The unit delved into effective speaking and verbal
corrective feedback. While doing the assigned reading by Scott Thornbury (2005)
How to Teach Speaking, Chapter 2: What Speakers Know. This chapter discussed
the knowledge base of the speakers, which affects their communication. For
example, socio-cultural knowledge, which is very important as lack of it can
cause misunderstanding and can cause offense as well.
There is linguistic knowledge also, that includes knowledge
of grammar, vocabulary, and phonology. One interesting thing that I find in
this chapter was that "According to some estimates, a vocabulary of just
2,500 words covers nearly 95% of spoken text(compared to 80% of written
text)"(Page:23). This really made me think. I think a teacher should
always encourage the learner to incorporate new vocabulary in the speaking by
giving them plenty of opportunities for this so that they do not fall into a
level of comfort of using few words while making conversations. This is mainly
true for the students who have reached a level of proficiency where they can
carry out the conversations.
Harmer, J. (2001). The Practice of English Language Teaching, Chapter 7: Feedback on Oral
Work focussed on corrective feedback. I learned that ELLs want the
corrective feedback as it offers them the opportunity to learn the language in
contextual and purposeful ways. Corrective feedback should be focused and
specific as the timing, frequency and way of feedback vary with it. For
example, for fluency activities, the feedback should be delayed and for
accuracy activities, error correction should be prompt. It is very
important to recognize the student's attitude because that would help the teacher
to opt the correct method of feedback for them.
Another significant take away from this unit is the
Canadian Language Benchmarks document. I feel that this is an invaluable
resource when working with language learners.
Overall, I learned a lot from this unit.
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