GRADO EN CIENCIA DE LA ACTIVIDAD FÍSICA Y DEL

DEPORTE

Nombre de la asignatura

Unidad Didáctica nº_

Máster

Complementos para la formación disciplinar en lengua

inglesa

Unidad Didáctica Nº2

Máster

Complementos para la formación disciplinar en lengua

inglesa

Unidad Didáctica Nº2

Índice

1. Presentación .................................................................. 3

2. Desarrollo ..................................................................... 4

3. Mediateca, Fuentes y Otros Recursos .............................. 14

Presentación 3 Universidad Isabel I

1. Presentación

En esta unidad didáctica te proponemos una serie de textos para que reflexiones sobre el proceso de aprendizaje y enseñanza de una L2. Creemos que estas son las dos primeras preguntas que todo futuro docente debe hacerse: ¿cómo enseñar inglés? ¿Cómo aprender inglés? Normalmente el futuro docente utilizará

una mezcla de elementos de diferentes teorías, adaptándolos a sí mismo en un

momento dado y al grupo de alumnos al que esté impartiendo clase.

Lo importante de estas dos preguntas es que nos las realicemos cada día de nuestra labor docente. Uno de los peligros con los que nos enfrentarnos en nuestra profesión es el de quedarnos anquilosados y pensar que ya lo sabemos todo y que ninguna teoría nos va a enseñar nada nuevo.

Esperamos que estos textos te hagan reflexionar y susciten en ti nuevas preguntas.

How were you taught English at

High School?

Did you like it? What aspects

would you change/improve?

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2. Desarrollo

Text 1

LEARNING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE: FIVE MOST COMMON MISTAKES

Learning a new foreign language is never easy – but it's a lot harder if you fall into these five common traps, says Anne Merritt.

It’s a myth that intelligent people are better at learning languages.

Sure, it doesn’t hurt, especially when innately academic types hold an arsenal of learning strategies. Most language learning skills, however, are in fact habits, which can be formed through a bit of discipline and self-awareness.

Here are the five most common mistakes language learners make – and how to

correct them...

Not listening enough

There’s a school of linguistics that believes language learning begins with a “silent period”. Just as babies learn to produce language by hearing and

parroting sounds, language learners need to practice listening in order to learn. This can reinforce learned vocabulary and structures, and help learners see

patterns in language.

Listening is the communicative skill we use most in daily life, yet it can be difficult to practice unless you live in a foreign country or attend immersive language classes. The solution? Find music, podcasts, TV shows and movies in the target language, and listen, listen, listen, as often as possible.

Lack of curiosity

In language learning, attitude can be a key factor in how a student progresses.

Linguists studied attitude in language learning in the 1970s in Quebec, Canada, when tension was high between Anglo- and Francophones. The study found that Anglophones holding prejudices against French Canadians often did poorly in French language learning, even after studying French for years as a mandatory school subject.

On the other hand, a learner who is keen about the target culture will be more successful in their language studies. The culturally curious students will be more

receptive to the language and more open to forming relationships with native speakers.

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Rigid thinking

Linguists have found that students with a low tolerance of ambiguity tend to struggle with language learning.

Language learning involves a lot of uncertainty – students will encounter new vocabulary daily, and for each grammar rule there will be a dialectic exception or irregular verb. Until native-like fluency is achieved, there will always be some level of ambiguity.

The type of learner who sees a new word and reaches for the dictionary instead of guessing the meaning from the context may feel stressed and disoriented in

an immersion class. Ultimately, they might quit their language studies out of sheer frustration. It’s a difficult mindset to break, but small exercises can help. Find a song or text in the target language and practice figuring out the gist, even if a few words are unknown.

A single method

Some learners are most comfortable with the listen-and-repeat drills of a language lab or podcast. Some need a grammar textbook to make sense of a foreign tongue. Each of these approaches is fine, but it’s a mistake to rely on only one.

Language learners who use multiple methods get to practice different skills and see concepts explained in different ways. What’s more, the variety can keep

them from getting stuck in a learning rut.

When choosing a class, learners should seek a course that practices the four language skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking). For self-study, try a combination of textbooks, audio lessons, and language learning apps.

