Pytania egzaminacyjne – pyt. Od 31 do 40

Q 31 Klepacki Paweł

Q: What methods and techniques can be effectively used in the process of teaching listening comprehension? Describe the process in brief.

A: The most appropriate method in the process of teaching listening comprehension is the Audio-Lingual Method. This Method emphasizes the teaching listening and speaking before reading and writing.
The method is based on behaviorism. Students listen to or view recordings of language presented in the form of dialogue. They practice with a variety of drills, and teacher emphasizes the use of the target language at all times. The idea is that by stimulating and reinforcing 'correct' behaviors, students will make them into habits by responses. In this method, the teacher controls students' language imitations and corrects inappropriate responses as quickly as possible.
The method should be used in the classroom by means of teaching aids such as CD records and visuals like movies as stimuli. The technique has to be followed by comprehension activities such as question and answer, filling gaps in a dialogue or repetitive drills with great importance attached to pronunciation.
The teacher can use:
- one-phase exercises in the classroom. In this activity, students give a response controlled by the teacher prelude by the stimulus.
- listening to the text followed by comprehensive questions. The comprehensive questions after listening allow students being familiar with the subject.
- Listening to the text followed by its summary. The teacher asks student to summarize the text in 2-3 sentences. It is focused on giving the evidence of understanding the text.

Q 32 Pulik Katarzyna
Q: Define interlanguage and present the stages of interlanguage development.

A: Interlanguage is the type of language produced by second language learners who are in the process of learning a language. In language learning, learner’s errors are caused by several different processes. These include:
a. borrowing patterns from the mother tongue,
b. extending patterns from the target language,
c. expressing meanings using the words and grammar which are already known.

Interlanguage

- the term which was introduced by Larry Selinker in 1969

- according to Selinker, interlanguage is a kind of competence in the target language which is the resultant between the linguistic competence of the mother tongue and the linguistic competence of the target language.

- interlanguage appears as any deviation from a language rule of a given language system (usually a foreign or second language) which may be present in the spoken or written form while a language user submits some language rules of L2 to the language system of L1.

- in consequence, interlanguage is a language system which usually appears at an intermediate stage of second language learning.

A comparison between a learner’s first language and a second language would predict errors that a learner would make while learning the latter: the greater the difference, the more likely an error.

The errors occur as a result of interference when the learner transfers first language habits into the second. In fact, error analyses of learners’ interlanguage show that many errors that might be predicted on the basis of contrastive analysis do not occur.

THE STAGES OF INTERLANGUAGE

The stages of learner language development are directly related to error appearance, and their treatment. They are as follows:

random errors: this is the stage where the learner is not fully aware of his/her deviation from the language rule;

emergent stage: which is a stage where the learner, although aware of some errors, is not able to correct them;

systematic stage: at which the learner gives evidence of his/her linguistic competence, especially when he/she is given guidance and the committed error has been pointed out by the teacher;

stabilization: this is the stage where the learner is able to self-correct.

The last stage is a moment when learners can stabilize too fast allowing minor errors to slip by undetected.
If errors are not corrected, they become fossilized.
A fossilized error is one that has become a permanent feature of a learner’s interlanguage.
FOSSILIZATION – the relatively permanent incorporation of incorrect linguistic forms into a learner’s second language competence.

Q 33 Bogusz Iwona

Q: What are the fundamentals and educational assumptions of the Cognitive Approach? Describe briefly a lesson constructed according to the principles of the Cognitive Approach.

A: Fundamental assumptions of the Cognitive Approach comes from Cartesius. Present-day appellation (Cognitive Approach) comes from Cartesius’s sentence - ‘Cogito ergo sum’ that brings us to the term of cognitivism.

Cognitive means ‘though process’. Cognitive approach deals with:

mental processes like memory and solving,

perception

language as a way of explaining and understanding human behavior.

