Category: Free Essays

Introduction

Studying at the university requires adjustment so that the student can effectively function and pursue his chosen field of study. One’s academic life, gaining access to educational materials, and interaction with classmates and professors are all important factors in the adjustment process. Yet, they are not the only factors that should be taken into account. This adjustment process becomes even more important for international students. They have to adjust to the culture of the location of their university, they have to take into account the language, the social norms, the idioms and metaphors being used by the society that the university belongs to. If they fail to adjust in the social context, their education might not be maximized, and, worse, they might not be able to understand a lot of things in their schooling.

This essay takes a look in the adjustment process that international students have to face, particularly their context and their learning styles. It discusses how context and learning style affects their adjustment process. In doing so, this essay presents several theories and principles regarding the learning process. Furthermore, it presents several recommendations on how international students could better adjust in the university. More than just a theoretical presentation, this essay also takes into account the personal experiences of the author and will deal with some of the challenges being faced by international students in the university. This understanding is very important so that the international students, and other university students and professors would come to better strategies in helping international students cope with the university life and all its rigors and demands.

University Culture and the International Student

The university promotes scholarly studies and the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom. In addition to this, the application of this body of knowledge in the society is also taken into account. Because of the process of globalization, university culture is also being internationalized in the sense that the university is being integrated into the global processes defining the world at this time (Bartell, 2003). Given this internationalization of universities, international students necessarily come to the fore. In a study conducted by Neville, students at the university who have previously enrolled expressed fear that they may not do well in the university because of the pressures of family, society, and of the economic side of their schooling.

As an international student, I have also experienced some of these challenges. Since I am far away from my family, I feel homesick at times, unable to focus on my studies. It takes courage and resolve in order for me to truly pursue my university education. Yet, because of the importance of my university education and the interactions with others, I painstakingly work towards improving myself in pursuing my education.

International Students and Speaking English

Another challenge that international students face is the issue of language. Since English is recognized internationally as the language of the university, international students have to learn this language so that they can converse fluently and intelligently with classmates and professors. For international students who are already fluent in this language, they have surmounted an important barrier. Yet, those who have not done yet, they need to work more in learning English, otherwise, they will fail to interact and converse with others, which is an important part of university life.

Universities therefore need to help international students who speak English as a second language in improving their English skills. This is the only way for them to truly make the connections that will help them complete their university education. Speech and language laboratories could be established and part of the learning processes of international students. This way, they will be able to interact better and have more opportunities in improving their English language skills.

As an international student who entered the university, I experienced a kind of culture shock because the university promotes a culture of literacy (Nevile, 1996). Although I was already a bit fluent with the English, I was not a prolific writer. So I had to attend some writing workshops and tutorial sessions so I could improve the way that I write in the English language. With this process, I was able to improve some of the things that I faced.

In addition to this, I also talked with other international students regarding the struggles that they face and the difficulties that they are having. In the process, I managed to have a support group that could easily help me deal with homesickness and other difficulties of being an international student. The interactions with other international students helped me become more prepared in dealing with the rigors of university life.

Maximizing Adjustment to the University

For international students who want to make the most out of the university, there are several tips that could be followed. For one, improving English skills is a must. It might take more time and effort to do so, yet, it is of utmost important that English skills become excellent. International students should also form support groups that could help them deal with homesickness and other challenges of being in a foreign society. The emotional support given by others makes a lot of difference in the adjustment process. Lastly, international students should be able to maximize all available resources at their disposal through consistent and persistent studying and pursuit of knowledge. This is the best way to deal with the adjustment process.

Conclusion

This essay has looked at the experiences of international students in adjusting at a university. Universities do have a culture of literacy, which the international student may not be prepared for. As such, they need to double their efforts in learning, in interacting and talking with others—friends, professors, classmates, and other international students—and gaining access to all forms of educational resources. By establishing support groups and mentoring relationships, international students could do well in their university education and prepare them for excellent work even beyond the university. Through this, they could contribute better to their society and their world.

Reference

Bartell, M. (2003). Internationalization of universities: A university culture-based framework. Higher Education, 45 (1), 43-70.

Nevile, M. (1996). Literacy Culture Shock: Developing Academic Literacy at the University. The Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 19 (1), 38-51.

Introduction

The core of phonetic is to identify the characteristics of the sounds which human begins can use in language. Sounds can basically be divided into two types: vowels and consonants. Vowels are produced by altering the shape of the vocal tract by positioning of the tongue and lips. Consonants are sounds which are produced by the partial or complete construction of the vocal tract.

The picture of how your mouth looks when you say sounds. (Sharon Widmayer and Holly Gray) image of articulators

Your lips, teeth, tongue, nose, and roof of your mouth are all important for pronunciation. The epiglottis is also important. That is the thing that you use to hold your breath and to swallow. It closes your windpipe so the air cannot come out.

The components of teaching the sound of English
1. Vowels

Vowels are usually described by reference to five criteria, and these are adequate as a basic point of reference, although some vowel sound require more specification:

the height reached by the highest point of the tongue (high, mid, low) ,
the part of the tongue which is raised (front, center, back),
the shape formed by the lips (unrounded or spread, rounded)
the position of the soft palate for oral vowels, lowered for nasal vowels,
the duration of the vowel (short, long)

Some Generalizations (Not Rules) about English vowels and spelling

English vowels have “long” and “short” forms.

The long form is the “name” of the letter: The short form is as follows:

Long vowels are usually (but not always) indicated by a second (silent) vowel in the same syllable:

Short vowels usually stand alone within a syllable and are often followed by “double” consonants:

2. Consonant sounds

Consonant sounds have three basic features in their articulation: place of articulation, manager of articulation, and voicing.

Consonants produce sounds that are more consistent and easier to identify than vowels. Therefore, they make a good starting point for learning to read.

Initially, work should be done on identifying beginning consonant sounds (ex: t-t-t tulip).

After that, activities can focus on identifying final consonant sounds (ex: cat ends with the t-t-t sound)

When children learn to recognize the sounds of consonants at the beginning and end positions of words, they gain the ability to look at a word and make a reasonable guess as to what it might be. Viewing the word in the context of a picture will help reinforce this skill.

(for example, a picture of a dog with the word DOG underneath. The ability to sound out the D and G letters will help the child identify that the word is DOG, not puppy or dalmation)

The ideas and activities presented in this section will help children develop the following skills:

identifying beginning consonant sounds
distinguishing between two or more beginning consonant sounds
identifying ending consonant sounds
distinguishing between two or more ending consonants
choosing words that have a particular beginning or ending consonant

The following diagram shows the names of the various parts of the mouth involved in the production of English consonants:

A = nasal cavity
B = alveolar ridge
C = hard palate
D = soft palate or velum
E = lips and teeth
F = tongue 1 – tip 2 – blade 3 – body
G = uvula
H = larynx and vocal cordsv

For each consonant, two parts of the mouth are involved, and the name given to it reflects this. Starting from the front, some consonants are made using both lips – try saying /p/ /b/ /w/ and /m/ – and these are called bilabial consonants (bilabial = two lips)

Now try /f/ and /v/. This time it’s the bottom lip and top teeth which are involved. These are labiodental consonants (labio = lip, dental = teeth).

For nearly all the other consonants, the tongue will interact with another part of the mouth. The name of the consonant doesn’t include a reference to the tongue however, just the point of the mouth which it meets. So for instance, sounds made by an interaction between the tongue and the teeth are just called dental sounds. These are /t/, /d/ and the voiced and unvoiced “th” sounds: / °/ as in this and /?/ as in thick .

If you run your tongue back behind your teeth, you come to a bony ridge called the alveolar ridge. Several sounds are made on or just behind the ridge – /s/ /z/ /t/ /d/ /n/ /r/ and /l/

Moving back from the alveolar ridge you come to a similarly hard but smoother zone – the hard palate. /j/ as in yellow is a palatal sound, are as the highlighted consonants in the words sheep, measure, cheap and jeep. There is also a palatal version of the /r/ consonant. If you found it strange that it was classed before as alveolar, you may have been saying the palatal version.

Notice that there is now a difference in the way the tongue is used. For the dental and alveolar sounds, it was the tip of the tongue which was involved. For palatal sounds, however, it’s the blade of the tongue, and as we move further back to the velum (the soft part of the palate, closest to the throat) it’s the back, or body, of the tongue. The velar sounds are /g/ and /k/ and the final consonants in sing and in bottle – often called the “dark” l.

This leaves only the consonant /h/ which is produced by air passing from the windpipe through the vocal cords, or glottis. It’s therefore a glottal sound.

Place of Articulation tells us where the consonants are produced, but we also need to consider Manner of Articulation – how they are produced. The most important categories are:

Plosives: Plosive sounds (also called stop sounds) are formed by the air being completely blocked in the mouth and then suddenly released. For example, /k/ and /g/ are formed when the back of the tongue rises to the velum and momentarily blocks the air. These are therefore velar plosives. The other plosive consonants of English are the bilabial plosives /p/ and /b/ and the alveolar plosives /t/ and /d/. Some varieties of English – London English for example – also include a glottal stop which substitutes for the /t/ consonant between vowels. Imagine a London pronunciation of butter, for example.

Fricatives: Fricatives are formed when the two parts of the mouth approach each other closely, not completely blocking the passage of the air, but forcing it through a confined space. The air molecules start to bump against each other causing audible friction. Try the palatal fricative – the sh sound. You can feel your tongue up close to the alveolar ridge and the air passing through the small space left. The full list of English fricatives is : labiodental fricatives – /f/ and /v/; dental fricatives – the two “th” sounds; alveolar fricatives – /s/ and /z/; palatal fricatives – /E?/ as in in sheep and /E’/ as in measure; and the glottal fricative /h/.

Affricates: Affricates are really a plosive and a fricative combined. The air is initially blocked, and then released through a narrow passageway like a fricative. English has two affricates, the initial sounds in cheap and jeep – / E / and /E¤/. These are usually classed as palato-alveolar affricates, as they’re made in a position half way between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate.

Nasals: when a nasal sound is produced, the air is prevented from going out through the mouth and is instead released through the nose. There are three English nasals – the bilabial nasals /m/ and /n/ and the velar nasal /A‹/ – the final consonant in sing.

Approximant: Approximants are a bit of a hotch-potch category, and contain some of the most problematic sounds in English. We’ll look at them in detail another time, but for now will classify them together as sounds produced when the airstream moves around the tongue and out of the mouth with almost no obstruction. The English approximants are the alveolar approximants /l/ and /r/, the palatal approximant /j/, as in yes, and the dark l – the velar approximant – as in bottle. Keep in mind, however, that this is a simplification.

This leaves the third distinguishing category which we discussed in the last article – voicing. If the vocal cords are vibrated when the sound is made, the sound is voiced. If the are not, it is unvoiced. Several of the English consonants come in pairs. They have the same place and manner of articulation and are distinguished only by voicing (1). For example /t/ and /d/ are both alveolar plosives, but /t/ is unvoiced while /d/ is voiced. In the summarizing chart below, where pairs occur the unvoiced sound is always given first.

3. Sounds in connected speech

Sounds are seldom produced in isolation. In connected speech (that is, any sequence spoken at natural speed), many sounds tend to be altered of modified by the sound immediately before of after them, especially at the boundaries between words.

According to the Excerpt from Study Guide, Connected Speech is the key to gaining a natural, smooth-flowing style of speech. People do not speak in separate words; they speak in logical connected groups of words. Even native speakers sometimes “stumble over their words” because they are unaware of the “little tricks” for avoiding the pitfalls. Trained actors, of course, are able to deliver lengthy, complex, and even “tongue-twisting” passages flawlessly. This is not a gift. They have simply learned the “rules” for linking one word into another with intention. When you’ve finished this tape, you’ll know the rules, too; and with practice you’ll become a fluent, polished speaker.

