Tasks in Class : My 2nd Discussion Forum

1. Which ones are familiar to you? Which one are not familiar to you?
 
 I'm very familiar with 'Writing the Word', because most English teachers told that it will be very effective way to memorize new word, so I always wrote new word repeatedly on a notebook. 
 On the contrary, I have no idea about 'Realia', and I haven't seen any case that it is practiced. Maybe it is because teachers have difficulties in bringing all the real items to the class.
 


2. Which ones do you think the most useful? Tell three methodologies you want to use for your students.

 I think using 'illustrative sentences' will be the most helpful way for memorizing new word. With illustrative or example sentences, learners can find a target word in context, and it will activates memorizing process. Students can learn not only the definition of a target word, but also how and when it can be used properly.
 
 I chose three method that I want to use in my class in the future. First thing is 'Shift of Attention'. Through this way teacher can induce student to engage in lecture, because this method needs students' effort. Secondly, I thought 'pronouncing the word' would be very helpful. Many Korean learners don't consider pronunciation as an important factor in English, because they want to develop reading skills rather than speaking or listening skills. But, this is very bad idea. Without improvements in speaking or listening, their reading can't be upgraded as it is expected. This means, without pronunciation, leaner's will go through hardness in memorizing new words. Therefore, this method will be good resolution for this problem. Lastly, I picked using 'pictures and drawings'. This will make student's feel familiar with new definition. And various and favorable pictures can function as and attractor of students' attention.
 


3. What is lexical approach? Discuss Michael Lewis's four categories.
 
 It's main idea can be explained that putting emphasis on devoloping learner's lexical ability and knowledge, especially in how words can be collates with other words.
 
 Michael divided it into four categories. The first category is words and polywords which mean relatively small group of lexical items. They are considered as essential vocabulary for learners to memorize. (Polyword : a phrase that acts like a single word) Secondly, he said collocations. It can be understood as the way in which words typically occur with each other. Native speakers intuitively know which words more frequently combine than others. Therefore, developing related knowledge makes L2 learners use more native-like target language. The third and forth categories are 'fixed expressions' and 'semi-fixed expressions' respectively. They are prefabricated laxical items in a speaker's memory. They can be referred to as 'ready-made chunks of language'.
 


4. How is this idea different from what you have known about language and language learning?

 I've been taught to memorize a single word. There were few mentions about the target word's collocations. This made me to experience many difficulties in English wiring or speaking. Because I had little idea about which word combination would be better choice in the aspects of real usege, and I always hasitated to speak or write new word that I had learned recently. Through this article I found out the cause of my hardnesses in those case. I had to know that for using more native-like English I should have get ability to make more proper combination of words.