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NATIONAL AND KAPODISTRIAN UNIVERSITY OF ATHENSSCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY
FACULTY OF ENGLISH STUDIESDEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS
ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODS AND
PRACTICES
WORKBOOK
ATHENS 2009
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UNIT 1
Classroom Practices and Teaching Aids
The types of pedagogic practices teachers involve their students in, the types of teaching-learning materials (including textbooks) they select and the teaching-learning aids they use depend on:
the language teaching approach they adopt different teaching-learning situations and conditions the age and the level of the students
TASK 1
Below you can see lists of common CLASSROOM PRACTICES. Which approach to language teaching and learning would you associate them with most closely?
Transmitting/acquiring new knowledge and development of language awareness
Presentation by explaining rules of the language system and vocabulary
Presentation by explaining rules of language use (meaning and use of new utterances and vocabulary in context).
Presentation by having learners deal with new material and deducing rules of usage or use and the meaning of new vocabulary.
Presentation through involvement in a task.
Presentation through involvement in ‘discovery learning’.
Presentation through exposure to authentic-like material.
Peer presentation of new knowledge and information concerning language use.
Practising new language and developing communication skills
Drilling new grammar points and vocabulary.
Question and answer exercises with no information-opinion-reasoning gap.
Producing paragraphs or larger texts in written form with correct grammar and vocabulary.
Producing dialogues using correct grammar and vocabulary.
Reading comprehension exercises during which learners must ‘decode’ the meaning of particular utterances.
Listening comprehension exercises during which learners must ‘decode’ the meaning of particular utterances in dialogues and other oral texts in spoken clearly in standard English with RP.
Authentic reading or listening activities or tasks involving learners in the
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comprehension of authentic like texts, deducing meanings, guessing, predicting meaning, etc. and acting in ways that are required in a variety of social contexts.
Producing oral or written discourse following specific instructions for carrying out the task in a guided manner.
Producing an oral or written authentic-like text on the basis of another authentic or authentic-like text in different mode, genre or language.
Explaining what is meant by someone speaking or writing, using different language, genre or discourse.
Managing the class and motivating learners
Teacher poses questions that s/he already knows the answer to for students to answer.
Students pose questions to their peers that both already know the answer to so that they can display their knowledge.
Students pose questions to the teacher so s/he can answer despite that they both know the answer.
Teacher asks information-opinion-reasoning gap questions for students to practice acquired knowledge.
Students ask each other information-opinion-reasoning gap questions so they can practice acquired knowledge.
Students are guided to work in pairs or groups to carry out fully controlled, semi-controlled or free (but always guided) language activity.
Class is organized in groups or teams to carry out fully controlled, semi-controlled or free (but always guided) fun activities.
Students are fully guided to do role plays or simulations in order to produce socially meaningful language use.
TASK 2
Which of the practices above would you associate most closely with the following teaching-learning situations?
Situation 1: EFL classes in Greek state secondary schools with large number of students with differential language competence.
Situation 2: Homogenous level EFL classes in schools and language centres preparing to take an exam for certification of proficiency at independent user level.
Situation 3: Class with intermediate adult learners needing to use spoken English as a contact language with speakers of other languages.
Situation 4: EFL classes in primary schools.
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Situation 5: Class of Greek university students needing to use English for academic purposes – primarily to read books and articles in their field of interest published in English.
TASK 3
Below is a table containing a list of the most common teaching-learning aids traditionally used in the foreign language class. Which would you most closely associate with (a) young learners, (b) teenagers and (c) adult learners of English?
COMMON TEACHING-LEARNING AIDS
FlashcardsThe most widely used visual aid in foreign language teaching. It simply requires a picture or drawing stuck on a piece of card. It’s usually designed in topic sets. They are motivating and eye catching, and can be used again and again. Their primary function is to present the meaning of lexical items, especially when the use of L1 is not permitted by the approach adopted.
BlackboardThe most widely used classroom teaching aid. It is useful especially when the teacher (and students) write clearly, making sure that everyone in the classroom can share the experience. If no other aids are available and systematic use of the bb is made to present material, one should be careful not to cover the whole board with writing. Items no longer needed should be erased before writing anything else important.Some tips for teachers: Stand on the right of the board. This forces you to write in straight lines.Talk to students as you write and turn around frequently to face them.
RealiaEveryday objects that most of us recognise. Personal objects or objects from the classroom, useful for presenting vocabulary, especially when the use of L1 is not permitted by the approach adopted. They can be used to help particularly young learners get into character when acting out a dialogue. Specific objects can be used to illustrate stories with children (e.g. story about a jungle is more attractive if Ss have toy animals they can see and touch).Realia also include maps, theatre tickets or programmes, leaflets from art and other types of exhibitions empty food tins and boxes with ingredients and cooking instructions, manuals with instructions and anything which can create a context for authentic and meaningful language use.
Visuals and mutlimodal texts from various authentic sourcesVisuals without or with texts, comics, drawings and many other combined texts can be easily obtained from magazines, newspapers, brochures, maps, and other kinds of authentic sources. They can prove stimulating as they are often attractive and associated with language use in the real world. They can be used for presentation of new language, for comprehension exercises or to trigger speaking or writing production.
Cassette or CD playerAllows students to listen to a variety of different accents and varieties of English, to songs, poetry readings, lectures, etc. It also provides opportunities for learners to listen to conversations involving more than two speakers in real situations with background noise, etc. The way the material is exploited depends on what the teaching/learning objective of the activity is in each situation.
Video and multimediaVideo is commonly used for listening comprehension but can also be used to provide models of English in use or as a stimulus for discussion. Multimedia programmes are available for the teaching of grammar, vocabulary, etc., as computer-assisted language learning is becoming more and more common. One can also use multimedia games and other computer programmes for teaching and learning but both video and multimedia programmes must be used judiciously. The teacher must
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consider carefully what his/her objectives are in using them and not use them simply because they are available. They need to be at the appropriate level of difficulty and relevant to the course syllabus.Video observation and the use of multimedia can be challenging and enjoyable for students. However, unwise use can prove time consuming and boring. The teacher should select them in connection with his/her objectives and design worksheets so that students can work on the material they are using.
OHP Material can be prepared beforehand and a library of these can be used for future use. It is also possible to photocopy directly on transparencies. It is less messy than chalk and can prove useful with large classes as the teacher can face the class.
TASK 4
Other types of teaching-learning aids include readers and the internet. Think about the advantages of using them as part of your EFL programme.
Readers…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
The internet…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
CLASSROOM DISCOURSE
Why is language in the classroom so important?
How students talk and the contributions they make greatly influence how and what they learn.
Vygotsky: cognitive development is a result of social interaction as the child learns to complete a task with the help of an adult.
The teachers’ use of language socialises students into particular ways of thinking and talking.
In second language classrooms language is more important because it the medium of instruction and the subject of study. Since the TL is rarely used outside the classroom, the kind of interaction that goes on in class will determine the kind of learning that will take place.
Fillmore (1982): Language in the second language classroom serves two purposes: 1) to convey the content of what is being taught and 2) to provide students with linguistic input and to provide students with opportunities to generate language.
Meaningful and genuine communication is the “life-blood” of CLT
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What are the functions of teacher talk in the classroom?
To give explanations To elicit information from students To prepare learners for what is to come next To check on students’ understanding To give instructions To explain lesson objectives To organise students/activities To control students’ behaviour To correct students’ language
Some findings from classroom language analysis related to teacher talk
Teachers in first and second language classrooms are the dominant conversational partners. Almost 70% of the total classroom talk is taken up by the teacher.
Teachers tend to modify their talk to make it comprehensible to learners. They tend to slow down their speech rate, use fewer contraction and more exaggerated pronunciation, use well-formed short sentences, avoid subordinate clauses, use concrete proper nouns, avoid colloquial expressions and indefinite pronouns and they also tend to self repeat more frequently.
Teachers tend to have “action zones” in the classroom. Some students are up to 25 times more likely to speak in class; also high achieving students tend to get praised more often and criticised less often for their answers than low-achieving students.
Research has shown that in the majority of classrooms the I-R-F pattern predominates. 20% to 40% of classroom talk is taken up by teacher questions. The overwhelming
majority of teacher questions are “display” which require students to display their knowledge of information already known by the teacher. Referential questions or other question types which signify the exchange of new unknown information and the negotiation of meaning are extremely rare in second language classrooms.
Teachers ask questions at an astonishing pace (4 questions per minute) and leave very little time for students to process the information in the question and respond. Teachers tend to repeat or rephrase questions to enable students to respond.
Giving instructions
TASK 5
On the basis of your experience as a learner of English, what are three of the most important characteristics that effective instructions to activities should have?
(a) …………………………………………………………............................................
(b) …………………………………………………………............................................
(c) ……………………………………………………………………………………....
Now, read the following extract of teacher talk and decide how effective the instructions are. Note that they are related to the activity at the end of this worksheet..
T: … now go to page 54, 54. Here we´ve got some titles of some TV serials (teacher reads titles) “fight for freedom”, “the invisible man”, “best friend”, “young club”, “the world of adventure” and “after the battle”. Now…you´re asked to choose one of them, of these serials and without saying which serial you are commenting on, write a commentary as the one we read at the back of the book. One, only one, OK? You´re going to write only one,
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whichever you like. Then don´t, don´t, don´t mention the serial you are talking about. You are-stop it!-you are going to read it and the rest of the class should have to guess the serial you are talking about. That´s it.
GUIDELINES FOR EFFECTIVE INSTRUCTIONS
Prepare: Plan exactly what information the students will need; think about the words/expressions/ illustrations you will use
Make sure you’ve got everybody’s attention: Give instructions before handing out materials and organising students into groups
Present information more than once: Repetition and paraphrase are necessary because students’ attention wanders occasionally.
Be brief, clear and concise: Learners’ attention span is brief Illustrate wherever possible with examples: It often helps to rehearse an activity with the
whole class or a volunteer student before letting students do the work on their own Get feedback before starting the activity: Asking “Do you understand?” “All right?” at the
end is not enough. Ask feedback questions throughout; ask students to paraphrase your instructions at the end.
Writing/thinking about instructions: Identify the information that students must know in order to carry out the activity
successfully. Think about the language: simple sentences, words that students understand Consider whether visual support may be necessary Put instructions in a logical sequence Write/think about questions that would seek comprehension.
Elements of instructions1. Aim of activity2. Classroom organisation3. Materials and how they will be used4. Procedure5. Timing6. Feedback
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UNIT 2
Teaching and Learning Vocabulary
TASK 1
Reflect on the following questions, discuss them first with your partner and then discuss the issues in class with your instructor.