These are the steps for speaking in connected speech:

– Direct Linking: Linking final consonants directly into vowels

– Play and Link: Linking final consonants fully played and linked to fully played non-related consonants.

– Prepare and Link: Prepare for the final consonant, and execute related consonant that it is linking into.

– Weak Forms: A lot of the very small connecting words in speech are so de-emphasized, or unstressed, that they often take on a Weak Form.

– Contractions: We use these words so much that, we usually contract them together.

– Word Endings and Contractions: Common Word Endings (Suffixes).
These are mostly unstressed, and should be treated like weak forms.

– Dialogues Practicing Word Endings and Contractions: These dialogues have a double emphasis. Practicing both Word Endings and Contractions within a context.

Conclusion

If other aspects of pronunciation are dealt with efficiently, sounds do not present such a problem. Again, much of the difficulty which students have when pronouncing English sounds comes, not from a physical inability to form them, but from language interference. This occurs when the student knows how an English word is spelt and pronounces it as if was written in his own language.

It is important for a teacher to know how sounds are formed so that he understands what his students are doing wrong.

References

John Haycraft. (1978). An introduction to English language teaching. Longman: Longman Group Ltd.1978

Jones, D.(1998). The Pronunciation of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/consonants-intro.htm

Kelly, G.(2000). How to Teach Pronunciation. Harlow: Peason.

Ladefoged, P.(2005). Vowels and Consonants: Oxford: Blackwell.

Steele,V.(2005) Connected Speech (Onlline).

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/(2005, May 29)

Summary:

Fowler is a Journalist and he has left his wife. Then he lived in Saigon during the French-Vietnamese war, along with a Chinese woman, Phuong. An American diplomat, Pyle will also feature. He has read books about China, which have influenced his thinking throughout, because he has quite a few strange ideas about the course of the war. Pyle is also in love with Phuong

Fowler goes a few days to the battlefield at Phat Diem, where he describes the situation. To his amazement Pyle will also show up, to tell that he wants to marry Phuong. He made the trip in spite of all the dangers to tell Fowler that he must not go to Phuong before Fowler is back. When Fowler is back goes he, Pyle en Phuong talk about her future. Phuong says nothing. Then goes Fowler to a special place 50 miles north of Saigon. There he sees Pyle. Because his belly is broken, he goes back with Fowler. Then they are without gasoline. They go to a guard tower along the road. Then there are soldiers but the soldiers don’t see the tower. Pyle and Fowler managed to escape, but thereto Fowler breaks a leg.

Romanisatie weergevenPyle brings him to a hospital, and so he saves his life. Romanisatie weergevenPhuong comes to visit him in hospital, but after a few weeks she finally chooses to Pyle. Romanisatie weergevenShe leaves Fowler because he can’t marry her. In the meanwhile Pyle supports the third army. Romanisatie weergevenLater, a bomb is not stopped when a military parade had been cancelled. When Fowler come off this, he enabled his own connections to murder Pyle. After that Romanisatie weergeven

Fowler and Phuong are back together and happy.

Analysis & interpretation

Genre:

A psychological war novel, because the main character has lots of troubles during war.

Theme’s:

War : the story is set during the war in Vietnam.

Relations: in the story, two friends named, Fowler an Pyle, are fighting about the love of a girl named, Phuong.

Structure:

There are many flashbacks, so the story is not chronological.

The book contains three parts. Those three parts contain out of four chapters.

In the end Pyle dies, so the end is closed.

Characters:

There are three main characters in the story:

Fowler: A journalist.

He is a person with guts, but doesn’t always take everything for granted.

Pyle: he is involved in the war as an American diplomat.

he is an honest person and he has much trust in other people.

Phuong: She is a Vietnamese woman. She is the fiancee of Pyle, but after he was murdered, she married Fowler. She is easily suppressed, and she Quigley does what other people tell her to do.

Time:

The story is set during the Vietnamese war between the Vietminh and the French.

It’s exactly from March 1952 till June 1955.

Perspective:

The story is told by Pyle.

space:

the story is set in Saigon and Hanoi. Those are the biggest towns in Vietnam.

Language and style:

The story language is English dialogue. There are much conversations between the main character and another person. The story is pretty serious because there are not much comic moments in the story.

Personal opinion

Opinion Corne

I tought the book was very confusing for somewhone how never red a english book. In the first pages was one of the main characters ,Pyle, dead, but in the other pages he was alive. After al I new it was a flashback but I didn’t new that before. But it was a exciting book because war had a major role. I always like books where war played a major role. When I must read a book for Dutch, I prefer book with war. Those books are exciting and sometimes the contain humor. Humor is also a major factor for a book. Humor didn’t sit in The quiet American. That was very unfortunate. In the end it was a exciting book but I don’t think I will read it again. There was to many humor and it was confusing. I think I must have a book without flashbacks. A book with no flashbacks reads a lot better.

Opinion Martijn

I think this book is very good written. The was in the book is very well describe and it is very realistic.

I found the book very bold, this is mainly because the story takes place during the war. A very big drawback of this book is that there very difficult words are used. This is very difficult to get into the story and it is much harder to understand the story. And it is especially difficult if you’re bad in English, like me.

The characters in the book will fit well into the story home, also the characters are very realistic. This makes the book more attractive

So if someone like it to read English books , than is this book a real must.

Opinion Jogchum

This book was hard for me to understand, because there are many difficult words in the book, and I’m not really good at English. I think this book was exciting, because it goes about war, and mostly books about war are exciting.

I found the book well written, because the characters that the author used well described. Furthermore, the author has much knowledge of war, because he used this knowledge, you could notice that many things from the war emerged. Romanisatie weergeven

I thought it was a realistic book, because it could happen in real life.

Opinion Jochum

In my opinion, this book wasn’t really a exiting book. It was pretty hard to read and because of that it became a little bit boring. That it was hard to read was because it was English. Not that I have trouble reading English, but the book contained a lot of English proverbs. When I read English I just translate the words, but here I had much misunderstandings. There were proverbs like: ‘Slow fire ah boil hard cow-heel’. There were also a lot of difficult words like, vaguely, reassuring and crippled. I also had a continuous feeling that the phrases were grammatically incorrect, but that could be, because that this is an old book or that this book is written in a different dialect. The story was pretty exiting tough, because it was about war. And war is an exiting time. Unfortunately I didn’t really understand the story, because of the difficult words and proverbs.

Background Information of Graham Greene

Graham Greene was an english author, play wright and literary critic. Unfortunately he is deceased. He was born on the 2th of october 1904 and was passed away on the 3th of april 1991. His father was director of his school. He went below to the balliol college on the unversity of Oxford. His first book was published in 1925. He where Catholic after he graduated. He where a journalist but this wasn’t a succes. He caused the bankruptcy of the magazine he worked for. His books are modern-realistic style. It contains often people who doubt themselves and the darkside. His books were divided into thrillers with entertainment, but those books had philosophical side. His reputation was built on the literary books as the power and the glory. He becames famous because he brought together the entertainment and literature.

Presenting language through texts

Texts have been used in language classrooms for many years. There are many reasons for teachers using texts. Firstly, they use texts as a linguistic objects. Secondly, they use texts as vehicle for information. And for the last reason, they use texts as a springboard for production. So texts in language teaching have played the important role in language learning and teaching.

The most effective texts in learning process are authentic materials. Leaning English through authentic materials will make the learners feel like the are in the a real language situations. The atmosphere of the classrooms are alive. Research studies on the use of authentic materials reveal that it can promote the students’ motivation, positive attitude, involvement and interest on the subject.

There are several kinds of authentic materials which are audio, visual, printed materials and multimedia materials. The multimedia materials are involved audio, video and graphic presentations. All of these materials are applied for communicating specific dispatches in real situations.

Authentic audio materials:

Music, news and other audio materials available on the internet
TV programming including movies, commercials, quiz shows, cartoons, news and weather
Radio including ads, music and sales pitches
Taped or eavesdropped conversations, such as one-sided phone conversations
Meetings, talks
Announcements in airports and stores
Professionally audio-taped short stories and novels

Authentic visual materials:

Images and graphs available on the internet
photographs
painting and drawings, children’s artwork
wordless street signs
pictures from magazines, postcards, wordless picture books
stamps
x-rays
coins and currency
clocks
phones
Halloween masks and other holiday decorations

Authentic printed materials:

web based printed materials available on the internet
newspapers including articles, movies reviews and advertisements, astrology columns, sports reports, obituary columns, advice columns, classified ads
reports, obituary columns, advice columns, classified ads
lyrics to song
restaurant menus
street signs
food product labels such as cereal boxes, candy wrappers
tourist information brochures
university catalogs
telephone books
maps
magazines including TV guides, comic books, catalogs
greeting cards, letters
grocery coupons and flyer
pins or t-shirt with messages
bus schedules
mail including bills , missing children flyers and junk mail
flyers, posters, billboards
school notices
forms including leases, tax forms, applications, medical history forms

Authentic multimedia materials:

TV, Video programmes of various kinds
podcasting on the internet
we based programes involving multimedia use

There are criteria for teachers to consider for choosing the authentic materials for classroom use. Firstly, the interest of the students, the teacher has to ensure that the chosen materials suit the age, interest and background of the students. Secondly, the purpose of language learning, teachers must consider the information in the chosen materials are of value to the learners. Thirdly, the cultural appropriateness, some materials are produced on the basis of the native speakers, the learners might not familiar with the culture of the contexts. Thus, the teachers should carefully select the appropriate second language contexts. Fourthly, the language level, the group of students are different levels like beginner, intermediate or advanced students .because the authentic materials are not made to fit the learning purposes so the teachers must choose the kind of comprehensible input which is slightly difficult in order to sustain their motivation. Lastly, the quality of the materials may be concerned. The chosen texts must have the quality of the text organization and the appropriate picture use. In the same time, the teachers must attentively check for errors and spelling mistakes of the texts.

Using authentic materials have great benefits or advantages, specially for the second language learners of English. A large number of evidences of research studies have revealed a wide range of advantages. Firstly, the learners will expose to a wide range of natural language. Next, the reality and the meaningful interactive are brought into classroom. Then, there is a connection between the classroom and the outside world. The teaching and assessment focus on the 4 skills which the facts of language are not included. Moreover, the important objective is not a memorization for the examination but for the communicative proposes. For the next reason, the authentic texts can help the teachers accessing the ready, available, attractive and inexpensive resources of the texts as well as bring the variety to the classroom activities. So, the students have opportunities to practice the skills learnt in the classroom in the outside world when they meet them in the real situations.

Using the authentic materials also have some problems. Some kinds of materials may include difficult language and unusual vocabulary items which are not being used in the daily life basis. These kinds of problems cause a burden to the teachers. So to solve the problems, the teachers should carefully pick the authentic materials by using the above mentioned criteria. For instance, the notices, bottled labels and reservation forms are used for the lower level learners. Whereas, the advanced levels need more complex materials.

Thornbury claimed that ” language always happens as text and not as isolated words and sentences” Therefore, the basis of foreign language teaching is handling texts for both written and oral. There are three acronyms that have been used to describe texts.

