WELL,I AM SAD BECAUSE WE FINISHED OUR BEST SUBJECT. I REALLY ENJOYED IT, AND ALSO I LEARNED A LOT. THANK YOU TEACHER, AND THANK YOU CLASSMATES. GOD BLESS YOU.

Teaching large classes.
This video is really nice because it gives you many information about how to overcome many of the problems when teaching. The video was developed with children, but I think you can adapt it to teach teens or adults.
There are 3 things that we have to take into consideration and they are:
Pedagogical planning, classroom learning system and students behavors.
These factors are important if you want to work in a sucessful way with your large class.
1-Pedagogical planning:
This is one of the most important things in a class, and of course in large classes.
Something that called my attention is the diagnostic test that you must do at the begginig of a level, topic, class etc. This is a nice tool that can help you to know the way you are going to prepare the material for your classes. Remember that you have to plan every thing you will do because if you do that, you can be prepared to face problems that will come when teaching. Also a teacher has to be very creative, and for example if at the beggining of a term the teacher doesn´t know the names of students, it is useful to write their names in little name cards.
2-Classroom learning systems:
Well, I think this is very important too because if you have a physically organized classroom, it is possible that your students learn better. Also,when you have students´materials in the classroom, it can motivate students to work harder.
But in this point there is something that is kind of impossible in our country; it is that students have to have enough space for them to be capable to move their bodies. Unfortunately in our country we don´t have that, and some students have to receive their classes in very small rooms.
Another nice activity that I could see is the “self check and peer check work”. This is amazing if you want your students to feel as a real part of the class and as if their opinions are really relevant for the teacher. When you have large groups this can be nice for you because you learn that a large class is not always a difficult think; you learn that you can make your students help you, and they will be happy to develop your activities.
3- Students behavor.
This is something that is difficult in our country because there are a lot of problems especially with teens, but I could see something nice in the video, and that is that you don´t have to think that misbehaving students are stupids. Every person´s behavor represents what they are living, if they have problems etc, so a teacher has to think in it and try to help students.
I think that if all teachers have that idea clear, our society would be different, and we might avoid the kind of problems that we have nowadays like: students trying to kill themselves.
But a teacher also has to know how to apply every role in the classroom as an authority, teacher, friend, parent etc. In this way a teacher has to show confidence, but also respect because your students are going to treat you in the way you treat them.

HELLO EVERYONE. Today I want to share what I think about the use of Internet tools in English classes. To do that I will answer some questions...

1- What is your feeling toward using Internet tools with your EFL students?

Well, I feel that Internet tools are one of the best tools that a teacher and a student can have to conquer their objectives; this is because Internet offers you many resources that you can not find with other tools. For example, a teacher from another country could invent a technique to teach children or teens, and this technique could be useful for a Salvadorean teacher. In this way you can share your knowledge and learn about others´,so Internet tools are very important because they can help you to teach English as a Foreign Language in a easier and effective way.

2- How didi you feel the last time you were working with Internet tools?

Saturday, Nov 29,2010

To be honest, I have to say that it was nice when I was trying to enter and explore new things, but the problem was when I did not find what to do. I faced many problems trying to enter to a page, but the worst was when I saw a classmate watching a video, and I couldn´t do it.
After trying many times, I could sign on a page, and I felt very happy. Also, I realized the importance of a teacher in motivating students to investigate, try new things and look for new resources in order to learn as much as possible.

3- Can you see any importance in using Internet tools with EFL students?

Of course. As I said before, Internet is an excellent resource to teach EFL because you teach the language in a way that you make your students feel like if they were studying their own language. When you are learning in your native language, you feel identied because you understand what you do. The same happens when you use nice tools like Internet. You can apply activities that are used to make students feel comfortable with the language and help them to develop their abilities.

4-Would this use meet any intelligence we had studied so far?

I think that the intelligence that you develop the most is the Interpersonal Intelligence because remember that those kind of people like to socializate. When you use Internet tools you have the chance to have many friends by the different sides like the blog, wiki, facebook, e-mail, voxpop etc.You can study and share many things with your friends and classmates; also, this helps students to feel their learning more active and interesting. But, you also use the visual intelligence, logical intelligence etc.

Well, I am waiting for your comments . GOD BLESS YOU.

