Carlos, Mia Audrey

Module 1: General Principles in Language Arts Teaching

Concepts in Language

 Language is systematic.
 Language is a set of arbitrary symbols. Those symbols are primary vocal, but may also be visual. The
symbols have conventionalized meanings to which they refer.
 Language is used for communication.
 Language operates in a speech community or culture.
 Language is acquired by all people in much the same way; language and language learning both have
universal characteristics.

Lesson 1: Learning and Teaching: What and Why?

 Learning is acquisition or “getting.”

 Learning is retention of information or skill.
 Retention implies storage systems, memory, cognitive organization.
 Learning involves active, conscious focus on and acting upon events outside or inside the organism.
 Language is acquired by all people in much the same way; language and language learning both have
universal characteristics.
 Learning is relatively permanent but subject to forgetting.
 Learning involves some form of practice, perhaps reinforced practice.
 Learning is a change in behavior.

Lesson 2: Schools of Thought in SLA: A Quick Review

STRUCTURALISM / BEHAVIORISM

 The structural, or descriptive, school of linguistics (Bloomfield, Sapir, Hockett, Fries, et al. 1940s and
1950s) focused on describe human languages and to identify the structural characteristics of those
languages.
 “Languages can differ from each other without limit.”
 The structural linguist examined only the overtly observable data.
 Language could be dismantled into small pieces or units and that these units could be described
scientifically, contrasted, and added up again to form the whole.
 A behavioristic paradigm also focused on publicly observable responses—those that can be objectively
perceived, recorded, and measured.
 Typical behavioristic models were classical and operant conditioning, rote verbal learning, instrumental
learning, discrimination learning, and other empirical approaches to studying human behavior.

RATIONALISM AND COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

• The generative-transformational school of linguistics (Chomsky, 1960s) was interested not only in
describing language (achieving the level of descriptive adequacy) but also in arriving at an explanatory
level of adequacy in the study of language.
• Cognitive psychologists, like generative linguists, sought to discover underlying motivations and
deeper structures of human behavior by using a rational approach (i.e. employing the tools of logic, reason,
extrapolation, and inference in order to derive explanations for human behavior).
• Constructivism (often associated with Piaget and Vygotsky) emerged as a prevailing paradigm only in
the last part of the 20th century.

CONSTRUCTIVISM
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 • Constructivism (often associated with Piaget and Vygotsky) emerged as a prevailing paradigm only in
the last part of the 20th century.
• Unlike some cognitivists, constructivists argue that all human beings construct their own version of
reality, and therefore multiple contrasting ways of knowing and describing are equally legitimate.

Language Teaching Methodology

KEY TERMS

• METHODOLOGY: Pedagogical practices in general (including theoretical underpinnings and related

research). Whatever considerations are involved in “how to teach” are methodological.
• APPROACH: Theoretically well-informed positions and beliefs about the nature of language, the
nature of language learning, and the applicability of both to pedagogical settings.
• METHOD: A generalized set of classroom specifications for accomplishing linguistic objectives.
Methods tend to be concerned primarily with teacher and student roles and behaviors and secondarily with
such features as linguistic and subject-matter objectives, sequencing, and materials. They are almost always
thought of as being broadly applicable to a variety of audiences in a variety of contexts.
• CURRICULUM/SYLLABUS: Designs for carrying out a particular language program. Features include
a primary concern with the specification of linguistic and subject-matter objectives, sequencing, and
materials to meet the needs of a designated group of learners in a defined context. (UK=syllabus,
US=curriculum)
• TECHNIQUE: Any of the wide variety of exercises, activities, procedures, or tasks used in the
language classroom for realizing lesson objectives.
Lesson3: PRINCIPLES IN LANGUAGE ARTS TEACHING

Cognitive Principles

1. AUTOMATICITY
 Automaticity is the subconscious absorption of language through meaningful use.
 Make sure that a large proportion of your lessons are focused on the “use” of language for purposes
that are as genuine as a classroom context will permit. Student will gain more language competence in
the long run if the functional purposes of language are the focal point.
 Automaticity isn’t gained overnight; therefore, you need to exercise patience with students as you
slowly help them to achieve fluency.