Texts – based activities presented in the course book ‘Information Technology’ are marking the statements as true or false, filling in the gaps in the statements, linking each pair of actions ( donating cause and effect ) by a time clause, matching the terms in table A with the statements in table B, making a list of the key features of the facility ( device ) students are reading about, matching the reviews of the facilities to their titles, writing a brief evaluation of the phenomenon you have read about ( at least by listing its good and bad points ), trying to guess the meaning of the given abbreviations, trying to paraphrase the statements, linking each set of sentences to make one sentence ( corresponding to the descriptions given in the text ), completing the forms to record the main details of the problem described in the text, working in pairs, studying the diagram to explain how facility works, putting the described events in sequence, finding words or phrases in the table which mean what is given in the statements below.

From my experience as a teacher, I have been teaching young learners, mostly in the Phatom 1-3 students. And I have used several kinds of authentic materials in my class. For example, I use English songs and nursery rhymes when I would like to present new language to my students for promoting the motivation and engagement in learning of my students. Then, I use many pictures to present the new vocabulary in order to promote a better understanding of the meanings of the words. Sometimes, I have them read their favorable books from the bookshelf, so they can choose what ever they like.

Inleiding

Motoriek is heel ruim gezegd, de beweeglijkheid van het lichaam. Om te weten wat er onder de motorische ontwikkeling wordt verstaan zullen wij ons in dit hoofdstuk gaan verdiepen.

In dit hoofdstuk worden verschillende theorieen over de ontwikkeling van het bewegen en de motorische ontwikkeling beschreven. Enig inzicht in de achtergrond van de motorische ontwikkeling kan ons weer een stapje verder helpen bij het beter observeren en begrijpen van kinderen die zich anders of trager ontwikkelen dan hun leeftijdsgenootjes. De observaties bespreken wij later in hoofdstuk 7 en 8. Hier wordt duidelijk hoe je als leerkracht kunt observeren Hopelijk leidt dit inzicht tot betere antwoorden op het gedrag van deze kinderen, kortom tot beter onderwijs.Daarnaast wordt de globale motorische ontwikkeling van het jongere kind en het oudere kind beschreven.

Wat betekent ‘motoriek’?

De motoriek heeft betrekking op de bewegingen die het lichaam maakt; zoals arm en beenbewegingen. De motoriek bestaat uit een nauwe samenwerking tussen hersenen, spieren en ledematen. Het evenwicht, de ogen, de oren enhet autonome zenuwstelsel zijn er bij betrokken. De grove motoriek wordt als eerst ontwikkeld. Grijpen, rollen, zitten, kruipen, staan, lopen, klimmen en fietsen zijn de bekende ontwikkelingsfasen. Iedere fase van motorische ontwikkeling van een kind is noodzakelijk voor het latere functioneren.De hersenen worden door de motorische ontwikkeling op een bepaalde manier geactiveerd. De hersenen intregeren de motorische handelingen, ook wel automatiseren genoemd. Als dit automatiseren niet ontwikkelt zal een kind altijd de aandacht moeten houden bij de activiteit. Het kind kan dan niet twee dingen tegelijkertijd doen, zoals: fietsen en op het verkeer letten, lopen en praten.Deze sensorische integratie en de automatisering van bewegingen zijn belangrijk om goed te kunnen functioneren.

We kennen twee verschillende soorten ontwikkelingen in de motoriek namelijk; de grove motoriek en de fijne motoriek. De grove motoriek zijn alle grote bewegingen die je maakt met je lichaam zoals fietsen, zwaaien of lopen. Bij de fijne motoriek hebben we het over de kleine bewegingen die je bijvoorbeeld met je hand of vingers maakt zoals; schrijven of tekenen. Een voorbeeld van de grove motoriek wanneer deze niet goed ontwikkeld is zou kunnen zijn dat je vaak omvalt of tegen obstakels oploopt, bij de fijne motoriek zou het kunnen zijn dat je moeite hebt om dingen te kunnen oprapen. We kunnen dus wel zeggen dat alleen met een goede motoriekje gecontroleerde bewegingen kunt maken.

(http://www.motoriekoefeningen.mysites.nl/mypages/motoriekoefeningen/107693.html)

Het verloop van motorische ontwikkeling van het kind

Het verloop van de motorische ontwikkeling begint tijdens het eerste levensjaar, daarom wordt in deze paragraaf naast de ontwikkeling van het schoolkind ook de ontwikkeling van baby’s peuters en kleuters besproken. Hierna wordt door middel van een overzicht, duidelijk welke ontwikkelingen een kind doormaakt per levensjaar.

Tijdens het eerste levensjaar van een kind gebeurt er veel op motorisch gebied. Een pasgeboren baby doet veel vanuit reflexen. Zo heeft hij een sterke grijpreflex en een zuigreflex. Al snel gaat het kind bewuster grijpen, draaien, weer later gaat het zitten, etc. In eerste instantie gebeurt dit vanuit een aangeboren drang. Als voorbeeld nemen we het rollen. Eerst rolt een kind vanuit een innerlijke drang. Soms is dit helemaal niet handig, als bijvoorbeeld de nek nog niet zo getraind is, en hij dus steeds met zijn neus op het boxkleed ligt. Terug rollen leert een kind pas wat later, ook heel lastig als je moe wordt van je hoofd alsmaar omhoog houden. Naarmate het kind vaker rolt, wordt het kind er steeds behendiger in. Het kind ontdekt dat het dan ergens dichterbij komt. Weer later leert een baby dat hij dus al rollend ergens naar toe kan gaan, dat hij dus het rollen zelf in kan zetten als hij bijvoorbeeld een speeltje wil hebben dat net buiten handbereik ligt. Het karakter van het kind heeft grote invloed op het tempo van zijn ontwikkeling. Het ene kind is banger cq voorzichtiger uitgevallen dan het andere kind. Gelukkig gaat ieder kind uiteindelijk toch draaien of lopen.

Dreumesen en peuters zijn dol op helpen bij huishoudelijke taken. Afwassen, schoonmaken, vegen, opruimen. Als ze willen, mogen ze helpen. Slepen met de stoeltjes, het fornuisje en het poppenbedje. Hierdoor wordt de motorische ontwikkeling op allerlei manieren gestimuleerd. De fijne motoriek door puzzelen, kleien, tekenen, schilderen, plakken, bellen blazen etc. De grove motoriek door verkleden, met z’n allen stoeien op de matras, buiten spelen in de zandbak, fietsen, rennen, etc. Buiten spelen biedt hierbij vele mogelijkheden. Het leren inschatten van gevaar leren kinderen pas rond de leeftijd van vier jaar. Tot die tijd kunnen ze meestal niet voldoende inschatten wat ze wel en niet kunnen. Peuters hebben de drang in zich om te klimmen. Zij kijken anders tegen de wereld aan dan volwassenen. Als zij een bank zien, daagt dat uit tot klimmen, en hetzelfde geldt voor een vensterbank, een biels en een tuinstoel. De spierkracht neemt in een jaar tijd enorm toe. Bij het schoolgaande kind wordt de motoriek steeds verfijnder en verder uitgewerkt. De kinderen oefenen al snel hun jas dicht maken, hun veters strikken, tanden poetsen, huppelen, “klimrekkeren”, steppen enz. Door knutselen en spelen met lego en andere bouwmaterialen wordt de fijne motoriek geoefend. Door timmeren leer je je krachten te bundelen en te gebruiken. Door de vele oefening in de motoriek kunnen de kinderen veel beter hun handen afzonderlijk van elkaar gebruik. De kinderen gaan steeds netter schrijven en gaan hiermee ontdekken. Zo zie je aan het eind van de basisschool periode steeds meer verschillende vormen in handschriften. Daarnaast neemt het uithoudingsvermogen toe doordat kinderen continu in beweging is. Hierdoor wordt ook de motorische ontwikkeling steeds nauwkeuriger, kinderen maken tijdens hun beweging, fijnere en kleinere bewegingen. Doordat de oudere basisschool kinderen erg competief zijn in sportactiviteiten leren de kinderen steeds meer te ontdekken. Ook dit is weer positief voor hun motorische ontwikkeling, omdat zij bewegingen maken waarbij de motoriek centraal staat, zoals voetbal, klimmen etc.

Concreet overzicht motorische ontwikkeling tot 12 jaar

0 tot 4 jaar; Zelf bij baby’s zie je al heel snel dat er een motorische ontwikkeling plaats vindt. Wanneer baby’s geboren worden zullen zij al snel knipperen met hun ogen en zuigen zij direct. Wanneer de baby’s wat ouder zijn zullen zij objecten gaan volgen met de ogen, dit voorwerp moet echter wel groot zijn. Rond 8 maanden leren de baby’s met hun handen te klappen en worden de oogbewegingen nauwkeuriger. De baby’s kunnen dan een klein voorwerp met hun ogen volgen. Vanaf 1 jaar gaan de kinderen o.a. zitten, kruipen, oppakken en stapelen. De motorische ontwikkeling wordt steeds verder ontwikkeld. Om deze ontwikkeling mogelijk te kunnen maken groeit het lichaam gelijdelijk en neem de spierkracht toe. Vanaf 2 jaar kunnen de kinderen al wat tekenen zoals een herkenbaar menselijk figuur. Vanaf 3 jaar ontwikkelen de kinderen hun motoriek ook door middel van bewegingesspelletjes, door bijvoorbeeld te schommelen, springen, ballen en/of stoeien. (http://mens-en-gezondheid.infonu.nl/kinderen/26174-motorische-ontwikkeling-wat-kan-n-kind-op-welke-leeftijd.html)

4 tot 6 jaar; De motoriek wordt steeds beter bij de jonge kleuter. De jonge kleuter krijgt meer controle over de bewegingen die hij maakt. De pols en de vingers maken steeds meer nauwkeurige bewegingen. Jonge kinderen hebben een de drang om te spelen en te bewegen, om dit te kunnen doen hebben zij ruimte nodig zoals bij het spel; hinkelen of op een been staan. De fijne motoriek verbeterd, en de jonge kinderen leren allerlei oefeningen om de fijne motoriek te stimuleren zoals binnen de lijntjes kleuren en de knopen dicht maken. Maar ook de grove motoriek wordt steeds beter, het kind kan nu beter met een bal overweg en valt niet meer of minder tijdens het rennen. Rond 5 jaar kunnen de kinderen al hun potlood vast houden en worden de eerste letters en woorden geschreven. Vanaf 6 jaar is het evenwichtsgevoel voortdurend in ontwikkeling en leert het kind bijvoorbeeld touwspringen. (http://mens-en-gezondheid.infonu.nl/kinderen/26174-motorische-ontwikkeling-wat-kan-n-kind-op-welke-leeftijd.html)

6 tot 9 jaar; Vanaf 6 tot 9 jaar wordt de motoriek, de evenwicht en de coordinatie beter. Dee handen kunnen nu afzonderlijk van elkaar worden gebruikt. Doordat de kinderen zoveel bewegen wordt de fijne motoriek nauwkeuriger en de uithoudingsvermogen en behendigheid nemen toe. (zie schema motorische vaardigheidslijnen Bijlage 1)

9 tot 12 jaar; Vanaf 9 tot 12 jaar is het coordinatievermogen goed en het uithoudingsvermogen is groter. Dit betekent dus dat ze langer dingen vol kunnen houden. Daarnaast leren de kinderen onderscheid te maken tussen kinderen onderling; het ene kind kan meer dan het andere kind. Hierdoor onstaat er een competitie-element en krijgen de kinderen belangstelling voor sport en wedstrijden. De kinderen koppelen de vaardigheden aan dat de sociale status; zo vinden zij bijvoorbeeld dat behendige kinderen populairder zijn. (zie schema motorische vaardigheidslijnen Bijlage 1)

Theorieen motorische ontwikkeling

Over de motorische ontwikkeling zijn veel verschillende theorien. Om een goed beeld te krijgen op de motorische ontwikkeling hebben wij de 3 bekendste uitgelicht, namelijk;

Het (neurologisch) ontwikkelingsmodel van Mesker (hfst 1.5)
De senso-motorische ontwikkeling van Ayres (hfst 1.6)
De ontwikkelingslijnen van Gesel (hfst 1.7)

In de volgende paragrafen worden de hierboven genoemde 3 theorien toegelicht, waarna wij een conclusie zullen trekken over welke theorie of theorieen het meest bruikbaar is/zijn voor ons onderzoek en dan met name voor het te ontwikkelen beroepsproduct; Uitgangspunt blijft hierbij onze onderzoeksvraag; Hoe kan de motorische achterstand van kinderen met schrijfproblemen op de Dialoog worden verkleind?

