Teaching and Teachers

21st Century Pedagogy

noreply@blogger.com (Nouamane ERRIFKI) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:37:00 +0000

"How we teach must reflect how our students learn, it must also reflect the world they will emerge into", Educational Origami, ICT and Education.

Known to all, even to laymen, is that teaching should be reflective to how learning is happening. Active learning requires active teaching, and thus goes and knowledge taught should be reflective, drawn from the world being taught to. In a changing context, as ours, knowledge should be changing and coping with that change, in itself and in the way (s) it's being handed down or scaffolded.
Being a teacher of the 21st century, teaching 21st century students is not an easy task. It requires a pedagogy that could be else qualified but as a 21st century teaching pedagogy. A pedagogy that would fit students world's and qualify them through a better preparation before the biggest jump.
............................ to be continued

Drama In The Classroom

noreply@blogger.com (Nouamane ERRIFKI) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 02:02:00 +0000

Drama In The Classroom

An Afterthought

By: Nouamane ERRIFKI

A: Well?
B: Well what?
A: where is it?
B: where’s what?
A: You know.
B: I know?
A: Yes, you do.
B: No, I don’t.
A: You do!
B: I don’t!
A: Do!
B: Don’t!
A: Just tell me.
B: Tell you what?
A: WHERE IT IS?
B: I can’t.
A: You can’t?
B: No.
A: Well, why not?
B: Because I don’t know!

Well, if anyone of you were asked what is that text that has been written just above probably your first answer would have been: “It’s a dialog” And if you were a teacher and asked the most famous question that all teachers are obsessed with which is how to teach it your first and impromptu answer would have been something like, if I’m not mistaken, “I’ll use that dialog to introduce or teach WH-questions, short answers with ‘Do’, and the use of the modal ‘Can’ for inability. Or I’ll use it, thrice, to introduce one of the elements mentioned before at a time. Then, after introducing those language points, I would assign the dialog for rehearsal in the following way: students in twos try to perform the given dialog before their classmates.”

For sure the one who would have answered in this way or any other similar ways has got no idea of Drama use in-class and Dramatization at all.

“Drama in the Classroom” is how Caroline Nugent, a teacher at the British Council, choose to entitle her one-workshop at MATE’s Middle School Seminar that took place in Ben Slimane. It was a workshop that raised all participants’ awareness over the importance of Drama use in our classrooms.

Drama is that elusive, missing link in our teens’ classes. If we just think for a moment about its benefits one would come to the inextricable conclusion that it should be designated the most important slot in our teaching sessions. Drama’s most immediate benefit is that it could teach and provide practice for new vocabulary and grammatical structures. The manner in which it serves to provide practice for newly taught language points is more important a feature than that of introducing or presenting. (This will of course be discovered later in this article.) Of equal importance is that trough Drama activities students get more and more self-confident as their pronunciation (especially, Intonation and stress) and fluency develops. Drama boosts self-esteem and that’s what is needed to develop students’ communicative competency. Another benefit is that it yields risk takers and a sense of group belonging that generates good language learners. And to top all of those benefits, Drama is a lot of fun and quite enjoyable for parties, teacher and students.

Drama makes use of the mind, voice and body. And, thus, fits in the “Active Learning” frame that was Joan Kang Shin’ subject of her Keynote speech. Active, both physically and cognitively, is how a student becomes through Drama.

caption: free your students minds, voices and bodies. let them speak out!

Nugent’s workshop focused our attention on the way drama can be used to practice pronunciation and grammatical structures. Her focus was much more on performance. I mean the ways dialogs, otherwise drama pieces, can be performed. She suggested different scenarios or ways of performance of which I cite here a few if not all.

The first dialog that has been named as an “Energizer” (see above) was performed in twos with the words in bold stressed. The performance was on stage and supplemented with a variation in which the participants (A and B) made it funnier by performing it in a western’s style or wearing different faces/ moods (sad/ happy/ sleepy/ angry).

The second type of dialogs, the grammar-loaded dialogs, was performed in groups. Example: the first group (A) performing the dialog in a whispering tone and the second (B) in a normal tone. Other variations were explored and others suggested like:

A: Confident.
B: Afraid or crying.

A: In an old’s tone/ voice.
B: In a baby’s tone/ voice.

A: In a western’s style.
B: In a western’s style.

And the examples went on and on.

There was another type of dialogs that has been discovered and which was named, the Missing Lines Dialogs, where the (A) part of the dialog was provided and the (B) part was missing.

On the whole, the workshop was quite practical and delightful, enjoyable and inspiring to the extent that I decided to explore it in my next class, right after the holidays finishes. It was not enough, but it was at least awareness raising and a lot of fun.

That’s all folks for the time being. Expect more in no time!

Reference: Drama In The Classroom. a workshop by: Caroline Nugent. MATE's Middle School Seminar. 2008

Nouamane ERRIFKI

A Whole Listening Activity Worksheet

noreply@blogger.com (Nouamane ERRIFKI) — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 16:41:00 +0000

A
Whole
Listening
Worksheet

SILENT WATCH/BEFORE LISTENING

1- Who is singing? Can you guess?
2- Where and when is she singing?
3- What do you think the subject of the song is?
Here is the URL link for the Video clip:
http://rapidshare.com/files/41591471/alcomplicated.rar
Or
http://rs98.rapidshare.com/files/41591471/alcomplicated.rar

WHILE LISTENING
1- Listen to the song. What is the song’s subject? Check the right answer and justify it.
a- LIFE
b- LOVE
c- DEATH
d- FUN/ ENTERTAINMENT

2- Listen to the opening of the clip and write what they say?
3- What do we mean by these words? Translate if necessary!

