BUILDING BLOGS AS LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

The use of literature in the EFL classroom through three different perspectives. Exploring poetry as a strong option..

Most of the time literature is mainly related to reading and writing, but it may play the same meaningful role in teaching speaking and listening if we design creative activities. Teachers can use literature in the classroom for different purposes such as reading aloud and dramatizing a poem, teaching pronunciation, and many other activities.

There are many advantages of using literature in the EFL classroom. To talk about the general advantages of literature can be a broad approach thus; we will not focus on them. Instead, we will have a look at the benefits from three different perspectives: literature as genuine and authentic material, as a good language source and as a bridge to get the learner interested and also, we will mention poetry as a strong option to develop students’ skills.

MATERIAL

Literature is authentic material that makes students travel to foreign countries and fantastic worlds. This keeps our students motivated and promotes favorable attitude toward learning.

Poems, novels, and stories can bring powerful emotional responses to the classroom. Furthermore, students can relate their own real lives to the stories they read.

Literary texts help EFL students to improve language learning. However, literature by itself is not enough; teachers need to use imaginative techniques for integrating literature work with language teaching. It is also necessary to bring motivating methodology and to choose the right material to keep students interested.

LANGUAGE

Language is the most prominent feature of literature. Through literature students learn about syntax and discourse, different structures, functions, and the different ways of connecting ideas, all these help students to develop their writing, listening, reading and speaking skills.

As they use literature they learn about language structure without even noticing, this helps to develop their communicative competence, what as we know, is the ultimate aim of English learning.

LEARNER

In the classroom the use of literature encourages learners to get involved with the stories they read or hear; the understanding of the words becomes less important as they get involved in trying to figure out what is happening with a character or the end of a story. Students may also like using literature if the activities are oriented towards enjoyment and creativity instead of memorizing or following grammatical rules.

Literature can be seen as the bridge between the learner and the culture of the people whose language they are studying; in order to get the learners interested in the culture, we have to carefully select the literary texts according to their interests and level of comprehension.

WHY DO WE USE POETRY WITH THE LANGUAGE LEARNER?

Poetry is a short piece of imaginative writing, of a personal nature and laid out in lines. In this sense, poetry is a product of the language and a tool to teach it, a tool to teach grammatical clues and a product when students make a composition of any topic.

Playspent: A practical case in using web-based games in EFL

Playspent: A practical case in using web-based games in EFL

Introduction

Playspent is an action maze game where you take the role of an unemployed and single parent who has to make it through the month, solving real life-like problems as they come. Using this simulation game within a classroom context may provide for a powerful learning experience: through the simulation, students will be immersed in a context where they will interact with English in an ‘authentic’ way -i.e. students react to the input as they would do in real life. Besides, given the nature of the game, the activity may well be adapted to integrate both language and critical thinking skills.

Lesson plan

Here’s a sample lesson plan you can devise using Playspent as the core activity. We arranged it to be dealt within a framework of two 1h30m classes. The targeted group comprises adult students of English as a Foreign Language with an Intermediate level.

Of course, feel free to adapt and use it yourself -and to give us feedback on how it proved!

Outline of SESSION 1 (1:30 hours)

a) Video Activity

Click here to go to the video: http://youtu.be/dJIl1Zr9l7c

Use the contents of the video as a lead-in activity to foster debate.

b) Pre-Teach Vocabulary

Here is the link to the Quizlet Flascard Set.

c) Group or pair work.

Write in your own words self-explanatory and original sentences with the vocabulary in Quizlet. Each group has a set of different words.

d) Uncovering the Language of Advice

• Noticing Language: sentence correction betting game.
• Consolidating language: Write some advice for the situations given and report to the whole class.
• Using language: Write an E-Agony Aunt letter to the woman in the video.

Outline of SESSION 2 (1:30 hours)

a) Collaborative mind-map.

b) Play Game in Pairs

• Solve situations as they arise.

• Complete the game’s written requests
• Final Report

c) Final Tasks

Personal Finance 5 Best Practices. Write a blog post in groups.

Click here to view a document with complete teacher notes on how to handle the activity.

Game-Based Learning: a Rationale.

Why using web-based games in a language classroom? Among other reasons, Game-Based Learning (GBL) fosters:

• digital native students’ motivation. Learners prefer very fast information, parallel process, multi-task, graphics, random access, and network groups, expecting instant gratification or frequent rewards and even failure.
• genuine communication and collaborative group-work, in-class gaming in groups but also interactive games playing with people world-wide.
• authentic input – real language in a real life context. The world into the classroom and students can ‘respond’ in a personalised way.
• the union of significant content with play and learning English through any subject. It also improves their organization, leadership, reflection, spatial skills etc.
• different kinds of learning styles development- multimedia input merging visual, aural, kinaesthetic, etc.
• independent learning, using computers and the Internet gives students access to a wide range of resources: dictionaries, grammar, encyclopedias etc
• practice in all skills, in particular receptive ones, reading and listening, but also productive, writing and speaking, if wisely used in a task.

