ID054 – WRITING SKILLS AND ACADEMIC GENRES

FINAL TASK
GENERAL INFORMATION:

This unit assignment consists of doing the task presented below. This assignment must
be done individually. It must be submitted according to the official submission
procedure described on the web page where this file was downloaded. Assignments
sent directly to the tutor by email will not be corrected. The work must fulfil the following
conditions:

 Type of font: Arial.

 Size: 11.
 Line height: 1.5.
 Alignment: Justified.
 Margins: 2.5 above and down, left and right 3 (usual default configuration)

The assignment has to be done in a Word document. Please, do not write the answers
in bold, in order to simplify the distinction between them and the activities’ statements.
On the other hand, the assignment must still fulfil the rules of presentation and edition,
and follow the rubric for quoting and making a bibliography in the Study Guide.

It is very important to read the assessment criteria, which can be found in the Study
Guide. This final task for Unit 6 will evaluate the conditions of presentation presented
below, the assessment criteria and, especially, the accomplishment of the objectives of
this unit:

 Analyzing and comprehending essay tasks with common instructional and content
words.
 Summarizing information from multiple sources properly and paraphrasing
information to be included in academic essays.
 Creating an academic essay with a categorical structure
 Integrating the strategies and conventions studied both in Module I and Unit 6.

The tasks which do not fulfil the terms of submission will not be corrected.

The file name has to include the following data:

 *Number of the group the student belongs to.

 *Student’s first name initial and the first surname.
 *The unit’s name initials.

For example, following the data below:

 Student: Samuel López

 Group: 2013-06
 Unit: Writing Skills and Academic Genres (WSAG)

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 The correct file name would be: 2013-06SLópez_WSAG

Tasks:
You are going to write an essay on teaching young foreign language learners new
vocabulary. Complete the tasks below.

TASK 1:

Read Teaching Young FL Learners New Vocabulary: A Comparison between the

Efficiency of Keyword Method and Total Physical Response by Dacian Dolean and
Andreea Dolghi.

Now, summarize in your own words section 2.1 The Keyword Method, and paraphrase
the first paragraph in section 2.2 Total Physical Response.

TASK 2:

Now, follow the instructions for your essay below.

Teaching Foreign Languages

Instructions

Based on the article by Dolean and Dolghi (2016), compare and contrast the
efficiency of the Keyword Method and Total Physical Response for teaching new
foreign language words to young learners. You may want to find further
information on these approaches in an online academic database to include more
sources in your essay.

Length: 500 words.

You can use the information written in Task 1.

Note: Remember that you should use all skills, conventions, and strategies
learned in this course (Module I included).

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TASK 1:

The work of Dolean and Dolghi (2016) suggested that the Keyword Method (KWM) has
been recognized as an effective approach to teaching new vocabularies in FL, since it
facilitates the retention of new information while combining sounds from native
languages and creating interactive images with the correspondent word in FL.
However, the results indicated that the KMW might be more effective for early
elementary children than older students or experienced language learners (Dolean and
Dolghi, 2016).
Total Physical Response (TPR) is another prominent mnemonic strategy adopted to
teaching Foreign Language (FL) vocabularies. When using this method, developed by
Asher (1966), the FL teacher provides a sequence of instructions in the target
language (for example, jump and clap your hand) while learners to respond with whole-
body movements, such as jumping while clapping hands. Several theoretical
approaches to learning situations such as Audiovisual Methods (Dale’s 1969) in
teaching and Natural Approach (Krashen & Terrell, 1986) supported the TPR. For
instance, Dale (1969) defends that learning are more effective when students engage
all their senses in the learning process, while Krashen & Terrell (1986), claim that
children acquire the second language more effectively when the learning arise
instinctively, and children are engaged in a supportive language environment that
facilitates a lower affective filter and where language understanding to production are
continuously reinforced.

