unit3 mod2

69
Unit 3 The Teaching and Learning of ESOL Module 2 Listening and Reading At the end of this module you will:- a) be able to identify a range of skills needed for successful reading b) know ways of training learners to develop those skills c) understand why learners have difficulty with listening d) be able to help students to develop listening skills e) begin to be aware of how a skills lesson is put together

Upload: ameni-halioui

Post on 09-Sep-2014

179 views

Category:

Documents


4 download

DESCRIPTION

Teaching listening and reading

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Unit3 Mod2

Unit 3 The Teaching and Learning of ESOL

Module 2 Listening and Reading

At the end of this module you will:-

a) be able to identify a range of skills needed for successful reading

b) know ways of training learners to develop those skills

c) understand why learners have difficulty with listening

d) be able to help students to develop listening skills

e) begin to be aware of how a skills lesson is put together

Page 2: Unit3 Mod2

THE SKILLS - INTRODUCTION

There are 4 primary language skills, usually referred to as: speaking, listening, reading and writing. It is important to distinguish between them (though they are very much interlinked in many situations) as they demand different abilities, eg giving a speech requires a different skill from understanding what you hear when someone else gives a speech, or to presenting the information in the speech in written form or to reading what someone else has written on the subject. All these four skills must be included in a general English teaching syllabus.

There are courses in English for Specific Purposes, which need to be heavily weighted in one or two of the skills eg courses for telephone operators teach more listening and speaking. However, even courses as specific as that need a certain amount of the other skills - a telephonist may need to read a memo, or leave a written message for someone, thus needing the skills of reading and writing.

There are further sound reasons for including all the four skills in the syllabus and often in a single lesson:

1. People get tired after a certain period of activity, they need a rest or change of activity - the saying - 'A change is as good as a rest' certainly applies to the language classroom.

2. In any group there will be several different styles of learner. For example while some adults need to write what they learn in oral practice because they get comfort from the written word, others will not need to see the written word. If you give the class the chance to hear and say and see and write a piece of language you will be catering for all styles of learner.

Unit 3 Module 21

Page 3: Unit3 Mod2

SKILLS AND THE TEXTBOOK

Some textbooks put emphasis on one or two skills and either omit or downgrade the others. Books which lay great importance on grammar often focus mainly on reading and writing, whereas audio-lingual course books concentrate on listening and speaking (they are however course books which have been written and need to be read). Before taking on a new class, look carefully at the textbook to see if it provides insufficient practice in any of the four skills. Plan ahead and be ready with supplementary material should the book be lacking in practice in any particular skill. Writing is the most commonly neglected, by the way!Authentic texts, readers, recordings of dialogues, extracts from DVD and contemporary news downloads or articles from the internet will be very useful for this purpose. Start making your collection now!

Although real life communication rarely consists of only one of the four skills, it is important to look at the skill areas separately to begin with in order to identify what learners need to be able to do, and how we, as teachers, can best help them acquire that ability.

What mistakes do teachers make? Look at these confessions.

I translate words in texts for my students when they ask me.

I play the tape over and over as many times as the students want me to, usually about 4 or 5.

I usually give my students the tapescript to look at while they listen. If I don’t they never understand.

I like having discussions, but the same students talk all the time.

I don’t use long texts in class because my students can’t read long texts.

I don’t do writing in class except writing down board work and some worksheet completion, as it wastes time. My students write for homework.

I translate unknown words for my students before they read a dialogue or text, otherwise they couldn’t read it.

Think about these as we go through the next two modules.

PART 1 LISTENING SKILLS Unit 3 Module 22

Page 4: Unit3 Mod2

Listening skills are so important that we have to make sure a range of training techniques are employed and not rely on students to 'pick up' by themselves what the language sounds like. This rarely happens, and leads to the situation where learners may be highly competent in written skills, or have an excellent knowledge of grammar, but are unable to comprehend the simplest of listening passages. It is essential that we recognise areas of potential difficulty and plan our listening activities and materials accordingly.First, however, we need to consider problem areas in listening and then possible solutions to those difficulties.

TASK FOR SUBMISSION TO YOUR TUTOR

TASK 1

Unit 3 Module 23

Page 5: Unit3 Mod2

Listen to the sound file (Listening Task.mp3) and complete the table below:-

Problems learners have Ways we can help

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

(Please submit all tasks together at the end of the module.)

DIFFERENT KINDS OF LISTENING

Unit 3 Module 24

Page 6: Unit3 Mod2

It is convenient to think about listening in terms of two types of listening, Intensive listening and Extensive listening.

