Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice

THE FIVE KEY CHANGES TWO PRACTICE

After reading this book I could understand that it is focus on the steps and processes that a teacher must perform for practicing a good pedagogy. This book also talks about the learner-centered classroom literature, in which is explained that there is not equal learning since "Weimer states that by changing the traditional way of the role of the teacher in the learner-centered classroom,the tacher can become guider and facilitator for learning.". This change in teacher role places the emphasis on the learner and away from the teacher as the focus for learning.

• the balance of power
• the function of content
• the role of the teacher
• the responsibility for learning
• the purpose and processes of evaluation

I think that we have to consider where to place the responsibility for learning in the learner-centered classroom, it becomes clear that students have a responsibility here also. The focus shifts to the actions required of students; they must accept the responsibility for learning. This involves developing the intellectual maturity, learning skills, and awareness necessary to function as independent, autonomous learners. The author asserts that teachers contribute to this process by creating and maintaining conditions that promote student growth and movement toward autonomy.

Weimer states that the purpose of evaluation in the learner-centered classroom is both to provide feedback (i.e., grades) and generate learning. In a learner-centered climate, students learn to assess their own work and participate in the assessment of their peers' work, which leads students to becoming self-directed learners. The responsibility of the teacher as evaluator remains the same.

References: 

• Learner-Centered Teaching: Five key changes to practice;by Maryellen Weimen. Jossey-Bass, 2002

Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice

   

FOUNDATIONS OF LEARNER CENTERED APPROACH

By reading this book we can learn mamy interesting things related to the learning-teaching process one of those things is that Student learning should be the focus on classes becuase pedagogy focuses  on the strategies and skills of the teacher, because it means that there must be inter-learning.This book is divided into two parts and also shows good examples to guide teacher practice, with handouts that develop learning skills, a syllabus and learning log, and a robust reading list of the literature.

In the book there are mentioned important things such as:

• the balance of power
• the function of content
• the role of the teacher
• the responsibility for learning
• the purpose and processes of evaluation

Personally I think that this books is very usefull since it shows examples of Problems of power and authority that can be fased all the time in the classroom. Is the teacher who controls the class, and the students learn through him, students must take into account that it benefits them. This assumption is legitimized through policies, procedures, rules, rights, and expectations. It can be associated with our country since in the book explains that students do not feel motivated becuase they do not they skills well developed and they can be afraid od participating in class.

Is for that reason that the teacher plays the mayor role into the class becuase is who manage it and also is the one that can motivate students to develop knowledge. If a teacher is well prepared and practice his roles in a good way he is going to create exellent students, too.

References:

• Learner-Centered Teaching: Five key changes to practice; by Maryellen Weimen. Jossey-Bass, 2002

Unit 8 SPEAKING

SPEAKING

I think that Speaking is relevant when we are learning a language since it is a productive skill it involves producing language and using all the grammar, vocabulary, phonology and the speech we have  studied before in order to communicate meanings to other people.

Speaking Subskills:

·         Making use of grammar and functions

·         Making use of register to speak appropriately

·         Using features of connected speech

·         Using body language

·         Producing different text types

·         Oral fluency---- avoid hesitation

·         Self-correction

·         Using interactive strategies

Through this unit I learned that speaking is more than just using grammar and vocabulary accurately in speech, we have to use interactive strategies; speaking also involves using body language so that we can de understood by others. Is important to have interaction by making turn-taking, and if the listener does not understand what we are saying we can make use of an interactive strategy called paraphrasing. When a person speaks makes use of connected speech to convey meaning; it involves intonation, word and sentences stress, accurate individual sounds, linking and contractions to help to convey meaning. When we speak we use a degree of formality of informality. 

As speaking is a complex activity, in my future life as a teacher I will use into the classroom different activities to encourage students to speak. The controlled activities and the drills are good to practice speaking. It could be good to let students to choose the topic they would like to talk to, so that they can develop it in a better explaining fluently the things.

References:

•  Youtube.com, How to improve Speaking skilss by yours, (2014), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAU2zx2Ri_M
• Arévalo Galarza Bolívar (2008) Estrategias para el aprendizaje. Ecuador 

Unit 7 LISTENING

LISTENING

This unit is about listening; it is a receptive skill, through listening we are able to understand spoken language and making sense of meaningful sounds and we can do this by making use of context. Accorning to the TKT BOOK "Spoken language is more natural and it is characterized for having stress and intonation and connected speech." At the moment of talking a person  that is talking  makes use of gestures and facial expressions and if it is not well organized it could contains hesitations.

Aditionally, listening has subskills: Listen for gist, specific information, detail and inferring attitude. There are two kinds of listening:

·        

Intensive Listening   ------ Listening for pleasure

·        

Extensive Listening  -----   Listening for academic purposes

I have learned that into listening we can find different listening text types such as lectures, stories, songs, etc. Those listening text types contain different ways of organizing language and information, different grammatical patterns, a particular range of vocabulary, different interaction patterns. Listening means understanding relevant text types and into listening a person must be able to understand speech patterns; those are part of connected speech.

