TESL 0110 UNIT 4 AHA!

A guide to teaching age groups - Task based Lesson Plans

Many of the techniques and approaches mentioned in Unit 4 here apply to all levels of learners. But no matter at what age group, we need to promote learning through fun, and accommodate different learning styles in our lesson plans. Teachers often express concern about the gap between the language their students are taught and the language they need to participate in real communication outside of the classroom. If you want to teach in a foreign country, are probably many students who do not encounter real-world instances where they can apply what they have learned. What I learned in this unit that really interested me is the task-based lesson plan. Not only does it incorporate fun activities, but students learn by communicate with their peers on several common topics, solving problems, or tasks. It really provides a lot of interaction and practice for the students while the teacher is available to provide feedback and consultation, but do not correct errors while students are working on the activity. This type of lesson plan is a plan that I would include in my future teaching especially since I plan to teach overseas in an foreign country and it would really benefit my students.

TESL 0110 UNIT 2 - AHA!

Aha! Moment
The video provided in Unit 2 "Teaching Grammar in Today's Classroom" by Azar was really interesting and gave a lot of insight. My "Aha" moment came when Azar specifically spoke about the goal of grammar which is to NOT to know a lot of grammar, but to"Create an interlanguage that is increasingly fluency and accuracy in the use of English structures in meaningful communication." She provided an example of a student who wrote:

"I want to know a lot of grammers but is my problem I havn't enough vocabularies." and another:

“[I]f the court sent a kid in adult prisons will get worse not better, or this, I think the society or the court need to build a new jail for the juveniles that have doing crimes and the court should treat them as adults but only in court."

The second quote is written by a student who has graduated and enrolled in college. Quite shocking! Before this, I also placed heavy emphasis on grammar but after some of these examples, it is true that the goal not to master a language. I now think fluency and accuracy are very important in order to get your message across. For example, it is not important to use complex words in a sentence but to use simple words in the correct pattern. I also find that many people nowadays have more problems with fluency and accuracy than before because we live in a modern world and T.v, social media, etc where the majority of them can understand a language and speak well but have troubles when it comes to writing. When learning a second language, accuracy and fluency are two key components of language acquisition!

TESL 0110 Unit 2 - Grammar Activity

How well do you know your pluperfect tense? Try this short activity!

TESL 0110 Grammar Activity – PAST PERFECT TENSES EXERCISES (PLUPERFECT)

Presentation style: Deductive

Activity time: 15-20minutes

The past perfect (Pluperfect) tense is used to talk about actions that were completed before another action some point in the past. When do you use past perfect tense vs. simple past? When you’re talking about some point in the past and want to reference to an event even before that event happened. Past perfect is used to demonstrate the sequence of events that has happened. Review the examples below:

The past perfect tense describes an action that happened before another past action.
⇒ My father had finished mowing the lawn when I arrived home from school.
⇒ My phone didn’t turn on because I had forgotten to charge it.
VS.
The simple past describes an action that took place in the past.
⇒ I changed my car tires yesterday.
⇒ It snowed heavily last week.

PART I: Fill in the blanks with the correct pluperfect form of the verb in parentheses.
1. Bobby ________________________(ask) Anne to dance several times before she said yes.
2. Vivienne’s lamp didn’t turn on because she ________________________(forget) to change the light bulb.
3. Margareta ________________________(leave) the party when Chelsea arrived.
4. A student didn’t complete his worksheet because he ________________________ (read) the instructions.
5. Why didn’t you come watch the movie with us? _______________ you _______________(see) the movie before?
6. My neighbor couldn’t find his dog’s toy because his dog ________________________(dig) a hole and buried it.
7. Alice forgave her friend after she ________________________(apologize).
8. I bought a new bike after my old one ________________________(break).

PART II: Underline the pluperfect tense in each of the following sentences:
1. I had dreamt about my old friend before I woke up.
2. If she had looked in the right place, she would have found the documents.
3. Before my dog came to live with us, he had belonged to my grandparents.
4. He had not called me after he arrived home.
5. My mother had not made dinner when my father called.

TESL 0110 UNIT 1

AHA!Moment - Beautiful English
One of the purposes of teaching grammar is so that written communication is clear. When you want to talk about something, you of course want everybody to be able to understand you (intentions, directions, ideas, etc. )and to do that, you need to use good English. You may choose to speak however you'd like in immediate oral communication, but for written English, you need to acquire a high level of proper grammar and spelling. Example:

"I don't want no pudding. Because you have said you do not want no pudding."

Essentially this sentence suggests that you do want some pudding, which is the opposite of the intended meaning and notice how much harder it is to read things that are terribly written in terms of grammar. The reason for grammar is so that you can be understood clearly. Grammar and spelling are the structure of any language.


For the TESL 0110 English Needs Assessment, click the page listed on the navigation.