What do our students feel when they first encounter new words in a Reading Comprehension?

Tricia Hedge suggests several examples of what our students may feel when meeting new words or phrases in Reading Comprehension (RC) activities…
· “I read on to see if the word is repeated”
· “I go to my dictionary for a translation”
· “I think if there is a Spanish word like it”
· “I ask my teacher to explain”
· “I look to see if the word has some part I know”
· “I say the word out loud”
· “I start again from the beginning of the sentence”
· “I ask the other students in my group”
· “I write it in my notebook”
· “I study the words around”
These feelings made me reflect upon what is Reading Comprehension for us, teachers. To me, reading in a foreign language is a skill that needs to be developed; since it is not enough to handle a foreign language and to know how to read to be a successful reader in the target language. But, do we all agree on that?
In order to decide whether we would like to foster these feelings/reactions in our students, we need to define what purpose is in including those activities in the class. Personally, I agree with Michel West’s description of Reading as “to confer greater facility in the use of the vocabulary already gained, to give the child a sense of achievement and a taste of the pleasure to be derived from his accomplishment” (1995:45). Following this definition, it won’t be wrong to say that there is no right or wrong reactions to the encountering of new words in a RC activity. I encourage you to go on reading the positive aspects of each of the above mentioned reactions of our students:
· “I read on to see if the word is repeated” >>> This helps them determine whether the word should already be known (generally, if the word is repeated several times it is because it is considered known for the level)
· “I go to my dictionary for a translation” >>> This proactive motivation can be canalized in a specific activity to train the use of different dictionaries
· “I think if there is a Spanish word like it”>>>This way of thinking can be canalized into cultural awareness of languages’ similarities and differences
· “I ask my teacher to explain” >>> There are some students that even after having been trough different techniques for understanding new vocabulary in RC activities will need the T’s explanation. Now, what we really want to foster is autonomous learning, so T’s explanation of new vocabulary items needs to used as a pre reading activity, to allow a smoother development of the activity
· “I look to see if the word has some part I know” >>> Great attitude to be fostered; family words as well as categories recognition are excellent tools
· “I say the word out loud” >>> May be of help for auditory learners!
· “I start again from the beginning of the sentence” >>> Even though starting from the beginning will make the activity longer, this can help understand the context better
· “I ask the other students in my group” >>> Great for encouraging interaction, as long as we keep the English environment!!!!
· “I write it in my notebook” >>> This reaction will help students create their own bank of new words, however, we need to ensure that this activity does not disrupt the comprehension of the text as a whole
· “I study the words around” >>> This is the best technique for deducing from context!!!
I hope you can share some of your ideas with me…
Based on Tricia Hedge, Teaching and Learning in Language Classroom, Oxford, 2000 (Chapter 6)

Teachers need to be ready to deal with the unexpected!!!!

"My question is whether this teacher had planned her classes in advance or she is talented on dealing with the unexpected..."

You are welcome to share with me the experience of visiting a planned class...

Observation 4 - 2nd year - Colegio C - 2009

Where should I get with these instructions?

Tricia Hedge states in Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom that "a Communicative Class involves learnes in face-to-face encounters in the classroom with a teacher in a wider range of roles beyond that of providing and presenting new language".
What happen if under unexpected circumstances the face-to-face class needs to be carried out from home? This winter break was unusual, since due to the Pandemia lots of homework needed to be assigned. Learning would have to take place on autonomous basis more than ever had and teacher's role would include setting up activities and organizing resources for a month!
If I were to isolate what I've learnt from this observation, I will go for the idea of keeping a Communicative Classroom at all times!!! Would you like to share with me some of the instructions this teacher needed to give to her students for this unusual winter break?
Observation 3 - 3rd year - Colegio C. - Methods2 - 2009

Grammar Ways & Whys

John and Liz Soars, authors of Headway Upper Intermediate TB, give a list of reasons to teachers to explain their prominence of grammar in their materials:

• It is the mechanism that generates the infinite number of sentences that we produce and receive.
  
