These refer to the purposes for which we use language in the classroom.
Think about a basic PPP lesson. How many functions might the teacher need at the presentation stage?
Here are some common classroom exponents. What function do you think is being served in each?
1. "Ok everybody, please look at the board."
2. "What can you see in this picture?"
3. "What do we call a person who designs houses, an arch....."
4. "Listen carefully: He works as an architect".
5. "Does he work in a hospital?"
6. "Min Su - does he work in a bank?"
7. "Ok, I'd like you to take a look at this sentence and tell me what is missing."
The answers are: Getting learners' attention, eliciting, prompting, modelling, concept checking, nominating and instructing.
It is important to consider appropricacy when choosing our exponents for classroom functions. We need to think about our classroom environment and our learners' characteristics. We also need to think about grading our language, making it clear exactly what we want our learners to do.
"So, ah. I'd kind of like you guys to open your book to page fifty.....fifty four, no sorry, fifty five and ah, look at the text."
Think carefully about sequencing your instructions. Do you want to explain what you want students to do with a handout before you distribute it or after? Why?
Learners also need language to express particular functions in the classroom. Take a look at some of these common learner exponents. What functions do they serve?
1. "Sorry I don't understand."
2. "Could I have the answer to number 2 please?"
3. "Do we start on page 4?"
4. "An architect is a person who designs buildings."
5. "I don't think that is right".
Answers: Expressing confusion, checking answers, asking for clarification, providing a definition and disagreeing.
Learner functional exponents are often taught as chunks e.g. "Excuse me, could I borrow your _____?" and are generally neutral ore neutral/formal in style.
This language can be used by students outside the classroom, in different contexts so it is worth spending some time modelling and practising it with our learners.
Teachers plan what their whiteboard will look like at different stages of the lesson (hopefully not like this) and often include this outline in their lesson plan.
Of course whiteboards are only one type of aid (resources and equipment available to us). While many schools still use OHPs, many schools have interactive whiteboards, access to language laboratories, the Internet, CD players, DVD players etc.
Can you remember the definition of realia? How about flashcards? Puppets?
It is important that we choose aids that match our learners' needs and integrate them into our procedures to ensure that our lesson flows smoothly.
Can you list four or five reasons for wanting to use supplementary materials in the classroom? Use these phrases to guide your answer.
Coursebook material (Suitable for learners age, background? Complete? Relevant to needs?)
Extra practice, extending.
Variety (methodology, activities)
Brainstorm a list of different supplementary materials that can be used in the classroom and decide what are some possible advantages and disadvantages for them.
For an overview of some supplementary books (for skills and language) and free samples visit the Copy Collection at Cambridge University Press.
In the ideal world, teachers would choose their coursebook based on their students' needs (level; perhaps with the use of a placement test, learning preferences, learning background, areas of language difficulty; perhaps with the use of a diagnostic test, and topics of interest).
Unfortunately the practicalities of modern language teaching mean that often our coursebook package is already chosen for us. However, this doesn't mean that we can't adapt our materials to make them more suitable for our learners.
ProblemSolution
The material is too easy/difficult for my learners.
The tasks are too long/short.
The topics don't match my learners' interests.
My students get bored with the same format.
The activities don't provide real world practice.
What solutions can you suggest for these common problems?
In TKT reference resources refers to all sources of information about language and teaching which we use in our lesson preparation. Think back to your time as a language learner. What resources (beyond the course book) did your teacher use?
Here are some reasons for using reference resources. What resources could you match to each reason?
To check the form and use of grammar structures.
To check the spelling, pronunciation and use of lexis.
To develop the teachers' understanding of language.
Can you label the above dictionary entry with these headings?
Headword, word family, part of speech, pronunciation, denotative meaning, figurative meaning, transitive/intransitive, example sentence.
How many assessment activities can you recall? Here are some to get you started: Cloze Gapfill Sentence transformation....
When you have your list of assessment activities, decide if they are more suited to formal or informal assessment, if marking is objective or subjective and which skills they can be used to test.
Here we are discussing planning both of individual lessons and a sequence of lessons. For some additional background to the topic of planning, take a look at pages 2-13 in Action Plans for Teachers by Robertson and Acklam.
