Автор: Пользователь скрыл имя, 02 Ноября 2012 в 18:36, курсовая работа
Many EFL instructors are faced with the challenge of getting their students to participate in the language classroom. As language instructors, part of this challenge is creating interesting activities to increase students' motivation. "We must find out what our students are interested in" (Rivers, 1976, p.96). Part of providing conditions for language learning is building on existing motivations in order to increase students' knowledge of the new language (Rivers, 1976). When there is engaging content that will involve learners and in which those learners have a stake, students become intrinsically motivated (Stevick, 1996; Taylor, 1987). I have found that activities in which students use L2 as a means to solve a problem are not only meaningful to EFL learners but also increase their motivation, participation and use of the target language. The reason for this high interest and involvement lies in the fact that students have to use their cognitive skills and logic to arrive at solutions to problems relevant to their own lives. Students learn and acquire the target language by using it for critical thinking and problem solving.
Introduction
Theoretical part:
What is Problem Solving and importance of using it in EFL classes
Problem Solving activities using Critical Thinking:
What is Critical Thinking?
How to use it in teaching process effectively?
Critical Thinking Strategies
Classroom techniques: Debates and Media Analysis.
Addressing Culture in EFL Classrooms
Social Studies
Practical part
Conclusion
Bibliography
Appendix
THE MINISTRY FOR SCIENCE AND EDUCATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN
EAST – KAZAKHSTAN STATE UNIVERSITY BY S. AMANZHOLOV
PHILOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT.
THEME: PROBLEM SOLVING ACTIVITIES IN FLT
LANGUAGES 050119
UST-KAMENOGORSK 2010
Content
I have chosen this theme as my term-paper, firstly, because I want to investigate the importance of using Problem Solving activities in order to make English classes more interesting and useful. When teacher gives any but interesting theme to discuss or situation everyone tries to share their opinion with their classmates, so everyone will have a chance to speak. Secondly, it helps to set competitive atmosphere which will increase their endevour to get more and more knowledge about the world around us, as such kind of activity is set in English classes they will try to learn more useful English words used in everyday life and in magazines. It will help them to enlarge their word-stock.
Thirdly, there a lot of countries and every country has its custom and cultural values. Nowadays we go abroad a lot and how can we go to any country not knowing its culture? Moreover, our Government gives us such opportunities as studying abroad by some International Studying Programs. The students who are interested in this kind of opportunities should be told of the problems they will be faced with and knowing justly English or other languages is not the only main thing. So problem exists everywhere, even in classes too. From the very start when children are little they should be involved in solving them. It will increase Critical thinking which they will use in reasoning and showing their own way of arriving at the problem.
Problems exist everywhere, both inside the classroom and out, and their resolution is a popular source of conversation in all countries and cultures. Analyzing a somewhat complex problem like a city's poor public transport system can offer students a myriad of opportunities to analyze an issue critically. By asking students to look at pro's and con's and costs and benefits an instructor is forcing them to consider real world problems that impact their daily lives in a critical way.
When faced with problems unlike any they've
seen before, many of students will be quick to give up. 'I don't know how to do this,' or 'I don't get it,' will be common comments.
How does the teacher keep students from giving up prematurely, when
they know all the content they need to solve the problem? It is certainly
uphill battle, and one which cannot be fought overnight.
One effective method is to engage students in competitions. These
may be competitions internal to your classroom, or contests in which
students compete against students in other schools. Competitions give
students a reason to keep trying a problem in different ways. The idea
of 'beating' another student can give students that extra impetus they
need to keep working on a problem.
It's also important to give students a good 'mix' of repetitive and 'challenge' problems. Students who have nothing but challenge problems will quickly get frustrated. But students who have nothing but repetitive, 'drill' type problems will not develop the ability to apply what they have learned to new situations. Giving your students a 'problem of the week' is a great way to help add to help maintain a balance of problems
Critical thinking, in its broadest sense has been described as "purposeful reflective judgment concerning what to believe or what to do."
Critical thinking is not an easy concept to define as it can mean quite different things to different people in different contexts and cultures.
Despite this fact, I believe that ESL/EFL instructors can greatly benefit both themselves and their students by attempting to understand and incorporate some of its key elements into their classrooms.
Generally speaking, to think critically about an issue is to consider that issue from various perspectives, to look at and challenge any possible assumptions that may underlie the issue and to explore its possible alternatives.
