Week 5: Learning Contract                                                             

Day	Time	What I do?
Sunday	19.00	Learning contract
Monday	20.00-22.00	Writing inside the classroom
Tuesday	-
Wednesday	21.30	Reading skill
Thursday	-
Friday	20.30	Reading skill
Saturday	20.30	Listening skill

  

Reading skill

Ten Helpful Ideas for Teaching English to Young Learners

            Teaching English to Young learners <TEYL> has become its own field of  study as the age of compulsory English education has become lower and lower in countries around the world. This article contains some helpful ideas to incorporate into TEYL classroom.

            The ideas given below can be applied to learners ranging from approximately 5 to 12 years old and can be used for various proficiency levels. There are 10 ideas:

1.      Supplement activities with visuals, realia, and movement. This popular method can be used as technique with storytelling and with songs that teach language related to any kind of movement or physical action. Children have fun with movement, and the move fun for students, the better they will remember the language learned.

2.      Involve students in making visuals and realia. One way to make the learning more fun is to involve students in the creation of the visual or realia.

3.      Move from activities to activity. For young students, from age 5 to 10 especially, it is a good idea to move quickly from activity to activity. Do not spend more time in any activity.

4.      Teach in theme. Teachers should teach students from their planning.

5.      Use stories and contexts familiar to students. The contexts that are use when teaching English, which may be a completely new and foreign language, should be contexts that are familiar to them.

6.      Establish classroom routines in English. Young learners function well within a structured environment and enjoy repetition of certain routines and activities.

7.      Use L1 as a resource when necessary.  Teachers these days are mostly encouraged to teach English through English. Sometimes students can express comprehension of English in their native language.

8.      Bring in helpers from community. Collaborate with others who are studying English, studying to be English teachers, or who speak English well in order to expand the English learning community. Using helpers means taking extra time to communicate your expectation with the guest and working this special event into your lesson plan.

9.      Collaborate with other teachers in your school. Collaborate with other teachers in your school to make the learning experience richer for your students. Connect your lesson to the topics, activities, and stories your students are learning in their native language.

10.  Communicate with other TEYL professionals. TEYL professionals help keep your classroom fresh with new ideas and collaboration can help to construct new ideas and solutions to the common problems that teachers face.

All of the ideas given above stood out as some of the more helpful ideas for teaching EFL to young learners. These activities should prove helpful to all teachers of English to young learners.

Reading skill

Six Vocabulary Activities for the English Language Classroom

            A basic level of vocabulary will allow learners to communicate some ideas to a certain degree, better communication. Second language learners certainly recognize that insufficient vocabulary is one of their biggest frustrations < Green and Meare 1995; James 1996>. Teachers need to know what kinds of classroom activities they can use to help their students gain new vocabulary. The purpose of this article is to present some important aspects of vocabulary learning and introduce teachers to 6 practical vocabulary activities.

            There are 5 types of words that are <1.> a single word, <2.> a set phrase, <3.> a variable phrase, <4.> a phrasal verb, and <5.> an idiom. Vocabulary problems including polysemy, connotation and usage, part of speech, frequency and collocation. The most successful vocabulary activities are those that allow students to accomplish three goals: <1.> focuses on the vocabulary, <2.> experience multiple retrievals of the vocabulary, and <3.> develop successful vocabulary learning strategies.

            From research there are 6 activities have been used successfully in several EFL setting with learners ranging from teenagers to adults. Activity 1: Keeping a running list of words. Teachers should make list of vocabulary as they teaching. Point out the words to focus learners’ attention on the words. Activity 2: Vocabulary cards. Teachers put students in pairs or small groups, and their task is to discuss and solve the vocabulary question presented on the card. Activity 3: Ranking vocabulary items. Teachers present the class with a list of six to eight items that they must rank according to some factor. Choose a list of items that represent a theme that is meaningful to their students. Activity 4: Vocabulary ladder puzzle, teachers will construct a ladder of 5 words that all have the same number of letter. These 5 words are the answers for this word ladder puzzle < Folse, 1993, 113>. Activity 5: Vocabulary sentence auction. This activity works well for the whole class. Activity 6: Scrambled vocabulary envelopes, provides practice with collations. Students work in groups of three or four to rearrange sentence parts into correct sentences.

