Skill Development : 2015

miércoles, 22 de abril de 2015

Definitions

Hey guys! This video is from my mate Arely and me!

First of all I think it was a short course, we developed our skills, our habillities and that was the best part. Our curse was about how we can learn to teach students develop their skills in the best possible way. We also had some experiences where we felt how dificult it is.

The most dificult part was when we had to read, because in that moment we didn´t develop our reading skill yet. Now I can say, We are able to read a long text, We feel confident when we have to make a summary or something similar. We also can organize our ideas much better that the beginning.

Another important part is that now we know more about learning theories, methods and how to use our communicative competence. I really would like to know all about them, but I also know it takes a lot of time, practise and constancy.

All what we saw, learned, and practiced are going to be tools, for real life and teaching but as everything we have to acquire more knowledge to be good teachers, to know what we are doing.

sábado, 18 de abril de 2015

Pronunciation

Pronunciation

"Pronunciation" refers to the way in which we make the sound of words.

To pronounce words, we push air from our lungs up through our throat and vocal chords, through our mouth, past our tongue and out between our teeth and lips. (Sometimes air also travels through our nose.)

To change the sound that we are making, we mainly use the muscles of our mouth, tongue and lips to control the shape of our mouth and the flow of air. If we can control the shape of our mouth and the flow of air correctly, then our pronunciation is clearer and other people understand us more easily.

Speakers of different languages tend to develop different muscles of the mouth for pronunciation. When we speak a foreign language, our muscles may not be well developed for that language, and we will find pronunciation more difficult. By practising the foreign language pronunciation, our muscles develop and pronunciation improves.

As well as creating correct vowel and consonant sounds using the muscles of our mouth, tongue and lips, there are other important aspects of pronunciation, including:

word stress - emphasis on certain syllables in a word
sentence stress - emphasis on certain words in a sentence
linking - joining certain words together
intonation - the rise and fall of our voice as we speak

Grammar

Grammar

In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules governing the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics, and pragmatics.

The term grammar is often used by non-linguists with a very broad meaning. As Jeremy Butterfield puts it, "Grammar is often a generic way of referring to any aspect of English that people object to." However, linguists use it in a much more specific sense. Speakers of a language have a set of internalised rules for using that language.

This is grammar, and the vast majority of the information in it is acquired—at least in the case of one's native language—not by conscious study or instruction, but by observing other speakers; much of this work is done during infancy. Learning a language later in life usually involves a greater degree of explicit instruction.

The term "grammar" can also be used to describe the rules that govern the linguistic behaviour of a group of speakers. The word grammar is derived from Greek γραμματικὴ τέχνη (grammatikē technē), which means "art of letters"

Grammar is the system of a language. People sometimes describe grammar as the "rules" of a language; but in fact no language has rules*. If we use the word "rules", we suggest that somebody created the rules first and then spoke the language, like a new game.

Do we need to study grammar to learn a language? The short answer is "no". Very many people in the world speak their own, native language without having studied its grammar. So think of grammar as something good, something positive, something that you can use to find your way - like a signpost or a map.

Vocabullary

Vocabulary

Vocabulary is the set of words within a language that are familiar to that person. A vocabulary usually develops with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge. Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the largest challenges in learning a second language.

Vocabulary is commonly defined as "all the words known and used by a particular person". Knowing a word, however, is not as simple as merely being able to recognize or use it. There are several aspects of word knowledge which are used to measure word knowledge.

The noun vocabulary (or vocab for short) refers to the words used in a language.

The word vocabulary can have at least three different meanings:

all of the words in a language

New words are constantly being added to the vocabulary of English.
the words used in a particular context

If you want to do an MBA you need to improve your business vocabulary.

My neighbour is a doctor so he has an extensive medical vocabulary.

I've just bought a book on the vocabulary of slang.
the words an individual person knows

The teacher said that my vocabulary is good.

When learning a foreign language, our individual vocabulary in that language is one of the most important micro-skills to develop. Of course, all micro-skills like grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation are important. But it is far more difficult to communicate with no vocabulary than with no grammar.

Sub-skills

The language skills of speaking, listening, writing and reading are often divided into sub-skills, wich are specific behaviours that language users do in order to be effective in each of the skills,

Example:

Learners developing the skill of listening need to have the sub-skills to being able to recognize contracted forms in connected speech. In the classroom learners spend time developing a wide range of sub-skills as they build each of the four skills. Amongst the sub-skills focussed on are scanning and skimming in reading, organizational and editing skills in writing, recognition of connected speech and understanding in listening, pronuntiation and intonation in speaking.

