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Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez APPENDIXES APPENDIX 1 Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 2 MAD ABOUT MOBILES 3rd ESO Learning Unit written by: Maria Cuello Sánchez March, 2012 Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 3 INDEX 1. INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………. 3 1.1. JUSTIFICATION………………………………………………….. 4 1.2. CONTEXTUALIZATION……………………………………….. 4 1.3. ORGANIZATION OF THE LEARNING UNIT……………. 5 2. LEARNING UNIT OF WORK…………………………………. 6 2.1. CONTRIBUTION TO THE KEY COMPETENCES……….. 7 2.2. OBJECTIVES………………………………………………………… 8 2.3. CONTENTS………………………………………………………….. 9 2.4. METHODOLOGY………………………………………………….. 11 2.5. EVALUATION CRITERIA………………………………………… 12 3. LESSON PLANS…………………………………………………….. 13 3.1 LEARNING OBJECTIVES OR GOALS 3.2 DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES TO BE CARRIED OUT 3.3 HOW THE ACTIVITIES WILL BE CARRIED OUT 3.4 TEACHER ACTIONS AND CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT 3.5 EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES 3.6 MATERIALS AND RESOURCES USED 3.7 APPROXIMATE TIMING FOR EACH ACTIVITY 3.8 ASSESSMENT AND FEEDBACK 3.9 EVALUATION OF TEACHING AND LEARNING PROCESS HOMEWORK IF ANY 4. CONCLUSIONS………………………………………………………… 20 5. REFERENCES…………………………………………………………… 22 6. APPENDIXES…………………………………………………………… 24 Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 4 Mad about Mobiles… 1. INTRODUCTION Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 5 1.1 JUSTIFICATION This unit is intended to motivate SS as getting them to participate in spontaneous communicative situations in the classroom approaching our students to the use of the new technologies. It starts with the simpler input that gets more complex as the lesson goes on. This allows the teacher to go from the old to the new, making sure that all SS get involved in the activities and feel at ease. 1. The contents, general objectives and evaluation criteria in this didactic units are based upon the Real Decreto 1631 (29th December 2006), whereby the minimum requirements of compulsory education are established. The material chosen includes oral and visual messages, which will help SS to follow the teacher by establishing connections between the foreign language and the images. Motivation is also enhanced in the final task. As SS will have to explore, express and exchange their work with the rest of the class they will be encourages to do their best. Furthermore, the use of the ICT such as the blog will help them become autonomous and life-long learners. 1.2 CONTEXTUALIZATION This unit is addressed to an ordinary group of 3rd year E.S.O SS. At this age, students should therefore have acquired basic oral and written skills to develop communicative situations. Likewise, they already know basic vocabulary for descriptions and can use different present, past and future forms that will help them complete the final task. The book they are using is English World 3 Burlington Books. Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 6 1.3 ORGANIZATION OF THE LEARNING UNIT This didactic unit has been divided into six appendixes in order to work with every skill that composes the English language such us Language in Use, Listening, Listening Review, Reading, Speaking and Writing. Moreover, every session has been designed to be covered in 5-60 minute periods. Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 7 2. LEARNING UNIT OF WORK Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 8 2.1 CONTRIBUTION TO THE KEY COMPETENCES Within the framework of the proposal submitted by the European Union eight key skills and competences for lifelong learning have been identified throughout the learning unit: 1. Skill and competence in linguistic communication: develop communicative competence in order to be able to talk about their mobile phones, produce a piece of descriptive writing about them and describing what kind of mobile phone users they are, understand listening conversations about short messages, pronounce certain key words related to mobile phones properly. 2. Information management and use of digital competence: acquire basic technological skills in information and communication technologies and concretely in the world of mobile phones with the aim of using these in the learning process. An example of this is that students will write about the advantages and disadvantages of mobile phones on a web forum that is the final task. 3. Social and citizenship competence: recognize the need for mutual respect, tolerance and solidarity with others and develop the habit of constructive discussion in order to promote the common values in a democratic society by means of activities that define what kind of mobile phone user students are or expressing their own opinions about the difficulties of living without a mobile phone. 4. Cultural and artistic skill and competence: Learn about different cultures and societies, concretely the British culture, using the world of mobile phones, with the aim of valuing them critically and at the same time showing respect not only towards one’s own culture but also others’. 5. Skill for learning to learn: develop basic skills in order to use various sources of information so as to acquire new knowledge with a critical eye. Thus, as a final task, students will write about the advantages and disadvantages of mobile phones on a web forum, developing and consolidating, at the same time, the Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 9 right attitude towards study and discipline as the necessary condition to properly perform the learning tasks and as a means of personal development. 6. Autonomy and personal initiative: throughout each of the activities included in this learning unit based in cooperative work, the entrepreneurial spirit is reinforced, developing self-confidence, a critical attitude, personal initiative and the ability to plan, make decisions and assume responsibilities talking about their mobile phones and producing descriptive pieces of writing about them and the kind of mobile phone users students are. Moreover, students will work on the final task in groups writing a web forum post and, consequently, reinforcing the concept of team-work and value others’ points of view, experiences and ways of thinking. 2.2 OBJECTIVES  To understand the specific oral information about mobile phones and review the use of modals.  To use the language and interact orally in the class when talking about mobile phones and their use, correctly and with certain degree of autonomy using modal verbs and vocabulary related to mobiles, showing an attitude of respect and cooperation.  To read and understand a photostory about the experience of living without a mobile phone. To get both general and specific information and to use the reading text(s) as a source of personal enrichment, since they have a kind of hidden message at the end.  To write sentences using modals and to write a short paragraph describing what they can do with their mobile phones.  To develop autonomy in learning, to reflect on their own learning process by means of self-assessment.  To show receptive attitude and to be self-confident in the use of foreign language during the whole class discussion.  To perform self-assessment filling in a one minute paper. Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 16 LESSON PLAN 1 Mobile Phones USE OF ENGLISH Grade Level: 3rd ESO Subject: English Prepared By: María Cuello Sánchez Teacher Guide Learning goals (Specify skills/information that will be learned.) At the end of this lesson students will be able…  to talk about their mobile phones.  to produce a piece of descriptive writing about them. Materials Needed  Paper, Notebook  Pencil  Pen  Colours  Photocopies  Chalk Other Resources Blackboard Digital Board Critical input (Give and/or demonstrate necessary information)  Vocabulary about mobile phone parts and their functions.  Revision, in case it is necessary, of previous knowledge (verb to have, can/can´t and the contents practice during the lesson) to do the homework. Learning Activities (Describe the activities to reinforce learning and how they will be organized i.e whole group, pairs, CL, individual)  In order to create a pleasant atmosphere and get the SS involved in the topic, as a whole-class activity, they are asked a few warm-up questions about mobile phones: Have you got a mobile phone?, How often do you use it? … (10´)  SS brainstorm vocabulary related to mobile phones. These ideas are written on the blackboard. (5´)  SS are divided in groups of 4-5, they are given a key word and they have to write correct sentences using those key words.(15´)  The teacher writes a few questions as a model on the blackboard, Have you got a mobile phone charger in your mobile phone?, What can you do with it?... Thus, SS will be given a chart to do a survey in pairs ticking or crossing what they and their partners have or not have in their mobile phones. (15´)  As a reinforcement activity for those SS who have difficulties to reach the main objectives, while working with the whole-class warm-up activity, we help those SS who have not reached the main objectives by giving possible answers after asking them like once, twice… I´ve had it for/since… After that, in the brainstorming activity, SS will receive every part of the mobile phone and its corresponding function coloured so that they will only need to match them.Then, the SS are divided into small groups to do the survey while the teacher fosters the cooperative work. The groups will be composed by those SS with a good level of English and those who have difficulties to reach the main objectives so that those with a good level will help the others. Homework assigned  SS are given a copy including a brainstorming of their mobile phone parts and their functions. As a homework activity, they should colour every part and their function in order to distinguish them easily.  