Antología para la unidad académica Introducción a la

Didáctica de las Lenguas.

Licenciatura en Inglés, modalidad a distancia.

Primer bloque del primer semestre.

Mtra. Martha Lorena Obermeier Pérez

Agosto, 2012

1

Índice

Pg.

Introducción 2

Programa del curso 3

Unidad 1 Conceptos básicos de la enseñanza de lenguas.

Conceptos básicos y terminología

8

Unidad 2 ¿Qué puedo enseñar en una clase de inglés?

2.1 ¿Qué se puede enseñar en una clase de inglés?

25

2.2 Competencia comunicativa y actividades comunicativas 57

Unidad 3 What do I need to teach English?

3.1 Teaching techniques.

72

Unidad 4 How to plan an English Class

4.1 Format of a lesson plan.

112

4.2 Guidelines for lesson planning. 123

Unidad 5 How can I organize everything?

5.1 The physical environment of the classroom

130

5.2 From your voice to your teaching under adverse circumstances 135

5.3 Role of the teacher 138

Bibliografía 152

2

Introducción

La presente antología tiene por objetivo principal completar los materiales de los

que disponen los alumnos de la materia Introducción a la didáctica de las lenguas.

Si bien la unidad académica cuenta con una bibliografía, ésta proviene de la misma

fuente bibliográfica en su mayoría. Esta antología pretende ofrecer al alumno

materiales de diversas fuentes para que puedan tener una visión más amplia con

respecto a los contenidos del curso.

Los alumnos que cursaron esta materia en el semestre agosto-diciembre 2012

encontraron varias carencias en los documentos que la materia les presentaba

como bibliografía. En algunos casos, la bibliografía era limitada o estaba

incompleta. La presente antología recopila materiales que complementan los

contenidos del curso y que ayudaron a que los alumnos comprendieran mejor

algunos contenidos, además de tener una visión más amplia sobre los mismos.

3

Programa del curso Introducción a la didáctica de las lenguas

Presentación:

Esta unidad académica forma parte del eje Pedagogía del plan de estudios de la

Licenciatura en Inglés. esta unidad académica presenta los distintos enfoques

metodológicos de enseñanza de las lenguas extranjeras.

Propósito general:

Al finalizar el curso, el estudiante tendrá una noción general de la enseñanza de

lenguas, partiendo de actividades comunicativas; así mismo adquirirá los

conocimientos básicos relacionados con la Planeación y el manejo de la clase.

Competencias genéricas:

La habilidad que debe poseer el estudiante es la de desarrollar y dominar los

distintos enfoques metodológicos de enseñanza de lenguas, además de saber

cómo planear y manejar una clase.

Competencia específica:

Evalúa metodologías para facilitar los procesos de aprendizaje. Diseña, adapta

selecciona y evalúa material didáctico según su contexto.

4

Contenido:

Unidad 1 Conceptos básicos de la enseñanza de lenguas.

1.1Conceptos básicos

1.2 Terminología

Unidad 2 ¿Qué puedo enseñar en una clase de inglés?

2.1 ¿Qué se puede enseñar en una clase de inglés?

2.2 Competencia comunicativa y actividades comunicativas

Unidad 3 ¿Qué necesito para enseñar inglés?

3.1 Técnicas.

3.2 Libro de texto

3.3 Tecnología

Unidad 4 ¿Cómo planeo una clase de inglés?

4.1 Formato del plan de clase

4.2 Guía para elaborar un plan de clase

4.3 Plan de clase

Unidad 5 ¿Cómo organizo todo?

5.1 Ambientación del salón de clase

5.2 De tu voz a tu enseñanza bajo circunstancias adversas

5.3 Rol del maestro.

5

Resultados de aprendizaje:

• Desarrolla y domina los distintos enfoques metodológicos de

enseñanza de lenguas

• Sabe planear y manejar una clase

• Evalúa metodologías para facilitar los procesos de enseñanza

aprendizaje

Estrategias didácticas:

Se utilizará una metodología en la cual los alumnos se involucran

activamente a través del trabajo en equipo realizando actividades

como:

• Proyectos individuales

• Presentaciones en power point

• Documentos en word

• Escuchar textos provenientes de los medios de comunicación:

radio, televisión, cine

• Video grabaciones de conversaciones en pares y grupos

• Seguir instrucciones

• Participar en conversaciones de tipo formal e informal

• Completar formularios y cuestionarios

• Producir cárteles

• Escribir finales de cuentos o sucesos

• Escribir cartas personales, notas, mensajes breves, correos

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electrónicos y un artículo para la gaceta escolar

• Explorar temas, cuadros sinópticos y mapas conceptuales

• Organizar ideas: idea principal, oraciones de apoyo, de

ejemplificación, etc.

• Reconocer la estructura textual de un discurso oral o escrito

• Identificar palabras clave que indiquen la naturaleza del discurso

oral o escrito

• Identificar el tema central de un diálogo, exposición oral o texto

• Inferir connotaciones, actitudes e intenciones

• Parafrasear, usar redes semánticas o sinónimos

• Lecturas guiadas

• Observación de videos

• Transcripciones fonéticas de palabras tanto del inglés como del

español

• Grabación de oraciones

Recursos didácticos:

Computadora, acceso a internet, libros, artículos digitales, chat,

rúbricas, portafolio digital, DVD,CD.

7

Criterios de evaluación:

Nota: Acreditación: el estudiante se considera competente cuando

haya cumplido con el 60% de los criterios de evaluación

Examen de terminología 20%

Participación en los foros, mesas de discusión y de diálogo 20%

Ensayos, textos en línea 30%

Planes de clase 30%

100%

8

Unidad 1 Conceptos básicos de la enseñanza de lenguas

Conceptos básicos y terminología

Basic terminology

Sharwood, M. (1994) Second Language learning. [Fragmento] A quick round

tour. (Pp. 6-19). Essex. Longman.

9

Some terminology in this book will need to be interpreted within different theoretical

perspectives. However, for ease of reading, some working definitions are first

necessary. Various standard abbreviations also need to be mentioned: for example,

‘interlanguage’, which, as mentioned above, may be defined as referring to the

systematic'. Linguistic behavior of second language learners (see below for the

definition of ‘second’) will be used interchangeably with the abbreviation ‘IL’.

Readers more familiar with the psychological literature on the subjects covered will

appreciate that specifies theoretical assumptions are simply made here and not

discussed. Discussions that are necessary will be held over to later chapters. To

annotated glossary will also serve as a foretaste of the interest.

Second language (SL, TL, L2, L3)

‘Second’ language will normally stand as a cover term for any language other than

the first language learned by a given learner or group mf learners

a) irrespective of the type of learning environment and

b) irrespective if the number of other non-native languages possessed by the

learner. This includes both ‘foreign’ languages (for example, French as a foreign

language for Austrians) and languages which are not one’s mother tongue but are

nevertheless spoken regularly in one’s own community (for example, French for

English-speaking Canadians). ‘Second’ seems better than definitions such as

‘secondary’ or ‘non-native’ which imply lower status. ‘Second language’ is often

abbreviated to ‘L2’ (as opposed to ‘Ll’ — the mother tongue). An L2, then, means,

unless otherwise specified, a particular ‘non—native language under discussion’,

10

that is, the so—called ‘target’ language (TL). In certain circumstances, the more

literal terms L3, L4, etc., may be also used as in ‘the influence of a learner’s L2

German upon her L3 Dutch’. Second language research is to be interpreted as

covering a large area, including psychological, neurological, pragmatic and

sociological aspects of L2 development and L2 use.

Interlanguage (IL)

IL most generally refers to the systematic linguistic behavior of learners of a second

or other language; in other words, learners of non-native languages. It calls our

attention to the possibility of viewing learner language such as ‘the Finnish of

English learners of Finnish’, for example, as possessing systematic features which

can be studied in their own right. The idea is that they are not merely imperfect

reflections of some norm — in this particular case that norm would be ‘educated

native speaker Finnish’. The ‘language’ part of the term ‘interlanguage’ suggests

this idea of an autonomous linguistic system while the ‘inter’ of ‘interlanguage’

reminds us that this version of Finnish is supposed to be a half—way house, an

intermediate stage in the user’s linguistic development. In using the term

‘interlanguage’ as a noun, it is best to keep to the behavioral definition. Essentially

this means the language events that you can actually observe and record. It is not

the invisible language

Interlanguage (IL)

It most generally refers to the systematic linguistic behavior of learners if a second

or other language; in other words, learners of non-native languages. It calls our

11

attention to the possibility of viewing learner language such as ‘the Finnish of

English learners of Finnish’, for example, as possessing systematic features which

can be studied in their own right. The idea is that they are not merely imperfect

reflections of some norm — in this particular case that norm would be ‘educated

native speaker Finnish’.

The ‘language’ part of the term ‘interlanguage’ suggests this idea of an autonomous

linguistic system while the ‘inter’ of ‘interlanguage’ reminds us that this version of

Finnish is supposed to be a half—way house, an intermediate stage in the user’s

linguistic development. In using the term ‘interlanguage’ as a noun, it is best to keep

to the behavioral definition. Essentially this means the language events that you can

actually observe and record. It is not the invisible language Second Language

Learning: Theoretical Foundations system: this must exist somewhere in the mind

of the user but we cannot perceive it directly. Interlanguage is, as it were, the bees

and beehives we can see, touch, hear and smell and not the principles that dictate

their shape and determine all the fascinating activities that we can observe. In this

way we can talk about given samples of ‘interlanguage’ and speculate about the

‘interlanguage system’ that underlies it. The terms ‘interlanguage’ and ‘learner

language’ will be used interchangeably in this book. Without denying their

sociological value, it can be said that interlanguage studies typically focus on the

linguistic and psychological aspects of second language research. For the linguistic

and mental systems underlying interlanguage, terms such as ‘inter1anguage

system’ or ‘interlanguage grammar’ or ‘interlanguage lexicon’ will be employed.

Input and intake.

12

Another term which is widely used is ‘input’, taken from information processing. The

most normal meaning in language acquisition research circles is language data

(utterances, texts) which the learner is exposed to: that is, the learner’s experience

of the target language in all its various manifestations. Hence, ‘input studies’ are

studies of the ‘language bath’, i.e. the actual language that the learner is exposed

to. It does not include explanations and rules concerning language (see section

1.2.4) but just samples of language conveying messages.

‘lnput’, taken literally, is a misleading term. Since we cannot know from observation

alone exactly what is processed by the learner at a given moment in time, many

utterances to which the learner is exposed to may contain elements which the

learner does not register at all. In other words, the input ‘data’ may be registered on

the researcher’s tape recorder as having been available to the learner at a given

time. The utterances or written texts, and the structures they contain, may be

registered very clearly in the teacher’s memory, where formal learning is concerned.

However, whether they have been registered consciously or subconsciously by the

learner is another matter. So, I will use ‘input’, unless otherwise specified, in the

sense of potentially processible language data made available to the learner. That

part of input which has actually been processed by the learner and turned into

knowledge of some kind has been called intake (Corder 1981). Input is, as it were,

the goods that are presented to the customer, including the articles that the

customer picks up to look at. Intake is what is actually bought and taken away from

the shop, i.e. what passes into the ownership of the customer.

When interpreting and producing utterances, the learner makes use of non-linguistic

input. Knowledge of the world together with a whole host of contextual cues may be

13

used to enrich the information coming from the linguistic signal. By pointing at a car

or making appropriate noise, for example, the language user can convey the idea

of a jet plane more clearly, especially when there is uncertainty about whether the

‘jet plane’ is the correct expression or is one which the listener will immediately be

able to understand. However, when unspecified, input is conventionally assumed to

be that part of the flow of information that is specifically linguistic. Non-linguistic

information is, of course, vital for learning. Once the learner has linked the

(linguistic) input ‘jet plane’ with the gesture and thus interpreted the message, then

the possibility exists for a new word or set of words to enter the learner’s developing

lexicon.

It is important also to recognize that language proficiency either develops as a

response to input or it fails to grow despite that input. Incoming signals may be

processed for meaning alone. That means that learners may be exposed to target

forms that could in principle force them to reorganize their interlanguage system but

in fact do not bring about any change. Their interlanguage system may have those

forming negative statements like ‘I no must do it’. Being exposed to ‘I must not do it’

may not necessarily bring about a change in that system. They may have

processed the utterance simply for meaning and not noticed and stored the different

structure manifest in the input: their ‘Language Acquisition Device’ has not received

the input. It has not become intake.

From the output in Figure l.l we see that part of the relevant input has become

intake. The learner can form negative statements and can use the verb ‘run’ with

past meaning. However, what has been ignored is the position of ‘not’ in the first

example and the irregular past form of ‘run’. The learner has processed this part of

14

the input according to his or her own IL system. Nevertheless, he or she has

probably achieved 100 per cent comprehension of such messages despite the fact

that the system has not been adjusted to produce exactly what was heard.

Metalanguage

In most normal everyday language use, we are not especially aware that we are

following rules. We even select many of the words unthinkingly. When saying ‘he

was kissed’ we do not consciously refer to a passive rule for constructing this

passive sentence. We are more concerned with expressing our thoughts and

understanding what people are saying. In other words, producing more or less

correct utterances is not done in the same way that most of us solve a

mathematical problem, where we consciously juggle with numbers. It is possible,

however, to shift our attention to the sounds, letters, words and constructions we

are using. If, for example, someone suddenly asks a question such as: ‘What is the

word for an animal you keep at home?’‘What words did she actually use when she

refused? ‘What is another may q' saying “I don’t mind if I do"?’ then the listener’s

conscious attention is directed suddenly to the language itself and not just to

meaning and messages. We could call this going into the meta mode.

‘Metalanguage’ (literally ‘language about something’) and its associated adjective

‘metalinguistic’ here refer to ways in which language and particularly the language

system is seen and exploited as an object of conscious attention. Hence, a linguist

or language teacher when drawing attention to the formal properties of a language

(or interlanguage) will employ metalanguage — a set of terms to talk about

language, for example: ‘These verbs all take the preposition "of"’

15

Hence language awareness, here called ‘metalinguistic awareness’, is the

awareness of language as an object. Such awareness may appear spontaneously

in children who try to exploit it for their amusement by creating rhymes, and

linguistic jokes (puns, word play). This is ‘meta’ because it involves inspecting the

form of words and not only their meaning even though children, in the meta mode,

do not have any technical vocabulary to talk about language beyond the simple

terms such as ‘word’ or ‘way of saying’.

Metalinguistic awareness may be deliberately nurtured during formal education and

refined by means of analytic activities such as parsing sentences and finding

synonyms for words, and so on. In the latter case, a descriptive terminology, a

metalanguage, has to be developed by the teacher/linguist (‘synonym’ being one

example) and these terms may be used to create formulae, i.e. rules or principles

for formally expressing the observed regularities of the language system. Such

formalizations of metalinguistic awareness, we may call ‘metalinguistic knowledge’.

So pre-school children may be metalinguistically aware when they make a play on

words but they need metalinguistic knowledge to be able to explain why it is a joke.

This kind of knowledge they get during formal education from the moment they

learn to count the number of syllables there are in a particular word.

It is still an open question as to how much conscious awareness of the formal

properties of language, and hence instruction based on inducing this awareness,

actually helps the development of spontaneous language use (see Sharwood Smith

1980, Rutherford and Sharwood Smith 1988, Rutherford 1987a, Sharwood Smith

1991). In any case, it is useful to talk of metalinguistic ability as something which

involves a scale. The scale ranges from the fairly primitive ability that very young

16

children have, most easily captured by the term ‘awareness’, to what the literary

scholar and especially the creative writer has, or, indeed, the highly sophisticated

technical knowledge possessed by descriptive and theoretical linguists when they

talk about language structure.

Acquisition, learning and development

Unless otherwise specified, the three terms listed in this title are virtually all

synonyms of each other. Acquisition is often associated with informal modes lf

learning (Lambert 1966, Krashen 1976) but, as far as this book is concerned, the

three terms will be used interchangeably unless the context makes it clear that

some special theoretical definitions are in force. The only differences are in where

the emphasis lies.

Development is the best term as it focuses on the process itself, i.e. as something

that happens inside the learner or acquirer. The other two terms call attention to the

focus of development, i.e. the person or persons in which language development is

taking place. Accordingly, they mix in extra notions such as the conscious intention

to learn. The language learner is presented not only as ‘someone in the process of

learning’ but also, by implication, as someone who intends to learn and, a further

implication, who is somehow controlling at least part of the activity we call learning.

Since we do not yet know the actual effect of wanting to learn, or wanting to control

the manner of learning, it is better to look for more neutral terms that exclude these

extra notions.

Unfortunately, there is no suitable neutral term like ‘developer’ or ‘developee’ which

clearly indicates that the learner is ‘a place where development is taking place’, so

17

‘learner’ and ‘acquirer’ have to be used. In any case, it is assumed that language

proficiency is the result of a process most aptly called development but often called

learning and/or acquisition. The most important thing is to keep learning/

acquisition/ development separate from ‘teaching’, which is the attempt (usually by

others) to make the learner’s task easier, etc.).

Strategy

‘Strategy’ is a word which invokes the idea of general or business executives

planning their next move. The term is used in a variety of ways and its precise

meanings are sometimes difficult to ascertain. Learners are often said to adopt

strategies to cope with the business of handling non—native languages, for

example ‘learning strategies’ or ‘communicative strategies’. Strategies have to do

with ‘how to learn X’ or ‘how to communicate X’ and the term ‘strategy’, as used in

the literature, should be understood as a systematic approach to a task:

(a) whether or not the language user is actually consciously aware of applying the

strategy in a given context;

(b) whether that strategy is part of a stable repertoire of problem- solving

techniques or whether it is a sudden ad—hoc invention which the learner, pressed

for time, say, devises on the spur of the moment;

(c) whether the idea behind the strategy is to facilitate acquisition, i.e. further the

development of the learner’s knowledge and proficiency in L2, or whether it is

purely and simply designed to T facilitate communication at a given moment in time.

To take a couple of examples, a subconscious learning strategy would be when the

learner, without thinking, uses mother tongue knowledge to create forms in another

18

language (for example, automatically adopting mother tongue word order in L2

questions).

A conscious communicative strategy would be when a learner resorts to a gesture

or invents a word on the spot which he or she knows to be incorrect but which

serves to convey the intended meaning.

Crosslinguistic influence/ language transfer

The term ‘transfer’, especially as used in the 1960s and 1970s, refers to the

influence of the mother tongue (Ll) on the learner’s performance in and/ or

development of a given target language. This is a more limited use of the term than

is common in general psychology since it refers only to the effects of transferring

elements of one linguistic system to another. It is actually even more limited than

this: the direction of transfer is usually understood to be from the mother tongue to

the L2. In actual fact, the direction of transfer may be the reverse; that is, the term

may also be used in studies of language loss where a previously learned language

(e.g. the Ll) is changing under the influence of new language learning. The meaning

does, however, cover the influence 0f any ‘other tongue’ known to the learner on

that target language. For example, a German learner of Italian might be affected by

his or her previous knowledge of Spanish.

The favoured term for this concept of language influence in this book will be

crosslingnistic influence (CLI) but the older term (transfer) will also be used to aid

the study of other, and especially earlier, books and articles on this topic. CLI

covers all kinds of external linguistic influence including situations where learners

fight shy of making connections between different languages they know because

19

they feel such links to be unlikely. This other form of crosslinguistic influence is

where the learner actually avoids carrying over, say, some sound, word or

grammatical pattern from the other language because the target language is

perceived to be different. In such cases, similarities between systems are not

expected (see, for example, Kellerman 1985). The learner may not expect that

borrowing a particular plural ending (like ‘-es’) from the mother tongue, or a

particular idiomatic expression (like ‘kick the bucket’), will result in a perfectly

acceptable target language form. Avoidance of transfer is hardly transfer, but it can

be considered as a form of crosslinguistic influence. Notice that crosslinguistic

influence does not refer directly to languages influencing one another in the outside

world: it refers to what happens in a language user’s head (mind).

Knowledge

What do we really mean when we say of someone ‘she knows Ukrainian’? In point

of fact, ‘knowing’ a language takes on a number of different meanings. The handiest

way of capturing the psychological idea of knowledge is to see it as a type of mental

organization. Since someone knows Ukrainian, there must be something in her

head that corresponds to her obvious possession of some Ukrainian.