More specifically, when we think critically about a given topic, we are forced to consider our own relationship to it and how we personally fit into the context of the issue (Brookfield, 7-9). This type of thinking does not always come easy, but I feel well-informed instructors can help a great deal in encouraging its development in their students.
Most experienced teachers recognize that the more you know about the backgrounds and interests of your students the more appropriate and engaging your classes will become. This element is even more significant for classes with a focus on critical thinking. Well it is true that an experienced teacher can create a critical thinking component in most any lesson, it is not true that students will respond to each various lesson or topic equally. Consider as an example a grammatical unit on the use of the future tenses. A teacher wishing to help promote critical thought in their class might ask a series of discussion questions on the ethical issues surrounding future increases in life expectancy. This lesson could be highly successful if it is appropriate to the students' age level, background knowledge, and language proficiency. More appropriate questions could certainly be found however for an ESP Engineering class or for a group of 12-13 year old boys and girls. The point is that tailoring lessons specifically to the interests of your students can go quite far in encouraging student engagement, an element that is essential to the development of critical thinking.
As a teacher it is essential that you understand and communicate to your students regularly the role of the questions they are being asked to answer. Virtually every language course book contains some form of "discussion questions" which are designed to give students some opportunity to practice language use. As a teacher trainer and observer however, far too often I see these questions being used simply as a tool, or even worse, as a kind of hurdle one needs to get over before moving on to the next grammar lecture or reading passage. It is true that these questions are often written in such a way as to almost discourage critical thought but teachers need to remember that they always have the ability to modify or adapt lessons to their own circumstances. Even the most overworked and underpaid of instructors, who claims to have no time for lesson planning, can make a difference here.
Teachers often cite the frustration of having to "retrain" their students to really think about the questions they are discussing in class. It is much easier of course, if the questions just pass by with the students simply regurgitating some information from a reading or listening passage, but think about the long term message this sends to our students. We are telling them, in effect, that the content is not really of any importance. We need to encourage our students to really interact with the texts and materials they are given and we need to do this repeatedly. Ultimately this will help students to better interact with the world around them and to become more self-aware and reflective thinkers.
Debate forces students to think about the multiple sides of an issue and it also forces them to interact not just with the details of a given topic, but also with one another. Also debates are versatile in the range of topics possible and the format that the debate may follow.
Debates allow students to focus on developing discussion skills and fluency. In addition, activities are designed to help ensure that all students participate equally in activities, instead of the situation found in many conversation classes where the most proficient, confident, or outgoing students dominate class or group discussions. All students participate, for example, by each student possessing a piece of information that the group requires to successfully complete a story or solve a problem.
I think that there is a clear connections between the skills of writing, reading, and speaking. So my classes will be based on the axiom "that having to write out our thoughts on paper forces us to reexamine, rethink, and recycle our ideas until we have a much neater package". I support the idea that if some time is spent writing down one's thoughts before speaking, it will make a real difference in both the quality and quantity of speech produced. For example, I can give students pre-discussion writing activities which students complete before participating in discussions. Short readings, which provide students with topic-related vocabulary and background knowledge, and lead into the writing and speaking tasks. These reading and writing activities help students cope with limitations they may have, such as lack of confidence in their language skills, lack of background knowledge and information, lack of interest, or lack of any opinion at all about the topic. They can be assigned as homework so students can come to class prepared, and as a result, allow valuable classtime to be spent entirely on discussion activities. There will be given tasks including both serious subjects such as AIDS, gun control, and endangered species, as well as lighter topics such as tipping, humor, and movies. Most tasks and exercises should relate to real situations, events, people, statistics.
The major types of tasks are listed as:
The use of such a variety of activities helps ensure that students do not get bored with the text too easily.
Analyzing various forms of media, either in an ESL or EFL environment, gives the opportunity for students to think about important issues like media bias and censorship. When students look at the types of issues that may bias reporting, they are also forced to think in terms of their biases and to reflect on these in detail. This is not to say however, that media analysis needs only to focus explicitly on issues of bias and censorship as any analysis of media has the potential to raise students' general awareness and encourage them to think about the issues that affect their lives.
Purpose: To enhance student problem solving strategies and increase student ability to solve deductive reasoning problems. To bring a sense of fun and accomplishment to math and science class problem solving.
Students will be able to: