Communicative classroom

What is the purpose of learning English?

•           To be able to communicate with person from another different country.
•          Preparation for holidays abroad and future jobs.
•           Read idols as well as internet newspaper
•           Understand English songs

What characterizes a good language learner?

-          Someone motivated and who want to learn.

-          Someone that doesn't give up, although he/she make mistakes.

-          Someone that does the best of itself.

-          Someone that feels comfortable and confident in the classroom.

Key components of communicative language ability

·         Fluency: you can manage communication with other English speakers. Communciate and understand with ease and rapidity. When you speak like a native speaker.

·         Linguistic competence: knowing about grammar, or formal aspects of English language.  The learner can analyse and translate sentences of the foreign language. Be able to realize and see structures and patterns related to the L1 (metalinguistic awareness).  It comprises the basic elements of communication. Aspects as : vocabulary, pronunciation, spelling,etc.

·         Pragmatic competence: to be able to adapt the language into suitable social contexts or situations. Using the language appropriately according to different contexts. Being able to understand messages ( based on, for instance, content, intonation).Understanding levels of formality politeness, etc.

·         Discourse competence:  understanding dialogues, monologues, conversation. Use the language in spoked written discourses.

·         Strategic competence: the aim is to avoid misunderstandings, realize you are been understood by using: body-language , paraphrasing, simplify language, slow-down when you are talking, pronounce words clearly.

Examples of activities in a communicative classroom

 What goes on in a communicative classroom?

•          Open-minded
•          Deals with what semms relevant( materials, news, etc), and useful for the student.
•          Practical/ real- life activities
•          Errors are tolerated or ignored.
•          Speaking , emphasized on meaning, not form ( grammar).
•          Positive atmosphere
•          Teacher are advisors or facilitators of knowledge.
•          Lots of pair work, group work : space is needed.
•          Cooperation is important : use the language, aids learning.

We do a reasoning gap activity. Firstly, in groups of 4 people, we have to explain what is going on in each picture

Aim: to describe pictures. Listening, creative skill

Opinion gap activity

We make a dynamic role-play which is to act like you're someone different article to which you are. It is a good activity to do it with kids because:

-          As the work is carried out in small groups, students will feel more confident about talking.

-          Small group lets children feel more confident when they are speaking English.

-          Children could be find fun and motivating.

-          Children could see that English language is useful, because they can use it in a informal or practical way.

-           Children speaks with other classmates, who have the same age and English level more o less.

-          The most important aim of the teacher role, as a knowledge facilitator, is make sure that children are speaking English, although they could say some words in their native language.

Nevertheless, there are some disadvantages:

o   It is not certain that children talks in English if there isn’t any person control the dynamic. So, for this reason, could be a good way if the teacher manage the task, but preferably in small group.

o   The first few times doing this dynamic might be a little difficult for students, perhaps because they are not get  to used to do these such activities.

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.

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.