2. MEANINGFUL LEARNING
 Meaningful learning will lead toward better long term retention than rote learning.
 Capitalize on the power of meaningful learning by appealing to students’ interests, academic goals, and
career goals.
 Whenever a new topic or concept is introduced, attempt to anchor it in students’ existing knowledge
and background so that it becomes associated with something they already know.
 Avoid the pitfalls of rote learning (i.e. too much explanation, memorization, etc.)

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3. THE ANTICIPATION OF REWARD
 Human beings are universally driven to act, or “behave,” by the anticipation of some sort of reward—
tangible or intangible, short term or long term—that will ensue as a result of behavior.
 Provide an optimal degree of immediate verbal praise and encouragement to them as a form of short-
term reward (just enough to keep them confident).
 Encourage students to reward each other with compliments and supportive action.
 Display enthusiasm and excitement yourself in the classroom. If you are dull, lifeless, bored, and have
low energy, you can be almost sure that it will be contagious.
 Try to get learners to see the long-term rewards in learning English by pointing out what they can do
with English where they live and around the world, the prestige in being able to use English, the
academic benefits of knowing English, jobs that require English, and so on.

4. INTRINSIC MOTIVATION
The most powerful rewards are those that are intrinsically motivated within the learner. Because the
behavior stems from needs, wants, or decides within oneself, the behavior itself is self-rewarding;
therefore, no externally administered reward is necessary.

5. STRATEGIC INVESTMENT
Successful mastery of the L2 will be due to a large extent to a learner’s own personal “investment” of
time, effort, and attention to the L2 in the form of an individualized battery of strategies for
comprehending and producing the language.

Affective Principles

6. LANGUAGE EGO
 As human beings learn to use an L2, they also develop a new mode of thinking, feeling, and acting—a
second identity. The new “language ego,” intertwined with the L2, can easily create within the learner a
sense of fragility, a defensiveness, and a raising of inhibitions.
 Overtly display a supportive attitude to your students.
 On a more mechanical, lesson-planning level, your choice of techniques and sequences of techniques
needs to be cognitively challenging but not overwhelming at an affective level.

7. SELF-CONFIDENCE
Learners’ belief that they indeed are fully capable of accomplishing a task is at least partially a factor in
their eventual success in attaining the task.

8. RISK-TAKING
 Successful language learners, in their realistic appraisal of themselves as vulnerable beings yet
capable of accomplishing tasks, must be willing to become “gamblers” in the game of language, to
attempt to produce and to interpret language that is a bit beyond their absolute certainty.
 Create an atmosphere in the classroom that encourages students to try out language, to venture a
response, and not to wait for someone else to volunteer language.
 Provide reasonable challenges in your techniques—make them neither too easy nor too hard.
 Help your students to understand what calculated risk-taking is, lest some feel that they must blurt out
any old response.
 Respond to students’ risky attempts with positive affirmation, praising them for trying while at the same
time warmly but firmly attending to their language.

9. THE LANGUAGE-CULTURE CONNECTION

 Whenever you teach a language, you also teach a complex system of cultural customs, values, and
ways of thinking, feeling, and acting.
 Discuss cross-cultural differences with your students, emphasizing that no culture is “better” than
another, but that cross-cultural understanding is an important facet of learning a language.
 Include among your techniques certain activities and materials that illustrate the connection between
language and culture.
 Teach your students the cultural connotations, especially the sociolinguistic aspects, of language.
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  Screen your techniques for material that may be culturally offensive.
 Make explicit to your students what you may take for granted in your own culture.

Linguistic Principles

10. THE NATIVE LANGUAGE EFFECT

 The native language of learners exerts a strong influence on the acquisition of the target language
system.
 Regard learners’ errors as important windows to their underlying system and provide appropriate
feedback on them.
 Encourage them to think directly in the target language to minimize interference errors.

11. INTERLANGUAGE
 L2 learners tend to go through a systematic or quasi-systematic developmental process as they
progress to full competence in the target language.
 Try to distinguish between a student’s systematic interlanguage errors and other errors.
 Try to get students to self-correct selected errors.
 Make sure you provide ample affective feedback.

12. COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

 Communicative goals are best achieved by giving due attention to language use and not just usage, to
fluency and not just accuracy, to authentic language and contexts, and to students’ eventual need to
apply classroom learning to previously unrehearsed contexts in the real world.
 Try to keep every technique that you use as authentic as possible: use language that students will
actually encounter in the real world and provide genuine, not rote, techniques for the actual conveyance
of information of interest.
Learner Variables

Teaching Children

INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT

 Rules stated in abstract terms should be avoided.

 Certain more difficult concepts or patterns require more repetition that adults needed.

ATTENTION SPAN

 Because children are focused on the immediate here and now, activities should be designed to capture
their immediate interest.
 A lesson needs a variety of activities to keep interest and attention alive.
 A teacher needs to be animated, lively, and enthusiastic about the subject matter.
 A sense of humor will go a long way to keep children laughing and learning. Since children’s humor is
quite different from adults’, remember to put yourself in their shoes.
 Children have a lot of natural curiosity. Make sure you tap into that curiosity whenever possible, and
you will thereby help to maintain attention and focus.

SENSORY INPUT

 Pepper your lessons with physical activity, such as having students act out things (role-play), play
games, or do Total Physical Response activities.
 Projects and other hands-on activities go a long way toward helping children to internalize language.
 Sensory aids here and there help children to internalize concepts. The smell of flowers, the touch of
plants and fruits, the taste of foods, liberal doses of audiovisual aids like videos, pictures, tapes, music
—all are important elements in children’s language teaching.
 A teacher’s own nonverbal language is important because children will indeed attend very sensitively to
your facial features, gestures, and touching.

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AFFECTIVE FACTORS

 Help your learners to laugh with each other at various mistakes that they all make.
 Be patient and supportive to build self-esteem, yet at the same time be firm in your expectations of
students.
 Elicit as much oral participation as possible from learners, especially the quieter ones, to give them
plenty of opportunities for trying things out.

AUTHENTIC, MEANINGFUL LANGUAGE

 Children are good at sensing language that is not authentic; therefore, “canned” or stilted language will
likely be rejected.
 Language needs to be firmly context embedded. Use story lines, familiar situations and characters,
real-life conversations, meaningful purposes in using language, etc.
 A whole language approach is essential. Learners need to see important connections.

Lesson 2: The K to 12 Language Arts Curriculum

In this lesson, you are to describe the salient features of the K to 12 Language Curriculum through
graphic organizers.

Philosophy

• Language is the basis of all communication and the primary instrument of thought.
• Thinking, learning, and language are interrelated.
• Language is governed by rules and systems (language conventions) which are used to explore and
communicate meaning.
• It defines culture which is essential in understanding: oneself (personal identity), forming interpersonal
relationships (socialization), extending experiences, reflecting on thought and action, and contributing to a
better society.
• Language, therefore, is central to the people’s intellectual, social, and emotional development and has
an essential role in all key learning areas.
• Proficiency in the language enables people to access, process, and keep abreast of information, to
engage with the wider and more diverse communities.

Guiding Principles

• All languages are interrelated and interdependent.

• Language acquisition and learning is an active process that begins at birth and continues throughout
life.
• Learning requires meaning.
• Learners learn about language and how to use it effectively through their engagement with and study
of texts.
• Successful language learning involves viewing, listening, speaking, reading, and writing activities.
• Language learning involves recognizing, accepting, valuing, and building on students’ existing
language competence, including the use of non-standard forms of language, and extending the range of
language available to students.

Principles of Teaching Language

• Develops thinking and language through interactive learning;

• Develops communicative competence and critical literacy;
• Draws on literature in order to develop students’ understanding of their literary heritage;
• Draws on informational texts and multimedia in order to build academic vocabulary and strong
content knowledge;
• Develops students’ oral language and literacy through appropriately challenging learning;
• Emphasizes writing arguments, explanatory/informative texts and narratives;
• Provides explicit skill instruction in reading and writing;
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 • Builds on the language, experiences, knowledge and interests that students bring to school;
• Nurtures students’ sense of their common ground in using language/s for communication as present
or future global citizens to prepare them to participate in school and in civic life, and;
• Assesses and reflects the students’ ability to interpret and/or communicate in the target language.

