Lesson notes written communication (4th - 13th November)

4^th  November 2013

- Written communication:

            - What is it?

            - Differences with oral communication.

            - Skills in use.

-Acquiring/Learning to write:

            - Cognitive.

            - Practice.

            - Free-r production.

- Types of writing:

            - Typology and textuality.

- What we do expect from our students?:

            - Selection of texts.

- How to correct?

- Errors and Mistakes: evaluation.

  - PRACTICE:

According to the CEFRLs communicative language activities are what a learner is able to do with a language

A) Operation descriptions:

-          RECEPTION (reading).

-          PRODUCTION (writing).

-          INTERACTION (writing with a previous reference: A®B).

-          MEDIATION     (A àB à C)

                                    

B) Level of the writing practice:

-          LEXIS: letters, punctuation, capitals…

-          SENTENCES: Do you like apples? Yes, I do/No, I don’t.

-          PARAGRAPH: having a previous pattern, write your own text

-          TEXT (textuality, specific purpose…): “We got into the King’s Arthur hall and the round table was gone…”

C) Approach of the writing practice:

-          CONTROLLED

-          GUIDED

-          FREE

D) Expectations of the writing practice:

-          ACCURACY (no mistakes are aloud)

 

-          FLUENCY (“Mistakes and Errors theory”. Written Code.)

6 ^th November 2013

COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE WRITING ACTIVITIES:

-          Text-book

-          Course-book

Writing skills: how do we learn it? à cognitive stage

-          Productive skill

-          Uses and permanent channel

-          Thoughtful skill

-          Active: cognitively and physically

According to the CEFRLs, communicative language activities are what a student able to do with a language

*Operational descriptors

-          Comprend à reception

-          Expression à production

-          Communicative à interaction

-          Pass information from A to C à mediation

Examples of activities:

-          Fill in the gaps (no options)

-          Close text (options given)

-          Use dictionaries to define.

-          Match definitions with words (options given)

-          Create / complete:

·         Words: sentence à word.

·         Sentences: questions + answers.

·         Functions: linguistic item + function.

·         Places: cards / notes – words / sentences 

-          Rewrite /  transform / correct mistakes and punctuation.

-          Jumbled + Rewrite

·         Letters

·         Words.

·         Sentences.

·         Paragraph.

-          Using tables / drawing / maps and write.

-          Writing games

·         Crosswords.

·         Numbered figures.

·         Codes.

·         Letters soups

·         Look and count

-          Create a story

·         Beginning.

·         End.

·         Using this: title / words / sentences / with this structure

·         Text typology.

-          Transformational / derivational drills (Ex: a person who works is a worker).

NOTE:

-     Para activar la parte cognitiva no se puede empezar por enseñar gramática, es decir no se debe enseñar de forma explícita; si no de forma implícita.

-         La parte cognitiva se desbloquea haciendo actividades, preguntas, haciéndole al niño pensar sólo en una parte concreta, no en lo general.

13th November, 2013

READING

-          What is it?

-          Acquiring/learning to read

-          General and specific advantages of reading

-          A good and a bad reader

-          Reading aloud is it reading?

-          Communicative language activities of reading (CEFRLs)

-          Assessing reading: evaluating and monitoring

-          Post- reading tasks: reading projects

-          Methods in teaching reading in L2

Written Communication is a competence (skills, knowledge, use). It is the capacity of using post-literate skills (non-natural skills + knowledge + use).

According to Hymes (1972) communicative competence means to to be able to say/receive in oral or in written the right word to right person in the right place… and to be INTELIGIBLE.

·         What is reading?

It is an active, post-literature, non-natural ability that is concerned with UNDERSTANDING, COMPREHENDING, APPREHENSION of meaning and storage it in short/medium/long time memory.

·         Acquiring/learning to read

It is a learned process (understanding, comprehending, apprehension).  It is also connected with form, spelling, information, lexis, grammar... and what we should do is trying that our students acquired it from an unconscious way.

From a psycholinguistic perspective it is learned, but it depends on the age: acquiring and learning. (As small the student is, the learning process is going to be slower).

Reading help us to acquire spelling, grammar, syntaxes, morphology…  easily.

There are some different stages:

1^St Stage: Cognitive

-          Literacy: grapho-phonical relationship

-          Cognitive phases:

1.       Recognizing

2.       Observation

3.       Deducing

4.       Fillers

5.       Hypothesis

6.       Interpreting

7.       Displaced non-meaning words

2^nd Stage: Practice

-          Preliminary: reading practice (letter, lexis, short sentences)

-          Scanning: searching specific information in a TEXT

-          Skimming: general idea in a TEXT (read through)

-          Enabling skills of a TEXT:

1.       Recognizing semantic chunks

2.       Using one’s knowledge for interpretation

3.       Scan for main ideas in the text

4.       Predict what is going to happen next

5.       Recognized signs in a discourse

6.       Using cognates

7.       Using fillers

8.       Note taking in margins

9.       Using the titles and questions if there are any

10.   Deduce implicit or interlines information

11.   Relaxation

12.   Avoid focusing on a non-words

13.   Use the context

14.   Take risks