The Systems and Language Skills of English1. Take a look at the list of items below. Decide which system these relate to: lexis, phonology, grammar or function.

l I went to London; Ive been to London. GRAMMAR

l Lend me $5. Could you possibly lend me $5? FUNCTION

l Library; bookstore. LEXIS

l Foot; foots. Grammar

l Id rather not; No way? Function

l Hit; heat. Phonology

l Photograph; photographer. Lexis

l Should; must. Lexis

Two suggestions:

1. Try not to meander so much and make more of an effort to get right to the point, right to the heart of the matter in the beginning of your assignment.

2. In keeping with the tone and philosophy of the TELF Online course, please pitch your work to be more personal and practical, less academic and formal.

Imagine that you work in a language school. You have just received a new student from Korea who wants to study English prior to entering a university in the U.S. The student takes the placement test, which are all grammar and vocabulary and mostly multiple choice. She scores quite high; however, she does not speak very well and has difficulty understanding even the simplest spoken language.

What balance of the four skills and the four systems would you recommend for her study program? For example, would you focus on reading and writing or utilize her strengths in grammar to introduce topics, but make the exercises mostly listening and speaking?

Would you focus on function, pronunciation, productive skills because the test was multiple choices and not a fair assessment of her success in a university with writing papers and listening to lectures?

Explain what an appropriate balance would be. How did you reach that recommendation?

The students study program will be based on the four skills and the four systems which are inextricably bound to one another, both in a practical and an academic sense. From my personal experiences, many combinations of these elements could be integrated into varieties of lessons and activities. As a teacher, I need to recognize a delicate balance of these elements, incorporating them and avoid the students from being overwhelmed.

Taken into consideration the placement test, I would believe that the student has a strong foundation on English grammatical rules and has a large pool of vocabularies. The student mastery of the English Language is quite disproportionate. Yet, a full mastery will require a student to excel in all 4 levels of functions and skills by heart; namely lexis, grammar, function, phonology, listening, speaking, reading and writing, these eight elements are interconnected. Moreover, the scores of the placement test do not reflect students levels of English proficiency because it is biased, not only the test skewed heavily on grammar and lexis only, it is also a multiple choice test.First and foremost, the confidence of the student would initially play a large part in the development of an individualized approach. While we want to increase STT, we do not want to challenge a persons self-esteem by putting their mistakes on display before they are confidence in risk-taking. This can have a dramatic effect in our planning approach for the student. For example, when the student failed to listen to the teachers instruction, do not make her feel awkward; a simple smile or hand gesture to make her feel inclusive and follow-up guidance are crucial, by doing so, you are presenting yourself as an understandable and approachable teacher; and possibly igniting the student initiative in learning the English language. My best teacher Mrs. Lavelle, who had been practicing this ideology, has lured me into what seems to be boring but extremely intriguing English Literatures.

Secondly, in order for the student to excel in her U.S. College studies, she should have good command in English oral and aural skills. Because the student has what seems to be a highly developed sense of grammatical structure and vocabulary, we will use these strengths as a platform upon which to structure activities that focus on her speaking and listening skills, developing oral and aural skills. For example,an activity in which other students in class, especially those with a highly developed sense of aural and oral skills, coupled with confidence and clarity, would speak or read aloud, perhaps even act, for the rest of the group. The other students, including our Korean student, would be provided with a copy of the text that is being read. That way, she can follow along as they recite, picking up on the relationship between sounds and letters, solidifying her understanding of the alphabetic principle. This activity would focus on phonological system of English, as well as a listening and reading skill. As the student gets more comfortable with oral and aural skills, she could give reading aloud a shot herself. This activity helps the Korean student in her reading and her speaking. While she may not be creating the text she is verbalizing, she is learning the ways in which she manipulates her tongue, teeth, throat and lips to create the sounds of the English language. This is a focus on both speaking and reading skills, along with assisting her in becoming comfortable in phonological system of the language.

Once our student has advanced in her ability in aural and oral skills, we can do a lot of practice conversing. I know from experience how beneficial the act of just chatting can be. While this does not work so much on the skill of reading and writing, we are helping to model good speech, helping her to strengthen her listening skills, and she is afforded the opportunity to share in a relaxed way. Informal discussion such as this will open up more advanced grammar and vocabulary that could be beneficial to the student. Furthermore, the student has a chance to observe the practical benefit and the personal connection with the task of learning English, which can be a great motivator. It is clear that the skills the student possesses will be of great benefit. An appropriate balance need to structure activities in which those skills are utilized so that she can develop a strong phonological understanding of the English language. This is done via a combination of speaking, listening, and reading. We can increase the utility of an activity or lesson if we are able to integrate on skill with another, such as reading aloud (integrates reading and speaking), or following a text as another student reads aloud (integrates reading and listening). As our student overcomes her challenges, we can continue to work on all four skill sets within all four systems of language in a more balanced manner.

The History and Spelling of English

1. Describe how your knowledge of the history of the English language will help you explain things to your students in an EFL class. Give specific examples.

2. What differences in student approach to English do you anticipate when working with students who speak a Latin or Germanic language versus students who speak Japanese, Chinese or Arabic?

3. Describe strategies you will use in class to help you with your own spelling, if it is a problem, like bringing a dictionary to class or writing down troublesome vocabulary in your lesson plan.