63 PARTE II
1. Na minha opinião, o vídeo motiva-me na aula de Inglês porque _______________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ Ou
2. Na minha opinião, o vídeo não me motiva na aula de Inglês porque ____________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________
Muito obrigada pela tua colaboração!
A Mestranda,
64
APÊNDICE A2 – Resultados do questionário
65
Parte II
Afirmação Frequência Percentagem
1. Na minha opinião, o vídeo motiva-me na aula de Inglês porque... 19 95% 2. Na minha opinião, o vídeo não me motiva na aula de Inglês porque... 1 5%
Total
Razões apresentadas
Afirmação Categorias Frequência
1. Na minha opinião, o vídeo motiva-me na aula de Inglês porque... "torna mais fácil a compreensão da matéria em estudo" 7
"é uma maneira diferente de aprender, é mais interessante" 6
"deixa-me mais à vontade para me expressar em Inglês" 5
"ajuda a compreender melhor a língua" 4
"não se torna tão aborrecido e cansativo como um texto" 3
"tem imagens e assim consigo entender melhor as palavras e o contexto onde são utilizadas" 2
"os vídeos mantêm-nos concentrados porque ficamos atentos a tentar retirar informação útil" 2
"sinto-me mais próxima/mais em contacto com a língua inglesa" 1
Afirmação Categorias
66 APÊNDICE B1
10th Form – Level VI LESSON PLAN 1 Date: 8th November
Topic: The technological world Timing: 90 min.
Theme: The impact of technology on people’s lives
Lesson Rationale
The purpose of this lesson is to introduce and explore the theme The impact of
technology on people’s lives, which corresponds to the topic of the syllabus – The technological world. With this lesson students will become aware that the world has
changed due to technological advances but these changes can either have a positive or negative effect on people’s lives. Students are supposed to recognize already some facts and aspects related to this theme through their previous knowledge since it is a global issue and has a connection with the real world. Consequently, these students won’t have major problems in discussing such issues since they belong to a generation that grew up with technology.
In the previous unit, students were working on the topic A multilingual world which somehow establishes a connection to the topic students will be dealing with now. Students studied some themes associated with the technological world, such as teenagers’ relationship with the internet, cinema and video games. In this way, they already acquired some vocabulary which may be significant and useful for this topic although their previous knowledge on this issue comes mostly from their own experience and observation of technological progress in their daily lives, as mentioned in the first paragraph.
The materials for this lesson were selected considering the applied methodology since everyone has different teaching styles and techniques for meeting teaching objectives. In this lesson (and in most of the following lessons) there is definitely a dominant methodology and style of teaching, with far less use of other styles. The teacher prefers to use audio-visual materials (e.g. cartoon strips, pictures, audio CD’s, DVD’s, charts, flash cards, etc.) as a way to achieve the teaching aims and enhance the learning environment. Of course this methodology is not based on teaching with the course book but on alternative materials. Along with this style, there is a tendency to promote group discussions and collaborative work rather than
67
individual work, a teaching method used by the teacher to provide greater interaction between teacher and students and among students. The use of materials and strategies will be explained later throughout the development of the lessons.
Background information
The class has twenty 10th grade students – eight boys and twelve girls. Most of the students are Portuguese but there are also some students of different nationalities, such as Brazilian and African. Anyway, for all of them English is considered their second language. Concerning their linguistic competence, most of the students don’t display significant difficulties when asked to communicate in English, although they need to be corrected on some basic language mistakes, especially when writing. Therefore, speaking activities, like group discussions, motivate them. They always enjoy it when they can talk about themes that play an important role in their lives and have the opportunity to express their opinions.
The student’s relationship with each other is good and they seem to be interested in learning English due to their active participation in the tasks proposed. In general, there is a pleasant atmosphere inside the classroom and there aren’t significant problems with student’s behavior.
Overall aims
By the end of the lesson, students will be able to: - learn some vocabulary about technology;
- identify the positive and negative effects of technological advances on people’s lives;
- talk about their own experience, by discussing how technology changed their lives in order to practice their speaking skills and share ideas with their colleagues.
Development of the lesson STAGE 1 – Lead-in (20 min.) Specific aims
In this stage students will be able to:
- describe some cartoons that portray situations about the impact of technology on people’s lives;
- identify the topic of the lesson by exploring the cartoons;
68 Procedures:
The lesson starts with a pair work exercise, in which each pair gets a different cartoon. S’s are asked to observe and analyze their cartoons, and then write a comment on them (at least one sentence required).
When they have written their comments, the teacher asks each pair to tell them and share their ideas with the class. Before S’s start speaking, all the cartoons are projected on the wall so that everyone has access to the information. Teacher will participate in this discussion and add any important idea if necessary. This “sharing” of information will direct them to the topic of the lesson and create some interest in what they are going to work with.
After all cartoons are discussed, teacher will ask S’s to guess what the lesson is about and then to point out all the words in the cartoons that they associate with
technology.
Possible problems/solutions: Probably S’s won’t be able to understand the meaning of some words in the cartoons but as the teacher will collaborate in this task, she will clarify any vocabulary if needed.
