My third assignment at CELTA

Hi guys,

I'd like to talk about my third assignment at CELTA: the use of authentic material in language teaching. We could choose to use either a text/reading or a listening material. I chose a movie therefore listening.
I chose this because it's indeed interesting that listening has not received wider attention given that it is the language skill most often used in everyday life. More than forty percent of our daily communication time is spent on listening, thirty-five percent on speaking, sixteen percent on reading, and only nine percent on writing. And, although listening has been a relatively neglected skill in terms of research and how it is introduced to language learners, it is now beginning to receive more attention.

Some of the advantages of using authentic materials are: students get encouraged to do it for pleasure, they can produce a sense of achievement, they keep students informed of what is happening in the world and so forth. Besides, with the advent of the world wide web, teachers have at their disposal large amounts of texts, visual stimuli, newspapers, magazines, live radio and T.V., video clips and much more. There are endless lists of useful materials for the language classroom.

Learners benefit from listening materials spoken at "normal" conversational speed vs. English language learner directed listening materials which have been "altered" or "slowed" to enable "improved comprehension". All well and good, but if the learners ever need to apply that learning and listening practice in a real-life situation - they're lost. Why? Because - no - body - talks - like - this - in - real -life - in - any - language. (gasp!)

So even if you can't "throw away your course book", do realistically consider adapting more authentic materials for use in your English language learning classroom. You'll ultimately be glad you did.

See you guys,

Cheers

Flávia Chiacchia

Half course accomplished

Hi everyone,

We're all still very busy at Celta course thinking only about assignments to write and classes to be perfect !

After half the course accomplished it's time for self-evaluation and assessment sessions with tutors. We all feel proud of ourselves having got so far ! It's a great feeling, I can assure you.

The most interesting discovery throughout the course so far was the Concept Check Questions practice. I'm also reading a book on that I'd like to recommend : "Concept Questions and Time Lines" Graham Workman. Chadburn Publishing.

Last session there was a sweet surprise : "an unobserved class" (no tutors!) Don't get me wrong.
I value a lot my tutors' job and feedback (if they ever read this blog!) but I realized something I missed from all my classes at Celta : small talk with students ! Getting to know them better, talking about their every day routines creates such a rewarding bond between teachers and students. Real friendship that makes teaching - learning experience so good ! We do this every day in our schools, our jobs, and we take it for granted !

See you next time,
thanks,

Malu

7th CELTA Day

Hi dudes, what's up?

Last week, I went to attend my first observation of a CELTA certificated teacher class. I decided to watch one of our tutor's class. His name's Bjarne. It was amazingly clarifying to me how important CCQs are when explaining things to students. CCQs stand for Concept Check Questions. It's a very effective way of checking students' real understanding of vocabulary, grammar or meaning. In the traditional academic teaching method teachers used to spend hours trying to explain something which when asked, 'got it' students would nod and smile but remain 'clueless'. And, when they had to put what they just learned into practice, they proved thirty seconds later by some simple mistake that they totally haven't learned at all.
Therefore, CCQs are now a relevant part of our class preparation. Let's take an example. Bjarne was teaching vocabulary which was a lead-in task for a further listening task. He asked students to find two similar words in a text. Students came up with the words 'overloaded' and 'overwhelmed'. OK, so far so good, these two words
ave similar meanings, alright. But then he asked them: are the words completely similar? Yes, (but with a different aspect). Can you be overloaded with work? Yes. Can you be overwhelmed with work? Yes. But then again, can you be overloaded with emotions? No. Can you be overwhelmed with emotions? Yes. So, that's one of the peculiarities the words that are similar in meaning but can be used in different contexts. In a traditional methodology teachers would simply explain their meanings and students would never know how or when to use them.
But, with CCQs, teachers 'never' give the meaning, but rather make them think about it or come up with it. Furthermore, I could see how asking 'Do you understand?' can be one of the least useful questions you can ever ask in an English language classroom. Why? Because if students do understand the question 'Do you understand?' they will probably just say 'Yes' anyway, just to keep you happy. And they all nod and smile, but remain 'clueless'. Now, with CCQs teachers can make sure they are really learning and the classes run as smoothly as teachers would dream to be. It's a brilliant insight someone once had to invent them!

Cheerio,

Flávia Chiacchia