English Teaching Today
Why has the importance of informal writing increased?
It has increased mainly due to the widespread use of email, online chat, blogging, texting (SMS), and social networking tools such as Facebook ad Twitter.
Why is it important to note comments on your lesson plans after the lesson itself is over?
As a useful reflection and self-evaluation.
How much (%) of the vocabulary of a given text does the reader need to know in order to be reasonably sure of understanding it?
95%-98%
Give some reasons for insisting on standard grammatical forms in our teaching, even if non-standard variants would not affect meaning.
- These forms are preferred and used by the majority of competent speakers of English
- Even if the variant forms are sometimes used in informal speech, they are rarely used in writing
- Most teachers feel they should aim to have their students achieve internationally accepted levels of accuracy and fluency
- Students wish to be accurate
- Most high-stakes English exams require responses from candidates that use standard forms, and may penalize errors
Suggest some reasons we may wish to adapt the listening activities provided in coursebooks.
The tasks are too easy or difficult; they may give no useful preparation for real-life listening; they may not be varied enough; or some types of activity that you consider important may be missing.
What is the difference between English as a 'foreign' language, and English as an 'international' language?
Why is it important to write down your lesson plans?
- It provides a framework to note the various stages and the order
- It makes you think about and note down your teaching aims
- It provides space to write down the particular language items that you plan to teach
- It reminds you to prepare a reserve activity to use
- It leaves space for later comment
How many times (approximately) do you need to re-encounter a new item in order to be sure of remembering it?
Why is 'the way words are put together to make sentences' an inadequate way to define grammar?
This definition needs expanding to include all the aspects that the term grammar covers: meaning (not only correctness) and units can be smaller or larger than sentences.
Can you give at least two examples of listening activities that elicit very brief responses from students.
- True/false
- Detecting mistakes
- Cloze (gaps)
- Obeying instructions
- Guessing definitions
- Skimming and scanning
Suggest some ways in which the teacher can help to raise student motivation.
- By taking every opportunity to show them how important it is for them to know English.
- By fostering their self-image as successful language learners.
- By ensuring that classroom activities are interesting.
Difference between 'close-ended' and 'open-ended' questions.
Close-ended questions: one right answer
Open-ended questions: several possible right answers
Why is it important to know the common collocations of a newly learnt word?
A specific phrase may be grammatically correct and yet sound wrong simply because of inappropriate collocation.
Why might we design test items based on translation from L1 to English?
Errors in English grammar are rooted in the L1. The best way to combat such interference is by using deliberate contrast to make students aware how it occurs.
In what situations might you present a listening text with no accompanying task?
If the listening task is so interesting and easy to understand that we can be sure students will benefit from listening without the need for a focused goal (anecdote, joke, fairy tale, etc.)
List some of the main features of the 'post-communicative' approach.
- The primary function of language is effective communication.
- Activities that involve meaningful use of the target language in communicative tasks.
- It allows a much larger role for procedures such as explicit teaching of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and spelling.
- It also includes techniques associated with previous methodologies, such as translation and learning dialogues or texts by heart.
Definition of the concept 'lesson'.
A type of organized goal-oriented social event that occurs in most cultures.
What are two practical principles for the selection of the vocabulary to teach a class?
- Include both written and spoken form, both receptive and productive
- Ensure understanding of meanings
- Optimize impact
Difference between deductive and inductive teaching of a rule.
Deductive: the teacher gives the rule and later students work on examples.
Inductive: the students work out rules for themselves, based on a set of examples.
Definition of the terms 'noise' and 'redundancy' in informal speech.
- Noise: Bits of the discourse that the hearer cannot understand.
- Redundancy: The speaker says a lot more than is strictly necessary to communicate the message (repetitions, paraphrase, etc.)
Can you give one example each of integrative, instrumental, extrinsic and intrinsic motivation?
- Integrative: to integrate into the community of speakers of that language.
- Instrumental: material or educational benefit: to get a better job, to progress to advanced study.
- Extrinsic: perceived benefits of success in learning and penalties of failure.
- Intrinsic: associated with the activity of language learning itself: boring, personally fulfilling or frustrating.
What is 'IRF'?
Can you recall at least four different activities that can be used to review or deepen vocabulary knowledge?
- Dictations
- How many can you remember? Brainstorming
- Quick Bingo
- Guessing
- Compose sentences/a story
- Find collocations
Can you recall at least three useful guidelines when explaining a new grammar point to the class?
- Provide students with examples of the target feature in meaningful contexts before explaining it
- Both say and write examples of the target form
- Teach both form and meaning
- You may or may not use grammatical terminology
- Explain the grammar in the students' L1, unless they are proficient enough to cope with English explanations
- Compare the English structure with an L1 parallel if you can
- It is often useful to provide an explicit rule
- Inductive and deductive processes
How useful is it to have students listen to each other for listening comprehension practice?
Not very useful, there is an important place for interaction between students, but this is more for the sake of developing oral fluency than for listening practice.