1) Dealing with vocabulary in a language class means dealing with words. But, what are “words”? Decide if the following are words: complexity, book, irregularity, freeze-dry, Oh, no! Oh…, bookmark, may, two, they, so, to bite the dust, to make up, to go cold turkey, read, unlikely, yea, Ouch!, A!, a-ha…
2) Traditional grammar books talk about words on the basis of the notions below. Which is which above? Single morphemes or roots: e.g. book, car Derived words: e.g. organisation, assistance, remake Compound words: e.g. bookmark, pathfinder, postman Multi-word verbs:
verb + preposition, e.g. look intoverb+ adverb particle, e.g. break downverb+ adverb particle + preposition, e.g. put up with
Idioms (Sequence of words which usually operates as a single semantic unit): e.g. under the weather, chip on his shoulder, bite the dust
3) Dealing with vocabulary vs. teaching vocabulary: What is the difference between the two expressions pedagogically speaking?
4) What does it mean “to know a word”? What kind of knowledge does one have when s/he knows a word? Decide if one must have any or all types of knowledge listed below: knowledge of its form (morphosyntactic features) knowledge of the word’s spelling and pronunciation knowledge of its position in an utterance (syntactic relations) knowledge of the word’s meaning: referential, affective, pragmatic knowledge of sense relations knowledge of the word’s use knowledge of its common collocations
5) Below you can see a number of utterances by people for whom English is not their mother tongue. Though most of them seem to communicate the speaker’s message, there is a minor problem in each of them. Can you detect what it is and explain what kind of knowledge the speaker is missing? - Can you take me in your car to the station John? - He made a complain about the food.- There was a high difference between the two teams.
- Mary: What are you doing tonight Claus?- Claus: I have a meeting with a class colleague in a pub
- There isn’t sufficient milk for breakfast.- She made a photo.- My mother is a very good cooker- Bill’s evidence was rather skinny
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- “Casablanca” is a white and black film- What’s the opposite of “hard exam”?- S: smooth exam
6) Within the framework of communicative approaches to language teaching and learning, FL teachers are advised to deal with vocabulary in context (used in utterance and text). Why, do you think?
Principles of vocabulary classification for teaching purposes
1) On the basis of morphosyntactic features 2) On the basis of sound 3) On the basis of meaning
Dictionary meaningText meaning (discourse, genre, register, style)Metaphorical meaning
4) Classifying words on the basis of sense relations Synonymy: Two or more words that have similar meaning, e.g. begin/start,
below/beneath/underAntonymy: Refers to items which are opposite in meaning
- ungradable antonyms: forms which truly represent oppositeness of meaning and cannot be graded. e.g. dead, alive
- gradable antonyms: forms which have many degrees in between, e.g. hot, cold Hyponymy: Expresses the relationship of inclusion. Organises words into taxonomies
(e.g., Fruit orange: apple, banana Collocation: When two items co-occur or are used together frequently they are
said to collocateproblem amount shame man
Large ? + - +Great + + + +Big + + - +Major + ? - -
+=collocates, ? = questionable, - = does not collocate
TASK 2Look at the vocabulary activities at the end of your handout and identify which classification principles they are based on.
TASK 3Below are some important findings from L1 and L2 vocabulary acquisition research. On the basis of these findings what do you think are the implications for the teaching/learning of vocabulary? Short term and long term memory. The importance of repetition and active involvement by
learner Inferring meaning of unknown words from contextual and grammatical clues increases the
chances of retaining word in long term memory (Hulstijn 1992) Regular revision of a word distributed over a period of time also helps in long term
memory retention (Gairns and Redman 1986) Our mental lexicon is highly organised and complex. Words are organised in our minds in
terms of their form, in terms of their semantic and conceptual properties and are related to encyclopaedic and general world knowledge (Brown & McNeil 1966, Ellis 1997). Forster
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(1976) argued that in our mental lexicon, items are organised in one “master file” with a variety of “peripheral access files”.
Mental lexicon is never static; it is continuously expanding. For L2 learners, acquisition of L2 words involves mapping the new word form onto pre-
existing conceptual meanings or L1 translation equivalents. Vocabulary can be acquired incidentally (Singleton 1997). Learners employ a variety of strategies in learning new vocabulary. Good learners use
many different strategies, are aware of their learning, know the importance of learning words in context, and are conscious of the semantic relationships between new and previously learned L2 words.
HOMEWORK PROJECT
Vocabulary activities for EFL learners
TASK 4Look at the activities on the following pages and, working with a partner, decide on the questions below regarding each activity and fill in the Table:
a) What age-range of learners is it likely to be for (8-11/12-16/17-24)?
b) For what level of learners is it most appropriate, do you think
(elementary/intermediate/post intermediate)?
c) Is it most appropriate for presentation, practice or production?
d) Does it facilitate dependent or autonomous learning?
e) Does it present/practice form + independent meaning, form + social meaning, form +
meaning + use?
ActivityNo.
Age-range
Learner level Teaching stage Type of learning Language aware-ness / use
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
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TASK 5
See the material on p. 10 and decide what tasks you could design to get learners to deal with the vocabulary they are unfamiliar with.
TASK 6
Study the material on p. 11 and decide what tasks you could assign to your students, responding to principles of individualized teaching.
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______________________________________________ACTIVITY 1
From: Task Way English 3, p. 45
Learner task
Work in pairs. Student A choose an object and ask your partner what it is made of. Student B respond.
Teacher’s NoteYou could organize this activity to be carried out in class as a game between two teams. Make a relevant plan.
______________________________________________ACTIVITY 2
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From: Task Way English 3, p.129
ACTIVITY 3
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From: Hotline (pre-intermediate), pp. 70-71
DESCRIBING THINGS
Match these descriptions to objects in the pictures.
electrical
colourful
sticky
long and thin
black and
white
soft
human plastic
metal
pointed
tall
round
flat
Work in pairs. One person chooses an object and describes it. The other person must guess what it is.It's... . / It has got . .. .
Match these descriptions to the
correct pictures.
a It's something that you use for
cooking.
b It's something which you find in
the kitchen.
c It's a bird that can't fly.
d. It's a bird which lives in Africa.
e It's someone who sells things.
f. It's a person that works in a shop.
, Practise describing thingsa Write these things on a piece of
paper. the name of something that
you need to buy an animal a job
b. Fold the piece οf paper and give it to another person in the class.
Work in pairs. Look at the paper that you have received but don't show it to your partner. Describe the things to your partner without using the names. He/she must try to guess what you want to say.
ExampleThe thing that / need to buy is something that you drink.
Change roles. Now describe the things on his/her paper.
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ACTIVITY 4
From: Hotline (pre-intermediate), p. 103
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______________________________________________ACTIVITY 5
From: Task Way English 3, p.23
______________________________________________ACTIVITY 6
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From: Open Up Through English 2, p.31
Learners are instructed to listen twice to a boy explain how he makes his favourite sandwich and write the correct word next to each picture.
______________________________________________ACTIVITY 7
From: Open Up Through English 2, p.30
Learners are asked to look at the watches and write True or F for after each sentence on the right column.
a) The time on the blue and yellow watch is half past nine.
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a) The time on the clock radio is eight o’clock.
c) The time on the black digital watch is half past ten.
d) The time on the red alarm clock is twelve o’clock.
e) The time on the orange alarm clock is half past four.
f) The time on the old watch is two o’clock.
______________________________________________ACTIVITY 8
From: Take Off 2, p. 14
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Students listen to the teacher talking about the people below in terms of their appearance. They must identify who s/he is talking about each time.
Example Teacher: She’s a tall slim girl, with dark hair, wearing glasses.Student: [You’re talking about] 1a
As a follow up the teacher can ask individual students to choose and describe someone in the class. The rest of the class tries to understand who it is that their classmate is talking about. Alternatively this activity can be carried out as pair or group work. Plan the activity.
______________________________________________ACTIVITY 9
From: Take Off 2, p. 48
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_____________________________________________ACTIVITY 10
From: Hotline (pre-intermediate), p. 34
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UNIT 3
Dealing with Pronunciation and Intonation skills
TASK 1
Below is a list of statements relating to various central issues regarding the “teaching” of pronunciation. Indicate which statements you think are true and which are false.
The way we pronounce and stress words, our tone of voice and the rhythm of our speech can reveal things about our social identity.
If we pronounce words incorrectly we are totally unable to communicate our meanings. The younger a foreign language learner is, the more likely s/he is to improve his/her
ability to pronounce words well in a foreign language. The aim of pronunciation teaching is to help the learner of English acquire a native
speaker accent. Pronunciation practice should focus on those sounds which are different in the learner’s
mother tongue. The most effective way to improve one’s pronunciation is pronunciation practice is to
listen to native speakers and to repeat what they say.. Learners’ level of competence in pronunciation depends on their needs, learning styles,
attitudes, motivation and cultural background. Pronunciation cannot be divorced from communication and other aspects of language
use.
Elements of pronunciation to be tackled
Individual sounds and clusters
The sounds and clusters Greek learners find difficult to recognise and, therefore, to produce (something that can affect their intelligibility) are mainly (a) the ones they perceive as similar to Greek sounds, and (b) English minimal pairs which they perceive as the same Greek phoneme. Therefore, these sounds and pairs need to be contrasted and not merely tackled on their own (sources: Householder, 1964: 18-24; Kenworthy, 1987: 139-141; Koutsoudas & Koutsoudas, 1962; as well as my own observations).
Spelling and pronunciation
In Greek, the spelling-pronunciation correspondence is quite straightforward; that is, apart from a few exceptions there is a one-to-one correspondence (Koutsoudas & Koutsoudas, 1962: 230). Since learners will encounter both the written and spoken language from the beginning of the course they may impose a Greek reading/pronunciation on English words.
Any regularities of spelling-pronunciation correspondence will be pointed out and discussed, since the two languages are quite different in that respect. The table below shows the problematic vowel and consonant phonemes of each language paired as the average Greek speaker would perceive (and consequently produce) them. English phonemes are presented as in Brown (1990: 35), Greek phonemes are presented as in Mackridge (1985: 15).
