Explain how you see the Spanish-English interlanguage issues in the students’ oral production, and determine how it takes part in your activities to assess speaking. Watch the following video to see how interlanguage (understanding messages from language to language) can work.
One of the interlanguage issues in the student’s oral production is the way that teacher usually apply different speaking activities, because most of the time teacher provides inadequate exercises to develop this skill. At the same time teachers do not consider the student´s English level, so teachers provide long and difficult exercises for them. In the video we can see two kind of exercises so difficult for beginners level.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand Stephan (Teacher) tried to explain that we have to choose the correct activity for a specific level and we can apply this in different classes taking into account different categories for developing oral production. (imitative, extensive, responsive etc.). in the same way we have to consider these categories to get success assessment outcomes.
When doing wrong activities in order to assess speaking we must be caferul with the activities we choose because As Krashen showed in the video the first activity didn’t give the students any information (comprehensible input) but in the second exercise he did everything in order for them to understand what he was trying to tell or teach them. Also things that we don’t take into account as things we assumed students should understand right away.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, Spanish has something that occurs when a speaker tries to ask or say something in a different language especially in English and it is that we as Spanish speakers say ¨hablo español¨ in English we will leave out the subject of the sentence because the verb gives us the person but in English we need to write or name the subject ¨I speak Spanish¨. As Stephen Krashen gives the main importance of sending comprehensible input we must take into account that some ways of expressing a message in one culture It could be totally the opposite in another culture so besides giving the grammar and the structures to our students that they might need. We also need to give them something about the culture of the target language and we must remember the universal grammar that each person has.
I usually try to do every trick in the book in order for them to understand what I am saying and what I want them to say but usually things don´t come out the way I like and maybe it is because of the lack of sending messages students can understand. On the other hand, I try to give to guide them through experiences of socio-cultural in which they can have an experience with the native language like bringing a funny video, a person o just by helping them to make a phone call to a foreign person in order to improve and avoid fear of speaking in a different language.
The Natural Approach to language acquisition, proposed that students learn their second language much in the same way that they learn their first. In this way, students must be exposed to the target language with real situations. This is one of the issues that interlanguage has when students try to express their selves in the L2. When they feel comfortable with the different topics and they see their own lives represented in a conversation, they can express themselves in a natural and probably easier way. On the other hand, teachers must be prepared and use different strategies to make students understand the different things in the new language, as it is shown in the video. If the teacher is resourceful and he comes up with different plans to make his ideas clear, students would increase their comprehension and learning of L2. In my personal experience and taking into account the philosophy the institution where I work has, my students and me are not allowed to use Spanish in the class. I have to create different resources to make them understand everything that I am saying and the assessment process involves that they have to avoid Spanish. I always use TPR to represent different activities and actions and I encourage my students to follow this process and recreate the vocabulary in different ways.
ReplyDeleteMe as teacher, I think that interlanguage issue in my students is the answer of the natural way that they think and learn. The most of the time, beginner’s learners are thinking in Spanish (our native language) even if they are speaking in English. That is why, sometimes they mix both languages (Spanish- English) in oral productions, but me as teacher I would take advantage of those "problems" and when they are doing those mistakes, I can correct them instantly, but not telling them to stop talking, on the contrary, while they are talking, I can help them to realize which mistakes they are doing. And how can I give them the confidence to keep talking comfortably? I have to give them real situations, talking about facts and trying to correct them in an indirect way, so they will feel confident of themselves.
ReplyDeleteFinally, we should find many techniques to make students understand easier about what the teacher is speaking, for example, we can use body language (TPR) to transmit the main ideas of our speaking, also with help of pictures, videos, even toys; the idea is to improve our strategies when we are teaching. In my case for assessing speaking, I try to do it during the process and with real experiences; they just have to talk about their real life so I can see their weaknesses and correct them just in that moment.
Watching the video posted in the blog where Krashen talks about the importance of the understanding of messages in the acquisition of any language, it makes me think I have to improve many things when it comes to speaking. As Krashen states, the natural way to learn a new language is not using Fill in the gaps activities or memorizing a list of words and that is a mistake I often do when teaching speaking skills.
