Authenticity is the key for a successful language classroom!!!

    As English teachers all what we do in class whether in Comprehension, Grammar, Vocabulary or writing; aims for leading our students towards fluency and accuracy in producing the English language orally and in its written form. The best way to do this is through applying authentic activities and presenting authentic situations where the students can really use what they are learning.

 
    For example, when teaching Vocabulary or Grammar it will be beneficial to introduce them through corpus, pragmatics and discourse analysis. Corpus is a wide dictionary where all the English words and grammatical structures are listed so that people can benefit from it and see how and when and in which situation the words they aim to see is used. Pragmatics deals with language in use and the contexts in which it is used including the taking of turns in ta conversation. And discourse analysis deals with how meaning of words and structures change in conversations form country to another.

      In this way, students will discover the new things the teacher is presenting through real life situations that reveal how a specific word or grammatical structure is used in different situations.
How meaning of structures and words change in conversations with respect to where the conversation is taking place and who are the participants in it.

   These aspects give teachers in classrooms tremendous and huge numbers of endless resources that they can easily get access to. Such materials will also trigger the students' interests and encourage them to participate more during the courses. 

 

The power of story!

     As teachers, we all know the power that stories have in our classrooms and on our students. This power can increase and accomplish a huge success, when the teacher knows how t use it. Today I would like to share with you what I have acquired from an article I passed by through facebook. It talks about  things that kids gain from stories.

   1- Roots:
       Through stories we have our students keep their family identity and appreciate it for a quite long time and maybe forever. Stories help us do that through the narratives that lie within which connect the students with their family members at different stages of their lives.

2- Grit:
     Stories that talk about challenges that are often faced by families in real life, help students decrease the effect of stress and develop resilience. Such stories will help students believe that they can overcome such situations just like the characters in the stories did.

3- A glimpse of the soul:
    Tell students stories that carry down deep our inner thoughts, what we care about... Such stories will give our students a chance to really hear us and understand our behaviors and actions in certain situation inside and outside the classroom.

4- Practice developing a gift_ the art of listening:
     Here we're talking about the ability to listen to understand instead of listening to respond. After sharing our stories, we should seek to have our students talk about it, share their ideas; maybe assign a specific day were they get to dress like their favorite character, act like them and talk out loud in front of their classmates what they like about the story and the character they are presenting and maybe how they can help their character be a better person or say how he/ she should've acted in a certain situation..

5- The ability to command attention:
     In the stories we present to our students, we should always search deep in the details of each chapter or episode for signs and things that would grab our students attention and interests.

https://ericalayne.co/what-children-gain-when-you-open-up/

Using CLIL with low levels!!!

        CLIL is an abbreviation for content and language integrated learning. It is the most recent and popular approach where schools all over the world are trying to apply. It is an approach for learning content through an additional language, thus teaching both the subject and the language. The public schools in Lebanon, have been applying CLIL starting from grade six; however this year, it has been decided to start using CLIL with lower levels.
 
     As for students who learned in private schools, CLIL as a concept is not new for us. Mostly all of us has learned the other basic subjects like math and science in English. Talking from my own perspective and based on my experience, I believe learning in the shadow of  this approach was not hard at all and of course this is due to several factors. First of all, we all come from a literate background were we have been introduced to English in our homes, through watching TV or listening to and reading stories.... And through the first years in the kindergarten, all what we have been introduced to is the target language in order to be able to get used to it, understand it and be able to use it in class conversations from K3 and G1. All these factors and few others held our hands to learn through the CLIL approach and succeed in our education; though our schools didn't apply the all the aspects that go under the CLIL approach.

    In my humble opinion, I believe that the Lebanese Ministry of Education made a mistake or if one can say, it took an unwise decision in trying to apply the CLIL approach from G1 in public schools. It is not a secret that most of the students who learn in in the public schools in Lebanon come from poor families which has little education and no introduction to the target language before. I believe that the students are being forced into an unfair situation were they have to learn all the subjects in a language in which they know nothing about and the funny thing that they are expected to do well and succeed. How such thing is expected I don't know; do you??

Literacy and language development:The five aspects of language knowledge

       In this post, I would like to share with you the experience and information I gained from the literacy and language development course that I took lat spring and specifically when I observed a story telling time of the “Cuddly Cat” in KG3; in the National Evangelical School of Kab Elias.  

      The heart of this course was to emphasize on language as the base of the society and culture. It modeled language like an umbrella covering under it several aspects; the perceptions, communications, and daily interactions of a society. So to be effective members in the society and function in it successfully, children need to develop a wide range of language competencies in order to use oral and written language correctly in a variety of social events in their daily life. When young children acquire language, they develop in an interrelated, receptive manner five different aspects of language knowledge; phonetic, semantic, syntactic, morphemic, and pragmatic.Teachers of young children have to be aware of the fact the children will needs a wide range of communication competencies, which involve receptive language and expressive language, to be active and effective members in the society throughout their lives.

     Through listening to the “Cuddly Cat”, children have been exposed to the five different aspects of knowledge; phonetic knowledge, semantic knowledge, syntactic knowledge, morphemic knowledge and pragmatic knowledge. Phonetic knowledge refers to the knowledge about the relation between the sound and symbol in a language. Semantic knowledge refers to the word labels that specify concepts and schemata that represent the interrelation between concepts. Syntactic knowledge is related to the ability of combing words to create meaningful expressions. Morphemic knowledge refers to knowledge of word structure. This part is interrelated with the syntactic knowledge since children know that some words have related meanings, yet they are used in different ways. Pragmatic knowledge involves the knowledge or awareness of the overall intent of the communication and how language is used to achieve that intent or purpose and it is the awareness of how to participate in a conversation.

