Saturday 31 December 2016

CELTA Written Assignment: Focus on the Learner

Learner profile

Małgosia is a middle-age student at Pre-Intermediate level. She works as a shop assistant in a supermarket.  Due to the fact that she works with people, she likes to spend her free time on her own. She loves travelling, skiing and swimming.
Małgosia started studying English a year ago. First, she attended a summer school and later she signed up for an English course in one of the language centres in Krakow. During the course the teacher puts a lot of emphasis on communicative activities and getting students to talk. At school, Małgosia only studied French but she cannot speak it anymore.
Małgosia learns English for herself and is very extrinsically motivated. She hopes that a good knowledge of English could help her find a better job. Her husband can speak English and he encourages her a lot to study it. What is more, Małgosia is aware of the fact that English is used as a lingua franca and if you want to communicate while travelling abroad it is essential that you can speak it.
In class, Małgosia is quite an active participant. She likes working in pairs and groups  because she can listen to other students. She loves listening to English audiobooks and songs. Małgosia admits that sometimes charts and timelines help her learn or understand, but she prefers to listen. Therefore, she is an auditory learner with a small inclination towards visual learner.

Learner needs

Skill (Speaking)

Even though during the interview Małgosia stated that the skill she would like to improve is listening, the skill she really needs to focus on and causes her lots of difficulties is speaking. Małgosia is very self-conscious while speaking, by practising it she will gain more confidence and thus increase her fluency.

Grammar

Małgosia’s overall grammar comprehension is quite good. However, during the interview I noticed that she particularly struggles with verb patterns, for example:
1.        I’d like change my work. (instead of “I’d like to change my job.”)
2.       I like see it. (instead of “I like seeing it.”)
3.       I like work in pairs. (instead of “I working in pairs it.”)
These errors are typical of EFL students  as the correct choice between an infinitive or –ing form of the verb and the rules that guide speakers may seem arbitrary to learners (Parrott, 2000, p. 170).
This type of mistakes does not often lead to serious misunderstandings but if Małgosia wants to continue progressing in English and work on her accuracy, she should be aware of it.

Pronunciation

Małgosia’s pronunciation is quite good and reflects how much input she gets from listening audiobooks and songs. However, she evidently struggles with pronouncing the th sound correctly.
1.       I work with people. (pronounced /wɪf/ instead of / wɪð/)
2.       I was in South America. (pronounced /saʊf/ instead of /saʊθ/)
3.       I think about my job. (pronounced /tɪŋk/ instead of /θɪŋk/)
According to Śpiewak and Gołębiowska (Polish speakers, 2001, p. 165) “/θ/ and /ð/ are regularly replaced by any of the following: /f/, /v/, /s/, /z/, /t/, /d/ or even /ts/, /dz/. Interdentals are a nightmare for elementary learners, and need a lot of practice.

Suggested activities

Skill (Speaking)

Małgosia’s speaking skills benefit from every communicative activity that she can do in the classroom. She is a very cautious and sequential learner and needs to know well the lexis, grammar or functional language that she is going to use in a speaking activity. Therefore, the task that I chose for her is a communicative activity Find someone who… from New English File Teacher’s book p. 228 (Appendix 1). In this task students have to mingle and ask each other questions to complete the survey. This task will definitely appeal to Małgosia, since she is an auditory learner and likes listening to other students. I would use this activity during freer practise after revising verbs followed by –ing form.

Grammar

To help Małgosia with verb patterns I would revise verbs followed by to infinitive or verb+ing with the whole group. I would start with a short guided discovery and follow it with an activity sheet from New English File Teacher’s book p. 181 (Appendix 2) for restricted practice. In this task, students have to complete the sentences with either to infinitive or verb+ing. Ideally, this task would be followed by the speaking activity for freer practise that I have mentioned above.

Rationale

In the interview Małgosia mentioned that she likes to have examples first and work out the rules by herself. Taking into consideration the fact that she is an inductive learner, I would provide her and her fellow colleagues with a guided discovery. The activity is supposed to draw Małgosia’s attention to the verb patterns. She is a little bit a routine learner and this type of activity could help her organise what she already knows without a need to take risks.

Pronunciation

I would give Małgosia and her fellow students an activity from Tree or three to practise the th sound (Appendix 3). First students have to look at a family tree and listen to some questions, answer them and then check with the recording. After that, students draw their own family trees and talk about them in pairs.