English Greek/æ/, /ɑ:/, /ʌ/ /a/
/e/, /ɜ:/ /ɛ/
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/ɪ/, /i:/ /i//ɒ/, /ɔ:/ /o//ʊ/, /u:/ /u/
/ǝ/ Any of the above/w/ /γ/, /u//h/ /x/
/n/, /ŋ/ /n//s/, /ʃ/, /s//z/, /ʒ/ /z/
Also, note that in Greek the clusters /m/+/p/ and /n/+/t/ can be realised (in free variation) as [b], [mp], [mb] and [d], [nt], [nd] respectively. So Greek speakers may pronounce: able as [‘Eimbl], amplify as [‘amblifai] or [‘ablifai], antennae as [ad‘ɛna], enterprise as [‘ɛdɛrpraiz] or [‘ɛndɛrpraiz]. Finally, Greek /t/ and /p/ are unaspirated and may be perceived by English-speaking listeners as /d/ and /b/ respectively.
Stress and rhythm
Greek is syllable-timed. Greek learners tend, therefore, to allocate equal time to each syllable (or, more accurately, to what they perceive as a syllable) and produce full vowels in unstressed positions. They use the same strategy when they decode rapid speech. In my experience, this is by far the main reason for their problems in the comprehension of connected speech. To remedy this, high priority will be given to familiarising learners with English rhythm and the weakening of unstressed vowels. Production of elements of connected speech will also be treated, but with high priority given mainly to the weak forms of vowels (Abbot, 1986; Brown, 1990: 158; Gimson, 1989: 306-307; Kenworthy, 1987: 79).
Materials and Techniques
Presentation materials
A dual approach will be taken. To provide a model for production, words, phrases and short dialogues/texts in slow colloquial speech are to be used. Tapes in which English speakers speak Greek with distinct English pronunciation are also helpful [see ‘Production' below]. When perception is the aim, taped material of spoken language as used by native speakers to a native-speaker audience will be used. In both cases alternation of audio and video tapes will ensure familiarity of and practice in situations when visual clues are (not) present.
Types of exercises
Perception/Awareness
Learners will be asked to identify the number of words they hear, certain (groups of) words, the actual utterance heard among written alternatives given to them before listening (Brown, 1975: 112), mark stress on a transcript (before and after listening to the tape) or identify unstressed vowels and features of connected speech, infer the speaker's intended meaning based on prosodic and paralinguistic features. A common principle underlying rapid speech exercises is that since we do not want to grade the input we should pitch the difficulty of the task at the learners' level, and be ready to re-play the tape as many times as needed (Brown, 1974: 56). The pronunciation of Greek words incorporated into the English lexicon can facilitate awareness regarding word stress and pronunciation.
Production
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Some use of drilling seems inevitable, but it does not have to be mechanical. Controlled pseudo-communicative situations (with no real focus on meaning) can be created in which the learners will have the opportunity to get their tongue around the element practised. Mimicry (speaking Greek with an English pronunciation) can be utilised to help learners get an overall feel for the pronunciation. Mimicry can also help lower learner inhibitions, particularly of those adult learners who would like to ‘drop' their Greek accent but feel embarrassed to do so. When an individual sound causes intelligibility problems, learners can be made aware of particular articulatory settings by watching the mouth movements of a speaker, and guided to reproduce (or approximate) the setting themselves (Brown, 1974: 57).
Context
Lessons presenting new structures or expressions (i.e. exponents of functions) through taped material, as well as listening-skills lessons will provide a context (and a ‘model') for practice/awareness of relevant issues of pronunciation.
Integration
Pronunciation teaching is not an end in itself but a means of facilitating communication. It seems logical, then, to give learners the chance to incorporate the elements practised in their own productive/receptive use of the language (Cook, 1989: 82-83, Littlewood, 981: 87-88). Listening and speaking skills development tasks seem the natural environment.
Feedback
After the listening tasks (where the focus is on meaning), the learners can turn their attention to pronunciation features that posed comprehension problems. Speaking tasks can be taped and used for self-awareness regarding elements of pronunciation that cause intelligibility problems. The tasks devised can also be customised to meet individual learners' needs and done as homework.
Activities to improve intonationExplaining to your students that the modal ‘must’ can be used to show obligation or conclusion, but that showing it or showing how strong this obligation or conclusion is depends on the speaker’s intonation, you could ask them to act out the following:
Υου must go and νisit your grandmother. She's ill. (OBLlGATlON) Υου must be very tired. Υου'νe been working all day. (CONCLUSION)
Now study the sentences below, indicate what they are ands act them out. 1) It must haνe been the neighbour's cat. (_______________________)2) Αlex must be more careful. (___________________________)3) Υου must be joking! (___________________________)4) He must haνe offended her. (___________________________)5) She mustn't miss that Russian film! (___________________________)6) They must haνe a good reason to be doing that. (___________________________)
Explaining to your students that the modal ‘can’ is often used to express ability, and that its negatiνe form (can't) it can be used to express either lack of ability or conclusion, you could ask them to act out the following:
He can't speak Chinese. (LACK OF ΑΒILIΤΥ) He can't possibly be Chinese (CONCLUSION)
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Now study the sentences below, indicate what they are and act them out.
1) Υου can't be serious! (___________________________)2) It can't haνe been Osha. (___________________________)3) It's all a misunderstanding, but Ι can't explain. ( 4) He can't driνe yet. (___________________________)5) They can't haνe met before. (___________________________)6) They can't climb that tree! (___________________________)
Homework projectSelect a textbook for beginners and look at what pronunciation / intonation activities and tasks it contains. Categorize them.
A list of useful websites for pronunciation practice(These sites were active as of March 13, 2000)
Sites for pronunciation Sounds of English--http://mason.gmu.edu/~swidmaye/sounds.htm:
Sharon's page with diagrams and .wav files The ESL Pronunciation Page-- http://user.gru.net/richardx/pronounce1.html English Pronunciation--
http://www.engl.polyu.edu.hk/MATERIALS/Pronunciation/1a-index.htm Phonetics and Phonology--
http://www.csulb.edu/~phoneme/pronunciation.html ESL Independent Study Lab--
http://www.lclark.edu/~krauss/toppicks/pronunciation.html Internet TESL Journal's list of Pronunciation
links--http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/links/ESL/Pronunciation/ Holly's Beginning Word Stress--
http://www.wam.umd.edu/~hgray/stresschapter.html Rhymes on English
Pronunciation--http://www.wmich.edu/english/tchg/lit/adv/pronun.html: not a sound page, but a charming poem on the hazards of pronunciation and spelling correlations
Foreign Accent Archive--http://classweb.gmu.edu/classweb/weinberg/foreignaccent.html: not for ESL per se, but a great resource for examining accented English and predicting pronunciation problems
Sites with general ESL listening activities ILCP Index-Interactive Listening Comprehension Practice
(http://deil.lang.uiuc.edu/lcra/) BBC World Service - Learning Zone Home Page
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/lzone/): This site has changed recently, but it's still great for ESL
Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab (http://www.esl-lab.com/): Lots of great Real Audio quizzes good for a variety of levels
The English Listening Lounge (http://www.EnglishListening.com/) Holly's Listening Comprehension Page
(http://www.wam.umd.edu/~hgray/listen.html)Sites with Authentic MaterialsInterviews and news
RealAudio: National Public Radio (http://www.realaudio.com/contentp/npr.index.html)
BBC World Service - Home Page (http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/)
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The Authors Speak (http://www.authorsspeak.com/)--long interviews with many different authors. Somewhat accurate transcripts provided.
Car Talk (http://cartalk.cars.com/Radio/) Hollywood Online -MovieTalk
(http://www.hollywood.com/movietalk/index.html) --Short interview clips with movie personalities
The World (http://www.theworld.org/): public radio international news show Nightline (ABC news)
(http://www.abcnews.go.com/onair/nightline/NightlineIndex.html): Video clips of current events in RealAudio. Has some transcripts.
CNN video select (http://cnn.com/videoselect/): Video clips of current events in Real Audio
Weather http://www.tvweather.com/tv_aud.htm: Listen to the weather throughout
the U.S.Radio Drama
The Shadow RealAudio Radio Theater (http://www.shadowradio.org) -features a different episode from the old radio show each day
Speeches Great Speeches---Presented by Elycia's Real Audio and the Chicago Law
Network(http://www.chicago-law.net/speeches/speech.html)--the name says it all; decades of historic speeches and sound clips
Webcorp's Audio Archive (http://www.webcorp.com/test/audioarchivefr.htm)--sound clips from speeches, very short (mostly .wav and .au)
Film and TV Screening Room (http://www.film.com/screen/other.jhtml)--movie trailers,
video clips Seinfeld sights and sounds in RealAudio
(http://ncohafmuta.com/seinfeld/)--has the complete (yes, complete) audio for lots and lots of Seinfeld episodes
Jonny's Star Trek Site (http://www.boingweb.com/startrek/index2.html)--Quicktime short clips
Xena QuickTime Library (http://www.xenafan.com/quicktime/)-- Quicktime short clips.
Songs Billboard Top 100 (http://www.billboardradio.com)
Poetry The Academy of American Poets (http://www.poets.org/lit/boothfst.htm)--
Archive of Poetry with both text & audio usually read by the author).
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UNIT 4
Dealing with Grammar in a Communicative Context: Part I
TASK 1
Suppose that a teacher had shown her/his students the contents of the table below. Decide if her/his intention is to present them with: (a) the meaning of the present continuous tense, (b) the form of the present continuous tense, (c) a series of meaningful sentences.
I am sittingYou are sittingHe/she/it is sitting
We are sittingYou are sittingThey are sitting
TASK 2
Suppose that a teacher is presenting the present progressive tense to her/his class for the first time. She follows the steps below. Study them carefully and decide if s/he is presenting: (a) the form of the tense, (b) the form and the meaning in a situation created to display the grammar point, (c) a series of commonly used sentences containing the present continuous tense, (d) form+meaning+use of the new grammar point in real-life context.
Grammar presentation steps
Step 1: S/he mimes certain actions and asks the class to tell her/him what s/he is doing, choosing sentences among those in Column A from the Table below.
Step 2: S/he hands individual or pairs of pupils in the class pieces of paper with instructions written on them, telling her/him to mime the action, and asks the class to choose among those in Column B the sentence that best describes what the pupil(s) is(are) doing.
Step 3: Now, s/he tells pupils that each will each mime an action choosing among those in Column C and s/he will ask them questions about what they are doing. They have to respond by selecting cues from Column C.
COLUMN A COLUMN B COLUMN C
What am I doing? What is …… [pupil’s name] doing?
Are you ……ing …….?
