ENGLISH IS A CRAZY LANGUAGE

ENGLISH IS A CRAZY LANGUAGE!!

Regarding the topics that were worked in class last week, I was looking for some extra information in the Internet and I found some interesting web sites which show that English is really a difficult language. Most of the webs that I have consulted say that the most difficult skills of English are spelling and pronunciation.

The reasons are all the roots that English has. We have already talked about that in class but I would like to explain a curious comparison that I have found: “English is a mixing bowl!!”

We have to take into account the place where English was born: a small island that was invaded by different groups of people: Celtics, Romans, Germanic tribes (Jutes, Anglos, Saxons and Frisians), Vikings and French. All the groups had different languages and they left their influence on English. It is a big bowl because it is made up of elements and words taken from different languages.

Besides, I didn’t know that English people don’t adapt the words that have been taken from other languages. In Spain, we change the “borrowed words” and adapt them to our spelling system but they write and pronounce them in the original way so; when we try to speak in English properly, we found many difficulties because we have to learn vocabulary from different languages!

It is thought that English is an easy language to learn at the beginning because the general structures (grammar and vocabulary) are extremely simple. However, there are so much exceptions and little rules for everything that English is very difficult in the last stages of learning.

There are other factors that make English a hard language: the enormous vocabulary, the synonyms and its spelling system. In the following web site, there are many funny sentences that prove that English is really a hard language. Try to pronounce and understand all these sentences!!

http://www.i18nguy.com/english-is-tough.html

As Richard Lederer (The author of the book “Crazy English”) says, the only reason is that “English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race”. It is the same reason that makes Spanish or Chinese difficult to learn!

What do you think? Is it easy to pronounce the web site’s sentences? They are really tongue-twisters!!!

(Gonzalo García)

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT...

While I was watching the video “Otra snapshot de realidad” that Francisco sent us some days ago, I was thinking it was necesary writing some words about it.

It is an amazing short which shows the inequality between men and woman. Men can do whatever they want and they can arrive at home when they want, while woman have to be always at home doing home tasks. For men, their job is the most important thing and they think that it is harder than things woman make. So, when men arrive at home, they want to have the dinner at the table and if it isn´t prepared they argue with their wifes. Sometimes most of men shout their woman and hit them although they say later that they don´t beat them and that woman are crazy.

This short is quite similar to “Virgen Negra” which we saw in assembly hall of University. Men could have a lot of woman and children, but woman could only have a husband. Woman had to have sex with her husband although they didn´t want because woman who had more children was the most praised. Why can´t woman have more than one husband if we are in the same conditions?

I think this is a good topic to teach in our classrooms because children have to know, since they are childs, that men and woman have to have the same values, conditions and oportunities. Nowadays it´s horrible that some people think that both sexs are diferents, so I think that we should work in it to avoid discrimination and to inculcate the equality. What do you think?

(Lydia)

TO SPEAK IN ENGLISH OR NOT TO SPEAK IN ENGLISH (THAT MUCH), THAT'S THE QUESTION

As you, my classmates, will become teachers one day as me as well, I would like to ask you a question or doubt which has been around my mind for a while already.

My worry is related with the topic we have just seen in the lesson. Do we have to talk our children in our own language while we are teaching them? Is it good if we translate them some vocabulary which they may do not know?

As I see it, to learn a new language it is much better to hear the new language as much as possible. Teachers should speak using the foreign language most of the time during the lesson. But from my point of view, that would just work in higher levels when children have already enough knowledge to understand the explanations, definitions or new vocabulary without the necessity of using your own language.

It is said that translating words or using your own language from time to time is not good for children. But right now I want to post you a question: What about if the pupil cannot understand any word of what you are saying? What about if the student cannot follow any of the explanation which of course influence his learning?

Students who are in first or second grade cannot even read perfectly in Spanish, how can we ask them to read properly in English? We know that all our students are different and each one has their own level or learn in a different way.

Most of the students who come from kindergarten cannot even spell a word or they cannot transcript correctly the words they are listening, for example while doing dictation. As you all know, words in English are not written as they sound. That makes them even more difficult to learn this new language. My experience with a first year child has taught me that even if he has studies a word and the child has written it twenty times before, when you ask him to write it again saying the word using the correct pronunciation, he won´t know the word. Young students have difficulties relating words and sound.

We were taught using a translating method and generally, our oral and hearing skills are very low. New students are being taught without using it, without even translating a word. Do you think that it will work out?

I consider that we should mix up both methods, what is your idea about it?

I am really looking forward to hearing your opinions, thoughts and arguments. I will probably learn from you all.

Thanks.

Julia.

30 MINUTES

While we discussed last Thursday in class (15/11/2012) the theme about the time dedicated to "serious" tasks in class, it came to my mind a situation I learnt when I was on teaching practises (TP) last year.

