Effective Strategies for Teaching Very Young Learners
Using Mother Tongue in VYL Education
1) Reasons to Use the Mother Tongue:
Security: Some children need time to adjust to the school environment and the target language. Using their mother tongue can ease this transition, gradually introducing more English.
Need for Communication: Children need to share information. Allowing them to communicate in their mother tongue fosters learning and builds teacher-student relationships. Their input can also be used for vocabulary and language activities.
Giving
Analysis of Auden’s Funeral Blues: Themes and Literary Devices
Funeral Blues: A Detailed Analysis
Funeral Blues, by Wystan Hugh Auden, is considered by many scholars to be one of the most important poems of the 20th century. Auden was a popular modern poet, dramatist, and literary critic whose everyday language and conversational rhythms have had a major influence on modern poetry.
In The Song IX, the poem focuses on death as an irreversible moment for every human being. The author emphasizes that although people die, relationships endure. The principal theme
Read MoreAnalysis of Humanistic, Literary, and Journalistic Texts
Humanistic Text
Definition: Linked to the study of human beings and their social activities, arts, and culture.
Features: Subjective, with a persuasive intent using arguments to defend ideas. It has an abstract and speculative character, employing various language functions (representative, appellative, metalinguistic, expressive, and poetic). It uses specific terminology.
Types of Humanistic Text:
- Recipient: Divulgate, specialized, academic
- Transmission Channel: Lecture, discussion
- Sender’s Intention:
Literary Terms and Concepts: Definitions and Examples
Metalinguistic Function
It is the function oriented towards the code. It consists in the use of the code (language) to discuss or describe itself. It is the function typically fulfilled by grammars or works of linguistics.
Stanza
Example: “The Canonization” by John Donne.
Microstyle
Includes similes, parallelisms, anaphoric references, ellipsis, rhymed verse with end-stopped and run-on lines, etc.
Suspension of Disbelief
Poetry, drama, and novels create worlds of fiction in which readers accept what is
Read MoreCEFR: Understanding Language Proficiency Levels A1 to C2
The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR)
The CEFR organizes language proficiency into six levels, A1 to C2, which can be regrouped into three broad levels: Basic User, Independent User, and Proficient User. These levels can be further subdivided according to the needs of the local context. Perhaps the most important benefit of using the CEFR as a teacher is that it gives you a much clearer picture of what learners at a given level are capable of. Basic learners differ from
Read MoreEnhancing Language Learning: Factors, Strategies, and Teacher Roles
Cognitive Factors and Learning Styles
To Learn:
- Visual
- Auditory
- Kinesthetic
To Organize Information:
- Field-independent
- Analytical or synthetic
- Reflective or impulsive
To Elaborate Information:
- Communicative
- Conformist
- Critical thinkers
- Memorizing learners
Learning Strategies
- Direct Strategies: Cognitive, compensation, memory
- Indirect Strategies: Metacognitive, affective, and social
Affects in Language Learning
Success in language learning depends less on materials, techniques, and linguistic analysis and more on
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