Even though we are quite unaware of exactly which parts of her physical brain

handle that knowledge, we do know that at least some of the language system we

call Ukrainian is ‘represented’ in her complete mental system. In the same way, if

you post a letter and hear later that it has reached its destination in the Ukraine, you

can safely assume there must be a functioning postal system even though you have

little idea of what it actually looks like. It is best to think of linguistic knowledge as a

20

systematised body of mental representations underlying the learner’s language use,

irrespective of whether those mental representations coincide with those of a

mature native speaker m" the language. And just to underscore the separation of

that mental system and the physical manifestation of that system (in the physical

brain), one could add ‘and irrespective of where and how the mental

representations are actually located in the head’.

The essential insight here is the fact that knowledge is a system that the language

learner builds up on the basis of exposure to the language; where that exposure

(input), limited as it may be, leads to the formation of some systematised beliefs

about the language, some of which may deviate from the native—speaker norms,

we can talk or interlanguage ‘knowledge’.

‘Knowing’ does not, then, necessarily involve ‘knowing the native- speaker norms’.

So, if a learner regularly produces ‘goed’ where native speakers produce ‘went’, we

take this as evidence of learner knowledge that happens to deviate from native—

speaker knowledge. We do not classify it as a lack of knowledge (cf. Davies 1991).

The above liberal or technical use of the term ‘knowledge’ should help us get away

from the notion of a language learner’s linguistic behaviour as being simply

composed of a combination of two things, errors and non—errors, where ‘errors’

means deviations from the native-speaker norms. Knowing Ukrainian is not

necessarily knowing native—speaker Ukrainian. It is simply possessing a Ukrainian

system of some sort, something that people recognise as a type of Ukrainian

however they might disapprove of it. Indeed, the liberal use of the term precludes

the notion of knowledge as somehow existing in the ether just waiting to be sucked

up from outside. This misconception is, it is argued here, encouraged by the use of

21

terms like ‘internalise’ as in ‘the learner internalised rules’, illustrated in Figure 1.2

(see second example in section 1.2.3 above).

The truth of the matter is that the learners do not take in the rule. They take in

examples of the rule which they use to ‘crack the code’. So they in fact create or

recreate rule systems for themselves. The only thing that is internalised is raw data

(input), which, as the term ‘raw’ indicates, has to be processed by the learner and

turned into mental representations, i.e. ‘knowledge’ of some sort. Saying that

systematic learner behaviour reflects an internalised rule is as unhelpful as saying

that the patterns on a cabbage leaf are internalised sunshine or internalised rain.

Sunshine and water were certainly needed to make the plant grow like that but the

internal structure of that plant is not determined by the sunshine. This is determined

biologically, long before the cabbage gets its first welcome drop of rain or ray of

sunshine. Language input may seem more complex but it is powerless without a

pre-existing mental organisation or ‘programme’ to make sense of it. Input

combines with mental mechanisms to create knowledge or skill.

(Processing) Control and mental library

You may know something but not be very good at showing your new knowledge in

actual language use, especially when under pressure. The term ‘control’ (which

stands for processing control) will be used in this book to refer to the productive and

receptive control possessed by the language user over the knowledge he or she

has of various aspects of the linguistic system. Associated terms, perhaps more

familiar to the reader, would be ‘skill’ (as opposed to ‘knowledge’), ‘degrees of

fIuency’ and ‘automaticity’. Hence, hesitant linguistic behaviour may be attributed to

22

a lack of relevant knowledge but it also might be attributed to the actual possession

of the relevant knowledge without fluent control over that knowledge (see also

1.2.8, above). I may know how to say ‘Look out, there’s a car coming!’ but I may not

have sufficient control over that knowledge to shout it out suddenly and

spontaneously.

Controlling means getting hold of and assembling the relevant information, i.e.

processing it for various different purposes. Low control over knowledge means that

knowledge is available but can be accessed only under optimal conditions — that

is, the accessing process requires more—than—average time or freedom from

distraction. The notion of processing control allows us to separate out those factors

of language ability that we want to call ‘knowledge’ and those factors that have to

do with the more or less skilful deployment of knowledge in actual performance

millisecond by millisecond. The degree of control that a learner has over available

knowledge will depend on the demands of the task involved. Two learners having

identical knowledge in some area may not be as skilled in showing that knowledge

when, for example, answering an unexpected phone call in an emergency. One

learner may have a higher level of control than the other. The other learner may fall

back on other knowledge that is more easily accessed or, of course, simply fail to

convey the message.

As suggested above, control refers both to performance involving ‘reception’

(listening and reading) and performance involving ‘production’ (speaking and

writing). However, since control is always control of something, in terms of actual

performance, control comes closest to the everyday use of the term ‘proficiency’.

Fluency, proficiency or ‘skill’ in a language includes the idea of being able to control

23

efficiently what you know. Someone who knows something but cannot control it

efficiently in, say, normal conversation, would not, in this everyday sense, be

thought of as being proficient in that language. The everyday use of the term

‘competence’ (competence as skill or proficiency), unlike Chon1sky’s use of it

(competence—as— knowledge), also has this implication.

Variability

Language varies according to the context of use and also for more strictly

psychological reasons. A different word or structure may be more or less

appropriate in a given situation: for example, formal words like request (for ask) are

not used, by definition, in informal conversational contexts. Again, technical terms

will be used when two experts are talking about a technical topic. Also, a word or

structure may be more or less likely to occur depending on the speaker’s, or writer’s

frame of mind at the time. Haste or fatigue, for example, may result in the use of

more common words, or an emotional state may lead to more emotional language.

Interlanguage refers the same kind of variation as native-speaker language

although the results may be different. In addition, the language learner may have

different degrees of control over given words or structures according to their status

in their current interlanguage, whether they are in the process of being acquired or

exchanged for something new. This will also cause variation in what is done at a

given moment, depending on the nature of the task involved.

Since the learner is in possession of more than one language system, variability in

performance may have different outcomes than would be the case in a monolingual

situation. One language system may intrude upon the other in interesting ways. A

24

word from one language may be borrowed and used in another, either deliberately

or without the learner being aware of it. A possible parallel for this in native-speaker

usage would be a learner switching between items and constructions that belong in

different varieties, styles or dialects of the L1. Indeed, there may be a close parallel

since a given native speaker may not be truly native in one or other of these

subsystems of his or her mother tongue. Studying interlanguage variability provides

the researcher with a rich area of investigation posing many challenging theoretical

questions.

25

Unidad 2¿Qué puedo enseñar en una clase de inglés?

¿Qué se puede enseñar en una clase de inglés? y Competencia

comunicativa y actividades comunicativas

Dominguez, P. (2008) Destrezas receptivas y productivas en la enseñanza del

español como lengua extranjera. [Fragmento] Las destrezas

productivas: la expression oral. (pp. 58-71). Boletín Aselered.

Recuperado de http://www.aselered.org

26

Enseñanza y aprendizaje: consideraciones previas

Se puede definir la enseñanza de lenguas como “aquellas actividades destinadas a

que se produzca el aprendizaje de una lengua” (H. Stern, 1983:21), por lo

que cualquier teoría sobre la enseñanza de lenguas presupone conceptos

relacionados con su aprendizaje. Enseñanza y aprendizaje son, pues, dos

procesos tan íntimamente vinculados entre sí que no se concibe el uno sin el otro.

Como señalan Bestard Monroig y Pérez Martín (1982:52) “la correlación entre

enseñar y aprender no es tan sencilla como para creer que es suficiente con

prestar atención exclusivamente a la labor del profesor”, lo que les lleva a formular

la siguiente conclusión: “si el objetivo final de toda labor docente es que el alumno

aprenda, hace falta tener previamente una idea sobre cómo aprende el individuo”.

No es sin embargo hasta principios de los años setenta del siglo XX en que el

interés por saber en qué consiste aprender, o, dicho de otra manera, por conocer

cuáles son los mecanismos psicológicos que tienen lugar en el individuo al

aprender, dio lugar a la aparición de una nueva disciplina académica

conocida con el nombre de “adquisición de segundas lenguas”, cuyo objetivo es

justamente averiguar, desde una perspectiva científica, cómo aprende el alumno y

las consecuencias que este descubrimiento tiene para una enseñanza eficaz.

Conocer los resultados de la investigación sobre el aprendizaje es muy importante,

ya que, entre otras cosas, nos ayuda (V.Cook, 1991,1996:2) a comprender la

contribución de los estudiantes al proceso de aprendizaje, a saber cómo utilizar con

eficacia los métodos y las técnicas de enseñanza, así como a definir con mayor

precisión los objetivos y a valorar hasta qué punto son alcanzables.

27

Como es bien sabido, un componente básico del aprendizaje es lo que el alumno

aporta a la clase, lo que trae consigo al aula: distintos grados de motivación,

diferentes estilos de aprendizaje, experiencias previas de aprendizaje de otras

lenguas, etc. Por eso, “la investigación sobre el aprendizaje de lenguas nos ayuda

a entender por qué alumnos aparentemente semejantes reaccionan de forma

diferente ante las mismas técnicas de enseñanza, a la vez que nos revela los

problemas que son comunes a todos ellos.” (V.Cook, 1991,1996:.2)

La investigación sobre el aprendizaje nos proporciona también pistas

valiosísimas para saber qué método funciona mejor con nuestros alumnos o qué

técnicas son las más apropiadas para utilizar en clase.

Finalmente, saber cómo se aprenden las lenguas nos ayuda a definir mejor los

objetivos que se pretenden alcanzar y que, naturalmente, son muy variados pues

dependen tanto de factores individuales (necesidades específicas) como sociales,

políticos, culturales, etc.

¿Qué es lo que sabemos hoy por hoy sobre el aprendizaje y sobre la enseñanza de

segundas lenguas?. Esta es la pregunta que se hacía Kenneth Chastain (1980:11)

y que contesta recordándonos lo que sabemos y lo que aún desconocemos en

relación con cuatro componentes que él considera esenciales en el

aprendizaje/enseñanza de una segunda lengua, a saber: el propio aprendizaje, los

factores de tipo afectivo y social, la lingüística y la psicología. Como es lógico, hoy

sabemos muchas más cosas, pero gran parte de las respuestas siguen siendo

válidas, por lo que merece la pena reseñar las positivas que sean más relevantes.

Con respecto al aprendizaje, sabemos que, en primer lugar, debe ser

significativo, es decir, sólo se produce aprendizaje si el alumno comprende el

28

contenido y la tarea que se le pide que haga (cf. S. Krashen, “input comprensible).

Por otro lado, el grado de aprendizaje significativo viene determinado por lo que el

alumno aporta a la situación de aprendizaje: cuantos más conocimientos,

habilidades, etc., aporte, tanto mayor será aquél.

El aprendizaje ha de ser constructivo; para que se produzca ha de integrarse en el

marco intelectual del alumno, incorporando los nuevos conocimientos a los que ya

posee (cf.“teoría del conocimiento previo o schemata”).

En cuanto a los factores socio-afectivos, es de destacar que el interés, la actitud del

estudiante hacia la L2, el feedback positivo que pueda recibir del profesor o la

confianza en sí mismo no es que vayan a modificar su capacidad intelectual, pero

ciertamente juegan un papel tan primordial como los factores de tipo cognitivo.

En el campo de la lingüística hemos descubierto hace ya algunos años algo que es

fundamental: la interlengua, es decir, la fase transitoria por la que pasamos antes

de adquirir fluidez en el aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera. Y es fundamental

porque ahora los errores del estudiante, lejos de se objeto de condena por el

profesor, han pasado a considerarse como un componente esencial del

aprendizaje de lenguas.

Por lo que respecta a la psicología, el avance en la identificación y clasificación de

estrategias de aprendizaje ha hecho que surgiera un nuevo campo de

investigación, cual es la autonomía del aprendizaje que muchos profesores ya han

puesto en práctica en sus clases con indudable éxito.

Aprender una lengua extranjera: las cuatro destrezas

“To learn a language besides one’s native idiom, to penetrate its syntax, is to open

for oneself a second window on the landscape of being. It is to escape, even if only

29

partially, from the confinement of the apparently obvious, from the intolerant

poverty, so corrosive just because one is unconscious of it, of a single focus and

monohrone lens.”

“Aprender una lengua aparte de la materna, adentrarse en su sintaxis, es como

abrir una segunda ventana en el paisaje de la existencia. Es escapar, aunque sólo

sea en parte, del confinamiento de lo aparentemente obvio, de la insoportable

pobreza - tan corrosiva porque no somos conscientes de ella- de una lente

monocromática con un único objetivo”

A pesar de que pueda parecer una obviedad, no está de más insistir en el hecho de

que aprender un segundo idioma no significa sustituir unas palabras por otras, ni

siquiera ser capaz de poder mantener una pequeña conversación de nivel básico

con un nativo. Aprender otra lengua significa nada menos que adquirir una

destreza cognitiva compleja que entraña a su vez otras microdestrezas, no sólo de

índole lingüística (discriminar sonidos en la cadena hablada, comprender la

relación entre las distintas partes de la oración o el discurso, reconocer el papel

decisivo del acento o de la lo que Halliday denomina el “contexto social de la

lengua” (referentes, participantes, roles que estos desempeñan, etc.). Desde un

punto de vista didáctico, sin embargo, es como constituyentes fundamentales del

aprendizaje de una lengua, habilidades que a su vez se subdividen en receptivas o

interpretativas (escuchar, leer) y productivas o expresivas (hablar, escribir).

Conviene tener presente que “destreza” (o “habilidad”) es la traducción española

del término inglés skill, asociado a las teorías behavioristas que concebían el

aprendizaje como un proceso de formación de hábitos y en el que lo importante era

el “savoir-faire” más que el “savoir”. Por ello, algunos piensan que el aprendizaje de

30

lenguas, al menos en el plano fonético (aprender nuevos sonidos), no constituye

realmente una tarea intelectual como lo es, por ejemplo, aprender

matemáticas, física u otras disciplinas que requieren especialmente el empleo de la

inteligencia. En cualquier caso, como sabemos, la práctica es un ingrediente

esencial del progreso en el aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera que todos los

métodos de enseñanza siempre han defendido.

Si bien es cierto que la adquisición de estas cuatro destrezas es común, tanto a la

lengua materna (L1) como a una segunda lengua o lengua extranjera (L2),

las diferencias entre ambas situaciones son evidentes. Las resumimos a

continuación, siguiendo a López García (2002: 9):

a) En la lengua materna, se enseña sobre todo a leer y escribir. En la enseñanza

de una L2, se enseña sobre todo a hablar y a escuchar;

b) En la lengua materna, entendemos mucho más de lo que somos capaces de

expresar. Por el contrario, lo que somos capaces de comprender oralmente en una

L2 no está tan alejado de lo que seríamos capaces de decir en ella;

c) En la adquisición de la lengua materna, lo que se creía importante hasta hace

poco era conocer el código. Al aprendiz de una L2 lo que más le interesa es el uso

que se hace del código (cf. teoría de la relevancia o pertinencia).

El hecho de que nos refiramos a las cuatro destrezas separadamente no quiere

decir que deban tratarse siempre de un modo aislado, ya que el uso de la lengua

suele llevar implícita la interacción con el medio y por ello es normal que se

practiquen varias destrezas a la vez. En una conversación, por ejemplo, se

combinan las destrezas de escuchar y hablar; el que escucha a un conferenciante

puede tomar notas por escrito al mismo tiempo; los oyentes de una emisora de

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radio escuchan las noticias que lee el locutor, etc. Según H. Douglas Brown

(2001:233), existen cinco situaciones que requieren el uso combinado de

algunas o de todas estas destrezas (cf. integración de destrezas), a saber:

a) cuando la lengua extranjera se usa como medio de instrucción para enseñar

distintas materias;

b) cuando se enseña con una finalidad muy concreta (un curso intensivo para

alumnos de preuniversitario en el que tienen que familiarizarse con cierto tipo de

textos);

c) en la enseñanza basada en “proyectos” que deben realizar los alumnos

en grupos;

d) cuando las muestras de L2 se presentan de tal forma que crean una sensación

de suspense en el alumno, el cual se ve así más motivado (“the episode

hypothesis”) y, finalmente,

e) en el llamado enfoque por tareas.

Destrezas y objetivos del aprendizaje

Aun cuando el uso de la lengua conlleva, como acabamos de ver, la práctica

simultánea de varias destrezas, los objetivos que persigue el aprendiz determinan

cuál de ellas es la que debe tener prioridad sobre las demás. Así, quien sólo y

exclusivamente desea aprender la lengua para poder leer textos propios de su

campo de interés (libros, revistas científicas, documentos históricos, etc.) no

32

necesita ningún entrenamiento en relación con las destrezas productivas de

expresión oral o escrita; para un camarero, sin embargo, son fundamentales las

destrezas de comprensión y expresión orales. Esto no quiere decir, por supuesto,

que haya que descuidar aquellas destrezas que no vamos a utilizar de manera

preferente. Es más, lo lógico es que quien se propone aprender otra lengua intente

adquirir también las destrezas que en un momento dado le permitan usarla en

situaciones distintas de las habituales; un médico, por ejemplo, necesita saber

inglés o francés para poder leer revistas médicas, pero también para poder

redactar una ponencia (escribir) o comunicarse (escuchar y hablar) con colegas

cuando asiste a congresos de su especialidad.

Hay también otras razones de índole pedagógica, como ya vimos en el apartado

anterior, por las que se recomienda la práctica de más de una destreza en clase,

no sólo para hacer que ésta resulte más variada e interesante, sino también porque

lo aprendido oralmente, por ejemplo, se refuerza y consolida mediante actividades

relacionadas con la expresión escrita.

Como conclusión, podemos decir que en general el aprendizaje de una segunda

lengua entraña ser capaz de entender, hablar, leer y escribir en esa lengua y que

cuando se hace hincapié en una sola de estas destrezas es por algún motivo

específico, v.g. identificar sonidos, leer o hablar con corrección - pronunciando bien

las palabras o frases, usando los patrones adecuados de acento y entonación -,

escribir utilizando el registro requerido en una determinada situación, etc.

De la competencia a la actuación

Después de utilizar la consabida metáfora del péndulo para referirse a la historia de

la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras, se preguntaba el profesor Eric Hawkins

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(1976:5), a la sazón director del Language Teaching Centre de la Universidad de

York, por qué otras disciplinas análogas - cuya finalidad es también la adquisición

de destrezas, como, por ejemplo, la enseñanza de la música instrumental- no se

preocupan tanto por encontrar la panacea que dé una respuesta definitiva a todos

los problemas que pueda presentar la didáctica de segundas lenguas. Y tiene

razón al afirmar que, en cierta medida, esta disciplina es única, en tanto que se

caracteriza fundamentalmente porque los resultados del aprendizaje se

demuestran en la confrontación con el hablante nativo, cuya fluidez en el uso de la

lengua debe servir para recordar a profesores y a alumnos la dificultad de la tarea

en la que se han embarcado. En efecto, para el hablante nativo su lengua es, como

el aire que respira, algo natural, un fenómeno al que raramente le presta la mínima

atención; para él el lenguaje es un instrumento que usa a diario, de un modo

automático, en su vida de relación con los demás. Si acaso, sólo en muy contadas

ocasiones se detiene a reflexionar sobre él; cuando duda de alguna palabra

o construcción, cuando alguien tergiversa lo que dice, cuando oye a otra persona

hablar en un idioma extranjero, etc. “Arte diabólico es”, que diría el portugués de

los versos de Moratín. Y es que aprender una segunda lengua siempre supone un

esfuerzo porque, como ya hemos dicho, una lengua no sólo entraña de por sí una

gran complejidad, sino que en su enseñanza/aprendizaje intervienen factores muy

diversos. De ahí que el dominio de una lengua suponga, como se viene repitiendo

desde hace tiempo, la posesión por parte del hablante, de otras competencias

aparte de la estrictamente lingüística en el sentido chomskiano. Pero volviendo a lo

que se cuestionaba el profesor Hawkins, es cierto que, hoy día quizás más que

nunca, todos buscamos la panacea, la solución mágica que nos permita

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aprender una lengua extranjera en el menor tiempo posible y, por supuesto, del

modo más fácil. Olvidamos, claro está, que en el aprendizaje de lenguas no hay

atajos: es preciso recorrer todo el camino, el cual, por otra parte, es interminable,

no tiene fin. Ni siquiera el que iniciamos cuando aprendemos nuestra lengua

materna, punto sobre el que, me imagino, todos estaremos de acuerdo.

