Addressing the grammar gap in task work

Addressing the grammar gap in task work
A current interest in methodology is task-based teaching. Learner’s grammar needs are determined on the basis of task performance rather than through a predetermined grammar syllabus. Grammatical syllabuses were superseded by communicative ones based on functions or tasks such as presentation-production-production as well as drills and grammar practice (accuracy activities). This led to “fluency-fist” pedagogy in which students’ grammar needs are on the basis of performance fluency tasks.
From grammar-focused to task-focused instruction
The differences between traditional grammar-focused activities and communicative tasks are as follows:
Grammar-focused activities
˙reflect typical classroom use of language
˙focus on the formation of correct examples
˙monitored speech style
˙don not require authentic communication
Communicative tasks
˙reflect natural language use
˙colloquial speech style
˙require improving, repair and reorganization
˙allow students to select language they use
Task work is seen as a part of linguistic and communicative competence development.

Second thoughts about task work
The researcher found that little evidence showed negotiation for meaning is not a strategy that language learners are influenced to employ when they encounter gaps in their understanding. Accurate grammar use is not necessary in such a grammar-gap task. These strategies provide an effective incentive to make best use of language that already have but it doesn’t encourage them to focus on form.

Grammar in relation to second language acquisition processes
Inpputàintakeàacquisitionàaccessàoutput
Input: language sources used to initiated the language learning process.
At the input stage, an attempt may be made to focus learners’ attention on particular features of inputs.
Intake: subset of the input that is comprehended and attended to in some way. Those items are needed to meet certain criteria such as complexity(appropriate level of difficulty), saliency(be noticed or attended to), frequency(be experienced frequently) and need(fulfill a communacative need).
Acquisition: the learner incorporate a new learning item into his or her developing system ot interlanguage.
˙noticing the difference between forms they are using and targetlike forms.
˙discivering rules of target language
˙make those into long-term memory
˙much output to experiment such as role play.
Access: learner’s ability to utilize the interlanguage system during communocation which includes making use of the developing system to create output.
Output: observed result

Addressing grammar within task work
Focus on form entails a prerequisite in meaning before attention to linguistic features.
˙exposure to appropriate level of difficulty
˙meaning-focused interaction
˙opportunies for learners to attend to inguistic form
˙opporrtunities to expand the sources

Addresing accuracy prior to,during and after the task

Reference
Richard J.C. Current Research and Practice in Teaching Vocabulary. In Richards, J. C. and Renandya, W. A. (Eds)Methodology in Language Teaching(pp. 153-164) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Best practice in vocabulary teaching and learning

Best practice in vocabulary teaching and learning Paul Nation
A well-balanced course should contain four major strands: meaning-focused input, meaning-focused output, fluency development and language-docused instruction.
The aim is to show how the vocabulary component of a language course fits into these strands.

Vocabulary and meaning-focused input
Reading has been a long major source of vocabularu growth. For sevaral reasons, there is a fragility to this kind of learning.
1. Research with native speakers shows the amount of vocabulary learning that occurs during the reading text is rather small.
It is likely to cumulative if there are repeated opportunities to meet the partially learned vocabulary again. There will be a close relationship between vocabulary growth and the amount and variety of meaning-focused input.
2. It depends heavily on the qualiy of the learners’ control to the reading skill.
There is little vocabulary growth through reading while learners gain control of reading skill. One of the major barriers is vocabulary size. It allows second language learners to draw on the reading skill developed in theor first language to expand their vicabulary in second language by providing series of graded readers with careful vocabulary control.
3. The type reading that is done will strongly influence vocabulary learning.
Deliberately drawing attention to language items as a part of the language system makes learning more certain. Relying too much on mraning-focused input is leaving too much to chance.
Best practice in vocabulary teaching and learning is provideing large quantities of suitably graded input through a range of genrals and topics, and providing language-focused activities to support it.

Vocabulary and meaning-focused output
The spoken production of vocabulary items helps learning. The fondings of spoken communicative activities are as follows:
1. The written input to a communicative task has a major effect on what vocabulary is used and negociated during the task.
2. Vocabulary was learned through being used productively and receptively.
3. The more the vocabulary is observed or used in contexts which differ from its occurrence in the written input, the better it is learned.
4. Learners are able to provide useful information to each other on most of the vocabulary in a typical communocative task.
5. Learners who actively negociate the meaning of unknown words do not seem to learn more than learners who observe the negociation.
6. Only a small amount of negociation in a communicative task is negociation of word meaning.
By carefully designing and monotoring the use of the handout sheets for spoken tasks, teachers can have a major influence on determing what vocabuary could be learned from such tasks.

