User:Fatty/academic writing notes

September 23rd task


Article essay

Do you think that instructional method is effective in producing learning in the classroom? According to Robert Barr “to say that the purpose of colleges is to provide instructions like… the purpose of the medical care is to fill hospital beds”, this sentence highlights that maybe the instructional methods is not the best choice for teachers but we need to understand its features before giving an opinion. Thinking about effective methods used in the classroom, it always has been a controversial topic, now Robert Barr puts under criticism the instructional method used at collages that will be discussed during this article.

It is important because it is something that is happening nowadays not only in colleges, but also in high school, secondary school and elementary school. The teachers do not pay attention if the student produce the learning “ now we see that our mission is not instruction but rather that of producing learning with every student by whatever means work best” (Barr, 1995) all the teachers around the world need to realize if our students are producing the learning, in other words if they are really learning what we teach them, the instructional method is under criticism because we do not if this method is working as Robert Barr (1995) says “passive lecture-discussion format where faculty talk and most students listen” do not expose if students are producing what they are acquiring in the classroom.

Undoubtedly the main objective of teaching is to make students produce; there are two kinds of teaching, one is the instruction paradigm (traditional teaching) and the other is learning paradigm. The first one is not the right for teaching “it consists of matter dispensed or delivered by an instructor. The chief agent in the chief agent in the process is the teacher who delivers knowledge; students are viewed as passives vessels, ingesting knowledge fro recall on tests” (Barr, 1995) here the teacher is the most important person but it has not to be like this. According to Robert Barr (1995) learning paradigm recognize that the chief agent in the process is the learner” what importance has, if the students are just in the classroom to follow orders, and just receive information if they cannot produce or take a place in the class.

As a conclusion it could be said that the most appropriate method to teach in any level of school, is the one that make students produce; because in this way the teacher can notice if the students are learning something, in the other hand with a traditional method the teacher only focus in do his/her work and to fill the empty chairs in the classroom. As we can see the teacher has to be seen such as a facilitator, not only the one that talks all the time, and only check understanding through tests. Lastly all the schools have to take into consideration, that if they want to the students really learn, they have to make them produce the learning, and what better with the learning paradigm instead of the instruction paradigm.

HOW TO WRITE AN ARTICLE REVIEW


 * First of all you have to read the article


 * You have to take into consideration first what is the article about and why the article is important


 * In the first paragraph you have to write the introduction, here you have to cite and give a general idea about the topic, you do not have to put a lot of details.


 * Then you have to critize the article, if it is good or bad and why


 * Finally, the conclusion over here you have to tell tha readers if it is recomendable the article or not

TYPES OF ACADEMIC WRITING

There are 5 types of academic writing: literature review, research paper, case study paper, action research paper and field study.

Literature review: It is the information that you already know, from other authors

Research paper: first you have to choose the topic of you paper, find information, outlining, drafting, revising and editng. there are 2 kinds of research papaers: arguemntative and analytical. here you have to take into consideration your audience, your topic has to be interesting for other people. and you have to follow the scientific method.

Case study: Are papers that identify a problem and give a solution. Also the problem has to be intereting for the audience. present facts and gather new data:

Fiel study: In this paper you usually observe, that will allow the student to analyze and interpret the organization and its workings. In this kind of paper you analyze real world situation, and you can compare with the theory.

Action research paper: input, transformation and output

research questions Do I know the field and its literature well? What are the important research questions in my field? What areas need further exploration? Could my study fill a gap? Lead to greater understanding? Has a great deal of research already been conducted in this topic area? Has this study been done before? If so, is there room for improvement? Is the timing right for this question to be answered? Is it a hot topic, or is it becoming obsolete? Would funding sources be interested? If you are proposing a service program, is the target community interested? Most importantly, will my study have a significant impact on the field?

UNIT III
 THESIS STATEMENT 

 Characteristics: 


 * Convincing statement
 * States what you are going to prove or believe

http://yourdissertation.com/blog/2009/09/14/a-good-thesis-statement-its-main-characteristics-and-principles-of-developing/

Example: Because of the excellent use of humor, drama and many literary devices, William Shakespeare is regarded as the best play wright of all the time.

BEING IN CONTACT WITH REAL WORLD IS A VERY IMPORTANT ASPECT WHEN LEARNING ENGLISH, USING AUTHENTIC MATERIAL WOULD HELP STUDENTS IN ORDER TO GET CLOSE TO THE REAL LANGUAGE.

My example: The use of authentic material a tool to approach reality from an L2 classroom

RESEARCH QUESTIONS Characteristics


 * Specific questions
 * A good research question is a question that’s worth asking.
 * Pick a general topic for your paper
 * Write down a list of relevant questions that interest you about the topic
 * Narrow down your list of questions to topics that aren't too narrow or general
 * Ask your teacher or professor to look over your research questions. He or she will be able to help you decide if you're heading in the right direction.

