Chapter 2 How to be a good leaner?
Why is it difficult to describe a good learner?
1.What are their backgrounds, for example, their past learning experience?
2.Why are they in the classroom?
3.Why is one study method appropriate for student A not for student B?
Because each student brings a unique personality to the classroom, it is often difficult to assess the factors involved.
How important is the students’motivation?
Integrative motivation was more powerful than instrumental motivation.
One of the main tasks for teachers is to provoke interest and involvement in the subject even when students are not initially interested in it. It is by their choice of topic, activity and linguistic content that they may be able to turn a class around. It is by their attitude to class participation, their conscientiousness, their humour and their seriousness that they may influence their students. It is by their own behaviour and enthusiasm that they may inspire.
Teachers are not, however, responsible for their students’motivation. They can only encourage by word and deed. Real motivation comes from within each individual.
Who is responsible for learning?
Self-study - self-access facilities
Getting students to do various kinds of homework like written exercises, compositions or study is the best way to encourage student autonomy. What is important is that teachers should choose the right kind of task for the students. It should be within their grasp, and not take up too much of their time-or occupy too little of it by being trivial.
What characteristics do good classroom learners share?
A willingness to listen/ experiment/ ask questions/ think about how to learn/accept correction.
What are the different levels?
Beginners
False beginners: heard virtually no English; know quite a lot but can’t use them
Beginners, false beginners, elementary, lower intermediate, intermediate, upper intermediate, advanced
Intermediate students:
Success is not so easy to perceive here. Intermediate students have already achieved a lot. Gone are the days when they could observe their progress almost daily. Sometimes it may seem to them, they don’t improve that much or that fast anymore. We often call this the plateau effect, and the teacher has to make strenuous attempts to show students what they still need to learn without being discouraging. One of the ways of doing this is to make the tasks we give them more challenging and to get them to analyse language more thoroughly. We need to help them to set clear goals for themselves so that they have something to measure their achievement by.
Chapter 3 How to manage teaching and learning?
How should teachers use their physical presence in class?
1.How should teachers use their voices in class?
2.How should teachers mark the stages of a lesson?
3.What’s the best seating arrangement for a class?
Chapter 4 How to describe learning and teaching?
How do the three elements of ESA fit together in lesson sequences?
ESA:engage, study, activate
Teaching models:
1.Grammar-translation:
The danger with grammar-translation, in other words, is that it teaches people about the language and doesn’t really help them to learn the language itself.
2.Audio- lingualism:
Much learning is the result of habit formation through conditioning.
3.PPP: presentation, practice, production = ESA model
Teach simple language at lower levels
4.Task-based learning:
Fit very neatly into our boomerang lesson description
When they have completed the task, we can then, if necessary-and only if necessary - give them a bit of language study to clear up some of the problems they encountered while completing the task. Alternatively, we may ask them to write part of a guidebook for their area.
5.Communicative language teaching
1.Language functions; 2. the need for appropriacy when talking and writing to people in terms of the kind of language they use (formal, informal, tentative, technical)
2.If students get enough exposure to language and opportunities for its use-and if they are motivated - then language learning will take care of itself.
Chapter 5 How to describe language
Adverbial, adjective, pronoun, adverb, preposition, compound, auxiliary.
Chapter 6 How to teach language
What does language study consist of?
Students should be exposed to it; understand its meaning; understand its form; practice it.
How should we expose students to language?
How can we help students to understand meaning?
Objects, pictures, drawings, gesture, expression.
Check questions; more examples
How can we help students to understand language form?
Students need to know how it is constructed, how the bits fit together/ comprehend the constituent sounds, syllables, words and phrases.
In order to be a good teacher, I am learning those elementary teaching knowledge. I will review those basic questions frequently and check by myself. To be a good and responsible teacher.
