http://livebinders.com/

Awesome website with a great variety of websites that you can organize in binders eletronically.

Here is the link to my binder with activities that focus on 3rd, 4th and 5th grades.

http://livebinders.com/edit?id=126346

“Hola Gilmara,
 
Congratulations to you.   I am pleased to inform you that you have been selected as one of five VIF International “Educator of the Year” recipients.  VIF has over 900 teachers in 6 states and you have been selected as one of the five winners.  
 
The selection committee highly regarded your presentation submission and strong letter of support and selected you because of your high levels of curriculum integration, student involvement, and high cultural contributions to your class, school and community.

Bob McCarthy”

http://www.vifprogram.com/about/about.pl?t=news-bezerra

http://img.en25.com/Web/VisitingInternationalFacultyProgram/PR_IEY2010_Bezerra.pdf

http://vifprogram.typepad.com/vif-program-blog/2010/04/congratulations-to-our-2010-international-educators-of-the-year.html

Teaching a foreign language involves several components such as grammatical and communicative skills, also language expertise and cultural proficiency. People may think that getting to know the culture involved in the target language is less important than learning words and how to put them together in a sentence, but the truth is that culture should not be let aside.

You may have communication problems sooner than you think if you do not consider this essential factor. As Byram says: “knowledge of the grammatical system of a language [grammatical skills] has to be complemented by the understanding of culture-specific meanings [communicative skills or rather cultural proficiency]” (Byram, Morgan et al. 1994: 4). An example of this is an English learner who does not quite catch what an English man says and therefore he/she says ‘What?’ The word expresses the question he/she wants to ask. However, it might be considered rude by the English man who would expect a different enquiry such as ‘I beg your pardon’ or ‘excuse me.’

The teacher’s challenge is to be able to provide their students with all that is to be learnt in a foreign language course regarding the language itself but also cultural factors that make students aware of the culture this language comes from. Not only do they have to distribute the time to be able to teach the contents and some culture but they also have to decide what cultural elements are relevant for their students.
The discussions and text book analysis shared by our classmates during the subject English in the Community gave us a broader view of how to better include cultural projects in our classes. During the study of the subject we learned about the variants of the English language and how to make better use of each aspect discussed when applying multicultural activities in the content, curriculum as well as knowledge of the material, design and adaptation of materials. This analysis enriched our knowledge as English Teachers making us more aware of what to choose for the preparation of our lessons looking forward to having a positive feedback from our students.
This subject, English in the Community, invited us to go through a comprehensive analysis on how multicultural activities can be applied, adapted and best taught in the different forms they appear in textbooks. Understanding how to deal with the lesson without stereotyping and knowing what to expect from the students and if the activity is appropriate to our teaching context is extremely important for the success of lessons. This subject has definitely enhanced our views on how to make a better use of the cultural components from our textbooks without skipping it for assuming it is challenging for the students or for the teachers themselves.
The goal of this assignment is to analyse the cultural content of three extracts from adult course books, drawing on insights we have derived from the study of this subject.
2. Extract 1a
This extract belongs to Unit 5 of what seems to be an advanced course book and it has four main sections. The first section (A) has three puzzles which are aimed at getting students familiarised with English in relation to other languages, for example borrowed words, words which have similar roots, etc.
The second section (B) is a pre-reading activity and a reading for gist activity which is designed to help students understand the meaning of something from a given context.

The third section is a more detailed reading activity which requires students to pay attention to detail and finally the fourth section is a follow-up activity where students are able to apply the cultural elements recently acquired in a freer context.

We will now take a close look at the cultural content. In order to do so, we will analyse the more interesting aspects regarding the cultural content exhibited in each part of this extract.
As we read this extract we noticed that the most important aspects here are related to the three different ‘raw categories’ distinguished by Clarke (1996:11) for discussing culture in terms of what is relevant to ELT. One of the categories he describes and that can be identified in this extract is connected to the development of “cross-cultural competence”.
The first two activities, 1A and B, make students aware of the fact that different languages share common roots by showing eight languages from which students can identify similar words in the different languages. The first three activities A, B and C were designed to help the learner to ‘realize’ the way they are connected to each other.

In accordance with Hofstede’s framework described in 1980, we can definitely recognize the aspects of individualism versus collectivism. In the reading skills activity letter B, we observe that the activity asks the learner to: ‘Read the whole text quickly and answer which nationalities have accepted the influence of English readily, and which have resisted it?’ By means of this, the activity mainly looks at identifying the relationship between the individual and the group to which he/she belongs without just ending up with a picture that resembles a stereotype since it is aimed at helping the learner be able to make inferences about why people can accept or resist the influence of a certain language inside a culture allowing room for deeper cultural awareness. Activities like this also helps to develop the values of tolerance and accepting who/what is different from his/her own culture achieving wider educational goals than those purely devoted to teaching a language in the EFL class, which was vastly discussed during the debate.

The inner, outer and expanding circles represented by the Indian linguist Braj Kachru can also be observed in extract 1a and we can compare ‘The English-Speaking World’ to the world categorized in the activities presented. The circles are characterized by showing how each one can contain the others and how closely related they are. For instance, we can see that the main goal of the activity makes the learner aware of the way the inner circle, where English is spoken as a first language, exists because of the relationship with the other two circles. This can be clearly seen by quoting activity C: ‘English has borrowed words from other languages. Below is a list of twenty of these words, which have become part of the English language by now.’

