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Language syllabus design

zabihjavanbakht — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:45:45 GMT

موضوع و متن كنفرانس هفته آينده ام

Language syllabus design

Type A Tradition

 It consists of both structural and functional syllabus
 Aspects of Grading a syllabus (McIntosh and strevens,1964)
1. Staging
2. Sequencing
 Selection and Gradation of Vocabulary
1. Frequency of occurrence
2. Coverage
3. Range
4. Availability
5. Learnability (Mackey, 1965)
a. Similarity of the L2 word to its L1 equivalent
b. Demonstrability
c. Brevity
d. Regularity of form
e. Learning load represented by a new word
6. Two other factors:
a. Opportunism
b. interest
 Structure selection
1. Frequency
2. Coverage
3. Learnability and teachability
 Structure Grading
 Frequency
 Ergonic combination
 Concreteness
 Proportion
 General expediency

Teaching Pronoun Usage: Don't Trust Your Ear

zabihjavanbakht — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:16:12 GMT

Teaching Pronoun Usage: Don't Trust Your Ear

The tip for how to teach pronoun usage is not to trust your ear. If you trust your ear, you would have said the answer to the example above would have been "him." You would have been wrong. You have to stick to the rules, regardless of the way it sounds. If you know the rules, use the rules, and apply the rules, there is no reasons why you should miss pronoun usage questions.
Object Pronouns
Object pronouns usually, but not always, are located at the end of sentences. Common object pronouns are us, him, her, us, you, etc. Object pronouns follow objects: direct objects, indirect objects, and objects of the prepositions. If you do not know how these grammatical concepts function, I suggest you review them before moving on so you will be able to recognize direct and indirect objects as well as objects of prepositions. Here is an example: The letter was addressed to him. To is the preposition, so you know that you have to use an object pronoun, which is him.
Assessing Student Understanding
After explaining the concept to students write ten sentences on your SMARTboard and see if students understand the concept. For example: (He, Him) went to school. Obviously, the answer is he as "he" is the subject of the verb.
After students understand how to use subject and object pronouns, introduce who and whom to students. This concept, often dreaded by students, is just as easy as using he/him.

Teaching : An Honorable Profession of Today

zabihjavanbakht — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:27:24 GMT

Teaching : An Honorable Profession of Today

In all over the world, teaching as a career option is considered as one of the noble professions of today. A teacher has full authority and responsibility to mould his students. For building a career in teaching, one should have some different skills and training at different levels. Teachers can make the future of their students by rousing their curiosity and by watching them grow.

For becoming a teacher, one should have to do different areas of specialization for nursery schools, primary schools, high schools, middle schools, colleges and universities etc. For each type of level, an individual must have different types of expertise. People, who love children, can start their career as a teacher in schools and on the other hand, one who wants to mentor young people, should teach in college or university. For being a teacher, the only important thing is that you should be expertise in your field. The basic qualities of a teacher are patient, perseverant, ready to adopt the students' demands and pleasing personality. Being successful in this profession, one should able to understand the students' psychology. With his intelligence, wisdom and patience, a teacher can influence on the students in a positive manner. Students consider their teachers as their role model.

In building a career in teaching, one should have to do a professional course from the reputed institute. Some of professional courses are NTT course, B.Ed, M.Ed and so on. Sharda Group of Institutions also offers B.Ed program at its affiliated college. Now this institute has also established a private university i.e. Sharda University in Greater Noida under Act 14 2009 of UP State Legislative and approved by UGC. B.Ed. Program of the institute is affiliated to Dr. B.R. Ambedakar university, Agra that is formerly known as Agra University. The eligibility criteria for taking admission in B.Ed program at SGI Institute is required Bachelor's degree in any discipline with minimum 55% marks. This institute believes in delivering high level education to the students with the help of its accomplished faculty members. In short, teaching as a career option is a challenging option for everyone because teachers are responsible for making one's career.

Written by Mukesh Kumar
from:http://www.eduq.com/Articles/Teaching--An-Honorable-Profession-of-Today.aspx

Approaches to Foreign Language Syllabus Design

zabihjavanbakht — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 14:55:12 GMT

Approaches to Foreign Language Syllabus Design

This "Digest" is based on the ERIC/CLL "Language in Education" series monograph entitled "Approaches to Syllabus Design for Foreign Language Teaching" by Karl Krahnke, available from Prentice-Hall/Regents for $11.33. To order, write to: Book Distribution Center, Route 59 at Brook Hill Dr., West Nyack, NY 10994 or call: 1-800-223-1360.