OUTCOMES

• The ultimate goal of the Language Arts and Multiliteracies Curriculum is to produce graduates who
apply the language conventions, principles, strategies and skills in: (1) interacting with others, (2)
understanding and learning other content areas, and (3) fending for themselves in whatever field of
endeavor they may engage in.

1. COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE
• Synthesis of knowledge of basic grammatical principles, knowledge of how language is used in social
settings to perform communicative functions, and how knowledge of utterances and communicative
functions can be combined according to the principles of discourse.
• Grammatical/Linguistic Competence - Phonological rules, morphological words, syntactic rules,
semantic rules, and lexical items.
• Sociolinguistic Competence - Pragmatic aspect of various speech acts, namely, the cultural values,
norms, and other socio-cultural conventions in social contexts where the topic of discourse, the participants’
social status, sex, age, and other factors which influence styles and registers of speech.
• Discourse Competence - Knowledge of rules regarding the cohesion (grammatical links) and
coherence (appropriate combination of communicative actions) of various types of discourse (oral and
written).
• Strategic Competence - To do with the knowledge of verbal and non-verbal strategies to
compensate for breakdown such as self-correction and at the same time to enhance the effectiveness of
communication such as recognizing discourse structure, activating background knowledge, contextual
guessing, and tolerating ambiguity.

2. MULTILITERACIES
• Traditional literacy practices using texts as well as new literacy practices using texts of popular culture
such as films.
• Social literacy encompasses how we communicate and exchange meaning in our society while
professional literacy links with the notion of literacy for school of the workplace.
• The curriculum aims to help learners acquire highly-developed literacy skills that enable them to
understand that English language is the most widely used medium of communication in Trade and the Arts,
Sciences, Mathematics, and in world economy.
• The curriculum aims to help learners understand that English language is a dynamic social process
which responds to and reflects changing social conditions, and that English is inextricably with values,
beliefs, and ways of thinking about ourselves and the world we dwell in.
• Through multi-literacy skills, learners will be able to appreciate and be sensitive to sociocultural
diversity and understand that the meaning of any form of communication depends on context, purpose, and
audience.

Framework of the Curriculum

COMPONENT 1 illustrates learning processes that will effect acquisition and learning of the language.
It explains the HOW of language learning and therefore serves as guiding principles for language teaching.
• Spiral Progression - Skills, grammatical items, structures, and various types of texts will be taught,
revised, and revisited at increasing levels of difficulty and sophistication. This will allow students to progress
from the foundational level to higher levels of language use.
• Interaction - Language learning will be situated in the context of communication (oral and written).
Activities that simulate real-life situations of varying language demands (purposes, topics, and audiences).
• Integration - The areas of language learning: the receptive skills, the productive skills, and grammar
and vocabulary will be taught in an integrated way

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 Use of relevant print and non-print resources
Provide multiple perspectives and meaningful connections.
Integration may come in different types either implicitly or explicitly (skills, content, theme, topic, and
values integration).
• Contextualization - Learning tasks and activities will be designed for learners to acquire the language
in authentic and meaningful contexts for use.
• Construction - Learning tasks and activities are designed for learners to reflect and respond to ideas
and information.
Learners will be provided with sufficient scaffolding so that they will be able to reach their full
cognitive, affective, and psychomotor potentials.
Become independent learners who are good consumers and constructors of meaning.

