GRADO EN CIENCIA DE LA ACTIVIDAD FSICA Y DEL

DEPORTE
Nombre de la asignatura
Unidad Didctica n_

Mster
Complementos para la formacin disciplinar en lengua
inglesa
Unidad Didctica N2

Mster
Complementos para la formacin disciplinar en lengua
inglesa
Unidad Didctica N2



ndice

1. Presentacin .................................................................. 3
2. Desarrollo ..................................................................... 4
3. Mediateca, Fuentes y Otros Recursos .............................. 14



Presentacin 3
Universidad Isabel I



1. Presentacin
En esta unidad didctica te proponemos una serie de textos para que reflexiones
sobre el proceso de aprendizaje y enseanza de una L2. Creemos que estas son
las dos primeras preguntas que todo futuro docente debe hacerse: cmo
ensear ingls? Cmo aprender ingls? Normalmente el futuro docente utilizar
una mezcla de elementos de diferentes teoras, adaptndolos a s mismo en un
momento dado y al grupo de alumnos al que est impartiendo clase.
Lo importante de estas dos preguntas es que nos las realicemos cada da de
nuestra labor docente. Uno de los peligros con los que nos enfrentarnos en
nuestra profesin es el de quedarnos anquilosados y pensar que ya lo sabemos
todo y que ninguna teora nos va a ensear nada nuevo.
Esperamos que estos textos te hagan reflexionar y susciten en ti nuevas
preguntas.







How were you taught English at
High School?
Did you like it? What aspects
would you change/improve?


Desarrollo 4
Universidad Isabel I


2. Desarrollo
Text 1
LEARNING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE: FIVE MOST COMMON MISTAKES
Learning a new foreign language is never easy but it's a lot harder if you fall
into these five common traps, says Anne Merritt.
Its a myth that intelligent people are better at learning languages.
Sure, it doesnt hurt, especially when innately academic types hold an arsenal
of learning strategies. Most language learning skills, however, are in fact
habits, which can be formed through a bit of discipline and self-awareness.
Here are the five most common mistakes language learners make and how to
correct them...
Not listening enough
Theres a school of linguistics that believes language learning begins with a
silent period. Just as babies learn to produce language by hearing and
parroting sounds, language learners need to practice listening in order to learn.
This can reinforce learned vocabulary and structures, and help learners see
patterns in language.
Listening is the communicative skill we use most in daily life, yet it can be
difficult to practice unless you live in a foreign country or attend immersive
language classes. The solution? Find music, podcasts, TV shows and movies in
the target language, and listen, listen, listen, as often as possible.
Lack of curiosity
In language learning, attitude can be a key factor in how a student progresses.
Linguists studied attitude in language learning in the 1970s in Quebec, Canada,
when tension was high between Anglo- and Francophones. The study found that
Anglophones holding prejudices against French Canadians often did poorly in
French language learning, even after studying French for years as a mandatory
school subject.
On the other hand, a learner who is keen about the target culture will be more
successful in their language studies. The culturally curious students will be more
receptive to the language and more open to forming relationships with native
speakers.



Desarrollo 5
Universidad Isabel I

Rigid thinking
Linguists have found that students with a low tolerance of ambiguity tend to
struggle with language learning.
Language learning involves a lot of uncertainty students will encounter new
vocabulary daily, and for each grammar rule there will be a dialectic exception or
irregular verb. Until native-like fluency is achieved, there will always be some
level of ambiguity.
The type of learner who sees a new word and reaches for the dictionary instead
of guessing the meaning from the context may feel stressed and disoriented in
an immersion class. Ultimately, they might quit their language studies out of
sheer frustration. Its a difficult mindset to break, but small exercises can help.
Find a song or text in the target language and practice figuring out the gist, even
if a few words are unknown.
A single method
Some learners are most comfortable with the listen-and-repeat drills of a
language lab or podcast. Some need a grammar textbook to make sense of a
foreign tongue. Each of these approaches is fine, but its a mistake to rely on
only one.
Language learners who use multiple methods get to practice different skills and
see concepts explained in different ways. Whats more, the variety can keep
them from getting stuck in a learning rut.
When choosing a class, learners should seek a course that practices the four
language skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking). For self-study, try a
combination of textbooks, audio lessons, and language learning apps.
Fear
It doesnt matter how well a person can write in foreign script, conjugate a verb,
or finish a vocabulary test. To learn, improve, and truly use your target
language, we need to speak.
This is the stage when language students can clam up, and feelings of shyness or
insecurity hinder all their hard work. In Eastern cultures where saving face is a
strong social value, EFL teachers often complain that students, despite years of
studying English, simply will not speak it. Theyre too afraid of bungling the
grammar or mispronouncing words in a way that would embarrass them.
The key is that those mistakes help language learners by showing them the limits
of language, and correcting errors before they become ingrained. The more
learners speak, the quicker they improve.


