PRESENTATIONS

With Queta´s team I learnt about countables and uncontables nouns. This team used the audiolingual method since they play somo Cd´s in order we had to listen and answer some questions.

Also they used communicative language teaching and community language learning.

in my opinion it was a good class but at the end it was a little bit boring.

Lupita´s team used the Grammar Translation Approach to introduce some vocabulary, also they used the audiolingual method to make a comparison between the British and the American English.

In my opinion it was a good class and I really like it mainly the audiolingual part.

Part 3 My Learning Style

LEARNING STYLES

There are 3 learnings styles

Visual Learners:
learn through seeing...

.
These learners need to see the teacher's body language and facial expression to fully understand the content of a lesson. They tend to prefer sitting at the front of the classroom to avoid visual obstructions (e.g. people's heads). They may think in pictures and learn best from visual displays including: diagrams, illustrated text books, overhead transparencies, videos, flipcharts and hand-outs. During a lecture or classroom discussion, visual learners often prefer to take detailed notes to absorb the information.

Auditory Learners:
learn through listening...

They learn best through verbal lectures, discussions, talking things through and listening to what others have to say. Auditory learners interpret the underlying meanings of speech through listening to tone of voice, pitch, speed and other nuances. Written information may have little meaning until it is heard. These learners often benefit from reading text aloud and using a tape recorder.

Tactile/Kinesthetic Learners:
learn through , moving, doing and touching...

Tactile/Kinesthetic persons learn best through a hands-on approach, actively exploring the physical world around them. They may find it hard to sit still for long periods and may become distracted by their need for activity and exploration.

According with these explanations I found that I my Learning style is Visual.

part 2

JEAN PIAGET

Jean Piaget was born August 9, 1896 in Switzerland and he died in September 16,1980.
Jean Piaget provided support for the idea that children think differently than adults. His research identified several important milestones in the mental development of children. His work also generated interest in cognitive and developmental psychology. Piaget's theories are widely accepted and studied today by students of both psychology and education.
Piaget's theories continue to be studied in the areas of psychology, sociology, education, and genetics. His work contributed to our understanding of the cognitive development of children.
Piaget held many chair positions throughout his career and conducted research in psychology and genetics. He created the International Center for Genetic Epistemology in 1955 and served as director until his death.

JEROME BRUNER

Jerome Bruner was born in New York in 1915. At the age of 2 he underwent operations to correct vision impaired due to cataracts. His father died when Jerome was 12, after which the family moved frequently and Jerome had an education interrupted by frequent changes of school. Despite this, Bruner’s grades were good enough to enter Duke University in Durham, NC where he obtained a B.A. in 1937 followed by a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1941.
Jean Piaget and Jerome Bruner demonstrated how thought processes could be subdivided into three distinct modes of reasoning. While Piaget related each mode to a specific period of childhood development, Bruner saw each mode as dominant during each developmental phase, but present and accessible throughout. Bruner’s model of human development as a combination of enactive skills (manipulating objects, spatial awareness), iconic skills (visual recognition, the ability to compare and contrast) and symbolic skills (abstract reasoning) has influenced psychological and educational thought over the past 50 years.

LEV SEMENOVICH VYGOTSKY

Lev Semenovich Vygotsky was born in November 17, 1896 and died in June 11, 1934. He was a Russian developmental psychologist and the founder or cultural historical psychology.
Perhaps Vygotsky's most important contribution concerns the inter-relationship of language development and thought. This concept, explored in Vygotsky's book Thought and Language, (alternative translation: Thinking and Speaking ) establishes the explicit and profound connection between speech (both silent inner speech and oral language), and the development of mental concepts and cognitive awareness. It should be noted that Vygotsky described inner speech as being qualitatively different from normal (external) speech. Although Vygotsky believed inner speech to develop from external speech via a gradual process of internalization, with younger children only really able to "think out loud," he claimed that in its mature form it would be unintelligible to anyone except the thinker and would not resemble spoken language as we know it (in particular, being greatly compressed). Hence, thought itself develops socially.
An infant learns the meaning of signs through interaction with its main care-givers, e.g., pointing, cries, and gurgles can express what is wanted. How verbal sounds can be used to conduct social interaction is learned through this activity, and the child begins to utilize/build/develop this faculty: using names for objects, etc.
Language starts as a tool external to the child used for social interaction. The child guides personal behavior by using this tool in a kind of self-talk or "thinking out loud." Initially, self-talk is very much a tool of social interaction and it tapers to negligible levels when the child is alone or with deaf children. Gradually self-talk is used more as a tool for self-directed and self-regulating behavior. Then, because speaking has been appropriated and internalized, self-talk is no longer present around the time the child starts school. Self-talk "develops along a rising not a declining, curve; it goes through an evolution, not an involution.

Third week part 1

SITUATIONAL LANGUAGE TEACHING

Situational language teaching is an approach developed by British applied linguists in the 1930s to the 1960s, and which had an impact on language courses which survive in some still being used today.

The Structural view of language is the view behind the Oral Approach and Situational Language Teaching. Speech was viewed as the basis of language and structure as being at the heart of speaking ability.

The theory of learning underlying Situation Language Teaching is behaviorism, addressing more the processes, than the conditions of learning. It includes the following principles:

-language learning is habit-formation
-mistakes are bad and should be avoided, as they make bad habits
-language skills are learned more effectively if they are presented orally first, then in written form
-analogy is a better foundation for language learning than analysis
-the meanings of words can be learned only in a linguistic and cultural context

Here are some of the objectives of Situational Language Teaching

-a practical command of the four basic skills of a language, through structure
-accuracy in both pronunciation and grammar
-ability to respond quickly and accurately in speech situations
-automatic control of basic structures and sentence patterns.

Situational Language teaching uses a structural syllabusand a word list
-Types of learning techniques and activities
- A situational presentation of new sentence patterns
-drills to practice the patterns

Here is a typical procedure in Situational Language Teaching
-Procedures move from controlled to freer practice of structures
-Procedures move from oral use of sentence patterns to their automatic use in speech, reading and writing.

second week....

this week we talk about the main characteristics of The community language learning and The direct method.

Some of the main characteristics od The community language learning are:

• interaction between learners and knowers is initially dependent.
• record conversation
• iductive learning and translation
• CLL doesn´t use a conventional language syllabus
• CLL is most used in the teachng of orl proficiency, but with some modifications it my be used in the teaching of writing.
• etc...

and about The direct method

• there´s no strict order of converdation, they are free
• they can correct themselves by listening to their utterances
• the learners are not forced to speak in the target language
• the use of inductive learning makes students think in the laguage
• etc...

it was all a learnt in this week.

this week I learnt....

about the Total Physical Response and the Grammar Translation Approach.

Total physical Response is an approach in which the teacher directs and students "act" in response, Listening and physical response skills are emphasized over oral production,The imperative mood is the most common language function employed, even well into advanced levels. Interrogatives are also heavily used,Whenever possible, humor is injected into the lessons to make them more enjoyable for learners, Students are not required to speak until they feel naturally ready or confident enough to do so, Grammar and vocabulary are emphasized over other language areas. Spoken language is emphasized over written language.

and Grammar Translation Approach is focused only in translatingn texs, and the class is in the mother language.