P-assignments

Language awareness
 
Chapter 1: P- assignment 7

 Meaning without communicability
For Blechner the essence of the dream is "meaning without communicability". Dreams "speak their own language, which is designed to be meaningful without necessarily being communicative."

Dreaming is a very interesting phenomenon. It is not something I think about everyday. I know that a person dreams every night, but I do not always remember my dreams. The dreams I do remember are mostly very weird and unrealistic.  But when I analyse the dream, I can always put the pieces together to find out what the meaning of my dream was. Blencher says that the essence of the dream is "meaning without communicability" and that dreams "speak their own language, which is designed to be meaningful without necessarily being communicative". I agree with Blencher. Dreaming is not about communicating, it is about processing experiences and emotions that a person undergoes every day.  In daytime people use inner speech to do this, and when we sleep inner speech is the director of our dreams.


Chapter 1: P- assignment 8

Language awareness
Building language awareness in ESL classes is necessary to motivate pupils into learning a second language. Pupils will become more active and more responsible for their own learning if they are learning more about the language in general. It is important to make pupils aware of their mother tongue in order to understand the differences between their mother tongue and the second language. Not only according to grammar and pronunciation but also in the way certain words and expressions are used in the second language to avoid using the language in a dis appropriate way. 

The goal of an ESL class is to learn pupils a second language which they can use for communication. Language awareness will give tools to a pupil to express themselves, even in situations which they have not been "trained" for in class. It prevents pupils to use false cognates when they are learning new words which are similar to words in their mother tongue and to learn how to be "appropriate" in the use of the second language.

As a teacher it is my responsibility to create this need to learn a second language, by using different kind of strategies in my classes to create language awareness. I think language awareness makes the difference between learning a language and acquiring a language.  


Chapter 2: P assignment 9

Methods 
Grammar Translation Method
The Grammar Translation Method is an old method which was originally used to teach dead languages Latin and Greek. Latin and Greek are languages which are not used for communication but merely for translating texts form bibles and old books.  This is the reason why the focus of the Grammar Translation Method is on the written form. This method teaches about the language, not teaching the language, this is why the lessons are in the mother tongue. The pupil has no active role and is learning about grammar rules and their application in translating passages from one language to another.

Audio-Lingual Method
The Audio-Lingual Method has pupils listen to or view recordings of language models acting in situations.
Pupils practise with a variety of drills, and the teacher emphasizes the use of the target language at all times.
The Audio-Lingual Method was used by the United  States Army for "crash" instruction in foreign languages during World War II. Therefore this method is also referred to as the Army Method.
The audio Lingual Method is all about drilling pupils in the use of grammar sentence patterns. The focus is on speaking and listening.


Communicative Method
In the Communicative Method the focus is on speaking. The language is seen as a medium of communication. Communication has a social purpose, the pupil has to learn how to use to language in all
circumstances. The use the language for communication is more important than grammar and phonetics.
Using the language is just as important as learning the language.
 

Receptive Method
In the Receptive Method pupils start with reading and writing. The pupils do not need to produce language to do this, they receive the language and understand it.  During this period of reception, the pupils get prepared for speaking.

Silent way Method 
In this method the teacher should be as silent as possible in the classroom in order to encourage the pupils ti produce as much language as possible. The three most important aspects of this method is that learning has to occur through discovering rather then remembering or repeating.