StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Blank Activities in English Language Teaching - Article Example

Cite this document
Summary
This article “Blank Activities in English Language Teaching” is basically about the use of fill in the Blank technique used as a testing tool. The article discusses the pros and cons of this technique in detail. The article further discusses the importance of English grammar…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER93.2% of users find it useful
Blank Activities in English Language Teaching
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Blank Activities in English Language Teaching"

 “Pros And Cons of Fill in the blank Activities in English Language Teaching”   This article is basically about the usage of fill in the Blank technique used as a testing tool. The article discusses the pros and cons of this technique in detail. The article further discusses the importance of English grammar. Fill in the Blanks: Fill in the blanks or gap filling activity is a very famous examination technique used by teachers throughout the world. This type of activity is categorized under objective type testing. What happens in fill in the blanks activity is that there is sentence which is not complete i.e. some parts of the sentence is missing and the student has to put the appropriate missing part into the sentence. For example, the Earth is _____ planet from the sun. The student needs to put third (3rd) in the gap. Most of the blanks require a distinct answer. Advantages: The following are some advantages of Fill in the blanks activity, which has made this famous: The teachers can make students read the complete context. This activity makes students increase students reading ability, as they need to go to the material thoroughly. In this way, students get to know about the important and key words used in the context. More the students read, the more they improve their vocabulary. The teachers get to know about the student’s that they take reading seriously or not. The Fill in the blanks activity is also used in psyche testing. The psyche testing is commonly used when recruiting military persons. Fill in the blanks is used in psyche testing in such a way that the sentence is incomplete and the portion of the sentence has to complete by the student. This technique can easily being evaluated by psychiatrists as they can figure out the person personality and aptitude by looking the complete meaning which student has tried to deliver. This psychiatrist can judge that whether the person has a positive or negative thinking. Fill in the blanks technique is friendly for both students and the teachers. The students do not need to answer the questions in paragraphs i.e. lengthy answers are avoided. For teachers it is easy for grading of the exam, as there are mostly absolute answers to be filled in the blanks, so they do not need to read long answers and grade them on relative basis. Disadvantages: However, there are many drawbacks of this technique. Few of them are discuss below: It requires students to cram more rather then to comprehend the context. This technique does not help teachers a lot in finding the conceptual comprehension of the students. This activity is mostly dislike by students who emphasize more on conceptual studies. The blank usually requires distinct answer to be filled gap i.e. Even a person knows what the question is about, but if he/she writes the synonym of the exact words, the blank is considered to be wrong. This technique is no room of error from the student. If the Fill in the blanks is wrong, the student gets a zero directly whereas in subjective type the student can express their reasoning to the questions, own though even may be partially incorrect. They can at least score something than nothing. Conflicts with CLT approach: Communicative Learning Teaching is an approach that is mostly used in learning second or foreign language. This technique helps the students in learning more vocabulary of other languages. However, the Fill in the blank does not fits in CLT. The main reason behind that is the respondent only has to fill the exact word or phase, instead of using synonyms, which can be helpful in learning more words for the same meaning. The students remain confined in answering fill in the blanks. The above mentioned drawbacks have led to the downfall of gap filling activity, and there are other objective type testing techniques, which have taken its place, such as Multiple Choose Questions (MCQs), True-False, Match the columns etc. Implicit/Explicit/Mechanical Learning: Implicit learning is learning of knowledge that is not learned from documents, others experience unless the person does not it try itself or experiences itself. Whereas explicit knowledge can be learned from documents, presented materials, from other peoples experience. Mechanical drill learning is the learning of the knowledge, which is more practical. For instance, most of the topics studied in science courses are considered as practical because only reading the theory of topic does not fully make student understand the concepts. Grammar in Use: “Grammar in Use” is a book written by Robert Murphy. This book has been considered as a leading book for proper usage of grammar of English. This book deals grammar concepts in details and explain their usage to English learners. Book helps in accuracy in writing English as well. However, this book is only helpful for people who want to learn basic concepts of English grammar, but is not much useful for those people who want to explore grammars advance concepts. This book is a must for people whom English is not their mother tongue and wants to learn English as secondary language. This concept is also called English as a Secondary Language (ESL). The grammar used technique is also applicable in other languages as well. The book has discussed of some useful terminologies that are useful in ESL. For example, the book talks about sentence transformations, in which people who are learning ESL are given sentences in which the person has to reword the sentence and the meaning of the sentence does remains the same. The book also emphasize on structural linguistics, which has revived the analysis of verbs and has also improvement of the tense-making system. This approach has modified the historical communication and has merged it with current communicational speech. Structural linguistic is helping in finding the common structures and phrases used in other languages spoken in different parts of the world and helps in better communication among languages. This book uses a neutral view about the gap filling activity. It favor this technique mainly because of the advantages discussed earlier, but discourages because gap filling keeps the learners confine to specific words. The book says that the learner should improve their vocabulary by learning new words. The completion of long sentences, the writer says that parallelism and consistency must be maintained. There are many other books, which have contributed in the development and revival of English language. Bibliography Raymond Murphy. (2005) English Grammar In Use. Cambridge University Press John P Broderick . (1975) Modern English linguistics: A structural and transformational grammar. Crowell Joseph Milosh. (1980) Teaching the History of the English Language in the Secondary Classroom. National Council of Teachers Zellig S Harris. (1955) Methods in structural linguistics, The University of Chicago Rob Batston. (1994) Grammar. Oxford University Press http://cimic.rutgers.edu/~liqin/teach3.html Available from [Accessed 29 October 2007] http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/language/structling.html [Accessed 29 October 2007] Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Blank Activities in English Language Teaching Article”, n.d.)
Blank Activities in English Language Teaching Article. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/education/1502667-english-language-teaching-essay
(Blank Activities in English Language Teaching Article)
Blank Activities in English Language Teaching Article. https://studentshare.org/education/1502667-english-language-teaching-essay.
“Blank Activities in English Language Teaching Article”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/education/1502667-english-language-teaching-essay.
  • Cited: 1 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Blank Activities in English Language Teaching

