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A model for integrating teaching A model for integrating teaching language skillslanguage skills

A workshop by Dr. Mohamed Abu-Rahmah

The 8th Annual ELT Conference of Language Center

April 23rd & 24th 2008Sultan Qaboos University

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The components/stages of this The components/stages of this model aremodel are

1. Input

2. Guiding Notes

3. Visuals

4. Output (See the diagram on next slide)

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Listening Input

And/ or

Listening Input

Reading Input

Output

Listening Input

Integrating the four language skillsSource: Abu-Rahmah (1997)

Visu

als

No

tes

R/L Tasks

S. Tasks S .

Tasks

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(1) Language Input(1) Language Input

• Abbott (1981:15): • '...the “something” that is to be learned. ... [It] is

a verbal experience, visual or audio, which may consist of language in use, as when listening to someone during a conversation; or of selected usage, as when reading the examples preceding an exercise; or of metalanguage; that is, remarks about some aspect of foreign language'.

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Krashen’s InputKrashen’s Input

• The language that students hear or read. It should contain language that the students already “know” as well as language they have not previously seen.

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Input & IntakeInput & IntakeKrashin makes a distinction between input

and intake. For him, intake means input that is “understood” .

He theorizes that in order to maximize this “intake” the input should be:

1. comprehensible

2. Interesting, useful and/or relevant

3. in sufficient quantity roughly-tuned

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I

Input

Intake

The difference between the input & intake

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The integrative InputThe integrative Input

The term input in this integrative model refers to

• 'a relatively sophisticated' reading or listening text which provides information for integrating the learners' receptive/comprehension skills (listening and/or reading) with productive skills (speaking and/or writing).

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• This input should express one or more of the three broad communicative purposes (Instruction, Narrative and Description). The input has two purposes:

• (1) providing learners with new grammatical and lexical items and

• (2) recycling the grammatical items and, if possible the lexical items, they have already known.

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Guiding NotesGuiding Notes• They are a summary version of the

informational, organizational, and linguistic features in a given input text.

• ‘They carry the main thread of meaning ... [and] provide the skeleton for producing spoken and written outputs.

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Using VisualsUsing Visuals

• Using visuals enables students to connect form practiced at the previous two stages to meaning; concretize the information in the input text and produce less controlled spoken and then written output versions of the original text.

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4.4. Written Output Written Output

• Once the learners have understood the visual version of the input through carrying out the related spoken tasks, they will be in a position to make use of this practice and produce a written simple version of the original input provided to them at the first stage.

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Features of the ModelFeatures of the Model

1. Helping teachers how to plan and deliver a lesson

2. Teaching new vocabulary

3. Teaching grammar/structures in a functional way

4. Teaching the four language skills integratively.

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5. Balance and integration of comprehension/receptive skills with production skills

6. Working at the strategy level

Controlled Free

5. Applicability and feasibility the four stages of the model can be applied in any context without the need for additional resources

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8. Not violating the deeply rooted methodological practice: teaching grammar

9. Catering for the principles of the communicative approach: To learn something, do it.

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The last tipThe last tip

• Never begin teaching with speaking or writing. Give Ss something to read or to listen to, and then give them speaking and/or writing tasks as shown in the following simple diagram.

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Listening

Reading

Speaking Writing

Integrating teaching the 4 language skills

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A Demonstration Lesson

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Input: How to make a 'Paper Dog'• First, find a cardboard tube which has contained

sweets, or a kitchen roll, and take off the lid. Carefully cut a small slit in the open end. Find five used match sticks. Now make four small holes underneath the tube for the legs and push in the match sticks. Next make a similar small hole at the top of the back and push in the last match stick. Make a careful tracing of the dog's head from the picture. Stick it on to a stiff card and cut the shape neatly. Now push the neck carefully into the slit you have made in the tube. Of course, you can make him look much better if you paint his head a nice brown.

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Task 1Task 1: : Read these words, locate them in the input Read these words, locate them in the input text, underline each one, and organize these text, underline each one, and organize these words according to the order in which they words according to the order in which they appear in the input text. The first and last appear in the input text. The first and last verbs are done for youverbs are done for you..

Stick Push Push Make

Find Cut Make PushPaint Take off Cut out TraceFind

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1. Find2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13. Paint

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1. Find

2. Take off

3. Cut

4. Find

5. Make

6. Push

7. Make

8. Push

9. Trace

10. Stick

11. Cut out

12. Push

13. Paint

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Task 2: Locate the following words/phrases in the input text and put a circle around each one. Put these words in the second column in the order in which they occur in the text. The first and seventh ones are done for you.

