How to Pronounce 'ESTIVAL' - English Pronunciation
In this episode, Linda takes on the pronunciation of the word "estival". Enjoy the episode!
Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next.
The beliefs and attitudes of teachers concerning language teaching procedures are highly relevant for the criteria they use to decide for or against adopting a certain kind of teaching materia.
Seeing that most teachers decide for using textbooks, the choice of a certain book also depends on this academic and professional backgroun.
All course books should be chosen based on its educational values and whether or not it meets the program objective.
Most importantly, students should learn something beyond just simple practices of ABC?.
The major premise of an academic curriculum should aim at developing students? intellectual abilities in subject areas that are most worthy of stud.
The use, of course, books in the classroom is very common because the course books have the advantages of being visually appealing, easy for the teacher to prepare, and the activities fit well into the timetabl.
However, from the researcher?s own teaching experience, there are several problems and issues with the course books such as uninteresting topics, repetitive activities, and not enough language exposur.
This in terms may affect the student?s learning attitude and motivatio.
It was suggested that if course books are to be used, it is necessary for the teacher to prepare and develop other activities, especially extensive reading to keep the classroom atmosphere more interesting and the students more interested in what they are learnin.
Advantages, of course, books; From the school administration and some teacher?s point of view, there are several advantages for basing the curriculum on a series of course book.
First, the course books have a clearly identified set of achievement objectives which include what the learners are expected to be able to do and what to expect nex.
These ready-made syllabi contain carefully planned and balanced selection of language content that can be easily followed by teachers and student.
Second, when the teachers are teaching each unit in the course books, there is a consistency in the topics and genres in the four skills area (listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
This allows for greater autonomy in the learning proces.
In addition, many inexperienced teachers may find course books to be useful and practical because the ready-made activities and lessons are easy for the teacher to prepar.
In many of the course books, the designers even have prepared achievement tests for each unit of study and a teacher?s manual to guide the teacher in their instructio.
Finally, course books are the cheapest and most convenient ways of providing learning materials to each studen.
All of these reasons make using course books a very popular choice in the English learning curriculu.
Disadvantages, of course, books; There are a number of issues to consider when using course book.
First, most course books contain a lot of activities where students do \"questions and answers\.
After a few lessons, many students may find the learning process boring and uninterestin.
In addition, the reading selections in the course books are often quite short and they often fail to present appropriate and realistic language model.
The second issue that teachers should consider is student motivatio.
Most college students expect their English courses to be something different from their high school English classe.
So when we give them course books that are similarly designed as their past learning materials, the students may quickly lose their interest and motivation to stud.
This is because the similarities in the course books may cause the students to feel bored due to the ?sameness? or ?repetitiveness? of the lessons and activitie.
This is a major problem because the English courses are designed around using a single course book for the whole academic yea.
It may be relatively easy for students to be motivated; however, the challenge is sustaining that motivatio.
Although motivation can be sustained through varied class activities, if the content of the course book is uninteresting and repetitive, then sustaining the motivation will be problematic for the teacher no matter how hard they tr.
Finally, although most course books are well organized with many different kinds of activities, however, they do not provide enough details in other aspects of language stud.
A good example would be in the study of gramma.
The grammar section in each unit of the course book usually does not provide enough explanation or practice question.
Relying on the course book to provide the students with adequate knowledge of grammar would not be enough, especially when a teacher spends between two to three weeks to cover a single unit of the course boo.
This means that in a typical semester, students only receive between four to six different types of grammar instruction, a number far behind from what they could have been studying if the students had a grammar textbook where they can study a different unit every week with lots of practice activitie.
Solutions The following suggestions are proposed to make any English program that relies on course books more effectiv.
First, if a course book is to be used, outside reading materials will need to be added to the curriculu.
This would greatly increase and develop the student?s language abilit.
In language learning, reading is considered one of the most important lessons for the learne.
Researchers in extensive reading have shown many beneficial effects on student.
knowledge as well as general knowledge of the worl.
Other recent studies have also shown that students who participated in extensive reading increased gains in the areas of vocabulary knowledg.
