more about the activities of each method

Hello everybody!!! 

Today`s activities were very nice. I liked to see Quike as our teacher. He is very creative and I like the way he applied his method. I think that is the way in which our teachers have been teaching us since we began our studies at the university. I think Quique`s method is very useful with beginners because it is mostly about repeating and reapiting. That`s why I think that advanced learners would get bored with repetition activities.  Of course we all know that there are some other activities in this method which are useful for the other levels.

I guess that I`d apply it in my classes if I taught to beginners.

Jonathan`s activity was kind of different. I really wouldn`t apply this type of activities with my students because I think that when people is being recorded they feel uncomfortable, and they don`t behave naturally, so that they don`t learn as they should.

But that was funny to listen to my classmates`  recordings, and that was awful to listen to myself. I sound weird, and I didn`t know! 

Luis did very well. I enjoyed reading the funny job application, and I liked to fill my own application. That was nice.

About Xavier activities... what can I say???

uhmmm I liked the activities that he developed even though I didn`t like the topic at all. (Sorry Xavy) ...Unfortunately the rain was a big problem because we couldn`t hear what he said. At the end I was like "guessing". Nevertheless I like the activities because they were like the activities that we are acostumed to.

I would apply Xavier`s method  in my classes if I worked with advanced students.

Thanks everybody for sharing you creativity with me.

Sencond Activities Presentations

Well, these acivities have been great!
I think that my classmates have been doing well and I think they have enjoyed it as well as we have.

I really like when all of us colaborate with our classmates.
Henry`s activities were a little bit difficult, and the topic was kind of weird. I would`ve preferred to study something a funnier, but anyway, everybody has different tastes. What I enjoyed of Henry`s activities was listening to my classmates` stories.

About Rose`s activities I think that they were very funny I felt as if I were in Kindergarten and I learn how to use the TPR METHOD. I think this is very usefull and relaxing. Students don`t get bored, so that they learn better.


Anita`s activities were very nice because she had a lot of material to develop her activities, and I liked the pictures she showed. Besides I enjoyed coloring the marvin the marcian's drawing.

Lili`s activities were my favorites ones because I love role-plays and it was interesting to work with teacher Aida and Xavier to develop that activity.

I think that all my classmates are very creative and they are giving their best. I am glad because this saubject is not boring and I am learning a lot. I hope to be a good teacher!

About the activities of some methods

Today`s class was so interesting and funny! I loved the way my classmates developed their activities. I really liked Claudia`s musical instruments and I wanted to steal the guitar jajjaja... just kidding!

Seriously, I enjoyed all the activities, and I learn a lot about the methods. Now that I have seen my classmates developing each method I have a clearer idea about those methods. Iwould have liked to participe in Claudia`s activities, unfortunately I had that awful and unexpected problem with my activity; but anyway, things happen like that!

What I can say about my presentation is that at the beginning I felt very very nervous. I was so much different than having a normal presentation because it was as if I were a teacher already, and I just couldn`t assimilate it! I felt as if my vocabulary disappeared from my mind, and I had nothing to say, that was my first experience in this type of things. I am sure that I will never forget this day!

At the end I felt really good, I felt relaxed and happy because my classmates (in that moment my students) colaborated a lot with me. I enjoyed to see them involved in my activities; I really appreciate it. Finally I felt proud of myself even though I know that I didn`t do it as well as I should have done it, but I`m sure that I will improve it next time!

About my classmates I have to say that they did it very nice! Congratulations to all of them. I liked vanessa`s tongue twister and alex`s hands movements.  jajaja That was so funny!

Thank you teacher Aida for assigning us these type of activities!

NOTE: 

After the class some people were calling me "teacher Aida" because they say that I was trying to imitate the way she teaches. Actually that`s not true at all! I just wanted to be like an enthusiastic teacher, and teacher Aida is a good example of that. So I clarify this point to my classmates. jjajajaja And stop calling me "teacher Aida" please! She is unique and I am tooxD

God bless you classmates and teacher!!! 

CONTENT BASED INSTRUCTION (CBI)

Actually I don`t like this method at all! In my point of view it is not useful as the other methods are. I think that this method doesnt fullfill the student`s needs to learn a second language because students need to understand certain things in order to learn a foreign language, but what can they do if they don`t understand even a word of the content they are studying???

It`s important to mencion that students learn about interesting topics that they like, and that`s good, but I think that it would be better if they first learn the basis of the language and then we as teachers assign them tasks in which the content of the things they like is involved.

This method is similar to the whole method because it is based mostly on reading what students like. As I said once it might be so much difficult to the teacher to choose the topics, the activities, etc. Because we all know that students are very very different and almost all of them have different tastes. 

Nevertheless it has something good because it develop student`s analizing in every topic they study because at the end they make like a conclusion about the content they have just studied. I would apply it not in order to teach a second langage but to make student get involved with interesting topics after they have learned the foreign language!