ReplyDeleteKrashen says that we learn when we understand a message. However, when you are an in service teacher dealing with forty students, talking in English all the time is challenging. You don’t know how to do it, so you start designing activities which help you to keep your students busy instead of help them develop their speaking abilities. In my opinion, one of the most relevant issues in understanding messages from language to language (interlanguage) is the fact that we are not aware of the language use in the classroom; we try to teach English in an unnatural way through Spanish. I speak in Spanish all the time, give students limited periods of time to speak in the target language and teaches grammar as a priority. Even though, I insist on asserting that “I teach them and they don’t learn!”
even if students mix languages and create an interlanguage the most important element is that they are communicating and making themselves understood.
ReplyDeleteIf they are being understood using gestures or interlanguage then we as teachers can correct mistakes later on, i wouldn't call it correcting mistakes but giving them techniques to improve their communicative skills.
When speaking the teacher has to give students good models and examples on how to pronounce and how to use daily expressions and even idioms.
Fluency and coherence are also key factors to keep in mind. In this case i would say that assesing speaking deals with reducing the level of coomunicative noise during a conversation
When students are learning English the main purpose is to communicate simple ideas in that language in order to be understood. At the beginning my students translate what they want to say in English and they say it, but after some weeks of work they must understand that there are some words or expressions in English that we cannot translate them and that is the hardest part because as teacher I cannot always assess the process of translation in order to produce oral language.
ReplyDeleteSo, in order to assess my students in terms of oral production, I choose first the topic related to their interests or previous knowledge about the foreign language, then I design what type of assessment it’s the most appropriate and finally the rubric. It does not matter if the students do not achieve the goals because it’s a process in which they are involved and they are learning and off course that they make relationships in Spanish to English in order to produce language; at first it is remarkable, but with the time they will not use the mother tongue with the objective to produce oral language in a foreign language.
Speaking is really important for developing a new language, for that reason, teachers should be carefully in order that students could understand and comprehend the message; so it is necessary to use an appropriate vocabulary and speed if you want that your students understand, it means trying to speak slowly. In addition, TPR (body language) is an excellent tool, because it helps you as a teacher that students understand the message clear and flashcards or a simple drawing also help you in the classroom. Moreover, it is important that you give them situations related to their real context, in order that, they can express themselves easily and they will feel comfortable about it; it does not matter if they speak using structures similar to Spanish rather than English because during the process, they will develop the language and teachers are the one that help students to correct this kind of weaknesses. Even though, sometimes is quite difficult to develop and assess this skill, if teachers apply good strategies and prove students that there are different ways to express themselves and it is not the translation the only one, students will improve the vocabulary and will be interesting on improving their speaking.
ReplyDeleteTaking into account the video where Krashen talks about understanding messages and the reading about assessing speaking, I realized that in my classes I am not favoring the development of this important skill. Every time I am teaching, I focused on teaching my students vocabulary and language patterns instead of giving them the chance to communicate and express in a natural way.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, when I try to speak in English all the time I feel my students do not understand, so I start explaining in Spanish. That is another mistake I do, because if the students know I am going to say everything in Spanish, they are not going to feel the necessity of paying attention and trying to get things in English.
In consequence, the challenge from now on is to encourage my students to speak and to comprehend messages in English. Although they have to preserve some features of the first language to communicate in the target language (interlanguage), I need to value their efforts because they are just approximating to English and they are not fully proficient yet, so as a teacher I should correct students’ mistakes in an appropriate way without broking the communication. Another challenge would be to try to be more demonstrative and to find new ways for students to understand what I am saying (such as TPR), instead of translating.
When teaching our students how to speak we as teachers often forget that we once sat where they are right now, also forget the process we underwent to learn how to pronounce accurately in English; and the whole purpose of the pronunciation drill is to aim at the improvement of the intelligibility of the students, therefore we as teacher have got to make sure that the topics that are to be held along with the students are topics they have a notion of, and that the information (comprehensible input) is understood by them. Also we have to remember as it was shown in the video that the only way to learn is through the understanding of the messages, when the locutor – receptor and vice versa do everything possible to have their messages understood. As well as the implementation of the Total Physical Response (TPR) when teaching speaking to accentuate the objects we are referring to.
ReplyDeleteJorge Luis Mejía
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