Het neurologische ontwikkelingsmodel van Mesker

Mesker gelooft in de relatie tussen de lichamelijke ontwikkeling en de hersenen. Als het zenuwstelsel rijpt verandert ook het bewegingsapparaat. Mesker heeft meerdere dingen uitgevonden onder andere:

rechtopstaand schoolbordje
psycho-dominantiebord

Een kind maakt met beide handen patronen op het bord, veelal ritmisch en met ondersteuning met klanken of woorden (schrijfdans). Dit wordt veel gebruikt door remedial teachers om gelijktijdige bewegingen met de linker- en de rechterhand/kant bij kinderen te verbeteren.

Het wordt ook gebruikt bij handschrift verbetering en als remedie bij dyslexie.

Hieronder worden de 4 verschillende fasen van Mesker beschreven. Het is handig voor leerkrachten om deze te herkennen. Het geeft een leerkracht de mogelijkheid om te kunnen zien hoe de motorische ontwikkeling van kinderen loopt, zodat men meer begrip krijgt over achterstanden in de totale ontwikkeling van het kind.

De antagonistische (tegengestelde) fase of slurffase (tot 4 jaar) In de eerste fase van de motorische ontwikkeling verlopen de meeste bewegingen via een links-rechtsantagonisme. Dit houdt in dat de spierwerking in de ene lichaamhelft antagonistisch is aan die van de andere helft. Het werkt dus tegenovergesteld. Als de ene hand ontspant, spant de andere kant. Als een hand knijpt, spreidt de andere hand zich. Deze tegenbewegingen worden “synkinesieen”(tegenbewegingen) genoemd en zijn dwangmatig. Een impuls in de linkerhersenhelft wordt automatisch doorgegeven als tegenbeweging in de rechter hersenhelft.

Slurfbeweging/slurfmotoriek

Afgeleid van de slurf van een olifant. Ook wel actie-reactie bewegingen genoemd. In deze fasen zijn twee typen bewegingen. Kinderen leren tegenovergestelde (antogonistische) bewegingen te maken, bijvoorbeeld trappelen. Ook laten kinderen in deze fase tegenbewegingen (synkinesieen) zien, zo zal een baby van 6 maanden een vuist maken, terwijl hij zijn andere hand strekt.

Voorbeelden van deze fase:

ontwikkeling van trappelen,
kruipen,
lopen

Opvallend is dat veel kinderen die niet hebben gekropen motorische problemen hebben.

de symmetrische fase of motorische fase (4 – 6 jaar)

Deze fase houdt in dat de hersens- en lichaamsactiviteiten in deze fasen links en rechts identiek zijn, symmetrisch. Ook in deze fase zijn 2 soorten bewegingen. Een kind leert in deze fase veel symmetrische bewegingen. Deze bewegingen zijn identiek (gespiegeld) in de linker- en rechter lichaamshelft en/of identiek in het boven- en onderlichaam.

Voorbeelden van deze fase:

met twee benen tegelijk springen,
maken van een rechte koprol (3,5 jaar)
met twee handen een bal vangen.
recht zitten, staan

Aan de andere kant is het nog niet goed mogelijk om een lichaamshelft te bewegen zonder dat de andere (dwangmatig) meebeweegt. Ook deze meebewegingen worden synkinesieen genoemd. Synkinesieen worden ook wel neurologische associaties genoemd.

Bijvoorbeeld: als een kind op zijn hakken loopt, doen zijn polsen en armen mee; die gaan buigen (synkinesieen onder/boven)

Als een kind de symmetrische fase goed heeft doorlopen dan:

laat het kind geen onnodige symmetrische bewegingen zien
beheerst het kind de essentiele symmetrische bewegingsvormen

Ook volwassen laten meebewegingen zien en/of nieuwe bewegingen. Het gaat bij kinderen om het laten zien van mee-bewegingen bij alledaagse, eenvoudige bewegingen.

Lateralisatie fase (7 jaar)

Dit is de fase waarin er verschillen ontstaan tussen de linker- en rechter hersenhelft en daardoor in de linker- en rechterlichaamshelft. Er is een aansturing vanuit het hersenhelft zonder dat de ander meedoet. Hierdoor is het mogelijk verschillende bewegingen van de verschillende lichaamsdelen onafhankelijk van elkaar te laten plaatsvinden.

Gekoppelde of associeerde bewegingen vinden plaats in de antagonistische en de symmetrische fase. Losgekoppelde of gedissocieerde bewegen worden mogelijk in de lateralisatie fase. Dissociatie: het tegenovergestelde van associatie, betekent letterlijk: loskoppelen.

Voorbeelden van dissociatieve bewegingen:

De schoolslag wordt mogelijk, Armen en benen maken na elkaar een andere beweging.

Touwtje springen wordt mogelijk; draaien en springen tegelijk.

In de lateralisatie ontwikkelt een lichaamshelft zich meer doelgericht. De andere lichaamshelft werkt meer ondersteunend. Dit kan men zien bij de handen en voeten.

De schrijfhand en de steunhand en het schietbeen en steunbeen.

Lateralisatie is geen ontwikkeling tot eenhandigheid, maar een ontwikkeling tot een consequente taakverdeling en samenwerking in tweehandigheid.

dominantie; einde lateralisatie fase(7-8 jaar)

Deze fase is het eindproduct van de neurologische motorische ontwikking. De mogelijk bestaat om verschillende lichaamsdelen te laten samenwerken en er is geen sprake van dwangmatig neurologische synkinisieen (bepaalde lichaamsdelen werken niet meer automatisch en symmetrisch mee) bij veel gebruikte dagelijkse bewegingen.

Voorbeelden:

Het schoppen tegen een bal: Het standbeen moet het lichaam in balans houden terwijl het schopbeen half gebogen in beweging vaart maakt om tegen de bal te schieten.

Het schrijven: Een voorkeurshand, waarbij tegelijkertijd meerdere motorische handelingen plaatsvinden. (de schrijfbewegingen vanuit het soepele polsgewricht worden gemaakt met voldoende steun vanuit het lichaam en met stabiele houding.)

Voor de gehele paragraaf;

Zorg voor beweging, W. van Gelder, M. Berg (1999). Heeswijk-Dinther: Esstede (blz.24-32)

Schrijven met zorg, A. van Vledder en E. van Dijk (2000). Baarn:HB Uitgevers (blz. 95-98)

Schrijven als een oefenvak, Handboek voor didactiek en praktijk, Drs.A. van Engen.

(7e druk 1998). Vries: Van Engen BV.(blz. 30-38)

Het neurologische ontwikkelingsmodel van Ayres

Theorieen motorische ontwikkeling.

Enig inzicht in de achtergrond van de motorische ontwikkeling kan men weer een stapje verder helpen bij het beter observeren en begrijpen van kinderen die zich anders of trager ontwikkelen dan hun leeftijdgenootjes. Hopelijk leidt dit inzicht tot betere antwoorden op het gedrag van deze kinderen, kortom tot beter onderwijs.

De sensomotorische ontwikkeling van Ayres

Motoriek heeft te maken met bewegen. Het woord ?senso? is veel minder bekend.

Het woord ?senso? verwijst naar de zintuigen. Een vertaling van sensomotorische ontwikkeling zou kunnen zijn:

De ontwikkeling van de samenwerking van de zintuigen en motoriek.
De ontwikkeling van de interactie tussen zintuigen en bewegingsapparaat.

Van belang bij de sensomotorische ontwikkeling is de sensorische integratie: een samenwerking tussen de zintuigen en de motoriek. Bijvoorbeeld:

Oorzaak – gevolg : als iemand zijn hand op een hete plaat legt dan trekt hij zijn hand weg.

Actie- reactie : als iemand op zijn schouder wordt getikt dan kijkt hij om, zonder na te denken waar de prikkel vandaan komt.

Ayres onderscheidt 5 zintuigelijke systemen:

Het auditieve systeem: horen.
Het vestibulaire systeem: dit systeem zorg dat men in evenwicht blijft en niet omvalt.
Het visuele systeem: zien.
Het proprioceptieve: geeft informatie door vanuit spieren en gewrichten en geeft men daarmee informatie over de houding en positie van lichaamsdelen. Via dit systeem voel men hoe hard/zacht, groot/klein men moet bewegen.
Het tactiele systeem: (de tastzin) geeft informatie over allerlei aanrakingen van de huid. Een goed proprioceptief en het tactiel systeem zorgen voor bewegingsgevoel: balgevoel, mooie gestileerde bewegingen, kleine bewegingen, etc.

Als verwerkingsprobleem van de informatie van de verschillende zintuigen noemt Ayres met name het over- of ondergevoeligheid van een systeem. Hier volgen 2 voorbeelden.

Voorbeeld 1:

Een vestibulaire overgevoelig kind zal bijvoorbeeld snel duizelig zijn. Bij een koprol of in een attractie op de kermis, vaak ook misselijk in de auto. Het systeem raakt snel overprikkeld. Veel van deze kinderen worden voorzichtig. Als het vestibulaire systeem ondergevoelig is, is voor een kind niets te gek. Hij kent zijn eigen grenzen niet. Botst snel, loopt in de rij tegen andere kinderen op, is vaak overmoedig. Een kind wijzen op zijn gedrag met als bedoeling dat dit gedrag veranderd, heeft zelden het gewenste effect. De kans is groot dat deze goedbedoelde aanwijzingen ten koste gaan van het gevoel van eigen waarde van het kind.

Voorbeeld 2:

Tactiel overgevoelige kinderen houden niet van vieze handen en bijvoorbeeld van stukjes of brokjes in het eten en -in extreme gevallen- zelf niet van kleren aan hun lijf.

Het neurologische ontwikkelingsmodel van Gesell

De ontwikkelingslijnen van Gesell

Gesell beschreef als eerste een systematiek in de ontwikkeling van het kind. Hij onderscheidt de volgende ontwikkelingsvelden:

Adaptatie: toepassing van de motoriek in het dagelijkse leven en spel.
Klein motorische ontwikkeling: ontwikkeling van kijken tot grijpen en manipuleren.
Grootmotorische ontwikkeling: ontwikkeling van hoofdbalans tot lopen.
Spraak- en taalontwikkeling: ontwikkeling van communicatieve vaardigheden.

Deze velden zijn al aanwezig voor de geboorte. De ontwikkeling wordt vastgelegd en normatieve ontwikkelingsschalen. Genoemd de ‘key ages’ oftewel sleutelleeftijden, de momenten waarop een mijlpaal wordt bereikt in de ontwikkeling. Adaptatie is het belangrijkste ontwikkelingsveld. Het kind leert door zijn adaptieve gedrag analyseren, integreren en relaties herkennen. Gesell beschouwde adaptatie als de voorloper van de (latere) intelligentie, waarbij eerdere opgedane ervaringen gebruikt worden bij het oplossen van problemen.