COMPONENT 2 describes knowledge and skill areas which are essential to effective language use
(understanding of cultures, understanding language, processes, and strategies) which will be developed
through language arts (macro-skills).
• Understanding Cultures - through text types and literary appreciation exposes learners to different
cultures of the world, including one’s culture.
• Learners develop sociolinguistic and sociocultural understandings and apply them to their use of the
language (Mother Tongue, Filipino, and English).
• Language is a complex social practice that reflects and reinforces shared understanding about
appropriate actions, values, beliefs, and attitudes within a community.
• Understanding Language - Learners apply their knowledge of the system of the language to assist
them to make meaning and to create meaning.
• They come to recognize the patterns and rules of the language which emerge as they interact with a
plethora of texts (literary and informational) to make meaning.
• Learners apply linguistic knowledge and understanding to create their own spoken, written, and visual
texts.
• Differences in language systems are expressed in a variety of ways: for example, in grammatical
differentiations, variations in word order, word selection, or general stylistic variations in texts.
• By comparing the system of the language with the systems of other languages, students understand
that each language is different, but has identifiable patterns within its own system.
• Process and Strategies - Leaners apply different language strategies, depending on their purpose,
context and audience.
• They use language as a way of coming to grips with new ideas, resolving difficulties or solving
problems.
• They use strategies such as brainstorming and discussion as a way of developing ideas.
• They clarify what they need to know when seeking information for particular purposes
• They use key-word searches and their understanding of the conventions of informational texts such as
tables of contents, headings, indexes, forewords, and glossaries as aids in locating information.
• They treat information and ideas critically and evaluate information in terms of its reliability and
currency.
• They make notes and graphic representations of information and combine information from different
sources into a coherent whole by summarizing, comparing and synthesizing.

COMPONENT 3 shows the interdependence and interrelationships of the macro-skills of the language
(listening, speaking and viewing; reading, viewing and responding; writing and representing) and the
development of thinking skills (critical thinking, creative thinking, and metacognition) allowing students to make
meaning through language.

COMPONENT 4 explains the holistic assessment of the Language Arts and Literacy Curriculum which
serves as feedback of its effectiveness to students, teachers, school administrators, and curriculum
developers.
• Holistic assessment should be effectively used to support the holistic development of our pupils.
• Holistic assessment refers to the ongoing gathering of information on different facets of a child from
various sources, with the aim of providing qualitative and quantitative feedback to support and guide the
child’s development.
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 • Holistic assessment informs our teachers of their teaching practices and guides them in the design
and delivery of student learning.
• It will also enable parents to support their children’s development and growth.
• a. Proximity to actual language use and performance: Assessment procedures should be based
on activities that have authentic communicative function rather than ones with little or no intrinsic
communicative value.
• b. A holistic view of language: Assessment procedures are based on the notion that the
interrelationships among the various aspects of language, such as phonology, grammar, and vocabulary,
among others cannot be ignored. Also the four skills of language—listening, speaking, reading, and writing
—are seen to be parts of a structurally integrated whole.
• c. An integrative view of learning: Assessment attempts to capture the learner’s total array of skills
and abilities. These dimensions include not only processes such as acquiring and integrating knowledge,
extending and refining knowledge, and using knowledge meaningfully, but also issues such as varying
student attitudes towards learning.
• d. Developmental appropriateness: Assessment procedures set expectations that are appropriate
within the cognitive, social, and academic development of the learner.
• This characteristic of assessment makes it particularly valuable for second language learners who
come from culturally diverse backgrounds and who may have atypical educational experiences.
• e. Multiple referencing: Assessment entails obtaining information about the learner from numerous
sources and through various means.
• For teachers, the primary advantage of assessment is that it provides data on their students and their
classroom for educational decision-making.

Lesson 3: The Linguistic Macro Skills and Approaches to Language Arts Teaching
In this lesson, you are to demonstrate examples of teaching strategies that promote the five macro skills
and research about the different approaches for Language Arts teaching.

ORAL SKILLS

• Listening - the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process.
There are three common modes: competitive, passive, and active.
• Speaking - is done through the vocalization of human communication. It depends on the context
wherein communication will take place. Speaking can be formal or informal.

LITERACY SKILLS

• Reading - Reading comprehension involves decoding symbols with the intention of deriving meaning
from the text. This can be used for sharing knowledge, for self-development or simply for relaxation.
• Writing - is the process of using symbols to communicate thoughts and ideas in a readable form. It
allows for a more meaningful and in-depth transmission of ideas compared to speaking. Writing follows these
processes: (1) prewriting, (2) drafting, (3) revising, (4) proofreading, and (5) publishing.
• Viewing - refers to the ability to perceive meaning from visual images and presentations. It is a
process that supports oracy and literacy and it broadens the ways in which learners can understand and
communicate their ideas. It is often described as a non-verbal communication and it has these types: (1)
visual literacy and (2) critical viewing.

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