ELTWeekly Issue#8, Quote of the week
By Tarun Patel
“Language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about.”
Benjamin Lee Whorf
February 8th, 2009
ELTWeekly Issue#8, Worldwide ELT news
By Tarun Patel
Helping English Language Learners in the Classroom, New Report
Merit Software has just released a new report “ESL Reading: Strategies for Classroom Teaching.” The report addresses the challenges facing teachers when working with students from non-English-speaking homes.
(PRWEB) February 2, 2009 — Merit Software has just released a new report “ESL Reading: Strategies for Classroom Teaching.” The report addresses the challenges facing teachers when working with students from non-English-speaking homes.
The key problem is that English language learners, who are taught the basics of reading in the early grades, are faltering as they progress in school.
Read the complete news item here: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/02/prweb1940664.htm
Teaching across cultural lines
Student travels halfway across world, teaches young Chinese children, experiences cultural differences
A journey begins with a solitary step while an adventure begins with a jaunt into the unknown. Becoming certified to teach English as a second language is a journey, but to actually venture out and teach is the beginning of a true adventure. Ashley Galand, 20, anthropology major, began her epic adventure last year when a good friend of hers returned from Central America.
The two signed up for a course teaching English as a second language. Galand spent six weeks in China teaching elementary level children to speak English last year.
Read the complete news item here: http://media.www.nicsentinel.com/media/storage/paper1128/news/2009/02/02/Life/Teaching.Across.Cultural.Lines-3607956.shtml
Teaching a FL at early stages: A sign of modernity or ignorance?
The current trend in the academic circles is to learn another language, especially the ones which have a lot of potential in the job market. Therefore, many people are keen on their children learning a foreign language at an early stage, subordinating their mother tongue which carries their own identity as well as their culture. This may constitute a cultural threat to a child, because by the time a child is made to learn a foreign language, he isn’t acquainted even with the basics of his/her own mother tongue (MT).
But in consideration of the current international developments and in view of the so-called ‘globalization’ which gives an absolute authority for cultural invasion, such a move appears to be an endeavor to attract others’ attention as well as to control their attitudes of life, socially, economically, culturally and politically. It is advisable to learn one’s mother tongue before embarking on learning a new language. Because children are very open-minded, precedence of FL learning over their L1 might lead them to submission to the culture of the new language, as culture is embedded within language. Moreover, it is rightly said that MT indicates the greatness, glory, dignity, heritage, legacy and power of its own nation. In fact, no nation has reached the climax of progress and prosperity without the help of its own MT.Read the complete news item here: http://yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=1230&p=education&a=3
Parties join forces to fight PPSMI
KUALA LUMPUR, 1 Feb 2009: Literary figures and opposition political parties want the teaching of mathematics and science in English (PPSMI) to stop.
“We think that changing the language of instruction of science and mathematics from Bahasa Malaysia (the official and national language) to English is the wrong decision from every perspective,” said former director-general of Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka Datuk Dr Hassan Ahmad.
In a statement made on behalf of the Gerakan Mansuhkan PPSMI (GMP), Hassan urged the Education Ministry to return to teaching those subjects in Bahasa Malaysia, as was done from the 1970s to 2003.
Read the complete news item here: http://thenutgraph.com/article-1871.html
Tunisia: Launches English language teaching reform project
The Tunisian Ministry of Education and Training signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the British Council in London Tuesday, to prepare for a huge project aimed at English language teaching reform in all state primary and secondary schools in Tunisia.
The MoU signing ceremony was attended by Hatem Ben Salem, the Tunisian Minister of Education and Training; and Lord Kinnock, Chair of the British Council and former Leader of the Labour Party.
The project, known as ‘English for the Future’, seeks to design and introduce new English language materials and course books for primary and secondary education in order to produce output standards that are within the Common European Framework for Languages, and to equip learners of English with better vocational language abilities.