HOW AN ADEQUATE USE OF AUTHENTIC MATERIAL HELPS LEARNERS TO LEARN ENGLISH EFFICIENTLY?

Example: Is there a relationship between leadership training programs and improving selfsteem of adolescent females? http://faculty.virginia.edu/capstone/research/Research%20Questions-Characteristics-Worksheet.pdf http://www.ehow.com/how_4873808_write-research-question-research-papers.html

IDENTIFY VARIABLES&lt;/u units of analysis The variables can be measured in a quantitative form or in a qualitative form The dependent variable is what changes when the independent variable changes - the dependent variable depends on the outcome of the independent variable.

Example: 1. sex 2. "intelligence" 3. height 4. religious affiliation 5. political affiliation

http://www.hospiweb.scotcit.ac.uk/lectures/iden_var.shtml

BIBLIOGRAPHY &lt;u&gt;ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY&lt;/u

Hinkel, E., (1999), Culture in second language teaching and learning, Cambridge University Press, New York, USA. One of the most important aspects that I consider when teaching a second language is to teach culture about that country, and one way of do it is by using authentic material, this book will help me in order to understand why it is important to teach culture and it shows that a method that will help with this, is by using television. This book is addressed to teachers and students, both of them.

Mc Carthy, M.,(1991),Discourse Analysis for language teachers, Camdridge University Press This book is going to help me because it is about lingustics, and lingusitics has a lot to be with the use of authentic material in the classroom. This book gives a big view about the importance of pragmatics when we are teaching a second language. Also it is important, because it shows us that the way we use the language in the real world, is very different to the language that we use in the classrooms, and that teachers have to take into consideration this. This book is addressed to language teachers.

Kilickaya, F.,(2004) Authentic materials and cultural content in EFL classroom. retrieved from http://iteslj.org/ This article is going to help me because it is very specific, it gives a clear vision to the reader about some important aspects about the use of authentic material in a classroom. For example: Disadvantages of Using Authentic Materials, Using Authentic Materials: At Which Level?, What Can be Done to Overcome Difficulties We Face? Why Should We Use Cultural Content?, How Can We Introduce Cultural Content in Our Classrooms? and Sources and Techniques for Cultural Content. I found it very useful because in the other sources that i have it only foucs in the importance, but this article focusa also in the difficulaties and how to use the authntic material. Besides it not only talks about athentic material, it also talks about the importance of teaching culture. This book is specific addressed to teachers of a second language, because it focus in why to teach with authentic material and how.

Martinez, A., (2002), Authentic materials: an overview. retrieved from http://www3.telus.net/linguisticsissues/authenticmaterials.html ( February, 2002) This article is very useful, because it gives the advantages and disadvantages of using authentic materials, also it gives some examples of how to use the authentic materials. this article is addressed to teachers of a second language, because it gives examples and how to apply them with your students.

Kramsch C., (1998), "Language and culture" Oxford University Press. NY This book is going to help me because it explains the relation between teaching a second language and teaching culture.

Erkaya, O., (2005), "TV Commercials as Authentic Materials to Teach Communication, Culture and Critical Thinking" retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov.dibpxy.uaa.mx/PDFS/ED494938.pdf This journal article is going to help me

Moran, P. (2001), "Teaching culture: perspectives in practice" Newbury house Teacher development. Canada.

Khaniya, T., (2006), "Use of Authentic Materials in EFL Classrooms" retrieved from http://www.nepjol.info/index.php/NELTA/article/viewArticle/3117 This journal article gives a lot of example about what authentic materials are, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of it, Also it going to help me becuase it shows the difference between authentic materials and non authentic ones.It is addressed for second language techers.

UNIT IV
Hypothesis the use of authentic material will help l2 learners

Research question How does authentic material will help L2 learners to develop their listening and speaking skills?

JUSTIFICACTION

Teaching English implies a lot of things; you as teacher have to teaches the basic skills, which are listening, speaking, writing and reading, also sub skills, but what about when a student have finished all the levels and it has a good grammatical, lexical, and phonological but they cannot communicate in a good way with a native speaker?, The answer could be that the students have to have more contact with the real world when they are studying. Culture plays a big role when teaching an L2 and one excellent way to teach culture is by using authentic material.

This topic is very important in the BA because teachers have to take into consideration that if we want that our students have excellent English, we have to teach more of what the books say. Use authentic material is very important, because with it, students learn what is beyond the classroom. There is a lot of authentic material that we can use in order that they practice it. 2 of the skills that are much related with this topic are: listening and speaking.