TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE
James Asher’s Total Physical Response (TPR), is the one we will examine in detail here in order to see how the principles of the Comprehension Approach are put into practice. On the basis of his research, Asher reasoned that the fastest, least stressful way to achieve understanding of any target language is follow directions uttered by the instructor.
Total physical response (TPR) is a method developed by Dr. James J. Asher, a professor emeritus of psychology at San José State University, to aid learning second languages. The method relies on the assumption that when learning a second or additional language, language is internalized through a process of code breaking similar to first language development and that the process allows for a long period of listening and developing comprehension prior to production. Students respond to commands that require physical movement. TPR is primarily intended for ESL/EAL teachers, although the method is used in teaching other languages as well. The method became popular in the 1970s and attracted the attention or allegiance of some teachers, but it has not received generalized support from mainstream educators.
TPR is based on the premise that the human brain has a biological program for acquiring any natural language on earth - including the sign language of the deaf. The process is visible when we observe how infants internalize their first language.
The secret is a unique "conversation" between the parent and infant. For example, the first conversation is a parent saying, "Look at daddy. Look at daddy." The infant's face turns in the direction of the voice and daddy exclaims, "She's looking at me! She's looking at me!" Dr. Asher calls this "a language-body conversation" because the parent speaks and the infant answers with a physical response such as looking, smiling, laughing, turning, walking, reaching, grasping, holding, sitting, running, and so forth.
Notice that these "conversations" continue for many months before the child utters anything more intelligible than "mommy" or "daddy." Although the infant is not yet speaking, the child is imprinting a linguistic map of how the language works. Silently, the child is internalizing the patterns and sounds of the target language.
When the child has decoded enough of the target language, speaking appears spontaneously. The infant's speech will not be perfect, but gradually, the child's utterances will approximate more and more that of a native speaker.
Children and adults experience the thrill of immediate understanding when you apply this powerful concept in your classroom. To discover how to do it step-by-step, take a look through our TPR catalog of Books, Games, Teacher Kits, Student Kits, and Video Demonstrations.
Minggu, 11 April 2010
Jumat, 02 April 2010
Community Language Learning
Community language learning (CLL) is an approach in which students work together to develop what aspects of a language they would like to learn. The teacher acts as a counselor and a paraphrase, while the learner acts as a collaborator, although sometimes this role can be changed. The Community Language Learning Method takes its principles from the more general Counseling-Learning approach developed by Charles A. Curran. Curran believed that a way to deal with the fears of students is for to teachers to become ‘Language Counselors.’ A language counselor does not mean someone trained in psychology; it means someone who is a skillful under stander of the struggle students’ face as they attempt to internalize another language. The teacher who can ‘understand’ can indicate his acceptance of the student. By understanding students’ fears and being sensitive to them, he can help students overcome their negative feelings and turn them into positive energy to further their learning.
Rabu, 24 Maret 2010
summary of Desuggestopedia
Summary of Desuggestopedia
INTRODUCTION
Suggestopedia is now called Desuggestopedia to reflect the importance placed on desuggesting limitations on learning (Lozanov and Miller, personal communication). The originators of this method, Georgi Lozanov, believes as does Silent Way’s Caleb Gattegno, that language learning can occur at a a much faster rate than ordinarily transpires. Desuggestopedia, the application of the study of suggestion to pedagogy, has been developed to help students eliminate the feeling that they cannot be successful or the negative association they may have toward studying and, thus, to help them overcome the barriers to learning.
REVIEWING THE PRINCIPLES
1. What are the goals of teachers who use Desuggestopedia?
Teachers hope to accelerate the process by which students learn to use a foreign language for everyday communication. In order to do this, more of the students’ mental powers must be tapped.
2. What is the role of the teacher? What is the role of the students?
The teacher is an authority in the classroom. In order for the method to be successful, the students must trust and respect her. Once the students trust the teacher, they can feel more secure. If they feel secure, they can be more spontaneous and less inhibited.
3. What are some characteristic of the teaching/learning process?
A Desuggestopedia course is conducted in a classroom which is bright and cheerful. Students select target language names and choose new occupations. The texts student work from handouts containing lengthy dialogs (as many as 800 words) in the target language. The teacher presents the dialog during two concerts which comprise the first major phase (the receptive phase).
4. What is the nature of student-teacher interaction? What is the nature of student-student interaction?
The teacher initiates interactions with the whole group of students and with individuals’ right from the beginning of a language course.
5. How are the feelings of the students dealt with?
It is considered important in this method that the psychological barriers that students bring with then be desuggested.
6. How is the language viewed? How is culture viewed?
Language is the first of two planes in the two-plane process of communication. In the second plane are the factors which influence the linguistic message. The culture which students learn concerns the everyday life of people who speak the language.
7. What areas of language emphasized? What language skills are emphasized?
Vocabulary is emphasized. Grammar is dealt with explicitly but minimally. Speaking communicatively is emphasized. Students also read in the target language and write.
8. What is the role of the students’ native language?
Native-language translation is used to make the meaning of the dialog clear. As the course proceeds, the teacher uses the native language less and less.
