COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE COMMUNICATIVE CLASSROOM

A linguistically informed teacher about views of language can either adopt structuralist or functionalist approach to successfully teach language in his/her classroom. The Communicative Language Teaching is aimed at attracting second language learners to purposeful classroom activities in which learners use and reproduce language as it is practiced in real communication beyond the classroom in meaningful situations. To achieve this, a linguistically well-informed language teacher needs to focus on his role as a facilitator, an interdependent member of the classroom, a needs analyst, a counsellor, and a group activity manager. In addition, the teacher needs to remember that in communicative classroom students negotiate (for meaning) between themselves in their own ways in the classroom communications. Therefore, a linguistically well-informed teacher needs to consider what classroom activities he needs to pick up to achieve the ultimate goal of the CLT, which is the communicative competence

COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE COMMUNICATIVE CLASSROOM

A linguistically informed teacher about views of language can either adopt structuralist or functionalist approach to successfully teach language in his/her classroom. The Communicative Language Teaching is aimed at attracting second language learners to purposeful classroom activities in which learners use and reproduce language as it is practiced in real communication beyond the classroom in meaningful situations. To achieve this, a linguistically well-informed language teacher needs to focus on his role as a facilitator, an interdependent member of the classroom, a needs analyst, a counsellor, and a group activity manager. In addition, the teacher needs to remember that in communicative classroom students negotiate (for meaning) between themselves in their own ways in the classroom communications. Therefore, a linguistically well-informed teacher needs to consider what classroom activities he needs to pick up to achieve the ultimate goal of the CLT, which is the communicative competence

Lessons from successes in medical communication training and their applications to accounting education

Accountants interact with people from diverse backgrounds. While accounting knowledge and technical skills are essential, it is well-developed interpersonal skills that will enhance their relationships with clients and staff alike. Similarly, patients want their doctors to have extensive medical knowledge and an agreeable bedside manner. To address this, professional communication training forms part of the education of doctors and has been extensively researched. Employers of accounting graduates are looking for students with well-developed interpersonal skills. However, concerns continue about how well accounting education has addressed this need. In addition, research on approaches to improve accountants' interpersonal skills is limited. This paper seeks to raise awareness that successes in medical professional communication training may be drawn on to help frame an interpersonal skills training approach appropriate for accounting education. Also provided are two appendices that may assist accounting educators. One takes a medical communication model and suggests how it might be adapted to understand accountant–client interactions, while the other summarises the key issues to be considered in implementing interpersonal skills training including listing some helpful resources

Le strategie didattiche e valutative per lo sviluppo delle competenze. Una ricerca nella scuola secondaria di secondo grado

La nozione di competenza è stata studiata negli ultimi decenni e, parallelamente, le università e le scuole hanno implementato modalità di progettazioni per competenze. Questa ricerca ha evidenziato se le strategie didattiche e valutative, indicate come quelle più funzionali per lo sviluppo delle competenze, vengono utilizzate nella scuola secondaria di secondo grado della Liguria. È stato sottoposto un questionario a un campione rappresentativo dei docenti e degli studenti liguri, per evidenziare l’accordo e l’uso effettivo in classe delle strategie indicate. I risultati indicano che gli insegnanti apprezzano tali strategie, ma incontrano difficoltà nella loro attuazione. Gli alunni, in alcuni casi, confermano i dati dei docenti, in altri, percepiscono le azioni dei loro insegnantidifferentemente. Questa ricerca può orientare la formazione degli insegnanti, in quanto permette di focalizzare le difficoltà specifiche nell’attuazione delle strategie didattiche e valutative specifiche per lo sviluppo delle competenze

Using a computer learning environment for initial training in dealing with social - communicative problems.

The most widely practised instructional method for the development of interpersonal skills is role-play. Role-play is supposed to be a complex learning environment for novices to develop interpersonal skills. The learning environment is complex because of two factors. Firstly, the cognitive load is high during social-communicative problem solving because the execution of all steps has to be taken immediately in a goal-directed dialogue. Moreover, social-communicative problem solving is acted out in a play. A computer learning environment for initial training in dealing with social-communicative problems is suggested to simplify and facilitate learning. A learning environment with computer-based role-plays has been piloted and evaluated. Two experiments have been examined the effect of the learning environment on interpersonal skill development. The results are described. The main conclusion is that the learning environment is considered as having the potential to assist in realizing effective gradual lead- into interpersonal skill development and instruction for novices

Social skills of students with emotional disabilities: A technology -based intervention

Students with emotional and behavioral disabilities can be some of the most difficult students to keep in the regular school setting, let alone include in general education classes (Desbians & Royer, 2005). Often, higher percentages of students with emotional disabilities are placed in the most restrictive settings (e.g., homebound, hospitals, and residential settings) than students with any other disability (Nelson, Jordan, & Rodrigues-Walling, 2002). One of the keys to success for these students is consistent and systematic instruction in the areas of behavior and social skills (Williams & Reisberg, 2003); The use of multimedia, student-generated social skills lessons coupled with teacher facilitation to improve the social skills of middle school students with emotional disabilities was explored in this study. The effects of teacher-led social skills instruction and the combination of teacher-led and multimedia student-generated social skills instruction on the perceived social behaviors of the students were compared. The maintenance of perceived student social skills over time was examined. Also evaluated in this study were the effects of the traditional and combined interventions on student knowledge of social skills; The results of this study indicate that both interventions were effective in improving the students\u27 social skills and their knowledge of social skills. Teachers, parents, and students all perceived that student social skills improved over the course of the study. Students appear to have maintained the improvements over the maintenance periods. The participating teachers perceived that the combined intervention was more effective than the traditional intervention in improving the maintenance of social skills. Parents and students however, did not perceive any differences in the effectiveness of the two interventions or of the two interventions over time on the improvement of the students\u27 social skills performance