Use these questions to guide your review of Unit 20.
1. What three things must we think about when planning a lesson?
2. What approaches can be used to introduce new grammatical structures?
3. What are the likely stages of a skills-based lesson focusing on:
(a) receptive skills?
(b) productive skills?
4. What can help you identify possible procedures?
5. What else must we also think about/
6. What is a sequence of lessons?
7. What are the three examples of possible sequences given in the course book?
8. How can the sequence of lessons help teachers?
9. Is it enough to have clear aims within each lesson only? Why/why not?
10. What are the characteristics of a good scheme of work?
11. What aer the characteristics of a good lesson plan?
Consider these questions carefully and in class we will do a practice activity to check your grasp of these concepts.
There are quite a few specialised terms in this area.
Can you differentiate between formal and informal assessment?
How about summative and formative? Which one is often used to provide feedback to both learners and teachers allowing them to make relevant changes to their learning or teaching?
Which one focuses on how well students have learned the contents of the course, often receiving a grade at the end?
In class we talked about assessment types and the reasons for them. Can you complete the information below?
Test typeWhy?
1. Diagnostic
2. To find out which class is best suited to our students.
3. Progress test
4. Less stressful than an exam.
Maybe gives a more accurate picture.
5. Portfolios
6. To see how well students know the contents of the course
7. Proficiency test
Assessment task types can be broadly divided into what two categories? One is based on the idea that there is only one right answer while the other type is more open, requiring the marker to make a judgement of how right an answer is.
What else do we need to think about when assessing our learners?
Certain task types are best suited to certain skills and systems. For example: Matching, creating lexical sets and word building with affixes, may be best suitable for assessing vocabulary. Gap-fill tasks, error correction and sentence completion, could be suited to grammar. Can you think of task types that could be used to assess a students performance in the four skills? What subskills do they focus on?
Do the tasks reflect what we have been teaching in class?
Are we providing useful feedback to our students or simply highlighting their errors?
We shouldn't choose certain task types simply because they are easy to mark. Are our subjective tasks being scored fairly? i.e. have we tried to make them less subjective by choosing appropriate criteria? (see below).
Are we using a mix of formal and informal assessment?
Are self-assessment and peer-assessment suitable for our learners?
In class we looked in detail at two popular approaches to teaching language: PPP and TBL.
Can you remember what these stand for?
Which one has the focus on form at the beginning of the lesson and which at the end?
Which one emphasises the use of controlled practice activities to allow learners a chance to use the new form in a safe environment?
PPP often features in the structural approach which sees language as a system of structures used to communicate meaning.It emphasises oral accuracy and drilling playss an important role.
Here is a brief summary of some other approaches which arise in the TKT exam. For more detailed information check out here.
The Lexical approach sees vocabulary as being the key to language. Remember: without grammar communication is difficult but without vocabulary it is impossible. Authentic texts are an important source of input with this approach, with students noticingchunks of language before producing.
The Functional approach, as the name suggests, sees functions as being the most important part of language. It tends to use the PPP approach to teaching and is focused on communicative needs.
Communicativeapproaches highlight the importance of interaction, incorporating functions and topics relevant to the students' needs. Tasks are mostly communicative (with some focus on form) and are often based on authentic materials.
Grammar-Translation approach centres on form and asks students to apply grammar rules while translating from L1 to L2 or vice versa. Accuracy is a major focus.
Total Physical Response is based on the idea that learners learn best when doing. Students do what a teacher asks them to do before they themselves give instructions. A silent period is expected (as with L1 acquisition) at lower levels. This approach is mainly used with young learners, beginners and kinesthetic learners.
Guided discovery makes use of inductive techniques to allow students to explore and work out patterns and rules in the language. Many teachers use features of this style as part of an eclectic approach.
Content-based approaches uses relevant topics to present grammar, vocabulary and functions. Real life contexts are used to increase motivation by connecting language to its use outside the classroom.
Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is an extension of content-based learning and describes the teaching of other subjects through the medium of English e.g. science in high school.
As we saw in our section on learner characteristics, our learners have unique needs which we as teachers must meet. What do you think might be some negative consequences if we fail to address our learners' needs?
