November 14th 2014 Assignment 3

Resubmitted

Assignment 3

Language Skills

The class profile:

The learning group is composed of  students and they are all from Brazil. They are at the elementary level. Their names are: Adilson, Areta, Bárbara, Camila, Filipi, Jéssica, Elizeth, Patricia, Renata, Roberta and Sandra. 

Students’ age range:

Based on the students’ age, there are three groups of adult learner: 

• 20‐29: Areta, Bárbara, Camila, Filipi, Jéssica, Roberta;

• 30‐39: Renata, Patricia, Sandra;

• 40 and over: Adilson and Elizeth;

Learning styles

Their learning styles are very similar. Most of them are visual learners such as Roberta, Elizeth, Aretha, Camila and Patricia. They are aided by boardwork / picture concepts that explain meaning of the new vocabulary or target language and also they keep eye-contact with the teacher while he is teaching. 

Sandra and Adilson are more kinaesthetic learners than visual. Sometimes they get bored easily and also they are highly communicative. They get motivated when the tasks are in pairs or in groups as well as when they write on the whiteboard using the target language. 

Interests and needs 

The students are really motivated to improve their skills in English and also they believe that as soon as possible they will be able to use on their daily life. The majority is studying English to boost their employment opportunities but, two students with more than 40 year old are learning English to communicate with people from other countries as well as travel abroad.

Their needs are related to the social language, such as, introduce a person, greetings, be able to ask and giving directions, be able to describe a person, how to write an email, talk about past activities, talk about daily routines. The lessons also are prepared and contextualized according to the Ss’ purposes.

The authentic reading text

Reading it is an important way to get new vocabulary about places, foods or countries. 

According to Jim Scrivener, " The more someone reads, the more they pick up items of vocabulary and grammar from the texts, often without realizing it, and this widening language knowledge seems to increase their overall linguistic confidence, which then influences and improves their skills in other language areas…” (Learning Teaching, 3rd Edition, page 188) .

The authentic reading text I chose is a menu from Chili Johns’ Restaurant ( http: //chilijohns.com/content/munu2010final1.jpg), one part is about meals and the other is about drinks. This type of text is something related to social language which is one their needs. As adult and visual learners this reading activity should be well accepted for everyone. 

Restaurant is one of the places you can find foreigners, as well as when visiting other country it is the place you will taste the typical food and learn more about the culture of the people who live there. 

In the words of Jeremy Harmer, “When we see a written text our schematic knowledge may first tell us what kind of text genre we are dealing with. Key words and phrases alert us to the subject of a text, and this again allows us, as we read, to predict what is coming next.” (The Practice of English Language Teaching,page 200). 

They will realize that it is possible to read a menu in English as well as work with the new vocabulary. 

Stages for the reading activity:

Warm-up

To establish the context of the lesson I will start a warmer activity about typical foods from other countries because it is a good start to activate students’ schemata. After that I will ask to the students if they like going to restaurants with different types of food.  Students will try to answer it and then I will show to them the menu and start lead-in. 

Lead-in:

I will elicit and pre-teach some key vocabulary such as:

• meal, 

• dessert, 

• drink, 

• menu, 

• waiter/waitress, 

• customer 

• appetizers (comes before the main meal), 

• entrée (main meal), 

• cook,

I would convey the meaning for the above words with the help of visuals, and CCQs, then, using the MPF sequence for clarification, I will start eliciting some model sentences of questions the waiter/waitress might ask at the table as well as the replies to these questions.

Model sentences:

Questions from the waiter/waitress:

• May I take your order?

• Would you like anything else?

How to order a dish or a drink:

• Yes, I’ll have a___________(students will choose a dish), please.

• May I have a ___________(students will choose a dish, a dessert, a drink), please.

I will show the pronunciation, fall-rise intonation related to these questions and the connected speech such as in ‘your order’. After that, the form of each model sentence will be presented on the board. 

Reading task 01

I would use this menu to practice skim reading. 

According to Jim Scrivener “Skimming = Reading quickly for gist of a passage. A typical skimming task would be a general question from the teacher...” (Learning Teaching, Third edition 2011, Macmillan). 

The quick reading for the main topic also generates more interest to read the text further.

The questions related to reading for gist should be: 

• Is this a menu from a typical Italian restaurant?” answer: No.

• The prices of sandwiches, salads and desserts are below $10,00? answer: Yes.

Time for the activity: 1 minute. 

Before I correct answers from students they would do a pair check of their answers. 

Reading Task 2

The reading task is for specific information. The students should use the scan reading

which enables to identify relevant information quickly. It helps as an effective filter.

According to Jim Scrivener,“ Students doing this will be reading the material in a similar way to how people might read it in everyday life.” (Learning Teaching, Third edition 2011, Macmillan)

I will set the second activity showing 7 sentences they should mark T if the sentence is true or F if the sentence is false. 

Time for the activity: 6 minutes. 

The students will work individually but, before I correct answers from students they would do a pair check of their answers.

Sample of the handout:

Read the menu and choose if the statement is true or false.

Write T for true or F for false in the space provided.

a. The “Turtle Cheesecake” is a classic favorite sandwich. ___(F)

b. The “Egg Salad” is a fresh salad. ___(F)

c. The total price of BLT + Garden Salad + Pepsi = $12,75 . ___(T)

d. The “Cheese Steak Sub” is a grilled steak meat with melted 

provolone cheese. ___(T)

e. The “Hot Chocolate” is a dessert. ___(F)

f. There are no tomatoes on the “Taco Salad”. ___(F)

g. The “Fish Sandwich” is available only on Fridays. ___(T)

Productive Skills

Speaking task:  Ordering a Dish.

Based on the model sentences presented and boarded during the clarification and lead-in, this will be a role-playing activity in pairs. 

I will divide the students in two groups. The groups will be named ‘group A’ and ‘group B’, then the teacher divides in pairs formed by a student from the ‘A’ group with a student from the ‘B’ group. Then starts the dialogue with the ‘A’ student acting like a waiter and ‘B’ student acting like the customer. The ‘waiters’ will stand up and the ‘customers’ remain seated. The ‘waiters’ will dialogue with ‘three’ customers in sequence. After that, they will change the character with those who was acting as a customer. 

Before start the activity I will model the dialogue with a student and also, I will board the sequence of the dialogue with some gaps to students choose in the menu what type of food they want to complete the gaps in the dialogue..

Sample of the dialogue between a waiter (W) and a customer (C):

W – May I take your order?

C – Yes, I’ll have a___________(students will choose a dish), please.

W- Would you like anything else?

C – May I have a ___________(students will choose a dish, a dessert, a drink), please.

W – Ok, __________(students repeat what the customer ordered).

C  - Thank you.

Feedback

I would end the lesson with a delayed correction of some mistakes I collected during the dialogue of the freer practice, such as fall-rise intonation, grammar structures, connected speech and stressed syllables.

References:

• http://orelt.col.org/module/unit/3-reading-efficiently-sub-skills-reading;

• http://chilijohns.com/content/menu2010.pdf;

• Jim Scrivener, Learning Teaching ( Macmillan Publishers Limited 2005 );

• Peter Watkins , Learning to Teach English, A practical introduction for new teachers ( Delta publishing 2005);

• Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, Fourth Edition (Pearson Longman 2007);

• http://chilijohns.com/content/munu2010final1.jpg;

• http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/using-sources/quotations