What is it happening in USA ?

The following video podcast was created for students from 9th grade of a Chilean high school.

Activity

1-Identify Present Continuous structure in each sentence of the video.
For example, They are playing Hockey at the moment.
They = Subject
are = verb TO BE
playing = verb -ing

2-Distinguish common expressions used in Present Continuous tense.
For example, They are playing Hockey at the moment. Identify two more common expressions in other sentences.

3- According to the video, can you see some differences between American and Chilean Culture?
Discuss them with your parter.

4-Search on Internet and look for information about American culture; for example, music, food, sport, customs, etc. Then, find cuttings related to the information and describe them using Present Continuous as I did in the video. Afterwards, do the same thing about Chilean culture.

5-In a group of five people you are going to discuss some differences between Chilean and American culture. Find out why they are important (good things).
In a poster stick all your cuttings with their descriptions using Present Continuous (as I did in the video). Then, with your group talk to the rest of the class about what you have found. Besides, explain the importance of these two cultures.

Everything has a reason

1-Intended Students

My video podcast was created for 9th graders from public High schools of Chile . These students belong to a low social class.
I decided to choose this kind of students since the level of English is really bad in public schools. We have to know that they are the worst schools in Chile because they always get bad results in every subject in national test called Simce; one of the reasons is that the size of classes is very large, around 45 students per classroom. Moreover, English is taught from 5th grade to 12th grade. Apart from that, teachers use teacher-centered model;so students do not have an active role in class. Even more worrying, teachers only teach grammar; so they do not put topics in context. For this reason , students are not allowed to develop a good level of English.
That is why, this podcast will be very useful to teach them an important aspect of grammar “Present Continuous” trough content.

2-Description of language and content objectives

My Video Podcast is called What is it happening in USA? because it is related to Present Continuous. For this reason, I am going to present a video which contains scenes about some experiences that I have lived in this country .The scenes contain actions that occur at the moment. Besides, every scene has a sentence about a description of it and some of them have common expressions that English speakers use in in Present Continuous; for example, at the moment, right now, and now.
The idea of this video podcast is that students can realize one of the functions of Present Continuous, the structure of it , and learn some common expressions used in it.

Language objectives

Students will be able to write sentences about the use of Present Continuous.
Students will be able to speak since they have to share ideas with their classmates and make a presentation in front of the class.
Students will be able to read because they have to find information about American and Chilean culture.
Students will be able to listen since they have to pay attention to their classmates while they are speaking.

Content Objectives

Trough a video related to experiences lived in USA , students will be able to recognize the structure of Present Continuous, identify common expressions used in it, and learn new vocabulary. Besides, they will be able to know about the differences between American and Chilean culture and their importance.

After showing this video podcast I would like to create a series of videos related to all meanings of Present Continuous very similar to the first video. One example of it is that I am going to make a video to teach Present Continuous in order to talk about temporary situations .For example, in one scene there is a teacher who is is going to work to a school ;so, the title of the scene is called “He is teaching Spanish in a school”. Besides, I would like to teach that every job is important.

Language Objectives

Students will be able to write short texts using Present Continuous.
Students will be able to improve speaking because they make dialogues using Present Continuous.
Students will be able to improve listenig comprehension since they have to listen songs and conversations related to Present Continuous.
Students will be able to read short texts where Present Continuous is used.

Content Objectives

Trough a series of different videos related to jobs, experiences lived in USA, future plans, etc., students will be able to know every use of Present Continuous, identify common words used in it, acquire new vocabulary related to these topics. Moreover, they will able to know about different topics; for example, cultures, jobs, etc.

3-Descriptions of the elements that make video podcast comprehensible
Each scene has a sentence with a clear and short description of it. For this reason, when students read the sentences, they are going to make associations between the scene and its sentence ; so, that is why I decided not use oral English language. Besides, almost every scene has Spanish speakers talking about what is happening at that moment; so , students are allowed to get the meaning of the video easily. Another important thing is the time of each scene, it is really short; as a result, students are not going to get bored , so they will be very interested in putting attention to the video .
In summary , the elements that make this video podcast comprehensible are:
Clear and short sentences describing each scene.
Use of Spanish language.
Short time of each scene.

4-Descriptions of the strategies that we have covered that have informed the choices that you have made with the podcast.

Learning proceeds from the whole part
Students are allowed to learn when they start with a main idea of the topic. In this case , they are starting learning Present Continuous from a very simple and general video, where they can find a series of scenes with a clear and short sentences about them. Afterwards, we have to challenge them with an activity more difficult .

Lessons should be learner-centered
I created this video podcast thinking about my students' interests since they would like to know about American culture; for example , sport, customs, etc. Besides, they are allowed to learn because they have to construct their knowledge; in other words, they have to realize the use of Present Continuous, recognize common expressions used often in it, and find out differences between American and Chilean culture. In this case the teacher is just a guide in the process of learning ,who is responsible to look for an activity in order to have in mind the students' opinions to build knowledge.

Lessons should have meaning and purpose for students now
Present Continuous is teaching trough Content , in this opportunity it is about some experiences lived in USA. For this reason, students can see a purpose on it. They can apply what they are learning to some scenes of real life.

Lessons should engage students in social interaction
The video podcast gives students the opportunity to interact with other people because they can share ideas about the use of Present Continuous and what they think about American and Chilean culture. It facilitates learning since students learn faster when they work in groups and every student has an active role .

Lessons should develop both oral and written language.
It is clear the the video provides and activity that allows students to develop speaking , writing, reading, and listening from the beginning. Speaking because they have to discuss some ideas with their classmates; writing since they have to write sentences related to pictures of American and Chilean culture; reading due to they have to read sentences about Present Continuous; and listening since they have to pay attention to what their classmates are saying.

Lessons should support students' first languages and cultures
This video provides the support of the first language because it contains a scene of a couple dancing Cueca. It makes the students to feel very well since these people are not forgetting that they are Chilean despite the fact that they have been living many years in the United States. Besides, Chilean people appear in every scene on the video .For this reason, when students feel that their culture is also important , they will be very motivated to learn a new language .

Lessons should show faith in the learner to expand student's potential
I create this video podcast thinking that my students are very capable of learning everything. I know that despite the fact that they do not know very much about English, they will feel motivated to learn it . It only depends on me since I have to create an interesting activity for them; so , this video is a good way to do it.

A case of effective language teaching

The class starts when the teacher says “good morning class!”; then, the students answer “good morning teacher!”. Afterward, she asks them about the date of the day ; for this reason , she uses different posters that contain the days of the week and the months of the year. So, she says “Is it Monday?” ; the children reply “no!”; then, she asks “Is it Tuesday?”; they say “yes!!”. The next question is about the month; so, the teacher asks one students to identify it on the poster , the student does it very well. The final question is about the number of the day, she uses a board that contains the days of the moth ; so, she says “yesterday was 24th ,so today is 25th !” ; she writes the number on the board. To finish the calendar routine ,she writes the whole sentence on the board and reads it “Today is Tuesday , November 25th !”; then, the students have to say the sentence too. She says “very good!”. Subsequently, the teacher asks “How is the weather today?”; she has another poster , which contains pictures of different kinds of weather. The students answer by themselves saying “cold and sunny” . For this reason, she writes the complete sentence on the board and reads it “the weather today is cold and sunny” ; then, they have to say the sentence. Afterward, the teacher asks them to sing the song of the ABC s ; so, she has another poster with the whole alphabet. Then, the students star singing“A, B, C, D...”; they do it really well. Finally, the whole group move to another side of the classroom to practice maths. The teacher has a big chart that contains the number from 1 to 144. So, she start asking the group to sing the numbers “1, 2, 3, 4, 5...”. Then, she asks one student to count by 5s; consequently , another children count by 10s but backwards. The whole group do it excellent.

Before I say why this English instruction was effective, we have to consider some points. First of all, the group have around 6 students; so, it was a small group. Second, all the students were non English Speakers; for this reason, it was really difficult for them to follow instructions since they know a little bit of English. Finally, this routine had been done more than 8 times by these students; so, they knew how to answer.

The class was really effective because each student was able to answer when the teacher asked something, every student learned all the topics that the teacher taught ; for example, how to say the date of the days , ABC s, maths,etc.

She used the communicative approach because the purpose of the activities is that the students are allowed to communicate with other people; for this reason, the teacher makes them to speak a lot. She used games, music and rhythm, repetition, and planned the lesson very well in order to get it. Besides, in other lessons I could observe that the students are not only allowed to speak, but also to read and write , which is very important since these skills have to be taught from the beginning too. Last, I could appreciate that the teachers in general teach important things about the American culture; for instance, Halloween , Thanksgiving, etc. For theses reasons, I have to say that this lesson and my teachers are really effective.

A topic in language education that I want to know more about

My students belong to an elementary school and all of them are non English Speakers; for this reason,they need to receive extra help from the teachers . My role is to help the teachers to teach them basic but important things; for example, reading, writing, maths, etc. The teachers use three ways to do it: Pull out, Inclusion, and a mixture of them. Pull out is referred to put the students outside the classroom to teach them; in contrast, Inclusion allowes students to stay in the classroom receiving extra help from another teacher.

Most of my students belong to the Pull out program, around five or six children per group. Their teachers do many entertaining activities in order they can feel motivated and willing to learn. In fact, they are so happy and really interested in participating. However, the teachers have to force some students to speak because they do not understand anything due to the fact that they are not paying attention to the them.

On the other hand, some students belong to the Inclusion program. One of them is a fifth grader, she was very ashamed of getting out of the classroom in order to receive help from a teacher; so, she had to be changed to the Inclusion program. Then, she felt ashamed of receiving help in front of her classmates since she wants to be in an equal level.

For this reason , I am very interesting in knowing more about the advantages and disadvantages of these two ways of teaching, which of these models is preferred by students , and what way is the most effective.

According to this website, the advantages and disadvantages of pull out and Inclusion are:

http://www.txsha.org/Convention/pdf/Stephen,%20Lynly-Pull%20Out%20vs%20Inclusion.pdf

Pull out Advantages
There is a smaller student radio, more one-on-one instruction, ability to drill on particular skills, and it is what we as a profession are comfortable with.

Pull out Disadvantages
There is a removal from general education classroom, teachers do not have the opportunities to see learning in progress,and there is an artificial environment.

Inclusion Advantages
Learning is placed in a meaningful and natural manner, it facilitates communicative competence, there is a least restrictive environment, there is no distinction between general education and special education students, and students are allowed to collaborate with the teachers.

Inclusion Disadvantages
There is a larger student ratio, students need cooperation from classroom teachers, and it is not conducive to drill.

The following website helped me to find out which of these two ways are preferred by the students.

http://epicpolicy.org/publication/inclusion-or-pull-out-which-do-students-prefer

A study showed that students with and without learning disabilities who had participated in both models during two or three years said that most of them were very confident that Inclusion was meeting their academic and social needs; for this reason , they preferred this kind of program.

Now, the most important question , Which is the most effective model? To find out it , please go to the next websites.

http://www.txsha.org/Convention/pdf/Stephen,%20Lynly-Pull%20Out%20vs%20Inclusion.pdf
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Should_Special_Education_be_self_contained_pull-out_program_or_inclusive

Both models can be effective if the teachers know how to plan the classes. Besides, it depends on the child , if he do not have behavior problems; in other words, if he can be in a class with other kids without interrupting them , inclusion will be fine. On the other hand, if the child is violent , he need to be removed from the regular class. It also depends on the size of the students ; if we have a large class, it is more convenient that the children stay in a inclusion model; however, if the size is small , it would be better stay in a pull out program.

