Communicative competence: A pedagogically motivated model with content specifications

     This article had little information, but the information presented is very important because it tells us about the changing views of Chomsky's competence, Dell Hymes, Canale and Swain. Communicative competence is very important in teaching languages. As teachers we need to integrate communicative competence in language teaching, to develop and define the main aspects of communicative language use. Letting ourselves for be carried so communicative competence mean  purposes of study, and the Changing views of Chomsky's competence, Dell Hymes, Canale and Swain.

      From the perspective of Chomsky's linguistic competence is defined as the mastery of the principles governing language, and actuation as the manifestation of the underlying rules of language use. According to Dell Hymes, communicative competence is related to know "when to speak, when not, and talk about, with whom, when, where, in what form", ie it is the ability to form sentences that are not only grammatically correct but socially appropriate. Canale and Swain described the communicative competence as a set of four interrelated skills: linguistic competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence and strategic competence. Celco-Murcia, Dörnyei and Thurrell, focused on the area of ​​sociolinguistic competence, although the model presented CMDT which is based on linguistic competence, strategic competence, socio-cultural competence, actional competence and discourse competence.

     If we got the information in our knowledge and applying it in the classroom, we can obtain better results with our students.

The Whats, Whys, Hows and Whos of Content-Based Instruction

     This article gives us information on the instructional practice in second foreign language education. Here we mention the evolution of communicative language teaching. The CLT has survived because it refers to a diverse set of general good character, is interpreted in different ways and used to support a variety of classroom procedures. The main purpose has been the development and implementation of programs and methodologies that promote the development functional. Also we have CLT spin-off, natural approach that is based on the language learning cooperative teaching content and teaching assignments.

     They have different definitions for CBI, as the integration of particular Brinton contend with the concurrent language teaching aims teaching of second language skills matter and subject. Leaver and Stryker, defined as an instructional approach CBI in which "language proficiency is achieved by shifting the focus of the course from the learning of language per se to the learning of subject matter. And for her part defined Short, states that" in content -based instruction, language teachers use content topics, Rather Than grammar rules or vocabulary lists, as the scaffolding for instruction ".

      Leaver and Stryker view an Ample Within the paradigm perspective and claim That CBI "is a truly holistic approach to foreign and language education". These authors agree Proposal that are bound to CBI meet four basic characteristics: subject matter core, use of authentic texts, learning of new information and Appropriate to the Needs of specific students.

     I agree in the research that says that students that are more motivated, learn and develops an interest in capturing the teaching that occurs in the classroom. In this way students become successful able, learn more and get better results. The CBI seems to be complete for application in second language acquisition, but not separate from the CLT, and the result is the support of the two. I understand that as teachers we must be innovative and adapt us to the needs of students in order to have better results.

whole language

Definition

a)  a philosophy of reading and writing instruction that emphasizes interpreting  meaning from the context of everyday literature

b)  a method of teaching reading in which reading is combined with listening, speaking, and writing practice, and literature is used to decode words in context. Compare phonics.

c)   a method of teaching children to read by emphasizing the use and recognition of words in everyday contexts and books that are not textbooks.

On the nature of
whole language education

        Whole language is not a program, package, set of materials, method, practice, or technique; rather, it is a perspective on language and learning that leads to the acceptance of certain strategies, methods, materials, and techniques.—Dorothy Watson, 1989

Whole language is a perspective on education, a philosophy of education, a belief system about education. It is an educational theory grounded in research and practice, and practice grounded in theory and research (to paraphrase Harste, 1989). This perspective or educational theory derives from several kinds of research: research demonstrating the psycholinguistic and social nature of the reading process, research demonstrating how children acquire language and how learning to read and write is similar to learning the basic structures of the language as children learn to talk; and research on how humans learn concepts and ideas. In fact, one way of characterizing whole language is to say that it is a "constructivist" view of learning, with particular emphasis on the development of literacy. Derived from research in cognitive psychology, constructivism asserts that human beings develop concepts through their own intellectual interactions with and actions upon their world. Learners and learning are not passive, but active. Forming concepts about language-oral or written-is easier when learners are presented with whole, natural language, not unnatural language patterns like "Nan can fan Dan," not the vastly simplified language of some primers in basal reading programs, and not the bits and pieces of language found in many workbook exercises and skills programs. Hence the term "whole language."

