THE RESPONSABILITY FOR LEARNING

Responsability for learning does not only depend on the student or on the teacher; the responsability for learning must be shared. The author Wiley, J. and sons. (2013) mentioned in their book Learner-centered teaching: five key changes to practice, that motivation is one very important factor that can increase the need for learning only in some students. According to the same author in the already mentioned book, in order to improve student's learning, teacher should have them busy and in active process, which means, doing any kind of activities that can make students participate most of the time, even thought the mistakes that those students could make during the learning-process. We may also read the book Model of experiential learning published by David Kolb (1984), in which this author states that we, as teachers, can make our students to learn by having them to do something where they participate, to think about what they did, and to research or find information of the work the students did. 

As I mentioned before, the responsability for learning is not only depending on the teacher, but it also depends on the students. The teacher must find the correct motivation in order to enhance student's learning, but students have to take their part of the responsability at the moment to learn. To talk about motivation, I will include the example of the grades. Grades are a factor that pushes students not to fail a level, but students are not pushed to learn, and as teacher, I have to find a motivating factor that influences students to learn the content. It is because of that reason that I mentiond that motivation is important in the responsability for learning. 

References:

Wiley, J. (2013) Learner - centered teaching: five key changes to practice.

Kolb, D. (1984) Model of experiential learing.

Karban, R. (2015) Plant learning and memory. 

http://www.dynamicflight.com/avcfibook/learning_process/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning

THE ROLE OF THE TEACHER

The role of the teacher in the classroom, for most of us, is to teach. On the other hand, according to the author Willey, J. & Sons (2013) in the book Learner - Centered Teaching: Five key changes to practice, defined the teacher as a facilitator, because in the classroom the teacher is the one who facilitates examples, facilitates content, and also who facilitates the knowledge to students. The author also describes in his book that a good teacher is a good facilitator who finds ways to motivate students, and also knows the moments that it is needed to push and the moments that it is needed to pull. The author Stacey Zeiger, mentioned in his article What is the role of teachers in Education? (2017) that a teacher's role has to do about spending planning how to teach, instructing students according to the activities related with what is being taught, and interacting with students. As an example I could include the fact that when I am teaching the Prepositions of place, I should use the realia (classroom objects) for a better understanding.

I work as an English teacher, and this is a very useful definition for me. Since I know that I am just a facilitator in the classroom, I also lead my students to my lesson aims. With this sentence I mean that, as a facilitator or leader, I just present my students the new content, I make them to practice that content, and after that I know that my students can produce what I taught to them. The role of the teacher should be to facilitate students what they need to learn.

References:

Willey, J; Sons (2013) Learner - centered teaching: Five key changes to practice.

Zieger, S. (2017) What is the role of teachers in education? 

McCrorie, P. (2006) Teaching and leading small groups.

http://www.faculty.londondeanery.ac.uk/e-learning/small-group-teaching/the-role-of-the-teacher

http://www.education.gov.gy/web/index.php/teachers/tips-for-teaching/item/1603-roles-of-a-teacher-in-the-classroom#gsc.tab=0

UNIT 1 GRAMMAR

If we are English teachers, grammar is an aspect that we teach everyday, and is the starting point for our students to learn the new language. When a teacher teaches grammar, he does by combining, changing and organising parts of words in order to give a meaning to this organisation. The Oxford University teacher Bede Rundle, in his book Grammar in Philosophy (1979) explains us that grammar is the set of some structural rules, commanding a composition of words and phrases in a natural way. For the same author, grammar is also the study of rules involving a syntax. The writer Richard Nordquis defined Grammar, in the web article Glossary of grammatical and rethorical terms (2016) as a set of rules and examples dealing with syntax and words tructures of a language, and a example includes the following sentences: I watch TV (subject - verb - complement); the red house ( article- adjective- noun).

Since I started to work as English teacher, I have always found to teach grammar as the most needed aspect for learners of a second or a foreign language. Grammar helps them how to express their own examples, how to structure sentences, how to introduce themselves, how to greet, and I also realized that teaching grammar helps my students to develop their Listening skill, Reading skill and Writing skill.

References: 

Rundle, B. (1979) Grammar in Philosophy.

Nordquis, R. (2016) Glossary of grammatical and Rethorical terms.

Lunding, L. (2007) The power of prepositions.

https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/what.htm

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grammar

UNIT 3 PHONOLOGY

The following is not a difficult concept to understand. The author Susan Anderson, in his book Glossary of Linguistic Terms (2003) defined the word Phonology as the study of how sounds are organised and used in natural languages. It makes us to conclude that Phonology is the study of sounds used in a language to communicate meaning. The writter Roger Lass mentioned in his book Phonology: an introduction to basic concepts (1988) that the features of the sounds used in phonology to communicate a meaning involve four important components like phonemes, word stress, sentence stress and intonation. However, and according to the author Susan Anderson, in his book already mentioned, the phoneme is the most necessary feature because a phoneme is the smallest unit of sounds and that small unit of a sound makes the difference in the meaning of any language. For example in the word book, it just takes to add the sound of the letter s (books) to realize that the meaning changed from singular to plural.

