable feature of a foreign language is often intonation and rhythm. Some languages are described as sounding "like music", other languages as being "flat and without melody". If the pronunciation of individual sounds can be compared with the individual notes in a piece of music, the intonation can be compared with the melody or tune. When studying the pronunciation system of a language we differentiate two categories: • Segmental elements: Vowel and consonant sounds. • Prosodic elements: rhythm, stress and intonation. 1. Phonetics and Phonology
PHONETICS: is the science that studies the language sounds; how sounds are produced in general. PHONOLOGY: is the study of the sound system in a particular language. It includes intonation, rhythm, sounds patterns, etc. 2. Phonemes and Speech Sounds PHONEME: is the smallest unit of speech that can change the meaning of a word. SPEECH SOUND: is any unit of sound produced by the speech organs. They are the muscles and parts of the mouth, which we use to speak. The Phoneme is also defined as "only in terms of its differences from the other phonemes in the same language". Ex: Ship sheep Minimal pairs: Such pairs, which differ only in one phoneme. 3. Stress, Rhythm and Intonation
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When dealing with the concepts of Stress, Rhythm and Intonation, we should start by referring to the concept of prominence Prominence: is the characteristic in common with all stressed syllables. Four different factors are important:
a. b. c. d.
Loudness Length Pitch: is closely related to the frequency of vibration of the vocal cords. A syllable will tend to be prominent if it contains a vowel that is different in quality from neighbouring vowels.
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Stress concerns the relative prominence with which one part of a word or a longer utterance is distinguished from other parts.
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Rhythm concerns the relative prominence, or pattern of the stresses being perceived as peaks of prominence, occurring at somewhat regular intervals of time. English is a language with a tendency for a stress-timed rhythm.
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Intonation is the association of the relative prominence with pitch, the aspect of the sound which we perceive in terms of "high" or "low".
Other prosodic systems include factors such as tempo and the relative speed of utterance. Perception of the rhythm base may involve observing variations of loudness, pitch and speed. 1. STRESS We can study stress from the point of view of production and of perception. The production of stress is generally believed to depend on the speaker using more muscular energy than is used for unstressed syllables. Many different sound characteristics are important in making a syllable recognisably stressed. In English, stressed syllables are longer then unstressed ones, the vowels are more voiced within them. Stress is not marked in the spelling system, but it can be transcribed phonetically. The importance of stress should be noted, given that incorrect stress on syllables is an obstacle to communication, because it may lead the speaker to understand a different word, that follows a different stress pattern. 1. Degrees of Stress We can distinguish between the primary and secondary stress. The first one is also called tonic strong stress, while the second one is also called non-tonic strong stress. Ex: ‘presup,ose There are other authors who consider that there exist three stresses. Ex: ‘many ‘lovely ‘’girls
2. Position of Stress Normally stresses are in a fixed position in a word. • First syllable: ‘precept • Second syllable: to’night • Third syllable: engi’neer • Fourth syllable: misunder’stood • Fifth syllable: palatali’zation Exceptions: a. Native words and early French loans Ex: ‘kingly ‘kingliness un’kingliness b. All abstract nouns ending in –ion Ex: ‘mission c. Nouns ending in –ity Ex: ‘vacuous va’cuity d. Nouns and adjectives ending in –ian Ex: ‘liberty liber’tarian e. Adjectives ending in –ic Ex: ‘phoneme pho’nemic f.
Words with more than one function A wide selection of words that can operate equally well as nouns/adjectives or verbs, are differentiated by their stress in the two functions:
Ex: ‘present (Noun or adjective) pre’sent (verb) g. Compound nouns They are generally stressed on the first element with a secondary stress on the second element in contrast to the normal noun phrase stress pattern: Ex: ‘black ,bird (compound nouns) a ,black ‘bird (noun phrase)
h. Stress in phrases When we come to stress in phrases and other syntactic units, we provide different underlying relations between juxtaposed items. Ex: An ‘English ,teacher (someone who teaches English) An ,English ‘teacher (a teacher who is English) 1. Stress in the Canarian Dialect/ Spanish language a. Lexical and secondary stress The Canarian speakers should keep in mind the different importance given to the secondary accent in Spanish as compared with English. The pronunciation of isolated words rarely occurs in Spanish, it only happens in Adverbs ending in "-mente", and in a few compound adverbs. Ex: símpleménte óptico-acústico b. Contrastive secondary stress The secondary stress occurs in the Canarian dialect as well, but it is not prominent: Ex: las cuestiones tanto ‘interiores como ‘exteriores
Although English compounds generally turn into a secondary stress the one which was the primary in the root, and this secondary stress still keeps a considerable strength; Spanish moves the stress to the suffixes: Ex: ‘central / ,centra’lize centrál / centralizár A secondary stress does not appear except in the cases where the general rules of Spanish regulate it. c. Stress position and Effect In two-syllable words both languages have a preference for stressing the syllable before the last; English tends to stress the antepenultimate syllable in three or more syllables words whereas Spanish keeps the penult position for stress. English vowels are deeply affected by their stress, whether primary or secondary. Stressed vowels have a precise and clear pronunciation, whereas unstressed vowels have a tendency to become indistinct. Finally , in Spanish the stress is represented in the spelling, what makes it easier to be remembered and pronounced , whereas in English it’s not represented. 1. RHYTHM Rhythm may be defined as the regular succession of strong and weak stresses in utterances. The notion of rhythm involves some noticeable event happening at regular intervals of time. The theory that English has stress- timed rhythm implies that stressed syllables will tend to occur at relatively regular intervals whether they are separated by unstressed syllables or not. Some writers have developed theories of English rhythm in which a unit of rhythm, the foot is used. Some theories of rhythm go further, and point to the fact that some feet are stronger than others, producing strong-weak patterns.
1. Weak and Strong forms The weak form, in which the vowel is pronounced with the schwa vowel, is more common than the other. The strong form in which the vowel is pronounced as it is written. Obviously the use of one or another form may affect the meaning of the utterance. Ex: ‘Jane and her ‘mother ‘’are ‘stupid = it is not true that they are not stupid ‘Jane ‘’and her ‘mother are ‘stupid = not just one, but both are stupid Weak forms are a manifestation of stress and rhythm in English, and must not be avoided in teaching, or the learner will sound unnatural in connected speech. 2. Regularity of Rhythm The natural rhythm of English provides roughly equal intervals of time between the stressed items. The prevailing tendency in unstressed syllables and words is to reduce the vowels to the obscure / /, thus we have / / in a great many syllables: Ex: a kilo of potato / ‘ki:l v p ‘ te t z/ Regularity of rhythm is used for specific pourposes: a. Counting: Ex: ‘one, ‘two, ‘three,..., seventy ‘four, seventy ‘five b. Inventory or lists c. Emphasis: Ex: you should ‘always ‘look be’fore you ‘cross the ‘’road 1. Rhythm in the Canarian Dialect/ Spanish language It is essential in English to have a sentence rhythm, which does not exist in Spanish.
In an English sentence certain words which are too close to the initial rhythmic beat lose their lexical stress in spite of having lexical stress. This does not happen in Spanish. Ex: Mary’s younger brother wanted fifty chocolate peanuts In this example we can see the difference with the Spanish stress, in Spanish all the words will be stressed; however, in English only the syllables in bold type are really stressed, thus favouring rhythm. The behaviour of prepositions and conjunctions differs in both languages: they are usually stressed in English; in Spanish only the preposition "según" is stressed. Stress also varies in English depending on whether it is used on strong or weak forms of the same words. There is nothing in Spanish, which resembles the English strong and weak forms so this will prove difficult for Spanish students. 1. INTONATION Intonation is the tune within the sentence that may alter the meaning. Here the pitch of the voice plays the most important part. We describe pitch in terms of high and low. There is another necessary condition and that is that a pitch difference must be perceptible. Intonation is generally found in sequences of stressed and unstressed syllables, though it can be a single word. We call it the tone unit, within which there is the nucleus (capital letters). The first stressed syllable in a tone unit is a onset (‘), the end will be (‘’) The rise and fall of pitch throughout is called its intonation contour. English has a number of intonation patterns which add conventionalized meanings to the utterance: question, statement, surprise, disbelief, sarcasm, teasing. An important feature of English intonation is the use of an intonational accent (and extra stress) to mark the focus of a sentence. Normally this focus accent goes on the last major word of the sentence, but it can come earlier in order to emphasize one of the earlier words or to contrast it with something else. Ex: She ‘told SOMeone’’ She ‘bought it for a PARty’’ ""
onset nucleus Tone unit 1. Falling Tone This is the commonest tone in English affirmative sentences, wh-word question, one word answers to questions, and on words, names, numbers and letters said in isolation. Ex: ‘What’s the TÍME’’ ‘LÓNDON’’ ‘TWÓ’’ ‘´R’’ 2. Rising Tone It is used to suggest that what is said is not final. Ex: Counting: ‘ÓNE’’ ‘TWÓ’’... Or because a response is needed (though not in wh-word question): Ex: Are you ‘HÁPpy’’ Or when two clauses are joined together: Ex: When I ‘GÉT there’’ I’ll HÍT him’’ A question will use a rising tone while the question tag uses the falling tone.
The fall and rise are by far and away the most common of the nuclear tones. 3. Fall-rise Intonation It often occurs in the nucleus of a doubtful condition, but it is particularly common with the initial adverb: Ex: I’ll’ see him if he CÓMES’’ 4. Rise-fall Intonation It expresses as it does both genuine and assumed warmth, as well as feelings of shock or surprise. Ex: ‘That’s GRÉAT’’ 5. Level Tone It sometimes used to the exact predictability of what is to follow: Ex: he DRÁNK’’ he WÓManised he ‘DÍED 6. Fall-rise Intonation It is common in everyday usage: Ex: She looks FÍNE to MÉ’’ It is often used with marked focus, the fall coming on the focus item and the rise on the last lexical item in the tone unit: Ex: It’s his ‘MÁNners that I can’t STÁND’’ = ‘What I don’t LÍKE ‘’ are his ?Mánners’’ 2. TEACHING IMPLICATIONS All languages have their own intonation patterns. Why is intonation important? Intonation conveys both meaning and attitude, so when a non-native speaker gets the intonation wrong, s/he can be misunderstood or sometimes misinterpreted as sounding rude or demanding when this is not intended. If a non-native speaker is almost fluent in the English language, intonation is often the
only way in which one can tell that s/he is foreign. Moreover, if a foreign speaker is advanced in terms of grammar, vocabulary, etc., native speakers will make fewer allowances for intonation problems than they would with speakers who are obviously at a more elementary level. For example, if an advanced level speaker unintentionally sounds rude or demanding, the listeners will assume that s/he means it. What can be done to improve intonation? First of all students should be aware of the differences between their intonation and the English one: • Spanish intonation is much more measured, so we have to teach the students how to intonate the different English elements. •
Intonation in Spoken Spanish does not rise and fall as much as English. Students should try and keep the voice as levelled as possible.
Some useful techniques may be : • Listen to as much spoken English as possible (on cassette if you are unable to listen to native speakers) and be aware of where the voice rises and falls. When you listen, try to consider the attitude and feelings being conveyed. One word, for example, can be said in several different ways, depending on the meaning you wish to convey. •
Stories motivate children to listen and learn, and help them to become aware of the sound and feel of English. A selection of ready-to-tell stories is included although the activities can be used with any story.
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Creating Drama with poetry is an exciting language learning experience. The use of poetry as drama in the English as a second language (ESL) classroom enables the students to explore the linguistic and conceptual aspects of the written text without concentrating on the mechanics of language. Through this technique, apart from several other aspects the teacher can model student’s pronunciation, intonation, stress, rhythm, and oral expression;
We as teachers have to take into account all the differences existing between L1 and L2 patterns of stress, rhythm and intonation, and try our students to differentiate them. So English people can understand their speaking.
TEMA 9: DESCRIPCIÓN DEL SISTEMA FONOLÓGICO DE LA LENGUA INGLESA. MODELOS Y TÉCNICAS DE APRENDIZAJE. PERCEPCIÓN, DISCRIMINACIÓN Y EMISIÓN DE SONIDOS, ENTONACIONES, RITMOS Y ACENTOS. LA CORRECCIÓN FONÉTICA. 1.- DESCRIPCIÓN DEL SISTEMA FONOLÓGICO DE LA LENGUA INGLESA. 1.1.- ¿Por qué es importante la fonética? 1.2.- ¿Qué inglés? ¿Acentos? 1.3.- ¿Cómo representar los “sonidos”? 1.4.- La voz: cuerdas vocales, articulación y fonación. Órganos auxiliares. 1.4.1.- ¿Cómo se produce la voz? 1.4.2.- Fonación. 1.4.3.- Articulación. 2.- MODELOS Y TÉCNICAS DE APRENDIZAJE. 2.1.- Papel del profesor.
2.2.- Técnicas de comunicación. 2.3.- Técnicas de producción. 3.- PERCEPCIÓN DISCRIMINACIÓN Y EMISIÓN DE SONIDOS, ENTONACIONES, RITMOS Y ACENTOS. 3.1.- Introducción. 3.2.- Vocales y diptongos. 3.3.- Consonantes. 3.4.- Semivocales. 3.5.- Entonación, acento y ritmo. 4.- LA CORRECCIÓN FONÉTICA.
1.- DESCRIPCIÓN DEL SISTEMA FONOLÓGICO DE LA LENGUA INGLESA. 1.1.- ¿Por qué es importante la fonética? Después de muchos años de estudiar y enseñar el inglés a hispanohablantes, he llegado a la conclusión de que la mayoría de los alumnos persiguen un mismo objetivo: adquirir una fluidez de comunicación oral. Esto no es nada fácil de conseguir, teniendo en cuenta que la lengua inglesa pertenece a un grupo no romance -como es el caso del español--, que el aparato fonético del hablante se "anquilosa" con la edad -siendo por ello menos capaces de emitir mayor variedad de sonidos--, y que por norma general los alumnos no están en contacto con el "ambiente" anglófono necesario. Para alguien que estudie una lengua fuera del país de origen, se hace absolutamente necesario el establecimiento de unos códigos que permitan la explicación de los sonidos de dicha lengua. El hablante no nativo sólo tiene como recurso la IMITACION de dichos sonidos. Esta "imitación", llevará a un mejor o peor grado de "exactitud" dependiendo de muchos factores. Entre ellos, a mi modo de ver, el principal es la comprensión exacta de todos los sonidos de la lengua que se estudia. Y para una buena comprensión de los sonidos, es necesaria una BUENA DESCRIPCION de los mismos: el oído tiene tendencia a "asimilar" fonemas -que a veces distan bastante de los de la lengua materna--. Esto significa que escuchamos lo que estamos acostumbrados a escuchar. De forma muy simplista, un español sólo es capaz de distinguir una "a", y todo lo que se parezca a ella lo "escuchará" como una "a".
1.2.- ¿Qué inglés? ¿Acentos? Lo primero que uno descubre cuando quiere comenzar a hablar inglés, es la gran diferencia de "formas" del idioma que existen(tanto habladas como escritas). La riqueza de acentos del inglés es realmente sorprendente, por lo que, teniendo en cuenta que hemos de IMITAR a un angloparlante, ¿a quién elegimos como modelo? Esta es realmente una difícil pregunta, a la que solo puedo responder: elija el modelo que más le guste, que más se adapte a sus necesidades y a sus posibilidades. Pero, sobre todo, el que le sea más accesible y le permita un mayor número de horas de audición. Por ejemplo, si usted puede sintonizar con la BBC, utilícela como modelo. ¡Sería absurdo pretender imitar un acento escocés sin haberlo oído nunca ! Aquí, se muestran las explicaciones que corresponden al denominado RSP: Pronunciación Recibida Standard (Received Standard Pronunciation). El acento RSP es una variedad de acento del Sur de Inglaterra que es de los más utilizados en la enseñanza. Esta es la única razón por la que aquí se muestra: como dije antes, cuánto mayor sea la fuente de información y la posibilidad de contacto con una variedad de inglés, tanto mejor será la IMITACION conseguida. 1.3.- ¿Cómo representar los “sonidos”?
Después de todo lo dicho anteriormente, sólo nos queda contestar a una pregunta crucial:¿cómo es posible representar sonidos mediante la escritura?. Bueno, no es fácil desde luego: nada importante suele serlo. Todo requiere un esfuerzo. Y por suerte otros se han esforzado antes que nosotros por resolver este problema: para representar sonidos utilizamos un conjunto de símbolos que los representan, incluyendo signos menores que nos permiten indicar la fuerza de pronunciación, calidad del sonido, abertura de la boca, posición de los órganos de la fonación, etc. A ese conjunto de símbolos es a lo que se ha convenido en denominar ALFABETO FONETICO INTERNACIONAL (IPA = International Phonetic Alphabet). 1.4.- La voz: cuerdas vocales, articulación y fonación. Órganos auxiliares. Me parece fundamental explicar, aunque sea brevemente, los mecanismos de producción de la voz humana y los elementos que en ella intervienen. Sólo mediante un conocimiento de los mismos podremos, de una forma consciente, poder influir en la producción de los sonidos que emitimos y así conseguir una aproximación máxima a la pronunciación del inglés. 1.4.1.- ¿Cómo se produce la voz? Durante el proceso de la respiración el aire pasa a través de la traquea desde los pulmones. Llegado a un punto -la nuez--, se encuentra con un obstáculo primordial: las cuerdas vocales, situadas en la región conocida como laringe.
Las cuerdas vocales son dos bandas elásticas situadas una enfrente de otra. No hay que pensar en ellas como "tiras", sino más bien como, repito, "bandas". Sus bordes están un poco engrosados y se conocen como ligamentos vocales. El conjunto de cuerda y ligamento tiene la capacidad de aproximarse y alejarse de su opuesto, produciendo una obturación total del "tubo" traqueal -impidiendo el paso del aire completamente--; o pueden separarse -posición de descanso-dejando un hueco entre ellas que permite el paso del aire. A ese hueco le denominamos GLOTIS, o abertura glotal. La voz se genera durante el proceso de expulsión del aire, y se puede resumir en dos grandes apartados: (1) La fonación; y (2) la articulación. 1.4.2.- Fonación. La gran velocidad a la que discurre el aire por la laringe provoca la vibración de las cuerdas, a una velocidad realmente sorprendente: 800 pulsos por segundo y más. Esa vibración tan rápida y regular, provoca una nota musical, que es, en esencia, la producción de la voz. El tono de la nota, puede ser modificado, lo que produce una variedad de "sonidos" que provocorán la esencia del lenguaje hablado. Ese tono se modifica por dos mecanismos: •
El estiramiento o relajación de las cuerdas, que produce una mayor o menor frecuencia de la vibración(tonos altos o bajos)
•
La modificación del volumen de sus bordes: el adelgazamiento para altas frecuencias; el engrosamiento para bajas frecuencias.
El control de las cuerdas vocales se produce mediante la participación de varios músculos y ligamentos situados en la laringe (región de la nuez - en inglés Adam's apple -). Simplemente parándonos a escuchar una simple frase, podremos comprobar la complejidad y el refinamiento de los músculos citados, que permiten la articulación rápida y exacta de multitud de sonidos diferentes ( aparte de la grandeza indiscutible del canto, el instrumento musical más perfecto jamás creado). 1.4.3.- Articulación. El sonido primario formado en la laringe, será luego modificado en el transcurso del trayecto que le queda al aire por recorrer. La participación, unas veces activa y otras pasiva, de diferentes órganos, modificará ese sonido hasta convertirlo en un "fonema", es decir, la expresión lingüística más reducida. Los órganos que participan en la articulación se denominan también órganos auxiliares y son los siguientes: •
La lengua: su posición y su forma son pilares fundamentales en la articulación del lenguaje. Para demostrarlo simplemente recordar la forma en la que habla un borracho: su incapacidad
articulatoria deriva, fundamentalmente, de la pérdida del control sobre los movimientos de la lengua. Sin duda es el órgano auxiliar más importante para el habla. Podemos distinguir en la lengua tres partes fundamentales: •
El ápice o punta de la lengua, que será utilizado con extrema precisión para articular ciertos sonidos.
•
Su parte media, en la que distinguiremos dos partes también: •
la parte que descansa bajo los alvéolos superiores, a la que denominaremos pala. Disfruta de una movilidad extrema y pude acceder, junto con el ápice, hasta los labios, dientes, alvéolos, etc.
•
La parte que le sigue, a la que denominaremos cuerpo, y que descansa bajo el paladar duro. La posibilidad de modificar su forma, desde un aplanamiento a una concavidad notable, modificarán en mucho la calidad del sonido emitido. También puede contactar con el paladar produciendo una obturación a la corriente aérea.
• •
La raíz: puede también aplanarse o elevarse para contactar con el paladar blando.
El paladar (o cielo de la boca). Se divide en dos partes: •
El paladar duro, que permanece inmóvil y por lo tanto participa pasivamente.
•
El paladar blando, que puede ser movido verticalmente provocando la obturación de la cavidad nasal, e impidiendo el paso del aire hacia la nariz.
•
La cavidad nasal: actúa como una caja de resonancia.
•
Los dientes. Son fundamentales y podemos distinguir tres partes: •
Los dientes en sí mismos, es decir su borde cortante.
•
Los alvéolos: es decir, el lugar donde están "enraizados" en la encía. Más que los "agujeros" -inaccesibles si existen los dientes- nos referimos al borde que existe alrededor de cada pieza dental.
•
La parte interna de las piezas dentales que, desde el interior, puede ser utilizada como apoyo por la lengua, además de una barrera física en sí misma.
2.- MODELOS Y TÉCNICAS DE APRENDIZAJE. 2.1.- Papel del profesor. En todos los modelos y técnicas de aprendizaje el profesor debe tener e siguiente papel:
-
Debe ayudar a los alumnos a percibir sonidos. Los alumnos tendrán una fuerte tendencia a imitar los sonidos del español. El profesor debe comprobar que sus alumnos están escuchando sonidos de acuerdo con las categorías apropiadas y ayudarles a crear nuevas categorías si es necesario.
-
Debe ayudar a los alumnos a producir sonidos que no ocurren en su lengua en este caso el español. Si la imitación no es suficiente, el profesor debe capaz de dar trucos y técnicas que le ayuden a producir el nuevo sonido.
-
Debe dar feedback e información sobre la actuación de los alumnos y resultados.
-
Debe ser capaz de reconocer posibles problemas con los que los alumnos puedan encontrarse.
-
Debe establecer prioridades y decidir en qué aspecto concentrarse primero.
-
Debe diseñar actividades adecuadas para el nivel y el propósito a alcanzar garantizando el progreso y la motivación de los alumnos.
El objetivo a alcanzar debe ser razonable en función de las necesidades del alumno. Un objetivo razonable para la enseñanza primaria es el de ¡legar a una máxima comprensibilidad, es decir, ser capaces de identificar con precisión el mayor número de palabras. 2.2.- Técnicas de comunicación. Para enfrentar a los alumnos con sonidos “extraños” hay que evitar que se perciban como variantes
de los sonidos que ya conocen. Para ello deben practicar con ejercicios de discriminación auditiva. Una vez que son capaces de “escuchar” las diferencias, podrán trabajar hacia una mejor pronunciación. Existen varios tipos de ejercicios de discriminación: - Identificación del sonido, •
En un contexto familiar: Where is it? Come in.
•
En palabras aisladas: live, sit, if finish.
•
En un contexto más amplio: Come in, Mrs Mitchell.
-
Técnica de “minimal pairs”,
•
Entre español e inglés: fin/fin
•
Entre sonidos similares del inglés: bit/beet
-
Técnica de diferenciación de sonidos,
•
Inglés/español: it, it (igual)
fin, fin (diferente) vida, vida (igual) •
Inglés/inglés: eat, eat (igual) feel, fill (diferente)
-
Variación: Marcar la vocal diferente en read, heat, his, crease, ease. 2.3.- Técnicas de Producción.
Mediante estas técnicas, el alumno produce los sonidos que ya es capaz discriminar correctamente. Hay varios tipos:
-
Ejercicios de producción imitativa, en los que el alumno repite un modelo corregir o confirmar su pronunciación.
-
Ejercicios de producción no imitativa (guiada): Teacher:
Where is your book?
Alumno:
My book is on the desk.
-
Ejercicios de producción autónoma, en donde la conversación tiene lugar e alumnos.
3.- PERCEPCIÓN DISCRIMINACIÓN Y EMISIÓN DE SONIDOS, ENTONACIONES, RITMOS Y ACENTOS. 3.1.- Introducción. La lengua inglesa tiene 46 fonemas o sonidos distintos, mientras que su alfabeto consta tan sólo de 26 letras. De ello resulta que algunas letras responden a más de un sonido. Por otra parte, algunos sonidos pueden escribirse con diferentes letras. La letra u, por ejemplo, en bus y put representa a dos fonemas diferentes y se pronuncia de distinta manera, en tanto que, aun cuando su ortografía no sea la misma, sí es el mismo fonema o sonido el que se da en las palabras: she, east, receive, field, key, police. Los sonidos de una lengua se agrupan en «familias» constituidas por cada uno de estos sonidos y sus variantes según ocurren en las distintas secuencias; y cada una de estas «familias de sonidos» constituye un fonema cuya pronunciación puede variar ligeramente mientras no rebase los límites de la frecuencia fundamental y las armónicas correspondientes a dicho fonema. Cada fonema tiene, pues, como hemos dicho, una o más letras que lo representan ortográficamente y, a la vez, corresponde a un sonido fonológico que, en ocasiones, no tiene una letra especial que lo represente.
Por ello, y para facilitar la adquisición de todos los sonidos de una lengua, se recurre a la representación de los mismos por medio de unos símbolos especiales recogidos en el llamado alfabeto fonético, en el cual cada fonema tiene una representación gráfica especial que contribuye a identificarlo. El alfabeto fonético es, pues, de indudable utilidad en el aprendizaje de una lengua. El inglés de Inglaterra no difiere fundamentalmente del que se habla y escribe Norteamérica. Existen, sin embargo, diversas peculiaridades terminológicas y que conviene tener en cuenta. A continuación se especifican los símbolos del Alfabeto Fonético Internacional que corresponden a cada fonema y su representación ortográfica. 3.2.- Vocales y diptongos.
- /i:/. La i de tree es siempre una vocal larga, anterior, casi cerrada, que se articula con los labios distendidos y una apertura estrecha entre las mandíbulas. Los bordes laterales de la lengua se apoyan firmemente en los molares superiores Es siempre un sonido largo; más largo y más cerrado que la española de “sí”.
Ortografía: e even e (final) he
ee tree ea speak ie field ei receive i police ey key Obsérvese el fonema [i:] en algunas combinaciones poco usuales: ay en quay; eo en people.
- /i/. La i de it es siempre una vocal breve casi semicerrada. Es más breve y más cerrada que la anterior y el contacto entre los bordes de la lengua y los molares superiores es también menor. Se articula con las mandíbulas y los labios en posición casi relajada. Es un sonido más breve y más relajado que la i española de cinco, silbo.
Ortografía: i big y only e England ie ladies a (te) climate a (ge) village
ay Sunday ey money Obsérvese el fonema [i] en mountain, biscuit, build, business, busy. Se pronuncian con [i] los siguientes morfemas: be- become re- return de- demand -less careless -ness goodness -es glasses -ed wanted [i] está también presente en innumerables vocales débiles (no acentuadas).
- /e/. La e de pen es un fonema breve que se articula con los labios en posición natural y una apertura mediana entre las mandíbulas. Se parece a la e española de clavel, pero es algo más abierta.
Ortografía:
e pen ea head a any ai said Obsérvese el fonema [e] presente en says, bury, Geoffrey.
- /ae/. La a de man es un sonido breve, entre semiabierto y semicerrado. Se articula con los labios distendidos y una apertura mediana entre las mandíbulas, ligeramente más abierta que para [e]. Se articula con cierta tensión de la lengua y la faringe; su timbre se aproxima a la a palatal de calle. No obstante, la calidad de este sonido sólo se adquiere por imitación directa. Corresponde a la a ortográfica y sólo la combinación a¡ tiene idéntica pronunciación.
a cat ai plait
- /a:/. La a de car es un fonema posterior. Es siempre larga y totalmente abierta y se articula con los labios en posición natural y la apertura entre las mandíbulas bastante amplia. No hay contacto entre los bordes laterales de la lengua y los molares superiores. Se parece a la a velar española de causa, pero es
aún más larga y más velar. La -r que en sílaba trabada sigue a a no se pronuncia en posición final excepto cuando le sigue una palabra con vocal inicial.
Ortografía: ar (+ consonante) car, cart a (+ f, s, n +consonante) after, past, dance a (+ ff, as, th +consonante) staff, father, glass er clerk ear heart a (+11 muda) calm
- /o/. La o de not es siempre breve. Es un fonema totalmente posterior y abierto que se articula con los labios ligerísimamente abocinados y sin contacto alguno entre los bordes laterales de la lengua y los molares superiores. Es mucho más abierta que la o española y parece un sonido intermedio entre y a velar españolas.
Ortografía: o hot, not, dog ou, ow cough, Gloucester, knowledge
au because, sausage a was, what Obsérvese el fonema [o] en yacht.
- /o:/. La o de short es una vocal bastante larga que se articula con los labios medianamente abocinados y sin contacto entre los bordes laterales de la lengua y los molares superiores. Es más cerrada que la o breve inglesa, y la posición de los labios es menos abocinada que para articular la o española d Roma. Su timbre se aproxima, aunque es más abierto y más largo, a la o española de orden. En los últimos tiempos, la calidad de [o:] se ha ido desplazando hasta aproximarse a la o cardinal, por lo que, hoy en día, es un sonido más cerrado que el que aún se oye en hablantes más conservadores.
Ortografía: or short ou bought au daughter aw saw ore before oor door oar roar
our four a+l all, talk (w)a walk, wall o+f, th, s often, cloth, loss Las palabras cuya ortografía pertenece al último grupo pueden pronunciarse también con el fonema [o], pronunciación adoptada por mayoría de la generación más joven. Siguen también la misma tendencia la palabras cuya ortografía es au o a(l). Así se oyen, pronunciadas indistinta mente con [o] o con [o:], palabras como Australia, Austria, salt, etc. Este fonema [o:] ha desplazado casi totalmente el diptongo final que, hace unos años, se empleaba exclusivamente para la ortografía o+r.
- /u/. La u de full es siempre una vocal breve que se articula exactamente por encima de la posición semicerrada y próxima a la región central. Se pronuncia con los labios bastante abocinados, la lengua relajada, y sin tensión. No hay contacto entre los bordes laterales de la lengua y los molares superiores Como la vocal [i], tiene una posición centralizada respecto a su correspondiente fonema largo. En timbre, es más abierta que la u abierta española de lujo.
Ortografía:
u pull, put o woman oo good,look ou would, could - /u:/. La u de moon es una vocal posterior larga y cerrada que se articula un poco por debajo de la posición cerrada y ligeramente centralizada. Se articula con los labios abocinados, pero sin tensar, y las mandíbulas más cerradas que en el correspondiente fonema breve [u]. Ortografia: u June, Susan ue blue o do oo soon, too ou soup, you ew new, few Obsérvese el fonema [u:] en shoe.
- /^/. La u de but, tal como la pronuncia la generación joven es un fonema breve y casi abierto. Se articula hacia el centro, en posición ligeramente anterior, con los labios abiertos y las mandíbulas bastante abiertas, sin que la lengua llegue a tocar los molares superiores. Este sonido no existe en español y ha de adquirirse directamente por imitación. Hay otra variante de [^] que usan las personas mayores, que es más posterior y se aproxima a la a velar española de la exclamación ¡Madre!
Ortografía: u cup, much o come, mother ou young, couple Obsérvese el fonema [^] en blood, flood, does
- /3:/. La vocal de girl es un fonema siempre largo que se articula con los labios distendidos y sin contacto entre los bordes laterales de la lengua y los molares superiores. Se forma en un punto central entre las vocales posteriores y las anteriores, y en una región que se extiende desde un punto ligeramente superior al de las vocales semiabiertas hasta un punto situado un poco por encima de las semicerradas. En español no hay un sonido semejante a éste que podríamos describir como intermedio entre e y o, pero con los labios distendidos. Se parece a la vocal compuesta francesa eu en feu, jeux, peu.
Ortográficamente, este fonema corresponde, en la mayoría de casos, a un vocal seguida de -r, pero dicha -r no se pronuncia, excepto cuando está en posición final absoluta o final de sílaba y le sigue una vocal. Ortografía: ir, yr bird, myrtle er, err her, err ear heard Obsérvese el fonema [3:] en colonel.
- // Esta vocal, como la anterior, se articula en la región central y es siempre débil. Se articula con los labios en posición natural y su timbre varía según su posición en la palabra. Así, de articularse en una región por debajo de la semiabierta, cuando está en posición final como en sister, pasa a ser entre semiabierta y semicerrada, en otras posiciones, y puede llegar has semicerrada junto a -k, -g y -ng. Dado que [z] sustituye con mucha frecuencia a otras vocales en las sílabas no acentuadas, es el fonema más ampliamente usado del habla inglesa.
Ortografía: a along e sentence o London oar cupboard u chorus ou colour, famous a (final) Canada ar collar er father Obsérvese el fonema [] en the, picture.
- /ei/. El diptongo de lady es un fonema que se articula partiendo de una [e] situada en un punto más próximo a la región semiabierta que a la semicerrada, y que se desliza hacia [i] con los labios distendidos.
Ortografía: a table
ai Spain ay day ey they ea break - /ou/. La o no tiene dos variantes principales, una conservadora y otra más moderna usada por las generaciones más jóvenes. La primera realización, [ u] parte de una [ ] realizada en un punto en la región entre semiabierta y semicerrada y algo centralizada, y se desliza hacia [u], a la vez que el abocinamiento de los labios se acentúa. La segunda variante [au], parte de una posición central, por debajo de la semicerrada de [] y se desliza hacia [u] con los labios en posición natural, que se abocinan ligeramente hacia la última parte del sonido. Ortografía: o old ou shoulder ow know oa road
- /ai/. El diptongo [ai] de child se articula partiendo de una [a] abierta situada más cerca de la posición anterior que de la posición posterior, y se desliza hacia [i] sin alcanzarla. Los labios pasan de una posición natural, al iniciarse el sonido, a una posición relajada al terminarlo.
Ortografía: i wife y why ie cries ei height
- /au/. El diptongo [au] de house se articula partiendo de un punto por delante de la región posterior y ligeramente por encima de la abierta y se desliza, si alcanzarla, hacia [u]. Los labios pasan de una posición natural a un ligero abocinamiento.
Ortografía: ou blouse ow brown
- /oi/. El diptongo [oi] de boy se articula partiendo de una o, más próxima a semiabierta que a abierta y se desliza sin alcanzarla hacia [i]. La posición de los labios pasa desde ligeramente abocinados, al iniciar el sonido, a naturales hacia el final del mismo.
Ortografía: oi noise oy boy Además de los cinco diptongos arriba mencionados, hay en inglés cuatro diptongos cuyo segundo elemento es aproximadamente un mismo punto central que corresponde a [] como se pronuncia al final de father.
- /i/. El diptongo de here se articula partiendo aproximadamente de [i] y deslizándose hacia []. La posición de los labios es natural, ligeramente distendidos a comienzo de la articulación.
Ortografía: ere here eer beer ear dear
ier fierce
-/e/. El diptongo de chair se inicia partiendo de la posición semiabierta de [] y deslizándose hacia el fonema [], como se pronuncia en father, con los labios en posición natural.
Ortografía: air chair ear pear are care Obsérvense las palabras their, heir, que se pronuncian con este diptongo.
- /u/. El diptongo de tour empieza partiendo de la posición de [u] y se desliza hacia [] como los anteriores, con los labios ligeramente abocinados al iniciar el sonido y realmente distendidos hacia el final.
Ortografía: ure sure
our tour oor poor ewer fewer
3.3.- Consonantes.
- /p/. La p de pen se articula con mayor fuerza que la española. Los labios, fuertemente comprimidos uno contra otro, se separan con violencia y dejan es capar el aire acumulado detrás. En posición inicial es aspirada cuando ocurre en sílaba acentuada; es decir, que al separar los labios se deja escapar un ligera espiración de aire parecida a una brevísima h que se articula entre la p y el sonido que le sigue, como en Peter.
- /b/. La b de bed es muy semejante a la [b] oclusiva española después de pausa, se articula con los labios fuertemente comprimidos. Como ocurre con [p], la [b] inglesa se realiza con mayor fuerza que la española, y la explosión de aire que ocurre al separar los labios es más violenta. En posición final precedida de m, la b es muda. También es muda en algunas palabras, precediendo a t: doubt [daut].
- /t/. La t de ten se articula apoyando la punta de la lengua en los alvéolos superiores, pero evitando que toque los dientes. En posición inicial es aspirada cuando se da en sílaba acentuada.
- /d/. La d de do se articula con la punta de la lengua apoyada contra los alvéolos superiores pero sin tocar en absoluto los dientes. Hay que evitar articular una d semejante a la española, en la que la lengua avanza hasta los dientes pues con ello entraríamos en el área de otro fonema y podría dar lugar a confusión. La d fricativa española de venído no se da en inglés. - /k/ La c y la k de cat y key, respectivamente, son semejantes a la c española seguída de a, o, u. En sílaba inicial acentuada le sigue una ligera aspiración como a t y p. El fonema [k] seguido inmediatamente de s [ks] corresponde a la realización fonética de x: box.
- /g/. La g de garden se parece a la g oclusiva española de gana cuando precede a, o, u.
-/f/. La f de five se articula como la española. La realización ortográfica de [f] puede ser también ph, como en telephone.
- /v/. La v de give se articula apoyando ligeramente los dientes superiores en el labio inferior y espirando el aire libremente. Es semejante a [f], pero sonora La calidad de esta [v] es muy distinta de la española que se realiza fonéticamente como b. Hay que cuidar especialmente la articulación de dicho fonema para evitar posibles confusiones de significado. - //. La th de think es una articulación fricativa que se realiza apoyando la punta de la lengua contra el borde y la parte posterior de los dientes, dejando escapar el aire entre éstos y la punta de la
lengua. El contacto es menos firme con los incisivos que con los demás dientes laterales. El sonido de th inglesa es muy parecido al de c española seguida de e, i, aunque ésta es algo más interdental y más enérgica que la th inglesa. - //. La th de the es un sonido fricativo que se articula como el anterior, pero e menos interdental. Este sonido no se da normalmente en español, pero se aproxima a la d fricativa española de cada, aunque es menos relajada y más interdental. - /s/. La s ortográfica se realiza de dos maneras según su localización en la palabra: como consonante sorda [s] y como consonante sonora [z]. Se articula dejando escapar el aire entre la punta de la lengua y los alvéolos superiores En posición inicial se parece a la s española aunque ésta es algo más grave Se realiza como consonante sorda [s]: en posición inicial; en el morfema de plural -s y en el de la tercera persona del singular del presente de indicativo, cuando sigue a una consonante sorda: p, t, k, f, th; en posición final precedida de i, a, u; y en el fonema c seguida de e, i, y. - /z/. La realización sonora del fonema [s], es decir [z], no tiene equivalencia exacta en español y debe adquirirse por imitación directa. Se aproxima a la s española de rasgo, a la francesa de maison y a la catalana de rosa. Los estudiantes que no posean este sonido en su lengua materna se deben esforzar para que su realización sea lo suficientemente sonora para que no se confunda con la s sorda, lo que podría dar lugar a confusión. Se realizan como fricativa sonora [z]: el morfema de plural de los nombres cuyo singular termine en consonante sonora o en vocal; el morfema de tercera persona del singular del Presente de Indicativo cuando sigue a una consonante sonora o
vocal; y el morfema del plural o de la tercera pers. sing. del presente de indicativo -es. También se realiza como [z] la z inicial y la final cuando va seguida de e muda. pens [penz] cars [ca:z] days [deiz] ladies [leidiz] zoo [zu: ] size [saiz] Obsérvese que, cuando el morfema de plural -es se añade a una palabra que termina en -y precedida de consonante, dicha -y se cambia por -i antes de añadir la terminación. El morfema -es se realiza siempre como [iz].
- /S/ La sh de she se articula elevando la punta y el predorso de la lengua hacia los alvéolos superiores, estableciendo un ligero contacto entre ambos y espirando el aire por este conducto. No tiene equivalencia en español, pero timbre se aproxima algo a la fricación de la última parte de la ch española de techo. Para realizar una [S] correcta hay que colocar la lengua más hacia atrás que para articular [s] y, además, abocinar un poco los labios. Corresponde a sh ortográfica.
- //. El fonema [] de treasure se articula como el anterior, pero es sonoro. No tiene equivalencia en español, aunque se aproxima un poco a la ll pronunciada en Andalucía, Canarias e Hispanoamérica.
- /tS/ El fonema [tS] de chocolate se articula elevando la punta y el dorso de la lengua hacia los alvéolos superiores. Es muy semejante a la ch española pero la fricación es menos aguda y más larga que en la consonante española. Corresponde a ch ortográfica.
- /d/. El fonema [d] de jacket es muy semejante al anterior pero es sonoro. Corresponde a j y g ortográficas. - /h/. El fonema [h] de have se articula espirando libremente el aire de los pulmones de forma que cause una fricación sorda muy débil que puede ocurrir e cualquier punto de la boca, ya dispuesta para realizar la vocal que le siga. Este sonido debe practicarse con suma atención porque no es una j española Aunque se parezca, su sonido es mucho más suave. La mayor parte de lo españoles pronuncian este fonema demasiado parecido a la j española. Corresponde a h ortográfica. En inglés, la h se pronuncia siempre, exceptuando un número muy reducido de palabras - /m/. La m de man es semejante a la española pero algo más fuerte. Se articula comprimiendo los labios y separándolos con cierta violencia para dejar es capar el aire acumulado detrás, que a la vez, sale también por la nariz. Su ortografía normal es m, mm o mb. - /n/. La n de not se articula apoyando la punta de la lengua en los alvéolos superiores y separándolos repentinamente a la vez que el aire escapa por la nariz. El fonema [n] tiene la particularidad de que, cuando está precedido d t o d, forma sílaba con ellas sin necesidad de vocal intermedia. Dado que una combinación de este tipo no se da en español, debe ser practicada cuidadosamente para obtener la
calidad que requiere el sonido. Se apoya la lengua en los alvéolos superiores como para articular t o d y, sin mover la lengua de esta posición, se procede a articular [n]. El aire espirado para articular t o d y detenido por la presión de la punta de la lengua contra los alvéolos se escapa repentinamente por la nariz al articular la [n]. El sonido así obtenido es [n] silábica, como la oímos en garden y en button. - //. El fonema [] tal y como se pronuncia al final de king, se articula elevando el predorso de la lengua contra el velo del paladar y espirando el aire por la nariz. Ortográficamente, corresponde a ng y n seguida de k. Puede darse en posición final, como en king y en wrong y en medio de palabra cuando la terminación de ésta es un morfema separable, como en kingly, singer. Pero si se da en posición intermedia y la terminación no es separable, ha de pronunciar se como [n] más [g] o [k] y no como [ ]. Este fonema, por sí solo, no se da en español (salvo en posición final -con- en algunas regiones como Galicia Andalucía y Canarias). No obstante, ocurre cuando n precede a g y a k. Po lo tanto, el sonido final de king o think se aproxima al español de tengo o de cinco. - /r/. El fonema [r] de red se articula elevando la punta de la lengua hacia la región postalveolar, para dejarla caer inmediatamente, sin tocarla y casi sin fricción y pasar a articular la vocal siguiente. El fonema [r] se pronuncia de esta forma cuando le sigue una vocal aunque ésta sea inicial en otra palabra que siga inmediatamente [r]. En posición intermedia la r se pronuncia como fuera inicial cuando precede inmediatamente a una vocal en la sílaba siguiente. En posición final, no seguida de palabra con vocal inicial [r] no pronuncia, ni tampoco delante de consonante. - /l/. En inglés el fonema [l] tiene dos variantes principales. La primera corresponde de a una l clara, parecida a la española, que se articula apoyando la punta de la lengua en los alvéolos superiores y dejando escapar el aire por los lados de la misma. Esta variedad se emplea delante de vocal, exceptuando
e muda. La segunda variante es una l velar «oscura» parecida a la l catalana, que se realiza delante de e muda, delante de consonante y en posición final Se articula con la punta de la lengua en posición semejante a la primera variante de l pero con el predorso de la lengua bajo y el postdorso retraído. Corresponde a l y ll ortográficas: feel, all.
3.4.- Semivocales.
En inglés hay dos sonidos que no encajan en ninguno de los grupos descritos. Son fonemas que lingüísticamente funcionan como consonantes pero que mejor diríamos que fonéticamente se realizan como vocales por la forma de su articulación. Son [j] y [w]. - /j/. Se articula como una i muy breve con los labios distendidos o naturales y ella se pasa rápidamente al sonido que siga. Con frecuencia este sonido realiza fonéticamente en ew, ue, ui, u. Su realización fonética responde principalmente a la semivocal y a la vocal i. Las palabras en las que ocurre deben practicarse especialmente para que su realización sea lo suficientemente rápida. yes [jes], new [nju:]. - /w/. Se articula como una u, realizada con los labios muy redondeados, de la cual se pasa rápidamente al sonido que le sigue. Cuando el sonido que sigue a [w] sea una vocal que se realice con los labios abocinados, como por ejemplo [o] o [u], la posición de los labios será tanto más redondeada para resaltar la diferencia. Hay que cuidar especialmente la realización de este sonido como queda dicho, sin
confundirlo con la g fricativa española, con el que no tiene ninguna conexión. Esta asimilación es frecuente entre personas de habla española: incluso llega a escribirse en palabras adoptadas del inglés, como ocurre con la voz sandwich, realizada fonética y ortográficamente, en español, con g.
TABLA DE PRONUNCIACIÓN
3.5.- Entonación acento y ritmo. La curva melódica de la voz al hablar constituye la entonación de una lengua. Dentro de cada una de éstas, hay distintas variantes de ritmo y de entonación por medio de las cuales se expone, no sólo la expresión fonológica de dicha lengua como distinta de las demás, sino matices intelectuales y emocionales debidos a circunstancias transitorias que alteran el ritmo usual de la oración que podríamos llamar básica. Aquí nos limitaremos a dar las curvas melódicas fundamentales del inglés, que todo estudiante de dicha lengua debe conocer si quiere comunicarse con hablante nativos sin correr el riesgo de que sus palabras puedan ser incorrectamente comprendidas por su interlocutor. El ritmo del inglés es muy uniforme. Las palabras que tienen acento tónico (nombre, verbo, adjetivo y adverbio) se suceden a intervalos regulares en la cadena del habla, y cuantas sílabas no acentuadas se dan entre dos de estos acentos tónicos han de pronunciarse en un período de tiempo igual, tanto si es una sola como si son varias. De aquí que algunas sílabas no acentuadas hayan de pronunciarse con gran rapidez, en tanto que otras sean más largas. Esto da a la lengua un ritmo muy peculiar y ha contribuido no poco a la neutralización de muchos sonidos, que son por ello difíciles de recoger por un oído poco acostumbrado. Hay en inglés tres curvas melódicas fundamentales. La primera de ellas se conoce como curva descendente o entonación melódica final descendente. En ella la voz empieza en una nota bastante alta y desciende hasta una nota muy baja Este descenso de la voz se hace de manera gradual, partiendo de la
primera sílaba acentuada de la oración y descendiendo un tono en cada sílaba acentuada en la que desciende hasta una nota realmente grave. Cuantas sílabas no acentuadas se den entre los acentos tónicos que haya en la frase deben pronunciarse e el mismo tono que el acento tónico precedente. Las últimas sílabas después del último acento son totalmente débiles y se pronuncian en un tono muy grave, sin que la voz se eleve nunca por encima del tono del último acento: I 'phoned him 'yesterday. 'Where do you `want to 'go? Dentro de esta misma curva existe la posibilidad de que haya una palabra que se quiera destacar especialmente en la oración o, sencillamente, aligerar la monotonía de la inflexión. En este caso, al llegar a dicha palabra, la voz se eleva ligerísimamente y desciende después hasta el final como en la primera variante. 'Where do you 'think he 'wants to 'go? La entonación descendente se emplea: a) en oraciones aseverativas firmes; b) en preguntas introducidas por palabras interrogativas del tipo: who, what, when, etc., cuya respuesta no es Sí ni No; c) en exclamaciones y órdenes;
d) en preguntas confirmativas (tag questions) que siguen a una oración expositiva cuando se espera acuerdo por parte del interlocutor. La segunda curva melódica es la curva melódica ascendente. En ella, la voz desciende, como en la anterior, hasta la última sílaba acentuada en la que alcanza nivel más grave de la inflexión, y el tono vuelve a elevarse un poco, aunque sin alcanzar gran altura. Si, después de la última sílaba acentuada, hubiese sílabas débiles, la inflexión ascendente se realizará en éstas. Are 'those the ones you 'bought? 'Are you 'coming? Como en la variante anterior, puede recalcarse cualquier palabra de la oración que se desee. En este caso, la voz descenderá hasta alcanzar su tono más grave en sílaba acentuada de esta palabra y seguirá en el mismo tono hasta la última sílaba acentuada, en la que efectuará la inflexión ascendente. La entonación ascendente se emplea: a) en oraciones interrogativas que requieren Sí o No como respuesta; b) en oraciones enunciativas empleadas como interrogativas y que requieren Sí No como respuesta; c) oraciones subordinadas o frases introductorias en una oración compuesta, cuando se sigue hablando;
d) preguntas confirmativas cuando no se espera, necesariamente, acuerdo; e) enumeración de los distintos puntos de una lista (en el último la voz desciende) La tercera curva melódica es la descendente-ascendente. En ella la voz desciende en la palabra más importante de la oración y se eleva de nuevo, ya sea en la misma sílaba, ya en alguna otra de las siguientes. Las sílabas no acentuadas antes la sílaba en que la voz desciende se pronuncian en un tono grave, y las sílabas acentuadas, si las hay, bajan de tono gradualmente desde la primera, que se pronuncia en un tono bastante alto hasta llegar a la palabra principal, que baja ha pronunciarse en un tono muy grave. A partir de aquí, la elevación de la voz puede realizarse en la misma sílaba, o en otra de las siguientes, como ya se ha dicho. En este último caso, las sílabas intermedias entre el tono más grave y el más agudo han de pronunciarse en tono grave. Se emplea la inflexión descendente-ascendente: a) en oraciones aseverativas seguidas de algún determinante; b) para expresar discrepancia, sugerencia, protesta, duda implícita, corrección d algo dicho; c) para expresar énfasis. He 'isn't 'coming, 'is he? Good 'morning. I'm 'so 'sorry. 4.- LA CORRECCIÓN FONÉTICA.
En toda técnica de aprendizaje existen una serie de factores que afecta aprendizaje de la pronunciación:
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La lengua nativa. Cuanto más diferencias haya, más dificultades e alumno.
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El factor edad. Los estudios demuestran conclusiones divergentes, debido interacción de la edad con otros factores como la habilidad, la motivación, interés, etc.
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Cantidad de exposición a la lengua. No sólo es importante este factor, también la manera en que el alumno reacciona a las oportunidades para y usar el inglés.
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Habilidad fonética. Algunos alumnos ven mejor las diferencias entre sonidos otros. De todos modos, la práctica puede mejorar sus habilidades.
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Actitud e identidad. Imitar correctamente el habla de una persona puede ser forma de demostrar respeto e interés hacía esa persona y hacia el grupo que representa. Las personas con actitudes positivas hacia la lengua de desarrollar acentos más perfectos.
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Motivación y preocupación por una buena pronunciación. La mentalidad “No quiero decirlo si no puedo hacerlo perfectamente”.
Para corregir errores de pronunciación, sobre todo aquellos que afectan ¡comunicación, es necesario que el alumno practique con ejercicios de discrímii hasta la total identificación de los sonidos. Aquellos alumnos que no son distinguir ciertos sonidos tampoco serán capaces de producirlo. Es necesario, concentrarse en posibles focos de errores:
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Aquellos sonidos en inglés que no tienen equivalente en español, como /s , z/ o /f , v/.
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Aquellos sonidos en inglés que son aparentemente iguales a algunos en español, como el inglés /S/ y el sonido español /ch/.
Aquellos sonidos en inglés que son similares a algunos en español pero que tienen distinta distribución, como / / en this, que es un fonema en inglés, pero un alófono en español: dado (/da o/).
TEMARIO A: TEMA 9 Sistema fonológico de la lengua inglesa II: Acento, ritmo y entonación. Comparación con el sistema fonológico de la lengua o lenguas oficiales de la Comunidad Autónoma correspondiente.
CONTENTS 6. INTRODUCTION 1. Phonetics and Phonology 2. Phonemes and Speech Sounds 3. Stress/Rhythm and Intonation 7. STRESS 1. Degrees of Stress 2. Position of Stress 3. Stress in the Canarian Dialect/ Spanish language 8. RHYTHM 1. Weak and Strong Forms 2. Regularity of Rhythm 3. Rhythm in the Canarian Dialect/ Spanish language 9. INTONATION 1. Falling Tone 2. Rising Tone 3. Fall-rise Tone 4. Rise-fall Tone 5. Level Tone 6. Fall+rise Tone 10.TEACHING IMPLICATIONS
2. INTRODUCTION The most noticeable feature of a foreign language is often intonation and rhythm. Some languages are described as sounding "like music", other languages as being "flat and without melody". If the pronunciation of individual sounds can be compared with the individual notes in a piece of music, the intonation can be compared with the melody or tune. When studying the pronunciation system of a language we differentiate two categories: • Segmental elements: Vowel and consonant sounds. • Prosodic elements: rhythm, stress and intonation. 4. Phonetics and Phonology PHONETICS: is the science that studies the language sounds; how sounds are produced in general. PHONOLOGY: is the study of the sound system in a particular language. It includes intonation, rhythm, sounds patterns, etc. 5. Phonemes and Speech Sounds PHONEME: is the smallest unit of speech that can change the meaning of a word. SPEECH SOUND: is any unit of sound produced by the speech organs. They are the muscles and parts of the mouth, which we use to speak. The Phoneme is also defined as "only in terms of its differences from the other phonemes in the same language". Ex: Ship sheep Minimal pairs: Such pairs, which differ only in one phoneme. 6. Stress, Rhythm and Intonation
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When dealing with the concepts of Stress, Rhythm and Intonation, we should start by referring to the concept of prominence Prominence: is the characteristic in common with all stressed syllables. Four different factors are important:
e. f. g. h.
Loudness Length Pitch: is closely related to the frequency of vibration of the vocal cords. A syllable will tend to be prominent if it contains a vowel that is different in quality from neighbouring vowels.
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Stress concerns the relative prominence with which one part of a word or a longer utterance is distinguished from other parts.
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Rhythm concerns the relative prominence, or pattern of the stresses being perceived as peaks of prominence, occurring at somewhat regular intervals of time. English is a language with a tendency for a stress-timed rhythm.
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Intonation is the association of the relative prominence with pitch, the aspect of the sound which we perceive in terms of "high" or "low".
Other prosodic systems include factors such as tempo and the relative speed of utterance. Perception of the rhythm base may involve observing variations of loudness, pitch and speed. 2. STRESS We can study stress from the point of view of production and of perception. The production of stress is generally believed to depend on the speaker using more muscular energy than is used for unstressed syllables. Many different sound characteristics are important in making a syllable recognisably stressed. In English, stressed syllables are longer then unstressed ones, the vowels are more voiced within them. Stress is not marked in the spelling system, but it can be transcribed phonetically. The importance of stress should be noted, given that incorrect stress on syllables is an obstacle to communication, because it may lead the speaker to understand a different word, that follows a different stress pattern. 1. Degrees of Stress We can distinguish between the primary and secondary stress. The first one is also called tonic strong stress, while the second one is also called non-tonic strong stress. Ex: ‘presup,ose There are other authors who consider that there exist three stresses. Ex: ‘many ‘lovely ‘’girls 2. Position of Stress Normally stresses are in a fixed position in a word. • First syllable: ‘precept • Second syllable: to’night • Third syllable: engi’neer • Fourth syllable: misunder’stood • Fifth syllable: palatali’zation Exceptions: i. Native words and early French loans Ex: ‘kingly ‘kingliness un’kingliness j.
All abstract nouns ending in –ion Ex: ‘mission
k. Nouns ending in –ity Ex: ‘vacuous va’cuity l.
Nouns and adjectives ending in –ian Ex: ‘liberty liber’tarian
m. Adjectives ending in –ic Ex: ‘phoneme pho’nemic n. Words with more than one function A wide selection of words that can operate equally well as nouns/adjectives or verbs, are differentiated by their stress in the two functions: Ex: ‘present (Noun or adjective) pre’sent (verb) o. Compound nouns They are generally stressed on the first element with a secondary stress on the second element in contrast to the normal noun phrase stress pattern: Ex: ‘black ,bird (compound nouns) a ,black ‘bird (noun phrase)
p. Stress in phrases When we come to stress in phrases and other syntactic units, we provide different underlying relations between juxtaposed items. Ex: An ‘English ,teacher (someone who teaches English) An ,English ‘teacher (a teacher who is English) 2. Stress in the Canarian Dialect/ Spanish language d. Lexical and secondary stress The Canarian speakers should keep in mind the different importance given to the secondary accent in Spanish as compared with English. The pronunciation of isolated words rarely occurs in Spanish, it only happens in Adverbs ending in "mente", and in a few compound adverbs. Ex: símpleménte óptico-acústico e. Contrastive secondary stress The secondary stress occurs in the Canarian dialect as well, but it is not prominent: Ex: las cuestiones tanto ‘interiores como ‘exteriores
Although English compounds generally turn into a secondary stress the one which was the primary in the root, and this secondary stress still keeps a considerable strength; Spanish moves the stress to the suffixes: Ex: ‘central / ,centra’lize centrál / centralizár A secondary stress does not appear except in the cases where the general rules of Spanish regulate it. f.
Stress position and Effect
In two-syllable words both languages have a preference for stressing the syllable before the last; English tends to stress the antepenultimate syllable in three or more syllables words whereas Spanish keeps the penult position for stress. English vowels are deeply affected by their stress, whether primary or secondary. Stressed vowels have a precise and clear pronunciation, whereas unstressed vowels have a tendency to become indistinct. Finally , in Spanish the stress is represented in the spelling, what makes it easier to be remembered and pronounced , whereas in English it’s not represented. 2. RHYTHM Rhythm may be defined as the regular succession of strong and weak stresses in utterances. The notion of rhythm involves some noticeable event happening at regular intervals of time. The theory that English has stress- timed rhythm implies that stressed syllables will tend to occur at relatively regular intervals whether they are separated by unstressed syllables or not. Some writers have developed theories of English rhythm in which a unit of rhythm, the foot is used. Some theories of rhythm go further, and point to the fact that some feet are stronger than others, producing strong-weak patterns.
1. Weak and Strong forms The weak form, in which the vowel is pronounced with the schwa vowel, is more common than the other. The strong form in which the vowel is pronounced as it is written. Obviously the use of one or another form may affect the meaning of the utterance. Ex: ‘Jane and her ‘mother ‘’are ‘stupid = it is not true that they are not stupid ‘Jane ‘’and her ‘mother are ‘stupid = not just one, but both are stupid Weak forms are a manifestation of stress and rhythm in English, and must not be avoided in teaching, or the learner will sound unnatural in connected speech. 2. Regularity of Rhythm
The natural rhythm of English provides roughly equal intervals of time between the stressed items. The prevailing tendency in unstressed syllables and words is to reduce the vowels to the obscure / /, thus we have / / in a great many syllables: Ex: a kilo of potato / ‘ki:l v p ‘ te t z/ Regularity of rhythm is used for specific pourposes: d. Counting: Ex: ‘one, ‘two, ‘three,..., seventy ‘four, seventy ‘five e. Inventory or lists f. Emphasis: Ex: you should ‘always ‘look be’fore you ‘cross the ‘’road 2. Rhythm in the Canarian Dialect/ Spanish language It is essential in English to have a sentence rhythm, which does not exist in Spanish. In an English sentence certain words which are too close to the initial rhythmic beat lose their lexical stress in spite of having lexical stress. This does not happen in Spanish. Ex: Mary’s younger brother wanted fifty chocolate peanuts In this example we can see the difference with the Spanish stress, in Spanish all the words will be stressed; however, in English only the syllables in bold type are really stressed, thus favouring rhythm. The behaviour of prepositions and conjunctions differs in both languages: they are usually stressed in English; in Spanish only the preposition "según" is stressed. Stress also varies in English depending on whether it is used on strong or weak forms of the same words. There is nothing in Spanish, which resembles the English strong and weak forms so this will prove difficult for Spanish students. 3. INTONATION Intonation is the tune within the sentence that may alter the meaning. Here the pitch of the voice plays the most important part. We describe pitch in terms of high and low. There is another necessary condition and that is that a pitch difference must be perceptible. Intonation is generally found in sequences of stressed and unstressed syllables, though it can be a single word. We call it the tone unit, within which there is the nucleus (capital letters). The first stressed syllable in a tone unit is a onset (‘), the end will be (‘’) The rise and fall of pitch throughout is called its intonation contour. English has a number of intonation patterns which add conventionalized meanings to the utterance: question, statement, surprise, disbelief, sarcasm, teasing. An important feature of English intonation is the use of an intonational accent (and extra stress) to mark the focus of a sentence. Normally this focus accent goes on the last major word of the sentence, but it can come earlier in order to emphasize one of the earlier words or to contrast it with something else. Ex: She ‘told SOMeone’’ She ‘bought it for a PARty’’ ""
onset nucleus Tone unit 1. Falling Tone This is the commonest tone in English affirmative sentences, wh-word question, one word answers to questions, and on words, names, numbers and letters said in isolation. Ex: ‘What’s the TÍME’’ ‘LÓNDON’’ ‘TWÓ’’ ‘´R’’ 2. Rising Tone It is used to suggest that what is said is not final. Ex: Counting: ‘ÓNE’’ ‘TWÓ’’... Or because a response is needed (though not in wh-word question): Ex: Are you ‘HÁPpy’’ Or when two clauses are joined together: Ex: When I ‘GÉT there’’ I’ll HÍT him’’ A question will use a rising tone while the question tag uses the falling tone. The fall and rise are by far and away the most common of the nuclear tones. 3. Fall-rise Intonation It often occurs in the nucleus of a doubtful condition, but it is particularly common with the initial adverb: Ex: I’ll’ see him if he CÓMES’’ 4. Rise-fall Intonation It expresses as it does both genuine and assumed warmth, as well as feelings of shock or surprise. Ex: ‘That’s GRÉAT’’ 5. Level Tone
It sometimes used to the exact predictability of what is to follow: Ex: he DRÁNK’’ he WÓManised he ‘DÍED 6. Fall-rise Intonation It is common in everyday usage: Ex: She looks FÍNE to MÉ’’ It is often used with marked focus, the fall coming on the focus item and the rise on the last lexical item in the tone unit: Ex: It’s his ‘MÁNners that I can’t STÁND’’ = ‘What I don’t LÍKE ‘’ are his ? Mánners’’ 4. TEACHING IMPLICATIONS All languages have their own intonation patterns. Why is intonation important? Intonation conveys both meaning and attitude, so when a non-native speaker gets the intonation wrong, s/he can be misunderstood or sometimes misinterpreted as sounding rude or demanding when this is not intended. If a non-native speaker is almost fluent in the English language, intonation is often the only way in which one can tell that s/he is foreign. Moreover, if a foreign speaker is advanced in terms of grammar, vocabulary, etc., native speakers will make fewer allowances for intonation problems than they would with speakers who are obviously at a more elementary level. For example, if an advanced level speaker unintentionally sounds rude or demanding, the listeners will assume that s/he means it. What can be done to improve intonation? First of all students should be aware of the differences between their intonation and the English one: • Spanish intonation is much more measured, so we have to teach the students how to intonate the different English elements. •
Intonation in Spoken Spanish does not rise and fall as much as English. Students should try and keep the voice as levelled as possible.
Some useful techniques may be : • Listen to as much spoken English as possible (on cassette if you are unable to listen to native speakers) and be aware of where the voice rises and falls. When you listen, try to consider the attitude and feelings being conveyed. One word, for example, can be said in several different ways, depending on the meaning you wish to convey. •
Stories motivate children to listen and learn, and help them to become aware of the sound and feel of English. A selection of ready-to-tell stories is included although the activities can be used with any story.
•
Creating Drama with poetry is an exciting language learning experience. The use of poetry as drama in the English as a second language (ESL) classroom enables the students to explore the linguistic and conceptual aspects of the written text without concentrating on the mechanics of language. Through this technique, apart from several other aspects the teacher can model student’s pronunciation, intonation, stress, rhythm, and oral expression;
We as teachers have to take into account all the differences existing between L1 and L2 patterns of stress, rhythm and intonation, and try our students to differentiate them. So English people can understand their speaking.
TEMA 10 (ESPECÍFICO DE AUDICIÓN Y LENGUAJE) SISTEMAS ALTERNATIVOS Y COMPLEMENTARIOS DE COMUNICACIÓN. EL PROCESO DE EVALUACIÓN Y TOMA DE DECISIONES SOBRE LOS SISTEMAS ALTERNATIVOS. EL PROCESO DE INTERVENCIÓN.
1. SISTEMAS DE COMUNICACIÓN ALTERNATIVOS Y/O COMPLEMENTARIOS. . 2.S.P.C. 3.BLISS: HISTORIA, ¿QUÉ ES?, VENTAJAS. 4.MÉTODOS DE EDUCACIÓN DE SUJETOS CON DEFICIENCIA AUDITIVA. - CLASIFICACIÓN - ORALISMO-MANUALISMO - LENGUAJE DE SIGNOS - CUED-SPEECH - LENGUAJE BIMODAL 5.EL PROCESO DE EVALUACIÓN Y LA TOMA DE DECISIONES SOBRE LOS SISTEMAS ALTERNATIVOS. EL PROCESO DE INTERVENCIÓN. EVALUACIÓN DE LOS SISTEMAS BLISS Y SPC EVALUACIÓN DE LOS MÉTODOS LENGUAJE DE SIGNOS, CUED-SPEECH Y BIMODAL 6.BIBLIOGRAFÍA
1.SISTEMAS DE COMUNICACIÓN ALTERNATIVOS Y/O COMPLEMENTARIOS Son el conjunto de sistemas que se han desarrollado para facilitar la comunicación de los sujetos, que por distintas razones, no poseen una emisión normal del lenguaje oral. Se puede distinguir entre: Sistemas alternativos: se ofrecen como la única forma de lenguaje que puede desarrollar el sujeto. Sistemas complementarios: vienen a apoyar otra forma de lenguaje que el sujeto ya posee. Diferenciamos dos bloques de sistemas alternativos y/o complementarios: Métodos de comunicación no vocal: SPC Y BLISS, se emplearán con sujetos afectados de P.C., con deficiencias físicas que impiden su comunicación oral, con autistas y deficientes mentales. Métodos específicos de los sujetos con deficiencias auditivas: lenguaje de signos, bimodal y cued-speech. No deben ser considerados como definitivos o excluyentes del lenguaje oral, sino que se ofrecen como una herramienta de sustitución del mismo, aunque en algunos sujetos si se pueden convertir en la única forma de comunicación debido a su grado de deficiencia.
2.SPC, SISTEMA DE SÍMBOLOS PICTOGRÁFICOS PARA LA COMUNICACIÓN. Se basa, principalmente, en símbolos pictográficos, es decir, dibujos sencillos e iconos. Cada símbolo aparece acompañado de la palabra que representa, y en caso de términos demasiados abstractos, puede aparecer sólo la palabra escrita. Los símbolos del SPC presentan las siguientes características: Representan las palabras y conceptos más habituales en el lenguaje cotidiano. Puede ser utilizado por distintos grupos de edad. Símbolos fáciles y rápidamente diferenciables. El vocabulario, se divide en seis categorías:
Personas Verbos. Adjetivos y adverbios Nombres. Artículos, conjunciones... Términos sociales Cada símbolo es coloreado según a la categoría a la que pertenece, así tenemos: Personas=amarillo Verbos=verde Términos descriptivos=azul Nombres=naranja Términos diversos=blanco Términos sociales=rosa Este código cromático tiene como ventajas: facilitar una localización más rápida, reestructurar las frases sencillas, motivación del niño. A la hora de aplicar éste método, hay que tener en cuenta algunas consideraciones: Adecuado para personas con un nivel del lenguaje expresivo simple. No indicado para personas con problemas visuales. Los sujetos deben poseer un mínimo de habilidades cognitivas. El sujeto debe sentir la necesidad de comunicarse. Todas las personas implicadas, deben mostrar paciencia para enseñarlo.
3.SISTEMA BLISS HISTORIA Fueron creados por el australiano CH. BLISS, quien quiso crear un lenguaje internacional que pudiera ser entendido por cualquier persona del mundo. En 1949 publicó su primer manual, pero no obtuvo ningún éxito, hasta que en 1971 fue utilizado por un grupo de especialistas para la comunicación en niños deficientes físicos.
¿QUÉ ES EL BLISSIMBOLISMO? Sistema de símbolos que utiliza formas para transmitir significados, son formas geométricas básicas (cuadrado, círculo....) y cada uno está asociado a un significado específico. Pueden combinarse entre sí para formar nuevos significados. Los símbolos se agrupan en cuatro categorías: Símbolos pictográficos: recuerdan la forma de lo que representa. Símbolos ideográficos: no recuerdan la imagen pero la evocan. Símbolos arbitrarios: no pueden razonarse. Símbolos combinados: combinación de los anteriores.
Otros factores, además de la forma, sirven para determinar el significado del símbolo: Tamaño posición dirección amplitud referencias. Una característica, es que los símbolos se agrupan en categorías que reciben un color específico (igual que en el SPC). El sujeto posee un tablero donde están los símbolos con un orden concreto, en cada uno aparece escrito lo que significa facilitando así la interpretación a personas que no conozcan el método y quieran comunicarse con el sujeto. Es un método especialmente indicado para personas con deficiencia física. Las habilidades básicas que debe poseer el sujeto son: Habilidad de discriminación visual Habilidad cognitiva Habilidades motrices Buena coordinación entre comprensión auditiva y visual.
VENTAJAS DEL MÉTODO BLISS son las siguientes: Fáciles de aprender Fácil generalización Contribuyen a la estructuración mental Ayudan a la adquisición de la lectura
4.MÉTODOS DE EDUCACIÓN DE SORDOS CLASIFICACIÓN Los clasificamos en: MÉTODOS ORALES: UNISENSORIALES MULTISENSORIALES AUDIOORALES AUDIOORALES CON REPRESENTACIÓN MANUA MÉTODOS GESTUALES: MÍMICA PURA DACTILOLOGÍA PURA MÍMICA CON LENGUAJE ORAL MÍMICA CON LENG ESCRITO MÉTODOS MIXTOS: COMUNICACIÓN BIMODAL COMUNICACIÓN TOTAL
OPOSICIÓN ORALISMO-MANUALISNO Hay tres grupos claramente definidos:
El grupo oralista, se basa en el uso del lenguaje oral, descartando el lenguaje de signos por considerarlo poco estructurado y entorpecer el lenguaje oral. El manualista, defiende la expresión de la palabra mediante signos realizados con las manos y los dedos. El tercer grupo lo forman los métodos mixtos,educar al sujeto sordo valiéndose de todos los recursos y procedimientos que estén a nuestro alcance, ya sea mímica, oralismo, gestos....
LENGUAJE DE SIGNOS El lenguaje mímico, manual o gestual, es uno de los lenguajes utilizados por los sujetos con deficiencia auditiva, consta de signos realizados con las manos y dedos, acompañado de gestos (opuesto al oralismo). Dentro del lenguaje mímico, podemos diferenciar varios métodos: LENGUAJE MÍMICO : DACTILOLOGÍA LENGUAJE DE SIGNOS
Dactilología : o alfabeto manual, representa cada una de las letras del alfabeto por medio de distintas configuraciones de la mano. Se realiza con una sola mano y suele servir de complemento al lenguaje de signos para designar nombres propios o términos sin traducción.
Lenguaje de signos : a su vez, puede comprender: Lenguaje de signos utilizado en las comunidades de sordos Lenguaje de signos con estructura gramatical semejante a la de los normoyentes. Sistema que sirve de apoyo al lenguaje oral. No es universal, lo que significa que sordos de distintos países ( o incluso del mismo país, pero de diferente ciudad) utilizan signos distintos. En este tipo de lenguaje nos podemos encontrar signos icónicos y signos arbitrarios. No consiste solamente en un conjunto de gestos, sino que presenta una estructura, determinada por una serie de parámetros: Configuración de la mano Localización Movimiento
CUED-SPEECH O PALBRA COMPLEMENTADA Es un complemento visual a la lectura labial que permite eliminar ,las posibles confusiones de fonemas con el mismo punto de articulación. Pertenece a la corriente oralista. Su objetivo es facilitar la discriminación y comprensión de los sonidos del habla por medio de señales manuales que se realizan cerca de la cara.
Su metodología , se basa en tres posiciones de la mano para las vocales (lado, barbilla y garganta), y ocho para las consonantes. Un requisito básico, es su práctica ante el espejo, para fijar bien las posiciones de las manos y evitar movimientos inapropiados. El sistema se basa: La sílaba es la unidad básica Los kinemas en sí no tienen significado El niño tiene que leer los labios del interlocutor El sistema es simple y puede ser aprendido por niños menores de 2 años A partir de los estudios realizados a niños sordos españoles, se producen las siguientes hipótesis: La palabra complementada despeja la ambigüedad del mensaje Parece indicado para sordos profundos Asimilación perfecta en niños con deficiencia auditiva
SISTEMA BIMODAL Expresión simultánea manual y oral de la lengua de una comunidad de oyentes, utilizando para su emisión el vocabulario del lenguaje de signos. No es la utilización de dos lenguas, sino que se trata de un solo lenguaje (oral) acompañado de signos(vocabulario de signos). Este tipo de comunicación desempeña dos funciones claras: Desarrollar la comunicación del sujeto Permitir el aprendizaje del lenguaje oral En la práctica educativa, tanto profesores, padres..., deberían utilizar este método para la comunicación. Los signos deben aprenderse de forma natural, según surjan las necesidades del niño, aunque es conveniente trabajar algunas de forma más sistematizada como las nociones espaciales, temporales, causales, las categorías y preguntas concretas. En este sistema, el niño adquiere ante los signos que las palabras, por lo que debemos enseñarle a partir de nociones y construcciones ya adquiridas en el niño su correspondencia oral.
5.EL PROCESO DE EVALUACIÓN Y TOMA DE DECISIONES SOBRE LOS SISTEMAS ALTERNATIVOS. EL PROCESO DE INTERVENCIÓN. La elección del sistema, está condicionada por las posibilidades reales que presente el sujeto con el que vamos a trabajar. Es evidente que son muchos los factores a tener en cuenta para realizar la elección:
Posibilidades del sujeto (tipo de deficiencia, grado de afectación...) Actitud de padres y educadores Ambiente educativo en el que el sujeto está inmerso, etc...
EVALUACIÓN DE LOS SITEMAS SPC Y BLISS Ambos métodos son muy similares en cuanto a su estructura y composición, lo que incluso puede llevar el uso conjunto de ambos sistemas. VENTAJAS: Su aprendizaje y memorización pueden ser relativamente fáciles, al incluir muchos símbolos pictográficos e ideográficos. Puede estar indicado para personas que no estén preparadas para el uso del alfabeto, pero que necesitan comunicarse con las personas de su entorno. Los símbolos pueden ampliar mucho su significado mediante distintas combinaciones y ampliaciones. Favorece el desarrollo personal global del niño a nivel social, emocional, y de mejora de la propia imagen. INCONVENIENTES: Para que la comunicación sea efectiva es necesario que el interlocutor conozca también el sistema Bliss o SPC. Puede convertirse en una alternativa al lenguaje oral, impidiendo su aprendizaje y desarrollo. Es necesario elaborar el tablero con los símbolos, siendo casi siempre necesario realizarlos manualmente (por ausencia de impresoras que realicen estos símbolos).
EVALUACIÓN DE LOS MÉTODOS LENGUAJE DE SIGNOS, CUEDSPEECH Y BIMODAL. LENGUAJE DE SIGNOS Las VENTAJAS son: Proporciona un medio de comunicación al sujeto con deficiencia auditiva desde muy temprana edad. Los signos se aprenden antes que el lenguaje oral y escrito. Permite el desarrollo lingüístico del niño.
Es fácil de aprender por los padres y educadores. Los INCONVENIENTES son: Para algunos autores, no potencia el desarrollo del lenguaje oral. Son diferentes los signos empleados entre distintas comunidades de deficientes auditivos. Hay conceptos o palabras que no pueden ser representados si no es con ayuda de otros métodos (dactilología). CUED-SPEECH Las VENTAJAS, son: Favorece la discriminación fonética que facilita la lectura labial, y amplía el vocabulario. Puede aplicarse desde edades tempranas. El niño aprende a hablar antes que a leer y escribir, como ocurre con el niño normoyente. Al concentrar la atención en los labios, se contribuye a desarrollar la aptitud para la lectura labio-facial. La velocidad de articulación de las palabras es casi el doble que con el lenguaje de signos. Los INCONVENIENTES,son: Necesita un programa paralelo para desmutizar al niño. Demasiada dependencia visual y esfuerzo contínuo de la atención en la cara del interlocutor. Dependencia de la palabra complementada para entender a cualquier interlocutor. LENGUAJE BIMODAL Las VENTAJAS, son: Suponen un uso complementario de dos canales de información , lo que aumentará y facilitará la comprensión del sujeto. El INCONVENIENTE, es que no es de carácter universal.
BIBLIOGRAFÍA BASIL, C Sistemas de Comunicación no Vocal, para niños con disminuciones físicas. Fundesco. Madrid. 1985. MARCHESI, A. El desarrollo cognitivo y lingüístico de los niños sordos. Alianza. Madrid. 1987. MONFORT, M. Los trastornos de la comunicación en el niño. Cepe. Madrid. 1985. OWRAN, L. Los símbolos Bliss, una introducción. Mec. Madrid. 1985.
ANEXO TEMA 10 APLICACIÓN DIDÁCTICA DEL TEMA 10 PAUTAS CONCRETAS DE ACTUACIÓN CON UN NIÑO PARALÍTICO CEREBRAL INTEGRADO EN UNA CLASE DE PREESCOLAR: ENSEÑANZA DEL BLISS. Las pautas de actuación irán encaminadas en estos sentidos: Conseguir una posición adecuada. Adaptación del material didáctico. Profesor de Apoyo a la Integración. Pautas concretas en la enseñanza del Bliss. ADAPTACIÓN DEL MOBILIARIO ESCOLAR Mesa: altura, semicírculo cortado, tablas sujeción... Silla: altura, reposapiés, ruedas, molde.... Petos: cuñas... ADAPTACIÓN DEL MATERIAL DIDÁCTICO. Señalizadores: Licornios Varilla-muñeca Linterna Soportes: Tablero ETRAN Comunicador. Todas estas adaptaciones van encaminadas por una parte a posibilitar el acceso físico del niño a los materiales didácticos que más adelante se exponen, así como a conseguir una posición corporal que inhiba los movimientos reflejos anormales que caracterizan a los niños con P.C.: Posturas inhibidoras de reflejos y espasticidades. Posturas que posibiliten el equilibrio. Posturas que mantengan erguida la cabeza.
PROFESOR DE APOYO La presencia de un niño de cinco años con Parálisis Cerebral, en el aula de preescolar, es posible que necesite del apoyo de otra persona que no sea el tutor de la clase. Una posibilidad es que el profesor de Apoyo a la Integración o el profesor de Audición y Lenguaje (logopeda) esté un tiempo determinado en el aula de preescolar atendiendo a ese niño, sobre todo en los momentos concretos en que se desarrolle el programa de Bliss. Está claro que estos detalles dependerán de la dotación de personal que hubiese en el centro, y que la forma de llevar a cabo este trabajo no tendría que ser igual en todos los colegios. PROGRAMA BLISS Primer paso Sería establecer las respuestas SÍ/NO mediante dibujos significativos. Podrían ser: Un niño coge suavemente a un gato....................SÍ Un niño coge a un gato por el rabo......................NO Estos dibujos se harían en la pizarra, cada uno en un extremo, y servirían para iniciar la comunicación entre los niños “normales” con el niño con P.C. Cualquier pregunta que se hiciese sería contestada con un movimiento de los ojos, que se dirigen hacia el dibujo representativo de SÍ o NO. Más tarde se añadiría a estos dibujos los signos (+) y (-), como una iniciación a la simbolización. Segundo paso Puesta en contacto con los símbolos pictográficos básicos. Estos símbolos serían siempre en negro y se les añadiría color como ayuda. Ejemplo: el símbolo “alimento” (círculo con una línea horizontal debajo) se le añadiría un tenedor y un cuchillo en color a los lados. Tercer paso Actividades comunes para todo el grupo de clase: Plastilina: los niños hacen árboles, barcos, animales...y los emparejan con los símbolos correspondientes con “churros” de plastilina. Plantillas: recortamos las formas de los símbolos en cartón. Murales: al realizarlos, a los objetos más conocidos les colocamos al lado el símbolo Bliss. Franelograma: usar los objetos con su símbolo al lado. Marionetas: pegar a cada personaje el símbolo correspondiente. Completar fichas: dibujos y símbolos; unir los que correspondan.
Con estas actividades, todos los niños se inician en el sistema Bliss como un juego, se pueden comunicar con su compañero P.C. y se sientan las bases de la aceptación mutua.
TOPIC 10 ENGLISH ORTHOGRAPHIC CODES. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOUND AND ORTHOGRAPHY. PROPOSALS FOR THE TEACHING OF THE WRITTEN CODE. ORTHOGRAPHIC APPLICATIONS IN WRITTEN PRODUCTIONS. This unit is about English orthography, how it changes depending on the morphological functions of words.
The topic is divided into six different sections: - The first section is a brief introduction. - The second one is the orthographic codes. - The third one is the relationship between sound and letter. - The fourth one is where we are going to talk about different activities to improve the pupil’s writing. - The fifth one is the conclusion. - And the last section is the bibliography. As an introduction to this topic we can say that English orthographic system was fixed between the 8th and 9th centuries. In English there is no a univocal system of orthographic reference for all the different sounds such as in Spanish. This is due to the evolution of the phonological system and the evolution of the written system which took place in different centuries. The written system took place between 14th and 15th, whereas phonological one appeared between 18th and 19th. Now we are going to go on the next point, which deals with spelling codes. I am going to talk about the main orthographic rules in English, but of course, there are so many that it would be impossible to remember each one of them. I will start by these concerning capital letters. The initial letter of the following cases must be written in capital: - Days, months and bank holidays. - People first name and places. - Mr, Miss, Mrs, Dr.
- Countries, places of origin and language. - The first written word of tittles in books, films, places, etc, as well as the rest of initial except prepositions and articles. I will continue with plural formation. Plural is usually formed by adding –s to the singular. But there are some cases which must be named: - When singular words end in –y and when preceded by a consonant will change to –i and will add –es. ( lady/ ladies). But –y when preceded by a vowel will just add –s. ( boy/ boys) - When singular words end in –ch, -sh, -s, -x, -z,-o, in plural formation will end in –es. ( church / churches). But ending in –o of foreign origin just adding –s.( piano/pianos) - Among the words ending in –f, -fe there are three different solutions: • there are twelve nouns which form their plural by changing –f , -fe to –ves. ( knife/knives) • nouns such as scarf, wharf and hoof form their plural just adding -s, or –ves indistinctively. ( scarfs/ sacarves). • other words ending in –f, -fe form their plural just adding –s. (safe/safes). - There are other nouns which form their plural by means of a vocalic change. ( man /men). (an exception, child/children). - There are nouns which do not admit any plural feature. Animal species, (fish). - To sum up the plural point I will includ all those cases which don’t follow the rules for several reasons: • Some words have only singular forms, (news, knowledge) • Others always have plural form, ( police, glasses, clothes) • Words ending in –ics, (mathematics). But when they are referred as sciences they are considered as singular words. • There are words with plural form but the verb accompanying them is singular.( news) - Words of foreign origin. Greek and Latin words which are kept exactly the same change to plural according to the rules of the language where they come from. (terminus/termini). However, there is an increasing tendency to assimilate those very common words to the English plural formation. (dogma/dogmas). Sometimes both forms, that of origin and the English one co-exist, but the meaning is different. (index/ indexes/ indices) - Compounds. In compound words is normally the last word the one which adds the plural form. (armchair/ armchairs).
• If the first part of a compound word is man or woman, both parts will take plural form. ( men students) • When compounds words have been formed by prepositions or adverbs only the first part of the noun takes plural form.(brothers in law) • When the last part of a compound word is an adjective, the first word is the one taking plural form. (courts martial) • Abbreviations may also take plural form. (WIPs) After having seen plural formation, we are going to look at duplication of final consonants. When we add the following endings: -ed, -ing, -er, -est, to a word in order to form compounds, the final consonant duplicates whenever it is –b, -d, -g, -l, -m, -n, -p, -r, -t. (rob/ robber) Nevertheless, there are cases where the consonants don’t duplicate even though the circunstances stated above are given. (open/ opening). It is due to the fact that the consonant duplicates only when the accent falls on the last syllable of the word.
Another item will be the suffix –ly. The addition of this suffix to an adjective makes it become a manner adverb. (nice /nicely) The addiction of this suffix sometimes implies an orthographic change in some words. - When a word ends in –y will change to –i. (happy / happily) - If an adjective ends in –le will change its ending to –ly. ( possible / possibly) - If the adjective ends in –ic when adding –ly a vowel –a also be added. ( tragic /tragically) - Exceptions to this rule are: ( truly, publicly) Now the change of –y to –i. Apart of the rules already stated above, there are some more changes: - Whenever any suffix is added to any word ending in –y, it will change to –i . (hurry / hurried, easy / easier) - Exceptions, a suffix beginning in –i such as –ism, -ish, -ize, -ing makes –y be kept. ( boy / boyish). Except ( say/said, lay/laid, pay /paid) - Words ending in –ie change this ending to –y before –ing. ( die/ dying, lie/ lying). Another item is numerals. Hundred, thousand, million, when used as a specific number have no plural form. ( six hundred people)
However plural must be used when the idea of a large non specific number is given. ( hundreds of years) One more orthographic rule in English is weights and measures. - Ounce, pound and ton take –s when used as nouns. Stone doesn’t take plural. ( two pounds of sugar, my weigh is five stone). • Numerals never take –s when used as compound adjectives. ( sixpound note). -Length measures usually take plural –s. ( six inches, two miles). Foot and feet may be used. • never these measures change to plural when used as compounds. (a ten mile walk, a six foot quilt). One more rule is –e in final position. - We omit it when adding a suffix beginning with a vowel. ( write/ writing). This doesn’t happen when the word ends in –ee. ( disagree/ disagreeable). - When a word ends in –ce and the suffix –ous is added then –e changes to –i. ( vice/ vicious). - If a suffix beginning with a consonant is added, then –e is kept. ( hope / hopeful). - Except in some words: true/ truly, argue/ argument. Another rule in spelling is the suffix –full. The suffix –full loses the last consonant when added to a word to form an adjective. ( beauty/ beautyful). The original suffix is kept when adverbs from these adjectives are formed. ( beautiful / beautifully). When the words to which the suffix is added ends in –ll one of them will be lost. ( skill/ skilful). -Ise or –ize in final position is another rule. Both groups –ise, .ize appearing in some English verbs may sometimes be used indistinctly. ( computerise / computerize). The written form –ize is preferred but with some exceptions. - Two syllable words. ( revise, advise). - The following words.( advertise, improvise, exercise) - Nevertheless –ise is used more in British English, and –ize is more in American English. The last rule we are going to mention is hyphened compouns, but as we said before there are too much rules that is impossible to explain each one. - Compound adjectives are usually joined by a hyphen. ( blue-eyed).
- A group of words which are commonly used as adjectives before a noun are also joined by a hyphen. ( a five-pound note). - Hyphen is also used in group of words forming a compound whose first word is the stressed one. Once having studied some orthographic rules in English we are going to move onto the next point in the topic which deal with the relationship between sound and orthography. Whereas the English written form starts to be fixed during the 8 th and 9th centuries, the phonological system takes a more or less fixed structure about 18th and 19th centuries. This fact makes almost impossible to establish a correct correspondence between phonemes and letters, in order to have a model to follow both when writing what we hear and when pronouncing what we read. When an equivalence is observed and we try to systematise it, exceptions are so many than it is useless to establish a rule. Nevertheless, among the very few equivalences we will point out the following: - At the end of a word and after a vowel, both phonemes /k/ and /tf/ may be represented by –ck and -tch. ( pack, watch) - After a consonant or two vowels both phonemes /k/ and /tf/ are usually represented by –k and –ch.( bank, bench). - The vocalic phoneme /i:/ is frequently written –ie and in some cases –ei. ( believe, ceiling). - The consonantal group –gh usually represented the phoneme /f/. Sometimes it is no pronounced. ( cough, enough). Exception ( although) - The phoneme /k/ is represented by –ch when it is in between-vowel position. ( headache) - The letter a is read as /e/ in: any, many. - The letters ea are read as /e/ in : breakfast, head. - In other cases the letters ea are pronounced /ei/. (steak). - The vowel o is pronounced as /^/ in : mother. - The phoneme /^/ may be also represented by the letters ou: country. - The letter u is read as /u/: put. - The phoneme /ai/ corresponds to several different letters: buy, dial. - There are letters which in particular positions within the word don’t represented any phoneme, they are not pronounced, ‘ silent letter’. • L, should, walk. • T, preceded by s, castle, listen. • W and K in initial position when following by a consonant: writer, knife. • G, sign, campaign.
• Consonants B, N preceded by M, plumber, autumn. • H, when, where. • R after a vowel makes the vowel be long, car, iron. - We can find three-syllable written words, the stress falls on the first one and the central vowel is not pronounced. ( evening) . - As far as plurals are concerned, the regular ending is –(e)s has three different pronunciations: • After /s/, /z/, /f/, /tf/ and /d3/ the plural ending is –es, which corresponds with the phoneme /iz/. ( buses). • After any voiceless phoneme /p/, /f/, /Q/, /t/ and /k/ the plural ending – (e)s corresponds with the phoneme/s/. (caps). • After all the vowels and voiced consonants the plural ending –(e)s correspond with the phoneme /z/. (plays). • Exceptions to this rule are found in words where the plural ending affects the pronunciation of the word root.(house). - Third person singular of the present of verbs and possessive case followed these rules above. I should like to say that it is difficult to establish rules for the pronunciation of words in English that students should learn. To follow with this topic we are going to analyse some proposals for the teaching of the written code. And also, orthographic applications in written productions. We shall start this section by saying that the pupils to whom we are teaching the foreign language in the first year are likely to have problems when reading or writing their own mother tongue. Therefore, introducing them a new writing code may be confusing for them. We must also consider that in real life they write very little, even in their mother tongue, that is why we propose that the students should start by copying words. Which serves as a starting- point for making this activity enjoyable or boring and monotonous. - We can try to avoid it by giving them a card with drawing and card with words related to these drawings, they only have to combine the words with the drawings, by copying both in their notebook. - We can also give them a strip of comics with the chosen words and the students will have to insert the words in the speaking bubbles of each comic. Matching pictures to speech bubbles. - Another activity is called word machines, consisting of obtaining one word by means of two or more transformations of a previously given word. ( pin from den).
- We may also ask the students to group the words containing two or more equal letters in different order. - We may give them groups of four or five words in which one of them is not correctly written and they will have to find one and tell why it is incorrect. - Another rather successful game is called hangman, where we can eliminate as many elements as we think necessary according to the difficulty of the words for our student’s level. Similar to this game is the shark with stairs. - We cam also use crosswords or word games focused on words about a particular topic. It is useful for warming up and relaxing activities. - Another game is ‘I spy with my little eye’ which has endless possibilities of explotation. With good level, make sentences with mistakes and students have to correct them. - The well-known game ‘noughts and crosses’ may be adapted to our orthographic needs. - We find also very valuable the use of a dictionary. It is convenient to have a dictionary in the class. Tasks and games in groups or pairs are particularly useful, that is, when the teacher plays the role of a facilitator. Another encouraging task for the students is to make their own dictionary where they can include the vocabulary already studied in class. - In order to make the students aware of how difficult it is the relationship between sounds and letters we can also make colleges where to include drawings referred to a word which they know both the orthography and the pronunciation and then add a short clue referred to a different word which is pronounced the same and, however, is written differently. After having studied some proposals to achieve orthographic rules in English, we are going to finish the topic with a brief conclusion. It will be interesting that all these different changes produced must be taught little by little, and also in an enjoyable way to motivate students, otherwise they will reject them because they will find them too difficult to be assimilated.
11. LEXICAL AND SEMANTICAL FIELDS OF ENGLISH. 1.INTRODUCTION. Words are essential to communication. Everybody learns to speak in isolated words and then we begin to use chains of words and verbs. Students tend to pick up vocabulary first and then a framework in which these words can be used. At the same time that students learn vocabulary they must learn phonetics and grammar.
