SAMPLE RESPONSE PAPER (ANALYSING GRAMMAR AND LANGUAGE)

Grammar is one of the most important parts of English or other languages. It is not as simple as teaching of other skills because of its complexity. When we analyze the grammar of any language, we come across grammatical structures, items, rules, patterns and so on. Furthermore, grammar involves some remarkable parts of language such as adjectives, adverbs, verbs, nouns, noun phrases, conjunctions, determiners, prepositions, pronouns, relative clauses and such. In order to be successful in grammar teaching, it is essential that we should understand grammar well before teaching it to our students. So, it requires some research and careful thinking. We can check various grammar books and one or more dictionaries. We can think how we will teach these grammatical things and we can also make a few notes for tomorrow’s lesson. But trying to teach everything we know in a split second is absolutely wrong. We should be prepared for only the subject that we will teach in tomorrow’s lesson. In other words, we shouldn’t try to teach more than one thing or one aspect of the subject at a time. So, when we achieve a fully understanding of grammar teaching, we can make clear what does grammar mean and its form, meaning and function.

SAMPLE RESPONSE PAPER (LISTENING COMPREHENSION)

In ESL/EFL classrooms, there are four main skills; listening, reading, writing and speaking. Each of these language skills is very important on its own, but listening is the most challenging part of language teaching. Being able to understand what they hear has always been a difficult task for learners. It has been also difficult for teachers to teach listening. Foreign language learners find it difficult to catch the words and sentences because of the speed and the level. Because teachers aren’t aware of unique features of listening skill, they can’t teach how to listen effectively. When we were in high school, teachers didn’t pay attention to listening skill. What they did is just playing the recording and expecting us to listen and choose the correct answers. By doing this, they thought that we could improve our listening skill, but it didn’t work. Now we will examine listening and its historical overview and cognitive process and classroom applications in detail.

SAMPLE RESPONSE PAPER (ACADEMIC READING)

Reading is one of the most important skills that must be taught to foreign language learners because it is the main factor for the other skills such as writing, speaking and listening. It has a very important role in our ordinary and academic lives. In many countries, people learn English to read books in English for their professions. The situation is same in most universities in Turkey. The language that is used in class is English and the students in these universities have to be good readers in order to be successful.

SAMPLE LESSON PLAN (YOUNG LEARNERS) (STORYTELLING)

Number of Learners: 24

Age of Learners: 6-12

Level of Learners: Elementary – Pre-Intermediate

Duration: 45 minutes

Subject: The Little Red Hen

Skills: Speaking and writing (drawing)

Inter-language: Past simple tense, modals (can, have to)

Materials: Handouts, pictures, masks, flashcards, role cards

Objectives:

To help the learners understand the story.

To guide the learners into storytelling.

To teach the learners how to do storytelling.

SAMPLE LESSON PLAN (YOUNG LEARNERS) (INTEGRATED)

Number of Learners: 24

Age of Learners: 10 - 11

Level of Learners: Intermediate

Estimated Duration: 40’ 40’ 40’ (Three-hour lesson)

Grammar Point: Imperatives

Subject: Classroom Rules

Skills: Listening (vocabulary and grammar), reading, speaking and writing

Inter-language: Past simple tense, present simple tense, present continuous tense

Materials: Handouts, pictures, flashcards, envelops, song

SAMPLE LESSON PLAN (INTEGRATED)

Topic: Causatives

Number: 25

Age of learners: 15-16

Level of learners: Intermediate level

Duration: 45 min

Skills: Reading, writing, speaking, listening

Materials: Pictures, flashcards, handouts, audio script, board game

SAMPLE LESSON PLAN (GRAMMAR)

Age: 13-14

Level: Intermediate

Duration: 20 minutes

Number of Students: 24

Skills: Reading, speaking, writing

Materials: Flashcards, pictures, handouts, electronic devices, role cards.

Objectives: By the end of the lesson, students will have learnt the form, the meaning and the function (making simple suggestions) of “should”. They will be able to use this grammar structure.

SAMPLE LESSON PLAN (SPEAKING)

Number of Learners: 24

Age of Learners: 14 - 15

Level of Learners: Intermediate

Duration: 25 minutes

Subject: Technology Fair

Skills: Speaking, listening, writing

Materials: Handouts, pictures, realias

Aim: By the end of the lesson, learners will have learnt how to express their reasons for doing something and their suggestions for how to do something. They develop the ability to express themselves and exchange information in target language.

SAMPLE LESSON PLAN (WRITING)

Number of Learners: 24

Age of Learners: 14 - 15

Level of Learners: Intermediate

Estimated Duration: 45 minutes

Grammar Point: Conjunctions

Subject: Introducing Our School

Skills: Writing, speaking

Materials: Pictures, flashcards, newspapers, magazines

SAMPLE LESSON PLAN (READING)

Number of Learners: 30

Age of Learners: 16

Level of Learners: Intermediate

Estimated Duration of the Presentation: 25’

Skills: Reading, speaking, writing

Materials: Handouts, pictures

SAMPLE LESSON PLAN (LISTENING)

Number of Learners: 24

Age of Learners: 16

Level of Learners: Intermediate

Estimated Duration of the Presentation: 25’

Skills: Listening, reading, speaking and writing

Materials: Handouts, pictures, role cards

SAMPLE LESSON PLAN (YOUNG LEARNERS)

DURATION:

20 minutes

AGE LEVEL:

12 years old (6th grade students)

LINGUISTIC LEVEL:

Intermediate

SUBJECT:

Daily routines

AIMS:

Teaching vocabulary about daily routines and using it in a sentence

SOCIAL FOCUS:

Students will be able to create simple sentences about daily routines by using “the present simple tense” and they will be able to do group/pair work in tasks and games. They also will be able to do complex activities.  

