Effect Of Authentic Listening Materials English Language Essay

Effect Of Authentic Listening Materials English Language Essay This article is about the role of authentic listening material on students motivation and how it helps them in improving their learning. Many researchers have studied about the authentic materials. They advocate the use of authentic material and have different point of views, but they agree upon one idea: exposure, exposure to real language and real life, in other words, the advantage students get from being exposed to the language in authentic materials. The authentic materials should be used with the students level of knowledge and the students should be aided by their teachers to deal with the difficulties they face. I Introduction There are some definitions regarding listening. According to definition by Oxford (1993, p. 206), listening is a complex problem solving skill and it is more than just perception of the sounds. Listening includes comprehension of meaning words, phrases, clauses, sentences, and connected discourse. In another definition by Oxford dictionary, listening is defined as make an effort to hear something; listen to the radio, listen for the bell, to pay attention, heed. Listening skill is a significant function in foreign language learning. Among the skills, listening is the important one. Furthermore, according to Saricoban (1999), considers listening as one of the fundamental language skills. It is a medium through which children, young people and adults gain a large portion of their information, their understanding of the world and of human affairs, their ideals, sense of values, and their appreciation. Rivers (1978) believes that listening is a creative skill. It means we comprehend the sound falling on our ears, and take the raw material of words, arrangements of words, and the rise and fall the voice, and from this material we create significance. He also states that listening skill is listening with comprehension, attention and appreciation. Then, listening activity needs to integrate skills of language, such as pronunciation, vocabulary mastery, writing, speaking, and reading. According to Rivers listening skill should be integrated with other skills. So in this case it includes not only the listening activity itself but also writing , speaking, and so on. There are some problems regarding listening that Underwood (1990) mentions some kinds of them in listening that are directly related to the students themselves. One of the problems is based on the fact that students have established learning habits in the sense that they have been encouraged to understand everything by listening carefully to teachers who probably speak slowly and clearly. Hence, when they fail to understand every word while listening, they stop listening and lose the thread, which seems to be the reason for the state of panic and worrying they usually show before and during listening. In relation to those problems, we cannot deny that students motivation plays important role in learning listening. As mentioned in Brown (2006), another theme will be motivation. I believe that listening and motivation are interrelated and influence each other . Because listening is so challenging, teachers need to think carefully about making the activities successful and the content interesting. We can create interesting and motivating activities when listening such as using English songs. Thus, the students will be stimulated and not be frightened or worried when they are practicing listening. There have always been a lot of disputes over the effect of listening in foreign language learning. Some believe that listening should be regarded as an essential element of foreign language proficiency, and as such plays an important role in foreign language programs. Other claim that there must be a strong relationship between listening materials and EFL students motivation. As a matter of fact, student motivation is an essential element that is necessary for quality of education. How do we know when students are motivated? They pay attention, they begin working on tasks immediately, they ask questions and volunteer answers, and they appear to be happy and eager. (Palmer, 2007). This article describes a classroom research project to investigate whether listening materials increase the classroom motivation of learners, a claim often made but rarely, if ever, tested. But before getting started to describe the impact of listening materials we should take into consideration that what kind of listening materials do we mean? Are they authentic materials i.e. (what native speakers produce and write) or non-authentic ones (by which I mean materials produced specifically for language learners, e.g. exercises found in course books and supplementary materials). Many writers claim that authentic listening materials motivate learners because they are intrinsically more interesting or stimulating than artificial or non-authentic materials . Proponents of this view include Little and Singleton (1991:124), Freeman and Holden (1986: 67); Allwright(1979: 179); who refer to this as the classic argument; Little, Devitt, andSingleton (1989: 26) , who add that authentic texts bring learners closer to the target language culture, making learning more enjoyable andtherefore move motivating; King (1990: 70), and