Devaloping fluency with vocabulary
Fluency development tasks have the characteristics of involving no new language items , dealing with largely faniliar content and discourse types. (meaning-focused tasks) the learners’ focus is on the message and are envourage to reach a higher than usual level of performance, through the use of repetetion, time pressure, preparation and planing.

Vocabulary and language-focused instruction
Language-focused instruction occurs when learners direct attention to language items not for producing or comprehending a particular message, but for gaining knowledge about the item as a part of the language system. Language-focuse inatrustion includes focusing on the pronounciation and spelling, learning the meaning of words, memorizinf collocations, phrases and sentences containing a word and being corrected for incorrect use of a word. First, it can affect implicit knowledge of a language and second, it can raise learners’ consciousness or awareness of particular itemsso that they are then more readily noticed when occur in meaning-docused input.
The third dffect of language-focused is indirect: implicit knowled.each suggestion as follows is matched with its likely effect on implicit knowledge.
˙Guessiong unknown words from context: To guess the meaning from the context rather than the underlying meaning.
˙Learning the meanings of unknown words: explicit, decontexualize study of vocabulary
˙Study the word parts and mnemonic devoces: Knowledge of these word parts such as prefixes and suffixes can be used to improve the learning of many words through relating unknow word forms and meanings to known word parts.

Reference

Nation P. Current Research and Practice in Teaching Vocabulary. In Richards, J. C. and Renandya, W. A. (Eds)Methodology in Language Teaching(pp. 267-272) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Current Research and Practice in Teaching Vocabulary

There are three approaches to vocabulary instruction and learning: incidental learning, explicit instruction and independent strategy development.
Definition
A word: is defined as including its base form, inflection and derivatives.
Incidental learning: The teacher provides opportunities for extensive reading and listening. (for more proficient intermediate and advanced students)
Explicit instruction: Diagnosing words learners need to know, presenting words for the first time, elaborating word knowledge and developing fluency with know words. (best for beginning and intermediate students who have limited vocabulary)
Independent strategy development: Practicing guessing from context and training learners to use dictionaries. (Dictionary training should begin early in the curriculum)

Incidental learning
Principle1: provide opportunities for incidental learning of vocabulary
Although most research concentrates on reading, extensive listening can also increase vocabulary learning. L2 learners can be expected to require many exposures to a word in context before understand its meaning. Low-proficiency learners can benefit from graded readers because they will be repeatedly exposed to high-frequency vocabulary.

Explicit instruction
Principle2: diagnose which of the 3,000 most common words learners need to study
Knowing approximately 3,000 high-frequency and general academic words is significant because this amount covers a high percentage of the words on an average page.
Principle3: provide opportunities for the intentional learning of vocabulary
The first stage in teaching these 3,000 commonly begins with word pairs in which an L2 word is matched with an L1 translation. Translation has a necessary role in L2 learning, but it can hinder learners’ progress if it’s used to exclusion of L2-based techniques. When teaching unfamiliar words, teachers should consider the following: 1. learners should see not only the form bit also the pronunciation and practice saying the word aloud. 2. Start by learning semantically unrelated words. Also avoid learning words with similar forms, closely related or contrast meanings at the same time. 3. it’s more effective to study words regularly over several short sections than to study them for one or two longer sessions. Repetition and review should take place almost immediately after studying a word for the first time. 4. Study 5-7words at a time. 5. Use activities such as keyword technique to promote deeper processing. 6. A wide variety of L2 information can be added to the word cards for further elaboration.
Principle4: provide opportunities for elaborating words knowledge
Knowing a word means not just knowing the translated meaning but also related grammatical patterns, lexical sets and how to use words receptively and productively. Receptive knowledge means being able to recognize one of the aspects of knowledge through reading and listening. Productive knowledge means being able to use it in speaking and writing.
Principle5: provide opportunities for developing fluency with known vocabulary
Fluency-building activities recycle already known words in familiar grammatical and organizational patterns so that students can focus on recognizing or using words without hesitation.

