Seminar in English Language Teaching (2nd Semester) : 8th Week

          For this week, I had midterm examination. I was very worried with it. Before the beginning of midterm examination teacher taught us about ICT in language teaching.

        

What is ICT?
        ICT or Information and Communication Technologies is technologies that provide access to information through telecommunications. It is similar to Information Technology (IT), but focuses primarily on communication technologies. This includes the Internet, wireless networks, cell phones, and other communication mediums.

Next, we had midterm test. The test was divided into 3 items. In my opinion, this test was difficult because time was limited and I had the problem about spelling words.

For ICT, I think this topic is very important topic for me because nowadays most teacher use ICT in their teaching such as, using Blogger in learning.  

Seminar in English Language Teaching (2nd Semester) : 7th Week

            For this week, teacher described about  factors affecting of English teaching. From studying this topic, I learned that there are many factors affecting English Language Teaching ;

1. The factors about students, it can be divided into 3 factors

• For young children, they respond to see, hear and touch. They need of individual attention from teacher. Teacher has to provide the activities because they have short attention.

• For adolescents, they like challenges so, teacher has to provide the activities to respond their need and improve creative thinking.

• For adult learners, they focus on the topic that they learn. They use their experiences to help in learning. They can control themselves in class. Teacher has to provide the activities about analyzing and make situation to solve the problems.

2. The factors about teachers;

• Teacher’s beliefs
• Teacher’s ability in using English
• Teacher’s method and styles
• Teacher’s use of teaching and learning material

3. The factors about learning environment;

• Learner beliefs
• Social expectations
• Cultural demands
• Family background
• Achievement
• Physical condition

4. The implication for English teacher;

• Teachers should make lesson materials relevant with the lesson for increasing student's interest.
• Teachers try to create variety of activities to give chances for students to improve their English skills.
• Teachers should have interesting teaching styles.
• Teachers need to give time for students to do communicative activities.
• Teachers must have skills for management in the classroom.
• Teachers should give instructions clearly.
• Teachers must improve themselves all the time.

Finally, I learned that being a good teacher we should aware about the problems in the classroom and the ways of solving the problem. I think that the most important thing of teaching is the teacher. 

Seminar in English Language Teaching (2nd Semester) : 6th Week

          This week, Before teacher started to teach new lesson, she described about learning and teaching in 21st century. 
          

          Skills in 21st century

• -Creativity and Innovation
• -Critical Thinking
• -Communication
• -Collaboration

       Then, the teacher described about "Classroom Learning Contexts: teacher's descriptions"

       There are 3 sample classroom in this paper; an English Lesson in Malaysia, an English Lesson in Mozambique and an English in China. The teacher asked us to discuss these sample classroom. There are 6 topics ; use of space, use of time, language data, resources, interactions and atmosphere. After that, representative of each group presented their work in front of the class. Then, the teacher asked us answer her questions.

1. Give comments in each classroom
2. Which classroom do you like most? Why?
3. What are strength and weaknesses of each classroom?

        Then, the teacher asked for volunteers to shared their ideas in front of class. For my group, we liked English class in Mozambique because the students had many chances to learn and practice their 4 skills altogether. The teacher wanted students to think their ideas and it's learning whole class style, but disadvantage is noisy.

          Next, the teacher described the abstract of articles "Factor Affecting English Language Teaching and Learning in Higher Education" and assigned us to read this article.

            Today, I could speak English more and more although I had some mistakes when I spoke. I felt good and be more confident when I learned this course.

Seminar in English Language Teaching (2nd Semester) : 5th Week

          

                  For this week, I studied about the research of Bok-Myung Chang named The role of English Language Education in Asian context. This research is about the history of English Language Education in Asian countries : Singapore, Philippine, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan and Korea. From studying this research it can be divided into 3 topics.

1. The history of English Language in Asia Context.
>>Focus on Singapore, Philipine, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan and Korea.
    For the Singapore, Philipine and Malaysia are colonized by US and British so English became important in these country.
    For China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and Korea English became important because trad, science, technology etc. 

2. Developmental characteristics of English language.
>>He found that in the beginning, all of these countries to be national country such as China bring new innovation from England to develop their country.

3. Important role of English education in Asian 
>It took about the important role of English language education in Asian context
There are 3 important roles;
>English as a way to speed up national development.
>English as a way to understand other cultures.
- English as a tool to communicate in international
  communication. 

