Hello Class!
This blog entry is meant to make us debate a little about fluency and accuracy.
When you read chapter 12 on page 83, you will find out that fluency and accuracy are fairly different and have different functions.
Nevertheless, as teachers, we must always try to provide a balance of activities to develop them both in our students.
After reading, please answer the following questions with your own words:
- How are fluency and accuracy connected? When and how do they affect each other?
- Which one should we prioritize in our class, fluency of accuracy? What things should we consider before deciding?
- Choose one activity among the ten options they provide, and:
- Explain why you think its main focus is in fluency, in accuracy, or in both.
- Explain how the activity is useful for a certain level of learner. (beginner, lower/upper intermediate, advanced, etc.)
- Create two adaptations to the activity, in order to improve it by changing its focus, length, approach, level of difficulty, etc.
Remember that opinions can not be exactly the same, and if you do not answer every question to the detail, you will not get all the points for your comments.
ResponderBorrar1. Fluency and accuracy are connected when someone is able to use their L2 for meaningful communication. Many of the learners focuse more in speaking accurately than fluently, thinking that accuracy reflects the english level that they have. But, the reality is that fluency happens when someone carries a conversation by speaking confidently, not thinking in their L1, not worrying about how accurate he or she is, not worrying about perfection ( even native speakers make errors). Well, both of them are important when speaking a second language.
2. As a teacher if your approach is based in communication, you will have as a result that learners use the target language for meaningful purpose and communication. Your learners will at the end , learn the grammar rules by trial & error. I do believe in Nunan`s Organic perspective that says that: “learners do not learn one thing perfecty one item at a time, but numerous things simultaneously” …and imperfectly. In my opinion, accuracy goes hand to hand with fluency. But, depending on the learners objectives, if the objective is to pass a toeffel exam or get a job, the objective in these cases will be accuracy in order to get their english certifications. On the other hand if you have learners that needs the language to communicate in different real-life situations or solving problems in real life, fluency in these situations becomes more important than accuracy. These are aspects to take into account when language teaching.
3. Activity 10: is focused in accuracy, useful for first level (beginners).
Adaptations of the activity: To promote students speaking skills and prompt students to collect certain information.
Information gathering activity
Learners are put into pairs conducted an interview in order to collect personal information. Both students have an information sheet for them to fill it out by interviewing one to another, asking referential questions to get the information. Let them talk to each other to find out the missing information.
Student`s Information
Name: _____________
Age: _______
Job: _____________
Telephone number ____________
Favorite food:_________________
Favorite color: ________________
Your interests: _________________
Make sure both students interview each other for them to get the required information. Let them discuss their personal information. As a closure, students present their partner to the class, making sure they are not reading the information sheets. This activity will be relevant and meaningful practice since students complete the task with their own information.
1. Fluency and accuracy are connected because both of them are Key components of second language acquisition. fluency and accuracy are equally necessary at different needs for different People of different priorities. accuracy is essential for learners to acquire linguistic form to produce the language and fluency is still needed considering the language implementation in an authentic environment.
ResponderBorrar2. I think that at Beginner level when the students do not have enough language to worry about fluency, we as teacher have to focus on accuracy. this carries on through to pre-intermediate when fluency activities like discussions and debates are introduced. later, when the students are reasonably independient language users, a mix of accuracy and fluency is used, with the focus shifting to fluency as students advance.
3. Activity #5: short presentation, is focused in fluency and in accuracy because is a short presentation and students are going to produce grammatically correct sentences and are going to be able to produce spoken language by communicate ideas effectively.
* The activity is useful to all levels of learners because it is an important element in delivering positive learning experiences. the objective of presentation is to improve communication skills and to train students to talk to a group of People.
*Adaptación to the activity.
-To motivate students to think about a topic that is interesting for student, and search information about it.
- To encourage students to speak in front of their partners.
