ELT METHODS

The Audio lingual Method
TPR
CLT
CBLT

1. Does it make any sense to you that forming questions / answers through a chain drill may be a worthwhile activity but it is not generating purposeful communication? Can you state the reasons that justify your answer?

The Audio lingual method often uses this kind of tools. The drills suppose to create habits for the student. But in real situations students may not have and exact event as the one learned by the drill. So the drill by itself it is not making communication. I think it will help the student to identify grammar and in that way it will be useful for him in a real context.

2. Should teachers overlook certain student errors in the beginning? If so. What type of errors should be disregarded?

At the Audio Lingual Method not mistakes are allowed. It was developed on 1950`s with other priorities and concepts of education. It has some good aspects but not in this point. Other methods accept error as sign of learning rather than failure. I think that teachers can ignore some errors at the begging in order that students can win self confidence but later the teacher must find a way to make emphasis on what was going on and what will be the appropriated way to do it but with out affecting students attention and participation.

3. Non-verbal behavior is an important aspect of any culture. Why is its use relevant in CLT?

Because in this method students learn English to communicate and language is one way for people to communicate but there are other ways for us to understand each other like: hands, signs, drawing, singing, all our body express something about us. This use of behavior is relevant because will give emphasis on meaning and preparing students using English in a real situations.

4. Since CBT has been designed around the notion of competency not around the notion of subject knowledge, do you think that competency-based approach is suitable for every subject? If yes. What subjects?

I think this approach is good depending on the students you want to teach, depending on their needs, since this method was developed for immigrants that need special needs for jobs but not for family, making friends, or buying. So it will be good for teaching vocational activities, like bilingual secretaries, and also for special situations in a teal context like taking the subways, buying or selling by phone, making an order at restaurant, checking in and out the hotel room, buying tickets, asking information.

The Grammar Translation Method

This method was primary used to teach Latin and Greek, and the main purpose it was to teach to read and write other language. But now the world has other needs because every one is so connected and may be people will need to speak and listen rather than write and read. So I will rescue from this method the importance to learn the grammar rules in L2.

Also It surprise me that this method is the most used around the world because I taught that now there will be so many new and better techniques for teaching.

Personally, I see it as a basic tool to learn to read and write in other language by your own, because with out any one who teaches you, you will just have grammar, vocabulary and structures from your own language so you will try to applied to a new language by using your dictionary, it is hard but it works at least from Spanish to English.

The project Colombia Bilingue

Colombian government has very high aspirations for our students. At year 2019 they must have a B1 level according to the “Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: learning, teaching assessment”, I wonder if all the goals proposed will be really developed? Colombia is trying to apply standards that were done to work in European countries. May be in this coming years some aspects will have to be fixed to our own conditions. As many other things that by the learning process we copy, (japans are experts on that) we must be fixing things in our way, keeping in mind our needs.

In this sense, teachers are a relevant point in this Project because they are the first to know about it, they must shared it with the rest of the society and be aware that they must reach the appropriate English level of proficiency. But, who will tell we have the right level?, How are going to be the examinations, Who are going to make them?

To help Colombian students reach higher levels of language proficiency I think teachers must: improve our own levels of English, review pedagogical tools for teaching in order to implement right strategies in classrooms and also share experiences with other teachers.

The present of English

In our first class we talked about how english it is necessary in this time, more people wants to learn this lenguage. May be because they are loking for a job, or for improve their own studies, traveling, visiting friends, or just to understand better the internet. Right now, english is the lenguage for bussines. The mandarin, the chinease lenguage is becoming the second lenguge to trade. Personality, I enjoy learning english, and I think it is important for our kids to learnit as a tool to get better comunicated to this world.

WHO IS MY FAVORITE TEACHER?

Trying to answer this question I looked back on time, I remember very good teachers at school and college. It won’t be fair if I just choose only one. I like my Spanish teacher at 8th grade because She was so neat at her job, She was clear about what we were doing and seduce us by her readings. I also admire to my biology, chemistry and physics teachers because even I didn’t choose those subjects for my college They were very generous, patient and gave me the opportunity to ask, they were very clear to explain and also they were always close to the students, ready to any sign from us to make sure we understood.

At university I admire two teachers the most, Mrs. Goyes and Mr. Botero. I admire them because they were punctual, clear and It seems to me that they like the subject they were teaching so it was easy to share it with the students.

At this point, it is necessary to be grateful with the teachers I just mention and also with the ones who I am sharing my classroom because I think your labor preserves the good values of life.

How will I address competences in my classes?

How will I adress general competences?

I will invite to my students to think about learning. Why are we learning English?, How can it be useful now? It will be necessary in the future? Will help English to learn other subjects? This questions make us think about the general competences that our students must have: It is important to learn, it is good to have some acknowledgment about any subject, but what I can do with it?, will this give us the ability to learn other things? And also, with this reflections the students will know more about themselves.

How will I adress communicative competences in classes:

The linguistic competences: It is a very important competence but some times the students get bore because learning grammar, orthography, semantic, it is not that funny. I will try to explain it in an easy way depending on the age of the student and his/her particular interesting.

The Sociolinguistic competences: I understand by it the way we communicate in different moments and places. It has to do with the way the persons behave in a moment. Since it is different to communicate in each circumstance, it will be good to teach greetings, manners and use them in the classroom and also it will be good to watch movies, tv shows, to see how people communicate in an ordinary day or in a formal moment.

The pragmatic competences: In this competence we have two sub competences, the discursive and the functional. To reach the first one, the students must be able to arrange sentences in a sequence and the functional competence enable the student to apply the linguistic forms in a real communicative situation. In this to cases, again, depending on the student’s age or English level, I will tell them to write about what they think about an specific topic, so they will have the opportunity to resonate and write in a logic way and then I will ask them to share it with a classmate, both of them will have to write what do they think about each other commentary.

MY FRIST DAY OF CLASSES.

MY FRIST DAY OF CLASSES.

Hello classmates. Last tuesday, It was our first day of classes and I enjoy it very much. I like English and I want to learn tools to teach this language. Since I am not a teacher every subject was new for me. I think it is important to learn English because enable us to communicate with people from other parts of the world even if those persons are not born in North America, Great Britain or Australia. In this way, this language give us the possibility to get close to new places and cultures. I want to be a English teacher to share something that I thing is good at the time that I improve my own skills.