By: Judith Solรณrzano
PDP FRAMEWORK ï‚–
PRE - STAGE
It’s the stage that develop the interest and the desire to work of the student on a certain topic related to the class. This can be a listening, reading, speaking, or even a writing activity.
Sample activities Word splash. Match vocabulary
with the pictures. Predictions from a title. Talk about the main topic.
DURING STAGE
It’s related to series of tasks that involve the students in order to help them understand the topic seen in the class.
Sample Activities
Listen, read, draw. Gist. Complete a greed. Answer the questions. Read and arrange the pictures in order.
POST - STAGE
It’s very likely to a follow up activity but with the understanding of the student of it.
Sample Activities
Discussion questions. Role plays. Projects. Speculations.
PDP FRAMEWORK IN OUR REALITY ď‚– ď‚™ Personal speaking, most of teachers do not apply the PDP framework because they rather like to have the power and the control in the classroom. Everything is about them and their speaking time. Students sometimes play a little role actively participating in these type of classes where everything is teacher based.
ESL METHODOLOGY English remains the common language used by people around the world for many purposes. Strong English skills are being demanded in the society. Therefore, to acquire this language is a necessity. What is the best method teachers should take into consideration when teaching or planning ahead their classes? Let’s take a brief look to the top methods most used by 21st century English teachers.
METHODS Direct Method In this method the teaching is done entirely in the target language, English.
Grammar Translation M.
Learning is largely by translation to and from the target language. Grammar rules play an important role here.
METHODS Audio-lingual Method
Suggestopedia
Learning language means acquiring habits. There is much practice of dialogues of every situations. Drills are often used.
A language can be acquired only when the learner is receptive and has no mental blocks.
METHODS Total Physical Response TPR works by having the learner respond to simple commands such as ‘’stand up’’ ‘’close the door’’
Communicative Language Teaching
This method enables the learner to communicate effectively and appropriately in various situations that they’d be likely to find themselves.
METHODS Silent Way The aim of the teacher is to say as little as possible in order that the learner can be in control of what he wants to say.
Communicative Language Learning
The main goal of this one is to build strong personal links between the teacher and the students so that there are no blocks to learning.
METHODS ď‚– ď‚™ Task based language learning The focus of the teaching is on the completion of a task which in itself is interesting to the learners. Learners use the language they already know and complete the task.
LEARNING ANOTHER LANGUAGE Learning another language is transcendental due to the high demand this one may have. Learning another language such as English is really important nowadays in the Salvadoran society. Most of job requirements specify the companies want bilingual people. But the question is, How do we learn another language? What does the acquisition process involve? Let’s check out these important facts related to language learning.
FOREIGN LANGUAGE ACQUISITION ď‚– ď‚™ A distinction is sometimes made between learning a foreign language (learning a language that is not generally spoken in the surrounding community) and a second language (learning a language that is spoken in the surrounding community). In either case, people are simply trying to learn another language.
ACQUISITION AND LEARNING ď‚– ď‚™ The term acquisition is used to refer to the gradual development of ability in a language by using it naturally in community situations with others who know the language. The term learning, however, applies to a more conscious process of accumulating knowledge of the features, such as vocabulary and grammar or a language, typically in an institutional setting.
TECHNOLOGY AND LEARNING A LANGUAGE
Nowadays there are many websites where languages can be learnt. Among these sites it can be mentioned the following: Open English Bussuu Livemocha Duolingo BBC languages
HOW DID I LEARN ENGLISH? I’ve liked English since I was 16. I remember I used to participate a lot in my high school English classes. I also asked my mom to buy me some English books. I read them and practiced a lot. I remember that I also listened to pop music in English. My favourite singer in those times was Avril Lavigne. So, what I used to do was to get the lyrics of her songs and translate them into Spanish making use of a dictionary. I guess that my intrinsic motivation helped me to develop the competencies I have in the language now.
GNOMIO ď‚– ď‚™ Gnomio is a source learning tool that allows its participants to work with Moodle platform for online courses.
GNOMIO VS SCHOOLOGY ď‚– ď‚™ Schoology is also a web site tool for E-learning. Personal speaking I felt that gnomio was easier to use than schoology. However, both were new to me and it is nice to know these learning tools now. This modality of online courses is taking over in the society and now I can say I have a background on it.
GNOMIO ď‚– ď‚™ At the beginning, and since it was the first time I worked with this platform, I felt it quite complex but not impossible to use. With the time, and under a good instruction, I acquired the experience of how an online classroom should look like.
GNOMIO Moodle allows teachers to add different resources for a successful online learning environment such as quizzes, forums, activities, resources, links, etc. It was such a nice experience and I’d truly like to thank Mr Julio Blanco for sharing his knowledge with me about how to use both platforms, schoology and gnomio.
ROLE: ONLINE TUTOR ď‚– ď‚™ My role as online tutor in gnomio was really interesting. I loved it. I have never worked before being an online teacher. Now that I have the knowledge, I hope to have the opportunity to work one day like this. I got to know that teaching can happen in virtual classrooms too. It is a matter of making a good use of technology. I enjoyed it a lot.
ROLE: ONLINE TUTOR Teaching online has its pros and cons. Among the pros I can say that it helps you to save time. You can log in whenever you want. Schedules sometimes really don’t matter. About the grading process, it’s an advantage to have a platform that does it for you automatically.
ROLE: ONLINE TUTOR About the cons I faced as tutor, I can say that the most frequent one was the lack of interest some students showed during the process of enrolment. Another, some of them didn’t participate in some of the tasks assigned. Of course, not everybody has the same vision and opinion about online courses. This can vary.
