Some examples of activities to do with the videos

We think that it could be a good idea to create several activity about the previous video :

If  the pupils aren’t from the same country, we can do:

• As teachers we can provide cultural insight before is shown in order to prepare pupils. Later they can   recognize the main characters.

• Pupils could bring some objects from their home.

• A imitating-activity, for example if the video is a dance , pupils can imitate the dancing way. It could be a introduction step, later on the teacher can explain the reason of the dancing.

•    For example,  we can plan some theme week about festivals or parties that are very known in their home country.  This could comprised  tasks devoted to understand other cultures.

•   Reflection on similarities and difference , play some of the  characters in the video.

•   A journalist ask a characters from  the video why is they did something.

Showing Spanish culture through a video

Last Monday, in our Democratic Citizenship lesson, our teacher asks us to find a video which shows something about our culture. So I decided to choose one which shows what happened the 23-F in Spain.

Firstly, before watching the video, you should know that the 23-F was an attempted coup d'état in Spain that began on 23 February 1981 and ended on the following day. It is also known as El Tejerazo from the name of its most visible figure, Antonio Tejero, who led the failed coup's most notable event: the bursting into the Spanish Congress of Deputies by a group of 200 armed officers of the Guardia Civil during the process of electing Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo to be the country's new Prime Minister. King Juan Carlos I gave a nationally televised address denouncing the coup and urging the maintenance of law and the continuance of the democratically elected government. The coup soon collapsed. After holding the Parliament and cabinet hostage for 18 hours the hostage-takers surrendered the next morning without having harmed anyone.

Once you have read the above information I would also like to tell you that the following video is about a musical playd by some actors in a very famous Spanish entertainment program, called "El Hormiguero". Although it is in Spanish, you can understand what is happening because of the show. It starts in the minute 00:58, I hope you enjoy and learn something about it.

Testing methods

In this activity , each country group has to design an activity destined to other country group.  In the Spanish group we have to do a task for ITE group ( Italian and French). We did  this following framework:

Testing methods
Name of the activity	“Yo meto en mi maleta”
Level	Beginners
Duration	10-15 min
Materials needed	We do not need any materials.
Skills trained (e.g. listening, speaking, reading, writing, communicating)	·         Memory ·         Listening ·         Speaking
Class organisation (e.g. pair work, group work, etc.)	Two big groups.
Procedure Please explain in as much detail as possible	The class is arranged in two sitting circles. Firstly, the teacher says “I put into my suitcase a pencil”. Then, the next pupil must add another object to the sentence mentioning also the one which was said before. For instance: “I put into my suitcase a pencil and a rubber”. In case they do not know how to say something in Spanish they can say it in English and the teacher will translate it. So they will learn new vocabulary and through repetition.
Variation How can the activity be adapted to more skilled/less skilled pupils?	To adapt the activity to more skilled pupils we can say more complex sentences as well as non sense ones, which are more difficult to remember. For instance: “I bring my umbrella for not to be cold”.
Didactical considerations What are the learning objectives (which linguistic forms do you teach)?	·         Learn grammar in an implicit way. ·         Learn vocabulary. ·         Develop listening skills. ·         Train the memory.
Made by  Ana, Carmen and Paula.

Afterwards,  we answered this questions:

 Were the two activities successful learning activities? Why?

Yes , because they learn some easy words related to objects or food.

What type of learner is the AL useful method for? And TPR?

We consider that in this case that it was easier than with others students, because  Italian and French is quite similar to Spanish. Our method ( AL) is destined to students who have a slightly more advance level that a beginner level, because you have to repeat and say what you listen.  In this case, we did gestures and repeating words. And we regard that TPR method is better for a easier level  because the teacher as well as students  used dynamic activity by using moves and body.

 What are the pros and cons of the two methods respectively?

Audio-Lingual method :  

             -  Pros . This method is a good way of learning  in order to improve your listening and memorizing skills because you have to be able to memorize what others said, and also to listen carefully.  Is a good option, if your aim is that pupils learn the names of objects that students can recognize and touch.

             -  Cons.  Perhaps, it could be more complex speaking and repeating words that you don’t even see. We think that it would be better for students if they write the word in a paper in order to be capable of remembering better.  A drawback could be that the pupils is not treated as an individual, the teacher doesn’t give him a personalized attention. 