1. You are holding a pen.
2. You are writing a word on the blackboard.
3. You are singing.
4. You are laughing.
5. You are showing us an old photo of somebody.
6. You’re just thinking.
7. You’re turning in circles.
1. He/She is reading a book.
2. He/She knocking on the door.
3. They are talking.
4. They are working.
5. He/She is opening the door.
6. They are listening to music and dancing.
7. They’re playing hangman.
1. No, I’m standing next to my desk.
2. No, I’m standing next to Maria.
3. No, I’m looking at page 25 in my coursebook.
4. No, I’m looking out the window.
5. No, I’m putting my things in my schoolbag.
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TASK 3
The teacher has presented the present progressive to her class and now s/he is doing some additional work with pupils, following the steps below. Study them and decide what the teaching/learning objective of each step is.
Listening comprehension, grammar presentation/consolidation and language awareness steps
Step 1: The teacher asks the class to listen to a recorded telephone conversation between two young women, Joan and Mary, and then answer the T or F items in Table A below. (The pupils do not see the tape-script).
Step 2: S/he then asks them to listen again and answer the questions in Table B. (Without the tape-script again.)
Step 3: Next, s/he tells them to look carefully through the tape-script, which s/he presents on OHP, and asks them to write down all utterances that contain the new tense in the two columns of Table C, explaining that the present continuous tense is used to refer to things happening at the moment that the person is speaking, but also to refer to things that are happening in the near future.
Step 4: S/he finally asks the class to work in groups of four to do a role play. S/he hands out a different role-play card to each of the groups (such as the one below). The class is given 5 minutes so that all pupils in each group prepare to act out the role assigned. When they do, the rest of the class must guess what role the pupil is playing. The group that manages to guess first gets a point and so does the group that has managed to carry out the task successfully.
ROLE-PLAY CARDYou are a police detective, watching a suspect and reporting back to your partner who is in the car, parked in an alley nearby. You are in the garden. The lights are on and you can see what’s happening inside the house. You’re using binoculars.
TABLE A T F
1. Mary and Joan are talking on the phone.
2. Mary’s asking Joan to dinner.
3. Jenny’s coming over to Joan’s house to study with her.
4. David’s going to Mary’s house tonight and bringing some take-out.
5. Joan is not watching TV right now. She’s e-mailing.
6. Mary’s sister is ringing her up while she’s speaking with Joan.
7. Joan and Mary are doing a project together.
8. Joan and Mary are not seeing each another at the gym next Tuesday.
TABLE B
Read the questions Answer the questions
1. What is Mary doing right now?
2. What is she doing tonight?
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3. Why is Joan calling Mary?
4. What is Joan doing this evening?
5. When is Mary handing in her project?
TAPE-SCRIPT OF THE TELEPHONE CONVERSATION
Mary: Hello, Joan. This is Mary. Are you busy?
Joan: Oh, Mary, hi. Yes, I’m working right now. What about you?
Mary: I’m… [doorbell rings] oops… the doorbell… Just a minute. The doorbell is ringing. [after a few seconds]… Sorry, Mary. It’s Jenny. She’s coming up. But she has a key.
Joan: Are you coming to the cinema with us tonight?
Mary: Thanks, but no. David is coming over, and he’s cooking dinner.
Joan: That’s great. So, what are you working on?
Mary: I’m answering e-mails and looking for information on the web.
Joan: Aha, for the class project, right? Are you handing it in tomorrow?
Mary: Probably. But I’ve still got a lot of writing to do and… Oh, sorry, my sister is calling me… I’ve got to go.
Joan: Ok, then. Have a good time tonight. Dave is a fun guy!
Mary: Thanks. You too. Bye. See you at the gym on Tuesday.
TABLE C
COLUMN A COLUMN B
Things happening while the two women are talking on the phone
Things happening later in the day, not while they’re talking on the phone
……………………………………………
……………………………………………
……………………………………………
……………………………………………
……………………………………………
……………………………………………
……………………………………………
……………………………………………
……………………………………………
………………………………………………
………………………………………………
………………………………………………
………………………………………………
………………………………………………
………………………………………………
………………………………………………
………………………………………………
………………………………………………
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TASK 4
Go back to the various options of class activity related to the new grammar point that has been dealt with in class and decide:
Which of them you find most useful for the presentation of form+meaning+use. Explain why.
Which of them you find most useful for practice and which for the production of the new grammar point. Explain why.
Decide when and for what reason you might use Greek with your students if you were to take each of the options presented.
HOMEWORK PROJECT Search through EFL coursebooks that you are familiar with and:
(a) Find two activities with which pupils are presented with a new grammar point. One of them aims at the presentation of form+meaning and it entails transmissive teaching. The other aims at the presentation of form+meaning+use and involves pupils in discovery learning.
(b) Find an activity that provides pupils with opportunity for meaningful practice of the new grammar point.
(c) Find an activity that provides pupils with opportunity for meaningful production of the new grammar point.
Different views about grammar
TASK 5
Different theories of language entail and necessarily result in different views of grammar. In other words, each theory of language is at the same time a theory of grammar. Look at the statements below and decide:
(a) Which are true and which if any are false?(b) Which theory of language is each statement warranted by?
STATEMENTS T F
Grammar…
1. ...explains the formal rules of the standard variety of a language.
2. …describes (and some times prescribes) the rules in a language for changing the form of words and joining them into sentences.
3. …refers to a person’s knowledge of the rules of language usage and use.
4. …is a book containing rules about linguistic categories, the morphology of words and syntax.
5. …is a book that explains what is considered regular (or irregular) in a language, what is acceptable and what is not.
6. …explains how words combined together come to have meaning.
7. …explains how people can do things with words and how language is used in different situations as a meaning-making system.
8. …describes in systematic ways how language is patterned into social
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meanings and vice-versa.
9. …explains what different choices of language features (e.g. tense and aspect, modality, negation, transitivity, etc.) entail and encode different meaning.
10. …provides activities that illustrate language usage and/or use in authentic social contexts.
TASK 6
Nowadays, there are all types of grammars for English in the market. We have, for example, (a) Current English grammars, (b) Communicative grammars, (c) Functional grammars, (d) Pedagogical grammars, (e) Student grammars, (e) Reference grammars, (f) Practical grammars of English language use, (g) Grammars of examples, (h) Grammars of word classes and collocations, (i) Grammars of meanings. Look at the statements above again, and decide which statements are linked with what grammar. Put letter next to number.
1. 3. 5. 7. 9.2. 4. 6. 8. 10.
TASK 7
Now look at the explanations and examples below and decide what kind of grammar book might contain them.
Past continuous tenseForm: was + V-ingMeaning: When an action took place in the past over a period of time
Example A What were they doing five years ago?Pat ChrisPeterBill
was working in a factory studying law learning a trade drawing the dole
Cole and EddieJenny and Sally
were living in Manchestertravelling around the world
Now make sentences:Example: Pat was a factory worker. He was working in a factory.
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Indicating likelihood
The following paragraphs explain the main ways in which modals are used to express degrees of certainty.
assumption: “will” and “would”You use “will” when you are assuming that something is the case, and you do not think there is any reason to doubt it.Those of you who are familiar with the game will know this. He will be a little out of touch, although he's a rapid learner. Most listeners will have heard of hormones.Similarly, you use “will not” or “won't” when you are assuming that something is not the case.The audience will not be aware of such exact details. You won't know Gordon. He's our new doctor.After “you”, you can use “would” instead of “will”, if you want to be more polite.You would agree that the United States should be involved in assisting these countries.
certainty: “would” and “should”You also use “would” to say that something is certain to happen in particular circumstances.Even an illiterate person would understand that.Few people would_ agree with this as a general principle.After “I”, you can use “should” instead of “would”.The very first thing I should do would be to teach you how to cook.
Note: More uses and examples follow.
Sentences with comparatives
1. Typical mistakes:*The weather’s warmer as last week*I’ve been waiting longer that you
Comparatives are followed by than.The weather’s warmer than last weekI’ve been waiting longer than you
Which is correct: older than I or older than me?In informal English, we often use object pronouns (me, him, her, us, them) after than. In a more formal style, subject pronouns (I, he, etc) are considered more “correct”
She’s older than me (informal)She is older than I (am) (formal)When the pronoun is used with a verb, only subject pronouns are possible, of course.Lucy found more mushrooms than I did. (Not:*…..than me did.)
The…the…We can use comparatives with the in a special way, to say that two changes happen together.
The older I get, the happier I am.The more dangerous it is, the more I like it.The sooner you start, the more quickly you’ll be finished.The more you work, the less you learn.The more people you know, the less time you have to see them.In sentences like these, do not separate more from the adjective, adverb or noun.
Typical mistake: *The more it is dangerous,…
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Do not leave out the.Typical mistake: *More you work, …
The grammar of newspaper headlinesNewspaper headlines often follow rather different grammatical rules from other kinds of writing.
a Headlines are not always complete sentencesMORE EARTHQUAKE DEATHS
b Headlines often contain strings of three, four or more nouns.FURNITURE FACTORY PAY CUT RIOT
In expressions like this, all the nouns except the last one act as adjectives. The easiest way to understand headlines of this kind is to read them backwards. FURNITURE FACTORY PAY CUT RIOT refers to a RIOT about a CUT in PAY for the workers in a FACTORY that makes FURNITURE.
c Articles and the verb to be are often left outSHAKESPEARE PLAY IMMORAL, SAYS HEADMASTER
d Newspaper headlines have a special tense-system. It is unusual to find complex forms like is coming or has produced; generally the simple present form (comes, produces) is used , whether the headline is about something that has happened, something that is happening, or something that happens repeatedly.
BRITAIN SENDS FOOD TO FAMINE VICTIMSSTUDENTS FIGHT FOR COURSE CHANGES
Sometimes the present progressive tense is used (usually to describe something that is changing or developing), but the auxiliary verb (is, are) is usually left out.
WORLD HEADING FOR ENERGY CRISISBRITAIN GETTING WARMER, SAY RESEARCHERS
To refer to the future, headlines often use the infinitive. (This is really a contracted form of the be + infinitive construction;)
QUEEN TO VISIT SAMOAPM TO ANNOUNCE CABINET CHANGES ON TUESDAY
e Passive sentences are constructed with no auxiliary verb, just the past participle.MAN HELD BY POLICE IN MURDER HUNT (= A man is being held…)NUNS KILLED IN EXPLOSION
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UNIT 5
Dealing with Grammar in a Communicative Context: Part II
Grammar in discourse, genre and textRealizing that even the most profound knowledge of the formal grammar of a language does not necessarily help someone understand how this language is used purposefully in oral and written discourse, contemporary pedagogic projects for language learning and teaching aim at providing learners with a developing awareness of how language operates in context to create socially purposeful meanings, at the level of the sentence but also at the level of text and genre. Different contexts of language use entail different uses of language and different ways of saying something constitute different ways of meaning.
