course materials: design, selection and use 4 · ended’ responses 7. make game-like 4. 1/31/2016...
TRANSCRIPT
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Course materials: design,selection and use 4
Penny UrITDI
January, 2016
Adapting language exercises(grammar and vocabulary)
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Main aims
1. To increase learning value2. To add interest and enjoyment3. To create learning opportunities for
different levels in a heterogeneous class:individualization
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The techniques
1. Recycle in different ways2. Change interaction type + how you check
(frontal? group? individual?)3. Change instructions4. Personalize5. Add, extend, vary6. Delete bits in order to add more ‘open-
ended’ responses7. Make game-like
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1. Recycle in different ways
1. We’ve done it orally in class: now do it forhomework and get it all right!
2. Simply do again a week later in class: challenge toremember all the right answers.
3. Immediately after: close your books. How manyof the items can you recall from memory?(Full-class brainstorm; or individual then sharingthen full class)
4. Redo differently, using any of the techniquessuggested below...
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2. Change interaction type andchecking
The default pattern: IRFInitiation – Response – Feedback
But:Only one student is activated at a time: othersmay lose interest / not attendBoringTime-consuming relative to amount oflearning
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Alternatives
Interaction pattern
• Individual• Pair• Small group• ‘Pass it round’
Checking
• Teacher reads out theanswers: self-check
• An answer-sheetprovided: self-check
• Students join in smallgroups to checktogether: ask the teacheronly if there’s a problem
• Quick ‘IRF’ check• No check at all 7
3. Change instructions
Typical instructions:‘Fill in the correct verb’
‘Match the items’‘Complete the sentence’
Such instructions imply that the studentsa) can do all the items,b) should do all the items, andc) should do the items in the order in which they
are given.
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It ain’t necessarily so
In classes that are mixed-level, it’s importantto...a) allow some choice in quantity and orderb) legitimize different rates of work and levels
So...
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Alternative instructions
Make sure students understand the basic taskbut add instructions like...• Start wherever you like• Do at least four items, more if you can• Do as much as you can in [ten] minutes• Do whichever five items you like (then
more, if you finish)• Do as many as you can on your own, then
ask for help (teacher/ another student)
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4. Personalize
Ask student to alter (some of) the sentencesto make ones that are true for them, or ofsomeone / some reality they know.Or invite them to insert the name of amember of the class instead of a propername, or pronoun, given in the book.
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The original exercise:Practise the adverbs: bravely, happily,
loudly, politely, quietly1. ‘Well, at last we’re in England,’ she said...2. ‘What are you doing here?’ he shouted ...3. ‘I hurt myself, but you mustn’t worry,’ hedeclared ...4. ‘Please be quiet, Jane is sleeping,’ she toldus ...5. ‘Can I help you?’ she asked...
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The original exercise:Practise the adverbs: bravely, happily,
loudly, politely, quietly1. ‘Well, at last we’re in England,’ she Annasaid...2. ‘What are you doing here?’ he Kamelshouted ...3. ‘I hurt myself, but you mustn’t worry,’ heDanilo declared ...4. ‘Please be quiet, Jane is sleeping,’ sheDanielle told us ...5. ‘Can I help you?’ she Mira asked...
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5. Add / Extend / Change
1. Add more items to the ones we alreadyhave in the exercise.
2. Suggest more words or phrases that couldbe added to the item:at the end?in the middle?at the beginning?anywhere?
3. Suggest words that might be changed
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CheckShow AnswCheckShow AnswCheckShow AnswCheckShow AnswCheckShow AnswCheckShow AnswCheckShow AnswCheckShow AnswCheckShow AnswCheckShow Answ
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The original exercise:Practise the adverbs: bravely, happily,
loudly, politely, quietly1. ‘Well, at last we’re in England,’ she said...2. ‘What are you doing here?’ he shouted ...3. ‘I hurt myself, but you mustn’t worry,’ hedeclared ...4. ‘Please be quiet, Jane is sleeping,’ she toldus ...5. ‘Can I help you?’ she asked...
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The original exercise:Practise the adverbs: bravely, happily,
loudly, politely, quietly1. ‘Well, at last we’re back in England,’ shesaid...2. ‘What are you all doing here outside?’ heshouted ...3. ‘I hurt myself broke my leg, but you mustn’tworry,’ he declared ...4. ‘Please be quietwait, Jane is sleeping,’ shetold us ...5. ‘Hello, can I help you?’ she asked...
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4. Delete bits in order to ‘open-end’
Can be done mainly with ‘gapfills’But also with matching exercises and multiplechoice...The goal: more learning, more interest, moreindividualization
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Open-ending 1:Insert an adverb
1. ‘Well, at last we’re in England,’ she said...2. ‘What are you doing here?’ he shouted ...3. ‘I hurt myself, but you mustn’t worry,’ hedeclared ...4. ‘Please be quiet, Jane is sleeping,’ she toldus ...5. ‘Can I help you?’ she asked...