De vier ontwikkelingslijnen van Gesell met betrekking tot de motorische ontwikkeling:

De ontwikkeling van kop naar voet (evenwicht)

Een kind dat net geboren is kan op een gegeven moment zijn hoofd rechtop of omhoog (balanceren) houden. Daarna gaat het, als het ongeveer 6 maanden is, zitten (evenwicht in hoofd en romp), vervolgens kruipen (evenwicht in schouders en heupen) en tenslotte staan (evenwicht ook in voeten). Kinderen met een zwak ontwikkeld evenwicht laten vaak zien dat ze een wiebelend ‘los’ hoofd hebben en/of veel gecorrigeerde bewegingen met de armen maken. In het algemeen leren deze kinderen laat zitten. Niet of laat kruipen en laat fietsen op een fiets zonder zijwielen.

De ontwikkeling van ‘binnen (romp) naar buiten’ (ledematen)

De ontwikkeling van binnen naar buiten is een ontwikkeling vanuit de romp via de gewrichten die het dichtst bij de romp zitten (schouders en heupen) steeds meer naar buiten, tot in de vinger en teentoppen.

Bijvoorbeeld: Een kind van 3 jaar draait een touwtje rond dat het met een hand vasthoud. Hij maakt een hele grote draaibeweging vanuit de schouder. Een kind van 6 jaar zal bij dezelfde beweging slecht de hand/pols bewegen.

In het onderwijs gaat men ervan uit dat op ongeveer 6 jarige leeftijd de sturing in de pols en hand plaatsvindt. Er dan met het schrijfproces gestart. Voor veel kinderen kan dit tot frustraties leiden, omdat de basis voorwaarden om tot schrijven te komen nog niet aanwezig zijn. Een van deze voorwaarden is een voltooide ontwikkeling ‘van binnen naar buiten’.

De ontwikkeling van enkelvoudige naar samengestelde beweging

Het aanleren van een beweging vindt plaats van enkelvoudig naar samengesteld. We kunnen deze volgorde het best voorstellen bij het aanleren van een dansje. Er wordt bijvoorbeeld eerst een (eenvoudige) beenbeweging geleerd. Als deze bewegingen worden beheerst, dan kan men een armbeweging bijmaken. Hierna volgt het hoofd, de mimiek en eventueel kan erbij worden gezongen. Het geheel is samengesteld uit steeds meer componenten. De hoeveelheid componenten die men tegelijkertijd kan uitvoeren is afhankelijk van aanleg en ervaring. Een voorbeeld van een samengestelde beweging is;

Stuiten op de plaats naar dribbelen (stuiten en looppas). Voor een groot deel valt deze ontwikkeling samen met de lateralisatiefase van Mesker. In deze fase wordt het mogelijk op verschillende lichaamsdelen onafhankelijk van elkaar te gebruiken.

De ontwikkeling van totaal (massaal) bewegen naar lokaal (effectief) bewegen.

Het bewegen van jonge kinderen met name baby’s, kenmerk zich door de totaliteit van de beweging. Als een baby probeert iets aan te raken boven zijn wieg, doen de andere arm, de benen en mimiek mee. Het in zijn totaliteit bewegen gaat geleidelijk over in meer lokaal bewegen. Alleen het lichaamsdeel dat nodig is beweegt. Zo kan een 8 jarige zittend schrijven zonder dat iets anders beweegt dan zijn hand (onderarm) en zijn pen. Voor de meeste 4 jarigen is dat onmogelijk. Voetenschuiven, spanning in de schouder en een meebewegende andere hand zijn vaak te zien.

In de theorie van Mesker is deze ontwikkeling te zien in het optreden van synkinesieen. Van tegenbewegingen naar meebewegingen naar spanning in de andere lichaamshelft tot ontspanning. In de laatste fase zou je ook kunnen spreken van lokaal, efficient bewegen.

Een voorbeeld van massaal naar lokaal:

Een peuter van 2 jaar die een bal weggooit, gooit met zijn hele lichaam. Als kinderen 8 jaar zijn, gooien ze een bal door met twee handen een korte beweging te maken, waarna de handen……nawijzen.

Zorg voor beweging, W. van Gelder, M. Berg (1999). Heeswijk-Dinther: Esstede (blz. 24-33)

Samenvatting

De motoriek heeft betrekking op bewegingen van het lichaam, zoals arm en beenbewegingen Er wordt over 2 soorten motoriek gesproken, namelijk de grove en de fijne motoriek. Bij de grove motoriek, gaat het om de grote, grove bewegingen die je met je lijf maakt. De fijne motoriek zijn meer de kleinere bewegingen die je met je handen en vingers maakt.

Over de motorische ontwikkeling zijn veel vesrschillende theorieen; namelijk;

Het (neurologisch) ontwikkelingsmodel van Mesker
De senso-motorische ontwikkeling van Ayres
De ontwikkelingslijnen van Gesel

Volgens Mesker verloopt de ontwikkeling van de motoriek via een aantal fasen. Bovendien kan men in de schema “Motorische Basisvaardigheden” aflezen wat een kind op een bepaalde leeftijd zou moeten beheersen.

Volgens Ayres heeft de motoriek te maken met bewegen en kijkt vanuit de sensomotorische ontwikkeling. Het woord ?senso? verwijst naar de zintuigen. Een vertaling van sensomotorische ontwikkeling zou kunnen zijn:

De ontwikkeling van de samenwerking van de zintuigen en motoriek.
De ontwikkeling van de interactie tussen zintuigen en bewegingsapparaat.

Gesell beschreef als eerste een systematiek in de ontwikkeling van het kind. Hij onderscheidt de volgende ontwikkelingsvelden:

Adaptatie: toepassing van de motoriek in het dagelijkse leven en spel.
Klein motorische ontwikkeling: ontwikkeling van kijken tot grijpen en manipuleren.
Grootmotorische ontwikkeling: ontwikkeling van hoofdbalans tot lopen.
Spraak- en taalontwikkeling: ontwikkeling van communicatieve vaardigheden.

Nu er een duidelijkbeeld is gegeven over het verloop van een normale motorische ontwikkeling, zal er worden gekeken naar wanneer de motorische ontwikkeling niet soepel verloopt; waarbij wij ons afvragen welke kenmerken een motorische achterstand heeft.

The Noun Phrase

What does a noun phrase mean? Noun phrase is a word that comes from two words, the first one is “noun” and the second one is “phrase”.

The Meaning of Noun

“Noun” is a word that used to call a persons, animals, things, places, and ideas. For example,

Persons : Jimmy, Susan, Peter, John, Angelo, Michael, etc.

Animal s: bird, elephant, tiger, snake, whale, etc.

Things : car, building, table, pen, etc.

Places : airport, opera house, museum, Eifel tower, etc.

There are many different types of nouns: common noun, proper noun, abstract noun, concrete noun, countable noun, mass noun, and collective noun.

Types of Nouns

1. Common Noun is a noun in general referring to person, animal, place, or thing. For example: man, boy, monkey, bank, gun, and television.

A young man walks along the road.

A monkey likes to eat banana.

Sally work in a bank.

A policeman sees a gun near the river.

The children want to watch a television.

2. Proper Noun is a noun of specific person, place or thing. Example: Tom, Haiti, China, Monday, or December.

Tom is a soldier.

There were many people death in Haiti last month.

The panda are from China.

They will do to the sea in December.

The sun is the center of solar system.

3. Abstract Noun is a noun which we cannot perceive by senses. For example: thought, beauty, wisdom, friendship.

Nobody can read our thought.

The young girls always talk about her beauty.

The friendship between friends is very important.

4. Concrete Noun is a noun which is opposite of abstract noun. We can perceive by senses: sight, touch, taste, hearing and smell.

5. Countable Noun is a noun which we can count. We can use in singular and plural form. For example: pen – pens, car – cars, year – years.

A student wants to buy the new pens.

Her mother go to see a new car.

6. Mass Noun or uncountable noun is a noun which we cannot count and it does not have plural form. For example: water, milk, gas, oxygen, furniture.

Water is good for health.

The children must drink milk for their growth.

Human needs oxygen for life.

We want to see the new furniture for our new house.

7. Collective Noun is a noun of grouping things, persons or animals. For example: committee, flock, class.

The committee meets every Tuesday.

The flock of sheep are in the pasture.

The class will start at nine thirty.

The grammatical functions of noun in a sentence can be subject, subject complement, direct object, indirect object, object complement, appositive noun.

Functions of Nouns
Nouns can be the subject in a sentence which do an action with a verb.

Example:

Jimmy wants to go Thailand.

A bus stops in front of the school.

Nouns can be object in a sentence, both direct object and indirect object.

Example: Direct object

Tommy washes his car every month.

My mother buys some fruits from the market.

A naughty boy hits a small dog.

Example: Indirect object

I gave Michael the camera.

My friend sent me some parcels.

Nouns can be object of preposition.

Example:

I saw my old friend at the museum.

“Museum” is the object of preposition “at”.

He drove his car to the office.

“Office” is the object of preposition “to”.

Nouns can be subjective complement.

Example:

The fried chicken are delicious.

The fried chicken taste delicious.

Nouns can be objective complement.

Example:

We find the fried chicken delicious.

Nouns can be appositive noun. It means that appositive is a noun placed near another noun.

Example:

My brother, John is in town for the reunion.

The movie, Avatar won the best motion picture in 2010.

The Meaning of Phrase

Phrase is a group of words function as a single unit in the syntax of sentence or a group of grammatical connected words within a sentence. There are many types of phrase. They are noun phrase, verb phrase, adverbial phrase, adjective phrase, participle phrase, prepositional phrase, absolute phrase, infinitive phrase and gerund phrase.

The Meaning of Noun Phrase

Noun phrase is a group of words in a sentence which together behave as a noun in a sentence, for example: the night train, the man in black. Noun phrase also consists of pronoun or noun with any associated modifiers, including adjectives, adjective phrases, adjective clauses and other nouns in the possessive case. Noun phrase can be like noun as subject, object of verb, subject or object complement, or object of preposition. For example:

subject: Small boys often insist that they can do it by themselves.

object of verb: To read quickly is Eugene’s goal.

subject complement: Frankenstein is a name of the scientist not the ghost.

object complement: She considers panda is her favorite animal.

Noun phrase can be analyzed into both functional constituents and formal constituents. From the functional point of view, the noun phrase has four components.

The determinative, that constituent which determines the reference of noun phrase in its situation context.
Pre-modification, which comprises all the modifying or describing constituents before the head.
The head, around which the other constituents cluster.
Post-modification, those which comprise all the modifying constituents placed after the head.

Heather Marie Kosur said that there are five grammatical forms can perform the grammatical function of noun phrase modifier in English language. (Heather Marie Kosur:2009) The five grammatical forms that can functions as nouns phrase are nouns phrases, adjective phrases, preposition phrase, verb phrase and relative clauses.

Noun phrase can make use of the apposition structure. It means that the elements in the noun phrase are not in head-modifier relationship but in a relation of equality. The head of noun phrase can be implied. The implied noun phrase is most commonly used as a generic plural referring to human being. (Arnold Zwicky: 2008) Noun phrase also can be headed by elements others than nouns, pronouns or determiners which has given rise to the postulation of a determiner phrase instead of a noun phrase. Some purposes, noun phrase can be treated as single grammatical units. It is most noticeable in syntax of English genitive case. Noun phrase are prototypically used for acts of reference. Not often, noun phrase is used for predication. And noun phrases are used for identifications. The possible for a noun phrase to play the role of subject and predicate lads to the constructions of syllogisms.

How to use Noun Phrase in my classroom?