Read the complete news item here: http://africa.kongotimes.info/news/135/ARTICLE/1676/2009-01-27.html
ELTWeekly Issue#8, Book of the week: Teaching English Language Learners: A Differentiated Approach
By Tarun Patel
The ELT book of the week for the eighth issue of ELTWeekly is:
Teaching English Language Learners: A Differentiated Approach
by Douglas Fisher
From the Back Cover
Teaching English Language Learners: A Differentiated Approach to Language Development, 1/e Doug Fisher and Carol Rothenberg
Are you looking for a methods book to facilitate literacy and academic development in your K-12 classroom? Building on a solid foundation in language acquisition and learning theory, this text will show you how to examine your own practice and design lessons that consider the individual needs of English language learners and accelerate their achievement.
This text is designed to help your students develop proficiency in both everyday and academic English while developing listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. It also serves as a great guide for promoting high-level, high-quality, and high-expectation instruction with respect to language, literacy development, and academic achievement for all of your students.
Features of this text:
Constructed from a strong research base, each chapter highlights specific research topics to provide you with practical ideas in applying this research to your own practices.- Accessing Prior Knowledge Activities allow you to engage your own background knowledge in visualizing, brainstorming, previewing, reflecting, and observing to help you get the most from each chapter.
- Spotlight on Instruction features visit classrooms of effective teachers of English language learners providing an authentic context as you learn.
- Application to Practice case studies build upon one another from chapter to chapter illustrating how to apply this growing wealth of strategies in your own classroom.
- Teacher Tools in the back of this book provide a collection of reproducibles for use in your classroom, including planning tools, writing assignments, and self reflection tools.
L. Iza, (Athens, Ga.)
I would recommend this book to all teachers who teach English language learners. It is packed with research based strategies and approaches. The marginal questions on many pages encourage the reader to reflect on the information presented and question how it could be applied to the classroom. This is a must read. I have read many books in my professional career as an ESOL teacher and program consultant but this book was so informative, I read it twice! I am recommending it to all my colleagues.
ELTWeekly Issue#8, Video of the week: What is TESOL?
By Tarun Patel
Here is the video of the week for the eighth issue of ELTWeekly:
In this video world-renowned linguist Dr. David Nunan speaks on “What is TESOL” at the Anaheim University Akio Morita Learning Center in Tokyo, Japan.
David Nunan, Vice-President for Academic Affairs at Anaheim University, is the founding Dean of the Anaheim University Graduate School of Education and served as President of Anaheim University from 2006 to 2008. Dr. Nunan is a world-renowned linguist and best-selling author of English Language Teaching textbooks for Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, and Thomson Learning. His ELT textbook series “Go For It” is the largest selling textbook series in the world with total sales exceeding 300 million. In 2000, David Nunan served as President of TESOL, the world’s largest language teaching association, and was the first person to serve as President from outside North America. David Nunan served as Chair and Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Hong Kong and has been involved in the teaching of graduate programs for such prestigious institutions as Columbia University, the University of Hawaii, Monterey Institute for International Studies, and many more. In 2002 Dr. Nunan received a congressional citation from the United States House of Representatives for his services to English language education through his pioneering work in online education at Anaheim University. In 2003 he was ranked the 7th most influential Australian in Asia by Business Review Weekly, and in 2005 he was named one of the top “50 Australians who Matter”. David Nunan was invited by the Australian Prime Minister to attend a summit in Sydney Australia in December 1996 as one of the Leading 100 Global Australians.
Watch the video:
ELTWeekly Issue#8, Expert article: English Language Learners Take Advantage of Technology
By Tarun Patel
English Language Learners Take Advantage of Technology
Author: Art Gib
Learning English has always been a difficult task due to the language’s many intricacies and rules that are quite dissimilar to most of the world’s spoken languages. For example, while most languages place verbs after the noun (ball red), English does the opposite (red ball).
Despite the difficulty of the English language, it remains the world’s most spoken language and a requirement for anybody getting into international business.
English language learners today, however, have the advantage of centuries of language instruction experts contributing to modern technology to make the process much smoother and easier.
