CHAPTER 6 – Organizing Language Lessons

CHAPTER 7 – Understanding and Teaching Language

1. Describe the types of scaffolds for English language learners.

According to Maggioli & Farrell scaffolding is a form of intentional and meaningful

mediation of learning oriented at transferring control of the activity over to the
students, so that by learning today, they are better equipped to continue developing
tomorrow. Types are:

 Modeling, in which learners are able to see or hear what a demonstration of

the expected performance looks like.
 Bridging, in which the teacher scaffolds to make sure that new understandings
are firmly built upon students’ previous understandings.
 Contextualizing, in which the teacher is involved in fleshing out new concepts
by making explicit connections between these and the learners’ current
understandings.
 Schema building, in which the teacher organizes knowledge and
understanding around schemata (a kind of mental-mind map-schema) of
meaning that are interconnected.
 Re-presenting, in which the teacher resorts to alternate among different genres
in order to help learners make sense of events or information.
 Developing metacognition, which refers to the ability to plan, monitor and
evaluate one’s own understanding, so that one is aware of how adequate that
understanding is.

2. According to Larsen-Freeman, what is grammaring?

Grammaring refers to the ability to use grammar structures accurately, meaningfully,

and appropriately as the proper goal of grammar instruction. The addition of “-ing” to
grammar is meant to suggest a dynamic process of grammar using.

3. Explain the semantic and syntactic relationships among words. Use your own words.

According to Merriam-Webster: Semantic is a branch of linguistics and logic concerned

with meaning whereas syntax is related to the arrangement of words and phrases to
create well-formed sentences in a language. Both terms are interrelated and present in a
well-formed sentence.

For example, “The boy lays on his bed”. In which the word <boy> semantically states that
it is a human, a male-child human which is a boy, and <… lays on his bed> syntactically
tell us about the organization of the words in the sentence. In other words, it states that the
boy is laying down on his bed, he is not outside or at school, he is on his bed laying down,
probably in his home or an unspecified house or place. While semantics tell us about the
meaning of the noun included in a sentence, syntax tell us about a well-formed structure of
language used.

4. Explain Richards and Lockhart’s language lesson organization.

Richards and Lockhart (1994) describe language lessons as speech events that have
a particular organization: Openings, Sequencing, Pacing, and Closure.

Openings: it can be also known as a Warm up activity in which the teacher

“introduces” the new topic to students, so they can naturally find out what the class is
going to be about.

Sequencing: it can be also known as the teaching cycle, in which the teacher
“teaches” the topic to students. Activities plays an important role here as they shape
up the lesson organization.

Pacing: it can be also known as the transition and time related to an activity among
others. The more organized based on logical sequence and difficult to students, the
better smoother the class will like to students. So they fell that the class is running
naturally without any types of gaps or interruptions.

Closing: it can be also known as the wrap up in which the class review what they
learned, this can be done by providing feedback after any activity or by briefly telling
what the class was about.

5. Make a mind map explaining the Scrivener’s steps for deciding what grammar to
teach.

6. According to Jane Willis, what are the four conditions that lead to language learning?

These four conditions are related to the steps involved in a teaching cycle. The four
conditions that lead to language learning are a) Focused instructions (presentation) b)
Guided instruction (controlled practice) c) Collaborative learning (grouped learning)
and d) Independent learning (individual practice)

7. Explain Fisher and Frey’s framework for teaching and learning activities and each kind
of instruction mentioned in it.

Fisher and Frey (2014) provide one such framework for teaching and learning
activities organized around four key forms of interaction. a) Focused instruction b)
Guided instruction c) Collaborative learning d) Independent learning

Again, this is widely related to the steps involved in the teaching cycle.
 Focused instruction: The teacher “teaches” the class by presenting the topic to
students and explaining how a specific model or topic works or it is defined. Also
about the purpose and function of the topic or model in a real application. For
example: teaching Greetings, what a greeting is, what types of greetings exist, how
we use, and when do we use a specific greeting.

Guided instruction: The teacher organizes the class into groups by skills, numbers or
any other type of criteria. Students are asked to perform an exercise or to work in
class aided by the teacher, so in this step students and teacher are active agents of
the learning process.

Collaborative learning: Here, the process is similar to guided instruction but the
teacher plays a less active roll by letting their students to work by themselves either in
pairs or groups.

Independent learning: In this step, students become independents, they are asked to
work by themselves to put in practice what they learned, this can be done by doing a
project or a homework mostly associated to real contexts and authentic environments
(real life usage of language)

8. How can you connect the framework for teaching proposed by Fisher and Frey to the
notion of scaffolding you studied in the book?

This can be done in the planning stage of a lesson plan. As I said before what Fisher
and Frey proposed it is closely related to the teaching cycle or steps to follow when
designing a lesson plan. Thus, Fisher and Frey’s framework can be connected with
activities and decisions made to create the best opportunities and conditions for our
students to learn, which are basically the notion of scaffolding to foster their learning.

9. Explain how grammaticality surfaces in children’s speech. Use your own words.
By grammaticality in children’s speech it can be said that children from the age of one,
they have little knowledge of vocabulary to express several feelings or needs. It is the
interaction of parents or caretakers that make possible to communicate with them.
Although they can be newer in the language, with less than two words they are able to
communicate themselves, this can be seen in the babbling stage in which they can
barely pronounce a word but they can still communicate with others.

10. Make a mind map explaining the main issues involved in English pronunciation. Give
examples to support each issue (DO NOT USE THE EXAMPLES GIVEN IN THE
BOOK). This item is mandatory.

Extra question = Extra points

11. Explain the difference between focus on form and focus on forms.

 You must answer at least NINE questions. Item number 10 is mandatory.

 Write your answers in a Word document on Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman. Font
size 11. Then submit your document to Schoology.