Wednesday, February 24 2016
Week 6: Develping speaking skills
Susana Constanza.
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After the readings of the articles of week 6, something that comes to my mind is our native language. Since birth, humans are acquiring the first language; the first thing that children learn is speak. Similarly, learners of second language should learn to speak firts.The first article is based on speaking. I notice that computers are significant to help students to develop their speaking skills, through the creation of situations that allow learners to communicate, interact with others, and work together. In the spoken language competence I found interesting aspects: mechanical and meaningful aspects. In general terms, computers provide a diversity of opportunities to help learners to develop their speaking skills, focus on pronunciation and communication .It remain me the Communicative Language Teaching method focused on students to use the second language in the classroom for communication, so this situation students could develop their speaking skills through the use of technology .
Further, a quotation that calls me the attention was many learners feel more comfortable when they practice in front of their computers (Kataoka 200). The principal purpose of using CALL to teach a second language is provide to students an authentic and stimulating conversational environment .The internet can be used to generate communication and students could use their target language .Also, is remarkable to mention that using videos can provided an significant learning , in terms of teaching writing, grammar and vocabulary . We are enriched by those tools, however we can discover advantages and disadvantages, but as a future teachers we could analyze and categorize the best methods and tools to applicant CALL in Teaching Spoken English .
Your opinion about how children should learn to speak first is really interesting. I had not seen it like that and I cannot do more than to agree with you. According to that thought I also think that computers provide a wide range of opportunities to practice speaking skills. Normally, teachers focus their search online on grammar and listening exercises, which is not bad at all, but they forget about speaking exercises or sites that helps students to communicate with others. Thus, these articles have very important suggestions for us as teachers. I liked your reflexion for this week‘s reading, Susana.
ReplyDeleteHello susi, let me tell you that I am totally agree with the idea that second language students should learn to speak first, since we must set aside the bad feeling of making mistakes because if we do not practice our speaking skill we wont improve it, so for my, it is kind of interesting to encourage students to speak first. Moreover, the quote that you mentioned it is a big true because students can feel more confident when they are infront of the computer in a peaceful environment and for this they are able to practice pronunciation as many times as they want, without the fear of making mistakes infront others.
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