Si bien es cierto que en las últimas décadas ha habido avances significativos en la

enseñanza de segundas lenguas, en realidad no han sido tan radicales como para

pensar que con ellos se ha resuelto definitivamente el problema de aprender otra

lengua sin mayores dificultades. Ya decía A.S.Hornby en 1971 que en el

aprendizaje de lenguas constantemente proponemos ideas que no tienen nada de

nuevo (“old ideas in language learning are always being rediscovered”). Prueba

evidente de ello es, por ejemplo, la importancia que han vuelto a adquirir hoy día

la lengua materna y la traducción como recursos útiles en la clase; la importancia

que otra vez se le concede al vocabulario (cf. lexical approach); la atención que se

le dedica ahora a la cultura local del estudiante (cf. glocalisation) como componente

básico de los materiales didácticos; lo que piensan, opinan y creen los profesores

(cf. teacher cognition) en relación con su labor en la clase, etc.

Quizás lo más relevante de estos cambios ha sido no la revolución (?) que supone

Internet, sino el cambio de actitud hacia lo que se considera debe ser objeto de

atención prioritaria, es decir, el alumno. Del “qué y del “cómo” hemos pasado a “a

quién” enseñamos, lo que ha venido a poner de relieve algo tan evidente como es

el “aprendizaje” y todo lo relacionado con las formas y estilo de aprendizaje;

enseñanza centrada en el alumno, enfoque comunicativo, enseñanza basada en

tareas, proceso versus producto, afectividad en el aprendizaje, autonomía del

35

aprendizaje, output como input, inteligencias múltiples... No es de extrañar, por otra

parte que haya sido en los últimos años del siglo XX cuando cobra fuerza la

investigación en este terreno (cf. SLA)

Dentro de las aportaciones de las ciencias lingüísticas, es evidente que ha habido

un desplazamiento desde los enfoques basados en la competencia (lingüística y

comunicativa) hacia los que se centran en el uso de la lengua en situaciones

reales, comprobables empíricamente: “los enfoques actuales sobre la adquisición y

enseñanza de una L2 se caracterizan por rehuir los viejos reduccionismos, por su

tendencia a construir teorías y modelos que sirvan para la investigación empírica

como para la práctica profesional y, consecuentemente, están abiertas a reconocer

la existencia de numerosos factores, dimensiones y variables en dicho proceso de

adquisición y enseñanza, al margen de que pongan más énfasis en unos que en

otros.” (Mayor, J. 2004:46) Como bien sugiere este autor, “la adquisición y/o

dominio de una L2 está en función de las variables de los sujetos (biológicas,

cognitivas, orécticas y psicosociales) del sistema lingüístico (L2) (y sus

interrelaciones con el de la L1), del contexto y de los textos, discursos y locuciones

que se producen y/o comprenden.” (Ibid: 60)

¿Qué nos depara el futuro? ¿Hacia dónde va la profesión de la enseñanza de

idiomas en el futuro cercano, o incluso en un futuro más lejano?, se preguntan Jack

C.Richards y Theodore S.Rodgers (2000:248)) los cuales identifican algunos de los

factores que continuarán influyendo en la enseñanza de idiomas y que anotamos a

continuación:

1. las directrices de la política gubernamental;

2. las tendencias de la profesión;

36

3. innovaciones dirigidas por gurús;

4. las reacciones a la tecnología;

5. las influencias de algunas disciplinas académicas;

6. la influencia de la investigación;

7. innovaciones basadas en los alumnos;

8. las tendencias educativas procedentes de otros campos;

9. aportaciones de otras disciplinas.

Confiemos en que sean los factores 5 a 9 los decisivos, pero mucho me temo que

ocurra lo que ya apuntaba A.Valdman (1966:x) en 1966:

“Unfortunately, there is a wide gap between current research and incipient trends,

on the one hand, and classroom practice on the other. Effective methods

based on the latest research are seldom in evidence even in the foreign language

courses of the large universities where the majority of prospective secondary school

and college foreign language teachers are trained. (…) Hence, faced with the

exigencies and pressures of the classroom, the foreign language teacher tends to

teach as he was taught:”

“Desgraciadamente, existe un gran vacío entre la investigación y las tendencias

incipientes, por una parte, y con respecto a la práctica en el aula. No es frecuente

que se haga uso de los métodos eficaces basados en investigaciones recientes, ni

siquiera en los cursos de lenguas extranjeras de las universidades en las que se

forman la mayoría de los profesores de idiomas. (...)De aquí que, ante las

37

exigencias y presiones del aula, el profesor de lenguas extranjeras tienda a

enseñar como a él le enseñaron.”

Las destrezas receptivas : la comprensión oral

De las dos funciones que puede desempeñar el órgano del oído, oír o escuchar, es

la segunda la que tiene mayor interés en la didáctica de lenguas. Y no porque la

primera sea irrelevante; al contrario, es indispensable para que la segunda pueda

tener lugar. Dicho de otra manera, “percibir con el oído los sonidos” (DRAE) es

condición previa para “prestar atención a lo que se oye”(DRAE).

Partiendo de estas premisas, cabría ahora hacerse las siguientes preguntas:

a) ¿hasta qué punto es esta destreza imprescindible para aprender una lengua?

b) ¿cómo afecta al aprendizaje la mayor o menor capacidad auditiva del

individuo?

Con respecto al primer supuesto, la respuesta es afirmativa si el objetivo que se

persigue es la comunicación oral con otras personas. Si, como hemos señalado

más arriba, lo que se pretende es únicamente ser capaz de leer textos escritos en

esa lengua, no es necesario dedicar ningún tiempo al aprendizaje de las otras

destrezas.

Naturalmente, si la facultad de oír se ve mermada por algún impedimento físico, el

aprendizaje de una L2 se resiente. Por lo menos en lo que atañe a la comprensión

auditiva y, como consecuencia, también a la expresión oral que es su equivalente

como destreza productiva. Un sordo total difícilmente podrá alcanzar el mismo

grado de perfección en el uso oral de la lengua que una persona con un oído

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normal. Y mucho menos si ésta además tiene buen oído para los idiomas, es

decir, facilidad para reconocer e imitar sonidos.

Por lo que llevamos dicho, fácilmente se comprenderá que la comprensión oral

está íntimamente asociada a la expresión oral sin la cual no se concibe; es, por así

decirlo, la otra cara de la misma moneda. Si bien se mira, es la primera destreza de

la lengua que ocurre según el orden natural de adquisición de la lengua materna,

pero no necesariamente la primera que se desarrolla entre los aprendices de una

segunda lengua porque éstos ya saben leer y escribir en su lengua materna,

destrezas que se pueden rentabilizar en la enseñanza de la L2. En cualquier caso,

para aprender una L2 hay que partir siempre de las destrezas receptivas, escuchar

o leer, ya que es imposible hacerlo hablando y escribiendo.

Aún podrían aducirse dos razones más para resaltar la importancia de la

comprensión oral. Una de ellas tiene que ver con las dificultades de esta destreza

que comentamos más abajo y que, por lo tanto, exige que el aprendiz tenga

muchas oportunidades de practicarla desde las primeras etapas. En este sentido,

el llamado “aprendizaje periférico” o “aprendizaje por ósmosis” hace que el habla

informal del profesor (“informal teacher-talk”) sea el mejor material que puede

utilizarse en el aula para practicar la comprensión oral (Penny Ur, 1984:62) ya que

el feedback que produce en el aprendiz puede contribuir a que mejore su expresión

oral.

La otra razón está relacionada con la semejanza que pueda existir entre la L1 y la

L2. Como señalamos más adelante, cuanto más afines sean las lenguas más fácil

será la comunicación entre sus hablantes. Así, la comunicación entre un español y

39

un portugués puede tener lugar en su lengua materna ya que ambos entienden la

lengua del otro.

Dificultades de esta destreza

Decíamos más arriba que un requisito previo para poder escuchar era poder

percibir los sonidos de todo tipo que llegan a nuestro oído y que si son articulados

forman parte de la cadena hablada, lo que supone la interacción con otra destreza,

es decir, la expresión oral por parte de alguien que habla. En este caso

escuchamos lo que otra persona dice, lo cual no significa que le entendamos si

utiliza un código distinto del nuestro, o cuando nuestro conocimiento del suyo es

aún muy pobre. Pero es posible que incluso siendo hablantes de la misma lengua

se produzcan fallos en la comunicación, ya que “escuchar es una actividad

extremadamente compleja”, como apunta Cor J. Koster (1991:5) e ilustra con la

siguiente viñeta en la que la imagen que

40

tiene en la cabeza el policía cuando señala el camino es distinta de la que se forma

en la cabeza del transeúnte, probablemente porque el primero no proporciona

toda la información necesaria para comprender el mensaje y también porque la

memoria sólo almacena una cantidad limitada de información. Más frecuente es,

sin embargo, que se produzcan fallos debidos a la ambigüedad del mensaje, lo que

a veces da origen a situaciones embarazosas o simplemente jocosas. Sirvan como

ejemplo estas muestras:

EL PADRE AL PRETENDIENTE:

-- Y USTED, JOVEN, ¿CON QUÉ CUENTA?

- CON UNA CALCULADORA, SEÑOR

UN HOMBRE PASEA CON UN GATO POR LA CALLE Y SE LE ACERCA OTRO.

- ¿ARAÑA?

- NO, GATO.

UN POLICÍA QUE VA PERSIGUIENDO A UN LADRÓN, LO PIERDE EN UNA

ESQUINA Y LE PREGUNTA A UN HOMBRE:

- ¿VIO A ALGUIEN DOBLAR ESTA ESQUINA?

- NO, CUANDO YO VINE YA ESTABA DOBLADA.

Existe la creencia, por otra parte, de que comprender lo que oímos es fácil, y, por

supuesto, mucho más fácil que hablar o escribir. Como sugiere Douglas McKeating

(1981:58) la explicación quizás habría que buscarla en el hecho de que la

comprensión oral nos produce menos ansiedad, nos supone menor esfuerzo que el

que exigen las otras dos destrezas y es menos pública que estas últimas, en las

41

que se pueden observar los errores que cometemos. Basta sin embargo echar un

vistazo al listado de microdestrezas que lleva aparejada la comprensión auditiva

(ver Tabla 1) para darse cuenta de lo tremendamente compleja, amén de fatigosa

que es esta destreza porque el oyente de una L2 no controla lo que percibe, o,

como señala López García (2002:17) “se siente inseguro de lo que escucha, hace

un esfuerzo mental extraordinario para que no se le escape nada y, en definitiva,

termina cansado.” Bien es verdad que en ocasiones el contexto es lo

suficientemente explícito como para permitir la comprensión sin que el hablante ni

siquiera tenga necesidad de intervenir porque podemos predecir sus palabras (cf.

“redundancia”). En este sentido, ya decía B. Malmberg (1966:23) que “el buen

dominio de la lengua implica una gran capacidad de adivinación y, con ella,

posibilidades mayores de comprender cuanto oímos.”

Otras dificultades tienen que ver con el reconocimiento de palabras, debido a la

variabilidad fonética de los sonidos que emite el hablante, así como con el proceso

de segmentación, que, afortunadamente, a veces no constituye ningún problema

porque el contexto suele determinar dónde comienza y dónde termina una palabra

en la cadena hablada.

Entre las variaciones más conocidas en cuanto a la forma de realizar segmentos

fonéticos, Cor J. Koster (1991:7) señala las siguientes.

a) Variabilidad en la duración de las vocales y consonantes: Ingl. /i/ /i:/;

b) Asimilación de sonidos: Esp. /n/ → [m] : un velo /umbelo/;

c) Velocidad de emisión o tempo;

d) Número y longitud de las pausas;

e) Familiaridad con la voz del hablante;

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f) Calidad de la señal de habla.

Tabla 1 (Adaptada de J. Richards por H.D.Brown (2001:236)

Escuchar con una finalidad

Se puede decir que básicamente la percepción de textos orales en la vida real tiene

lugar de dos maneras: a) de forma casual, sin prestar mucha atención a lo que

oímos; por ejemplo, cuando está encendida la radio mientras nos arreglan el pelo

en la peluquería y b) fijándonos en lo que oímos para extraer una determinada

información que necesitamos, como cuando alguien escucha el parte

meteorológico porque quiere saber qué tiempo va a hacer el próximo fin de

semana. “Oímos de forma incluso involuntaria. Escuchamos conscientemente y

43

con un propósito”, dice E. Martín Peris (1991:17), quien amplía así el sentido de

estas palabras:

Un paso más allá de la percepción está la escucha: podemos estar presentes

en una tertulia, y no prestarle atención; podemos estar percibiendo lo que se dice,

pero no estar escuchándolo: Si damos el paso a la actividad de escuchar, entonces

nos guiamos por un objetivo concreto, buscamos algo en particular. Y ello es así

aún en el caso de que estemos movidos por la simple curiosidad; en efecto, desde

e momento en que nos ponemos a escuchar, lo hacemos atentamente, y fijamos

nuestra atención en aspectos particulares, que pueden ser múltiples y diversos,

pero que reflejan una selección, producto de un interés. (....)

Si queremos respetar en el aula los procesos que se dan en la actividad de

audición, deberemos suministrar a los alumnos un propósito para la CA, o

permitirles que lo encuentren ellos mismos.”(El subrayado es mío)

En el aprendizaje de segundas lenguas, se suele distinguir entre actividades

destinadas a escuchar de forma “extensiva” y aquellas otras en las que la audición

tiene lugar de manera “intensiva”. La diferencia estriba en que

- en el primer caso, sirven para practicar y consolidar en un nuevo

contexto material lingüístico ya conocido, para intentar aprender palabras y

expresiones nuevas partiendo de las ya conocidas, para seguir el hilo de una

narración, etc.;

- en el segundo, para que el aprendiz de una L2 pueda identificar sonidos,

combinaciones de sonidos, patrones de entonación, fenómenos derivados de la

unión de palabras en la cadena hablada (asimilación, hiatos, sinalefas, etc.),

así como otros relacionados con aspectos léxicos o gramaticales.

44

Como sabemos, cuando en el procesamiento del mensaje se parte de lo más

general (conocimientos lingüísticos previos, experiencias, guiones y esquemas a lo

más concreto (sonidos, palabras, frases, etc.) se habla técnicas de arriba abajo

(top-down); en caso contrario, de técnicas de abajo a arriba (bottom-up)

Llegados a este punto cabe preguntarse si la comprensión es suficiente para que

se produzca el aprendizaje, como postulaba Krashen o, por el contrario, es

necesario algo más. Pues bien, parece ser que bastantes de los estudios

realizados en las últimas décadas del siglo pasado sobre la posible eficacia de la

manipulación del input por parte de los hablantes nativos no demuestran que ni la

llamada técnica del enhancement o “realce”, ni tampoco la negociación (Hipótesis

de la Interacción) tengan efecto alguno sobre el aprendizaje, aunque sí favorecen

la comprensión. Es más, en el caso de la modificación del input para facilitar la

comprensión, “...el aprendiz, si pide repetición o aclaración, lo que recibe es otra

formulación diferente con el mismo contenido, de la que se ha quitado el problema.

Pero con quitarle al aprendiz la causa del problema, se le quita también la

posibilidad de descubrir qué era lo que le impidió la comprensión la primera vez,

por no hablar de la ocasión de enfocar las formas que contenían los problemas.”

(Eva Dam Jensen (2000:29) Y es que, como esta misma autora señala más

adelante, “en el momento de haber sido interpretado el contenido, la idea

pasa al almacén de largo plazo, y el eco de la imagen sonora, o sea, la

formulación verbal, se borra de la memoria de trabajo. Se necesita todo el tiempo

disponible solamente para deducir el sentido, y no sobra capacidad mental para

reparar en la forma. Es ese periodo que es demasiado corto para dejarle al

aprendiz llevar a cabo los dos procesos necesarios: primero, el de interpretar el

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sentido y segundo, el de reparar en la forma.” (Ibid, 31) Por eso es partidaria de lo

que ella llama “repetición idéntica” (exact repetition) y que ilustra abundantemente

en el proyecto de investigación y enseñanza del español hablado “Enredos” que,

junto a Thora Vinther, lleva a cabo en la Universidad de Copenhague. En

dicho proyecto ambas investigadoras proponen “trabajar con maneras de alargar

el periodo de contacto que tiene el aprendiz con la imagen acústica que es el

tiempo de articulación más la pausa, anterior a la intervención siguiente.” (Ibid, 31)

Actividades para la comprensión oral: principios generales

Precisamente porque comprender una lengua extranjera es una tarea compleja

que, como hemos visto, entraña un número considerable de micro destrezas, las

actividades que se pueden diseñar para practicar la comprensión auditiva en el

aula son múltiples y varían según la finalidad que persigamos, así como las

características del aprendiz y su nivel de instrucción . Teresa Bordón (2002: III, 3.2,

2.7) sugiere las siguientes:

• Respuesta física: hacer algo, actuar de forma motriz. Recuérdese que este era

el punto de partida del método de Respuesta Física Total. Hay que tener en cuenta

que las actividades que requieren respuesta física son más aconsejables para

aprendices niños o jóvenes, ya que los alumnos adultos mayores a veces no

aceptan este tipo de práctica porque les cohibe o les parece poco seria.

• Transferir: dibujar, trazar un recorrido, un gráfico. Este tipo de respuesta es muy

frecuente para actividades de nivel inicial y algunas de nivel intermedio.

• Completar: rellenar huecos, contestar preguntas (con respuesta libre,

controlada). Las actividades de completar huecos o de contestar a preguntas cuya

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respuesta hay que encontrarla en el texto que se escucha, son también muy

frecuentes. Pueden valer para cualquier nivel. La dificultad de interpretación

residirá en la estrategia o estrategias que se deban emplear. No entraña la misma

dificultad identificar una pieza léxica que destacar una idea principal de las

secundarias.

• Relacionar: el texto oral con imágenes, fragmentos de texto, etc. Este tipo de

respuesta se suele utilizar en actividades de nivel inicial, donde el apoyo gráfico es

fundamental.

• Resumir: tomar notas. Esta respuesta es propia de niveles intermedio alto,

avanzado y superior, ya que resumir supone entender muy bien lo que se oye para

determinar lo importante y lo accesorio y, al mismo tiempo, escribir la información

pertinente.

• Extender: ir más allá del texto, modificándolo, creando un final, etc.

• Hablar: contestar oralmente.

Ahora bien, de la misma manera que es posible oír sin escuchar, también se puede

escuchar sin entender, aun cuando el lenguaje utilizado no entrañe mayores

dificultades de orden estructural. Una conferencia sobre física cuántica, por

ejemplo, nunca podremos seguirla con provecho a menos que seamos

especialistas en la materia. Con ello queremos señalar que las actividades que

diseñemos para un aprendiz de L2 deben estar siempre al alcance de sus

posibilidades, lo que constituye el primer requisito básico que debe tener presente

el profesor. Para comprobar que la comprensión ha tenido lugar de un modo

correcto por parte del alumno, H. Douglas Brown (2001:259) recoge las nueve

propuestas que ofrece R. Lund y que son las siguientes:

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• Hacer - el oyente responde físicamente a una orden

• Elegir- el oyente selecciona grabados, objetos, textos

• Transferir- el oyente hace un dibujo de lo que oye

• Contestar- el oyente responde a las preguntas sobre el mensaje

• Resumir- el oyente sintetiza o toma apuntes

• Ampliar- el oyente finaliza una historia que oye

• Duplicar- el oyente traduce el mensaje a su L1 o la repite verbatim

• Imitar- el oyente encarga una comida siguiendo un texto modelo

• Hablando- el oyente participa en una conversación de forma apropiada.

Finalmente, en lo que insisten la mayoría de los autores es en la autenticidad de

los textos, ya que no sólo permiten al aprendiz establecer la conexión de lo que se

hace en el aula con las necesidades comunicativas de la vida real, sino que

estimulan su interés por ser más motivadores que los textos diseñados de un modo

artificial. La diferencia puede observarse en los siguientes diálogos, traducidos y

adaptados de Jeremy Harmer (1983:49):

Tom ¿Qué es eso que tienes en las manos?

Martin Son mis gafas de sol, mi nuevo par de gafas de sol. Tom Oh, sí, son

bonitas.

