Práctica Educativa II

1. Practical
Nº 4
Practice II. 2015
Erica, Corso.

2. Practice II Practical Nº 4 Corso,Erica; Irusta,Carla.
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PRACTICE II, DIDACTICS OF ELT AND PRACTICUM AT PRIMARY SCHOOL
LEVEL.
Prof. Adjunto Regular Estela N. Braun, auxiliar docente Prof. Liliana Monserrat.
PRACTICAL 4: Revision and integration of the main concepts learnt in this unit. Task
to be solved as recursos Tareas in our Moodle page.
PART 1: MOTIVATION
According to Jeremy Harmer, motivation is "some kind of internal drive which pushes
someone to do things in order to achieve something". As stated by Douglas Brown,
motivation is "a term that is used to define the success or the failure of any complex
task"1. Apart from this, he states that a prime motivator is the need for ego
enhancement, that is, the need "for the self to be known and to be approved by
others." In terms of Zoltan Dornyei, motivation is “responsible for why people decide
to do something, how long they are willing to sustain the activity, and how hard they
are going to pursue it"2.
Motivation is divided into two main parts, extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic motivation
is the result of any number of outside factors, for example the need to pass an exam,
or the possibility of future travel. On the other hand, intrinsic comes from within the
individual, like learning a new language to experience enjoyment, or by the desire to
make itself feel better. Apart from this, extrinsic motivation is divided into integrative
and instrumental. Instrumental motivation is “characterized by the desire to obtain
something practical or concrete from the study of a second language. The purpose of
language acquisition is more utilitarian, such as meeting the requirements for school
or university graduation or applying for a job”3. With Integrative motivation, learners
“admire the culture of the language they are acquiring, and have a desire to become
familiar with or even integrate into the society in which the language is used.”4
In learning, affect plays an important role since students are more likely to stay
motivated if they think that their teachers care about them, but if the teacher has little
interest in their students, they will have little incentive to remain motivated. When the
teacher is caring and helpful, students are mucho more likely to retain an interest in
what is going on, as a result, their self-esteem is likely to be nurtured. As regards
achievement, when students succeed in their learning, they stay motivated to learn
more. For this, the teacher might set an appropriate level of challenge for the
students; this means setting tests that are neither too difficult, nor too easy. Attitude
is also an important factor, because students are more likely to follow their teachers if
they confide in their teachers´ professional abilities. Students need to feel that their
teachers know about the subject they are teaching. The choice of activities plays an
important role, since if students enjoy what they are doing, and see the point of the
selected activities, their motivation will continue through the learning process. Agency
plays an important role in learning, due to the fact that when students make decisions,
they are taking some responsibility for their learning. The more students are
empowered on their agency, the more likely they are to stay motivated longer.
1 Brown (1994),in http://iteslj.org/Articles/Suslu-TeacherMotivation
2 Dornyei (2001),in http://iteslj.org/Articles/Suslu-TeacherMotivation
3 Hudson (2000), in http://iteslj.org/Articles/Norris-Motivation.html
4 Falk (1978),in http://iteslj.org/Articles/Norris-Motivation.html

3. Practice II Practical Nº 4 Corso,Erica; Irusta,Carla.
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SUGGESTIONS FROM EXPERTS IN MOTIVATION:(Spratt, Pulverness and
Williams, 2005, Cambridge , the TKT course).
 A. Set a personal example with your own behavior (be motivated as a teacher
yourself).
 B. Create a relaxed atmosphere in the classroom (i.e. try to prevent anxiety in
yourself or the learners).
 C. Present tasks in an interesting way which makes the tasks seems achievable to
the learners.
 D. Develop a good relationship with the learners.
 E. Increase the learners’ self-confidence about language learning (I.e. help learners
feel they can be good at learning the language).
 F. Make the language classes interesting.
 G. Promote learner autonomy.
 H. Personalize the learning process (i.e. make the course feel relevant to the
learners’ lives).
 I. Increase the learners’ awareness of their goals.
 J. Familiarize learners with the target language culture.
ACTIVITY: Match the following classroom activities to the suggestions above).
 ( H ) Giving learners a story about skateboarding because you know many of them
like skateboarding.
 ( J ) Encouraging learners to meet some first language speakers of English.
 (G ) Giving learners a test which is quite easy for most of them.
 ( E ) Asking learners which of four tapes they would like to listen to in the next
lesson. Also G
 ( I ) Giving learners reading texts about working in an English-speaking country.
Also G
 ( A ) Teaching with enthusiasm and interest.
 ( C ) Presenting the language to learners in small bits which they are able to learn
easily.
 ( D ) Talking to a learner after class about the problems in their last homework, and
how they can make better progress.
 ( E ) Encouraging and praising learners, even weak ones.
 ( B ) Making sure your lessons are varied and well-paced.
 ( F ) Your learners love doing crosswords and you often include them in your
lessons.
PART 2; activity 1 and 2: Understanding the CEFR reference & ALTE can do statements;
compare and contraste them with YLE Cambridge expected outcomes.
Having analyzed the CEFR’s scales of descriptors, we consider that an A2 level could be
reached in the reading, writing, and listening macro skills, at primary school. As for
secondary school, a B2 level could be achieved in reading, and a B1 level in writing and
listening. AT HIGH SCHOOL IT COULD BE GREAT IF THEY COULD REACH A B1 LEVEL, BUT
THEY SELDOM DO.