Total Physical Response (TPR):

        - Pro.  In the case of young learners it could be the best choice to start a learning language because pupils learn by doing, they can associate words with body moves. In this way, they can learning by memorizing moves , and it is very useful for children that they cannot focus on task easily. For instance, using this kind of learning method the teacher can teach pupils basic words, not long sentence. It is based on what we know about L1 acquisition. It is motivating, fun for children. Krashen : “ silence period” , because the pupils feel that they just are listening not speaking. The “silence period” is is a stage in second language acquisition where learners do not attempt to speak. Silent periods are more common in children than in adult learners, as there is often more pressure on adult learners to speak during the early stages of acquisition.

       -  Cons.  As teachers you are limited due you can just use this method in a way, but when you want that your pupils learn about real social communication or how to keep a dialogue between persons it is much better if pupils learn through other methods.  It is based in commands, so the children has to know what means the sentence that the teacher is saying.




  Which language acquisition theory/theories in the AL  method used on and which ways? And TPR?

          -   AL is related to behaviorism
          -    TPR is linked with Krashen’s monitor model : is about receiving inputs. You make sure that it is the same level by making gestures. Because you have to ask pupil what they have to do, if they have to clap, or whatever. But if we are talking about correction, we could say that there is a immediately feedback because the teacher corrects pupils as the same time that pupils makes the error.



 Teaching a foreign language to young pupils in the very beginning of learning language procedure is quite complex, because students cannot understand when you are talking,  it is hard to carry out. So, for this reason, we think that the native language of these pupils can be used just sometimes, otherwise the lesson don't make sense.

Questionnaire

This is our questionnaire. We have been in Copenhagen on 2th November with other pupils and our teacher. Firstly, we have looked for the danish restaurants and cafes. And then, we have asked our questions to 10 people including 5 female and 5 male. You can also find the answers below the question part.

Questions

1. You have lunch between:
a. 11:00 - 12:00
b. 12:00-13.00
c. 13:00-14:00

2. Do you snack between meals:
a. Usually
b. Sometimes
c. Never

3. What is your most important meal?
a. Breakfast
b. Lunch
c. Dinner

4. How many times do you eat in a day?
a. Two
b. Three
c. More than three

5. You have dinner between :
a. 16:00-18:00
b. 18.00- 20:00
c. 20:00- 22:00

6. How often do you eat outside?
a. Once a month
b. Once a week
c. Several times a week

7. How often do you eat [[#|foreign]] food? What‘s your favorite one?
a. Usually
b. Sometimes
c. Never/Rarely

8. Do you prefer eating organic food rather inorganic?
a. Yes
b. No
c. I don’t mind

9. How often do you eat fast food?
a. Usually
b. Sometimes
c. Never/Rarely

10. What is the food you eat mostly? 

	F/M	<30	>30	a					b					c
1				1	2	3	4	5	1	2	3	4	5	1	2	3	4	5
				6	7	8	9	10	6	7	8	9	10	6	7	8	9	10
2				1	2	3	4	5	1	2	3	4	5	1	2	3	4	5
				6	7	8	9	10	6	7	8	9	10	6	7	8	9	10
3				1	2	3	4	5	1	2	3	4	5	1	2	3	4	5
				6	7	8	9	10	6	7	8	9	10	6	7	8	9	10
4				1	2	3	4	5	1	2	3	4	5	1	2	3	4	5
				6	7	8	9	10	6	7	8	9	10	6	7	8	9	10
5				1	2	3	4	5	1	2	3	4	5	1	2	3	4	5
				6	7	8	9	10	6	7	8	9	10	6	7	8	9	10
6				1	2	3	4	5	1	2	3	4	5	1	2	3	4	5
				6	7	8	9	10	6	7	8	9	10	6	7	8	9	10
7				1	2	3	4	5	1	2	3	4	5	1	2	3	4	5
				6	7	8	9	10	6	7	8	9	10	6	7	8	9	10
8				1	2	3	4	5	1	2	3	4	5	1	2	3	4	5
				6	7	8	9	10	6	7	8	9	10	6	7	8	9	10
9				1	2	3	4	5	1	2	3	4	5	1	2	3	4	5
				6	7	8	9	10	6	7	8	9	10	6	7	8	9	10
10				1	2	3	4	5	1	2	3	4	5	1	2	3	4	5
				6	7	8	9	10	6	7	8	9	10	6	7	8	9	10

Statistics

Question1. You have lunch between:
a. 11:00 – 12:00
b. 12:00 – 13:00
c. 13:00 - 14:00



