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Page 1: TEFL /TESL: Teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language

Peace Corps

English TEFLTeaching English as a second language

Page 2: TEFL /TESL: Teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language

ED 313 902

AUTHORTITLE

INSTITUTIONSPONS AGENCY

PUB JATECONTRACTNOTEPUB TYPE

EDRS PRICEDESCRIPTORS

DOCUMENT RESUME

FL 018 255

Bowman, Brenda; And OthersTEFL/TESL: TePraing English as a Foreign or SecondLanguage. M Aual M041.Center for A)plied Linguistics, Washington, D.C.Peace Corps, Washington, DC. Information Collectionand Exchange Div.May 89PC888-2244A236p.Guides Classroom Use Guides (For Tearllers) (052)-- Tests/Evaluation Instruments (160)

MF01/PC10 Plus Postage.Class Activities; Classroom Techniques; ElementarySecondary Education; *English (Second Language);Grammar; Higher Education; *Language Skills; LanguageTeachers; Language Tests; Lesson Plans; SecondLanguage Instruction; Skill Development; TeachingGuides; Testing

IDENTIFIERS *Peace Corps

ABSTRACT

The manual on the teachina of English as a Foreign orSecond Language is intended as a practical -lassroom guide for PeaceCorps volunteers. It describes proceduresanG offers sample exercisesand activities for a wide range of listening, speaking, reading, andwriting skills (whole-class, small-group,and individualparticipation), and classroom testing and preparation for nationalexaminations. The manual covers a varietyof teaching situations,including primary and secondary schools andcolleges, the office orworkplace, school and work attings with limited facilities forinstruction and those with ample support,and any geographical orcultural setting where Peace Corps volunteersmay be found.Background and theoretical information are provided in addition topractical suggestions for classroominstruction. The first chapterdeals with the needs and constraints of teaching in differentsituations. Chapter 2 discusses workingwith a variety of approaches.The next four chapters outline specific techniques and activities forteaching speaking, listening, reading, andwriting. Chapter 7addresses the teaching of grammar, and the final chapter focuses onlesson planning and testing. Appendedmaterials include lists oftextbooks and rPfsrpnces, relevant organizationsand publications,and acronyms. An evaluation form forevaluating the manual isincluded. (MS)

****************g******************************************************Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the bestthat can be made

from the original document.

****************N**********************************g***************g***

Page 3: TEFL /TESL: Teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language

TEFL/TESLTeaching Englishas a Foreign or

Second Language

"PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THISMATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY

114(

TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCESINFORMATION CENTER {ERIC);'

U S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONOnce ot Educabonal Researchand inorovernentEDUCATIONAL RESOURCESINFORMATION

CENTER tER C.)

/7This document nas been reproduced asrecewed tram the person or oroanaaonongmabrog 4

C Mmor changes have been made to ,mpto.ereproduction qualdy

Pools& new or opunonsstatedm tmsdocu-ment do not necessanty represent otbc,alOERI pos.bon or potcy

Peace CorpsINFORMATION COLLECTION &EXCHANGE

MANUAL M041

2 BEST COPY AVAiLABLE

Page 4: TEFL /TESL: Teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language

INFCRMATION COLLECTION & EXCHANGE

Peace Corps' Information Collection & Exchange (ICE) wasestablished so that the strategies and technologiesdevelopedby Peace Corps Volunteers, their co-workers, and theircounterparts could be made available to the wide range ofdevelopment organizations and individual workerswho Aight findthem useful. Training guides, curricula, lesson plans, projectreports, manuals and other Peace Corps-generated materialsdeveloped in the field are collected and reviewed. Some arereprinted "as is"; others provide a source of field basedinformation for the production of manuals or for research inparticular program areas. Materials that you submit to theInformation Collection & Exchange thus become partof the PeaceCorpse larger contribution to development.

Information about ICE publications and servicesis availablethrough:

Peace CorpsInformation Collection & ExchangeOffice of Training and Program Support1990 K Street, N. W.Washington, D. C. 20526

Add your experience to the ICEResource Center. Sendmaterials that you have prepared so that we can share themwith others working in the development field. Yourtechnical insights serve as the basis for the generationof ICE manuals, reprints and resource packets, and alsoensure that ICE is providing the most updated, innovativeproblem-solving techniques and informationavailable toyou and your fellow development workers.

Peace Corps3

Page 5: TEFL /TESL: Teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language

PLEASE RETURN THIS FORM

NOTE TO USER: This manual was developed because Peace Corpsworkers and Volunteers wish to help in a growing area ofworldwide interest. In order to provide the most effective help,the preparers of the manual need to know how it is being used, orhow you feel it could better serve your needs. Please fill inthe following form and return it to:

TEFL/TESL: TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN ORSECOND LANGUAGEPeace CorpsInformation Collection & Exchange1990 K Street, NWWashington, DC 20526U. S. A.

Your Name

Your Address

Date

Country

1. What was your level of experience with TEFL/TESL before youbegan using this manual?

Never before taught EnglishSome previous experienceVery experienced

2. Before you began using this manual, didyou have teachingexperience in any subject? YES NO

If you answered YES, how much teachingexperience did youhave?

Less than one yearOne year or more.

3. Which parts of the manual have you found most useful? Leastuseful? Why?

Page 6: TEFL /TESL: Teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language

4. How are you using this manual (i.e., to train other teachersof English; to learn how to teach English myself; to getideas for activities for English classes; etc.)?

5. Did you find the manual easy to read, too simple or complex,complete or incomplete?

6. How has this manual helped your work? What have you done toapply the information?

7. Can you recommend additional methods or techniques which youfeel should be included in a new edition of the manual? Ifyou know of such methods, etc., please includetheinformation here.

8. What were your successes usingthe manual or implementingany of the ideas or procedures? Problems? Please describecompletely.

9. Are there any sections of themanual which you would delete?

10. Do you have other recommendations?

Privacy Act Notice: Furnishing the information requested hereinis completely voluntary. It is requested under authoritiescontained in the Peace Corps Act (22USC 2501 et seq.). The onlyuse which will be made of this information isfor managementpurposes involving the format and content offuture issues ofthis publication.

Page 7: TEFL /TESL: Teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language

TEFL/IESL

'TEACHING ENGLISH

AS A FOREIGN OR SECOND LANGUAGE

BRENDA BOWMAN, GRACEBURKART, and BARBARA ROBSON

Prepared for

PEACE CORPS

by

Center for Applied LinguisticsWashington, DC

PEACE CORPSInformation Collection and Exchange

May 1989

`..,111.1=1,11

Page 8: TEFL /TESL: Teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language

Prepared fo- the Peace Corps by the Center for AppliedLinguistics under Contract No. PC-888-2244A, May 1989.

This Manual may be reproduced and/or translated inpartor in full without payment of royalty. Please give standardacknowledgment.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors would like to thank Jo Ann Crandall of the Centerfor AppliedLinguistics, and John Guevin and David Wolfe of the Peace Corps,for theirvaluable editorial comments. We would also like to thank Frank Harrisonof the Center for Applied Linguistics for his help with the figuresanddiagrams. Finally, thanks are due to Peace Corps Volunteers who sharedtheir experiences with us, helping to make thisa manual which will show theway to future Volunteers.

Page 9: TEFL /TESL: Teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter Page

ABOUT THIS MANUAL vii

1 TEACHING IN DIFFERENT SITUATIONS:NEEDS AND CONSTRAINTS 1

Assessing Needs in School 1Expectations 3Requirements 3Materials 4

Assessing Needs Outside of the School System 5Using Informal Can-Do Assessments 5

Constraints and Solutions in the Classroom 7Large Multilevel Classes 7Insufficient Numbers of Textbooks 11Strict Adherence to a Rigid Curriculum 11Limited Hours and Low Motivation for English

Instruction 14Special Needs of Students 14

Constraints and Solutions Outside of the School System 17Tutoring 17No Suitable Textbooks 18

Summary 18Suggestions for Further Reading 19

2 WORKING WITH A VARIETY OF APPROACHES 21

Traditional Language Teaching 22Grammar Translation Method 23Direct Method 24Audio lingual Method (ALM) 25

Communicative Language Teaching 26Communicative Approach 26Total Physical Response (TPR) and the Natural

Approach 30Competency-Based Approach 32

Innovative Language Teaching 32The Silent Way 34Community Language Learning (CLL) 35Suggestopedia 36

Suggestions for Using Selected Language Teaching Techniques 38Suggestions for Further Reading 39

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ChapterPage

3 TEACHING SPEAKING 41

Overlapping Skills and MeaningfulCommunication 41Speaking to the Whole Person 42The Role of Speaking in LanguageLearning 43

Participation 43Interaction 44Fluency 45Confidence 46Communication Strategies 49

Overcoming Obstacles to ImplementingSpokenCommunicative Activities 51

Restriction of the Classroom 51Limited Practice Time 53Learner Anxiety 44

Pronunciation 57Summary 61Suggestions for Further Reading 62

4 TEACHING LISTENING 63

The Role of Listening in LanguageLearning 63Exposure 64Meaningful "Real Life" Messages 65

Resources for Teaching ListeningComprehension 68The Teacher 68Other Speakers of English 69Tapes 70

Characteristics and Examples of GoodListening Exercises 72Provide Interesting Content 72Include Listening Preparation 74Offer Visual Support 75Encourage Whole-Message Listening 77Encourage Listening for Specific Details 79Communicate Real Meaning 82Require Listener Responses 83Summary 89

Suggestions for Further Reading 89

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Chapter Page

5 TEACHING READING 91

Roles of Reading in the Learning and Useof Language 91Stages in the Development of Reading Proficiency 92Basic I iteracy and Reinforcement of Listening

anti Speaking 94Everyday Uses 101Making the Transition to Longer Texts 102Narrative and Expressive Literature 103Academic Purposes 105Extensive Reading 111

Examples of Exercises to Develop the ReadingMicroskills 112Special Notes on Vocabulary 121

Explicitly Taught Words and Inferred Words 122Sample Types of Vocabulary Exercises 123Using a Learner's Dictionary 127

Summary 129Suggestions for Further Reading 130

6 TEACHING WRITING 131

Roles of Writing in the Learning and Use ofLanguage 131Stages in the Development of Writing Proficiency 131Basic Writing Skills and Reinforcement ofSpeaking

and Listening 133Expanded Writing Skills and Reinforcement ofReading 136Learning the Writing Process 137

Examples of Exercises to Develop the WritingSkills 144More Advanced Writing Tasks 149Summary 150Suggestions for Further Reading 151

7 TEACHING GRAMMAR 153

Some Definitions, Terms, and Differences 153Grammar as Seen by I le Non-Specialist 153Grammar as Seen by the Linguistor Grammarian 153Grammar in an EFL/ESL Context 154

Grammar Aspects of Major Approaches to Language Teaching 154Traditional Grammar Translation Method 154Direct Method and Audio lingual Method 160Communicative Language Teaching 164

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Chapter Page

7 Sequencing 168Grammatical Sequencing 168Other Parameters 170Practical Choices 170

Grammar in the Classroom 171Your Intuitions as a Native Speaker 171The Students Who Want Grammar 171Using Grammatical Terminology in YourLessons 172

Some Basic Grammar Terms 173Using Reference Grammars 177

What Reference Grammars Are 177Using a Reference Grammar 179

Summary 179Notes on Reference Grammars and 3rammarExercise Books 180

8 LESSON PLANNING AND TESTING 185

Long-Term Goals 185Outlines 187Steps in a Lesson Plan 189

Review 189Presentation 189Practice 189Application 189Assignments 189

A Sample Lesson Plan 190Summary of Guidelines for Planning Lessons 194

Guidelines for Testing 195Classroom Tests 195National Examinations 196

Summary 198Suggestions for Further Reading 199

Appendices

A TEXTBOOKS AND REFERENCES 201

B ORGANIZATIONS AND PUBLICATIONS 207

C ACRONYMS 209

Index 211

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ABOUT THIS MANUAL

TEFL /TESL: Teaching English as a Foreignor Second Language is for Volunteers who arecurrently teaching or who are. about to teach English. It is a practical guide for theclassroom teacher.

The manual describes procedures and offers sample exercisesand activities for:

o a wide range of listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills

o whole-class, small-group, and individual participation

o classroom testing and preparing students for national examinations

It covers a great variety of teaching situations:

o primary and secondary schools and college

o the office or workplace

o school and work settings which have limited Lcilities for ;nstructionand those which provide ample support

o any geographical or cultural setting where Peace Corps Volunteersmay be found

You may already have training in the teaching of English,or your specialty may be inanother technical area. Regardless of whether youare an old hand or a newcomer, thismanual was written for you. Clear directionsare given for presenting the sample exercises.Possible problems are anticipated. Where different approaches andtechniques of teachingare discussed, the reasons for using them are explained. In short, both experienced andnovice teachers will be able to use the manual with confidence.

When using the manual, you should keepone important point in mind. Because manydifferent teaching situations are represented,you will find procedures and materials tomeet the needs of every Volunteer. If you can lift an exercise from the manual anduseit unchanged tomorrow morning with your students, well and good. Onthe other hand,you should not expect to use every procedure And exercise exactlyas it is presented in themanual. Some suggestions will seem wrong foryour class. But don't just discard thosewhich appear unsuitable. It is often possible to change a techniqueur an activity so thatit will work for you. So rather than look at the suggestions only inthe forms presentedin the manual, get into the habit of looking forways to adapt suggestions for your ownpurposes.

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You will probably turn to this manual because you need the answers to one or morequestions. What better way then to explain how to use the manual than by trying toanticipate some ofyour questions?

Your first question may be How do I find out how much Englishmy students know?Chapter One begins with severalpossible answers to this question. It showsyou how tr go on a fact-findinE missionto discover not only what yourstudents know, but also how muchmore they need to know.

Next you may ask Howcan I teach a class of 50 students whichmeets only two times aweek?The second part of Chapter Onedeals with these two problemsand others,such as not enough textbooks,poorly motivated students, and the need tofollow a prescribed syllabus. It also considers the special problems ofteaching English to your co-workers or to their families.

There are a number of approachesto the teaching of languages. Youmay find this varietymoie confusing than helpful, andyou may wonder How can I sortout all these methodsof language teaching? Howcan I tell one from another?Chapter Two describes ten approaches to language teaching. For eachapproach the distinctive features are given so that you will be able torecognize whether the approachis being used in your school. Youwill alsolearn what to expect if your students are already used to a particularapproach, and what kind of impact that will have on your teaching. At theend of the chapter are some suggestions for using selectedtechniques.

You may also wonder Which approach is the best forme to use?Perhaps the strongest pointmade in Chapter Two is thatno single approachworks all the time for all learners. Each of the approacheshas its streugthsand weaknesses. These are pointed out to you in Chapter Two and atvarious points in Chapters Three to Six, which discuss theteaching of theindividual language skills. Anotherpoint which is made in ChapterTwo isthat you must exercise caution and tact when trying to introduceinnovationsintn your language classroom.

Once you have answers to these more general questions.you may look for help in theteaching of the language skills. You may ask What can I do to get my students to reallyspeak English to me and to each other?This is quite a challenge, especially if you are teaching a large class and ifyour students are used to language lessonswhich focus more on the writtenlanguage than on speaking. Chapter Three shows you how to set upspeaking activities which will make your students want to participate and tointeract with one another. Sample exercises aim at increasingyour students'fluency and confidence. Realisticsuggestions are offered forovercoming thelimits of the classroom and the anxiety of your students. There are evensuggestions for teachingpronunciation in a more meaningful,communicativeway.

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Closely related to the problem of motivatingyour students to speak is the need to irnprox etheir ability to understand spoken English. Youmay want to know How can I get mystudents to feel more confident about listeningto English, so that they won't just freezewhen someone speaks to them?

Chapter Four will help you easeyour students into activities in which theyare listening to "real life" messages. You will be able to give your studentsa lot of exposure to different kinds of natural spoken messages. They willgain in confidence as they learn to pick out what they needto understandfrom the message and respond in appropriateways.

School systems in most countries puta lot of emphasis on the written language. But youmay be dissatisfied with the way your reading lessons havegone. In desperation you mayask Is there any way to teach readingso that it is more interesting? How can I make Viereading of English more useful for my students?

Reading lessons become tedious when the teacher andstudents have toonarrow a view of what reading really is. Chapter Five showsyou that readingis more than translating or discussing excerpts from literary works.Sometimes people read advertisements, instructions, timetables,or productlabels. Sometimes they read in order to gather informationfor a report orto prepare for an examination. Greater variety in the types of readingselections and more purposeful tasks to followup on the reading will makeyour reading lessons both more interesting and more useful.

Your students may worry about learning vocabulary, andyou too may want to know Whatis the best way to learn vocabulary?

In Chapter Five you will see that memorizing vocabulary listsis not the mosteffective way to go about learning vocabulary. Sample exercises will alsoshow you that there is more to know abouta word than its meaning.

Even experienced teachers may quail at theprospect of having to teach students how towrite compositions in English. If you find yourself in such a position,you may have verybasic questions, such as What should I teachmy students about writing? How can I helpthem to write what they want to write, ina way that their readers can understand?

Composing is hard work, even whenyou are doing it in your own language.First you have to get the ideas, thenyou have to express them in a way thatreally communicates with your readers. Chapter Six offershelp in both theseareas. You will find pre-writing activities in which your students generateideas for their writing. You will see exercises and feedbacktechniques whichhelp writers (from beginning to advanced levels of proficiency)shape theirwriting into appropriate forms.

Yoir students will probably askyou a lot of questions about grammar, leading you in turnto ask How do I teach English grammar (especially when I'm not toosure about grammarquestions myself)?

English grammar is taught in a number of differentways, depending on thegeneral approach to language teaching which is used. Chapter Sevenlooksmore closely at three of the general approaches which are deferibed in

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Chapter Two and, usingexcerpts from three textbooks for beginningstudentsof English, shows you how grammar is taught in each of the approaches.The chapter also suggests ways to supplement your textbook, sincenone ofthese approaches taken by itself is ideal. Two other sections of ChapterSeven define some basic grammatical terms and tell you about referencegrammars, where you can find theanswers to knottier grammar questions.

Another kind of advice you may want concerns lesson planning, or in other words, Howcan I organize my lessons so thatmy students will know what theyare supposed to belearning and so that both they andI will know when they have learnedit?Chapter Eight shows you howto put it all together. It tellsyou the kinds ofinformation you need for settinginstructional objectives. It shows you howto implement the objectives in individuallesson plans that incorporate reviewof previous work, presentation,practice, and application ofnew material, andassignments for work done out of class. A sample plan implementstheseprinciples in a lesson which focuses on listening and speaking skills andteaches a few closely related grammar points. Besides this extendeddiscussion of lesson planning in ChapterSeven, there are three or four shortplans for reading lessons in Chapter Five,and Chapter Six gives some generalguidelines for planning lessons inwriting.

There is one major area of teaching which the questionsso far :lave not touched upon.You will need to know How do I test my students?

Chapter Eight gives guidelines fordevising tests which you administeryourselfin the classroom. It offers advice on test items forall four language skills,even listening and speaking.

One question about testingyou may not think of asking is Howcan I prepare my studentsfor the national examinations?Nothing quite like the nationalexaminations is found in the United States,but such examinationsare quite common in other countries. Theyare usuallyset by the Ministry of Education, and they often determine the futureeducational opportunities which are open to your students. Chapter Eighttells you how to find out more about these examinations and howto helpyour students survive them.

Following the eight chapters, thereare three appendices which you can referto as needed.The first appendix is a complete listing of all the textbooks andreferences that are citedin the manual. ICE publicationnumbers are given for those bookswhich are availableto you through Peace Corps InformationCollection and Exchange. Thesecond appendixlists organizations and publicationswhich are dedicated to the teachingof English as aforeign or second language. Finally there is an appendix which explains acronyms (likeEFL and ESL) which are common in this field.

Still another way to orient you to this manual is to relate the contents of the variouschapters to the structure ofyour language courses. In the simplestterms, you can thinkof the courses which you teach as a process with a beginning,a middle, and an end.

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The beginning is the needs assessment and schoolsyllabus. These sek. the long-rangeobjectives for you to meet during thecourse as a whole.

The middle is the part whichyou are most concerned with on a day-to-day basis. Youneed lesson plans to help you organize,.nur class tin- in an efficient and purposeful way.In making your lesson plansyou can draw on a variety of approaches to language teachingfor ideas on techniques for presenting the mater;alsand activities which compose thelessons. You can supplement the materials and activitieswhich you find in your textbookswith selections from the chapters of this manual whichdiscuss the language skills andaspects of language.

At the end of the process are the examinations. Youneed periodic tests to help you andyour students judge their progress through the course. Very likely there willalso be a finalexamination and possibly a national examination whi._iyour students must take.

An overview of this process is shown in the figure below.NEEDS ASSESSMENT AND SCHOOL SYLLABUS

Chap er 1

APPROACHES TO LANGUAGE TEACHINGChapter 2

LANGUAGESKILLS

SPEAKINGChapter 3

LISTENINGChapibr 4

READINGChapter 5

WRITINGChapter 6

LESSON

PLANS

Chapter 8

ASPECTS OFLANGUAGE

PRONUNCIATIONChapter 3

VOCABULARYChapter 5

GRAMMARChapter 7

DISCO RSEChapter 5

EXAMINATIONSChapter 8

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CHATTER ONE

TEACHING IN DIFFERENT SITUATIONS:NEEDS AND CONSTRAINTS

This chapter looks at theconcerns facing Volunteers teaching English insideor outside of the school system. The chapter outlines thereasons for a needsassessment, some of the people to be approachedfor information, andsomeof the questions to be raised ina needs assessment.

In addition, this chapter looks at some of the constraints facing Volunteersteaching English, from the demands of large multilevel classes to thelimitations of individual tutorials. Solutionsare suggested which require thepractical application of skills presentedin pre-service training.

In recent years teachers of Englishas a Foreign Language (EFL), or Englishas a SecondLanguage (ESL), have been paying increasingattention to identifying the needs of theirstudents, to students' attitudes towardsEnglish and their reasons for learning it. Thisattention to learners' needscan be seen in countries such as Zaire or Peru where Englishis regarded as a foreign language and is largely treated as an academic subject in theschool system and is not widely usedoutside of the classroom. The same attention tolearners' needs can also beseen in countries such as Malawi and Sri Lanka where Englishis taught as a second language, whereEnglish is widely used and is perceivedas essentialto success.

For you, as a teacher stepping intoa new educational system, it is important to informyourself of your students' needs and attitudes towards learning English so that from thebeginning you can play an effective role in your classroom. Conducting a needsassessment, even an informal one, is thereforean important first step in your job.

For those of you who are teaching Englishas a secondary project, perhaps by tutoringco-workers or coaching their children,a needs assessment will help you establisha purposefor your classes. It may also help you distinguish between would-be learners whoareserious and those who are more casual in their approach. An accurateassessment of yourlearners' commitment could helpyou avoid frustration or an unwarranted sense of failure.

ASSESSING NEEDS IN SCHOOL

Much of your fact-finding can be carried out through a series of interviews andconversations with colleagues, the school director,the head of the English department,yourPeace Corps program manager, other Volunteers and your students.

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In asking your questionsyou may want to make it clear that you are not evaluatingorpassing judgment. Your purpose is to inform yourself so that you can serve your schoolcommunity in the most effectiveway possible. Your crosscultural skills will come into playas you both gather information and set the framework fora good working relationship withyour colleagues and supervisor.

Creating the opportunity to talk toyour students before your first classes will enableyouto get an idea of their level of English. You donot need a detailed analysis at this point,but it would be good to know how much theyunderstand when you talk to them. This willhelp you pitch your language atan appropriate level in your classes. These talks will alsobe a useful way for you togauge your students' attitudes towards learning English and toexplore their perceptions of what they needfrom you. If past records of students'performance in English are available, these will alsohelp you build a picture of what toexpect in the classroom.

This informal approach to assessing levels is particularly effective with primary schoolchildren. 1hese children are usually friendly and delighted to meet an American. Takeadvantage of their friendliness to talk to them andto assess their level of English. A fewquestions about their names, ages, brothers, sisters and homes will help you ascertain howmuch they understand and how capable theyare of handling English. When you areasking these questions, remember touse different tenses. For example:

1. What class were you in last year? (past)2. When did you learn to play football? (past)3. What will you do when you leave school? (future)4. What will you do this evening? (future)5. What's your favorite subject? (present)6. Who's your best friend? (present)7. How long have you been at this school? (present perfect)8. How long have you been learning English? (present perfect

progressive)

Listen carefully to the answers you get. They will give you important clues about yourstudents' ability to use verb tenses in English.

In conducting a reeds assessment ina school you are looking for answers to the followinggeneral questions:

1. What do your students expect froman English class?2. What are the English language requirements ofyour school and

of the national educational system?3. What materials are available?

For each of these general areas,you will have a specific set of questions.

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ExpectationsSet up your questionnaireas simply as possible. For students whoare beginners in Englishyou might even consider using your students' native language. For more advancedstudents, you could use your questionnaire as a basis for a first getting-to-know-youlesson.Here is an example of the type of formatyou might use in a secondary school,a technicalcollege, a teacher training college,a university, or in classes with adults.

Do you agree or disagree with eachof the statements below? Put a check under thenumber that indicates howyou feel.

+2+1

0-1-2

= Strongly agree= Agree= No opinion= Disagree= Strongly disagree

+2 +1 0 -1 -21. I enjoy learning languages.2. I talk in English as often as I can.3. I read a lot in English.4. I want to be able to write in English.5. I enjoy listening to English.6. I can get a good job without knowing

English.7. I have too many hours of Englishon my

timetable.8. People will respect me if I know English.9. I would study English even if it were not

required at school.10. My family wants me to learn English.

If you do not have access to photocopyingfacilities to reproduce sufficient copies ofthisquestionnaire, you could write thestatements on the board, ask your studentsto respondin their exercise books, and then lead a discussion on reactions to the statements.

In primary schools your studentsare less likely to articulate their expectations. However,it would be worth your while to talk to fellow teachers about their perceptionsof whatprimary school children needs andexpect from an English lesson.

RequirementsYou may have gained a lot of information on national requirements duringyour Pre-Service Training, particularly in countrieswhere there is a centralized system of schoolleaving examinations and the requirements are clearly laid out by the Government.However, you may have questions, like theones below, about your school's track recordin the national examination system. These questions will probably best beanswered byyour head of department or school director.

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1. Do you have copies of past . i.tional English examinations thatI can see?

2. If the national English examinations are based on oralinterviews, can I talk to someone who is experienced in givingthese examinations?

3. What do students think of the nationalEnglish examinations?4. Do you have records of students'national English examination

results?5. Do the students haveany particular weaknesses which showup

in the national English examinations?6. Do inspectors from the English language teaching section of

the Ministry of Education visit theschool?7. If so, are their reports available?8. What is the grading system withinthe school?

How often am I expected to give tests?How often am I expected to givehomework assignments?

9. Are copies of past English tests available?10. Are student reports available?

Be careful while you are asking these questions. If you think that youare coming acrossas pushy, or if you think your informant is becominguncomfortable, be preparedto let thequestions drop, and to gather the information you want gradually duringyour first fewweeks on the job.

MaterialsOnce again, your head of departmentor school director will probably be the most usefulin answering the following questionsabout the school's English languagematerials.

1. What English language textbooks are used in the school?When were they published?When did the school obtain thesebooks?

2. Are there English books in the library?If so, what sort of books are they? Simplified novels? Technicaltexts?

3. Are there tapes, films and visual aids for use in Englishlessons?

4. Does the Government supply books? Or do students have topay for their books?

5. Do students share textbooks?6. Does the school receive gifts or loans of books from

organizations such al the United StatesInformation Service?7. If not, would you like me to see if such gifts or loans are

possible to arrange?8. Are funds available to buy more materials?9. How does the procurementsystem work in the school?

10. Do you have any photocopyingor stencilling facilities? Can Iuse these facilities? Are there any restrictionson their use?

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ASSESSING NEEDS OUTSIDE OF THESCHOOL SYSTEM

For those of you conducting a needs assessment outside of a school system,you will belooking for the following information:

1. Why do your students wantto learn English? What tasks dothey hope to accomplish with the Englishthey will be learning?

2. What is their current level of English?

Specific answers to the first questionswill help you meet the needs ofyour students. Forexample, prompted by your questions,an engineer may come to realize that he needsEnglish to read articles on engineering, and that he has little need to speak or evenunderstand spoken English. Ora group of medical technicians may decide that theywantEnglish classes in order to understandthe spoken English of expatriatedoctors. You canget at some of this information by askingthe following kinds of questions:

1. Do you need English foryour job?2. How many hours a week doyou use English?3. When was the last timeyou spoke English on the job?

What were the circumstances?4. When was the last timeyou had to understand spoken English

on the job?What were the circumstances?

5. When was the last time you read English on the job?What were the circumstances?

6. When was the last time you wrote English on the job?What were the circumstances?

7. Do you think you will be using Englishin the future for yourwork?

8. Do you use English outside of work?When do you do so?

9. Do you think that knowing Englishincreases chances of gettingpromoted?

10. Do you enjoy learning English?

Once you have an idea ofyour students' needs you can focuson the appropriate skills oflistening, speaking, readingor writing.

Using Informal Can-Do AssessmentsAn informal assessment of current levels of English should be as non-threatening aspossible. A simple conversation aboutyour future students' needs and about the timesand frequency of classes will helpyou ascertain their level of comprehension and abilityto communicate. You may also wantto structure your conversation by usinga Can-Doself-assessment scale. This technique has been found to be very effective with adults.Basically, in a Can-Do assessment you are asking your students to judgefor themselvestheir abilities in English. If you have the option, you may want to consider using yourstudents' native language for thisassessment. A possible format is as follows.

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Speaking and ListeningPlease read the following paragraphs and decidewhich paragraph best describesyourability to speak and understand spoken English.

1. My speech in English is limited toa few words. I have great difficultyin understanding English,even when it is spoken very slowly.

2. I can ask and answer questions aboutvery familiar subjects. I canunderstand simple questions if they are spoken slowlyand sometimesrepeated. My vocabulary is limited to basic needs, such as food,asking directions, greeting people, etc. I make many grammaticalmistakes, but people can usually understandme.

3. I can talk with native English speakersabout myself, my family, myjob and current events. I can understand the main ideas in mostconversations, except when speech is fast. Mygrammar is fairly good,but I make mistakes with complicated constructions.

4. I can understand almost everything spokenby a native speaker ofEnglish. My grammar is good, andmy miItakes are usually with verycomplicated constructions. My pronunciation is good, but I speakEnglish with an accent.

5. I can understand native English speakers, even when they arespeaking quickly and using slang. My vocabulary is extensiveeven fortechnical matters. I make very few grammatic, ;ors, and mypronunciation is good but not completely native.

Reading and WritingPlease read the following and decide which paragraphsbest describe your ability to readEnglish and your ability to write English.

Reading1. I really cannot read anything in English,or can read only a few words

I have memorized.2. I can recognize the letters of the alphabet. Ican read some personal

and place names, street signs, shopnames, numbers and some isolatedwords.

3. I can get the general sense of business letters, news items and articleson subjects with which I am familiar, but I need to usea dictionaryto do so.

4. I understand the basic meaning of mostnewspaper articles, routinecorrespondence, reports, and technical material in fields with whichIam familiar, without using a dictionary. However I need to refertoa dictionary to get the exact meaning of the entire text. I sometimeshave difficulty with complex sentences.

5. With only the occasional use of a dictionary, I can read withoutdifficulty any prose directed at the general reader,and all materialsin fields with which I am familiar.

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Writing1. I cannot write in English.2. I can write a few sentences in English, usingvery basic vocabulary and

grammar.3. I can write relatively simple items, suchas a short note to a friend,

that communicate basic messages, but usually containing lots ofmisspellings and grammaticalerrors.

4. I can write fairly long personal letters, as well as uncomplicatedbusiness letters and simple technicalrepot ts, which contain relativelyfew errors.

5. I can write complex personal letters, reports and business letters.There is only the occasional hint that Iam not a native speaker ofEnglish.

For additional ideas on assessing needs, consultESP: Teaching English for Specific Purposes,in the Peace Corps Information Collectionand Exchange (ICE), Manual Series No. M-31. The Whole ICE Catalogue alsocontains texts in its TEFL/TESL/ESP sectionwhichmay be of particular use to those of you whoare teaching English to professionals.

Figure 1.1 provides an overview of the needsassessment procedure.

CONSTRAINTS AND SOLUTIONS INTHE CLASSROOM

The major constraints facing TEFLVolunteers are:

o large multilevel classeso insufficient numbers of textbookso strict adherence to a rigid curriculumo limited hours and low motivation for Englishinstructiono special needs of students

Large Multilevel ClassesTeaching a class of fifty or more students requires considerable organization. In manycases students will be used to teachers whouse drills, choral repetitions and rote learningas a means of teaching large classes. These techniques may achieve their purpose ofkeeping students busy, but their effectivenessas a learning tool is limited. However, thereare other options at hand, all of which will require organizationand planning in the initialstages but will offer more satisfactory resultsin the long run. These options fall intotwomain categories: group work andpeer coaching. Both of these options requirea sense ofcooperation among your students. Yourtask will be to foster this sense of cooperation.

Cooperation in Group WorkGroup work should be introduced gradually and used for teaching all of the languageskills-listening, speaking, reading and writing.

7

(7 1",t:.1

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INSIDESCHOOL

DIRECTOR

DEPARTMENT HEAD

TEACHERS

PC STAFF

PCV LEADER

STUDENTS

INSIDESCHOOL

r EXPECTATIONS

SCHOOL REQUIREMENTS

NATIONAL REQUIREMENTS

L MATERIALS

STUDENTS' LEVEL

WHOTO

ASK

STUDENTS

WHATTO

ASK

NEEDS /PURPOSE

OUTSIDE OUTSIDESCHOOL SCHOOLTEFL PCVs MATERIALS

PROGRAM MANAGERS STUDENTS' LEVEL

Figure 1.1 Overview of a Needs Assessment

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Large group work: Use your first sessions as a way of acclimatizingyour classes to groupwork. For a beginners' level, includeexercises such as What Time Is It? For thisexerciseyou divide the class into two large groups and ask group A to draw a series of clocksonthe toard and then, as a group, ask group B "What time is it?" Group B membersanswertogether. The two groups then switchroles.

Exercises from JAZZ Chants by CarolynGraham can also be used very effPcuvelyto buildup a sense of dialogue and cooperation as well as to generate fun and energy inyourclassroom. In working ona jazz chant, Graham suggests that the following steps betaken:

1. Make sure that your students understand the context of the chant.This may entail explaining necessary vocabulary items and culturalitems.

2. Give each line of the chant once or twice as needed. Ask yourstudents to repeat in unison.

3. Establish a rhythm by clapping. Repeatstep 2 itn a firm beat.4. Divide the class into two large groups. Using the heat you have

established give the lines. The two groups of students alternatelyrepeat the lines as they are given.

5. Take the first part in the chant dialogue; askthe whole class to takethe second part.

6. Divide your class into twogroups again and give the firs, part of thechant to group A and the secondpart to group B.

A good beginning jazz chant is "Do YouKnow Mary?" (See Figure L2.)

Small-group work: Once your studen's seem to be comfortable working in largegroups,you will be able to introduce more sophisticatedgroup language tasks . For this level ofgroup work choose a task that allows different studentsto make different contributions,that does not have a single right answer, that does not involve rote learning, and thatcannot be done more efficiently byone person than by a group. A good example of thiskind of task is "Are You Sitting Comfortably?"from Recipes for Tired Teachers editedbyChristopher Sion. (See Figure 1.3.)

Project work: Project work can stimulate your students with its variety. Theseprojects caninclude a classroom newspaper posted on the wall, with reportson the school farm, theschool sports teams, or the activities of extracurricular clubs. You may also want toexplore the possibility of tying these projects inwith other si.ojects. For example, ifyou'.students are studying precipitationpatterns in their geography classes and keeping trackof local precipitation,you could cover the same topic in your English class. In this wayyour students have the advantage of transferring theconcepts they learn in geography totheir English classes.

Peer coaching: Peer coachingmeans using the strengths of the more advanced students inyour class to help other students. One version of thisapproach, called "each one teachone," was advocated 4 Dr. Frank Laubach, who used it to promote literacy in thePhilippines. To be successful your advanced students need to be prepared. Theo.coaching task must be clearly defined andthey should resist the temptation to do the work

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DO YOU KNOW MARY?

Do you know Mary?

Mary who?

Mary McDonald.

Of course I do.

Do you know her little brother?

Yes, of course I do.I know her brother, and her motherand her fat:'....r too.

Do you know her older sister?

Yes, of course I 4o.I know her oldr aster, Bettyand her younge tater, Sue.

Do you know her husband Bobby?

Yes, of course I do.I know her husband and his brotherand his father too.

27

NOTES DO YOU KNOW MARY?

Focus

StructureNotes

Practice the question intonationpatterns:Do you know Mary? Mary who?and notice the contrastingresponsepattern Yes, of course I do.

Note that the h sound is dropped whenwe say know her, and her.

Listen carefully to the pronunciation oflittle, brother, mother, father.

Practice the intonation pattern for NO, Idon't, do you?

This chant offers practice in the simplepresent question Do you know...? andthe emphatic short response Yes, ofcourse I do.

The entire chant may be practiced withnegative answers plus tag questions.Example:

Do you know Mary?No, I don't, do you?

Presentation Repeat the chant, substituting students'Notes names and the names of their families.

1

Figure 1.2 From Jazz Chants by Carolyn Graham.Oxford University Press, 1978. Reprinted by permission.

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for their "students." Both students ina pa . should be given credit for successes andcareshould be taken to prevent the weaker studentfrom falling into the trap of dependenceon the more advanced student.

This peer coaching can take place forapproximately half an hour a week at the sametime as the rest of the studentsare busy on some form of group work. An example ofpeer coaching would be to ask the advanced studentto read a passage while the secondstudent follows the text in hisor her book. The two could then workon comprehensionquestions on the passage. Multiple choiceor tr... /false questions are good si-ice they testcomprehension and not writing skills.

Insufficient Numbers of TextbooksTEFL Volunteers frequently face theproblem of insufficient or nonexistenttexts, or theproblem of trying to work from out-datedor poorly designed books. The basic strategydeveloped by many Volunteers consists ofsupplementing the books through creativeuseof other media. Rejecting the books outright may dismay your students, who considertheir books their passport to educationalsuccess and who measure their progress by thenumber of pages covered inyour classes. By supplementing these books,you can respectyour students' needs and at the same time accomplishyour goal of offering good EFLclasses.

Supplements can take the form of displaysof the classroom newspaper or other groupproject work of the type discussed in theprevious section. In addition, introducing realobjects whenever possible will groundyour classes in the physical reality of your students'world. A TEFL Volunteer in Nepal bringsagricultural tools to his class and uses them toteach comparatives, possessives and prepositionsof place. ("Shekhar's scythe is biggerthan Indra's. He's just put iton the floor in the corner.")

A creative use of your blackboard skillswill help your students. Stick people and simplediagrams are tried and true ways of explaining grammatical structures. Action EnglishPictures by Maxine Frauman-Prickel is availablethrough ICE (Manual No. ED 123). Thisbook contains 66 reproducible picturesequences designed to provide stimuli for listeningand speaking while texts created by studentsprovide reading and writing material. TheAudio-Visual Communication Handbook, alsoavailable through ICE (Manual No. M-20),emphasizes locally produced materials and providesexamples and methods for producingand using a variety of audio-visual aids, includingflipcharts, filmstrips and puppets.

Where appropriate, that is ifyour students need oral communicative English,you can shiftthe emphasis away from books to aural/oralactivities. For example, while following thestructures laid down in the curriculumyou can add songs, story telling sessions and roleplays. Chapter Two discusses the method TotalPhysical Response (TPR), which can beused effectively in situations where textbooksrequire supplementary activities.

Strict Adherence to a Rigid CurriculumDespite the fun and energyyou bring to your classes, you may experience resistancetoyour innovations. Because of your different approach, you may have problems inmaintaining discipline in your classes. Youmay hear that students say you are not serious

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2D

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ARE YOU SITTING COMFORTABLY?

Before Class

Prepare the story by reading it quietlyto yourself and thengoing through it several times aloudso that it will be "alive"when you come to present it to theclass.

In Class

1. Teach any unknown vocabularyand set the mood for thestory: quiet, calm, and comfortable.

2 Read the story. You will find thetext at the end of theseinstructions. Use anypauses or simple dramatic gesturesfor effect. Make sureyou look up from the book. It willbe far more difficult to hold thegroup's attention if youbury your head in thepages.

3 As the story is finished, ask the students in groups orpairs to write theirown endings to it. Most studentsseemto want happy or trick endings suchas: "The princessbribed the lionkeeper to feed the lionup so that it wasn'thungry," or "The King saw it as a sign from God whenthe lion turned away." Othersmay prefer a more twistedending: "He fought the lion, won the fight, and thenmarried the other woman anyway!" Circulate, helping thestudents express their ideas in writing.

4. When the groups have finished their versions, reador leta student read: "...acting on the decisionshe had madeafter days and nights of weighingthe awful choice, shenodded to the right. Theyoung man saw and withouthesitating walked to the right-handdoor and opened it."The groups then read theirversions in turn, and sharetheir feelings about them.

5. This may lead to furtherdiscussion about why theywanted their particular endto the story, what kinds ofstories they liked as children,or the fascination of ghoststories and fairy stories. Moreover,some students willprobably have some stories they would like to tell orfavorite characters theywant to describe.

Figure 1.3 From Recipes for Tired Teachers edited byChristopher Sion. Addison-Wesley Publishing

Company, Inc., 1985. Reprinted by permission.12

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The Story

Many years ago in a country in North Africa there liveda kingwho had some very strange customs. One of thesewas the way hedecided if a prisoner was guilty or not guilty. Wheneverone of hissubjects was accused of a serious crime, the king decidedthat the fateof the accused would be determined in front of the people. On thechosen day, the king, his followers, and all the people gatheredon asmall hill. In front of the hill was a big building withtwo doors,exactly alike, set side by side. At the king's signal, theaccused wouldwalk to the doors and open pne of them. Behindone door was ahungry lion which would eat the prisoneras a punishment for hiscrime. Behind the other door was a beautifulwoman to whom theprisoner would be married immediately asa reward for his innocence.

The plan seemed most fair to the king. The accused couldchoosehis own fate. He simply opened a door andwas at once either eaten ormarried.

Now it happened that the king's beautiful daughter, whomheloved above all things, had fallen in love witha poor but handsomeyoung soldier. When the king found out that they loved each other, heput the young man into prison and set a day for his public trial. Thenthe kind ordered the whole kingdom to be searched for the biggestlionand the most beautiful woman.

Finally, the day of the trial arrived. Theyoung man entered thefield. He was so handsome that the crowd greeted him witha hum ofadmiration and fear. How terrible thiswas for him! Advancing intothe field the handsome young soldier turned,as was his custom, andbowed to the king. But he fixed his eyeson the princess, who wassitting on her father's right. Theyoung man saw in her eyes that theprincess knew on which side the lionwas and which the lady. Therewas not a moment to lose. His eyes asked her, "Which door shall Ichoose?"

The princess knew that the woman her father had chosenwas theloveliest in the land. In the past she had seen this woman throwadmiring glances at the soldier. Sometimes sheeven suspected thatthese glances were returned. How could she bearto lose her lover toanother woman? How could she bear tosee him torn apart by the lion?The princess paused. Then acting on the decision shehad made afterdays and nights cf weighing the awful choice, she noddedto the right.The young man saw, and without hesitating, walkedto the right-handdoor and opened it

Author's NoteThis is an adaptation of the well-knownstory, "The Lady and the

Tiger," by Frank R. Stockton. It appeared inan examination set by theMinistry of Education of the United Republic of Tanzania.

Mo Strangeman

Figure 1.3 continued13

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in your teaching. For your students, their educationalsuccess is seen as vital to theireconomic advancement and to that of theirfamilies. And their definition of educationalsuccess is getting good marks in school and passing nationalexams. While not denyingyour own need to improve and innovate inyour EFL classroom, you will need to take intoaccount your students' perceptions of their needsand to be sensitive to the burden offamily expectations theyare carrying.

Showing that you are familiar with the curriculum and the format of the nationalexamswill reassure your students ofyour seriousness. You can demonstrate this familiarity byknowing how to explain simply and clearly the rules of English grammar, by teachingexamination strategies, by holding mockexams, and by giving feedback on performancesin these exams. (Chapter Eightpresents further guidelines for testing.)

If sticking to a rigid curriculum leavesyou feeling frustrated, an out-of-class English clubcould provide a good outlet foryour creativity. A play can be produced and presentedtothe school or even to other schools inthe area. Debating teams within the school couldchallenge each other. Or youmay be able to work with other TEFL Volunteersto set upseries of debates with teams travelling fromschool to school. If you have the connectionswith schools in the United States, an international pen-pal club can also bea popularaddition to extracurricular activities.

Limited Hours and Low Motivation for EnglishInstructionIn countries where English is taught as a foreign language, as opposed to a secondlanguage, some classes, particularly those in thescience or technical sections, are allocatedas little as one hour of English a week. This is typically the case in countries inFrancophone Africa. Providing meaningful lessons and stimulatingmotivation in thiscontext is a challenge.

But it is important that you should helpyour students understand the necessity of learningEnglish. Those of your students who will begoing on to university or college will find thatespecially in the sciences, many of the textbooks and articles they will be asked to read willbe in English. If possible,you could try to invite outside speakers, suchas a librariz.n orscience teacher from a local University. Their testimony should go a long way towardconvincing your students that learning Englishcould be very beneficial.

Remember that in classes with suchsevere time constraints, your emphasis is likely to beon reading or listening comprehension. The opportunityfor developing speaking or writingskills in approximately thirty hours ofEnglish a year is very limited.

In teaching classes with limited hours and low motivation, a good strategy isto workclosely with the science teacherto develop simple materials which mirror the materialscovered in the science class. Textbooks such as Basic English for Sc;enceby PeterDonovan, provide a model of howyou can do so. An example of an activity from thatbook is shown in Figure 1.4.