9. How is evaluation accomplished?
Evaluation usually is conducted on the students’ normal in-class performance and not through formal tests.
10. How does the teacher respond to student errors?
Errors are corrected gently, with the teacher using a soft voice.
REVIEWING THE TECHNIQUES AND THE CLASSROOM SET-UP
Classroom set-up
The challenge for the teacher is to create a classroom environment which is bright and cheerful. These conditions are not always possible. However, the teacher should try to provide as positive an environment as possible.
Peripheral learning
This technique is based upon the idea that we perceive much more in our environment than that to which we consciously attend. It is claimed that, by putting posters containing grammatical information about the target language on the classroom walls, students will absorb the necessary facts effortlessly.
Positive suggestion
It is the teacher’s responsibility to orchestrate the suggestive factors in a learning situation, thereby helping students break down the barriers to learning that they bring with them.
Choose a new identity
The students choose a target language name and a new occupation. The students have an opportunity to develop a whole biography about their fictional selves.
Role play
Students are asked to pretend temporarily that they are someone else and to perform in the target language as if they were that person.
First concert (active concert)
The two concerts are components of the receptive phase of the lesson. The students have copies of the dialog in the target language and their native language and refer to it as the teacher reading. Music is played. After a few minutes, the teacher begins a slow, dramatic reading, synchronized in intonation with the music.
Second concert (passive concert)
In the second phase, the students are asked to put their script aside. They simply listen as the teacher reads the dialog at a normal rate of speed. At the conclusion if this concert, the class ends for the day.
Primary activation
The students playfully reread the target language dialog out loud, as individuals or in groups. In the lesson we observed, three groups of students read parts of the dialog in a particular manner: the first group, sadly; the next, angrily; the last, cheerful.
Creative adaptation
The students engage in various activities designed to help them learn the new material and use it spontaneously. The important thing is that the activities are varied and do not allow the students to focus on the form of the linguistic message, just the communicative intent.
INTRODUCTION
Suggestopedia is now called Desuggestopedia to reflect the importance placed on desuggesting limitations on learning (Lozanov and Miller, personal communication). The originators of this method, Georgi Lozanov, believes as does Silent Way’s Caleb Gattegno, that language learning can occur at a a much faster rate than ordinarily transpires. Desuggestopedia, the application of the study of suggestion to pedagogy, has been developed to help students eliminate the feeling that they cannot be successful or the negative association they may have toward studying and, thus, to help them overcome the barriers to learning.
REVIEWING THE PRINCIPLES
1. What are the goals of teachers who use Desuggestopedia?
Teachers hope to accelerate the process by which students learn to use a foreign language for everyday communication. In order to do this, more of the students’ mental powers must be tapped.
2. What is the role of the teacher? What is the role of the students?
The teacher is an authority in the classroom. In order for the method to be successful, the students must trust and respect her. Once the students trust the teacher, they can feel more secure. If they feel secure, they can be more spontaneous and less inhibited.
3. What are some characteristic of the teaching/learning process?
A Desuggestopedia course is conducted in a classroom which is bright and cheerful. Students select target language names and choose new occupations. The texts student work from handouts containing lengthy dialogs (as many as 800 words) in the target language. The teacher presents the dialog during two concerts which comprise the first major phase (the receptive phase).
4. What is the nature of student-teacher interaction? What is the nature of student-student interaction?
The teacher initiates interactions with the whole group of students and with individuals’ right from the beginning of a language course.
5. How are the feelings of the students dealt with?
It is considered important in this method that the psychological barriers that students bring with then be desuggested.
6. How is the language viewed? How is culture viewed?
Language is the first of two planes in the two-plane process of communication. In the second plane are the factors which influence the linguistic message. The culture which students learn concerns the everyday life of people who speak the language.
7. What areas of language emphasized? What language skills are emphasized?
Vocabulary is emphasized. Grammar is dealt with explicitly but minimally. Speaking communicatively is emphasized. Students also read in the target language and write.
8. What is the role of the students’ native language?
Native-language translation is used to make the meaning of the dialog clear. As the course proceeds, the teacher uses the native language less and less.
9. How is evaluation accomplished?
Evaluation usually is conducted on the students’ normal in-class performance and not through formal tests.
10. How does the teacher respond to student errors?
Errors are corrected gently, with the teacher using a soft voice.
REVIEWING THE TECHNIQUES AND THE CLASSROOM SET-UP
Classroom set-up
The challenge for the teacher is to create a classroom environment which is bright and cheerful. These conditions are not always possible. However, the teacher should try to provide as positive an environment as possible.
Peripheral learning
This technique is based upon the idea that we perceive much more in our environment than that to which we consciously attend. It is claimed that, by putting posters containing grammatical information about the target language on the classroom walls, students will absorb the necessary facts effortlessly.
Positive suggestion
It is the teacher’s responsibility to orchestrate the suggestive factors in a learning situation, thereby helping students break down the barriers to learning that they bring with them.
Choose a new identity
The students choose a target language name and a new occupation. The students have an opportunity to develop a whole biography about their fictional selves.