Technology for Today’s English Language Learners
While nothing can fully replace an experienced teacher, technology has done much to assist teachers in their efforts.
The most obvious use of technology to help students learn English used to be the television. Videos geared toward specific age groups and levels were prominent during the 70s and 80s. However, today with the availability of computers in homes, computer software has become the prominent technology of choice for today’s English language learners.
Computer software has many advantages over video instruction. Perhaps the most powerful advantage is software’s ability to automatically gauge a student’s progress and customize their curriculum and workflow accordingly, all without intervention from a human teacher.
Software learning has also evolved to the point that an English language learner can immerse themselves in a virtual environment where only English is spoken, and spoken in a manner that allows the student to learn to not just speak the language, but to begin thinking in that language. This is considered a vital area for learning English or any language.
The Need for English Language Instruction in America Grows Daily
American teachers today continue to see an increasing influx of students that don’t speak English as their first language, and many students that don’t speak English at all. American teachers are trained to teach in English. Even if a teacher speaks a foreign language and is able to communicate with non-English speaking students, the training needed to teach that student English, thus allowing them to prosper in a foreign land, is not apparent.
Every classroom in America, statistically, will have a few English language learners in it. With teachers unequipped to teach students English, technology has, by necessity, taken on a larger role in the classroom.
Without this technology, English language learners are often left to their own devices. For those without a supportive environment, English might never be learned without proper technology available in the classroom; sometimes the only place where a student gets the opportunity to speak any English at all.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/english-language-learners-take-advantage-of-technology-295192.html
About the Author:
Scholastic (http://www.scholastic.com) has been providing teachers and students with the technology needed to assist English language learners and students of all types, both in and out of the classroom, for over 85 years.
ELTWeekly Issue#8, Tip of the week: Reading before Writing
By Tarun Patel
Reading before Writing
by Tarun Patel
Tell the students to read the whole exercise before writing anything. (This will be difficult for some students to do).
Once they’ve read it all, let them begin doing the exercise.
It is a good idea to read the whole exercise before starting to write anything because sometimes more than one answer is possible but, in the exercise the students are doing, only one answer is the right one.
This will also enable the students to answer the questions they know the answer to and guess the rest.
ELTWeekly Issue#8, Useful ELT resources
By Tarun Patel
*** englishteaching.co.uk ***
englishteaching.co.uk provides and publishes printable and editable teaching resources, worksheets, lesson plans and schemes of work for teachers of English Language, English Literature, Media and Drama @ secondary level.
All materials are developed and produced by practising subject specialists and, as an online resource, englishteaching.co.uk’s collection of teaching resources and materials is ever-expanding.
At Key Stage 3, englishteaching.co.uk is organised according to the UK National Curriculum Orders for English covering reading, (poetry, prose, drama, media, non-fiction) writing and speaking / listening in the relevant key stages. They have a wide range of materials for Year 9 English SATs.
At Key Stage 4 (GCSE) and Key Stage 5 (A Level) their English Language and English Literature teaching resources cover coursework, examination and revision tasks and work packs on a wide range of examination set texts, authors, playwrights and poets. They publish teaching resources for use with the following examination boards: WJEC, AQA, Edexcel and OCR.
Explore englishteaching.co.uk
*** Mingoville.com ***
Mingoville is a free interactive online learning environment featuring English lessons for kids. We combine fun English games for kids with songs and colourful characters to help children learn English online in a fun “edutainment” model. Mingoville can be used to improve a child’s English language and comprehension skills in reading, writing, spelling, grammar, and even pronunciation. Mingoville lets children learn English from anywhere where they can access a computer with an Internet connection, 24 / 7.
Mingoville was designed to help kids between the ages of 5 and 14 learn English online. However, Mingoville’s highly interactive e-learning environment has been used successfully by ESL students over the age of 14. It also depends on where the student comes from (e.g. we have older users in Asia, whereas European kids tend to start the Mingoville course a little earlier). In some cases, younger age groups may need initial assistance in their English lessons. We even have adults using Mingoville to take advantage of our free listening and pronunciation tools.
