FINAL PROJECT

FINAL 
 PROJECT:

My final project will be based on the tasks I have been doing during this workshop. Therefore I am going on with tasks related to the socio-cultural aspects of the English-speaking countries.I think that the English lessons must not only be based on the linguistic aspects of the language. Once our students have certain knowledge of those aspects it is important to expand their knowledge of the non-linguistic elements of the language they are learning. English is one of the most important languages of the world and so are the countries that use it. Students in their daily lives listen to music in that language, watch their favourite NBA players on tv, know who Obama is, watch American tv series or movies, compose their own raps based on the American rhythms...The use of multimedia materials together with the new technologies may serve this purpose. This is why The main objectives will be based on this aim:

- Make students aware of the importance of the English language through its socio-cultural aspects.

- Make students aware of the richness and cultural variety of the English-speaking countries.

- Encourage the use of multimedia materials and new technologies.

- Value the knowledge of the English language as a way to understand better its socio-cultural aspects.

- Respect and value the different cultures of the English-speaking countries and compare them with the diversity in their own country.

-Encourage collaborative learning through group work.

- Make  them used to vocabulary and expressions related to specific cultural situations and lexical fields.

- Develop linguistic skills such as listening for comprehension, listening for perception, reading comprehension, writing ( review writings).

These tasks must be aimed at high-level students this is why I am thinking of Bachillerato students belonging to the second year.

The time for the development of the tasks could be from 6 to 10 lessons. Each task would probably take a lesson or two as much .Students can do them in the computer-room through this blog. They may work individually or in pairs.

The assessment and methodology:
 This is a task-based project. Students will develop different linguistic and non-linguistic skills through the development of the different tasks proposed in the project.
They must work in an autonomous way using the information given mainly  through links. The students must present their task results at the end of each lesson. After all the activities have been completed, each student will have to do a final oral presentation summarizing all the information obtained through the different tasks and will get their corresponding grade:
In that final task they will have to mention the tittles of the different tasks, the aims, what they have learnt or haven´t and their personal opinion on the different tasks.

The contents used are related to socio-cultural aspects such as:

 -  Historical facts: 1916 Irish Revolution. Nelson Mandela life.

 -  Different varieties of the English language: SouthAfrican vocabulary, Irish pronounciation of U.

 - Entertainment such as music, films, popular people such as singers, basketball players: Pau Gasol an NBA player.The Twilight saga of books and films. Music bands  as The Cramberriesor Kansas.

 - Geographical features and cultural aspects of the different USA States with their specific characteristics for example motto, symbols, capital city.

The tasks will have to be done using the proposed audio-visual materials and online information through links. Some examples are:

-Comprehension questions.
-Listenings for comprehension.
-Listenings for perception.
-Web-quests.
-Dictionary tasks.
-Writing tasks.
-Reading comprehension tasks.
-Vocabulary tasks.
-Pronounciation-comparison tasks.

The project tasks are distributed in 6 posts. One more post is added with dictionary entries.
These posts include activities related to the development of linguistic skills and the kowledge of socio-cultural elements related to different countries and areas of the English-speaking world.

The first project task is on ireland: Students are supposed to do a listening comprehension on a song by the Irish band Cramberries,then they have to find out information using a specific link on the 1916 Revolution that took place in Ireland. In this way they realize how connected the history of a country and its cultural expression can be.

http://ilikethisbloggymuch.blogspot.com.es/search/label/Project%20task%3A%20Ireland.

The second Project task is on SouthAfrica: Students are supposed to do a reading comprehension on the life of Nelson Mandela and to compare British English with specific South African words. It is important that students develop awareness on how certain social contexts and situations are frameworks to develop new vocabulary as it happens with the word 
apartheid which origin is found in a racist society.

http://ilikethisbloggymuch.blogspot.com.es/search/label/Project%20task%3A%20Nelson%20Mandela%20and%20apartheid%20in%20South%20Africa

The third project task is on USA: Students are supposed to do a listening comprehension on a song by KANSAS and then to find out information on this USA State. I think the song is beautiful and can make students reflect on life.Moreover,  I thought that it was a good idea to connect the name of the band with the name of the USA State as a motivating way to make students to find out information on this State.

http://ilikethisbloggymuch.blogspot.com.es/search/label/Project%20task%3A%20listening%20and%20Kansas%20City.

