OPOSICIONES DE INGLES PRIMARIA

Trinity Centre. Albacete, Alicante, Valencia Tel: 627 137 138Unit 22: Variables in organising foreign language classroomUnit updated: 13/04/2015

OPOSICIONES DE INGLES PRIMARIA

UNIT 22

VARIABLES TO BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT WHEN ORGANISING THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM:

PUPIL GROUPINGS.

SPACE AND TIME MANAGEMENT.

SELECTING METHODOLOGY.

THE ROLE OF THE TEACHER.

1. INTRODUCTION

2. SPACE MANAGEMENT

3. TIME MANAGEMENT

4. PUPIL GROUPINGS4.1. Lockstep

4.2. Pairwork

4.3. Small Group Work5. SELECTING METHODOLOGY

5.1. The Communicative Approach.

5.1.1. Warm Up

5.1.2. Presentation

5.1.3. Practice

5.1.4. Production

5.1.5. Evaluation

5.2. The Task-Based Approach

5.3. Total Physical Response.

6. THE ROLE OF THE TEACHER

7. CONCLUSION

1. INTRODUCTION

It is important that the teacher makes the most of the chances that he has for efficient classroom management. This is an area that is often neglected, but at the same time it is one that can have a wide ranging effect upon the success of the lessons. In this area we have to think about various aspects, such as how the arrangement of the space can change the attitude of the pupils, and how the teacher can exert control in both a deliberate and a more subtle manner.

The information that we will use in this unit has been taken from The Modern Classroom by R.Hicks, Classroom Control by Dervla Murphy and At The Chalkface by Brewster.A complete list of references will be given at the end of this unit.

We will begin by looking at space management.

2. SPACE MANAGEMENT

If the classroom is badly organised we may find that the students dont work so well. This is simply because a correct layout of the classroom is essential if we want to create an atmosphere that motivates the students. The problem is that in a classroom containing a large number of students it may be difficult for us to arrange the desks according to a pattern that we find suitable. It may be desirable for us to have a large spacious classroom that gives us room for the children to move around, but all too often this is an impossibility. Therefore we have to think carefully about the kind of arrangement that is going to suit us.

The Traditional Arrangement is for the teachers desk to be at the front of the class and all the students arranged in rows facing the front. This is generally good for activities such as examinations, and is quite good for maintaining order, but the problem is that it doesnt offer much scope for close monitoring as the teacher may find it difficult to move among the desks. In addition to this, problems may arise when the teacher wants the students to partake in group work, as the scope for communication is limited.

The Horseshoe Arrangement is among the most popular of styles to be used in the classroom. It is good for communication and many activities. The teachers can monitor with ease as they can move around the desks inside the horseshoe.

Mix and Mingle is the method favoured for communication games as the students have the chance to move freely around the classroom. The main disadvantage with this method is that at times it can feel a little chaotic. If the group is large it is easy for the teacher to lose control.

There are many other arrangements and the teacher should feel free to alter the layout of the classroom according to the needs of the lesson. It may be better if we can place the students into ready made groups of between four and six as, according to Brewster, this is the optimum number that can be easily aligned for either pair work or group work.

It is also true that the students who sit closest to the teacher tend to work harder and to achieve more, so the teacher should try to regularly make adjustments to those pupils who are sitting near to him in order to give the whole class the same opportunities.

In addition to the layout of the class, we should also think about how we are going to create the right atmosphere. If a class is dull and dark, so too will the students be. A classroom, especially at primary level, needs to be large and bright, all the space available has to be utilised to maximum effect in order to provide the students with an atmosphere within which they feel relaxed enough to study.

There are many things that a teacher can do in order to brighten up the class. One of the main things is to put the work that the students have done up on the wall. This immediately has the effect of encouraging the students to work. Pictures and drawings can give a nice, friendly atmosphere to the classroom, as well as personalising it for the students. It is important to ensure that everyone in the class has something on display.

In addition to this, the teacher may like to use cupboards, etc. in order to create different areas, such as a library, a drawing area, and so on.

