A Biling Gal

Communicative instructional settings involve the style of instruction that emphasize on interaction, conversation, and language use rather than on learning about the language. Students’ success is measured in terms of their ability to ‘get things done’ in second language rather than on their accuracy in using grammatical features. The characteristics of the Communicative instructional settings are: v   Error correction There is limited amount of error correction , and meaning is emphasized over form. v   Language input Input is simplified and made comprehensible by the use of contextual cues, props, gestures , rather than through structural grading. v   Time available for learning Learners usually have only limited time for learning. Sometimes, subject-matter courses (ex. Mathematics, Chemistry, etc.) taught through the second language can add time for language learning. v   Ratio of native speakers to learners Contact wi...

Structure-based instructional settings (ex. Grammar translation, audio lingual)  are those where the language is taught to a group of second or foreign language learners.   The goal of learner is often to pass an examination rather than to use the language for communication. The characteristics of the Structure-based instructional settings are: v  Error correction Error are frequently corrected. Accuracy tends to be given priority over meaningful interaction. v  Language input Input is structurally graded, simplified, and sequenced by the teacher and the textbook. Linguistic items are presented and practiced in isolation, one item at a time. v  Time available for learning Learning is often limited to only a few hours a week. v  Ratio of native speakers to learners The teacher is often the only native or proficient speaker the student comes in contact with. v   Variety of languages & discourse t...

 “If the learner is a child, in a school situation where  other children  are native speakers of the target language,  the instruction is directed toward the native speakers  by using only their language.”                     Natural context should be understood as the learner is                exposed to a language in social interaction . The characteristics of the natural acquisition settings are: v  Error correction    Learners are rarely corrected . If their interlocutors can understand what they are saying, they do not remark on the correctness of the speech v   Language input Language is not presented step by step. In communicative interactions , the learner will be exposed to a wide variety of vocabulary and structures. v   Time available for learning The learner is surrounded by the language f...

Receptive activities     1. Reading Ø      Level of L1 reading ability is a very strong predictor of how successful students will be in learning to read L2. This is true even when the L1 is represented in a different symbolic writing system Ø       Learners whose L1 is written in a different writing system  from their L2 need to be able to recognize symbols in the target language as an early step     Table  Writing system of the world Ø     What learners need to encounter at an early stage -      Directionality (whether that L2 is written from left to right, right to left or top to bottom) -      Blank spaces between words -      Punctuation Ø      Developing fluency in reading requires acquiring sufficient knowledge of the new language elements especially vocabulary, basic grammar and dis...

     Comprehension of written or spoken language involves  both bottom-up and top-down processing. Fig. 3 Receptive processing Example   A Thai woman walks into a supermarket in the USA. She wants to buy some fruit. The cashier asks her, “Paper or plastic?” Knowledge from bottom-up process: knowing the meaning and part of speech of the words “paper” and “plastic”, and knowing that high pitch intonation indicates an interrogative sentence (question).         Knowledge from top-down process: understanding the context and the situation that the cashier is asking if he wants a paper or a plastic bag. This applies to both receptive (listening,reading) and productive (speaking,writing) activities.

Table  Classification of activities involving language use Written mode Oral mode Receptive Reading Listening Productive Writing Speaking         Four areas of language activities (reading, writing, listening, and speaking) can be classified into receptive and productive ; and as seen in the  Table , they also can be divided into written and oral modes.   Important activities in academic and interpersonal competences.                   Receptive activities are most important for processing academic competence input, while oral activities are most important for processing interpersonal competence input and expression.          Even though in each language level, knowledge of all four activities would overlap each other, the activities are also independent to some exte...