Life
………………………………………………………
Cause
………………………………………………………
Chill out
………………………………………………………
Frustrated
………………………………………………………
Preppy
………………………………………………………
Crawl
………………………………………………………
Break
………………………………………………………
Faked
………………………………………………………
Act
………………………………………………………

4- Read the lyrics silently. Then, click on play and write the missing words or sentences.

Uh huh, life's like this
Uh huh, uh huh, that's the way it is
Cause life's like this
Uh huh, uh huh that's the way it is

Chill out whatcha 1-................... for?
2-................it's all been done before
And if you could only let it be
You will see

I like you the way you are
When we're drivin' in your car
And you're talking to me one on one but you've become
Somebody else like everyone else
You're watching your back like you can't relax
You're tryin' to be cool you look like a fool to me

Tell me
Why do you have to go and make things so 3-.................?
I see the way you're acting like you're somebody else gets me
4-..................
Life's like this you
And you fall and you crawl and you break
And you take what you get and you turn it into honestly
And promise me I'm never gonna find you fake it
no no no

You come over unannounced
Dressed up like you're somethin' else
Where you are and where it's at you see
You're making me
Laugh out when you strike your pose
5-.................all your preppy [NE1] clothes
You know you're not fooling anyone
When you've become
Somebody else like everyone else
Watching your back, like you can't relax
Trying to be cool you look like a fool to me

Tell me
Why do you have to go and make things so complicated?
I see the way you're acting like you're somebody else gets me
Frustrated
Life's like this you
And you fall and you crawl and you break
And you take what you get and you turn it into
Honestly
You promise me I'm never gonna find you faked
No no no

Chill out [NE2] whatcha 6-.................. for?
Lay back, it's all been done before
And if you could only let it be
You will see
Somebody else like everyone else
You're watching your back, like you can't relax
You're trying to be cool; you look like a fool to me
Tell me
Why do you have to go and make things so complicated?
I see the way you're acting like you're somebody else gets me
7-...................
Life's like this you
And you fall and you crawl and you break
And you take what you get and you turn it into
Honestly
You promise me I'm never gonna find you faked
No no

Why do you have to go and make things so complicated?
I see the way you're acting like you’re somebody else gets me frustrated
Life's like this you
You fall and you crawl and you break
And you take what you get and you turn it into honestly
8-.................................................................................
no no no
AVRIL AVIGNE

POST-LISTENING
1- What do you think of the whole clip?
2- Write a ten lines paragraph describing what you think of your friends?

Here is the URL link to the Video Clip:
http://rapidshare.com/files/41591471/alcomplicated.rar
Or
http://rs98.rapidshare.com/files/41591471/alcomplicated.rar

Footnotes:
[NE1]A YOUNG PERSON WHO GOES OR WENT TO AN EXPENSIVE PRIVATE SCHOOL AND WHO DRESSES AND ACTS INA WAY THAT IS THOUGHT TO BE TYPICAL OF SUCH A SCHOOL (AMER ENG , INFORMAL)

[NE2]TO RELAX AND STOP FEELING ANGRY OR NERUS ABOUT SOMETHING

THE METHOGOLOGY SERIES

noreply@blogger.com (Nouamane ERRIFKI) — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 23:03:00 +0000

"ALM"
stands for
THE AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD
-2- PENULTIMATE

A cut-in

The first part of this article did not please one of my friends. Well, that’s pretty natural to disagree on certain points. After all we are not of the same knowledge. We haven’t read the same books, the same articles, the same literature and that’s what makes each of us so unique and individual. Every one of us got his own stream of thinking and analysis and that’s something again that can be only qualified as pretty normal and natural. What is not natural nor normal is to try to thrust one’s own way of seeing things on another person. I mean trying to impose one’s believes and perceptions on another free, individual person.

As I said before and to put it succinctly this time, to disagree is quite natural but to be fanatic to one’s own believes is what is not at all natural. Our disagreements and differences should be, on the contrary, taken as a source of more knowledge and enrichment to whatever field.

My first article, ALM stands for the Audio-Lingual Method, is not at all misleading or mistaken in its points. When I described the aforementioned method as a fiasco, I was voicing the thoughts of the references I based the article on and on which side I stand as a supporter. It’s just undeniable that the ALM did not achieve so much to impress us with and all that is limited in such a way I personally judge it as a fiasco.

As for the part in which I was lampooned on the errors of others, I here stand completely blameless. Normally, a researcher should understand, check and especially be selective to what he is collecting of data that is of viable importance to the development of his own research. I am not to blame if somebody decides one day to cut and paste and then present my article to an audience, in my way or another.

Last but not the least, isn’t this a blog? A personal journal where one can voice whatever he thinks of, be it right or not.

All that aside, here is the second and penultimate part of our article:

"ALM"
STANDS FOR
THE AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD
-2- PENULTIMATE

Role of Ss. Native tongue

An ALM-led classroom does not allow any other language inside but the target language. That is a belief that goes back to and inherited from the previous method, I mean the Direct Method, which came with the idea of monolingual teaching/ learning in an attempt to further enhance students’ learning through much exposure to the target language. Interfering is the native tongue for those believing in the ALM and a contrastive analysis between both languages is usually conducted to identify where mostly the native tongue would interfere. The results of which analysis are exploited to anticipate learning problems and their viable solutions.

Errors/ mistakes

These are not tolerated. A teacher in their implementation of the ALM might get angry and fussy at any mistake or error produced by students. To that, contrastive analysis and over learning are deployed to shun over mistakes and errors.

Evaluation. How is it achieved?

Mostly discrete-items based. Every question in a test would focus on one point of the language learnt at a time. E.g. supply the appropriate verb form in these sentences.

