Chapter I. The importance of language teaching


CHAPTER II.USING VARIOUS WAYS LEARNING SKILLS



Yüklə 255,66 Kb.
Pdf görüntüsü
səhifə7/11
tarix16.05.2023
ölçüsü255,66 Kb.
#114177
1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11
Ефннщк

CHAPTER II.USING VARIOUS WAYS LEARNING SKILLS 
 
2.1. Language Proficiency 
In terms of language proficiency levels, a score of 500 or more would typically 
be considered intermediate to advanced. At this level, a person would be able to 
understand and communicate effectively in a variety of everyday situations, as well 
as express opinions and ideas on more complex topics. 
For example, someone with A2 level proficiency might be able to hold a 
conversation about their hobbies or describe their daily routine. They could also read 
simple texts such as news articles or short stories. However, they may struggle with 
more technical or abstract concepts that require specialized vocabulary. In the 
English classrooms also, the language teachers have to train the learners in such a 
way that they have to face the interview with positive attitude and self-confidence. 
Hence, the language teachers’ role is very crucial in developing the learners’ 
language teaching as these skills play an important part in an interview. The teachers 
should train the learners properly so that they will never fail in facing the interviews. 
Moreover, the teachers should remind their learners that body language plays a 
major role in an interview and the learners are suggested some useful tips to 
overcome this problem.
Presentations Nowadays, giving a ‘presentation’ has become a daunting and 
even frightening situation for job aspirants. To become an eloquent speaker, one 
should know how to present his or her speech to the audience. Here everything 
matters. One should prepare his or her presentation with more enthusiasm, tons of 
useful content, proprietary and unique data and plenty of jokes in order to make his 
presentation lively and realistic. The English teachers should train their learners well 
to prepare them to give presentations in the English classrooms. For this purpose, 


23 
the language teachers should teach their learners the necessary ways to improve their 
presentation skills
12
.
The teachers have to teach some tips like practising it multiple times, arriving 
early to the place, attending other presentations, taking deep breaths, adjusting to the 
surroundings, keeping their faces always smiling, using positive visualization, using 
only the important, insightful, useful and actionable information, engaging the 
audience actively and entertaining them through the presentation and so on.
King states, “Oral presentations have been shown to help bridge the gap 
between language study and language use; that presentations require students to use 
all four language skills in a naturally integrated way; and that presentations have 
been shown to encourage students to become active and autonomous learners”. 
There are many advantages of using oral presentations in the modern English 
classrooms such as learner-centred, provide the learners with realistic language 
tasks, improves learners’ motivation, enhances outside classroom learning, usage of 
all the four language skills effectively, and so on.
It is the responsibility of the language teachers to motivate the learners to 
prepare themselves for presentations without any hesitation or phobia. As these 
presentations have become the essential part of their future career, the English 
learners should acquire these skills in order to sustain in their positions or get better 
opportunities for their bright career. Therefore, it is evident that the learners should 
be trained in language teaching by English language teachers, adopting various 
techniques and activities in the classrooms. In fact, such activities and techniques 
boost the learners’ confidence, help them acquire language teaching and eventually 
lead them to expose themselves to the external world in the process of seizing 
opportunities for their successful career. 
Speaking is a fundamental language skill. It is the primary way in which we 
communicate information. When we ask how well we can function in a second 
12
"Teaching English Through Drama: How to Use Drama and Play-Based Activities to Teach English" 
by Suzi Bewell and Sarah Phillips, 2009, p-20 


24 
language, we ask the question “how well do you speak…?”, so it is the ability to 
speak well which best represents our proficiency in another language. 
As teachers, however, we must be mindful that speaking involves more than 
simply using words to articulate what we are thinking, and there is more at play than 
simply asking students to say the words that they know. 
Being a ‘good speaker’ requires a range of skills beyond accurate grammar, 
vocabulary and pronunciation, though these are the basic building blocks that enable 
a message to be understood. An effective communicator chooses the words they use, 
and the way in which they speak to different people in different situations, whether 
that is ordering a sandwich at a snack bar or giving a keynote speech at an academic 
event. The skills involved in how we interact with others in different ways are called 
communicative competencies: teachable skills which frame the language used in 
interaction in different settings. 
Speaking as a language skill involves these competencies much more than it 
requires accuracy of language, so when we talk about ‘teaching speaking’, we are 
talking about something different from grammar or vocabulary practice. 
Speaking can be used to practice new language (as is common in question-
answer tasks or role-plays held after specific language instruction, but this kind of 
activity may not teach the skill of speaking itself. Just as we can instruct, present and 
practice specific grammar features to students, the component competencies which 
make up speaking as a pure language skill can also be broken down and presented 
systematically
13

Notice that none of these sub-skills make specific reference to grammar, 
vocabulary or pronunciation, though obviously these are necessary for students to 
communicate what they want to say. In order to bring the focus onto these 
competencies, it is therefore advisable to lead speaking tasks on topics that are 
familiar to students, and using language that is within their ability. Taking the strain 
13
"Engaging Ideas: The Professor's Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning 
in the Classroom" by John C. Bean, 2011, p-43