For my teaching in a primary school, it is very difficult for the students to learn more about noun, types of nouns and functions of nouns. The students cannot remember all of them. Sometimes they do not know what different between each words in a sentence. I have many steps of my teaching about nouns to make my students understand and remember easily. First of all, teach the students pronounce the words correctly by repeating again and again. When they can pronounce the words they also know and understand the meaning of the words too. Second, let the students practice how to spell the words by writing or dictation. After that teach them use the words write the sentences. The sentences they write must not be the complex sentences but they are easy or simple sentences. Next, I always teach my students about countable nouns and uncountable nouns in order to let them know how to use the articles: a, and, the, or the different determiners. Then tell them about singular or plural words, I also explain them how to use verbs with each singular nouns or plural nouns when they write the sentences, too. It is very difficult to make the students understand and remember how to use the articles relate with singular nouns and plural nouns and also with verbs. For example: “The children go to school.” Some of the students understand that “children” is singular noun so they write a wrong sentence as “The children goes to school.” but some of them know that it is plural noun so they write a sentence correctly.

During teaching how to use the article with nouns, I also teach the students about the proper nouns because I want them to know and use the correct article “the” with the proper nouns. Not all of the proper nouns can use with article “the” but some of them can use article and some cannot. Sometimes the students forget what is proper noun or common noun so I try to let them practice the words as many ways as I can.

The ways I teach my students how to practice the words are using activities, games, worksheet and also assignments.

The next step is teaching the students know how to use nouns with the other types of words especially with the adjective. It is very difficult to explain to the students to understand how to use adjectives with nouns. The adjectives always go before nouns and also describe or identify the nouns. But for my students they always forget how to place the adjectives. They sometimes put the adjectives after the nouns. Sometimes they do not know what word is adjective or not so they often use the wrong word. The way to solve this problem is try to train the students practice by giving them many exercises such as the exercise about noun phrase which use adjective, for example: the red car, a big green tree, etc.

It is very difficult to explain the rules of nouns phrases for the students to understand clearly all of the nouns phrases or how to know what nouns phrases are. Normally for Thai students, they are easy to forget the rules of language because they do not use foreign language in their daily life but only in the English class or do the examination or have the competition that they must use English or other language. So they do not attend to study or remember foreign language like English.

The important thing for the students is how to remember the words so they must like to speak, read and write the words or sentences and sometimes sing the songs. They just do that every day like their routine not only in the English period they learn but they can do in the free time. In my opinion, the last thing that the English teacher must do is how to make the students feel good or comfortable with the good atmosphere in learning English and love to learn English with their pleasure and have happiness, too.

References

Arnold Zwicky. “Starting out on the wrong foot”. Language Log. http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=75. Retrieved 2008-11-01. Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary.

Heather Macfadyen. University of Ottawa Canada’ University. www.aets.uottawa.ca

Heather Marie Kosur. The grammatical Noun Phrase Modifier in English. 2009 “Term: Noun Phrases”. UsingEnglish.com http://www.usingenglish.com/grossary/noun-phrase.html. Retrieved 2008-11-01.

The American HeritageA® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. Third Edition. Copyright A© 2005 by Houghton Miffin Company. All right reserved.

http://www.brighthub.com/education/language/articles/32754.

http://ict.moph.go.th/English/content/noun01.htm

http://www.iscribe.org/english/noun.html

http://www.towson.edu/ows/noun.htm

Our lesson this morning from John’s gospel concerns this idea of integrity. The butcher in our story probably turned many different shades of red when the lady asked him for both of the chickens since he had only one. He wasn’t being too honest with her, he wasn’t being too nice, and now he was caught in his lack of honesty. Jesus is not talking about butchers this morning, but he is telling the people a parable about a good shepherd, a shepherd who was honest, caring, compassionate, and will to die to take care of his sheep. Jesus is telling us something about himself, as he is the good shepherd for our lives.

He is telling us through this parable three things about himself as the good shepherd.

Jesus uses this parable about shepherds because the people in his day knew the kind of life that a shepherd lived; it was a difficult life, a hard life. A shepherd felt he had a calling from a young age to tend sheep, so he spent his whole young life learning how to care for the sheep, then the rest of his adult life tending the sheep, fighting off the animals who would eat the sheep, and sometimes fighting off robbers who would steal the sheep.

It was a lonely life, a difficult life, but if a shepherd did his job well everyone would know that he was a good shepherd. Jesus uses what the people would understand, a parable about shepherds to tell us something about himself, that he is the good shepherd of our lives.

But before we see what is good about the good shepherd, we need to look at this word good In the Greek language, which was the language the New Testament was written.

There are two words that can be translated into our English word good, the first agathose which implies a moral and efficient quality about a person. A person is good because they can perform their signed task well.

But there is another word that also means good and. it is kalos, it not only means what the other did, but it adds the quality of loveliness, or attractiveness to it. It is the kind of goodness that makes us feel wanted and secure.

Jesus as the good shepherd or as one translation puts it the model shepherd brings to the job the strength and courage of an earthly shepherd, but also the qualities of beauty and kindness which helps us to call him friend.

Now that we have laid the foundation for Jesus being the Good shepherd of our lives, the model shepherd, we can see what is so good about him why he is the “model shepherd”.

First Jesus says that the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A shepherd in Jesus day if he truly did his job with all of his being, and not just for the money would be willing and able to lay down his life for the sheep he was protecting.

Jesus is telling us, he was willing to lay down his life for us, his sheep. He wasn’t in it for the money or the glory, but Jesus would not flee when trouble came, he was willing to lay down his life, to sacrifice his life for us so that we night gain favour with the Father in heaven.

There was a pastor who once visited a sheep ranch and saw a very strange lamb. It looked as though it had 2 heads and 8 feet. He asked the rancher about it. The rancher explained that one of their sheep had a baby but the mother died. They tried to give the orphan sheep to another mother-sheep but when she smelled it, she rejected it. Then they skinned the dead sheep and put the skin on the live lamb. Now the mother-sheep accepted the lamb as her own and cared for it,

In a like manner, Jesus as the good shepherd died for us as the Lamb of God, and God accepts us because we are clothed with the Lamb’s robe of righteousness. Jesus was willing to lay down his life for us, so that we might have life, life with the Father and life for eternity. The good shepherd, who Jesus is, is willing to die for the sheep, so that the sheep can live. Jesus died for us freely so that we might life.

Notice Jesus says that he laid down his life freely, no one takes his life, but he was willing to give his life for us. Jesus loves us enough, cares about us enough to die for us. He could have used his power to get out of dying for us, but he chose to struggle, to die, so that we might live. This is a powerful statement of the love, the mercy, the compassion, and the caring that Jesus our saviour has for each of us.Next Jesus says that the good shepherd knows his sheep. Knows his sheep by name.

A young lady came to her pastor’s office trouble about this statement, “How does Jesus know and is interest, in her personally. She asked, “How can I believe that God is interested in what happens to me?”

The pastor replied, “Look at your fingers. There are billions of finger tips in the world, but no others are like yours. Even your finger tips have had special attention from God.”

Yes, we are special; God does care for each of us. This morning when you come to the table to eat and to drink, you are receiving a special invitation from God to partake in this meal, in a personal and individual way we come in physical contact with Jesus through his body and blood.

God knows that we need this special time, this physical relationship with him to reassure us, to convince us, that he does love us, that he does care for us, and that he is interested in us as individual people.

We are collectively God’s children, we collectively are the sheep of Jesus’ fold, hut individually we are also God’s children, and individually the sheep of Jesus’ fold. And as individuals, he is concerned about us, he cares about us, he reaches his hand of grace individually into each of our lives.

Each of us, all of us are unique people, who are special to God. We are special not because we are good, or righteous, or have somehow pleased God, but because God loves us as we are or in some ways in spite of what we are God still loves us. He showed us that by the sacrifice he had his son make on the cross for us. God is concerned about us from the hairs on our heads to the blisters on our toes. God through his good shepherd, Jesus Christ, loves us, cares about us, and wants his gracious will of love to be done in each of our lives.

Finally as the good shepherd, Jesus tells us he gathers together his sheep into a fold. Jesus is telling us through his spirit he gathers us who belong to him. It is the work of the spirit to gather us together as the members of the body of Christ. It is the work of the spirit, to gather the body once a week to worship and praise God.

Jesus knows this time we spend together once a week is very important for our spiritual lives. It is during this time that we hear again the promises that God has made for us, it is here that we relive the life that Jesus lived on this earth. It is here that we encounter again and again the great love that God has for us. It is important that we come here often to be refreshed, to be renewed, to hear again about our God and the great love he has for us.

As the good shepherd, Jesus says that it is important for him to gather the sheep together into a fold, but notice he doesn’t stop with just the sheep that are immediately at hand, no he says that other sheep must be brought into this fold. The fold of sheep, the church, is always changing, growing, adding and loosing members. The fold is not a constant place, but it is an alive place, a place where things happen, where changes are made, where people grow in faith, where people meet new people of faith, who help us to understand God’s love.

The fold, or the church, is an ever changing, alive, growing place. It is the place where Jesus, through his spirit is alive. It is the place where we can encounter God through his spirit because he promises to be here with us as we gather in his name. God is here with us this morning, his spirit is here leading us in our worship of him.

And as we leave to go back out to world God’s spirit will go with us, helping us with life, giving us direction giving us courage, giving us his peace to cope with all the brokenness of life. Yes, the good shepherd gathers his sheep together in a fold, in the church, ch, because here, we are cared for, here te are feed, here we can learn from each other about faith, here we can help one another as we face all the difficulties-of life.

Being in the fold, the church is important for the members.

NOTICE ONE OTHER THING Jesus says about being in the fold. He says that as he calls sheep to the fold they will heed his voice.

They will listen to him. When we come to the fold, we come to listen to the voice of Jesus. We come to hear him, we come to encounter him. And notice Jesus says those of the fold will heed… his voice. They will listen to him. Jesus is saying something here about responsibility, about our job as members of the fold, as members of the church. We are to listen to him. To obey what he says.

Yes, Jesus is the good shepherd of our lives. He laid down his live freely for us, he knows each of us personally because we are important to him, and he gathers us together in his fold, the church, so that we might listen to him.

Yes, Jesus is the good shepherd, the one who leads us down the pathway of life. He is our guide, he is our companion, he is the one who will take care of us. Jesus is our good shepherd; he is the one who loves us.

Tense and aspect are the most important grammatical categories for expressing time and temporal relations in English. For me, I will share my experience Now I am an English teacher at Udonthani Vocational College. I teach many English courses such as English for communication 2 , English Conversation , Business English .In each course I have taught 4 language skills such as listening skill, writing skill, speaking skill and reading skill. Students must learn every language skills because English is very important . If you want to communicate English very well you must practice 4 language skills. According to the topic “28 Tense and aspect” They are very necessary in teaching grammar. Students must learn how to use tense and aspect. I will teach every English course but I don’t teach them all at the same time. The aim of teaching tense and aspect is to study various linguistic approaches to the description of tense and aspect in English Moreover the course description will be the focus of the ways of expressing present, past, future time. Now I will explain you some English course that I teach in this semester. Before start teaching I will study the course discription from the Vocational Education Commission curriculum. After that I will construc the course syllabus follow the the curriculum. I do the course outline by myself. Then I will study the content and provide the lesson which related the course description from many textbooks. I choose some content and combine to one book. For example I teach English for Conversation 2 (2000-1202) for the first year student in accounting field. I teach 18 Weeks in each semester. I must plan my teaching 9 units (1 unit per 2 week) I will choose some tense and aspect to teach in each unit . In unit one I taught about family . I will choose Present Tense of verb to be and verb to do. Students must know the structure of Tense . How or when to use it? How to make Wh-question. In unit 2 I taught about keeping a diary. Students must know and understand Past Simple Tense. They can tell the story in the past . The most important thing before to teach teacher must prepare their teaching and lesson plan . Teacher must improve teaching method and strategies The teachers must know the meaning of tense and aspect and also had understanding .I will show you the content as follow:

What is Tense?