1. As many studies, and the book itself shows, you can use one of the abilities as the ground for building up the other one; their connection is that of mutual dependency. However, many teachers and language learners tend to concentrate at mastering just one ability at the expense of the other one. Instead of practising a correct balance, fluency and accuracy are taken like opposite things. They just affect each other when one is put as a more crucial factor for language learning than the other one.
ResponderBorrar2. It all depends on the purpose of the language course in specific. However, I would say fluency should be first prioritized, at least in beginning levels. Students need to produce quantities of language in a way they feel confident and safe, eager and excited about using the language without worrying for someone calling out their faults. Mistakes will eventually banish as the learner uses the language. First, we need to encourage the deliberate and quick usage of the language before we ask for perfectionism.
3. Explain why you think its main focus is in fluency, in accuracy, or in both
Activity #7
I think the focus of this activity is fluency, because the main goal of it seems to be encouraging the student to produce as most language as he/she can in a certain time span. The activity requires the student to produce an interrupted string of language with the minimal pauses or hesitations.
Explain how the activity is useful for a certain level of learner. (beginner, lower/upper intermediate, advanced, etc.)
Low intermediate level: The activity demands a great deal of vocabulary and encourages fast processing of information.
Create two adaptations to the activity, in order to improve it by changing its focus, length, approach, level of difficulty, etc.
#1. One adaptation for this activity would consist of dividing the class in small groups. Every group is given the same question or controversial topic, however some groups will have to be in favor and others against the statement. Every group must choose a writer and a speaker, they all create a mini speech, focusing in the correct use of grammar, tense, and object-verb agreement. After 5 minutes, the speaker must read the speech as it is written. Both, speaker and writer are changed every time a new topic is given.
This adaption focuses more in accuracy, students are given the task to create a written product without grammar mistakes, it is the most emphasized factor in the activity.The written speech would be graded
#2 . A second adaptation for this activity would be that first the students would listen to a prompt, they would have 1 minute to come up with ideas for that prompt, they can annotate the main ideas (like an outline), then they would have two minutes to discuss and choose a speaker. The speakers would be changed every time there is a new idea to talk about. The winner is the group who presents the ideas more effectively and accomplishing the 1-minute requirement.
In this adaptation, students would be working in both, fluency (as they always need to speak 1 minute, telling as much as they can), and accuracy, students need to structure their main ideas correctly.
1. How are fluency and accuracy connected? When and how do they affect each other?
ResponderBorrar-Fluency and accuracy are conected, and both of them are really important. If there are not accuracy we are not going to develop fluency, that`s why one depends on the other. They effect each other when we choose one as more important and we do not take importance to both at the same time.
- We should consider the purpose of to acquire the second language.
2. Which one should we prioritize in our class, fluency of accuracy? What things should we consider before deciding?
- It depends, for example English students from Ceutec, they prioritize on fluency, because they are stuying to work in call center. In the other hand we as English students from the UPNFM, have to prioritize on both, because we can't no make grammatical errors, because our students could be confused and follow our grammar mistakes and we have to communicate fluently in front of our students.
3. Activity #9
1. Explain why you think its main focus is in fluency, in accuracy, or in both.
This activity is focus on accuracy. In this activity students have to learn and put in practice a grammatical rule, and the activity is not asking for speaking, or reproduce the written sentences.
2. Bigginer: The activity is focus on grammar.
3. -To ask students to make a comparison between them using comparative adjectives in front of the class, to practice speaking.
1. Fluency and accuracy are connect in order to develop the speaking skill students more develop in a balance way the fluency of “keep going” in a conversation, but they also need to have the accuracy so the message is not lost. They will affect each other when the teacher focus in just one of them so the students that practice more fluency they will have more mistakes in speaking but the one that focus on accuracy will be unable to have a conversation in the real world.
ResponderBorrar2. The teacher need to develop both fluency and accuracy. The priority the teacher gives to each may depend on the needs of the learners, their existing strengths and weakness, as well as the level at which they are studying.
