Modules Revision

Modules Revision 

In the morning classes we revised the three modules in small groups. Each group discuss one module then we do some kind of rotation between us and revise another module. From the discussions I noticed and became more aware of the difference between encouraging and prompting. Other than that I find my self ready and prepared for the exam.

Error Correction

Ref: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/error-correction-1

Error Correction 

In the first article the writer tackled five main points.He talked about attitudes to error correction, categorizing the error, model for correcting writing, the role of planning and practical techniques of correcting writing.

From the article I learned two things, which I acknowledge but rarely do it in my teaching. The first one, the article mentions that when we correct students mistakes we should categorize what we want to correct. in other words, we don't correct everything all the time because it's exhausting for the teacher and it demotivate the learner.for example, if we correct every mistake in a written homework and the students receive a bleeding paper( full of red pen correction) he will feel very bad and also it is going to be very hard for the teacher if he has 50 students. Therefore, if we are looking for coherence then we only correct coherence or if we are checking spelling then we only correct spelling.

The second thing, the article mentioned that one of the errors correction techniques is to let the learner reads his writing for a second time so he can correct him self and recognize his own mistakes before giving feedback to him. such technique is very useful for the teacher and learner. The learner will benefit from raising his noticing awareness and the teacher will have less mistakes to correct because the learner corrected some of his own mistakes. 

Quizlet

Quizlet

http://quizlet.com/ 

            I think that quiz let is an interesting tool. In my country using such websites in education is very rare. Therefore, inserting such tools in my lesson plans as teaching activities will help to motivate my students. They will enjoy it because they are young learners and our generation admires technology.  Therefore, I can use this program inside my class as teaching activity to consolidate the new language or assess there understanding at the end of the class.

I can use Quiz let as a teaching activity if I want. I can divide my students into pairs and ask them to revise the meaning of the new vocabulary I gave them. I can let them play a game with it by scoring grades for each answer they make.

In addition, I can use the matching game as an assessment of their understanding. At the end of the lesson I can ask my students to match each vocabulary with its definition or example. The student or the pair of students who have the fastest record in answering will be the winner and receive a gift.

Grammar in Use

Grammar in Use

            Grammar in use series are one of the best books relates to grammar. I strongly recommend this book to any teacher or learner of English. There many reasons for my recommendation but I will only narrow it to three reasons.

First, the book is written in a simple and clear way. In other words, it’s a self-learning book. This point is good for teacher because when they have a difficulty in any unit of their course book they can refer to this book and it will simplify the confusion that he have. While for students they can at home revise any part of the grammar lesson from this book because its designed to let them learn by themselves.

The book is rich of details and examples. So, if you want many examples at any topic you can take it from this book and it also explain every example. Also, if there are many exceptions for any rule it will show you all the exception cases and provide examples for it.

Finally, the series provides an appropriate language for each stage. That means if you are an advanced students the examples that you will have is equal to your language proficiency. I believe this is an important part, because when you teach for example beginners and give them a difficult example that have advanced vocabulary you will waste time in explaining the words instead of explaining the rule its self.

In conclusion, any teacher or learner of English language should have grammar in use book in his library. It’s a simple book with that have many examples and detail information. Therefore, it’s very useful

TED as an Authentic Material

Listening

TED as an Authentic Material 

I think that websites like TED are mainly not helpful for language learners. TED is designed to share knowledge or ideas about many different topics. These topics are usually shared through scholars, scientists…etc. Such people are well educated and usually use language that is very advanced and difficult to relate to daily spoken English. In other words, a learner of English will be more interested in learning the basic vocabulary that helps him to use the language probably.

 So, if I am the teacher I will not use this website for my beginners or intermediate students. While for advanced students I might use it but I would be very careful of the material I am going to choose. The material should not be very difficult and I might introduce some pre activities to prepare the students to understand the gist of the video I am going to give them.

However, the only exception that might conflict my argument is if I am teaching English for specific proposes. That is if I am teaching a class of students who are for example going to attend law college. In this case I will use many materials form Ted to the intermediate and advanced students. Since such students need a lot of exposure to the language that suits their target language content. 

e- Reading

e- Reading

            Electronic books or regular books??.. Since we live in the twenty first century (which is known as the technology century) many people argue that electronic books are better than the regular books. Especially, since we have many devices that can allow us to use the e- books. While others say that nothing is compared to having a regular book and reading it. In my opinion I believe that e-books are by far better than the regular books.

            First, the regular books are very difficult to read whenever you want to read them. One must carry the book wherever he goes because he might have a free time during the day and can read. While e-books are easy to access, you can read it from your phone, computer, iPad and even your iPod. Moreover, you can log in to any public computer and keep reading your book. Second, e-book you have more options than in regular book. For example, if you read an interesting line and you would like to write a long comment on it you can do that easily while in regular books you have a very limited space. Also, in e-books you can put a mark on the last word you read in the page. While in the regular books you only have the chance to mark which page you are on and you might lose that thing and you will be lost. Finally, with e-books you have the chance to enlarge the font size and decrease it to what suit your eyes while in regular books you have to wear reading glasses. 

Authentic materials – Listening

Authentic materials – Listening

            In my opinion, I believe that a teacher Must play authentic listening materials to their students. Materials such as songs, podcasts, radio…etc. these materials can improve the student’s understanding of the language in different ways. From my own experience, I mainly learned the language from listening to songs and watching movies and T.V shows rather than high school or the university books. From listening to the songs I understood and learned many idioms and expressions. Also, I learned an important thing which is infer attitude where the singer says one thing out from his voice understand that he means the opposite.