Typical techniques of the Audio-Lingual Method

A technique is, by definition, any exercise, activity or device that has been or is being used in-class to realize lesson objective or (s). The AL method, as any one of its sisters, made a call to a wide collection of techniques/ activities to achieve its teaching/ learning objectives, a collection of which here is an account:

a- Dialog Memorization:

Traditionally, an ALM lesson begins in a dialog or short conversation which is later memorized either through mimicry or applied role playing. To this latter, there are three ways:
1- Students take the role of one character of a dialog and the teacher takes the other with roles switching after a while.
2- One half of the class plays the role of one character from the dialog and the other half plays the other with roles switching after a while.
3- Or else, pair-work in which two students perform the dialog before their classmates.

b- Backward Build-up Drill:

A drill used to teach bugging lines. It consists of breaking up any student frustrating line into small units and then repeating it backward, one unit at a time. E.g. how are you? You take “you” as a first unit, “are you” as the second unit, and “how are you” as the last unit. Every unit should be repeated/ drilled a sufficient number of times, especially the last unit.

c- Transformation Drill:

A grammatical tool, as a matter of fact, in which students are asked to transform sentences of one form into another form. As, for example, transforming an affirmative sentence into a negative-affirmative one, a passive sentence into an active one or a simple statement into a question.

d- Question and Answer Drill:

Students are required, in such a drill, to answer questions and ask others as accurately and quickly as possible.

e- Complete the Dialog:

It simply consists of a dialog of which some linguistic items, grammatical or lexical, are dropped and which students should supply on their own or from a suggested box of possible answers.

f- Single-Slot Substitution Drill:

It goes in this way: The teacher states a line from the dialog, then uses a word or a phrase as a cue that students, when repeating the line, in the sentence in the correct place. E.g. “how old are you?” (Cues are: she/ he/ they), and the answer would be: “how old is he?”; “how old is she?”; “how old are they?”

g- Multiple-Slot Substitution Drill:

Akin to the previous drill with the exception that instead of providing one single cue to substitute, here the teacher provides a multiplicity of cues (two or more) that Ss. Should substitute and make any changes, as needed, to the structure of the sentence like subject-verb agreement.
E.g. She is playing in the school yard (cues: they/ go/ the park)

h- Repetition drill:

It is used to teach conversations/ dialogs. It simply consists of Ss. repeating lines of a given dialog as accurately as possible.

References:
* Diane-Larsen, Freeman. Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. England: Oxford University Press, 1990.
* H. Douglas Brown. Principles of Language learning and Teaching. US: Prentice-Hall, 1987.

Prepared By: Nouamane ERRIFKI

P.S: to be continued

THE METHODOLOGY SERIES

noreply@blogger.com (Nouamane ERRIFKI) — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:07:00 +0000

"ALM"
STANDS FOR
THE AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD

-1-

Chronologically, the Audio-Lingual method comes right after the "failure", not blithering, of course, of the Direct Method. It was a fiasco in public schools, a thing that limited its use and triggered another quest for just another and more suitable method. As any other method that has underlying approach and theory, the ALM (Audio-Lingual Method) has got its goals, Views, Techniques and, for sure, Shortcomings. There is no perfect method. That goes without saying to become a common sense, a fact that urges us to be eclectic in approaching our teaching practices. It is not unbeknownst to all that the history of science is a history of mistakes.

Keeping all that aside, let's dig this method up and discover what does the ALM advocate and how does it account for its goals, techniques and views.

Goals of teachers using the Audio-lingual Method:
The ultimate goal is teaching students how to use the target language COMMUNICATIVELY. How that? Simply by thrusting students into over learning the language to learn to use it with autmaticity and without stopping even to think or reformulate or use any other hesitation processes. Such an automacity, that yields fluency on the long run, is attained through forming new habits in the target lge. and stepping over the old habits that are connected with the primary code/ tongue.

Teacher's Role (s):
An ALM teacher Provides, Controls and Directs. They (Teachers) are akin to Orchestra-conductors; they direct and control students' linguistic behaviors (e.g. by stiff errors/ mistakes correction) and provide good models for imitation. These models are stressed, if not instilled by rote learning/ drilling.

Student's Role (s):
Mere imitators are these students (sorry for the insinuation!). I mean Parrots! They imitate and respond to the teacher's commands and instructions as quickly as possible and as accurately as they could. Aside, it does not take a professional's eye to diagnose the practice as unhealthy and barren and to prescribe injections of “creativity" to develop a sane lge. learning.

Interaction Pattern (s):
* T. / Ss.: A hectored pattern of interaction in the sense that the T. hectors their students into learning the lge. as they, Teachers, are the Ps Cs Ds.
* Ss. / T.: This pattern can not even be qualified as an interaction. It is based in imitations to the Teacher's Models and Modeling.
* Ss. / Ss.: It is clearly seen in Chain Drills and Dialog performance, though this is till directed by the Teacher.

What about the Affective Domain:
Talks on the Students' Affective side and its relevance to the Learing-Teaching process did not exist at the time. Ostensibly, it did not exist or it existed but did not come to the surface till recently, especially With Stephen Krashen who assigned it much more stake than others.

Language and Culture:
Language is speech and to that everyday speech is highlighted and graded, while teaching, from simple to complex a thing that has been labeled the "Hierarchy of Complexity. Culture (la cultura), on another hand, is the target language speakers' everyday behaviors and lifestyle. Here, we note a step beyond the Language that reaches a study of what is typically Cultural.

Language Skills and Areas Emphasized:
The four Skills are organized and presented in a linear way that starts from: Listening to Speaking, and Reading to end in Writing. Vocabulary study is kept to a minimum to set the stage free for the mastery of the Sound System (Pronunciation) and Structural Patterns.