As an English teacher, I want to highlight the importance of phonology in a classroom for several reasons. First of all, because its comprehension helps my students to improve their pronunciation. Its comprehension also helps my students to improve their understanding about the words with phonemic symbols that they find in a dictionary. With that comprehension my students will know how to pronounce a word new for them that has been found in a dictionary and has not been pronounced before by the teacher.

References:

Anderson, S. (2003) Glossary of Linguistic terms.

Lass, R. (1988) Phonology: an introduction to basic concepts.

Gimson A. C. (2008) The pronunciation of English.

http://www-01.sil.org/linguistics/glossaryoflinguisticterms/whatisphonology.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonology

UNIT 4 FUNCTIONS

In the classrooom and in the language teaching process, according to the authors Mary Spratt, Alan Pulverness, and Melanie Williams  who defined in the book The TKT Course Modules 1, 2, 3 (2011) to the functions as the specific reasons why people communicate, or a way to describe how people uses the language. It means that when somebody is speaking or writing, it is being done for a reason, and almost everything of what we are saying has a reason or a purpose. The authors also mentioned in the same book that examples of functions could be apologising, greeting, clarifiying, inviting, advising, agreeing, disagreeing, refusing, thanking, interrupting, etc. In functions, we use a specific language to express each function, for example somebody might say Good morning to everyone, My name is Camila Cabello and I am a student. The function here is introducing and the expression or language that this person used to introduce herself is called exponent. According to David Wilkins, in his article Functions of Language (2009) Functions of Language consist in everything what we say for a specefic purpose. Whether if we apologise, express a wish or ask for permission, we use a specefic language to express a purpose, and that purpose is a function.

I work as an English language teacher and I find this information very helpful. I can recognise when my students are greeting, asking a question, giving an opinion according the exponent that they use and they can also recognise the function that I use in class according to the exponent. What I must do first is to teach my students to express each function according to the purpose and to recognise their classmates function. After that I will teach them how be accurate and fluent in their functions.

References:

Spratt, M; Pulverness, A; Williams, M. (2011) The TKT Course Modules 1, 2, 3.

Wilkins, D. (2009) Functions of Language.

Hebbert, L. (2013) The Functions of the Language.

http://www.signosemio.com/jakobson/functions-of-language.asp

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakobson%27s_functions_of_language

UNIT 5 READING

Every language in the world is involved by skills that help to its learners to get the reception and production of that language. English language is not the exception. In English language we may find four skills that help us to learn it, two of them are focused to receive the language and two of them are focused to produce the language. The receptive skills are Listening and Reading, and the productive skills are Speaking and Writing. Since it is already mentioned that Reading is a receptive skill, it means that this skill involves to respond to the language, in this case, to respond to a written text by making sense of it. Adrian Tennant mentioned in his article Reading matters: What is Reading? (2016) that Reading consists in a recognition of words, individual letters, and what they mean in a text to an individual person. In other words, Reading is a synonim of recognition according this author. In the definition that B. D. Smith published in his book Breaking through college reading (1995) mentioned the Reading skill as an interactive process where the prior knowledge that the reader has about the world around him interacts with the message that is being conveyed, and it can be in a direct or indirect way. 

Reading is, as it is mentioned, a process and recognition. However at the moment to learn a new language, teacher should teach some vocabulary related to what students will read about. In this case teacher must use some strategies like for example Pre-teach Vocabulary, Brainstorming, Lead-in, Predicting, etc. In my case as teacher, something that has helped me to make my students understand what they read is to provide them articles or dialogues with pictures related, and also to pre-teach some vocabulary of words that I think they will find difficult. For me as teacher, Reading is the language skill that must be taught first at the moment to learn a second or foreign language, but as teacher I must also teach them vocabulary that will be useful for them. 

References:

Tennant, A (2016) Reading matters: What is Reading?

Smith, B. D. (1995) Breaking through college Reading.

Payne J. A. (1982) A study of comprehension of verb-particle combinations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_(process)

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/what-reading

UNIT 6 WRITING

Writing is a productive skill in English language. which involes to produce the language instead of receiving it. In Writing, learners produce the language by making signs on a piece of paper, in order to communicate some meaning. The student, or the person who is producing the language by the use of this skill, should be able to form words in order to join them into sentences and in that way, those sentences can communicate the meaning that students want to communicate. According to Naveed, Fakhar in his publication Definition and Techniques of Writing Skill (2010), Writing involves two people who are the one who produces the message and the one who receives the message, and between them, the interaction is produced as a mean to convey that message. Beside this, Bob Kerstetter mentioned in his article What is Writing? (Research and Writing 2012) that Writing is a flexible mean in almost every type of communication.

The information already provided is a very used and useful source for English language teachers. If as an English teacher, I want my students to tell a story or a fact that happened to them, by using simple past, I should make sure that my students will express those ideas in a clear way, and if I want them to express it clear I should guide them to plan what they will tell, and that is why Writing is a very useful skill for me as teacher, because it encourages my students to clarify their ideas before writing.

