Teaching grammar.

1. Selection grammar material.

• Grammar for recognition.

• Grammar for use.

2. Grouping grammar phenomena according to their meaning.

3. Modes of presenting grammar.

4. Ways of explaining grammar.

• Inductive

• Deductive

5. Analysis of grammar phenomena.

6. Grammar exercises

• Receptive

• Reproductive

• Productive

Acquaintance with the chief principles of grammar selection can help you to decide whether this textbook is worth using as a teacher resource or not. And second, when you deal with the group of slow learners, it will help you to decide which material is to be used in your students’ own utterances and which they can merely understand to meet the basic standard.

Grammar

1. Grammar for speaking

2. Grammar for writing

3. Grammar for listening

4. Grammar for reading

Principles of selection:

Grammar for recognition: polysemy of grammar phenomenon (cf. “should” vs. ought to);

Grammar for use (in speaking and writing)

• Ability to serve as a pattern (stylistic neutrality)

(“I knew a women did it every night. She died of it.” “I gonna it”, “Never have I seen”)

• Removal of synonyms. It is good at the opening stage.

• Prevention of wrong associations

(Many a time… If you will do it…(polite), I demand that she come…(subjunctive), I know not (Сие мне не ведомо), He is always doing things like that (Подчеркивается раздражение))

One of the most important principles of selecting grammar material is frequency of occurrence in various types of discourse (writing, reading, speaking).

An overlapping issue is the order in which grammar material is introduced. On one hand we proceed from simple things to more challenging ones and besides new skills should interfere as little as possible with the skills already acquired.

Groups of grammar phenomena

All grammar phenomena can be classified into several groups according to the similarity or difference in the meanings of the English phenomenon and the corresponding Russian phenomena because it tells on the technique of presentation. Of course the easiest is the case where the Russian and the English variant are the same.

Groups of grammar phenomena in terms of meaning
1	Russian  English	Plural of nouns, degrees of comparison
2	Doesn’t exist in Russian	There is/are, articles
3	EnglishRussian	Took = взял, брал Would do = сделал бы, частенько делал, бывало
4	RussianEnglish	Делал = did, was doing, has been doing

1. We only have differences of form, but not of meaning. In such cases presentation need not involve much Russian. It may be based on pictures or some other kind of direct demonstration.

2. A very difficult case, you have to shape a new concept. You have to start with Russian, you need detailed comparison.

3. The phenomena in English covers a broader scope of meaning than in Russian. This is difficult, but the challenge is that of understanding. Understanding is less challenging than using and reproduction.

4. Russian is broader than English

Group 3 and 4 may overlap. E.g. “In” and “в”. They both mean inside, in emotional state, a certain period of time, but the English “in” also means “через какой-нибудь промежуток времени”. Russian “в” – «где?» and «куда?»

The procedure of presenting this grammar material is practically the same. It always involves comparison with the native language.

Group 1 phenomena.

1. We offer Russian sentence which must illustrate the difference in meaning and the students are to identify this difference. «Профессор читает лекцию» (сейчас), «Читаю я как-то газету» (прошедшее время), «Пусть отдаст книгу, он её уже месяц читает» The teacher helps students to identify each meaning.

2. What helps you identify the meaning? The general context, or specific markers (yet, often)

3. The teacher explains that some of these meanings (or one particular meaning) are rendered by a new grammar phenomena in English.

4. Нужно ли настоящее продолженное при переводе следующих предложений. Simulation translation. (Make-believe translation) Show you cards for the tenses, when you can’t show it, show the red card.

5. Which communicative intentions can be performed with the help of the new grammar. E.g. when do we need present continuous form? Describe the picture. Decline a request.

Group 2. There is\are

Look at the sentences on the blackboard

• Торт в холодильнике

• В холодильнике торт.

Which question does each sentence answer. Где торт? Что в холодильнике?

Что находится у меня в сумке \ комнате \ классе?

Modes of presenting grammar.

1. As part of the language system, obeying certain grammar rules.

2. As a model or sentence pattern (without resorting to any rules) e.g. somebody can’t help V-ing: “my sister can’t help laughing at my mistakes”

As the leading model it is a blind valley, because the students’ minds become overloaded with isolated patterns. And memory fails to function effectively if there is no general regularity. There are some grammar phenomena when this model is the only way out. That is when the rule is too complicated for learners of this age. Or if there is no rule describing this phenomenon.

3. As an inseparable lexical unit (without any substitution of its parts) “How do you do?”

Ways of explaining grammar.

• Inductive – from observation to generalization, from examples to rules

• Deductive (from rules to testing hoe they work)

The deductive way has the advantage of saving more time. Besides it is quite compatible with using various diagrams and charts. The deductive way is preferable in the upper forms, because very often there is less time for English in the ordinary classes. It reflects the mentality of teenagers who are used to all types \\\\, such as formulas, periodic tables. Their thinking is abstract and they respond well to abstract charts.