References:
Diane-Larsen, Freeman. Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. England: Oxford University Press, 1990.
H. Douglas Brown. Principles of Language learning and Teaching. US: Prentice-Hall, 1987.

PREPARED BY: Nouamane ERRIFKI

nouamane.errifki@gmail.com

P.S.: To be continued

Teachers and Lesson Planning

noreply@blogger.com (Nouamane ERRIFKI) — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 13:26:00 +0000

Teachers and Lesson Planning
-A SAMPLE LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE-

As a road map for car travelers in a long trip, a lesson plan is, for teachers, by all means, a must-have and a must-prepare. A lesson plan is that little helper for Santa Claus, but this one is the teacher’s instead. It consists mainly of aims that a teacher should achieve and that are knowledge not known to their students before and hoped to be known at the end of a session or a multiplicity of sessions.

A lesson plan specifies the where, when, what to do, how to do it and who does it. It is about the where to start and end, the when to start and end an activity or a lesson. It is, by far, specific as far as the question of what to do, how to do it and who does it (Teacher or students) is raised.

A professional, well-structured, confident is that teacher who gets his lesson plans into their class.

The following URL link gets you a sample lesson plan template:

http://www.box.net/shared/3krqtrzsdx

p.s. Next lesson plan template will be competency-approach based

By: Nouamane ERRIFKI

Interactive WhiteBoards

noreply@blogger.com (Nouamane ERRIFKI) — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 12:58:00 +0000

Interactive WhiteBoards
(IWBs)
Or the ‘Smart Boards’

Once and when I was all in the process of checking my inbox, I stumbled over an e-mail of which title goes as: ‘IWB’. Well, as a matter of fact, there wasn’t only one e-mail of such a title, there were plenty others a thing that triggered my curiosity. I tried to guess its meaning and I failed. I read the e-mail and I didn’t get it. Desperate, brain frozen and frustrated even, I tried to personally decipher the meaning of that acronym by digging it. And you know what did I find? It simply stands for ‘Interactive White Board’.

Caption: An Interactive Whiteboard

In fact that finding still didn’t quench my desire for knowing at the time. So I decided to go on through another research on Google to further understand what they mean by that ‘IWBs’ of theirs. The first things I knew is that it is a new technology exploited in classrooms and the interactive whiteboards are also named ‘Smart Boards’, things I didn’t know before.

In one of the recordings related to our subject, Sara Walker, 7 years of experience in ICT, defined the ‘IWBs’ in simple terms: ‘(the interactive whiteboard) looks like a huge computer screen on your wall. It’s slightly bigger than a normal whiteboard that you would write on, but it just looks like a flat computer screen stuck to the wall. The screen is top sensitive.’

Technically speaking, ‘An interactive whiteboard is a device that interprets a projected two-dimensional surface that interacts with a computer's desktop. A typical use is as an electronic whiteboard but it is generally an interactive type of computer screen.’
(Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Dazzling, isn’t it? Let me succinctly rephrase all of this for you!
An interactive whiteboard consists of two items: a computer and a top-sensitive whiteboard (that’s why it is called ‘interactive’ for its being sensitive to touch). Interaction, here, is three dimensional in the sense that the whiteboard interacts with the user and then with the computer’s hard disk. In other words, whatever you have got in your computer can be manipulated by you using your fingers or a special pen on the interactive whiteboard. Thus, your digital teaching resources, activities, videos, songs, graphics, drawings, even dictionaries that are stored in your hard disk are made available for your in-class teaching purposes. Even other facilities like the Internet are accessible. The News, TV shows also can be used as authentic materials. In brief, it is the world outside getting inside your classrooms ladies and gentlemen!!

To conclude it, watch this video and you get everything you need to know about these ‘Smarties ‘.

Remember that there must be a pedagogy behind everything we do in class; even when using a fine technology as fine as the Interactive Whiteboards.

By: Nouamane ERRIFKI

The Methodology Series

noreply@blogger.com (Nouamane ERRIFKI) — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 18:49:00 +0000

DM stands for the Direct Method
-1-

Teacher’s goals in using this method
Enabling students to communicate in the target language. To that end, they, students, are to be made to think in the target language through much exposure to the studied language and not involving the mother tongue at all, if possible.

Teachers’ roles
* still assumes a position of authority
* directs in-class activities

Students’ roles
Less passive than they were in the GTM as far as they are prompted to communicate by the T.

Interaction patterns
* Teacher → Students: Most common as interaction is often initiated by the teacher.
* Students → Teacher: Less common, but students can initiate the talk by asking questions.
* Students → Students: They can also converse with each other to a certain limit.

Students affective aspect, is it considered?
There are no principles of the method that relates to this side.

Language and culture views
Language is primarily spoken more than written. That explains why students are taught common, everyday speech of the target language.
Culture is given a much more important stake ( if you consider everyday speech as part and parcel of every people’s culture)

Language areas emphasized
Vocabulary (dangling more towards everyday life speech) is emphasized over grammar. This latter is taught inductively.

Language skills emphasized
Speaking is emphasized over all other skills. This does not mean that reading, listening and writing aren’t taught. Usually, reading or writing learning is based upon what has been introduced and studied orally.

Position of students’ primary tongue
All classes are taught exclusively in the target language, and it is recommended that students’ mother tongue not to be used in class aiming, thus, at achieving a native-like fluency.
Even thinking in the target language is fostered and favored to achieve the aforementioned goal that of a native-like fluency in using the language.

Evaluation
* Students are asked to use the language, not to demonstrate their knowledge of it.
* Students can be interviewed to assess their oral performance/ fluency.
* Students can be asked to write a paragraph about something they have studied.
, etcetera.

Prepared by: Nouamane ERRIFKI
References:

Diane-Larsen, Freeman. Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. England: Oxford University Press, 1990.

