Unit 1 language and language teaching1. What makes a good language teacher?● Ethic devotion● Professional qualities● Personal styles2. Views on language learning and learning in general:● Process-oriented theories: concerned with how the mind organizes newinformation such as habit formation, induction, making inference, hypothesis testing and generalization.● Condition-oriented theories: emphasize the nature of the human and physicalcontext in which the language learning take place, such as the number of the students and the kind of input learners receive, and the atmosphere.3. How can one become a language teacher?It involves more factors and longer learning time, and may never be finished.Stage 1: all English teachers are supposed to have a sound command of English. Stage 2: learning, practice and reflection. ● Learning:✓ Learning from others’ experience (empirical knowledge gainedthrough reading and observation) ✓ Learning the received knowledge (language learning theories,educational psychology, language teaching methodology, etc.)● Practice✓ Pre-service practice (pseudo practice)✓ Real classroom practice● Reflection: take on reflection seriously and keep reflectionGoal: (do not have an end) one can never become a perfect teacher. There isalways room for improvement.language development other's experiencereceived knowledgeown experience Practice Reflectio Professional competence Stage 1 Stage 2 GoalUnit 2 communicative principles and task-based language teaching1.What is communicative competence●Linguistic competenceKnowledge of language itself●Pragmatic competenceThe choice of the vocabulary and structure depends on the setting, therelative status of the speakers and their relationship.●Discourse competenceThe ability to understand or to express a topic logically and coherently byeffectively employing or comprehending the cohesive marks, such as first,second.●Strategic competenceSearching for other means of expression, such as using a similar phrase ……●Fluencythe ability to link units of speech together with facility and without strain or inappropriate slowness or undue hesitation)CLT: communicative language teaching2.Principles of communicative language teaching●Communication principleActivities that involve real communication promote learning.●Task principleActivities in which language is used for carrying out meaningful tasks promote learning.●Meaningfulness principleLanguage that is meaningful to the learner support the learning process.3.Main features of communicative activities●Communicative purposeThere must be some information gap that students seek to bridge●Communicative desireA real need to communicate●Content not formThey must have some massage they want to communicate●Variety of language●No teacher intervention●No material controlTBLT: task- based language teaching4.Four components of a task● A purposeMake sure students have a reason for undertaking the task● A contextThis can be real, simulated or imaginary, and involves sociolinguistic issues such as the location and the relationship o f the speaker……● A processGetting students to learn some language strategies such as problem solving, reasoning……● A product5.Focus on individual language items –Purposeful and contextualized communication +ThenExercise → task6.TBL:●Pre-taskIntroduction to topic and task●Task cycle✓Task✓Planning✓Report✓Students hear task recording or read text●Language focus✓Analysis and practice✓Review and repeat task7.PPP●PresentationOf single new item; teachers introduces new vocabulary and grammatical structures.●PracticeOf new item: drills, exercise, and dialogue●ProductionActivity, role play or task to encourage ‘free’ use of language8.How to design tasks●Think about students’ needs and interests and abilities●Brainstorm possible tasks●Evaluate the list●Choose the language items●Preparing materials9.Constrains of CLT:●Whether it will meet the needs of learners from different contexts●It is very difficult to design a one to one correspondence between a function aform.10.Constrains of TBLT●Not effective for presenting new languages●Time is limited: teachers are busy●Culture of learning: some students may find it difficult to adapt to TBLT●Level of difficulty: students may find task-base language teaching quitedifficult of they do not have sufficient linguistic resources.Unit 4 lesson planning1.Why is lesson planning important?●It can make teachers aware of the aims and language contents of the lesson.●It helps teachers distinguish the various stages of a lesson and see therelationship between them so that activities of different difficulty levels canbe arranged properly and the lesson can move smoothly from one stage toanother.●It gives teachers opportunity to anticipate potential problems that may arisein class, and prepare some solutions to them.●It builds teachers’ confidence in class.●Teachers can also be aware of teaching aids in class.●Planning is a good practice and sign of professionalism.2.Principles for good class planning:●AimIt means realistic goals for the lesson; the things students are able to do at theend of the class.●VarietyPlanning a variety of different activities to introduce a wide selection ofmaterials, so that learning is always interesting.●FlexibilityPreparing some extra and alternative activities and tasks as the class does notalways go according to the plan.●LearnabilityThe contents and tasks planned for the lesson should be within the learningcapability of the students.●LinkageThe steps and steps in each stage are planned in such a way that they aresomeway linked with another one.3.Macro planningA planning over a longer period of time, for instance a whole-year course. It isoften done by a group of teachers who are to teach the same course.●Knowing about the professionWhich language area and language stage should be taught?●Knowing about the institutionThe institution arrangements of the time, frequency of the class……●Knowing about the learners●Knowing about the syllabus●Knowing about the textbook●Knowing about the objectivesponents of a lesson plan●Background informationWho the students are. The time and date of the class.●Teaching aimsWhat students are able to achieve at the end of the lesson(Linguistic and language skills)●Language contents and skills●Stages and procedures●Teaching aidsTeaching aids and resources, and how teachers will use them to aid learning ●End of lesson summaryTake some time to summarize what is learned in class.●Optional activities and assignments●After lesson reflectionUnit 5 classroom arrangement1.Efficient classroom arrangement can be achieved when these six conditions aremet:●The teacher plays appropriate roles.●The teacher provides clear instructions●Students are grouped in a way suitable for the learning activities.●The teacher asks appropriate questions.●There is discipline as well as harmony in the class.●The students’ errors are treated properly.2.The different roles of teachers:●Controller✓The teacher controls the pace so that the activities run smoothly and efficiently.✓The more communicative the activity is, the less control it needs.●Assessor✓Correcting mistakes✓Organizing feedback●OrganizerDesign and organize the tasks●PrompterWhen students are not sure how to start an activity, or what to do next, the teacher give appropriate prompts. (and……/anything else?/yes, but why?)●Participant●Resource-provider3.Rules to follow for making instructions effective:●To use simple instructions and make them suit the comprehension level of thestudents. (Also, make your comments as simple and as natural as possible)●To use mother tongue only when it’s necessary.●The best thing to do is to model the task/activity before letting students moveinto groups and pairs.●Demonstration is more effective than words.4.Student grouping:●Whole class work:✓Advantages:Everyone feels being together with others.It is good for teachers to instruction and explanation together, and also an ideal way to show materials and do presentation together.✓Disadvantages:Individuality is not favoured in this sense.Not everyone has an opportunity to express himself.Some students feel nervous and anxious when they are asked to present in front of class.It favors the transmission of knowledge from teacher to students rather than students discovering things by themselves.It is not a good way to enhance real communication. Students cannot communicate with others in this sense.●Pair work✓AdvantagesIt dramatically increase students’ speaking time in class.It allows students to work together rath er than under teachers’ guidance.It allows teachers to work with the weak pairs when others are working on their own.It can promote cooperation between students.✓DisadvantagesIt is often very noisy and teachers are afraid of losing control of the class.Some students may talk in native language or something not related to the topic. It is not very easy for teachers to monitor every pair.Some students may not like to work with peers, and they, think they can only learn from their teachers.So they refuse to participate in the activities.The choice of pair is a problem. S ome students don’t like to work with a particular partner while someone may dominate all the time.●Group workingSome groups may finish the task fast while some may be very slow. Teachers may have to prepare some optional activities for the quick group and be ready to help the slower groups all the time.●Individual studyTeachers need to prepare different tasks for different groups.5.Measures for disciplined acts and badly behaving students:●Acting immediatelyIndisciplined acts should be immediately stopped, so that less damage is made.●Stop the classIf the discipline is so disruptive as to hinder the progress of the whole class, the teacher should stop the class and make it clear what is wrong.●Rearrange the seats●Change the activity●Talk to students after class●Create a code of behaviorThe teachers and learners can work together to create some rules for the class during activities.6.Questioning in classroom●Display questions: questions that are already known to teachers and they areasking questions to check if students know the answer.●Genuine questions: questions that are used to find new information. They areoften more communicative.●Lower- order questions: questions that simply require recalling of informationor memorization of facts.