FREE TOPIC 2

THE EVALUATION PURPOSE AND PROCESS

The evaluation purpose and process has an important role in teaching. In most of the cases, students learn if they are going to be tested or evaluated. The aim of the evaluation is to verify if the outcome was achieved.The evaluating process requires some considerations like organization, creativity, and capacity. Those requirement helps a teacher to achieve the outcomes of the study or unit lessons. Furthermore, there are some ways of evaluating such as formative, summative, monitoring activities. Biggs (1999) mentions that what and the way students learn depends to a serious extent on however they assume they'll be assessed. Evaluation not is just used to generate a grade. The most relevant of this process is to promote learning because the students are able to know their improvements through this tool (Weimer, 2002). Finally, one of the important things in this topic was the essential part of the evaluating process. The teacher needs to use it in order to know the students’ progress and achieve the aims or goals proposed by the teacher. In this case, I will evaluate my students after a new topic teaching and if they have difficulties to carry out on this I will reinforce with different activities

 (This video help us to recognize some steps of the evaluation that we as future teachers need to know)

References:

ü  Biggs, J. (1999). What the student does: Teaching for enhanced learning. Higher education research & development, 18(1), 57-75.

ü  Weimer, M. (2002). Learner-centered teaching: Five key changes to practice. John Wiley & Sons.

ü  CHOP Program Planning & Evaluation (2016). YouTube. Retrieved 18  April 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNR3KZzDoGQ

FREE TOPIC 1

TEACHER'S ROLE

The teachers' role nowadays has been changed. Now, they don't participate actively instead of that is important the interaction of the student for learning new things. In this way, educators Learner-centered and learning-centered have an important play in order to develop their knowledge (Weimer, 2002). On the other hand, there are others authors who have other concepts related to this topic. According to Neculau (1983), the teacher not only imparts cognitive knowledge but also arouse valuables qualities. Educators promote students’ understanding and help them know the goal that they need to accomplish with students. To sum up, a future teacher needs take different roles according to their purpose with the students and one of the essential thing is focused on their learning process (Spratt, Pulverness, and, Williams,2011). Moreover, teachers need to concentrate on student’s progress. For this reason, as a future teacher, I will concentrate on student needs for strengthening and improve their knowledge.

References:

ü  Weimer, M. (2002). Learner-centered teaching: Five key changes to practice. John Wiley & Sons.

ü  Neculau, A. (1983). A fi elev, Bucharest: Albatros Publishing House.

ü  Sprat, M. Pulverness, A. & Williams, M. (2011). The TKT course. Modules 1,2,3. Second Edition.

UNIT 8

SPEAKING SKILL

 

Speaking is a productive skill because it produces a language and has the purpose of communicating meanings through speech. The author Nunan (1991), defines this skill as a process in which people associate each other in order to formulate a message when they obtain an information. Furthermore, when we speak we use a variety of subskills like, grammar, vocabulary, and functions, also we use features of connected speech (Spratt, Pulverness, and, Williams,2011) Interactive strategies are also one of the fundamental things in speaking skills and this strategies includes gestures, eye contact or facial expressions. Moreover, fluency, accuracy, and appropriacy are significant aspects to build up a great speaking. Also, this skill contains a variety of text type such as telephone calls, giving a presentation, telling stories. To conclude, with the knowledge obtained from this unit I will apply tasks like information-gap activities, project work, and discussion taking in mind that also appropriate feedback and correction are important at the moment to evaluate students in the development of this skill (Brown, 2001). 

 

References:

ü  Nunan, D. (1991). Language teaching methodology: A textbook for teachers. NewYork: Prentice Hall

ü  Sprat, M. Pulverness, A. & Williams, M. (2011). The TKT course. Modules 1,2,3. Second Edition.

ü  Brown, D. (2001)Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to languagepedagogy(2nd ed.). New York: Longman

UNIT 7

LISTENING SKILL

Listening is a receptive skill In this skill is crucial to pay attention to meaningful sounds of a language through context and the general knowledge of the world in order to understand an oral message. In addition to, it is important to pay attention to non- verbal cues such as body language, gestures and the speakers' lip movements for a better understanding of a message in a real world (Nihei, 2002). Furthermore, this skill implicates understand two features like distinct speeds of the speech and the variety of accents. So, these features are the part of connected speech which involves sentence stress, linking sounds and the use of contracted forms. On the other hand, there are some listening subskills with the purpose of choosing one depending on the reason for listening. Among them, we have to listen for gist, specific information, detail or listening intensively and extensively (Spratt, Pulverness, and, Williams, 2011). Finally, we as future teachers have to encourage or student to develop this skill using different materials. For instance, the use of songs that is a strategy for whatever age. Also, the use of authentic materials like broadcasts, television program, films for associate it with a listening content focused on a real-life (Herron& Seay, 1991).

