A Teaching Resource For English Education In Japanese Elementary Schools
The first time they encounter a word, understanding the meaning is helped by activating schema related to it. Students’ prior knowledge influences how they comprehend things and how they make meaning. This knowledge should be respected and used to build comprehension and serve learning. They can be asked what they know about a word or topic or what it makes them think of. Sometimes, schema will be related concepts and words from the first language. As knowledge increases, these will be in place in the second language. By doing this, students use their resources to build a link from the initial meaning/idea to related ones, and vocabulary is extended. The more learners have to think to understand a word, the more likely they are to be able to recall it. Learning a word should not be thought of as either “yes, I have learned it” or “no, I have not”. It is a long process where knowledge is continually built, deepening understanding of a word on different levels. Initially, students recognize a word they hear and understand the meaning. As it is encountered again, understanding is more fully developed by working with the form of the word, using it and then being able to produce it automatically. Vocabulary development is essential in order for students to be able to take part in discourse. In addition to this, they are able to learn new vocabulary while taking part. This is in keeping with the idea of always teaching language in
Teaching English in the Primary Classroom
Part 1: working with young language learners identifying priorities and their implications being realistic - practical activities 1. Part 2: working with a coursebook working without a coursebook integrating language work and other subjects - practical activities 2.
Learning About Language Assessment: Dilemmas, Decisions, and Directions
1. Assessment As Information Gathering 2. Analyzing Tests 3. Conflicting Purposes of Assessment 4. The Role of Background Knowledge in the Assessment 5. A Cloze-knit Family 6. Another Dilemma 7. Some Useful Statistical Tools 8. The Correlation Family 9. Multiple-choice Tests and Item Analyses 10. Measuring Meaning 11. Eliciting Speech Samples in Role Plays 12. Three Approaches to Scoring Writing Samples 13. Alternative Assessments 14. Self-assessment in Language Learning