Induction is more involving, more connecting with hands-on experience, it develops guessing, power of observation and it is more concrete because it starts with example. It corresponds to the mentality of young learners. But it takes more time.

The two approaches complement each other. E.g. you may explain the material inductively in the lesson and then refer the students deductive summing up in charts, textbooks. They may come together within the same explanation. Deduction is never reduced to the teacher’s monologue which must be taken down and learned by heart. No matter whether you proceed from the rule or separate example the presentation procedure is subdivided into minimal steps (minimal study efforts) so that each step is accompanied by some kind of student involvement.

Analysis of grammar phenomena.

Tree different messages: form, usage

• The difficult sound or sound clusters “v-w” or “ing+a” or “s+th”

• The right rhythm.

• The syntactical structure (he readingS)

• Spelling problems, e.g. the doubling of short stressed vowels before “ing” or “-ed”

• Form-bilding problemds: irregular verbs, irregular verbs, irregular plural of nouns

Analysis of meaning

• How many meanings are there, all in all?

• How many should be introduced at once?

• It is necessary to introduce all the meanings at once

• It is possible to introduce two or more meanings, but actually one at a time is enough

• It is wrong to introduce all the meanings, because the nuclear one is ruined by another

• ff

5/02/10 Lecture

Grammar exercises correspond to link 4. They focus on one central grammar challenge. That is the choice being a crucial difficulty. They often corresponds to//// Which are based on the same type of structure.

e.g. fill in the blanks with “some”/”any”/”no” to express your opinion

• …students can learn a foreign language in half a year

• …animal can think

• …man (men) can live without food for a month

Reconstruct the auxiliary and have a short dialogue

• …you study English? ...it difficult? …it take much time?

Complete the sentence and act out the dialogue

• ….did you see? - I…Bill Jones

• … did you meet? - We … at the station.

• … did you go? - We … to a café

• … did you come home - I… home at 11

Finish the phrases logically

• I didn’t go to a dance on Saturday, but I…

• I saw Bill three days ago, but I…

Reproach your imaginary listener: ask why he didn’t do the same

• I got up early today. Why didn’t you …?

• I had a shower before breakfast. Why didn’t you?

• I took a dog for a walk. Why didn’t you …?

Multiple choice expressing one’s attitude

• It is (easier, more difficult, just as easy, just as difficult) to write an essay (as, than) a grammar test

• To a selfish person it is much more important to …. than to … (to love, to have loved, to be loved, to have been loved)

Make up a short monologue based on the given structures

compare any two cities you know well. Use the structure

… is as big (small) as…

… is as noisy (quiet) as…

… is as clean (dirty) as …

You can employ elements of Russian to supply the meaningful choices. (Link 5)

• I want our classes to begin (раньше, позже, в то же время)

• I’d like you to give us (больше, меньше) reading, listening, grammar drills, translation tasks, videotapes.

• I want our lessons to be (длиннее, интереснее, труднее, легче)

A substitution table makes it possible to compose a great numbers of utterances. A substitution table may correspond to link 3, 4 or even 5. Link 3 substitution tables make it possible to construct sentences rather than utterances. The difference between sentence and utterance lies in the communicative task or communicative situation.

Частичная сочетаемость

My father I My friend My parents

Am Is are

Reading Doing Making Writing Watching Washing

Morning exercises Letters Television A book Dishes Supper

It is god for presentation but not for drills.

Communicative substitution table. They make it possible to express separate ideas with listening to or listening or they enable student to compose dialogues connected utterances

А какого отношения к себе вы ждете от окружающих. hoe do you want others to think about you

I

Don’t want Always want

People My friend My teachers

To think I am a child To help me with my English To leave me alone To go for a walk with me

Mini dialogues based on sequence of tenses. Explain why you did not do somethink the other person expected you to do

Why didn’t you? come in time wake me up phone me do the shopping buy some bread

I thought I hoped I was sure I was afraid I didn’t know

Somebody else (сделает это) You (уже ушел) home You (не работаешь) on Saturday (у нас есть) enough You (занят)

Offer your listener an alternative

Shall I make tea? Shall we accept the invitation? Shall we go to the movies? Shall we finish it now?

Or would you rather

Give a polite excuse? Have some coffee? Go to a dance? Wait for John?