            From watching the T.V. in terms of listening a learner will learn things that ordinary books will never teach. You will learn the current use of language. In other words, you will learn the vocabulary that native speakers use in their daily life. However, in books they teach you chunks that you might never use in regular basis. Also, a single vocabulary can have different meanings. For example any learner knows the word paper as the piece of sheet that you write on. However, only songs or movies will introduce another meaning to it, which paper means “money” (dollar). Also, the word green learners know it means a type of money but from listening to an authentic material that deals with the American culture you will know the other meaning which is also “money”.

            In conclusion, I believe that listening to authentic materials gives the learner an access to more than simple language. It gives him the chance to understand the language and its culture which allows him to use it better than a learner who only listens to ordinarily audio tapes that comes with the books. 

Authentic Text

Authentic Text

Using authentic materials is beneficial for language learners.  I truly believe that using authentic texts in reading can play a significant role in student's learning development. Instead of using old fashion reading texts, a teacher for example can brings a news paper article that summarizes a football match that had been played recently and made a whole class about it. From this article a teacher can do a warm up activity by asking the students about the match if they watched it or not. Then he can ask them for their opinion about it. From there, he can start his main activities and go through the whole lesson.

What is good about such authentic material is that it is more suitable for the students. It touches something that most of them like. Also, it relates to something that happened within a few days. Finally, the students can practice the language after the class because the topic is still hot and learners will keep discussing it for a while.

Supplementary Book Review

ESOL ACTIVITES

Practical language activities for living in the UK & Ireland – ENTRY 2

The book I chose is really helpful for beginners and intermediate students. It offers activities for the four main skills. In addition, teachers who will choose this book will not struggle a lot in term of preparing for the class. It covers everything stating from Warmers, different types of activities, audio script for the listening, answers box and extension activates as back up.

The activities in the book are mixture of filling the gapes , matching , multiple choice, writing paragraphs , diaries, open ended questions and true – false question. This diversity allow the teacher to play between activates inside the unit to adapt with the class mood. The teacher for example can use open ended questions if he feels that the students are active and can participate inside the class. On the other hand, if the class is tired the teacher can use the question where they can work individually or listen to an audio tape.

Finally, if I’m going to choose activates from the book for the future I will go with two activates. The first one is the open ended question because I believe in communication in learning a language. Therefore, this type of activities is helpful for the students so they can produce the language and from their production I can give them feedback to enhance their English. The second activity is the diary activities. I prefer this type because by time the students will notes their development in the language. Many learners feel desperate because they cannot see their development in learning the language, although they are truly developing gradually. So, if they see their written diary at the beginning of the semester and compare it with their last work paper at the end they will notice the difference.

Learning vocabulary online

People have different styles when it comes to learning language, and there is nothing called the best style or way in learning, but all people like the fastest and easiest way to learn and. The same thing goes with learning vocabulary, and since vocabulary is the main element in any language learners need to memorise a big number of it.

Learning vocabulary online gives the learner many options when he/she search for any word; It shows the meaning of the word and how it pronounced and how to use it. What makes the online dictionary special is that you can find the meaning so fast and It will not take long time from you to look up a word or a phrase. Some people are against online dictionaries because they believe that learners will forget the meaning fast because they get it fast "easy come easy go" and that if a learner spent some time to look up a word he/she will never forget it. I believe that learning vocabulary online is better than using notebook or flashcards for many reasons. First, the learner can get the meaning so fast and it will not take long time. Second, the learner can hear the word so he can pronounce it properly.

Learning vocabulary by using notebook or flash card is more familiar with many people because this style is been taught for many years until now and almost everybody know it. Some people think that this way of learning vocabulary take time and effort from the learner and that help him not to forget the word fast. I believe that this way of learning is out of date and it is not beneficial like before, it took time and its not available outside the classrooms and study places while learning online you can brows your dictionary on your phone or any other device in any place, and that will help learners to use the waiting time in something they can get benefit from.

Learning vocabulary online

• Is it better to learn vocabulary online, or using a notebook or flashcards?  Write a short OPINION post.

Many people wonder what is the best way to learn and memorise a new vocabulary. some thinks that keeping a note book for the vocabulary is the best way. others, believe that engaging the technology will give a better results. while others think that flash cards are the best solution. In my opinion, I believe that learning a vocabulary through online is the best way.

I think that using notebook is not useful any more. its hard to take it everywhere. in addition, its really difficult to go back to the note book and find the word that you want to remember and use. furthermore, the moment you write the word you can not edit it because you cant have more space in the paper. in other words, the word you wrote you can not add another definition or a sentence other than the one you already wrote at the beginning. 

when it comes to flash cards, I think its better than the note book but not the best. flash card can be more useful if you are learning new words for the first  time. However, flash cards by time will get old and might be unusable. also, its difficult to keep the flash cards and one can lose it easily.

However, online vocabulary method is more modern and fun. one can access to the vocabulary at any time and can keep a record of as many as he wishes. moreover, he can arrange the words based on what is suitable for him. for example he can arrange it alphabetically which will make it easy for him to search a specific word. also, with online vocabulary one can design a test for himself so he can learn the word and test him self. another advantage of learning vocabulary through online is that you can get as many examples and uses as you want so you can grasp the vocabulary and master it.