The TKT Course book identifies three general categories of needs. Can you remember what they are? Use these examples to help structure your answer.
1. ___________ needs.
e.g. challenge, support, praise, goals, learning expectations.
2. ___________ needs.
e.g. preferred ways of learning. target language, certain subskills, autonomy.
3. ___________ needs.
e.g. specific vocabulary and grammar, specific functions, specific text types.
It is important that you know how the teacher can meet these needs. Brainstorm some ideas related to each of the three needs before referring to pages 57,58 of your course book.
We need to consider what approach would best suit our learners. We must be careful in selecting our materials and ensure our topics are relevant. Our activities and interaction patterns should reflect their personal and learning needs and we also need to consider what method of correction and feedback would be most beneficial to our learners.
Of course it isn't possible to always meet all our students' needs. It is important however to remember that if students don't learn the way we teach, we must teach the way they learn.
Learner characteristics are what make our students different to each other. It is a very general term that can include their motivation, preferred learning styles, learning strategies they use and there previous learning experiences.
In class we looked at different learning styles. Can you complete the learning styles below?
V_________
A_________
K_________
G_________
In_________
R_________
Im________
Take a look at this course book extract and firstly identify the target language.
What type of learner do you think these activities would be suitable for? How could we change the activity to make it more appealing to kinaesthetic, auditory and group learners while still keeping the focus on prepositions of place?
Of course learning styles is only on part of learner characteristics. The students' knowledge and use of learning strategies is also a key difference between one student and another. Can you remember how CCEL helps students to develop and practise their own learning strategies? What does ILP stand for? What is a synonym for independent in this context?
Learning styles and learning strategies can also be influenced by a student's previous learning experience. Perhaps a student come from a culture where the teacher is the centre of the learning environment. The idea of a student-centred classroom where group work, peer teaching etc. takes place might be a bit of a shock to them. In this case the teacher is responsible for easing the transition into this new environment. We must be non-judgemental while explaining the reasons for our teaching approach and make sure the students see the learning outcomes of our activities.
Take a look at this excellent article by Scott Thornbury on how to balance the needs of an individual while also encouraging group work.
In the section on Exposure and Focus on form we looked at some similarities between learning our first language (L1) and learning a second language (L2). There are some very important differences between these two types of language learning. How many can you think of? Use these key words to guide you:
Duration of learning?
Ways of learning?
Motivation?
Interaction?
Input?
Grading?
Correction?
What do these differences affect how we teach? How can we personalise the learning process as much as possible? How can we help create and maintain motivation among our students? How can we help our students get exposure to authentic language? Should we simplify or grade our language?
Traditionally, mistakes in language learning were seen as negative. Research has shown however, that mistakes are a natural and necessary part of the learning process as they show that we are practising the language, experimenting and attempting to communicate.
In TKT we divide mistakes into two broad categories: slips and errors.
Slips are mistakes which a student can usually correct themselves. Perhaps the student is tired or under pressure and often, when they realise their mistake, they can self-correct. For example: "He come....sorry, comes from Korea". Errors are mistakes which students can't correct themselves. They are usually because a student has tried to use language beyond their current level or perhaps it is a mistake in language processing.
Can you recall the two main reasons for errors? One relates to the students' L1, for example, a Korean student using an incorrect subject-object-verb structure instead of the correct subject-verb-object. What is this type of error called?
The second is related to processing,e.g. an elementary level student making a mistake with the past tense. What do we call this type of error?
Other key terms in this unit include interlanguage, overgerneralisation and fossilised errors. If you are not confidant that you understand these terms, please refer to the TKT glossary.
Here is an extract from www.onestopenglish.com where a teacher has posted the following question:
How can students overcome fossilized errors? … by the time they get to upper-intermediate/advanced level....they are reluctant to sacrifice fluency at the expense of accuracy. I guess this latter is an attitude problem so how can I as a teacher convince them to value accuracy?
Brainstorm some ideas before clicking here to see what Scott Thornbury suggests. Notice his use of the term interlanguage.
A typical TKT task would be to categorise a list of learner mistakes into either slips or errors and then to further categorise them into a system e.g. grammar, lexis and/or into developmental or fossilised.