SAMPLE LESSON PLAN (VERY YOUNG LEARNERS)

DURATION:

15 minutes

AGE LEVEL:

6 years old (preschool kids)

LINGUISTIC LEVEL:

Elementary

SUBJECT:

Describing weather

AIMS:

Teaching vocabulary about weather conditions

SOCIAL FOCUS:

Students will be able to pronounce words after the teacher and they will be able to do group/pair work in tasks and games. They also will be able to use puppets and realia.

DEICTIC EXPRESSIONS

PERSON DEIXIS

Person deixis is deictic reference to the participant role of a referent, such as the speaker, the addressee, and referents which are neither speaker nor addressee.

Person deixis is commonly expressed by the following kinds of constituents: Pronouns, Possessive affixes of nouns and Agreement affixes of verbs.

- First person deixis is deictic reference that refers to the speaker, or both the speaker and referents grouped with the speaker.

The following singular pronouns: I, me, myself, my, mine

The following plural pronouns: we, us, ourselves, our, ours

Am, the first person form of the verb be

COGNITIVE & SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISM and BEHAVIORISM & INNATISM

Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky, two of the most recognized constructive psychologists, have developed theories on children's cognitive learning styles and abilities. While these two theorists have different ideas about cognitive development in children, there are also several similarities between them. Piaget proposed various educational strategies such as discovery learning with an emphasis on activity and play. However, Vygotsky insisted on the importance of social interactions and a co-constructed knowledge.

According to Piaget, cognitive development occurs in four stages; namely, sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operations and formal operations. Vygotsky partly agrees with him, but he mostly focused on the role of culture and social interactions. As for Piaget, children are active learners who construct knowledge from their environments. The interaction with physical and social environments is a key for cognitive development. As suggested by Piaget, I think children actively organize new information with existing information they got from the environment.

THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH (CA)

1. Learning Theory: Little is known about the learning theory of “The Communicative Approach". Activities that involve real communication promote learning. Language that is meaningful to the learner supports the learning process.

2. Language Theory: Language is for communication. The goal of language teaching is to develop "communicative competence". Using the language appropriately in social contexts is important and communicative competence should be acquired.

What is language according to the Communicative Approach?

A) Language is a system for expression of meaning.

B) The primary function of language is for interaction and communication.

THE TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE METHOD (TPR)

1. Learning Theory: There are three hypothesis:

A) Innate Bio-program: There exists a specific, innate bio-program for language learning, which defines an optimal path for first and second language development. Children develop listening competence before they develop the ability to speak. They make “a blue-print” of the language first. They develop "a cognitive map" of the language during listening process.

B) Brain Lateralisation: The brain has two main parts: left hemisphere, and right hemisphere , which have different learning functions. If both hemispheres are activated, learning is more effective.

C) Stress (an affective filter): Stress intervenes between the act of learning and what is to be learned. The lower the stress is, the greater the learning becomes.

THE COMMUNITY LANGUAGE LEARNING (CLL)

1. Learning Theory: CLL advocates a holistic approach to language learning. "True human learning" is both cognitive and affective. This is termed "whole person learning". A group of ideas concerning the psychological requirements for successful and "non-defensive” learning are collected under the acronym (SARD).

Security: Students should feel secure to enter into a successful learning experience. Classroom atmosphere, students' relations with each other, teacher's attitude to students all affect students' feelings of security.

Attention: Attention is the learner's involvement in learning.

Aggression: is to show what has been learnt for "self-assertion” like a child who tries to show what he/she has learnt. The child tries to prove the things he/she has learnt.

THE SUGGESTOPEDIA (Georgi Lazanov)

1. Learning Theory: People use 5-10% of their mental capacity. In order to make better use of our mental reserves, limitations need to be desuggested. Students should eliminate the feelings that they cannot be successful and thus, to help them overcome the barriers to learning. Psychological barriers should be removed. There are six principle theoretical components through which desuggestion and suggestion operate and that set up access to reserves:

1. Authority: People remember best when the new information comes from a reliable authoritative source.

THE SILENT WAY (SW) (Caleb Gattegno)

1. Learning Theory: Cognitive Psychology is the basis. Language learning is not habit formation. It is rule formation. Language learning has a sequence from the known to the unknown. Students induce the rules from examples and the languages they are exposed to, therefore learning is inductive

2. Language Theory: Languages of the world share a number of features (e.g. every language uses subject, object; every language has adjective, adverb, verb  ...etc.) However each language is unique. Language is for self expression (to express thoughts, perceptions, ideas and feelings). "Cognitive Coding" helps learners learn the language. "Colour rods" and "Fidel Chart" are used for cognitive coding.