TASK 2:

The Foreign Language (FL) learning and teaching, particularly of the English language,
has been extensively explored worldwide (Qian, 2017). In this field, the acquisition of
new vocabularies has been discussed by many scholars while representing a
foundation for successful communication in the target language. Concerning the
teaching of new vocabularies in FL, the Total Physical Response (TPR) and Keyword
method (KWM) has been recognized as the two main strategies used by FL teachers to
facilitate the learning. From this perspective, the present assignment will compare and

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contrast the efficiency of TPR and KWM for teaching new foreign language words to
young learners based on the article by Dolean and Dolghi (2016).
According to Dolean (2013, as cited in Dolean and Dolghi, 2016) TPR and KWM are
effective mnemonic strategies used by foreign language teachers to improve learner’s
performance in the process of FL vocabulary learning. Mnemonic strategies may
strengthen learners' memory capacity and promote learning by connecting newly
learned items with previous information stored through visual and acoustic reminders
(Davoudi and Yousefi (2016). Conversely, results indicates that both TPR and KWM
can be effective to teach new vocabularies to young learners, who are characterized as
“children at pre-school or in first couple years of schooling” (Pinter, 2006 as cited in
Nunan 2011, p. 2). For instance, in the level of young learners, the teachers are
recommended to employ creative and entertaining activities aiming at motivating
learners and creating enjoyable environment to process new information in foreign
language (Nuraeni, 2019).
As highlighted by Dolean and Dolghi (2016) in the article, the KWM enhance the
learner’s ability to retain new information by providing opportunities to combine sounds
of a new word with an image that represents the meaning in the target language, while
the TPR enhances learner’s performance by enabling the learners to stablish a
coordination of language and physical movement guided by teacher’s command in the
target language. However, results from the empirical study conducted by Dolean and
Dolghi (2016) suggested that the KWM may be more compelling than TPR in teaching
new vocabulary words in FL to young learners, particularly when the new words can be
visualized by learners and when there are significant phonetic similarities between the
new word and its keyword. The results indicated a superior recall achievement in the
KWM treatment compared to TPR.
Nevertheless, according to Dolean and Dolghi 2016) while both KMW and TPR
approaches presented certain limitations, further investigation including relevant aspect
such as age groups and learning situations should be conducted to generalize the
results and define the accurate effectiveness of each method. Although the
performance in the use of KWM surpass the TPR, both methods are recognized as
being functional mnemonics to enhance teaching and learning of new vocabularies in
FL to young learners. Furthermore, as mentioned by Hao (2017), the effectiveness of a
language learning method may depend on the purpose, goals and contexts of use
while responding to learners’ need, considering that no single method equally to all
language learners.

REFERENCES

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Research Gate (April 2019). Using Total Physical Response (TPR) Method on Young
Learners English Language Teaching, retrieved June, 07 from:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334135321_Using_Total_Physical_Response
_TPR_Method_on_Young_Learners_English_Language_Teaching

Hao Y (2017). The Effect of Keyword Method on Vocabulary Retention of Senior High
School EFL Learners in Iran - Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Vol. 8,
No. 4, pp. 742-749, July 2017. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/jltr.0804.13

Qian W. (2017). Comparison and Contrast Between the Audiolingual Method and Total
Physical Response to Improve Efficiency of College Students English Learning. CS
Canada, Studies in Literature and Language, Vol. 15, No. 2, 2017, pp. 38-40.
DOI:10.3968/9868

Nunan, D. (2011). Teaching English to Young Learners. Anaheim University Press.

retrieved June, 07 from:
http://online.anaheim.edu/pluginfile.php/72256/mod_resource/content/1/TEYL
%20Textbook%20-%20Chapter%201.pdf

Dolean, D. & Dolghi, A. (2016). Teaching Young FL Learners New Vocabulary: A

Comparison between the Efficiency of Keyword Method and Total Physical Response.
International Journal of English Linguistics; Vol. 6, No. 6; 2016, pp. 1-7. Retrieved June
28 from: https://campus2.funiber.org/mod/assign/view.php?id=157564