            English language learners need to increase their vocabulary knowledge. Teachers should incorporate explicit vocabulary teaching supported by classroom activity like these. Such activity will help learners focus their attention on key vocabulary. Teachers can choose these activities to apply in their vocabulary teaching. It can increase vocabulary knowledge to learners.

Vocabulary	Pronunciation	Meaning		Sentence
		Thai	English
lapse < v.>	/ læps /	จางหายไป	a small mistake, especially one that is caused by forgetting sth or by being careless	A momentary lapse in the final set cost her match.
connotation <n.>	/ ˌkɒnəˈteɪʃn /	คำที่มีความหมายแฝงอยู่	an idea suggested by a word in addition to its main meaning	The word ‘professional’ has connotations of skill and excellence.
neutral <adj.>	/ ˈnjuːtrəl /	ที่เป็นกลาง	not supporting or helping either side in a disagreement, competition, etc.	Journalists are supposed to be politically neutral.
deodorant< n.>	/ diˈəʊdərənt /	ยากำจักกลิ่นตัว	a substance that people put on their bodies to prevent or hide unpleasant smells	A special anti-foam additive also gives a more complete fill-up with less spillage, and a deodorant reduces smell.
perspiration    < n.>	/ˌpɜːspəˈreɪʃn /	เหงื่อ	drops of liquid that form on your skin when you are hot	Her skin was damp with perspiration.
transparency < n.>	/trænsˈpærənsi /	ภาพสไลด์	a picture printed on a piece of film, usually in a frame, that can be shown on a screen by shining light through the film	The partial transparency of the rock allows focusing up and down to assess grain packing.
proportionate < adj.>	/ prəˈpɔːʃənət /	ที่เป็นสัดส่วนกัน	increasing or decreasing in size, amount or degree according to changes in sth else	The number of accidents is proportionate to the increased volume of traffic.

Listening skill

New Rules on Us Summer Jobs For Foreign Students

            More than 100 international students will spend this summer working and traveling in US. The idea is for students to work for up to 3 months and earn enough money to then spend a month traveling before they return home.

            That year there are some changes. The State Department said the students were put to work for long hours in jobs. More jobs will be banned in the fall. These include most construction, manufacturing, and food processing jobs. Someone said the change will protect foreign workers from getting injured on the job.

            New rules are being good for foreign students to work in safety place. They don’t work in long time.

Vocabulary	Pronunciation	Meaning		Sentence
		Thai	English
distribution <n.>	/ˌdɪstrɪˈbjuːʃn/	การกระจาย	the way that sth is shared or exists over a particular area or among a particular group of people	The map shows the distribution of this species across the world.
injured <v.>	/ ˈɪndʒəd /	ทำร้าย	physically hurt; having an injury	Carter is playing in place of the injured O'Reilly.

Inside classroom

            Today, I learnt about 5 English teaching approaches like vocabulary teaching, pronunciation teaching, culture teaching, English using ICT and communicative language teaching. In each method has different teaching process. The following are English teaching approaches.

            First, vocabulary teaching, this group tell only wide information and doesn’t tell the process for teaching. You should collect specific information about vocabulary teaching like how to teach vocabulary in content or context clue. Teachers should have a variety of teaching such as play games to motivate students.

            Second, culture teaching is teaching about different culture of each country such as greeting, food, or life style. It isn’t the main subject but teacher should interrupt culture in the content. There are many methods for teaching culture that are lecture, demonstration, small group discussion, role play. Students can also learn culture outside the classroom. Teacher can teach culture thought songs and dances, pictures, films, and native speakers. It depends on teacher to design the lesson.