Usually students have a problem with the vocabulary when they have to use it in a context and also with words that don’t have the same meaning as in their mother tongue. For that reason, they must practice to assimilate them. 2.LEXICAL AND SEMANTIC FIELD. We can identify two groups: Lexical field: which refers to the formation of words. Semantic field: which refers to the understanding of words. 3.LEXICAL FIELD. To understand this subject, first I am going to explain what BASE and STEM are, within the rules of word-formation. BASE: is a form to which a rule of word-formation is applied. STEM: is the part of the word that remaining after every affix has been removed. For example: Base Stem Friendly Friend Friend Unfriendly Friendly Friend The STEM can be understood as the root of the word and the BASE as the original part from which a mixture is made. Once a base has undergone a rule of word-formation, the derived word itself may become the base for another derivation. For example: “Unfriendliness” Friend…………………………………………………… Noun (Friend)-ly…………………………………………… Noun……………… Adjectiv e Un-((friend)-ly)…………………………………. Adjective……… Adjectiv e (Un-((friend)-ly))-ness…………………….. Adjective……... Noun
The chief processes of English word-formation by which the base may be modified are: 3.1. Affixation: a) Prefixation Adding a prefix to the base: happy---unhappy -Types of prefixes. Negative prefixes Un-: unfair Reversative prefixes Dis-: discontent Pejorative prefixes Mis-: misinform Prefixes of degree or size Super-: supermarket Prefixes of attitude Anti-: anti-social Locative prefixes Sub-: subway
Prefixes of time and order Pre-: precaution Number prefixes Tri-: trident Conversion prefixes En-: endanger Other Prefixes Vice-: vicepresident b) Suffixation Adding a suffix to the base: happy-----happily -Types of suffixes. 1. Noun suffixes: Occupational -er: gangster Diminutive or femenine -ess: waitress Status -hood: childhood Other noun suffixes -ful: spoonful Noun/adjectives suffixes -ese: Chinese Deverbal suffixes -er: driver De-adjectival suffixes -ee: employee 2. Verb suffixes: -ify: simplify -(ize): popularise -en: sadden 3. Adjective suffixes: Suffixes added to nouns -ful: useful Suffixes common in borrowed and neo-classical words -ic: Arabic Other adjective suffixes -able: readable 4. Adverb suffixes: -ly: happily -ward (s): backwards -wise: weatherwise 3.2. Compound words. Adding one base to another: tea + pot= teapot. 1. Kinds of composition in the noun: Subject + verb: playboy Verb + object: storytelling Verb + adverbial compounds: sun-bathing Noun + noun compounds: frogman
Adjectives + noun: blackboard Bahubrihi compounds: paperback 2. Kinds of composition in the verb: Back-formation: housekeeper Verb + adverb: outdo 3. Adjective compounds: Object + -ing participle: heartbreaking Verb + adverbial compounds: homemade Verbless compounds: tax-free Reduplicatives or repetition compounds: ping-pong 4. SEMANTIC FIELD. As I have said, the semantic field refers to the understanding of words (homonyms, synonyms and antonyms). 4.1. Homonymy and Polysemy. Homonymy is when a single word has different meanings not closely related. For example: File - a box for keeping papers in order - a tool for smoothing surfaces - a line of persons or things one behind the other We can find two classes of homonymy: 1. Homophones: are the words that show identity of pronunciation: “no”---“know” 2. Homographs: are the words that have the same spelling: “saw (noun)”----“saw (verb)” - Homomorph is the term to refer to those words which share the same morphological form, the same stem. This concept is relevant to grammar: fast (adjective)—fast (adverb). And, Polysemy is when a word has several different but closely related meanings. For example: Branch - of a tree - family - railway line… 4.2. Synonymy. Synonymy is the relationship between words that mean exactly the same. It is a semantic relation. For example: Foggy---Misty Fiddle----Violin 4.3. Antonymy. Antonymy is when a word is opposite in meaning to another. For example: better--worst a) Complementaries: words that are incompatibles and there is no possibility of a third lying between them: true---false b) Multiple Incompatibles: Days, seasons, months… “It’s Monday” excludes all other the days. c) Gradable Antonyms: There are intermediate terms between them: hot/ warm/ cool/ cold. d) Converses: The words are reciprocal: husband---wife // father---son. 5. FALSE FRIENDS.
We call false friend to a word that is similar to another in our language. For instance, Spanish students must pay attention to Latin fields because they may change: “Success”---éxito, not “suceso” “Contamination”----infección, not “contaminación”----“pollution” 6. TEACHING VOCABULARY. To learn vocabulary words, the teacher should pronounce the new item, in association to the orthographic realization of the same and also to teach it meaning. The teacher also has to use the new word on a context to help students assimilate this word with its meaning. After this, student must try to use the new item, inserting it in a context they think suitable to use it. Finally, the student should use this word as many time as possible to fix it in their minds. There are some techniques in vocabulary teaching that may help 2.82.72.127students. These are the followings: a) The use of visuals Flashcards; blackboard; transparencies; “clock board”; labels; magazine pictures; props; colour coding; classroom objects; posters… b) The use of gestures Students can gesture when describing adjectives as tall,… c) The use of known vocabulary The teacher can use synonyms and antonyms; categories; definitions… to explain the new meanings. 7. CONCLUSION. There are many different methods to teach vocabulary. These methods depend on the level of the students and on the types of items we want to teach them. However, as the students advance in their learning process, their needs become more and more important. For that reason, we must study which are the most common fields that they would like to deal with in the class. THEME 11 : LEXICAL AND SEMANTIC FIELDS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. LEXICON REQUIRED FOR THE SOCIALIZATION, INFORMATION AND EXPRESSION OF ATTITUDES. TYPES OF ACTIVITIES JOINED TO THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF LEXICON IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE. The first thing a child does in his/her Mother Tongue, once he/she has carried out the emission of sound stage, is to say words, isolated words but with meaning. They are connected with the world around him/her and are probably those with which the child has a narrow relationship. According to the increase of his/her perception and knowledge of the reality, his/her vocabulary also increases. So, in order to establish which vocabulary can have MORE INTEREST for our students´ learning, we must take into account the world they live in and the purpose they have when they learn a Foreign Language, with the purpose of being a SIGNIFICANT VOCABULARY for them. It must be a vocabulary for COMMUNICATION, based on the child or being specially interesting to him/her.
So, vocabulary is an important factor in all language teaching : students must continually be learning words at the same time they learn Grammar and Phonetics. Presenting new words is only the first step in the process of language learning, and students must remember them and make them part of their own vocabulary. But sometimes it is quite difficult because there are SOME PROBLEMS that do not allow the acquisition process to be easier : • On the one hand, some of the words taught in Foreign Language lessons occur naturally in sequence : days of the week, numbers, etc… and these series are easily memorized, but the problem arises when students have to use them out of the sequence. • On the other hand, some similar words or COGNATES facilitate the learning of new words ; some of them are “True cognates”, it is, their meaning is more or less equivalent in both languages (ex., “real” = “real” ), and some of them are “False cognates”, which lead students to confusion (ex., “Actually” means “en realidad”, not “actualmente” ). In the first case they are easy to remember, but in the second case we have to help our students. • Another problem arises when the words in the Mother Tongue and in the Foreign Language do not cover the same area of meaning. There are words in the Target Language which do not make distinctions that the Foreign Language does (ex., “trip, travel, journey,…”). These distinctions imply that there is a change in the way of viewing reality and, therefore, this change must be learnt too. In order to remember this vocabulary better, it can be connected in groups which have a common element: a topic, semantic associations, or the formal relations used to form derivations of these words ; when words are associated this way, we call it “SEMANTIC FIELDS” or “WORD FAMILIES”, and when the connectors are the formal relations they form LEXICAL FIELDS. At the same time we should look for general centres of our students´ interests so that we could choose the most suitable vocabulary for those settings, which could be the following ones : -Informal conversations with the classmates. -Descriptions of objects, persons or animals. -Interviews. -Telephone calls. -Children´s stories, etc… So, OUR MAIN TASK is to provide our pupils with a series of resources that help them to have independence when they have to communicate in a Foreign Language. The use of these resources will make their vocabulary, more or less limited, be increased in a way that does not require a lot of effort. The first step consists of making our students be aware of that in English there is the same possibility as in their Mother Tongue to form new words by means of the following TECHNIQUES : 1.CONVERSION 2.AFFIXATION 3.COMPOUNDING
1. CONVERSION It is a process in which an item is adapted or converted to a new word-class without the addition of a suffix. The most common are the following : a) Verb to noun conversion. Ex., “to love” —> “love” b) Adjective to noun conversion. Ex., “a daily newspaper” —> “a daily” c) Noun to verb conversion. Ex., “bottle” —> “to bottle” d) Adjective to verb conversion. Ex., “a brick garage” —> “the garage is brick”.
2. AFFIXATION In this group we include : a.) PREFIXES, which do not generally alter the word-class of the base. Examples : 1. Negative prefixes : “un-“ , “in-“ , “il(l)-“ ,... Ex., unfair, inhuman, illogical. 2. Prefixes of Degree/Size : “super-“, “under-“,… Ex., superman, undercook. 3. Pejorative prefixes : “mal-“ , “pseudo-“,... Ex., pseudoscientific, maltreat. 4. Number prefixes : “uni-“ , “bi-“ , … Ex., unisex, bicycle. 5. Prefixes of Time/Order : “pre-“, “post-“, “ex-“,… Ex., pre-war, ex-president. 6. Prefixes of Attitude : “co-“, “anti-“,… Ex., co-education, anti-war. 7. Locative prefixes : “sub-“ , “inter-“,… Ex., subway, interplay. 8. Etc… b.)SUFFIXES, which frequently alter the word-class of the base. Examples : 1. Verb to noun suffixes : “-er” , “-ing”,… Ex., driver, painting. 2. Adjective to noun suffixes : “-ness”, “-ity”,… Ex., happiness, diversity. 3.
Noun to adjective suffixes : “-ist”, “-y”,… Ex., masochist, hairy.
4. Noun to noun suffixes :
“-hood” , “-ship”,… Ex., boyhood, friendship.
5. Adjective suffixes. There are some adjective suffixes for which it is impossible to specify a particular meaning, that is, their semantic functions are extremely varied. Ex., “-ive”, “-able”, “-al”, etc..., such as in “explosive, criminal or acceptable”. 6. Etc…
3. COMPOUNDING A compound is a unit consisting of 2 or more bases. Ortographically, compounds are written : b.) SOLID : in 1 word. Ex., “bedroom”, ”headache”, “hangman”,… c.) HYPHENATED : Ex., “tax-free”, “sister-in-law”,… d.) OPEN : Ex., “reading material”, “television screen”, “navy blue”,… Phonologically, they have got a MAIN STRESS on the first element SECONDARY STRESS on the second one. Ex., ´bed,room .
and
a
Semantically, they can be seen to be isolated from ordinary syntactic constructions by having a meaning which may be related to but cannot simply be inferred from the meaning of its parts. Compounds may be : 1.- Reduplicative , which are compounds with 2 or more elements that are identical or only slightly different, such as “knock-knock”, “tick-tock”,… 2.- Clipping , which implies the substraction of 1 or more syllables from a word, which is also available in its full form, such as “phone” (telephone), “exam” (examination), “ad” (advertisement), … 3.- Blend , in which, at least, 1 of the elements is fragmentary when compared to its corresponding word for, such as “Interpol” (International Police), Eurovision (European Television), … 4.- Acronyms , which are words formed from the initial letters of words that make up a descriptive or a proper name, such as “FBI” (Federal Bureau of Investigation), UFO (Unidentified Flying Object), … Up till now we have made reference to word-formation, which is going to be useful for our students in order to establish relationships between new words and the previous known ones.
*At Primary School we know the vocabulary presented to our students must be related to their necessities and world around them such as the family, animals, toys, etc…and we also know we must provide them with the Linguistic and Non-linguistic strategies to favour the INTERACTION WITH THE OTHERS through, for example : -simple greetings : “Good morning. How are you?”,… -social English : “Have a nice weekend”,… -asking for permission : “Can I go to the toilet, please?”,… -communicative strategies : “Sorry, I don´t understand”,… So, it is a very important point for us to bear in mind that we have to help children relate the new vocabulary and expressions they are learning in the foreign language to their lives, it is, they must realize that if they are learning, for instance, the members of the family, it is going to be useful for them to get information about their classmates´ families and vice versa too; we mean that new words are learnt, not only to do the activities in the book or to pass a test, but to favour their SOCIALIZATION, to know their classmates better, and to exchange INFORMATION about their feelings, needs, interests, lives, etc… So it is very important the GROUP WORK in the English class. But, as well as these FEATURES, when teaching new vocabulary, we have also to take into account : a. The students´ needs. It is very useful to study in depth which are the most common fields that the children would like to deal with in class. These fields will depend very much on the students´ age, social background, interests and hobbies, etc… b. The frequence of the item, because it is not very useful to keep on teaching new words which are NOT frequently used. c. The time we have at our disposal to teach new vocabulary. d. The students´ conditions to learn new words, such as phonological problems, difficulties for memorizing, etc… e. The lack of materials such as dictionaries, TV, flashcards,… f. And the Receptive and Productive Vocabulary. The first kind comprises the words students recognize but which are not mostly used; the second type are the words which are mostly used by them. For example, the Receptive vocabulary is “pullover and sweater” and the Productive one could be only “jumper”. We know that just telling the students the expressions and mechanisms of the Foreign Language does NOT make them learn. Whenever we do an activity for pupils to learn certain vocabulary we must try, in the first place, that this vocabulary is presented in REAL SITUATIONAL or LINGUISTIC SETTING that let them guess the meaning; on the other
hand, new words and expressions must be always presented in an ORAL WAY to avoid pupils getting wrong conclusions about their pronunciation when they see the written form. After this, students must try to use the new items productively, that is, to insert the words in a context they think suitable to use it. This is the best way to make them understand all the different meanings that the new words have, since they always relate the meaning of these items in the Foreign Language with the possible meanings that these words may have in their Mother Tongue. The classroom is where the most of the students´ interactions take place, and we know these communicative exchanges are not always spontaneous, it is, they are started, guided and controlled by the teacher, and the main reason could be that pupils do not receive from the very beginning of the Teaching and Learning process the necessary linguistic and nonlinguistic strategies or resources to do that on their own.
*There are many different methods to teach vocabulary. They depend… : -on the one hand, on the linguistic level that the students already have. -and, on the other hand, on the type of items we want to teach them. But, in broad outlines, some of the TECHNIQUES or ACTIVITIES we can present to children in order to help them develop their autonomous learning of lexicon little by little could be the following ones :
1. In order
to INTRODUCE new vocabulary :
A. Using objects, because as much of the vocabulary at this educative stage consists of concrete nouns, so introducing a new word by showing the real object often helps them memorize it better. B. Using flashcards or transparencies with the picture and the written form of the new item. C. Drawings, that is, objects can be drawn on the blackboard or in their notebooks. D. Mime, gestures,…may be used for certain descriptive adjectives, prepositions of place, action verbs, etc… E. Songs are another way of introducing new vocabulary. There is a great variety of them we may use in class with this purpose : -Songs that deal with certain topics: the colours, the family, etc… -Songs to move their bodies. -Songs to work rhythm, stress and intonation. -Songs to repeat a certain structure. -Etc… F. Synonyms and Antonyms, what let pupils associate the new word with a concept they already know.
G. Guessing the meaning from context. This meaning can be obtained by means of the relation with the pictures, the orthographic or pronunciation similarities with their mother tongue. H. Names of categories can also be taught verbally if the students know some names of items that belong within a particular category. Ex., “Tennis/Football/Baseball/Basketball/ … is a sport” I.
Etc…
J.
Translation, if none of those techniques works. The use or the avoidance of the Mother Tongue is a matter that must be decided by each individual teacher according to his/her group´s characteristics: some students at the elementary levels feel more comfortable when they mentally relate the new words with a native equivalent, but other students like to discover the meaning of the new items that have been explained without the resource of the Native Language and they feel very proud of their discovery. In any case, it must be minimized in the classroom. 2.Once we have presented the vocabulary, the following step is to give the students the
opportunity to PRACTISE it in suitable real contexts within the classroom. Some of the techniques we may use are the following : A. Games, such as : -“Kim´s game” . -“Dominoes” or “Bingo”. -Memory games, such as: . “Chinese Whisper” (the Spanish “Juego del Teléfono”). . “I went to the market” (in which a child starts saying, “I went to the market and I bought potatoes”, then the next student adds a word and says, “I went to the market and I bought potatoes and tomatoes”, and so on). - Etc… B. Matching words to pictures. C. Making handicrafts, slides, puppets, etc… related to the new vocabulary worked out in the class. D. Colour coding is another technique which help students to associate the new concepts that they are learning to what they already know, so it is easier for them to remember new words. For instance, we may associate the “yellow” colour with nouns, the “red” colour with verbs, and so on using coloured discs, or coloured symbols, etc... E. Labelling pictures with the right word. F. Picture dictation, in which the teacher gives instructions focusing on specific vocabulary. Ex., “Draw a red table/pencil/cat…”. G. Ordering a text, in which we have a text and we cut it into stripes; then we hand them out to pupils for making the text up.
H. Etc…
3.Many children learn new words relatively quickly, but they also forget them quickly. Once vocabulary has been introduced and practised, some techniques may be used to CONSOLIDATE and REVISE it, such as : A. Picture dictionaries/Vocabulary books created by the own student. We can organize these alphabetically or by topics. It is useful to use a ring-folder so they can add new pages when necessary. Pupils collect or draw pictures to illustrate the meaning of a word and write the name below. B. Collages or Posters, in which students collect pictures or photos around a topic, then they stick them on to a large sheet of cardpaper and write their names. These posters or collages are an element to remember the vocabulary that has been learnt and, at the same time, they can be used to decorate the classroom walls. C. Word families/sets with pictures coloured and labelled. They are kept into envelopes which can be labelled too, for example, “Clothes” , “Fruit”, etc… and may be used, from time to time, as games to revise it. D. Games, such as “Pictionary”, etc…
*We could conclude that, starting from our class´ characteristics, we will select which vocabulary and which of the previous techniques explained are the most suitable and useful. The use of varied resources and materials will encourage children and will make the English lessons be more effective and pleasant, which is very important if we want to create a suitable atmosphere in the class and to develop our students´ motivation.
THEME 11
LEXICAL AND SEMANTIC FIELDS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. NECESSARY LEXICON FOR SOCIALISATION, INFORMATION AND EXPRESSING ATTITUDES. TYPOLOGY OF ACTIVITIES TIED TO TEACHING AND LEARNING VOCABULARY IN THE CLASSROOM. 1. Introduction. 2. Lexical and semantic fields in the English language.
2.1. Meaning. 2.2. Word formation. 3. Necessary lexicon for socialisation, information and expressing attitudes. 3.1. Socialisation. 3.2. Information. 3.3. Expressing emotional attitudes. 3.4. Expressing intellectual attitudes. 4. Typology of activities tied to teaching and learning vocabulary in the classroom. 4.1. Teaching vocabulary. 4.2. Activities. 4.3. The importance of dictionary. 5. Bibliography.
1. INTRODUCTION. An ability to manipulate grammatical structure does not have any potential for expressing meaning unless words are used. We talk about the importance of “choosing your words carefully” in certain situation, but we are less concerned about choosing structures carefully. Then structural accuracy seems to be the dominant focus. In real life, however, it is even possible that where vocabulary is used correctly it can cancel out structural inaccuracy.
For many years vocabulary was seen as incidental to the main purpose of language teaching - namely the acquisition of grammatical knowledge about the language. Vocabulary was necessary to give students something to hang on to when learning structures, but was frequently not a main focus for learning itself. Recently methodologists and linguists have increasingly been turning their attention to vocabulary, stressing its importance in language teaching and reassessing some of the ways in which it is taught and learnt. Teachers should have the same kind of expertise in the teaching of vocabulary as they do in the teaching of structure.
2. LEXICAL AND SEMANTIC FIELDS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. There are a vast number of words that are not found everywhere, words that are restricted to a particular country or to a particular part of the country. Attending the lexical and semantic fields, there are a great number of varieties. We can emphasise regional and colloquial varieties. Regional dialect words have every right to be included in an English vocabulary count. They are English words even if they are used only in a single locality. But no one knows how many there are. Most regional vocabulary -especially that used in cities - is never recorded. There must be thousands of distinctive words inhabiting such areas as Brooklyn, the East End of London, San Francisco,... none of which has ever appeared in any dictionary.
The more colloquial varieties of English, and slang in particular, also tend to be given inadequate treatment. In dictionary writing, the traditional has been to take material only from the written language, and this has led to the compilers concentrating on educated, standard forms. They commonly leave out non- standard expressions, such as everyday slang and obscenities, as well as the slang of specific social groups and areas, such as the army, sport, public school, banking or medicine. 1.1. Meaning.
The first thing to realise about vocabulary items is that they frequently have more than one meaning. When we come across a word and try to decipher its meaning we will have to look at the context in which it is used. Sometimes words have meanings in relation to other words. Thus students need to know the meaning of “vegetable” as a word to describe any one of a number of other things (cabbages, carrots,...) We understand the meaning of a word like “good” in the context of a word like “bad”. Words have “opposites” (antonyms) and synonyms. What a word means can be change, stretched or limited by how it is used and this is something students need to know about. Word meaning is frequently stretched through the use of “metaphor” and “idiom”. We know that the word “hiss” for example, describes the noise that snakes make. But we stretch its meaning to describe the way people talk to each other. Word meaning is also governed by collocation - that is which word go with each other. In order to know how to use the word “sprained” we need to know that whereas we can say “sprained ankle”, “sprained wrist”, we cannot say “sprained rib”. We often use words in certain social and topical context. What we say is governed by the style and register we are in. If you want to tell someone you are angry you will choose carefully between the neutral expression of this fact “I’m angry” and the informal version “I’m really pissed off”. The later would certainly seem rude to listeners in certain contexts. At a different level we recognise that the two doctors talking about an illness will talk in a different register than one of them who then talks to the patient in question, who has never studied medicine. Students need to recognise metaphorical language use and they need to know how words collocate. They also need to understand what stylistic and topical contexts words and expressions occur in. 2.2. Word formation. Words can change their shape and their grammatical value too. Students need to know facts about word formation and how to twist words to fit different grammatical contexts. Students also need to know how suffixes and prefixes work. There are over 100 common prefixes and suffixes in English.
Another important technique is to join two words together to make a different word, a compound, as in blackbird, shopkeeper and frying-pan. Note that the meaning of a compound isn’t simply found by adding together the meaning of its parts. Also not that compounds aren’t always written as single words. 3. NECESSARY LEXICON FOR SOCIALIZATION, INFORMATION AND EXPRESSING ATTITUDES. The purpose of language is to communicate, whether with others by talking and writing or with ourselves by thinking. In verbal communication, six main categories within the functions of language can be distinguished: Ÿ Communicating and searching for information based of facts. Ÿ Expressing and finding out emotional attitudes. Ÿ Expressing and finding out moral attitudes. Ÿ Expressing and finding out intellectual attitudes. Ÿ Telling someone to do something (persuasion) Ÿ Socialising. This list of functions is not exhaustive. First of all, it is difficult to make a complete list. Secondly, the list represent a list contemplated for the “threefold level”. More functions can be added at higher levels. 3.1. Socialisation. Our aim in teaching English is enable students to use the language in real life and to develop his/her communicative competence. We are going to see now, at a elementary level, the necessary lexicon and structures to develop social relations. Ÿ To greet people: Hello, Good morning. Nice to see you... Ÿ When meeting people:How are you? I’m fine, thanks. What about you? Ÿ Introducing and being introduced: My name is... Have you met...? Ÿ When leaving: Good bye. See you later. Good night. Ÿ Asking for things: Can you give me...? Could you lend me...? Ÿ Requesting others to do something: Could you ..., please? Ÿ Expressing sympathy: I’m sorry. That’s too bad. what a shame! Ÿ Apologising: I’m sorry about ...gerund. Ÿ Congratulating: Congratulations. I’m glad! That’s wonderful!
Ÿ Offering things:
Do you want...? Would you like...? Do you fancy...
gerund? Ÿ Offering to do sth: Do you want me to...? Shall I...? Ÿ Asking for permission: May I...? Do you mind if I...? Ÿ Inviting: Would you like to...? Ÿ Agreeing to meet: I’ll see you... Let’s meet... Ÿ Thanking: Thank you/ Thanks. 3.2. Information
Information also implies its transmission. Halliday divides this function into two: the logical function and the experience function. The latter is used to communicate ideas and the former relates these, places them on the same level or on a subordinate level. Affirmative sentences are used to give information and questions to ask for information. Ÿ Personal identification: -Name: What’s your name? I’m... -Address and telephone number: Where do you live? -Date and place of birth, age and nationality: Where was he born? Where are you from? -Jobs, family, character, physical appearance: What does he do? How many brothers have you got? What’s he like? What does she look like? Ÿ Reporting, Describing, Narrating: What happened? I came... Ÿ Correction: You’ve never been in Liverpool! Ÿ Asking: Where do you spend...? Who’s your favourite...? In English we have also the direct or indirect speech, and the question tags as special structures for giving and receiving information.
3.3. Expressing emotional attitudes. It’s important to establish some general objectives bearing in mind that our students possess this affective ability. These are mainly: -To benefit from the new language. -To find enjoyment in the new language. -To discover a new form of communication. -To discover a new source of diversion.
Ÿ Feelings:
-Pleasure: What fun! I love watching... -Displeasure: I hate homework. I don’t like washing up. -Satisfaction: I’m so pleased you have come. -Disappointment: What a pity! You’ve missed the party. -Preference: I prefer skating to skiing. -Gratitude: Thanks! Ÿ Wishes: -Want, desire: I would like to have long hair. -Polite request: Would you mind picking up my suitcases? -Offering to help: Shall I help you downstairs? -Request for oneself: May I borrow your classnotes? -Making requests: May I have a glass of water? Ÿ Intentions: -Explaining intentions: I’m going to work hard this term. -Persuading: Oh, come Tom! You will enjoy the party a lot. -Making plans: Let us meet at 6’30 in the post office. -Promises: I will be there. -Asking about intention: What are you going to do? 3.4. Expressing intellectual attitudes. A very important group of communicative functions is the one which serve to express intellectual attitudes that are developed by means of a huge and complex series of specific structures and lexicon. Ÿ Expressing agreement and disagreement: I agree with you. I don’t think so. Ÿ Inquiring about agreement and disagreement: Do you think so? Ÿ Denying something: No, I never go there. Ÿ Accepting or denying an offer or invitation: Thank you. All right. Ÿ Offering to do something: Can I help you? 5. BIBLIOGRAPHY. Billows F.L. The Techniques of Language Teaching (Longman 1977) Bright H.A. McGregor. Teaching English as a second language (Longman 1970) Doff A. Teach English (Cambridge University Press 1988)
Harmer J. The Practice of English Language Teaching. Widowson H.G. Teaching Language as Communication (Oxford University Press 1988).
TOPIC 11. LEXICAL AND SEMANTIC FIELDS IN ENGLISH. SOCIALIZATION, INFORMATION AND ATTITUDE EXPRESSION VOCABULARY, ACTIVITIES USED IN TEACHING AND LEARNING VOCABULARY IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM. INTRODUCTION In this topic we will go into detail some aspects of semantics (study of meaning in language). The unit of semantics is the lexeme or lexical item. We will discuss how vocabulary is organized, the vocabulary needed to express common communicative functions and some activities that we can use in learning and teaching vocabulary. There are several ways of organizing lexemes. We can study also the paradigmatic relationships. We will now focus on lexical and semantic items. 2. LEXICAL AND SEMANTIC FIELDS IN ENGLISH 2.1. Lexical / Semantic fields Semantic or lexical fields can be defined as semantically related groups. The words of a language can be classified into sets which are related to conceptual fields and divide up the semantic space: feeling, possession, perception, speech, existence. 2.2. Sense relationships They are the internal organising principle that creates lexical fields. There are two types: • syntagmatic relationships: are the relationship on the horizontal axis when two items are often used together e.g. rural life, green area, dark, hair.. • Paradigmatic relationships: are the relationships on the vertical axis. We can find several types: a) Synonymy /sinonimi/: it should be noted (es importante decir) synonymy is not frecuent in the language. They are groups of words that share a general sense and so may be interchangeable in a limited numbers of contexts. e.g. die (morir), pass away (pasar al otro mundo) b) Antonymy: antonymy is the relationship of oppositeness of meaning. • Non-gradable or ungradable antonyms, are mutually exclusive, eg. alive/dead, male/female... • Gradable antonyms permit the expression of degree, e.g. big/small, cold/hot. And the comparative (warm, cool, chilly, cold).
• Converses denote a reciprocal relationship: one term presupposes the other (family and social relation- e.g. parent/child...) c) Hyponymy: it is the relationship of inclusion in that the meaning of the general term (superordinate) is included in the meaning of the specific term e.g. flower/rose, colour/blue, season (superordinate)/winter (hyponymy). d) Incompatibility: exclusive members of the same superordinate category are referred to as incompatibles, e.g. winter/summer. Relationship between hyponymyns. 2.3.
Componential analysis Consists of breaking down the lexical items within the same semantic field into their constituent parts in order to examine the similarities and differences between them.
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SOCIALIZATION, VOCABULARY
INFORMATION
AND
ATTITUDE
EXPRESSION
In this section we will deal with the vocabulary our students need to express themselves with fluency in common situations. 3.1. Socialization vocabulary It is the vocabulary used to introducing ourselves. In socialization we will study the language related to: a) Greetings: • Introducing oneself and being introduced: This vocabulary is used when people meet for the fist time. - Hello, I’m / Hello my name is... - Pleased to meet you (formal) / Nice to meet you (informal) • Social abbreviations: Mr, Mrs, Miss, Ms, Sir, Lady... • Greeting people: - Hello / Good morning (formal)/ morning (informal) - Good night (formal) / Night - night (for children) • Saying goodbye: - Good bye / bye / See you later • Congratulating: - Well done / congratulations • Seasonal greetings: - Happy birthday! / Merry Christmas! b) Expressing good wishes: - Have a good time / day / Enjoy yourself
c) Inviting: - Can / could I see you tonight? What time is good for you? - Would you like to come round for dinner on Saturday? d) Thanking: -Than you / thank you very much/ thanks a lot e) Apologizing: - I?m sorry / sorry / I?m terribly sorry about that.... f) Expressing symphaty: - What a pity / I?m sorry / How terrible!... g) Offering to do something: - Do you want me to ... ? / Shall I .....? 3. 2. Information vocabulary Typical structures to give or get information A) Asking for and giving information a) Information about oneself: name (what’s your name?), origin, Nationality, date of birth, address, telephone numbwer, age, mental status, job, family,.. b) Information about the time: What time is it? / what’s the time? c) Information about physical cahracteristics: What does he look like? He is tall... d) Information about prizes: How much is this book? / It is 5 pounds B) Describing someone / something Our pupils must learn to describe people and common places - Declarative sentences: It is ... , It has ... - Adjectives - Prepositions - Vocabulary: colours, sizes, materials, weight, etc.. C) Narrating We can list the elementos that are essential for narration - Verbal tenses - Link (Connectors) (then, afterwards, later, so...) D) Asking for an opinion - What do you think about...? / I think ... What about you? / - How do you feel about? E) Clarifying - I mean / in fact / in other words
F) Asking for clarification - Pardon? / Could you repeat that? / Say that again, please / What do you mean by..? 3.3. Attitude expression vocabulary A) Intellectual attitudes a) Expressing agreement and disagreement: -agreement: I share your opinion / I agree / That’s just what I think / That’s all b) Expressing opinions: - In my opinion / I believe / If you ask me / From my oint of view c) Expressing certainly / uncertainly: - Certainly: I am sure / I certainly think. - Doubt: Maybe / Perhaps / I wonder if... - Uncertainly: I don’t know if they are well / I’m not sure if they are well d) Expressing possibility and impossibility: - It is possible that... / It is impossible that... / They may be in July by now ... e) Expressing obligation: - I must begin working now (internal obligation) - you have to be here by five again (external obligation) f) Expressing approval / disapproval: - I approve of ... / you are right in.. - I’m apposed to ... / I object to / I strongly disapprove of... B) Emotional attitudes a) Expressing a feeling: - Likes and dislikes: I like / I love fish / I enjoy / I am ford of / I hate I dislike / I can’t stand / I am tired of .. - Sadness: I really feel down today / I am under the weather - Indifference: I don’t care at all - Surprise: This is a surprise / It is surprising / How amazing / What a surprise.. - Hope: I hope so / I expect to come tonight - Fear: I’m afraid of exams - Gratefulness: thank you very much b) Expressing intention: - I’m going to + infinitive (intention to do something) - I intend to come back on Sunday
right
4. ACTIVITIES USED IN TEACHING AND LEARNING VOCABULARY IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM There are three crucial factors in vocabulary learning: 1) Once the teacher has introduced the new lexical item, h/s should provide the students enough opportunities to bring the item into active meaningful use. 2) The lexical items taught should be relevant to the learners’ needs and interests. 3) In introducing vocabulary, the teacher should use visual aids. Visual back up is very important to help convey meaning and to help pupils memorize new words. (Flash cards, photos, realia, mime...) ACTIVITIES a) Activities to practise language structures or patterns in context: - Memorizing short dialogues / role plays / making dialogues with a similar structure, e.g. to do a menu, timetable.... b) Activities using the dictionary: - Matching with their word definitions / looking up homophones c) Activities based on semantic fields. Activities based on diagrams: -e.g.: pupils must complete a diagram with different types of adjectives related to -hair (colour) (type)... -e.g. : Which word do not belong in their groups? (for example words related to food) - The students are provided with a list of words. They have to draw a diagram - Odd man out (one word is different): Tick the word which does not belong in a series. - Sequencing activities: Sutdents have to put a series of words rin the appropiate place on the cline, ladder, scale....e.g. bad, good, terrible, quite good, horrible, so-so, awful, fabulous, great d) Activities based on antonyms.: -matching antonyms, giving antonyms, antonym card game (complete pair of antonyms) e) Activities based on pictures: -Matching or labelling objects / Narrative based on pictures f) Multiple choice activities g) Games: Guessing games / Crosswords / word bingo / a word begining with... 5. SUMMARY In this topic we have expounded the different ways in which lexemes can be organised: semantic or lexical fields, sense relationships and componential analysis We have then presented the vocabulary our pupils need to communicate with others in habitual situations. We have grouped this vocabulary into socialization vocabulary, information vocabulary and attitude expression vocabulary. In last section of the topic we have suggested various types of vocabulary activities.
REFERENCES:
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Byrne, D. Teaching writing skills. Longman. London (1988) Hallyday, M.A.K. Functional Grammar. Arnold. London. (1982) Materiales para la Reforma. Primaria. MEC. Madrid (1992)
SUBJECT 11. CAMPOS LÉXICOS Y SEMÁNTICOS EN LA LENGUA INGLESA. LÉXICO NECESARIO PARA LA SOCIALIZACIÓN, LA INFORMACIÓN Y LA EXPRESIÓN DE ACTITUDES. TIPOLOGÍA DE ACTIVIDADES LIGADAS A LA ENSEÑANZA Y EL APRENDIZAJE DEL LÉXICO EN LA CLASE DE LENGUA EXTRANJERA. INTRODUCTION Traditionally, the teaching of a foreign language has focused on the teaching and learning of grammar as well as of vocabulary. The first thing children do in their mother tongue, once they are able to, is to say words. These words will be isolated, they won’t say sentences, but they are words which come from their surrounding and which have meaning anyway. At the same time that the children are more aware of reality, they learn more and more words. In the process of learning a foreign language, the teacher must take into account the natural process of language learning. The 4 skills are naturally acquired in the following order: LISTENING, SPEAKING, READING and WRITING . Therefore it seems to be quite logical to learn a foreign language in the same way. However, as it was mentioned above, the teaching of a foreign language has been always based on both grammar and vocabulary aspects. The reason for this is that a child that can already read and write in his/her own language would feel frustrated if he/she could only produce isolated words. LEXICAL AND SEMANTIC FIELDS Choosing which vocabulary of the foreign language should be taught is not easy. Throughout the history of the teaching of foreign language there have been 2 basic trends trying to select the most adequate vocabulary: •
The first of them was based on the frequency of use . This means there are words which are used more frequently than others due to determined circumstances. Some works have been published, trying in an attempt to show the most frequently used words in written English.
•
The second trend is based on the fact that there are some words that are more necessary than others due to their direct relationship with learning aims. It is very difficult to establish which words are necessary and which words are not because many different factors and realities can vary the criteria. That is why the teacher has to take into account the students’ world and interests. As well as this , the vocabulary cannot be presented in isolation but within real situations or linguistic
contexts. This will facilitate both comprehension and production. The important factor is that they are useful words for communication. Thus teachers should look for these ‘interesting’ contexts, for instance: a) informal conversations with classroom mates b) phone calls c) children stories d) instructions for the functioning and organisation of the classroom, house , work... . e) descriptions of objects, people or animals f) jokes and games g) interviews h) penfriends It is easier to learn vocabulary when it is possible to associate it in some way. There are 2 important ways of relating words: 1. On the one hand, when they are related by means of semantic associations, that is, with their meaning, we say that they are related through semantic fields. E.g.: Sports, fruits, clothes,... . 2. On the other hand, when the link is through formal relations, we say that they are related through lexical fields.E.g.: photography, photographer, photocopy, photographic... . The classroom is the place where interaction in the foreign language mainly takes place. Often, the language used in the classroom does not have a real application outside but there are many other sentences that are also used in normal social situations, such as: Could you open the door, please?, Sit down, please. Students should be provided from the beginning with simple linguistic tools that allow them to express their necessities and problems, such as : a) asking and giving information: Excuse me!, Could you repeat that?, ... b) expressing attitudes and actions: I don’t like it at all, I hate it,... c) using social formulae: Happy birthday!, How old are you?, Good morning!,... d) asking questions in class for information: How do you spell it?,... . Our main task as teachers is offering the students a series of resources that allow them to communicate in a foreign language. That is why, apart from the teaching the abovementioned vocabulary and structures, we must make them aware of the fact that a great deal of new words can be formed, as in their mother tongue, by means of:
WORD FORMATION There are different processes of word formation, such as: 1. AFFIXATION: There are two processes:
• Prefixation: It consists in adding a prefix to the base o without a change of word-class ( normally classmaintaining ). For instance : We have some words as: man , market,... if we add a prefix: super-, we have another word. E.g.: superman, supermarket, ... . • Suffixation: It consists in adding a suffix to the base normally changing he word-class ( class-changing ). For instance : we have some nouns and if we add a suffixes it is become in a adjective . E.g.: Help helpless black blackish 2. CONVERSION A word changes its cathegory but it doesn´t change its form. E.g.: A verb can be changed into noun . There are different types: • Verb... Noun: To love- love, to answer- answer • Adjective... Noun: Daily newspaper-daily, comic actorcomic • Noun... Verb: Bottle- to bottle, nurse- to nurse • Adjective... Verb: Calm- to calm, dry- to dry There are other types of conversion: MINOR CATEGORIES OF CONVERSION • Conversion from closed-system words to nouns. E.g.: this book is a must for them • Conversion of phrases to nouns.E.g.: My house is one of the also-rans ( from my horse also ran) • Conversion of phrases to adjectives.E.g.: an under-theweather feeling • Conversion fron affixes to nouns.E.g.: Patriotism and any other isms you’d like to name.
• Conversion of secondary word-class. E.g.: I am running ( intransitive vb.)// I am running a mile ( monotransitive vb. ) Shakespeare was a writer. ( proper noun). There are many Shakespeares in t he world ( common one ) APPROXIMATE CONVERSION: Voicing and stress shift . In some cases conversion is approximate rather than complete, that is a word, in he course of changing its grammatical function may undergo a slight change of pronunciation or spelling. He most important kinds of alteration are: • Voicing of final consonants: advice (noun)- advise ( verb ), house ( noun)- house ( verb) • Shift of stress: When disyllabic verbs become nouns the stress sometimes change from the second to the first syllable. This happens with words like conduct, contrast,conflict,convert,.... 3. COMPOUNDING This process consists in putting two bases together forming a syntactic unit. There are different types: • NOUN COMPOUNDS: Are those which function as nouns. There are several types. -SUBJECT + VERB: sunrise ‘the sun rises’ -VERB + OBJECT: record-player ‘ X plays the record’ -VERB + ADVERBIAL: swimming-pool ‘X swims in the pool’ -VERBLESS COMPOUND: ashtray ‘ a tray (is) for the ash’ • ADJECTIVE COMPOUNDS: are function as adjectives. Types:
those
which
-VERB+OBJECT: a man-eating giant ‘X eats a man’ -VERB+ ADVERBIAL: an ocean-going boat ‘ X goes across the ocean’ -VERBLESS COMPOUND: class-conscious ‘X is conscious of his/her class’ • VERB COMPOUNDS: are those which function as verbs. The problem with this kind of compounds is that they are normally back-formations of noun compounds.E.g.:baby-sit, 4. BACK FORMATION Formation of a new word by the removal of ( real or apparent ) affixes from a existing word. The majority of back-formations in English are verbs.E.g.: -Burgle (from burglar) = to robe -housekeep ( from housekeeping) 5. REDUPLICATION Reduplicatives are compounds with two or more constituents which are identical or slightly different. Most of reduplicatives are taken from the language of nursery. E.g.: walkie-talkie, criss-cross, goody-goody (very good, delicious), ping-pong, hocus-pocus ( abracadabra), wishywashy ( when someone uses a very academic language.). Uses of reduplicatives: • to imitate sounds: tick-tock • to suggest alternating movements: see- saw ( balancín) • to suggest vacillation or nonsense: wishy-washy • to intensify: tip-top. 6. CLIPPING
It denotes he subtraction of one or more syllables of a word. Clippings are normally familiar words which are often shortened to a single syllable ( especially in informal language). The shortening may occur: a) at the beginning of the word: telephone-phone b) at the end of the word: photograph-photo c) both at the beginning and end of the word: influenza-flu. Another examples could be: ad ( advertisement), exam ( examination ),... 7.BLENDING ( blends or portmanteau words) Especial type of compounds in which at least one of the elements is fragmentary. E.g.: smog( smoke + fog), heliport ( helicopter + airport), Eurovision ( Europe + vision ) , transistor ( transfer + resistor ) 8.ACRONYMS Words formed from the initial letters or larger parts of words. There are two types: a) ALPHABETISM or ABREVIATIONS: words which are pronounced as sequence of letters: UFO, USA, EC, UK , ... b) PROPER ACRONYMS: pronounced as a simple word: VAT, NATO, RADAR ( radio detecting and ranging).
9.WORD-MANUFACTURE/ COINAGE
When a word is invented by someone and it can defining something. For instance: GOOGOL ( a number that is equal to 1 followed by 100 zeros). 10.BORROWING Linguistic forms can be taken by one language or dialect from another. E.g.: restaurant, café, pizza, patio... . TYPOLOGY OF ACTIVITIES RELATED TO THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF LEXICON So far we have referred to the formation of words and to which is the necessary vocabulary, but the simple fact of telling our students which are the expressions and mechanisms does not make them learn them. There are certain factors that are very important to consider in the teaching of vocabulary and we offer some helpful techniques: A)PRESENTATION OF VOCABULARY Whenever we elaborate an activity with the aim of acquiring vocabulary, we have to bear in mind that lexicon must be presented in real situational or linguistic context that facilitate deduction of meaning. On the other hand, it must be presented orally for the student to internalise pronunciation prior to orthography. Taking into account these factors we can present a word by means of: a) linguistic resources, in an indirect way using a synonym or antonym. b) Describing it ( with this technique we will use the lexicon corresponding to descriptions) c) Working out meaning through the context.
d) We can present vocabulary by means of realia ( for instance, when the lexicon presented refers to classroom objects, clothes, or physical characteristics) B) PRACTICE Once the vocabulary has been presented, the next step is to give the pupil the possibility to put into practice in adequate real contexts inside the classroom in order to check that the student has understood. For this step there is a series of adequate activities: a) arrange drawings and words b) riddles ( object, people or animals) c) Bingo. This game can be used in order to practise any type of vocabulary ( number, fruits, colours) . We can use this activity and revising the vocabulary. d) Arrange and classify ( in different categories: colours, liquids,...) e) Domino f) Telephone g) Picture dictation h) Arrange a text step by step i) Association game. E.g.: I went to the market and bought some bread//I went to the market and bought some bread and some fish // ... . j) stories
C) CONSOLIDATION OF THE VOCABULARY ACQUIRED It is the most difficult because for the vocabulary learnt not to be forgotten, it must be used frequently. Making collages is an adequate instrument to revise vocabulary.
Students themselves can collect photos about determined semantic field ( animals, clothing, sports, fruits , ....) stick them onto a pasteboard and write their names in English. We can hung it on the walls ( as vocabulary reminders) CONCLUSION We will decide which vocabulary and resources are the most appropriate and useful setting out from the peculiarities of our classroom . None of them excludes one another. The use of motivating varied resources will make the English class effective as well as amusing.
José Luis Martin Rol.
TEMA 11. CAMPOS LÉXICOS Y SEMÁNTICOS EN LENGUA INGLESA. LÉXICO NECESARIO PARA LA SOCIALIZACIÓN, LA INFORMACIÓN Y LA EXPRESIÓN DE ACTITUDES. TIPOLOGÍA DE ACTIVIDADES LIGADAS A LA ENSEÑANZA Y EL APRENDIZAJE DEL LÉXICO EN LA CLASE DE LENGUA EXTRANJERA. In this unit we will study how we can order vocabulary (lexical fields) and how vocabulary is organised (semantic features), then we will see some vocabulary needed to express some common communicative functions (socialization, information and attitude expression and finally techniques used in learning and teaching vocabulary. Without vocabulary, structures and function haven’t got any sense. We can see the importance of vocabulary when we don’t find the words we need to express something. However, many teachers spend more time in teaching grammar than in teaching vocabulary. Firstly, I am going to start talking about the semantic structure. There are several ways of oraganizing lexemes. We can try to group them into fields of meaning, or studying the types of paradigmatic relationships existing between them, or analyzing lexical items into a series of semantic features or components. Talking about semantic or lexical fields we can say that lexemes can be organised into a system, in which these lexemes interrelate, and define each other in specific ways, For example, the various lexemes for “ parts of the body” (head, neck, shoulders, etc.) It has been argued that the whole of a language’s vocabulary is structured into fields; but there is in fact a great deal of variations as we move from one part of the language to another. There would be little difficulty gathering
together all the English lexemes for “body parts”, for example; but it would be very difficult to do the same job for “noise” or “sociology”. There have been many philosophical and linguistic attempts to classify the concepts or words in a language. In recent times, the most influential and popular work has been the Thesaurus of Peter Mark Roget (1779-1869), fir published by Longman in 1852. Roget divided the vocabulary into six main areas: abstract relations, space, matter, intellect, volition and affections. Each area was given a detailed and exhaustive subclassification, producing 1.000 Semitic categories in all. The first three classes cover the external world. Abstract relations deals with such ideas as number, order and time; Space is concerned with movements, shapes, and sizes. Matter covers the physical world and humankind’s perception of it by means of the five senses. The last three classes deal with the internal world of human beings. Intellect studies the human mind. Volition deals with the human will. Affections, whose original tittle is emotion, religion and morality, deals with the human heart and soul. There is a progression from abstract concepts through the material universe, to mankind itself, culminating in what Roget saw as humanity’s highest achievements: morality and religion. Oral: One path through the thesaurus is the following: affections general terms personal sympathetic moral religious obligation
sentiments
conditions
practice institutions
temperance intemperance sensualism aceticism
Thesauri of this kind have now been produced for several languages, and prove to be a useful adjunct to many practical linguistic activities, such as professional writing, translating, and setting or solving crosswords. For the semanticist, however, their value is limited, as they contain no information about the sense relationships between individual lexemes, and items that come from different regional, social, or professional varieties are juxtaposed without comment. To study the structure of a semantic field, more precise means of plotting the sense relations between lexemes need to be used. In this point we have to talk about sense relationships too. The organization of the lexemes of a language is based on our intuitions that groups of lexemes are related in sense. The relationships between lexemes can be analyzed under two main headings: 1. Syntagmatic relationships that refer to the tendency of lexemes to work together or collocate in predictable ways, for example we know what items are commonly associated with “kitchen”, for instance. 2. Paradigmatic relationships that refer to the way in which lexemes can substitute for each other. Several types of paradigmatic relationships have been recognized. These include: a) synonymy that is the relationships of “sameness” of meaning, for instance, kingly, royal, regal. And the search for synonyms is a traditional pedagogical exercise b) Hyponymy that refers to the notion of inclusion, whereby we can say that something is a kind of something else, for example, an orange, or an apple are fruits. apple or orange are hyponyms. c) Antonymy that is the relationship of oppositeness. where there are a variety of different forms of oppositeness, such as: complementary (they cannot be graded (single/married), converseness (two-way contrasts that are interdependent) (husband/wife), gradability ( permit the expression of degrees)(big /small). d) Incompatibility that refers to groups of lexemes that are mutually exclusive members of the same superordinate category. For example red and green are incompatible lexemes within the category colour. For language learners, there is a further type of sense relation but most learners find this useful to make a conscious effort to link words between a foreign language and their own.
The second main point of the theme refers to the necessary lexicon for socialization, information and expressing attitudes. In verbal communication, six main categories within the functions of language can be distinguished: 1. Communicating and searching for information based on facts. 2. Expressing and finding out emotional attitudes. 3. Expressing and finding out moral attitudes. 4. Expressing and finding out intellectual attitudes. 5. Telling someone to do something (persuasion). 6. Socializing. Each one of these categories, and each one of the functions, can be carried out separately in speech acts. Often, however, two or more functions will combine in the same speech act. Moreover, a person can search for information and at the same time express surprise (emotional attitude). This list of functions is not exhaustive. First of all, it is difficult to make a complete list. Secondly, the list represents a list contemplated for the “threshold level” (nivel umbral). More functions can be added at higher levels. We will then examine the structures and lexicon needed for social relations and to give and receive information, as well as how emotional and intellectual attitudes are expressed. 1. Socialization vocabulary. Understanding and controlling interactions in discourse are important for a child because they enable him to enter communicative spaces, to understand acceptable presentation procedures, to understand the rights of others in communication, to interpret the message of a public advertisement, to use the telephone properly, or to be able to ask for information at public entities, etc. Now we will see the structures and lexicon necessary for social relations. a) Starting and ending a conversation: * Greetings: responses: Hello! /Hi hello hi How are you? I am fine, thanks. How are you doing/getting on? I am very well, thanks I am not too bad, thanks. Good morning Good morning. * Farewell: Good bye, good night the same cheers, see you later, so long, cheerio. Nice to have met you Yes, I hope we meet again. It’s been nice knowing you. Give my regards to your wife Yes I will. Remember me to your parents. Say hello to Jim. Take care. * Introductions: Hello I am Jim. Hello, Jim./ Nice to meet you. How do you do? My name is James How do you do, James? b) Complimenting and congratulating: * complimenting: responses What a marvellous meal! I’m glad you liked it. That was one of the best book I’ve ever read It’s nice of you to say so. * congratulating: responses Well done! thanks a lot. May we congratulate you on... It’s very kind of you. C) Offering and thanking: * offering:
Bye,
Would you like another helping? Yes, please, No, thank you. * thanking: thanks a lot. You’re welcome/ Not at all. d) Apologising and regretting: *Apologising:Oh , forgive me, I’m terribly sorry.- That’s quite all right, no
harm
done. I do apologize- It doesn’t matter. Sorry about that- Don’t worry. * regretting: I regret that e) Expressing condolences: Please accept my deepest sympathy on the death of your mother. f) Expressing good wishes, seasonal greetings and toast: * Good wishes: Good luck! Best wishes for..! Have a good time...! Enjoy yourself! Seasonal greetings: Merry Christmas! Happy birthday! * Toasts: Good health! Cheers! bottoms up! g) speaking on the phone: * receiving the call: Hello,456788 * Making a call: Can I speak to Jim, please?
*
We have already listed some simple acts of communication whereby people establish and maintain social relations with one another. Now we are going to study the expression of information. Probably one of the most important reasons we use language for is to give someone some piece of information which we think they do not know. Questions and statements are the structures we typically use to convey or ask for information. They do not need, however, the use of a specific vocabulary, with the exception, perhaps of interrogative pronouns. Where we do need to teach our pupils specific vocabulary is when we consider people’s reactions to information, for instance opinion, agreement, interruption and so on. a) Opinion: * asking for an opinion: What do you think about/ What are your feelings about , What your attitude is to.. * giving an opinion: in my opinion, as I see it, My own view of the matter is that... * asking without giving your opinion: I don’t know what to think about, I no particular views on, I have no strong feelings about... b) Expressing agreement and disagreement: * Agreement: I agree, I couldn’t agree more, That’s just what I think, So do I . I share your opinion. * Disagreement: I can’t agree with you, I disagree, I don’t think that is it is awful. * Partial agreement: it’s true that..., but/ If I accept this you must accept.. c) Interrupting: Excuse me, sorry, just a moment.
have
true,
d) corroboration: I agree, and what is more,/ Yes, in fact, d) Clarification: * Clarifying: , I mean.../..., in other words... * asking for clarification: sorry?, Pardon?, Could you repeat that?, What you mean by..?
do
The last thing we will see in this point is the vocabulary needed to express attitudes, where we have to distinguish in the next functions: a) Volition: * willingness: I am ready to paint your home/I will do anything for you * wish: I wish you every happiness in your wedding dayWould you like? *Intention: I intent to see you tomorrow/ I am going to see her tomorrow. * Insistence: I insist on overcome the issue. b) Liking and disliking: *Likes: I like, I love, I enjoy, I am fond of, I am keen on * Diskikes: I don’t like, I dislike, I hate, I detest , I can’t stand, I am fed up with * Indifference: I don’t mind * Preference: I prefer reading c) Hope: I hope she arrives on time. d) Anticipation of pleasure: I am looking forward to hearing from you, e) Regret: I wish I were tall, I am sorry to hear that, f) Approval and disapproval: * approval: you are quite right to, I am in favour of, * disapproval: I must object to, I am opposed, g) Surprise: It’s rather surprising that, what a surprise h) Concern: I am worried that, It’s disturbing that... i) Emotive emphasis: * Interjections: Whoops, mm, gosh, whoah * Exclamations: What a man!, How extraordinary! *repetition: He is very very silly. * Emphasizers: She’s an absolute beginner. As we can see there are many lexical items that our pupils must be able to use in order to acquire a basic communicative competence. To finish we will see the third main point in the theme, the techniques used in learning and teaching vocabulary. Now we will point out the most common techniques to introduce the new vocabulary. The first thing we will see is how we must introduce the new vocabulary. The first step is introducing the new vocabulary, the main thing here is the meaning. To explain the meaning there are several techniques and these are: a) Visual techniques: We can use flashcards, photographs, blackboard drawings, wall charts and realia that we can carry to our class easily. A picture has a great importance because a pupil can remember more easily a word when we have showed him/her the picture than we have only translated the word. (TARJETAS MEGIAS) b) Verbal techniques: We can give a definition in simple English with words that they know. We may also use synonyms. We may also use any of the types of antonyms we have described. c) The use of records with sounds that they can associate with the object before they listen to the word in English for instance the transports like a car, train, motorbike, etc.
d) The use of mime, action and gesture: With gestures the teacher can explain a lot of words, action verbs such as drink, eat, walk as well as adjectives like happy, sad or deictic words such as from, to there... e) Translation: when other techniques are not useful to explain any difficult word, the teacher can use the translation into the mother tongue. However, translation cannot be the main technique if we don’t want our pupils to continue to use Spanish as a framework on which to attach English items. The second step in teaching vocabulary is that our pupils remember them, and if we want our pupils to remember the vocabulary we will have to practice it and there are three main ways of practising it: a) Revision through denotation: These activities are based on showing our pupils the real object or action, or a picture: 1. Labelling: our pupils are given a picture and have to write the names of the objects in the picture. 2. I spy: a pupil think in an object that the rest of the class can see and he/she gives a clue that is the first vowel. The rest of the class try to guess the word. The phrase they use is: I spy with my little eye something beginning with B. Is it a book? 3. spot the difference: our pupils are put into pairs. Each member has a slightly different picture. Without showing it to one another they have to discover the differences. 4. Describe and draw: This activity is similar to the last one, one member of the pair has a drawing and the other one a blank piece of paper. The pupil with the picture must tell his partner what to draw. 5. Picture dominoes and picture rummy: this games are based on the associations our pupils may establish between the objects appearing in cards. In dominoes they do it with pairs of cards, while in rummy they do it with threes, fours. 6.Kim’s game: we show our pupils a picture or a tray with object on it, or series of different flash cards or magazine pictures. They have two minutes to memorize as man as they can, and afterwards they will have to say or write what they saw. And we can transform this game into Chinese whispers if only one child sees the tray and then whispers the objects into his partner’s ear. The process goes on and we see the similarities and differences between the initial and the final list. 7. I spy: A pupil thinks about an object that the rest of the class can see and he or she says: I spy with my little eye something beginning with... and the first letter of the object and the rest of the class try to guess it. b) Revision through word families: In this activities we revise vocabulary in relation to other words in the same lexical field. Some examples of these activities are the following: 1. Word thermometers: these are useful for indicating degree. For example place these words in the correct place on the thermometer: always, sometimes, usually, never, rarely. (dibujar un termometro). 2. Series: this game uses lexical fields. Our pupils must write as many words as they know in one field. We can use these words in Word Bingo. Our pupil write ten words relating to one lexical field. We call out words connected with this lexical field. The firs pupil who crosses out all the words on his page is the winner. 3. Spiders: we draw a spider in the blackboard with a topic or a word and they have to write in the legs all the words they can think of connected with this word. 4. Odd man out: the teacher says four or five words but one of them isn’t related to the rest and they have to guess it. 5. Categories: we use jumbled words which must be categorised into lexical fields. c) Revision through explanations: In these activities where paraphrase the words we are revising. Some examples are the following: 1. Crosswords: These can be divided round topic ideas. 2. Coffee-pot: is a word which is used instead of a particular verb a pupil has thought of. The rest of the class must find out this verb by means of questions such as: When do you coffee pot? 3.Vocabulary quizzes: In groups they prepare questions that elicit the correct answer. Then, they ask them in turns.
Now we are going to see to finish the learner-centred techniques. Recent developments have emphasised the importance of equipping our pupils with the necessary strategies for dealing with skills activities. In learning vocabulary his involves: 1. Asking others, in English, if possible, can foster co-operative learning and it also makes our pupils to offer the best context to elicit the word they want This is a skill we have in our mother tongue, and we use it very frequently when we do not know a lexical field. 2. Using a dictionary is one of the most important skills we must teach our pupils. Teaching students how to use a dictionary should include the following aspects: The students must know how a dictionary is organized regarding ideas, etymology, synonyms, etc., They must be familiar with the symbols and abbreviations used in the dictionary.. A skill that the teacher should practice with his students is understanding the dictionary definitions of words. The learners must acquire a critical ability that will enable them to discern the advantages of using a certain type of dictionary as opposed to another in specific situations. Finally, the student must develop the ability to choose the correct use of word based on a specific concept. At initial levels it is better to use pictorial dictionaries. 3. Another skill we can teach our pupils is to deduce meaning out of context. This is a predictive skill that they must use both in listening and in reading. Oral: For evaluating vocabulary we have many examples of activities: 1. Cloze test: the pupil must write the words that there aren’t write in the text because they are necessary. 2. Matching antonyms. 3. Matching words with their definition. Bibliography Alburquerque. R et al. En el aula de Ingles. Longman. London, 1990 Gairns R& Redman S Working with words. CUP. 1986. Wallance M Teaching Vocabulary Heinemann 1982 Propuesta de Secuencia. Lenguas Extranjersa. Mec. Escuela Española. Madrid. 1992. Picture dictionaries. Abbs B Picture Workbook Longman 1986 Oxford Children’s Picture Dictionary OUP. 1981
THEME 12: ESSENTIAL MORPHOSYNTACTICAL ELEMENTS IN ENGLISH. ELEMENTARY COMMUNICATIVE STRUCTURES AND USE OF GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES IN ORAL AND WRITTEN PRODUCTIONS. 1. Introduction.
The structures of a language, the rules governing the changes of their forms and the combination of elements composing it, constitute the grammar of that language. If our intention is to learn a language, we cannot just learn its vocabulary but we will have to learn also the elements making it up.
Apart from learning a language, if we want to communicate with it productively, we will have to learn that there are other factors shaping the meaning of a grammatically correct sentence in a language, such as: situations, speakers and social background, that is, the context. 1. Essential elements of morphosyntax.
The range of constructions studied by grammar is divided into sub-fields. The oldest and most widely-used division is that between morphology and syntax. The most basic units of syntax are the sentence and the word. The sentence is the largest unit of syntax: as we move upwards beyond the sentence we pass from syntax into discourse analysis; the word is the lowest unit of syntax: as we move downwards beyond the word we pass from syntax into morphology. The most elementary words, such as girl, car, to, have only one morpheme, the smallest units of meaning and the units of morphology. In this theme we will study the main grammatical units: - morpheme - word - sentence 1.1. The morpheme. If we study the structure of the following words: un-friend-ly, cat-s, bring-ing, we can see that the elements friend, cat, bring, have a meaning, as do the elements attached to them (the affixes). Other words cannot be divided into different meaningful units. In English is difficult to analyze irregular nouns and verbs; mice is the plural of mouse, but it is not obvious how to identify a plural morpheme in the word, analogous to the –s ending of cats. Another complication is that morphemes sometimes have more than one phonetic form, eg. The past tense morpheme –ed in English is pronounced in three different ways. These variant forms of a morpheme are known as allomorphs. Two main fields are traditionally recognized within morphology: a) Inflectional morphology: studies the way in which words vary in order to express grammatical contrasts in sentences, such as singular/past or past/present. These grammatical contrasts are called grammatical categories: - aspect: perfective, imperfective progressive, nonprogressive - case: nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, partitive - gender: masculine, feminine, neuter, animate, inanimate - mood: indicative, subjunctive, optative - number: singular, dual, trial, plural - person: first, second, third... - tense: present, past, future - voice: active, passive b) Derivational morphology: studies the principles governing the construction of new words, without reference to the specific grammatical role a word might play
in a sentence. There are three chief processes in English by which new words are created: - Affixation: divided into prefixation (adding prefixes) and suffixation (adding suffixes). - Conversion: a word changes its class without any change of form e.g. aim and to aim. - Compounding: adding one base to another e.g. blackboard. - Reduplication: type of compound in which both elements are the same e.g. knock-knock. - Clipping: informal shortenings e.g. flu, ad, telly. - Blendings: two words merge into one, e.g. smog = smoke + fog. - Infixation: emphatic structures such as abso-booming-lutely. 1.2. The word. As we have already pointed out, words sit at the boundary between morphology and syntax. Words are usually the easiest units to identify in the written language, as they commonly have spaces on either side. It is more difficult to decide what words are in the stream of speech as pauses do not occur between each word in natural speech. Words have been grouped into word classes, traditionally labelled the parts of speech. a) Closed classes: They can be composed of all the existing elements or of those that may be created. In order to define them in relation with other words, we must do it with those with which they have a semantic relation. - prepositions: of, at, in without, in spite of. - pronouns: he, they, anybody, one, which - determiner: the, a, that, when, although - conjunctions: and, that, when , although - modal verbs: can, must, will, could - primary verbs: be, have, do - articles: the, a, an - demonstratives: this, that, these, those b) Open classes: The components of this group do not admit any addition of other elements. - nouns: John, room, answer, play - adjectives: happy, steady, new - full verbs: search, grow, play - adverbs: steadily, completely, really c) To these we may add two lesser categories: - numerals: one, first - interjections: ugh, phew - words of unique function: not, to 1.3. The sentence. In the discourse, the basic unit is the statement which is defined because it is a fragment of communication, no matter what its extension is, within to marked pauses or the previous silence
plus a marked pause. For the fragmentation we do not take into account its grammatical structure or its context, which may be insufficient and incomplete. Statements can be isolated: a) Some organise all its constituents in relation to a verb conjugated in a personal form. These are named sentences. b) Other statements are characterised in relation to the lack of a verb in personal form according to the nucleus, e.g. yes. These are called phrases. 1.3.1. Parts of a sentence. According to Quirk and Greenbaum when analysing the smallest parts of the sentences, they distinguish between subject and predicate: Subject
Mary
Predicate
pointed at him.
Predicate: has a close relationship with what is being dealt with, what the sentence is about, and it generally implies that something new is being told about a subject which has previously appeared in another sentence. Subject: determines the agreement and it is also the changing part within the sentence, that is the reason why few generalisations are permitted. The predicate can be sub-divided into auxiliary and verbal predication: Subject He
Predicate Auxiliary Verbal predication will write Arthur a letter.
A) Auxiliaries as “operators”. The verb may be composed of several auxiliaries, e.g. They would have been..., in these cases the first auxiliary is considered the “operator”: would. In declarative affirmative sentences where there is no auxiliary, when an operator is needed do is introduced, e.g. Did you tell him? and the verb to be and have perform as operators whether they are auxiliary or not: John is a student – Is John a student? They have (got) a cottage – Have they (got) a cottage? 1.3.2. Elements of a sentence.
There are five elements we can split the sentence in. 1. Subject 2. Verb 3. Complement a) Subject complement or atribute. b) Object complement. 4. Object a) Direct object b) Indirect object 5. Adverbial 1.3.2.1. The Subject. The subject of a sentence can be a clause with nominal function:
(That he came quickly) was unusual. but it is normally a nominal clause and in its simples forms are a personal pronoun or a proper noun. In affirmative sentences the subject is always placed before the verb and in interrogative sentences the subject is placed after the operator. It also keeps person and number agreement with the verb. 1.3.2.2. Verb categories.
The verbal sentence may be composed of one or two words. In the case of two words, it is composed of a main verb preceded by one or more “auxiliary” verbs. John wrote a letter He had given her an apple. There are different types of verbs, in close correspondence to other types of objects and complements. Quirk and Greenbaum distinguish between: 1) Intensive verbs: sentences with subject complement. 2) Extensive verbs: the rest. All the extensive verbs admit a direct object, some also admit an indirect object. 3) Intransitive verbs: they are followed by no obligatory element Prices rose. 4) Transitive verbs: they are followed by and object. a) Monotransitive: She likes carrots. b) Ditransitive: He gave me a pen. c) Complex transitive: She lead me to my seat. 5) Progressive verbs: they admit a progressive aspect: We wrote Arthur a letter. 6) Non-progressive verbs: they do not admit a progressive aspect: John is a student – John is being now a student (WRONG)
Morphologically the verb can be classified in two categories: a) Lexical verb: walk, write b) Auxiliary verb: - primary: have, be - modal: may, can, shall The English verbs have five components: 1) Lexeme: present (except third person singular), imperative, subjunctive and infinitive. 2) –(e)s form: third person singular. 3) Present participle (-ing): continuous form and present participle sentences (Meeting him was good).
4) Past participle (-ed): perfect tenses of regular verbs, passive voice and past participle in –ed sentences. 5) Lexical irregular verbs: from 3 to 8, e.g. be, am, are, is, was... 6) Modal auxiliaries: special verbs with no infinitive, no –ing participle, no –ed participle and no imperative. 1.3.2.3. Complements. These elements may have the same structure as the subject itself. We must distinguish between: 1) Subject complement: this type of complement has a direct relationship with the subject. John is a student subject complement (attribute=with stative verbs). He became richer subject complement (predicative=with dynamic verbs as the result of the action) 2) Object complement: this complement has a relationship with the direct object similar to the one the subject complement keeps with the subject. The prize made him rich object complement (resulting attribute) I drank the coffee cold. object complement (current attribute)
1.3.2.4. Objects. The objects are placed after the subject and the verb. When the sentence is passive, both of them assume the subject status. 1) Direct object: In general it is a name referred to a person and the semantic relation between them is that something is done for or received by someone. It is more frequent than the indirect object and this always appears whenever there is an indirect object, preceding it. 2) Indirect object: It is normally the recipient or receiver of the action. John wrote his friend a letter direct object indirect object 1.4. Adverbial categories. Adverbials may be many and varied. From a syntactic point of view the only classification which is important to make is that between obligatory adverbials and the remainder. Some adverbs can be omitted and the sentence would only suffer a slight change, remaining its sense almost untouched, like this time adverbial: Yesterday she opened the door noisily – She opened the door noisily.
However, other types of adverbial like manner adverbials: noisily and use carefully, silently, etc., when they are replaced by other, the meaning of the sentence would change although the sentence will continue being grammatically correct. The same happens when we place some of these adverbials in a sentence with a stative or non-progressive verb: John is a student noisily (WRONG) The adverbials can be performed by: 1) Adverbial locutions with and adverb as nucleus: He went home slowly. 2) Nominal syntagma: We go on holiday every summer. 3) Prepositional syntagma (nominal clause introduced by a preposition): We live in a large house. 4) Clauses with either personal or impersonal forms: Watching him go she cried / My father took me to the zoo when I was 8. 1.5. Types of sentence structure. Place Adverbial John is at home. Intensive Subject Comple. John is a student at Oxford at the moment. Subject + stative V. Extensive and transitive + Direct object He saw the parcel on his desk at seven o'clock. Intensive + Subject Com. He got angry little by little at work yesterday. Monotran. (Direct Object) She carefully opened the parcel in his office at 7. Subject + Dynamic V. We happily
Transitive
Double (Indirect Object / Direct object) wrote him a postcard from Paris
during our holiday. Extensive
Complex (Direct object / Object comple.)
The prize suddenly made him rich last year. Intransitive
He came home slowly last night.
1.6. Discourse elements. 1. Noun. We must make the difference between proper and common nouns. Within the common ones, apart from any other subdivision, we can take into account the difference between countable and uncountable nouns and those which can be both depending on the way they are used. Nouns have no genre indication, but they do have number indication. 2. Adjective. The adjective has neither genre nor number. In most cases, it admits inflexion to form the comparative (-er) and the superlative (-est). Other adjectives which do not admit inflexion form their comparative and superlative differently: good, better, best, bad, worse, worst. Adjectives are placed before the noun. When there is more than one adjective referred to the same noun the order is as follows: 1) Subjective opinions: careful, naughty,... 2) Size and weight or other subjective opinions: small, wealthy... 3) Age: old, young... 4) Shape: round, square, oval... 5) Colour: blue, green, red, brown 6) Country or origin: German... 7) Material: glass, leather, woollen... 3. Adverb. The main characteristic of an adverb is of morphological type: most adverbs add the –ly suffix. They are formed by adding the –ly suffix to an adjective. Syntactically, adverbs are characterised by two types of functions: 1) Adverbial function. There are three different types of adverbial clauses: a) adjuncts (they are integrated in the sentence): We usually go there.
b) disjuncts (not integrated and used to express an opinion about what is being said): Honestly, I am tired.
c) conjuncts (not integrated and have a connecting function): If you go on smoking, them, I am leaving.
2) Adjective and adverb modifier The adverbs also admit to establish comparison relationship. The inflexion to form the comparative and superlative has the same characteristics as the ones already stated before: well, better, best / little, less, least 4. Preposition. They expresses the existing relation between two entities, being one of them the one represented by the prepositional complement.
Semantically, they are divided into: place, time, cause, instrument. A prepositional phrase is composed of a preposition followed by a prepositional complement: Preposition Prep. Complement. at home There are simple, like at, in, for... and compound, like in front of, along with... 5. Pronoun. They substitute the noun. There are personal, reflexive, reciprocal, possessive, relative, interrogative, demonstrative universal (each, all, every and its compounds, partitive and quantifying pronouns. 6. The articles. We must distinguish between specific reference article and generic reference article. The reference is specific when we refer to a specific element within a group: A man and two women are waiting outside.
When we refer to the group to which the element belongs to, then the reference is generic: The monkey is a funny animal.
7. Pro-forms. We shall refer to two subdivisions: - Pronouns: they substitute the noun: We wrote Arthur a letter – We wrote him a letter.
-
Pro-verbs: they also substitute nominal clauses: Come home – Come here.
8. Question and negation. 1) Question. a) Wh-questions. Within the category of substitutes there is a series of words forming a special class which substitutes certain parts of a sentence which may need explanation. These substitutes are: which, when, why, where, who, whose and how. Who writes her a letter every day? b) Yes-no questions. There are questions demanding an affirmative or negative answer with reference to a full sentence: Did John write her a letter? 2) Negation. Its use implies a full predicate negation with the operator and the negative adverb not, placed between the operator and the verbal nucleus: John did not write her a letter.
2. Elementary communicative structures and progressive use of grammatical categories in oral and written productions.
At the stage of Primary Education, children have not yet acquired the capacity of abstraction. For them to learn a foreign language will be to communicate with other people for different aims. We must take advantage of this conception and give priority to the content of messages, to the situations and to the activities where the language is present and the language is used, making the learning of grammar something hidden.
Interaction will make possible that in particular moments specific needs of certain structures, either new or more complex ones arise. Then, first of all, the student will be able to use non linguistic resources and when the latter are not sufficient, the pupils can ask their teacher so that he can give them the appropriate mechanisms. It is the teacher duty to design a series of activities progressively demanding more complex linguistic uses. After that, we may go through the following phases: - In written production: copying short messages and lists, writing daily sentences for dictation... - In oral production: describing family and friends, referring to age, size, weight, hair colour, etc... 2.1. The place of grammar in language teaching and learning. These are the aspects of the teaching and learning of grammar categories: TEACHINGLEARNING GRAMMAR CATEGORIES
LISTENING
SPEAKING READING
WRITING
FORM
Perception and recognition of the spoken form of the grammar categories. Production of well-formed examples in speech. Perception and recognition of the written form. Production of well-formed examples in writing.
2.2. Rule learning: induction and explication. Grammar rules may be acquired in either of two ways: 1) Through induction.
MEANING
Comprehension of what the spoken grammar category means in context. Use of the grammar categories to convey meanings in speech. Comprehension of what the written grammar categories means in context Use of grammar categories to convey meanings in writing.
It is not possible to learn the rules of a language entirely through explication given the current state of knowledge. The process of induction is one whose essence is learning through self-discovery. We present our pupils with relevant language data and they, first, abstract a rule based on the presented data, and secondly, develop a basis for its application. 2) Through explication. Learning through explication requires two essentials: - basic knowledge of the language of the explanation - advanced cognitive development The formal learning of grammar is not our objective when teaching English to our pupils. We want them to use grammar categories to improve their communicative competence. We can do this using, for example, songs and stories, which can introduce our pupils to the grammatical patterns of English in a natural and authentic way. 2.3. The organization of grammar teaching. We can distinguish three stages: - presentation: the aim is to get the learners to perceive the grammar categories in both speech and writing and to take it into short term memory. - controlled practice: the aim is to cause the learners to transfer what they know from short-term to long-term memory preparing them to use them for communication. - production stage: production or comprehension of meaning for some non-linguistic purpose, for some real-life purpose. There are some principles which definitely contribute to successful grammar learning and teaching: 1. Prelearning: familiarize learners with the material, not to introduce it. 2. Volume and repetition: Language structures are easily forgotten so our pupils need initial volume to absorb them and follow-up repetition to maintain their knowledge. 3. Success-orientation. 4. Heterogeneity: The exercises have different levels of proficiency. 5. Teacher assistance: We must support and assist our pupils in the production of acceptable responses rather that correct or assess them. 6. Interest: A well-designed activity must be interesting to our pupils.
TEMA-12 1. INTRODUCCIÓN La morfosintaxis ha sido el componente lingüístico que ha gozado de un ciera preminencia sobre los demás. A la oración "He go to the bank", que contiene suficiente información léxica, le falta la morfosintáctica correspondiente, porque no sabemos si el que la ha pronunciado o escrito se refiere a algo que va a hacer, o le gustaría hacer, o ha hecho o debe
hacer, o haría, etc. Es decir, le falta la información morfosintáctica que nos indique las relaciones que existen en la cadena hablada entre las palabras, es decir, la concordancia, el régimen, la flexión, etc. Preferimos hablar de morfosintaxis, en vez de gramática, por las siguientes razones: 1. Los límites del área de estudio que abarca parecen estar más claros. 2. La palabra gramática tradicionalmente también ha incluido otros sectores (la prosodia, la ortografía, la sintaxis, etc.). 3. En las teorías lingüísticas más recientes (gramática transformacional-generativa de Chomsky, gramática de los casos de Fillmore, etc.), la pralabra "gramática" abarca también cuestiones semánticas. 4. En la lingüística, o en didáctica del inglés, la palabra "gramática" se emplea para referirse a estructuras sintácticas agrupadas en repertorios de tipo conceptual, como las llamadas "gramática funcional o nacional". 1.1. ELEMENTOS ESENCIALES DE MORFOSINTAXIS DE LA LENGUA INGLESA La morfosintaxis se mueve entre dos unidades: la mayor, llamada oración, y la menor, morfema. Entre ellas hay otras intermedias que ahora citaremos. Pero previamente precisaremos una distinción que se suele hacer en la lingüística entre oración (sentence) y elocución (utterance). Se conocen con el nombre de sentences las formas abstractas que constituyen el conocimiento que el hablante nativo tiene de su lengua (langue); y utterances son las realizaciones concretas de esas formas. Como unidad de expresión es la máxima en sintaxis, y por medio de ella manifestamos un juicio o pensamiento completo, estando constituida por un sujeto y un predicado, los cuales pueden ir explícito o tácitos. a) Las cláusulas o proposiciones son el término que se suele aplicar a las oraciones constitutivas de una oración compuesta, en especial a las oraciones subordinadas. b) Los sintagmas. Toda oración simple consta teóricamente, y, en principio, de dos sintagmas: el sintagma nominal, que cumple la función de sujeto, y el sintagma verbal, que realiza la función de predicado. Ahora bien, el predicado puede, a su vez, tener algún sintagma nominal, que
desempeñe cualquiera de las funciones del nombre (complemento directo, indirecto, etc.). c) La frase. Tradicionalmente, las palabras frase y oración han sido sinónimos. Aquí la empleamos en el sentido próximo a frase adverbial o secuencia de palabras precedidas por una preposición: in the morning, with a hat, after lunch, etc. d) La palabra ha sido definida convencionalmente como sonido o conjunto de sonidos que expresan una idea o representa una persona, animal o una cosa. e) El morfema es la unidad mínima significativa. Cuando el significado es referencial estamos ante lexemas (boy, cat, house, etc.). Cuando el significado es gramatical ("s" del plural o del genitivo sajón, etc.), estamos ante los morfemas llamados gramemas. 1.2. ENFOQUES SOBRE LA MORFOSINTAXIS En el estudio de la morfosintaxis se pueden detectar tres direcciones principales: la tradicional, la estructural y la generativa. Esto no quiere decir que no haya más corrientes. Cada cierto tiempo se acuñan nuevos términos: gramática estratificacional, gramática sistémica, gramática de los casos, etc. Para nuestros intereses, nos es suficiente con las tres citadas. a) La gramática o morfosintaxis tradicional se basa en el latín como modelo de descripción, es prescriptiva o normativa y de carácter mentalista, es decir, la definición de las partes de la oración y sus relaciones se establecen de acuerdo con criterios semánticos. b) La gramática estructural es descriptiva en el sentido de que no trata de legislar sobre lo que se debería decir o sobre cómo se debe usar la lengua; sólo pretende describir hechos o pautas lingüísticas, las llamadas patterns. Es antimentalista, ya que huye de criterios semánticos, pero es, en cambio, taxonómica y distributiva. Estos tres términos (pattern, taxonomía y distribución) son clave. Con los dos últimos nos referimos a la tendencia a buscar unidades o constituyentes de la oración, de acuerdo con el comportamiento distributivo. Así, en inglés, el adjetivo es la palabra que se coloca entre el artículo y el nombre y no acepta el morfema "s" de plural. En realidad, en la morfosintaxis estructural no se habla de nombres, verbos, etc., sino de clase I, clase II, etc. Las técnicas empleadas son la segmentación y la sustitución. Mediante la sustitución intentamos reemplazar la unidad que es objeto de nuestro estudio por otra, en el mismo contexto, y si la sustitución se puede
realizar sin cambios fundamentales en el contexto, entonces decimos que la nueva unidad y la sustituida pertenecen a la misma clase. La teoría de los constituyentes inmediatos de una oración es una de las principales aportaciones del estructuralismo americano. Este análisis ayudó a revelar los principios por los que se organiza lingüísticamente la estructura de un mensaje. Para representar los constituyentes inmediatos se emplearon diversos tipos de cuadros y diagramas. He aquí algunos: Ejemplo 1: ORACIÓN SINTAGMA NOMINAL ARTÍCUL O
The
FRASE NOMINAL ADJETIVO
NOMBRE
Old
Man
Looked
SINTAGMA VERBAL VERBO FRASE PREPOSICIONAL PREPOSICIÓ PRONOMBRE N at me
Ejemplo 2:
El concepto de pattern practice se basa, por una parte, en el eje paradigmático del lenguaje, y por otra, en las cajas de los constituyentes inmediatos. c) Pero para la gramática generativa, la morfosintaxis estructural es bidimensional o estática porque sólo explica las relaciones que existen entre los constituyentes. Chomsky reconoce que esta gramática tiene algunos méritos, pero es escasa, insuficiente y con poca altura de miras, ya que no presta atención a la producción e interpretación de la oración, que implícitamente lleva a cabo todo hablante nativo. Es la gramática generativa la que añade la tercera dimensión o proceso de generación de las oraciones, por medio de las transformaciones.
Aunque son atractivos y originales los puntos aportados por la gramática transformacional-generativa, el énfasis se ha puesto en los procesos cognoscitivos del aprendizaje. 1.3. LA DIDÁCTICA DE LA MORFOSINTAXIS En la gramática tradicional, la presentación de la morfosintaxis se hace de un modo explícito y cognoscitivo. Se facilita una regla, seguida de ejemplo y de ejercicios de aplicación. Por ejemplo, "must" expresa la obligación ineludible; "should", el consejo, etc. En la estructural se tiende a restar importancia al aspecto teórico, para centrarse lo antes posible en la creación de hábitos por medio de pattern practice (práctica con un modelo), que consta de ejercicios llamados drills, dirigidos a la automatización. No obstante, conviene aclarar que se aplica este nombre también a ejercicios que no contienen patterns. Los defensores de los drills manifiestan que con ellos se consigue: a) Superar las transferencias negativas de la lengua materna. b) Automatizar la expresión por medio de la generalización analógica. c) Favorecer la "reorganización cognoscitiva", creando la abstracción (regla) en el subcons-ciente, mediante las repeticiones constantes. 2. ESTRUCTURAS COMUNICATIVAS ELEMENTALES La finalidad curricular de esta área es enseñar a nuestros alumnos a comunicarse en la lengua inglesa. Esto implica y explica que se adopte un enfoque basado en la comunicación y orientado a la adquisición de una competencia comunicativa. Esta competencia, a su vez, incluye diferentes subcompetencias como la competencia gramatical, o capacidad de poner en práctica las unidades y reglas de funcionamiento del sistema de la lengua inglesa, y la competencia discursiva, o capacidad de utilizar diferentes tipos de discurso y organizarlos en función de la situación comunicativa y de los interlocutores. Las estructuras comunicativas elementales que deben dominar los alumnos de Primaria en lengua inglesa son las siguientes: 2.1. DESDE EL PUNTO DE VISTA GRAMATICAL Es esencial desde este punto de vista el dominio de los siguientes puntos gramaticales: - Presente Simple de los verbos (to be, have got), there's, there're.
- Artículos indefinidos (a, an). - Nombres plurales. - Pronombres personales y posesivos. - Genitivo sajón ('s). - Proposiciones de lugar (near, by, next to, ...), tiempo y distancia. - This/that/the. - Imperativos (sit down, stand up, open the door, etc.). - Some/any (nombres contables e incontables). - Adverbios de tiempo, frecuencia y lugar (early, sometimes, there, etc.). - "-ing" para actividades específicas (reading, swimming, etc.). - Pasado simple de los verbos. - Presente continuo con sentido futuro (I'm going to London tomorrow, etc.) - Adjetivos comparativos y superlativos (estructuras de comparación). - Presente Perfecto (I have gone to the doctor, etc.). - Some/something en ofrecimientos ("Do you like some coffe?", etc.). - Futuro con "Will" (I'll stay at home tomorrow", etc.). - Estructuras condicionales ("If I go to London I'll buy a dress", etc.). - Can y Be able to. - Posición de los adverbios de frecuencia, etc. - Secuenciación y unión de palabras (nexos) (and, both, but, etc.). 2.2. DESDE EL PUNTO DE VISTA FUNCIONAL Desde este punto de vista, los alumnos aprenderán a: - Saludarse y presentarse.
- Comenzar una conversación con una persona extranjera. - Participar en conversaciones más largas. - Decir adios. - Dar y pedir información (edad, nombre, dirección). - Identificarse a sí mismos y a otras personas. - Describir a las personas. - Solicitar que repitan algo que no se ha entendido bien. - Preguntar acerca de la salud de las personas. - Disculparse. - Expresar arrepentimiento. - Distinguir distintos niveles de formalidad. - Deletrear y contar los números. - Expresar opiniones (gustos y manías). - Decir la hora. - Expresar una queja. - Expresar educación (ser "polite" en una conversación). - Describir objetos y lugares. - Preparar información acerca del idioma inglés. - Ofrecer cosas y responder a ofrecimientos de otras personas. - Narrar sucesos o eventos. - Hacer la compra. - Hacer preguntas en una agencia de viajes o solicitar información sobre viajes. - Hacer una reserva en un hotel o un restaurante.
- Cambiar dinero en un banco. - Comparar personas, cosas, situaciones, etc. - Especular. - Hacer invitaciones y responder a invitaciones. - Describir actividades, planes, hobbies, etc. - Telefonear a alguien. - Alquilar una bicicleta, una casa, etc. - Pedir prestado algo a algien. - Expresar desacuerdo o acuerdo y negociar con alguien. - Repetir las palabras de otra persona. - Dar permiso y no conocederlo a alguien para hacer algo. - Mostrar interés por algo o alguien. - Preguntar la opinión de alguien sobre alguien. - Pedir los platos en un bar, restaurante, etc. - Hacer predicciones sobre el tiempo, etc. - Adivinar acontecimientos, opiniones, etc. - Hacer sugerencias. - Expresar simpatía hacia algo o alguien. - Dar instrucciones de uso de algún objeto o de cómo llegar a un sitio. - Aconsejar a alguien. - Advertir a alguien. - Anunciar públicamente una opinión. - Protestar.
2.3. DESDE EL PUNTO DE VISTA NOCIONAL Desde este punto de vista, los alumnos al finalizar la etapa Primaria habrán aprendido: - Los nombres de las personas, apellidos. - La edad. - El estado civil. - El origen y la nacionalidad. - Las direcciones (addresses). - Los empleos (jobs). - La salud (cuerpo humano). - La familia (los miembros que la componen y la relación entre éstos). - La apariencia física de personas, animales y cosas. - Las relaciones entre las personas. - Los números y las letras. - Los lugares. - Los números de teléfono. - Los muebles. - Las casas, edificios, etc. - El trabajo. - El tiempo libre. - La comida y la bebida. - El precio de algunas cosas. - Gustos y mamás. - Preferencias.
- Cosas comunes y diferentes entre ambas culturas. - Días de la semana. - Números ordinales. - El tiempo. - La posición relativa (cerca, lejos, etc.) de las personas, animales y cosas. - Generalizar. - Cuantificar. - Graduar. - Las rutinas. - Los colores. - El estado físico y emocional de las personas. - La ropa. - Las tallas. - La historia de algunas personas. - La pobreza y la riqueza. - La felicidada y la infelicidad. - El racismo. - La infancia. - La educación. - Las habilidaes personales y de otras personas. - Las cualidades de las personas. - Los pesos y medidas. - La personalidad propia y ajena.
- Los meses y las estaciones del año. - El clima. - Planes futuros. - Las vacaciones. - Las similitudes y diferencias. - Los contrastes. - El tiempo pasado. - Los deportes. - La música. - El cine y la televisión. - La lectura. - Las máquinas. - Los horóscopos. - El peligro. - Los propósitos e intenciones. - El futuro. 3. USO PROGRESIVO DE LAS CATEGORÍAS GRAMATICALES EN LAS PRODUCCIONES ORALES Y ESCRITAS PARA MEJORAR LA COMUNICACIÓN Una de las técnicas más aplicadas en la enseñanza de una lengua extranjera es el uso de los denominados "drills" a la hora de practicar la morfosintaxis y aplicarla directamente tanto en ejercicios orales como de expresión escrita. 3.1. LOS DRILLS Algunos de siguientes:
los
principales
"drills"
utilizados
actualmente
1. Repetición: es el primer drill, o, al menos, el más conocido.
son
los
El profesor enuncia diferentes oraciones o expresiones y los alumnos las repiten al objeto de asimilar su pronunciación, el orden de las palabras, la entonación, etc. 2. Sustitución: Dada una estructura gramatical, el alumno se familiariza con ella sustituyendo, dentro del mismo paradigma, una palabra por otra. A este ejercicio lo llamamos sustitución simple: Ejemplo: A book I buy a book A car I buy a car A comb I buy a comb, etc. Cuando cambiamos de paradigma dentro del mismo ejercicio, estamos ante una sustitución múltiple: Ejemplo: I I get up at seven eight I get up at eight Mary Mary gets up at eight we We get up at eight go to bed We go to bed at eight ten We go to bed at ten, etc. En las sustituciones múltiples, normalmente hay que decir, cuando se dan las instrucciones, "introduciendo los cambios necesarios". Por ejemplo, en el ejercicio anterior hemos tenido que añadir el morfema "s" al presentar el sujeto "Mary". Las palabras o elementos que han de ser sustituidos se pueden presentar oralmente, con realia, es decir, mostrando o señalando los objetos reales, o con tarjetas, también conocidas con el nombre de "flash cards". 3. Transformación: Es un ejercicio tradicional que consiste en pasar oraciones activas a pasivas, o de presente a pasado, o de afirmativas a negativas, o a la inversa, o adjetivos atribuidos en predicativos. (Ejemplo: "The door is white" Þ "It's a white door"), etc. ¯¯ Adjetivo Adjetivo atributivo predicativo
Ejemplo: Mary works in a bank Does Mary work in a bank? Peter is a doctor Is Peter a doctor? Susan has got a new car Has Susan got a new car? John arrived last night Did John arrive last night? Este ejercicio ha empleado distintos tiempos verbales y distintos tipos de verbos. Como es evidente, se puede hacer con un solo tiempo verbal o con un solo tipo de verbo. 4. Expansivo: En este ejercicio el alumno va ampliando una oración inicial con los elementos que le facilita el profesor. También se le llama a este ejercicio "pirámide". Ejemplo: always: He reads books He always reads books English: He always reads English books at night: He always reads English books at night. 5. Reducción: Ejercicio opuesto al anterior, también conocido con el nombre de "pirámide invertida". Ejemplo: She always gets up at seven and has breakfast has breakfast Se always gets up at seven at seven She always get up always She gets up 6. Reconstrucción: Dados unos elementos desordenados, el alumno debe darles el orden sintáctico correcto, efectuando los cambios necesarios. Ejemplo: To come, he, yesterday Þ He came yesterday 7. Contestar preguntas preparadas estructuralmente: Ejemplo: Why don't you pay? (loose my money) - I don't pay because I lost my money
Why didn't she come? (forget it) - She didn't come because she forgot it 8. Formular preguntas a respuestas dadas: Ejemplo: I visit my grand parents very often - when did you visit them? I write to my friends very often - when did you write to them? 9. Traducción inversa controlada: Este ejercicio es conveniente para practicar puntos gramaticales que son muy distintos de una lengua a otra. Ejemplo: Puede que él venga Þ He may come Puede que llueva Þ It may rain Puede que (ella) llame por teléfono Þ She may call Estudio desde hace un mes Þ I've been studying for one month Estos ejercicios o drills se pueden hacer más complejos combinando sustituciones, transformaciones, expansiones, etc. Lo importante es dar las instrucciones bien claras y un ejemplo o modelo antes de cada práctica. Como es evidente, la mayoría de ellos se pueden hacer tanto oralmente como por escrito; es el maestro quien debe decidir la conveniencia de un medio o del otro. LOS INCONVENIENTES DE LOS DRILLS: Los drills tienen dos inconvenientes importantes. Si se usan en clase más de un tiempo prudencial, el interés y la motivación decaen; el otro inconveniente es la situación absurda en que se encuentran muchos alumnos, que, cuando se trata de manipular las estructuras en clase, lo hacen perfectamente, pero al pasar a situaciones reales cometen errores como "want you a cup of tea?" después de haber practicado insistentemente la forma interrogativa del presente habitual con todo tipo de drills. Poco a poco, los drills se han ido acomodando a una posición más situacional y cognoscitiva por medio de la contextualización. Y esto es posible en el aula, ya que en ella hay personas reales, con un presente, un pasado y un futuro, con posesiones, anhelos, problemas, familia, etc.
Además, el ser humano es un animal curioso: le gusta enterarse de lo que hacen los demás. Es mucho más provechoso, por tanto, que las prácticas que se hagan sobre estructuras determinadas se relacionen directamente con la vida de los miembros de la clase. 3.2. PRÁCTICA CONTEXTUALIZADA DEL PRESENTE CONTINUO Suponiendo que los alumnos ya hayan visto la estructura a través de una presentación por diálogo o texto, que se les haya explicado su función y sus variantes, y que se hayan puesto a su disposición unos cuantos verbos corrientes, como work, play, cook, drive, eat, drink, write, etc., se pueden seguir los siguientes pasos a fin de que los alumnos asimilen totalmente esta categoría gramatical en inglés: a) El profesor hace un dibujo en la pizarra de su propio padre (o esposa, madre, novia, etc.). Los alumnos le hacen preguntas: - Is your father working in his office? - Is your father playing football? - Is your father cooking lunch? - Is your father driving his car? Antes de contestar, el profesor consulta su reloj. Esto indica claramente a los alumnos que se trata de ahora mismo. Entonces contestará la verdad: - Yes, he is. - No, he isn't. - Probably. - Probably not. - Perhaps. b) A continuación, se invita a un alumno a dibujar en la pizarra a algún pariente suyo, y se repite el ejercicio. La forma afirmativa puede practicarse si cada alumno piensa en un miembro de su familia y menta lo que probablemente está haciendo, teniendo en cuenta la hora que es: - My father is probably working in the factory. - My mother is probably watching T.V.
