Forum discussions
I want to start by thanking everyone who commented on my previous post! Sandy recommended a book which I’ve added to my list. Vedrana shared a great website about building a community of inquiry. Jemima mentioned some candidates may think they’re being assessed when they post a comment, so it’s useful to point out that they’re not. Already learning a lot, so thank you 😍
Critical evaluation?
Some of the candidates asked for examples of critical evaluation of techniques/methods/approaches, so I thought it might help to do a little practice. I gave them the following task -I mentioned it’s optional, Jemima 🙂
Brainstorm prons and cons of one (or more ) of the following:
- method: PPP
- technique: translating vocabulary
- technique: dictation
When you’re commenting on pros and cons, you might want to think about your learners’ characteristics. Here are some ideas:
- age
- L1
- level
- context
- preferences
- ability
- expectations in terms of educational approaches
- previous experience with this method/technique
- etc.. (these are just some suggestions!)
You’re welcome to share your answers in the comments about these or different methods/techniques you’re planning to use in your lessons! 🙂
You can also read these posts:
The TEFL Zone 
Hi Rachel
I would like to take this opportunity to superficially participate in your DELTA series of blogposts.
Technique: Translating vocabulary
It is the process of rewording (in the target language or a language known to the learner) an unknown word to find out its meaning. It is a natural language learning practice, which, in my opinion, second language learners partake in either consciously or inadvertently.
PROS
– It is a natural phenomenon.
– It fosters autonomy.
– It empowers and boosts self-confidence.
– It allows teachers to spend more time in facilitating the use rather than meaning of the new vocabulary.
– It reduces the risk of confusion and ambiguity that a teacher could leave a learner with when asking to infer from context or sample sentences.
– It is highly practical and immensely beneficial in various real-life scenarios.
– It creates room for learners to concentrate on higher-order thinking skills activities.
– It teaches learners to respect and appreciate their first languages. (if translating to or from L1)
– It is a distinct feature of a healthy multilingual classroom. (if translating to or from L1)
CONS
– Apart from meaning, translation doesn’t tell you much about genre or appropriacy of a word
– With weak syntax awareness, learners are either usually unable to or incorrectly put the word in a sentence.
– There may not be a literal translation of the word in the target language.
– Over reliance on vocabulary translation could lead to a reduction in cognitive efforts to recollect if the word has been encountered before.
– Over reliance on vocabulary translation could undermine other sub-skills such as extracting meaning from context.
– It might lead to learning to translate whole texts, which would threaten the whole language learning process.
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This is excellent , Girish-not superficial at all ❣! Thanks so much for taking the time to comment, my readers will definitely find it usefu!! It’s perfect for Paper 2 Task 3 of the Module 1 exam, as it’s about translation in general!
When you’ll be critically evaluating activities in your Module 2 background essays, you also want to mention how the activity will be suitable or not for your learners. So here it’s more specific than general. Your intermediate Thai learners for example, or your Italian Business English group, or your young learners in a multilingual class.
Please keep doing the tasks, I love reading your comments😍
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Thanks, Rachel. I have downloaded the DELTA handbook and shall go through it in the next couple of weeks. Your blogposts are my stepping stones to DELTA 🙏🏿
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