As homework, SS will be asked to write a short paragraph about their mobile phones using previous knowledge such as the verb to have, can/can´t and the contents practiced during the lesson. Verification (Steps to check for student understanding)  The teacher writes on the blackboard the vocabulary about mobile phones brainstormed by the SS.  The teacher will check if the SS match every part of the mobile phone and its function properly.  SS will be given a key word and they will have to write correct sentences using those key words.  The teacher will be monitoring pairs while doing the survey.  The teacher will check the short paragraph written by the SS about their mobile phones using previous knowledge.  At the end of the session, the teacher provides the SS with a one-minute paper in order to self-assess and to verify the adaptation of SS to the learning process and carry out the necessary changes. Summary (what has been achieved and what needs to be reinforced in future lessons)  At the end of the session, SS are able to produce a piece of descriptive writing about their mobile phones and to talk about them although they need to reinforce previous knowledge and vocabulary about mobile phones. Additional Notes The activity worked very well and the SS showed a motivating attitude towards the learning of new vocabulary and the speaking skill. Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 17 LESSON PLAN 2 Mobile Phones LISTENING Grade Level: 3rd ESO Subject: English Prepared By: María Cuello Sánchez Teacher Guide Learning goals (Specify skills/information that will be learned.) At the end of this lesson students will be able…  to understand a listening conversation between two friends about the world of short messages. Materials Needed  Paper  Pencil  Pen  Notebook  Cards  Photocopies  Chalk Other Resources Blackboard Digital board Digital book Ordinary book Critical input (Give and/or demonstrate necessary information)  Revision of what was done in the previous session showing the SS a powerpoint presentation with some mobile phone pictures to point the name of the parts.  Revision, in case it is necessary, of previous knowledge to ask warm-up questions to the SS.  Revision of previous knowledge, by matching key words from the listening exercise with short and long vowel sounds included in the chart written on the blackboard. Learning Activities (Describe the activities to reinforce learning and how they will be organized i.e whole group, pairs, CL, individual)  The group altogether recap what was done in the previous session showing the SS a power point presentation with some mobile phone pictures and SS have to come and point the name of the parts. (5´)  The teacher asks the SS some questions as a warm-up like Is your mobile phone an old or a new one? or Do you usually send text messages? so as to introduce the listening part including the vocabulary and grammar in the unit. (10´)  Before listening to the story, SS are asked questions about short messages such as Do you usually send short text messages? (10´)  SS listen to the story. (10´)  Afterwards, the teacher writes some short messages on the blackboard and SS are asked to try and guess the meaning of them. (5´)  Once the listening has finished, as a whole class activity, the listening is read out and a chart including the main key words from the listening in order of appearance is written on the blackboard. (5´)  The listening is played again while the SS complete the True/False sentences. Finally, as a whole-class activity the answers are checked. (10´)  Reinforcement activity . Those SS who have difficulties to complete the listening exercise will be given the script so that they can finish it.  The class is divided into groups and SS are given cards containing short messages and they are asked to fully write them.(5´) Homework assigned Verification (Steps to check for student understanding)  The teacher checks what was learnt in the previous session using a powerpoint presentation in which the SS have to point the name of the parts.  The teacher will check short text messages are written correctly in as full messages.  SS will brainstorm the main key words from the listening and the teacher will write the words on the blackboard checking the SS learning of new vocabulary.  The answers of the true/false exercise are checked as a whole-class activity and it lets the teacher know if the SS have understood the listening-comprehension. Summary (what has been achieved and what needs to be reinforced in future lessons)  At the end of the session, SS are able to understand a listening conversation between two friends about the world of short messages although they find difficult to listen some expressions and they need to reinforce previous knowledge about pronunciation for future lessons. Additional Notes Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 18 LESSON PLAN 3 Mobile Phones LISTENING REVIEW Grade Level: 3rd ESO Subject: English Prepared By: María Cuello Sánchez Teacher Guide Learning goals (Specify skills/information that will be learned.) At the end of this lesson students will be able…  to work on the pronunciation of certain key words from the listening comprehension  to retell the dialogue story in session 2. Materials Needed  Paper, Notebook  Pencil  Pen  Photocopies  Chalk Other Resources Blackboard Digital board Critical input (Give and/or demonstrate necessary information)  Revision of what was done in the previous session .  Revision, in case it is necessary, of previous knowledge such as short and long vowel sounds to complete the pronunciation exercise.  Information about stress patterns in words, in case it is necessary. Learning Activities (Describe the activities to reinforce learning and how they will be organized i.e whole group, pairs, CL, individual)  On the board, the teacher writes the key words from the listening exercise. The class is divided into small groups and every member of the group will be in charge of four phonemes. SS will include the words in the phonemic chart they are given. Then, the SS repeat the words using the correct stress pattern. (10´)  Once the activity has been finished, as a group-class activity, the exercise is checked including the words that contain the same vowel sound and adding two more words for every sound in the chart that is drawn on the blackboard. (10´)  The teacher writes complex words to pronounce on the blackboard such as comfortable or love focusing on the difficulty for Spanish teenagers to distinguish between /ɒ/ and /Λ/. (5´)  The class is divided into groups and the listening script is given to the SS with some words missing so that they have to complete the sentences with the newly learned vocabulary. Later, the answers are checked as a group-class activity on the blackboard. (10´)  SS are invited to retell the dialogue. (2´)  Some SS will be chosen at random to correct the exercise and retell the story. They will be given a mark for it. (15´)  Reinforcement activity . Those SS who have difficulties or are still working will be helped by those SS who finish preparing the story. Homework assigned Verification (Steps to check for student understanding)  As a whole class warm-up activity, we all remind ourselves what was done in the previous session.  The Teacher will be monitoring while, in groups, SS will include the key words from the listening exercise in the given phonemic chart.  The exercise is corrected on the blackboard while the Teacher checks if the SS are using the correct stress pattern while pronouncing the key words.  SS will add two more words for every sound in the chart and the Teacher will check if SS are able to associate every sound to its corresponding word.  The teacher will be monitoring while the SS complete the listening script with the newly learnt vocabulary.  Later, the answers from the script are checked as a group-class activity on the blackboard.  The Teacher will be monitoring if SS are able to retell the dialogue from the listening script.  Some SS will be chosen at random to correct the exercise and retell the story and the Teacher will be checking if SS are able to do it by giving a mark for it that, at the same time, will guide the SS in their learning process. Summary (what has been achieved and what needs to be reinforced in future lessons)  At the end of the session, SS recognize phonetic symbols, are able to work on the pronunciation of certain key words and have acquired new vocabulary although they need more revision on the short and long vowels´ phonetic symbols. Additional Notes Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 19 LESSON PLAN 4 Mobile Phones READING Grade Level: 3rd ESO Subject: English Prepared By: María Cuello Sánchez Teacher Guide Learning goals (Specify skills/information that will be learned.) At the end of this lesson students will be able…  to understand a reading text.  to write about the most important difficulties of living without a mobile phone.  to identify rhyming words and stressed sounds. Materials Needed  Paper  Pencil  Pen  Photocopies  Chalk Other Resources Blackboard Digital board Critical input (Give and/or demonstrate necessary information)  In case it is necessary, the Teacher will explain the SS what are the rhyming words and will introduce several stress patterns to them.  