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 UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGÓGICA NACIONAL

UNIDAD AJUSCO

Assignement Unit 1
Thinking about what you teach when you teach
English Language

SUBMITED BY

CLAUDIA IBETH COBIAN ACEVEDO

TUTOR´S NAME

ALMA DANIELA OTERO SOSA

México, DF. a 05 de Septiembre 2021

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 Table of Contents
...........................................................................................................................................................1
Introduction.......................................................................................................................................6
Textbooks in English Language Teaching..........................................................................................7
Analysis of materials.........................................................................................................................8
Starting Off.....................................................................................................................................8
Improving my lexis.........................................................................................................................9
Understanding Language..............................................................................................................10
Developing my Reading skills.......................................................................................................12
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................15
Appendixes......................................................................................................................................16
Bibliography.....................................................................................................................................19

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Introduction

Learning a language is sometimes a challenge and sometimes can be a frustrating

experience. Speaking a second language, not only opens new doors but also has a lot of
advantages.

“Learning another language is not only learning different words for the same things but
learning another way to think about things.” ― Flora Lewis.

Foreign language study is an important part of our education, when we learn a foreign
language, we immerse gradually into a new culture and a new vision of the world. Once
we are aware of the fact that we are all cultural beings, products of our own environments,
and that we recognize the cultural base for our attitudes and behavior, we will be ready to
consider others in a kindest way. Seeing the world from a different perspective, and
understanding where we and others come from, is a wonderful eye-opening experience.

The study of a foreign language is about learning how to communicate and connect with
people. It is an important skill that can only be polished by practicing and interacting with
people. When you speak a foreign language, you can understand what people are saying,
and you can reply back putting into practice vocabulary and grammar in the appropriate
context, making real connection and reaching the goal of communicating.

There are a lot of aspects to take into consideration at learning languages. For instance,
the way a language is taught, the way students learn the language and the communication
strategies we use as teachers.

Nowadays, in our country if you ask English teachers the question “What do you teach
when you teach English? The answers could be according to the contents that our English
language programs offer. Mostly functions, vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation reading,
writing, listening words and conversations.

On the other hand, the most important consideration is the way our students learn the
language, which lead us to analyze cultural and social factors of our students, their
learning styles, interests and needs at learning the second language.

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Finally, some other consideration we can take into account are the communication
strategies we use to make learning meaningful. According to Canale and Swain (1980)
consider that communication strategies are more likely to be acquired through real-life
communication not through classroom practice, and Bialystok (1990 p.147)) states that
“what one must teach students of a language is not strategy, but language”. These ideas
are based on studies that focus on the cognitive processes involved in Communication
strategies rather than performance and they only consider the similarities found when
comparing the second language learners’ performance with their own mother tongue
performance Faucette (2001).

As English teachers, we must consider all the aspects mentioned before and adapt them
to our context in the best way, by incorporating aspects of language that will allow students
to develop competences for expressing their feelings, objectives and thought in real life
situations.

In this assignment, we will make a quick analysis of our language textbook, where we
made a selection of different kind of texts from a specific lesson. We will describe the way
the topics are integrated by analyzing the features of the exercises and the language used
in order to understand the way our students are learning through them. We will talk about
of how our students learn through social practices, and how we integrate the language
learning into everyday life, in order to make the learning process more interesting and
relevant.

Textbooks in English Language Teaching

The textbook is one of the most common resource used in English language teaching.

According to Richards (2002: 252)., textbook is one of teaching sources that is used to
support learning through stimulating cognitive processes and providing structure and
progression for learners.

“English textbooks undoubtedly are valuable instructional material for teachers and
learners alike. They include integrated skills appropriately, feature a progressive
development of language forms and functions, and try to provide problem-solving
activities.” Gomez-Rodriguez (2010).

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 The use of textbooks in English teaching and learning has advantages and disadvantages
depending on how they are used and the context in which textbooks are used. An
advantage of using a text book is that a textbook complements a class by providing
meaningful activities and exercises. Textbooks have become the easiest and cheapest
way to help teachers in the teaching and learning process.  Good textbooks can offer
teachers and students opportunities to communicate, interact and negotiate meaning

The textbook I am using for this semester is Caption 3, by Arturo Calderon López and
Gilberto Tepo Pérez. This book was designed with all the contents and competences for
the English program of the Bachilleratos Tecnológicos. The textbook is based on cross-
curricular connections activities; inductive and cooperative learning. The book contains
meaningful speaking, writing, reading and listening activities. The vocabulary and
language are always presented in a visual way.