Martin Las tuyas son bonitas también. Tom Gracias. Son muy caras.

Martin Bueno, estas mías no son caras. Son de plástico. Son muy baratas. Tom

¿Cómo? Ah, ya. Tus gafas de sol son de plástico y las mías son de

cristal. El plástico no es tan bonito como el cristal. Martin Y el plástico no es tan

caro como el cristal.

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Tom El plástico no es tan pesado como el cristal. Tus gafas de sol no son tan

pesadas como éstas.

Martin No, pero el cristal no es tan fuerte como el plástico. Estas gafas de sol de

plástico son muy fuertes. Mira, las pongo debajo de la pata de esta silla.

Tom Oh, sí, son muy fuertes. Pero no son tan bonitas como las mías.......

A: Disculpe. ¿Cómo puedo ir a la estación, por favor?

B: La estación, la estación,.... a ver. Ah, ya. Puede usted bajar.....No, siga

recto hasta que llegue a un cine, o sea, hasta la segunda calle a la derecha. El cine

está en la esquina. Luego, gire a la derecha y se encuentra con Bridge Street. Creo

que es Bridge Street. Siga un poco por esta calle....

He aquí ahora una lista de técnicas de comprensión oral inspirada en la que

propone Pat W. Peterson (citado por H. Douglas Brown, 2001:260).

Incluimos solamente algunas de las correspondientes a los niveles elemental e

intermedio:

49

50

Lenguaje y expresión oral

Aunque no existe una definición universalmente aceptada de lo que debe

entenderse por lenguaje, casi todos los intentos que ha habido para definirlo

coinciden en admitir que básicamente el lenguaje es un sistema arbitrario de signos

verbales que permiten comunicarse entre sí a todos los miembros de una

determinada comunidad. (No dejan de tener razón, sin embargo, los que opinan,

como Voltaire o Goldsmith, que para lo que realmente sirve el lenguaje es para

ocultar nuestros pensamientos) Se trata, por lo tanto, de una facultad propia de los

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seres humanos, basada en la actividad de los órganos de la articulación que

producen sonidos articulados portadores de significado.

Si, como hemos visto, la comprensión auditiva es la primera destreza que ocurre

en el aprendizaje de la lengua materna, la expresión oral es la destreza que le

sigue a continuación, aunque no inmediatamente: sólo después de un periodo más

o menos largo de estar “expuesto” a la lengua puede el niño empezar a hacer uso

del lenguaje oral de forma adecuada.

¿Qué rasgos caracterizan esta destreza desde el punto de vista del aprendiz de

una L2? Como ya hemos señalado, depende de los objetivos que se proponga

conseguir. En líneas generales, la expresión oral se caracteriza por lo siguiente:

a) Es la destreza más importante para muchos aprendices de una L2;

b) Tiene una utilidad práctica, incluso en el caso de que las destrezas que nos

interesan primordialmente sean otras;

c) Las oportunidades de practicarla dependen de muchos factores externos al

aprendiz;

d) Conseguir un buen dominio de esta destreza no es fácil, ya que implica ser

capaz de utilizar un número considerable de microdestrezas -- capacitadoras, De

interacción y de actuación (Martín Peris E.,1996:50)- y que son prácticamente las

mismas que para la comprensión oral.

P.A.D. MacCarthy (1972:4) sintetiza este último apartado con las siguientes

palabras:

“Ability to handle spoken language is to be taken to include ability to understand the

foreign language when spoken normally by natives, without allowances being made

for the foreigner such a as slowing down, repeating phrases, speaking specially

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loudly or distinctly, and under normal—that is, sometimes adverse—conditions of

listening, i.e. to a variety of voices and accents or against a background of noise or

interference. It also includes ability to express oneself in the language, using

appropriate forms and constructions fluently and without unnatural hesitation,

and with a delivery sufficiently resembling that of native speakers to cause

absolutely no difficulties of communication, and in favourable cases to pass

virtually unnoticed among them.”

(La capacidad de expresarse oralmente supone la habilidad de entender a los

nativos de una L2 sin que tengan que hablar más despacio, repetir frases, hablar

más alto o con más claridad y cuando las condiciones acústicas son normales –a

veces adversas-- ,es decir, porque las voces o los acentos que se escuchan son

variados, o porque hay ruidos de fondo o interferencias. También implica la

habilidad de expresarse usando construcciones gramaticales con fluidez y sin

titubear, de tal forma que la producción oral se parezca lo suficiente a la de los

hablantes nativos como para no causar problemas de comunicación y, en el mejor

de los casos, como para pasar por uno de ellos.)

La expresión y la comprensión orales: destrezas complementarias

Si consideramos la expresión oral como parte de un intercambio comunicativo,

podemos decir que la comprensión oral es una destreza productiva a la vez

que receptiva (Widdowson,1978:59). La interacción de estas dos destrezas se da

sobre todo en la conversación, la cual es una de las formas más comunes del

lenguaje hablado.

53

Ya decíamos en la lección anterior que la comprensión oral no se concibe sin la

expresión oral, a la que está estrechamente vinculada y con la que comparte

muchas características, E. microdestrezas, aun cuando, desde el punto de vista de

la psicolingüística, comprensión y producción no sean procesos equivalentes ni

inversos, como señalan algunos (Ver F. Moreno Fernández, 2002:16) En el

aprendizaje de la lengua materna, el niño empieza por escuchar a las personas

que están a su alrededor, las cuales le proporcionan los modelos que luego imitará

oralmente. Por la misma razón, “para que un aprendiz de L2 llegue a la producción

de lengua, primero tiene que haber recibido modelos y haber recibido tareas

mediadoras que le faciliten la producción.” (Bordón, 2002: III, 3.3, 1)

No quiere esto decir, ni mucho menos, que el paso de una destreza a otra sea

automático; por muy desarrollada que tenga el aprendiz de una L2 su capacidad de

escuchar y de comprender un mensaje, no podrá expresarse en la L2 de una

manera adecuada si antes no ha practicado suficientemente esta destreza. Como

dice W. H.

Rivers (1981:188): “We learn to speak by speaking”. Aprendemos a hablar

hablando, lo mismo que aprendemos a conducir un coche conduciéndolo, o a bailar

el tango bailándolo.

Dificultades de la expresión oral

La expresión oral es sin duda la destreza más difícil debido a los factores que

intervienen en ella, pues el hablante no sólo tiene que pensar qué es lo que va a

decir, sino cómo lo va a decir y, además, en un brevísimo espacio de

tiempo. Si la codificación del mensaje es de por sí un proceso complejo, lo es

54

mucho más para el aprendiz de una L2 cuyo conocimiento del nuevo código es aún

reducido. Por otra parte, conocer el código no basta; es necesario tener el

conocimiento pragmático suficiente que permita usar la lengua de modo adecuado

a cada situación comunicativa.

En líneas generales, se puede decir que los problemas que presenta la expresión

oral al aprendiz de una L2 son de dos tipos: a) lingüísticos y b) psicológicos

Siguiendo a H. D. Brown (2001: 270) los factores de orden lingüístico se agrupan

en torno a estos ocho apartados:

1. Cadena hablada.- Hablar con fluidez supone unir las palabras y no

pronunciarlas una a una.

2. Redundancia.- El hablante debe conocer este recurso del lenguaje porque le

ayuda a transmitir el mensaje con más claridad.

3. Formas reducidas.- Contracciones, elisiones, reducción silábica, etc.

4. Variación en la “expresividad”.- Comienzos equivocados, dislocaciones

sintácticas, retrocesos, frases de relleno o expresiones de apoyo (“esto”,

“digamos”, etc.)

5. Lenguaje coloquial.- Estilo informal, jergas, expresiones idiomáticas, etc.

6. Tempo elocutivo.- La rapidez con que habla un nativo suele ser un obstáculo

para la comprensión por parte del oyente no nativo

7. Aspectos prosódicos.- El acento, el ritmo y la entonación varían según las

lenguas.

8. Interacción.- La interacción con el interlocutor se rige por reglas que comparte y

respeta el hablante: interpretación de marcas lingüísticas, negociación del

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significado, turnos de palabra, fórmulas para mantener y terminar la conversación,

etc.

Desde el punto de vista psicológico, el temor de cometer errores o el miedo al

ridículo, sobre todo cuando el interlocutor es un hablante nativo o tiene un mayor

dominio de la L2 (“interlocutor effect”) son factores que inhiben a muchos

aprendices de expresarse oralmente en público, aun cuando puedan hacerlo

aceptablemente bien. De todas formas, para éstos, más importante que tener algo

que decir o el deseo de contárselo a alguien es saber cómo decirlo. En cualquier

caso, se piensa que conviene practicar esta destreza desde las etapas iniciales del

aprendizaje.

Hay que tener presente, sin embargo, que el aprendizaje se produce igualmente

aunque no haya producción oral por el aprendiz. Recordemos cómo el niño que

aprende su lengua materna pasa asimismo por una fase silenciosa en la que sólo

escucha.

Debido a que la expresión oral no es una actividad planificada de antemano, sino

que se produce inmediatamente después de que ha tenido lugar la codificación del

mensaje, el aprendiz de L2, para asegurarse de que su interlocutor entiende lo que

dice, apela a un número variado de estrategias como pedir ayuda, utilizar

sinónimos, recurrir a su L1, parafrasear, etc.

Un problema importante relacionado con la destreza oral que se da sobre todo en

la clase de L2 es el de la falta de motivación del alumno. En este sentido, se

preguntan Mª José Gelabert et al. (2002:37) “¿Quién no ha pensado, o incluso

llevado a cabo alguna vez, llegar a la clase de expresión oral y decir a los alumnos

que iban a dedicar el tiempo a hablar de algún tema? Si se ha tenido esta

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experiencia, se puede haber llegado a una conclusión muy importante: el alumno,

en la mayoría de los casos, no demuestra ningún interés. Si le planteamos a

nuestros alumnos nuestros tópicos más recurrentes como <<toros sí, toros no>>

sin más, la mayoría de ellos, por no decir todos, pensarán que no hemos

preparado la clase o que nuestro método no les ayuda nada.” Las

implicaciones didácticas son claras.

57

Rincon, C. (2009). Curso de español como lengua materna. [Fragmento] La

competencia comunicativa.

58

La competencia comunicativa

“La competencia comunicativa es el término más general

para la capacidad comunicativa de una persona, capacidad

que abarca tanto el conocimiento de la lengua como la

habilidad para utilizarla. La adquisición de tal competencia

está mediada por la experiencia social, las necesidades y

motivaciones, y la acción, que es a la vez una fuente renovada

de motivaciones, necesidades y experiencias”.

Dell Hymes

“La competencia comunicativa es una capacidad que

comprende no sólo la habilidad lingüística, gramatical,

de producir frases bien construidas y de saber interpretar

y emitir juicios sobre frases producidas por el hablante-

oyente o por otros, sino que, necesariamente, constará,

por un lado, de una serie de habilidades extralingüísticas

interrelacionadas, sociales y semióticas, y por el otro, de

una habilidad lingüística polifacética y multiforme”.

Gaetano Berruto

“La competencia comunicativa comprende las aptitudes y

los conocimientos que un individuo debe tener

para poder utilizar sistemas lingüísticos y translingüísticos

que están a su disposición para comunicarse

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como miembro de una comunidad sociocultural dada”.

(María Stella Girón y Marco Antonio Vallejo, 1992)

Desde nuestra infancia, los seres humanos vamos adquiriendo

y desarrollando una capacidad relacionada

con el hecho de saber cuándo podemos hablar o cuándo debemos callar,

y también sobre qué hacerlo, con quién, dónde, para qué y en qué forma.1

Es decir, desde niños adquirimos un conocimiento no sólo de la

gramática de nuestra lengua materna sino que también aprendemos

sus diferentes registros y su

pertinencia; somos capaces de tomar parte en eventos comunicativos y

de evaluar la participación nuestra y la de los otros.

Aún más, podemos afirmar que esa competencia 3 es integral, puesto que

también involucra actitudes,valores y motivaciones relacionadas con la

lengua, con sus características y sus usos, y con los demássistemas de com

unicación en general. Naturalmente, la adquisición de tal capacidad debe estar

ligada auna experiencia social, a unas necesidades, a unas motivaciones y a una a

cción.

1 Al respecto, Basil Bernstein afirma que “Cada vez que un niño

habla o escucha, se refuerza la estructura social de la

cual forma parte y se constriñe su identidad social”.

2 Un registro es una variante de nuestra lengua condicionada

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por factores socioeconómicos y culturales. Los hablantes

autorregulan permanentemente su forma de hablar. Por eso, a cada situación

comunicativa corresponde un registro lingüístico.

3 La competencia comunicativa

implica un conocimiento (implícito, tácito) y un uso contextualizado de

ese conocimiento (o una actuación).

El modelo de lengua que subyace en este concepto de competencia,

implica, desde luego, que la única

función de las lenguas no es nombrar, sino que ellas también están

organizadas para lamentarse,

alegrarse, rogar, prevenir, defender, atacar; están relacionadas con las distint

as formas de persuasión,

dirección, expresión y juegos simbólicos. El verdadero sentido de las lenguas hum

anas sólo puede llegar

a ser comprendido en el ámbito natural de su uso para permitir la c

onversación, la interacción

comunicativa, el trato verbal cotidiano, la vida en sociedad.

Así entendidas, las lenguas dejan de ser

meros sistemas semióticos abstractos, inmanentes, ajenos a las intenciones y

a las necesidades de los

hablantes, y se convierten en teatros, en espacios de representación, e

n repertorios de códigos

culturales cuya significación se construye y se renueva de manera

61

permanente por medio de estrategias

de participación, de cooperación y de convicción.

Como bien lo afirmábamos en la Introducción, las

lenguas no son sólo instrumentos para comunicar a otros lo que pensamos,

sino también una forma de actividad, regulada y pública.

En la década de los años setenta, los primeros etnógrafos de la

comunicación (Gumperz y Hymes)

postularon la existencia de una competencia para la comunicación o

competencia comunicativa, que comprende lo que un hablante

oyente real, dotado de ciertos roles sociales y miembro de una

determinada comunidad lingüística, debe saber para establecer una efectiva

comunicación en situaciones

culturalmente significantes, y para emitir mensajes verbales congruentes con l

a situación. Para estos

teóricos, la competencia comunicativa es un conjunto de normas que se va

adquiriendo a lo largo del

proceso de socialización y, por lo tanto, está socioculturalmente condicionada.

Así pues, esa Competencia Comunicativa exige no sólo la habilidad para ma

nejar una lengua sino además

saber situarse en el contexto comunicativo de cada comunidad específica, en

sus diversas formaciones

sociales, culturales e ideológicas.

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La competencia comunicativa se manifiesta tanto en los sistemas primarios de c

omunicación como en los

sistemas secundarios.

Los sistemas primarios son los de la comunicación cotidiana

sirven para el

intercambio comunicativo necesario en el desempeño de todos los roles que

implica la vida en sociedad:

una llamada telefónica, una carta, un memorando, un cartel, un noticiero radial, etc.

Los sistemas secundarios son de mayor elaboración y complejidad.

Requieren más capacidad cognitiva del hablante-oyente real en su

labor de codificar y descodificar textos, puesto que estas

comunicaciones se producen en esferas de más elaboración cultural. “La comunic

ación en estos sistemas

es básicamente escrita, pero también comprende formas orales como confere

ncias, foros, seminarios, etc. Se trata de la comunicación literaria,

científica, técnica, sociopolítica, jurídica, y de

comunicaciones no verbales, como las artes visuales; o mixtas, como el teatro” (Gir

ón y Vallejo, 1992:14).

Está claro, entonces, que la competencia comunicativa no se limita a la com

petencia gramatical o al

conocimiento del sistema semiótico de una lengua. Por lo tanto, la competencia co

municativa se configura

por la adquisición y desarrollo de una serie de competencias.

63

La competencia lingüística:

Se caracteriza por la capacidad de un hablante para producir e interpr

etar signos verbales. El

conocimiento y el empleo adecuado del código lingüístico le permiten a un i

ndividuo crear, reproducir e

interpretar un número infinito de oraciones.

Ese conocimiento y ese empleo se vinculan con dos

modalidades diferentes de la lengua: la lengua como sistema de signos y la

lengua en funcionamiento, en

uso.

64

La lengua como sistema de signos corresponde al dominio semiótico, y su

función esencial es significar.

La lengua en funcionamiento, en uso, corresponde al dominio

semántico, y su función básica es comunicar.

El siguiente paralelo nos ilustra mejor estas dos modalidades, estos dos ámbitos de

la lengua:

DOMINIO SEMIÓTICO DOMINIO SEMÁNTICO

La lengua como sistema de signos

La lengua en funcionamiento

Dominio o ámbito del signo Dominio o ámbito de la frase

No se considera la relación del signo

con lo denotado ni la relación de la

lengua con el mundo.

Integra la sociedad y el mundo.

La lengua en su función mediadora

entre el hombre y el hombre, entre el

hombre y el mundo.

Incorpora la noción de referente:

El signo tiene un valor genérico y

conceptual.

El sentido de la frase implica la

referencia al contexto y a la actitud del

locutor. Es una propiedad de la lengua Es el resultado de una actividad del

locutor que pone en acción la lengua

65

La competencia paralingüística:

Es la capacidad de un hablante para utilizar de manera adecuada determinados sig

nos no lingüísticos que

le permiten expresar una actitud en relación con su interlocutor y con lo que dice: y

a sea para declarar, interrogar, intimidar, rogar, ordenar, etc.

En las comunicaciones orales, esta competencia se manifiesta en el empleo

de los signos entonacionales:

tono de la voz, cadencia o ritmo y énfasis en la pronunciación.

En las comunicaciones escritas, se manifiesta por medio del empleo de los

signos de puntuación, de las

sangrías, de los nomencladores, de la distribución general del espacio, ti

pos de letras, etc. Estos

recursos nos permiten identificar la división de un texto escrito en capí

tulos, párrafos, temas y subtemas.

La competencia quinésica: 4

Se manifiesta en la capacidad consciente o inconsciente para comunicar info

rmación mediante signos

estuales, como señas, mímica, expresiones faciales, variados movimientos cor

porales, etc. Estos signos

pueden ser expresiones propias o aprendidas, originales o convencionales.

66

La competencia proxémica:

Esta competencia consiste en la capacidad que tenemos los hablantes para

manejar el espacio y las

distancias interpersonales en los actos comunicativos. Las distancias entr

e los interlocutores, la

posibilidad de tocarse, el estar separados o en contacto, tienen significados

que varían de una cultura a

otra. Los códigos proxémicos se establecen, entonces,

según la cultura, las relaciones sociales, los

roles, el sexo, la edad.

La competencia proxémica es esa habilidad que tenemos para crear, tr

ansformar y apropiarnos de

espacios, tanto en la vida pública como privada.

Ella nos permite asignarle significado al respeto o a la

transgresión de esas distancias interpersonales y de los espacios codificados

por los distintos grupos sociales.

La competencia pragmática:

El punto de partida de esta competencia es la consideración de el hablar c

omo un hacer.Todos los

usuarios de una lengua tienen una capacidad que les permite asociar los en

unciados con los contextos en

que dichos enunciados son apropiados. El contexto no es, desde luego, sólo

el escenario físico en el que

67

se realiza el acto comunicativo, sino también esos conocimientos que se asu

men como compartidos entre

los participantes. Un acto comunicativo no es algo estático ni un simple proc

eso lineal; por el contrario,

un acto comunicativo es un proceso cooperativo de interpretación de intencio

nes, en el cual un hablante

intenta hacer algo, el interlocutor interpreta esa intención, y con base en esa

interpretación elabora su respuesta, ya sea lingüística o no.

4 Al igual que quinesiología, cinemática, cinematógrafo, cinema, esta palabra se ge

nera de una raíz griega que significa movimiento.

Recordemos que la pragmática es la disciplina que se ocupa de estudiar el

uso que los hablantes hacen

del lenguaje en un contexto lingüístico o extralingüístico.

De esta manera, podemos afirmar que la

pragmática parte del supuesto de que la comunicación es la función primaria del

lenguaje.

Por eso, teniendo presente lo anterior, vamos a definir la competencia pragmática c

omo la habilidad para

hacer un uso estratégico del lenguaje en un medio social determinado,

según la intención y la situación

comunicativa; es saber ejecutar acciones sociales mediante el empleo adecua

68

do de signos lingüísticos, o

de signos de otros códigos no lingüísticos, utilizados de acuerdo con unas i

ntenciones y con unos fines deseados.