Independent strategy development
Principle6: experiment with guessing from context
To guess successfully, learners need to know about 19 out of every 20words (95%) of a text. a procedure of guessing begins with deciding whether the word is important enough to warrant going through the e subsequent steps. 1. Determing the part of speech of the unknown word. 2. look the immediate context and simplified it if necessary. 3. Look at wider context. 4. Guess the meaning. 5. Check out the guess is correct
Principle7: examine different types of dictionaries and teach student how to use them
Bilingulized dictionaries may have some advantages over traditional bilingual or monolingual dictionaries. Bilingulized dictionaries essentially do the job of both bilingual and monolingual dictionaries. The learners’ attention should a;so be directed toward those good sentences to learn collocational, grammatical and pragmatic information about words.

Reference
Hunt A. and Beglar D. (1998). Current Research and Practice in Teaching Vocabulary. In Richards, J. C. and Renandya, W. A. (Eds)Methodology in Language Teaching(pp. 258-266) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

R:Current Research and Practice in Teaching Vocabulary
I agree what a word includes translated meaning, base form, inflection and derivatives so learners should learn those related knowledge when they are learning a word. I also think extensive reading and listening could expose learners to high-frequency words so they have chances to remember them when it comes to explicit instruction, it‘s a important fact that learners know base 3,000 to support them in extensive reading. What’s more, by those fluency-building activities, students could use those intentional words more fluently and we need to elaborate related knowledge of vocabulary, too. However, I don’t think that “Start by learning semantically unrelated words. Also avoid learning words with similar forms, closely related or contrast meanings at the same time.” If learners are very beginners, we had better not confuse them with related words but if learners know numbers of vocabulary, we had better teach those related words to help them tell those differences and make them memorize those words systematically. I tutor my students mainly by explicit instruction to build their knowledge about intentional words because they are low-intermediate learners. At the same time, I’ve built their strategy of guessing the meaning from context and reinforce the importance of sentences as learning vocabulary. Now, they start to pat more attention to sentences which was listed on vocabulary list. Then I plan to ask them read a short article every week to have them expose to high-frequency words by extensive reading.

Grammar Teaching－Practice or Consciousness-Raising?

The definition of practice: the practice stage consists of series exercises…whose aim is to absorb the structure thoroughly. Practice activities include mechanical practice, contextualized practice and communicative practice. Practice has the following characters:
1. There is some attempt to isolate a specific grammar for focused attention.
2. The learners are required to produce sentences containing the target features.
3. The learners will be provided with opportunities for repetition the target features.
4. There is an expectancy that learners will perform the grammatical feature correctly. Therefore, activities are “success oriented.”
5. The learners receive feedback on whether their performance of grammatical structure is correct or not. This feedback may be immediate or delayed.
The definition of consciousness-raising: it involves an attempt to equip the learner with understanding of a specific grammar-to develop a declarative rather than procedural knowledge of it. The main characters are following:
1. There is an attempt to isolate a specific grammar for focused attention.
2. The learners are provided with data which illustrate the target and they may also be supplied with an explicit rule describing or explaining the feature.
3. The learners are expected to utilize intellectual effort to understand the target feature.
4. Misunderstanding and incomplete understanding of the grammatical structure by the learners leads to clarification in the form of further data and description or explanation.
5. Learners may be required to articulate the rule describing the grammatical structure.
The main difference between practice and consciousness-raising is that consciousness-raising doesn’t involve the learner in repeated production. This is because the aim of consciousness-raising is not to enable the learner to perform a structure correctly but simply to help him to know about it. However, the two types of grammar works can involve a combination of practice and consciousness-raising. Many methodologists recommend practice work be preceded by a presentation stage. This presentation stage may involve an inductive or deductive treatment of the structure. Also practice work can be rounded off with a formal explanation of the structure.
Dose practice works?
Practice does not result in the autonomous ability to use the structure. In other words, practicing a grammatical structure under controlled conditions doesn’t seem to enable the leaner to use structure freely. Practice will often not lead to immediate procedural knowledge of grammatical rules.
The case of consciousness-raising
The goal of practice activities is to develop automatical control of grammatical structures that will enable learners to use them productively and spontaneously. Practice is directed at the acquisition of implicit knowledge of a grammatical structure. Consciousness-raising is directed at the formation of explicit knowledge the construction of explicit may help the learner perform perfectly in some tests but it is not much useful when it comes to communicating. Although consciousness-raising doesn’t contribute to implicit knowledge, it facilitates the acquisition of grammatical knowledge needed for communication. Consciousness-raising is unlikely to result in immediate acquisition but have a delayed effect. There are limitations to consciousness-raising. It may not be appropriate for young learners or beginners. It can only be used with beginners if the learners’ first language is used as the medium to solve tasks.