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By analyzing the ALTE levels, we can state that, at primary school, learners could
approach the Level 2 in the reading, writing, and listening/speaking areas. In reference
to secondary school, a Level 3 could be reached in the four macro skills.
As regards the specifications of Cambridge English: Young Learners – Starters, Movers
and Flyers, we can state that basically, in the Starters level, in the listening and
speaking area, students are meant to understand and to respond to personal simple
expressions, and to follow simple classroom instructions. This can be compared to the
A1 CEFR level (learners can understand simple phrases about themselves and things
around them); and to the ALTE break-through and level 1 (students can understand
basic instructions and express simple opinions). As for the reading and writing skills,
learners are expected to understand simple written instructions and to write simple
sentences about themselves and their family, and spell their names ; for CEFR this
belongs to the A1 level (learners can understand very simple sentences, write their
names); and ALTE level 1 ( understand basic instructions, complete simple forms).
The idea of recognizing and writing the letters of the English alphabet (Starters level) is
not mentioned in the CEFR and ALTE descriptors, since it is taken for granted that up to
that level learners already know that information. Besides, in the latter descriptors it is
stated that at that level students are meant to write short simple letters or postcards
related to personal information, but in the Starters descriptor, that skill is not
considered yet.
In the Movers level, in the listening and speaking area, students are expected to
understand when someone speaks about their family or friends using simple sentences
and instructions given by the teacher in the classroom; also can ask questions about
likes and dislikes, tasks, homework and holiday. This can be compared to the level A2
of CEFR (where students can understand simple direct speech related to family and
personal information) and ALTE level 1. As for reading and writing skills students can
understand and write simple sentences and stories or short texts with the help of
pictures and drawings. Also, they can complete stories with missing words and write
about what they like to do in their free time using words given to them, this belongs to
the level A2 of CEFR (where students can read very short specific texts and very shorts
notes or messages) and to ALTE level 1 ( can write a very short simple narrative). In all
three levels students can understand simple narratives.
Concerning the Flyers level, in the listening and speaking area, students can ask for
help when they do not understand something, talk about a problem in simple terms,
arrange with friends to do something, make and respond invitations, suggestions,
requests and apologies and also they can understand audios and video clips used in
the class. This can be compared to the level B1 of CEFR (students can understand the
main point of many radio or TV programs) and to ALTE level 2 (understand
assignments and instructions given by the teacher). As for reading and writing,
students can understand longer texts about everyday topics, can make use of the
dictionary if they do not understand all the words, they can write short messages,
postcards or dialogues and also writing about how they feel in simple sentences. This
belongs to the level B1 of CEFR (can understand texts related to everyday or job
language and can write texts describing sensations in a simple way) and to the level 2
of ALTE (can understand basic messages). A difference that can be seen between this
levels is that according to the Common European Framework of Reference, students
can have an unprepared conversation on familiar topics or of personal interest and

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also describe hopes, dreams, in a simple way, and give opinions or narrate a story or
relate the plot of a story. In the other two levels students do not have many abilities or
practice in order to speak.
PART 2: Use a textbook and find activities for writing.
The student’s book assigned to be analyzed is called Storyline 4, the authors of it are
Leonor Corradi and Beatriz Peña Lima, and the year of edition is 2011. In this book, we
found several writing activities which suit an A2 level, according to the CEFR’s scales of
descriptors. For instance, students can write short simple narratives (about their
birthdays), or emails related to personal information, apart from writing a short
description about their neighborhood.
Learners can also answer questions dealing with their personal lives in relation to
where they live (city, house) and their school:

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What is more, scholars can complete forms about them or about their families’
routines:
A final activity consists on rewriting sentences so as to make them fit to the student’s
life:
To sum up, all these activities above taken from the Storyline 4 student’s book are
connected with writing about learners’ personal lives.