LEARNER-CENTERED TEACHING ROOTS AND ORIGIN

Learner-centered teaching is an instructional approach which focuses on the student as learner. This approach is based on student's experiences, backgrounds, learning styles, interests and needs (Brown, 2003). Therefore, in this section of the book I learnt that the teacher is a facilitator who manages the classroom environment and provides students the opportunities to build their own knowledge and develop their abilities and skills involving students in simulations using individual and group work. It means that this approach is based on three important aspects: the person who is learning, teachers and learners and the learning process (Blumberg, 2012). Finally, learners need to participate and interact with their partners with the teacher's support. Students need to feel that the teacher cares about them because they feel motivated to learn.      

 To conclude, in a teaching situation, I would apply some useful activities such as problem solving, project work and discussions where students will reflect and develop their own learning and experiences working in a collaborative way. 

Bibliography:

Brown, K. L. (2003). From teacher-centered to learner-centered curriculum: Improving learning in diverse classrooms. Education, 124(1), 49. Retrieved from:

         http://www.cdtl.nus.edu.sg/brief/v9n1/sec6.htm

Blumberg, P. (2012). Developing Learner-Centered Teaching. Retrieved from ProQuest Ebook Central. 

         https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uta-ebooks/reader.action?docID=974653

Student-Centered Learning (21st Century Education). (2013). YouTube. Retrieved from  
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N1I6sOhDiw

         

THE ROLE OF THE TEACHER

The role of a teacher means that a teacher is a facilitator and guide in the learning process where they need to motivate their students using different interactive activities within the classroom. It refers that a good teacher is someone who helps students to learn through a variety of roles to play in education process (Harden & Crosby, 2000). Furthermore, there are some principles that teachers need to follow in their classrooms. Firstly, teachers need to assign different learning tasks like summarize and draw conclusions. Students will develop and improve their cognitive skills. Besides, teacher need to reduce their time to talk (TTT) where students should get a chance to talk and practice their communicative competences. Another aspect is that teachers should create climates for learning, students will learn more effectively if they enjoy the activities they are involved in (Harmer, 2007). Finally, teachers should evaluate their students by peer assessment or self assessment in order to improve and measure their knowledge.

In conclusion, in a teaching situation, I would apply different learning styles according to my student needs and preferences where they will be involved in the learning process and they will have some decision making about which activity to do next. 

Bibliography:

Harden, R & Crosbyn, J.(2000). The good teacher is more than a lecturer-the twelve roles.
         http://ltc-ead.nutes.ufrj.br/constructore/objetos/tea

Harmer, J. (2007). How to teach English. New Edition

         Cambridge, UK

What is the Role of Teacher By Tugba Cokakoglu. (2014). YouTube.
         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OTZxXdWVUM

        

UNIT 8 SPEAKING

One of the most important skills is speaking which is a productive skill that produce language rather than receive it.  It helps us to communicate with each other and express our ideas effectively where we use the language in a variety of situations (Qureshi, 2015). Speaking skills contain different subskills which are making use of grammar, making use register, using features of connected speech, using body language, producing text types, using oral fluency and interactive strategies (Spratt, M. Pulverness, A., & Melanie, W, 2011). Therefore, using interactive strategies includes using body language such as gestures, functions, and turn-taking. Speaking also includes some different features of connected speech that help us to communicate meaning using appropriate intonation and word and sentence stress. Finally, there are different text types where we use different functions, levels of formality, structures and vocabulary.
To sum up, in a teaching situation, I would involve my students in interactive activities such as information-gap activities, telling stories, debates, conversations, etc. Students will feel motivated to improve their communicative competences where I need to correct their mistakes during speaking activities in order to improve their pronunciation and fluency.

Bibliography:

Qureshi, I. (2015). The importance of speaking skills for EFL learners. Upload.wikimedia.org.                     https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Speaking_Skills.pdf

Spratt, M. Pulverness, A., & Melanie, W. (2011). The TKT Course. Modules 1,2,3.                                      Cambridge University Press.