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Open-ending 2Insert two adverbs
1. ‘Well, at last we’re in England,’ she said...2. ‘What are you doing here?’ he shouted ...3. ‘I hurt myself, but you mustn’t worry,’ hedeclared ...4. ‘Please be quiet, Jane is sleeping,’ she toldus ...5. ‘Can I help you?’ she asked...
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Open-ending 3Insert an adverb and more
1. ‘Well, at last we’re in England,’ she said...2. ‘What are you doing here?’ he shouted ...3. ‘I hurt myself, but you mustn’t worry,’ hedeclared ...4. ‘Please be quiet, Jane is sleeping,’ she toldus ...5. ‘Can I help you?’ she asked...
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The original exercise:Write the correct past form
1. She ______________ early. (leave)2. He ____________ the cake. (make)3. I ___________ there for six hours. (sit)4. Jo __________ the book. (read)
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Open-ending 1Show the past tense, delete the sentence ending
Complete the sentence1. She left ______________2. He made ____________3. I sat ___________4. Jo read __________
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Open-ending 2Delete the pre-set verb
Put in a correct past form.She ______________ early.He ____________ the cake.I ___________ there for six hours.Jo __________ the book.
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‘Open-ending’ an exercise results in...
• More practice so probably more learning(multiple answers for each item)
• More effective learning (meaningful)• More interest (original, unpredictable,
sometimes humorous answers)• More possibilities for a multi-level class
(students can respond using languageappropriate to their level)
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Why are most textbook grammar/vocabularyexercises closed-ended?
1. Because it’s the ‘default’, conventional wayof doing things
2. Because it’s easier to check if the answer isright or wrong
3. Because it reinforces teacher / textbookauthority
4. NOT because open-ended items are moredifficult.
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7. Make into a game
What is a game?A task with an easily achieved goal, but withsome kind of playful constraint (‘rule’).
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7. Make into a game
Choose an exercise that isn’t too difficult.Add a ‘rule’.e.g.• a time limit: how much can you finish in
five minutes?• a team competition: e.g. which team can
do most items [in ten minutes[?• Individual or team competition: e.g. who
can find the most original variations?
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An important principle for teachers:
BE WILLING TO MUTILATE THETEXTBOOK!
Don’t assume that because the writerplanned an exercise in a certain way, that
is how you have to do it.
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In general…
We’ll often do the exercise as it stands first,then introduce a variation.But always just to do as it stands, through IRFor homework, may often be a waste of goodpotential!
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Comments?
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Improving fluency activitiesListening, speaking, writing
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What are aims in such activities?
• To get the students to use the languagepurposefully to get or convey meanings(i.e. not primarily to ‘use correct English’)
• To increase their fluency in listening,speaking, writing
• To prepare them to function in realcommunicative situations
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Listening
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What are some real situations where we needto listen and understand fluently?
••••••••••
••••••••••
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What are some real situations where we needto listen and understand fluently?
• face to face conversation• telephone conversation• interview• lessons, lectures• webinars• consultations• meetings• airport announcements• television news• radio news
• transactions (e.g. bank,shopping)
• getting directions orinstructions
• watching movies or livetheater
• negotiating business• being tested orally• playing games (e.g. quizzes)• greeting, taking leave,
thanking, apologizing ...• participating in a religious or
other ceremonial event
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What are some characteristics of mostsuch situations
• The speaker is visible• The listener has a purpose• The discourse comes in short segments• The listener has expectations• The listener responds (usually verbally)• The listener responds during the listening, not
after• There are environmental clues (mainly visual)• The language is improvised and informal
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Informal, improvised speech
• Often ungrammatical• Redundant, repetitive• Contains ‘noise’ (bits we can’t understand)• Uses colloquial words and expressions• Has weak forms, assimilation and elision
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Typical speech in real-worldlistening situations
speaker visiblelistener purposelistener expectationsshort segmentslistener response: zero, or inspeech or actionlistener responds during listeningenvironmental (often visual)cluesstyle: informal speech
Typical listening texts inmaterials
speaker invisibleno listener purpose (‘understand’)sometimes listener expectationslong segmentslistener response: usually inwritinglistener responds after listeningno environmental clues
style: formal written text
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The dilemma of the materials writer incomposing listening texts and tasks
We want to prepare students for real listeningsituationsBUT we need to take into account the reality ofclassroom learning:
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The dilemma of the materials writer incomposing listening texts and tasks
• Recordings of authentic conversationaldiscourse are often very difficult tounderstand (overlap, background noise,implicit shared knowledge of speakers)
• Students can’t all respond simultaneously inspeech in a classroom
• Real-life listening is normally one-time: forlearners, it’s useful to hear the text more thanonce.
