SKILLS Flashcards
FAMILIES
• The school and the family, develop fundamental roles for the development of the kids.
Participation of the families Art 14 D 108/14/ Art.16.RD
The families also get involved bringing materials/ sending postcards as stated in art 16 RD 124/2016 demands that families must collaborate in support of their educational progress.
- Organize a parent’s afternoon: where the children can perform the unit stories, plays, RPs and songs.
- Organize an open day: where parents can come into the classroom to see the display of their work.
Receive continuous advice and info (Art 10. O 20/19/ Art 7 D 104/18/ Art.5 RD 984/21)
- Families will be informed about their children’s learning process by means of both individually and group meetings and receiving the children’s subject report one per term.
- We will coordinate with families to guide them on (SKILL) with the aim the student feels pleasure in our subject
CA
JACK C. RICHARD (2006) CA/ CLT advocates that a language is best learned when is practiced in real communicative situations. E.g. Role play about buying an airline ticket or to write a letter to a newspaper.
Aims at CC: “The ability to know when, where, and how to use language in a variety of contexts or situations”
Celce-Murcia, 2001 resumes the main principle of teaching using the CA/ CLT
• Teachers always use the target lang, even when giving instructions.
• Errors are seen as a natural part of the learning process and we give preference to fluency in communication rather than accuracy.
• We should use authentic mat. As often as we can to reflect real-life situations.
• STs regularly work in groups or pairs to transfer meanings with info-gap activities, role-plays and games. Not only supports the comm. Aim, but pushes STS to use lang socially.
• We must work the 4 ling skills in an integrated and natural way because they are in everyday life as RD demands.
Our ultimate aim is to provide our pupils with CC in FL. For this reason, the R.D.126/14, compiles the sub-competences that implies the CC in which is included the …
MATERIALS
The MATERIALS we use in the class should reflect as far as possible the world outside the classroom and they should be relevant to STs’ age interests.
D 108/2014: Resources selected by the Teacher to maintain their motivation.
- REALIA: refers to real objects. Realia are materials that are highly visual as RD emphasizes the use of real materials in class. The teacher will show her own family picture (Family members members) facilitates the assimilation of concepts especially at these ages where children learn by interacting with the environment.
- FLASHCARDS
can be made of pictures and/or words and they are usually used to present the new vocab, although, they could be used to review contents, stimulate discussions.
• Mix Abilities: they facilitate understanding by clarifying the meaning of words and avoiding translations. This visual support, also, will cover the needs of our low-learners
In OUR CLASS, we use flashcards to label our learning space like door, window, library, books, etc and to give instructions like listen, write, silence, draw. The decoration of our English classroom is vital because it supports multilingualism as law 4/18 highlights, and promote students participation in class, this aspect is deeply explained in topic 22.
WORKSHEETS
the point of worksheets is to practice grammar or vocabulary, so they are usually exercises. But they can also be board games, crosswords, riddles, information gap activities, dictations, etc.
In OUR CLASSROOM corners, we usually have fast-finishers and reinforcement worksheets and board games.
Attending to the authenticity of them, we can distinguish between authentic and non-authentic materials.
According to David Nunan, authentic materials are ‘those produced for purposes other than language teaching’. For this reason, they can be difficult sometimes, as the language used can be very complex for the students’ linguistic level. Some examples of them could be a London map, video-clips, songs, trivial game, magazines, real objects, TV programmes, timetables, tickets and ads.
Jeremy Harmer defined non-authentic materials as ‘those designed especially for language learners’ . We can make a distinction here between artificial and simulated authentic materials.
On the one hand, artificial texts are those in which only a particular grammatical structure appears with very restricted vocabulary. For instance, a text with questions or filling the gaps. Whereas, simulated authentic materials are taken from authentic sources but modified depending on the learner’s age and level, removing difficult vocab or tricky grammar structures. An example can be the creation of a trivial with questions of the topics to review all the contents and vocabulary at the end of the school year.
In my lessons, first, I use non-authentic text to focus on linguistic aspects such as crosswords, worksheets, word search, fill in the gaps, etc. Once I know they are ready, I introduce authentic materials such as nursery rhymes, riddles, extracts from digital BBC news, pictures of the London underground, Google Earth and a big number of other materials in order to integrate target culture and to arise the desire of communication in my pupils.
LCA
- Know about pupils’ interest and characteristics.
- Design own mat: the best ways to know about our pupils’ interest and characteristics.
- Active role: feel more motivated and involved in the classroom activities.
- Mat adapted to their knowledge/ develop their autonomy
- Acquire cooperative attitudes.
- Encourage imagination & creativity.