• It is a tangible system, and can provide one element of a systematic approach to teaching a language.
  
• It develops students' cognitive awareness of the language. Language is rule-based, and conscious or sub-conscious knowledge of the rules is the key to "generalizability" and creativity.
  
• It conforms to students' expectations of language learning, and meets an often-heard request for "more grammar".
  
• It will be of assistance to teachers in the planning of their lessons.
  

Now, if I were to express my viewpoints without referring to the discussion whether language is lexicalized grammar or grammaticalized language, I consider grammar a tangible system that develops cognitive awareness. It helps us, teachers, to give an order to the teaching of a foreign language and allows students to raise their awareness in learning strategies and conscious knowledge. However, I don´t believe that students associate "more grammar" with "more English". Language is broad enough to cater all appetites. One the one hand vocabulary is what makes the difference between an intermediate learner and an advanced one; on the other hand, learning the grammar rules is handling the ABC of the language. It is up to us to decide in which way to design varied syllabi with the proper combination between vocabulary and grammar. Either one or the other needs to serve our purpose of contextualizing the other; there is no language if one of the areas is missing. What's your idea about it?

Based on Tricia Hedge, Teaching and Learning in Language Classroom, Oxford, 2000
(Chapter 5)

Presentation on The Lexical Approach by Michael Lewis

Presentation on The Lexical Approach

More than words…

Teaching vocabulary is far more than just teaching isolated words. Our students may have different ways of acquiring vocabulary and it's our duty to train them in new strategies for doing it. Teaching vocabulary is about making connections and building relations with our words; it is about giving students the tool for mental processing of lexical units.

Teacher who had gone through a Teachers' Training College should be aware of some Language teachers' love for long list of ways of… In a collaborative way, students at the LCB TTC have created a wiki page in which I've made some contributions towards a list that we can call "Ways of Teaching Vocabulary".

You are more than welcome to visit it and leave your comment!!!

"Vocabulary enables us to interpret and to express.

If you have a limited vocabulary,

you will also have a limited vision and a limited future." -–

Jim Rohn (Business Philosopher)

Based on Tricia Hedge, Teaching and Learning in Language Classroom, Oxford, 2000
(Chapter 4)

Is Independence something we really want to foster???

Before we answer this question, we need to deeply think about ways teachers can promote learner independence and its implications in the classroom organization and course curricula. Dickinson (1992: 2-3) suggested several ways of going about it, from which the following are the ones I’d agree with:

• Helping learners to develop learning technique (learning strategies) so that they can exercise their independence

I strongly believe that helping students develop learning strategies should be a key element for a teacher to bear in mind when planning the course program as well as a cross-curriculum item to discuss with teachers from other subjects. Taking these strategies into consideration will shape our way of teaching and our way of organizing the classroom. For instance, if we consider that interaction is one of the strategies to foster, organizing pair work should be a key concept in our class planning.
When choosing the course book and the resources for the class, we need to consider also the degree of independence we want our students to get, i.e. we might encounter students who are exposed to these meta-linguistic concepts for the first time, requiring a more active role from our part in their training of learning techniques. It is important to include our objectives are independence trainers in our global objectives for the course.

• Convincing learners that they are capable of greater independence in learning, probably most effectively by giving them successful experiences of independent learning

It is high time to be honest and assume that half of our job is the one of a “top-seller” from the business world, we need to “sell” our views to our students, or as Tricia Hedge says “convince our learners of...” In this particular case, we need to convince them of their own potential and that requires an extra effort on our part since our students are mainly teens or adult who may easily get frustrated. Success oriented experiences are a must in our classes if we professes the independent learning.
The question is if our classes are ready for that. Traditional teacher-centered education would consider self-access training as a way of “disorganizing” classrooms and curriculums; fostering independence can be even threatening for them. So, are we prepared to face the challenge that braking with that traditional viewpoint means? It will demand more time for planning and for organizing different activities; but for sure, it will be a rewarding task!!! :) :)

Based on Tricia Hedge, Teaching and Learning in Language Classroom, Oxford, 2000 (Chapter 3)