The secret to learn foreign
languages (no kidding!)
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=eFpzeGoP-Kg


Desarrollo 6
Universidad Isabel I



QUESTIONS
1. Do you need to be smart to acquire a new language?
2. Is learning a new language a matter of discipline? Define the concept of
self-awareness.
3. How does listening help us learn a new language?
4. Is it necessary to live in a foreign country to practice listening?
5. Can culture be considering an important factor in language learning?
6. How low tolerance of ambiguity can affect our learning? Compare and
contrast language learning and mathematics learning.
7. Do students have to follow a single method in language learning? How
can following different methods can improve our learning?
8. What is the definitive proof that you have acquired a new language? How
fear can affect our learning?
DEFINE USING YOUR OWN WORDS
- innately academic types:
- learning skills
- self-awareness
- parroting
- mandatory school subject
- sheer frustration


YOU ARE NOW A TEACHER
- You are in charge of a 2
nd
year ESO group. What teaching-learning
strategies should you employ to motivate your students to learn a new
language in the first day of the academic year and help them avoid the
fear factor?
- This video may help you build your ideas:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF7zsz8fi64




Desarrollo 7
Universidad Isabel I


PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION
- This is the stage when language students can clam up, and feelings of
shyness or insecurity hinder all their hard work. In Eastern cultures
where saving face is a strong social value, EFL teachers often complain
that students, despite years of studying English, simply will not speak it


GRAMMAR
- They might quit their language studies out of sheer frustration. We can
notice in this sentence the modal verb might. Write a short essay
containing the definition of modal verbs, their forms and main
characteristics


THINK OUT OF THE BOX
- You want to be an English language teacher. Do you think that just
learning the right teaching strategies will make you a good professional
or something else its required? Write a short essay stating your opinion.



Desarrollo 8
Universidad Isabel I



Text 2
WHAT'S THE BEST WAY TO TEACH LANGUAGES?
Alex Rawlings was a language teacher's dream. He fell in love with languages
when he was eight and learnt Greek, then German, then Dutch. Now, an
undergraduate at Oxford, he is the UK's most multi-lingual student, speaking 11
languages. So what's his secret?
"I remember seeing people on the beach in Greece when I was a kid and not
being able to talk to them," says Alex. "I thought it'd be nice to be able to talk to
anyone in the world in their language. That has always stayed with me."
Such enthusiasm is rare: a report by the British Academy this year found there
was a growing deficit in foreign language skills. Increasingly, children are
choosing not to study languages beyond the compulsory stage - and only 9%
of pupils who take French GCSE progress with it to A-level.
"We're failing to inspire people," says Alex. "I had a mix of good and bad
teachers - the most inspirational ones just focused on giving you the confidence
to speak. Then I'd pursue it outside the classroom: I would watch films, find out
new words and read things."
Language pedagogy has come a long way since the days when repetitive
grammar-translation methods were regarded as the only way to learn. Today,
task-based approaches are widespread in British schools, emphasising
communication and the practical uses of language.
For Christelle Bernard, a French and Spanish teacher at St Gemma's High
School in Belfast, these methods of teaching allow her to cast aside the
textbook whenever she can. "You need a little bit of grammar, but my approach
is much more topic based with as little grammar as possible," she explains. Her
task-based teaching embraces ideas which range from lessons using computers,
to audio-visual and kinesthetic learning. She explains: "For instance, if I'm
teaching pets, I'll bring in soft toys to use in the lessons.""I hardly ever use a
textbook - I use Twitter much more," she says, describing lessons where pupils
discuss tweets written in French. "ICT allows them to collaborate with others. So
they can work together, but it gives them a choice of medium. And because they
know how to use computers, it creates a comfort zone where they can focus on
the language."
Task-based learning typically involves an information gap: students may have to
share knowledge to communicate effectively, or look for language rules
themselves before re-applying them. It's an approach favoured by Huw Jarvis, a


