LCB Teachers Training College Rodrigo RoucoTaller Didáctico p. Enseñanza de Inglés en el Nivel Medio

Class Observation # 3: The Teacher ’ s Meta-language

Class: 4th year secondary school Nº of learners: 9Age of learners: 16 approx. Length of lesson: 40 min.Level: Upper-intermediate Teacher observed: M

The teacher ’ s meta-language chart

What does the teacher say?

What is the communicative purpose?

What is the immediate context?

How might this be said to a native speaker?

i) ‘C, your letter was excellent! Very good, C!’

Giving praise. T is praising one st’s writing piece in last exam.

Not that differently. Perhaps others like ‘Outstanding work; Very well done (?)’

ii) ‘Please, separate. When I say separate, what do you understand by separate?’

Giving instructions.

Setting up seating arrangement before carrying out a listening mock-test. She’s asking two sts. to sit away from each other. They took longer than the rest; that’s why the question.

1st: ‘Sit away from your partners.’To those specific sts: ‘(Can you) split? / break it up? / Sit apart from your partner.’

iii) ‘Have you all got your books here? Remember that we had to finish that question of the letter?’

Giving instructions.Reminding of previous assignment.

T is making a transition from previous activity (listening). She’s asking sts to take out their books and reminding them of a pending task (letter writing).

‘Take out your books. We have to finish the activity on writing a letter’

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iv) ‘Onwards? From that moment on and then you continue. En adelante.’

Explaining.Responding to question.

T is answering a st’s question: ‘What’s the meaning of ‘onwards’?’ She’s explaining the meaning and giving a translation in learner’s L1.

‘Onwards means that sth. begins at a particular time and continues after that time.’ Perhaps an example: ‘I work at the school from 1 o’clock onwards.’

v) ‘Using these instructions, you will write a letter. Remember that the information is about schools here, in Argentina. Use this information to help you.’

Giving instructions.Explaining.

T is setting up a writing task: Writing a letter to a penfriend giving information about local schools / education. T is reminding sts what info they have to include and referring them to the sample letter in the book.

‘You’re going to answer this letter giving information about schools in Argentina. Use the letter in the book as an example.’

1) All in all, communication was purposeful in the 5 examples mentioned. In i, the language used to give praise was pretty clear: by this time in her learning process, the student was well acquainted with the language of feedback. She was indeed delighted when she received the teacher’s praise – and her classmates clapped her (!). In ii, the teacher was emphasising the point of making sts sit apart for the listening. The use of ‘please’ was, at the same time, a polite and emphatic way of prompting two ‘lingering’ sts to do so. The use of the true cognate ‘separate’ made understanding easier, though, in fact, it was the neutral / appropriate term to use in a classroom context. Both sts understood the teacher’s message and split. The use of the (sarcastic?) question could be taken as emphatic and showing a little annoyance, but also in a light-hearted way, which I believe the sts perceived.iii, instead, was even less direct. The teacher did not need tell the class explicitly to take their books out, and that they were going to finish a pending activity. She used more real-life-like utterances. This was a good example of how much the sts could follow her without being given direct commands. By this time, I noticed that the sts could pick up the communicative purpose behind the teacher’s utterances from quite indirect, but realistic, forms.In iv, the echo question highlighted the term to be explained. The explanation of

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the term might have been somewhat unclear to the student. This might have prompted the teacher to use translation, which solved the difficulty. The important thing to consider here is that communication was purposeful – the learners’ communicative need was in fact solved: she received an answer to her question.Finally, in v, at the moment of setting up the task, the communicative purpose was, by now, largely clear. The class had been analysing the format of a letter for a while. I can imagine they were expecting the next instructions would be ‘write a letter’. The teacher’s explanations were mostly clarifying. However, though students were familiar with the task format, it was a good choice for her to remind them that they had to use certain given information. When setting up a task, it was a right moment not to resort to ‘indirect’ communication, for it was (and it always is) the time when sts would most need clear, straightforward messages (instructions). In this way, they could tackle the task with a clear aim and, as a result, more confidence.