Sometimes a substitution table may be based on questions which should be answered so that later the student asking questions could sum up the ideas of his desk mates. or a table which requires

There are

Teachers Pupils people

who

Never read books See in the dark Enjoy taking exam Feel happy alone Enjoy to give students bad marks

Answers:

• Oh, yes, there are many people

• Oh, yes there are very few

• Oh, no there are no such people

Some substitution tables correspond to link 5 task. That is they bring together antagonistic (conflicting) structure and check how solid the skill is whether it can withstand the pressure of interference.

Do you Can you Must you Are you

Fond of (dogs, cats, cakes)? Like (skating, swimming)? Often (angry, happy, sad)? Sleep till nine? watch TV every day? Swim well? Afraid of (tests)? Always agree with teachers

And then people sum up what they have learned about each other.

An essential part of grammar exercises consist in oral drills. Stimulus responds drills. The teacher (student) provides the stimulus and the student gives a respond///

There are several types of students’ respond exercises. The simpliest type is imitation.

Listen and answer the question. Ask similar question in return

• Do you mind being criticized?

• No, I don’t. Do you mind being criticized?

Listen and say that you also think or do not think so.

• Girls work harder than boys

• I don’t think that …

Listen and agree with the speaker. Or disagree by adding “not”

• April is as warm as May, isn’t it?

• Oh, no, April is not as warm..

Listen and say that it was done a day, a year later or earlier

• TV was invented in the nineteenth century

• Oh, no. TV was invented in 20^th century

Transformation

Listen and say that that you know or do not know the answer. If you do, give it please

• When was Pushkin born? – I know, when was born in 1799!

Listen and say that you don’t deserve the praise or the critisizm

• What a sweet poem you wrote for the wall-newspaper.

• Or, but the poem wasn’t written by me

Construction

Teaching vocabulary

1. Selection of vocabulary

2. Analysis of vocabulary units

3. Presenting the meaning of vocabulary items (семантизация вокабуляра)

4. Exercises aimed at teaching vocabulary units

A study-effort (учебно-лексическая единица) a word as a paradigm of word-forms following the rules of the language (boy – boys – boy’s), in one of its meanings (or in more than one if the other meanings stem naturally and easily from the nuclear one)

Criteria for selecting (З.М. Цветкова)

• Combinability (that of the word “have” is almost unlimited; that of “clench” is reduced to “fists” and “teeth”)

• Frequency of occurrence in various types of discourse

• Word-building power (the most frequently occurred prefixes and suffixes)

• Polysemy

• Conformity to the rules of reading (requirements is vital only for the initial stage)

• Stylistic neutrality (heaven - sky)

• Structural value

“Negative criteria”

• international words (football, evolution) and geographical names, which are understood without effort;

• derivatives (write – writer; enjoy – enjoyable)

• ordinal numeral (except “first” or “second” as unidentifiable by form)

• compound words, when the meaning of the of the whole evidently proceeds from the meaning of its parts: “a letter-box”, “a reading-lamp” (but not “a hot-bed” or a “river-horse”, “sweetmeat”)

• grammar terms (these can simply be avoided unless absolutely necessary, or introduced in the mother tongue)

Decrypting value – the ability of a word to present the meanings of any others (to do, very, thing, man, person)

Cross – thematic potential – the ability of a word to be used when talking practically any topic. (warm – hearted, warm clothes, warm look, warm weather)

Analysis of vocabulary items

The form of a lexical unit is regarded in the following perspectives

• phonetics(something [sʌmmƟiŋ])

• spelling (write the word on the blackboard)

• conformity to the rules of reading (e.g. there are lots of ways in which the letter cluster – “ough” can be pronounced)

• structure: word-building morphemes

• grammar: irregular verbs, irregular plural nouns, suppletive forms like “bad-worse”, “one-first”

Meaning:

• how many meanings a word or phrase has

• which of them ought to introduce today (if the meanings of a word are too divorced from each other, like “get” as “receive” and “get” as “become”; one meaning at a time is quite sufficient; if the meaning can be brought under the umbrella of the same notion, it is advisable to give them all at once. E.g. the word ‘bag’ covers such meanings as ‘suitcase’, ‘schoolbag’, ‘purse’, ‘plastic bag’, etc., where a Russian learner will use quite different words)

• whether the word has any equivalent in the mother tongue or whether it renders a phenomenon alien to the mother tongue culture and calling for an explanation (pudding, beadle)

• whether the meaning of the Russian equivalent covers the same scope of meaning or is narrower or wider in meaning

• whether the learners are familiar with any synonyms or antonyms in the target language

The usage of a lexical unit

• its collocability (=combinability with other words)

• its cross-thematic potential (illustrate the usage of a word in different situations lest it should ‘freeze’ into just one context)

• the communicative sphere of its usage. E.g. ‘afraid’ may be used to characterize someone’s courage or cowardice, to voice someone’s premonitions, to correcr someone or refuse to do something in a polite form

• the peculiarities of its linguistic environment E.g. ‘weather’, ‘nature (as a landscape)’ never takes the indefinite article; ‘enjoy’ can’t be followed by an infinitive.