Before doing the reading activity, the Teacher explains to the SS what is the story about. Learning Activities (Describe the activities to reinforce learning and how they will be organized i.e whole group, pairs, CL, individual)  As a warm-up activity, the teacher asks questions to the SS about the difficulties of living without a mobile phone such as How often do you use your mobile phone?, What should you do without a mobile phone?... (10´)  The teacher shows a power point slide with words from the reading comprehension. As a whole class activity, the SS identify the possible rhyming words and the stressed sounds. (10´)  The teacher explains to the SS that Sarah Thompson, the protagonist of the story, has taken up the challenge of not using her mobile phone for a week. After that, in order to improve the SS´s reading skills, the Teacher divides the class into small groups and the SS are provided with the different extracts from the text to put them in order. Later, the SS must match the text with the different days of the week in which every action takes place and with the titles of the paragraphs. The SS will be marked for this. (20´)  In order to expand the reading comprehension, the class is divided into small groups. They are invited to write the four most important difficulties of living without a mobile phone for them. Then, the teacher writes the difficulties on the board and asks the SS to vote on the biggest difficulty. (15´) Homework assigned Verification (Steps to check for student understanding)  The Teacher monitors the SS while they are identifying the possible rhyming words and the stressed sounds in the chart.  The Teacher monitors the groups while they are putting the reading text in order and matching it with the different days of the week and with the titles of the paragraphs. Moreover, the SS will be marked for this and the Teacher will check the SS learning.  The Teacher writes the difficulties of living without a mobile phone that the SS have thought and she checks the SS critical thought and if they are able to write sentences properly to express their own opinions. Summary (what has been achieved and what needs to be reinforced in future lessons)  At the end of the session, SS are able to write about the most important difficulties of living without a mobile phone although it will be necessary to correct some concepts of their previous knowledge and to explain them further in case it is necessary. Additionally, in group the SS are able to identify the basic concepts of rhyming and stressed sounds in words. Additional Notes Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 20 LESSON PLAN 5 Mobile Phones SPEAKING Grade Level: 3rd ESO Subject: English Prepared By: María Cuello Sánchez Teacher Guide Learning goals (Specify skills/information that will be learned.) At the end of this lesson students will be able…  to describe what kind of mobile phone users they are using modal verbs like should/shouldn´t, must/mustn´t, can/can´t, have to/don´t have to in order to introduce the speaking session about What kind of mobile phone user are you? Materials Needed  Paper  Pencil  Pen  Photocopies  Chalk Other Resources Blackboard Digital board Critical input (Give and/or demonstrate necessary information)  Revision, in case it is necessary, of modal verbs should/shouldn´t, can/can´t, must/mustn´t, have to/don´t have to in order to ask warm-up questions to the SS about What Kind of Mobile Phone user are you?  Revision, if it is necessary, of the adverbs of frequency in order to ask questions to guess what kind of mobile phone users they are in the board game. Learning Activities (Describe the activities to reinforce learning and how they will be organized i.e whole group, pairs, CL, individual)  As a whole-class warm-up activity, SS are asked a series of questions using modal verbs should/shouldn´t, can/can´t, must/mustn´t, have to/don´t have to in order to introduce the speaking session about What Kind of Mobile Phone User are you? (15´)  After that, the group is divided into small groups and they are given a speaking board game in which they will have to ask questions using the Adverbs of Frequency in order to guess what kind of mobile phone users they are. If it is possible, groups must be compounded by these SS that do not have a closer relationship in class. (20´)  SS compare their results from the board game with a partner they do not speak much. (5´)  Once the board game has finished, the teacher asks the SS a series of questions about the game like Do you agree with the results of the speaking board game? Why or why not? This activity will be taken into account for the teacher´s self-assessment . (10´) Homework assigned Verification (Steps to check for student understanding)  The teacher asks a series of warm-up questions in order to introduce the topic and to check if the SS have acquires previous knowledge like modal verbs.  The teacher will monitor the groups while the SS are working with the speaking board game checking the correct use of the adverbs of frequency.  After doing the speaking board game, the teacher will ask the SS a series of questions to reflect about the game, checking that SS are able to give their own opinions and they can form sentences in a correct way. Summary (what has been achieved and what needs to be reinforced in future lessons)  At the end of the session, SS are able to describe what kind of mobile phone users they are using modal verbs should/shouldn´t, must/mustn´t, can/can´t, have to/don´t have to although it will be necessary to review the uses and meanings of some modal verbs. Additional Notes Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 21 LESSON PLAN 6 Mobile Phones WRITING Grade Level: 3rd ESO Subject: English Prepared By: María Cuello Sánchez Teacher Guide Learning goals (Specify skills/information that will be learned.) At the end of this lesson students will be able…  to use the connectors of cause and effect because, so, since, therefore and because of appropriately and to work on the final task that is a web forum post about the advantages and disadvantages of mobile phones. Materials Needed  Paper  Pencil  Pen  Photocopies  Chalk Other Resources Computers Blackboard Digital board Critical input (Give and/or demonstrate necessary information)  Theoretical introduction of the connectors of cause and effect because, so, since, therefore and because of.  In order to make the SS aware of how to write a post about the advantages and disadvantages of mobile phones, the teacher divides the class into groups so that a member of the group writes a short paragraph about the advantages of mobile phones, another member writes about the disadvantages and the other writes at least two sentences about how to solve problems with mobile phones.  The teacher provides the SS with a checklist so that they know the concepts that they will have to value in their colleagues posts. Learning Activities (Describe the activities to reinforce learning and how they will be organized i.e whole group, pairs, CL, individual)  The teacher introduces the connectors of cause and effect because, so, since, therefore and because of. (10´)  After that, the group is divided into small groups of SS and they are given sentence extracts in order to match them using a connector of cause and effect. (10´)  The second half of the session takes place in the computer room so that SS can develop techniques of autonomous learning. Thus, in pairs or groups of three, depending on the availability of computers, SS work on a post about the advantages and disadvantages of mobile phones that they must upload to a web created by the English department.  First, in small groups , the SS brainstorm the advantages and disadvantages of mobile phones and they write them in a chart. (10´)  After that, the task is divided so that a member of the group writes a short paragraph about the advantages of mobile phones, another member writes about the disadvantages and the other writes at least two sentences about how to solve the problems with mobile phones. (20´) Homework assigned  SS will check other groups posts, uploaded to the English Department website, following a given checklist. Verification (Steps to check for student understanding)  The Teacher will check and control if the SS match the sentence extracts with their corresponding connector appropriately.  The teacher will monitor the groups of SS writing about the advantages, the disadvantages and the ways to solve the problems with mobile phones.  The teacher will revise posts and he/she will check if corrections are done in the appropriate way. Summary (what has been achieved and what needs to be reinforced in future lessons)  At the end of the session, SS will be able to use connectors of cause and effect appropriately and to work on the final task although some groups will need some help from the teacher to use the appropriate expressions while writing about the advantages and disadvantages of mobile phones. Additional Notes  Although it is an ideal learning unit, I believe in the useful nature of this session. SS are used to working with the ICT´s and it is a different and motivating activity to improve the writing skill. Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 22 4. CONCLUSIONS Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 23 During the last years, the society is being more and more conscious of the difficulties to get the job of your dreams. This is concretely what happens to us, teachers and future teachers that see our dream farther and farther. However, after finishing my school placement and this learning unit, I am absolutely convinced that I was born to be a teacher and I am feeling more and more confident to work in it. To start with, I am aware of the real difficulties of teaching because it requires meticulous planning and preparation and a previous and final reflection and assessment of both protagonists of the learning process, students and teachers. Concerning those students who have difficulties to reach the main objectives, I can say that I believe in the education of every student, consequently, although in this classroom there are not students that present visible problems while learning the language, in some occasions, a few students need a bit of help while doing some specific activities. Thus, I have designed several reinforcement activities that are included in the appendixes. Additionally, I believe in the importance of being an optimistic teacher because if you think that your students will improve and, consequently, they will pass, they will eventually do it (Pygmalion effect). However, not only being a motivating and positive teacher making your students protagonist of their learning process is necessary but also managing the classroom properly having a good presence in class is relevant. Finally and thanks to the teaching practice I made during my school placement, I am absolutely concerned about the importance of timing during the lessons and the positive feelings that teachers have when their lessons work and all the students participate and learn in them. Overall, I have always known that I was born to be a teacher but after my school placement and thanks to this learning unit, I am absolutely convinced that the world of education is my world. It is not only the satisfaction that you obtain from knowing that somebody has learnt new concepts thanks to you, it is also the happy faces of students and that, as a teacher, you are forming them to be citizens in a complicated society and you are also helping them to get a dream like mine was to be a teacher. Thus, for me teaching is not only transmitting, it is teaching with passion, a passion that you manifest to your students and you teach them to love the subject and to be motivated to learn more and more, however, it is not only the learning of a subject what matters, it is also the formation of the citizens of the future society. Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 24 5. REFERENCES Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 25  English World 3 Burlington Books  http://www.quadernsdigitals.net/index.php?accionMenu=hemeroteca.Visualiz aArticuloIU.visualiza&articulo_id=9874 Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 32 APPENDIX 2 SESSION 2 LISTENING "Listen to others as you would have them listening to you." At the start of the session, the teacher explains the SS what are we going to do that day (listening about short messages) and then he/she reminds the SS the main aim of the listening activities, to make students understand a listening conversation between two friends and to introduce them the world of short text messages in English in order to be able to talk about them. After that, we altogether recap what was done in the previous session showing the students a power point presentation with some mobile phones pictures and they have to come and point the name of the parts. Then, the teacher writes the following sentences on the blackboard in order to make SS aware that the teacher will be monitoring and assessing them during the lesson: 3. I have worked 1 2 3 4 5 4. I have participated 1 2 3 4 5 SS should write those questions in their notebooks and answer as a self-evaluation at the end of the class. Teachers will be monitoring. PRE-LISTENING: We ask students some questions as a warm-up to introduce the listening part including the vocabulary and grammar in the unit. 1. Have you got a mobile phone? 2. Is your mobile phone an old or a new one? 3. How much money do you spend on phone calls or text messages every month? 4. What is the main part you use to send text messages? 5. Do you usually send text messages? 6. Do you use short or long text messages? 7. Why do you use short messages? 8. When you send them do you use all the characters in your keypad? WHILE-LISTENING: Listen to the conversation about text messaging. Before listening to the story, SS are asked questions about short messages; 1. Do you know what a short message is? 2. Do you usually use short messages? 3. Why do you use short messages? Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 33 Afterwards we write on the blackboard the following text messages (ex.4): 1. BBFN 2.BOL Do you know what these messages mean? Try to guess it. We ask SS. Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 34 UNIT 2 PAGE 72 Carla: Tony, I´m so excited. My parents have finally bought me my first mobile phone. Tony: That´s great, Carla! Carla: Yes, it is. But my friends are sending me text messages and I can´t understand them. They don´t write full words. Tony: Your friends are using short text language to keep the message short. Carla: Why should the message be short? Tony: You can only have a specific number of characters in each text message. You have to pay more for using more characters. Carla: What are characters? Tony: Characters are all the letters, numbers and symbols on the keypad of your mobile phone. Carla: Is each letter, number or symbol one character? Tony: Yes, it is. That´s why you shouldn´t write long messages. You should use short text language. Carla: How do I write short text language? Tony: Well, you can use the first letter of each word in your message. For example, I often write B-B-F-N at the end of a message. Carla: B-B-F-N? What does it mean? Tony: Those are the first letters of the words “bye bye for now!” Carla: So instead of writing “bye bye for now!”, I can just write the letters B-B-F-N. That´s good to know. Please give me another example. Tony: OK. Yesterday my friend Michael had a maths exam. Before the exam, I sent Michael a message. I wrote “best of luck” in short text language. What do you think I wrote? Carla: Let´s see. You wanted to say “best of luck” and you used the first letters of the words. You wrote B-O-L, right? Tony: That´s right! B-O-L means “best of luck”, and best of luck to you on learning short text language. Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 35 OPTIONAL: Once the listening has finished, key words will be pronounced and written on a phonemic chart next to the sound they rhyme with. We will write the chart on the blackboard to complete the task as a whole class activity. Mobile phone Send /e/ Text message full words Short text characters Letters symbols /i/ best luck Learn Numbers Keypad The listening is read out while SS put the words in order of appearance. This activity allows them to associate what they are hearing with the words on board. During the second half of the lesson, SS are allowed to read the True/False sentences provided for the listening comprehension (see below). Then, the listening is played again while the SS complete the True/False sentences. Finally, as a whole-class activity the answers are checked. SHORT TEXT MESSAGING LISTENING COMPREHENSION 1. Carla bought a new mobile phone because she lost her old one. 2. Long text messages are more expensive than short ones. 3. The number of five (5) is an example of a character. 4. Tony often writes “bye bye” at the end of a message. 5. Tony had an exam, so Michael sent him a text. Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 36 Reinforcement Activity for those SS who have difficulties to reach the main objectives: Those SS who find it difficult to complete the listening exercise will be given the script so that they can finish it. Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 37 Post Listening/Extension Activity: We divide the class into groups and SS are given cards containing the following short text messages. SS are asked to try to fully write them. SHORT MESSAGES Omg did u c? Had a gr8 time! Tnx 4 ur present C u 2mrw! 2DAY UR B4 GR8 L8R Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 38 APPENDIX 3 SESSION 3  REVIEW THE LISTENING COMPREHENSION LEARNING As a whole class warm-up activity, we all remind ourselves what was done in the previous lesson. The aim of this session is to work on the pronunciation of certain key words which are found in the true/false exercises of the listening comprehension and retell the dialogue story in session 2. Such key words are: mobile phone, send /e/, text message,full words, short text, characters, letters, symbols /i/, best, luck, learn, numbers, keypad. On the board, the teacher writes them down. The group will be divided into small groups and every member of the group will be in charge of four phonemes. Students will include the words in the phonemic chart (see below). Then the students repeat the words using the correct stress pattern. Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 39 PHONETIC SYMBOLS MAD ABOUT MOBILE PHONES /æ/ /З:/ Words /a:/ /Λ/ /i/ /i:/ /u:/ /ʊ/ full /ɔː/ /ɒ/ /e/ Send, text message /ɪə/ /eə/ /ʊə/ /aɪ/ /aʊ/ /eɪ/ /əʊ/ mobile phone /ɔɪ/ Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 40 Once the activity has been finished. As a group-class activity the exercise is checked including the words that contain the same vowel sound and adding two more words for every sound in the chart that is drawn on the blackboard. Then, we write complex words to pronounce on the blackboard such as comfortable, love or oven focusing on the difficulty for Spanish teenagers to distinguish between /ɒ/ and /Λ/. During the second half of the session, the class is divided into groups and the listening script can be given to the students with some words missing so that they have to complete the sentences with the newly learned vocabulary. Later, we can check the answers together on the blackboard. Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 41 Carla: Tony, I´m so excited. My parents have finally bought me my first mobile phone. Tony: That´s great, Carla! Carla: Yes, it is. But my friends are sending me text messages and I can´t understand them. They don´t write full words. Tony: Your friends are using short text language to keep the message short. Carla: Why should the message be short? Tony: You can only have a specific number of characters in each text message. You have to pay more for using more characters. Carla: What are characters? Tony: Characters are all the letters, numbers and symbols on the keypad of your mobile phone. Carla: Is each letter, number or symbol one character? Tony: Yes, it is. That´s why you shouldn´t write long messages. You should use short text language. Carla: How do I write short text language? Tony: Well, you can use the first letter of each word in your message. For example, I often write B-B-F-N at the end of a message. Carla: B-B-F-N? What does it mean? Tony: Those are the first letters of the words “bye bye for now!” Carla: So instead of writing “bye bye for now!”, I can just write the letters B-B-F-N. That´s good to know. Please give me another example. Tony: OK. Yesterday my friend Michael had a maths exam. Before the exam, I sent Michael a message. I wrote “best of luck” in short text language. What do you think I wrote? Carla: Let´s see. You wanted to say “best of luck” and you used the first letters of the words. You wrote B-O-L, right? Tony: That´s right! B-O-L means “best of luck”, and best of luck to you on learning short text language. Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 48 APPENDIX 6 SESSION 6  WRITING In the first half of the session, the teacher introduces the connectors of cause and effect because, so, since, therefore and because of. After that, the group class is divided into small groups of students and they are given sentence extracts in order to match them using a connector of cause and effect. 1. Grant has turned his mobile phone 2. I can´t buy a new mobile phone 3. The alarm clock on my mobile phone, 4. My dad likes talking on his mobile phone while he´s driving 5. Sue isn´t answering her mobile phone, 1. He bought a headset. 2. He is in an important meeting. 3. I wake up on time every morning. 4. I haven´t got enough money. 5. I´ll leave a message on her voicemail. Because, So, Since, Therefore, Because of. The second half of the session takes place in the computer room so that SS can develop techniques of autonomous learning. As it was suggested in the Final Task 1, in pairs or groups of three, depending on the availability of computers, SS work on a post about the advantages and disadvantages of mobile phones that they must upload to a web created by the English department. First, the SS in small groups brainstorm the advantages and disadvantages of mobile phones and they write them in a chart. After that, the task is divided so that a member of the group writes a short paragraph about the advantages of mobile phones, another member writes about the disadvantages and the other writes at least two sentences about how to solve the problems with mobile phones. Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 49 As homework SS will check other groups writings following a given checklist. The concepts valued will be:  Capital Letters and Punctuation  Paragraph Structure  Word Order  Adjective Order  Referencing  Connectors of Cause and Effect The teacher will monitor the students and will check that the corrections are made in the appropriate way. The most relevant posts written by the SS will be read to the whole class. Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 50 APPENDIX 2 Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 51 Research Report How is Pronunciation Taught in Different Educational Schools? Evaluación, Innovación e Investigación Docente Máster en Profesorado de Enseñanza Secundaria y Bachillerato 2011-2012 EVA BRINQUIS SERRANO MARÍA CUELLO SÁNCHEZ MARÍA GALÁN SÁNCHEZ Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 52 INDEX 1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………… 3 1.1 Literature view………………………………………………………… 3 1.2 Purpose………………………………………………………………… 4 2. Methods………………………………………………………………………… 5 2.1 Participants……………………………………………………………… 5 2.2 Materials………………………………………………………………… 6 2.3 Procedures………………………………………………………………. 7 3. Results………………………………………………………………………… . 9 3.1 Charter School María Auxiliadora……………………………………… 9 3.2 IES Pilar Lorengar……………………………………………………. 12 3.3 Official School of Languages Fernando Lázaro Carreter…………….. 14 4. Discussions…………………………………………………………………… 22 5. Conclusions…………………………………………………………………… 24 6. References…………………………………………………………………….. 26 7. Appendixes…………………………………………………………………… 27 8. Graphs………………………………………………………………………… 29 Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 53 How is Pronunciation Taught in different Educational Schools? 1. Introduction A great variety of changes have been carried out in the teaching of English as a foreign language over the years. Following Celce-Murcia et al. (1996: 2) “grammar and vocabulary have been much better understood by most language teachers than pronunciation, which began to be studied systematically shortly before the beginning of the twentieth century”. If we have a look at the different teaching language methods and concretely concerning the grammar-translation and the reading based approaches, we can state that teachers give more prominence to grammar and lexis than to the spoken language in general and of pronunciation in particular. In these methods pronunciation was almost fully disregarded. However, not all the traditional methods have been based on grammar but others have taken oral aspects into account. For instance the Direct Method was not only focused on grammar but also used the target language in the classroom based on everyday vocabulary and communication. According to Brown (2001), “pronunciation was very important and it was taught through imitation and repetition.” In the 1940s and 1950s the Audiolingualism method was the main method to follow in which pronunciation is considered essential and it is taught from the beginning. Learning is based on creating the right response to a stimulus avoiding bad habits and making the students conscious of the importance of an accurate pronunciation. Later on, the Cognitive Approach focused again on grammar and vocabulary. This was because it was thought that getting a native-like pronunciation was unrealistic and could not be achieved being time better spent on teaching more learnable items, for instance grammar structures and words. New methods were created in the 1970s, for example the Silent Way in which the teacher spoke as little as possible using gestures to indicate the students what they should do. Nowadays, the Communicative Approach which emerged in the 1980s is the predominant approach to teach English as a foreign language. It holds that communication is the main goal of language and this should be central in the English teaching process. With the arrival of the Communicative Approach, a debate about the Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 54 methodology of how pronunciation should be taught was born. People started to think that supra-segmental features were even more important than segmental ones. Moreover, in our days, the debate continues and pronunciation is considered to be taken into account to be worked in an integrated way during the lessons, but we all are conscious of the various difficulties that Spanish learners present dealing with pronunciation. Being pronunciation the most difficult skill for Spanish students, we would like to focus on how pronunciation is worked in every educational school, analyzing and reflecting on the main reasons that can cause this difficulty. Thus, we have taken advantage of our school placement in different Educational Schools in Zaragoza, such as the charter School María Auxiliadora, the public Secondary School IES Pilar Lorengar and the Official School of Languages Fernando Lázaro Carreter. Because of the diversity of the three Educational Schools, we have concluded that the results could vary and we would be able to obtain a wide range of samples. The charter school María Auxiliadora is located in the neighbourhood of San José. This is an area inhabited by working-class families from which a noticeable amount are disorganized. Therefore, this fact has consequences in the students´results. Concerning the public Secondary School IES Pilar Lorengar, it is located in La Jota neighbourhood. In this area the inhabitants, both a mixture of working-class and middle-class families, that have been living in the suburb for not many years. Generally speaking, students obtain good results except for some specific cases. In the case of the Official School of Languages Fernando Lázaro Carreter, it is located in the suburb of Actur. In this school there is a great variety of students, according to their age and occupation. Generally speaking, students attend voluntarily to the lessons so the class development is really different from the other two schools described previously. As it is visible in the differences that exist between the three Educational Schools and their different methods in English teaching, we think that we can obtain a reliable answer to the following questions:  How is pronunciation taught?  Are the existing methods enough and effective?  Why is pronunciation a failure in most of the cases?  Which devices would we propose in order to solve this problematic situation?  Which would be the appropriate suggestions to achieve an improvement in pronunciation and to make students aware of the importance of it? Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 55 2. Methods 2.1 Participants In order to elaborate this Research we selected various groups from each educational school in which we took our school placement. To start with, from the charter school María Auxiliadora we chose a group of 2nd CSE compound by 24 students from which 11 were girls and 13 were boys, including a Native American student. A high level of immigrant students attends this class, above all Latino-American boys and girls who, in general, have some problems with behavior. We decided to select this group because it was a numerous class with several students with not very good behavior and not a high level of English. Besides, the fact of having a native student in the group made us believe that it would help in our teaching placement and consequently, to our research project. We also selected the group of 4th CSE diversification compound by only 13 students, in which the vast majority was girls and there were just 3 boys. We chose this group because we thought that they could have special educational needs regarding the pronunciation of the English language. Moreover, we wanted to include a group of this age in our research project so as to get more mature samples from students in order to show variation among groups. Appart from that, we analyzed one class-group from the public secondary school Pilar Lorengar. It was a group of 3rd CSE compound by 18 students in which boys are predominant. We wanted to work with this group because we already had a sample of 2nd CSE and 4th CSE, thus we wanted to include different levels to enrich the content of our research. To finish with the participants, from the Official Language School Fernando Lázaro Carreter, the students chosen belonged to two different groups of upper intermediate levels. One of them was compound by 25 students while the other one had 23. Their ages ranged from 17 to 50 years old. The two groups had similar characteristics. They were very motivated to learn English, specially the language pronunciation since they had to pass an oral exam at the end of the academic year. 2.2 Materials In order to carry out our Research, we designed a series of questionnaires to both the students and the teachers and handed them in to be completed. The questionnaires elaborated for the students had a total of nine questions focused on the importance of Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 56 pronunciation in the subject of English, the role of teachers and their own role to improve it, their motivation to learn the language and its pronunciation, the reasons why they are afraid of speaking in English and finally their self-assessment concerning the English pronunciation and the measures to improve it. In contrast, the questionnaires addressed to teachers were compound by eight questions dealing with the methods used to teach pronunciation, the use of RP and other varieties of English during the lessons, the effectiveness of the materials used and the exercises included on them, the possibility of using additional materials to teach pronunciation, devices and strategies that the teachers use to improve the pronunciation of students, alternatives to solve problems with pronunciation, visible difficulties during the lessons to teach pronunciation and new ideas that they would add in order to obtain a more effective learning. Both models were elaborated in Spanish in order to obtain the most reliable answers as possible because for students it is not easy to answer in English and our aim was to obtain real opinions from them. However, we have included these questionnaires translated into English. The main reasons for including these questions in the questionnaires handed in, were that we wanted to reflect on the teachers and students´ opinions, and consequently, propose useful solutions for real problems that are affecting the teaching of the pronunciation skills in our lessons. In order to achieve the goal mentioned above, we decided to create open questions so as to select the most relevant information letting the students express themselves in an open way with no pressures. Additionally, during the last week of our school placement we were observing the way in which our mentors worked with pronunciation during the sessions, taking notes of the most relevant details. 2.3 Procedures The procedures followed by the participants were different in each educational school as we could carry out the research in a different timing. Concerning the charter school María Auxiliadora, María Galán put it into practice during the last week of our school placement. She used two different sessions to hand in the questionnaires to the students of 2nd CSE and 4th CSE diversification. First of all, she took some minutes to explain what the questionnaires were about and to give clear instructions to students of how to answer them. Mainly, she explained that the Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 57 questionnaires were anonymous and they had to answer sincerely and coherently. Then, students took more or less 10 minutes to answer the questionnaires and finally María picked them up in order to do our Research. Additionally, she gave the teachers´questionnaire to her mentor, AnaMar, and she handed it back answered the next day. If we refer to the public secondary school IES Pilar Lorengar, María Cuello provided the students of 3rd CSE with the questionnaires using one session of her school placement checking the student doubts and, at the same time, answering them. Before starting to do the questionnaires, Maria explained the students what was the main aim of doing the questionnaires, transmitting them the importance of doing them in an accurate and coherent way. Moreover, she asked the students to read the questions before and see if they were clear to answer. Once the students finished completing them, she asked them for their opinions about the questionnaires, Do you consider necessary to give your opinions about teaching in order to find solutions and, consequently, improve the teaching-learning process? Additionally, she handed in the teachers´ questionnaire to her mentor that was given back the following day. In accordance with the procedure followed in the Official School of Languages Fernando Lázaro Carreter, Eva Brinquis provided firstly the questionnaires to students of the first group, and secondly to students of the second group. The process took place during the last week of the School placement, and it was the same in both groups; before handing out the questionnaires to students, Eva explained the purpose and the importance of these questionnaires, giving some information to students, such as they are connected to a research project of the University, and the results were going to be analyzed and evaluated for one of the subjects of this Master. Moreover, Eva mentioned to students that they could fill in the questionnaires at home and the next day she was going to pick them up. She asked them if they had any questions or any doubts, but everything was clear and there was not any enquiry. Thus, the following school day, Eva collected some of the questionnaires but not all of them, since that day not all the students were in classroom because in an Official School of Languages the attendance to lessons is not compulsory, so she had to collect the rest of the questionnaires the next day. In addition, during the same week of the School placement, Eva provided the questionnaires to the teachers of the School´s English Department, and let some copies in the teachers ‘room in the case some teacher wanted to take a questionnaire and fill it in later or in other occasion. She explained and informed to the teachers about the purpose and the aim of these questionnaires and thanked them in advance for their collaboration. Finally, Eva collected the teachers `questionnaires the last day of the School placement in order to provide more time to teachers to fill them in. Unfortunately, they were very busy at that time and only three teachers took the time to write them. Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 64 8. Are you conscious of the importance of the English language around the world? Give several reasons to support your idea All the group is conscious of the relevance of the English language in the current world, especially in the labour market and to achieve communication. 9. Are you afraid of using English to communicate? Why? Most of the students, concretely 14, are not afraid of using English to communicate because they believe in the importance of practice to learn and speak a perfect English. However, 2 of them feel fear when they are speaking in English because they are afraid of making mistakes. According to the results of the Official School of Languages Fernando Lázaro Carreter, we could observe that the students’ answers of this educational center were more mature and more coherent than those obtained in the Secondary schools María Auxiliadora and Pilar Lorengar, since the students are much older and most of them are adults. Therefore, the answers are different and consequently the results change. Hence, these are the results: 1. Do you think that the English pronunciation is important in the language learning process? Why? All of them think that the English pronunciation is highly important in order to be able to communicate with people, and very useful to make the recipients understand the utterances. 2. Which mark would you choose to assess yourself in your English pronunciation, from 1 (bad) to 5 (perfect)? Most of them think that they speak English badly because they ranged their marks very low (from 1 to 3), indeed nobody marked 5. In general, Official School of languages´ students believe that the first thing to improve their English is their pronunciation, which they consider very difficult and very necessary. 3. What would you do to improve your pronunciation? Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 65 15 students think that they should practice more, speaking more in classroom with their partners, and interacting more with the teacher during the lessons. 6 of them think they should watch television or films in English more often, to read some book in English language, or listen to some English channels in the radio. 