     Throughout this little time that I’ve spent in observing KG3, I was astonished by how wide the knowledge of such young children is; concerning language, and how a 10 to 15-minute story telling can add and build to the repertoire of their language regarding the five different aspects of language. The knowledge of these five aspects of language can be categorized into three levels: the linguistic level which is known by the “know-how” level, that is being able to use language in communicative contexts; the meta linguistic level, is when the children are aware of the five aspects of language knowledge; and the meta linguistic verbalization, is when the children can verbally respond to questions about specific language features.Those children were in the linguistic level and the meta linguistic level. 

    Teachers should be aware of these levels in order to determine the developmental appropriateness is language-related tasks in early childhood classrooms. Teachers need to be aware of involving the levels in which their children are passing through in every lesson and activity that is going to take place inside the classroom walls or even in the playground. This awareness will lead children to be successful social, active participants in their society.

The five C's of foreign language education

   

    The purposes and uses of foreign languages are as diverse as the students who study them. For us as Lebanese people, foreign languages are our key for being open to the modern world that we are surrounded by. It is our gate for guaranteeing success in our future life and careers. In the modern countries such as the United States of America, France, ...etc; foreign languages are studied for the people's interest  in the intellectual challenges and cognitive benefits that accrue to those who master multiple languages. Still others seek a greater understanding of other people and cultures.
     Regardless of the reason of study, foreign languages have something to offer everyone. It is with this philosophy in mind that  the standards task force identified five goal areas that encompass all of the reasons which are called the five C's of for

1. Communication
2. Cultures
3. Connections
4. Comparisons
5. Communities

     There are a lot of activities we can use in our classrooms in order to create  interest towards the target language by using authentic cultural content. The key point is that we should create a relaxing environment where our students can discuss their own culture together with the target culture in meaningful and communicative tasks and activities. This will ensure that students are doing something with a purpose in the mind. 

Attending a webinar: Apps Every Teacher Ne eds NOW!

      This webinar was presented by Shannon Holden, who examines the apps that are the “Best of the Best” in 2018 and will help elementary through high school educators benefit from. Through this webinar Shannon Holden went through the following points:

1. The fact that we are present in the "Golden Area" of educational apps.
2. List of the apps that each teacher needs.
3. How to implement such apps in the classroom.
4. When presented with several apps, how to choose which one to use.
5. The educational apps that no longer exist.

     The apps are:

A- Formative assessment: since students enjoy competitive online platforms, teachers can assign students to perform a quiz through: here is three apps to use:

1-  "Kahoot" which is good, fun and free but students may not use their real names. When teacher make the quiz she invites students to play by entering a pin. Teacher can adjust the amount of time needed for each question. Teacher can take a corrective action.

2-  " Qiuzlet Live" is excellent to see the students strengths and gaps. It is great for team work assessment. It stresses accuracy over speed. 

3-  " Qiuzizz"  It is free. Teacher can make his own quiz or choose from the samples provided. Tt keeps track on the students scores to help teachers perform the suitable action for the students benefit.

B- Waklet: It is free and simple. It saves content from the internet. and make collections. It is like a digital portfolio, where the teacher can save all the useful information she might find beneficial for the students at different periods through out the year and come find the information needed at any time.

C- Flipgrid: It is free. Teacher is in complete control of the grid, students can make recordings up to 5 minutes long. It allows connectivity with teachers and students and all over the world through the hashtag: GridPals. 

D- Duolingo: It's free and is for people who want to learn new languages. It contains 30 languages to teach with short lessons, completions.It contains pictures of nouns and no conjunction verbs.

E- IXL:  It provides instructions in reading, writing, and mathematics. It contains thousands of questions for different grade levels. It is based on national standards. It allows data tracking for teachers. It provides certificates and awards for students when they finish their work and it explains for the student why he got the answer wrong if he does.

F- Photo Math: It is free. Students take a photo of a math problem and it shows how to solve it step by step.

 RIP- Recap and Google+: 

Personal Reflection:

   Technology in the educational arena is moving at warp speed, it is almost impossible for teachers to keep up with all the innovations in the app world. In order to stay connected, teachers should be updated through all the tools provided around them in order to grab and use these golden ways for the benefit of their students and for their self development as a teachers. All the previous points made this webinar a catch for me in  which I enjoyed every minute. Indeed it is very interesting, enlightening and essential for every teacher.

Teaching English as a Third language

    Almost in all the schools in Lebanon, there are two basic languages by which the subjects are presented to the students. Where we have Arabic and English as main languages, we also have French as a minor one; and where we have Arabic and French being taught as the main languages, we have the French language presented as the minor one. My 8 years of experience as an English teacher occurred in teaching English as a minor one. I could say that these eight years were successful and full of fruitful results in the part of my students. I worked hard to simplify the English language and to present it in a fun way full of authentic situations, where students can clearly view the desperate need of the English language in these days. On the other hand, these eight years, somehow, set me into a long deep nap in relation to being updated to everything which is new to the teaching of English  language.
     Nowadays all teachers no matter what subjects or languages they are teaching, should always be updated and stay alerted to every update and improvement that occurs in the education field. From year to year, the world is changing all around and changing in turn the way people think and view things. Such changes highly affects our educational views and methods which are used in our classrooms. Through my eight years of teaching, this is the part that I missed and glad to gain it back when i returned to the university to finish my masters degree. The conclusion that I ended with and I know that a big majority of the teachers out there agree with me is that; a good teacher is a result and combination of good education, great time of experience and a continuous never stop update.