CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF ENGLISH

AMERICAN ENGLISH

-         They eliminated the syllables which are not pronounced. For more information: Spelling

-         Singular nouns which refer to collectives always use singular verbs. In British the verb can be plural or singular.  Ex.: The police is very useful (American).

-         The present perfect is not used when referring to actions in the past. Ex.: I ate an apple (American) // I have eaten an apple (British).

-          Americans don’t use ‘’have got’’ to referring possession. The use ‘’have’’ only.

-          The past participle of ‘’get’’ in British is ‘’got’’, but in American is ‘’gotten’’.

-         Some verbs have two forms of past: one regular and one irregular. British uses the irregular form and American uses the regular form. Ex.: BURN (burnt and burned, respectively).

-         Americans use different words which have other names in British. See this page: Words

HIBERNO ENGLISH (IRELAND)

-         They never use ‘’yes’’ or ‘’no’’ when answering questions. Ex.: Do you want cake? I do.

-         Irish people use some archaic expressions such as ‘’tis’’ (it is), ‘’tisn’t’’ (it isn’t), ‘’ye’’ or ‘’yous’’ (you), ‘’amn’t’’ (am not).

-         They don’t have the past perfect, so they use the past continuous with after. Ex.: They had gone to my house when I was outside (British) // They were after going when I was outside (Irish).

-         The Irish finish the sentences with words like ‘’no?’’ or ‘’yeah’’.

-         They use the expression ‘’to have’’ as a synonym ‘’to speak’’. Ex.: I speak English (British) // I have English (Irish).

SCOTTISH ENGLISH

-         It has fewer diphthongs than British English.

-         The modal “will” can be used as a substitute for “shall” and “may”.

-         Just like in Ireland, the abbreviated from of “I am not” is “I amn’t” instead of “I’m not”.

-         Future negation always requires the presence of an independent “not”, instead of the correspondent negative form of the verb. Example: “I won’t study for the exam.” (British) // “I’ll not study for the exam”. (Scottish).

-         Its vocabulary contains words inherited from Gaelic (“loch” for “lake”, “cailleach” for “old woman”) and Old Norse (“bern” for “child”).

-         It also contains expressions inherited from Scots, a language variety spoken in Lowlad Scotland. For example, “outwith” for “outside of” or “janitor” for “caretaker”. Curiously, “janitor” is also accepted in American English. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN PRESCHOOL

Nowadays, in a globalized world, it is very important to learn a foreign language to find a job or even just for travelling.

We believe that introducing a foreign language is very important in preschool because children learn better a language than adults. As future teachers we have to work in that with our kids and teach english in a completely different way than in primary. We also have to try making our children to see english like a new and interesting thing to learn but never like a obligation.

The most important way for teaching a foreign language to children at preschool is using different methods, but they should be interactive, attractive, funny, easy...for our children.

We think that activities need to be centered in the learning of vocabulary, songs, series, stories, videos, painting, flashcards, short stories, speaking, listening.

We have found these links that can be used for teaching English in preschools.

APPUSERIES

https://www.youtube.com/user/APPUSERIES

That channel of youtube is for children and it contains four chapters in english whose characters are animals: an elephant and his family, a couple of giraffes, a girl and her dog, some monkeys and all of them have different adventures.

EDUCANAVE

http://www.educanave.com/

That webpage has a lot of activities to work in the different grades of education, each grades are different islands (preschool and primary) and two more islands ( games and english) if you enter you can find activities about vocabulary, songs and stories. The quantity  of activities are variety and a good way for work with children.

SESAME STREET

Another good resource that we can use for teaching English in preschool is Sesame Street (http://www.sesamestreet.org/) It is a group of muppets that teach English for little children. It is a tv programme and also you can find it online. There are games and videos on the webpage that are interesting for kids.

BRITISH COUNCIL KIDS

http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/

The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities.

In this webpage you can find different sections: listening and watching, reading and writing, speak and spell, grammar, kids games and one called made where you can download flashcards or crafts.