1	English  Russian	Pencil, tree
2	No equivalent in the native language (realia)	Exposure, lacunae, muffin
3	English is broader than Russian. Here we often deal with so-called ‘faux amis’ – ложные друзья переводчика	Red, brown, blue
4	Russian is broader than English	***
5	Russian is broader and narrower than English	***

19/02/10

The main criteria of choosing the strategy of explaining the meaning

1. Precision

2. Involving the students’ intellectual ability (show the picture of a cow – the big animal that gives us milk)

3. Economy (of time, of affords) – a context is a very good technique, but if the context is too detailed and too long it violates the requirement of economy.

Sometimes you can use 2 techniques at once. If a word looks like a bit like its Russian equivalent they may guess the meaning from the form, or they may failed to guess (tiger – тигр или тайга). We need a context. The context may be very short. The hunter shoot a tiger.

The Russian language is a friend, but a friend you resort to only in times of dire needs. Presenting the meaning of the vocabulary item

• Can the meaning be deduced from the form of the word (international words, derivation - friendship or word composition – letter-box)

• Do the learners know any synonyms or antonyms of the words? But sometimes antonyms can be tricky too (old). In synonyms we can rely on the word ‘very’, which describes many words (huge – very big, amazing – very strange)

• Can the exact meaning can be presented by means of direct demonstration?

• Is it possible to use enumeration – it is very useful when you present a generic word through words with specific meanings (furniture, vegetables)?

• is it possible to give a precise and laconic definition (surgeon – a doctor, who operates, thrifty – who saves money for a rainy day)?

• can the meaning of the word be deducted from the context?

• can the meaning be rendered exactly by one or two words in the mother tongue? (terms – hydrogen - водород, nitric acid – азотная кислота; words with specific meaning – видовые понятия: kinds of trees or birds) Sometimes you use Russian to show that the word has 2 meanings: man – человек, мужчина. We translate words of very abstract meaning which are difficult to define (envy)

If none of these work resort to an explanation in the mother tongue (e.g. the Russian word is broader than English – кроме как помимо и за исключением)

Exercises aimed at retaining the form of a lexical unit

1. read the contrasting pairs: fought – thought, feel – fill

2. read the following lines of words where the same letters or letter combinations may give us different sounds

bread – read – break; now – know – how - snow

3. listen to the words and show your red cards if the word means something good and tour blue cards if the word means something bad:

‘homeless’ +- =-, ‘hopeful’ ++=+; ‘fearless’ --=+

4. find and read the phrases with the same meaning as that of the first word in the line

important – not very important, not important, far from important, far from unimportant, hardly important

5. look at the line of unfamiliar words and find all those, you can understand without using a dictionary

attach, attack, attention, attract, attempt

6. find the words that have the same root

courage, courageous, carriage, encourage, current, discourage

26/02/10

1. Guess the missing word in a native language context.

Посколько на берегу не было ни лодки ни *** мы не могли перебраться на другой берег.

we teach not to be afraid of unfamiliar words (Плот). Actually such excercises teach to deal with 2 different challenges: to guess the exact meaning of an unfamiliar word and to irnore the unfamiliar word to which the cotext gives no /// and to guess the general meaning of the sentence. Both skills are equally necessary but for diffferent kinds of reading.

Она рассердилась и икснула его по голове тяжелым игриком.

We guess exactly the “X” (ударила). And in “Y” we ignore the difficulty because it doesn’t matter.

2. teach them to understand derivatives, which do not have exact equivalents in Russian.

e.g. ‘-er’. teach-teacher, sing – singer, but do-doer (человек, который совершает действие)

3. teach them to understand a famikiar word in a number of contexts which change the meaning of the word.

e.g. spot – пятно. His jacket was covered with spots.

He showed me the exact spot where the accident had happened. (место)

He answered the question on the spot.

I soon spotted what the mistake was.

swing – качаться,

They were swinging their arms.

The children were swinging on the gate.

The door swung shut. (захлопнулась)

He swung his stick dealing his enemy a mortal blow (замахнулся)

He will swing for his crime. (повесят)

You should develop your learners power of observation, showing how the same vocabulary item changes its meaning in a different linguistic environment.

e.g. consist in – consist of,

The difficulty consists in

this machine consists of

look at – look upon, sorry for – sorry about

I’m sorry for my dog (жалко) – I’m sorry about my dog.

Reproductive exercises.

Selection of several words if a larger number (набор)

Make your learners memorize the vocabulary without cramming

Name the things that can be difficult, changenble, dangeorous, things that can develop

Fashions, languages, emotions, profession, music, weather, adventures, memory, thinking, grammar, examinations, health, character.