As a conclusion, we can say that the main aspects covered by this extract are mainly intended at raising awareness of the cultural component of language in the EFL classroom. Cultural awareness brings benefits either for the teachers, the learners and the society involved in this process in terms of the circulation of English in the world. Ascension in this awareness has been remarkable and shows the importance of the English language in the curriculum in schools all over the world.

As teachers in different countries and part of the globalised world we must show our students that learning a second language and its culture walk together and we should be prepared to teach both properly without making choice of which country or language is better than another.

3. Extract 1b

New facets of culture can be identified in the second part of the previous activity. In this extract we see the influence of English in the languages spoken in the rest of the world opposed to the influence that languages such as Spanish, Italian, Russian or German have had in English, including borrowed words such as those seen in letter C.

Code-switching can be identified at the beginning of the text: ‘(1) …der TV in West Germany and you might hear der talkmaster on eine talkshow.’ Code-switching is ‘a verbal strategy by which bilingual or bidialectal speakers changes linguistic code within the same speech as a sign of cultural solidarity or distance, and as an act of (cultural) identity” (Kramsch, 1998:125).

Particular attention is paid to the fact that “English is mixing and marrying other languages around the world”, hence Kachru’s circles now being used from the inner circle to the expanding circle. The influence has been so strong that it has led to many ‘English-based Creole languages’ such as those which are a mixture of English and French, defined as Franglais or English and Japanese defined in the text as Japlish. Another example closer to our reality is ‘Spanglish’, a mixture of Spanish and English and it is very common among students.

On the other hand, the examples provided in the extract are connected to the influence that the English language has had not because of land expansion, but due to the fact that there are many words that come from the English language and now belong to these countries mother tongues, as seen while reading the text in extract 1b.

The text in the extract was written in 1982, which proves the strength of the English language back then up to nowadays. New verbs and borrowed words are included mainly by young people who make more use of the English language and adapt them their vocabulary incorporating them in their everyday lives.
The awareness of cultural identity can be developed with the questions about the text For instance, the following sentences: ‘Governments in both Bonn and Paris have tried to eliminate English words – with mixed success’. Just as cultural identity is emphasised in the text, it also helps to develop the headings suggested by Adaskou et al in 1990.