History, in brief

In the United States, the advent of whole language is often traced to the mid-to-late 1970s, when Kenneth Goodman and others' insights into reading as a psycholinguistic process gained increasing recognition, Yetta Goodman's interest in the development of literacy merged with related lines of research, and Dorothy Watson started a teacher support group called Teachers Applying Whole Language (TAWL). Of course, whole language has roots that are historically deeper and intellectually and geographically broader (K. Goodman, 1992; Edelsky, Altwerger, & Flores, 1991; Y. Goodman, 1989; K. Goodman, 1989; Watson, 1989; K. Goodman & Y. Goodman, 1979). But what we think of today as a whole language theory of learning and teaching did not become widely known in the United States until the late 1980s, or even the early 1990s. In Canada, other leaders emerged during approximately this same time period, among them Judith Newman and David Doake. In New Zealand and Australia, where whole language is known as "natural" learning, the best-known researchers and theoreticians are Don Holdaway and Brian Cambourne, respectively.

Some key characteristics of whole language education

• Acceptance of learners. This means, in part, that all learners are accepted regardless of their cultural or socio-economic background or other characteristics or labels. But in whole language classrooms, "acceptance of learners" also means that whole language teachers develop the classroom environment and the curriculum for and with the students, to meet their needs and engage them in learning about what interests them, as well as to cover essentials from the curriculum guidelines.

• Flexibility within structure. Instead of having children do one brief activity or worksheet after another, whole language teachers organize the day in larger blocks of time, so that children can engage in meaningful pursuits. Thus they engage in fewer different tasks, but larger and more satisfying projects. They may have a readers' and writers' workshop, for instance, when the children read books and perhaps use them as models for their own writing. They may study a theme or topic at least part of the day for several days or weeks, using oral and written language and research skills to pursue learning in the realm of social studies and/or science and math, and using language and the arts to demonstrate and share what they have learned. Together and individually, the students have many choices as to what they will do and learn, which enables them to take significant responsibility for their learning. However, the teacher guides, supports, and structures the children's learning as needed. Flexibility within the larger time blocks offers the time that learners need (especially the less proficient) in order to accomplish something meaningful and significant.

• Supportive classroom community. Many whole language teachers help children develop skills for interacting with each other, solving interpersonal conflicts and problems, supporting one another in learning, and taking substantial responsibility for their own behavior and learning.

• Expectations for success as they engage in "real" reading, writing, and learning. Kids aren't kept doing "readiness" activities, in preparation for later reading and writing; rather, they are given the support they need to read and write whole texts from the very beginning. Whole language teachers have discovered that virtually all children can learn to read and write whole texts. This is true also of children who have heretofore been sent to resource rooms because they had difficulty with skills work. Indeed, reading whole texts is often easier for these children than doing the skills work.

• Skills taught in context. Instead of being taught in isolation, skills are taught through minilessons and conferences, in the context of students' reading, writing, and learning. For example: phonics is taught mainly through discussion and activities deriving from texts the children have read and reread with the teacher, and through writing the sounds they hear in words. Spelling is mainly taught when children are editing their writing, and grammar is mainly taught as the teacher helps children revise and edit what they've written. Skills like using the index of a book are taught when students need to locate information on a topic they want to research, while using the yellow pages of a phone book is taught when children need to locate resources within the community. In short, skills are taught while students are engaged in real-life tasks.

• Teacher support for learning: scaffolding and collaboration. Teachers provide "scaffolding" for learning in many ways. For instance, primary grade teachers read Big Books and charts to and with children again and again, enabling the children to read whole texts before they can read independently. Whole language teachers help children write the sounds they hear in words, thus enabling the children to communicate through writing. They collaborate with children in carrying out research projects and, in the process, they model and explain how to do things that the children could not yet do alone. By collaborating on projects, children provide similar support for each other.

• Contextualized assessment that emphasizes individuals' growth as well as their accomplishments. Assessment is based primarily upon what children are doing from day to day as they read, write, do math and science, research topics of interest, and express their learning in various ways. Comprehensive, "portfolio" assessment will include data not only on the products of children's efforts, but on their learning processes. Whole language teachers commonly involve children in assessing their own work and progress, and in setting future goals for learning. Parents and peers may also be involved in assessment. Individual growth and strengths are emphasized, along with progress in meeting agreed-upon goals and predetermined criteria.

COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE AND COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING

      This article presents important information of communicative competence and communicative language teaching. Here are presented the theory of Chomsky, Hymes, Widdowson, Stern, Rios, Canale and Swain. The concept of communicative competence is initiated by Chomsky, who had the competence and performance. Hymes believes that Chomsky's theory does not describe the actual behavior of the language, so understand that your results are incomplete. Between the theory of Hymes and Chomsky I'm agree with Hymes's theory because he believes that we should worry about performance and actual use of language, while Chomsky is based on speaker-hearer knowledge. Hymes says "to reach a communicative competence has to be understanding and manufacturing productivity in both referential and social meaning of language." I believe that to be successful in teaching communicative competence, children must acquire knowledge of how socio-cultural, and relate to their lives and environment knowledge is acquired more easily and prevails.