- My sister is probably studying in the library. También se puede decir lo que seguramente no están haciendo los miembros de su familia: - I'm sure my father isn't dancing in a disco. - I'm sure my mother isn't playing cards. - I'm sure my brother isn't studying. El único problema que se presenta con este tipo de práctica es el del vocabulario. ("Es que mi hermana debe estar estudiando en la biblioteca. ¿Cómo se dice "biblioteca"?). No es un problema grave; se le dice simplemente al alumno que pregunta que biblioteca es library. No es necesario que toda la clase aprenda la palabra library, aunque muchos lo harán por simple curiosidad; la necesidad sólo atañe al alumno que quiere decir lo que está haciendo su hermana, y a los que quieren entenderle. De todas formas, es un error restringir en este nivel de Primaria el vocabulario a "lo que poner el libro" porque los alumnos tienen siempre una curiosidad muy grande por saber palabras sueltas, y porque cada alumno tiene sus necesidades léxicas, que para él serán vitales, aunque a otros les parezcan poco importantes. Además, evita el uso constante del llamado "classroom vocabulary" -la tiza, las sillas, las mesas, los bolígrafos; o del "textbook vocabulary" -los niños, la nevera, el coche, la casa, etc.-. 3.3. PRÁCTICA CONTEXTUALIZADA DEL FUTURO SIMPLE Para practicar el futuro simple se presentan varias situaciones, ilustradas con dibujos, acompañadas de "promts" o vocabulario de apoyo, etc. Los ejercicios han sido diseñados para que haya trabajo individual y por parejas. Tanto en éste como en otros ejercicios que se pueden realizar, el maestro no debe olvidar que, aunque esté prestando toda la atención al componente morfosintáctico, no se pueden descuidar ni la fonología ni el vocabulario. Suponiendo que los alumnos ya se hayan familiarizado con la estructura del futuro simple en inglés y que se les hayan explicado las funciones de éste, se pueden seguir los siguientes pasos: SITUACIÓN 1: a) El profesor presentará la situación o contexto. "A construction company is building a house for Mr. Evans. They promised him a lot of thing for Christmas."
put the roof/complete the kitchen/etc. b) Trabajo individual: - What have the construction company promised they will do by Christmas? - They promised they will put the roof, they will complete the kitchen, etc. c) Trabajo por parejas: You are Mr. Evans, and your friend is the manager of the construction company. You are impatient, and you are asking him questions with will you ..... by Christmas? - Will you put the roof by Christmas? Yes, we will. - Will you finish the kitchen by Christmas? Yes, we will, of course. SITUACIÓN 2: a) El profesro presentará la siguiente situación: "Anthony Jones is a young writer. He wants to be very famous, he wants to do many things by the year 2000". - become internationally famous / win the Nobel prize / write more than 30 novels / etc. b) Trabajo individual: - What does Anthony think he will do by the year 2000? - He thinks he will be famous, he will write many books, etc. c) Trabajo por parejas: You are a television interviewer asking questions to Anthony Jones. Ask him questions like: - Are you optimistic about your future? Yes, I am very optimistic. - What will you do by the year 2000? I will write many novels, I will win the Nobel prize, etc. SITUACIÓN 3:
a) El profesor presentará la situación: "Beatrice Wood is pessimistic about the ecologial situation. She thinks we will do many terrible things by the end of the century". Kill all the whales / destroy the Amazon forest / Kill fish / etc. b) Trabajo individual: - What does Beatrice Wood think we will do by the end of the century? - She thinks we will kill all the whales and fish, etc. c) Trabajo por parejas: You are talking to Beatrice Wood. Ask her these questions: - What will happen to the whales by the end of the century? - What will happen to the Amazon forest? - What will happen to the fish? By the end of the century we will kill the whales, fish and we will destroy the Amazon forest. BIBLIOGRAFÍA ALCARAZ & MOODY. La didáctica del inglés. Ed. Alhambra. Madrid. 1982 M.E.C. Cajas rojas para la Reforma. Área de lenguas extranjeras. Madrid. 1992 BELLO y OTROS. Didáctica de las segundas lenguas. Ed. Santillana (Aula XXI). Madrid. 1992 SWAM & WALTER. The new Cambridge english course. C.U.P. Cambridge. 1991
TEMA 13 HISTORIA DE LA EVOLUCIÓN DIDÁCTICA DE LAS LENGUAS EXTRANJERAS: DE LOS MÉTODOS DE GRAMÁTICA-TRADUCCIÓN A LOS ENFOQUES ACTUALES. LOS PRINCIPALES MÉTODOS EN LA ENSEÑANZA DE IDIOMAS
1. EL MÉTODO “TRADICIONAL” En la enseñanza de idiomas, cualquier metodología que se presente o se imponga no debe entenderse como algo que surge casualmente o como un fenómeno aislado. Toda metodología responde a una realidad compleja, preexistente o concomitante a un conjunto de motivaciones diversas, aunque siempre dentro de las coordenadas del pensar de una época. Antes de empezar a hablar del método tradicional debemos puntualizar que el empleo de dicho término no es muy apropiado; estudiando la historia de la enseñanza de las lenguas se constata inmediatamente, y como veremos a continuación, que no ha habido “métodos tradicionales”sino que más bien los distintos métodos se han ido sucediendo o turnando. En inglés se ha utilizado una denominación más ajustada a la realidad: “método de gramática y traducción”, respondiendo así a las prácticas más comunes y características del mencionado método. Por método tradicional, esquematizando y simplificando, podríamos reducir el contenido de esta metodología a los siguientes puntos: 1. Visión normativa y prescriptiva del lenguaje, como base sobre la que se asientan los contenidos que se enseñan. 2. Predominio de un modelo de lenguaje derivado del legado escrito de autores “consagrados”, es decir, encontraremos una lengua formal , correcta y relacionada con las corrientes puristas. 3. Convencimiento y creencia (consciente o no) en el hecho de que los procesos lingüísticos son procesos fundamentalmente lógicos, adquiridos por deducción. En consecuencia, se hace necesario aprender primero las reglas gramaticales; después la aplicación de tales reglas permitirá la formación de frases y oraciones bien hechas, utilizando léxico variado en combinaciones distintas. 4. El concepto de lengua oral y/o coloquial es sinónimo de “vulgar” de bajo nivel o calidad. No solamente no se toma como modelo sino que incluso se debe evitar en el uso y rechazar como incorrecto. 5. La memorización de reglas gramaticales por un lado y de largas listas de vocabulario por otro, son los objetivos prioritarios en una lección del método tradicional. 6. La técnica de la traducción directa e inversa es la más ampliamente utilizada en clase. 7. El vocabulario utilizado es el que mejor sirva a la aplicación de las reglas gramaticales, no necesariamente el que más se use en la comunicación interpersonal. Desde el punto de vista histórico, parece lógico asumir que el método tradicional habría sido difícil de aplicar cuando la gramática no estaba clara o la conceptualización gramatical no había alcanzado un grado de desarrollo analítico mínimo. En este sentido las aportaciones de los griegos, particularmente, Aristóteles y Dionisio Tracio fueron hitos importantes que permitieron acercarse más al estudio de las lenguas desde un punto de vista analítico. Con toda seguridad, en aquel entonces, las lenguas se aprendían por contacto lingüístico entre los hablantes, mediante la práctica en el medio adecuado. Así el latín se aprendia sobre todo mediante tutores que convivían con el educando, hablando ambos en esa lengua. En siglos no lejanos, Montaigne todavía nos cuenta cómo él aprendió latín con ese sistema, llegando a hablarlo con soltura y prontitud. En el contexto que nos ocupa no podemos dejar de lado el tema de la “gramática especulativa”. Los gramáticos de esta tendencia hablan de los aspectos lógicos de la lengua mediante el estudio de la relación lenguaje/mente-intelecto. Trabajan en la búsqueda de
elementos comunes a todas las lenguas, elementos que deben existir -afirman- puesto que la mente humana también tiene muchos elementos en común y todo ello se debe reflejar en los lenguajes naturales porque todos se fundamentan en la mente y son creación del hombre. Este hecho es de gran relevancia para entender el énfasis dado a los aspectos gramaticales y normativos, énfasis que acaba instalándose por largo tiempo en el pensar lingüístico europeo. Como consecuencia de este pensar aparece en el campo de la enseñanza de idiomas lo que se podría llamar “escuela austriaca” con Ollendorf (siglo XIX) primero, y ,Plotz después . Fue en aquella corte prusiana en la que se desarrolló el método denominado “tradicional”, dicho método se expandió de forma excepcional por toda Europa. Los libros de Ollendorf para la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras alcanzaron gran difusión y se podrían definir diciendo que en ellos es muy importante que la gramática constituya la parte más importante de la enseñanza de la lenguas. Pero Ollendorf no descubre nada nuevo; que la enseñanza y aprendizaje de las reglas gramaticales son el ingrediente fundamental sobre el cual los alumnos han de cifrar su atención ya había sido centro de polémicas en siglos anteriores. Muy ilustrativa a este respecto es la discusión protagonizada por Brookes y Webbe en Inglaterra, en el siglo XVII. Mientras Webbe, buscando la mejor manera de enseñar latín intentaba prescindir de toda gramática, Brookes, defiende los esquemas de la enseñanza tradicional. Para el último resultaba escandaloso intenta aprender una lengua sin aprender la gramática. Webbe, por su parte, trataba de demostrar que también era posible aprender mediante la experiencia y la repetición de actos. Volviendo de nuevo a Ollendorf, vale la pena estudiar más a fondo cómo se estructura cada lección de su método, puesto que durante muchos años no cambió.En el siglo XX ,hubo un intento de cambio, aparecieron libros de texto con el título de “Ollendorf reformado”, pero tales reformas fueron siempre mínimas y no sustanciales. Como decía, en una lección típica ollendorfiana encontraríamos los siguientes apartados: 1. Una lista de palabras en ambas lenguas encabezando la unidad; a veces, en vez de lista de palabras, se presenta una lista de frases que reflejan lo que posteriormente se va a exponer en la regla gramatical. Ejemplo: El palacio del rey The king’s palace. El jardín de la señora The lady’s garden. 2. Se enuncian a continuación las reglas gramaticales (aunque a veces pueden aparecer antes). Ejemplo: “Jamás se hace uso de este genitivo con los adjetivos empleados sustantivamente” Y se añaden ejemplos para ilustrar la regla: “ La felicidad del malvado es pasajera”. “The happines of the wicked is but transitory”. 3. Luego, se introducen las prácticas: ejercicios de traducción directa e inversa, siempre tratando de que la regla
expuesta anteriormente encuentre en la práctica un refuerzo adecuado. El lenguaje seleccionado por el autor nunca es arbitrario, de ahí que el lenguaje resulte convencional e irreal, en ningún momento se preocupan por reproducir un diálogo normal. Ejemplo: “¿Tiene su hijo, papel para escribir un billete? No, no lo tiene. La filosofía de esta orientación metodológica está contenida en los prólogos de diferentes autores que siguen a Ollendorf: “Siempre el maestro comenzará cada lección llamando la atención del alumno hacia los vocablos de mayor importancia gramatical, y hacia las reglas que en cada lección se encuentren”. El mismo autor dice: “Si se sigue este método sin acortarlo, garantizo formalmente que no habrá discípulo alguno, siempre que no sea imbécil o idiota, que deje de aprender bien el inglés”.
Sin embargo, es fácil encontrar una notable falta de exactitud en la enunciación de las reglas gramaticales, y en lo relativo a la pronunciación, las explicaciones curiosas abundan: Ejemplo: Vocal “e’especial”, que es preciso oír a un inglés. Por otro lado, los métodos de idiomas no deben estar desconectados de la realidad social en la que aparecen y se desarrollan. En la actualidad, el método tradicional está fuera de lugar, desplazado y desfasado. Y es natural que así sea, entre otras razones, porque los estudios linguísticos apuntan en otra dirección y porque la consideración de qué es necesario en el aprendizaje de una segunda lengua ha cambiado sustancialmente. Pensemos, por ejemplo, en la primacía de la lengua oral, favorecida actualmente por los medios de comunicación, medios que facilitan el contacto entre las gentes y exigen incluso la necesidad de conocer una segunda lengua para poder entendernos en los frecuentes viajes. En cuanto al método “Ollendorf reformado”encontramos algunas variantes. BENOT, por ejemplo, dice: “Dada la lección, y enterado ya el alumno de todo lo más importante, no deben oirse en la clase más palabras en español que las advertencias que el profesor juzgue necesario hacer”. Este tipo de método presenta con frecuencia al inicio de cada lección no listas de palabras aisladas sino frases o expresiones cortas que se refieren a las reglas gramaticales que se encuentran a continuación. La palabra se presenta pues, dentro de un contexto (aunque a veces sigue reflejando un lenguaje artificial y forzado). Salvo este inconveniente, se avanzó bastante con respecto al empleo del método tradicional que implicaba el uso casi exclusivo de la lengua materna del alumno. Recordemos también que la ordenación del material por lecciones y la estructuración de las lecciones, en cuanto tales, tenían una base y un fundamento gramatical. En 1850 P.J. Rojas publicó un método para enseñar inglés a españoles, basado en el del doctor Robertson., Durante mucho tiempo se pretendió enseñar idiomas explanando teorías, haciendo reglas y dejando la aplicación práctica a la impericia o al capricho del discípulo, sin embargo, mediante el método de Robertson se comenzaba a leer, a traducir, a escribir, a hablar, a adquirir conocimientos gramaticales desde la primera lección (decían), pero la
realidad no se ajustaba a tales objetivos; en la primera lección se ofrecía un texto de caracter histórico y con un vocabulario y sintaxis poco usual en la vida cotidiana. Basándose en el texto, el autor, señala como se pronuncia cada palabra y cada sonido, se hace la versión literal y “castiza”, y, una y otra vez, se hacen preguntas en castellano y se responden en inglés para hacer entender el texto. Luego se hace lo mismo en inglés y castellano y, más adelante, siguen 17 páginas dedicadas a analizar la pronunciación, la morfología y la sintaxis. En este tipo de método encontramos variantes, pero no ruptura real con lo anterior. La ruptura reside más bien en la organización del material: no sigue ningún orden preestablecido como se hacía en las gramáticas anteriores, ahora los textos que aparecen además de ficticios son, generalmente, complejos. Bien es cierto que esa complejidad es analizada en detalle y organizadamente en las abundantes páginas explicativas que componen cada lección. NOTA FINAL Y BALANCE a) El imperio de la gramática. La insistencia de los aspectos gramaticales no debería, a pesar de todo, cifrarse exclusivamente en el método tradicional. El “Ars Grammatica “ de Donato, contaba con una base didáctica importante, fue elaborada a modo de preguntas y respuestas. En el siglo XIII, Alejandro Villedien escribió también otra gramática con fines didácticos. Esta insistencia tan pertinaz, ya desde tiempos tan lejanos, nos revela al menos dos cosas: 1. Que la gramática ha sido considerada siempre como básica en el estudio de las lenguas y del lenguaje. 2. Que si tanta importancia le ha sido dada por lingüístas de todos los tiempos, las razones deben haber sido serias.
b) Sobre el método tradicional. Es preciso evaluar un método partiendo de los objetivos que se propone y tratando de apreciar si los ha obtenido o no. En este sentido, si el objetivo del método tradicional era fundamentalmente aprender a leer y traducir una lengua extranjera, los resultados obtenidos con el mismo son considerablemente positivos. El aprendizaje del código gramatical, del vocabulario y, por otro lado, los ejercicios apuntaban a ello. Criticar este método diciendo que con él no se aprende a hablar, es distorsionar la realidad: el método tradicional no pretende enseñar a hablar al alumno. Tampoco tiene como objetivo el aprendizaje de la lengua coloquial, ya que no lo considera correcto. Es la lengua literaria formal la que se erige en norma. En cuanto al vocabulario, diremos que con frecuencia se ofrece sin contexto, aisladamente, y el aprender vocabulario fuera de contexto es un peligro para el que aprende. La traducción , está supeditada a los puntos gramaticales que se trata de aprender. La consecuencia inmediata es la aparición de frases atípicas. Sin embargo, no está demás decir que los mismos objetivos podrían lograrse con frases que ofreciesen mayor naturalidad, extrayéndolas de contextos adecuados. No olvidemos, tampoco, que la memorización de reglas se exageró excesivamente, llegó a constituirse en fin, en vez de ser un medio para lograr un fin.
2. EL MÉTODO DIRECTO En el siglo XVII el gran didacta COMENIO publicaba su “Ianua Linguarum”, complemento de otro método visual para la enseñanza de las lenguas, “Orbis Sensualium Pictus”. Sin embargo, no fue una idea original suya, copiaba el título de un manuscrito de un jesuita irlandés, BATHE, que en sus años de estancia y docencia en la Universidad de Salamanca, había escrito el primer Inaua Linguarum. En este libro escrito para aprender latín, el autor habla varias veces de algo equivalente al Método directo: “ Hasta el presente solamente se han desarrollado dos métodos para el aprendizaje de idiomas. Son el regular (es decir, indirecto o gramática-traducción) y el irregular (o directo), ampliamente usado por todos aquellos que aprenden idiomas mediante la práctica oral y la lectura. El primero de ellos consigue una mayor precisión, mientras que los segundos consiguen una mayor fluidez lingüística...” Pero el método que hoy denominamos directo, encontró su máximo exponente, desde el punto de vista de su divulgación y concretización en un libro de texto, en las obras y labor docente de M.D. BERLITZ. Su método es una amalgama de elementos de distinta índole, provenientes en parte de autores tan sobresalientes como Comenio y Pestalozzi, y, en parte, resultado de una reacción frente al método más extendido hasta entonces, el tradicional. Berlitz da como principios de su método los siguientes : 1. Asociación directa de la percepción y el pensamiento con la lengua y sonidos de la lengua que se aprende. 2. Uso constante y exclusivo de la lengua que se está aprendiendo. Y a partir de estos dos puntos cardinales, llega a conclusiones que definen y condicionan la metodología a seguir. Es fundamental la utilización de objetos reales para la enseñanza de una lengua. Este principio encuentra su origen en los “realia” aludidos en muchas obras de siglos pasados. Comenio ya decía que las palabras no podían ser aprendidas separadas de las cosas y Pestalozzi (1746-1872), habla del método natural. Para él, el aprendizaje de una lengua es uno de los elementos clave de todo aprendizaje humano. En su obra De cómo Gertrudis enseña a sus hijos, nos lega su filosofía del aprendizaje referido a las lenguas. En primer lugar, trata del aprendizaje de la lengua materna. El proceso es “natural”, influyendo de forma decisiva la impresión por los sentidos, y dichas impresiones provienen de experiencias exteriores, entre las cuales están los objetos. Dice que se debe buscar, en el proceso de aprendizaje, la aplicación y la búsqueda de estímulos que ofrezcan los objetos y cosas de las cuales suele estar rodeado el niño, y, utilizar dichos objetos de formas diversas presentando al niño las sensaciones más variadas. La utilización de los objetos del mundo real, y la insistencia en el método natural, hacen que poco después F. Francke trate de explicar tal proceso aplicado a la enseñanza de idiomas. Intenta dejar claro que el proceso de traducción utilizado en la enseñanza de idiomas es poco económico, porque sigue la línea [LE-LM-C], es decir, lengua extranjera-lengua maternaconcepto, cosa innecesaria, puesto que basta seguir la trayectoria lengua extranjeraconcepto,[LE-C]. Se puede aprender la palabra de la lengua extranjera relacionándola con el objeto en cuestión. Es más,lo primero, dificulta el aprendizaje más que facilitarlo.
Cuando Berlitz habla de “leyes naturales” en el proceso de aprendizaje, añade a lo dicho por Pestalozzi que el niño al aprender la lengua materna, no aprende gramática, ni reglas, ni nada semejante y es capaz de hablar una lengua . Además, su aprendizaje es más seguro y eficaz. Sin embargo hay que tener en cuenta que el aprendizaje de la lengua materna es diferente al de una lengua extranjera: 1. Al aprender la lengua materna, el niño no dispone de otro medio lingüístico de comunicación. 2. Aprende una lengua por primera vez. 3. La lengua que aprende le es vital para poder comunicarse con lo que le rodea y con aquellos con quienes convive a diario. 4. Vive hora tras hora en un contexto lingüístico apropiado para aprender el idioma que usa, sin nada que se lo impida y con todo a su favor. Pestalozzi exprime el tema al ampliarlo al mundo de los adultos; dice que no se puede comparar el aprendizaje del niño y del adulto porque a la hora de aprender una lengua extranjera, el adulto está mejor equipado al poseer un sistema y estar habituado ya a establecer relaciones objeto-pensamiento-palabras. Mientras, el niño ha de empezar por lo más elemental: la captación e identificación del objeto en cuanto a tal (evidentemente se refiere a niños muy pequeños). Cercano a Pestalozzi y a sus seguidores, está GOUIN, quien basa su metodología en la observación de cómo aprende el niño: jugando, comentando, preguntando y relacionando significado, acción y palabras ( con el consiguiente énfasis en las formas verbales, que el autor resalta expresamente en el margen derecho de la situación en que se desenvuelven sus unidades didácticas). En realidad, este método que nos ocupa está enfocado al aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera por adultos, y sus defensores lo que quisieron fue encontrar un paralelo con el proceso de aprendizaje de la lengua materna de un niño. Pero dicho paralelismo era sólo parcial porque: A- El niño está adquiriendo el lenguaje y una lengua concreta. B- El adulto tiene una capacidad de lenguaje bien o suficientemente desarrollada. También posee una primera lengua ya adquirida. A- El niño tiene muchas horas para aprender, días, meses, años... B- El adulto busca economía en el tiempo, aprender lo máximo en el mínimo espacio de tiempo posible. A- El niño está inmerso en el ambiente lingüístico que aprende. B- El adulto no, a no ser que esté viviendo en un país extranjero donde se hable la lengua en cuestión. A- El niño no está condicionado por otro sistema de comunicación. B- El adulto sí. Además los habitos lingüísticos pesan y se interfieren. A- El niño va adquiriendo a lo largo de los años su capacidad de abstracción. B- El adulto ya ha dado esos pasos. En consecuencia, el sentido que las reglas gramaticales tienen para el niño y para el adulto es diferente. Para el adulto la abstracción de las reglas gramaticales no es nada nuevo, generalmente, pueden ayudarle en su aprendizaje y quizá las exija porque está habituado a ellas. En el otro caso, el del niño, la explicación y presencia de reglas puede llegar a ser contraproducente si no se aplica un buen criterio y metodología. Debemos pensar también que la abstracción de las reglas gramaticales ayuda a desarrollar la
capacidad intelectual y abstractora del niño, precisamente dos pilares básicos en el aprendizaje de un idioma. Volviendo de nuevo con Berlitz, añadamos algunas de sus palabras, decía que con su método se aprende “como si se estuviese en el país en que se habla el idioma”. Pero tal comparación no se da ni en el mejor de los casos, falla la premisa fundamental, el que aprende permaneciendo en su país de origen, estudia dos, tres, cuatro, seis u ocho horas diarias, dificilmente más. El resto del día se sumerge de nuevo en el ambiente que le es propio, escucha la televisión, la radio, lee...en su idioma nativo. En cambio el que reside en el país de la lengua que está aprendiendo tiene otra composición mucho más favorable. Para empezar tiene que aprender el nuevo código de comunicación para sobrevivir, integrarse...,aprende la lengua todo el día, tv, radio, trabajo... EVALUACIÓN DEL MÉTODO DIRECTO En líneas generales los defensores del Método directo se oponen a la explicación de las reglas gramaticales y la traducción en una clase de lengua extranjera. Pretenden la asociación objeto-palabra. Pero bien pensado el alcance de este resorte es más bien reducido: los objetos que se pueden llevar al aula no son muchos, en tal momento tenemos el recurso de los dibujos. Es el recurso ya preconizado por Comenio: “podemos recorrer la selva sin salir de nuestra aula”, aunque la variante es que se utiliza la imagen, no el objeto real. Frente a lo ofrecido por los métodos tradicionales, basados en la gramática y traducción, este método representa una alternativa totalmente opuesta: ausencia de gramática, ausencia- en los primeros niveles al menos- de textos literarios, ausencia de listas iniciales de palabras a las cuales se habían de aplicar las reglas gramaticales. En contrapartida se ofrece la lengua “ tal cual se habla “ en la vida diaria, y el inmediato uso de la misma en situaciones de interacción comunicativa a nivel oral. Al alumno se le ofrece la lengua sin analizar, se espera de él un aprendizaje por inducción, de la misma manera que aprendió su primera lengua, por exposición a la misma y uso de ella. El profesor del Método Directo suple la traducción mediante el uso de objetos, mímica o similares. Pero este procedimiento en sí inocuo, encierra muchos peligros. Sobre todo el peligro de que el alumno no capte el significado correcto y aprenda un error que si no se soluciona lo repita siempre y pueda ser el origen de una cadena de errores o de acumulación de deficiencias. Por otro lado, a medida que avanza el nivel , las frases sencillas de la vida cotidiana van dejando paso a otras más complejas, que seguramente requerirán un análisis más detallado, incluyendo las explicaciones gramaticales. Con el Método Directo se intenta sumergir al alumno desde el principio en el contexto de la lengua que aprende, pero no cabe esperar que esa inmersión sea del mismo calibre que la del niño que aprende su primera lengua. El hábito de pensar en el idioma que se aprende es un objetivo primordial. De hecho una vez logrado eso, ya se puede decir que en verdad se ha llegado a un pleno dominio de esa lengua. Pero es un objetivo difícil de alcanzar y muy pocos lo logran. Con este método se supone que al utilizar siempre la lengua que se aprende se
facilita tal objetivo. Contrastando esto con el método tradicional el cambio de énfasis y direccionalidad es muy notable. Desde el punto de vista de el profesorado, el profesor del Método Directo ha de tener dos cualidades sobresalientes: 1. Hablar muy bien la lengua que enseña y desenvolverse en ella con agilidad y facilidad. 2. Ser activo en la clase. En cuanto a lo primero, uno de los motivos del fracaso inicial de dicho método fue la carencia de personal docente preparado. Sin el excelente conocimiento de la lengua a enseñar es imposible llevar la clase, es más, es muy difícil que el profesor transmita al alumno una creatividad en la lengua que enseña cuando él mismo carece de ella. Referente al segundo punto, al ser una metodología activa se necesitan profesores con temperamento activo, de lo contrario no podrían llevar este tipo de clases con desenvoltura. 3. EL MÉTODO AUDIO-ORAL Esta nueva orientación se debe principalmente a los estudios lingüísticos y al nacimiento fuerte y pujante de la lingüística como ciencia ampliamente aceptada. Y también a las ya establecidas críticas contra el empleo excesivo de la gramática en la clase de idiomas. En el siglo XVI Lubinus ya consideraba esta práctica como contraria al sentido común; en el s. XIX, también se decía que los “métodos antiguos tenían el inconveniente de atribuir sobrada importancia a la gramática, sin dejar paso al la práctica, exponiendo al que aprende a que quede para siempre imposibilitado de hablar y escribir la lengua extrajera con genuinos giros, con franca propiedad, a trueque de haber logrado escribir o hablar sin faltas gramaticales. Con el Método audio-oral, no estamos ante nada realmente nuevo, sigue esta línea, es decir, fueron profesionales de la enseñanza de idiomas del siglo XIX los que dieron el primer paso. En nuestros días, tenderíamos a asumir que cualquier método del siglo XIX debería caer dentro del denominador común de “método tradicional”. Sin embargo, existían métodos como el del señor LLAUSAS o el señor ROBERTSON que lo criticaban. Pero también en estos años se dieron reacciones de signo totalmente opuesto a las ideas de Llausas. A él se opone el método JACOTOT , quien opina que todos esos métodos que estaban invadiendo Europa y América tienen defectos capitales al desterrar todo estudio gramatical y fiar a la práctica, hecha sin plan ni gradación, el conocimiento de un idioma extranjero. La metodología audio-oral, intentará avanzar en el campo de la enseñanza de idiomas. Fue un método muy circusncrito a los Estados Unidos de América, (audiolingual method), particularmente desarrollado y extendido por la Universidad de Michigan . Su base principal se encuentra en la lingüística, en el estructuralismo. A ello se aañaden elementos tomados de la psicología aplicada, especialmente del conductismo skinneriano. Los lingüístas estructuralistas, aplicando los criterios de la objetividad científica en boga, estudiaron la lengua desde un punto de vista descriptivo. No se pretendía acomodar la realidad de la lengua a moldes o reglas preconcebidas a las cuales el hablante se debería ajustar. El proceso era inverso: se estudiaba el sistema de una lengua para tratar de describir su comportamiento; de ahí podían establecerse después estructuras o “comportamientos lingüísticos”. Se estudiaba la lengua tal cual era en la práctica de los hablantes de cada día.
El cambio de orientación es radical, “ la lengua es como es y no como alguien piense que debe ser” acostumbran a decir algunos lingüístas. En consecuencia, se aceptan palabras y estructuras que anteriormente eran consideradas incorrectas y se admiten construcciones que en años anteriores habrían herido a muchos puristas. Se amplían los horizontes de lo “aceptable” a todos los niveles: pronunciación, morfología y sintaxis. La norma lingüística vendrá dada no por grupos selectos o élites, sino por el conjunto de hablantes de cada lengua. Con ello se admite que no hay norma lingüística inmortal y dogmática; las normas pueden ser cambiantes si así lo admiten los hablantes en la práctica real de la lengua. Esta nueva visión dará lugar a nuevos libros de texto en los que no se explicarán o expondrán reglas a las que se ha de ajustar algo, sino que se expondrá la lengua tal cual se da en la práctica oral y escrita. Serán muy apreciados los estudios contrastivos para mostrarle al alumno qué se asemeja o qué es diferente entre la lengua que aprende y su lengua materna. Evidentemente, estos estudios están realizados a un nivel de estructuras superficiales, fácilmente objetivables, puesto que en esta época lo objetivo era lo que se admitía como válido desde un punto de vista científico. Además si la lengua era uso, no tenía por qué basarse exclusivamente en la gramática o en el texto literario, había que aprender ( y enseñar) la lengua tal cual era usada, la lengua hablada. A esto se unía la necesidad o el afán de comunicarse oralmente en otra lengua (afán que no es gratuito: las confrontaciones bélicas lo habían hecho importante, al igual que los nuevos medios de comunicación). La lengua hablada se convierte así en el objetivo prioritario de la enseñanza, objetivo que coincide plenamente con el de los estudios de los lingüístas. Hay otro elemento que apunta también en esta dirección: la creencia de que la lengua hablada es la primera modalidad de lengua que todos aprendemos cuando nacemos y que, en consecuencia, este proceder en el proceso de aprendizaje, es el mismo que ha de seguirse al adquirir una segunda lengua. De aquí deriva el eslogan” Primero la lengua hablada, luego la escrita”. Hay que apuntar que de esta forma se reaccionaba contra la práctica predominante de las escuelas en las que la lengua escrita era la única protagonista. En la práctica, y con la ayuda de los poderosos medios de comunicación, surgieron algunos lemas que acabaron por convertirse en dogmas para muchos profesore. El lingüísta W. Moulton enunciaba así los principales puntos de la nueva metodología: 1. La lengua es la lengua oral, no la escrita. 2. La lengua es el resultado de un conjunto de hábitos. 3. Hay que enseñar la lengua, no algo sobre la lengua. 4. La lengua es lo que hablan los hablantes nativos de la misma. 5. Las lenguas son diferentes. El segundo principio, está estrechamente relacionado con los principios skinnerianos de conductismo o behaviorismo. Según Skinner, la lengua es la consolidación de un conjunto de hábitos lingüísticos. Opina que la lengua es un hábito porque es un conjunto de destrezas y habilidades y, en consecuencia, se adquirirá mediante la repetición de aquellos elementos que constituyan el sistema lingüístico ( en este caso, el vocabulario y las estructuras lingüísticas). Esa fue precisamente la tarea de los lingüístas estructuralistas. Por otro lado, aceptando que Skinner tenía razón, solamente era preciso que el alumno repitiese, practicando una y otra vez, los mismos modelos y las mismas estructuras:
el / hombre/come/pan. el /niño /da/ limosna. la/niña/pide/ agua. Son frases que tienen la misma estructura, y, sus distintos elementos desempeñan la misma función. Más aún: los elementos que desempeñan la misma función pueden ser sustituidos por otros equivalentes sin que la estructura cambie. Así, "el hombre”puede ser cambiado por "la mujer", "la niña"... La conclusión que se va a extraer con relación a la enseñanza es que, aprendiendo la estructura, el discente será capaz de aplicarla en cualquier otro caso solamente mediante el cambio de unos elementos por otros funcionalmente iguales, que a su vez, también serán sustituibles por otros equivalentes. En esta premisa se basan los ejercicios de repetición mecánica y los ejercicios de laboratorio. Pero de nuevo, sobre la novedad de este proceder es preciso hacer algunas observaciones: la repetición de frases y estructuras es un elemento beneficioso para el aprendizaje de idiomas, este principio ya lo había aplicado anteriormente Erasmo en sus Colloquia; Brookes en la Inglaterra del siglo XVII..., y por estar más estrechamente relacionado con los procedimientos del método audio-oral, merece la pena citar a Th. Prendergast y su Mastery Sistem (1870). Prendergast había observado cómo los niños aprendían repitiendo una y otra vez estructuras que les llamaban la atención, entreteniéndose con ellas y utilizando cuanto vocabulario les era posible utilizar. En tales observaciones patentó su método. No había gramática, pero sí un sistema graduado con el fin de adquirir progresivamente hábitos linguísticos. Con una tabla en la que aparecen elementos diferentes, conjugados entre ellos de múltiples y posibles formas, el número de combinaciones es impresionante: Why did you not ask him to come with two or three of his friends to see my brother's gardens? Come to my brother's with/ three of his friends/ to see his gardens. Come whit/two or three of his friend's/ to my garden. Ask my three friends /to come to/ my friend's garden. ... ... ... ... y así sucesivamente. De todos modos, el supuesto, tanto de Prendergast como de los defensores del audio-oralismo más tarde, no es plenamente sostenible, aunque a primera vista pueda parecer así. Es verdad que cuando el niño aprende una lengua repite lo que escucha, pero el hablante además de ser capaz de repetir lo que escucha, crea constantemente estrucuturas que no había practicado antes. Otro punto a analizar es el siguiente: las estructuras lingüísticas a que se refieren los del método audio-oral han de estar basadas en el uso real de la lengua, sin embargo, topamos de nuevo con una contradicción metodológica. Nada más reñido con la lengua coloquial que los ejercicios mecánicos o estructurales del cariz siguiente: - Dónde están los estudiantes?/los chicos?/ las cerillas?/... - Están en la clase/ en el armario/ en el suelo...
A pesar de que se diga que este tipo de ejercicio se realiza para consolidar la estructura, dicha estructura no se consolidará realmente porque el alumno fuera de ese contexto no sabrá o no será capaz de producir o generar frases diferentes de las que le fueron inculcadas en los ejercicios de mecanización. Todo lo humano es más complejo y por eso la reducción del lenguaje a esquemas simples, fijos y manejables de manera mecánica no da resultados óptimos. La repetición como técnica se torna en arma arrojadiza cuando se convierte en técnica casi exclusiva. Y esto es así porque la creatividad, que forma parte del uso de la lengua por cualquier hablante,queda totalmente anulada y excluida. En general, hemos de partir de la base de que cualquier técnica utilizada debe reunir dos requisitos básicos: ser eficiente y favorecer la motivación del alumno. Una técnica no será todo lo eficaz que se desea si no motiva al alumno. De otro lado, un alumno bien motivado, verá entorpecido su aprendizaje si las técnicas utilizadas no son adecuadas. Y es precisamente en este sentido en el que el método audio-oral difícilmente podrá motivar a muchos alumnos debido a los ejercicios de repetición mecánica. Suponían sesiones demasiado largas en las que se repetían machaconamente determinadas estructuras, se sobrepasaba con frecuencia la capacidad de retención de la mente humana porque normalmente después de veinte minutos ya no suele ser biológicamente capaz de mantener una atención intensa. Las sesiones de laboratorio solían durar una hora. El primer contacto de una clase con el método audio-oral solía ser muy positivo y hasta altamente motivador para el alumno: éste entraba en el aula y se veía enfrentado de inmediato con la lengua que quería aprender; desde el principio se usaban palabras útiles, estructuras sencillas y relacionadas con la vida diaria; no se empleaba la lengua materna del alumno y la gramática ni se mencionaba. Pero no era un método milagroso y de hecho era frecuente comprobar que a partir de las 10 ó 15 primeras horas de clase, algunos alumnos ya no seguían el ritmo de la clase y se sentían perdidos. Con frecuencia no sabían por qué hacían lo que hacían y, lo que es más grave, no entendían lo que repetían. Por tanto, la perfecta gradación y estudio del material que les era ofrecido de poco les servía, ya que no lo asimilaban de forma eficaz. Otro de los principios de este método es que se enseñe la lengua y “no algo sobre la lengua” . Se trata de evitar la insistencia en las explicaciones de tipo gramatical, pero ¿Por qué ha de existir una contradicción entre enseñar la lengua y dar información analítica de la misma? Los niños no suelen aprender mediante explicaciones analíticas sobre la lengua -se dice- y sin embargo, la aprenden. Pero el niño, aunque empieza aprendiendo la lengua en el entorno familiar, después recibe el complemento y la ayuda proporcionada por la educación estatal, entre cuyos objetivos se encuentra el perfeccionamiento del lenguaje. Por otro lado, el conocimiento de las normas gramaticales sirve de gran ayuda a la hora de aprender un segundo idioma. No hay pues oposición, sino complementariedad. El cuarto principio “ la lengua es lo que hablan los nativos “, es un principio que deriva, con toda lógica, de las bases en que se fundamenta el estructuralismo. El sistema lingüístico es fruto del conjunto de hablantes que lo usan como sistema de comunicación; pero constituye igualmente, un entramado o código al cual todos los hablantes deben a su vez sujetarse. Sin este requisito, la arbitrariedad de cada hablante conduciría a un caos, a una carencia total de comunicación por desconocer el código del otro. El hablante, pues, no es autónomo respecto a la lengua porque tiene reglas y entre otras, el significante ha de significar lo mismo para el hablante y el oyente. Los individuos somos sujetos y objeto de un todo coherente que hemos
creado entre todos, y, ese todo es analizable, abstracto, pero sometido a unas normas que hay que respetar. Este método aporta una novedad sin precedentes y es que nunca se había dado una ligazón tan estrecha entre lingüístas y profesores de idiomas . Los primeros se apoyan en los segundos para llevar a la práctica unos principios determinados; y los profesores ven en las teorías de los lingüístas la “salvación” a muchos de sus problemas en el aula. Esta fraternidad no duró mucho tiempo y el lingüísta acabará defendiéndose, cobijándose en su teoría, aduciendo que él no estudia lo que pasa en la clase o cómo se ha de aplicar su teoría a la práctica. Chomsky consolidará esta posición en 1968 ante un millar de profesores de idiomas congregados para oírle. La la lingüística, sin embargo, con o sin pretensión ha aportado muchos puntos positivos a la enseñanza de idiomas, entre ellos: - la insistencia en la necesidad de que el profesor esté mejor preparado profesionalmente; - la mayor concienciación del mismo en su trabajo; - la aplicación de nuevas técnicas en la clase; - una investigación más intensa en torno al tema metodológico; - la discusión y popularización del tema de la enseñanza de las lenguas extranjeras. 4. LOS MÉTODOS O TÉCNICAS AUDIOVISUALES. Los métodos audiovisuales tienen como punto de partida más próximo la metodología audiooral. Pero, si nos alejamos en el tiempo, los elementos visuales también aparecen en la enseñanza de idiomas de hace tiempo. Los chinos los usaron y en Occidente, el Renacimiento ofrece testimonios consistentes en este sentido. Es Comenio en el siglo XVII, quien ofrece por vez primera una obra en la que los elementos visuales están presentes lección por lección y coordinados con los elementos lingüísticos. En su Orbis Sensualium Pictus (1654), cada lección o sección está encabezada por un dibujo y los términos léxicos van señalados con números que se corresponden con los objetos, animales o personas presentes en los dibujos. Así, Comenio ponía en práctica su convencimiento de que en el aprendizaje han de participar todos los sentidos o tantos cuantos sea posible utilizar. El libro supone una verdadera innovación. Pero el coste económico de la impresión debía ser todavía un importante obstáculo para continuar por tal camino. Hoole maestro de inglés de aquel entonces, se quejaba precisamente de que el libro de Comenio era demasiado caro para ser accesible a la clase. Antes de Comenio ya otros habían sugerido la conveniencia de utilizar grabados baratos (Vossius, gramático holandés del siglo XVI), así los alumnos podrían aprender los nombres de las cosas sin tener que recurrir a la lengua materna (traducción). Esta idea era uno de los objetivos fundamentales de la utilización de métodos audiovisuales. Se dice, en efecto, que con la imagen el alumno podrá prescindir de su lengua nativa porque asociará inmediatamente el objeto con la palabra correspondiente y evitará pasar por el intermediario ahorrando tiempo en el aprendizaje. Sin lugar a dudas, la invención de la imprenta es el principal elemento novedoso que facilita el uso de elementos visuales en la docencia. Lo que antes tenía que dibujarse en carteles murales o pizarras, se reproducía fácilmente por medio de la imprenta. Y, aunque en un principio era en blanco y negro, las facilidades fueron considerables en relación con lo que
existía anteriormente. Que Comenio publicase todo un libro con dibujos para enseñar latín fue el inicio de lo que ocurriría después y siempre estaría presente hasta nuestros días. Podríamos decir que los medios audiovisuales se popularizaron por varias razones:el simple hecho de que intervenga un sentido más, la vista, es positivo por sí mismo; se sustituye el empleo de la lengua materna por la representación pictórica del objeto, y, no olvidemos que a través de las imágenes se pueden ofrecer materiales mucho más atractivos, motivantes para el alumno al reforzar su atención y predisponerlo para que en su conjunto la clase sea más agradable y apetecible a la vista. En el siglo XX la utilización de la imagen no sólo se ha enriquecido en razón de las posibilidades técnicas que están a nuestro alcance,sino que también se ha profundizado en su uso. En este campo hay que destacar lo realizado en Francia, especialmente en la escuela de St. Cloud, donde se insistía en la utilización de la imagen como sugeridora de un contexto global. Cada elemento se considera estrechamente unido a otros elementos, formando conjuntos o estructuras interrelacionadas. Por un lado, los elementos individuales conducen a un todo, y por otro, ese todo es analizable y conducente a cada uno de los elementos individuales. En realidad, lo que se hacía era seguir las pautas del estructuralismo en cuanto que este movimiento consideraba el lenguaje como un conjunto de estructuras jerárquicamente interdependientes. Se parte, por tanto, de un todo concebido globalmente. Se entiende mediante la memorización y se memoriza mediante la repetición y posterior análisis de las partes. Éste era el método ya propuesto anteriormente por Jacotot (1770-1840), quien afirmaba: “Il faut apprendre quelque chose et y rapporter tout le reste” (“Hay que aprender algo relacionándolo con el resto”). El principio de Jacotot aparecerá reproducido con nuevos elementos en el Método estructuroglobal, que podría definirse como la más importante aportación, original o no, que en Francia se ha hecho en relación con la utilización de medios visuales en la clase. Este método estructuroglobal audiovisual, SGAV, parte de tres supuestos: 1. La lengua está constituida por un conjunto de estructuras, “ un ensemble, un systeme de rapports”. Esto nos recuerda que la base de partida es la lingüística estructural: cada unidad no tiene valor por sí misma, aisladamente, sino solamente dentro del todo al cual pertenece. 2. Existe una realidad que no es precisamente lingüística, pero que afecta directamente a la lengua: la realidad socio-biológica que hace que la persona tienda a rechazar todo nuevo sistema cuando ya posee uno adecuado a su entorno, sus necesidades, etcétera. Se trata de una resistencia incosnciente pero real. 3. La lengua oral es prioritaria. La lengua escrita debe ser introducida más tarde. Este sistema de prioridades deriva del hecho de que -según ellos- la lengua escrita provoca en el alumno la rememorización de los mecanismos articulatorios propios de su lengua materna, actuando como interferencia importante en el proceso de aprendizaje de cualquier otro sistema lingüístico. En consecuencia hay que eliminar ese obstáculo, al menos hasta el momento en que el alumno ya tenga las defensas básicas necesarias para enfrentarse a tal interferencia. Una de las técnicas consiste precisamente en eliminar en cada sonido aquellas frecuencias que puedan recordar al alumno el sistema de sonidos de su lengua materna. El Profesor Guberina, investigador fundamental, tenido en cuenta por los defensores de esta metodología, ideó y construyó un aparato (SUVALINGUA) para filtrar los sonidos, haciendo concentrar la atención en aquellos que interesa que el alumno capte con mayor rapidez, teniendo en cuenta en todo momento las interferencias previsibles en relación con la lengua materna del alumno.
El Profesor Guberina decía que: 1. El alumno es sordo a los sonidos de la lengua que aprende si éstos no son iguales o similares a los de su lengua materna. El alumno que aprende una segunda lengua ha de ser, pues, estimulado para captar esas peculiaridades de los sonidos que no son propias de su lengua materna. Para ello ha de ser entrenado mediante el estímulo de su capacidad perceptora, capacidad que depende de complejos mecanismos cerebrales. Así, un japonés pronunciará calo o lalo, por caro/raro, al aprender español; él, naturalmente piensa que ha pronunciado “caro/raro”, pero no es consciente de que en realidad él oye en un principio (hasta que su oído sea entrenado para ello) “calo/lalo”. 2. De lo que antecede se deriva que el condicionamiento auditivo y perceptivo es un factor clave en el aprendizaje de una lengua. Y de ahí se deduce: - La necesidad de una continuada e intensa exposición del alumno al idioma que aprende. - La insistencia en la entonación como método para asimilar el sistema global y configuración de los sonidos de la lengua cuya adquisición se pretende lograr. - El trabajo intensivo y regular por parte del alumno. 3. Las técnicas audiovisuales pretenden enfocar la enseñanza de las lenguas a través de la repetición y la audición. La audición que es el primer estadio, pasa por la exigencia de una perfecta reproducción; después entrará en juego la ilustración mediante dibujos, así como la mímica, el movimiento y las actividades de toda índole. Los elementos audiovisuales tienen también como finalidad expresa el evitar el uso de la lengua materna, para ello se requiere que cada imagen se ajuste de la mejor manera posible y con la debida precisión a los contenidos del texto. La imagen, dicen, tiene la función de sugerir el contexto y no sólo el texto, de acompañar al sonido para asociarlo a la imgen y evitar el recurso a la lengua materna. BALANCE El método SUVAG, en definitiva, aporta como novedad la insistencia razonada en el hecho de que la percepción de los sonidos está condicionada por el sistema lingüístico que poseemos. Exige, por otra parte, una especializada preparación del profesor y una enseñanza practicamente individualizada, difícil de llevar a cabo en nuestras aulas. La insistencia en la comprensión global es positiva, aunque no nueva. En la práctica, el enfoque basado en “situaciones” es muy similar al anterior. Con la diferencia de que este se centraba en el significado del texto y el método estructuroglobal amplía los objetivos insistiendo en la percpción global del sistema fonológico. Otro de los inconvenientes que plantea este método es que el hecho de utilizar la imagen para sugerir un contexto puede llevar a sugerir lo que no deseamos sugerir si los dibujos no están bien realizados. Además superado el nivel elemental, en que una imagen puede fácilmente ilustrar una oración, en niveles superiores, lo que se suele hacer es ilustrar una idea, la idea central del texto o situación. Apenas se podría hacer más. Y el hecho de evitar la traducción es muy difícil porque la asociación significante-significado es enormemente íntima y nada fácil de destruir o esquivar.
5. LA METODOLOGÍA NOCIONAL-FUNCIONAL Los diversos métodos basados en el estructuralismo, abrazados por tantos como soluciones milagrosas, se dejaron de lado con furia. Este desencanto no fue ocasional sino que llegó de la mano con la llamada teoría lingüística transformacional, que hacía hincapié en la creatividad del lenguaje. Supuso una reacción diametralmente opuesta a la teoría estructuralista y a los métodos audio-orales al observarse que ambos procederes carecían de creatividad y que la lengua enseñada estaba demasiado disociada de los aspectos comunicativos que más la caracterizan en su utilización cotidiana. Con el advenimiento de la lingüística chomskiana, los profesores, cansados de las repeticiones propias del método audio-oral quieren ver en estos nuevos enfoques una salida afortunada para solucionar los problemas de la clase de lengua. La constante se repite de nuevo: por una parte el profesor de idiomas gusta de tachar a los lingüístas de “teóricos” por hablar de cosas que no interesan o están alejadas de la práctica; de otro lado buscan en sus teorías explicativas de la realidad del lenguaje, soluciones e ideas que faciliten la docencia y les orienten en su labor. Así pues, los profesores volvieron sus ojos hacia el transformacionismo, pero la respuesta de Chomsky fue realmente muy concisa: “ el lingüísta no tiene por qué solucionar los problemas de la clase; ése es un problema concreto que compete al profesor. Sin embargo, debemos decir inmediatamente, completando esta observación, que las explicaciones y análisis de la lengua y del lenguaje son la base más firme que han de servir al profesor de idiomas en cuanto que a través de ellas accederá a un mejor conocimiento y entendimiento del fenómeno lingüístico. De ese mejor entendimiento surgirá un más adecuado manejo y presentación de la lengua concreta que se enseñe. El hecho de que el transformacionalismo insistiese sobre todo en la creatividad del lenguaje, en las reglas ( en cuanto que son los motores generadores de nuevas estructuras desde la estructura profunda a la superficial) implicaba una firme toma de posición frente a la extendida práctica de los métodos audio-orales que precisamente excluían las reglas e insistían en la repetición de estructuras y sus correspondientes ejercicios mecánicos. En realidad, la teoría generativo-funcional no ofreció ni sustento ni cobijo suficiente para que la metodología de la enseñanza de idiomas encontrase en ella un apoyo definitivo, pero siempre se da un paso más y la meta en este campo se orientaba cada vez con mayor insistencia hacia un objetivo muy claro: la lengua como instrumento de comunicación interpersonal. JESPERSEN como gran lingüísta y profesor, ya había afirmado que no se debe pensar en un sólo enfoque o método para la enseñanza de idiomas, también se había adelantado a nuestros tiempos señalando que las lenguas deben ser aprendidas en contexto y en situaciones comunicativas. La “lengua es comunicación” era uno de sus lemas. En nuestros días todo apunta hacia esa meta, los medios de comunicación, a todos los niveles son la realidad dominante. La metodología estructuralista no había penetrado con tanta insistencia y fuerza en Europa como en EEUU. En Europa, en cambio se desarrollaron más las técnicas audiovisuales y, sobre todo en Inglaterra, la vertiente que se podría llamar situacional. Este término incluye no solamente el marco lingüístico dentro del cual todo acto de comunicación tiene lugar, sino
también el entorno cultural y social dentro del cual la comunicación lingüística se desarrolla. En este campo fueron influyentes dos nombres Firth, y después Halliday. El método situacional es en buena parte ecléctico. En un libro de texto de estas características, la situación inicial incluye, de manera ordenada y programada, aspectos gramaticales y léxicos, pero tomando en consideración situaciones normales (usuales) de la vida diaria, según criterios de frecuencia. Y todo ello porque se entiende que la lengua es un instrumento de comunicación y el alumno debe, por tanto, aprender el lenguaje propio de aquellas situaciones en las que se desarrolla realmente la comunicación interpersonal. En dichas situaciones se introducen también aspectos tradicionales y gramaticales, elementos audiovisuales para facilitar una comprensión global de la situación y evitar el recurso a la lengua materna del alumno. No obstante, los métodos situacionales no alcanzan quizás una autonomía real, a pesar de ser ampliamente utilizados. Están muy ligados al audiovisualismo en general, a la preocupación por aspectos gramaticales, a la ordenación e introducción gradada, a aspectos conductistas relativos al apredizaje, a la introducción del vocabulario en función de listados de frecuencia..., es decir, intentan reunir todo lo hecho hasta el momento en los métodos de idiomas. En este contexto nace lo que en inglés se denominó, al principio de los años sesenta, Notional-functional syllabus (programa nocional-funcional). Las definiciones de dicho método no coinciden plenamente entre sí, pero todas ellas se reducen a dos elementos clave: ausencia de aspectos gramaticales e insistencia en los aspectos comunicativos de la lengua a enseñar. WILKINS precisa diciendo “ el método nocional-funcional contrasta con el gramatical y el situacional porque toma como punto de partida la necesidad comunicativa del lenguaje... En vez de preguntar cómo se expresan los hablantes o cómo y cuándo utilizan la lengua, nos fijamos más en qué es lo que se comunica mediante la lengua. Así podemos organizar la enseñanza de la lengua en fución del contenido y no de las formas lingüísticas.” Analizando por puntos diremos que: 1. El método nocional-funcional parte de la consideración de la lengua que se va a enseñar como un instrumento de comunicación interpersonal. 2. La elaboración del material docente en un libro de texto, no toma como punto de partida una organización por temas gramaticales, ni léxicos de frecuencia, ni situaciones de la vida real, sino aquellas unidades de comunicación (actos de comunicación lingüística) que forman parte integrante de la comunicación en la vida real. 3. Esas unidades del lenguaje se ordenan adecuadamente de acuerdo con las necesidades de comunicación de aquellos que aprenden un idioma. 4. Dado que los actos de comunicación lingüística admiten varias formas, se debe proceder también a una selección de las formas o estructuras lingüísticas, de acuerdo con el grado de dificultad o complejidad de las mismas y siempre teniendo en cuenta las necesidades y objetivos de quien aprende. BALANCE
Es preciso admitir que la sola aceptación de los principios y procedimientos anteriormente reseñados ya supone un vuelco considerable en relación con los métodos a los cuales se estaba acostumbrado; e incluso a la larga tradición, siempre subyacente, de considerar la gramática como punto de partida primordial. En el método nocional-funcional se parte de otra perspectiva: una selección de los actos de comunicación más pertinentes para cada nivel y con las formas también más adecuadas a los distintos estadios del aprendizaje. No quiere ello decir que los problemas gramaticales se eliminen, pero se abordan de manera distinta: no mediante la programación gramatical previa a la que se estaba habituado, sino como exposición descriptiva ,a posteriori, de lo que resulta de los actos de comunicación lingüística, que constituyen el objetivo de cada lección. Así, por ejemplo, si el acto de comunicación lingüística que queremos enseñar se refiere a saludar, apareceran registros como el siguiente: - ¡Hola!, ¿qué tal? ¿Cómo estás? - Muy bien, gracias, ¿y tú? Esta simple manera de saludar a un amigo, a nivel coloquial, implica una serie de vocabulario y de estructuras: flexión del verbo estar; qué, cómo...Pero dichas estructuras se pueden tornar más complejas, dentro de la misma situación comunicativa a otro nivel ( el formal): - Este es el Sr. Perez - Mucho gusto -Encantado Y así sucesivamente... De aquí se deduce que el material didáctico se ordena en función de los actos de comunicación y de acuerdo a criterios de frecuencia y uso, y, teniendo en cuenta también el grado de complejidad de los elementos lingüísticos implicados en cada caso. Si la gramática no es el punto de partida en la ordenación del material docente, tampoco ha de constituir el objetivo del profesor en la clase. No debe usarse de la misma manera que en un método audiovisual o estructural. Entiéndase, por otra parte, que si los métodos nocionalesfuncionales parten de fundamentos extremadamente pragmáticos, no significa, sin embargo, que los elementos de gramática hayan de estar ausentes en la clase de manera total y por definición. Lo que importa es que no se conviertan en el objetivo prioritario y fundamental de la clase. Esta metodología no es tan ingénua como para pensar que la gramática, la fonética o el vocabulario no deben constituir parte integrante de la enseñanza de una lengua. La presentación del material lingüístico a la clase se hace en términos de globalidad, tal cual se da en la realidad de los actos de comunicación. Y el profesor no debería actuar de forma distinta porque los problemas pueden incrementarse y desbordar la situación debido a que en los actos de comunicación presentados en los textos las implicaciones gramaticales pueden ser muy heterogéneas. Y su explicación explícita podría dar lugar a sesiones interminables e incluso complicadas que perderían tanto al alumno como al profesor. De hecho, puede ocurrir que algunas estructuras gramaticales consideradas como difíciles por los métodos tradicionales, aparezcan desde las primeras lecciones, simplemente porque aparecen en actos de comunicación lingüística de importacia básica. Por ejemplo, para pedir un favor a alguien en español podríamos encontrarnos algo así:
- ¿ Haría usted el favor de decirme donde está correos? - Sí, coja usted la primera a la derecha. Está a unos 100 metros de aquí. La estructura Haría usted el favor de..., tanto en la gramática tradicional como en los métodos audio-orales, aparecería en los libros de texto con toda probabilidad sólo después de que el alumno hubiese visto ya las formas de presente y quizá también las de futuro. Sin embargo, el acto de comunicación que implica el uso de estas formas de condicional es evidentemente de importancia suma y capital en la comunicación interpersonal. Queda pues justificada su aparición temprana en el material de aprendizaje. Pero que el profesor se entretenga en explicar las formas del condicional sería imprudente; posiblemente es lo que haría un profesor inexperto en el uso de esta metodología y acostumbrado a hábitos propios de otros métodos. Las explicaciones gramaticales en un método nocional-funcional suelen presentarse como GRAMÁTICA FUNCIONAL ,al final de cada unidad. Si tomamos como modelo el ejemplo de pedir un favor veríamos como esta estructura puede servir para contextos similares (pedir un favor, puede aplicarse para “ir a correos”, “ a la estación”, “pedir fuego”, etcétera). En tales casos, la estructura no experimenta variaciones; sólo cambian algunos elementos léxicos. Lo que importa es que el alumno se fije en la funcionalidad de la estructura y la consolide mediante transferencia a otros contextos similares desde el punto de vista de la comunicación. Ahora no se pretende que el alumno memorice la estructura (estrategia que se seguía en los métodos anteriores). Este método espera que los alumnos aprendan una lengua basándose en actos de comunicación sin que necesariamente tengan que aprender todas las implicaciones gramaticales. La idea es óptima para lenguas como el inglés, pero con el francés, el español y todas aquellas que son más flexionadas, el problema de la morfología es ciertamente menos ineludible. Comparando con otros métodos, el método nocional-funcional no está muy lejos del método situacional. Tanto las nociones lingüísticas como los actos de comunicación lingüística se dan dentro de un contexto más amplio: la situación. Y también este método tiene elementos estrucutralistas, en el sentido de que la explotación y transferencia, así como el refuerzo de las funciones, se logrará mediante la repetición de contextos paralelos y en base a las mismas estrucuturas funcionales. Tiene igualmente elementos visuales, porque también éstos pueden ayudar a comprender mejor un acto de comunicación, global o especificamente. Y tiene elementos de gramática tradicional porque la “gramática funcional” puede también explicitarse en aquellos casos en los que sea más compleja o, sencillamente porque los alumnos pidan que se den explicaciones para comprender mejor lo que están aprendiendo.. Evidentemente, aprender y consolidar elementos lingüísticos complejos a través de esta metodología puede enfrentar al alumno a problemas serios, desde el punto de vista gramatical, debido a que los actos lingüísticos más necesarios y básicos de la vida real suelen implicar estructuras frecuentemente complejas. Todo esto supone que a partir de un cierto nivel elemental, tal vez sea necesario recurrir a técnicas que se aproximen más a los métodos anteriores, es decir, a la metodología audiovisual, situacional o tradicional. El método nocional-funcional responde muy bien, sin embargo, a los objetivos que se propusieron en el Cojnsejo de Europa: una homogeneización de niveles de aprendizaje
mínimos para facilitar la comunicación interpersonal entre quienes, por razones políticas y comerciales, han de estar en contacto permanente. Y esto ocurre sin lugar a dudas entre los países que forman la Unión Europea. De todos modos, y para finalizar, lo que debe quedar muy claro es que la metodología nocional-funcional requiere un cambio de mentalidad en el profesor y en el alumno, un buen entrenamiento del profesor para que no fracase en su uso y sobre todo tener en cuenta que hasta ahora no existen métodos mágicos que permitan aprender o enseñar una lengua sin esfuerzo y prescindiendo del factor tiempo.
TEMA 14 MÉTODOS Y TÉCNICAS ENFOCADOS A LA ADQUISICIÓN DE COMPETENCIAS COMUNICATIVAS. FUNDAMENTOS METODOLÓGICOS ESPECÍFICOS DE LA ENSEÑANZA DEL INGLÉS. 0. INTRODUCTION. 1 . SPECIFIC METHODOLOGICAL FUNDAMENTALS ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING. 1.1. APPROACH, METHOD, AND TECHNIQUE. 1.2. APPROACH. 1.2.1. Theory of language. 1.2.2. Theory of language learning. 1.3. Design. 1.3.1. Objectives. 1.3.2. The syllabus. 1.3.3. Teaching and learning activities. 1.3.4. The roles of the learner. 1.3.5. The roles of the teacher. 1.3.6. The roles of materials. 1.4. Procedure. 1.5. Conclusion. 2. COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING. 2.1. Approach. 2.1.1. Theory of language. 2.1.2. Theory of language learning.
2.2. Design. 2.2.1. Objectives and syllabus. 2.2.2. Learning and teaching activities. 2.2.3. The roles of the learner and teacher. 2.2.4. The roles of materials. 2.3. Procedure. 3. BIBLIOGRAPHY.
PAG 1
0. INTRODUCTION. In the long search for the best way of teaching a foreign language, a proliferation of new approaches and methods has been devised. Crertain methods are widely recognized because of their influential role in the history of ideas surrounding this subject, for example, the grammar-translation method, the natural method, the direct method or the audio-lingual method. During the 1970, however, there was a strong reaction against methods that stressed the teaching of grammatical forms and paid little or no attention to the way language is used in everyday situations. Aconcern developed to make foreing language teaching more communicative.
These methods differ in the way they address fundamental methodological issues such as: - What should the goals of language teaching be? - What is the basic nature of language? - What are the principles for the selection of language content? - What are the best principles of organization, sequencing and presentation? - What should the role of the native language be? - What processes do learners use in learning a language? - What are the best teaching techniques? The answer to these questions will enable us to understand the fundamental nature of methods in English language teaching. As the analysis of these specific methodological fundamentals is previous to the study of any particular approach, method or technique we will discuss first the essentials of English as a foreign language teaching. Next, we will thoroughly study communicative language teaching. 1. SPECIFIC METHODOLOGICAL FUNDAMENTALS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING. The change from one methold to another or from one set of classroom techniques and procedures have reflected responses to a varietiy of historical issues and circumstances. As the study of methods and procedures assumed a central role within applied linguistics from the 1940s on, various attempts have been made to conceptualize the nature of methods. 1.1 Approch, method, and technique. In describing methods, the difference between a philosophy of language teaching at the theoretical level, and a set of procedures and techniques for teaching in the classroom, is
PAG 2
Central. The American linguist Edward Anthony proposed a clarifying scheme in 1963. He identified three levels of conceptualization and organization: - Approach - Method - Technique An approach is a set of correlative assumptions which the all with the nature of language and its teaching. Therefore, and approach is axiomatic and is formed by a theory of language and a theory of language learning. A method is not axiomatic; it is procedural. A method is a gloval plan for the presentation of language material. This presentation is based on a theory of language and language learning, and approach, and so a method cannot contradict its approach, but it is possible to have more than one method within a certain approach.That is the reason for the plural in the title of this topic metodos y tecnicas ; there are many possible methods within the communicative approach. Techniques are implementational, what really occurs in the classroom. They are consistent with a method and therefore with and approach as well.
ANTHONY'S MODEL Approach----------------------------- Theory of language ----------------------------- Theory of language learning Method--------------------------------- Theory into practice: Skills to be taught
Contents to be taught Order of presentation Technique----------------------------- Classroom procedures
Richard s and Rodgers (1986) have revised and extented the original model. They see approach and method treated at the level of design, that level in which objectives, syllabus, and content are determined, and in which the roles or teachers, learners and materials are. specified. Anthony'slevel of technique is referred to as procedure. They see, therefore, that a method is theoretically related to and approach, organizationally determined by a desing, and is practically realized in a procedure.
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RICHARDS AND RODGERS´S MODEL
Approach--------------------------------- Theory of language Theory of language learning Design-------------------------------------- Objectives The syllabus Teaching and learning activities The roles of the learner The roles of the teacher The roles of the materials
Procedures--------------------------- Classroom techniques 1.2. Approach Approach refers to theories about the nature of language and language learning that serve as the source of practiques and principles in language teaching. 1.2.1. Theory of language Three different theories of language and language proficiency underline current approaches and methods in language teaching: - Structural view - Functional view - Interactional view The structural view is the view that language is a system of structurally related elements for the coding of meaning. The tarjet of language learning is seen to be the mastery of the units of the system ( phonological, grammatical and lexical ). The audio-lingual method, Total Physical Response, or the Silent Way embody this particular view of language. The funcional view is the view that language is a vehicle for the expression of functional meaning. We will see later how the communicative movement in language teaching embodies this view of language . The third view is the interactional view. It sees language as a vehicle for the realization of interpersonal relations and for performance of social transactions between individuals. Community Language Learning seems to have embodied this point of view lately. PAG 4
1.2.2. Theory of language learning. A learning theory underlying an approach must take account of the psycholinguistic and cognitive processes involved in language learning, and the optimal conditions for these processes to be activated. Learning theories may emphasize one or both aspects. Process-oriented theories build on learning processes, such as habit formation, induction, inferencing, hypothesis testing, and generalization. Condition-oriented theories emphasize the nature of the environment, both human and physical, in which language learning takes place. For example, Krashen´s Monitor Model is an example of a learning theory on which a method has been built (the natural method). At the level of process, he distinguishes between acquisitions and learnin. He also addresses the conditions necessary for the process of adquisition to take place: the input must be comprehensible, roughly - tuned, relevant, in sufficient quantity, and experience in low - anxiety contexts. These principles may or may not lead to a method. We may divise our own teaching Procedures following a particular approach, and then change this procedures on the basis Of the performance of our pupils. Theory does not dictate a particular set of teaching procedures. What links approach with procedure is what Richards and Rodgers call design. 1.3. Design. Design is the level of method analysis where we consider the objectives, the syllabus, the types of learning tasks, the roles of learners and teachers, and the roles of instructional materials 1.3.1. Objectives.
At the level of design we must deal with the specification of the general and specific Objectives of the method. Some methods may focus on oral skills. Some methods may focus On communication skills. Other may place a greater emphasis on accurate grammar or Pronunciation. We may distinguish between these methods whose objectives are expressed in linguistic Terms (product-oriented) and those which define their objectives in terms of learning Behaviours (process-oriented). However, some methods that claim to be process-oriented Show a great concern with accurate grammar and pronunciation. 1.3.2. The syllabus. As we have to use the target language in order to teach it, we must make decisions about The selection of language items we are going to use. These languages items are to be
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Selected not only in linguistic grounds but also according to subject-matter, i.e.. we must make decisions about what to talk about and how to talk about it. In traditional, grammarbased courses, contents were selected according to the difficulty of the items. In communicative courses the sequence of the elements is normally based on our pupils communicative needs. Process-oriented methods (e.g., Counselling Learning) normally have no language syllabus, as considerations of language content are secondary. Learners select content
for themselves by choosing topics they want to talk about. 1.3.3. Learning and teaching activities. The objectives of a method are attained through the interaction of teachers, learners and material in the classroom. The activity types that a method advocates may serve to differentiate methods. The Silent Way, for example, uses problem-solving activities which involve the use of coloured rods. Communicative language teaching advocates the use of tasks that involve an information gap, as this is considered to be one of the elements of reallife communication. Differences in activity types may result in different arrangements and groupings of learners. drills, for instance, require different groupings than problem-solving activities. Even if we use the same activity, differences at the level of approach may determine different goals for it in two different methods. For example, interactive games are often use in audiolingual courses for motivation and to provide a change of pace from drill; in communicative language teaching they are used to practice particular types of interactive exchanges which are useful in real communication. Different assumptions in objectives, syllabuses, and activities result in different roles to learners, teachers and instructional materials. 1.3.4. The roles of the learner. Design is greatly influenced by how learners are regarded. The learner´s contribution to the learning process, i.e., his passivity or activity and in which degree, marks the types of activities they will carry out, the groupings, the degree to which they will influence the learning of others, and their view as processors, performers, initiators or problem solvers.
Audiolingualism, for example, saw learners as stimulus-response-reinforcement mechanisms whose learning was a result of repetitive practice. Newer methodologies exhibit more concern for variation among learners´roles. The teacher must create the conditions for learning to take place. Learner-centred learning tries to teach languages in a environment of quasi-independence form the teacher.
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1.3.5. The roles of the teacher. New methodologies have resulted in a proliferation of teacher roles, such as informant, conductor, diagnoser, corrector, consultant, model... All these roles are related to essential methodological issues: - the types of functions the teacher is expected to fulfil - the degree of control the teacher has over how learning takes place - the degree of control the teacher has about the content of the course - the interactional patterns that develop between teachers and learner We must be aware of the roles we can play in the classroom, as only when we are sure of our role and our pupils´concominant one will we depart from the security of traditional coursebook-oriented teaching. 1.3.6. The roles of materials. The role of materials will reflect decisions concerning the primary goals of the materials (to present content, to practice content, to facilitate communication,...) the form of the materials (textbooks, audiovisuals, supplementary readers,...) the relation of materials to other sources of input (whether they are the principal source or not), and
the abilities of the teacher (degree of training and competence). Therefore, the role of materials will be different in different methodologies. For example, within a communicative approach materials will focus on the communicative abilities of interpretation, expression, and negotiation. On the other hand, an individualized instructional system may include as the main role of the materials to allow the learners to progress at their own rates of learning. These roles do not need to be seen as antithetical, in fact, both roles must be played by our materials according to our curriculum. The third and last level of conceptualization is the level of technique (Anthony:1963) or procedure (Richards and Rodgers:1986). 1.4. Procedure. Procedure consists of the techniques, practices, and behaviours that operate in the real teaching situation according to a particular method. We are concerned with the use of teaching activities to present, practice and produce language, and with the procedures and techniques used in giving feedback to our pupils (evaluation techniques). We also take account of the resources in terms of time, space, and equipment used by the teacher and the interactional patterns observed during the lessons.
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1.6. Conclusion.
We have described the specific methodological fundamentels of English Language Teaching with reference to approach, design and procedure. It is clear that methodological development does not always proceed neatly from approach, through design, to procedure. However, national curricula, which draw on the expertise of interdisciplinary working committees, usually do. Spanish Foreign Languages curriculum departs from a constructivist theory of learning and a view of language as communication towards generally outlined procedures to allow for individualization through a design level in which the syllabus, activities, learner roles, teacher roles, and role of the instructional materials are defined not very strictly to allow for adjustments in particular teaching situations. One of the basic ingredients of our curriculum is its adaptability. This adaptability, however, is limited by a communicative framework as the main aim of teaching English in our educational system is to achieve communicative competence. We are now going to study the essentials of communicative language teaching. 2.Communicative language teaching. Communicative language teaching draws on Chomsky´s criticism to structural theories of language, which are incapable of accounting for the creativity and uniqueness of individual sentences, as well as British applied linguist criticism of current approaches to language teaching, which inadequately addressed the functional and communicative potential of language. Another impetus for different approaches came from changing educational realities in Europe. The Council of Europe took a great interest in education. As a result, a group of experts was set up in 1971 to investigate the possibility of developing language courses on a unit-credit system. One of the members of this committee, Wilkins, proposed a functional or communicative definition of language that could serve as a basis for
developing communicative syllabuses. They were based on two types of meanings : notions (such as time,sequence, quantity...) and categories of communicative function (such as requests, denials, offers, complaints...) This work was rapidly followed by an almost universal acceptance of the theoretical principles of the Communicative Approach, and its rapid application in textbook, curriculum development centres and governments. Because of this, the Communicative Approach to language teaching is the most extended foreign language teaching system. Its aims are to make communicative competence the goal of language teaching and develop procedures for the teaching of the four skills. Next we analyze it in detail, following Richards and Rodgers division into approach, design and procedure.
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2.1. Approach. 2.1.1. Theory of language. The communicative approach in language teaching starts from at theory of language as communication. The main goal is to acquire what Hymes defined as communicative competence. Chomsky ( 1957 ) defined language as a set of sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements. An able speaker has a subconcious knowledge of the grammar rules of his language which allows him to make sentences in that language. However, Dell Hymes thought that Chomsky had missed out some very important information: the rules of use. When anative speaker spekas he does not only utter
gramatically correct forms, he also knows where and when to use this sentences and to whom. Hynes, then, said, that competence by itself is not enough to explain a native speaker's knowledge, and he replaced it with his own concept of comunicative competence. Hymes distinguished four aspects of this competence: systematic potential, appropriacy, occurrence and feasibility. Systematic potential means that the native speaker possesses a system that has a potential for creating a lot of language. This is similar to Chomsky's competence. Appropriacy means that the native speaker knows what language is appropiate in a given situation. His choice is based on the following variables, among others: setting, participants, purpose, channel, topic... Occurrence means that the native speaker knows how often something is said in the language and act accordingly. Feasibility means that the native speaker knows whether something is possible in the language. Even if there is no grammatical rule to ban 20-adjective pre-head cosntruction we know that these constructions are not possible in the language. These four categories have been adapted for teaching purposes. Thus, Royal Decree 1006/ 1991, of 14 June ( BOE 25 June), which establishes the teaching requirements for Primary Education nationwide sees communicative competence as comprising five subcompetences: - Grammar competence: the ability to put into practice the linguistic units according to the rules of use established in the linguistic system. - Discourse competence: the ability to use different types of discourse and organize them according to the comunicative situation and the speakers involved in it.
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Sociolinguistic competence: the ability to adequate the utterances to
the specific context in accordance with the accepted usage of the determined linguistic community. - Strategic competence: the ability to define, correct or in general, make adjustments in the course of the communicative. - Sociocultural competence: this competence has to be understood as a certain awareness of the social and cultural context in which the foreign language is used. Grammar competence refers to what Chomsky called linguistic competence and Hymes systematic potential.It os the domain of grammaticak and lexical capacity. Discourse competence os the aspect of communicative competence whoch describes the ability to produce unified written or spoken discourse that shows coherence and cohesion and which conforms to the norms of different genres. Our pupils must be able to produce discourse in which successive utterances are linked through rules of discourse or discourse competence. Sociolinguistic competence refers to an understanding of the social context in which communication takes place, including role relationships, the shared information of the participants,... Sociolinguistic competence refers to an understanding of the social contexr in which
describes the ability of speakers to use verbal and non- verbal communication strategies to compemsate for breakdowns in cmminication or to improve the effectiveness of communication. Sociocultural competence refers to the learner's lnowledge of the cultural aspects of rhe target language speaking countries. All these elements are part of the language as language is not something abstract but a tool for effective communication. 2.1.2. Theory of language learning. Different learning theories may be found in communicative language teaching. All of them share the same principles. The communication principle establishes that activities that involve communication promote learning. The second element is the task principle, activities in which language is used for carrying out meaningful tasks promote learning. A third element is the meaningfulness principle, language that is meaningful to the learner supports
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The learning process. Learning activities,as we will see, are consequently selected according to how well they engage the learner in meaningful and authentic language use. 2.2. Design. 2.2.1. Objectives and syllabus. We have already studied the main objective of communicative language learning as it is
central to its theory of language: to reach communicative competence. Different syllabuses may fulfil this objective. Discussions of the nature of the syllabus have been central in this approach. The early notional-functional approach was soon criticised as it seem only a replacement of grammatical lists by notional-functional lists. After that many syllabuses have been designed, though some linguists even rejected the notion of syllabus, the most favoured of which is Brumfit´s model, which has a grammatical core around which notions, functions, and communicational activities are grouped. The range of the last is really unlimited, but we now try to define and classify them. 2.2.2. Learning and teaching activities. Communicative activities must fulfil a series of conditions: - enabling learners to attain the communicative objective of the curriculum - engage learners in communication - require the use of communication processes (information sharing, interaction...) Most communicative techniques are based in the information gap principle. In an information gap activity, one of our pupils knows something that another pupils needs, to do the activity. By means of negotiation, interaction and information transfer techniques the gap is bridged. Littlewood (1981) distinguishes between functional communication activities and social interaction activities. Functional communication activities include such tasks as learners comparing sets of pictures and noting similarities and differences; working out a likely sequence of events in a set of pictures; discovering missing features in a map or drawing; following directions, etc. Social interaction activities include conversation and discussion sessions, dialogues and role plays, simulations, debates,... Harmer (1983) has defined a set of characteristics that communicative
activities share: - a desire to communicate - a communicative purpose - content not form
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- variety of language - no teacher intervention - no materials control He also divided communicative activities into oral and written. Oral communicative activities may be studied in seven areas: - reaching a consensus - interpersonal exchange play
- comunication games - story construction
- problem solving - simulation and role
In reaching a consensus activities our pupils must agree with each other after a certain amount of discussion. Consensus activities are very successful in promoting free an spontaneous use of English, e.g. they have to decide what ten objects they will take with them if they have to go to a camping site near a mountain range. In relaying instructions we give the necessary information for the performance of a task to a group of pupils. Without showing this information to a different group they have to enable this group to perform the same task, e.g.. a dance, a drawing, a model, a map... Comunication gap games are based on the principle of the information gap. Interpersonal exchange activities are very similar to information gap ones. The only differece is that the difference is not in factual knowledge, but rather of opinion so they can be
called "opinion gap" activities, e.g. your favorite food, film, book... Story construction uses the principle of the information gap and adds the jigsaw principle. We give our pupils partial information and then ask them, to use that information as part of a story they must complete by asking other pupils who have other items of information. Simulation1 and role play2 involve the pretence of a real-life situation in the classroom. In simulations our pupils are in the situation as themselves while in a role play we ask them to play a role following a role card. E.g. police officer... Hamer distinguishes six main types of written communicative activities:
1 The idea in simulations is to create a pretence of real life in the classroom. The difference simulations have with role plays is simply that in the former, the students are asked to dramatize the situations with no guide about their characteres (they, thus, play as themselves), while in the second their behaviours are guied by means of the role card provided. It seems clear, then that role plais are a specific kind of simulation. 2 A role play is an activity for which the context an the roles of the students are Determinated by teacher, but in which students have freedom to produce the language Thei feel appropiate to that context and assigned roles PAG 12 - relaying instructions - fluency writing advertisement
- exchanging letters - story construction
-writing games - writing reports and
In relaying instructions one group of pupils has information for the performance of a task, and they have to get another group to perform the same task by giving them
written instructions. We may use this activity giving directions, writing messages which requiere an answer,... Exchanging letters is a type of activity in which one of our pupils write a letter to each other and then recieve a reply. They may be playing a role, such as writing to agony column, to make the letter more interesting. It is important to teach/learn the special lay-out of English letters. Writing games may be used to produce written language in a motivating way, e.g. our pupils can write descriptions of famous people or places. Then, they have to read it aloud. The first pupil to identify the described person or place wins. In fluency writing we get our pupils to write as much as possible in a definite period of time. Research has suggested that if this is done quite frequently, our pupils will be able not only to write greater quantities, but the quality will improve as well. For example we can give them a series of pictures, sequence them and tell a story with a time limit. In story construction we give individual pupils partial information which they must pool together with other pupils to write a narrative. Finally, in writing reports and advertisements we may use some activities based on our pupils´fields of interest. For example we can prepare a smoking questionnaire. Our pupils will devise a questionnaire and then write a report based on the results they obtain. 2.2.3. The roles of the learner and teacher. Communicative language teaching emphasis on communication, rather than the mastery of language forms, leads to different roles for learners and teachers form those found in
traditional teaching. Successful communication is an accomplishment jointly achieved an so the main role of the learner is that of negotiator. By means of cognitive and social interaction, i.e. with himself, his classmates, the teacher, and the materials, he must be able to communicate. The teacher must assume several roles in communicative language teaching, such as needs analyst, counsellor, group process manager, informant,... But all these roles serve two main functions. First of all, the teacher must facilitate the communication process in the classroom. Secondly, he must be a participant within the learning-teaching group. PAG 13
2.2.4. The roles of materials. Communicative language teaching sees materials as a way of influencing the quality of classroom interaction, The primary role of materials is therefore to promote communicative language use. We can distinguish three types of materials: text-based; task-based and realia. Text-based materials are sometimes no more than structurally organized texts whih some interspersed communicative activities. However, there are communicative texts, which are very different from traditional organized texts. For example, they may consist of cues to initiate communication, or be based in information gap pair work, ... Task-based materials consist of games, role-plays, simulations,... sometimes the information is complementary - the information gap again - and parterns must fit their parts of the jigsaw into a composite whole.
Finally, realia may include the use of magazines, newspapers, maps, pictures, objects... 2.3. Procedure. Because of the wide range of communicative activities and techniques that we can use, it is not possible to describe a typical classroom procedure. We can say, however, that traditional procedures are not rejected and that they may be used in the first stages of language learning, such as presentation and controlled practice, while communicative activities are mainly used in the free production stage. Therefore we can establish a sequence of activities as follows; PROCEDURE Stages Presentation Practice Production Production
activities Strucutural Pre-communicative quasi-communicative Pre-communicative Functional communication communicative social interaction communicative
As a conclusion, we can say that communicative language teaching uses a wide range of techniques and activities, which involve different roles for teachers, learners and material as well as different syllabuses, to reach its main aim: the attainment of communicative competence. PAG 14
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY. Brumfit, C, and Johnson, K, The communicative approach to language teaching. OUP. Oxford, 1981.
Crystal, D. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of language. CUP. Cambridge, 1987. Harmer, J. The Practice of English Language Teaching. Longman. London, 1983. Howatt, A.P.R. A History of English Language Teaching. OUP. Oxford, 1983. Johnson, K. Communicative Syllabus Design and Methodology. OUP. Oxford, 1982. Littlewood, W. Communicative Language Teaching. CUP. Cambridge, 1981. Mathews, A. At the Chalkface. Nelson. Hong Kong, 1991. Pygmalion, Equipo. La Enseñanza del Inglés. Narcea. Madrid, 1987. Richards, J.C., Platt, J. And Platt, H. Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics, Longman. London, 1992. Steinberg, D.D. Psycholinguistics. Longman. London, 1982.
Theme 15: Periods, authors and most suitable literary genres to be used in the English class. Types of texts.
0. Introduction. Even at the early stages students can in fact do a great deal with the language: identifying sounds; produce them orally; recognize then in a text. In short, even the very beginners can do something with the language. We must build from that point by adding input which is neither too advanced, nor too easy. Cinema, music and literature are rich and motivating materials. If we manage to know how to select and to present content in such a way that it will both challenge and motivate them. Our curriculum establishes two general aims which are related this topic. They read as follows: Objectives Assessment criteria
1. To understand easy written and oral texts... of the teacher... 4. To read short and easy texts...
7. To read with the help
According to this it is clear that we can and, it is possible, we should use literature in our classroom. The general aim of our approach to the teaching of literature is to let our pupils derive the benefits of communicative activities for language improvement within the context of suitable works of literature.
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We also have the following specific aims: Maintain our pupils’ interest and involvement by using a wide range of pupil centred activities. Try and bring to life the printed page, exploiting as fully as possible the interest that well-chosen literature has for our pupils. We must help our pupils value their own responses to the printed page.
We may find three types of justification for using literary texts. Each one deals with a different type of content: • Concepts: literary texts offer genuine samples of a wide range of styles, register and text-types, they provide a rich context in which individual lexical or syntactical items are made more memorable. • Skills or procedures: the opinion gap between one pupil’s interpretation and another’s can be bridged by genuine interaction. • Attitudes: the genuine feeling of literary texts is a powerful motivator.
1. Periods, authors and most suitable literary genres to be used in the English class. 1.1. The literary genres and figures in EFL. The English language is certainly rich in literary figures and genres; and the literary ages are full of intriguing aspects that students can find extremely motivating. As long as we know how to select and to present the content (keeping in mind Krashen’s model of “input + 1) – input just a little above the students’ level – a great many literary figures can be successfully used in TEFL. 1.2. Well-know tales and rhymes. The following is a selection of authors, genres and periods that could be used in TEFL. Well-known tales. “The elves and the shoemaker”; “The tree little pigs” “The little red hen”; “The princess and the pea”; “Chicken Licken”; “The ugly duckling”; “The emperor’s new clothes”; “Sleeping beauty”; “Puss in boots”; “Little red riding hood”; “Hansel and Gretel”; “Cinderella”; Beauty and the beast”; “Snow white and the seven dwarfs”; “The wizard of Oz”; “Ladybird”; “Rumpelstiltskin”; “Goldylocks and the three bears”.
Well-know rhymes. “One, two, put on your shoe”; “Rain, rain go away”; “This is the way”; “Old Macdonald had a farm”; “Hickory, Dickory, Dock”; “Baa, baa, black sheep”; “Three blind mice”; “Insey Winsey spider”; “Pussy cut, pussy cat”; “Humpty Dumpty”; “Jack and Jill”; “Eany, Meeny, Miny, Mo”; “There is a hole in my bucket”; “The house that Jack built”; “She sells seashells”; “Thirty days September”; “There was an Old Woman who swallowed a fly”
When selecting a work of literature we must bear in mind that we want our pupils engage interactively with the text, with classmates, and with us, the teachers. To reach this we must follow these guidelines: a) The text itself, and not information about it, is of central importance.
b) Our pupils must genuinely interact with the text, their classmates and the teacher and not be mere recipients. c) Our activities must be designed so as to enable our pupils to share their personal experiences, perceptions and opinions. d) Our activities must be varied and interesting. e) The selection must be based on their potential interest for our pupils and not in the literary qualities of the works. 1.2. Storybooks. 1. Criteria for selecting storybooks. We can find many simplified storybooks which have been graded with children learning English in mind. Most authors, however, consider that the use of authentic materials can be more fruitful (real language and motivation). We can also find authentic books with high-quality illustrations which will play an important role in aiding comprehension. a) Our pupils’ needs and abilities. The chosen texts should always be appropriate to the age, interests and goals of our pupils. In order to understand literary texts our pupils need to be able to read at a reasonable speed for an extended period without fatigue. This speed should, for extensive reading, be at a rate of at least 200 words per minute. Our youngest pupils, those in the second cycle, will not be able to read at this speed in English so we must use short, simple texts with illustrations. We can also use reading techniques to improve our pupils’ reading speed. These are normally divided into technical or practice methods. • Technical methods: use a device of some kind to cover up the written words as our pupils read, forcing them to speed up their reading. These methods may be more useful for the Spanish language classroom. • Practice methods are more suitable for the English class our oldest pupils, as the texts they are able to cope with begin to increase in size, e.g. texts followed by certain tasks, decrease the time allowed for reading. 1. CRITERIA FOR SELECTING STORYBOOKS (Ellis and Brewster). Needs and abilities. 1. Content/subject matter. a) Relevant; b) Interesting; c) Amusing; d) Memorable. 2. Visuals. a) Use of illustrations; b) Attractive/colourful; c) Size; d) Target culture. 3. Encourage participation. a) Repetition; b) Prediction; c) Develop memory; d) Build confidence. 4. Motivating. a) Relate to their experiences and characteristics. 5. Arouse curiosity. a) Interest in getting to know more about English language and culture. 6. Create positive attitudes. a) Target language, b) Target culture; c) Language learning.
We can see how these first criteria of suitability depend on each particular group of pupils, their needs and interests. b) Language difficulty: linguistic and stylistic level. • Linguistic level: If we want our pupils to enjoy reading a text we should bear in mind the following points: - the vocabulary and syntax of the text should be within our pupils’ grasp - idiomatic language should be kept at a minimum
It would be absurd to use the masterpieces of children’s literature in our classes. Unknown words should not occur more frequently than one or two every hundred. We must also bear in mind complex structure. This may also hinder comprehension as they will not see how one part of the text relates to another. Therefore, if both sentence structure and vocabulary must be at a level they can understand, we will not be able to use classic children storybooks masterpieces. In fact the only type of classic children’s literature we can use will be rhymes and songs. We must use modern storybooks with simple, short texts and meaningful illustrations. Given the problems that lexical and structural difficulty pose, we may need to assess linguistic difficulty in a systematic way. From the point of view of EFL it would be better, as Hill suggests to use a cloze test: THE CLOZE TEST - We prepare a reasonably typical extract from the book and delete words from the passage on a regular basis (every sixth or seventh word). - We instruct our pupils to supply the missing vocabulary, so we will need 15 deletions to have validity. Obviously we assume we cannot really use it with our youngest pupils. - Average class results are: a) More than 57 per cent correct: our pupils can read the text on their own. b) Between 44 – 57 per cent: our pupils can read it with us or with the dictionary help. c) Below 44 per cent: they cannot read the text.
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Stylistic level. The use of unusual word order, divergent vocabulary, and son will produce instances of foreground that cannot be appreciated if we do not have a solid knowledge of what constitutes the linguistic norm. It is useless therefore to choose texts of great stylistic complexity for the early stages of language learning. Style analysis should be based on the linguistic features with which our pupils are already familiar. As a summary, based on Ellis and Brewster, we have:
2. CRITERIA FOR SELECTING STORYBOOKS. Linguistic and stylistic level 1. Linguistic level. a) Vocabulary; b) Structures; c) Functions. 2. Stylistic level. a) Foregrounding of vocabulary and structure.
c) Amount of background information required. Our pupils’ understanding of a text can also be hindered by their lack of background knowledge of English speaking countries culture. We must therefore bear in mind the amount of time we will have to explain background knowledge when choosing the texts.
It is clear that our pupils’ limited knowledge of the world will not allow us to expand on most of these topics. Once and again we can obviously see that the linguistic, stylistic and background knowledge which is required for a fully understanding of most classic children’s literature works is far beyond our pupils’ ken. Modern storybooks are also more suitable from needed background knowledge point of view. d) Educational and follow-up potential. Once we have analyzed the previous aspects, we can finally ask ourselves about the educational potential of the story in terms of: learning English language and culture; learning about other subjects; learning about the world; learning how to learn and also about the follow-up potential. e) Conclusions. The study of the previous sections enables us to come to the following conclusions about the most suitable periods, literary genres and authors. 1. Period. 2. Authors. 3. Genres.
MOST SUITABLE PERIODS, AUTHORS AND LITERARY GENRES. Mostly nowadays works but we can also use traditional tales with an everlasting appeal such as “Little Red Riding Hood”. Traditional storytellers such as Perrault and authors on the Puffin or Early Bird series such as Jack Kent, Raymond Briggs, John Burningham or Roald Dahl. We can use small poems but mostly storybooks.
We will now study how to use these storybooks in our classroom. 2. Using story books in the classroom. Understanding a story in English is hard work for our pupils, so the first thing we have to pay attention to is how to help our pupils understand the story. SUPPORTING CHILDREN’S UNDERSTANDING 1. We must provide a context for the story and introduce the main characters. 2. Provide visual support: drawings on the blackboard, cut-out figures, flash cards,... 3. Explain the context, keywords and ideas in the mother tongue, if necessary. 4. Identify your linguistic objectives. 5. Relate the story or associated activities to work in other subject areas if possible. 6. Decide how long you will spend on the story. 7. Decide in which order to introduce or revise the language necessary for understanding the story. 8. Decide when and how you will read the story. 9. If necessary, modify the story to make it more accessible to your pupils. 10. Find out if there are any rhymes or songs to reinforce the language introduce. 11. Decide follow-up activities to provide opportunities for pupils to use the language in different contexts.
Once we have decided on the previous questions we can begin to plan a story-based lesson: • Planning story-based lessons. There are many ways to plan a lesson. However, a predominantly oral lesson normally follows quite a fixed plan with small variations. We may have for example: - Warm-up and review: informal chat to maintain rapport with our pupils. We remind our pupils of what we did during the last lesson. - Presentation: both of the aims of the lessons and subsequently of the new language. - Practice: controlled stage. - Production: communicative stage.
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Final rounding-up.
2. Types of storybooks. There is a wide range of texts that we could use for the teaching of English. However, we consider storybooks as one of the most useful for that purpose, hence, we will mainly focus on this type. Ellis and Brewster have classified storybooks under three headings: Narrative features - Rhyming words - Repeating words - Cumulative content and language - Interactive - Humorous
Content - Everyday life - Animal stories - Traditional/folk/fairy tales - Fantasy
Layout - Flap - Cut-away pages - Minimal text - No text - Speech bubbles
We have also made distinctions based on the level of difficulty but it is even more important to distinguish between authentic and graded or adapted texts. We prefer to use authentic texts if this is not possible, at least we should use real-simulated texts giving suggestions to adapt too difficult texts. 2.1. Authentic vs graded texts. The main aim of all our teaching is to enable our pupils to reach communicative competence. As the focus will be on assisting our pupils to do in class what they will need to do outside, the materials to be used will reflect the world outside. Nunan describes authenticity as follows “authentic materials are usually defined as those which have been produced for purposes other than to teach language (video clips, recordings of authentic interactions, extracts for TV…). Authentic materials are easily justified on the grounds that specially scripted texts are artificial. Manipulating these texts does not mean that our pupils will comprehend and manipulate language in real communicative situations. However, especially with our pupils, who are beginners, it may be necessary to edit authentic materials in a way. Edited materials can be classified into simulated authentic and artificial. A non-authentic text, in language teaching terms, is “one that has been designed especially for learners” (Harmer). We can make a distinction here, however, between texts which have been made to illustrate particular language points for presentation (artificial) and those which appear to be authentic. Manipulating and comprehending simulated authentic texts will help our pupils to acquire the necessary skills they will need when they come to handle authentic material. So we can conclude saying that the material designed to foster the acquisition of communicative competence must at least be simulated authentic. We will finally see how we can adapt authentic texts which are slightly above our pupils’ level. 2.2. Adapting stories.
When adapting a story we face a dilemma: if we simplify too much our pupils will lose the flavour of real stories, so, what we can do is to try and adapt stories without losing much of the original magic following Ellis and Brewster guidelines. Vocabulary and general meaning. Grammar. Organization of ideas.
Story length.
1. 2. 3. 1. 2. 3. 1. 2. 3. 4. 1.
ADAPTING STORIES Check unfamiliar content or words. Check idioms. Check clarity Check tenses. Check use of structures. Check word order. Check sentence length and complexity. Check time references. Check the way ideas are linked. Check the way ideas are explained. Check the number of ideas in the story.
By following the previous criteria of selection and use of storybooks we will intend to make the most of literature in the classroom.
3. Bibliography. Children’s literature: • The Cambridge Guide to English literature. CUP. Cambridge, 1990. Methodology: • ELLIS, G. and BREWSTER, J.: The storytelling Handbook for Primary Teachers. Penguin. London, 1991. • WELL-LOVED TALES SERIES: Loughborough: Ladybird Books, 1974.
OPOSICIONES AL CUERPO DE MAESTROS GALICIA ESPECIALIDAD: INGLÉS
THEME 15 AUTHORS, GENRES, AND LITERARY AGES SUITABLE FOR TEFL. KINDS OF TEXTS
PART ONE: TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.
INTRODUCTION
If we consider that level is what students can actually do with the language, it will become obvious that even at the early stages students can in fact do a great deal with the language: They can identify sounds (vowels. consonants, intonation, stress, rhythm), certain words and structures. They can produce these orally; recognize them in a text and, at the very least, underline words, if they can't actually set them down on a separate sheet of paper. In short, even the very beginners can do something with the language. The teacher then must build from that point by adding input which is neither too advanced, nor too easy. The input must be motivating enough for them to want to try to understand, first, and then try to reproduce in some way. Cinema, music, and literature are rich in motivating material, if the teacher knows how to select and to present content in such a way that it will both challenge and motivate them.
2.
CONTENTS
2.1. The literary genres and Figures in EFL The English language is certainly rich in literary figures and genres; and the literary ages are full of intriguing aspects that students can find extremely motivating. Chaucer, for example, is not merely an author who wrote a few famous tales in a strange dialect that nobody uses today. But rather he tells some very good stories which, if a teacher can get beyond the purely academic side of the great literary figure, could well be introduced to students in such a way that suits their particular age group and level. The Canterbury Tales, for example, is tremendously full of material that will motivate students. As long as the teacher knows how to select and to present the content (keeping in mind Krashen's model of "input + 1" (input just a little above the students' level) a great many literary figures can be successfully used in TEFL.
