Reading

Reading

Reading is the second main source of Language because we learn through the words. The printed words are really important in the process of learning a new language; actually, there are many people who can understand the meaning of some words without knowing the language in which they are written. This happens between people who use the Roman alphabet because there are many similar words in languages which share it. Spanish speakers can learn English easily than Japanese speakers because the first ones have the same letters and can associate their own word with the words of the other language. Talking about Japanese speaker, they have more problems learning English because they first need to learn each letter of the alphabet, and then they start to learn word that are totally different from their own language.

The introduction of reading in a foreign language is a big challenge, but we have to focus our attention on sounds and letters to have success teaching the new language. Of course, the first step is to teach the alphabet and to repeat the sound of each letter as much as we can. Repeating is the best way to learn, but reading is important too. If we understand the words when we hear them, but we can't identify them when we read them, we DON'T know another language. As I said before, people who know the Roman alphabet can associate their own words with the words of the other language, but they need to keep in mind that some words look similar, but they have another meaning. For example, Spanish speakers can see the word in English "actually" and think about the word in Spanish "actualmente". Both words have a different meaning, and we as teachers have the obligation of tell them that they don't have to just say "the meaning" because is similar with a word that they know.

After teaching the alphabet, we have to teach sentences or phrases. The age of our students in very important to say if they will have problems learning to read or not. Young children are still learning their own language, so it is more difficult for them to start learning a new one. Another problem is that young children are not familiar with books, and they haven't had contact with printed words what do the introduction of reading more difficult. Probably, they'll need to practice more letter by letter and then complete sentences.

Students need to learn reading illustrations as much as sentences because through images they can understand better what a group of words is saying. Young children pay more attention to illustrations than words that's why they (illustrations) are a good tool to teach. If our students are a little older, we can focus more on the content than on the mechanics of reading. If our students don't know the Roman alphabet, we have to focus our attention on mechanics of reading than on the content. Now that we know what we have to teach first, we have to start reading some short stories appropriate for them. We can create our own stories with the words that they already know. For example, the colors, the greetings, the numbers, etc. Our students can read, and they will understand because they know the meaning of the words in the story.

Reading a class story is a good option because they know the words that we are saying. They know what "desk, table, whiteboard, and pencil" means, so they won't just say words without knowing the meaning. Reading a story about a topic they don't know is the worst decision because they don't have vocabulary about it. Students can read the story to start practicing their reading; every of them should read it to have the same level. We can also use real objects to do easiest the way in which we teach and in which they learn. Reading out loud is common in the classroom, but students don't practice outside. Children prefer to read silently at home maybe because they don't have confidence in themselves and prefer to read alone. Reading silently in the classroom is not good because the teacher can't hear our mistakes, and she can't tell us if we commit a mistake, but reading out loud has some problems. For example, if what children are saying is not interesting for the listeners, they can start to do a mess.

Silent reading is the way in which we'll read the rest of our lives. We aren't accustom to read out loud when we are reading a book or doing an exam that's why we as teachers have to teach them to read silently or out loud depending on the situation. Some children will love to read, and they'll read by themselves as soon as they can, but we'll have another child who will need a motivation to do it. In that cases, we have to building up confidence because they need to speak as much as they can to not be afraid of the new language.

To finish, we always have to remember that reading is one of the most important skills children have to develop. Of course, listening is the most important because we can't write without listen, but every skill depends on the other ones despite we can say that one of them is more important. We as teachers need to have a good pronunciation and intonation to our children develop their reading in the best way. At the end of teaching a foreign language, we'll feel totally happy with ourselves because we are educating a new generation of good students. 

introduction

English didactics is the science of teaching and learning of the english language literature and culture.

The reseach of foreign language didactics has two aims. it provides practice guiding theiretical concepts and at the same time applies itself to the empiric research of context concerning teaching and learning language. Being an important link between the scientific education at the university and the occupational field school, it is therefore a component of the bochelor with teaching option and the master of education.

Didactics helps teachers to catch the ideas and methods that can apply in the teaching practices. Besides that, learners can understand and get the teachers' attention. To know about didactic is useful to learn how to teach a class and to apply methods that can be helpful for teachers.

