Distancelanguagelearning/English Web/writing/Academic Writing/class/Unit II/Article review

Itzel's Group

ESTHER

ERROR CORRECTION IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING EMPHASIZING IN THE SPEAKING SKILL

Through time there have been different approaches that focus on the analysis of speaking development; error correction has become a relevant issue in foreign language teaching because it is considered as a positive or negative effect in the Speaking skill by teachers and students. “How like sin error is to be avoided and its influence overcome, but its presence is to be expected”. For this reason, it should be considered as an impact in the foreign language teaching.

It is important to mention that teaching a foreign language is not an easy task; it has to be supported by corresponding approaches related to specific skills in this case speaking. Nothing happens spontaneously every single piece of teaching has its own language theory that is why speaking skills have the audio-lingual and communicative approaches. According to Hendrickson, J: It is not enough when students practice or feel motivated; they are able to communicate fluently just in communicative activities inside the classroom. It is meant that students just memorize dialogs and grammatical patterns as happens with the audio-lingual approach.

Student production should be exposed naturally and keep it students learning. Although the l1 transfer has one meaningful impact in the L2 production process; it is important to know that errors can be taken as an advantage to realize the L2 leaning process because students notice their improvement of some aspects of their communication in their new language performance. Hendrickson, J said that it is important to know that avoiding errors in language learning is a process derived of the stimulus- response process that students already acquired.

Errors are important in foreign language learning; they are meant to be a negative aspect of the process above all it speaking is what matters in the educational field. Correcting a student implies outcomes that are good or bad in the development and improvement of this skill, so teachers should stress out in how to address it; in the way to make it positive in order to encourage students to become better and proficient speaker of a foreign language.

To sum up, error correction, teaching and learning complete an essential cycle of the process as a whole. Somehow, approaches interfere in part of this process, thus to accomplish a goal in the second language learning is not as easy as it sounds to be. Teachers and students have their roles and their attitudes to achieve it independently of the approach used to get it, we as facilitators need to go beyond and arrive to the point in which pupils lighted up their leaning process and spoken production.

Hendrickson, J. (ND) Error Correction In Foreing Language Teaching: Recent Theory, Research, and Practice. Lansing community College. Michigan http://www.jstor.org/pss/326176

Anabell's comments:

I think your essay is good, but it needs to define more the idea, I did not know you were talking to error correction till if it weren't for the title and when I went to the second or third paragraph. In my opinion i think this could be some of the corrections. In the first paragraph try to present your whole essay in few words. Then in the following paragraphs present your findings and what you agree and disagree with the article's author.It is ok that you sum up the ideas in the last paragrpah as you just did. You will find in black the things that I think should be changed and/or that I did not understand and in italics the ones that I already changed.

ERROR CORRECTION IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING EMPHASIZING IN THE SPEAKING SKILL

Through time there have been different approaches that focus on the analysis of speaking development; error correction has become a relevant issue in foreign language teaching because it is considered as a positive or negative effect in the Speaking skill by teachers and students. “How like sin error is to be avoided and its influence overcome, but its presence is to be expected”(last name, year). For this reason, it should be considered as an impact in the foreign language teaching.

It is important to mention that teaching a foreign language is not an easy task; it has to be supported by some approaches that can help the teaching of specific skills such as speaking. Nothing happens spontaneously every single piece of teaching has its own language theory. That is why speaking skills have the audio-lingual and communicative approaches. According to Hendrickson,(ND) It is not enough when students practice or feel motivated; they are able to communicate fluently just in communicative activities inside the classroom. It is meant that students just memorize dialogs and grammatical patterns as happens with the audio-lingual approach.

Student production should be exposed naturally and should keep students learning. Although the L1 transference has one meaningful impact in the L2 production process; it is important to know that errors can be taken as an advantage to realize the L2 leaning process because students notice their improvement of some aspects of their communication in their new language performance. Hendrickson,(ND) said that it is important to know that avoiding errors in language learning is a process derived of the stimulus- response process that students already acquired.

Errors are important in foreign language learning for the reason that they are a negative aspect of the process specially speaking that is one of the purposes of L2 courses. Correcting a student implies outcomes that are good or bad in the development and improvement of this skill, so teachers should be aware of how they address it always keeping it positive in order to encourage students to become better and proficient speaker of a foreign language.

To sum up, error correction, teaching and learning complete an essential cycle of the process as a whole. Somehow, approaches interfere in part of this process, thus to accomplish a goal in the second language learning is not as easy as it sounds to be. Teachers and students have their roles and their attitudes to achieve it independently using the approach to get it, we as facilitators need to go beyond and reach the point in which pupils light up their learning process and speech production.

MARIANA

The use of L1 in L2 classroom during the Writing Proficiency

Nowadays it exist(s-there are) two points of view about the use of L1 in L2 classroom. The first one claims that L1 is (?)due to students have been limited at the moment to communicate in a foreign language. It can be a daunting task. According to Siti Hamin (Stapa, 1998) this situation is generated by several factors, among others, low language understanding, or fear for communicating. Thus they resort to their mother tongue. The second one support that many teachers disagree with the use of L1 because they say that it has a negative effect on the moment that students try to acquire and produce (in this case writing skill) a second language in a successful way.

The Product approach could be one of the reasons for the fear of writing. It has like a (as) main goal the product(ion) and (does) not take(s) in count (consideration) the process of writing. In order to avoid this problem Kemeterian Pendidikan (Malaysia, 2003) make a suggestion for solving this obstacle, the specification for the teaching of writing explicitly states the application of the Process Writing Approach in the teaching of writing.

(It is because) The implementation of the Process Approach (is recommended because it) gives real solutions to writing problems. It takes into consideration the writer’s thoughts, ideas, experiences and previous knowledge before the actual writing skills. The writers have to follow series of stage and in the complex process of writing task e.g. Brainstorming, outline, drafting, writing, evaluating, and revising. According to Thompkins (1990) most of the time (70%) the writers have to spend in the prewriting stage (brainstorming, outline, and drafting), but the rest of the time it would not an easy activity because it implies the generating ideas. It (This) cause(s) that many L2 writers have a hard writing performance because the prewriting stage has many implicit complications.

The prewriting stage involves convoluted cognitive skills. It is because when we are writing we have to use many functions. We have to decide the topic of our writing work. We use our long term memory to regain the information that we have about this topic. But it exist a disadvantage when we want to write in L2 because all of these processes and the information that we can recover are in the form of language or they may be stored as concepts and kinetic images that are not formulated in words. For this reason the Process is more complicated for L2 writers. As a result students are not consciously (about) between the long term memory information on the topic and the information of the language expression.

A crucial concept of writing is that ideas are the key to begin(ning) to write(ing). Using this concept Halim (2004) proposed that students can generate the ideas in L1 and then convert them in an L2 before writing. (The) L2 writers can use them to write in a foreign language in an easy way. When (the) L2 writers have the correct ideas in L1 and (the in) L2 they could have the opportunity to decide the topic about what they want to write and the the other stages. In this way the use of L1 can help the acquisition and production of L2 in a L2 classroom.

Ivan´s review there are no questions or main point in the introductory paragraph at least it is not specified. conclusion seems like another explanatory paragraph not a "conclusion"; she uses "we" in the sentences;she talks about skills and functions and many aspects but, she did not give explanations about those words.

Thank you Ivan for your comments--Itzel Portal 13:39, 21 October 2010 (UTC)

Mariana: You are improving your way of writing, I just think that you needed to have like other proofreadings. I agree with Ivan's comment, remember the conclusion paragraph should be more an analysis of the information and a final conclusion, something new.--Itzel Portal 13:39, 21 October 2010 (UTC)

ely

It is a taboo topic that children learn faster or better a second language than adults. For this reason researchers have been investigating about it. They have considered two aspects; that they think have a big relation with this topic. These two aspects are the quality of the fluency and pronunciation, every person acquires an excellent fluency and pronunciation in the mother tongue, but when they learn a second language it does not happen the same.