ICT in ELT English Language Teaching

Be that as it may and without mincing words, the time has come for teachers and learners of… English to realize the fundamental role of information and communication technology not only in the area of language teaching and learning but also in the global economy where the proficient use of English is fast assuming the indispensable engine of growth and development.... Gone were the days when teaching of English was restricted to all that the teacher had to say to the learners, a situation which made learners inactive in the teaching-learning situation....
5 Pages (1250 words) Research Paper

Lanes English as a Second Language

The author views the english language as something that can easily be passed from one individual to another through the constructive learning process.... teaching should, therefore, move from simple basics to more complicated ones to allow the learner understand the logic and structure of English as a language.... For instance, teaching should start with the basic meaning of words to compound words and their expanded usage.... The book's approach to teaching English as a second language to beginners is by presenting simple basic vocabulary before moving to complicated ones....
5 Pages (1250 words) Assignment

Teaching English as a Second Language

This essay examines issues related to vocabulary in the sphere of learning English as a second language and the development of the importance of vocabulary teaching and methods that have been found to be successful in achieving competency in english, which are to be recommended for future teachers.... The vocabulary was taught only in connection with the functional aspects of the language and this was not a specialized area of instruction in the teaching of English as a second language....
20 Pages (5000 words) Term Paper

The Origin of Intelligence in Children

The performance of these students including language, literature, theology, philosophy, and history cannot be declared even satisfactory one.... The teacher must pay due to heeding to this precarious situation and must involve all the students in cross-questioning so that it could not only improve the language skills of ESL students but also can restore their confidence to a great extent.... It can be judged by the body language, expressions, cross-questioning and group-discussions in the classroom....
11 Pages (2750 words) Term Paper

English as a Second Language in the Republic of Yemen

In 1973 the British Council was opened in North Yemen, providing Yemenis with a wide variety of activities: english language teaching for key Yemenis, ODA educational aid program, study scholarships in Great Britain, an English-language library, educational information service, and a program of events related to British culture.... Since the unification of North and South Yemen in 1990, the activities have been expanded to Aden, particularly english language teaching (Dear, 2010)....
14 Pages (3500 words) Research Paper

Research Methods in Teaching English Language and Learning

Their learning in their country of origin has provided them with their own culture, exemplified by their use of a different language and the propensity for ethnic group formation.... The author in this paper aggregates data concerning the country of origin of the students, their length of residency in U....
14 Pages (3500 words) Term Paper

Aspects of Intercultural Communication in Teaching and Learning English Language

It is suggested that the teaching of English to Second Language English speakers, is dependent on a holistic approach Migrants – and people who leave their home countries for other reasons – are accepted for the most part, in Western states, with democratic systems, in which the hope of a better life is perceived to be possible (UNHCR website, 2011).... This means that the teaching and learning of English as a Second Language (ESL) has become a priority focus within education in many countries around the world....
20 Pages (5000 words) Assignment

Teaching and Learning Spoken English

This paper provides the actual tasks of the english language lessons discussed in the previous essay on teaching and learning spoken English.... This paper provides the actual tasks of the english language lessons discussed in the previous essay on teaching and learning spoken English.... These two aspects of the english language are very essential in developing speaking skills.... To learn and understand the use of idioms To understand the functions of auxiliaries To learn how to use these aspects of grammar to construct a proper sentence in english....
13 Pages (3250 words) Assignment
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us