When we apply a cognitive approach to learning and teaching, we focus on the understanding of information and concepts. If we are able to understand the connections, then our retention of material and understanding will increase. There are few assumptions that are central to the Cognitive Approach. One is that human behavior can be understood by scientific processes. The cognitive approach assumes that behavior can be controlled and changed by reasoning and analysis. Another assumption is that human behavior is a series of responses to external stimuli mitigated by people’s thoughts, perceptions, moods, and desires. The Cognitive Approach is student-centered. In other words, the student find out for themselves in a self-directed way. Strategies include case studies, researches, discussions, self-assessment and presentations. The variety of situations will prepare students for all spontaneous situations when he would use only his knowledge to response. The responses are also the result of insight and intentional pattering.

Students themselves should find out the answer to the question. The main idea for the lesson could be work with the text. Firsty students could work with the text. Secondly, they could discuss the main topic of the text and at the end express their own opinion about the topic.

Q 34 Alaba Dorota

Q: Point to advantages and disadvantages of FLT based on Grammar Translation Method. Can the method be used in the contemporary teaching? Why?

A: Grammar Translation Method is a foreign language teaching method derived from the classical way of teaching Greek and Latin. The stress is put on the study of the rules of grammar and vocabulary memorization as the basic for translating texts from one language to another.

Advantages:

Focuses on grammar, sentence structure and word meanings.

This method is least stressful for students. Learners have no difficulties to understand the lesson as it is carried out in the mother tongue.

It helps to gain reading proficiency in a foreign language.

Tests of grammar rules and of translations are easy to construct and can be objectively scored.

Along with its advantages, the Grammar Translation Method comes with many disadvantages. They are as follows:

It is unnatural method. The natural order of learning a language is listening, speaking, reading and writing. In the GTM the teaching of the second language starts with the teaching of reading. Thus, the learning process is reversed.

Speech is neglected. The GTM puts emphasis on reading and writing, neglecting speaking. Therefore, little or even no attention is given to pronunciation.

Classes are taught in the mother tongue with little active use of the target language.

Reading difficult texts begins early.

Occasional drills and exercises are done in translating sentences from L1 to L2.

Much vocabulary is taught in the form of lists of isolated words.

Little attention is paid to the content of texts, which are treated as exercises in grammatical analysis.

This method gives learners the wrong idea of what language is and of the relationship between languages. Language is seen as a collection or words which are isolated and independent.

Exact translation is not always possible. A language is the result of various customs, traditions, and modes of behavior of a speech community, and these traditions differ from community to community.

Nowadays, Grammar Translation Method can be effectively used in the teaching of adults. Their opportunity of abstract thinking help them to quickly and easily understand rules and grammar phenomena. The method can be used, but not as the only way, but as one of the methods which is used only in the case to furnish students with linguistic knowledge. In case of children that method is ineffective because of the critical period (age 10-12).

Q 35 Kładź Monika
Q: What is Franz Bopp’s contribution to the development of second language education?
A: Franz Bopp established the importance of Sanskrit in the comparative study of Indo-European languages ( 3 main groups of Slavic, German and Latin languages) and developed a valuable technique of language analysis. In his work he attempted to describe the original grammatical structure of the languages, trace their phonetic laws, and investigate the origin of their grammatical forms. (For example we can compare the rules of grammar in the Polish and English language because).He compared Indo-European languages and found similarities and differences between them. (Polish and English have the same roots so they are similar). This comparison gave an evidence that these language come from one common language. Franz Bopp made us understand that in teaching a second language teachers should point to similarities between languages, show that they ale related and similar, therefore easy to learn. It can make students be interested in learning a second language.

Q 36

Q: What is the linguistic approach which owns much to the philosophical doctrine of John Locke? Comment on your choice.

A: The linguistic approach is the inductive approach and it is connected with Structuralism and the Audio Lingual Method. They owe to John Lock through empiricism which was a philosophical doctrine that claimed that knowledge can only come from sensory experience. Therefore the inductive approach which claims that teaching language starts with examples and asks learners to find rules perfectly matches this philosophy.

Q 37 Niewińska Agnieszka

Q: Discuss Constructivism in relation to its 4 main principles.