Ales, the teacher I spent the most time with when I was on TP, told me that children, above all when they are very young (1st and 2nd year) tend to get bored or not to pay attention after they are required a lot of effort on an activity or this is the same once and other again. He told me (and I was able to prove it by myself while I was with him in his classes) that he prefers to spend a little time with a task (no more than 20 minutes, unless it´s needed) and to play games (referred with the task as well of course) or talk about something that worries to the children; ablout this last point, he told me that it doesn´t matter if they talk in spanish if the theme discussed is something very important, so that children could understand every word.

He taught me that there´s no problem if one day you don´t finish all tasks you had scheduled. The important thing is that children learn not the maximun things (altought is an objective, but I would a secondary objective) but in the best way these things they study. We could say is not a matter of quantity but QUALITY!!!! So it doesn´t matter if one day children only learn one thing, that if this knowledge they have interiorized very deep in their brains it will be much more important than having had learnt more things and the day after they couldn´t remember a single thing.  

Víctor Pérez

"THE SILENT WAY", A CURIOUS LANGUAGE TEACHING METHOD

Some days ago, I looked for some information about silence and its importance for teaching. I found two or three interesting things on this topic but I especially like one of them. It is possible that this will be studied in class in the followings weeks but I would like to share it with you because it is a curious language teaching method.

This method is called “The Silent way” and was created by Caleb Gattegno. It consists of a curious way of teaching where silence is extremely important so it is related to Unit 0 that we have studied.

The teacher is silent for most of the time and students have to try to speak in the language studied as much as possible. The session starts from what the students know because they are the main characters and they are the ones who want to learn a new language.

Most of the activities used in this method are speaking, pronunciation and vocabulary. It avoids using memorization and imitation activities. The materials that the teacher uses are very curious, for instance; sound-colour chart (for phonics), pronunciation and vocabulary rods, etc.

The teacher, who is in total silence, uses non-verbal gestures to guide the class. There are different signs to represent “Stop”, “Repeat”, “Speak louder”, etc. Students learn a new language without imitating the teacher and they develop their autonomy and their creativity.

The contents that students learn are reviewed and recycled over and over so they work with new vocabulary and grammar structures without forgetting the old ones. However, I think that this method was created for small groups but it cannot be used in big groups: Will all the students work if the teacher is silent? Besides, I believe that it could be useful in advanced levels but I don’t know if we could use it with twenty five children.

This quote summarizes the methodology of the “The Silent Way” Method:

“The teacher works with students; the students work on the language”

Caleb Gattegno

The following webs are good to get more information:

-          http://myenglishpages.com/blog/the-silent-way-method/

-          http://www.uneeducationpourdemain.org/en/silent-way-en/213-caleb-gattegno-silent-way-presentation

(Gonzalo García)

ROCINANTES

I have just found in a folder a “Rocinante” card and it has remind me Paula, a young teacher who I met in the practice period last school-year. She taught Spanish Language, English Culture and Arts and Crafts in 5^th year of Primary Education. I was lucky to see some of her sessions, to work with her making some tasks and to learn from her methodology.

This is a TRULY WONDERFUL
HORSE...

What I really like of Paula is how she behaves towards the students. She doesn’t mind to spend some time of her sessions to solve possible problems that pupils might have in or out of the classroom. Furthermore, she is a positive person full of energy and that motivates the students. When they are checking activities or reading aloud, Paula almost sings their names changing continuously the person who is talking, so students must pay attention and not get distracted. She also loves introducing different topics in a “non-usual way”, for instance, explaining Easter playing common Easter English games.

The best think of Paula’s sessions is that students feel comfortable in them and, in general, they do their best in every task. They also talk to her about their feelings and problems in her sessions, in other subjects and in their personal life and, of course, Paula does everything she can to help them.

Returning to the beginning, I want to explain one special “trick” of her methodology, her system of positive points. She prints many pictures of one literary character which is different each trimester. When I was at school the character was Rocinante. She cuts the pictures and gives one to the student who shares to the rest of the class something relevant or curious, for example the name of people born in Calatayud (bilbilitanos). So, students can collect a lot of “Rocinantes” and they can redeem each one for 0.1 points in different tasks.

I think that giving these cards is a good way to reward students’ effort and participation, to “invite” them to search information and share it with their classmates and also to use them as a part of the continuous evaluation during the trimester. But, in my opinion, the cards could be redeemed for something different instead of 0.1 points, what do you think? Do you have any suggestion?

(Cristina Lázaro)

THE POWER OF MUSIC

A  new contribution for all of us to ENJOY AND PONDER ABOUT...  

THANKSSSS!!!!!!!