Fear

It doesn’t matter how well a person can write in foreign script, conjugate a verb, or finish a vocabulary test. To learn, improve, and truly use your target

language, we need to speak.

This is the stage when language students can clam up, and feelings of shyness or insecurity hinder all their hard work. In Eastern cultures where saving face is a strong social value, EFL teachers often complain that students, despite years of studying English, simply will not speak it. They’re too afraid of bungling the grammar or mispronouncing words in a way that would embarrass them.

The key is that those mistakes help language learners by showing them the limits of language, and correcting errors before they become ingrained. The more learners speak, the quicker they improve.

The secret to learn foreign

languages (no kidding!)

https://www.youtube.com/watc

h?v=eFpzeGoP-Kg

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QUESTIONS

1. Do you need to be smart to acquire a new language?

2. Is learning a new language a matter of discipline? Define the concept of ´self-awareness´.

3. How does listening help us learn a new language?

4. Is it necessary to live in a foreign country to practice listening?

5. Can culture be considering an important factor in language learning?

6. How low tolerance of ambiguity can affect our learning? Compare and contrast language learning and mathematics learning.

7. Do students have to follow a single method in language learning? How can following different methods can improve our learning?

8. What is the definitive proof that you have acquired a new language? How

fear can affect our learning?

DEFINE USING YOUR OWN WORDS

- innately academic types:

- learning skills

- self-awareness

- parroting

- mandatory school subject

- sheer frustration

YOU ARE NOW A TEACHER

- You are in charge of a 2nd year ESO group. What teaching-learning strategies should you employ to motivate your students to learn a new language in the first day of the academic year and help them avoid the fear factor?

- This video may help you build your ideas:

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF7zsz8fi64

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PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION

- This is the stage when language students can clam up, and feelings of

shyness or insecurity hinder all their hard work. In Eastern cultures where saving face is a strong social value, EFL teachers often complain that students, despite years of studying English, simply will not speak it

GRAMMAR

- ´They might quit their language studies out of sheer frustration´. We can

notice in this sentence the modal verb ´might´. Write a short essay

containing the definition of modal verbs, their forms and main characteristics

THINK OUT OF THE BOX

- You want to be an English language teacher. Do you think that just

learning the right teaching strategies will make you a good professional or something else it´s required? Write a short essay stating your opinion.

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Text 2

WHAT'S THE BEST WAY TO TEACH LANGUAGES?

Alex Rawlings was a language teacher's dream. He fell in love with languages when he was eight and learnt Greek, then German, then Dutch. Now, an undergraduate at Oxford, he is the UK's most multi-lingual student, speaking 11 languages. So what's his secret?

"I remember seeing people on the beach in Greece when I was a kid and not being able to talk to them," says Alex. "I thought it'd be nice to be able to talk to

anyone in the world in their language. That has always stayed with me."

Such enthusiasm is rare: a report by the British Academy this year found there was a growing deficit in foreign language skills. Increasingly, children are choosing not to study languages beyond the compulsory stage - and only 9% of pupils who take French GCSE progress with it to A-level.

"We're failing to inspire people," says Alex. "I had a mix of good and bad teachers - the most inspirational ones just focused on giving you the confidence

to speak. Then I'd pursue it outside the classroom: I would watch films, find out

new words and read things."

Language pedagogy has come a long way since the days when repetitive grammar-translation methods were regarded as the only way to learn. Today, task-based approaches are widespread in British schools, emphasising communication and the practical uses of language.

For Christelle Bernard, a French and Spanish teacher at St Gemma's High School in Belfast, these methods of teaching allow her to cast aside the textbook whenever she can. "You need a little bit of grammar, but my approach is much more topic based with as little grammar as possible," she explains. Her task-based teaching embraces ideas which range from lessons using computers,

to audio-visual and kinesthetic learning. She explains: "For instance, if I'm teaching pets, I'll bring in soft toys to use in the lessons.""I hardly ever use a

textbook - I use Twitter much more," she says, describing lessons where pupils discuss tweets written in French. "ICT allows them to collaborate with others. So they can work together, but it gives them a choice of medium. And because they know how to use computers, it creates a comfort zone where they can focus on the language."

