Group Discussion

In groups, we had to answer some questions in class about "Motivation in the classroom".
This is the question my group had to answer: "What do the three cognitive definitions of motivation have in common?"

Answer:
The book brings us three theories about the motivation, lets see what they say:

Drive theory - the final goal of this definition is to build student's own self-esteem, using six different drives (exploration, manipulation, activity, stimulation, knowledge and ego enhancement).

Hierarchy of needs theory - "Being all that you can be". It is best viewed by a pyramid of needs that contains physical needs as its base, then emotional needs and on the top there are esteem and self-actualization.

Self-control theory - It says that the most important is to make people "decide for themselves" what to think, feel or do. Motivation is higher when one can make one's own choices.

As we can see, all of them are student centered theories and the main goal is to build student's self-esteem and self-confidence in order to achieve the Autonomy.

Let's talk about ourselves!

Hello everybody!
We feel pleasure if you could answer some question for us:
· When you discovery a teacher or an interpreter inside yourself?
· Is the course reaching yours expectations?
· What do you think about work with blogs in the classroom?
I hope you post comments with the answers in my blog.
Thank yoooou!
=)

Across the universe

The film shows a couple, Jude and Lucy, whose have different opinions. Behind a love story, we have a world full of war and violence. Jude is an artist and he isn’t so worried about the violence while Lucy is fighting against the Vietnam’s war because her brother was there. She spends most of her time in a political group which she believes is a peace group but Lucy realize that they are as violent as the other people. After their relationship end, they go on your lifes. By the end of the movie, Lucy and Jude decide fight together for the love.
With Beatle’s songs, they present a censure to nowadays society who forgets how to defend our ideals and only live a life imposed by the others.

Here, you can see a part of the film, with the music "All you need is love".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-sU4xZur8A&NR=1

Teaching Methologies - My conceptions

Getting to know each other..

Hello people!
Please, if you could, I would appreciate if you answered some of this questions about the course you are taking:

• Are you already teaching? If you are, do you like it?
• What's your favorite subject at the university?
  
• What do you want to do after finishing your course?

Hope to hear from you soon, thank you, bye bye :]

My table about the methodologies..

My class presentation about..

The Direct method:

• was estabilished in Europe around 1900;
• only the target language is used in class;
• grammar is taught inductively;
• both speech and listening comprehensions are taught;
• was created as an answer to the Grammar Translation Method.

The Audiolingual Method:

• also known as the Army Method;
  
• it is based on behaviorist theory;
• only the target language is used in class;
• emphasizes listening and speaking;
• use drills and repetitions, no explicit grammar instruction.

Immersion programme and natural approach

Immersion programme is a form of bilingual education in which children who speak only one language enter a school where a second language is the medium of instruction for all pupils.
For example, there are schools in Canada for English-speaking children, where French is the language of instruction.
If these children are taught in French for the whole day it is called a total immersion programme, but if they are taught in French for only part of the day it is called a partial immersion programme.

Natural approach can be:
1 - A term form a number of language-teaching methods which were developed in the 19th century as a reaction to the grammar translation method. These methods emphasized:
• The use of the spoken language
• The use of objects and actions in teaching the meanings of words and structures.
• The need to make language teaching follow the natural principles of first language learning.
These methods lead to the direct method.

2 – A term for an approach proposed by Terrell, to develop teaching principles which:
• Emphasize natural communication rather than formal grammar study.
• Are tolerant of learners’ errors.
• Emphasize the informal acquisition of language rule.

Classroom Speaking Activities

This is the summary of a text we read in class, we were supposed to do it in groups:

In the text, the author talks about how to deal with activities that involve speaking and working in groups in a classroom. He divides the activities in three different groups.

> Acting from a script: It’s basically a role-play activity, where they have to act out scenes that are given by the teacher. In most cases the students have to go to the front of the classroom and present what they have prepared. The author enforces that the teacher needs to be careful when choosing the first students who go to the front. He says we have to ask the most confident students first and then go to the others.

> Communication games: They are normally imported from radio and TV. They normally work in pairs or groups like a competition that can involve scores and prizes. One example of it is the “Twenty Questions game”, a guessing game where one student answers questions made by his classmates that are trying to guess what he/she has in mind.

> Discussion: In this activity, the students have to discuss about a difficult or popular situation. He suggests that the students first write the topics that they agree and disagree and then rehearse in small groups and only after that, the teacher should open the discussion to the whole classroom. He also brings a real problem: when students are not comfortable to give their opinion and that’s why he suggests the written and the small groups’ preparation.

HARMER, Jeremy. The practice of English language teaching. 3rd edition, Longman

We tried to make a parody..

I wanna go to the mall (Another brick in the wall - Pink Floyd)

I don't want to pay attention
To that teacher so slow
I hope my docs come here soon
Uniso, leave my pocket alone
Hey! Uniso! My knowledge is gone
In the end I just wanna go to the mall
My friend you'll become nothing after all..


and here comes another one..


Another chick for all (Another brick in the wall - Pink Floyd)

I don't want no starvation
I am becoming so slow
I have a knife but not a spoon
Chicken, I wanna eat your bones
Hey! Chicken! Let me eat your bones
In the end the chick won't be here next fall
I don't care cause he was tasty after all