The principles of respect, acceptance of differences and tolerance can be identified in both parts of this extract. For example, question 7: ‘Can you think of any words in your language which derive from English?’ or question 8: ‘Do you accept these or do you think that languages should be kept ‘pure’?’ include both aesthetic and sociological senses. These questions help students ‘to encourage the learners to compare their own and the foreign countries concerned or contacts with people from them’ (Adaskou et at 1990).
4. Extract 2
This extract, taken from a CAE course book by Leo Jones, gives a brief outline of the use of English round the world nowadays. It mentions a few random facts as well as some concrete information provided by UNESCO. We will now analyse the cultural contents in the given material by using some sub – headings from the Funiber printed material.
Sociological Sense
This extract shows us the use of culture in a sociological sense due to the fact that the final paragraph mentions a series of free – time activities, customs and social institutions where English is deeply involved. The aforementioned paragraph assures that English ‘is the main language of books, newspapers, airports and air traffic control, international business and academic conferences, science, technology, medicine, diplomacy, sports, international competitions, pos music and advertising.’ All of them sociological factors in culture.
Pragmatic Sense
This extract also illustrates that the culture content is pragmatic. It does make reference to facts such as the Indian sub – continent and China learning English for historical reasons. This data tells us that English is the language used when people who do not share their mother tongue want to communicate.
Language, Cultural Identity and Code-switching
There are examples in this extract that demonstrate the fact that English is the language of business and communication. According to this extract, ‘over two-thirds of the world’s scientists write in English’, ‘three-quarters of the world’s mail is written in English’ and ‘of all the world’s electronic retrieval systems, 80% is stored in English.’ When people from different nationalities negotiate, they usually do so in English whether they are native or non – native speakers of English because this language is now an accepted means for trading and for commerce round the globe. Code – switching can be associated to this cultural acceptance. For example, businessmen are able to switch to English in the middle of a conversation to discuss terms with their foreign counterparts.
Pragmatics and Cross-cultural Communication
The writer of this extract let us think that he is a great supporter of the use of English all over the world. We can realise that because of the way the essay is written and because of the questions posted in section B are open – ended and they invite readers to think and process the data given in the extract before answering. This reflection will potentially help readers to be aware of the fact that many people from many different cultures communicate by means of the English language and also that although people may have a good domain of the language, it does not mean that people have similar non – verbal codes, thoughts and feelings. Hopefully, after reading this extract our students would avoid making cultural fool of themselves.
Kachru’s Circles
This extract also makes reference to Kachru’s three circles as it is divided in the different parts of the world where English is spoken. For instance, the second paragraph talks about the about 300 million mother – tongue speakers of English. This would be the inner circle. Then, it mentions the additional 300 million speakers of English as a second language or the outer circle. Finally, the extract refers to the rest of the world which corresponds to the expanding circle, in other words, the further 100 million speakers that use English fluently as a foreign language.
Diglossia
Diglossia also appears in this extract. The second paragraph mentions the use of English in areas where more than one language is spoken. The example given in the extract is the case of the Indian sub – continent where the nature of the size of the country and the many languages and dialects together with the historical impact English has had on these places in every way has resulted in English being used along with the local languages. This case would be what Bloomfield (1993) describes as ‘native – like control of two or more languages.’
5. Extract 3
The cultural content presented in this extract requires students to draw their attention on their own personal experiences regarding body language in order to elicit the answers of the questionnaire. By means of this extract students will became aware of the differences and similarities between British and American culture as well as their own. They will also practise their listening skills by means of a short conversation between an American and a British talking about this topic.
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, body language is ‘the movements or positions of your body that show other people how you are feeling, even though you do not tell them in words’. This form of non – verbal communication consists of body pose, gestures, eye movements and facial expressions that usually occur unconsciously. As a consequence, we cannot prevent ourselves from communicating through body language nor make the others interpret what we really feel or think since people we interact with interpret our body language unconsciously as well. This unconscious feature of body language can derive in several misunderstandings due to the fact that every culture has different codes to interpret it. This is a sort of cross – cultural communication which of course can be misunderstood by members of different cultures if people is not aware of other people’s codes. This extract can serve the purpose of making students aware of body language in other English speaking countries. Hughes (1986) suggested several methods to raise student’s awareness of culture such as the comparison method, culture assimilators, culture capsule, drama etc. It is our belief that they can be applied to body language.
Activity number one exemplifies the culture assimilation suggestion since students have to answer close questions regarding different social situations and the students’ possible reactions. These questions involve body language and their own culture. After students provide answers to this questionnaire teachers would be in conditions to give feedback based on their own experience in the English speaking world and also to make suggestions to avoid possible cultural embarrassment or discomfort. The comparison method is also implicit in this first activity. Although students are not asked to compare nor is there any discussion about it, comparison will be a component of the activity for students will naturally and instantly notice the differences and similarities in culture as soon as the teacher shares his / her own experience.
Activity number three is a listening task. It is a conversation between an American and a British person. Students have to listen to this conversation and to identify the topics these people talk about. Probably the purpose of this activity is to make students aware of the fact that there are differences in culture and behaviour between English speaking countries such as the case between the United States of America and Britain. After this kind of activities students would keep that having the same language does not mean to have the same culture which is a common belief in Chile for instance. In addition to this, students will have the chance to compare the two speakers’ pronunciation and notice differences such as the /r/ which is mute in the United Kingdom and more marked in the United States.
Activity number four is a follow – up activity to the previous one. Nevertheless, we consider that it could be carried on as a culture capsule because students get to know the some of the main differences between the customs of both countries as well as the differences interpreting body language as those examples provided in the extract. In addition to that, teachers could eventually add a set of visuals to stimulate discussion among students.
The last activity aims at raising awareness of the similarities and differences between cultures. Although other activities in this extract might have done so too, such is the case of activity number one, here it is a more conscious process for the questions are quite explicit ‘Is the body language in your country like Britain or America? What are the differences?’ Students will answer both questions consciously which will help them to understand the codes of the different cultures and it will also help them be more tolerant of other cultures. This piece of information is essential for students for it will mean a significant contribution for them not to do anything rude to foreigners in their own countries or abroad if they happen to travel as well as it will help them not to suffer a tremendous culture shock whenever they visit other countries for misinterpreting facial expressions, gestures and all sorts of body language.
6. Conclusion

In the direction of concluding our analysis, we need to reaffirm and be conscious of our roles as English teachers. “Culture should be our message to students and language our medium” (Peck 1998). It is possible to accomplish this if cultural consciousness is viewed as something more than merely a topic of secondary importance within the foreign language curriculum.

Teaching cultural aspects will be of assistance for learners become more aware of the different kinds of peoples that live all over the world and make them better users of the foreign language.The teaching of culture will also make learners more conscious of appropriate or inappropriate behaviour, as well as offer them with the chance to act out being a member of the target culture.

7. Bibliography

• Adaskou, K.; Britten, D. & Fahsi, B. (1990): “Design decisions on the cultural content of a secondary English course for Morocco”. ELT Journal, 44/1, pp. 3- 10.
• Apletkin, C & Apletkin M. The question of culture: EFL teaching in non-English-speaking countries”, in ELT Journal 38/1, pp. 14-20 (1984).

• Bloomfield, L. (1933): Language. London: Allen Unwin. Byram, M. Cultural Studies in Foreign Language Education, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters (1989).

• Clarke, M. (1996): “English on the Rampage” in IATEFL Newsletter 132: 10-13.Geertz, C. The Interpretation of Culture, London: Fontana (1973).

• FUNIBER material

• Kachru, B. (1985): “Standards, codification and sociolinguistic realism: the English language in the outer circle.” In Quirk and Widdowson (eds. 1985), English in the World: Teaching and Learning the Language and Literatures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 11-30. Kramsch, C. Language and Culture, Oxford: Oxford University Press (1998).

• Valdés, J. M. (ed. 1986) Culture Bound, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (1986).