How do you think you can practise for a question like this?
Can you recall the three main ways in which we learn foreign languages?
Which one is a synonym for 'picking up' language?
Which way relates to our desire to communicate?
Which one is connected with the formal features of a language?
Which two of the three ways are the inspiration for these course book extracts?
Fig 1.
Fig 2.
Figure 1 is an example of a course book focusing on form, in this case students are asked to notice the use of prepositions and nouns. Figure 2 has more of an interactive approach, in this case looking at the functions of giving or refusing permission.
In the past, methods such as the Grammar-Translation method or the Structural approach emphasised focus on form while not relating it to communicative functions. Similarly, some communicative approaches emphasises fluency in interactions without a focus on form. The theories behind acquisition and exposure inspired the Listening approach which promoted extensive listening as the best way to learn a language.
Current research suggests that all three ways are necessary for successful language learning. We call this an eclectic approach. The two extracts above (figures 1 and 2) actually come from the same course book.
A course may have elements from each of the three ways and our focus on acquisition,interaction and focus on form will be influenced by a variety of factors which we will look at over the coming days.
Stephen Krashen is a professor at the University of Southern California. He was a pioneer of the Listening approach (based, in part, on theories of acquisition). In this video he highlights the importance of comprehensible input i.e. making sure that our students can understand the language we expose them to.
noun, motivate verb: motivation is the thoughts and feelings which make us want to do something and help us continue doing it.
In language learning, motivation affects how successful a student is at learning a language. It includes our reasons for learning the language (e.g. One Japanese businessman is learning English because he wants to immigrate to Australia. Another Japanese businessman is studying English in order to get a promotion at work - they are both motivated but for different reasons), how much time we have available for learning and also how much hard work we are prepared to do in order to learn the language.
Motivation is not a static object, it is always changing. Unmotivated students can become motivated with the right help from a teacher, a parent or a classmate. Motivated students can become demotivated with the wrong learning environment.
As teachers we are required to help a student maintain their motivation during their course. We can do this by :
paying attention to our learners' needs and their language learning goals.
Speaking is one of two productive skills in English. What is the other one?
Just like writing, the language we use in speaking depends on the text type we are using to communicate through. For example, chatting to a friend would require a lower level of formality and therefor a different register than having a job interview. And as with writing, successful speaking involves accuracy, fluency, coherence, cohesion and appropriacy of language based on context.
The speaking skill can be further divided into subskills. For example:
- Accurate use of language (e.g. grammar: correct choice of structure, correct form etc. lexis: appropriacy etc. phonology: use of intonation etc.)
- Paraphrasing (conveying the same message through different language).
- Asking for clarification.
- Use of interactive strategies (to keep an interaction alive).
In the classroom we can help our students develop speaking subskills through a range of relevant activities. For example, an individual drill could help ensure that a student is using the accurate intonation for an utterance, a role-play activity could be used to practise the interactive strategy of turn-taking.
Speaking lessons generally consist of three stages:
1. A lead-in stage where new language is focused on or presented.
2. A practice stage, moving from controlled practice to freer practice.
3. An extension stage where students get further, often personalised practice.
Can you identify the three stages listed above?
What speaking subskills are practised in this lesson?
In the lesson plan, pre-speaking task 2 is an example of an integrated skills activity as it provides listening practice related to the topic. Why would a teacher decide to include a listening (or perhaps reading) section in a speaking lesson?
One of the main ideas relating to the listening skill is how spoken language differs from written language.
How many differences between spoken and written language can you recall?
Use these words to structure your answer.
- Durability.
- Formality.
- Complexity of language.
- Visual support.
- Structure.
While some listening subskills are similar to reading subskills, i.e. receptive skills, there are some obvious differences.
Predicting is a very useful listening subskill as it can help prepare us for a text, activating our background/previous knowledge and help provide a context.
Other subskills which are related to those we looked at in our Reading section include; listening for gist, listening for detail, inferring attitude and deducing meaning from context.
At a more basic level we can see differences between listening and reading subskills, for example, identifying minimal pairs, identifying important words through sentence stress and other features of connected speech.
What does all this mean for our classroom?