The evident difference between children and adults in learning a second language is the quality; both (children and adults) can learn another language but children have better quality in the language’s production. It is a common believed that, it is easier for children to have a good pronunciation and fluency than for adults but, according to Hytenstam, “the age of 6 or 8 does seem to be an important period in distinguishing between near-native like ultimate attainment….. more specifically it may be suggested that interacts with frequency and intensity of language use”(1992, p.).

It sounds rationally that the cause of somebody’s problems in the quality of language is the exposure or use of it; maybe this is one of the most important answers to this problem. It is clear that the person who has more contact with the language is going to have better pronunciation and fluency. A clear example is the people who live in another country for some years, the most probable is that they are going to learn the language of that country because they have a lot of exposure to it. For this reason teachers have to take into consideration to keep their students practicing the language as much as possible (last name, year).

The implications are that we as a teachers have to keep in mind this aspect, but we can not forget that it is a real fact that for children is easier to learn two or more languages (last name, year); the question here is why do they learn easier? a clear answer to this question has to be with Piaget’s theory (1960) which says that children are building new structures in their brains so they learn everything they have in contact with. In other words they are clean of their brains, and adults have many structures that interfere in learning something new, in this case the mother tongue.

As a conclusion it can be said that the best age to learn a second or third language is in the childhood because they can develop a good pronunciation and fluency. It is also very important that the quality of the language is always shown in the oral performance. We as a teachers have to keep in mind what Cook (year, p. ) says that “the important point is that students are able to communicate in other language without taking in consideration how perfect can be”.

Reference list

article V. Cook Piaget Last name, A., ( Piaget, J. (year) "title" Edition (p.p. ). leez comments:

first paragraph: missed to support your ideas by citing an author. second paragraph: believe instead of believed . than adults instead than for adults. paragraph 3: rational instead rationally. Is due to the exposure.... a comma after "for some years". it could be better: they are really exposed to it. without taking "into". support your ideas by citing an author. paragraph 4: that teachers, it is not necessary to use we. cannot. it is a "real" fact... it is easy... or more... "while" adults instead "and" adults. when learning instead of in learning. paragraph 5: developed. it is not necessary to use we. In general the ideas are linked and clear but it will be better to add examples. do not forget to add like a brief summary of the previous paragraphs in the conclusion. and add your own prediction or point of view at the end.

alejandra Tellez

AFFECTIVE FACTORS IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISTION

Do you think that affective factors may influence in the aquisition of a second language?

    

     Affective factors are crucial for the acquisition of a second language.Krashen's Second Language Acquistion Theory, states that the affective filter hypothesis has to do with this acquisition (author, year, p. ). This hypothesis plays an important role in the process, because the affective factors include from: motivation, attitude, anxiety up to self-confidence. When people is acquiring a second language, an external factor has to do with their learning. Teachers must be concsiiuos about ti, they have to know that affective factors are important for the acquisition. Sometimes teachers do not understand students, but they do not really know what is hapening behind, (like the factor that were already explained.) 

    

     In the article The Affective Filter in Second Language Teaching by Du Xiaoyan (2009),says that people that have a high affective filter will lower their intake, whereas people that have low affective filter allow more input into their language acuiqistion.The affective filter hypothesis was first proposed by Dulay and Burt according to Du (2009). Then Krashen incoporated his five hypothesis in 1985.In Du's article it is stated that Krashen argued that people acquire second languages only if they obtain comprehensible input and if their affective filters are low enough to allow the input ‘in’. The first factors are: Motivation and attitude.

      Motivation, can be considered as a key factor in student's acquisition.Du (2009) restates that Krashen and Gardner said that there are two kind of motivations:integrative and instrumental.The Encyclopedic Dictionary of Applied Linguistics (1999) says that an integrative motivation is a wish that a learner has in order to become a member of a community who speaks that language and (On the onther hand the) instrumental motivation talks about personal goals. The second factor is the attitude that influences in this acuiqistion in some aspects. Students have to have a positive attitude towards second language, with this they will have a rapid progress. There are other two factors that are important too, such as anxiety and the self- confidence.

    

    (According to) Du (2009, p. ), restates that Gardner in the year of 1993 said that language anxiety is ""the apprehension experienced when a situation requires the use of a second language with which the individual is not fully proficient". Classroom anxiety is divied into three categories: Communication apprehension that is, the level of anxiety that you acquire when you need to use the second language. The second is: Test anxiety, which is when you have to perform something using the l2 and you do it in a poor way. The last one is: Fear of negative evaluation.The last factor that Du states is self-coonfidence. The personality factors, have to do with this acquisition. if you have a high self confidence you have more opportunities, while if you have low self confidence you will miss opportunities.

    As a conclusion, it is important as teachers to have in mind those aspects. Teachers must be aware of Krashen's affective filter hypothesis, becuase this can help their students in the acquisition of a second language. It is not just teaching , teachers have to go beyond with the presented factors. All those factors are involved in the acquistion of a second language.

CORRECTIONS

I liked the way you hooked readers’ attention and this won’t suffer any change, just try to tie it with the first paragraph to avoid that it seems apart from the whole essay. Maybe you could specify how the affective filter hypothesis has to do with the acquisition you mention. Then in the same paragraph I would change: This hypothesis plays an important role in the process, because the affective factor includes: motivation, attitude, anxiety and self-confidence. External factors have to do with their learning. And immediately link the other idea and teachers must be conscious about it because this is very important for them to know all these aspects to understand better students because teachers do not really know what is happening behind this process, like the factors that are already explained. Then in the second paragraph you can start by saying directly As author Du Xiaoyan (2009) states that people who have a high affective filter will lower their intake whereas people who have low affective filter allow more input into their language acuiqistion. Then I won’t change any other thing in this second paragraph. After that, in the third paragraph when you talk about Motivation, maybe you make the reader get confused when you say: .Du (2009) restates that Krashen and Gardner said that there are two kind of motivations:integrative and instrumental. And I will change it into: Du (2009) retakes what Krashen and Gardner said that there are two kind of motivations: integrative and instrumental. Then there is a spelling mistake: on the onther hand and, just correct it! I also would change where it says; Students have to have a positive attitude towards second language, with this they will have a rapid progress… into Students must have a positive attitude toward the acquisition of a second language to have a faster progress. And I will omit: There are other two factors that are important too, such as anxiety and the self- confidence… because you mentioned this in the introductory paragraph. In the next paragraph where it says: Classroom anxiety is divided into three categories: you have to number them, the first one is the communication apprehension, the second one, and the third one. And explain the last one please!! You refer to the last one as fear of negative evaluation and then you say the last factor, just try to fix your ideas because this made me feel lost when reading and understanding. Erase the point after this acquisition just place a comma. And in the concluding paragraph I would change it is important that all teachers will have on mind the mentioned aspect above to make the learning process better at any level, age or stage in every human’s life. And then you have to erase the comma after filter hypothesis to continue reading the same idea. Then you may change it is not just teaching, absolutely teachers must go beyond with the stated factors primarily because all those factores are involved in the acquisition process of a second language.Bold text

Thank you Caro for your comments, very accurate.

Alexa: It was a good article-review; you mentioned all aspects that will help you to do your theoretical framework. Remember to include the reference list at the end of the essay. --Itzel Portal 13:53, 28 October 2010 (UTC)

LUPITA

SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION IN FIRST GRADERS

Children acquire a second language in may different ways, as Krashen mentioned, the Monitor Model is one of this. This Monitor Model consist on five main hypothesis. Young learners seem to learn two languages as one. "For these children then second language acquisition is not a process of discovering what language is, rather of discovering what this language is" (Tabors, 1997, p.2.) For children is easier to learn or acquire a second language. The elements of the new language are developed just like babies acquire their mother tongue.

As children are growing up, they start to separate the languages. They start to notice the differences and the similarities among the languages. "Compared to first language acquisition, the process of second language acquisition is not linear: it is ore like a zigzag path" In some cases, children more than acquiring the language they learn it. This is because language is really taught, this means that the children are really conscious about the process of learning. They are aware of tis process and know which are the steps of it. If the children really be so conscious of this process this could help children to make mistakes about the most common things such as pronunciation and grammar because of their first language.