3 students think that it is necessary to study phonetics in order to improve their pronunciation. As they are adults, they prefer the self-learning and they consider themselves to be the responsible of their learning. So, learning autonomy plays a very important role in their improvement. 4. Do you think that the English pronunciation is worked enough in your educational school? Why? 21 students, the vast majority of the students, consider that English pronunciation is not worked enough in the school due to the lack of time in the lessons and the high number of students in the classrooms. In spite of each session lasts two hours, there is no time enough to work all the skills appropriately. Only 4 students think that English pronunciation is well worked in the lessons, and there is no need to change things. 5. What do you think that the teacher could do in order to improve it? 8 students think that the teacher already does lots of things in classroom related to improve their English pronunciation, so they think that she should keep on doing the same. 7 students think that it is necessary to practice more and speak more in classroom in order to improve the pronunciation. 3 of them think that teacher should spend more time in class teaching them how to pronounce correctly, and 5 students think that the teacher should follow a different methodology, providing them the phonetic transcription of the audios and recording listened in the lessons. 6. What do you think that you could do in order to improve your pronunciation? 17 students think that they have to practice more their pronunciation by means of speaking more in English lessons. 6 students think that they should watch television and films in English, read more in English, surf to the Internet and do some interactive pronunciation activities at home and so on. Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 66 Only one student think that drilling and repetition would help to improve his/her pronunciation. 7. When you hear a native speaker talking in English, do you feel like learning the language? That is to say, do you like how it sounds and do you feel attracted to learn the language? The vast majority, that is, 22 students love how the English language sounds. They consider English accents very attractive, and in general they would like to speak as native people do. They attend lessons in an Official School of Languages because they like this language and they are highly interested in learning English. They feel motivated to learn the language for different personal reasons. Only three students think that English language does not sound really striking. 8. Are you conscious of the importance of the English language around the world? Give several reasons to support your idea. Everyone, that is to say, all the students are aware of the huge importance that English language has in our society and in the worldwide. They wrote that English language is the most spoken language in the world and that nowadays it is very relevant for working. 9. Are you afraid of using English to communicate? Why? 20 students are frightened of communicating in English with others, they panic when making mistakes in English. Generally, they feel shy while speaking in English and they are afraid of not being understood by the receipts. They admit as well that they do not pronounce brilliantly the English language and their sense of the ridiculous is very high, so they do not make any effort in pronounce better, which makes more difficult their learning and blocks their improvement. Only 7 students are not afraid of using English to communicate. After having analyzed the answers obtained in the questionnaires handed in the three educational schools, we can state the following general conclusions. All the groups see the utility of the English language except for one student of the public IES Pilar Lorengar that do not believe in the importance of the English Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 67 pronunciation. Generally speaking, the youngest students chosen to analyze their opinions included in this research project, think that their pronunciation is good or quite good (3 or 4) which is not coherent according to reality although students in the official school of languages are more realistic and not so optimistic ranging their marks from 1 to 3. We think that this can be related to their ages and, consequently, their maturity. According to the answers obtained in question number 3, all the groups of students believe in the practice of pronunciation, the use of real materials like songs and films and the necessity of travelling. Regarding the results of the fourth question, the majority of the students think that pronunciation is not worked enough, but a minority think that it is worked enough even though they suggest that pronunciation should be worked and practiced more. In general, students’ opinion is that teachers should invest more time teaching English pronunciation and they should use different methodologies in order to achieve the main goal. Regarding the strategies that the students could apply in order to improve their pronunciation, most of the students consider that they should practice more (speaking and listening English both at home and in class), using real materials such as songs or videos, and repeat sounds in English class. It is important to highlight that in the sample of 2nd year of CSE, many students stated that they would not anything to improve their pronunciation, but we do not exactly know the reasons. Maybe it is because they are convinced that their pronunciation is correct enough or because they are not interested in English at all. However, the vast majority of the participants of this research consider the English language important and attractive, and they feel like studying English. In addition, they are aware of the importance of this language in all over the world and in the labor market, as it is proved in the answers of the question number eight. Generally, students stated in the questionnaires that they are afraid of communicating in English, however they believe that the best way to learn the pronunciation is practicing and speaking a lot. We think that Spanish people usually have the sense of ridiculous very high, which impedes their learning of other languages. So, they admit that this fear is a problem and they know that they have to make an effort so as to get the solution to avoid pronunciation errors. Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 68 Apart from the results of the students of the three educational schools, we handed in different questionnaires to our mentors and other teachers from the department. Now, we show below the results obtained in these questionnaires once compared among them. Questions Charter School Maria Auxiliadora Public IES Pilar Lorengar Official School of Languages Fernando Lázaro Carreter We consider that students generally do not pronounce English correctly. Which methodology do you use to learn the language pronunciation? -Explain English sounds -Drilling -Listening -Correct and revise pronunciation -Use key words -Invite students to participate -Drilling -Explain English sounds -Feedback Phonetic exercises Do you use RP as a reference or you also use other varieties of English in your lessons? -No answer found because she did not know what the RP is -RP -Not only RP but also American English and other international varieties Do you think that the textbooks used in class contain enough pronunciation exercises? Are they efficient? -There are few exercises but they are efficient -There are enough exercises but other activities are also integrated -There are not enough exercises but some of them are efficient Do you use additional materials to teach English pronunciation? -Photocopies -Pictures and songs -Not only Photocopies, songs and pronunciation exercises but also difficult words in order to call the Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 69 studens attention Which methods do you use in order to improve the students pronunciation? Could you mention some of your best strategies? -Correction, listening, drilling and reading in class -Read songs before listening, reflect about errors and interaction -Use of the language lab, transcriptions and drilling In case any of the students has more problems with pronunciation than the rest, which alternatives would you use? -Individual work but she thinks that it is impossible because of the high number of students in each class -Monitor and check using self-assessment and repetition -Exercises in which students record themselves to later listen to them but there is not enough time -Reading aloud Which difficulties do you see in the nowadays classes (because of the high number of students, their characters etc…) to the teaching of English pronunciation in particular and the teaching of the language in general? -Too many students -Lack of interest -Students do not see the utility of English pronunciation -Too many students -Bad acoustics -Too many students -Shy character -Bad acoustics -Not enough time Which new methodology and ideas would you add as English teacher in the terms of pronunciation to create a more effective learning? -To build a language lab -To read aloud -To call students attention with topics of interest -To know what are the main objectives for teachers and students Use of phonetic links on the internet -Pronunciation and oral exams -Reading aloud -To create more graphic courses in which pronunciation Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 70 was the main aim -Try to make students know the value of pronunciation After having analyzed all these results, we can generally conclude that concerning the methodology they actually use, we can find a wide variety of