UNIT 18 ASSESSMENT TYPES AND TASKS

                                                ASSESSMENT TYPES AND TASKS

Assessment tasks include the collection of data on students learning in order to improve student´s leaning. There are many reasons why we as teachers must assess our students. We can evaluate them formally or informally.

First of all, informal assessment is done when the teacher just observe the student in order to see how well they are doing something, then it came the feedback but in a general way. According to Dorothy Zakrajsek, Lois Carnes, Frank E. Pettigrew (Quality Lesson Plans for Secondary Physical Education, Volume 1, 2003)  “informal assessment incorporates ongoing formative evaluation into the learning experiences with a primary goal of promoting students improvement.” I consider this type of assessment as more meaningful and suitable for learners of all ages.

On the opposite the formal assessment, is done when students are tested or evaluated with exams so the teacher will give them a grade.  Based on the same author, he argues that” Formative assessment are typically conducted as a summative culmination to an instructional unit” because it is applied at the end of a unit.

So in order to test our students we can use diagnostic test, which is used at the beginning of the course to test student´s knowledge about the previous course. Then we have the rest of tests such us placement test, progress test,  achievement test, summative test and  proficiency test.  According to Drs. Y.k.Singh, T.K. Sharma and Brijesh upadhya (Edu. Technology:tech of Tests, 2008)

Say that “the closer that two tests are to each other in the spectrum, the more nearly alike will be the types of learning measured.” It means that it has a sequence each test depends on the other and must be given feedback, so that process should be done by every student.

Bibliography:

Quality Lesson Plans for Secondary Physical Education, Volume 1. (2003). Canada.

Edu. Technology:tech of Tests. (2008).

 

UNIT 17 PRACTICE ACTIVITIES AND TASKS FOR LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

                       PRACTICE ACTIVITIES AND TASKS FOR LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

The aim of this is to give students the opportunity to practice and extend their use of language. Like for example we have new vocabulary, functional exponents, or grammatical structures  and sub skills of reading. As in the TKT book (Bentley, 2010) it says that controlled activities give students the represented practice in accuracy   and the form of language and allow them to make few mistakes.  In this way teachers are teaching students to use the form of their target language.

On the other hand we have the use of free activities in which allow students to use whatever language they would like to use at the moment to complete a task. It means that it will be used only to develop their imagination and facilitate learning. Asia Citro, in her book (150+ Screen-Free Activities for Kids.) affirms that “Children learn so much through activities that use their senses and move their bodies. Because technology does not involve the use of several senses and rarely involves full body movements, it limits learning.” From this point we can notice that it is important to let learners to practice free activities but taking into account that those should be movement activities that activate their senses. 

I consider that controlled activities provide students the guidance and support they need when using language accurately abut free activities provides less guidance and support to students when they use any language.so it is not productive for student’s acquisition.

Bibliography:

150+ Screen-Free Activities for Kids. (s.f.).

Bentley, K. (2010). The TKT Course CLIL Module. United Kingdom.

 

UNIDAD 16 PRESENTATION TECHNIQUES AND INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITIES.

                     PRESENTATION TECHNIQUES AND INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITIES.

The presentation techniques are very used by teachers in order to get student´s attention on meaning; it is also used to introduce new topics or lessons. There are two presentation stages: presentation, practice and production (PPP) and task based learning (TBL) that could be applied into the classroom but each one of them has some characteristics.

First, the presentation, practice and production in which language is a clear aim and focus of the lesson, here the teacher uses the targe t  language into a situation then elicits the language. Karlfried Knapp,Barbara Seidlhofer,H. G. Widdowson  in their book  (Handbook of Foreign Language Communication and Learning, 2009)explain that “this is not so much a specific method as a more generally prescribed formulaic procedure offered as a standard practice for prospective language teachers in their pre- service training.”

On the other hand, we have the the task- based learning in which the aim of the lesson is fos students to complete a task, and the teacher must starts by conceptualizing the topic, and asks students to do a task.  Peter Robinson, in his book (Task-Based Language Learning, June, 2011)refers to “research into task-based learning has followed a trajectory with the first four processes being explored by early research into the effects of the interactive demands of tasks on learning.”

So I recommend all the teaches to work out and use these two approaches due to you can follow a process and evaluate it in a better way.

Bibliography:

Handbook of Foreign Language Communication and Learning. (2009). Germany.

Task-Based Language Learning. (June, 2011). United Kingdom.

 

UNIT 15 APPROACHES TO LANGUAGE TEACHING

 

 

 

 

APPROACHES TO LANGUAGE TEACHING

 

WHEN WE TALK ABOUT language technique it is related to the way we see the language, as we know it is a set of grammar rules so when we learn a language it is involved into the learning process. Another point is that approaches have to do with the different methods of teaching we can apply in the classroom. Marlene D. LeFever in her book (Creative Teaching Methods, 1985) mentions about the “DO IT “rule she says that “I wish I were more creative is the consistent cry of teachers, and part of the wish is within reach.” I recommend those teachers to do it, and organize their ideas in a better way.

At this point we have the communicative approaches and the communicative activities. Additionally there are plenty of approaches to teach. One of them is the Presentation, Practice and Production (PPP), in which the teacher presents the topic, asks students to do some exercises and asks them to produce what they have learned during that time. And then we have the lexical Approach, the main point here is the acquisition of      vocabulary, the different kinds of chunks collocations, and idioms

 

The functional approach , which  is graded according to their practical times.

According to Jack C. Richards, Theodore S. Rodgers (Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, 1986) says that “Grammar translation is a way of studying a language that approaches the language”. it means that it is the study of grammatical rules presented through grammatical terms.

As i consider those as the most appropiate aproaches i would like to use them with my students throug grames in which learning and acquaring new terms id going to be the main point.

Bibliography:

Creative Teaching Methods. (1985). United States.

Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. (1986). New York .