The following topics were studied throughout the subject of didactics in the English language.

for example there are:

-glossary of teaching term

-Lesson planning and classroom activities / TVYL

-Introduction to TVYL

-Class Management and Atmosphere

-Oral Work

-Writing

-Topic- Based Work

-EFL, ESOL, EIL, LELF, English as a global Language

-NESTs vs Non-NESTs , among others , that were of great help to be able to introduce them to what would be the didactics in the English language, since it is not easy to teach a new language to begin with.

We should know terms, theories and studies related to the teaching of a foreign language to be able to carry out teaching practices in the kindergarten area.

glossary of teaching terms

A glossary is an alphabetical list of specialized words , terms or abbreviations and their definitions are generally related to a specific discipline or field of knowledge. 

It can also be said that a glossary is like a dictionary prepared with the terms of a subject that is available to students; also as an encyclopaedia, where the concepts that are included as glossary entries are explained in a more extensive way, as we can finally know that a glossary is like a store of information about a specific subject.

What are the glossaries useful for?

Glossaries can be useful in helping students identify and acquire the vocabulary of a discipline. Since it is a useful tool; As a topic of interest, the glossary is very used to learn a new language and more if it is in the practice of teaching. Make students automatically understand the words of their use in the readings or in class although it is a very difficult task many times, since not all students have the necessary skills to learn vocabulary from a limited group of words. In addition, providing a glossary ensures that students have a reliable source of word definitions.

Glossary and Dictionary are the same or are they different?


Both tools  have a similarity since in both you can find the meaning of words that for the reader may be unknown; but they have a difference and that is in the glossary are words with their respective meaning but a context particular , while in the dictionary are the meaning of words of any subject in general. 

By learning and understanding the words found in a glossary, the student can better adapt by correctly using the specific vocabulary of the discipline and, through practice, acquire a better understanding of the related concepts. Glossaries can be used to provide students with not only definitions, but also examples of how to use words in a context.

A glossary not only serves to know the definition of a word, it provides knowledge to students with technical vocabulary, which they put into practice every day in their studies or work.

The teaching of languages ​​as other educational specialties, can have specialized vocabulary and use of words that give a more useful approach to understand what is the topic or activity that is being carried out by a student in the process of learning or in the world of the teaching practice.

The glossary provides readers who are not familiar with some of the words and concepts that professional educators commonly use. As for example a student who is new in some area such as teaching, not all of us have a broad knowledge about a specific topic so the glossaries as mentioned above are useful tools to know new topics.

 As with other professions, in education, the use and meaning of certain terms is constantly evolving. In fact, a given term in education could be defined in more than one way. Therefore, an educational glossary is very useful to address the complications when teaching a foreign language.

The glossary of terms was very useful for the didactics of the English language since they are new terms and words in the foreign language we handle. In this subject was necessary to familiarize with educational terms and more for the purpose that was to make our first teaching practices, we had to see some topics to delve into what is the teaching practice and how to do it in a correct way, given that in the information given in the matter could be seen along, terms that were  in the glossary.

Terms not known,  but as a  teaching option career it is necessary to know about terms of education and above all terms to connect both studied languages, Spanish as the base language and English as the foreign language that we are learning.

Knowing about terms such as L1 or L2 was very important to provide a basis for the other didactics or subjects related to teaching practice. Since it was necessary to know some concepts only with their abbreviations to easily identify them.

Lesson planning and classroom activities/ TVYL

A lesson plan is a route that the instructor must take to teach what the students do and must do it effectively during class time. Class planning includes designing appropriate learning activities and developing strategies to obtain feedback on student learning.

Having a carefully designed lesson plan facilitates the development of the class and has the result of having a meaningful learning experience with your students, since the lesson plan is about planning each element in detail so that the student achieves the required learning.

To make a lesson plan you must do:

1. Identify the learning objectives.

Before planning your lesson, you must identify the learning objectives of the lesson. A learning objective describes what the student will know or be able to do after the learning experience. It is usually written in a language that students easily understand.