Contextualizing Language


Well this topic is kind of new for me, but I can see that it is very interesting in order to make the teaching process more effective. When you use contextualization, you involve many things at the same time because you teach relevant things for the students and things that they want to know or talk about. It is important to have an idea of their likes, desires and things that are valuable for each student, for example something that is important for a teen like talking about girls and boyfriends, it is not important when you are teaching to kinder garden students.
In this way the teacher has a big responsability because you have not only to teach the topics that are assigned for the level you are teaching, but also you have to make it nice and dynamic for your students. In this process you have to consider their capacities, the environment and the social expectancies.

In the video I could see that students were motivated to participate. They did things that were relevant for their level eg. Children like to move their bodies and sing; teens like to make dramas or presentations like those they have in the real life e.g. talk about drugs, sports, hobbies etc.
I think that this kind of teaching is acceptable in our society because we know that we live in a world in which we have to communicate with others and interchange opinions, and as in this type of teaching students learn as a team (it can be in groups or pairs), it becomes easier for teachers to have succes in their objetives.

But, there is something that we have to take into consideration, and it is that teachers that develop this method have to be very creative, transmit that they also enjoy what they do because there are some teachers that don´t enjoy their job, and they don´t pay so much attention to students´ necesities. Specially in our country I think that if we want to use this method as a way to teach students according to their needs, we have to train teachers because most of them would not be prepared enough to teach around contextualization language.

THINGS THAT A TEACHER HAS TO CONSIDER.

1-ESTABLISH RAPPORT. Well, the first time I heard about this, I didn´t understand the term, but what I can say now is that it is the relationship between students and teaches.This relation is useful for both because it makes the teacher´s job easier, and it allows students to learn throughly. In this point the teacher has the power to choose the way of his class because if you do not interact with your students, or you do not create a friendship with them, the results are going to be disastrous.
A teacher must be integral, and she/he has to combine a lot of elements in a class.eg.

-To be a friend, but to be a leader at the same time.
-To inspire trust and respect too.
-Make students to know that they are intelligent, but not know-all.

This is related with:
2-BALANCE PRAISE AND CRITICISM

As I already mentioned the teacher has to have a balance, and this also includes a balance when you gjve praise or critism to your students. You have to know that if you do not apply these resources in a good way, you can affect your students instead of help them.
For every action we have different results, and something that is nice for you, can be destructive for your students, so you have to analize what your are going to do, to say, to use and to apply in your class and with your students.
This is going to help to:

3-Generate energy. When you are sure about what you are doing, and you enjoy your job, you can create a classroom energy. Remember that the person who is front as a model is the teacher, but if the teacher wants to sleep, students cannot feel motivated.
At school I didn´t like English because it was boring, and I imagine that my teachers only wanted to earn money because they didn´t look happy when they were teaching. I thought that English was boring, but now I realized that it is not. The problem is that teachers do not transmit
that energy that students need. They do not make students feel the necesity of learning, so most people at schools hate English.
In this example we can see the importance of the teacher´s behavior during our learning process. So, as English´s teachers we have to be the first who enjoy our class and what we teach; if not, we are going to be an obstacle for our students´ process.

TEACHING BEGINNING LEVELS.

This is one of the greatest experiences in a teacher´s career because in this area you can see very quickly the results of your job.

• About the role of the teacher:

With begginers, the teacher has a big responsability because students do know anything, and they are going to reproduce all things that the teacher does. If you are motivated in your class, they are going to be motivated too, but if you do not like what you do, and you do not enjoy to teach, they are not going to learn.
A teacher has to guide the class, but it doesn´t mean that you cann´t let students to participate. What you have to do is to make your students talk, participate and have the curiosity of knowing new words and vocabulary. Also you must help them in order to develop their knowledge.
A teacher has to be a friend with students so that they feel comfortable. Also a teacher has to be very patient because some children learn very slow.

• Authenticity of language:

Remember that students are interested in things that they can use "now"; it means useful vocabulary, phrases to share with their friends and greetings, so you have to make the language interesting for them, make topics according to their needs, and be very careful with your classes.
In this level you have to repeat a lot in order to make them learn something. Use words that they can use every day and not difficult topics which are boring for them.

• Students creativity.

Some people think that because children do not know so much about the language, they aren´t creative, but this is no true. Maybe children cann´t make a great composition, or a nice dialogue, but they can show other kind of creativity for example: When a children make the mimics of an animal, when they play games, make gestures and when they try to answer a question. This is creativity for their level because although they do not know so much, the try to communicate each other.
A teacher has to see this nice features of students´ proccess in learning a new language, and strengthen this in order to make them feel motivated.

