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TESL 0100 Unit 6 Reflection

(Source: http://www.everyaustraliancounts.com.au/first-plan-explained/ )

Lesson planning is the most important and creative process that allows teachers to think about the choice of lesson objectives, activities, material needed, the time required and how the students will be grouped.

Lesson planning helps teachers to acquire the necessary information and makes them more confident. Teachers need to consider a lot of things while developing a lesson plan such as how this plan will cater for students with different levels, about the possible issues that can occur while lesson and how it would be resolved.

Another important thing that a teacher needs to consider is individual differences. As every student is unique and different in ability, motivation, background knowledge, and many more aspects. It becomes very important for teachers to cater for the individual differences. I think, one way to do so is to become adaptive. 

While planning a lesson for the students, teachers need to carefully determine what the students already know and that can be done by engaging in discussions with the student and with the needs assessment.

The teacher can set up different tasks for the students at the same time. This can be a real challenge for the teacher, but it will remove the feeling among the students that activity is too easy/difficult for them.

Some of the advanced level students can work independently, while others can work in pairs. The weaker students can be given more guidance and support by the teacher while the strong ones can be given an opportunity to work on their own.

TESL 0100 Unit 5 Reflection

(Source: http://www.gettingsmart.com/2012/09/3-new-teaching-methods-improve-educational-process/ ) 

I found this unit very interesting as in this unit, I learned about new digital tools for creating a quiz and with the help of Quizlet, I created methodology quiz too. I learned about the various methods and approaches used in the ESL classroom.

I loved all the methods, as these cater to different situations and learners and can be used in combination in the ESL classroom for effective teaching. However, one method I particularly liked is the Total physical response. This method involves physical movements to react to verbal input while teaching. I think using this method can be fun in a class and students will enjoy their learning as they remain active and can memorize newly learned words easily. Apart from this, it would be best with mixed ability classes as a physical moment would help to convey the meaning effectively and it will ensure that all the students are able to understand.

Another question in this unit was why there are so many language teaching methods? I think there are so many language teaching methods because there is no one best method to teach every language learners. It is not possible to use the same methodology for learners who have different needs, objective and background knowledge. So, in order to look for the teaching method to suit the specific language learner's need, many language teaching methods evolved. Also, I feel that there will be many more in the future due to the introduction of technology in the classrooms and with the input of teachers and students. It is an ongoing process. 

Reference:

H. Brown, H. L. (2015). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education, Inc. .

TESL 0100 Unit 4 "aha" moment

My "aha" moment in this unit was going through the popular ideas about the language learning in Lightbown & Spada (2013, p. 202). After reading it, my opinion completely changed on two points. 

First is point 10 "Teachers should present grammatical rules one at a time, and learners should practice examples of each one before going on to another". Earlier I totally agreed with this point as I thought it would be confusing for learners if different grammar rules are being introduced to them at once. However, my opinion completely changed. I learned that the best practice would be to present a comprehensible and interesting variety of sentences and grammatical structures so that whatever learners are ready to acquire is there all the time.

The second is point 11 "Teachers should teach simple language structures before complex ones". I realised that learner's exposure to a variety of linguistic structures should not be restricted and teacher should ensure that learners get the opportunity to hear all types of sentence forms, simple or complex, to help them understand.

TESL 0100 Unit 4 Reflection

(Source: http://makalanguageconsulting.blogspot.com/2015/09/first-vs-second-language-acquisition.html )

This unit was about the difference between first language acquisition vs second language acquisition which is great. First language acquisition is natural. We listen to the people around us, their speech melody, their sounds, their words, and their sentence structures. Before we can even read or write a single word in our first language, we already use an impressive vocabulary and many important grammar structures. Some people never learn how to read or write but still speak their first language fluently.

Babies do not study grammar rules but learn it while listening to the people around them. They are able to distinguish sentence structures at a very early age. They also pick up new words from their surrounding people.

Second language learning, on the other hand, is an active process. We need to learn vocabulary and grammar in order to achieve our goal. If we ever want to achieve fluency or near-fluency in a second language, it requires years of studying and practice.

I have two first languages. At home, we used to speak Punjabi while in my school, my teachers used to speak Hindi so I became bilingual. However, I started learning English at the age of 6 at school, but the exposure to the language was very less as compared to my native languages. We used to just read and write English in English class, learn grammar rules that were just for 30 minutes a day. Even in the class, my teacher used to explain everything in Hindi so there was a lack of speaking practice or implementation of those grammar rules. When I grew up, I started watching English TV shows and started reading English books, I got some English speaking friends in my graduation that helped me to acquire this language. However, I feel that Languages acquired after about the age of 15 are in a different part of our brain, so we never speak them as proficiently or as accent-free as our native languages.