Special Needs of StudentsSome of your studentsmay suffer from some form of physical disability, and in mildcases

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unit 6classworksection 1

classworkSECTION 1 simple instructionsA When we want people to do things. we useinstructions, Instructions can be given in differentways. Spoken instructions can be very direct. forexample: Open the window:Close the door.Give instructions to other people in the class. usingthis table Make sure the instructions are fel!owedcorrectly Make up some instructionsof your own

OpenCloseShut

your bookthe windowthe door.the cupboard

Many verbs which are used for instructions arefollowed by a preposition. Forexample. Turn the lighton. Switch the radio off,Give more instructions, using this table Again, makesure they are carried out correctly

the chair upTurn the light onSwitch your book off,Put your hand down.Pick your pen

your deskround,upside down.

Now make up your own instructions with these verbsand prepositions:

take offswitch/turn off/onpick upput downturn round

B In scientific English. we often sayinstead of put For example.

some copper sulphate crystalson a filterpaper

In everyday English we couldsayPut some sugar in your coffee

What verbs would we use for theseinstructions?1 some water into a beaker

Or

a beaker with water

Figure 1.4 From Basic Englishfor Science by Peter Donovali.Oxford University Press, 1978. Reprinted by permission.

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J

2 a tube into a test-tube.

0

3 the stopper from the container

4 the wire to the terminal

5 the length of the rod

6 the result of the equationxii-y2+22=?

7 a diagram of the apparatus

8 the reaction Which takes place

unit 6classwofksection I

Figure 1.4 continued

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of disability the problemmight not have been spotted. For example, students mildhearing or visual impairmentoften unconsciously develop coping strategies, and the onlyclue you have is that theirperformance in class may not be up to standard.

You may be able to help these students. First, when a student is obviouslystruggling tokeep up, check that this struggle is not caused by vi at 3r auditory impairments.Sometimes moving a student to the front of he class whet 'he blackboard is easily seencan be helpful. Or taking the timeto stand near a student ti J has hearing problems andrepeating your instructions clearlycan make a difference. If itseems appropriate, you maywant to contact the family ofa student with disabilities, tosee if the family will considergetting professional help. Glasses or a hearing aid could transform a student'sperformance.

Second, you can also help bybuilding up the confidence ofstudents with disabilities. Alltoo often these students havea low self-image, brought on by being toldthat they are poorstudents and not good enough foran academic career. By identifying andacknowledgingthe physical problem, and by being patient and by setting them up to succeed, you canhelp these students build up their self-image.

Third, you can expandyour own professional ability toassess your students' needs, identifyproblems and develop solutions. If there are programs for special education in yourcountry, the Volunteers working in these programs will be an invaluable source ofinformation. The ICE catalogue also has a section on Special Education-SpecificDisabilities. Many of the manuals in this section offer practicaland relevant advice onhow you can help students withdisabilities move into the mainstream. Disabled VillageChildren by David Werner (ICENo. SE 046) is available free to all PCVs working withchildren with special needs.

CONSTRAINTS AND SOLUTIONSOUTSIDE OF THE SCHOOLSYSTEM

Two major constraints in this situation are:

o tutoringo no suitable textbooks

This section discusses theseconstraints and presents some solutions.

TutoringLanguage involves communication. Teaching one-on-one classes restrictsthe amount ofcommunication. A learner in this situation also frequently becomes dependent on theteacher and has difficulty inunderstanding anyone else speakingEnglish. A teacher in thissituation has no opportunityto gauge how the learner interacts withothers in English andmay have difficulty in establishing the"space" in which to deal professionally with thelearner's demands. For instance,a learner might insist on being corrected immediatelyafter every mistake, despite thefact that this interrupts the flowof work and the learnerhas little intention of internalizing the correction.

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However you may be obliged to giveone-on-one lessons since many high level officials arereluctant to take classes with junior officials. If this is the case, two features should beremembered: keep classes to a maximum of one hour per session and keep materialsclosely related to the learner's needs.

In tutoring, a little and often is far less demandingon both teacher and learner than lorigsessions once a week. Establishing a system whereby the learner matches time inclasswith assignment work out of class will help thelearner work independently and giveyou,the teacher, a way of assessingyour student's motivation.

No Suitable TextbroksIf there are no suitable textbooks, the materials coveredshould relate to the learner'sprofessional interests and needs. Thisstrategy also gives you an opportunity to use yourstudent as an informant on projects and decision-makingprocesses with the bureaucracy,and can help you be more effective in working inyour office. Where possible, set up"real" communicative situations. Your studentcan write in English to agencies outside ofthe country for publications of professional interest.

In some cases your students may tellyou during your assessment of their needs that theysimply want to learn some conversational English fora vacation in the U.S. or U.K. Tomeet the needs of these students try to imagine the situations in whichthey will need tospeak English--at a hotel, in a restaurant, at an airport. Set up some role plays and buildup some dialogues, for instance between a receptionist andsome newly-arrived guests.Your students will enjoy working withyou when they see that you are meeting their needs,and the lack of textbooks will not bea constraint on their learning.

SUMMARY

This chapter outlines who tc ask and whatto ask in a needs assessment.

This chapter suggests solutions to the problems insidethe school system, such aslarge multilevel classesinsufficient numbers of textbooksstrict adherence to the curriculumlimited hours for English instructionspecial needs of students

This chapter suggests solutions to the problems outside theschool system, such asindividual classesno suitable textbooks

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SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING

Techniques and Principles inLanguage TeachingDiane Larsen-FreemanOxford University Press, 1986This book is both practical and user friendly. The author visitedclassrooms in which avariety of techniques are used. Methods are described in an objective way. Thedescriptions will giveyou ideas on how you can adapt methodsto suit the needs of yoursituation.

Approaches and Methods in LanguageTeachingJack C. Richards and TheodoreS. RodgersCambridge University Press, 1986This book is academic in itsapproach. If you would like to know more about the theoryunderpinning different approaches and methods, you will find this book helpful andinteresting.

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CHAPTER TWO

WORKING WITH A VARIETY OFAPPROACHES

This chapter examines the diversityfound in language teaching today,lookingat three traditional approaches to language teaching, four communicativeapproaches, and three innovativeapproaches. Each approach is discussedin terms of its background, distinguishing features, and the impact onVolunteers' classrooms and English language teaching.

Think back to your own language learning days. Didyou ever have a teacher who forcedeveryone to learn in the same way? Were allthe students equally happy with thatclass?Probably not. The chancesare that a teacher who showed no flexibility andappreciationof variety in learning stylewas not very motivating or successful.

"There is no single acceptableway to go about teaching language today." Thisquote fromDiane Larsen-Freeman's writingson language teaching methodologysums up a major trendaway from unity to diversity. There has been a growing realization thatpeople learn indifferent ways, and that approaches which suit one person may not suit another. Forexample, some outgoing personalities love to experiment and can hardly wait for thechance to try speaking the new language. Others, more reserved, prefer to listen andunderstand before speaking. Somepeople find that studying the grammar is an importantstep for them in establishinga framework for their language learning. Othersnever studythe rules, but find that puttingthemselves in situations where they haveto communicateis enough to trigger their learning.

Against this backdrop, teachers of English have concluded that no single approach ormethod is appropriate for all learningstyles. A good lesson will therefore beone in whichyou use a smorgasbord of activities taken from a variety of sources. By varying yourtechnique, you will give students of allstyles the chance to shine some of thetime. Withthis thought in mind,you can begin to appraise the language learningapproaches used inthe country in which you serve. Each approach has somethingto offer. Your task is toidentify and exploit those elements.

As you become more familiarwith your job you will find thatyou learn to trust yourinstincts and your ability to judge when to switch techniques. At firstyou may need toread about methods and approaches,and you should look for opportunities to talk toexperienced teachers about what they think of different methods. Then,gradually as youget to know your students, you will find that you can sense when a class is tired, orconfused, or in need of quiet time, or particularly interested. And you Al find thatyouknow when to dip into your repertoire of approaches, games and exercisesto find theappropriate activity which suits the moodof your students and whichensures they get thebest out of every lesson.

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The: terms "method" and "approach" willbe used interchangeably in this chapter. Forexample, the chapter refers to the AudiolingualMethod and the Communicative Approach.A number of differentways of distinguishing between methods and approaches have beenproposed by experts in the field but the distinctionsusually blur. Both deal with theoryof the nature of language and language learning;with syllabus, learning and teachingactivities, learner and teacher roles, and instructional materials; and with classroomtechniques, practices, and behaviors.

This chapter examines ten different approaches or methods, and identifies the choicesoffered by each of these ten. The approachesor methods are divided into:

Traditional language teachingGrammar Translation MethodDirect MethodAudiolingual Method

Communicative language teachingCommunicative ApproachTotal Physical ResponseNatural ApproachCompetency-Based Approach

Innovative language teachingSilent WayCommunity Language LearningSuggestopedia

In this chapter the commentson each of the ten approaches or methods are divided intothree parts. First, comes the section on background. Thissection gives a short history ofeach method and will giveyou an idea of the developments in English language teachingover the past fifty years. Second, the section on distinguishing features highlightsthespecial features of each method and approach. Third,the section on the impact on yourclassroom and your teaching concentrateson ideas in each method which may be helpfulto you. This section owes much to conversationswith TEFL Volunteers like yourself.These Volunteers, having faced initial hesitations about which method to use, havesuggested the positive and practicalways in which you can judge the benefits and impactdifferent methods will haveon your English lessons.

TRADITIONAL LANGUAGE TEACHING

The Grammar Translation Method, the Direct Method,and the f diolingutil Method havebeen included not to give you a history of language teaching,but because they still stronglyinfluence English instruction inmany parts of the world. You will doubtless comeacrosseducationalists, now in decision-making positions, whohave successfully learned Englishusing one of these approaches. And their thinkingon language learning is likely to be

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influenced by their experience. Belittlingthese approaches as counter-communicativeorout of date may arouse their suspicion ofyour abilities as a teacher and may diminishyourability to eventually bring about change.

Those of you teaching Englishas a secondary project may find that your older studentswant to use the approach they knew at school. Dismissingthis attachment will riot helpyou develop the productive relationshipyou want to establish with your adult students. Afundamental principle in teaching is moving fromthe known to the unknown. In this case,it means taking into account your students' previous experience and usingsome of theactivities from methodologies they feel comfortable with, at least in the initialstages.

Many countries have limited funds for buying textbooks. Consequently you may findyourself working from a syllabus based on a twenty-five year old textbook which reflectsonly one approach. As newcomersyour role is a delicate one. On the one hand,you donot want to offend with your criticisms, buton the other, you do not want to lose sight ofyour goal to transfer to your colleagues your technical skills andyour innovative ideas. Agood strategy to follow in the openingstages of your service is to be seenas covering thesyllabus, using some of the activities from the prescribed methodology. Onceyou haveestablished with your colleagues and students that you respect the traditions and goodpoints of the system, you may be more successful in winning their confidence and inbringing about changes which lead to the use of other more effective teaching methods.

Grammar Translation Method

BackgroundThe Grammar Translation Method looksupon language learning as an intellectual activity.Until twenty years ago, this methodwas commonly used in Europe to teach Latin inschools. Those countries which were closely associated with Britain or France sometimesstill bear the traces of this association in the use of modified forms of GrammarTranslation in language classrooms.

Distinguishing FeaturesIn a typical Grammar Translation classthe main focus is on reading and writing, withlittleattention being given to speakingor listening. The central text for each lesson is literary.Passages are selected from authors suchas Mark Twain, George Orwell, Charles Dickens,or modern writers such as Chinua Achebe and V.S. Naipaul.These passages are read andthen comprehension questions are asked and answered, first orally, then in writing.Grammar is taught deductively, throughpresentation and study of the rules, followedbypractice through translations and exercises. Vocabulary selection is based on the readingtext used. Words are taught through bilingual listsand memorization. Studentsare oftenasked to write the new words ina sentence.

Impact on I ,ar Classroom and YourTeachingMany of your students will be used to and may expect Grammar Translation activities.Memorization particularlymay be considered a valued teaching tool, especially in societieswhere oral traditions are strong,or where periods of study in Koranic or Buddhist schools

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are the norm. In the United States, where the emphasis is placed on understandingconcepts rather than memorizing texts, the roleof memorization tends to be downgraded.However memorization doesnot exclude understanding, and as a teacher oflanguages itbehooves you to play to your students' strengths. If the syllabus followed inyour schoolincludes literary texts andyou have presented a poem, explored its ideas andare satisfiedthat your students understandthem, then asking your students to learn thepoem is a goodway to reinforce learning and one that your students will be used to.

Your students may also be used to the style of teacher-student interactiongenerated bythe Grammar Translation Method. In this method the teacher initiates interactim andthere are seldom any student-to-student exchanges. The role of the teacher is atraditionally authoritarian one and the role of the student is to obey. Suddenchanges tothis dynamic can result in near chaos, so any alteration you want to make shouldbecarried out cautiously. You may want to ask your supervisor if you can sit inon a fewlessons given by your colleagues. Observingother teachers can give youan idea of the sortof student-teacher relationshipwhich exists in your school andcan give you the parametersof a model to follow.

Direct Method

BackgroundThe Direct Method developed in thenineteenth century as educationalists attemptedtobuild a language learning methodologyaround their observations of childlanguage learning.These educationalists argued that a foreign language could be taught without translationor use of the lear..er's native tongue. The DirectMethod therefore insists on thinking andcommunicating directly in the target language and does not allow translation. TheBerlitzSchool of Languages is the bestknown proponent of this method.

Distinguishing FeaturesThe four language skills are taught from the beginning, buta special emphasis is placedon speaking. Classes often start with the readingaloud of a specially graded text whichintroduces the lesson's vocabulary and grammatical structure. Practice follows withexercises such as guided conversation,where the teacher asks questionson the text and thestudents answer using full sentences. Students will then ask each othersimilar questions.Other practice exercises include filling-in-the-blanks, dictation, controlledcomposition orlistening comprehension exercises. Grammar is taught inductively, that isto say, languagepatterns are presented and practiced, but therules are not explicitly given. TheDirectMethod teacher uses mime, demotration, realia, and visual aids to help studentsunderstand grammar and vocabular,

Impact on Your Classroom and Yo-irTeachingThe "No Translation" rule can become an issue. Teachers complain that it is sometimestime consuming to mime vocabulary,when a simple translation would do. And somewords are difficult to mime. Studentsbecome frustrated when some members of theclassdo not understand the teacher'sexplanations and when the whole class isheld up until themeaning becomes clear to all.

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While monitoring carefully theamount of your students' native languageyou use in class,you should use your common sense in this questionof translation. If you judge thatyourstudents are not getting the point,or the meaning of a particular word, ifyou think thatyour lesson is straying from its objectives, and ifyou know the word in your students'language, then give a translation andget on with your lesson.

Many of the textbooks basedon the Direct Method, most of whichare by now quite dated,were written for Western school children. Thiscan be problematic since the method isheavily dependent on the text, andthe texts are not guaranteed to be culturallyaccessible.A textbook used in FrancophoneAfrica describes children having cornflakesfor breakfast,putting on their Wellington boots becauseit is raining, and catchinga doubledecker busto go to school. It is not difficult to transfer this lesson into a cultural context thatyourstudents will understand, but it isan additional barrier for your students toovercome. Andyour role in this process will be to provide thenecessary cultural translation.

Audio lingual Method (ALM)

BackgroundDuring the Second World War, army programs were set up to teach American militarypersonnel languages suchas German, French, Japanese and Tagalog. Strong emphasiswasplaced on aural-oral training. The Audiolingual Method developed from theseprograms.This method was also influenced bybehavioral psychologists who believed that foreignlanguage learning is basically a process of mechanical habit formation.

Distinguishing FeaturesIn the Audio lingual Method, skillsare taught in the natural order of acquisition: listening,speaking, reading and writing. Audio lingualclasses begin with a dialogue which introducesthe lesson's sentence patterns. The students memorize this dialogue, then practicegrammar patterns in drills such as listen and repeat,substitution, chain, and transformation.Accuracy in pronunciation is emphasizedand fostered through minimal pair drillswherestudents learn to differentiate betweensounds such as the vowels in "ship"and "sheep,""hit" and "heat," and "bit" and "beat." Lessons are sequenced according to grammaticalcomplexity. Translation, considered to cause interference from the mothertongue, is notallowed. Learning is tightly controlledby the teacher, who follows the text closely.

Impact on Your Classroom and YourTeachingMany of your students will be familiarwith the type of activities described above. Formost Americans variety and change is an essential part of their learning experience.Therefore, you may sometimes findyourself amazed by your students' staminaand capacityto repeat drills in mantra-like fashionseemingly for hours at a time.

To ensure that mindless chantingdoes not take over, youmay wish to emphasize some ofthe speed and competitiveness promotedby the Audio lingual Method. Some of thegamesreferred to in Chapter Four will helpyour students focus on speedy comprehension, anda judicious use of group work with meaningful tasks will oblige your students todemonstrate that they are thinkingabout what they are saying.

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COMMUNICATIVF LANGUAGE TEACHING

The late 1960s saw a shift in focus from the Audio lingual Method and itsprototypes tocommunicative language teaching. Figure 2.1 shows some of the differences betweenGrammar Translation, the Audio lingualMethod, and Communicative LanguageTeaching.

This shift evolved partly as a result of studies carried out by the Council of Europe,whichbegan to identify the language needed in a variety of social situations by someoneimmigrating to Common Market countries. The studies sought to evaluate howlanguageitself is used--how native speakers ofa language express themselves in various situations.The studies had a major impact on the teaching of English as a foreign language.Teachers and curriculum designers began to look at content, at the kind oflanguageneeded when greeting or shopping. The emphasis on form, on explicitly-learninggrammarrules or practicing grammaticalpatterns, was downplayed in favor ofan approach designedto meet learners' needs when using thelanguage in daily interaction.

There is no single textor authority on communicative language teaching. It isreferred toas an approach that aims to make communicationthe goal of language teaching. Severalmodels have evolved around this principle. This chapter presents the CommunicativeApproach, Total Physical Response, NaturalApproach, and Competency-BasedApproach.As you will see, these approaches overlap. Communicative activities particularly areimpossible to pin down to onlyone approach.

Communicative Approach

BackgroundThe emphasis is placed on using the target language to accomplisha function such ascomplaining, advising, or asking for information. Attention is also paid to the socialcontext in which this function takes place. Forinsiaitce, different language will be usedwhen complaining to a teacher than whencomplaining to a close friend.

Distinguishing FeaturesAll four language skillsare taught from the beginning. In speaking skills the aimis to beunderstood, not to speak like a native. In the sequencing of lessons, priority is given tolearner interests and needs. This is incontrast to a grammar driven method whichmaystart with verb tenses, ane. work through from thepresent simple to the conditionals. Inthe Communicative Approach, ifa learner needs to know how to give advice ("If Iwereyou, I would . . . .") then this conditional is taught. Interaction between speakers andlisteners or readers and writers is at the root of all activities. Chapters Three and Fourgive many examples of the kind of activities to be found in a classroom following theCommunicative Approach. Learners usually work in pairs or groups for role play,information sharing, or problem solving.

Figure 2.2 is an extract from Skills forLearning, written by a team of writers at theUniversity of Malaya. The extract illustrates a problem-solving activity.

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GRAMMARTRANSLATION

AUDIOLINGUIALMETHOD

COMMUNICATIVELANGUAGE TEACHING

GRAMMAR RULES Central feature Not explained Explained whennecessary

MEANINGFULCOMMUNICATION

Not important Limited Central feature

PRONUNCIATION Not considered Target = native -likepronunciation

Target = comprehensiblepronunciation

USE OFTRANSLATION

Central feature Forbidden Used when necessary

SEQUENCINGOF LESSONS

Follows linguisticcomplexity

Follows linguisticcomplexity

Followslearners' needs

TEACHER-STUDENTROLES

Teacher-centered Teacher-centered Teacher facilitatesstudent-to-student interaction

ATTITUDE TOERRORS

Accuracy emphasized Accuracy emphaMzed Errors part oflearning process

BALANCE OFLANGUAGE SKILLS

Reading and writingemphasized

Listening and speakingemphasized

Skills taught according tolearners' needs

Figure 2.1 A Comparison of Distinguishing Features of Three Approaches to Language Teaching

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SUGGEST A SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM

A man needs to cross a winding river. He findstwo planks of about the same length, but neither ofthem is long enough to stretchacross the river.

Suggest a solution to the problem. Expressthesolution in one of these ways:

a. in words onlyb. in the form of a drawingc. in the form of a step-by-step chart

Figure 2.2 From Skills for Learning: Development by a team of writers at theUniversity of Malaya. University of Malaya Press, 1980.

Reprinted by permission.

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Exercises using authentic materials are a hallmark of the Communicative Approach.Authentic materials, such as newspapers or recordings from the radio,are selected so thlearners can practice language in real situations where possible. Here are sonannouncements taken from the classified sectionof an American newspaper.

Garage SP-lesSat. 9-2, rain/shine. Collectibles/sofa/mower/bikes/household items.Great for students. 6838 Floyd Ave.

Firewood, Coal & FuelSeasoned hardwood 1 year old.16-20" length. Delivered anddumped in driveway. 1 cord $125;2 cords $225; 3 cords $325.777-9576.

Child Care/NurseriesLicensed day care provider hasimmed. opening ages 1 mo to 10yrs.Snacks, lunch incl. Academicallyoriented. 221-0094, 7-10am.

These ads can be used as a basis for communicative activities at all levels. For example,at the beginners' level a question and answer exercise could be on numbers. What timeis the garage sale? How much does a cord of wood cost? Would a two-year old beaccepted by the day care provider? At a higher level, the students could guess themeanings of words from thecontext ("shine," "dumped," "driveway," "cord,""snacks"). Orthe advertisements could be usedas a springboard for discussionon topics such as childcare, natural resources, and student accommodation.

impact on Your Classroom and YourTeachingThe Communicative Approach willchallenge your creativity to setup situations in whichyour students can demonstrate theircompetency in the four language skills. Group work

asic to this demonstration. Butyou may face difficulties in the logistics of organizingps. Lack of space, or complaints from other teachersabout the noisy moving of

feature in your first few weeks of askingyour class to divide into groups.onsider all of your options. Canyou work outside? Is it possible to use

ons? Can you set up a reward system to encourage your studentsinto their groups?

isyour grodesks, mightYou will have to cthe library for your lesto move quickly and quietly

You may also encounter resistance to group work from your students. Some ofthe betterstudents may resent having to "share" theirskills and grades. Some of the less motivatedstudents may take the opportunity to do even less work. Your grading policy forgroupwork will have to be spelled out 'nd you will need to monitor thateveryone is contributingto the group effort. You should also leavethe time and the opportunity to earn gradesfor individual work.

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Total Physical Response (TPR) and the Natural Approach

BackgroundTPR is a language teaching method built around thecoordination of speech and action.It attempts to teach language through physical activity. The Natural Approach shareswith TPR an emphasis on exposing the learnerto hearing and understanding the languagebefore requiring the learner to speak.

Distinguishing FeaturesLanguage skills are taught in the natural order of acquisition:listening, speaking, reading,and writing. Both the Natural Approach and TPRfocus on the importance of listeningcomprehension as the basis for language acquisition. Both approaches believe thatlanguage is acquired, not learned. In other words, learners acquirea language through anunconscious process which involves using the language formeaningful communication.Le_.ning, on the other hand, involvesa conscious process which results in knowledgeabout the rules of a language, but not necessarily inan ability to use the language. Thelearner's mother tongue is seldom used. Meaning is madeclear by mime, drawing, etc.Great attention is paid to reducing learner anxiety. TheNatural Approach stresses thatself-confident learners with high motivationare successful learners and that teachers shouldcreate a learning environment which promotes self-confidence.

The sample lesson plan in Chapter Eight containsa TPR activity, where students areasked to demonstrate their understanding by following theteacher's vial commands. ("Goto the board and point to the drawing of Juan's sister.") Actionsequences in response toa series of commands are graded and vary from the simple to the intricate. Afterthe firststage of listening to the teacher, the students will be readyto speak. 'luring the secondstage, individual students take over, directing the teacher and theothci students in partsof or in the whole action sequence. For an example of a intermediate level actionsequence, look at Figure 2.3, giving instructions in how to design boxes.

Impact on Your Classroom and Your TeachingIn both of these approaches, the role of the teacheris to generate comprehensible input.This means that when presentingnew materials you have to be prepared to speak, mime,draw, or use real objects to get your meaningacross. Only when you are satisfied thatyour students understand and are ready to speak do you ask themto do so. Again, thelesson in Chapter Eight contains a Presentationsegment where the teacher talks abouthis/her family before asking the students to talk abouttheir families. In many instancesyour students will be curious about life in the United States, and this comprehensible inputstage provides a way of satisfying that curiosity anda way for you to build a good personalrelationship with your class.

These approaches can be useful and fun, especially whenyou are working with beginners,or with students at a technical or vocational center who only takeone hour of English aweek, or with students whose greatest need is for listeningcomprehension. It is also usefulwhen you lack adequate textbcoks. Very few institutions offercourses which use only TPRor the Natural Approach, but many teachers have commented that comprehension-basedactivities reduce learning stress.

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DESIGNING BOXES

3

Look at the twopaper rectangular

boxes.Unfold each one tolook at the pattern.

On grid paper, drawanother pattern thatwill make one of theboxes.

Cut out yourpattern, and foldit up to make arectangular box.

Look at a paper boxmade with flaps.

Unfold the box andlook at the pattern.

Draw your patternon another piece ofgrid paper, and addflaps to it. Cut itout and try it.

Copy your patternonto poster paperwith carbon paper.

Figure 2.3 From Shifting Gears, Book 1, edited by Patrick Moran.Department of State and Experiment inInternational Living, 1983.Reprinted by permission.

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Competency-Based Approach

BackgroundThe Competency-Based Approach focuseson acquiring life coping skills while developingthe language to perform these skills. This approachis based on theciies of adult learningwhich state that for effective learning to take place,adults need to know that what theyare studying will improve their lives. The approach has been developedand applied inthe United States to help immigrants and refugeeslearn English and life skills at thesametime. It is also used in vocational training.

Distinguishing FeaturesThe learner's needs dominate the Competency-BasedApproach. Language skills andgrammar and vocabulary are sequenced a_ording to the learner's needs. Translation isused only if necessary for communication. Context isused as much as possible to helpthe learner deduce meaning. Authentic materialsare used and the learner is encouragedto practice the language by performing real tasks outside ofthe classroom, such as givinga message to another English speaking teacher. Like the CommunicativeApproach, theCompetency-Based Approach bases its activitieson interaction. Pair work and group workare used to generate communication in activities suchas problem solving and fillinginformation gaps. In one type of information gap exercise, the learner is asked to findsomeone with the same information he or she has. In "Find Your Partners" the teacherhands out eleven pictures to learners and keeps the twelfth.The teacher then describeshis or her picture and asks any learners who think they may have the same picture toraise their hands. The teacher questions those who raise their hands. Through thisprocess of asking questions it will become clear that while all the pictures inthe groupare similar, only one other picture is exactly thesame.

Impact on Your Classroom and Your TeachingThe Competency-Based Approach isa rich source of materials and ideas for those of youteaching English to students in technical colleges, invocational centers, or on the job.The approach is grounded in specific, useful tasks whichcover a wide range of skills aswell as language. Figure 2.4 isan exercise taken from Shifting Gears, one of a series ofbooks written for refugees in Southeast Asia preparingto move to the United States.The practical, life skills orientation of the Competency-BasedApproach is clearly shownin this exercise. Following this example,you could build an English lesson around givinginstructions for your students to followon changing a tire, building a level wall, making achair, or making a flashlight. To conduct these lessonsyou might need to coordinate yourchoice of topic with the teachers giving courses in woodwork, construction, or automaintenance. You may need to prepare yourself, checking with colleagues that yourtechnical instructions are in line with those taught in otherclasses. You will also need toorganize the tools and materials your students wil: reed forthe class.

INNOVATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING

These innovative approaches have been included in thischapter because in your pre-service or in-service language trainingyou may have been taught by language trainers using

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Connect the circuitto the bulb lightsup.

Remove the littlepiece of black wirethat is soldered tothe socket. Strip ared wire. Solder oneend to the emptyterminal on thesocket.

A TEST LIGHT

While the bulb islit, cut the blackwire close to thebulb.

Strip the end ofthe wire you justcut.

Strip a black wire.Join one end to theblack wire attachedto the batteryholder. Cover theconnection with tape.

Touch the objectto be testedwith both wires.Mark the form toshow if the testlight lights or not.

Continue testingother objects on thetable. :fort the in-sulators from theconductors.

Tin the ends of thewires with asoldering iron.

9a

After the form iscompleted, take afew more untestedobjects. Predict ifthey will light thetest light bulb ornot.Test them to see.

Figure 2.4 From Shifting Gears, Book 1, edited by Patrick Moran.Department of State and Experiment in International Living, 1983.

Reprinted by permission.

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the Silent Way, Community Language Learning,or Suggestopedia, and you may have askedyourself which elements of these approaches could be used inyour classes.

Peace Corps Trainees and Volunteers who have learned languagesin these approachestend either to love them or hate them. Regardless of your feelings in the matter, theimportant task here is to examineyour language learning experience and determine whatimplications they may have foryou as a teacher of English. Feedback from Volunteerswho have learned languages using these approaches leadsto the following conclusions;

o No one method is sufficient on its own. Different learning styles haveto be taken into account.

o Consideration should be shown for how learners feel about themselvesas language learners. Negative feelings about the learning process canblock learning. Enhancing a learner's self-confidence leads tosuccessful learning.

o Working together as a group is a vital part of language learning.Group members support each other, and the interaction between themprovides a real need for communication and an opportunity topractice the target language.

These are valuable guidelines whict, you can easily follow in your English languageclassrooms.

The Silent Way

BackgroundIn the Silent Way learners are actively responsible for theirown learning. Learning alanguage is seen not as a process of habit formation,as is advocated by the Audio lingualMethod, but rather a process whereby the learner discovers the rulesof the targetlanguage and then applies those rules to understand anduse the language. In otherwords, learning is more effective if learners discover the rules for themselves, ratherthanjust remembering and repeating what is to be learned. A basic premise ofthe Silent Wayis that the teacher should talk as littleas possible and should encourage the learner tospeak as much as possible. Mistakes are considered part of theprocess of discovering therules, and the teacher should not interfere in thisprocess by correcting the learner'smistakes.

Distinguishing FeaturesAll four language skills are taught from the beginning, though reading and writingaresequenced to follow what has been produced orally. Special charts are used to teachpronunciation. First, there is a sound-color chart, containing blocks of color, eachonerepresenting a sound in the target language. The teacher and students pointto blocks ofcolor on the chart to form syllables, words and sentences. Second, there are the wordcharts, containing words whose letters are color coded in thesame way as the sound-color

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chart. The teacher and studentsmake up sentences, point to wordson the chart and readthe sentences they have spoken. Third, there are color coded chartswhich help studentsassociate the sounds of the languagewith their spelling. For example, "ay,""ea," "ei" and"eigh," which are all different spellings of the sound /ey/ in English,are listed and colorcoded together.

Cuisenaire rods (bits of wood ofvarying lengths and differing colors)are r 2d to introducevocabulary and structures. At the beginning level theycan Le used to teach numbers andcolors ("Take two red rods."). At an intermediate level they can be used to teachcomparatives ("The blue rod isbigger than the red onel. Andat a later stages they canbe used to teach conditionals ("If Ihad a b'.1e one, I would give it to you.").

A Peace Corps Volunteer describes the Silent Way activities with rodsused to teach herThai:

Our teacher put the rods on the table, picked up each rod and toldus thecolor of the rod. She used gestures to show when she wantedone of us togive the word for the color "red"or "blue." If the pronunciation waswrongshe used gestures to getus to repeat the word again. Everyone in thegrouphelped, offering his or her version untilour teacher gestured that someonehad the right version. When we had learned the colors, she used thesamemethod with the rods to teach us the numbers. She purl two rodson thetable, said the Thai word for "two"and gestured that we should repeat theword. After that she asked, for instance, for three blue rods or four greenrods. We listened and then gave her the rods she asked for. It soundspretty simple, but she could keepus busy for hours with those rods.

Impact on Your Classroom and YourTeachingThe Silent Way is designed to be used with small groups. Its chartsare specially preparedby an organization in New York. Tea..hers us;ng the method usually undergointensivetraining in its techniques and philosophy. Given these facts, what can you take from thismethod to use when teaching classes offorty students? There are some sound pedagogicalprinciples to consider in this method, principles which you can apply in your teaching.First is the idea that what studentsdiscover for themselves is retained and owned in amore permanent and meaningfulway than are materials which have been packagedandonly require students to memorize them. Second is the idea of peer coaching in anoncompetitive environment. Havingpresented the materials, you stand backand let yourstudents experiment with the rulesand generate talk in English. Yoe:i only role during thisgroup work is to make sure that thegroup atmosphere is open to the contributions ofallits members.

Community Language Learning (CLL)

BackgroundIn Community Language Learning, the aim is to involve the learner's wholepersonality.Affective and intellectual well-beingare given equal weight. CLL, draws its insights and

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rationale from couns..ling techniques. The teacheris the counselor who gives assistanceand support to the learners; whoare the clients. The teacher's role is to understand thelearners' fears and vulnerabilitiesas they struggle to master another language. By beingsensitive to the learners' fears, the teachercan turn the negative energy of those fears intopositive energy and enthusiasm for learning. The relationshipsbetween the teacher andlearner and between the learners themselves, therefore,take on great importance.

Distinguishing FeaturesThe focus is initially on listening and speaking. Grammar rules are explained andtranslations are used when necessary to give learnersa sense of security and control overthe situation. The syllabus and materialsare designed mostly by the learners. A typicalCLL class goes as follows: The learners forma small circle. A learner whispers, in his orher native language, what he or she wants to say to the teacher. The teacher translates,and the learner repeats the teacher's translation. Thelearner's repetition is recordedona tape recorder. This process is repeated with other learners in thegroup, until an entiregroup discussion, in the target language, has been recorded. This conversation is thentranscribed and the teacher and learners discussthe transcription. Here, for instance, theteacher will point out that in French the adjectivecomes after the noun, and takes asingular or plural form. The group members then talk about how they have felt abouttheir lesson.

Impact on Your Classroom and Your TeachingLike the Silent Way, CLL is a method which works best in small groups end whichrequires special training for its teachers. But, also like the Silent Way, this methodcontains useful principles which you can easily implement in your lessons. First, CLLadvocates that the teacher should acknowledge thestress and fears which can be found ina larguage learning classroom. You can lower the stress inyour lessons by making yourexpectations and goals clear, by coachingyour students in examination strategies and byproviding lively activities which make learning fun. Second,CLL encourages learners toproduce their own materials. By helpingyour students to write short st.)ries which arethen published in the school magazine, organizing themto write and act plays or skits, anddeveloping project work, you will accomplish two goals: you will give your studentsa senseof ownership and pride and you will sidestep the problemof trying to teach with few orinadequate textbooks.

Suggestopedia

BackgroundThe founder of Suggestopedia, Georgi Lozanov,believes that language learning can bemade more efficient if the psychological barriersto learning are lowered. He believes thatlearners raise these barriers and limit themselvesbecause of a fear of failure. In order tomake better use of learners' capabilities, Lozanov has developed a Frocess of"desuggestion," which he has appliedto language learning. This process is designed topromote a relaxed frame of mind and to convert learners' fears intopositive energy anenthusiasm for language learning.

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Distinguishing FeaturesIn Suggestopedia, great attentionis paid to th,_t environment. Theseating is as comfortableas possible, the lighting is not harsh, and musicplays in the background. Colorfulpostersand charts are pinned to the wall. The posters show attractive sights in the targetlanguage country. The charts containgrammatical information which, incasual readings,the students will absorb withoutconscious effort. The Suggestopedia teacher's tone isalways calm as students are reassured that language learning iseasy and fun. At thebeginning of the lesson, the teacherbriefly presents the vocabulary andgrammar. The textfor the day is given to the students;in the left column the text is in the target language;in the right column it is in the students'mother tongue. The teacher readsthe text, whilemusic plays in the background. The students relax, close their eyes and listen. Forhomework, the students are asked to read the text just before goingto bed and on gettingup in the morning. The teacher leads theclass in role play, question and answer, andother activities basedon the text. During these activities, studentsare invited to use theirimaginations and to take on new names and new personalities in the target language.They are encouraged to visualizethemselves as successful people intheir new identities,with exciting jobs and a good standing in the community.

Impact on Your Classroom andYour TeachingOne of the main principles ofSuggestopedia is that the learners' environment has apowerful impact on their learning. This principle raises interesting questions for you.When you first visited your school you might have beenvery conscious that the barenessof classroom walls contrasted strongly with your memories of Americanschools, wheretypically the wally are filled with pictures, collages, and examples ofstudents' work. Butmaybe by now you are used to the bareness of the walls. Thenext time you walk intoyour school, try to look at it withnew eyes. Are you passing up the chanceto visuallystimulate your students? Canyou get posters of the United States from the USISoffice?Could your family send you pictures of someode like Bruce Springsteenor MichaelJackson? Do you have artists in your classes who could illustrate the writingsof theirclassmates? And could you make charts encapsulating the grammar points you haverecently presented?

If you are working in a culture wherepeople normally siton the floor at home, considerbringing in mats to your nextstory telling class and asking your classto settle themselvescomfortably on the floor to listen. You may also want to bringyour tape recorder to theclass and to play music in the background. These features of Suggestopediaare easy toimitate, and by introducing them intoyour classroom you will add enjoyment and noveltyto your lessons.

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SUGGESTIONS FOR USING SELECTED LANGUAGETEACHING TECHNIQUES

Grammar Translation Method and Audio lingualMethodIf your students feel that they must know the rulefor a certain feature ofgrammar,try this adaptation of the Grammar Translation and AudiolingualMethods. Tellyour students that they are going to discover the rules themselves. Thenhave themwork through a set of audiolingual pattern drills whichillustrate the feature. Afterthey have done the drills, ask for volunteersto try to state the rule. If they havetrouble expressing the rule, ask leading questionsto guide them.

Direct Method and Audiciingual MethodConversations, dialogues, or short narrativescan be used to exercise the students'ability to guess meaning from context. Askyour students to listen for one or twospe_ific words, play a tape recording ofa short passage (two to three minutes atmost), and ask for guesses about the meaning ofthe words. Have your studentsjustify their guesses by telling what clues theyused. Conversations and dialoguesare also an excellent way to practice conversational formulas suchas greetings andleavetakings, simple requests, invitations, apologies, compliments,and the like. Suchmaterials are particularly useful inone-on-one tutoring situations.

Communicative ApproachesOne of the distinguishing features of the varioustypes of communicative languageteaching is that they emphasize the use of language in realistic ways. As you goabout your daily routines, be on the alert forways in which you use English to carryout simple tasks: for example, taking a phonemessage for a friend, or interpretingfor someone who speaks English but doesn't knowthe local language. Adapt thesetasks for classroom activities which will motivateyour students and allow them todemonstrate their use of English in real life tasks.

Total Physical ResponseYou can introduce new vocabulary to students usingthis method. It is especiallyeffective with young learners but also useful inaction sequences with adults. Forexample, any time you teach directions, haveyour students act them out, both withand without repetition of the directions. This will improveboth comprehension andretention. TPR activities are also a goodway to break up a session in whichstudents have been sitting a long time.

Natural ApproachBorrow some techniques from the Natural Approach forthe teaching of vocabulary.Decide on key vocabulary terms to be taught during thepresentation phase of thelesson and plan how you will putacross the meaning of each of the words. Is it averb whose meaning you can act out? Can you show a picture to illustratei lemeaning? (Many teachers accumulate files of picturesspecifically for this purpcse.)Can you use stick figures drawnon the blackboard? Can you contrast or comparethe meaning of the new word to that of words whih the students already know?

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Competency-Based ApproachTo help your students see how much they are learning, introduce real tasksorcompetencies and ask them to complete these. Forexample, see if they can reada bus schedule and choose the best bus to take. Have them order a piece ofequipment from a catalogue.

Silent WayAdapt techniques from the Silent Way for teachingpronunciation and basic literacyskills. If there is no sound-color chart available,make your own. Ask students topronounce key words o to repeat sentences from the words thatyou or one of yourstudents points to.

Community Language LearningIf you want to encourage more of a team spirit in your class, you can borrowsomeof the activities from Community LanguageLearning. These will also promote realconversation.

SuggestopediaSuggestopedia techniques can be used to lower the anxieties of your students andto increase their ability to be ready to take in language,especially vocabulary. Youmight also try such a session during reviewbefore exam time to show learners howmuch they actually know.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURT1IER READING

See the end of Chapter One forcomments about these references.

Techniques and Principles in Language TeachingDiane Larsen-FreemanOxford University Press1986

Approaches and Methods in Language TeachingJack C. Richards and Theodore S. RodgersCambridge University Press1986

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CHAPTER THREE

TEACHING SPEAKING

This chapter looks at overlapping oflanguage skills in a CommunicativeApproach addressing the wholeperson. It discusses the role of speaking inlanguage learning and the qualities promotedby spoken interactive exercises.Practical solutions to overcoming the obstacles to implementing spokencommunicative activities are also outlined. The final section discusses therole of pronunciation in a CommunicativeApproach.

OVERLAPPING SKILLS AND MEANINGFULCOMMUNICATION

In your TEFL training, you may have been taught about the four language skills--reading,writing, listening, speaking--asseparate items. But as might have occurred toyou then, andmust be obvious to you now that you are actually teaching, these four skills do notseparate out into four neat segments. They overlap.They flow in and out of each other.You may emphasize speaking ina particular activity, but at the same timeyou will alsorequire your stu ' -nts to listen, and maybe to read and write. The tidy distinctions ofTEFL training may be useful forpackaging information. In the classroom,however, whereyou put that information to work, you will discoverthat language teaching, like life, isconsiderably more messy than just readingbooks would lead you to believe.

If you are teaching in an interactivemode, to this overlapping of the four skillsis addedthe richness and complication of meaningfulcommunication. In Chapter Twoyou readabout the traditional approaches to language teaching (Grammar Translation, DirectMethod, Audiolingual Method), which attempt to manage the language learningprocessby emphasizing a controlled, measuredpracticing of language items, with the teacherverymuch in charge. WIL:n you use a Communicative Appcoach, on the other hand,emphasizing language learning as interaction, elements of unpredictability naturally ariseas the teacher opens the lesson to meaningful communicationrather than focusing onpractice of a grammar rule.

A group of Volunteers from Honduraswere talking about the reality gap between whatstudents were practicing in English classand what real communication would havecovered.One Volunteer spoke ofa class she had been giving in which shewas teaching the presentsimple tense, with "I eat my breakfast at 7 o'clock" as her base sentence. As shewasdrilling the class, she noticed that despitethe correctness of their responses, her studentsall sounded mecha "iically sing-song. Thetruth dawned on the Volunteer. "Howmany ofyou really had breakfast today?" she asked. Less thanhalf had eaten that morning. The

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Volunteer did not waste time berating herselffor her insensitivity. Instead she beganorganizing a program of school breakfasts. And she learned to let the students' real lifeinto the English lesson. As she said, 'TheirEnglish was often incorrect. But those kidstalked non-stop for a year. They talked about themselves and their lives inthe barrio.They translated jokes that never worked in English, and they didn't,:are. Neither did I.They were having fun, in Englishand in IT, class. And it was real."

SPEAKING TO THE WHOLE PERSON

Working in an interactive mode means giving your students the opportunity to talk aboutthemselves in personally relevantways. In doing tnis you will be adding a new dimensionto the language learning process. You will be moving beyond the intellectual andappealing to the emotions as well. Whether your students are adults, adolescents,orchildren, they will all respond toyour interest in them. But working with the dimensionof feelings has constraints.

First of all yt,- must feel comfortable intalking about feelings and opinions.

Second, you must check thatyour students also feel comfortable in sharing their feelingsand opinions. Some cultures donot consider it appropriae to talk about oneself,or toshare deeply held values with those whoare not members of the immediate family.

Third, you must create a classroom environment which is accepting and non-judgmental.To achiv we this you should take on the role of an impartial facilitator: one who listensand acknowledges, but who does not imposeviews. If you expect students to trust you bytalking about matters whichare important to them, then you must show thatyou respecttheir right to express their opinions,even if you eo not agree ith them. It should alsobe acknowledged that your students have certain rights. Th,:y may opt out of certaindiscussions, and should not be forced to speak; they should be heard and respected; andthey should extend the same courtesyto their classmates.

Fourth, the overall focus on feelings and opinions in discussions and activities should beconstructive. This is not to say that you should deny expressions of negative feelings.Many of your students may be living in difficult conditions. Their problemsare -al andshould not be avoided. But while allowing time for consideration ofthe negative, youshould also be prepared to move in positive directions. You can do this by askingquestions such as "What doyou !- about yourself and your life?", rather than asking thekind of questions which focus on What do you not like about yourself and your life?"

Interactive speaking activities which revolvearound your students' feelings and opinionscan be used at almost any time. But there are particular moments when areespecially useful. Tension builds up before examinations, making teaching difficutt andyour students nervous. The following exercise need take only 10minutes of your lesson;nevertheless, it can enhance your students' self-confidence.

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1. Divide the class into groups of three (studentsA, B, and C).

2. Student A turns his back and students B and Ctalk about the goodqualities of student A as a language learner. For example: "He wasvery funny in the role play last week. He played the part ofthe oldman very well." or "I know that she spends 30 minutesa night onher English homework. And she was the only one to get goodgrades on the doze exercise."or "He's not afraid to speak English.Remember how last week we were all afraid toanswer the questionon shopping, and he was the only one to try."

3. After students B and C have finished talking,Student B turns herback and students A and C talk :Abouther.

4. And finally it is the turn of student C to listento the positive, specificcomments of students A and B.

Note: Since the purpose of this exercise isto build confidence, not English language skills,you may want to give students at beginners' levels of Englishthe option of using theirnative language.

THE ROLE OF SPEAKING IN LANGUAGELEARNING

Ask yourself, what is the role of interactivespeaking in my lessons? What dc Iwant mystudents to be able to do in interactive speakingactivities? You may well come up witha list which includes the following goals for your students:

o participationo interactiono fluencyo confidenceo communication strategies

ParticipationMost of your students will participate inyour English lessons if you select activities whichinvolve them. However, a word of warning: some students may resist your efforts toinvolve them. They may be used to drills, whichdo not require much thought beyondamechanical manipulation of the language, and theymay be suspicious of your efforts tochange their level of involvement. But thereare ways of loosening up your students. Todo so you need to make your classes fun, but also to underline the benefits ofyourapproach. Make sure that your students understandyou are coverin2, the school curriculumand you are serious about your intention to help them succeed in learning English.Introduce interactive speaking activities with issuesand topics which are personal, but alsolight-hearted. It takes time to build up trust in a classroom. Start out with activities likethe following one called "The Route to School," which is suitable for beginning levelclasses.