One of the things that many teachers realise is that the timing of the lesson can be very important and often quite difficult. The teacher doesnt want to run out of things to do, but at the same time he doesnt want the lesson to finish before he has achieved his objectives. With experience, the teacher may find that he is able to predict the length of time needed for different tasks with different groups. We will look at this area in more detail next.

INTERACTIVE LINK

http://www.league.org/gettingresults/web/module1/diversity/build_space_learning.html3. TIME MANAGEMENT

Time Management is a key area of teaching. It has to be carefully planned to ensure that the duration of the activities matches the duration of the lesson.

It is a good idea for the teacher to always have spare material with him in case the class manages to complete the set activities within a given time period. In addition to this, the teacher has to make sure that he doesnt finish the lesson in the middle of an activity. This calls for careful planning. The teacher must have some idea of the level of ability of his class. If he underestimates them, they will finish all he has set within the given period, and overestimating them will result in a failure to achieve the tasks - which could result in demotivisation.

Normally the lesson would last for around 50 minutes. This means that the teacher must have a clear idea of exactly how much his class are capable of achieving within this time period and set his objectives accordingly.

We have to take into account the fact that the attention span of young children is much less than that of adults. For this reason the teacher must ensure that his management of the time must take into account how long he feels a series of activities are likely to last for. It is perhaps more valuable for the primary school teacher to prepare a series of short exercises than it is for him to prepare a long one, this way the students will have a lot of variety which will help them to maintain their interest for a longer period.

Basically, the responsibility is on the shoulders of the teacher. The more he knows about the character and the capabilities of his students, the more likely he is to be able to plan a lesson according to the time available.

However, even if we have managed to decide on the best layout for our class, as well as the way to plan the activities according to a schedule, we still have to think about how we are going to place the students. INTERACTIVE LINKhttp://www.utoronto.ca/tatp/timemanagement.pdfThis brings us on to the next point:

4. PUPIL GROUPINGSThis is another neglected area. All too often the teacher will place the students into whatever grouping seems good at the time, without first paying attention to either the class psychology or the needs of the activity.

When we decide to put students in groups we have to remember that we should be thinking beyond the sole objective of completing the activity.

Primary school children are in the earliest stages of development; how they are taught to behave, both in the classroom and in the home, can have a profound effect upon their future development. For this reason, primary school teachers have to think carefully about the consequences of their actions.

Grouping students can help to build co-operative attitudes as the students are encouraged to work together in order to achieve a common goal. This can clearly have benefits for their life outside of the classroom. The teacher must ensure that co-operation is the prime objective within the group, and that competitive attitudes have to give way to teamwork.

Within groups, the students can learn to develop a sociable attitude. The teacher can also help the students to respect the opinions of others, and participate in team efforts.

The benefits of groupwork extend far beyond these boundaries though. Through this system the child can have a break from the normal day to day routines of the classroom, and can experience a time when his actions are governed by his peers and not by the authority figure of the teacher. The students will hopefully learn how to offer advice and assistance, thus becoming more receptive to the behaviour of those around them.

The added bonus here is that groupwork can help students to make friends and, if the control of the teacher is correct, the shy students could be encouraged to become more confident.

Let us now see the types of grouping that could be employed:

4.1. Lockstep:

This means that the whole class forms one group, with the teacher as the head. This was used all the time in the classroom, and it still should be used from time to time in the Communicative Approach as it has some advantages. Firstly the teacher can monitor the class as a whole in order to ensure that everyone is doing what he should be doing. This is much harder to do when the class is divided up into smaller groups. In addition to this, it is good for the presentation stage of a task. The students are encouraged to listen to the teacher as a whole, so the initial example that they receive should be a good one. During this type of grouping the teacher needs to watch the students carefully in order to ensure that they are all listening. The main disadvantage with this method is that when we want the students to express themselves individually, we may find that there are students who are too reticent to speak out in front of a large group and so they remain silent, even when they know the answer to a question.