TESL 0100 Unit 6 Lesson Plan 2

Here is the link to Lesson Plan 2: 

Weather

Adapting a text: TESL 0130

This blog post is about adapting a text in my own classroom. I am not teaching now but I have taught classes which were filled with mixed ability students. Below are my thoughts on adapting this text in mixed ability classroom. I would pair the weaker student with a strong one. For strong students, I would ask them to think of a new vocabulary that can be used in the text and can ask them to rewrite the sentences, or a part of the text differently. It would be a good idea if they can write a response from Simon's side. They can be asked to make additions to the text. For weaker students, I would discuss the vocabulary with them in the beginning. I would give them extra time to discuss and grasp. I will try not to over correct them just to maintain their confidence level and demand a higher level of accuracy from the stronger ones.

I think this text is suitable for LINC level 4 class, however, if it is mature students, I would think of changing the context, as the email exchange is between friends, I could make it between a parent and a child to make it more relevant. The second option can be to make it about employment. The can ask about his new job, or their experience at the new place as doing this will make it more relevant for them.

To accommodate a group of international students in an EAP setting, I would try to use more formal English and remove some informal vocabulary. I would try to add the complex sentence structure and increase the length of the text.

I found the following links useful to learn about copyright laws.

copyrightuser

Copyright in the classroom

Link to reading text: Reading text

TESL 0130 Unit 2 Reflection

(Source: https://www.pinhawkblog.com/adapting/)

Unit 2 was about all about "adapting a text". Brown and Lee (2015) mentioned three criteria for selecting an appropriate text suitability, exploitability and readability. I think it becomes very important for a teacher that they select the appropriate text for the learners so that they perceive reading as an interesting and valuable activity. The text should be selected and adapted on the basis of the student’s level, their interest and needs, their background knowledge and its relevance. Asking the students to read a text which is beyond their level would be counter-productive and it might make them feel incapable of reading. Of course, it should not be too easy and should be good enough to challenge them.

There are a number of ways to adapt a text, some of which are:

-reducing the amount of information or shortening the length of the text

-Pre-teach difficult vocabulary

-Provide highlighted material

-Rewrite some difficult sentences

-Allow extra time for reading

-Motivate the student to keep him interested

-Help the student visualize what is read

-Ask questions to clarify meaning and to probe understanding

My "aha" moment in this unit was using readable.io website. To be honest, I never thought that such tools exist for the teacher's assistance while selecting a reading text which is appropriate for the students. This website analyzed the text in seconds and gave results. It gave the appropriate level of the students the text is suitable for. Not only this, it introduced me to the new terms Flesch reading ease, Spache score, and New Dale-chall score.  

References


H. Brown, H. L. (2015). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education, Inc. .

TESL 0100 Unit 5 Methodology Quiz

(Source: https://www.swoonreads.com/blog/quiz-honor-you-dont-know-my-name-what-your-spy-code-name/ )

Here is the link to my methodology quiz:

Quiz

Please try the quiz and share your feedback.

TESL 0100 Unit 4 Lesson Plan 1

Here is the link to mine and Farideh's lesson plan 1.

We enjoyed working on this together and are looking forward to your feedback.

Hotel Booking

TESL 0130 Unit 1 Reflection

(Source: http://clipart-library.com/clipart/pT7r5nBac.htm)

Unit 1 "Contextualizing Content: What Does Reading Involve?" made me think about what reading is. Reading is the act of creating meaning from the symbols, however, to make sense of those symbols, one must have a grasp of the language, vocabulary and the way the sentences are constructed. Reading is definitely more than just knowing grammar and words, it is a complex concept. 

McCullough, G. "What 80% Comprehension Feels Like" (2016) does an excellent job of explaining what this feels like in reality. I found that 80% is extremely frustrating because you can get so much of the text, but you’re still fairly clueless about it. Generally speaking, you’ll know the topic, but fully understand virtually none of the details discussed. I think the words used in the text does not really exist so can not use the dictionary to find the meaning. However, even if these are the real words, I would be hard to pick up dictionary after every two words.

This exercise made me think about the feeling of the language learners and their difficulty. No wonder some of the learners quit or lose confidence. This is why it is important that the teacher provides the students with appropriate reading material which can challenge the learners without making them lose confidence.

