Future jobs that doesn't exist yet. Competence they will need: problem
solving. If you don't have language you can't think in the first place and if
you can't communicative, you can't collaborate. Language teachers are essential
for the next generation of citizens. but we need to re-thunk HOW we teach
languages. We need to find new paradigm that integrates languages, technology,
competences, new notions of knowledge and learning. How? Project - based
learning, as well as communicative language teaching.
Socioconstructivism, communicative language teaching, the impact it has
on your teaching. CLT focuses on
communicative proficiency rather than mastery of structures. Teachers have to
find ways for repetitive exposure without being boring. This means finding ways
to contextualize so that students can catch the meaning. Language learning is
about learning to communicative, not filling in gaps or memorizing. Motivating
students to use the language no matter what level they are at. Getting the
students to use the language to communicate for a real purpose. Creating
learning situations where the students use the language in unrehearsed contexts
(tranferral of knowledge)
PBLL + Computers = TEPBLL
What is it? Authentic purpose, it requires cognitive engagement. It is
messy and requires lots of planning. It does not only follow a text book, it is
audience - oriented, it is not teacher -
oriented. It is a carefully planned sequence of activities that segues one
sub-task into another while aiming for a final output.
Language learning is embedded in several layers of other types of
learning.
Implementing it in the classroom- How to contextualize, the project must
be embedded, go beyond the classroom and are linked to other content, emerge
from the learning needs of the students and their contexts. How to start:
·
Students interests
·
An already existing school project
·
Community project / concern
·
A hot social topic
Checklist
Can you find an
underlying purpose for the project?
Can you link it
beyond the classroom?
Will students see
it only as busy work?
For language
learning projects, technology can be integrated in several ways. CMC to explore topics together, augmented
reality to explore local history, with technology your project can span the
world. In planning TEPBLL you must first decide your scope, duration: a month?
a semester? Breadth: one topic? cross- disciplinary? outreach: community? to
others? Audience: another school? And then you have to think backwards: what
will be the end product? What are the expected outcomes? what are the
procedural outcomes? How will you evaluate them? How will you let others know
about the outcomes? How will students show their learning? And how will you
measure their learning?
You map your project, organize the tasks & activities, compile
resources (technology comes in) Create a storyboard (work plan) calibrate
LANGUAGE SUPPORT need for all the activities. You can use the
communicate-ometer to measure the communicative demand needed to complete the
activity successfully. You will have to plan your language scaffolding
accordingly. You can plan for
increasingly higher communicative demand along the TEPBLL. But don't forget to
repeat linguistic exposure with a variety of tasks and subtasks throughout.
What do you think the role of language is in TEPBLL? How does the teacher
support this? Should the teacher focus any language instruction and how? Where
and when does the language learning take place? How can this be assessed?
I completely
agree with you, projects provide opportunities for students to engage in real
life communication, in context, with real people, and across the globe.
Including technologies in the projects are a good way to prepare our students
for the future jobs they don't exist yet, they have fun with it and it's also a
good way to motivate them. However, the
world is constantly changing and today students are teaching their parents how
to use computers and smartphones, therefore, as a teacher, how can I keep up
with the future generations requirements?
Moreover, I
also think it is very important to know their interests and use them as a
motivational factor to do the project, but what if the ideas they give us
aren't useful? How can we guide them to propose topics that are interesting and
useful? I think that sometimes students need to learn things they don't like,
we can try to do it in a fun way, instead of memorizing and doing lots of paper
sheets, but how do we handle that?
Lastly, I
would like to ask something else, sometimes parents like to see results, such
as exams, lots of homework... and the school wants us to do a specific project.
How can we balance what the families demand, what the school is telling us to
do and what the students are willing to do?