TEACHING TEENS.

Well this is the most difficult area for a teacher because they have to face a lot of problems:
When we are teens, we need a special treat because we are in an age of transition between childhood and adulthood, so teens cann´t be treated like children,but neither like adults.
All teens need attention to their questions, their curiosities and their problems. You have to talk about things that they lke if not you are not going to catch their attention. So teachers must be:

-Very creative to make topics interesting for students.Remember that students like to talk about fashion, soccer and girls, so teachers must make their topics nice for students, and they have to understand that there are some topics that are boring for students, but a teacher has to make them great. (Attention span).

-Very dinamic because you cann´t transmit something that you do not feel. Teens also need to use their body in order to learn something; this does not mean that you are going to be moving your body all the time, but you have to develop games and present your topics in a dynamic way (Sensory input) .In this period we also need pictures, videos, games, but the most important is the attitude of the teacher.

-Teachers have to know their students.
Because teens are in a period of transition, teachers have know students because they must think in everyone. A teacher has to prepare an activity and be sure if that activity is going to be effective for all teens in the class, or only for some.

-Hard workers because teachers have to prepare a lot of material.
A teacher in this area has to prepare a lot of materials. It is true that teens start to develop their logical and abstract thought, but this doesn´t mean that they do not need a lot of explanations and variety of resources in order to understand something.

-Very patient because teens are changing and they can be rebel,or difficult to treat.
Most of teens are difficult to understand, but a teacher has to play a lot of roles with them: like a friend, like a parent, like a counselor and as a teacher.

Finally I think that teaching teens is one of the most difficult jobs that a teacher can have, but if you love teaching, you are going to notice that this can give you a lot of satisfaction.

TEACHERRRRRRRRRRRR I have a problem.......... I couldn´t enter to the wiki because when I try, I have to create a new account .Please tell what to do.

Hello.... Today I want to answer teacher´s Aida question. I think it is difficult to convice students to be recorder because they can feel afraid, but we can persuade them and tell them that it is a good oportunity to learn and that it has a lot of advantages. I think that a teacher has the power to motivate students in whatever situation, but as teachers we have to believe that, and be an example for them because if we are afraid of being recorder, our students are going to feel the same.
We can practice with them in order to make them feel acostumed to be recorder and make them learn that we have to overcome every situation in our life; to do this we can invent games like "a tv show program", play as as if we were a personality that is in the tv etc.
If someone asks me if I let him-her to record my class, I am going to say Yes because I think this is a nice activity and this can help me a lot, and it can help my students too.

Hi people.........................Today I have some things to say about the activities that my classmates presented. Well today I learned a lot, and I realized that the class depends especially of the teacher because he-she is the person who can change the environment of the classroom.I think that students can be bored,but the teacher with his-her abilities can change it.

Mmmm,but about the activities I have to comment that I liked Kike´s pictures, and I really believe that one of the best ways to teach in first levels and also with teenagers, it is through pictures because it is easier to learn what the teacher is saying. I mean, when you have pictures you not only imagine something,but also see it, and this means a double learning.
I think the activities that contain different materials are more effective that those that do not use any material, especially to develop speaking skills.

Also, I enjoyed the recorder because it is very strange to listen my voice when it had been recorded. I felt nervous because I am not used to doing that; it was funny because we made some mistakes and this helped us to correct them, and this is the most important in this activity. I think that if all teachers could use this tool, it would be nice and they could get excellent results in order to teach their students.
The problem here in El Salvador is that we do not have enough resources, and teachers have to invent how to teach and make a class different.

Ohhh about Luis´ activity, I have to say that it was the first time I do that, and I felt rare because I do not have any experience in a job and that made me feel nervous as I was asking for one.
I think that these kind of activities can be useful especially with teens because they can learn about real situations and problems that they are going to face in the society.


In the last activity that was presented by Xavier, I liked the game because this helped us to feel motivated in the class, and I think this kind of games help students to work hard because they like to feel that they are winners..
I think that if we could mix all these activities and apply them in a correct way, our classes would be nice and students could learn a lot.