Desarrollo 9
Universidad Isabel I

senior lecturer in the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science at
the University of Salford. He says: "We know that people learn better when they
struggle to communicate - so that needs to be at the core of the kind of delivery
and the methodology."
"The primary purpose of language is communication - grammar is important, but
there's a bigger picture. Language is no longer seen as being learnt through
mechanical exercises, it's developed through students interacting and engaging."
But there could be a danger in focusing too heavily on task-based methods of
language teaching, according to Richard Hudson, emeritus professor of linguistics
at University College London. He explains: "There was a strong reaction against
grammar-translation. Instead, there was the idea that you could make languages
available to less academic children by focusing on communication.
"But what happened is that they got rid of the grammar and the translation. It
was a classic case of throwing out the baby with the bath water. It's not fair on
children to leave them to work out the rules of language themselves.
"What we're moving towards now is teaching which still has the aim of producing
fluent language speakers, and still has a lot of emphasis on realistic situations,
but with a lot more emphasis on making children aware of how the language
actually works."
So could a conjunction of different ideas within language pedagogy be the secret
to learning and teaching? Michael Erard studied hyperpolyglots (multi-lingual
speakers) in his book Babel No More and says they used a variety of methods.
He explains: "They use a mix, with a focus on accomplishing tasks, whether it's
communicative tasks or translation tasks. What unites them is that they've
learned how to learn, and each one has learned how he or she learns best. There
is no uniform method or single secret that any one of us can duplicate."
QUESTIONS
1. When and how was Alex Rawlings aware of the importance of learning
foreign languages? What is Alex Rawlingsrecipe to learn languages?
2. Do children still like learning lenguages in Britain?
3. How can task-based aproach learning be defined?
4. Would you say Christelle Bernard is a die-hard grammar person? Why?
5. How can you define the expresion comfort zone in this classroom
environment?
6. Does Huw Jarvis believe children should effort to learn a language? Does
learning have a social component in Jarvis opinion?

Desarrollo 10
Universidad Isabel I

7. Does professor Hudson think children should work the language rules by
themselves?
8. What do you think to be the most important skill used by hyperpolyglots
in learning languages?

DEFINE USING YOUR OWN WORDS
- Dutch
- Kid
- compulsory stage
- GCSE
- A-level
- cast aside
- kinesthetic learning
- Twitter
- ICT


YOU ARE NOW A TEACHER
Your target class is 1
st
year Bachillerato. Your school has just made a very
important investment in educational technology. How would you employ
technology in the English class? Take into account your target audience and the
fact that most teenagers are very skilled in technology.
- Reasons to use technology in classroom settings
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulb4jl3xqs8


PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION
But what happened is that they got rid of the grammar and the translation. It
was a classic case of throwing out the baby with the bath water. It's not fair on
children to leave them to work out the rules of language themselves


GRAMMAR
as little grammar as possible Why do we use little in this sentence? Write a one
page report about the concepts: countable / uncountable nouns and quantifiers.


THINK OUT OF THE BOX
One of the newest educative devices using technology are Ipads. Search for
information on the web and write a one page essay stating their main
applications in classroom settings.


Desarrollo 11
Universidad Isabel I


Text 3
ACQUIRING ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE
WHAT'S "NORMAL," WHAT'S NOT
By the 2030s, say demographers, English language learners (ELLs) will account
for approximately 40% of the entire school-aged population in the United States.
In some areas, that projection is already exceeded-in California, for instance,
60%-70% of schoolchildren speak a language other than English as their
primary language.
For the period 1995-2005, the Asian population is projected to be the fastest
growing group in all U.S. regions, with the greatest gains expected in the West.
The Hispanic population will be the second-fastest growing group.
These facts bear importantly on how children learn-and how speech-language
pathologists (SLPs) perform their jobs.
In one common scenario, a child is referred for speech-language testing because
she is struggling academically. In her teacher's view, she is not learning English
with the expected speed and her academic skills are lagging behind those of
her monolingual English-speaking classmates. Does the student have a language-
learning disability or is she merely manifesting the normal process of acquiring
a second language?
Normal Phenomena
It is imperative that SLPs understand the normal processes and phenomena of
second-language acquisition to avoid making "false positive" identifications.
a) Interference
ELL children may manifest interference or transfer from their first language (L1)
to English (L2). This means that a child may make an English error due to the
direct influence of an L1 structure. For example, in Spanish, "esta casa es mas
grande" means "this house is bigger." However, a literal translation would be
"this house is more bigger." A Spanish-speaking child who said "this house is
more bigger" would be manifesting transfer from Spanish to English. This is a
normal phenomenon-a sign of a language difference, not a language disorder.
b) Silent Period
Children may also manifest a common second-language acquisition phenomenon
called the silent period. When children are first exposed to a second language,
frequently they focus on listening and comprehension. These children are often
very quiet, speaking little as they focus on understanding the new language-
much, in fact, as adults do when traveling in foreign countries. The younger the