If only he knew…

One of my teachers does not know that she is making a big mistake in teaching reading to children who do not speak English. The problem is that some students even do not know the letters of the alphabet ; for this reason they are not allowed to read yet. However, this situation is not the most complicated, but the strategy that the teacher uses to start teaching how to read. The purpose is that the children have to repeat the sentences related to the school many times trough singing in order to memorize and understand them ; then, they have to make a picture about each sentence; for example, I read books and write words in school. Despite the fact that the students feel very proud because they can write , they do not understand anything about what they were reading because they can not associate the sentences with the pictures that they made; in fact, some pictures did not have any relation with the sentences.

My teacher does not understand that according to the Comprehensible Input Hypothesis belongs to Krashen , the students are allowed to acquire a language only if they can understand it but what they are doing is just repeating a sentence with knowing what they are saying. Besides, teachers have to find ways to make information more comprehensible to the learner by using strategies ; for instance, connecting new information to prior knowledge , using gestures, drawing, etc. The teacher uses gestures and drawing to explain the sentences ; nevertheless, the students do not understand them.

Apart from that, Natural Order Hypothesis says that the acquisition of grammatical rules happens in a predictable order. Moreover, it is important for teachers to recognize that emphasis of certain grammatical structures may be beyond what a learner is linguistically ready to understand. For this reason, the teacher can not teach reading before the students know the letter of the alphabet and their pronunciations.

Websites:

http://www.angelfire.com/journal/fsulimelight/sla.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyMpMFzKDHk

Websites that might help

The students that I chose are a couple of brothers who are from an African country. Before they arrived in The United States, they did not know anything about English. In their current school there is not anybody who speak their language; for this reason, they do not receive any help to understand English. As a result, it is very hard for them to learn a new word.

They are willing to learn ; however, they have not showed any advance. They know all the letters of the alphabet and how to write them; still, they are struggling to learn basic things; for instance, colors and numbers. One example of this situation is when the teacher is explaining something to them , they repeat it many times; nevertheless, they forget it immediately. First, I thought it was a problem related to a learning disability; nonetheless, I realized that it is produced due to the fact that they are not understanding what the teachers say since they repeat the words without knowing what they are doing.

The children can understand basic instruction provided that the teachers showed them what to do through body language. Nevertheless, they need to learn more vocabulary and practice more speaking since they are in the silent period. So, I would suggest the following websites in order the students can learn more words and practice the pronunciation of them:

http://www.2flashgames.com/learning_english_games.htm

http://www.studyenglishtoday.net/educational-games-for-kids.html

http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/kids/phonics/index_obtree.html

http://www.gsc.amdsb.ca/kindergarten/kindergarten_main.htm

http://www.kiddonet.com/gb/flash/phonics/Intro.html

It would be very useful if the children use theses websites everyday because they contain entertaining games to learn English ; so they will never get bored and they will understand what the websites are teaching them owing to the fact that they are visual mainly. Another suggestion that I can make is that the children can play the games with their parents since they do not speak English too. So, they all will feel engaged , motivated , and interested in learning a new language; as a consequence the children will not desert the school.

Response to a question about English teaching

Question:
I recently received an ESL student in my 3rd grade classroom. The student can speak English pretty well, however they can not read it. I need some tips on how to teach this process.

Answer:
First of all you have to start introducing the American alphabet in order that he or she can learn the phonemes . Afterwards, you can use flashcards called three-letter words to children put the cards together in sets of three, so each correct matchup creates a picture from which they can learn how to spell a word.
Another thing that you could create is a kind of Bingo . You have to write some basic words on the chart ; for example, words about the classroom, body, animals, etc. When you say the word the students will have to find it in the chart ; then, they will be able to associate the spelling with its sound.
Subsequently, they will be ready for starting reading; in other words,when they can identify and associate the letters and the sounds you will have to use books which focus on the Emergent level for beginning learners. The books are very small and each picture has one sentence description.
Afterwards, you will be able to use books for advanced learners . One of the best books are the ESL Scott Foresman for accelerating English Language Learning. There are six levels and each book contains different topics; for example, family, body parts, colors and shapes, days and seasons , etc. Moreover, the books can give us a chart with the most frequent words used by children depending on their level of English.
I hope you can use these tips and good luck!!!!!!!!

I responded as I did because I could observe in my school (Roosevelt) that the teachers used these tips to teach students who are struggling in reading. They start teaching the alphabet which is really basic; then, they use books focus on the emergent level; finally, they start using books a little more complicated.
From my point of view, this method is very successful because the reading level may be adequate for the student's abilities. We can not force our students read something very hard for them since they will not understand anything. However, when they will be ready to learn something new , we have to choose challenging books.

Podcasting my way to mastery of English

http://en.yappr.com/welcome/VideoList.action

I have chosen this website because it is a good way to acquire more vocabulary , and improve my listening and reading skills.

This website is very easy to use . I can find the subtitles of each video next to them ; however I can try listening to the video without watching the subtitles to practice listening. In addition, the videos are very miscellaneous especially for every kind of people; for example, music, sports, celebrities, comedy, cartoons, news, nature, etc.

As a prospective teacher, I can say that we have to know a little bit about everything in order to teach our students and to make the classes more motivating for them because we have to have in mind that people have different interests and motivations for learning.

I really would like to use this website everyday since it is really useful for me owing to I can use it to learn English and to make my future classes.

The classroom story

In the story I could see the following strategies:

1. Teaching Language through content

2. Student-centered

3. The activity has meaning and purpose for learners

4. Social interaction

5. High expectations

One of my favorite strategy was the talk one . I think it is very effective because the teacher made the students think about possible strategies to be used in order to understand a reading about follow directions since there were 8 nonnative English speakers in the class. Each step had a picture , so the students gave the following strategies:

_Read each direction twice in order to not miss something important.