2) For the most part, the level of meta-language used by the teacher was not adjusted downwards. We should bear in mind that the level of this class was pre-First Certificate. At this level, students are expected to be able to manage quite ‘complex’ language already. Probably because of this, the teacher should not have been concerned greatly about adjusting her language much – in terms of ‘levelling’. On the other hand, I believe she did make sure her instructions, comments, explanations were plain and unambiguous. The evidence is that no communication break-down took place during the lesson and her exchanges with the class were successful. Nevertheless, with lower-level classes, teachers should stop to adjust their meta-language. With elementary learners, ‘roughly-tuned’ input and unequivocal speech is key in supporting the learners’ comprehension, task performance and language development. As they progress in their language learning, they will.Apart from linguistic simplification, there are other ways open to a teacher to ease comprehension of meta-language: elaboration, paraphrasing, slower speech rate, gestures, providing contextual cues through use of realia, comprehension checks, repetition, translation. These interaction or communication strategies can aid understanding and they are truly communicative, realistic, as they can be included within the strategic competence component of communicative ability as described by Tricia Hedge – ‘they help to keep the communicative channel open’.

3) Several of the teacher’s ‘meta-language’ utterances could be regarded as patterned behaviour. For example, the way of giving praise in i (‘your work was excellent!’ etc); the way of arranging seating in ii (‘Please, separate’); in iii (‘Have you got…? / remember that we had to finish X.’); in v (‘Using these instructions, you will…’).As these chunks can usually be used by the teacher, this gives continuous exposure to the learners to that language. This may help them incorporate it meaningfully and in a real context. The students first comprehend, and then acquire, these ‘language behaviours’ by the teacher’s repetitive use. What makes

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this use of meta-language different from a ‘pattern drill’ is that it is genuinely communicative and therefore meaningful. In keeping with the communicative classroom, the teacher thus provides a rich source of input for students to pick up or acquire gradually.

4) In this particular lesson, not many features of the immediate context supported the teacher’s meta-language. In ii, the teacher made use of gestures to intensify the meaning of ‘separating’: she moved her hands apart from each other. She also used a gesture with her hands to express the idea of ‘onwards’. True to say, the other utterances did not require much support.To heighten contextual clues, teachers can: use gestures (with hands, fingers, arms), draw on the board, use realia, cards, have posters around showing useful language / prompts, mime, facial expressions, point, have a dictionary available, …Finally, the use of all these can be accompanied by explanations, examples, comprehensions checks by asking sts for further contexts, translations, …

5) a) Linguistic accommodations do not necessarily imply a loss of the ‘richness’ of the language our students are learning. And this last point is our main concern. As teachers we are focusing on our students’ learning process. In any process, there are steps or stages to cover. To be able to cover them, you need to be able to build upon what has gone before. What is more, the key roles of the teacher are to be both facilitators of this process, and mediators between the learners and the language (systems & skills) to be learned. Those simplifications, especially for lower level students, are necessary in view of these teacher’s roles. If we don’t support our students’ process by narrowing down the gap between their current knowledge and what is to be learned, we are not fulfilling our roles. Moreover, and especially in a foreign language learning context, students will need these simplifications, not only to facilitate their learning but, in fact, to speed up the process. By roughly tuning in the meta-language, we provide them manageable and attainable input, render the whole learning task more success-oriented, and can motivate and encourage them to go on. Gradually, we will be able to expose them to more ‘complex’ language. A so-called ‘delay’ should not be seen as a disadvantage, but as gradual, supportive steps in a (life) long process.b) As I mentioned earlier, this being an upper-intermediate class, they were quite able to follow the teacher’s meta-language. Only ii & iv might show instances of simplification. The explanation of ‘onwards’ could have been more elaborate for a native speaker, and certainly no translation would have been used (an example, instead). In ii, the use of the cognate may be easier to understand than ‘split’ or ‘break up’ – though I believe the cognate appropriate in the context, even for natives.c) In my opinion, we can reconcile the need for meta-language to be ‘easy’ with exposing our students to authentic language. The reason for this is that authentic does not always mean difficult. In fact, simplification or ‘accommodation’ is in keeping with the communicative classroom. It is at the core of the strategic component of language competence. In a real communicative context, students

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will need to develop strategic skills such as, in this case, accommodating language to their interlocutors.

Reflection

This observation task has helped me become more aware of the fundamental role of teacher’s meta-language in the classroom. First and foremost, I can see that every time we communicate something to our students, we are providing them with exposure to the target language. In this way, what we say and how we say it can be a profitable source of language learning, even though we may not have planned it that way at first. And this may be what makes teacher talk so truly communicative: the fact that it is spontaneous and real most of the time. What teachers should keep in mind is that there is some language we can plan, prepare, and incorporate as part of our kit of ‘language patterns’, not as a mechanical thing, but as part of our unique ‘idiolect’. I believe that this can help us deal with different classroom situations in a better-prepared and professional way. However, as when it happens outside the classroom, interaction is natural. We react in real time to what others are telling us here and now, without any prepared speech or lines. As teachers, this aspect of ‘our’ talk is essential because of its value as promoter of real communication in our lessons.

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