We have decisions to make before doing a listening activity with our students.
What subskills do we want our students to practise? It is common to practise a range of subskills in one listening lesson. For example you could ask younger students to listen for rhyming words or examples of minimal pairs.
Do we want to use an audio or video format? Video provides more context and allows students to observe gestures and facial expressions.
Will we use authentic materials or simplified materials? Authentic materials can be more challenging but also more rewarding, while simplified materials can help build our students' listening confidence.
What types of tasks do we want our students to complete? This will be influenced by which subskill we want to practise and the type of text we are using.
There is a common structure to listening tasks that includes three main components.
1. Pre-listening tasks.
2. Main activities.
3. Post-listening tasks.
Here is an example of tasks from a video/listening lesson. At which stage (1,2 or 3) do you think these tasks would be used?
Now try to match some of these goals to either part 1,2 or 3 above.
a) To allow students further practice of language they have heard.
b) To check students general understanding of the text.
c) To help create a context.
d) To encourage students to link the content to their experiences.
e) To develop students' ability to infer attitude.
f) To activate any previous knowledge students may have on the topic.
Answers: 1. (c,f) 2. (b,e) 3. (a, d).
For some excellent examples of structured listening activities visit Randall's ESL Lab.
Is writing a productive skill or receptive skill? What does this mean?
The text type we write will depend on the purpose for which we are writing. An academic essay and a text message are both examples of writing but of course there will be major differences in layout, structure, register and grammar.
Just like we saw in Unit 5: Reading, writing also has a variety of subskills. Depending on the needs of their students, teachers generally focus on the two broad areas of communicating ideas effectively i.e. with cohesion and coherence, and accuracy in writing.
Communicating ideas effectively could include practising subskills such as choosing the correct register for the text type, correctly using topic sentences and the effective use of paragraphs.
A focus on accuracy also requires various writing subskills and these include areas such as correct spelling, punctuation and the right choice of vocabulary. Teachers use a variety of activities to help their students to focus on their accuracy e.g. adding punctuation (see example below), proofreading tasks and sentence transformation.
Two distinct methods of teaching writing are the product and process approaches.
In the product approach, students are provided with a model of a text type which shows the features of that type of writing, including layout, structure, register etc. Students then use this example to help them produce their own writing.
The process approach is a step-by-step way of guiding students through the writing beginning with pre-writing activities such as brainstorming, followed by drafting, proofreading and re-drafting.
Can you think of a teaching context when one approach would be more beneficial than the other?
For a clear comparison of process and product writing, take a look at this article from the Teaching English website.
...a text is cohesive if its elements are linked together. A text is coherent if it makes sense. It should be clear that these are not the same thing. That is, a text may be cohesive (i.e. linked together), but incoherent (i.e. meaningless). Here is one such (invented) text:
I am a teacher. The teacher was late for class. Class rhymes with grass. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. But it wasn't.
Each sentence is notionally linked to the one that precedes it, using both lexical and grammatical means, but the text is ultimately senseless - to me anyway (and I wrote it!).
The following (much quoted) exchange, however, is coherent to most people, even though there are no obvious links between its parts:
A: There's the phone.
B: I'm in the bath. A: OK.
It is coherent because we can easily imagine a context in which it would make sense.
Put simply, then: cohesion is a formal feature of texts (it gives them their texture), while coherence is "in the eye of the beholder" - that is to say, it is the extent to which the reader (or listener) is able to infer the writer's (or speaker's) communicative intentions. Thus, cohesion is objectively verifiable, while coherence is more subjective. A text may be coherent to you, but incoherent to me.
In the last paragraph Thornbury says that coherence reflects the readers ability to infer the intention of the writer. Can you remember the example of inferring which we discussed in class, the restaurant review?
The ability to infer is one of the subskills of the receptive skill of reading. How many other subskills can you recall? What subskill might you use in the following situations?
a) You check a sports website to see if you favourite football team has won.
b) You are in a library deciding between two books which you would like to borrow.
c) You are applying for a new passport and are reading the "important information" section on the first page.
d) You are reading a novel and come across the sentence: He had worked in Kirchen before moving to Berlin in 2004. You have never seen the word 'Kirchen' before.
