Richards Perspective On Clt And Teaching Conversation English Language Essay

Richards Perspective On Clt And Teaching Conversation English Language Essay Majority of language instructors presume CLT as teaching conversation, an absence of grammar or an emphasis on open ended discussion activities (Richards 2003) while according to what Jack C. Richards mentioned in his communicative language teaching today CLT can be understood as a set of principles about the goals of language teaching, how learners learn a language, the kind of classroom activities that best facilitate learning, and the roles of teachers and learners in the classroom. This vapid insipid thought, however, should not be regarded as plausible. Flashing back to the early days of CLT, we see it as an offspring of Audio-lingual Method although it had its focus shifted from behaviorism to real learners needs. On the other hand, looking at its new up-to-date version, we see a great shift from meaning-form based to be totally meaning based. That is why Richards concretely explains CLT as letting the learner grab the language through using it to do things rather than through studying how language works and practicing rules or people learn a language through communicating it. Richards named these two versions of CLT. He asserted that the first one is classical CLT, starting from 1970s to 1990s and the latter one is current CLT. He called all the previous methods Traditional approaches. This study examines the first two methods with a brief introduction on the third one. Traditional Approaches (up to late 1960s) Traditional approaches is a term used by Richards to refer to approaches like ALM or structural-situational approach; also known as situational language teaching. The entire curriculum in these methods shed lights on grammar, that is, every aspect of a language class, from teaching to evaluation, revolves around grammar and its appropriate use in appropriate context. Although traditional methods have some parts in accordance with the current culture and they use dialogues as a prominent exercise, all the parts are for the purpose of mastering the grammar not for reaching communicative competence-using the appropriate language in the real context. To clear everything up lets walk through approach: 1.Students first hear a model dialogue (either by the teacher or on tape). In this procedure students are introduced to the new grammar rule with reminding the previous forms studied via a cultural text. After listening to the dialogue students are supposed to repeat each line after the teacher or the tape. The instructor here pays careful attentions to pronunciation, intonation, and fluency .corrections are immediate and direct even if they interrupt the flow of speech. 2. Key words of the dialogue are changed repeatedly through practice-with actually keeping the grammar rule the same- to help the learner stick the grammar rule in to their mind. 3. Some selected grammatical rules will be the focus of the following exercises. These exercises are structured on the basis of over repetition to make the grammar a part of subconscious mind. That is using it spontaneously when its needed. All the exercises are controlled to ban any type of possible mistake; actually, creativity is not welcomed at all in these methods. Some grammatical explanation may be offered at this point, but this is kept to absolute minimum. 4. After oral exercises come the written ones. Students may be referred to their text books to have some reading, writing or vocabulary activities on the basis of the dialogue presented. 5. Further practice to thoroughly master the form is done in the language laboratory. In sum Richards brings up the P-P-P lesson structure: Presentation: is actually the presentation of the new grammar point inductively. The instructor explains the new structure and makes sure of students comprehension of it. Practice: In a controlled context students practice the use of the grammar point. Production: In a much freer context, and yet controlled, students à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬with the teacher`s monitoring-use their own c1ontent or information for furthered practice, in order to develop fluency with the new pattern. All these syllabus designs lead to great accuracy at the cost of loosing fluency. However, under the influence of CLT all the form-based methodologies are modified to be in sync with communicative competence .this fluency-first pedagogy have accuracy activities such as such as grammar practice been replaced by fluency activities based on interactive small-group work. This approach paves the way for Richard`s Classic Communicative Language teaching. Classic Communicative Language Teaching (1970s to 1990s) This method was a reaction to traditional ones modifying them by the insertion of Communicative competence. As explained in Richard`s applied linguistic dictionary, the term communicative competence is broken down to 4 parts: Grammatical competence: that is the knowledge of the grammar, vocabulary, morphology and phonology of a language. GC was of highest importance in all traditional methods. It is argued in CLT that communicative competence and not simply grammatical competence ,should be the goal of language teaching Sociolinguistic competence: according to Richard`s Dictionary of Applied Linguistics it is Knowledge of the relationship between language and its nonlinguistic context, knowing how to use and respond appropriately to different types of speech acts, such as requests, apologies, thanks, and invitations knowing which address form should be used It is highly associated with interlocutors age, sex, and ethnic groups. Traditional grammatical and vocabulary syllabuses and teaching methods did not include information of this kind. It was assumed that this kind of knowledge would be picked up informally. Discourse competence: the knowledge of knowing how to begin and end conversations. Strategic competence: the communicative strategies used for covering the weakness in conveying the message in communications. In former methods, i.e. traditional grammatical and vocabulary syllabi, there is no trace of these kinds of information. They were believed to be learned informally. However, Richards (2003) argues that communicative competence and not simply grammatical competence should be the goal of language teaching. He added some more practical aspect of language use to this new method to make it more tangible: Purposes for which the leaner wishes to acquire the target language The setting in which the student want to use the target language Role of the learners, for instance, as a traveler, as a sales person talking to their clients. Communicative competence: everyday situations, vocational or professional situations, academic situations and so on. ( 2003) Language functions: what the learner will be able to do with or through language Discourse and rhetorical skills He also added grammatical content and lexical content to make his method comprehensive He defined two types of syllabus: skill-based syllabus, functional syllabus. In the first one the main focus is on four skills -speaking, reading, writing, and speaking- this one sort of covers ESP (English for specific purposes) in a way that it gives each skill its specific look by the use of needs analysis. Usually it overcomes the differences in vocabulary choice, grammar, functions, and particular skills. The latter one, however, consider the functions the students should be able to carry out in English. This syllabus best suits speaking and listening courses. Current communicative language teaching ( from 1990s up to current time) This new up-to-date version of CLT mainly focuses on students needs and learning. According to Richards this method is a set of agreed upon principles that help the learner acquire the language with the respect of social nature of learning. They usually give more attention to unity of language through current methodologies of communication and interaction. In short, it could be said that giving more attention to psychological aspects of learning led to the emergence new CLT.