• http://www.selfgrowth.com/bodyl.html
• http://dictionary.cambridge.org/
• www.wikipedia.com

Gilmara Bezerra and Mary Barrera

Teachers are really concerned about teaching pronunciation because it is a topic of great interest to the teaching profession due to its importance to the performance of the teaching jobs. Some of us, teachers, are still unacquainted about some aspects of teaching this subject, but during the debate we could learn how our classmates are dealing with this issue and had the opportunity to share our thoughts in a fruitful discussion and a gigantic exchange of knowledge on how to best teach pronunciation to suit students’ needs taking into account what the scenario is and how that is supposed to be taught without being overwhelming.

ESL students, especially the ones that are new to the USA and have never attended EFL or ESL classes before, have the need to identify the articulation of individual sounds in order to succeed in the suprasegmental level so that when they are exposed to pronunciation patterns they will be able to adapt their pronunciation as they learn them gradually.

The problems that can be an impediment for competent communication during the transfer between Spanish and English vary from consonants with no sound transfer or no sound-symbol match such as /z/ to digraphs such as /ch/ in the word match that has a sound transfer but there is no sound-symbol match, just mentioning a few to illustrate how bewildering it can be for the Spanish speaking students learning English.

In this assignment, I am going to analyze pronunciation at the segmental level in two distinct problems, explain the causes o problems in phonetic or phonological terms and lastly suggest a solution taking into account the three “E” variables and Brinton’s five variables.

2. The importance of Bottom-up approach

I have students from at least 20 different countries, the biggest group being the Spanish speaking one with learners coming from Mexico, El Salvador, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Honduras and Cuba.

These learners come with a load of regional accents and their natural way of adapting the words to the way they think they are pronounced or due to having some knowledge of English. The bottom-down approach is essential for these students, so they have an additional small group class for phonics and broad phonemic transcription is worked with them without making them feel overwhelmed with symbols and charts that they will not need for being living in English speaking country.  The language transfer in this group varies according to their first language

Bottom-up strategies play an important role in teaching pronunciation and help my students produce language.

3. Problem 1

The first problem to be analyzed is going to be the consonant / j / in the graphemes j as in jacket, g as in cage and dge as in badge. Students find it difficult to say the word yellow or yes with the sound of /y/.

The same grapheme exists in both English and Spanish, but is has a different sound. Students say jes instead of yes. The sound of /y/ is read as /j/ by Spanish speakers.

 4. Problem 2

The second problem that I notice in my Spanish speaking students is how the short vowels transfers happen. The vowels /a/, /i/,/o/ and /u/ have approximate sounds but have no sound-symbol match. The short vowel /e/ is the only one that has a sound transfer and a sound-symbol match.

The short vowel /a/ as in cat and map the phoneme or grapheme does not exist in Spanish and the phoneme or sound is substituted when read in English.

The short vowels /e/ as in wet and /o/ as in cot have similar phonemes in both Spanish and English  and same grapheme in Spanish and English.

The short vowels /i/ as in lid and /u/ as in put have different phoneme in English, but the same grapheme in Spanish and English.

All these differences are accentuated by the fact that their Spanish comes from different countries or regions.

5. The three ‘E’ variables

5.1 Exposure

Exposure to the language is of vital importance for the students to be able to practice the words in the problems mentioned above. The students learn English at school immersed in the American language, but tend to speak their mother tongue with their families because most of the parents cannot speak English or prefer to use their first language at home to keep cultural ties.

While at school, these students will have the opportunity to compare their speaking to the way their American classmates speak or even choose the teacher as the model for how they would like to sound like. Not that these students will become native-live speakers, but they will have lots of opportunities to practice the target language and eventually pronounce /y/ as it should be and say yellow instead of jellow. 

Acquisition of new second language rules develops through participation in various types of discourse. But, are EFL learners able to acquire these rules when they don’t have enough exposition to an environment where they can practice their English and start to make their own rules for their language learning?  It seems that they will have to go a long way in order to reach this if they really struggle to conquer the native-like competence.

5.2 Exercise

Exercise is vastly offered to these learners in the ESL classes. The students have the chance to practice the target sounds in small groups without being put as a spot in the regular classroom. At my school, the ESL teacher has a great communication with the classroom teachers, which allows them to better help the non-native students. Students can also exercise the language by listening to CD’s and repeating sounds and sentences.

Teachers also use computers as an aid to make the students exercise the language and make them feel more comfortable with the new language and not be afraid of making a mistake.

If those students were attending a language course, I believe that exposure could happen by having a guest speaker come to class and allowing students to ask questions in interview like activities or even having a kind of party where the students would have the opening to practice the language. Watching movies and using songs in class would also be an alternative to allow exposure and exercise the language.

For an EFL student, when reaching conversation levels, language interference and code switching usually take place, because they rely on the fact that the other speaker knows his first language too and communication won’t be broken because of this.

5.3 Explanation

Even though exposure and exercise promote ways to achieve success in the target language, explanation is key for the comprehension and communication in the language and hence completes the set of the three variables.

 Explanation is necessary because students need to understand why there are certain rules and also have the opportunity to compare what they are learning to their first language.

6. Brinton’s five variables

6.1 The learners and setting variables

The group of students identified in topic number 2, are students in the third, fourth and fifth grades at an elementary school in North Carolina, USA. Their ages range from 8 to 11 years old and their proficiency level in the English language is at the entering and developing levels.