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So what can we do?1. Supplement with new texts and tasks
• Tell them stories, or give mini-lecturesyourself
• Look for video rather than audio• Find recordings that simulate real speech,
but are comprehensible (e.g. TED talks?Downton Abbey-type drama?)
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So what can we do?2. Use the original, but ‘tweak’
• Speak the text yourself: paraphrase of thecontent of the original in your ownimprovised speech
• Give advance information and advancelistening tasks (e.g. let students read andtry to answer the questions in advance)
• Encourage them to do the tasks as thelistening is going on
• Pause the listening occasionally to allowtime for response.
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Speaking
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What happens in a good speakingactivity?
• Lots of talk by students• Motivation and enjoyment of talking• Even participation• Students keep to English
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What happens in coursebooks?
Often the speaking activities are based on just‘Discuss the following questions or statementswith a partner / in small groups’i.e. topic-based
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A task can helpA task is an activity which has some kind of cleartangible outcome, other than the talking itself.For example:• Come to a consensus about agreement /
disagreement with given statements• Decide on an order of priority• Decide together how to answer a letter• Make a list of all possible ideas ...• Decide on a solution to a dilemma• Create a questionnaire for a survey• Perform a survey
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For example:An original task (English for Academics, used byNanette)Ex. 1.1What are your responses to the followingquestions?1. What is a typical family for you?2. In a family, what should the mother provide?3. In a family, what should the father provide?4. The ideal age to start a family is …5. What does the word family mean to you (e.g.,
security, conflict)?Ex. 1.2In groups, discuss your answers from Ex 1.1.
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Can be used as it stands
But some students may not find it easy toparticipate:• Ambiguity (‘start a family’?)• Vague demands (‘what does a family mean
to you?’)• Too abstract and generalized (a mother’s
role?)
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Possible tasks
1. In a multi-cultural class: what are somedifferences you found between typical familiesin your different cultures?2. List as many qualities you can think of that agood parent should possess.When you can’t think of any more, decidetogether on the top three qualities.
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More ideas
Folse, 1997Klippel, 1983Ur, 2014
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Reading
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Fluent reading (‘extensive’, not‘intensive’)
SilentPurposefulEmphasis on quantity and speedFocus on meaningLevel: ‘i-1’Varied genres
Day & Bamford, 1998
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So students should
… be reading silently, at their own pace... be reading text that is easy for them tounderstand... be encouraged to read as fast as theycomfortably can… be allowed / encouraged to skip boring or toodifficult bits… be reading purposefully, either• for enjoyment (‘what happens next’?)Or• with a pre-set task (‘Find out…’)
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Fluent reading materials
(Simplified) extensive readers.Newspapers, magazinesInteresting websites
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Some further features of extensivereading
Individual students choose what to readText at ‘i-1’ levelStudents read at their own paceNo follow-up task
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Checking they’ve really read
Possibilities:1. Don’t check at all2. A quick question3. Tell me what it’s about (in L1?)4. Draw?
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Writing
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Most writing in the coursebooks is
• answering comprehension questions• responses to language exercises• creating text that accords with given
guidelines or rulesIn general...• ... it emphasizes accuracy rather than
fluency• ... uses standard formal written style
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Fluent writing, in contrastIs primarily for the sake of communication,not in order to create correct sentences orparagraphs.Thus it• has a clear communicative purpose (e.g. to
persuade, to inform, to tell a story...);• has a clear target audience;• is evaluated primarily according to its
communicative effectiveness, not thecorrectness of the language
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Writing for communication is increasinglyimportant for our students
More and more use of writing forcommunication:• informal (SMS texting, blogs, emails, filling
in forms)• formal writing (formal email
communication, research, reports)
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But coursebooks tend to neglect it
Check your own coursebook!Most of the writing tasks have the aim ofgetting students to show they’ve masteredsome linguistic, organizational or stylisticfeature.There are relatively few writing tasks thatencourage real writing for communication.
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If you want to supplement
Some criteria for the design of fluent writingtasks in materials1. ‘i-1’ level2. Real-life relevance3. Varied genres4. Varied lengths
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Creating your own: some possibilities
1. Creative writing: a story or poem2. Instructions or directions3. Interpersonal communication (notes, emails,
texting); in response to... or for the purposeof...
4. Intrapersonal communication: lists, notes for apresentation or preparation for essay,summaries, calendar entries, journal entries.
5. Response to literature, film reviews6. Persuasion: advertisement, recommendation7. Information: report, research project
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Assignment 4Three options:1. Try out in your own class(es) any of the ways of adaptingtextbook components suggested in the fourth session thatyou haven’t used before. Describe and criticize the results:how might you do it differently next time?OR2. Look at a grammar or vocabulary exercise in materialsyou are familiar with, and suggest how it might be adaptedfor classes you teach/have taught.OR3. Select a listening, speaking or writing activity in yourcoursebook that you feel is not satisfactory, say why, andsuggest how you might design a better one.
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