Characters of Bless the Beasts and the Children :: essays research papers

Bless the Beasts and the Children is a book about six naà ¯ve, immature boys who are sent away from their parents to The Boys Canyon Boys Camp where they are known as the 'Bed Wetters' and are considered the outcasts. Glendon Swarthout uses symbolism to show weakness and vulnerability in the characters and to fulfill the purpose of the novel. The radios symbolize the fear that the boys experience, at the beginning of the novel each one of the bedwetters has their radio going full blast. They use the radios when they are scared, like at night before they go to sleep to comfort them. The boys are neglected by their parents and the radios make them feel that something is there for them when they are afraid because their parents never are. My first character is Lally 2, a quiet insecure eleven year old boy. His parents neglect him and his brother doesn?t care about him and he gets a feeling of hopelessness and loneliness. He has low self esteem because of his parents absence in his life, but he shows a lot of compassion to others. He turns to the Ooms, creatures in the sauna, for comfort, he feels that they are the only ones he can talk to and trust. When he is at camp, he runs away and takes his radio with him so that he doesn?t feel alone. My second character is Laurence Teft, a shy, scrawny defiant fourteen-year-old boy. Teft is overwhelmed by his parents high standards for him that he seems to almost always fail to meet. He feels as though he is always disappointing his parents and becomes very angry, then he expresses his frustration violently. He is starved for attention, even if it is negative attention, and breaks the rules to get it, his criminal behavior ends up helping the bedwetters in their scheme. My third character is Sammy Shecker, the son of a rich and famous New York comedian. Shecker is unsatisfied living in his father?s shadow and thinks that if he is funny like his father, he will be accepted amongst his peer, so he unsuccessfully tries to be humorous to hide his inner pain.

