Hochschule Stuttgart: Approaches to Language Teaching (Part II) and Grammar

TUESDAY, JULY 5th 2022 Let us begin by retracing some of the steps we made in Part I (May 9 - 12) UNIT 1. On the last day of Part I we finished with the 'Alibi'game, where three 'culprits' were questioned separately, we composed a dialogue for a sketch involving a ticket inspector with a difficult train passenger; we wrote our own poems ALIBI GAME 1. Where were you between 7 and 10 p.m. last night? 2. Where you alone or together with someone else? 3. Who else was there? 4. What did you do? 5. Who arrived first? / Who was there when you came? 6. How did you / the other two get there: on foot, by tram? 7. Whose idea was it to meet up? 8. Ask details about other people. Waiter / Man or woman at ticket window. 9. Ask details about cost. Who paid? 10. Ask details about seating arrangement. Who sat next to whom? Were there many people there? 11. Did you have anything to eat? To drink? The others? Who paid? 12. What did you talk about? Did you talk to other people? 14. What did you do afterwards? Who left first? Did you / they go together? 16. What time was that? 18. What was the funniest moment? The worst moment? Was the evening boring? 20. What was the colour of the room / hall you were in? 21. Did you have a meal in the Hilton last night? Where were you at 10 p.m.? Discuss the language learning implications of this 'game'. Context informs question content. General and detailed question. Why is the question so powerful? In what other situationa could we practise questions meaningfully? The role of the question in dialogue. >/p>

UNIT 2. SKETCH 'The TICKET INSPECTOR' Discuss the idea of the sketch for language learning. Sketch: Short scene. Usually with unexpected twists. Stock (comic) charcters. Practise-read Sketch 'Desmond and Keith' in desk pairs. >/p>

UNIT 3. RHYTHM in POETRY Remember "Jack and Jill" in connexion with rhythm? (Long and short vowels). Lengthening ans shortening of vowels depending on consonants following. Prepare a poem for recitation. Yeats's "I will arise and go now" (See PArt I) Wordsworth's "Earth has not anything to show more fair" Anonymous "Do not stand at my grave and weep" >/p>

UNIT 4. Is writing one's own text as an intro to studying a text a generally valid approach? This approach is there very early on when we write before we read! Are there spalling rules in English (Remember the 'Long' and 'Short' Vowels). Expand. We start writing with "listening exercises" (dictated words to be written according to sound). Compose tongue twisters with difficult phonemes (each as prompted by first language). >/p>

WEDNESDAY, JULY 6th 2022 >/p>

UNIT 5. STORY-TELLING How do stories contribute to language learning? The follow-up exercise of getting three groups to wtite up single words they remember? Listening Comprehension strategies? Working out new meanings from known words? Connex with Reading Stories? Reading silently / aloud? Two more stories: ("The 17 camels" and "The man who came to London to visit a friend") Composing stories on the theme of Proverbs. >/>

UNIT 6. GRAMMAR What is Grammar? Do we need it to learn a foreign language? Why does it tend to put off child learners? When doesn't it? Can we define definite grammar learning stages (according to age perhaps)? Is the connection between grammar and clear thinking a goal for grammar teaching? What grammar approaches do we have? (Mnemonics, Mistakes, Misunderstandings?). Long and shortened syllables in Grammar (e.g. "feel - felt" Rhythm in Grammar "I slept - I have slept"; infinitives with "to" contrasted with "ING"-forms) >/p>

UNIT 7. Examples of historical development of influences and changes in the English language. >/p>

THURSDAY, JULY 7th 2022