THE PLACE OF THE SYLLABUS
A language teaching syllabus involves the integration of subject matter (what to talk about) and linguistic matter (how to talk about it); that is, the actual matter that makes up teaching. Choices of syllabi can range from the more or less purely linguistic, where the content of instruction is the grammatical and lexical forms of the language, to the purely semantic or informational, where the content of instruction is some skill or information and only incidentally the form of the language. To design a syllabus is to decide what gets taught and in what order. For this reason, the theory of language explicitly or implicitly underlying the language teaching method will play a major role in determining what syllabus is adopted. Theory of learning also plays an important part in determining the kind of syllabus used. For example, a syllabus based on the theory of learning espoused by cognitive code teaching would emphasize language forms and whatever explicit descriptive knowledge about those forms was presently available. A syllabus based on an acquisition theory of learning, however, would emphasize unanalyzed, though possibly carefully selected experiences of the new language in an appropriate variety of discourse types.
The choice of a syllabus is a major decision in language teaching, and it should be made as consciously and with as much information as possible.There has been much confusion over the years as to what different types of content are possible in language teaching syllabi and as to whether the differences are in syllabus or method. Several distinct types of language teaching syllabi exist, and these different types may be implemented in various teaching situations.

SIX TYPES OF SYLLABI
Although six different types of language teaching syllabi are treated here as though each occurred "purely," in practice, these types rarely occur independently of each other. Almost all actual language teaching syllabi are combinations of two or more of the types defined here. For a given course, one type of syllabus usually dominates, while other types of content may be combined with it. Furthermore, the six types of syllabi are not entirely distinct from each other. For example, the distinction between skill-based and task-based syllabi may be minimal. In such cases, the distinguishing factor is often the way in which the instructional content is used in the actual teaching procedure. The characteristics, differences, strengths, and weaknesses of individual syllabi are defined as follows:
1. "A structural (formal) syllabus." The content of language teaching is a collection of the forms and structures, usually grammatical, of the language being taught. Examples include nouns, verbs, adjectives, statements, questions, subordinate clauses, and so on.

2. "A notional/functional syllabus." The content of the language teaching is a collection of the functions that are performed when language is used, or of the notions that language is used to express. Examples of functions include: informing, agreeing, apologizing, requesting; examples of notions include size, age, color, comparison, time, and so on.

3. "A situational syllabus." The content of language teaching is a collection of real or imaginary situations in which language occurs or is used. A situation usually involves several participants who are engaged in some activity in a specific setting. The language occurring in the situation involves a number of functions, combined into a plausible segment of discourse. The primary purpose of a situational language teaching syllabus is to teach the language that occurs in the situations. Examples of situations include: seeing the dentist, complaining to the landlord, buying a book at the book store, meeting a new student, and so on.

4. "A skill-based syllabus." The content of the language teaching is a collection of specific abilities that may play a part in using language. Skills are things that people must be able to do to be competent in a language, relatively independently of the situation or setting in which the language use can occur. While situational syllabi group functions together into specific settings of language use, skill-based syllabi group linguistic competencies (pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and discourse) together into generalized types of behavior, such as listening to spoken language for the main idea, writing well-formed paragraphs, giving effective oral presentations, and so on. The primary purpose of skill-based instruction is to learn the specific language skill. A possible secondary purpose is to develop more general competence in the language, learning only incidentally any information that may be available while applying the language skills.

5. "A task-based syllabus." The content of the teaching is a series of complex and purposeful tasks that the students want or need to perform with the language they are learning. The tasks are defined as activities with a purpose other than language learning, but, as in a content-based syllabus, the performance of the tasks is approached in a way that is intended to develop second language ability. Language learning is subordinate to task performance, and language teaching occurs only as the need arises during the performance of a given task. Tasks integrate language (and other) skills in specific settings of language use. Task-based teaching differs from situation-based teaching in that while situational teaching has the goal of teaching the specific language content that occurs in the situation (a predefined product), task-based teaching has the goal of teaching students to draw on resources to complete some piece of work (a process). The students draw on a variety of language forms, functions, and skills, often in an individual and unpredictable way, in completing the tasks. Tasks that can be used for language learning are, generally, tasks that the learners actually have to perform in any case. Examples include: applying for a job, talking with a social worker, getting housing information over the telephone, and so on.

6. "A content-based-syllabus." The primary purpose of instruction is to teach some content or information using the language that the students are also learning. The students are simultaneously language students and students of whatever content is being taught. The subject matter is primary, and language learning occurs incidentally to the content learning. The content teaching is not organized around the language teaching, but vice-versa. Content-based language teaching is concerned with information, while task-based language teaching is concerned with communicative and cognitive processes. An example of content-based language teaching is a science class taught in the language the students need or want to learn, possibly with linguistic adjustment to make the science more comprehensible.

