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Third Unknown Language Lesson

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Thales Nicoletti
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6 views

Third Unknown Language Lesson

Uploaded by

Thales Nicoletti
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Third Unknown Language Lesson

Thales Pantaleoni Nicoletti

Main aims:
By the end of the lesson, students will be able to express likes and wants in the context of an informal
conversation.
Subsidiary aims:
For students to

 count until three.


 name some colours (yellow, green, black, and white)
 names some fruit (banana, jackfruit, and mango)

Procedures
The teacher started the lesson by reviewing all the vocabulary that we had studied so far. This
vocabulary consisted of functional phrases such as “hello”, “how are you” and “my name is”. She
reviewed the words by showing us a power point slide with their corresponding sounds and their
meaning in English. She drilled the words with us, one by one, asking for repetition whenever we got
them wrong. The main aim of this activity was to recycle some known vocabulary. This first activity
was successful, because we got the chance to focus on pronouncing the sounds without having to
worry with the Malayalam alphabet.
She then introduced new vocabulary for the lesson. It consisted of words to express likes and wants, as
well as vocabulary for fruit (banana, jackfruit, mango) and some numbers (one, two and three). The
teacher drilled all the words, repeating the procedure of making everyone say every word at least one
time. The English translation was also given straightaway. She could have adopted a different
approach to teaching the new vocabulary, though. By following the meaning before form principle, she
could have made us think about the meaning of liking and wanting something to only then give away
the verbs, for example.
After this preparation phase, she proposed a task that consisted of a dialogue between the students.
Basically we had to form sentences combining all the new vocabulary that she had taught us. In turns,
we asked each other the sentences. It was quite interesting. We could formulate questions like “what
do you like” and “what do you want” to which we could respond “I want bananas”, “I love jackfruit”
or “I want two bananas”. The aim of this activity was to make us use the language being taught,
focusing on getting the meaning across. Although the teacher had to scaffold almost all the sentences
and write them on the whiteboard, we had the chance to use the language in conversation again. The
task was successful, as everyone produced a couple of sentences, interacted, laughed, and helped each
other with pronunciation.

Comparison to previous experience


Languages exist to support communication. In effect, I have noticed that, whenever the teacher
deviates from communicative tasks, my attention goes down. It is true that lessons are getting more
and more communicative as time goes on. I felt that I could really say something in Malayalam, which
is a great feeling. Moreover, we got the chance to concentrate on the pronunciation of the vocabulary,
because there was the English correspondence following each Malayalam word.
Yet the teacher kept using English as her main medium of communication. I feel that we have not had
enough exposure to internalising all the sounds and vocabulary that we have seen so far. Besides, I feel
that the teacher is relying almost entirely on dialogues for the activities. I would love to play a game
with all the vocabulary that we have learned, for example.

Contrastive analysis table

Malayalam English Analysis


Word order: “noun + adjective” or Word order: “adjective + In Malayalam, the word order can vary without
“adjective + noun” noun” changing the meaning or affecting the
grammaticality of the noun compound.
“two banana” “two bananas” In Malayalam, the noun has no plural form.
Plurality is generally given by the numeral.

Aaḷukaḷu (“the people” or “people”) The people In general, Malayalam doesn’t have definite or
indefinite articles. It relies on context to decide
whether something is definite or indefinite.

Peers’ responses
We all had similar opinions on the lesson too. We agreed that the teacher made quite a few changes.
Eric felt that his pronunciation improved because the teacher used English letters to help him to
connect what he was hearing with Malayalam letters. He felt this made him focus more on learning the
pronunciation, thus increasing his confidence in the language. Indeed, during the lesson, I even
commented that he was very confident.
Heather thought this lesson was much better than the previous lessons as the teacher taught us some
nouns/vocabulary that we could use to make our own sentences, rather than just reading a ready-made
sentence off the slide. We all shared that meaningful interaction is what really made us improve.
Kevin expressed that it is still difficult for him to remember the letters in Malayalam. As a result, if
there was no English reference, he wouldn’t be able to utter a word. We all shared this concern with
him.
Finally, I told them that I am already feeling more used to not dealing with a Roman alphabet, on
which I was congratulated.

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