_Look the last picture since it shows you what you get at the end. For example, how a plane is supposed to look . The same thing we can do about reading the last couple paragraphs of a newspaper to see how the story comes out.

_Look the pictures and read the directions because the pictures tell something we need to know and the words give us more information about a topic.

What would you like to know about your future students?

First of all, I would like to know about their interests in order to make my classes motivating . For this reason, I have to know about their ages because every student has different needs. Besides, it would be very useful for me to know about their social classes so as to plan activities according their own realities.

Another important thing is what their learning strategies are because every student has their own style; for example, some of them are visuals, others are aural, etc.

Apart form that, I am really interested in knowing if they have problems at home since the teachers not only have teach but also have to try to help their students when they need it.

Why teachers sometimes use Spanish to teach English?

My teacher answered that they sometimes speak Spanish because they wanna speed things up a little bit.
When students are exposed to a new language for first time, it it is really difficult to understand without knowing anything about that language.
From my point of view, it is completely true. However in Chile 10th or 12th graders have been exposed to English for many years and they continue using Spanish in the classes. It happens because most of the students do not like English due to the fact that they think that it is not useful. So teachers have make a great effort to motivate their students to learn English in an interesting way obviously.
Another reason is that some teachers have very low expectations about their students. They think that the students are going to fail because they are bad at science, maths, etc.

Gina's activity

Hi Gina! I found an amazing website in order you can learn Spanish. This page is special for you because it contains pictures and pronunciations of every word about basics topics. For example, The alphabet, numbers, colors, family, the weather, bathroom, etc. But it is not all, you can find the English translation for each word, so it would be very easy and funny for you to learn Spanish!

http://www.123teachme.com/learn_spanish/spanish_for_children

Run-Ons and Comma Splices

Here there are some examples of fixed run-ons

We have to teach a foreign language to our students through something really meaningful for them, for example when we have to teach past simple it would be very interesting if we do it trough a song that the students like.

Correction
We have to teach a foreign language to our students through something really meaningful for them. For example, when we have to teach past simple, it would be very interesting if we do it trough a song that the students like.

.............................................................................................................

But she has more resources to have access to Spanish such as television, radio, magazines,Internet and other Spanish speakers that we can find in the campus.

Correction
But she has more resources to have access to Spanish such as television, radio, magazines,Internet, and other Spanish speakers that we can find in the campus.

...........................................................................................................
Nowadays we have AIM in the United States ; and in the rest of the world, MSN

Correction
Nowadays we have AIM in the United States however in the rest of the world we have MSN

...........................................................................................................

It was an amazing adventure that I will never forget . We were very lucky because the weather was very nice . I could know many places of Seattle:for example the Space Needle .

Correction

It was an amazing adventure that I will never forget . We were very lucky because the weather was very nice . I could know many places of Seattle.For example, the Space Needle .

...........................................................................................................

Three Principles

Teaching through Content
We have to teach a foreign language to our students through something really meaningful for them, for example when we have to teach past simple it would be very interesting if we do it trough a song that the students like. As a result ,they would be very motivated an willing to learn.
Apart from that, we can teach English trough a subject, for example biology. The students will learn the language because they have to use it.
It would be useful if we make our classes about topics really interesting for them , for example talk about their experiences and needs.

Teaching trough Social Interaction
When we want every student to participate in the class, but we can not do it because we have 45 students! So ,the solution is creating activities for group works , especially small groups where every student has a specific role to play. The students will be very motivated when they work in a good environment , furthermore they will take risks. For this reason the students are allowed to receive feedback not only from the teacher, but also from the rest of the students.

High Expectations
We have to believe in our students' capacities because they need it in order to success.
But if we have students that really have problems in learning a new language and we try and try to help them and despite our effort they do not show any advance, What do we have to do? My answer is the following through a quote from the chapter: “The basic question is not how we can teach these students , but whether we really want to”.

Before I took this class I did not have idea that we could teach English in an effective way in Chile, because the classes have more than 40 students per class, so it is almost impossible that every student can learn to speak another language , but I learned that I can do it trough group work and through a topic very interesting for them.

Chapter 6: Learning take place in social interaction

2. What theories from second language acquisition can you use to persuade teachers that group work really DOES lead to better language learning and is not just a messy waste of time? Put together a very persuasive speech.

According to the text, some of the theories that support that work group lead to better language learning say that social interaction is critical for effective learning language learning.
The theory says that people develop a second language when they feel good about themselves and about their relationships with those around them, so we can say that group activities are ideal because it increases language practice opportunities, improves the quality of student talk, helps individualize instruction, promotes a positive affective climate, motivates learners.
Besides, if teachers use collaborative group work, individual students have more chances to try out the language they were learning. And when students work in small groups , they take risks and try out more advanced structures and vocabulary than when they have to speak for the whole class, grouping provide students with choice and makes assignments more meaningful.

Content Based Teaching

What is teaching language trough content?

It is teaching language trough something really meaningful for the students instead of teaching the target language trough grammar. For example teaching the target language trough a song, a story. They are more motivated when they are studying something really interesting for them.

The Activity

I am going to give my students the lyrics of a song called “I will survive”in order to teach them t past simple. Above the lyrics I will show some verbs of the song , but they are written in infinitive and , so when they are listening to the song they will have to change them to their correct tense . Here there is an example of the first paragraph of the song.

Be-walk-spend-learn-keep-be-do-grow

First I was afraid

I was petrified

Kept thinking I could never live

without you by my side

But I spent so many nights

thinking how you did me wrong

I grew strong

I learned how to carry on

and so you're back

from outer space

I just walked in to find you here

with that sad look upon your face

I should have changed my stupid lock

I should have made you leave your key

If I had known for just one second

you'd be back to bother me

Trough this song they can learn past tense of regular and irregular verbs and practice listening.