6.2 Institutional variables

These students attend regular mainstream classes in public American schools, but also have pull outs for ESL classes. The ESL classes happen in the same building and in the period that students attend classes, although there are tutoring classes in the afternoon for some students. The course book used for the ESL classes in called Avenues from the Hampton Brown publisher and comes with practice books for the students; phonics sets with transparencies, letter tiles and decodable books. The ESL classes also use the software Kidspiration to allow students more practice with writing and vocabulary. The curriculum focus on the four skills and all the classes are entirely in English. The course book provides a wide range of activities for students at all proficiency levels and perfectly fits mixed-abilities groups.

6.3 Linguistic and methodological variables

Linguistic variables have been previously discussed in the problems presented in topics 3 and 4 in this paper.

The communicative approach is in place as well a collaborative learning environment where all students can participate and have their opinions respect no matter where the student comes from.

6. Conclusion

Teaching pronunciation is a very important subject and teachers pay special attention to their lesson plans when this topic is going to be taught.

We are models for our students and have to provide them with all the information they need to succeed in the target language learning respecting their goals towards the language. Pronunciation has to be taught taking into consideration all the variables presented in this paper.

In this assignment I presented two very common problems that Spanish speaking students face when learning English. The problems presented here are more likely to happen at regular school than at language courses. However, in both situations teachers should he ready to help the students.

 
As a conclusion, we learned that there are many questions about the process of teaching pronunciation that still have not been answered and there is still a lot to be figured out about the best way to teach it.

7. Bibliography

Abercrombie, D. (1967): Elements of General Phonetics. Edinburgh University Press.

Avery, C. & Ehrlich, B. (1994): “Preliminary considerations in the teaching of pronunciation”. TESOL Quarterly Vol. 17, June 1994.

Barber, C. L. (1965): The Story of Language. London: Pan Books.

Barnes, M. (1988): “Does Intonation Matter?” in IATEFL SIG 17, January 1996.

.

Brazil, D. (1985): Handbook of Discourse Analysis. London: London Academic Press.

Brinton, D. (1995): “Speak Out” in IATEFL SIG 16, August 1995.

Brown, A. (1991): English Pronunciation. London: Routledge.

Brown, G. (1990): Listening to Spoken English. London: Longman.

Bryson, B. (1991): The Mother Tongue. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D. & Goodwin, J. (1996): Teaching Pronunciation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Prosodic Systems and Intonation in English. Cambridge Cambridge University Press.

Krashen, S. & Terrel, R. (1983): The Natural Approach – Language Acquisition in the Classroom. Oxford: Pergamon Institute.

http://bilinguistics.com/education/abad_0701/abad_0701.pdf

http://www.ldldproject.net/languages/spanish/written/phonics.html

To say that native-like competence is necessary we have
to see in which context the language is going to be
used. Somebody can have a native-like competence, but at
a basic level, which would still enable the person to
develop a conversation or do whatever he she intends to
and this is very common in the business world.  Many
people are learning English and other languages through
software programs such as Rosetta Stone and being able
to achieve their goals, whichever it is. It might be for
travelling, project research, ESP or any other reason.
The thing is the most you try to sound like your model
in the target language or even if you lived in another
country for some time, you might sound native-like, but
one might not have full language competence. What do you
think? Gilmara Bezerra

Errors and mistakes have been vastly discussed here and
it seems that the main focus is on grammar, which is
what happens in most cases in our classes.  This week I
worked with writing with my 3rd grade group.  Those kids
have a great difficulty to understand past tense verbs,
especially the irregular ones. I had one Arabic kid that
even after editing his work, the verb “write” was always
“writed”. Now, this happened after the review of use of
past tenses. What I want to say is that this could
really be an error, even though he applied it correctly
in complete gaps in past tense sentences, but he could
not use it on its own when writing a paragraph about an
event that took place at school. That student probably
didn’t have the ownership of making his rules and how to
apply them and not repeat the same errors or mistakes.
And how about vocabulary errors? It is common to hear
that I committed a mistake instead of I made a mistake
and we check with students the right way they always
relate to the language transfer or similarities
beforehand discussed in this debate. To make the
students take advantage of this I would suggest a review
on the use of false cognates and an activity using
thesaurus to expand the vocabulary and knowledge on
right use of phrasal verbs as well. Gilmara Bezerra

Teachers have to be aware of this process so that they
will be able to plan their lessons accordingly. It is
frustrating to plan a lesson that we think is wonderful
and when we put it into practice it completely doesn't
work. Did we plan for the students or for ourselves? So,
being aware of the issues in this subject is essential
for the teacher, especially for the ones with
mixed-ability students. The implications are many , but
if the teacher deals with interlanguage himself or has
some extent of fossilized structure, I mean does not
have a real understanding of what he/she is teaching,
the teaching and learning might not be very effective.
We also have to pay special attention to the use of
overgeneralization. In many cases we think that the
students understood what what was taught,but when
assessing we see that the language was not properly
used, which is very common when teaching perfect tenses.
Gilmara Bezerra
I think that feedback is very important at all means in
language learning and especially when meaning
improvement of the target language. We can give feedback
by illustrating how the language instructions work or
using an informal assessment or even by providing
students with work samples that they have to figure out
what is wrong and explain how to correct it. This way,
students might be able to find explanation to their own
fossilized structures and move to another step in
developing interlanguage making it more meaningful for
their comprehension.