3. Activity number 1: Dialogue Building
3.1 I think that it is a perfect activity to develop both fluency and accuracy. Because you are using a transnational dialogue, there are formulaic language that is already establish for example presentation, so the students can practice in pairs during the classroom.
3.2 As teachers, we can practice the dialogue with the students to develop an accuracy, but when they practice between the students this can advanced in the fluency, to continue a conversation that is in common situations in real life. The teacher could ask the students to make a line in pairs one in front each other, the teachers use a whistled so the students can move from one side so the students can repeat with all the classmates.
3.3 For intimidate level it could help to introduce a more punctual speaking point, for example a visit to the doctor or buying lunch. The students can be divide in groups and the teacher practiced with the students. They can also practice the dialogue by doing a role-play using the cloths and prop.
For advanced level, we can present some transactional situations where the students can constructed their own dialogues and present to the classmates, so it will become a project of more than one class and not just speaking but also writing and reading since they will research for the dialogues and adapted to the context were we live.
1. Fluency and accuracy are connected because in order to have a good comunication we need to be good in accuracy as in fluency because fluency is the ability to Speak at a normal role without hesitation and accuracy is the ability to produce lenguage without mistakes. They affect each other when the speaker focus just in one for example if the speaker tries to avoid mistakes they will speak slowly and if the speaker tries to speak normally they probably will make a lot of mistakes.
ResponderBorrar2. In my opinion both are very important. However I think that we should consider fluency first because all of us make mistakes and through mistakes we learn. Also I think that our goal as teachers is to develop in the students the ability to produce reasonably large amount of lenguage fairly quickly and then we can correct mistkes.
3. Activity 3 is focused in accuracy because the students just practice the pronunciation and rules.
I think it will be useful for begginers because they need to acquire vocabulary and the grammar rules first in order to be fluency.
The first could be that the students spend five minutes preparing a paragraph using the main grammar point that the teacher is teachers.
Then the students get in pairs and ask them to exchange description and correct themselves.
1. How are fluency and accuracy connected? When and how do they affect each other?
ResponderBorrarThey are connected basically because they both are characteristics of a language, and also are characteristics a speaker of a language should have. As teacher we must make our students focus on both of them, as they both lead to a proficient speaker.
Fluency and Accuracy can affect each other in the way that a students who is ‘Fluent’, might not be accurate, because fluency has the characteristic of being fairly quick. On the other hand, being ‘Accurate’ will imply speaking not very fast, to have control of what is being spoke, and as a result, not being fluent.
2. Which one should we prioritize in our class, fluency or accuracy? What things should we consider before deciding?
Personally, I believe that ‘Accuracy’ is the one we should prioritize. We have to bear in mind that fluency is achieved at the expense of any attention to accuracy which leads to incomprehension making communication worthless. We need to make our students intelligible, not necessarily fluent, and this way, accuracy becomes more important than fluency.
The only thing we should consider, as I said before, is getting the message across, and this will rely on the level of intelligibility our students have. Another thing could be the importance of communication per se. We communicate to transmit ideas, that sometimes are important, and this way if we are not intelligible, our important messages will not be understood.
3. Choose one activity among the ten options they provide, and:
“ACTIVITY 5”
1) Explain why you think its main focus is in fluency, in accuracy, or in both.
The focus of this activity is on both (Fluency and Accuracy) because the task is provided ahead of time, so that students can have enough time to plan de activity, improve it, revise it, practice it to deliver it accurately and possibly fluently.
2) Explain how the activity is useful for a certain level of learner. (Beginner, lower/upper intermediate, advanced, etc.)
This activity is very useful with lower/upper intermediates because it gives them the opportunity to speak in short terms (As it consists of planning a presentation), and so, to develop speaking to the utmost possible.
3) Create two adaptations to the activity, in order to improve it by changing its focus, length, approach, level of difficulty, etc.