Resources & Bibliography

Interested in finding some more games or researching further on introducing 2.0 games in the classroom? Visit our resources collection on Diigo (last updated on 21st May, 2011)

Authors

Planas Pascual, Estel

Martin, Dalva Geovana

Iglesias Rodriguez, Alex

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

Do you look at your students? Do you call your students by their names?

Do you help all your students?

The questions in the subheading are some questions that we need to make ourselves in order to have a good class management.

As teachers, we need to take into account several points that are so important in the classroom, such as eye contact, use of students’  names, T’s positions and movement,  seating arrangement, teaching aids, grouping, rapport, pace, timing, teacher´s voice, instructions, error and correction, attention spread, interaction, TTT and STT.

Eye contact is the way that teacher used to look at the students to ask different things, for example with just a look, a teacher can tell a student to be quiet, to answer a question, to group in pairs or groups or it can make students feel confident, because as we know in an oral communication we look at each other to see the expressions and also to see if the other person is paying attention.

The use of students’ names is also important, as teachers, we must learn by heart our students` names, it is true that we have many students, but it is necessary to do it, because when we want a student participate, we must not say  you or the one in pink, with the reason that we are human beings and nobody likes to be treated as an object and the correct use of students` names gives students a value and they feel good when teacher knows their names. as we said it is not easy to learn all the names, but there are things that can help us to do it, for instance if we can ask students’ participation we can look at the list of attendance or we can draw a map of the classroom and the way students sit down and of course with their names and also we can write some characteristics of them to remember easily. So every time we do not remember a name, we can check our map to see the name of the students and call him/her correctly.

Here is another link with tips for learning students’ names:

http://tep.uoregon.edu/workshops/teachertraining/beginnings/onlinebeginnings/learnnames.html

Teachers’ positions and movements are the different places that teacher is when he/she is in the classroom, many teachers prefer to be in the front of the classroom when they are explaining, because this lets to see all  the students and in certain way gives authority, which is good, but the problem is when the teacher maintains the same position in all the class, when it is a good idea to monitor students when they are working in a task in order to check if they are working correctly, to help them or to solve any questions that they could have with the task.

Seating arrangement is the way students sit down in the classroom, the most common way is in rows, but the best way is the horse shoe form, because it lets teacher to be in the middle of the students and around them, which is good to control the class.

The following link explores the pros and cons to a number of different classroom seating patterns:    http://www.teachingexpertise.com/articles/classroom-seating-patterns-223

Teaching aids as its name says teaching aids are all the things that help us in the classroom for example a CD player, handouts, worksheets, board, OHP, books, posters, realia, wordcards, wallcharts, flashcards, cards, among others to make a class more attractive with the aim that students learn.

Grouping is the way that teachers group students to do a task. It can be in pairs, trios, groups, the whole class and individually and it lets students to interact each other like in real life with one single purpose and when it is individually it lets students work more autonomously.

Rapport is the atmosphere that there is in the classroom, it can be excellent, very good, good, regular, bad or very bad. When the rapport is excellent, in other words friendly, students are not afraid of the teacher and they can learn better, but when the rapport is unfriendly, students feel stressed and they do not learn, because there is a barrier.

Timing is the time for each activity, for instance, when a teacher asks students to write two simple questions and he/she gives 10 minutes to do it, the pace is lose and when a teacher gives a complicated task and students have to finish it in 5 minutes, the pace is tight. For that it is important to know when an activity takes much time and when an activity is easy for our students.

Pace is the time between activities, sometimes this is fast, adaptable or slow. When it is fast, this means  that it was important to give more time to finish an activity and when it is slow, it is the opposite.

In teacher´s voice, we have to considerate three things; clarity, volume and speed. These things are important, with the reason that the teacher is also input material. Our voice needs to be clear, our volume normal and our speed too, so that our students can understand us.

When teachers  give instructions, they need to know that the instructions need to be adequate, clear and also teachers need to use other things to leave clear what students are supposed to do, such as modelling or demonstrating, because if students do not understand, they are not going to achieve the goal of the task.