NATURAL ORDER HYPOTHESIS
o They are arranged to follow a Natural Order of Learning Skills in which the four skills and key competences are integrated.
1º we will start with Oral Language activities (Listening and Speaking), 2º Written Language ones (Reading and Writing) taking into account that Comprehension takes places before than Expression.
REASONS THAT INFLUENCE ATTITUDES
are mainly influenced by two reasons:
1. The teaching methods, which may turn the FL area into a fun, active and engaging task.
- By the need of using the FL outside the class: by using the classroom blog to listen to a song; or by personal preferences.
FUNCTIONALITY OF ENGLISH
Make pupils aware that knowing English is going to help them to reach more info about their favourite celebrity as they can read English magazines, etc…
E-TWINNING: Sts have a pen friend and receive information from their e-mails friends. Learners see the usefulness of the FL as they need to understand their friends to respond them.
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT (Low affective filter, active breaks, attention grabbers, control noise)
LOW AFFECTIVE FILTER: Another feature of our approach is getting a low affective filter, essentially, this involves making the students ́ nervousness disappear. / avoid anxiety.
o Planning our units in a motivating way and connecting their previous knowledge with the new.
o Give them enough inf in the first session of every unit in order to make them aware of what is going on and what kind of activities they are going to deal with.
o Creation of a safe & friendly coop. classroom atmosphere.
D 108/2014: Resources selected by the Teacher to maintain their motivation.
Topics adapted to the STs interests and needs (family, school, pets, their favourite singer…)
Use visual aids and ICT resources.
TPR works properly.
ACTIVE BREAKS
Yang (2015) Attention is a limited resource in children; therefore, it will be very useful to divide the time spent in class into blocks with respective active breaks.
Regarding my own experience, the best way to get some energy back into the classroom is to get ST move around a bit. Ex.
Gonoodle app, ( a series of videos, songs focused on introducing short physical exercise into the classroom)
4 corners.
5 jumping jacks, take a selfie, trace your name with your tongue, nose, finger…
ATTENTION GRABBERS
Another strategy is Attention Grabbers. They consist of when the students are distracted, the teacher will start with a sentence, and the students have to finish it. Eg:
Teacher says: ‘Hocus Pocus’ and students continue saying’ Everybody focus!’
‘Ready to rock?’ And pupils say ‘Ready to roll!’. In this way, we get your attention back to the task at hand.
CONTROL NOISE
‘Traffic light’: A poster imitating a traffic light and a photo of the group. Stick it in one colour or another depending on their behaviour. Rewards if they stay most of the time in the green light.
Gamification: Superheroes/ or points.
INPUT HYPOTHESIS
Language input refers to the language STs are exposed to: teacher’s talk, listening activities, reading passages, and the language heard and read outside of class.
According to STEPHEN KRASHEN explains in his book The Input Hypothesis, 1985, :
Language input should be presented ‘roughly tuned’, this means a step above STs’ current lang. level but that they can understand (i+1) while giving them new structures or vocabulary.
In contrast, lang input can also be ‘finely tuned’, which implies specific structures to be analised at the moment in class. Eg. The pronunciation of a word, the contrast in the uses of two verb tenses, useful social formulas, etc.
One of our TASKS is to facilitate them L and R comprehension, talking to them at a pace they can understand or doing different actv insisting on grammatical structures or vocabulary before doing a L or R.
ORAL SKILLS
LAW
- art.13 of the RD 126/14, O.L. is a priority in learning a FL because we use it for more comm. tasks than W.L.
It is essential to dedicate time to develop L/S in our FL classroom.
o D.108/14: Block of contents
BLOCK 1: ORAL COMPREHENSION: STs have to be able to UNDERSTAND V & N.V. SMS in the FL
BLOCK 2: ORAL PRODUCTION: STs have to be able to PRODUCE V&NV sms in the FL.
o D 88/17 Establishes that all levels must devote 1 hour to teaching oral CC.
LISTENING
DEFINITION: L.Cameron, 01: the ability to understand spoken lang.
Plays an important role in FLT because it provides a great input for the learner.
One of OUR TASKS is to speak English at all times with them. Finally, after hearing the same expression over and over again, they will be able to express themselves freely.
SPEAKING:
DEFINITION: L.Cameron: the active use to express meanings.
Speaking is a complex skill and difficult:
Before using words in guided Sp, STs need to be provided with plenty of Comprehensible Input through Visual aids/non.verb. or Listening from T. (Newton & Nation 09 principles to teach O Skills)
CHARACTERISTICS ORAL SKILLS
- is time bound, SP: there is no time to look for the most appropriate way of expressing the sms; L: the sms is temporary and requires constant attention.
