Teaching Aptitude Test - 8

CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) “Computer-assisted Language Learning” or “CALL” is a term used to describe any kind of language learning activity that makes use of computers. CALL is a new field that effectively helps in imparting second language learning.

• CALL is a Computer-aided teaching methodology, along with teaching/learning by the teachers. Nevertheless, it is also influenced by many other fields such as psychology, artificial intelligence, computational linguistics, instructional technology and design, and human-computer interaction studies making a CALL an interdisciplinary field of study. 
• The growth of CALL is dramatic in the sense that it arose from interpreting the signs of the time, and aptly adopting the technology in the linguistic arena. “CALL arose from the combination of two separate factors: educational needs and technological means.
• With the rise of technology and the passion of the younger generation, for technology, very especially computer is efficiently adapted and incorporated as an effective tool for teaching the second language. Today, it is part of the infrastructure of any well-known educational establishment. “
• CALL methodology has been greatly influenced, throughout its history; by the overall methodology that has characterized EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teaching at various points of its development” (Spanou). 

Hence, we can conclude that the full form of CALL is Computer-Assisted Language Learning.

As language is the medium of communication, through language we express our emotions, thoughts, and feelings. To make the child listen, speak, read and write, language teaching is necessary.

Key PointsTheory of graded patterns:-

• ​“To teach a language is to impart a new system of complex habits, and habits are acquired slowly.” So, language patterns should be taught gradually, in cumulative graded steps.
• This means the teacher should go on adding each new element or pattern to previous ones. New patterns of language should be introduced and practiced with vocabulary that students already know.

Hence, it is concluded that teaching language is to impart a new system of complex habits, and habits are acquired slowly is the correct about the theory of graded patterns.

Additional Information

• Theory of selection:- Selection of language material to be taught is the first requirement of good teaching. Selection of language material is done with respect to grammatical items and vocabulary and composition structures, which will enhance the language learning as in our brain we already have the acquisition device for the learning by using proper language material with good teaching will enhance the experience of our brain with language.
• Theory of  controlled vocabulary:- Vocabulary should be kept under control. Vocabulary should be taught and practiced only in the context of real situations. This way, meaning will be clarified and reinforced.

Remedial teaching: It helps the teacher to provide learners with the necessary help and guidance to overcome the problems which are determined during diagnostic teaching. To implement the remedial work, several tools and procedures were used including diagnosis, material preparation, motivation, data collection, and classroom observation, to name just a few.

Key Points 

In the above situation, the teacher analyzes, that one of the learners in her classroom is performing poorly in assessments continuously.  To overcome this problem, the teacher should diagnose the errors and learning difficulties that the learner is facing, so he/she can give suggestive remedial measures.

Important Points 

Let's understand the steps of remedial teaching in brief 

Steps of Remedial teaching

• Identifying the students who are having trouble or need help:  First, one must know the learners who require help. For this, you can administer a general achievement test based on the topics already taught. After evaluation, you will be in a position to make lists of students who are below average, average, or above average. 
• Diagnosing errors and learning difficulties: The next step is to locate or diagnose the errors and learning difficulties faced by the learner. The general procedures for locating pupils with learning difficulties provide sufficient information for immediate corrective action.
• Discovering the Factors Causing Learning Difficulties: There are multiple factors causing learning difficulties. Those factors sometimes may be related to the curriculum, teaching-learning practices, and school management whereas many a time socio-cultural setup of the learners, family, and friends, and also the learner him/herself becomes the cause of the learning difficulties.
• Applying Remedial Measures: After identifying the causes of learning difficulties suitable remedial measures are provided to the learners. Providing remedial measures means taking steps for solving learning difficulties. 

Hence, we can conclude that in the above situation, diagnosing errors and learning difficulties step of remediation will be followed by the teacher to overcome the problem.

Listening skills are the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process. Listening is key to all effective communication. Effective listening is a skill that underpins all positive human relationships.

Key Points 

Thus, it is clear that the correct answer is option 4.

Language learning dealing with various activities to understand and use the language for communication skills. It helps in increasing studying skills but also in developing listening reading and writing skills.

Key Points

Peer Group Interactions: A peer group is a social group that consists of individuals of the same social status who share similar interests and are close in age. Peer Learning is a teaching and learning strategy that involves groups of students working together to solve a problem, complete a task, or create a product. For example, an English language teacher divides the class into pairs to read a sequence of pictures and then describe it to each other.

