Module 7: Topics, situations, notions, functions Methods of Teaching English 2 Instructor: Dr. Suzan Arafat

Introduction Language has traditionally been segmented into sounds, vocabulary, grammar, but it may equally well be taught through larger meaningful segmants based on whole ‘ chunks’ of discourse( Ur, 1996). Such chunks can be based round common topics such as holidays, work, family…. etc. Ur ( 1996) goes on to say that another possibility is to base the language round situations like expressing interests, introducing oneself, informing……etc. Many course books base their units on topics or situations among these is English for Palestine.

Samples from English for Palestine Of lessons based on topics or situations : Below is the given explanation about TOEFL and IELTS language proficiency tests as appeared in Grade 12,Unit 9, Reading Section, Activity 5.

An example is in Grade 12 textbook, Unit 7, Reading Section, Activity 4. Shareefa does not want to get married and asks for Jasmine's advice for help. This activity reflects the Palestinian Practices in such situations of sometimes, forcing female daughters to marry instead of continuing education.

Activity 5 in the Second Reading Section below introduces Tourist sights in USA using positive words and phrases to make readers interested in San Francisco.

What a topic is ? In linguistics, the topic is what is being talked about. It is the phrase in a discourse that the rest of the discourse is understood to be about ( Wikipedia, 2013). On the other hand; situations are topics' brought alive' as it were, and integrated into some kind of communicative event( Ur,1996).

Introducing a new topic or situation New topics and situations need to be presented in much the same way as new language items or texts (see Module 1 Presentations and explanations). The presentation of topics or situations may be approached from different directions; for example: Take the topic or situation, do a task based on it, eliciting from the learners or teaching any necessary new language, possibly going on later to study a text. Teach the new language through the topic, situation or a text. Go straight into a text, using it both to teach new language and to explore the relevant topic/ situation.  For ideas for presentation of new topics or situations, see our text book Box 7.1, p. 91.

What are notions and functions? ( The difference between a notion and a function) A notion is a concept, or idea: it may be quite specific, in which case it is virtually the same as vocabulary (e.g. dog, house etc) or it may be very general –( time, size, emotion, movement) in which case it often overlaps with the concept of 'topic ‘. A function on the other hand is some kind of communicative act : it is the use of language to achieve a purpose, usually involving interaction between at least two people– e.g. suggesting, promising, apologizing, greeting, etc.

Functions and notions vs. topics and situations Notions and functions are rather more precise categories than “topics and situations”. Topics and situations are communicative events whereas notions and functions are the ways particular meanings are realized in language, for example – a topic is “the family”, a situation is “visiting a friend’s home”, notions and functions may be things like “time past” or “inviting”. “Time past” may include past tenses, phrases …, “inviting” may include phrases like “Would you like to …?”, “I suggest…”.

How bits of language should be presented to learners? Topics, situations, notions and functions should be taught (it is more effective) as meaningful chunks of language in context rather than decontextualized items such as lists of vocabulary, or grammatical structures. Teaching of larger language components such as functions or topics is most effective when combined with some teaching of other smaller segments such as vocabulary or grammar. Conversely the learning of pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar is probably most effective when these are also integrated into activities that use the target items meaningfully for some communicative purpose i.e. the different language segments should be combined.

If we are going to combine pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar with more communicative language segments such as functions and notions, how do we select what to study with what?

In principle, any grammatical structure or vocabulary item may be used within a variety of notions, functions, topics and situations- and vice versa. For example, the notion of possibility may be expressed by the modal can; but also by words like perhaps and feasible, and expressions like (would not exclude the possibility that).

Some techniques of teaching such samples contextualized within texts Learning by heart : Definition: (also known as rote learning) is a memorization technique which based on repetition. The idea is that one will be able to quickly recall the meaning of the material the more one repeats it. Some of the alternatives to rote learning include meaningful learning, associative learning, and active learning ( Wikipedia, 2013). Criticism: Within language teaching, learning by heart has been associated with the audio-lingual methodology popular in the 1960s but later rejected by most methodologists. More recently, however, both within language teaching and in other areas of education, people are beginning to realize that learning by heart has value, for example Just as an automatic knowledge of the

multiplication tables enables the young mathematician to progress faster into interesting problem-solving,so memorized chunks of language or formulaic utterances associated with particular communicative contexts furnish the learner with a rich and reliable vocabulary which contributes significantly to his or her overall mastery of the language(UR,1996).

Another technique Varying a theme: to take the basic text and elaborate on it. Rather than simply learning or answering comprehension questions on texts, the class may be invited to vary and extend them, leading to further exploration of the kind of language being learned. They might, for example, either on their own or in collaboration with the teacher, do one or more of the following:

create a new text on a similar topic suggest other ways the writer could have expressed the same notions or functions; what difference would these changes have made? re-present the original text in a different way: if it was a diary entry, for example, then reconstruct the dialogue, or vice versa.

References Ur, P. 1996, A Course in Language Teaching, CUP English Language Curriculum for Public Schools Grade12 (2013). Palestinian National Authority. Wikipedia,(2013). Rote learning. Retrieved February 22, 2013 from Wikipedia,(2013). Topic–comment. Retrived February 20, 2013 from %93 comment