Según pretenda con su acto comunicativo informar, ordenar, interrogar, impu

gnar, sugerir, rogar, etc.,

el sujeto hablante necesita plantearse con precisión varias preguntas, si aspir

a a alcanzar con éxito sus

propósitos:

1. Cuál es el motivo, la finalidad y el contenido de su acción comunicativa.

2. A quién va dirigida.

3. Cuándo es el momento adecuado para emprenderla.

4. Dónde debe efectuarla.

La competencia estilística:

Es el complemento indispensable de la competencia pragmática, puesto que l

a competencia estilística se

manifiesta en esa capacidad para saber cómo decir algo, cuál es la manera

más eficaz de conseguir la

finalidad propuesta.

¿Cómo hemos de decirlo para obtener lo que queremos? sería la pre

gunta clave para esta competencia.

Las actitudes estilísticas del hablante hacia su interlocutor —

como la cortesía, la amabilidad, la paciencia, el enfado, la displicencia—

son determinantes en la estructuración de los enunciados.

69

Observemos, por ejemplo, las diferencias que existen en los dos enunciados siguie

ntes, utilizados ambos para conseguir que alguien cierre la puerta:

1. ¡Cierre la puerta, carajo!

2. Por favor, ¿sería tan amable de cerrar la puerta?

Además del principio de cooperación,5 están en estrecha relación con la co

mpetencia estilística las

siguientes cuatro máximas:

1. Sé claro: evita la oscuridad en la expresión.

2. Evita la ambigüedad.

3. Sé breve.

4. Sé ordenado.

Es evidente que el cómo se dice algo puede provocar aceptación o r

echazo en el interlocutor y enriquecer o empobrecer la significación.

5 En 1975, H. P. Grice lo planteó como principio regulador de todo acto comunicat

ivo: “Haz que tu contribución a la

conversación sea la adecuada, en el momento en que se produce, pa

ra la finalidad aceptada del intercambio

conversacional en el que estás participando”.

La competencia textual:

“Es la capacidad para articular e interpretar signos organizados en un todo

coherente llamado texto. La competencia textual implica las competencias

70

consideradas anteriormente y, además, las competencias cognitiva y semántica”

(Girón y Vallejo, 1992: 20).

La noción de texto ha sido objeto de arduas disquisiciones para su definición. En

nuestro caso, podemos aceptar que un texto, “debe ser resultado de la actividad

lingüística del hombre, ha de tener incuestionablemente una específica intención

comunicativa y, por último, ha de explicitarse con suficiencia el contexto en el cual

se produce” (Bernal Leongómez, 1986: 17). Sin embargo, vamos a definirlo de un

modo más simple como cualquier comunicación elaborada con base en un

determinado sistema de signos y dotada de un propósito comunicativo específico.

La competencia cognitiva:

La enciclopedia cultural de cada hablante-oyente real le permite reconocer e

interpretar los contenidos científicos, socioculturales o ideológicos de un texto. La

capacidad para llevar a cabo esa labor descodificadora es precisamente la

competencia cognitiva. Ella hace posible que podamos comprender e interpretar

textos de carácter científico, técnico, literario, político, periodístico, comercial, etc.,

pues para adelantar ese proceso debemos tener un conocimiento de las maneras

específicas como dichos textos se estructuran y se formulan.

La competencia semántica:

Cuando le asignamos el significado adecuado a cualquier signo o establecemos su

relación con un referente determinado, estamos haciendo una demostración de

nuestra competencia semántica. De igual manera, cuando comprendemos el

sentido de una frase o de una oración, o cuando realizamos la interpretación global

71

de un texto. Veamos algunos ejemplos con textos escritos: Si reconocemos la

diferencia que existe entre accesible y asequible (e incluso si no recurrimos al

“híbrido” asequible, tan frecuente en estos tiempos), podemos construir oraciones

como: La directora del proyecto es una persona muy accesible.

En realidad, el contenido de esa lectura no me pareció accesible. Ese apartamento

te resultaría asequible si lograras reducir la cuota resultaría asequible si lograras

reducir la cuota de pago. Dada su estatura, para él son asequibles todos los

bombillos.

O también, si después de leer los siguientes versos de Alejandro González,

establecemos la correspondiente relación con el referente:

“Señora del aire graciosa, ágil, de alas transparentes llevando el sol a cuestas de la

rama al estanque, incansable”. En el primer ejemplo, la competencia semántica se

manifiesta en la capacidad para asignar significados a las palabras; y en el

segundo, para asignar referentes (como los textos literarios se caracterizan por su

pluralidad semántica y simbólica, sus referentes son menos precisos y

consolidados que los de los textos científicos). Ilustremos esta diferencia

comparando los versos anteriores con el siguiente enunciado:

“La figura consta de dos círculos concéntricos y de dos cuadrados. Cada cuadrado

está inscrito en uno de los círculos”. — intenta dibujar esta figura y asignarle el

referente a los versos —.Para terminar, podemos observar cómo el concepto de

competencia textual concuerda bastante con el de competencia comunicativa, ya

que el proceso de codificar o descodificar textos implica el concurso de variadas

competencias: lingüística, paralingüística, pragmática, etc.

72

Unidad 3 What do I need to teach English?

Teaching techniques, textbook and technology

Celce-Murcia, M. (1988). Techniques and resources in teaching grammar.

[Fragmento] Techniques and resources integrated. (Pp. 133-175). New

York: Oxford University Pres.

73

GAMES

While most ESL teachers agree that games are excellent learning activities for

children, some believe that adult students are not receptive because they require

something more than "fun and games" from their ESL classes. From our

experience, well-planned games can teach and reinforce grammar points very

successfully if the activities are geared to student´s proficiency, age, and

experience and are not presented condescendingly.

"The Treasure Hunt" is the first game we suggest because it can be used

successfully even with high-beginning or low-intermediate students. For this

game——which elicits communicative practice of imperatives and potentially all

types of questions (yes/no, wh-, alternative)—the teacher first divides the class into

groups of three. (In a large class students could form groups of four or five.) Each

group is given a small picture of a pot of gold—or some other appropriate

"treasure"—with the group’s number written on it in large script. The group is also

given a thumb tack or a strip of masking tape and asked to select one of its

members for a very important task. _

The group members who have been selected for the important task step outside the

room with the teacher and are told to hide the pot of gold in some secluded but

accessible location at least fifty paces away from the classroom door. At this stage

they should be instructed only to find a very good hiding place for the treasure as

quickly as possible and return to the classroom.

Once all class members in charge of hiding the treasure have returned, they are

told to rejoin their groups but to say nothing until further instructed. They are then

told to give careful oral instructions to the other group members as to exactly where

74

they must go to find their group’s treasure. These instructions should be verbal only.

No maps, gestures, or written notes are allowed. The other group members may

asks as many questions as they wish. The one who hides the treasure must tell the

others how to get from the classroom to the hiding place, not simply where it is.

The teacher should point out that English speakers typically use imperatives and a

variety of question types to give instructions and gather information in a situation.

Appropriate models should be provided:

S1: Go out the door and walk down the hallway.

S2: Should we turn left or right when we leave?

S1: Left, but then go right at the first corridor.

S3: How far down the corridor should we go?

When the group members have received their instructions, they go out of the room

and attempt to recover their treasure. If they become confused, they can return to

the classroom for clarification or repetition. The first pair to find its assigned treasure

and return to the classroom wins. The teacher can time all the groups and record

how long it takes for each group to return. After a specified amount of time (about

ten to fifteen minutes), all participants must return to the room, even if they haven’t

found their treasure. Time permitting, those groups that do not find their gold can

locate the treasure and figure out why they did not find it. They should be able to

explain what went wrong in their communications.

The title of our second game is "The Way Home," a board game for structured

practice and reinforcement of prepositions of direction and the future with going 20.

Each group of four students needs a game board (reproduced on a piece of

75

posterboard), a set of answer cards to consult as necessary, one coin to toss, and

four identical bottle caps, each marked with a different number.

The board consists of the 18 paths that each player follows to get from school to

home with ten locations or obstacles along the way.

The four players draw the upside-down bottle caps (numbers on the top side) to see

who will go first, second, etc. They all start at school. Each player in turn tosses the

coin to determine his path (H for heads or T for tails). To continue, he must then

announce the move he will make in the future using going to and the correct

preposition. If the toss sends him back to an earlier obstacle, he must move back

whether he can produce the correct utterance or not. For example, a player begins

at school and tosses heads. He must then say, "I’m going to go/walk/run to the

bridge" before he can carry out this forward movement with his bottle cap. If he

cannot orally express the move, or if he makes a language error his partners can

detect, he loses a turn but may consult the set of eighteen answer cards that have

the path numbers on one side and some of the most frequent responses on the

other to see what is required so his next attempt can be success. lf after going over

or under the bridge the same player next tosses heads, he must follow the arrow

and return to the river-bank Whether he can say what he is going to do or not. If he

cannot say it, he should consult the answer card, produce the correct utterance,

and then move his bottle cap back. Forward movement is the reward For producing

a correct utterance; losing a turn is the penalty for not doing so, except in the case

of backward movement, which is mandatory.

(This is so a clever student does not figure out that purposely producing an

incorrect response will prevent his having to move backwards.) The numbered

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sides of the cards should always be face up. The answer cards or the teacher nay

also be consulted if one player wishes to challenge what another player has said. lf

a challenge is successful (i.e., the player trying to more gives the wrong information

or makes an error), the player trying 10 move loses a turn and the challenger has

an extra toss of the coin on his next turn. lf the challenge is unsuccessful (i.e., the

player trying to move makes an acceptable response), the player makes normal

progress and the challenger loses a turn. There are sometimes disputes during

such challenges that the teacher has to mediate and resolve.

The first player in each group to "get home" wins the game. If the class is at a

beginning level, the diagrams and verbal descriptions on the answer cards should

be practiced and reviewed carefully before the groups start to pl1y the game. lf the

class is intermediate or advanced, it might be better to let them discover and learn a

few unfamiliar items from the cards as they play.

The third and last game we will suggest is "Bid and Swap," a card game designed

to provide communicative practice of the use of mass and count nouns, where the

mass noun represents the class noun and the corresponding count nouns represent

specific members of the class. This game encourages practice of some (mass

noun), a piece of (mass noun) , as well as requests with will that are typical of

trading or bartering contexts.

Each group of three to five players is given a set of twenty-five l cards. Five of these

pictures should represent class nouns such as furnitures, clothing, fruit, luggage,

and fish. The remaining twenty pictures should represent four specific members of

each of these five classes (eg., a chair, a table, a desk, and a sofa—for furniture).

77

As soon as everyone ii familiar with the vocabulary and aware ( of which cards

represent class nouns and which specific nouns (this can be practiced in the

groups), all the picture cards are shuffled and placed face down on the group’s

table or desk.

There are two parts to this game. First, each member of the group (the turn

sequence may be established by a toss of the dice) asks for a class of pictures by

saying, "I need/want some (mass noun) ." After each bid, the top card of the stack is

turned face up. If the bidder’s choice appears as the card for the class noun (e. g.,

fruit) or the card for a member of the class (e.g., banana), the bidder keeps that

card, hides it from the others, and then gets an extra turn. If the bidder’s choice

does not appear, the card is placed face down at the bottom of the stack. This

continues until all the cards are in the possession of the players. (The stack of cards

will probably have to be replayed several times before this happens.) Second, once

all the picture cards have been acquired, the players take turns trying to make

trades in order to complete one set of five pictures as quickly as possible. (Again, a

roll of the dice can be used to determine this sequence.) The barter offered can be

a general item for a general item, a general item for a specific item, a specific item

for a general item, or a specific item for a specific item. For example:

S1: Ali, will you trade a piece of furniture for a piece of fruit a banana)?

Ali responds "yes" or "no" and makes his own bid:

S2: Marco, will you trade a shark for a piece of clothing (a dress)?

The player being addressed by the trader can say either "yes" and make the trade

or "no." The latter, of course, is ambiguous and can mean either "I don’t have it" or

"I don’t want to trade." In either case, the next player can then propose a trade,

78

continuing in this manner until there is a winner. The winner is the first player to

complete a set of five cards—the class noun plus all four member nouns (e. g.,

furniture/chair, table, desk, sofa). A trade may result in a tie with two winners.

PROBLEM-SOLVING ACTIVITIES

Problem—solving activities rank high in most accounts of communicative language

teaching. Brumfit (1984), for example, reports on some promising experimental

work in South Indian schools where the Procedural syllabus has been

implemented. This is an approach to second- language teaching developed by

Prabhu based almost exclusively on the use of highly challenging problem-solving

activities. Similarly, Widdowson(1986) has encouraged extensive use of problems.

such as the following for communicative language teaching:

There was a farmer who had to get himself, his dog, his chicken, and a bag of grain

across the river. Unfortunately, his boat was so small [that] the farmer could carry

only the dog, the chicken, or the grain during one crossing. Also, he could not leave

the dog with the chicken because he would eat her, and he could not leave the

chicken with the grain because she would eat it. What did the farmer do to get

himself and everything else across the river safely?

Although such problems provide an excellent opportunity for language practice, it is

hard to get students to focus systematically on me or two structures while solving

them. The problem above could elicit conditional sentences, or sequential logical

connectors, or causal logical connectors, or a host of other structures. Thus, as a

resource for teaching grammar, the problem is too diffuse unless the teacher finds a

way to provide a structural focus. Communicative practice involving problem-solving

79

activities should naturally elicit and focus on a smaller range of structures, and it is

this type of narrowly focused problem-solving activity that we will concentrate on in

this chapter.

The first activity is a fairly simple one called "Where Were You Born?" In classes in

which students come from a wide variety of places, this exercise can provide

communicative practice of this common Passive-voice question and corresponding

answers, which occur in the Past tense in English rather than the present tense, as

is the case in many other languages.

At the end of one class session, the teacher distributes three- by-five index cards

and asks each student to write down his name and the name of the town or nearest

large city where he was born. During the next class session, students form groups

of four or five, and each group receives one sheet that contains a list of the names

of all class members and another that contains a list of all the places where the

Class members were born. Each group should select a secretary to keep track of

the information.

The teacher should allow about ten minutes for the groups to record the birthplace

next to the name of every student on the list. Students should guess if they are not

sure. Before the exercise, the teacher should provide a model group conversation

such as the following:

S1: I was born in Lima

S2: I’ll put that down. Where were you born?

S3: I was born near Havana. Where was Li born? Shanghai or

Taipei?

S4: I don’t know. I know José was born in Monterrey.

80

S5: Li was born in Taipei.

The group with the largest number of correct matches wins. If most students were

born in the same town, the teacher can use their dates of birth instead of the places

of birth. Both pieces of information require use of the past tense of to be born.

our second suggestion for a problem-solving activity is called "Lost on a Desert

Island." It involves a problem that students should I be assigned individually for

homework so they can select choices for the seven most important items in

preparation for resolving the following problem in class:

You are one of four surviving crew members of a small ship that sank off the coast

of a large desert island. You and your companions must now walk some 100 miles

to the other side of the island where other ships are much more likely to pass. You

will then be able to signal one of these ships to pick you up. Much of the equipment

on board sank with your ship. Because survival depends on your reaching the other

side of the island where you can signal passing ships, you must choose the seven

most critical items for the 100-mile trip, since you are all weak and cannot carry

everything.

Listed below are the fourteen items that the four of you were able to rescue. Your

task is to select the seven most important onus with the goal of eventual rescue.

You must defend each choice with a good reason.

Items

a box of matches 4 gallons of water

50 feet of nylon rope a first—aid kit

a portable stove two signal flares

81

a flashlight with batteries two .45 caliber pistols

a magnetic compass a case of powdered milk

a life raft a solar-powered FM

a world map receiver transmitter

some of food concentrate

Answer any questions regarding vocabulary, grammar, or the task in general when

the problem is first presented. The grammatical objectives for this lesson are:

1 communicative practice of article usage with reference to the count and mass

nouns on the list of objects

2. the use of the comparative and/or superlative degree(s) in deciding which items

are among the seven most important ones

There will also be some use of logical connectors of reason or purpose, such as

because(in order to), when students try to convince each other in case of conflicting

priorities. Before the class divides into groups to discuss the problem, the teacher

should model one possible argument in order to focus practice appropriately. For

example: "The life raft is the least important item since they have to walk across the

island, not travel by water." The teacher could also ask students to offer a few more

arguments before the group work begins:

"The water is more important than the milk because . . ."

"We’ll need the matches to light the flares."

Each group is given fifteen minutes to arrive at a consensus. Individual students will

probably have made slightly different selections on their own, so it will be up to them

to debate and decide among themselves which seven items are, in fact, the most

important ones.

82

When the fifteen minutes have elapsed, each group should write its list of the seven

most important items on the board so results can be compared across groups. Any

discrepancies should be noted and, if possible, resolved by the class as a whole.

Our third and final problem, "Decisions, Decisions," is adapted from Rosensvveig

(1974), who suggests a personal student-centered dilemma in the values

clarification genre. We recommend a format such as the following, which has two

phases. On the first day, the teacher presents the problem below to the students,

along with a list of possible responses:

A good friend of yours is a foreign student in the United States and is midway

through his Ph.D. in physics. He has only two more years remaining on his

scholarship from the Ford Foundation. Things were progressing smoothly, but now

he has received a letter from home saying his mother is seriously ill. His family

wants him to return home until his mother recovers, an indefinite period of time.

However, if he decides to go home, he will leave behind a girlfriend he is thinking of

marrying. It is possible that should he go home, he won’t see her again.

Professionally, he knows his country needs physicists for its development, so he

feels pressured to complete his studies. Being a physicist is also an important

career goal for him. If he goes home, he risks losing his scholarship, since it is not

given to students who interrupt their education. Your friend has just written you a

long letter explaining his problem in great detail. What would you advise him to do?

Listed below are nine possible suggestions you can make to your friend. Place the

number 1 by the best suggestion, 2 by the second best suggestion, and so on. Do

this first at home tonight, and then in your groups during the next class, you will

have twenty minutes to reach a consensus on your rankings.

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During phase two (the next day) before students compare their rankings, the

teacher can point out that they should use expressions such as I think (that). . ., I

suppose (that). . ., [believe (that). . ., and other verbs of cognition that take that

clauses. They also might use future conditionals to explore the various options the

student has (e.g., If he does that, . . . will happen). They definitely will use modals

and auxiliaries of advice and persuasion such as should, ought to, and had better

(e.g., You had better go home. I f you don’t, you may never see your mother again)

and logical connectors such as because and since (e.g., I think you should stay

here and finish your studies because. . .) when they defend the reasons for their

rankings. There is, of course, no absolutely correct ranking for the choices provided

in this activity. Preferences are usually a matter of personal or cultural bias.1

It has been our experience that students will use the structure I they have been

studying, particularly if the teacher requests that they do so. Therefore, this exercise

could be used for communicative practice of any of the above-mentioned structures,

but students must be told the precise objective(s) of the exercise. `

COMMENTARY

Most games and some problem-solving activities contain an element of competition.

This is especially true if individual students, as opposed to teams or groups, are

participating in an activity. Teachers may want to consider adapting such activities

to make them non-competitive so there will be no "winners" or "losers." This is

critical if the teacher senses that weaker students could get discouraged by always

losing. However, the students are by nature highly competitive individuals, then

such activities may be most effective if they are made as competitive as possible.

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The teacher will have to judge what is most appropriate for any given class. The

personalities and preferences of students, not the personal philosophy of the

teacher, should determine whether or not a competitive atmosphere is appropriate

during game; and problem—solving activities.

Once the task is understood and students—in pairs or groups, or as individuals—

are ready to proceed, the teacher must carefully but unobtrusively monitor the class

to check on comprehension and to see that the task is progressing. Any problems,

questions, or conflicts that arise must be resolved while students are carrying out

the task. To promote communication and spontaneity during the game or problem,

the teacher should correct as little as possible, intervening only when there is a

factual misunderstanding or when communication breaks down.

The teacher should note errors while the activity is in progress and then discuss the

errors either with individuals or with the whole class after the activity is over. When

several students are making the same error, we suggest that the teacher present a

mini grammar lesson as soon after the activity as possible.