The Definition of Tense (noun) : a form of a verb used to indicate the time . Tense is a method that we use in English to refer to time. There are three main principle of tenses . They are past tense , present tense and future tense. I will explain the meaning of each Tense. First, Present Tense verb show something is happening right now or at the present time. Second, Past tense verbs which tell about actions which happened some time ago are past tense verbs . Third, Future tense mean verbs which tell about actions which are going to happen are future tense verbs. Many languages use tenses to talk about time. Other language have no tenses, but of course they can still talk about time, using different methods. I will talk about time in English with tense. For example:

– Jirapon goes to temple. ( Present Tense)

– Udom went to school yesterday ( Past Tense)

– Suki will go to school tomorrow ( Future Tense)

What is aspect?

Aspect expresses a feature of the action related to time such as completion rod duration. Present simple and past simple tenses have no aspect. Aspect always include Perfect Tenses and Progressive or continuous Tense .For example:

Perfective aspect ( be+ ing)

My parents have lived in Udon Thani since last October.
I have studied English since last year.

Progressive aspect ( have+ past participle)

They are reading newspaper in the room.
David is washing his car at home.

There are many words that are time clues; some can be used to indicate a number of tenses, for instance that something happened in the past or that it will happen in the future. If you learn to recognize these time clues, you will find them very helpful. Note that some time clues can be used with more than one verb tense and also that this table is not a complete listing of all the time clues that can be used with all of the tenses

Lesson Plan

Subject: English For Communication 2 Level: Certificate 1 Instructor : Mrs. Sutida Intawai

Objectives : Students will be able to:

1.to inductively review both struture and names of basic tenses

Content:

Vocabulary : Food, nationalities, dates and time, restaurants

Structures :
Present simple tense
Present continuous tense
Present perfect tense
Present perfect continuous tense
Past simple tense
Past continuous tense
Past perfect tense
Past perfect continuous tense
Future simple tense
Future continuous tense
Future perfect tense
Future perfect continuous tense

Functions : 1. Talking about Tense and aspect

Teaching procedures /Activities:
Warm up / Lead in :

1. The teacher greets students and tell them that they are going to learn about outline goals for today’s class.

Presentation:

1.Teacher presents the charts of structure of tense and aspect .Let them guess the kind of tense and aspect.

Practice:
Teacher divide students into groups of 2 to 4
Have students take personal information quiz in groups
Check answers as a class, ask students to quickly speak about what they have learned about their fellow students
Production:
Have groups identify tense names used in question
Give auxiliary verb exercise to students to be done individually
Correct auxiliary exercise in class
Wrap up:
Teacher and students discuss and summarize about this unit together.
Teacher suggests students for further study by searching for more information from other resources for example, internet , library , newspaper and Self Access Learning Center in the college.
Teaching aids/materials:
Chart
Authentic material; newspaper , food menu
Textbook
Evaluation and measurement:
Observing the participation in class
Correcting the exercises
Personal note:
Language Points:
Affirmative Sentence:

Present Simple (I do, work, like etc.)

She works in the office. They talk about their project.

Subject Verb

I / We / You /They work talk use play watch do

He / She / It works talks uses plays watches does

Example: I live in Nakonnayok but my sister lives in Prachinburi.

( We use the present simple for things that are true in general, or for things that happen sometimes or all the times)

– I walk to school. – The museum open at 09.00 a.m. and closes at 05.30 p.m.

– Suda goes to work in the morning.

– He does everything that she asks.

(We use the present simple with always/ never/ often / usually / sometimes)

– We always travel by train. – I often try to fix my computer.

– He washes his car every weekend.

– She usually carries her note book computer to work.

Negative Sentences: Pattern: I don’t + verb (present simple negative)

Example: Santa doesn’t come. The racing car doesn’t slow.

Subject Auxiliary Verb + not Verb

I / You / We / They don’ t work

He / She / It doesn’t work

– I drink coffee but I don’t drink tea.

– The children don’t play in the park.

– Mary doesn’t go to the library.

– She drinks tea but she doesn’t drink coffee.

Question Sentence: Pattern: Do you….. (Present simple question)….?

Example: Do they work? Does she work?

Auxiliary Verb Subject Verb +?

Do I /we / you / they work?

Does He / she/ it work?

– Do you smoke? No, I don’t.

– Do they speak English? Yes, they do.

– Does she work hard? Yes, she does

– Does your brother live in Bangkok? No, he does.

Worksheet 1
Personal Information Quiz

1. When did you last see a film?

2. How many times have you been abroad?

3. What type of books do you like reading?

4. When were you born?

5. How long have you been learning English?

6. What will the weather be like tomorrow?

7. What were you doing at 7 o’clock yesterday evening?

8. What are your parents doing?

9. Where are your classes taught?

10. What are you going to do after this course finishes?

What are the names of the tenses used in the above question?

1. Present simple tense

2. Present continuous tense

3. Present perfect tense

4. Present perfect continuous tense

5. Past simple tense

6. Past continuous tense

7. Past perfect tense

8 Past perfect continuous tense

9. Future simple tense

10. Future continuous tense

11. Future perfect tense

12. Future perfect continuous tense

From http://esl.about.com

Worksheet 2

Complete the table using examples from the text in activity B1

Worksheet 3

Match the verb forms (1-6) with their main concepts (a-f)

Worksheet 4
Writing : Simple present Tense

In conclusion, Tense and aspect are still problem for Thai learners. There are many error when do they speak and confuse because they speak English similar Thai speaking. They have many problems such as word order and use tense mistake. For example:

– I am not enjoy this film. Let’s leave.

– What do you eating now?

etc.

So the teacher of English should develop their teaching and try to teach students learning by doing. Students will gain English language skill especially Tense and aspect from teacher as well.

Reference

Heather Jones & Ken Method Fast track 1 A communication Course

in Everyday English ( 20001201) Educated Co.,Ltd. 2003

Tawee Omak .English for communication 2 ( 2000-1202) Aimphan Press

Co.,Ltd. 2009

Tricia Hedge Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom .

Oxford University press.2008

http://esl.about.com

www.athabascau.cea

Teaching exam classes

Getting students to participate in writing activities in class can be an arduous task. However, our best efforts as teachers to make the prospect of writing a fun and collaborative activity, it is often met with groans of reluctance. Often, students have had negative experiences of writing in the language classroom in the past, perhaps they see it as a waste of class-time, which could be better spent practicing their oral skills, or perhaps they simply find writing a difficult and laborious task even in their first language. Whatever the reason, getting adult students motivated to write in class can be tough.

However, for teachers it can be very useful to monitor students writing in class. They are at hand to answer any language difficulties, give advice on how to structure sentences in a more natural way, provide vocabulary that students are lacking and generally be available to deal with individual needs as well as noting common problem areas. This is of great benefit to students too of course, much more so than receiving a marked piece of written homework covered in red pen.

Exam writing

Students who are studying for exams do tend to be slightly more motivated when it comes to writing in class but still often prefer to do the actual task for homework. The following activity ideas are ways in which we can teach the nuts and bolts of academic writing in an analytical way, illustrating a step-by-step approach that will hopefully show students the value of writing in the classroom without the pressure of simply being told to put pen to paper.

Each of the seven activities focuses on specific areas of writing, such as planning, layout, content, etc. However, the activities are fairly general and could be easily adapted to suit most task types that exam candidates are required to do, such as writing a formal letter or an article.

In this activity students get a good idea of what examiners are looking for and learn how to avoid making common mistakes while also picking up tips on good examples of language.

Students look at 2-4 model texts ranging in level from a fail to a strong pass. Real candidate answers are ideal if you get them.

Students note the good and bad points about each answer and write comments under headings such as layout, organization, content, style and accuracy. Students share their comments with each other before looking at the real examiner’s comments if you have them.

Here, students are made aware of differences in register and appropriacy of language, while building up a stock of suitable phrases they can use in formal letters.

Students receive a formal letter which has several phrases written in the wrong register, i.e. informal/slang.

Students identify which phrases they think are unsuitable for a formal letter and underline them.

Then, they try and rewrite the phrases using a more formal style of language.

Finally, students choose the correct answers from a list provided.

You can make this activity more communicative by dividing the class into two groups and giving each group a different letter to work on. When they have rewritten their phrases they pair up with a student from the other group who has the answers for their letter and compare answers.

How to teach an FCE class

The First Certificate in English (FCE), administered by UCLES, is a general English examination for upper intermediate learners. Teaching an exam class for the first time can be daunting but experienced teachers tend to agree on the following advice.

The first task will be getting to grips with the exam specifications. I need to be familiar with each of the five papers, which are Reading, Writing, Use of English, Listening and Speaking, ideally before student begin in first class. The Exams Officer in my school should have a copy of the FCE Handbook, which explains exactly what skills and language knowledge my students need to have before they take the exam, as well as providing a sample paper.

Be aware of issues like learner motivation and classroom morale. Learners in exam classes tend to be more goal oriented that those in a general English class. Remember that students will have to pay a fee to sit the FCE as well as for the preparation course, the advantage of which is that having invested in an exam course then the average FCE student tends to be highly motivated to succeed. However, motivation and high morale can be very fragile things.

If my students need to be familiar with the exam conditions and requirements, and regular timed practice under exam conditions will help them get used to exam rubrics, different question formats, time restraints, doing tasks efficiently and filling in the answer sheets correctly. Don’t be afraid to share information with your students by explaining, for example, the marking criteria for assessing their writing tasks.

Be explicit about the value of classroom activities. As well as having high expectations , I may find that my students have quite definite ideas about what an exam class should be like. A student may try to undermine by saying that discussion activities, for example, are a waste of time in an exam preparation class and that time should be spent doing grammar exercises or practice tests. However, this situation is less likely to happen if I explain at the outset that pair and group work activities are invaluable for the Speaking paper, in which candidates are examined in pairs and their ability to interact with a partner is assessed.

Try to instill good study habits from the start. What my students do outside the exam classroom is just as vital in preparing for the exam. Use tutorial time to help individuals identify their strengths and weaknesses in each paper and to structure their homework/self-directed learning accordingly. Often, the most successful learners are those who keep good records of their learning. Encourage learners to keep a vocabulary notebook, organized in a way that is meaningful to them.

Types of exams and exam questions

There are many types of exam questions used at university and need to prepare for different types of questions in different ways. To prepare well for exams should enquire about the nature, length and value of each exam so that can allow adequate time and effort for preparation. Check assessment details in course materials and with teaching staff. May find it useful to record for each exam so that clear about what the exam will cover and when and where it will be held. This information will help guide preparation for the exam.

Some different types of exams questions, with a brief description, are listed below. For each type, use the link to additional suggestions relating to this type of question, how can best prepare for it and practical strategies for answering the question:

Multiple choice questions offer a range of choices from which select the most appropriate response.
Short answer questions require answers of up to a paragraph. The nature of the questions may vary. Some questions may test you recall of information, others may test ability to apply concepts to new situations.
Essay question require you to write an essay type response to a topic. Essay questions may be arranged in sections in the exam paper which reflect different sections of the course.
Open book questions allow to bring and use reference materials in the exam room.
Take home questions are questions that are given to take away and complete and then return within a specified time e.g. 24 hours.
Oral questions are used to test oral language skills. Typically they are taken individually.
Practical questions test practical skills and techniquesusually in laboratory, clinical or field settings.