Gina's social and psychological distance to Spanish language, culture and speakers.

8 social factors that acts on acquisition:

Social dominance: Gina receives more influence from American culture than Chilean culture because the first one is the dominant culture; so it will be complicated for Gina to learn Spanish.

Integration pattern: There is no integration due to the fact Gina does not do things apart from the mainstream.

Enclosure: Gina needs to interact with us in order to learn Spanish because she knows almost nothing about about this language .But she has more resources to have access to Spanish such as television, radio, magazines,Internet and other Spanish speakers that we can find in the campus.

Cohesiveness: the learner group is very tight nit cause they share the same culture, But in the case of Gina is different because she is really willing to learn Spanish , so if she thinks that she can do it , she will be successful.

Size: The learner group is very large that is why is difficult for them to learn Spanish.

Cultural congruence: Chile and USA are very different in terms of life style, education , food, jobs,etc.

Attitude: Gina has a good attitude toward our culture, so it will help her to learn Spanish.

Intended length of residence: I do not if Gina wants to travel to a Spanish speaking country.


Psychological Distance:

Motivation: As I said before , Gina is really motivated for learning Spanish.

Attitude: Gina is very interested in our culture due to the fact that she feels very comfortable with us.

Cultural shock: Gina is not suffering cultural shock owing to she only spends one hour per day with us, and she just wants to learn spanish but not thus living in chile !

Analysis

I did no receive any answers from my teachers , so I had to use Pamela's answers.

1. Describe your students at school. (this means social class, if they speak any other language besides spanish, where do they parents live, wich cities or towns) talk about your students in general.

students`s families are from a low class level I mean most of them don't have a regular job. Due to most of them work at part time jobs and they haven't got a professional degree, some of them haven't even finish their primery education. Their parents are craftmen/women, fisherman/men, shop assistants, waiters/resses, etc. Their higher money income occurs during summer, due to tourists and this income is their main families' economic support for the rest of the year.

Half of families have lived here around 50 years, yet the other half have come from Cartagena (a city located in the cost, quiet poor) looking for better job expectations to different cities as Santiago (Chile's capital and also the biggest and nearest city).

Students interests are regaeton music and music in general, dancing, fashion, to party and follow some urban styles. 5% of students attend to some sport, music, art and language workshops after class in the same school. But most of them show openly their great adiction to tv or video games. I think there are 5 to 10 students in the whole school who can speak English, and there are some others interested in French.
Anyway none of them are their main goal! They expect to go to university, or college and I think a 30 % from the students will really do it this year.

Our students are considered vulnerable, since social and cultural sorrounding (non standard family group, drugs problems, delinquency, etc) and it's also worth telling that there's a rising number of students with special needs or in integrated school program...

2.Describe a learner you have in your class it could be a good or bad at English

There is a student in particular, who is not very good at English. Most of the time he has a terrible behavior, although when he feels he can do something he makes it happen. A very interesting feature about him is that, in contrast, there are some students, who fail before starting anything and need a lot of support from teachers... that is why they are considered lazy and there've been some situation when they're are diagnosed with some intelectual disability or syndrome....

Analysis

This case is very similar to Salvador's case, the boy who was disruptive in class and refused to try to read and write in Spanish and English. First of all, this boy needs support from his parents (because he can have problems in his house due to the fact that their parents do not have a job maybe ). Secondly, it is important to know the student's interests because as we read in the article about Salvador , he was very interested in playing soccer and afterwards he felt that he could take part of a group and since that period he started doing the activities in the classes. We have to do the same thing with this boy: we have to know his interests and afterwards we have to make a plan in order that he can take part in group activities, but the activities have to be very motivated for him.

School visit to Bridgeport and Brewster

First of all I am going to talk about the first school that we visited: Bridgeport. The school is one of the best schools in the whole country, despite the fact that it is rural. It has 81% of Spanish speakers especially from Mexico. The first class that we observed was the 9th grade. The teacher was extremelly entertaining and all his students were very interested in his class (he was making a performance where all the students were participating). The second class was the 6th grade and we could not observe the class because when we enter the classrom with the Principal every student were very interested in us, they wanted to know everything about Chile. We told them about food, coins, the language that we speak in Chile, Pablo Neruda, etc. The kids were very nice!

In general I really liked the teachers of this school because they were very nice with their students , I thik that they love teaching! For this reason this school is one of the best in the country.

The second school that we visited was Brewster. The firs class that we observed was about Total Physical Response.There were 3 groups of 5 little students (all of them were Spanish speakers) , and one monitor for each group. The problem with this class was that the monitors were not teachers and they lost patience easily . From my point of view the class was not very good owing to the fact that the students were very confused about what they had to do, because the teacher gave a sign before the students imitate what she was doing, and if the students imitated the teacher's movement before she gave the sign, she got angry. For this reason the students did not understand very well what they had to do. I did not like vey much this class.

The second class that we observed had only 3 students (they were Spanish speakers too) and the teacher was bilingual. The activity that they had to do was visual in which they had to memorize every picture on the table and then the teacher took out one of them (while the kids had their eyes closed) and one of the students had to say what picture was missing. The second activity consisted on singing.

The level of English of this school was lower than the firt school.

In Chile the rural schools are very different. Firt of all they are not as comfortable as school of USA. The number of students is very small in rural schools of Chile (they have around 60 students ). In fact the classroom have two different classes at the same time with the same teacher! So it is a big problem and for this reason the rural schools in Chile are really bad in terms of education.

Seattle

It was an amazing adventure that I will never forget . We were very lucky because the weather was very nice . I could know many places of Seattle:for example the Space Needle . I think it is the best place that you have to visit when you go to Seattle , you can appreciate the beautiful view of this big city. Apart from that I went to the Pike Market , China Town , and the Seattle Aquarium . But my favorite places were the Science Fiction Museum and Experince Music Project because you can take a fotograph with your favorite character of Star Wars and play a electronic guitar in order to be a rock star for five minutes!