Task-based learning typically involves an information gap: students may have to share knowledge to communicate effectively, or look for language rules

themselves before re-applying them. It's an approach favoured by Huw Jarvis, a

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senior lecturer in the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science at the University of Salford. He says: "We know that people learn better when they struggle to communicate - so that needs to be at the core of the kind of delivery and the methodology."

"The primary purpose of language is communication - grammar is important, but there's a bigger picture. Language is no longer seen as being learnt through mechanical exercises, it's developed through students interacting and engaging."

But there could be a danger in focusing too heavily on task-based methods of language teaching, according to Richard Hudson, emeritus professor of linguistics at University College London. He explains: "There was a strong reaction against

grammar-translation. Instead, there was the idea that you could make languages available to less academic children by focusing on communication.

"But what happened is that they got rid of the grammar and the translation. It

was a classic case of throwing out the baby with the bath water. It's not fair on children to leave them to work out the rules of language themselves.

"What we're moving towards now is teaching which still has the aim of producing fluent language speakers, and still has a lot of emphasis on realistic situations, but with a lot more emphasis on making children aware of how the language actually works."

So could a conjunction of different ideas within language pedagogy be the secret

to learning and teaching? Michael Erard studied hyperpolyglots (multi-lingual speakers) in his book Babel No More and says they used a variety of methods. He explains: "They use a mix, with a focus on accomplishing tasks, whether it's communicative tasks or translation tasks. What unites them is that they've learned how to learn, and each one has learned how he or she learns best. There is no uniform method or single secret that any one of us can duplicate."

QUESTIONS

1. When and how was Alex Rawlings aware of the importance of learning foreign languages? What is Alex Rawlings´recipe to learn languages?

2. Do children still like learning lenguages in Britain?

3. How can task-based aproach learning be defined?

4. Would you say Christelle Bernard is a die-hard grammar person? Why?

5. How can you define the expresion ´comfort zone´ in this classroom

environment?

6. Does Huw Jarvis believe children should effort to learn a language? Does learning have a social component in Jarvis´ opinion?

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7. Does professor Hudson think children should work the language rules by themselves?

8. What do you think to be the most important skill used by hyperpolyglots in learning languages?

DEFINE USING YOUR OWN WORDS

- Dutch

- Kid

- compulsory stage

- GCSE

- A-level

- cast aside

- kinesthetic learning

- Twitter

- ICT

YOU ARE NOW A TEACHER

Your target class is 1st year Bachillerato. Your school has just made a very

important investment in educational technology. How would you employ technology in the English class? Take into account your target audience and the fact that most teenagers are very skilled in technology.

- Reasons to use technology in classroom settings

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulb4jl3xqs8

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION

But what happened is that they got rid of the grammar and the translation. It

was a classic case of throwing out the baby with the bath water. It's not fair on children to leave them to work out the rules of language themselves

GRAMMAR

“as little grammar as possible” Why do we use little in this sentence? Write a one page report about the concepts: countable / uncountable nouns and quantifiers.

THINK OUT OF THE BOX

One of the newest educative devices using technology are Ipads. Search for information on the web and write a one page essay stating their main applications in classroom settings.

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Text 3

ACQUIRING ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

WHAT'S "NORMAL," WHAT'S NOT

By the 2030s, say demographers, English language learners (ELLs) will account for approximately 40% of the entire school-aged population in the United States. In some areas, that projection is already exceeded-in California, for instance, 60%-70% of schoolchildren speak a language other than English as their primary language.

For the period 1995-2005, the Asian population is projected to be the fastest

growing group in all U.S. regions, with the greatest gains expected in the West. The Hispanic population will be the second-fastest growing group.

These facts bear importantly on how children learn-and how speech-language pathologists (SLPs) perform their jobs.

In one common scenario, a child is referred for speech-language testing because she is struggling academically. In her teacher's view, she is not learning English with the expected speed and her academic skills are lagging behind those of

her monolingual English-speaking classmates. Does the student have a language-

learning disability or is she merely manifesting the normal process of acquiring a second language?