exercises in every educational school. On the one hand concerning the varieties of English used during the lessons, it is shocking that in the charter school Maria Auxiliadora, the mentor states that she does not know the concept of Received Pronunciation. Generally speaking, in all the educational schools RP is used although we consider interesting that in the Official School of Languages many other varieties are shown during the lessons, indirectly transmitting the students the idea that not only the English language spoken in Great Britain is the relevant one but also that as students they should know the other varieties and their characteristics. Instead, the amount of pronunciation exercises included in textbooks, generally speaking, the mentors in the different educational schools think that they are not enough but they are efficient indeed. Apart from that, they believe in the use of extra materials like photocopies or worksheets. If we consider the use of additional materials during the lessons, the mentors state that they include them and the most popular among them are songs and photocopies. As regards to the different methods applied to teach pronunciation, the ones that they consider more efficient are reading aloud in class, drilling and interaction. Nowadays, teachers are aware of the problems that some of the students can manifest when learning pronunciation in a foreign language. Thus, the answers given by the mentors are that they would make use of individual work, they would monitor and check students using self-assessment and they would practice with recording exercises, a good device to evaluate themselves and know in which point is their pronunciation learning. However, in all school centres is confirmed that it is impossible to incorporate these mechanisms into the real lessons because of the high number of students per class and the lack of time claiming more divided groups in the English lessons and longer sessions. Concerning the difficulties observed by the mentors in the nowadays sessions, they all consider that there are many students per class and this fact impede the effective pronunciation teaching-learning process. Moreover, relevant difficulties Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 71 are bad acoustics, the lack of interest in both secondary schools, the shy character of adults attending the official school of languages and the lack of time. Eventually, in order to solve the problems previously mentioned, the mentors propose new methodologies or strategies such as reading aloud, frequent visits to the language lab, oral examinations focusing on the improvement of pronunciation, the use of phonetic links on the internet to promote individual autonomy of learning and the attendance to courses specialized in pronunciation. 4. Discussion As general results, we can affirm that: - students think that pronunciation is not enough worked in the different educational schools where this research was done. - All the students except two consider the English language important and are conscious of the relevance that it has all over the world. - Most of the participants are optimistic concerning their pronunciation because they position themselves in a high score regarding their pronunciation, however, the students in the school of languages, that coincidently are the most mature, are more realistic about their pronunciation and think they must improve it. - Most of the students believe that to improve their pronunciation, it should be worked more during the lessons using a different methodology. - Most of the participants feel themselves ashamed when speaking in English because of their fear to make mistakes, but, at the same time, they are conscious of the fact that they are obliged to speak if their aim is to improve their pronunciation. Concerning the teachers interviewed, we can state that: - All of them think that the pronunciation is not enough worked during the sessions and the books contain few exercises to work it. Moreover, they confirm that they have to use additional materials if they decide to work on it. - All of them affirm that there are too many students to work with the language and the sessions that generally last 50 minutes are short. With all these data, we are now able to answer the questions previously mentioned at the beginning of the essay. Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 72  How is pronunciation taught? Pronunciation is taught in different ways depending on the educational school although there are some identical methods such as drilling and the explanation of the English phonemes.  Are the existing methods enough and effective? Concerning both the teacher´s and the student´s answers, the existing methods are not enough although some of the teachers state that although being few they are effective.  Why is pronunciation a failure in most of the cases? First, because there is not enough time to work on pronunciation. Second, because of the high rate of students per class. Third, because the books used do not contain many phonetics exercises.  Which devices would we propose in order to solve this problematic situation? Firstly, to prolong the session´s duration to 90´ or 120´ . Second, to propose the publishing companies the inclusion of more phonetics exercises. Third, to promote divisions so as to provide the students with a more complete teaching of the language. Finally, to include new methodologies for the teaching of pronunciation such as The Pronunciation Booklet in order to make the students know about the different phonemes and its pronunciation motivating them at the same time.  Which would be the appropriate suggestions to achieve an improvement in pronunciation and to make students aware of the importance of it? In order to achieve an improvement in pronunciation and to make students aware of the importance of it, an appropriate suggestion would be to lengthen the English sessions so as a native speaker provides the student with speaking activities at least for 30´ to make them aware of the importance of communication when learning a language. Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 73 5. Conclusions After having analyzed all the results of the questionnaires and evaluated all the data that we have collected throughout all our research, we can conclude that it is difficult to make the students pronounce English brilliantly, but not impossible. There are lots of recourses and mechanisms in order to develop and improve this section of English learning, and we, as future teachers, will make this possible using innovative methodologies and new strategies which are going to be discussed later on. Nevertheless, we also had some problems and limitations while carrying out our study. On the one hand, in the IES Pilar Lorengar the pronunciation is worked in an integrated way during the lessons but it is not well organized, that is to say, the teacher explains sometimes some pronunciation points or phonetics rules but he does not do it in a well-structured way. He does not prepare lessons specifically to work only the English pronunciation; in fact, he just introduces some pronunciation feedback to his grammatical lessons. For this reason, we think that it is not an effective learning tool and with this methodology, students cannot develop a good pronunciation skill. On the other hand, in the charter School María Auxiliadora, the limits or problems occurred were that the teacher does not consider English pronunciation as a key point in the English language learning, she highlights other aspects, teaching above all the grammar rules, listening and writing skills. Speaking is not valuated as the most important one, so it is also a big problem for students to get a good pronunciation. Besides, the teacher did not pronounce very well the English language so students did not have a good example to follow concerning pronunciation. She even did not know what RP is, which means that better and competent teachers are needed in Teaching centers. If teachers are not well prepared for teaching pronunciation, their students won´t be neither good at it. According to the Official School of Languages Fernando Lázaro Carreter, few pronunciation activities are worked in class, the teacher deals sometimes with the English pronunciation but very few times, so the students must work it at home with the help of Real prompts (watching TV and films in English, listen to the radio in English, drilling and repetition online activities, attending some conversational meetings in some pubs of the city in order to speak with other English speakers and so on). Another problem is that in the English books used in classroom there are few aspects related to pronunciation, they just mention few things about Phonetics. Accordingly, we and the teachers of our School placement consider that it is Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 80 2. Which mark would you choose to assess yourself in your English pronunciation, from 1 (bad) to 5 (perfect)? Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 81 Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 82 3. What would you do to improve your pronunciation? Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 83 Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 84 4. Do you think that the English pronunciation is worked enough in your educational school? Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 85 Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 86 5. What do you think that the teacher could do in order to improve it? Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 87 Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 88 6. What do you think that you could do in order to improve your pronunciation? Trabajo Fin de Máster. María Cuello Sánchez 89