Role play
Students are asked to pretend temporarily that they are someone else and to perform in the target language as if they were that person.
First concert (active concert)
The two concerts are components of the receptive phase of the lesson. The students have copies of the dialog in the target language and their native language and refer to it as the teacher reading. Music is played. After a few minutes, the teacher begins a slow, dramatic reading, synchronized in intonation with the music.
Second concert (passive concert)
In the second phase, the students are asked to put their script aside. They simply listen as the teacher reads the dialog at a normal rate of speed. At the conclusion if this concert, the class ends for the day.
Primary activation
The students playfully reread the target language dialog out loud, as individuals or in groups. In the lesson we observed, three groups of students read parts of the dialog in a particular manner: the first group, sadly; the next, angrily; the last, cheerful.
Creative adaptation
The students engage in various activities designed to help them learn the new material and use it spontaneously. The important thing is that the activities are varied and do not allow the students to focus on the form of the linguistic message, just the communicative intent.
Senin, 22 Maret 2010
suggestopedia
Suggestopedia is a teaching method developed by the Bulgarian psychotherapist Georgi Lozanov. The method has been used in different fields of studies but mostly in the field of foreign language learning.
Lozanov says that by using this method one can teach languages approximately three to five times as quickly as conventional methods. However, it is not limited to the learning of languages, but language learning was found to be a process in which one can easily measure how much and how fast something is learned.
The theory applied positive suggestion in teaching when it was developed in the 1970s. However, as improved, it has focused more on “desuggestive learning” and now is often called “desuggestopedia.” [1] Suggestopedia is used in six major foreign-language teaching methods known to language teaching experts (the oldest being the grammar translation method.) The name of Suggestopedia is from the words “suggestion” and “pedagogy. Many discussions and misunderstanding have caused this name because people connects the word "suggestion" to "hypnosis". There are many different definitions for the word "suggestion". When Dr. Lozanov chose this word, he was thinking about the English meaning: TO SUGGEST = TO OFFER, TO PROPOSE (BUT THE STUDENTS ARE FREE TO CHOOSE).
Lozanov says that by using this method one can teach languages approximately three to five times as quickly as conventional methods. However, it is not limited to the learning of languages, but language learning was found to be a process in which one can easily measure how much and how fast something is learned.
The theory applied positive suggestion in teaching when it was developed in the 1970s. However, as improved, it has focused more on “desuggestive learning” and now is often called “desuggestopedia.” [1] Suggestopedia is used in six major foreign-language teaching methods known to language teaching experts (the oldest being the grammar translation method.) The name of Suggestopedia is from the words “suggestion” and “pedagogy. Many discussions and misunderstanding have caused this name because people connects the word "suggestion" to "hypnosis". There are many different definitions for the word "suggestion". When Dr. Lozanov chose this word, he was thinking about the English meaning: TO SUGGEST = TO OFFER, TO PROPOSE (BUT THE STUDENTS ARE FREE TO CHOOSE).
Kamis, 18 Maret 2010
Comparison between the Audio-Lingual Method and the Silent Way
Comparison between the Audio-Lingual Method and the Silent Way
INTRODUCTION
The Audio-Lingual Method, like the Direct Method we have just examined, is also an oral-based approach. However, it is very different in that rather than emphasizing vocabulary acquisition through exposure to its use in situation, the Audio-Lingual Method drills students in the use grammatical sentence patterns. It also, unlike the Direct Method, has a strong theoretical base in linguistics and psychology/ Charles Fries (1945) of the University of Michigan led the way in applying principles from structural linguistics in developing the method, and for this reason, it has sometimes been referred to as the ‘Michigan Method’. Although people did learn languages through the Audio-Lingual Method, one problem with it was students’ inability to readily transfer habits they had mastered in the classroom to communicative use outside it. Furthermore, the idea that learning a language meant forming a set of habits was seriously challenged in the early 1960s.
REVIEWING THE PRINCIPLES
1. What are the goals of teachers who use the Audio-Lingual Method and the Silent Way?
For the Audio-Lingual Method, teachers want their students to be able to use the target language communicatively. They believe students need to over learn the target language, to learn to use it automatically without stopping to think.
For the Silent Way, Students should be able to use the language for self-expression-to express their thought, perceptions, and feelings. Students become independent by relying on themselves.
2. What is the role of the teacher? What is the role of the students?
For the Audio-Lingual Method, the teacher is like an orchestra leader, directing and controlling the language behavior of her students. Students are imitators of the teacher’s model or the tapes she supplies of model speakers.
For the Silent Way, the teacher is technician or engineer. The teacher should respect the autonomy of the learners in their attempts at relating and interacting with the new challenges.
3. What are some characteristics of the teaching/learning process?
For the Audio-Lingual Method, new vocabulary and structural patterns are presented through dialogs. The dialogs are learned through imitation and repetition. Drills (such as repetition, backward build-up, chain, substitution, transformation, and question-and-answer) are conducted based upon the patterns present in the dialog. Grammar is induced from the examples given; explicit grammar rules are not provided.