THE MINIGRAMMAR LESSON

An essential skill for any ESL professional is the ability to detect common

systematic errors in the speech of students. Once detected, these errors should be

remedied promptly if they are frequent enough during communicative practice to be

distracting. This kind of correction can be done with a mini grammar lesson.

For example, imagine an intermediate-level ESL class doing the preceding

"Decisions, Decisions" problem. Several students are saying sentences such as

these, which the teacher notes for subsequent feedback and correction:

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"You should to finish your studies because . . ."

"You must to go home because . . ."

"You should to write your father before you decide because . . ."

The error in these sentences is the use of the infinitive marker to after true

modals—perhaps based on analogy with the maverick modal ought to, or with

periphrastic forms of modals (e.g., have to, be able to, etc.),or with regular verbs

that take infinitive complements (e. g., try to, want to, etc.),The teacher can take a

few minutes the next day to put these sentences on the board, explaining that they

are the students’ own sentences and asking the class what the problem is. Usually

someone knows. If not, the teacher can rewrite, next to the sentences with the

errors, the first four or five words of each sentence exactly as she would say them

(i.e., without error). Rather than telling the class outright what the problem is, she

can ask students to find the difference between their sentences and her sentences.

Once the errors have been detected and the rules elicited, the teacher can ask the

class to generate two lists of verbs: (1) modals and modal—like forms that do not

take to and (2) periphrastic modals and true verbs that require to. For example:

(1) (2)

must have to

should ought to

will be going to

could try to

had better plan to

Students can work in pairs and write short dialogs for a situation in which two

college roommates are taking the same world history class. They are studying for

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the first exam and are trying to figure out what they should study and what the

professor is going to ask on the test.

Task: What do the roommates say to each other?

Write a short dialog. Use at least two verbs from each list.

S1: l’m sure he will ask about the Crusades.

S2: So what do we have to study?

S1: We should outline what happened from 1095 to 1270.

S2: Well, let’s try to list the main events for a start.

The teacher can then check all the dialogs as they are being written and perhaps

ask a few groups to read theirs aloud. The class should listen as the dialogs are

read and correct them afterward if necessary. To summarize, a mini grammar

lesson consists of the following steps:

1. teacher presents relevant data (i.e., errors) to students

2. teacher, without lecturing, gets students to detect and correct the error(s)

3. teacher presents students with a warm—up exercise on the target structure(s) (e.

g., has them generate a paradigm, make lists, do a cloze exercise, etc.)

4. teacher provides a contextualized, and if possible, a communicative task to

practice the structure(s)

A skilled ESL teacher can, as needed, generate such a mini lesson

extemporaneously and teach it in about fifteen minutes. We feel that regular, well—

timed use of such short lessons in response to systematic errors being made in

class is one of the most effective feedback and correction strategies a teacher can

provide her ESL students.

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ACTlVITIES

Discussion Questions

1. Could an entire course syllabus be organized around games and/or problem-

solving activities? Explain why this would or would not be possible and/or desirable.

2. Is it important to put a time limit (and to enforce it) on all games and problems

done in an ESL class? Why or why not?

3. Why is it desirable to allow some time for a postgame or post problem discussion

with the whole class whenever such activities are done in an ESL class?

4. Consider all the games and puzzles you have at home. Could any be adapted for

use in an ESL class to teach grammar?

Suggested Activities

1. Adapt or develop a game that could be used to teach a structure not covered in

this chapter. Try out the game with a small group of non-native English speakers

and describe how it worked. How would you change or improve it?

2. If possible, look at one of the many books on using games to teach English to

ESL/EFL students (e.g., Lee 1979, McCallum 1980, Rinvolucri 1985, Maley 1981,

Wright, et al. 1984). Find a game with a grammar objective that you feel you could

use with an EFL/ESL class. Share the game with others in your group.

3. Adapt the strategy for feedback and correction recommended in the mini lesson

portion of this chapter to an area of grammar you know causes problems for your

students. What is the grammar area? What would you do at each step in the mini

lesson?

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TEXT-BASED EXERCISES AND ACTIVITIES

During the past ten years great advances have taken place in the teaching of

reading and composition in the ESL classroom. Work in reading theory done by

Goodman (1970), Goodman and Goodman (1971), Smith (1982), and others, as

well as work on the writing process done by Raimes (1983), Zamel (1983), and

others have shown us that process is important. In other words, the steps,

procedures, and strategies that we teach our students and encourage them to

follow while reading or writing are ultimately as important as what they are able to

read or write. In this chapter, we don’t want to diminish or ignore what has been

learned about the reading or the writing process with reference to ESL students.

Rather, it is our intent to point out that grammar can play a small but important role

in their reading comprehension (Schlesinger 1968) and a significant role in the

perceived quality of their writing (McGirt 1984).

While most grammar instruction in the ESL classroom focuses on the sentence

level, reading and writing activities engage the students at the "text" level (i.e., a

semantically coherent piece of spoken or written discourse). Thus, if we want to

teach grammar in a way that will facilitate transfer to our students’ reading and

writing, we must teach it at the text level, not just the sentence level. The activities

suggested in this chapter, all of which match grammar with discourse, are some of

the ways in which this can be accomplished. The primary technique is the

comprehension and generation or manipulation of texts, and we start with the texts

themselves as resources for creating a variety of activities.

Although beginning students can do some of the activities we describe below, most

of the exercises are more appropriate for intermediate and advanced ESL students

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who have the necessary control of basic sentence-level grammar to carry out a

variety of reading and writing assignments. .

The activities we stress in this chapter are especially relevant in the ESL

composition classroom since in order for ESL students to use English grammar

effectively and accurately in their writing, they need to develop an awareness of

English structure that goes beyond sentence-level grammar drills.

TEXT REPLICATION

The most obvious and traditional, but nonetheless useful, text-based grammar

exercises are dictation and dicto-comp. Both of these techniques can be presented

visually or aurally, although the latter type of presentation is much more common,

and both can require recall of a structure and integration of this structure into a

meaningful text. Consider a passage such as the following:

Many different kinds of students attend Northwestern University. There are some

who study, some who go to parties, some who play sports, and many who do all or

most of these activities. There are students whose families pay their tuition and

others who have been awarded scholarships. There are also a few who work and

go to college at the same time. There are students who live on campus or who rent

a room or apartment off campus. There are also some whose families live in the

area, and many of them commute.

The teacher can use the passage as a dictation for structure practice of relative

clauses with the relative pronouns who and whose. Secondary points might be

existential there and use of quantifiers such as some or many, which are words that

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often occur with relative clauses in a paragraph such as this one, which deals with

classification.

If used orally, the teacher will read the passage once at normal speed, then a

second time by reading one phrase at a time with pauses to allow for writing, and a

third time by reading at normal speed but with pauses after each clause to allow for

correction. If used visually, the passage is presented on the overhead projector and

the class is instructed to read it all the way through. The passage is then visually

presented phrase by phrase, but each phrase is removed from view as the class

writes it down. Finally, the passage is shown once again in its entirety (students

may only read, not write), after which students should be given a few minutes to

make their final corrections. Teachers who have used both visual and aural

dictation find that learners tend s to make the same kinds of mistakes whether they

listen and write or look and write.

There are a number of constructive ways in which dictations can be corrected.

Some of the most elaborate suggestions are those given by Sawyer and Silver

(1961), who recommend that each dictation be presented at three separate class

meetings. First the dictation is given and the errors are underlined but not corrected;

then students have their first effort with errors underlined in front of them as they

take the dictation for the second time. Immediately after their second attempt is

collected, a copy of the dictation is given to them to read. On the third

administration, the teacher can reasonably expect students’ work to be perfect,

including spelling and mechanics.

The dicto—comp was first discussed in print by Wishon and Burks (1968). If the

teacher presents the dicto-comp aurally (the usual way), the text is read about three

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times while the class listens. After each reading, the class may ask questions about

words or phrases that confuse them, and they can discuss the gist of the passage,

but they should not write anything other than key words or troublesome

expressions. After the final reading, students try to reproduce the original as

perfectly as possible. When they cannot remember the exact wording, they should

use their best approximation.

The same thing can also be done visually. The teacher puts the passage on an

overhead transparency and lets the class read it once. The teacher then removes

the passage and lets students ask questions. After a second look at the passage,

students are encouraged to discuss it after it has been removed. Following the third

reading, the passage is removed and students try to reproduce it. Consider the

following text:

When Ted was young he used to go out to the airport quite often to Watch the

planes taking of and landing. He saw all kinds of people coming and going, He

listened to the speaker announcing the flight numbers and destinations of the

departing planes. Whenever Ted heard her announce a flight leaving; for Rome or

Athens, he imagined himself boarding the plane.

This can be used to practice or reinforce sensory perception verbs (e. g.,watch,

see, and listen) and the -ing complement pattern, which is one of two patterns

occurring after verbs of sensory perception.

TEXT COMPLETION

There are two different kinds of text completion exercises the cloze passage and

the gapped text. In a cloze passage, the blank spaces represent single words that

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have been deleted, in a gapped text, me or more words are needed to fill each

blank.

A cloze passage can be formed either by a random deletion process (i.e. , every nth

word deleted) or by a rational deletion process (i.e., an specific items such as

articles or prepositions deleted). She latter is much better suited for focusing on

specific points of grammar. Such cloze exercises have long been used to teach

grammar in context. In the easiest type of cloze exercise, students simply have to

choose between two items [e.g., a/an or the, as in example (a) below] or two forms

[e.g., (gerund versus infinitive, as in example (b)].

There was once (1) crow who stole (2) wedge of cheese from (3) kitchen

window. She flew off with (4) cheese to (5) iearby tree. (6) fox saw what

(7) crow had done, and he walked over to (8) tree.

"Oh, Mistress Crow, you have such lovely back feathers, such slender feet,

such (9) beautiful yellow beak, and such fine black eyes! You must have (10)

beautiful voice. Would you please sing for me?" (11) crow felt very proud. She

opened her beak and sang CAW-CAW-CAW. Of course (12) , cheese

dropped down, (13) fox snatched it up and ate every bite.

b . Don’t expect (1) a Van Gogh painting in the same way you might enjoy a

Renoir. Van Gogh will force you (2) people, objects, and landscapes in a

different way, a different light. He risked (3) different and many who knew him

thought he was insane. When he decided (4) , he did so to the exclusion of

virtually everything else, this permitted him (5) new dimensions in color, light, and

texture. He particularly enjoyed (6) in the south of France because of the sunlight

and colors he experienced there.

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Note that (b) is not a "true" cloze exercise, since the choice of an infinitive requires

two words (i.e., to + verb). The gerund, however, requires only one word, so use of

this verbal is consistent with the definition of a true cloze exercise.

Cloze exercises are more difficult if a large set of choices is involved, such as in the

following passage, where for each blank students must fill in the best preposition of

time or place:

Thomas Mann, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature (1) 1929, was born (2)

Luebeck, Germany, (3) june 6, 1887. After finishing his studies (4) Luebeck, he

went (5) Munich, where his family had moved several years earlier. With the

exception of the time he spent (6) Italy (7) 1896 (8) 1898, Mann remained (9)

Munich (10) 1933, at which time he exiled himself (11) Switzerland because of

his political differences with the Nazi regime. Mann stayed (12) Switzerland (13)

1938. (14) that he came (15) the United States and taught (16) Princeton

University (1 7) two years. (18) April, 1941, Mann took his family (19) California,

and they settled (20) Pacific Palisades, a suburb of Los Angeles, (21) 740 Amalfi

Drive, a house that proved too small for the Manns and their six children. (22)

February, 1942, they moved (23) a large house (24) 1550 San Remo Drive, also

(25) the Palisades. Here Mann lived (26) 1942 (2 7) 1952, when he returned

(28) Switzerland, having become disenchanted with McCarthyism (29) the United

States. Mann died (30) August l2, 1955 (31) Kilchberg, a small town (32)

Zurich. Such cloze exercises focus a learner’s attention on many local aspects of

grammar without ignoring the larger discourse; some typical teaching points for

these exercises have been illustrated above. Cloze exercises work best if students

try to do them individually first and then compare their responses with a partner or

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with others in a small group. Serious differences should be reconciled with

mediation from the teacher. It is important that each blank be numbered so

discussion and correction can proceed without confusion. Gapped text completion

exercises typically are more difficult than cloze exercises, since students are

required to supply more language. Again, enough text must be given to establish

the context. Structurally related chunks of text can then be omitted to encourage

practice of multiword structures in context.

A gap exercise, like a cloze exercise, usually serves as focused practice or

reinforcement rather than initial presentation. At the lower proficiency levels, a good

gap exercise might be one that elicits yes/no questions in the form of a dialog.

For example:

A: Hi, my name is José.

B: Glad to meet you. I’m Ivan.

A: (1)?

B: No, I study at USC.

A: (2)?

B: No, I study engineering.

A: (3)?

B: No, electrical engineering.

A: I haven’t been doing too well. Why don’t you ask a few questions?

Even if the teacher says nothing to the class, it is apparent that yes/no questions

are being elicited. Students can do gap exercises as written reinforcement of the

question forms they have been practicing. The teacher should get the class to

review all the answers since there are usually several correct responses possible.

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This is another difference between cloze exercises, where frequently only one

response is correct, and gap exercises. A more sophisticated gapped text might

involve elicitation of the passive voice. For example:

The local newspaper did a survey of which 1985 films the public liked best. The

results were not surprising. Prizzi´s Honor (1) by 25 percent of those

surveyed, while Out of/1 frica (2) by 17 percent. The Color Purple (3) by

15 percent and The Trip to Bountiful and Witness (4) 12 percent each. No other

film received more than 5 percent of the first-place votes.

Since gap exercises do not specify the number of words missing, they can be used

to reinforce grammatical points that call for one or more words, such as tense. The

following exercise (e. g., "Fill in each blank with the appropriate form ofthe verb

indicated") is an example of a gapped text where one, two, or three words may be

required in any given blank, depending on the context: The audience in Dodger

Stadium (1) for almost 30 minutes (wait) when Michael ]ackson finally (2)

onstage. Within seconds (appear) his band (3) some music and his brothers

(Ney) (4) him. The crowd (5) wildly. The much—awaited join) (cheer)

"Victory Tour" (6) (begin) Even after Michael (7) and (8) for some (sing)

(dance) time, the crowd (9) completely.(nor scale Jovan) Michael and his family (1

0) for two hours while colorful (perform) lazer light displays (11) and thousands of

girls (12) . it (13) a technically brilliant spectacle. Afterwards, most people who

(14) there (15) it (16) the ]ackson family’s best performance ever.

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TEXT MANIPULATION AND IMITATION

Text manipulation exercises were popular during the audio-lingual heyday, when

they were called "controlled composition." In spite of this name, they have little to do

with teaching composition; rather, they are grammar exercises that provide students

with practice in making particular structure—discourse matches. Dykstra, et al.

(1966)and paulston(l972) used exercises such as the following, in which Students

are instructed to rewrite a past—tense narrative in the present tense) to elicit

contextualized practice of the third person singular present inflection (and,

coincidentally, adverbial expressions of frequency):

Sarah took her little sister Nancy to the park once a week. Nancy always went to

the swings first. She wanted Sarah to push her, but Sarah soon grew tired of that.

Sarah usually guided Nancy Over to the slide, where Nancy climbed up and slid

down several times while Sarah watched. Sometimes Nancy convinced Sarah to go

on the see-saw with her for a while, but that never lasted very long. Nancy loved the

park, and in her own way, Sarah did tea it was much better than being cooped up

in their small apartment.

From a discourse perspective, this sort of text manipulation is acceptable if students

understand that the original text is a past habitual narrative and that by putting it into

the present tense they are producing a present habitual narrative.

In another example of this type of exercise, students rewrite a passage about

someone named Lee. In the original, Lee is a girl. The task is then to rewrite the

passage assuming that Lee is actually a boy. This involves changing all pronoun

forms from she and her to he, him, and his, thus providing practice in distinguishing

the gender of the various pronoun cases. This is particularly helpful at lower levels,

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especially with students whose native languages do not make a gender distinction

for third person singular pronouns.

A more sophisticated text manipulation and imitation exercise occurs when the

teacher provides students with a model passage drawn from literature, such as the

following: After all these years I can picture that old time to myself now, just as it

was then: the white town drowsing in the sunshine of a summer’s morning, the

streets empty or pretty nearly so; one or two clerks sitting in front of the Water

Street stores, with their splint-bottomed chairs tilted back against the walls, chins on

breasts, hats slouched over their faces, asleep ....

Mark Twain, LM: an the Mississippi

In their imitation of such a passage students must make a slight change of topic,

such as writing about another place or another season. However, they should be

instructed to retain the style and structure of the original passage as much as

possible. The model above, for example, gives students practice in post—nominal

adjectival phrases in context—especially -ing and -ed participles. The following

passage was produced by one student who did this exercise: After all these months

in America I can still picture my home town to myself now, just as it was when I left,

the town sparkling under a blanket of white snow on a winter’s afternoon, the

streets full of Christmas shoppers. One Santa Claus sitting inside each large

department store, with his huge chair placed carefully next to the Christmas tree, a

white beard hanging from his chin, a red hat sitting on his head . . .

Another type of focused practice in structure-discourse matching that is often

productive for intermediate and advanced ESL students is the use of text-based

sentence-combining exercises, in which a scrambled sequence of simple sentences

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with a common structure or structures is presented, and the writer is asked to

reorder the sentences and combine them into a coherent and cohesive text. The

following illustration is adapted from a technique suggested in Slager (1973):

l. Now this old section is no longer a slum.

2. Many changes have been made.

3. New businesses have been started.

4. Education has not been neglected.

5. This section has been changed into an exciting place to live

and work.

6. One old building had been converted into a theater.

7. A new college has recently been opened.

8. An old section of Portland has recently been restored.

9. New elementary and secondary schools have been built.

10. Cultural activities have been encouraged.

These sentences, which focus on the present perfect passive, can be reordered

and combined into a paragraph such as the following: An old section of Portland

has recently been restored. Many changes have been made. For example, new

businesses have been started, and one old building has been converted into a

theater because cultural activities have been encouraged. Education has not been

neglected. New elementary and secondary schools have been built, and a new

college has recently been opened. Now this old section of the city is no longer a

slum; it has been changed into a new and exciting place to live and work. Our final

example of a text manipulation exercise involves using a transcribed conversation

to elicit indirect speech. To save time the teacher could find a conversation in some

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published source, such as The White House Trarzscrqirs, or record and transcribe a

conversation for class use. The conversation, which must be a self contained text,

should be about 150 words long, with several short exchanges. In the following

example provided by Anne Ediger, the speakers are Myra and Bonnie, two UCLA

students, and Cathy, their French instructor, who is a teaching assistant there in the

French Department.

M: This is the first time I’ve ever had a class in a language where I haven’t been

afraid to speak the language. Usually I would never speak. But in your class I enjoy

it.

B: Yeah. We have so much fun in this class!

M: I know. I’m just dreading next fall. I’ll probably get some horrible person, who . . .

B: A biddy, some biddy!

C: Now, we don’t have any old biddies, except one, and she teaches grad courses.

M: Oh good. Well, I’ll check ’em out and whoever I get, I’ll come talk to you. I’ll find

out how their teaching is.

C: Okay.

B: You know, I was going to come down to you earlier in the course and say, "Look,

ifwe give you a hard time, it’s not because we don’t like you. It’s just that it’s fun in

your class."

C: No. I’d rather have it that way. I hated the first four weeks because I feel very

uneasy when I just know that people don’t want to talk to each other, or to me.

B: I thought the first four weeks were really interesting, I mean I was really

fascinated by the language. First, students can go over the authentic conversation

with their instructor to be sure they understand it, and then the class can begin to

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convert the conversation (i.e., direct speech) into indirect speech, with the instructor

writing on the board or the overhead projector. It is important to emphasize at this

stage that not every single word needs to be reported, the setting and the speaker

must be identified, and the facts and ideas expressed by the speakers must be

conveyed.

The instructor should point out that the selection of a reporting verb can help reflect

the speaker’s mood. For example:

Bonnie and Myra are both students at UCLA. Cathy is their French instructor and a

graduate student in the French Department. They are having a conversation over

coffee after class. The end of the term is approaching.

Myra said that it was the first time she had ever had a language class where she

hadn’t been afraid to speak the language. Usually she never spoke, but in this class

she enjoyed speaking.

