Assignment - Unit 3 The Teaching and Learning of

ESOL

Module 1 The Basic Principles of TESOL

Submission of Unit 3 Module 1 for Assessment (180 hour)

TASKS FOR SUBMISSION TO YOUR TUTOR

Each task should be between 500 and 750 words long.

TASK 1

Using what you have read in this introduction to TESOL and your own
knowledge, what do you consider to be the blocks which may prevent
language learning?

Answer:

Learning a new language is a complicated process and like any other

challenge, obstacles will arise. Every new language learner struggles at
some point in their journey to fluency. When speaking about difficulties in
learning and teaching foreign language different authors use different
terminology. Some of them speak about mistakes, misbehaviour,
troubles, difficulties and so on.
I think we can roughly categorise blocks in two major types. The first
type is teacher’s blocks. Regarding blocks that could appear from the
teacher’s side most of the authors pay attention to the following. Lack of
self-discipline, fears of working with different students, managing stress,
anger and other emotions. Also, I could mention blocks that are
connected with previous experience and teacher’s deformation. To
overcome this troubles teacher needs to be a strong-motivated person
able to struggle with his/her blocks.

As for students and there is much more information to think of. In a list
there are such huge themes as age, motivation, level of knowledge,
previous learning experience and influence of mother tongue.

Lack of self confidence

Self-confidence is one of the most essential factors that determines

learners’ willingness to participate in the classroom activities. The
students who lack of confidence are usually found to be extremely fearful
and timid, moving away from expressing their opinions and even unable
to utter a complete meaningful sentence in class.

What should be carefully considered is how to help students to build and

strengthen their confidence when they learn the second language.

Lack of practice opportunities

Another challenge to learning a new language is a lack of opportunity to

practice. The easiest way to learn a new language is to immerse yourself
in it.

Hearing language all day and having to communicate in the language to

do everyday activities trains our brain more quickly.
Fear of speaking with strangers/fluent speakers
Since nothing can replace practicing a new language with someone else
in conversation, it’s pretty hard to avoid speaking with strangers when
we are practicing. So, a fear of speaking with strangers can be a huge
obstacle for new language learners.

Loss of motivation

No matter how excited we are at the beginning, it’s inevitable to

encounter loss of motivation at some point of time in our journey. Every
long-term project that takes some effort requires staying motivated to get
through the most difficult parts.

Expecting it to be easy

The final obstacle to mention here is the expectation that learning a new
language will be easy. If one goes into this learning experience
expecting to pick up quickly and get frustrated when it doesn’t happen
that way.

It is important to work upon the positive attitude of grown-up students, to

show them the advantages of leaning language now, when they exactly
know where they will use it and what for do, they need it. Teacher may
use different arguments to confront with lack of self-confidence.

It’s far not all the blocks and not all the ways of overcoming them but I
think that student’s blocks and the blocks of a teacher are deeply
connected. And if a teacher has strong blocks in teaching s/he will face
with lack of motivation and self-confidence from his/her students.

Connecting with other teachers, observation feedback, realistic

understanding of the own level and own abilities may be very useful.

TASK 2
"............it seems reasonable to suggest that the motivation that students
bring to class is the biggest single factor affecting their success" ( The
Practice of English Language Teaching' Harmer)

From your own experience and from what you have read can you
comment on this statement?

Answer:

“As with all learning skills, pupils will be more motivated when they are
interested in what they are thinking about or see a real purpose for their
thinking” (Wilson, J., & Murdoch, K.:)

Student motivation naturally has to do with students’ desire to participate

in the learning process. But it also concerns the reasons or goals that
underlie their involvement or non-involvement in academic activities.
Although students may be equally motivated to perform a task, the
sources of their motivation may differ.
 
A student who is intrinsically motivated undertakes an activity “for its own
sake, for the enjoyment it provides, the learning it permits, or the feelings
of accomplishment it evokes”. An extrinsically motivated student
performs “in order to obtain some reward or avoid some punishment
external to the activity itself,” such as grades, stickers, or teacher
approval.

Below are a few strategies which can help to maximize student

motivation.

Setting goals

Goal setting is fundamental for any ESL lesson. Goals give students a
purpose, they give the lesson and course direction, they help improve a
student’s self-esteem and confidence, and students who set their own
goals tend to achieve more.
Setting solid goals will keep the students more focused, remind them of
why they are taking the time to study, and make the learning experience
more relevant.

Planning and organizing lessons with the students

In order to motivate online ESL students, good planning and

organization of each lesson is crucial. One should also break lessons
into smaller sequences, allowing for breaks, especially for young
learners.

We can involve our students in the lesson planning by including their

opinions and decisions. Listen to their experiences, and ask students
how they feel about their lessons.

Incorporate collaborative learning

However, you may have groups of students who are of a similar age and
ability. If this is the case, you can ask them to work on collaborative
tasks outside of class. Collaborative whiteboard apps allow students
from different locations to work on the same whiteboard. The students
can work in real-time together and they can keep on their own time after
your classes.

Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

It has been found that when students were confronted with complex
intellectual tasks, those with an intrinsic orientation used more logical
information-gathering and decision-making strategies than did students
who were extrinsically oriented.
 
 
Although every educational activity cannot, and perhaps should not, be
intrinsically motivating, these findings suggest that when teachers can
capitalize on existing intrinsic motivation, there are several potential
benefits.
 