References:

ü  Nihei, K. (2002). How To Teach Listening.

ü  Sprat, M. Pulverness, A. & Williams, M. (2011). The TKT course. Modules 1,2,3. Second Edition.

ü  Herron, C. A., & Seay, I. (1991). The effect of authentic oral texts on student listening comprehension in the foreign language classroom. Foreign Language Annals, 24(6), 487-495.

UNIT 6

WRITING SKILL

Writing is a productive skill for that reason it communicates a message through different writing signs that form words and that words make sentences which need to be organized in a better way to create a clear message (Bram, 1995). Writing skills include different text types such as emails, postcards, stories etc. Also, text types will depend on whom the written will be addressed and it changes in terms of the formality, complexity of grammar and register. Additionally, there are two types of writing subskills accuracy and communicating. Accuracy, focused on the correct use of grammar like spelling, punctuation, joining letters together and write legibly in order to communicate and make the message understandable. On the other hand, the subskill that is communicating refers to include our ideas using a correct style, register, organization and the use of appropriate functions. Furthermore, something interesting for applies in a class was the different stages in writing process that must be applied in a class or a way to improve writing skills could be applying strategies such as literary models, freewriting, sentence combining using the Genre Process Approach (Jacobs,2002).

References:

ü  Bram, B. (1995). Write well, improving writing skills. Kanisius.

ü  Sprat, M. Pulverness, A. & Williams, M. (2011). The TKT course. Modules 1,2,3. Second Edition.

ü  Jacobs, V. A. (2002). Reading, writing, and understanding. Readings in.

UNIT 5

READING SKILL

Reading is a skill based on understanding words and whole sentences from a text with the purpose of identifying what the writer wants to express. Also, text involves understanding grammar vocabulary and the knowledge of the word it means discourse. Reading is considered a receptive skill and implicates comprehension coherence and cohesion at moment to read in order to process an idea. Brunan W.K (1989) mentions some reading sub-skills like; predicting, inferring and deducting meaning, reading for gist and details that consider helpful for readers at moment of identifying the readings. For instance, read a book, read an essay etc. On the other hand, there are two ways of reading, extensive or read for pleasure e.g. articles, novels and intensive reading focused on understanding grammatical forms reading like small compositions with the purpose language study (Spratt, Pulverness, and, Williams, 2011). To conclude, is essential that the teacher choose a variety of exercises that involve the use of reading skills according to the student needs and levels and include extensive and intensive reading in class, the activities that should be carried out in the development of this skill could be brainstorming for predicting a reading topic, use interactive activities after, during and before a reading like, debates, question or games. Also, I encouraged learners to read interesting topics for them in order to reinforce language through reading.

(This video explains what is important to do in the development of the reading skill and also some tips for improving the  activities in the class.)

References:

ü  Sprat, M. Pulverness, A. & Williams, M. (2011). The TKT course. Modules 1,2,3. Second Edition.

ü  JamesESL English Lessons (2012). YouTube. Retrieved 18  April 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgqLyAfUsZE

UNIT 4

FUNCTION

The function has a main purpose which is to communicate orally or in a writing way. Savignon (1983) conceptualizes function as the use in which a language is put, and main focus on an utterance rather than grammatical form or structure. Also, there are examples of functions such as inviting, greeting, refusing, or clarifying that express a meaning depending on the context. The activities that teacher can use in class would make mimic some examples of function in order to students recognize the name and the importance of each one in a language. Another important aspect of this chapter is the exponent that refers to the language we use to express a function. In some cases, the exponent can show a variety of functions that will depend on the context. Moreover, exponent has different levels of formality between them we have the formal language which is used in important situations and informal language used for relaxing situations, in this case, the informal exponents contain colloquial expressions(Spratt, Pulverness, and, Williams). Finally, I consider involving activities combining functions and grammar with gap filling exercises or make students’ performance some roles of the function used in the real world.

(This video explain one activity is about the importance of function in the real world)

References:

ü  Savignon, S. J. (1983). Communicative competence. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

ü  Sprat, M. Pulverness, A. & Williams, M. (2011). The TKT course. Modules 1,2,3. Second Edition.