Listening Sub-skills

*Listening for gist. This is when we listen to something to get a general idea of what it’s about, of what’s being said. We don’t want or need to understand every word.

*Listening for specific information. This is when we listen to something because we want to discover a particular piece of information. We know in advance what we’re hoping to find out. We can ignore other information which doesn’t interest us.

*Listening in detail. This is when we listen we listen very closely, paying attention to all the words and trying to understand as much information as possible.

Harmer, J., (2007) How to Teach English (new edition), Pearson-Longman, – chapter 10

Speaking sub-skills

Depending on the level and ability of your students, in the sphere of speaking there are several sub-skills worth looking at:

*Pronunciation

*Stress, rhythm and intonation

*Using the correct form of words

*Word order

*Using appropiate vocavulary

*Language register

*Building an argument

Writing sub-skills

* Know Orthography

*Know the system of the second language

*Word order

*Use good standar grammar

*Know how to express a particular meaning using different grammatical forms

*Use of synonyms and antonyms

*Writing strategies

*Be able to structure a text into paragraphs

Reading sub-skills

*Comprehension

*Understanding the plan of the text

*Making predictions

*Guessing the meaning of unfamiliar words

*Skimming and scanning

*Understanding the organization of the text

*Note-making

Writing / Definitions

1.- Writing is a medium of human communication that represents language through the description or recording of signs and symbols. In most languages writing is complemet to speech or spoken language. Writing is not a language but a form of technology. The result of writing is called text and the recipient of text is called a reader.

2.- Writing is a method of representing language in a visual or tacticle form. Writing systems use sets of symbols for such things as punctuation and numerals.

3.- Writing is the process of using symbols (letters of the alphabet, punctuacion and spaces) to communicate thoughts and ideas in a readable form.

4.- Writing can also refer to the work/career of an autor, as in: "Shakespeare didn't make much money from writing"

5.- The way that you use written words to express your ideas or opinions.

Reading / Definitions

1.- Reading is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols in order to construct or derive meaning (reading comprehension). It is a means of Language acquisition, of communication, and of sharing information and ideas. Like all language, it is a complex interaction between the text and the reader which is shaped by the reader’s prior knowledge, experiences, attitude, and language community which is culturally and socially situated. The reading process requires continuous practice, development, and refinement. In addition, reading requires creativity and critical analysis. Consumers of literature make ventures with each piece, innately deviating from literal words to create images that make sense to them in the unfamiliar places the texts describe. Because reading is such a complex process, it cannot be controlled or restricted to one or two interpretations. There are no concrete laws in reading, but rather allows readers an escape to produce their own products introspectively. This promotes deep exploration of texts during interpretation. Readers use a variety of reading strategies to assist with decoding (to translate symbols into sounds or visual representations of speech and comprehension.

2.- "Reading" is the process of looking at a series of written symbols and getting meaning from them. When we read, we use our eyes to receive written symbols (letters, punctuation marks and spaces) and we use our brain to convert them into words, sentences and paragraphs that communicate something to us.

Reading can be silent (in our head) or aloud (so that other people can hear).

Reading is a receptive skill - through it we receive information. But the complex process of reading also requires the skill of speaking, so that we can pronounce the words that we read. In this sense, reading is also a productive skill in that we are both receiving information and transmitting it (even if only to ourselves).

3.- Reading is a multifaceted process involving word recognition, comprehension, fluency, and motivation. Learn how readers integrate these facets to make meaning from print. Reading in its fullest sense involves weaving together word recognition and comprehension in a fluent manner. These three processes are complex, and each is important.

4.- Reading is the recognition of words. From simple recognition of the individual letters and how these letters form a particular word to what each word means not just on an individual level, but as part of a text. In English, as in many other languages, different combinations of the same letters can be used to form different words with completely different meanings. So, the letters t c a, can make cat (an animal that goes miaow), and act (which has a number of meanings from do something to behave in certain ways, to perform in a play or film). Recognition of the actual word is not enough on its own to constitute reading. Understanding what we are reading is key and is certainly the main point of teaching reading in a class. It’s not much good if our students simply stare at a text and say ‘Well, I don’t understand it, but it looks nice!’ However, understanding a text is quite a complex issue and something that we will try and examine in the rest of this article.