Without forgetting, of course, that literature must be suitable to the students' level and age group, and that any text can be adapted to suit the needs and capabilities of EFL students, the following is a selection of authors. genres, and periods that could be used in TEFL. 2.2. Well-known tales The following are some of the well known tales which are often published in colourful and easy-to-read graded readers: "The elves and the shoemaker," "The three little pigs," "The gingerbread boy," "The little red hen," "The princess and the pea," "The sly fox and the little red hen," "The three billy-goats gruff," "Chicken licken," "The three bears," "The ugly duckling," "The emperor's new clothes," "Town mouse and country mouse.,"Sleeping beauty," "Puss in boots," "Rumpelstiltskin Rapunzel," "The wolf and the seven little kids," "Little red riding hood,” The brave tailor," "Jack and the beanstalk," "Hansel and Gretel," "Cinderella," "Beauty and the, beast," "Snow White and the seven dwarfs," "Tomb Thumb", "The little mermaid," and "The Wizard of Oz” ("Well-loved tales" Ladybird: 1966). o Well-Know Rhymes Additionally, the following are a few well known rhymes and songs: "One, two, put on your shoe,“ "Where is thumbkin," "Polly put the kettle on," "Rain, rain, go away,” Two little birds sitting on a wall,” This is the way,” “Old Mlacdonald had a farm," "Hickory, dickory. Dock,” “Diddle, diddle, dumpling," "This little pig,” “This old man”, “Baa, bas, black sheep," "Three blind mice,” “Here is a church,” ”Insey winsey spider," "Pat a cake," "Pussy cat, Pussy cat," "Humpty dumpty," "Ride a cock horse,” “Jack and Jill," "Hey diddle, diddle,” “Little miss muffet," "Little Jack horner,” “Wee Willie Winkie," "One potato, two potatoes,” “Ten green bottles," "Eeny, meeny, miny, mo," "There was a girl,” “It's raining, it's pouring,” “Fie, fie, foe, fum,” “The brave old Duke of York," "There's a hole in my bucket”, “There was an old woman who lived in a shoe." "Hush little baby," "Little bo-peep," "Sing a song of sixpence," "Oh dear, what can the matter be?," "Little boy blue The house that Jack built," "She sells seashells," "Peter piper." "Thirty days has September,” There was an old woman who swallowed a fly," "Ten green and speckled frogs The owl and the Pussy cat," (Dakin 1968).
2.4.
British Authors and Texts
Beowulf The text, in Old English. is from the 10th-cent. But it was believed written in the 6th-cent. The tale is about the life of the Geatish hero Beowulf who in his youth fights and kills Grendel, a monster and then kills the monster's mother. Fifty years later he battles a dragon and both are killed. Chaucer's The Canterbury tales, in prose and verse, was written in the late 14th-cent. The story begins when twenty-nine pilgrims on their way to Canterbury agree to tell tales as they go to make the time pass by quicker. There are twenty-four tales told altogether. They include the following: "The knight's tale," "The miller's tale," "The reeve's tale The cook's tale," "The man of law's tale," "The wife of bath's tale," "The friar's Tale," "The summoner's tale,” “The clerk's tale,” “The merchant's tale," "The squire's tale The Franklin's tale," "The physician's tale The pardoner's tale," etc. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is an alliterative poem from the second half of the 14thcent. The story begins at King Arthur's court in Camelot during a new year's feast. A large green man appears and dares the knights to cut his head off. Young Gawain obliges him, after accepting the challenge that he will allow his own head to be cut off on the same day the following year. The Green Knight picks up his severed head and retires. A year later, Gawain sets out to meet his fate, coming to a castle, where he is invited in as a guest. The lord of the castle comes to an agreement with him, that whatever comes to pass the young knight will report it to the lord. When the lord's wife tries to seduce him, he resists. but the lady insists and he allows her at last to make a present to him of her garter. He does not report this to the lord of the castle who reveals his true identity: he is the Green Knight. The Green Knight honors him for his honesty and courage, and pardons Gawain the debt he has come to pay. Nevertheless, he cuts the young knight's neck with his axe, for not telling him about his wife's garter. Piers Plowman, a late 14th-cent. poem in Middle English by William Langland, tells of how the narrator fell asleep in the forest one day and of the many things that passed in his dream.
Sir Philip Sidney (1554-86) is an attractive figure: He was a romantic poet and a courageous knight who was killed in Flanders in an attack he led on a Spanish supply convoy. There are aspects of his life-if not some of his literary work-which students would find interesting. Edmund Spenser (c. 1552-99) was author of, among other works, The Faerie Queene, which contains some interesting material about courtiers and knights, dragons and medieval castles. Spenser's life is of some interest, especially his friendship with Sir Walter Raleigh and his encounter with the Irish people. William Shakespeare (1564-1616) has a great many plays which are of particular interest to the young. His history plays are full of intriguing stories of English kings and queens (Henry VIII, Richard III). There are parts of some of his tragedies which are particularly motivating, such as the three witches in Macbeth, or the ghost scene in Hamlet, and of course, Romeo and Juliet attracts much attention among the young. Seviral of his comedies are appealing to young students, especially A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Tempest , both of which have a good many, scenes involving youths about the same age as the students. Though the “metaphysical” writings of John Donne (1572-1631) are very difficult to appreciate, the life of the man can be of interest to you and students. The poet sailed with Essex to sack Cadiz in 1596 and with Raleigh to hunt the Spanish treasure ships off the Azores in 1597. Ben Jonson (1572/3-1637) is another intriguing literary figure whose life is of particular interest to students. Coming from the lower class, he struggled to educate himself and eventually became one of the known playwrights in England. Parts of his comedies are motivating: Volpone is about a man who pretends he dying to get money from people who pretend to be honest but are in fact rogues. He wrote The Masque ofBlackness for Queen Anne because she had always wanted to appear on stage as a Negress. And The Alchemist is an hilarious comedy about a servant, Face, who, with a fake alchemist, takes advantage of the absence of the owner of a house in Blackfriars in London during an epidemic. They use the house to trick roguish people out of money. John Milton (1608-74) lived during a very crucial period in the history of Britain. He was a Puritan who sided with those who favored the execution of King Charles I. The subject of the
civil war is intriguing and full of anecdotes. Milton's Paradise Lost, an epic poem in twelve books written in blank verse, is the story of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden. The character of Satan was unique in that the demon was presented in very humanlike, and at times sympathetic, terms. There are scenes in long the poem that are worth summarizing, such as when Satan, Beezelbub, and the legions of the rebellious angels have an assembly; or when Satan and Eve first meet. Aphra Behn (1640?-1689) is a tremendously intriguing figure. She was a spy for King Charles II and worked under cover in Antwerp during the Dutch war. Her play The Rover is about the adventures of a band of English cavaliers in Naples and Madrid. And Oroonoko, or The Royal Slave, one of the first novels ever written, is about Africans who are captured and sold into slavery in South America. The novel is full of interesting anecdotes. Animals were used in "Books for boys and girls" and "Country rhymes for children", published in 1686. The stories had a moral to teach. They were well known not only in Britain but also in Italy, France, and Spain. Furthermore, some of the verse from "Divine and moral songs for children" are still heard to this day: "How doth the little busy bee?" DanielDefoe(1660-1731) is best known fo rhis nove “RobinsonCrusoe” .The time in which he wrote is particularly interesting, since it coincided with the growth of the colonies in North America. The novel is based on the experiences of Alexander Selkirk on the island of Juan Fernandez.
The relationship between the shipwrecked Robinson and an indigenous
inhabitant of a deserted island is of particular interest. Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) is especially well known for his Gullivers Travels, about a shipwrecked surgeon on the island of Lilliput, where the inhabitants are a mere six inches high. In the second part, the surgeon is shipwrecked on an island where the inhabitants are as tall steeples. In the third part, the surgeon finds himself on a flying island, and in the fourth part he is in a country ruled by horses with more sense (reason) than most humans. William Congreve (1 670-1729) is of inter est to young students in that he wrote his satirical plays during the Restoration period, when the monarchy was restored after twenty years of exile in France. Congreve, Etherege, Farquhar, Vanbrugh, and Wycherley wrote hilarious satires in the comedy of manners style. The fashion and the influence of the French court on
English society is an interesting topic to develop; it is something which the comedy of manners style has preserved. Perhaps less intriguing for the young than Defoe and Swift, loseph Addison (1672-1719) and Sir Richard Steele (1672-1729) are of interest in that they wrote for newspapers and periodicals such as the Tatler, The Spectator, The Guardian. Journalism is a very important literary style today as it was in Addison and Steele's day. Comparing !he two ages and making periodicals or newspapers in class can be quite motivating. The writings of the poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744) typify the Neoclassical style in British literature. His poem in rhyming couplets The Rape of the Lock is interesting as a story in itself. At a card game, a young gentleman, enamored with a young lady, brazenly cuts off a lock of her hair in front of everyone. It is not only an excellent piece for discussing the manners of that time, but also representative of the kind of encounters of a sexual nature that young people normally face. Samuel Johnson (1 709-84) is an example of a writer who was born with few economical means and became one of the most renowned man of letters in the 18th-cent. His early friendship with David Garrick, before the latter because a famous actor, is interesting, as there are many of Boswell’s anecdotes in his biography of Johnson’s life. Rasselas, Prince of Abysinia is a novel which is full of adventures about a young prince and his sister on a journey to exotic far away places. John Newbery (1713-67) was one of the earliest known publishers of children's books. He published fables, poems, tales and novels. "Goody Two Shoes", considered the first book created especially for children, may have been written by the playwright Olvier Goldsmith (? 1 730-74) -the author of the uproariously funny play She Stoops to Conquer-for Newbery. In 1753, he published "The Lilliputian Magazine", in 1762, "Tuiii Telesuupe", and "Mother Goose Fairy Tales" in 1765. Nursery rhymes or "verse for children" were a mixture of popular folklore, myths and age old songs. Having been created for entertainment more than for didactic reasons, they tended to be playful and imaginative. It is for this reason that they often seem strange or absurd.
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-97) is a tremendously appealing figure whose life was a continuous adventure. In 1792 she went to Paris to participate in the French Revolution, and there fell in love with an American writer, by whom she had a daughter who would die soon afterwards. Mary managed to escape the Reign of Terror in France. Down and out in London, she tried to take her life, but was nurtured back to health by William Godwin, a philosopher of anarchical opinions, with whom she later had a daughter, Mary, who would one day marry the poet Shelley and write the novel Frankenstein. Mary Wollstonecraft is known for her two books, A Vindication ofthe Rights of men and A Vindication of the Rights of Women, written two years later. She died shortly after giving birth to her daughter. There are obviously a great many aspects worthy of attention not only with regard to the author's life, but also to the messages of her books. Mary Wollstoneeraft's daughter, Mary Wollstoneeraft Shelley (1797-1851), eloped with the young Perey Bysshe Shelley at seventeen, and lived with the poet abroad till his premature death in 1822. She knew Byron and Keats very well, and her life is an example of the young romantic world view of the early nineteenth century. Her novel Frankenstein is still an often read classic, and many versions of it have been reenacted. William Blake (1757-1827) is an alluring figure and his poetry, especially Songs of innocence and of experience, and is full of material suitable for young people. And as he was also a painter and an engraver, there are prints available of much of his work. Songs of Innocence and of Experience contains some very motivating poems, such as "The Chimney Sweeper" ("When my mother died 1 was very young,/ And my father sold me while yet my tongue/ could scarcely cry <<'weep! 'weep, 'weep!>>"), or "The Tyger" ("Tyger! Tyger! burning bright/ In the forests of the night") or "The Little Black Boy" ("My mother bore me in the southern wild,/ And 1 am black, but Oh! my soul is white"). And an added plus is that his poems are generally expressed in a very simple language. Robert Burns (1759-96) was an extravagant figure who wrote poems in Scottish dialect. His life is of interest: As a young man he greatly believed in the equality of all mankind, and so he defended the cause of the French Revolution. One of his poems, "Auld Lang Syne", though in a language which is difficult to understand, is still sung by a great many native speakers of English the world over on New Years Eve: "Should auld acquaintance be forgot,/ And never brought to min'?/ Should auld acquaintance be forgot,/ And days o' lang syne?/
For auld lang syne, my dear, For auld lang syne,/ We'll take a cup o' kindness yet,/ For auld lang syne." William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was a poet who was in favour of the French Revolution when he was young, but who later spoke out against it. He left a French girl, with child and returned to England and settled down with his sister Dorothy. His Lyrical Ballads, which he coauthored with Coleridge is considered a landmark in English Romanticism. Of particular interest to the young is his long poem The Prelude, in which he spends a great deal of time speaking about his infancy and school days. The psychological insight into his childhood experience is remarkable. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) as a young man was an idealist who favoured the French Revolution and in 1794, along with Robert Southey, planned to start a Pantisocratic commune in America, which never came to be. Coleridge became addicted to opium, as did people in Britain in the early 19th-cent. after doctors prescribed huge quantities of laudanum (opium dissolved in alcohol) to ease pain. There is a lot to his long poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" that can be adapted: A ship in the South Pole region runs into a streak of very bad luck when a madner kills an albatross for no particular reason. The story is told by the mariner, and the scenes he narrates command attention. Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) wrote novels of medieval subjects which were popular in Britain and America. "lvanhoe" is still widely, read among young people: In it, Wilfred of Ivanhoe, son of a noble Saxon, joins Richard the Lion Hearted at the Crusade in the Holy Land. John, Richard's younger brother, tries to overthrow him in his absence. Ivanhoe helps Richard restore authority. In the novel, Robin Hood and Friar Tuck also appear. Other novels by Scott include The Monastery, The Abbot, and Tales ofv the Crusades. George Gordon Byron (1788-1824) belonged to the generation of English Romantic poets that followed Wordsworth and Coleridge. He gave up a seat in the House of Lords to live in exile.
His poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" made him famous in 1812.
The poem
describes the poet's travels, among other places, through Portugal and Spain.
Byron's
personal life was the talk of Europe at the time, for he was rich and handsome and notorious for his escapades of pleasure and "sinful" behaviour. He is said to have swum the Hellespont with a friend for the fun of it. His "Don Juan" contains parts which young Spaniards may find
interesting, especially the part that describes Juan as a youngster in Seville and, when he gets older, his mother, "Donna" Inez, sends him away to Cadiz and then abroad. He was also an idealist who armed a body of troops with his own money in order to help the Greeks in their filht against the Turks. He died of fever, though, before the "Byron Brigade" saw real action. The poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1922) was a friend of Byron. As a student at Oxford, he was notorious for his unconventional dress and his eccentricity.
He was a rebel,
denouncing royalty, and a vegetarian. He eloped with Mary Godwin Wollstonecraft when she was seventeen, and he lived abroad for the remainder of his life. "Prometheus Unbound" is perhaps the most promising of his poems for the EFL teacher. Prometheus is said to have disobeyed Zeus by teaching mankind how to use fire. Shelley has him chained to a rock as punishment for disobeying the supreme god. But Prometheus does not repent his act, and in the end, Prometheus triumphs over tyrany. Shelley was drowned when, returning from visiting Byron, his boat capsized near Livomo. John Keats (1795-1821) was a friend of Shelley.
He didn't write poetry until he was
eighteen, and just in a few years he had earned a name for himself and had a very successful future ahead of him. But he died of tuberculosis at the age of twenty-six. His poem "The Eve of St. Agnis" is particularly promising in its treatment of legend that says that if a young girl performs a certain ritual, she will dream of her future husband on the evening before St. Agnes' Day (January 21st). Keats writes a breathtaking story of how a young maid is visited that night by a youn z man who is in love with her, and what betides them. AlfredTennyson(1809-92) was a popular poet in both England and the UnitedStates. One of his most often read poems still is "The Charge of the Light Brigade," which he wrote after reading in The Times about a heroic cavalry charge at Balaclava during the Crimean War in which three quarters of the six hundred cavalrymen were killed or captured by the Russians who defended the position. Another example of expatriate English writers were the poets Robert Browning (1812-89) and Elizabeth Browning (1806-61) who were married in 1846 and went to live in Italy. The fact that both were famous poets, married, and expatriates is sufficient enough material to pursue. Robert's "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister" and "Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day" are alluring titles, but hardly material for young EFL students.
Charles Dickens (1 812-70) is by far one of the most useful authors for EFL teachers. Especially popular are his novels David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, and Great Expectations, and his A Christmas Carol is still customat Yuletide reading for the yourth. The Brontë sisters, Charlotte (1816-55), Emily (1818-48) and Anne (1820-49), are interesting figures. Their father was an Irishman who was curate of Haworth, Yorkshire. Their mother died in 1825, leaving them to be cared for by their aunt. They were sent to a Clergy Daughters' School which, it is believed, proved to be such a harsh place that it impaired their health and may have hastened the deaths of two elder sisters. The girls grew up reading and admiring such authors as Byron and Walter Scott, and such exotic tales as The Arabian Nights. The harshness of schools and schoolmasters at that time is a subject of interest for young students, as is the story of three girls who eventually became famous authors. Anne's Agnes Grey was originally published under the pseudonym Acton Bell. Charlotte's Jane Eyre is especially well known because of the Orson Wells film that was made of it. And Emily's Wuthering Heights was also made into a film in 1994. Lewis Carroll, whose real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, (1832-1898) is famous for two books which he wrote especially for children: Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. Of the two, perhaps the EFL teacher will find the former more useful: Certainly many of the scenes, such as the rabbit rushing down the hole after consulting his watch, are quite well known. The story of how Carrol had made up the tale to entertain the two daughters –one of whose names was Alice- of a friend on a boat trip offers possibilities of captivating the attention of the students as well. He apparently later created the second tale specially for Alice. Roald Dahl (1926-1991) wrote some of the most popular novels for children in recent years: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Wiiches, Gremlins, and a many others. As a boy he was educated in English boarding schools, and many of his novels reflect the many unpleasant experiences he had there. 2.5. Authors and texts from the United States
Though it did have a few high spots in the early years of the Republic, The United States had no flourishing literature of its own until the middle of the 19th-cent. It is a good idea for EFL teachers who are non-native speakers to familiarize themselves with American authors and their works in order to better understand the culture and the language that Americans use. Though students can hardly be expected to read these authors themselves, the teacher can help them to appreciate the literature, in the hope that at some time in the future they will read the texts on their own. Certainly just talking about any one of the following authors and the time and place they lived would provide ample motivating material for EFL class activities. Washington Irving (1783-1859), a New Yorker, published his well known tale "Rip Van Winkle" in 1820. Th6 still often told story is about a man who falls asleep on a mountain and wakes up many years later to find that the colonies have become a republic. The tale offers many possibilities of comparing life in the U.S. before and after the Declaration of Independence. Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) was a from New England Puritan stock. His stories and novels depict some of the harshest realities of Puritanism and its effect on people. Aside from his well known novels The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables, he also wrote some works for children, such as A Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales. His short story "Young Goodman Brown" is an intriguing tale of how a man meets a demon in the forest who invites him to a party. Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was from Boston, Massachusetts, but he spent five years in a primary school in England. His Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque includes one of his most famous stories, "The Fall of the House of Usher," a Gothic tale in which the narrator visits a childhood friend in his decayed old mansion. Additionally, his poem "The Raven" is still popular. Herman Melville (1819-1891) was friends with Nathaniel Hawthorne. As a boy, Melville sailed to Liverpool, found work on a whaler bound for the South Seas, jumped ship and joined the US Navy, serving for three years. From his experience on the high seas he wrote his famous novel Moby-Dick, about an obsessed captain in relentless pursuit of a great white whale. Billy Budd, Foretopman is about a sailor who is abused by an officer whom he strikes
dead in a fit of anger and is hanged for it. A well known short story is "Bartleby the Scrivener", about a law-copyist who decides to move into the office where he works in the Wall Street district of Manhattan, and his boss's repeated and unsuccessful efforts to get him to leave. It is a good story for discussing how scriveners used to copy everything by hand, and what Wall Street was like then and what it is like now. Mark Twain (1835-1910) was Samuel Langhome Clemens' pseudonym. His years growing up on the banks of the Mississippi river and later as a pilot on the river were recreated in his two most famous novels Tom Sawyer-about the antics of Tom in a small town- and Huckleberry Finn-about the orphan Huck and his excursion down the Mississippi with an escaped slave. The Prince and Pauper narrates how a prince changes places with a beggar. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur Court is perhaps one of his most imaginative works, telling of how a Yankee businessman is clubbed over the head by his factory workers and comes to in during King Arthur's legendary reign in early medieval England. The novel can introduce a comparison of medieval life to what life was like in the late 19th-cent. and to modern life. Mark Twain also wrote some entertaining stories, such as "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" and "Baker's Bluejay Yarn". Bret Harte (1836-1902) wrote a good many stories about life in the American West. "Tennessee's Partner'. "The Outcasts of Poker Flat," and "The Luck of Roaring Camp" provide excellent descriptions of what it was like to live in the West. And his poem "Plain Language from Truthful James," does honour to a culture that respects directness and unadorned simplicity. Ambrose Bierce (?1842-1914) also wrote about the American West. He served in the American Civil war. In “The Boarded Window” he narrates what it was like in the area around Cincinnatrti, Ohio in the early 1830s, where there is “an inmense and almost unbroken forest. The whole reghion was sparsely settled by people of the frontier –rstless souls… (Stegner 1957: 154).” Henry James (1 843-1916) came from a rich family and was therefore able to travel a great deal and to study in London, Paris, and Geneva. As a young man he felt more at home among the European upper class society and thus settled in Europe in 1875. His writings are a blending of American and European world views: His novel Daisy Miller is a marvelous
example of the impact of American verve on European staidness. Daisy is an energetic and freespirited young American whom the narrator, an American who has spent most of his life living on the Continent and, as such, is more European than American, becomes attracted to. But because he is inhibited by manners and convention, he cannot get close to her. Daisy scandalizes the members of "respectable society" with her uninhibited language and behaviour. Other well-known novels of his include Washington Square, The Bostonians, and Portrait oflady. O.
Henry (1862-1910), pseudonym of William Sydney, famous for his amusing short
stories which he began writing when he was in prison. "The Ransom of Red Chief' is about the kidnapping of a child who causes his kidnappers so much trouble that they are willing to throw away the ransom just to get rid of him. "The Gift of the Magi" narrates how a woman sells her hair to buy her husband a watch chain and how he sells his watch to buy her a set of combs for Christmas. "The Last Leaf relates how a young lady, bedridden with pneumonia, is convinced that she will die when the leaves fall from the trees. Her neighbour paints leaves on her window, thus keeping her alive. Edith Wharton (1 862-193 7) was a close friend of Henry James. And like him, she wrote about. Americans in Europe. "Roman Fever" tells of two elderly American ladies in Rome recalling an incident that happened to them in, that very city when they were young. Stephen Crane (1 871-1900) became famous at the age of twenty-four with his novel The Red Badge of Courage about a young soldier in battle during the American Civil War. He was a journalist and he wrote about the Spanish-American War of 1899. He had tremendously promising career ahead of him when, on visit to Germany, he died of tuberculosis. Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941) was famous for Winesburg, Ohio, a collection of short stories about life in a small town. Tar: A Midwest Childhood is semi-autobiographical. James Thurber (1894-1961) his humorous short stories, written for the magazine The New Yorker of life in "middle" America were very popular. His short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" is still customary reading.
William Faulker (1897-1962), though a difficult novelist for many, wrote a great deal from the perspective of a boy: The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, and "Was" in Go Down Moses. A southerner from the state of Mississippi, he served with the Canadian Air Force in the First World War because he was not accepted in the US Air Force. His books narrate life in the "deep" south. He won the Noble Prize in 1950. J. Blotner's biography of him, as recently translated and published in Spain. A reading of his childhood would give the teacher a great deal of information about what growing up in the South was like. Go Down Moses tells of a boy's friendship with an indian and his hunting a bear for the first time. And "Was" narrates in humorous terms an incident that occurred when a slave runs off to visit his girlfriend on a nearby plantation. One of the main characters in As I Lay Dying narrates how his dead mother is transported in a wagon to a family burial ground in another county. John Steinbeck was from California. Most of his novels and stories deal with the state. The Grapes of Wrath is about a family, the Jodes, which has been forced off its land during the depression and tries to get to reach State Califomia is full of immigrants who had to leave their Midwestern homes as a result of the Great Depresion. There are children in the family and parts would certainly interest young people. O fMice and Men is also useful for teahers, since one of the characters is a very large man who, in reality, is a big kid. "The Pearl" is a very good short story to consider for EFL. He won the Noble Prize in 1962. E. Hemingway (1 899-196 1) is particularly useful to the EFL teacher for his close connection with Spain in the 1930s. The Sun Also Rises, Fiesta, and For Whom the Bell Tolls are directly about Spain. The Old Man and the Sea is about a Cuban fiisherman who catches an enormous fish he'll never manage to bring to port, and nobody believes him. He won toe Nobel Prize in 1954. J. D. Salinger (1919-) is still popular among young readers for his novel The Catcher in the rye (1951) about an adolescent who runs from a boarding school in a small town to New York City. And Franny and Zooey (1961) , who is also about two adolescents, a brother and a sister, members of an eccentric family. Two Afro-American writers in particular offer material that can be of interest. Alice Walker's novel The Color Purple was made into a film. It is an excellent story about the life of an Afro-American woman in the South. It is specially useful for the many parts it has that
involve children. And Toni Morrison, who just recently won the Novel Prize of Literature, writes excellent stories about Afro-Americans. Her novel Beloved, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988, has some good scenes involving adolescent girls.
3.-
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ABRAMS, M. H., ed.: (1993). The Norton anthology of English literature. London: W. W. Norton. CURRENT-GARCFA, E. and P. WALTON, R.: (1 982). American short stories. 4th ed. London: Scott, Foresman and Company. DAKIN, J.: (1987). Songs and rhymes for the teaching of English. Harlow: Longman. DRABBLE, M.
and STRINGER, J. eds.: (1990). The Concise Oxford Companion to
English literature. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. SAMPSON, G.: (1970). The Concise Cambridge History of Engllish Literature. 3rd ed., rev. and enl. by R. C. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. WELL-LOVED TALES SERIES. (1974). Loughborough. Ladybird Books.
PART TWO: PRACTICAL DEVELOPMENT 1.
LEVEL
3rd cycle (6th grade) 2.
TIME OF SESSIONS
One week, in April, to be finished by the day dedicated to the children's book. 3.
OBJECTIVES
3.1. General - To read and comprehend short texts (Narrative form) - To produce a short written text giving information 3.2. Specific -
Recognize the importance of reading habits Improve reading skills in the foreign language - Learn about the literature written in the
foreign language. 4.
METHODOLOGY
The methodology used should be suitable to a communicative approach to teaching English as a foreign language. That is, taking into consideration the age, ability and needs of the students, as well as the criteria specified in the overall objectives of the course, the EFL teacher should apply learning strategies which are based on learning by doing, i.e., task oriented strategies. The tasks required elicit a participative attitude on the part of the learners and a guiding role on the part of the teacher. Additionally, the teacher should help the students to learn both to think and to do in the target language. 5.
THE TEACHING UNIT: SPECIFIC CONTENTS
Conceptual:
- vocabulary: words related to literature (author/ different genres etc.) - phonological aspects: the pronunciation of the names of the authors worked. - grammar structures: 'Gulliver's Travels by… /It is the story of… /J. Swift was born in… and died in … Procedural: - group work - note taking - investigation in the Library. Sociological aspects. - cross curricular activities interactiovn
6.
ACTIVITIES AND TASKS
6.1.
The Teacher (T) brings several graded books tc the class and checks, how many authors are known by students and starts the “Week of Travels around English Literature " ("Gulliver’s Travels”).
6.2.
(T) divides students in groups of four and gives each group an assignment: a research project on an author and his or her books.
6.3.
Each group decides on its own class project which is to be finished by the end of the week
6. 4.
(T) helps students with the, re.search, bringirig all the materials from the resourceroom need (books, magazines, slides, postcards, movies, music, etc.)
6.5.
Each group will be given a big piece of butcher paper where they can stick their work.
6.6
A class field trip to the local Library, to look for translations of the authors selected.
6.7.
Guided readings of famous stories so the students will be able to write short sentences informing about some data (name of the author; place and date of birth; names of the most well known books: what is the story about and famous characters).
7.
MATERIALS
The materials have already been mentioned.
8.
FINAL TASK
Each group exposes its work to the rest of the class: they may paste the information (texts, photocopies, drawings) on the wall paper and perform something about it: Read aloud; sing a song; read a poem; perform a skit, etc. 9.
EVALUATION
(According to Theme Nº 14.)
TEMA-15 LITERARY PERIODS, AUTHORS AND GENRES SUITABLE FOR DIDACTIC APPLICATIONS IN ENGLISH CLASS.TYPES OF TEXTS. 1. Introduction Before analysing the literary periods,authors or genres more suitable for their application and use in English class it´s necessary to study the student body´s needs, their preferences and expectations in facing and English class first.
The pupil of this age always desires inmediate results. It is possible that they will go out being able to speak something in this language ,being anxious to show what he has learnt ,without worring about mistakes and he´ll be prepared to use this language according to his needs,experimenting with sounds and words or using ,gestures.Therefore it is easier to acquire a language by being expposed to it than learning a series of rulers which involve a series of complicated mechanisms of the language. Other characteristic of this stage is restlessness We shoould desing activities: -Which can keep their attention - an overlong activity leads to boredoom -and understandable to the pupil .They should be near the reality of the pupil which will facilitate starting mechanisms of expression. Literature would suppose a good way of approaching these interests and it would give an inexhaustible soource of resources to satisfy the pupil´s needs of this stage. Before analysing periods,authors or genres we have thought about pupils´ underlying needds in the classroom .Now wwe have to decide the linguistic and extralinguistic characteristics of thr text which will allow us to use it to develop the basic aims. The emotional factor plays a main role in everything we do,read think or say , and literature transposes us to all kind of real or imaginative situations ,and it close us to all kinds of characteres -reallistic or fictional- and seeing ourselves reflected in situation bring us close to literature .If the literature is in a foreing language in a pleasant form. The vocabulary should be contextualise and should be a kind of language easy to imitate:by rhythm or by intonation, it has to have frequent repetitions ,and it also has to be composed of words which can be used in a natural form in the organitation of the class, in games ,...which suggests that it has to be presented in simple sintactic structures. Lastly , if pupils can anticipate what comes next,they will have more confidence, because their problems of comprehension will be reduced ,which helps them to learn with less effort. 2
.PERIODS,AUTHORS AND GENRES.TYPES OF TEXTS.
According to what has been stated above the traditional tales ,fairy tales,picture stories,nursery rhymes,jokes,modern or traditional songs and limericks are considered as Literary Genres more ssuitable to the pupilss of this stage. Normally ,we can take texts (oral or written )from popular tradition so the text is as important or more than the authors,especially in the case of the traditional tales,which are -in most cases-compilattions of tales and oral traditions which have been translated to the different european languages (Perrault,Andersen,Grimm,..).
The tales The use of the tale offers an ideal system of introduction to foreing language and culture and it creates a possitive atmosphere so that the pupil wants to carry on learning. In the psychological field ,the tales exercise the imagination and they offer an inexhaustible source of experiences and emotions and if the tales are related by the teacher ,they offer a collective experience of feelings,laughter,sadness...,which makes the pupil feel integrated in the group ,develop self-confidence and mature emotionally and socially. One of the characteristics of tales is the natural repetition of certain elements of vocabulary, if they are narrated in class .the intonation ,the sense of the rhythm and the possibility that pupils want tohear the whole story again,this allows the teacher to use these resources to get a larger number of repetitions of certain elements of interest without the problem of saturation of the student body. Respecting the narration of the tales we have the dilemma of the teacher as narrator or the use of the cassette .The latter has some advantages such as music,however,the teacher can give to his narration the human factor ,and the pronuntiation and the intonation can be improved through recordings.Teacher as narrator facilitates the intervention of pupils with questions when they have not understood something ,the repetition of fragments which they have not understood or the slowing down of the narration when it is necessary. Respecting the suitability of adapting tales in class ,for children from eight years old, we should thinK of the techniques which are used when tales are narrated for the first time and howthe narration developes slowly.One of the characteristic of tales is that they can be narrated in a thousand different ways,which facilitates the adaptation of the same tale to different levels .The tale is a flexible tool in our hands. If we think of tales as reading instead of as narration ,there is a wide range of tales for English -speaking children of these ages,in addition to a series of simplified versions directed at children who are learninig Engllish as a Second Language. Normally ,we consider that the former are better than the latter ,especially because of the ilustrations done by drawers ,which gives a greater degree of satisfaccion in the reading .A careful selection of the texts for the E-class in relation to vocabulary ,structures and themes of interest could permit that the tales which are read in class are the same that Englissh children read at this age . As for the most suitable works ,there is a great varieety ,from the traditional tales (Little Red Riding Hood; Puss in Boots or other tales from Perrault) to the most modern tales,in which their protagonistscan be animals -which are good for snowing the daily llife of children (The tale of Peter Rabbit,by Beatrix Potter , and whose contexts are as British as the language itself )-or the heroes can be personages of daily life (Postman Pat) or familliar elements of our modern civilization (Thomas , the Tank Engine).Excepting the series by Beatrix Potter ,which needs be adapted ,either Thomas ,the tank Engine, or Postman Pat in original version,with a suitable guide woould be easily accesible to children from eight years old.
We should not forget famous authors ,whose novels and short stories althought not intended for children ,can be adapted . -Gulliver´s Travels by Jonathan Swift -Huckleberry Finnby Mark Twain - A Christmas Carrol by Dickens -Alice´s adventures in Wonderland and Alice through the looking -glass by Lewis Carrol. And even authors who are not British ,such as -Julies Verne :Journey to they centre of the Earth -Fairy tales in which the conventions of the same are parodied .Ex. The Rose and the Ring by Thomas Thackeray . -School stories ,such a Tom Brown´s Schooldays by Thomas Hughes. -Family sagas ,such as Little Women by Alcott. -Of animals : Black Beauty by Sewell. -Of adventures ,such as Treasure Island and King Salomon´s Minesby Haggard or the Jungle Books by Kipling . The concept of children´s Literature as fun wasn´t a cultivated genre until the end of the XIX century Children´s Literature before was Literature with didactic end.Books for adults, ex. Ae sop´s fables,were a resource to try to amuse children through Literature .In the XVIII century with Locke and Rousseau Books for the entertainment of children appear ,which begin to abandone the didactic intention . It is in 1883 when the first adventure book without dictatic intention appears :Treasure Island. In the first book of a series of ilustrated tales appears :Little Black Sambo by Helen Banner,who next to Beatrix Potter was a milestone in reference to the importance of ilustrations in tales for children. In the beginning of our century there appear various authors and tittles which today are considered classics of modern children´s Literature and have been adapted for television, such as: The Wind in the Willows by Grahame ,The Secret Garden by Burnett,Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard by Farjeon ,Winnie-The Pooh by Milne and finally in 1937 the fantastic genre emerges with the aparition of The Hobbit by Tolkien. From the decade of the 50 ´s, the importance given to Children´s Literature foments the appaerance of a great industry and the clear definition of concepts such as Literature for Children and the distintion between Literature for boys and for girls. Children´s pleasures of today have changed ,however ,the tales of fantastic or ecologic themes like especially. Among the authors of oour days ,who have had special aceptation among the child´s public because of the themes which they treat is ROALD DAHL,,an authentic master of the short story : -Charlie and the Chocolate Factory -The Magic finger -Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator -Matilda -The wonderful story of Henry Sugar and Sisx more. All these are stories of modernthemes .The narration is quick and attractive .The cultural variety that they show is atractive . In our hands is to do the adecquated adaptations for that their application is succesful.
.
.NURSERY RHYMES N.R.have some characteristics of the tales : -Use of exclamations and linguistic elements of dayly use ,which is a very rich resource in the class . -They have musicality , too. -Strong rhythm. -They introduce -the same as the tales-cultural elements ,such as foods,timetables ,animals ,.. -Repetitive use of words and structures .But N.R.have adifferent charactheristic:brevity ,which increases the proportion of repetition. Classic Examples:Twinkle, Twinkle,Little Star.
The use of this genre in a language class gives the opportunity to learners to move in class ,because it can include activities such as jumping or dancing .When there´re problems of space,those ones which involve playing with hands can be used:”Two little monkeys fighting in bed (use two fingers),one fell out and hurt his head (the hand on the head),the other called the doctor (telephoning),and said the doctor (open and close the hand),that´s what you get for fightingin bed”(move a finger). Rhymes that accompany games can also be selected aand they can be used in the school: “Teddy Bear,touch the ground, tum around, walk upstairs, turn out the light, say goodnight”. The reduced vocabulary that they use,the repetition,the rhythm and the intonation permit learners to learn them quickly. It is a popular genre ,although it has been cultivated by prestigious writters:in the early XVIII century Divine songs for children by Watts,was published.In this time ,the first collections of N.R were also published, and in18O4 appeared original Poems for Infant Minds by Ann and Jane Taylor ,which includes Twinkle ,Twinkle ,little star. In 1942 The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Robert Browing was published . In1846 A book of Nonsense by Edward Lear appears and in 1885 Stevenson publishes A Child´s Garden of Verses. In our century A.A Milne,Robert Graves...stand out RIDDLES Ridles are an universal genre too .Their characteristic are -as in N.R.the following: -Brevity and intonation and rhythm very marked . Ex:”I´m a very big animal you see at the zoo. I´ve a very nice trunk Ican squirt water through”
LIMERICKS Limercks are funny five -line stanzas whose popular origin had place in the festive meetings , in which every fellow dinner had to recite or sing a poem ,which are called “nonsense verse” following line :Will you come up to Limerick?. The first Limericks collected in a volume appear in the History of Sixteen Wonderful Women in 1820. In the book Book of Nonsense by Edward Lear appear examples too. In the compositions by Lear and Rossety, the first and last line usually use to finish with the same word ,hoewer ,in more modern examples a third word which rhymes is added : “There once was a man who said :” god Must think it exceedingly odd If he finds that this tree continues to be when there is no-one about in the Quad”. Most Limericks are anonyms, given their popular origen . This genre is very useful for the pronunciation of several sounds which present difficulties such asthe different tiation between/i:/and /i/. “There once was a man from Darjeeling who travelled from London t Ealing . When it said on the the door: “Please don´t spit on the fllor “ ”The carefully spat on the ceiling”. VOCABULARY antes de - before analysing alumnado- student body expectativas-expectations analizar - previous to analyse enfrentarse a una clase de inglés por primera vez -In facing an english class first ansioso -anxious preocuparse- worry gestos-gestures por esto -there fore inquietud-restlessness actitud demasiado larga -an overlong act, conducir (llevar)-lead aburrimiento -boredoom comprensible -understanble puesta en marcha -starting acercar-approach inagotable-inexaustible subyacente-underlying emotividad-emotional papel-role transportar -transpose
imaginarias-imaginative fictional realistas-reallstic acercar-bring close acceder-acces agradable-pleasant contextualizar-contextualise por último -lastly a continuación -finally,next confianza -confidence de acuerdo conlo expuesto anteriormente-accordingto what has been stated above compilaciones-compilations continuar -carry on ejercitar -exercise caudal -source relatar-relat colectiva-collective risa-laughter tristeza-sadness confianza en si mismo -self confidence madurar -mature narrar -narrate saturación -saturation repecto a -respecting dilema -dilema el 1_...el 2_ -the former,the latter fidelidad -fidelity mejorar-improve grabación-recording fragmentos -fragments ralentización-slowing down conveniencia-suitability pensar en -think of de mil maneras -in a thoousand different ways dirigir a -direct at satisfacción-satisfactión en cuanto a -as for obras (novelas)-works obras(teatro)-plays cotidiana -daily héroe-hero/es civilización-civilization excepto-excepting accesible-accessible intencionar-intend incluso-even sagas familiares-family sagas literatura Infantil-Children´s Literature divertimento -fun divertir-amuse
abandonar -abandone junto con-next to hito-milstone fábulas de Esopo-Aesop´s fables al principio-in the beginning surgir-aparecer-appear década-decade fomentar-foment aparición -appearance gustos -pleasures público infantil -Child´s Public maestro - master(no de escuela ,maestro en su género) narración corta -short story musicalidad -musicality brevedad-brevity prestigiosos-prestigious colección-collection destacar-stand out quintillas -five line stanzas origen -origin reuniones festivas-festive meetings comensal -fellow diner recitar -to recite estribillo- refrain surgir -come up recoger-collect anónimo-anonym paulatina-slowly parodiar-parody emerger-emerge índice-proportion a principios de siglo-in the early century ?
Cercano a -near acercarnos -bring us close ,close us tanto..como...-neither...or ni..........ni-neither ...or
UNIT 15: PERIODS, AUTHORS AND MOST SUITABLE GENRES FOR THEIR DIDACTIC APPLICATION IN THE ENGLISH CLASROOM. TEXT TYPOLOGIES.
OUTLINE :
0. INTRODUCTION
1. PERIODS, AUTHORS AND GENRES
2. TEXT TYPOLOGIES
3. CONCLUSION
4. BIBLIOGRAPHY
431
0. INTRODUCTION This unit will deal with the most popular works in different periods and differents authors and genres of children literature, and with different types of story books or children. We will finish with a conclusion and the bibliography used. Before the 18th c. Children could read books like Aesop's Fables, romances, travel books, chapbooks, boardside ballads<, for example, Bunyan's
432
collections or nursery rhymes began to appear, highghiting Ann and Jane Taylor, whose first book, Original Poems for infant Minds ( Twinklem twinkle little star included ) was very successful .
1. PERIODS, AUTHORS AND GENRES A) PERIODS AND AUTHORS Including Literature in the FL teaching contributes to the students' general knowledge and their intellectual, social and moral development as well as of its appeal to the emotions. Extensive reading provides the possibility of internalizing the language and reinforcing points previously learned vocabulary and structures are registred and learned without conscious attention as well as concepts are reinforced by their discovery in a different context, and motivation probably the most important, coming from the students enjoyment when reading ( it gave pleasure by engaging the emotions) And Literature is suitable for our pupils because they are familiarized with fairy tales, songs, rhymes, riddles...(mainly in their first language) The students have certain characteristics that help them to acquire a L. By the exposure to it, like in the case of reading . These are the fact that short age pupils need demand immediate results to see their progress, so activities must be short and attractive changing often to another one. They express their feelings or ideas less inhibitidly than adults, they don't mind mistakes, of what teachers must take advantages; and they always have expectations about the English class, they like showing what they have learned. Foreign learners, to internalize the grammar and work out the meaning of words from their context, must have sufficient authentic and understandable material to work from ( Krasen - comprehensible input ). Reading most suitable texts for our pupils. For this, we must bear in mind aspects such as the students' needs and abilities, that is to say their interest, age, level, rhythm of learning and their previous expectations about the FL class; the linguistic and stylistic level of the text, that is vocabulary, about what we must try the language to be clear, graded and with repetitions and the text must allow the pupils to make predictions ( about what comes next ) using their background and expectations Certain our attention on the most popular works and authors we will destinguish some periods. As well have said, in the 17th century literature was written for adults (although read by children as well ) being so known works like
433
Robison Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe and Gulliver's Travels, by Johnattan Swift. In the 18th century began to appear some works written for choldren, such as The History of Sandford and Marter by Thomas Day, or series or short and attractive books called Gigantic Histories by Thomas Boreman, apart from rhymes and fairy tales. But it was the 19 th century when Children 's Literature appeared as a genre. Until then , it didnt's seen necessary to create a literature specially for children, and it wasn't economically advisable. But, with mass education appearance a large market was created , permitting the possibility of distributing books for children. In this period, we can highlight famous authors like Brothers Grimm, who wrote German Popular Stories or H.Candersen, who wrote Rairy Tales and Stories. About adventures books for boys the first one, Steverson. The most famous writers or children's stories were Lewis Carroll, who wrote Alice's Adventures in wonderland and It was the Best Butter and Beatrix Potter, who wrote The Tales of Petter Rabbit and Tailor of Gloucester. Also , we must mention Oscar Wilde who, althoug h Irish wrote in English his best works are some like the Happy Prince and the Canterville Ghost. And within non English literature there are famous writers such as Louisa M Al cott and her Little Women , Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures or Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Heidi , by Johanna Spry or Anne of Green Gables by L.M.Montgomery. Finally, in the 2=th century we find different sorts of works. We can mention fairy tales that have become classic such as Peter Pan by J.>M Barries, The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling , The Lord of the Rings, by J.R Tolkien. In this period many others authors have become popular. That's the case of the previously named C.S. Lewis , who apart from his sciencies-fiction novels wrote the Narnia series; Raymond Breggs who wrote Jim and Beantalk , Rather Christmas , and The Snowman; Roald Dahl, who dealt with many interesting topics, specially for children in books like James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the chocolate Factory and many others. Since the middle of 20th c. Literature, specially Children's literature has become a publishing industry And it has paid attention to aspects like racism apart from differentiating age groups or attending the sex. And different prize awards have been created, such as the Newbery Medal. Traditional books are still popular among children,however children´s likes have changed. Today they prefer fantastic books, science fiction and ecological ones. Also, in this century comics have a great relevance. Comics appeared at the end of the 19th century., like for example “Ally Sloper´s Half Holiday”. B) GENRES
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There exist many types ( genres ) of literature for children. We will describe some of them. Probably, one of the most relevant is tales. They provide the possibility of repeating words and structures, helping children reinforce aspects of the language and concepts. They give clues helping them to predict about the content of the text. Tales use argumentative techniques and language suitable for children. They normally transmit moral values and approach the pupils to the culture of the language speaking community. We can find different types: - Fairy tales . suitable for children in the age of 9 or 10 like Rapunzel - Animal´s stories and fables : in which the characters are animals - Fantanstic literature of Travel´s and adventures : normally from legends A genre with some characteristic similar to tales, is nursery rhymes. The main difference is that they are short, what avoid the pupils get bored because they don´t have to pay attention for a long time. Rhymes introduce exclamations, many repetitions of words and structures, helping children to establish vocabulary, intonation, stress, pronunciation, new structures and also cultural elements and concepts. This genre of literature permit different ways of explotation. It´s possible to introduce activities in which pupils move or play games. They are short and simple., so the pupils learn quickly. As another genre, riddle is an ancient and universal form of literature, with a certain and common structure and intonation known by children. It´s a kind of puzzle question, an enigma. The earliest known English riddles were recorded in the Exeter book in the 18th century. Short or with many lines of verse, we find collections of riddles in many differents languages. Together to nursery rhymes, riddles are short and they have stressed intonation, what make them be useful to be used in the foreign language class. Another genre is constituted by limericks, a light verse and with a popular fixed verse form in English. They are usually conformed by five lines. The name comes from the old English. The majority of them are anonymous because they have a popular origin. This form of verse is useful to practise pronunciation. As a last genre , we will comment on songs. It is an important resource to use in the foreign language class, because the pupils learn with enjoyment. Songs help in the learning of vocabulary, pronunciation, structure and sentence patterns,
435
specially because of repetitions. Also they give clues about the target language community. So, the didactic application of songs is very useful, but we must avoid overusing them. And we must select songs clear, well recorded and easy to sing. When selecting a work of literature we must bear in mind that we want our pupils to engage interactively with the text, the classmates, and with us, the teachers. To reach this we must follow these guidelines: 1. The text itself, and not the information about it , is of central importance. 2. Our pupils must genuinely interact with the text, their classmates and the teacher and not be mere recipients 3. Our activities must be design so as to enable our pupils to share their personal experiences, perceptions and opinions. 4. Our activities must be varied and interesting. Duff and Maley give a list of general procedures that we can use in our classrooms: - reconstruction - reduction - expansion - replacement - matching - media transfer - selection - ranking - comparison - analyzing 5. The selection of works of literature must be based on their potencial interest for our pupils and not in the literary qualities of the works.
2.TEXT TYPOLOGIES We can find authentic books or non-authentic ones. Among non-authentic storybooks, we can distinguish between artificial, illustrating particular language points presentation and simulated authentic. Our pupils aren´t able to handle authentic texts, so they must begin manipulating and practising with simulated authentic ones, developing the necessary skills to read authentic texts later.
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According to Ellis and Brewster, storybooks can be classified under three headings: -Narrative features -Content -layout Narrative features will allow us to distinguish between storybooks of the following types 1. rhyming words 2. repeating structures 3. cumulative content and language 4. interactive 5. humorous According to content they ca be divided into : 1. everyday life 2. animal stories 3. traditional/folk/fairy tales 4. fantasy From layout point of view we can distinguish between: 1. flab 2. cut-away pages 3. minimal text 4. no text 5. speech bubles When selecting foreign language texts, we must pay attention to vocabulary, structures and interesting topics. Apart from that, with this kind of books, the pupils get in tough with the cultural background of the country in which the target language is spoken. Ellis and BREwster analize the criteria for selecting storybooks: Needs and abilities: 1. Content/subject matter: • interesting • amusing • memorable • relevant 2. Visual: • use of illustrations • size • target language • attractive/colourful
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3. Encourage participation • • • •
repetition develop memory prediction build confidence
•
relate to their characteristics
•
interest in to know more about English language and culture
• • •
target language language training target culture
4. Motivating
5. Arouse curiosity
6. Create positive attitudes
experiences
and
To introduce books in the foreign language classroom, a small library may be created. The books would be classified according to difficulty level or other aspects. The teacher or the pupils themselves would choose the same or different books according to the level, interests... Even a listening corner could be created, to listen to stories by cassettes or told by the teacher. Also it is interesting teachers adapt tales for different purpose, giving way to many possibilities of explotation. But when adapting a story we can´t simplified too much because our pupils could lose the flavour of real stories, so Ellis and Brewster give a guidelines to follow: Aspects to consider * Vocabulary and general meaning 1. Check unfamiliar content or words 5. Check idioms 6. Check clarity * Grammar
1. Check tenses 2. Check use of structures 3. Check word order
* Organization of ideas
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1. 2. 3. 4.
Check Check Check Check
sentences length and complexity time references the way ideas are linked the way the ideas are explained
* Story length 1. Check the number of ideas in the story. By following the previous criteria of selection and use of storybooks we will intend to make the most of literature on the classroom
5. CONCLUSION As we have seen, books and stories have existed for centuries. The most characteristic aspect of them is their special way of enjoyment; also we can learn different sorts of concepts and knowledge though reading books. So literature is a useful resource to learn a foreign language, to acquire it without paying conscious attention to the learning other the language. We can use different genres of literature in the foreign language class, since a nursery rhyme or a riddle to a song or books narrating longer stories. But, what is really important is to bear in mind aspects such as the vocabulary used, sentence pattern, the topic..., to select a book or story. They must be suitable for our pupils.
6. BIBLIOGRAPHY HILL: Using literature in language teaching. MacMillan .London. 1986 Ellis,G. And Brewster,J. : The storytelling handbook for teachers.Penguin.London, 1991 Duff,A. And Maley,A. : literature.OUP.Oxford, 1990
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UNIT 16
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LA LITERATURA INFANTIL EN LENGUA INGLESA TÉCNICAS DE APLICACIÓN DIDÁCTICA PARA ACCEDER A LA COMPRENSIÓN ORAL, INICIAR Y POTENCIAR LOS HÁBITOS LECTORES Y SENSIBILIZAR EN LA FUNCIÓN POÉTICA DEL LENGUAJE. 1.- Children’s literature in the English language. 1.1. Literacy language. 1.2. Children’s literature in the English language. 1.3. Analysis of literary language through relevant works. 2.- Didactic application techniques for listening comprehension; introducing and encouraging reading habits and appreciating the poetic function of language. INTRODUCTION Children’s literature has certain particular features which, apart from the author’s inspiration, are what make it more attractive and interesting for children, namely: it is a free and happy activity, contains imaginative elements, reflects inner grievances suffered by the child, uses argumentative techniques and language suited to children, has a most intuitive presentation, appeals to feelings, affectivity, transmits moral values, conveys serenity and balance on the part of the author, has expository clarity and is interesting. In children’s literature, children’s folklore can also be included, which is a form of literature that has been passed on by word of mouth. Carmen BravoVillasante states that an aesthetic education using folklore enhances sensitivity. Children who are not taught by means of songs, stories or poetry are children with poorness of spirit. Children’s literature is an inexhaustible fountain of resources for programming all sorts of language activities.
1.- CHILDREN’S LITERATURE IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
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1.1.LITERARY LANGUAGE. A) LITERARY AND FAMILIAR LANGUAGE. The language used in literature differs from the language we ordinarily speak. By and large, literature and speech use the same language with identical sounds and grammatical procedures, and however, there is a clear separation between them, a difference in level. In writing there is always an urge to improve which makes the writer avoid words, sentences or turns of phrases that are used unscrupulously in informal speech. The difference begins from the moment that literature acquires enough development and prestige to impose a select taste for its language. In certain areas, the literary inflow raises the tone of average speech; in others, while literary language barely changes, common speech quickly changes, as it occurred with vulgar Latin. Literary language broadens and enriches vocabulary and refines subtleties of meaning with its incessant creative process. It chooses between certain forms of expression and others, thus contributing to the lastingness of a language; and it serves to halt tendencies that hasten the development of a language. B) QUALITIES OF LITERARY LANGUAGE. - Clarity is achieved by presenting an idea in such a way that it cannot be interpreted erroneously; it denotes exactly what the author means to say. The opposite of clarity is ambiguity or amphibology, a sentence, expression, etc., capable of double meaning. When amphibology is used intentionally, it is called an equivocation. - The quality of propriety occurs when the words that are used are those that are suitable for what is being expressed. Words are not interchangeable, for there are no true synonyms. - Language has expressive vigour when it expresses with representative force what the writer or speaker means. If the expressive power is so great that what is stated appears in our imagination, with features of sensitive reality, it is said that language contains plasticity. - Decorum eliminates all that is deemed uncouth, impolite or indecent. - Concreteness requires complying with the language rules in force. The violation of syntactic rules is called a solecism. 441
- Harmony is achieved by, when choosing words, attending to their sound quality and arranging sentences in such a way that the musical elements of the language are enhanced. The opposite of euphony or pleasant sound is cacophony. - Abundance lies in the richness and variety of the vocabulary. - Language is pure when words and constructions are used in accordance with the particular nature of that language, without the use of unnecessary foreign elements. - Barbarisms or superfluous foreignisms must be repudiated. The reaction against foreign influences may lead to the extremes of purism and correction, which insist upon absolute purity in language, based on the servile imitation of the classics and on strict correctness, which often sacrifices naturalness and liveliness.
1.2.CHILDREN’S LITERATURE IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Children’s literature is a branch of the science of books which has been so useful and charming as any other type of literature. Children’s literature includes many books that adults enjoy reading even when they do not read them to or with children. The most famous children’s book is “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, and it is read more by adults than children. The same occurs with “Peter Rabbit”, one of the books best-known for its humanity. In the past years, the study of children’s literature has regained popularity. a) FAIRY TALES. It is one of the most important divisions of children’s literature. It contains a similar proportion of wishes and fears, which creates a balance that keeps the attention of readers and listeners. It can tell lots of meaningful stories in many different ways. Elliot says that fairy tales are best as bedtime stories for young children, but they are also valuable for older children. Bottelheim specifies that they are good for children between the ages of nine and ten, which is when children are maturing in processes that they are afraid of. b) ANIMALS They are the strongest bond between fairy tales and modern children’s literature. 442
Animals are creatures that speak and act like human beings. They are present in most old and modern children’s stories and are the most important source of power in the best children’s literature, a source which other types of literature had abandoned before the 19th century. Animals in fairy tales are enchanted and live in a world of human beings, and human beings play a minor role. Any animal can be used as the enchanted beast in a fairy tale: a bird in “The Juniper Tree”, a fox in “The Golden Bird”, a prince frog, a cat, a snake in “Countess d’Aulnoy”. These animals do not wish to be animals and while they are under a spell, they are the kindest, most patient and civilized of beings. Modern children’s literature contains animal fables and fairy tales. “The Three Little Pigs” and “The Little Red Hen” are examples of stories that young children read. English children’s literature shows signs of persistence in writing and reading. In England, childhood was considered the only stage in life in which it was good to believe in a world of magic and imagination and talking animals. Children were seen as beings that were capable of enjoying instinctive sympathy for animals and of establishing an alliance with them against adult human beings. c) GREAT ENGLISH STORY WRITERS. There are many famous English writers of children’s stories, but the two most famous ones were Lewis Carroll and Beatrix Potter. Lewis Carroll, an English writer, was born in 1832 and died in 1898. He is the best-known author of story books, which are read by children and adults. His main works are “Alice’s Books” (the most famous one), “There’s Glory for you” and “It was the best butter”. Beatrix Potter wrote stories as popular as “Peter Rabbit”, which everybody has heard of and which became a film. Others are “Taylor of Gloucester” and “The little mice star: down to spin”. In the latter, the mice were not humanized, although they did weave men’s coats. Another popular story is “Jemina Puddle”. Oscar Wilde was an Irish author who wrote all his works in English and became one of the best renowned writers in English literature. He is famous for his plays and his popular theory of beauty. His best collection of stories are “The Shellfish Giant” and “The Canterville Ghost”, which is one of the short stories included in his book “Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime”.
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Kenneth Grahame understood children’s tastes very well and invited them to the enchanted circus he created. His books “The Golden Age” and “Dream Days” were immensely popular among children. The ideal world of this writer seems more percectible and desirable than the world of Peter Pan. Rudyard Kipling is known as the writer from India, although he never was an ardent apologist of the presence of the English there. His main works are “The Jungle Book” (1894-95) and “Stories” (1902). “The Jungle Book” and “Kim” are blithe books about the world of ideas. His most important book is “The Jungle Book”: it is the most accomplished expression of Kipling’s quality of work. B. Frank Baum, a German-North American novelist, was born in Vienna in 1896 and died in 1960. He wanted American children’s literature to be free of unpleasant incidents. He wrote many children’s books: “A New Wonderland”, “The Book of the Hambergs”, “His Book”, etc. d) FANTASTIC LITERATURE OF TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES. The fantastic aspect lies within transcendence and imminence, in other word, between the truth of facts, the correspondence between discourse and reality, and internal evidence, which makes a story appeals in its own right to the receptive reader. The term “fantastic” means more than reality; it means strangeness or admiration and it has replaced the terms “formidable” and “sensational” in common speech. The “fantastic” aspect is not inferred by understanding, but perceived with sensibility in the same way as what is funny or tragic and is more similar to the cerebral notion of the supernatural, with affective notions of brightness and sacredness, and also appreciates what is rejected by science, moral, religion or good taste. In fantastic literature, any adventure story aims to plunge the reader into uncertainty; the most dramatic episode is generally saved for the end, thus giving the enigma its own charm. Fantastic works are usually stories: a ballad, novel, tale or short story. The short story is the literary form that is best adapted to fantastic literature, chiefly due to its origins; it deals with extremely interesting “extraordinary stories” and their episodes predispose the reader to sense that fatality that is inherent in every fantastic adventure. These adventures do not occur at random and come to nothing, for the entire intrigue is conceived on the basis of the denouement; the victim-hero of a
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fantastic adventure generally finds himself alone under some kind of spell of which he is very well aware. The classic fantastic story derives not from stories but from popular legends. The difference between a story and a legend is owed to the Grimm brothers; in their opinion, a story is more poetic and a legend is more historical. A story tells adventures that take place in an indefinite past, in an unspecified place; a legend relates notable events that took place on a given date, in a given place, to a given person. A difference in function determines these differences in structure: a story aims to amuse, a legend aims to express and transmit beliefs. The title of a story is often the hero’s name; the presence of this character alone guarantees the unity of an account consisting of several episodes: the hero sets off on an adventure with an open mind and a light heart, facing all sorts of dangers without fear. Louis Vax states that “a fantastic story” generally deals with men who are faced with the inexplicable. The story always begins with a stable situation and certain features remain intact throughout the development of the action. Every story, therefore, contains two types of episodes: - Those that describe a stage of balance or imbalance. -
Those that describe the passage from one to another.
The former are contrary to the latter. Sometimes the reader identifies with the character; then, in turn, he withdraws from reality. A misadventure of some kind is the main type of plot. These misadventures can be of different sorts; by and large, towards the end, evil is transformed into good. The hero continually feels the contradiction between both worlds: the world of reality and the world of fantasy; and he is overwhelmed by the extraordinary things that surround him. As a general rule, a new person is introduced and the action enters a new phase. Vladimir Propp sees it as an operation of relative rationalization of a myth and the struggle against it, and its deep unity and great appeal lie beyond its generalized use as children’s stories. Important writers, in the English language, of fantastic literature of travels and adventure: In the Tudor era:
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Sir Philip Sydney. He was born in 1554 and died in 1586. He wrote “The Arcadia”, a long fantastic story about aristocrats castaways on an island; it contains the grandest principles, the most chivalrous manners and the most beautiful ladies. Nashe, with his “The Unfortunate Traveller”, tells a horrifying story full of dialogues, amazing descriptions and the strangest adventures. In the Elizabethan era: Daniel Defoe. He is one of the most important authors of this era in English literature. His most famous book (“Robinson Crusoe”) is known all around the world and has been translated into many languages. Many studies have been done on it: man’s isolation, self-sufficiency, utopia,... Tobias Smollet was born in 1721 and died in 1771. His main adventure and fantastic stories are “Roderick Random” and “Humphrey Clinker”. Laurence Steine is a contemporary of the aforementioned author. He was born in 1713 and died in 1768; his most important adventure story is “Sentimental Journey”. All the works of this era are not about fantastic stories but about adventures, save for the work of Jonathan Swift (with “Gulliver’s Travels”). This book hides satire in such a deft manner that children still read it as a fairy tale. The book starts off laughing about mankind; when Gulliver finds himself in Lilliput, he is a giant compared to inhabitants there. In the second part of the book, he goes to a land inhabited by giants and the author criticizes all men thinkers. He then goes to Laputa, which is a flying island, and Swift examines and criticizes human institutions. At the end there are horses with rational minds. This book still today is a masterpiece, a children’s fairy tale and a serious book for adults, and it has never lost its attractive nor allusive value.
1.3.ANALYSIS OF LITERARY LANGUAGE THROUGH RELEVANT WORKS. The work of Walter de la Mare is one of the best works of short fantastic stories. “Out of the Deep” is perhaps his most original and exciting short story. Here is a passage from it:
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“All that I have to say, he muttered, is just this: I have Mrs. Thripps. I haven’t absolutely out of the wire. I wish to be alone. But I’m not asking, do you see? In time I may able to know what I want. But what is important now is that no more than that accused Pig were your primrose “real”, my dear. You see, things must be real”. The title of the novel means a number of things: the depths of the house in which the servants live, the depths of memory, from which remembrances ascend, and the depths of the misfortunes of the wretch who is seeking help. The literary language of the above text is bright and eloquent, neither dull nor slow. The protagonist is Jimmie, who is characterized by his desire to surprise and his liking for black humour. This passage contains his regards for a girl. He is a timorous boy who shows Soame’s cautious sadism and plays bad jokes on the lackeys. When he is talking to the girl, he realizes that he was forbidden to talk to the lackeys (“...you might pull real bells: to pull dubiously genuine pigtails seemed now a feele jest”). The word “pigtail” here may infer “pig”, which corresponds to the beast that appears on the stairs. The gesture of pulling a rope is similar to that of pulling from a pig. The word “primrose” (spring) naturally suggests the line from a famous verse by Wordsworth: “A primrose by a river’s brimm”. The thought of spring may have suggested Lord Beaconsfield, whom Jimmie refers to: “All of which is only to say, dear madam, as Beaconsfield remarked to Old Vic, that I’m thanking you now”. In the text he refers to what the girl says, but then he gives it less importance and highlights what it is really important. The style is loose and clear, with lots of imagination. The vocabulary is simple, although some words have several meanings, like “primrose”. The verb “to ask” means to call on someone; the author uses it to mean “Do you understand?”. The same occurs with “in time” which means sooner or later. We will now look at some texts by the writer Beatrix Potter: “Peter was dreadfully frightened; he rushed all over the garden, for he had forgotten the way back to the gate. He lost one of his shoes among the cabbages, and the other shoes amongst the potatoes”. This text is from the book “Peter Rabbit”. 447
“As there was no money, Ginger and Pickles were obliged to eat their own goods. Pickles ate biscuits and Ginger ate a dried haddock. They ate them by candlelight after the shop was closed”. This other text is from “Ginger Pickles”. “Moppet and Pittens have found up into very good ratcatchers. They go out catcatching in the village, and they find plenty of employment. They charge so much a dozen and earn their living very comfortably”. This last text belongs to “The Poly-Poly Pudding”. The style is clear and bright. Repetition is avoided, which es why in the first text, in the last line, “amongst” is used instead of “among”, which was used in the previous line. The language is simple, easy to read, so the words need not be explained. The author avoids allipsis, by writing “He had forgotten” instead of “He’d forgotten”, so that children can clearly understand the text. Another characteristic of this writer, which is more clearly seen in the first two texts, is her use of many verbs in the past tense. She does not use description very much.
2.- DIDACTIC APPLICATION TECHNIQUES FOR LISTENING COMPREHENSION, INTRODUCING AND ENCOURAGING READING HABITS AND APPRECIATING THE POETIC FUNCTION OF LANGUAGE. All of us need stories for our minds in the same way that we all need food for our bodies; we watch television, go to the theatre and the cinema, read books and exchange stories with our friends. Stories are especially important in the lives of our children; they help them to understand the world and to share it with others. Their craving for stories is constant. Every time children enter a classroom, they have a yearning for stories. a) WHY USE STORIES? 448
Stories that rely heavily on words are a constant and great source of experiences for the students. Stories are motivating, rich in language experiences. Stories should be the main part of the work of Primary teachers, when teaching a first and a second language. Reasons: Motivation. Children have a constant need for stories; that is why they are always willing to listen or read at the right moment. Meaning. Children want to find something in a story (meaning) and they listen for that purpose. If they find what they are looking for, it will be thanks to their ability to understand the foreign language. If they do not find that meaning, they are motivated to improve their listening comprehension ability and then find meaning. Listening and fluency when reading. In a conversation with native speakers, the most important ability is understanding a substantial flow of the foreign language which contains new words for the receiver. This ability is only achieved by constant and ample practice. The child must develop a positive attitude to comprehending everything and accomplish the ability to search for meaning, predict and “guess” (they are experts at this in their native language). Knowledge of the language. Stories help children to become aware of the general knowledge and sounds of the foreign language. Stories also introduce students to several language models and sentence structures which they have not yet used in oral or written production. This makes up their language stockpile. When the time comes, those language models will flow within the productive language without any problems, because the language is not new to them. An obvious example of this is the use of the simple past. An incentive for speaking and writing. Experiencing a story can give rise to the production of written or spoken answers. It is natural to express our likes and dislikes, exchange ideas and associations about the stories we have just heard. In this manner, stories should be a part of a set related activities. Communication. Reading, writing and aswering questions about stories through writing, speaking, acting and making art develop certain feelings for listening, sharing and collaborating. Learning a language is useless if we are not able to communicate, in other words, to use language skills. A story serves to share the construction of a crucial sense of attention for others. 449
General curriculum. Most stories can be used to develop attention, analysis and expression, and to relate them to other subjects in the curriculum, such as geography, history, social and cultural aspects, mathematics and science. b) COMPREHENSION TECHNIQUES. Helping children to predict the contents of a story by telling them beforehand in their native language, by showing them pictures, or by introducing key vocabulary from that story. While they are being told a story, show them pictures, draw on the board, act and mime, use words that are similar in meaning in both the first and second languages. Tell the story more than once. Interrupt the story often and repeat the idea in a differente manner to make sure that the children do not get lost. Study the story beforehand and simplify some of the vocabulary, if necessary: words, expressions, verb tenses, word order and complex sentences. c) HOW SHOULD READING HABITS BE INTRODUCED AND CHILDREN BE TAUGHT TO APPRECIATE THE POETIC FUNCTION OF LANGUAGE? First of all, the stories, in other words, the literary language at this level with children, must essentially be a source of joy and must meet their interests. If the teacher uses stories or literary texts merely to teach, the children may reject this and lose their good, natural disposition for stories, which is an enormous potential. Reading habits can be developed and the poetic function of language can be taught by telling and reading the children stories that are suitable for them. This implies a set of advantages: Advantages of reading stories to the children: 1. If the teacher’s language foreign language competence is low. 2. Showing the children pictures that go with the stories. 3. Letting the children read what the teachers have read to them previously. 4. Allowing the children to realize that books are a source of pleasure and interest. Advantages of telling stories to the children: 1. It can help the children to understand by repeating the story, pointing out important features, miming, acting, drawing pictures on the board.
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2. By having the children in front of him, the teacher can make any special adaptations at any time. 3. Allowing the children to discover through their experience the magic sense of listening to a story being told by someone. d) WHICH CHILDREN’S LITERATURE BOOKS TO CHOOSE? When choosing them, we must ask ourselves the following: 1. Is the first impression about a book valid for us and for our pupils? 2. Does the book meet the pupil’s interests and hold their attention? 3. Do we accept the values expressed in the book? 4. Can the children understand the story enough to gain something valuable outside of it? 5. Is the story easy to understand irrespective of their knowledge of its vocabulary? 6. The story should be the source of activities, such as drama, story writing, letter writing from one protagonist to another, or activities relating to a theme. e) WHERE CAN THESE BOOKS BE OBTAINED FOR OUR STUDENTS? There are many types of story books. Each one has its advantages and disadvantages. 1. Readers. Advantages: the language has been simplified to make the reading easier. Easily obtainable. Disadavantages: they are not authentic books, original works by their author. They do not introduce the language used by present-day native English-speaking children. 2. Books published by native English-speaking children. Advantages: the stories may be more interesting. The language is authentic. Disadvantages: the children might find it difficult to understand most of the language on their own. 3. Books in the pupil’s native language. Advantages: within everybody’s reach. Disadvantages: it is up to the teacher to translate them. 4. Traditional and personal stories in the native language. 451
Advantages: the children are probably familiar with them and enjoy recognizing them when they are read to them in English. Disadvantages: the teacher may feel that his English is not good enough to translate them. 5. Stories invented by the teacher and the pupils. Advantages: the pupils identify with one of them. Disadvantages: incorrect English. f) ACTIVITIES THE TEACHER MUST PLAN. ACTIVITIES FOR CHILDREN BEFORE, DURING AND LISTENING COMPREHENSION OF BOOKS. 1. Activities prior to the story. Prepare the students to focus the theme of the book and the language that they will need to understand it. 2. Activities during the story. Above all, the children must enjoy the story. Ask them what they think is going to happen and how they feel about what has happened. They can join the teacher in repeating, miming or drama exercises, among others. They can be told to put sentences or pictures in the correct order. 3. Activities after the story. Traditional comprehension exercises; careful not to spoil the experience that the story has caused in the child. 4. Other more creative activities. Drawing a picture and writing a key sentence. Making a mural or writing a book with other children with illustrations and key sentences. Acting out the story. Writing a letter from one protagonist to another. Changing the end. Changing the characters.
BIBLIOGRAFÍA ELLIS AND BREWSTER: The Story telling handbook for Primary Teachers. Penguin. 452
GARVIE: Story as a vehicle. Multilingual matters. PERRY: Into books: 101 literature activities for the classroom. Oxford University Press. Madrid. MORGAN and RINVOLUCRI: Once upon a time. Cambridge University Press. ROSEN: Shapers and Polishers. Teachers as Storytellers. Mary Glasgow. WRIGHT: Why stories. Oxford University Press. Madrid.
Tema 16. La literatura infantil en lengua inglesa. Técnicas de aplicación didáctica para acceder a la comprensión oral, iniciar y potenciar los hábitos lectores y sensibilizar en la función poética del lenguaje. 16. ENGLISH CHILDREN’S LITERATURE. 1. Introduction. There is literary work that has been created with the aim of being used by children and there are some works that, although they were not created with that aim, they have been used for children for such a long time and have become part of “children’s literature”. Even if it is children’s literature of not, we as teachers, should develop the interest in reading of our students. Encourage them to read stories of any kind… To help students to conquer the written kingdom is one of the most important aims of all the educative systems. The reading practice needs two requisites to be fully developed: - To recognize many diverse forms within the text (paragraphs, letters…) - To understand the meaning these forms have. 2. Children’s literature in the UK. Children’s literature in English has been the first literature of this kind studied and classified. It is a very important type of literature and it is included in the Cambridge History of English Literature. Some famous authors of this kind of literature are: - Daniel Defoe (1660?-1731): “Robinson Crusoe” - Jonathan Swift (1667-1745): “Guliver’s Travel’s” - Charles Dickens (1812-1870): “David Copperfield” - Lewis Carroll (1832-1898): “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” - Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936): “The Jungle Book” - Mary Norton: “The Borrowers” - Pamela Travers: “Mary Poppins” 3. Children’s literature in the USA. Literature for children in America is the result of the culture, the life and the believes of this country. Some famous authors of this kind of literature are: - Peter Parley: “Tales of Peter Parley about America” - J. Fennimore Cooper: “The last of the Mohicans” - Herman Melville: “Moby dick” - Louise M. Alcott: “Little women”
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Clement Moore: “Night before Christmas” Mark Twain: “The adventures of Tom Sawyer”
4. Children’s literature in other English-speaking countries. Both in New Zealand and in Australia, literature for children has been recently created. They usually used the British and American work. Some famous authors of this kind of literature are: - Ethel Turner: “Seven Little Australians” - Norman Lindsay: “The Magic Pudding” - Nan Chauncy: “Tangara” - Ivan Southhall: “Ash Road” 5. Reasons to use literature for children. Children enjoy listening to stories in their mother tongue. For this reason books provide an ideal introduction to the foreign language presented in a context that is familiar to the child. It is not the same to use a story for adults than a story for children. Children need books with a suitable language for them. The reasons to use literature in class may be summarised as follows: a) Motivation: Stories are motivating and fun and that develops positive attitudes towards the foreign language. b) Imagination: Stories exercise the imagination. That involve children with the story, they try to interpret the narrative… c) The meaning: They also wish to find a meaning. If they find it, they know they are able to understand the foreign language. d) Linking tool: stories are useful in linking fantasy and the imagination with the child’s real world. e) Vocabulary: Listening to stories allows the teacher to introduce or revise new vocabulary and sentence structures. f) Linguistic accuracy: Develop the ability of understanding new words from the context. g) Linguistic knowledge: Contributes to introduce new linguistic structures. h) One more time: Repetition allows certain language items to be acquired. i) Communication: Listening, reading and giving an answer to the stories are good ways to develop communication. j) Cross-Curricular subjects: Reading stories help to teach them other aspects as social or cultural aspects. 6. Techniques to develop listening comprehension. a) Use mother tongue with beginner pupils from time to time. b) Provide a context for the story and introduce the main characters. c) Prediction of the contents. d) Use the help of pictures, draws, cards, etc, while we are telling the story. e) Follow-up activities. f) Repetitions of the story: we can tell the story more than once to avoid that the children get lost. g) Simplification of the story. h) Rhymes and songs to reinforce the language introduced. 6.1. Techniques to understand the poetic function of language.
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First of all, we need to bear in mind that literature must be a source of amusement and pleasure for the children. We can encourage the reading habit of our students at the same time they understand the poetic function of language. One of the best methods to achieve these aims is to read and to tell stories in class. 7. Activities to do with a Literary text. 1. Pre-reading activities. These are the tasks to do before telling the story that helps students to predict what is going to happen, to predict the vocabulary, the characters, etc. 2. Activities to do while telling the story: while reading. The most important objective is that children enjoy the story. Some activities we can do are: - Ask them what they think is going to happen next or before. - Use mime, performances, etc. - Put some pictures we give them in the correct order. - Repeat words or sentences. - Sing a song, etc. 3. Post-reading activities: after telling the story. These tasks are called “follow-up activities”. They allow children to use what they have learned. Some activities we could do are: - Draw part of the story. - Make mask, puppets… - Make a poster of the story. - Invent a similar story. - Perform the story, etc. 8. Conclusion. There are many activities that we can do with the children in our classes. They just should be creative and they should encourage comprehension and communication in the foreign language. If they fulfil all these requisites they would be motivating for our students and in a step-by-step process they would love literature.
UNIT 17: THE SONG AS A POETIC VEHICLE AND AS A LITERARY CREATION IN THE ENGLISH CLASS. TIPPOLOGY OF SONGS. TECHNIQUES OF USING SONGS IN THE PHONETIC, LEXICAL AND CULTURAL LEARNING. 1.INTRODUCTION
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In the pedagogy of second language acquisition, the introduction of authentic documents, such as songs, was introduced as a key to something alive, as the indication of a developing reality. The great advantage of songs is the possibility of “being remembered”. But it is necessary the use of carefully selected songs or composed especially for the class, in order to avoid those containing lexical mistakes that students would fix irremediably in their minds. Advantages: Apart from being a very relaxing activity for the vast majority of students, singing a song contributes to encourage their interest to study in depth that language. - The activity of singing establishes a warm atmosphere and a sense of Cupertino among students. The feeling of making a fool of themselves can be overcome easily if we succeed in enthusiasting them with the activity of singing songs in that language. On the whole, what completely justifies the use of songs in the foreign language classroom is the possibility of practices that language. -
1.1 The song as a poetic vehicle and as a literary creation in the English class. The song constitutes an element that belongs to the daily environment of the students. Unlike the textbook or other resources means from which it is presumed that the student had a major knowledge, the song, the video and the television allow the creation, in the class, of a different pedagogic relation, egalitarian and constructive. Sometimes the song is transformed into a vehicle to transmit knowledge from the teacher to the student.
1.2 The socialisation of songs. Songs should respect these rules: - Accurate grammatical contents, and without going beyond the limitation of the knowledge already acquired for the students. - Lexical contents useful and easily memorise, without excess of new elements for the student. - Rhythmic guidelines, which need to be “normal” so the musical rhythm matches the natural one of the lyrics: there should not be tonic stress on the syllables that would not normally have them. There are songs already graded. Socialisation is, without any doubt, the main function of songs in the English class.
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From a psychological point of view, the song is a resource that should be used in any moment where we perceive a fall in the interest or attention of our students. Before introducing a song in the classroom, the teacher should introduce a brief explanation about the song in order to facilitate a better and general comprehension of what it will be heard. It is a mistake to expect students to understand perfectly the meaning of all the words and expressions appearing in the song. What it really appeals to them from a song is, not necessarily the lyrics, but the melody. Above all, children enjoy immensely singing songs, although in many cases they do not have a clear idea of he meaning of some words used in them. 1.3 The song as a starting point. An activity considered highly enriching from the human and linguistic point of view is the exploitation of play back, or the preparation of a show in which the students perform the vision of English music. This is an activity where the students, on one hand, have the possibility to work harmoniously the oral and non oral aspects (gestures) of communication and, therefore, the opportunity to choose singers or characters they want to represent, as well as the way adopted by this recreation. 1.3.1 The material, a problem The most serious problem in this field are, on one hand, the lack of information sources which could allow the teacher to be up to date in the evolution of he music in the country whose language s/he teaches; and on the other hand the need of sonorous and audio-visual materials such as cassettes, videos, etc. 2. AWARENESS OF ANOTHER CULTURE: THE IMMERSION
In an “authentic” listening situation, the person leaves the music flow through him/her. However, usually, when a song appeals to us, we feel the necessity to understand the message. Consequently, the access to the meaning constitutes an objective that the student will attempt to reach. To this “learning objective” responds our pedagogical objective to provide an easy approach. 2.1 Type of songs. From the point of view of the student’s awareness, it is important to select: a- Songs that represent, either a rhythm in harmony with the one to which he student feels attracted (Bob Marley and his reggae music). b- A lyric able to involve the student, to make him react (“Lucka”, by Susan Vega). From the point of view of the approach to meaning, it is interesting: a- To make good use of songs whose initial sound introduces elements capable of put the student in situation (“Back in he URSS”, by The Beatles).
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b- Another type of approachable songs is he one in which he narrative structure is lineal (“The River”, by Bruce Springsteen). 2.2 Acquisition of an oral and written competence. We can arrange a range of different activities conducted to develop the oral and written comprehension competence. It is important to take into account a series of principles or basic strategies: Make the students to be aware of he importance of investing actively the linguistic elements stored so as to facilitate their memorisation. Propose activities integrating the creativity and the sensibility of he students. Prepare, taking the linguistic baggage from he songs, a range of linguistic patterns that allow the student to materialise what s/he wants to express through these activities. A. Base strategy: When the object is the acquisition of an oral comprehension competence, it is essential to consider a series of elements that determine if a listening situation is suitable or not. On one hand, the student. It is necessary that the song and the activities proposed raise a degree of motivation able to become the purpose of learning. On the other hand, the transmission. Material elements and psychological elements should be taking into account the action of the teacher. Another element to be considered is the assimilation. The treatment of the information is the following stage to perception. We have to avoid the requirement of an oral production immediately after the hearing. It is very important to diagnose the possible problems that impede the conclusion of the process in order to stabilise the suitable therapy. B. Specific strategies:
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Preparation of the listening. In case that he song presents elements that can interfere the approach to meaning from the students, we must start by undertaking those problems. We must make a previous inventory with the students about the subject of the song that will allow them recognise some elements at the time of listening. First listening, first contacts. In order to guide he students in he first listening, they will be asked to fill a chart in where there are places, characters and actions. Approximation to the text. Some activities allow us to help our students make a selective structure, guiding them to the important part of the message. Propose a series of staments and ask them to answer if the assertions included are true or false. When the plot in the narration is linear and chronological, it will be used as a connecting theme. We can supply them with an incomplete text, asking them to discover the elements that are not included.
In many of the current songs the author/singer proposes problems. The technique of brainstorming may be applied to the solution of these problems.
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Dramatising techniques such as the role-playing may also develop communicative situations elicited by the song.
3. TECHNIQUES IN THE USE OF THE SONG FOR PHONETIC, LEXICAL AND CULTURAL LEARNING. 3.1 Techniques in the use of phonetic learning. The majority of teachers, when introduce a song in their English class, do it with he idea that students would try to imitate as closely as possible the melody and he lyrics they heard. He attainment of this purpose is, without any doubts, something very important for he learning of pronunciation (sound, stress and rhythm). Pronunciation must be he aspect in which we should insist on when we teach a song. The first contact of students with he song needs to be always oral, through he sense of hearing. In he first audition of a song he teacher indicates he rhythm of each sentence so that he students realise, from he beginning, of which words or syllables are bearing stress. It is only after this previous training that he class will be in condition to start singing a song they have listened to before. Nevertheless, it is clear that not all the songs are equally useful to practice pronunciation. The teacher should be sure that the students would not have many difficulties to catch the sounds and the rhythm of the song. There are songs composed to be accompanied with actions or movements of the body while they are sung. They are called action songs. These songs are particularly useful for small children as they allow practising orally different formal aspects of the language and, at the same time, they teach the meaning of the words or the sentences of the text used in the song through different gestures. (Head, and shoulders...). 3.2 Techniques for lexical and cultural learning. a) Oral answer to questions about the text of the song . This is one of the easiest ways to check he comprehensive capacity of the student before any text. The teacher should prepare a number of questions about the text of the song. Before listening to the song, the teacher delivers a list with he questions s/the has prepared. After the students have analysed those questions during a couple of minutes, the teacher plays the cassette twice or three times. While they listen to he song, they should try to find out the answer to the questions delivered before. b) Arranging words. Before listening to certain song, we should deliver a sheet of paper with a list of words situated in a different order from where they appear in the song.
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The students have to arrange the words according to the order in the song. c) Complete the text of a song. The teacher hands a copy of the song to each student; there are gaps in some places that correspond to certain words or phrases. While the listening takes place, each student attempts to write the words or sentences that were omitted in he copy. They also practice the written expression. d) Reconstruction of a song. The teacher cuts off all the lines from a song and places them in an envelope. Then the groups open their envelopes with he corresponding lines from he song they are going to rebuild among the whole class. The different groups should place the sentences in the same order they appear in he song. It could be repeated twice or three times. e) Finding stress in the sentence. The teacher invites the students to listen carefully to certain song and pay attention to the words pronounced with major intensity. After that, he gives a copy of the song that has already listened to. While they listen to the song for he second time, they have to mark over the copy of the song those words or syllable which stand out before the others. f) Correction of an inaccurate version of a song. The teacher hands to each student a copy of a song where some of the original words or sentences have been changed for others that are not the ones appearing in the song but have some likeness. As they listen to the song, the students will have to find out where are the mistakes and correct them in he handed copy. g) Identifying phrases. The teacher delivers to each student from the class one, two or three lines that have been cut from the song. Each student when hearing the text corresponding to the lines s/he has should rise his/her hand. h) Classifications of words. While listening to a song, the students should make a list in which collect a certain kind of grammatical elements (verbs, prepositions, colours...) introduced in the song. i) Words with opposite meaning. Children have a list with some words; they will have to provide one or two antonyms for each word. After a few minutes of discussion in the groups, the teacher will play the cassette and encourage the students to guess if in the text of the song there are any of the antonym words they have found previously.
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j) Searching words that rhyme. In this case the attention of the students is focused mainly on the phonetic element. Before listening to the song, a copy, with some blanks, is handed to the students. They have to fill them with words that rhyme with the corresponding verse. After that, the teacher plays the cassette so they can check if he words they have found are really in he song. k) Translating a song. Once the song is learned by heart, a song may be exploited through translation into the student’s mother tongue. Even though this is difficult task for the students, the effort requires its compensation in a deep study of the meaning of the song. TEMA 17. LA CANCIÓN COMO VEHICULO POÉTICO Y COMO CREACIÓN LITERARIA EN LA CLASSE DE INGLÉS. TIPOLOGÍA DE CANCIONES. TÉCNICAS DEL USO DE LA CANCIÓN PARA EL APRENDIZAJE FONÉTICO, LEXICAL I CULTURAL. Unit 17. Songs as Literary and Poetic creations. 1. Introduction. As way of introduction we can say that children enjoy singing very much. Songs and rhymes provide an enjoyable change of the routine in the classroom. Songs and Rhymes provide relaxation and variety, but we have to be careful because an excessive use of them can make children to get bored. Taking this fact into account, we can say that songs are a good resource to teach vocabulary, practise the language orally, improve pronunciation and intonation and also help children to know the culture of the foreign language. 2. Songs as Literary and Poetic creations. 2.1. The importance of music in the language teaching. Many of us know how quick students are at learning songs. For a variety of reasons, songs stick in our minds and become part of us. 1. It is easier to sing a language than to speak it. 2. Music is around us: radio, television, theatre, etc. 3. Songs work in our short and long-term memory. 4. Songs use simple, conversational language and repetitions. 5. Children enjoy hearing themselves (Piaget: egocentric language). 6. Songs are relaxing, fun, etc. 7. In practical terms, for language teachers, songs are short, repetitive, and easily to handle in a lesson. 2.2. Characteristics of songs and rhymes. Their main characteristics are: 1. They provide a link with home and school life. 2. Help children to develop positive attitude towards language learning. 3. They provide an enjoyable alternative in presentation of the language. 4. They reinforce lexical items and structures. 5. They play an important role in pronunciation, intonation and rhythm. 6. They are used to reinforce listening that leads to speaking, reading and writing tasks. 7. They are used to reinforce other subjects.
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8. They reflect customs and traditions associated with Anglo-Saxon culture. 2.3. Reasons to use songs in the classroom. The main reasons to use songs are: 1. Motivation: songs easily motivate children to use the foreign language. 2. Change in the routine. 3. Cultural importance: they reflect the foreign culture. 4. Reinforcement: they provide a meaningful way to repeat different items in order to reinforce the learning (pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, etc.). 3. Types of songs. It is essential to select carefully the songs we are going to work with in class. What we must bear in mind are the features of the students we are working with at that specific moment: their age, interests, likes and dislikes, and of course, their knowledge of the foreign language. We already know that the foreign language is introduced in the second cycle of Primary Education, that is, children from 8 years to 12. - 2nd Cycle of Primary (8 to 10). It is the first time the foreign language is introduced in class. It is one of the best didactic moments because children are very receptive and interested in everything. - 3rd Cycle of Primary (10 to 12). At this age their interests begin to change. So that, teachers have to take these changes into account and adjust the teaching practice to the new needs and interests of the students. The majority of the students think that songs are childish; they feel shy singing and so that, it is difficult to make them sing aloud in class. However, they enjoy music very much but their interests are different. So that, we have to find songs that they enjoy and are suitable for our purposes too. We as teachers must select the most suitable songs depending on the level of our students, on their interests and their needs. The following are some examples of types of songs we can use in class at these stages. 3.1. Songs for occasions. Songs that make reference to anything that happens to them in daily life: “Happy birthday” or “Auld Lang Syne” (New Year’s Eve). 3.2. Topic songs. Songs that deal with a specific topic. We must bear in mind that the topic the song deals with must be interesting for the children. For example: Colours- “The colours” or animals- “Old Mc Donald” 3.3. Songs with actions. Songs that are related to the old technique of representing what we are saying: “total physical response” (James Asher): “If you’re happy” or “These is the way”. 3.4. Round songs. A round is a circular song. One group begins singing, then the second group begins the song when the first group gets to the end of the first line. The third group begins when the second group gets to the end of the first line and so on. When the singers get to the end of the last line they continue singing from the beginning again, so the song becomes circular. For example: “Three blind mice” or “I hear thunder”. 3.5. Dialogues songs. This type of songs is very useful. They are very easy to sing and at the same time they require more attention on the part of the children. For example: “I spy” or “I am a music man”.
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3.6. Traditional songs. These songs will not probably known by the students, but they must learn them because they belong to the new culture they are studying. For example: “Oh, Susanna”, “London Bridge” or “Yankee Doodle”. Furthermore, there are songs that we sing at a specific time of the year like Christmas Carols: “Merry Christmas” or “Jingle Bells”. 3.7. Other songs. There are other songs for children which are more difficult but which are also good to work with them in class. For example songs in all Walt Disney’s films. A good idea to develop them is to watch the film at the same time we sing the song. For example: “Hakuna Matata” or “Fly, fly” (Peter Pann). 3.8. Traditional rhymes. Rhymes can be used in the same way as songs. This could be easier for those students that are a bit shy. Some traditional rhymes to be mentioned are: “One Potato” or “Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter”. 4. Techniques: Types of activities. There are many different activities that we can do working with songs, depending on what we want the students to practise and to learn. These can be summarized as follows: - Activities to communicate new information. - Activities to understand the social meaning of a song. - Activities to learn the way language works without paying attention to the meaning. As we have mentioned before, the activities with songs we can do in class are very varied. The following are some examples of these activities, which may be done with different songs, according to the interests and needs of our students: a) Invention: the children invent a new song with some music they all know and with some vocabulary that we may give to them. b) Stories: the students tell the story of the song. c) Discussions: use songs to introduced a topic that may be discussed afterwards. d) Fill in the Gaps: fill in the gaps they find in the lyrics of a song with the words previously given. e) Write in Order: write in the correct order the sentences of a song as they listen to it. f) Singing Competitions: divide the class into groups. Each group chooses a song or rhyme from the songs worked in previous lessons and perform it to the rest. After all the performances, the class votes their favourite. g) What’s the missing word: divide the class into groups. Each group chooses a song and performs it for the rest of the class. However they miss out the last word in each line. The rest of the class has to call out the missing word. h) Rounds: (point 3.4) i) Videos: to watch musical videos. The images help the students to understand what the song is about. j) Song dictation: to do what the song says. Colour, write, etc. k) The Picture song: the children try to make up a new song, taking some pictures as the basis. l) Fill and draw: two different sheets of paper. One has some draws explaining what is happening in the song; the other has the lyrics. They must try to fill in. 5. Conclusion.
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There are many activities that we can do in class with songs. However, it is going to depend on our students’ interests, needs and, of course, linguistic level. It is up to us to select the work and ht songs we are going to work with. The possibilities of the songs are directed to develop the four linguistic skills: oral and written comprehension and oral and written expression. But, we may say that the most basic ability to use songs in class is oral comprehension.
TEMA 18: FUNCIONES DEL JUEGO Y DE LA CREATIVIDAD EN EL APRENDIZAJE DE LAS LENGUAS EXTRANJERAS. DEFINICIÓN Y TIPOLOGÍA DE
JUEGOS
PARA
EL
APRENIZAJE
Y
EL
PERFECCIONAMIENTO
LINGÜÍSTICO. EL JUEGO COMO TÉCNICA LÚDICO-CREATIVA DE ACCESO A LA COMPETENCIA COMUNICATIVA EN LENGUA EXTRANJERA. 1. - FUNCIONES DEL JUEGO Y LA CREATIVIDAD EN EL APRENDIZAJE DE LAS LENGUAS EXTRANJERAS. 1.1. - Introducción. 1.2. - El planteamiento del juego. 1.2.1. - Actividad individual. 1.2.1.1. - Cada alumno con el profesor. 1.2.1.2. - Cada alumno con el resto del grupo. 1.2.2. - Actividades por parejas. 1.2.3. - Actividad en grupos. 1.3. - El material. 1.4. - El lenguaje. 1.4.1. - Para empezar el juego.
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1.4.2. - Para mantener el juego. 1.4.3. - Para terminar el juego.
2. - DEFINICIÓN Y TIPOLOGÍA DE JUEGOS PARA EL APRENDIZAJE Y EL PERFECCIONAMIENTO LINGÜÍSTICO. 2.1. - Juegos de vocabulario. 2.1.1. - El juego de los números. 2.1.2. - El bingo. 2.1.3. - Cadena de palabras. 2.1.4. - El alfabeto viviente. 2.1.5. - Busca la palabra. 2.1.6. - Policías y ladrones. 2.1.7. - Encuentra la palabra que no corresponde. 2.1.8. - Falta una palabra, ¿cuál? 2.1.9. - Palabras y dibujos. 2.2. - Juegos de estructuras gramaticales. 2.2.1. - Juego de trotamundos. 2.2.2. - Adivina mi oficio. 2.2.3. - Juego del mimo. 2.2.4. - Juego de las asociaciones. 2.2.5. - Juego de las adivinanzas. 2.2.6. - La ruta de Ana. 2.3. - Juegos de creatividad. 2.3.1. - La historia tonta. 2.3.2. - Un poco de memoria. 465
2.3.3. - ¿Quién debe sobrevivir?