The unit to be analyzed is UNIT 2

TOPIC VOCABULARY GRAMMAR READING SPEAKING LISTENING WRITING
FUNCTION
What are Places and Future with Article “it Describing Conversation Write an
you going buildings going to ´s not places and argument
to do? just expressing exposing
biking! opinions in reasons they
the future have to visit a
place.

Analysis of materials

Starting Off
The opening of a lesson is a significant part of the learning activity, so the objective of this
activity is to star an opening. Teachers with the help of images, can attract students´
attention and interest by making direct questions about real life context, when we engage
students, we can assess students’ previous knowledge.

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Improving my lexis

Vocabulary is an extremely important part of English language teaching because without

sufficient vocabulary students cannot understand others or express their own ideas.
Wilkins (1972) wrote that “Without grammar very little ca be conveyed; without vocabulary
nothing can be conveyed.”

The aim of the next activity is to show some words related to places and buildings. In the
activity, students can listen to the audio while checking the spelling of each word. With
this activity teachers can teach vocabulary to build students’ knowledge of words taking
into consideration the context and the aspects of Form, Meaning and Use shown in the
chart.

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 Source: Adapted from Nation, (2001).

Understanding Language
Listening and speaking play an important role in communication. In real life, listening and
speaking are always together, that is why students must know how to speak in the target
language. Thus, teachers should teach these two skills in an integrated way in order our
students reach strong communicative competences.

In this section, students are aim to listen to a conversation where they have to identify
some actions people want to do in the future, here students can practice the socio-
linguistic competence, which involves knowledge of the socio-cultural rules of language
and the discourse in which language is used. “Socio-linguistic competence embodies the
ability to understand the context or situational reality in which we communicate something
meaningful”. Gomez-Rodriguez (2010).

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We selected the model proposed by Hymes, which has eight components labeled by the
word SPEAKING. Below we give a detailed explanation in order to give the picture of how
to understand the context of the conversation.

Esta fo
to
de
Autor
desco
nocido
está
bajo
licenci
a
CC BY-
SA

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In this speech event, Joe talks to Stephanie about his future situation

Initial Key Word(s) Explanation

S Setting and Scene The setting of this speech event could be the
school or the classroom.
P Participants Joe and Stephanie
E Ends Joe is worried about his future plans, and tries to
explain his real plans to his friend Stephanie.
A Act Sequence First Joe makes an exclamation of concern to
have Stephanie´s attention. Then Steph ask
about the situation that bothers Joe. After that,
Joe explains about the future plans his mother
has for him but he doesn´t agree and tell Steph
his real plans for the future. Then Steph s
supports his decision. Finally, Joe asks Steph
about her plans, but it seems she has changed
her mind.
K Key The tone is serious.
I Instrumentalities The channel is totally oral and the register is
totally informal
N Norms of interaction In this situation Stephanie try to be nice and
helpful.
G Genre Friendly conversation.

To complement the activity, I will organize a role-play where student could talk about their
future plans setting them in a real context.

Developing my Reading skills

According to Kennedy (1981) reading is the ability of an individual that recognize a

visual form to associate the form with the sound or meaning acquired in the past,
and, on the past experience, understand, and interpret is meaning. According to
the researcher, reading is an important skill because students can develop their
knowledge about any kind of information and adding new vocabularies.

As teacher we must have the capacity to motivate student by taking into account
their needs, interest, previous knowledge and context; The teacher has to examine
if the reading exercises in the textbook are relevant or not.

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In the next reading activity, the teacher has to discuss some questions with the
group to catch their interest. Students read and use the techniques of skimming
and scanning to look for specific information.

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We selected the model proposed by Jakobson to analyze the reading activity proposed in
the textbook. Below we give a detailed explanation in order to give the picture of how to
understand the context of the communication factors of the model.

