Friday, 24 January 2014

Interaction in ESO

Interaction in ESO I would like to teach in English in ESO. I would use a Communicative approach to teach English. I would like to interact with my students in various ways. I would like them to feel comfortable asking me questions and, hopefully, be able to send doubts through an electronic medium so that I could answer any problems that occurred to the students whilst they were connected to the Internet at home. I would include a class blog in my class so that the activities carried out in the class could be recorded in a central place. All the students would have access to the blog and some tasks would be required to be carried out on the blog. For example, students would have to find a song that they liked and post it with the lyrics and a glossary of the most important words with their meanings. Inside the class the students would work in groups and pairs to complete tasks and there would be feedback sessions so that all of the ideas created in the class could be shared. The sensation of working in a team would increase motivation levels in the class this hopefully would have a knock on effect on student behaviour. Another advantage of interacting in the classroom would be a decrease in anxiety levels as students would be able to have their doubts solved quickly and effectively. A disadvantage of student interaction through electronic devices would be the fact that some students may not have a computer or internet connection at home due to financial constraints.

Sunday, 19 January 2014

Definitions of words from Wordle

Pairs- 2 people working together. Deadline - The date when you have to give the teacher your work. Hand-in - To give your teacher your work. Teamwork - To cooperate with your classmates and work together. Presentation - Showing the teacher and your classmates your work.

Wordle

Corpora 'get by'

The verb 'to get by' according to the following Corpora

http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/

http://www.linguee.es/

Ejemplos de traducciones de otras fuentes para 'get by'

inglés	español
If sanctions are retained over time, the country will get by, but at a much lower rate of productivity and at a much higher social cost to the population. fride.org	Si se mantienen las sanciones a lo largo del tiempo, la región saldrá adelante, perocon una productividad muchísimo más reducida y con un coste social mucho más alto para la población. fride.org
I have enough savings to get by for a year or so, and I have faith I'll be able to find another job when the time is right. aarpsegundajuventud.org	Tengo ahorros suficientes como para un año o más y tengo fe en que seré capaz de encontrar otro empleo, cuando llegue el momento de hacerlo. aarpsegundajuventud.org
The economic and social hardship has engendered a culture of hatred. People get by as best they can and delinquency is on the rise. missionidonbosco.org	Existe una cultura del odio alimentada por las dificultades económicas y sociales, cada uno se arregla como puede y la delincuencia se expande. I prefer the results of the second Corpus because the context is clearer.

Thesaurus

Synonyms for beautiful

adj physically attractive

After looking up the word 'Beautiful' the Thesaurus website gave me a list of synonyms and antonyms. I liked the feature where you could filter the results according to how common or informal they were. You can also choose words that are more complex or longer/shorter.

I didn't see much help with actually choosing the correct word as each word has its own nuance in English so choosing an appropriate word may be difficult.

Which dictionary is best?

As you can see from the previous entry on the definitions provided for the verb 'to follow up' in English there is great deal of difference between the results.

I think that the first two dictionaries have the advantage that they provide concise definitions however, I think that learners should be 'trained' to use the wordreference dictionary because it encourages them to investigate the various meanings that a word has depending on its context. Context is hugely important when learning the meaning of word in my opinion, therefore, I think students would benefit from realizing that there are many different translations and uses for almost every word in a language.

However, I also recognize that many learners would be incapable of expending the mental effort in order to be able to find the 'correct' translation or meaning of a word and therefore, the first two dictionaries would be more appropriate in these cases.

The learner's dictionary does not give a definition for the verb 'to follow up' therefore, in my opinion it is useless.

Dictionaries 'Follow up'

Definitions of the phrase 'Follow up'

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/

follow up

[CASE] seguir*, darle* seguimiento aMr Simpson promised to follow the matter upel señor Simpson me prometió que investigaría el asuntoI have an idea for an article that you may like to follow uptengo una idea para un artículo que quizás quieras desarrollar
http://www.merriam-webster.com/

follow up

verb

transitive verb

: to follow with something similar, related, or supplementary <following up his convictions with action — G. P. Merrill>

: to maintain contact with (a person) so as to monitor the effects of earlier activities or treatments

e: http://www.wordreference.com/es/

follow up

English definition | conjugator | English synonyms | in context | images

See 'follow up' in the Legal dictionary.

Principal Translations
follow up vi phrasal	(take next step)	continuar⇒ vi
Note: hyphen used when term is a noun or an adj before a noun
	The young gymnast performed a dive roll and followed up with a cartwheel.
	La joven gimnasta realizó una vuelta de carnero y continuó con una rueda de carro.
follow up, follow-up vtr	(take next step)	proseguir⇒ vi
	Debido a que se presentaron efectos secundarios severos no se pudo proseguir con el tratamiento.
follow [sth] up (with [sth], by doing [sth]) vtr phrasal sep	(make further communication)	dar seguimiento loc verb
follow [sth] up vtr phrasal sep	(investigate)	investigar⇒ vtr
Note: hyphen used when term is an adj before a noun
	* Vamos a investigar a fondo todo lo relacionado con las acusaciones de fraude.
		estudiar⇒ vtr
Note: hyphen used when term is an adj before a noun
follow-up n	(further communication)	seguimiento nm
follow-up adj	(visit, call: further)	sucesivo adj
		subsecuente, subsiguiente, posterior adj inv m/f