For situation 'a' you could use the subskill of scanning, i.e. reading for specific information. You are not interested in the baseball or tennis news so you scan for the football scores.
Skimming, i.e. reading for gist would probably be most useful in situation 'b'. You could look through the books quickly and get a general feel about their content before choosing the one which interested you most.
You would need to read for detail in situation c to ensure you fully understood the text.
In situation d you would hopefully realise that Kirchen is a proper noun (it has a capital K). You would also notice that it is preceded by the preposition 'in'. By putting these two pieces of information together you could deduce that Kirchen is the name of a town or city.
The ability to understand text structure can also be a useful subskill. For example, biographies of dead people generally follow a chronological sequence: they begin with their birth, give details about their life and finally end with their death. Here is an outline of the Wikipedia article on Welsh actor Stanley Baker:
1. Early career
2. Stardom
3. Personal life
4. Death
5. Legacy
6. Filmography
7. References
A good understanding of text structure helps a reader know where in the text they are and this can help them predict what information will come next.
How does all of this relate to the classroom? Take a look at this gradedarticle and tasks from http://www.onestopenglish.com/. The topic is the financial crisis in Greece.
What do you think is the purpose of the lead-in activity in part 1?
What are some benefits of pre-teaching vocabulary in part 2?
Is the task in part 3 practising the subskill of skimming or scanning?
What are some benefits of the post-task activity in part 4?
Another key phrase on the topic of reading is extensive reading. If you are unsure of the meaning of this term, refer to the TKT glossary. In this article, Alan Maley discusses some of the benefits of extensive reading. Top of the list is:
There is no cheaper or more effective way to develop learner autonomy. Reading is, by its very nature, a private, individual activity. It can be done anywhere, at any time of day. Readers can start and stop at will, and read at the speed they are comfortable with. They can visualise and interpret what they read in their own way. They can ask themselves questions (explicit or implicit), notice things about the language, or simply let the story carry them along.
We briefly discussed learner autonomy in class today. Can you remember some synonyms for autonomy in this context?
We can communicate using language systems (e.g. grammar, lexis) and language skills (e.g. speaking). A function describes why we communicate.
Imagine your best friend, a person you are extremely close to. You meet them for a coffee and they act a little strange towards you, a little cold. You suddenly remember you forgot their birthday last week. Now you have a reason to communicate, you have to apologise. Apologising is an example of a function.
What do you say? "I'm so sorry, it slipped my mind". This is an example of an exponent i.e. the language we use to express a function.
The same exponent can have different functions depending on the context (the situation in which it is used).
What different contexts can you imagine the utterance "I enjoy Italian food" being used in? What would be the function in each context?
Could it be stating a like, stating a preference or disagreeing?
The function we choose is also connected to how formal/informal we want to be. How would you express the function of greeting when speaking with your boss. Would you say "Yo boss, wassup?' You could but you might have to look for new job tomorrow. This exponent would be inappropriate in this context. Perhaps it is better to use the more neutral "hello".
By combining grammatical structures and a functional approach we can make the language meaningful for our students.
For a list of common functions in English, take a look here.
For further reading on the functional approach to teaching, visit here.
Phonemes are one of the four features of phonology in TKT. What are the other three?
1. Phonemes.
What are the differences between phonemes, phonemic symbols, phonemic script and the phonemic chart?
What are diphthongs and monophthongs?
Which consonant sounds are voiced and unvoiced?
You need to be familiar with the phonemic chart for the TKT exam. If you are haven't studied it before or if you need to brush up on your knowledge, take a look at this excellent interactive phonemic chart from the British Council. A smart phone/tablet app is available for download here.
2. Word stress
Firstly you can practise deciding how many syllables are in a word. Remember that the length of the word often does not reflect the number of syllables. Saying words out loud can help make sure you are counting correctly.
Secondly decide which syllable do we stress, i.e. say with more energy. In a dictionary, this is often marked with a ' before the syllable which is stressed, e.g. be'fore. Other syllables are said with less energy.
Sentence stress
We can divide utterances into content words and function words. Content words carry the meaning of the utterance and function words provide the grammar. In the utterance "Yuri ate sushi for lunch", the function word is 'for'. Generally these function words are not vital to the meaning and are often pronounced in their weak form, i.e. for is pronounced /fə/ as opposed to /fɔ:/.