:

*Word and Sentence Stress

*Linking Sounds 

*Contracted Forms

In the classroom we as teachers can encourage students to practice and develop the listening skills by using genres that they like; for example songs or stories. This exposes learners to a range of accents, speeds of delivery and listening skills. Is good to pre-teach key words to help students understand the listenings, also we have to give learners authentic material  to let them be in contact with real language.  

References:

• Youtube.com, How to improve listening skills, (2011)                                          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssuiqtreiBg
• Arévalo Galarza Bolívar (2008) Estrategias para el aprendizaje. Ecuador 

Unit 6 WRITING

WRITING

Writing is a skill with which we can express our feelings and thoutghs and as well as speaking is a productive skill and basically it is based on producing language it involves communicating a message. There are many text types it means different kinds of writings, also in writing we can find different degrees of formality; different layouts.

In this unit I have learned that at the moment of writing we have to consider some aspects like for example the levels of complexity of grammar, the register and also the range of vocabulary. Writing also has subskills and they are related to accuracy. Those subskills help us to develop spelling, forming letters, joining letters, writing legibly, punctuating correctly, using layouts and using paragraphs.

For students writing is one of the most difficult things into a second language, since the product must have cohesion, information organized in a logical way and topics sentences into the paragraphs; we as teachers have to help students to develop the writing skill using some approaches. One approach that we can use into a class is the PROCESS APPROACH, as it says it follows a process or stages of writing.

*Prewriting

*Drafting

*Revising

*Editing

I have learned that also we as teachers can encourage writing accuracy in by using students by using also some activities such as gap-filling, sentence transformation, putting punctuation exercises and correcting errors activities. Furthermore, is very important to know how correct writing, so that students do not miss motivation for learning.  Writing involves carrying out several steps which each lead in to the next one and aim to improve the quality of the final product. 

References: 

• ·     C Salmon, IB Fernández - 2010 – Storytelling: la máquina de fabricar historias y formatear las mentes.
• ·         AEL Martínez, RE Zarazaga, MJR Parra - Psicothema, 2000 – Estrategias Activas de Aprendizaje.

UNIT 5 READING

  

READING

Reading is a essential part when we are learning a language becuase it is a  receptive skill; it involves responding to the text. We need to understand the language of a text at a word level, sentence level or whole-text level. in the TKT book says that "Connected text is referred to as discourse, and it is connected by grammar and vocabulary and/or our knowledge of the world"; that means that in order to understand better the text we need to have to see the connection between two sentences (coherence). The grammatical links between sentences (cohesion) helps to see connection, too. Sentences also are linking by conjunctions.

Reading also has sub-skills:

Scanning:   *reading for specific information

                    *reading for detail

                    *deducing meaning from context

                    *understanding text structure

Skimming: *reading for gist

                    *inferring

                    *predicting

Reading is an excellent technique to get Students’ attention. What is more we can learn vocabulary, grammar and even pronunciation by listening to Audiobooks. Also, they can understand the individual sentences and the organizational structure of a piece of writing. They can comprehend ideas, follow arguments, and detect implications.

However, even if they do not understand each word and do not have a dictionary to look it up, they will understand the general idea of the text. To the same token, after reading extensively they will also acquire unconsciously a large vocabulary and become a better reader. As a result, teachers should encourage them to read not just at the classroom but also outside of it. However, for each reading teachers also may apply pictures related to it, use puppets for children and ask them to perform it.

References: 

• YouTube Pre-Reading Activities

YouTube,. (2015). Pre-Reading Activities. Retrieved 28 April 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXT0L604jpc

• Journal.acs-cam.org.uk

• Journal.acs-cam.org.uk,. (2015). Retrieved 28 April 2015, from http://journal.acs-cam.org.uk/data/archive/2009/200903-article11.pdf

UNIT 4 FUNCTIONS

FUNCTIONS

During the study of this unit I have learned that communication itself is based on functions that means on purpose. There are several examples of functions: apologizing, greeting, clarifying, etc. Those funtions have to be used into a context and we can make use of different exponents in order to communicate with others.

Through functions and exponents we can express also levels of formality which means to know how, when, where, to whom we have to say something.

Levels of formality: [FORMAL – neutral – INFORMAL] = register

We can use those levels according to the situation, and it is called appropriacy.  

Toremaind, we need to be clear of what function is. A function is a reason why we communicate or the purpose, which may be: Apologizing, Inviting, Greeting, Agreeing, Advising, Reporting, Refusing, etc.

So, we could provide our Students with a list of sentences with combining grammatical structures and a functional approach to make it meaningful for our students. To this, we may ask them to create situations where they should use them. As a result, they will get used to it and it will be difficult to forget.

To the same token, the language we use to express a function is called an exponent. An exponent can express several different functions. It all depends on the context it is used in so it will change its levels of formality, such as formal, informal, or neutral.

As a result, we may adapt different activities such as role-plays; use the Overhead projector to display videos, etc.

Combining functions and grammar helps to give grammar meaning and context. It also helps learners to learn functions together with grammatical structures that they can then transfer to other contexts for use. 

References: 

• YouTube

  Teaching Grammar: Understanding Structures and Functions

  YouTube,. (2015). Teaching Grammar: Understanding Structures and Functions. Retrieved 24 April 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW7ziNQadvk
• Functions of Language
• Wikipedia,. (2015). Functions of Language. Retrieved 24 April 2015, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functions_of_Langu