thinking in arabic to write authentic english - margot arthur
TRANSCRIPT
• What do you think about using and/or allowing Arabic in the classroom?
• How much do you use and/or allow it and why?
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What mistakes do your students make?
• Verb ‘to be’
• He/she/it Present Simple –s
• Relative clauses – unnecessary pronoun
• Letter formation
• Punctuation
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My Ideas• Capital letters
• The idāfa construction vs. the possessive ‘s’
• Contractions
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Capital Letters
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Capital Letters
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Capital Letters
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Capital Letters
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Capital Letters
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Capital Letters
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Capital Letters
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The idāfa construction vs. the possessive ‘s’• Michael Swan – compound noun ‘of’ structure
• “This is one of the most difficult areas of English grammar”.
• Swan, Michael (1995), Practical English in Usage (2nd edition), Oxford University Press, p. 377
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Teaching the possessive ‘s’ to low levels• The house of my father.
• My father’s house.
• In one of them, you’re thinking in Arabic and the other, in English. Which one is which?
• Practice exercises
• Reminder during error correction
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Contractions
• “I no understand. Why important?” Mohammed, Elementary.
الطاولة على الكتاب
عترابيزة الكتاب
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Students’ reaction to my Arabic
• “It is good for me. Today you have a cold and I want to say ‘get well soon’ so you teach me.” Ahmed, Elementary.
• "My teachers at the British Council always are telling me to revise capital letters but I don’t think it is important. Now I understand.” Mona, Pre-Intermediate.
• “When you tell me I am thinking in Arabic, I see my mistake. Insha'Allah, I will start telling myself this soon.” Yasser, Upper-Intermediate.
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My research• Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers (2001), Approaches and
Methods in Language Teaching, (2nd edition) Cambridge University Press.
• Fiona Copland and Georgios Neokleous (2010) L1 to teach L2: complexities and contradictions, ELT Journal Volume 65.3, Oxford University Press
• Guy Cook (2007), A thing of the future: translations in language teaching, International Journal of Applied Linguistics Vol. 17 No. 3, Blackwell Publishing
• Timothy Mason, Interlanguage http://www.timothyjpmason.com/WebPages/LangTeach/Licence/CM/OldLectures/L7_Interlanguage.htm
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Margot Arthur
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Thinking in Arabic to write
authentic English
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What mistakes do your students make?
• Verb ‘to be’
• He/she/it Present Simple –s
• Relative clauses – unnecessary pronoun
• Letter formation
• Punctuation
www.britishcouncil.org 19