PRACTICAL Nº 4
0 likes160 views
This document discusses student motivation in language learning. It defines motivation and divides it into intrinsic and extrinsic types. Extrinsic motivation is further divided into instrumental and integrative types. The document also discusses factors that affect student motivation, such as the teacher's caring attitude, students' sense of achievement, attitude towards the teacher, choice of activities, and student agency. It provides suggestions from experts on how to motivate students, such as setting a good example, creating a relaxed atmosphere, presenting achievable tasks, and developing relationships with students. The document also analyzes and compares the CEFR, ALTE, and Cambridge English frameworks in terms of expected language skills at primary and secondary school levels.
PRACTICAL Nº 4
- 1. Practical Nº 4 Practice II. 2015 Erica, Corso.
- 2. Practice II Practical Nº 4 Corso,Erica; Irusta,Carla. 2 PRACTICE II, DIDACTICS OF ELT AND PRACTICUM AT PRIMARY SCHOOL LEVEL. Prof. Adjunto Regular Estela N. Braun, auxiliar docente Prof. Liliana Monserrat. PRACTICAL 4: Revision and integration of the main concepts learnt in this unit. Task to be solved as recursos Tareas in our Moodle page. PART 1: MOTIVATION According to Jeremy Harmer, motivation is "some kind of internal drive which pushes someone to do things in order to achieve something". As stated by Douglas Brown, motivation is "a term that is used to define the success or the failure of any complex task"1. Apart from this, he states that a prime motivator is the need for ego enhancement, that is, the need "for the self to be known and to be approved by others." In terms of Zoltan Dornyei, motivation is “responsible for why people decide to do something, how long they are willing to sustain the activity, and how hard they are going to pursue it"2. Motivation is divided into two main parts, extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic motivation is the result of any number of outside factors, for example the need to pass an exam, or the possibility of future travel. On the other hand, intrinsic comes from within the individual, like learning a new language to experience enjoyment, or by the desire to make itself feel better. Apart from this, extrinsic motivation is divided into integrative and instrumental. Instrumental motivation is “characterized by the desire to obtain something practical or concrete from the study of a second language. The purpose of language acquisition is more utilitarian, such as meeting the requirements for school or university graduation or applying for a job”3. With Integrative motivation, learners “admire the culture of the language they are acquiring, and have a desire to become familiar with or even integrate into the society in which the language is used.”4 In learning, affect plays an important role since students are more likely to stay motivated if they think that their teachers care about them, but if the teacher has little interest in their students, they will have little incentive to remain motivated. When the teacher is caring and helpful, students are mucho more likely to retain an interest in what is going on, as a result, their self-esteem is likely to be nurtured. As regards achievement, when students succeed in their learning, they stay motivated to learn more. For this, the teacher might set an appropriate level of challenge for the students; this means setting tests that are neither too difficult, nor too easy. Attitude is also an important factor, because students are more likely to follow their teachers if they confide in their teachers´ professional abilities. Students need to feel that their teachers know about the subject they are teaching. The choice of activities plays an important role, since if students enjoy what they are doing, and see the point of the selected activities, their motivation will continue through the learning process. Agency plays an important role in learning, due to the fact that when students make decisions, they are taking some responsibility for their learning. The more students are empowered on their agency, the more likely they are to stay motivated longer. 1 Brown (1994),in http://iteslj.org/Articles/Suslu-TeacherMotivation 2 Dornyei (2001),in http://iteslj.org/Articles/Suslu-TeacherMotivation 3 Hudson (2000), in http://iteslj.org/Articles/Norris-Motivation.html 4 Falk (1978),in http://iteslj.org/Articles/Norris-Motivation.html
- 3. Practice II Practical Nº 4 Corso,Erica; Irusta,Carla. 3 SUGGESTIONS FROM EXPERTS IN MOTIVATION:(Spratt, Pulverness and Williams, 2005, Cambridge , the TKT course). A. Set a personal example with your own behavior (be motivated as a teacher yourself). B. Create a relaxed atmosphere in the classroom (i.e. try to prevent anxiety in yourself or the learners). C. Present tasks in an interesting way which makes the tasks seems achievable to the learners. D. Develop a good relationship with the learners. E. Increase the learners’ self-confidence about language learning (I.e. help learners feel they can be good at learning the language). F. Make the language classes interesting. G. Promote learner autonomy. H. Personalize the learning process (i.e. make the course feel relevant to the learners’ lives). I. Increase the learners’ awareness of their goals. J. Familiarize learners with the target language culture. ACTIVITY: Match the following classroom activities to the suggestions above). ( H ) Giving learners a story about skateboarding because you know many of them like skateboarding. ( J ) Encouraging learners to meet some first language speakers of English. (G ) Giving learners a test which is quite easy for most of them. ( E ) Asking learners which of four tapes they would like to listen to in the next lesson. Also G ( I ) Giving learners reading texts about working in an English-speaking country. Also G ( A ) Teaching with enthusiasm and interest. ( C ) Presenting the language to learners in small bits which they are able to learn easily. ( D ) Talking to a learner after class about the problems in their last homework, and how they can make better progress. ( E ) Encouraging and praising learners, even weak ones. ( B ) Making sure your lessons are varied and well-paced. ( F ) Your learners love doing crosswords and you often include them in your lessons. PART 2; activity 1 and 2: Understanding the CEFR reference & ALTE can do statements; compare and contraste them with YLE Cambridge expected outcomes. Having analyzed the CEFR’s scales of descriptors, we consider that an A2 level could be reached in the reading, writing, and listening macro skills, at primary school. As for secondary school, a B2 level could be achieved in reading, and a B1 level in writing and listening. AT HIGH SCHOOL IT COULD BE GREAT IF THEY COULD REACH A B1 LEVEL, BUT THEY SELDOM DO.