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Compound Forms:
follow-up adj	(next in sequence) siguiente	próximo adj
	I've been told I have to make a follow-up appointment with the doctor.
	Me dijeron que tengo que hacer la próxima cita con el doctor.
follow-up inspection n	(examination to review [sth])	revisión nf
	Before the closing on the house we need to do the final follow-up inspection.
	* Cuando los empleados acaban su trabajo a mí me toca hacer la revisión.
		control nm
	Before the closing on the house we need to do the final follow-up inspection.
	A las cuatro hago los controles de rutina y lleno las planillas correspondientes.
follow-up investigation n	(supplementary police enquiry)	investigación posterior nf
	La investigación posterior fue fructífera y permitió identificar y capturar al asesino.
follow-up materials npl	(resources that supplement learning)	material suplementario nm
follow-up question n	(additional enquiry)	repregunta nf
	The Member of Parliament then asked a follow-up question for which the Prime Minister was totally unprepared.
	Es una maestra de la repregunta, te va a resultar muy difícil darle respuestas evasivas.

Is something important missing? Report an error or suggest an improvement.

'follow up' found in these entries

In the English description:

booster shot

Spanish:

labores de seguimiento - seguimiento

Forum discussions with the word(s) "follow up" in the title:

Ask in the forums yourself.Visit the Spanish-English Forum.

Required contents for 1st ESO

I would like to be an English teacher so the required contents for teaching an English lesson follow closely the stipulations set out in the official laws which govern education in Spain. The curriculum highlights that learners should become autonomous learners therefore, students should be capable of following written instructions. In order to do this students need to have a good knowledge and understanding of 'Imperatives' and the present tense as well as a lexical knowledge of words such as 'Match' 'Read' 'Write' 'Draw' Fill in the gaps' etc.

Being able to use and understand the 'Present tenses' is the most important grammatical area at this level. As they have been working on these tenses throughout Primary school they shouldn't have too many difficulties. However, their Speaking and Listening skills may not be as well developed as their Writing or Reading skills. If CLIL types of activities are to be carried out in an English class students must have a certain level of fluency to be able to communicate with each other in order for the class to continue to use the target language and to not switch back to their mother tongues. I would prefer to employ a communicative approach in my future language classes but the worry is always there that the students will not have the required fluency to be able to discuss topics with their classmates. Therefore, apart from the typical structures of which students must have an adequate knowledge such as: There is/are, Can, Order of adjectives and nouns, Possessive 's' etc, it is necessary that students are able to use those structures in the real world in order to carry out activities.

Tuesday, 14 January 2014

Using ICT in the classroom

I chose this video because I'm currently teaching English Didactics for Primary Education at the University of Alicante. This video shows 5 ICT tools that can be used in the Primary classroom. They range from tools to help control behaviour to websites that group together resources for Primary teachers. It is a short easy to follow video that briefly highlights the uses and benefits of using the ICT tools.

Blog uses and advantages

In my experience blogs have been mainly used as part of educational tasks set by teachers as part of my degree subjects. I have also had experience of blogs as educational resources that have helped me to find information on learning languages and other general information about a wide range of topics. As mentioned in the article ‘Project Work through Blogging’, blogs can about any subject and their writers can have differing levels of expertise on the subject that they are writing about. I usually use blogs to find links to other websites which the blogger has compiled on his/her blog therefore; I do not need to worry so much about this facet of blogs. In the journal article by Baker (2009) the advantages of using blogs to encourage students to write creatively in a foreign language are highlighted. As blogs constitute a real form of communication I can see how this would motivate students in an EFL classroom as the entries that are published in the blogs would be accessible to fellow students and the internet community in general. Similarly, Amir (2010) noted how the nature and low cost of blogs can be used to help students to write collaboratively. Using blogs as a tool to encourage teamwork is, therefore, another advantage of using blogs in the classroom. Yang (2009) highlights an additional benefit of using blogs. He describes how blogs can be used to enable students to reflect critically on their learning process. The nature of blogs enables comments and feedback to create discourse between students. This process has the advantage of creating a situation where students can respond to each other’s ideas and comments thereby creating a situation in which reflection can take place about the learning/teaching process. Reflecting upon learning is a valuable and worthy experience in my opinion. In conclusion, blogs have been shown to have numerous benefits in the learning process as they improve communication, motivate and allow reflection. All of these benefits are in addition to the fact that students are also developing their IT skills whilst they are interacting with the blogs. Therefore, blogs can been seen as highly beneficial to the learning process. References http://www.lte-project.com/images/stories/documents/guidelines2.pdf http://journalarticle.ukm.my/1481/1/kemboja.pdf http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187704281101192X http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ836288

Sunday, 12 January 2014

About me!

Hello, I'm Ryan Davis (sometimes the user of this account is set as 'Selina' because I made a blog for a friend and so I put her name on it)I'm an English teacher and a University teacher at the University of Alicante. I use a lot of technology and always have my smartphone with me (and usually a tablet too!) I haven't tried to use this blog or the website that we use for the course using Android yet but it will be interesting to see if it works correctly. I made the blog for my friend during an IT course that I did as part of my English Studies degree at University. We also did various similar IT things during the Master in teaching so I am quite familiar with these types of things but, as with everything, if you don't use the tools frequently it is easy to lose some IT skills. I mainly visit websites such as Techradar, the Guardian and Facebook when I'm using the Internet. This isn't my first online course and I have to say that I'm not a big fan but we will see how it goes!!