Reference
Ellis, R. Grammar Teaching－Practice or Consciousness-Raising? In Richards, J. C. and Renandya, W. A. (Eds)Methodology in Language Teaching(pp. 167-174) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Seven Bad Reasons for Teaching Grammar－and Two Good Ones

By Michael Swan
Summary
Grammar is important but most of the time people probably teach too much of it. Swan thinks we can identify at least seven reasons for this.
Seven bad reasons
1. Because it's there
Teachers think because it’s there so it has to be taught. But the grammar points in the course book may not all be equally important for particular students because the book may have been designed for students with different purposes and in different environments. A famous experiment shows that nonnative teachers for English often regard grammar errors as more serious problems which often trouble native non-teachers.
2. It's tidy
Grammar looks tidy and is relatively teachable. Grammar can be presented as a limited series of tidy things which students can learn, apply in exercises, and tick off one by one. Learning grammar is a lot simpler than learning a language.
3. It's testable
It’s hard to value your own progress in a foreign language and a good test can tell you how you are doing. On the other hand, grammar tests are relatively simple so grammar is often used as a test and because of washback effect of testing, this adds to pressure to teach it.
4. Grammar as a security blanket
In the convoluted landscape of a foreign language, grammar rules gave students the feeling they can understand and control what’s going on. However, the security blanket aspect can lead students and teachers to concentrate on grammar to the detriment of other aspect of the language.
5. It made me who I am
If you have struggled to learn something, you feel it must be important. Many foreign language teachers spent a good deal of time when younger learning about grammar. They feel these things matter a good deal. In this way, the tendency of an earlier generation to overvalue grammar can be perpetuated.
6. You have to teach the whole lesson
People often think all of grammar should be learnt if it is to work properly, but it is more realistic to regard grammar as an accumulation of different elements. We should teach selected subsystems, asking for each: 1. How much of this should students know already from their native language? 2. How much of the rest is important? 3. How much of that have we got time for? To try to teach the whole system is to ignore these three questions.
7. Power
Some teachers enjoy the power. A teacher nay have a worse accent, less vocabulary and fewer idioms than some of his students but there is always grammar to fall back on. Some teachers feel they win by knowing complicated rules of grammar and terminology.
Two good reasons
1. Comprehensibility
Knowing how to build and use certain structures makes it possible to communicate common types of meaning successfully.
2. Acceptability
In some social context, serious deviance from native-speaker norms can hinder integration and excite prejudice. A person who speaks badly may be considered uneducated and stupid. Students may thus want or need a higher level of grammatical correctness.

Reference
Swan, M. (2001). Seven bad reasons for teaching grammar - and two good ones. In Richards, J. C. and Renandya, W. A. (Eds)Methodology in Language Teaching(pp. 148-152) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Microteaching reflection

Before I designed my lesson plan, I had suffered torments about what to teach and how to teach. It was really a big deal for me to select teaching materials. At first, I would like to use a part of materials form my tutoring student’s textbook but the biggest difficulty is how to teach students these traditional materials adapted from formal textbook for junior high school students in a new way different from grammar translation. I had thought about it for several days and I decided once to use the textbook for children rather for junior high school students. At last moment, I changed my mind to set my target students as ninth grade students because my tutoring students are in ninth grade. I couldn’t avoid facing the problem that how to teach in a new way instead of grammar translation so I chose this. After I decided what to teach, I encountered another difficulty that how to teach. Finally, I chose not to follow how I usually teach (vocabulary listàgrammaràreading text) but to teach reading first and then vocabulary and grammar.
As I expected, students kept silent most of the time. Although I knew there must be such situation in advance, I still expected there were some volunteers. I was a little bit disappointed because there was no volunteer. If I am the teacher in the future, I will look forward to some volunteers. Peers all gave me some positive opinions and also advices. I apologize for that I didn’t demonstrate and instruct the game well and it made some students confused. I think a part of the reason is time is insufficient so I was afraid I would run out of the time. What’s more, I didn’t show who my target students are in the beginning. Actually my target students are ninth grade students in junior high.
Response to teacher’s questions
1. What level? Ninth grade students in junior high
2. Why read conversation silently instead of reading aloud?
I have thought about that let students listen to the recording when I designed my lesson plan; however, I thought my target is reading rather than listening so I let them read silently. On the other hand, I was afraid the recording or reading aloud would make them distracted.
Methods, approaches and techniques
In my microteaching, I have used “natural approach”, “meaningful learning of cognitive principle”, “risk taking of affective principle”, “communicative competence of linguistic principle” “responsive, selective and extensive way”. In the part of teaching vocabulary, I adopted some techniques such as objects, collocations, analyzing vocabulary, repetition of read; what’s more, I helped them to learn in context and develop the strategy to guess. In grammar teaching, I have used deductive way, meaningful drill, charts, objects, dialogues to check comprehension and definition clues in text to provide clues. In the grammar game, I used substitution drill and moving slot substitution drill. Overall, I taught in a teacher-centered way and used many controlled techniques when I taught grammar or vocabulary.
Changes I will make
1. Ask two students to read the conversation out loud for the class.
2. Highlight target vocabulary in the text.
3. Demonstrate rules of the game more clearly after instruction.
4. Teach grammar in inductive way.
5. If time was sufficient, I would like to go back to the conversation to teach in a free way. Let students share their traveling experiences and talk about how will they do next time when they are packaging.
6. In the beginning, show who my target students are.
7. Pay attention to my diction (simple words) for that some students couldn’t understand what I am talking about.