Question 2.Do you snack between meals:
a. Usually
b. Sometimes
c. Never




Question 3. What is your most important meal:
a. Breakfast
b. Lunch
c. Dinner





Question 4. How many times do you eat in a day?
a. Two
b. Three
c. More than tree

Question 5. Have you dinner between:

a. 16.00 – 18:00

b. 18:00 – 20:00

c. 20:00 – 22:00

Question 6. How often do you eat outside?
a. Once a month
b. Once a week
c. Several times a week

Question 7. How often do you eat food? And what is your favorite one?
a. Usually
b. Sometimes
c. Never / Rarely





Here there are the answers given in the second part of question:

Arabian
Indian (this answer is given twice)
Italian
Japanese (this answer is given twice)
Turkish
Chinese
Thai food

Question 8. Dou you prefer eating organic food rather than inorganic?
a. Yes
b. No
c. I don’t mind

Question 9. How often do you eat fast food?

a. Usually

b. Sometimes

c. Never / rarely

Question 10. What is the food you eat mostly?


Pasta (seven people gave the same answer)
Bread and vegetables
Vegetables ( two people gave the same answer.)
Black bread
Meat and vegetables

CONCLUSIONS:
We have asked this questionnaire to ten people and what we have found out is that:

-The most of them prefer having lunch between 12:00-13:00.
-Most of them usually snack between meals.
-The 90% of females think that the most important meal is breakfast and males give more importance to lunch and dinner.
-Every woman eats more than three times in a day and most of the men prefer eating just three or less times.
-Almost the 100% of those polled agree about having dinner between 18:00 and 20:00.
-In relation with question 6, all of females eat outside once a month. However, males have different opinions, as some of them do it once a week.
-The majority of over thirty people eat foreign food sometimes and in reference with the youngest ones there is the same percentage who eat it usually and sometimes.
-Moreover, the foreign food they prefer most are the Indian and the Japanese ones.
-All of the people, regardless the age or the gender prefer organic food.
-Almost of all the people we polled eat fast food sometimes.
-Pasta and vegetables are the most common food that these Danish people eat.

In summary, from our point of view, in general, Danish food habits are healthier than ours (Turkish and Spanish), as they have breakfast so early because they also get up in the first light of the day. Moreover, they also have dinner sooner and go to bed earlier than us; prefer eating organic rather than inorganic food; they eat a lot of vegetables and not so much fast food; and they eat a lot of times in a day.

Krashen´s monitor model

Krashen´s monitor model

This task consists of inventing a situation about six Krashen’s hypothesis.

The teacher brings English native pupils to the class and ask them to work with her own ones. The task consists of making a meal together separated in couples in which there are one native and one non native pupil. They non native pupils will have to use the already known grammar so they will be using the natural order hypothesis. Moreover, as it is done in a natural learning environment they will acquire the language, it will be related to the acquisition learning hypothesis. Furthermore, we consider that as they will work with pupils of the same age and also in small groups they will feel more confident to talk each other, and this is an example of the affective filter hypothesis. The most complicated hypothesis to carry out in this situation is the input one as it is very difficult to make sure that all the children are competent enough to overcome this situation. The following day the teacher does an assessment in order to check what her pupils have learnt; these ones will ask doubts about vocabulary and all together will look for it in the dictionary. In this way they will be working on the monitor hypothesis.

By Ana Gutiérrez and Paula Montes

Behavorist approach

Behavorist approach

We, as future teachers, think that in order our pupils make a complete immersion in the English language they have to talk in English as much as possible. So, the teacher, as the main responsible of the class, has to encourage it. Following Skinner´s theory, teacher could make their pupils learn through positive and negative reinforcement. For instance, in case that a child wants to ask for something, that pupil will have to do it by using English instead of his/her mother tongue. Otherwise, the teacher will pretend not to understand him/her. Once he/she has asked for it in English that pupil will have achieved his/her aim.

As an example, if a child ask if he/she can go to the toilet in his/her mother tongue, the teacher will say “Sorry, I do not understand”, which is a negative reinforcement. But if on the contrary, he /she says “Can I go to the toilet?”, the teacher will say “Yes, you can”. As we can see in this example, when the teacher lets the child going to the toilet this is a kind of positive reinforcement because the child has behaved as he/she was expected to do it. By this way, the pupil will understand that unless he/she talks in English, he /she will not get his/her objective.