I was thinking about when I was at the school and high school. I remember how upset I felt when the teacher 'jumped' the song-activities which where in our Student's English Book. Some of those English teachers were too busy to 'WASTE the time' doing a song-listening-activity, when they needed to finish whatever Unit. However, we could practice English grammar, vocabulary,... doing the song-activities, in a funny and real way, couldn't we?

(Elena Regaño)

SOME IDEAS ON PHONETICS

Víctor shares with all of us something about the use of "phonetic material" in the Primary English Language Classroom...   Enjoy!!!!!!!

1) Jolly phonics: In the first file (jolly books) you have a great variety of little stories which are focus in the spelling, relating the different themes with particular items, such as animals, swimming, monster party...

In the second file you can find different worksheet related both with writing and spelling.

As I told you this morning I think the third file is not very important; it has two powerpoints I think they are useless (maybe I am wrong) and the explanation in Spanish of the diffferent resources.

Finally you have the pronunciation of the different sounds in audio files and in 6 PPT, which you only have to open it and see that in each slide is represented one sound (it can be just one letter or two- diphthong.

2) Letter factory: It only has 3 videos which are about a factory which can produce different words and sound mixing the different letters of the alphabet.

As Bugs Bunny would say........ THIS IS ALL FOLKS!!!! :) I hope you enjoy these resources and you could use with your future pupils :). If you have any doubt please let me know.

Víctor Pérez Alfageme

PS: I will leave this resources in the screen from our class (the one we spend most of the time in).

THE MEMORINA, A TEACHING TOOL

Last Monday, I was looking for some books in my room and I found a small notebook from school. It is called “Memorina” and contents one hundred and eight useful sentences in English. The notebook had to be so small to put it in the pocket or in the pencil case!!

I remember that I began writing these sentences in 3^rd year of Primary and I wrote the last one in 6^th of Primary. In the lower levels, my English teacher wrote some sentences in the blackboard every day and we had to copy them in our notebook. Each sentence has the translation to Spanish.

Let’s take some examples:

1        Saludo normal: Hello

2        Saludo amistoso: Hi

53.  Decir que tenemos hambre: I’m hungry

54.  Decir que tenemos sueño: I’m sleepy

107. Preguntar a qué hora…: What time do you…?

Every month, we did a (oral or written) “Memorina exam” so we learnt all these sentences. We had all the sentences that we had to knew in our notebooks. It was extremely useful!

We didn´t know the real meaning of all the sentences but we could say a lot of them without thinking. When I was in Secondary Education I started to understand how these phrases were formed. Then, I could distinguish the subjects, the verbs, and the rules to write correctly but I already knew some structures!

I remember that “Memorina” was an “event” at school. All the pupils at school had their own notebooks and there was a “competition” to have more and more sentences. In the upper levels, the teacher taught new sentences when all the pupils knew the old ones. We had so sentences to study!!

The first class that got one hundred sentences was mine!! We celebrated it with a party at school.

I think that is a useful method to teach some complicated grammar structures. Children can’t understand how to form an English sentence but they know some important grammar structures related to their daily life. Besides, they have almost all the sentences in their small “Memorina”.

(Gonzalo García)

ABOUT FEAR, MAKING MISTAKES AND THE ANXIETY OF TEACHING...

Are you afraid of being in the SPOTLIGHT and, ooopppps, making A HUGE MISTAKE when ALL your students' eyes are on YOU.  Well, don't be afraid, to be SINCERE, it IS BOUND TO HAPPEN, and not once, believe me, it is pretty frequent we, teachers, make mistakes when teaching...

And then, anxiety comes in the dead of night, creeping into your soul and you are left breathless feeling your whole world is about to collapse...

Again, YOU WANNA BE A GOOD TEACHER, well, then, ACCEPT THAT MAKING MISTAKES IS JUST HUMAN and you are human, YOU ARE NEITHER A FAIRY OR A CYBORG (maybe you will be those beautiful things in another life or maybe you are being so in a different dimension, who knows).  For the the time being, your human shape will show human traits, isn't it lovely?

You are alive..., which is WONDERFUL, and if you are alive you are here to MAKE MISTAKES AND LEARN FROM THEM WHITHOU A SENSE OF REMORSE, we do things, we create things... and of all of a sudden we fall on our knees and see how everything crumbles to the ground..., then we GET UP, KEEP ON WALKING AND CREATING, which is so GREAT!!!!  Do you get this, SUPERB WOULD-BE TEACHERS?  I think this is one of the features of "GREAT TEACHERS", they overcome difficulties with a smile on their faces and that is devoted to inspire their students...  Do you agree?  As always, I may be so wrong...to actually be kind of right.

