PVR
(PREVIEW-VIEW-REVIEW/ BILINGUAL) METHOD.

We had our micro-teaching this very day! And time ran up so fast that day! Due to the fact that we, authors of this journal, had different experiences as teachers this day that we consider valuable, today´s journal will be told in two parts: PVR (experienced by Claudia as teacher) and text driven (experienced by Tao as teacher). This order corresponds to the events occurred this day.
Class started with a warm-up activity: Andrea asked the class to stand up and stretch their bodies. Then I, Claudia, started the preview part of the method by telling the class objectives of the microteaching as well as the steps to follow using only Spanish. These were about identifying colloquial language in a song written in Spanish and try to translate into English. To do so, it was necessary to get to an agreement about the meaning of the words used by the singer. The goal was to appreciate the richness of each language by understanding it as unique.
Classmates seemed a little unwilling at the beginning, something we expected due type of song we chose for the activity: a popular salsa song called “cachondea”, by Joe Cuba. But when we started identifying slangs and colloquial vocabulary of the song, people got more interested. When translation time (view part) started, everyone was participating, learning new vocabulary and having fun; while, at the same time, they realized how hard it is to express the exact meaning of colloquial words.
At the end, the review part, class switched to Spanish again. Feedback from our classmates was positive. They realized how important is to get to know this kind of vocabulary to have a better understanding of the language.
After we were finished, we were asked to leave the room, so Tao and María Paula could set the room for their own micro-teaching to take place…

Session 25
May 22

Text-driven approach,
also know as Multi-Dimensional Approach

As I was one of the co-teachers. I will tell my experience co-teaching rather than the learners.

"Affect is the key to understanding and to learning. An "experience with a powerful attachment to emotions or feelings is more likely to be retained in the long-term memory" (Berman, 1999, p. 4)

When reading or listening in our L1 we do not understand the meaning of an utterance or a text just by understanding the meaning of its words. In fact we do not understand the text at all but rather our mental representation of it. For this representation to become meaningful and memorable we need to make use of all the resources of our mind. We need at least to:
- achieve sensory and affective experience of the text;
- connect the text to our previous experiences of language and of life;
- fill in the gaps in the text to achieve our own continuity and completion;
- relate the text to our own interests, views and needs. (Tomlinson 2000)

We tried to be faithfull to this method, in every possible way.
I have to say, that this method seems a combination of whole language and at some point reminds me a little bit of suggestopedia. I enjoyed doing a lesson with my partner, and thinking of ways to make our students talk.