#1: One version for this activity could consist of getting students brainstorming topics they are interested in, by writing every idea they have in their notebooks. The next day, students should bring articles, documentaries and everything related to their topics of interest to the class for the teacher to check, and then write a short essay using the information they found. Later, they can give their presentations.
#2: A second version could involve making students quickly think of a topic of their interest in their class, and then getting them presenting their ideas to the class and the reason why they selected that topic. Then, the teacher selects the topics that are similar and gets students in groups of four if possible. Then, the teacher asks students to prepare a short presentation about the topics they selected (As students are going to be organized in groups, and this groups will share the same interest, the presentations are going to be more exciting for them).
1.-How are fluency and accuracy connected? When and how do they affect each other?
ResponderBorrar-To begin, the important thing is that learners engage in activities which give them the opportunity to develop in both areas as is mentioned in chapter 12 where says “When teaching vocabulary or grammar it is necessary to provide a balance of activities which help to develop both fluency and accuracy.” That is because what we have to take into account is that fluecy and accuracy will impact upon one another, their impact could depends in what learners want.
2.-Which one should we prioritize in our class? What things should we consider before deciding?
Learners needs play a big role in here because if what they do is to avoid mistakes, trying to communicate as accurate as possible, then they priority is accuracy but, if what they want is to communicate freely and reasonably their priority is fluency, thus as teachers we have to have a balance between both of them in order to fullfill learners needs.
3.-Choose one activity among the ten options they provide, and:
Activity N°3: “The teacher says a new piece of language. The class listens and the repeats.”
3.1.- Explain why you think its main focus is in fluency, in accuracy, or in both?
The main focus of this activity is in accuracy because the teacher is giving a piece of language well written to the learners and all what they do is just repeat, it does not allow the learners to make mistakes because all is already given to them.
3.2.- Explain how the activity is useful for a certein level of learner. (beginner, lower/upper intermidiate, advanced, etc.)
This activity is useful for beginners because they have not develop the confidence to produce maybe they are afraid to make mistakes so they fell more comfortable by saying something that they know is correct.
3.3.- Create two adaptations to the activity, in order to improve it by changing its focus, length, approach, level of difficulty, etc.
1. After giving them the piece of language, individually, they create a conversation including what they have just learned to discuss it with the whole class.
2. In group of four discuss what they learned in order to prepare a performance about it for then pass in front being allow to add things spontaneoulsy so they might develop not just accuracy but fluency as well.
1.How are fluency and Accuracy connected? When and How do they affect each other?
ResponderBorrarAccuracy is the ability to produce correct sentences using correct grammar on the other hand fluency is the ability to produce language easily and smoothly. Both are aspects are connected in orde to be able to communicate effectively, by fluenty we meant that the speaker is comfortable using the language an can be reasonably understood by other speakers, just because a speaker focus on accuracy does not mean they will be capable of producing effective communication.
2.which one should we prioritize in our class fluency or accuracy?
Accuracy and fluency can determine the success of an english language student in the future.In my opinion we as tecahers we should simply pat attention to both aspects of speech and not give undue priority to over the other, because they are equally important.
3. ACTIVITY 3 :
(The teacher says a new piece of language.The class listens and the repeat)
MAIN FOCUS: the activity focus on Accuracy, the teacher provides a new word well pronounced to the students and they just have to reap it. The teacher acts like a model and Ss follow what the teacher does in this case they copy his/her pronounciation.
HOW THE ACTIVYTY IS USEFUL?
LEVEL:
The activity is for beginners, It's a good way when they're acquiring a new language.They increase their vocabulary and they avoid feeling afraid of making pronounciation mistakes.
TWO ADAPTATIONS:
1.when they have the new word given by the teacher.They try to use it, in a short sentence.
2. The class is dived into two groups. Both groups use the Word given by the teacher. Each member of the group has to provide a new word with the last letter of the word given by the teacher.