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1. Bring to class a large map of the city, town, or village in whichyouare teaching. Pin the map to the wall.

2. Ask a student what time she started her trip to school and whattime she arrived. Ask her totrace her route on the map.

3. On the black board construct a chart with columns in which torecord starting point and time,route, arrival time at school, and totaltime of the journey. Fill in the relevant information givento you byyour student. Your chart will look like this:

Starting point Starting Route Arrival TotalTime Time Time

Kwala market 7:00 Past market, 7:20 20 minutesleft by shops,up hill to school

4. Divide your class into groups of five to seven. Ask each group toproduce a chart with information from the group on the route toschool.

5. Ask each group to draw a map and to indicate on the map theroute to school taken by eachone of the group members.

InteractionInteraction can be stimulated ifyou give your students the opportunity to talkto eachother about what is important to them. Asyou know, if you are working with adolescents,the teen years are often markedby an unevenness of mood, by dramaticswings in energylevels, by immense physical and mentalchanges. One way of helping adolescentsto copeis to create opportunities for themto speak out and to be heard. The followingactivityis simple but therapeutic. It requires from your studentsa willingness to scare a little ofthemselves and gives them the opportunityto think about the values which guidetheirlives.

1. Ask your students to bring to class three objects which aresignificant or important to them. (Forexample, a religious object,a stone from a significant place, a photo, a letter, an article ofclothing worn on a special occasion.)

2. Divide the class into groups of four, and ask them to take turns inexplaining to the group the significanceor importance of the objectseach one has brought.

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3. With the class as a whole, list on the board the names of theobjects brought to the class. if you have objects of yourown, addthem to the list, too. Then ask studentsif they would like to askother students about the significanceor importance of the objectthey brought. If several students have broughtthe same object askthem to talk about the object, tosee if they had different reasonsfor bringing the same item to class.

[Adapted from Patricia A. Richard-Amato. MakingIt Happen. LongmanInc., 1988.]

This exercise has been presented as a clas., activity for adolescents, but clearly it could beadapted and used in a tutorial situation withan adult as well.

FluencyIn the communicative approach, fluency takessome priority over accuracy. Basically, beingfluent means being able to keep the language coming. Theremay be mistakes, filers andrepetitions, but there are no unusually long pauses in the flow of talk. In interactivespeaking activities you are trying to get your students to communicate theirown ideas,opinions and wishes. They are fully aware of the meaning they wish toconvey, but theexact content of their message is unpredictable, andyou, the teacher, cannot give them theexact language they need to communicate. Asa result your students will not always beaccurate in their use of the language, but this isnot important, so long as the speakersareable to be understood. This emphasison fluency implies two things.

First, your error correction policy shouldreflect this emphasis. Particularly in speaking,itis important that you should encourage the risk takers. This is often a simplepre;ess oflistening to what is said and giving feedbackon the message, rather than interrupting tocorrect pronunciation or grammar. This isnot to say that errors should not be corrected,but interactive speaking activities isnot the place to do so. You should, however, keepnotes of persistent problems and set aside timeto deal with them later.

Second, the activities you present shouldpromote fluency. You want to find ways ofstimulating your students so that theywant to speak, and this wanting to speakovercomestheir inhibitions about expressing themselves inEnglish.

"Famous Personalities" is -.n activity thatcan be adapted to beginning, intermediate, oradvanced lev-'s. It requires your students to have opinionsand wishes and to expressthem. The steps in the activityare as follows:

1. Write on the board a list of 20-30 personalities. Ask students toselect from the list six people they would liketo invite to give a talk.Students write their choices in orderon a piece of paper. All thepapers are collected.

2. Go through the papers and mark on the board the number of"invitations" each personality on the list hasreceived. Make a final

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list of the six people the class would like to invite. During thisprocess, cal! on students to explain their choices.

3. Rank the six invitees, again calling on students to explain theirreasons for the ranking.

4. You could also add the step of dividing theclass into groups tocome up with questions they would like to ask their invitees. If youare teaching advanced students, you could then ask themtochoose personalities from the list and to role play thesepersonalities by answering the questions prepared bythe rest of theclass.

[Adapted from Friederike Klippel. Keep Talking. Cambridge UniversityPress, 1984.]

Note: The list of names you give to thestudents is obviously dependent on the culturalbackground and age group of your students. It will be up to you to draw up a list ofpersonalities your students really would liketo talk to.

ConfidenceA common comment from people learninga foreign language is "I hate making a fool ofmyself." Your own language learning experiences in pre-servicetraining probably broughtthe same thought home to you. You feel foolishbecause you are not in control, thewayyou are in your native language, and are reduced toa level of needy dependence whichcan be hard to tolerate. How can you reduce some ofyour students' fear of lookingfoolish and build up their confidence and pleasure in usingEnglish? How can you givethem the confidence to start taking control of themselvesas speakers of English?

In Chapter Two, reference was made to the Natural Approach and Total PhysicalResponse, which emphasize reducing learner anxiety and increasingconfidence by providingcomprehensible input and by not pressuring studentsto talk before they are ready.

A very practical way of putting these two principles intopractice is though storytelling, roleplay and drama. The comprehensible inputcomes fro'n you, telling a story for instance.And while not pressuring your students, especiallyyoltr beginners, to speak before they areready, you can still build in an escalating degree of involvement. Look, for example, at thedegree of student involvement generated in this"Sound Effects" activity, suitable for lowintermediate students.

1. Make sure that your studentsare sitting comfortably. Then tell astory like the one below. (You may want to make up yourownstory and add details to it which will be familiar toyour students.)

Mohammed's parents had to go to the city for the day,so they lefthim in charge of his sister Amal and his twoyoung brothers Naceur

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and Sabri. When it got darkthe children sat aroundthe fire (a) andwaited for their parents to return.

The wind began to blow (b) and it started to rain. (c) They hearda scratching (d) noise at the door. The children gasped (e) andmoved closer together. Maybe it's a lion (f). Maybe it's a snake(g). Maybe it's a wild dog (h). Mohammed could see that hissisterand brother were scared. He switched on the radio to drownthescratching noise. The radio was playing a song (i). He turned theradio up loud (j). He turned it down low (k). But the scratchingnoise continued. Mohammedwent to the door (I) and openedit (m).

There were the family chickenswhich Mohammed had forgotten toshut in the chickencoop for the night. The children sighed(n) withrelief and helped Mohammedput the chickens ;n the coop.

Use as much drama and as many pictures on the board as isnecessary to make sure that everyone understands.

2. Tell the story a second time,this time adding in sound effectswhereindicated by a number in the text. Get your students to help tocreate the noises:a. scrunch a large sheet ofnewspaperb. make hooing noisesc. pat the desk with your fingersd. scratch the desk withyour Mgernailse. gaspf. make a roaring noiseg. make a hissing noiseh. barki. sing a songj. sing loudlyk. sing softlyI. stamp feetm. make a creaking noisen. sigh

3. Tell the story a third time. Thistime leave the sound effects up tothe class.

4. Divide students intogroups and ask them to mime the story andtouse sound effects. If they are ready for it, individuals from eachgroup can tell the story while the rest ofgroup mimes.

5. As groups become more proficient, they can organize the tellingoftheir own stories complete withsound effects.

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[Adapted from Patricia /.,. Richa..1-Amato. Making ItHappen. LongmanInc., 1988.]

Second language students can easily becomeabsorbed in the dramatic playing out of theirown experiences or experiences they can identify with. Through this playing out, theyforget the self-consciousness which inhibits their learning and can build their self-confidence.

Role plays can be another way of building confidence,particularly if you focus on problem-solving situations where students haveto define their own roles and use their judgment todetermine a course of action. This kind of role play is referred to as sociodrama. Theenactment is open ended and centers around a clearly stated conflictwhich is relevant tothe students. The steps are as follows:

1. Introduce the topic of your sociodrama; present thenew vocabularyand structures you think will be helpful to your students'comprehension and ability to participate in the role play. Read astory which identifies a problem, stopping the story at the climax.

2. Discuss the problem with your students. Select the students whodemonstrate a special interest in particular rolesto play those parts.Prepare the other students to listen to the role play andto offeradvice.

3. Ask the selected students to act out the rest of thestory. Thendiscuss reactions with the audience. If plausible alternatives fordealing with the same problems are offered, replay the same dramausing the newly suggested strategies.

Here are sample suggestions for sociodramas:

1. Maria comes home from school all excited. She has been offereda scholarship to go to university. Sne tells her mother, who isupset."You know that I am relying on you to geta job and help with yourbrothers' school fees.""But Mother, this is the chance of a lifetime.""But we are too poor. And we need moneynow. And besides youare a girl.You will get married and then the moneyyou earn will go to yourhusband.""Oh mother . . . ."

2. Nduku has a close friend Rubadiri. They come from the samevillage. They were at the same primary school together and theyarenow at secondary school together. Nduku is doing very well, buthis friend Rubadiri is having trouble keepingup, especially with the

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math. Rubadiri expects Nduku to coach him or even to do hishomework for him, but Nduku isfinding that this is taking so muchtime his own work is suffering. He is becoming angry with hisfriend. What should he do?

Communication StrategiesYour students should be aware of the need to develop two major communicationstrategies: active listening andmanaging a conversation.

Active listening is a good strategy for those students whoshy away from speaking. Andbeing a good listener in Englishconversations will build the confidencenecessary to takinga more active role in communication. Goodlisteners use phrases which encourage thespeaker, such as:"Uh-huh.""Yes.""Of course.""Is that so?"

List These phrases for your students, and give them opportunityto practice them, alongwith the correct body language--thesmile, the nodding of the head,the eye contact. It yourstudents have contact with native speakers of English, encourage them to observe theselistening strategies and to mimic th?, body language when speakingEnglish.

As good non-native listenersof English, your students willalso need the phrases necessaryto ask a speaker for help, repetition,or slower speech. Phrases suchas the following willhelp:"I'm sorry, what was that again?""Would you repeat that please?""Did you say"Could you speak more slowly please?"

Practice in the communication strategies fe' managing a conversation should be woventhroughout your lessons. Everyone uses these strategies when speaking. Yourtask willbe to make your students consc;ous of these strategies and of howmuch they use them intheir native language, and then to help them use these strategies whenspeaking English.There are many basic communicationstrategies, some of which are described below.

Choose the topic of conversation. Where possible. .courage your students to take theinitiative and select the topic ofconversation. By using this generalstrategy your studentswill be more in control, and in talking about a familiar topic,can feel more confident.

Paraphrase. Encourage students to use words they do know to replace wordsthey do not.

Borrow. Borrowingor inventing word from any language in theplace of unknown Englishwords and adjusting the formor prr ,,iation is a particularly usefulstrategy for studentswho can borrow from their knowlt of Spanish or French.

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Gesture. Using gestures to get meaningacross is a simple but most effective strategy.

Ask for feedback. This can be done directly: "Howdo you say ?" or "What doesmean?" Or it can be done indirectly by constantly watchingthe other person's

reactions, or speaking with a rising, questioning intonationto check that what was said wasunderstood. ,

Ask for slower speech. It is often helpful to get native speakersto slow down. Saying"Could you say that again, slowly?" will help.

Reduce. Simplifying, changing, oreven abandoning those parts of speech which are toodifficult to handle is an important skill, especially fora beginner. The longer the sentence,the more complicated the message, and thegreater the danger of nut being understood.Some of your students may come from cultures which place a high value on ornate,complicated expression. Your students needto know that this is not the case in English.In English a high value is placed on clear, straightforward expression and simplicity ofspeech.

An activity whic; can help in the development ofcommunication strategies is "What's ItCalled?" Here are the steps for this activity:

1. Play the role Nf someone who wants to find out certain words inyour students' native language. Use any communication strategiesto ask about a few words,preferably some which your students donot yet know in English. For example: Mime sewing and ask: Whatdo you call the Rile thing you use to do thiL,? It's made of metaland it has a small hole in one end. The other end issharp . Yourstudents should be able to giv 3 you the word "needle" in theirownlanguage. Repeat this den.Jnstration with five other words, forexample: Thimble," "spool," "safety pin," "pin cushion,""zipper."

2. Now it is your students' turn to find out fromyou words they do notknow in English, using the communication strategiesyou havedemonstrated. Write the following cue phraseson the board:"What's that called in English?""What do you call it?""How do you say that in English?"

An example of the kind of exchangeyou are trying to promote is as follows:

Student: My father owns a taxi. It is my job to clean the taxi. On Saturday I noticedsomething -wrong with the taxi. A bitwas missing. A bit near the wheel.What do you can g?

Teacher: A tire? Do you mean the tire had been :,,,len?Student: No, not a tire. It's made of metal. It goes over the tire. (3tudent gestures.)Teacher: The fender? That's part of the car's body, itcomes over tl t wheels.Student: No, it isn't part of the body. It's very bright. You can see your face in it.

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You have to take it off (Student gestures, as if he has a crow bar in hishand) when you change the tire.Teacher: Oh, you mean a hub cap. (Teacher writes wordson board.)

3. Divide the class into teams, with four to seven students in eachteam. Take one representative from each team and ask theserepresentatives to come to the frontof the class facing everyone.Write 25 words on the board (calculate three words per team)where they can be seen by all. Show a picture ofone of the wordson the board to the class, but not to theteam representatives. Giveteam A three minutes in whichto use communication strategies todescribe the picture to theirteam representative. The representativemay ask questions and has to correctly identify the objectdescribed. If this has not been done bythe time three minutes isup, the team does not score. It is then the turn of teamB, and soon.

OVERCOMING OBSTACLES TO IMPLEMENTING SPOKEN COMMUNICATIVEACTIVITIES

The most commonly cited obstacles facingteachers e interactive speaking are:

o restriction of the classroomo limited practice timeo learner anxiety

Restriction of the OassroomTraditional classroom seating arrangements often work againstyou in your interactiveteaching of English. The flexibilityof the seating arrangements wouldbe a good point tobring up with your school directoror head of department whenyou make a site visit. Itis sometimes easier to bring about changes at the beginning ofyour teaching when yourdirector may not know what to expect from an American teacher and is willing toaccommodate, particularly on small items such as classroom arrangements. flowever, ifyou share a classroom with other teachersyou must consider their needs and finda seatingplan which is acceptable to them, or which requiresa minimum of rearrangement. Youare aiming for a situation inyour English lessons which permits all studentsto see eachother's faces, you, the teacher, and the blackboard. You also want a situation whk,,hpermits easy transition betweenwhole class, group, and pair work and provides space foryou and your students to move betweendesks for activities such as role plays etc.

In discussing your needs withyour colleagues and your head of department,you may findreference to the following seatingplans helpful (See Figure 3.1.)

Seating Plan A shows a traditional layout which would not needto be rearranged betweenclasses. The Llisadvantage forcommunication practice is thatyour students are listeningto or speaking to the hacks of headsor people sitting behind them.

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x000000000000000000000000000000

Plan A

/

CLASS SEATING PLAN

otPo cb000 o000x

0% o000 0o0

Plan C

X = Student Location0 = Teacher Location

x

O°boo°

Plan B

Fig= 3.1 Adapted from Teacher Training: A Reference ManualPeace Corps Training Manual No. T-45

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Seating Plan B shows a horseshoe. It allows moreeye contact between speakers in whole-class practice, and more central space for role plays.

Seating Plan C shows a group layout. This plan allows foreasy movement between groupsand got, eye contact between listeners and speakersin whole-group work, and it needsno rearrangement for small-group work.

Limited Practice TimeYour goal is to give your students as much opportunityas possible to talk. This meansgroup work. With practice and encouragement from you, your students will quicklybecome accustomed to movingto groups during your lessons. Andyou will probably findthat the physical movement ofbreaking into groups is a refreshing change for youas well.Here are a variety ofways in which you can organizeyour groups:

Buzz groups.. Your students break into small groups, maybe by just turning around, toquickly discuss a problem fora few minutes before reporting their viewsor opinions to thewhole class. By using these buzzgroups regularly, you can buildup a cooperative spiritin your classroom and generate more involvement. Forexample, if you are correcting ahomework exercise in class and sr neone has answered ;ncorrectly, instead ofjust asking"Does anyone know the correct answer?" ask the buzzgroups to cone up with an answer.Your students probably talk among themselves anyway during lessons By developihg abuzz group system you are channelling their energies and creatively controlling theunderlying chat which is a feature of almost all classrooms.

Panels. Selected students siton a panel at the front of the :lass andare questioned by the"audience" made up of therest of the class. These panelscan be a good platform for themore advanced students to show off theirskills. And if you ask the class to center thequestions around, for instliice,a book which the whole class is reading, theless advancedstudents will benefit from hearing the better students talk about characters or plotdevelopment.

Fishbowl. All members of theclass sit in a big circle. In the middleof the circle are fivechairs occupied by students discussing a topic you have given them. Students from theouter circle listen to the debate andmay replace speakers in the inner circle bytappingthem on the shoulder if they feel confident they can present the case better. "A QuotetoLive By" is an activity which workswell with fishbowl groups.

Have your students chose a favorite quotation, or proverb, suchas "Letsleeping dogs lie," or "Ifyou love something, you must set it free."Ask theinner circle to begin the discussionon -accepting or rejecting these quotesas a rule for living. You may need to prepare for this activity byresearching a little on local proverbs or quotations which could bestimulating discussion points.

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Network. The class is divided intogroups which should not have more than ten studentseach. Each group receives a ball of string. Whoever istalking on the topic holds the ballof string. When the speaker has finished h or she passes the ball on to the next speaker,but holds on to the string. In thisway a wpb of string develops, showing who talked themost, and who the least. A word of warning: in teaching speakingskills you are focusingon the outgoing, extroverted students. If at the end of a network sessionyou see that afew students are dominating discussions,you may need to step in and facilitate making surethat the quieter students are tot being constantly interruptedby their more talkativeclassmates.

Onion. The class is divided into two equalgroups. As many chairs as there are studentsare arranged in a double circle, with the chairs in the outer circle facing inwardand thechairs in the inner circle facing outward. Thus each memberof the inner circle sits facinga student in the outer circle. After a few moments of discussion all students inthe outercircle move on one chair and now have a new partner to continue with. If moving fromchair to chair seems too cumbersome, the Oniongroup can be formed without chairs.Students can sit on mats on the floor,or if there is not enough space inside, then moveeveryone outside. Here are some su,ge,,4ions for discussion topicsyou can use with oniongroups:

What has been your ,,est year in school? Why?If you could choose any country in the worldto live in, which one wouldyou choose? WhyiDescribe what you would like to learn to do well.What is nicest thing anyone ever did for you?Do you have any advice you think it would be good forme to hear?

Star. Four to six groups try to find a common view or solution. First, select a topic fordiscussion, such as, "How would you change this school ifyou could?" Each group discussesthe topic then elects a speaker who remains in thegroup but enters into discussion withthe speakers of other groups. The lest of the class listensto the exchange. These stargroups are particularly helpful if you ale Sealing with multilevel classes, since they giveallof your students the cnance to rrticipate at levelsappropriate to their Engli.in languageskills.

Market. All students walk around theroom talking to each other. An activity which workswell for market groups is "Opinion Poll." For this yoi need 4o prepare cards for eachstudent, like the ones shown in Figure 3.2. Students should eachhave their own card, bir.you can prepare the same set of ca ds for groups of five toseven students. When studentshave finished their poll taking they can work in groups to write up the information theyhave gathered.

Opinion Vote. Each student receives voting cards with valuesfrom 1 to 5 (5 = to agreecompletely, 1 = to disagree completely). After the issue,which needs to be phrased as apositive statement, has been discussed fora while, each student votes, and the distributionof different opinions hi tilt- classcan be seen at a glance. Suggestions for issue statementsare:

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Chi Ic'hood is the happiest time ofVa.School grades should be outlawed.Each school should havean elected student body to help in the runningof the school.Most people cheat and are dishonest ifyo t. give them the chance.Arranged marriages are best.

A more detailed discussion of group types is given inthe introduction to Keep Talking byFriederike Klippel.

Learner AnxietyIn teaching speakingyou are asking your students to perform, to speakup in front of theirclassmates. As a result, many of your student's may experience stress during theseactivities. Whether the anxiety isa help or a hindrance often dependson the degree towhich it manifests itself in your students. For example, no anxiety might result in astudent's not caring or putting any effort into speaing English; too much mightblocklearning. But a small amount will bringyour students to an optimal state of alertness.Your role is to monitor this level of anxiety, and while not aiming to eradicate italtogether, to make sure that this level is kept reasonably low. There are varioustechniques you can use to prevent anxiety from taking over.

First, you can provide in your classroom a sort of surrogate "family" which o:ferssupportand the sort of encouragement whichleads to independence and enablesyour students togo out and use English in the real world outside ofthe school compound.

Second, be specific in your feedback. When you praise a student doso around a r:ecisepoint. Empty pro .,e becomes meaninglessvery quickly. But by ,erlining a specific itemthat you know a student has worked hardat, you can offer the meaningful recognitionthatbuilds a student's confidence. An example of this specific praise is: "Well dont Youmanaged that conversation well. Didthe rest of you notice how he was using those `Uh-huhs' to keep his partner talking?"On the other hand, when you correct a student'sEnglish, make sure your explanationsare clt 1r and brief and that you deliver themat anappropriate moment.

Third, while including an element of competitiveness in s- e of ycair activities, you shouldtake care to prevent this competitivenessfrom getting ol., of hand. To balaaceout thewin-lose tendencies, which undoubtedlyexist in your class, makesure that you are includingcooperative activities suchas "Two Heads Are Better Than One."

Divide the class into severalgroups of five to seven and give each studenta number within the group. Dependingupon the number assigned, eachstudenc does one small portion of thegroup's work. For example, ifyourclass is working on a project with theagricult. -e teacher, you could givethe groups several shortpassages, each descriking an important aspectof agriculture. The person who is assigned the number 4in each groupcould be responsible for reading thepassage about fertilizers. The same

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person is then responsible for sharing this information withthe others inthe group. The person assigned the number3 could do the same for apassage describing L'...ekeeping, and so forth.

Basically, maintaining thebalance between cooperation and competitionmeans recognizingthat your students have different learningstyles, and that whereas some like the hurley-burley of racing against the clockor each other, others prefer pacing themselves and workbetter in a quiet environment. You haveto be able to provide opportunities for bothkinds of learning.

PRONUNCIATION

In the Direct Methnd and the Audio lingualMethod, discussed in Chapter Two,a greatdeal of attention is given to achievingnative-like pronunciation. This attention takestheform of drills such as minimal pairs (For example, "ship" - "sheep," "hit" - "heat," etc.)Communicative language teaching, on the other hand, places more emphasis on beingunderstood, rather than being taken fora native speaker of English. This has implicationsfor your classroom. Your ultimate goal has a strong communicative bias, and yourpronunciation teaching be integrated with the rest ofyour English teaching. This canhe done by presenting pronunciation throughtasks that focus on meaningful interactionsbetween students, such as role play, problem solving,and game activities.

There are fly: main steps involved in teachingpronunciation:

1. Identify the areas in which your students are having difficulty in beingunderstood. You will be listening for problems with vowels,consonants, stress, and intonation.

2. Find or write sentences that have a number of natural ccurrences ofthe prol,!em sounds.

3. Develop communicative tasks that incorporate thewords.

4. Develop exercises so that youcan review the problem and providestudents with practice of the target sounds innew contexts.

5. Develop self-monitoring practices inyour students.

Identify problem areasIf 1, ou do not systematically note down problemaim, and simply correct pronunciationproblems as and when they occur, you may end up spending time correcting features whichare not crucial for intelligibility. And you haveno guarantee that these on-the-spot repairsare being systematically absorbed by your students. You begin work on identifyingproblem areas by keeping notes, whichyou will later use as a basis for your pronunciationteaching plan. Tivf. number of problemareas will vary depending on the number of hours

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you have with a class. For a class taking fivehours of English a week, set yourself thegoal of identifying five for each trimester.

Some of these problem areas are predictable. For example,you can easily suppose thatSpanish speakers may have difficulty in differentiating between theconsonants /b/ and /v/("ban" - "van"). French speakers may have difficulty with the vowels /i/and /V, ("beat" -"bit "). Arabic sptakers use Drd order to show strongcontrast, with the relevant word orphrase moved to the beginning of thesentence. As a result, Arabic speakers of Englishmay have difficulty with the use of stressto show contrast. And Thai speakersmay havedifficulty in forming finalconsonant clusters. The consonantsmost often deleted are /r, 1,t/ and /d/, so that "hold"may become "ho."

Find or write sentences that havea natural occurrence of the problem soundsOnce you have identifiedyour target problem areas, begin noting downsentences in whichyou these problems are likely to appear. Look out for examples in the literary ortechnical texts your students may be studying. Comb the grammar exercises at yourdisposal. Listen to yourself or other Volunteerstalking.

If, for example, you have identified the confusion between /I/and In as a problem (ashappens with Bantu and Southeast Asianspeakers of English), you may end up with c listthat includes sentences like this:

Fries carry germs.So much lain last night!Fled wants to see you.The meeting is on Fliday.

By the time , have collected 20 examples of each problem, or instances where theproblem might arise, you will be ready to move on to developing tasks whichallow yourstudents to practice the problem soundsin a communicative context.

Develop communicative tasks that incorporate the problem soundsHere is an example ofa low Lrermediate level communicative task, called'I'm Not Well,"That focuses on the voiceless /th/ sound in English (as in "mouth," "fifth,"and "teeth").

1. Teach tl to names of body parts, makingsure to include teeth, tooth,mouth, thigh, throat, and thumb. Present and write on the boardcue sentences for giving advice, such as "You should II

"Perhaps you'd better ," "You must ," "You ought to

2. Divide your class into pairs. StudentA role plays someone who issick. Student B role pleys a friend who offers advice. Student Areceives a card with a drawing ofa body, with arrows pointing tothe parts that hurt. Student B has to find out what'swrong andoffer appropriate advice. The pairdialogue should develop like this:

-C.

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B: How are you?A: I'm not well.B: What's wrong?A: My throat hurts.B: Perhaps you should see a doctor.

You can develop this r )le play by instructing student Ato resist student B's advice. "'henthe role play is over, and student A hasgone through all tas or net com9laints, ask yourstudents to form new pairs, only this time student B role playsa sick person and studentA gives advice.

Your list of problem are 'is may include misuseof stress. In spoken English a .peakergives a listener information about the importanceof different parts of the message byputting stress on the words which carry the most information. The following exercise,"Headlines," will help your students identify themost important parts of a message, andwill thus give them the clues of which wordsto stress.

1. Bring to class a few examples of headlines. Avoid headlineswhir hconsist of long sequences of words usedas modifiers, such asACCUSEC FELON IN MYSTERY BLAZE. Choose insteadsimpleheadlines such as FIRE KILLS SEVEN, PARENTS ANGRYOVERSCHOOL CLOSURE, and CRIME VICTIMS FIGHT BACK.

2. Present the headlines to the class and ask them what words havebeen left out. Discuss why these words were not important.Contrast reading aloud the headline, whereyou will stress everyword, with reading aloud a full version, where the same words arestressed, but the others are unstressed.

3. Ask your students to write headlines fornews stories and events,and then to expand the headlines and to read them aloudto theclass. In commenting on your students' readings, remindthem ofthe link between importance and stress.

Review the problem sounds and provide students withpractice in new contextsTwo weeks later, you may wantto review the /th/ problem. This timeyou could use anexercise called "Dates," where you will be focusing on the /th/ sound in "Thursday,""montl.," "three," and ordir.als.

1. Divide your class into pairs. Give student A a card containing acalendar, such as the one in Figu. 3.

2. Give student B a card with questions to ask student A,such as:When's the first English test?How many days are there in this month?WhEl's the date of the first Friday of this month?Is the tenth a Friday or a Saturday')

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Figure 3.3 Daces

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When is the school football mat, h?When does the gardening club meet?What's the date of the second Monday?When are you meeting with the librarian?Whe,i is your history homework due?When ao you go to the dentist?

Develop self-monitoring practices inyour studentsIn the beginning stages your studentsare very dependent on you for help in developinganintelligible pronunciation of English. Butas they progress they should become less andless dependent on you. How you correct pronunciation will have implications for thegrowth of your students' self-monitoring practices.

You may find yourself in something ofa dilemma when it comes to correcting yourstudents' pronunciation. Clearlyyou will not want to interrupt a dent who is absorbedin an oral communicative activity. At thesame time, if a student's pronunciation is makingthe message unintelligible, you cannot afford to let the situation continue. Avery simpleway of avoiding disruptive corrections is throughuse the "action replay." If you havea tape recorder, use it while students are involved in roleplay, a debate, or an oralcommunication exercise. At the end of the exercise the recorded students can takethemselves off to a quiet corner and listento themselves and evaluate their own speech.''r, if you do not have a tare recorder, ask the students to repeat the exercise, thistime

aying special attention to their pronunciation,and in particular the problem soundyouhave been working on with your class. If you regularly allow time for these "actionreplays," you will have the benefit of knowingthat you are addressing the problemsyouhave identified, sr z; yon- students will have the opportunity of developing their self-monitoring skills.

The procedures and exercises in this sectionon pror i.nciation have been adapted fromCurrent Perspectives on Pronunciation edited by Joan Morley (Teachers of English toSpeakers of Other Languages, 1987) and TeachingEnglish Pronunciation by JoanneKenworthy (Longman Group Ltd., 1987).

SUMMARY

In developing communicative speaking skills,spe K, to the whole person.

The role of speakint, ill language learning is *o promote:participationinteractionfluencyconfidencecommunication strategies

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Obstacles to the development of communicativespeaking skills include:restriction of the classroomlimited practice timelearner anxiety

Five steps in teaching pronunciationare:identify problem areaswrite sentences where sounds naturallyoccurdevelop communicative tasks that incorporateproblem soundsprovide practice in new contextsdevelop self-monitoring practices

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING

Making it HappenPatricia A. Richard-AmatoLongman Inc., 1988Many of the ideas on interactive teachingand addressing the whole person which youfound in this chapter have also been addressedin this book. Part II, Exploring Methodsand Activities, may be of particular interestto you.

Keep TalkingFriederike KlippelCambridge University Press, 1984This book contains over a hundred games and activities, divided into three sections:Questions and Answers, Discussions andDecisions, and Stories and Scenes. Each activityis accompanied by notes on the objectives, the level, and time and preparation required.

Teaching English PronunciationJoanne KenworthyLongman Group Ltd., 1987This book is part of the Longman Handbooksfor Teachers Series. The aim of this bookis not to produce an ideal Englishpronunciation, but to focus in producing speech thatis easily understood.

What to Do Before the Books Arrive (andAfter)Jean D'Arcy Maculaitis and Mom ScheragaAlemany Press, 1981This is a fun cookbook of easy recipes for activities. As the tilt, suggests this bookcontains helpful advice plusa good dash of encouragement to anyone who hasever facedforty students and wondered howto educate and entertain withoutany textbooks at hand.

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CHAPTER FOUR

TEACHING LISTENING

This chapter discusses the role of listeningin language learning. It focuseson the need for expost.. e to the spoken language andfor meaningful "reallife" interaction between listener and speaker. The resources for teachinglistening comprehensionare discussed: the teacher, other speakers of English,and tapes. The characteristics of goodlistening exercises are explained, andexercises exemplifying these characteristicsare presented.

"The reason why we have two ears and only one mouth is Jo thatwe may listen more andtalk less." This chapter looksat the implications of this quotation from Diogeneson theteaching of listening. How much listeninggoes on in your classroom? Is your classrooma place where listening is consideredan opportunity to learn something useful? Doyouever catch yourself listening for long periods of timeo, kly for your students' mistakes? Ordo you really try to listen to whit they are saying? Are you willingto be changed by whatyou hear your students say? If so, do your students realize the extent of yourreceptiveness? Do your students listento each other? Do you give them activities whichlead to real exchanges of views? Thiskind of listening is a lot different from the listen-and-repeat drills you may have come across in textbooks. This kind of listening involveslistening for real messages.

THE ROLE OF LISTENING IN LANGUAGELEARNING

The majority of Americansare monolingual. But you are slow working ina country wherethe majority of your students may speak two, three, or even four languages. And theydidn't necessarily learn these languagesat school. If you ask them how they learned, theywill probably shrug their shoulders andsay they just picked them up. Ask a littlemoreabout this process of pickingup a language and you will find two common features. One,your students were exposed to the language bypeople who were "'Ling it as theywentabout their daily lives. Two, atsome point your students were required to do somethingwhich necessitated understanding andresponding to meaningful messages in this language.Someone might have shouted at them*n get out of the way, they may have been askedtopay for a bus fare, they may have had to ask theprre,... of food. And though your studentsmay not have understood every word that was saidto them, the context made the meaningperfectly clear.

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ExposureYou are working in a more formal environment, either ina classrooni or giving lessons atsomeone's work place. But this doesnot mean that you should ignore the featuresthatgo into successful informal language learning. Thefirst feature to consider is exposure tothe language. Babies and young children are exposed to massiveamounts of talk in theiracquisition of a language. Thissame concept of listening in the earlystages of languagelearning is central the Natural Approachand Total Physical Response discussedin ChapterTwo. In both these approaches,learners are allowed large blocks of timeto listen beforethey are asked to speak. Learners' brains are allowed to assimilate, store and processaural information with the learnershardly being aware of what is goingon. Think backto your first few days in country. If you didn't know the languagewhich was being spokenall around you, you probably couldn't even tell where one word endedand another began.But after a week or so, v .ile still not understandingmost of what was being said, a hadprobably started to recognize units ofsound as individual words. Your brain , ,d beenregistering, sorting, and classifying thousands of impressions without your realizing it.When teaching English, provide your students with similar opportunities to absorb thesounds of English and to accumulate understanding.

Provide plenty to lister, toWhat this means is that you have to be prepared to include in your lessons segmentswhere you talk a lot to your class. Talk about yourself andyour family; talk about thePeace Corps, its goals and its different programs; tall, about the United States, itseducational system, its demography, its diverse agricultural practices. Obviously you willnot want to abuse your pos:*bn by soundingforth on topics which might embarrassoroffend your students. It would be almost unnatural not to have some complaints andnegative feelings aboutyour host country, but the classroom is not the placefor yc , tovent your feelings.

Lower stressStress can and does block learning. Bymaking sure that your lessons are motivating youcan relieve your students of the stress and boredomthat often blocks learning. A teachercan be very informed, meticulously organized, andprofessionally conscientious, but muchof this counts for nothing ifher lessons are boring or are inappropriately difficult. Yourenergy and the pleasure you take in your job can transform a dull textbook andput lifeinto a c'eadening syllabus, andat the same time lower your students'stress level. Yourplanning and awarenesscan ensure that your classes are pitched to promoteprogress andsuccessful learning for your students.

Let your students' brains work while theyare doing something elsePlaying a cassette of songs with English words while you are working withyour studentson a project not related to English languagelearning gives your studentsexposure to thelanguage. For example, if you have a secondary project running Lae school's homeeconomics club and your studentsare sewing or cooking, play one of your favoritetapes.Without paying attention to the music,your students will almost inadvertently lea-n thewords and intonation of the song as they get on with their other work.

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These ideas are discussed at greater length in an essay "Learningby Listening," by EugeneA. Nida, in the book InnovativeApproaches to Language Teaching,edited by Robert W.Blair.

Meaningful "Real Life" MessagesThe second feature of successful informal language learning to consider is meaningfulmessages. In the first step your students were exposed to the language,but were notnecessarily expected to speak. In this second phase, your students were expected torespond. The people who spoke to your students had a reason for doing so. The cyclistwanted room to pass, the bus conductor wanted a fare, the vendor in the marketgave aprice. The speakers' purposes were clear. The responses expectedof the listeners wereequally clear. Your students had to get out of the way, give the correct fare, or pay forfood. Unfortunately many listening exercises in the classroom do not possess the realityof meaningful messages. The give and take of real lifecommunication is removed fromexercises in which students are asked to "listen and repeat,"or asked to complete listeningexercises without any preparation on the content and situationof the listening passage..In order to promote listening for meaningful messagesyou will need to include aI mberof real life features when developing your listening activities.

MI Id in response timeMany listening exercises are transformed it to memory exercises becausethe. listeners'responses come only after long stretches ofspeech. You can avoid this by requiringshortactive responses occurringduring or between parts of the listeningpassage rather than atthe end. For instanceyou could develop an exercise called "DetectingMistakes," in whichyou tell a short story about the school inwhich you have included some informationalmistakes. Your studentsare required to linen to your story andto raise their hands ifthey hear a mistake, or to mark on a paper the number of mistakesthey hear, and thento check that they have marked downthe correct number of mistakes. Here is an exampleof a "Detecting Mistakes" story.

Yesterday was Tuesday (mistake # 1, it was Wednesday) and I decidedto go and visit my friend Mr.Ngugui, the history teacher (mistake# 2, Mr.Ngugui teaches geography). I walked out of the staff room and turnedright down the corridor past the art room and the science laboratory(mistake # 3, the science laboratoryis in another building). etc.

In an exercise of this sort you should includeapproximately ten informational mistakes.Do not include grammatical mistakes in this exercise. Your only aim is to .-ach yourstudents to listen for information. Your story should not be more than about twelvesentences long.

Allow for the visibility of thespeakerIn real life situations, listeners can usually :iee the ri,ison or people speaking,and thevisual clues offered by the speaker, such as facial expressions andgestures, help thelisteners understand what is beingsaid. The c,cept:,,ns to this visibilitycome when usingthe phone or listening to the radio. If your students do not use English on the phone, ordo not listen to Englishon the radio, then most of the time the speakershoulc: be visible

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in your listening exercises. Only if your students need English for the phoneor radioshould you consider sometimes using recordingsas the basis of an exercise. (For furtherdiscussion on use of tapes, see the section of this chapterwhich deals with resources forlistening comprehension.)

Provick: background cluesClues provide a framework and context fora spoken message. Your students use theseclues unconsciously when theyare talking to each other in their own language. Rememberto provide clues and to help your studentsuse them when they are listening to English.Your clues could be as simple as a picture of the place or thing you are t "-ing about.For instance if your exercise involves talking abouttravelling by bus, you coulu draw thebus and its features, which you bring toyour students' attention. ("It has six wheels. Thisis the driver's seat. Here is theemergency exit. The seats are made of wooden slats. Theluggage is put on top of the bus and strapped down.")

It may seem surprising to think thatyour students need help in using these c1: es, but youmay find that they are not used .o listening for complet:.,.messages in English, and thatthey listen for words in isciation and get stuck andstop listening if they do not understandeach and every word. Pictures and other backgroundc s will provide a framework andhelp them listen globally to the wholemessage. Gradually, as they begin to realize thatyou only wait them to get the gist of what you are sayin;, they will relax andstop worryingabout the words they do not understand, and they will beginto use background clues tounderstand the whole message justas they do in their native language.

You do not need to r,,strict yourself to visualclues either. If your listening passage hassomething to do with a market, then bring to class some of the spices, vegetables, andfruits you would find in a market. Giveyour students the time to smell and feel thoseobjects as they listen to you talk. Not only will theclues help them understand, they willalso help your students to retain any new words they may hear.

Allow for redundanciesIn everyday conversation peopleuse a lot more words than are really necessary to conveytheir messages. They repeat themselves, theyrestart sentences several times over, theycorrect thema.. -., and they use fillers suchas "you see," "I mean," and "well." Theserepetitions, false starts, corrections, and fillersare redundancies. Your students needexperience in identifying and separating thc wain ideasfrom these redundancies, which arepart and parcel of everyone's speech. You would be doingyour students a disservice ifyou only gave them exercises in which the listeningpassage had been cleaned up and nolonger contained redundancies. In the following exercise,adapted from Skills for Learning:Development, students are asked to listen to the teacherand to complete a chart describingthe sources of vitamins and the diseases caused by diets deficientin these vitamins. (SeeFigures 4.1 and 4.2.)

As you will see from the transcript below, the teacheris only casually consulting the listof vitamins and disases. As a result, the listeningpassage is full of redundancies.

6b

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21

.affigramNIAJENiryssz ,umwmilloammemnicannemoriaigNMININIllifilialiii

Listen to your teacher talking aboutsources of vitamins and the diseases whichcan resultfrom not having enough vitamins. As you listen, fill in the chart below.

VITAMIN SOURCE OF VITAMIN DISEASECAUSED BY

LACK OFVITAMIN

1

2.

3.

Figure 4.1 Vitamins: Student Worksheet

VITAMIN SOURCE OF VITAMIN DISEASECAUSED BY

LACK OFVITAMIN

1. A Eggs, dairy food (except butter), liver,vege.able oil Night blindness

2. B1 Yeast (beer and bread), meat- cereals(except polished rice) Beri beri

3. C Vegetables, fruit (especially citrusfruits, e.g. limes, oranges, lemons)

St urvy

Figure 4.2 Vitamins: Completed Exercise67

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OK, right, now first of all for vitamin A you needeggs, dairy foods, well notall dairy foods, butter isn't on the list. What else? Umm, liver, andthere'sone more item. Ah yes, vegetable oil. And if you don't get enoughVitamin A in your diet, you could suffer from night blindness.I don't sayyou will, :DLit you could.

On to the next vitamin, which is--let me see--ahyes, vitamin B1. And youwill find vitamin al in yeast, which weuse to make bread and beer, inmeat, and in cereals. Now of course you already know that polished ricehas lost its yeast. So just remember rnsat, yeast, and cereals, exceptpolished rice. And if you don't get enough 131 to eat you couldi .dyourselves suffering from scurvy. No sorry, I mean beri beri.

Now scurvy is caused by a lack of Vitamin C. Findyc., can make surethat you have vitamin C in your diet by eating a lot of vegetables,veger.lbles of all sorts, and fruit. Now for the fruit, well, all of the fruitsareimportant, but citrus fruits, that means limes,oranges, and lemons, are therichest in vitamin C, which as i just said, is important to include inyour dietif you don't want to get scurvy.

Penny Ur's book Teaching Listening Comprehension offers a lively discussion on thecharacteristics of real life listening and includes exercises to promoteyour students'listening comprehension skills.

RESOURCES FOR TEACHING LISTENING COMPREHENSION

Students have access to three mainresources for practicing listening comprehension: theteacher, other speakers of English, and tapes.

The TeacherYou, as the teacher, are clearly the mc, importantresource. Develop an awareness ofyourself as the primary source of L. iglish foryour students and tailor your wacher talk tomeet their needs. This involves monitoring your vocabulary choice, your sentencestructure, your speed and volume of voice, and your speech characteristics.

Your vocabulary choice should be appropriate. Ask yourself ifyou are choosing wordswhich are too abstract or too slangy. Try recording yourselfas you teach, then listen tothe recording to see if your vocabulary is appropriate. Checkyot.. senttnce struci.are, tAbow for redundancies, but as a general rule of thumb keepto saightfr,r and structures.

Sometimes it may be necc-,sary to slow downyour rate of speech. Be ,treful not to fallinto the trap of making your speecr sound unnatural whenyou slow down. Pause betweenphrases, not after each word. Make sure thatyour pronunciation is distinct and that youproject your voice so that it carries to the back of the class.

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Make your speech characteristics larger than life. Watch any good teacher at work andyou will recognize the performance artist ithcr. Develop this same sense of performancein yourself when you present materials to your class. Donot be afraid to use gestures anddramatization to catch your students' attention and to getyour message across.

Other Speakers of EnglishAnother source of listening comprehension is other speakers ofEnglish. These otherspeakers can help in seve always. First, they will give you7 students thechance to ht-other accents; second, they will offeryou the opportunity to talk aboutaccents and thevalues sometimes placed on them; and third, they can motivateyour students by talkingabout interesting topics.

Inevitably your students will become accustomed to the way you speak. Listening tosomeone else, perhaps not from the UnitedStates, will give them the opportunity toexpand their listening skills. It will develop their confidence and help reduce theirdependence on you. At first they may be disconcertedby the difficulty of listening toanother speaker, but you caa prepare by asking your outside speakerto speak distinctlyand to pause and check comprehension. When you are introducingyour speaker, makesure that you are giving your students timeto take in visual impressions of the speakerandthat you are also givingt. preview of what your studentsmay expect to hear. Set a timelimit on the talk, too, and letyour students know how long the talk will be. This will allowthem to pace themselves.

Some students may ask you about the values placedon different accents. What do nativeEnglish speakers think of British, Australian, or German accents? And more importantly,what is thought of local accents in English? In replying tc, these questions,the. basic pointto remember is that, in communicativelanguage teaching, being understood is the mostimportant criterion for evaluatingaccents, and this comprehensibility is whatyou areteaching towards. But you may need to listen to questions on accent at a deeper level.Be sensitive to your students'anxieties. Language learnersput themselves on the line, andone of their greatest fears is that of being ridiculed. What your students may be seekingfrom yot is reassurance that their locally accented English isno perceived as comical.Therefore, in selecting local speakers of Engli.;h, choose good models,people who aresuccessful in their fields and who can speak we I in public. Yob:- students will happilyidentify witi, someone who handlesthe language well. They mightnot feel comfortablewatching and listening to someone who is not proficient in English and difficult tounderstand.

Calling '1 outside speakers can also provide the opportunity foryour students to learnabout what is going on oeyond the confines of the school community. If you can, look forspeakers among the expatriate businesspeople, or representatives of developmentagencies,or govezninent experts in health, agriculture,road construction. Onceyou start asking, youmay be surprised at the willingness of allsorts of people to come to your school. It youdo'not have access to many outside speakers, ask fellow Volunteersto come and speak.The change of pace and pick-up inenergy levels generated b) a new facenever fails tostimulate a class.

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TapesYour third resource for listening comprehensionis tapes. Unless you are teachinga veryspecialized group of learners such as air traffic controllers or international telephoneoperators, your use of tapes should be carefully limited. In many cases this limitation willhappen naturally. You win not have access to recorders which can be heard by largeclasses, nor to commercially producedtapes suitable for your students. So unlessyourstudents have specific need to be ableto listen to but rot see the speaker, do notworryabout not having tapes. Frequently the use of tapes imposes a eifficult task withinsufficient reward to show fora lot of effort.

However, you may find some use for tapes in a multilevel class. You could give work todo with a tape to the advanced section (preferablyno more than seven students), whileyou work with the rest of the class on another project. If you do not have a commerciallyproduced tape and accompanying textbook,you might consider makin,_ some of yourowntapes. You could give your advancedgroup a tape of a song, such as Paul Simon's YouCan Call Me Al," from his album Grace land,and ask them to write down the words. Youcould record a reading of a story or short passage and ask them to writeanswers toquestions as they listen to the tape. You coulddescribe a scene and ask them to drawapicture of it. This description should include items, colors,and activities which can besimply represented by your students. The goal is to practice listening comprehension,notto test artistic skills. An example of this kindof listening comprehension "aural picture"at a beginning level is as follows:

Uthai gets up very early in the morning, as soon as the neighbors' cockbegins to crow. The sun is not high in the skyand it is still cool. He hasto help his parents in their shop bsfore hegoes to schoo!. His parentssell all sorts of Things- -pots and pans, umbrellas, matches, sugar, shirts,sandals, candy, soap, and batteries. His siste,sweeps the sidewalk, whilehe opera. Ihe shutters. The shutters have recentlybeen painted a brightgreen. The temple is just down the street, and whenthe monks comedown the street in their saffron robes, Uthaitells his brother Tongchai tobring rice to put in the monks' bowls.

At a more advanced level,you could f .w the minilecture model laid out by Joan Morleyin her book Listening and Language Learningin ESL, as shown in the followingexcerpt:

"Seto i Serious" Mini lectures

"Semi-serious" minilectures are intended especially for elementary and low-intermediate students. The purpose is to give students experience withlecture -st' le listening, but on a very simple and very focused subject. Thelecturer t. zs a paragraph of "straight"expository writing (even informationfrom an encyclopedia, almanac,or similar ?ublicatton), and "dresses it up"and delivers it in a true lecture-style format. Thelecturer is especially carefulto use a vary large amount of redundancy--saying thesame thing over sel,e::-altimes with slight rephrasingor changes in phrase structure--in order to use

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alternative but relatively equalways to say the same thing. The lecturer alsouses pauses, strc s, variations in rhythm, and variations in intonationto makethe meaning explicit. In addition the lecturerwrites notes on the board asthe lecture proceeds and draws diagramsor pictures as needed.

Example 1. Weights and Measures ConversionInformation

Directions Listen and write the information about comparativemeasurements and amounts.

Worksheet A Visitor's Guide to U.S. Weights and Measures

1. Length:2. Length3. Weight:4. Weight:5. Liquid:6. Liquid:7. Distance:8. Temperature:

Script Many countries of the world use the metr' jyste m of weightsand measurements. However, the UnitedStates uses quitea different system of weights and measurements. Visitorstothe U.S. often are confused by thenew system they find.The following eight items are the ones that are used themost. The conversion guide for these eightitems is:

In LENGTH: (1) one yard in U.S.measurement is equal to.91 maters, and (2) one inch in U.S. measurement is equalto 2.54 centimeters.

In WEIGHT: (3) one ounce in U.S.measurement is equal to28.35 grams, and (4) one pound in U.S. measurement isequal to .45 kilograms.

In LIQUID: (5) one quart in U.S. measurementis equal to .96liters, and (6) one gallon in U.S. measurement is equal to3.78 liters.

In DISTANCE: (7) one mile in U.S. measurement isequal to1.6 kilometers.

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Finally, in the measurement of TEMPERATURE: (8) thefreezing point--32 degrees in the Fahrenheit measurementused in the U.S.--is equal tozero degrees Centigrade.

[Joan Morley. Listening kind Language Learning in ESL.Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1984. Reprinted byperinission of Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.)

CHARACTERISTICS AND EXAMPLES OFGOOD LISTENING EXERCISES

Good listening exercises:o provide interesting contento include listening preparation

offer visual supporto encourage whole-message listeningo encourage listening for specific detailso communicate real meaningo require listener response

Most of the exercises in this section involvemore than just listening. hi your exercisesyouare trying to create "real life" situations, and in real life,listening is part of an interaction.Two people in a conversationtake turns in listening nd speaking. In the same way youwill see that while the main focus is on listening, at a certain point in most of thefollowing exercises your studentsare expected to respond by interacting insome way withwhoever is speaking.

Provide Interesting 7ontentThe question here is, what interestsyour students? Coming up with a correctanswer tothat question tests your awareness of your students and measures how faryou have beenable to enter their world and understandtheir values. One thing you can be sure or-,though, no matter where you are, people take a great deal of interest in theaffairs ofothers. You may have featured in storiescirculating in the village where you live. Thisinterest in the affairs of othersseems to be particularly true of places that donot havetelevision or much radio, where the news is passed by word of mouth and where oraltraditions and story telling are st;li admired skills. If you know what's going on in yourstudents' community, you can use stories from their daily lives to catch theirattention fora listening comprehension exercise.

For example, if you hear aboutan incident where a cow is struck by lightning,or travellersget stranded because a bridge is washedout, you can use then, incidents in your class asis shown in this exercise, "Picturesin Order."

1. spare by drawing a simple strip cartoon versionof the story,using about 10 pictures, each picturebeing on a separate piece ofpaper or card. Work on developinga dramatized version of yourstory.

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2. Divide your class into groups and give eachgroup a complete setof the 10 pictures.

3. Tell your story of the cow and the lightening to thegroup. Askthem to listen to the story and then. as agroup, to put the picturesin the right order.

You can develop variations, too. For example, after telling the story, you could ask thegroups to use the picture cards as prompts and to givea dramatized telling of the storyto the rest of the class.

If our students are receiving very few hours of English,you will want to pay specialat ention to raising their motivation by using materials whichwill interest them. You maybe able to tap into your students' motivationto learn science or math. For example, youcould develop problem-solving activities using mathematics-basedlanguage to stimulateEnglish language acquisition. Lessonscan be built around specific language skills such aspracticing special mathematics vocabulary. The following"Shopping" exercise illustrateshow this can work.

1 Set up a market stall in the front of the class withas many items aspossible, each with a price marked on it.

2. Develop questions that refer tc these marked items usi, termssuch as "more than," "less than," "as much as," "most," "equalto,""as many as," "altogether ," "twice as much as," "fewer than,""greaterthan," "add," "subtract." Sample questions based on the marketsituation will include the following:

Name one item that costs more than $0.25 each.How many mangoes can you buy with $0.35?What costs more, three tomatoes or three piles of rice?Is it true that one orange costs twice as much as aneggplant?

You should develop at least three questionsper student.

3. Divide your class into teams of approximatelyseve.1 and give anumber (1 through 7) to each team member.

4. Read one of your qua' "Ions and then call out "Number 2."

5. Student number 2 from each team then has torun up to the stall,calculate the answer, and shout it out,or if you prefer, write it ona piece cf paper anc., .!ve it to you. The first student to giveacorrect answer wins a point for her team.

6. Keep the tally and continue the exercise untilyou have asked all thequestions.

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[Adapted from "Iniegrating Language and Math"in Jo Ann Crandall (Ed.).ESL Through Content Area Instruction. Prentice-Hall,Inc., 1987.]

Another exercise involving simple mathematicallanguage is "Guess the Distance."

1. Divide your class into groups. Give each group some kind ofequipment for measuring distances. Indicateany two objects in theroom and ask each coup to guess how far apart the objectsare.Write down the groups' guesses on the board.

2. Ask a representative from each group , measure the distancebetween the two objects. Compare the guesses with the actualdistance. The group . n the most accurate guess scores a point.

3. Repeat this activity until theguess -^, of all the groups become moreaccurate.

The minilectures referred tc earlier are also 2. useful technique for classes with limitedhours of Priglish, particularly ifyou choose subjects related to materials taught in otherclasses.

Include Listening ?reparationTaking the time prepare your students means taking time to workon their motivation.You will be aiming to stimulate their interest,to make the purpose of the listening clear,to explain the specific post-listening task, andto convince them that they can and will besuccessful listeners. Your preparation willprogress through various stages.

1. Give an overv:ew. For example, ifyou are going to tell a story youcan say: "This is a story about a farmer and his family living in themountains who decided to visit relations in the city."

2. Add some guiding questions, which could bewritten on the board. "Iwant you to listen carefully and then tell me the answers to thefollowing questions: What was life like in themountains? Why did thefamily decide to visit the city? What did the familythink of life in thecity?"

3. Develop your students' ability to predict what mighthappen. Discusswith them: "Do you think a farmer in the mountainswill have an easylife? Why do you think a farmer and his familymight want to visitthe city? What might surprise the farmer and hisfamily about life inthe city? Do you think the familf willwant to stay in the city?"

4. Preview vocabulary itemsor key phrases or "entences which will comeup in the story. You can do this by including them in trie discussionand by writing them on the board after you are sure everyoneunderstands .hem.

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5. Make your post-listening task clear. "When I've finishedtelling youthis story, I'm going to ask you to drawa cartoo i of the story." Or"I'm going to ask you to completea true/false exercise."

Take your tim this preparation. It's an important par, of laying the groundwork foryour students' s. ?ess in developing their listening skills. Check that your studentsunderstand what you are saying throughout thisprocess and generate as much participationas possible, particularly in the predicting stage, whenyour students have the opportunityto develop their expectations of the listeningpassage.

Offer Visual SupportIf you remove visual clues, as ;n a listening task with tapes, you increase the level ofdifficulty facing your students Conversely, if you add visual clues, you lower tl,. level ofdifficulties facing your students And in doingso you will also lower the level of stress andincrease the likelihood of your students' success in listening and completing theirassignments. You do not have to bea gifted art, to produce visual clues. For example,look at the following "Shapes" exercise. (See Figure 4.3.)

1. Draw a ssries of squares on the board, eachsquare containingshapes as in Figure 4.3. Label the squares with the letters Athrough F.

2. Tell your students that you are going to describe theconfigurationof shapes in each of the sqi lres. Their job is to listen carefully andto write down the order in which you describe thesquares.

3. Describe the configurations as follows:

Number 1: There is a rectangle on the left hand side. To the rightrf the rectangle are two shapes, a circle anda square. The circleit above the square.

Number 2: There are four shapes here: a large square,a largecircle, a small square, and a small circle. The small square is inthe top left hand corner. the large square is directly below. Thesmall circle is in the bottom right handcorner. The large circle isdirectly above.

Number 3: There is a small circle in the bottom lefthand corner.To the right of the circle is a smallsquare.

(Your students will end up with theseanswers: 1. = F, 2. = A, 3.= D.)

Once your students are familiar with this exercise,you could ask individual students orgroups of students to run the exercise, that is to draw the diagramson the boud and givethe descriptions to the rest of the class.

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A

0

1

Figure 4.3 Shapes

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If you can photocopy materials, andy...ur students have colored pencils or markers, youcould organize a "Color the Picture" exercise. This exet:Ase is particularly appropriate foryounger students of English.

1. Give out copies of a picture ano give instructionson coloring thepicture. For instance, if you 1,7:lyea picture of a busy market, yourinstructions could be something like this:

Find the man who is selling pineapples andcolor his shirtred.Find the boy who is carrying a big basket on his back andcolor the basket brown.Find the woman who is sitting on the ground next to thewater pump and color her skirt blue with yellow flowers. etc.

2. Exploit this exercise during the correctionstage by askingyour students:

What's the color of the shirt of theman selling pine ,pp' ;s?etc.

If you do not have the luxury of photocopies and coloredpe ncils, you could develop a"Draw the Picture" exercise. In this exerciseyou "dictate" a picture to your students. Forexample:

I want you to draw a picture of a table.the table are three things: a cup, a book, and spoon.

'find the table to the left, is a window.the window sill is a vase of flowers. etc.

You can vary this exercise by running itas a team activity. Divide your class into threeteams. Divide your blackboard into three sections,allocating one section to each team.Number each team member. Then "dictate"as follows:

Number 4, to the blackboard please. I want you to draw a house.Thank you. Back to your seats.

Now, number 10, to the blackboard please. I want you to draw atree next to the house. Thank you. etc.

Encourage Whole-Message ListeningWhole-message listening is the aural equivalentof skimming a text in reading. JJst aswhen you skim a text to get the main idea,so in whole-message listening the goal is tolisten for the main ideas and not to be distracted by details of failure to understandindividual words.

Suppose that on a Monday morningyou decide to tell your class about your weekend, andyou want them to understand the main ideas, tosee the big picture. You want them tounderstand that you went to visita friend working on a fish pond project, met withsomeof the farmers interested in settingup fish ponds, talked about some of the problems in

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selling fish, had a great meal withyour friend, and came home. You may well includedetai'is about the fish--the type, the size,the food they eat, the rate of growth. Youmayalso want to talk about the farmers'reasons for wanting to build ponds andsome of theproblems they face, butyou will not expect your students to understand and retain all thedetails.

When you check for comprehension, make sure that everyone understands the majorevents of your story and make it clear that in this instance, global listening andunderstanding is what you are after. Encourage and praise those students who donot shutdown as soon as they hit a detail they do not understand. Help your students makeintelligent guesses about what is goingon and encourage a tolerance of ambiguity.

If you think back to your language learningdays during pie-service training andyour firstsix months on the job, you will probably remember some of the frustrationyou felt at notbeing able to understand everything goingon around you. You may also have noticed thatTrainees and Volunteers had two different strategies for dealing with ambiguity. Somewent after the details, interrupted speakers when they didnot understand, and constantlyconsulted their dictionaries, intenton finding the exact meaning of every word. Others didnot strain after the meaning of every syllable and seemedcontent to go with the flow. Butin fact they were working hard, tracking themain ideas of conversations. These learnerstolerate having uncertain control of the details andconcentrate on the main points thespeaker is making. You want toencourage the strategies of this second type of learneramong yom students.

However, you need to recognize that for some learners this giving up of control makesthem anxious. You can counteractsome of this anxiety in the way you dehl witherrors.Your students will make mistakes in theirglobal listening, but you should make it clearthat you consider that these errors, and risk taking in general, are part of the learningprocess.

Guessing games are a good way to foster risk taking and intelligent guessing. Some ofthem are wry short and simple and could beincluded as a wrap-up activity at the end ofyour lessons. For example, the exercise "Describingan Object" has simple steps.

1. Think of an object, which may be in theroom or in a picture on thewall, and describe it. Tell your students to raise their hands if theythink they know what you are describing.

2. For beginners it might help to writeon the board examples of thelanguage you will be using:

it's (color).It's (size).It's (shape).It's made of (substance).It's used for (purpose).It belongs to (owner).

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You can adapt this same exercise for intermediate or advanced studentsby choosing todescribe more abstract items. Todefine these items you might want to use antonyms ("Itis an adjective and it means the opi site of intelligent."),or synonyms ("It is an adverband it means the same as 'wonderfully'."), or comparisons ("It's likean extremely strongwind."). These exercises are useful for reviewing vocabulary,as well as for encouragingintelligent guessing.

Encourage Listening for Specific DetailsExercises in which students listen to a passage and then complete charts or graphsena, rage listening for specific detail. Thiskind of exercise complements w 'ole-messagelistening. The emphasis in this case is on ca :luny detailed listening.

In the "Chart" exercise (see Figure 4.4)you will need to adapt the de tills toyour situation,but basically you would follow these steps:

1. Tell your students you are going to read the passage three times:first at normal speed, then ata slightly slower speed, and finally atnormal speed again.

2. Ask the students to follow car:P.11yand to fill in the blank spacesin the chart as they listen.

Imelda is worried. She hasan English test next week and she isafraid that she won't be able toorganize her time well to preparefor the test. She went to ask her friend Cecilia for some advice.Here is Cecilia's advice:

First, you must plan. Thismeans two things:(1) you must decide how much timeyou have to study, and(2) what you have to study.

Second, you must make a detailed list of what you have to study.I think you will have to concentrate on three areas:

(1) reading passages,(2) grammar points, and(3) vocabulary items.

Third, you must get outyour calendar and mark the timesyou arefree. This means you have to mark:

(1) your study periods,(2) your free evenings, and(3) any time you have on the weekend.

Fourth, you must decide whatare the most important items to bestudied, Then you must make a timetable foryourself and writedown:

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I.

H.

IV.

V.

L PLAN

1. How much time

LIST AREASOF STUDY

MARK FREE TIMEON CALENDAR

MAKETIMETABLE

2. What to studyi

1. Reading passages1

2. Grammar pointsI

3. Vocabulary items

1. Study periodsI

2. Free eveningsI

3. WeekendsI

1. What to study

ARRANGEWORK AREA

2. How much time oneach item

1. Quiet

2. Good light

Figure 4.4 Cecilia's Advice80

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(1) what you are going to study, and(2) how long you are going to spend on each item.

Fifth, you must arrange your work area. Try to find somewhere:(1) which is quiet, and(2) which has good light.

Imelda was pleased with this advice. When she organized herselfin this way she felt much more in control of the situation and muchless anxious about the English test.

The next exercises are listening comprehension versions of True or False. The format isthe same for each exercise, but as you will see, Texts A and Bare for upper intermediatestudents who have some familiarity with concepts ofpurpose and consequence, whereasText C is at a beginner's level.

Read each short text to your students and ask them to decide which ofthe four statements you have written on the boardagree with the viewsexpressed in the text and which do not.

Text A: Carlos is a clerk in a government office. Although the climate ishot and the office does not have air conditioning, most clerkswear long,dark trousers, white shirts, and ties at the office. Carlos has several tiesand wears a different one on each day of the week.

1. The climate is hot; consequently, most clerks wear long, darktrousers, white shirts, and ties at the office.

2. Most clerks wear ties at the office, so Carlos also wears a tieat the office.

3. If Carlos wears a tie to the office no one is surprised.4. Carlos has a number of ties, so that he can wear a different

one each day of the week.

Text B: One day Carlos decided to wear jeans and a T-Shirt and sandalsto the office. It was a very hot day and he thought everyone wouldunderstand why he made the decision. In fact, he expected his supervisorto praise his good sense. He was most surprised when his supervisorasked him to go home and change, even though the clothes hewaswearing were cool and comfortable.

1. It was such a hot day that Carlos decided to wear jeans anda T-shirt and sandals to the office.

2. His supervisor understood why he had decided to wearjeans, a T-shirt, and sandals. Therefore, he asked Carlos togo home and change.

3. Carlos can wear jeans providing he does not wear them atthe office.

4. In order to be safe rather than sorry, it is better to wear whateveryone else is wearing.

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Text C: Leonora wants to be a primary school teacher. She is the eldestchild in her family. She has seven brothers and sisters. She spends a lotof time helping her young brothers and sisters with their homework. Theyall like to work with her. She makes homework seem fun. They all getgood grades for their homework.

1. Leonora is a primary school teacher.2. She helps her young brothers and sisters with their

homework.3. She gets very cross when she is helping them.4. The teachers are pleased with the homework of Leonora's

brothers and sisters.

[Adapted from Skills for Learning: Development. Thomas Nelson & Sons andUniversity of Malaya Press, 1980.]

Communicate Real MeaningWhether they say it aloud or not, it's very probable that your stude..ts have at some timeor other asked then elves "What's the point of learning English?" This is particularly trueof students in countries of Francophone Africa, where students know that French is theimportant language to learn if they want to get ahead, and where English is of secondaryimportance. You can, and probably do, spend time woi king on the motivation of suchstudents by pointing out the advantages they will have in being able to read books writtenin English once they get to the University or any other institution of higher learning. Butfor adolescents the motivation frequently has to be more immediate. They want to see thebenefits right now.

One way you can fuel this motivation and satisfy the need for immediate feedback is bysetting up real life scenarios in which your students have to participate in some task whichrequires them to uaderstand and speak English. You might, for instance, ask a student togo to another English teacher and ask for a book. You will make your request in English,and you will ask your student to ask for the book in English. If your colleagues in theEnglish Department agree to cooperate with you, you could set up a network of errandsbeing carried out in English on the school compound.

A TEFL Volunteer in Gabon, central Africa, once spoke about the breakthrough he hadwith a group of his students who had been educated in French, were not motivated tolearn English, and would only do the minimum they considered necessary to pass theEnglish examinations. As it happens the Volunteer had a motorbike, and the tools andmechanical knowledge to maintain his bike. His students were interested in motorbikesand would drop by the Volunteer's house when he was working on his machine. TheVolunteer would only talk about his bike in English and he lent magazines on motorbikes,written in English, to his students.

Gradually the Volunteer realized that his students were talking in English to each otherabout motorbikes. Several students began bringing bikes to the Volunteer for repairs andthe repair work and conversations in English went ahead hand in hand. The Volunteerhad stumbled on a context in which his students listened and talked in English. The

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messages were about carburetors, fuel lines, brakes, and batteries andwere all meaningful.The subject had become real. The students wantedto communicate in English becausethey had something to say and had an interest in heark,g whatwas said. This attitudespilled over into the classroom and the Volunteerwas delighted to find himself teachinga really motivated group who made excellent progress in English.

Require Listener ResponsesA response is the listener's way of saying "I hear you." Aswas said earlier in this chapter,listening is not taught in isolation. Speakingcomes into play as the listener responds andinteracts in a conversation. These listening exercises which callfor a response from yourstudents allow Them to demonstrate their understandingand to develop interactional skills.This section presents exercises with four types ofresponses: the action response, the shortspoken response, the longer spokenresponse, and the extended spoken response.

The action response exercises are based on the Total Physical Response Approach. Anexample of this is "Clusters," which is an excellent exercise for energizing a sluggish class,though it does require space if you havea big class.

1. Ask your students to walk around the room. Give a signal like aclap of the hands and then give a command, for instance:form agroup of people of about the same height.

2. When the students have sorted themselves intogroups, ask themto walk around again, until another command is given. Othercommands could be:Get into groups of five and decide on asong you want tosing.Get into groups of people born in thesame month.Get into groups of seven, of those whocan ride bikes and those whocan't.Get into groups of three; make yourselves look like elephants.Get into groups of five; stand in a line with the tallest at the backand the shortest at the front.

3. After about five to eight commands which involveeveryone, thegame can be finished off by calling out numbers, suc'i as "Seven."That means that groups of seven have to be formed. Anyone whois not in a group of seven is out.

Examples of exercises which require short responses are "General Knowledge Quizzes,""Aural Clozes," and "Hidden Sentences." The "General Knowledge Quizzes" are verypopular because you can ask questions about othercourses. Ask your family to send youthe junior version of the game Trivial Pursuit or the Guinness Book of Records.You willfind they are excellent sources for questions.

The following "Aural Cloze" exercise is for a beginning level class but the principlescaneasily be adapted for any level.

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1. If possible use a photo of a recent school event. If you do not havea photo, draw a picture on the blackboard. Tell your class a storyabout it. Repeat this story two or three times.

2. Give your students a paper with the same story written on it, butwith several blanks instead of words. Read the story again, line byline. The students fill in the blanks as they hear the words. Repeatthe story one more time, with the students trying to correct mistakeswhile it is being read.

3. An example of the kind of Cloze text you can write to accompanya picture of some students working in the school garden is:

This is Mazrui working in the (garden). He is holding a (hoe) andhe is digging up the (weeds). He has been (working) hard. Youcan see the (pile) of weeds he has (already) dug up. Alem is (also)working. He has a watering can and he is watering the (onions).The onions have been (planted) in rows. And Saad isn't (doing)anything! He's just (standing) and watching. Is he (giving) advice?I (think) so.

The words in parentheses would be omitted in the version given to the students.

The "Hidden Sentence" exercise is for advanced level students.

1. Prepare approximately 10 cards with sentences and 10 cards withtopics.

2. Divide your class into two teams. Two students, one from eachteam, come to the front of the class. Each student chooses asentence card. They do not show their cards to anyone.

3. Choose a topic card and announce the topic to the class. The twostur'ents start off a conversation with each other on this topic. Theyhave to guide the conversation in such a way tnat they can use thesentence on their card without anybody's noticing it. Both teamslisten attentively and try to guess the hidden sentence of thestudents from the other team. If they think they hear it, they shout"Stop" and repeat the sentence. If they are correct, they score apoint. Each team is allowed to shout "Stop" twice during eachround. The conversation continues until three minutes are up.

4. Scoring can be organized as follows: guessing the hidden sentencecorrectly = 1 point; using the hidden sentence correctly withoutbeing detected = 1 point; failing to use the sentence = minus 1point.

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5. Suggestions for sentences:The rains are late this year.I hate cooking.I think Egypt will win the World Cup for Soccer.I'd love to go to America.We have too much homework these days.

Suggestions for topics:Family lifeTelevisionHobbiesThe environmentExaminations

[Adapted from Friederike Klippel. Keep Talking. Cambridge UniversityPress, 1984.]

Examples of listening requiring longer responses are the "Shrinking Story" and the"Messenger." The steps for the "Shrinking Story"are:

1. Five students are asked to leave theroom. The rest of the classlistens to a story which you tell them twice. After the secondreading, the students agree on a few main points summarizingthestory. These are written down by everyone.

2. The first student is asked to come in and listens to storyone. Thesecond student is called in and hears the story from the firststudent, while the class notes down which of the important pointshave been mentioned. Student number 2 then tells the story tostudent number 3, student number 3 to student number4, andstudent number 4 to student number 5. Student number 5 tells thestory to the class.

3. Using their notes, the students who were listening reporton thechanges in the story. Then the original story is read again.

[Adapted from Friederike Klippel. Keep Talking. Cambridge UniversityPress, 1984.]

The steps for the "Messenger" are:

1. For this exercise you will need a set of wooden building blocks foryourself and a set for each group. Before the class begins,buildsomething out of these blocks. Place the construction on a trayand cover it.

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-111111=111.i

2. Divide the class into groups of five and give each group a set ofblocks. Then ask for one messenger from each group to look atyour construction.

3. Each messenger reports back to her group and tells them how togo about building the same construction. The messengers are notallowed to touch the wooden blocks, nor to demonstrate how theconstruction is done. The messenger can take a second look atyour construction. When all copies are completed, they arecompared with the original.

4. If you do not have wooden blocks, arrangements of pieces ofcardboard or other objects and drawings can be used.

[Adapted from Friederike Klippel. Keep Talking. Cambridge UniversityPress, 1984.]

The exercises requiring extended responses are generally more suitable for advancedstudents. Two examples of this type are "Creative Problem Solving" and "ValuesClarification." In "Creative Problem Solving" you have two options. You can present acase study and ask your students what they think should be done, or you can tell part ofa story and ask the students to complete it.

For the case study, describe a critical incident to your students and ask for their views onthe next step. For example you could look at the issue of damage to school property.

The school Principal is becoming very angry because students keepwriting graffiti on the walls of the school. In a recent incident, a studentwent to the Principal and told him that a certain group of students wereboasting that they were the ones responsible for the graffiti. When broughtbefore the Principal, the students admitted that they had boasted, but saidthat they were not in fact the ones who had written the graffiti. Whatshould the Principal do now?

The facts of the case can be as elaborate as you wish to make them. The discussion ofthe case study can be done as a whole-group activity or as a small-group activity.

For the story telling, the incomplete story can really call on your students' creativity, as inthe following example.

Many years ago a merchant found himself in debt to a moneylender, acruel and unpleasant man. The merchant had only one child, a daughter,whom he loved dearly. One day the moneylender came to the merchantwith an ultimatum -- either the merchant should pay his debts, go todebtors' prison, or permit the moneylender to marry his daughter.

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Realizing that both the merchant and his daughter were horrified at theidea, the moneylender invited them both to walk with him alonga gravelpath and to discuss the idea a little further. Here he proposed that Fateshould decide the issue.

"I shall take two pebbles from this path, one black andone white," he said,bending down to pick up two stones. "I shall drop them both in this bag.And then, if your daughter agrees, she will pick one of the stones from thebag without looking. If she picks out the white one, I shall forgive all ofyour debts, and ycu and your daughter will never see me again. However,if she picks out the black stone, your daughter is mine."

The merchant's daughter was distraught. She did not trust themoneylender. She was almost sure that he had put two black stones in thebag. Her position seemed impossible. What should she do?

At this point you can have a class or small-group discussionon what the merchant'sdaughter should do.

(The "correct" answer is that the daughter put her hand in the bag, withdrewa stone, anddropped it "accidentally" on the gravel path. "I'm sorry," she cried, "but you can tell thecolor of the stone I chose by the color of the one remaining in the bag.") [This story istold by Edward de Bono as part of his work on lateral thinking.]

The "Values Clarification" exercise is usually very popular with students :n their lateteensand early twenties, since it gives them the opportunity to express their viewson issues theyoften feel strongly about. In choosing a subject to discuss, be sure to limit the choice tosubjects that are appropriate fur discussion in your particular situation. An example of thistype of exercise is found in Figure 4.5. You can adapt it as a listening exercise by readingthe statements to your class. In exploiting this exercise you can go through the followingsteps:

1. Read through the statements once, asking your students to workindividually in reacting to the statements.

2. Read through the statements one by one, and at the end of eachstatement, ask students to group themselves according to theirre-. Jnses--with +2's together, +1's together, 0's together, -1'stoJther, and -2's together. Ask the members of each group todiscuss among themselves the reasons for their responses.

3. A spokesperson from each group will then give a summary of thesereasons to the rest of the class.

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-.11MINNiWirt.

VALUES CLARIFICATION

Do you agree or disagree with each of the statements below? Puta check underthe number that indicates how you feel.

+2 = Strongly agree+1= Agree

0 = No opinion-1 = Disagree-2 = Strongly disagree

1 Arranged marriages are better thanmarriages where the couple have met anddated on their own.

2 It is very important for my family toapprove of the person I marry.

3 If my parents disapproved of my choice,I would not marry that person even if wewere very much in love.

4. A woman's place is in the home.5. Married women with small children

should not work.6. Some women are better mothers if they

work and are not with their children allday.

7. Children should be spanked if theymisbehave.

8. Parents should put the needs of theirchildren before their own personal needs.

9. Children should put the needs of theirfamilies before their own personal needs.

10. Equality between a husband and wifecauses divorce.

+2 +1 0 -1 -2

Figure 4.5From The American Way by Edward N. Kearny, Mary Ann Kearny,

and JoAnn Crandall. Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1984.Reprinted by permission of Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

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SUMMARY

In developing your students' listening skills, allow forexposure to English:provide plenty to listen tolower stresslet your students' brains work while theyare doing something else

Provide meaningful "real life" messages:build in response timeallow for visibility of the speakerprovide background cluesallow for redundancies

Use the three resources for listening comprehension:the teacherother speakers of Englishtapes

Develop listening activities which:provide interesting contentinclude listening preparationoffer visual supportencourage whole-message listeningencourage listening for specific detailscommunicate real messagesrequire listener response

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING

Keep TalkingFriederike KlippelCambridge University Press, 1984This book presents many good ideas for communicative fluency activities.

The Listening ApproachJ. Marvin Brown and Adrian S. PalmerLongman Inc., 1988This book is based on the theory of the Natural Approach discussed in Chapter Twoofthis manual. It includes many ideas for the creative, stress-free tedehing of listening skills.

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CHAPTER iIVE

TEACHING READING

This chapter first examines the variety of roles played by reading in thelearning and use of a language. Next a number of sample exercises showhow the underlying microskills of reading may be developed. The chapterends with special notes on the teaching of vocabulary.

ROLES OF READING IN THE LEARNING AND USE OF LANGUAGE

Your definition of "reading in a foreign language" probably dependson your own previouslanguage learning experiences. For example, if your teacher used the GrammarTranslation Method, reading probably figured prominently among the typical activities. Aspart of each lesson, the teacher probably assigned a number of lines or pages of text foryou to prepare for the next class meeting. At home you would read laboriously throughthe text, conscientiously looking up all the words whose meaningsyou didn't know. In thenext class meeting the teacher would call on the students one by one to read the assignedtext aloud in the original language and then to translate the passage into English (thestudents' native language). The reading and translation might be followed bya discussionof som° of the features of the text: noteworthy grammatical constructions,new vocabulary,stylistic nuances, and the like.

On the other hand, if your teacher was using the Audiolingual Method, it isvery likely thatreading was minimized in favor of listening to and speaking the language. Readingmaterials in beginning Audiolingual courses are usually confined to two main types. Onetype includes dialogues and other drills. Students are allowed to see these in printed formand read them after they have been practiced orally. The second type includes shortconversations and narratives which are cJnstructed to parallel closely, but not to duplicate,the oral drill materials. Thus, in reading ,he second type of materials, students learn toprocess partially unfamiliar texts.

The Audiolingual Method was rarely extended beyond the elementary level of languagelearning, and technique:. for teaching more advanced reading skillswere never fullydeveloped. Students who continued their language study beyond the elementary levelmight find themselves in courses using pre-Audiolingual techniques for the teaching ofreading. That is, reading lessons might consist of the read aloud-translate-discussprocedure employed in the Grammar Translation Method. Or they might involve the kindof literary analysis commonly found in literature courses taught through the medium of thestudents' native language.

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In recent years, language teaching znethodologists have gaineda greater appreciation ofthe nature of the reading skill. They have come to understand that in fact it isnot a singlemonolithic skill. Rather it is a behavior which is madeup of a laige number of componentskills, sometimes referred to as microskills. These range from such foundational skillsasthe ability to recognize the letters of the alphabet and to match spoken words andsentences with their written representation, to quite sophisticated skills such as skimminga piece of writing to gain a general idea of its content, or evaluating a text for its generaltone or bias. When language learners read in their second language,some of themicroskills which they unconsciously use in their first language are automaticallytransferred, but the use of others must be explicitly taught.

Methodologists have also come to believe that the types of reading done in the languageclassroom should reflect the many uses to which reading is put in real life. You usereading not only for study purposes but also for daily living. You readnot just novels,essays, and poetry, but also newspapers, instruction manuals, and the labels on theproducts you buy in the supermarket. Thinking of this variety of reading tasks,you cansee that different tasks require different approaches. For maximum efficiency, studentsmust be taught to vary their approach to suit the purpose of their reading.

Stages in the Development of Reading ProficiencyBefore looking at specific techniques and materials whicl:you can use for teachingdifferent types of reading tasks, you need a long-range oerNiew of how reading proficiencymay be developed, beginning with the lowest level of reading proficiency and proceedingto the most advanced. The part of this progression where your own studentsappear tofit will of course be the most interesting to you. However, you will be better ableto helpyour students if you can see the whole sequence of development of reading proficiency.

It is helpful to view each of the three main phases of thesequence in terms of readingproficiency level, skills and feature of the language to be learned, and materials whichareappropriate for that phase.

Early stages of reading

Proficiency levelLow beginners

Skills and features of English to learnRecognize letters and punctuation marksAssociate spoken forms with their written representationUse reading for everyday tasks

Materials to useBasic literrkylnaterialsExercises which follow up on listening and speaking activitiesEveryday and general interest reading materials

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Transition to 'ginger texts

Proficiency levelHigh beginners and intermediate students

Skills and features of English to learnUse background knowledge to interpret textDiscover author's purpose or themePick out main ideasUnderstand sequence of eventsGuess at meanings of unfamiliar words

Materials to useTexts dictated to the teacher by the studentsNarratives of local folktales, history, national eventsShorter selections from narrative and expressive writing

Reading academic and professional texts

Proficiency levelHigh intermediate and advanced students

Skills and features of English to learnDiscover author's purposePick out main ideasUnderstand logical relationships between parts of a textSurvey, skim, scan a textExtract information relevant to a specific purposeEvaluate a text

Materials to useExtracts from school textbooksReference materialsJournal articles and professional publicationsTechnical reports

Give careful thought to the appropriateness of the activities and materials whichyou usefor teaching reading to your students. For example, while your students may be beginners,they will not need to spend a lot of time in basic literacy activities in English if theyalready have literacy skills in another language. By the same token, if you are teachingaclass of students whose language proficiency is quite high, you would not want to devotea lot Jf time to academic reading tasks if your students never do this kind of reading inEnglish for their other courses (science, mathematics, social studies, and the like).

The following sections will present several broad categories of reading tasks. Exampleswill show how some of these tasks may be incorporated into language lessons and how

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bridges may be built between classroom reading exercises and the day to day experiencesof the students.

Basic Literacy and Reinforcement of Listening and SpeakingThe starting point for all reaeing activities in any language are the basic literacy skills. Asan educated user of a language, you may have forgotten how it was to learn to read.Itjust seems natural to pick up a newspaper and scan the headlines, to read street signs asyou walk along, to look at a piece of paper money and tell at a glance whether it is a onedollar bill or a five.

It is only when you find yourself in a country where the local language is unfamiliar to youthat you begin to realize how important the basic literacy skills are. If that language usesa writing system which is also unfamiliar to you, you can more fully appreciate the positionof learners who need literacy training. When confronted with an unfamiliar writing system(e.g., Arabic, or the system used for writing Thai) you may not even be able to recognizewhether two symbols are the same or different from each other. If you try to learn thewriting system, you may at first be able to recognize only a few well known words. It maytake quite a long time to sort out the connections between the spelling of words and theirpronunciation.

Your students will need literacy training in English if they have no reading and writingskills in any language (the most serious need), if they have a few years of formal educationand have developed ruuimentary reading and writing skills in some language, or if theyare fully literate in their own language but need to learn the writing system of English.There are several approaches to the teaching of basic literacy. If your students needliteracy training, you should consult the Peace Corps Literacy Handbook (Manual M-21available from Information Collection and Exchange) for detailed guidance. However,here are a few suggestions for literacy training for those students who are already literatein a language which uses a writing system different from the Roman alphabet which isused for English.

Learners who are not experienced in reading the Roman alphabet require a considerableamount of pre-reading instruction. They need extensive practice in listening skills, sincethe auditory channel will at first be the major medium for new learning.Skill in visualperception also needs to be developed. In particular, learners need to be able tocategorize letters as same or different. (From several letters, pick out those which are thesame From several letters, pick out one which is not the same.) They should be able tofollow left-to-right and top-to-bottom progression. All of these skills are practiced in theexercise in Figure 5.1.

The new language which is taught during the earliest stages of literacy training shouldconsist of vocabulary, formulaic expressions, and sentence patterns which tae learners canput to immediate use. They should be able to identify themselves and be able to give afew personal details such as age, marital status, residence, and occupation. They shouldlearn to follow simple direct;ons and to ask for clLrification or help when needed. Theycan learn about timetables and completing assignments within a given period of time, bothof which are useful life skills.

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EXAMPLE S

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

9.

10.

A

m

r

k

g

b

e

wa

f

RECOGNITION OF LETTERSDirections: Circle the letter in the sentence that is the same.

C L SO T SDCG I AE A A

1

Fo2 3 4 5 6 7mrvm h n

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

r n r m h r ti 2 3 4 5 6 7

I h k k O r k1 2 3 5 6 7

P g b g q d g1 2 3 4 5 6 7

b g qpd b b1 2 3 4 s 6 7

o c e a e e C1 r 3 4 5 6 7

X w V U I IN V

I

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

d b a g a P q

I

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

t1

I f h f k2 3 4 5 6 7

Figure 5.1 From ESL /Literacy for Adult Learners by Wayne Haverson withJudith Haynes. Center for Applied Linguistics and Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1982.

Reprinted by permission of Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.95

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Language lessons of this type have several advalitages in addition to their obviousrelevance. The language used is likely to be concrete in reference, and therefore moreeasily understood by the learners. Further, lessons can be short and well structured, animportant consideration if the learners are not accustomed to a formal classroom situation.

If your students are already literate irt another language, you should not delay for long inintroducing the writing system of English. Adult learners in particular may feel frustratedif they do not begin learning to read immediately. Many people also equate reading witheducation itself, and they .ili not take seriously a teacher who does not recognize theimportance of reading.

Sample Lesson Plans for Early Stages of ReadingYou will base the earliest reading lessons very closely on the oral language which you havetaught to your students. The general procedure for these early lessons in basic literacy isdemonstrated in Figure 5.2. When teaching your students to read sentences which theyhave practiced orally, you will proceed through three main phases, as follows:

1. After your students have learned a few sentences in oral languagepractice, teach them to recognize the written form of each sentenceas a whole. (See steps 1 and 11 in Figure 5.2.)

2. Next teach your students to recognize the written form of each ofthe words which make up the sentence. (See steps 2-7 and 12-17 in Figure 5.2.)

3. Finish by having your students read whole sentences again (steps8-10 and 18-20, Figure 5.2). Also, if the sentences being learnedare part of a conversation, have your students practice pairs orshort sequences of sentences (steps 21 and 22, Figure 5.2). In thisway they will get the feel for continuous text.

When your students have built up a small store of whole words which they can recognizeat sight, they can then begin to learn the correspondences between spelling andpronunciation. The lesson plan in Figure 5.3 shows how to do this.

Remember that you can use the procedures demonstrated in Figures 5.2 and 5.3 for any:port sample of language. Simply teach the language first in oral language activities (seeChapter Two), then follow up with recognition of the written form of sentences and words.Teach the correspondences between spelling and pronunciation by using words which thestudents have already learned to read.

Extra care is taken in literacy training to ensure close ties between what the learnersmaster in listening and speaking practice and what they are subsequently asked torecognize or produce in writing. These links are equally important for literate learners,and especially for adults. Once you have learned to read you unconsciously come todepend on the written word as an aid to comprehension and as a means of helping youto remember things that are presented to you orally. (Can you remember addresses and

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TEACHER

1. This is the question "How are you?"

2. This is the word "how."

3. Please read this word.

4. This is the word "are."

5. Please read this word.

6. This is the word "you."

7. Please read this word.

8. Let's make the question "How areyou?"

9. After the question there is a questionmark.

ACTIVITY/RESPONSE

1. Show sentence card. Learners listenand repeat three times.

2. Cut off "how" from sentence card.

3. Show word card "how."

4. Cut off "are" from sentence card.

5. Show word card "are." Learnersrespond. Give word card to learner.

6. Cut off "you" from sentence card.

7. Show word card "you." Learnersrespond. Give word card to learner.

8. Ask learners to sequence question onflannel board.

9. Put question mark after question.

10. Please read the question. 10. Point to question. Learners read inchorus and individually.

11. This is the answer "Fine, thank you." 11. Show sentence card. Learners listenand repeat three times.

12. This is the word "fine." 12. Cut off "fine" from sentence card.

13. Please read this word. 13. Show word. card "fine." Learnersrespond. Give word card to learner.

Figure 5.2 Summary Lesson Plan for Teaching Sight. WordsFrom ESLILiteracy for Adult Learners by Wayne Haverson with JudithHaynes.

Center for Applied Linguistics and Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1982.Reprinted by permission of Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

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14. This is the word "thank."

15. Please read this word.

16. This is the word "you."

17. Please read this word.

18. Let's answer the question "How areyou?"

19. After an answer there is a period.

20. Please read the answer.

21. Please read the question.

22. Please read the answer.

14. Cut off "thank" from sentence card.

15. Show word card "thank." Learnersrespond. Give word card to learner.

16. Cut off "you" from sentence card.

17. Show word card "you." Learnersrespond. Give word card to learner.

18. Ask learners to sequence answer onflannel board under question.

19. Put period after answer.

20. Point to answer. Learners read inchorus and individually.

21. Point to question. Learners read inchorus and individually.

22. Point to answer. Learners read inchorus and individually.

Figure 5.2 continued

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LESSON ONE: M m /m/

TEACHER

1. This is the letter m.

2. This is a man.

3. This is the letter m.

4. The sound of the letter in is /m/ as inthe word "man."

5. m-an man, m-iss miss, m-op mop(much, my)

6. What is the sound of the letter m?

7. What is the name of the letter?

ACTIVITY/RESPONSE

1. Print letter m on board. Learnerslisten.

2. Show visual. Learners listen andrepeat three times.

3. Point to letter m on board. Learnerslisten.

4. Learners listen.

5. Teach learners to make the sound /m/.Model sound and each wordseparately. Learners listen and repeatthree times.

6. Learners respond /m/. If learners havedifficulty with the formation of thesound /m/, repeat steps 1-6.

7. Point to letter m. Learners respond/m/. Prompt, if necessary.

8. Listen to some words with the sound 8. Learners listen./m/.

9. Listen and repeat. 9. Model each word separately. Learnerslisten and repeat three times.

10. This is the letter m. 10. Show 3 x 5 card with the letter m on it.Learners listen.

Figure 5.3Sample Lesson Plan for Teaching Spelling/Pronunciation Correspondences

From ESL /Literacy for Adult Learners by Wayne Haverson with JudithHaynes.Center for Applied Linguistics and Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1982.

Reprinted by permission of Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

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11. The sound of the letter rn is /ail as in 11. Distribute 3 x 5 cards printed withletter m to learners. Learners listen.the word "man."

12. Hold up your card when you hear thesound of the letter m.

13. What is the sound of the letter m?

14. Hold up your letter card when youhear the sound /m/. "Man, hello, miss,my, last."

15. This is the word "man."

16. Please read this word.

12. Demonstrate activity. Learners listen.

13. Learners respond /m/. If learners stillhave difficulty with the formation ofthe sound /m/, repeat steps 7-13.

14. Model each word. Learners hold upletter rn card for appropriate word.

15. Print "man" on board under letter rn.

16. Point to word "man." Learners read inchorus and individually.

Figure 5.3 continued

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telephone numbers without writing them down?) Youshould regularly incorporate areading stage into the listening and speaking activitiesof your lessons.

Everyday UsesYour students will feel more motivated to read andto practice their developing readingskills on their own if you can demonstrateto them that reading is not just a classroomexercise. The most convincing way to do this isto incorporate into your lessons authenticexamples from a wide range of print media: announcements, notices, signs, labels,brochure'', instructions, timetables, maps--there are endless possibilities. (An addedadvantage of such everyday materials is that they may often be used for oralcommunication exercises as well as for the teaching of reading.) To make readingactivities even more motivating, use print materials as the basis for realistic, purposefultasks, rather than falling into the timeworn procedure of simplyquizzing your students withcomprehension questions.

Here are some examples of realistic tasks basedon authentic reading materials:

o The students use airline timetables to plana trip from, for example,Manila to Tokyo to San Francisco. Use cities that will havemeaningfor your students. The trip becomes more interestingas more citiesare added and changes of planes and layovers must be taken intoaccount.

o Use newspaper advertisements to plan an evening's entertainment,to choose the destination for a vacation, to locatea suitableapartment, to scout job possibilities.

o Read product labels to compare costper unit of measure or tocheck nutritional values of foods.

o Follow a set of written instructions to setup and fill in a daily,weekly, or monthly schedule of activities.

As you can see, while most of these suggestionsstart out as reading activities, they mayeasily lead into oral communication activities with students workingin pairs or smallgroups. Later in this chapter you will find a discussion of how touse short texts which thestudents create themselves as the basis for readinglessons.

You will have to teach your students to interpret the writingconventions which are usedfor each of these different types of text: for example, therows and columns used intimetables and schedules, or the abbreviations found in product labelsand advertisements.You will also teach them how to locate the specific informationneeded to carry out aparticular task, disregarding irrelevant information. You will teachthem how to assess theinformation which they gather in terms of how factual it is,or how useful. Note that thereading materials which are usedare quite ordinary; they certainly are not literature. Butsome of the reading microskills which are developed through theiruse are quitesophisticated.

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As soon as your students have developed the basic literacy skills in English, and as theirreading competence grows, you will want to encourage them to read on their own inaddition to the reading activities scheduled for the whole class. For this purpose, you needto create a lending library of general interest reading materials. This does not have to beanything elaborate, just an informal collection of pamphlets, brochures, newspapers,magazines, the Sears catalogue--anything that is popular in its appeal and likely to attractand hold the interest of your students. It will be easier to collect such materials incountries where English is used as a second language, but not impossible even whereEnglish is not so widely used. (Perhaps you can ask friends and relatives back home tosend these materials to you. Once your students start using the collection, some of themmay want to add materials to it themselves.) Students can browse through the collectionduring a few idle minutes before or after class, pick out something that interests them,borrow it to read as little or as much of it as they like, and return it to the collection.

Making the Transition to Longer TextsYou can use reading to reinforce the listening and speaxing skills of students with anydegree of English proficiency. Likewise, reading tasks connected to everyday purposes willbe motivating to students at any level of the language curriculum. However, in mostinstances you will probably be teaching students whose reading needs are not satisfied bythese relatively limited types of text. They will want and need to read more extendedtexts: short stories, novels, plays, school textbooks, jour nal articles, ._.finical reports. Youwill have to teach them the language and the skills needed to give them access to thesetexts.

What problems do your students face when they try to read extended stretches of text?Unfamiliar vocabulary, of course. Probably also grammatical features which they have notstudied or which they have not thoroughly mastered. But even if a particular readingselection does not present vocabulary of grammar difficulties, your students may still havetrouble comprehending it. This is because there are two further aspects of writtendiscourse which may cause problems for the language learner: the content (what thereading selection is about) and the organization (how the selection is put together).

Experts in the teaching of reading emphasize that when you begin to read a text, usuallyyou already know something about the content. The title of a short story or the headlineof a newspaper article calls to mind a certain area of previous experience. Thus evenbefore you read the first sentence, you have some expectation of what the story or articlewill contain. You have background information which will help you to understand whatyou are about to read. However, if that background information is lacking in any way,comprehension of the text becomes more difficult. This type of comprehension problemis not unexpected when you try to read a text from a specialized field for which you haveno training, but you may not expect to have such problems when reading texts of a lesstechnical nature.

To illustrate how a lack of background information may hamper the reader, consider thefollowing headline:

The Noise from National Isn't Getting Any Better

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Does that mean anything to you? Probably not, unlessyou have lived in Washington, DCand you know that "National" refers to National Airport. Because National Airport islocated virtually in the heart of the Washington metropolitanarea, there is a long historyof conflict over the noise created by the heavy traffic of aircraft whichuse it. Anyoneliving in the Washington area for a whilesoon learns of this problem, and the two words"National" and "noise" would call it instantly to mind.

Suppose the writer had added the word "Airport" to the headline. In that case, manymore people would be able to predict somaning about the content of the article.Washington's National Airport is not unique in the problems of noise which itcreates.But if you have never lived in the vicinity of a busy airport,you may be puzzled by theunderlying assumption of the article: that measures must be takento control airport noise.You may well ask yourself what the fuss is about. Isn't it worth a little noise to have anairport nearby?

Reading comprehension is hindered not only bya lack of background information oncontent but also 'ay lack of familiarity with the pattern by which the text is organized.You know, for example, that a newspaper article is organized ina kind of invertedpyramid fashion. The important facts are presented early in the article, with themostimportant facts of all coming in the first paragraph and the least important detailsat theend of the article. If you were not aware of this pattern of organization,you mightbecome confused as you proceeded through the article and found that 'he writerseemedto circle back to the "same" facts one or more times. You might not notice that the writerwas simply filling in less important details as the article progressed.

There are two general procedures which youcan use to compensate for your students'deficiencies in background information and lack of familiarity with conventionsfororganizing various types of discourse. One proceuure involves controlling the texts--usingreading selections whose content and organizationare familiar to the learners. The otherprocedure is to provide various kinds of support to the learners- -tryingto anticipate gapsin their knowledge about the content and organization of particulartexts and provide themwith the information which they will need for better comprehension of thetexts. It is bestto use a combination of the two approaches which suits the needs ofyour students.

Narrative and Expressive LiteratureIt is very common to use narrative and expressive types oftext for initial teaching ofextended reading. Such texts when carefully chosen...an avoid many of the problems ofcontent and organization which we have just discussed. These texts could deal withfamiliar or easily imagined events which develop inan orderly sequence of time, or theymight deal with ideas, attitudes, and emotions whichare part of the common humanexperience.

You may find, however, that even these types of textare beyond the reach of yourstudents. One way to bridge the gap is to use texts which the students constructthemselves, as is done in the Language Experience Approach (LEA)to the teaching ofreading. Because the students generate the reading selection in this approach, they controlthe difficulty of both the organization and the content; whatever theycreate must by

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definition be familiar to them. An additional bonus is that reading lessons developnaturally from oral language activities. You will find a lot of use for the LEA in beginninglevel classes.

Sample Lesson Plan for Transition to Longer TextsCarol Dixon and Denise Nessel in Language Experience Approach to Reading (and Writing)expla;n the LEA and present detailed plans for its use with students of various le..:ls oflanguage and reading proficiency. We w;.11 give here a simplified adaptation of theprocedure for developing and using a reading selection:

1. You and your students discuss an experience which all or most ofthem share: a class field trip, a recent storm, plans for some schoolevent soon to take place. The oral discussion generates ideas andensures that students have the vocabL ''y and grammar which theyneed for the creation of the reading r ,cerial.

2. After the discussion has generated a sufficient number of interestingideas, suggest that the class help you to write them down to makea story. As they collaborate in dictating the sentences of their story,you write what they say on the blackboard. In a strict applicationof the LEA, the teacher makes no corrections of the language whichthe students dictate. The aim is to create a reading selection -1 thelanguage of the students, since if it is in their own language, thestudents will be better able to read it. It probably would do noharm, however, if in the next step you unobtrusively guide thestudents into correcting the language themselves.

3. Aim for a reading selection of eight to ten sentences in length.Immediately after the last sentence has been dictated, read theentire selection aloud to the students and ask them if they want tomake any changes. When all the changes have been made, havethe students take turns reading parts of the story. This is the endof the first phase of the procedure. The students go on to anotheractivity.

4. Make a copy of the story for later use. For the second phase ofthe procedure, duplicate the story so that each student has a copy.Now the students read through the story silently on their own. Thenthey take turns reading aloud. If they have trouble reading any ofthe words, supply the words for them. Each student keeps apersonal list of troublesome words which require special attention.(What to do about learning these words will be discussed in asection on vocabulary later in this chapter.)

5. From this point the student-made reading selection may be treatedin the same way as you would treat a more conventional text. Ask

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follow-up questions which assess whethei the stud_ints understandthe content and the organization of the text. Don't go after smalldetails. Look for comprehension of the main ideas and ability tofollow the sequence of events.

[Carol N. Dixon and Denise Nessel. Language Experience Approach toReading (and Writing). Alernany Press, 1983.]

Another technique for avoiding the problems of unfamiliar content isto use readingselections which are a retelling of fables and folktales from the students' culture. Exampleswould be the Ananse tales from equatorial Africa, stories about Mullah Nasruddin inMoslem countries, or picaro tales in Latin America. Still another possibility is the retellingof local or national historical events.

As the reading ability of your students improves, theyare ready for less sheltered readingexperiences. In those countries where English is used as a second language anda localEnglish-language literature has developed (e.g., in India, Nigeria, and other countries),selections from that literature may be used to help students gainan understanding of thevalues of their culture. When students are better able to handle texts with partiaiiyunfamiliar content, you can begin to ut narrative and even drama from American (orBritish, or Canadian, etc.) literature as a basis for developing crosscultural understanding.

In assessing your students' needs to read English, youmay find that they have to advanceno further than the ability to understand and enjoy narrative and expressive texts of a fewhundred words in length. Other students, however, may eventually need to be able tohandle the types of expository prose which are used in academic and professional writing.Or they may be expected t extend their language studies into advanced literature courses.

If you know that long range goals such as these lie ahead ofyour students, you shouldhelp them to begin the development of strategies whichmay be transferred into thesemore demanding types of reading. The foundation may be laid even while studentsareworking with simpler narrative selections. Ask questions and setup exercises which leadstudents to discover the author's purpose or theme. Guide them into picking out theorganization of the text: the major divisions, the main ideas, thesequence of events. Helpthem to understand the contribution made by supporting details: examplesto clarify adifficult concept, description to make a scene more vividor to bring a character to life.

Academic PurposesSome learners will eventually have to use English as the medium through which theyreceive their advanced education. Some will also need touse English in their professionalcareers. The type of discourse which they must learn to handle differs in significant waysfrom narrative and expressive literature. Moreover, the way in whicha reader approachesthese more academic types of writing also differs from the usual way of reading narratives.

Some Significant Features of Expository ProseYou will have to familiarize your students with the patterns of organization commonly usedin expository prose. Although the patterns may differ somewhat from one academic

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discipline to another, the kinds of writing which stud_ its usually deal with--the expositoryprose of their college and university textbooks--are quite similar regardless of the field ofstudy.

It should also be noted that the kinds of writing which your students may need to do inother courses (essays, reports, reviews, and the like) will follow these same patterns.Therefore, much of the following discussion about common features of academic prose isjust as relevant to the teaching of advanced writing skills as it is to the tea,' g of reading.In fact, you will fin that many of the textbooks for high intermediate and advancedlearners of English are intended to teach both reading and writing.

The most common pattern for organizing an academic essay is shown in Figure 5.4, whichmay be referred to as the "discourse map." You will note, first of all, that the map isdivided into three main sections: introduction, body, and conclusion. In a short essay, theintroduction may be only one paragraph long. The conclusion may also be only oneparagraph, or it may be a single sentence attached to the end ;:f the last paragraph of thebody. Sometimes, if the essay is short enough, the concluding statement is omitted entirely.The body of the essay is usually more than one paragraph in length. In longer essays (forexample, a chapter of a textbook, or a research paper), the body of the essay is greatlyexpanded, and even the introduction and conclusion may increase in length.

The most important part of the introduction is the author's statement of the focus of theessay. (In textbooks for the teaching of reading and writing, this statement of focus isvariously referred to as the purpose, controlling idea, thesis, thesis statement, and Fillother terms.) In one or two sentences the author tells the reader precisely what the topicof the essay is, as well as the point of view from which the topic will be treated. Forexample, in an essay on the causes of the American Civil War (1861-1865) the authormight state the focus in the following way:

In the sections which follow we will examine the causes of the conflict interms of the political and economic differences between the North and theSouth.

Alternatively, the author may wish to argue that the causes of the war were not of equalimportance. Thus, the statement of focus would probably incorporate a thesis that theauthor will defend in the body of the essay.

There were numerous causes underlying the conflict between the North andthe South. However, the most important of these were economic; the warwas essentially a conflict between two economic systems: one industrial, theother agricultural.

Usually the author does not state the focus in the first sentence or two of the introduction.Instead, the typical academic essay opens with a few sentences which aet the scene andcapture the interest of the reader. The author may give some historical background orotherwise try to orient the reader to the topic of the essay. Important as these openingsentences are in terms of establishing a general frame of reference, the reader Ltust

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Opening statements:

Focus statement for the

INTRODUCTION

Capture the reader's interestOrient the reader to the topic of the essay

essay:Identifies the topic of the essayIndicates how the topic will be treated

Focus statement:

.. .. .. . .

Focus statement:

etc.

BODY of the ESSAY

Topic sentence identifies the purpose of the firstmajor division of the body

. . MP

Topic sentence identifies the purpose of the secondmajor division of the body

10

Each major division of the body has its own focusstztement (topic sentence)

Closing statements:

CONCLUSION

Summarize the major points of the essaySometimes repeat the focus of the essay

Figure 5.4 The Discourse Map for an Academic Essay107

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remember that the most explicit statement of the focus of the paper is usually foundnearthe end of the introduction.

The first step in teaching the organization of academic essays, therefore, is to acquaintyour students with the idea of the author's statement of the focus. Students will need alot of practice in recognizing these statements. It is a crucial microskill. It sets up theexi *ions with which the reader approaches the essay, making it far easier to pick outthe author's main ideas.

In the same way that the introduction ends with a statement of the focus of theessay asa whole, each of the major divisions of the body of the essay also has a statement of focus,usually referred tc as the topic s tence. However, these topic sentences in the body ofthe paper usually ,ome at the beginning of their respective sections. Placing the topicsentence at the beginning of its section is a very efficient technique. The reader isimmediately alerted to the focus of the section and finds that it is easier to comprehendand remember the content.

Teaching students to recognize topic sentences sometimes poses problems. Thegreatestdifficulty is that, although the body of the essay may consist of a iarge number ofparagraphs when viewed in terms of its physical makeup, when viewed conceptually it mayconsist of only two or very few major divisions. For example, in an essay about theAmerican Civil War which has either of the two statements of purpose given above, thebody of the essay might have only two divisions: political differences and economicdifferenc Jr the industrial system of the North and the agricultural system of the South.How can Nt 'Alen ts determine where the breaks between major divisions occur?

Sometimes the designer of the textbook helps the reader by settingup section headings forthe major divisions in the body of the essay. However, it is a great aid to readingcomprehension to be able to pick out major divisions without the help of suchtypographical devices. The trick lies in being able to recognize differing levels of generalityfrom one sentence to another. The sentence which states the focus of the wholeessay isthe most general in scope. Topic sentences which begin major divisions of the body of theessay are less general, since their scope is only part of the scope of the whole essay.Within a major division, each physical paragraph islikely to begin with a generalstatement, but its scope will be still less general than that of the topic sentence for thewhole division.

These differing levels of generality are of course what underlie the concept of the outline.Teachers sometimes require their students to outline a reading assignment asa way ofensuring better understanding, and outlining is often recommendedas a study skill.Unfortunately, teachers too often fail to recognize the conceptual difficulties involved inlearning to outlint:. Students must first learn to discriminate between different levels ofgenerality, between main ideas and supporting ideas, before they are able to lay out thoseconceptual relations in outline form.

Therefore, in addition to teaching your students to recognize the statement of focus forawhole essay, you need to teach them to recognize the topic sentences whichexpress the

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main ideas of the major divisions. By exercising these skills, readers are able to lay barethe conceptual map of a piece of academic discourse. Skilled readers comprehend andretain what they read in terms of just such a map They process the supporting details asthey read and use them to aid comprehension, b t they do not allow the details to cloudtheir perception of the main ideas.

In addition to teaching the features of the discourse map, you will need to acquaint yourstudents with the kinds of logical relationships commonly used to establish links betweenmain ideas and supporting ideas. The focus statement of an essay may, for example, setup a classification. The first sample focus statement that we suggested above looks at thecauses for the Civil War (this is the class) and sets up two subdivisions, political andeconomic (these are the two members of the class). Within the body, the topic sentencefor the first major division might also set up a classification. This time the class would bethe political causes as a whole, and the members would be the specific causes such asdisagreements over states' rights, arguments about strict interpretation of the U.S.Constitution, and so on. The second major division of the body might set up a similarclassification for economic causes.

Besides classification, other types of logical relationships commonly found in academicdiscourse are definition, generalization and exemplification, physical description, functionor process description, comparison, contrast, cause and effect, and chronological order.Each logical relationship has its distinctive characteristics. For example, the essentialfeature of classification is the relationship between a class and its members. Eachrelationship also is frequently signaled by easily recognized vocabulary. The classificationrelationship is often introduced with sentences containing verbal expressions such as "maybe divided into," or "consists of," or "includes."

Reading to Gather InformationWhy do you usually read narrative and expressive types of writing (outside the classroom,that is)? Most commonly, people read short stories, novels, even biographies, simply forpleasure, or perhaps to pass the time on a long plane trip. While you may also learnsomething new as you read for pleasure, the gathering of information is not your primarygoal.

In contrast with pleasure reading, most academic reading tasks involve the gathering andprocessing of information. You read a textbook to acquaint yourself with the body ofknowledge that makes up a college course. You search reference works and journals toamass the information needed for a term paper. You review your reading and lecturenotes to prepare yourself for an examination.

The information-gathering uses of reading require some microskills which your studentsmay not need as long as their reading is confined to narrative and expressive literature.Howev-r, if your students expect to use English for academic purposes, you can teachthem how to 1 ad larger quantities of expository prose more efficiently and with bettercomprehension and retention.

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The chances are very good that your students will have learnedone all-purpose strategyfor attacking a written text. Regardless of the length of the text, whether a fewparagraphs, several pages, or a whole book, the strategy remains the same. They beginwith the first word and proceed sentence by sentence, page bypage to the end. Patientand persistent readers can cover a lot of pages in this way, but itis an inefficientprocedure.

You can set up exercises which show your tudents a variety ofways to approach a writtentext, teaching them to suit their reading strategy to their reading 'RI-pose. For example,it is sometimes more sensible to begin a reading task with a global approach. Ifyou aregathering information to write a research paper, how do you know whethera particularbook is going to be of any use to you? The best way to find out is tosurvey the book toget a general idea of its contents.

If the book is a paperback, look at the back cover. Often there will be a generalsummaryof the contents as well as information about the particular approach to the subject matterwhich the author has used. Open the book to the table of contents, another importantsource of information about the coverage of the subject matter. Perhaps one specificchapter title looks promising. Turn to that chapter and page through it quickly looking atsection headings, tables and figures, illustrations and photographs. These will giveyou abetter idea of whether the chapter contains information which youcan use. Perhaps thereare references to the topic you are interested in scattered in other parts of the book. Anexamination of the index will tell you if this is so. Surveying a book in thisway can savea lot of time and help you to locate the information you need.

On a bmaller scale, students can learn through appropriate exercises to skiman article ora chapter of a book in order to get an overview of its content. The skimming microskillmakes deliberate use of the discourse map which we discussed earlier. You read quicklythrough the first paragraph looking for the author's statement of the focus of theessay.Having found the focus statement, you read the first sentence or two of each paragraph(that is, the topic sentences) to discover the major ideas. You read the entire lastparagraph, since that is where the author often makes a concluding statement whichrestates his focus and summarizes his main points. Students can use this skimmingmicroskill in order to determine whether a particular essay is worth readingmore closely.If the essay is worth a closer reading (or if they must read theessay because the teacherrequires it), they should be able to read with better comprehension and retention becausethey will have a mental map of the contents. The map will provide the context which givesmeaning to the details.

In addition to surveying and skimming, another way to approach a reading selection isscanning. Readers scan a text in order to locate a predetermined item of information. Inan article about the use of insecticides, does the author discuss DDT? Does this articleabout nutrition give the minimum daily requirements for vitamins and minerals? Does thischapter about pollution list the regions affected by acid rain? To find theanswers toquestions such as these, you run your eyes rapidly over the text looking for key words:"DDT," "minimum daily requirements," "acid rain." When you hit the key word,you stopand read more closely to see if the author gives the information you want.

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Later in this chapter you will find examples of exercisesto develop the reading microskills,including those used for gathering information. Students needconsiderable practice withthese strategies before they feel confident of them and learnto suit the strategy to theirreading purpose.

Extensive ReadingMost of the reading that is done by second-language learners is obligatory, assignedreading. The reading selectionsare chosen primarily because they contain features of thelanguage (vocabulary, grammar, discourse structure, style) which the studentsshould learn.The act of reading itself is often a matter of practicing importantmicroskills. All of thisis pedagogically necessary. It is also quite artificial. In "real life"we usually read becausewe want to, not because we have to. There should be some way of providingmorenatural, and possibly more enjoyable, reading experiences foryour students.

Earlier in this chapter, a recommendation was made concerning a lending library ofgeneral interest reading materials. The idea of sucha library is to get the students hookedon reading, even when they have not advanced very far in their reading competence. Thisidea of a lending library may be expanded to meet the needs of studentswhose readingability is more developed.

Alongside the intensive reading which your students do underyour direct supervision, theyneed the chance to read more extensivelyon their own and at their own pace. For thispurpose you need to provide a wide variety of reading material of varying degrees ofsophistication and difficulty, which your studentscan read for pleasure and, not incidentally,for the expansion of their knowledge of English and the practiceof their readingmicroskills. You may want to use as thecore of this extensive-reading library a selectionof titles from the greatly varied graded readers whichare available from most of the majorpublishers of English language teaching materials.

There are a number of points to keep in mind ifyou want to encourage your students tobecome more enthusiastic readers.

1. Don't hold your students strictly accountable for what they have read(e.g., by quizzes or book reports), or otherwise make extensive readinginto just another school assignment.

2. Do, however, encourage them to write short comments about whatthey have read to serve as guidance and recommendations for theirclassmates when they choose their books to read.

3. Read the books yourself so that you can add your own writtencomments and make suggestions to students who have trouble makingtheir selections.

4. Keep the books attractively displayed and readily accessible, perhapsfeaturing one or two books each week and "advertising" them withslogans to arouse the students' curiosity.

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5. If you judge that it would not be counterproductive within the cultureof your students, stimulate competition in the number of books readby each student.

As with the more informal, everyday types of reading matter which were described earlierin the chapter, the aim is to make the students want to read more and to provide plentyof materials for them to use. Although the teacher knows that such reading is "good forthem," what the students should think is that it is interesting and pleasurable.

EXAMPLES OF EXERCISES TO DEVELOP THE READING MICROSKILLS

Although the specific content of reading lessons varies enormously, once your studentshave passed beyond the materials for basic literacy and for everyday reading, the overallorganization of a reading lesson stays pretty much the same regardless of content. Fortexts created by the Language Experience Approach, for short narratives, for academicessays--for all these varied types of reading selections, you can use a reading lesson whichdivides very simply into pre-reading activities, the reading of the selection itself, and post-reading activities.

There are four main types of exercises for developing the reading microskills. Someexercises are better used as pre-reading activities, sor..e as post-reading activities. Othersmay be used, with differing effect, either before or after the text has been read.

o Some exercises are well suited as opening strategies for a readinglesson. They arouse the students' interest and activate any knowledgethey may already have which is related to the content of the readingselection, as well as introducing them to the general organization ofthe text.

o A second type of exercise aims at ensuring a better overallunderstanding of the text. They direct the students' attention to themain ideas, the author's purpose or theme. They ask the student tomake inferences and see implications, and even to assess and evaluatethe text. When used before the students read the text, exercises ofthis second type guide and support the students through the reading.Used after the text has been read, the exercises often serve as acomprehension check.

o A third type of exercise looks at the text more from the point of viewof form than of -ontent. Such exercises help the students to pick outthe formal signals of the discourse map. They focus on the ways inwhich logical relationships are expressed, and the various grammaticaland lexical devices used to knit the text together into a coherent andcohesive discourse. The more detailed exercises of this type are doneafter the text has been read so as not to interfere with the readingprocess. Sometimes very simple exercises of this type are placed at

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the beginning a reading selection so that the students will note basicfeatures of text organization as they read.

o The fourth type of exercise leads the studentto extract salient featuresof the text to be used for other purposes: for example, to study forexaminations or to incorporate into original research papers.Exercises of this type are usually done after thetext is read.

Here is an example of the use of questions at the beginning of a reading lesson in orderto make your students aware of what they alreadyknow about the topic, as well as whatthey do not know and might like to learnabout it. (Due to space limitations andcopyright restrictions, only the exercise is givenfor this example and for some of the otherswhich follow. It has not been possible to include the reading selection on which theexercise is based.)

Directions: Before you read the article on robots think and talk with yourclassmates about the following questions:

1. What is a robot?2. Is there any difference between a robot and an automaton?3. What can robots be used for?4. Do you think they can ever completely replacehuman beings for

some jobs? Which ones?

[Francoise Grellet. Developing Reading Skills. Cambridge University Press,1981.]

Another example of an opening strategy is theuse of skimming to discover the generalstructure of a text.

1. Number the paragraphs in "The Nutrients in Food." How manyparagraphs are there?

2. Read the introduction (Paragraph 1). First nutrients are defined.Then the five general groups of nutrientsare listed. In what orderdo you think the author discusses these nutrients?

3. Quickly read only the first sentence of each paragraph.From thesesentences, guess which paragraphs are about each of the topicslisted below. Give the numbers of the paragraphswhich are abouteach general topic. Paragraph 1 is an introduction. Finish theexercise.

Topics ParagraphsIntroduction 1

CarbohydratesFats

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ProteinsMineralsVitaminsConclusion

[Adapted from Amy L. Sonka. Skillful Reading. Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1981.Reprinted by permission of Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NewJersey.]

Exercises which guide the reader to discover .'ae author's overall purpose and main ideasmay be presented before students read the selection or after they have read it.Doingsuch an exercise as a pre-reading activity is particularly helpful when your students are stilldeveloping the skill of discovering the discourse map of an academic essay.

Even young children can be asked to tell the main idea of a paragraph after they haveread it. You can ask them "What do you think this story is about?" or "What would bea good title for this story?" When they volunteer their opinions the students can discussthe various possibilities and evaluate why one is better than another.

Older learners and learners with more reading proficiency can do pre-reading exercisesto predict the author's overall purpose and anticipate the main ideas of a reading selection.For example, a multiple-choice question can ask them to predict the content of the passagebased on the information they gain from the title. Further multiple-choice questions basedon key sentences from the passage (mostly topic sentences) can alert them to the mainideas.

When the information in a text has a complex logical structure, it often helpscomprehension to visualize the relationships among the ideas in terms of a diagram. Thefollowing paragraph explains why centers of civilization do not develop in tropical rainforests where slash and burn agriculture is practiced. The explanation is presented as achain of causes and effects, and the purpose of the follow-up exercise is to ensure that thereader understands this interrelated sequence.

It has been noted many times that the centers of development ofcivilization lie outside the boundaries of the tropical rain forests. Theexplanation for this is that the limitations of slash and burn agriculture intropical rain forests prevent cultural development from advancing beyonda relatively simple level. Gardens can be productive only for a short time.Consequently, settlements are small and have to move frequently. Thesetwo factors prevent the growth of occupational specialization. One doesnot therefore need to look for psychological explanations or to considerlow cultural development as the result of geographical isolation fromcenters of diffusion. The explanation is provided by the series of causesand effects just mentioned.

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Complete this cause-effect diagram:

limitations ofslash and

burnagriculture

1

lowcultural

development

[Adapted from John Moore et al. Discourse in Action. Oxford UniversityPress, 1980.]

Being able to make inferences andsee implications can contribute greatly to a reader'sunderstanding of a text. Writers usually do not make explicit all the assumptions whichthey expect their readers to share. 1 hus, readers must often infer bits of informationwhich are not stated. The next exercise, which would be done after thy,text has beenread, gives practice in making such inferences.

Read the following text.

A Son to Be Proud Of

Last week, Rahman's wife hadan accident. Rahman's youngest child,Yusof, was at home when it happened. Hewas playing with his new toycar. Rahman had given it to him the week before, for his third birthday.

Suddenly Yusof heard his mother calling "Help! Help!" He ran to thekitchen. His mother had burned herself withsome hot cooking oil. Shewas crying with pain and the pan was on fire.

Rahman had gone to his office. Both the other children had gone toschool. Yusof was too small to help his mother, and shewas toofrightened to speak sensibly to him. But heran to the neighbor's houseand asked her to come and help his mother. Shesoon put out the fireand took Yusof's mother to the clinic.

When Rahman came home, his wife told him what had happened. Hewasvery proud Jf his son. "When you are a man, you will be just likeyourfather," he said.

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Now read the statements below. Say which statements can be inferredfrom the text.

1. Rahman had three children.2. Yusof was three years old.3. Yusof was playing in the kitchen.4. Rahman's wife was frying something.5. Rahman was a clerk.6. Yusof had a brother and sister.7. Rahman's house was not isolated.8. The neighbor was a nurse.9. Yusof's mother needed medical treatment.

[Christine Nuttall. Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language.Heinemann Educational Books, 1982.]

Exercises which lead a learner to evaluate a text may require a rather sophisticated use ofcritical thinking skills. For example, learners may be asked to judge a newspaper articlefor the accuracy and completeness of the account which it gives of a particular event. Thisworks best when the learners have personal knowledge of the event. A similar exercisewould have the learners compare two or three accounts of the same event. Theycan lookfor signs of bias in each presentation, differences in the aulence foi whom zach accountis intended, and the like.

The next sample exercise is similar to one discussed earlier in that it deals with logicalstructure. However, where the earlier exercise focuses only on the semantic aspects ofalogical relationship (a series of causes and effects), the exercise which follows makes thestudent aware of the language forms used to express a logical relationship, in this case thechronology underlying a process. The student must look for words like "step," "stage," or"phase," which refer to the parts of a process. (In the exercise, these are called"enumerators.") Also important are ordinal words like "first," "second," "next," "last," whichsignal that a list is being presented.

In his will, Alfred Nobel left specific instructions as to how the winners ofthe science awards he endowed are to be selected. First, each year theSwedish Academy of Sciences (physics and chemistry) and the CarolineMedical Institute (physiology and medicine) solicit nearly two thousandrecommendations from past laureates, university professors, and otherexperts from all over the world. The second step is the review ofrecommendations received and the selection of preliminary candidates byspecial committees within the two Swedish institutions. The committeemembers are specifically instructed that those chosen "shall have conferredthe greatest benefit on mankind," and that no consideration be given tothe candidates' nationalities. Next, after lengthy investigation anddiscussion, the final choices are made for each discipline. Finally,telegrams informing them of their awards are sent to the new Nobellaureates about one month prior to the award ceremony.

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Now ask yourself:

1. What are the key words in the topic sentence? (Is thereanything in the topic sentence which suggests that theparagraph will be explaining a process?)

2. Can you find any enumerative listing signals?

3. Have any enumerators been used (i.e., words like "steps"or"stages")?

4. Between the first step (soliciting requests forrecommendations) and the last step (informing the newlaureates), how many steps can you find?

[Martin L. Arnaudet and Mary Ellen Barrett. Paragraph Development.Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1981. Reprinted by permission of Prentice-Hall, Inc.,Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.]

Calling your students' attention to such features of language is doubly beneficial. Not onlydoes it contribute to better reading comprehension, but it also addsto the resources whichstudents can use in their own writing.

Pronouns and other types of substitute wordscan interfere with comprehension if thereader fails to understand which word, phrase,or clause the substitute word replaces. Thefollowing exercise is one of several types whichmay be used to give learners practice ininterpreting substitute words and make them conscious of theways in which substitutewords tie sentences together.

Why is it that American working women complain about jobdiscrimination? Statistics suggest that there is a basis for theirgrievances. According to recent figures compiled by the Women'sBureau of the U.S. Department of Labor, nearly 40 percent of all

5 women of working age are in the labor force. Although the medianeducation of all women is higher than that of their malecounterparts, women are highly concentrated in underpaid andmenial jobs: 75 percent of all clerical workers are women; 55percent of all service workers are women; 27 percent of all factory

10 workers are women.

Of the women with college degrees, 70 percent are working. Of thisnumber, only 2 percent are executives, while 40 percent areemployed in clerical, sales, or factory positions. Their medianincome is only 51 percent of that of men.

15 Only twenty-five states have laws requiring equal pay for equal work,and these laws are often circumvented by giving awoman a lesser

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title. In contrast, forty-three states have laws which limit the numberof hours a woman can work (usually eight) and thereby preventwomen from earning overtime pay and promotions.

20 Finally, while the percentage of women in the labor force increases,the income gap between male and female workers has beenwidening at the rate of one-half percent per year for the past twentyyears.

[Text adapted from Martin L. Arnaudet and Mary Ellen Barrett. ParagraphDevelopment. Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1981. Reprinted by permission of Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.]

Refer to the above text to answer the following questions:

1. higher than that of their male counterparts (line 6)What does 'That" refer to?

2. of this number (line 11)Of what number?

3. only 51 percent of that of men (line 14)Only 51 percent of what?

4. these laws are often circumvented (line 16)Which laws?

5. thereby prevent women from earning (line 18)How do laws prevent women from earning overtime pay andpromotions?

As we have said earlier, when people read for academicor professional purposes theyusually read to gather information. The ability to extract information from written textsdepends on several of the microskills we have already discussed: identifying the author'spurpose; picking out the main ideas and understanding the logical relations among them,making inferences and seeing implications; and evaluating a text for accuracy,completeness, bias, and other qualities. Moreover, the information which has beengathered is often put to use in a writing task of some kind: research reports, summariesor critical reviews of written sources, study notes for examinations, and so on.

Sample Lesson in Reading an Academic TextYou should be aware of the heavy cognitive demands of exercises which require studentsto gather information and then process it in some way in order to produce their owndiscourse. Students have to be brought along gradually in a series of steps leading to theculminating activity or task. Here is how the author of one widely used reading textbook(Skillful Reading by Amy L. Sonka) lays out such a sequence. Sonka's careful developmentcan serve as a model for reading lessons treating academic essays.

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1. The centerpiece of the lesson is a thousand-word reading aboutexperiments in which the nature of short-term memory is studied.

2. The pre-reading activities alert students to the fact that experimentsare processes. Processes consist of steps which are carried outin chronological order. Descriptions of processes usually containsignal words such as:

first after that finallyto begin afterwards in conclusion

at that timelaternextsecond, third, etc.subsequentlythen

3. As the students begin the reading selection itself, theysee these"reading hints":

An experiment is a process.As you read the first two experiments ask yourself these questions:

What was the experimenter studying?What did he do first?Then what did he do?What was his conclusion?

In the final section, ask yourself the following questions:What am I studying?What do I do first?Then what do I do?Finally what do I do?

Thus the students are prepared to pick out the organization of thetext, to find the main ideas and understand the logical connectionamong them.

4. One of the follow-up activities to the reading is an exercise in takingnotes. The author carefully leads the students througn this activity.

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When you take rotes on an experiment, your notesshould include the objective of the study, theprocedure, and the results.

The procedure of an experiment is a process. Yournotes should reflect the order of the process.When you look at your notes, it should be clearwhat happens first, second, third, and so on.

Directions: Take notes on the three experimentsdescribed in "Short-Term Memory."

Animal Experiment of Short-Term MemoryObjective:Procedure:

Results:

Human Experiment of Short-Term MemoryObjective:Procedure:

Results:

Directions for a Short-Term Memory ExperimentObjective:Procedure:

Results:

5. Students do further post-reading exercises emphasizing the signalwords which are used in descriptions of process.

6. The students work in pairs giving oral descriptions of the threeexperiments discussed in the reading selection. While doing thesedescriptions, they refer only to the notes they made in Step 4.

7. In another pair-work exercise the students practice asking andanswering questions about the steps in the experiments. Againthey refer only to their notes as they devi and znswer thequestions.

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8. Finally, in a writing task the students answer sample examinationquestions:

Explain one way researchers study short-termmemory of animals.Explain how human short-term memory can bestudied.

[Amy L. Sonka. Skillful Reading. Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1981. Reprinted bypermission of Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.]

Even this brief sketch will show how a sequence of exercises is constructedso that thereis ample preparation for the more demanding tasks. It is worth noting also how reading,speaking, and writing activities are used to reinforce each other.

SPECIAL NOTES ON VOCABULARY

Many people have unpleasant memories of learning vocabulary. Do you remembermemorizing long lists of words in a foreign language, eachone matched with its meaningin English? Do you remember studying vocabulary with the aid of flash cards, methodicallygoing through the pack, trying to remember the meaning of the words and flippingthecards to sc.:. if you had recalled (or guessed) correctly? Doyou remember vocabularyquizzes? Of course, we have to understand the words in orderto understand and use thelanguage, but there are better ways than these to learn vocabulary.

For one thing, we have come to understand that itis easier to learn and remembervocabulary when it is presented within a context, rather than ina list or in a set of flashcards. "Context" means the other words in a text which surround the unknown words,andalso the nonlinguistic situation in which the. words are used. The familiaraspects of thelinguistic and nonlinguistic context contribute theirown meanings and set up associativelinks. This makes it possible at least to guess at the meaning of unknown words andlaterto recall their meanings by mentally associating them with the context in which theywerefirst seen.

Another thing that we have come to understand is thatno course can possibly teach all thewords that learners have to know. True, a lot of effort is spent in beginningcourses onsupplying 0 - learners with a stock of basic vocabulary. But once the learner has avocabulary of, say, 2000 commonly occurring words, what happens next? Accordingto onewell-known frequency list of English words, adding 1000more words would mean havingto teach words which occur as infrequently as 30 times per million running words. Puttingit another way, in a given naturally occurring writtentext (one which h, , not beenespecially constructed for language learning purposes)most of the words would not befound in a list of the 3000 most frequent words in English. Nearly one-half of thewordsin the text would occur in that text onlyonce. Clearly, it would be an enormous burdento have to learn all the new words in every new written text.

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In the light of these observations, there are several conclusionswe can draw about theteaching of vocabulary:

1. Memorizing vocabulary by means of lists or other devices whichdivorce the words from their context is of limited value.

2. It is more effective to introduce and practicenew words within anatural context--at a minimum, within a phraseor a sentence; a longercontext is better.

3. In a particular written text, unknown wordsare of three types: wordswhich are central to the meaning of the text (key words) and shouldbe explicitly taught; words which are also important but whosemeaning may be inferred by the reader; and words whichmay besafely ignored.

Explicitly Taught Words and Inferred WordsExplicitly teaching unknown words means to give the meaning either througha gloss inEnglish (i.e., a dictionary-like definition, perhaps simplified)or through translation into thestudents' native language. Don't feel thatyou have to avoid translation entirely, but try asmuch as possible to use English for definitions. This will make it easier foryour studentsto begin using an all-English dictionary at intermediate and higher levels of languageproficiency.

Choose to teach explicitly the key words of the text, probablyno more than five to tenwords, depending on the length of the text. Quite often the teaching of these wordsmaybe made part of the pre-reading questioning and discussion whichyou do to make surethat your students have adequate background information for understanding thetext.

In addition to the explicitly taught key words, pick out five to ten additional words whichare slightly less important and guide your students to guess at the meanings. In guessingat the meaning of unfamiliar words, they should :warn to use the meanings of known wordsin the surrounding parts of the te" s well as the additional help which may be providedby grammatical clues such as wore. .J (prefixes, roots, suffixes) and the order of wordsin sentences. They should lea:n .o draw on background information, thatis, theknowledge which they already have about the subject matter of the text. Last but notleast, they should be alert to tht, fact that authors frequently define words which theyexpect their readers not to know.

Suppose your students meet the word "circadian" ina reading selection on a biologicaltopic. Through careful questioning, you can prompt them toguess at its meaning. (Don'tlook it up; see if you can guess it yourself.) Here isa sentence in which the word mightappear:

One of the biological clocks which scientists have studiedis the 24-hour circadian cycle of body activity.

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Note that the word ends in "-an," a suffix which, in either this form or the variant "-ian,"is often found on adjectives and nouns (e.g., urban, pedestrian, egalitarian). Next, notethat the word occurs just before the noun "cycle." This is a position where adjectives areoften found. The words "clock" and "cycle," and especially "24-hour" indicate that"circadian" has some connection with time, probably a daily cycle. Your students mayalready have read or heard about biological clocks elsewhere, and they probably havenoticed that they themselves have daily cycles of peak or low energy, feeling hungry,getting sleepy, and waking up. All these clues taken togeth,: can supply enough of themeaning of "circadian" to make it unnecessary to refer to the dictionary.

Regular practice in guessing the meaning of unfamiliar words will gradually increaseyourstudents' skill and confidence. Your questions can guide them to notice the lexical andgrammatical clues and prompt them to call on their existing knowledge of the subjectmatter. It is important not to insist on a precise, tight definition of the word. A littlevagueness in the meaning of one word is acceptable as 'long as the sentence as a whole isunderstandable.

Insisting on a precise, dictionary-like definition or a native-tongue translation ofevery wordin a text is likely to have one of two undesirable results. Some of your students maysimply give up after a page or,two, frustrated by having to thumb the dictionary for everyunfamiliar word. On the other hand, the more persistent ones may bash through to theend of the text. However, their comprehension of the text as a whole may not be muchbetter than if they had simply ignored the unknown words. This is because their readingspeed will have slowed to the point that they are processing the text only sentence bysentence. They will have lost sight of the discourse map, the conceptual structure of thewhole discourse, while worrying about the less significant details.

Sample Types of Vocabulary ExercisesVocabulary exercises fall into two very general types, with lots of variation within eachtype. One type focuses on the meanings of words and the other deals with the forms ofwords and the contexts in which they occur. Some of the variations of the first typeareexercises to practice the skill of guessing the meanings of unfamiliar words, exercisesonsynonyms and antonyms, and exercises on words which are in the same semantic field.

Exercises which teach the skill of inferring unknown words are set up in such a way thatstudents are made aware of the clues that they are using to guess the. meanings. In thefollowing exercise, for example, the attention of the students is focussed on the variousdefinitions which the author supplies for the underlined technical terms.

Directions: Put square brackets around the information which defines theunderlined technical terms. The first answer has been done for you.

1. [A major climate with its associated plants and animals] forms a[large ecosystem] called a biome

2. The tundra is a vast water-soaked region, with permanently frozenground several feet down, and with extensive bogs in summer.

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3. The taiga is the northern coniferous forest.

4. Temperate deciduous forests, such as those of the EasternUnited States, are dominated by deciduous trees--oaks,hickories, elms, chestnuts, and maples.

5. Grasslands are drier regions. They are variously termedprairies, plains, pampas, steppes, and velds.

[Data from Stanley L. Weinberg. Biology. Allyn and Bacon, Inc.,1974.]

In many exercises on synonyms and antonyms the task is to supply anotherword which hasthe same (or opposite) meaning. More sophisticated exercises pointup the fact that theremay be no such thing as a true synonym or true antonym. Taking the case of synonyms,the words "progeny," "issue," "offspring," "children," and "kids" could be saidto have thesame general meaning. Yet only a moment's reflection will show that they differ informality, in connotation, in the kinds of contexts in which theyare likely to occur. Wouldyou expect to read "He died without kids" in a legal context? Would the bravecrew ofa sinking passenger liner call out "Women and progeny first"?

Another meaning-oriented type of vocabulary exercise treats words which belongto thesame semantic field: names of foods, ways of preparing food, sports and the equipmentused to play them, adjectives describing emotions, and thousands of otherexamples. Thereare two advantages to studying words in teims of the semantic fields to which they belong.The first is that the associative links among the words makes it easierto rec.11 them. Thesecond is that it is possible to contrast andcompare words of similar meaning.

The following exercise from a textbook for medical technicians pointsup the differencesin meaning of several verbs which are often found in laboratoryprocedures involvingliquids.

Directions: Look at the following verbs. All 21 verhs havea place in thetable below. Write each verb in the correct column.

heat pour away half-fillfill dilute boilagitate cool addbathe wash rinseshake invert pour offdeliver steep freezewarm stir soak

Mixing Cleaning Transferring Changing theLiquids with Liquids Liquids Temperature

of Liquids

[Adapted from John Swales and Paul Fanning. English in the MedicalLaboratory. Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1980.]

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Whereas the first general type of vocabulary exercise deals withwords in terms of theirmeaning, the second type treats words in terms of their form (prefixes,roots, suffixes),their occurrence in common combinationsor collocations, and their role in linking togetherthe parts of a sentence or sections ofa discourse.

Exercises on the form of words lead students to recognizecommonly occurring prefixes,roots, and suffixes. The word in which the prefix, root,or suffix is illustrated should bepresented in a larger context so that the meaning is clear and theappropriate use of theword within the sentence is shown. The following exercise practicesthe use and meaningof certain prefixes. (The book from which the exercise is taken,Techniques in TeachingVocabulary, is available through Information Collection and Exchange,No. ED 106.)

Directions: One of the listed words is needed for completing eachsentence. The underlined prefix will tell you which word is needed. Thefirst sentence has been completed for you.

across again poorly before below

1. A subway does not go above a city; it goes below .

2. Maladjusted people are people who adjust

3. A transatlantic flight goes the Atlantic.

etc.

[Virginia French Allen. Techniques in Teaching Vocabulary.OxfordUniversity Press, 1983.]

Asking students to recognize prefixes, roots, and suffixes is saferthan supplying the wordparts and asking the students to produce the words. Unless the production type ofexercise is carefully controlled, the studentsmay end up inventing nonexistent words. Forexample, on the analogy of "biology-biologist," "anthropology-anthropologist,"and dozensof similar pairs a student might inventa new word "theologist."

Collocation exercises teach commonly occurring combinations ofwords. Some of thesecombinations are quite arbitrary, and for thatreason are difficult to remember. Take forexample the set combinations of verb plus preposition: "depend on,""consist of," "succeedin," "profit from," and hundreds of others. Combinations of adjective pluspreposition maybe equally troublesome: "suspicious of," "mad at," "thankful for," "loyal to,""disgusted with,"etc. Another type of collocation consists of adjective plusnoun: "calculated risk,""considered judgment," "voluntary retirement.' Combinations suchas these may not beobligatory, in the sense that a given noun absolutely requires a particular adjective.Rather, we are simply used to hearing the two words used together incertain contexts.

With collocations it is especially important to giveyour students plenty of practice inhearing and seeing the combinations of words beforeyou call upon them to produce the

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combinations themselves. Because many collocations are arbitrary, a student would haveto be very lucky to hit on the correct verb plus preposition or adjective plus noun withoutany previous practice. Once a number of collocations of one type have been practiced,you can do a consolidation exercise in which students have to recall the propercombinations. Here is part of one such exercise on adverb plus verb:

How many ways can a person drive?(carefully, carelessly, dangerously. . .)

How many ways can a person talk?(softly, loudly, excitedly. . .)

How many ways can a person eat?(slowly, quickly, hungrily. . .)

