All four methods recommended in task 2 can be implemented to facilitate students in foreign language acquisition.
Presenting new knowledge into small chunks helps students divide knowledge into manageable pieces. Breaking down new content into smaller parts helps students identify and internalize key structures and vocabulary more easily. I make use of this method when the material to be taught presents a degree of complexity which students will probably find difficult to cope with.
Explicit teaching is extremely useful especially in cases where certain features of the English language are dissimilar to the students' native language and present difficulties being well understood even in context. Explicit instruction also ensures coverage of the structures learners will need to express themselves as proficiently as possible. However, explicit instruction may not always be communicatively based, which might bore students. Therefore, I believe it should be supplemented with function based lessons to apply it in context relevant to the students.
Multisensory presentation and practice of new grammatical and lexical items integrates visual, auditory, tactile and kinesthetic elements to activate the learning process. Visual techniques can vary from reading a text to painting a picture, making a poster or watching a video. Auditory learning includes music, songs, rhymes, peer reading and listening to texts. Tactile learning involves touch, the use of realia or modelling materials whereas kinesthetic learning occurs through motion and doing (dramatisation, miming, gestures). It is a creative process whereby learning takes place in a fun, linteresting, less conventional way. Students can build their self-confidence and independence as they can choose their best skills to show what they have learned. In my opinion, this method can be applied more effectively with a relatively small number of students where the ones who experience the same strengths or weaknesses can be grouped together.
Repetition and recycling of previously acquired knowledge are methods which assist consolidation. Encountering grammar structures and vocabulary in a variety of contexts helps learners remember them as they have manipulated them in different ways. Repetition and recycling can lead to the acquisition of fluency as learners use their previous experience to build on. Creating opporunities to repeat and recycle previous learning increases learners' familiarity and confidence with a given phenomenon or topic.
As regards mind maps, they can help students organise a stream of information into a logical set of notes to study. In my view, both linear lists and mind maps are controlled and consistent approaches. However, with mind maps the flow of thought is continuous as the line drawn from one branch to another can be immediately followed. Colour and images are also strong motivators. Linear lists do not allow much creativity, pieces of information may appear to be isolated and this makes it difficult for students to make connections between ideas.