It is considered a challenge skill for learners. In this case, we need to use strategies and techniques to improve this.
TECNIQUES: Comprehensible input, Visual aids, N-V. comm. (gestures, body lang, facial expressions) and prosodics elements (rhythm, stress, intonation), storyteller facilitate comprehension and offer contextual support.
ACTIVITIES PRE- LISTENING
When doing L/S actvs we need to help them develop strategies and go through stages that can aid their comprehension. Jeremy Harmer explains in his book ‘How to teach English’, 2007 the steps to follow in a listening lesson are pre-, while- and post-listening activities.
Pre-L: Prepare the STs for what they are going to listen in order to build confidence and familiarise with the topic and recall previous knowledge. It may consist of a brainstorming to introduce new vocabulary.
o Brain walking: put the images around the class and they have to predict the topic.
- ZOOM IN (VTR): We project an image about the topic through Genially digital tool with maximum zoom range. Here, there is a spotlight that illuminates a part of the image. Little by little we zoom out until they guess it.
(enables Sts to see that it’s instant to be open-minded and flexible (conflict resolution: RD 10)
VIDEO WATCHING: Motivating especially if the character in the video are their same age.
SILENT-VIEWING: We can play the whole video without sound and ask them what is happening.
FREEZING THE VIDEO: We also can play just a few seconds of video and ask our pupils to predict what is going to happen next.
ACTVS WHILE-LISTENING
While-L: Engage with the text. It should be heard more than once xk the STs might need time to understand the concepts. We can help comprehension with visual back up: Video, pictures, T’s action. Children do activities to put into practice listening sub-skills.
We can distinguish between Extensive and Intensive Listening defined by MARY UNDERWOOD, explained in topic 7.
Extensive: to understand the global meaning of the audio.
ALL
- Listen the conversation and put in order daily routines pictures(have a shower, have dinner, wake up) as they appear in the audio.
4-6º
- JIGSAW VIDEO: 1.Divide the class into groups and each group watches a different part of the video. 2. groups explain the parts they have seen to the rest of the class.
3. In common decide and put in order the video.
o TPR: STs act out a word, sentence, demonstrating their listening comprehension.
Intensive: involves listening for specific information ( listening to find answers for specific questions ) (gap-fills, Multp-choice, paragraph in order)
o ICT: guessing games, listen and click, listen and match, making pairs, spotting the differences… LearnEnglishkids.org
- Lyricstraining (SONGS)
Offers brief music videos with exercises. We can choose diff difficulty levels and are asked to fill in gaps. This forces STs to focus on vocabulary and structure.
Use songs that they already know and from their interest.
ACTVS POST-LISTENING
Its objective is to reinforce the lang introduced, practicing in a freer way.
CSI (VTR)
Capture the essence of ideas taken from their Viewing/Listen
1. Sts select a COLOUR that represents the essence of the source.
2. Create a simple SYMBOL for the source (circle, arc, )
3. Think of a more complex IMAGE that represents their feelings.
(Foster disscussion and see different viewpoints)
o Transfer info to a digital format (DC/CLC)
- Podcast through Audacity tool and upload to Ivoox to store.
- Canva: used to make posters in a very intuitive way.
- Wordclouds.com (creates colourful, attention grabbing word clouds)
Other group of STs can record the performances of their classmate in order to include as a sample of their learning progress, in their European Language Portfolio, following the recommendation of the Council of Europe.
SPEAKING ACTVS (ESA)
SPEAKING ACTIVITIES
J. Harmer, introduced the P-P-P lesson structure on production activities. Years later, Harmer suggested an alternative to the PPP model called ESA which are described below:
Engage : the teacher gets the STs’ attention which is one of the vital for successful learning. frequently engage pupils include: games, songs, flashcards, videos or realia.
Study: the STs become active and practice the language and its usage through discovery activities: crosswords, riddles, puzzles, questions and answers, example sentences, games, matching, bingo games, FC games, kaboom.
Correct them as many times as necessary until they know how to use the language accurately.
Activate: they use lang as freely and communicatively as they can, as in real life.
o role-plays, advertisement design, debates and discussions, describe and draw, writing in groups, e-mail exchanges, etc.
So we correct only the mistakes that impede communication.
Here is an example of ESA lesson for 3rd level of Primary for teaching grammatical items ‘can’ and ‘can’t’ is the following: E: STs watch a video of modern robots and we discuss what they are doing. S: The teacher shows STs a particular robot. STs are introduced to ‘can’ and ‘can’t’ and say things like ‘It can do maths’ and ‘It can’t play the piano’. A: STs work in groups and design their own robot. They make a presentation to the class saying what their robot can and can’t do.