In general, the six types of syllabi or instructional content are presented beginning with the one based most on structure, and ending with the one based most on language use. Language is a relationship between form and meaning, and most instruction emphasizes one or the other side of this relationship.

CHOOSING AND INTEGRATING SYLLABI
Although the six types of syllabus content are defined here in isolated contexts, it is rare for one type of syllabus or content to be used exclusively in actual teaching settings. Syllabi or content types are usually combined in more or less integrated ways, with one type as the organizing basis around which the others are arranged and related. In discussing syllabus choice and design, it should be kept in mind that the issue is not which type to choose but which types, and how to relate them to each other.
PRACTICAL GUIDELINES TO SYLLABUS CHOICE AND DESIGN
It is clear that no single type of content is appropriate for all teaching settings, and the needs and conditions of each setting are so idiosyncratic that specific recommendations for combination are not possible. In addition, the process of designing and implementing an actual syllabus warrants a separate volume. Several books are available that address the process of syllabus design and implementation both practically and theoretically (see For Further Reading section; the full-length monograph includes a 13-item annotated bibliography of basic works on syllabus design and a 67-item reference list). These books can help language course designers make decisions for their own programs. However, a set of guidelines for the process is provided below.
Ten steps in preparing a practical language teaching syllabus:

1. Determine, to the extent possible, what outcomes are desired for the students in the instructional program. That is, as exactly and realistically as possible, define what the students should be able to do as a result of the instruction.

2. Rank the syllabus types presented here as to their likelihood of leading to the outcomes desired. Several rankings may be necessary if outcomes are complex.

3. Evaluate available resources in expertise (for teaching, needs analysis, materials choice and production, etc.), in materials, and in training for teachers.

4. Rank the syllabi relative to available resources. That is, determine what syllabus types would be the easiest to implement given available resources.

5. Compare the lists made under Nos. 2 and 4. Making as few adjustments to the earlier list as possible, produce a new ranking based on the resources' constraints.

6. Repeat the process, taking into account the constraints contributed by teacher and student factors described earlier.

7. Determine a final ranking, taking into account all the information produced by the earlier steps.

8. Designate one or two syllabus types as dominant and one or two as secondary.

9. Review the question of combination or integration of syllabus types and determine how combinations will be achieved and in what proportion.

10. Translate decisions into actual teaching units.

In making practical decisions about syllabus design, one must take into consideration all the possible factors that might affect the teachability of a particular syllabus. By starting with an examination of each syllabus type, tailoring the choice and integration of the different types according to local needs, one may find a principled and practical solution to the problem of appropriateness and effectiveness in syllabus design.

FOR FURTHER READING
Alexander, L.G. (1976). Where do we go from here: A reconsideration of some basic assumptions affecting course design. "English Language Teaching," 30(2), 89-103.
Dubin, F., & Olshtain, E. (1986). "Course design: Developing programs and materials for language learning." Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gattegno, C. (1972). "Teaching foreign languages in schools: The silent way (2nd ed.)." New York: Educational Solutions. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 157 403)

Krahnke, K.J. (1981). "Incorporating communicative instruction into academic preparation ESL curricula." (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 210 915)

Mohan, B. (1979). Relating language teaching and content teaching. "TESOL Quarterly," 13(2), 171-82.

Steiner, F. (1975). "Performing with objectives." Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

ABOUT THE MONOGRAPH

"Approaches to Syllabus Design for Foreign Language Teaching," by Karl Krahnke, includes chapters on the place of the syllabus in language teaching, six types of language teaching syllabi, and choosing and integrating syllabi, as well as individual chapters devoted to each of the six types of syllabi defined here.

General Knowledge

zabihjavanbakht — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:38:18 GMT

General Knowledge

We know that there are 7 special facts :
- 7 days in a week
- 7 colors in rainbow
- 7 layers of heavens
- 7 continents in the world
- 7 oceans in the world
- 7 orbits in an atom
- 7 layers of the earth
MATHEMATICS
1* 7 + 3 =10
14* 7 + 2 =100
142* 7 + 6 =1000
1428* 7 + 4 =10000
14285* 7 + 5 =100000
142857* 7 + 1 =1000000
1428571* 7 + 3 =10000000
14285714* 7 + 2 =100000000
142857142* 7 + 6 =1000000000
1428571428* 7 + 4 =10000000000