Name the qualities which arre more or less permanent or appear only from time to time

intelligent, happy, angry, lazy, practical,

Working out analogies.

When you make analogies for the learners vary the principle of analogy. Variation of criteria does not only help to retain the vocabulary items, but has a general educational value. It prevents stereotypes. It makes thinking more flexible.

Find the intruder.

a dog, a cat, a fox, a cow, a sheep

a carpet, a bookcase, a wardrobe, a cupboard

to get well, to be treated, to recover, to get cured.

Astonished, unbelievable, surprising, incredible

Grouping vocabulary items which are relatively synonymous.

Reproduce the vocabulary items, grouping them according to their meaning “a” means “b” or “c”

illness, cure, getting cured, getting well, ailment, disease, remedy, recovery, malady, medicine, drug, affliction, convalescence.

Matching vocabulary items.

Match words and their translations into Russian

Admire Enjoy Invite Envy

Получать удовольствие от Завидовать Восхищаться Приглашать

Read the English words in the order of their Russian.

Matching words and their antonyms or matching words and contexts.

Translation exercises

Translate the word combinations in the right-hand column using the given vocabulary

speech, book, voice, adventure, answer, exam, reader, exam, question, situation, life, teacher, voice, learner

bored boring surprising surprised interested interesting exciting excited absorbing absorbed

Заинтересованный читатель Удивленный голос Увлекающая книга Пугающая ситуация Скучающий ребенок Гнетущая ситуация Вдохновляющая речь

/////////////////////////

Left-right asotiations, which develop a sense of colocability

Work Speak dance

Beautifully Coldly Slowly politely

Choose the colours for the things that look nice together.

a…dress and ….shoes a…coat and a…hat a…blouse and a …skirt a…shirt and …trouses

Black Red Blue yellow

A lexical – grammatical exercise

finish the sentence logically

this jacket is too long for me. Will you show me … one? (покороче)

this hat is too small for me. Let me try on a … one?

I’m afraid I can’t afford buying this coat. Do you have … coats of this sixe?

Lexical – grammatical phonetic exercises.

Make up utterances which you can use with the given intention.

Make up questions that you can ask if you:

are angry, want to buy some things for your friends, want to see the city

excuse me, wher is the …? shop, café,

is there a … near here?

Substitution table.

I like I don’t like I prefer

Opera Drama Comedy Pop music ballet

because

It is always beautifull It makes me feel happy It makes me feel tired It makes me laugh It is too loud It makes me think

You can even end a class with the substitution table if it leads a connected utterance with personal involvement.

Our city Ryazan Moscow	Has needs	(Too) many Few No	Clean Old Green Good Lage Modern	Buildings Squares Parks Hotels Hospitals Clubs Cars
There are

Choose the right word according to the context. (partial translation)

As a rule I (избегаю выходить) out in such weather

It was a miracle that you (избежал) death.

The origin of the Universe is a riddle that will never be (решена)

12/03/2010

*** with developing your students’ logic.

Rhythm, pronunciation drill

1. What shall I wear& I don’t care

2. You may use them, but don’t lose them

3. What have you lost? How much did it cost?

4. Shall I take my sweater? – Yes, I think you’d better

Pronunce these words and then use some of them to complete each sentence below:

Cheese, cream, jam, orange, lemon, bacon, pastry, porridge

… is (are) no good to a hungry man

… is just the right thing for lunch

… is a delicious thing to make a sandwich with

What is the good of tea without …?

Intonation and pronunciation

The first peculiarity of rhythm is that the stressed syllables come at regular intervals. No matter, how many unstressed syllables happen to be between them. The more unstressed syllables we find between the stressed ones, the more quickly they are pronounced.

If you teach students to pronounce a sentence “I am goingtothe cinemawithmy friend”

//////////////////////

Is the rhythm the same or is it different. You can start with the Russian example.

Подожди! – Не за что

Не забудь покормить кошку! – А где корм?

Ask the students to think of a Russian response, stimulus, which will have the same rhythm.

Почему ты не в школе. – А учитель-то болен. Я немного простужен.

A receptive task.

Find the sentences with **

Please help me(4). I need help (1). Read it, please (5). It is easy (3). Let’s begin (2)

1. oOO 2) OoO 3) ooOo 4) OOo 5)Ooo

Rhythm + grammar + vocabulary - Compare your city and Moscow. (см. ранее)

Rhythm + grammar + Logic

Complete the question transforming them into alternative ones.

How do you like your soup?

How do you like you porridge (eggs, potatoes, chicken, tea)

Cold – hot, strong – weak, thick – thin, with – without sugar, boiled – fried – roasted – mashed.