THE LITTLE ANIMALS CENTRE

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/laac/menu.shtml

In the little animals centre we can find 6 different animals and each animal contains different activities like numbers, little stories, sounds, word games, puzzles and different activities to print and to make with the children at the class.

STARFALL

http://www.starfall.com/

That web page it’s very easy and intuitive for children and if you look for activities to learn english with numbers, vocabulary, read, sing it’s a good resource to practice this thing with preschool and first grade of primary.


Realized by:

María Parra Díaz
Inés Richmond-Hope Castro

Reading at School Can Be Fun!

The Schoolwide Enrichment Model Reading Framework (SEM-R) is a reading program which encourage children to read. Sometimes our reading experiences are disappointing. That’s why this program aims to create a new environment where students can rejoice with different reading dynamics. The SEM-R includes many levels depending on the children’s reading abilities. For this reason, this program is suitable for any type of pupil turning them into independent and lifelong readers.

The SEM-R is divided in three phases:

● The first one is Exposure. In this phase the teacher needs a “library” with a wide variety of books regarding the students’ interests. The tutor picks one and reads it aloud for their pupils. They will be asked questions about anything related to the book (e.g., characters, plot, settings, illustrations, conflict, etc.) This will be the start of the discussion. The main purpose of this stage is creating an atmosphere of eagerness to find out what will happen next. This requires some dramatic skills from the teacher, such as effective variation of intonation or changing the speed and volume.

● The second one is called Supported Independent Reading. In this phase children are ready to read by themselves. They have to choose a book from the library according to their reading level and their preferences. While they are reading, the teacher will have one-on-one conferences with each student. During these conferences, the teacher will ask students to give them some information about the book, to read a paragraph and to answer some questions. Students have to be conscious about their reading strategies in order to improve them or change something in case it’s necessary. Moreover, they should highlight the interesting parts of the book because then they will discuss them with their teacher.

● The third phase Student Self-Choice Activities is similar to the second one. However, students leave behind the teacher-directed exercises and let their imagination explode into creative activities. The teacher will provide a list with some options, for instance setting up “interest groups”, in which the students can express their opinions and rub off the enthusiasm of their partners, motivating their classmates to read different books. This list is not closed, so students can come up with new ideas or projects that they can show to the other pupils and astonish them.

Unlike what we are used in terms of reading at school, the SEM-R provides a delightful way to diving into books. In spite of imposing the same kinds of books, the reading pace and the same reading level, this new method let students set their own rhythm while they read interesting books for them. Through this process, students won’t be ordinary readers, but independent, critical, imaginative and open-minded individuals.

For more information, check this out or watch the video below:

CAN SMARTPHONES FAVOUR EDUCATION IN CLASROOM?

In this post we are going to talk about a conference in Barcelona that explains the use of smartphones in the classroom.

The Mobile World Congress published the document “Les tecnologies mòbils als centres educatius” that includes various considerations and elements of reflection on the presence and use of digital technologies at school in general and, in particular, the use of smartphones, the development of digital skills by the students and the potential of mobile technology to innovate educational practices. The paper concludes by offering a number of recommendations to guide educational policies regarding the incorporation of mobile devices in the centers and a set of examples of projects that illustrate the educational potential of these devices.

Regarding the potential of mobile devices to innovate teaching and learning, it is stated that:

-They allow for searching simulations or calculations, capture information and data, write quick notes, consult dictionaries or listen to music records, create and schedule applications, control devices and perform operations;

-They may be useful for personalizing learning processes because they offer great possibilities to adapt to individual needs (eg, present information in different formats and/or with different levels of complexity);

-They can simplify the feedback and evaluation because they provide immediate progress indicators (eg, the possibility of seeking answers at the same moment as students on a particular content or apps that guide solving mathematical problems step by step);

-They can support students with special educational needs (eg: apps that read written texts).

Fully agreeing with the potential identified to innovate educational practices, from our perspective mobile devices can offer greater value than any other technology when used to extend learning to other non-typical school settings and when used as a tool for personal learning.

In the first case, there are good examples of the use of mobile devices to extend the learning process beyond the classroom to other areas (natural, urban, cultural, social) where relevant educational practices for students are developed; for example, creating itineraries for tourism, cultural or economic development of a near environment, or measuring the degree of humidity, temperature and hours of sunlight to regulate the risks of a small orchard.