One possible explanation for the increase is that students acquire new words incidentally through reading thousands and thousands of words every da.
Learning vocabulary this way may be considered more effective than rote memorization because through reading interesting texts, students learn new vocabulary and review old one.
By increasing the amount of reading, especially reading for pleasure, it can increase both vocabulary knowledge and reading rat.
Outside reading materials could also enhance student motivation especially if they find the reading passages from the course book too easy or uninterestin.
After all, the students who are using these course books are young adults and they should be gaining knowledge from their readings, not just coming to class to practice Englis.
With the use of outside reading materials, the teacher can also design many different activities for the classroo.
For example, if the class is reading a short story, the teacher can use class discussions as a form of conversation practic.
Teachers can also have students do different kinds of presentations based on their reading.
These activities would be more challenging for the students than the question and answer activities found in most course book.
Another suggestion is to add grammar studies to the language progra.
A grammar textbook contains the detailed explanation of grammar rules and offers more practice questions than those found in a typical course boo.
The teacher can plan and devote part of the class time each week to teaching new grammar rule.
This would not only help with student?s writing but also in other areas as well such as speakin.
The sooner we can get our students to use a correct English, the more confidence they will hav.
All of the activities above would make the classroom more interesting in which the students are more involved with the activities rather than just listening to the teacher and doing questions and answers from the course boo.
External factors that influence; Apart from the teacher?s style, external features count in the decision for choosing a certain language teaching materia.
The commonest are the size of the group of learners, the facilities, and devices available in the classroom, space, lighting, the acoustics in the room, and temperatur.
Additionally, other aspects such as the price of the material, the duration of the class, curricular issues, administrative demands and the purpose the course of English is meant to serve, have to be taken into consideratio.
Concerning this last feature it is relevant to analyze the true objectives of the course, that is, what learners should be expected to attain at the end of i.
Furthermore, it is important to consider the learners? age, their social condition and their previous knowledge of the target languag.
Besides, teachers should also evaluate what kind of English and what aspects of the language to focus o.
The way the authors of this book address the teachers, by counseling them to be the ones who have the control over the course book, shows some good intention on the part of some authors and editors in order to produce more meaningful and flexible teaching material.
Seeing that most teachers decide for using textbooks, the choice of a certain book also depends on this academic and professional backgroun.
All course books should be chosen based on its educational values and whether or not it meets the program objective.
Most importantly, students should learn something beyond just simple practices of ABC?.
The major premise of an academic curriculum should aim at developing students? intellectual abilities in subject areas that are most worthy of stud.
The use, of course, books in the classroom is very common because the course books have the advantages of being visually appealing, easy for the teacher to prepare, and the activities fit well into the timetabl.
However, from the researcher?s own teaching experience, there are several problems and issues with the course books such as uninteresting topics, repetitive activities, and not enough language exposur.
This in terms may affect the student?s learning attitude and motivatio.
It was suggested that if course books are to be used, it is necessary for the teacher to prepare and develop other activities, especially extensive reading to keep the classroom atmosphere more interesting and the students more interested in what they are learnin.
Advantages, of course, books; From the school administration and some teacher?s point of view, there are several advantages for basing the curriculum on a series of course book.
First, the course books have a clearly identified set of achievement objectives which include what the learners are expected to be able to do and what to expect nex.
These ready-made syllabi contain carefully planned and balanced selection of language content that can be easily followed by teachers and student.
Second, when the teachers are teaching each unit in the course books, there is a consistency in the topics and genres in the four skills area (listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
This allows for greater autonomy in the learning proces.
In addition, many inexperienced teachers may find course books to be useful and practical because the ready-made activities and lessons are easy for the teacher to prepar.
In many of the course books, the designers even have prepared achievement tests for each unit of study and a teacher?s manual to guide the teacher in their instructio.
Finally, course books are the cheapest and most convenient ways of providing learning materials to each studen.
All of these reasons make using course books a very popular choice in the English learning curriculu.
Disadvantages, of course, books; There are a number of issues to consider when using course book.
First, most course books contain a lot of activities where students do \"questions and answers\.
