LINGUISTIC COMPETENCE Linguistic competence is the ability to understand and express messages accurately. It implies: •
Correct use of grammar
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Vocabulary
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Pronunciation and spelling.
What must we teach? •
The first thing is the learning of words (vocabulary).
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How to make sentences (grammar).
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How to speak them (pronunciation).
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How to write them (spelling)
2. - VOCABULARY Mastery of vocabulary is a basic ingredient for communication. No matter how much we know about language, if words fail to come no message is conveyed. According Wilkins “Knowledge of a language demands mastery of its vocabulary as much as of its grammar”. 2.1 Types of words and vocabulary items •
Contents words: vocabulary items that refer to specific meanings:
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Single words
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Compound words
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Words with a prefix or a suffix added
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Phrasal verbs
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Collocations (phrases composed of words that occur for lexical rather than semantic reasons: fast train and not quick train) and idioms.
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2.2 Active and passive vocabulary Active: Vocabulary you can understand and recall and it is ready to use for comunication. Passive: vocabulary that when heard or encountered cannot be used automatically, but it can be understood. When teaching active vocabulary, a greater amount of practice must be given.
2.3 Steps in teaching vocabulary Linguistic input is absolutely necessary for language acquisition and it’s the teacher’s role to provide his students with it in the most accessible way. -
The first step should be to help learners understand the meaning of new words.
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The second to facilitate the learning of the pronunciation.
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Third step: reading and writing words and finally to make easy for students memorize them.
2.4 Resources to teach meaning 1. - Linguistic resources: -
Definitions: teenager: a young boy or girl between 13 and 19 years old.
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Synonyms: clever= intelligent, large= big
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Antonyms/Opposites: old/young, bad/good.
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Hyponyms (examples of a general concept for “super ordinates”) Animal= dog, cat, lion, etc.
2. - Visual, aural, kinesthetic and tactile aids -
Realia, mime, facial expressions and gestures.
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Flashcards, wall charts, photographs or simple drawings.
2.5 When to teach words
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Words connected with a particular function. When teaching we need to know how to perform the function: “nice to meet yo”.
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Lexical sets. They can be pre-taught before dealing with the topic they are related to. But once isolated words have been presented, they should be repeated in meaningful contexts.
2.6 Memorizing words •
By doing activities and exercises and playing games.
Other things being equal, a color picture will be remembered longer than a black and white picture.
A sentence spoken by skilled actress will make more of an impression than the same sentence read in the “now-listen-carefully” drone used by some teachers.
2.7 Study techniques There are a few techniques that can help students memorize words. •
Say the word and try to see what it means in your mind. Use your senses: its smell, its taste, what it looks like, etc.
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Write the word while you say it and visualize it.
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Copy words and keep them in a vocabulary notebook. You can copy them in alphabetical order, in lexical fields.
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While you write words, say and try to visualize them in your mind.
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Prepare cards:
Slide A – A picture of the meaning
Slide B – Spelling + pronunciation + the word in context (in a sentence) + translation (?)
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Invent key words that will remind you of them: chest – Chester = bad for your chest.
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Revise the words and check if you remember them. For this you can use:
Word cards
Lists of words with their Spanish equivalents.
Use a dictionary.
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2.8 Vocabulary activities Variety is a very important factor here, since children get enthusiastic easily but they also get tired and lose concentration fast.
One of the activities that we can do is : Listen and do something type: listen and point, listen and colour, listen and draw, listen and circle, listen ad tick/cross, listen and order, listen and follow instructions, listen and identify, listen and label, and listen and raise your hand when you hear a specific word.
Mixed types of techniques: classification, association, memorization… Listen and say, listen and repeat, listen, point and name, listen and complete words, match words with definitions, match synonyms or opposites, find the odd one out, group words belonging to the same semantic fields, and brainstorming round a word. What we have to do are transferences from subjects using the network. Making transferences can be very productive.
Games. Grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and spelling. The English language is not a subject; English is something that is enjoyable if we introduce activities that children like. Catch the attention of the students by games. Cardboard games (bingo, noughts and crosses, happy families) memory games (Kim’s game, disappearing pictures…) guessing games (guess the person, riddles…) and miscellaneous games e.g. “Simon says” based on Asher’s total physical response method.