Example:
ButterflY
Yellow
Window
Wine
Eagle.... each member gives the word orally and other member writes the words on the board. At the end the teacher checks the grammar mistakes and also she realizes about the pronunciation of each word given by the members of the groups.
1. Both activities are related to the ability to develop oral communication skills. Each activity provides elements for meaningful language learning.
ResponderBorrarEach of these activities is affected when an exaggerated use of it is made. When the learner wants to have a fluent conversation but without error he makes use of perfection but the whole process of oral communication is affected by trying to give more importance to one than the other. Everything must have a balance so the communication process does not collapse and the learner feels frustrated.
Activity is influenced over another when certain approaches give more importance to perfection and when the learner dominates this will get the fluency in communication.
Influences one on the other, depending on the situation of the learner, will use fluency when in a situation of greater confidence, with friends. If the situation is in front of an audience or teacher, their inclination will be perfectly avoiding mistakes, so goes to accuracy.
2. - According to the reading none of the activities is more important than the other, what the teacher must do is to create a balance of its use according to the activities to be developed. In addition, the teacher must take into account the needs of the students, the skills that the learner wishes to develop and that there are applied students who are interested in developing communication skills in a very advanced way and will take into account both activities.
3.-I like activity number 1 because it makes use of both activities by guiding the learner through the patter given of dialogue and vocabulary to use avoiding mistakes and giving confidence to the learner. It is a nice activity to develop with learner with low and intermediate level. Teacher can make adaptations to the activity so that it is developed by advanced. This would be to give to the learner a case of opinion, to present the situation of patient and doctor, where the doctor has to give to the patient a delicate health situation and to create a reaction from the patient without the teacher providing the dialogues already prepared (Construction of dialogues) and the activity is extended by asking the students to make a case simulation in front of their classmates and teacher (presentation). And to finish the teacher would ask for reflection on the subject where it involves all the learners of the course.
1. How are fluency and accuracy connected? When and how do they affect each other?
ResponderBorrarThey are connected in the way that one is the complement of the other. If we do not have some accuracy our speech may be riddled with errors, but if we focus more on this, we will not be able to keep a conversation fluently. So, is necessary to keep both in a balance because they can affect each other. For instance, if a learner consciously tries to avoid mistakes he probably will not develop fluency. Similarly, if a learner focus more on fluency he will make more mistakes.
2. Which one should we prioritize in our class, fluency of accuracy? What things should we consider before deciding?
I think it is important to balance accuracy and fluency among the various stages and activities in a lesson. Both refer to the productive skills of the students. Where one focuses on getting the language right, the other focuses on getting the language out smoothly and quickly. Of course, is the teacher who decides in which focuses more. He has to take in account the needs and the level of the students, because is the students have a high level it is necessary to focus more on accuracy.
3. Choose one activity among the ten options they provide, and:
Activity # 2: Discussion.
1. Explain why you think its main focus is in fluency, in accuracy, or in both.
I think it is more focused on the developed of fluency because the learner are going to discuss a topic just giving the reason why they agree or not. In this, they can make mistakes.
2. Explain how the activity is useful for a certain level of learner. (beginner, lower/upper intermediate, advanced, etc.)
It is useful for intermediate level because it gives them the opportunity to share their opinions at the same time practicing their English.
3. Create two adaptations to the activity, in order to improve it by changing its focus, length, approach, level of difficulty, etc.
# 1 The teacher can divide the class in two groups and present a topic, one group agree about the topic and the other disagree. Then, the teacher asks the students to come prepare for the next day because they will have a debate in class. In addition, she is going to evaluate pronunciation.
In this case, the students will have time to prepare their arguments and practice them before present it.
# 2. Other adaptation would be that the teacher organizes the students in small groups and asks them to write some arguments about why they agree or disagree about a topic. She gives them ten minutes to think and write their arguments without grammar mistakes and then they share their argumentations with the whole class.