●Higher-order questions: questions requiring more reasoning, analysis, andevaluation.7.Dealing with errors:●Dealing with spoken errors:If the task is not focusing on accuracy or fluency, ignore it.●When to correct:It is best not to interrupt students during fluency work, unless communication breaks down. If there are some common mistakes that other students might also have problems with, the teacher can take a note in his/her mind and try to do the correction after the student’s perfo rm.●How to correct:✓Self-correcting is encouraged.✓Indirect correction: repeating; asking other students to answer again……Unit 6 teaching pronunciations1.The role of teaching pronunciation●Students need not able to read and write IPA and to know phonetics.●Adult learners need focus on pronunciations, but young leaners don’t.●Learners who have more exposure to English need less focus onpronunciation than those who only learn English in the class.2.Realistic goal of teaching pronunciation:●Consistency: the pronunciation should be smooth and natural.●Intelligibility: the pronunciation should be understandable to the listeners.●Communicative efficiency: the pronunciation should help convey themeaning that is intended by the speaker.3.Focusing on a sound:●Say the sound alone●Get students to repeat the sound in chorus.●Get individual students to repeat the sound.●Explain how to make the sound.If students can produce the sound correctly, after the teacher’s modelling, it is not necessary to explain ‘how’.●Say the sound in a word.●Contrast it with other sounds.4.Perception practice:●Using minimal pairs:will-well till-tell fill-fell lid-led (tell which one is read)●Which orderPit pet bet (1 3 2)●Same or differentMet-meet well-well●Odd one outBit bit bit pit (No.4 is different.)●Complete:_ate_ate_ate_ate_ate_ate(late mate fate date hate rate……)5.Production practice:●Listening and repeat●Fill in the blanks✓Children love to play games.✓Black and white make gray.✓After April comes May.●Make up sentencesLast fast calm dark ……Making a sentence using as many from the given words.●Use meaningful context●Using picture●Use tongue twisters6.Practicing stress:●Using gestures:By clapping hands or using an arm movements as if conducting music.●Use the voice:Raise the voice to indicate stress●Use the blackboard:Highlight the stress parts by underlining them or writing them on the blackboard.Unit7. Teaching grammar1.Different ways to presenting grammar●The deductive methodRelies on reasoning, analyzing and comparingDisadvantages:✓It teaches grammar as an isolate one✓Little attention is paid to meaning✓Practice is more mechanicalAdvantages:✓It can be successful with selected and motivated students.✓It could save time when students are confronted with grammar rule which is complex but which has to learn.●The inductive method✓The teacher provide students with authentic language date and induces the learners to realize grammar rules without any form of explicitexplanation.✓Students are to apply the newly presented structure to produce sentences with given visual aids or verbal prompts.✓The teacher may elicit the grammar rule from the students.●The guided discovery method✓Students are induced to discover the rules by themselves but carefully guided and assisted by the teacher.2.Implicit knowledge and explicit knowledge●Implicit knowledge: knowledge that is unconsciously existed in our mind,which we can make use of automatically without making any effort.●Explicit knowledge: our conscious knowledge about the language.3.Successful practice●Pre-learningPractice is more effective when new language is clearly perceived and taken into short-term memory by the leaners.●V olume and repetitionThe more language the leaners are exposed to or perceived the more they are likely to learn.●Success-orientation:●Heterogeneity(异质性)Practice should be able to elicit different sentences and generate different levels of answers from different learners.●Teacher assistance●Interest4.Grammar practice:●Mechanical practice✓Substitution drillsMrs. Green has the largest house in town.(clean house/ green lawn/ pretty garden)✓Transformation drillsChange the following sentence into past tense.Now he lives in London. (last year. Paris)●Meaningful/communicative practiceRank the items on the left column according to the listed on the top.cheap healthy tasty Important BeerWaterFruitcigarettesEg. I think beer is cheaper than fruit.ing prompts for practice:●Using picture prompts●Using mimes (role play) or gestures as prompts●Using information sheet as prompts●Using key phrase or key words as prompts●Using chained phrases for story telling.Unit 8 teaching vocabulary1.What does knowing a word involve?●Knowing its pronunciation and stress●Knowing its spelling and grammatical properties●Knowing its meaning●How and when to use it to express the intended meaning2.According to Hedge, vocabulary learning involves at least two aspect of meaning:●Understanding denotation and connotative meaning:✓Denotation meaningIt refer to those words that we use to label things as regards real objects,such as a name or a sign.