In the second case, the aim is to exploit the potential of mobile devices to build links and bridges between the learning that students gain in different contexts or environments in which they operate. Indeed, students go through different contexts that offer them opportunities and resources for learning (family, school, work, community, peer groups, etc.) and all of them usually use their mobile device. These devices allow them to carry the services and tools they use to learn and thereby make it easier to connect, relate and integrate the learning done in these various contexts.

Benefits of using yoga in class

Hello everybody! You know that in class we practice Yoga and we decided to investigate the advantages of doing it in the classroom.

Yoga is native to India and means “union”. First of all union with oneself and then union with the rest.

Different studies say that Yoga can increase the learning process, teach pupils healthy ways to balance their emotions and manage stress, creates a calm environment.

Practice Yoga in class has a lot of benefits, here you have an interesting list of tem:

• Improves student listening skills.
• Helps children to respect themselves as well as others.
• Increase concentration and memory.
• Enhances communication skills.
• Increase their creativity and imagination.
• Improves ability of mindful actions and thoughts.

Yoga is collaborative and non- competitive. The combination of body and mind is good for pupils to improve their self- esteem.

It's important keep in mind that each child is different to the other so we have to observe and examine all the temperament and all the different features of personality that we have in a class. When we have in mind all of this we have to create different yoga's classes with different exercises conform to all the pupils.

Yoga have benefit for teachers too, some of them are:

• Giving teachers a different way to solve problems.
• It is a good way to integrate healthy with lessons.
• They can mix exercise in the class.

Here you have a link of a website that has games, exercises to do in class:

https://yogainmyschool.com/mindfulness-in-school-effective-tools-to-calm-focus-and-self-regulate/

Here you have a link about an interview of a teacher that uses Yoga at the school:

https://yogainmyschool.com/best-practice-for-yoga-in-schools-interview-with-jennifer-cohen-harper/

In this video from YouTube you can see an example of a yoga´s lesson with kids:

Ainhoa Conde Mirón

Lara Martínez Villar

The flipped classroom

It's 10 am. At school twenty five students are ready to take notes in silence. Some of them seem interested, some look already bored. 

This is a familiar situation that all of us may have experienced. The traditional teaching classroom: the teacher, in front of the classroom, explains or dictates the lessons and then the students have to do their homework at home. What can we do to change that? Obviously, find new teaching methods and the flipped classroom is one of those methods.

Let’s start with an explanation about what the flipped classroom is: The flipped classroom it’s a method that inverts traditional teaching method changing the role of the teacher and the students. As I mentioned before, traditional teaching lies in teaching the lessons and then, at home, do the homework. With the flipped classroom, students will have to watch the lessons online (mostly videos, although we can find other resources like powerpoints, prezis, etc.) at home and during classtime they will engage the concepts with all kind of activities and the help of the teacher. 

The following video would help you to understand it better. 

As you could see on the video, with the traditional approach, not every student understands what the teacher is explaining, which is a problem when they're going to do their homework or study for an exam, With the flipped classroom the students can watch the lesson as many times as they need, they can pause, rewind... 

Let’s have a look to some of the pros and cons of this pace of learning: 

Pros: 
- This method motivates the students. 
- Pupils can watch again the explanations as many times as they want. 
- New organization of the classtime. 
- Students get more individualized attention. 
- The originality of the contents. 
- The use of TICs. 
- Students become more responsible. 
- Parents are involved in the learning process of their kids. 
- Self-learning. 
- Improved outcomes. 
- It respects the learning rhythms of each student. 

Cons: 
- Students don’t see the videos. 
- Lack of implication from students. 
- Create the videos. 
- Don’t have the knowledge to make the videos. 
- Students spend more time in front of a computer or electronic device. 
- Having connection problems with the network. 
- Other teachers don’t like the fact that you innovates. 
- Parents don’t want to participate.

Personally, I think that is a method that fits nowadays because students are immerse on technologies, so we have to take advantage of that and use it on their education.

