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.
Historias de mi barrio: contemporary art in a community at high risk of social exclusion
Abstract Historias de mi barrio is a piece of pedagogic research aimed at highlighting the way art can articulate the relationship between the educational context and a neighbourhood at high risk of social exclusion. The starting point for this study was to ask whether this type of research, centred around the arts, was suitable in complex contexts and whether it might eventually lead to pedagogic improvement. The results gathered, and indeed the work carried out by the artists and university lecturers involved, together with pupils 6–12 years old and their instructors in a state school, provide evidence of a positive answer – and notably of the necessity of knowing about the socio-economic reality of the student cohort when planning learning projects and of the importance of the arts as a crucial element in education.