I have no doubts that one day I am going to come back to Seattle owing to three days are not enough.

P.S. : I could enjoy the monorail too bacause in Chile there are not these kind of things.

Activity using Power Point

The kind of technology that I decided to use is Power Point, because it is very easy to use.

My activity is for 5th grade and it consists on: First of all my topic is about clothes and I am going to show my students some pictures about pieces of clothing and accessories related to it, and then they have to say the right word of the picture in English.

I decided to make this activity especially for visual learners ( they learn trough seeing thing) and auditory learners ( those who learn best through hearing things). This activity is very interactive, is very short, they receive feedback immediately, it is centered on the student and the teacher is only a support.

The objective of the activity is that they learn vocabulary about clothes, and the pronunciation of the words related to this topic.

The teacher's beliefs about technology

Here are the questions with their answers

1. What role do you think technology does take/can take in learning? (You are looking to know if they are a technophile, technophobe, instrumentalist, take a critical approach...)

Teacher 1: A very important one because learning reflects what goes on in real life, and real life is pretty much all about technology. Almost all kids have access to a cell phone or a computer.

Teacher 2: I think technology should be a very good complement for the teacher, it should support some of the contents covered in class and it should help students in their autonomous learning but I think it shouldn't be the most important instrument of learning.

As we can see in this answers , there is a different point of view about the use of technology because the first teacher says that technology is the most important thing for learning I (he is a very young, he is only 23 years old), but the second teacher says that technology is only a tool (he has more experience in teaching). I agree with the second teacher .

2. What role should the learner take in the classroom?

Teacher 1: The learner has to learn, i.e. take part in all the activities that go on in the classroom.

Teacher 2:The learner should have a very active participation in the class, not being just a listener but a participant

The answers are very similar, the both says that learner has to have a active role in learning.

3. What role should the teacher take in the classroom? (Both of these questions will help you determine if your teachers are teacher-centered or open to learned-centered learning...)

Teacher 1:The teacher has to teach, i.e. design and have students to activities that lead to that goal

Teacher 2:The teacher has to be a facilitator and he has to help students in their process of learning.

4. What does good teaching look like?

Teacher 1:Solid.

Teacher 2: Good teaching for me is having fun in the classroom not only the teacher can have fun teaching but students should have fun learning.

As we can see, the last answers are very similar, but we can apreseciate that the first teacher is a technophile person and the second one has instrumentalist point of view about technology.

Delicious account

delicious.com is a social bookmarking where you can share websites.
Username=chileteach
Password= who knows?

Reflections on Language Learning and Technology 3

EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
Literacies and Technology Tools/Trends
Bob Godwin-JonesVirginia Commonwealth University

Summary:

READING

The electronic resources instructors provide many opportunities to the students in order that they can understand the texts easily. Optimized formats for screen reading, and glosses are well-known. But, many texts on the web are not optimized for either screen reading or print. Some CD-ROOM programs make use of multimedia to help text comprehension; for example Cyberbuch makes use of video and graphics in order to help the comprehension of texts. Other programs , for example annotext and GALT work with second language texts.Some web sites are presenting texts Web-formatted versions and in PDF, order that people can read on paper.

WRITING

Networks have provided opportunities for collaboration, mutual proofing, and shared writing. E-mail is one of the most used forms of CMC. In addition, the teachers are using e-mail to communicate with students ,and students are using it too in order to interact with language learners or native speakers. A project to facilitate the use of e-mail exchanges in language learning is called The Tandem Network .Other forms of CMC are Web-based bulletin boards or discussion forums, one example of forum is Web Crossing .The chat rooms are also popular and they can be effective in small groups, they are used to connect language learners and native speakers to talk about concrete topics.

ELECTRONIC LITERACY

The students are able to use the computers to learn how to use e-mail, word processing, and the Web.
The students are very familiar in the use of multimedia use/creation owing to MP3.Nowadays , the access to all forms of Internet-delivered audio and video has become much easier . In fact, in the case of softwares, installation of players and browser-linked helper applications is easy too.
The trend in the software industry has been the use of PDF or HTML formats.


OUTLOOK: STANDARDS AND UNIFORMITY?

One of the problems of computer literacy is the lack of accepted standards in many areas. For example, Microsoft’s new electronic book format is not compatible with Palm hand-held. The same thing occurs with “Instant Messenger” that can not interact with other instant messaging system, for example yahoo or Microsoft.

Reflection:

Technology everyday surprises us, in this occasion we have learned the use of electronic resources instructors ,they are good way to improve reading skills. Apart from that, we have known the use of CMC (forum, chat room ,and e-mail) to develop writing skills. But, the problem is that one thing is having technology for teaching and another thing very different is knowing how to use technology for teaching; in other words, Is the integration of technology in the classroom enough to provide learning in reading and writing skills? From my point of view , I do not think so because it is a process that depends on the teacher and the students ; the curriculum has to change.

podcast

For EFL

http://www.apple.com/search/downloads/?q=english+foreign+languageb

http://coolpodcasts.wordpress.com/category/language-podcast/

http://www.myngle.com/?gclid=CJ3orvnPvZUCFQv7agod-SO5Qg

http://volkerh.public.iastate.edu/projects/podcasting/


For my students

http://www.oculture.com/2006/10/university_podc.html

http://www.rhapsody.com/musicvideos

http://www.myngle.com/?gclid=CJ3orvnPvZUCFQv7agod-SO5Qg

http://elspad.podomatic.com/



For Gina

http://www.123teachme.com/

http://www.studyspanish.com/

http://www.myngle.com/?gclid=CJ3orvnPvZUCFQv7agod-SO5Qg

http://www.edufone.com/podcasts.php

http://www.spanishnyc.com/videos.php

I would like to create a podcast especially for listening activities . My postcast has to have many songs and the sudents have lo listen to them and then they have to do some activities related to the songs; for example fill the gaps, talk about the songs, etc.

