15. Organization of self evaluation. Portfolio as a means of self evaluation

Self-assessment

Self-assessment could be done using one of the following two techniques:

K-W-L charts: With this type of chart, individual students provide examples of what they know, what they wonder, what they have learnt. These charts are especially effective when used at the beginning and at the end of a period of study. At the start of a course, the completed charts can help the teacher learn about students’ background knowledge and interests. At the end of a course, the charts can help the students reflect on what they have learnt as well as gain awareness of their improvements.

Learning logs

A learning log is a record of the students’ experiences with the use of the English language outside the classroom, including the when and the where of language use and why certain experiences were successful and others were not. Students may also use logs to comment on what they have studied in class and to record what they have understood and what they haven’t.

Dialogue journals

Journals are informal and provide a means of fee, uncensored expression; enabling students to write without worrying about being corrected. As an assessment technique, dialogue journals can help the teacher assess students’ writing ability and improvement over time.

Peer and group assessment

For assessment students can write evaluative, encouraging notes for each member of their team emphasizing their positive contribution to team work. The role of the teacher would be to provide guidance, to explain to the students what they have to evaluation one another’s work, and to help them identify and apply properly the evaluation criteria.

Portfolio

The concept of portfolio was borrowed from the field of fine arts where portfolios are used to display the best samples of an artist’s work (Brown 1998).

A portfolio is a collection of work samples that cover several aspects of the assignments the students have completed. Teacher asks each student to compile a collection of ten works for him to grade. Teacher can include specific assignments on the list, but he can also give a category and ask his students to present their best work. He may ask for a grammar homework assignment, a writing sample and a vocabulary exercise, for example. The students can then choose the work that they are most proud of. They may feel more encouraged to be graded on their strengths rather than their weaknesses.

Portfolios help students to:

-determine meaningful work

-reflect on their strengths and needs

-set learning goals

-see their own progress over time

-think about ideas presented in their work

-see the effort they put forth

-feel ownership and pride in their work

-realize their work has personal relevance.

16. The role of vocabulary in acquiring a foreign language. Ways of presenting vocabulary

Vocabulary is important for students. Without vocabulary it is difficult to hold a conversation, to understand a written text, to write something. Language learners need to learn as many words as possible. To know a word means:

-to understand the word when it is written or spoken;

-to recall it when you need it;

-to use it with the correct meaning;

-to use it in a grammatically correct way;

-to pronounce it correctly;

-to know which other words you can and cannot use with it;

-to spell it correctly;

-to use it in the right situation;

-to know if it has positive or negative connotations (an idea expressed by a word in addition to its main meaning), for example either skinny or slim could be used to describe someone who is thin.

There are two ways of presenting the meaning of words: direct way and translation.

Direct way brings the learner into direct contact with the word, the mother tongue doesn’t come in between; it establishes links between a foreign word and the thing or concept directly. The direct way is usually used when the words denote things, objects, qualities, gestures, movements. The teacher may use:

-Real objects;

-Pictures, photos, wall charts, blackboard drawings;

-Mime and gestures: It is particularly useful for action verbs and some adverbs, for example brush teeth, ride a bicycle;

-Matching- learners match words or sentences or pictures;

-Definitions: for example, a blind person- a person who can’t see;

-Giving examples: shirt, jeans, jacket are clothes;

-Synonyms and antonyms: the teacher uses words the students already know to teach them similar or opposite words, for example: The exercise is difficult. The exercise is complicated;

-Context building: This is probably the most useful technique, because it gets students to work out the meaning of words for themselves. Teachers should think of a clear context when the word is used; at least three example sentences should be given. For example: It was hot. We had nothing to drink. We were thirsty;

-Word building elements: prefixes or suffixes help learners build words or guess their meaning, for example, the students are familiar with the word dancer. By dropping the ending er they form a verb dance.

Translating: There are arguments for and against this technique. Its advantage is that it requires no preparation, and it can be done quickly. In contrast, it is sometimes too fast, and students forget the new word quickly. In addition, it encourages students to think that there is one to one equivalence between English and mother tongue. Consequently, translation should only be used for time saving.

The choice of the way of presenting the meaning of the word depends on the following factors:

-Psychological ( students’ age, their intelligence)

-Pedagogical factors ( the stage of teaching-junior, intermediate, senior; the size of the class; the time; the qualifications of the teacher)

-Linguistic factors (whether the word is abstract or concrete).

No matter what way of presenting the meaning of the word is used the teacher must show its meaning, us, form and pronunciation.