For the Silent Way, Students begin their study of the language through its basic building blocks, its sounds. The teacher sets up situations that focus student attention on the structures of the language. The teacher works with them, striving for pronunciation that would be intelligible to a native speakers of the target language.
4. What is the nature of student-teacher interaction? What is the nature of student-student interaction?
For the Audio-Lingual Method, there is student-to-student interaction in chain drills or when student take different roles in dialogs, but this interaction is teacher-directed. Most of the interaction is between teacher and students and is initiated by the teacher.
For the Silent Way, the student-teacher interaction, the teacher is silent. When the teacher does speak, it is to give clues, not to model the language. Student-student verbal interaction is desirable and is therefore encouraged.
5. How are the feelings of the students dealt with?
For the Audio-Lingual Method, there are no principles of the method that relate to this area.
For the Silent Way, the teacher constantly observes the students. The teacher takes what they say into consideration and works with the student to help them overcome negative feelings which might otherwise interfere with their learning.
6. How is the language viewed? How is the culture viewed?
For the Audio-Lingual Method, the view of language in the Audio-Lingual Method has been influenced by descriptive linguists. The system is comprised of several different levels: phonological, morphological, and syntactic. Culture consists of the everyday behavior and lifestyle of the target language speakers.
For the Silent Way, languages of the world share a number of features. Their culture, as reflected in their own unique world view, is inseparable from their language.
7. What areas of language are emphasized? What language skills are emphasized?
For the Audio-Lingual Method, Vocabulary is kept to a minimum while the students are mastering the sound system and grammatical patterns. A grammatical pattern is not the same as a sentence. The natural order of skills presentation is adhered to: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
For the Silent Way, vocabulary is somewhat restricted at first. There is no fixed, linear, structural syllabus. The syllabus develops according to learning needs.
8. What is the role of the students’ native language?
For the Audio-Lingual Method, the habits of the students’ native language are thought to interfere with the students’ attempts to master the target language.
For the Silent Way, the students’ native language can, however, be used to give instructions when necessary, to help a student improve his or her pronunciation, for instance. The native language is also used during the feedback sessions.
9. How is evaluation accomplished?
For the Audio-Lingual Method, the answer to this question is not obvious because we did not actually observe the students in this class taking a formal test.
For the Silent Way, although the teacher may never give a formal test, he assesses student learning all the time. Since ‘teaching is subordinated to learning, ’the teacher must be responsive to immediate learning needs. The needs will be apparent to a teacher who is observant of his students’ behavior.
10. How does the teacher respond to student errors?
For the Audio-Lingual Method, student errors are to be avoided if at all possible through the teacher’s awareness of where the students will have difficulty and restriction of what they are taught to say.
For the Silent Way, the teacher uses student errors as a basis for deciding where further work is necessary.
REVIEWING THE TECHNIQUES the Audio-Lingual Method
Dialog memorization
Dialogs or short conversations between two people are often used to begin a new lesson. Students memorize the dialog through mimicry; students usually take the role of one person in the dialog, and the teacher the other. In the Audio-Lingual Method, certain sentence patterns and grammar points are included within the dialog. These patterns and points are later practiced in drills based on the lines of the dialog.
Backward build-up (expansion) drill
This drill is used when a long line of a dialog is giving students trouble. The teacher breaks down the line into several parts. The students repeat a part of the sentence, usually the last phrase of the line.
Repetition drills
Students are asked to repeat the teacher’s model as accurately and as quickly as possible.
Chain drill
A chain drill gets its name from the chain of conversation that forms around the room as students, one-by-one, ask and answer questions of each other. A chain drill allows some controlled communication, even though it is limited. A chain drill also gives the teacher an opportunity to check each student’s speech.
Single-slot substitution drill
The teacher says a line, usually from the dialog. Next, the teacher says a word or a phrase-called a cue. The students repeat the line the teacher has given them, substituting the cue into the line in its proper place.
Multiple-slot substitution drill
This drill is similar to the single-slot substitution drill. The difference is that the teacher gives cue phrases, one at a time, that fit into different slots in the dialog line.
Transformation drill
The teacher gives students a certain kind of sentence pattern, an affirmative sentence for example. Students are asked to transform this sentence into a negative sentence.
Question-and-answer drill
This drill gives students practice with answering questions. The students should answer the teacher’s questions very quickly.
Use of minimal pairs
The teacher works with pairs of words which differ in only one should; for example, ‘ship/sheep.’
Complete the dialog
Selected words are erased from a dialog students have learned. Students complete the dialog by filling the blanks with the missing words.
Grammar game
Games like the supermarket alphabet game described in this chapter are used in the Audio-Lingual Method. The games are designed to get students to practice a grammar point within a context.
REVIEWING THE TECHNIQUES AND THE MATERIALS the Silent Way
Sound-color chart
The chart contains blocks of color, each one representing a sound in the target language. The teacher, and later the students, points to blocks of color on the chart to form syllables, words, and even sentences. The chart allows students to produce sound combinations in the target language without doing so through repetition. The chart draws the students’ attention and allows them to concentrate on the language, not on the teacher.
