Name of Artifact: Mid-term exam
Date:Fall 2003
Course: FL 561
Rationale:
This artifact is a mid-term exam from Methods in which the top down approach
is compared to the bottom up approach. Also discusssed are the five C's of language teaching. The emphasis made
in this exam is that teachers use wholisitic means to present material.
The top down approach, for example, engages learners in tasks in which they
use language for authentic communicative purposes. This way, meaning is being communicated while the target aspect of
the language is being used. The five C's similarly mirror many elements
of learning a new language in a foreign environment.
A few years back, wheat germ became a popular health food item. It was
the new revolutionary breakthrough in diet. Advertisers promoted it is as being high in vitamin E, folic acid, iron,
potassium, as well as having many other benefits. What many people didn't realize, however, is that in order to reap
the benefits of the wheat germ, you have to eat the whole wheat berry. The sheath around the germ contains the elements
necessary for your body to properly absorb the goodies found in the germ.
The top down approach and the five C's are the whole grain. The process
of answering this exam gave me a better understanding of techniques that are used to teach the berry.
I was already a fan of task-based and communicative learning. The two approaches explored here, I believe, support and
offer implications for this type of learning.