A: Constructivism is a philosophy of learning, founded on the premise that by reflecting on people’s experiences, they can construct their own understanding of the world . Everyone generates his/her own rules and mental models, which are used to make sense of the experiences. Learning therefore, is the process of adjusting mental models to accommodate new experiences.

1.Learning is a search for meaning, therefore it must start with the issues around which students are actively trying to construct the meaning.

2.Meaning requires understanding the whole as well as the parts. Parts must be understood in the context of the whole, not as isolated facts.

3.In order to teach well, it is necessary to understand the mental models that students use to perceive the world and the assumption they make to support those models.

4.The purpose of learning is for an individual to construct his/her own meaning, not just memorise the right answers and follow someone else’s meaning. Since education is interdisciplinary, the only valuable way to measure learning is to make the assessment part of the learning process ensuring it provides students with information on the quality of their learning.

Q 38

Q: What is Stephen Krashen’s contribution to the development of foreign language teaching methodology?

A: About 32 years ago, a psychologist named Stephen Krashen transformed language teaching. He had been developing his ideas over a number of years, but several books he published in the 1980s received widespread acceptance. They quickly became the most widely accepted way, explaining the twin processes of language teaching and learning.

Much has been made of Krashen's theory of second language acquisition, which consists of five main hypotheses: The acquisition-learning hypothesis, the monitor hypothesis, the natural order hypothesis, the input hypothesis, and the affective filter hypothesis.

The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis

There are two ways of developing language ability: by acquisition and by learning. Acquisition is a sub-conscious process, as in the case of a child learning its own language or an adult 'picking up' a second language simply by living and working in a foreign country. Learning is the conscious process of developing a foreign language through language lessons and a focus on the grammatical features of that language.

The Monitor Hypothesis

We are able to use what we have learned (in Krashen's sense) about the rules of a language in monitoring (or self-correcting) our language output. Clearly, this is possible in the correction of written work. It is much more difficult when engaging in regular talk.

The Natural Order Hypothesis

Language is acquired in a predictable order by all learners. This order does not depend on the apparent simplicity or complexity of the grammatical features involved. The natural order of acquisition cannot be influenced by direct teaching of features that the learner is not yet ready to acquire.

The Input Hypothesis

We acquire language in one way only: when we are exposed to input (written or spoken language) that is comprehensible to us. Comprehensible input is the necessary but also sufficient condition for language acquisition to take place. It requires no effort on the part of the learner.

The Affective Filter Hypothesis

Comprehensible input will not result in language acquisition if that input is filtered out before it can reach the brain's language processing faculties. The filtering may occur because of anxiety, poor self-esteem or low motivation.

Q 39 Górecka Natalia

Q: What is the main role of the teacher in the Communicative Approach? Work out your view on the basis of your reading and experience.

A: Communicative approach

The method focuses on the communicative needs of learners and the relationship between language learned in the classroom and the language used outside the classroom. The task is to develop communicative competence, and therefore often takes the form of classes: working in pairs or groups requiring negotiation and cooperation between students, the task based on fluency, which strengthens the confidence of students, role-playing in which students practice and develop features of language.

The teacher in Communicative Approach may play a few roles, such as: controller, organizer, assessor, prompter, participant, resource

The main role of the teacher in Communicative Approach is the role of controller.

The teacher plays the role of controller when he is totally in charge of the class. He controls not only what the students do, but also what language they use. The controller takes control of the tasks posed in front of the students. The teacher is in charge of the class and of the activities taking place in the class.

The teacher as a controller inspires students, effecting their knowledge and personality. The role of the teacher as a controller also has the task of restoring discipline in the classroom, during lectures, to give instructions or ask questions.

Q 40 Budnik Barbara
Q: What roles does the teacher have to play to facilitate the learning of English? Focus on one of the roles and discuss it thoroughly.
A: We can enumerate such functions as: controller, facilitator, prompter, assessor (evaluating students’ works and tests), participant and tutor (guiding the students and helping them in their projects and tasks).
CONTROLLER – is in charge of the class and of the activity taking place. Controllers take the register, organize drills, read aloud and exemplify the qualities of a teacher-fronted classroom.