UNIT 10 EXPOSURE AND FOCUS ON FORM

UNIT 10 EXPOSURE AND FOCUS ON FORM

Some experts belief that one main way we learn a foreign language is the exposure to it. We also need to focus our attention on the form of the foreign language, it means we need to use the language to interact. Experts  talk of us acquiring language, so for learning a foreign language successfully we need lots of exposure to it and that we learn form been surrounded by language. Acquisition then takes places over a period of time without our realizing that we are learning. Depending on our age and learning style, we learn language best by picking it up and by focusing on form. There are several approaches to language teaching which were commonly used in the past such as grammar translation method, structural approach or communicative approaches which may not be sufficiently helpful to learners. 

UNIT 9 MOTIVATION

UNIT 9 MOTIVATION

Motivation is very important in language learning. It is one of the key factors that helps make language learning successful. We might be interested in aspects of the country’s customs and life style, and see the target language as a key to understanding and becoming part of that culture. Confidence, learner autonomy and sense of achievement are all part of feeling good about learning a language. There are different kinds of motivation that come from inside the learner and from the learner’s environment There are also learners, who are unmotivated or demotivated. Two researchers have suggested there are ten key areas in which the teacher can influence learner’s motivation, and have provided a list of strategies for motivating learners in these areas. Some of these strategies will work better in some learning contexts than others. The teacher can choose from the list the strategies for motivating students that are likely to work best for their learners in their learning context.

UNIT 8 SPEAKING

 UNIT 8 SPEAKING

Speaking involves using speech to communicate meanings to other people. The purpose in speaking is to communicate meaning, so we do different things such as: making us of grammar, vocabulary, function, using body language and features to achieve this. Students often think that the ability to speak a language is the product of language learning, but speaking is also a crucial part of the language learning process. Effective instructors teach students speaking strategies using minimal responses, recognizin scgripts, and using language to talk about language  that they can use to help themselves expand their knowledge of the language and their confidence in using it. These instructors help students learn to speak so that the students can use speaking to learn. There are many aspects of speaking for a learner to learn. We can see that as with the other language skills, speaking is a complex activity.

UNIT 7 LISTENING

 UNIT 7 LITENING

• As we know Listening is a receptive skill, as it involves responding to language rather than producing it. For instance:

•                     We listen to obtain information.

•                     We listen to understand.

•                     We listen for enjoyment.

•                     We listen to learn.

Given all this listening we do, you would think we'd be good at it! In fact most of us are not, and research suggests that we remember between 25 percent and 50 percent of what we hear. That means that when you talk to your boss, colleagues, customers or spouse for 10 minutes, they pay attention to less than half of the conversation. Like written language, spoken language has different text types, e.g. conversations, stories, announcements, songs, instructions, lectures and advertisements. Generally they contain different ways of organizing language and information, different grammatical patterns, a particular range of vocabulary, different interaction patterns, fewer or more participants. 

UNIT 6 WRITING

UNIT 6 WRITING

Writing is a productive skill as speaking is. If you have written a shopping list, a postcard, a birthday card, some emials, yopur diary,or maybe a story.All these are examples of text types. Writing skills are an important part of communication.  Good writing skills allow you to communicate your message with clarity and ease to a far larger audience than through face-to-face or telephone conversations. You might be called upon to write a report, plan or strategy at work; write a grant application or press release within a volunteering role; or you may fancy communicating your ideas online via a blog.  And, of course, a well written resume with no spelling or grammatical mistakes is essential if you want a new job.

Find more at: http://www.skillsyouneed.com/writing-skills.html#ixzz3YrkKgg1e

UNIT 5 READING

UNIT 5 READING

Talking about Reading skill, we can say that it is a receptive skill, like listening.Reading involves making sense of written text. It often contains a series of sentences, as in a letter or even in a postcard.We need to use our knowledge of the world to see the sense connection between these two sentences(coherence). The grammatical links between the sentences(cohesion) also help us see the connection between them.Language instructors are often frustrated by the fact that students do not automatically transfer the strategies they use when reading in their native language to reading in a language they are learning. Instead, they seem to think reading means starting at the beginning and going word by word, stopping to look up every unknown vocabulary item, until they reach the end. When they do this, students are relying exclusively on their linguistic knowledge, a bottom-up strategy. One of the most important functions of the language instructor, then, is to help students move past this idea and use top-down strategies as they do in their native language.

Bibliography:
http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/reading/stratread.htm
 

UNIT 4 FUNCTIONS

UNIT 4 FUNCTIONS

In unit 4  we could see that the reason why we communicate is a function, for example: apologizing greeting, inviting, advising, agreeing , refusing. Functions are a way of describing how we use language, so the language we use to express functions is called an exponent. An exponent can express different functions at the same time. There are some levels of formality that we express by these exponents, for example: formal language or, informal language, so when people choose the level of formality, it is called appropiacy. Of course we sometimes use inappropriate language and we create some effect. As we can see a focus on functions in the classroom can lead to an emphasis on communication and learning language in chunks, so combining functions and grammar helps to give grammar meaning and context.

Here we have some links to clarify the explanation about functions: