1. English Teaching for adult women

2. Nowadays, being able to communicate in foreign languages is a necessary requisite, both from a professional and interpersonal point of view. Nowadays, being able to communicate in foreign languages is a necessary requisite, both from a professional and interpersonal point of view. Speaking English is the key to successful international relationships, business and personal communications. Speaking English is the key to successful international relationships, business and personal communications. The knowledge of other languages besides our own is an important instrument to widen one’s perception of reality, by getting into contact with different cultures and mentalities. In particular, a language like English has become indispensable, as the basic communication in the field of international business and the new computer technologies is all in this language. The knowledge of other languages besides our own is an important instrument to widen one’s perception of reality, by getting into contact with different cultures and mentalities. In particular, a language like English has become indispensable, as the basic communication in the field of international business and the new computer technologies is all in this language. From the analysis carried out by partner institutions about the learners’ needs, also during the meeting in Naples, it has come out that there are several reasons because grown-up people can feel the need to learn English: From the analysis carried out by partner institutions about the learners’ needs, also during the meeting in Naples, it has come out that there are several reasons because grown-up people can feel the need to learn English:  to develop professional skills in order to enrich one’s own curriculum and in this way to facilitate the job’s search;  to improve abilities especially in the business, touristic, marketing and computer fields;  to enjoy one’s spare time in a creative and intelligent way, since most of the magazines, Internet, music, videogames, nowadays include this language;  to be independent while travelling abroad, since English is spoken on an international level.

3. Minimum standard to learn a foreign language succesfully To be considered communicative competent in a certain language, one have to reach a standard based on linguistic functions or tasks, such as: To be considered communicative competent in a certain language, one have to reach a standard based on linguistic functions or tasks, such as:  “asking for and giving personal data;  “asking and answering about habits and daily activities“;  “asking and answering about the weather, the time, the date;  describing oneself and people;  talking about possession;  describing one’s and other’s abilities;  asking and talking about likes and dislikes:  asking for a direction”;  ordering at the restaurant”;  classifying and pointing out objects;  asking and talking about future actions;  asking and answering about quantity, prices;  making comparisons among things and people;  inviting, accepting, refusing.

4. How to facilitate the learning process From the interviews accomplished on a sample of 10 teachers it has emerged that their privileged didactic method is not based on a “grammatical approach”, but on a “communicative and functional approach”. We don’t have to learn an abstract language, spoken only in books, but we must develop a communicative competence, enabling us to solve practical problems. From the interviews accomplished on a sample of 10 teachers it has emerged that their privileged didactic method is not based on a “grammatical approach”, but on a “communicative and functional approach”. We don’t have to learn an abstract language, spoken only in books, but we must develop a communicative competence, enabling us to solve practical problems. Meaningful interaction and natural communication in the target language are necessary for successful language acquisition. To facilitate adult learning we have to keep in mind that adults are self-directed in their learning, they are practical, problem-solving- oriented learners, they want their learning to be immediately applicable to their lives and finally they want to know why something needs to be learned. Hence derives that teachers must give learners opportunities and purposes for communication that reflect or relate to their lives and use authentic materials in activities whenever possible: To facilitate adult learning we have to keep in mind that adults are self-directed in their learning, they are practical, problem-solving- oriented learners, they want their learning to be immediately applicable to their lives and finally they want to know why something needs to be learned. Hence derives that teachers must give learners opportunities and purposes for communication that reflect or relate to their lives and use authentic materials in activities whenever possible:  role-playing;  a doctor/patient exchange or creating a chart with information on local medical services;  listening for details in a recorded telephone message;  reading classified ads from the local newspaper.

5. The importance of languages’ didactic With the acceleration of the globalization, to know the English today means "to know itself to have a cultural relationship" with interlocutors of several origins. With the acceleration of the globalization, to know the English today means "to know itself to have a cultural relationship" with interlocutors of several origins. Today, therefore, the “ Glottodidattica” inquires on methodologies for "the intercultural" teaching of the languages, in particular of the English language. Today, therefore, the “ Glottodidattica” inquires on methodologies for "the intercultural" teaching of the languages, in particular of the English language. How to prepare the student to pick and to make own the shape mentis and the system of values of the interlocutors, anyone they are? How to prepare the student to use these cognitions in order to communicate in the way more comprehensible (and congenital) possible? How to prepare the student to pick and to make own the shape mentis and the system of values of the interlocutors, anyone they are? How to prepare the student to use these cognitions in order to communicate in the way more comprehensible (and congenital) possible? The new didactics of the language must be used to promote a communicative and functional approach to the language The new didactics of the language must be used to promote a communicative and functional approach to the language Effective language use involves an automatic processing of language. To become proficient, learners need to move from a concentrated focus on grammar, forms, and structures to using language as a tool to accomplish communication tasks. Effective language use involves an automatic processing of language. To become proficient, learners need to move from a concentrated focus on grammar, forms, and structures to using language as a tool to accomplish communication tasks.

6. Adults learn anything best when: ► they feel in control and have choices in the direction of the learning process. ► they are given a high level of respect for their current viewpoints and status. ► there is no condescension by the teacher. ► the teaching builds on their previous experience. ► there is 'transferability' – they can apply the teaching immediately to real situations in their own lives. ► teachers realise that most people have a surprisingly short attention span. The hour-long lecture is not, in general, a good means of communication. After about 10 minutes of continuous input, people cease to absorb much new information. ► there is a mixture of teaching approaches, including considerable interactivity: role-play or drama, discussion groups, questionnaires or other feedback.

7. ► visual aids are used – e.g., video-clips, OHP graphics, Powerpoint. ► learners are given the space to come to their own conclusions based on evidence offered to them, in a non-pressured way. ► the learning environment is friendly, informal, and often humorous. ► they have the option to ask questions without fear of embarrassment or condemnation. ► they have a good trusting relationship with the teacher who should be sending them a good 'para-message' – in other words, learners are looking to see if the teacher's own life reflects the content and usefulness of the teaching: does he or she 'walk the talk'? ► the teaching has a specific, practical, assessable goal, rather than being vague, abstract, or aiming at a range of targets. ► they have a good relationship with the other learners. ► at least some of the learning process is within a small interactive group

8. Units planning. ► The Skills: - Comprehending oral and specific oral information, related to everyday life linked to the personal and professional experience of the pupils; - Producing oral information, related to everyday life topics linked to the personal and professional experience of the pupils; - Producing written information, related to everyday life topics linked to the personal and professional experience of the pupils. ► Vocabulary Each didactic unit will provide a specific set of new words to be learnt by the pupils in the least possible mechanical way. For instance : clothes, colour, rooms, sport, etc.

9. Grammatical patterns: ► Verbs To Have, To Be; ► Simple Present; ► Present Continuous; ► Prepositions Of Time And Space; ► Frequency Adverbs; ► There Is / There Are; ► Simple Past / Past Continuous; ► Simple Future, Be Going To, Etc; ► Some /Any; ► Verbs Can, May, Must, To Have To, To Want; ► Wh-Questions; ► Much-Many; ► Comparatives, Superlatives; ► Present Perfect; ► If sentences

10. Phonetics : ► the alphabet, analytic pronunciation of the sounds and sounds groups, intonation, rhytm and stress. English phonetic transcription plays a very big role in the process of learning English pronunciation. English phonetic transcription plays a very big role in the process of learning English pronunciation. For the language learner, a passive acquaintance with phonetic transcription enables him or her to extract precise and explicit information on pronunciation from a dictionary, bilingual or monolingual. Nowadays learners of foreign languages ought to have ample opportunities of hearing the language spoken, and not just by their teacher and their fellow-pupils. Television, video tapes, cassettes and CDs give today’s learners an advantage which earlier generations did not have. However, mere exposure to authentic language material, while it will certainly improve a learner’s comprehension ability, is not sufficient to ensure a good productive command of the language or a good pronunciation. Almost everyone can benefit from explicit pronunciation teaching, in which the use of phonetic transcription has an important role. For the language learner, a passive acquaintance with phonetic transcription enables him or her to extract precise and explicit information on pronunciation from a dictionary, bilingual or monolingual. Nowadays learners of foreign languages ought to have ample opportunities of hearing the language spoken, and not just by their teacher and their fellow-pupils. Television, video tapes, cassettes and CDs give today’s learners an advantage which earlier generations did not have. However, mere exposure to authentic language material, while it will certainly improve a learner’s comprehension ability, is not sufficient to ensure a good productive command of the language or a good pronunciation. Almost everyone can benefit from explicit pronunciation teaching, in which the use of phonetic transcription has an important role.