Definition of concepts
DiscourseThink of «λόγος» as the equivalent Greek word for this term. The notion, which is sometimes simplistically defined as a piece of coherent oral speech or piece of writing, is institutionally delineated and ordered. This is so when we talk about political discourse, legal discourse, medical discourse, pedagogic discourse or religious discourse; about the discourse of sports, of advertising, of history and of science.GenreThink of «κειμενικό είδος» as this is a common translation of a term which is sometimes merely defined as a particular type of discourse, such as a type of literary, scientific, political, medical text. In other words, it is a piece of talk or writing that belongs to a particular discourse order and has the similar style and textual features. For example, doctor and patient talk, a doctor’s report, written information about a pharmaceutical product or an article in a medical journal are all within the “logic” of medical discourse. However, they are also different insofar as the genre of a report is different say than that of an article or a medical warning. TextA piece of writing of a particular discourse and genre which is intended to convey an overall message and particular bits of information, feelings, attitudes, etc.
TASK 1
Look at the two different texts below. They are related discourse-wise, but they lexicalized/ grammaticalized differently because each text is of a different genre. Guess what is which and explain what helped you decide.
Welcome to Sunset Paradise! We’re delighted to have you here. Our staff is at your disposal to make your stay comfortable and pleasant.
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Ring us if you need us. Dial 0 for the information desk. For all other calls and for Internet connection look at the directory on your bedside table. Other services and facilities in your room: TV, mini-bar, room-service, cleaners upon request.
The flowers and wine are compliments of the managerMs Olivia Sukiyama
Sunset Paradise
A luxurious, five-star hotel in Honolulu, conveniently located near one of the most beautiful beaches in Waikiki, not far from the centre of town. With its own shopping centre, two swimming pools, conference rooms and more services than you can imagine, with staff to please and service you, and prices to surprise you, watching the Hawaiian sunset in Paradise is a must!
TASK 2
Different lexicogrammatical choices encode different social meanings. Look at the exchanges below and say what different meanings they encode.
SITUATION 1
A: Steve, I’d like you to meet Robyn. Robyn, this is Steve. I’m surprised you’ve not met one another before tonight.
B. Hello, Steve. I’m so pleased to meet you. I’ve heard so much about you – all good, I assure you.
SITUATION 2
A: Honey, this is Billy. Billy, this is Marion. You go to the same school, don’t you?
B. Hi Billy. I’ve seen you play basketball. Timothy Bailey is my cousin.
C. Cool. He’s the best!
How to deal with grammar in the EFL classroom: Basic principles
Grammar instruction must be integrated into a communicative framework, which means that all new language should be presented, practiced and produced in a social context. Though it is important that learners practice with new form, it is vital for them to be provided with ample opportunity:
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To use language to understand and produce authentic texts, by being involved in authentic tasks.
To develop an increasing awareness of language use in different contexts.
Types of grammar presentation activity
Below are five different ways for presenting new grammar. Read them carefully and also notice that there are also a variety of techniques that can be used to “explain” the form and meaning of new grammar and to help learners understand how the new language is used purposefully.
TASK 3
Having read the different ways of presenting new grammar points, go back to the previous UNIT, regarding the teaching/learning of grammar and decide which technique is employed in Task 2, Step 1, and in Task 3, Step 1.
Type 1 Explaining directly
Learners are provided with examples of the new language point as they are introduced to basic “rules” about its form, meaning and use. The new information is provided with examples and through the use of metalanguage. Sometimes it helps to use charts, a time line and/or to compare L1 and L2.
Type 2 Demonstrating
Learners are introduced to the new grammar point through an oral or written text, especially constructed so as to demonstrate the form and meaning of the new point. They are asked to do a listening or reading comprehension exercise/activity first, and then the teacher provides them with some form of explanation regarding how the new structure is formed and what its meaning is. It may also be helpful to demonstrate by personalizing or using a special text for motivation purposes, such as a song. Audiovisual aids can also be helpful and motivating, for example, pictures, realia, a recorded conversation, multimedia programmes.
Type 3 Noticing
Learners are asked to listen or read an authentic-like text which shows how the new language operates in discourse. The teacher focuses their attention on this new point and asks them questions related to its form, meaning and use, so that s/he may elicit the knowledge being developed. The use of audiovisual aids is useful here also.
Type 4 Presenting through learner involvement
Learners are involved in an activity / task that is based on the new language, in context, and to use the new language in totally controlled manner. Actually, by using this technique, the teacher is expecting learners to discover new knowledge on their own with his/her help.
Type 5 Making learner knowledge explicit
Learners, having been involved in practice and production exercises/activities involving the new language point in context, are asked to map, organize and/or talk about their new knowledge, using the target language or L1.
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TASK 4
Now search in EFL course books to find activities/tasks that employ some other techniques than those you found in the previous UNIT. Specifically, find grammar presentation activities that employ one of the following:
1. Using a song or a recorded conversation
3. Explaining directly 5. Presentation through involvement
2. Using one or more pictures,drawings,etc.
4. Presentation through authentic-like text
6. Using a chart, diagram, table or graph.
Types of grammar practice and production activityBelow are different types of grammar practice and production activities, starting from the most guided and controlled to freer production where the focus is on fluency. Many of the techniques and aids used for presentation can also be used for practice and production.
Type 1 Awareness
After learners have been introduced to the new grammar point, they are given opportunities to encounter it within some kind of discourse and do a task that focuses their attention on its form. Meaning and use.
Type 2 Guided meaningful practice
Learners are given the context and asked to form utterances or short texts of their own, according to a set pattern but exactly what vocabulary they use is up to them.
Type 3 Guided production of utterances
Learners are provided with a visual or situational cue and asked to provide their own responses. The context invites the use of the new grammar point.
Type 4 Guided production of text
Learners hold a discussion or write a text according to a given task. The rubrics define the conditions of language use (i.e. who’s talking to whom and for what purpose) and the context invites the use of the language point in text-genre-discourse.
Type 5 Free production
As in type 4 but, whereas learners are given very clear instructions as to what to do, they are not guided into use of the new grammar. However, the task situation is such that instances of it are likely to appear.
Three key phases to teaching/learning grammar
Through noticing and re-noticing learners take in features of the language as these become significant to them.
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Through restructuring, learners progressively sort out how grammar works and how forms and meaning map on to each other.
Through proceduralisation, learners organize their knowledge so that it can be activated quickly and efficiently in language use.
HOMEWORK PROJECT
Select units from two EFL coursebooks that deal with the same grammatical item (e.g. the present perfect, passive construction, reported speech etc.) Use the knowledge you have developed during the last couple of weeks in class by using the two Worksheets on “Dealing with Grammar” and:a) See whether they present the new grammar in context and explain how they do this.b) Explain what presentation techniques they use.c) Explain also what types of practice and production activities they use and whether they
move from more controlled and guided practice to freer production. d) Evaluate the effectiveness of each activity for the development of learners’
communicative competence and pick one from each coursebook which responds to the principles of “communicative” teaching and motivating pedagogy.
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UNIT 6
Developing Reading Skills
TASK 1
Below is an extract from a book by Roald Dahl. Read the extract and answer the questions that follow.
“But if you don´t each people like all the others´ Sophie said”, then what do you live on?”. “That is a squelching tricky problem round here” the BFG answered ”In this shloshflunking Giant Country, happy eats like pineapples and pigwinkles is simply not growing. Nothing is growing except for one extremely icky-poo vegetable. It is called the snozzcumber”“The snozzcumber!” cried Sophie “There is no such thing”The BFG looked at Sophie and smiled, showing about twenty of his square white teeth. “Yesterday”, he said, “we was not believing in giants, was we?” Today we is not believing in snozzcumbers. Just because we happen not to have actually seen something with our own two little winkles, we think it is not existing. What about for instance the great squizzly scotch-hopper?”“I beg your pardon? “ Sophie said.
1. What sort of book do you think this extract comes from?…………………………………………………………………………………………………
2. Who is BFG and who is Sophie?
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
3. Where do you think they are?……………………………………………………………………………………..……………
4. What do think the words in italics may mean?
(a) shloshflunking ……………………………………….
(b) pigwinkles ……………………………………….
(c) snozzcumber ……………………………………..…
(d) squizzly scotch-hopper ……………………………………….
5. In order to answer questions 1-4 you made a number of inferences. What kinds of knowledge did you draw upon in order to make your inferences?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
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The reading process
Top down Knowledge of the world:General, topic, socioculturalKnowledge of language:Text sourceText designDiscourse typeInter-sentential linksSentence structureClause structureWordsWord structureLetter sound relationshipsLetter Bottom up
In the bottom up model the reader constructs meaning from decoding the letters, words and other language features in the text.
In the top down model the reader reconstructs meaning as he interacts with the text. The reader brings to this interaction his/her knowledge of the subject, prior background knowledge (schema), their motivation attitudes and interests. Using this information the reader forms hypothesis about text elements and then samples the text to determine whether or not his/her hypotheses are correct.
In the interactive reading model the reader moves through the text employing various types of knowledge. The reader draws on bottom up and top down knowledge alternatively or simultaneously depending on the type of text, the reader´s background knowledge and language proficiency level.
Text types, reading purposes, and reading strategies
Different text types have different communicative functions, distinctive linguistic characteristics and their own internal structure. Readers have knowledge of a vast array of text types and of their characteristics. This knowledge allows them to approach the text with some familiarity and to adjust their reading expectations and skills to the particular text.
TASK 2
In task 1, the extract was taken from a children´s book by Roald Dahl. Based on your familiarity with this genre, list some of its main characteristics. Focus on text design/layout, discourse type, discourse features, grammatical features.
TASK 3
Readers do not approach all texts in the same way. They will adjust their reading style according to the purposes they have for reading. Think of what are some of the purposes for reading. In order to help you in your answer, think about why you read a newspaper, a poem, a telephone directory, a manual, an encyclopedia, tour guides.