After a few lessons, many students may find the learning process boring and uninterestin.
In addition, the reading selections in the course books are often quite short and they often fail to present appropriate and realistic language model.
The second issue that teachers should consider is student motivatio.
Most college students expect their English courses to be something different from their high school English classe.
So when we give them course books that are similarly designed as their past learning materials, the students may quickly lose their interest and motivation to stud.
This is because the similarities in the course books may cause the students to feel bored due to the ?sameness? or ?repetitiveness? of the lessons and activitie.
This is a major problem because the English courses are designed around using a single course book for the whole academic yea.
It may be relatively easy for students to be motivated; however, the challenge is sustaining that motivatio.
Although motivation can be sustained through varied class activities, if the content of the course book is uninteresting and repetitive, then sustaining the motivation will be problematic for the teacher no matter how hard they tr.
Finally, although most course books are well organized with many different kinds of activities, however, they do not provide enough details in other aspects of language stud.
A good example would be in the study of gramma.
The grammar section in each unit of the course book usually does not provide enough explanation or practice question.
Relying on the course book to provide the students with adequate knowledge of grammar would not be enough, especially when a teacher spends between two to three weeks to cover a single unit of the course boo.
This means that in a typical semester, students only receive between four to six different types of grammar instruction, a number far behind from what they could have been studying if the students had a grammar textbook where they can study a different unit every week with lots of practice activitie.
Solutions The following suggestions are proposed to make any English program that relies on course books more effectiv.
First, if a course book is to be used, outside reading materials will need to be added to the curriculu.
This would greatly increase and develop the student?s language abilit.
In language learning, reading is considered one of the most important lessons for the learne.
Researchers in extensive reading have shown many beneficial effects on student.
knowledge as well as general knowledge of the worl.
Other recent studies have also shown that students who participated in extensive reading increased gains in the areas of vocabulary knowledg.
One possible explanation for the increase is that students acquire new words incidentally through reading thousands and thousands of words every da.
Learning vocabulary this way may be considered more effective than rote memorization because through reading interesting texts, students learn new vocabulary and review old one.
By increasing the amount of reading, especially reading for pleasure, it can increase both vocabulary knowledge and reading rat.
Outside reading materials could also enhance student motivation especially if they find the reading passages from the course book too easy or uninterestin.
After all, the students who are using these course books are young adults and they should be gaining knowledge from their readings, not just coming to class to practice Englis.
With the use of outside reading materials, the teacher can also design many different activities for the classroo.
For example, if the class is reading a short story, the teacher can use class discussions as a form of conversation practic.
Teachers can also have students do different kinds of presentations based on their reading.
These activities would be more challenging for the students than the question and answer activities found in most course book.
Another suggestion is to add grammar studies to the language progra.
A grammar textbook contains the detailed explanation of grammar rules and offers more practice questions than those found in a typical course boo.
The teacher can plan and devote part of the class time each week to teaching new grammar rule.
This would not only help with student?s writing but also in other areas as well such as speakin.
The sooner we can get our students to use a correct English, the more confidence they will hav.
All of the activities above would make the classroom more interesting in which the students are more involved with the activities rather than just listening to the teacher and doing questions and answers from the course boo.
External factors that influence; Apart from the teacher?s style, external features count in the decision for choosing a certain language teaching materia.
The commonest are the size of the group of learners, the facilities, and devices available in the classroom, space, lighting, the acoustics in the room, and temperatur.
Additionally, other aspects such as the price of the material, the duration of the class, curricular issues, administrative demands and the purpose the course of English is meant to serve, have to be taken into consideratio.
Concerning this last feature it is relevant to analyze the true objectives of the course, that is, what learners should be expected to attain at the end of i.
Furthermore, it is important to consider the learners? age, their social condition and their previous knowledge of the target languag.
Besides, teachers should also evaluate what kind of English and what aspects of the language to focus o.
The way the authors of this book address the teachers, by counseling them to be the ones who have the control over the course book, shows some good intention on the part of some authors and editors in order to produce more meaningful and flexible teaching material.