Rhythm is closely connected with the range and the pitch. In fact, both are presented in the traditional intonation chart of a sentence. That is why the range and the pitch may first be introduced as a special challenge, but as we go on developing it, rhythm becomes just as important. The idea of the range is related to correct breathing.

e.g. Put out a candle. You teach to divide the process of breathing out into the equal portions, teac to pronounce some elements of alphabet.

‘Back reading’ – an extended sentence is pronounce beginning with the final stressed word and then making it longer and longer

As to the tones, start with the low fall, and until it becomes truly good, don’t give them a contrasting pairs. Teach them to differentiate. The same one-word can occur with both terms.

Intonation + logic

Arrange the alternatives into logically opposed pairs

Is it

Effective Important Enjoyable Impossible Interesting

or

Dull? Unpleasant? Annoying? Unnecessary? Useless?

Only then introduce the high fall

Shaw you cards for the tones. Shaw that the speaker’s attitude changes with the tone. the meaning can be quite difficult.

It is usefull to give mini-dialogues, consisting of one sentence. Each dialogue given at least two sets of moods.

- Again!

- Again?

- Yes

- All right

Logical stress /// the same sentence into the minimal utterances. A minimal utterance is the sentence plus speaker’s intension. An utterance always answers a real questions or an imaginary one. The chief strategy t develop logical stress.

1. Back reading

There are many factories in the centre of the city

Correct the teacher

There are many factories in the suburbs of the city

In the suburbs? Why, there are many factories in the ^\centre of the _/city!

There were many factories in the centre of the city!

Were? Why, there are many factories in the centre of the city!

2. Answer the teacher’ question (after ‘back reading’)

Robinson Crusoe spent 28 years on an uninhabitated island

(Who spent.. How long... Where did he…)

3. (For beginners) Answer the Russian questions in English, beginning with ‘Oh, no’

It is a big black cat

Кто это на рисунке– черный котёнок?

Кто это там во дворе – черный щенок?

Кот серый, не так ли?

Похоже на большого черного кота, но может быть это просто пятно на фотографии.

4. (for beginners) Use the same sentence with different logical stresses to complete the following utterance.

Help me fix my bike

Нет, одному мне ремонт не под силу

С твоим-то велосипедом всё в порядке …

5. Use the same sentence in different situation, adapting the logical stress to the speaker’s purpose.

I thought you would like it

Suppose you come to your friend’s birthday with a gift. You friend is very disappointed. How do you react.

You friend is happy. It is that he wanted.

6. Continue the phrase, adapting the syntax to the logical stress which signals the meaning.

People like him …(он нравится людям, люди как он)

Work at phonetics presupposing teaching to read aloud. Don't give long passages. Choose the short passage.

19/03/2010

Major skills

Teaching listening (=aural comprehension)

1. The mechanism of speech and their aural comprehension

2. The factors that influence speech perception

3. Adapting texts for purposes of listening

4. The basic and functional skills of aural comprehension

5. Exercises aimed at developing the basic skills of listening

6. Tasks aimed at developing the functional skills of listening

Mechanisms of speech

English terms	Russian terms
Memory: Immediate (IM)	Память Непосредственная (НП)
Operational (OM)	Оперативная (ОП)
Permanent (PM)	Постоянная (ПП)
Inner reproduction	Внутреннее проговаривание
Inner speech	Внутренняя речь
Synthesis of meaning	Осмысление
Anticipation (verbal or logical)	Предвосхищение (вербальное и смысловое)
Anticipation as prognosis (= вероятностное прогнозирование) = guessing what will be written or said next	Anticipatory synthesis (упреждающий синтез) planning what you will say or write next

During aural comprehension we take in a sequence of sounds rather than separate words, a sequence from pause to pause and in order to understand it we have to fix it in our memory while analysis is taking place. This involves IM or echo-memory. IM is very precise, it keeps the wording, intonation, but it is very short-lived, just for seconds. We need it until we will have understood something.

Then comes the mechanism of inner reproduction. That is we repeat what we hear without being aware of it. This repetition is very much reduced phonetically. Actually there are no more than traces of the real words and phrases. If inner reproduction is inhibited the quality of comprehension becomes worse.

Due to this 2 mechanisms the listener is able to identify the patterns he hears and pronounces *** with the patterns of separate words which are kept in his permanent memory.

Next you have to bring this words into one meaningful sentence.

Synthesis of meaning on the sentence level. In order to comprehend the next sentence we must delete from our memory the phrase that we have understood. But for the information not to be forgotten we must preserve it in a more compact code, to zip it. It is done with the help of inner speech. Inner speech is an intermediate stage between thinking and real speech. It violates normal syntax or rather it has a syntax of its own not grammatical, but logical.