25 
of new language out of speaking activities allows students to focus on the pure sub-
skills listed above. 
This is similar to the way in which native speakers are ‘trained’ for public 
speaking or assertiveness in social situations: as native speakers, they are 
comfortable with the structure of their own language, but want to develop other skills 
which go along with that. 
Many of these features of speaking fall into the category of discourse – the 
organization and style of a message as it is delivered in different situations. When 
teaching speaking in a given context, think about how people actually speak in that 
situation. Find recordings of people interacting in restaurants, banks, or wherever 
your lesson will be set, and think about the functional steps of the interaction as it 
happens. 
You will probably find that most interaction that you listen to is quite 
formulaic and predictable, so can be used as a structure for the dialogues that you 
present and practice in class, only with the organization and ordering of the speech 
as the focus of the class rather than the specific language used. Taking an opposite 
approach, think of situations where the above list of competencies is common. 
For example: we often use circumlocution when we are talking about 
complex, technical subjects, like when we describe a problem we are having with a 
gas cooker, car engine or plumbing; we may not know the exact name of the part 
which is not working, but we can still communicate it to a gas fitter, mechanic or 
plumber. This is a useful life skill, and one which can be used to harness second-
language speaking for language learners. 
Again, as with grammar and vocabulary, we can incorporate these target 
competencies into standard formats of lessons – we can present the feature of speech 
through an audio or video task, and then ask students to practice applying the feature 
in a restricted task. 
Gapped dialogues, ordering lines in a script, or choosing the best alternative 
from three different responses in a conversation, for example. Again, as long as the 
learners are playing with language they already know, their ‘discourse brains’ will 


26 
be more engaged and they will have more focus on the competencies they are 
learning. 
Free speaking tasks should be exactly that: student-student interaction which 
does not have too many limitations. Give students a topic or situation and ask them 
to script out a typical interaction in that situation. Assign roles to different students, 
so that they can practice speaking to different ‘people’, and see how they flex their 
ideas when talking to their boss as compared to their 7-year-old daughter. This will 
open up the features they are learning in application to different types of speech
14

Finally, be aware that although your learners have been focusing on these 
great features of spoken communication, they have not yet had the opportunity to 
fully apply these until they have spoken totally freely, without a script, or notes to 
work from (after all, native speakers don’t carry scripts around with them to use in 
sandwich bars, though they do have an ‘expected script’ in their mind which informs 
their use of language), by participating in a speaking event with another student or 
students. 
The same dialogue that was used in free practice can be repeated, though with 
different participants to ensure spontaneity and flexibility with language. Only then 
can you say that students have truly applied what they are learning by the end of the 
class. 
In this paper, an attempt has been made to bring out various techniques and 
activities to teach language teaching in the English language classrooms. The 
activities that are done by the learners in English classrooms yield positive results in 
the process of learning language teaching . The emphasis is on the interaction 
between the teacher and learner in the English language classrooms. The importance 
of language teaching for a successful and bright career has been highlighted in this 
research paper. Hence the English language teachers are expected to implement all 
the above illustrated techniques and activities in their classrooms in order to develop 
the language teaching of the learners.
14
"Teaching Speaking: A Holistic Approach" by Anne Burns and Jill Burton, 2010,p-56


27 
There is no hard and fast rule to apply all these methods, but better results will 
be expected if they involve the learners in various speaking activities. Instead of 
adopting one or two techniques, applying a wide range of techniques makes the 
learners shift from the normal routine and as a result, they participate in various 
activities very actively with more energetically and enthusiastically. As there is no 
hope of getting a right job for the academic qualifications, there is a need for the 
future job aspirants to acquire good language teaching . Therefore, the language 
teachers have to understand the real situation and train the learners in getting good 
command over the language teaching as these skills are very much useful for their 
survival in this the global competitive job market.
Since the importance of language teaching has been recognized rightly in this 
competitive job market and business world, there is a need for a drastic change in 
the attitude of learners to prepare themselves for their bright career. In order to teach 
language teaching effectively, the teachers should go through the recent trends in 
the English language teaching and undergo training to acquire the latest techniques 
and approaches and introduce various activities in their classrooms in order to make 
the learners more proficient and skilful in their language teaching . 
Speaking is the process of building and sharing thoughts and ideas through 
the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts. Adequate 
language teaching contribute to successful communication process. Communication 
is one of the most important skills for students in learning English. It implies 
exchanging opinions, information, notions of social, cultural and political aspects of 
everyday life. But communication, moreover, includes a surprised face, a smile, a 
nervous movement, etc. The world around us is the world of communication in 
various spheres. Therefore, speaking is a crucial part of foreign language learning 
and teaching. Despite its importance, for many years, teaching speaking has been 
undervalued and English language teachers have continued to teach speaking just as 
a repetition of drills or memorization of dialogues. At language lessons, the only 
means of communication have traditionally been textbooks and the lecturing teacher 


28 
who has been the source of information. Hence, this communication is under control 
rather than free. 
However, today's world requires that the goal of teaching speaking should 
improve students' communicative skills, because, only in that way, students can 
express themselves and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriate 
in each communicative circumstance. In this case, the purpose of the teacher is to 
transform the communication with students to a pleasant, attractive and emotional 
lesson. Real communication is always informative, unpredictable, and unexpected. 
In order to teach real and meaningful communication in the class, the teacher must 
apply different ways to their teaching and, therefore, the communicative 
approach which is one of the most effective and widely used methods to teach 
English nowadays. The communicative approach has been applied in many countries 
in the world. This has brought positive effects on teaching English
15


Yüklə 255,66 Kb.

Dostları ilə paylaş:
1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11




Verilənlər bazası müəlliflik hüququ ilə müdafiə olunur ©azkurs.org 2024
rəhbərliyinə müraciət

gir | qeydiyyatdan keç
    Ana səhifə


yükləyin