CHAPTER 8 Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice

Responding to Resistance

When students and some teachers do not agree with the learner-centered approach because they prefer conventional teaching methods, we are referring to resistance. It can occur becuse these kind of activities require a lot of time to carry out and sometimes are not appropriate for the students´level. Thus, the purpose of this chapter is to help teachers to deal with this resistance and how to realize if there is resistant from students and colleages. First, some of the reasons of students resistance are mainly four: it does not give immediate benefits, it requires more work, learner-centered approaches are threatening, these approaches involve losses and finally students are not ready for these approaches. Also, the ways of how to recognize resistance are shown into three main categories. The passive, non verbal resistance involves a lack of enthusiam, excuses when the teacher asks students to do an activity, so this resistance is about students´behavior. The partial compliance refers to do a task poorly and quickly. Open resistence means students convey the message clearly. In addition, teachers can use some communication strategies to overcome this issue of resistance. For example, explain the rationale behind what teachers ask students to do any task. However, this resistance can affect teachers who can not stand on the complaining. Moreover, faculty resistance is also presented as a big issue. Some teachers resist because the learner-independence  involves risk and no all of them are prepared to take it, also this approach reduces the amount of content in courses and so on. But it is posible to arouse interest of teachers about this approach and in this way deal with faculty resistance using some strategies, such as using the autonomy of the classroom and presenting envidence of the impact of the use of these approaches.

References:

• Spratt, M., Pulverness, A., & Williams, M. (2011). The TKT course. Ernst Klett Sprachen.The TKT course. Module 1,2,3

• Weimer, M. (2002). Learner-centered teaching: Five key changes to practice. John Wiley & Sons.

• Romani, P. (2013). Student-Centered Learning (21st Century Education) [Video]. Avaliable from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N1I6sOhDiw

• Chaela (2013). From the Teacher-Directed to the Student-Centered classroom [Video]. Avaliable from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P09PvuX6xQo

CHAPTER 6 Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice

The Responsability for Learning

One of the problems that teachers have to face in the classroom is that most of the students prefer to take passive role because they do not have a good motivation for learning (intrinsic motivation); as the desire to be well educated (love of learning), instead of that they learn because they want to get a well paid profession (extrinsic motivation) and so on. However, students are not accepting the responsability for learning, they do not like the independent study. Thus, some ways of responding to passive students used by teachers are the following: make use of policies and requirements to keep the control, use the extrinsic motivators (bonus points). Therefore, the use of all of these techniques is not the answer because it only can create a vicious circle where teachers are creating a more structured learning environment and making that the students are not able to take decisions in their own learning. Teachers should indentify alternatives to create good environments and a good rapport in order to motivate learning. One of this altenatives is the learner- centered teaching which has the purpose of creating an appropriate classroom where the students can take an active role. Thus, as the autor says when students are in classroom environment they prefer, they achieve more, it motives students to take action. Some ways to motivate learner independece are: logical consequences, consistency, high standards, caring and commitment to learning. Also, there are activities which involve students in creating, maintaining, and enhancing climates suitable for learning. For example: letting students set one or several policies to contribute in the classroom management, write on the board what the teacher did in the best class students have had, the use of the technique “stop, continue and start”. Finally, an implementation issue that can arise during the use of any of these activities is to know the kind of consequences that are appropriate.

References: 

• Spratt, M., Pulverness, A., & Williams, M. (2011). The TKT course. Ernst Klett Sprachen.The TKT course. Module 1,2,3

• Weimer, M. (2002). Learner-centered teaching: Five key changes to practice. John Wiley & Sons.

• Barkley, E. F. (2009). Student engagement techniques: A handbook for college faculty. John Wiley & Sons.

• Abbey, A. (2013). Learner-Centered Teaching Methods: An Overview [Video]. Avaliable from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlcJqnwvKZo

UNIT 8 SPEAKING

What is Speaking?

Speaking is one of the productive skills which involves producing language using speech to communicate meanings to others. This skill has several subskills, such as making use of register, using features of connected speech and producing different text types. Also, within these subskills we find the one which requires the use of interactive strategies, as body language, funtions and turn-taking. Speaking also implies concepts such as fluency, accuracy and appropriacy which are necessary in communication. Moreover, as the others skills, there are diverse text types to consider classified according to their different features (level of formality, different structures and vocabulary). Therefore, speaking is a really complex skill. Using this knowledge to teach, I can say that it is not a good idea to incorporate some subskills in only one lesson because students can feel frustrated and get confused. In addition, I can use two kind of speaking activities in my class: fluency and accuracy activities.

References: 

• Spratt, M., Pulverness, A., & Williams, M. (2011). The TKT course. Ernst Klett Sprachen.The TKT course. Module 1,2,3

• RealLife English (2014). How Natives Cut and Connect Their Words in English: Connected Speech in the Simple Past [Video]. Avaliable from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaCRpnW8Q2U

• British Council (2010). British Council - Teaching Speaking Techniques (John Kay) [Video]. Avaliable from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF7zsz8fi64

UNIT 7 LISTENING

What is Listening?

