FRAMEWORKS

Today is July 19th, 2017

Teacher: Orlando Gómez

The class of today will be related with the different skills students should develop whenever they are learning English. For a better comprehension here we have this schema.

As we can see there are two types of skills, productive skills and receptive skills.

• The productive skills are speaking and writing, because learners in here produce language. These are also known as active skills.

• The receptive skills are listening and reading, because learners do not need to produce language to do these, they receive and understand it. These skills are known as passive skills. 

  These are frameworks in which you can include the skills from above:

1- PPP

2- PDP

1- PPP - PRESENTATION, PRACTICE AND PRODUCTION

This is a framework to design speaking and writing lessons, that´s why in here are included vocabulary and grammar, because they are really important for the development of speaking. In few words PPP  creates an organized lesson focused on speaking and writing.

The stages of this framework are:

• Presentation - During this phase, students understand the context being used, and everything related with grammar. 

• Practice - Students practice the speaking skills by doing tasks proposed by the teacher. When you finish the class you can use the wrap up that consist on summarizing the topic around 30 seconds to 3 minutes.

• Production - In here students use the language outside the classroom, in the real world, this is the most important part of the framework because in here you see if students were able to comprehend the material, for example a lecture.

2-PDP - PRE, DURING, AND POST

This one is specially for receptive skills, so it helps teachers to plan and deliver effective listening, video and reading lessons.  

The stages of this framework are:

• Pre: In here students prepare to listen, for example: They speak about their knowledge or and experience with the topic of the listening or reading, moreover, they understand the vocabulary in lectures, or they can predict what is going to be the topic about.

• During: In here students do a series of tasks, for instance reading a lecture or listening an audio and later on, answering questions, listen and arrange pictures, listen read and draw; practically  activities like those.                                                                                             

• Post: This stage is to go further in text activities or listening activities, for example you can ask the students to discuss a topic, do role plays, or create a debate etc, it depends on your creativity. 

When you finish the class you can use "the wrap up" that consist on summarizing the topic around 30 seconds to 3 minutes.

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August 9th, 2017

In this class we will learn how to teach listening in a more dynamic way and with authentic material, So this class has recommendations for students who want to start teaching and actual teachers as well. Let's get started.

HOW TO TEACH LISTENING?

Listening is considered as an active activity because it includes many cognitive processes, but is has two distinctive processes that are: Bottom up and top down.

• ·         Bottom up processing: Decodes a message through analysis of sounds, words and grammar.

• ·         Top-down processing: In this one you use background knowledge to comprehend a message.

This knowledge can be situational, or schemata (related to real world experiences and expectations we have)

Another thing to mention about these two processes is that the have transactional and interactional functions of the language.

   interactional functions: Focus on creating harmonious interaction among individuals

   transactional functions: Focus on the content of the message, and its context.

ACTIVITIES

• ·         Identifying linguistic features: Look for stress activities, minimal pairs, Simon says.
• ·         Interacting as a listener: Eavesdropping (listening during a conversation) 
• ·         Comprehending extended speech: Fill in the blanks in a lecture, taking notes.
• ·         Problem solving activities: For example, solving a murder activity.
• ·         Using media: use the radio, sing songs, see documentaries, etc.

Finally, whenever you want to see the authenticity of listening material you have to check: intonation, pronunciation, speaker domination, complete sentences, pace and background noise.