ACTIVITIES AND RESOURCES

RESOURCES BY VIVIANA ANDREA OSPINA

CONTEXTUALIZATION

English learning and communication in the second language are the main goals in a bilingual environment, therefore in the Guillermo Ponce School in Tulua, the bilingual project was implemented to help the students increase their knowledge and be an active part of an everyday global society, for this reason the project began in pre-school through sixth grade because is a school that is in the process of implementing high school level, all the students have 10 hours of English per week, the classes include activities that target the different language abilities, speaking, reading, listening, and writing, allowing them to have enough exposure to the target language. English learning in this context goes hand on hand with technology and ludic thus creating a friendly approach to the learning process.

ACADEMIC NEEDS

Young learners need a  teacher that implements different methods because he or she needs to take into account the needs of the students as well as the way they learn, therefore when implementing them it is easier to assure that more students are able to learn the target language. The methodology applied by a teacher is of great importance to obtain good results, also because in doing so, the classes change and the teacher is able to keep the students engaged and motivated, it is widely thought that English is taught best at the early stage, also it  is a common belief that the earlier children learn English, and the more exposure to the language, the better it will be, this is just one component, in reality there are many factors that determine the way young learners learn a second language, when teaching youngsters the teacher needs to consider the nature of language instruction given, psychological and social factors, teaching materials, individual differences in cognitive and learning styles, and many other factors.

So when implementing technology as a supporting tool to achieve the language goal, it is important to have collaboration from the parents to aid the learning process, this is why every additional reinforcing material used in the language class includes the parents as a facilitator for the young learner, in this case in particular the use of internet to reinforce vocabulary given in class.

  

PROPOSED TOOL

The use of a blog, that is kid-friendly and parent guided is an excellent way to promote fun family learning time, and at the same time allows the young learner to review the target vocabulary given in class, for this reason a class blog can be an excellent tool to help in the learning process because children are very visual and technology oriented, therefore the class and reinforcement activities should be oriented to stimulate the way they learn, and feed their need to discover new ways to learn.

LINK:

http://funtoysgames.blogspot.com.co/

PRACTICE ACTIVITY:

EDUCAPLAY 

https://en.educaplay.com/en/learningresources/2728794/fun_and_games.htm


RESOURCES BY LAURA QUESADA

INTRODUCTION

In recent years, the english pronunciation has been a crucial factor, in the second language adquisition, because it, becomes increasingly essential, the properly teacher’s communication skills,in order the students can easily communicate  with native speakers withouth any inability or impediment.

In this work I will analize how the right english pronunciation has become a need in my context, and the use of an academic tool where students will learn new methods to improve their english pronunciation.

  

CONTEXTUALIZATION OF THE ENGLISH LEARNING NEED

In my context, there are a lot of people with excellent knowledges in 2L, but still there are some mistakes with the pronunciation, in the link of the web 2.0 there are a prezzi presentation, where there are some ways to improve english pronunciation and also some games and an exercise  which could be used in class with this aim.

LINK OF THE ACADEMIC TOOL:

https://prezi.com/wzmfecvgq0xq/english-pronunciation/

EDUCAPLAY PRACTICE ACTIVITY:
https://www.educaplay.com/es/recursoseducativos/2730785/html5/better_pronunciation.htm

RESOURCES AND ACTIVITIES BY YAMILE CALVACHE RUIZ

INTRODUCTION

This document presents the context of a group of students in Cali, their educational needs in language learning and a special strategy based on the use of technology to improve the language average.

CONTEXTUALIZATION

Learning English as a foreign language is easy if the teacher presents the information, methodology, strategies and goals clearly. Students are able to participate positively if they feel involved in the process. Never the less, student’s personal, emotional or even academical issues are common and they affect learning.

In this case, we are going to work with a population of students in Cali, the school is a private school and is in the process of becoming 100% bilingual. It’s a group of 300 students from preschool to high school and they are facing the challenge of demanding parents, changing school’s processes, good grades and the rest involved in education, such as behavior, learning issues, attitude etc.

ACADEMIC NEED

Some schools in Colombia still try to teach languages through grammar rules, that’s all it matters, and in that process, students are being promoted to a higher level without the appropriate development of the language basic skills. When the school’s academic council approved the bilingual proposal, they choose intensive English classes in their schedule plus topics as science and social to improve the language average, however, many students are still affected with that decision because they aren’t able to recognize basic communication commands, so now, the school is organizing extra classes to fill the blanks in specific topics of language knowledge. 

At the beginning of the year, teachers were making a test to know the average of each student per skill and the results were worrying.

GRADE	LISTENING	SPEAKING	READING	WRITING
1º	3.0	4.4	4.5	3.4
2º	2.6	4.6	4.7	3.2
3º	2.4	1.6	1.8	1.3
4º	1.9	1.6	2.4	2.6
5º	2.5	2.0	2.3	2.0
6º	NA	NA	NA	NA
7º	3.1	3.1	3.6	3.6
8º	3.4	3.3	3.4	3.2
9º	3.2	3.2	3.3	3.3
10º	3.5	3.5	3.6	3.6
11º	3.8	3.8	3.8	3.8

Table 1 - Grade Average – Score 1.0 to 5.0

Taking into account that the tests were not international tests - it was just a grade standard test made by the teacher - it turned into a huge concern.

So now, is a need to take each student and prepare him or her to pass the international tests (Common European Framework A1 – A2, B1 – B2,) but is necessary doing it in class, with no extra time and with the school year running normally.

PROPOSED TOOL

In order to help students to improve English language skills it was designed a blog and an email. These tools are working as a strategy to complement everyday classes and basic vocabulary failure, is used once a week in the school but is available for the students at home to practice in a ludic way.

Each time that the teacher sees a language weakness, the information, the games and the online tests are added to the blog. The students participate by proposing links according to the topic and for now is working just for 3º, 4º and 5º grade to evaluate the results.

This strategy is helping in language, but also in technology  skills – because students only use technology for entertainment – promote cooperative learning and increases motivation for English learning that was really low.

Link

http://teacheryamilecali.blogspot.com.co/