Rationale

This activity should appeal to Małgosia’s auditory intelligence as she enjoys listening a lot and she can copy the sound after hearing it. She will also have a chance to compare her pronunciation with other students during pair work. Also, talking about family is easy, it is something that all of the students have in common, so Małgosia will be able to focus on her pronunciation rather than looking for the “right” words.
994 words

Bibliography

Baker, A. (2006). Tree or three. Cambridge: CUP.
Parrott, M. (2000). Grammar for English Language Teachers. Cambridge: CUP.
Oxenden, C., & Latham-Koenig, Ch. (2012). New English File. Oxford: OUP.
Śpiewak, G., & Gołębiewska, L. (2001). Polish speakers. In M. Swan, & B. Smith, English Learner (pp. 162-178). Cambridge: CUP.

Appendix 1




Appendix 2


Appendix 3


Thursday 29 December 2016

Teaching Practice #4 - Complete lesson plan and materials

TEACHER: Paulina   
WEEK: 2
DAY: Wednesday
LENGTH: 45 min

LEVEL OF SS: Pre-Intermediate

DATE: 10/08/2016

TP# 4
TOPIC/THEME:
School facilities
LESSON FOCUS
Lexis
MAIN AIM:
By the end of the lesson students will have learned new lexis to talk about school facilities.

Subsidiary Aims:
Students will have also developed their reading skill for gist and practiced using IPA transcription to learn the pronunciation of the new words.
PERSONAL AIMS
  1. To improve my GI activity by using visuals.
  2. To use varied drills by using chunks/back chaining and phonetic transcription.
  3. To use as little TTT as possible.
CLASS PROFILE:
The class consists of 9 students, 3 men and 6 women, 6 Polish and 3 Ukrainians.
The strongest students are Grażyna and Denis and they like to contribute during OCFB, work in pairs or groups. Andrzej is the weakest student and prefers working directly with the teacher. He doesn’t like listening and pair work. Małgorzata and Grażyna work well together. Denis and Diana check their dictionaries a lot and Andrzej is quite intolerant of ambiguity, asking lots of questions.
The group as a whole is strong, interested in lessons and very co-operative.
ASSUMPTIONS:
Students will have a range of basic words to talk about schools and language schools.
Students will be interested in the idea of looking for an ideal language school as they can identify themselves with their roles in the role play.
       ANTICIPATED PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS FOR LESSON OVERALL:
                     e.g. issues with Classroom management

        ANTICIPATED PROBLEMS

              SOLUTIONS

Problem 1
Students may not have many ideas

Solution 1
Give time to think of ideas in pairs

Problem 2
The Freer Practice is complicated and involves changes in interaction.
Solution 2
Check the instructions by asking ICQs – who will you be talking to first (secretaries from language schools)

Problem 3
Andrzej may be very reluctant to do role play.

Solution 3
Make sure he understands all of the instructions. If there’s an impair number of students, find him a stronger partner and let him work in a three.
Problem 4
Students may use Polish instead of English

Solution 4
Remind students that the purpose of the speaking activities is to practice English, not Polish.
MATERIALS:
Handouts based on vocabulary ex. From Straightforward – Pre-Intermediate, ppt, WB, digital projector, WB pen
Stage Name