The Methodology Series

noreply@blogger.com (Nouamane ERRIFKI) — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 18:40:00 +0000

DM stands for the Direct Method
-2-

Errors
T. urges his students to self-correct using different techniques.

Typical techniques
Reading aloud
Students take turns in reading aloud sections of a text, dialogue or a play. The teacher, after every section, uses realia, pictures, mime or examples to explain.

Question and answer exercise
This exercise is exclusively carried out in the target language. It consists of questions to which students are to find answers. These latter should be in full sentences to practice new vocabulary and grammatical structures.

Student self-correction
Some techniques for students to self-correct:
1- T. asks students to make a choice between what they said and another alternative (this is also a way that can be exploited to know whether it is a mistake or an error.)
2- T. repeating the mistake with a questioning tone to draw the student’s attention to the mistake.
3- T. repeating the student’s sentence only to stop just before the mistake/ error.

Conversation practice
Only a particular grammatical structure is stressed at a time. It goes when the T. asks questions using a particular grammatical structure and students should answer them. Then students start questioning each other with a focus on the same grammatical structure.

Fill-in-the blank exercise
An activity where items, in the target language, are missing. Those items required to fill in the blanks are to be induced from previously presented lessons. They are not explicitly handed as it was the case for GTM’s fill-in-the blanks exercise.

Dictation
T. reads the passage three times:
1st instance of reading is for listening only
2nd T. reads slowly pausing after each phrase for students to write down the passage.
3rd this last instance of reading is for students to check their work/ passages.

Paragraph writing
Students are asked to write a paragraph, in their own words, about a subject connected to the theme (s) of the reading passage.

Criticism to the Direct Method
It was a success in private schools, but a fiasco in public education because of(s):
1- Budget Constraints,
2- Classroom Size,
3- Time,
4- Teacher Background (usually, non-natives)

Prepared by: Nouamane ERRIFKI

The Methodology Series

noreply@blogger.com (Nouamane ERRIFKI) — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 16:21:00 +0000

GTM for the Grammar-Translation Method
-1-

Teachers’ goals when using GMT
* A fundamental aim of learning an FL is to make learners able to read and write literature of the target language. To that aim, vocabulary and grammar rules are heavily emphasized. Form rather than function of the language is of utmost import.
* It was also believed that the study of an FL through its literature is a good mental exercise that would develop learners’ thinking.

Teachers’ role
· The authority of the class (do this and do that),
· The know-all,
· The omniscient who knows everything about his subject, and even about other subjects.

Students’ role
* The Ss. are passive. They do what the teacher instructs them to do so as they know what she/ he knows,
* Ss. are mere recipients to the knowledge transmitted by the T.

Interaction patterns in a class where GTM is implemented
* Teacher → Students: one way communication, domineering.
* Students → Teacher: quasi-null, no initiative is taken on the part of Ss. to participate.
* Students → Students: rare, if ever. That could be blamed on lack of activities that involve group work or any other form of cooperative learning.

How students’ feelings are dealt with
Nothing that can be of examples to consider as far as this question is raised then. There were no principles touching Ss’ affectivity.

Language and culture
Literary language is given a much more important stake to the detriment of the spoken form. And culture consists of literature and fine arts.

Language areas and language skills emphasized
* Vocabulary and grammar.
* Reading and writing to the detriment of speaking and listening.

Position of primary language
* It is predominating in GTM classrooms,
* It is used in explaining the target language clearly through translation.

Evaluation, How is it achieved?
* Written tests of translation (from target language into primary language and/ or vice versa).
* Questions requiring application of grammatical rules/ taught patterns.
* Questions about the target language.

Mistakes, how are they tackled?
· The correct form is supplied by the T. (no original techniques of correction were used).
· Correct answers and reproduction are an obsession to a GTM teacher.

Teaching/ Learning process characteristics
1. Students are taught to translate from one language to another.
2. Students attend to Grammar deductively (rules are presented first, then examples to support the rules and which, in turn, should be followed as a pattern of application).
3. Memorization of native-language equivalents for the target-language vocabulary.

Prepared by: Nouamane ERRIFKI

References:
Diane-Larsen, Freeman. Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. England: Oxford University Press, 1990.

The Methodology Series

noreply@blogger.com (Nouamane ERRIFKI) — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 16:10:00 +0000

GTM for the Grammar-Translation Method
-2-

Typical techniques
Translation of a literary passage
An activity (in-class or out-of-class) that consists of translating a reading passage from the target language into the students’ mother tongue. Translation could be written as it could be oral and the substance reading passage can be either originated in some works in the target language literature or written by the teacher himself to include certain structures and vocabulary. The latter, grammatical structures and vocabulary, is the subject of subsequent lessons. Worthy of note, at the end, that no translation is fair enough not to distort original meaning; that’s why idiomatic expressions are not translated, in this activity, in a verbatim way, yet a meaning-translation is favored.

Reading comprehension questions
As a guideline of import, all questions should be answered in the target language. These questions are not random, they follow a certain structure based on the principle of ‘grading’ the task or otherwise named ‘complexity levels.’ Mindful of such a principle, comprehension questions are threefold:

1- Receptive Qs: where students are required to answer using information contained in the text. That’s a kind of bottom-up answering.

2- Inference Qs: questions that need answers based on students’ understanding of the reading passage.

3- Pragmatic Qs: are those questions that require students’ use of their grey matter and experience in order to answer. They can also be called: ‘productive questions.’

A sample of such questions:
1-a- Read the text a sufficient number of times and give it a title?
1-b- What is the gist of the text?
1-c- What is the foremost concern of scientists as far as the Bird Flu is concerned?
1-d- What are the potential symptoms of the Bird Flu in humans?