[Adapted from Michael Wallace. Teathing Vocabulary. HeinemannEducational Books, 1982.]

Link words (also called sentence linkers, conjunctions, and conjunctive adverbs) signalthought relationships between clauses or sentences. By interpreting the link words, areader knows that the thought of one clause is offered in contrast to the thought ofanother one, that a second sentence states the result of an action or condition describedin the first, and so on. The most effective exercises for the practice of link words showthem occurring in short texts. Given a discourse context, the learner can more readilyappreciate the importance of link words in signaPng relationships between sentences.Inthe following sample exercise, the student cannot select the appropriate link work withoutunderstanding the logical relationship between the linked clauses or sentences.

Directions: Read the following text and select the most appropriate linkwords from the lists given below:

A color consultant from Toronto explained to the Inter-Society ColorCouncil meeting in New York an ingenious scheme which a client companyhad conceived for increasing the sale of potato peelers. He began bypointing out a puzzling fact. 1 potato peelers "never wear out,"enough are sold in two years in his country to put one in every home.What happens to them? He gave this answer. "Investigation revealed thatthey get thrown away with the potato peeling." One of his colleagues, headded, had then come up with a dazzling plan for helping along thisthrow-away process. He proposed that their company paint their peelersas much like a potato peeling as possible." 2 , a potato coloredpeeler wouldn't have much eye appeal on the sales counter. Theydecided to solve that by displaying the peeler on a colorful card. Oncethe housewife got the peeler home and removed the bright card, thechances that she would lose the peeler were excellent.. .

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1 (a) because 2 (a) in addition(b) although (b) for example(c) for example (c) however(d) since (d) thus

[Adapted from Francoise Gre !Jet. Developing Reading Skills. CambridgeUniversity Press, 1981.]

Using a Learner's DictionaryAlthough language learners are often too dependent on them, dictionaries are under-utilized resources available to language learners. Even most teachers may not be awareof how helpful dictionaries can be. Thinking of all-English desk dictionaries which theymay have for their own use, they may rightlyassume that such native-speaker referenceworks are too difficult for their students. Onthe other hand, they may have had badexperiences with certain bilingual dictionaries(especially the short, pocket-sized variety)where meanings are given in terms of single-wordtranslations from one language to theother. And of come, forsome pairs of languages it is not even possible to find bilingualdictionaries.

Learner's dictionaries are a differentsort of reference, however, and in the last decadeorso some truly fine works have been published for learners of English.(In particular, it isworth looking over the wide range of dictionaries and related teaching materials publishedby Longman and by Oxford University Press.) Dictionaries for beginners avoid thedefinition problem by using pictures or photographs. Together with their supportingworkbooks, they offer an excellent way to help learners build a basic vocabulary.Moreover, the pictures and photographs showeveryday scenes which might be difficult forlearners from quite different cultural environmentsto imagine.

Dictionaries for students at intermediate andadvanced levels of proficiency are designedto supply not just spelling, pronunciation, and meaning ofwords, but many other types ofinformation especially useful to the secondlanguage learner. Let's take verbs as anexample. Here are some questions which thestudent may have about a particular verb.

o In the past tense and past participle forms, isthe verb regular orirregular? If irregular, what are the forms?

o When you add "-ing" to the verb, doyou drop the final e (compare"dying" and "dyeing")? Doyou double the final consonant ("travelling"or "traveling")?

o Is the verb always used with an object, never used with an object,sometimes used with an object and sometimes without? (Wecan say"The price includes breakfast" but not "The priceincludes." We say"The license expired" but not "The license expiredthe time." A verblike "read," however, may be used either withor without an object: "Ialways read the newspaper" and "I always read before goingto sleep.")

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o What kinds of constructions can follow the verb? A preposition?Which one? ("That depends on the weather.") Is the verb followedby an infinitive ("The guests decided to stay.")? By an "-ing" form ("Ienjoy listening to music.")? By a "that"-clause ("She insists that wehelp her.")?

o For phrasal verbs (verbs composed of a verb plus adverb orpreposition and having a different meaning from the verb on its own,e.g.: "call on," "call off," "blow up," "run over," "turn out") may the twoparts of the phrase be separated? (We say "call on them" but "callit off.")

o What is the difference in the meaning and use of "say" and "tell,""borrow" and "lend"?

In addition to providing information on the spelling, pronunciation, meaning, andgrammatical characteristics of a word, learners' dictionaries also give help in choosing thecorrect word from related alternatives. The student reads, for example that "kid" isinformal and would thus not be appropriate to use in a school essay. A student who ismore familiar with the British English "notice board" finds out that the American term is"bulletin board." Another student who is trying to chose between the similar words "alone"and "lonely," learns that while "alone" is a relatively neutral term, "lonely" has aconnotation of sadness. Students can also find words which are significantly different inmeaning but which may be confused because of superficial -imilarities of form, e.g.,"homework" and "housework." Most entries include example sentences, which not onlyhelp to explain the meaning of the head word, but also show collocations in which theword occurs.

Perhaps most important of all, learners' dictionaries use a limited and carefully chosendefining vocabulary. The Longman Dictionary of American English, for example, uses only2000 commonly occurring English words to give its definitions and examples.

Of course this marvelous storehouse of information will be of no use at all unless youteach your students how to use it independently as a reference and, moreover, see to itthat at least several dictionaries are easily available to them to be used when needed.You can introduce the various reference features of the dictionary one by one and, afterhaving introduced a feature, require the students to look up such information forthemselves.

Spelling is a good place to begin. You will have to teach the more commoncorrespondences of spelling and pronunciation, at least for initial consonant and vowelsounds. You will also have +q teach your students how to use alphabetical order if theyare not already familiar with it. From that point on, instead of asking you fcr spellings,they can consult the di,:tionaly. Although this may seem inefficient at first, as studentsgain experience they more quickly find what they need to know.

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All of this has a double payoff. Students take a few more steps toward becomingindependent learners of the language, and some of your time is freed so that you canfocus on those areas where your students are not yet ready for independence.

SUMMARY

Reading plays a variety of roles in thelearning and use of language.Literacy training is needed for students who are illiterate orsemiliterate in their first language,or who need to learn the writingsystem of English.

Reading of everyday print messages (signs, labels, instructions,brochures) serves to motivate students to read and to teach themuseful life skills.

Narrative and expressive texts help studentsmake the transition toextended reading, where they must learnto cope with problems ofunfamiliar content and new patterns of text organization.

For academic and professionalpurposes, students must learn how toprocess expository texts to gather needed information

Reading is a behavior which is madeup of a large number of component skills, sometimesreferred to as rifzoskills. Some microskillshave to do with aspects of the language, suchas:

recognizing letters of the alphabetmatching spoken words and sentences with their written formunderstanding sentence structureuncle' standing vocabularyrecognizing signals of text organizationrecognizing signals of logical relationships

Other microskills have to do with processingthe text in some way, such as:surveying a whole printed work (brochure, book)to determine its

relevancescanning a text for specific informationskimming a text to get the gist of its contentpicking out main ideas and supporting detailsevaluating a text for accuracy, completeness, pointof view

The exerci.,es found in reading lessons aimat developing these microskills to the pointwhere students can use them independently intheir own reading tasks outside the languageclass.

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Vocabulary exercises are quite varied, with some of the most common types being:guessing the meanings of unfamiliar wordssynonyms and antonymswords in the same semantic fieldcommon prefixes, roots, and suffixescollocationslink words

In addition one may find many practical exercises in the use of the dictionary.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING

Language Experience Approach to Reading (and Writing)Carol N. Dixon and Denise NesselAlemany Press, 1983The Language Experience Approach is a very effective way to teach reading to studentswith limited language proficiency, and it may be used with: .ners of all ages fromelementary school children to adults. Dixon Nessel explain the approach and provideabundant examples of lesson plans, topics, and activities.

Developing Reading SkillsFrancoise GrelletCambridge University Press, 1981Describes and classifies various types of reading comprehension exercises, including allthose types which are described here in Chapter Five. Provides a variety of examples foreach type, giving the specific aim, the skills involved, and the purpose served by eachexercise. All reading proficiency levels are represented.

Techniques in Teaching Vocabulary (ED 106)Virginia French AllenOxford University Press, 1983Comprehensive guide to teaching vocabulary, for beginning, intermediate and athancedstudents. Discusses aids to vocabulary teaching, deciding which words to teach, and howto determine which words students know through p :s.tical tests. Provides simpleillustrations and is a good guide for daily classroom instruction.

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CHAPTER SIX

TEACHING WRITING

First the roles of writing in the learning anduse of language are examined.The next sections discuss techniques for teachingbasic and expanded writingskills and for helping learners lin control of the writing process. Thechapter concludes with suggestions forways to respond to students' writingand sample exercises for teaching writing skills.

ROLES OF WRITING IN THE LEARNINGAND USE OF LANGUAGE

Let's begin by putting writing into perspective in relation to the other language skills.Where your native language is concerned, in ordinary, everyday use, you are far morelikely to be listening to, speaking,or reading the language than writing it. This is trueeventhough you are a professional witha job which requires you to carry out frequent writingtasks: memos, letters, reports, lesson materials,and the like. When it comes to a secondlanguage, professional peoplemay find that a good reading ability is essential, but for theiron the job writing tasks they may be more likely touse their native language. Thus inpractical terms, most people do not needto be as proficient in writing as they need to bein the other language skills.

In the English language classroom, writingactivities serve two differentpurposes. On theone hand, they help your students to learn the kinds of personal,academic, or professionalwriting which they will use in their daily lives. On the other hand, writing in English hasa more purely pedagogical role. It reinrorces the learning which goes on through themedium of the listening, speaking, and reading skills.

In the classes which you teach, whether for beginnersor more advanced students, you willprobably find that you often give writing assignmentsas a way of following up on listeningand speaking exercises or reading activities. In addition, students in the higher grades(secondary school and above) may need to learn how to write well organized, carefullyreasoned essays. The writing ofone or more essays is often a requirementon nationalexaminations. Widely used standardized Engl,Aroficiency examinations also require suchadvanced writing tasks. (For example, the Test ofWritten English, requiring a half-hourcomposition, is now available asa part of the Test of English as a Foreign Language. TheCambridge First Certificate in English hasa composition paper of one and a half hours.)

Stages in the Development of WritingProficiencyIn the teaching of writing, justas in the teaching of reading, it is helpful to havea long-range overview of how proficiency develops. You will notice that the links between

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reading and writing become closer as students progress through the three .nain phases ofthe sequence.

Early stages of writing

Proficiency levelLow beginners

Skills and features of English to learnUse printed/cursive forms of Roman alphabet (as appropriate)Learn general spelling and punctuation rulesUse simple word, phrase, and sentence forms

Materials to useBasic literacy materialsWriting tasks to follow up -n oral and reading exercisesShort narratives/descriptio, using Language Experience ApproachDialogue journals

Expanded writing skills

Proficiency levelHigh beginners and intermediate students

Skills and features of English to learnUse commonly occurring word, phrase, and sentence patternsWrite paragraphs with topic sentences and supporting detailsUse link words to signal organization of paragraphsPractice techniques for pre-writing, revising, editing

Materials to useDialogue journalsCompositions using Language Experience ApproachExercises to teach organization of paragraphsParagraphs of narration, description, simpler logical relationships

Academic writing skills

Proficiency levelHigh intermediate and advanced students

Skills and features of English to learnUse discourse patterns expected in academic writingDevelop a thesis with appropriate supporting detailsBecome more independent in the writing process

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Materials to useSequenced exercises to model and guide students'essaysWriting tasks simulating assignments in subject-mattercourses

Your students may not need to learn themost advanced forms of writing in thissequence.However, you should keep in mind thatmany of the features of advanced writing tasksarepresent in embryonic form at lower levels of thesequence. Further, most students findthat as they become more skilled at writing in one language, their writing inany otherlanguage they may know also improves. Perhaps surprisingly,this increased skill may eventransfer from a second language to the first.

General Lesson Plan for Composing AssignmentsIt is difficult to give a lesson plan which willcover all types of writing assignments. Whenyour students are composing (as opposed to doing writingtasks to reinforce oral orreading activities) yeti should always havea pre-writing phase and you should always allowplenty of time for revising. In fact, it is so difficult to separate writing andrevising titthe most appropriate lesson format consists of justtwo main phases:

Pre-writingBrainstorming in various forms, oral and writtenAnalysis of modelsReadingNotetaking

Writing and revisingTime for multiple draftsFeedback from teacher and other students

Basic Writing SPills and Reinforcement of Speakingand ListeningYour students may need writing instructionat the most basic level--learning to form theletters and other symbols of the English writingsystem. Students needing such instructionrange from those who have neither reading nor writing skills inany language to those whoare fully literate but who happen not to have learneda language which uses the Romanalphabet.

Chapter Five of this manual hasa section on basic literacy training, and the Peace CorpsLiteracy Handbook (Manual M-21 available fromInformation Collection and Exchange)provides detailed guidance. Here are some general points to consider when teachingwriting at this very basic level:

o Teaching the printed forms of letters, both capitalsand lower case,has the advantage that there will bea closer match between theshapes which the students write and the shapes whichthey must read.However, older learners may feel that printedletters are for childrenand insist on learning the cursive forms which theyassociate withadult handwriting. Choose the forms which work best for yourstudents.

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o When you began to learn to write in English, you may have learnedthe fetters in alphabetical order. A more efficient way is to group theletters according to their shapes. For example, a number of lowercase letters in their hand printed form are "hall and stick" figures: a,b, d, p, q.

o At the same time that students are developing a legible handwriting,they can also learn spelling rules of wide applicability, 4.4J well as theuse of common punctuation marks (especially the period, questionmark, comma, and apostrophe).

Even beginning students can handle simple writing assignment:, once they are able to formEnglish letters in a legible and consistent way and can recognize a few English words intheir written form. Keep in mind that your students should be able to understandeverything that they are asked to write. Thus it makes sense to present new content firstvia the listening and speaking skills, and to use reading and writing to rein!...wee what hasbeen mastered in the aural/oral activities.

In Chapter Five, the Language Experience Approach (LEA) was ....iiscussed as a way ofteaching reading to beginners. It is easy and natural to extend this technique as a wayof teaching writing to beginners. When used for writing, the LEA allows your students toexpress their own ideas, but it also permits you to control the difficulty of the writingassignment and to provide support in spelling, punctuation, grammar, and vocabulary asneeded.

At this point you should return to Chapter Five to refresh ;our memory of the use of theLEA for reading. Then look at the following guideline: for using the LEA in basic writingactivities.

1. Base student writing on personally meaningful topics, in the same waythat you use students' dictation of their own experiences as the textsfor beginning reading.

2. Have talk precede writing. Because writing is more difficult thandictating stories for the teacher to write, students should be givenmany pre-writing opportunities to review ore), what they want to sayin writing.

3. Emphasize the act of composing. Present writing as a form ofcommunication, not a series of drills.

4. Recognize errors in usage, awkward phrasing, and difficulties withmechanics as natural outcomes of limited mastery of English. Handleerrors very sensitively, placing more emphasis on helping the studentmake the meaning clear than on perfecting mechanical details such asspelling and punctuation.

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5. Relate writing assignments to reading and oral language activities. Atfirst, writing should be directly related to stories dictated by thestudents. As students are later exposed to a greater variety of readingmaterial, the additional models of English can be used to refinewritten expression and broaden the content of written work.

[Carol N. Dixon and Denise Nessel. Language Experience Approach toReading (and Writing). Alemany Press, 1983.]

Two themes which appear in Dixon and Nessel's guidelines deserve furthercomment. Thefirst is the emphasis on getting the students to communicate through writing. Theyrecommend that even the earliest writing assignments be tied to narratives about personallymeaningful topics. Contrast this type of assignment with anothe.type in which the studentwrites out a list of unrelated sentences, either as practice to reinforcea particular grammartopic or as an exercise in the application of certain translation rules. If you are requiredto use textbooks which present writing as drills rather than as communicatiun, you willcertainly want to devise supplementary writing activities which allowyour students tocommunicate on topics which have meaning for them.

The second theme is not as explicit as the first, but it is justas important. Composing isviewed as an iterative process. Writers gather their thoughts, search out additionalintormation, rehearse vocabulary and phraseology, put something into rough written form,review what they have written, evaluate it for adequacy of content and coherence oforganization, ask for critical feedback from another reader, addor delete content,reorganize to make the narrative or argument easier to follow, review and revise again (infact, probably several times), and finally, edit to check foraccuracy in grammar, vocabulary,spelling, and punctuation.

Note how much of this process is concerned with meaning. Note also that the writerusually does not "get it right" the first time around. Unfortunately, because of thewaycomposing is most often taught, students get the impression thatonce they start puttingwords on paper, the result should be very close toa finished product. They fail toappreciate the importance of the pre-writing activities, and theyare likely to think ofrevision solely in terms of proofreading for grammatical and mechanicalerrors.

If you teach writing as a process it is almost guaranteed thatyou will encourage yourstudents to communicate through their writing. But you must remember two key points.First, give your students enough tin.,: in pre-writing activities to gather their thoughts,discover the language needed to express them, and establish the focus of the composition.Secondly, show by your 1 esponse to their writing that your first concern is the messagethey are trying to convey. You will defeat your purpose ifyou immediately start markingup the grammatical and mechanical errors that you find.

Ma ;Iv teachers find it unnerving to return a composition toa student in which there areerrors which have not been picked out with red ink or otherwise commented upon.Perhaps it will help to view your students' composing efforts in the followingway. In theearliest stages of learning the writing skill, the goal is to gradually increase the length of

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the compositions. Don't expect polished productions. Instead, place the emphasison thepre-writing activities and on helping the students to get their ideas downon paper. Asyour students' writing proficiency increases, you can gradually lead them into techniquesfor revision and you can set up writing assignments so that they have timeto produce oneor more nonfinal drafts. Even then, as you t-tspond to an early draft you should thinkprimarily of how clearly and effectively the message has been presented. Ina later sectionof this chapter you will find some specific suggestionson ways to respond to students'written work.

Expanded Writing Skills and Reinforcement of ReadingIf you are teaching very young students, or absolute beginners ofany age, most of thewriting assignments which you give will be under careful control. Studentsmay do copyingexercises to learn letter formation, spelling, and puncttiation. Written grammar exercisesand written answers to questions on reading assignments are two other types of controlledwriting. Even when you use the LEA to teach writing,you are controlling the composingefforts of your students.

These controlled writing assignments play an important role in developing the basiclanguage proficiency of your students. Of course, controlled writing also has its limitations.It doesn't allow your students to be creative or to govery far in expressing their ownthoughts. Controlled writing has even more serious limitations ifyou rely on it for teachingessay writing skills. Students don't get the indepe:_dent practice they need in selectingatopic to write about, finding supporting de:ails, or discoveringan appropriate way toorganize their compositions.

So, while controlled writing assignments are useful forsome purposes, your students'writing activities need to be expanded in two ways. They must be allowedto be morecommunicative and they must be encouraged to be more independent.

Learning to Write While Learning to CommunicateIn recent years, many language teachers have tried an interesting tech..ique for encouragingstudents to write more, and to communicate more through their writing. The technique,called dialogue journals, is a form of interactive writing between the teacher and thestudent. The beauty of the technique is that you can use k with students ofany degreeof language proficiency, even with beginners. This is theway it works.

Each student has a composition book which he or she usesas a diary or journal. On aregular basis, preferably every day, students write in their jounalsas much or as little asthey want to write, on whatever subject interests them at Liemoment. They can returnto the same topic in a later entry if they like, or they can treat a new topic each time.They can ask the teacher questions about features of languageor culture, or aboutpersonal matters if they need to. They can express opinions and makerequests.

The dialogue aspect of dialogue journals results from the way the teacher responds to thestudents' entries. As frequently as possible, (It:pendingon the size of the class, the teacherasks to read the students' journals and writes an answering entry in eachone. In effect,the teacher and the students carry on a conversation via the journal. Hereare examples

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of two exchanges. The first example shows the third dailyentry from the journal of Laura,a sixth grade student from Italy who has had no prior English language training.

Laura: Ms. Reed, I like dis room and I like you Bekes you area goodteshir and teach my English. I like evryBety.

Teacher: Everybody likes you, too, Laura. Did you read thebook? We will read every day.

The second example is from the journal of Kazutomi,an adult Japanese student studyingEnglish in an intensive summer program in the United States.

Kazutomi: I don't buy a dictionary yet. If you take me bookstoreand choose my dictionary, I am delightful. Prepositionsare very difficult for me. In Japan, when I take EnglishExaminations, I lose points due to prepositions. Also,I want to know about an idiom.

Teacher: Good. Let's go to the bookstore on Friday at 4:00. 1

will meet you there. I can't go today because we havea faculty meeting. So Friday at 4:00 outside thebookstore, OK?

As I said, we'll have several lessons about prepositions. Thereare some rules we can study but often you just have tomemorize them.

Idioms are a lot of fun. I'll try to use more when I write toyou. Then if you don't get it (understand it) (an idiom) youcan ask. OK?

[Jana Staton. "Dialogue Journals: A New Tool for TeachingCommunication." ERICICLL News Bulletin 6(2), March 1983.]

Notice how in each case the teacher treats the student's entryas a message rather than asa writing sample to be corrected. At the same time, the teacher's response subtly rest apesparts of the student's entry and provides a model of correct language.

Teachers who have used dialogue journals with their students throughouta semester havefound that they bring many worthwhile results, both personal and pedagogical. Becausethe written dialogues are informal and private, most teachers feel that they achieveagreater mutual understanding with their students. On the pedagogical side, the studentsgradually increase their writing competence, moving toward greater independenceaswriters. Thanks to the feedback provided by the teacher, they gain a greaterunderstanding of the features of written English. Their entries become longer andmorecomplex. At the same time, because theyare exploring their own ideas and interests, they

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are building up a store of topical material which they can mine for later writingassignments of a more formal sort.

Mastering Features of Written Dis..outseAs your students advance to more complex fe-ms of writing, the links between reading andwriting become increasingl important. The texts that you use for instruction in readingprovide your students with 'cod for thought and topics for oral and written discussion. Atthe same time, the form& ..eatures of different types of written discourse serveas model.which your students can use in their own writing. As you take up different features ofdiscourse in readi4 assignments, you can introduce parallel writing activities which employthe same features. (See the section "Some Significant Features of Expository Prose" inChapter Five.) To complete the circle, when students have tried to incorporate newformal features into their writing, they become more aware of those features when theycrop up in subsequent reading assignments. Thus reading and writing play mutuallyenhancing roles.

In Chapter Five of this manual, among the examples of exercises for the development ofthe reading microskills is one type which helps students to pick out formal discoursefeatures. Such exercises are an aid to reading comprehension, but they also have apurpose in writing instruction. Properly used, they can he'p students learn to organizetheir thoughts and present them in writing according to commonly used patterns of writtendiscourse.

Students learn, for example, that in a narrative the sequence of events is a central factor.Although the writer may deliberately choose not present the events in strict chronologicalorder, once the tale has been told the sequence of events must be understood. Anothertype of writing where chronology must be taken into account is in the description of aprocess. For maximum clarity, each step of the process should be described in order;otherwise confusion may result. Chronological order also figures in the explanation of achain of causes and effects.

Other types of logical relations hinge on the perception of similarities and differences:contrast, comparison, analogy, the classification of like things together, and the definitionof things, where distinguishing characteristics are pointed out. Whateve r the logicalrelation, a certain thought pattern will be called for, and this in turn must be matched tothe writing patterns which we conventionally use for presenting it.

Learning the Writing ProcessIn order to become independent writers, your students not only must master the formalfeatures of written English, but must also b_,:ome more conscious of the writing processitself and learn techniques which will make the process more smoothly for them. Inparticular, you can show them various devices to use during the pre-writing phase whichwill launch them more confidently into the first rough draft. Further, you can give themguidelines and techniques for the revising phase of the process which will encourage themto look for and remedy substantive deficiencies in their writing, rather than simply makinga clean copy of the first draft.

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Pre-writingThe purpose of the pre-writing phase of the process is to get the kettle boiling. Whenyour students begin a writir.: project they need ideas, a purj ,,-. or plan which will providea focus for the ideas, the language with which to express tn., ideas, and enough interestand enthusiasm to sustain the effort of getting the ideas down on paper. Dependinguponthe age of the students, and the level of their language proficiency, a variety of techniquesmay be used for launching the project.

One of the most flexible of these techniques is brainstorming. Itcan be done with eithernovice or experienced writers, young or old, individually, in smallgroups, or as a wholeclass. The point of a brainstorming session is to free associate, to produceas many ideason a given topic as possible, as quickly as possible, without worrying about the quality ofthe ideas or about grammar, spelling, or punctuation.

Ann Raimes points out that, with any one of a number of different points of depart= (apersonal experience, a picture, a map, a reading selection,a textbook topic, even anexamination question), brainstorming can be used to start the writingprocess. You canvary the type and content of the prompt according to the nature of the writing assignmentand the language proficiency of your students. Here is how Raimesuses brainstormingtogether with a picture as a prompt.

The st,clents see a photograph in which a young girl and an oldman aresitting ..igether on a park bench and playing checkers. (The photographis from a collection by Edward Steichen, The Family of Man.) Theyareasked to observe and talk about the picture.

Examples of responses from a group of four students:-- She is probably about four years old.- - I wonder who's winning?-- Where is her mother?-- Does her mother know she's playing with the old man?-- He's her grandfather.-- I like his face.

He looks like my grandfather.-- She's pretty.-- What time of day do you think it is?

The students make comments and free associations for about five minutes.Then they make written notes, examine them, summarize them, anddevelop them into a topic for a more focused discussion. After thesecond, more focused discussion they do a writing assignment.

[Ann Raimes. 7echniques in Teaching Writing. Oxford University Press,1983.]

A variation of brainstorming has the students asking speculative questions abouta readingselection. The questions lead to discussion, which is then follo,,,ed bya writing assignment.

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Ann Raimes shows an example of speculation as app!ied to a reading selection forintermediate level students.

When the fire engine left the fire station on Hicks Street at 8:00 p.m. onSaturday, the fireman Bill Roscoe did not know that he would return ahero. Flames were leaping out of a first-floor window of the corner houseon Livingston Street. Neighbors, police, and firemen stood outside on thesidewalk. Suddenly they all looked up and shouted as they heard ascream. A boy, about ten years old, appeared at a third -flocs window.It wouldn't open. He was very frightened. Bill Roscoe dropped the hose,stepped forward, jumped, and grabbed the bottom rung of the metal fireescape ladder. Then he climbed up to the window, broke it, pulled theboy out of the window, and carried him down the ladder. Both were safe,and g-t- crowd cheered.

In asking speculative questions, students have to think beyond the given text. These aresome of the questions which could be asked about this reading .,election.

Why was the boy alone in the house? What does a fireman do every day?How would the boy describe the event in a letter to his grandmother?What letter would the owner of the house write to the insurance company?What precautions should everyone take to prevent fire a: home? Howwould the boy describe the incident? Would you like to be a fireman/-woman? Why or why not?

The more promising questions are those which can set off- discussion generating lots ofideas, which the students can then incorporate into a follow-up writing assignment.

Still another variation of brainstorming is a technique called loop writing or looping, whichis more appropriately done on an individual basi:, with students at an intermediate oradvanced level of proficiency. Each student writes without stopping for five to ten minutes,putting down anything that comes to mind on a given topic. As in al' forms ofbrainstorming, there is no editing. No worry about the aptness of the ideas, the brillianceof the prose, the accuracy of the grammar, spelling, and punctuation. The student thenstops, reads what has just be written, reflects on it, and then sums it up in a singlesentence. This sentence becomes the kernel idea for the next loop. After going throughthis procedure two more times, the student should halve arriNed at a summary sentencewhich he can use as the focus for an essay. The following example shows looping as usedby Julio, a college ESL student in the United States, but the technique works Ilso forstudents in secondary school and for adult learners.

Loop 1

Because I arrived late to class I am very sorry but I A to talk with aperson of Mexico who is going to come to study here the next month andI opened my house and help for the time he will need to find a home forhe and his family. Then I came running to class. And I am writing same

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thing I did yesterday. I received a cassets I bought and I was listening tosome of them I am yew happy with the music I bought and I enjoyedlistening to Chakovsky's 1812 simphony, the best of the classics playedby the most famous piano player Liberace in which he plays the alwaysbeautiful Tehowcorsky number one concerto. Also a bought another aboutjazz.. .

It takes Julio some time to settle into the routine, but he thenstarts to roll with thedescription of the cassettes he has just bought. Upon reflection lie decides hewants towrite about why he likes music, and this is shown in the first line of thenext loop.

Loop 2

I like music because is a kind of communication.

Music was used for our ancestors to express their feelings in situationssuch as religion, war, love, etc., and music is still used for thesamepurposes now a days. For example, you can know the feelings ofSchuber when you listen to some of the famous Schuber's serk.tos whichare blue and become you sad.

Music is also used to express protest about political situatio,s. Forexample, "The Jolckloristas" which is a latinamerican music group, singseveral songs against the situation in Chile, Argentina, etc.

In my opinion these are some of the reasons for which I consider musica kind of communication and for this reason I use music to communicatemy feelings too by means of songs I wrote to my father, my mother andmy wife.. .

Reflecting on the second loop, Julio decided that themos. important idea was feeling,and this led him to think of music in a more metaphoricalsense.

Loop 3

What do you need to listen to music?

You need just be quiet for a minute and you can hearyour own musicwhich can tell you if you are sad or happy. This can resultyou so funnythat you aren't going to try but think, which music is a deaf and dumbperson listen to? You can answer any music because they don't knowhow to produce it: they don't know the noise. Nevertheless I tellyou theyhave their own internal song, their heart, stomach, etc. theycan feel morethan us because we have more noise outside that is impossiblewe hearthe beautiful song 1r heart play when he works.

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We can listen to a beautiful music authors play but I recomend you try tobe quiet for a minut during your busy day and aet a chance to heard yourheart sing when he works it will be the best of all experiences you ;.anhear our all fascinating musics there are in the world.

[Jane B. Hughey et al. Teaching ESL Composition. Newbury HousePublishers, Inc., 1983.]

Besides being an individual rather than a group technique, looping takes a longer time towork properly than other forms of brainstorming. You and your students must allow forthis and give the ideas a chance to flow and develop. It Julio had stopped after thesecond loop, he might have had a workable focus for his essay. However, it is apparentfrom the way the third loop develops that Julio's thoughts had not yet jelled. In the thirdloop Julio has finally found a focus that interests him, and it is quite likely that the essayhe now writes will be more interesting to his readers than an essay based on the secondloop would have been.

RevisingThe purpose of the revising aspect of writing is to make sure that you have actually saidwhat you intended to say. The focus is still primarily on ideas, though (as compared withpre-writing activities) you have to be more critical of the way in which the ideas areexpressed.

Students often think of revision as being one single step, the last step before handing inthe assignment. It is more realistic to think of revision going on constantly as you write.Even in pre-writing activities, one can often find revision going on, as some ideas arediscarded while others are retained and more fully developed.

Your students are likely to think of revision in the same way that their teacher does. Youcan set the example by planning writing assignments so that there is clearly more than onerevision stage. Show them through your own reactions that comments, suggestions, andother responses in the earlier revision stages should be directed at the message. Grammarand spelling can wait until the end. Ann Raimes gives some practical suggestions:

1. When you pick up a student's piece of writing, don't immediatelyreach for a pen or pencil. Read the whole piece through before youwrite anything.

2. Look for strengths as well as weaknesses, and let the student knowwhat the strengths are.

3. Your main job is to help the writer see what to do next. Askyourself: What should the writer do now to improve this paper? Whatdoes this paper need most?

[Ann Raimes. Techniques in Teaching Writing. Oxford University Press,1983.]

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Here is an example of a student composition,the way Raimes responded to it, and thesubsequent revision by the student:

Ever c'nce I was a small child the magic of tricksalways were mysteriousto me. One person who I believedwas a master of it is Harry Houdini.He was the greatest and his magic will liveon as the greatest. If I was tomeet him at my magic dinner, all my mysteries would be ansv:er. Maybehe will even teach me a trick toamaze my friends. I feel I'm the personwho should find out the secrets thatwere buried with him.

Comment:You have made me very interested in Houdini. Whatdid he do that wasso great? What mysteries do you want to be answered? Whatexactlywere the secrets that were buried with him? I'd like to know.

This is a real success story. The student not onlyreacted to the specific questions of theteacher, but she also corrected the subject-verbagreement problem in the first sentencewithout having it called to her attention.

Ever since I was a child the magic of tricks alwayswas mysterious to me.One person who I believed wasa master is Harry Houdini. All his escapesfrom chains and jails shocked millions. His death in the waer tank trulywas a mystery. Some people think he did not know howto escape;others believe he suffered a bad cramp. I will find out at my dinner. I

would like him to even teach me a trick to amaze my friends.

The story doesn't end there. The student, botheredby the mystery of Houdini's death,went to the library to research the question. She found out that Houdini had died ofperitonitis. So she revised again.

You may feel that it is not practical totry to carry out Raimes' suggestions in large classes,but there are ways to cut downon the teacher's work load in reading student compositionswhile still preserving the emphasison revising to clarify the message.

o Each student working independentlyuses a checklist to guide therevision of the paper. The checklist might consist of a series ofquestions. What is your purpose? Which sentence states thepurpose? Where are your supporting ideas? Arethey clearly stated?I have you given examples where they are needed? etc. For moreelaborate writing assignments, more elaborate checklists may bedevised.

[Raimes. Techniques in Teaching Writing.)

o Students work in pairs or smallgroups, reading their papers aloud toeach other. Students sometimes discover their problems forthemselves in this way. The other members of thegup, servitig as

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the audience with whom the writer is trying to communicate, askquestions about anything in the paper that they don't understand.(They should not critique the grammar.)

[Raimes. Techniques in Teaching Writing.]

o Each student exchanges papers with a partner. The partners use achecklist such as the following to respond to each other's paper.

1. Who do you think is the audience for this essay?2. What is the purpose of this essay?3. Underline the thesis statement and the topic sentences in

the essay. Circle the controlling ideas in each.4. What is the best part of the essay?5. What questions could you ask the author?

a. Are there places where more information is needed?b. Are there places that you find confusing?c. Are there details that do not contribute to the main

ideas in the essay?d. Are there examples that do not relate to the thesis

statement?e. Is there information that the audience will already

know?

[Joy M. Reid. The Process of Composition. Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1988.Reprinted by permission of Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.]

After your students have revised their work under the prompting of one of the abovetechniques, you cen then read the papers and will probably find fewer problems to dealwith. Another suggestion is to designate some writing assignments as "pr..,:ticecompositions," not requiring your students to polish them to 1,..1 fection. As the semesterprogresses, the students will become more proficient at managing the writing process andyou can set higher standards for their output. You might then ask them to use theirgreater writing skill to return to the earlier practice compositions and revise them.

EXAMPLES OF EXERCISES TO DEVELOP THE WRITING SKILLS

Exercises for beginning writers should build on material which is already familiar to thestudents. The pre-writing phase should contain a lot of oral work and the actual writingdone by the students should be limited and controlled in various ways. Here are somesuggestions for beginning writing activities which are guided by the technique of theLanguage Experience Approach.

o Have students dictate the first part of a story. After three or foursentences have been dictated, give the students the story tocomplete independently in writing.

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o Give students copies of cartoons from which the characters'dialogue has been omitted. Have them compose orally,experimenting with various things the characters mightsay, andthen write their ideas on the cartoons.

0 Have students invent and act out brief social exchanges:askingdirections, making a purchase in a store, greetingsomeone in thestreet, c lering food at a snack bar. Then have themwrite thesein dialogue form.

[Carol N. Dixon and Denise Nessel. Language Experience Approach toReading (and Writing). Alemany Press, 1983.j

If you are teaching beginners,you may find that the LEA is so effective you will want touse it for most of your less controlled writing assignments. However,you should not forgetthe value of dialogue journals in encouraging studentsto write more extensively andcommunicatively. Remember also thatas your students' writing proficiency develops, theyneed more assignments to help them to becomeindependent writers.

Expanded writing skills require students to produce longer and more complex sentences.For this purpose, many writing textbooks containexercises in which the students areinstructed to combine two ormore simple sentences into a single more complex sentence.For example, the exercise might contain pairsof sentences which the student is to combineby making one sentence into a relative clause which is then used to modify somenoun inthe other sentence.

History is the course. + It causes me the most trouble.= History is the course which causes me the most trouble.

This type of exercise can be quite helpful, butyou should be aware of its limitations. Thefocus here is more on the grammatical form ofthe sentences than on the way sentencesare strung together to form a discourse. For this reason, students shouldalso sometimesdo sentence combining exercises within thecontext of a whole paragraph, as in thefollowing example.

Directions: The following paragraphs are written in short, choppysentences. Combine some of the sentences to increase theunity andcoherence of the paragraphs. It may be necessary to rewritesome of thesentences; use coherence devices, and perhaps even rearrange thesentences.

1. It's snowing outside. I feel a kind of loneliness. Everything lookslonely outside. No one is on the streets. All I see are empty carsand snow. The trees are bare. They look cold. Theylook lonely,too.

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2. This is not my first time away from home. It is the longest. Maybeit is the most helpful. I have to learn to be independent. I have tosolve my own problems. That will make me more responsible. I

have to keep track of my money. I have to be careful how muchI spend. If my decisions are wrong, it's my own fault. It's no oneelse's fault. Being alone is the best way to learn responsibility.

[Joy M. Reid. The Process of Composition. Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1988.Reprinted by permission of Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.]

Notice that combining sentences within the context of a paragraph is much more like anauthentic revision activity. There is no single correct answer to an exercise such as this.Students can compare their results and discuss the differences.

Students need help in organizing t:.eir paragraphs and longer essays into coherent patternsof discourse. The following is an exercise which points up the need when writing anarrative to put events in a chronological order.

1. Issue a muddled picture sequence to Group A. Tell them to put thepictures in the correct order.

2. Issue a muddled sentence sequence to Group B. Tell them to putthe sentences in the correct order, independent of Group A.

3. Call Group A to the front of the room. Tell them to hold up theirpictures in the order they have decided upon. Ask Group Bwhether the picture sequence matches the order of their sentences.Encourage class discussion as to the correct order of events in thestory.

4. When an order is agreed, tell members of Group B to stand withtheir "partner" in Group A. Ask individual students to readsentences from the story.

5. Tell the groups to return to their seats, and then display the picturesequence at the front of the room, together with verb cues in thesimple past tense. Tell the class to write ',he story.

[Ronald V. White. Teaching Written English. George Allen & Unwin, 1980.]

The next exercise also makes students more conscious of patterns for organizing discourse.It uses the technique of guided analysis of a model essay. After the students have beenled to understand the organization of the model essay, they write an essay of their ownguided by the model and by a new set of data provided by the teacher or the textbookwriter.

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This technique has wide applicability, but would probablynot be usable with very younglearners, since some degree of abstraction is needed for discovering the author'sorganization and then applying it in one'sown writing. On the other hand, analysis of amodel works well for logical relationships suchas comparison and contrast or cause andeffect. Relationships such as these do not lend themselvesas readily to the type of"physical" representation which was used for chronologicalorder in the previous exercise.

The following example shows how to use analysis of a model in an essay organized topresent a comparison and contrast.

1. The students read an essay describing two brothers. (It could betwo towns or cities, two books, two holidays--any two things whichmay be compared and contrasted.)

2. The students analyze the essay with the help ofa table such as thefollowing, a list of the characteristicson which the two brothers arecompared. Extract' j details from theessay, the students becomeaware of how the author presented the similarities and differ3ncesbetween the two brothers.

Robert John

AgePhysical appearanceWay of dressingOccupationFavorite pat.,time

3. Now the procedure is reversed. The studentsare given a secondtable already filled in. Using the data in the table,and following themodel of the essay about the brothers, theywrite their owncomparison and contrast essay about twoyoung girls.

AgePhysical appearanceWay of dressingPerformance in schoolFavorite pastime

Marie12short chubbyneat, .....nininestar pupilreading alone

Ruth12tall, thincareless, casualindifferent studentplaying with friends

The type of text which may be taught by using the analysis ofmodels ranges from personaland business letters, through various types of expositoryparagraphs, to longer texts suchas critical reviews and descrir s of laboratory experiments. In the following example,the technique is applied to , .agraph of description.

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First the students see a model paragraph.

The librarian for the children's section of the City Library will have a varietyof responsibilities. Duties will include planning, organizing, implementing,and evaluating children's programs and services. The librarian will beresponsible for building and maintaining the library's children's collectionas well as supervising the staff of the children's section. Th.; candidate forthis position must have a bachelor's or master's of 1:brary science degreefrom an accredited library school and 3 to 5 years' professionalexperience. This person should enjoy working with children and shouldalso be able to supervise adults. The salary will be commensurate withqualifications and experience.

The students analyze the paragraph by answering a series of questions:

1. According to the topic sentence, what position does this paragraphdescribe?

2. Fill in the spaces with information from the paragraph.Duties and responsibilities:

Qualifications:

Salary:

3. For what audience wr this job description written? For whatpurpose was it written?

In the next step, the students see a format for this type of paragraph:

Format for Writing Static DescriptionJob Description

Topic Sentence: a statement naming the job and the place ofemployment

Support: duties and responsibilities qualifications ( professional andpersonal)

Concluding sentence: a statement about salary for the position

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Finally, they are given information to write into a paragraph similar to the modelparagraph:

d

A head nurse is needed in the intensivecare unit of the UniversityHospital. Use the following information to writean advertisementdescribing the position for the newspaper.

HEAD NURSE-- INTENSIVE CARE UNIT

Responsibilities: Planning, organizing, and directingall intensive care unit activitiesTeaching staff and patientsPerforming surgical, postoperative, and medicalprocedures

Qualifications: 3 to 5 year experience in criticalnursingRegistration with the State College of NurseManagerial skills

Interested Applicants Apply to: M. N. SmithDirector of PersonnelUniversity Hospita:1 Belmont Avenue392-2146

Topic Sentence: State the position available and thepk a where itis available.

Support: Describe the responsibilities and qualifications.

Conclut'ng Sentence: Tell applicants how to apply for the job.

[Joyce Pagurek. Writing Workshop. Newbury House Publishers, Inc., 1984.]

MORE ADVANCED WRITING TASKS

Many of the techniques and exercises whichwe have already examined may also be usedin connection with the types of writing tasks carriedout by college and university students)and professional people. In each of the followingtypes of written text, students will needhelp with pre-writing and revising activities and techniques. Thest'idy of model texts willgive them patterns foi the overall organization of the discourse. Attention to logicalrelationships (description of proceoses, comparison and contrast, cause and effect,classification, and so on) will help them focus their thoughts andmatch them to patterns

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r for expressing the relationships in writing. The following are some of the types ofadvanced writing tasks for which you may need to prepare your students.

o Objective reports: e.g., a report on a field trip, or a d( ption of alaboratory experiment. (See Peace Corps Manual No. M-31 ESP:Teaching English for Specific Purposes.)

o Summaries: e.g., summarizing (with or without critical commentary)a short story or an article done as a reading assignment.

o Research papers: using appropriate reference material to support achosen thesis through argumentation.

SUMMARY

Waiting activities serve two purposes in the Englisii language classroom:

Learning the types of personal, academic, and professional writingwhich students need in their daily lives.

Reinforcing the learning which goes on through the medium of theother language skills.

In /harming and conducting writing activities with your students:

Be sure to include activities that allow your students to communicateideas that are meaningful to them.

Include exercises which help your students understand and master thefeatures of written discourse: overall patterns of organization, ways ofexpressing logical relationships, and so on.

Use pre-writing activities to generate ideas and provide the languageresources needed for the writing task.

Show your students individual and group techniques for revising theirwritten drafts so as to pr sent their ideas in fort s which take intoaccount the needs and expectations of their rear' .s.

Respond in the first instance to the message of the piece of writing,rather than going immediately for all the mechanical errors you canfind.

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SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING

Language Experience Approach to Reading (and Writing)Carol N. Dixon and Denise NesselAlemany Press, 1983With very little adaptation the Language Experience Approachmay be used for teachingcomposing skills to beginners. The last chapter of this book shows how to organize writinglessons. It looks upon writing as a process including pre-maiting, writing, and revising.

Techniques in Teaching Writing (ED 107)Ann RarimesOxford University Press, 1983Presents practical information relating to daily classroom instruction. Useful ideas,suggestions, and examples of teaching techniques that have proN, en successful in theclassroom.

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CHAPTER SEVEN

TEACHING GRAMMAR

This chapter begins by explaining the differences betweengrammar for nativespeakers and grammar for language learners. It continues witha descriptionof the grammar aspects of the Grammar Translation Method, Direct Method,Audio lingual Method, a a Communicative Approach. It discusses theproblem of sequencing and suggests ways to deal withgrammar in theclassroom. The chapter concludes with a description of referencegrammarsand an annotPte: bibliography of grammar exercise books and referencegrammars.

SOME LI- -'1NITIONS, TERMS, AND DIFFERENCES

Grammar as Seen by the Non-SpecialistNative speakers usual;y think of English grammar as a subject stu.lied in school. Studyinggrammar teaches you how to talk and write correctly. Note the word "correctly." Youalready know how to talk, having learned the languageas a toddler. And you had at leastthe rudiments of writing well in hand before you started studyinggrammar. The study ofgrammar was sort of an embellishment and refining of something you already knew.

A large part of grammar ro he native speaker is learning the names for elements of thelanguage--nouns, verbs, prepositions, and the like--and learsing how they work togetherin prepositional phrases, sentences, clauses, paragraphs, andso on. This aspe -t ofgrammar can be compared to an anatomy class in which you learn how your muscles work.You've been using your muscles successfully sinceyou were bora. Now you are learningwhat )Ju and your muscles actually do.

Another part of grammar for the native speakei is fine tuning the language already used.Such things as exercises in which you choose the correct form of "lie"or "lay," activitiesteaching you to use "-.-shom" in the right places, or instruction on identifying and eliminatingdangling modifiers (e.g., "I saw an a7cident standing at my bedroom window"),are reallyattempts to correct tiny mistakes in your use of the language.