what have I learned
I think it was a progress fro me to teach those materials in a new way instead of grammar translation. The experience gave me lots of confidence to try something new and reminded me there’s not only one way I can do in my teaching in the future. Maybe the microteaching was not so perfect, making some mistakes, but it was just a start to realize what I should do in the future. I know there's still great room for improvement. Thanks for everyone's opinions and advices, I learned a lot from it, especially teacher's advices.

Form-focused instruction

Grammar
I am used to teach my students by grammar translation because I was taught in this way and even in these days, students accept this way more. They don’t think they understand it clearly without grammar translation. Whenever my student is confused about a sentence, he must ask me to translate it completely. When I teach a student grammar, I would explain its rules, reading some examples first and then have him do some exercises. However, according to Teaching by Principles, it is much more appropriate to teach it inductively. What’s more, it’s helpful to use charts, objects, maps& drawings, dialogues and so on.
Yesterday, I taught my student possessive pronouns inductively, making her find rules herself at first and then gave her complete rules. So far, I couldn’t learn whether it will make her remember the grammar easier or not but I think it is easier to understand and remember grammars instead of learning by being given rules deductively. Because of my learning experiences, I have used charts, especially some confusing tense such as perfect tense or past perfect tense. It does help students understand what you talk about. I will try to make good use of other ways such as objects or maps to teach in my later teaching.

Vocabulary
As the way of teaching grammar, I get used to teach my students in the traditional way. I usually start a lesson with the vocabulary list. After explaining words, I will teach with sentences and collocation because I think it’s useful for their reading and writing. You can know hoe to use the word in sentences instead of cramming. Frankly, I have never though about maybe it’s inappropriate to start with a long and boring list because it is what I was taught. I though it was normal in the past but I realized what I thought was wrong now. The best way to learn vocabulary is from context. But it may be a little difficult to teach a lesson by starting with a reading text because students would think there are too many unknown words and it’s torturous to guess so many words. I will try to start with a reading text and then teach vocabulary and grammar but before they get much used to guess meanings, I may still start with a vocabulary list, building their essential vocabulary for the context.

Resent tutoring experiences

Speaking

Recently, I've started to add some speaking activities to the tutoring period. At first, my tutoring students would be afraid of speaking and get nervous; however after several times of interactions, they are gradually getting used to it and did much better. In past days, I used to
correct students most kinds of errors, but now I try not to correct local erros in order to build their confidence and get more fluency. I choosed the speaking subjects which depends on texts in their textbooks which I have just taught for fear that they couldn't think of any words or sentences to respond. What's more, they can use some words or sentences from what they have learned and practice them. Take one of my experiences for example, once, after I finished the lesson about travel, I asked my student "Have you ever been to any interesting tourist sites in Taiwan or abroad?" and then he shared his touring experiences with me. In the begining, he just responded my questions with short answers, but several times later I would asked him to give me a more complete sentence. During the conversation, I did almost no correction but just told him some words he pronounced wrongly. However, I think he becomes more confodent in speaking English. And when he got tired from the lesson, it was also a good way to get fun and relaxation.