The following suggestion is one of the most common groupings:

4.2. Pairwork

The students form a pair with their friend, although the teacher has to ensure that the friendship does not detract from the task that has been set. We can often find that two students who are friends out of the classroom as well as in will often try to show off to each other. It may be a good idea if the teacher occasionally changed the seating so that the pairs could be changed, thus giving the students the opportunity to work with different partners. Pairwork has many advantages. The students are much more confident and they encourage each other to do the work. The teacher can move around the class monitoring each pair and ensuring that the task is being carried out. However, it is in this area of monitoring that problems can sometimes occur. If there are 15 pairs, or sometimes even more in a group, the teacher is going to find it difficult to keep track of what is going on. For this reason it is generally preferable if the tasks are kept short, that way the students dont have the time to discuss irrelevant things when the teacher is on the opposite side of the room. The other problem is that the students are only engaging in an exchange with one other person. For this reason the teacher should think about the possibility of small group work.

4.3. Small Group Work

This tends to have a much more dynamic aspect than pair work for the simple reason that the students have to confront conversational situations with more people. This gives them greater scope for communication, even if at times this is in the L1. However, this isnt important as they are learning to work together. As the groups progress, we may find that the students will help each other by giving suggestions and advice. The student-student interaction can often be more valuable than the traditional teacher-student relationship. Also, when the students are working together in groups they have a better chance to relax - when there are only 2 students there can be a great feeling of pressure and the students are more stressed by the search to find the answer. With a group the odds are increased as there are more people available to find a solution. However, group work of any description has its disadvantages. Often we may find that the class becomes too noisy due to a level of over excitement among the students, a fact that can severely distract them from their work. The group members may not interact well, and we may often find that the stronger group members will dominate. For these reasons the teacher has to make some decisions. It may be an idea to keep the students together in one group because this will form some group identity, but generally speaking the groups should not be too fixed from the beginning. The teacher can try various formats in order to discover which groups work well together, perhaps mixing the abilities to see if the stronger students help the weaker ones. Once the teacher is satisfied that he has arranged groups that work well together, then he can think about keeping them together for the whole of the year. Finally, the teacher should be prepared to make use of a wide range of different groupings and an equally wide range of different activities in order for the students to become used to variation.

INTERACTIVE LINK

http://www.eltforum.com/topic30.htmlNow that we have seen the kinds of things that the teachers have to think about when they are arranging the class and the pupils, we will move onto the methodology that can be applied.

5. SELECTING METHODOLOGY

Methodology is basically the study of the process of language teaching. The idea is that through reflection on the techniques used we will be able to improve our system. According to the curriculum we should teach communicative competence. This is one of the latest theories of language teaching, and it certainly seems to be the most effective system up to now. However, care must be taken because sometimes the theory is unrealistic and cannot be used in a large classroom, or with a particular student type. For this reason it is important that the teacher is adaptable and can accept different methods according to how he judges the needs of his students.

What must always be kept in mind is that the teacher has control over the methodologies that are to be used, and so he has to feel free to experiment with different types until he finds the one that most suits the class.

The methodology that we are going to examine in this section is the basic methodology that should be used in all classrooms that deal with language. Once this has been accepted as a foundation, the teacher can start experimenting with different styles. This basis is The Communicative Approach.

5.1. The Communicative Approach.

This approach has developed over a number of years, and is seen as a mixture of many of the earlier methods that have been used in language teaching in the past.

One of the basic assumptions of the Communicative Approach is that the students will be more motivated to learn the language if they feel that they are learning to do something useful. Language is viewed as a means of communication, with the students becoming aware of the functions of language. This takes into account the five subcompetences as mentioned by Canale and Swain as laid out in the Spanish curriculum:

Grammatical: The Rules.

Discoursive:

Use of rules.

Strategic:

How to make up for a lack of linguistic knowledge.

Sociolinguistic:

The knowledge of what words a native speaker would use in a given situation.

Sociocultural:

How a native speaker would react in a given situation, using tone, register, etc.The learner needs knowledge of forms, meanings and functions. However, he must also take into consideration the social situation in order to convey his meaning correctly. The basis of the system is a knowledge of the rules plus when, how and to whom to use them.