How to improve your English speaking skills (by yourself). (2014). YouTube.            
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAU2zx2Ri_M&t=122s

UNIT 7 LISTENING

This unit was about listening skill which is a receptive skill that is often implied as a component of speaking. It's an essential process of receiving, constructing meaning from and responding to language rather than producing (Tyagi, 2013). Furthermore, the most important thing in this unit was that listening refers to be able to understand different text types such as conversations, stories, instructions, advertisements, etc. Also, learners need to be able to understand a variety of speed of speech and accents. On the other side, there is a variety of listening subskills. Learners need to be able to listen for specific information (time, telephone numbers, etc) and sometimes for more general understanding (stories, novels or social conversations) (Harmer, 2007). 

To sum up, listening is good because it helps to improve student's pronunciation where I would apply many sources based on CD, tape or via MP3 players. Besides, I would encourage and motivate my students to listen as much as possible where they will be able to acquire a good pronunciation and some speaking habits.

Bibliography:

Tyagi,B.(2013). Listening An Important Skill and Its Various Aspects. The-criterion.com. 
        http://www.the-criterion.com/V4/n1/Babita.pdf

Learn English Listening Skills - How to understand native English speakers. (2011). YouTube. 
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssuiqtreiBg

Harmer, J. (2007). How to teach English. New Edition
         Cambridge, UK

UNIT 6 WRITING

In this unit I learnt the importance of writing where students need to practice and using the correct forms of language such as spelling, grammar and vocabulary. Also, learners need to use appropriate style and register to express their ideas effectively in an organized way. If learners want to write an essay they need to have an introduction, main body and conclusion, these parts need to have a connection to each other (Carroll, 1990). On the other side, students need to be involved in the process of writing which includes drafting, editing, proofreading and re-drafting. They will correct and improve their piece of writing in order to have a second final version. The writing process is useful because students have the opportunity to publish their final work and they will know how important it is (Peha, 2016). In conclusion, in a teaching situation I would encourage my students asking them writing about something interesting that they have read in a newspaper or magazine. Also, I would use some interactive activities within the classroom such as story completion, jumbled pictures stories, writing emails, etc.

Bibliography:

Carroll, T. (1990). Student Success Guide. Writing Skills.        http://skepdic.com/refuge/writingskills.pdf

Peha, S. (2016). The Writing Process Notebook.
        https://www.ttms.org/PDFs/04%20Writing

The Writing Process. (2015). YouTube. 
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y1LnImU63A

UNIT 5 READING

The most important thing that I learnt in this unit was about the reading skill which is a useful receptive skill for language acquisition where learners will develop their knowledge.  Besides, reading has a great impact because students are able to acquire their vocabulary and improve their spelling and writing (Harmer, 2008).They need to have a clear knowledge about coherence and cohesion. Coherence  is the connection of ideas to make sense while cohesion focuses on grammatical aspects of writing.  On the other side, there are some different reading skills according to our purposes such as skimming, scanning, reading for detail, deducing meaning from context, inferring and predicting. Finally, there is a distinction between intensive and extensive reading. Intensive reading refers to read carefully in order to understand the details and extensive reading focuses on reading for pleasure easy materials to get a general idea (Melesse, 2015).
To sum up, reading is an essential skill where I would like to apply in my future life as a teacher some interesting reading materials that help to motivate my students and to be focus on vocabulary, grammar and punctuation. They will feel encourage to learn and confidence at the moment to read.