11. Metalinguistic reflection ► :The pupils will be induced to develop simple reflections about English structures, pronunciation and talk habits. In recent years, students’ metalinguistic reflection has aroused considerable interest among researchers. This interest stems, in part, from the observation that communicative language teaching alone does not lead to the desired level of language competency. In fact, in L2 classrooms where teaching is exclusively meaning-oriented, students often experience difficulties with accuracy. Consequently, researchers have suggested that some attention paid to forms through grammar instruction is necessary and that grammar instruction should be integrated in communicative teaching by presenting grammatical features contextually to learners. In recent years, students’ metalinguistic reflection has aroused considerable interest among researchers. This interest stems, in part, from the observation that communicative language teaching alone does not lead to the desired level of language competency. In fact, in L2 classrooms where teaching is exclusively meaning-oriented, students often experience difficulties with accuracy. Consequently, researchers have suggested that some attention paid to forms through grammar instruction is necessary and that grammar instruction should be integrated in communicative teaching by presenting grammatical features contextually to learners.

12. Socio-cultural aspects ► Socio-cultural aspects Two aspects of context are important for teachers of English, situational context and socio-cultural context. When they learn to consider situational context, students learn how their choice of language in a particular situation is influenced by purpose, subject matter, the mode of communication and the roles and relationships between the speaker or writer and the audience. Changing any one of these things changes the ways in which language is used. Two aspects of context are important for teachers of English, situational context and socio-cultural context. When they learn to consider situational context, students learn how their choice of language in a particular situation is influenced by purpose, subject matter, the mode of communication and the roles and relationships between the speaker or writer and the audience. Changing any one of these things changes the ways in which language is used. Students have some intuitive understanding of situational context. They know that talking to someone they know is different from talking to someone they don't know. They understand that they use language differently when asking for a favour or warning about danger. To help students build on this intuitive understanding, teachers expand the range of purposes and audiences for composing and comprehending and help students to think about how these influence their language use Students have some intuitive understanding of situational context. They know that talking to someone they know is different from talking to someone they don't know. They understand that they use language differently when asking for a favour or warning about danger. To help students build on this intuitive understanding, teachers expand the range of purposes and audiences for composing and comprehending and help students to think about how these influence their language use Socio-cultural context.is the other aspect of context that powerfully influences language use. It is this aspect of context that teachers focus on when they talk about critical literacy. Factors that have an impact on socio-cultural context include the values, attitudes, beliefs and assumptions held by the creator of a text and its audience. Socio-cultural context.is the other aspect of context that powerfully influences language use. It is this aspect of context that teachers focus on when they talk about critical literacy. Factors that have an impact on socio-cultural context include the values, attitudes, beliefs and assumptions held by the creator of a text and its audience.

13. Socio-cultural context

14. Example of a didactic unit Objective 1: to be able to greet people, introduce yourself, introduce others, ask for information, and give information.  Module 1: teaching the dialogue Competency: To be able to teach a dialog in such a way that the student can enact the dialog in a role play with classmates. Purpose: There are two main purposes for teaching the dialog. First, it will provide the student with a bit of language that will help him perform in a particular setting (writing a check, buying a stamp, etc.). The more specific you can be in adapting the dialog to the students' immediate circumstances, the more meaningful the dialog will be and the more likely it will be that the students will learn and use it. The second purpose of the dialog is to introduce certain high-frequency patterns of the language which will be practiced further in the dialog expansion activities.

15.  Module 2: dialog expansion, structure drills Competencies: To be able to introduce new vocabulary associated with the dialog topic. To be able to give student meaningful practice with sentence patterns used in the dialog.  Module 3: Cloze Type Dictation Exercise Competency: To be able to conduct a cloze type dictation exercise. Purpose: A dictation exercise can have many purposes. It is an excellent listening exercise and can by used to sharpen the skills of listening and comprehending. It also helps to develop reading and writing skills by exposing the student to the written form of the language as he listens to the spoken form. Students begin to recognize sight words and to make associations of sounds with letters. The dictations can also be used to develop spelling skills by leaving a blank in place of the words you want the student to practice. Finally, it can help the student to learn the structure of the language by focusing his attention of structures which he does not yet control.

16. Objective 2: To be able to give personal information about yourself. To be able to fill out forms with the appropriate personal information  Module 1: teaching the dialogue (continued) Purpose: This part of Module I is to re-enforce the dialog teaching skills which you developed in working with Lesson 1 by applying them to Lesson 2. In this section you will learn a more effective way of teaching question-answer sequences.  Module 4: teaching pronunciation Competency: To be able to help students improve their pronunciation. Note: Native-like pronunciation is difficult for most adult learners to achieve in a second language. The achievement of it requires not only skilled teaching but a high level of internal motivation on the part of the student. Most adults are satisfied with reasonably intelligible speech in the second language and this is an acceptable goal for the ESL teacher. This means that you need not concern yourself with correcting all the pronunciation errors you hear. Indeed this would do more harm than good. Your first goal should be to give assistance during the regular speaking lesson to students who are having difficulty with particular sounds. The particular sounds that students will find difficult will differ for different language backgrounds.

17. o Module 5: teaching numbers Competency: To be able to carry out several techniques for practicing numbers. Note: Because most adults already have developed sophisticated number concepts in their native language, teaching numbers is a matter of manipulating numbers in ESL. The following suggested activities can be carried out in any order. Better results will be obtained if the instructor teacher several brief (5 to 10 minute) lessons on numbers rather than one or two long ones. o Module 6: Teaching a Command Sequence Lesson Competency: To be able to teach a lesson through the use of commands and physical movement. Purpose: The command sequence lesson is based on the fact that in natural situations language learners usually develop listening skills before they are forced to speak a lot. It allows the student to hear commands and carry them out for a while and not feel compelled to speak before they are ready. The command sequence lesson is very non-threatening, and adults generally enjoy it and perform well. The first objective is to expose the student to commands and then later have him learn to give the commands. This second part -- having the students give commands -- may not happen during the first class.

18. o Module 7: Teaching the Alphabet ► Competency: To be able to enact several techniques for teaching the names of the letters of the English alphabet to persons literate in ► a language with a similar alphabet. ► Note: These activities will focus on teaching the names of the letters. It is assumed that the students already knows the upper and lower case forms of the letters and the alphabetical order of the letters and that they already read and write in their native language. It is intended that only a few minutes of any class will be dedicated to teaching the alphabet. It is preferable to spend several small blocks of time doing it rather than one large block of time. o Module 2: dialog expansion, structure drills (continued) ► Purpose: This part of Module II is to reinforce the skills developed in teaching Lesson 1 by applying them to Lesson 2. o Module 6: Teaching a Command Sequence Lesson (continued) ► Purpose: This part of Module VI is to reinforce skills practiced earlier in this lesson by applying them to practice 6. In addition you will learn how to get students to verbalize the commands.

19.  Objective 3 : To be able to give information about your job and your family. Module 1 : teaching the dialogue (continued) ► Purpose: This part of the module has 3 purposes  To give the new teacher the opportunity to apply what has been learned about teaching dialogs to a new situation.  To suggest a way to integrate the teaching of the dialog and the dialog expansion exercises.  To provide some additional suggestions or directions for various parts of the dialog teaching process Module 2: dialog expansion, structure drills (continued) ► Purpose: Most of the dialog expansion has been done as the dialog was taught. This is the ideal way of teaching the dialog because it makes it relevant, real and communicative. This part of the dialog expansion module will present additional expansion exercises and will discuss how to teach grammar.

20. ► Objective 4 : To be able to ask for the whereabouts of personal belongings. To be able to identify the locations of objects in the classroom. Module 1: teching the dialog (continued) ► Purpose: By the time you finish this section of Module I you should be able to apply the techniques you have learned to the remaining dialogs. Module 4: Teaching a Command Sequence Lesson ► Purpose: By the end of this part of the module you should be able to apply the skills you have acquired for teaching command sequences to almost any set of commands.