21.The main proficiency goal can be described in general terms as phonological competence, that is
a) The ability to recognize and discriminate significant sound features.
b) The ability to produce intelligible and acceptable sounds, both segmentally and prosodically.
c) The ability to interpret written language phonologically, as in reading aloud, and to recreated spoken language graphically, as in writing from dictation and note-taking.
22.Stressed words tend to be nouns, adjectives and adverbs, ie. content words. Structure (or form) words, articles, prepositions, etc. tend to receive weak stress or unstressed.
23It is the context that determines or gives meaning to the sounds, stress, words, and sentences. Human sounds have social and communicative functions. The same words said with different rhythm and intonation will produce different meanings depending on the speaker’s attitude and intention. Practicing the pronunciation of individual sounds in isolation is sometimes necessary, but not sufficient in developing students’ phonological competence.
24.It indicates grammatical meaning in much the same way as punctuation does in the written language. It can also indicate the speaker’s attitude. In some cases, both grammatical meaning and attitude are conveyed by the intonation pattern alone.
25.To teach intonation in a meaningful way, we could choose from the following ways:
1) Using realia to set up a situation that would illustrate the difference in attitude.
2) Using mood cards.
3) Creating roles.
26.Knowing a word involves knowing its meaning, its form and its use. If we say that we know a word, we must be able to
a) recognize it in written and spoken form;
b) recall it at once;
c) relate it to appropriate object or concept;
d) use it in appropriate grammatical form;
e) use it in correct collocation;
f) use it at appropriate level of formality;
g) pronounce it in a recognizable way;
h) spell it correctly;
i) be aware of its connotation.
27 Affixation, compounding and conversion.
28.We have to consider whether the word:
a) is essential for comprehension of context;
b) is commonly used;
c) is used in a wide variety of situations;
d) has more than one meaning (if so, which; if any, to teach)
If our answer to all these four questions is yes, then we have to make it enter the students’ active vocabulary.
29.Before presenting vocabulary in class, it is helpful to remember the following:
a) Teach and practice the words in spoken form first.
b) Teach words in context.
c) Teach lexical items rather than individual words.
d) Present words in a memorable way.
e) Check understanding.
f) Revise often.
30.a) grouping words in one way or another;
b) using dictionaries;
c) establishing personal category sheets;
d) using visuals;
e) using alphabetical index;
f) labeling.
31.While one form can be used to perform a number of functions, one function can be realized by using a number of different forms.
32.The first view is that teaching grammar entails the formal explanation of grammar rules. While learners who receive a great deal of grammatical explanation will end up knowing quite a lot about the language, they will not necessarily be able to put the language to communicative effect. The second view is that teaching grammar is basically a matter of providing learners with practice in mastering common grammatical patterns through a process of analogy rather than explanation. The learners may become fluent in the structures they have been taught, but may not be able to use them appropriately in genuine communication outside the classroom. The third view is that teaching grammar is a matter of giving students the opportunity to use English in a variety of realistic situations. The disadvantage is that learners will not be able to provide explanations of the grammatical rules of the target language.
33.A basic distinction in learning theory is between deductive learning and inductive learning. Deductive learning is an approach to language teaching in which learners are taught rules and given specific information about a language. They then apply these rules when they use the language. In contrast, in inductive learning learners are not taught grammatical or other types of rules directly but are left to discover or induce rules from their experience of using the language. The former is explicit teaching of grammar while the latter is implicit.
34.When presenting a new structural item we should be primarily trying to achieve two things:
a) to enable the students to recognize the new structure well enough to be able to produce it themselves (ie. establish the form);
b) to make absolutely clear the usage of the pattern, so that when the students produce them, prompted by the teacher, they know what they are saying (ie. establish the meaning).
35.The following are some of the factors that definitely contribute to successful practice:
1) Pre-learning.
2) Volume and repetition.
3) Success-orientation.
4) Heterogeneity.
5) Teacher assistance.
6) Interest.
36.Listening is important mainly for two reasons. First, we cannot develop speaking skills unless we also develop listening skills. To have a successful conversation, students must understand what is said to them. Later the ability to understand spoken English may become very important. Second, listening to spoken English is an important way of acquiring the language, while in our situation the students do not hear English spoken around them, so it is important for us to give our students as much opportunity as possible to listen to spoken English.
37. If we listen with no particular purpose in mind, and often without much concentration, the kind of listening is called casual listening. Usually we do not listen very closely, unless we hear something that particularly interests us, and afterwards we may not remember much of what we heard. However if we listen for a particular purpose, to find information we need to know, the kind of listening is called focused listening. In these situations we listen much more closely; but we do not listen to everything we hear with equal concentration—we listen for the most important points or for particular information. Usually we know beforehand what we are listening for.
38.Some of the advantages of using a cassette recorder are:
First, it gives the students the chance to listen to a variety of voices apart from the teacher’s, and it brings native speakers’ voices into the classroom.
Second, recorded material is useful for listening to dialogues, interviews, discussions, etc. where there is more than one person speaking at the same time. Otherwise the teacher has to act the part of more than one person.
Third, it is very useful for intensive listening, because the cassette can be stopped and a phrase played over and over again. This kind of listening is called intensive listening.
39. The questions should have a good general idea of what the text is about, should be concerned with the general meaning or with the most important points of the text, and not focus on minor details, and should be fairly easy to answer and not too long.
40.Reading aloud is not very useful for reading a text in class for the following reasons: First, only one student is active at a time; the others are either not listening at all, or are listening to a bad model. Second, students’ attention is focused on pronunciation, not on understanding the meaning. Third, it is an unnatural activity as most people do not read aloud in real life. Last, it takes up a lot of time because students usually read very slowly.