2. Plan to evaluate the student's understanding.

The assessments provide opportunities for students to demonstrate and practice the knowledge and skills they should have.

The evaluation planning allows you to know if your students are learning what they have learned in the classes.

3. Plan to sequence the lesson in an attractive and meaningful way.

- Calling students' attention is a key to students paying attention to the class and studying it.

- Inform the student of the objectives: So that the students assimilate what they will learn and then put them into practice in the activities organized in the class.

- Stimulate the memory of previous knowledge: This stage helps the students to understand the new information relating it with something experienced by them.

- Present new content: Variety of interactive methods such as: readings, activities, projects, multimedia and others.

- Provide guidance: Advice students on strategies to help them learn the content.

- Practice: Allow students to apply the knowledge and skills learned in the class.

- Students must learn to apply knowledge in group or individual activities, and to provide comments on the topic.

A productive lesson is not one in which everything goes exactly as planned, but one in which the students and the instructor learn from each other and the class is not only a class but a time to play and learn at the same time with activities in the classroom.

 It is likely that teaching and learning techniques help students to participate actively in classes where they are aware of the knowledge acquired based on classroom activities that are very important when running one, especially in the area of kindergarten, since age is a great challenge to maintain the attention of children with common techniques and not flashy.

And as the name implies, are activities designed or implemented by the teacher to carry out or create conditions for optimal learning. The difference between a Learning by Design approach to employ various learning activities and other teaching approaches is related to the pedagogical nature or main intention of the selected activities. For that we must take into account these steps:

Planning an activity / task

Activity route maps

Before the lesson: become familiarize with the material / activity prepare any material or text you need.

-In class: lead-in / prepare for the activity.

Set the activity:  to give instructions, make groupings, etc.

Run the activity: the students perform the activity / monitor them.

-Close the activity: freedback.

Post-activity: do any appropriate follow-on work.

Exploiting an activity: The way in which teachers or students use research to meet their learning objectives.

The activities in the classroom are very useful when it comes to making a lesson plan which are the practices for a greater and specialized learning, the position that you need the techniques and the games to be able to see the students included the given topic In addition, students are guaranteed to entertain themselves.

Introduction to TVYL

Teach Very Young language Learners is a difficult task deal with teaching in very young learners in a new language being a new experience for them since they only have a language that is native to them. Teaching and learning are two sides of the same coin, but they are essentially different activities, although both take place in the public sphere of the classroom.

This book aims to help the reader to teach more effectively. They contain theories of great pedagogues and techniques that are useful in order to effectively teach a new language to young people. Many times it is a difficult task since age should have appropriate knowledge to get the attention of students so that they understand what they are studying as it is not easy to learn a new language like that from scratch, some children develop gradually other in leaps some children develop early, some late. Then there must be a stimulus and the teacher must motivate his students to continue learning a foreign language.

To teach foreign languages ​​to small children, they are between five and twelve years of age. A good age to acquire knowledge since children at that age are like sponges that absorb all knowledge easily.

Talking about teaching a foreign language to children is a challenge because they do not have knowledge about a new language or it is not the requirement to perform well but as before said they are the ones that are easiest to acquire knowledge easily and learning a foreign language will result in them exciting and interesting.

There are some pedagogues who with their theories have helped to teach a foreign language for example this Vygotsky, Piaget and Burner.

Vygotskian theory is about the central observation that development and learning take place in a social context.

Whereas for Piaget the child is an active learner alone and a world of objects, for Vygotsky the child is an active learner in a world full of other people. He said that with the help of adults, children can do and understand much more than they can on their own.

Burner talked about the scaffolding and routines, and for him; language is the most important tool for cognitive growth, and he has investigated how adults use language to mediate the world for children and help them to solve problems. And support to a child in carrying out an activity.

Then the book talk about how learn a second language according the age, also the influence of the first language on the second.

Some people have problems with this topic, because they translate in their mother tongue and then they say the things as they think is the correct way.

The book of teaching languages to young learners by Lynne Cameron was a very important and interesting tool when it came to knowing about the techniques that we should use when it comes to teaching a foreign language to young apprentices.