The main features of the Communicative Approach are:

The students native language has less of a role.

It places the emphasis on form as well as function.

It remembers that oral communication is both verbal and non-verbal.

It aims to teach communicative competence, not just linguistic competence.

It does not put accuracy over fluency.

It centres on the learner rather than the teacher.

When the lesson is being used in the classroom, there are various stages that must be followed. These are:

WARM UP PRESENTATION PRACTICE PRODUCTION

Let us begin with the Warm-Up stage:

5.1.1. Warm-Up

This is the stage where the teacher has to set the scene for the rest of the lesson. He has to take into account the fact that the students have come to him from another lesson where they would have been speaking in Spanish, so it is important that he gets them thinking at least a little in English. This stage shouldnt be didactic, instead it should include games, songs, brainstorming, etc. so that the students enjoy themselves and start the lesson with a positive attitude.

5.1.2. PresentationHere the teacher has to introduce the students to the language that is to be taught. This can be done through a variety of techniques including: pre-teaching, eliciting, drills, pictures, etc. The focus at this stage is on accuracy. The teacher must correct the errors that the students make before they have the opportunity to form bad habits. The aim at this stage is for the students to become accustomed to seeing how the structure works, and for them to be able to store the information in their short term memory.

5.1.3. Practice

Here we introduce communication, but it is very controlled. The students are given a series of activities to perform, normally in groups, for them to practise the target language. They will have an initial feel of how the target language works, but the teacher still needs to give more importance to accuracy.

5.1.4. Production

This final stage demands that the students are able to produce the language freely in conversation. Here the teacher will allow the students a great deal of autonomy in order to arrive at the objective. The kinds of activities that can be used here include Role Plays, Discussions and Group Work.Throughout the teaching process it must always be remembered that the students have to use all of the skills. This means that the teacher should not spend a whole session where the students simply listen, as has often been the case in the past. Instead the teacher should plan the lesson so that the students have the chance to integrate the skills, although writing should be kept to a minimum, especially with students who are still learning to write in the L1.

It is also important that the items that are being taught are contextualised. The students react better to things that are within the scope of their experience and so the teacher must attempt to provide exercises that bring the language to life, placing it - wherever possible - within the boundaries of real life situations to which the students can relate.

Finally the teacher has to think about the methods that he is going to use to evaluate the students.

5.1.5. EvaluationGenerally speaking, he should think about a continuous assessment. In this way he can make judgements about the way that the course is going to go according to the needs of his students and the speed at which they are learning.

The teacher will begin with an Initial Evaluation of his students at the beginning of the year, this way he can decide on his objectives. With very young students, or with complete beginners, he may like to find out how much of the English words in Spain they have incorporated into their vocabulary.

Throughout the year the teacher will make a Formative Evaluation based on the achievements of the students at various points. This can be done through tests, drills, exercises or an assessment of the students abilities at the end of each didactic unit.

Finally the teacher will need to make a Summative Evaluation at the end of the year in order to assess if the objectives have been achieved.

The teacher should also take into account the various Evaluation Criteria that can be found in the Curriculum. These criteria are suggestions for skills that the students should have acquired. If they can perform successfully the skills as laid out in the criteria, then the teacher will know that his general objectives have been achieved.

Within the Communicative Approach we can find different variants that can be considered as methodologies themselves. We are going to have a look at one of them, namely, the Task-Based Approach

5.2. The Task-Based Approach.

The idea of this method is again, to produce students who are communicatively competent. Students must be able to use the appropriate language depending on the context, the topic and the roles of the participants. Moreover, they must be able to manage the different processes of communication, such as information sharing, interaction and negotiation of meaning. Different tasks will enable them to acquire these abilities. To understand this, we first of all we have to know what a task is.

