Using anecdotes in English language classroom

Using anecdotes in English language classroom

Using anecdotes in English language classroom

ABSTRACT

presented graduation paper presents information about the definition, the structure, the usage and types of anecdotes.purpose of this study is to view anecdotes as a way for teaching students foreign language. For this it is necessary to analyze the anecdotes and find their advantages and disadvantages for teaching.accomplishment of this purpose was possible through the use of such methods of investigation as: analyses, explanation, classification, description, observation, comparison, contrastive exemplification and data collecting. I analyzed a number of anecdotes, chosen from the immense quantity of anecdotes all over the internet and over the books, in order to show their value for teaching foreign language; I gave examples of using them in the lesson activities, and finally divided the activities and the investigated material into two parts - for young students and for advanced and intermediate students.result of the investigations leads to the conclusion and once again proves that the anecdotes are of great value for every teacher whose main goal is to stimulate the students, to encourage the students for a free communication at the lesson, to motivate them to speak a foreign language and of course to accomplish all the tasks of the pedagogical process.

GLOSSARY

1.   Communicative Competence - what a speaker needs to know in order to be communicatively competent in a speech community.

2.      Communicative Language Teaching - teaches the language needed to express and understand different kinds of functions

.        Audio-Lingual Approach - a technique of foreign-language instruction that emphasizes audio-lingual skills over reading and writing and is characterized by extensive use of pattern practice.

.        Humor - the quality that makes something laughable or amusing.

.        Anecdote - a short usually amusing account of an incident, esp a personal or biographical one

INTRODUCTION

has been described as 'the most privatized of all public professions". "Teaching is a moral activity, because it is founded upon a relationship which involves making decisions and taking actions that influence the social, emotional, intellectual and moral development of others in one's care.has no use without communication. The ever-growing need for good communication skills in English has created a huge demand for English teaching around the world. Millions of people today want to improve their command of English or to ensure that their children achieve a good command of English. And opportunities to learn English are provided in many different ways such as through formal instruction, travel, and study abroad, as well as through the media and internet.main goal of the methods is that they help teachers to achieve better results in teaching. For such a help acts anecdote as well., the object of this research paper is the anecdote, as a specific form of narrative writing, a tool, as a means of accessing and using the reflective process, its usage in English class.of anecdotes:

) It is good to work on two works! It is a lot of money! But not because it is paid a lot of, but because there is no time to spend the money...

) Look at all schools of the country: a super blockbuster "Sit down"! And continuation "Sit down - 2"!main goal of this research paper is to view anecdotes as a way for teaching students foreign language. For this it is necessary to analyze the anecdotes and find their advantages and disadvantages for teaching.work aims:

to determine Communicative Competence

to determine the Audio-lingual Approach

its connection with Communicative Language Teaching

to describe what is an anecdote;

to describe the types of anecdotes;

to explain why anecdotes are useful in language teaching;

to explain how to use them in language teaching;

communicative competence anecdote language

CHAPTER I. APPROCHES TO DEVELOPING COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCES

most people communication is simply talk. It is a natural event. Students enrolling in an introductory undergraduate communication course will quickly reference a convenient and aging dictionary when asked to define communication and provide the following:

“Communication is a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior.” (Webster, 1983, p. 266).

The field of communication focuses on how PEOPLE use MESSAGE to generate MEANINGS within and across various CONTEXTS, CULTURES, CHANNELS, and MEDIA. [1]

1.1 Defining communicative competence

Free Encyclopedia Wikipedia suggests that communicative competence is a term in linguistics which refers to a language user's grammatical knowledge of syntax, morphology, phonology and the like, as well as social knowledge about how and when to use utterances appropriately.term was coined by Dell Hymes in 1966, reacting against the perceived inadequacy of Noam Chomsky's (1965) distinction between competence and performance. [2]'s theory of communicative competence was a definition of what a speaker needs to know in order to be communicatively competent in a speech community. In Hymes's view, a person who acquires communicative competence acquires both knowledge and ability for language use with respect to:

1. whether (and to what degree) something is formally possible;

. whether (and to what degree) something is feasible in virtue of the means of implementation available;

. whether (and to what degree) something is appropriate (adequate, happy, successful) in relation to a context in which it is used and evaluated;

. whether (and to what degree) something is in fact done, actually performed, and what its doing entails.theory of what knowing a language entails offers a much more comprehensive view than Chomsky's view of competence, which deals primarily with abstract grammatical knowledge. [3]

Dr. Lane from University of Kentucky dealt with the problem of defining communication competence. He comes with some examples of identifying communicative competence by some linguists. Initially, Spitzberg (1988) defined communication competence as "the ability to interact well with others" (p.68). He explains, "the term 'well' refers to accuracy, clarity, comprehensibility, coherence, expertise, effectiveness and appropriateness" (p. 68).