There are differences in the learning need to do for different types of questions. I previous experience of exams may mean that I have developed very good approaches for some types of questions but not for others.

If I tackling new types of questions, find out about my student lecturer’s expectations as well as the exam requirements. The timing and duration of my preparation will be determined by a number of factors. For example, if my exam is worth a high proportion of the overall grade, I would be wise to prepare throughout the semester. If it’s worth a small percentage of the grade I may decide to study intensely in last few weeks, but I’ll need to lay the groundwork for that study in the way I take notes and file my work throughout the semester.

Exam Materials
Responsible for what you leave outside the exam venue.
There will be no bag drop at exam venue.
Bags left outside the exam venue are left at the owner’s risk and are not the responsibility of the University.
Responsible for what you bring into an exam.
Bring only what you need for the exam, especially your student card.
Cheating includes introducing into an exam venue any book, note, document, or instrument which is not authorized by the examiner or the examinations officer.
The consequences are severe.
About on-line learning

We believe that distance learning works best when it captures, as far as possible, the dynamics of face to face learning, even when that means less flexibility (see below). A sense of isolation can cause people to drop out of distance learning courses. Our Distance/On-line Teaching Exam Classes Courses have the following key features, which ensure motivation remains high.

Variety of ways of learning

Through our virtual learning environment you will use the internet to communicate with tutors and fellow course members, access materials and complete learning tasks.

Interaction

Our virtual learning environment (VLE) allows you to communicate individually and collectively with tutors and other course members, both for social and study purposes. You will be assigned individual, group and pair tasks, as in a “real” classroom with the difference that, instead of all working at the same time you can log on and off and contribute at times which are convenient to you. You may, on a few occasions, be required to log on at the same time as other course members for “lessons”, “conferences” or “chats” in the virtual classroom.

A real class of fellow students

In many distance courses, learners start and finish courses at any time of the year and join an infinite number of other distance learners at various stages of their course. Our courses have start and finish dates and a defined group of participants, just like our face-to-face courses. You will have tasks and deadlines to keep and be expected to maintain an appropriate rhythm. In other words, flexibility is limited in order to maintain motivation.

Learning how to learn on-line

As well as learning about teaching and language you will have the opportunity to experience and reflect on the nature of on-line learning itself.

Ease of use

You will find it easy to use the virtual learning environment, even if you are relatively unfamiliar with this kind of learning and there will be plenty of support and guidance from tutors to deal with any queries and make sure you are on track.

upload and download course information and material
access materials on and off-line
participate in live and non-synchronised discussions
send work to tutors and receive feedback
communicate with tutors and other members of the class individually and as a group.
interact in ways similar to a real classroom with the advantage of being able to access it at times convenient to you.

We use style/messenger or telephone for personal tutorials. You will need to have regular access to a computer with internet connection, but won’t need to spend huge amounts of time actually on line.

We recommend you install style if you don’t have it already to take advantage of cost free calls to tutors.

Conclusion

All of the activities are intended to facilitate each stage of the writing process, from planning a first draft to editing the final answer. By analysis both good and bad model texts, students are made aware of what examiners are looking for and can learn to avoid common errors.

Overall, this very guided approach to exam writing should make students feel more confident about attempting writing tasks.

Introduction to the Students and Teaching Environment.

I am currently a Lecturer in the Communications Electronics Technical Block (CETB) at Royal Air Force (RAF) Cosford, The No1 School of Technical Training. I am teaching new entry students AC (Air Craft’s man),course number 1932 and SAC (Senior Air Craft’s man) course numbers 1946 and 1951. The students age range is 17 – 30 years. I am responsible for delivering training in the subject areas Micro Electronics, Digital Electronics and Information Technology.

The courses range from 90 to 130 hours.

SAC’s 194616 hours Information technology and 115 hours Computer technology for the.
AC’s 1932.16 hours Information technology and 74 hours Micro Electronics for the

The students who come to RAF Cosford are not typical of those who would go to a college of further education. They are sent by the RAF for either initial or further training in their specialisation.

The learning environment

The room layouts do vary however the majority of rooms are set out in a traditional manor. (see plan)

The labs are arranged differently with the student’s desks arranged around the walls.

E.g.(Room F008)

The class rooms have a roller White board, P.C. and T.V. monitor, some class rooms have windows to the outside but not all. Lighting is via fluorescent tubes and heating is via radiators.

The learning environment cont.

The laboratory’s have a White board, P.C. and LCD projector. Most have opening windows. Lighting is via fluorescent tubes and heating is via radiators. The desk is set out with a PC and Digiac workstation, a 6502 and 80286i microprocessor boards, in addition there are a collection of supporting boards.

Teaching Styles and Learning Strategies.
Teacher Talk

A large part of the course is via teacher talk, this allows for large chunks of information to be covered in a much shorter space of time. The reason this method is chosen is due to the shear pace at which the course has to be delivered. The course is equivalent to a BTec Electronics course, taking approximately two years at a college of further education, however the RAF students have to cover nearly the same amount of material in just six months. Teacher talk is not the best method of imparting information to students as they can very quickly lose interest and it is difficult to assess how much information the students have taken in. To alleviate this situation the teacher talk is broken up with questioning secessions. The questioning secessions help the teacher to assess if the students have understood if learning has taken place, this also gives the students an opportunity to play an active role in the learning process. These methods promote individual involvement, encouragement, reward and a sense of achievement to students of all abilities

The questions are directed by the teacher, nominating a student to answer, this is known as; “Pose Pause Pounce” this technique is used throughout RAF’s training and is one of the main tools used to promote learning. The teacher talk is also begun with a recap of the previous session, sometimes the recap will be at the end of the lesson. This re affirms the students understood. The level of knowledge can be assessed, allowing the teacher to continue knowing that the students understand.

Reading

The students are given course notes in a printed form showing both pictures and diagrams as well as explanations. These notes form the back bone of the course material. They contain the Aims and Objectives for that section of the course, Information relevant to the course and a summary of the books main points. The book can be used as a reference to during the teacher talk. It can be used to illustrate a point, show other examples and reduce the amount of complex diagrams that need to be drawn on the white board.

In addition the book has a separate set of questions which the students are encourage to read. When they have read the book they can answer the questions, this promotes further reading.

If they do not understand or cannot answer the questions then this should promote them to ask the teacher for further explanation. The questions are designed to reinforce the theory taught in class and promote greater understanding of the subject.

Practice by Doing.

The first thirty hours or so of the course are mainly teacher talk, reading and working though examples on the white board, however once the under lying terminology and theories have been taught the emphasis of the learning style changes dramatically. The location of the teaching now moves to the laboratory where the students are given a brief introduction to an exercise, they then work through the exercise at their own pace and in their own way using their knowledge.

The students follow the exercise answering questions as they go. The questions are designed to point the students in the write direction, if however they are unable to proceed, the teacher is close at hand to guided them, this is achieved by question the student and trying to get them to identify the solution for themselves. If the teacher identifies that the class as a whole do not understand then they can bring the class back together to solve the problem. The teacher may need to give further guidance to the students to allow them to complete the exercise.

This process is learning by doing and in completing the exercise the student will hopefully be able to relate this experience to the theory section of the course thus underpinning their theoretical knowledge with practical experience.

Demonstration

This method of teaching can be used during the theory stage. The teacher could show real components to allow the students to become more familiar with them, seeing what they look like or by working through examples of how to perform a specific task.

Demonstration can also be effectively used during the exercise phase of the course. This is very useful when trying to impart complex information to the students. An example might be when an exercise requires additional circuit boards to be used or components that have not yet been used.

In these situations a demonstration of the exercise can be given by the teacher. This will allow the teacher to identify any areas of special interest and point out any areas that the students might otherwise miss or perhaps not think about.

In addition it is by far the best way for the teacher to show how things are to be accomplished.

i.e. showing how to connect up a system, what parts are required etc. The demonstration also allows the students to question the teacher about parts of the exercise they do not understand. The student can say “so you mean this >>>>> ” ; the teacher can then be sure that the students fully understand what is required.

Visual

Visual methods of teaching are available, though the preferred method is power point which the students despise and therefore is not used frequently by myself. However it can be a very useful tool for explaining difficult subject material, particularly when the diagram requires motion i.e. information been transferred around a computer system. This would be very difficult to illustrate on the white board as the teacher would need to continually re draw the diagram to show the movement, however using power point allows animation of the drawing which the students can see, thus reinforcing the idea. It can also be re run to allow the students to follow the process until they are confident that they understand. Questioning can be used to check the understanding. The teacher can run the PowerPoint and ask the students to tell him what is happening and why.

Alternative Methods of Teaching and Learning Strategies.
Discussion

This method is not very appropriate as the subject is technical and requires some under pinning knowledge. Opinions are not normally expressed as the material is factual. However this method could be used at the end of an exercise or at the end of the course. Infact the course does use this method is used to evaluate the feelings of the students and considers any recommendations that they may make as a class. However the course must run in a clearly define way as laid down by the sponsor he Ministry of Defence.(MOD RAF)

Teaching others

Teaching others is not generally used as the students would be required to fully understand the subject before they could teach someone else. As it is most likely the first time they have seen this subject material it would be difficult for them the explain it to a colleague. Although a similar technique is used by the teacher when they ask the student to explain how something works, this method of telling the teacher shows that the student understands fully, also any omissions or errors can be corrected by the teacher.

Choice of methods

Teacher talk The main reason for using this technique is to cover a large amount of theory over a very short time, a lot of information must be imparted very quickly. This method does not have a good retention rate approximately 5% however when coupled with questioning technique, and a recap of the subject at the end or prior to the starting the next section, it improves the retention as well as checking the students understanding.

Reading As with Teacher Talk the students are expected to cover a large quantity of information very quickly. However this method has a poor retention rate approximately 10%, but when coupled with questions for each book it reinforces the knowledge, this can then be checked during a class session. This method is used due to the short time available, students are expected to read the material they cover in class as part of their learning process. This is done during there own time i.e. out of class hours. The questions should identify to the student whether or not they understand, thus prompting them to request addition information or clarification from the teacher at the beginning of the next lesson.

Practice by doing This method is much better with approximately 75% retention rate. It is used due to the practical nature of the job (hands on). However it can only be used after the under pinning knowledge has been taught and understood. The students can apply the knowledge they have learnt to the practical exercise. The other reason for using this method is due to the nature of the subject. Example It is impossible to show the students the internal workings of a micro processor , therefore the operation is illustrated by performing tasks with the micro processor to prove that it functions in a particular way. The students have to relate this to the theorectial phase of the course, in doing so they should fully understand the operation of the Micro Processor.

Demonstration This method has a reasonable retention rate around 30%. It is used to show the more complex aspects of the course, “a picture paints a thousand words”. The teacher can use this method to impart complex instructions to the students, the students can ask the teacher questions confirming their understanding, checking and correcting as they go.

Visual This method has a retention rate of around 20%. This method is tied up with demonstration as the students will be watching the teacher perform a task. Learning how to perform the task requires knowledge, understanding and the skills to complete that task. The visual method is instant feed back to the student, they can see how a task is accomplished. This is an important method of teaching as their job will involve watching someone perform a task and them doing the task for themselves to the required standard.

Summary

The various methods of teaching are effective, the reason for this assumption is that the majority of students go on to the next phase of their training, and eventually into a post within the RAF. In addition I have spoken to students that I have taught who have remarked on the course and its content, most all of them say it was a very good grounding for their trade training.