Language Learning /Teaching
Leaning language and becoming a language teacher can be a daunting task because it requires one to dedicate more time to read intensively. Both learners and language teachers should have adequate information to enable them to communicate fluently. This essay discusses, describes, and reflects on ways I will continue developing my language learning, develop my language and my teaching skills when I become a language educator.
How to Develop my Own Language Learning
Developing language learning requires one to be disciplined to be able to learn and attain competency. Therefore, the most important tools for language learning are writing implements such as pen and a notebook. The tools can not only be used to take
…show more content…
The sole goal of learning a language is to achieve proficiency and communicative competence as they are primary skills in good communication. Achieving language skills requires a learner to grasp the basic language phonology, which includes listening, reading, writing, speaking. One can learn listening skills by carefully listening and analyzing with the view of discovering contrastive sounds of language and their variants (Molnar & Sebastian-Galles, 2014). A learner then practices and uses discriminative exercises to help them distinguish sounds, tones, and intonation patterns. In this case, the learner can then use selective attention to contrastive sounds that are difficult to grasp and use auditory repression, which involves recording troublesome sounds and replaying them until one becomes conversant with …show more content…
Furthermore, various drills can be used to focus on sounds that are difficult to master. After that, learners may take articulatory phonetics to help them understand the speech mechanism and ways it would work. To master reading skills, learners need to employ the strategy of memorization and association whereby they set goals of learning a particular number of related characters every day. Besides, learners can read older texts and expand the kind of texts they read to including the ones written in earlier times. Finally, in reference to developing writing skills, a language learner needs to achieve good control of spellings, punctuation, and alphanumerical symbol. On developing writing skills a learner has a variety of ways to improve the skill. They can employ online communities and social networks where they can write content to be evaluated by other online friends and tutors (Stepanek & Hradilova, 2013). Using this method can help a learner to improve a great deal because of diverse opinions and suggestions from diverse people. Moreover, learners can ask their language associate to check their work for errors after they have thoroughly checked it.
Develop your Teaching Skills when you become a Language Teacher
To be a good language teacher, one needs to have confidence. Confidence plays a vital role in the performance of a language teacher. Teachers can advance
Within this paper we will take a brief look at the Language Acquisition Principles and how they work on the behalf of ELL students. We will see how these principles can be applied within our own learning environment. There is much information from Walqui article that gives a brief overview of ELL students and how things looked in the past for these students. Now that times has change we will see how educators can make the requirements for ELL students better and more effective for teacher and students. Hopefully, as we look at ways of changing learning for our ELL students we must remember that every student learns differently. Even if you follow the principles from 1-8 we must keep in mind that everyone is unique and process things within their own time table.
Students’ background will determine as well the abilities of students, parents’ level of education and origin will enhance students’ language skills or will limit them; once the students arrive at school if the teacher promotes the interaction within children through lesson activities that target the competence of language, students learn from other students. If the cultural diversity is promoted in the classroom by the educator, all the students’ cultures will be linked to the curriculum, and the language development plus a cultural enrichment will diminish the opportunity for students to fall
“Language learning is a process of developing new resources for meaning-making, and language learners need opportunities for participation in meaningful activities and interaction supported by consciousness-raising and explicit attention to language itself in all its complexity and variability” (Schleppegrell, 2013.
Teachers’ should not be held accountable if the students doesn’t succeed in learning a new language, because ELL students’ success comes also from good behavior and social emotional skills that are developed at home. (Winsler, Kim and Richard 2014) describe that the child’s skill and fluency in the first language-spoken can be an important factor in successful second language acquisition because they use aspects
A major proportion of class time is taken up by teachers talking in front of the classroom(Nunan & Bailey, 2009). No matter what teaching strategies or methods a teacher uses, it is necessary to give directions, explain activities and check students’ understanding (Richards & Schimdt, 1985). This clearly emphasizes the importance of teacher talk in language classrooms. Walsh (2011) claimed that teacher talk is more important in language classroom than any other classroom since in this context the language being used by teacher is not only the means of acquiring new knowledge; it is also the goal of the study.
In his article, “My and Misconceptions about Second Language Learning,” published in 1992, Barry McLaughlin listed five major myths and misconceptions held by the general public, or specifically by some second language teachers, as well as some contradictory viewpoints about second language learning held by different scholars. In his five main arguments, he puts specific emphases on his suggestions for second language teachers about second language teaching and learning to dispel these five myths and misconceptions. Though diverse and comprehensive, McLaughlin’s synthesis of relevant language teaching and learning studies does not provide enough
English language learners are found in every state and number of English language learners are increasing every year. These English language learners come from a range of backgrounds. There are over 470 different languages included in the categorized group of English language learners, however 75 percent of the students that will be encountered in schools will have a home language of Spanish as stated by Linan-Thompson and Vaughn (2007). There are goals for effective practice of English language learners and are based on comprehension, learning, and student interest. In earlier grade levels students are taught skills to start a foundation on, such as phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, and vocabulary. After achieving these skills it is possible to develop an English language learners literacy skills to be used in all content areas. According to August and Hakuna (1997) there are attributes that contribute to positive student outcome. These tributes include, explicit skill instruction, student directed activities, instructional strategies for enhancing understanding, opportunity to practice, student assessment, and a curriculum that is balanced. Students also learn content when the instruction is focused on routine, redundancy, and structure. Linen-Thompson and Vaughn (2007) states teachers who teach explicitly by modeling and explaining skills in the context can provide students the meta-cognitive thinking required by proficient readers.