Teaching Essay

1.1 How teaching assistant can support the teacher in planning, teaching and evaluation of learning activities. Prior to the lesson I requested a copy of the teachers’ plans and after discussions we were able to agree using a variety of lesson plans, teaching methods, and implement targets to provide the most effective support to pupils and their needs, this gave me a clearer understanding of the learning that was going to take place and allow me time to familiarising myself with the subject matter, learning objectives and outcomes, this would also assist me to prepare any resources required for the planned lesson ahead. After agreeing the objectives of the lesson ‘Drip Drop’, were to explore some of the properties of water, to explore absorbent and non-absorbent materials and to find out how water drops behave on different surfaces. By asking for copies of the teacher’s long, medium, short-term planning, this helped me to provide extra support in the classroom by developing my understanding of the weeks and daily planning process and to set learning objectives, preparing, assessing and recording pupils’ participation and progression allow the teacher to see how effective my teaching is and whether the pupils are making progress in their learning. The role of the teacher is to supply a safe and supervised classroom for the pupils to learn in, encourage pupil learning by planning, preparing and delivering lessons in relation to the National Curriculum and meet school target whilst maintain its policies. The teacher assesses records and report on pupil’s progress and achievements and liaise with parents, sometimes attending meetings or responsible for literacy or science. Preparing the classroom for the lesson, checking the correct materials available to carry out the activity helps the teacher. Observation and monitoring of pupils work during the task helps me to make assessments to see if the learning has been successful and give feedback to the pupil and teacher on individuals performance or responses, if they have any problems, by doing this it helps me to make well-informed judgements about a pupils learning and progress and make any changes necessary to the activity. 1.2 Information the teaching assistant would require before supporting learning activities From the daily lesson plan I am able to identify the materials required for the lesson to complete the task. After reading the pupil’s records and initial assessment a decision was made to put the more experienced pupils with the ones who were not as confident to enable them to assist, encourage, help and work together to complete the task successfully. A class discussion was held to see if the pupils could think of the materials which would be required to complete the task I then wrote the answers on the whiteboard. The materials were absorbent and non-absorbent materials like plastic, paper and cardboard etc and things with which to make water drops for example, straws, plastic pipettes, and clean eye droppers, as water was going to be used a non toxic coloured paint was required to put in the water to make it easier to see, because I used the last of the cardboard I wrote this down on the reorder list. I emphasised everyone needed to act sensibly because sharp items were going to be used. I showed the class how to make drops with the different kinds of objects and gave them time to practice making water drops and try to make drops of different sizes. When they had mastered this I asked the pupils to drip onto samples of different materials. I asked them to see what happened when two, or more, drops meet, on a hard and non-absorbent surface. Later I separate the pupils into pairs and asked them: Can they race their drop with a friend? 1.3 The sorts of problems that may occur when supporting learning activities Informing the teacher before removing unwanted chairs made sure there was sufficient space for the pupils and equipment to work safely prior to the learning activity and by placing four pupils on each table gave better access to the water tubs and avoiding pupils pushing each other. The pipettes and resources were placed safely in the middle of each table. Before the lesson it was explained to suck the water up the straw was dangerous and requested the pupils to just dip the straw in the water, I asked if they knew why and explained about choking and emphasised about being sensible, the pupils’ then put on their aprons to protect their clothing. The pupils who found listening difficult, I put the questions onto laminated cards for easy reference explaining that I was going to ask those questions about the information later. I also wrote down the key questions on the whiteboard. Can you make different size drop? What happens to the drops when you drip them onto different surfaces? Can you make two drops join? What Happens? Whilst monitoring I removed a pupil from the activity for putting the pipette in his ear. The child was placed away from the activity, asking the pupil if he understood why he had been separated it was explained if he wanted to rejoin the activity he would need to act sensibly, after 10 minutes the pupil calmed down, and was asked to rejoined the group, giving the pupil encouragement and praise for better behaviour enabled the pupil to complete the task successfully. When the activity had finished I discussed with the pupil his behaviour and found he was upset because his hamster had died, I later discussed this with the teacher. After shutting the windows I relocated a pupil to a quieter part of the classroom as the noise of grass cutting was causing a distraction. The hot weather made the room too warm, two pupils started to flick each other with water I opened the classroom door to reduce the temperature and with a direct look and raised eyebrow showed displeasure at the pupils then separated them. Noticing one of the cheerful pupils was rather withdrawn and after talking they revealed that their Nan had died that morning I reassured the pupil and asked if they would like to read a poem about water, I then informed the teacher. Encouragement by praising their progress was given to the pupils with low confidence and pupils who finished their task early were asked to write a poem about their observations or about the drop race. After the activity was complete we had a class discussion asking pupils, how do you think it went? What would you do differently? I then asked the pupils to write down their observations in their books with correct date. 1.4 Strategies a teaching assistant may use to support pupils learning By using questions ‘What we think will happen’?, and writing down all the key points this confirmed the pupils understood the instructions prior to the activity and helped the class know what was expected of them. Placing the low confident pupils at the front of the class and rephrasing questions enabled them to understand the instructions more clearly. After discussion with another teaching assistant it was decided to enlarge the worksheet to A3 size to make it easier for the pupils who were struggling, encouraging them to write down their ideas then stick them onto the worksheet later and giving praise when the task was completed. Separating pupils into groups allowed the development of peer support activities and cooperative learning, allowing the pupils to benefit by learning and supporting each other. The pupils with confidence worked on their own initiative were able to write their own ideas directly onto the worksheet. Bandura, Skinner, Piaget and Vygotsky discuss that cognitive development occurs at an individual rate and cultures teaches a person what to think as well as how to think. I agree that children are not just passive discovers, they are constantly trying to make sense of the information they see, hear, feel and discover enabling some children to develop quicker than others. At the end of the activity reward stickers were given for using the correctly vocabulary in their poems and a discussion was held by using open-ended questions of (how, what, why?) this provided me with more information to enable me to assess the pupils’ learning and understanding and provide me with the information required to feedback later to the teacher 1.5 Providing feedback on learning activities to the teacher Both during and after supporting the learning activity, I recorded the pupils’ participation and progression and met later with the teacher, to give feedback regarding the issues encountered during the activity, I discussed the pupil who’s relative died and about the pupil behaving inappropriately during the session and being separated from the group. I informed the teacher why the worksheet was enlarged and why the laminated card was useful. I also explained I gave out some stickers for correct spelling and punctuation.