          In conclusion, the number of the people who speak English as a second or foreign language in Asian countries is increasing very rapidly so Asian English plays a very important role in the globalized world.

          I thought that discussion within group it made my learning was easy because I had friends who helped me when I could not speak or communicate with others. On the other hand, language which was used in this research was very difficult, so it was difficult to read. Although, it was difficult, but I will try to fight it. 

Seminar in English Language Teaching (2nd Semester) : 4th Week

         For this week, before we started to learn the teacher talked about ESL and EFL, then she suggested us about searching information from the internet. After that, the teacher let us to make a group of 5 people for discussion, and presentation to the class.

     In my group, we talk about the differences between ESL and EFL. English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) require two different strategies for teaching for a number of reasons. Most people don’t know the difference between the two and don’t consider the difference when they set out to teach English. It’s important to know what each one is so that the different needs of the students can be met.

       
     EFL is where the teacher teaches English to students in a country where English isn’t the native language. For example, a Chinese student learning English in China would fall under this category. On the other hand, ESL is where English is taught to students in a country where English is the primary language. An example of this is where a Chinese student is learning English in Australia. The difference between ESL and EFL might seem little at first, but they do require very different teaching strategies to meet the aims and objectives of the students.

After we finished our presentation about the differences between ESL and EFL, the teacher explained about 21st Century Learning: Pedagogical Perspective. There are 5 parts of this presentation; 
- Context of why 21st Century Learning is vital
- 21st Century Key Subjects
- 21st Century Theme
- 21st Century Skills
- Factors affecting Thai students' 21st Century Learning: pedagogical perspective


           The easy thing for me in this week, It was information about the differences between ESL and EFL because it's not too hard to understand. Moreover, we already talked about some of information of ESL and EFL last week. But I worried about my teaching English language in the future because after I read the article I thought that activating students to learn English language was so difficult, so now I will try to learn hard and learn about teaching methodology and technique of teaching more and more.

Seminar in English Language Teaching (2nd Semester) : 3rd Week

        Last week, we discussed about Global English, EFL, ESL, EIL, the role of English in Thailand. Today each group sent representative to share and present their opinion and the important thing that the teacher emphasized with us in the class. After that, teacher assigned we  to watch the video about  "The world Englishes" by Crystal, D.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_q9b9YqGRY

        We watched the video 2 times. While we were watching the video, we took note. Then, the teacher let us to make group of 7 people and discussed about the information that we got from the video. After that, each group sent the representative to present about World Englishes in front of the class.

    From the video Professor Crystal said about "every aspect of your culture, myth, legends, the food you eat, the folklore you have, the songs, the dance is the institutions which talk about in English will be a flavor which I might or might not understand. " So, language acquisition cannot be separated from culture acquisition.

After we finished presentation about World English already, the teacher described about the topic again . The teacher summarized all the information that we discussed  such as role of English in Thailand, Global English, etc.
  



I thought that watching, listening and identifying main point of the video was easy for me because the teacher guided the information or content of video before we watch. Moreover, I liked to work in group because each one could share own idea and I could ask the information when I didn't understand it. On the other hand, Before I watched the Video, I was worried about my listening skill. I could not understand all information in the video but I tried to understand some information. Therefore, I will practice my listening as much as I do.

Seminar in English Language Teaching (2nd Semester) : 2nd Week

        This week was the second class of learning the Seminar class. Today, teacher divided us into five groups and assigned each group to discuss about global English, ESL, EFL and EIL. After that, each group have to present own discussion in front of the class. So, my group summarized each topic as follow:



 Global English is the English language that is used by the most people for many reason such as communication, business, Education, etc. And It is regarded to the interlingual that world wide's people use for communication.



          EFL is a traditional term for the use or ready of the English language by non-native speaker in countries where English is generally not a local medium of communication. It is usually learned in environments where the language of the community and the school is not English.

        
  
   ESL classroom is in a country where English is the dominant language. It is based on the premise that English is the language of the community and the school ant that students have access to English models.

       



            
    EIL is the English language that was spoken in many countries both as a native and as a second or foreign language. It is taught in the schools in almost every country on this earth. It is a living and vibrant language spoken by over 300 million people as their native language. Millions more speak it as an additional language.

        

        Although terminology is difficult to read the article but working group, teamwork or collaboration is very easy to work because each one can share own idea. Moreover, everyone can help each other if someone can't do it. Finally, I hope that the next class I will do my best.