Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Key Ideas From EAL Courses

As I re-read the materials from the first three EAL courses, I made note of the following key ideas that I thought were important:

-the principles of adult learning (autonomous, self-directed, goal-oriented, practical, relevancy-oriented)
-the various types of language competence (grammatical, discourse, functional, socio-cultural and strategic)
-the concept of comprehensible input and the zone of proximal development
-the different teaching and learning styles and their affect on students’ ability to learn
-balancing teacher-centered and learner-centered instruction
-characteristics of communicative activities and lessons
-inclusion of authenticity in lessons
-the inclusion of task-based learning
-the effects schematic knowledge and language knowledge have on comprehension
-including a balance of activities in lessons that foster accuracy and fluency
-the role of a needs assessment
-including self-assessment, formal and informal assessment throughout a course
-including the Elements of Flow in lesson planning
-including grammar instruction in lessons
-using deductive and inductive approaches when teaching grammar

3 comments:

  1. Thank you, that was very informative!
    Kathleen

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  2. Cheryl - what a great resource list you've provided for all of us! Thank you!!!
    This is wonderful!
    -Chris

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  3. As the others said, THANKS for this post. It's great to have a recap of all the important points we've covered over the last few courses. As I was reading through your blog entry there were a few where I thought, "Oh ya! I forgot about that".

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