References.

Kerstetter, Bob (2012) Research and Writing.

Chander, D (1992) Writing strategies and writers tools. 

Naveed, F. (2010) Definitions and techniques of Writig skill.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writing

http://writingcenter.unc.edu/faculty-resources/tips-on-teaching-writing/what-is-good-writing/

UNIT 7 LISTENING

In English language, the listening skill means to listen to. In other words, this is a receptive skill, just like Reading, therefore learners have to respond to the language instead of producing it. The author Michael Purdy suggests in his book Listening in every day life: a personal and professional approach (1997), to do that, learners should make use of the context in which they are involved, the language and their environmental knowledge, and as consequence the sounds that they listen to, will make sense and will be meaningful to them. Accordingg to Barthes, Roland (1985), those sounds are processed into words and sentences, and with Listening help we can identify those sounds. By reading this unit, 

I learnt that we need to develop our listening skill in a strong way in order to become a fluent person at the moment to speak, which also means that Listening and Speaking work together since Listening helps to me to understand what I listen to, speak clearly, to use the correct structure at the moment to speak, to pronounce properly, to use the correct intonation, and to know when to stress a word in a sentence. For example I might include the following activity: to make my students to listen to a song in English by providing them some worksheets where they will have to fill with the words they listen to, and in that way I am working out their listening skills. Or I might use the same song by providing them its lyrics and underlining the most difficult words to pronounce, warming them to pay attention to those words for they to realize how its pronunciation is.

References: 

Purdy, Michael. (1997) Listening in Everyday Life.

Barthes, Roland. (1985) The responsability of forms

Flowered, John. (200%) Second Language Listening.

http://www.academia.edu/603612/What_is_listening

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listening

UNIT 8 SPEAKING

Since we know there are four skills in English language, Listening, Reading, Speaking, and Writing, we also know that Listening and Reading are receptive skills and, Writing and Speaking are productive skills. All these skills are very important at the moment to teach and learn English. Speaking is a productive skills due to it makes the learners to produce the language instead of receiving it. This skill also makes the learners to use the speech to communicate meanings to other people. Differently from other skills like Writing or Reading, in Speaking we don't use to plan what we are about to say (Cohen 1996), neither to use the language in an accurate way, but we just do in the way we feel we are ready to do it, because it also involves body language, intonation and facial gestures.  For example, when a teenager wants to greet to his friends, that teenager may use an informal and inaccurate way: How you doing? or to do it in an accurate way : Hello, how are you?; or also when a sales person says May I help you?, expecting an answer for a need (Burns 1997)

As English teacher, I keep in mind the productivity of this skill. Which means that all what I have taught to my students they will show and produce that content using the speaking skill, and now I also realized that the purpose of Speaking is to communicate meaning, also that meaning involves grammar, vocabulary, accuracy and fluency. However even if the person, or my student, who is communicating, doesn't use the correct grammar structure, the meaning has to be understood by the other person, and as teacher, now I keep in mind the importance of the Speaking purpose.

References: 

Brown, H. (1994) Teaching by principles; An interactive approach to pedagogy.

Cohen, A. (1996) Developing the ability to perform speech acts.

Burns, A. (1997) Focus on Speaking.

http://area.dge.mec.pt/gramatica/whatspeakingis.htm

https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/effective-speaking.html

UNIT 2 LEXIS

 Do meanings have to do with their words or do words have to do with their meanings? That is what unit 2 is intended for. Since this unit explains about Lexis,  it means that the unit explains also what kinds of meaning words can have. These meanings are divided into three categories which are according to their situation (Lewis, M. 2000), form, and variety, and I am going to explain the iimportance of each category. For example, if we refer to the situation, we refer to the context: I might be talking about nature so include the word TREE and quickly, the person whom I am talking to will know that I talk about a large plant. That meaning is Denotative.  However if I am talking about my family and I say that my TREE is very wide, the other person will notice that I refer to the group of my relatives,and that meaning is Figurative. As I learnt, the meaning of the words can change according to the form of the words. Let's include some examples to make this definition clear. I say that my father is POLITE, and I describe how my father is; but if I say that my father greets and talks POLITELY, then the meaning changes because now I describe his behavior due to I added the suffix LY. One more example: It is LEGAL to smoke here will never be the same than saying It is ILLEGAL to smoke here because the prefix IL changes the meaning of a word. That process is called AFFIXATION (Pinker, S. 1999).

This information is very helpful to me. It is going to help me as English language teacher, since my students can have a lot of misunderstandings in words meanings. Since I already have knowledge of LEXIS, I will know how to help my students learning.

References:

Spratt, M.; Williams, M.; (2011) The TKT Course, Ernest Klett. 

Lewis, M. (2000); Implementing the Lexical Approach

Pinker, S. (1999) Worls ad Rules, the ingredients of language and life.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexis_(linguistics)

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/grammar-vs-lexis-or-grammar-through-lexis