You will love teaching!
http://www.ted.com/talks/shuk
la_bose_teaching_one_child_at
_a_time.html


Desarrollo 12
Universidad Isabel I

child, the longer the silent period tends to last. Older children may remain in the
silent period for a few weeks or a few months, whereas preschoolers may be
relatively silent for a year or more.
c) Code-switching
Many children who are ELLs also engage in a behavior known as code-switching.
This involves changing languages over phrases or sentences. For example, a
Spanish speaker might say, "Me gustaria manejar-I'll take the car!" ("I'd like to
drive-I'll take the car"). Again, this is a normal phenomenon engaged in by many
fluent bilingual speakers worldwide.
How Should Students Learn?
Many children who are ELLs are put into English-speaking classrooms where they
understand nothing of what they are hearing. In this "sink or swim" situation,
many flounder. Imagine traveling to Beijing and taking a social studies course
taught only in Mandarin. Learning would be most difficult; yet we expect our ELLs
to automatically decode English and succeed academically in an analogous
situation.
Under ideal conditions, ELLs would be taught in their first language 90% of the
time and in English 10% of the time in kindergarten and first grade. Gradually,
as they learned more English, they would be taught in the primary language 50%
of the time and in English 50% of the time by sixth grade. Studies have shown
that children who are taught in this manner outperform ELLs who are taught
mostly in English from very early in their schooling. Children in this ideal bilingual
learning situation do so well because they understand what they are hearing and
are thus able to build their underlying conceptual-linguistic foundation.

QUESTIONS
1. How can American classrooms be described by 2030?
2. Why is it imperative SLPs understand the processes of second language
acquisition? Give an example.
3. Is interference a language disorder?
4. When children are starting to learn a new language, do they focus on
speaking?
5. Can the silent period be related to age?
6. What kind of speakers are affected by code-switching?
7. Why do the authors speak of a sink or swim" situation?
8. How can ELLs be taught according to the authors?


Desarrollo 13
Universidad Isabel I

DEFINE USING YOUR OWN WORDS
- primary language
- Hispanic
- speech-language pathologists
- struggling
- lagging behind
- disability
- false positive
- flounder
- outperform

YOU ARE NOW A TEACHER
You have many different English language levels in a 1
st
year secundaria
classroom. How would you cope with this situation? What kind of learning-
teaching strategies would you employ?


TRANSLATE INTO SPANISH
Children may also manifest a common second-language acquisition phenomenon
called the silent period. When children are first exposed to a second language,
frequently they focus on listening and comprehension. These children are often
very quiet, speaking little as they focus on understanding the new language-
much, in fact, as adults do when traveling in foreign countries. The younger the
child, the longer the silent period tends to last. Older children may remain in the
silent period for a few weeks or a few months, whereas preschoolers may be
relatively silent for a year or more.


GRAMMAR
We can observe in this text two peculiar plurals: children and phenomena.
Its not that difficult to find more plurals which dont end in s or es. What
kind of plurals are these? Make a brief report (one page) stating their formation
rules an giving examples.


THINK OUT OF THE BOX
Imagine you are a student in a foreign country whose language you dont
master at all because you have been given a grant to study a masters course
How would you try to learn the L2 to study your master subjects (it has to be
fast and give you enough confidence to keep on with your classes).


Mediateca, fuentes y otros recursos 14
Universidad Isabel I


3. Mediateca, Fuentes y Otros Recursos

TEXT 1: Daily Telegraph 19/12/2012
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationadvice/9750895/Learning-a-
foreign-language-five-most-common-mistakes.html
TEXT 2: The Guardian 14/05/2013
http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/may/14/best-
way-teach-language-schools
TEXT 3:Celeste Roseberry-McKibbin /Alejandro Brice
http://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/easl.htm