Session 1: Skills ? Autonomy

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Session 1 Skills ? Autonomy
Core LanguageThe concept here is making a
distinction between language that is essential to
sentence-building and (spontaneous and planned)
communication across topic areas and in most
contexts and, having identified this language,
using it time and time again so that students can
eventually draw on it and recall it quickly from
memory, seeing how to use it in a variety of
different communicative situations. This is the
language they should learn from memory and really
know inside out. The sheet itself can be a)
Stuck in student exercise books for referenceb)
Used as a resource for differentiation (e.g.
students can use it to create new sentences and
be rewarded for their independent meaning
makingc) Given to parents at parents evenings
and involved in the process of memorisation at
home with their childrenOn your CD you have the
French, Spanish and German versions of these that
we use in the department.Every
LessonThe example in the presentation of linking
colours and opinions serves to show that, even in
lessons where the main aim is to introduce a set
of nouns or adjectives, it is still desirable to
lead learners on and up to sentence level by the
end of the lesson, showing them how to recycle
core language and use it in conjunction with the
new language learnt. This means that students
get a much more joined up experience of
language learning in the classroom and also that
the levels of cognitive challenge remain high.
This is a principle that can inform every lesson
when the main objective given in the text book is
apparently just to introduce a set of new nouns
or adjectives or verbs.CreativityEncouraging
creativity in language learning essentially means
enabling students to create new meanings within
the ability to manipulate structure that they
have at any one time. It doesnt mean only using
the words they know, because as long as they are
able to use a dictionary they can find new words
to use. It does mean setting the structural
boundaries of a creative task so that they can
make new meanings successfully without
overstretching the limits of their grammatical
knowledge. Sometimes this means setting up a
poem task that has a clear structural framework
that limits the sentence building (but not the
ideas!)