Bonnie exclaimed that they all were having a lot of fun in the class . . . At this point,

the teacher can elicit some of the differences in tense, person, and other

expressions between the original conversation and the written report. Then students

can work in pairs or small groups to complete the indirect report, asking questions

as necessary. Each pair or group should write out its version on a transparency so

the class can discuss and correct the different versions later and compare these

with the teacher’s version. Finally, all the differences noted between direct and

indirect speech should be summarized, and students can be given another dialog to

convert into indirect speech as a homework assignment. For students who need to

deal with academic topics rather than general English, a transcribed interview with a

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specialist on an important topic could be used for this activity instead of a

conversation.

TEXT ELICITATION

Because certain topics or tasks seem naturally to elicit certain structures, they

should be more systematically exploited when teachers use a text-based approach

to grammar practice. For example, if the teacher gives as a topic or title for a short

essay, "What would you do if you won a million dollars in the lottery?" then she

should specify that students use the hypothetical conditional (i.e. , the subjunctive).

This provides both communicative and focused practice, since students supply their

own ideas while the teacher specifies the structure. A student given this assignment

might produce something like this: If I won a million dollars in the lottery, first I would

buy myself a car. I have always wanted a new car but have never been able to

afford one. Second, I would go home at Christmastime to visit my parents because I

have not seen them for almost two years. Then I would discuss with them what I

should do with the rest of the money. They would give me good advice, which I

would need, because I don’t always spend my money wisely. A small, task-based

communicative project was suggested to us by Thom Hudson, who has

successfully used a survey task with his ESL classes to practice the passive. First,

his students conduct a survey using only native English speakers as their subjects.

They gather some basic background information on each person interviewed (e. g.,

sex, nationality, occupation, area of residence) and then ask a fairly innocuous

question (e.g., "What is your favorite TV program?") When they tabulate and write

up their findings, the passive voice should occur with high frequency.

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Models such as the following could be provided for the class: TV Favorites: A

Survey of 50 Americans Fifty Americans living in Minneapolis were asked to identify

their favorite TV programs during the week of May l2, 1986. "Dynasty" was

mentioned most frequently (l9 responses), then "Dallas" (9), and the third choice

was "M.A.S.H." (6). No other program was mentioned more than three times.

"M.A.S.H." was selected by men more often than women (five men, one woman),

whereas women preferred "Dallas" (eight women, one man). The votes for

"Dynasty" were more equally divided (twelve women, seven men).

GRAMMATICALITY JUDGMENTS

There are certain times during an ESL lesson when the teacher may reasonably

ask students to make grammaticality judgments, that is, the teacher can ask

whether a sentence is grammatically correct and if not, why. Chaudron (1983)

reminds us, however, that only as learners become more advanced do they

become better at this type of activity; beginners are rather weak at making

grammaticality judgments. Thus, the ESL teacher should probably emphasize

explicit error correction activities with intermediate and advanced rather than

beginning students. Chaudron also reminds us that intermediate students can best

recognize and correct their own errors, while more advanced ESL students can

effectively correct the errors of other learners in addition to correcting their own.

Also, spending too much time on error correction with beginning students can be

counterproductive, since beginners tend to correct erroneously (i.e., make correct

segments incorrect).

103

Certainly the ability to recognize and locate an error precedes the ability to make an

accurate correction. Thus, ESL teachers may elect to start raising learner

awareness of correct and incorrect structures by asking students to find and label

the correct and/or incorrect sentence(s) in a pair or set:

l. a. I enjoy to go to the movies.

b. I enjoy going to the movies.

2. a. The girl speaks Italian is over there.

b. The girl which speaks Italian is over there.

c. The girl who speaks Italian is over there.

If students have difficulty with very analytical discussions of grammaticality and

correctness, the teacher may want to begin to raise their awareness of form in this

manner:

T: Class, most of you say (a) while I say (b). What’s the difference?

a. I have seen the movie yesterday.

b. I saw the movie yesterday.

A few well—selected examples should precede some of the more demanding error

location and correction activities suggested below. This type of activity can also be

used in the presentation phase of a lesson to focus attention on a new structure, as

a short review of previous lessons at the start of a class hour, or to correct an error

after a communicative exercise. Remember, however, that only intermediate or

advanced students should be asked to make grammaticality judgments.

One example of a more complex activity is for students to judge each sentence in a

connected series as grammatical or ungrammatical.

104

Grammatical ungrammatical

a. People who move to

Los Angeles come for three reasons.

b. First, city has a good climate.

c. lt is relatively warm and sunny

all year long.

d. Second, there is many jobs in

Los Angeles since business and

trade are centered there.

Alternatively, the writing-error detection exercises often used by the Educational

Testing Service and others testing language proficiency operate at a more local

level and require students to identify which one of the three or four segments in

each sentence of a text is ungrammatical:

a . People who move to Los Angeles come to area for three reasons.

a b c d

b. First, there has a good climate.

a b c

105

c. It is warm and sun all year long.

a b c

d. Second, there is many jobs because business and trade are centered

there.

a b c d

Of course, once students become adept at locating errors, the next step is for them

to be able to correct the errors. One of the easiest ways to start is for the teacher to

present sentences with errors such as (1a) and (2a) and (2b) above and to elicit

corrections from students. Beyond this, the teacher can present a coherent

sequence of grammatical and ungrammatical sentences as in (3), so students must

first decide whether the sentence is correct or incorrect and if incorrect, what the

correct form should be. Likewise, a writing-error detection exercise such as the one

in (4) can be expanded, so students not only locate but also correct the error in

each sentence. Two holistic approaches to error correction that are very promising

but time-consuming are: (1) interview analysis for correction of oral production and

(2) reformulation for correction of written production. In interview analysis (Weschler

1987), the teacher-tutor records an extended conversation with the learner and

transcribes exactly what the learner has said. The transcription then becomes the

material used for error correction. The learner reads over the transcription and with

the help of the teacher-tutor, when needed, corrects the mistakes with a colored

pen and repeats the correct form aloud several times. In reformulation (Cohen

1983, 1985), the teacher-tutor takes a paragraph or essay written by the learner

106

and rewrites it in his own words (i.e., overall organization and vocabulary items may

get changed along with faulty grammar). The learner then compares his original

with the teacher-tutor’s reformulation to see, first of all, if the message has been

preserved. Then he tries to understand why certain changes have been made. The

discussion can, of course, be narrowed down to mechanics and spelling or to

grammar if either of these is the area of greatest concern (e.g., because of error

frequency or current pedagogical focus).

Since both interview analysis and reformulation are very time consuming, they are

more appropriate for private tutors rather than for classroom teachers, although

teachers can adapt these techniques by getting their students to do some of the

work. For example, a teacher can direct students to record a story about a

memorable experience they had when they were young, transcribe the story exactly

as it was told, and rewrite the story trying to avoid the errors made when the story

was told. In such an adaptation, teachers supervise the work in- stead of trying to

do it themselves. And by doing the work, students become that much more aware

of their problems.

TEXT EDITING AND GRAMMAR CORRECTION AND FEEDBACK

It is always easier to correct someone else’s written work than one’s own. Using this

generalization as a starting point, Witbeck (1976) pro- poses three peer correction

strategies that are useful when the teacher wants students to focus on correcting

specific grammatical errors during the editing process.

Witbeck suggests that paragraphs or short papers by students be used whenever

possible and that papers be selected because they illustrate frequent error types,

107

such as substitution of the present perfect for the simple past tense or overuse of

the infinitive to + verb after modals. To ensure maximum focus, the teacher may

even correct all other errors and ask students to do specific problem-solving

correction activities, such as, "Find two verbs that need an sto show present tense,"

"Find four nouns that should take the definite article," etc.

We recommend using explicit grammatical terminology with students, especially in

classes where students already know it, although example errors and corrections or

informal circumlocutions can also be used. All exercises presuppose that grammar

points focused on in the activity have already been covered. An alternative to

Witbeck’s use of student paragraphs or essays as sources of peer correction

materials is to prepare a composite essay for group correction that illustrates similar

errors from several students’ written work. This avoids embarrassment by focusing

on common problems. We have used this procedure, for example, to practice

correction of tense and modal errors in conditional sentences with good results.

In large classes in which students write a lot, the teacher cannot correct everything.

Instead, he can take an individualized approach by using a method called "the blue

sheet. " In this approach the teacher attaches a blue sheet to the paragraph or

essay, lists two obvious structural errors made by the student, and refers the

student to pages and exercises in the class grammar text pertinent to the two

errors. Students do the assigned exercises when they get their blue sheets; the

teacher then corrects them before the students rewrite their passages. We have

bund that such an item-by-item approach can yield good results over a period of

time. The same approach could be used to identify and correct specific grammatical

errors that the teacher has detected with some frequency in the students’ speech.

108

Even in smaller classes, not every error needs to be corrected on every paper. In

fact, such overkill tends to discourage students and thus impedes progress in the

long run. Best results are achieved by focusing on one or two error types at a time,

at least in the beginning. An individualized checklist encourages students to focus

when they edit and correct their own work. Its use is the next logical step in the

grammar editing process and works best if, at first, short pieces of writing are used.

When the teacher returns the first draft, grammar errors are underlined and major

areas of difficulty are listed or checked off on the attached checklist. In this way,

each student is aware of the errors he should correct as well as the location of the

errors. Students should consult with the teacher or tutor if they do not understand

what the errors are or how to correct them. Each student should keep these

checklists and all the drafts of each writing assignment together in a notebook or

folder. The teacher can then have individual conferences and, where necessary,

refer students to additional exercises for those grammar areas in which errors are

most persistent.

Students soon become adept at making such targeted corrections. As they

progress, they should be asked to correct several structures already covered in

class in passages in which the errors are only minimally indicated; for example, by

underlining. Once the class (or the student) gets very good at editing by this means,

neither the location nor the error type should be specified. Some students respond

better to a less judgmental correction procedure in which the teacher or tutor merely

specifies rewordings for sentences or phrases that contain grammatical errors on

an attached sheet. For example, consider this opening paragraph from an unedited

ESL composition:

109

College Life

As a quarter begins, students are busy to choose the right classes for themselves.

Right classes are which they can get a good grade from by the end of the quarter.

The most concern issue of a college student is how he can do well on the

examinations and f receive a good transcript.

The attached sheet gives the following suggested rewordings:

the quarter

busy choosing

The right classes are those in which a good grade by the end of the quarter

The greatest concern of a college student

a transcript with good grades

The student takes these suggestions into consideration when writing the second

draft and asks for clarification if anything is confusing. The best results are

ultimately achieved if the teacher moves gradually from very focused correction

procedures to less and less focused ones. Whichever error correction strategy is

used, it is imperative that students incorporate the corrections and become aware of

major grammatical problems. Over a period of time, these correction strategies,

combined with systematic grammar instruction, have a positive effect on the

accuracy of the writing produced by ESL students.

CONCLUSION

To ensure that students make a match between grammar and discourse we have

argued the need for text—based grammar exercises and activities in all phases of

grammar instruction: presentation, focused practice, communicative activities, and

110

feedback and correction. Since reading and writing are text-based skills, grammar

will transfer only if it is also practiced at the text level, and not simply at the

sentence level. Texts for such exercises can be found in anthologies, biographies,

newspapers, magazines, textbooks, and students’ own academic and personal

writing.

Most of the writing activities we have suggested work best if the teacher—or a

native English speaker—does them along with the class so that students can

compare what they have written with the work of a native speaker.

We end this chapter with a caveat: grammar does not equal composition.

Composition is a complex process that involves many phases for native and

noimiutive alike: prewriting, composing, revising, editing, and rewriting. As students

edit their compositions and then rewrite them, grammar correction should be done

as well. One of the biggest differences between ESL and native English students is

that ESL students produce about seven to ten times more morphological and

syntactic errors in their writing than native speakers.3 Thus, by ex- tension, ESL

students need to do roughly seven to ICH times more work on grammar editing and

correcting than native speakers.

ACTIVITIES

Discussion Questions

1. Do you agree or disagree with those who claim that grammar instruction has no

effect on the quality of an ESL student’s written work? Why?

2. Do you think the distinction the authors make between cloze and gap exercises is

worth maintaining? Why or why not?

111

3. Witbeck feels that peer correction of ESL compositions is a good first step toward

self correction. Do you agree? Why or why not?

Suggested Activities

1. Find a text in a newspaper or magazine that makes frequent use of a particular

structure. Then develop an activity that uses the text to practice the structure.

2. The "text elicitation" activities are the most communicative of all the writing

exercises we suggested. Think of a good text elicitation activity that focuses on

some structure other than the two illustrated in this chapter (i.e., hypothetical

conditional and passive voice). Share it with your colleagues.

3. Below are the last two paragraphs of the composition on "College Life," written by

the ESL student whose first paragraph was quoted above. Identify the errors and

specify techniques and resources you would use to help the student correct them.

Final exams period is the most intense and busy period for students. They have to

finish their projects or papers before the finals. And they have to sure they know the

class materials inside and out. So we see a lot of students staying up very late

during this period. Black eyes and tired faces can be seen everywhere in the

campus. As we see, the college pressures on students are so intense. For those

who graduate from colleges, we know that they have gone through four years

hardships and struggles.

112

Unidad 4 How to plan an English Class

Format of a lesson plan, guidelines for lesson planning and lesson

plan.

Plan para la secuencia de la lección. Extraido el 19 de agosto del 2012 de:

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:lMalCKzZskkJ:www.tellp

.org/docs/project_outcomes/LP%2520lesson%2520classroom%2520co

mparisons%2520-%2520Spanish.doc+&hl=es-

419&gl=mx&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiIXsJInaDCP4EywiUatep9QIerf0nRm

pyZWJLpAh_xT8qay3gOVawLd3Yg2fDSpZ_m15bkotJeo5uk66OfuB6Cu

lPnK1ZZJNR3tDI99UAghm9ATCJwWoFK4pJLygKSheHgIO_C&sig=AHI

EtbSMO7s1TErCYBEKL8AwIprKPNrDhw

113

Clase: Idioma: inglés

Fecha:

Tema: Los salones de clases en España e

Inglaterra

Duración:

2 lecciones de 30 minutos con toda

la clase

1 sesión de comunicación web en

pares

Recursos: Fotos de los salones de clases en

España e Inglaterra para proyectar y distribuir;

textos que describen el salón de clases

Objetivos/Resultados del aprendizaje:

Lección 1: Ser capaz de describir (en inglés) una fotografía del salón de clases

inglés de su compañero, notando las similitudes y diferencias;

Lección 2: Ser capaz de hacer preguntas a sus compañeros ingleses (en inglés)

acerca del salón de clases de estos últimos; ser capaz de hacer preguntas a sus

compañeros ingleses (en inglés) sobre una fotografía de su propio salón de clases

en España y darles la oportunidad a los niños ingleses de escuchar y responder en

español.

Lección 3: Ser capaz de llevar a cabo una conversación corta con un alumno inglés,

comparando sus salones de clases, usando español e inglés como sea oportuno.

Trabajo subsiguiente: blog

114

Escritura

Leer y entender las ideas principales

de un texto escrito corto

Lenguaje introducido recientemente

(estructuras, vocabulario):

Estrategias de comunicación: nivel de idioma

principiante

Colores, números 1-10, tamaños (big, small)

Objetos del salón de clases, ej.: a chair

a table

a pen

a pencil

a pencil case

an interactive whiteboard

a black board

a window

a sink

a book

a notebook

There is

Nuevo lenguaje para esta lección (estructuras,

vocabulario):

I see…

In Spain….

Oralidad

Preparar y practicar una pequeña

conversación

Entendimiento intercultural

Reconocer las similitudes y

diferencias entre los lugares

Estrategias de comunicación

Trabajo por turnos, interactuación,

reparación, no verbal, y

paralingüística: nivel principiantes

Tecnología

Blog

Webcam (alumno-alumno)

Plataforma de aprendizaje

115

In England …..

The classroom

Do you like...?

Is there…?

What colour is the x?

How many x are there?

What else?

Lección 1 Introducción

El profesor saluda a la clase en inglés, como

vea conveniente y la clase responde; el

profesor muestra rápidamente una fotografía

del salón de clases inglés, en la Plataforma de

Aprendizaje: What is it? (a classrooom), where

is it? In Spain or in England?

Actividad principal

Mostrar una foto del salón de clases inglés en

la pizarra digital interactiva. En pares los

alumnos hacen una lluvia de ideas de palabras

en inglés, que ellos conozcan y hacen una lista

Oportunidades para

evaluar

El profesor monitoriza

el vocabulario ya

conocido, la

pronunciación y la

participación del

alumno en general

116

para presentar (5 minutos);

El profesor proporciona la ortografía correcta

durante la presentación, ej:

a chair

a table

a pen

a pencil

a pencil case

an interactive whiteboard

a black board

a window

a sink

a book

a notebook

Los alumnos, en pares, hacen oraciones que

empiecen así: ‘in England there is…’ y ‘in the

classroom I see…’, ‘I see…’

El profesor hace observaciones orales.

El profesor distribuye un texto escrito corto,

que identifica 3 cosas en el salón de clases

El profesor monitoriza

la comprensión del

texto

117

inglés (una foto con un texto debajo, disponible

en la Plataforma de Aprendizaje) Los alumnos

encuentran las 3 cosas en el texto y hacen

círculos en la fotografía.

El profesor muestra la foto en la pizarra digital

interactiva y lee el texto; los alumnos se

acercan a la pizarra y encierran en un círculo la

parte relevante de la foto.

Plenaria

El profesor dice oraciones basadas en la foto (I

can see x; there is a x), los alumnos repiten si

es cierto.

Los profesores terminan la sesión como vean

conveniente (goodbye, thank you, bon appetit,

see you soon, etc.)

Monitoriza la

comprensión de la

lengua meta hablada

118

Lección 2 Introducción

El profesor saluda a la clase en inglés, como

vea conveniente y la clase responde

Recapitulación de la lección anterior, ¿cuánto

recuerdan los alumnos de la foto, sin verla (en

inglés)? O: el profesor juega un juego de

verdadero/falso, ej.: ‘are the walls blue? – yes

or not?’

Actividad principal

Mostrar la foto en la pizarra digital interactiva,

el profesor muestra preguntas y 4 ejemplos de

modelos de preguntas, una de cada tipo; la

clase se divide en grupos, y cada grupo recibe

una pregunta de la siguiente lista para

empezar:

Do you like...?

Is there…?

What colour is the x?

How many x are there?

¿Cuántas preguntas puedes hacer?

Monitoriza la

comprensión de la

lengua meta hablada

Monitoriza el numero

de las diferentes

preguntas producidas

en base/basadas en

el ejemplo

119

Un grupo de alumnos le hace sus preguntas al

resto de la clase, los alumnos responden

cuando puedan, incorporando ‘I don’t know’

cuando sea apropiado, y cualquier otra

estrategia de comunicación relevante, por ej.: ‘I

don’t understand’ , ‘can you repeat please’ …

El profesor muestra la fotografía del salón de

clases en España, en español. Los alumnos en

grupos deciden que preguntas hacer a sus

compañeros ingleses en el blog. El profesor

recibe las sugerencias y la clase se pone de

acuerdo en un grupo de preguntas para

publicar en ele blog, el trabajo es con toda la

clase.

Plenaria

El profesor hace preguntas basándose en el

texto español para obtener comparaciones.

Monitoriza la

pronunciación y el

uso de las

estrategias de

comunicación

Monitoriza /guía a los

alumnos a hacer

preguntas dentro

del/en el nivel

lingüístico apropiado

120

Lección 3 Sesión independiente de comunicación

alumno-alumno (2 países)

Antes de la sesión de comunicación, los

alumnos, en pares, hacen un dibujo de su

propio salón de clases, o un salón de clases

ideal o un salón de clases imaginario,

basándose en un plantilla a la que le añaden

detalles o color (ej. dibujan/colorean pupitres,

sillas, mochilas).

Sesión de comunicación:

Los alumnos inician la comunicación y

responden como sea conveniente (usando las

estrategias de comunicación que se les ha

enseñado);

Los alumnos le preguntan al compañero (a) en

el otro país, en la lengua meta, sobre el dibujo

del salón de clases, usando las preguntas que

se practicaron anteriormente:

Do you like...?

Is there…?

Autoevaluación del

alumnos después de

la sesión, utilizando

una lista de control

121

What colour is the x?

How many x are there?

What else?

