Labor Day, holiday celebrated in the United States and Canada on the first Monday in September to honor the laborer. In most other countries–and among the leftists in the United States and Canada–May Day (May 1) is celebrated instead.
1- Why is Labor Day celebrated on September 1st in the US?
I chose a text of Michael Rost named “I’m only trying to help: A role for interventions in teaching listening”
In this commentary the author exposes that several times teachers want to help (in listening activities), but often feel underappreciated for their efforts. The author also mention that in the case of language teaching technology must help teachers to teach better and if it doesn’t do that, teacher should not use that kind of technology. Besides, as teachers, we have to take into account how much comfortable learners feel using a particular technology, and if this technology doesn’t fit with students emotions we have to stop using it. In this commentary, the author identifies three “intervention phrases” in the listening process: decoding, comprehension and intervention. These are very important for teachers because before using any technology we think will be supported; we need to understand the learners’ goals during the listening processes. The author divides the text into three articles that provide frameworks for evaluating technology in the teaching of listening. The first article “Help options and multimedia listening” confirms that the additional interactions with support options promote language acquisition. In the second article “Are they watching?” the author (Wagner) provides a survey of recent studies on the use of video to teach listening. He claims that multimedia experiences provide learners with richer, more authentic and more memorable encounters with the target language. Michael Rost is in favor of using different multiple modes for teaching listening; he argues that listeners need redundancy of all sorts because it is an essential condition for effective processing. In the third study “Using digital stories to improve listening comprehension with Spanish learners of English” for the author the key theme is a shift in participation patterns of the learner and their teachers, through the use of a website. In the end, what we can do as teachers to help students learn to listen better is make sure that our learners have access to a wide range of relevant, motivating input. But most important is to know our students and know what specific interventions in classes will help them. I personally think that as teachers we should show our students different kinds of technologies to help them to develop their listening skills, and after they feel comfortable with one, make them work with the one they think they are going to learn better and more.
For a future teacher it is very important to know and use a great variety of technologies in our classes. Thanks to these technologies we ca make our classes much more motivating for our students and we can also create a more relaxed environment. Besides, using these technologies it is easier to present ans establish the objectives of the lessons, thus students are able to understand what is required from them.
This link is appropriate when you are looking for foreign language learning activities for young children. In this case, this is an activity specially design for children of 7 years or less. This is a good page but it has also its advantages and drawbacks.
In relation to the considerations that classes should have, this website has the following characteristics:
1.- No interaction because in this specific activity children cannot speak or write to another person.
2.- There is no an authentic audience because as there are no interactions children have no opportunities to share their experiences in learning with another people.
3.- As the website is motivating for children (colorful, pictures, sounds) the activities that children have to do have a great impact upon their learning.
4.- There is a right amount of time for children to do the activity, of course the time for this activity has to specified by the teacher, considering children’s level. The amount of feedback is right due to the activity itself indicates if the answers children give are good or wrong, besides the teacher can tell the students how to improve their responses.
5.-The website doesn’t have appropriate activities for different styles personalities and intelligences
6.- This website is very motivating for young children due to this website has a great amount of pictures, sounds and colors.
7.- This is a student-centered activity because most of the work has to be done by the student. The teacher can act as a prompter and help the student with specific questions that the learner can have.
8.- Autonomy is developed by the learner in great degree, this is because students can work alone, obviously they have the opportunity for clarifying doubts with the teacher.
9.- Through this website teachers can do their classes with several resources, they can ask students to read, write and listen to suggested activities.
10.- Thanks to this website it is easy to get a comfortable environment. Children feel relaxed and they don’t feel embarrassed or ashamed of participating as they would feel in real time activities.
11.- This website is good but it doesn’t integrate the four skills. Speaking is not present at all in this website.
12.- Finally, this website has no clear objectives for each of its activities, however it has differentiated activities which consider children's levels.
My first week in the USA... It has been a great experience. I have share with new classmates and I have known better myself as an independent person. Classes have been very different to what classes are in Chile. Here interaction in classes is necessary.
Through this weblog I hope to share my experiences in the USA and I want you to known myself better...
Hello! This is my own Digital Portfolio... In it I write and show my all experiences during my stay in the United States. I hope this is a tool for all the future teachers who want to improve their teaching methodologies.
MY NAME IS FABIOLA LUCAY. I AM A CHILEAN STUDENT OF UNIVERSITY OF LA SERENA. IN THIS MOMENT I AM STUDYING AT EASTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, IN THE U.S.A. I HAVE CREATED THIS BLOG AS A WAY TO SHOW SOME OF THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS I HAVE BEING DOING AND LEARNING DURING THIS IMPORTANT PERIOD OF MY LIFE.