3. GRAMMAR AND GRAMMATICAL COMPETENCE •
Grammar is the ability to apply grammatical rules to convey accurate messages. (for Julio, instead of grammatical rules, it should be grammatical agreement because grammar is not perfect)
3.1 Teaching grammar El Curriculum de educación primaria dice lo siguiente acerca de la gramática: “los niños y niñas de educación primaria… no tienen aún desarrollada la capacidad para aprender a partir de formas, significados, estructuras y normas gramaticales. Su capacidad metalingüística es muy limitada y también lo es su capacidad de atención y de comprensión de contenidos abstractos tales como los que conforman la información y reglas gramaticales.” “el léxico, las expresiones, y el conocimiento gramatical referido a la flexión y funcionamiento de ciertas formas y estructuras, se aprenden mediante el uso de la lengua que se está aprendiendo”. Learning and teaching grammar
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Induction: means a process of learning or teaching whereby numerous examples of certain principle are presented and the rule is then inferred from these examples. Deduction means starting with the rule and then offering examples to show how the rule applies. The teaching of grammar does not necessarily imply the formal teaching of the whole linguistic system. The main objectives should be to help pupils discover and learn the basic rules of grammar. 3.2 Steps in teaching grammar •
Help the students recognize grammar patterns and understand their meanings.
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Help the students find analogies and generalize.
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Help the students infer and systematize rules.
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Help the students appreciate their communicative value and learning usefulness.
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Help the students internalize patterns.
3.3 Resources •
To highlight grammatical features you can use: Colours, capital letters, underlining.
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To find analogies:
Write on the blackboard model sentences (at least three).
Use guiding questions: What have these sentences in common? What is the difference between these sentences?
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To systematize rules:
Guiding questions. What is the first element in this sentence? . So, what would be the first/second/.. Element in the pattern/structure? “Would you like+a+noun?
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To appreciate communicative value and learning usefulness:
Questions: What are these sentences used for?
To internalize rules: Controlled oral and written practice. Spontaneous and meaningful practice.
3.4 Grammar activities
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We can use this exercises or even some others like:
Work out the rules: When do you add each ending? /s/ es/ ies/.
4. - PRONUNCIATION Pronunciation includes the knowledge of the sounds of a language, the ability to reproduce and combine them and also the adequate use and understanding of stress and intonation patterns. 4.1 Sounds
Sounds are not to be taught individually BUT there are some of them which may require special attention. E.g. /S/ ʃ
Vowels, consonant sounds which do not exist in Spanish and consonant clusters.
“… Teachers need to achieve a reasonable level of intelligibility”. Intelligibility is an important concept in pronunciation teaching since its main goal is to ensure that speech is “good enough” to be understood by native speakers, even though there may be signs of a foreign accent” (Brewster, Ellis and Girard 200:80)
The teacher should:
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Be a clear model
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Focus on problems
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Show students how sounds are made.
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Give help in articulation
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Suggest suitable practice activities.
To distinguish specific sounds, discrimination exercises and games: -
Minimal pairs exercises
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Exercises of “Listen and group words according to sound”. /g/ (egg, kangaroo, etc)
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Bingo: sounds and word stress.
4.3 Stress and rhythm. •
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Vowels in stressed syllables, called strong syllables are pronounced clearly and intensely.
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Vowels in unstressed syllables (weak) lose quality and have a muffled quality.
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In connected speech, content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs) are stressed and clearly perceived.
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Grammar words (pronouns, auxiliaries, prepositions, conjunctions…etc), on the other hand, are often carelessly said and dimly heard.
4.4 Activities •
Exercises of “Listen and underline the strong syllables”. “Listen and underline the stressed words”.
4.5 Intonation Intonation may express: •
A grammatical function.
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Statements, questions, meaning, emphasis, feelings and emotions.
4.6 Intonation patterns The basic intonation patterns are: •
Falling tone.
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Rising tone.
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Rising-falling tone.
Falling intonation: The fall occurs in the last major stress in the sentence… It can be shown by an arrow. And it is used. -
In wh- questions: Where is…
Peter?
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Statements: My friend is…
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Commands: Open your… books
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Exclamations: Don’t be …
here.
Silly!
Rising intonation: -
In Yes/No questions: have you got any …
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To express surprise, disbelief:
Rising-falling intonation:
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really?
Children
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Questions with or: would you like
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Making a list: I need
sugar,
tea or
coffee
flour and
rice.
4.7 Activities Listen and do: Match body movements with intonation. Bend your knees for falling intonation. Raise your hand for rising intonation.
Is there a problem here? He works on Sunday. Do you work here? When does he work?
5. - SPELLING Spelling is just one of the aspects of learning a word. It means knowing its shape: what is like and consequently, being able to read and write the word. English spelling is particularly difficult because there is not a direct relationship between sound and spelling. 5.1- Types of activities •
Two groups and many different types for each of them.
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At very early stages the aim will simply be for the students to copy words: Copy the word next to the picture, label pictures, order letters in a word, fill in the missing letters, and copy words in alphabetical order.
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Scott and Ytreberg (1990:71) suggest reading, remembering and copying words.
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“Delayed copying”: The teacher writes several familiar words on the blackboard and lets the children look at them for a few seconds, then (s)he erases the blackboard and asks pupils to write as many as they can remember.
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