CELTA - Written Assignment 3: Language Skills Related Tasks
CIRA FERNNDEZ SNCEZ
Designing a re!e"ti#e$"r%du!ti#e skills less%n which you will then teach In the second or third stage of the course you are required to plan and teach a reading or listening lesson. For this you must find a text yourself which is appropriate for the level of your class. This can be from a course book, from supplementary materials, or from authentic sources like the internet. You will need to decide how to use it with your group of Teaching ractice students to give them a receptive and productive skills lesson of !" or #$ minutes in length. %s for all final lessons, you must submit a full lesson plan and stage plan. %s well as this, you must fill in the following assignment which should demonstrate to us that you have a clear understanding of receptive skills procedures and activities. N&: &emember, this is a '(I))' lesson * you are +,T using the text to introduce a discrete item of language -such as grammar or a lexical set.. /ocabulary0 in order to help students understand the text, you may need to design an activity to help with certain words or phrases. The idea of this, though, is +,T to teach this vocabulary and later practise using it, but simply to aid the students1 receptive understanding of the text. Think about when and how to do this most effectively. '%!a(ular) is neit*er )%ur main n%r su(sidiar) aim+ You may only edit a text you choose by 23TTI+4 ,3T '52TI,+'. You must not rewrite, reword or simplify the text. If you choose a course book text, you cannot simply use the course book activities which come with the text. You need to design your own activities. ost6reading activities must include productive skills i.e. writing or speaking. 7o some reading about receptive8productive skills activities in 9armer -The ractice of 5nglish )anguage Teaching: 9ow to teach 5nglish., 'crivener -)earning Teaching. or another general 5)T methodology book. ,%ur assignment s*%uld s*%- e#iden!e %.$make re.eren!e t% t*is reading e+g+ in!lude a .e- /u%tes$ make re.eren!e t% t*ese (%%ks in s%me -a)+ At t*e latest0 )%u s*%uld *and t*e assignment in at t*e (eginning %. t*e a!tual less%n. You can hand it in before if you have finished it. -;"$6<$$$ words. ASSESS1ENT CRITERIA: Successful candidates can show evidence of: Correctly using terminology that relates to language skills and sub-skills Relating task design to language skills development Finding, selecting and referencing information from one or more sources using written language that is clear, accurate and appropriate for the task CELTA - Written Assignment 3: Language Skills Related Tasks Rati%nale .%r !*%%sing t*is te2t I chose an authentic text because it is a way of giving 's more exposure to the )=. In particular I chose a traveller>s blog because the topic is one which 's can easily link to their own lives and experiences and because the main aim is to motivate them and engage them in oral interaction by the end of the lesson. 5ven though, at the beginning, I thought an authentic text of this kind would be too challenging for intermediate 's, I soon realised that it could be a good choice for several reasons0 ?4etting students accustomed to reading authentic texts from the very beginning does not necessarily mean a much more difficult task on their part. The difficulty of a reading exercise depends on the activity which is required of the students rather than on the text itself, provided it remains within their general competence. In other words, one should grade exercises rather than texts? -4rellet, <@A<0 ;6A.. %ccordingly, I graded the tasks and suited them to the 's> level of competence instead of choosing a simplified text. I think blogs present 's with real life contents and expressions, that is, the kind of language they will encounter outside the classroom. Blogs are easy to read in terms of content and structure -their main function is descriptive. and there are many different topics to choose from -travel, cooking, literature, movies, music, etc... In conclusion, as an 5)T professional, I will definitely use authentic texts as much as I can and retain much of their presentation and layout because they are important features which can also help 's anticipate meaning. Rati%nale .%r "re-reading$listening a!ti#ities and su(-skills re6reading activities are key to get 's involved and interested in the topic. %ccording to 'crivener -=$$"., there are two main types of pre6text activities0 introduction and lead6in and first task -pre6reading.. The main aims of introduction and lead6in activities are to provide an initial discussion of key themes, make an explicit link between the topic of the text and the 's> own lives and experiences, or focus on important language that will come in the text. %s first tasks, 's can predict from some extracted information -illustration, key words, headlines, etc.. read questions about the text, or even composing their own questions. For my lesson plan, I have designed three types of activities which ?move from >big> to >small>, i.e. >top6down> 6from overview to details? -'crivener, =$$"0 <A;.. The first is predicting the topic of the text by showing 's some pictures. It is a fast and effective way of making 's anticipate the topic of the text and start to activate their schemata. %nticipation and motivation go hand in hand and are of the utmost importance0
?This >expectation> is inherent in the process of reading which is a permanent interrelationship between the reader and the text. Chat we already know about the subDect and what we are looking for are probably Dust as important as what we actually draw from the text? -4rellet, <@A<0<A.. The second task is aimed at developing 's> skimming skills. They have to go through the reading material quickly in order to identify the type of text and its communicative function. Becoming familiar with the structure and organisation of texts and their purpose will help 's understand the text much better. CELTA - Written Assignment 3: Language Skills Related Tasks Rati%nale .%r during-reading$listening a!ti#ities and su(-skills %s for during6reading activities, I chose three tasks. In the first task, 's have to put different headlines in their right place in the text. I designed this task to promote 's> skimming skills and gist reading and to make them more familiar with the structure of the text and its logical organisation. The second task is a vocabulary task in which 's match blocking lexis selected from the text with their definitions or synonyms. This task is aimed at helping 's with difficult vocabulary so that they can do better in the detail comprehension task that comes later on. Finally, the detailed comprehension task is a multiple choice activity to check 's more detailed understanding of the text. %ccording to 'crivener -=$$"., while6reading tasks focus on fast reading for gist and then move on to focus on fast reading for specific details -scanning., and that is precisely the intention behind the selected tasks in this stage. Rati%nale .%r "%st-reading$listening a!ti#ities and skills %s a post6reading activity I chose an oral activity, a pair interview. 's have to ask their partners some questions connected to the topic of the text and record their answers for later retelling. This is a good way of linking the topic of the lesson with the 's> own lives and personal experiences and a way of encouraging them to move on to a more productive and creative stage. The fact of making 's retell their partners> experiences can be very positive because it will make them pay even more attention to the language and perhaps it will give them a chance for peer correction. &I&LI34RA5, 4rellet, F. -<@A<.. Developing Reading Skills. 2ambrige0 23 9armer, E. -=$$;.. he !ractice of "nglish #anguage eaching. earson )ongman 'crivener, E. -=$$".. #earning eaching. $ guidebook for "nglish language teachers% Facmillan