First considerations. What do English learners need to be able to do in English?

1. The teaching practice. What
learners need to know / learn.
Montse Irun
mirun@dal.udl.cat
Applied
linguistics

2. Why do people want to learn English?
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3. Why do people want to learn English?
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 Travel
 Work and business
 Music, film, arts and culture
 For a challenge
 It’s compulsory

4. How do people want to learn English?
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5. Basic SLA theory
 Learners make hypotheses about how languages work.
 Parents tend to focus on meaning.
 High IQ learners are not more successful.
 Motivation is an asset.
 Early age is not a variable except for pronunciation.
 Errors are produced by overgeneralizations more than
interference from L1.
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6. Basic SLA theory
 Language learning is not linear.
 Certain structures are acquired before others.
 Developmental errors are part of the learning process.
 Materials should be varied.
 Learners do not learn their mates’ mistakes.
 Learners learn things they haven’t been taught.
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7. What do learners need to be able to do
in English?
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8. Why communication?
 Language is a dynamic resource for the creation of
meaning.
 Communication is our aim in foreign language teaching.
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9. Is this communication?
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10. Communication skills
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11. Features of communication
 1.- Language is a means; only rarely is it also the end.
 2.- In communication, there are no display questions.
 3.- In communication, the teacher-role and the
student-role are infrequent.
 4.- Communication is purposeful and the purpose is
seldom linguistic.
 5.- Success is measured in the extent to which the
purpose is efficiently fulfilled.
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12. Features of communication
 6.- Communication is embedded in a context and
depends in part on that context (layout, visuals,
gestures, etc.).
 7.- Communication depends on presuppositions and
predispositions.
 8.- Conditions and means are never perfect but
communication does not break for lack of a word, for
noise, etc.
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13. Features of communication
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 9.- In communication no one specifies the structures to
be used.
 10.- In communication, no one explains the meaning of
the words before using them.
 11.- In spoken communication, there is a very wide range
of accents and speeds, and there is a limit to which these
can be simplified.
 12.- Normal conversation does not stick to one topic but
rather moves unpredictably from one thing to another.

14. Components of Communicative Competence
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(Canale, M. & Swain, M 1980)

15. Characteristics of communicative activities
 communicative purpose
 communicative desire
 content (what) not form
 variety of language
 no teacher intervention
 no materials control
(Rod Ellis)
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16. Is this activity communicative?
 Look at these two pictures.What do they like doing in
their free time?
Sarah Zach
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17. Is this activity communicative?
Role play: Choose either A or B
 A invites B
 B thanks A
 A asks for an explanation
 B gives a justification
 A insists
 B answers the way he/she decides.
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18. What are we doing in class?
Language practice Communication
Speaking
Correcting exercises
orally
Expressing an opinion
Listening
Listening to this and try
to understand
everything
Listening to the news
Writing
Writing the questions
to these answers
Writing an e-mail to
your friend
Reading
Reading a text in order
to answer the questions
that follow
Reading about your
favourite actor
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19. Make your students use English
communicatively and effectively
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20.  There si no point in learning how to use the verbal tenses
if they don’t know how to use them communicatively
What’s the point
of knowing when
to use a verbal
tense if it is not
used in
communication?
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21. Four conditions for language learning
 Exposure to input.
 Attention focused
 Do something with it
 Comprehensible
 Authentic
 Interesting
 Production of output
 What kind?
 Memorization
 How?
 Motivation
 Types
 Instruction hastens the process (communicative activities)
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22. Motivation
Wanting to do something.
Having a positive attitude towards it.
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23. (c) Montse Irun

24. Types of motivation
•Instrumental
(functional)
•Integrative
(culture)
Extrinsic
motivation
•Achievement
(success)
•Task (task)
Intrinsic
motivation
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25. Teaching = Learning
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 Traditional teaching
 Teachers talk
 Teachers use ppp
 Students practise
 XXI Century teaching
 Students talk
 Students work
 Teachers help

26. The end
mirun@dal.udl.cat
(c) Montse Irun