Este comentario ha sido eliminado por el autor.
ResponderBorrar1. How are fluency and accuracy connected? When and how do they affect each other?
ResponderBorrarIn learning a language one of the skills needed to be developed is speaking and it implies fluency and accuracy these two terms are connected because the first one is necessary in order to have a fluent and natural conversation Fluency in a language means speaking easily, reasonably quickly and without having to stop and pause a lot, instead of that means having a good interaction and being able to change roles (being a listener or speakers and have a good response). On the other hand, accuracy means how correct learners use a language, the less mistakes a learner make the more accurate it is. So, fluency and accuracy are connected in order to make students to communicate effectively. They affect each other because fluency provides the speed for sounding natural but accuracy allows better communication without misunderstanding.
2. Which one should we prioritize in our class, fluency of accuracy? What things should we consider before deciding?
Definitively, both of them are important. In my opinion, as language teachers we should consider accuracy first because we want students to communicate in a logical way not just make them speak without any sense. I think fluency occurs as learners used a language through experiences with the language but accuracy is developed in the classroom where there is a teacher correcting mistakes and teaching how language should be used in a written and spoken form.
3. Choose one activity among the ten options they provide, and:
Activity 5
The learners are asked to prepare a short presentation on something they are interested in (perhaps as part of their homework). In the future lesson the Learners give the presentations.
1. Explain why you think its main focus is in fluency, in accuracy, or in both.
I think in both because students have time to prepare their presentations so that means they can check that they do not make any mistake (accuracy). And they have to give their presentation so that means they are going to give a presentation and they have to sound natural in from their classmates and teacher (fluency).
2. Explain how the activity is useful for a certain level of learner. (Beginner, lower/upper intermediate, advanced, etc.)
This activity is useful for students of all levels because what is going to change is the topic of the presentation. The more complex the subject is the more complex vocabulary becomes.
3. Create two adaptations to the activity, in order to improve it by changing its focus, length, approach, level of difficulty, etc.
In groups, students have to create their presentation using a technique like debates, round table, etc.
Students have to prepare their presentation and also write an essay about the topic they chose.
1. How are fluency and accuracy connected? When and how do they affect each other?
ResponderBorrarA1/ for successful communication to occur, fluency as well as accuracy is necessary as it is clear that sentences without either accuracy or fluency can hinder communication. That is, to enhance students' English proficiency, both aspects must be fostered.
A2/If a learner consciously tries to avoid mistakes they are likely to do so at the expense of fluency. Similarly, if a learner attempts to "keep going" and communicate reasonably freely they may well make more mistskes.
2. Which one should we prioritize in our class, fluency of accuracy? What things should we consider before deciding?
A/ they are both equally important. Teachers can use focuses that emphasizes on both aspects to develop with students. We should consider students needs and ideas regarding the content and goals they have for the class.
3. Choose one activity among the ten options they provide, and: ACTIVITY 3
1. Explain why you think its main focus is in fluency, in accuracy, or in both.
A/its main focus is on accuracy because the main goal of the teacher is for the students to be able to pronounce the words correctly in am isolated way.
2. Explain how the activity is useful for a certain level of learner. (beginner, lower/upper intermediate, advanced, etc.)
A/This activity is useful for begginers because they have little or no knowledge of the language. Therefore, by practicing they gain confidence on speaking the language. For other levels it may be an automatic boring activity.
3. Create two adaptations to the activity, in order to improve it by changing its focus, length, approach, level of difficulty, etc.
A1/ provide context to students. With the use of pictures ask students to use the words in sentences and to relate them to what they see on the picture. Therefore the word would have meaning for them and it would not be just another vocabulary word.
A2/ show a dialogue or a reading passage containing the target list of words and ask students to read in pairs the dialogue/reading. Asl questions regarding the nature and meaning of the word anf ask students to make sentences using those words.