Land given to vassals

for lifetime only

then hereditary

Inner speech may also be a mixture of verbal and non-verbal signals, e.g. if you listen to instruction how to get to the railway station you can keep it in your memory as a picture or the notes kept in your memory can be half-english and half-russian. Inner speech can be compared to the text as a telegram. It is also related to very important written skills, of note-taking in reading and listening and the skills of note-taking planning your own utterance.

The memory responsible for preserving the results of inner speech is operational memory (OM). OM unlike immediate memory (IM) is not word for word retention but is the most logical kind of memory. It lasts as long as we need its results (смысловые вехи, эквивалентная замена – equivalent substitutions, the guide-line of the inner speech).

The equivalent substitutions are not stored in the OM as a mechanical sequence. This memory is related to thinking and it turns a linear sequence into the hierarchy. The hierarchy may keep getting rearranged though the whole process of listening; it is a living structure.

OM can’t function without a synthesis of meaning on the textual level. OM and synthesis are greatly helpful in anticipation which at least works as prognosis, guessing what is going to be said next.

As to permanent memory it is a kind of store room, but it is not static either, it is also a process, a dynamic structure. The information, which is likely to be used is kept nearest, within easy reach. And the information which was retained but never used again is thrown out. If you want a structure or a word to be retained they must have as many links as possible with other language items. Show it combinability.

Conclusion.

1. The importance of establishing

2. The importance of regular systematization

3. Even if you teach non-professionals pay attention to adequate pronunciation in order to ensure the mechanism of inner reproduction, otherwise they will never understand the difference between ‘then’ and ‘than’, ‘leave’ and ‘live’. Besides, adequate pronunciation makes it much easier to determine a border line between the words.

4. IM should be specially drilled with the help of different techniques such as expanding sentences.

5. The tempo of their own speech should be normal and not too slow in order that their inner reproduction should keep up with the tempo of the original speech they are listening to.

6. It is extremely important to give a concrete task before listening, never say listen to the text and try to understand, because the task given is supposed to channel the OM. The same text can be given 2 times or more, but it is desirable than each time the tasks changes.

7. To develop the mechanism of the inner speech pay a lot of attention to the skill of paraphrasing, because then you will ensure that the equivalent substitution are more likely to be in the target language than in Russian. It will also help them to build a hierarchy in the OM.

Factors that influence speech perception

1. linguistic – hinder speech perceptions, they are long/short vowels, difficult sound clusters, rhythm with the words clinging to each other, polysemy, homophony, grammatically homophones (why didn’t you say you’d let him go)

2. extra-linguistic – can also hinder speech perception, such as the speaker’s accent, or the noises in the channel of communication (traffic, crowd), they may be helpful: pictures, diagrams, directions. The timbre of the speaker – it is easier to understand a man than a woman.

Adapting texts for purposes of aural comprehension: links; the length, the vocabulary, the syntax, the density of information, cultural adaptation.

Links – do never give very long stories.

Vocabulary: there must be several levels of ***

Substitute the unfamiliar word by a familiar one. The news I heard astounded me.

Live out unfamiliar words if they are not important.

Reword the sentence like “he is not very industrious – he doesn’t like to work hard”

You put the text aside and retell it in an entirely new way.

26/03/2010

Adapting texts for the purposes of listening.

Grammatical adaptation

1. Substitute unfamiliar or barely familiar structures by simpler ones, e.g. “Far from averting this threat the government”.

2. It is advisable to break long sentences into 2 or more shorter ones. It concerns complex sentences. You should diminish the depth of subordination.

3. Some sentences, especially in a summary kind of texts are so compressed, that it is difficult to see the natural order of the events. In a case of flash backs try to arrange a straight chronology of the events.

4. If the information is very compressed it is meant for reading, not listening. Listener may miss some essential part of the message. To prevent it some vital facts might be paraphrased and thus repeated.

5. Weights and measures. This may also be adapted, that is translated into the recipient’s culture.

E.g. Frail and tender, Tutankhamon died not yet twenty, after a reign of six years. – He ruled Egypt for 6 years and then he died when he was 20.

The river was 5 feet deep.

It was not until 1990 that I encountered him again, now a university professor, and we launched a joint project.

The basic skills of aural comprehension

The phonetic skills:

1. Indentifying the sounds of the foreign language words

2. Differentiation between a word and a word combination that sounds similar (She was in white – She was invited; their – they are; minute – mean it)

3. Understanding the message on the basis of differentiating between direct and indirect speech.

4. Determining the main communicative intention of the speaker by the tones (which question is the speaker answering?)

Lexical skills:

1. The skill of identifying the contextual meaning of a polysemantic word. (spot)

2. Only for listening: differentiating between homophones.

3. Identifying the meaning of the unfamiliar word from the context. For reading and listening.

4. Understanding the meaning of an unfamiliar word on the basis of its familiar root and familiar affixes. For listening and reading.