Listening is a receptive skill by which we understand spoken language through the use of context, language and our knowledge of the world. To understand this spoken language we need to consider some important features. For example: the use of gestures and hesitations, the use of incomplete sentences , simple grammar and general vocabulary. It is clear that there is a big difference between writing and spoken language, I consider most complex the second one. Therefore, spoken language requires more attention. On the other hand, we need to be cautious at the text types we listen to because it can give us clues to understand the spoken language. For example, if we listen to a story, we can realize that the characters use different grammar patterns. Listening also requires to be good at understanding some connected speech features, such as the speed of delivery and accent. Also, depending the reason for listening, we can make use of one or more subskills. Thus, there are three main subskills: listening for global understanding, specific information and detail. Moreover, others way of listening are listening intensively and extensively. Therefore, the process of listening involves a lot of things. Finally, this knowledge can be used to choose the appropriate text and plan a listening activity according to the steps as in reading, because the students need to be familiarized with the topic before to listen to it, and also show if they have understood after the task.

References:

• Spratt, M., Pulverness, A., & Williams, M. (2011). The TKT course. Ernst Klett Sprachen.The TKT course. Module 1,2,3.

• nTargetenglish (2012). Improving Your English Listening Skills [Video]. Avaliable from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW0ELPceczs

• Ur, P. (1984). Teaching listening comprehension. Cambridge University Press.

UNIT 6 WRITING

What is Writing?

Writing is a productive skill in which we produce the language to communicate a message using signs (letters). There are different written text types which consist of diverse characteristics as the degree of formality and the way of ordering information. Therfore, in order to write something, we have to consider two important things: the text type and who are writing to. As in reading, there are writing subskills which are related to accuracy and communicating our ideas. The accuracy refers to the correct use of some grammatical and vocabulary features, such as spelling and punctuation. On the other hand, communicating our ideas means the correct use of such things as style, register and functions (requesting, complaining). Writing not only implies using some subskills as the ones I said before, but also it is important to follow some stages at the moment of writing. For instance: drafting, editing and proofreading. This knowledge of writing can be applied in the classroom when I need to choose what subskill I want to teach because I have to consider the student´s needs and age. Also, I always have to give the students a purpose or reason for writing to keep them interested in the work.

References:

• Spratt, M., Pulverness, A., & Williams, M. (2011). The TKT course. Ernst Klett Sprachen.The TKT course. Module 1,2,3

• IntTEFLAcademy (2011). TEFL Class Instruction: How to Teach Writing Skills in the ESL Classroom [Video]. Avaliable from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbZUKAamXDU&spfreload=1

• Clare, T (2014). Writing approaches [Video]. Avaliable from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCd--udNEEE

UNIT 5 READING

What is Reading?

Reading is one of the receptive skills which involves understanding the language of a text and connecting it with our knowledge of the world. This means knowing what coherence and cohesion mean. The first one refers to the knowledge of the world and the second one is how we recognize the grammatical links between the sentences. In addition, when we read, we have to use the appropriate reading sttrategy or reading subskill according to our purpose, thus there are three main subskills: scanning, skimming and reading for detail. Also, there are two ways of reading: intensive and extensive. Intensive reading or reading for detail includes the grammar study, infering meaning and recognizing discourse markers. In this reading we need to follow a process (pre reading, reading and post reading). On the other hand, extensive reading or reading for pleasure is focus on improving fluency. Furthermore, it is useful to understand how the study of text types or genres can help the students to realize the text structure which is useful at the moment of comprehension activities. Finally, I would apply the process used in intenssive reading with my students, which includes some activities like the pre-teaching vocabulary or the aplication of follow-up activities to make them realize all the steps involve to read correctly. 

References:

• Spratt, M., Pulverness, A., & Williams, M. (2011). The TKT course. Ernst Klett Sprachen.The TKT course. Module 1,2,3

• McNamara, D. S. (Ed.). (2012). Reading comprehension strategies: Theories, interventions, and technologies. Psychology Press.

• Readinghorizons (2011). What Strategies are Best for Teaching ESL Students to Read? [Video]. Avaliable from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zp1ehWEaaQ

UNIT 4 FUNCTIONS

What is function?

This unit was about language functions. Functions explain the purpose of communication. Thus, some examples of functions are:  greeting, clarifying, inviting ,interrupting, expressing obligation and expressing preferences. The language we use to express a function is called exponent. We have to use the – ing forms of verbs to name functions. Also, it was interesting to know that one function can be expressed through different exponents. However, we have to realize that exponents express different levels of formality. Thus, we can say something using  formal, informal or neutral language. We use formal language when there is more social distant and language is used in more oficial situations. Informal  language is used in casual and relaxed situations. However, people usually choose to use the level of formality that suits  the situations and this is called appropriacy. This knowledge can be applied in very different forms because we always need a purpose to communicate. For instance: I have to use Coursebooks in the right way because they are often organised around functions, so at the moment to plan a lesson I need to choose the appropriate activites according to the contents.

References:

• Spratt, M., Pulverness, A., & Williams, M. (2011). The TKT course. Ernst Klett Sprachen.The TKT course. Module 1,2,3 

• Bridge TEFL (2009). Teaching Function: Finding an Apartment -ESL, EFL,TEFL [Video]. Avaliable from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_BSyFo3IFs

• Adhikari, M. (2012). Teaching Language Functions as a Broader Concept. Retrieved from  https://neltachoutari.wordpress.com/2012/03/01/teaching-language-functions-as-a-broader-concept/