3. - EL JUEGO COMO TÉCNICA LÚDICO-CREATIVO DE ACCESO A LA COMPETENCIA COMUNICATIVA DE LA LENGUA. 3.1. - Dibuja la frase. 3.2. - Parejas de dibujos. 3.3. - Historia desordenada. 3.4. - Dar direcciones.
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1. - FUNCIONES DEL JUEGO Y LA CREATIVIDAD EN EL APRENDIZAJE DE LAS LENGUAS EXTRANJERAS. 1.1. - Introducción. La preocupación de todo profesor es poder dar una clase atractiva, que consiga captar la atención y el interés del alumno hacia su materia. A los problemas que plantea la enseñanza de cualquier asignatura viene a sumarse el desconocimiento de la lengua en la clase de idioma moderno, cuya finalidad es conseguir que los alumnos alcancen un nivel de comunicación oral y escrita con personas de otros países. Pero esta motivación es prácticamente nula en nuestros centros debido a las escasas posibilidades que existen de visitar el país de origen para poner en práctica lo aprendido en clase. Una manera de paliar esta ausencia de motivación real y de interesar a los alumnos en el uso de lo aprendido es, sin duda, la práctica de juegos. El juego relaja, desinhibe y favorece la participación creativa del alumno, ya que le presenta un contexto real y una razón inmediata para utilizar el idioma, que se convierte en vehículo de comunicación con un propósito lúdico. Pero para que este interés se mantenga a través del curso, tenemos que presentar los juegos como auténticas actividades dentro de la programación de una lengua segunda. Si el alumno intuye que improvisamos, que utilizamos el juego para rellenar huecos de cinco minutos o para mantenerlos dentro de la clase, en vísperas de vacaciones, la función pedagógica de esta actividad quedará rota.
Para evitar su utilización indiscriminada de deben tener en cuenta los siguientes aspectos:
El planteamiento del juego. 467
El material.
El lenguaje.
Las clases de juegos, que describiremos en un epígrafe aparte y que agruparemos de acuerdo con la finalidad a la que sirven:
a) Juegos de vocabulario. b) Juegos de estructuras gramaticales. c) Juegos de creatividad. d) Juegos de comunicación, que también veremos, por su importancia, en otro epígrafe aparte. 1.2. - El planteamiento del juego. Cada profesor en su clase debe saber cómo agrupar a los alumnos para que éstos se encuentren con posibilidades reales de comunicación y con un material auténtico. Así, los juegos pueden ser planteados como: 1.2.1. - Actividad individual. 1.2.1.1. - Cada alumno con el profesor. Esto sólo es aconsejable en grupos reducidos. El profesor dirige y controla la actividad. Tiene sus ventajas, ya que éste puede asegurarse de que cada alumno escucha lo que se dice, y recibe, en general, un buen modelo de lengua; pero en grupos numerosos, en los que la participación sería más espaciada, la mayoría se quedaría sin intervenir por falta de tiempo y el aburrimiento haría acto de presencia.
1.2.1.2. - Cada alumno con el resto del grupo. Se necesita un gran espacio libre para que el grupo pueda moverse con facilidad. El profesor actúa como monitor y el peso de la actividad recaen en los alumnos. Pueden ser actividades de comprensión y/o expresión oral. Por ejemplo, un alumno describe una situación preparada de antemano en lengua extranjera, y el resto tiene que expresar a través de la pantomima lo que va diciendo.
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Pueden ser historias inventadas por los propios alumnos o sacadas de cuentos, de libros de aventuras, etc. 1.2.2. - Actividades por parejas. Los alumnos trabajan de dos en dos formando un tándem frente al resto de las otras parejas, o haciéndose preguntas uno a otro sobre su vida, trabajo, familia, actividad, descripción de un documento visual, etc. La finalidad de esta actividad es obtener la información más completa en un tiempo fijado de antemano. El profesor actúa de monitor y supervisa la expresión, pronunciación, etc., de las parejas. 1.2.3. - Actividad en grupos. Se divide la clase en grupos de trabajo de cuatro o cinco alumnos. Suelen ser los juegos más atractivos, pues, al igual que en las parejas, se incrementa el número de alumnos hablando al mismo tiempo y dinamizan mucho más la clase, desarrollando el sentido de cooperación entre ellos. Se corre el riesgo de que hablen español, si el profesor no supervisa todos los grupos, pero una forma de resolverlo es nombrar un moderador en cada grupo que se encargue de evitarlo. Dentro de este apartado podemos incluir la división de la clase en dos o más equipos contrincantes. Esto daría más emoción al juego o actividad, al introducir el sentido de competición. 1.3. - El material. Entramos en un campo interminable. Todo depende de la dedicación, imaginación o conocimiento práctico de cada profesor. Existen muchísimos juegos que no necesitan material especial para su puesta en práctica. No obstante, se suele aconsejar, por ser muy socorrido, fabricarse juegos de cartas plastificadas, con dibujos alusivos a varios temas, tales como: alimentos, bebidas, ropa, 469
animales, plantas, objetos, mobiliario, medios de comunicación, días de la semana, meses del año, estaciones, las grandes ciudades (Nueva York, Londres, Sydney,...), los oficios y sus correspondientes herramientas, cartas con dibujos y otras con los nombres que corresponden a cada dibujo, etc. Pero no todos los profesores tienen la habilidad o el tiempo para hacerse sus propias cartas. Para esto podemos recurrir a los alumnos, o solicitar la ayuda del profesor de dibujo. Las cartas serán hechas en cartulina del mismo color y tendrán todas el mismo tamaño. Si se cuenta con un retroproyector en clase, el profesor puede llevar dibujos esquemáticos, tarjetas postales, fotografías, etc. Entonces la mitad de los alumnos se sientan mirando a la proyección y la otra mitad de espaldas. Se juega por parejas: un alumno describe lo que ve, mientras el otro va dibujando a partir de la información que recibe. Cuanto más rico sea el vocabulario y las expresiones gramaticales del que describe, más completo será el dibujo del compañero. En este caso un solo dibujo sirve para toda la clase. Insistimos, sin embargo, en que es muy práctico contar con un buen número de cartas plastificadas, pues sirven para muchos juegos. En la formación de familias puede haber muchas variantes.
1.4. - El lenguaje. Antes de lanzarse a organizar juegos, el profesor debe familiarizar a los alumnos con una serie de estructuras básicas que permiten agilizar el comienzo y el final de los juegos. Estas estructuras pueden ser: 1.4.1. - Para empezar el juego. Listen! These are the rules. Be quiet. Stay on your seat. Form a circle / groups of four /pairs. 470
Sit down. Stand up. Do the same as myself. Give the cards, one each. Ready? Go ahead! Close your eyes. Count up to four ... You win. You start. Look at your partner. 1.4.2. - Para mantener el juego. It's my/your turn. Who's going on? Look at your card. It's your card. Take a card. Here are your cards. Take them. Show your cards. Tell them what to do.
1.4.3. - Para terminar el juego. Stop. It's time to finish. Have you finished? Count your cards. How many have you got? You're the winner. Here is the winner. Who are the winners? We are. A point for your team. I'm sorry, You've lost a point. You can't go on playing. 2. - DEFINICIÓN Y TIPOLOGÍA DE JUEGOS PARA EL APRENDIZAJE Y EL PERFECCIONAMIENTO LINGÜÍSTICO.
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Algunos de los juegos que vamos a presentar son una recopilación de varios autores citados en la bibliografía. Otros han sido recogidos de forma oral, entre los docentes, o son simples adaptaciones de juegos infantiles tradicionales. Estos juegos se pueden dividir en cuatro categorías: - Juegos de vocabulario. - Juegos de estructuras gramaticales. - Juegos de creatividad. - Juegos de comunicación, que estudiaremos en un epígrafe aparte. 2.1. - Juegos de vocabulario. Para responder a estos juegos casi siempre hay que buscar y encontrar la palabra que falta o la palabra justa de acuerdo con una consigna dada. El objetivo de estos juegos es desarrollar la escritura y la lectura, aunque muchos de ellos pueden ser orales.
2.1.1. - El juego de los números. Objetivo: Práctica de los números. Destrezas: Desarrollar la comprensión y expresión orales. Nivel: Elemental e intermedio. Material: Una pelota, o una simple bola de papel, un cronómetro (opcional). Agrupación: Dos grandes equipos. Organización: Se divide la clase en dos grandes grupos. El profesor tira la bola a un alumno del equipo 1 diciendo un número: "twelve". El alumno debe encontrar rápidamente un número que empiece por la última cifra del número escuchado: "twenty-three". Este alumno pasa la bola al equipo contrario diciendo "twenty-three". A su vez el que recibe la bola tendrá que encontrar un número que empiece por 3 y devolver la bola de papel al equipo 1, etc. Se trata de pasar la pelota lo más rápidamente posible al equipo contrario, pues el que tenga la pelota en la mano cuando suene el timbre del cronómetro pierde. Si un alumno elige un número que termina en =, por ejemplo, "twenty", el que recibe dirá "zero", y luego añadirá 472
otro cualquiera: "fifteen". Cuando alguien se equivoca, su equipo pierde un punto. Puede jugarse en tres partidas de dos minutos cada una. 2.1.2. - El bingo. Objetivo: Práctica de los números. Destreza: Comprensión oral. Nivel: Elemental, intermedio y avanzado. Material: Cartones de bingo. Agrupación: Individual o en parejas. Organización: Se hacen cartones con números que vayan del 1 al 100, del 100 al 500, del 500 al 1000 (dependiendo del nivel de los alumnos). Los números pueden estar escritos en cifras o en letras. Puede jugarse individualmente o en parejas. El profesor dice números de forma aleatoria; se premia la línea y el bingo. 2.1.3. - Cadena de palabras. Objetivo: Práctica del vocabulario. Destrezas: Comprensión y expresión orales. Nivel: Elemental e intermedio. Material: Bola de papel, cronómetro (opcional). Agrupación: Dos grandes equipos. Organización: Se procede de la misma forma que en el juego de los números. Se divide la clase en dos equipos, el profesor dice una palabra y tira la bola a un alumno, que tendrá que decir otra que empiece por la última letra o sonido de la palabra escuchada, y así sucesivamente. Cualquier alumno que repita palabra ya dicha o que no pueda seguir con la cadena, pierde un punto. El equipo que tenga la bola cuando suene el timbre pierde un punto. Gana el que más puntos tenga. Alternativas: Se puede jugar con la última sílaba de cada palabra. De esta forma resulta más difícil. Otra variante es jugar con el vocabulario específico de un tema y no sobre la última letra. Por ejemplo, el profesor dice "bread" y cada alumno tendrá que decir nombres
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relacionados con la comida. El que repita, diga mal una palabra o no siga, pierde. Esta variante es más adecuada para los primeros niveles. 2.1.4. - El alfabeto viviente. Objetivo: Práctica del alfabeto. Destrezas: Desarrollo de la comprensión oral. Nivel: Elemental e intermedio. Material: Ninguno. Agrupación: Individual o dos grandes equipos.
Organización: Los alumnos deben conocer previamente el alfabeto del inglés (hacer varios ejercicios para comprobarlo, haciéndoles deletrear sus nombres, por ejemplo). El profesor asigna una letra a cada alumno. Si son pequeños, deberán pintarla bien grande en una hoja. El profesor dice una palabra. Rápidamente, los alumnos deberán levantarse por orden diciendo la letra correspondiente hasta formar la palabra. Si una letra se repite, el representante de ella se levantará y dirá dicha letra cada vez que ésta aparezca en la palabra. Por ejemplo, "window": el representante de la "w" se levantará en primer y último lugar, pronunciando el nombre de la letra. Puede jugarse en dos equipos. Se reparte la primera mitad del alfabeto a un equipo y la segunda mitad al otro. Los equipos parten con 10 puntos. Los alumnos se levantarán a medida que aparezca su letra. Si alguno se equivoca, resta un punto a su equipo, y así, el que menos puntos tenga al final, pierde. 2.1.5. - Busca la palabra. Objetivo: Práctica escrita de vocabulario. Destreza: Desarrollo de la escritura de palabras. Nivel: Elemental e intermedio. Material: Un dibujo. Agrupación: Individual, parejas o grupos.
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Organización: El profesor reparte un mismo dibujo de una habitación con algunas personas y animales a toda la clase. Los alumnos deben escribir nombres de objetos, de animales o de personas que empiecen por la misma letra. Al cabo de dos minutos el juego se para y ganan los alumnos que hayan encontrado más nombres.
2.1.6. - Policías y ladrones. Objetivos: Práctica del alfabeto y repaso de la ortografía de las palabras. Destrezas: Comprensión y expresión orales. Nivel: Elemental e intermedio. Agrupación: Grupos de cuatro o cinco alumnos. Organización: Se forman grupos de cuatro o cinco alumnos, que se sentarán en círculos, bien separados unos de otros. Cada grupo escribe una lista de diez palabras. Se echa a suertes para ver qué grupo empieza primero y se seguirá el orden de las agujas del reloj. Un representante de un equipo, el "policía", visita cualquier otro grupo y pide a un alumno determinado que deletree una palabra. Si éste no sabe o se equivoca, pasa a ser su prisionero. 2.1.7. - Encuentra la palabra que no corresponde. Objetivo: Revisión de vocabulario. Destrezas: Comprensión escrita, comprensión y expresión orales. Nivel: Elemental. Material: Fotocopias de series de palabras. Agrupación: Individual o en parejas.
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Organización: Los alumnos, de forma individual o en parejas, leen la primera de las series de palabras que aparecen en su hoja. El primero o la primera pareja que encuentra la palabra que no pertenece a la serie levanta la mano, lee la palabra en voz alta y explica por qué ha elegido ésa precisamente; si está bien, gana; si no, se pasa el turno al otro.
2.1.8. - Falta una palabra, ¿cuál? Objetivo: Revisión del vocabulario. Destrezas: Comprensión y expresión escritas. Nivel: Elemental e intermedio (dependiendo de la cadena de oposiciones). Material: Encerado. Agrupación: Individual o en parejas. Organización: El profesor escribe en la pizarra una lista de cinco o siete palabras en la que existe una cadena de oposiciones. El alumno, individualmente o en parejas, debe adivinar la que falta y explicar por qué la ha elegido. Ejemplos: - black, white; true, false; big...... - father, mother; man, woman; brother...... - on, off; upstairs, downstairs; in...... Alternativa: Cada pareja puede hacer su propia lista y leerla en voz alta, para que otra pareja encuentre la oposición. Si la palabra es adivinada, el acertante gana un punto. Si la palabra no es adivinada, o se da una respuesta incorrecta, el que ha hecho la lista, gana.
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2.1.9. - Palabras y dibujos. Objetivos: Revisión y fijación de vocabulario. Destrezas: Comprensión y expresión escritas. Nivel: Elemental. Agrupación: Individual o en parejas. Organización: el profesor reparte una fotocopia a cada alumno o pareja donde aparece un dibujo. En un tiempo dado (tres minutos) los alumnos tienen que escribir los nombres de los dibujos que están numerados. Por ejemplo: Number 1: A hen. Number 2: A knife. Number 3: A fork. Así hasta que terminen. Luego tendrán que agruparlos por categorías, de tres en tres. Por ejemplo: The dog, the cat, the hen are animals. Podemos ayudar a los alumnos dándoles las siguientes frases: - ............................................................... are things to eat. - .............................................................. are used to travel. - .............................................................. are clothes. La pareja que termine antes y cuyas respuestas sean correctas, gana.
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2.2. - Juegos de estructuras gramaticales. Estos juegos pueden ser orales o escritos y ayudan a fijar unas estructuras gramaticales específicas, ya conocidas por el alumno. Hay que tener la habilidad de presentárselos como una actividad recreativa, sin hacer alusión a la estructura. Si el alumno se equivoca, debemos animarle a que encuentre la alternativa correcta, sin corregirle formalmente, pues ya hemos indicado que lo más importante del juego es la comunicación. 2.2.1.- Juego de trotamundos. Objetivo: Práctica del presente. Destrezas: Comprensión y expresión orales. Nivel: Elemental e intermedio. Material: Tarjetas postales, recortes de revistas, banderas y un cronómetro. Agrupación: Grupos de cuatro o cinco alumnos. Organización: Se divide la clase en grupos de cuatro o cinco alumnos. Un representante de cada grupo recibe un documento visual (tarjeta, foto, recorte,...) de un país, de una ciudad o de un lugar conocido por la mayoría, donde se supone se está realizando un viaje. Utilizando el presente, tiene que explicar a sus compañeros de equipo dónde está, pero no puede emplear nombres propios. Los compañeros tienen que adivinar el lugar en que se encuentra: - I am in a beautiful town. - It is the capital city of the country. - I am visiting a big palace where a famous queen lives. Se cronometra el tiempo, y el equipo que haya tardado menos en adivinar, gana.
Alternativa: Este mismo juego se puede utilizar para la práctica del futuro si en la tarjeta o la foto que se entrega aparecen las características del país de donde procede, y se pide a los 478
alumnos que imaginen que ése es el lugar al que irán de vacaciones ese verano y lo que harán allí. 2.2.2. - Adivina mi oficio. Objetivo: Práctica de las estructuras interrogativas básicas. Destrezas: Comprensión y expresión orales. Nivel: Elemental e intermedio. Material: Cartas con dibujos que representen una profesión, ocupación u oficio, y el nombre escrito debajo. En su defecto, trozos de papel con el nombre de una profesión. Agrupación: Grupos de cuatro o cinco alumnos. Organización: Se divide la clase en grupos (cuatro o cinco alumnos) que trabajarán independientemente. Se entrega una carta de una profesión a un alumno de cada grupo, que se dirigirá a sus compañeros diciendo: "Guess my job". Los miembros del equipo le harán un máximo de diez preguntas hasta adivinar qué hace. Si agotan las preguntas, el que presenta la profesión gana, y el profesor entrega otra carta a otro miembro del grupo. El alumno responde siempre exclusivamente "Yes" o "No". Alternativas: Se pide un voluntario y se le ordena salir de la clase. Los demás se ponen de acuerdo para elegir el nombre de un personaje histórico o actual, de un animal, de una planta, de un objeto... Entra el voluntario y se le coloca en la espalda un papel con el nombre elegido. Tendrá que hacer a sus compañeros un máximo de diez preguntas con el fin de adivinar su identidad. Cuando lo consigue o ha agotado el número de preguntas, cede el puesto a otro compañero. Gana el que lo haya adivinado con menos preguntas.
2.2.3. - Juego del mimo. Objetivos: Práctica del presente continuo. Destrezas: Comprensión y expresión orales. Nivel: Elemental e intermedio. 479
Material: Ninguno. Agrupación: Tres grandes grupos. Organización: Se divide la clase en tres grupos: A, B y C. El profesor propone al equipo A que prepare cómo representar mediante mímica una acción: comer un huevo, vender leche, .... A una señal del profesor, todo el equipo A representa con mímica la acción, y los equipos B y C hacen preguntas a las que el equipo A sólo puede contestar "Yes/No". Si al cabo de cinco preguntas la acción no ha sido adivinada, el equipo A gana un punto. En caso contrario, no gana nada. Coge el turno el equipo que ha acertado, o en su defecto el B, y así sucesivamente. Gana el equipo que tenga más puntos al final del juego. 2.2.4. - Juego de las asociaciones. Objetivos: Práctica de "some, any, an, a" con nombres contables e incontables. Destrezas: Comprensión y expresión orales. Nivel: Elemental e intermedio. Material: Cartas o recortes de revistas con dibujos de alimentos, objetos personales, ropas, etc. En su defecto, trozos de papel con el nombre de estas cosas. Agrupación: Gran grupo. Organización: Formar un círculo con todos los alumnos y colocar un pupitre en el centro. Si el grupo es muy numeroso, puede jugarse en dos turnos. Distribuir dos cartas (o dos trozos de papel con los nombres) a cada alumno. Mostrando una a los demás, el primer alumno dice: "I have got some flour, and you?". El alumno que tenga un nombre o dibujo que pueda ser asociado con "harina" saldrá corriendo del círculo y dirá, por ejemplo: "I haven't got any flour, but I have got some bread". Y coloca la carta al lado de "harina". Luego añade (dejando la carta en el pupitre): "And I have got some cigarrettes too", parque otro alumno venga y diga: "I haven't got any cigarrettes, but I have got a lighter, and some milk, too". Y así sucesivamente. Los alumnos deberán reaccionar muy deprisa, porque puede haber varias asociaciones. El jugador que se quede con las cartas en la mano, pierde. 2.2.5. - Juego de las adivinanzas. Objetivos: Práctica del presente simple, de la interrogación y de los adjetivos. 480
Destrezas: Comprensión y expresión orales. Nivel: Intermedio. Material: Cartas con dibujos, o papel con el nombre de objetos fáciles de describir. Agrupación: Dos grandes grupos. Organización: Se divide la clase en dos equipos, y el profesor designa el mismo número de cartas para cada uno. El tiempo de participación de cada equipo es de dos minutos. Un alumno del equipo A sale a "escena". El profesor le da una carta del montón que le corresponde y el alumno tiene que describir el objeto para que sus compañeros lo adivinen. Tiene que haber una pausa entre frase y frase para que los compañeros tengan tiempo de pensarlo. Si un grupo se "atasca" en un objeto, puede dejarlo y pasar a otro. Entonces el que describe entrega la carta al profesor y otro compañero sale a intentar describir un objeto nuevo. Gana el equipo que en los dos minutos haya conseguido adivinar más objetos.
2.2.6. - La ruta de Ana. Objetivos: Práctica de las instrucciones y la descripción de lugares. Destreza: Comprensión oral. Nivel: Intermedio y avanzado. Material: Un dibujo o plano. Agrupación: Individual o en parejas. Organización: El profesor entrega un dibujo a cada alumno o pareja, representando un plano con una ruta que va a coger Ana. Luego lee un texto y explica el vocabulario desconocido, hasta estar seguro de que los alumnos lo han entendido. Los alumnos han de marcar en el dibujo el camino seguido por Ana y hacer una cruz en los sitios donde se detiene. 481
Alternativa (sin dibujo): Para complicar el juego, en niveles avanzados, el profesor lee un texto descriptivo de un lugar, y los alumnos tienen que imaginarlo y dibujarlo. Luego se comparan los dibujos y se discuten las diferencias hasta conseguir e que parezca más correcto a todos. 2.3. - Juegos de creatividad. Son más abiertos que los del apartado anterior. Los llamamos así porque el alumno puede crear un lenguaje más imaginativo, más amplio. Son eminentemente comunicativos, por lo que el profesor deberá vigilar un uso "adecuado" de la lengua sin insistir demasiado en la perfección de la forma.
2.3.1. - La historia tonta. Objetivo: Práctica del pasado. Destrezas: Comprensión y expresión escritas. Nivel: Elemental, intermedio y avanzado. Material: Hojas de papel. Agrupación: Grupos de ocho alumnos. Organización: El profesor explica que la finalidad del juego es encontrar las consecuencias de una serie de acciones. Se divide la clase en grupos de ocho alumnos. Cada grupo empieza a escribir una historia respondiendo a las siguientes preguntas: - Who? : el nombre de un hombre o de una mujer célebres. - Where?: se desarrolla la acción. - When? : fecha, época, estación del año. - What are they wearing? 482
- What did they do? - What did X say? - What did Z say? - What happened later? El primer alumno de cada grupo escribe el nombre de un hombre famoso o célebre y dobla la hoja para que sus compañeros no lo lean; el segundo alumno escribe el nombre de una mujer célebre y dobla la hoja; el tercero escribe dónde se desarrolla la acción y dobla también la hoja. Así hasta que hayan terminado todas las preguntas. Siempre que la contestación lo permita, se harán frases completas. Luego un alumno de cada grupo lee en voz alta la historia completa. Gana la historia más divertida y que tenga menos fallos gramaticales. 2.3.2. - Un poco de memoria. Objetivos: Construcción de una frase muy larga y memorización. Destrezas: Comprensión y expresión orales. Nivel: Intermedio y avanzado. Material. Ninguno. Agrupación: Dos grandes grupos. Organización: El profesor explica que se trata de hacer correctamente una frase muy larga, escucharla dos veces y repetirla. Se divide la clase en dos equipos. Cada uno se encarga de hacer un par de frases largas, supervisadas por el profesor. Un alumno de un equipo lee una de las frases para que la repitan alumnos del otro equipo. La lectura debe ser correcta y pausada. Si alguno duda o se equivoca, hace perder un punto a su equipo. Gana el equipo que tenga menos puntos negativos. 2.3.3. - ¿Quién debe sobrevivir? Objetivo: Práctica de las oraciones condicionales. Destrezas: Comprensión y expresión orales. Nivel: Intermedio y avanzado. Material: Ninguno. Agrupación: Grupos de ocho alumnos. 483
Organización: Los alumnos se dividen en grupos de ocho. El profesor explica la dramática situación: "Eight people travel in a globe which is relieving air very quickly. The pilot says that at least one of them must jump out to make the globe lighter, or otherwise the globe will crash and everybody will die". Los ocho personajes, que son los mejores en sus profesiones, tienen que justificar su derecho a la vida. Pueden elegirse varias profesiones: médico, arquitecto, abogado, poeta, enfermero, policía, político, profesor,... Los alumnos tendrán que utilizar las condicionales: If I die, "there won't be buildings any longer". 3. - EL JUEGO COMO TÉCNICA LÚDICO-CREATIVA DE ACCESO A LA COMPETENCIA COMUNICATIVA DE LA LENGUA. El cuarto tipo de juegos son aquellos conocidos como juegos de comunicación. En ellos, el énfasis no se pone en la corrección absoluta del lenguaje utilizado por el alumno, sino en el mensaje general que el alumno emite, en la eficacia comunicativa del lenguaje. Ello no significa que esta clase de juegos no mejore la corrección y la competencia lingüística, pues un lenguaje que esté plagado de errores no podrá servir de medio de comunicación efectivo y además la gama lingüística que se usa en este tipo de juegos es limitada y los alumnos repiten las mismas estructuras muchas veces. 3.1. - Dibuja la frase. Objetivo: Práctica de formas interrogativas. Destrezas: Expresión y comprensión orales. Nivel: Elemental, intermedio y avanzado. Material: El encerado y papeles en los que vaya escrito el título de un libro, o de una película, o de un programa de TV o expresiones en la lengua extranjera, refranes, etc. Agrupación: Dos grandes grupos. Organización: Se divide la clase en dos grupos. En sesiones anteriores se habrá estudiado el vocabulario no conocido, relativo a los títulos o expresiones en inglés. Para iniciar el juego se barajan los papeles y el profesor entrega uno, sin que lo vean los demás, a un alumno del grupo A, que deberá salir al encerado. Este alumno tiene que representar a través de los dibujos en el encerado, o por medio de mímica, la frase o título para que sus 484
compañeros adivinen de qué se trata.
Los compañeros hacen preguntas a las que se
contesta "Yes/No". El tiempo para cada frase es de un minuto. Si lo adivinan, ganan un punto. A continuación participa el equipo B. El juego se repite varias veces, y gana el equipo que tenga más puntos. 3.2. - Parejas de dibujos. Objetivo: Práctica de la descripción. Destrezas. Comprensión y expresión orales. Nivel: Elemental, intermedio y avanzado (dependiendo del dibujo). Material: Parejas de dibujos, fotos, etc., con alguna diferencia. Agrupación: Parejas. Organización: Se juega en parejas. Cada una recibe un par de dibujos similares, pero con alguna diferencia. Cada alumno esconde su dibujo para que no lo vea su compañero. Luego lo describen y se hacen preguntas para tratar de averiguar las diferencias. 3.3. - Historia desordenada. Objetivo: Práctica de la narración. Destrezas: Comprensión y expresión orales. Nivel: Elemental, intermedio y avanzado. Material: Fotocopia de una historia contada en viñetas y otra igual recortada en trozos. Agrupación: Parejas. Organización: Los alumnos se sientan en parejas. El alumno A recibe la fotocopia entera y el alumno B la versión recortada en trozos y en desorden. El alumno B tiene que rehacer la historia, colocando los trozos en orden, a partir de las explicaciones del alumno A. 3.4. - Dar direcciones. Objetivo: Práctica de las direcciones. Destrezas: Comprensión y expresión orales. Nivel: Elemental, intermedio y avanzado. 485
Material: Una fotocopia de un plano completo y otra con el esquema de las calles sin ningún nombre o dato. Agrupación: Parejas. Organización: Se distribuye toda la clase por parejas. El alumno A recibe la fotocopia con toda la información. El alumno B recibe el plano sin nombres. Es nuevo en la ciudad, acaba de llegar a la estación y tiene que ir: primero a, por ejemplo "the post office", después a "the town hall", luego a "the Hotel Ritz", y finalmente a "the Opera theatre". El alumno A tiene que dar las explicaciones suficientes para que el alumno B localice en su plano los lugares a los cuales debe dirigirse, el nombre de las calles, etc. Este juego permite que los dos alumnos intervengan activamente en la conversación, pues deben preguntar, responder y clarificar instrucciones.
UNIT 19: DRAMA TECHNIQUES AS MEANS FOR THE LEARNING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES. THE DRAMATIZATION OF DAILY LIFE SITUATIONS AND THE REPRESENTATION OF TALES, JOKES. ETC. WORK GROUP FOR CREATIVE ACTIVITIES. THE ROLE OF THE TEACHER. 1.
INTRODUCTION
The characteristics of the language used in an act of communication in real life are different from the language produced in the English class. The limited field of real experiences in the use of the language that is offered by the small context of the classroom obstructs to imprint on the language there produced the characteristics related to the natural and spontaneous use in real life. All those activities developed by the teacher in order to reproduce aspects that characterise the real use of the language should be always positively valued. As regards this, one of the activities that helps best the student in the practice of these characteristics peculiar to the communicative language is dramatisation. In the foreign language class, dramatisation has got the objective of getting the student to develop a creative production of the language. We want that the language in the class would reproduce as accurately as is possible, the naturally and spontaneity that characterise any normal act of communication.
2. 2.1
DRAMA TECHNIQUES AS MEANS FOR THE LEARNING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES. Techniques of awakening and expression.
The dramatisation as a technique of awakening and expression can be carry out through any activity in that artificial or imaginary situations are created to encourage the student to act representing his/her own role or the one representing another person. The interaction established among the participants provokes
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a number of reactions not only of linguistic nature, but also emotional, close to the ones typical in an act of communication in real life. Dramatisation in the sense dealt here is not far from the certain games of imitation so characteristic in childhood. In both cases we deal with activities that consist on assuming or simulating certain roles in imaginary situations. On the other hand, also the players, as they pursue the enjoyment and the individual entertainment unconsciously. Also propose to experiment the communicative efficacy of the language. Besides, these two activities are not radically different from the drama as genre or literary art. In the three cases we deal with the expression of an inherent desire, to imitate behaviours that attract our attention by means of artificial reproduction or events in human life that have developed in those.
2.2
From the game to dramatisation.
What is the difference between games and dramatisation? Firstly, the practice of language games is usually characterised by the desire of competition and overcoming the other players in the achievement of the objectives proposed for each game. This desire to compete nevertheless, is not an essential characteristic of dramatisation, where what it really matters is “to participate”. Secondly, the language used in this kind of games is normally very organised and controlled by the teacher. In dramatisation, on the contrary, the freedom of the student to choose the language to be used in each moment is nearly complete. Finally, we should say that the role performed by the students in the games is not always the living image of the behaviour of any individual in the different real life situations. In the dramatic activity, however, the players, although they have to deal with imaginary or artificial situations, represent roles that correspond to the ones from the real life. What is pursuing demonstrated is, precisely, the interpretative ability of the individual. It is easy to turn a game of language into dramatisation. The only thing needed for this is to give the student a grater linguistic independence during the developing of the game itself, inviting him/her to exchange points of view with his/her classmates freely, so that he/she can gather the specific information to achieve the objectives of the game. This makes possible to stabilise an interaction between two or more students, in which each one as well as using the language he/she thinks most appropriated he/she also takes similar roles to those in human and social relationship. In this way, the students perform with the language many different functions such as identifying, asking, enquiring, agreeing, disagreeing etc., by means of that the game becomes an authentic communication act. 2.3 Drama techniques used in teaching a foreign language. The communicative practice of a language will only be complete if we succeed in dealing with all the aspects, linguistic and non-linguistic, that defines the real use of the target language. It is drama itself that set up as one of the most effective activities to introduce the student to the communicative practice of a language. 2.3.1 Warming up activities At the beginning of a foreign language lesson not all the students are motivated to the same extent, neither are they in the same mood. That is why it is necessary to create an atmosphere of Cupertino previously and estimulate in each the desire of working together. There is a series of exercises whose main objective is to prepare the students psychologically, creating in them a favourable disposition to participate in the following language activities. ♦ The imaginary ball: In pairs. The students are asked to pretend to be throwing an imaginary ball at each other. It would be interesting that the teacher first tell the students what kind of ball they are going to throw: a tennis ball, a balloon, a football...
♦
Physical representation of words: Groups of five or six students. The task of each group consists on finding a word whose number of letters corresponds with the number of members forming the group. Once the word has been chosen, each of the members from the different groups make, either with the hands or with the fingers, one of the letters from the established word, the rest of the groups will try to guess the word.
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♦ ♦
The talking blackboard: In pairs. A student is back to back with the other, and this draws with his/her finger the letters of any word. The student who represents the blackboard has to guess the word. Introducing oneself and being introduced to others: Circles of six or seven pupils. A student starts saying his/her name and an imaginary occupation. The student who is on his/her right repeats this information and, then, says his/her own name and the imaginary occupation, and so on until all the members of the group have taken part in the game. This practice is very useful when exercising the capacity of remembering.
3. 3.1
THE DRAMATIZATION OF DAILY LIFE SITUATIONS AND THE REPRESENTATION OF TALES, JOKES. ETC. Watching exercises.
With this we pretend to exploit the observation capacity of the student as a means to achieve the communicative use of the language. 3.1.1
Exploring the classroom
The teacher invites the students to pay attention, during a couple of minutes, to the things in the classroom. Once the time is up, the teacher asks the pupils to close the eyes and listen, without answering, to a series of questions about the wall, the door, the blackboard... Made the questions, the teacher asks the students to open the eyes and comment with the rest of the pupils the things that are able to remember. The most important thing about this exercise is the interest the student has to discover his/her nearest environment and this is transformed into a real production of language that is not always easy to reach in the classroom and it is also important to get the students used to observe the details. 3.1.2
Discovering objects hidden on the hand
Standing up and with the hands behind their backs, the students make circles of four or five. The teacher, covertly, places a small object on the hands of one pupil from each group, trying not to disclose it, not even to the student who receives it. This, using the sense of touch, can easily know the name of the object. The activity of the rest of the members from the team involves guessing, by questioning him/her, which the object is. The only clues given are the questions made by the different members of the group. This activity requires a great effort of concentration, in which intelligence and memory play an important role. 3.1.3
The invisible fruit
Groups of four or five students. Each group thinks about a fruit and decides which gestures are suitable to imitate the action of eating the fruit. At a signal given by the teacher, the groups disperse and each pupil goes to a classmate from another group and interchanges the gestures agreed in their respective groups and makes some comments about their performances. What it is sought with this activity is the opportunity to exercise certain functions of language such as praising or criticism other’s people performance. 3.2
Exercises of creation and interpretation.
These exercises are created to bring in operation the fantasy of the student as a means to carry him/her from the situation or immediate reality of the classroom to imaginary situations in the non-academic world. Besides stimulating the creative and interpretative capacity of the students, we intend the pupils to achieve a suitable production in accordance with new situations created by their imagination. 3.2.1
Unexpected use of the objects from the classroom.
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In pairs. Each pair must find for certain object from the classroom a different use from the one it usually has. (A chair may be used as an umbrella). After this, each pair must reach an agreement about the way of imitating the action that may be performed with that object. After a brief break, each pair shows the stabilised action before the other pairs or the whole class. From this activity is easy to achieve a creative and spontaneous use of the language: “I think it is an umbrella”. 3.2.2
Commentaries about a photograph.
In order to carry out this activity, it is essential to have a set of photographs of different characters. The pupils are distributed into groups of three or four. Each group is given a photograph of a different character, along with a sheet containing the following questions: How old is this person? What does s/he do?, Do you like this person?, What is s/he doing now? ... With the photograph in front of them, the members of each group answer the different questions and try to agree in the most interesting interpretations. It is advisable that somebody from the group takes notes of the conclusions. Once the task is finished, the groups interchange the photographs and make comments about the new character. What is expected with this activity is exploiting linguistically the first impression that instinctively has any human being when pays attention to somebody.
3.2.3
Representation of a joke.
In pairs. Each pair decides to represent a joke in front of the rest of the English class. In this way we foster the creative use of the language by all the students because they use it in a personal manner so as to represent a comical situation in front of the other pupils. By turns, all the pairs represent the jokes or funny situations previously chosen. The teacher undertakes the responsibility for the jokes not being repeated. This activity may be carried out with the characters of a tale known by all the students, although this kind of representation may require a previous rehearsal. 3.2.4
My favourite object.
The teacher asks the students to bring into the classroom any object from their house that feel particularly keen on. At the same time, s/he will also indicate the necessity of wrapping the object so the rest of the pupils cannot see it until the activity starts. The teacher asks the students to distribute themselves into groups of four. Then, they are informed they have a few minutes to, before opening their respective parcels in front of the classmates, guess the content. Once the objects are exposed, each student explains to his/her group some details about the object (who gave it to him/her, when, etc.). Meantime, the rest of the pupils can ask about any detail about the object. They are very interested in the objects they bring into the classroom, so all the activities about them will be accomplished with equal interest.
4.
WORK GROUP TEACHER.
FOR
CREATIVE
ACTIVITIES.
THE
ROLE
OF
THE
Advantages of working in groups: ♦ The students who work in-groups apparently experience less “fear” in class. As a result, they would rarely confine into themselves and maintain a more receptive attitude towards study. Besides, the cooperation in-group activities produces a sense of success that the student does not normally experience when working alone. ♦
The students get used to learning applying the knowledge instead of memorising it. The skills acquired in this way become easily part of the permanent linguistic competence.
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♦
The students learn sharing and joining their efforts, checking their work reciprocally and helping one another in natural, dynamic and communicative situations.
♦
The fact of joining their efforts, perceptions and knowledge helps the student to make up for the individual deficiencies.
♦
Working in-groups multiplies the opportunities for oral communication in the classroom.
4.1
Advantages for the teacher.
When the teacher has succeed in having each group of students working as a team, s/he also achieves they pay more attention to the task undertaken. It is necessary to emphasise that the responsibility of the teacher for dividing the class into groups changes, and, at the same time the traditional relation teacher/student is transformed into a responsibility shared with the students and developed in different modalities. Keeping a lively rate in the activities usually helps to diminish the discipline problems, as it is unlikely that students get bored. Besides, the mischievous student cannot disrupt the class so often if everybody is busy. The traditional opposition teacher/student is reduced when the students, instead of establishing an exclusive relation with the teacher, relate to their classmates. 4.2 Criteria for the classification of activities. Several criteria are useful when classifying group activities: ♦ The degree of the students`s familiarity with the task. The tasks accomplished in previous lessons are carried out without difficulties due to the knowledge of their structure. ♦ The complexity of the task. Generally the more steps it has, the more capacity to follow the instructions and co-ordinating the interaction is requested from the students. ♦ The degree of creativity required. The tasks based mainly in the manipulation of linguistic elements are apparently easier than the ones that require the use of the language in a creative way. Analysing an activity taking in consideration these three criteria helps to foresee the reaction of the group. Provided that each activity normally requires more than a skill, the classification by skills (oral, written, comprehension,etc.) indicates its main approach. The activities must be selected depending on the objectives of the class, the level of knowledge in the target language, the students and their interest. It is obvious the flexibility offered by working in-groups and the utility within the language class. 4.3
The role of the teacher.
Perhaps, the role of the teacher is deciding when work group can improve the learning of a language by means of creative activities. While the work group takes place, the teacher performs several roles: ♦
Organiser: decides the size of the group and the way to select its members. Defines the activity and its result.
♦
Manager: observes the dynamic of the group and suggests improvements. Co-ordinates the different groups to avoid unnecessary repetitions. Checks that the tasks are carried out according to the given specifications.
♦
Resource: gives information or materials when asked. Proposes several and variable alternatives.
♦
Assessor: gives explanations depending on the necessities of each group. Clarifies grammatical difficulties, organises sessions to practice pronunciation. Provides positive feedback about the development of the activity.
♦
Evaluator: evaluates the work or performance of the group; propose criteria so the groups can evaluate themselves.
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♦
Problem detector: observes the difficulties appeared in the performance of the group, clarifies the problems and suggests solutions. While the group is working, the teacher can perceive a wide variety of problems.
During any session of group work, the teacher will have to move from a role to other, applying the techniques required in each situation, and will adopt the role of pronunciation connector in a group, source of resources or manager in others. In each case the teacher individualises his/her help depending on the group, offering his/her presence in a diplomatic manner, and not imposing it to the group. Thanks to these roles, the teacher is able to monitor the progression of the students, to follow closely the difficulties they encounter, the personal relations and the dynamic of the group which help him to select successfully the activities in the future.
THEME 20. THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE AREA IN THE CURRICULUM. CRITERIA TO BE REFLECTED IN THE EDUCATIONAL PROJECT AND THE CURRICULAR PROJECT. 1. INTRODUCTION: The Organic Act 1/1990 of General Organisation of the Educational System introduced some important changes, aimed at improving the quality of education in Spain. Among these changes we can mention: - The extension of compulsory education to the age of 16 years old - The establishment of new educational stages such as: Infant Education, Primary Education, and Compulsory Secondary Education. - These stages are organised in cycles, which is the period that should be considered for teaching programs and promotion. - The establishment of a curriculum which, in spite of having certain aspects which are compulsory for all the country, is also open and flexible, as the different autonomous educational services could adapt it to their real context. Then, each school should adapt the official curriculum to their real environment by means of the design and development of the Curricular Project. - Besides, the Centres have the right to define their educational options, their objectives and their organisational structure that will make possible the attainment of such objectives. These aspects must be included in a document called the Educational Project. Then, taking into account these basic aspects of the educational reform, we are going to deal with: - The Foreign Language area, as it is reflected in the official curriculum. -
The criteria to be reflected in the Educational Project and the Curricular Project, in relation to this area.
2. THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE AREA IN THE OFFICIAL CURRICULUM:
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The teaching of a foreign language is included among the areas of Primary education, as we can see in the articles number 14 of the Organic Act 1/1990, and also in the article number 5 of the Royal Decree 1344/91, which established the national curriculum for Primary Education. According to these legal documents, the teaching of that foreign language starts in the second cycle. However, in most autonomous regions of Spain, the teaching of a foreign language has been brought forward to the first cycle.
In Extremadura, this introduction came into force from the beginning of the last academic year, according to an Order of the 30th of August, 2000. The importance given to the learning of a foreign language in current society has to do with certain social, educational and psychological demands, which Brewster, Ellis and Girard, in their book “The Primary English teacher’s guide’ summarised as follows:
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Social demands: derive from the need of communicating with people from other countries in a world, which is becoming a ‘global village’. The success in business and international relations is closely linked to the learning of foreign languages, especially in the context of the European Union, where goods and people can move freely through the member states. Besides, the ability of communicating in a foreign language (especially in English) is quite useful to travel abroad, and for the transmission of news and knowledge.
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The Educational demands have to do with the development of cognitive and social abilities by means of the learning of a new language and its culture. This knowledge help children to overcome their natural egocentrism, as they realise that there are other ways of living and seeing reality different from their own. At the same time, this contact will help them to develop tolerance and respect as well as a better understanding and appreciation of their own language and culture.
-
Finally, the psychological demands refer to the need of introducing them to the learning of a foreign language, as young as possible, because they are less distanced from the age in which they learn their first language than teenagers or adults, and they are still good at understanding and imitating what they hear. Besides, they realise that the same functions and notions they have just learn in their native language, can be expressed, equally well, using a different language.
Once we have seen the importance of teaching a foreign language in Primary education, we are going to see how the foreign language area is reflected in the official curriculum through the analysis of its different elements. We are going to start with the analysis of the methodological principles: 1.
First of all, we should consider that the foreign language area curricular purpose is not to teach a foreign language but rather to teach how to communicate using it. Therefore Royal
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Decree 1006/1991 of the 14th June, which establishes the teaching requirements for Primary education, sees communicative competence as comprising five sub-competencies: Grammar competence: the ability to implement rules and lexical items from the language system. Discourse competence: which refers to the ability to produce different types of discourse organising them according to the communicative situation and the interlocutors. Sociolinguistic competence: refers to the ability to adapt statements to different contexts observing the usage of a given linguistic community. Strategic competence: implies being able to use verbal and non-verbal strategies to compensate for breakdowns in communication. Sociocultural competence: refers to the student’s knowledge of the cultural aspects of the countries where the foreign language is spoken. All these elements are part of the language, as language is not something abstract, but a tool for effective communication. 2. Communicative competence acquisition is seen as a creative construction process. Our pupils using their general cognitive strategies and linguistic input they receive establish hypothesis to form the new rules about the foreign language system. 3. This new system is gradually contrasted and improved as new input is presented. Therefore error is seen as an integral part of the learning process, as it is the manifestation of the effort our pupils are making to acquire the new system. 4. This acquisition process may be fostered, especially at first, in ways that do not require a linguistic response by using Total Physical Response techniques. 5. Receptive skills (listening and reading) are very important at this stage, specially listening, since oral communication is the most direct form of communication among human beings. 6. We will try to familiarise the children not only with the target language from a functional point of view, but also as a means of cultural and social transmission. 7. We should organise contents around topics connected to the students’ interest. 8. The four linguistic skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) should be integrated through meaningful communicative activities. Then, the General objectives of the foreign language area are designed according to the principles we have just mentioned. As we will see, these objectives refer to the development of the four linguistic skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), and also to the use of linguistic and extralinguistic strategies and the knowledge of sociocultural aspects, in order to get communicative competence in the foreign language.
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There are nine general objectives, expressed in form of interrelated abilities: 1. To understand simple and oral written texts about known objects, situations and events, using general and specific information taken from those texts for specific purposes. 2. To use the foreign language orally to communicate with the teacher and students in common class activities and in communicative situations created for this purpose, observing the basic rules of interpersonal communication, and adopting a respectful attitude towards the contribution of others. 3. To produce short simple texts about topics that the students are familiar with observing the basic writing rules. 4. To read and understand short simple texts related to class activities, to their knowledge of the world and to their experiences and interests, with the purpose of obtaining general and specific information as desired. 5. To recognise and appreciate the communicative value of foreign languages and their ability to learn them, showing understanding and respectful attitude towards other languages, their speakers and their culture. 6. To understand and use the linguistic and non-linguistic conventions used by the foreign language speakers in common situations (greetings, farewells, introductions, congratulations...) in order to make communication easier. 7. To use in foreign language learning, previous knowledge and experience with other languages, developing autonomous learning strategies. 8. To establish relationships between meaning, pronunciation and graphic representation of simple words and sentences in the foreign language, as well as recognising the characteristic aspects of sound, rhythm and intonation in that foreign language. 9. To use non-linguistic expressive resources (gestures, body language, sounds, pictures) to understand and be understood when using a foreign language. In order to develop the abilities expressed in these objectives, we should work on CONTENTS that in our curriculum are classified into: -
Concepts Procedures Attitudes
Conceptual contents refer to facts, events, rules and principles. Procedural contents refer to the strategies, abilities, techniques and skills necessary in the learning process. Attitudinal contents are concerned with behaviour and values.
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These three kinds of contents are set in blocks: -
Oral communication uses and forms. Written communication uses and forms. Sociocultural aspects.
The CONTENTS OF THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE AREA are also designed around communicative needs and situations. We have summarised the three blocks of contents, which appear in the RD 1344/91 of the 6th of September, as follows: A.
ORAL COMMUNICATION USES AND FORMS:
a.1)
Concepts: −
Basic communicative needs and situations in the spoken form: greeting, identifying oneself, giving and asking for information expressing needs and requests...
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Characteristics of communicative situations: •Number and type of interlocutors. •Moment and place. •Formal or informal communication.
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Vocabulary and structures needed to express basic communicative needs in the spoken form.
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Topics related to the interests of the students and wide notions: •Colours, numbers, time, daily life, food, animals, time, sports…
a.2)
Procedures.: −
Recognising sounds, rhythm and intonation patterns of the foreign language.
−
General comprehension of spoken messages (face to face or recorded) about familiar topics.
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Specific comprehension of spoken messages (face to face or recorded) in contextualised situations.
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Producing oral messages to satisfy common communicative needs.
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Participating in linguistic exchanges for specific play purposes (simulations, role-play).
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Recognising and using basic common strategies (linguistic and non-linguistic) to overcome communicative difficulties.
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Recognising grammatical forms to ask questions, state, deny, express possession, gender and number, quantify, express facts in present, past, future… and using them effectively for communication.
a.3)
B.
Attitudes: −
Awareness of the importance of oral communication in a foreign languages
−
Willingness to speak a foreign language by participating in group activities (games, group work, role, play…).
WRITTEN COMMUNICATION USES AND FORMS:
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b.1)
Concepts: −
Basic communicative needs and situations in the written form.
−
Characteristics of communicative situations.
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Topics of general use and wide notions…
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The names of the letters in the foreign language and their correspondence with their written form.
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Relationship between meaning, of the vocabulary studied its pronunciation and its graphic representation.
b.2)
Procedures: −
General comprehension of written messages related to class activities, and common communicative needs.
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Specific comprehension of simple authentic material.
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Recognising in written texts grammatical structures used to request, state, deny, express possession, gender and number, state, deny…, using them effectively for communication.
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Producing short simple written texts in response to oral or written stimulus aimed at different readers.
b.3)
Attitudes: −
Appreciating the importance of knowing how to read and write in the foreign language.
C. SOCIOCULTURAL ASPECTS:
c.1)
Concepts: −
Social and cultural aspects of the countries where the foreign language is spoken which may be interesting for our pupils such as: •Expression and gestures that go with speaking, such as: polite gestures, tone of voice, symbols… •Aspects of every-day life: schedules, habits of children of this age, food. •Games, popular songs, favourite meeting places and sports in the countries whose language is studied… •
Presence in Spain of the foreign language studied by means of: products, labels, songs, films, TV programs...
c.2)
Procedures: −
Using rules of behaviour and habits of the foreign language speakers in context.
−
Comparing the most relevant aspects of everyday life in those countries with the corresponding aspects of the students’ native country.
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Using authentic materials from different sources close to the learners’ in order to obtain specific information.
c.3)
Attitudes: −
Curiosity and respect for the most relevant aspects of everyday life in theses countries.
−
Appreciation of the sociolinguistic behaviour as a means to improve communication.
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Interest in getting to know people from other countries.
After the contents which should be taken into account to develop the abilities expressed in the general objectives, the Royal Decree 1344/1991, presents nine ASSESSMENT CRITERIA, which should be understood as a tool to check if students have got the abilities expressed in the General Objectives. These assessment criteria refer to abilities, but also make a little reference to contents as well as a brief explanation. According to the R.D. 1344/91, the attainment of the general objectives of the foreign language area, will be assessed in relation to the following criteria: 1.- To recognise and reproduce characteristic phonemes of the foreign language as well as rhythm and intonation patterns in words and sentences used in real language situations. This criterion tries to check if students are familiar with the sounds, rhythm and intonation of the foreign language in listening and speaking. The texts they should listen to or produce must make sense and be in context.
2.- .-To grasp the overall meaning of oral texts emitted in face to face communicative situations supported by gestures, and miming and any necessary repetitions in which combinations of previously studied elements appears and which deal with topics that the learners are familiar with. This criterion considers the ability of students to understand the global meaning of oral text in the best conditions, which imply: direct communication, contextual support and topics related to their previous knowledge.
3.- To extract specific information, which has been previously studied, from oral texts with a simple structure and vocabulary, which deal with topics that, are interesting and familiar to the students.
This criterion checks the student’s ability to understand, not only the global message, but also specific details from simple oral texts, which deal with topics that are familiar to them. 4.- To participate in short oral exchanges related to common classroom activities, producing comprehensible discourse adapted to the characteristics of the situation and to the communicative aim. This criterion refers to the student’s ability to express basic communicative needs in the context of the class such as: asking something, asking for something, asking for permission to do something, asking for help, greeting... These messages should be expressed correctly enough to be understood. (for example, they should use the correct expression to ask for permission such as: “Can I go to the toilet, please?, or Can I open the window/door?, Can I borrow your pen, please?
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5.- To participate in simulated communicative situations, which have been previously studied in class using common social formulas correctly in the foreign language. This criterion checks the student’s ability to communicate orally in the most basic situations of daily life using social relation formulas, especially those which are typical of children of this age, such as: “How are you? Fine, thanks”. “Happy birthday!” .
“Many happy returns”... “Hello!”/“Hi!“
5.- To grasp the general meaning and extract specific information from short written texts,
with a linear layout, and simple structures and vocabulary, which deal with topics that are interesting and familiar to the student This criterion refers to the student’s ability to understand short written texts from the teacher or other students, such as: informal letters or instructions, public advertisements, charts and other written texts with visual support such as simple comics for children.
. 6.- To read, with the help of the teacher or a dictionary simple books for children with redundant visual support and written in foreign language, and showing the level of comprehension attained by performing specific tasks. With this criterion, we assess if the student is able to read simple books written in the foreign language, but with pictures that help them to understand. Then they have to show us what they have understood by means of verbal on non verbal task, which could be done even in the student’s native language, as we want to check comprehension, not expression.
7.- To produce short comprehensible written texts that are adapted to the characteristics of the situation and to the communicative aim and reflect to the subject matter studied in class. This criterion means that students should be able to write short simple messages, related to their interests and needs, such as: the list of things they need for an excursion, a short letter giving basic personal information about themselves, or an invitation to a birthday party.
8.- To recognise some sociocultural features of the communities of foreign language speakers that are contained in the language samples studied in class. Finally, this criterion is designed to check if students are able to recognise some sociocultural elements of the countries where the foreign language is spoken, especially those related to the daily life of children such as: schedules, habits, subjects at school, games, greetings, favourite meeting places, popular songs, festivals, food...
3.-CRITERIA TO BE REFLECTED IN THE EDUCATIONAL AND IN THE CURRICULAR PROJECT:
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Once we have analysed the elements of the official curriculum, which corresponds to the first level of concretion, we must deal with the documents that each center should design in order to: -
Define their educational options and structure through the Educational Project.
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Adapt the different curricular elements to their context by means of the Curricular Project.
3.1.- The Educational Project: First, we will deal with the Educational Project, which is a document that must be designed and approved by the entire School Community, through their representatives in the School Board. According to the Royal Decree 82/1996 of the 26 th January, which establishes the organic regulations of the Infant and Primary Schools, the Educational Project consist of: 1.- The analysis of the sociocultural context of the center, which is the first step to establish the following elements.(identity signs and educational objectives) 2.- The identity signs refer to those educational options that agree with the educational ideas of the school community. 3.- Taking into account these identity signs, the school community should establish the educational objectives as well as reviewing the general objectives of every stage established in the official curriculum to adapt them to their context, and to the identity signs of the centre. 4.- To get these aims, the school community has to define the organisational structure they are going to adopt including: - A general guideline about the relations of collaboration among the different members of the school community, and also the relations with other institutions. -The organisational structure of the school, that should be reflected in a document about the distribution of tasks among the different organs of the school community and also the internal rules of the center.
3.1.1.- Criteria to be reflected in the Educational Project in relation to the foreign language area: Now, we are going to see how the foreign language area could be reflected in the design of the Educational Project, by means of a practical example.
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1.- Regarding the school identity signs the teaching of a foreign language could be considered by the School community as a means to promote: -
Respect for all the cultures
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Development of democratical habits. Autonomous learning.
2.- Taking into account the identity signs we have expressed, we could include the following educational objectives: -
Promote the learning of a foreign language as a tool for social development.
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Learning a foreign language as a tool for social development.
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Learning a foreign language and its culture to increase tolerance and being open-minded.
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Enlarging the psychological development of children learning a new language and its culture.
3.- After establishing the identity signs and the educational objectives, we have to take some practical decisions about the organisational aspects that will make possible the attainment of our objectives. Following with our example we can adopt the following decisions: -
Establishment of interchanges with an English speaking country
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Establishment of relations with different institutions, such as the British Council in order to obtain material.
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Contact with parents or relatives of students that have visited English-speaking countries.
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Participation in official programs related to Foreign language learning, such as the experimental teaching of English in Primary Education.
3.2.- The Curricular Project: According to the R.D. 82/1996, the Curricular Project should include the following elements: -
The general objectives of the stage adapted to the socio-cultural context of the school.
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The sequence of objectives, contents and evaluation criteria of the different areas per cycle.
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General methodological decisions that affect the following aspects: Methodological principles, groupings, space, time and materials.
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General decisions about the attention to pupils with special needs.
3.2.1. - Criteria to be reflected in the Curricular Project in relation to the foreign language area:
Now, we are going to analyse how the foreign language area could be reflected in the Curricular Project of the Stage. We are going to resort to an example, as we did when talking about the Educational Project. Once the general objectives of the stage have been adapted to the socio-cultural context of the school, the teaching staff should take decisions about the sequence of objectives, contents, and evaluation criteria of each area along the different cycles. Since the establishment of this sequence is a difficult task, the Ministry of Education published a Resolution of the 5th of March 1992, that offered some criteria to establish such sequence.
In relation to the foreign language area, this Resolution says that: 1. We must establish the sequence of objectives, contents and assessment criteria, according to the principles of the communicative approach. This means, that we should develop the four linguistic skills in an interrelated way as they are in real communication., and also connect the different skills with our student’s interests and needs. 2.- To establish the sequence of objectives for the second and third cycles, we should consider: • The psychological stage of development of children • Their previous knowledge • Their communicative needs
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•
The degree in which the abilities expressed in the general objectives are going to be developed in each cycle, For instance, starting from the objective number one of the foreign language area:
‘To understand simple and oral written texts about known objects, situations and events, using general and specific information taken from those texts for specific purposes.’
We can sequence the abilities expressed in this objective, for the second cycle of Primary education, as follows: ‘At the end of the second cycle pupils will be able to understand the general meaning of simple oral texts emitted by the teacher with a simple structure and vocabulary, in familiar contexts, and with the help of gestures, mime and any necessary repetition’
1. Regarding the SEQUENCE OF CONTENTS, the best way to promote the development of communicative abilities is organising them around procedures. If we decide to do it in this way, we should consider several criteria, to follow a logical progression in the difficulty of such procedures. These criteria are defined according to: - The type of oral or written texts - The channel - The type of comprehension - The interlocutor - The level of correction Now, we are going to explain these criteria in detail.: -
The type of oral or written texts
Here we must consider the length, vocabulary, the linguistic structures, and organisation of the oral or written texts that we are going to use in class. Obviously, we must go from short simple texts to more complex ones.
-
The channel 502
As far as channel is concerned we should consider if the oral or written messages that our students should understand or produce are going to be transmitted in a face to face communicative situation, or by means of a cassette recording or a written text. In this sense, we should start from face to face communication, because mime, gestures and expressions help pupils to understand.
-
The type of comprehension
The type of comprehension refers to the information we ask them to extract from an oral or written message. This comprehension may be global ( if they should get the general sense of the message) or specific (if they have to extract specific details). The most logical progression goes from global to specific comprehension.
-
The interlocutor
Regarding the interlocutor we should take into account if he/she is known or unknown for the student, if he/she belongs to the school context or not. At the beginning we should work with close interlocutors such as the teacher and the classmates.
The level of correction The level of correction deals with the demands about correction in the oral and written production of students. Obviously such demands increase along the cycles. At the beginning, they should produce language correctly enough to be understood.
3 .- Then, if we have decided to organise contents around procedures, we should not forget that the three types of contents (concepts, procedures and attitudes) must be considered in an interrelated way. Then we should relate them as in the following example: “Recognising the characteristic sounds, rhythm and intonation patterns of the foreign language, realising the importance of being able to communicate in a foreign language
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To see this relation more clear, the Resolution of the 5th of March suggests that we can display them in a chart, as follows EXAMPLE OF SEQUENCE OF CONTENTS FOR THE SECOND CYCLE Procedures
Concepts
-Characteristic Recognising sounds -Rhythm and intonation patterns. -Words and sentences in texts Identifying related to the context of the classroom and daily life - of messages with the following communica tive intentions: Global *Greeting comprehension (hello!,good morning...) *Identifying oneself (I am. ,My name
Attitudes
Realising the importance of oral communication in a foreign language. Showing an optimistic attitude towards their own ability to understand the foreign language
Showing a receptive attitude towards people who speak a different language.
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is...) *Giving and asking for basic personal information (using expressions such as: What ´s your name, How old are you?...) - These communicati ve functions should be related to topics of general use and wide notions, which are interesting for children, such as: *The school, family, friends, animals, body, home, numbers, colours...
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- Of information previously required in contextualis ed situations*
Specific comprehension
Showing a receptive attitude towards people who speak a foreign language.
*For instance, we ask children to fill a chart about the favourite sports of different characters from the textbook. First, we tell them what they are going to listen to a conversation where the characters talk about things they like and dislike and what information they should pay attention to. Then, we play the cassette or read the text aloud and they should complete the chart, with the specific information we have asked them for (sports, in this case)
TENNIS
BASKETBALL
FOOTBALL
STEVIE
yes
yes
no
LUCY
yes
no
yes
ANNIE
no
yes
no
As we can see this task ask them to extract specific information (about favourite sports), previously required by the teacher, in a contextualised situation,( as they already recognise the characters voices, and know what they are talking about).
If we do this with all the general objectives we will have a list of the contents of each cycle including concepts procedures and attitudes. These orientations are quite useful to establish the sequence of objectives, contents and assessment criteria, in the second and third cycle, but we must not forget that English has been introduced in the 1st cycle in our Autonomous Community. Then the Order of 30th of August published by the Department of Education, Science and Technology of our Autonomous Government says in its article number 3 that:
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“The centers must change and adapt their Curricular Project partially as the objectives, contents and evaluation criteria of the foreign language area, should be sequenced for three cycles, instead of two” Obviously, as we haven’t got our own curriculum yet, we must take as reference the objectives, contents and evaluation criteria of the R.D. 1344/91 of the 6 th of September, which establishes the national curriculum for primary Education. However, the Department of Education, Science and Technology of our Autonomous Government, has published a document, made by foreign language teachers co-ordinated by the Technical Inspection Service called “English in the first cycle of Primary Education”. This document is not a law, it has been published just to help teachers. Regarding the abilities, skills and contents which should be worked in this cycle this document says that: In the FIRST CYCLE: - The most important skill in the first cycle should be listening. - We must not force children to speak until they are ready to do it. Then at the beginning they can show what they have understood by means of non-verbal actions such as movements, gestures, drawing, cutting, pointing, colouring...
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- Total Physical Response ( TPR) activities and songs are a good way to help them link words and actions, and express themselves in English in a funny and meaningful way. - Written language should be avoided, especially in the first year of the cycle, because they are learning to read and write in their native language and the complex English spelling could be confusing for them. - Contents should be taught by means of didactic units, organised around meaningful topics as: Family, Friends, Christmas, Things of the classroom, The house, Food, Toys, Clothes... - Children must be already familiar with such topics in their native language. Then, the co-ordination with the tutorteacher is very important to establish the sequence of the different didactic units along the cycle.
SECOND CYCLE: 508
According to the Resolution of the 5th of March, which establishes some principles for the sequence of objectives, contents and evaluation criteria, during the 2nd cycle we must consider that: Listening is still the most important skill, and we must help children to: Understand the global meaning of simple oral messages and extract specific information previously required in contextualised situations. - The oral messages they have to understand should present a simple structure and vocabulary and deal with topics related to children’s interests and needs (such as school, home, family, games, sports...) As far as the development of speaking is concerned, pupils in the 2nd cycle must learn simple linguistic structures, which can be applied to a great number of communicative situations. These situations could be: *Habitual communicative situations in the classroom such as: greeting, identifying oneself, asking for permission, and asking for help. * Situations created by the teacher to promote learning, such as: Identifying and placing objects, people or places, expressing quantity, expressing likes and dislikes, giving simple instructions... In these situations teachers should promote pupils interest in oral communication by means of group activities
509
(simulations, games, and role-plays) where language is used with a communicative aim In spite of the importance given to oral language, the written code is also present in the 2nd cycle from the first day. As far as reading is concerned, we should help students to develop their reading abilities in the foreign language, working on words, short sentences, class instructions, simple descriptions and very short stories, supported by pictures. Children must start just identifying the written form of words and sentences that they already know in the oral form. Then, matching written words and sentences with pictures is the typical reading activity at the beginning of the second cycle. As far as writing is concerned, we must consider that at this age ( 8 to 10 years old) the communicative needs related to writing are still very limited, even in their native language. This implies that written texts in this cycle should consist of: •
Very short descriptions
•
Lists to perform tasks ( such as the list of things they need for a party, or a shopping list)
•
Short messages between classmates (for example short orders in games: go to the door, dance, stand on your chair, go to the left/right...)
•
Birthday cards, and invitations, Christmas cards...
510
Finally, socio-cultural contents in the 2nd cycle should refer to the daily life of children in the English-speaking countries, including aspects such as: schedules, celebrations and festivals, shops, traditional tales and songs. IN THE THIRD CYCLE: We must help students to go from comprehension to production. The development of oral language is still the main objective. The oral texts they must understand in this cycle will be more complex and longer than in the previous one, as children are already familiar with the sounds of the foreign language, and they are able to use communicative strategies to understand such as: listening for specific information or just to get the general meaning of an oral text, predicting what they think may come next, inferring opinion and attitude from the intonation of the speakers or deducing the meaning of new words from context The oral texts we must offer them must be also related to their interests and needs. For example: • •
•
Descriptions of places or people. Conversations between children about their daily life, hobbies, or opinions. Fantastic situations based on traditional tales.
Regarding the oral productive skill (speaking) pupils in the third cycle are able to:
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Use verbal and non verbal strategies to be understood (Verbal strategies could be: using a word instead of another, replacing an specific word they don´t know for a more general one or explaining the meaning of a word they don´t know; Non verbal strategies are: making gestures or sounds, drawing, or pointing to objects, to solve communicative problems) • Use social relation formulas and expressions, which are used to satisfy basic communicative needs such as greeting, congratulating, thanking, apologising, introducing oneself.... In this cycle most children know what expression they should use according to the communicative situation. Then, by means to these abilities, they are able to participate in oral exchanges to express their basic communicative needs in the context of the classroom or in real or simulated contexts related to their daily life (dealing with topics such as: home, food, animals, sports, holidays...) correctly enough to be understood. •
Regarding WRITTEN COMMUNICATION, in the third cycle we must consider: •
The development of intensive and extensive reading:
Intensive reading refers to understand every word of short texts (short descriptions or stories, personal letters, advertisements or labels). Extensive reading refers to get the global sense of longer texts, such as: tales, comics or simple books for children with redundant visual support. To read this kind of texts children can resort to the help of 512
the teacher or the dictionary. The most important thing in extensive reading is enjoying the texts. •
Writing in this cycle will focus on the production of short simple texts in response to oral or written stimulus, aimed at different readers and adapted to the different communicative situations. These written texts will include: short personal letters, descriptions and stories.
Finally socio- cultural contents in this cycle will deal with aspects related to daily life in the English-speaking countries and also with other socio-cultural aspects of those countries related to the student´s interests, for instance: cars, sport, famous people on pop stars, cinema, environment, cities, famous buildings, sports...
513
Now, we are going to deal with the last decisions we must take in the curricular project: the sequence of assessment criteria and the methodological options. 2. - The sequence of assessment criteria, depends on the sequence of objectives and contents, since they establish the abilities that children should acquire at the end of the Primary stage related to the contents they need to develop such abilities. Then, according to the principles established for the sequence of objectives and contents, an example of sequence of an evaluation criterion, taken from the curricular materials known as Red Boxes ( Lenguas Extranjeras. Mec. 1992) SECOND CYCLE 3.- To identify simple details, previously required from oral texts related to topics which have been studied in class, and perform simple instructions given by the teacher in the context of the classroom.
THIRD CYCLE 3.-- To extract specific information previously required from oral texts, with a simple structure and vocabulary, which deal with topics which are interesting and familiar for students ( daily life, likes and dislikes, 514
opinions and personal experiences...) Finally, THE LAST ELEMENT OF THE CURRICULAR PROJECT, that we are going to consider, is the definition of the General Methodological Options we are going to take into account . To define such options we must follow the recommendations of the Royal decree 1344/1991, 6 th September, which establishes the basic requirements for Primary Education, and also the methodological principles established for the Primary Stage in general, and particularly those principles established for the foreign language area . As we have seen when talking about the different curricular elements, the main aim of teaching a foreign language in Primary Education will be getting students to communicate in such foreign language. •
Then, grouping, space and time must be understood in a flexible way to allow students to participate in real communicative interactions.
•
As far as materials is concerned, they should promote activity on the part of students as well as being visual, attractive and as authentic as possible.
•
We also should pay attention to diversity, designing activities in which everyone could participate according to his/her abilities.
•
And finally, according to this kind of methodology, assessment should be used as a tool to improve the learning–teaching process. 515
BIBLIOGRAPHY. -
Ley Orgánica 1/1990, de 3 de octubre de Ordenación General del Sistema Educativo.
-
RD 1344/1991 de 6 de septiembre, por el que se establece el currículo de la Educación Primaria.
-
RD 82/1996, de 26 de enero que establece el Reglamento Orgánico de las Escuelas de Educación infantil y colegios de Educación primaria.
-
Resolución de 5 de marzo de 1992, de la Secretaria de Estado para la Educación, que regula la elaboración de proyectos curriculares y establece orientaciones para la distribución de objetivos, contenidos y criterios de evaluación.
-
Orden del 30 de agosto de 2000, por la que se establece y regula la impartición de la lengua extranjera en el primer ciclo de Educación primaria, en el ámbito de la Comunidad Autónoma de Extremadura.
-
MEC: Materiales para la Reforma, area de lengua extranjera. Madrid. Servicio de publicaciones del MEC. 1991.
-
MEC. Proyecto Curricular. Materiales para la reforma. Madrid. Servicio de publicaciones del MEC, 1991.
-
Brewster, Ellis and Girard. The primary English Teacher’s Guide. London. Penguin. 1992.
TEMA 20
EL ÁREA DE LENGUAS EXTRANJERAS EN EL CURRÍCULO. CRITERIOS A REFLEJAR EN EL PROYECTO EDUCATIVO DEL CENTRO Y EN EL PROYECTO CURRICULAR
0. INTRODUCTION 1. FOREIGN LANGUAGES AREA IN THE CURRICULUM
516
1.1.
GENERAL OBJECTIVES
1.2.
CONTENTS
1.3.
EVALUATION CRITERIA
2. THE EDUCATIVE PROJECT OF THE CENTRE AND THE CURRICULAR PROJECT 2.1.
THE CURRICULAR PROJECT
2.1.1. BASES OF THE CURRICULAR PROJECT 2.2.2. OBJECTIVES OF STAGE AND OBJECTIVES OF CYCLE 2.2.3. EVALUATION 2.2.4. OTHER DECISIONS 3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
0. INTRODUCTION +Language is a complex human activity that fulfils many functions,among them we can name two basic functions: communication and representation. These functions do not exclude each other, but they are interrelated within the linguistic activity. Representing, either linguistically or not, is the most important aim of communication. Communication at the same time contributes to represent the physical and social reality. Learning and education must serve this double function of communicating and representing. Human beings communicate through different means and systems: gestures, music , symbols, numbers, etc. Verbal language, the most universal means of communication , Iet us receive and transmit different types of information and influence other people , as welI as they may exert their influence on us. Therefore, communication plays an essential role within society.
517
+But language is not only an instrument of communication amongst persons. It is also a means to represent the world , although the representation of the world around us may be done through other non-linguistic means. +In this topic, we will analize the general objectives of the foreign language area, the contents and the evaluation criteria. Finally, we will analyze the School Educational Project and the School Curricular Project. 1. FOREIGN LANGUAGES AREA IN THE CURRICULUM +The ability to communicate in a foreign language is an actual need nowadays. It is something fundamental wtthin the frame of the European Union not only because of the comings and goings of people throughout Europe , either to work abroad or to visit different countries , but also because of the world of telecommunications and technique etc. +However, the aims and functions of this area in compulsory education are not exclusvely determined by these social expectancies. There are also deeply educative reasons, derived from the importance of this area in the general educative objectives. +The ability to communicate in a foreign language and the knowledge of the same provide a great help to understand and control our own language and behaviour. To contact other cultures through the channel of the language favours comprehension and respect towards other ways of thinking and acting. In a multilingual country as Spain is, learning a foreign language is highly interesting since languages are not competitive amongst them , but they fulfil the same functions and contribute to the same cognitive development. Communicating and representing through language are simoultaneous and interrelated functions within the linguistic activity. In the social exchange , language helps us to transmit and receive information of very diverse nature , and therefore, to influence other people, controlling and directing their activity, at the same time they are influencing ours. +But, language is a priviledged instrument of communication , thanks to its capacity to represent reality in a way that is shared by all the members of the 518
community. Hence, when we learn a language we are learning a system of signs , but also the cultural meaning these signs have, that is, dlfferent ways to interpret reality. Together with these functional considerations , we must take into account the structural features of language. From this point of view , language is defined as a system of interrelated signs. When we describe the units of language we say that all of them have a meaning, because they are in relation to the whole system. For that reason, we must forget that the discourse is the concretion of language , since the use of the rules in the three levels (phonetic- phonological, morphosyntactic and semantic) depends on the communicative function we want to fulfill, and on the concrete situation of production and reception of the message. Therefore, a study of the language must comprise not only the sentence but the whole text and the context as well. +It is important to say tnat the aim of this curricular area is not to teach a language, but to teach how to communicate through the use of it. This requires an approach based upon communication and aimed to acquire communicative competence. At the same time, communicative competence comprises: -Grammatical competence or ability to put into practice the units and rules of the system of the language. -Discursive competence, or ability to use different types of discourse and to organize them according to the communicative functions. -Sociolinguistic competence or ability to make language suitable in a concrete context. -Strategic competence or ability to define, correct, or make adjustments according to the communicative situation. -Socio-cultural competence or the ability to attain a certain degree of familiarity with the social and cultural context in which language is used. +Summarizing, the development of the communicative competence implies to be able to use a certain amount of "subcompetences " of different nature. "To say something" and "To use language for something" are key elements in the teaching of foreign languages. That is, communicative competence is taught through practice. 519
+The process of acquisition of a foreign language may be considered as a creative construction in which the student makes hypotheses to conform the rules, which constitute the new system. This process Iet him organize language comprehensively, with the aim of producing messages in the different communicative situations. Although this process is common to all languages , we must underline some special features in the case of a foreign language. +The learning of a foreign language is not linear, but global. The chiId progressively enriches the global idea of the new system. Therefore, the mistakes he does, cannot be treated as mistakes, but as the evidence of the progressive control over this new communicative system that he is acquiring. We must say that the ways to process information also work when the student is not buiIding messages. The usual periods of silence that exist , when the student is beginning to Iearn a foreign Ianguage, must not be understood as "siIence", but as periods in which an intense activity that cannot be observed is being carried out. Through the receptive activities we may contribute to develop the concrete competences of comprehension, but also the general communicative competence. +The development of the linguistic skiIls (reading , writing, Iistening and speaking) must be understood as, a process of integration. In real life, the majority of activities contribute to develop different skiIIs. Threfore, they must not be studied separately. However, students must be taught to create and consolidate these skiIIs in order to be able to produce written and spoken messages. +But, the Iearning of a foreign language, must go beyond a functional approach. The members of a linguistic community share, by means of the language , some specific cultural meanings. Therefore, the teaching of a language must introduce, the students into the most relevant features of the social and cultural context. 520
In this way, the educative function of the foreign language becomes meaningful, because it allows students to understand reality, to enrich their cultural world and to favour the development of tolerant attitudes. +AIthough the idea that children learn languages faster than adults cannot be proved, there is enough evidence to show that Iearning must be done as soon as possible, because, in no way this Iearning interferes the Iearning of the own mother tongue, but it consolidates it. Learning a foreign language in primary school contributes to overcome the typical egocentrism and localism of the children. +We must take into account that this stage is a period in which we make the student "feel" this foreign language. The first contact must be carefully done , because it is the warranty for a positive Iearning. It is important to use the most interesting fields for these children, as well as the games as the maximum expression of what they already control in their own mother tongue. In the second cycle of primary education the students already have a fundamental basis: the knowledge of their own language and of many expressions and words of the foreign one, especiaIly learnt from the mass media. Besides, they have a vague idea of the country where this language is spoken. +If, as we have already said, the Iearning of a foreign language is a process of creative construction from the received language, the receptive activities become considerably important in this stage. Messages will fundamentally refer to contents that are very close to the students to stimulate them. Besides, they must include the aspects of the new language that are subject to be used in a wide variety of situations. However, we must not forget written language. Students already know the importance of the written code and its graphic representation. The fact that they are Iearning to read and write at the same time is a good way of integrating the written and oral skills in primary education. 1.1. GENERAL OBJECTIVES 521
+The teaching of the English language in Primary Education wiII have as main objectives the following ones: 1. To understand oral and written texts. To understand simple oral and written texts related to known objects, situations and events close to the students, using the general and specific information transmitted by these texts with specific purposes. 2. To use the foreign language oralIy. To use the foreign language orally to communicate with the teacher and the other students in the usual classroom activities and in the communication situations created to lead to that aim, paying attention to the basic rules of interpersonal communication and adopting a respectful attitude towards the others' views. 3. To produce short and simple written texts. To produce short and simple written texts about topics which are familiar to the students, respecting the basic rules of the written code.
4. To read in a comprehensive way short and simple texts. Read in a comprehensive way short and simple text related to classroom activities , using their knowledge of the world, and their experiences and interests with the aim of obtaining the necessary and specific information. 5. To recognize the value of foreign languages. To recognize and to appreciate the communicative value of foreign languages and the ability to learn to use them, showing an understanding and respectful attitude towards other languages, their speakers, and their culture. 6. To understand and to use linguistic and non-linguistic conventions. To understand and to use the linguistic and non-linguistic conventions used by the foreign language speakers in everyday situations (greetings ,
522
farewells, introductions, congratulations, etc.) with the aim of making conversation easier and more fluent. 7. To use the previous knowledge and experiences with other languages. To use, in the foreign language learning process , the previous knowledge and experiences with other languages and to develop progressively learning strategies. 8. To establish relations among the meaning, the pronunciation, and the graphic representation of words and sentences. To establish relations among the meaning, the pronunciation and the graphic representation of some words and simple sentences in the foreign language , apart from recognizing phonetic, rhythm and intonation aspects of the foreign language. 9. To use non-linguistic and expressive devices . To use the non-linguistic expressive devices (gestures, body position , diverse sounds, drawings, etc) to try to understand and be understood by using the foreign language.
1.2. CONTENTS a) USES AND FORMS OF THE ORAL LANGUAGE CONCEPTS - Most habitual needs and situations to use the spoken language. Communicative functions and characteristics of these situations: *Communicative intentions: Greetings, identifications, asking and giving information, identification and location of objects, descriptions, narrations , expressing needs and wishes, etc.
523
*Characteristics of the communicative situation: number and type of listeners , moment and place of communication, more or less formal situation, etc. -
Vocabulary and linguistic structures required to express, orally, the basic needs of
communication *Communicative intentions: greetings, identification, giving and asking for information, identification and location of objects , descriptions, narrations, needs and wishes, etc. *General topics: Colours, numbers, weather, time, house, family, friends, class, food, likes and dislikes, daily routine, animals, human body, sports, spare time , holidays, health, etc. PROCEDURES - To recognize and make familiar the sounds of the foreign language and its rythm and intonation. - To understand oral messages of different nature and from different sources (teacher, other students, video, tapes): *Global comprehension of oral messages about familiar topics. *Specific comprehension of concrete simple messages in contextualized situations. -To react either linguistically and non-linguistically to different oral messages and communicative situations: *Production of common expressions aimed to satisfy simple needs of communication (greetings, identification, asking and giving information , identification of objects, decriptions, etc). *Use of basic messages previously learnt (polite expressions , etc.) adjusting them to the specific features of the situation.
524
*Active participation in oral exchanges in order to express the most immediate communicative needs within the class and in contexts closer to the student. *Participation in the linguistic exchanges with the aim of having fun (simulations, performances, etc.). *Non-linguistic answers to oral messages (follow instructions , etc.). -To recognize the grammatical formulas that help them to make questions, to assert, to reject, to express possession, to quantify , to describe, to narrate, etc... and to use them in order to achieve efficient communication. -To recognize and use the basic strategies of communication, both linguistic (use one word instead of another, etc.) or extralinguistic (gestures, drawings, etc.) which help to overcome communicative problems. - To use the native language's strategies of communication, which let us take advantage of the limited knowledge of the foreign language. ATTITUDES -Awareness of the importance of oral communication in a foreign language. -Awareness of the reality of a different culture , reflected in the language. -Receptive and respectful attitude towards the persons who speak a foreign language - Wish to express themselves in a foreign language , participating in the activities (games, songs, etc.). -Awareness of the corrections done when they interprete or produce a text. - Positive and optimist attitude towards their own ability to speak in a foreign language.
525
-Tendency to use imaginatively and creatively, oral messages previously learnt , in different communicative situations. b) USES AND FORMS OF THE WRITTEN LANGUAGE CONCEPTS - Most habitual needs and communicative situations to use the written language. Communicative intentions and characteristics of these situations. *Communicative intentions: greetings, identification and location of objects , expressing needs and wishes, etc. *Characteristics of the communicative situation: type of Iisteners, more or less formal situation, etc. - Vocabulary and Iinguistic structures required to express the basic communicative needs by writing. *Communicative intentions: greetings, identification , giving and asking for information, identification and location of objects, descriptions, narrations , etc. *General topics: colours, numbers, time, house, family, class, food, likes and dislikes, sports, etc.
526
- Names of the letters in a foreign language and their correspondence within the writing system. - Relations between the meaning of the words, their pronunciation and graphical representation. PROCEDURES - Production of written texts adjusted to the features of the reader and of the communicative situation. - Understanding of the written messages of different nature. *Global comprehension of written messages related the activities done in class. *Global
comprehension
of
brief
written
messages related to the most immediate needs of communication and to the interests of the speakers. *Global
comprehension
of
easy
authentic
materials, with visual backing about daily-life topics.
527
*Awareness of the specific elements, previously learnt, in texts which have unkown words and expressions, such as invitations for a birthday party, cards, magazines, etc. - Use of the grapho-phonic correspondences to spell, for instance, the name and the surname, etc. - Production of written texts directed to different readers, answering oral and written stimuli. - Solution of games which require the knowledge of the vocabulary and the ortography used in class. - Awareness of grammatical structures in written texts. - Awareness of some sociocultural aspects which differentiate the foreign language from the mother tongue. ATTITUDES - lnterest and curiosity towards the written texts and appraisal of the role they play in order to satisfy communicatlve needs.
528
-Awareness and appraisal of the importance of reading and writing in a foreign language. - Appraisal for the correct interpretation of easy written texts. - Interest to know the vocabulary and the basic linguistic structures required to express the essential communicative needs in different situations. - Disposition to overcome the difficulties that the use of a foreign language creates, by paying attention to the communicative strategies of the mother tongue. c) SOCIOCULTURAL ASPECTS CONCEPTS - Social and cultural aspects of the countries where the foreign language studied is spoken. *Expressions and gestures which go together with the oral expressions: tone, gestures, etc. *Daily-life aspects: Timetables, habits, images of that culture, etc. 529
*Spare time: games, songs, sports, places, etc. d)Presence in Spain of the foreign language learnt: labels, songs, films, etc. PROCEDURES -Awareness of some aspects of the countries where the foreign language is spoken. - Contextualized use in habitual situations of some rules and habits of the countries where this language is spoken. - Comparison of the most relevant aspects of daily life in the countries where the foreign language is spoken, and our own country. - Use of authentic materials with the aim of getting the desired information. A TTITUDES - Curiosity and respect for the most relevant aspects of daily life and for other sociocultural aspects of the countries where this language is spoken. - Appraisal of the sociolinguistic behaviours which help cohabitation. 530
- Interest to know people from other countries.
531
1.3. EVALUATION CRITERIA 1. To recognize and reproduce the characteristic phonemes of the foreign language. To recognize and reproduce the characteristic phonemes of the foreign language as well as the basic models of rhythm and intonation, in words and sentences which appear in the context of real use of the language. 2. To grasp the general meaning of oral texts . To grasp the general meaning of oral texts uttered in face to face communication situations, with the help of gestures and mime and the necessary repetitions,
in
which
there
will
appear
combinations of elements previously learnt and which deal with familiar topics, known by the student.
532
3. To extract specific information . To extract specific information, previous required, from oral texts with a simple structure and vocabulary which deal with familiar topics that interest the student (daily life, likes, preferences, opinions and personal experiences). 4. To participate in short oral exchanges . To participate in short oral exchanges related to usual classroom understandable characteristics
activities discourse of
the
producing adapted situation
an to
the
and
the
communicative purpose. 5.To participate in simulated communication situations . To participate in simulated communication situations which have been previously practised in the classroom, using properly the most usual social interaction formulae in the foreign language.
533
6.To extract the general meaning and some specific information. To extract the general meaning and some specific information from short written texts with a lineal development, simple structures and vocabulary, which deal with familiar topics that interest the student. 7.To read simple children's books. To read with the help of the teacher or, the dictionary simple children's books written in the foreign language with visual backup and show comprehension by means of a specific task. 8.To produce short written texts. To produce short written texts, comprehensible and adapted to the characteristics
of
the
situation
and
the
communicative purpose, in which those contents that have been worked in the class can be seen.
534
9.To
recognize,
some
sociocultural
aspects.
To
recognize, some sociocultural aspects typical of the foreign language speaking community which are implicit in the linguistic samples worked on in the classroom. 2. THE EDUCATIVE PROJECT OF THE CENTRE AND THE CURRICULAR PROJECT +One of the aspects that the Educative Reform has put more emphasis on, is the need to give more independence to the centres, since they are the key of the educative system. This autonomy is extremely necessary, because the educative process cannot be the same in all the centres, since it has to answer the cultural and socioeconomic context in which centres are placed, as well as students and their families. The reflection about all these specific needs must give the lines to establish the specific features that make the centre have its own educative style. It is good that all the centres have their own choices. +The LODE ("Ley Orgánica del Derecho a Ia Educación ”) provides that the centres will have autonomy to establish the optional subjects, to adapt the programmes and to adopt the teaching methods they wish, whenever they do not discriminate any member of the educative community, and always under the law. +The Educative Project of a Centre is the document that comprises the decisions or ideas taken by the whole educative community with respect to the basic educative options and to the general organization of the centre. In the Educative Project of a Centre and according to the sociocultural and economic context of the same, we must establish the decisions taken regarding questions such as who we are, what we want, etc., for instance:
535
- The signs of identity. - The objectives or aims of the centre in which these signs are concreted. - The revision of the general objectives of the Curriculum. - The relations of cooperation amongst all the persons in charge of putting the objectives into practice. -
The organization that will make these objectives possible, which is specified in the "Reglamento de Régimen Interior".
2.1. THE CURRICULAR PROJECT +The decisions established in the Educative Project must be specified in the Curricular Project where these principles are explained in order to answer questions like what, when and how to evaluate and teach. +The most important idea of the Curricular project is that is a process and therefore, it is never ended and it has to be revised very often, because the quality of the teaching can always be improved. +There are some steps that must be followed to elaborate the Curricular Project: - Elaboration:
Body of teachers of the Staqe
- Coordination:
Committee of Pedagogic Coordination
- Approval:
Teaching Staff of the centre
- Report:
Educative Council
- Supervision:
Technical inspection
+The aims of the curricular project are: 1. To increase the coherence of the educative practice through the decisions taken by the whole body of teachers of a stage.
536
2. To increase the competence of the teachers through the evaluation of their work. 3. To adjust the ideas of the M.E.C. to the context . +In order to achieve these aims, the Reform has created a more opened curricular model. This model is characterized by the fact that the educative administrators, that is, the M.E.C., establish a lower level of prescription, and therefore they favour the autonomy of the teaching bodies. +In the curricular project the prescriptions of the M.E.C. are specified according to the peculiarities of the Comunidades Autónomas and , then, of every centre. The objectives that the educative process tries to achieve in every stage, are explained in the "Reales Decretos de Currículo". The internal decisions taken for every stage are specified in the Curricular Project. Therefore, a centre in which there are students from 3 to 12 years old, will have a single educative project, but two curricular projects: one for the first stage (Infantil) and another for the second (Primaria). +Once the curricular project has been established, the Programmes of Class will be made. This third level of concretion will comprise the decisions taken for every specific group of students. 2.1.1. BASES OF THE CURRICULAR PROJECT +We have four great sources to elaborate the Curricular project: -
The educative project.
-
The analysis of the background.
-
The basic curriculum that the M.E.C. and the Comunidades Autónomas have established.
-
The experience derived from the teaching practice of the centre.
537
+The Educative Project will be a guide as long as the identity signs of the centre and its aims are specified in it. +The analysis of the context is fundamental, since the aim of the curricular project is to concrete and adapt the decisions that the M.E.C. has taken regarding education in all schools, to the specific needs of every centre. +In the curricular project, the context is analyzed according to the students of every stage, which usually have very difterent features. It also comprises the methodological options, the evaluation or the best way to organize the sequence of the abilities and contents in the cycle. +Another source from which the curricular project is specified, and one of the most important, is the previous experience of the centre that will be more or Iess explicitly explained in its programmes. 2.2.2. OBJECTIVES OF STAGE AND OBJECTIVES OF CYCLE + As we have seen in the first section, the general objectives of stage have the following characteristics: -
They are defined in terms of abilities and not of behaviours.
-
These abilities must regard all the fields of development (motility, intellectuality, personal balance, interpersonal relations, social attitude and relations).
-
They must try to comprise the abilities within the different fields, with the aim of underlining the relations that they have amongst them.
+ But apart from these objectives, The Real Decreto de Curriculo provides that: "The cycle is the temporal curricular unit of programme and evaluation in the Primary Education(...)."According to what has been previously established, the same teachers wiII work with the same group of students throughout the whole cycle, if they are working in the same centre"(...)."The projects wilI comprise at least, the contents provided for an educative cycle, and they wilI have to be related to the general plan of the corresponding stage".
538
+It is necessary to establish some previsions about the internal sequences of the cycle, according to the following criteria: - Coherence of the evolutive development and the previous learning of the student. - Coherence of the learning. - Contents as the basis of the sequence. - Limited basic ideas. - Continuity and proggression. - Balance (the abilities developed in the objectives must be balanced). - Interrelation (the different types of contents, concepts, procedures and attitudes must be conveniently related amongst them). - Cross-curricular/Transversal themes (very important in Primary education). - Didactic strategies that will be used throughout the stage 2.2.3.EVALUATION +We wiII evaluate. -
The students' Iearning,
-
The process of teaching and our own teaching practice , with relation to the achievement of the educative objectives of the curriculum.
-
We will also evaluate the curricular project itself , the teaching programme and the actual development of the curriculum. +In order to evaluate the Iearning process we have to take some decisions
regarding the situations, strategies and instruments of evaluation. The requisites that the procedures of evaluation must fulfill are: -
To be varied.
-
To give concrete information.
-
To use different codes.
-
To be applicable to more or Iess structured situations of the learning activity.
-
To evaluale the transference of the Iearning to different contexts.
539
+The evaluation is determined in the Curricular Project and, therefore, it must also be decided how to communicate its contents to parents, students, and the rest of the teachers. +In conclusion ,in the Curricular Project we must also concrete when, how and what we have to evaluate.These aspects must follow three basic lines: -Initial evaluation: Through this, the teacher knows the actual and previous knowledge his students have in order to develop the didactic unit with the best results. Previous knowledge is what the students already know both regarding the conceptual aspects, and the procedures and the attitudes that are going to be involved in the development of the unit. However, through the activities, the knowledge of the students in these three aspects must be checked. This helps the teacher to readjust his teaching to the reality of his students in order to make them capable to relate the new information with that they already have and therefore, to achieve a significant learning. -Formative evaluation: The different activities the unit has, constitute by themselves a procedure of formative evaluation. Throughout the whole didactic unit the students have the chance of analyzing their own progress , since every activity includes a moment to reflect, comment or contrast, their achievements and learning problems. The teacher also readjusts the following settings depending on the results they get. -Summative evaluation: It is the evaluation of the learning that the students have achieved throughout the unit. The activities designed to evaluate, follow the same patterns of the activities done throughout the whole unit. This make possible that the teacher judges their work according to the same criteria established to achieve the objectives proposed in the development of the unit. +In the Curricular Project, we must as weIl include the criteria to promote the students to the next cycle:
540
"In the context of the process of continuous evaluation when the progress of a student does not globally respond to the programmed objectives, the teachers wiIl adopt the suitable measures of educative reinforcement and of curricular adjustment". 2.2.4. OTHER DECISIONS +In addition we have to take many other decisions: 1. Groups: - Level of learning. - Groups which favour a better interaction. -Groups with different or special needs 2.
Time and spaces:
-
Use of the common spaces.
-
Distribution of the space within the class.
-
General timetable of the centre.
-
Excursions and common activities of the whole centre or of the groups. +That is to say, the distribution of time within the class must be organized
according to the Project. There must be enough time to develop global units, to make some activities that require a specific sequence of time to be done, time to make activities with other groups outside the class, etc.
3. Materials and didactic recourses +The materials and didactic recourses are another fundamental factor of
the
educative practice. For that reason, it is important to select those that are going to be used and to establish the criteria for their use in the curricular project since they are decisions that the whole teaching body must share.
541
+Regarding the latter, that is, the materials directed to the students, we must identify the kind of materials we need: texts, workbooks, exercises, tapes , plastic materials, etc. We must also differentiate which materials will be used in every cycle. +The selection of materials the centres do , must take into account the following criteria: - They must not be discriminatory. - They must be used by all the students. - They must not spoil the environment. - They must not be excesively sophisticated. - They must be suitable for the age of the students , whom they are directed to. - They must include the norms for the security that their use requires, as well as their components and other features (size, weight, etc.). +In the case of printed curricular materials, we must take into account the following criteria for their selection: 1) To know the educative objectives that these texts have and to check to what extent they are corresponding to those established in the centre for a certain group. 2) To analyze the contents worked in order to check if there is a correspondence between the objectives and the contents. We must develop the different types of
contents (concepts,
procedures and attitudes), as well as the transversal themes. 3) To revise the sequences of learning that are proposed for the different contents. It is important to analyze the progression that the objectives and the contents follow , both in their distribution throughout the different cycles and in their internal organization. 4) To analyze the suitability of the criteria of evaluation proposed by the curricular project of stage. 542
5) To analyze the activities proposed in order to see if they fulfil the conditions for a significant learning. In this point, it is specially important to pay attention to the activities that must be done in the different moments of the process of learning and teaching. 6) To adapt these materials and didactic recourses to the educative context in which they are used. +From a communicative point of view, in our area, language teaching sees materials as a way of influencing the quality of classroom interaction. The primary role of materials is therefore to promote communicative language use. 4.
