UNIT 4- LANGUAGE ACROSS THE CURRICULUM-Creating Language for Classroom Interaction - Part 1-BEd notes
Prepared by
Sabarish P
Contents
Language of instruction-Aural oral skills in English language- contents of variety curricular resources
Creating language for Classroom Interaction
The efficacy of language teaching and learning has been the subject of research for many years, and most of the researchers have focused their studies on second language acquisition.
Classroom interaction provides learners with opportunities both to encounter input and to practice the second language.
Classroom interaction creates a state of receptivity in the learners, which is defined as an active openness, a willingness to encounter the language and the culture it represents.
According to the participants in classroom interaction: the teacher and the learners, classroom interaction is classified into two categories: teacher-learner interaction, learner-learner interaction.
Teacher-learner interaction has broad sense and narrow sense. In broad sense, teacher-learner interaction is the interaction between the teacher and learner. In narrow sense, it is the interaction between the teacher and learner or the teacher and learners in teaching situation.
Learner-learner interaction is based on peer relationships, which allows the maximum degree of communication.
Carefully structured learner-learner interactions provide a forum for extended, meaningful exploration of ideas, which exposes learners to more varied and complex language from their peers than does traditional teacher-fronted classroom interactions.
Through interaction with other learners in pairs or groups, learners can have more opportunities to make use of linguistic resources in a relaxing and uncontrolled manner and use them to complete different kinds of tasks.
According to the focus point of learner’s language competence and the benefit of learner activities, there are two types of classroom interaction: language output and language input.
Language output mainly concerns foreign learners’ competence of using language.
Language input aims to improve learners’ mastering of target language and speed up their language acquisition.
Classroom interaction tends to be scientific and diverse.
Classroom interaction is one of the primary means by which learning is accomplished in classrooms.
In language classrooms, it takes on an especially significant role in that it is both the medium through which learning is realized and an object of pedagogical attention.
Through their interactions with each other, teachers and students construct a common body of knowledge.
Teachers and students create mutual understandings of their roles and relationships, and the norms and expectations of their involvement as members in their classrooms.
Through interactions with their teachers, students are socialized into particular understandings of what counts as the official curriculum and of themselves as learners of that subject matter.
The patterns of interaction also help define the norms by which individual student achievement is assessed.
Students draw upon these patterns and norms to participate in subsequent classroom activities and thus they are consequential in terms of not only what students ultimately learn, but also, more broadly, their participation in future educational events and the roles and group memberships that they hold within these events.
Language of instruction
Language of instruction plays an important role in determining the quality of education.
Language of instruction is a vehicle through which education is delivered.
The language of instruction is an indispensable medium for carrying, or transmitting education from teachers to learners and among learners.
As a matter of efficiency and efficacy, only the language which teachers and students understand can effectively function as the language of instruction.
Only when teachers and students understand the language of instruction are they able to discuss, debate, ask and answer questions, ask for clarification and therefore construct and generate knowledge,.
Teaching the language, or educational content, through the target language increases the amount of exposure the learner gets to it, and the opportunities they have to communicate in it, and therefore to develop their control of it.
The language of instruction is an important factor in determining the quality of education.
Aural oral skills in English language
A child first speaks / listens before it can read or write; consequently, basic oral and aural skills development is a good starting point for teaching a language.
The aural-oral approach is said to result in rapid acquisition of speaking and listening skills and in developing listening and speaking skills, as the foundation on which to build the skills of reading and writing.
The aural-oral approach is based on the behaviourist belief that language learning is the acquisition of a set of correct language habits.
The learner repeats patterns until he/she is able to produce them spontaneously.
The teacher directs and controls students’ behaviour, provides a model and reinforces correct responses.
The aural-oral approach is based on the following main principles:
speaking and listening competence precedes competence in reading and writing • use of the mother tongue is discouraged in the classroom
language skills are a matter of habit formulation, so students should practice particular patterns of language through structured dialogues and drills until the language is sufficiently rehearsed for responses to be automatic.
Limitations of the aural-oral approach:
The aural-oral approach emphasizes speech at the expense of other language skills , especially writing.
The ordering of listening, speaking, reading and writing is not essential.
The aural-oral method fails to prepare the learner to use the foreign language for meaningful communication
Teaching / Learning process:
New vocabulary, structures presented through dialogues, which are learned through imitations, repetition.
Drills are based on patterns in dialogues. Students’ correct responses are positively reinforced; grammar is induced from models.
Much of the language-teaching energy is devoted to instruction in mastering the conversation.
However, numerous other forms of spoken language are also important to incorporate into a language course, especially in teaching listening comprehension.
It is important to develop aural and oral skills in learners because one way or the other their proficiency in the target language is to be judged by how well they conduct themselves in such a language.
From a communicative, pragmatic view of the language classroom, listening and speaking skills are closely intertwined.
Content of variety curricular resources
The resources that schools provide to teachers can also have a significant effect on curriculum.
For example, if a district or school purchases a certain set of textbooks and requires teachers to use them, those textbooks will inevitably influence what gets taught and how teachers teach.
Technology purchases are another example of resources that have the potential to influence curriculum.
If all students are given laptops and all classrooms are outfitted with interactive whiteboards, for example, teachers can make significant changes in what they teach and how they teach to take advantage of these new technologies.
In most cases, however, new curriculum resources require schools to invest in professional development that helps teachers use the new resources effectively, given that simply providing new resources without investing in teacher education and training may fail to bring about desired improvements.
In addition, the type of professional development provided to teachers can also have a major influence on curriculum development and design.
Prepared by
Sabarish P
(MSc Physics, MEd, NET)Contact: pklsabarish@gmail.com