Error and correction,  before correcting our students, we need to analise if the error interferes with the communication. The correction is important, if not the correction is not necessary. When we correct our students, we need to be aware that some students do not like when teacher corrects them, and this can make our students feel afraid and for the next time, they will not participate again, because other students can laugh at them. For that, it is good idea to take notes of our students’ mistakes and after the activity to write them on the board without saying who made them and ask students to identify where the mistake is and the teacher needs to give feedback.

Attention spread as its name suggests it is the attention that as teachers we give to our students. It can be individual, whole class or only one part of the class, and we need to be careful, because if we just help one student, the others will feel excluded from the class.

Interaction, regarding classroom management and drawing our attention to the Students´ interaction there are five types according to what Adrian Puff  (1991) states T-C, T-S, S-T, S-S and S-S S-S.

TTT and STT (teacher time talking and student time talking) as their name say it is the amount of time that teachers or students spend in the class talking. Sometimes as teachers, we spend all the class talking and we do not give our students the chance to talk and practice the language, For that, it is important to be aware of our TTT and let students talk, because maybe the classroom is the only place where they can use the language.
Here are several ideas from teachers with students of different ages for effective classroom management:
http://www.pacificnet.net/~mandel/ClassroomManagement.html

This link shows tips and advice for classroom discipline:
http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/links/toolbox/discipline.html

Here we have some videos regarding how teachers manage their classes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XroJtR9gQc8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhTRlj06j-Q&feature=related

References:DOFF, A. (1991). Teach English. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.

WINGATE, J. (1997). 10 Ways to build rapport with your students in English Teaching Professional, Issue Four July 1997.

McCAMLEY, Margot. Classroom management: classroom discipline. 2006. Web Link: http://www.onestopenglish.com/section.asp?catid=59438&docid=146446
[Read: August 27, 2010 GMT-5].

AUTHORS: (Group 10)
Vanina Herrera Allard
Damian Martinez Villatoro
Hayarin Dominguez Hernández
Carlos Hernandez Escobar

Improving reading skills in a Second Language Classroom

Questions-and-Answers Techniques to improve reading skills in a second language classroom.

Most of the traditional language textbooks follow the same structure for a reading activity. First, students are presented with a text. Second, they read it slowly and carefully, and finally they answer questions to test their comprehension of the text. These questions are sometimes less than satisfactory. Sometimes they can be answered without reading the text and the number of questions may not be enough for the activity and finally the multiple-choice format presented in almost all textbooks.
Five types of reading questions. Teachers should modify, when appropriate the questions coming with a reading activity and develop their own questions, especially for authentic materials since these seldom include questions prepared for them. According to Nuttall there are five major types or reading comprehension questions.
1- Literal
2- Reorganization
3- Inference
4- Personal
5- General
The following is an example of comprehension questions that have been developed according to this classification.
An elephant tale
Mrs. Betty Jones was fixing dinner. She opened a tin of lima beans and found an elephant in it. “I didn’t see him at first,” she said later. “I just opened the tin and dumped the lime beans into a pan. Later, when I was stirring them. I saw this little animal. He was splashing about and squirting water from his trunk. I suppose he liked the warm water after being stuffed in that can.” Mrs. Jones was a good person. She felt concerned about the elephant’s comfort. She took him out of the pan and let him play in the bathtub.
The first type of questions relates to literal comprehension. The answers to these questions are directly available in the text, and often they can be answered in the words of the text itself. What did Mrs. Betty Jones find in the can of lima beans? She found an elephant.
The second type of questions involves reorganization or re-interpretation. These questions require the students to obtain literal information from various parts of the text. That is students must consider the text as a whole and re-interpret the information they have obtained. How did Mrs. Betty Jones feel about the little elephant? She was surprised to find an elephant in the pan with the lima beans. But she was a very nice lady she took care of him.
The third category are questions of inference. These are questions that oblige the students to “read between the lines”, and they are more difficult because they require the students to consider what is implied but not explicitly stated. How did the elephant get into the can of lima beans? One student suggested this answer. He was eating lima beans on a farm and a farmer put him in a basket full of lima beans.
The next type of questions requires a personal response. That is, the students record their own reactions to the context of the text. What would you do if you found a little animal in a can of vegetables? One student answered: I would return the can to the store and ask for my money back.
Finally there are questions that refer to the general content of the text. Have you ever found anything unusual in a can, box, a bottle, or a package? One student answered: I found an earring in a bowl of soup. By developing several types of questions, teachers will encourage the learners not only to understand the meaning of the text, but also to draw inferences and to communicate their own ideas.

By César Rujano and Wilmer Guerrero

References:
 Nutnall, C. 1982. Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language. London: Heinemann Educational Books.
 Williams, E, 1984. Reading in the Language Classroom. London: Macmillan.