Teaching English Didactics

Productive skill

There are several ways to teach a lesson and even more ways for students to learn. If we are looking for a speaking activity, we can develop a good one if we consider this framework.

It's effective because it's organized, coherent and helps you to meet specific objectives of your class.

The stages are:

1. Present - Here the students get the context teachers will use, the vocabulary is introduced, grammar and pronunciation are as well checked. Stating opinions is very useful for this stage.

Teachers may go from brainstorming, dialogues to watching a video.

2. Practice - In this stage, students are given tasks that will help them develop their use of grammar, and put into practice the vocabulary they have learned.

Some exercises can include selecting correct answers, finding and correct errors or matching activities.

3. Production - In this part, teachers must complete a communicative task to make sure the objectives are met.

Activities like making comparisons, interpretations or sharing personal information.

Receptive skill The PDP Framework

This lesson framework helps teachers plan and deliver effective listening, video and reading lessons.  The framework is based on research and using it helps ensure students are motivated, engaged and active before, while and after (pre, during and post – PDP) listening to, watching or reading a text.

The stages of the framework are:

• Pre   Ss prepare to listen:

Ø  they talk about their knowledge or and experience with the topic of the listening or reading

Ø  they understand the meaning of key vocabulary in the text

Ø  they understand what they will listen or read for in the text before they begin working with it

Ø  they can make predictions about what the text will be about.

• During   Ss focus their attention on the listening or reading text and complete tasks which develop and deepen their understanding of the text progressively (i.e., from simpler and more general to more complex and more specific).  They can also do tasks that help them develop specific listening and reading skills.
• Post   Ss extend and integrate the understanding and knowledge they gained from working with the listening or reading text into other skills areas or contexts.  

How to teach listening

We have to be clear the meaning of listening and Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process.

Listening is key to all effective communication. Without the ability to listen effectively, messages are easily misunderstood.

There is a type of listening:

·         Active listening involves listening with all senses.  As well as giving full attention to the speaker, it is important that the ‘active listener’ is also ‘seen’ to be listening - otherwise the speaker may conclude that what they are talking about is uninteresting to the listener.

In the purposes of listening we can consider interactional and transactional functions of language.

BOTTOM UP: consist on decoding the message.

TOP-DOWN:  relies on the recognition of sounds, words and grammar

The purposes of language

In the purposes of listening we can consider interactional and transactional functions of language.

Interactional, the focus is on creating harmonious interaction among individuals. Interactional use of language centers on such safe topics as the weather, food, etc.

Transactional use focuses attention on the content of the message. Emphasis is on transferring information.