Self Actualization A Struggle For Identity - 1584 Words

Self-actualization: A Struggle for Identity According to Psychologist Abraham Maslow in â€Å"Self-actualization and Beyond,† self-actualization is a process in which one identifies his inner ability to do something productive. Once this inner talent comes out, that’s when a person actualizes himself. He believes that every individual self-actualizes, and while doing so one might make many wrong choices. Sonny and his older brother are faced with several obstacles while being on a journey to self-actualization in â€Å"Sonny’s Blues† by James Baldwin. However, these obstacles not only come from their surroundings, but within themselves as well. The narrator himself and his younger brother, Sonny struggle with, and gradually develop their own†¦show more content†¦He continues his journey to become a jazz musician despite of all the negativity around him. This is another point where we see Sonny getting closer to self-actualization. Maslow claims, â€Å"You cannot choose wisely for a life unless you dare to listen to yourself, yourself, at each moment in life, and to say calmly, ‘No, I don’t like such and such’† (113). One must listen to their inner voices in order to be self-actualized. The opinion of others do matter, but not to a point where one loses his own ability to establish his own identity. When the narrator tries to approach Sonny into being something other than a musician, Sonny replies, â€Å"But I don’t seem to be able to make you understand is that it’s the only thing I want to do† (262). Even though Sonny’s brother wants the best for him, he doesn’t realize that he is too controlling and he should let Sonny do what he intends to do. Just like Sonny, the narrator too struggles to establish his own identity. According to Maslow â€Å"when we are in doubt we are not honest† and if one is not honest, he will not be able to take responsibility for his actions, and the only way to self-actualize is by taking responsibility (112). Even though the narrator is quite successful in his life, working as a math teacher and having his own family, he also feels encaged in Harlem where he spent his entireShow MoreRelatedIntroduction Of Women s Studies 101.1002 Essay1320 Words   |  6 Pagesâ€Å"blend† or â€Å"pass† as the opposite sex. The entirety of Janet Mock s Redefining Realness is exactly that, to take her own definition of the word and use it as a non-conformative mean to achieve self-actualization, to instead be real to herself rather than for anyone else s sake. Mock, through the struggle told in her own written story redefines a word with a variance of definitions in multiple communities, to not define her but be defined by her, so that rather than blend or pass she insteadRead MoreConcepts Vs. 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