Bacon and Finnemann (1990: 459-60), Swaffar (1985: 18),. Far fewer authors maintain that authentic materials reduce learner motivation because they are too difficult: Morrison (1989: 15),Freeman and Holden (1986: 68), and Williams (1983: 187; 1984: 26),. Despite the fact that authentic listening resources are often seen as having the potential to motivate learners, Rost (2002) points out that some teachers believe authentic material is too difficult for the students to handle1(p. 125). Anderson and Lynch (1988) stress, encourage passive and unsuccessful listening habits where the learners equate listening with sitting back and letting a largely meaningless sequence of sound wash over them (p. 45). Such a view reflects a general concern, no doubt influenced to some extent by Krashens (1981) input hypothesis, to ensure that task difficulty be set at an appropriate level. After all, most teachers would want to avoid possibly demoralizing learners with input too far beyond their. Apart from being dispiriting, exposing learners to incomprehensible listening materials can, linguistic competence II Literature review Motivation DÃÆ'-rnyei believes that motivation is one of the most elusive concepts in applied linguistics and indeed in educational psychology in general.(DÃÆ'-rnyei, 1999, p. 525). he thinks that motivation is hard to grasp and is one of the central problems in educational psychology. A review of the mainstream psychology literature shows the difficulty of the concept of motivation along with the difficulty to conceptualize it. This difficulty in defining motivation is represented, on the one hand, by the several definitions of motivation, 1 and on the other, by the abundance of theories of motivation which are associated with different psychological perspectives on human behavior. In spite of the conceptual distinctions, however, most researchers agree that motivation is related to persons choice of a particular action, persistence with it, and effort expended on it. As Oxford and Ehrman maintain: The external or behavioral features of motivation include decision-making, persistence, and ac tivity level. The learner decides to choose, to pay attention, to engage in one activity but not others; the learner persists over an extended time. . ..and the learner maintains high activity level (Oxford and Ehrman, 1993, p.190). 2 These features of the motivated behavior are inbuilt in definitions given by mainstream psychology, as well as FLL literature on motivation. More recently, motivation is a process whereby a certain amount of instigation force arises, initiates action, and persists as long as no other force comes into play to weaken it and thereby terminate action, or until the planned outcome has been reached (DÃÆ'-rnyei, 1998, p. 118). In mainstream psychology, motivation is defined as the process whereby goal-directed activity is instigated and sustained (Pintrich and Schunk, 1996, p. 4). In the FLL field, when in the early 1990s the motivation agenda was reopened towards a more situated approach, as will be mentioned later, Crookes and Schmidt wrote . . .teachers would describe a student as motivated if he or she becomes productively involved in learning tasks, and sustains that engagement, without the need for continual acknowledgement or direction (Crookes and Schmidt, 1991, p. 480). As it is clear, in the above-mentioned definitions, (a) motivation is a process, (b) it involves goals which individuals have in mind and try to attain (or avoid), (c) it requires activity on the part of the individuals; the activities that students involve in are geared toward attaining their goal, and (d) motivated activity is both instigated and sustained. DÃÆ'-rnyei includes in his definition the phrase: . . . as long as no other force comes into play to lessen it and thereby finish action. . . which is also encompassed in Kuhls (Kuhl, 1987) control theory (again from mainstream psychology). Thus, DÃÆ'-rnyei s definition accommodates the possibility of the existence of factors which could intervene and weaken or terminate the persons action. The last parameter allows us to discuss the effects of the milieu (society/parents, school/ teachers) on learners motivation. In fact, the inclination to incorporate the impacts of contextual transactions (Paris and Turner, 1994) in the discussions of motivation, has recently become obvious. So we should agree with him because contextual factors are essential in improving motivation in learners. The need to discuss motivation as functioning in a social context, the classroom in particular, spurred the boom in research and theoretical postulations in the early 1990s. these discussions and findings have indicated that the interpretive power of the construct of integrativeness for motivation and accordingly, achievement in FLL to occur (Gardner, 1985) had been overestimated. The use of authentic materials has been widely supported and there is, as Guariento and Morley (2001) mention, a general consensus in language teaching (p. 347) that it makes use of the learning process. A principal merit proposed for presenting samples of genuine spoken interaction is that it exposes learners to those language properties that are often missing from concocted texts. As Willis (2003) warns, there is a serious danger that specifically designed texts will show the language not