Teacher’s silence
The teacher gives just as much help as is necessary and then is silent.
Peer correction
Students are encouraged to help another student when he or she is experiencing difficulty. It is important that any help be offered in a cooperative manner, not a competitive one.
Rods
Rods can be used to provide visible actions or situations for any language structure, to introduce it, or to enable students to practice using it. The rods trigger meaning: Situations with the rods can be created in such a way that the meaning is made clear; then the language is connected to the meaning. The rods are therefore very versatile. They can be used as rods or more abstractly to represent other realities. They allow students to be creative and imaginative, and they allow for action to accompany language.
Self-correction gestures
Some of the particular gestures of the Silent Way could be added to this list. For example, in the class observed, the teacher put his palms together and then moved them outwards to signal to students the need to lengthen the particular vowel they were working on.
Word chart
The teacher, and later the students, points to words on the wall chart in a sequence so that they can read aloud the sentences they have spoken. There are twelve English charts containing about 500 words. The charts contain the functional vocabulary of English.
Fidel charts
The teacher, and later the students, point to the color-coded Fidel charts in order that students associate the sounds of the language with their spelling. There are a number of charts available in other languages as well.
Structured feedback
Students are invited to make observations about the day’s lesson and what they have learned. The teacher accepts the students’ comments in a no defensive manner, hearing things that will help give him direction for where he should work when the class meets again.
INTRODUCTION
The Audio-Lingual Method, like the Direct Method we have just examined, is also an oral-based approach. However, it is very different in that rather than emphasizing vocabulary acquisition through exposure to its use in situation, the Audio-Lingual Method drills students in the use grammatical sentence patterns. It also, unlike the Direct Method, has a strong theoretical base in linguistics and psychology/ Charles Fries (1945) of the University of Michigan led the way in applying principles from structural linguistics in developing the method, and for this reason, it has sometimes been referred to as the ‘Michigan Method’. Although people did learn languages through the Audio-Lingual Method, one problem with it was students’ inability to readily transfer habits they had mastered in the classroom to communicative use outside it. Furthermore, the idea that learning a language meant forming a set of habits was seriously challenged in the early 1960s.
REVIEWING THE PRINCIPLES
1. What are the goals of teachers who use the Audio-Lingual Method and the Silent Way?
For the Audio-Lingual Method, teachers want their students to be able to use the target language communicatively. They believe students need to over learn the target language, to learn to use it automatically without stopping to think.
For the Silent Way, Students should be able to use the language for self-expression-to express their thought, perceptions, and feelings. Students become independent by relying on themselves.
2. What is the role of the teacher? What is the role of the students?
For the Audio-Lingual Method, the teacher is like an orchestra leader, directing and controlling the language behavior of her students. Students are imitators of the teacher’s model or the tapes she supplies of model speakers.
For the Silent Way, the teacher is technician or engineer. The teacher should respect the autonomy of the learners in their attempts at relating and interacting with the new challenges.
3. What are some characteristics of the teaching/learning process?
For the Audio-Lingual Method, new vocabulary and structural patterns are presented through dialogs. The dialogs are learned through imitation and repetition. Drills (such as repetition, backward build-up, chain, substitution, transformation, and question-and-answer) are conducted based upon the patterns present in the dialog. Grammar is induced from the examples given; explicit grammar rules are not provided.
For the Silent Way, Students begin their study of the language through its basic building blocks, its sounds. The teacher sets up situations that focus student attention on the structures of the language. The teacher works with them, striving for pronunciation that would be intelligible to a native speakers of the target language.
4. What is the nature of student-teacher interaction? What is the nature of student-student interaction?
For the Audio-Lingual Method, there is student-to-student interaction in chain drills or when student take different roles in dialogs, but this interaction is teacher-directed. Most of the interaction is between teacher and students and is initiated by the teacher.
For the Silent Way, the student-teacher interaction, the teacher is silent. When the teacher does speak, it is to give clues, not to model the language. Student-student verbal interaction is desirable and is therefore encouraged.
5. How are the feelings of the students dealt with?
For the Audio-Lingual Method, there are no principles of the method that relate to this area.
For the Silent Way, the teacher constantly observes the students. The teacher takes what they say into consideration and works with the student to help them overcome negative feelings which might otherwise interfere with their learning.
6. How is the language viewed? How is the culture viewed?
For the Audio-Lingual Method, the view of language in the Audio-Lingual Method has been influenced by descriptive linguists. The system is comprised of several different levels: phonological, morphological, and syntactic. Culture consists of the everyday behavior and lifestyle of the target language speakers.
For the Silent Way, languages of the world share a number of features. Their culture, as reflected in their own unique world view, is inseparable from their language.
7. What areas of language are emphasized? What language skills are emphasized?
For the Audio-Lingual Method, Vocabulary is kept to a minimum while the students are mastering the sound system and grammatical patterns. A grammatical pattern is not the same as a sentence. The natural order of skills presentation is adhered to: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
For the Silent Way, vocabulary is somewhat restricted at first. There is no fixed, linear, structural syllabus. The syllabus develops according to learning needs.