Since the techniques and methods are not the same, they are more rigorous because of the age the student has and it is also a very beneficial stage to learn a new language since at an early age it is very good to acquire new knowledge.

In the book you can see the steps to follow so that a student can grammatically learn a language because in the first levels of the new language do not focus on that aspect, but often it turns out to be a problem since it is a little difficult to learn how use all structures required to occupy them.

The Young Language Learner

The young language learner we can find a big difference between what children can do. Some children develop early, some later. Some children develop gradually. Others in leaps and bounds. For the successful teaching of English in primary schools, above all, it is essential for the teacher to understand the young learners´ characteristics, instincts, and interests in their cognitive, linguistic and emotional aspects, because this will play a crucial role and how the teacher builds children´s knowledge.

We should take into account that children hare short attention span. So teachers should vary their techniques to break the boredom. They should give varied activities as handwriting, songs, games, etc.

ü  Children are very active. Teachers must try to ask them to play games, role plays dialogues and involve them in competitions to get their attention.

ü  Children respond well to praising. Always encourage them and praise their work. They differ in their experience of language. Treat them as a unit, don´t favour those who know some English at the expense of those who do not know.

ü  Children are less shy than older learners. Teachers should ask them to repeat utterances, resort to mechanical drills. They are imaginative, use realia or pictures to teach new vocabulary related to concrete meanings.

ü  We shouldn´t forget that children enjoy learning through playing, young learners learn best when they learn through games. Let games be an essential part of our teaching.

Most activities for the younger learners should include movement and involve the senses, Teachers needs to have plenty of objects and pictures to work with. Demonstrate what teachers want to do with them.

Let the pupils talk to themselves, make up rhymes sing. Songs, tell stories, play with the language make the learning easily for children.

ü  Children are crearly capable of learning foreign language through participating in the discourse of classroom activities; thus, vocabulary teaching has a centre stage in the way how teachers teaching. Besides, although opinions differ how much grammar can be taught, vocabulary learning can be stepping stories to learning and using grammar. It so, very young children learn vocabulary items related to the different concepts they are learning, when children learn numbers or colors in their native language, they are adding concepts as well as vocabulary items. Children have an amazing ability to adsorb language trough play and other activities which they find enjoyable. How good they are in a foreign language is not dependent on whether they have learnt the grammar rules or not. It’s a teacher, you should note the structures, functions and grammar items which you want to pupils to learn as well as those they already know. Teachers can model strategy use, teach sub-skills needed to make use of strategies, include classroom tasks for help young learners reflect on their learning process trough evaluating their achievement. The best time to introduce some sort of simple grammar is either when a pupil asks for an explanation, or when you think a pupil will benefit from learning some grammar.

Class Management and Atmosphere

Class management and atmosphere there are some things which will help the teacher to create a secure class atmosphere:

Teacher´s should work in children´s attitude and abilities. Students can be encouraged to become indepent and adventurous in the learning of the language, teacher´s should help the children to feel secure in this process. Teachers have a big challenge when they should create the class atmosphere, for that reason teachers should have into account: respect their pupils because everybody have a different perception of the things.

Pupils need to know what is happening in the class, they need to feel that teachers are in change. When never to pupils is trying to tell you something accept whatever he or she says. Pupils have to be told that everyone makes mistakes learning a new language. Also teachers need to stablish routines like greetings, birthday calendar, in that way students can be attentive and what is happening every day. Also teachers should give the children the responsibility for doing practical jobs in the class to create the costumes in children about the things that they must do. On the other hand, teachers should not organize competition, give them physical rewards or prizes, don´t give children English names. For many students exist many things that open possibilities for increase engagement, increased independence and more productive work. For example, the way like teachers arranging the desks, groping the children, cooperation is something which has to be natured and learnt, group work should not be attempted the children are used to working in pair works.  If cooperation and communication are to be part of the process of learning a language as well as part of the process of growing up, the sooner, the pupils learn simple, meaningful expressions in English, the easier it will be, it very important way of helping pupils progress from dependence on the book and the teacher to independence is to give them the necessary tools. One of the tools is classroom language.