I hope you find this post interesting and don't hesitate to leave a comment with your opinion! Thank you! 

Links: 

http://www.theflippedclassroom.es/

https://www.knewton.com/resources/blog/education-infographics/flipped-classroom-infographic/

LEARNING ENGLISH THROUGH CARTOONS.

Education is influenced by different factors, like family, group of friends, school and mass media. We consider that cartoons are also a complementary education for Primary Education students.

A lot of investigators say that the television is a fantastic tool in order to learn, because it represents a different way to catch the students attention.

We are sure that cartoons are a brilliant tool to learn a foreign language, in this case, English, which is one of the languages that has developed more resources for its learning.

We can say that all the kids love watching TV so they could have a good time while they are learning. They are in contact with it from a very young age, so teachers must seize this opportunity. From three to twelve years old is the perfect period to learn a language because in the first years of kids lives, they are like sponges and they are be able to imitate any language.

We think that the best cartoons to learn English or another language are those that have an educative purpose, short and simple dialogues, variety of contents and adventures or stories that entertain students.

It´s important to say that there are a lot of famous cartoons in English to learn this language, like “Dora the explorer”, “Caillou”, or “Peppa Pig”. We have chosen ”Gogo´s adventures” because in spite of not being a well know cartoon, it has a clear structure to teach and in our opinion, it’s one of the best cartoons for children who are beginners in English language. It means that it teaches basic aspects of the English language. Each chapter is about a specific topic, like numbers, animals, colors… using always new structures. So with this kind of cartoons students will learn grammar and vocabulary.

As we see it, it has the necessary requirements to achieve an appropriate teaching-learning process. It contains subtitles too, so the students will be able to understand better the dialogues when they are listening and reading them. Furthermore, teachers can use it to improve their student’s pronunciation, it’s something similar to teaching with flashcards, they see it, they listen it and they repeat it.

Here there are some chapters of “Gogo´s adventures” cartoons, where kids would learn different topics like the animals of the zoo, the numbers, the colors, and the verb to have. There are also a lot of chapters with different contents.

Animals of the zoo, the verb to be and demonstrative pronouns.

Numbers.

Clothes, colors, the verb to want and more vocabulary.

Verb to have and vocabulary.

As you can see watching this videos, Gogo is the main character, he is a fantasy character. Gogo teaches two kids called Jenny and Tony and he also shows them different places. Gogo also uses songs to be more dynamic in the teaching. We think that it is very useful because students learn better with music due to the rhythm. Owing to the contents we think that this cartoons are appropriate for children from 3 to 9 years old.

We made an interview to explain our opinion about learning English through cartoons as future English teachers. You can watch it if you press on the word "Interview" :

INTERVIEW

Finally, we found an interesting link that belongs to EFL club: http://gogos.clubefl.gr/

In this link there are different kind of exercises with the different chapters of Gogo´s adventures cartoons. But we just can do the exercises of two chapters because we aren't members of EFL.

We just said on the interview that it is necessary to work with the chapters in class and doing this kind of exercises students may learn how to spell words, vocabulary, pronunciation, associate sound with images, guess the words, associate sound with words, etc.

Teachers from the XXI century must have technological knowledge. So they are able to create varied exercises to work the different skills using different programs like HotPotatoes, Edilim, Jclick, etc. We think it is very useful for the teaching-learning process because teachers can design different exercises that motivate students.

This is an excuse to encourage teachers to use the new technologies and make their pupil’s tasks more attractive.

IELTS EXAMS

How to prepare students for their IELTS exams?

What is IELTS?

Meaning the International English Language Testing System is the world’s most popular English language exam to check the level of foreign students who want to get access to the university, work or to get a nationality of a English speaking country.

“Organisations in over 140 countries rely on IELTS to select the right people. These include all universities and the vast majority of education providers in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, over 3,000 institutions in the US as well as most universities in Canada. Some universities in non-English speaking countries, where English is the language of instruction, also require an IELTS score.”  (IELTS.Org)

What do you need to pass this exam?

You will be assessed in all of your English skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking.

How are students prepared to be able to pass this exam?