Los alumnos escuchan las respuestas,

indicando si siguen o no y pidiendo repetición

cuando sea necesario; los alumnos hacen un

dibujo basándose en la información que han

entendido en una plantilla vacía. Muestran el

dibujo a la cámara para hacer una

comparación.

Los alumnos intercambian y describen su

dibujo en la L1, respondiendo a las preguntas;

la comparación se hace como ya se ha

indicado.

Los alumnos terminan la conversación, ej.:

agradeciendo y despidiéndose.

122

Trabajo

subsiguien

te

Bloguear

La clase trabaja en grupos: en semanas

alternas, cada clase busca entender las

respuestas en la lengua meta, y hacer más

preguntas y comentarios en la L1.

Evaluación de la secuencia de la lección:

123

Lessonplan guidelines. Extraido el 19 de agosto del 2012 de:

http://www.ride.ri.gov/instruction/curriculum/rhodeisland/resources/lessonpla

nguidelines.pdf

124

Lesson Planning Guidelines

Use the following questions to facilitate and foster your lesson development. Be

sure to incorporate your responses to these questions within your lesson plan.

Grade/Content Area:

Title: A short, simple, direct title that summarizes lesson content.

GLEs/GSEs:

The following format must be used to indicate the GLE/GSE’s. Example:

In written narratives, students organize and relate a story line/plot/series of events

by…Establishing problem/conflict/challenge and maintaining point of view.

The use of underlines, examples, and the identification of state versus local should

not be included.

Which Grade Level Expectation(s) or Grade Span Expectation(s) is the primary focu

s of this lesson?

Which specific indicator(s) will be addressed within this lesson?

Context for the Lesson:

Include any important background information that is relevant for understanding the

lesson.

Original sources and acknowledge adaptations or resources used within the lesson.

What is the reason for using this lesson?

What data/evidence supports the need for using this lesson?

How much time is required for this lesson?

125

What other information supports using this lesson?

Opportunities to Learn:

*If any of these components are embedded within the lesson, then a notation must be m

ade within this section.

How are you using multiple ways of approaching or engaging students in the

lesson activities?*

How are students given an opportunity to apply skills and concepts learned?*

What is the rigor of the activity/activities in which students are engaged? (De

pth of Knowledge) *

How do you differentiate instruction to accommodate different learning styles

of your students?*

How do you group the class to best engage students in this lesson?*

What does the student need to have prepared prior to this lesson?*

What materials do you need to prepare prior to this lesson?

o Handouts, writing implements, manipulatives, texts, etc.

What conditions must exist to facilitate or enhance this lesson?

o Access to technology, special equipment, structure of working space

o Integration across content areas

Objectives:

What do you want the students to learn and be able to do from this lesson? (Not just t

he activity they will complete)

What are the objectives of this lesson? How do the objectives match and/or corresp

ond with the GLEs/GSEs?

126

Do all of your objectives align with your assessment(s)?

SMART Goals:

Specific: Does the objective clearly specify what will be accomplished and by

how much?

o Measurable: Is the objective measurable?

Appropriate: Does the objective make sense in terms of what the activity is

trying to accomplish?

o Realistic: Is the objective achievable given the available resources and experien

ce?

o Time-based: Does the objective specify by when it will be achieved?

Instructional Procedures: Opening/ Engagement/Closure:

Effective lessons have three components: an opening, an engagement, and a closure.

In order to

ensure all components are included, percentages have been provided to illustrate app

roximate times for each component within the lesson.

Opening (10-15% of lesson):

How do you activate students’ prior knowledge and connect it to this new learning?

How do you get students interested in this lesson?

Engagement (60-70% of lesson):

What questions can you pose to encourage students to take risks and to deepen stu

dents’ understanding?

127

How do you facilitate student discourse?

How do you facilitate the lesson so that all students are active learners and reflectiv

e during this lesson?

How do you monitor students’ learning throughout this lesson?

Closure (20-25% of lesson):

How do you ensure that the salient points of this lesson are highlighted to guide stu

dent understanding?

What kinds of questions do you ask to get meaningful student feedback?

What opportunities do you provide for students to share their understandings of the

task?

Assessment:

Assessments both summative (overall) and formative (on-

going) need to be appropriate to the task and aligned with the objectives.

How do you assess students’ learning? (Assessment[s] needs to be aligned with les

son objective[s].)

How do you provide specific, constructive, and timely feedback to your students to p

romote student learning?

Reflections:

Taking time to reflect on student work and the lesson taught gives new insights

for future instruction and student learning.

128

Reflection on Student Work:

Student work includes a sample of each:

Sample #1- Approaching Proficiency

Sample #2- Proficient

Sample #3- Exceeds Proficiency

Utilize the following questions when reflecting on each piece of student work:

What does the student work tell you about the students’ understanding and the effe

ctiveness of your lesson? (Cite examples)

How will you provide instructional support to improve student learning?

Reflection on Lesson Implementation:

Were the lesson objectives met?

Did your lesson meet your objective(s), in conjunction with GLEs/GSEs?

Was your assessment(s) appropriate for your objective(s)?

What worked well in this lesson?

How do you know that this lesson was effective?

How do you determine the effectiveness of the assessment?

Were the modifications appropriate for students?

How were all the students engaged in this lesson?

What changes would you propose for the next time you implement this lesson?

What part of this lesson proved easy or difficult for students?

129

How will you connect students’ new learning from this lesson to the next lesson?

How will you summarize students’ learning to inform your instruction?

What did you learn from the assessment(s) used in this lesson?

When you use this lesson again, what will you do differently or similarly?

What did you learn from teaching this lesson?

How did this lesson enhance your own understanding as a teacher and further your

own professional development?

How do you know you were successful in engaging all students to be active and refl

ective learners?

Unidad 5 How can I organize everything?

130

The physical environment of the classroom, from your voice to

your teaching under adverse circumstances, the role of the

teacher.

Creating an effective physical classroom environment. Extraido el 19 de

agosto del 2012 de: http://www.teachervision.fen.com/classroom-

management/decorative-arts/6506.html

131

Creating an Effective Physical Classroom Environment

Every teacher knows that a safe, clean, comfortable and attractive classroom can

stimulate learning and help build a classroom community. But for many teachers,

setting up the physical environment of their classrooms can be quite daunting,

especially when faced with older buildings, crowded classrooms and insufficient

storage space. You can make the most of your classroom environment by carefully

considering your needs and the needs of your students.

Survey Your Classroom: Looking at the Basics

The first things to consider when organizing your classroom are cleanliness, light

and temperature. Although you may not have complete control over some of these

elements, try to make or suggest improvements as necessary.

The Floor Plan: Assessing Your Needs

Once you have checked the basic elements in your classroom, think about your

floor plan. It should maximize classroom space and reflect your individual teaching

style.

Your floor plan will also depend on the grade you are teaching. For the lower

grades, your classroom setup may include many different learning areas, such as a

reading area, an art center and a technology center. The placement of these areas

132

will depend upon the layout of your classroom. However, when setting up these

areas, you will want to keep the following points in mind:

Room dividers should be low so that all areas are visible to you.

Areas that invite group work should not be next to quiet areas where students read

or study independently.

Art or other messy areas are best located near a sink.

You should always be able to make eye contact with all students.

Classroom Decor: Facing the Blank Canvas

Encourage students to make the classroom space their own. Welcome their

contributions to its decoration, and urge them to take responsibility for its

maintenance. Here are some easy, low-cost ways to make your classroom into an

inviting, effective space for all:

Dress Up the Walls

Interesting and attractive visual aids, such as bulletin boards and posters, are key

components of an effective classroom. Wall decorations should be colorful,

appealing and relevant to current classwork. They should be rotated and refreshed

frequently.

Be sure to think about the cultural backgrounds of your students when dressing the

walls. Try to represent your students' diversity on posters or bulletin boards.

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Set aside a section of the bulletin board to be your designated "Student Work

Museum" and post children's drawings, written work and other projects there. Make

sure that each student's work is displayed often.

Post daily schedules in a place where students can read them easily. This

accessibility of the classroom schedule can help students grow comfortable with

class and school routines. For younger students, make a daily schedule that

includes pictures or icons.

The Greenhouse Effect

Caring for live plants can give your classroom a warm, comforting feel. It can also

help teach students responsibility – and science! Local nurseries or greenhouses

may even be willing to donate the plants to your class.

Entrust children, especially older children, to care for the class plants. They can

make sure that the plants receive adequate water, light and air.

Use Lots of Storage Space

The primary classroom should have as much storage space as possible, both for

students' personal belongings and for shared tools and materials. Each child should

have a personal space, such as a desk or a cubby and a coat hook, for his or her

own things.

General classroom storage should be easily available to older students, who should

be more responsible for collective belongings. Storage areas for any materials that

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younger students may access, such as crayons or books, should be clearly labeled

(with words and pictures) so that children can clean up without your help. Rehearse

the Classroom.

When you've finished setting up your classroom, give it a practice run or two. Walk

through a typical school day, making sure that both you and the students have

enough space to work and move around, that everyone in the classroom can see

and hear and that every part of the room is as pleasant as possible. For example,

write on the blackboard, and then take a walk around the room. Check sight lines

from every spot where students might be working.

Your classroom will continue to change and evolve as the school year progresses.

These suggestions can help you create a classroom environment that is welcoming,

comfortable, clean and secure.

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voice-to-manage-your-classroom/

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Use your voice to manage your classroom

When managing your classroom, one of the most important tools at your disposal is

your voice. The way in which you communicate to your students verbally will play a

role in how your students will respond. The way you use your voice – the tone, pace

and volume – has a lot to do with how your message will be interpreted.

Students tend to react more to the way you speak rather than what you may

actually be saying. Your voice can wind kids up, create boredom making students

un-attentive, or it can command respect and attention. If you want to remove all

potential triggers for bad behavior, you need to pay attention to and possibly

change the way you speak.

When giving instructions or explaining consequences, drop your volume, change

your tone, and slightly slow down the pace. This works wonders in getting your

message across positively. This will also assist in not having your instructions

misconstrued – they will understand what you expect.

One of the biggest mistakes a teacher can make when giving directions, is to spew

out fact after fact from the front of the classroom expecting the students to absorb

all the information. If this is your dominant teaching method, then you probably have

to deal with many behavior problems.

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When you need to explain things to your class, try to make the experience

interactive and use it as another chance to show you’re in command of the group by

constantly directing questions at different individuals. This keeps students on their

toes and paying attention because they quickly catch on that they could be asked a

question. It also helps them to retain the information better, as when they are

directly involved in the instruction process there will be less confusion.

It’s good to remember that the way you speak – your tone, pace, and volume – is

just as important as the actual words you are saying. It makes the difference as to

whether students will listen or not.

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Harden. R (2000) The good teacher is more than a lecturer- the twelve roles of

the teacher. [Fragmento] (pp. 4-13) Extraído el 19 de agosto del 2012

de:

http://wikieducator.org/images/e/e3/Twelev_Roles_of_a_Lecturer.pdf

139

The good teacher is more than a lecturer. The twelve roles of the teacher

Teaching is demanding and complex task. This guide

looks at teaching and what it involves. Implicit in the widely accepted and far-

reaching changes in

medical education is a changing role for the medical

teacher. Twelve roles have been identified and these

can be grouped in six areas in the model presented:

1 The information provider in the lecture, and in

the clinical context

2 The role model on-the-job, and in more formal

teaching settings

3 The facilitator as a mentor and learning facilitator

4 The student assessor and curriculum evaluator

5 The curriculum and course planner, and

6 The resource material creator, and study guide

producer.

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As presented in the model, some roles require more

medical expertise and others more educational

expertise. Some roles have more direct face-to-face

contact with students and others less. The roles are

presented in a ‘competing values’ framework – they

may convey conflicting messages, eg providing

information or encouraging independent learning,

helping the student or examining their competence.

The role model framework is of use in the assessment

of the needs for staff to implement a curriculum, in

the appointment and promotion of teachers and in

the organisation of a staff development programme.

Some teachers will have only one role. Most teachers

will have several roles. All roles, however, need to

be represented in an institution or teaching

organisation. This has implications for the

appointment of staff and for staff training. Where

there are insuff icient numbers of appropriately

trained existing staff to meet a role requirement, staff

141

must be reassigned to the role, where this is possible,

and the necessary training provided. Alternatively if

this is not possible or deemed desirable, additional

staff need to be recruited for the specific purpose of

fulfilling the role identified. A ‘role profile’ needs

to be negotiated and agreed with staff at the time of

their appointment and this should be reviewed on a

regular basis.

Indeed it has become fashionable to talk about

learning and learners rather than teaching and the

teacher. This increased attention to the learner may

be seen by teachers as a loss of control and power

which can lead to feelings of uncertainty, inadequacy

and anxiety (Bashir 1998). The shift may even be

seen as, in some way, a devaluing of the role of the

teacher. It has to be recognised, however, that this is

not true, that teaching and learning are closely related

and that the purpose of teaching is to enhance

learning. It is important to ensure that the changing

role of the teacher is not neglected in discussions

about new educational strategies and approaches to

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curriculum development.

The changing role of the teacher

The changing role of the teacher may cause unease

among those entrenched in traditional approaches

to education. The Rt. Hon. Sir Rhodes Boyson MP

(1996), former headmaster of Highbury Grove

Comprehensive in North London, wrote “Too often,

the teacher has degenerated into an uneasy mixture

of classroom chum, social worker and amateur

counsellor” (p44).

Brew and Boud (1998) have highlighted the more

complex demands now being placed on university

teachers and the changing nature of their work tasks,

with new academic roles and the diversification of

existing ones. “There has been a significant shift”

they suggest “from thinking that clever people can

do everything to a recognition of the complexity and

range of academic work” (p18). The tasks facing a

teacher are not simple or easy. “Teaching” suggested

Brookfield (1990) “is the educational equivalent of

white water rafting”.

143

While the Dearing report on higher education (1997)

praised British universities for their world class

record, it highlighted the pressures on teachers and

the poor quality of their teaching. “There is no

doubt”, Dearing suggested, “about the increased

pressures facing staff in higher education”. Bold

predictions about the impact of technology on

teaching methods have not been realised and the

adoption of recommended new approaches in

medical education have been disappointing (General

Medical Council, 1993). Why is this? Much of the

responsibility for these failures rest with the teachers.

Teachers have been slow to identify with and embrace

the new roles expected of them. The result has been

to hold back many changes in medical education.

One change in higher and continuing education is

the acceptance of distance learning as a significant

approach. The embedding of distance learning in

mainstream medical education involves the adoption

of an approach to learners and learning which is

different from the one with which medical teachers

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have experience. Concern has been expressed that

the consequences will be “the likely undermining

of the respect, prestige and authority that goes with

the teacher’s role as ‘director of learning’ and the

loss of their ability to engage their students into

intellectual conversations and debates” (Bashir

1998). If the adoption of distance learning is to

flourish in medical education then teachers must

accept the different roles for the teachers implicit in

this approach to teaching and learning.

What is certain, irrespective of whether we have face-

to-face or distance learning and whatever the

educational strategy implemented, the teacher will

play a key role in student learning. In all phases of

education, student achievement correlates with the

quality of the teacher. Terry Dozier (1998), an adviser

to the U S Secretary of Education, emphasised that

“if we don’t focus on the quality of teaching, other

reform efforts won’t bring us what we’re hoping for”.

The availability of a good teacher, for example, may

have a greater effect on improving student

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achievement than other, much publicised factors

such as class size.

The good teacher

The question arises as to what is a good teacher. A

good teacher can be defined as a teacher who helps

the student to learn. He or she contributes to this in

a number of ways. The teacher’s role goes well

beyond information giving, with the teacher having

a range of key roles to play in the education process.

What one sees as good teaching, suggests Biggs

(1999), depends on what conception of teaching one

has. Two concepts are based on the strategies of

teacher-centred and student-centred education

(Harden et al 1984). Teacher-centred strategies are

focussed on the teacher as a transmitter of

information, with information passing from the

expert teacher to the novice learner. Student-centred

strategies, in contrast, see the focus as being on

changes in students’ learning and on what students

do to achieve this rather than on what the teacher

does. “If students are to learn desired outcomes in a

146

reasonably effective manner”, Shuell (1986)

suggests “then the teacher’s fundamental task is to

get students to engage in learning activities that are

likely to result in their achieving those outcomes. It

is helpful to remember that what the student does is

actually more important in determining what is

learned than what the teacher does”. Biggs goes on

to describe the art of teaching as the communication

to students of the need to learn. “Motivation”, he

suggests “is the product of good teaching not its

prerequisite” (p61).

The roles of the teacher

A key question is: what is the role of the teacher in

the context of the developments taking place in

medical education? There has been little sustained

analysis of the role of the teacher (Squires 1999). In

general, we have been preoccupied with the details

of curriculum planning, with the content of the

teaching programme and with the range of education

strategies adopted. We have failed to take a broader

view of the role of the teacher in these tasks.

147

What are teachers for in our institution? For what

would they be most missed if they were not there? It

is likely that, faced with these questions, members

of staff would give a range of answers. Uncertainty

and difficulty with the range of roles expected of a

teacher is illustrated in the following extracts of letters

from teachers regarding their own roles and

responsibilities.

“I was appointed to the University as a

lecturer to enthuse students about my subject

and to convey to them, through my lectures,

the essential information they need to acquire.

It is not my job to sit in so-called problem-

based learning groups watching students

struggle, often ineffectively, with a subject new

to them and in the process wasting both their

and my time.”

I found this new method, by far, a more rewarding experience for me as a

teacher. I am convinced that the students

benefit from the more active participation in

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their own learning that inevitably occurs.”

“I am concerned about the amount of time I

am expected to serve on the curriculum

committee and on the system-based working

groups, planning the course and its delivery.

In my previous post I was simply left to get on

and deliver the teaching programme in my

subject, which is what I am employed to do.”

“Thank you for giving me the opportunity to

meet with the students and go over with them

their responses in the recent Objective

Structured Clinical Examination. A number of

students subsequently told me that they found

this one of the most powerful learning sessions

this year.”

“I carry a heavy clinical, research and

teaching burden. I need, therefore, to look at

how my time can be used most effectively. I

have been asked to prepare study guides

relating to the part of the course for which I

am responsible. I do not think that the

149

preparation of study guides, which it is claimed

will make learning easier and more effective

for the student, makes the best use of my time.

There is no need to spoon feed students in this

way. If they attend my lectures and clinical

teaching sessions they will soon find out what

it is that they are expected to learn.”

Fortunately, not all teachers share these role

ambiguities as illustrated in a further set of extracts.

“I greatly enjoyed working last term with the

students in the PBL groups. My previous

experience as a teacher had been with a more

didactic approach and an emphasis on

“I welcome the time I have been given off my

routine teaching duties to prepare a series of

computer-based learning programmes in my

subject. This will allow us to replace about half

of the lectures currently scheduled with

opportunities for the student to engage in

independent learning and critical thinking. We

will be able also to make better use of the

150

remaining lectures scheduled.”

Unless we agree what roles of a teacher we need for

our institution, we cannot seriously attempt to appoint

appropriate teachers to the post, we cannot arrange

useful staff development activities and we cannot

define ‘good teaching’ and reward it by promotion

or other recognition. This guide presents a model or

framework in which the teacher’s expanded role in

education today is described. It identifies twelve roles

for the medical teacher. The implications and use of

the model are discussed.

Identification of the roles of the teacher

The twelve roles described in the model presented

have been identified from three sources:

❑ from an analysis by the authors of the tasks

expected of the teacher in the design and

implementation of a curriculum in one medical

school (Harden et al 1997)

❑ from a study of the diaries kept by 12 medical

students over a three month period and an analysis

151

of their comments as they related to the role of

the teacher

❑ from the literature relating to the roles of a teacher

identified in Medline and the TIME (Topics In

Medical Education) database and from medical

education texts including Cox and Ewan (1988)

and Newble and Cannon (1995).

The six areas of activity of the teacher can be

summarised as:

1 The teacher as information provider

2 The teacher as role model

3 The teacher as facilitator

4 The teacher as assessor

5 The teacher as planner

6 The teacher as resource developer.

Using a musical metaphor, the roles of the teacher

may be likened to the performance of an orchestral

piece of music. The composer is the planner who

has the inspiration and delineates the music to be

played. The conductor interprets the composer’s

152

score and facilitates and guides the players to

perform the music and the audience to appreciate.

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