5.- Reading is the result of a patient apprenticeship guided by patient teachers. And it’s a complex process. It begins with learning how to make sense of words, then sentences, and finally what we might call the ‘global meaning’ of a text. The apprentice reader has to understand that a text is not simply a juxtaposition of sentences. Rather there are ‘befores’ and ‘afters’, and there are relations of cause and effect, or finality, between two events. Without necessarily learning formal grammar, the learner-reader of fiction has to understand that a character first introduced as Catherine, is the same character referred to later on by the pronoun ‘she’, or the character who re-appears as a definite article, followed by a noun, qualified by adjectives, ‘the pretty little girl’; ‘Catherine’, ‘she’, and ‘the pretty little girl’ are all the same ‘character’. The more one thinks about reading the more remarkable it is that it’s a skill that most of us are fortunate enough to have learnt. (Belinda Jack)

Speaking / Definitions

1.-The act, utterance, or discourse of a person who speaks.

2.- In sociolinguistics, speaking or the speakin model, is a model socio-linguistic study (represented as a mnemonic) developed by Dell Hymes. It is a tool to assist the identification and labeling of components of linguistic interaction that was driven by his view that, in order to speak a language correctly, one needs not only to learn its vocabulary and grammar, but also the context in which words are used.

To facilitate the application of his representation, Hymes constructed the acronym, S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G (for setting and scene, participants, ends, acts sequence, key, instrumentalities, norms, & genre) under which he grouped the sixteen components within eight divisions.

3.- Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information (Brown, 1994; Burns & Joyce, 1997). Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking. It is often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving. However, speech is not always unpredictable. Language functions (or patterns) that tend to recur in certain discourse situations (e.g., declining an invitation or requesting time off from work), can be identified and charted (Burns &Joyce, 1997). For example, when a salesperson asks "May I help you?" the expected discourse sequence includes a statement of need, response to the need, offer of appreciation, acknowledgement of the appreciation, and a leave-taking exchange. Speaking requires that learners not only know how to produce specific points of language such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary (linguistic competence), but also that they understand when, why, and in what ways to produce language (sociolinguistic competence). Finally, speech has its own skills, structures, and conventions different from written language (Burns & Joyce, 1997; Carter & McCarthy, 1995; Cohen, 1996). A good speaker synthesizes this array of skills and knowledge to succeed in a given speech ac

4.- The action of conveign information or expressing one’s thoughts and feelings in spoken language.

5.- Speaking is the productive skill in the oral mode. It, like the other skills, is more complicated than it seems at first and involves more than just pronouncing words.

Listening / Definitions

1.- Listening is the conscious processing of the auditory stimuli that have been perceived through hearing.Listening differs from obeying. Parents may commonly conflate the two, by telling a disobedient child that he "didn't listen to me". However, a person who receives and understands information or an instruction, and then chooses not to comply with it or to agree to it, has listened to the speaker, even though the result is not what the speaker wanted.

2.- The active process of receiving and responding to spoken (and sometimes unspoken) messages.

Listening is one of the subjects studied in the field of language and in the discipline of conversation analysis.

3.- Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process. Listening is key to all effective communication, without the ability to listen effectively messages are easily misunderstood – communication breaks down and the sender of the message can easily become frustrated or irritated.

4.- "Listening" is receiving language through the ears. Listening involves identifying the sounds of speech and processing them into words and sentences. When we listen, we use our ears to receive individual sounds (letters, stress, rhythm and pauses) and we use our brain to convert these into messages that mean something to us. Listening in any language requires focus and attention. It is a skill that some people need to work at harder than others. People who have difficulty concentrating are typically poor listeners. Listening in a second language requires even greater focus. Like babies, we learn this skill by listening to people who already know how to speak the language.

This may or may not include native speakers. For practice, you can listen to live or recorded voices. The most important thing is to listen to a variety of voices as often as you can.

5.- Listening is the absorption of the meanings of words and sentences by the brain. Listening leads to the understanding of facts and ideas. But listening takes attention, or sticking to the task at hand in spite of distractions. It requires concentration, which is the focusing of your thoughts upon one particular problem. A person who incorporates listening with concentration is actively listening. Active listening is a method of responding to another that encourages communication.

Listening is a very important skill, especially for tutors. Many tutors tend to talk too much during a tutorial session. This defeats the purpose of tutoring, which is to allow students to learn by discussion. Rather than turning the session into a mini-lecture, tutors must actively listen and encourage their students to become active learners. Giving a student your full attention is sometimes difficult because you start to run out of time, or you find yourself thinking about your next question; however, the time you spend actively listening to your student will result in a quality tutoring session.

What is a skill?

A skill is the learned ability to carry out a task with pre-determined results often within a given amount of time, energy, or both. In other words the abilities that one possesses. Skills can often be divided into domain-general and domain-specific skills. For example, in the domain of work, some general skills would include time management,teamwork and leadership, self motivation and others, whereas domain-specific skills would be useful only for a certain job. Skill usually requires certain environmental stimuli and situations to assess the level of skill being shown and used.