Methodological principles: +In the case of our area, as explained in the first part of this theme we will have
to take into account the guidelines given in the introduction of our Primary Curriculum, Royal Decree 14/9/ 91, which establishes the minimum teaching requirements in Primary Education. 1.English teaching does not involve teaching a language , but teaching to communicate in English. This means that we will adopt a communicative approach which aims at the acquisition of a communicative competence. 2.We should favour functional learning. This means that the students should be able to use the language in communicative situations. 3.We should promote meaningful learning. This entails that the learners will build up their own linguistic competence by using learning strategies and by making hypotheses about me way in which language works starting from the linguistic input. 4.English teaching should provide students with both a new linguistic experience
543
and a human/social experience. In this light, we will develop attitudes such as cooperation and respect to the others and contribute to develop the learners’ socialization skills by promoting social relations through pair work and group work. 5.The four linguistic skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) must be developed in an interrelated way ,, since in real life we cope with communicative situations which require different skills. However, at this stage receptive skills (especially listening) are more important than productive skills. 6.Variety.Variety involves using a wide range of materials and activities In the classroom. We should introduce variety for three reasons:
•The students motivation will be better. •Our pupils’ attention span is short and they thus need to do different things. •Lessons will be more enjoyable. 7.The language items should be presented in context. Give that any language is a system of interrelated signs, the linguistic elements should appear in discourse where their meaning depends on the communicative function and communicative situation. Besides, the new language must be sensitive to being used in a wide range of communicative situations. 8.Foreign language teaching must introduce the most relevant sociocultural features of the foreign culture, since any language reflects a way of understanding and constructing reality. 9.It is important to teach contents and plan activities which meet the students' interests and needs in order to develop a positive attitude towards English learning. In this way the pupils will be more likely to succeed.
544
10.We should take into account the students' previous knowledge about the foreign language (foreign sounds and words) and the foreign culture (famous people, films, songs,...).This will reinforce the meaningful character of learning contents, since the pupils will be able to link what they already know with what they are learning, thus increasing their motivation to learn English.
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY Materiales para la Reforma. Primaria. MEC. Madrid, 1992. M.E.C. : L.O.G.S.E. Madrid. 1991. Pozuelo, M.L. & Rodriguez, M.A. Proyecto curricular del área de ingles. Escuela Española. Madrid. 1994. Propuesta de Secuencia. Lenguas Extranjeras. MEC-Escuela Española. Madrid, 1992.
EVALUATION +We wiII evaluate. -
The students' Iearning,
-
The process of teaching and our own teaching practice, with relation to the achievement of the educative objectives of the curriculum. 545
-
We will also evaluate the curricular project itself, the teaching programme and the actual development of the curriculum.
+In order to evaluate the Iearning process we have to take some decisions regarding the situations, strategies and instruments of evaluation. The requisites that the procedures of evaluation must fulfill are: -
To be varied.
-
To give concrete information.
-
To use different codes.
-
To be applicable to more or Iess structured situations of the learning activity.
-
To evaluale the transference of the Iearning to different contexts.
+The evaluation is determined in the Curricular Project and, therefore, it must also be decided how to communicate its contents to parents, students, and the rest of Ihe teachers. Finally, it is convenient to use the Curricular Project to establish the function of the tutor, as the last responsible of the evaluation. The role of the psychopedagogic counsellor of the centre must also be determined here. From the resulís of Ihe evaluation, Ihe teachers wiil adopí Ihe necessary measures, as indicated in Ihe Real Decreto de Currículo: 1
'AI Ihe end of every cycle and as a consecuence of Ihe process of evaluation, Ihe
tutor of Ihe studenís wiII dec¡de if lhey can promote lo Ihe next cycle• laking mío account Ihe other teachers' reporís". 'When Ihe evaluation ¡5 continuous, and Ihe progress of a studení does nol globaIly respond lo Ihe programmed objectives, Ihe teachers wiIl ado pl Ihe necessary measures of educative reinforcemení or of curricular adjustment".
546
In conclusion ,in the Curricular Project we must also concrete when, how and what we have to evaluate: -Initial evaluation: Trough this, the teacher knows the actual and previous knowledge his students have in order to develop the didactic unit with the best results. Previous knowledge is what the students already know both regarding the conceptual aspects, and the procedures and the attitudes that are going to be involved in the development of the unit. However, through the activities, the knowledge of the students in these three aspects must be checked. This helps the teacher to readjust his teaching to the reality of his students in order to make them capable to relate the new information with that they already have and therefore, to achieve a significant learning.
-Formative evaluation: The different activities the unit has, constitute by themselves a procedure of formative evaluation. Throughout the whole didactic unit the students have the chance of analyzing their own progress , since every activity includes a moment to reflect, comment or contrast, their achievements and learning problems. The teacher also readjusts the following settings depending on the results they get. -Summative evaluation: It is the evaluation of the learning that the students have achieved throughout the unit. The activities designed to evaluate, follow the same patterns of the activities done throughout the whole unit. This make possible that the teacher judges their work according to the same criteria established to achieve the objectives proposed in the development of the unit. +In the Curricular Project, we must as weIl include the criteria to promote the students to the next cycle:
547
"In the context of the process of continuous evaluation when the progress of a student does not globally respond to the programmed objectives, the teachers wiIl adopt the suitable measures of educative reinforcement and of curricular adjustment ".
(initial, formalive and summative evalualion). of course, initial evalualion musí be done al Ihe beginning of every cyc;le in order lo determine Ihe level of Ihe students. However, ¡lis also very profitable lo do Ihis evaluation al Ihe beginning of eve~ unit, in order lo specifv Ihe previous knowiedge of Ihe students about Ihe contenis. •
We musí also evaluale the teaching process lhroughout Ihe academic vcar.
The besí momení lo do so~ ¡5 al Ihe end of a cycle, and s~eciaIly, Ihe momení in which a group finishes a síage, because Ihe leachers may evaluale Ihe Curricular Projecl.qlobally, as ¡1 ¡s provided in Ihe "Real Decreto de Régimen Orgánico de los Centros de Infantil y Primaria". +In the Curricular Project, we must as weIl include the criteria to promote the students to the next cycle: "In the context of the process of continuous evaluation when the progress of a student does not globally respond to the programmed objectives, the teachers wiIl adopt the suitable measures of educative reinforcement and of curricular adjustment ".
T .THE EDUCATIVE PROJECT OF THE CENTRE AND TH-E
548
CURRICULAR PROJECT 2.1. THE EDUCATIVE PROJECT OF THE CENTRE @ One of-the aspects that the Educative Reform has put more emphasis on, is the need - . ...... -- .-to give more independent S, Since they are the key Of the educative system. This autonomy is ëktremely necessary, because the educ-liL--lve process cannot be the same in all the centres, since it has to answer the cultural and socioeconomic context in which centres are placed, as well as students and their families. The reflection about all these specific Meeds must give the lines to establish the species features that make the centre have its own educative style. It is good that all the centres have their own choices. * The LODE (''Le-v Oroénica del Derecho a Ia Educaciön'') provides that the centres will have autono ' e o tional sub'ects, to adapt the programmes and to adopt the teaching methods th ye wish. whenever they do not discriminate any member of the educative community, and always under the law. * The Educative Pro'ect of a Centre is the documentthat comprises the decisions or ideas taken b the whole educative commune with respect to the basic educative options and to the general organi/qtion of the centre. In-the Ed-ucative Project of a Centre and according to the sociocultural and economic context of the same, Fe must es-tablish the decisions taken regarding questions such as w-ho we are, what we want, etc., for instance: + 549
- The signs of identity. - The objectives or aims of the centre in which these signs are concreted. - The revision of the general objectives of the Curriculum. - The relations of-cooperation amen st all the arsons in charge of putting the objectives into practice. - The organization that will make these objectives possible, which is specified in the ''Reglamento de Regimen Interior''. * The decisions establishe ' - 've Pro'ect must be s edified in the Curricular Project inci les are explained in order to answer questions like what, how, when 4 and how to evalua and-leach. -7L- .
:.2. THE GENERAL PROGRAMME OF THE CENTRE * The General Pro-gramme of the centre is done according to two types of information: - -- - - . . ' a) The decisions that due to their nature, will change every ear. b) The decisions taken from the revision of the educative project ànd of the curricular . ''- . - . - - - . . . . - - . .- - . project. k In this sense, the general annual programme will include the following elements: - The complementafy-ac-tivities that the centre is going to develop. - T% of the centre. - The administrative records. . - The new decisionsthat must be included in the educative project and in the curricular Vr j e c t . - ln this way, the centres will not have to do these projects every year, and they will only be those aspects of the same that the evaluation of the centre requires. Z..A THE CURRICULAR PROJECT OF THE CENTRE . - -0 %:h ) 550
e,1A tone 7.3.1. Aims of the curricular project (e-,i 1. To increase the coherence of the educative tactile throw h the decisions taken by the whole body of te-achers o-f a stage. 2. To increase the competence of the teachers through the evaluation of their work. 3. To adjust the ideas of the M.E.C. to the context.
k41 In order to achieve these aims, th-a -Reform has-created-a more ope-nod curricular model. This model is characterized by the fact that the educative administrators, that is, the M.E.C., establish a lower Iqvel of prescription, and therefore they favour the autonomy of the teaching bodies. 1 In the curricular project the prescriptions of the M.E.C. are specified according to the e peculiarities of eve centre. The ob'ectives that the educative recess tries to achieve in every sta e are ex gained in the ''Reales Decretos de Currfculo''. The internal decisions taken for eve stage are specified in the Curricular Project. Therefore, a centre in which there are students from 3 to 12 years old, will have a sing e educative project, but two curricular projects: one for t e
551
first stage (lnfantil) and another for the second (Primaria). a/ Once the curricular reject has been established, the Pro ramies of Class will be made. This third level of concretion will comprise the decisions taken for every specific group Uf Qf students.
-'v.... 2.3.t7.Bases of the curricular Project: -.- . - w ... j s jyyyy.... . Wxm xxx. We have four great sources to elaborate the Curricular p Jro'ect: -' ,' - The educative proles. - The analysis of the background. - The basic curriculum that the M.E.C. has established. - The experience derived from the teaching practice of the centre. The Educative Pro-ect will be a uide as long as the identity signs of the centre and its aims are specified in it. T-he analysis of the context is fundamental, s-ince the aim of the curricular project is to concrete and adapt the decisions that the M.E.C. has taken regarding education in all schools, to the specific needs of every centre. ' In the curricular project, the context is analyzed according to the students of every stage, which usually have very different features. It also comprises the methodological options, the evaluation or the best way to organize the sequence of the abilities and contents in the cycle. A-nother-source-from which the curricular project is specified, and one of the most
552
important, is the precious experience o-f the centre that will be more or less explicitly explained .. -.- -- .. .. . . ... . irl its ;rOQ rzrlll'l'l OS . - * '- .> ,2 3..7:: objectives of stage: * - They are defined in terms of abilities and not of behaviours. - These' abilities must regard all the fiends of development (motility, intellectuality, ersonal balance, interpersonal relations, social attitude and relations). P i the abilities within the different fiends, with the aim of - They must try to comer se underlining the relations that they have amongst them. a. Sequences of objectives according to the cycles: The Real Decreto de Curricula provides that: ''The cycle is the temporal curricular unit of programme and evaluation in the Primary Educat--.qpi ''(...).''According to what has been previously established, the same teachers will work with me same group of students throughout the whole cycle, if they are working in the same centre''(...).''The projects will comprise at least, the contents provided for an educative cycle, and they will have to be related to the general plan of the corresponding stage''. '
It is necessa to establish some revisions about the internal sequences of the cycle, according to the follow-i-ng oriterig-.- Co-herence of-the evolutîve development and the previous learning of the student.
553
--- Coherence Of the learning. -- Contents as the basis of the sequence. - Limited basic ideas. - Contin'uity and progrqAnînm. - Balance. (the abilities developed in the objectives must be balanced). - Ir-trf-.l--?t el ti n (the different types of contents, concepts, procedures and attitudes must be conveniently related amongst them). - Transversal themes (very important in Primary education). b. Didactic strategies that will be used throughout the stage, must be determined ..... '''' '' ..... -M when we elaborate the Curricular Project. T.3. .q. M-eth-o-dologjca-l de-cisions:--.G 1 . Methodological principles. 2. Groups. 3. Time. 4. Spaces. 5. Materials. 1. Metho-dological prin-ciplestto achie-ve a significant Iearning:lg-yAdwt//xoy Cc .t - To start from the level of development of the students and, therefore, according to their previous learning. - To make sure that they achieve a significant learning, using their previous knowledge and a comprehensive memorization. - To make possible that the students significantly learn by themselves. - To create situations in which they must put their knowledge up-to-date. - To motivate l-p>tr l-e-a-r-rl.-i..-nq.. - .. ... . . .... . ...- .. . . - To create learning situations that require an intense mental activity from the student. - To encourage interaction within the class as the basis of the learning. 2. Criteria to group the students-: - Level of learn-ing. 554
- G- roues which -favour a better.interac-tio-n-. e? - Groups with different needs must be separated. .
..-.--- mw. N..x 3. & 4. Organization of span.-es and .times: '--w... Nu. . X'X' - Use of the common spaces. - Distribution of the space within the class. - Ge-ne-ral timetable --of the centre. - Excursions and common activities of the whole centre or of the groups. The distribution of time within the class must be organized according to the Project. There must be enough time to develop global units, to make some activities that require a specific sequence of time to be done, time to make activities with other groups outside the class, etc. 5. Materials and didactic recourses: . The materials and identic recourses are another fundamental factor of edu ' e practice. For that reason, it is important to select-those that are going to be used and ' to establish the criteria for their use in the curricular pro'ect since the are decisio s that the whole teacher bod must share. ' ' We must distinguish between the curricular materials and those materials directed to the students. The former must serve to guide the teaching process. Théy may be used in two main situations: in the elaboration and realization of the curricular project of
555
stage, and' in the elaboration of the programmes, because they will concrete the didactic objectives, the activities, etc. . Regarding the latter, that is, the materials directed to--sludents- we must identify thy kind of materials we need'. te-'- s, wor-kb-ooks, exercises, tapes, plastic materials, etc. We must also differentiate which materials will be used in every cycle. ''< . z ' 'NNN. .. . The selection of materials the centres do, must take into account the following criteria: - They must no-! be discriminatory. - They must be used by all the students. . ' - They must not s oil the environment. - The.y must not be excesively sophisticated. - T e must be suitable for the age of the students, whom they are directed to. - They must include the norms for the security that their use re wires, as Well as their components and other features (sipe, weight, etc.).
xx-a . ''W . .= * In the case of printed curricular material we must take into account the following 556
i - ctibncriteria or .
To know the educative objectives that these texts have and to check to what extent they are corresponding to those established in the centre for a certain group. z To analyze the contents worked in order to check if there is a correspondenc-e between the objectives and the contents. We must develop the different types of contents (concepts, procedures and attitudes), as well as the transversal themes. p To revise the sequences of learning that are proposed for the different contents. It is important to analyze the progression that the objectives and the contents follow, b0th in their distribution throughout the different cycles and in their internal organization. L1 To anal ze the suitabili of the criteria of evaluation ro used b the curricular ro'ect of stage. S T-o analyze the activities proposed. in -order to see if they fulfill the conditions for a significant learning.. In this point, it is specially important to pay attention to the activities that must be done in the different moments of the process of learning and teaching. The same activity may help the student to learn and the teacher to have information about the previous knowledge. The following activities must appear in every didactic unit: . Activities-of introdu-ction-motivatio--n: They must motivate the students to learn the reality they are going to be taught. . Activities of previous knowledge: They are done in order to know the ideas and opinions of the students about the contents they are studying. wActivities of development: They help to know the concepts, the procedures or the new attitudes. 1 -w- ..-.. eActivities of synthesis-summary: They are those which make the relation between the different contents already learnt easier. . Activities of consolidation: They are programmed for the students who have not achieved a significant knowledge. 557
. Activities of extension: They let the students go on learning! after doing the activities of development and those which are not essential for the learning process. . Activities of evaluation: They will include the activities directed to the initial, formative and summating evaluation, which were not covered by the previous . . activities. 6 To adapt these materials and didactic recourses to the educative context in which they .. .. . .. . . -----. . ...
558
. Evaluation within the curricular project az @ Teachers will evaluate be-th the s-tud-ents' learning, th-a process of teaching and their own teaching practice, with relation to the achievement-of the educative objectives of the cu. rriculum. *---*--- .. . ----.----.. . --' .. .- ---. ---.
559
The will also evaluate the curricular ro'ect itself, the teaching programme and the actual development of the curriculum. 3
There are two main aspects, to be considered to establish the criteria of evaluation:
- The peculia-rities of the pwn context of the centre. - The criteria of evaluation of every centre.
The function of the criteria is mainly formative. It is essential to have criteria of evaluation for every cycle. * In order to evaluate the learning process we have to take some decisions regarding: the situations, strategies and instruments of evaluation. The req-uisites that the procedures of evaluation must fulfill are:
- To be varied.. - To give concrete information. - To apse diff. event codes. - To be a likable to more or I caused situated s of the learning activity. - To evaluate the transference of the learning to different contexts.
560
''xx. The evaluation is determined in the Curricular Project and, therefore, it must also be decided how to communicate its conte agents students, and the rest of the teachers.
Finally, it is convenient to use the Curricular Project to establish the function of the tutor, as the last responsible of the evaluation. The role of the psychopedagogic counsellor of the centre must also be determined here. From the results of the evaluation, the teachers will adopt the necessary measures, as indicated in the Real Decreto de Currfculo: ''At the end of eve? cycle and as a consequence of the process of evaluation, the tutor of the students will decide if they can promote io the next cycle, taking into account the other teachers' reports''
'When the evaluation is continuous, and the progress of a student does not globally respond to the programmed objedives, the teachers will adopt the necessary measures of educative reinforcement or of curricular adjustment''.
l articular Pro'ed we must also concrete when we have to evaluate (initial, formative and summarize evaluation). Of course, initial evaluation must be done at the beginning . - -. 561
of every cycle in order to determine the level of the students. However, it is also very profitable to do this evaluation at the beginning of every unit, in order to specify the previous knowledge of the students about the contents. C> @ We must also evaluate the teaching grocer. s thro-u-ghout the a-cademic year. The best moment to do s-ot is at the end of a cycle, and s eciall , the moment in which a roup knishes a stage! because the teachers may evaluate the Curricular Pro'ed. Ioball , as it is provided in the ''Real Decreto be Regimen Organics de Ios Centros de Infantry y Primaria''.
In the Curricular Project,.we must as well include the criteria to promo-te-the students to the next cycle. As it is provided in Section 1 1.4 of the ''Real Decreto de Currfculol', a student can only re eét the same stage once during the Primary Education'.
''lo the context of the process of continuous evaluation. When the progress of a student does not globally respond to the programmed objectives, the teachers will adopt the suitable measures of educative reinforcement and of curricular adjustment''.
562
''Within the framework of these measures, at the end of the cycle, they will decide if the student is promoted or not''. (...) ''These decisions require the previous audience of the parents or legal tutors of the student, in case he does not promote to the next c ole''. œ3miElabor#lipn of th: curricplarprolvp.t There are some steps that must be followed to elaborate the Curricular Project: - Elaboration . . . . . - Coordination - Approval - Report . . . . . . . . . - Supervision . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . Body of teache-rs of the Stan-aCommittee of Pedagogic Coordinati-on Teaching Sta-! of the centre lenitive Councile . . . . Technical inspection
The most im octant idea of the Curricular pro'ect is that it is a recess and therefore, it is never ended d it has to vised ve often, because the quality of the teaching can always be improved.
It is also very important to analyze the different Curricular Projects that have been done 563
before, in order to see the changes produced in them. Therefore, the Curricular Project must be written, in order to be able to analyse the necessary changes and the ones that have been already done. In this sense the project is the ''report of the centre''. eve It can be elaborated ''upside-down'' (from the pedagogic committee to the cycles) or ''downside-up'' (the pedagogic committee will revise it), but whichever the strategy, it will have ' to be done in both senses.
ç25 The second strategy of elaboration is inductive-dedudivek
7.8.A Decisions taken in the curricular project
- What to teach?
. Suitability with the context of the general objectives of stage of the official curriculum, taking into account the educative reality and the choices established in the educative Project of the centre. . Suitability of the general objectives and the contents of every area of the optical curriculum, taking into account the educative reality of the centre. - When to teach?
564
. Sequence per cycles of the objectives and contents of every area (intercycle sequence), according to the adjustment of the general objectives and the contents. . General precisions about the organization and the temporalization of the greatest focus of contents of every area selected for every cycle (intercycle sequence). - How to teach? . Criteria and basic options of didactic methodology that may affect either all the areas of the cycle or some of them. . Decisions about the groups of students. . Decisions about the organization of .times and spaces. . Curricular criteria and basic didactic recourses that are going to be used to teach the contents of every area in the different cycles.
- What, when and how to evaluate? --. ElaboratiUn of the criteria of evaluation per cycle according to the criteria of evaluation of the stage that are explained in the official curriculum and to the decisions taken about every cycle in the rest of sections of the Project. . Procedures, instruments and dates of the evaluation of the learning throughout the cycle. . Example of a report of evaluation throughout the cycle, specifying the procedure for its elaboration, the dates and the wqy to communicate the results to parents and students. . Procedures, instruments and dates to evaluate the teaching practice, to revise the programmes and to introduce the suitable corrections. . Criteria to decide the promotion of the students from a cycle to another (or from a stage to another).
565
. Pedagogic actions taken in the case of students that do not achieve the level established in the criteria of evaluation per cycles, either if they promote or not.
(zb Measures of attention to diversity: Tutors-a-es: Organization-and function-inn. @ - '' (culture'' Whenever this is a distinctive feature of the . Specific treatment of the mutt centre. v --- diustment: for stMdents With special educatiye..-q#.#--.-Fd u Organization Of times, .A
materials and backings.
k l.g.tstages of elaboration of the curricular project
To elaborate all these elements is a work which re i e s to be done and it must
566
be understood Ilke that the whole teaching body. For-that reason it is a work which must be divided ' ' . eve centre are res onsible of or anilin this work. However, the M.E.C. must also determine when the basic decisions must be taken. From this point of view, the following stages of elaboration are established, for instance:
- n Se temper 199 e teaching bodies elaborate, at least, the basic aspects of the following elements of the Curricular Project:
1 . The objectives of the cycle within the general objectives of stage, adjusting them to the context. 2. The distribution of the contents per cycle, with special attention to those referring to the first cycle. . 3. Curricular materials and didactic recourses that are going to be used in the areas of the first cycle. 4. Procedures to evaluate the progress of the learning of the students during the first cycle. 5. Criteria of evaluation and promotion of the students. 6. Organization and functioning of the tutorages with special attention to the treatment of the ''multiculture'' (whenever it is a distinctive feature of the centre). - In - - the teaching bodies' develop these elements, completing the following aspects:
567
1. Pedagogic actions for the students who do not achieve the level established in the criteria of evaluation. 2. Adjustments for the students with special educative needs. 3. Procedures to evaluate the teaching practice. - September 19+
1. To incorporate the elements worked and developed during the year as well as the modifications derived from the evaluation done.
k1C z 2. To establish for the rest of the cycles the elements that were elaborated for the / /' first cycle in September 1992. .,/
568
- e end of the Introduction of Primary Education: After the evaluation of the different cycles, and at the end of the introduction of the Primary Education, the Curricular Project will be completed including all the aspects explained before, paying special attention to those referring to the whole stage, with the aim of securing the general coherence of the established agreements, with themselves and with the educative project of the centre. N'xx. www-.- . vp..x . -- U a-xx .- y gjgkjgggàgyy X R.D. 134411991 'dei 6 de Septiembre por el que se establece el curricula de Ia Education Primaria.
B.O.E. Suplemento namers 220. M.LC. PRIMARIA. PROYECTO CURRICULAR. LIBROS MULES, 1992. RESOLUCIGN 5,3.92 POR 1-A QUE SE REGULA LA EMBOMCIUN DE PROYECTOS CURRICULARES PARA LA EDUCACIUN PRIMARIA Y SE ESTABLECEN ORIENTACIONES PARA LA DISTRIBUCIUN DE OBJETIVOS, CONTENIDOS Y CRITERIOS DE EVALUACIUN PAM CADA UNO DE LOS CICLOS (B.O.E., '
569
24 de Marzo de 1992). LT9
570
2.1.3.1.2.
procedures:
- To recognize and make familiar the sounds of the foreign language and its rythm and intonation. - To understand oral messages of different nature and from different sources (teacher, other students, video, tapes): *Global comprehension of oral messages about familiar topics. *Specific comprehension of concrete simple messages in contextualized situations. -To react either linguistically and non-linguistically to different oral messages ana communicative situations: *Production of oommon expressions aimed to satisfy simple needs of communication (greetings, identification, asking and giving information , identification of objects, decriptions, etc). *Use of basic messages previously learnt (polite expressions , etc.) adjusting them to the specific features of the situation. *Active participation in oral exchanges in order to express the most immediate communicative needs within the class and in contexts closer to the student. *Participation in the linguistic exchanges with the aim of having fun (simulations , performances, etc.). *Non-linguistic answers to oral messages (follow instructions , etc.). -
To recognize the grammatical formulas that help them to make questions , to
assert, to reject, to express possession. to quantify , to describe, to narrate, etc... and to use them in order to achieve efficient communication. -To recognize and use the basic strategies of communication, both linguistic (use one word instead of another , etc.) or extralinguistic (gestures, drawings, etc.) which help to overcome communicative problems. - To use the native language's strategies of communication, which let us take advantage of the limited knowledge of the foreign language. Attitudes: 571
-Awareness of the importance of oral communication in a foreign language. -Awareness of the reality of a different culture , reflected in the language. -Receptive and respectful attitude towards the persons who speak a foreign language - Wish to express themselves in a foreign language , participating in the activities (games, songs, etc.). -Awareness of the corrections done when they interprete or produce a text. - Positive and optimist attitude towards their own ability to speak in a foreign language. -Tendency to use imaginatively and creatively, oral messages previously learnt , in different communicative situations. 2.1.3.2.
Uses and fomis of the wrltten language:
2.1.3.2.1.
Concepts:
- Most habitual needs and communicative situations to use the written language. Communicative intentions and characteristics of these situations. *Communicative intentions: greetings, identificatIon and location of objects , expressing needs and wishes, etc. *Characteristics of the communicative situation: type of Iisteners , more or less formal situation, etc. - Vocabulary and Iinguistic structures required to express the basic communicative needs by writing. *Communlcative intentions: greetings, identification , giving and asking for information, identification and location of objects, descriptions, narrations , etc. *General topics: colours, numbers, time, house, family, class, food, likes and dislikes, sports, etc.
572
e) Names of the letters in a foreign language and their correspondence within the writing system. f) Relations between the meaning of the words , their pronunciation and graphical representation. 2.1.3.2.2. -
Procedures:
Production of written texts adjusted to the features of the reader and of the communicative sltuation.
-
Understanding of the written messages of different nature.
*Global comprehension of written messages related the activities done in class. *Global comprehension of brief written messages related to the most immediate needs of communication and to the interests of the speakers. *Global comprehension of easy authentic materials , with visual backing about daily-life topics.
573
-Awareness of the specific elements, previously learnt, in texts which have unkown words and expressions, such as invtations for a birthday party, cards, magazines, etc. - Use of the grapho-phonic correspondences to spell, for instance, the name and the surname, etc. - Production of written texts directed to different readers, answering oral and written stimuli. - Solution of games which require the knowledge of the vocabulary and the ortography used in class. - Awareness of grammatical structures in written texts. - Awareness of some sociocultural aspects which differentiate the foreign language from the mother tongue. 2.1.3.2.3.
Attltudes:
- lnterest and curiosity towards the written texts and appraisal of the role they play in order to satisfy communicatlve needs.
574
-Awareness and appraisal of the importance of reading and writing in a foreign language. - Appraisal for the correct interpretation of easy written texts. g)Interest to know the vocabulary and the basic linguistic structures required to express the essential
communicatlve
needs
in
different
situations. h)Disposition to overcome the difficulties that the use of a foreign language creates, by paying attention to the communicative strategies fo the mother tongue. 2.1.3.3. SocIo cultura! aspects: Concepts: -
Social and cultural aspects of the countries where the foreign language studied is spoken.
*expressions and gestures which go together with the oral expressions: tone, gestures, etc.
575
*Daily-life aspects: Timetables, habits, images of that culture, etc. *Spare time: games, songs, sports, places, etc. i) Presence in Spain of the foreign language learnt: labels, songs, films, etc. j) 2.1.3.3.2. Procedures: -Awareness of some aspects of the countries where the foreign language is spoken. -
Contextualized use in habitual situations of some rules and habits of the countrles where this language is spoken.
-
Comparison of the most relevant aspects of daily life in the countries where the foreign language is spoken, and our own country.
-
Use of authentic materials with the aim of getting the desired information.
2.1.3.3.3. Attltudes:
576
-
Curiosity and respect for the most relevant aspects of daily life and for other sociocultural aspects of the countries where this language is spoken.
-
Appraisal of the sociolinguistic behaviours which help cohabitation.
-
lnterest to know people from other countries.
577
-
Appraisal of the sociolinguistic behaviours which help cohabitation.
-
lnterest to know people from other countries.
2.3 Evaluation criteria. 1.To recognize and reproduce the characteristic phonemes of the foreign language. To recognize and reproduce the characteristic phonemes of the foreign language as well as the basic models of rhythm and intonation, in words and sentences which appear in the context of real use of the language. 2. To grasp the general meaning of oral texts. To grasp the general meaning of oral texts uttered in face to face communication situations, with the help of gestures and mime and the necessary repetitions,
in
which
there
will
appear
combinations of elements previously learnt and which deal with familiar topics, known by the student.
578
3.To extract specific information. To extract specific information, previous required, from oral texts with a simple structure and vocabulary which deal with familiar topics that interest the student (daily life, likes, preferences, opinions and personal experiences). 4. To participate in short oral exchanges. To participate in short oral exchanges related to usual
classroom
understandable characteristics
activities
discourse of
the
producing adapted
situation
an
to
the
and
the
communicative purpose. 5.To
participate
situations.
To
in
simulated participate
communicatlon in
simulated
communication situations which have been previously practised in the classroom, using properly the most usual social interaction formulae in the foreign language.
579
6.To extract the general meaning and some speciflc information. To extract the general meaning and some specific information from short written texts with a lineal development, simple structures and vocabulary, which deal with familiar topics that interest the student. 7.To read simple children's books. To read with the help of the teacher or, the dictionary simple children's books written in the foreign language with visual backup and show comprehension by means of a specific task. 8.To produce short written texts. To produce short written texts, comprehensible and adapted to the characteristics
of
the
situation
and
the
communicative purpose, in which those contents that have been worked in the class can be seen.
580
9.To recognize, sorne sociocultural aspects. To recognize, some sociocultural aspects typical of the foreign language speaking community which are implicit. in the linguistic samples worked on in the classroom.
581
2.3 Evaluation criteria. 1.To recognize and reproduce the characteristic phonemes of the foreign language. To recognize and reproduce the characteristic phonemes of the foreign language as well as the basic models of rhythm and intonation, in words and sentences which appear in the context of real use of the language. 2. To grasp the general meaning of oral texts. To grasp the general meaning of oral texts uttered in face to face communication situations, with the help of gestures and mime and the necessary repetitions,
in
which
there
will
appear
combinations of elements previously learnt and which deal with familiar topics, known by the student.
582
3.To extract specific information. To extract specific information, previous required, from oral texts with a simple structure and vocabulary which deal with familiar topics that interest the student (daily life, likes, preferences, opinions and personal experiences). 4. To participate in short oral exchanges. To participate in short oral exchanges related to usual
classroom
understandable characteristics
activities
discourse of
the
producing adapted
situation
an
to
the
and
the
communicative purpose. 5.To
participate
situations.
To
in
simulated participate
communicatlon in
simulated
communication situations which have been previously practised in the classroom, using properly the most usual social interaction formulae in the foreign language.
583
6.To extract the general meaning and some speciflc information. To extract the general meaning and some specific information from short written texts with a lineal development, simple structures and vocabulary, which deal with familiar topics that interest the student. 7.To read simple children's books. To read with the help of the teacher or, the dictionary simple children's books written in the foreign language with visual backup and show comprehension by means of a specific task. 8.To produce short written texts. To produce short written texts, comprehensible and adapted to the characteristics
of
the
situation
and
the
communicative purpose, in which those contents that have been worked in the class can be seen.
584
9.To recognize, sorne sociocultural aspects. To recognize, some sociocultural aspects typical of the foreign language speaking community which are implicit. in the linguistic samples worked on in the classroom.
585
2.1.3.1.2.
procedures:
- To recognize and make familiar the sounds of the foreign language and its rythm and intonation. - To understand oral messages of different nature and from different sources (teacher, other students, video, tapes): *Global comprehension of oral messages about familiar topics. *Specific comprehension of concrete simple messages in contextualized situations. -To react either linguistically and non-linguistically to different oral messages ana communicative situations: *Production of oommon expressions aimed to satisfy simple needs of communication (greetings, identification, asking and giving information , identification of objects, decriptions, etc). *Use of basic messages previously learnt (polite expressions , etc.) adjusting them to the specific features of the situation. *Active participation in oral exchanges in order to express the most immediate communicative needs within the class and in contexts closer to the student. *Participation in the linguistic exchanges with the aim of having fun (simulations , performances, etc.). *Non-linguistic answers to oral messages (follow instructions , etc.). -
To recognize the grammatical formulas that help them to make questions , to
assert, to reject, to express possession. to quantify , to describe, to narrate, etc... and to use them in order to achieve efficient communication. -To recognize and use the basic strategies of communication, both linguistic (use one word instead of another , etc.) or extralinguistic (gestures, drawings, etc.) which help to overcome communicative problems. - To use the native language's strategies of communication, which let us take advantage of the limited knowledge of the foreign language. Attitudes: 586
-Awareness of the importance of oral communication in a foreign language. -Awareness of the reality of a different culture , reflected in the language. -Receptive and respectful attitude towards the persons who speak a foreign language - Wish to express themselves in a foreign language , participating in the activities (games, songs, etc.). -Awareness of the corrections done when they interprete or produce a text. - Positive and optimist attitude towards their own ability to speak in a foreign language. -Tendency to use imaginatively and creatively, oral messages previously learnt , in different communicative situations. 2.1.3.2.
Uses and fomis of the wrltten language:
2.1.3.2.1.
Concepts:
- Most habitual needs and communicative situations to use the written language. Communicative intentions and characteristics of these situations. *Communicative intentions: greetings, identificatIon and location of objects , expressing needs and wishes, etc. *Characteristics of the communicative situation: type of Iisteners , more or less formal situation, etc. - Vocabulary and Iinguistic structures required to express the basic communicative needs by writing. *Communlcative intentions: greetings, identification , giving and asking for information, identification and location of objects, descriptions, narrations , etc. *General topics: colours, numbers, time, house, family, class, food, likes and dislikes, sports, etc.
587
k)Names of the letters in a foreign language and their correspondence within the writing system. l) Relations between the meaning of the words , their pronunciation and graphical representation. 2.1.3.2.2. -
Procedures:
Production of written texts adjusted to the features of the reader and of the communicative sltuation.
-
Understanding of the written messages of different nature.
*Global comprehension of written messages related the activities done in class. *Global comprehension of brief written messages related to the most immediate needs of communication and to the interests of the speakers. *Global comprehension of easy authentic materials , with visual backing about daily-life topics.
588
-Awareness of the specific elements, previously learnt, in texts which have unkown words and expressions, such as invtations for a birthday party, cards, magazines, etc. - Use of the grapho-phonic correspondences to spell, for instance, the name and the surname, etc. - Production of written texts directed to different readers, answering oral and written stimuli. - Solution of games which require the knowledge of the vocabulary and the ortography used in class. - Awareness of grammatical structures in written texts. - Awareness of some sociocultural aspects which differentiate the foreign language from the mother tongue. 2.1.3.2.3.
Attltudes:
- lnterest and curiosity towards the written texts and appraisal of the role they play in order to satisfy communicatlve needs.
589
-Awareness and appraisal of the importance of reading and writing in a foreign language. - Appraisal for the correct interpretation of easy written texts. m) Interest to know the vocabulary and the basic linguistic structures required to express the essential
communicatlve
needs
in
different
situations. n)Disposition to overcome the difficulties that the use of a foreign language creates, by paying attention to the communicative strategies fo the mother tongue. 2.1.3.3. SocIo cultura! aspects: Concepts: -
Social and cultural aspects of the countries where the foreign language studied is spoken.
*expressions and gestures which go together with the oral expressions: tone, gestures, etc.
590
*Daily-life aspects: Timetables, habits, images of that culture, etc. *Spare time: games, songs, sports, places, etc. o)Presence in Spain of the foreign language learnt: labels, songs, films, etc. p) 2.1.3.3.2. Procedures: -Awareness of some aspects of the countries where the foreign language is spoken. -
Contextualized use in habitual situations of some rules and habits of the countrles where this language is spoken.
-
Comparison of the most relevant aspects of daily life in the countries where the foreign language is spoken, and our own country.
-
Use of authentic materials with the aim of getting the desired information.
2.1.3.3.3. Attltudes:
591
-
Curiosity and respect for the most relevant aspects of daily life and for other sociocultural aspects of the countries where this language is spoken.
-
Appraisal of the sociolinguistic behaviours which help cohabitation.
-
lnterest to know people from other countries.
592
-
Appraisal of the sociolinguistic behaviours which help cohabitation.
-
lnterest to know people from other countries.
593
2.3 Evaluation criteria. 1.To recognize and reproduce the characteristic phonemes of the foreign language. To recognize and reproduce the characteristic phonemes of the foreign language as well as the basic models of rhythm and intonation, in words and sentences which appear in the context of real use of the language. 2. To grasp the general meaning of oral texts. To grasp the general meaning of oral texts uttered in face to face communication situations, with the help of gestures and mime and the necessary repetitions,
in
which
there
will
appear
combinations of elements previously learnt and which deal with familiar topics, known by the student.
594
3.To extract specific information. To extract specific information, previous required, from oral texts with a simple structure and vocabulary which deal with familiar topics that interest the student (daily life, likes, preferences , opinions and personal experiences). 4. To participate in short oral exchanges. To participate in short oral exchanges related to usual
classroom
understandable characteristics
activities
discourse of
the
producing adapted
situation
an
to
the
and
the
communicative purpose. 5.To
participate
situations.
To
in
simulated
communicatlon
participate
in
simulated
communication situations which have been previously practised in the classroom, using properly the most usual social interaction formulae in the foreign language.
595
6.To extract the general meaning and some speciflc information. To extract the general meaning and some specific information from short written texts with a lineal development , simple structures and vocabulary, which deal with familiar topics that interest the student. 7.To read simple children's books. To read with the help of the teacher or, the dictionary simple children's books written in the foreign language with visual backup and show comprehension by means of a specific task. 8.To produce short written texts. To produce short written texts, comprehensible and adapted to the characteristics
of
the
situation
and
the
communicative purpose, in which those contents that have been worked in the class can be seen.
596
9.To recognize, sorne sociocultural aspects. To recognize, some sociocultural aspects typical of the foreign language speaking community which are implicit. in the linguistic samples worked on in the classroom.
597
598
2.3 Evaluation criteria. 1.To recognize and reproduce the characteristic phonemes of the foreign language. To recognize and reproduce the characteristic phonemes of the foreign language as well as the basic models of rhythm and intonation, in words and sentences which appear in the context of real use of the language. 2. To grasp the general meaning of oral texts. To grasp the general meaning of oral texts uttered in face to face communication situations, with the help of gestures and mime and the necessary repetitions,
in
which
there
will
appear
combinations of elements previously learnt and which deal with familiar topics, known by the student.
599
3.To extract specific information. To extract specific information, previous required, from oral texts with a simple structure and vocabulary which deal with familiar topics that interest the student (daily life, likes, preferences, opinions and personal experiences). 4. To participate in short oral exchanges. To participate in short oral exchanges related to usual
classroom
understandable characteristics
activities
discourse of
the
producing adapted
situation
an
to
the
and
the
communicative purpose. 5.To
participate
situations.
To
in
simulated participate
communicatlon in
simulated
communication situations which have been previously practised in the classroom, using properly the most usual social interaction formulae in the foreign language.
600
6.To extract the general meaning and some speciflc information. To extract the general meaning and some specific information from short written texts with a lineal development, simple structures and vocabulary, which deal with familiar topics that interest the student. 7.To read simple children's books. To read with the help of the teacher or, the dictionary simple children's books written in the foreign language with visual backup and show comprehension by means of a specific task. 8.To produce short written texts. To produce short written texts, comprehensible and adapted to the characteristics
of
the
situation
and
the
communicative purpose, in which those contents that have been worked in the class can be seen.
601
9.To recognize, sorne sociocultural aspects. To recognize, some sociocultural aspects typical of the foreign language speaking community which are implicit. in the linguistic samples worked on in the classroom.
602
2.1.3.1.2.
procedures:
- To recognize and make familiar the sounds of the foreign language and its rythm and intonation. - To understand oral messages of different nature and from different sources (teacher, other students, video, tapes): *Global comprehension of oral messages about familiar topics. *Specific comprehension of concrete simple messages in contextualized situations. -To react either linguistically and non-linguistically to different oral messages ana communicative situations: *Production of oommon expressions aimed to satisfy simple needs of communication (greetings, identification, asking and giving information , identification of objects, decriptions, etc). *Use of basic messages previously learnt (polite expressions , etc.) adjusting them to the specific features of the situation. *Active participation in oral exchanges in order to express the most immediate communicative needs within the class and in contexts closer to the student. *Participation in the linguistic exchanges with the aim of having fun (simulations , performances, etc.). *Non-linguistic answers to oral messages (follow instructions , etc.). -
To recognize the grammatical formulas that help them to make questions , to
assert, to reject, to express possession. to quantify , to describe, to narrate, etc... and to use them in order to achieve efficient communication. -To recognize and use the basic strategies of communication, both linguistic (use one word instead of another , etc.) or extralinguistic (gestures, drawings, etc.) which help to overcome communicative problems. - To use the native language's strategies of communication, which let us take advantage of the limited knowledge of the foreign language. Attitudes: 603
-Awareness of the importance of oral communication in a foreign language. -Awareness of the reality of a different culture , reflected in the language. -Receptive and respectful attitude towards the persons who speak a foreign language - Wish to express themselves in a foreign language , participating in the activities (games, songs, etc.). -Awareness of the corrections done when they interprete or produce a text. - Positive and optimist attitude towards their own ability to speak in a foreign language. -Tendency to use imaginatively and creatively, oral messages previously learnt , in different communicative situations. 2.1.3.2.
Uses and fomis of the wrltten language:
2.1.3.2.1.
Concepts:
- Most habitual needs and communicative situations to use the written language. Communicative intentions and characteristics of these situations. *Communicative intentions: greetings, identificatIon and location of objects , expressing needs and wishes, etc. *Characteristics of the communicative situation: type of Iisteners , more or less formal situation, etc. - Vocabulary and Iinguistic structures required to express the basic communicative needs by writing. *Communlcative intentions: greetings, identification , giving and asking for information, identification and location of objects, descriptions, narrations , etc. *General topics: colours, numbers, time, house, family, class, food, likes and dislikes, sports, etc.
604
q)Names of the letters in a foreign language and their correspondence within the writing system. r) Relations between the meaning of the words , their pronunciation and graphical representation. 2.1.3.2.2. -
Procedures:
Production of written texts adjusted to the features of the reader and of the communicative sltuation.
-
Understanding of the written messages of different nature.
*Global comprehension of written messages related the activities done in class. *Global comprehension of brief written messages related to the most immediate needs of communication and to the interests of the speakers. *Global comprehension of easy authentic materials , with visual backing about daily-life topics.
605
-Awareness of the specific elements, previously learnt, in texts which have unkown words and expressions, such as invtations for a birthday party, cards, magazines, etc. - Use of the grapho-phonic correspondences to spell, for instance, the name and the surname, etc. - Production of written texts directed to different readers, answering oral and written stimuli. - Solution of games which require the knowledge of the vocabulary and the ortography used in class. - Awareness of grammatical structures in written texts. - Awareness of some sociocultural aspects which differentiate the foreign language from the mother tongue. 2.1.3.2.3.
Attltudes:
- lnterest and curiosity towards the written texts and appraisal of the role they play in order to satisfy communicatlve needs.
606
-Awareness and appraisal of the importance of reading and writing in a foreign language. - Appraisal for the correct interpretation of easy written texts. s) Interest to know the vocabulary and the basic linguistic structures required to express the essential
communicatlve
needs
in
different
situations. t) Disposition to overcome the difficulties that the use of a foreign language creates, by paying attention to the communicative strategies fo the mother tongue. 2.1.3.3. SocIo cultura! aspects: Concepts: -
Social and cultural aspects of the countries where the foreign language studied is spoken.
*expressions and gestures which go together with the oral expressions: tone, gestures, etc.
607
*Daily-life aspects: Timetables, habits, images of that culture, etc. *Spare time: games, songs, sports, places, etc. u)Presence in Spain of the foreign language learnt: labels, songs, films, etc. v) 2.1.3.3.2. Procedures: -Awareness of some aspects of the countries where the foreign language is spoken. -
Contextualized use in habitual situations of some rules and habits of the countrles where this language is spoken.
-
Comparison of the most relevant aspects of daily life in the countries where the foreign language is spoken, and our own country.
-
Use of authentic materials with the aim of getting the desired information.
2.1.3.3.3. Attltudes:
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-
Curiosity and respect for the most relevant aspects of daily life and for other sociocultural aspects of the countries where this language is spoken.
-
Appraisal of the sociolinguistic behaviours which help cohabitation.
-
lnterest to know people from other countries.
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-
Appraisal of the sociolinguistic behaviours which help cohabitation.
-
lnterest to know people from other countries.
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2.3 Evaluation criteria. 1.To recognize and reproduce the characteristic phonemes of the foreign
language. To
recognize and reproduce the characteristic phonemes of the foreign language as well as the basic models of rhythm and intonation, in words and sentences which appear in the context of real use of the language. 2. To grasp the general meaning of oral texts. To grasp the general meaning of oral texts uttered in face to face communication situations, with the help of gestures and mime and the necessary repetitions, in which there will appear combinations of elements previously learnt and which deal with familiar topics, known by the student.
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3.To extract specific information. To extract specific information, previous required, from oral texts with a simple structure and vocabulary which deal with familiar topics that interest
the
preferences,
student
(daily
opinions
life,
and
likes,
personal
experiences). 4. To participate in short oral exchanges. To participate in short oral exchanges related to usual
classroom
understandable characteristics
activities
discourse of
the
producing adapted
situation
an
to the and
the
communicative purpose.
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5.To participate in simulated communicatlon situations.
To
participate
in
simulated
communication situations which have been previously practised in the classroom, using properly the most usual social interaction formulae in the foreign language. 6.To extract the general meaning and some speciflc information. To extract the general meaning and some specific information from short written texts with a lineal development, simple structures and vocabulary, which deal with familiar topics that interest the student. 7.To read simple children's books. To read with the help of the teacher or, the dictionary simple children's language
books with
written visual
in
backup
the and
foreign show
comprehension by means of a specific task.
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8.To produce short written texts. To produce short written texts, comprehensible and adapted to the characteristics of the situation and the communicative
purpose,
in
which
those
contents that have been worked in the class can be seen. 9.To recognize, sorne sociocultural aspects. To recognize, some sociocultural aspects typical of the foreign language speaking community which are implicit. in the linguistic samples worked on in the classroom.
TEMA 21.- LA PROGRAMACIÓN DEL ÁREA DE LENGUAS EXTRANJERAS: UNIDADES DE PROGRAMACIÓN. CRITERIOS PARA LA SECUENCIACIÓN Y TEMPORALIZACIÓN DE CONTENIDOS Y OBJETIVOS. SELECCIÓN DE LA METODOLOGÍA A EMPLEAR EN LAS ACTIVIDADES DE APRENDIZAJE Y DE EVALUACIÓN 1.
INTRODUCCIÓN
1.1. EL PROYECTO CURRICULAR DE CENTRO ............................................................................................................................................. 2 1.2 EL PROYECTO CURRICULAR DE ETAPA Y DE CICLO. ............................................................................................................................................. 3 614
2. LA PROGRAMACIÓN DEL ÁREA DE LENGUAS EXTRANJERAS: UNIDADES DE PROGRAMACIÓN. ............................................................................................................................................. 3 2.1. La programación anual ............................................................................................................................................. 3 2.2 La programación de unidades didácticas. ............................................................................................................................................. 4 2.3 La programación de las sesiones de clase. ............................................................................................................................................. 6 3 CRITERIOS PARA LA SECUENCIACIÓN Y TEMPORALIZACIÓN DE CONTENIDOS Y OBJETIVOS ............................................................................................................................................. 9 3.1 Los objetivos ............................................................................................................................................. 9 3.2 Los contenidos ............................................................................................................................................. 12 4. SELECCIÓN DE LA METODOLOGÍA A EMPLEAR EN LAS ACTIVIDADES DE APRENDIZAJE Y DE EVALUACIÓN ............................................................................................................................................. 18 5. RELACIÓN DEL TEMA CON LOS DISEÑOS CURRICULARES DE LA JUNTA DE ANDALUCÍA ............................................................................................................................................. 24 6. PROPUESTA DIDÁCTICA ............................................................................................................................................. 25
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7. BIBLIOGRAFÍA ............................................................................................................................................. 37 8. ANEXOS ............................................................................................................................................. 39
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1. INTRODUCCIÓN El artículo 13 del Decreto de Educación Primaria establece que “los profesores programarán su actividad docente de acuerdo con el currículum de la Educación Primaria y en consonancia con los respectivos proyectos curriculares de etapa y ciclo”. Por “currículum de la Educación Primaria” se entiende el conjunto de objetivos, contenidos, orientaciones metodológicas y criterios de evaluación que regulan la práctica docente en dicha etapa. Se encuentra en los Anexos del citado Decreto. “Los proyectos curriculares de etapa y ciclo” están incluidos en el Proyecto Curricular de Centro y éste, a su vez, en el Proyecto de Centro. "El Proyecto de Centro es el instrumento para la planificación que enumera y define las notas de identidad del centro, establece el marco de referencia global y los planteamientos educativos de carácter general que definen y distinguen al centro, formula las finalidades educativas que pretende conseguir, adapta el currículo establecido en propuestas globales de intervención didáctica, adecuadas a su contexto específico, y expresa la estructura organizativa del centro. Su finalidad es dotar de coherencia y personalidad propia a los centros." (BOJA de 25/6/1992, punto III, 2 de 23 de julio de 1992). El Proyecto de Centro debe ser una exposición clara, concisa y breve de las intenciones educativas, estructuras, reglamentos y diseño curricular de una comunidad escolar. Debe adaptar aquellos principios y estructuras educativas que se consideran adecuados para una comunidad. Debe ser un documento dinámico y modificable en función de la práctica educativa, a la cual debe servir como guía. Es necesario que sea una creación colectiva de la comunidad educativa, que expresa equilibradamente sus intenciones, sirviendo como marco de las actividades educativas y, por lo tanto, como facilitador del trabajo docente. El Proyecto de Centro consta de varios instrumentos para la planificación a medio plazo, que garantizan la estabilidad de la acción educativa: finalidades educativas, proyecto curricular y reglamento de organización y funcionamiento. A corto plazo, en el transcurso de un curso escolar, incluye otros instrumentos que concretan la acción educativa: plan anual de centro y la memoria final. EL PROYECTO CURRICULAR DE CENTRO Por (PCC) se entiende un conjunto de actuaciones articuladas entre sí y compartidas por un equipo docente de un centro educativo mediante el cual se concretan y desarrollan las intenciones y prescripciones generales contenidas en los decretos de enseñanza para las distintas etapas educativas de Andalucía. Constituye el instrumento que hace explícito el proyecto educativo de un centro docente de una realidad concreta, dándole coherencia y continuidad (Guía para la elaboración del PCC. Consejería de Educación y Ciencia de la Junta de Andalucía). Por lo tanto, el PCC tiene en cuenta no sólo los Decretos de Enseñanza para Andalucía, sino también las Finalidades Educativas del Centro, el otro elemento del Proyecto de Centro, que recoge el contexto al que hay que adaptar los citados Decretos: perfil del alumnado, características del Centro, la comunidad en la que se inserta. El PCC no debe ser un mero trámite burocrático desconocido por la comunidad escolar, sino que debe ser un instrumento colectivo que exprese los criterios compartidos
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por el profesorado de un centro y favorezca la mejora de la calidad educativa del centro, mediante la reflexión y la renovación pedagógica de la práctica docente. El Proyecto Curricular de Centro consta fundamentalmente de los Proyectos Curriculares de Etapa o Etapas y sus correspondientes ciclos, que contextualizan el Decreto de Enseñanza a la realidad del centro, sirviendo de guía para realizar la programación de aula. Sin embargo, el PCC quedaría incompleto si no contara con otros elementos o planes: * Plan de Organización del PCC, que contextualiza la legislación general a las características de la comunidad escolar. * Plan de Orientación para lograr una mayor adaptación de los procesos de enseñanza a las características del alumnado. * Plan de Formación del Profesorado o relación organizada de necesidades de autoperfeccionamiento detectado por el profesorado a partir del análisis crítico sobre su práctica docente. * Plan de Evaluación del PCC: análisis de los aspectos prioritarios para introducir cambios y ajustes en orden a conseguir un Proyecto de Centro más coherente. EL PROYECTO CURRICULAR DE ETAPA Y DE CICLO Uno de los elementos del PCC es el Proyecto Curricular de Etapa, que "constituye un conjunto de decisiones curriculares articuladas entre sí y compartidas por el equipo docente de una etapa educativa. Su objetivo principal es concretar las intenciones y prescripciones generales contenidas en los Anexos correspondientes a los diseños curriculares de cada una de las etapas educativa contenidos en los Decretos de Enseñanza de Andalucía y expresar, así, el Proyecto Curricular de un determinado equipo docente. La principal finalidad es dotar de coherencia la actuación didáctica en cada uno de los ciclos. Para elaborarlo hay que responder a una serie de preguntas: *¿Qué enseñar? Concreción e interrelación de los objetivos generales de la etapa con los de cada área. Distribución por ciclos. Priorización y secuenciación de los objetivos. *¿Cuándo enseñar? Orientaciones para la selección, organización y secuenciación de los contenidos de la etapa, distribuyéndolos por ciclos y cursos. *¿Cómo enseñar? Concreción de los principios metodológicos de la etapa y de las áreas curriculares. *¿Qué, cuándo, cómo evaluar? Concreción de los criterios de evaluación por ciclos y criterios de promoción.
2.
LA PROGRAMACIÓN DEL ÁREA DE LENGUAS EXTRANJERAS: UNIDADES DE PROGRAMACIÓN El Proyecto Curricular de Etapa es un instrumento de planificación a medio plazo, en el que está implicado el equipo docente. A corto plazo, el equipo docente realizará una programación de cada uno de los ciclos y cursos de la etapa en el área de Lengua Inglesa, que partirá del estudio de la situación en que se encuentra el alumnado, teniendo en cuenta que “la unidad de programación y evaluación de la Educación Primaria es el ciclo” (artículo 3,4 del Decreto). Antes de continuar, es necesario decir que en el área anglosajona se hace una distinción entre syllabus design, que se refiere a los criterios para decidir la selección y 618
secuenciación de los contenidos, y course design o language program design, que dice cómo se llevará a cabo el syllabus teniendo en cuenta los objetivos, la metodología, las actividades, los recursos y la evaluación.
PROGRAMACIÓN ANUAL La programación anual de un curso, llamada “larga”, constará de todos los elementos de la planificación: 1. Cabecera con el nombre del centro, del profesor responsable, el ciclo, área y curso académico. 2. Selección de los contenidos estructurados unidades didácticas quincenales que contemplen todos los contenidos: conceptuales (funciones, vocabulario, gramática, pronunciación, aspectos socioculturales), procedimentales (las habilidades comunicativas) y actitudinales. Los temas de las unidades didácticas tendrán en cuenta los intereses y necesidades del alumnado, una vez analizados en el diagnóstico inicial. 3. Actividades generales como diagnóstico inicial, repaso, evaluación final... 4. Objetivos generales del área teniendo en cuenta el Proyecto Curricular del Ciclo. 5. Repertorio de recursos didácticos cuya utilización se prevé a lo largo del curso. Previamente se habrá estudiado la operatividad del material existente en el centro. 6. Temporalización: fechas de comienzo y fin de las unidades didácticas, teniendo en cuenta los días hábiles y las festividades. 7. Consideraciones generales sobre el alumnado y metodología más adecuada. Normalmente, en la práctica docente, las programaciones largas se limitan al punto 6, es decir, a la temporalización de las unidades didácticas, dando por entendido que los otros elementos están incluidos en el Proyecto Curricular de Ciclo.
PROGRAMACIÓN DE LAS UNIDADES DIDÁCTICAS Se pueden hacer otras programaciones intermedias, por ejemplo, trimestrales, aunque lo normal es pasar de la anual a las unidades didácticas (lesson plan) con una duración aproximada de una quincena. Antes de planificar la unidad didáctica hay tener en cuenta algunas consideraciones: 1. La más importante es el libro de texto y el “syllabus” (organización de los contenidos) que propone. Los libros de texto son útiles, ya que ofrecen materiales vivos e interesantes, progresión sensata de los contenidos lingüísticos. Los buenos libros aportan resúmenes, especialmente los gramaticales, que permiten revisar fácilmente; son sistemáticos en cuanto a la cantidad de vocabulario y permiten al alumno aprender por sí mismo. Sin embargo, el profesor no debe ser un esclavo del libro, sino que debe omitir, recombinar o complementarlo. Para ello debe conocer todo el libro muy bien. Por otra parte hay que tener presente que los libros pueden producir efectos contrarios (aburrimiento del alumnado) cuando se utilizan abusivamente. Normalmente los libros suelen concentrarse en actividades para presentar el nuevo lenguaje y en la práctica controlada del mismo. En cada unidad nos encontramos con el mismo esquema y formato, por lo que no se adaptan a las características de cada clase, que son únicas. Algunos libros incluso no están equilibrados en cuanto a las habilidades que desarrollan o a las actividades, que suelen carecer de variedad. 1. En otro orden, los profesores deben conocer su oficio: el idioma que quieren enseñar, las estrategias didácticas específicas para el nivel, las ayudas de las que puede disponer,
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el amplio repertorio de actividades para llevar a cabo, que deben estar interrelacionadas de modo que unas refuercen a otras. Es importante conocer las fases de una unidad (presentación, práctica y producción), así como las técnicas adecuadas en cada fase. Debe dominar las habilidades para dirigir la clase: agrupamientos, disciplina... 2. Para que la programación sea realista, es importante que el profesorado conozca la institución o el centro en que trabaja: horarios, condiciones físicas de la clase y del centro, material disponible, el proyecto curricular de etapa y ciclo, restricciones... 3. Por supuesto debe conocer a sus alumnos: edad, sexo, clase social, ocupación de los padres, así como los factores sociales, políticos y religiosos que puedan influir en las relaciones personales. Es necesario que conozca sus antecedentes académicos (motivación, intereses, conocimientos previos...) y especialmente sus necesidades lingüísticas. 4. El profesor debe realizar una preparación cuidadosa de la unidad didáctica. Por ejemplo, debe tener en cuenta si el material es autónomo respecto a aspectos previos o posteriores o si debe corregir los deberes de casa. Es fundamental tener preparado todo antes de comenzar las clases, haciendo especial hincapié en los materiales: libros de texto, fotocopias, reproductor de cintas, etc., así como en los ejercicios y actividades, que deben ser variados y motivadores, especialmente para los diez últimos minutos: juegos, crucigramas, adivinanzas... Es aconsejable que el profesor ensaye en casa y anticipe los posibles problemas de conceptos, formas o pronunciación que puedan surgir. También hay que tener en cuenta que hay muchos factores que influyen en la planificación y, por lo tanto, imponen restricciones al profesor al elegir unas determinadas técnicas o materiales. • Restricciones prácticas: duración de la unidad didáctica, número de clases a la semana, momento del día (por la mañana, por la tarde, a primera hora, a última hora...), el número de alumnos, el mobiliario, disponibilidad de materiales. • La personalidad del profesor, entrenamiento previo, actitud... • El alumnado: las diferentes necesidades de cada uno de ellos, su nivel de inglés (a veces hay enormes diferencias en cuanto al dominio de las destrezas, por lo se recomienda el aprendizaje autónomo con materiales adecuados), sus intereses, su edad, antecedentes educativos (¿están acostumbrados a trabajar en grupo?), actitudes, personalidad. • Motivación y mantenimiento del interés. Aumentará en la medida que el alumnado conoce los objetivos y su importancia para aprender inglés. Es fundamentar organizar actividades significativas, relevantes y variadas. La programación de la unidad didáctica debe contener los siguientes elementos: 1. Datos del diagnóstico inicial o de los resultados de la evaluación en las anteriores unidades didácticas. Identificación de los intereses y conocimientos previos del alumnado. Descripción de la clase (nivel o curso, condiciones físicas de la clase, tiempo disponible...). 2. Determinación del tema y los consiguientes contenidos. Relación con los temas transversales. 3. Formulación de los objetivos didácticos o de aprendizaje.
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4. Selección y organización de los contenidos, distinguiendo conceptos, procedimientos y actitudes y relacionándolos con los objetivos. Conexión con otras áreas de conocimiento. 5. Secuenciación y organización de las actividades del alumnado: de introducción/motivación, sobre los conocimientos previos, de desarrollo, de revisión/ampliación y de evaluación. Valoración de la autonomía. 6. Temporalización en sesiones. 7. Metodología: enfoque y teorías de aprendizaje, estrategias de enseñanza y aprendizaje, agrupamientos, espacios. Papel del profesor. 8. Recursos y apoyos 9. Tipo de evaluación (inicial, formativa o sumativa, autoevaluación y heteroevaluación), instrumentos y técnicas. Criterios de evaluación. 10. Orientación y tutoría. 11. Medidas de atención a la diversidad. Optatividad. Diversificación curricular. Organización de los recursos personales y materiales dirigidos a los alumnos con necesidades educativas especiales. Programas específicos. 12. Recuperación. Proacción. 13. Valoración de la ejecución de la unidad didáctica.
PROGRAMACIÓN DE LAS SESIONES O CLASES En cada sesión o clase, hay que concretar estos elementos. El número de sesiones variará en razón de las horas semanales asignadas (dos horas para el ciclo segundo y tres para el tercero) y la duración de las mismas, que normalmente son de una hora, de tres cuartos de hora o de media hora. Son posibles sesiones de menos de 20 minutos. Es conveniente escribir la planificación en una tarjeta o bien llevar un diario de clase, indicando el tiempo dedicado a cada fase. Por detrás se incluirán notas y comentarios que puedan servir para futuras clases. En Fun Boat! de la colección materiales curriculares para la Educación Primaria, hay varios ejemplos de programación de unidades didácticas especificando la temporalización de las sesiones. Hemos extraído la correspondiente a MY NEW HOUSE. 1ª sesión. El profesor o la profesora presenta la unidad, haciendo un trabajo de Gran Grupo donde se comente la historia del cómic THIS IS MY NEW HOUSE (Sheet 1). Como siempre la lectura se hará al final de la unidad. Se reparten revistas a los diferentes grupos y se les pide que busquen habitaciones de casas y que las peguen en cartulinas. Cada grupo enseña sus cartulinas y el profesor o la profesora presenta las partes de la casa: “This is the bathroom”; en los grupos más alejados usa: “That is the kitchen”. Luego este mismo ejercicio se hace por los miembros de cada grupo. Con el mural de la casa 6 se repasa y afianza de una forma directa el vocabulario (sólo habitaciones). 2ª sesión. Se comienza con la canción 10 de la unidad mientras la clase se acomoda. Con el mural 6, se repasan las partes de la casa y se muestra la grafía correspondiente. Se reparte la Sheet 2 donde se deben recortar las habitaciones de la casa y pegarlas en donde corresponde. Una vez corregida, hacemos la Sheet 3, que es un crossword con las
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habitaciones de la casa. Cuando se conozcan las partes de la casa, se presentarán la mitad de las palabras del vocabulario, haciendo hincapié en las de uso más común. 3ª sesión. Se comienza con la canción 10 y un repaso oral de lo aprendido. Se hacen dibujos de las partes de la casa con sus grafías y conforme vayan aprendiendo muebles se van colocando los carteles en la clase. Se pasa a hacer la Sheet 4. En ella se deben colocar los nombres correctos en cada casillero. El profesor o la profesora señala un dibujo y pregunta: “What is this?”, para contestar seguidamente: “This is...”. Repite el ejercicio en grupa e individualmente hasta cerciorarse de que ha sido comprendido. Se hace la Sheet 5, los alumnos y alumnas deben completar las palabras contestando a las preguntas. Una vez terminada la ficha se pregunta individualmente de forma oral. 4ª sesión. Se comienza la clase con la canción 10. Se repasa el vocabulario dado con preguntas de “What’s this?” para que la clase responda “This is...”. Se presenta de modo directo y usando el mural 6 el resto de los muebles y cosas de la casa. Cuando se aprendan, se presenta la grafía. Se pasa la Sheet 6, que tiene dos partes: la primera los niños y niñas deben poner el nombre de cada habitación en el dibujo; la segunda, deben mirar el dibujo y completar las cosas que hay en él. Se reparte el material de explotación de la canción y se comienza a trabajar por partes, intentando averiguar qué palabras faltan. 5ª sesión. Se comienza trabajando con la canción 10. No importa que muchas estructuras no se comprendan, lo importante es que identifiquen palabras. Se hace la Sheet 7, siguiendo las líneas y escribiendo el nombre de cada cosa. Pasamos a hacer la Sheet 8, donde se debe seguir a la pista por toda la casa para averiguar dónde se encuentra el chocolate. Se canta la canción 10. 6ª sesión. Se comienza cantando la canción 10. Se repasa preguntando: “Where is the TV?”, para que los alumnos y las alumnas contesten: “It’s in the sitting-room” o “In the sittingroom”. Pasa a hacer la Sheet 9, donde tienen que elegir entre He, She o It. Se repasa aquellos aspectos de la programación que hayan quedado “flojos”. 7ª sesión. Se comienza con la canción 10. Se repasa todo el vocabulario. Se pasan la Sheets 10a y 10b para hacer un pair work. Un alumno o alumna de cada pareja sólo pueden ver la casa A o la B. Después, el alumno o alumna A dice: “This room is number 1”; y enumera todos los muebles de la habitación. El B debe colocar en su ficha y en el lugar correcto el nombre de la habitación. El proceso se continúa hasta que la alumna o el alumno B tiene los cuatro nombres puestos, y se repite al revés. Después la pareja comprueba si todo está correcto. 8ª sesión. Hemos llegado casi al final de la unidad, es la hora de realizar y explotar la lectura del cómic THIS IS MY NEW HOUSE. Se comienza presentando el juego The House Game (Puedes fotocopiar la Sheet 11 en transparencia de acetato para el retroproyector). Por parejas se coge una copia de The House Game (Sheet 11). Se comienza en START HERE y sale la persona que saque la mayor puntuación en el dado. Siguiendo las flechas debe decir correctamente el nombre de los muebles que aparecen en cada casilla; si acierta, vuelve a tirar; si falla le toca a la otra. El decir alguna puntuación del dado en español equivale a perder el turno. Cuando se dé la vuelta completa a su sección y llegue de nuevo a START HERE, debe decir al menos 4 muebles de la habitación que elija el compañero o la 622
compañera. Si acierta la habitación, pasa a su propiedad. El juego lo gana quien consiga las cuatro habitaciones. Se puede arrebatar una habitación diciendo más muebles que los que el compañero o compañera dijo (¡ojo! es conveniente apuntar el número de muebles que cada uno dice). Si caes en un STOP, pierdes el turno. Si caes en un GOOD LUCK!, avanzas dos puestos. 9ª sesión. En esta sesión se realizarán las autoevaluaciones EL ESPEJITO y YO OPINO. Se presenta la FICHA DE VOCABULARIO, para repasar y colorear. Este modelo de programación propuesto por la Consejería de Educación y Ciencia de la Junta de Andalucía tiene el inconveniente de que los objetivos, contenidos y criterios de evaluación sólo se hacen explícitos una vez para toda la unidad didáctica. Sin embargo, consideramos necesario tenerlos en cuenta, aunque sea mentalmente para no perderse. Hammer ofrece un modelo de programación por sesiones (no es necesario reflejar por escrito), que incluye una descripción de la clase (alumnado, condiciones físicas...) y el trabajo realizado recientemente: el tema, el contenido, destrezas desarrolladas...Además se explicitan: • OBJETIVOS: especificaremos los objetivos de la clase, las capacidades que intentamos desarrollar: identificar, usar, entender, expresar... (to read to confirm expectations). • CONTENIDOS: es la parte de la programación que más tiempo le dedicaremos: conceptos (funciones, estructuras, situaciones, vocabulario, pronunciación y cultura), procedimientos (destrezas) y actitudes. En la medida de lo posible todos ellos deben aprenderse integradamente, pero en las distintas clases se puede dar prioridad a uno de ellos: lectura, conversación, aspectos culturales, pronunciación... • DESARROLLO DE LA CLASE - PRECALENTAMIENTO – motivación (0WARM-UP): el objetivo es contextualizar la escena cultural situacional, lingüística y semánticamente. 0Revisión de los contenidos de las lecciones anteriores. - PRESENTACIÓN de los contenidos y de las actividades siguiendo el libro o no. Determinaremos el contexto o situación (en casa, en la tienda...). Indicaremos la posible utilización de apoyos didácticos y con cursos superiores utilizaremos la explicación gramatical, si fuera necesario. Cada sesión suele desarrollar más intensamente alguna destreza comunicativa o contenido: vocabulario, función, reading, listening, pronunciación... - PRÁCTICA mediante ejercicios y actividades en grupo, por parejas e individualmente. En los primeros niveles estará muy controlada, dejando libertad progresivamente. Hay que determinar cómo, cuándo y dónde hacer las correcciones de los errores. Hay que prever los posibles problemas que puedan surgir y las actividades alternativas. - 0PRODUCCIÓN (actividades “follow-up”) en clase y en casa, si fuera necesario.
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3. CRITERIOS PARA LA SECUENCIACIÓN Y TEMPORALIZACIÓN DE CONTENIDOS Y OBJETIVOS Los contenidos y los objetivos están tan interrelacionados que es imposible definir o explicitar uno sin mencionar el otro. La diferencia estriba en que el objetivo enfatiza la capacidad que hay que desarrollar (captar información, comprender), mientras que el contenido especifica el objeto sobre el que se ejerce la capacidad (un cuento): Objetivo: captar información general y específica en un cuento. Contenido precedimental: comprensión de un cuento. Casi todos los objetivos vienen expresados mediante un verbo y un complemento directo. El verbo se refiere a la destreza o habilidad intelectual (reconocer, comprender, aplicar, analizar, sintetizar, valorar). Es el aspecto formal. El complemento directo es el contenido propiamente. Estos dos objetivos del área de Lengua Inglesa tratan de desarrollar la misma habilidad, pero difieren en cuanto a los contenidos, destacando en el primer caso el significado o el mensaje de un texto, mientras en el segundo los elementos comunicativos que se utilizan para transmitir la información (funciones, vocabulario, gramática, pronunciación...). 1.- Comprender informaciones generales y específicas en textos orales y escritos sencillos... 5.- Comprender ( y usar) los elementos lingüísticos y no lingüísticos... De ahí que se incluyan en el mismo epígrafe ambos elementos de la programación. No obstante, para un mejor estudio los trataremos aisladamente. LOS OBJETIVOS En el Decreto de Educación Primaria, lo importante es lograr los objetivos, convirtiéndose los contenidos en instrumentos para alcanzarlos. Pero ¿cómo se entienden estos objetivos? Hay dos clases de objetivos: los propios de procesos formativos finalizados que se oponen a los de procesos abiertos, como los experienciales o expresivos, en los que las metas no están claramente definidas. En el primer grupo se incluyen los denostados objetivos operativos, pero también los objetivos por capacidades tal como lo plantearon Gagné-Briggs en 1974, quienes distinguen la acción que hay que realizar, el objeto o producto final, las circunstancias o condiciones en que se considera alcanzado el objetivo, así como los instrumentos y limitaciones. Sin embargo, lo más importante es determinar la capacidad o habilidad mental que se va a desarrollar con la acción. En este sentido se entienden los objetivos del Decreto de Enseñanzas, que se diferencian claramente de los objetivos operativos en el sentido clásico y de los expresivos. Se trata de desarrollar una capacidad, que consideraremos desarrollada si se alcanzan los criterios de evaluación establecidos previamente. Así los objetivos operativos utilizan verbos que indican acciones observables objetivamente como escribir, recitar, hacer, comparar: mientras que los objetivos expresivos usan verbos de acción como "realizar ejercicios, trabajar, investigar, descubrir, practicar. Estos últimos verbos indican más la actividad que se va a realizar que los
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objetivos que se van a conseguir, pues los que realmente se consigan al final diferirán de un alumno a otro. Los verbos de los objetivos por capacidades del Decreto aluden, como hemos mencionados anteriormente, a las habilidades que hay que desarrollar (cognitivas, actitudinales e incluso psicomotrices): comprender, producir, leer comprensivamente, establecer relaciones, mostrar actitudes abiertas, transferir conocimientos y experiencias... En este sentido, los objetivos son considerados como intenciones que sustentan el diseño y la realización de las actividades necesarias para la consecución de las grandes finalidades educativas, promover el desarrollo integral del individuo y facilitar la construcción de una sociedad más justa y solidaria. Son metas que guían los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje ayudando al profesorado en la organización de su labor. Constituyen un marco para decidir las posibles direcciones a seguir. En función de los contextos y necesidades particulares de los individuos, los equipos de profesores podrán establecer criterios de ordenación de los objetivos a desarrollar en cada etapa educativa. También es importante analizar las relaciones entre distintas capacidades, matizar algunos objetivos, priorizar unos respecto a otros e incluso incorporar algunos nuevos teniendo en cuenta la realidad a la que se van a adaptar. Por su carácter referencial y orientador, los objetivos tienen varios niveles de concreción en el centro, yendo desde las Finalidades Educativas, los más generales, hasta la programación en unidades didácticas, la más cercana al alumnado. Los objetivos generales de etapa del Decreto de Primaria se concretan en los de área en los diferentes ciclos, en un intento de adecuarse a cada realidad escolar, con las condiciones propias de cada contexto y de cada persona. Cada objetivo general de la etapa está muy directamente relacionado con los objetivos generales de un área. En el caso del área de Lengua Inglesa, OBJETIVO GENERAL DE LA ETAPA RELACIONADO CON LA LENGUA INGLESA i) Comprender y expresar mensajes orales y escritos sencillos y contextualizados en una lengua extranjera. OBJETIVOS GENERALES DEL ÁREA DE LENGUA INGLESA RELACIONADOS DIRECTAMENTE CON EL OBJETIVO GENERAL DE LA ETAPA. 1.- Comprender informaciones generales y específicas en textos orales y escritos sencillos producidos en situaciones de comunicación conocidas y habituales, con una intención de comunicación concreta. 2.- Producir textos orales y escritos en lengua extranjera que sean breves y sencillos, en situaciones de comunicación reales o simuladas y que conecten con el mundo experiencial de los alumnos. Otros objetivos generales de la etapa también tienen relación con esta área o, de otra forma, el área de Lengua Extranjera puede contribuir a conseguir los otros objetivos generales. Sirva como ejemplo el siguiente objetivo general de etapa: j) Comunicarse a través de medios de expresión verbal, corporal, visual, plástica, musical y matemática, desarrollando la sensibilidad estética, la creatividad y la capacidad para disfrutar de las obras y manifestaciones artísticas.
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Este objetivo está relacionado con el siguiente objetivo general del área, al menos en lo que respecta a la comunicación no lingüística. 5.- Comprender y usar los elementos lingüísticos y no lingüísticos que intervienen en situaciones habituales de interacción social y comunicación para conseguir que ésta sea más fácil y fluida. Los objetivos generales de área se distribuyen en los dos ciclos, teniendo en cuenta que los resultados concretos y los plazos de tiempo que necesita cada alumno para conseguirlos son diferentes. Por este motivo, los objetivos de ciclo no deben convertirse en barreras que seleccione al alumnado. Por otra parte, hay que tener en cuenta que el grado de desarrollo de un objetivo en un determinado ciclo está determinado por la complejidad o dificultad del contenido al que se aplique más que a la capacidad en sí. Puesto que los nuevos objetivos pretenden desarrollar las habilidades humanas, será necesario conocerlas bien. Las taxonomías de objetivos como las de Bloom, Guildford, Gagné, Sullivan, Merril y De Block, entre otros, pretenden señalar todas las habilidades y graduarlas desde las más simples (saber un dato que hay que recordar, reconocer o repetir) hasta las más complejas (la síntesis creativa o valorativa de una producción literaria). El fin de las taxonomías es conseguir una educación integral de forma que se incida en todas las habilidades, graduando la dificultad según el proceso madurativo del educando. A continuación relacionamos las habilidades intelectuales (indicadas en negrita) propuestas en las taxonomías citadas, especialmente la de Bloom, junto con los verbos usados habitualmente, así como los contenidos con los que trabajan.
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A. CONCEPTOS 1. RECONOCIMIENTO (reconocer, conocer, definir términos, dar el significado, identificar, dominar el vocabulario). 1.1. Datos: terminología y hechos 1.2. Metodología: convencionalismos, tendencias diacrónicas, clasificaciones, criterios, métodos. 1.3. Conceptos universales. B. PROCEDIMIENTOS 1. COMPRENSIÓN: 1.1. Traducción o traslación (decir con palabras propias, dar ejemplos, explicar, representar) 1.2. Interpretación (resumir, explicar, dar ejemplos, elaborar una interpretación científica, comprender mensajes) 1.3. Extrapolación (deducir, comparar, concluir) 2. APLICACIÓN: 2.1. Selección de principios, métodos, criterios (aplicar reglas de conversión, aplicar estrategias) 2.2. Utilización de convencionalismos y normas ( aplicar reglas correctamente, utilizar conceptos básicos o información, hacer un uso reflexivo, incorporar) 2.3. Producción de textos específicos (escribir, redactar, expresar) 3. ANÁLISIS: 3.1. Selección y clasificación de elementos aislados (clasificar, distinguir clases, analizar, diferenciar) 3.2. Análisis (analizar, relacionar sus partes, reflexionar, procesar) 4. SÍNTESIS: 4.1. Diseño de un proyecto (diseñar, planificar) 4.2. Producción de textos creativos (escribir, producir, construir, modificar, expresar, transmitir, comentar) 4.3. Formulación de métodos, principios y teoría (formular) 5. VALORACIÓN objetiva y subjetiva (valorar, comparar, apreciar, juzgar, descubrir la importancia) C. ACTITUDES 1. ACEPTACIÓN Y APRECIACIÓN (apreciar, valorar, aceptar la necesidad, tomar conciencia, desarrollar actitudes críticas) 2. PARTICIPACIÓN: interés, gusto y disfrute (disfrutar, generar el gusto, profundizar). En esta taxonomía se puede apreciar aún más la interrelación de objetivos y contenidos. Por ello, algunos (Halliwell, 1993) distinguen entre objetivos de conceptos, objetivos de procedimiento y objetivos de actitud. Para esta autora, en Primaria debe haber un equilibrio entre los de conceptos y de actitud, que se tienen que estudiar con más profundidad. LOS CONTENIDOS
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Son objetos de enseñanza útiles y necesarios para desarrollar los objetivos de cada área. Son instrumentos que permiten analizar la realidad de una manera objetiva, rigurosa y contrastada para posteriormente interactuar con ella llegando a predecir fenómenos naturales o sociales e intervenir, si es preciso. En toda tarea didáctica hay un contenido, aquello sobre lo que se trabaja, y un aspecto formal, el trabajo u operación que se realiza sobre ese contenido para desarrollar una capacidad y lograr el objetivo propuesto. A la hora de programar, se convierten en el centro alrededor de los cuales giran las actividades y los objetivos. Estudios realizados en Estados Unidos por Peterson, Marx y Clark (citados por Zabalza) sostienen que los profesores dedican más tiempo a los contenidos que a la programación de las actividades o a la formulación de los objetivos. La función que tengan los contenidos da lugar a distintos modelos de "escuela". Hay que optar entre dos extremos: los contenidos como representación de la realidad objetiva tal como la ven los científicos deben ser conocidos por el alumno para insertarse con éxito en la sociedad; o por el contrario, el alumnado debe estudiar aquellos contenidos que tengan en cuenta sus exigencias, su forma de aprender, sus condicionantes psicopedagógicos, sus intereses, sus necesidades. Por otra parte, los contenidos pueden convertirse en un fin en sí mismos o, por el contrario, deben ser un instrumento para alcanzar unos objetivos, para desarrollar unas capacidades y para conocer la realidad. Entre ambos extremos hay posturas intermedias más moderadas. El Decreto de Primaria y la LOGSE en general han optado por un modelo en que los contenidos son un instrumento, sin que esto quiera decir que no tengan ningún valor. De hecho se prescriben unos determinados bloques temáticos. En cuanto a la otra decisión, interesan los contenidos que sean significativos y que tengan en cuenta las necesidades e intereses del alumnado. CLASES DE CONTENIDOS Respecto a las clases de contenidos, los desarrollos legales de la LOGSE han reducido las varias clases de contenidos a tres tipos: conceptos (incluyen datos, definiciones, hechos, principios), procedimientos y actitudes. 1) Los conceptos son los contenidos más elementales que los alumnos deben saber. Designan a un conjunto de objetos, sucesos, situaciones o símbolos que tienen ciertas características comunes, así como los principios o reglas que relacionan sus cambios. Para explicitarlos se pueden utilizar verbos como: conocer, definir términos, dar el significado, identificar, dominar el vocabulario... Estas palabras están relacionadas con los objetivos y las operaciones formales más elementales de las taxonomías. Normalmente se suelen omitir los verbos (conocer) o sustantivos verbales (conocimiento) dejando sólo el objeto directo, por ejemplo: "El conocimiento del vocabulario y las estructuras básicas de la lengua extranjera”. Son contenidos conceptuales: a) Las situaciones de comunicación en lengua inglesa. b) Funciones habituales de comunicación (entablar relaciones, dar y pedir información...) c) Vocabulario relativo al tema de la unidad didáctica: la casa, los alimentos, el cuerpo... d) Estructuras gramaticales e) Rutinas (expresiones idiomáticas) y fórmulas básicas (mostrar acuerdo). 628
f) Reglas que rigen la comprensión y la producción de un discurso coherente. 2) Los procedimientos son aquellos contenidos que nuestros alumnos sabrán hacer. Son un conjunto de acciones ordenadas y finalizadas dirigidas a la consecución de un objetivo. Cada disciplina y área de conocimientos incluye un cuerpo propio de procedimientos. Son muy rentables, porque ahorran tiempo y evitan almacenamiento excesivo de datos. Por otra parte, pueden dar significatividad a los conceptos. Se aprenden por repetición, imitación (las técnicas son fáciles de adquirir y memorizables) o por descubrimiento (las estrategias son más complejas, permitiendo resolver diversos problemas). Deben ser funcionales y transferibles a otras situaciones. Son procedimientos la comprensión global de historias sencillas, la producción de mensajes, el uso de estrategias no lingüísticas, realización de murales, la participación en intercambios verbales, la resolución de pasatiempos, la localización en un plano, las simulaciones...Los verbos más frecuentes son: manejar, manipular, utilizar, construir, aplicar, observar, experimentar, elaborar, simular, demostrar, confeccionar, ordenar, coleccionar, formular...; aunque es más frecuente el uso de los sustantivos verbales correspondientes: manipulación, utilización, construcción... 3) Las actitudes provocan que el alumno sepa para qué hacer las cosas. No olvidemos que la actitud está constituida por tres componentes: el cognitivo (lo que el sujeto sabe sobre el objeto de la actitud), el emotivo (sentimientos agradables o desagradables que despierta el objeto) y el reactivo o conductual (inclinación a actuar de una manera determinada). Por lo tanto, no podemos limitarnos a informar sobre el respeto a las diferencias culturales; sino que hay que prever actividades, basadas en la dinámica de grupos, que incidan sobre los componentes emotivos y conductuales. Los verbos son del siguiente tipo: respetar, tolerar, aceptar, sentir, valorar, apreciar, interesarse, colaborar, participar, cooperar, inclinarse por... Alternativamente, al igual que los procedimientos, se utilizan los sustantivos verbales correspondientes: actitud, respeto, aceptación, valoración, aprecio, interés... Ejemplos: reconocimiento de la importancia de ser capaz de comunicarse en inglés, atención y respeto a los mensajes en inglés, reconocimiento del error como normal en el proceso de aprendizaje... Los tres tipos de contenidos están relacionados con las dimensiones del sujeto sobre las que se puede intervenir. Por poner un ejemplo, Gagné establece cinco dimensiones: los contenidos conceptuales están relacionados con la dimensión de la información; los procedimentales con las dimensiones de las habilidades intelectuales, las estrategias cognitivas y las habilidades psicomotrices; los actitudinales, con la dimensión de las actitudes. Las estrategias cognitivas son la forma en que los sujetos utilizan las habilidades que poseen y se refieren a las técnicas de trabajo y a los modos de pensamiento (inductivo, deductivo, científico, fantástico...). Las habilidades psicomotrices tienen especial incidencia en las destrezas o conductas en su aspecto motor del alumnado de primer ciclo. En cuanto a las habilidades intelectuales, están muy relacionadas con los objetivos o capacidades, a las que hicimos referencia al hablar de los objetivos. La enorme cantidad de ellos dificulta su selección, por lo que se hace necesario realizar un esfuerzo importante de síntesis y contar con criterios racionales y objetivos para elegir los más relevantes y con mayor incidencia en la vida diaria, teniendo en cuenta que un contenido interesante para el alumnado no garantiza su relevancia desde el punto de vista educativo (Del Carmen, 1997).
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LA SELECCIÓN La selección de los contenidos que realice el profesor debe tener en cuenta el Decreto de Educación Primaria así como la literatura especializada del área e incluso de las programaciones que han sido implementadas en el centro. Posteriormente se identificarán sus contenidos axiales o nudos. En esta fase puede ser necesaria la ayuda del experto en el área que dé una visión amplia y clarificadora de la misma. En cada ciclo el profesorado tendrá que seleccionar, adaptar, priorizar aquellos que permitan alcanzar los objetivos más fácilmente e incluso incluir aquellos contenidos que consideren necesarios teniendo en cuenta el contexto de su centro y las Finalidades Educativas. Será importante delimitar qué contenidos se incluyen en cada uno de los ciclos con el fin de evitar lagunas importantes o por el contrario repeticiones innecesarias. En cualquier caso, es necesario contar con unos criterios que nos ayuden a seleccionar los contenidos: * Representatividad: los contenidos deben ser seleccionados por procedimientos de muestreo, que reflejen bien el conjunto o población de donde han sido extraídos. * Ejemplaridad: aquellos considerados fundamentales, básicos o elementales y las ideas estratégicas con gran alcance lógico dentro de una disciplina. Es lo que denominados ideas-eje o conceptos básicos que adquieren gran relevancia por su sentido instrumental o por su sentido lógico. * Significación desde el punto de vista de la epistemología, es decir, los contenidos deben respetar la estructura de cada disciplina. Son los conceptos clave o "nudos" estructurales que actúan de conexión de la estructura temática. * Transferibilidad: son aplicables a otras situaciones distintas a aquella en la que se aprendieron. * Durabilidad. * Consenso: contenidos sobre cuya importancia y validez hay acuerdo en la comunidad escolar. * Adecuación al desarrollo cognitivo y a otras características de los alumnos como la afectividad o el estilo cognitivo.