8. What is the role of the students’ native language?
For the Audio-Lingual Method, the habits of the students’ native language are thought to interfere with the students’ attempts to master the target language.
For the Silent Way, the students’ native language can, however, be used to give instructions when necessary, to help a student improve his or her pronunciation, for instance. The native language is also used during the feedback sessions.
9. How is evaluation accomplished?
For the Audio-Lingual Method, the answer to this question is not obvious because we did not actually observe the students in this class taking a formal test.
For the Silent Way, although the teacher may never give a formal test, he assesses student learning all the time. Since ‘teaching is subordinated to learning, ’the teacher must be responsive to immediate learning needs. The needs will be apparent to a teacher who is observant of his students’ behavior.
10. How does the teacher respond to student errors?
For the Audio-Lingual Method, student errors are to be avoided if at all possible through the teacher’s awareness of where the students will have difficulty and restriction of what they are taught to say.
For the Silent Way, the teacher uses student errors as a basis for deciding where further work is necessary.
REVIEWING THE TECHNIQUES the Audio-Lingual Method
Dialog memorization
Dialogs or short conversations between two people are often used to begin a new lesson. Students memorize the dialog through mimicry; students usually take the role of one person in the dialog, and the teacher the other. In the Audio-Lingual Method, certain sentence patterns and grammar points are included within the dialog. These patterns and points are later practiced in drills based on the lines of the dialog.
Backward build-up (expansion) drill
This drill is used when a long line of a dialog is giving students trouble. The teacher breaks down the line into several parts. The students repeat a part of the sentence, usually the last phrase of the line.
Repetition drills
Students are asked to repeat the teacher’s model as accurately and as quickly as possible.
Chain drill
A chain drill gets its name from the chain of conversation that forms around the room as students, one-by-one, ask and answer questions of each other. A chain drill allows some controlled communication, even though it is limited. A chain drill also gives the teacher an opportunity to check each student’s speech.
Single-slot substitution drill
The teacher says a line, usually from the dialog. Next, the teacher says a word or a phrase-called a cue. The students repeat the line the teacher has given them, substituting the cue into the line in its proper place.
Multiple-slot substitution drill
This drill is similar to the single-slot substitution drill. The difference is that the teacher gives cue phrases, one at a time, that fit into different slots in the dialog line.
Transformation drill
The teacher gives students a certain kind of sentence pattern, an affirmative sentence for example. Students are asked to transform this sentence into a negative sentence.
Question-and-answer drill
This drill gives students practice with answering questions. The students should answer the teacher’s questions very quickly.
Use of minimal pairs
The teacher works with pairs of words which differ in only one should; for example, ‘ship/sheep.’
Complete the dialog
Selected words are erased from a dialog students have learned. Students complete the dialog by filling the blanks with the missing words.
Grammar game
Games like the supermarket alphabet game described in this chapter are used in the Audio-Lingual Method. The games are designed to get students to practice a grammar point within a context.
REVIEWING THE TECHNIQUES AND THE MATERIALS the Silent Way
Sound-color chart
The chart contains blocks of color, each one representing a sound in the target language. The teacher, and later the students, points to blocks of color on the chart to form syllables, words, and even sentences. The chart allows students to produce sound combinations in the target language without doing so through repetition. The chart draws the students’ attention and allows them to concentrate on the language, not on the teacher.
Teacher’s silence
The teacher gives just as much help as is necessary and then is silent.
Peer correction
Students are encouraged to help another student when he or she is experiencing difficulty. It is important that any help be offered in a cooperative manner, not a competitive one.
Rods
Rods can be used to provide visible actions or situations for any language structure, to introduce it, or to enable students to practice using it. The rods trigger meaning: Situations with the rods can be created in such a way that the meaning is made clear; then the language is connected to the meaning. The rods are therefore very versatile. They can be used as rods or more abstractly to represent other realities. They allow students to be creative and imaginative, and they allow for action to accompany language.
Self-correction gestures
Some of the particular gestures of the Silent Way could be added to this list. For example, in the class observed, the teacher put his palms together and then moved them outwards to signal to students the need to lengthen the particular vowel they were working on.
Word chart
The teacher, and later the students, points to words on the wall chart in a sequence so that they can read aloud the sentences they have spoken. There are twelve English charts containing about 500 words. The charts contain the functional vocabulary of English.
Fidel charts
The teacher, and later the students, point to the color-coded Fidel charts in order that students associate the sounds of the language with their spelling. There are a number of charts available in other languages as well.
Structured feedback
Students are invited to make observations about the day’s lesson and what they have learned. The teacher accepts the students’ comments in a no defensive manner, hearing things that will help give him direction for where he should work when the class meets again.
Sabtu, 13 Maret 2010
Rangkuman The Direct Method
The Direct Method
INTRODUCTION
As with The Grammar-Translation Method, the Direct Method is not new. Its principles have been applied by language teachers for many years. Most recently, it was revived as a method when the goal of instruction become learning how to use a foreign language to communicate. The Direct Method has one very basic rule: No translation is allowed.
REVIEWING THE PRINCIPLES
Consider the principles of the Direct Method as they are arranged in answer to the ten questions posed earlier:
1. What are the goals of teachers who use the Direct Method?
Teachers who use the Direct Method intend that students learn how to communicate in the target language. In order to do this successfully, students should learn to think in the target language.
2. What is the role of the teacher? What is the role of the students?
Although the teacher directs the class activities, the student role is less passive than in The Grammar-Translation Method. The teacher and the students are more like partners in the teaching/learning process.
3. What are some characteristic of the teaching/learning process?
Students need to associate meaning and the target language directly. In order to do this, when the teacher introduces a new target language word or phrase, he demonstrates its meaning through the use of regalia, pictures, or pantomime; he never translate in into the students’ native language. In fact, the syllabus used in the Direct Method is based upon situations or topics. Grammar is taught inductively; that is the students are presented with examples and they figure out the rule or generalization from the examples.
4. What is the nature of student-teacher interaction? What is the nature of student-student interaction?
The initiation of the interaction goes both ways, from teacher to students and from student to teacher, although the latter is often teacher-directed. Students converse with one another as well.
5. How are the feelings of the students dealt with?
There are no principles of the method which relate it this area.
6. How is the language viewed? How is culture viewed?
Language is primarily spoken, not written. Therefore, students study common, everyday speech in the target language. They also study culture consisting of the history of the people, the geography of the country, and information about the daily lives.
7. What areas of language emphasized? What language skills are emphasized?
Vocabulary is emphasized over grammar. Although work on all four skills (reading, written, speaking, and listening) occurs from the start, oral communication is seen as basic.
8. What is the role of the students’ native language?
The students’ native language should not be used in the classroom.
9. How is evaluation accomplished?
In the Direct Method, students are asked to the language, not to demonstrate their knowledge about the language.
10. How does the teacher respond to student errors?
The teacher, employing various techniques, tries to get student yo self-correct whenever possible.
REVIEWING THE TECHNIQUES
The following expanded review of techniques provides you with some details which will help you do this.
Reading Aloud
Students take turns reading section of passage, play, or dialog out loud. At the end of each student’s turn, the teacher uses gestures, pictures, regalia, examples, or other means to make the meaning of the section clear.
Question and answer exercise
This exercise is conducted only in the target language. Students are asked questions and answer in full sentence so that they practice new words and grammatical structures.
Getting students to self-correct
The teacher of this class has the students self-correct by asking them to make a choice between what they said an alternative answer he supplied. There are, however, other ways of getting students to self-correct. Another possibility is for the teacher to repeat what the student said, stopping just before the errors.
Conversation practice
The teacher asks students a number of questions in the target language, which the students have to understand to be able to answer correctly. The questions contained a particular grammar structure.
Fill-in-the-blanks exercise
All the items are in the target language; furthermore, no explicit grammar rule would be applied.
Dictation
The teacher reads the passage three times. The first time the teacher reads it at normal speed, the second time reads the passage phrase by phrase, the last time the teacher again reads at a normal speed.
Map drawing
The class included one example of a technique used to give students listening comprehensive practice.
Paragraph writing
The teacher in this class asked the students to write a paragraph in their own words on the major geographical features of the United States.
INTRODUCTION
As with The Grammar-Translation Method, the Direct Method is not new. Its principles have been applied by language teachers for many years. Most recently, it was revived as a method when the goal of instruction become learning how to use a foreign language to communicate. The Direct Method has one very basic rule: No translation is allowed.
REVIEWING THE PRINCIPLES
Consider the principles of the Direct Method as they are arranged in answer to the ten questions posed earlier:
1. What are the goals of teachers who use the Direct Method?
Teachers who use the Direct Method intend that students learn how to communicate in the target language. In order to do this successfully, students should learn to think in the target language.
2. What is the role of the teacher? What is the role of the students?
Although the teacher directs the class activities, the student role is less passive than in The Grammar-Translation Method. The teacher and the students are more like partners in the teaching/learning process.
3. What are some characteristic of the teaching/learning process?
Students need to associate meaning and the target language directly. In order to do this, when the teacher introduces a new target language word or phrase, he demonstrates its meaning through the use of regalia, pictures, or pantomime; he never translate in into the students’ native language. In fact, the syllabus used in the Direct Method is based upon situations or topics. Grammar is taught inductively; that is the students are presented with examples and they figure out the rule or generalization from the examples.
4. What is the nature of student-teacher interaction? What is the nature of student-student interaction?
The initiation of the interaction goes both ways, from teacher to students and from student to teacher, although the latter is often teacher-directed. Students converse with one another as well.
5. How are the feelings of the students dealt with?
There are no principles of the method which relate it this area.
6. How is the language viewed? How is culture viewed?
Language is primarily spoken, not written. Therefore, students study common, everyday speech in the target language. They also study culture consisting of the history of the people, the geography of the country, and information about the daily lives.