Reading strategies
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Depending on their reading purpose and the type of text, good readers choose the most appropriate reading strategy. Below is a list of strategies the effective readers have been found to employ1:
Recognise words quickly
Use text features (i.e. headings, subheadings, pictures) to predict the content of a text
Deduce the meaning and use of unfamiliar lexical items by using contextual clues
Read at different speeds for different purposes
Understand information when not explicitly stated
Distinguish main ideas from minor ones
Identify the salient points in a text to summarise
Distinguish between fact and opinion
Use prior knowledge to work out the meanings within a text
Understand the relationships between parts of the text from the use of connectives
Skimming (quickly reading through a text to get the gist)
Scanning (quickly searching a text for a particular piece of information)
Identify the main point in a piece of discourse
Use a dictionary well and understand its limitations
Use context to build meaning and aid comprehension
Continue reading even when unsuccessful, at least for a while
Adjust strategies to the purpose of reading
TASK 4
Answer the following questions on the basis of the above list of reading strategies.
Which strategies would you use if you, wanted to find a telephone number in the directory ?…………………………………………………………………………Your level is intermediate, and you wanted to find out what a British newspaper´s opinion is towards the Olympic games?……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Your level is pre-intermediate and you want to decide which places to visit in London through a tour guide?……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
TASK 5
1 Adapted from Munby (1978), and Aebersold and Field (1997).
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On the basis of the information presented so far regarding the reading process and the profile of the effective reader, offer five pieces of advice to a Greek EFL teacher who wants to develop his/her students’ reading skills?
Stages of a reading lesson
1. PRE-READING STAGE
During this stage, learners are prepared for the reading that will follow. The knowledge that they already have (linguistic and socio-cultural) is activated so that reading may be a purposeful activity.
During this stage, learners may be: oriented to the context of the text prepared for the content of the text provided with a purpose for reading given stimuli to activate background knowledge encouraged to express their attitude about the topic familiarized with some of the language of the text
2. WHILE-READING STAGE
The basic purpose of this stage is to get learners to practise reading and thus develop a range of reading strategies. Learners are encouraged to be active, flexible and reflective readers.
During this stage, learners may be encouraged to: follow the order of ideas in a text react to opinions in a text confirm expectations or prior knowledge predict the next part of the text from various clues distinguish fact from opinion distinguish major from minor ideas etc.
3. POST-READING STAGE
Activities and tasks used during this stage usually vary so as to respond to different pedagogic purposes. They can either focus on the content of the text (e.g. role play, writing a summary, discussing information not in text) or on the language of the text (sentence or text grammar activities, vocabulary tasks, etc.). In general, however, they should encourage learners to check and discuss what they have already done while reading, so that they can make use of what they have read in a meaningful way.
TASK 6
Go through the list of task types below and decide in which phase of the reading lesson the task is most likely to be used. Tick the appropriate column in the table to indicate what you think is the most likely phase.
TASK TYPES PRE WHILE POSTScanning the text for specific factsChoosing synonyms for vocabulary in the textRe-enacting a dialogue from the textChoosing a story to read outside the classDiscussing the opinions of the authorMapping the discourse organization of the textWriting a summary of the main ideas of the text
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Creating an ending for the textCreating a text of similar discourse structureBrainstorming for relevant vocabulary termsPredicting the content of a text from its titleRetelling the main event in a storyTransferring information from text onto a diagram
HOMEWORK PROJECTOn the basis of the information presented above, look at a unit from an EFL coursebook, and try to answer the following questions:
1. Which activities are for pre-reading which for while-reading and which for post-reading2. What are the aims of the activities in the pre-reading stage?3. What skills do the while reading activities aim at developing?4. Do the post-reading activities encourage students to make use of what they have read in a
meaningful way?
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UNIT 7
Developing Listening Skills
TASK 1
Below are some statements relating to reception skills, and listening comprehension skills in particular. Working with a partner, think about whether the statements are true or false and why. Revise your answers if necessary after discussion in class and/or relevant reading.
Fact or fiction? T F
Reading and listening comprehension require us to be passive, whereas speaking and writing require us to be active.
Reading and listening comprehension are “easy” or, in any case, much easier than speaking and writing.
Listening comprehension is more difficult than reading comprehension. It involves very complex skills.
Reception skills do not need to be explicitly developed in the foreign language classroom, since learners can transfer the comprehension skills they have developed by using their mother tongue.
In our mother tongue, first we develop our reception skills and then we develop our production skills, whereas in second language acquisition it is the other way around.
Oral interaction involves both listening and speaking as meaning making practices.
The time spent by people speaking the official language of their country in daily communication activities is: 45% listening, 30% speaking, 16% reading, 9% writing.
Reception skills and comprehension goals
TASK 2
Understanding –which necessarily involves interpretation of meaning– is a very complex process. It requires that listeners and readers employ a wide variety of receptive skills simultaneously while they’re preparing to listen or read, during the act of listening or reading, but also after the act has been completed. Below is table of randomly listed skills used by readers and listeners. Try to classify them according to the following categories of comprehension goals. Put the category number on the right-hand side of the table:
1. Understanding single utterances
2. Understanding relations between utterances or parts of a text
3. Obtaining the gist or a general impression of the text
4. Extracting specific information from text
5. Deducing unfamiliar or missing meaning
6. Understanding information not explicitly stated
7. Understanding the text so as to perform a task
COMPREHENSION
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Skills Goal
Interpreting attitudinal meaning through variation of rising and falling tone, pitch of voice, tempo of speech and other paralinguistic features. Deducing the meaning and use of unfamiliar lexical items, through understanding word formation, contextual clues.Making inferences and guesses about feelings, opinions and attitudes not expressed or expressed indirectly.Understanding conceptual meaning in utterances (e.g., quantity and amount, definiteness and indefiniteness, comparison, degree, time, location, direction, means, instrument, cause, result, purpose, reason, condition, contrast).Understanding the communicative value (function) of utterances, with or without explicit indicators (e.g., an interrogative that is a polite command; a statement that is in fact a suggestion, warning, etc. depending on the context; relationships of result; reformulation, etc.).Understanding relations within the sentence, especially elements of sentence structure, modification structure, intra-sentential connectors, complex embedding, focus and theme. Understanding relations between parts of a text through lexical cohesion devices (e.g., through repetition, synonymy, hyponymy, antithesis, opposition, collocation).Understanding relations between parts of a text through grammatical cohesion devices (e.g., through anaphoric and cataphoric reference, comparison, substitution, ellipsis, time and place relaters, logical connectors).Interpreting text by going outside it, using exophoric reference, ‘reading between the lines’, integrating data in the text with own experience or knowledge of the world.Recognizing indicators in discourse for introducing, developing or concluding an idea (e.g. adding points, reinforcing argument, making transition to another idea, emphasizing, explaining or clarifying point already made, anticipating an objection or contrary view).Identifying the main point or important information in a piece of discourse by recognizing vocal underlining (e.g. decreased speed, increased volume), end-focus and end-weight, verbal cues (e.g. ‘The point I want to make is…’), the topic sentence, in paragraphs of inductive organization or deductive organization.Distinguishing the main idea from supporting details, by differentiating primary from secondary significance, the whole from its parts, a progress from its stages, a category from component, statement from example, fact from opinion, a preposition from its argument.Extracting salient point to summarize the whole text, a specific idea/topic in the text, the underlying idea or point of the text.Selectively extracting relevant points from a text, involving the coordination of related information, the ordered rearrangement of contrasting items, the tabulation of information for comparison and contrast.Understanding and use of graphic presentation, viz. headings, sub-headings, numbering, indentation, bold print, etc.Storing bits of information in mind.Locating specifically required information on a whole topic or on single points, involving a simple or complex search. Inferring missing information (either because it is not provided in the specific instance or because though it is provided it cannot be heard/read). Predicting what is to follow one or more utterances, a substantial part of the text or the whole text.
TASK 3
Study at the following schematic representation of the listener/reader as an active participant in communication (cf. Anderson & Lynch 1988:13), and:(a) Think about which skills are interrelated with what type of knowledge
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(b) Use all the information you have acquired so far to describe the comprehension process.
COMPREHENION
Schematic knowledge
Background knowledge -factual -sociocultural (L1 & Target language)
Procedural knowledge-how language is used in discourse, genre and text (L1 & Target language)
Context
Intertextual relations
Knowledge of situation-who is addressing whom and for what purpose, in which setting, etc.
Knowledge of co-text-what has been/will be said/written-what is said/written in another text
Systemic knowledge Language awareness-semantic-level knowledge-lexicogrammatical knwoledge-phonological and writing conventions knowledge
Listening situations and listening purposes
TASK 4
4.1 Resort to your experience as a student of English as a foreign language and think: What types of oral texts did you listen to and what sort of listening comprehension situations did you involve yourself most frequently in your EFL classes?
THE EFL CLASS
Oral texts Listening comprehension situations
4.2 Now work with a partner. Think for a moment and write down as many types of oral texts that we listen to in real life, and some of the most common types of listening situations we find ourselves in. Compare with the table above.
LIFE OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM
Oral texts Listening comprehension situations
TASK 5
What listening comprehension skills we employ, depends largely on why we are listening to something, what type of text we are listening to, and in what type of social situation. Work with a partner and think about why you usually do the activities below and which comprehension skills you are usually obliged to use in order to respond to your communicative purpose.
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Activity Purpose SkillsListen to a lecture in class at the universityListen to the evening news on TVRead a recipeListen to an announcement at the airportRead instructions accompanying your new cell phoneListen to football match on the radio
Factors affecting listening/reading comprehension Reflection on the matter and research indicate that there are many factors which may hinder or facilitate comprehension and that these may or may not be related to one’s linguistic competence. They may have to do with features related to the following. Read through them and add one more feature that you can think of. Also indicate which of these features are relevant to the L1 and which to the F(oreign) L(anguage) user.
Factors affecting comprehension L1 user FL user
The way information is organized. For example, there are some indications that listeners/readers remember more of the content of an expository text when it has informative title and when the main points come before the illustrations of main points.
The reader’s/listener’s familiarity with the topic and way of delivery, his/her concern with the issues involved and his/her interest in the topic under consideration.
The reader’s/listener’s Familiarity with the particular type of discourse and genre.
Purposefulness of text for the reader/listener.
The nature of the text. Texts describing objects/giving instructions (“static”) are supposed to easier to understand than texts that focus on people’s opinions and ideas (“abstract”).
Processing load (amount of information that needs to be processed and time available).
Visual support (graphics, photographs, tables) plays an important role in the interpretation of what readers/listeners are reading/listening to.
Type of reading/listening task: Evaluative listening tasks (writing summaries or distinguishing fact from opinion) are more difficult than those involving immediate response.