Normal Phenomena

It is imperative that SLPs understand the normal processes and phenomena of second-language acquisition to avoid making "false positive" identifications.

a) Interference

ELL children may manifest interference or transfer from their first language (L1) to English (L2). This means that a child may make an English error due to the direct influence of an L1 structure. For example, in Spanish, "esta casa es mas

grande" means "this house is bigger." However, a literal translation would be "this house is more bigger." A Spanish-speaking child who said "this house is more bigger" would be manifesting transfer from Spanish to English. This is a

normal phenomenon-a sign of a language difference, not a language disorder.

b) Silent Period

Children may also manifest a common second-language acquisition phenomenon called the silent period. When children are first exposed to a second language, frequently they focus on listening and comprehension. These children are often very quiet, speaking little as they focus on understanding the new language-much, in fact, as adults do when traveling in foreign countries. The younger the

You will love teaching!

http://www.ted.com/talks/shuk

la_bose_teaching_one_child_at

_a_time.html

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child, the longer the silent period tends to last. Older children may remain in the silent period for a few weeks or a few months, whereas preschoolers may be relatively silent for a year or more.

c) Code-switching

Many children who are ELLs also engage in a behavior known as code-switching. This involves changing languages over phrases or sentences. For example, a Spanish speaker might say, "Me gustaria manejar-I'll take the car!" ("I'd like to

drive-I'll take the car"). Again, this is a normal phenomenon engaged in by many fluent bilingual speakers worldwide.

How Should Students Learn?

Many children who are ELLs are put into English-speaking classrooms where they understand nothing of what they are hearing. In this "sink or swim" situation, many flounder. Imagine traveling to Beijing and taking a social studies course

taught only in Mandarin. Learning would be most difficult; yet we expect our ELLs to automatically decode English and succeed academically in an analogous situation.

Under ideal conditions, ELLs would be taught in their first language 90% of the time and in English 10% of the time in kindergarten and first grade. Gradually, as they learned more English, they would be taught in the primary language 50%

of the time and in English 50% of the time by sixth grade. Studies have shown

that children who are taught in this manner outperform ELLs who are taught mostly in English from very early in their schooling. Children in this ideal bilingual learning situation do so well because they understand what they are hearing and are thus able to build their underlying conceptual-linguistic foundation.

QUESTIONS

1. How can American classrooms be described by 2030?

2. Why is it imperative SLPs understand the processes of second language

acquisition? Give an example.

3. Is interference a language disorder?

4. When children are starting to learn a new language, do they focus on speaking?

5. Can the silent period be related to age?

6. What kind of speakers are affected by code-switching?

7. Why do the authors speak of a sink or swim" situation?

8. How can ELLs be taught according to the authors?

Desarrollo 13 Universidad Isabel I

DEFINE USING YOUR OWN WORDS

- primary language

- Hispanic

- speech-language pathologists

- struggling

- lagging behind

- disability

- false positive

- flounder

- outperform

YOU ARE NOW A TEACHER

You have many different English language levels in a 1st year secundaria classroom. How would you cope with this situation? What kind of learning-

teaching strategies would you employ?

TRANSLATE INTO SPANISH

Children may also manifest a common second-language acquisition phenomenon called the silent period. When children are first exposed to a second language, frequently they focus on listening and comprehension. These children are often very quiet, speaking little as they focus on understanding the new language-much, in fact, as adults do when traveling in foreign countries. The younger the

child, the longer the silent period tends to last. Older children may remain in the silent period for a few weeks or a few months, whereas preschoolers may be relatively silent for a year or more.

GRAMMAR

We can observe in this text two peculiar plurals: ´children´ and ´phenomena´. It´s not that difficult to find more plurals which don´t end in –s or –es. What kind of plurals are these? Make a brief report (one page) stating their formation

rules an giving examples.

THINK OUT OF THE BOX

Imagine you are a student in a foreign country whose language you don´t master at all because you have been given a grant to study a master´s course How would you try to learn the L2 to study your master´ subjects (it has to be fast and give you enough confidence to keep on with your classes).

Mediateca, fuentes y otros recursos 14 Universidad Isabel I

3. Mediateca, Fuentes y Otros Recursos

TEXT 1: Daily Telegraph 19/12/2012

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationadvice/9750895/Learning-a-

foreign-language-five-most-common-mistakes.html

TEXT 2: The Guardian 14/05/2013

http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/may/14/best-way-teach-language-schools

TEXT 3:Celeste Roseberry-McKibbin /Alejandro Brice

http://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/easl.htm