7. What areas of language emphasized? What language skills are emphasized?
Vocabulary is emphasized over grammar. Although work on all four skills (reading, written, speaking, and listening) occurs from the start, oral communication is seen as basic.
8. What is the role of the students’ native language?
The students’ native language should not be used in the classroom.
9. How is evaluation accomplished?
In the Direct Method, students are asked to the language, not to demonstrate their knowledge about the language.
10. How does the teacher respond to student errors?
The teacher, employing various techniques, tries to get student yo self-correct whenever possible.
REVIEWING THE TECHNIQUES
The following expanded review of techniques provides you with some details which will help you do this.
Reading Aloud
Students take turns reading section of passage, play, or dialog out loud. At the end of each student’s turn, the teacher uses gestures, pictures, regalia, examples, or other means to make the meaning of the section clear.
Question and answer exercise
This exercise is conducted only in the target language. Students are asked questions and answer in full sentence so that they practice new words and grammatical structures.
Getting students to self-correct
The teacher of this class has the students self-correct by asking them to make a choice between what they said an alternative answer he supplied. There are, however, other ways of getting students to self-correct. Another possibility is for the teacher to repeat what the student said, stopping just before the errors.
Conversation practice
The teacher asks students a number of questions in the target language, which the students have to understand to be able to answer correctly. The questions contained a particular grammar structure.
Fill-in-the-blanks exercise
All the items are in the target language; furthermore, no explicit grammar rule would be applied.
Dictation
The teacher reads the passage three times. The first time the teacher reads it at normal speed, the second time reads the passage phrase by phrase, the last time the teacher again reads at a normal speed.
Map drawing
The class included one example of a technique used to give students listening comprehensive practice.
Paragraph writing
The teacher in this class asked the students to write a paragraph in their own words on the major geographical features of the United States.
Rabu, 03 Maret 2010
Flash Disk
Tips Tingkatkan Performa Flash Disk
Di Windows Me dan Windows 2000, pengoperasian USB flash disk terasa sedikit merepotkan. Anda dipaksa harus mengklik ikon [Safely Remove Hardware] di system tray dan mengklik tombol [Stop] sebelum mencabut piranti USB. Kini, di Windows XP, kewajiban tersebut sudah tidak ada lagi. Anda bisa mencabut flash disk kapan saja selama tidak dalam proses transfer data. Pengoperasian flash disk pun jadi lebih mudah.
Akan tetapi kemudahan tersebut harus dibayar dengan menurunnya performa flash disk. Ini disebabkan karena Windows harus menonaktifkan fitur write cache demi fleksibilitas tadi, sehingga performa harus dikorbankan.
Nah, bagi Anda yang mengutamakan performa flash disk sebagai nomor satu, Anda harus mengaktifkan write cache ini dari Device Manager. Caranya:
1. Klik [Start] > [Control Panel] > [Performance and Maintenance] > [System].
2. Pilih tab [Hardware].
3. Buka jendela Device Manager dengan mengklik tombol [Device Manager].
4. Masuklah ke disk drives, dan klik kanan pada nama USB flash disk.
5. Pilih [Properties].
6. Masuklah ke tab [Policies] kemudian ubah radio button [Optimize for quick removal] menjadi [Optimize for Performance].
7. Tekan [OK], lalu tutup jendela Device Manager dan System Properties.
8. Restart Windows.
Setelah Anda mengaplikasikan trik ini jangan lupa untuk selalu mengklik [Safely Remove Hardware] sebelum mencabut flash disk.
Di Windows Me dan Windows 2000, pengoperasian USB flash disk terasa sedikit merepotkan. Anda dipaksa harus mengklik ikon [Safely Remove Hardware] di system tray dan mengklik tombol [Stop] sebelum mencabut piranti USB. Kini, di Windows XP, kewajiban tersebut sudah tidak ada lagi. Anda bisa mencabut flash disk kapan saja selama tidak dalam proses transfer data. Pengoperasian flash disk pun jadi lebih mudah.
Akan tetapi kemudahan tersebut harus dibayar dengan menurunnya performa flash disk. Ini disebabkan karena Windows harus menonaktifkan fitur write cache demi fleksibilitas tadi, sehingga performa harus dikorbankan.
Nah, bagi Anda yang mengutamakan performa flash disk sebagai nomor satu, Anda harus mengaktifkan write cache ini dari Device Manager. Caranya:
1. Klik [Start] > [Control Panel] > [Performance and Maintenance] > [System].
2. Pilih tab [Hardware].
3. Buka jendela Device Manager dengan mengklik tombol [Device Manager].
4. Masuklah ke disk drives, dan klik kanan pada nama USB flash disk.
5. Pilih [Properties].
6. Masuklah ke tab [Policies] kemudian ubah radio button [Optimize for quick removal] menjadi [Optimize for Performance].
7. Tekan [OK], lalu tutup jendela Device Manager dan System Properties.
8. Restart Windows.
Setelah Anda mengaplikasikan trik ini jangan lupa untuk selalu mengklik [Safely Remove Hardware] sebelum mencabut flash disk.
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