as it really is, but as the course writers imagine it to be or would like it to be (p. 224). Less apparent, perhaps, than the benefit from exposure to this real-world language, is the affective role of authentic resources. Peacock (1997) suggests that amongst language teachers there is a subjective impression that these resources confer a positive effect on learner motivation (p. 144). His study found an increase in on-task behavior and observed motivation when a variety of authentic materials were incorporated into language classes. An approach to motivation has been suggested by Peirce (1995, p. 17); she believes that investment would be a more appropriate term, signaling that learners invest in learning a second language in order to increase their cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1991). According to this view, the notion of investment . . . attempts to grab the relationship of the language learner to the changing social world (Peirce, 1995, p. 17). Further, rather than prioritizing acculturation to the L2 community, as many previous attitudes studies have done, the notion of investment focuses on the individuals self-identity as the locus of concern. 1.2. Beliefs about Listening The importance of listening in language learning has only been recognized relatively recently (Oxford 1993). Since the role of listening comprehension in language learning was taken for granted, it merited little research and pedagogical attention. Although listening played an important role in audio-lingual methods, students only listened to repeat and develop a better pronunciation (for speaking). Beginning in the early 70s, work by Asher, Postovsky, Winitz and, later, Krashen, brought attention to the role of listening as a tool for understanding and a key factor in facilitating language learning. Listening has emerged as an important component in the process of second language acquisition (Feyten, 1991). This research base provides support for the pre-eminence of listening comprehension in instructional methods, especially in the early stages of language learning. Listening comprehension has received considerable attention in the fields of applied linguistics, psycholinguistics and second language pedagogy during the last two decades (Anderson Lynch, 1988; Flowerdew 1994; Rost, 1990; Underwood, 1989; Ur, 1984). Results of the large body of research have shown that listening is not a passive process, in which the listener simply receives a spoken message, but rather a complex cognitive process, in which the listener constructs the meaning using both her linguistic and non-linguistic knowledge. The importance of the listeners cognitive and social judgments in the process of listening, in addition to the linguistic knowledge, has been especially emphasized (Rost, 1990). Some scholars believe that listening is an active process.in traditional view listening was regarded as a passive . Listening comprehension is viewed theoretically as an active process in which individuals focus on selected aspects of aural input, construct meaning from passages and relate what they hear to existing knowledge. III Conclusion In the light of these findings, I recommend that teachers of adult EFL to beginners try appropriate authentic listening materials in their classroom, as they may increase their learners levels of on-task behavior, concentration, and involvement in the target activity more than artificial materials. (It is possible to speculate that this would apply equally in intermediate advanced classes.) They may, however, reduce the levels of learner interest engendered by the materials used. It is important that materials selected for the classroom motivate learners, so one criterion for the selection of materials should be their effect on motivation. materials to be significantly less interesting than artificial materials. This stands in direct contrast to the large number of assertions listed above, to the effect that authentic materials are more motivating because they are intrinsically more interesting. These findings are a preliminary indication that this is not the case; learners were more motivated by authentic materials, but not because they were more interesting. These results also indicate that, at least for the learners who participated, interest in the materials in use is quite separate as a component of motivation from levels of attention or action and persistence with the learning task. For this reason it was not possible to say whether authentic materials motivated learners or not. None of the authors who assert that authentic materials motivate learners make this distinction between separate components of classroom motivation, I suggest that in classroom motivation research, treating these two as separate components of motivation would lead to a clearer understanding of the meaning of the construct motivation, and a more precise picture of the effects of different materials on learner behavior in the classroom. The generalizability of the results is limited by the small scale of the study and the level of the learners, who were all beginners. It could be argued that the topic (and to a lesser extent the activity based on the material, though these were similar every day) might have affected results. I was unable to control for their effects, being unable to reliably isolate and quantify their inherent motivational level. One indication that levels of class interest in the topic or activity did not significantly affect levels of motivation is the fact that after day 8 of the study, the use of authentic materials invariably resulted in higher levels of on-task behavior and overall class motivation. If a motivational level of the topic or activity was a major variable, this would almost certainly not have been the case. They may well remain as a minor variable. IV References Allwright, R. (1979). Language learning through c ommunication practice in C.J. Anderson, A., Lynch, T. (1988).Listening. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DÃ ¶rnyei, Z. (2001). Motivational strategies in the language classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Feyten, C., (1991). The power of listening ability: an overlooked dimension in language acquisition. Modern Language Journal 75 (2), 173-180. Freeman, D. and S. Holden. 1986. Authentic listening materials in S. Holden (ed.) Techniques of Teaching. London: Modern English Publications: 67-9. Kienbaum, B. E., A. J. Russell, and S. Welty.1986.Communicative Competence in Foreign Language Learning with Authentic Materials.Final Project Report.Purdue University,Calumet, Indiana.ERIC No.ED 275 200. Krashen, S. D. (1981). Second language acquisition and second language learning. Oxford: Pergamon. Little, D. and D. Singleton. 1991. Authentic texts,pedagogical grammar and language awarenessin foreign language learning in C. James and P. Garret (eds.). Language Awareness in the Classroom.London: Longman: 123-32. Peacock, M. (1997). The effect of authentic materials on the motivation of EFL learners.ELT Journal, 51 (2), 144-154. Rost, M. (2002). Teaching and researching listening. New York: Longman. Swaffar, J. K. (1985). Reading authentic texts in aforeign language: a cognitive model.ModernLanguage Journal 69/1: 15-34.

Religion Support And Education Essay -- essays research papers fc

Religion Support and Education As it stands, we are the transition stage. We have no structure, there is no black and white, we live in a clouded time. All questions are being answered again, because the past is no longer the present. No person knows if our corrections are correct, but they do know it is what the majority wants. The question which is rarely looked at, and that will be looked at in this paper, is the effects which this transition is having on society. This paper is going to attempt to reveal the results, of the removal of religious education and support. The literature involved is going to display the direct, and indirect effects, of not being brought up to believe a certain religion, but to choose your own, no matter what it is. The past beliefs on religious support and education are displayed in the words of Aristotle; "Moral virtues come from habit... The habits we form from childhood make no small difference, but rather they make all the difference." 1 Our society has decided that the habits referred to by Aristotle, do not matter, when involving religion. Statistics tend to show a different result than what our present society feels. This paper is dealing with several different valid sources, which mesh together to make a collective statement. This statement is that the lack of religious support is one of the main reasons why society and its morals are decreasing. World Vision of Canada has published as of November 1993 statistics dealing with the attendance of church and youth, which states; Canada's church attendance, in all denominations has decreased by twenty-five percent in adults and fifteen percent in youth. In Britain Adult attendance is down ten percent and youth attendance is down nine percent. In France the adult attendance is down thirteen percent, statistics for youth where not available. Australia's adult attendance has decreased twenty-seven percent, and the youth attendance was not available. The most considerable changes have occurred in the United States were fourty-one percent of the adult attendance has decreased, and thirty-five percent of the youth attendance has decreased. 2 These statistics display the implications of the removal of religious education ... ...r society is suffering. But- it states that the absence of religion in our society is a contributing factor. Because- religion promotes such values, as marriage and commitment, while disapproving of such things as suicide and abortion. BIBLIOGRAPHY Context. Mississauga, Ont: Marc Canada, 1993. FRC. (http://frc.org/townhall/frc/press/121995c.html). "Divorce Issues". 1995. FRC. (http://www.townhall.com/townhall/FRC/infocus/if95c4wl.html). "Abortion Statistics".1995. Korman, Sheila K and Leslie Gerald R. The Family In Social Context(Sixth Edition). Toronto, Ont: Oxford University Press, 1985. O' Bireck, Gary M. Not A Kid Anymore. Toronto, Ont: Nelson Canada, 1996. Waters, F. W. The Way In The Way Out. Toronto, Ont: Oxford University Press, 1967. ENDNOTES 1 Not A Kid Anymore. (Toronto; Nelson Canada, 1996) p.87. 2 Context. (Mississauga; Marc Canada, 1993) p. 32 3 Ibid. p. 47. 4 Ibid. p. 47. 5 Ibid. p. 52. 6 Ibid. p. 67. 7 Not A Kid Anymore. (Toronto; Nelson Canada, 1996) p.95. 8 Abortion Satistics. (http://www.townhall.com/townhall/frc/infocus/if95c4wl.html, 1995.) 9 Ibid. 10 Divorce Issues. (http://frc.org/townhall/frc/press/121995c.html, 1995.)