Resources / Materials: Computer / Video projector; Handout Nr.1
Material references: Cartoons source - website http://www.cartoonistgroup.com
Why use cartoon strips? I’ve chosen to use these humorous cartoons in the classroom because I think these materials can create a more positive, fun, interesting environment that promotes class attendance and student learning. It helps to gain students' attention and keep their interest in the material being presented. Besides that, it’s a way of breaking down barriers to communication between the students and the teacher as well as among students.Students will be less intimidated and less inhibited about asking questions or making comments. As Chiasson (2002) points out in his article about using humour in the second language classroom, “Humour, along with encouragement and praise should be one of the many useful tools used by language teachers to make their classrooms more inviting and conducive to learning.”17
17
About using cartoons in the classroom, I found some interesting ideas in: Chiasson, Paul-Emile. Online Article: Using Humour in the Second Language Classroom; The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. VIII, No. 3, March 2002 (Source: http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Chiasson-Humour.html)
69 STAGE 2 – Pre-Listening (10 min.)
Specific aim
In this stage students will be able to:
- point out some positive and negative aspects of technological advances, through a brainstorming exercise and by getting ideas from the cartoons analysed previously so that they get some important ideas for the next activity.
Procedures:
The teacher writes the expression Technological advances in the center of the board (on one side mentioning positive aspects and on the other side, negative
aspects).
Now that S’s know the topic they will be working with and to prepare them for the listening task that comes next, they are asked to mention positive and negative aspects of technological advances. Teacher adds that they can get some ideas from the cartoons analysed previously.
While teacher registers on the board the information given by S’s, they are asked to write it down too.
Possible problems / solutions: Brainstorming exercises can sometimes be chaotic, especially when S’s start suggesting daft ideas or deviate from the topic. To avoid these situations, the teacher should keep the brainstorming objective simple and allocate from the beginning a time limit. The teacher’s job as a facilitator is to encourage everyone to participate, to dismiss nothing and to accept S’s suggestions rather than criticising but at the same time, the teacher should prevent S’s to “go off the path”. At the end of the time limit or if ideas have been exhausted, teacher should combine and refine the random ideas.
Resources / Materials: Board/Marker; Board Scheme (teacher developed)
Why choose a brainstorming exercise? This activity works as a preliminary vocabulary exercise to acquire some important ideas about the theme. This will help S’s to perform the following task, where they will have to use some of the notions learnt. This type of exercise can also remind students of existing knowledge. At the same time it can direct their minds towards ideas that they will find in the main activity. In this way, it provides a link between new and existing knowledge.
70 STAGE 3 – Listening Comprehension (30 min.)
Specific aim:
In this stage students will be able to:
- identify changes and criticisms about technology mentioned in the interviews S’s are going to listen to.
Procedures:
Teacher plays an interview about some people who were asked about how technology has changed their lives. S’s are asked to listen carefully to it and fill in a table with at least 5 changes and 5 criticisms mentioned in the interviews.
If necessary, the teacher plays the interview twice. Correction is done on the board by the teacher.
In the end, there is a discussion about all the aspects mentioned. In order to start the discussion, the teacher asks students which aspects of the interview they can associate with their own experience, which they think are more relevant and/or which they agree/disagree with.
Possible problems / solutions: Because the listening track is too long and a little repetitive and S’s are asked to write no more than 5 items for each topic, students may get tired and there may be some difficulty in choosing and summarizing the main points. One solution is not playing the whole interview by selecting the most important speeches (the ones that are more relevant to the theme). Another possibility is to play the entire interview and throughout the correction, focus on the most significant changes and criticisms mentioned in the interviews and try to link or consolidate S’s suggestions.
Ur (1996) emphasizes this problem when talking about learner difficulties in listening: “Get tired – This is one reason for not making listening comprehension passages too long overall, and for breaking them up into short ‘chunks’ through pause, listener response or change of speaker” (p.112).18
Resources / Materials: Teacher’s Audio CD 1 (track 32); Computer; Loudspeakers; Board/Marker; Handout Nr.2
Material references: Teacher’s Audio CD 1 - Coursebook Trends 10ºano - Editora
Santillana-Constância; Fill-in chart (Handout Nr.2) – teacher developed
18
To support some of the ideas on my reflection about possible learner problems in listening, I used Penny Ur’s book: A Course in Language Teaching, Cambridge University Press (Module 8 p.111-112).
71
Why apply an audio material instead of presenting a text?
I’ve chosen to use a listening comprehension task instead of presenting a text because it’s important to bring students into contact with authentic language commonly found in real situations. In my opinion, considering the theme of the lesson, it’s more appropriate to listen to an interview rather than to read a text. In this way students have the chance to hear people talking about their opinions and experience with technology in their daily lives. The use of authentic listening materials develops students’ communicative skills, stimulates and motivates students to comprehend the content of an oral text, particularly when such materials are relevant to the students’ life and areas of personal interest. As we can read in Ur (1996), she stresses the importance of listening activities in language teaching: “It is worth noting also that listening activities based on simulated real-life situations are likely to be more motivating and interesting to do than contrived textbook comprehension exercises” (p.107).19