Grammar as Seen by the Linguist or GrammarianTo a professional in the field of grammar--a linguist--grammar is the study of how wordsand phrases are arranged in the expression of thoughts and ideas. This study of thelanguage is parallel to a biologist's study of a plant or animal. Whatare the variousorgais in this organism? How do they work? What do they do? How do they interact

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with one another? The linguist approaches a kiguage in the same way. Some of thequestions which a linguist might ask are:

What are the basic elements in this language? What are the words, prefixes,suffixes, etc.?

How do the basic elements work? How do they combine to communicatesuch things as negatives, qtr=tions, the relative time that somethinghappened, etc.?

How do the elements interact with one another? In what order do theyoccur in a phrase or sentence? What combinations communicate what ideas?

Grammar in an EFL/ESL ContextFrom the point of view of the language learner, learning the grammar of the language iscloser to the linguist's pos:jon Lhan the non-professional native speaker's. The learnerneeds to know what the words of the language are and what they mean. He also needsto know how to combine these words to say what he wants to say.

Example: A speaker of Japanese has tc learn sooner or later that in Englishthe verb comes in the middle of the sentence rather than at the end of thesentence as it does in Japanese:

English statement word order This is a book.:reral translation of Japanese This a boo'

All approaches to teaching English, all textbooks, and all EFL/ESL teacher, deal oneway or another with the teaching of English grammar as it is defined by linguiststhewcrds of English and their combinations. The important thing for you to remember isthat grammar in an EFLIESL context is quite different from the grammar you knew andloved (or didn't love) in school.

GRAMMAR ASPECTS OF MAJOR APPROACHES TO LANGUAGE TEACHING

This section will give examples of textbooks written within the three broad categories oflanguage-teaching approaches discussed in ClApter Tv,o and. hew how grammar is dealtwith in each approach. Each example is an excerpt showing only the grammarpresentati,,n aspects of tJ lesson. In all three examples the same grammar point istaught, the sentence pattern "This is a ." Yo'i will he able to see the differences inthe way the three approaches teach the same feat re.

Traditional Grammar Translation Method

DescriptionThe essence of this approach is that the grammar of the lanb..age is presented explicitly

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by rule (generally in the native language of the student), with example sentences in thetarget language. The student:

o learns this rule by studying the example sentences;o translates sentences exemplifying the rule into his language;o translates sentences from his language into the target language.

ExampleFigures 7.1-7.4 are taken from a textbook for Japanese junior high school students writtenwithin the Grammar Translation Method. The point to be taught,as mentioned before,is the sentenc_ pattern This is a ." The student reads the explanation of thepattern in Japanese. Note the model sentence "This is a piano." (See Figure 7.1.) Thestudent then studies the examr:e sentences given h. Figure 7.2, and practices the patternby translating parallel sentences from Japanese (Figure 7.3). In Figure 7.4 there is furtherexplanation of the grammatical structure of the sentence. As you can see, there is verylittle English used. The discussion in the textbook, and in the classroom, is in Japanese.

CommentsStudents who have learned English well via this approach typically have thegrammar ofEnglish down pat. In fact, they generally know much more Englishgrammar than nativespeaker! do. They can read English quite well and in many cases can write it well. Suchstudents are often weC., however, in the oral aspects of language. Tneir pronunciationtends to be difficult to understand, they have great difficulty understanding native si,eakers,and their fluency is quite low. These last two problems tend to lessen if students are inan English - speaking environment for any length of time. The solid grounding in grammarand written English allows them to establish relationships between the oral and writtenlanguage. Fluency comes with practice in any circumstances.

Critics of the Gr._ - Translation approach point out that hearing and speaking alanguage are what language learning k. all about, and if an approach doesn't allow thestudent active practice in hearing and speaking, there is someth'ng dreadfully wrong withthe app. oath. They also contend that learning all that grammai is a waste of time. Justas young chikiren learn to speak a language without benefit of grammatical instruction, thelanguage learner can do the same.

These criticisms have been pretty much accepted throug:.out 'England and the UnitedStates, and have led to the abandonment of the Grammar Translation Method in EFT, andESL teaching. However, Grammar Translation is extremely widespread in other countric,s,largely because it is the only approach that does not require the teacher to speak thetarget language well. Given the emergence of English as a world language, and theconsequent great demand for English instruction in third world countries, it is inevitablethat people whc, know only a litt!e English will find themselves teaching it. These teachersvi ill naturally opt for a language teaching approach that puts the least pressure on theirEnglish abilities. The Grammar Translation Method iaeets their needs admirably and. inaddition, is probably very familiar to them as the way in which they themselves learned tneEnglish they know.

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EXAMPLE OF THE GRAMMAR TRANSLATION METHOD

On this page, the sentenceThis is a piano"is introduced.

All the words are irarslatedand explained in Japanese.

UNIT 2

cassette 2B

z -c-u*I5gYttz-)1,)4d.111 T.

*Mt- < Db411.7,44-/-)± -)o) p,t1toDt-'tL-

This is a piano.

.:-..grt1;,L 4 --)0DCLib.;:".--Z-Llt. This, is. a,book o)4-)-C-T. 21i-L:t t: j fER,t:.=

e. I-. piano L- book (7#1.3.=f-ip,i.1- This is a book. rziLL-1.-,T:t.; L- t: I t.

t:ttfi

Le)g`..150DaMoDZT-12..01-*3t=rt:-: to"o)This ft this :5'tg){.t.Let)tz t :::b."Ct f: (. t-T t3)3:- T.

Vitt .t.*;t I. 42;ittiVE < ;IA L <

Figure 7.1 From Grolier English Study Course for Junior High SchoolStudents. Grolier International, Inc., 1978. Reprinted by permission.

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=211=1,91W alIMIMME..1 MMINCI.........m....1

1 This is a .

Here, the student is shownother sentences like the model

"This is a piano."

This is a desk.

This is a table.

This is a chair.

T .-3 '' a sofa.

This is a stool.

Figure 7.2 From Grolier English Study Course, Book. I.Grolier International, Inc., 1978. Reprinted by permis..'on.

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On this page, the studentpractices the model

by translating from Japaneseinto English.

2 zALII--7--7"/vZt.

3 :titIL,"4,:t.

4 ::ttt.t. s/ 7Z1'.

5 :WI

Figure 7.3 From Grolier English Study Course, Book I.Grolier Intern Aonal, Inc., 1978. Reprinted by permission.

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SoLf_MUct-3

This is kt crown.

r tot L% 5 (tThis is v))fs fstv, t.

More explanation ofgrammar in Japanese.

This is a bock.flit

® this r t is r. t gr*h's, 0-c-th%

this Itig-cz,t) r 1 -Do

67a4g) rcht.t, isttr-c-4- Jr: ih t 8

gLILI 5.'Ws diagram showsthe difference inword order betweenJapanese and English.

@ a (t

fir M ct -3

Thistut

is a capL -C-t.

tov,hc-t. rzlhIt --)011-5

Figure "A From Grolier English Study Course, Book I.Grolier Aternational, Inc., 1978. Reprinted by permission.

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RamificationsThe textbooks currently being published are almost all based on more modern approachesto language teaching which do not involve a direct treatment of grammar. On the otherhand, your students ale highly likely either to hate studied English (or another language)via the Grammar Translation Method, or at least to know about the approach. Many willcome to class or to your sessions firmly believing that they will not leern English unlessyou give them rules and require them to translate from one language to the other.

Direct Method and Audio lingual Method

DescriptionThe essence of both the Direct Method and the Audio lingual Method is that the best wayto learn a language is through habit formation. Students are exposed to model sentenceswhich they practice in a variety of ora: drills and exercises. This practice is supposed tolead them to "internalize" the grammatical structure of the ..itence as a hat, L, after whichthey presumably can use the sentence type to express their own thoughts.

In the Audio lingual Method, oral language (in6uding careful work on pronunciation) isstressed; written practice is considered secondary. In fact, in some Audio lingual curricula,written work is postponed entirely until the student has reached an intermediate levelWhile grammar is never dealt with overtly in the classroom, the sequence of presentationof sentence types and vocabulary is rigidly controlled, so that the student is exposed tosentences of gradually increasing complexity. The native language of the student is notused. The teacher is expected to use only English.

ExampleFigures 7.5-7.7 are from English for Today, an ESL textbook writtenwithin theAudio lingual framework. In the sample pages, the sentence pattern "This/that is ais presented, along with the corresponding yes/no questions and answers ("Is this/that a

? Yes, it is./No, it's not.") The format of the lessons is:

o presentation of the model sentence;o a series of oral drills which practice the model.

Note that the meaning of the sentences is conveyed entirely by pictures. The presentationand drill result, it is hoped, in the student's ability to use the pattern "This is a " toexpress his own ideas.

CommentsIt is hard to find a struent who has learned English solely through this approach.It isan "ideal" approach in the sense that even those who espousi-, its nrinciples augment it inthe classroom with activiti,s which are counter to those principles.In any event, studentswho have studied English through this approach apparently find it hard to extend whatthey have learned into natural language situations. While they can do t' drills well, theycannot use the language on their own without considerable additional work.

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EXAMPLE OF THE AUDIOLINGUAL METHOD

Unit I DESCRIBING THINGS AND PEOPLE

Lesson One

THINGS IN THE SCHOOL

I This is a book. That's a door.This is a book, and that'sa door.

book 1.1 Practice statements with Thisis a (book) and That's abox (door). Use the pictures aboveor objects in the classroom.door 1. book a book This is a book.

nouns map boxpencil 3. chai.e

picture 4, penciltablewall 5. table

window 6. door a door That's a door.a 7. map

and 8. pictureis 9. window

that 10. wallthis

that + is = that's 1.2 Practice statements with This isa (book), and that's a(door).

bookIdoor

1. This is a book, and that'sa door.chairInzap

2.

Figure 7.5 From English for Today, Book 1, ed.ted by William R.Stager.McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1972. reps ted by permission.

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3

4.

pencillpicture

table /window

boxl wall

5.

,

,

,

II Is this/that a book? Yes, at is.Is this/that a chair? No, it's not.

itno

notyes

it + is = it's

1.3 Practice "yes-no questions" with Is this /that a (book idthe short answers Yes, it is and No, it's not. Use the piureFand objects in the classroom. S1 means "Speaker 1" (may bestudent, group, row, etc.).

Si: Is -ills a door?S2: Yes, it is.

Si: Is this a map?S2: No, it's not.

Si: Is this a picture?S2: Yes, it is.

S1: Is this a windowS2: Yes, it is.

Figure 7.6 From English for Today, Book 1, e.dited hv William R. Slager.McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1972. Reprinted ., ,!rmEssion.

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5 Si: Is this a wall?1 S2: Yes, it is

9

1 lo

Si: Is that a map?S2: Yes, it is.

Si: Is that a book?S2: No, it's not.

Si: Is that a picture?S2: No, it's not.

Si: Is that a window?S2: No, it's not.

Si: Is that a wall?S2: No, it's not.

Figure 7.7 From English for Today, Book 1, edited by William R.Shger.McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1972. Reprinted by permission.

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Practical experience with the "pure" Audio lingual Method shows that, one way or another,sophisticated students will demand grammar explanc ion from the teacher. In a class ofable Japanese students being taught the lesson from English for Today, one would expectthat sooner or later one of them would ask for an explanation as to why the word orderof "This is a ' is different from the order of its counterpart in 1 tnese. Practicalexperience using the approach with unsophisticated students shows that they have no ideahow to extract the abstract sentence pattern from the model or drill sentences. They arelikely to wind up not learning very much at all unless the teacher supplements the drillwith translations and direct explanations of the meaning of the sentences and words.

Critics of the approach point out that the m Aerial learned in class is of little relevancein real-life situations. Tht, -Iso point out how boring and artificial drilling is, and howlittle classroom language drills resemble actual e of the language. It has also beenargued that, with students literate in their native nguage, the postponement of writtenwork is ill advised, in that the postponement denies both teacher and students the use ofwell-developed learning tools and places a :teavy memory burden on the studentaccustomed to writing things down.

RamificationsIf your textbook is based or. the Direct Method or Audiolingual Method, your studentsare likely to need or want some grammatical explanation, and if grammar isn't your forte,you'll need some help. Later on in the chapter there is a section on reference grammars,the source of such help. Depending on how purely Audiolingual your text is, you mightalso have 'D augment it with materials to make the lessons more relevant and interestingto your students. If you have students experienced v .h Grammar Translation, you mighthave to supplement the textbook with grammar discussion and explanation.

Communizative Language Teaching

DescriptionThere are many variations of communicative language teaching, some of which werediscussed in Chapter Two. What all the variations have in common is that grammaticalaspects of the language are considered less important than language use. Students aretaught sentences and vocabulary appropriate to situations they find themselves in.In thiskind of approach, model sentences and grammatical explanation and practice are built in,but they are secondary to the major purpose of communication.

ExampleFigures 7.8-7.10 are from Express Ways, a typical communicative textbook. The lessons inthe book consist of a series of one-page segments, followed by a one-page summary of thevocabulary and grammatical points taught in the segments. In each segment, students aregiven a model conversation on a usef_I subject. To practice the model, several situationsare set up, in which students are given the information 41-ey need to create variations onthe model. As a final step, students are instructed to provide their own information asthey create further conversations on the model.

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EXAMPLE OF THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH

I'm Sorry. You Have the Wrong Number

A.

B.

A.

B.

A.

Hello.

Hello, Fred?

I'm sorry. You have the wrong number.

Is this 328-717S?

NO. it isn't.

B. Oh. Sorry.

1. 3.

rnAgORRX YOUHAVETHEWROHG

NUMBER"4. 5. Now present your own

conversations.

Figure 7.8 From Express Ways: English for Communication,Book 1by Steven J. Molinsky and Bill Bliss. Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1988.

Reprinted by permission of Prentice-Hall, Inc., Engh!wood Cliffs, NewJersey.

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Is This Bus Number 42?

A. Is this Bus Number 42?

B. Yes, it is.

A. Oh, good! I'm on the right bus!

A. Is this the "F"" train'

B.

A. Oops! I"m on the wrong train!

No. it Isn't.

A. Does this bus stop at Center Street?

B. Yes, it does.

A. Oh, gond! I'm on the right bus!

Does this p.ane go to Florida?

B. No. it doesn't.

A. C' Tt..! l'n1 on the wrong plane!IIMINDI

Does this bus go tothe shopp:ng mail?

1. 2. 3.

Coes this trod,stop in Yonkers2

Is this the boatto Hong Kong?

Via4, J.

mig1-12,131:01

Now present your ownconversations.

111 .01101.1NtlirmM07-

Figure 7.9 From ExpressWays: English for Communication, Book 1by Steven J. Molinsky and Bili Bliss. Prenticc.--flall, Inc., 1988.

Reprinted by permission of PrenticenHall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

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W801111IIEWINglaritra

.... MEM/ VEINIMI!

Where Do You Want This Sofa?

A. llere do vou want this sota?

B. hat sofa? Hmm. Put it in the living room.

A. Ant', him' about these chairs?

B. Those chairs? Let me see. Please put them in the dining room.11

1.

4.

2.

S.

'VERE. DOYOU WANT j

[THE Mr.;Now present your ownconversations.

Figure 7.10 From ExpressWays: English for Communication, Book1by Steven J. Molinsky and Bill Bliss. Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1988.

Reprinted by permission of Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

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Figures 7.8-7.10 show lesson segments in which "this" and "that" firstoccur. Figure 7.8 isfrom Lesson 2, which covers the topics of the telephone, getting around town, and socialcommunication. Students learn the question "Is this 328-7178?"as the way to ask if thecaller has reached the right number.

"This" comes up again in Lesson 3, in the segment "Is This Bus Number 42?" (see Figure1.9). Again, students learn the word in a particular context. The relationship between"this" and "that" is presented in Lesson 4 (see Figure 7.10), "Where Do You Want ThisSofa?" This segment involves a different use of "this" and "that" (as adjectives--"this chair,""that sofa"--rather than pronouns).

CommentsProponents of the va.:_ us kinds of communicative language teachingargue that it improveon earlier methods because it teaches students to use the language in natural situationsand therefore leads to fluency. Critics comment that it does not prepare the student forsituations not covered in the textbook or class, and that it is difficult to predict in advancethe situations for which the student will need language.

Critics also comment that the approach requires students to memorizea great deal ofmaterial without being shown the systematic aspects of that material. The grammaticalaspects of the phrase "You have the wrong number" may be too complex to be taught atthis point in the boot but students need the phrase if they use the telephone. They areto memorize it in its entirety, withou inalysis of its components. While this practice savesthem a lot of grammatical bother, it requires th-m to memorize an arbitrary set of words,which has ''een demonstrated to be much more difficult than r .;membering patternedorstructured items.

RamificationsIf you find yourself with a communicative textbook, and if your students expectgrammare:.planations, chance.; are that a will initially be uncomfortable with not knowing aboutthe grammatical aspects of the ,,Jiiiponents of a sentence. You will either have to helpthem overcome those feelings or explain the structure of the sentences as yougo along.

SEQUENCING

A notion that winds through the various approaches, andone that you will deal with ona daily basis as you teach English, is the problem of what to teach before what else.Common 'Ise suggests that simpler things should be taught before more complex thingsand that if you ore teaching a variation on X, it is reasonable to ha- taught X first.

Grammatical SequencingIn grammar stulies, some sentPnces are simpler, and therefore easier, than others. Youdealt with this notion in your English classes in school when you studied simplevs.compound or complex sentences. The simple sentence "This is a book is easier than thecomplex sentence "If books consisted of loose sheets stuck togetherany old which waywith chewing gum, this would be a book."

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The various approaches ',J teaching English deal with die problem of sequencing(arranging items from easier to harder) in cariousways. Textbooks within thc GrammarTranslation Method, Direct Method, and Audio lingual Method determine;_. Lequence ofsentence pattt..ns from simple to complex according to grammatical criteria alone, thenarrange lessons around that sequence.

Tri the two example grammar lessons shown in Figures 7.1-7.4 and 7.5-7.7, thesentence"-iis is a " is the first sentence type presented. From there, the textbook or

Japanese junior high school students uses the following sequence:

This is a hat.This is my hat.I have a hat.These are hats.This is an egg.Is this a ha lThis is Mr. West.He is a tailor. etc.

English for Today, on the other hand, sequencesas follows:

This is a book.That is a door.What's this/that? It's a book.The book is yellow.Is the book yellow? Yes, it is./No, it's not.What color is it? It's green.Is this/that a boot- or a chair? It's a chair.Is it green or blue? It's blue. etc.

You can see how the sequence in each textbookprogresses from simple to more complex,but in different directions.

Approaches to language teaching developed after the A:idiolingual Method eject thenotion of such rigid sequencing as is illustrated above. Proponents of these newerappr fiches argue that more important aspects of language than grammatical sty uctureexist, and that sequencing determined solely by grammar produces uninteresting, irrelevantles';ons. These texts do not completely abandon grammatical sequencing, however. Agreat many post-Audiolingual textbooks (like ExpressWays, Figures 7.8-7.10) sequenceloosely according to verb tense. Such sequencing often goesas follows:

present tense of "be""Is this 328-7178? No, it isn't."

present progressive tenseThis bus is going downtown."

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simple present'This bus goes to Westville."

imperatives"Go down to the corner."

The sequencing of other grammatical features--nouns, prepositions, question forms, etc.--is determined by the content of the conversations.

Other ParametersWhile sequencing according to grammatical complexity is of great concern to EFL/ESLtextbook authors, they consider other parameters as well.

As you can see from the ExpressWays example, the usefulness to the student of words ..ndphrases is Wry important. It's a very rare textbook, for example, that doesn't teach "Hello.How are you?" "Fine, thanks" early on, simply because English speakersuse these phrasestime and time again during a day. The authors of English Fcr Today chose to teach thequestion pattern "What's this?" in the first lesson beca...se it allows the student to ask for

)cabulary items -- something the authors considered of use to the language student.

Ease of explark.tion is another parameter, especially important in approaches (andclassrooms:) where the student's native language is not used. Sentence types thatare putinto the first few lessons have to have meanings which can be demonstrated orpantomimed. You might explain the difference in m..aning between "this" and "that" inthis way:

"This is a book." point to a book in front of you"That's a book." point to a book across the room

After the first lessons, sentences must be explainable in language the student canunderstand. For example, the standard way to explain "must have" is to set up a context:

I went to the drugstore. I bought a paper. I paid for the paper with moneyfrom my wallet. I came he-e from the drug store. I don't have my walletnow. I must have left my wallet in the drug store.

Another parameter is a progression from things the student knows to things the studentdoesn't know. It is standard practice, for example, to st.irt out with the verb "be" in simplesentences, because they are easily demonstrated and occur with alarming frequency.It isalso standard practice to go from "be" sentences to the present progressive ("I am going,""you e going," etc.) because, among other things, that tense ases the forms of "be" thestudent has already learned.

Practical ChoicesAs you can gather from thc, previous discussion, the sequencing of materials to be taughtL s a complex issue. Some teachers make up their own sequence, taking materials fromseveral books. Others follow the sequencing of a particular text or prescribed syllabus

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(which means simply that they teach the lessons in the order they are given in the bookor syllabus), and amplify the lessons with material from other sources. You will probablyprefer the latter course, feeling that your energies are better devoted to classroom ii.,:ttersthan to wrestling with the problems of sequencing.

If you are required to teach from a book that is hopelessly chaotic in sequencing--that is,if you can't yourself perceive a pattern to the sequencing--it is probably worth your whileto find a book whose sequencing you like and teach according to that sequence. You canstill use your required book. You merely skip around in it while following the order ofyour preferred book.

GRAMMAL IN THE CLASSROOM

Your Intuitions as a Native SpeakerHowever much grammar you know, you have a great advantage as a native speaker. Inall except the really tricky instances, you can easily tell wht..n a sentence is correct andwhen it has mistakes in You know, for example, thy,. the sentence "This is a books"is wrong ("ungrammatical" is the technical term). You also ku. w how to correct thesentence: to "This ;s a book" if only one book is under consk tron, and "These arebooks" if more than one book is.

Your ability to tell whether a sentence is grammatical or not is part of being 9 na .espeaker of English. In the vast majority of cases you can trust your own judgment, andtherefore don't have to check with grammar books to see if a sentence is correct. You canlegitimately set yourself up as an authority in questions of correct/incorrect,grammatical/ungrammatical. Your intuitions can save you endless arguments andexplanations that result from the question "Why do you say it that way?" The answer is"Because English speakers do."

In those few instances where you hesitate to pass judgment or a grammatical question, youcan consult a reference gramirrar to clarify your understariding. The use of referencegrammars is discussed later in this chapter and several helpful reference grammars areannotated at the end of the chapter.

The Students Who Want GrammarIn many cases, you will be tta-hing from a textbook that does not present grammar overtlyin terms of rules, expianatic , exercises, and drills, whereas your students will expect sucha direct presentation of grammar and will be uncomfortable without it. Some svidentswill be persistent in their requests tut grammatical explanations. Others will simply dropout on the grounds that your class doesn't meet their needs.

There are several ways of dea!ing with this situation. It makes good pedagogical sense tomeet your students' expectations as far as you can. If you can't, you hal e to change. theirexpectations one way or another, or risk your credibility.

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If you opt to change your students' expectations,you can try explaining that in theirprevious experience with language learning, the tea,..ierswere not native speakers of alelanguage. You are, and 1,o you can teach the.... how to speak English withouthaving toload them dom. with grammar.

If you intend to focus on listening and. peaking in your class, you can explain to studentsthat listening and speaking classes differ from reading and writingclasses and that yourapproach is better suited to listening and speaking thana more grammar-based approach.This explanation can be followed by a demoiA i')n that beTng able to understand andspeak is of great value.

If you choose not to change ,pectations (often the most realistic choic-), thereare waysyou an compromise between the demand for grammar and the approach that doesn'temphasize grammar.

One way is to make overt the "internalization"process. In every lesson, set aside time inwhich you allow students to work out the grammatical rules for themselves,from themodel sentences you have been working with. Seta time limit on the discussion, and giveit a structure by telling students that theyare to arrive at translation of the modelsentence in the native language, and to observe the ways in which the English and nativelanguage versions differ. Then let them conduct their discussion, withyou providingadditions. examples of English when required and correctingerrors in the English theycome up with. You don't need to spt ak the native language to monitor such discussions.You can follow what's going on by the English words andsentences. At the end of theallotted time, have students summarize by asking what the agreedon translation is andhow the English and native language sentences differ.

Another way to build grammar into a non-grammar approach is to finda grammar exercisebook and to assign relevant exercises as homework. (There are several listed in thebibliography at the end of this chapter. There are undonitedly such exercise bookspublished in your country and available locally.) You might haveto se, aside time in classto go over the exercises.

Using Grammatical Terminology in Your LessonsGrammatical terminology (everything from definitions of "noun" and "verb"to a descriptionof the word "as") is the jargon developed by linguists and teachersto talk about languages.All fields have jargon, and grammar jargon serves thesame purpose for linguists that, say,medical jargon does for doctors. It lets you talk easily about the things you need to talkabout.

In the language classroom you ha re to talk about the language. You don't, however,haveto use extensive grammatical terminology to do it. (A parallel is your doctor, who talksabout your sore muscles with his colleagues using medical terminology, butwho talks toYoe' about them in ordinary language.) Ii, fact, one of the arguments against the GrammarTranslation Meth d is that the students are required to learn too mucll terminology. Notethat in the English for Today sample (Figures 7.5-7.7), there isno gi,Lrriznatical +erminologyused.

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On the other hand, experienced language teachers fini. that theuse of some terminologysaves endless circumlocutions.

imple: Your student comes up with the sentence, "I havea pretty." Youtell him the sentence isn't correct and he wants to know why.

If your student knows the term "noun," you can easily explain that "pretty"isn't a noun, and that you have to have anoun in that place in the sentence.

If your student doesn't know the term, you have to give examples withnounsand hope that the student will figure out that "pretty" isn't likeany of theexamples.

As you continue to teach, you will und, .Aptedly find yourself usingas a matter of coursethe grammatical terms you and your students need. The important thingto remember isthat you are not obligated to use terminology if you don't find it useful,or to avoid usingit if you do find it useful.

SOME BASIC GRAMMAR TERMS

Here are a few of the most common grammar terms, incase you didn't study grammar inschool, or suppressed the gramn r you did study. The entry for each term takes thefollowing form definition of the tem, additior al discussion if needed, andone or moresentences containing underlined examples of the term. If you run acrossa term that isn'tdefined here or in a reference grammar, look for it in one of the big all-Englishdictionaries.

adjective: a word that describes (the technical term is "modifies")a noun. In the followingsenten -, the adjectives are underlined:

Nasreddin Hodja is a humorous figure in Middle Easternoral literature.

adverb: kind of a "wastebasket class of words. Anything that doesn't fit into the otherseven parts of speech (see below) is called an adverb. The most obvious adverbs arewords that describe or modify verbs. In the following sentence, the adverbs areunderlined:

A neighbor respectfully and politely asked the Hodjaif he could borrow his donkey.

article: In English, the words a, an and a are articles. a and an are 'ndefinite articles;the is a definite article.

be: The verb be (also called a linking verb, or a copula, or "the verb i.o be") isone of themore interesting--or probl;matic, depending on how you look at it! grammatical aspectsof English. It is highly irregular, as verbs in the language go. It's t. , only verb that has

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separate forms like:am, is, are, was, were

It plays a part in the progressive tenses, e.g.:was talking, am listening, has been writing, etc.

It is part of the passive voice, e.g.:was hidden, be seen

And it serves as a sort r' linguistic equal sign in sentences like:Hodja stories are a part of Middle Eastern folkliterature.

For all these reasons, be is the focus of a lot of attention.

clause: a sentence s tuck inside an )ther sentence. Looked at from another point of view,a clause is a sentenc! which functions as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb. Clauses havesubjects and predicates. In the sentences below, the clauses are underlined and theirfunction is given in parentheses:

The Hodja said that his donkey wasn't there. (clause functioning as an)

At that moment, the donkey that they were talking about brayed frombehind the house. (clause functioning as an adjective, i.e., modifyingthe noun donkey)When the neighbor heard the donkey, he was puzzled. (clausefunctioning as an adverb, i.e., modifying the other clause in thesentence)

conjunction: a word that connects phrases, clauses, or sentences. The most usedc junctions are and and but. In the sentence below, the conjunctions are underlined:

"Hodja, you said that your donkey wasn't here, but I just heard itbray."

direct object: the noun or noun phrase that immediately follows a verb and refers tosomething the verb has acted on. In the sentence Lam, the direct objects are underlined:

The Hodja shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.

indirect object: a noun or noun phrase that c.,ates between the veil) and the direct object.In the sentences below, the indirect objects are underlined:

We are telling you ft Hodja story.The Hodja did not want to lend his neighbor his donkey.

interjection: a part of speech that includes expressions like Gosh!, Drat!, etc. In thesentence below, the interjection is underlined:

"Allah! May you be forgiven your lack of faith!" cried the Hodja.

noun: a word that refers to or names someone or something, e.g., dog, Winston Chum:till,happiness, etc. In the following sentence, the nouns are underlined:

"You will believe the ord of a donkey, and you will not believe theword of a man whose beard is white!"

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part of speech: In traditional English grammar study, the wordsof the language aredivided into eight different classes. These eightclasses are called parts of speech. Theyare the following, each of which has been defined in this section:

nouns adjectives pronouns prepositionsverbs adverbs conjunctions interjections

phrase: a group of words (different froma clause or sentence because it doesn't containboth subject and predicate). Typical phrasesare:

noun phrases (book of stories about the Hodja)prepositional phrases (at the bottom, of the boat, aboutthe Hodja)verb phrases (might be looking, should have been seen)

plura referring to more than one. Nouns andpronouns can be plural, and so can theverb be. In the, following sentences, the plural wordsare underlined:

One day the Hodja planted some saplingsin his garden.When evening came and he had finished his task, heuprooted themall and carried them into his house."We ore living in bad times," he explainedto his children.It is better to keep our belongings wherewe can see them."

predicate: Sentences are composed of a subject (see below) anda predicate. Thepredicate usually consists of the verb and whatever followsit in the sentence. In thesenten-es below, the predicates are underlined:

One night a thief entered the Hodja's house.The Hodja's wife whispered that therewas a thief in the next room.The Hodja told her to be quiet."Maybe he will find something worth taking.Then we can easily take it from him."

preposition: a limited class of words like at, for, behind,etc. Prepositions oftenrefer to locations. They are followed bynouns in prepositional phrases like to the store,of the story, and like an idiot. In the followingsentences, the prepositions are underlined:

The Hodja was once traveling in a sailboat duringa fierce storm,w c.,sed-the-boa-t-frefm-side-te-side-and-tore,the topsail.When the Hodja saw the sailors rush Ita the mast and start to tiedown the sail, he shouted at them."If you want to keep th, boat still, you should tie itat the bottom, notat the top!"

pronoun: a word that can be Lsed instead of a noun ornoun phrase. In the followingsentences, the pronouns are underlined:

The village gossip, a notorious sponger,ran up to tha Hodja."I just saw a gigantic stuffed turkey carried byon a plate.""What is that to me?" asked the Hodja."'They carried it to your house," answered the gossip."What is that to you?" asked the Hodja.

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sentence: traditionally defined as a group of words that expresses a complete thought.Ilo one ever came up with a good definition of "a complete thought," however!) Another

definition is "a group of words that includes a subject and a predicate," i.e., something thatis being talked about, am', what's happening to that something. In general, you can trustyour intuition as a native speaker as to what a sentence is. In the following examples thefirst is not a sentence, whereas the second is:

The Hodja, a famous figure in Middle Eastern folk literature.The Hodja is a famous figure in Middle Eastern folk literature.

singular: referring to only one thing. Nouns and pronouns can be singular, and so canthe verb be. Verbs in the present tense can also be singular. In the sentences below, thesingular forms of nouns, pronouns, be, and present tense verbs are underlined:

The Hodja was once asked what .vas the more useful, the sun or themoon."The sun shines in the daytime when there is a lot of light already,"he replied, "whereas the moon shines when it is dark.The moon is therefore much more useful."

subject: the first part of a sentence, usually including a noun or pronoun. The subjectsof the sentences below are underlined:

Ten men offered the Hodja ten pennies to take them across a riverin a boat.Although not a skillful boatman, he started to row the ten m-n across.The boat lurched in midstream.One of the ten fell out and was carried away by the current.The lost man's friends began to shout at the Hodja."All right," he said. "I'll accept just nine pennies!"

tense: the trappings on a verb that indicate when the action takes pla,:e. The traditionaltenses in English are listed below, with an example for each. Note that the progressivetenses are sometimes called continuous tenses.

present:present progressive:

past:past progressive:

future:future progressive:

The Hodja walks to the mosque.The Hodja is walking to the mosque.

The Hodja walked to the mosque.The Hodja was walking to the mosque.

Th' Hodja will walk to the mosque.The Hodja will be walking to the mosque.

present perfect: The Hodja has walked to the mosque.present perfect progressive: The Hodja has been walking to the mosque.

past perfect: The Hodja has walked to the mosque.past perfect progressive: The Hodja had been walking to the mosque.

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future perfect: The Hodja will have waked to themosque.future perfect progressive: The Hodja will have been walking; to themosque.

verb: traditionally defined as a word that expressesan action or a particular sup.e. ("Aparticular state" is one of the phrases grammariansuse to talk about the verb be. whichclearly behaves like a verb, but somehow doesn'texpress action.) In the followingsentences, the verbs (not the verb phrases!) are underlined:

The Hodja was preaching at the mosque.He pointed out that it is siru it for a woman towear makeup.SGmeone in the audience commented tint the Hcdja's wifeworemakeup all the time.The Hodja replie3, "Liut it looks goodon the hussy!"

USING REFERENCE GRAMMARS

For your own interest and possibly peace of mind,you might waist to invest in a referencegrammar of English. Thousands of reference grammars of English have been writtenoverthe last two hundred years, including many written specifically for the EFL/ESIThere are probably reference gra. .iars of English available in the language ut yourcountry.

What Reference Grammars AreReference grammars describe a language thesane way that, say, a textbook on humananatomy describes the body. A reference grammar might start out describ;ng the variou.kinds of words: nouns, pronouns, adjectives, etc. It will define each k;nd, give examples,and discuss the ways in which the relev, words behave. A referencegrammar will tellyou, for example, that nouns change form when more than one is being talked about, andwill go into the changes that occur: regular ones ("cat" - "cats") and irregular ones("mouse" - "mice"). After discussing the word classes, thegrammar might go on to discusskinds of sentences: statements, questions, negativestatemthts, negative questions. Thenthe grammar might go on to discuss the ways sentencesare inserted into other sentences,i.e., complex and compound phrases and sentences.

A reference grammar is meant to be skipped around iiilike an encyclopedia, and is-onstructed accordingly. The sections, paragraphs, examples,or explanations are usuallynumbered. The terms and examples given in the index refer the readerto these numbers,so that it is easy to find any given topic. in the best reference grammars, explanationsarewritten so that you don't have to have read what Emscome beforehand to understand thepoint being msde. In the Longman English Grammar, for example,the index contains thefollowing for 'ithisfthat":

this/that/thesthose: demonstratives 4.32-36, form 4.32, for nearness/distance4.31: ac adjectives /pronouns 4.34, determiners, 3.1, 4.22; replaced bysubjectprop uns 4.36, 13.19n.7, by which 1.42; common uses 2.52, 4.35, App 7; thisone/these ones, etc. 4.10; this Sunday (no preposition) 8.12, App 48

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DEMONSTRATIVE ADJECTIVES AND PRONOUNS

4.33 `Thisittutt' and 'these/those': nearness and distance'Nearness' may be physical This and these may refer to sornettngyou are actually holding or that is close to you, or that you consider tobe close to you. or to something that is present in a situation. We canassociaje this and these with here:

The picture 1 am referring to is this one hereThe photographs I meant are these here

Thisand these can refer to nearness in time (now):Go and tell him now. this instant!

Distance' may be physical. That and those can refer to somethingthat is not dos'i to you, or that you do not consider to be close to you.We can associate that and those with there:

The picture I am referring to is that one thereThe photographs I meant are those there

That and those can refer to distance in time (then):Operations were difficult in the 18th ceinu,, in those days therewere no anaesthetics

4.34 Demonstrative acifecthres/pronouns comparedDemonstratives can be adjectives: that is. they can be determiners[> 3.1] and go before a noun or onenes [> 4.10]: or they can bepronouns used in place of a noun or noun phrase [> 4.2.1]:adjective + noun: I don't like this coatadjective + cae: 1 anr like this onepronoun: f don t like this

Demonstratives used as pronouns normally refer to things, not people:found this wallet. I found this. (pronoun)know this girl. (this cannot stand on its own here)

Demonstrative pronouns after What2 refer to things:What's this/that7 What are these/those9

This and that as pronouns after Who9 refer to people:Who's this? Who s that?

These and those referring to people are followed by a (plural) noun.Compare What are these/those9 (i.e. things) with:

Who are these/thoue peoplelmen/wornenthildren9But those, closely followed by who, can be used on its owr:

Those (of you) who wish to go now may do so quietly

4.35 Common uses of 'this/that' and 'these/thoseThis/that/these/those used as adjectives or as pronouns have manydifferent uses. For examples f> App

4.33 Subject pronouns replacing demonstrativesDemonstratives are replaced i)y it or they in short responses when thething or things referred to have been identified [compare > 13.19n.7):

Is this/that yours? Yes, it is. (Nct *Yes, this/that is')Are these/those yours? Yes. they are. (Not 'Yes, these/those are')

He/she can replace this/that when the reference is to people:This/That is Mrs/Mr Jones. She sale's in charge here.

Figure 7.11 From Longman English Grammar by L.G. Alexander.Longman Group Limited, 1988. Reprinted by permission.

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If you have this reference grammar andyou are teaching "This is a ," you can findout about "this" and "that" by referring to the indicated sections. Sections 4.33-4.36 of theLongman English Grammar have been reproduced as Figure 7.11to show you the sorts ofinformation you can expect to find. Note that thereare lots of examples.

Using a Reference GrammarThe primary use of a reference grammar is foryour own instruction, either before youapproach a particular set of sentence types in class,or after students have asked youquestions. (By the way, if you are embarrassed to be asked questionsyou can'timmediately answer, you can explain to students that native speakers can't alwaysanswerquestions about their language--and then aska question or two about their language toillustrate your point!)

Bringing a reference grammar to class has its problems. You can't teach fromit. Thatis not its purpose. A reference gramma: written in English for Englishspeakers isprobably beyond the Engiish abilities of your students, and ifyou let them use it ,n classyou will spend endless amounts of time interpreting it for them. A referencegrammarwritten in the native language of the students is not always reliable,and in a contestbetween you and such a grammar, you have toargue very -.ogently indeed to convincestudents that the book might be wrong.

SUMMARY

This chapter discusses the grammatical aspects of seNeral approachesto language teaching:Grammar Translation MethodDirect Method and Audiolingual MethodCommunicative Language Teaching

It also discusses ways to deal with the teaching ofgrammar in class. You can satisfy yourstudents' demands for direct grammar activities without spendingmost of your class timeexplaining grammar rules and doing grammar exercises.

Teachers can make use of reference grammars to clarify their understanding ofgrammartopics which appear in their syllabus and lesson materials. Referencegrammars may alsobe used as a supplement to textbooks and class discu.sions. However,most all-Englishreference grammars require a considerable proficiency in English to be readily understood.

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NOTES ON REFERENCE GRAMMARSAND

GRAMMAR EXERCISE BOOKS

Reference Grammars

Note: Reference grammars assume that readers understand simple grammar terms like"noun," "verb," "subject," and "predicate." If your understanding of such terms is shaky,consult the short glossary of grammar terms in this chapter, or look them up in a gooddictionary.

Longman English Grammar (ED 133)L. G. AlexanderLongman Group UK Ltd., 1988A down-to-earth, very usable grammar, with numerous examples set in blue ink for readyidentification. The book is aimed at advanced ESL students, but is probably mostaccessible to the native English speaker. Explanations are clear and matter of fact, andare couched in o:dinary language with a minimum of terminology. I lie appendices includelists of words and phrases referred to in the text, e.g., lists of irregular verbs, verb +particle combinations Coring up," "call off," etc.). The index includes grammar terms aswell as words with particular grammatical characteristics and functions, e.g.,"would," "see,"etc.

ESL Grammar Handbook for Intermediate to Advanced Students of English as a SecondLanguageAllan Kent DartPrentice-Hall, Inc., 1982As the title indicates, a grammar written specifically for the student. Gram.nar points areorganized into short (typically a page and a half) chapters, with very clear explanations andexamples. The points are arranged from simple to complex, and the author suggests that,whereas advanced students can use the book as a reference grammar, intermediatestudents should work through the chapters in order. Careful attention is paid to definingand illustrating terms. For example:

An uncountable noun describes something that we cannot count: "Giveme liberty or give me death." (Patrick Henry)

This would be a nice classroom reference book, since the level of English used in thegrammar explanations really is accessible to intermediate students. There are quizzes foreach chapter in a parallel volume, ESL Grammar Quiz Book, from the same publishers.

A Communicative Grammar of EnglishGeoffrey Leech and Jan SvartvikLongman Group Ltd., 1975.A grammar based on Grammar of Contemporary English, described below. The"communicative" in the title refers to the authors' attempt to look at English grammar

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BIENIIIMMOME12111111M.

from the point of view of meaning,e.g., their definition of mass nouns (the same thing asthe uncountable nouns in the Dart handbook described above):

Mass nouns (sometimes called "non-count" nouns) typically refertosubstances, whether liquid or solid: oil, water, butter, wood, leather,iron, rock, glass, etc. Mass nouns are always singular: it makes nosense to "count" the quantity of a mass substance which is notnaturally divisible into separate objects.

As you can see, the language of the explanationscan get very complex, and so thegrammar is beyond the reach of students with less than an advanced command of English.English speakers who already know what the examplesentences mean will find it quiteuseful.

A Grammar of Contemporary EnglishRandolph Quirk, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, and Jan SvartvikLongman Group Ltd., 1972.A very dense, very comprehensive grammar, certainly the most exhaustive grammarpublished recently, and one found on the shelves of people seriousabout English grammar.It describes the standard English spoken by educated peoplearound the world, and dealsin detail with the differences between British and Americanwriting and usage. Theterminology and depth render it inaccessible to all but teachers with considerablegrammatical background, and the most advanced (and grammar-happy)students, e.g., theexplanation of mass (uncountable) nouns:

We have noted that mass nouns do not havea plural. It is, however,more accurate to say that they are invariable and lack numbercontrast:

Music is/ *Musics are my favorite hobby.As the term "mass" implies, the notion of countability (of "one"asopposed to "more than one") does not apply tomass nouns. Countnouns, which can be counted, (one pig, two pigs, several pigs...) showthe speaker as able to distinguish these itemsas separable entities.Mass nouns, on the other hand,are seen as continuous entities (muchpork, *one pork, *few pork...) and show the speakeras regardingthese substances or concepts as havingno natural bounds. They aresubject to division only by means of certain "gradability expressions."

Grammar Exercise Books

Grammar Work 1 - 4: English Exercises in ContextPamela BreyerRegents Publishing Company, Inc., 1982A series of four exercise books, in which thegrammar is presented in meaningful contexts.Book 1 is for the real beginner, 2 for the high beginner, 3 for the intermediate, and4 areview of the points covered in the first three. Each lesson consists of thepresentation ofa grammar point via a diagram or chart, practice in which the student manipulates

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-1!ElluMMi= 111:1111i2IMMEIGIPI=021111M,

sentences along the lines of the model, and "Make It Work," in which the student uses themodel in a (usually) illustrated context. The exercises are correlated with numberedsections in Grammar Guide from the same publisher, and can be used out of sequence ifdesired.

Grammar Exercises, Part OneArthur A. BurrowsPro Lingua Associates, 1984This book is a self-study augmentation of Nancy Claire's The Grammar Handbook,described immediately below. It supplements her lessons with extensive additional writtenexercises, including "challenge" exercises at the end of some chapters. The exercises in alesaon range from easy to difficult, so that the needs of students at varying levels of abilitywill be served. In addition to the grammar focus, each lesson is made more interesting bya topic focus. All the exercises in the lesson "talk" about the topic, and the necessaryvocabulary is listed in the vocabulary summary at the end of each lesson.Topics rangefrom "How to use this book" (Lesson 1), to banking, to occupations.

The Grammar Handbook Part One.Nancy ClaireProLingua Associates, 1984A basic grammar exercise book, with delightful illustrations. A particular point isexplained very simply, then followed by various oral and written exercises. The grammarpoints are basic enough that the book can be used with beginners. Lessons are notsequenced, and can be dipped into as the need arises. A feature of the book is theinclusion of blank worksheets, which the student is to fill with material presented and/ordiscussed in class. Another feature is the inclusion of references for teachers after eachchapter. students are assumed to have had some English. Many of the written exercisesrequire the student to create sentences along the models given.

ESL Grammar Workbooks I and II for Intermediate Speakers and Writers of English as aSecond LanguageAllan Kent DartPrentice-Hall, Inc., 1978These are textbooks teaching the grammar of English. Each grammar point is explainedvia diagrams or charts and followed by a series of written exercises (mostly fill-in-the-blank), each of which has a particular focus. The first lesson, for example, is anexplanation of the forms of be in the present tense. The second lesson's focus is the verbbe in statements, and is a fill-in-the-blank exercise. The third lesson's focus is es/noquestions and answers with the verb be, and is also a fill-in-the-blank exercise. The bookcould easily be used as a supplementary text for homework or self-study on the part ofintermediate students.

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A Basic English Grammar with ExercisesJohn Eastwood and Ronald MackinOxford University Press, 1988A book of lessons, each of which consists ofa described point of grammar and exercisesin which the student is to practice the grammar point. Lessons range from simple (thefirst lesson is on word order in simple sentences) to complex (the lastlesson is onemphasis, as in "I did do it; you didn't see it."). Descriptions of the grammar point arevery clear and include examples. Exercises range from standard fill-in-the-blail-with-the-correct-verb-form to more "fun" activities like picture exercises in which thestudent usesthe grammatical form to interpret the picture. At the beginning of the bookthere is aglossary of grammatical terms defined via examples (verb: in thesentence "I go to workby bus," the word go is a verb). The last chapters in the book give examples of functions(apologizing, complaining, etc.), a list of irregular verbs, punctuation rules, wordbuilding,and lists of money and other number terms. The language isvery British, which might getin your way if you are not comfortable with the differences between British andAmericanEnglish.