Character Education and Me Essay

After reviewing all of the materials for the course, I am convinced that character education is something that must have a presence in schools. Students of all grade levels can benefit from learning how to become civilized members of society. I agree with Lickona (1992) as far as the family being the first and foremost teacher of morals. As adults, we continue to reflect on our morals and virtues with hope of continually improving ourselves, especially when we become parents. I as well as many other new parents ran out to get a parenting manual to assist me in raising my children the best I could. Character education should be incorporated into the lessons daily in context. As the School Family video showed us, it should not be done through bribing, rewarding and punishing students without a lesson involved. After the school adopted the Conscious Discipline program, it appears that they have students use their words to talk out their issues with one another. I feel this has a better impact on the students in the long run. They will be better able to handle conflict in the future because of the lessons their teachers have helped them to understand. Kohn (1997) explained the side of character education with which most teachers are familiar. He explains, much like the Fern Creek video states, that students are most frequently drilled and rewarded through the character education programs. I do not necessarily agree that the values should be taught out of context. As a language teacher, I can tell you first hand that rote memorization does not show understanding of a concept. In addition, any person who has raised a preschooler can tell you that one of the first questions a child asks is â€Å"Why? † Children do not learn from simply being corrected or told what to do. They learn when they can explain why something is the way it is. Good character is completely developed by knowing ones morals and wanting to abide by the virtues by which we all live. If more parents were sensitive to the information that Lickona discussed in the Raising Good Children video, schools would have an easier time with character education. I agree that parents and schools need to form a partnership. Parents typically do not line their children up and drill right or wrong. They teach their children virtues in context. If my son steals his brother’s toys and a fight breaks out, I am not likely to say â€Å"that’s not right! † and end the conversation there. Young children are more likely to stop the bad behavior if they know why it was wrong or hurtful. I would explain to my son, â€Å"It hurts your brother’s feelings when you take his toys. Do you like your feelings hurt? Please ask him next time. † Incorporating the â€Å"do unto others† ideal does not make an impact unless the child can relate directly to the situation. I have noticed the times I had forgotten the explanation of why to stop; my son would repeat the misbehavior a short time later. Many of the virtues I have learned have come from my mother and my grandmother, since they were around me the most as a child. Through gentle reminders from these women I learned a set of standards to live by, my virtues. By knowing this information and using the good moral judgment that my family taught me, I have developed my character. Some children come to our classrooms without the opportunity to learn the way I did. Therefore, I need to be sensitive to their needs and help them to focus on how to change their behaviors. By treating students fairly and with compassion on a consistent basis, hopefully I can encourage students to intrinsically want to have good character.