ROLE: ONLINE TUTOR ď‚– ď‚™ Speaking about the tasks assigned, I can say that I tried to be as flexible as possible with my students assigning so, easy tasks in order to the students submit them. Regarding the quizzes, with the experience I have designing English exams, I consider my exam and quizzes were reliable and feasible.
ROLE: ONLINE TUTOR About the chat session, I was as fair as possible considering my different students’ needs. We agreed on the timing. Of course, not everybody was there on time, but it was such a nice experience anyway. If I could have the chance again to have a virtual class in charge, I will definitely do it. Why not?
ROLE:ONLINE STUDENT Personal speaking, in some of the cases, my role as an online student was chaotic. I had troubles with some of the teachers because I wasn’t enrolled properly. In other cases, the timing for chatting was not agreed with every student and therefore, established and imposed by the teacher.
ROLE: ONLINE STUDENT On the other hand, it was a nice experience, I have to say. I have been an online student of UTEC teachers. Now, I had the opportunity to see how well my classmates are doing it as English tutors.
ROLE: ONLINE STUDENT ď‚– ď‚™ I submitted all the assignments on time. I did my best. I saw this as an opportunity to grow professionally speaking because I had the opportunity to check how others do their work and therefore, the situation made me improve certain weaknesses and continue.
ROLE: ONLINE STUDENT In conclusion, I must say that it’s important to be clear and concise when giving instructions to online students because if there is a mistake or something, that will make the teacher look like someone who does know nothing. And the access for the different tasks should be explained and opened on time.
VALUES & ATTITUDE ď‚– ď‚™ Values: in ethics, a value denotes the degree of importance of some thing or action, with the aim of determining what actions are the best to do or what way is the best to live, or to describe the significance of different actions.
VALUES & ATTITUDE ď‚– ď‚™ Attitude: is a point of view about a situation. No matter what situation people are in, they always have certain thoughts about it. They way how they respond to it, that is attitude. Attitude can be either positive or negative even pessimist.
VALUES & ATTITUDE Now, if we speak about the values and attitude in English senior students about online courses have we can have a variation. It is not correct to GENERALIZE among students’ point of view about it.
VALUES & ATTITUDE ď‚– ď‚™ To begin with, some of them might showed responsibility during the process, and some others might not. It is important to recall that not everybody thinks alike, and therefore will present different attitudes towards this modality of learning. Moreover, the values which they were raised, will tell in a way, who they are, what type of people they are.
VALUES & ATTITUDE There is a particular saying that is really linked to values and attitudes towards every situation or process we may go through. This saying is ‘’TO BE OR NOT TO BE’’…. Everything is about this! Responsibility, Honesty, Respect, Appreciation, Capability, among others, should be the values we should practice more.
TEACHER’S ASSISTANT My experience as the teacher’s assistant was very nice because I was an online tutor. The subject I was helping my teacher is called ‘’Linguistics’’ and it was an online course. It was interesting because I didn’t have previous experience working with a real environment regarding virtual academic modalities
TEACHER’S ASSISTANT The duties I had while I was an online assistant were basically the following: I had to comment on the forums and had chat sessions regarding the topics seen in classes with the students.
TEACHER’S ASSISTANT It was something really nice because the teacher in charge gave me the chance to be part of this modality. I got to know how it works and how the participants respond to it. Values and attitude towards the participants were required.
TEACHER’S ASSISTANT Responsibility by my side was required as well. As I was the online tutor, time management was crucial at the moment to had the chat sessions with the students. I had to be there on time in order to reflect a good image. Also, I had to take care of the way of expressing myself even if it was only in a written form.
TEACHER’S ASSISTANT To conclude, I would like to thank the teacher in charge for giving me such a great opportunity. Without his agreement on it, I wouldn’t had the experience background that now I have.
TEACHER TALKING TIME ď‚– ď‚™ Teacher talking time is an expression that is used to make reference to the time the teacher takes regarding speaking during a class. He does the 80% of the oral performance while the participants only a 20% when it should be the other way around.
TEACHER TALKING TIME ď‚– ď‚™ The teacher talking time is not a good technique when someone is learning another language. It is supposed that the learner should do the major part of oral performances in order to practice the target language while the teacher should play a role of a facilitator or a guide.
TEACHER TALKING TIME ď‚– ď‚™ Sometimes teachers think and believe that they should have the control of the whole class while students only have to take notes on what he is explaining. They think that students participation is not necessary in a class.
TEACHER TALKING TIME On the other hand, students’ participation is really transcendental in the teaching learning process because they have to be competent in the usage of the target language. They have to develop the competencies that will tell in a way, that they have acquired the knowledge on it.
TEACHER TALKING TIME A good teacher will always find a way to reduce the teacher talking time and increase the students’ participation in the class. There are approaches and methods that can be helpful. Task based approach and the communicative learning are just two examples.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Teaching Practicum 1 and 2 under the instruction of such an excellent professor like Mr Julio Blanco is, were really enjoyable and filled of knowledge. Everyday I was in his classes, and I can say I learnt new different things.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ‘’Teachers open the door but you must enter yourself’’ a proverb says. I’d like to relate this one to the class. Mr Blanco opened the door when teaching us how to use virtual classrooms. Unfortunately, indifference and careless spirits took over. Personal speaking, I can say it was not easy, but at the end you see the results that will make you feel proud or not of yourself.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS If I were the teacher in charge of these classes, I would definitely would do the same. I wouldn’t change anything. The assignation of many tasks in a class are very helpful in order to give the students a chance to clarify doubts or something. People may see ‘’assignments’’ as stressful, they are. But, they are a good way of ensure learning too.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Everything is a matter of attitude towards learning. Or you learn because you are really interested on it, or you learn just for passing.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ï‚– THANK YOU MR WHITE FOR SHARING YOUR KNOWLEDGE WITH US