A task is a series of sequenced activities which lie around the solution of a problem as the result of processing or understanding the language: drawing a map while listening to instructions (Richards, Platt and Weber). A task has the overall purpose of facilitating language-learning. Tasks involve language in action (to communicate) in which the users attention is focused on meaning rather than linguistic structure. According to Nunan, a task is a piece of classroom work which involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather than form.

A task must have various components:

* Input data: verbal (a dialogue or a reading passage), and non-verbal (a picture sequence, some photographs).

* Activity: in some way will be derived from the input and which will set out what the learners are to do in relation to the input.

* Goal: its general intention.

There are different types of tasks and activities depending on whether they lay emphasis on one aspect or another.

The tasks can be grouped according to their goal. So, firstly, we find those activities aimed at giving instructions and organising the functioning of the classroom. Secondly, activities the goal of which is to get the students used to handle the most frequent situations of communication through taking part in short dialogues, role plays, etc. A third type of activities include those aimed at exchanging information among students.

We can also mention those activities that make reference to the development of general capacities, such as observing, classifying or transferring. And finally, those activities aimed at playing.

Summing up, the activities must be varied and foster the balanced practice of the four skills. The rhythm of the activities will depend on the feed back of the students. However, in Primary Education, there should be a frequent change of activity in order to maintain the students interest and make learning more effective.

Finally in this section, we should mention the Total Physical Response, which has become part of the Communicative Approach, particularly in Primary Teaching.

5.3. The Total Physical Response.

It is based on the internalisation of the language through commands. Songs and games are used extensively with the students having to respond to the instructions being given.

The advantage is that the students can be more involved in the lesson and that they can learn the language in response to actions. This should not only make learning more fun, and so more motivating, but also the students should find it easier to remember the language.

These have been just a few of the methodologies that are available. The most important point to remember when it comes to selecting a method, is that we must take into account the needs of the students.

Finally, we can say that whatever method is used, the success depends on the role of the teacher.

INTERACTIVE LINK

http://www.englishraven.com/methodology.html6. THE ROLE OF THE TEACHER

Ultimately, the teacher has to self-assess if he is to be sure that his methods are actually working. The best method of self-assessing is through the class marks and the achievements of the students, not every class is full of geniuses, but if all the classes fail to show any kind of improvement, then the teacher should start to ask himself why. The teacher may also like to find out what the students feel about the classes, so that he knows which ones are working and which ones arent.

We can say that the global role of the teacher is to achieve the objectives laid out in the curriculum, however this will mean the carrying out of a variety of specific roles first.

Initially, the teacher has to be the Law Maker. In the modern classroom, maintaining discipline is a major part of the teachers duty. There are many reasons why a class may lack discipline, and the teacher should first look to himself to see if there is anything that he is doing wrong. If he isnt well-prepared, or he doesnt make the lessons as interesting as possible, discipline problems may occur. The teacher needs to maintain a positive attitude at all times, because if he doesnt, any negativity may be transmitted to the students. Often though, the geographical situation of the school may be the cause of disruptive students. Discipline problems can happen anywhere, but reality has shown that the poorer the neighbourhood the more likely the students are to have problems. In these situations the teacher must be sympathetic but firm. Any instance of misbehaviour has to be dealt with instantly in order to ensure that it goes no further.

In addition to this he must be the Controller of the Class. The teacher is the one who decides which activities are going to be used, and how they will be used. However, if the teacher is to take a Communicative Approach, there are times when he has to relax his control a little, and let the students take charge.

Before, during and after the class the teacher has to have the role of Organiser. It is important that both the teacher and the students know what they have to do and when they have to do it. This means that the teacher has to provide good, clear stages to the lesson, and that the students must be aware of what is expected of them at all times.

Throughout the activity the teacher has to play the role of prompter, ensuring that he can fill in any major gaps in the students vocabulary. He must also be a participant when the activity calls for it and a resource for when the students need help.

Needless to say, the role of the teacher goes way beyond the few items that we have mentioned here. The teacher could have a multi-faceted role, including developing an interest for L2 learning among the students, and making their horizons broader.

However, one thing is clear. The teacher is the one whom the students follow, and it is up to him to provide the best example, not just of language learning, but of the way to behave in the real world.