ü  BridgeTEFL (2009). YouTube. Retrieved 17  April 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_BSyFo3IFs

UNIT 3

PHONOLOGY

The concept of phonology is the study of sound features that we use to communicate in a language.Those features include phoneme, word stress, sentence stress and intonation. Analyzing each one we have that a phoneme is considered a small unit of sound that helps to differentiate the meaning in a language also a phoneme distinguishes one word from another e.g./s/-/sh/ in sock and shock (Spratt, Pulverness, and, Williams,2011). The phonetic chart represents each phoneme in a language and it is divided into three categories vowels. diphthongs, and consonants. Then, the word stress is the syllable in which it puts more force of voice and it is represented by this sign ' or also could be underline e.g. important. On the other hand, the sentence stress is a useful process to understand the real meaning of the sentence.Commonly one word in a sentence has primary or main stress that indicates the word is really important for the speaker and the other words could not be relevant and it has secondary stress. The last feature is intonation, which is important because it shows the meaning through the changes of the level of the voice. According to Roberson (1946) is crucial to diagnose the legitimate pronunciation in order to evaluate not only the different difficulties but also the needs that learners have to improve. For that reason including real models of listening in classroom promote the real pronunciation. Also including phonetic transcription on the wall is a good strategy so the learner can look them every day(Hayes,2011).

References:

ü  Sprat, M. Pulverness, A. & Williams, M. (2011). The TKT course. Modules 1,2,3. Second Edition.

ü  Hayes, B. (2011). Introductory phonology (Vol. 32). John Wiley & Sons.

UNIT 2

LEXIS

The term lexis is the word or set of words which has a meaning. According to Scrivener (2005) defines the word lexis such as a combination of words that we can use without a previous knowledge of grammar. On the other hand, words have various types of meaning between them we have denotative, connotative and vocabulary item. The first one, denotative meaning that is the direct primary meaning or the exact meaning e.g. the definition of a tree in dictionaries. Second, connotative that refers to a word can be used in a figurative way or it can have an imaginative e.g. the tree of the life. Then, the third meaning is the vocabulary item which depends on the situation or context that is used. In this case, the meaning is defined to their form. It includes affixation. For instance, prefixes adding at the begging and suffix adding at the end to base words. Also includes, compounds which are words that come together to give a new meaning different as an individual word meaning e.g. bookshop. Furthermore, collocations are a group of words which frequency happen together e.g. arrive at. Additionally, include idioms, fixed expression because these sometimes can be changed, completely different than chunks, one piece of language with specific meaning. (Spratt, Pulverness,and, Williams,2011). The activity that I will apply is the use of flash cards in order to use affixation for explaining the meaning of the different words. To conclude, teachers need to know some teaching ideas about the importance of lexis in order to get student communicate in English in a fluent accurate and natural way.

(This video explains some ideas to teach lexis during the class.Also, the importance of this in the development of fluency and accuracy.)

References:

ü  Sprat, M. Pulverness, A. & Williams, M. (2011). The TKT course. Modules 1,2,3. Second Edition.

ü  Scrivener, J. (2005). Learning teaching (p. 227). Macmillan Education.

http://www.tv411.org/vocabulary/understanding-how-words-work/what-makes-compound-word

ü  Train Me To Teach (2016). YouTube. Retrieved 17 April 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K0qgnw4MPY

UNIT 1

GRAMMAR

In unit one, the purpose is to define important concepts such as grammar, the grammatical forms, and grammatical uses which are essential for learning a language.

First, grammar is the way of organizing and combining words o group of words in order to give a meaning. According to Haussamen (2003) Grammar is divided into two types of knowledge the one is subconscious knowledge, the way of the children develop the language ability without teaching it and the other one is conscious understanding that refers to be familiarized with sentences and how they work together in order to express a meaning.

Second, the grammatical forms are the way of how words are made and the representation in speech or writing. For instance, in the case of plural nouns that are represented by the base word and the letter s at the end. The grammatical forms could be identified in the parts of the speech (verbs, adjectives, prepositions, and pronouns), conjunctions, words with prefixes and suffixes. Furthermore, we can identify grammatical forms in grammatical structure (Spratt, Pulverness, and, Williams, 2011).

Then we have the grammatical uses that mean how grammatical structure is used to communicate or convey meaning. One example is the meaning of present simple that not only describe the present also it will describe future in a schedule. So, the meaning will depend on the context we want to express.

Finally, this unit was really helpful because I could understand the world of grammar and I need to take in mind that as a future teacher it is necessary to consider that learning particular grammatical distinctions takes much time (Zhang, 2009). For this reason, I will need to consider relevant topics to be taught according to the student knowledge or level.

References:

ü  Sprat, M. Pulverness, A. & Williams, M. (2011). The TKT course. Modules 1,2,3. Second Edition.

ü  Haussamen, B. (2003). Grammar Alive! A Guide for Teachers. National Council of Teachers of English, 1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, IL 61801-1096 (Stock no. 18720: $17.95 members; $23.95 nonmembers).

ü  Zhang, J. (2009). Necessity of grammar teaching. International Education Studies, 2(2), 185.

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1065690.pdf