Extrinsic rewards, on the other hand, should be used with caution, for
they have the potential for decreasing existing intrinsic motivation.
Students with an intrinsic orientation also tend to prefer tasks that are
moderately challenging, whereas extrinsically oriented students gravitate
toward tasks that are low in degree of difficulty. Extrinsically oriented
students are inclined to put forth the minimal amount of effort necessary
to get the maximal reward.

Intrinsic motivators drive a person forward. One wants his/her students

to have a sense of purpose that fuels their course participation and
engagement and that compels them to keep doing even difficult task.
They should know that what they’re doing here matters.

Extrinsic motivators like certificates and digital badges remind the

students of what they know and what they can do. They increase
confidence and self-esteem. Plus, rewarding the students, especially
young learners, with these prizes helps them view learning as a game
and stay motivated.

Creating active learning opportunities

One definition of active learning is “hands-on learning.” Assign the adult
students to interview people working in the field, or to otherwise bring
their learning out into the community where they live.

Assessment and frequent feedback

To engage the students even more in the learning process, provide

ample opportunities for self-assessment during or after the classes.

Giving timely and useful feedback to students about their performance is

extremely important in the effort to keep students engaged and
motivated. Feedback that is detailed and positive in nature is most
effective.
Knowing students’ interests

To connect with the students, the teacher should show interest in their
lives and do research on their favourite pop culture topics, music, and
games. Try to engage them by letting them tell teacher about
themselves during class. Once teacher know his/her students well
enough, he/she can always relate the lesson content to their interests
and lives, thereby providing relevant context for their learning.

Teacher’s enthusiasm, his/her smile, and his/her own motivation will

affect the students on many levels and encourage them.

 
 

(Kawasaki, 2020)
TASK 3

" Knowing a language is not just a matter of having grammatical

'competence' ........ We have seen that we also need to add
communicative competence - that is the understanding of what language
is appropriate within certain situations." (The Practice of English Language
Teaching' Harmer)

Is there any place for teaching grammar in a formal manner? Give

reasons for your answer and include a discussion of what you mean by
‘a formal manner’.

Answer:

“Grammar is not a code of rules, it is, like etiquette and table manner, a
statement of conventions, it summarizes what is done by cultural
peoples, and like etiquette, it is in state of constant change.”
Dr. West

Grammar is a theory of a language; it is the study of the organization of

words into sentences. In the teaching learning of a language, grammar
occupies an important place. Grammar deals with the functions of words
in a sentence. Every language has its own grammar. Knowledge of
grammar is much more important for a second language learner than to
a native speaker.

Grammar presents the facts of language arranged under certain

categories and deals only with what can be brought under general laws
and stated in the form of general rules. The meaning and concept of
grammar will be clearer by the following given definitions which are
stated by the eminent scholar.

The aims of teaching grammar should be to make pupils think

scientifically about language. One of the major aims of teaching
grammar is to enable the students to speak grammatically. The teaching
of grammar anticipates correct expression of the students.
Formal manner of teaching grammar is the concentration on grammar
structure in languages. In this type of teaching, the students learn of the
different grammatical structures as well as how to compose sensible
sentences. The method of teaching is based on the assumption that
grammatical requirements contribute greatly to the construction of
correct sentences. Informal manner on the other hand focuses on the
ability of the students to speak in the new language fluently. In this
method therefore, the teacher informs the students of the impact of
different factors in language use such as tonal variations. Formal
language teaching method is an inappropriate manner of teaching new
languages.

One of the reasons why there is no place for formal grammar teaching
method is because the formal method leads to the student never
learning how to communicate effectively through that language. In the
formal method, the students only understand the grammatical
requirements of a language. They may therefore not understand how the
placement of a word in a sentence may change the meaning of the
whole sentence. They end up forming sentences based on what they
think is the correct grammatical structure. Consequently, sometimes they
say things that do not necessarily mean what they mean to say. It is
thereby difficult for them to communicate effectively using the language.

Formal grammatical teaching further fails to consider the aspects of tonal

variation. Students that do not have speaking as part of the language
lessons do not understand that one sentence could have different
meanings depending on the tonal variation in different words and the
emphasis put in those words while speaking them. Formal teaching just
focuses on grammatical structure of the language, thus, students taught
through the style fail to put emphasis or use the right tonal variations for
their sentences to mean what they originally meant. Their audiences
therefore get a different meaning from what the speaker meant. Hence,
there are many cases of miscommunication and misunderstandings
between the audience and the second language learner.

Formal manner of learning languages makes it difficult for the learners to

understand native speakers. This is especially true in a casual setup.
The formal method directs the students to construct sentence for formal
use alone thereby failing to equip them to engage in casual
conversations. Native speakers often use phrases that disregard
grammatical requirements. The language learners taught in a formal
manner may therefore not understand what the native speaker is saying
or completely misunderstand the speaker. The miscommunication may
influence the individual to make wrong decisions based on the wrongly
understood information. However, the informal manner on teaching
would solve this issue by demonstrating to the learner how different
setups would require a slight change in the sentence structures.

In conclusion, the formal manner of teaching grammar should not be

used in language classes. It limits the learner from learning effective
ways of communicating using the language, makes it impossible for the
learner to engage in casual conversation as well as fails to demonstrate
the use of tonal variations and emphasis of words while speaking. The
people that learn new languages need to learn all aspects of the
grammatical components in the language for proper use and
understanding. (Harmer, 2015) (Savitskaya)i
i