TASK BASED

This method could be useful with people who are mature because if we do it with students who are not mature enough we are going to be in trouble. I like this method because it makes students work hard while they research, while they develop the activities that the teacher assign them. So that the student is active and he/she is creating his/her own learning.

In this method the teacher just plan the activities students will do and is like a counselor solving the doubts that students get when they are involved in the task.

In the future I hope to apply this method to make students be active in the class room as well as out the classroom. But I rather used some other methods in order to make my student`s learning effective.

COMMUNITY LANGUAGE LEARNING (CLL)

I think that this method is kind of great because it has some characteristics from some other methods. Now that I have studied the previous ones I can notice it. For example: The teacher is a counselor, learning is inductively, students decide topics, etc. As we can see all these characteristics belong to the other methods, like the whole method, the task based, etc. The only thing that I noticed kind of strange is that the teacher translates. But anyway that was part of the grammar translation method too. 

Basically this method is based in the use of the target language communicatively, that`s why I think that this method is good. It also makes emphasis in the use of technology, for example recording student`s dialogs.

Something that I like is that students learn to analize in the target language. Besides they learn like in a community as its name says. They learn from one another, that means that there is an interaction between them, as a result, they are active. This method develops almost the 4 macro-skills in students and that`s something really important for me, thinking as a student as well as a teacher. I would like to apply it!!!

third presentation about the methods

THE NATURAL APPROACH

I like this method because it foster the comunicative competente in students not gramatical pefection, however, I think that when we learn a second language we need some gramatical structures in order to speak correctly; because there are some people who speak another language, but they have a very bad grammar and it sounds as if they don`t know the language. Another point is that some people can`t understand when they speak.

Another thing that I like from this method is that make students to feel relax during the process of second languae acquisition. In this way students feel the learning process easier and it becomes more effective!

Something that I like from this method is that students are active during the class so that I would like to apply this method in my classes!

What I don`t like from this method is that students speak until they feel confotable and  sure to speak, but sometimes we as teacher cannot wait until students want to speak, so in this point this method is not good at all because we have to make them speak as much as possible. Unfortunately if we don`t force students to do it some of them will never speak.

THE ORAL APPROACH AND SITUATIONAL LANGUAGE TEACHING

I like this method because it is similar to the direct method which is the best one that I have studied up to now!

This method emphazises in the use of the target language since the beginning of the process. It is supposed that teaching skill are more developed in this method, but students also learn writting and reading after they know sufficient lexical. 

Another point that I like form this method is that it goes from the simple to the complex things. In my point of view this is the best way to learn whatever not only a second language. Besides this method emphazises in the fact that if we make mistakes and we don`t correct them since the begginning, we are going to get the bad habit of making mistakes always. That`s why we have to avoid and correct making mistakes since the beginning of the second language acquisition.

I would apply this method because the activity types are very interesting and I guess students would like them.

Second Methods Presentations

THE AUDIO – LINGUAL METHOD.

This method is very useful to teach a foreign language. It is base on the memorization and repetition of dialogues about everyday situatios; which is very important because in this way students learn how to apply their knowledge in their daily life. This is very important because the target language becomes part of themselves.

I like this method because it focus on taking the learning of the target language as a habit-formation. If we as students took our learning as a habit, we would learn better and faster because when we have a habit we cannot live without it, and this should be the way in which we learn a second language.

Another thing that I like of this method is that students learn to comunicate, it means that speaking skills are developed with this method, also students learn to respond spontaneously in the target language. 

What I don`t like of this method is that students are mostly imitators and I think that they should create what they want. I would like to use this method in my classes but I would allow my students to be creative and to produce their own dialogues about what they like. 


WHOLE LANGUAGE APPROACH

I don`t like this method at all, I have to say that there are some things that are good in this method but in my point of view I think that there are more disadvantages than advantages. The whole language approach is basically focused on learning a second language by reading and looping up the meaning of the words.

In fact, reading is good because students learn vocabulary, they learn about the topics that they like and they learn grammar stuctures by looking the way other people write their thoughts. Teachers encourage students to write what they want.

What I don`t like is that the teacher has to work a lot. He/she has to prepare activities per each student. The teacher has to ask the students what they want to read. That`s why I say that this method is not such good neither to the teacher nor to the students, because speaking skills are not developed and that`s something that should be taken into account in every method.


TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE

This is my favorite method of the ones which were explained that day of the second presentations because applying this method in a class make students have fun and make the learning process more effective.
This method is focused on the movement of the student`s bodies to internalize a second language.

I think that when the students feel confortable in a class they learn better according to my own experience. I remember that when I started learning English I used to learn more when the teacher applied this method in some classes.

Something that I like of this method is that the teacher encourage students to feel succesfull, and the teacher should be tolerant. In this way the student and the teacher can become friends and the teaching-learning process is more effective.

But this method has some disadvantages too. I would apply it, if I worked with children or with teenagers, but sometimes there are some people in the class who don`t like to have this type of activities and they feel embarrast, specially if they are adults. I would like apply it, but not in all the classes.