            Third, pronunciation teaching. A goal of pronunciation teaching is speaking like a native speaker. A more practical approach is to aim for listener-friends pronunciation. Teachers need a good grounding in theoretical knowledge, practical classroom skills, and access to good ideas for classroom activities. There are 4 teaching steps for teachers to teach. It starts from warmer, listen, focus, and pronunciation practice. Some teachers divides the activities in pronunciation teaching into 5 steps, there are pronunciation, phonetics, speak divides the activities in pronunciation teaching into 5 steps, there are pronunciation, phonetics, speak out, listen, and linking and accent.

            Fourth, teaching English using ICT or web based learning. Students can learn and practice their language through ICT. Students are centre for teaching. Using ICT in the class, it doesn’t easy for teacher. So, before teacher teaches them, teacher should assign the rules for learning. Teacher should choose the content that they are interest. ICT help students both inside and outside the classroom. They can use ICT in anytime, anywhere, and anyone.

            Fifth, communicative language teaching or CLT. This method is based partly in the theories of British functional linguists. Theory of language is used for carrying out meaningful tasks promote learning language that is meaningful to the students promote learning. Teacher facilitates the communication in the classroom like an advisor. Students are communicator. They can use mother tongue. Teacher should have a variety of activities like scrambled sentences, language games, story role play. Communicative uses almost any activity that engaged students in authentic communication.

            After that, teachers conclude all English teaching approaches that we already have presented. He told us how curriculum through teaching. He told the goal of this course is we can design addition course.

            Course design isn’t difficult for us if we understand all English teaching approach that we presented. When we design course, we should choose the topic that support the name’ course. So, we should know about world knowledge because it helps us to design our courses.

 Listening skill

A Blog Where Foreign Students Can Get Answers

            International students have a lot of questions about studying in the United States. The number one question is about financial aid and scholarships. Money is everyone's biggest concern. 
          Jess asked question is about language skills. People want to know how to improve their English. Of course, one way many students improve their English is with Special English, like this program. But we like the Student Union's Glossary of Confusing Words used in education. Readers can send in suggestions. One newly added word is "catalog." 
          Bloggers is way for students share their experiences studying in the United States -- for example, how they feel when they face cultural stereotypes. From Zimbabwe was surprised to learn that Facebook is available. Jess says the Student Union and its Facebook page get a lot of comments. She hears from a lot of students from many countries. 

           International students can ask and answer the question by using social network like blog and Facebook. It is easy way to talk or comment. In Thai, students can do like this, they can discuss or show opinion about question that teachers give. It helps them to practice their thinking and writing.

Vocabulary	Pronunciation	Meaning		Sentence
		Thai	English
suppose < v.>	/ səˈpəʊz /	คิดว่าบางสิ่งอาจจะเกิดขึ้น	to think or believe that sth is true or possible (based on the knowledge that you have)	Getting a visa isn't as simple as you might suppose.
expert < n.>	/ ˈekspɜːt /	ผู้เชี่ยวชาญ	a person with special knowledge, skill or training in sth	He's an expert at getting his own way.
complicated < adj.>	/ˈkɒmplɪkeɪtɪd /	รู้สึกยากต่อความเข้าใจ	made of many different things or parts that are connected; difficult to understand	The story is extremely complicated.
prospective < adj.>	/ prəˈspektɪv /	น่าจะเกิดขึ้น	expected to happen soon	They are worried about prospective changes in the law.
stereotypes <n.>	/ ˈsteriətaɪp /	ความคิดที่ฝังใจ	a fixed idea or image that many people have of a particular type of person or thing, but which is often not true in reality	He doesn't conform to the usual stereotype of the businessman with a dark suit and briefcase.

http://voaspecialenglish.blogspot.com/2012/06/blog-where-foreign-students-can-get.html