All the people have an inquisitiveness to discover and learn different knowledge and experiences; we all have this ability to acquire knowledge and experiences through study, experience, or by being taught from the first day we born. As we grow up we have the neediness to be able to communicate with the others; consequently, we begin to develop the skills to talk catching all the words we hear around us that are important to the development of literacy. With time we are old enough to attend school, which is the place where we improve all our cognitive skills such as reading, writing, and math, but not all the people have the same know-how or capability to acquire this knowledge. In my personal experience the buildup and development of my literacy
Thus, the book answers numerous practical questions that teachers have often struggled with; for example, how to increase the chances of academic success for language learners, how to use technology to teach language effectively, or how to teach language and content material concurrently. From the preface, the author makes it very clear that the book is designed to support language teachers in their journey as new teachers and throughout their teaching careers. In total, the book contains eleven chapters, which have been divided into four parts. The first part, "What Do Language Teachers Think About?" includes topics of foreign/ second language acquisition theories and language teaching methodologies. This part introduces the background knowledge readers will need in their journey as language teachers. The second part, "How Do You Teach a Language?" introduces approaches to teaching and learning that improve students’ writing, listening, speaking and reading abilities. Each chapter in this part includes suggestions for how students can be motivated and describes teaching and testing approaches to assess students ' language skills and academic literacy. The third part, "How Do I Know What to Teach?" is instrumental in helping teachers adopt teaching practices to particular teaching settings. The fourth part, "Where Do I Go from Here?" helps teachers gain a clearer perspective of what language teaching is all about; this section also considers teacher 's self-assessment and personal
Writing and reading are two nessesary skills that I need while I am learning a new language. After I moved to the US I started to realize that speaking basic English is not enough to be successful. I did well in my first job interview using my speaking skills – I got a job! But in the first day of work I understood that I would have to change my mind from “I really want to improve my English” to “ I really need to improve my English”. Participaiting in English classes helps me with my struggles in reading and writing.
Teaching students a language that is foreign can really be challenging for students as well as for the teachers. The dynamic rule for implementing instructing in a diverse class to English-learners is to use resourceful life skills such as diligence, hard work and patience. There are also methods that are involved in teaching English as a second language that can be creative for the teacher, yet beneficial to the student. First building a strong foundation that is essential to English learners will promote the language acquisition process. To do this teacher’s should always start with preparation. Advance preparation is essential in order to provide necessary adaptations in content area instruction and to make content information accessible for second language lear...
Long, M, H. & Doughty, C, J. ( Eds.).(2009). The Handbook of Language Teaching. Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
How do children acquire language? What are the processes of language acquisition? How do infants respond to speech? Language acquisition is the process of learning a native or a second language. Although how children learn to speak is not perfectly understood, most explanations involve both the observations that children copy what they hear and the inference that human beings have a natural aptitude for understanding grammar. Children usually learn the sounds and vocabulary of their native language through imitation, (which helps them learn to pronounce words correctly), and grammar is seldom taught to them, but instead that they rapidly acquire the ability to speak grammatically. Though, not all children learn by imitation alone. Children will produce forms of language that adults never say. For example, “I spilled milk on hisself” or “Debbie wants a cookie”. This demonstrates that children have the desire to speak correctly and have self-motivating traits to communicate. This supports the theory of Noam Chomsky (1972)-that children are able to learn grammar of a particular language because all intelligible languages are founded on a deep structure of universal grammatical rules that corresponds to an innate capacity of the human brain. Adults learning a second language pass through some of the same stages, as do children learning their native language. In the first part of this paper I will describe the process of language acquisition. The second part will review how infants respond to speech.
LSRW skills are the four main components of language. Speaking skill always take the forefront whereas written English is always given the back stage in importance. From students’ point of view, written English is often a perfect collocation with homework, assignments and exams. Hence students tend to have a lethargic attitude towards any writing activity. The lack of competency to express ideas in written format makes them poor performers in exam. The lack of clarity in linking words in written form makes them stand with lack of precision regarding furnishing their Resume. The students never come on terms with the exact differentiation between formal writing and informal writing and hence are not able to impress the recruiters with a commendable written performance .Writing for a special purpose lacks among students that leaves them incapable at drafting content in a professional link that disappoints their performance The most important issue that hinders excellence in writing skill is the mother tongue influence which happens to be the reason for a complex feel among limited proficient learners to attempt to any personal writing that expresses their view and opinion. It is very important for a L2 learner to comprehend these components to attain proficiency in learning English as a second language and all the four factors are equally important. LSRW components
In most institutions of learning today, the classes are made up of students from different ethnic backgrounds. These have different traditions and also speak different languages. In a typical classroom, the majority of the students will speak the same language. The teacher must then employ strategies which will accommodate all the students in the class. This will ensure that every learner gets the best quality of education. This will enable them to be better prepared for career and expressing themselves. In this paper, strategies to assist learners of the English language in their literal development for third grade learners. In the paper, three strategies that can be used by the teacher will be discussed. New strategies and research that will help the English language learners to gain in depth mastery of the language will also be discussed. Due to the widespread learning of the English language in most schools, addressing issues of the language learners is of vital importance. Teachers should have the understanding that cultures are what give someone identity and therefore no student should leave their culture for another. Instead, there should be the blending of different cultures so that students can appreciate and learn from each other.