TASK 6
Comprehension is a very complex process even in one’s mother tongue, as we all well realize when we think about how frequently people misunderstand each other when they speak or when they read. However, the problems of L2 users are more intense because their language and cultural awareness is more limited – even when they are relatively proficient in the target language. Work with a partner and, based on your own experience as EFL learners, list some of the additional problems that foreign language listeners face when listening and explain why.
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Problems of EFL users Reasons why
Stages of listening comprehension activities The stages of listening comprehension activities are the same as in reading comprehension, and so are the aims and purposes of each stage. Specifically:
1) Pre-listening: The aim is to establish a framework for listening so that students do not approach the listening task with no points of reference. It enables learners to use existing schemata and provides a context. Learners are motivated to listen and they know what to expect. The pre-listening stage ensures a higher level of success and may lead to greater confidence. Pre-listening may involve reading, writing, speaking tasks or all three, in the target language or in L1.
2) While-listening: Tasks that learners are asked to do while listening to the text. Their purpose is to help them develop a variety of comprehension skills and elicit messages from the text. In training for listening comprehension, it is important to develop learners’ ability to understand the message(s), not every single word of the text. Training often involves moving from extensive to intensive listening, with texts and tasks that are interesting for learners, considering their age, experiences, etc. At initial phases, tasks should not involve production in the target language, but successively skills should be integrated.
3) Post or Follow-up listening: These are tasks assigned when the listening is completed. They may require overall understanding or interpretation of the text, attitudes, etc. or they can be extensions on the work done in pre- or while-listening. They can also only be loosely connected to the listening text itself.
TASK 7
Go through the list of task types below and decide in which phase of the listening comprehension activity the task is most likely to be used. Tick the appropriate column in the table to indicate what you think is the most likely phase
TASK TYPES PRE WHILE POSTPredicting the content of the text from its titleAsking students to follow a route on a mapAsking students to mark items on picturesDo language work on specific phonological, grammatical or lexical features in the text.Answering students’ queries/dealing with students’ problems with the listening textAsking students to comment on a picture related to the listening text.Asking students to read a short text on a similar topic Asking students to role play a dialogue based on a listening text.Giving students the listening transcript to confirm their answersBrainstorming for relevant vocabulary termsAsking students to answer multiples-choice or true-false questions based on the text.Asking students to read comprehension questions in advanceAsking students to complete a form, a diagram, a table based on the listening text.
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Developing or testing listening skills?
TASK 8Work with a partner. Compare what the students are asked to do in each of the situations below and decide whether there is something seriously wrong with what the teachers, who are attempting to train students in Listening comprehension are asking the students to do in Situations A, B, C and D.
Situation AAn EFL teacher asks her students to listen to a recorded conversation. Then, after they’re done listening, she asks them to tell the class as much as they can remember about the conversation they heard. Situation BA second teacher asks his students to listen to a recorded conversation. Then, after they’re done listening, she asks them if they have any unknown words.Situation CA third teacher informs the class that they will listen to Liz, who’s a librarian, talk about the things she has to do as part of her job in the library. - Before they listen to her though, they should make a list of five things that they believe she is probably expected to do. - Then, while they listen the first time, they should see if they made any correct guesses.- When they listen a second time, they should revise their list.Situation DA fourth teacher informs the class that they will hear a teenage girl reading to her girlfriend a letter she received from her boyfriend. They must then work in pairs and write a response letter to the boy on behalf of the girl that received the letter.
It is important to remember that a listening activity is a training session and not a test. The teacher’s aim should be to help students understand what listening entails and how they might approach their task. They should try to build students’ confidence and reward students for trying to come up with reasonable ideas rather than just the correct answer during the listening activities. Set manageable, challenging yet realistic goals for each activity.
HOMEWORK PROJECT
Teacher-trainee task 1
Study the listening task below and then: (a) Decide what the teaching/learning objective is.(b) If this type of task is more appropriate for training or for testing listening
comprehension.(c) Think about what receptive skills completion of this task involves.
Learner (while-listening) taskYou have a few seconds to read the following statements, which you will have to tick as True or False, after you listen to someone talking on tape.
Here’s what learners listen to (but they don’t see written.
…I don’t know if I have told you that I’ve started on my plans to take French lessons. Janet and I decided we’d take this on together, but because in fact I have no evening when I can actually go to classes, because of my political commitment taking-up five nights a week, we decided we would get a French tape and try to spend… put aside two or three hours a week, to work on my French. So I went to the local library and got us a tape called… er…
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complete mastering French two. I don’t know… if I really read it very carefully… because it’s well in advance … we are weaker. So I think I’ll go back and ask for the complete mastering of French one, which is… well… is placed more on our own side. …. I don’t know if you can hear the thunder….. No, no it’s not that – it isn’t thunder! It’s fireworks. Jean-Michelle Jarre does a good job. He’s got a… he’s doing two concerts just across the river and I’m on… very… very close to the river. He’s doing two concerts. He did one last night and one tonight. And it’s a massive thing of laser beams and fire… you know… sort of quarter of a million pounds of fireworks were involved in this concert. So I think it’s obviously begun. So when I drop to my bedroom at night, I’ll sit for a while and watch it. I suppose it’ll be quite spectacular…
Follow up task Now, listen again and check your answers.
STATEMENTS True False
1. The speaker is a very busy person. q q2. Jane went to the library. q q3. The speaker and Jane are planning to go to a French school. q q4. The speaker can speak French very well. q q5. Jane and the speaker went to a concert. q q
Teacher-trainee task 2
Assume that you have this text to work with in your class with 25 EFL intermediate learners. Make two alternative learner tasks: a while-listening and a post-listening one. The skills that the completion of the tasks should involve are the following from the skills- table above:
Extracting salient point to summarize the whole text. Guessing attitude toward interlocutor not expressed directly in the text. Inferring missing information. Predicting what is to follow the whole text.
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UNIT 8
Developing Speaking Skills
The nature of the speaking skill
TASK 1Think about the relation between speaking and listening and speaking and writing. What are their similarities and differences?…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
The quote below gives an indication of the multiplicity of skills needed in order to take part in a conversation:
What is involved in producing a conversational utterance?
“Apart from being grammatical, the utterance must also be appropriate on very many levels at same time; it must conform to the speaker’s aim, to the role relationships between interactants, to the setting, topic, linguistic context etc. The speaker must also produce his utterance within severe constraints; he does not know in advance what will be said to him (and hence what his utterance will be a response to) yet, if the conversation is not to flag, he must respond extremely quickly. The rapid formulation of utterances which are simultaneously ‘right’ on several levels is central to the (spoken) communicative skill”Johnson (1981: 11)
Indeed, speaking and more specifically taking part in a conversation, requires much more than the ability to construct grammatically correct sentences and the ability to master stress, rhythm and intonation. Although speaking and writing are both productive skills and share much in common in terms of the processes involved in producing language, spontaneous speech takes place under two conditions which seriously affect the quality and quantity of language produced. These are:
Processing conditions: i.e. timeSpeech takes place under the pressure of time. Time constraints have observable effects on spoken interaction. They affect planning, memory and production. The ability to master processing conditions of speech enables speakers to deal fluently with a given topic while being listened to.
Reciprocity conditions: i.e. interlocutorsRefer to the relation between the speaker and the listener in the process of oral interaction. Because the listener is in front of us we have to take into account the listener and constantly monitor the listener’s reactions to check that the assumptions we are making are shared and that the listener understands what we are saying.
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TASK 2The following are extracts from the speech of native speakers of English and demonstrate some of the features of naturally spoken English. Can you identify some of the features of spoken English which you wouldn’t normally find in a piece of writing?
Extract 1:It’s erm – an intersection of kind of two – a kind of crossroads – of a minor road going across a major road – and I was standing there – and there was this erm- kind of ordinary car – on the minor road- just looking to come out – onto the big road – and coming down towards him on the big road was a van –followed by a lorry – now- just as he started to come onto the main road –the van – no the lorry star-started to overtake the van – not having seen the fact that another car was coming out.
Extract 2: Teacher: Morning Mrs. Williams. I’ve brought the moneySecretary: Hello Mr James- erm- what money?Teacher: you know, the money for the booksSecretary: The money for what books?Teacher: Oh, I thought Mrs Priors had told you about the reading books for the third years.Secretary: Oh yes, they’ve been ordered.Teacher: So where shall I put it?Secretary: What? …oh over there on the filing cabinet…
Characteristics of spoken language
The pressure of time affects the language we use in two ways:1) speakers use devices to facilitate production.2) speakers use devices to compensate for difficulties.
TASK 3Find examples of facilitation and compensation devices from the extracts above. Can you also provide examples of your own?
Facilitation:a) Simplified structure: Use of coordinating conjunctions or no conjunction at all. Avoidance of complex noun groups with many adjectives; repetitions of same sentences adding further adjectives: ……………………………………………….....................................b) Ellipsis: Speakers omit parts of sentences………………………..........................................c) Use of idiomatic, conventional expressions called formulaic: …......................................d) Use of time creating devices (fillers and hesitation devices): These give the speaker time to formulate what he/she intends to say next. ………………………………………………….
Compensation Speakers frequently correct what they say, e.g. they may substitute a noun or an adjective
for another. Speakers use false starts. They repeat or rephrase in order to give the listener time to understand and to remind
him/her of things that were said. This helps reduce memory load and lighten planning load.
Interaction skills
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Speaking and more specifically taking part in a conversation, require a number of skills which are called interaction skills. Interaction skills include: Routines, management skills, negotiation skills, communication strategies and knowledge of language functions.
Routines: These are conventional ways of presenting information. They are predictable and help ensure clarity.a) Information routines are frequently recurring types of information structure either
expository (narration, description, instruction, comparison) or evaluative (explanation, justification, prediction, decision)
b) Interaction routines are sequences of kinds of turns typically recurring in given situations (telephone conversation, job interview). These turns are organised in characteristic ways.
TASK 4 Below is a list of skills used in the management and maintenance of a conversation. Can you give examples of typical expressions used in each skill?
Management skills:Generally refer to who is going to speak next and what is going to be said.A) Openings: …………………………………………………………………………………...B) Turn - taking: Strategies for taking a turn: ……………………………………………………………………Strategies for holding a turn: Indicating that you have more to say……………………………Strategies for relinquishing a turn: …………………………………………………………….C) Interrupting: ………………………………………………………………………………D) Topic- shift: ……………………………………………………………………………….E) Adjacency pairs: Some utterances (questions, invitations, apologies, compliments) require an immediate response/reaction from the listener. The utterance and the response is called an adjacency pair. A: Would you like to come for dinner on Friday?B: Yes, I’d love to (preferred answers)
I’m terribly sorry but I can’t. My brother is visiting us. (Dispreferred reaction)F) Closings: Routines used for closings conversations. ……………………………………..