2-a- what do the following words refer to:
Them (para.2)
Them (last para.)
This (last para.)

3-a- Do you think that the Bird Flu will be stopped or continue spreading all over the world? Explain?

Antonyms
An activity in which students engage in finding antonyms to a list of words by reading the passage.

Synonyms
Akin to antonyms, but, this time, students try to find synonyms to a whole list of ‘Lexis’. Worthy of note, here, at this stage, that these lists are later to be memorized; a thing that constitutes what is labeled, ‘rote learning.’

Cognates
An activity in which students are taught to recognize cognates by learning spelling and/ or sound patterns that correspond between L1 and the target language.
E.g. possibility → Possibilidad.(true cognates)
Obscurity → Obsecuredad.(true cognates)
They are also taught to differentiate between true cognates and false ones. False cognates are those that do not correspond in meaning.
E.g. Actually → Actuellement (false cognates)

Deductive application of a rule
After students understand the deductively (rules first, then examples) presented grammatical structures, they are asked to apply these rules to new examples. Exceptions to the grammatical rules are also noted.

Fill-in-the blank
That consists of filling the blanks in a succession of sentences with new words or items of a particular grammatical type (as prepositions or verbs…)

Memorization
Students memorize both lists of translated vocabulary and grammatical rules or paradigms as well.

Use of words in sentences
Students, in this activity, contextualize the newly learnt words in sentences to show their understanding.

Composition
The teacher usually suggests a topic to his/ her students to write on. This topic has to do with the theme of the reading passage.

Précis
Sometimes the T. assigns a précis of the reading passage instead of an activity of composition.

Criticism to GTM
It stresses memorization through rote learning. It does barely anything to enhance students’ communicative ability in the target language.

Why is it popular despite its drawbacks?
• It requires few teaching materials.
• It requires few teaching skills on the part of teachers.
• Tests are easy to build and scoring is objectively carried.

Prepared by: Nouamane ERRIFKI

References:
Diane-Larsen, Freeman. Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. England: Oxford University Press, 1990.

Motivation and EFL context

noreply@blogger.com (Nouamane ERRIFKI) — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:53:00 +0000

Extrinsic motivation and EFL classrooms
A practical suggestion
Have you ever thought of rewarding your students especially after a big achievement? Have you ever stumbled over the idea of ‘motivational teaching’? Did it ever occur to you that extrinsic motivation is the sole kind of motivation that can be fruitful in EFL classrooms? Didn’t it?
It’s not unbeknownst to every practitioner that a reward is the unique way to instill and ensure that a good behavior is to become a habit. And that’s, for sure, a behaviorist approach, if you consider it for a while. The carrot and the stick approach, originally political, is a can-not-do-without in enhancing teaching/ learning process. Teaching in view, ‘carroting’ is the term I personally coined to stand as a counterpart to that approach. An approach, though criticized for its short-sightedness, turns to be a momentum to the development of the sixth competence namely that of ‘learning how to learn.’
Yes, for sure! You are right to consider that as far off topic and you are wrong to over-rule that that might be right. Allow me to clear your brains of this entire blur. Why can’t you admit an existing correlation between ‘learning how to learn’ and ‘extrinsic motivation’? Why not? I think that is feasible. ‘Learning how to learn’ aims at extending the quest of knowledge beyond classrooms to real life. It aims, succinctly, at immortalizing students’ learning and education to a degree where a student can and picks up his own learning enterprise even after he finishes his school based studies. Techniques that fit to develop this competence are, to my opinion, those geared towards motivation, let alone those on learning per se. Examples to this latter are note-taking, organizing one’s notebook, etcetera.
Motivation of its extrinsic type is, in this respect, of great import in the plain sense that as much as you motivate your students you ensure, to a variable extent, the immortality of learning desire in their lives. An immortality that only a focus on emotion can achieve. Here, I suggest that a teacher should keep on and on motivating his/ her students as part of their development of the known competence.
Thus, ladies and gentlemen, I think I have answered your question of how can you link extrinsic motivation to ‘learning how to learn.’
To get things out of the blueprint, herein I suggest a doc. (document) that is handy, affordable and that fits all that spiel (I hope that you do not consider so!). It is a ‘certificate of excellence’ and the below affixed link leads directly to. So enjoy it and get us through your feedback.

http://www.box.net/shared/0jvnn8tnzm

By: Nouamane ERRIFKI

Managing Speaking Activities

noreply@blogger.com (Nouamane ERRIFKI) — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 16:03:00 +0000

On managing in-class activities:
Ten useful Tips for managing speaking activities

1- Be integrative to the other skills (namely reading, listening, and writing) with speaking as much as possible. Other skills study can be used to build control of the field, which is an important cycle in the teaching-learning cycle.

2- Contextualize and relate speaking to previous work and experience. Remember Stephan Krashen’s theory of language acquisition and especially the input hypothesis in its claim that knowledge and comprehension of whatever language is built one brick over the other. And that a student’s acquisition is furthered by relying basically on previous experience and knowledge.

3- Make sure that students understood how to interact with your prompts or succinctly your questions.

4- Demonstrate, if in need. Dramatization is the best way to demonstrate for beginner students.

5- Provide students with vocabulary/ transactional language that they might need to accomplish the task.

6- Give clear instructions. That does not mean too much instruction. A few words that are carefully chosen may do well.

7- Set a time limit to the activity, but be flexible!

8- Don’t interrupt or correct. But make notes of commonly made mistake and comment on them at the end of the activity or in another session that you may call ‘remedial work’.

9- Go around, through aisles and give help to those in need of and orient others.

10- Ask for feedback. Students say is invaluable in these new approaches that are essentially humanistic. I mean students-centered.