FACTOR WRITTEN EXAMPLE

The person who writes the article, The text doesn´t present an
ADDRESSER could be a travel or a sport journalist. emotive phrase even
The addresser shows a POSITIVE though the writer shows
emotive function. positivism.
ADDRESSEE People reading the message could It sends a conative
be travelers or people who likes message try to persuade
outdoor activities. the reader by inviting
people to join the bikers
club promoting the physical
activity and cultural places
CONTEXT An article imparting information about Ecological strategy
the places where you can practice Tours around the country
the sport and its benefits.
MESSAGE Informative There are National centers
for Bicycling.
CONTACT Metal lingual function The text doesn´t contain.
CODE The social agreement linking certain It uses several images for
images to the operation linguistic conventions.

To close with the unit, and once, the students have analyzed the text, I will asked them to
talk about sports they would like to practice in the future, using the future structures taught
in the lesson.

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Conclusion

Students of English are supposed to develop communicative competences, in order to

reach their communicative goals. The activities shown in the analyzed textbook “Caption
3”, can help our students to develop some of the categories that define the notion of
communicative competence.

I consider, that the first category that could be developed with the support of the textbook
is the grammatical competence. This allows students to know and understand the
correct use of language forms. Most of the activities presented in the English textbooks are
mechanical activities. For instance, repetition, grammar study, drilling activities, fill in the
blanks, matching, etc. all of them mainly controlled by the teacher. At this point students
can reach a good level in grammar but they still unable to communicate effectively.

Another category that can be developed is the socio-linguistic competence “which

involves knowledge of the socio-cultural rules of language and the discourse in which
language is used” Gomez-Rodriguez (2010).

In my point of view, the activities and material must help ESL students to use authentic
language, in order to help students, achieve communicative language. we can
complement our English class by using authentic materials. We can involve students in
role-playing, doing interviews, through games and small group discussions.

The incorporation of authentic readings from comics, newspaper ads, magazine articles
from the web, can be significant resources that give learners an opportunity to develop
reading skills through the use of authentic materials.

The fact is that there are plenty of activities, resources, material to complement our class
for example movies and popular songs, television programs and podcasts. These are
useful task-based materials that are part of the everyday real life.

We must take into consideration the methods and approaches proposed by our programs
to cover the four basic language skills reading, writing, listening and reading

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On the other hand, we can improve the writing skills through technology. We can involve
students in on-line chats, e mails in an asynchronous and synchronous communication.
English requires more than knowing the syntactic and pragmatic aspects of the language.
It also calls for knowing how to read, write, and interact through technological devices.
With the use of authentic resources such as cell phones, tablets, as means to write e-
mails, learners become both writers and readers and are involved in authentic writing
tasks found in everyday life.

In conclusion, teachers need to supplement EFL textbooks with extra material that is
compatible with the particular situations found in language classrooms.

Appendixes

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 Bibliography

Available at: http://works.bepress.com/barbara_johnstone/53

Azarnoosh, M (2009) Communicating in a Second Language: A Matter of Teaching
Communication Strategies. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262629010_Reading_A_Meaningful_Way
_to_Promote_Learning_English_in_High_School

Barbara Johnstone and William Marcellino. "Dell Hymes and the Ethnography of
Communication" The Sage Handbook of Sociolinguistics. Ed. Ruth Wodak, Barbara
Dharma, A (2018) An Analysis of English Textbook relevance to the 2013 English
Curriculum. Journal of English Educational Study Volume 1
https://media.neliti.com/media/publications/276570-an-analysis-of-english-textbook-
relevanc-ac9a3376.pdf

Gómez-Rodríguez, L (2010). English Textbooks for Teaching and Learning English as a

Foreign Language: Do They Really Help to Develop Communicative
Competence? Education y Educators. Retrieved September 03, 2021, from
http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0123-
12942010000300002&lng=en&tlng=en.

Goyeneche A., Olaya S (2005) Reading: A Meaningful Way to Promote Learning English
in High School Profile Issues in Teachers` Professional Development.

Hymes D (1974) Foundations in Sociolingustics: An ethnographic Approach. Philadelphia

University of Pennsylvania.

Johnstone, and Paul Kerswill. London: Sage Publishers, 2010.

O´Neil, R (1982) Why use textbooks? ELT Journal. Vol. 36 No.2

Yule, G (2006) The study of language 3rd edition. Cambridge University Press

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