INTERACTIVE LINK

http://eltnotebook.blogspot.com/2006/11/teacher-talking-time-part-one.html7. CONCLUSION

The main thing that we have seen in this unit is the importance of the role of the teacher. Throughout the space and time management, the grouping of the students and the methodology to be used, it is the teacher who makes all of the decisions.

The vital thing is that the teacher makes the right decisions. In order to be able to do this, he has to know his group and their needs. This means willingness to change. If the teacher is fixed in his ways then the class will never have the chance to progress.

It is up to the teacher to ensure that the needs of the lesson are made to fit the needs of the students, and not the other way round.

REFERENCES-Allwright, R. and K. M. Bailey. 1991. Focus on the language classroom: An introduction

-Burns, A. 1999. Collaborative action research for English language teachers. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 0-521-63895-X.

-Edge, J., ed. 2001. Action research: Case studies in TESOL. Alexandria, VA:TESOL. ISBN: 0-939791-92-7.

-Freeman, D. 1998. Doing teacher research: From inquiry to understanding. Boston: Heinle & Heinle. ISBN: 0-8384-7900-6.

-Wallace, M. J. 1998. Action research for language teachers. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 0-521-55535-3

-Wallace, M. J. 1991. Training foreign language teachers: A reflective approach. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 0-521-35654-7. A GOOD WEB PAGE:http://www.catesol.org/shelter.htmlThis small web page includes some good tips on various subjects.

UNIT 22: VARIABLES TO BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT WHEN ORGANISING THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM.

THEMES NOTES

It is essential that the teacher makes the most of the resources that he has for efficient classroom management. If the class is badly organised, we may find that the students dont work so well. The layout of the class is important. Traditionally, the teachers desk is at the front of the class. Not good for close monitoring, or when the teacher wants the students to take part in group work. The horseshoe is the most popular of the styles. Mix and mingle is good for communicating, but it is also easy for the teacher to lose control of large groups. The right atmosphere also has to be created in the class. It should be bright and cheerful. The timing of the lesson is important, and also difficult to achieve accurately. It is more valuable for the teacher to prepare a series of short activities than long ones. The grouping of the students is important too. The lockstep approach is when the class forms one group as a whole. This makes it easy for the teacher to monitor the class, but it does not encourage the students to express themselves individually. Pairwork is also useful. The teacher may want to move the children around occasionally so that the pairs are varied. Small Group Work tends to have a more dynamic aspect and the students have a greater scope for communication. Sometimes the class can be too noisy and so it must be controlled closely by the teacher.

Methodology is the study of the process of language teaching. It should follow the Communicative Approach. The class should follow the pattern of warm up present, practise, produce. The Warm Up is when the teacher acclimatises the students to the language. The presentation is when the teacher introduces the students to the things that are going to be taught. The practice stage is when communication is introduced, but in a controlled way. Finally, in the production stage, the students are encouraged to produce language in a more natural, freer way. It mustnt be forgotten that the students should use all of the skills and that the things being taught are within the scope of their experience. The evaluation should be initial, formative and summative. The Task-Based Approach: set of activities that lie around the solution of a problem. Elements: Input, activity, goal. Types of tasks. Total Physical Response method is used as a way of getting the students involved in what happens in the class and acts as a means of motivation. The role of the teacher is very important. He has to be law maker, so that he can maintain discipline, class controller, to decide what is going to be done in the class as well as organiser, prompter and resource. The teacher is the one whom the students follow, so he has to make sure that he is setting them a good example, both in the area of language learning, and also in how to behave in the real world.Now test your knowledge of unit 22 by answering the following questions:

1. Describe some of the styles of classroom arrangement.

2. What should be taken into consideration when thinking about the timing of a lesson?

3. What are the different student groupings that can be used?

4. Describe the evaluation process.

5. What is the role of the teacher?

121 Registro Propiedad Intelectual. Autor Ian Miles & Brbara Herriott-Connor: Nmero de Asiento Registral 00/2004/3122