Gilmara Bezerra
Are we seeing interlanguage as something pro or against
language learning? In my viewpoint, I see  it as very
positive and I think that error correction has to be
worked with carefully so that we don't guide the
students to create another "interlanguage" of what we
are trying to make clear.

Gilmara Bezerra
I think it is very important to pay attention to how our
students are using their interlanguage. We know we
create our own rules to "verify" our comprehension on
some contents and so do our students. We are constantly
double checking the meanings, as we talked about that in
the use of translation, but here, it seems that
interlanguage has more to do with structures than to
vocabulary itself.

However, we might not interrupt instruction to correct
the use of interlanguage. We can take notes and work
with the students individually or even prepare an
activity that is going to be a review for the whole
class that is going to focus on the fossilized
structure. Our "mental grammar" will be able to identify
the interlanguage  students are using and maybe benefit
from this strategy as well.

  What do you think?   Gilmara Bezerra

The use of translation in the teaching of English has been seen as a positive asset by some and as unhelpful one by others. However, in our experience as teachers, we have drawn the conclusion that translation, when used to promote learning, can be a very important tool in foreign language learning and success in the process of second language acquisition.

The advantages and disadvantages vary depending on the context that translation is being used in, but the pros of using it outweigh the cons. Examples of this optimistic view in the use of translation can be acknowledged in the following situations:

• This tool in particular helps students to improve their communication skills as well as increase their awareness of the grammatical differences between the two languages.

‘Areas of potential confusion are confronted, thus drawing student’s attention to main problems. As they realise that forms do not transfer, or that one language is richer, more precise, more logical, more versatile at certain points than the other, their awareness of language systems in general develops’.

(Soars and Soars 1987:iv)

•  It reinforces L1 by comparing and contrasting it to L2.

•  It conveys meaning for abstract concepts and explains as well as compares grammar points and highlights differences in word order as long as translation activities are communicatively relevant. As Lefevere has emphasised; translating is, in a way, a type of re-writing.

We know that the trend nowadays is to avoid translation as much as possible in language courses and get students speaking and thinking in English most of the time. However, in one way or another people still use a lot of translation to make sure that they understand the idea properly. The truth is we translate unconsciously, formally or informally and we can communicate by doing this. Moreover, students might make use of translation to double-check if they understand correctly what teachers are trying to say in English. Nevertheless if they do this, they might be indirectly questioning the quality and the effectiveness of the teaching.

Translation could also be a special tool in ESP classes or other groups that do not focus on communication They usually take ESP courses because they are willing to study books related to their fields and those students need equivalent words and phrases of fields that they already manage in their own languages, for example doctors, chefs, lawyers, etc.

Another case is it of ELT students. Translation is commonly used as part of their curriculum. However, translation as a skill should only be taught if the main goal of the course is to have students become translators. On the contrary, as Duff states (1989) students should use translation as a means to learn and not as an end.

As for the ESL community, we know that the use of translation is very common especially for non-native speakers who have still not got to grips with English at a basic level of communication. For instance, let us suppose that there is a group of ten students pertaining to five different nationalities of which three students share the same L1. It is understandable that they are likely to do double-checking among themselves.

It does make more sense to say that translation is used in English as a foreign language and that is what we believed until we had the experience in teaching English as a second language. We had reached the conclusion that people translate all the time, especially idioms, for instance. ‘Let’s play it by ear!” Some things we really have to live and see how they are applied because they might make no sense at all if translated word for word. There might be, nonetheless, some negotiation of meaning to understand what one was trying to say and this results in communication.

The fact that the teacher speaks the same language as the students does not mean that he or she can use translation in his or her classes. The translation factor tends to be very common in language courses to adults, mainly for those learners who feel the need to translate the rule and can only understand grammar if they find a similar use in their L1. It takes them a while to catch up with the group, but for some adult learners, translation was and will always be a useful partner in learning a language.

Some adults only take English classes as a leisure time activity. Subsequently they give a great deal of importance to translation and do not leave this strategy to one side because it is the easiest way for them to complete the activities and be able to communicate.

When students face unknown words, they naturally and unconsciously tend to compare those words with what they already know, which is their L1. It does not mean that we are telling students to translate, but they are constantly doing this to reach meaningful comprehension.  Therefore, there is a place for translation in English teaching, but we have to tell students why they are translating or being allowed to translate. An effective use of translation in English teaching does support communication and provides a positive learning environment where students can learn a language and also promote cultural knowledge. Translation does promote learning and teachers cannot completely ignore its use because if they choose to do so, students are going to use it in any case.

 Gilmara Bezerra

” Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has
become the umbrella term describing both learning
another (content) subject such as physics or geography
through the medium of a foreign language and learning a
foreign language by studying a content-based subject. In
ELT, forms of CLIL have previously been known as
‘Content-based instruction’, ‘English across the
curriculum’ and ‘Bilingual education’.
(http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/content-language-integrated-learning)

 In my opinion, we should work with students'
learning styles and topics that are of their interest
in order to promote BICS in an environement that
students will feel comfortable and at the same time
promote CALP. If we get the students motivated, we can
teach them in any language even though they don't master
those. I think that the use of SIOP strategies would fit
properly in the CLIL settings. What do you think?