The fourth Project task is on the USA: Students are supposed to do a quiz on USA States and to find specific information on some of these States. It is good that Students check what his general knowledge on the USA is. The Quiz web allows them to check if their answers are right or wrong and gives them some extra information on the aspects dealt with in this quiz. Moreover, this page offers many aspects on the USA States such as flag, symbols, motto...

http://ilikethisbloggymuch.blogspot.com.es/search/label/Quiz

The fifth project task is on the NBA: Students are supposed to listen and watch to an interview to NBA player Pau Gasol and answer some questions on it. Pau Gasol is a star in our country as well as in the USA. I am sure that watching an interview of this great player on an American tv show is highly motivating for the students. They love NBA!

http://ilikethisbloggymuch.blogspot.com.es/search/label/Project%20task%3A%20NBA


The sixth project task is on a film review: Students are supposed to read different examples of film reviews and to write a similar one following the given one.These film reviews are on the book/film Twilight. Teenagers love this kind of saga on vampires. For sure most of them have already seen or read any of the books. It is also a good activity to learn and use adjectives in English.

http://ilikethisbloggymuch.blogspot.com.es/search/label/Project%20task%3A%20a%20book%20review.

The students have access to different dictionaries to do their tasks: It is important to add this kind of materials to develop autonomous work in the students. If you don´t do it you run the risk to be used as their personal dictionary!

http://ilikethisbloggymuch.blogspot.com.es/search/label/Project%20task%3A%20English%20dictionaries.


The materials used :
For the design of this project  I have used multimedia materials like  pictures,questionnaires, a quiz, videos, web links...I have added to all these materials my own proposals on how they could be exploited for teaching-learning purposes. I have always aimed at developing linguistic skills such as writing in the Film Reviews activity together with the acquisition of cultural and social aspects that are also part of the contents of the tasks students are supposed to do. The Quiz Task will  be used in the celebration of the American Culture Day, a project that the English Department in my high school is preparing  for the las days of April.


All the activities are designed under the Creative Commons Licence.




Myenglish por Alice se encuentra bajo una Licencia Creative Commons Atribución-CompartirIgual 3.0 Unported.
Basada en una obra en http://www.ilikethisbloggymuch.blogspot.com.


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Elaborar una reflexión final sobre el proceso de diseño y puesta en marcha del proyecto reflejando las dificultades, oportunidades, debilidades, fortalezas y propuestas de mejora para el futuro, así como la metodología

Here I want to stress the main idea that has inspired my Project: the importance of the context as a framework to introduce the teaching-learning of a foreign language. I think that  is the main strength of the project and what makes it possible to put it into practice especially with high-level students.

I have chosen socio-cultural elements related to music, films, history, different varieties of the English language…  whenever I use multimedia materials in my lessons such as films, videos ,music,  take my students to the computer room ( where we have already tried some of my blog activities), the students always feel really motivated and their interest for the subject improves. That is why I think that this project is a good teaching proposal for Bachillerato students (2º Bachillerato) that could introduce a variety in this level tasks too much focused on texts. Of course printed texts are a very rich source of language in context, but multimedia materials are also a very interesting way of introducing the learning of different aspects of the language into really motivating frameworks and in this way they can also be considered as texts: multimedia texts.

In the design process I have added to the general objectives and contents, different links that take the students to the tasks proposed. All of them are cooperative for the students  may work in groups and have to take notes on the tasks answers to prepare a final oral presentation that will be assessed and graded.
All the tasks are presented with their main aims that always try to relate linguistic contents with non-linguistic ones. That has been my methodological approach: the developing of strategies related to the language different skills together with the acquisition of cultural knowledge.

The main difficulty of the project is to put it into practice in real time teaching  and of course, the design that can be expanded and improved greatly. Self-assessment activities could be introduced too.