The acquisition process is not from one day to another, this takes time. In order to make easier the process the teacher should teach the language in context and also in order to avoid the problems that were mentioned before. The teacher should be aware of the developing of this process and helps children to develop it gradually. The children would be able to acquire the language in a way that will be funny and interesting for them.

The input hypothesis proposed for krashen is really interesting to explain this point. Could be said that the children at certain age are "i", then, when these children are exposed to the new language information or "Comprehensible input" as Krashen said that belongs to level "i+1" (Krashen, 1985) There are also some others factors that help to the children second language acquisition. The teacher and the parents of these children should also be aware that they are some of this factors and that they must affect children in a positive way.

The most important thing in children second language acquisition process is that the children have to have fun and think that they are not learning, make this process, as it was said before acquired gradually. The teachers and the parents of these children play an important role in this process, they should motivate and encourage children to learn this language. The most important thing is that children acquire the language. The job for the future teachers would be to find a more interactive and interesting way for children to acquire the language.

Observations.- I think this was a very good article review, it catched the reader's attention and stated the hypoteses. the only thing that i detected was a misspelled word (think instead of thing, typo of course :D), some comas (obviosuly im not an expert on this but i did as i could) and maybe to attach the source of the article.

ANABELL

The Importance of Fluency in English Language Teaching

Nowadays for English teachers it is a big challenge to make students achieve fluency. In the communicative language teaching, the oral performance promotes that students are able to express themselves the best as possible, so they can be almost compared to native speakers. In speech production, the oral assessment is an indicator of the learners’ improvement. But it is also a way for the teacher and student to see that they are really English speakers.

According to Francine Chambers (1997, p.) “Fluency is a commonly used notion in foreign language teaching and yet it is a concept difficult to define”, but certainly it is not impossible. First it is necessary to give a clear definition of what fluency means. Brumfit in Chambers, (1984: p.536) defines it as “the maximally effective operation for the language system so far acquired by the students”. In other words, fluency refers more to speaking but there might be exceptions such as..... Fluency has to do with a person able to communicate proficiently and that can demonstrate this by the correct use of words, grammar, and how fast he or she can respond to a conversation.

The fluency of a person can describe natural language if it is used to express communication for comprehension and production. It may not have the same quality nor use as a native speaker, but if it achieves the purpose of effective communication like a native speaker then fluency is working as it is expected. A foreign language learner needs the language for different reasons but the most important is that the learner can communicate ideas, beliefs, and thoughts and the best way to do this is by the oral performance.

Lennon, Camp and Schmidt in Chambers’ (1997: p. 537) say that the oral performance is a phenomenon that is impacting the language teaching. It has become very famous because it places students in real-life exercises where they will have to demonstrate their language proficiency and of course where fluency is an important aspect to evaluate. Then the term fluency becomes of discussion when deciding how to be considered as a skill or as knowledge of the language. Schmidt (1992) argues that fluency is an automatic skill that was developed for the production of language. this means that the most oral production they have the best fluent learners will be.

Finally, the meaning of fluency is used for different reasons in language teaching, but its objective is to get students to perform real experiences and activities which require the real use of language and that can help them to be fluent and to demonstrate their use of the language proficiently. Whether it is a skill or a simple piece of English knowledge, the success of fluency occurs because learners have activities that help them produce natural language. In this form, they can get closer to express almost like a native speaker.

Chambers, F. (1997) What do we mean by fluency? University of Southampton, School of Modern languages, Faculty of Arts. Elsevier Science Ltd. Great Britain

http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/yousif/Research%20Papers/What%20do%20we%20mean%20by%20fluency.pdf

esther´s comments: well anabel first of all the title is a good one very objective; so that the introductory paragraph is following the correct structure and the thesis statement is very clear. then it shows a reference and continue having coherence;however, I think some commas are needed to separate complete sentences before some conjuctions.in the third paragraph you are giving more information and it is good because you are offering extra info;thus in the last sentence it seems like to repeat the same idea this is your sentence"and the best way to do this is by the oral performance. " so it would be better if you change it by this one "and the oral performance is the best way to do it." talking about the fourth paragraph is good, but it would be perfect if the last idea is clearer "the most oral production they have the best fluent learners will be" maybe you should add a comma. to finish the conclusion is good redacted and you are effectively giving your point of view. the las note is that you tend to use the word "might" a lot.

CARO

“COGNITIVE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ADULTS AND CHILDREN WHEN LEARNING A SECOND LANGUAGE”

Do you think that adults can learn a second language the same way as children do? Some previous studies have shown that many cognitive differences interfere when learning a second language. According to this article there are some differences between adults and children learners such as: their experience of life, the use of different techniques for learning and the significance of purpose in learning (reference ).

The first cognitive difference is the experience of life and it refers to the experience of human beings during their own lives. (and it) This means that practically adults have more experience than(t) children and this helps adults to facilitate the learning process, because they are able to understand, process, associate, match and contextualize learning in a more practical and meaningful way for them. (Although,) This can also be seen as a disadvantage because adults have more rigid patterns and (also because for example adults) can be less willing to explore new ways of doing things which can hinder progress whereas a child (is) usually wants to explore anything and they are more open-minded than adults.

The second cognitive difference is how adults and children use different techniques for learning. At this point we have faced a distinction in the way of learning in adult and children cases. ( because) For example the way children (will) usually learn is through a combination of question and answer exercises, memorization and drills, and perhaps these techniques do(es) not work so well for adults who not only become bored by it but that (it) will also see(m) irrelevant (and a) the process which stands no relevance to the way they tend to want to learn a second language.

The third but not less important cognitive difference is the significance of purpose in learning. Basically children are learning in spite of its purpose. However, for learning it must have a sense of purpose to make it meaningful for students even if they are children or adults. For instance, adults needs to relate what they are learning to something very specific and meaningful in their lives to be really interested in the process of learning a second language. After all, adults will have more responsibilities than children, so, in order to learn in an effective and suitable way, a sense of purpose is crucial to the whole learning process.

(Just) To sum up it is important to say that although children and adults differ from the ways they learn a second language when talking about cognitive differences we have to consider that their needs are very unlikely at specific points in our lives, and many other aspects that interfere the learning process as we had just seen before. In conclusion we must have on mind that we have to make the learning process, input, and contents meaningful and useful for students at any age and level to motivate and have our students interested in our classes to make the learning process relevant and have successful students at any age.

CORRECTION I liked the way you call reader's attention. your thesis statement is well done! the points that you mentioned are good, because you keep the reader. the examples, details and ideas that you gave explaining all those aspects were good. I really liked the article that you wrote. just be careful with the repetition of some words.

Caro: interesting topic, I think you can get a lot out of this topic, try to write in 3rd person, avoid using we. In general is a good essay which I think you could have given more support by citations.

Fatty

Tv commercials as authentic material
Some students when they are in an advanced level or even worst, when they have finished their preparation are unable to speak with a native speaker, or understand a movie. Although they have very good grammatical, lexical, and phonological features of their language, the answer could be that they have to have more interaction with the real world. Teachers have to use more authentic material and teach more culture. They have to take into consideration that their students should have interaction with the real world, not only in the classroom, but also.... which is important because when they are outside the classroom they cannot communicate

Teaching a second language sometimes results difficult, in the way that (in order to make that the) students can produce the language... because they find it hard to understand in daily communication. Furthermore most of (the) teachers, do not teach more that the books say, they do not (bring) take extra material to class, in order to make (that the) students have more contact with the real world, (not only what they see in class,) “Classes using only textbooks appear to be question-and-answer session while classes using authentic materials with or without textbook seem more natural and communicative” (Erkaya, 2005, p. ). (But what kind of extra material) teachers can incorporate real-language, and in order to achieve this, the answer is authentic material. “It refers to material produced for purpose other than teaching” (Nuna in Erkaya 2005, p. ) this means that all the material that have no teaching purposes could be authentic material, since the labels of products until the use of videos.

Therefore, authentic material gives a clear idea about the target culture According to Erkaya Culture this refers to beliefs, values, attitudes shared by members of a community (2005) if a teacher emphasizes the role of context and the circumstances under which language can be used accurately and appropriately, it is going to be easier to for the learner to have a more natural communication. This means that (it) this is indisputably an integral part of foreign language learning, and many teachers have seen it as their goal to incorporate the teaching of culture into the foreign language curriculum. Teachers can achieve this by using authentic materials.

The use of videos in teaching an L2 is a very good example of using authentic material in a classroom. According to Erkaya TV commercials can be a good option to teach an l2. There are a lot of reasons why (the) TV commercials are a good option to teach; such as they are short; they expose(d) the leaner to common vocabulary such as slangs, idioms, reduced speech, idiomatic expressions. They give the opportunity to ear the different accents and dialects. They give a visual context; they help learners to understand values, beliefs, customs and preferences of native speakers and finally they can increase their vocabulary. As we can see (the) TV commercials give(s) a clear view of what the real world is. And they have a lot of advantages.

As (a) conclusion, the use of TV commercials as a recourse in teaching L2 could be meaningful and important for the learners, because this kind of material has everything that a teacher needs, in order to make (that the) students have more interaction with real world, they have visual, verbal and written features, and this will help them in order to improve their listening and speaking skills.

Corrections.

Your topic is very interesting, just be careful with the order of the paragraphs. Some information can be supported and used in a better way if you only change the order of some paragraphs, because in the first paragraph you have an idea that can be complemented by the third paragraph but the second one cuts that idea and later you continue with it which is not good for your essay because it can confuse the readers, so it is better to check twice the information in order to assign a correct order to your ideas and in that way you will be writing a better essay and the information will be clear following the determined format.

The way you structured the paragraphs is good, but you can consider to change some aspects in order to give to the paragraph a better order, for example you can separate some ideas when you are using citations or if you are pharaprasing, you can start every part like that and in that way you will be organizing your ideas in a better way so the essay can be better and to structure more the ideas giving them a good suport without combining ideas and you will be writing a better essay.

Do not forget to add your reference it is also important to know more information about the references that you were using to write your essay

Thank you Cesar for your comments.

Fatty: It is a good topic, and you can get a lot of information about it. Try not to repeat again and again what you have already said, look for another reason why the information is relevant and talk about it. Try to do an outline before writing the essay so your ideas do not fall everywhere, but that they are presented orderly.

The reference list is an extremely important aspect to consider in your essay, please include it. --Itzel Portal 12:57, 28 October 2010 (UTC)

CESAR

Translation & Linguistics

Is translation closely related to linguistics considering that the process of translation doesn't have a direc impact on it?

(As) a translator (we) need(s) to analize the text (and it) which can be analized in different ways. According to J. Tyson (2000), the translation can be analized from a point of view of the phonetics and morphology (also he states that these system of sounds in a language can be analized from a point of view of morphology). If we focus our attention in those therms when we are translating, we will be involved in aspects of linguistics seeing the translation from the phonetical, morphological and sintactical aspects in the way that we can also analyze conotation and different word combination to clarify our translation and the information that we are analizing.

Talking about phonetics, the translator should consider this important aspect. "In order to preserve the phonological structure, the translators have comprised on preserving sintax and one might easily argue the meaning" ( J. Tyson, 2000, p. ) here we can clearly see the importance of phonology during a translation, because the translator should conserve the sintaxis that is required to translate the phonological conotation that is required to express the text in a correct way. Here we can easily analyze the importance of linguistics as a translator consider this important aspect.

The Morphology is an important aspect to consider for a translator (already in first paragraph). It is focused on the meaning and it is very important to have an exact accuracy. According to J. Tyson (2000) The morphology is an important aspect to consider during the translation process, he also states that is contained in the phonological conotation of a translation and also in the meaning of the words because with it, we can have an accurately translation. So for this reason (the) linguistics shold be considered every time we write and in this case it will be considered for the translation process.

The sintax is important for the structure of any text. In translation it is an important part of the process of translation. According to J Tyson (2000) translators should conserve the original sintax of a text when they are translating information, with this information we can reflect clearly (again saw it in last paragraph) the importance of (the) linguistics for a translator. By preserving the sintax we can conserve an important aspect of the text that we will be translating because we will follow the structure of the original text.

To conclude we can assume from the investigation that oviously (the) linguistics can (be) (found)find every time (when we) they are using the language. Talking about translation even that people think that it doesn't have a direct impact on linguistics, we can say that translators can (put) lead their attention (in)to aspects like the phonological, morphological and sintactical structures of a text when they are translating, in that way we will be doing a better translation and we will also translate more aspects that will make a translator a better linguist by working and using the aspects that we were analyzing during this research demonstrating that the translation can have an impact on linguistics.

http://www.translationdirectory.com/article613.htm

CORRECTIONS
In general your essay is good. I think that in the introduction you try to develop all the ideas, you have to be more general and only give the thesis statement, because in the other paragraphs you have to include all the details. Beside that I find your introduction good because you talk about the topics that you are going to develop through the essay
Your essay is not the kind that Itzel ask us (article essay) , because in the first 2 paragraphs you have to describe the article, in the other 2 paragraphs you have to say why it is important and finally the conclusion. You made a traditional essay, in which you explain the parts.
But in general it is good because you cite correctly, and it is understandable. Also in the conclusion you answer to the question that you made at the beginning.
Besides, you have some spelling mistakes and you missed the use of commas because you tend to make long sentences for example in the conclusion, Fatty.

Thank you Fatty for your comments, I think that as you mentioned, it is a traditional essay which does not mean it is wrong. We were looking to cover some specifications that were omitted.

Cesar: Check back your essay, and you will see sometimes you tend to be a little redundant. To omit this problem, you can answer to three basic questions: what do "x" point mean?, Why is it relevant? What is my analysis about it? Once you answer to those three questions, go over another point.

IVAN

Social constructivism: Applications in the classroom

When people talk about education many things come to their minds: teachers, students, homework, grades, books, classroom, classmates, success, and failure. Most (of the) people believe that education is a need and -that- they are right! however, not all of them realize how education is constructed (or how is it (it is) decided,) what topics or what curricula is the appropriate to teach. (But,) Education is not just a word, it is part of a group of theories that form the real meaning for education and one of those theories is called social constructivism. According to Vygotsky,(1978, p. -I see it is a direct quote so you would need the page-s-): “Constructivism — particularly in its "social" forms — suggests that the learner is much more actively involved in a joint enterprise with the teacher of creating ("constructing") new meanings”. How can such theory help teachers to improve classes? ;Currently, is the social constructivism used in the classroom?

Social constructivism is the label given to a set of theories about learning which fall somewhere between cognitive and humanistic views. If behaviorism treats the organism as a mind in blank, cognitive theory recognizes the importance of the mind in making sense of the material with which it is presented. Nevertheless, it still presupposes that the role of the learner is primarily to assimilate whatever the teacher presents (Author, year because it is not your creation).

A constructivist teacher creates a context for learning in which students can become engaged in interesting activities that encourages and facilitates learning. The teacher does not simply stand by, however, and watch children explore and discover. Instead, the teacher may often guide students as they approach problems, may encourage them to work in groups to think about issues and questions, and support them with encouragement and advice as they tackle problems, adventures, and challenges that are rooted in real life situations that are both interesting to the students and satisfying in terms of the result of their work. Teachers thus facilitate cognitive growth and learning as do peers and other members of the child's community (author, year, p. ) Retrieved from: Coll,E. M; T Mauri (2002) “El constructivismo en el aula”. Barcelona,Esp. ED. Graó

The use of social constructivism in the classroom gives the teacher and students (the opportunity) to apply all their skills to improve learning and teaching and so achieve the tasks and activities required to success the subject. As social constructivism points, students will be able to go by their own on search of the new knowledge using their personal skills and improving them in the process. A class based on this theory allows communication and team work humanizing students by giving a new point of view to each one of them.

Finally, social constructivism is wrong called “theory” considering that it is applied nowadays. It is a power learning weapon that students should know and learn to use and teachers are in charge of learning how to apply such method in the classroom in order to improve students ‘skills and that will learn and achieve not just their academic goals but, their personal goals.

Observations

Your topic is interesting. The sequence of the paragraps have coherence and the language is fine. I think that you can write more specific and significant information about the topic because it is very general. =)

Thank you for your comments

Ivan: I think your writing style is improving, however you need to work more on citations, remember either direct or indirect you have to mention the author and year.--Itzel Portal 13:58, 21 October 2010 (UTC)

Leez

Title

Nowadays it is important to know about the problems that some people usually have when learning a second language because due to these problems people do not achieve their goal of learning a second language. One of these reasons is fossilization, which according to Selinker and Lamendella (1978, p. ) it is defined as “a permanent cessation of interlanguage norms at all levels of linguistic structure and in all discourse domains in spite of the learner’s positive ability, opportunity, and motivation to learn and acculturate into target society”(p. ). As a result teachers need to know causal factors to find if there are possible solutions to avoid this problem. This article intends to find out what causes fossilization and if there are probable solutions for it when learning a second language.

Besides, the previous definition according to Selinker (1972) the types of fossilization are: phonological (incorrect pronunciation), morphological (problems with articles and morphemes), syntactic (syntactic rules), semantic (different meaning according to the context), and pragmatics (to not understand what is meant by what said). So in other words fossilization is probably caused by the differences that the second language has and the way that a student performs it. REFERENCE

Other causes of fossilization can be environmental, cognitive, neurobiological, and socio-affective (Han, 2003, p. 104). Which means that the context and our own skills also take part on our second language learning development and as a consequence, fossilization. For example if the student is not in the adequate classroom environment to learn and do not have the correct English level or knowledge he can be exposed to fossilization. As a result, there are external and internal factors that can cause fossilization.

Finally, there are internal and external factors that can develop fossilization. Due to this fossilization in some cases is unavoidable. But for some factors such as input, environment, and instruction, context, accurate information, pronunciation of words and its use, and the like, there are possible solutions. Some of these solutions can be practicing the language, and to spend as much time as possible in contact with the language. Also an adequate environment, is to be in good conditions when learning, to be in the appropriate level and with a good teacher. A third one can be accurate use of the words and its meanings, to produce language in the proper way.

As a conclusion there are internal and external factors that can cause fossilization when learning a second language, some of them cannot be avoided such as psychological, and neurobiological, but there are some others like input, environment, and instruction that can be avoidable.

reference list

- first you need to finish the essay because it must have 5 paragraphs. - you can make your essay longer talking about causes then solutions, then the implications and conclusions. -in the conclusion the first sentence and the last one sound repetitive try to use different words to say the same idea. -the intruduction is good.

Carlitos

Contextual factors in second language learning

What is the importance of the context of a second language learner? According to Walqui (2000) in the article called “Contextual factors in second language learning” retrieved from the ERIC Digest, the context plays a major role in the learning of a second language because the setting in which the students learn or acquire the language affects their learning. This article focuses on the role of the context and how it affects the learning of adolescents learning a second language. The article covers many aspects, but for the purpose of this article review, the aspects of language distance, knowledge of the second language, and goals, are the aspects that are going to be covered, because I think are the aspects that have bigger influence on the learning or acquisition of the second language.

The first aspect is the language distance. This reefers to how a language is similar or different from the mother tongue, or in any case, to the languages that the learner posses. A language that is similar to the native one or the ones that the learner posses is going to be easier to learn, for example, an English speaker will be able to learn Spanish in a easy way because both languages are Indo European and have the same language system. On the other hand, they will have a hard time learning Chinese because both languages come from different families and have a very different writing system. (Walqui,2000)

The next aspect is the knowledge of the second language. It reefers to the previous knowledge that the learner has regarding to the second language he is studying. The context in which the second language learner develops has a big influence on how much the student knows about the target language because an ESL student might have a great conversational fluency and a lack of grammar skills. In contrast, EFL students might have broader grammar skills than a conversational fluency.(Walqui,2000).

The last aspect; goals, may vary from a student to student. It takes into consideration if the student wants to have a native like accent and pronunciation and how grammatically accurate their language is going to be. Also it takes into consideration if the learner is in a country where the language is largely spoken, if this takes place, the language proficiency might have to be better than in a country where that language is not largely spoken. One last factor might be if the language is oriented towards specific goals such as academic or professional success (Gardner, 1989).

To sum up, context plays a major role in the learning of a second language because the place where students develop their language has an influence on it. The similarities between the current and the target language because if the target language has a lot of similarities, it is going to be easier to learn. what the student already knows about the language, if they have a broad backgorund of the language, the learning will take place in an easier way. Finally, the ultimate goal for learning the language, if the students want to be proficient in the language they will make a bigger effort in learning the language, and this will lead to a faster and better learning of the language. All this aspects affect the level of proficiency that the students might acquire or learn for the target language.

http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/0005contextual.html

OBSERVATIONS: I think that this article review is pretty good, I think that the topics in which you focused were good explained and the language you used were the appropriate, I just have to say that for me, the last paragraph should be longer because one sentence do not make a paragraph.

Benjamin's Group

Notes for my group. We will go over your edits tomorrow in class (October 5, 2010). --Benjamin Stewart 01:35, 5 October 2010 (UTC)

Nancy

The Ghost in the Machine: An examination of the concept of Language Proficiency.

Proficiency is the main term argued by Nunan (1986) who says that performance and competence are related terms. According to the author, proficiency is much that we can see. For leaners proficiency features need to be the priority. However, there are factors which can be observable but not totally mesurable because proficiency involves the notion of skills and subskills. Moreover, the author presents several aspects that need to be considered in generel proficiency. The author classifies it as concepts in contention. Familiar context and everyday situations are some examples. In addition of what Nunan says about proficiecy, he presents information from other authors. The author uses authors´ cotations in order to support his idea about what propiciency is.

In the second point the author shows the assesmet of proficiency where he gives different terms. With the help of several citations from other atuhors as support of his idea about proficiency, the author argues in some aspects. Actually, the author gives his point of view, sometimes infavor and also against. Knowing the different implications in a proficiency communicative skill the author presents a sample descriptin of assesing proficiency which take into consideration performance and task issues.

In the methodology section, the author considers an example of how reasonably assesing proficiency need to be. There, the instrument presents the factors evaluated for measure the performance of a subject on a task. Finally, the hypothesis that the author shows that, if students are tested according to tasks taught, the outcomes would show what was taugh. So, they probably will not be able to make an unpredictable situation according to specific sitaution, task, and setting.

The audience of this empirical study correspond to second language teachers and students. These kind of researchers, where the participants are the main reason, have a benefical importance. Foreign teachers need to know how language proficiency is graded according to certain parameters which make the students use the language for several purposes and not just teaching issues. Nevertheless, second language learners are the ones who need to be prepared for particular tasks in which they use scholar and contextal skills.

Knowing that proficiency is a complex matter it needs to be carried out deeply. Most of foeign teachers only care about institutionalized activities because they know how to assess them. Furthemore, performance factors involve much more about specific situations that do not tell us a pattern or context knowledge. For this reason, teachers have to take into consideration both concepts, competence and performance because they depend on teaching and special settings.

Nunan, D.(1986). The Ghost of the Machine: An examination of concept of language Proficiency. Evaluative/Feasibility. Journal articles: v2, pp 15.