But well, tell me something, are you really worried about making mistakes when teaching?  How do you think this may affect our teaching lives?  Do you see a way to get out of this full circle?

Waiting for you comments my good students about to become excellent teachers!!!!!!!

And of course... I am sure I have made some kind of mistake in my writing here, or in my theories there... And that is so great..., because IT MEANS TWO THINGS 1) I AM ALIVE (YEAH!!!!!!) 2) I MAY IMPROVE  MY TEACHING.

Thanks for your wonderful cooperation, my good pals!!!!!!!!!!!

(Fran)

WONDERFUL TEACHERS IN A WONDERFUL WORLD

Great, my friends, here you have a new text to reflect upon, written by one of your classmates.  ENJOY:

Last Thursday, when children were leaving the school at 2pm and I was remembering when I was one of them, I met my first English teacher. I'm always so glad when I meet her. She asked me about 'my life' so I told her that I was studying 'English Teaching', in a way, because of her.

I have a good memory of her funny English Lessons. But the great thing is that we learnt having fun!!

She told me that nobody tells her that they appreciate her job (however, if she does something wrong, she can be punished); she can not be promoted or earn more money (in fact, her salary is cut down because of the government measures);... But, when she meet her ex-students and they say hello to her, she feels her job rewarded.

It's a little example just to show how the teachers labour is so bad valued in our society. That's a shame. Could it be changed?

Anyway, THANKS TO THE WONDERFUL TEACHERS WE ALL HAD/HAVE!

(Elena Regaño)

In Silence we dwell...

Such a wonderful energy we have shared today!!!!!  At least I was totally flooded by your energetic fields, your magnetic TEACHING essence, if you know what I mean.

See, my dear friends, my whole point (my only point this course) is "never take for granted what we are told as far as Education is concerned..., not even this!!!!!  Check and double-check, and try to discover what it is that lies behind the wonderful mask of the world of Education, or just the world. 

Methods are tools we have to study, learn, know, you name it, but remember that they are theoretical tools to "play" with (to have fun with, I would even say).  Instead of saying "I am using this methodological choice/device/option/approach" (which, by the way, sounds pretty proffesional) I like saying "I am playing with this method to see what happens and to get further in my understanding of the whole thing".

But well, to cut a long story short (sorry, pals, about my neverending ramblings, do bear with me and thanks for you patience), this is THE POINT:

Focus on Silence for a while, just for a while, try to get to know it better, just that.  And do it your own way and only if you feel comfortable, if that's not the case, the right time will come (or not, who cares).  This is just our first Unit, the introduction, so to speak, of the course.  But remember that what you see is what you get, that's how I teach, that's how I share with my students, NOT SO MUCH GIVING YOU STRAIGHT ANSWERS, BUT TRYING TO BRING UP QUESTIONS THAT WILL GUIDE US ALL TO MORE QUESTIONS IN A SPIRAL MOVEMENT OF UNDERSTANDING.  I like getting to the bare esssence, to the root of it all, after all this is one of the wonders of being here with you.
I may be wrong, or I may be right, or, more surely, somewhere in between (wringht) (Goodness, I'VE JUST FALLEN IN LOVE WITH THIS WORD we have just created!!!!!!!!!).

Thank you for helping me with the missing pieces of this wonderful tapestry, this manifold puzzle of learning, teaching, just living!!!!!!!

One more day in Paradise, pals, one more day with you all!!!!!

Enjoy!!!!
(Fran)

WELCOME TO OUR CLASS!!!!!!!!

Well, you know is "our" class, but "my" apple, lol.

"What are you doing here?", you may wonder...
Well, of course, I don't have a proper answer.  You are here because you are here.  Is that good enough?
What I can tell you for sure is why I have decided to create this space...
This space is for all of us to THRIVE
to SHARE
to ENJOY
to THINK TOGETHER
to, al teast, TRY TO UNDERSTAND THE REAL ESSENCE OF TEACHING
to use ENGLISH as our NATIVE TONGUE...

I'll write some thoughts about our sessions together, you do what you feel you have to do, comment, create new posts (have them sent to me and I'll make them public).  This is for you to feel free, learn and teach...

Today's session has been pretty useful, at least from my point of view.  Using Spanish every now and them won't "kill our English", although we'd better keep up English as our "communicative tool".  The students are incredibly receptive and open to some of the ideas which fly over our classroom.  I love that feeling of freedon, we are CREATING something new, and it seems so EFFORTLESS.  Nice!!!!!

And so, we were left with the thought of TRYING TO SEE CLEARLY WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND MIND (COGNITIVE PROCESS).  I really am puzzled about this since I was a young College student and to this day I am still fascinated about the magical connection that seems to exist between mind and speech.

Dunno, my pals, do you have anything to add just now???????
(Fran)