✓Connotative meaningIt refers to the attitudes or emotions of a language user in choosing aword and influence of those on the listener or reader’s interpretation ofthe word.For example, animal itself has a connotative meaning often related tofriendship and loyalty.●Understanding the sense relations among words✓CollocationsIt is believed that teaching word collocations is a more effective way thanjust teaching one single word at a time.✓Synonyms, antonyms, and hyponyms✓Receptive/passive and productive/active vocabulary3.Ways of presenting vocabulary:●Try to provide a visual or physical demonstration whenever possible●Provide a verbal context to demonstrate meaning●Use synonyms and antonyms and hyponyms to explain meaning●Use word formation rules and common affixes to build up new lexicalknowledge.●Pre-fabricated formulaic items: to teach vocabulary in chunks. Chunks referto a group of words that go together to form meaning.4.Ways of consolidating vocabulary:●Labelling●Spot the difference●Describe and draw●Play a game●Use word series●Word bingo●Word association●Find synonyms and antonyms●Categories5.Developing vocabulary learning strategy●Review regularly●Guess meaning from the context●Organize vocabulary effectively●Use a dictionaryMonolingual dictionary should be encouraged than bi-lingual dictionary●Students should be guided constantly to self-evacuate the effectiveness of thestrategy.Unit 9 teaching listening1.Listening can be more difficult than reading because:●Different speaker produce different sounds in different ways. (Differentdialects, and accents, stress, rhythms, intonations……)●The listener has little or no control over the speed of the input of spokenmaterial;●Spoken material is often heard only once and in most cases, we cannot goback and listen again as we can when we read.●The listener cannot pause to work out the meaning of the hard material as canbe done when reading.●Speed is more likely to be distorted by the media which transmit sounds orthe background noise that can make it difficult to hear clearly.●The listener sometimes has to deal simultaneously with other task whilelistening, such as formal note-taking, writing down directions or messages from telephone calls, or operating while listening to instructions.2.Characters of listening characters:●Spontaneity: people speaking spontaneously and informally withoutrehearsing what they are going to say ahead of time.●Context: the situation helps us predict what we are going to hear.●Visual clues: most of the time, we can see the person we are listening to.(facial expressions, gestures, and other body language)●Listener’s response: we can interrupt the speakers and ask for repetition orclarification.●Speaker’s adjustment. (The speaker can adjust the way of speaking accordingto the listener’s reaction.)3.Many published textbooks have tended to focus on listening test rather thanfocusing on improving students’ listening performance. This approach has two problems:●It does not give students opportunities to develop listening skills with otherskills.●Listening compr ehension questions only test students’ level of comprehensionbut do not train students how to listening or how to develop effective listening strategies.4.Principles for listening:●Focus on process: people must do many things to process information thatthey are receiving. It is very important to design tasks which can show how well students comprehend the listening material.●Combine listening with other skills●Focus on comprehension of meaning (traditional textbook test on students’memory)●Grade and difficulty level appropriately:✓Type of language used✓Task or purpose in listening✓Context in which the listening occurs.5.Models for teaching listening:●Bottom-up model: listening comprehension is believed to start with sound andmeaning recognitions. Listeners construct meaning of what they hear based on the sound they hear.●Top-down model: listening for the gist and making use of the contextual cluesand background knowledge to construct meaning are emphasized.●Listening involves both bottom-up model and top-down model.Comprehension is the result of integrate of the information conveyed by the text with information and concepts already known by the listener.6.Three listening stages:●Pre-listening:✓Predicting✓Setting the scene (getting background information)✓Listening for the gist (ask students one or two questions that focus on the main idea or the tone or mood of the whole passage.)✓Listening for specific information✓Most of the time, we would only use only one pre-reading task. It couldn’t take muc h time.●While listening:✓No specific responses: giving students any task the first time they listening to a passage. It can take anxiety out of listening.✓Listen and tick: the task would be much easier.✓Listen and sequence: can be completed without understanding every word they hear. It can build confidence.✓Listen and act: total physical response✓Listen and draw: it works very well when there is an information gap between pairs. Related vocabulary should be pre-taught.✓Listen and fill: do not overdo this task because it may make students feel that they have to understand every word.