5. Understanding the relationship between words or word combinations in an utterance as synonymic or antonymic. (sight – vision)

Grammar skills of listening:

1. Understanding the function of unfamiliar words. For reading and listening.

2. Identifying the contracted forms of verbs (he’s – he is, he has or his)

3. Identifying the subject-predicate relationships in a complex sentence. Finding the predicate in a sentence where several words can potentially belong to different parts of speech.

4. Elliptical questions (Warm enough? Going for a walk?)

Functional skills:

1. Listening to a monologue.

2. Listening to a dialogue or to a conversation of several people without taking part.

3. Listening to your interlocutor when you take part in a dialogue.

Types of exercises. Monologue:

• Listen for the gist of the message

• Listen for details.

• Selecting facts relating to the specific problems.

• Read a short text. Listen to another version of it and find what has been added in the aural version.

• Differentiating between subjection facts and subjective opinions

• Determining the form of discussion (description – narration – exposition – argumentation).

• Predicting the end of the text (for 3 both)

Dialogue:

• Determining the attitude of the speaker to each other

• Determining what opinions the interlocutors share and where they differ

• Reconstructing the missing lines

• Understand whether the fragment of dialogue you hear indicates that it is the beginning, the middle or the end of the dialogue.

• Listening to your interlocutor as your participate in a dialogue.

• Making your interlocutor stick to the point, not letting him digress or if he does digress to bring him back to the original issue

• If the conversation embarrassing your, you must listen to the interlocutor with the purpose of turning the dialogue into the new channel. But so smoothing, that your interlocutor can’t notice it

Developing the phonetic skills of listening.

Listen to words that sound similar and decide which of them should be used in the given context.

Он будет свободен завтра. free, tree, three

Listen to the words and name the number of the picture:

a cat, a cup, a cap

a pen, a pin, a pan

Listen to the phrases and show your green card if they describe the picture correctly

It’s a green cap

It’s a black cat

Listen to pairs of sentences and say if they differ or if it is the same sentence twice.

He has run home. – He has rung home.

He fought very hard. – He thought very hard

Listen to pairs of sentences and decide which of the, the first or the second suits the context given in the handout.

He has run home. – He has rung home. But nobody answered the phone

He fought very hard. – He thought very hard And soon the plan was ready

The doctor didn’t test (taste) the new medicine

He was traveling in far (four) countries

He will get a good price (prize)

We shall work (walk) in the fields

His wife found (phoned) him at the office.

Look at the sentence given in 2 variants and tick the variant that you hear.

They bought new (shorts/shirts) for the team.

(I reckon/ Erick and) I need a good holiday.

Do you know she’s (Finnish/ finished)?

We’ll be letting them have a (newer system/ new assistant) if they want one.

Intonation.

Logical stress.

Listen and repeat the most important word:

There are two big armchairs in the corner

In the corner? I see

There are two big armchairs in the corner

Two? I see

Determining the main purpose of the speaker by intonation.

Listen to a complex sentence and respond with «вот как».

I came here by bus| because my car needs to be repaired	Does it? I’m sorry to hear that
I didn’t go for a walk | because I was feeling sick	Were you? I’m sorry to hear that
I feel better now | because I am in the open all day long	Do you? I’m sorry to hear that
They are very upset | because their dog has disappeared	Has it? I’m sorry to hear that

Listen to the following sentences and choose a response which will be rhythmically the same.

/Nancy is \ill	/Give her a \pill /Phone her /brother \Bill
He /likes to /play with /other \boys	He has /many ex/pensive \toys. They /always /make an /awful \noise

Listen to some ideas. Express your agreement end choose how to respond. С такими людьми обычно так и происходит, именно поэтому так оно и получается.

/Students who are still quite young, usually have a good memory	I agree with you. That’s why they usually have good memories.
/Students who /miss /many /lectures often fail their examinations.	That’s true. Such students often fail their examinations

Listen to statements and ask a question of surprise (вот как)

He says I have to help them.	Do you really?
He says, “I am quite sure of it”	Is he really?
She says I am a wonderful singer.	Are you really?

Listen to sentences with direct or indirect speech and answer the following question.

“The elder of the two sisters” said the young man “was very attractive”	Who was very attractive? The elder sister
The elder of the two sisters said the young man was very attractive	The man

Differentiation between alternative questions and general questions with the conjunction or.

Do you keep a cat or a dog? – Yes I do, I keep a cat.

Do you Danish or Swedish? – Yes I do, I know Swedish. No I don’t

Grammar skills.

The difficulty lies in the structure, ******