- 4. Practice II Practical Nº 4 Corso,Erica; Irusta,Carla. 4 By analyzing the ALTE levels, we can state that, at primary school, learners could approach the Level 2 in the reading, writing, and listening/speaking areas. In reference to secondary school, a Level 3 could be reached in the four macro skills. As regards the specifications of Cambridge English: Young Learners – Starters, Movers and Flyers, we can state that basically, in the Starters level, in the listening and speaking area, students are meant to understand and to respond to personal simple expressions, and to follow simple classroom instructions. This can be compared to the A1 CEFR level (learners can understand simple phrases about themselves and things around them); and to the ALTE break-through and level 1 (students can understand basic instructions and express simple opinions). As for the reading and writing skills, learners are expected to understand simple written instructions and to write simple sentences about themselves and their family, and spell their names ; for CEFR this belongs to the A1 level (learners can understand very simple sentences, write their names); and ALTE level 1 ( understand basic instructions, complete simple forms). The idea of recognizing and writing the letters of the English alphabet (Starters level) is not mentioned in the CEFR and ALTE descriptors, since it is taken for granted that up to that level learners already know that information. Besides, in the latter descriptors it is stated that at that level students are meant to write short simple letters or postcards related to personal information, but in the Starters descriptor, that skill is not considered yet. In the Movers level, in the listening and speaking area, students are expected to understand when someone speaks about their family or friends using simple sentences and instructions given by the teacher in the classroom; also can ask questions about likes and dislikes, tasks, homework and holiday. This can be compared to the level A2 of CEFR (where students can understand simple direct speech related to family and personal information) and ALTE level 1. As for reading and writing skills students can understand and write simple sentences and stories or short texts with the help of pictures and drawings. Also, they can complete stories with missing words and write about what they like to do in their free time using words given to them, this belongs to the level A2 of CEFR (where students can read very short specific texts and very shorts notes or messages) and to ALTE level 1 ( can write a very short simple narrative). In all three levels students can understand simple narratives. Concerning the Flyers level, in the listening and speaking area, students can ask for help when they do not understand something, talk about a problem in simple terms, arrange with friends to do something, make and respond invitations, suggestions, requests and apologies and also they can understand audios and video clips used in the class. This can be compared to the level B1 of CEFR (students can understand the main point of many radio or TV programs) and to ALTE level 2 (understand assignments and instructions given by the teacher). As for reading and writing, students can understand longer texts about everyday topics, can make use of the dictionary if they do not understand all the words, they can write short messages, postcards or dialogues and also writing about how they feel in simple sentences. This belongs to the level B1 of CEFR (can understand texts related to everyday or job language and can write texts describing sensations in a simple way) and to the level 2 of ALTE (can understand basic messages). A difference that can be seen between this levels is that according to the Common European Framework of Reference, students can have an unprepared conversation on familiar topics or of personal interest and
- 5. Practice II Practical Nº 4 Corso,Erica; Irusta,Carla. 5 also describe hopes, dreams, in a simple way, and give opinions or narrate a story or relate the plot of a story. In the other two levels students do not have many abilities or practice in order to speak. PART 2: Use a textbook and find activities for writing. The student’s book assigned to be analyzed is called Storyline 4, the authors of it are Leonor Corradi and Beatriz Peña Lima, and the year of edition is 2011. In this book, we found several writing activities which suit an A2 level, according to the CEFR’s scales of descriptors. For instance, students can write short simple narratives (about their birthdays), or emails related to personal information, apart from writing a short description about their neighborhood. Learners can also answer questions dealing with their personal lives in relation to where they live (city, house) and their school:
- 6. Practice II Practical Nº 4 Corso,Erica; Irusta,Carla. 6 What is more, scholars can complete forms about them or about their families’ routines: A final activity consists on rewriting sentences so as to make them fit to the student’s life: To sum up, all these activities above taken from the Storyline 4 student’s book are connected with writing about learners’ personal lives.