     Widdowson also agree with this theory Hymes, but suggests that grammar should be based on semantic concepts and language skills help to achieve the communicative language. Channels and Swain are also agree with Hymes's theory, but his work focuses more on social interaction, grammar and meaning. I find it fascinating the way they come together and give importance to grammatical competence, communicative competence and socio-linguistic competence. Stern proposes that the teaching of communicative competence in language learning should hold an objective and analytical study using the practice of structural aspects, functional and socio-cultural in the context used by the real experiment. And Rios proposes methodological distinction between skill-getting and skill-using.

      To my knowledge all of these theories have contributed to the enrichment and development in communicative language teaching, but I understand that public schools in Puerto Rico is missing something to succeed in communicative language teaching English.   We have fascinating theories, studies and experiments that help us increase the quality of teaching communicative language as teachers we need to implement all the methods required to use alternatives for the student to acquire the knowledge. 

 

Journal #1

      

          In the class of Development of Communication skills in students of ESL, was discussed several issues among them is the difference between “use” and "usage"? What is the difference between fluency and accuracy? And what is the difference between functional and structural syllabus? The professor discussed with colleagues several opinions; they expressed their ideas which made the class dynamics. In this diary I will show my opinion on each of the questions according to what I understood the concepts discussed in class.

          In the English language there are several words that are spelled different but seems to have the same meaning, but that depends on how you utilize it in a sentence. Such as "usage" and "use" are defined as "the act of using" but "usage" refers to how something is used and only works as a noun, and "use" refers to the practice of doing something and is both verb and noun. To understand and apply correct "usage" and “use"of grammar and conversation you need to connect much with the language and practice it.

          Many people wonder which is the difference between fluency and accuracy. To my knowledge a person may be fluent but not show precision in what it does or says. In the English language much exist fluency, and there is much that many people who speak the language without fear and ease but do not have the accuracy that it requires. For accuracy it takes much knowledge and practice to then be able to acquire the ability to do things without making mistakes. In the classroom will perform various activities for students to acquire both the fluidity and precision. Some activities undertaken to acquire fluency as: listening (music), talk (speech, poetry, drama, etc.), reading, writing assignments and present them in class, among others.  While to acquiring the accuracy begins by being to know all on the topic, learning, understanding and applying correctly. By practicing the right thing, to have an accuracy is achieved.  If we manage the classroom so students can have accuracy and fluency would be a good achievement, and we work every day but not always get the results we want.

          There is also talked and discussed in class the difference between a functional syllabus and structural syllabus.  From what I understand the functional syllabus is based on functions not grammatical structures, but the structural syllabus is based on grammatical structures that are the backbone of organization. In my opinion the functional syllabus can help you to work with children in the classroom with basic units using different techniques and exploring knowledge.  But I think that structural syllabus is very complex for the comprehension and domain of the students, in occasions it can lead to the confusion.

Benefits and Strategies of Communicative Language Learning

          The article of Benefits and Strategies of Communicative Language Learning by Paul Overland is a very comprehensive and important article. This shows us the importance of language learning and that communication goes beyond the grammatical competence and leads us to interact with others in a different language so correct and fun. I understand that the advantage is that through communicative language, learning students acquire fluency to communicate and express themselves and increasing their interest in the language and may have an interest in improving the quality of the grammar.  

            The article provides several strategies for communicative language learning, including this: The private dialogue, an immersive environment, and music instruction. We must encourage private dialogue, but this starts from the simple to the complex. In order to achieve to make private dialogue should start practicing the language communicative, expressing your wishes, speak with someone you trust to not feel fear and you can express yourself freely, but to help you correct your mistakes. The teacher in the classroom must win the confidence of the student by which he can express their ideas without fear of ridicule. Then there is trust, dialogue among students will be effective and productive. Then in order to achieve a dialogue between students take practice to get to the communicative language proficiency. There are several alternatives for virtually the communicative language in the form of dialogue, forming groups to perform work and then present to the class, make trips and get to interact with the guides or other people, communication skills and dialogue between teacher-student private.  

           We need to establish an environment of immersion teaching, to make it happen that the target language must be same to the language of instruction. The student will listen and be surrounded by the same language throughout the day will be forced to develop to get through. This is how it all must start from the simple to the complex is important is to reach communicative competence.  

           This technique is very common in grades pre-school children and teachers repeatedly help students to acquire the retention of instructional songs. The songs of instruction are links to important components such as alphabet, numbers, days of the weeks, months, and other important terms, depending on the grade and the student. To establish this technique, is to use different visual and auditory means that it is repetitive. Which brings us to this is a learning process based on memorization. No doubt, auditory learning is vital to allow competition hearing.