Making f ...Ilse in English: intermediate Grammar in ContextRuth Pierson and Susan VikAddison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1987This could easily serve as the main text in a class for intermediateor advanced studentsinterested in grammar. The lessons are sequenced according to grammaticalstructure(they provide a thorough review of the simple structures, tenses, etc., and introducemorecomplex ones), but include hefty reading passages and oral and written practice. Grammarpoints are explained via easy-to-understand diagrams and charts. The readingpassagesand dialogues are much more difficult than the grammar,e.g., the first sentence in the firstlesson:

People in the United States today know that many things about theway they live affect their health: the food they eat, the medicalattention they get, the alcohol and tobacco they consume.

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CHAPTER EIGHT

LESSON PLANNING AND TESTING

A major responsibility of any teacher involves mappingout the long-termgoals for the course and the school term,as well as the outlines and plansfor each lesson. The function of testing is then to check that goals andobjectives have been met.

At one point in Alice In Wonderland, Alice meets the Cheshire Cat, sitting on the boughof a tree in the fork of a road. Should shego left or right Alice wondered.

"Cheshire Puss," she began, "Would you tellme please, which way I ought towalk from here?""That depends a good deal on whereyou want to get to," said the Cat."I don't care much where . . . ," said Alice."Then it doesn't matter which way you walk," said the Cat."So long as I get somewhere," Alice added,as an explanation."Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "ifyou only walk long enough."

Unfortunately Alice's approach is shared bysome teachers, who think that if they justbegin a lesson and talk long enough theyare bound to get somewhere. However, workingwithout long-term goals and short-term objectives leadsto lessons that lack focus anddirection. Your students look to you fora sense of purpose. Your goal setting will reassurethem that you are aware of their needs and will demonstratea thoughtful management ofthe classroom.

LONG-TERM GOALS

Long-term goals reflect what you intendyour students to be able to do with their Englishat the end of the course or the school term. Your goals should therefore be relevant,motivating, and concrete. They need to be relevant and to reflect the effortyou have putinto understanding both the individual needs ofyour students and the national educationalgoals of the country in which you are serving. They need to be motivating and to beperceived by your students as being reasonable and leadingto successful learning. Theyneed to be concrete, that is to say specific and measurable. "To understandpast tensesin English" is not specific enough. "Students will be ableto talk about past events" is bothspecific and measurable.

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In writing goals and objectives you need to include three components:

o type of behavior: the specific action expected of the studento condition: the circumstances under which the behavior isto be

demonstratedo criterion: the degree or level to which the behavior must be

demonstrated to be acceptable

Here is an example beginning level objective for listening:

After listening to a sample passage on "Walking to School" (condition),students will be able to draw a picture and color 10 objects in the drawing(behavior), with fewer than five mistakes (criterion). The task will beaccomplished in 10 minutes (criterion).

Here is an example of an intermediate level objective for speaking:

After selecting a topic (condition), students will be able to give a one-minutepresentation (behavior and criterion), using correct pronunciation of the /th/ sound(criterion).

Here is an example of an upper-intermediate level objective for writing:

After reading a passage on "Pollution" and a phrase outline of the samepassage (condition), students will be able to change the outline into asentence outline by rewriting each phrase as a complete sentence (behavior),with fewer than 10 mistakes in the construction of the sentences (criterion).The task will be completed in 20 minutes (criterion).

You will find additional information on instructional objectives and lesson planning in thePeace Corps Manual Teacher Training: A Reference Manual (ICE Manual No. T-45).

The basic information which you need to write your goals may be found in the followingsources:

1. a copy of the syllabus for your classes for the year (if one exists)2. copies of the textbooks available to your class3. back copies of the national exams, if you are teaching a class which

will be taking these exams within the next two or three academic years4. ideas for sources of supplementary materials5. information on communicative approaches to the four language skills:

listening, speaking, reading and writing (see Chapters Three, Four,Five, and Six)

6. information you have gathered on the needs of your students

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Once you have written your goals, your long-term plans are in place and youcan move onto outlines and lesson plans.

OUTLINES

These outlines are your drafts and foundations for your lesson plans. For these outlinesyou will need to select your:

o topic (where necessary, as in a science class which has one hour ofEnglish a week)

o lesson objective, including reference to condition, behavior andcriterion

o language skill focus: listening, speaking, reading, writingo vocabularyo grammar focuso materials: textbook and supplementary materialso activitieso assignments

Figure 8.1 shows the outline of a lesson plan. This outline is based on an extract fromasyllabus used by a Central American country. Volunteers teaching English in schools inthat country are expected f^ fellow this syllabus. The extract reads as follows.

Lesson VIITalking about Family Relationships

By the end of the lesson the students must be able to:

o Use the verb characteristics--present tense in English with thestructures "have" and "has"--affirmative and interrogative.

o Understand and use "have" and "has" with different nouns andpronouns in affirmative sentences.

o Complete the set of possessive adjectives by adding "our" and "their"to nouns.

o Use the possessive for persons: "Robert's wife."

o Recall possessive adjectives and use them in comparison to possessivepronouns: "my/mine," "your/yours," and so on.

o Understand and use "whose," answering with "mine," "hers," etc.

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OBJECTIVES STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO ASK AND ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUTTHEIR FAMILIES.

LANGUAGE SKILLS A) LISTENING AND SPEAKING: EXAMPLE: HOW MANY BROTHERSDOES MARIA HAVE? FOUR.

B) READING AND WRITING: READING, FILLING IN BLANKS

VOCABULARY FATHER, MOTHER, BROTHER, SISTER, SON, DAUGHTER, HUSBAND,WIFE

MY, HIS, HER, OUR, YOUR, MINE, THEIR

MINE, HIS, HERS, OURS, YOURS, THEIRS

GRAMMAR FOCUS 1) POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES: THAT'S MY FATHER.2) POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS: THAT BABY IS MINE.3) WHOSE SISTER IS THAT?4) GENITIVES: THAT'S JUAN'S BROTHER.5) HAS/HAVE AFFIRMATIVE/INTERROGATIVE

MATERIALS FLIP CHAR'iS OR BLACKBOARDS FOR FAMILY TREES

ACTIVITIES YES/NO QUESTIONS, TPR, FILLING IN THE BLANKS, DRAMATIZATIONOF STORY

ASSIGNMENTS DRAW A CARTOON STRIP OF THE JOSE/MIGUEL STORY

Figure 8.1 Outline: Lesson VII, Family Relationships

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There are no differences between the content of Figure 8.3 and the extract from thesyllabus, but the column on the left hand side of the figureadds an organizationaldimension which makes it easier to read and which willact as a reminder for you toinclude all the elements in your outline.

STEPS IN A LESSON PLAN

With your outline clearly established,you can develop you, lesson plans by following thesesteps:

o reviewo presentationo practiceo applicationo assignment

ReviewReviewing previous work allowsyou to check on understanding of the previous lessons andgives students an opportunity to ask for clarification.

In a fifty-minute lesson you should allow approximatelyten minutes for review.

PresentationSetting a familiar context is an important part ofpresenting new material. This step ofyour lesson should therefore be closely tied to your Review. Your objectiveat this pointis to move your students from the known to the unknown.

PracticePracticing new material requires guidance and control from theteacher. Exercises in thissection of the lesson will need to be carefully prepared and includeexercises such asmultiple choice, substitution drills, true or false, and filling inblanks. You will need tomonitor activities, checking that new information has beenunderstood and that studentsare putting their new skills correctly into practice.

ApplicationApplying new material is different from practicing it in that theteacher steps back andallows the students to take control. Your students will have hadtime to absorb your inputand they can now focus on their output. Exercises in thispart of the lesson will he :-..oreopen ended. They will include role-plays, written reports, complexgroup activities.

In a fifty-minute class these three steps, Presentation, Practice,and Application should takeapproximately thirty-five minutes.

AssignmentsExplaining assignments should not be left until the last minute. Give yourself time toprepare your students for the work they will be doing out of class When your studentsunderstand what is required of them they havea better cliance of succeeding and

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achieving the objective of the lesson. Your assignment should reflect the materialspresented in your lessun.

Traditionally, assignments have consisted of exercises from the text. However, you maywant to explore some of the options offered by a communicative approach and give yourstudents a real task to perform. For example, in a country where English is widely spoken,such as Kenya or the Philippines, you might ask your students to find out details ofupcoming events and to report back to the class.

In a fifty-minute class, you should allow at least five minutes for this step.

A SAMPLE LESSON PLAN

Title

Objective

Review

Family Relationshipsor

Who's Who in Your Family?

Students will be presented with illustrations of family trees and will betold a story. They will be asked to demonstrate their understandingof simple instructions and to ask and answer simple questions onfamily members, using the correct forms of possessive adjectives andpronouns.

Review assignment and materials covered in previous lesson.

Presentation A. Teacher tells story of own family and draws a family tree withcartoon faces, names, and relationships on the board.

B. Teacher asks questions of one student and draws a similar familytree on board. Saw' questions will include:

What's your father's/mother's name?How many brothers and sisters do you have?Is your brother Vicente married?What is his wife's name?Does he have children?What are their names?

C. Teacher checks comprehension of class by asking Yes/Noquestions about the family tree. For example:

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Is Juan's mother called Maria?Does Juan have three sisters?Is this Vicente's son?Does Juan's sister Alta Gracia have two sons?

D. Teacher checks comprehension by asking individual studentsto goto the board and:

Point to Juan's sister.Draw a pair of sunglasses on Juan's face.Change the hairstyle of Juan's oldest brother.Draw a big smile on the face of Juan's father.

E. Teacher writes chart of possessive adjectiveson board:

myour

youryour

his hertheir

and uses them in sentences describing family relationships in thefamily tree which is still on the board.

This is their mother.This is his father. etc.

F. Teacher describes the rule governing the use of the possessiveform of nouns:

Add an apostrophe plus s ('s) to singularnouns.Example: Juan's sister

Add an apostrophe (') to plural nouns.Example: The brothers' mother

G. Teacher writes the verb "to have"on board, in present simpleaffirmative and interrogative, and drills students, using the familytreeon the board.

I haveYou haveHe/She hasWe haveYou haveThey have

Do I haveDo you haveDoes he/she haveDo we haveDo you haveDo they have

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Practice A. Teacher asks students each to draw their own family tree. Then,using the example sentences on the board, each student describes thefamily tree to a neighbor.

Example sentences will include:

This is my father/mother/brother/sister.This is my brother's wife.This is my sister's husband.This is my brother's son. etc.

B. Teacher asks each student to use the same sentences to describethe family tree of the first neighbor to a second neighbor. This timethe possessive adjective will be "his" or "her" or a possessive nounform, for example, "Juan's."

This is his /Juan's father.

C. Teacher asks each student to fill in the blanks in sentences.(Sentences will contain blanks for possessive adjectives, possessivenoun forms, and "have" or "has.") Example:

1. sister is called Maria.2. My mother three sons.3. Does Enrique two or three brothers?

Presentation A. Teacher tells the following story, using dramatization and pictureson the board to make sure that the main ideas are understood:

Two boys, Miguel and Jose, were friends. They bothhad baby sisters. One day, Miguel's mother asked himto take his baby sister for a walk. And Jose's motherasked him to take his baby sister for a walk, too.The two boys met at the soccer field. They decidedto put their baby sisters under a tree and to play soccer.When they finished playing soccer they came back tothe tree. But they could not tell the differencebetween the bthy girls.

"Which one is my sister?" cried Miguel. "Which one ismine?"

"Which one is my sister?" cried Jose. "Which one ismine?"

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Practice

MEMOSIMMINNIIM

"I think this little one is yours," said Miguel.

"Then this big one must be. yours," said Jos..

"Oh no," said a passing mat. "The little one looks likeMiguel. It must be his. And the big one looks likeJose. She must be *his baby sister."

Miguel took the little baby girl back to his mother. Hismother screamed and sai to Miguel's father, "Thisisn't our baby. Where's ours?"

Jose took the big baby girl back to his mother. Hismother screamed, too, and said to Jose's father, "Thisisn't our baby. Where's ours?"

Miguel ran to Jose. "Quickly," he cried, "my mothersaysthis little baby isn't her baby. And she wants hersback."

Jose said, "My mother says this big baby isn't hers. Shewants her little baby back."

Later, Miguel and Jose sat and talked. "Mothers andfathers are very clever," said Jose. "They knew whichbaby was theirs. They only wanted their baby."

B. Teacher checks comprehension either by asking Yes/Noquestions,or by asking four students to mime the story for the class.

C. Teacher writes chart of possessivepronouns on board:

mine yours his hersours yours theirs

Teacher uses classroom objects to drill possessive pronouns andpossessive adjectives.

Whose pen is this? It's mine. / It's my pen. etc.

Teacher distributes texts of Miguel/Josestory, asking students to fillin the blanks. (The possessive pronouns and possessiveadjectives willhave been deleted from the text.)

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Application Teacher distributes cards and asks students to circulate asking eachother the questions given below. As students find a classmate whocan give an affirmative answer to a question, they ask that classmateto sign beside the question. The object of the exercise is to see whocan get all the questions signed off first.

Do you have two sisters?Does your mother have two brothers?Is your sister's name Maria?Does your sister have three children?Do you have one brother?Is your father's name Pablo?Do your parents have four children?Is your brother's name Eduardo?Does your mother have three sons?Do you have a baby sister?Are your brothers' names Carlos and Vicente?Is your mother's name Maria Elena?

Assignment To draw a strip cartoon of the Miguel and Jose story, and to put thefollowing sentences in the speech balloons:

Which one is my sister/mine?This little one is yours.This big one is yours.No, this one is his sister/his.This isn't our baby/ours.My mother wants her baby/hers.My mother and father knew their baby/theirs.

Summary of Guidelines for Planning Lessons

o Build in student success by setting achievable objectives.o Provide input before expecting output.o Provide needed vocabulary.o Teach all four language skills.o Provide a variety of activities.o Allow for absorption time of new materials.o Teach from known to unknown.o Cover the syllabus.

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GUIDELINES FOR TESTING

This section looks at two aspects of testing: classroom tests and nationalexaminations.These national examinations are usually set by the Ministry of Education. Practicesvary,but in most countries the two most important national examinationsare at the end of sixyears of primary school, and at the end of six years of secondary school.

Classroom TestsThe first and most important principle in writing tests is to test whatyou have taught.What you teach should in turn reflectyour long-term goals for your course. In this way,tests check your ability to keep to your long-term goals and to transform those goals intolessons.

While the emphasis may vary, in most situations you will be teaching all four languageskills. Your tests should be devised to test these four skills. While testing reading, writing,and listening is relatively straight forward, the testing of speaking, particularly withclassesof 50 and over, requires a little organization.

The Royal Society of Arts Examinations Board in England has developeda format whichcan be adapted to meet your needs. First, divide your class into groups of threes. Thengive each group approximately five minutes in which toprepare a task. An example of atask is:

The teacher is going to visit your village-for a week. Ask theteacher some questions about her plans. The teacher willask you some questions about your village.

Another example would be to give a group a picture or photo of a recent school activity,such as we ding the school garden, the official opening of the school fish pond,or thewinning of a sports event, and to ask the three interviewees to talk about the picture.

Then interview the group of three for approximately five minutes. If possible work withanother teacher on these interviews, so that while your colleague is interviewingyou canassess and take notes on student performances. If no other teacher is available, you couldrecord these interviews to play back and assess later. It is also important that theinterviewer make sure that each of the three interviewees is given opportunitiesto speak.

When writing long tests, make sure that you sequence test items fromeasy to moredifficult. Students suffering from test anxiety could be completely unnerved if the firstquestions thcy read seem beyond their capabilities. This sequencing of your test itemscould be done by first asking your students to fill in blanksor answer multiple-choicequestions, then by including test items which requireyour students to write sentenceanswers, and finally by moving on to test items which involve writing paragraph answers.

Make your directions clear. In a classroom test you may want to check orally that studentshave understood the directions. Many Volunteers report that in moments of panic

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rstudents misread directions and fail tests because of this. The sound of your voice readingthe directions slowly and clearly can be calming.

Knowing the anxieties that surround tests, help your students by developing their reviewpractices. The ideas discussed in Chapter Five, particularly the section on reading foracademic purposes and the exercises to develop reading microskills, lend themselves wellto the development of review practices.

Figure 8.2 outlines some basic examination strategies for your students. The mostimportant of these strategies revolves around a planned use of time. When givingclassroom tests, tell your students at regular intervals how much time has passed and howmuch time they have left to complete the test.

To get full benefit from the learning experience of tests, take time to go over correctedtests with your class. The advantages in this for your students generally outweigh theinevitable discussions over grades which some students will raise. You can control thissituation by setting aside 10 minutes at the end of the session for questions on grades.Clearly though, you will need to think through and explain your grading policy to yourclasses well in advance. It also behooves you to familiarize yourself with the gradingsystem of your colleagues. The American system tends to be more generous in itsallocation of points than other systems, and you may wish to adjust so as to be more intune with local expectations.

For your own benefit, particularly when working with large numbers of students, makeyour tests easy to grade. Essay tests may be easy to prepare, but they take a long timeto grade. So unless the essay format is required by the school, choose testing exercisessuch as multiple choice, completion, and doze. The doze test consists of giving studentsa passage to complete in which every nth word is deleted. However, you need not keeprigidly to a set pattern of deleting blanks when writing doze tests for your students. Hereis an example of a doze test. (When given, the words in parentheses are omitted.)

Rikyia and Fatima decided to (take) a walk. They (had) wanted (to) walkby the river, but the wind was (blowing) too hard. So they walkeddowntown instead. They met (some) friends near (the) market, anddecided to (stop) for a Coke in their favorite cafe. The wind had droppeda (little) and the sun was (shining), so they sat at a (table) outside.

Finally, make sure that your students understand the school policy on cheating and theconsequences for anyone caught breaking these school rules.

National ExaminationsThe success of your students hinges on their ability to do well in the national exams. Ahigh school diploma is frequently the reward for a whole family who have providedfinancial support to put one of their members through years of schooling. Your ability toprepare students for national exams is therefore an important response to your students'most pressing need.

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ALL TESTS AND EXAMINATIONSRead the instructions.

Plan your time--have a watch or clock with you.

ESSAY EXAMINATIONSRead all the questions carefully at the beginning ofthe exam.

Leave space at the end of each essay answer so that ifyou have time you can go ,back and add moreinformation.

Outline your essay in rough. If you do not haveenough time to write a full answer, write your outlineon your answer sheet.

Answer the questions that you know best, first.

MULTIPLE CHOICE EXAMINATIONSBe sure that you mark the correct number/letter nextto the correct number on the answer sheet.

Read all possible answers carefully.

Find out whether guessing answers will workagainst you.

Figure 8.2 Examination Strategies

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Look for the opportunity to serve as air examiner in the national exams. You could be aninterviewer in oral exams or a grader of essay exams. The educational authorities usuallywork through the school principals and it would be easy to indicate your interest to yourprincipal. The experience will stand you in good stead when it comes to coaching yourstudents for these exams.

If this option is not open to you, familiarize yourself with the content and format of theexaminations. Keep abreast of any changes in the examinations. Make sure that youcover the content in your lessons and that your students are aware of your doing so. Buildinto your lessons mock examinations with test questions in the national examination format,and when you go over the corrected copies of these exercises discuss both content andformat errors with your students. An example of format error would be answering fivequestions when only asked to answer four.

Examination anxiety is hard to overcome completfly. But you may help you studentsmaster some of their anxiety by discussing and implementing examination strategies.Strategies range from the practical to the esoteric. Practical strategies might involvedeveloping your students' sense of timing, helping them plan how they will use their timeduring an exam, and helping them stick to that plan. At the more esoteric end of thespectrum come relaxation exercises or exercises where students visualize their successduring the weeks leading up to an examination.

SUMMARY

This chapter discusses long-term goals, lesson outlines, lesson plans, and testing.

Long-term goals should be relevant, motivating, and concrete.

Lesson outlines include:objectiveslanguage skill focusvocabularygrammar focusmaterialsactivitiesassignments

Lesson plans have five steps:reviewpresentationpracticeapplicationassignment

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Testing principles include:test what you have taughttest course goalstest all four language skillssequence test itemsmake directions cleardevelop students' review practicesdevelop students' test-taking strategiesgo over corrected tests with studentsmake policies on cheating clear

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING

Teacher Training: A Reference Manual (T 45)The Center for International EducationPeace Corps, Information Collection and ExchangeThis Manual is full of practical ideas andwas written with your needs in mind. Thesections on instructional objectives and lesson planningare particularly relevant to thischapter. You will also find the sections on assessment of student lea .g and classroomteaching techniques easy to read and helpful toany Volunteer involved in teaching.

Techniques in Testing (ED 108)Harold S. MadsenOxford University Press, 1983Designed to improve skills in constructing and administeringclassroom tests for adult ESLstudents. Provides specific explanations, descriptions, examples, anu precautions forpreparing tests. Part I emphasizes vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation, and Part IIcovers tests of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Appendix lists tests usedworldwide, such as TOEFL (Test of English asa Foreign Language).

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APPENDIX A

TEXTBOOKS AND REFERENCES

The textbooks and reference materials whichare cited in Chapters One to Eight are listedhere in alphabetical order by their titles, (Ignore "the" or "a" at the beginning ofa title.Use the second word of the title to finda publication.)

Titles of works which are suggested for further readingare marked with an asterisk (*)and followed by a chapter number in parentheses. Turnto the end of that chapter to finda short description of the book.

Titles of books are given in bold face type if theyare ICE publications. These books aredescribed ii The Whole ICE Catalogue andare available to you free of charge throughPeace Corps Information Collection and Exchange. The ICE publication1 ember is givenin parentheses following the title.

Action Pictures (ED 123)Maxine Frauman-PrickelAlemany Press, 1985

The American WayEdward N. Kearny et al.Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1984

* Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching (1, 2)Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. RodgersCambridge University Press, 1986

Audio-Visual Communication Handbook (M 20)Peace Corps Information Collection and Exchange, n.d.

Basic English for SciencePeter DonovanOxford University Press, 1978

* A Basic English Grammar with ExercisesJohn Eastwood and Ronald MackinWord University Press, 1988

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BiologyStanley L. WeinbergAllyn and Bacon, Inc., 1974

* A Communicative Grammar of English (7)Geoffrey Leech and Jan SvartvikLongman Group Ltd., 1975

Current Perspectives on PronunciationJoan Morley (Ed.)Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, 1987

* Developing Reading Skills (5)Francoise GrelletCambridge University Press, 1981

Disabled Village Children (SE 046)David W:.:rnerThe liesperian Foundation, 1987

Discourse in ActionJohn Moore et al.Oxford University Press, 1980

English for Today, Book 1William R. Slager et al.McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1972

English in the Medical LaboratoryJohn Swales and Paul FanningThomas Nelson and Sons, 1980

* ESL Grammar Handbook for Intermediate to Advanced Students of English as aSecond Language (7)Allan Kent DartPrentice-Hall, Inc., 1982

* ESL Grammar Workbooks I and II for Intermediate Speakers and Writers of English asa Second Language (7)Allan Kent DartPrentice-Hall, Inc., 1978

ESL /Literacy for Adult LearnersWayne W. Haverson and Judith L. HaynesPrentice-Hall, Inc., 1982

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ESL Through Content Area InstructionJo Ann Crandall (Ed.)Prentice Hall, Inc., 1987

ESk': Teaching English for Specific Purposes (M 31)Peace Corps Information Collection and Exchange, 1986

ExpressWays, Book 1Steven J. Molinsky and Bill BlissPrentice-Hall, Inc., 1988

* Grammar Exercises, Part One (7)Arthur A. BurrowsPro Lingua Associates, 1984

* The Grammar Handbook, Part OneNancy ClairePro Lingua Associates, 1984

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* A Grammar of Contempormy English (7)Randolph Quirk et al.Longman Group Ltd., 1972

* Grammar Work 1 - 4: English Exercises in Context (7)Pamela BreyerRegents Publishing Company, Inc., 1982

Grolier English Study Course for Junior High School Students, Book 1Grolier International, Inc., 1978

Innovative Approaches to Language TeachingRobert W. Blair (Ed.)Newbury House Publishers, Inc., 1982

Jazz ChantsCarolyn GrahamOxford University Press, 1978

* Keep Talking (3, 4)Friederike KlippelCambridge University Press, 1984

* Language Experience Approach to Reading (and Writing) (5, 6)Carol N. Dixon and Denise NesselAlemany Press, 1983

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Listening and Language Learning in ESLJoan MorleyPrentice-Hall, Inc., 1984

* The Listening Approach (4)J. Marvin Brown and Adrian S. PalmerLongman, Inc., 1988

Longman Dictionary of An-etican EnglishVirginia French Allen et al. (Consultants)Adrian Stenton (Coordinating Editor)Longman, Inc., 1983

* Longman English Grammar (ED 133)L. G. AlexanderLongman Group UK Ltd., 1988

* Making It Happen (3)Patricia A. Richard-AmatoLongman, Inc., 1988

* Making Sense in English: Intermediate Grammar in ContextRuth Pierson and Susan VikAddison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., 1987

Paragraph DevelopmentMartin L Arnaudet and Mary Ellen BarTettPrentice-Hall, Inc., 1981

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Peace Corps Literacy Handbook (M 21)Peace Corps Information Collection and Exchange, 1984

The Process of CompositionJoy M. ReidPrentice-Hall, Inc., 1988

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Recipes for Tired TeachersChristopher Sion (Ed.)Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., 1985

Shifting Gears, Book 1Patrick Moran (Ed.)Department of State and Experiment in International Living, 1983

Skillful ReadingAmy L. SonkaPrentice-Hall, Inc., 1981

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Skills for Learning: DevelopmentThomas Nelson and Sons vnd University of Malaya Press, 1980

* Teacher Training: A Reference Manual (T 45) (8)The Center for International EducationPeace Corps Information Collection and Exchange, 1986

* Teaching English PronunciationJoanne KenworthyLongman Group Ltd., 1987

Teaching ESL CompositionJane B. Hughey et al.Newbury House Publishers, Inc., 1983

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Teaching Listening ComprehensionPenny UrCambridge University Press, 1984

Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign LanguageChristine NuttallHeinemann Educational Books, 1982

Teaching VocabularyMichael WallaceHeinemann Educational Books, 1982

Teaching Written EnglishRonald V. WhiteGeorge Allen & Unwin, 1980

* Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching (1, 2)Diane Larsen-FreemanOxford University Press, 1986

* Techniques in Testing (ED 108) (8)Harold S. MadsenOxford University Press, 1983

* Techniques in Teaching Vocabulary (ED 106) (5)Virginia French AllenOxford University Press, 1983

* Techniques in Teaching Writing (ED 107) (6)Ann RaimesOxford University Press, 1983

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* What to Do Before the Books Arrive (and After) (3)Jean D'Arcy Maculaitis and Mona ScheragaAlemany Press, 1981

Writing WorkshopJoyce PagurekNewb,--,7 House Publishers, Inc., 1984

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APPENDIX B

ORGANIZATIONS AND PUBLICATIONS

These organizations and publications are some of the more helpfulsources of informationon the teaching of English as a foreign or second language.

William RoyerEnglish Language DivisionUnited States Information Agency301 4th Street, SWWashington, DC 20547

Or contact the USIS office in yourarea.

USIA publishes English Teaching Forum (4 times/year)Room 312 Distributed by ICE through country3014th Street, SW offices to all PCVs teaching English.Washington, DC 20547

Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)1600 Cameron StreetSuite 300Alexandria, VA 22314

TESOL members receive the TESOL Quarterly (4 times/year)and the TESOL Newsletter (6 times/year)and they are entitled to discounts on TESOL and otherpublications.

International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL)3 Kingsdown ChambersKingsdown ParkTankerton, Whitstable, Kent CT5 2DJEngland

IATEFL members receive the IATEFL Newsletter (4 times/year)and they are emi.led to discounts on other publications.

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British Council10 Spring GardensLondon SW1A 2BNEngland

SEAMEO Regional Language Centre (RELC)30 Orange Grove RoadSingapore 1025Republic of Singapore

RELC publishes the RELC Journal (2 times/year).

Three more publications are:

Language Teaching (4 times/year).Cambridge University PressThe Edinburgh BuildingShaftesbury RoadCambridge CB2 2RUEngland

English Language Teaching Journal (4 times/year)Journals DepartmentOxford University PressWalton StreetOxford OX2 EDPEngland

EFL Gazette (12 times/year)Harington's Subscription Agents7 Vale GroveLondon W3 7QPEngland

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Or contact the British Council officein your area.

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APPENDIX C

ACRONYMS

EFL (English as a Foreign Language) and ESL (Englishas a Second Language)

From the point of view of language teaching, the most important differencebetween these two terms lies in the amount and kinds ofexposure to Englishwhich your students have outside the classroom. In an ESL situation, theywill hear and see a lot of English being used around them because it isamajor language in the community and has an official or semi-official status.Large numbers of people use English on a daily basis. Typical ESL countriesare Nigeria and Kenya, India and Pakistan, Malaysia and Singapore, and thePhilippines.

In contrast, in EFL countries such as Indonesia, Nepal,or the LatinAmerican countries, the use of English is much more restricted. Yourstudents are not as likely to hear English on the radio or find English beingused in the daily newspapers. Most of the population may go along most ofthe time without using English.

ESP (English for Specific Purposes)

This term refers to English-teaching situations in which the range of languagewhich is taught is restricted or specialized in various ways. For example,engineering students in university courses may need English only for readiligtheir textbooks. Technicians may need just enough English touse instructionmanuals for maintaining and operating equipment. People in internationalbusiness need to communicate and negotiate with each other. The studentsin ESP courses are likely to be adults rather than younger learners.

TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and TESL (Teaching English as a SecondLanguage)

ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) and ELT (English Language Teaching)

These are general terms meant to include both EFL and ESL.

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TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) or (Teachers of English toSpeakers of Other Languages)

The second meaning of the term is the name of an international organizationof teachers of EFL and ESL. See Appendix B for more information aboutthis organization and its publications.

FCE (First Certificate in English) and CPE (Certificate of Proficiency in English)

These are two standardized examinations administered by the University ofCambridge Local Examinations Syndicate. They are taken by thousands ofcandidates yearly in over 60 countries. The FCE represents a generalstandard of competence in Engish at an intermediate level. Many Britishpublishers gear their textbook series to this standard. The CPE representsan advanced level of competence. It is recognized for matriculation byuniversities in Britain and in many English speaking countries.

TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language)

This standardized test from the Educational TeEling Service in Princeton,New Jersey, is administered every year to thousands of candidates fromhundreds of language backgrounds. Many American colleges and universitiesrequire a TOEFL score of 500 or above for admission to undergraduatestudy. The TOEFL is part of a larger program which also includes the Testof Written English (TWE) and the Test of Spoken English (TSE).

ALM (Audio lingual Method), CLL (Community Language Learning), LEA (LanguageExperience Approach), and TPR (Total Physical Response)

These are just a few of the approaches, methods, and techniques which areused in the teaching of languages. See Chapter Two for an explanation ofALM, CLL, and TPR. The LEA is discussed in Chapters Five and Six.

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Academic test, reading of, sample lesson for, 118-121Acronyms, 209-210Action sequences, in Total Physical Response and Natural

approach, 30, 31Active listening, 49Activities. See under specific activity or topicAdjective, 173Adverb

conjunctive, 126definition of, 173

Advertisements, used in communicative approach, 29ALM. See Audiolingual MethodAnalysis of a model, in an essay, 147-149Lntonyms, 124Anxiety, of learner, 56-57Application, in lesson plan, 189, 194Arabic speakers, pronunciation problems of, 58Article, grammatical, 173Assignments, in lesson plan, 189-190, 194Audio-visual aids, 11Audiolingual Method (ALM), 210

background, 25compared to other approaches, 27criticism of, 160-163description of, 160distinguishing features of, 25example of, 160-163for grammar teaching, 160-164impact on classroom and teaching, 25ramification, 164reading lessons in, 91suggestions for usage, 38

"Aural Cloze" exercise, 83-84"Aural picture" exercise, 70

Background clues, for listening passages, 66Background information, reading comprehension and, 102-103Be (verb), 173-174Blackboard skills, creative use of, 11Books. See also Textbooks

grammar exercise, 181-183surveying of, 110

Borrowing, of words from another language, 49Brainstorming

description of, 139variations of, 139-142

Buzz groups, 53

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Can-Do self-assessment scale, 5-7Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE), 210"Chart" exercise, 79-81Chronological order, in writing a narrative, 146Classes, large multilevel, 7, 9-13Classroom

environment, accepting and non-judgemental, 42impact of Grammar Translation method, 23-24insufficient number of textbooks for, 11large multilevel classes in, 7, 9-13limited hours for English instruction, 14-16low motivation for English instruction, 14-16restriction of, overcoming, 51-53special needs of students, 14, 17strict adherence to rigid curriculum, 11, 14tests, 195-196, 197

Clause(s)definition of, 174linked, relationship to sentences, 126-127

CLL. See Community Language Learning"Clusters" exercise, 83Collocation exercises, 125-126Color coded charts, 35"Color the Picture" exercise, 77Communication, meaningful, 41-42Communication strategies, 49-51Communicative approach

background, 26distinguishing features, 26impact on classroom and teaching, 29suggestions for usage, 38

Communicative language teachingadvantages and disadvantages, 168compared to other approaches, 27description of, 164example of, 164-168ramifications, 168

Communicative speaking skills, obstacles to development of, 62Community Language Learning (CLL), 210

background, 35-36distinguishing features, 36impact on classroom and teaching, 36suggestions for usage, 39

Competency-based approachbackground, 32distinguishing features, 32impact on classroom and teaching, 32, 33suggestions for usage, 39

Composing process, 135-136Confidence building

for disabled students, 17exercises for, 46-49

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Conjunction(s)definition of, 174as linking word, 126

Conjunctive adverbs, 126Constraints and solutions

in classroom, 7, 9-17outside school system, 17-18

Context, of vocabulary, 121Conversation

choice of topic for, 49management strategies for, 49

Cooperation, in group work, 7, 9Copula, 173-174CPE (Certificate of Proficiency in English), 210"Creative Problem Solving" exercise, 86-87Cuisenaire rods, 35

Debating teams, 14"Describing an Object" exercise, 78-79Desuggestion, 36"Detecting Mistakes" activity, 65Dialogue journals, 136-138, 145Direct Method

background, 24distinguishing features, 24for grammar teaching, 160-164impact on classroom and teaching, 24-25suggestions for usage, 38

Direct object, 174Disabled students, 14, 17Discourse map

for academic essay, 106, 107features of, 109

"Do You Know Mary?" jazz chant, 9, 10"Draw the Picture" exercise, 77

EFL (English as a Foreign Language), 1, 154, 209ELT (English Language Teaching), 209English as a Foreign Language (EFL), 1, 154, 209English as a Second Language (ESL), 1, 154, 209English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), 209English for Specific Purposes (ESP), 209English Language Teaching (ELT), 209English teaching, as secondary project, 23ESL (English as a Second Language), 154, 209ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages), 209ESP (English for Specific Purposes), 209Essays, academic

analysis of a model in, 147-149discourse map for, 106, 107

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Essays, academic (cont,d)teaching organization of, 106-108

Evaulation of text, 116Exercises. See under s ecific exercise or to icExpectations of student, questionnaire on,Expository prose, features of, 105-109Exposure to language, in language learning, 4-65Expressive literature, 103-105

3

"Famous Personalities" activity, 45-46FCE (First Certificate in English), 210Feedback

asking for, 50immediate, 82

Feelings, talking about, 42First Certificate in English (FCE), 210Fishbowl, 53Fluency, 45-46Focus statement of essay, 108-109French speakers, pronunciation problems, 58Future perfect progressive tense, 177Future perfect tense, 177Future progressive tense, 176Future tense, 176

"General Knowledge Quizzes", 83Gestures, 50Goals, information sources for, 186-187Grammar

basic terms in, 173-177in classroom, 171-173ease of explanation and, 170in EFL/ESL context, 154for linguist or grammarian, 153-154for native speaker, 153progression and, 170for students who want grammar, 171-172teaching of, sequencing and, 168-171usefulness to student and, 170

Grammar exercise books, 181-183Grammar translation; compared to other approaches, 27Grammar Translation Method

background, 23distinguishing features, 23impact on classroom and teaching, 23-24influence of, 22reading lessons in, 91suggestions for usage, 38

Grammars, reference, 177-179

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Grammatical sequencingother parameters, 170practical choices and, 170-171

Grammatical terminology, use in lessons, 172-173Group work, large, 9"Guess the Distance" exercise, 74Guessing games, 78-79Guided conversation, 24

Handwriting, 133-134"Headlines" activity, 59"Hidden Sentence" exercise, 84-85Hours, limited, for English instruction, 14

Implications, exercise on, 115-116Indirect object, 174Inferences, exercise on, 115-116Information-gathering, reading for, 109-111, 118Innovative language teaching

feedback from, 34Silent Way, 34-35

Interaction, stimulation of, 44-45Interjection, 174Interrelationships, exercise on, 114-115Intuition, about grammar, 171

Jazz chants, 9, 10

Language Experience Approach (LEA), 210in basic writing activities, 134-135language and reading proficiency, 104student texts and, 103-104writing activities, beginning, 144-145

Language learningrole of listening in, 63-68role of speaking in, 43-51

Language teachingaudiolingual method, 160-164communicative, 26, 28-32direct method, 160-164innovative, 32-37traditional, 22-25traditional grammar translation method, 154-160

LEA. See Language Experience ApproachLearner anxiety, 56-57Learner's dictionary, for vocabulary teaching, 127-129Lesson plan

guidelines, summary of, 194

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Lesson plan (cont'd)long-term goals and, 185-187outlines for, 187-189, 198sample, 190-194

for early stages of reading, 96-101for transition to longer texts, 104-105

steps in, 189-190, 198Letters, printed vs. cursive, 133Library, lending, 111Link words, 126-127Linking verb, 173-174Listening

basic literacy and reinforcement of, 94-101beginning level objective, 186comprehension, resources for teaching, 68-72development of activities for, 89exercisesto communicate real meaning, 82-83to encourage listening for specific details, 79-82to encourage whole-message listening, 77-79good, characteristics of, 72including listening preparation, 74-75offering visual support in, 75-77providing interesting content for, 72-74requiring listener responses, 83-88

to meaningful "real life" messages, 65-68reading suggestions for, 89role in language learning, 63-68teaching of, 63-89

Literacy skills, basic, 94Literature, narrative or expressive, 103-105Logical structure and relationships, exerciseon, 116-117Long-term goals, 185-187, 198Loop writing or looping, 140-142

Malawi, 1Market groups, 54Materials, teaching

for Communicative Approach, 29English language, 4listing of, 201-206use of everyday materials for reading lessons, 101-102

Memorization, 23-24Messages, meaningful "real-life", 89"Messenger" exercise, 85-86Minilectures, 70-72, 74Mistakes, 34Motivation

immediate feedback and, 82-83low, for Eglish instruction, 14raising, 73

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Musiclistening to, 64tapes, 70

Narrativechronological order in, 146literature, use in teaching extended reading, 103-105

National examinations, 196, 198Native speaker, intuition about grammar, 171Natural approach

background, 30distinguishing features, 30, 31impact on classroom and teaching, 30suggestions for usage, 38

Needs assessmentoutside school system, 5-7overview of, 8in school, 1-4

Network, 54Newspaper, classroom, 11Noun, 174

Objectdirect, 174indirect, 174

Objective, for lesson plan, 190Obstacles, to implementing spoken communicative activities, 51-57Onion groups, 54Opinion vote, 54-56Opinions, talking about, 42Oral communication activities, 11Organization of written discourse, exercises for, 146-147Organizations, 207-208Outlines, 108-109, 187-189

Panels, 53Paraphrase, 49Part of speech, 175Participation, 43-44Past perfect progressive tense, 176Past perfect tense, 176Past progressive tense, 176Past tense, 176Peer coaching, 9, 11Pen-pal club, international, 14Peru, 1Phrase, 175"Pictures in Order" activity, 72-73Plays, 14

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Plural, 175Practice

in lesson plan, 189, 192, 193limited time for, overcoming, 53-56

Pre-reading exercises, 112, 114Pre-writing

activities for, 133, 135brainstorming and, 139loop writinc and, 140-142speculative questions and, 139-140

Predicates 175Prefixes, 125Preposition, 175Present perfect progressive tense, 176Present perfect tense, 176Present progressive tense, 176Present tense, 176Presentation, in lesson plan, 189, 190-191, 192-193Primary school children, assessment of needs for, 2Problem-solving activity, 28Problem sounds, review and practice of, 5 61Project work, for large multilevel classes, 9Pronoun(s)

definition of, 175effect on reading comprehension, 117-118

Pronunciationin audiolingual method, 25development of communicative tasks with probleA sounds, 58-59development of self-monitoring practices, 61identify problem areas, 57-58sentences with natural occurrence of problem sounds, 58teaching steps for, 57, 62

Publications, 207-208

Questionsat beginning of reading lesson, 113on English language materials, 4on national requirements, 4for needs assessmentin classroom, 2outside school system, 5

speculative, 139-140

Readingof academic and professional texts, 93for academic purposes, 105-111of academic test, sample lesson for, 118-121Can-Do self-assessment scale, 6early stages of, 92

sample lesson plans for, 96-101

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Reading (cont'd)encouragement of, 111-112everyday uses of, demonstration of, 101-102extensive, 111-112to gather information, 109-111lesson, opening strategies for, 112, 113making transition to longer texts, 102-103microskills

developmental exercises for, 112-121types of exercises for, 112-113

pre-reading exercises, 112, 114proficiency, stages in, 92-94recommended, for teaching speaking skills, 62reinforcement of, and expanded writing skills, 136-138roles of, in learning and use of language, 91-112tasks, basic literacy and reinforcement of listeningand

speaking, 94-101transition to longer texts, 93unfamiliar content, problem of, 105

Reading comprehensionlack of background information and, 102-103pronouns, substitute words and, 117-118visualization and, 114-115

"Real life" messages, meaningful, 65-68Reducing or simplifying parts of speech, 50Redundancies, allowance for, 66-68Reference grammars

description of, 177-179notes on, 180-181use of, 179

Requirements, national, for class, 3-4Response time, built in, 65Review, in lesson plan, 189, 190Revising, 142-144Role plays, to build confidence, 48-49Roman alphabet, pre-reading instruction for, 94, 95"The Route to School," 43-44

Scanning, 110Science activity, 15-16Seating r 'rangements, for classroom, 51-53Self-confidence, enhancement of, 42-43Self-monitoring practices, development of, 61Sentence, 176Sentence combining exercises, 145-146Sentence linkers, 126-127Sequencing, grammatical, 168-170"Shapes" exercise, 75, 76"Shopping" exercise, 73-74"Shrinking Story" exercise, 85

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Silent Waybackground, 34distinguishing features, 34-35impact on classroom and teaching, 35suggestions for usage, 39

Singular, 176Skills, overlapping of, 41-42Skimming

description of, 110as opening strategy for reading lesson, 113-114

Sociodrama, 48-49Sound-color chart, 34"Sound Effects" activity, 46-48Spanish speakers, pronunciation problems, 58Speaker(s)

of English, outside, 69visibility of, allowances for, 65-66

Speakingactivities, interactive, 42-43basic literacy and reinforcement of, 94-101interactive, obstacles for teachers, overcoming of, 51-57intermediate level objective for, 186and listening, Can-Do self-assessment scale for, 6role of, in language learning, 43-51, 61teaching of, 41-62to whole person, 42-43

Speech, slower, asking for, 50Spelling, 128Sri Lanka, 1Star groups, 54Storytelling, 12-13Stress, lowering of, 64Student(s)

checking other students writing, 144expectations of, questionnaire on, 3needs and attitudes toward learning English, 1past records of, 2special needs of, 14, 17talking to, before first class, 2

Subject, 176Substitute words, exercise on interpretation of, 117-118Success, educational, 14Suffixes, 125Suggestopedia

background, 36distinguishing features, 37impact on classroom and teaching, 37suggestions for usage, 39

Synonyms, 124

Talking, to provide plenty to listen to, 64

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Tapes, for teaching listening comprehension, 70-72Teacher(s)

in Grammar Translation Method, 24learner's needs and attitudes and, 1as resource for teaching listening comprehension, 68-69

Teaching approaches, diversity and flexibility in, 21Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL), 209Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL), 209Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL),210TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), 209Tense, 176-177TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language), 209TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), 210Test, academic, sample lesson for reading of, 118-121Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), 210Testing, guidelines for, 195-199Textbooks

based on Direct Method, 25grammar exercise, 181-183insufficient number of, solutions for, 11listing of, 201-206suitablity of, 18supplementation of, 11

Thai speakers, pronunciation problems, 58TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language), 210Topic sentence, recognition of, 108-109Total Physical Response (TPR), 210

action response exercises for, 83background, 30distinguishing features, 30, 31impact on classroom and teaching, 30suggestions for usage, 38

Traditional grammar translation methodcriticisms of, 155description of, 154-155examples of, 155, 156-159ramifications of, 160

Tutoring, 17-18"Two Heads Are Better Than One" activity, 56-57

"Values Clarification" exercise, 87, 88Verb(s)

definition of, 177linking, 173-174student's questions about, 127-128tense of, 176-177

Visibility of speaker, allowances for, 65-66Vocabulary

context and, 121exercisesfor inferring unknown workds, 123-124

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Vocabulary (cont'd)meaning-oriented, 124on prefixes, 125sample types of, 123-127

explicitly taught words and inferred words, 122-123teaching of, 121-122using a Learner's dictionary, 127-129

"What's It Called" activity, 50-51Whole-message listening, encouragement of, 77-79Word charts, 34Words

combinations of, vocabulary exercises on, 125-126inventing, 49

Writingacademic skills, 132-133advanced tasks for, 149-150assignments, general lesson plan for, 133Can-Do self-assessment scale, 6communication through, 135early stages of, 132expanded skills, 132, 136learning, while learning to communicate, 136-138learning by shape, 134long-term goals, 186mastering features of written discourse, 138planning and conducting activities for, 150pre-writing, 133, 135, 139-142process of, learning of, 138-144purposes of, 150and reading of expository prose, 105-109in relation to other language skills, 131revising and, 142-144skills, development of, exercises for, 144-149stages in develorment of proficiency, 131-133teaching of, suggested reading for, 151upper-intermediate level objective for, 186

Zaire, 1

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