✓It is helpful to provide a task for the students to do while they are listening. This gives the students a purpose to listen and helps them focuson the listening.●Post-listening:✓Multiple-choice questions: the teacher should balance his/her teaching in preparing students for traditional multiple-choice tests and preparingthem for using English in the real world.✓Answering questions: some types might lend themselves nicely to discuss in small groups.✓Note-taking and gap filling: while-listening and post-listening is combined.✓DictoglossPreparation: teachers introduces the topic and key words or asking general questions about the text.Dictation: three timesReconstructionAnalysis and correction✓There are many opportunities to integrate post-listening with other language style.Unit 10 teaching speaking:1.Four common features of spoken language:●Using less complex syntax●Taking short cuts, e.g. incomplete sentences●Using fixed conventional phrase/chunks●Using devices such as fillers, hesitation device to give time before speaking.2.Principles for teaching speaking:●Balancing accuracy-based with fluency-based practices●Contextualizing practice: people use language differently in different context,so it’s important to give students chance to experience language in meaningful contexts.●Personalizing practice: learn something that is close to students’ life●Building up confidence: only when students feel confident to expressthemselves, will they participate actively in the activities.●Maximizing meaningful interactions: (students practice in small groups andpairs)●Helping students develop speaking strategies●Making the best use of classroom learning environment to provide sufficientlanguage input and practice for the students.3.Other factors to consider when design speaking activities●Maximum foreign talk●Even participation●High motivation ( interesting topic/clear objective )●Right language level4.Types of speaking tasks: ( by Littlewood)Pre-communication activities: (controlled and semi-controlled)●Structural activities: pay attention to certain structures or functions so thatthese can be accurately produces.●Quasi-communication activities: focus more on meaning and communicationCommunicative activities: (communicative and more contextualization)●Functional communication activities●Social interaction activitiesStudents are more concerned on meaning.5.Example activities:●Information-gap activities●Dialogues and role-plays (✓Perform the dialogue in different moods.✓Success of role-play: the teachers’ enthusiasm; careful instruction;clear situations and roles; making sure students have the languagethey need.●Cue cards●Activities using pictures (work well with beginning level teachers for its clearobjective and a short time limit)●Problem solving activities (productive: there is a clear objective to be reachedor problem to be solved)●Find someone who●Human scramble.anizing speaking tasks:●Students talk a lot in foreign language●Designing small group speaking tasks (students are often feel shy speaking aforeign language in front the whole class)●Different groups can work at different levels. (Modify a given task to make iteasier for slower students and more challenging for more advanced students.)Unit 11 teaching writing1.What do effective readers do?●Have a clear purpose in reading●Read silently●Read phrase by phrase, rather than word by word●Concentrate on the important bits, skim the rest, and skip the insignificant parts●Use different speeds and strategies for different reading tasks●Perceive the information in the target language rather than mentally translate●Guess the meaning of new words from the context, or ignore them●Have and use background information to help understand the text2.What do we read:●If students have never had the experience of reading a particular type of text,how can they read it with ease in real life●We believe ESL/EFL reading textbook should have a variety of authenticmaterials, as much as the coverage allows3.There are two broad levels in the act of reading:● A recognition task of perceiving visual signal from the printed page througheyes● A cognitive task of interpreting the visual information, relating the receivedinformation with the reader’s own general knowledge, and reconstructing themeaning that the writer had meant to convey.4.Reading strategies:●specifying a purpose for reading●planning what to do / what steps to take●previewing the text●checking the predictions●skimming the text for the main ideas●scanning the text for specific information……5.the role of vocabulary●sight vocabulary: words that one is able to recognize immediately are oftenreferred to as sight vocabulary●The best and easiest way to develop vocabulary to read a great deal. Onlywhen an individual word is met and understood again and again in different contexts can it become a part of the learner’s sight vocabulary.●Instead of just using textbooks to reach the words and structures to thestudents, the teacher should try to introduce an extensive reading scheme whenever possible to encourage leaners to read more after class.●This automatic, rapid, and accurate process of word recognition should not beconfused with the strategy of slow, letter by letter, or syllable by syllable。