BIOLOGY
Most Mammals’ neck has 7 bones.
The no. of opening into the human’s head is :
mouth , 2 eyes , 2 ears , 2 nostrils .
CHEMISTRY
The most abundant gas on earth,
NITROGEN, has atomic No. 7
There are 7 Rows in the periodic table
The HALOGEN are found in group 7
The PH of pure water is 7

PHYSICS
There are 7st Base units:
Meter, Kilogram, Second, Kelvin, Mole and Candela
There are 7 colors in the visible light:
red, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet
The atmosphere consists of 7layers:
Troposphere, Stratosphere, Ozonosphere, Mesosphere, Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Exosphere
ASTRONOMY
There are 7 visible ( to the naked eye ) STELLER OBJICTS:
Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupitar, Venus, and Saturn

سلامی دوباره

zabihjavanbakht — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:40:18 GMT

سلام دوستان عزیزم.........ببخشید خیلی دیر اومدم......درگیر امتحانات و پروزه های آخر ترم بودم....خلاصه درس زبانشناسی کاربردی این ترممون رو اینجا اوردم امیدوارم مفید باشه.

Overview

Applied linguistics has been considered a subset of linguistic principles or theories to certain more or less practical matters (Brown 1976, Kaplan et al 1981).
Second and foreign language teaching, translation, and speech therapy are typical areas of practical application.
Although the primary aim of applied linguistics may not be the development of theoretical linguistics, applied linguistics may still do research under the heading of theoretical linguistics.
Applied Linguistics
 In a broad sense, applied linguistics is concerned with increasing understanding of the role of language in human affairs and thereby with providing the knowledge necessary for those who are responsible for taking language-related decisions whether the need for these arises in the classroom, the workplace, the law court, or the laboratory.
Issues in applied linguistics
Language and acquisition/learning
Language and assessment
Language and research methodology
Language and translation/interpretation
Language and cognition
Language and brain
Language and culture
Language and society
Language and policy
Language and media
Language and technology
Second Language Acquisition

Early Modern English

zabihjavanbakht — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:46:13 GMT

Early Modern English

By Kamil Wiśniewski Sep 10th, 2007

Modern English language had been subdivided into Early Modern English which was used from the fifteenth century, more or less up to end of the seventeenth century, or according to some scholars even in the eighteenth century, and Modern English was used from that time till now. Only recently was this division renewed as with the end of the twentieth century the time perspective enabled linguists to look at the English language (learn English :-) from a different angle and thus nowadays Modern English is subdivided into Early Modern English and Late Modern English (more or less 1700-1900), while the language used in the twentieth and twenty first century is called Contemporary English, or sometimes Present Day English.

There are numerous factors influencing the development of the English language in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The technological advances enabled faster travels, therefore people started visiting different parts of Britain more often and so the dialects blended. At that time in America sound voices supported the division between British and American English. Dictionaries were published in the USA which provided deliberately distinct norms of spelling to make the American variety more distinguishable. In addition to that many new words came from the British colonies with the new concepts, inventions customs and scientific discoveries.

The grammatical peculiarities of the Late Modern English are divided into two types: changes in syntax which begun in Early Modern English and continued till that time, and totally new aspects introduced in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. The former include the use of ‘do’ in questions and negatives which became a standard at that time. Moreover, the rules regarding the use of wh-relatives: who, whom, whose, which became standardized and more stable. Innovations introduced in the Late Modern English include the ‘be + -ing’ construction not only in Present Continuous tense, but also in passives. Also at that time the two schools of approaching grammar emerged. According to some linguists grammarians should only describe the language as it is actually used, while others provided rules that should be obeyed in the ‘correct’ English. The long discussion between the representatives of the two different schools of thought is still serious.

In the period of Late Modern English the standard of pronunciation which is aimed at by all the contemporary learners of English as a foreign language, namely Received Pronunciation (RP), emerged. Since that time Received Pronunciation has been a standard for noblemen and upper class of society in Great Britain. However, unlike nowadays in the Late Modern English RP the phoneme was pronounced in all positions.

When it comes to the sources of Early Modern English loanwords what is interesting is the fact that at that time the Englishmen opposed the influx of French words to their language. Thus the major sources of lexis were Latin and Greek. According to current estimates about two thirds of loanword of Late Middle English have either Latin or Greek etymology.

Brown K. (Editor) 2005. Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics – 2nd Edition. Oxford: Elsevier.

Ways of presenting English grammar

zabihjavanbakht — Tue, 19 May 2009 16:20:25 GMT

Ways of presenting English grammar

Contexts, prompts and methods used in grammar presentation in the language classroom:

Model sentences for oral practice + picture e.g. The butcher's got some meat. He hasn't got any lamb. Contrasting sentence pairs.

