Let's go into the book!

In class the other day we visited a web site called Into The Book

It's a reading comprehension resource for students and teachers where they focus on eight research-based strategies.

For each strategy there were different materials you could download. We looked at some songs and posters.

The eight strategies presented are:

1. Prior knowledge: Use what you already know to help understand something new!

2. Making Connections: Make connections between different things you read!

3. Questioning: Ask questions to understand what you're reading!

4. Visualizing: Create a movie in your mind while you're reading!

5. Inferring:Use clues to figure out what it really means!

6. Summarizing: Tell what's important!

7. Evaluating: Make judgments about what you read and explain why!

8. Synthesizing: Put the pieces together to see them in a new way!

I find this really interesting! By using these strategies when reading books the students will get an extremely good understanding of the content. You actually get something out of the reading, it's not just empty words. Think of everything they will remember and understand. All the hidden meanings they will find and all the new discovering's they will make. If they constantly use these strategies they will develop an excellent study technique and that's a good advantage later in life.

This is fascinating!

"Into The Book": http://reading.ecb.org/index.html

CLIL: Content and Language Integrated Learning

Content and Language Integrated Learning is an interesting way of learning a language. The meaning of CLIL is to teach a normal subject or topic in a foreign language. By doing this the focus is on the subject/content. We watched a clip from a CLIL lesson where Social Science was taught in English. The pupils got an assignment and before they started they made a word list on the blackboard with important keywords on the topic. By doing that they all got a vocabulary helper and also different cues to use when discussing and working with the topic. They were then divided into different groups. While working in the groups they were supposed to speak in English, but if they felt they could express themselves better in Norwegian they were allowed to do so. The teacher walked around to the different groups but she never corrected their language. This was a Social Science lesson and not an English lesson, so correcting their language wouldn't be right. The pupils will develop automatically and often correct their own mistakes (Krashen's thoughts of the monitor.)

When you look at Krashen's theory you can see that CLIL expresses a lot of his thoughts about language learning.

One of Krashen's main points is that language is acquired, that it's a subconscious process. When they had a Social Science lesson in English the focus was on the subject/content and not the language. When the pupils understand the meaning, language is acquired subconsciously. They don't think of the language itself, but by using it to express themselves on a topic they develop their English without even knowing. It's important that the topic discussed is comprehensible, that the pupils have knowledge about it. Krashen calls it Comprehensible Input. The comprehensible input must be in the zone of what you can do independently and what you can reach with help from others. Then language will be acquired automatically. When the pupils were put in groups they were able to help each other.

I think CLIL is a good way of learning a language. You certainly make the different subjects more fun! I think I would have liked having for example Social Science or History taught in English and I think I would have improved my English skills by doing so.

Check out these sites!!

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/content-language-integrated-learning

http://www.onestopenglish.com/section.asp?sectionType=listsummary&catid=100294

L2 learning as the development of a complex cognitive skill

Practice, practice, practice!

New theories evolve and in comparison to Krashen's theory of language acquisition being a subconscious process, the new theories focus on the importance of PRACTICE. Learning a second language as the development of a complex cognitive skill. I looked up the word Cognition in the dictionary and got this explanation: the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience and the senses. A result of this; a perception, sensation, notion or intuition.

So in order to become more fluent in a language you have to build on already existing knowledge. To manage that we have to put our knowledge in our long-term memory. If we only save it in our short-term memory we will forget it because the short-term memory has a very limited capacity, there's just not enough space there. And this is where the practice comes in. If you use time on practicing, your knowledge will get saved in the long-term memory and not the short-term. When you practice a language it gets more and more automatized. This is also described in Barry McLaughlin's hierarchy of goals;

First-order goal: to express a particular intention

Second-order goal: to decide on a topic

Third-order goal: to formulate a series of phrases

Lower-order goals: to retrieve the lexicon needed

to activate articulatory patterns

to utilize appropriate syntactic rules

to meet pragmatic conventions

When you look at the goals on top you see that the main function of these goals is to express meaning. On the bottom you see that the focus is on how to find the right words, to be able to use the proper grammar and form phrases. This is the difference between a native speaker and a speaker who isn't fluent. The native speaker would focus on WHAT he wanted to say and not HOW he would say it. To express a particular intention is the main focus. The more you practice your second language and the more knowledge you store in your long-term memory you will in time notice that your language skills improves. You will then use less energy on looking for the right words in conversation and it will be easier to express what you really want to say.

To focus more on meaning and less on words is an important goal for me in learning to speak english. I want to be able to express myself and speak my mind without wasting time on looking for the right words. I want my language to be automized and that means PRACTICE!