SECUENCIACIÓN Respecto a la secuenciación de los contenidos, está claro que no hay una única secuenciación con validez general, sino que variará atendiendo a las distintas realidades. Por otra parte, hay que tener en cuenta dos criterios que hemos mencionado anteriormente: la lógica de cada disciplina y las características psicosociológicas del alumnado. El primer criterio será preferente al elaborar el Proyecto Curricular, aunque no debe ser absoluto, ya que si sometemos la secuenciación de los contenidos de muchos manuales a un mínimo análisis, podremos comprobar que en algunos casos el orden establecido tradicionalmente no tiene una fundamentación suficientemente justificada. El criterio psicológico será prioritario al elaborar la programación de la unidad didáctica. Es importante porque permite una más fácil asimilación por parte del alumno. Las teorías de Piaget plantearon la necesidad de secuenciar de acuerdo con el nivel de desarrollo operatorio de los educandos. Según el aprendizaje significativo de Ausubel los contenidos deben ordenarse teniendo en cuenta simultáneamente su significatividad lógica (la presentación de los contenidos debe facilitar la comprensión de sus relaciones y
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relevancia) y psicológica (relacionar los nuevos contenidos con los que el educando tiene previamente). Las Orientaciones para la Secuenciación de los Contenidos en lenguas extranjeras de la Colección de Materiales Curriculares para la Educación Primaria, plantea los siguientes presupuestos pedagógicos y lingüísticos en los que se fundamentarán los criterios de selección y secuenciación de contenidos: • Desde una perspectiva constructivista, se destaca la noción de aprendizaje significativo, creando situaciones de comunicación que impliquen conexiones con los conocimientos previos de los alumnos y con el entorno en el que se desenvuelven. En el campo concreto de la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras, el concepto de aprendizaje significativo se traduce en las sugerencias sobre actividades previas a la introducción de nuevos contenidos, que funcionen como puente entre los conocimientos previos y los nuevos, en las alusiones a la necesidad de transferir estrategias de comunicación entre lengua materna y lengua extranjera, y finalmente en la necesidad de conectar las actividades con el entorno próximo de los alumnos o con sus centros de interés. • En esta etapa, los procesos de adquisición tendrán gran importancia y, por lo tanto, la interacción con otras personas resultará indispensable. La cooperación, como requisito necesario para aprender hace que el profesor/a y los compañeros/as sean imprescindibles como mediadores entre las informaciones puestas en juego y los objetos, personas o acciones cuyos significados los alumnos/ as han de percibir. • Desde la perspectiva lingüística, para esta selección y secuenciación de contenidos se han extraído criterios basados en el enfoque funcional y en las investigaciones realizadas sobre adquisición de segundas lenguas. Una consecuencia de este planteamiento es el respeto y aceptación de los errores que cometen los alumnos/as y su consideración como elementos necesarios e inevitables en los procesos de adquisición-aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera. • Todas las investigaciones en adquisición de segundas lenguas inciden en la importancia de los factores afectivos en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje de la lengua extranjera. Esto supone que factores tan diversos como la motivación, la ansiedad o la autoestima han de tenerse en cuenta y ser tratados en consecuencia. • Esta propuesta se basa en la necesidad de combinar procesos de aprendizaje organizados y procesos donde se fomente el uso de la lengua extranjera de manera natural y significativa, aprovechando la naturalidad y realismo de las situaciones que se creen dentro del aula. • Los factores psico-cognoscitivos y socioafectivos que caracterizan a los alumnos de este ciclo. En general, los alumnos en la etapa de Primaria se caracterizan por un gran desarrollo de la memoria a corto plazo y de la capacidad de percibir. Esto hace necesario volver de forma sistemática y cíclica a contenidos tratados previamente con el fin de incorporarlos a la memoria a largo plazo. Los alumnos/as en esta etapa no son aún capaces de abstraer, sin embargo han de propiciarse procesos que faciliten la reflexión posterior en la etapa siguiente. El hecho de que el alumno en esta etapa tenga deseos de integrarse socialmente en un grupo y de imitar modelos adultos tendrá repercusión en la selección de temas y actividades. El aprendizaje se considera como una habilidad cognoscitiva compleja caracterizada por la automatización de las habilidades y su incorporación en la memoria a largo plazo. El enfoque didáctico más asociado con la teoría cognoscitiva en esta etapa es el basado en la actividad, según el 631
cual, el aprendizaje de la lengua es un proceso activo, producto de su utilización para dotar de significado a los objetos, personas, acciones, etc. En una planificación basada en las actividades, éstas constituyen el eje central y generan el lenguaje necesario para su realización. El punto de partida para la propuesta de contenidos será la determinación de temas o centros de interés para los alumnos, que conecten globalmente con los campos de trabajo en otras áreas. Los criterios utilizados para la organización y secuenciación de contenidos se pueden concretar en los siguientes puntos: 1.- Partir siempre de lo que el alumno/a ya conoce en el ámbito conceptual, procedimental y actitudinal con el fin de que pueda comprender las informaciones nuevas y enlazar los nuevos contenidos con los conocimientos adquiridos previamente. Es importante en esta Etapa trabajar conceptos nuevos, aunque los contenidos prioritarios serán los procedimientos. 2.- Los procedimientos son el núcleo alrededor del cual se articulan todos los demás contenidos. 3.- Los contenidos propuestos exigen la presencia de objetos, personas o acciones con el fin de facilitar que el alumno establezca relaciones entre significantes y significados para apropiarse así de los valores simbólicos transmitidos por la lengua extranjera. 4.- La exposición del alumno a datos es previa a cualquier adquisición de nuevos conocimientos. Por ello, los procesos receptivos tendrán gran importancia, aunque también será necesaria la producción con el fin de poder comprobar la validez de los aprendizajes realizados. 5.- Los elementos contextuales puestos en juego en las situaciones de aprendizaje serán claves para la interpretación y expresión de mensajes y significados. En esta Etapa tendrán prioridad los de tipo no lingüístico, tales como mímica, imágenes, gestos, etc. 6.- El lenguaje que se utiliza dentro del aula proporciona permanentemente informaciones cargadas de contenidos. 7.- Cualquiera de los contenidos presentados debe ser tratado de forma sistemática en contextos diferentes con el fin de garantizar que los nuevos conocimientos se incorporen en la memoria a largo plazo. Si tenemos en cuenta la distinción de los tres tipos de contenidos, la secuenciación variará ligeramente: *Los conceptos: se presentarán primero los más representativos progresando hacia un mayor detalle. Los principios deben ser inicialmente muy simples y explicativos, haciéndose más complejos progresivamente. Los conceptos, en el ámbito léxico, funcional y fonológico, vendrán determinados, pues, por los temas y los tipos de actividades. Las situaciones de comunicación favorecerán usos del lenguaje organizados en torno a funciones y sus correspondientes exponentes lingüísticos. Los contenidos léxicos se agruparán en tres grandes secciones: fórmulas y expresiones rutinarias, centros de interés y lenguaje de aula. Los conceptos fonológicos atenderán a los aspectos de entonación, ritmo, acentuación y sonidos. *Los procedimientos son en este modelo el núcleo organizativo predominante. Estarán estrechamente vinculados a las actividades y los tipos de textos. Deben empezar por los más simples según el número de pasos a seguir, número de decisiones que hay
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que tomar, grado de novedad... Hay que iniciarse con las técnicas ya conocidas y con las estrategias-eje de carácter general. *Las actitudes no presentan grandes problemas en cuanto a su secuenciación. Sin embargo, partimos de aquellas actitudes, valores y normas más generales y elementales para ir progresando hacia las que ofrecen particularidades o se conectan con procesos afectivos y de socialización más específicos. Evolucionar desde la aceptación y cumplimiento de normas hasta la comprensión de su necesidad y la participación en su elaboración. Actualmente, nos encontramos con tres formas de secuenciar los contenidos (syllabus): • El gramatical: esta secuenciación se preocupa de cómo se expresan los hablantes. La lengua es un sistema que hay que aprender gradualmente desde los elementos lingüísticos más fáciles a los más difíciles, excluyendo otros elementos de la lengua. • El situacional se preocupa de cuándo y dónde el estudiante usará el inglés. Por lo tanto se ordenan los elementos lingüísticos independientemente del lugar que ocupan en la gramática, atendiendo a la probabilidad de que se necesiten usar en unas determinadas situaciones sociales. En realidad, no existe ninguna secuenciación situacional, sino gramatical, que usa las situaciones sociales para presentar y practicar las formas lingüísticas. • El nocional intenta averiguar qué significados (funciones) necesita comunicar el alumnado. Entiende la lengua como un sistema semántico. En realidad los tres trabajan con formas, significados y usos. La diferencia es el orden y la prioridad: el gramatical se mueve desde la forma hacia el significado y el uso, el situacional se movería desde el uso hasta el significado y la forma, el nocional desde el significado hacia la forma y el uso. Lo ideal sería combinar lo mejor de los tres, pero aún está por hacer. Actualmente en Primaria, las unidades didácticas se organizan alrededor de tópicos o situaciones cercanas a los intereses y necesidades de los alumnos, pero los contenidos gramaticales se gradúan según su dificultad, relacionándolos con las funciones. En cuanto a la organización de los contenidos, los equipos de profesores tendrán en cuenta dos aspectos importantes: la necesidad de mantener una continuidad coherente en el proceso de aprendizaje a lo largo de los ciclos y cursos y, por otra parte, la atención a los planteamientos globalizados. Hay que considerar las posibilidades globalizadoras de los contenidos transversales: Educación para la Paz y la Convivencia, Educación Moral y Cívica, Educación para la Salud, Educación del Consumidor y Usuario, Educación Medioambiental, Educación Vial y Educación para la igualdad de sexos. Respecto a la temporalización, ya se ha hablado en el apartado anterior al hablar de las distintas unidades de programación. 4. SELECCIÓN DE LA METODOLOGÍA A EMPLEAR EN LAS ACTIVIDADES DE APRENDIZAJE Y DE EVALUACIÓN. Las actividades son las unidades estructurales básicas de programación y acción dentro de la clase. Así lo reconoce el Decreto de Primaria al hablar de las Orientaciones Metodológicas: 633
Las actividades o tareas a realizar constituyen el centro de la planificación didáctica, integrándose en ellas los objetivos, contenidos y evaluación. Las actividades y tareas se generarán a partir de temas o centros de interés pertenecientes al mundo experiencial de los alumnos y alumnas y se adaptarán a los intereses y edades de los mismos. Se trata de usar la lengua para hacer cosas con ella y, por lo tanto serán las actividades y situaciones de comunicación diseñadas las que generen la lengua a usar y no al contrario. Hay un enfoque basado en las tareas, que surgió en India con el proyecto Bangalore, que se basa en el supuesto de que se aprende mejor el idioma extranjero cuando el alumno se centra en el significado o en la tarea, lo que conlleva su deseo de comunicarse. Las formas no se aprenden, sino que se adquieren a partir del input lingüístico. El syllabus, llamado procedimental, consiste en unas secuencias de tareas. En toda actividad didáctica (según Yinger, citado por Zabalza) podemos distinguir los siguientes componentes: a) Localización o lugar físico donde se realizarán. b) Estructura o fases secuenciales de la actividad. c) Duración. d) Participantes: número y agrupamientos e) Condiciones o conductas aceptables de los sujetos f) Acciones instructivas o pasos dados por el profesor para llevar a cabo la actividad. g) Contenidos y materiales. a) Las actividades se realizarán normalmente en el aula. Excepcionalmente, se podrán realizar en el laboratorio de idiomas, en el aula de informática, en el salón de medios audiovisuales o en el patio. Se considera que el aula es el contexto general, común y auténtico en el que se establecen las relaciones de comunicación en lengua extranjera. En el aula se deben simular situaciones reales con la ayuda de materiales audiovisuales, pósters, realia... Las diferentes actividades elegidas (juegos variados, representaciones, cuentos, canciones, etc.) determinarán los contextos, que contribuyen a dar significado a los datos lingüísticos. La construcción de los nuevos significados en lengua extranjera requiere que los alumnos tengan experiencias lingüísticas y no lingüísticas en las que estén presentes simultáneamente las acciones, personas u objetos, junto con las unidades lingüísticas y los significados. La elaboración de significados simbólicos, es decir, que no dependa su comprensión del contexto en el que aparecen, se producirá posteriormente a partir de la ampliación y diversificación de los contextos. b) Las actividades “deben tener una estructura de funcionamiento accesible a los alumnos y alumnas, o con la que ya estén familiarizados”. c) La duración de las actividades será variable y dependerá de muchos factores, siendo el más destacable el tipo de actividad. No se debe mantener demasiado tiempo en una actividad, incluso cuando parece que los alumnos están a gusto para prevenir el cansancio y el aburrimiento. Tampoco es conveniente estar variando continuamente. Relacionado con la duración de las actividades está la de las clases: podemos optar en el segundo ciclo de Primaria entre dos clases de una hora, cuatro de media hora o cualquier otro periodo de tiempo. Todas las opciones tienen sus ventajas e inconvenientes. 634
d) A la hora de realizar una actividad hay que determinar el número de participantes y la forma de agrupamiento. Los espacios donde tengan lugar se organizarán de forma flexible para facilitar diversos agrupamientos y “para que el trabajo cooperativo sea práctica habitual en el aula”. “El aprendizaje cooperativo y el lenguaje interactivo entre los compañeros favorecerán la ampliación de situaciones de comunicación y de relaciones sociales dentro del aula”. e) El profesor determinará las conductas permisibles o apropiadas para realizar las actividades (libertad de movimientos, nivel de voz...) f) Respecto al profesor/a, debe planificar las acciones instructivas o pasos para llevar a cabo la actividad. Una actividad muy frecuente es la práctica de los nuevos contenidos repitiendo un diálogo en coro. De esta forma los errores no son apreciables y el alumno tiene la oportunidad de practicar la pronunciación, el vocabulario o la estructura gramatical sin miedo a equivocarse o a hacer el ridículo, al mismo tiempo que se va autocorrigiendo y ganando confianza en sí mismo. Más tarde, trabajará en grupo o por parejas para la práctica oral y asumiendo diferentes papeles en el role play. Finalmente trabajará individualmente en actividades escritas. El papel del profesor es esencial en el aspecto afectivo y para dar” autenticidad a las situaciones de comunicación, usando la lengua extranjera como vehículo de comunicación en las interacciones que ocurran en el aula”. Su lenguaje debe resultar comprensible a los alumnos; para ello hará uso de recursos variados que faciliten el procesamiento de información y planteará la realización de tareas con suficiente apoyo contextual para facilitar que sean los propios alumnos quienes las interpreten y resuelvan de forma autónoma. En el proceso didáctico e interactivo con los alumnos, el profesor/a incorporará de forma intencionada ciertas estrategias comunicativas semejantes a las que se utilizan en los procesos naturales de adquisición de lenguas y que los alumnos y alumnas ya han experimentado en su lengua materna parafrasear, usar elementos redundantes, repetir de forma natural, etc. Sin embargo, no debe ser objetivo primordial el que los alumnos y alumnas asimilen todos los datos que se les ofrecen. g) En cuanto a los contenidos, debemos distinguir por una parte a los datos comunicativos que integran el mensaje y las unidades lingüísticas (vocabulario, funciones, estructuras gramaticales, pronunciación...) y por otra parte a las destrezas comunicativas. El Decreto de Primaria se decanta por las teorías de Krashen y del enfoque natural en cuanto a la recepción de datos. En esta etapa educativa el objetivo fundamental será potenciar los mecanismos de adquisición, como proceso inconsciente y espontáneo que lleva a la construcción interna de conocimientos, junto con los mecanismos de aprendizaje, que tiene una finalidad educativa adicional y que requiere un esfuerzo consciente. Será necesario poner en contacto al alumnado con datos comunicativos que les resulten significativos y comprensibles, con las siguientes características: a los intereses del alumno, aplicables a un amplio número de situaciones, con un nivel de complejidad sólo un poco más avanzado del conocimiento que poseen los alumnos, y con apoyo contextual suficiente para facilitar su comprensión. En el aula se deben de proporcionar datos comunicativos variados, con el fin de estimular el proceso de aprendizaje natural en los alumnos y alumnas; datos tales
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como: el lenguaje del profesor u otras personas, el lenguaje de los compañeros, grabaciones contextualizadas tipo audio o vídeo, información escrita, etc. Las destrezas de comprensión y expresión, tanto oral como escrita, se trabajarán de forma integrada desde el principio; sin embargo, la comprensión de informaciones no debe implicar la producción inmediata de las mismas, ya que es necesario propiciar períodos que permitan la interiorización de la nueva lengua. Así pues, se debe respetar lo que se conoce como períodos silenciosos, sin forzar la producción oral o escrita más allá de lo que la competencia comunicativa de los alumnos permite. Las destrezas receptivas y orales son muy importantes en los primeros momentos, en que la competencia lingüística y comunicativa de los alumnos es baja, y se pueden acompañar de tareas que demanden respuestas no verbales, tales como dibujar, construir, asociar, señalar, secuenciar, responder físicamente, etc. El exceso de producción verbal puede suponer una limitación del tiempo dedicado a que los alumnos y alumnos reciban informaciones y datos enriquecedores para desarrollar su competencia comunicativa. No obstante, en esta etapa también es necesario utilizar la lengua extranjera de forma productiva, como condición indispensable para su adquisición y aprendizaje. La producción es posible gracias al contexto cooperativo de las actividades que se desarrollen (entre compañeros, entre profesor y alumnos, etc.) , y permite contrastar la validez de los mensajes elaborados dentro del contexto de la actividad. Especialmente en esta etapa, es importante desarrollar estrategias de comunicación que compensen los niveles de competencia de los alumnos y alumnas en lengua extranjera, que serán aún bajos. Algunas de estas estrategias pueden aparecer de forma natural: decir sólo lo que es necesario o relevante, ser breve y claro, utilizar gestos o mímica, etc. Sin embargo, hay otras estrategias que formarán parte de la actuación didáctica: hacer predicciones, inferir significados, anticipar contenidos, etc. Los contenidos del área de Lengua Inglesa se pueden relacionar con los de otras áreas y con los temas transversales con una perspectiva globalizadora. Desde la perspectiva del conocimiento global que el alumno tiene en esta etapa, es importante la iniciación de tareas o proyectos de trabajo centrados fundamentalmente en el aula y el entorno próximo. Esto posibilitará la relación entre la lengua extranjera y otras áreas de conocimiento e implicando a los alumnos y alumnas en tareas de búsqueda y participación personal, en parejas, pequeño grupo o de toda la clase. El carácter globalizador que tiene el proceso de enseñanza aprendizaje en esta etapa implica que necesariamente el profesor/a especialista en lengua extranjera organice el trabajo junto con los profesores tutores con el fin de garantizar un enfoque globalizado. La integración de la enseñanza del inglés con otras áreas está empezando a tener sus adeptos, pero sigue siendo una experiencia muy minoritaria. Sin embargo, es muy positiva porque el alumnado percibe el inglés como algo natural, que adquiere, más que aprende; por lo que es un aprendizaje más significativo y duradero.
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La integración se puede realizar casi con todas las áreas y de muy variadas formas. La más conocida en España es la integración total con el área de Ciencias de la Naturaleza, que se imparte totalmente en inglés. Esto implica un buen dominio del inglés oral por parte del profesor. Sin embargo, hay otras alternativas menos ambiciosas: podemos repasar operaciones matemáticas en inglés, utilizar tablas de doble entrada para resumir los datos de una investigación (How many students come to school by bus, by car or on foot?) o tomar las medidas (my foot is 18 centimeters, I’m 160 centimeters tall); se puede hacer un experimento de Ciencias de la Naturaleza, diciendo en inglés los pasos que se van dando (here’s a jar, I’m going to open it, I can’t open it...); se puede responder con acciones en clase de educación física (throw the ball, stop, pass me the ball, jump, turn around...). Según Wheeler, citado por Zabalza, hay que establecer unos criterios para que el profesor pueda decidir a la hora de seleccionar las actividades: • Validez: la actividad debe posibilitar mejorar el aprendizaje, el cambio de conducta, la mejora del alumnado, en definitiva, la consecución del objetivo propuesto. • Comprensividad: se trata de seleccionar actividades que consigan desarrollar el máximo de habilidades de todo tipo: intelectuales, sociales, motoras, actitudinales... • Variedad para satisfacer los distintos estilos cognitivos del alumnado y para lograr la comprensividad mencionada anteriormente. • Conveniencia a la edad y nivel madurativo del alumnado. • Estructura, es decir, que las actividades tengan un carácter organizado. • Relevancia para la vida: las actividades debe ser significativas y útiles. • Participación activa del alumno en la planificación de las actividades. Otros criterios pueden ser que las actividades sean interesantes y motivadoras, así como que el alumnado use el máximo de lenguaje, en una situación que le suponga un reto dentro de las posibilidades del nivel. Al final de la actividad debe quedar la sensación de tener algún producto o de haber finalizado. Cada clase debe ser única, impredecible. No se debe seguir siempre el mismo esquema o provocará aburrimiento. El profesor debe prever realizar en clase actividades que no se puedan realizar fuera de la clase: comunicación oral. Asimismo, debe conocer de antemano qué actividades son estimulantes y cuáles son tranquilizantes. Son estimulantes los concursos, el trabajo por parejas y el trabajo oral en general, porque “despiertan” al alumnado, pero en grado extremo pueden excitar, lo cual es negativo. Del mismo modo, las actividades tranquilizantes como las auditivas, el copiar o el colorear son buenas en sí, pero pueden llegar a producir aburrimiento. También podemos dividirlas en actividades que implican al alumnado mental o físicamente. En el primer apartado, se pueden incluir los juegos, los puzzles o los concursos. El alumnado tiene que recordar, reflexionar, deducir, inducir... Implican actividad física los TPR, dibujar, escribir, leer en voz alta... Las actividades se pueden clasificar según otro criterio: el tipo de capacidad que desarrollan: orales o escritas, receptivas o productivas. Normalmente se suelen y se deben integrar varias destrezas, pero tomando como central una de ellas. • Escuchar y hacer. Se trata de reforzar la comprensión auditiva mediante una respuesta activa que sirve para mantener atentos y motivados a los alumnos, al 637
mismo tiempo que se consigue memorización a más largo plazo: TPR, symbol dictation, escribe lo que oigas, escucha y busca, escucha y ordena, escucha y adivina el orden, representar el cuento narrado por el profesor. • Adivina. Sirven para practicar el hacer preguntas: qué tengo en mi tarjeta, cuántas cartas puedes acertar, jugar a los barcos. • Levántate y averigua. Implican una interacción activa y real entre alumnos que se tienen que desplazar para realizar la actividad: cuadro de entrevistas, pon a prueba a tus compañeros, descubre quién tiene la misma tarjeta, busca información en el mural. • ¿Recuerdas? Se utiliza la memoria par provocar comunicación oral: tarjetas que desaparecen, encontrar la carta pareja, dictado silencioso recordando. • Piensa por ti mismo. Se le da oportunidad al alumnado para que genere y organice sus ideas: confecciona una lista por categorías, imagina y busca las palabras correspondientes, escribe un minilibro, diseña tu propia pegatina. Otras clases de actividades son: • Hacer gráficas en clase sobre la altura, el peso, la edad, el cumpleaños, el tiempo, la comida, etc. • Canciones y rimas. • Historias y cuentos. • Rompecabezas y problemas: matemáticos, económicos, señalar diferencias, adivinar el más largo, adivinanzas, tests de memoria, crucigramas, etc. • Juegos: se pueden adaptar a nuestros propósitos juegos que habitualmente juegan como la silla. Son muy adecuados los juegos de tablero y de cartas. Otros juegos: bingo, dominó de imágenes, juegos de patio, etc. • Actuar diálogos cortos con escenas o situaciones de la vida diaria. • Hacer cosas siguiendo instrucciones orales o escritas. • Dar o seguir las instrucciones dadas a partir de un mapa para llegar a algún lugar. • Usar horarios y otras gráficas. • Actividades artísticas: dibujar, pintar... Teniendo estas clasificaciones, es más fácil planificar según los condicionantes que surjan. A veces el alumnado está inquieto después de una clase de educación física o del recreo. Otras están aparentemente muy tranquilos, pero realmente inquietos después de trabajar con un profesor, normalmente el tutor, que los ha mantenido en sumo silencio casi todo el tiempo. No es igual dar la clase al principio de la jornada lectiva que al final o por la tarde. No se puede seguir el mismo esquema en todos los casos. Respecto a las guías y ayudas que debe prestar el profesor, el alumnado debe saber exactamente qué y cómo hacer la actividad. La cantidad de ayuda prestada tiene un componente técnico-objetivo y otro actitudinal-afectivo. En procesos por descubrimiento es bueno que el alumno tenga poca ayuda para que “se busque la vida”. Se intenta promover la creatividad y la tenacidad hasta encontrar la solución. El problema del profesor es saber hasta qué punto el alumno concreto es capaz de soportar la presión y la no-ayuda. En caso de decaimiento o frustración, es necesario ayudar. Siempre será válido el principio de dar la mínima ayuda, aunque nunca menos de la necesaria. Por otra parte el profesor dispone de tres tipos de estrategias para ayudar al alumnado: 638
•
Por descubrimiento (discovery) procediendo inductivamente a partir de ejemplos o de un problema, a partir del cual se genera una hipótesis de trabajo que se intenta comprobar mediante unas actividades investigativas. • Por organización superior (advanced-organized), se realiza deductivamente analizando un modelo o regla. • Por conceptos fundamentales (basic concept) mezclando lo inductivo y lo inductivo. Respecto a la evaluación, a parte del Decreto de Primaria, disponemos de las normas que lo desarrollan: · Orden de 1 de febrero de 1993, sobre Evaluación en Educación Primaria en la Comunidad Autónoma de Andalucía. · Orden de 18 de noviembre de 1996, por la que se complementan y modifican las Órdenes de la Consejería de Educación y Ciencia sobre Evaluación en las Enseñanzas de Régimen General establecidas por la Ley Orgánica 1/1990, de 3 de octubre, de Ordenación General del Sistema Educativo en la Comunidad Autónoma de Andalucía. En la primera Orden, se establece en su artículo dos que la evaluación debe ser: - Continua, es decir, de manera permanente acerca del proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje. - Global por cuanto deberá referirse al conjunto de capacidades expresadas en los objetivos generales de la etapa y a los criterios de evaluación de las diferentes áreas. - Formativa - Cualitativa - Contextualizada (referida a su entorno y a un proceso concreto de enseñanza y aprendizaje). Establecer unos controles de comprobación para que el alumno sepa si está en el buen camino es imprescindible. Esto tiene un componente cognitivo y otro afectivo. Por una parte, el alumnado necesita conocer el resultado que se pretende lograr; por otra, si el alumno sabe que está aprendiendo y haciendo realmente lo que se le pide, consigue aumentar la seguridad en sí mismo. El profesor puede realizar estos controles mediante preguntas al alumno e incluso con gestos o con la mirada. Otra forma es la autoevaluación de una forma sencilla e intuitiva, que permita al alumnado reflexionar sobre la adecuación del proceso seguido para alcanzar los objetivos. Los controles se enmarcan en la evaluación formativa, que permite tomar conciencia del error, pudiendo el profesor proporcionar la ayuda necesaria para realizar bien la tarea. De esa forma la retroalimentación que recibe el profesor le permite rectificar a tiempo y reconducir el proceso. La evaluación formativa no sólo controla el proceso del aprendizaje, sino también los resultados esperados. También está relacionado con la autoevaluación, que permite al alumnado tomar parte activa en el proceso de aprendizaje, reflexionando y rectificando, si es necesario. La reconducción variará según las dimensiones afectadas. Si los aspectos deficitarios son las capacidades (análisis, síntesis, aplicación, valoración...), no es necesario volver atrás en el proceso, sino prestar más atención a tales habilidades en las siguientes unidades, ya que estas habilidades se volverán a ejercitar con otros contenidos diferentes. Más
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problemático resulta solucionar la carencia de algunos contenidos. Normalmente hay que volver atrás y volver a trabajarlos, ya que las lagunas, especialmente en contenidos básicos, que actúan como prerrequisitos, pueden dificultar el proceso de aprendizaje. 6. RELACIÓN DEL TEMA CON LOS DISEÑOS CURRICULARES DE LA JUNTA DE ANDALUCÍA El tema está totalmente relacionado con el Decreto de Educación Primaria y con las guías de la colección de Materiales Curriculares para esta etapa. La programación es la concreción del Anexo del Decreto para el área de Lengua Inglesa a un determinado momento y a un determinado grupo de alumnos: objetivos, contenidos, metodología de las actividades...Al haberse mencionado y citado expresamente en muchas ocasiones, no consideramos necesario volver a incidir en ello. 7. PROPUESTA DIDÁCTICA Pueden plantearse varias propuestas didácticas: programación larga o de una unidad didáctica. Para la primera, podemos encontrar muchos ejemplos en los libros de texto para esta etapa. Para la unidad didáctica, creemos que el mejor ejemplo es uno de los modelos presentados por la Consejería de Educación y Ciencia en la Colección de Materiales Curriculares para la Educación Primaria, concretamente el planificado para el tercer curso.
UNIDAD DIDÁCTICA DE INGLÉS PARA TERCER CURSO DE EDUCACIÓN PRIMARIA Colección de Materiales Curriculares para la Educación Primaria
CARACTERÍSTICAS DEL CENTRO Es importante señalar que la unidad que se presenta ha sido desarrollada en un Colegio Publico del centro de la ciudad, en el que se ha llevado a la práctica la experimentación de la reforma. Esta experiencia ha contado con la colaboración de las profesoras tutoras. Desde el inicio se mantuvieron con ellas reuniones para determinar cuáles eran las ideas-eje que iban a dar sentido al primer curso del segundo ciclo de primaria. Nuestro objetivo era aproximamos al máximo, a través del área de lengua extranjera, a las finalidades educativas reflejadas en su proyecto curricular de centro. Los alumnos/as que asisten a este centro pertenecen a una clase media y sus familias están preocupadas por el hecho de que la educación de sus hijos sea lo más completa posible. Por todo ello, fue muy bien recibida la idea de iniciar la enseñanza de la lengua extranjera a la edad de ocho años. Este centro dispone de los medios con los que habitualmente cuentan todos los colegios: cassette, vídeo, fotocopiadora, etc. Durante el desarrollo de esta unidad se ha utilizado material fotocopiado, “wallpictures”, un cuento, la pizarra, cassette, materiales que sirven de apoyo a las tareas propuestas. Las clases se han realizado en las mismas aulas en las que los alumnos/as se encuentran en el resto de la jornada escolar. En cada una de estas aulas se ha destinado un 640
espacio para ir creando un ambiente relacionado con la lengua extranjera y en el que los alumnos puedan contemplar sus propios trabajos. El tiempo dedicado a su desarrollo ha sido de períodos de treinta minutos diarios. Se considera que estos períodos de tiempo han sido adecuados y, en cualquier caso, no se recomienda que sean superiores a cuarenta y cinco minutos. En cada una de las sesiones ha habido tiempo suficiente para terminar actividades con sentido en sí mismas sin provocar falta de motivación o cansancio trabajando en lengua extranjera.
OBJETIVOS • Captar información general y específica en un cuento. • Comprender instrucciones para realizar una casa y diferenciar sus partes. • Leer de forma comprensiva palabras e instrucciones cortas sobre la casa y elementos que en ella puedes encontrar. • Establecer relaciones entre los significados, la pronunciación y representación gráfica de las palabras relacionadas con las partes de la casa y los mueblas que puedes encontrar en ella. • Mostrar actitudes abiertas de comprensión hacia las diferencias culturales que se manifiestan en la concepción de las viviendas. • Transferir a la lengua extranjera los conocimientos que los alumnos/as tengan sobre la organización de su propio hogar.
CONOCIMIENTOS PREVIOS En el tercer nivel de la etapa de Educación Primaria, los alumnos/as tienen por primera vez contacto institucional con la lengua extranjera. Por ello, los conocimientos previos en los que se basan las primeras unidades del curso se relacionan fundamentalmente con las experiencias y aprendizajes ya realizados en lengua materna. Esta unidad, que se trabajó en el aula después de que los alumnos/ as hubiesen estado durante 5 meses en contacto con el inglés, incluye por lo tanto contenidos previos propios de la lengua extranjera así como de la lengua materna. Los conocimientos previos se explicitan en la unidad por dos razones: a) Aclarar cómo se organizan los datos que ayudan a crear situaciones de aprendizaje significativo. b) Presentar los elementos que se reciclan y han formado parte de aprendizajes anteriores. Los conocimientos previos en los que se basa esta Unidad son los siguientes: Bloque de Comunicación Oral y Escrita: • Participación en situaciones de comunicación relativas a: colours, animals, objects. • Ejecución de instrucciones simples, derivadas del uso del inglés en el aula: close/open the door/ window. Listen. Look., etc. • Inferencias de significados de sustantivos a partir de la información no verbal. • Relaciones entre significados de palabras y su forma oral y escrita. • Imitación de modelos de entonación y ritmo. • Participación en intercambios comunicativos muy sencillos. • Contestación a preguntas de si/no. • Uso del inglés como medio de comunicación en el aula, sobre todo en la compresión de mensajes emitidos por el profesor/a. 641
Bloque de Aspectos Socioculturales: • Observación de diferencias entre nuestra forma de vida y las de otros países. • Reconocimiento de fórmulas básicas de cortesía: please. • Identificación de personajes de los cuentos en inglés que tienen equivalentes en lengua materna: The Three Bears, Goldilocks, Cinderella. • Respeto e interés por las personas que hablan otra lengua.
CONTENIDOS Los contenidos nuevos que se introducen en esta unidad didáctica se agrupan en torno a los mismos bloques mencionados anteriormente en el apartado de Conocimientos Previos. No se especifican por separado los conceptos, procedimientos y actitudes ya que se producen interrelaciones entre los mismos en las situaciones de enseñanza-aprendizaje. El punto de partida para la propuesta de contenidos es el tema o centro de interés, del cual se desprende una serie de situaciones de comunicación que se concretan en las actividades que, a su vez, generan el lenguaje a utilizar. Por todo ello, los procedimientos constituyen el eje alrededor del cual se organizan los demás contenidos. Puesto que se parte de un “Enfoque Basado en la Actividad”, es necesario hacer una lectura paralela del Anexo I en el que se clasifican todas las actividades para comprender mejor la programación de esta unidad. Esta Unidad Didáctica incluye los siguientes contenidos: 1) Centro de interés: House and Home, que incluye lo siguiente: - Making a house. - Rooms in a house. - Furniture. - Playing in a house. 1.a. Funciones: Following instructions: - Draw the door/the windows. - Cut out the bedroom/bathroom/table... - Show me the armchair/wardrobe. - Stick them up. - Point to the bathroom/kitchen... Understanding a sequence of instructions: - First..., now..., then..., finally... Finding/locating people: - Where am I? - Are you in the bathroom/ kitchen? Yes, I am/No, I’m not - Where’s Spot? - Is he under the bed? No - Is he in the wardrobe? No. Locating rooms: - It’s up/down on the left/right 1.b. Léxico: - house, fridge, flat, table, home, chair, door, sofa, window, rug, bathroom, armchair, bedroom, televisión, kitchen, bed, living room, wardrobe, bath 1.c. Aspectos fonológicos - Resaltar el acento de palabra, sobre todo cuando se trata de palabras similares en la lengua extranjera y en la lengua materna: sofá, televisión. Marcar el acento con palmadas.
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- Entonación de frases interrogativas: Is he in the wardrobe? Is he under the bed? Where am I? 2) Bloque de Comunicación Oral y escrita. - Reconocimiento en un contexto distinto de elementos de vocabulario ya conocidos a través del lenguaje del aula. - Captación del orden en que se da una secuencia de informaciones y mostrarlo a través de respuestas no verbales. - Imitación de aspectos entonativos y rítmicos a partir de los modelos emitidos por el profesor/a otros medios. - Interpretación de mensajes a partir de gestos y acciones: Where am I? I’m not in the bathroom, etc. - Colocación de dibujos a partir de los mensajes orales percibidos. - Asociación de significados nuevos con sus formas orales y escritas: rooms, furniture. - Identificación de elementos de un cuento manipulativo, apoyándose en las ilustraciones, título, formato, etc. - Comprensión de un cuento, participando en la construcción del mismo con respuestas de Yes/ No. - Asociación de dibujos con las palabras inglesas correspondientes. - Desarrollo de actitudes y habilidades creativas como formas de expresión. - Participación en juegos y trabajos de grupo, aceptando las reglas y colaborando con los demás. 3) Bloque de Aspectos Socioculturales. - Reconocimiento de palabras similares en nuestra lengua y cultura y las transmitidas por la lengua extranjera: sofá, televisión. - Observación de las diferencias existentes entre nuestras viviendas comunes y las más características del Reino Unido, valorando lo que hay en común y lo distintivo. - Identificación de relaciones entre los tipos de vivienda y la forma de vida: clima, horarios, etc. - Diferenciación de los significados de palabras que se relacionan: house, flat, home. - Identificación del personaje del cuento -Spot- en los conocidos por los alumnos/as, buscando su equivalente. - Valoración de rasgos lingüísticos y de cortesía propios de la lengua extranjera.
MATERIAL DEL ALUMNO/A: HOUSE AND HOME 1 . - MAKE A HOUSE: Follow the instructions 2. - DRAW AND COLOUR: Finish the house. 3. - LOOK AND LISTEN: Look at the plan and listen to the teacher. 4. - LISTEN AND SING: Sing a song. 5. - PLAY A GAME: Hide in a room and guess. 6. - LISTEN AND DO: Cut out the rooms in the right order. 7. - LISTEN AND SET: Set the rooms in the right order. 8. – DRAW: Draw a plan of your house. 9. - LISTEN TO THE STORY: Say Yes or No. 10. - PLAY A GAME: Listen and take the picture. 11. - CUT OUT AND SHOW: Listen and follow the instructions. 12. - PLAY DOMINOES: Match the pictures and the words.
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13. - LOOK AND DO: Place the furniture in the right room... 14. - WORK IN GROUPS: Draw a room and make a house with your group.
GUÍA DIDÁCTICA: HOUSE AND HOME WARM-UPS: Estas actividades tienen como finalidad centrar la atención de los alumnos/as en la lengua extranjera al comienzo de cada sesión de trabajo, por lo tanto, su duración no tiene que ser superior o dos o tres minutos. La selección de una de estas actividades para cada sesión queda a criterio del profesor/ a, considerando que debe relacionarse con algo que se haya trabajado previamente en el aula o con la sesión del momento. Se dan a continuación sugerencias sobre los Warm-ups que se pueden realizar en esta unidad didáctica: - Cantar la canción “Where am I?” - Hacer el juego “Hide and seek”. - Contar el cuento “Where’s Spot?”, escondiéndolo cada vez en un sitio diferente. Los alumnos muestran los carteles Yes/No, según crean. 1. MAKE A HOUSE Pedir a los alumnos/as que miren atentamente el dibujo que corresponde a esta primera actividad y que piensen de qué se puede tratar. El profesor/a pregunta: What is it? Why? Los alumnos/as dan respuestas en lengua materna y el profesor/a parafrasea en inglés las respuestas dadas: - Yes, it’s a house. - This is the door. - These are the windows. - This is the roof. El profesor muestra sobre un plano cada una de las instrucciones que va dando a los alumnos/as y hace una casa junto con ellos. Es conveniente ayudarse de objetos reales (scissors), de mímica y acciones (Cut the line, Don’t cut the dotted line, etc.) y señalar las partes necesarias del dibujo para aclarar el significado de las instrucciones. Las instrucciones son las siguientes: - Take the scissors. Cut the line... Don’t cut the dotted line. Join these two squares. Now, join the other two parts in this way. Do the same in the other side. Stick like this. Write your name on the house. Si en esta sesión no se hacen más actividades, es conveniente que todas las casas se queden guardadas juntas en algún armario o rincón del aula. Classroom language - Look at the picture. What is it? No, it isn’t a box. Yes, it’s a house. This is a door/roof... These are the windows. Look at me. In this way. Try again. Right. Very good. Put the houses over there. 2. DRAW AND COLOUR Cada alumno/a trabaja de nuevo con la casa que ha hecho para terminar de dibujarla y colorearla. Si esta actividad se realiza en la sesión siguiente, el profesor puede ir cogiendo las casas que estarán colocadas todas juntas en algún lugar de la clase y preguntar a los alumnos/as: Whose is this house? Pablo/Lola, this is yours. This is your house. A continuación, el profesor/a va indicando las partes de la casa que deben dibujar: - Draw the door/the four windows. Follow the dotted lines. Al mismo tiempo que da las instrucciones, el profesor/a debe ir señalando la parte correspondiente en la casa que ha hecho y terminar de dibujarla. Todo ello ayudará a aclarar el significado de cada instrucción, aunque los alumnos/as pueden estar ya 644
familiarizados con el vocabulario básico por el uso previo del inglés en el aula en expresiones tales como: Open/close the door/the window. Finalmente, cada alumno/a colorea su casa, después de escuchar la instrucción: Colour your house. Cuando todos/as han terminado, contestan individualmente a las preguntas que hace el profesor/a: - What colour is the door/roof? What colour are the windows? Classroom language - Can you take your house, please. Whose is this? Pablo/María, this is your house. Draw the door/the four windows. Colour the house. What colour is the door/roof? What colour are the windows? Show me your house, please. Very nice. 3. LOOK AND LISTEN El profesor/a muestra una ampliación del mismo plano que tienen los alumnos/as y que presenta un corte de una casa. Señalando cada una de las habitaciones, va diciendo los nombres: This is the bedroom/ bathroom kitchen/ living room... A continuación el profesor/a va señalando las diferentes habitaciones, diciendo el nombre unas veces correctamente y otras no. A la pregunta: Is it right? Los alumnos/as contestan Yes/No, según sea adecuado. Por ejemplo, el profesor señala el dormitorio y dice: This is the bathroom. Is it right? Los alumnos/as responden: No. Finalmente, los alumnos/as señalan sobre su plano las habitaciones que va indicando el profesor/a, atendiendo al orden en que se nombran. Classroom language - Look at the plan. This is the bedroom/bathroom/kitchen/living room... This is the bathroom/bedroom... Is it right? Point to the bedroom/bathroom... 4. LISTEN AND SING Esta canción incluye frases que van a ser de utilidad para el juego de la actividad siguiente. Primero el profesor/a pone la grabación o canta la canción una vez, al mismo tiempo que representa con gestos y acciones los significados fundamentales, que se relacionan a continuación: Where am I? - gesto indicando la pregunta, señalándose a sí mismo/a. I’m not in the kitchen - acción negativa que se indica con movimiento de la cabeza o del dedo. Igual para el resto de las frases negativas. Si es necesario, se puede utilizar la fotocopia ampliada del plano para indicar la habitación que corresponde a cada pregunta. Los alumnos/as escuchan de nuevo la canción y esta vez imitan las acciones y gestos del profesor/a en el momento adecuado. Finalmente todos intentan cantar la canción acompañándola de nuevo con acciones y gestos y repitiendo cada frase después del profesor/a de la grabación si es necesario. Se puede dividir la clase en dos grandes grupos, de forma que un grupo cante la primera parte y el segundo grupo sólo la parte que dice: Yes. Yes. You’re in the living room. Yes. Yes. You’re in the living-room. Después se cambian los papeles entre los dos grupos. Classroom language - Listen to the song. Look at me. Mime the actions. Let’s sing the song. Repeat after me. Let’s sing in groups. New, change over. 5. PLAY A GAME
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Se trata de un juego de adivinación con el que los alumnos/as ya están familiarizados en lengua materna- “el escondite” (Hide and Seek). Hacer esta aclaración a los alumnos/as les ayudará a entender la mecánica del juego y a entender el significado de las expresiones básicas. En primer lugar es el profesor/a quien se esconde imaginariamente en una de las habitaciones del plano (living room.) y pregunta a los alumnos: Where am I? Los alumnos/as le hacen preguntas individualmente o en grupo, para ello pueden practicar preguntas, que incluso pueden cantar previamente siguiendo el orden de la canción que ya conocen: Are you in the kitchen/ the bathroom/ the bedroom? A estas preguntas, va contestando: NO, I’m not y finalmente Yes, I am. A continuación sale un alumno/a delante de la clase y decide en qué habitación se va a esconder sin decírselo a los demás. La clase le hace preguntas del mismo tipo: Are you in the bathroom/ kitchen...? hasta que lo adivinan. Se puede repetir lo mismo con varios/as alumnos/as hasta que se compruebe que han captado la dinámica del juego y las expresiones a utilizar. Finalmente, pueden hacer el mismo juego en parejas, cambiando los papeles en cada partida. Classroom language - Let’s play “Hide and Seek”. Pablo, come here please. Ana, hide in a room. Ask questions. Play in pairs. 6. LISTEN AND DO El profesor/a comienza presentando el mobiliario fundamental que corresponde a cada habitación para que los alumnos/as se empiecen a familiarizar con el mismo: This is the bedroom. There is a bed/ a chair/ a picture... in the bedroom. This is the bathroom. There is a bath/... etc. El profesor/a va dando instrucciones para recortar cada una de las habitaciones en orden: - Cut the rooms in the right order. - First, cut out the bathroom. Put it on the table. - Now, cut out the kitchen. Put it on the table. - Then, cut out the bedroom. Put it on the table. - Finally, cut out the living room. Put it on the table. Para comprobar si los alumnos/as son capaces de reconocer los nombres de las distintas habitaciones, se pueden dar las siguientes instrucciones: Can you show me the bathroom/ kitchen....please? Estos recortes hay que guardarlos para la actividad siguiente. Si se realiza en otra sesión, es conveniente que se queden todos recogidos en sobres individuales Classroom language - Listen to my instructions. Cut out the pictures of the rooms. That’s not the bathroom. It’s the kitchen. That’s right. Keep them in an envelope. 7. LISTEN AND SET Si esta actividad se hace en otra sesión, los alumnos/as deben sacar los dibujos recortados que estarán guardados: Take the envelope. Take the pictures out. El objetivo de esta actividad es colocar cada habitación en la parte correspondiente de la casa. Para ello, se trabaja con los conceptos de Up/Down y Right/Left. En unidades anteriores ya se ha practicado con left/right en relación con partes del cuerpo. 646
Es conveniente hacer alguna actividad previa de Respuesta Física Total o algún juego corno “Simon says... “ con el fin de que los alumnos/as recuerden lo que ya saben, por ejemplo: Stand up, sit down, show me your left/right hand/leg, etc. El profesor/a señala el plano y va indicando: Up, down, left, right, up on the left, up on the right, down on the left, down on the right. A continuación los alumnos/as señalan la parte que va nombrando el profesor/a. Finalmente, el profesor/a va dando las indicaciones para colocar cada habitación en su sitio: - The bedroom is up on the left. The bathroom is up on the right. The living room is down on the left. The kitchen is down on the right. Se pueden ir combinando las instrucciones para practicar más. Cuando se haga la distribución definitiva, los alumnos/as pueden comprobar el resultado con su compañero/a y pegan cada habitación en su lugar. A continuación recortan las palabras correspondientes a los nombres de las habitaciones y las pegan debajo de la habitación adecuada. Classroom language - Set the rooms in the right order. Listen to the instructions. Check with your partner. Use glue to stick up the rooms. Cut out the words. Throw the papers to the bin! Match the words with the rooms. Good. 8. DRAW Los alumnos/as deben dibujar un plano sencillo de su casa, en el que figuren las habitaciones principales: Draw a plan of your house/flat. Es especialmente importante que dibujen su habitación: Draw your bedroom. También deben dibujar algunos muebles en cada una de las habitaciones. Finalmente deben escribir en inglés el nombre de las habitaciones principales, mirando la actividad anterior si necesitan ayuda. Mientras los alumnos/as realizan la actividad, el profesor/a circula por la clase y va haciendo algunas preguntas individualmente: What is it? o va diciendo en inglés los nombres de algunos de los muebles dibujados al mismo tiempo que los va señalando: This is a sofa/bed/ bath... Una vez que hayan terminado todos los planos, se fomentará un diálogo que permita contrastar en términos generales la vivienda típica británica con las nuestras, diferenciando flat/house, la vida en el interior de la casa más que en la calle (por el clima), los rasgos de una casa típica británica, el nivel de confort, el jardín, etc. Classroom language - Draw a plan of your house/flat. Write the names of the rooms. Draw the furniture. Do you live in a house/ in a flat? Who lives in a house/a flat? Put your hands up. 9. LISTEN TO THE STORY El cuento se titula “Where’s Spot?” (Autor: Eric Hill). Se trata de un cuento interactivo que exige la participación de los alumnos/as mientras se cuenta. Argumento: Sally no encuentra a su cachorro, Spot, y lo está buscando por toda la casa. Las ilustraciones son manipulativas de forma que ante todas las preguntas es posible mirar en un lugar y comprobar si Spot se encuentra allí. Texto del cuento Naughty Spot! It’s dinner time. Where can he be? Is he behind the door? No. Is he inside the clock? No. 647
Is he in the piano? No. Is he under the stairs? No. Is he in the wardrobe? No. Is he under the bed? No. Is he in the box? No. There’s Spot! He’s under the rug. Try the basket. Good boy, Spot. Eat up your dinner! El profesor/a explica brevemente el contexto en el que se desarrolla esta historia. Los alumnos/as recortan las dos indicaciones con las palabras Yes/No y muestran individualmente una de ellas cada vez que en el cuento se hace una pregunta. El cuento se puede contar en otras ocasiones, escondiendo a Spot en sitios diferentes y haciendo las mismas preguntas, aunque se puede alterar el orden de las mismas. Actividad Complementaria: Los alumnos/as pueden confeccionar un cuento basándose en imágenes manipulables, para poder utilizarlo con el vocabulario que ya conocen (por ejemplo, nombres de habitaciones). Al final de esta unidad, también podrían utilizar nombres de muebles y objetos de la casa. Classroom language - Listen to the story. Sally is trying to find Spot. Cut out the sings. Where’s Spot? Yes or No? 10. PLAY A GAME El profesor/a prepara flashcards utilizando fotocopias ampliadas de las ilustraciones de mobiliario y las coloca al azar en la pizarra. Cada flashcard debe ir acompañada del nombre del objeto correspondiente para que los alumnos/as se familiaricen con la forma escrita de las palabras. Antes de empezar el juego, el profesor/a va presentando el nombre de cada objeto al tiempo que lo muestra a la clase y lo coloca en la pizarra. Después el profesor/a va nombrando cada uno y los alumnos/as los señalan en sus dibujos. Se forman dos equipos en la clase, que se colocan en fila en la parte de atrás. Los alumnos/as que quedan en cabeza son los encargados de coger la flashcard que nombra el profesor/a en cada ocasión. De esta forma, en cada ocasión le toca el turno a dos alumnos/as diferentes. Gana el equipo que consigue más flashcards. Classroom language - Split in two teams. Stand at the back of the class. Stand on two lines. Come and take the pictures. Listen. Are you ready? Come on. It’s your turn. 11. CUT OUT AND SHOW El profesor/a da instrucciones para que los alumnos/ as recorten cada uno de los dibujos en el orden adecuado: Cut out the armchair/fridge/table... A continuación los van mostrando en el orden indicado por el profesor/a: Can you show me the armchair/the sofa/the chair...? Repartir a los alumnos/as etiquetas en blanco para que copien en cada una el nombre de cada objeto o mueble. Para ello, pueden mirar las palabras de la actividad anterior. Por parejas, deben intentar asociar cada palabra con el dibujo correspondiente. Cuando terminen, guardan los recortes en un sobre para utilizarlos en la actividad N° 13. Classroom language - Look at the pictures. Cut out the table/sofa... Show me the armchair/bed... Check with your partner. 12. PLAY DOMINOES 648
Los niños/as ya están familiarizados con este juego en lengua materna. El objetivo es asociar dibujos con las palabras correspondientes, formando cadenas. Organizar la clase en pequeños grupos y repartir un juego de dominó a cada alumno/a de manera que siempre tengan algunas piezas diferentes a los demás compañeros/as. Según el número de jugadores, se puede fotocopiar y recortar el número de cartas que sea necesario. Los alumnos/as se van turnando para intentar asociar sus cartas. Gana el alumno/a que antes consigue colocar correctamente todas las que le han correspondido. El profesor/a circula por la clase y presta ayuda cuando sea necesario. Classroom language - Let’s play dominoes. Play in small groups (of four). Match the words and the pictures. Start. Who is the winner? Let’s try again. It’s your turn. 13. LOOK AND DO Los alumnos/as trabajan en grupos de cuatro y utilizan los recortes que guardaron en la actividad N° 11. Cada alumno/a se encarga de colocar el mobiliario y objetos que corresponden a una habitación, disponiéndolos de la mejor forma posible y coloreándolos. Para que les resulte más fácil y el resultado final sea mejor, el profesor/ a puede fotocopiar el recuadro de la habitación y repartírselo a los alumnos/a. Después pegan cada habitación en una parte de la casa. Con el fin de repasar las instrucciones: up/ down/on the left/on the right, el profesor/a puede dar las instrucciones a toda la clase. Cada grupo dedica un tiempo a preparar una breve descripción oral de su casa y a continuación cada grupo informa al resto de la clase. Por ejemplo: There is a... in the bedroom/bathroom... Actividades Complementarias: Los alumnos/as pueden terminar de adornar la casa, añadiendo detalles tales como plantas, cuadros, lámparas, etc. El profesor/a circula por la clase y va diciendo en inglés lo que los alumnos/as van dibujando: What’s this? It’s a... Classroom language - Play in groups of four. Stick the furniture in the right room. The kitchen is finished. Very nice. Stick the rug where you want. Listen. Place the rooms in the plan. Draw what you like. Colour it. 14. WORK IN GROUPS Los alumnos/as trabajan en grupos de cuatro. Se reparte a cada alumno/a una de las indicaciones de la actividad. Cada alumno/a, según su indicación, debe dibujar una habitación con todos los detalles que quiera y después deben de confeccionar la casa ideal entre todos los componentes del grupo. Cuando hayan terminado, todas las casas se colocan en un rincón de la clase, con un cartel en cada una de ellas que diga: Home, sweet home. Dialogar con los alumnos/as sobre las diferencias correspondientes a los conceptos de House/Home. Classroom language - Work in groups. Make your ideal house. Draw a room. Write your names. Put it on the noticeboard.
INSTRUMENTOS DE EVALUACIÓN Se muestran a continuación algunos instrumentos de evaluación para utilizar en esta Unidad Didáctica: 1) Diario de Clase. 649
Se recomienda que los alumnos completen el diario de clase durante tres o cuatro veces al menos a lo largo de toda la Unidad. Las frases a completar en el diario son las siguientes: - I’m good at... - I like... Los datos aportados por los alumnos/as nos darán sugerencias en torno a los tipos de actividades que les gustan y las que han podido resultar difíciles o fáciles para la mayoría. 2) Perfil del Alumno/a Es interesante empezar a configurar el perfil del alumno/a en lengua extranjera desde la iniciación a la misma en el segundo ciclo de la Etapa de Educación Primaria. El perfil se puede ir elaborando en un cuaderno destinado a tal fin, en el que se vayan recogiendo muestras representativas del trabajo del alumno/a y de su nivel de progresión. También se podrían añadir otros materiales de otras áreas o de actividades fuera del aula que el alumno/a considere que son representativos de su esfuerzo. Una vez finalizada esta Unidad, se puede pedir a cada alumno/a individualmente que selecciones dos trabajos representativos de su esfuerzo y que los incorpore a su perfil, pegándolos en un cuaderno. No incluiremos en el perfil ningún trabajo que el alumno/a considere que no es muestra de su esfuerzo o progresión. 3) Actividades finales Se sugieren a continuación dos actividades que pueden servir a los alumnos/as para mantener un fichero de aspectos fundamentales tratados en la Unidad. Sobre todo están encaminadas a consolidar vocabulario y a servir de instrumento de referencia y recuerdo fácil para el alumno/a. A) Dar a los alumnos/as tarjetas con los nombres en inglés del vocabulario básico de la Unidad. Los alumnos/as hacen los dibujos correspondientes en folios y pegan cada palabra junto al dibujo adecuado. Se puede incluir el siguiente vocabulario básico: - bathroom, fridge, armchair, bedroom, table, television, kitchen, chair, bed, living room, sofa, wardrobe, rug, bath. B) Relacionar con flechas los nombres de muebles y objetos de la casa con las habitaciones donde se pueden encontrar.
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8. BIBLIOGRAFÍA ALCARAZ, E. Y MOODY, B. (1982). Didáctica del inglés: metodología y programación. Madrid: Alhambra. ÁLVAREZ, L., E. SOLER Y J. HERNÁNDEZ (1995). Proyecto educativo, proyecto curricular, progración de aula. Madrid: S.M. BARBERÁ, V. (1993). Proyecto Curricular del tercer ciclo de Educación Primaria. Madrid: Escuela Española. BELL, R.T. (1981). An Introduction to Applied Linguistics. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. London: Batsford Academic and Educational Ltd. BESTARD MONROIG, J. (1983). Preparación y desarrollo de las clases de inglés. Madrid: Edi-6. BLOOM, B.S. (1972). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: the Classification of Educational Goals. New York: David Mckay Co. BROWN, H. D. (1987). Principles of Foreign Language Learning and Teaching. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. BRUMFIT, C.J. (ed.) (1984). General English Syllabus Design. Oxford: Pergamon Press and the British Council. DANGERFIELD, L. (1985). “Lesson planning” en MATTHEWS, A. et al. (eds.) (1985). DAVIES, I. (1976). Objectives in Curriculum Design. London: McGraw-Hill. DUBIN, F.& E. OLSHTAIN (1986). Course Design. Developing Programs and Materials for Language Learning. Cambridge: C.U.P. FRIED-BOOTH (1986). Project work. O.U.P. GIMENO SACRISTÁN, J. (1985). Teoría de la enseñanza y desarrollo del currículo. Salamanca: Anaya. GREENWOOD, J. (1981). “Planning your teaching” en ABBOTT, G.& P.WINGARD (eds.) (1981). The Teaching of English as an International Language. A Practical Guide. Glasgow & London: Collins. HALLIWELL, S. (1993). La enseñanza del inglés en la Educación Primaria. Longman. HAMMER, J. (1987). Teaching and Learning English. London: Longman. MATTHEWS, A. et al. (eds.) (1985). At the Chalkface. Edward Arnold. NULAN, D. (1988). Syllabus Design. O.U.P. NULAN, D. (1989). Designing tasks for the Communicative Approach. C.U.P. PALMER,D. (1985). “A revision lesson plan using information transfer, a discourse chain and role play” en MATTHEWS, A. Et al. (eds.) (1985). SEGOVIA AGUILAR, J. y otros (1992). Fun Boat! Proyecto para la Enseñanza del Inglés en Educación Primaria. Colección de Materiales Curriculares para la Educación Primaria. Sevilla: Junta de Andalucía SPRATT, M. (1985). “A reading skills lesson” en MATTHEWS, A. Et al. (eds.) (1985). VARIOS (1992). Decreto de Educación Primaria. Anexo: área de Lengua Extranjera. Colección de Materiales Curriculares para la Educación Primaria. Sevilla: Junta de Andalucía. VARIOS (1992). Módulos didácticos. 3. Lenguas extranjeras. Colección de Materiales Curriculares para la Educación Primaria. Sevilla: Junta de Andalucía.
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VARIOS (1992). Orientaciones para la secuenciación de contenidos. 1. Área de Lengua Extranjera. Colección de Materiales Curriculares para la Educación Primaria. Sevilla: Junta de Andalucía. WILKINS,D.A. (1976). Notional Syllabuses. Oxford: O.U.P. YALDEN,J. (1983). The Communicative Syllabus: Evolution, Design and Implementation. Oxford: Pergamon Press. YALDEN,J. (1987). Principles of Course Design for Language Teaching: Cambridge: C.U.P. ZABALZA, M.A. (1988). Diseño y desarrollo curricular. Madrid: Narcea.
TEMA 21.- LA PROGRAMACIÓN DEL AREA DE LENGUAS EXTRANJERAS: UNIDADES DE PROGRAMACIÓN. CRITERIOS PARA LA SECUENCIA Y TEMPORALIZACIÓN DE CONTENIDOS Y OBJETIVOS. SELECCIÓN DE LA METODOLOGÍA A EMPLEAR EN LAS ACTIVIDADES DE APRENDIZAJE Y EVALUACIÓN:
1) INTRODUCTION 2) FOREIGN LANGUAGE AREA PLANNING: DIDACTIC UNITS 3) CRITERIA TO ESTABLISH THE SEQUENCE OF OBJECTIVES AND CONTENTS 4) SELECTION OF THE METHODOLOGY TO USE IN LEARNING AND ASSESSMENT ACTIVITIES
5) BIBLIOGRAPHY
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1.- INTRODUCTION: The Organic Act 1/1990 of General Arrangement of the Educational System introduced some important changes, aimed at improving the quality of education in Spain. Among these changes we can mention: -
The extension of compulsory education to the age of 16 years old
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The establishment of new educational stages such as: Infant, Primary and Compulsory Secondary Education.
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These stages are organised in cycles, which is the period that should be considered for teaching programs and promotion.
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The establishment of a curriculum which, in spite of having certain aspects which are compulsory for all the country, is also open and flexible, as the different autonomous educational services could adapt it to their real context. Then, each school should adapt the official curriculum to their real environment by means of the design and development of the Curricular Project.
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Every teacher should design his/her particular teaching planning according to the decisions taken in the Curricular project.
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Then, taking into account these basic aspects of the Educational Reform, we are going to deal with: -
The elements and specific characteristics of foreing language teaching planning.
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The criteria we must take into account for the sequence of objectives and contents
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The methodological principles we should bear in mind to design the learning and assessment activities.
2.-FOREIGN LANGUAGE AREA PLANNING: As we have said before, our educational system establishes and open and flexible curriculum which must be adapted to the particular needs of students through different levels: The First level, refers to the official curriculum which contains the general objectives of each stage for the different areas, their blocks of contents and assessment criteria. The Second level, includes the Curricular Project of each stage, where each school adapts the elements of the official curriculum to its particular context. According to the R.D. 82/1996, the Curricular Project should include the following elements: -
The general objectives of the stage adapted to the socio-cultural context of the school.
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The sequence of objectives, contents and evaluation criteria of the different areas per cycle.
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General methodological decisions that affect the following aspects: Methodological principles, groupings, space, time and materials.
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General decisions about the attention to pupils with special needs.
And finally in the third level of curricular development, each teacher should design his/her teaching planning which consist of a set of didactic units, taking into account the decisions made by the teaching staff in the Curricular Project. Then the teaching planning is defined in the curricular material known as Red Boxes as: ‘the process whereby, starting from the official curriculum and the decisions taken in the Curricular Project, teachers plan the work that is going to be developed in the class. As a result, we have a set of sequenced didactic units for a given cycle’. Teaching planning should be: 654
• • • •
Adapted to the context and pupil’s needs Flexible, which implies that we must be ready to change any of it elements if we feel that they are not appropriate for a particular group of students. Concrete, as it should give clear information about the teaching/ learning process which is going to be developed in the classroom. Realistic, as the teacher should have the space, time and materials to carry out the activities he/she has designed and this activities should be adapted to the student’s level.
Teaching planning covers two aspects: 1. First, it includes several general decisions to ensure the coherence of the teaching process and the link between the different didactic units throughout the cycle. These decisions, which are taken by the teaching staff of the cycle, deal with : - Arrangement and sequence of contents throughout the cycle - General guidelines about: space, time, materials, pupils groupings and evaluation 2. In the second place, the teaching planning includes the design of the didactic units. In relation to the design of didactic units the teaching staff of the cycle should: • • • • •
Find topics which meet the students interests and needs Decide the objectives and contents to be worked on in each unit. Design activities according to these objectives and contents. Choose the materials suitable for each unit. Decide about the strategies to assess the students performance and the teaching practice.
Now, we are going to deal with the first aspect we have mention, the general decisions to ensure the coherence of the teaching process throughout the cycle, which include: THE SEQUENCE AND TIMING OF OBJECTIVES AND CONTENTS.
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2.1.- CRITERIA TO ESTABLISH THE SEQUENCE AND TIMING OF OBJECTIVES AND CONTENTS: As we have seen when talking about the Curricular project, one of the decisions made in such document is the sequence of objectives, contents, and assessment criteria of each area along the different cycles.
Then, once the teaching staff has decided the objectives and contents programme per cycle, in the Curricular Project, the cycle teacher or teachers have to decide about the sequence and timing of these objectives and contents within the cycle. The term sequence refers to the order in which we are going to present the contents while the term timing refers to the amount of time we will need to achieve the objectives and teach the contents.
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Since the establishment of this sequence is a difficult task, the Ministry of Education published a Resolution of the 5th of March 1992, that offered some criteria to establish such sequence:
1. The objectives and contents should be related to the global aim of Foreign language learning , which is the acquisition of communicative competence.
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2. The objectives and contents should be arranged in a meaningful way 3. The arrangement of objectives and contents should ensure the coherence of the learning process
Regarding contents this Resolution says that: 1. We must go from the general and simple to the particular and complex. This applies to the arrangement of concepts and procedures, since it is difficult to arrange attitudinal contents into cycles. 2. There must be a balance between the three types of contents (concepts, procedures and attitudes). 3. As far as the procedures are concerned, the four skills should be developed in an interrelated way as they are in real communication. 4. However we must remember that in the Foreign Language Area curriculum for Primary Education, oral skills are stressed over written skills, and receptive skills are given the priority over productive skills. 5. Contents must be adapted to the students level of development: According to PIAGET and INHELDER (1984) children are at the concrete operational stage (between 7 and 11 years old) The characteristics of this stage are as follows: •
Children start to develop rational thinking starting from concrete objects, classes or relations.
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Children make progress in perceptive and motor aspects.
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Children begin to develop socialisation skills.
According to these characteristics we must remember the following guidelines:
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• If children mental operations are based on their concrete experiences, we, as foreign language teachers, should select topics and activities connected to the pupils real experiences. • If children develop their perceptive and motor abilities, we should contribute to this development by means of contents and activities which involve body movement or the use of their perceptive and creative abilities. • We should also foster the development of socialisation skills. In this sense we should promote the development of positive attitudes such as co-operation and respect towards the contribution of others.
6. The contents should be presented in context. The new grammatical structures and vocabulary must be learnt in connection with the communicative functions that children need to express themselves in situations related to their needs and experiences. When planning the sequence of objectives and contents we must take the following steps: 1. We must decide the degree in which the abilities expressed in the general objectives are going to be developed in each cycle, and choose the contents we need to reach them. For instance, starting from the objective number one of the foreign language area:
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‘To understand simple and oral written texts about known objects, situations and events, using general and specific information taken from those texts for specific purposes.’
We can sequence the abilities expressed in this objective, for the second cycle of Primary education, as follows: ‘At the end of the second cycle pupils will be able to understand the general meaning of simple oral texts emitted by the teacher with a simple structure and vocabulary, in familiar contexts, and with the help of gestures, mime and any necessary repetition’
2. As we must teach the three types of contents in an interrelated way, we must choose any of them to organise the sequence. The best way to promote the development of communicative abilities is organising them around procedures. If we decide to do it in this way, we should consider the factors which determine the sequence and the degree of complexity of the communicative functions, since these will be the factors to be taken into account to 660
set the sequence of contents. These factors, which are defined in the Resolution of the 5th of March, are: -
The type of oral or written texts The channel The type of comprehension The interlocutor The level of correction
Now, we are going to explain these criteria in detail.: -
The type of oral or written texts
Here we must consider the length, vocabulary, the linguistic structures, and organisation of the oral or written texts that we are going to use in class. Obviously, we must go from short simple texts to more complex ones.
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The channel
As far as channel is concerned we should consider if the oral or written messages that our students should understand or produce are going to be transmitted in a face to face communicative situation, or by means of a cassette recording or a written text. In this sense, we should start from face to face communication, because mime, gestures and expressions help pupils to understand.
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The type of comprehension
The type of comprehension refers to the information we ask them to extract from an oral or written message. This comprehension may be global ( if they should get the general sense of the message) or specific (if they have to extract specific details). The most logical progression goes from global to specific comprehension.
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The interlocutor
Regarding the interlocutor we should take into account if he/she is known or unknown for the student, if he/she belongs to the school context or not. At the beginning we should work with close interlocutors such as the teacher and the classmates.
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The level of correction The level of correction deals with the demands about correction in the oral and written production of students. Obviously such demands increase along the cycles. At the beginning, they should produce language correctly enough to be understood.
3 .- Then, if we have decided to organise contents around procedures, we should not forget that the three types of contents (concepts, procedures and attitudes) must be considered in an interrelated way. Then we should relate them as in the following example: “Recognising the characteristic sounds, rhythm and intonation patterns of the foreign language, realising the importance of being able to communicate in a foreign language To see this relation more clear, the Resolution of the 5th of March suggests that we can display them in a chart, as follows EXAMPLE OF SEQUENCE OF CONTENTS FOR THE SECOND CYCLE Procedures
Concepts
-Characteristic sounds
Attitudes
Realising the importance of oral 662
Recognising
-Rhythm and intonation patterns. -Words and sentences in texts Identifying related to the context of the classroom and daily life - of messages with the following communica tive intentions: Global *Greeting comprehension (hello!,good morning...) *Identifying oneself (I am. ,My name is...) *Giving and asking for basic personal information (using expressions such as: What
communication in a foreign language. Showing an optimistic attitude towards their own ability to understand the foreign language
Showing a receptive attitude towards people who speak a different language.
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´s your name, How old are you?...) - These communicati ve functions should be related to topics of general use and wide notions, which are interesting for children, such as: *The school, family, friends, animals, body, home, numbers, colours...
Specific comprehension
- Of information previously required in contextualis ed
Showing a receptive attitude towards people who speak a foreign language.
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situations*
*For instance, we ask children to fill a chart about the favourite sports of different characters from the textbook. First, we tell them what they are going to listen to a conversation where the characters talk about things they like and dislike and what information they should pay attention to. Then, we play the cassette or read the text aloud and they should complete the chart, with the specific information we have asked them for (sports, in this case)
TENNIS
BASKETBALL
FOOTBALL
STEVIE
yes
yes
no
LUCY
yes
no
yes
ANNIE
no
yes
no
As we can see this task ask them to extract specific information (about favourite sports), previously required by the teacher, in a contextualised situation,( as they already recognise the characters voices, and know what they are talking about).
If we do this with all the general objectives we will have a list of the contents of each cycle including concepts procedures and attitudes. These orientations are quite useful to establish the sequence of objectives, contents and assessment criteria, in the second and third cycle, but we must not forget that English has been introduced in the 1st cycle in our Autonomous Community. Then the Order of 30th of August published by the Department of Education, Science and Technology of our Autonomous Government says in its article number 3 that: “The centres must change and adapt their Curricular Projects to this change as the objectives, contents and evaluation criteria of the foreign language area, should be sequenced for three cycles, instead of two” 665
Obviously, as we haven’t got our own curriculum yet, we must take as reference the objectives, contents and evaluation criteria of the R.D. 1344/91 of the 6th of September, which establishes the national curriculum for primary Education. However, the Department of Education, Science and Technology of our Autonomous Government, has published a document, made by foreign language teachers co-ordinated by the Technical Inspection Service called “English in the first cycle of Primary Education”. This document is not a law, it has been published just to help teachers. Regarding the abilities, skills and contents which should be worked in this cycle this document says that: In the FIRST CYCLE: - The most important skill in the first cycle should be listening. - We must not force children to speak until they are ready to do it. Then at the beginning they can show what they have understood by means of non-verbal actions such as movements, gestures, drawing, cutting, pointing, colouring... - Total Physical Response ( TPR) activities and songs are a good way to help them link words and actions, and 666
express themselves in English in a funny and meaningful way. - Written language should be avoided, especially in the first year of the cycle, because they are learning to read and write in their native language and the complex English spelling could be confusing for them. - Contents should be taught by means of didactic units, organised around meaningful topics such as:, Family, Friends, Christmas, Things of the classroom, The house, Food, Toys, Clothes... - Children must be already familiar with such topics in their native language. Then, the co-ordination with the classteacher is very important to establish the sequence of the different didactic units along the cycle.
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2.2.- DIDACTIC UNITS: Now we are going to talk about the second moment of the teaching planning: the design and development of didactic units. Didactic units are defined in the curricular material known as Red Boxes published by the Spanish Ministry of Education (1991) as: A unit of educational action formed by a set of activities that are developed in an specific time, to reach a set of didactic objectives. A didactic unit is the answer to all the curricular questions: -
What to teach? In the form of Objectives and contents
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When? Through the sequence of objectives and contents.
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How? By means of the learning activities, space and time organisation, didactic resources and materials.
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And what, when and how to evaluate, by means of the assessment criteria, and the different activities to carry out the initial, formative and final evaluation
A didactic unit should have the following elements: 1.- Description 2.- Didactic objectives 3.- Learning contents 4.- Activities 5.- Materials 6.- Space and time arrangement. 7.- Evaluation criteria and techniques used to carry out this process. We are going to analyse this elements in detail:
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1.- The Description is a kind of introduction which includes :
The topic of the didactic unit A brief reference about pupils´ previous knowledge Cycle/ level and term Number of sessions Connection with the previous didactic units
2.-The didactic objectives are more specific than those designed for the cycle as they express the abilities that we want pupils acquire as a result of the work developed in a given didactic unit.
The didactic objectives must meet all the students’ needs. This means that the teacher should include some basic objectives as well as more difficult ones designed to reinforce the acquisition process. In this way everyone could progress according to his / her possibilities. 3.- Learning contents: The didactic unit must include the three types of contents ( concepts, procedures and attitudes) taking into account that: There must be a balance between them They should be interrelated and connected to the students experience and needs. The teacher should include contents related to cross-curricular topics ( health, peace, environment protection...) 4.- Activities or learning experiences:
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Once we have explained the main criteria to design the learning activities, we will focus on evaluation activities : The general methodological principles for Primary education, included in the R.D. 1344/ 1991 of the 14th of June, evaluation is considered as a global and continuous process, which must be used as a tool to improve the teaching/learning process. According to the document “Keys for the teaching of a foreign language(MEC,1991) the main aim of evaluation in the foreign language area is “to check if students are able to use the language in communicative situations” Then, evaluation activities should not be different from learning ones. Direct observation of the students’ work is the main evaluation technique, however in order to make this observation in a systematic way the document “Keys for the teaching of a foreign language” suggests that we should use an evaluation form containing the aspects to be observed on each kind of activity.
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For example for the evaluation of oral activities this document suggest teachers to consider the following questions: Has he/she completed the activity? Does he/she understand the activity? Can he/she make her/himself understood by means of words and gestures? Is his/her pronunciation good enough to be understood? Does he/she need help from the teacher or other students?
BIBLIOGRAPHY. -
Ley Orgánica 1/1990, de 3 de octubre de Ordenación General del Sistema Educativo.
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RD 1344/1991 de 6 de septiembre, por el que se establece el currículo de la Educación Primaria.
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RD 82/1996, de 26 de enero que establece el Reglamento Orgánico de las Escuelas de Educación infantil y colegios de Educación primaria.
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Resolución de 5 de marzo de 1992, de la Secretaria de Estado para la Educación, que regula la elaboración de proyectos curriculares y establece orientaciones para la distribución de objetivos, contenidos y criterios de evaluación.
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Orden del 30 de agosto de 2000, por la que se establece y regula la impartición de la lengua extranjera en el primer ciclo de Educación primaria, en el ámbito de la Comunidad Autónoma de Extremadura.
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MEC: Materiales para la Reforma, area de lengua extranjera. Madrid. Servicio de publicaciones del MEC. 1991.
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MEC. Proyecto Curricular. Materiales para la reforma. Madrid. Servicio de publicaciones del MEC, 1991.
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Brewster, Ellis and Girard. The primary English Teacher’s Guide. London. Penguin. 1992.
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(Se trata del tema 22 del temario específico de la especialidad de lengua extranjera)
TEMA 22: Variables to be taken into consideration in the organization of the foreign language classroom. Pupils grouping, space and time management, methodology selection, teachers' role, ... 1.- General Factors 1.1.- Age Generally speaking, it is said that children learn more quickly than adults but this is not so clear. Children learn more quickly because of their innate abilities of acquisition in primary levels. Children, because of their motivation to become a communicator, develop a better pronunciation than adults, but adults will acquire primary levels more rapidly because of their greater cognitive abilities and strategies. 1.2.- Sex It has been found that girls and boys use different strategies when they are learning a language. Girls tends to be mere communicative than boys. 1.3.- Motivation and attitudes. Gardner and Lamberer stabled two main kinds of motivation: -Integrative: The learner has a genuine interest in the second language community -Instrumental: His interest is in how the second language can be useful towards furthering others goals. It is clear that this is not enough to be highly motivated, It must be acompained by others factors such as useful strategies. 672
1.4.- Aptitude and intelligence Learning a second language in a classroom involves two sets of intellectual abilities: - A general academic or reasoning ability called intelligence - Specifics cognitive qualities needed for second language acquisition called aptitude There are several problems to stablish the difference of influence of both in the second language acquisition. 1.5.- Personality Krashen argues that extroverted learners will find easier to make contact with other users of the second language and therefore will obtain more input. Also Characteristics such as extroversion assertiveness and adventuresomeness are predictable to be positive for learning Social Skills. Allow the students to be related to the world and culture of the country. Other factors we have to consider are inhibition and axiety. A teacher who reduces both in the whole learning process will make students increase confidence when producing a language. 1.6.- Learning Styles According to Ausubel, learning styles are define as "selfconsistent and enduring individual differences in cognitive organization and functioning". It can be inductive or deductive; dependent or independent; holistic or analytic; ... These cognitive learning stiles will be developed in the chapter of learning strategies. Age, sex, motivation, aptitude, intelligence, personality and learning style stablish individual differences in the way or second language acquisition. So we should consider them to stablish the most effective way to teach them 2.-"The good language learner" (Ellis) and the unsuccessful learner a)Ellis characteristics of a good language learner *Be able to respond to the group dynamics of the learning situations *Seek out all opportunities to use the target language *make maximum use of the opportunities to practice the 673
second language *Supplement the learning that derive from the direct contact with speakers of the second language *Be an adolescent or an adult rather a young child *Possess sufficient analytic skills to perceive categorize and store the linguistic features of the second language and also to monitor errors *Possess a strong reason for learning the second language and also develop a strong task motivation *Be prepared to experiment by taking risk *Be capable of adapting to different learning conditions b) Characteristics of an unsuccessful language learner *tendency toward a history of faliture *Lack of confidence *No risk taking *Low self-steam *Negative attributions *Poor study habits and learning strategies *Full of surprises 3.-Learner involvement: Strategies For a successful learner-centred-comunicative methodology, the teacher must be no more the "controller" or the "conductor". S/he must help the learner to be self-autonomous and aware with the global learning. According to Hutchinson these are the characteristics that should be enhanced with the classroom: 3.1.- Positive attitudes To develop affectivity in the language, the learner and the teacher have to work together. The teacher role is to turn into a productive ingredient in the learning pot. He is going to decide how to conduct the process, materials, . . . He also should teach attitudes, strategies, abilities, skills and other concepts now included in the syllabus design. Positive attitudes are those concerned with culture awareness. 3.2.- Awareness raising Teacher must apply global contents. S/he must provide the learner the strategies to become responsible. The strategies included here are those affective ones. 3.3.-Skill development 674
The skills are directed toward cognitive and metacognitive strategies. Metacognive strategy is a learning strategy that involves thinking about our knowledge of the learning process. Cognitive strategy is a strategy that involves mental manipulation or transformation of materials or tasks and is intended to enhance comprehension, acquisition or retention. Both are concerned with the "learning to learn". 3.4.- Basic tools for learning: Techniques *Sound acquisition -repeating aloud -Listening carefully and talking aloud *Grammar -Following rules -Inferring grammar rules -Comparing L1 and L2 -Memorizing structures and using them *Vocabulary -Making up charts -Learning words in context -Learning words that are associated -Using new words in phrases -Using a dictionary *Listening comprehension -Listening to the radio -Exposing oneself to different accents and registers *Learning to talk - Not being afraid to make mistakes - Making contact with native speakers - Asking for correction *Learning to write -Having penpals -Writing frequently -Frecuent reading of what you expect to write *Learning to read -Reading something everyday -Reading things that are familiar -Reading texts at the beginners level 675
-looking for meaning from the context 3.5.-Learner syllabus design (loopback) The contents that a task based syllabus, like the Spanish reform one, Should be divided into: a)Contents which develop the oral communicatively abilities b)Contents which develop the written communicatively abilities c)Sociocultural contents These contents must include the strategies above mentioned. These strategies will achieve the specific and the general aims. A progresive evaluation will be considered during the academic year. And one of the most important things included in the syllabus is the selection of a methodology. In summary, we are clamming a task based approach focused in the process where evaluation and methodology are included in the learning contents. 4.-Class management. Pupils grouping LOCK-STEP PAIR WORK GROUP WORK INDIVIDUAL STUDY A *Anyone can *Increases the pupils *Increases the amount *Child relax from D hear what practice of pupils talking time outside pressure V is *Motivation to learn *Gives them *Child internalize A being said with others opportunities to use the what s/he is N *We get a *Important for our language to learning T good youngest pupils communicate *Permit our pupils A language *They learn and teach select between G model exhibiting a degree of diferent activities E *We can self-reliance which S is absent from teaching move controlled the lass at activities a *more dynamic fast pace *Need a *Is not communication very more important stressing *more relax than pair work D *Children I does not
*Noise problems *Use of Spanish *How to group our *Incorrectness 676
S practice A very much D *lack of V heterogeneity A *lack of N effectiveness T for a A communicati G on E work
pupils *Some pupils do not like to work in pairs *To motivate them we have to tell them what the reason for the activity is *Use of Spanish
*Noise *Motivated clearly defined goals are the solution *Selection of group members
T *controller E *assessors A C H E R S ï R O L E
*Assessors *Prompters *resources
*Provides assistance *Checks the task is carried out satisfactorily
K I N D S
*OPEN PAIRS Who are not Side by side perform a task. The rest listen them *CLOSED PAIRS The class is divided into pairs and working at the same Time *CLOSED & OPEN Form new ones during the activity *COOPERATIVE Our two pupils have to help each other to
*STRONG & WEAK TOGETHER Usually good for Both *GROUPS OF STRONG/WEAK They could work different materials at The same time * Biggest size for a group is half class and only for competitive activities. *Smallest group (6 more or less) 677
complete the activities *Flexible groups As the activity progress the group split up and reform *fixed groups for all the year you can have group leaders who make of group organizer and mini-teacher
5.-Space and time management The teacher should consider this options: 5.1.-The physical enviroment -Seating -Voice proyection -Blackboard 5.2.-Rapport between teacher and student -physical position -eye contact -Using students names -Personal involvement/enjoyment -Encouragement -Self-confidence -Clarity 5.3.-Students' individual sense of belonging to a group -teacher involving all equality -Expressing their own personalities -Constitution of groups in the class 5.4.-Classroom organization and lay out -In most cases we do not have total freedom to organize the classroom. Brewster underlines Six points to consider: 1.- A grid plan made to scale is useful if we have a large class squeezed into a small area 2.- We must think about sitting our pupils in rows or groups 3.- Pupils who is closed to the teacher Concentrate more and work harder 4.- A small classroom library colour coded acording to 678
difficulty 5.- Areas where our pupils can display their work 6.- Corners 5.4.1.- Classroom display We must encourage them to display their work when setting a display we must keep several points in mind: 1.-try to keep the work at our pupils eye level 2.-We may include related words pictures or a tape which may tell a story which is described visually in a display 3.-As they must be eye catching, the titles and lettering should be large and attractive 4.- We must ensure that the pupils' names are on their work and above all, that all our pupils have something on display 5.5.-Time management The differents groups can go at a different speed and what we have planed could be good for one but not for the others. We have to plot realistic timings for the complection of certain activities. We may be left with time to spare at the end of our lesson; In these cases we need to have some activities reserved 6.-Selecting a methodology Our curriculum established that the main aim of teaching a foreign language in primary education is to enable our pupils to reach communicative competence and its main subcomponents: Grammar competence: Domain of grammar and lexical capabilities Discourse competence: written or speaking discourses with coherence and cohesion. Socio-linguistic competence: Understand the social context in which the conversation takes place Socio-cultural competence: Knowledge of cultural aspects of the target language speaking countries 6.1.- Communication in the classroom We can stablish a continuum where communicative and non communicative activities are the extremes. In the classroom we divide the work into 3 major activities depending on the point of the continuum we are placed: Presentation Practice Production 679
6.2.- Integrated Skills Our activities will sometimes have to concentrate on one single skill to reach our aims but we have to use that to practicing others. 6.4.- Assessment Continuous assessment is now the more wide spread method of assessment in our schools. This assessment have to show our pupils level of attainment, the effectiveness and efficiency of our methods and it start with an initial diagnosis. 7.-A common working environment: Teachers' role 7.1.- Teaching style Teaching style is a complex amalgam of beliefs, attitudes, strategies, techniques, personality and control which lies at the heart of the interpersonal relationship between teacher and learner. 7.2.- Motivation A primary function of the teacher management roe is to motivate the learners who are demotivated. There are several ways: -Adopting a positive attitude towards the learner. -Giving pupils meaningful relevant and interesting task to do. -Maintaining discipline to be extent that a reasonable working atmosphere is stablish -Being motivated and interested themselves -Involving the learner more actively in the classroom process and activities that demand inter-student communication and cooperative efforts -Introducing learners to the concepts of self apprassial and self-evaluation -Giving positive feedback or written assignments -Encouraging pride in achievement by allowing learners to display their work on the classroom. 7.3.- Main types of teachers We are going to analyze the six main roles that Hammer distinguishes: CONTROLLER. We are totally in charge of the class. It is use in presentation stage. It is only adequate during the reproducction stage, being wholly inappropriate at the production stage. 680
ASSESOR. During the presentation stage we also correct our pupils' error and mistakes but without making our pupils ashamed of their errors. Organizing feedback is a major part of assessing our pupils performance. The teacher waits until an activity or task has been completed and he tells pupils how they did. ORGANIZER. is to tell our pupils what is our topic and what re the tasks. We must also get the activity going, solving initial problems and finally organize feedback. Prompter. We sometimes need to help our students where there is a silence or our pupils are confused. We should help only when it is necessary PARTICIPANT. In simulations is interesting to participate with our pupils. RESOURCE.In communicative activity it's important to keep our roles as assessors and to be a kind of resource center. 7.4.- Comunication patterns: "formal" or "informal"? If we allow greater freedom of participation from the learner, we will develop a less formal communication pattern. The learners will be more ready to share meanings and values. This will enrich the contents of learning. 7.5.-Attitude towards errors in the learning process. The mistakes are caused by an overgeneralization of the second language or by the interference of the mother tongue. As educators, our porpoise is to encourage risk-takers. The mistakes takes part in the learning process and they assure the stage of the students' acknoledgement. Only if obstruct the comunication are to be corrected.
ESPECIALIDAD – INGLES TEMA 22 VARIABLES A TENER EN CUENTA EN LA ORGANIZACIÓN DE LA CLASE DE LENGUA EXTRANJERA INGLESA: AGRUPACIÓN DEL ALUMNADO, DISTRIBUCIÓN DEL ESPACIO Y TIEMPO; SELECCIÓN DE METODOLOGÍAS, PAPEL DEL PROFESOR, ETC...
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ASPECTS OF CLASS MANAGEMENT: PUPIL GROUPING, SPACE AND TIME MANAGEMENT, METHODOLOGY SLECTRION, ROLE OF THE TEACHER, ETC...
1. INTRODUCTION. 2. PUPIL GROUPINGS. a. b. c. d.
Lockstep. Pair work. Group work. Individual work.
3. SPACE AND TIME MANAGEMENT. a. Space management. b. Time management. 4. THE ROLES OF THE TEACHER AND LEARNER. a. The teacher’s role. b. The learner’s role. 5. METHODOLOGY SELECTION. a. Selection of activities. b. Planning principles in methodology selection. 6. SUMMARY. 7. SYNOPSIS. 8. BIBLIOGRAPHY.
1- INTRODUCTION. In this topic we will analyse various aspects of class management which we must take into account for achievement of effective teaching. These aspects include the student groupings, the space and time management, the methodology selection and the role of the teacher.
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This topic is of prime relevance since class management involves the efficiency of the teacher and the learning activities. 2 – PUPIL GROUPINGS. We will first discuss the pros and cons of various interaction patterns: lockstep, pair work, group work and individual study. It is advisable to use the different groupings. 2.1 – Lockstep. Lockstep is the traditional teaching situation. All the students work as a group with the teacher ( they are ‘locked’ into some activity ) and the teacher acts as controller and assessor. This type of grouping is used when the teacher provides feedback or gives instructions. a) Advantages. Lockstep has certain advantages: The whole class are concentrating and the learner’s attention span is then improved. Everyone can hear what is being said. The students get a good language model from the teacher. Many students find lockstep very comforting. b) Disadvantages. There are also reasons why the use of lockstep alone is less than satisfactory: Students working in lockstep get little chance to practise. Besides, they do not use language in real-life situations. Lockstep usually goes at the wrong pace: either the teacher is too slow for the good students or he/she is too fast for the weak students.
2.2 Pair work. a) Procedures for pairwork. It pairwork is to be successful, certain procedures need to be followed.
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I. Make sure the students know exactly what the have to do. Explain the activity and practise as necessary. II. Divide the students into pairs ( taking advantage of the way the are seated ). Depending on the type of activity, make sure that students take it in turns to initiate and respond ( e. g. ask and answer questions ). III. Carry out selective checking, walking round the class and listening in Join in with a pair from time to time, especially with those students who are likely to need your help. If you feel that an activity is going badly, stop it, re-present it to the class and let the students start again. IV. Control noise level by stopping an activity and asking the students to start again more quietly. V. Gauge the amount of tune an activity should go on for. Stop the activity when most students have had a reasonable amount of practice. VI. Provide any necessary feedback. Tell the students how well they have done. b) Advantages. Pair work has the following advantages: It increases the amount of students’ talking time as they are presented with opportunities for productive practice. It develops socialization skills and attitudinal contents (cooperation, participation, autonomy and responsibility), which contribute to create a good atmosphere in the classroom. c) Disadvantages However, pair work has several disadvantages: The students will sometimes use their mother tongue. Apart from selecting activities which we can be reasonably sure are not beyond the level of the students and in preparing them if necessary with some essential language (especially in the early stages), there are a number of things we can do to help overcome this problem:
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Explain to the students why they are doing activities of this kind: i.e. that this is an opportunity to use English.
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Demonstrate whenever possible how they can ‘get round’ difficulties , i.e. through alternative expressions.
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Encourage the students to consult difficulties.
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Ask them at least from time to time to impose selfdiscipline, e.g. through a penalty system which requires them to pay a small fine if they use the mother tongue. This can be done in a fun-like way so that the students actually enjoy catching one another out.
us if they have real
Incorrectness is another problem as many students think that if they are not corrected, they do not learn. Teachers sometimes worry about noise when pair work is used. 2.3. Group work a) Organising group work. a) Forming groups. The size of the groups should be worked out in relation to the total number of students in the class. As a general rule, we could say that there should be 5-8 students in each group and not more than 5-6 groups in the class. The teacher should normally form the groups, usually on the basis of mixed ability ( i.e. good and weak students together) since as a rule learners do help one another. b) Group leader. Each group should have its own ‘leader’. The function of the group leader is not to dominate the group but to coordinate their activities and to serve as a link between the group and the teacher. c) The role of the teacher. These are some of the things the teacher must do: Select activities carefully. The teacher should ensure that the activities can be done reasonably well with the language the students have at their disposal. Work out the instructions for an activity carefully. Keep instructions simple, and if necessary use the mother tongue. 685
Present the activity to the class. Give plenty of examples and give the students a ‘trial run’. Monitor the students’ performance. While the activities are in progress, the teacher’s main task is to move around the class and to ‘listen in’ discreetly in order to find out how the students are getting on. The teacher should not, as a rule, correct mistakes of language during a group activity but make a note of them and use them as the basis of feedback. d) Provide feedback.
b) Advantages Group work offers the following advantages: It increases the amount of student’s talking time. It gives the students the opportunity of using language to communicate with each other. It develops socialization skills and attitudinal contents. c) Disadvantages Group work has the same disadvantages as pair work: use of the first language, incorrectness and noise. The size of the groups depends on the activity type, whether it is a dialogue, a debate, a game, etc. When the class is divided into two groups, we speak of team work. Team work is not often used because it involves less pupil participation. 2.4. Individual Study We must try and let students work on their own and at their own pace at some stage during the class. This type of grouping can be used for reading and writing work. 3- SPACE AND TIME MANAGEMENT 3.1. Space management.
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Space bears a direct relationship to the activities to be done, and an indirect relationship to the methodology. There are different ways of organising the classroom: a) Traditional seating arrangement. The students sit in rows facing the teaching. It is up-front teaching: the teacher is at the front of the class as the focus. There is not a close relationship between the teacher and the students. Therefore this seating arrangement does not foster communication. This type of class arrangement is suitable for the beginning and the end of the lesson, the representation stage, and individual work: exams, written exercises, compositions, silent reading. This distribution does not favour communication, and the position of the teacher is of distance and difference with respect to the pupils. b) Circle, teacher out. This kind of arrangement favours communication, since the pupils can see each other. As the teacher is out, the pupils feel more comfortable. This type of arrangement is suitable for debates, discussions, games. It is typical of the methods Community Language Learning, Total Physical Response and The Silent Way. c) Circle, teacher inside. The role of the teacher is to provide help when necessary. It is suitable for every kind of communication activity. d) Horse shoe. The students are seated in a semicircle and the teacher is in the middle. It is suitable for every kind of activity: drills, games, debates, etc. This grouping favours communication. e) Boarding meetings. It is used for activities involving a lot of material (reports, project work ). The desks are placed together and the pupils sit around. f) Streams. The pupils are seated in two parallel rows facing the blackboard or facing each other. The most suitable activity to use this type of arrangement is the debate. g) Mix and mingle. Every student is in a different position, all looking at the teacher. This type of arrangement is suitable for many oral games. h) Learning stations. The class is divided into groups of 4, 6 or eight students, each group like a station in which different activities are done and where the pupils can change positions. 3.2. Time management
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Time plays a decisive role in the learning process, since we can plan objectives, contents and activities according to the length of lessons. We must take into account the psychological characteristics of our pupils and design varied and short activities as their concentration span is short. On the other hand, w should plan realistic timings for the completion of certain activities (games, discussions) and design activities for the end of the lesson, in case we run out of material. We will now present the different types of timetable: a) Open timetable. It allows the students to plan the activities of the day, and so requires careful activity: planning and material organization. b) Flexible timetable. Lessons can be shorter or longer. The advantage of this type of timetable is that it is adapted to the needs of the syllabus. c) Traditional timetable. There is a fixed number of fifty-minute lesson given by the same teacher in the same classroom. d) Modular timetable. The school day is divided into modules of 20 minutes. The English lesson may cover two successive modules one day, three the next day, two the next day. There are certain activities that can be done in one module, like conversation in small groups.
4- THE ROLES OF THE TEACHER AND LEARNER 4.1. The teacher’s role. The role of the teacher, then, will depend to a large extent on the activity type. We will examine the roles of controller, assessor, prompter, participant and resource. 4.1.1. Controller/ Conductor The teacher acts as a controller at the presentation stage, at the practice stage and in lockstep activities. At the presentation stage, the teacher checks that all the students have understood the form and meaning of the new language item. At the practice stage, the teacher elicits responses, provides cues in drills, works out the instructions for the activities and check that the pupils are doing the activity in the proper way.
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4.1.2. Assessor The teacher will correct the students’ mistakes at the practice stage. He /She should also assess how well they are performing. On the other hand, the teacher will encourage self-assessment. In this way the pupils will become more responsible, autonomous and independent, and they will get more involved in the learning process, which is very important, as it is the centre of learning and a point of reference. The teacher must also assess his/her own work as teacher. 4.1.3. Organiser The success of many activities depends on good organization and on the students knowing exactly what they have to do. The main aim of the teacher when organising an activity is to give clear instructions and get the activity going. 4.1.4. Prompter The teacher will encourage the students to participate or make suggestions about how to carry out an activity when there is a silence or when do not know what to do next. 4.1.5. Participant The teacher will sometimes act as a participant. This will contribute to create a pleasant atmosphere in the class, and will also give the students the opportunity of practising English with someone who speaks it better than they do. 4.1.6. Resource The teacher should always be willing to offer help if necessary. 4.2. The learner’s role One of the major changes in foreign language teaching refers to the learner’s role. Whereas in the traditional foreign language methods the learner assumed a passive role, the teacher being the focus, in the communicative approach the learner plays an active role and is responsible for their own learning. On the other methods, such as The Silent Way and Suggestopedia, the students are encouraged to become independent.
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5. METHODOLOGY SELECTION 5.1. Selection of activities The learning and assessment activities will aim to develop the students’ communicative competence and to practise the four language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) taking into account that following the Foreign Language Area Curriculum in Primary Education, aural/oral skills will be stressed over written skills. The activities will be selected according to the stage of the lesson: *At the practice stage, we will design pre-communicative activities, which will prepare the students for using the new language in real communication. The activities will be oral guided: drills, short dialogues, exercises… *At the production stage, the pupils will do free speaking and written activities which engage them in real communication: simulations, role-plays, discussions, information gap activities, problem solving activities, compositions, games, etc. With regard to assessment, there are many ways of assessing the students’ progress from class observation to objective test. Evaluation should be continuous and global. 5.2. Planning Principles in Methodology selection. On the other hand, we must take into consideration two planning principles in methodology selection: a) Variety Variety mainly means using a wide range of materials and activities in the classroom. There are many ways of introducing variety within a lesson: - We can use a wide range of activities and materials. - We can change the seating arrangements for different activities. - We can use the coursebook in different ways. We should introduce variety for three reasons: -
The students’ motivation will be better. Our pupils’ attention span is short and they thus need to do different things. 690
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Lessons will be more enjoyable. b) Flexibility
Flexibility means the ability to use different techniques, activities and materials depending on the students’ level.
6 -SUMMARY
In this topic we have analysed various aspects of class management including student groupings, the distribution of space and time, the role of the teacher and the learner, and the selection of methodology.
We also have described briefly the advantages and disadvantages of the different types of interaction: lockstep, pair work, group work and individual study.
Space bears a direct relationship to the activities to be done, and an indirect relationship to the methodology.
Time is also a relevant element in the teaching process, since we plan objectives, contents and activities according to the length of lessons.
The role of the teacher depends to a large extent on the activity type. We have examined the roles of controller, assessor, prompter, participant and resource.
In the learning process, pupils are responsible for their own learning and should develop autonomy.
In the last part of the topic we have focused on methodology selection. We have centred on different types of learning activities according to the stage of the lesson.
Finally we have enumerated two essential learning principles: Variety and flexibility.
Variety means mainly using a wide range of materials and activities in the classroom. Flexibility means the ability to use different techniques, activities and materials depending on the students’ level.
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7 - SYNOPSIS PUPIL GROUPINGS * Lockstep
- Advantages -Disadvantages
*Pair work
- Procedures of pair work - Advantages - Disadvantages
* Group work
- Organising group work - Advantages - Disadvantages
* Individual work SPACE AND TIME * Space management
- Traditional seating arrangement - Circle, teacher out - Circle, teacher inside - Horse shoe - Boarding meeting - Streams - Mix and mingle - Learning stations
* Time management
- Types of timetable
THE ROLES OF THE TEACHER AND LEARNER *Teacher’s roles
- Controller - Assessor - Organiser - Prompter - Participant - Resource
* Learner’s roles
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METHODOLOGY SELECTION *Selection of activities
- Learning activities
*Planning principles
- Variety - Flexibility
- Pre-communicative activities - Communicative activities
8-BIBLIOGRAPHY
BURT, K.M. & DUKAY, H.C., New Directions in Second Language Learning: A Guidebook for ESL/EFL Teachers. MacGraw Hill International Book Company.
CRYSTAL, D. Lenguaje infantil. Aprendizaje y Lingüística. Medico-técnica. Barcelona, 1981.
DIXON, R.J. Practical Guide to the Teaching of English. Regent Publishing Co., New York, 1975.
HARMER, JEREMY., The Practice of English Language Teaching. Longman Handbooks for Language Teachers. Longman 1983.
This book is a complete guide and reference work for all teachers of English as a foreign or second language.
HONEY & MUNFORD, Manual of Learning Styles. Cambridge, 1992.
NUNAD, DAVID., Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom. Cambridge, 1989.