What do you think about this CLIL debate article?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2005/feb/09/guardianweekly.guardianweekly11

“Is this the end of the language class? Taking foreign
language learning out of the language classroom and
integrating it with other subjects has a strong appeal,
but Kari Smith urges caution: language acquisition is
not always natural”

I especially like this passage: “Immigrants learning the
language of their new country often acquire the language
to a certain extent in the same way. They are surrounded
by the target language outside their own family; they
enjoy rich exposure to it. However, the fact that not
all arrive in the new country as young children, and
that the native tongue remains the language spoken in
the family, add complexity to the pro-cess of
acquisition. Therefore, new immigrants are encouraged to
take specific language courses; they need to be
introduced to formal language instruction alongside the
many opportunities for natural exposure.”

This is exactly what happens here in my school. We have
students from about 30 different countries this year.
Whenever they have a chance , they always speak in their
L1. It’s an ESL environment with EFL reality. What do
you think?

Just in case you don’t have time to read the article ,
here is how it begins.

“Thank you for the course. I wish it had been given in
my own language because I know I have lost out on much
information during the course, and you, the teacher, did
not have the opportunity to get to know the real me,
what I am able to do, what I know, what I think and who
I am.” This is the message a previous student of mine
wrote after having spent five days a week for eight
months studying to be a teacher in an additional
language (a language other than the native language).
Daniela is not the only student enrolled in one of the
many immersion or Content and Language Integrated
Learning (Clil) programmes in schools and universities
around the world who feels this way. Purely for language
learning purposes some language teachers, parents and
policy makers believe that foreign language learning can
be enhanced by teaching in the target language. “

How do you feel about it? At first, my reaction was that
I would probably react in the same way,but then I got
myself thinking about how willing was that student to
learn in a CLIL environment? Was the teacher 100%
prepared?

CLIL is getting clear for me. Here is another
interesting ppt.

http://www.content-english.org/data/dickey-pac5.ppt#256,1,Content
+ Language:  Europe’s CLIL and America’s CBI.

Here
is another:

http://www.iaie.org/download/turin_paper_casal.pdf

Manuel( 39226), I just read this article and thought
about the questions that you posted here. See what you
think!

“CLIL is a pedagogical project implemented in foreign
language learning and which has been subject of global
approval because of its many advantages for creating a
suitable environment for learning. Research has shown,
however, that while comprehension skills (reading and
listening) are really boosted in a CLIL environment,
this may not be the case of productive skills (speaking
and writing). Students seem not to have enough chances
to speak or initiate a conversation, affecting their
speaking and writing outcomes negatively. Cooperative
learning may help enhance CLIL contexts, catering not
only for the development of comprehension skills and
better reasoning, but also for interaction and
communication. Students are given chances both for input
reception and output production. This paper will address
how teachers can improve their students’ competences in
the foreign language classroom by implementing
cooperative learning structures in content-based
environments.”

We have been talking about CLIL and its definitions, but
maybe we still don’t have a clear picture of what a
lesson would look like.

Here is a lesson plan and I particularly liked the
communication piece which brings a plan for LANGUAGE OF
LEARNING, LANGUAFE FOR LEARNING and LANGUAGE THROUGH
LEARNING, which is very different from what we usually
see in lesson plans.

http://www.clil-si.org/subidos/clillessonplan.pdf

http://www.britishcouncil.org/8_-_5_clil_lesson_plan_-_vancouver.pdf

This lesson plan brings the following aims and level. I
thought it was interesting because maybe we are trying
to see CLIL as a set objective or something that has to
be implemented at once and forgetting that it has to be
done gradually and with constant feedback as we do for
any new methodology or product that we want to use.

“Aims: • To increase students’ knowledge of subject
content. • To develop students’ knowledge of
content-related lexis. • To develop all four language
skills within a content-based context. • To develop
academic skills such as note taking. • To provide
material and information for further topic and language
based studies. Level: Intermediate and above, CLIL
transition stage.”

Some of our classmates have already mentioned the
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/clil-a-lesson-framework.

What I think that is interesting in this website on the
view of Steve Darn, Izmir University of Economics,
Turkey is that he explains it clearly adn maybe CLIL is
just another word for something that we already do.

Look at these passages from the article. In  my opinion,
the last one really says it all.

“A CLIL lesson is therefore not a language lesson
neither is it a subject lesson transmitted in a foreign
language. According to the 4Cs curriculum (Coyle 1999),
a successful CLIL lesson should combine elements of the
following:

Content – Progression in knowledge, skills and
understanding related to specific elements of a defined
curriculum  Communication – Using language to learn
whilst learning to use language  Cognition – Developing
thinking skills which link concept formation (abstract
and concrete), understanding and language  Culture -
Exposure to alternative perspectives and shared
understandings, which deepen awareness of otherness and
self.  

In a CLIL lesson, all four language skills should be
combined. The skills are seen thus:

Listening is a normal input activity, vital for language
learning  Reading, using meaningful material, is the
major source of input  Speaking focuses on fluency.
Accuracy is seen as subordinate  Writing is a series of
lexical activities through which grammar is recycled. “

“Conclusion From a language point of view the CLIL
‘approach’ contains nothing new to the EL teacher. CLIL
aims to guide language processing and ‘support language
production in the same way as ELT by teaching strategies
for  reading and listening and structures and lexis for
spoken or written language. What is different is that
the language teacher is also the subject teacher, or
that the subject teacher is also able to exploit
opportunities for  developing language skills. This is
the essence of the CLIL teacher training issue.”