Prepared by: Nouamane ERRIFKI

Pairing and Grouping students

noreply@blogger.com (Nouamane ERRIFKI) — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 15:59:00 +0000

On managing in-class activities:
Techniques for pairing and grouping students

Motivational, tension-freer, funny, for mixed-ability classes, and above all an outlet from some pesky situations that, the question of with who should I team up? May cause is this bunch of techniques.

a- The ‘wheels’ scenario: Make your students into two sets to form two circles (‘wheels’). One circle faces inwards and the other outwards. The former circle moves around clockwise and the latter anticlockwise, and keep on revolving until the T. whistles to stop. In that stop position, every student gets paired with the one facing him/ her.

b- Find your partner (s): Hand out two sets of cards: an ‘A’ set and a ‘B’ set. Students who get the ‘A’ cards go and fetch, each one, a partner from ‘B’ card holders. Thus, pairs are formed. A mild adaptation can be made to make up groups. Having an ‘A’ card, the student gets off his/ her seat and tries to find three (or whatever number not exceeding five) partners of the ‘B’ cards. Once pairs/ groups are formed, the T. can pick on with his activity.

c- Pick a pair: Get every one of your students to write their own names on a piece of paper. Once finished, you get the pieces of paper and shuffle them, then call on a student to pick two pieces (or more for groups) of paper from the pile. The students picked up become thus pairs or members of one group to accomplish that in-class activity of yours.

d- Numbers: Get one half of your class cards on which numbers are written and get the other half to choose their partners by saying a number aloud. The cards should be handed out at first at random. That’s for pairs formation, as for groups of fours as an instance, get your class divided into four quarters. Hand out numbered cards to three quarters, and make the fourth quarter pick up partners by saying numbers (only three numbers).

e- No need to comment on these techniques: Swap places and Rotate…

Prepared by: Nouamane errifki

On pronunciation

noreply@blogger.com (Nouamane ERRIFKI) — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 15:48:00 +0000

On pronunciation:
Can you say these tongue

twisters without getting
Your toungue tied-up.

If yes, prove it!

1- M- Minnie house makes many marsh mallows for Mickey Mouse to munch on.

2- Sh- - She saw shy sheep.
- She sells seashells on the seashore.

3- B- - Bugs black blood, bugs black blood.
- Rubber baby buggy bumpers.
- Betty botter bought some butter
‘’Oh!’’ she said, ‘‘this butter’s bitter, if I use this bitter butter, it will make butter
Bitter I need a bit of better butter, just to make my batter bitter’’
Betty bought a bit of better butter, now Betty’s batter isn’t bitter.

4- Oo- (As in ‘good’): how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could
Chuck wood?

5- i- (AS in ‘fish’): River Wytham, River Wytham.

6- U- (As in ‘university’): unique New York, unique New York.

7- E- (As in ‘bed’): Red lorry, yellow lorry, red lorry, yellow lorry.

8- OI- (as in ‘boy’): which noise annoys an oyster most, a noisy noise annoys an oyster most.

9- S- : this snail is stale, its tail is stale and this is a stale tale.

10- Fl- : a fly and a flea in a flue were caught, so what did they do?
Said the fly, ‘’let us flee!’’
Said the flea, ‘’let us fly!’’
So they flew through a flaw in the flue.

11- r- :- round the ragged rock, the ragged rascal ran.
-Roger rocket ran around the river and rented a raft to ride on.

12- f- : - Phineas Foster fishes for flat flounder.

13- v- : - Veronica Victor vowed to view the vanguard.
- When the very Venetian vet went to Venice, his voyage was viewed with
Vindictive regret by a Venetian vendor named Vemon.

14- ca- (as in ‘can’): canals in the Alps are comparable to a lot of canyon-like canals in
The Capital of Canada.

15- t and th- : The enthusiasm that Teresa Thomas told of took the terribly thin
Thirty-ish Turkish Thespian Thesus Thurber completely by
Surprise.

Prepared by: Nouamane ERRIFKI

Task-Based Learning

noreply@blogger.com (Nouamane ERRIFKI) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 18:07:00 +0000

The Task-Feedback

chain Model

Hands on the how to proceed teaching reading and listening (also: video watching)

Guidelines:
a- Grade the task rather than the material. i.e. try to upgrade or downgrade your tasks in terms of difficulty to suit your students’ levels of proficiency. Do not try to act physically on the material itself eg. By cutting it short or making it lengthy.
b- Task fisrt- then text or tape. i.e. it should ( must!) be succinctly made clear to your students what they are supposed to perform. Thus, the task-first strategy spares them from the wandering and wondering for elongated times. Be clear, succinct to save time, energy and progress forward.
c- Process rather than product: what is of most import is not the listening/ reading or whatever per se, it is rather the things rekindled in the process of the listening/ reading…I mean the discussions, opinion exchange… all that is triggered in the process of achieving a task, let alone the task in itself.

Link-1-
Lead-in: pre-listening, introduction to topic, discussion of themes, looking at pictures, etc.

Link-2-
Pre-task work (optional): looking through worksheet, work on vocabulary, prediction, etc.

Link-3-
Set a clear task: activities to develop reading/ listening for gist or specific details...

Link-4-
Play the tape or students read text: Ss are not supposed to understand every little tiny tiny word in the tape or text, they should get only what they need to achieve that especial task.

Link-5-
Feedback on task [( St to St) or (St to T) or …]: don’t ask unfair questions ( they could be retroactive in effect)- you set a clear task- have they done it? Don’t throw an extra pile of question now!

