Today we learned about two approaches for teaching vocabulary: the Present and Learn Approach and the Teaching through Input Approach. You can see a PowerPoint presentation of the approaches here. I would like to tell you about the strengths and weaknesses of each approach as well as the approach I would use as a Junior High School English teacher.
1. Present and Learn Approach
■Strengths
・It is easy to understand for all students because it has an explanation of a new vocabulary in their own language.
・Students can learn step by step: after they understand the meaning of a new word and repeat it some times, they use the word in sentences.
■Weaknesses
・As the number of the words increase, it may get more difficult for students to memorize them.
・Some students may get bored with the activities because they may be monotonous.
2.Teaching through Input Approach
■Strengths
・Students can learn a lot of new vocabulary and grammar incidentally not with their translations but with their images.
・Students would get better in guessing.
・It may not be boring for students because they have to attend to the message to find out what a teacher means.
■Weaknesses
・Some students who are not good at English would get bored with the activities because they may not understand them at all.
Lastly as a junior high school English teacher I would use both of these two methods for teaching vocabulary, having one of them make up for the weaknesses of the other one.
2007年5月17日木曜日
2007年5月16日水曜日
Ideas for Communicative Activities
Today, I am going to review two of the 'typical Japanese junior high school' communicative activities presented in ETM 3. The activities I am going to review are カルタ and Find the Difference. You can view them here. How would I improve them?
1. カルタ
I have an idea to have students enjoy and learn though this activity in another way.
(1) A teacher says a certain word (instead of a sentence).
(2) A student picks up the card on which picture related to the word is drawn. Then, the student will make a sentence using the word.
2. Find the Difference
It would need a long time to do 'Find the Difference' in the way. So making it simple, I would improve it like this,
A: In my picture, there are five books on the bed. How about in your picture?
B: In my picture, there are three books on the bed. So it is a difference.
1. カルタ
I have an idea to have students enjoy and learn though this activity in another way.
(1) A teacher says a certain word (instead of a sentence).
(2) A student picks up the card on which picture related to the word is drawn. Then, the student will make a sentence using the word.
2. Find the Difference
It would need a long time to do 'Find the Difference' in the way. So making it simple, I would improve it like this,
A: In my picture, there are five books on the bed. How about in your picture?
B: In my picture, there are three books on the bed. So it is a difference.
2007年5月5日土曜日
How to Learn English
I think that learning English should be more pleasant and practical. That is because many Japanese students are bored with studying English only for exams. And some of them even hate English. I emphasize, as I wrote in the article about my experience, originally the main purpose in studying English is not to pass exams but communicate with people all over the world. Then how can we learn English pleasantly? Let me give some examples just from my experiences.
First, faculty for reading can be developed by reading English books that we want to read. If we read the books we want to read, we are willing to read English and get pleasure from them. But that cannot be achieved by reading only text books.
As for writing skill, it is raised by writing things that we want to write: experiences, diaries, and …anything. In a general writing class in high school in Japan, we mainly study grammar and translate conventional Japanese sentences into English. That is important, I know, but is not interesting.
How about listening and speaking? These skills are achieved by talking with non-Japanese whose mother tongue is English. If they cannot speak Japanese at all, we must talk in English to communicate with them. In conversations, we would get pleasures of communicating with non-Japanese and also realize our lack of knowledge or skills in communicating in English. That can be motivation for learning.
Last, I add that I don't deny a general English teaching at school to be good. Of course, things which are being done at school are important to acquire the language. But as I wrote in the beginning, it is boring to study only for exams. So things mentioned above are my proposal that English classes would do better to have them partly to make study interesting.
First, faculty for reading can be developed by reading English books that we want to read. If we read the books we want to read, we are willing to read English and get pleasure from them. But that cannot be achieved by reading only text books.
As for writing skill, it is raised by writing things that we want to write: experiences, diaries, and …anything. In a general writing class in high school in Japan, we mainly study grammar and translate conventional Japanese sentences into English. That is important, I know, but is not interesting.
How about listening and speaking? These skills are achieved by talking with non-Japanese whose mother tongue is English. If they cannot speak Japanese at all, we must talk in English to communicate with them. In conversations, we would get pleasures of communicating with non-Japanese and also realize our lack of knowledge or skills in communicating in English. That can be motivation for learning.
Last, I add that I don't deny a general English teaching at school to be good. Of course, things which are being done at school are important to acquire the language. But as I wrote in the beginning, it is boring to study only for exams. So things mentioned above are my proposal that English classes would do better to have them partly to make study interesting.
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