The Life of Hermann Oberth, German Rocket Theorist

Hermann Oberth (June 25, 1894, died December 29, 1989) was one of the foremost rocket theorists of the 20th century, responsible for the theories that govern the rockets that loft payloads and people  to space. He was a visionary scientist inspired by science fiction. Oberth left a mixed legacy due to his involvement in the development of V-2 rockets for Nazi Germany, which killed several thousand in Great Britain during World War II. However, in later life, Oberth helped to develop rockets for the U.S. army, and his work contributed to the development of the U.S. space program. Early Life Hermann Oberth was born on June 25, 1894 in the small town of Hermannstadt, Austria-Hungary (today Sibiu, Romania). At a young age, Oberth came down with scarlet fever, and spent part of his childhood recovering in Italy. During the long days of recuperation, he read the work of Jules Verne, an experience that developed his love of science fiction novels. His  fascination with rockets and spaceflight led him, at the age of 14, to begin thinking about the idea of liquid-fueled rockets and how they could work to propel materials to space. Early Theories When he turned 18, Oberth  began his college studies at the University of Munich. At his fathers urging, he studied medicine instead of rockets. His academic work was interrupted by the onset of World War I, during which he  served as a wartime medic. After the war, Oberth studied physics and pursued his interest in rockets and propulsion systems largely on his own. During this period, he realized that rockets intended to reach space would need to be staged; that is, they would need a first stage to lift off from Earth, and at least one or two other stages to loft payloads into orbit or out to the Moon and beyond. In 1922, Oberth submitted his theories about rocket propulsion and motions as a Ph.D. thesis, but his theories were rejected as pure fantasy. Undaunted, Oberth published his thesis as a book called Die Rakete zu den Planetraà ¼men (By Rocket into Planetary Space) in 1929. He patented his rocket designs and launched his first rocket two years later, with the assistance of a young Wernher von Braun. Oberths work inspired the formation of an amateur rocketry group  called Verein fà ¼r Raumschiffart, for which he served as an informal advisor. He also taught physics and math at a local high school and became  one of the first scientific advisors to a movie producer, working with Fritz Lang on the film Frau im Mond in 1929.   World War II Contributions In the years between the two world wars, Oberth pursued his rocketry designs and made contact with two other giants in the field: Robert H. Goddard and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. In 1938, he became a faculty member at the Technical University of Vienna, then became a German citizen and went  to work at Peenemà ¼nde, Germany. He worked with Wernher von Braun to develop the V-2 rocket for Nazi Germany, a powerful rocket that ultimately killed 3,500 people in Great Britain during World War II. Oberth  worked on both liquid- and solid-fueled rockets. He moved to Italy in 1950 in order to work on designs for the Italian navy. In 1955, he arrived in the United States, where he worked on a team designing and building space-bound rockets for the U.S. Army. Later Life and Legacy Hermann Oberth eventually retired and returned to Germany in 1958, where he spent the rest of his life pursuing  theoretical work in science as well as philosophy and political theory. He returned to the United States to witness the launch of  Apollo 11  for the first Moon landing, and then later for the launch of Challenger on STS-61A in 1985. Oberth died on December 29, 1989, in Nà ¼rnberg, Germany. Oberths early insight into how rocket engines propel materials to space inspired rocket scientists to name the Oberth effect after him. The Oberth effect refers to the fact that rockets traveling at high speeds generate more useful energy than rockets moving at lower velocities. Thanks to his great interest in rockets, inspired by Jules Verne, Oberth went on to imagine a number of very plausible futuristic space flight ideas. He wrote a book called ​The Moon Car, which detailed a way to travel to the Moon. He also suggested ideas for future space stations and a telescope orbiting the planet. Today, the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope (among others) are fulfillments of Oberths almost-prophetic flights of scientific imagination. Hermann  Oberth Fast Facts Full Name:  Hermann Julius OberthBorn: June 25, 1894 in Hermannstadt, Austria-HungaryDied:  December 29, 1989 in Nuremberg, Germany.Known For: Rocket theorist who developed V-2 rockets for Nazi Germany and later contributed to the U.S. space program.Spouses Name: Mathilde HummelChildren: Four Sources Dunbar, Brian. â€Å"Hermann Oberth.†Ã‚  NASA, NASA, 5 June 2013, www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/rocketry/home/hermann-oberth.html.Redd, Nola Taylor. â€Å"Hermann Oberth: German Father of Rocketry.†Ã‚  Space.com, Space.com, 5 Mar. 2013, www.space.com/20063-hermann-oberth.html.Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. â€Å"Hermann Oberth.†Ã‚  Encyclopà ¦dia Britannica, Encyclopà ¦dia Britannica, Inc., 19 Apr. 2017, www.britannica.com/biography/Hermann-Julius-Oberth.​