Getting feedback from the listener: Checking that the listener has understood: Comprehension checks Responding to requests for clarification Asking for the listeners opinion
Communication strategies:These are valuable for dealing with communication trouble spots (not knowing a word, not understanding the speaker). They enhance fluency and add to the efficiency of communication.a) Message adjustment/avoidance: Saying what you can say rather than what you want to say; altering or reducing the message, going off the point or completing avoiding it.b) Paraphrase: Describing or exemplifying the action/object whose name you do not know.c) Approximation: Using alternative terms which express the meaning of the target word as closely as possible or using all purpose words d) Appeals for help:e) Asking for repetition/clarification:f) Giving an interpretive summary: Reformulating the speaker’s message to check that you have understood correctly
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Knowledge of functions and meaning:Knowledge of language functions agreeing/disagreeing, making requests etc.Knowledge of indirect speech acts: Utterances which rather than conveying information carry out an action:Speaking styles: Adjusting your language on the basis of the roles, age, sex, status of interlocutor and on the basis of the setting.
TASK 5Below is a list of activity types for speaking. Read the description of each type and decide which of the interaction skills students are most likely to develop and use in each type of activity:
1. Questions and answers: These activities are based on the notion of information gap where students must interact in order to complete the information which is missing.
2. Dialogues and role plays: Short dialogues based on small situations: answering the door, making a telephone call, welcoming visitors etc. or acting out social roles based on simple situations and character descriptions.
3. Pictures and picture stories: for example spot the difference, describing pictures, sequencing pictures to tell a story.
4. Puzzles and problems: These require learners to make guesses, draw on their general knowledge and personal experience, use their imagination and test their powers of logical reasoning.
5. Discussions and decisions: These require the learner to collect information and share information to reach a decision.
6. Monologues: These activities help students practise speaking in long turns (telling jokes, recounting the plot of a film, book, giving a short lecture or speech).
Problems with fluency with some learnersThe following are some of the problems of the “silent learner”- the student who finds great difficulty in contributing to any kind of discussion in English and who is reluctant to take advantage of opportunities to develop oral fluency.
a. Inhibition/lack of confidenceb. Fear of making mistakesc. The feeling of having nothing to say on the subjectd. Lack of appropriate languagee. Lack of practice in conventions of conversational interaction
TASK 6Below is a list of measures the teacher can take in order help students overcome these problems. Decide which measure is more appropriate for tackling each of the problems (a-e) listed above.
Pre-teach key vocabulary ……….. Thoroughly prepare for any discussion through brainstorming and exchange of
ideas. …………. Organise the class so that activities take place in small groups……………. Pursue a policy of placing low priority on correction in certain activities. … Provide stimulus materials (e.g. texts on the topic to be discussed)………… Analyse a video tape of native speakers involved in heated discussion…..
Can you suggest any other measures?
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HOMEWORK PROJECTChoose an EFL coursebook for intermediate level learners which states on its back cover that one of its aims is the development fluency and communication skills. Look through the course book and identify
a) how many speaking activities there are per unitb) how many different types of speaking activities are usedc) how many speaking activities focus on the development of students´ fluency
and interaction skills.d) Which interaction skills do the activities focus on (give examples of 3
activities).
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UNIT 9
Developing Writing Skills
Speaking and writing
TASK 1Below are statements that refer to the nature of the writing skill and the process of writing. Based on your knowledge of the nature of speaking skill (unit 8) identify the areas in which speech differs from writing:
The primary function of writing is to pass on factual information (transactional function) whereas we use speech primarily ……………………………………………………………………..
Written language is permanent whereas speech …………….. Written language is more bound by convention (spelling, punctuation,
grammar) whereas spoken language………………………….. Writers do not have the pressure of time whereas
speakers…………………………………………………… Writing is a recursive process not a linear process whereas speaking
……………………………………………………………………………… Written language is much slower to reflect change whereas spoken
language…………………………………………………………….. Writers cannot see their reader and thus receive no feedback whereas
speakers…………………………………………………………. Writing is expected to be accurate in every detail, to be coherent whereas
speech………………………………………………………………………. Written language is far more condensed than spoken language; more
information is packed into fewer words whereas the spoken language …………………………………………………………………………………
The writer cannot depend on a shared context for the communication of meaning and this makes writing context independent; writers have to invent a shared context “on the page” whereas speakers……………………………………………………………………….
In writing we need to take into account the knowledge and opinions of an imagined audience whereas in speaking…………………………………………………………………….
What knowledge does a writer need in order to write
TASK 2
A teacher in a language classroom asks her students to write an article on the effects of toxic waste on our environment. What kinds of knowledge would the students need to have/employ in order to perform this task successfully?
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
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Four kinds of knowledge that we need in order to write
1) Knowledge of language a. Spellingb. Punctuationc. Grammatical structuresd. Lexise. Cohesion and coherence (how to connect clauses within and between
sentences and how to order information in our sentences and texts)f. Discourse types (each discourse type e.g. narrative, argument etc. has its own
special features)
2) Knowledge of topic, i.e. knowing what we are writing about. This may seem obvious but many time we ask students to write about issues/topics they have very little knowledge of. The teacher must ensure that students have the relevant topic knowledge either before their writing task or as they proceed. This is the justification of linking writing work with reference books, research work in libraries etc.
3) Knowledge of audience i.e. knowledge of who we are writing to. The more one knows about one’s audience the easier the writing is; both the topic and the intended readers will influence the kind of writing we do. In Task 2, the teacher has not provided an audience for the students (is it the teacher, fellow students, or the readers of a particular newspaper the intended audience?)
4) Stored writing plans: Background knowledge (schemata)e.g. Formal schemata: formal, organisational structures of different types of text and Content schemata: background knowledge of the content are being written about.
The writing processAs was mentioned in Task 1, writing is not a straightforward, linear process. It is a recursive process where the writer goes back and forth, revising, deleting, changing and editing. Flower and Hayes (1980:39) see it as a problem solving process; they see writing as a sequence of problems to be solved from the high level problem of deciding on purpose and basic message to the lower level problems of deciding on sentence structure, vocabulary and spelling.
TASK 3You are now in the process of writing projects/assignments for various courses you are attending at University. Think about the stages you go through from the moment you decide on the assignment topic to the moment you hand in your assignment. What stages/steps do you usually follow?………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
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The process of writing
Gathering information (through research, library work, reading on the topic; the extent to which you gather information of course depends on the topic and your existing knowledge of the topic).
Generating ideas (making notes of the ideas you feel are relevant to the topic; the ideas you generate will be limited by the audience you have in mind).
Goal setting (deciding what you want to do with all the material you have generated, deciding on the main messages you want to send)
Organising (grouping the ideas you have generated and deciding on the order you want to present them, it will also involve thinking about the links between different sets of ideas).
Making a first draft Reading you work and redrafting Editing (this may occur in brief episodes interrupting other parts of the
process; there are four kinds of editing we do: editing for standard language conventions, editing for accuracy of meaning, editing for reader understanding, editing for reader acceptance).
Final version
Writing as product versus writing as process
The terms product and process are commonly used in various areas of language teaching and reflect the popularisation of the work in areas of psychological and educational research which stress the need to focus on the process of language learning (what is going on as learning takes place) rather than the need to focus exclusively on the product of learning (the final outcome of an activity). The term “process” is particularly apt as regards writing because traditionally (but also evident in many classroom practices and coursebooks today) writing is viewed as a means for consolidating grammar and vocabulary and for assessing student progress. It is regulated at the end of a coursebook unit and is usually assigned for homework. The main emphasis has been on the end product (i.e. student’s written work) which is assessed in terms of grammatical accuracy and correct use of vocabulary. Whether ideas have been communicated clearly, coherently, and effectively and whether the final product reflect the characteristics of the genre was not normally a concern. In other words writing in most EFL classrooms was seen as writing to learn the language (product) rather than learning to write (process). If our aim is to develop writing as a skill, then we need to place emphasis on all the stages of the writing process and to guide and train the students in every step. Learning to write (or focusing on writing as process) would involve among other things, learning more efficient ways of thinking, of organising ideas, note taking, learning to consider the readers’ needs and learning to communicate our ideas effectively, clearly and appropriately. It would necessarily involve developing students’ knowledge of different discourse types and of their inherent characteristics, and of training students to developing coherent and cohesive texts. Accurate use of language is only one feature of a good piece of written work.
Text typesOne of our main aims in developing students’ writing skills is to acquaint them with and provide opportunities for them to practice writing different text types. Of course the range of text types we introduce in class will depend on the students’ language level and age.
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TASK 4Consider some text types you would use in a class for young learners at elementary level………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Consider some text types you would use for a class of teenagers at intermediate level………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
The table below which lists various text types may help you in deciding.
Personal writing Public writing Creative writingDiariesJournalsShopping listsReminders for oneselfRecipesaddresses
Letters of enquiryLetters of complaintLetters of requestForm fillingapplications
PoemsStoriesRhymesDramaSongs Autobiography
Social writing Study writing Institutional writingLettersInvitationsNotes of condolenceNotes of thanksNotes of congratulationsEmailsTelephone messagesInstructions to friends/family
Making notes whiles readingTaking notes from lecturesMaking a card indexSummariesSynopsesReviewsReports of experimentsReports of workshopsReports of visitsEssaysbibliographies
AgendasMinutesMemorandaReportsReviewsContractsBusiness lettersPublic noticesAdvertisementsPostersInstructionsSpeechesCurriculum vitaeSpecificationsNote making (e.g. doctors)
Principles for teaching writing
HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT
Below are certain principles which relate to the development of the writing skills in the classroom. Based on the information presented in the unit and on your reading from relevant sources, provide a justification for each principle (i.e. why it is important to approach writing in the following ways)
1) Instructions to writing tasks should provide a clear purpose for writing and a sense of audience
2) Writing tasks should be tried out by the teacher in order to identify what the task demands. This will enable the teacher to set useful pre-writing tasks.
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3) Teachers should emphasise the stages of drafting, redrafting, reading and re-reading of texts, before students hand in their work.
4) Students should be encouraged either in pairs or individually to do their own proof reading at the very end of the writing process
5) Teachers should expose students to various examples of text types that they will be asked to write in real life.
6) Before asking students to write a particular text type, time should be spent reflecting on and analysing models of the particular text type.
7) Students should be encouraged to produce whole texts and not isolated sentences.
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