Link-6-
Could they do the task? Yes or No?
1- If No, you go back to link-4- i.e. play the tape or students read the text again to close up the gaps left in their work. Ss try to work out things they didn’t get at first place. You do that as many times as needed.
2- If Yes, you have to move to…

Link-7-
Conclude: tie up loose ends, lead to follow on activities, review what has been gotten, etc.

N.B: links-3, 4, 5, 6, 7 are recurrent in the sense that they could be used more that once in a single lesson of listening/ reading (also, watching a video). That depends on how many tasks you set for your students.

Reference:
Jim SCRIVENER.2005.Learning Teaching. Thailand: MacMillan Heinemann.

Coursebooks

noreply@blogger.com (Nouamane ERRIFKI) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 17:52:00 +0000

Choosing a coursebook

Choosing a coursebook is one of the most important selections which teachers can make. Teachers cannot influence their working lives in many ways. You cannot choose your teaching hours, your holiday periods, the classes you teach, and the learners who are in
those classes, or the classrooms you use, but you can choose your coursebook.
You select a coursebook for your learners and for yourself, so you first need to analyze your learners’ needs and your own needs.

WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM A COURSEBOOK?
Teachers want different things from their coursebooks and they use them in different ways. Some teachers want a coursebook to provide everything. They want the teacher’s book to tell us what to do, in which sequence to do each activity and how to assess the progress which our learners have made. However, some teachers do not want the coursebook to control their lives. They want to be able to plan their own lessons or even
their own syllabus. They want the coursebook to be a library of materials from which they can choose to be used in the ways they choose.

WHAT CAN A GOOD COURSEBOOK GIVE THE TEACHER?
A good coursebook can help a teacher by providing:
1- a clearly thought out program which is appropriately sequenced and structured to include progressive revision;
2- a wide range of materials that an individual teacher may not be
able to collect;
3- security;
4- economy of preparation time;
5- a source of practical ideas;
6- work that the learners can do on their own so that the teacher does not need to be centre stage all the time;
7- a basis for homework if this is required;
8- a basis for discussion and comparison with other teachers.

WHAT DO YOUR LEARNERS NEED FROM A COURSEBOOK?
Children want a coursebook to be colorful and interesting. They hope the coursebook will contain exciting games and activities. They hope the cassettes will contain exciting stories, amusing dialogues and entertaining songs and rhymes. But what do the children need? We all know that children have short memories. They find it difficult to retain ideas and language from one lesson to the next. So the children need a coursebook which
becomes an accessible and understandable record of their work.
A good coursebook gives the children:
1- A sense of progress, progression and purpose;
2- A sense of security;
3- Scope for independent and autonomous learning;
4- A reference for checking and revising.

THE PERFECT COURSEBOOK
The Perfect Coursebook for every teacher and every class does not exist. When selecting a coursebook you always need to make a compromise. There will be things which you don’t like about any coursebook. How important are those things? Can you create materials to substitute those aspects? Has the coursebook got something missing? Can you find or create materials to fill that gap? Remember that you work in partnership with your coursebook.
Never expect the coursebook to do everything for you. You will always need to personalize your teaching with your own personality.

WHAT CAN YOU CONTRIBUTE TO THE COURSEBOOK?
As a teacher you have a collection of skills. There are some things which you may be very good at doing. Are you a great artist who can draw all the pictures you need? Are you a musician who can play and sing any songs you need? Do you know hundreds of simple games for your learners to play? Do you have a good competence in English? It may not be enough to be a native speaker, you also need to be able to analyse and grade the language which you teach your learners.

FIND OUT MORE:
To get a checklist on choosing a coursebook click on the following link:

http://www.box.net/shared/xo2sglpj5j

Edited by: Nouamane ERRIFKI

PROFICIENCY LEVELS

noreply@blogger.com (Nouamane ERRIFKI) — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 16:04:00 +0000

Perhaps some teachers still feel confusion when they, now and then, come across the question of determining their students’ level(s) of proficiency and esp. in labeling THEM. What is even more confusing and dazzling is the wide array of systems used in classifying students’ level(s) of proficiency. Systems and organisms like: TOEFL, IELTS, Cambridge Exams, ALTE, and The Council of Europe…
To clear our MIND from such confusion, a reading into the literature that touches this aspect is crucial. To that aim, here is an all-systems encompassing document that summarizes the terminology used in specifying the levels of proficiency. So ENJOY IT…

CLICK ON ONE THE FOLLOWING LINKS TO GET THE DOCUMENT.

http://www.box.net/shared/75lj9vegng

http://www.box.net/shared/75lj9vegng/rss.xml

Nouamane ERRIFKI

HOW TO ORGANIZE ONSELF

noreply@blogger.com (Nouamane ERRIFKI) — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 17:48:00 +0000

organizing is what you do before getting to do what you are really in need to do or want to do and as teachers we need a lot of tools that go to ease that thorny task of teaching. i can even go to assert that teaching is all dependent on organization.herein, i suggest some of the tools that i personally used or intend to use in organizing my classroom work. this is a set of documents, easy and quite heplful, that can be used to endow our work with some organization and thus drawing a nice picture of us as teachers. of course, these tools are open to discussions and that's, in fact, what we are after in posting such private works. your say is precious, so don't be mean....yours!!!

click on ONE of the following links to get the whole bunch of documents. if ever you wonder about the use of some of them or have better adjustments, feel free to report your say and...

http://www.box.net/shared/jhppjhkchm

http://www.box.net/shared/jhppjhkchm/rss.xml

noreply@blogger.com (Nouamane ERRIFKI) — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 19:52:00 +0000

Click on one of the following links and you get an e-book containing hundreds of teaching activities. activities on: grammar, function, vocabulary and others. it is all within a click. enjoy it!!!

http://www.box.net/shared/7mtqa4drpc or

http://www.box.net/shared/7mtqa4drpc/rss.xml