Question & Answer e.g. pattern practice drills of both the "meaningless" and "meaningful" variety.

Dialogues e.g. A. I'd like some bacon, please. B. I'm sorry, we haven't got any. Streamline Departures - Yes, dear. Did you get any bread?

Situations e.g. I'm going to pack / take a bus to….. Robert O'Neill's "English in Situations" See also the situations and conversations in Kernel Intermediate. Julia.

Demonstration e.g. prepositions of place - I'm going to put the cassette tape into the cassette player.

Texts e.g. The sun shines more in Spain than in England. Contextualization.

Grammatical explanations - e.g. "some" used when the quantity is definite for plural or uncountable"

Diagrams - e.g. Time Line for Present Perfect v Past Simple

Drawings

Translation

Grammatical explanations in student's mother tongue

Students' suggestions - e.g. activation of previous language knowledge through The Silent Way

Language bath - Suggestopaedia

Development of writing

zabihjavanbakht — Tue, 12 May 2009 15:54:22 GMT

Development of writing

By Kamil Wiśniewski, Aug. 12th, 2007

The oldest cave drawings representing important information were made 20,000 years ago and clay tokens with marks suggesting some writing attempts are about 10,000 years old, yet they are considered to be only the precursors of writing and not fully developed writing systems. The first systematic writing systems were developed about 5,000 years ago. Cave drawings are treated as a tradition of pictorial art as the history of writing systems starts with pictograms.

A pictogram is a drawing which is used in a consistent way in order to represent an object. Thus, a form such as might be used to represent sun. It is remarkable that thanks to the conventional relationship between the symbol and its referent users of different languages should understand the meaning of pictograms in a similar way, as with the contemporary pictograms in common use:

With time the sign representing sun might develop into a more symbolic and abstract form, like for example, and start to be used with several additional meanings such as ‘heat’ and ‘daytime’. Then, such a type of symbol is no longer a pictogram, but it is a part of a system based on idea-writing called ideogram. The difference between pictograms and ideograms is that the former represent their referent in a conventional way and the latter are more abstract and arbitrary, as well as less picture-like.

When a further development of the writing system occurred one symbol started to represent one word. A writing system based on arbitrary relationships between the written form and the object it represents is known as word-writing or logogram. The oldest logographic writing was used by the Sumerians about 5,000 years ago, yet because of the shapes they used as symbols their writing system is known as cuneiform. The arbitrary forms of logograms have no resemblance to the entities they represent which the example of cuneiform symbol for sun clearly shows: .

The next step in the development of writing was using symbols to represent the sounds of language. In rebus writing the symbol for an entity starts to be used as the symbol for the spoken word, subsequently used in any place the sound of the word occurs. In such a way it is relatively easy to reconstruct how this system worked. Taking the pictogram as an example, supposing it developed into the logogram meaning ‘eye’. In rebus writing it could be used always when the sounds which are pronounced when saying ‘eye’ are used as in ‘I’, or ‘cross-eye’. Therefore, you might refer to yourself as , or to the latter example as .

The last but one step of writing system development towards the most popularly used system nowadays is the syllabic writing. In syllabic writing (also known as syllabary) each symbol represents one syllable. The first fully developed syllabic writing systems were used by Phoenicians in between 3,000 and 4,000 years ago. The final stage of the evolution of writing systems so far is the inventing writing by use of an alphabet. An alphabet is a set of symbols in which one symbol represent one sound. Interestingly, the first alphabets of languages such as Arabic and Hebrew consisted only of sounds representing consonant. The history of the majority of alphabets used nowadays can be traced back to the Phoenicians and their writing system.

Finch G. 1998. How to study linguistics. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan. Yule G. 1996. The study of language. Cambridge: CUP.

Authentic Materials

zabihjavanbakht — Tue, 05 May 2009 16:26:45 GMT

Authentic Materials

The question of authenticity as applied to learners at different levels
AUTHENTICITY - REAL COMMUNICATION

EXAM TITLE: Some extremists argue that no language used in a classroom can be "real" because of the very fact that it is used in a classroom. Others would argue that classroom language is as real as any other language. In other words, the language teacher need not make any concessions towards authenticity. What in your view are the criteria that make the use of language in a classroom "real" and what kinds of activity do these criteria give rise to? (Question from David Jones' RSA Course in Stockholm).

It is probable that much of the criticism of "language used in the classroom" has arisen as a result of the limited view of language which underlies many syllabuses.