Bibliography:

Harmer, J. (2007). How to teach English. New Edition
        Cambridge, UK

Melesse, A. (2015). ASSESSING INTENSIVE READING STRATEGIES USED BY GRADE 11 STUDENTS IN EFL CLASSES               
        http://213.55.85.90/bitstream/handle/123456789/2542/Melesse%20Adamu.pdfsequence

Sovann, K.(2014) Intensive & Extensive Reading. (2014). YouTube. 
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZkYtAP6Kis

UNIT 4 FUNCTIONS

A function is a reason in which we use language to communicate in a real context where we have functions for apologizing, greeting, clarifying, inviting, advising, agreeing, etc. Language functions are the purposes for which we use specific expressions, utterances and phrases when we speak or write (Arappan, 2004). Therefore, the language we use to express a function is an exponent. It is used according to the context which express a variety of formal and informal purposes. I learnt that formal language is used in important situations that involve people we don't know well while informal language occurs with friends and people that you know very well. Besides, there are neutral exponents that is neither formal nor informal. A focus on functions within the classroom can lead to an emphasis on communication (Spratt, Pulverness & Melanie, 2011).  

To summarize, in a teaching situation, I would teach my students some vocabulary  related to each function where they will become familiar with the vocabulary. Besides, students can improve and practice the vocabulary and grammatical structures in both oral and written context.

          

Bibliography:

Arappan, M. (2004). Communicate English.

        http://toefl.uobabylon.edu.iq/papers/itp_2015_3158553.pdf

Spratt, M. Pulverness, A., & Melanie, W. (2011). The TKT Course. Modules 1,2,3.               

       Cambridge University Press.

Language Registers Summary. (2012). YouTube.      
       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBqZTWGxMvc

UNIT 3 PHONOLOGY

This unit is about phonology which is the study of the sound patterns used in a language to communicate. It includes phonemes, word stress, sentence stress and intonation. Furthermore, I learnt that a phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in speech. For example, the /m/ sound often written as /m/ is a phoneme. The phonemes are presented in a phonemic chart to represent each sound with a single symbol. These symbols are enclosed in brackets to show that the phonetic transcription (Dobrovolsky, & Katamba, 1997). It is divided into vowels, diphthongs and consonants where there are voiced and unvoiced sounds. On the other side, word stress is when we pronounce a syllable with more force and emphasis and  sentence stress is used to show students which part of the sentence is the most important. Finally, I learnt that intonation is an important feature that encompasses the intonation of our voice to show meaning. The intonation describes the level (high or low) at which we speak (Harmer, 2008).

To summarize, it's useful for learners to practice in hearing and recognizing sound features. It means that in a teaching situation I would use some interactive activities where students will feel encouraged to improve their English skills. They can listen to music and radio programs to contrast the voiced and voiceless sounds.

Bibliography: 

Dobrovolsky, M., & Katamba, F. (1997). Phonetics: The sounds of language. Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction. Addison Wesley Longman Limited, Essex.

Harmer, J. (2008). How to teach English. ELT journal.
      Cambridge, UK
   

Phonetic Chart Explained. (2014). YouTube.       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfwVXfl0EnI

UNIT 1 GRAMMAR

Grammar can be described as a set of rules about how we change the form of the words and combine with other words to make meaning. In this unit, I learnt that grammar plays an important role according to the situation and context in which it is used. Furthermore, it includes grammatical forms, grammatical structures and grammatical uses. Grammatical forms concerns to how a word, phrase or clause is presented in speech or writing where we can find nine  important parts of speech: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, determiners, prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions and exclamations. On the other side, grammatical structures refers to the language pattern. One essential way in which English forms words is through the use of prefixes and suffixes (Sprat, Pulverness, & Williams, 2011). Finally, grammatical uses refers to how grammatical structures are used to communicate meaning that comes from the situation in which the language is used.

To sum up,  teaching grammar is useful for learners where they need to practice in both form and use. In a teaching situation I would apply the inductive method for teaching where my students will feel involved in the learning process. Besides, we can use some flashcards and pictures to catch their attention. Teachers need to identify some options for integrating grammar in a communicative way according to the classroom context (Nassaji, 2011).

Bibliography:

Spratt, M. Pulverness, A., & Melanie, W. (2011). The TKT Course. Modules 1,2,3.              Cambridge University Press.

Teaching Grammar in Second Language Classrooms. (2017). Google Books.                        https://books.google.com.ec/books

Grammar and usage lessons no 2 : Parts of Speech. (2015). YouTube.                                     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtXm3NO95us&t=357s