Mmmm about

Uppppppsssssssssss................... We have the exam tomorrow.... We have to study a lot because our teacher is very strict UPSSS.....GOD BLESS US.

SECOND DAY OF ACTIVITIES....................

The whole method: Oh! the first activity has something good and that is that students can develop reading skills, which is nice for students especially in our level, but the most importan is that we learn how to develop our analysis and to make questions.

I liked the second activity because I like to write stories with the use of pictures.I think all of them were nice.This can help students to use their imagination and to turn the class more interesting.

TPR.Well...I liked to move my finguers a lot and also to move my body, but what really liked me was the part which we had to make gestures and mimics. It was great and I liked to see my classmates´ faces (especially my teacher).With this activity you can learn how to represent a word, a verb or another thing, and this can help the student to understand another language.

The Natural A. The activities here are great and I think this can help students to learn different things like colors and parts of the body, especially with begginers. I remember that I learned a lot by pictures because sometimes I did not understand something, but through pictures I understood the meaning of every thing. To use this method you have to have a lot of creativity and time to prepare the material for your classes.

This method makes students to feel comfortable.

All the activities were nice... CONGRATULATIONS AGAIN.

GOD BLESS US.

ACTIVITIES..

Hello people! I want to tell you that the last class was so nice for me.I really enjoyed it, and I desire all my classes in that way, but I know that this is almost impossible..
I have to CONGRATULATE ALL MY CLASSMATES, YOU DID IT GREAT.

About Suggestopedia I have to say that I liked the way how we used the instruments. I liked to play with those beautiful toys. I think that with instruments you can learn a lot because children love to make noise ,and at the same time they are lerning.
The only thing is that you have to have all those instruments for your students ,and some schools do not buy them for your classes, so you have to buy them with your own money.
But this is a nice method and it has nice activities.

The Direct method is good ,too. I liked the part when each student has to participate and give his-her opinion.
The teacher has to control all and check things like pronunciation.
To make groups is very useful because students share their ideas and they learn with others, so I liked that activity because we participated a lot.

The Silent Way. I think that the activities of this method are useful if you can apply them. I like that students are free to build their own sentences, and the teacher let them to work alone.I like this because I consider that the teacher has not to be next to the students all the time, only if the student do not understand.
With these activities we can learn a lot about writing and grammar, but the thing is that the teacher has to have a lot of imagination in order to create a great class, if not students are going to feel bored because the teacher does not talk so much.
But Alex taught us a lot of things..nice.

The Audio Lingual Method. Well, I consider that you have to enjoy what you do and what you say, and it does not matter the situation or the place, so I enjoyed this method and the activities because I had to explain them. I liked these activities a lot,and the most importan is that they are useful and you can get good result from using these kind of techniques.
I liked that my classmates talked a lot and they tried to understand what I was saying.But the nicer thing for me was the tongue twister.I liked to listen my classmates and my teacher to repeat the paraghrap and how they got confused...I enjoyed it a lot, and I think that we learned some things, too. THANKS GOD.

The last methods...

I really learned a lot about each method, and these 3 last methods are very useful ,too.

First: CBI.
I consider that this method has something great and fundamental for students; it is, that students learn about topics and things that are really important for them. For example with children the teacher can teach about cartoons, games and others, and this is going to motivate students to continue learning and reading information.
In this case the teacher has a big responsability because he-she has to be very intelligent and look for the way how to transmit a message through these kind of topics.

Task Based Instruction.
I like to make a lot of researchs , and in this method you do many researchs with students. This is very useful because when you are active in the process of learning, you have more opportunities to learn. But if you are all the time waiting for the teacher help, you are not going to develop your skills.
Thje bad thing here is that if you want to apply this method with begginers, it is going to be very hard because children loose their attention easily, and this can cause a headache for teachers

The last method( Community Language Learning) has good things too.
I consider that you can learn a lot from others; also, if you share your ideas with your classmates, you can develop communication skills and the importance of respecting other points of view.
In this method you share a lot of with your partners;with this, you can learn a lot of vocabulary, more information about a topic etc. Also, the use of recording is very nice because you can record your mistakes in order to check them later and overcome your mistakes.
Also, I like the relation between the teacher and the student. I consider this point very important because teachers must take care of students feelings, students needs and all those things that affect their learning. Actually some teachers do it, but some others do not think why a student do not pay attention in a class,or what happen in his-her house (if their parents have problems etc). If we know this, we can help our students and our job is going to be easier.