Luis Carro

"Inglés sin barreras in the southern boarder of the United States"

Article review

Luis Ángel Carro September, 29th, 2010

Nowadays, learning English as a foreign language has become even more necessary in order to deal with the big challenge that American culture represents to many immigrants, in this case, Mexicans. In that respect, learning a foreign language has been actually seen as nothing but adopting a certain way of life in order to obtain prestige, a higher status and more specifically, American citizenship. Ullman (2010) discusses about a famous method that is called "Inglés Sin Barreras". The author, who is a European - American immigrant, argues that immigrants do not use it in order to learn English but to try to obtain American citizenship. She carried out this study in order to explore the ways in which Spanish-speaking people in Tucson, Arizona deal with the struggle to belong to the United States through consuming the English-language course already mentioned.

This is a descriptive study because the data was collected through interviews with people who have used "Inglés Sin Barreras", alongside analysis of the travelogue section "Aprendamos Viajando" [Let's Learn by Traveling]. The participants were speakers of other languages who studied at the community center in Tucson, Arizona, the place where the author taught English during five years and so she could carry out the study in that place. The approach is qualitative because even though the author describes percentages, the results mainly take into consideration the answers that the participants provided. Those answers were either negative or positive. In the first case, students expressed feelings of disappointment, frustration and hopeless concerning learning English through the course and so, obtaining American citizenship. On the other hand, there were several learners who manifested that having bought the program was a good investment.

In the overview of "Inglés Sin Barreras", the author examines thoroughly each section of the course, paying special attention to the section "Aprendamos viajando", that is the part of the course that is tightly related to the real situation of the learner, referring to him as a tourist and so a migrant. Ullman tends to write quite colloquially by setting rather sarcastic titles such as; "5.3. Too much information?", she also supports her arguments clearly with strong arguments. For example: she mentions that "Pratt (1992) identifies “a contact zone” in travel writing as a place where subjects and objects, colonizers and the colonized are “constituted by their relations to each other” (1992: 7). If the travelogue section of "Inglés Sin Barreras" is a contact zone, it produces what Pratt calls transculturated “creole intellectuals”, people with hybrid identities who attempt to explain the new world to the old by using “materials transmitted to them by a dominant or metropolitan culture” (1992: 6)." (Ullman, 2010). Those arguments provide a more serious register to the study. To read and understand this article also implies to be really aware of real situation of immigrants in the United States. For example, to know about the current legislations and policies against them, and also many cultural features such as; T.V. shows like "Sabado Gigante", because perhaps not all the people in the world have heard about it (e.g. European, Asian or Australian people).

Concerning "Inglés sin Barreras", not several researchers have talked specifically about it, however, there are certain publications that are tightly related to the current article in the sense of studying the consequences that consumers have got when consuming a product, needing to find a symbol of cultural identity when using it. For instance, the small broadcast company "Canal seis de julio" and the journal "La Jornada", two critical Mexican media that have discussed about this topic through a program called "La teletiranía". In that video, they mention that Mexican television has become a decision maker in all of the aspects concerning Mexican daily life. Also, Giovanni Sartori has discussed this topic in his book "Homo videns", where he says that current society is "teledirigida" (Sartori, 1998), in the sense of talking about television as a decision maker.

To summarize, what the article mainly discusses is the fact that immigrants, looking for cultural identity, follow the T.V shows and advertisements as a lifeline to adopt American culture in the sense of getting a citizenship that is becoming even more difficult to be gotten in a land that becomes more restrictive every day. Even when a course of English like "Inglés sin barreras" can be quite expensive, Mexican immigrants are willing to pay any amount of money even though they do not learn from it. The problem that Ullman discusses is not exactly educational because it does not mention any phenomena concerning grading or performance in the classroom, however, it is more specifically addressed to explore the effects or consequences of restrictive policies concerning immigrants' and the ways the immigrants deal with them concerning the neidentities ed of cultural belonging.

Ullman, C. (2010). "Consuming English: How Mexican transmigrants form and construct symbolic citizenship through the English-language program Inglés sin Barreras [English without Barriers]" . Science Direct. Vol. 21, Issue 1, March 2010, Pages 1-13. doi:10.1016/j.linged.2009.12.002

ALE RIVERA

Article Review Final

Nowadays many authors have suggested different learning strategies and they assume that these strategies are essential for students in order to learn easier a language; however, as it is known, the use of strategies enhances learning, but they not always work for all kind of students. The use of strategies and even techniques has to do with the students’ necessities, strengths and weaknesses. The article ‘Foreign language teachers organising learning during their first year of teaching young learners’ (Stelma, J. & Onat-Stelma, Z., 2010) explains the difficulties some teachers had when instructing learners from other areas they do not usually teach. The article reveals the techniques and strategies teachers identified in order to teach children.

The research is focused on English teachers that were teaching EFL to adults and they were moved to teach younger learners (children). The paper mentions the difficulties teachers experienced in order to find the appropriate strategies and methodologies for younger learners. One relevant aspect that this paper considers is the classroom management, the authors state the importance of the discipline in the classroom, and they suggest some strategies proposed by Coyle and Verdú (2000) such as “the use of gestures, explicit instructional language and routine expressions....that encourage students to take risks with the new language”

During the analysis, it was identified not only the strategies, also how they can be implemented in order to organise learning in new teaching situations. Some of the strategies the authors suggest are the use rules, rewards and games in the classroom (Stelma, J. & Onat-Stelma, Z., 2010), but specially when teaching children since these strategies will allow the teacher to manage and control the group easily.

The experience of the four teachers was amazing since they identified necessary elements that teachers should use to success in class. They discover how the learning can be organized so that children can learn and understand the language. The article presents evidence, it mentions some researches that are quiet similar to this one, but also the contrast that the authors provide allow the reader to understand the aim of the research.

The article is relevant for the field of English Language Teaching since it mentions different aspects that are involved during the instruction of children and also the differences between teaching children and adults. This article can help English teachers to recognize strategies and even methodologies that can be used and also the experience of the teachers can be relevant for the teachers who are new in the area or for the ones that are in a new teaching situation. I personally recommend this article for the ones who really love teaching children and for the ones that although do not enjoy teaching children they do so.

“Strategies allow teachers to organize learning in new teaching situations”

Reference: Stelma, J. and Onat-Stelma, Z.(2010) 'Foreign language teachers organising learning during their first year of teaching young learners', Language Learning Journal, 38: 2, 193 — 207 DOI: 10.1080/09571731003790490

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09571731003790490

Article Review

Nowadays many authors have suggested different learning strategies assuming that they are essential for students in order to learn a language easier. However, the use of strategies enhances learning, but they not always work for all kinds of students. The use of strategies and even techniques has to do with students’ necessities, strengths, and weaknesses. The article ‘Foreign language teachers organising learning during their first year of teaching young learners’ (Stelma, J. & Onat-Stelma, Z., 2010.) is focused on the difficulties some teachers had when instructing learners from other areas they do not usually teach. In the article different techniques and strategies can be identified since teachers used them in order to train children.

The research is mainly focused on English teachers that were teaching EFL to adults and they were moved to teach younger learners (children). In the paper the authors explain the difficulties teachers experienced in order to find the appropriate strategies and methodologies for younger learners. For example, in the paper, the authors mention that classroom management is really essential when teaching children, and they cite Coyle and Verdú (2000) who assume that “the use of gestures, explicit instructional language and routine expressions... encourage students to take risks with the new language” Concluding that these strategies can be used to improve the classroom management.

In this article the authors analyzed the process of teaching children. Authors observed four different teachers that were moved to teach children in a Turkish private primary school. The study focused more generally on the experiences of teachers instructing young learners for the first time. The study took the whole school year, from September to June and during this time the researchers interviewed teachers and they identified that classroom management is the aspect that differs from teaching adults than children. Over the course the teachers’ understanding moved from a concern with controlling the behavior of students towards how teachers might orginise learning when teaching young learners.

Teachers used different strategies each month during the school year. And they identified different strategies that are really useful when teaching children. The authors state that at the end of the teachers’ first year in the new setting, all of them wrote in a reflection that they wanted to continue teaching English to children since the effort they did allowed them to find out teaching strategies they have not experienced and used, but now they would like to apply again. The analysis was conducted by series of questionnaires, observations and interviews. And it was complemented by theories and researches other authors have conducted related to this topic. The students’ experiences were important for the analysis since they verify the authenticity of the study.