Children in the private school

As I have said, some of them are noisy and even couldn't concentrate on the class over 10 minutes a time. Several weeks ago I have started to have one student lead others to read phonics orally by turns every class and they become more obedient during the process. I think one reason is they are not familiar with the paltporm and feel a kinda shy, they would like to behave well at that time. At the same time, I request another student to record who do well or not on the blackboard when they read phonics orally. In the end of the class, we will choose one who behave best and he can decide one who behave worst to do accomplish one thing before class dismissal. This is somewhat effective in class management, although sometimes it does just work in fist half of the class.

Speaking, Reading and Writing

Speaking
From the theory of the traffic light, I learn it’s not proper to correct students’ speaking errors whenever they make mistakes because it may reduce their confidence and make them afraid of speaking. If I were a teacher for beginners and intermediates, I would correct my students in logical errors which would confuse or mislead people instead of correcting their local errors which are small errors and couldn’t confuse people. In case I am going to do so, I will say “Maybe it’s better to say this…..this way.” or “ It’s not quite proper to say......” What’s more, I can also correct those errors by writing down on the blackboard in the end of the class rather than correct students immediately and interrupt their speeches. Nevertheless, it depends on what students’ personalities are. If he is outgoing, bold and not afraid of disgrace, I will correct him immediately. Therefore, I had better have good knowledge of students’ personalities. On the other hand, for advanced learners, I think it is appropriate to correct their diction and grammar and so on for great promotion.
Reading
I am going to teach my students strategies about reading. If they are 8-12 years old, I prefer to have them read orally because it helps them concentrate more on the class and I can also check their pronunciation. For junior high students, I will ask him to read silently because reading orally would easily disturb their attention as well as comprehension. What’s more, it takes much more time. Some skills I will teach are as following:
1. Skim the text for main ideas. They can get the main idea quicker.
2. Scan the text for specific information. If they are doing reading texts, I will ask them to read questions first and then get back to the text to read quickly and find answers.
3. Guess when you aren’t certain. It is better to guess the meaning when you encounter vocabularies or messages you don’t know. You can guess meaning according to front and rear text or other clues in the text. You shouldn’t perplex and trouble yourself with those uncertain vocabularies during reading. It takes you much more time to something unworthy. It would be a torture to skip or guess meaning at first but after you cultivate the habit, you would make unexpected progress in your reading. Because I had been also this kind of student who feel unbearable to guess or skip vocabularies I don’t know.
4. Analyze vocabulary. Look for prefixes, suffixes and roots to analyze words.
5. Distinguish between literal and implied meaning. Implied meaning is often derived from pragmatic meaning and thus they should have good knowledge of the context. It means they must get the general idea about the text.
6. Discourse markers. From those markers sometimes you can find out relationships between causes and effects or other related context.
Besides those reading strategies, I think the best way to promote their reading abilities is to read as many as possible by using those strategies. Therefore, I am going to ask my student to do more reading no matter in outside reading or reading test exercises. If it's outside reading I would give them some schemata to have ideas about the text.
Writing
If I have chance to teach writing, I wouldn’t correct students all kinds of errors they make especially in first draft. First, I will check whether the student express his idea clearly. As correcting speaking, I will correct some errors which confuse and mislead people and then give him some ideas about presentation that how he can present ideas or make details more convincing and also correct vague words. I will correct errors by underline those errors to remind them instead of correcting directly and giving answers. What’s more, I would like to give some feedback about the context and share some related experiences with him.

Teaching Listening &Speaking

From 16 chapter, I learn a lot pf ways of teaching listening which I had not known or thought about before. Colloquial language is really an emphasis I should work hard to improve. Intensive is a good way to enhance students’ components but it also much easily to bore them I think. Responsive way could be used to check students’ comprehension, increase the interaction in class and make them have more chances to speak. It’s a nice approach I will take to tutor my student. I can also select some materials related to students’ interests and backgrounds to elicit their motivation in learning. Activity is really an interesting and effective way for teaching if we work it out appropriately. I learn from the content not only approaches but also these names of approaches. Three types of activities give me much inspiration. Though it is troublesome to use some teaching materials in the cram school, I’ll try to do this way. Actually, I have taught those kids with bottom-up exercises for discriminating between phonemes; however I seem to spend too long time processing the activity. It has always taken me 20 minutes to finish it. I will try to shorten the time next time. The context mentions that the imitative way is suitable for a very limited speaking time. Although I often use it before class dismissal, I also use it repeatedly to make them be ordered when those children are noisy. It seems a not bad way but I spend too much time on it in the class and thus it reduces some chances of other learning ways for them to learn.