Gilmara Bezerra
In my opinion CLIL has many advantages and is completely
applicable here in my school. As we saw from the
conclusion of the article from Steve Darn is that WE,
the language teachers, are also the subejct teachers. I
teach ESL students from 3 to 5 grades and the curriculum
brings science, social studies, math , geography , etc.
However, they do have these subjects at their mainstream
classes too. The coursebook we use for ESL is AVEVUES is
here is the support website for your appreciation.
http://www.hbavenues.com

This website http://bilingualeduc.ning.com/group/clil
brings a lot of interesting activities and information
about CLIL. What I liked the most is the fact that it
incorporate SIOP strategies to the CLIL approach. "CLIL
Lesson Planning: Sheltered Instruction & Academic
Language"

Gilmara Bezerra
Hi Manuel, I really think that the idea of the handbook
with useful chunks of language. I also think that we
could use more SIOP strategies to promote BICS. It does
work and that's how we get non-native students into
speaking here. They do go through the silent period, and
we do see them talking in the playground and when it
comes to class, they simply zip and don't talk. This
kind of situation can happen in CLIL too. The teacher
should be the main source for the students providing
them with opportunities to succeed in the content and
language too.

Gilmara Bezerra

The integration of technology in the content areas to help the students better understand the subjects is very valuable and here in the USA we use it a lot.  All the classes have Smartboard, and computers, besides a computer a lab, where the students have lessons on how to use the Internet as a research tool.

I have recently used GOOGLE EARTH in my lessons and it is amazing to see how much we can benefit from that. So,I suggest a discussion on GOOGLE EARTH.

Podcasts and blogs are very interesting topics too and I am sure we are going to learn a lot from each other on how to use those.

POD means (PERSONAL ON DEMAND), so if you have an IPod, you can listen to the songs at the time that you want…

Here is a link of video showing how Google Earth can be used in class.

http://www.atomiclearning.com/k12/en/google_earth

_________________________________________________________

I think that the use of CD’s is very important because of the right pronunciation.  I taught American English for some time and then got a job at Cultura Inglesa and the English taught there was British English. I could tell the big difference in  the pronunciation and wouldn’t start a lesson without listening to the CD for my own sake.  Here in the USA is even more important, because I am from Brazil and my students are from different nationalities , so I need a source that will help me be the right model for my students.

_________________________________________________________

…to which extent teachers are qualified enough to manage technology.  Only now some classes are getting Smartboard, others classes have always had it. Teachers had to go to a training and there were the ones who were really excited about that and others who didn’t even want to be there because they didn’t even use an overhead projector in their classes, so traditional they were. They simply freaked out! Besides that, they receive a mini laptop to prepare their lessons to use with the Smartboard. Imagine the situation if you are not even familiar with a desktop??!! I think it might be true for many people. Not only for the fact that they are not familiar with technology, but because they see it as a big challenge to their teaching styles. ..We can handle at least the basic use of technology as a CD player and a TV for example. Even the blackboard/white board could be considered technology…

Wrong!!Teachers are not expected to use a material without knowing what it is all about. You have probably done something like that and know for sure that this does not work. It might have worked for her group, but even though the unit is the same, key points vary from class to class and here is where the importance of evaluations of materials come.

 Evaluations of materials and resources are crucial for a successful class. Evaluations should not only take place during lesson planing, but while and post-use of the teaching practices used in the lesson plan. Teachers must know what they are going to use to deliver the lesson, including all the supplementary materials and make sure that the media that is going to be used works.

Based on Tomlinson’s 12 point procedure for evaluating materials I am going to analyse Unit 10 of the course book Gude, Kathe and Michael Duckworth 2002. “Matrix Pre-Intermediate Student’s Book”. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Overview

I am going to start with a picture walk in the unit just to have an idea of what the unit brings. I have never taught this coursebook, so I am going to describe my first impressions of it and make a pre-use evaluation to see how much I like it and if I would adapt any kind of activity or even add a supplementary material.

The unit brings clear pictures that support the topic “Off To See The World”. It starts with an unusual picture that invites the students to think about it as for building background for a reading activity. I can tell it is for at least an intermediate level class due to the grammar presented and complexity of tasks.

It works with the four skills starting a reading activity, followed by a listening comprehension as part of the grammar presentation and listening for specific information based on transportation. The speaking part is great because it brings pictures to support the conversation and chunks of words as a model to start the speaking activity. The writing brings a great sample to give students an idea of what they are expected to do including  steps to better writing to guide the students. The unit wraps up with a word focus that recycles the unit vocabulary and skills and with a great reading activity that enables students to practice their comprehension skills and learn new words  by the context.

I agree with Tomlinson when he described that even the most rigorous evaluation can fail to predict the actual effect of the materials is use. My impression of this unit is that it allows a lot of interactive activities and that the communicative apporach is clear to take place.However, as I have never seen this unit in its true colors and don’t know if the activites are going to work as I pictures them to…