Noticing

I have never heard about the concept of "notocing", but I can understand that is the process of paying attention to meaning and form, during the learning process.

Analysing my learning experience, I can say that during all the school years I was focused on form, only form. My teachers only tought me grammar rules and structures. Because of that, I could never understand anything in English in those years. I was not focused on meaning.

When I decided to follow the English minor at University, I focused all my attention on meaning. Then I realised that my tecahers at school didn't give me the appropiate comprehensible input that I needed to understand the language.

A communicative teacher for Péter Medgyes

Péter Medgyes talks about the communicative approach and also about how a communicative teacher has to be and whay she has to do in her practice.

According to the first idea, it states that is really demanding for teachers because the learners are seen as individuals, and so have to be treated in a particular way.

Talking about the characteristics that a teacher must have, he says that she has to be erudite and versatile, learner-centered, ingenious, confident and with lots of skills that make her be a super teacher aware of everything.

Appart from that, she has to be able to produce real interaction between students, focus on meaning and form, listen carefully to her students, create the adequate conditions to see that learning is taking place and to withdraw form her students.

This is a summary of the main ideas, but a communicative teacher has to be this and even more!!

The Communicative Teacher

I completely agree with the article!

All the theorists state that the Communicative Approach is the best way to teach, and also the teachers. But a few of them put the theory into practice. That's because implementing the Communicative Approach inside the classroom is not easy for a teacher. As Medgyes says, this kind of teacher must be a superwoman, beacuse she has to consider many factors at the same time, and also to be a "perfect person". That's why, most of the times, teachers have the objective of the Communicative Approach, but they don't do it.

Also I like what the author says about the textbook. That it is the safety for those non-native teachers teaching in a non-English speaking country. It is difficult, but I agree that the textbook is not necessary for teaching English. You can do many other things, that will take more time for planning them, but the resuts will be successful, I think.

Teaching creativity

What really called my attention from the video and what I have the opportunity to experiment it every day, was the fact that children have an extraordinary capacity. It is easier for teachers to subestimate our students, because we don't need to plan challenging lessons, but we have to be aware of that creative capacity and give them the opportunities to grow from there. We must help their inteligences to develop in a creative way.

Communicative Competence

1. BACKGROUND
1.1 Grammatical and communicative approaches: It explains the differences between the grammatical approach, the communicative approach and also integrates a thirs approach that is called the situational syllabus.
1.2 Competence and performance: it discusses the differences between competence and performance and introduces the the concept of communicative competence, which integrates the knowledge (competence) and the use of the language (performance).

2. SOME THEORIES OF COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE:
2.1 Theories of basic communication skills: it explains that those theories should be focused on meaning and oriented to develop the basic level of communicaton.
2.2 Sociolinguistic perspectives on communicative competence: it shows the importance of knowing how to use the language in context. That is called analysis of the ethnography of speaking.
2.3 Integrative theories of communicative competence: it explains that those theories must integrate the grammatical knowledge, the use of language in different contexts and how communicative functions can be combined.
2.4 General comments: it reflects about aspects that haven't been discussed about the theories of communicative competence.

3. TOWARD AN ADEQUATE THEORY OF COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE:
3.1 Guiding principles for a communicative approach: there are 5 principles that a communicative approach must have: 1. Integration of grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence and communication strategies. 2. Based on the learners' communication needs. 3. Meaningful communication interaction. 4. Basic communication aspects. 5. Teach about language and about the culture.
3.2 A proposed theoretical framework for communicative competence: integration of grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence and strategic competence.
3.3 Implications fo a communicative approach to teaching: The activities must be meaningful and the teacher must have an activating role.
3.4 Implications for a communicative testing programme: the objective is to evaluate if the learner can demonstrate his communicative knowledge in a meaningful communicative situation.

Beliefs...

1. The main focus in a language class should be on meaning:
I teach in Kinder, so my lessons are mainly focused on meaning beacuse my purpose is that my students understand the language and try to produce some words. I really don't teach grammar. They learn the structures through listening to me, but in a very implicit way.

6. With new language learners, teachers need to be gentle and empathetic:
Being gentle and empathetic doesn't mean that you don't establish limits and rules. It means to generate an appropiate atmosphere to learn a second language, which is very important. The anxiety and the frustration don't collaborate with the learning process.

7. Because learners have differing learning styles, a teacher should give individual attention:
This is a very difficult task, but I am convinced that a good teacher must give special attention to each of her students. We are all different, and the perfect classroom doesn't exist. That's why we need to take the time to develop each student's abilities.

10. A teacher's feedback to the student should be given frequently:
I have seen in my students that they inmediately change their disposition to learn when I give them feedback. It is not a matter of positive or negative feedback. It is a matter of showing special attention to that student's learning process. If you need to give negative feedback, you can do it in a good way and the students will be thankful.

To sum up...

Here I am going to explain the main ideas of some methods:
The Audiolingual Method: it is mainly focused on oral activities, in where the development of pronunciation is very important. This is made by conversations, repetitions and pattern drills. Grammatical explanation is not important.

The Community Language Learning: it is based on the affectiveness between the teacher and the students. The learning methodology consists on the teacher translation of the learner's ideas, and the post repetition of those ones by the learner. The effectiveness of the method relies on the translation capacity of the teacher.

Suggestopedia: it is method that states that the learning process is successful when the learner is relaxed and feels comfortable. For this, music plays an important role in the learning process.

The Silent Way: it promotes that the learner has to create meaning through the manipulation of physical objects and the resolution of problems. The teacher is in silence most of the time, but guides the students to the solution.

Total Physical Response: students learn carrying out comands given by the teacher. They listen to the instructions and they do the actions.

The Natural Approach: in this method, the students received comprehensible input for a period of time and they don't say anything. Later, they are able to produce and to communicate in the language.