Advantages of Peer group Interactions:

• Peer interaction allows the group to construct new knowledge and place it within a conceptual framework of existing knowledge, thus leading to a better understanding of concepts.
• It helps them make sense of what they are learning and what they still need to understand or learn.
• Students learning in a collaborative situation develop greater knowledge acquisition, retention of material, and higher-order problem solving and reasoning abilities than students working alone.
• It allows students to enhance their skills in working effectively with others.
• Peer relationships contribute to students’ engagement. Peers provide psychosocial and academic resources that enhance individual students’ academic outcomes.
• It develops a sense of responsibility and accountability among students.
• It helps in developing mutual help and a better understanding of each other among students as they plan and work together.

There are two ways of learning a language- language acquisition and language learning. Languages are acquired in natural setting without any formal teaching; they are learnt in formal classroom settings. Literature helps us to bring a learning situation close to an acquisition situation. For the learning of language it is important to know about all the components and structures of the language.

Key Points Audio- Lingual approach – Based on the psychological approach of behaviorism. Original language is not used to teach foreign language. Vocabulary, pronunciation, grammatical structure of the foreign language is used.

• This method stressed the need for oral drilling, pronunciation, and “mastery of the formal properties of language”, which implies good grammatical habits (Dendrinos 1992: 113) or ‘structure’ (Richards & Rodgers 2007: 52).
• The Audiolingual Method declined as the learners could not apply skills learned in the class in real life situations. Theoretically, Noam Chomsky, a noted linguist, argued that languages were generated from the learners underlying knowledge of abstract rules (Chomsky 1966: 153).

Additional Information

Reading involves multiple processes, which are recognition of words, comprehension of words, and fluency in interpreting the words. Reading can also be defined as finding motivation and getting meaning from print.

Key Points

Therefore, it is clear that the correct answer is skimming.

An infant begin to learn language in the early years ( from birth), it can be understood in following points:

Key Points

• Most of us believe that language development starts only when the child utters the first word, which is usually around the first birthday.. But this is not true.
• In the first year, the infant is learning to discriminate speech sounds , an ability that helps in learning to speak later.
• He also makes sounds in response to the adults talk and these sound lead to the words.
• It has been found that when parent speak to the child and respond to the sound that he produce in the early month, his language development is fostered.
• Therefore, it is important to talk to the babies right from they are born.
• Language development of all children follows a sequence which are universal.
• The sequence is crying, cooing at the age of 4-5 months, babbling ( syllables like 'da', 'ki', 'ta') at the age of 6 months, the first word at the 10-12 months.
• One word is used at a time to convey a whole sentence like "doll' means "I want a doll'.
• By one year, the child can combine two words. By 2 years, 2 to 3 words sentences are spoken easily.
• By the age of five years, child has vocabulary of 500 words. This vocabulary then grows rapidly.

It can be concluded that imitation is the common practice to learn the language.

Language is a symbolic, rule-governed system, shared by a group of people to express their thoughts and feelings. These rules are the set of conventions that organize their proper use and dictate how words relate to one another. Some of these rules that govern a language include phonology, syntax, morphology, semantic, etc. 

• Semantics is the study of the meaning of lexical words. Semantics make communication possible by giving meaning to certain symbols and words.
• 'Syntax' is the system of rules or a form of grammar that governs how words can be meaningfully arranged to form phrases and sentences. It places words and phrases in the right order, specifically to create coherent sentences. It states the format for arranging words, phrase, clauses and punctuation to form a meaningful sentence.
• Morphology: It refers to the study of the internal structure of words such as stems, root words, prefixes and suffixes.
• Phonology is the component of language referring to rules governing the structure and sequence of the speed of sounds.
• Collocation is the series of words or terms that co-occur more often than would be expected by chance. It refers to a natural combination of words that are closely affiliated with each other. e.g: Fast food.
• Colloquial refers to words or expressions that are used in ordinary language by common people.

Hence, semantics deals with the level of meaning in language.

Reliability is the ability of the test to be repeated and yield consistent results. The validity of inferences made depends on the assessment having a degree of reliability. Important PointsReliability could be described as the consistency of an assessment. It can be internal (the questions in the test) or external (the context of the testing situation). In large-scale testing, reliability is a major issue, but it also holds relevance in the classroom.

• Reliability, which means consistency or stability in language assessment, is most simply explained with reference to classical test theory, which posts a true score that an examinee would obtain on a test that was a perfectly reliable measure of an attribute.
•  It refers to the degree to which scores from a particular test are consistent from one use of the test to the next.

Thus, it is concluded that the meaning of reliability in the assessment of the second language is Assessment test should produce the same result under the same conditions.