English teachers - training workshop

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“Developing effective and meaningful communicative tasks” Teacher-training workshop by Carlos Barragán Cristina Barón Rodrigo Molina Claudia Mosquera Tatiana Olmos Salvador Jiménez Maria Isabel Romero

description

Workshop designed for "Reflective teaching and learning in context course". Universidad de la Sabana. Master in English language teaching for self-directed learning.

Transcript of English teachers - training workshop

  • 1. Developing effective andmeaningful communicative tasks Teacher-training workshop by Carlos Barragn Cristina Barn Rodrigo Molina Claudia Mosquera Tatiana Olmos Salvador Jimnez Maria Isabel Romero
  • 2. COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES Communicative activities include any activity that encourages and requires a learner to speak with and listen to other learners, as well as with people in the program and community. Communicative activities have real purposes: Find information Break down barriers Talk about self Learn about the culture.
  • 3. Very Important! Even when a lesson is focused on developing reading or writing skills, communicative activities should be integrated into the lesson. Furthermore, research on second language acquisition (SLA) suggests that more learning takes place when students are engaged in relevant tasks within a dynamic learning environment rather than in traditional teacher-led classes (Moss & Ross-Feldman, 2003)
  • 4. TEACHER-TRAINING WORKSHOP PREPARATION1. Aspect to improve: IMPLEMENTATION OF COMMUNICATIVE TASKS.2. Target population: 25 state school teachers with average English level of A23. Possible tasks to be carried out: Taking into account that the average English level reached by this group of teachers is A2, activities for beginners would be the most suitable. Information gap, a survey or a game would fit with teachers communicative skills.4. Goal: Training teachers in the effective and meaningful implementation of communicative tasks.
  • 5. ACTIVITY PROCEDURES1. Name of the activity: GETTING TO KNOW EACHOTHER 2. Welcome and Introductions (10 minutes)Trainers introduction, coalition members, and otherimportant guests. Brief explanation of the purposeof the workshop. Ask participants to briefly introducethemselves (including the grade they teach) and tellof any experience they have had with communicativetasks/activities.
  • 6. 3. Activity introduction: (5 min.)Teachers will be told they aregoing to participate in a communicative task which is the mainaspect to talk about during the workshop.4. Activity implementation: a. Warming-up (10 min)AIMS Skills : speaking Language: giving reasons, expressing likes and dislikes Other: funLEVEL ElementaryORGANIZATION IndividualPROCEDURE Step 1: Many pictures of food are put on the table. Each student chooses two: one picture of something he likes, one of something he dislikes Step 2: each student shows the two pictures to the class and explains why he likes or dislikes them
  • 7. b. Vocabulary presentation: (10 min.)In groups of 5 people teachers will participate in a concentration game containing images of food and the word in English. These words will be used during the survey activity.c. Survey: (20 min.) AIMS -Using vocabulary previously checked in the concentration game. -Asking for information and answer questions orally -Classifying information -Producing language in context ORGANIZATION Trainees walk around the classroom PROCEDURE Step 1: Trainees complete the chart by themselves. Step 2: Trainees apply the survey to five people in the classroom. Step 3: Trainees compare their answers with others. Then, they join people with similar likes and dislikes.
  • 8. Step 4: People in the group design a shopping list with the food they need to prepare a recipe. Step 5: Students report the class what people in the group have in common and what they have different. They will also explain why they chose that recipe.Teachers will be given hand-outs with the survey and theinstructions. Instructions will also be given in oral way and theactivity will be modeled in order to check grammar, questionformation, ways to answer and instructions understanding.
  • 9. SURVEY OUR FAVORITE FOODDear trainee, in this format you will find a survey containing the vocabularyreviewed about food.1. Complete it with your own information.2. Interview at least five(5) people and take notes of their answers.3. Make groups with the two people you have similar likes and dislikes .4. Make a shopping list with the necessary ingredients to prepare a recipe.5. Report the class what people in your group have in common and the reasons for choosing the recipe.
  • 10. Suggested questions for the interview: What food in the chart do you like? What food in the chart dont you like? What food do you have in your kitchen? What food do you need in your house? What food do you eat every day? What food do you eat sometimes? What food do you never eat?
  • 11. ANALYSIS OF THE ACTIVITY PROCEDURE (25 min.)As our masters aim is to implement self-directed learning, the trainees will live the experience of being learners and they will analyze the task from that position.- How they felt- What they found difficult- What was easy- What problems they had during the activity- How effective communication was.Then, they will be encouraged to take teachers position toinfer what the procedure for a communicative task is. Ingroups of five people teachers will present their analysis.
  • 12. COMMUNICATIVE TASKS PROCEDURE (10 min.)At the end of the workshop and after trainees presentations some importantaspects will be presented and compared with their ideas and opinions duringthe analysis report. The main conclusions at the end of the workshop will be: BEFORE THE LESSON DURING THE LESSON Before the lesson the teacher must During the lesson teachers role is: think of: -Create interest. -A realistic situation. -Give planning time -Goals -Model -Motivation -Check for understanding. -Grouping -Monitor (identify mistakes and -Exchanges problems, encourage learners, change pairings when necessary) -Encourage learners to report the result of the task and draw conclusions.Tait, Steven. (2001) Ingredients for successful communicative tasks. Retrievedon April 15, 2012
  • 13. COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITY PROPOSAL (30 min.) Finally, after reflecting and analyzing the communicative task used during the workshop trainees will propose their own activity for their particular learners. Teachers will make groups of five people taking into account the level they teach in. Each group will present the suggested activities explaining the procedures they would use in order to have an effective and meaningful communicative task.Conclusions will be drawn at the end of the workshop.
  • 14. REFERENCES- Tait, Steven. (2001) Ingredients for successful communicative tasks. Retrieved on April 15, 2012- (n. g.) (n. d.) Elements of communicative activities