The most important word in the sentence, i.e. the word that is vital to the meaning, is usually said with primary/main stress. This means that it is said higher, longer or louder. In the above sentence about Yuri we can change which word has the main stress depending on what part we want to highlight. This is called contrastive stress.
Yuri ate sushi for lunch. (not noodles)
Yuri ate sushi for lunch. (not dinner) Yuri ate sushi for lunch. (not Yuka).
The contrast between main stress, secondary stress and unstressed words (weak forms) gives English its rhythm.
Remember in class we talked about 'pets enter' versus 'pet centre'? That was an example of linking. The most common type of linking is when one word ends in a consonant and the next word begins with a vowel. When spoken at a natural pace the end consonant, e.g. the 's' in 'pets' attaches to the first vowel of the next word, e.g. 'e' in enter. Thus /pet enter/ sounds exactly like /pets center/.
Sentence stress and linking are both examples of connected speech.
Another characteristic of connected speech is intonation.
3. Intonation
How we say something is as important (or maybe more) that what we say.
Imagine your friend invites you to their house for dinner. Instead of cooking you a delicious meal like they promised, they serve you a cup of instant ramyen! You might say 'delicious!' but how you say it could mean:
a) It really is delicious! Ramyen is my favourite food and this particular one is really tasty. (Genuine)
b) This is not delicious. Where is my lobster? (Sarcasm)
c) I have never tasted ramyen before so I have no idea if this is delicious or not. (Doubt)
These different meanings are conveyed by the intonation i.e. the change in the voice level.
Lexis is not a Japanese luxury car manufacturer, it is the stock of words in a language. It is one of two language systems we have looked at. Can you remember the other?
Key areas here are different meanings (denotative and figurative), grouping words (e.g. lexical sets, word families etc.), word form (e.g. affixes, compounds etc.) and use (e.g. collocations, idioms etc.).
Test yourself with these questions:
1) What are buy/by/bye examples of?
2) How about trunk (of a car) and trunk (of a tree)?
3) Take a look at this advertisement from The Netherlands. The Dutch word for the determiner 'this one' is "Die". Of course the kid is not wishing his mother misfortune, this is a funny example of what?
Paul Nation is a respected expert on vocabulary and works at Victoria University in Wellington. He thinks the goals of a vocabulary learning programme should be:
1. The learning of useful vocabulary that helps learners' language learning goals such as learning English for academic study, for social uses or for particular purposes such as reading newspapers and watching TV.
2. Retaining the learning so that the vocabulary knowledge is still available after the course ends.
3. Making the vocabulary available for meaning-focused use both receptively and productively.
What do you think Paul means by useful vocabulary? What are the learners' language learning goals so important? Can you remember your goals when you decided to learn English? How did these affect your vocabulary learning?
What do you think he means in number 3, receptively and productively? Do you remember how many key words are in the Longman dictionary? Do you think these are receptive or productive words?
Can you remember the definition of grammar from the TKT Course book?
It is vital that you know the nine different parts of speech in English, including their examples and functions. It is also useful to know further subcategories of each part e.g. Nouns: Countable, uncountable, proper, common, abstract and collective.
Unit 1 also introduces the idea of form. Can you remember what we compared grammar form to?
It is also important to remember that the meaning of grammatical structures can vary according to the context. How many uses can you think of for the present simple? Aim for five.
For some revision on key grammar areas and also for some excellent examples on presenting grammatical form, check out the Grammar Aquarium.
We discussed how these concepts affect our teaching. How many points relating the the language teaching classroom can you remember?
There is a lot of discussion on the best way to 'teach' grammar. One of the most popular ESL writers is Jim Scrivener. He has over 25 years experience as a teacher and teacher trainer. Even he admits that he does not know what is the best way to deal with grammar and the classroom:
Here’s an example of what I mean. I’ve been working with a pre-intermediate class for the last few weeks, teaching all the usual pre-intermediate early-on-in-the-syllabus stuff. So we’ve had present simple, countable and uncountable nouns, verb + preposition patterns (want to do / enjoy doing), will vs. “going to” etc - I’m sure you know the list as well as I do!