Essay writing comes with writing practice. Mingoville contains spelling and writing exercises in English for kids. However, these exercises are at a beginner’s level that won’t prepare students to write essays in English on its own. Mingoville does provide a solid foundation in English for children to pursue further studies.
Explore Mingoville.com
*** The Teaching English Website ***
Teaching English is produced by the British Council with content and editorial support from the British Broadcasting Corporation. Both organisations receive funding from the UK government for their work in promoting English, supporting English language teaching (ELT) and providing information and access to ELT products, services and expertise from the UK. The Teaching English project is non-commercial and as such all content and material on the site is free to access.
The British Council has designed this site to act in four ways:
- as a theoretical and historical archive: where one can read about teaching methodology, currrent practice and issues in ELT.
- as a practical resource: for materials, activities and ideas for teaching
- as a forum: to help teachers, as teachers of English, to discuss teaching, exchange ideas and share materials
- as an information source: for professional development and training as well as an access point for consultancy services to implement educational policy reform.
ELTWeekly Issue#8, Featured article: Significance of Error Analysis in Language Teaching and Learning
By Tarun Patel
Significance of Error Analysis in Language Teaching and Learning
by Neha Joshi
Error and Mistake
In order to analyze learners’ errors in a proper perspective, it is crucial to make a distinction between “mistake” and “error”. According to Brown (2000), a “mistake” refers to a performance error in that it is a failure to utilize a known system correctly. While an “error” is a noticeable deviation from the adult grammar of a native speaker, reflecting the interlanguage competence of the learner. This recognition process is followed by the error description process. We compare learners’ sentences with the correct sentences in target language, and find out the errors. The differences between these two indetailed can be described as under:
- Errors are result of ignorance. Whereas mistakes are result of stress.
- Errors of a learner has a definite pattern, whereas mistakes do not occur in pattern.
- Errors can’t be rectified by its doer, mistakes can be.
Significance of Error Analysis in Language Teaching and Learning
In order to teach a language, it is necessary to understand the process that goes on in the mind of the learner. Error analysis is a part of this process.
Significance:
As Corder has pointed out, there is a vital difference between ‘errors’ and ‘mistakes’. He labels ‘mistakes’ as ‘performance errors’, which are like slip of pen. The learner himself can correct it later on, because they are not the results of unawareness. Whereas, genuine errors are ignorance of rules. The learner can’t correct it by himself. They show the learner’s “transitional Competence”.
Error analysis is essentially significant because, as Jack Richards refers to Corder’s observation: “Learner’s correct sentences do not necessarily give evidence of the rules of the new language and the rules he has developed at given stages of his language development”. This can be done only by the errors he makes. And after knowing this only one can proceed in teaching. So, errors, and its analysis both are an inevitable part of teaching & learning.
Types of Errors
The errors can be divided as under:
- Area: This means an error related to some specific area of language. It can be subdivided into:
- Phonological error: These are the errors related to pronunciation. E.g. in a word like ‘river’ the last ‘r’ should not be pronounced fully. If this is done, it’s a phonological error.
- Lexical error: These are the errors related to words. E.g. ‘air-conditioned room’. Here, ‘ed’ is not required. So this is a lexical error. It’s a use of wrong lexical items.
- Grammatical error: These are errors due to problem with syntax. It is related to the sentence structure. E.g. “I prefer tea than coffee.” Here, underlined part is incorrect. There should be ‘to’ instead. So there is a grammatical error.
- Semantical error : These errors are due to the ambiguity of meaning. E.g. “She is like ice-cream.”Here, meaning is not clear. This is called Semantical error.
- Spellings: Due to incorrect spellings, the meaning is either not clear or is totally changed. E.g. “He is my sun.”Form: These errors can be subdivided into:
- Phonological error: These are the errors related to pronunciation. E.g. in a word like ‘river’ the last ‘r’ should not be pronounced fully. If this is done, it’s a phonological error.