Little kids are a big tragedy for me

This week, from the text book, I figure out why those imps are always able to make me mad. The most serious problem is they lack intrinsic motivation so that they don’t care about grades, study and participation in the class. Except these imps, there are still some kids who are meek, studying hard and participating in the class actively but they would be disturbed easily by those noisy children. I don’t like to take over a new class actually because it would take a long time for me to manage the order of the class. I have no perfect way to keep order so that I couldn’t proceed with the curriculum successfully sometimes. I have ever inquired one of the imps why she always runs around and play around in the class and she told me it’s so boring to sit in the chair and study English, even to writing the homework. It's not a simple task to change her because she is get used to paying little attention to the class before I took over the class. Moreover, their English abilities are totally diverse and some of them couldn’t even tell 26 letters correctly. It confuses me and I have no idea about teaching materials sometimes.
I am much gladder to tutor single student at one time because it seems easier for me than teaching a group of kids. At least I don’t have to “manage” them. My experiences to tutor junior high students are great presently because we can become mates and talk about something interesting happening at school. They are so different from elementary students that I can talk something meaningful to them rather than being busy keeping order. I like the job of tutoring students on the premise that they have intrinsic motivation so far.

Teaching Methods(week2)

If I am the teacher who are going to choose which method she will use in Englisg teaching, I woud like to use mixed way of grammar translation, audiolingual , natural approach, CLT and so on, depending on the situation. Taiwaness students are accustomed to traditional way of teaching, and so far as the learning situation was concerned, it's hard to change the way of learning and teaching. Sometimes for The Basic Competence Test For Junior High School Students , I have no choice but to use grammar translation. It's really not an easy task to transfer the condition. What I can do may be to follow the former's steps. Although to continue a criticized way variablely as we have known is bad, it is difficult to vary the established way of learning. I could not forcast the result of using a in way of English teaching around all the world except Asia so I may be lacking the courage to enforce it sometimes. Teaching does need practicing and experiences, through these you can do better effectively. I am still doing trial and error in teaching eight to twelve children so far. Somewhile I thought I got the right way to teach and manage; however, next time it did'nt work. Teaching is not as easy as many people think and being a good teacher is therefore challenging.

self-introduction

Hello,I'm Amanda. It's not the first time I use a web log but it's the first time I use the English blog. It's kind of interesting and convenient to hand in homework by my own blog. It will be also a way to improve my English ability and force me to keep writing in English. I hope I can form a habit to keep writing in English from now on. Oh, I seem to stray from the main topic about self-introduction. Then let's come back to it. As I said in the first class, why I want to take this course is because I would like to be a teacher; what's more, from my tutor experiences, I found out it's not as easy as I thought to teach student English. Sometimes I felt frustrated about that. I tutor junior high students in English and as a tutor in a cram school so far. The most difficult task for me is to teach those 8 to 12 years old children in the cram school. I have even thought they are devils sometimes when some of them are out of control. It is really annoying to manage those kids who are running and clamouring in class. It's a tough task to teach chidren who are not obedient to your orders. It made me feel maybe I am not a competent teacher in teaching English. I think it can be a good experience to be a tutor; however, it can also ruin one's confidence in teaching. I really want to be a teacher if I can in the future so I try to discover and learn the more suitable way in teaching from my experiences. I also want to become the competent teacher who has good influence on my students. That's why I take this course.
In my English learning experience, I had never thought I would major in English someday; however, I have always wanted to be a good teacher. Before I came back from America this summer, I thought English is just a kind communicate tool for me, but now I have developed interest in English since I went to America for traveling. It is not just an tool for me anymore. I have more powerful motive and interest to teach English. I am glad to find the exect goal to achieve, even though I have been still confused and struggled in preparing a graduate school or not.
what I would like to get from this course at first are skills and the correct way for teaching. On the other hand, I want to know whether I am fit to be a teacher or not from this course. Nevertheless, after the teacher's explanation, I understand there's no correct way for teaching but many kinds of way. From other classmates' experiences, it seems not my own difficulty to be frustrated for teaching little children. I hope to learn more about how to teach and develope more confidence from this course.