Interaction pattern

Time
Length of Stage
Procedure

Stage Aim/ Rationale

Engage
T-s-s-s
s-s
T-s-s-s
4 min
Set up: Tell students you’ve never studied English in a language school, but if you ever looked for one you’d … (DEMO!) Ask students to list 3 things that are important for them while choosing a language school.
Students do activity: students discuss in pairs or threes.
OCFB: MONITOR to gather some ideas.
to generate interest in the topic and context in a fun and a quick way
Contextualization
T-s-s-s
s-s
T-s-s-s
4 min
Set up: ORIENTATE student, tell them they’re going to read a description of a language school. They need to decide of it’s a modern or an old-fashioned school.
Students do activity: Students read the text for the gist
Pair check
OCFB: Ask students about the answer to the question.
To show usage in context and test the general meaning of the new lexis
Meaning clarification
T-s-s-s
s
s-s
T-s-s-s
5 min
Set up: Tell students that the text is full of new words. Ask them to guess from the  context what the new vocabulary items mean. DEMO!
Students do activity: Students match the words with their definitions.
Pair check
OCFB: Check students’ answers on the WB.
To illustrate the concept of new lexis
Meaning check
T-s-s-s
s
s-s
T-s-s-s
2 min
Set up: Tell students you want to make sure they understand the meaning of the new words.
Students do activity: Answer CCQs
No feedback
To check that learners understand the concept of the new lexis
Form clarification
T-s-s-s
s
s-s
T-s-s-s
5 min
Set up: Tell students that they need to match the new words with the correct part of speech, pronunciation and parts of synonyms. DEMO!
Students do activity: Students match words with their pronunciation, synonyms and parts of speech.
Pair check
OCFB: Display the answers on the WB
To clarify parts of the form of the new lexis
Pronunciation clarification
T-s-s-s
s-s-s
T-s-s-s
2 min
Set up: Ask students to look at the WB. Drill the words from the previous task using phonetic transcription
Students do activity: Students repeat after the teacher.
No feedback
To highlight the pronunciation of the new lexis, especially the “–ed adjectives”
Restricted practice I
T-s-s-s-s
s
s-s
T-s-s-s
4 min
Set up: Tell students that they need to complete the questions with new words from the text. Highlight that they’re going to use this questions in a role play – they have to write down their answers. DEMO!
Students do activity: Students complete the questions with a word from the box.
Pair check
OCFB: Display the answers on the WB
To provide initial accuracy-focused practise
Restricted practice II*
T-s-s-s-s
s
s-s
T-s-s-s
4 min
*OPTIONAL TASK IF TIME ALLOWS
Set up: Tell students they’re going to fill in the sentences with missing words. DEMO!
Students do activity: Students fill in the text with missing words.
Pair check
OCFB: Display the answers on the WB
To provide further accuracy-focused practise
Freer practice
T-s-s-s
s-s-s
T-s-s-s
12 min
Set up: Tell students they’re going to have a role play now. Tell students that some of them are going to be secretaries from language schools and some of them are going to be customers looking for a perfect language school. Those who look for schools should use the questions practised before to gather information. They can take notes. They should talk to secretaries from every school. Give students 1 minute to read their roles.
Students do activity: Students do the role play and try to find the best school for them.
OCFB: Check if students found right schools.
To provide communicative personalized practice of the target language
PACS
T-s-s-s
s-s
T-s-s-s
3 min
Set up: Write some errors you collected on board, ask pairs to correct them – set time limit - 1 min.
Pairs discuss possible ways to correct the errors seen on the board.
Feedback in open class: ask students where the errors are and elicit correct versions form the students,  change what is on the board.
To encourage learners to help students learn from their mistakes


LANGUAGE ANALYSIS:
 LEXIS   


PHONEMIC SCRIPT
&
WORD STRESS


DEFINITION


MEANS OF ILLUSTRATION 

CHECKING MEANING .
cafeteria (n. c.)
/ˌkæfɪˈtɪriə/
a lunchroom, as for employees or students
definition
Is it a place where you eat or work? (eat)
Is it open for everybody or just students? (just students)
experienced (adj.)
/ɪkˈspɪriənst/
wise or skillful in a particular field through experience
definition
An experienced teacher knows how to teach or doesn’t know how to teach? (knows how to teach)
Has an experienced teacher taught before or not? (yes)
fee (n. c.)
/fiː/
a sum charged or paid, as for professional services
definition
Is fee money that you pay for teaching  or receive from teaching? (pay for teaching)
flexible (adj.)
/ˈflɛksɪbəl/
that can be changed; adaptable
definition
If something is flexible can you change it? (yes)
library (n. c.)
/ˈlaɪbrərɪ/
a place, as a building or set of rooms, containing books, recordings, or other reading, viewing, or listening materials arranged and cataloged in a fixed way
definition
Can you buy a book in a library? (no)
Can you borrow a book from a library? (yes)
Can you make a lot of noise in a library? (no)
location (n. c.)
/ləʊˈkeɪʃən/
a place or situation occupied
definition
Does location refer to a place or a time? (a place)
Can you show location on a map? (yes)
qualified (adj.)
/ˈkwɒlɪˌfaɪd/
having the qualities, accomplishments, skills, knowledge, or credentials one needs for a job, function, position, office, or the like
definition
Is a qualified worker prepared for his job or no? (yes)
tuition (n. unc.)
/tʃuːˈɪʃən/
teaching, especially when given to a small group or one person, such as in a college or university
definition
Is tuition learning that you do on your own or with a teacher?







                          ANTICIPATED PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS

                    GRAMMAR      /      LEXIS     /      FUNCTIONAL LG    

            Meaning:

Problem 1

Cafeteria – possible L1 interference/false friend in Polish

Problem 2

Library as a place where you can borrow books but cannot buy



 

Solutions

Ask CCQs!

 

              Form

Problem 1

Tuition (uncountable noun) – possible L1 interference – prywatne lekcje (PL, countable).

Solution 1

Highlight that it’s an uncountable noun in English. Ask form checking questions is it a countable noun or uncountable noun?
            Pronunciation

Problem 1

experienced
qualified
Students may overgeneralise and pronounce the “-ed” ending  in both adjectives in the same way.

Problem 2

flexible
Students may mispronounce the “-ible” suffix by substituting  /ɪ/ with /i:/ sound/.

Problem 3

Library
Students may struggle to stress the new words properly. 

Solution to all problems

Highlight the pronunciation and stress pattern during the drilling activity.