6th Form Teaching
When on Teaching Practice, acquaint yourself with the overall aims and objectives of the 6th form course (see Departmental Scheme of work and Exam Board Syllabus), in terms of activities,skills and topics.
Students must be trained to form good habits of study from the very beginning of the course and learn to work with a purpose e.g. Students should be encouraged to carry out 'Supported Autonomous Study'.
A personal interest needs to be taken in the work of each individual student, with regular individual attention, even at the expense of lesson time (within reason), and the opportunity to speak and write about themselves in the TL.
Lesson time should be used primarily for active work, giving students varied opportunities to practice and use the TL.
Homework and private study time should be used for preparation and follow-up work: listening, reading, learning and writing as well as preparation for oral work.
The more time goes by, the more student's suggestions need to be taken into account when planning future work, texts and topics.
The students should be given the experience of speaking and writing in the TL. for real listeners or readers, (teachers, students, correspondents) who will react to what they say.
A steady course of revision of basic points in the FL needs to be maintained alongside work of the type outlined above.
A reading and listening programme based on self-selected authentic sources needs support and encouragement (again, even at the expense of lesson time if reasonable), and regular weekly monitoring.
Instead of using each lesson as a self-contained unit (e.g. "conversation", "translation", "grammar", "listening"), a series of lessons grouped around a theme or topic 'visits' each of the skill areas using printed and recorded texts as stimulus material for a set of varied activities centered on the topic chosen.
Each activity in the series reinforces the others, enabling students to gain confidence in handling language and ideas.
Each topic or theme can take more or less two weeks to cover. A total of about 16 topics a year might be something to aim for, depending on the examination syllabus.
'Holidays' away from topic work can be introduced by the students or the teacher based on a subject, a speaker, a text or a film for intrinsic interest or news value.
It would be too confusing for class work to constantly shuttle between language and content all the way through a lesson. Focus on meaning (usually the first step) and form at different times during the lesson.
Materials used should be lively and interesting to stimulate individual and group work. They should encourage and motivate the students while gradually increasing confidence and competence in the TL.
The main medium for FL learning should be the life and culture of the countries where the TL is spoken; input material for listening and reading should have originally been intended for native speakers. Even practice sentences should originate from a native speaker expressing a point of view relating to some aspect of life in the foreign country.
Within each topic area, some texts will be suitable for detailed study and exploitation, and others to be used as source/ stimulus material for class, groups or individuals.
Frequent and regular listening to the TL, spoken by a variety of speakers in a variety of contexts is the basic factor in building up student's confidence and competence in the TL.
Materials should range from longer texts (over 5 mins) for extensive listening, to short pieces (approx. 2 mins) for intensive listening.
Regular "home listening" assignments with or without worksheets should be given.
Oral work in the TL, with or without the FL Assistant in the classroom should be closely integrated with the other skill areas.
Opportunities for pair and group work should be devised, ensuring that all members of the class take part.
Students should not be expected to be able to speak in the TL unless they have a definite starting-point from which to work (e.g. their own/classmates' everyday life, information which they have heard or read, the wish to question teacher/FL assistant etc.).
Students should not be expected to speak openly in the TL in front of the teacher/class until they have had the opportunity to "research" a topic individually, compare notes in pairs/ groups (teacher acting as discreet animator, advisor, walking dictionary), and finally to pool their ideas and information. At this last stage, the teacher and/or FL assistant should act as listener, as chairperson/ referee, and occasional contributor.
As with listening (see above), frequent and regular reading of a variety of authentic texts of varying lengths is an integral part of the course.
Close study of shorter texts is a necessary starting point for detailed study and exploitation of language and content.
Longer texts may be read as part of a regular diet of independent "self-service" reading with regular teacher monitoring. Many students will have little or no previous experience of reading the TL, and the teacher will need to show considerable interest, ingenuity and firmness in establishing the habit of regular reading. Each student should be encouraged to make an individual choice of reading matter.
Listening, speaking and reading activities can benefit greatly if there is a written follow-up; written work should be seen by the students as a way of drawing on and bringing together 2-3 weeks' work.
Only in exceptional circumstances, or as practice in examination technique, should written work be set "in a vacuum". The golden rule is not to expect satisfactory output without appropriate input.
Students need careful and patient training in the preparation and presentation of written work. From the outset, encourage plagiarism (i.e. the intelligent use and adaptation of language and ideas from the FL material they have been working with).
L= listening S= speaking R= reading W= writing
L Listening to extended passages of spoken authentic TL ( i.e. more than 10 minutes) for interest and enjoyment and as a source of language and ideas for future written an oral work LW Listening to shorter passages of authentic spoken TL.
Note taking on i) language ii) content.
Identifying equivalents to words or phrases.
Transcribing selected sentences.
Translating.
Summarising.
Writing a TL version of a Mother Tongue translation or summary of the passage.LWR Same as above with the aid of a full or gapped transcript of all or part of the passage. LS Play a short dialogue followed by role-play of same conversation or one student filling in gaps (e.g. one side of the dialogue). LSR Same as above with full or gapped transcript. R Reading extended passages of authentic TL for interest and enjoyment and as a source of language and ideas for future written and oral work. RW Reading shorter passages of authentic TL including diagrams, charts, cartoons, reference works etc.
Note taking on i) language, vocab, grammar, usage ii) content, ideas, style.
Identifying equivalents to words or phrases.
Translating.
Summarising.
Writing a TL version of mother tongue translation/summary of the text.Asking questions (using notes or from memory) in order to elicit information or opinions from a partner or members of a group. RWS Same as above but after reading and taking notes. W Writing in TL of various lengths (50 - 400 words) in various forms and registers, (dialogues, narrative, imaginative, descriptive, discursive, persuasive etc.) drawing on language and ideas gained from other activities.
N.B. Further analysis of linguistic points arising from this written work.S Giving a prepared talk (2-3 minutes), a report, an introduction or contribution to a discussion (with partner/group) in order to elicit information or role-play. SW
Same as above with prepared notes.
The topic-based approach does not remove the need for a clear and thorough course of learning and revision of grammar and vocabulary.
This can be provided by presenting and explaining in the Mother Tongue examples taken from the texts used for detailed study. Additional examples may be given when necessary. Points of grammar and idiom taken from the student's own written work are particularly helpful.
Give plenty of practice in the TL through question and answer, substitution, transformation and translation exercises. This can be done orally, so that each student is made to formulate and say new structures in the TL.
Each student has to provide his/her own copy of a good bilingual dictionary (e.g. Collins-Robert). Bilingual and monolingual dictionaries are often available in the school/departmental library.
All homework should be seen as a preparation to or a follow-up to classwork. Even 'autonomous' reading and listening should have as their main aim the improvement of the range and variety of vocabulary, idiom and structures.
Homework must be a routine habit. A typical routine might be:-
- Listening and reading every week.
- Preparation for oral work every week.
- Selected vocabulary preparation every week.
- Grammar work every week.
- One piece of continuous writing at the end of each 2-3 week cycle. (300 - 400 words).
The marking scheme used over the two years might well be based on the Examining Board's marking scheme since this would provide a detailed and consistent assessment tool which would measure performance against realistic goals. In this way a student could, for any given exercise (e.g. role-play, essay, translation, listening comprehension etc.) obtain a rough comparison of present attainment levels against desired future examination grades.