- Form: These errors can be subdivided into:
- Error of addition: When there is unnecessary addition of characters or items, this type of error arises. E.g.” He faced a one problem.” Here the word ‘one’ is added unnecessarily.
- Error of omission: This occurs due to dropping the necessary items. E.g. “My father name is XYZ.” Here an apostrophe to the word ‘father’ is dropped though required in order to clarify the meaning.
- Error of selection: An improper selection from the existing options is the cause of such errors. E.g. “One day the king is going for hunting.” Here, from all existing tenses, only present progressive is selected, which is an improper selection in this contexts.
- Error of order.: These errors occur due to incorrect order of words. E.g.”When I shall meet you?’” here, the underlined parts have been placed in an incorrect order.
- Error of addition: When there is unnecessary addition of characters or items, this type of error arises. E.g.” He faced a one problem.” Here the word ‘one’ is added unnecessarily.
- There can be interlingual error that arises due to L1 influence. E.g. a Gujarati learner of ESL would ask: “Where going you are?’ instead of “ Where are you going?”
- Similarly, there can be intralingual errors that occur within the target language due to incomplete knowledge of rules, or ignorance of exceptions. E.g. “Does she still sings?”
Comprehensibility: These errors can be subdivided into:
- Global error – in which meaning is not clear at all. E.g. “I hope you wont mind if I sit here.” “Yes yes.”
- Local error – where meaning is clear, but still it is an incorrect expression. E.g. “My girlfriend is a beautiful.”
The treatments to the errors made by learners may take many different shapes. However, remedial teaching is the most appropriate and widely used treatment.
Remedial Teaching
A remedial programme is a specially designed alternative strategy based on the need analysis carried out by observing the learner’s deviated behaviour, in order to put it on a right track.
The concept of remedial teaching is not new in the history of teaching – learning.
As they say, “To err is human…”, errors are considered to be a natural human behaviour. However, as far as the teaching of any domain is taken into account, the earlier remedial programmes do not show the same gentle attitude as the saying towards the error done by learners. Earlier, it was believed that errors are like diseases, which need to be cured. So, the remedial programmes that people like T. Wood prepared for their students were nothing but a tedious series of mechanical practice. These programmes treated errors as sins, and as a result, the doer of the sin i.e. the learner, was insulted.
This attitude to the errors was built up on the basis of structural approach to language teaching that projected the process of teaching merely a matter of habit formation. So, they insisted upon drilling and mechanical practice, which they thought would solve the problem. But as we now know, learning – whether it be language learning or anything else – is more of a trial and error, as suggested by the cognitive school of teaching. Unlike the behaviouristic school, they said that drilling is not ALWAYS a strategy that can lead to correct learning. From this came into existence the functional approach, which projected the use-oriented teaching. They emphasized the practical implementation of the learning items. Under the influence of this approach, the concept of errors, treatment to it, the nature of remedial programmes, everything went under a drastic change.
Later on, however it was realized that errors are not essentially useless. Even they can be exploited in order to learn correct things. A positive connotation to the term ‘error’ came into existence and that played a role in redefining the remedial programmes. They are no longer a set for practicing correct behaviour; they are now different, alternative strategies to teach. Earlier remedial classes meant the same for all who err. Hundred students can sit and practice the correct behaviour at a time. But now it has become more individualistic in nature. Today’s remedial programmes are specially designed keeping in mind the needs, abilities and weaknesses of individual learner.
Thus the base of remedial programmes is in need-analysis. The learners’ scope of using the taught item, his ability, his requirement etc. would define the course of remedial programme. This leads to the fact that the factors mentioned above may vary from learner to learner. If we consider the issue in terms of language teaching, it becomes more vital, because language is a medium to express the thoughts and knowledge that an individual possesses.
Neha Joshi works with A D Patel Institute of Technology, Gujarat, India as a Communication Skills teacher.