I learned that teacher needs to take a lot of things into consideration while helping students with their reading skill such as their background knowledge, their needs, and their culture plays an important role as well. I look forward to completing this course to get more insights into it.


References

H. Brown, H. L. (2015). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education, Inc. .

McCullough, G. (2016). What 80% Comprehension Feels Like. Retrieved from https://allthingslinguistic.com/post/155043761501/what-80-comprehension-feels-like 

Speaking and Listening Lesson Plan

TESL 0120
Assignment 4

TOPIC:

-        Shopping 

CONTEXT:

-        This lesson caters to adult immigrants who have recently moved to Winnipeg with an upper beginner level of English. 

FOCUS:

-        Students will learn to ask for and understand the price while shopping. This lesson will focus on task-based, transactional communication, making use of both fluency and accuracy speech. 

STRATEGIES:

-        Speaking:

·         Use recordings of the students role-play to help students reflect on their performance and improve on their pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary usage.

-        Listening:

·         Students will listen to a recording and a video to listen to specific information and learn about ask questions and understand prices while shopping, also, the correct pronunciation of the numbers.

MATERIALS:

-        Activity 1 question sheet printouts

-        Activity 2 dialogue worksheet

-        Activity 3 survey worksheet

-        Whiteboard Marker

ACTIVITY SEQUENCE:

Activating (30 minutes)

-          Begin the lesson by with a conversation about shopping. Find out how your students shopped in their home country. Did they have stores, or did they go to an open-air market? Did they have a chain or department stores like Wal-Mart?

-          Next, get students to work in groups of three or four and brainstorm vocabulary that they would use when talking about shopping and comparing prices.

-          After 5 minutes or so, ask each group to share at least three words they came up with and write these on the board. Introduce and review additional vocabulary that hasn’t been mentioned.

-          Then, introduce phrases that the students can use by combining the words they gave. (ex: “the price of this shirt is reasonable”). Invite students to come up with a few phrases and write them on the board.

Some examples of shopping vocabulary include:

·         Words that describe the items they want to purchase

·         Where can I find . . .?

·         I'm looking for . . .?

·         Do you have . . .?

·         How much does it cost?

·         Thank you. Have a nice day.

Acquiring (60 minutes)

Activity 1 (listening):

Goal: Students will learn to understand prices in dollars and cents. They will also learn the pronunciation of the numbers.

-          Pass out the question sheet to the learners and play an audio recording from this link: https://www.esl-lab.com/eslbasic/shopping-prices-1.htm. A Copy of the answer key will also be found here. There will be a series of ten questions and every question has 3 options to choose from. Speaker will say a price and learners have to mark the correct option.

-          Give the students a minute to have a look at the questions.

-          After playing the audio recording once, ask the students to compare their answers.

-          Play the audio again and ask them to confirm their answers.

Corrective Feedback:

-          If a student gives the wrong answer, use gentle correction and ask them to listen to the audio when it is played the second time.

-          Explain why the answer is wrong by putting the recording on pause immediately.

Assessment Method:

-          Use formative assessment to check students’ understanding of pronunciation and dollars and cents having them mark the correct amount.

Activity 2 (Speaking and Listening):

-          Pass out the dialogue worksheets to the students and divide them into pairs. The dialogue worksheet will have dialogues written for the customer and shop assistant.

-          Explain to the class that they will practice these dialogues in pairs. Tell them that while one person will say the dialogues for a shop assistant, the other one will respond with customer dialogues. Once finished, Students will then switch roles and repeat the activity.

-          Tell your students to take a look at the worksheet before starting the activity, practice pronunciation and ask vocabulary they are not aware of.

-          Ask students to use expressions understanding the context of the dialogue.

Corrective Feedback:

-          During this activity, while the students are performing dialogues, note down the mistakes they are making regarding pronunciation, expressions, and intonation and offer a correction.

Assessment Method:

-          Speaking: check students understanding of expressions, vocabulary, and vocabulary related by observing them while they say dialogues.

Activity 3 (speaking and listening):

-          Start the activity by showing this video “Let's go shopping” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-1tfWzHgOA&feature=related to the students.

-          Teach the students how to ask questions while shopping. This can include questions such as how much does this cost? Do you have it in red color?

-          Ask the students to walk around the class and talk to other class members asking them questions about one clothes item they are wearing. Use the questions below:

-          Ask them to fill the following information on the survey sheet.

·                             Name

·                             Item

·                             Shop

·                             Price

·                            Date of purchase

·                            Payment method

·                           Satisfied?

Corrective Feedback:

-          During this activity, walk around the classroom and check in on the students to see if they are having any difficulty with the task. Take note of any speech errors they may be making. Near the end of the activity, offer a correction on the common errors that you noted.

Assessment Method:

-          Listening: check students’ understanding of expressions and vocabulary related to shopping by looking at their ability to comprehend the question and responding appropriately.

-          Speaking: check students understanding of interrogatives, expressions, and vocabulary related to shopping by looking at their ability to ask questions and respond to the questions.

Applying (40 minutes)

Activity 4 (Speaking):

Goal: The goal of the activity is to practice the vocabulary they have learned and learn to ask questions while shopping.

-          In this shopping role-play activity, the students take on the roles of shop assistants and customers and practice buying and selling items in a clothes shop.

-          Divide the students into pairs, one student will play the role of the shop assistant and other will play the role of the customer.

-          Write down the list of the items on the board and ask the students to select one item and develop a conversation around it.

-          The customer needs to ask questions about the item and shop assistant needs to answer the questions, ask questions about the preference of the customer and provide additional information about the item. The questions can be about size, color, and quality and price etcetera.

-          Once the activity is finished, the students swap roles and repeat the activity but with a different item, so everyone has a chance to practice being the shop assistant and customer.

Corrective Feedback:

-          Observe the pair while they are performing role-play. If students are struggling to come up with dialogue, feel free to offer a few suggestions to help get their imaginations active. Continue to take note of any speech errors the students are making, and offer feedback after they are finished.

-          Ask the other students to observe them closely and note down the errors they are making for an active participation and making sure everyone is paying attention.

Assessment Method:

-          Check Students’ ability to incorporate target vocabulary and expressions into a role-play skit. These performances can be recorded and graded at a later time.  Then, feel free to let each student have a copy of these recordings to use as a self-assessment resource in the future.

WRAP-UP:

-          Use this time to bring up a few common speech errors that you noticed in the class and explain to the students how to correct them. Have the students write down these points in their notebooks for future reference.

-          Conclude the lesson by discussing with the students the importance of helping others who are lost.

RESOURCES:

Randall, D. (2017). Shopping and Prices. Retrieved from:

http://www.esl-lab.com/eslbasic/travel-sightseeing-sc1.htm

Video: Lets’ go shopping (English Lesson). Retrieved from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-1tfWzHgOA&feature=related

  

Activity 1 Question Sheet

Listen to the recording and then, choose the price you hear. 

1. A. $2.15 B. $2.05 C. $2.50 2.  A. $7.40 B. $7.14 C. $7.44 3.  A. $22.18 B. $22.12 C. $ 22.80 4.  A. $15.13 B. $15.33 C. $15.30 5. A. $40.16 B. $46.16 C. $41.60

6. A. $84.90 B. $89.40 C. $88.19 7.  A. $60.90 B. $60.19 C. $60.09 8. A. $113.70 B. $130.17 C. $131.07 9. A. $270.50 B. $217.50 C. $270.15 10.  A. $580.52 B. $508.25 C. $518.05

 Activity 2 Dialogue worksheet

Dialogue 1 A: Pardon me. Could you help me? B: Of course. How can I help you? A: I am looking for a sweater. B: What size do you wear? A: Medium, I think. B: Here. How do you like this one? A: It's pretty. Can I try it on? B: You can try it on in the fitting room over there.	Dialogue 2 A: Excuse me. Can you help me? B: Certainly. What can I do for you? A: I need to purchase a sweater. B: What is your size? A: Medium should be fine. B: Is this one okay? A: Can I try it on somewhere? B: The fitting room is in the left corner
Dialogue 3 A: May I ask you a question? B: Yes. How can I assist you? A: I want to buy a sweater. B: What size? A: I think a medium should fit me. B: How about this one? A: The color is nice. Do you have a dressing room? B: There's a fitting room right over there	Dialogue 4 A: Do you have a second? B: Sure. What do you need? A: I'm here to buy a sweater. B: What size do you wear? A: I usually wear medium. B: What do you think about this one? A: It's nice. Where is your fitting room? B: The dressing room is in that corner.
Dialogue 5 A: Excuse me. Could you help me with something? B: I'll certainly try. A: I'm looking for a nice sweater. B: What size do you wear in a sweater? A: Medium is my size for shirts and sweaters. B: Here's a medium. What do you think? A: I like it. Where can I try it on? B: We have a large fitting room in that corner.

ACTIVITY 3 SURVEY WORKSHEET

Name
Item
Shop
Price
Date of purchase
Payment method
Satisfied?