And I do my best teaching, using the coursebook in as lively a way as I can think of, adding in my own board presentations, sparking things up with a quiz or a game at various points, jollying up exercises by running them as races or competitions, slipping in personal touches and personalization where I can link topics to things I know the students are interested in – and so on and so on. In class I get what I usually get – some sense that under these laboratory conditions, with a lot of help and guidance and hints and correction, students can get answers right to exercises, can explain salient parts of the rules, can say almost-intelligible sentences in response to drills and can muddle their way through in pair work dialogues. But does all this mean that they have learnt the grammar? When they return after one day for their next lesson, will they be able to use any of the features I have worked on with them? Fat chance!
This links back to the final key concept and the language teaching classroom idea on page 7 of our coursebook.
Just learning grammatical rules and structures doesn't give learners enough help with learning how to communicate, which is the main purpose of language. So, much language teaching has moved away from teaching only grammar and now teaches, e.g. functions, language skills and fluency as well as grammar.
Of course Jim is being very modest regarding his abilities to 'teach' grammar. He goes on to suggest how he is attempting to do it.
I’d guess that the real learning of grammar goes on very slowly over a long period of time. It requires, I think:
Exposure – a lot of exposure to spoken and written language.
Noticing – an enquiring mind to notice and pick out things that are going on within this language.
Help – of various kinds – to draw attention to features, errors and interesting attempts, as well as summarizing, explaining and clarifying.
Memory – a good memory to store (and later recall) what has been noticed.
Practice – lots of practice – trying again and again – with all the chaos and mistakes and muddles that this involves.
Owning – after this long process, slowly a new item becomes integrated with all the other language that the learner knows and becomes something that the learner can use fluently and freely at will to express meanings they want to convey.
You may have noticed that I've put 'teach' in inverted commas (''). Why do you think I've done that? Do you consider the six steps that Jim mentions as traditional teaching or is it something else? How does the learner training workshop from this morning fit in to this?
The TKT (Teaching Knowledge Test) is a qualification from Cambridge ESOL. It is for people who want to teach English and develop the knowledge they need to become English teachers. It is also ideal for non-native English speakers who are already teaching English, and who would like to improve their knowledge. There is also the TKT Practical for people who want a certificate for their teaching skills. From here.
Our course is six weeks long. Weeks 1 to 4 cover the three core modules of TKT. They are:
Module 1: Background to language teaching.
This module tests your knowledge of the terms and concepts common in English language teaching. It also focuses on the core knowledge underpinning the learning of English and knowledge of the options and resources you can use in the classroom.From here.
Module 2: Planning for language teaching.
This module focuses on the knowledge and skills you need to be able to plan a lesson framework or series of lessons.
Teaching in this context also refers to any assessment required by you to consolidate learning. It also focuses on the resources that are available to guide you in your lesson planning. From here.
Module 3: Classroom management.
This module tests your knowledge of what happens in the classroom during language learning, the teacher’s role and the ways in which you can manage and exploit classroom events and interactions. From here.
Week 5 involves teaching practice. You will plan and teach a variety of lessons for a group of non-native speakers. The purpose of this is to help you see how the theory which you study in weeks 1 to 4 apply to the classroom environment. This teaching practice is not assessed by Cambridge.
Week 6 allows time for revision before the TKT exam which takes place on the Friday of week 6.
Cambridge ESOL have introduced a new module in 2011: TKT practical. This is an optional module which will be assessed by a Cambridge assessor in Week 6. Further information on the TKT Practical module is available here.
This is a blog for the trainees preparing for the TKT Cambridge ESOL exam at CCEL. Our main course book is The TKT Course by Spratt, M., Pulverness, A. and Williams, M. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. 2005. I will follow the structure of the book in this blog as it provides a clear and logical path through the three TKT modules.
The idea behind the blog is two-fold:
Maybe it will help trainees revisit some of the key areas that we have discussed in class.
Perhaps it will provide some extension for those who are interested in learning more about each topic.
Either way, if you have any suggestions, queries etc. please feel free to share them here and I'll try to help