The article is relevant for English language teachers since it mentions different aspects that are involved during the instruction of children, and also the differences between teaching children and adults. This article can help English teachers to recognize strategies and even methodologies that can be used in the classroom. Also the four teachers’ experience can be relevant for teachers who are new in teaching or for those ones that are in a new teaching situation. I personally recommend this article for people who really love teaching children and for the ones that although do not enjoy teaching children they do so.

Reference: Stelma, J. and Onat-Stelma, Z.(2010). 'Foreign language teachers organising learning during their first year of teaching young learners', Language Learning Journal, 38: 2, 193 — 207 doi: 10.1080/09571731003790490

Mayra Martínez

article review

Do female students have higher motivation than male students in learning of English at the tertiary level?

Motivation is an important aspect when learning a second language. There are two general orientations about motivation: instrumental motivation and integrative motivation. The instrumental motivation refers to the one in which students want to learn a second language for a specific goal, to get a job, to get good grades in classes, etc. in the other hand, integrative motivation is when a person wants to learn English because he want to meet people or because his friends speak that language.

Other important aspects implicated in motivation are the resultative and intrinsic motivation. The resultative is the one in which students are influenced by the success they have in their learning. This motivation helps students to be more enthusiastic because they have good experiences in the results of their acquisition. In contrast, the intrinsic motivation is when the material and the tasks are the ones that motivate students. These two aspects helped students to increase their reason to acquire a second language.

This research was done by R. Narayanan, lecturer of English, Dr. S Iyyappan, senior lecturer and Dr N. Rajasekaran, professor of linguistics. For this, they created a questionnaire which contained twenty two questions related to motivation. This questionnaire was applied to a total of four hundred and eight first year Engineering and Technology students (270 male and 138 female) in four engineering colleges and one deemed university from Chennai, Indian. With this research they pretended to demonstrate which genre is more motivated in a second language acquisition.

The instrument that they applied to the students demonstrated that female students were more motivated than male. According to Narayanan, Iyyappan and Rajasekaran (2007) female students presented more motivation to leaning a second language, English, than male students. Female students got high results on the questionnaire that showed that they were more motivated in the acquisition of a second language. They expressed themselves in English without negative feelings (Narayanan, Iyyappan and Rajasekaran, 2007). At the end of the research they concluded that female students had a good attitude that motivated to acquire a second language.

Motivation is one of the important aspects that help students to acquire a second language. There are two different orientations related to it. One of them is the instrumental motivation which is reflect the reasons why a learner want to acquire a second language, that is to say, specific goals, to get a job, etc. Another orientation is the integrative motivation. It is linked to influence that the learners have in order to acquire the language. Sometimes they want to speak a second language because their environment or cultural reasons. On the other hand, motivation is also divided into two types: resultative and intrinsic motivation. Resultative motivation is when students have good results on their learning and intrinsic motivation is when the material and talks support teaching to get motivate students. As we mention before female students presented more motivation to the acquisition of a second language. They have a positive attitude and they are good motivated that can express themselves getting good results on their learning. But the question here is how teachers can motivate male students in order to success on their learning? May be this would be a good question in which we can think and work to get an answer.

Dulce Maria Padilla

article review

MOTIVATION IN THE CLASSROOM

Dulce, check your first two paragraphs and make sure the method and results section is only in the second paragraph. This is where you discuss the participants, methodology (i.e., ethnography, case study, phenomenology, etc.), method (i.e., observations, interviews, focus groups, etc.), and the results. --Benjamin Stewart 02:41, 5 October 2010 (UTC)

The aim of the article is presenting the different components that concern to motivation in foreign language classroom. The article begin by giving the social and psychological framework of motivation. This framework was created by two Canadian researchers Robert Gardner and Wallace Lambert. by applying the Test Battery (AMTB) (Include this in the second paragraph. --Benjamin Stewart 02:41, 5 October 2010 (UTC)) (Dornyei, 1994).

Furthermore, in the division of motivational levels only two components have been analyzed (“language Level and the self-confidence”) by Gardner, Clement, and their associates and the others have been verified just a little or with not empirical research. On the other hand,the article mentioned three levels of components of second language or L2 "learning process", “language level”, “learner level” and “learning situational level” (Dornyei, 1994). Moreover, the article reflects three different aspects of language which are “social”, “personal” and “educational dimension” (Dornyei, 1994). Finally, the article listed some practical motivational strategies that will help language teachers to know how to motivate their students in the classroom.

This article went in a sequential order and was easy to follow. The article gave the opportunity to realize how was observed motivation in the past and how it has changed. Also it showed some important researchthat were made in order to know which is the role of motivation in the classroom. This research is for all L2 teachers that desire to motivate students, because this article gave teachers the necessary knowledge in order to know which aspects involve motivation with the objective of presenting a class that motivates all the time students. The benefit of this research is that teachers can find efficient tools in order to present their English class and in this way to motivate students that are motivated to learn.

In contrast, teachers believed that motivation only concern students. However, some authors like Deci and Ryan (1985) mentioned that “the relative absence of motivation that is not caused by a lack of initial interest but rather by the individual’s experiencing feelings of incompetence and helplessness when faced with the activity.” On the other hand, both articles focus on present that students are not the only ones who have to feel motivation. Instead of that teachers have to focus on prepare and motivate students in order to make learning easy and enjoyable to students.
As a conclusion, motivation is important in the language classroom. Most of the time motivation is just focus on the students rather than teachers. Nowadays, there are a lot of research that suggest that the role of teachers in motivation is important to take into account some motivational aspects like students’ level, language level, and the situational level. In order to know students’ motivation there is a test created by Gardner that helps teacher to know it the name of the test is “test battery”. Moreover, there are some strategies that will help teachers to motivate students in the classroom.

Vero Orosco

Article Review

Vero, adhere to the following criteria when rewriting your article review:

1. The article should be a peer-reviewed and scholarly one, the preference being an article related to TESOL.
2. All edits should be made in Wikieducator (as opposed to making edits in Word then copying and pasting to Wikieducator).
3. The summary of the article should be two paragraphs.
4. The meaning or implication of the results should be two paragraphs.
5. The final paragraph should provide the big picture, should provide any future implications or research related to the study, and should be one paragraph long.
6. Your interpretive paragraphs (paragraphs three and four) should following the MEAL plan which should include citations and references according to APA style.

Evaluating English language teaching software for kids: Education or entrertainment or both?

This article has as an objective to express if technology is really an advantage for students when learning or if it is just an entertainment. It also pretends to explain disasvantages of using language teaching software with kids. Learning through technology have benefits not only for learners, also for teachers and parents. By using technology such as internet, multimedia etc. students get motivated because they are learning by themselves. This article is clearly saying the students and teachers who use teaching software aquire and practice several skills that they might not use if they would not use technology. Since software are able to be used from any place and any moment, when kids use them, they can learn what they need and at the same time have fun by a way of entertainment.

For this study researchers chose five randomly software programmes in order to check the efectiveness of the activities in each one of them. The five programmes were: Garfield Gl, English Plus Basic l, English with the Littel Mole, Spot and His friends and Little Elephant Interactive. The study was carried out over threee days and for each of the software chosen they had the following criteria: Pointless, nonstandard,robotic, glib, static, disneyfied, flashy and empty. The researchers for this study found that most of the softwares do not have the parameter required to be considered as effective ones, since they do not take into consideration pedagogical factors.

By analisying this study, there are some software programmes which have specific objective such as teaching spelling, vocabulary etc for kids. In this kind of software kids are familiarize with some cartoons they love. For example, Garfield is a software in which kids learn vocabulary by practicing part of the house and helping him to get everything in order. This kind of software is also an entertaiment for kids, they like this characters but if the programme does not have the criteria required for students to learn, this is not going to be a good way of learning. Studies related to technology improved motivation, shelf-concept and mastery of skills and at the same time incresed students centered learning (Kazanci, 2009)

Comparing this article with Englis Language Teaching. The use of technology in the classroom such as internet, multimedia and all these examples are very useful when teaching, since they are software that are already there with teaching purposes. By using these softwares students get involved in another kind of way when teaching, not just with the traditional one like learning in the classroom just by listening to the teacher. The use of software programmes for kids are interesting since teachers spend less time with students face to face and their interaction is by internet and at the same time it is a disadvantage since teachers do not really know it kids are learning or not, and if they are really doing what they are suppposed to do.

