The lesson that was observed was given to a group of adolescents around fourteen years old, with B1 and B2 level (Intermediate to Upper Intermediate). It aimed to practice the use of past and past perfect through conversation. The strategy was basically to encourage students to talk about their experiences during this academic year, therefore to make them produce language and to foster the use of complex grammatical structures. Regardless the complete fulfilment of the objective, the session was a useful opportunity for the learners to concentrate on fluency by taking away the stress of evaluation to which they are often exposed to.
Samples:
1.- We begun explaining to the teacher our problem.
(wí bɪgə́n ɪksplénɪŋ tú ðə títʃər áwər prɑ́bləm)
Grammar. This is an example of inaccurate use of verb tense. It shows that the speaker is in the process of learning past and past participle, and therefore he is still confusing both. However, the imprecision demonstrates that he is aware that some change in the form of the verb (to begin) has to be made to express an action that happened in the past.
2.- I don’t like him. He can be a very good scientific but as a person...
(áj dɑ́nt lajk hɪ́m. hí kǽn bí ə vɛ́ri gʊ́d sɑ̀jəntɪ́fɪk bə́t ǽz ə pə́rsən)
Vocabulary and discourse. In this example, we can find an inappropriate word choice. “He may be” would have been a more precise lexical item. Even though, when use as a central modal, the extrinsic meaning of can also expresses possibility, the use of may is more adequate. Aside from that, there is also a misuse of the word “scientist” caused by contamination by L1. The term “científico” in Spanish is both a noun and an adjective, while in English, distinction has to be mad...
... middle of paper ...
...at she has been exposed to spoken language, thus, identifying and properly using stress to mark meaning. (Brown, 1977, p. 51)
10.- My mother was waiting for the second hand book sale.
(máj mə́ðər wəz wétɪŋ fɔ́r ðə sɛ́kənd hǽnd bʊ́k sél)
Grammar. This last example, also shows accuracy in the election of verb form. The student properly used past progressive to describe an ongoing action that took place when other action occurred. (Carter & McCarthy, 2006, p. 608)
The class gathers several levels, and while there are many students with the capacity to produce very complex structures, many of them are not very confident of their ability to speak. I would suggest the teacher to focus more on fluency than on accuracy, because the written exams prove that most of the students understand grammar patterns. Yet, they still need more exposure to spoken language.
As Barry begins his passage he introduces the uncertainty of science, listing qualities that a great scientist should have. As he begins to name these qualities, Barry utilizes long syntax by writing a list sentence. Barry says that “To be a scientist requires not only intelligence
...s passage he references “scientists” as the information source, but does not cite any specific people or research.
when we are starting to learn Spanish. “A child again learning the nombres of things you point to
In her essay, Tannen analyzes how the actions that women make will mark them in some way. Her point is that everything a woman does is somehow sending a message. Tannen notes that, “The unmarked tense of verbs in English is the present” and
What is one of the most essential processes of everyday life that is used across all cultures, ethnicities, and people groups that ultimately is the key to any relationship? The answer is communication, or more specifically interpersonal communication, whether it is by talking, texting, writing, or any other medium the human interaction between two or more people is essential to surviving day to day life. As competency grows in interpersonal communication people are not only able to survive daily interactions but they become able to thrive in these situations and are able to develop quality relationships with different people or even work efficiently with people they normally would have nothing to do with. In this essay I plan to determine my competency in interpersonal
After reading the sentence, the student paused and then reread it without the teacher's prompting and self-corrected the errors. Based on this information, the teacher could best meet this student's needs by adjusting instruction in order to:
Some non-human participants included Suzie the dog, his cousins’ house, the park, the hole that Suzie dug, the soccer pitch and soccer game. The student also used a variety of processes (also known verbs/doing words). Stavros clearly informed readers of the actions that were carried out during the student’s experiences by using simple action processes such as ‘bought’, ‘walking’, ‘ran’, ‘dug up’, ‘kicking’, and ‘walked’; mental processes such as ‘forgot’, ‘thought’, ‘notice’, ‘knew’ and ‘didn’t know’; relational processes such as ‘had’ and ‘was’ and a saying process which was ‘talking’. Circumstances is the additional information that tells us about the time, place, manner, cause/reason and accompaniment around the event. Stavros demonstrated proper use of language to present the time of which things occurred through
We continued in Lesson 9 (conjugating verbs). This coming week, you will be in Lessons 9 and 10. In
On the other hand, teachers prefer using L1 for a more effective approach to teaching grammar and checking students’ understanding. Macaro (1997) commented that teachers often lack enthusiasm in using the target language for grammar explanation. Many students have difficulty in learning grammar, especially for those whose L1 system is entirely different from the TL. L1 can be more efficient, particularly when a teacher wants to discuss the learning contract with students, or tries to explore the needs of his/her students, especially those in the lower level (Harmer, 2007). Evidence provided by Harmer (2007) also indicates that the classroom environment can be enhanced through the use of L1 to establish a positive social relationship with students, which ultimately leads to a more effective teaching process.
This course took me into a beautiful journey. I enhance my knowledge on verb subject agreement. I was
Improving my communication skills has been a work in progress starting back in the early years of my life. I have always been my own worse critic. Usually beating myself down through interpersonal communication. Now as an adult I have made great improvements but still have trouble dealing with perception and self-image. Not being raised in an environment of positive reinforcement and poor communication in the workplace I have made it a point to change that trait in my own family and professional environment.
The lesson is designed to give implicit exposure of grammatical features to the students. In some sections of the lesson (e.g. warming up activity and transi...
Although great emphasis has been attached to grammar teaching, there still exist many problems in school context. Nunan (1998) points out learners are provided with various drills to master a certain grammatical item, which makes grammar in textbooks isolated from real life. According to what Miss Wong has mentioned, students are not sure of the purposes of using passive voice at discourse level. That is to say, students do not fully understand in what occasion passive voice should be used, which is a common problem in contemporary grammar teaching.
A combination of present tense with progressive aspect constitutes the present progressive tense (is writing). It is used to describe a situation in progress at the present moment: TU = TT)⊂TS. The main distinction between the present and past progressive (was writing), which also relates to an ongoing situation, lies in the past location of the reference point: TS ⊂TT
Based on the textbooks in Hong Kong, the students in Primary 5 get the first chance to learn conditional sentences. There are four types in all: Type 0 (any situation which is always true), Type 1(something is going to happen in the future), Type 2 (an imaginary situation which stands no chance of happening or even impossible) and Type 3 (a situation which might have happened in the past but which did not really happen) (Loo, 1996). As time goes by, students will get a better understanding about them in junior high school. Thus, it is not the first time that Miss Wong’s students get to know the target structures. However, some students find that it is hard to understand why we use simple past tense in if-clause to refer to an imaginary situation that is not a real past but impossibility.