Which points of this lesson did you agree with or find helpful and why ?
First , I thought it is helpful to reformulate utterances . Because when Mr.Hall said to us , "Reformulations of utterance" , I did not understand what the words meant . But I could understand it by myself , after he said to us , "It is to say one thing in various ways" . It is easy for us to understand the words which was translated into Japanese , but if we understood difficult words by ourselves , we would get pleasure and the pleasure make an impresion of the words .
Second , I agreed with using the real things and pictures or charts . When I took Spanish class , family tree helped me to understand the explanation and new bocabularies . That is , the explanation with pictures is much more intelligible than the explanation without using pictures , because if teachers wrote pictures on blackboard , we could image and understand through the pictures . It is helpful to use not only ears but also eyes .
Third , I also agreed with doing total physical response . Because I could really enjoy myself , and I could understand and remember new bocabularies easier by using my body . Maybe students will feel same things with me . I think if we had more time to do activity of students during classes , we will not bore students . Only teacher's explanation is monotonous , so this activity will stimulate them .
Finally , It is helpful for us to make gestures to teach new vocabularies . When Mr.Hall tought us the names of our body's parts in Spanish , he used this way . For example , when he taught us how to speak shoulder , he touched his shoulder . And when he explained strength , he frowmed and spoke in a deep voice . So I could understand those words which I had never heard before in only Spanish . Thus , it is effective to do gestires to teach students new vocabularies in their second language .
Which points of this lesson did you disagreed or did not find helpful and why ?
First , I disagreed with using students as examples . There are not only positive and cheerful students but also negative and quiet students in the classes . So we should not use this way easily , we should use after we can understant students's character well . Perhaps , we may say the words which the student worries about , and we may hurt their feelings . Whether students are interested in the subject or not depend on it that they like the teacher . So we have to behave carefully , and take full responsibility for this behavior .
Next , I did not find helpful about traditional vocabulary learning . Of course , there are many advantages , for example , we can learn many words once , teachers can teach fast and so on . But there are many disadvantages , too . For taking entrance examination , I had to remember new vocabularies as many as possible in the class . So most of high school English teachers did traditional vocabulary learning . During the class , I could remember many new vocabularies and I felt this is the best way to learn them . But I forget those vocabularies easily day by day , and finally I forget almost of them . So I thought this way can not make long-term memory , because we can not use them practically . It is more efficient to learn them certainly even the number which we can learn is small than to learn many vocabularies uncertainly .
1 comment:
Thank you for your very keen observations and comments about the class. Your mentioning of reformulations, TPR, gestures, pictures and charts show that there are many ways to help learners understand unknown words or phrases other than translation. Overusing translation is a bad thing but sometimes translation can save us time and maintain the tempo of the class by preventing students from getting "stuck" on a word or a phrase.
Your opinion about using students to demonstrate vocabulary is similar to that of M&M. Please see the comment I wrote her.
Lastly, you said that traditional vocabulary learning was not helpful. The weak point is that it is easy to forget words. Learners and native speakers have "active vocabulary" and "passive vocabulary". Active vocabulary is words that speakers of a language can use in speech. A native speaker can know thousands of words but only have an active vocabulary of 3000 words! Passive vocabulary is words that a language learner or native speaker can understand but cannot use. The traditional approach probably encourages the learning of passive vocabulary. However, when students reach high school there are so many new words that they have to learn that teachers and students have no choice but to use the traditional approach most of the time. The reason is that there is simply not enough time. However, as a teacher, if you use the new words in speech continuously it will help students remember the words.
When I reflect on my own language learning, a lot of my vocabulary was learned through both traditional and more active approaches. I did learn a lot of vocabulary through the traditional approach but the
vocabulary I tended to remember was the words on vocabulary lists that I heard in someone else's speech or read in a book, newspaper, magazine, or comic book. The vocabulary I tended to forget was the words I only saw on vocabulary lists.
Well, my comment has become a little long because your post made me reflect on a lot of things! Keep up the good work!
-JH
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