4 holes the lid it the shape

the head a match stick a slit 4 match sticks

a tube 5 match sticks

a hole the head

the neck

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1. Find a tube

2. Take off

3. Cut

4. Find

5. Make

6. Push

7. Make a hole

8. Push

9. Trace

10. Stick

11. Cut out

12. Push

13. Paint

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1. Find a tube

2. Take off the lid

3. Cut a slit

4. Find 5 match sticks

5. Make 4 holes

6. Push 4 matchsticks

7. Make a hole

8. Push a match stick

9. Trace the head

10. Stick it

11. Cut out the shape

12. Push the neck

13. Paint the head

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Task 3: Read these phrases, locate them in the given input

text and draw a rectangle around each one. Then insert them into the appropriate cells, forming the third column.

on to a card on to a card in the hole at the top

in the holes from the picture

underneath the tube

in the end

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1. Find a tube

2. Take off the lid 3. Cut a slit

4. Find 5 match sticks 5. Make 4 holes underneath the

tube

6. Push 4 matchsticks

7. Make a hole

8. Push a match stick

9. Trace the head

10. Stick it

11. Cut out the shape 12. Push the neck

13. Paint the head ———

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1. Find a tube

2. Take off the lid 3. Cut a slit in the end

4. Find 5 match sticks 5. Make 4 holes underneath the

tube

6. Push 4 matchsticks

in the holes

7. Make a hole at the top

8. Push a match stick in the hole

9. Trace the head from the picture

10. Stick it on to a card

11. Cut out the shape 12. Push the neck into the slit 13. Paint the head ——— [It should be brown]

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The Simplest OutputAfter doing the third task, the next table will include

the simplest version of the informational and linguistic features in the input text. Ss can in a controlled way say the simple instructions for making a paper dog.

Challenging tasksa. If we want to have challenging tasks, some of

the words/phrases can be erased and Ss are asked to give some instructions for making a paper dog from the next table.

b. Ss can also inject/embed some descriptive comments using the words/phrases in the 4th column.

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1. Find a tube [cardboard: a sweets tube; a kitchen roll]

2. Take off the lid

3. Cut a slit in the end [small]

4. Find 5 match sticks [used]

5. Make 4 holes underneath the tube

[small]

6. Push 4 matchsticks

in the holes

7. Make a hole at the top [similar; small]

8. Push a match stick in the hole [the last one]

9. Trace the head from the picture

10. Stick it on to a card [stiff]

11. Cut out the shape 12. Push the neck into the slit 13. Paint the head ——— [It should be brown]

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Using Visuals In the carrying out of the earlier three

tasks the learners might have hypothesized the meaning of the verbal information they have collected in notes form.

Their hypotheses might be sound or unsound.

The role of using visuals; they are required to support the learners' hypotheses about meaning and/or help them to discover it.

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Tasks Using VisualsTasks Using VisualsA. Pictures of objects (nouns) in the text: Look at the following diagram which includes

pictures of objects/nouns in the text, and then complete the key in the grid below it by writing one of the letters a-g in the appropriate space. The first one is done for you.

•

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B. Pictures Matching Action Verbs:

Write an instruction word for each picture below. The first one is done for you.

Alternatively, these diagrams can be given to the learners in a jumbled order and asked to first label them and then put them in the order in which they occur in the text.

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• Having discovered the meaning incorporated in the visual version of information and associated it with the verbal one in the input text, the learners are given some tasks to practice speaking using, this time, a less controlled framework, i.e. the visuals.

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• This is to be done gradually. The teacher chooses two of the students and asks one of them to look at the diagram and give instructions to the other to make a part of the paper dog (e.g. the head). The other student, in turn, may carry out the instructions, if the materials are available or write them down.

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• This is repeated with other pairs of students who are asked to give instructions to make other parts of the 'paper' dog, e.g. the tail, legs, etc. Then the learners are asked to give instructions to each other to make the whole 'paper dog'.

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• When the students are in a position to produce appropriate spoken output models and the majority of them have practiced speaking, they are asked to look at the diagram again and write instructions for making 'a paper dog'. From this last task, the learners would be expected to produce the following simple output:

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The outputThe output

• Find a tube. Take off the lid. Cut a slit in the end. Find 5 matchsticks. Make four holes underneath the tube. Push 4 matchsticks in the holes. Make a hole at the top of the tube. Push in a matchstick. Trace the head from the picture. Stick it onto a card. Cut out the shape. Push the neck into the slit. Paint the head brown.

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Beyond the Basic LevelBeyond the Basic Level

• Some variations may appear in the output above, e.g. the use of and as in Find a tube and take off the lid); the use of adverbial phrases of place as in Find a tube from the kitchen and take off the lid; the use of sequence markers as in First find a tube from the kitchen, etc.

• These variations are encouraged if they are correct because they can be used for developing other levels of sophistication. If not, they should be controlled in order to make sure that learners’ attention is drawn to the core level first.