Examples of Call, CMC, and Drill and practice

Call (Computer-assisted language learning)

Good examples

http://www2.nkfust.edu.tw/~emchen/CALL/web_CMC.htm :It provides resources for each skill: listening, pronunciation and speaking, vocabulary, reading, writing, and grammar.

http://www.englishdaily626.com/ : It provides activities for almost all the skills: reading, listening, vocabulary and grammar. But it does not provide speaking and writing activities.

Drill and practice

Good example:

http://www.englishclub.com/ :In this website you can find everything that you want about grammar, vocabulary, speaking, reading, writing ,etc.

Bad example:

http://www.elearnenglishlanguage.com/ingles/aprendaingles.html : It is an incomplete website because it only has grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation .

CMC (Computer Mediated Communication)

Good example:

Asynchronous example
http://www.hotmail.com/ . the students can send e-mails to a teacher and then they can receive feedback.

Synchronous example
Msn . It is very useful because you can talk to at least two different people at the same time, and you can receive feedback immediately.

Bad example:

http://sharedtalk.com .It could be dangerous because you can talk to strange people.

Reflections on Language Learning and Technology 2

EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
Messaging, Gaming, Peer-to-Peer Sharing: Language Learning Strategies & Tools for the Millennial Generation

Summary

Instant Messaging and Mobile Communication

Instant messaging (IM) is a good form of communication. Nowadays we have AIM in the United States ; and in the rest of the world, MSN .It has particular language usages, for example short utterances and the use of abbreviations; that is why that IM provides informal conversations. Many IM programs also support audio exchanges and video as well. Many language instructors are sending their students out to find IM partners, because they recognize that it is a very useful tool for learning.

The use of mobile phones, by way of short message service (SMS) is also a support of language learning. In Europe, the EU has funded a major initiative called m-learning which uses mobile phones to reach young adults who have not done well in traditional learning environments. The purpose is that they can engage young learners when they can do it (a time and a place away from formal institutional setting), but it has to be related to their preferences. The m-learning has incorporated a learning management system and speech/text tools. Some projects of m-learning are a Finish language learning program of grammar and pronunciation and Java-based review exercises. Another use of the mobile phone is called moblogging or mobile blogging; it is about that you can post to a blog from a digital camera, PDA, or cell phone.

Peer-to-Peer Networking and the iPod Phenomenon

The initial popularity of the iPod was due to peer-to-peer (P2P) networks (FastTrack, Gnutella, Bittorrent). It is used as a means to find and exchange resources and for helping in improving pronunciation. Since 2001 iPods have additional capabilities like personal calendars, games, and notes. The language teachers are very interested in the notes function.

Gaming
Educators are very interesting in gaming because it consumes a lot of time of young people. Some researches that are studying this phenomenon have found some surprises.

Constance Steinkuehler discovered that multiplayer online games are a good way for socialization, enculturation ,and learning because it provides for example identity work and rich meaning-making.
Rebecca Black has observed some participants in a Web community about animé fans, and she has discovered that through this site, there is a good deal of reading and writing. In this site the participants have to create a “fanfiction”. The stories have Japanese or Chinese backgrounds, but they have to be written in English by non-natives. Black argues that this kind of website can be helpful for adolescents-especially marginalized people- owing to that they construct and develop community, and it is a good way for self-improving .
Some games used for language instructors are: SIM COPTER that is a basis for giving directions and writing and Zip and Terry designed to teach children English.

Reflection

These kinds of technologies are very useful for our students because we have to recognize that they know more about these topics.

I agree with the use of msn and mobile phone for learning a language due to the fact that the students feel more comfortable when they talk to a foreigner than with a teacher in a regular class, but we have to be very careful about the use of this method because on the web there are dangerous people .

The iPods are another good for teaching , but we have to know that this kind of technology is very expensive in countries such as Chile.

From my point of view , the games are the best way for learning a foreign language due to the fact that they are cheap , entertaining , and dynamic. A part from that, they provide socialization, enculturation ,and the most important thing: self-improving; but we have to be careful about the time that the adolescents spend on those type of activities.

Chiquillos' Blogs

Sue: http://susanachileteach.blogspot.com/
Pamela: http://pamelachileteach.blogspot.com/
Francisco H: http://fhauyon.blogspot.com/
Carolina: http://carolinateachings.blogspot.com/
Abbie: http://abbielucay.blogspot.com/
Claudio: http://floricuervo.blogspot.com/
Pilar: http://ewusemester.blogspot.com/
Francisco: http://learninginthestates.blogspot.com/
Paulina: http://pauinewu.blogspot.com/
Nina: http://learningfaraway.blogspot.com/
JC: http://juankspace.blogspot.com/
Marian: http://marianelace.blogspot.com/
Felipe: http://studyinginewu.blogspot.com/
Sandra: http://sandrainus.blogspot.com/

Group Activity (Salaberry)

Overhead projector for 4th grade, secondary school

Me can show different pictures to them about famous people, and they have to describe them.

We can make a karaoke activity, where can show them the lyric of a song trough the overhead projector.

We can show them different pictures and they have to create a story.

We can use pictures as a support for what are you telling them in order that they can understand what you are saying.

*************************************************************************************

Dorm phonics Technique Activity

It's kind of hard to think of an activity that can be meaningful for 2 Graders of Secondary school.

We decided to make the students getting relaxed with relaxing music and with their eyes closed. While they are with their eyes closed the teacher has to start speaking about a topic for example: "imagine you are in the beach, it is a sunny day and so on..." When they open their eyes, the teacher has to ask the students to write an essay about how they felt during the activity.