Hi! I am writing again......
Well, about THE ORAL APPROACH: I consider that this method is almost the same with the audio-lingual method. As you remember ,I explained that method, but when I listened "the oral approach..." I started to ask a lot of question of the use of that method, and there are a lot of things that are difficult. For example, if you do not let your students to make mistakes, how are they going to learn if we learn from our mistakes?.. I think that this point is a disadvantage for students because I can not imagine a teacher trying to correct me every minute in my life mmm no because I would feel afraid of talk or participate in class.
I prefer the combination of methods and that is why I consider the NATURAL METHOD very useful.
Something that called my attention was that in this method students and teachers are friends, and this is something that would be nice at schools especially in El Salvador because here in our country most of teachers are very bad with their students...(in UNICAES) jiji.
What I liked of the Natural Method is that the most important for all the system are students and all things are around them. This is nice because teachers pay a lot of attention to students´ needs, and to do this teachers combine different methods in order to make education very effective. But no all is good in this method. I do not like that students can decide when they want to learn or talk; this is bad because in this way I think that nobody is going to talk in a class.Sometimes we have to force students to work in order to make them learn.
Also, I am no so sure but I think that there are not evaluations in this method, and this do not help students.

Ok I am waiting more methods...Nice weekend!!

The Audio-lingual Method. This method is very good especially if you want to learn how to speak and how to stablish a conversation.
In this method you can do many activities and something that is very important is that students are motivated to participate in class, to answer questions because this is one of the purposes of this method.
I think that we learn a lot of things if we listen first and then we repeat; remember that in english we have to use our memory a lot e.g: for verbs, adjectives etc.
The best way how you can learn things is by practicing them, if not, we are going to learn how to write but no how to talk, and this is no so good.
The only bad thing in this method is; it does not pay so much attention to writen and reading skills.
Actually we continue using this method in many schools in order to make people talk.


TPR Method.This is a very interesting method that I really liked because it offers comfort and a lot of things for students. I think that this method with the suggestopedia method are very nice because education is a process that has to be dynamic but in some cases this is boring and students do not desire go to school, but if we use this method we can change that.
It is nice when a teacher enjoys what he-she is doing because it makes students do the same and participate in the class.
One thing that is difficult, is to find dynamic teachers because here in our country most of teachers are serious and they do not like to move their bodies, sing a song or play with students. The most difficult is in the university because there are a lot of adults and people that prefer being sitting down,but it is not imposible because the teacher Aida uses this method and it makes the class very dynamic.
But I think that we can not apply this method in our country because most of our children are very rebel and if teachers let them to do what they want and learn when they want, this is going to be a disaster.

Whole language approach. This method seems interesant because this can help students to love reading and writing. When you read something that is interesting for you, you enjoy it and you desire continue reading and in this method this is nice because through these things students can learn vocabulary (when they do not understant the meaning of something, they ask for it), they enjoy to talk about what they read and the teacher can take advantage of this, but this means a lot of time preparing materials for students.
The thing is that they do not pay so much attention to speaking and listening skills because this is based on reading.I think that this method could be perfect if we mix it with the audio-lingual method.

Comments about Methods

The Direct Object. This method is an important method that can help teachers and students at the same time. It is good because the relation between the student and teacher is direct, they are friends and this help students to be sure and to feel comfortable. The most important in this is that this method help people to develop the 4 macro skills.
I think that this method would be perfect if we combine it with some others.

The Suggestopedia M . This can be one of the best methods for me because it offers a lot of things for students,and most of those things are necesities that we have.
I like this method because it says that students have to feel good with their learning: in sofas ( this is great because our desks in the university are so bad), you listen beautiful songs that can help you to learn vocabulaty and other kind of things, you play with your classmates and you are free to do different things like play the piano, sing a song etc.
I would like this method for me and my children,but I know that this method is very difficult because you have to have excellent teachers with a lot of abilities and the cost is very high.

The silent method. I think that this method is used in some schools by teachers that do not like to work. Maybe it can be used in countries where students are very resposibles about their learning, but here in El Salvador if we apply this and we let students learn by themselves, I think we are not going to get good results.
It is difficul to apply this method because most of students do not have clear objectives in their life, and they do not know the value of education.
For me this method is no so good, especially in El Salvador.

Mmmm I only have one follower.....................