An example of ESA lesson for 1st level of Primary about food
E: Put a banana, cookie, in a paper bag, walk around the room and invite students to smell or touch. Ask“What’s in the bag?”
S: Show pictures of foods and drinks and repeat after the Teacher. Draw a happy face and a sad on the board. Point out the happy face, hold up a banana picture and say “I like a banana”. Move over to the sad face, Ask “What do you like?”. Then, we do several FC games so that STs memorise the new vocab. (food chain: 1 St I like apples, next: I like apples and bananas, consecutively…)
A 1 phase: Put STs into 2 groups. The group says to other “I like milk”, the other group has to find the milk FC then put it under the happy face on the board and shout “I like milk.”
A 2 phase: Students draw foods and drinks, what they like and don’t like. They show their picture to the class and talk about their like and dislike.
T can record the performance so STs can include it in their digital ELP as a sample of their Sp progress, as the Council of Europe recommends for the learning of languages.
PHONICS
- art 13 of the RD 126/14, Oral language is a priority in learning a FL.
- The conversation assistant.
- Our center’s multilingual program emphasizes oral expression for its improvement.
- According to D 88/17, schools have to dedicate one hour a week to focus on oral.
Phonics: refers to a method for teaching children to read and write in Eng.
The most common well-known types of phonics approaches are Synthetic phonics and Analytical phonics:
- Synthetic phonics: Jolly Phonics: phonemes associated with particular graphemes are pronounced in isolation and blended together.
Eg. Cat: pronounce a phoneme for each letter in turn /k, ae, t/ and blend the phonemes together to form a word.
Jolly Phonics: set of fantastic resources to use with the children. 42 sounds divided into 7 blocks. (songs on YouTube)
- Analytical phonics: Recognise whole words by sight and later break down the word into the smaller units of sound. Children analyse the common phoneme in a set of words with the = phoneme: pat, park, push, pen.
STRATEGIES
- Work on 1 sound per week (simplest sounds and move onto vowel combination)
- FCs: Associate letter-sound-picture helps their memory and understanding.
- Combine with movement.
- Show FCs and repeat with me.
- Label equipment; classroom language/ routines on the walls/windows.
- Free writing area corner.
- Magnetic, plasticine letters and alphabet games.
- Special ‘letter days’. children bring objects with begin with a particular letter.
- Introduce in high frequency words using personal pictures dictionaries.
- Create a ‘travelling book’.
Learning pronunciation: listening and repeat, reading aloud, songs, dialogues, singing songs….more freely: RPs, drama acts. Record them to check it.
SPANISH DIFFICULTIES (SP/L ACTVS)
-One of the difficulties presented in my group are vowel sounds. Sometimes they pronounce them too long or too short. This can lead to embarrassing misunderstandings such as ‘Miss, can I have a sheeeet?.
As Ann baker explained in her book ‘Ship or Sheep?’ it is advisable to practice minimal pairs that differ in the vowel sound. For example, /i/ like ‘bit’ or /i:/ ‘bee’.
o Minimal pair game. Students should run and touch one of two walls in the classroom: the right wall for “bit” and “bin”and the left wall for “bee”,“bean”. TPR
o Word Bingo: pupils have to faced down word cards when they are called out.
- the letters ‘V ‘and ‘B’ are pronounced the same among my students and these can cause some confusion. For instance, ‘Have you seen the Voice?’ or ‘Have you seen the boys? ´
o Game: ‘I have, who has?’: Children sit in a circle and each player may have 2 cards, (but I give more cards for those who need a challenge and we pair them with learners who may need extra support.) So, a student calls out his card: ‘I have a ‘boat’ who has ‘vote’?, the student who has ‘vote’ will read next. The game will continue until all cards have been called.
- Add an ‘e’ to the beginning of words starting with ‘s’ and a consonant. As a result, they pronounce the words ‘street’ and ‘school’ as ‘estreet’ or ‘eschool’.
o Use tongue twisters in order to repeat the same sound over and over. try saying a tongue twister five time. First slowly, then get quicker and quicker: ‘SpongeBob SquarePants speaks Spanish at school’.
Once they are feeling more confident with the phonemic chart, they can do some listening practice through ‘English Accent Coach’, an online game to discriminate the different sounds of English.
READING AND WRITING PHONICS
oREADING: YouTube, many songs can be played with a lyric/ Karaoke VERSION (LYRICSTRAINING)
oWRITING Dictation: practices phonological awareness and concept of word.