Friedrich provided a much more complete operationalization (1994) declaring that communication competence is best understood as "a situational ability to set realistic and appropriate goals and to maximize their achievement by using knowledge of self, other, context, and communication theory to generate adaptive communication performances."mentions also Parks (1985) who emphasizes three interdependent themes: control, responsibility, and foresight; and argues that to be competent, we must "not only 'know' and 'know how,' we must also 'do' and 'know that we did'" (p. 174). He defines communicative competence as "the degree to which individuals perceive they have satisfied their goals in a given social situation without jeopardizing their ability or opportunity to pursue their other subjectively more important goals" (p. 175).must be said some words about the useful framework for understanding communication competence designed by Spitzberg & Cupach (1984) and known as the component model of competence because it is comprised of three specific dimensions: motivation (an individual’s approach or avoidance orientation in various social situations), knowledge (plans of action; knowledge of how to act; procedural knowledge), and skill (behaviors actually performed).(1985) explains that communication competence is “an impression formed about the appropriateness of another's communicative behavior” and that “one goal of the communication scholar is to understand how impressions about communication competence are formed, and to determine how knowledge, skill and motivation lead to perceptions of competence within various contexts” (p. 173).

At the end Dr.Lane summarizes that communication competence is the degree to which a communicator’s goals are achieved through effective and appropriate interaction. [4]organization SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics, Inc) International uses Carol J. Orwig’s online book to give different origin of communicative competence. Communicative competence as a concept was introduced by Dell Hymes and discussed and redefined by many authors. Hymes' original idea was that speakers of a language have to have more than grammatical competence in order to be able to communicate effectively in a language; they also need to know how language is used by members of a speech community to accomplish their purposes. [5]

1.2 On the value of audio-lingual approach

According to the history given by The Free Encyclopedia Wikipedia the audio-lingual method <#"599687.files/image001.gif"> (happen) about ten years ago. I  (ride) my bike in England in the countryside. It was a beautiful morning, the sun  (shine) and the birds  (sing). I rode through a pretty little village and I (daydream) happily when I  (hear) a noise behind me. It was a click - click - click noise and at first I  (think) something was caught in the wheel of my bike. So I  (look) down but the wheel was fine. The noise started to get louder and I looked behind me. To my alarm, I saw that an  (adjective: very big) dog  (chase) me. It was the  (adjective: superlative) dog I had ever seen. It looked more like a donkey than a dog! usually bark when they  (chase) bikes. But this one  (not / bark) and this  (worry) me even more. I pedalled as hard as I could and the bike began to go faster but still the dog was chasing me. I looked round again. I (can / see) him clearly. He had a big red tongue which  (hang) out of one side of his mouth and a row of gleaming white teeth! Then there  (be) a loud bang, the bike jumped up and down and I nearly  (fall) off as I went over a cattle-grid* at high speed. But fortunately, the grid seemed to stop the dog because the next time I looked round he was gone. A little further up the road I stopped my bike and had a drink of water. My heart  (still / beat) like a steam engine. [36]

Teaching vocabulary.

·    Why is it that when you transport something by car, it's called a shipment, but when you transport something by ship, it's called cargo? [37]. This story is mnemonic (meaning ‘memory aid’) for remembering the twelve Signs of the Zodiac, in order, staring in January. This is the method of creating a story mnemonic, which can be used to retain all sorts of difficult-to-remember pieces of information.

·    In January, a goat (Capricorn), drinking from a stream (Aquarius) said: “Look, a fish (Pisces).” A ram (Aries), and a bull (Taurus), carrying the twins (Gemini) said: “There’s also a crab (Cancer).” A lion (Leo) roared in agreement, which startled the young maiden (Virgo) so that she dropped and smashed her scales (Libra). “That’s no crab - it’s a scorpion (Scorpio),” said the archer (Sagittarius). [38]

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BIBLIOGRAPHIE

1. Barnes, D. (1992). The significance of teachers' frames for teaching. In T. Russell & H. Munby (Eds.). Teachers and leaching: from classroom 10 reflection (pp. 9-32). London: Falmer Press.

. Beattie, M. & Conle, C. (1996). Teacher narrative, fragile stories and change. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education,24(3), 309-326.

. Benson, M. J. 2000. Writing an academic article: An editor writes. English Teaching Forum 38(2): 33-35.

. Berliner. D.C. (1988). The development of expertise in pedagogy. Charles W. Hunt Memorial Lecture, American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, New Orleans, Louisiana, ED 298122.

. Boud, D. & Walker, D. (1991). Experience and learning: reflection at work. Geelong: Victoria, Deakin University Book. Production Unit.

6. E. Fuller, 2500 Anecdotes <#"599687.files/image001.gif"> (happen) about ten years ago. I  (ride) my bike in England in the countryside. It was a beautiful morning, the sun  (shine) and the birds  (sing). I rode through a pretty little village and I (daydream) happily when I  (hear) a noise behind me. It was a click - click - click noise and at first I  (think) something was caught in the wheel of my bike. So I  (look) down but the wheel was fine. The noise started to get louder and I looked behind me. To my alarm, I saw that an  (adjective: very big) dog  (chase) me. It was the  (adjective: superlative) dog I had ever seen. It looked more like a donkey than a dog!
Dogs usually bark when they  (chase) bikes. But this one  (not / bark) and this  (worry) me even more. I pedalled as hard as I could and the bike began to go faster but still the dog was chasing me. I looked round again. I (can / see) him clearly. He had a big red tongue which  (hang) out of one side of his mouth and a row of gleaming white teeth! Then there  (be) a loud bang, the bike jumped up and down and I nearly  (fall) off as I went over a cattle-grid* at high speed. But fortunately, the grid seemed to stop the dog because the next time I looked round he was gone. A little further up the road I stopped my bike and had a drink of water. My heart  (still / beat) like a steam engine.

Woodlands Junior School, “Kids Christmas Jokes”

•        What do you say to a cow that crosses in front of your car? - Mooo-ve over.