VANK, E. K., The Threshold Level. Council of Europe, 1975.
WIDOSH, H. J., Teaching English as Communication. Oxford U. P., 1978.
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TEMA 23 - OPOSICIONES DE EDUCACIÓN PRIMARIA - ESPECIALIDAD DE INGLÉS
OPOSICIONES A LA ESPECIALIDAD DE "INGLÉS" EDUCACIÓN PRIMARIA
TEMA 23 LA ELABORACIÓN DE MATERIALES CURRICULARES PARA LA CLASE DE INGLÉS. CRITERIOS PARA LA SELECCIÓN Y USO DE LOS LIBROS DE TEXTO. DOCUMENTOS AUTÉNTICOS Y DOCUMENTOS ADAPTADOS: LIMITACIONES DE USO. LA COLABORACIÓN DE LOS ALUMNOS EN EL DISEÑO DE LOS MATERIALES. 0. INTRODUCTION. 1. PRODUCING ENGLISH LESSONS CURRICULAR MATERIALS. 2 CRITERIA FOR THE CHOOSING AND USE OF COURSEBOOKS. 1.1 Choosing a course book. 2.2. Using a course book. 3 AUTHENTIC, SIMULATED-AUTHENTIC AND NON-AUTHENTIC TEXTS: USE CONSTRAINTS. 4 INOVOLVING THE CHILDREN IN MATERIAL DESIGN. 5 BIBLIOGRAPHY.
0. - INTRODUCTION There is an abundance of English language teaching materials on the market. At various times of our professional life we will be involved in the selection of materials for our pupils, and, if we do not find any materials which response to our pupils' needs we will have to design them.
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Before attempting to evaluate published materials or to design our own, we must come to some conclusions about our pupils and what their needs are. The following profile of pupils needs has been taken from "Harmer" and has three major components: - description of pupils - description of pupils' needs - conclusions DESCRIPTION OF PUPILS 1. Age: 2. Number of boys and girls: 3. Familiar background: 4. Parents' occupation: 5. Motivation/Attitude: 6. Knowledge of the world: 7. Knowledge of English: 8. Interests: 9. Pupils with special needs: 10. Pupils with discipline problems: 11. Based on the above, what conclusions can we draw about the kind of materials that would be suitable for our pupils? Once we have an idea of our pupils' personal characteristics we must come to some kind of conclusion about what their needs are. Most of them are legally marked (general objectives, assessment criteria.)
DESCRIPTION OF PUPILS' NEEDS 1 . To reach communicative competence we need to study the four skills: - Reading - Listening - Writing - Speaking 2 . Is there any pupil with special needs? What shall we do about them? Now we have a clearer idea bout our pupils and their needs. It is time to move to some conclusions about the type of materials we want to select and design. We will now study the selection and production of materials separately. 695
1. PRODUCING ENGLISH LESSON CURRICULAR MATERIALS. Producing our own materials is a time-consuming process, so it is not very often that teachers decide to produce all the materials they need for a whole cycle. Most teachers, however, produce supplementary materials which are finely tuned to their pupils' needs. (Brewster gives some reasons for producing our own supplementary materials, even if we have a course book: 1 - We may feel that our course book does not provide enough practice on a problematic point for our pupils and we must prepare some extra activities. 2 - Some of the materials in our course book are not appropriate for our class, either because their lack of interest or because they do not answer our pupils' needs. 3 - We want to foster a different methodology which is not the one used by the course book authors, eg. We want to provide our pupils with a selection of different activities so that they can choose and work more autonomously. 4 - If the course book uses the same approach one and again we may want to add some activities for the sake of variety. In any of these cases we can see we are dealing with the production of materials such as Worksheets, flashcards Worksheets can be exercises which are drawn, written or sheet of paper then photocopied so that each pupil in the class could have one. They are clear; simple and attractive with the instructions in very simple English or in Spanish (especially with our youngest pupils). The activities we normally use last a few minutes and practise one particular language point involving our pupils in different skills. We can use worksheets to organize both oral and written work, individually or in pairs or groups. If we want to use them more than once it is a good idea to cover them in plastic. If we do not, our pupils can personalize the worksheets with labels, colours and so on. When designing worksheets, we must think about how our pupils 696
will use them. It is important to know whether they will need written instructions, either in simple English or in Spanish, or only oral ones. It is always a good idea to try the worksheet ourselves to see if there is really enough room to write our pupils' names and the responses demanded in the activities. Worksheets can be used with information gap activities. For example we can tell our pupils they are going to work in pairs. We give them a worksheet and tell them they cannot show each other their worksheet. They have to share the information in order to complete the worksheet. We can also make a picture dictation where our pupils will give us a non-verbal response. The worksheet consists of a simple drawing of a naked, bald boy. We dictate his description and our pupils must add the new elements to the drawing. Other activities will include Time dictation, where our pupils as us the time and draw it on the clockfaces drawn in the worksheet or True or False where our pupils must compare the information they have in the worksheet with the information we give them orally.
Flashcards for young learners are often made using pictures and some words. The pictures must be clearly recognisable and the letters, large, clear and black. Flashcards must be large enough for the whole class to see: they must convey the meaning clearly, especially when they refer to actions our pupils must follow. Flashcards must be used to introduce and practise vocabulary related to our pupils' fields of interest. For example: What's this? It's a monkey
To introduce and practise "yes/no questions" or "wh-questions". For example: Do you like (Showing marmalade flashcard)? Yes, I do/ No, I don't To introduce and practise talking about possessions, about uses of modal verbs, There is/ there are. Both flashcards and worksheets can be made by ourselves or by our pupils, as we will see in the last section. 2 . CRITERIA FOR THE CHOOSING AND USE OF COURSE BOOKS. In the introduction we studied our pupils and their needs. Now that we know them we can start to evaluate materials, above all our course book. 697
2.1 Choosing a course book. Choosing a course book is extremely difficult. In some case, we cannot get a good picture of the suitability of a book till we have been working through it for some time. However, we can prepare a course book evaluation form which is based on "Harmer". According to him, any course book evaluation form should be based on the following criteria.
CRITERIA FOR SELECTING COURSE BOOKS ( Nunan ) 1 - The course book makes clear the link between the classroom and the wider word. 2 - The course book fosters independent learning. 3 - The course book focuses our pupils on their learning process. 4 - The course book is readily available. 5 - The course book accords with our pupils' needs. 6 - The course book can be used at more than one level of difficulty (heterogeneity) 7 - The pedagogical objectives of the materials are clear. Harmer's material evaluation form has seven parts. Each part is considered through a set of questions which may be answered "yes/no with an additional comment. The seven parts are: - practical considerations - layout and design - activities - skills - language type - subject and content - guidance To these we must add the final conclusions. Under practical considerations we must decide if the price of the materials is suitable for our pupils. We must also be sure about the availability of the different parts of the course such as tapes, workbooks. We must also judge whether the course book layout and design is attractive for our pupils. We must also study our selected course books to see that there is a 698
balance of activities. In particular, there should be a substantial amount of aural language input and a wide variety of communicative activities. The presentation of new language should take place in realistic contexts. In the skills part we must see whether the course book balance of skills is appropriate for Primary Education. We must see that the aural component is more important than the written one, and that receptive skills are more important than the productive ones. In language type, we must consider whether the language is realistic: - authentic - simulated authentic We must also consider whether it is of the right type (relevant to our pupils' needs); and finally, if the progression is adequate for the cognitive stage of development of our pupils. In subject and content we analyze what topics are included in the course book and whether they match up to our pupils' personalities, backgrounds and needs. Subject and content should be relevant, realistic, interesting and varied. We must also consider if there is sufficient guidance, not only for us, but for our pupils. As far as we are concerned, we need to have clear explanations of how the material should be used to take the maximum advantage out of it. As far as our pupils are concerned, we have to consider whether the materials are clear, easy to follow and have well-defined objectives that the whole class can understand. Finally, we must come to conclusions about the adoption of the proposed course book once the form has finally been completed. The whole Course Book evaluation form will take the following form: COURSE BOOK EVALUATION FORM: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Name of the course book under consideration: Author or authors: Publisher: Level: Price:
1 . Practical considerations. 1.1. Is the price of the materials appropriate for our pupils? 699
YES / NO Comment 1.2. Are the integral parts of the course available now (course books, tapes, teacher's books, tapes.) ? YES / NO Comment: 2 . Layout and design. 2.1 Is the layout and design of the materials appropriate for our pupils? YES / NO Comment: 3. Activities. 3.1. Do the materials provide a balance of activities that is appropriate for your pupils? YES / NO Comment: 3.2. Is there a sufficient amount of communication output in the course book under consideration? YES / NO Comment: 3.3. Do the course book provide enough roughly-tuned input for our pupils? YES / NO Comment 3.4. Is new language introduced in motivating and realistic contexts? YES / NO Comment: 4. A source of practical teaching ideas. 5. Work that our pupils can do on their own so that we do not need to be centre stage all the time. 6. A basis for homework if that is required. 7. A basis for discussion and comparison with other colleagues. It also helps our pupils because it offers them: 1.
A sense of purpose, progression and progress.
2.
A sense of security
3.
Scope for independent and autonomous learning
4.
A reference for checking and revising.
However, we also find some things that we can do better, such as: participating in oral interactions, adjusting level and quantity of work to our pupils' needs; and encourage our pupils when they are not motivated. As we can see it is equally wrong not to deviate from the course book at all as deviating for the sake of deviating. If we have chosen the book properly, it is usually a good idea to use the book very much as the author suggests for the first time, as a great deal of thought has gone into its writing. This way we can see really see its advantages and drawbacks and act accordingly. Any chosen text must be 700
adapted to the particular requirements of the class and it is not very professional to adopt for our cycles the aims and objectives of the course book, unless they are reasonably complementary. However, whether we adapt the course book or we teach it straight from beginning to end, we must decide on our pace of progress. This is very important in Primary education where we have 170 teaching hours every year. This is plenty of time really (roughly an hour a day) and so we must be able to produce plenty of additional and varied practice of the same topic. To do this we can use authentic, simulated authentic, or artificial materials.
3. AUTHENTIC, SIMULATED AUTHENTIC AND NONAUTHENTIC MATERIALS: USE CONSTRAINTS. The main aim of all our teaching is to enable our pupils to reach communicative competence. As the focus will be on assisting our pupils to do in class what they will need to do outside, the materials we use should reflect the world outside. In other words they should have a degree of authenticity. This authenticity should relate to the text sources as well as to the pupils' activities and tasks. 3. 1 - Authenticity. (Nunan) Authenticity material are usually defined as those which have been produced for other purposes than to teach language. They can be got from many different sources: video clips, recordings of authentic interactions, extracts from television, radio and schedules. Despite the difficulties associated with the use of authentic materials, they are easily justified on the grounds that specially scripted texts are artificial. Cardlin and Edelhoff suggest that there are at least four types of authenticity which are important in our classrooms: - authenticity of goal - authenticity of environment - authenticity of text - authenticity of task Nunan thinks that the most important type of authenticity is what he called "learner authenticity". By this he means "the realisation 701
and acceptance by the learner of the authenticity of a given text, task, set of materials or learning activity". If we want our pupils to think that the materials we use are authentic they must fulfil two conditions: 1 . They must be recognised by learners as having a legitimate place in the language classroom. 2 . They must engage the interests of our pupils by relating to their interests, background knowledge and experience, and through these, stimulate genuine communication. It is important to make our pupils realise that they are learning something. This is especially easy with traditional activities, such as drills or translations, but new, communicative activities may seem to them a waste of time. In some activities we can have, as Gavin Bolton said of drama a unique pedagogic situation, where a teacher sees himself as teaching but our pupils do not see themselves as learning. The second condition is easily fulfilled if we take into account our pupils characteristics and needs. 3. 2 . Simulated authentic and artificial. A non-authentic text, in language teaching terms, " is one that has been designed especially for language learners". (Harmer). We can make a distinction here, however, between texts which have been made to illustrate particular language points for presentation (artificial) and those which appear to be authentic (simulated authentic) The justification for simulated authentic texts is clear in the case of our pupils. Beginner pupils are able to handle genuinely authentic texts, but they need to have practice in texts that look authentic, even if they have been edited, and so there is a certain degree of language control. Manipulating and comprehending these texts will help our pupils to acquire the necessary skills they will need when they come to handle authentic material.
4. INVOLVING THE PUPILS IN MATERIAL DESIGN.
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Our curriculum clearly advocates a communicative approach to language teaching. This approach makes use of tasks that will be linked in principle ways to the real-tasks our pupils are required to engage in outside the classroom. The Communicative approach to language teaching also suggests that classroom-based acquisition is fostered by psycholinguistically - motivated learning tasks. However, our curriculum also establishes a learner-centred approach and one of the best ways to take account of our pupils needs and characteristics is by making them participating of the material design process. 5. BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Brewster, J., Ellis, G. and Girard, D. The Primary English Teacher's Guide Penguin. London 1992. Brumfit, C.J., and Johnson K. (eds) The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, CUP Cambridge Harmer, J. The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman, London, 1983 Halliwell, S. Teaching English in the Primary Classroom, Longman, London, 1992. (There exists Spanish translation: La Enseñanza del Inglés en Educación Primaria. Longman, London, 1993.) Littlewood, W. Communicative Language Teaching. CUP. Cambridge, 1988. Nunan, D. The Learner- Centred Curriculum. CUP, Cambridge, 1988. Richards, J.C. and Rodgers, T.S. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, CUP. Cambridge,1986. Platt, J., and Platt, H. Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, Longman, London, 1992 Savignon, S. Communicative Competence: Teory and Classroom Practice, Addison-Wesley. Reading, Mass., 1983 Widowson, H.G. Teaching Language as Communication. OUP. Oxford, 1978.
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TEMA 23 - OPOSICIONES DE EDUCACIÓN PRIMARIA - ESPECIALIDAD DE INGLÉS ESQUEMA LA ELABORACIÓN DE MATERIALES CURRICULARES PARA LA CLASE DE INGLÉS. CRITERIOS PARA LA SELECCIÓN Y USO DE LOS LIBROS DE TEXTO. DOCUMENTOS AUTÉNTICOS Y ADAPTADOS: LIMITACIONES DE SU USO. LA COLABORACIÓN DE LOS ALUMNOS EN EL DISEÑO DE LOS MATERIALES. 0 . INTRODUCCION - Teacher's roles: - selection - production - Profile of pupils' needs: - description of pupils - description of pupils' needs - conclusions 1 . PRODUCING ENGLISH LESSONS - CURRICULAR MATERIALS: * Reasons for producing our own materials: 1. Our course book does not provide enough practice. 2. Some of the materials in our course book are not appropriate for our class. 3. We want to foster a methodology which is not the one used by the course book authors. 4. To add some activities for the sake of variety. - Worksheets: - practise one linguistic point - oral and written - pair and individual 704
- Flashcards:
- information gap - time dictation - true or false
2. CRITERIA FOR THE CHOOSING AND USE OF THE COURSE BOOKS. 2.1 Choosing a course book: * Criteria. 1. The course book makes clear the link between the classroom and the wider word. 2. The course book fosters independent learning. 3. The course book focuses our pupils on their learning process. 4. The course book is readily available 5. The course book accords with our pupils' needs. 6. The course book can be used at more than one level of difficulty (heterogeneity) 7. The pedagogical objectives of the materials are clear. *Harmer's evaluation form: - practical considerations - guidance - layout and design - conclusions activities - skills - language type - subject and content TEMA 23 - OPOSICIONES DE EDUCACIÓN PRIMARIA - ESPECIALIDAD DE INGLÉS 2.2. Using a course book: * What the course book does well: - to the teacher - to the pupils * To the teacher. 1. A clearly thought out programme which is appropriately sequenced and structured to include revision. 2. A wider range of material than we can collect individually. 3. Economy of preparation time. 4. A source of practical teaching ideas. 5. Work that our pupils can do on their own so that we do not need to be centre stage all the time. 6. A basis for homework if that is required. 705
7. A basis for discussion and comparison with other colleagues. * To our pupils 1. A sense of purpose, progression and progress. 2. A sense of security. 3. Scope for independent and autonomous learning 4. A reference for checking and revising. * What the teacher does better: - oral exchange - adjusting level and quality of work - encourage our pupils * We must adapt course books to our pupils' needs.
3. AUTHENTIC, SIMULATED-AUTHENTIC AND NON- AUTHENTIC TEXTS. USE CONSTRAINTS. * Main aim: to reach communicative competence 3.1 Authenticiy. * Nunan's definition. * Enabling out pupils to comprehend and manipulate real texts. * Cadlin and Edelhoff: - authenticity of goal - authenticity of environment - authenticity of text * Learner's authenticity. * Authenticity conditions: 1. They must be recognised by learners as having a legitimate place in the language classroom. 2. They must engage the interests of our pupils by relating to their interests, background, knowledge and experience, and through these, stimulate genuine communication.
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3.2 Simulated Authentic and artificial. * Harmer's definition of non-authentic. * Types of non- authentic texts. - artificial - simulated authentic * Simulated authentic texts: prepare for real texts. * Materials we use: - authentic - simulated authentic
4. INVOLVING THE CHILDREN IN MATERIAL DESIGN * Communicative approach. * Learner-centred approach * Material design: Spanish or English class. * Way to introduce it: 1. Tell the class to pay close attention to the features of one activity in the course book. 2. Tell them to think of possible ways to make a similar activity using the materials they normally have at home ( pencils, glue, scissors, a dictionary, a word processor.) 3. Give them the outline of an activity. They will have to prepare in pairs a flashcard or a worksheet to go with the activity.
5. BIBLIOGRAPHY.
UNIT 23: CREATING MATERIALS FOR ENGLISH LESSONS. COURSE-BOOK SELECTION AND USE CRITERIA. AUTHENTIC MATERIALS AND ADAPTED MATERIALS. INVOLVING PUPILS IN MATERIAL DESIGN.
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1. PRODUCING ENGLISH LESSON CURRICULAR MATERIALS There is an abundance of English language materials on the market. Producing our own material is a time-consuming process, so although teachers do not very often decide to produce all materials, they produce supplementary activities to the course-book. Once we know our pupils’ characteristics and needs, we can deal with a production of material as worksheets, flash-cards, etc., in order to include some variety, more practice and focus on an interesting item that there is not in the course-book. Both, flash-cards or worksheets, can be elaborated by our own pupils. 2. CRITERIA FOR THE SELECTION AND USE OF COURSE-BOOK Choosing a course-book can be difficult. We must consider: • Contents: if selected language is based on the objectives • Sequence: if contents are gradually presented in a cyclic way, previous language and a little more. Activities for all the learning moments (presentation, practice and production). If progression is adequate to the cognitive stage of children. • Skills: if it works the four skills • Activities: if language is realistic, the topics are relevant to pupils, if there are communicative activities. • Design: if they are attractive for pupils and have visual backups for most presentations of new language. Instructions must be clear. • Practical considerations: if price is suitable for children. If there is availability of other materials: tapes, work-books, videos, graded readings, teacher-book, activities for evaluation, …) The course-book help teacher by providing an appropriately sequenced and structured programme, a wide range of material, economy of preparation time, practical teaching ideas, security, a reference to checking and reviewing. But teachers must adapt the course-books to their pupils’ needs. 3. AUTHENTIC, SIMULATED AND NON-AUTHENTIC MATERIALS. Communicative competence is our main aim. To get it, children need materials which reflect the world outside. Authentic materials are the ones produce for purposes other than to teach language: video-clips, TV programmes, radio and newspaper, signs, maps and charts, photographs and pictures, timetables, etc. Authentic materials imply some difficulty but they prepare pupils to understand and manipulate language in real communicative situations. They get gradually used to the new element. As beginners are not able to handle genuinely authentic texts, they need to have practice in simulated texts that look authentic, so there is a certain degree of language control. Manipulating these texts they will acquire the necessary skills they will need when they handle authentic material. Simulated materials have been designed specially for language learners, but they are similar to real situations. There is also artificial material, designed to illustrate particular language points in presentation stages.
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Even if there is a certain language control, simulated authentic materials are useful to acquire linguistic skills in communicative situations. 4. INVOLVING PUPILS IN MATERIAL DESIGN Communicative approach is a learner-centred approach. We should make them participants of the material design process. Beginners can make their own flash-cards with cut-outs or drawing their own cards to play afterwards. It is dynamic, motivating and they have a responsibility in their own learning process. Older pupils can also make materials that can be used with other pupils: puppets, videorecordings, brochures, surveys, … They can do it as a project. Teachers offer a topic or they can choose one of their interest. They make groups, search relevant information, prepare the design, divide the tasks into the group members and produce the item. Then, they show it to the rest of the class and the work is evaluated by all of them.
UNIT 24: TECHNOLOGICAL AND PEDAGOGIC ASPECTS OF USING VISUAL, AURAL AND AUDIO-VISUAL MATERIALS. COMPUTERS AS ADDITIONAL RESOURCE IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING. 1. VISUAL, AURAL AND AUDIO-VISUAL MATERIALS A number of new techniques for teaching English have been developed thanks to new technologies and the decease in price of appliances. These machines have contributed greatly to the diversification of teaching activities. They make learning more enjoyable and they are more and more widely used. Visual materials • Newspapers: They are quite available and cheap. They include a wide variety of text types and a great amount of information from and about the target culture. It is an interesting way to bring the real world into the learning situation. It is also useful for integrating skills. Reading material leads easily into discussions and writing activities. Stories are interesting but date over very quickly. So, it may be better to collect human interest stories which do not became out of date for a long period of time. However, even older pupils find newspapers difficult because of the special grammar conventions, unknown vocabulary, cultural references, etc. we should teach them some of the conventions of the newspaper style at a basic level. Some activities can be: • Writing and replying small advertisements • Writing and replying to letters to agony aunts • Reordering paragraphs 709
• • •
Replying to job ads Predicting horoscopes ….
• Episcope: we can use this projector to show any material to the whole group. It is not useful for a long term. • Overhead projector: It is used with transparencies, which are very easy to elaborate. They can be partially covered and also superposed, so language can be presented gradually. They are good for presentation and correction. • Slides: They can be easily made by the teacher or the pupils. They focus attention, being motivating and useful for story telling. • Comics and storybooks: Pictures are very motivating for children and help to understand the story. They usually have short texts, with similar structures. They can be used to fill the bubbles, ordering the sequence, describing, retelling. • Magazines: They have very attractive pictures, good for cut-outs. Children can create their own material or illustrate descriptions of famous people. • Posters: There is a wide range of posters and wall charts, in different types and sizes. They can be a guide for common expressions, reminders and visual aides. Very useful for descriptions. • Flashcards: They must be small and resistant, easy to manipulate. Good for new vocabulary presentation, games, hide and seek, pointing, … • Blackboard: It is the most used in school. It is good for spontaneous examples and presenting new language. The magnetic ones can be used for presenting or illustrating an issue. The magnetic cut-outs can get moved and superposed. Aural Materials • Radio: Is a wonderful way to develop listening skills. Graded radio lessons offer the opportunity to listen to programmes adapted to the pupils’ abilities, motivating them to future authentic listening. However, our pupils do not have the necessary linguistic abilities to cope with radio programmes. • Cassette recorder: The development of listening skills in the classroom situation relies on recorder material. Cassettes provide a good model of spoken English. It is very useful for introducing new language and songs. Children’s utterances can be recorded to be conscious of pronunciation. They can contrast their performance with the good model and also it can be useful for checking pronunciation achievement. There must be
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activities for pre, while and post-listening. It can be listened more than once. There could be a listening corner in the classroom. •
Language “lab”: Children work individually. It is useful for practising oral drills. It can also be boring and with no purpose.
Audio-visual materials They include both, sound and pictures. • Television A TV language programme offers audio-visual clues to meaning. Students hear the language and see the context. It is a powerful motivator. It brings the outside world into the classroom, it is a powerful stimulus to talk about. It introduces the culture of the target language into the classroom and means a change from the teacher and the textbook, although it is difficult, for it cannot be repeated or stopped. • Video Recordings offer the possibilities a live programme cannot. Teachers can plan the activities from a great range of sources: • Language-teaching broadcast • Films, cartoons, advertisements,… • TV programmes, documentaries • Video recordings of classroom activities Video recordings show language in a context. The learners can see why things are said in a different way. They can pick speakers’ feelings and attitudes. Video presentations allow reviewing and comprehension questions, follow-up ideas and suggestions. They generate interest and motivation and a good atmosphere for a successful learning. Teachers must take advantage of the power of video-films to create a successful language environment. It should be used as another technique for facilitating language acquisition. Learners must take part and not think they are being entertained or watching TV passively. It is essential the gradual introduction of video in the classroom. Video-based lesson planning For a one-hour class, it is enough to use an extract of between three and five minutes. If its length is of 15 minutes or more, it is better to play it once through and then go back and concentrate on short extracts. Viewing the video about three times gives us the chance to get familiar with it, study the language and behaviour as well as language use. If the video is difficult we may set the scene and explain a few words and sentences essential to understanding. For the first time students watch video, we could set an active viewing task with techniques as silent viewing, prediction, thinking and feeling, sound only, true or false sentences, etc. • There is a technique which requires answering these questions after viewing: where, when, who, what, why, how? • Silent viewing: the sound is turned down. Learners can predict or guess what might be said. When the sound is played we can check whether their expectations were right.
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• •
•
• • • • • • •
Freeze frame: pressing the pause button allows to look more closely at individual images, utterances, … within a sequence. It is useful for detailed language study, observation and description. Role play: acting out involves practising the exact words of a dialogue. For that, learners will need to look at the script and reproduce gestures, expressions, etc. It is important to be able to transfer language from the situation on the screen to their own usage. They can carry out creative activities like changing the setting somehow. Behaviour study: it focuses on non-verbal ways to express (facial expressions, gesture, dresses, physical contact) The main aim is to make learners conscious of the behaviour conventions in other cultures. They could be compared to behaviour conventions in their own culture. Prediction: the teacher stops the video and asks what is going to happen next (look at the title and predict the topic, predict the end, guess the title, write the dialogue) Thinking and feeling: this technique focuses on emotions between characters and its relation with what it is said (body language, certain words, what the characters are thinking, how they would feel in case …, etc.) Sound only: the screen must be covered or turned round. It is good for describing things or people, identifying things by sounds or following a description of something. Watchers and listeners: half the class watches the scene and the other half listens. The watchers explain to the listeners what they have seen. It is a good practice in speaking, observation and accurate reporting. Telling the story: the learners watch the end of a video sequence and try to construct the story. Then, they watch and contrast. Culture comparison: it focuses on differences and similarities between the own culture and the target culture. It makes learners aware of their own culture. Video camera: four steps can be suggested to make use of the video recorder: • Talking head: one person talking to the camera • Dialogues: people talking together • Group discussion: a group is filmed while discussing • A project work: the use of a camera for recording interesting items, and also the learners’ performances in the target language. To evaluate the video, it must be reflected the aims of using it. if there are no specific learning aims, there is no point in making a film.
Computers Learning with computers is quite new, as there are only programmes for beginners in certain areas, such as word building, vocabulary, prepositions, etc. It is very useful at personal level but not in conventional schools. It is quite expensive for a group and it needs some knowledge on how to operate it. Sometimes it makes tasks easier and more enjoyable. It is highly motivating. The main activities are matching, gap-filling, sentence correction, multiple choice, odd out, putting the paragraphs in order, relating parts, true or false, etc. 712
There is a programme called “Grammar Checker” for spelling mistakes, punctuation, usage, … but it cannot correct meaning and style. It is good for teachers if programmes are already made. They can use the spare time to assist weaker pupils. It can result boring sometimes. It can only be used for written skills.
TOPIC 24. TECHNOLOGICAL AND PEDAGOGICAL ASPECTS IN USING AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS (NEWPAPERS, TV, TAPE RECORDERS, VIDEO, ETC.). COMPUTERS AS AN AUXILIARY RESOURCE FOR LEARNING AND IMPROVING FOREIGN LANGUAGES INDEX 0. INTRODUCTION 1. AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS 2. COMPUTERS AS AN AUXILIARY RESOURCE FOR LEARNING AND IMPROVING FOREIGN LANGUAGES
0. INTRODUCTION A number of new techniques for teaching English have been developed during the last ten years thanks to the fast development of new technologies and the decrease in price of appliances such as TV sets, video machines, camcorders or computers. Besides, the educational authorities have tried to develop their use, lately the use of computers in particular with programmes such as Aldea Global, Info XXI, Educared, etc. These machines have not only made our lives easier but have also greatly contributed to the diversification of teaching activities when teaching a foreign language. Consequently, new products have been launched. New video methods, new computer programs, make the learning more enjoyable and enable the teacher to widen current classroom teaching techniques. We could say that these audiovisual technologies started to expand in the late 1970s or early 1980s and are getting more and more widely used. However there are other techniques based on technological development which are still used in the classroom and which date back a little farther. These techniques are not really “audiovisual”, but we will study them: newspapers, radio, cassette recorder, etc. When talking about the use of technology in the classroom advantages and disadvantages should be taken into account. 713
Advantages: - language is taught in its context - high motivation - it provides creative opportunities - it broadens horizons and extends contacts - it means a great potential for a wide variety of activities - it provides flexible responses to learning problems Disadvantages: - ephemerality - difficulties in comprehension (language and structural) - it requires a lot of commitment on behalf of the teacher, who has to think that technology must serve him/her, but will never replace him/her. 1. USING AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS 1.1. VISUAL MATERIALS The student belongs to the “image and sound generation”. Therefore, the learning process must include visual and audiovisual materials which are so familiar to them. These images will encourage the student to communicate, as they are natural and motivating stimuli for them. They make the language used in the classroom look more real. The main functions of the image in the English classroom are: - motivating function: the students becomes active. - it replaces reality: the image is used in substitution of reality. - it creates situations: the student gets involved with it. - it suggests experiences: the student is suggested interpretations or experiences that will lead him/her to real communication situations - informative function: it transmits cultural aspects (customs, landscape, art, politics, celebrations… of the country) - checking function: the image is used for checking the students´ understanding of the verbal message. - concentration function: it focuses attention on something. - reinforcing function: the image supports understanding and memorising. We will talk about the newspaper because it is an essential visual material used in the English classroom. English-language newspapers are available world-wide on a daily basis. Some originate from English-speaking countries, others are locally produced. They are cheap and plentiful so newspapers can be useful in the classroom (the same happens with magazines). Newspapers contain a very wide variety of text types and an immense range of information. They are therefore a natural source of many of the varieties of written English that become increasingly important as learners progress.
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Reading newspapers is a way to transfer latent skills from the mother tongue to the language learning classroom. Those pupils who normally read newspapers in Spanish will be receptive to the use of English newspapers in the classroom. Reading newspapers we exercise skimming and scanning skills. These skills are very useful for our pupils. Newspapers are about the outside world so using them in the classroom is an interesting way to bring the real world into the learning situation. Using newspapers is also useful to integrate skills. The reading material leads easily into discussions and writing activities. This integration of skills is also authentic as the response to what we read in newspapers is likely to be authentic and personal. Topicality is both an advantage and a disadvantage. Contemporary stories are motivating, but also date quickly. For this reason, it may be better to collect human interest stories which do not date over a long period of time. Finally, we can say that newspapers are probably the best source of information about the target language culture. However, there are also drawbacks. Most learners find newspapers difficult: special grammar conventions, obscure cultural references, large amounts of unknown vocabulary… Letting our pupils choose the text they wish to work with can get rid of many problems. Before the third cycle authentic newspapers shouldn´t be used, as the students could demotivate. In the third cycle we can teach them some of the conventions of the newspaper style at a basic level. The activities we may use will include: - writing and replying to small ads - writing and replying to letters to agony aunts - re-ordering jumbled paragraphs - re-ordering jumbled cartoon strips - completing cartoon speech bubbles - predicting horoscopes for class members - matching property ads with pupils´ needs - replying to job ads (role plays) - designing and elaborating a newspaper All these activities can only be done at a very basic level with our pupils. However, it is important to familiarise them with newspapers. They will be used by secondary teachers more extensively and we must not forget that most educated people read one or more newspapers daily. Other visual materials are photographs, the overhead projector, realia, flashcards or drawings on the blackboard, rods, wall pictures, slides, etc. 1.2. AURAL MATERIALS Here we can include the radio, the cassette recorder, the laboratory. The radio is not very common in the English class. Though it is a very useful way to develop listening skills, our students do not have the necessary linguistic abilities to cope with radio 715
programmes. The foreign language lab is hardly used now and it can be replaced by a computer lab. We will speak more about the cassette recorder. Though much can be done by simply speaking while all the children follow what we say, it is clear that the development of listening skills in our classroom situation relies heavily on the universal availability of a cassette of pre-recorded material. All new Primary English coursebooks have a teacher´s cassette with the corresponding texts and songs. These cassettes provide a good model of spoken English and real language. We can accustom our pupils to listen to recordings of simple stories or fairy tales with activities to follow if we set up a listening corner in our classroom where we can have two or three cassettes and the activity books. The children will of course need to be trained in how to use a cassette player on their own, but they probably know how to play it already. It is a good reinforcing material for slower students, who can work autonomously. If we use the cassette player to introduce new language we can always give our pupils the possibility of listening to the recording more than once. Listening materials suitable for our levels are very simple and the range of activities they include are somehow limited. We must try to widen the range of activities including pre-, whileand post- listening activities which will improve the listening skills of our pupils. Recording devices can also be used to improve our pupils´ oral skills. They can record themselves noticing differences between their own pronunciations and the pronunciations of the cassette. This is also motivating for our pupils. One activity which promotes oral skills and motivates our pupils is recording their own songs in a tape. 2.3. AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS Audiovisual materials proper include both sound and pictures. We next study how to use the television, the video and the camcorder in the classroom. Television In relation to television, we can say that it is inherently a medium that has a great potential for motivating learners. It provides a wide variety of situations, accents, topics and presentation techniques. The real situations provide a context for language exploitation. The language used offers the necessary authenticity. It offers the possibility of exploiting students´ current interests. Television provides a wide range of paralinguistic clues – facial expressions, body movements, etc. – that are very useful for comprehension. Television can introduce the culture of the country – food, clothes, buildings, etc. -. A major advantage is that the same programme can adapted to different levels, depending on the task students are asked to do. The role of the teacher becomes crucial to take the decision as to how to work the programmes. As one of the 716
major problems of using television and video in the classroom is the ephemerality of the medium, our task as teachers is to confront the pupils with activities that build and reinforce the viewing experience. Children may not understand a real TV programme, but that is not a problem. Watching regularly TV programmes especially made for native children is very beneficial. But we cannot expect children to answer questions or reproduce what they hear, even if they spend hours watching programmes in English. TV programmes, such as cartoons, do not teach the language, but help internalise it. This kind of material must be authentic and interesting. The problem of using TV is that we cannot stop it. Although TV is an important aid for study, it fulfils its real importance in the classroom on videocassette. Video As an addition to the teacher´s resources, video offers an interesting and motivating aid to learning. It brings the outside world into the classroom, it offers examples of new language and is a stimulus to the classroom communication. Video materials used in language teaching come from a wide range of sources: - video recordings of language-teaching broadcasts and films - video recording of domestic television broadcasts, such as comedy and news programmes - video recordings of specialists films and television programmes such as documentaries produced by industry, or educational programmes - video language-teaching materials made for the classroom rather than for public transmission or broadcasts - self-made video films, involving the teachers and learners. The combination of sound and vision is dynamic, immediate, and accessible. This means that communication can be shown in a context; it is what we could call language in action. We find out straight away about the speakers in dialogues since they can be seen and heard. This way, we find out about their ages, their sex, whether they are related or not to each other, the place where the situation is taking place, etc. With all this information the learner can clarify whether the situation is formal or informal, etc. Register is the way in which we say things depending on the people we are talking to and our relationship with them. The learner can see why things are said in a different way. Watching the video, s/he can judge relationships and feelings from the speaker´s gestures, facial expressions, posture, distance from each other, dress and surroundings. All these factors influence or reflect what people say and how they say it, and only video can show them fully. Like any feature film or TV programme, a video will use close-ups of people, places and things to emphasise or explain what it is going on. The camera technique helps learners to understand the narrative and the character´s behaviour and motivation.
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One more important aspect to think of is that learning a language is not only a matter of structures and words. Cultural factors are a very important part of language learning. Video allows the learner to see the target language at work. Although the audiovisual features of video films are found in cinema films and television broadcasts too, they do not offer the same facilities for classroom exploitation. On top of that we must not forget the electronic tricks to create special effects and images. All these previous aspects make the video material interesting. At their best, video presentations will be intrinsically interesting to language learners, and they will want to watch more, even if comprehension is limited, and should ask questions and follow-up ideas and suggestions. By generating interest and motivation, the video films can create a climate for successful learning. We have to make it clear that the video recorder cannot and does not replace the teacher. It changes his or her role so that teachers become more facilitators adapting the materials to the needs of individual classes or pupils. Learners should not be exposed to long excerpts whose body of texts would be so demanding that could create more frustration than encouragement. As a general rule, it is much better to choose a short excerpt and to work thoroughly on it. An adequate approach could consist of three phases: - in the first phase the video is just being played so that pupils become familiar with the materials they are going to watch - before the second phase takes place, some vocabulary might be taught but it is not necessary. In this phase the video is paused frequently so that attention can be focused on specific items of vocabulary and the actual teaching and learning activities can be initiated. - phase three is aimed to reinforce the work that has been done. Depending on how challenging the materials have been, the video can be played through or paused at different stages for pupils to process what is being said. Some techniques for the use of video are: 1 Silent viewing: playing the video with the sound turned down for no more than two minutes. The learners watch it and decide what is happening and what the speakers are saying. 2 Freeze frame: pressing the Pause button on the video recorder to freeze the motion of the screen. This allows the learner to look more closely at individual images or utterances within a sequence. It is useful for detailed language study, observation, and description. 3 Roleplay: it is, together with acting, one of the most useful ways of using new language through a video. Acting out involves practising the exact words of a dialogue, while roleplaying means that the learners use their own words and personalities to act out the situation they have seen on the screen.
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Behaviour study: it concentrates on the non-verbal ways in which people express themselves – facial expressions, gesture, posture, dress, physical contact, etc. The main aim is to sensitise learners to conventions of behaviour in another culture. Prediction: the teacher stops the video and elicits from the class what happens or what is said next. They can predict the topic after looking at the title, predict the end, guess the title, write the dialogue, the synopsis, etc. Thinking and feeling: this technique is designed to focus on the thoughts and emotions of the characters in a sequence, and their relation to what is said. The learners have to say how the speaker is feeling, giving reasons for their choice. The teacher can also as “What are the characters thinking?” or even “How would you feel in a situation like this?” Sound only: the opposite of silent viewing. Instead of not listening, the learner can listen but has to imaging the picture. The technique provides practice in describing things or people, identifying things or people from their description and following an oral description of something. Watchers and listeners: half the class watch the screen and the other half listen. Then the watchers explain to the listeners what they have seen. This provides practice in speaking, observation and accurate reporting.
Video improves both listening and speaking skills, but it can also be used to improve writing ones, with exercises and activities, jumbles, word soups, etc. Even at higher levels learners can be asked to complete a script, to take short notes about what is being said, or produce short summaries. The video camera At a certain stage (after rehearsal, but at any level) students can be invited to produce their own material and record it in video. It is a high motivating task, but it requires time and technical mastery. The teacher and/or the learners should operate the video camera and equipment competently. Then a wide variety of stimulating projects can be undertaken. Speaking abilities are developed, but also self-confidence, work in groups, organisation and order, care for the class materials, etc. Four steps can be suggested to make use of the camcorder: - a talking head: one person talks to the camera - dialogues: two or three people are filmed talking together - group discussion: a larger group of people are filmed in discussion - project work: a freer use of the video facilities The activities that can be carried out can be categorised in groups: 719
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language-training video: which presents to the learners some aspects of communication in the target language recordings of the learners: which allow them to see and hear themselves performing in the target language video projects controlled by the learners, which offer the learners the opportunity of working together in the target language
With small children the exploitation of the video camera will be on the part of the teacher, but it will be as stimulating and instructive as with older students. The viewing will be, in this case, the most important part of the process. For both small and older students the viewing is enjoyable and surprising, and means the moment of feedback. 2. COMPUTER AS AN AUXILIARY RESOURCE FOR LEARNING AND IMPROVING FOREIGN LANGUAGES Although they have been used for teaching since the 1960s, computers only became practical and affordable for language learning in the early 1980s, when relatively inexpensive personal computers first became available. The first Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) programs were mainly used for manipulating words and sentences, playing games with students, testing them, and giving them feedback on their performance. Used in this way the computer has often been described as the “medium of the second chance” (because the activities usually let you try more than once to get the answer right) and of risk-taking (because you can make mistakes in your answers without other students knowing). As computers became more powerful, and multimedia software became practical, the early 1990s saw the emergence of CD-ROMs, storing complete encyclopaedias or language courses with text, graphics, and audio or video. Commercial products of this sort, which are professionally produced, reliable, and straightforward to use, have a place in many classrooms. Of course, the teacher must know how to work the computer and the program. The students have the mastery already. Every school has now its computer room and each learner can sit down and work. The use of a computer is an excellent way to set remedial work. Not only does the learner have access to it at any time (with a computer at home), but has a reliable source if the program has been properly developed, and, what is more, the computer never gets tired, irritable or impatient. It is particularly good for learners who cannot cope with a more traditional teaching approach. As in video learning, computer learning makes use of a series of techniques that eases the task and makes it more enjoyable and entertaining. And pupils find that using computers is highly motivating. The number of interactive programs on the market has increased a lot, but not all of them are useful for the class. Many are for adults and are still focused on the language, not on the content, as the machine cannot grasp meaning. They work on pronunciation,
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repetition, grammar and vocabulary exercises. The communication is still something that has to do with human beings. Programs that children can use are made specially for them, some are for the learning of English but do not focus on grammar, but on concentration games, memory games, tales, cookery recipes, numbers and letters, paintings, etc. Others are not specially sold for learning English, but has the option of using it in this language. They are very motivating for our students and they learn the language unconsciously and in a playful way. In many ways, however, the challenges presented to both students and teachers by the Internet can provide a more interesting, rewarding experience. The Net is a huge, rich resource. Its main distinguishing feature is that it is a medium of exploration, which releases creativity and imagination. The Internet is beginning to transform language learning: - first of all by making available to teachers and students an enormous range of information and resources - as a means of communication - not only in writing, but it is beginning to allow audio and video communication - it leads to more cross-curricular work - for their potential to motivate. The students, once they are working on the computer, unless they need help, take the attention away from the teacher, though the teacher must co-ordinate and assess. This allows more flexibility in managing the lesson, and in particular there is often more time to work with individuals and groups than in an ordinary class. Most of the activities with the Internet require small groups, they are not usually done individually. Materials from the Internet can be used with a variety of levels by allowing students themselves to choose the kind of material they work with, and by varying the kind of task they are asked to perform. For example, if students have to visit newspaper sites in order to produce their own newspaper, they can be given a choice of Websites, of the kind of news they select, and of the task they are to carry out with the news they find. There are also steps to work with computers: 1.Pre-computer work: in some cases, before beginning an activity on the computer, it will be necessary to pre-teach vocabulary, or a specific function or structure. In every case, however, you will need to ensure that the students know exactly what they have to do when they begin work on the computers. 2. Computer work: If the activity has been well prepared, and the students suitably trained, the teacher should intervene only if s/he is asked for help. Instead, the teacher will monitor what the students are saying and doing. 3. Post-computer work: it is important that anything done in the computer room should be transferable to the normal classroom, and any Internet activity should be planned from the outset with some kind of follow-up activity in mind. Wherever possible, 721
students should have something physical that they can take away with them from the computer room, so that they have a record of what they have done for follow-up work or for end-of-course- revision. One drawback of the Internet is that it is a huge, rich resource, much of it yet unplanned. The variety of resources is so great that deciding how to exploit resources once you find them can be a challenge in itself. You have to plan the lessons very well in order to ensure your students´ Internet time is productive in terms of language learning.
UNIT 25: LEARNER-CENTRED FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING. ADVANTAGES, RUDIMENTS AND APPLICATIONS. IDENTIFICATION OF ATTITUDES TOWARDS FOREIGN LANGUAGE. ITS APPLICATIONS. 1. LEARNER-CENTRED FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING All class activities can be done using information that learners themselves bring to the class. This methodology involves pupils active partaking, and every single activity is based on the knowledge and experience of our pupils. The advantages of this method are: • Exploding learners’ potential: interests, ideas, beliefs, … • Analysis of needs: analysis is always positive for developing abilities • Previous learning experience: teachers must know their interests and needs. • Learners as authors: they prepare their material • Peer teaching and correction: they learn from each other Learners learn better when the content is relevant to their past experience and present concerns. They learn how to learn. There are different types of learners: • Active learners: through games, pictures, video,… They need to use the language by doing things. • Analytical learners: they prefer studying grammar, through books, finding their own mistakes, … • Communicative learners: they enjoy learning by observing and listening to native speakers, talking to friends, watching TV, … • Authority-oriented learners: they like teachers to explain everything, taking notes, reading, etc. These differences must be taken into account to follow the principles of learner-centred teaching. If our learners prefer traditional learning activities we should start with them and try to move gradually towards acceptance of more communicative activities. Materials They are by definition limited to those produced by the learners in the class. The material should reflect the outside world and have some authenticity. 722
Learning how to learn Different pupils have different ways of learning and different preferences about materials. They must become more and more independent and effective learners. • Cognitive learning: planning, hypothesising, reflecting, classifying, matching, predicting, … • Socialisation: collaboration, peer-corrections, … • Communication: participation, … It is extremely important the curiosity and a positive attitude towards foreign language learning. Heterogeneity There are mixed-ability groups, so homogenous materials cannot provide effective practice. It has a positive effect on pupils’ attitude. Assessment and evaluation Evaluation involves both, teachers and pupils. Pupils should learn how to assess their own progress and also materials, activities, etc., to be aware of their own role as active agents during the learning process. Pupils can fill a diary form about what they have learnt, what mistakes have been made, what they would like to learn next, … Teacher’s role In a learner-centred approach the teacher will be a curriculum developer. He/she must adapt the syllabus to the pupils, contribute with ideas and opinions, answer pupils’ questions on vocabulary, grammar or procedures, provide what pupils ask for, etc. There can be some resistance from learners who have specific preconceptions about the learning process. Some learners will feel that they are only learning when doing the type of activities they are used to. In any syllabus there would always be pupil-centred teaching activities. To face the responsibility for the sequence of events in the classroom it is necessary to record all the work done. 2. IDENTIFICATION OF MOTIVATIONS AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS ENGLISH. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS. A learner-centred course should be justified in terms of relevance and motivational potential for our pupils. We must know first the type of pupils we have. We need their description and interests. Once their needs are analysed, we can get to know their motivations and attitudes towards English. We need to know their language proficiency and patterns of language use, and also their subjective needs, such as expectations and attitudes towards English, which are much more difficult to diagnose.
We can use standardised interviews and proficiency assessments, classroom observation, self-rating scales, .. E.g.: How do you like learning? When you speak, do you want to be corrected?
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Where do you like learning from? Do you find these activities useful? Do you find your English is improving?
TEMA 25 EL PROCESO DE ENSEÑANZA Y APRENDIZAJE EN LA LENGUA EXTRANJERA CENTRADO EN EL ALUMNO: FUNDAMENTOS Y APLICACIONES. LA IDENTIFICACION DE LAS MOTIVACIONES Y ACTITUDES ANTE LA LENGUA INGLESA. APLICACIONES PRACTICAS. 0. INTRODUCTION 1. LEARNER-CENTRED FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING: 1.1. Advantages. 1.2. Theoretical bases. 1.3. Methodology in a learner-centred curriculum 1.4. Materials in a learner-centred curriculum. 1.5. Assessment and evaluation in a learner-centred curriculum. 1.6. The role of the teacher. 1.7. Potential problems. 1.7.1. Learner resistance. 1.7.2. External restraints. 1.7.3. Demands on the teacher. 2. IDENTIFICATION OF MOTIVATIONS AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS ENGLISH: ITS APPLICATIONS. 2.1. Techniques for identification of motivations and attitudes. 2.2. Applications. 3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
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0. INTRODUCTION. Campbell (1992) has stated that the main principle in learner-centred teaching is that all class activities can be done using information that the learners themselves bring to the class. It is true that humanistic approaches1 also accept active pupil involvement in learning methodology, but learner-centred teaching is more radical because it believes that every single one activity can be based on the knowledge, experience, and expertise of our pupils. Learner-centred teaching can be used in different ways in the English classroom. It can be any of the following: - the only method used in the classroom - a complement of other materials, providing topicality and practising language not covered by other materials - a set of remedial procedures to use in unpredicted situations such as poor attendance 1. LEARNER-CENTRED FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING: We next study tile most important aspects of a learner-centred curriculum: - advantages - methodology - materials - assessment - the role of the teacher - problems 1.1. Advantages. Campbell (1992) mentions nine advantages of using learner-centred teaching: - the potential of the learner - constant needs analysis - topicality - previous learning experience 1
Humanistic approaches consider the following principles important: the development of human values; growth in self-awareness and in the understanding of others; sensitivity to human feelings and emotions; active pupil involvement in learning. See unit 13 for further information.
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- learners as authors - pace
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- the element of surprise - peer teaching and correction - group solidarity
The potential of the leanier. Our pupils bring a lot with them into the classroom. They have their own ideas, beliefs, attitudes and interests. These things are very important for them, so, if they can see them reflected in the way they learn English and the activities within the classroom they will be more motivated to use language for effective communication. It is easier for a pupil to talk freely about a topic he himself has chosen, and therefore, he can draw on his knowledge to talk about, than about a topic which may be totally irrelevant. The way to fluency is more direct this way. It is also important not to forget that a great part of the knowledge our pupils bring with them into the classroom is their mother language and culture. Learner-centred teaching encourages them to incorporate this into their target language competence. Constant needs anaNsis. In learner-centred teaching, analysis is a continually developing process. Activities are chosen to met the current needs of its members. As our pupils carry out an activity, we spot the problems they have and introduce suitable practice activities in subsequent lessons. As we can see, the analysis never stops. Topicality. Learner-centred teaching allows us to introduce those issues our pupils are interested in into the classroom. This may be used to supplement or replace unsuitable coursebooks topics. Previous learning experience. A learner-centred approach offers an open-ended experience to our pupils. We give them a basic framework that they must complete according to their interests and needs. This way, the same framework can evolve in completely different ways with different groups. Even if we repeat the same activity it may be different if the members of the group are different. Learners as authors. Language practice is doubled in learner-centred learning because our pupils are involved not only in using the materials but also in preparing them as well. They will be interested in seeing how other people will use the materials they have prepared so they have a real-life reason to pay attention in the feed-back stage.
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Pace. Preparation work is longer in learner-centred activities. However, as the activity progresses, the pace increases. Also, the involvement of our pupils is total from the very beginning.
The element of surprise. The fact that pupils in a learner-centre teaching situation do not have the materials in advance, adds a strong element of surprise to the lesson. Not only do our pupils not know what is coming before the lesson starts, but they are often unable to l.:redict how the lesson will d elop, and how the material they have produced will be used. Peer teaclang and correction. Learner-centred teaching encourages pupils to work together and learn from each other, thus increasing their level of socialization. Activities are structured in such a way that our pupils have to pay attention to what their colleagues are saying. They can teach and correct each other. This working together means that the class can pool whatever individual linguistic resources they have. Group solidarity. The fact that our pupil's work together in activities which are based in their interests and needs will tend to create a spirit of group solidarity. Learners are working with one another, not in competition with one another and therefore the atmosphere of the classroom is one of really purposeful commitment to learning English. 1.2. Theoretical bases. The basic principle of permanent education in the General Law of Spanish Educational System (LOGSE) can only be achieved if the instructional programmes are centred around learners' needs. Only in this way should education develop in our pupils the capacity to control their own destiny. Therefore, the learner should be seen as being at the centre of the educational process. Bearing this in mind, the following principles of learner-centred curricula can be identified:
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pupils who value their own experience as a resource for further learning or whose experience is valued by others are better learners
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pupils learn best when the learning objectives are congruent with their current self-concept
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pupils react to experience as they perceive it, not as we present it 728
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pupils do not learn when they are over-stimulated or stressed
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pupils learn best when the content is relevant to past experience or present concerns and the learning process is relevant to life experiences
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pupils who have learnt how to learn are the most productive learners
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pupils learn best when new information is presented through a variety of sensory modes
We next study how these principles are reflected in all aspects of pupil-centred teaching. 1.3. Methodology in a learner-centred curriculum. Traditional approaches to language teaching have tended to separate considerations of syllabus design from methodology. Syllabuses specify the "what" of teaching whereas methodology specifies the "how". In recent times, the shortcomings of this lack of integration have become apparent, and there have been calls for a more integrated approach. In learner-centred models, all the elements are in interaction and each may influence the other. This change in perspective has been prompted more by the development of communicative language teaching than anything else: for communicative language teaching to become a reality, there was a need for methodologies to reflect curriculum goals. A communicative curriculum uses pedagogic tasks which must be linked in principled ways to the real-world tasks pupils might be required to engage in outside the classroom. Learnercentred approaches draw on these activities and in studies on classroom acquisition which may provide psycholinguistically motivated learning tasks. But this is not enough because so far the language learner, who is the centre of our methodology, has been neglected. What happens if our pupils do not see as helping him learn activities which we consider to be communicative and psycholinguistically justified? If we want to adopt both a communicative and a pupil-centred approach we may find ourselves in a big problem. Some pupils favour more traditional learning activities rather than communicative type activities. An analysis of pupils data reveals that there may be four types of learners: - concrete learners: they prefer learning by games, pictures, 'Video, talking in pairs, learning through the use of the cassette ...
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- analytical learners: they prefer studying grammar, studying English books, studying alone, finding their own mistakes, having problems to work on ... - communicative learners: they enjoy learning by observing and listening to native speakers, talking to friends in English, watching TV in English ... - authority-oriented learner: they like the teacher to explain everything, writing everything in a notebook, having their own textbook, learning to read ... As we can see it is very difficult to use a communicative approach with analytical andauthority-oriented learners if, at the same time, we want to follow the principles of learner centred teaching. These pupils may say things like "I don't want to clap and sing. I want to lean English. " These differences must be taken into consideration and a process of negotiating learning activities should begin. If our pupils do not believe in the learning value of communicative activities we can begin by setting traditional learning activities, and gradually try and move our pupils towards acceptance of more communicative activities. The danger here is that our pupils get used to these traditional activities and do not want to change into communicative ones later on. For this reason some teachers prefer to make quite clear their expectations from the beginning. Whatever choice is made we must provide the maximum amount of information to learners, and set up mechanisms to facilitate negotiation and consultation. 1.4. Materials in a learner-centred curriculum. Pupil-centred teaching materials are by definition limited to those produced by the learners in class. Therefore paper and pen are usually all that is needed though the use of more sophisticated equipment such as photocopiers, audio or video recorders and so on may be motivating. The focus will be on assisting our pupils to do in class what they will be able to do outside, the materials should reflect the outside world. To do this, they should have a degree of authenticity. The materials should also foster independent learning (learning how to learn) and, as all our classes have mixed ability groups of learners, materials should be designed so that they are capable of being used in a variety of ways and also at different proficiency levels. We now study these characteristics in detail. 1.4.1. Authenticity. 730
Nunan (1988) describes authenticity as follows: "Authentic materials are usually defined as those which have been produced for purposes other than to teach language. They can be culled from many different sources: video clips, recordings of authentic interactions, extracts from television, radio and newspapers, signs, maps and charts, photographs and pictures, timetables and schedules. " Despite the difficulties associated with the use of authentic materials, they are easily ju, 'ified on the grounds that specially scripted texts are artificial. Comprehending and manipulating this type of texts does not mean that our pupils will comprehend and manipulate language in real communicative situations and this is one of the principles of communicative language teaching that we have adopted. While authenticity is generally thought of in terms of the materials used in a given teaching activity, there are other factors which may be equally important. Candlin and Edelhoff (1982) suggest that there are at least four types of authenticity which are important in our classrooms: - authenticity of goal authenticity environment - authenticity of text - authenticity of task
of
Nunan (1988) thinks that the most important type of authenticity is what he called "learner authenticity". By this he means "the realisation and acceptance by the learner of the authenticity of a given text, task, set of materials or learning activity". If we want our pupils to think that the materials we use are authentic they must fulfil two conditions: 1. They must be recognised by learners as having a legitimate place in the language classroom. 2. They must engage the interests of our pupils by relating to their interests, background knowledge and experience, and through these, stimulate genuine communication. It is important to make our pupils realise that they are learning something. This is especially easy with traditional activities, such as drills or translations, but new, communicative activities may seem to them a waste of time. In some activities we can have, as Gavin Bolton said of drama, a unique pedagogic situation, where a teacher sees
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himself as teaching, but our pupils do not see themselves as learning. The second condition is easily fulfilled if we take into account our pupils characteristics and needs. The problem is that these two conditions can be mutually exclusive. Television can be an engaging experience for our pupils, at home, but they may not legitimate its presence in the classroom. In this case we must found a process of negotiation, through which our pupils are gradually sensitised to the new element. Those who take a hard line on authenticity insist that these should not be edited in any way. However, especially with our pupils, who are beginners, it may be necessary to edit authentic materials in a way. Edited materials can be classified into simulated authentic and artificial. 1.4.2. Learning how to learn. Learning to learn approaches take into account that different pupils have different ways of learning (as we have seen when discussing learners' types). This means that they also have different preferences regarding learning materials. Therefore, the materials we use must aim to develop self-awareness and gradually lead pupils to a conscious development of their own learning strategies, so that they become more effective and independent learners. This entails using materials that enable our pupils to acquire the following strategies: 1. Metacognitive strategies, such as planning for learning, hypothesizing, self-assessment and reflection on the learning process. 2. Cognitive strategies, such as sorting, classifying, matching, predicting, using dictionaries, repeating ... 3. Social mediation strategies, such a's collaborating and peer-correction, which may be developed by means of materials designed for pair or group work. 4. Communication strategies, that is, using phrases to enable them to participate and maintain communication in English, e.g., Can you say that again, please? Acquiring learning to learn processes develops our pupils' curiosity and fosters a positive attitude towards foreign language learning. This is extremely important with our pupils as one of the main aims of Primary foreign languages education is to familiarize our pupils with English. This will prepare them for more formal and exam-oriented courses in secondary school. 732
1.4.3. Heterogeneity. Heterogeneous materials can be used at different levels of proficiency. As all classes are composed of mixed-ability groups, homogeneous materials cannot provide effective practice for all our pupils; they may be too difficult for the weak pupils and may lack in volume or challenge for the stronger. The use of heterogeneous exercises not only ensure that a higher proportion of our pupils get learning value out of the practice, it also has a positive effect on our pupils' attitude as responses at different levels may be right. The previous characteristics should be present in learner-centred materials. 1.5. Assessment and evaluation in a learner-centred curriculum. No model would be complete without an evaluation component. We normally use the terms evaluation and assessment interchangeably, but they may mean different things for theoreticians. Assessment is taken to refer to the set of processes by which we judge pupil learning. Evaluation, on the other hand, is wider term, entailing assessment but also some additional processes which are designed to assist us in interpreting and acting on the results of our assessment. In any pupil-centred system, localised evaluation processes involving both teachers and pupils need to be developed. Our pupils should learn how to assess their own progress, and also evaluate, from their own perspectives, other elements within the curriculum including, materials, activities, and learning arrangements. Such pupil-centred evaluation will assist in the development of a critical self-consciousness by learners of their own role as active agents during the learning process. This is one of the main goals of a pupil-centred approach. Self-assessment at basic level should not take a complex form. Our pupils' learner diary typical sheet may take the following form:
PUPIL'S DIARY Completa una hoja cada semana. 1. Esta semana lie estudiado ....
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2. Esta semana he aprendido ... 3. Esta semana he usado el inoles en ... 4. Esta semana he hablado con ... 5. Esta semana he visto los siguientes programas en in 16s ... 6. Esta semana he cometido estos errores ... 7. Mis dificultades han sido ... 8. Me eustaria saber .. 9. La semana que viene voy a aprender ...
1.6. The role of the teacher. Whithin a pupil-centred system, the teacher has a central role to play in all aspects of the curriculum. Accordina to Nunan, in traditional curricular systems, the teacher is reduced to the role of servant to a centralised curriculum process in which decisions about what will be taught, how it will be taught and how it. will be assessed are made by an authority remote from the point of lesson delivery. In a pupil-centred system such a control is undesirable. Our curriculum sets a group of shared minimum contents which may well be differentiated in terms of topics, themes, materials, learning tasks according to the particular teaching situation we are in. The main role of the teacher in a learner-centred approach will be that of curriculum developer. He must adapt the curriculum to his pupils' characteristics (third level of concreteness). He must adapt the planned curriculum, which is set down in curriculum documents, to his teaching situation, implemented curriculum. Finally, he will assess what the pupils actually learn (assessed curriculum). Derived from this main role of curriculum developer, we may find others such as: - participant - resource - monitor or assessor As active participants we contribute ideas and opinions or relate personal experiences, helping to bridge the traditional gap between pupil and teacher. In learner-based teaching, the teaching and learning are taking place on both sides.
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We are also a resource, answering our pupils questions on vocabulary, grammar of activity procedures. By providing what our pupils ask for, rather than what we think they need, we can facilitate more effective learning. At other times we will be assessors or monitors, checking what learners have produced. This assessing could be overt or covert. In communicative activities it is not very convenient to interrupt our pupils. 1.7. Potential problems. Campbell finds three main problems: - learner resistance - external restraints - demands on the teacher 1.7.1. Learner resistance. Learner resistance arise with groups of learners who have specific preconceptions about the learning process. This will not normally happen with our youngest pupils as it is the first time they are learning English, but it may well happen if they have had a different teacher during the second and third cycles of primary education. Some learners will feel that they are only learning when doing the type of activities they are used to. A gradual introduction of learner-centred activities may convince our pupils of their value. 1.7.2. External~restraints. Even if you are required to follow a syllabus which, despite having been approved by .iie School Board and the teaching staff, you do not quite like, you may find that it is still possible to cover parts of the syllabus using pupil-centred teaching activities.
1.7.3. Demands on the teacher. If we follow a pupil-centred approach we are faced with the responsibility for the sequence of events in ;he classroom, a role which was normally left to the coursebook in conventional teaching. It is therefore essential to keep a record of all work done. We can make this in a pupil-centred way as well if the pupils collaborate in the production of a regular class newsletter, which
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serves as a summary of all that has been achieved over a period of time, and reassures all concerned that progress is being made.
2. IDENTIFICATION OF MOTIVATIONS TOWARDS ENGLISH: ITS APPLICATIONS.
AND
ATTITUDES
We have already studied the main features of a learner-centred curriculum. We now know that the contents of a learner-centred course should be justified in terms of relevance and motivational potential for our pupils. We must now analyze procedure which have the potential for generating different curricula for learners with different motivations and attitudes towards Enalish. The starting point is generally the collection of various types of biographical data. This description of our pupils is obviously the same one we need in order to select and design materials for them: DESCRIPTION OF PUPILS 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.
Age: Number- of boys and girls: Familiar background: Parents' occupation: Motivation/attitude: Knowledge of the world: Knowledge of English: Interests: Pupils with special needs: Pupils with discipline problems: Based on the above, what conclusions can we draw about the kind of materials that would be suitable for our pupils?
Once we know our pupils we can begin a needs analysis procedure to get to know their motivations and attitudes towards English.
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Needs-analysis made its appearance during the 1970s in language planning. It serves three main purposes: - obtaining wider input into the content, design and implementation of a language programme - developing goals, objectives and content - providing data for reviewing and evaluating existing programmes Initially needs assessment was linked to accountability and relevance in political terms rather than to educational aims. Nowadays, however, taking account of our pupils' needs when designing the cours of instruction is well established.
Our pupils' need can be divided into two groups: - objective - subjective Objective needs are those which can be diagnosed by teachers on the basis of the analysis of personal data about learners along with information about their language proficiency and patterns of language use. Subjective needs, which are the motivations, attitudes, expectations towards English we are more interested in, are more difficult to diagnose, even by our pupils themselves. Objective needs analysis results in content specifications derived from an analysis of the communicative situations our pupils are likely to find themselves. As they are derived from the language situation, they can be carried out in the absence of our pupils. On the other hand, subjective needs are derived from the learners themselves. While there is a tendency to equate objective needs with the specification of content, and subjective needs with the specification of methodology, the two need not be seen as synonymous. In learner-centred approaches techniques for subjective needs analysis will therefore figure as prominently as techniques for objective needs analysis. 2.1. Techniques for identification of motivation and attitudes. Techniques for data collection and course planning can be ranged on a continuum from formal to informal. Formal techniques include standardised interviews and proficiency assessments, while informal techniques include such things as classroom observation and self-rating scales for use by learners in evaluating learning activities. 737
At the initial data-collecting stage, we will probably not need all the data listed in the following survey. It may be interesting, however, to see the wealth of information we can get from our pupils referring to their subjective needs (motivations, attitudes and expectations). This survey is a practical application of the learner-centred approach theory in relation to the identification of our pupils' motivations and attitudes towards English. 2.2. Applications. The following questionnaires have been adapted from Brindley [Hunan, (1988:187)]: A. Dime si el siguiente use del inglés es importante para ti. (Mucho, regular, nada) 1. Tell people about yourself ... 2. Tell people about your family ... 2. Tell people about your interests ... 3. Use buses/trains/ferries ... 4. Find new places in the city .. 5. Receive telephone calls ... 6. Make telephone calls ... 7. Join hobby or interest groups ... 8. Watch TV ... 9. Listen to the radio ... 10. Read newspapers/books/magazines ... 11. Give/accept/refuse invitations ... Elige los cinco usos que quieras aprender en primer lugar. 1 2 3 4 5
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B. ¿Cómo to gusta aprender? Contesta SI/NO 1. In class do you like learning a. individually? b. in pairs? c. in small groups? d. in one large group? 2. Do you like learning a. by memory? b. by problem solving? c. by getting information for yourself? d. by listening? e. by reading? f. by copying from the board? g. by listening and taking notes? h. by reading and making notes? i. by repeating what you hear? 3. When you speak do you want to he corrected a. immediately, in front of everyone? or ... b. later, at the end of the activity, in front of everyone? c. later, in private?
4.Do you mind if other pupils sometimes correct your written work? Do you mind if the teacher sometimes asks you to correct your own work? Do you mind if the teacher asks you to correct some other pupils' work? 5. Do you like learning from a. b. c. d. e. f.
television/video films'? radio? tapes/cassettes? (e. g. language lab, language masters, cassette players) written material? the blackboard? pictures/posters?
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6. Do you find these activities useful? a. Role play b. Language games c. Songs d. Talking with and listening to other students e. Memorising conversations/dialogues f. Getting information from guest speakers g. Getting information from planned visits 7. How do you like to find out how much your English is improving? By ..... a. written tasks set by the teacher? b. oral language samples taken and assessed by the teacher? c. checking you own progress by making tapes, listening to the critically and comparing them? d. devising your own written tasks for completion by yourself and other students? e. seeing if you can use the language you have learnt in real-life situations? 8. Do you get a sense of satisfaction from: a. having your work graded? b. being told that you have made progress? c. feeling more confident in situations that you found difficult before? In this way we can get practical information about our pupils' motivations and attitudes, enabling us to use the principles of learner-centred teaching in our classroom so that we could make the most of its advantages. For example we can use the following learnercentred activity in order to practise the simple present and physical description vocabulary. First, we draw a circle on the board. Secondly, we tell our pupils they are going to build this into a character deciding previously whether it is a man or a woman. Next, we continue to ask questions to build up the physical representation on the board, e.g. Does he have a moustache?, Is he fat? ... We continue to ask questions about where he lives, his job, interests, family and so on. We point out contradictions e.g. he is 16 and father of three. As our pupils come with suggestions 740
the pace increases and our pupils will point out contradictions and suggests alternatives by themselves.
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3. BIBLIOGRAPHY. Brewster, J.; Ellis, G. and Girard, D. The Primary English Teacher's Guide. Penguin. London 1992. Brumfit, C.J., and Johnson K. (eds) The Communicative Approach to Language Learning. OUP. Oxford, 1979. Campbell, C. and Kryszewska, H. Learner- Based Teaching. OUP. Oxford, 1992. Crystal, D. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. CUP. Cambridge, 1987. Harmer, J. The Practice of English Language Teaching. Lon-man. London, 1983. Halliwell, S. Teaching English iii the Primary Classroom. Longman. London, 1992. (There exists Spanish translation: La Enseiianza del Ingles en la Educacion Pri»raria. Longman. London, 1993. ) Littlewood, W. Communicative Language Teaching. CUP. Cambridge, 1981. Nunan, D. The Learner-Centred Curriculum. CUP. Cambridge, 1988. Richards, J.C., and Rodgers, T.S. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. CUP. Cambridge, 1986. Richards, J.C., Platt, J., and Platt, H. Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics. Longman. London, 1992. Savignon, S. Communicative Competence: Theory and Classroom Practice. Addison-Wesley. Reading, Mass. , 1983. Widowson, H.G. Teaching Language as Communication. OUP. Oxford, 1978.
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25:Unidad Didáctica
1º de 1er Ciclo Primaria OBJETIVOS Los objetivos generales de etapa indican las capacidades que los alumnos habrán adquirido al final de la educación primaria. Estos objetivos se concretan en los objetivos de los dos ciclos (segundo y tercero) de la etapa en los que se imparte la lengua extranjera. Así, los objetivos de segundo ciclo se refieren al primer contacto con la lengua extranjera; por ello, si iniciamos el aprendizaje en el primer ciclo, pensamos que éstos son los objetivos que expresan las capacidades que los alumnos deben haber adquirido al terminar el primer ciclo de primaria. Para alcanzar estos objetivos hemos de diseñar una serie de unidades didácticas cuyos objetivos se concretan y se corresponden con los mismos.
Tabla de Objetivos OBJETIVOS DE ETAPA
OBJETIVOS DEL PRIMER CICLO
OBJETIVOS DIDÁCTICA
DE
LA
UNIDAD
1.- Comprender textos orales y sencillos 1.Comprender la información 1 Comprender la información global y relativos a objetos , situaciones y específica de textos orales sencillos específica de textos orales sencillos acontecimientos próximos y conocidos. referentes a situaciones conocidas. referentes al entorno de la clase y a situaciones que impliquen saludar y despedirse; nombrar, identificar y contar objetos de la escuela y mascotas. 2.- Utilizar de forma oral la lengua extranjera para comunicarse con los demás en el aula mediante las situaciones creadas para este fin, atendiendo a las normas básicas de la comunicación interpersonal y adoptando una actitud respetuosa hacia las aportaciones de los demás.
2.- Utilizar la lengua extranjera de forma oral para comunicarse con el profesor y con los compañeros en las actividades habituales de la clase y en las situaciones creadas para reste fin, respetando las distintas aportaciones.
2 Utilizar la lengua extranjera de forma oral para comunicase con el profesor y los compañeros en situaciones que implican saludar y despedirse; nombrar, identificar y contar objetos de la escuela y mascotas, respetando las distintas aportaciones y normas de convivencia.
3.- Producir textos escritos breves y sencillos sobre temas familiares, respetando las reglas básicas del código escrito.
3.- Producir textos escritos muy sencillos 3 Desarrollar la motricidad mediante sobre funciones o situaciones familiares, ejercicios de pre-escritura. mostrando interés por conocer las reglas básicas del código escrito.
4.- Leer de forma comprensiva textos 4.- Leer de forma comprensiva textos 4.cortos y sencillos, relacionados con sus cortos y sencillos, previamente conocimientos, experiencias e intereses. trabajados de forma oral y relacionados con sus ámbitos de interés y experiencia. 5.- Reconocer y apreciar el valor comunicativo de las lenguas extranjeras y la propia capacidad para aprender a utilizarlas, mostrando una actitud positiva de comprensión y respeto hacia otras lenguas, sus hablantes y su cultura.
5.- Reconocer y desarrollar las capacidades personales para aprender a utilizar la lengua extranjera como vehículo de comunicación.
5 Reconocer y desarrollar las capacidades personales para comunicarse en inglés en situaciones que implican saludar y despedirse; nombrar, identificar y contar objetos de la escuela y mascotas, mostrando una actitud positiva.
6.- Comprender y utilizar algunas 6.- Comprender algunas convenciones convenciones lingüísticas y no lingüísticas para interpretar el mensaje lingüísticas empleadas por los hablantes transmitido. de la lengua extranjera - saludos, despedidas, presentaciones, felicitaciones, etc. - para facilitar la comunicación.
6 Comprender algunas convenciones lingüísticas y no lingüísticas para interpretar el mensaje transmitido: saludos, despedidas, presentaciones, identificación de objetos de la clase, animales.
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7.- Utilizar los conocimientos y las experiencias previas con otras lenguas y desarrollar progresivamente las estrategias de aprendizaje autónomo.
7.- Reconocer la importancia de los recursos utilizados en el aprendizaje de otras lenguas para su aplicación en el aprendizaje de la lengua extranjera.
7 Reconocer los recursos empleados en el aprendizaje de otras lenguas (repetir rimas, imitar sonidos, memorizar nombres) para iniciar el aprendizaje de la lengua extranjera.
8.- Establecer relaciones entre el significado, la pronunciación y la representación gráfica de algunas palabras y frases sencillas, así como reconocer aspectos sonoros rítmicos y de entonación característicos de la lengua extranjera.
8.Establecer relaciones entre significado, pronunciación y representación gráfica del vocabulario estudiado y utilizado en frases sencillas enunciativas e interrogativas - con el ritmo y entonación adecuados.
8 Establecer relaciones entre significado y pronunciación del vocabulario relativo a la escuela, mascotas y de situaciones que impliquen saludos, despedidas, presentaciones, y utilizarlo en frases sencillas con el ritmo y entonación adecuados.
9.- Utilizar los recursos expresivos no lingüísticos - gestos, postura corporal, sonidos diversos, dibujos, etc. - para comprender y hacerse comprender en la lengua extranjera.
9.- Iniciar la reflexión sobre el uso de los 9 Iniciar el uso de recursos no recursos no lingüísticos como vehículo lingüísticos (gestos, posturas, de comunicación de la lengua entonación) en la comunicación oral. extranjera.
CONTENIDOS 1. PROCEDIMENTALES 1.1. Relativos a la comunicación oral 1. Imitación de la pronunciación de frases sencillas. 2. Comprensión de mensajes orales sencillos. 3. Utilización del saludo y la despedida a la entrada y la salida de clase; así como en juegos. 4. Participación activa en intercambios orales en grupo. 5. Análisis de una información oral, expresando si es verdadera o falsa. 6. Formulación y respuesta de preguntas sencillas y breves. 7. Identificación de los objetos de la clase por el tacto y la vista. 8. Respuesta a ordenes breves y sencillas en juegos.
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1.2. Relativos a la comunicación escrita 1. Desarrollo de la motricidad a través de ejercicios de preescritura 1.
1.3. Reflexión sobre la lengua 1. Revisión de vocabulario. 2. Reflexión sobre los progresos realizados en clase. 3. Enumeración en un dibujo de los objetos aprendidos en clase. 4. Memorización de estructuras trabajadas. 5. Memorización de vocabulario y números2. 6. Desarrollo de estrategias de aprendizaje por medio de rimas y juegos.
1.4. Aspectos socioculturales 1. Utilización de las normas y hábitos de presentación y despedida.
2. CONCEPTUALES 2.1. Relativos a la comunicación oral FUNCIONES COMUNICATIVAS
VOCABULARIO Y EXPRESIONES
FONÉTICA Y ENTONACIÓN
Saludar
Good morning
Inty, Minty, tipsy, toe
Presentarse
I’m ...
Olla, bolla, domino
Presentar a otros
This is ...
Oker, poker, dominoker Out you go
Identificar objetos de la clase
This is a table, chair, book, pencil, door, bin, rubber, bag, notebook, teacher, pupil, ruler blackboard, Pronunciación del vocabulario y window, pen and duster3. expresiones
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Preguntar por los objetos de la What’s this? clase y mascotas Is this a ...? Despedirse Goodbye Preguntar por información personal Who are you? Who is he/she? Contar del 1 al 16
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven and twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen and sixteen4. Stand by, point at.
Seguir instrucciones Identificar mascotas
This is a dog, cat, horse, cow, peacock and duck5.
2.2. Relativos a la comunicación escrita 2.3. Reflexión sobre la lengua 1. Léxico referido a las situaciones más habituales de clase y a los intereses específicos de los alumnos en el entorno del aula 2. Funciones comunicativas: saludar, presentarse... 3. Rimas.
2.4. Aspectos socioculturales 1. Reglas y hábitos de la vida cotidiana inglesa, comparados con los de la lengua materna6.
3. ACTITUDINALES 3.1. Relativos a la comunicación oral 1. Interés por comunicarse en inglés. 2. Gusto por la participación activa.
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3. Atención y respeto a los mensajes orales emitidos por otros compañeros 7. 4. Superar las barreras iniciales en el aprendizaje de la lengua extranjera. 5. Respeto a las reglas de los juegos8. 6. Reconocimiento de la importancia de ser capaz de comunicarse en una lengua extranjera.
3.2. Relativos a la comunicación escrita 1. Valoración de las tareas de pre-escritura en el proceso de aprendizaje.
3.3. Reflexión sobre la lengua 1. Curiosidad por conocer las formas de presentación, saludo y despedida en inglés. 2. Interés en el conocimiento del vocabulario, como ayuda para la comunicación. 3. Reconocimiento del progreso del proceso de aprendizaje.
3.4. Aspectos socioculturales 1. Actitud receptiva y de respeto ante comportamientos sociolingüísticos y de convivencia como presentaciones y despedidas9. 2. Interés por el medio ambiente y sensibilización hacia las cuestiones medio ambientales10.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
Conexión con otras áreas: artística, lengua castellana. Conexión con otras áreas: matemáticas y conocimiento del medio. Conexión con otras áreas: conocimiento del medio. Conexión con otras áreas: matemáticas Temas transversales: educación ambiental Temas transversales: educación moral y cívica. Temas transversales: educación moral y cívica. Temas transversales: educación moral y cívica. Temas transversales: educación moral y cívica. 747
10. Temas transversales: educación ambiental
CRITERIOS DE EVALUACIÓN
OBJETIVOS DE LA UNIDAD DIDÁCTICA
CRITERIOS DE EVALUACIÓN
1. Comprender la información global y específica de textos orales sencillos referentes al entorno de la clase y a situaciones que impliquen saludar y despedirse; nombrar, identificar y contar objetos de la escuela y mascotas.
1. Extraer información específica de textos orales sencillos en situaciones de comunicación cara a cara con sus compañeros y el profesor, referentes al entorno de la clase y a situaciones que impliquen saludar y despedirse; nombrar, identificar y contar objetos de la escuela y mascotas.
2. Utilizar la lengua extranjera de forma oral para comunicase con el profesor y los compañeros en situaciones que implican saludar y despedirse; nombrar, identificar y contar objetos de la escuela y mascotas, respetando las distintas aportaciones y normas de convivencia.
2. Participar en conversaciones breves de forma oral cara a cara con sus compañeros y el profesor, referentes al entorno de la clase y a situaciones que impliquen saludar y despedirse; nombrar, identificar y contar objetos de la escuela y mascotas, respetando las diferentes aportaciones y normas de convivencia.
3. Desarrollar la motricidad mediante 3. Localizar y dibujar siguiendo líneas de ejercicios de pre-escritura. puntos los objetos y las mascotas aprendidos. 4.
4.
5. Reconocer y desarrollar las capacidades personales para comunicarse en inglés en situaciones que implican saludar y despedirse; nombrar, identificar y contar objetos de la escuela y mascotas, mostrando una actitud positiva.
5. Utilizar los conocimientos adquiridos para comunicarse en inglés en situaciones que implican saludar y despedirse; nombrar, identificar y contar objetos de la escuela y mascotas, mostrando una actitud positiva.
6 Comprender algunas convenciones 6. Interpretar el mensaje transmitido, lingüísticas y no lingüísticas para mediante convenciones lingüísticas y no interpretar el mensaje transmitido: lingüísticas. saludos, despedidas, presentaciones,
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identificación de objetos de la clase, animales. 7. Reconocer los recursos empleados en el aprendizaje de otras lenguas (repetir rimas, imitar sonidos, memorizar nombres) para iniciar el aprendizaje de la lengua extranjera.
7. Utilizar los recursos empleados en el aprendizaje de otras lenguas (repetir rimas, imitar sonidos, memorizar nombres) para iniciar el aprendizaje de la lengua extranjera.
8. Establecer relaciones entre significado y pronunciación del vocabulario relativo a la escuela, mascotas y de situaciones que impliquen saludos, despedidas, presentaciones, y utilizarlo en frases sencillas con el ritmo y entonación adecuados.
8. Relacionar el significado y pronunciación del vocabulario relativo a la escuela, mascotas y de situaciones que impliquen saludos, despedidas, presentaciones, y utilizarlo en frases sencillas con el ritmo y entonación adecuados.
9. Iniciar el uso de recursos no 9. Utilizar los recursos no lingüísticos lingüísticos (gestos, posturas, (gestos, posturas, entonación) en la entonación) en la comunicación oral. comunicación oral.
ESTRUCTURA DE LA UNIDAD DIDÁCTICA Cada una de las actividades que aparecen en la Unidad Didáctica tiene la misma estructura: unos objetivos específicos de la actividad, que están relacionados con los objetivos de la Unidad Didáctica, indicados entre paréntesis; la descripción de la actividad; el lenguaje básico que se utiliza en la actividad, al cual se hace referencia en el listado de contenidos conceptuales; la duración aproximada; el nivel de dificultad y la distribución de los alumnos en la clase. Algunos de estos apartados se han omitido al coincidir en algunas de las actividades que se van repitiendo a lo largo de la Unidad. 1. MASCOTAS. En el poster de cada lección siempre aparece el dibujo de un animal que será la mascota del día. En este caso todos son animales domésticos, tema que se está trabajando en 1º de primaria. Presentamos a la mascota del día en inglés y animamos a nuestros alumnos a que digan cosas que saben sobre la misma. Al finalizar las actividades propuestas para el día, siempre se irá a la lámina de las mascotas y se localizará el animal que se ha presentado, para repasar las líneas de puntos que definen su contorno y cuyo trazado sirve como ejercicio de preescritura.
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Al finalizar la Unidad Didáctica siempre está previsto que se cuente un cuento, en el que aparecen todas las mascotas que se han estudiado. Un alumno saldrá a la pizarra, donde también estará colocado el poster, e irá señalando todos los animales que van apareciendo en el cuento. Con esta actividad pretendemos desarrollar la atención y la comprensión auditiva. Desde el primer momento, se utilizarán todos los recursos que estén a nuestro alcance para que nuestros alumnos sean capaces de entender lo más posible del cuento. 2. PRESENTACION DEL VOCABULARIO. El primer centro de interés que hemos elegido, para iniciar la primera de una serie de unidades didácticas que van a completar un curso escolar ha sido En el colegio, centrándonos en La clase; y lo creemos necesario, porque se trata del entorno más inmediato en el que a partir de ahora se va a desenvolver el alumno. No sólo se presenta el nuevo vocabulario, sino también las funciones comunicativas y estructuras, que servirán de soporte para el desarrollo de la Unidad. En todo momento se intentará utilizar la lengua inglesa en el aula, haciendo uso el profesor de todos los recursos que estén a su alcance para hacer más fácil su comprensión. 3. RECUERDA - REPASO. Después del primer día de curso, iniciamos la lección repasando lo que se ha aprendido hasta ese momento. Siempre se hace el repaso a través de juegos. La presentación de todo lo que se va a aprender se basa en lo que ya se ha aprendido. Creamos en nuestros alumnos la necesidad de comunicarse; se les plantean tareas que tienen que resolver. 4. JUEGOS. El juego nos va a ayudar, tanto a repasar todo lo que se ha aprendido con anterioridad, como a presentar nuevos contenidos. La mayor parte de los juegos que presentamos fomentan el trabajo en grupo. A través del juego los alumnos se conocen, participan, comparten, cooperan, compiten, se divierten, aprenden. A través del juego hacemos que en el aprendizaje de la lengua inglesa intervengan los sentidos: la vista, el oido, el tacto, el gusto, el olfato. Para resolver problemas que se plantean en algunos de los juegos que se presentan, es imprescindible utilizar el conocimiento proporcionado por otras materias. 5. RIMAS. Con las rimas y canciones pretendemos que nuestros alumnos practiquen la pronunciación, el ritmo, la entonación y la memorización. Aunque cada día se les enseña una parte de la rima, siempre se recita toda. Al principio de curso es importante que los alumnos se conozcan, por lo que pensamos que se trata de una rima ideal para poder formar grupos heterogéneos. En lo sucesivo, siempre que se quieran formar grupos se utilizará este método. 6. POSTERS.
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En cada uno de las láminas que tiene el alumo, se hace una síntesis de todas las actividades que se van a realizar a lo largo de la lección. Siempre al finalizar cada lección el alumno localiza, tanto en el póster de las mascotas como en el de la clase, todo el vocabulario que se ha aprendido, pasando posteriormente a repasar las líneas de puntos. Se recomienda que los pósters se coloquen ampliados en la pizarra y que se vayan completando al mismo tiempo que los alumnos. Estos posters los utilizaremos como diccionario de clase y como soporte para realizar otras muchas actividades.
Lesson 1: My first English class [Lámina 1]
1. PRESENTATION
Aim
•
Students will be able to understand and produce greetings and introductions. (1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
Procedure
•
If this is the first lesson, it might be interesting to start by greeting your students by means of the expression "Good morning." Ask them to repeat this expression as many times as you consider necessary for them to get used to it. Once they have practised the expression "Good morning", introduce yourself by saying "I’m ..."
•
Then, go on by adding the question "Who are you?", so that your students answer by saying I’m ..., interacting with the teacher.
Language
Time Level Activity
•
Communicative functions greeting others and introducing oneself.
•
Vocabulary and expressions Good morning, I’m ...
•
10’
•
whole class work
*
2. GAME 1
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Aim Procedure
•
Students will be able to greet others and introduce themselves. (2, 5, 8, 9)
Ask children to stand in a circle, and then throw a ball to one of the students. The child who has caught the ball is told to say: "Good morning, I’m ..." Now, ask the child to throw the ball to another student in the circle, who will also greet the others and introduce him/herself. This game will be finished once every student has played with the ball.
Language
•
Communicative functions greeting others and introducing oneself.
•
Vocabulary and expressions Good morning, I’m ...
•
15’
Activity
•
Whole class work.
Material
•
A soft ball.
Aim
•
Students will be able to greet others and introduce themselves and others. (1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
Procedure
•
In a circle, you, as part of the group, greet and introduce yourself to the other members of the class. Immediately afterwards, introduce the one next to you by saying "This is ..." Now, do the same with other members of the group.
•
Ask the last child you have introduced to go on by greeting and introducing him/herself and the one next to him/her. The game will be finished once everybody has played.
•
Communicative functions greeting others and introducing oneself and others.
•
Vocabulary and expressions: Good morning. I’m... This is ...
•
15’
Time Level
*
3. GAME 2
Language
Time Level
**
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Activity
•
Whole class work
•
Students will develop favourable attitudes towards the environment and respect towards animals.
•
Students will be able to identify animals. (1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
•
Direct attention to the mascot of the lesson and introduce him/her by saying: "This is a DOG." Ask students to repeat it after you and to find it in the picture of the class.
•
Tell them that they will find mascots in every lesson.
•
Communicative functions: Identifying animals.
•
Vocabulary and expressions: This is a dog.
•
5’
•
Whole class work
4. MASCOT
Aim
Procedure
Language
Time Level
*
Activity
5. RHYME
Aim
Students will be able to pronounce and memorize the first line of the rhyme, paying attention to intonation. (7)
Procedure
Language
•
Recite the whole rhyme aloud and ask students to repeat the first line after you.
Inty, Minty, tipsy, toe Olla, bolla, domino Oker, poker, dominoker Out you go
Time
•
10’
Level
**
Activity
Whole class work
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6. POSTER
Aim
•
Students will be able to locate in the picture the words learnt.
•
Students will be able to write over dotted lines. (3)
Procedure
•
Ask students to find the dog in the poster, to draw over the dotted lines and finally, to colour it in.
Time
•
5’
Activity
•
Individual work
Material
•
Poster
Aim
•
Students will make identification cards in order to ask for personal information. (2, 3)
Procedure
•
Tell students to cut out the cards which will be found at the end of the unit.
•
Ask them to write their names on and to keep their cards for the next day.
•
5’
Activity
•
Individual work
Material
•
Cards, rounded tip scissors, safety pins. It could be recommended to seal the cards in plastic to protect them.
Level
*
7. CARDS
Time Level
*
8. SAYING GOODBYE
Aim
•
Students will be able to say "goodbye". (1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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Procedure
•
Say "goodbye" to your students at the end of the class and ask them to repeat what they have heard.
Language
•
Communicative functions: Saying Goodbye
•
Vocabulary and expressions: Goodbye
•
2’
•
Whole class work
Time Level
*
Activity
Lesson 2: My classroom [Lámina 2] 1. PRESENTATION
Procedure
•
Start the lesson by saying "Good morning" and revising the mascot presented in the previous lesson.
Time
•
2’
Procedure
•
Direct attention to the mascot of the lesson and introduce him/her by saying "This is a CAT." Ask students to repeat it after you and to find it in the picture of the class.
Language
•
Vocabulary and expressions: This is a cat.
Time
•
2’
Aim
•
Students will be able to inquire about classmates’ identity. (1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
Procedure
•
Ask students to stick their cards on and to sit in a circle.
2. MASCOT
3. GAME 1(revision)
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Language
Time
10’
Level
*
Material Activity
•
Then, throw a ball to one of the students and ask him/her the question "Who are you?".
•
Once he has said his/her name, he is told to throw the ball to any other classmate and to ask his/her name. Go on with the activity until you consider the revision has been completed.
•
Communicative functions: Asking for and giving personal information.
•
Vocabulary and expressions: "Who are you?"." I’m ..."
•
Whole class work
•
Cards and safety pins.
4. VOCABULARY GAME (Listen and discriminate)
Aim
•
Students will be able to identify classroom objects. (1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
Procedure
•
Show students a book and say the word "BOOK" at the same time. Ask students to repeat the word after you. Do the same with PENCIL, CHAIR and TABLE. Continue the activity as above, but introducing the expression "This is a ...". Now, show the students the objects and using the expression "Is this a ...?" ask them to say YES or NO, depending on whether the object shown goes with the word pronounced or not. Once we have practised enough with the four objects, ask them "How many objects have we learnt today?". The objects will be shown again and at the same time the numbers will be said aloud "ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR".
• •
•
Language
•
Ask students to repeat them after you.
•
Communicative counting.
functions:
Identifying
objects
and
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•
Vocabulary and expressions: Table, chair, book and pencil. This is a ... Is this a ...? Yes/No.
•
15’
Activity
•
Whole class work.
Material
•
Classroom objects.
Aim
•
Students will be able to pronounce and memorize the first and second line of the rhyme, paying attention to intonation. (7)
Procedure
•
Recite the whole rhyme aloud and ask students to repeat the first and second line after you.
Time Level
*
5. RHYME
Language
Inty, Minty, tipsy, toe Olla, bolla, domino Oker, poker, dominoker Out you go
Time Level
•
10’
•
Whole class work.
•
Ask students to find the CAT in the poster and to draw over the dotted lines.
•
Ask students to find the four words presented in class: BOOK, TABLE, PENCIL, CHAIR and to draw over the dotted lines.
•
10’
•
Individual work.
**
Activity
6. POSTER
Procedure
Time Level Activity
*
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Material
•
Poster.
7. SAYING GOODBYE
Aim
•
Students will be able to say "goodbye". (1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
Procedure
•
Say "goodbye" to your students at the end of the class and ask them to repeat what they have heard.
Language
•
Communicative functions: Saying Goodbye
•
Vocabulary and expressions: Goodbye
•
2’
•
Whole class work
Time Level Activity
*
Lesson 3: My classroom [Lámina 3] 1. PRESENTATION AND REVISION
Procedure
• •
Time
Start the lesson by saying "Good morning" and revising the mascots presented in the previous lessons: DOG and CAT. Ask the children about their identities by means of the expression "Who are you?"
•
Then, ask them to name and count the four words learnt in the previous lesson: TABLE, BOOK, CHAIR and PENCIL.
•
7’
2. MASCOT
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Procedure
•
Direct attention to the mascot of the lesson and introduce him/her by saying "This is a HORSE." Ask students to repeat it after you and to find it in the picture of the class.
Language
•
Vocabulary and expressions: This is a horse.
Time
•
3’
Aim
•
Students will be able to identify and count classroom objects. (1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
Procedure
•
Show students a BAG and say the word "BAG" at the same time. Ask students to repeat the word after you. Do the same with DOOR, BIN and RUBBER. Continue the activity as above, but introducing the expression "This is a ...". Add the four objects learnt in the previous lesson to the ones presented today. Now, show the students the objects and using the expression "Is this a ...?" ask them to say YES or NO, depending on whether the object shown goes with the word pronounced or not.
3. GAME
• • •
Once we have practised enough with the eight objects, ask them "How many objects have we learnt today?" The objects will be shown again and at the same time the numbers will be said aloud: "ONE, TWO, THREE and FOUR." Ask students to repeat them after you.
Language
Time Level
•
Now, ask them "How many objects have we learnt so far?" Do the same as above emphasising the numbers FIVE, SIX SEVEN and EIGHT.
•
Communicative functions: Identifying classroom objects and counting.
•
Vocabulary and expressions: Door, bin, rubber and bag. Five, six, seven and eight. This is a ... Yes/No. Is this a ...?
•
20’
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Activity
•
Whole class work.
Material
•
Classroom objects.
Aim
•
Students will be able to pronounce and memorize the first, second and third line of the rhyme, paying attention to intonation. (7)
Procedure
•
Recite the whole rhyme aloud and ask students to repeat the first, second and third lines after you.
5. RHYME
Inty, Minty, tipsy, toe
Language
Olla, bolla, domino Oker, poker, dominoker Out you go
Time Level
•
10’
•
Whole class work.
•
Ask students to find the HORSE in the poster and to draw over the dotted lines.
•
Ask students to find the four words presented in class DOOR, BIN, RUBBER and BAG and to draw over the dotted lines.
•
10’
•
Individual work.
**
Activity
6. POSTER
Procedure
Time Level Activity
*
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7. SAYING GOODBYE
Procedure
•
Add to the expression "Goodbye" "See you tomorrow."
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