************************************************************************************* Telephone

Through TELEPHONE we can encourage students to practice their speaking and listening comprehension, making them to work in pair in order to improve their speaking and listening performance focused on producing a cohesive and coherent oral discourse.

**************************************************************************************

Radio Broadcast for 8th GRADE ELEMENTARY (IN CHILE)

The idea of this activity is to create something for the students using radio broadcast.The idea is a radio show in which students have to give the schudele for the week, and they can choose a topic for developing, specially related to braaking news and things that can be interesting for everyone. It is not marked, because each group has to present one a week (monday), and is has to be presented for the class, not for the school (students could feel ashamed)

Labor Day, holiday celebrated in the United States and Canada on the first Monday in September to honor the laborer.In most other countries–and among the leftists in the United States and Canada–May Day (May 1) is celebrated instead.

Why is Labor Day celebrated on September 1st in the US?

http://usa.usembassy.de/holidays-labor.htm
http://wilstar.com/holydays/laborday.htm

Main characteristics of this day (at least 4)

http://dol.gov/opa/aboutdo/laborday.htm
http://labor-day-weekend.com/labor-day-history.htm
http://wilstar.com/holydays/laborday.htm

When did this celebration start?
http://usinfo.pl/aboutusa/holidays/labor.htm

Reflections on Language Learning and Technology

The Internet as a Glocal Discourse Environment
A commentary on “Second Language Socialization in a Bilingual Chat Room” by Wan Shun Eva Lam and “Second Language Cyberhetoric : A study of Chinese L2 writers in an Online Usenet Group “by Joel Bloch

Summary

This article provides the most important aspects of Internet:

The Internet as an informal learning environment for English as L2: In Lam´s contribution , two students improve their English through extensive participation in a chat room with other Chinese from various parts of the world. The language used in the chat room is a hybrid vernacular variety that has little connection with the language used in schools. As we know Internet offers a potential for language socialization and language learning. For this reason it gives the immigrants an opportunity of language socialization in a less stifling environment than that of the school.

The Internet as an identity forming discursive space: Through Internet Immigrants have the opportunity to express themselves, and engage in a dialogue with a global audience. In the two articles ,young Chinese immigrants learning English as a second language are in the process of constructing their individual and collective identities through Internet , because it provides the opportunity to take part of a virtual community for language practices , socialization, and for building identities.

A global-local dialectic: The concept of “glocal” is a mixture between the words “global” and “local” , and it is a descriptive term for what is happening in the world today. Robertson has coined the term “glocalization”, which he describes as “the universalization of the particular and the particularization of the universal”, with the local appropriating elements of the global which are of use, while employing at the same time strategies to retain its identity.


Reflection

As we saw in this article, the use of Internet is increasing . It is is shown as a tool that can change everything because it gives us the opportunity to be in contact not only with our relatives, but also with people from another country; for this reason we can say that it can help us to preserve our heritage due to the fact that we can take part of a virtual community when we are far away from home.

Apart from that, it is also important the term “glocalization” because it is clear that the world is changing, nowadays we can have products of another country, especially from China; that is why that we are interesting in knowing this new culture , in fact we acquire some aspects of it but without losing our original roots.

From my point of view as a prospective English teacher , Internet has a huge value because as I wrote before, it can be a support for us due to the fact that the students prefer having classes more technological , for example using the chat rooms, blogs, chatter bots, etc.; because they feel more comfortable and motivated to learn a second language. Apart from that they can socialize with other people and have fun.

Technology

Technology has three different approaches: Technofile (people tihnk that technology is magic), Instrumental (they consider texhnology as a tool), and Critical ( who think that technology creates a new environment). Apart from that, Technology can help us to learn more easily, and finally it produces globalization.

My goal for this class

Conditions for Optimal Language

www.britishcouncil.org/kids.htm

Interaction : In this website there is no interaction because you can only play games, listen to a song and practice your listening, etc.; but you can not share what you have learned with other students through this website.

Authentic Audience: You can not appreciate authentic audience in this website due to the fact that there is no anybody to listen to you , the only person that is allowed to do it is the teacher that is guiding you to do the activities , but it is a just a little help.

Meaningful activities-student: All the activities are very meaningful for kids and teenagers owing to the fact that they are very interesting, entertaining and useful, because through a song you can put in practice your listening, reading for every son has its letter, grammar cause this website can help you to be more accurate, and you can add a lot of vocabulary. But it is not all, apart from that, you can have fun!

Exposure to varieties of language: The students are exposed to a lot of different kind of activities to learn English and to improve it. You can find out English through a song, a game , a story , a picture, etc.

Right amount of time: All the activities are designed for kids and teenager that is why that they have to be short in order that the students do not get bored.

Feedback: It has some quizzes in which you can receive the correct answer for each question.

Use of styles: this website is especially for people who prefer listening and watching.

Use of personalities: through this website shy students can improve their English skills like extrovert people, because they do not have to interact with classmates and the teacher , for this reason they feel more comfortable.

Motivation: this website is a good tool to help the teacher to make the class more dynamic and interesting for the student due to the fact that it has many topics for every student , for example sports, food, animals, cloths, etc.

Student-centered: All the activities are centered in the students because the teacher is only a guide who helps them when they have a doubt about something related to this website.

Teacher support: As I said before the teacher is only a guide .

Multimodality: You can show information related to the English topics through songs, games and pictures. It is a good way to change the routine where the teacher only speaks in a regular class.

Comfortable Environment: this website has everything to have a nice environment because nobody is putting you under pressure to answer a question , or makes you to do a boring workshop; for the contrary you can work by yourself in a class or at home.

To integrate the Skills: It integrate listening, reading, grammar , and writing (because I found it today)skills. There are no opportunities to develop speaking because there are no activities to do it.

Clear Objectives: I would recommend that the teacher has to give the objectives before starting the class in order that the students can focus on one topic, but the website present the objectives clearly.