UNIVERSIDAD DE GUADALAJARA

LICENCIATUTRA MODULAR SEMIESCOLARIZADA EN

DOCENCIA DEL INGLS COMO LENGUA EXTRANJERA.
(LIMSEDILE)

UNIT 1
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TEACHING AND LEARNING.
TASK: ESSAY ABOUT ASPECTS TO TEACH IN A LANGUAGE
CLASS.

TUTOR: JUAN JOS AVILA RESENDIZ

juanjo_shofar@hotmail.com

STUDENT: JOS SAL BARAJAS VILLEGAS

saulbv79@hotmail.com

GUADALAJARA, JALISCO. SEPTEMBER 21st, 2015

INTRODUCTION
This essay is about the language aspects that should be taught in an EFL class. I will talk
about the language aspects that I have analyzed in a unit of the course book that I am currently
using in my English classes. The analysis has been done based on the aspects mentioned in the
readings listed in the references.

LITERATURE REVIEW
When learning a new language learners need to acquire a series of skills, facts and
knowledge about the target language. According to Hubbard (1993), we should distinguish four main
teaching objectives: teaching students about the language, teaching students how to produce
correct samples of the language, teaching students the functions of the language and teaching the
culture of the target language community (Hubbard, 1993, p.21).
Teaching students about the language is when learners analyze the grammar of the
language. Grammatical terms, grammatical rules and usage are mentioned and it is expected that
learners memorize these facts about the language. As stated in Hubbard (1993), Learning in this
way puts a great strain on memory and facts about the language are presented out of context (p.22).
Teaching students to produce correct samples of language. According to Hubbard (1993),
the students learn the language by producing samples of the language using a context, but their
responses are carefully controlled by the teacher because there is only one correct answer. It is said
that the language is very artificial and the way the learners will function in real life situations in
unpredictable (Hubbard, 1993, p.23).
Teaching students to use the language for certain purposes or functions. These activities use the
language to teach how to perform in real life situations, such as ordering food in a restaurant, making
request and offers, making a dentist appointment, etc. Hubbard (1993), distinguishes two types of
activities: authentic tasks or real world language tasks as the ones listed above and pedagogical
tasks such as pronunciation practice, filling in blanks in sentences, matching sentences halves, etc.
(Hubbard, 1993, p. 23-24).
The main aspects teachers should take into consideration when teaching a new language
structure is form this includes: grammar, pronunciation and orthography; meaning is about the
definitions of words (lexis) and the message that the speaker wants to convey and use is about and
the purpose or functions the language has, such as apologizing, making offers, requests, greeting,
saying good-bye, etc.
Harmer J. (1991), has made a classification of four basic language skills which are divided in
sub-skills, receptive skills include reading and listening and productive skills comprise speaking and
writing (Harmer J., 1991, p.16-17)
 CONTEXT
There are twenty students in this class. They are in their early twenties. Their level of English
is B1 according the CEFR. They attend classes on Saturday morning. We teach American English
and the book we are currently using is Soars J. & Soars L. (2009) American Headway 2, 2nd Edition.
New York, N.Y. USA: Oxford University Press.
ANALYSIS
The objective of the unit is teaching verb patterns through the context of talking about hopes
and ambitions. It starts with a warm up where the student finish some sentences with their own ideas.
This activity helps the students activate their schemata or knowledge of the language they already
have.
After the students finish writing their own sentences, they share their sentences with other
students. Then they listen to some characters talking about their hopes and ambitions. The target
language is implicit in the listening. After the students have accomplished that task, I ask them to read
the scripts in the back of the book for the students to identify and notice more examples of the target
language.
I believe the book is very complete and flexible. In this occasion I taught the language using
an inductive approach. The learners can see a lot of examples and they are asked to underline them.
By doing so I want the students to notice the language and make their own conclusions about it.
However, some learners are more analytical and they want the teacher to give them some rules or
more fixed patterns to follow. As mentioned in Harmer J. (1991), Linguists have found that the
grammatical system is rule-based and that competent users of the language know these rules in
some way (p. 13). Therefore, I explained the learners and give the students the list of verbs which
follow certain verb patterns, such as verbs followed by infinitives, verbs followed by gerunds, verbs
followed by either one, verbs which take a bare infinitive and propositions followed by verbs in gerund.
I believe this lesson has a lot of examples of how to use the language accurately. It enables
the learners to practice a lot in order to become more competent users of the language. It gives a
wide range of lexis for the students to express the function of expressing hopes and ambitions.
However, an important aspect of language learning and teaching is the language competence. As
stated by Harmer J. (1991), communicative competence is knowing how to use the language rather
than just knowing about the language (p. 18). So we as teacher should try to create real life situations
for the students to practice the language as realistic as possible. Furthermore, the lesson gives the
opportunity to the learners to practice the four language skills: Listening and reading which are called
the receptive skills and speaking and writing which are called productive skills.

CONCLUSION
In summary, the unit covers the four language skills and it gives a lot opportunities to the
students to internalize the information. Thus, the new input has more possibilities to become the
students intake. The unit takes into consideration the three aspects of language that is form, meaning
and use. However, I would like to decrease the use of metalanguage because it can be confusing for
some learners. Finally, I think it is essential to supplement the lesson with more authentic dialogues
so as to foster real life situations. Certainly that will help the learners of this class to perform more
effectively in the target language.
REFERENCES
1. Harmer, J. (1991). What a Native Speaker Knows in The Practice of English Language
Teaching. England: Longman.
2. Hubbard (1993). What can we teach in a language class? in The Relationship between
Teaching and Learning (pp. 21-25)
3. Soars J., & Soars L. (2009). American Headway. 2nd. Edition. New York, NY: Oxford University
Press
ANNEX # 1