As a conclusion, the use of of software programmes for teaching kids is a delicate are to use since each software should have certain criteria to be an effective programme for kids. By using technology there are advantages and disadvantages. Students and teachers have more opportunity to interact with this type of communication but a disadvantage is that if learners have doubts they might have probelms to contact the teachers. Also students could be doing something that is not working in the area they were supposed to work.

Fabian Gonzalez

Article Review

Learning a second language is important because of the economic globalization. Nowadays, the economical changes and the difficult lifestyle has made that many people who do not speak English emmigrate to United States where English is the official tongue looking for better opportunities. However, to help immigrant people to learn the English language, the English as a Second Language (ESL) which is known as the formal instruction will contribute to the immigrant people develop the four skills that are; listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

A great majority of children are not able to produce the language even when they live in the country which Encglish is sppoken. However, those children who are not able to produce English language or even the lack of producing it are sons of immigrants who communicate with children in L1 only. In fact, there are children who are able to produce minor language but it is not enough to develop in the host country. In spite of the different skills that different goups of children have there has been a clasification in two groups according of linguistic needs: in one hand, are the Limited English Proficient (LEP) which in these groups have difficulties in the four main skills of language (listening, speaking, reading and writing) and in the other hand, the Non-English speaking (NES) the lack in the four main skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing). In U.S There are at present at least 3.5 million (LEP) children enrolled in schools and requiere some levels of English.

English Language adults need to be high motivated when learning the target language. Adult English Language Learners are different in learning that classroom students because classroom students most of them are non-native students but they have goog production of L2 because of the plenty of interaction with L2 as a result, classroom students can work and get a high position. In fact, classroom students are not allow to work as a consequence they spend more time acquiring the L2. On the other hand the adult learner are need to find a job in order to succeed in the foreign country but they do not have enough time for learnenign L2. In addittion, according to Graham & Walsh: "Adult students usually attend English language classes for a few basic reasons. Some adults need to learn the language to get a job. Others may already have jobs but to acquire greater fluency in order keep their positions or to be promoted. Some need English instruction in order to pass the GED test or to take college classes.Still others may be retired or alone and use the class as a way to interact with other non-natives". This is a good reason to keep adult learners high motivated but teachers play and important role in it. The teacher needs to know which are the individual goals and help learners work on them.

Each learner has its own characteristics that influences in the leraning. It is good to take into consideration different aspects of each learner when teaching like; the age, social status, the previous knowledge about the target language, etc. However, the teacher must be aware of those aspects mention before to assure the best learning in English Learners. In fact, teacher must be aware about of apprentices' skills also, on this way the educator will improve the deficiencies in the target language.

Teaching a second language is not simple; it requires a lot of preparation from teachers, English teachers should master the different teaching methods and teaching techniques if really teachers want to make the learners accurate in learning English. It is important that teachers administer high motivation to students and been aware of learner’s needs. The teacher should gets into a research topic and start making researching about different types of motivation and how each one should help the learner and in which ways.

Teaching English as a Second Language. Retrieved on September 28, 2010 from www.ebsco.com

English as a Second Language for Adults. Retrieved on September 28, 2010 from www.ebsco.com

Alma

The article "Second language acquisition after traumatic brain injury: A case study" written by Polish researchers M. Polczynska-Fiszer and J.M. Mazaux, investigates if it is possible to learn a second language after brain injury. In addition, this study explores the conception that learning a second language may favorably contribute to a patient's rehabilitation and as a result, it may improve his/her quality of life. The authors appraise the need to research on this topic since there is not much information related to the relationship between brain injury and second language acquisition.

In this study, the authors followed the case of a Polish young girl who had a car accident and remained in a coma for a month. This trauma caused noticeable issues in both her memory and behaviour to the point that she was diagnosed not being able to live independently. Nine months after the injury, she started taking English classes in a program especially designed to help people recover from traumatic brain injury. However, it was found that the patient was an upper intermediate speaker of English before the accident. So, this program helped her relearn English as L2. The intervention lasted six months and after this period of time, notable improvementes were found in the patient. The authors state that in this case, learning a second language was associeted with a betterment of memory in the patient. Also, several upgrades were found in her behaviour as well. She felt motivated to relearn English which also helped her self-esteem. After a period of time, the patient was able to return to her M.A. studies.

On the other hand, the results of this type of intervention may vary depending on the characteristics of each patient. Polczynska-Fiszer, one of the authors, conducted another study following the cases of eight patients with brain injury after prolonged coma. In this study, she tried to verify if it was possible for these patients to learn a second language. The results of Polczynska-Fiszer's first experiment were confirmed by the authors in their intervention indicating that learning a second language after a coma is possible. However, some of the patients in the first study tended to mix both languages. This situation was one of the main differences between both studies since it was not present in the second research.

This article was a very interesting read. The authors' position and argument were easily understood. Moreover, if there were any spelling or grammar mistakes, they were undetectable. On top, the article is supported by plenty of evidence which consisted in several observations and tests applied to the patient. However, the results of this intervention are not enough to state that it is posible for all patients with brain injury to learn a second language. Therefore, further research is needed.

To conclude, people in both linguist and neurological fields would find this article very interesting and useful since it explores an innovating topic that has received little attention. Therefore, it would be very appeling to do research on this topic in order to gather more information. Certainly, the authors have been able to motivate the audince and catch their attention through this study.

REFERENCES

Mazaux, J., & Polczynska-Fiszer, M.(2008). Second language acquisition after traumatic brain injury: A case study. Disability and Rehabilitation, 2008; 30(18): 1397 – 1407

Polczynska-Fiszer, M. (2007). Acquisition of the second language by patients with brain injury after prolonged coma. Poznan studies in contemporary linguistics, 43(1), 113-127. Doi (10.2478/v10010-007-0006-3)

Marco

In the article, the author explores the methods that the diferent programs in different countries in which the mother tongue is the English. The author defines English as a Second Language (ESL) as the formal instruction of English to those whose native language is not English but who live in an English speaking country (Holfester, 2008). This is mainly direct to inmmigrants, international studnets or refugees people that provided with ESL four basic skills which are listening, reading, speaking and writing are able to enroll in school, obtain employment and function effectively in the host country.

Economic globalization have created a pressing need for viable English proficiency programs. The current trends suggest that one of the largest growing groups in the United States is people who speak English as a second language (Holfester, 2008) says the author. English as second language or ESL is one of the most effective and widely methods of English fluency to respond to the growing non-native speaker of English population (Holfester, 2008). ESL is the formal instruction of English to immigrants, international students or refugees whose native language is not English but who live in an English speaking country.

The development of ESL in the twentieth century was also greatly influenced by the creation of TESOL in 1966. The author mention this as a background of the formal establishment of the program of ESL. One of TESOL’s fundamental goals is to address “the need for a professional organization that would be permanently devoted to the problems of teaching English to speakers of other languages at all levels” (TESOL, 2006). Most ESL curricula in the United States offer various levels of study in five fundamental areas: reading, writing, grammar,speaking/conversation, and listening. ESL models differ from other English developmental programs by using only the L2 (the target language) in the classroom.

ESL has its purpose to develop the different skills of the second language. The article mentions that the instructor of this program has to consider several factors before taking a specific methodology in order to teach. These factors are the age of the student, mother tongue in order to know the similarities between the two languages and the reason of inmmigration because it helps to address the personal issues that may arise in the classroom. Holfester manages a list of different methods and techniques such as total physical response, the silent way technique among others that already been analyzed by other authors.