Students are required to get through at least 6 different levels in order to achieve the required level to pass the IELTS examination. Teachers will check your previous English knowledge and will assign you a specific level to start with. Students have several essays and pieces of work to do in each level so later they will be evaluated by the teacher in charge. The teacher will decide whether a student has the minimum level required to be able to pass to the next level or to stay in the same level during three more weeks.

What is the minimum grade required to pass the IELTS examination?

To access to an undergraduate degree:

·        Applicable to all undergraduate programs except those specified below 6.0 Overall And 6.0 Speaking 6.0 Writing

·        Arts – High Achievers Program Midwifery Nursing (Pre-Registration and Graduate Entry) Nutrition and Dietetics

6.5 Overall And 6.0 Speaking 6.0 Writing 6.0 Reading 6.0 Listening

·        Nursing (Post-Registration) 6.5 Overall And 6.5 Speaking 6.5 Writing 6.0 Reading 6.0 Listening

·        Law and Legal Practice Law and Legal Practice (Honours)

Speech Pathology   7.0 Overall And 6.5 Speaking 6.5 Writing 6.5 Reading 6.5 Listening

·        Education Medicine           

7.0 Overall And 7.0 Speaking 7.0 Writing 7.0 Reading 7.0 Listening

Postgraduate degrees:

·        Applicable to all postgraduate programs except those specified below6.0 Overall And 6.0 Speaking 6.0 Writing

·        Accounting Arts – TESOL Audiology Business Administration Business Midwifery Nursing Social Work Teaching English as a Second Language (TESOL) Laws (International Law and International Relations)

6.5 Overall And 6.0 Speaking 6.0 Writing 6.0 Reading 6.0 Listening

·        Speech Pathology Physiotherapy Nutrition and Dietetics        

7.0 Overall And 6.5 Speaking 6.5 Writing 6.5 Reading 6.5 Listening

·        Medicine Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Juris Doctor

7.0 Overall And 7.0 Speaking 7.0 Writing 7.0 Reading 7.0 Listening

·        Psychology (Clinical)

7.0 Overall And 7.0 Speaking 7.0 Writing 7.0 Reading 7.0 Listening

·        Teaching      

7.5 Overall And 7.5 Speaking 7.5 Writing 7.5 Reading 7.5 Listening

Higher degrees:

·        Applicable to all higher degrees by research except those specified below 

6.5 Overall And 6.0 Speaking 6.5 Writing

·        Psychology (Clinical)

7.0 Overall And 7.0 Speaking 7.0 Writing 7.0 Reading 7.0 Listening

Stages of language learning:

1.    Silent/Pre-production: Students spend their time acquiring the new vocabulary and practicing pronouncing. Students might repeat what they hear and try sounding the words out.

2.    Early Production: Students start developing a vocabulary of about 500 to 1,000 words. They start learning how to make short phrases. 

3.    Speech Emergence: Students usually gain a vocabulary of about 3,000 words. They start improving on putting phrases together, form sentences and start asking questions. They also start comprehending the grammatical rules. Students start reading and writing in the foreign language they are learning.

4.    Intermediate Fluency: Students will have learned about 6,000 words and will start using more complex sentences in their writing and speech usage. Students will start using strategies from their native language to learn content in the new language they are learning.

5.    Fluent/Advanced Fluency: To improve a foreign language, it takes practice and consistency. The more you practice, the more you will become fluent.

The exams:

IELTS Listening test lasts for about 30 minutes. It consists of four sections, listening to an audio. The test is played once only, and the questions for each section must be answered while listening.

IELTS Reading test lasts for 60 minutes. Students are given an Academic Reading test, or a General Training Reading test.

IELTS Writing test also lasts for 60 minutes. Students must perform two writing tasks, which require different styles of writing.

IELTS Speaking test consists of a recorded interview. This interview will last for approximately 11-14 minutes.

Links:

UECA: Flinders University
www.ueca.edu.au

http://ieli.sa.edu.au/landingpage.html

www.ieli.sa.edu.au

Intensive English Language Institute

www.flinders.edu.au

Stages of Language Learning

www.linguanaut.com