INTENSIVE LISTENING

When our attention is focussed and we are listening for a particular purpose, we call this 'Intensive listening'. For example, we could be listening for details of the weather in our region, a train departure time or the football results of our favourite team. As we listen carefully, we select the information we require and ignore the rest. Because we know beforehand what we want to hear, it becomes easier to concentrate and focus our attention to listen selectively. There are several ways of training our students to develop the skills required for intensive listening.

a) PredictionBy asking students to predict what they are going to hear, based on a topic word or sentence, you are preparing your learners for what to expect, and guided questions help them decide what to listen for, and keep them focussed on the main points. This technique can be repeated towards the end of the listening text by asking students to predict the ending. This can be done in pairs or groups and is particularly successful with narratives.This keeps students actively involved in the listening process.

b) QuestionsDifferent types of exercises will ensure that listening skills are being developed. As with reading skills, exercises can be set midway as well as at the end of the listening text, and can be in the form of true/false questions, 'wh' questions (who, what, where), sentence completion, gap-filling, error correction, table filling, form-filling etc.

EXTENSIVE LISTENING

Unit 3 Module 25

Page 7: Unit3 Mod2

There are times when we listen to something in order to get a general idea of the context or 'gist' rather than for specific details. Sometimes we need to recognise the function of the dialogue, for example, is the speaker making arrangements, expressing an opinion, making an enquiry or even having a row? At higher levels, intermediate and above, students need practice in recognising attitude (by work on intonation patterns) and by recognising changes in direction or topic when listening to speeches, or longer listening passages, or taking notes in university lectures.

Exercises in extensive listening

A general pre-set question given before listening can prepare the students and encourage them not to worry about details but to concentrate on understanding the general idea. Questions given afterwards such as 'How would you describe A's feelings?' allow them to interpret what they have understood without worrying about specifics.

It is almost impossible for students to do both. They can’t listen intensively for a long time and they don’t notice mood while they are listening for precise information. Check tasks to make sure that you do not have them trying to do too many things at once.

SELF-CHECK 3:2 1

Here are two different listening activities:

a) listening to a group discussing the British Royal Family and deciding whether the general feeling is pro- or anti- Royalists

b) listening to the travel news for motorway hold-up information

The first involves extensive listening. The second intensive listening for specific information.

In a) what helps you identify the general feeling of each of the speakers? Who is the most negative or positive? A B or C?

In b) what specific information/key words would you be listening out for if you were hearing this in the car south of Knutsford on the M6?

Transcript (a)(3 speakers chatting)

A: Yeah, but I mean what’s the point of them? They don’t do anything

Unit 3 Module 26

Page 8: Unit3 Mod2

very much to help the country -

B: And it’s not like I mean Prince Charles - he may or may not get to be King - its about being useful -

C: The Queen’s all right though and she’s doing well for 80 something - how old is she now? Her mum lived to be over 100.

B: The Queen should be in good shape - wish I had that many people to look after me when I’m old and it’s not real work like -

C: Yeah, all those dinners and stuff like parties - but I bet she gets bored, poor thing - oh no another local Balmoral special.

A: The main problem is there are too many of them ‘minor Royals’. B: I agree how many is it now?

A: Loads, I dunno.

Transcript (b)

News is coming in now of diversions in place northbound below Junction 19 for Knutsford on the M6. The northbound carriageway is completely closed due to a lorry shedding its load of chocolate sauce across all three lanes. Northbound drivers are being directed to leave the motorway at junction 18 for Holmes Chapel and rejoin the motorway at Junction 19. The diversions will be in place for about 6 hours and motorists are advised to use other routes if possible as tailbacks are building up back to Junction 16.

COMMENT

Every text that you use in the classroom needs to be looked at carefully. If you are going to design useful questions then you need to be able to identify the important points. It’s no use getting involved in teaching student about ‘Balmoral’ in Transcript (a) or ‘chocolate sauce’ in Transcript (b)!

Unit 3 Module 27

Page 9: Unit3 Mod2

Available materials

Now we have arrived at our first module on texts, look around at your situation with regards to materials. If you are not teaching, what is your possible future destination? If you are teaching, how do you rate the available resources?

TESOL teaching situations are very varied. Some teachers may barely have their own stable internet connection in their local internet café and no printer. Others may have interactive white boards and projectors in every classroom. Cassette recorders are still used in a lot of schools and some of those do not even have a recording facility. While this module explores the different possibilities, it will be up to you to adapt to your situation.

For TASK 2 you are going to use a news broadcast as a stimulus for listening practice. First here is some practice designed to get you thinking about questions and what information students are able to access.

SELF-CHECK 3:2 2

Look at the transcript below taken from a news bulletin and make notes on the following questions:

TRANSCRIPT OF THE SIX O’CLOCK NEWSBBC RADIO THREE 5 JUNE 2007

President Bush has made a direct appeal to Russia to embrace plans for a missile defence system in mainland Europe. In a speech in the Czech Republic, Mr. Bush said that the cold war was over, and Russia had nothing to fear. He went on to criticise the Russian government’s record on democracy.

Channel Four is ignoring a request by Princes William and Harry not to show images taken in the aftermath of their mother’s fatal car crash. A letter from the Princes’ private secretary said they felt the pictures, to be broadcast in a documentary about Princess Diana’s death, showed gross disrespect for her memory. The Conservatives described Channel Four’s decision as deeply regrettable, but the Liberal Democrats say it’s in the public interest for the images to be shown.

The Conservative leader, David Cameron, has denied making a U-turn over Grammar Schools. A row broke out within the party after it was announced that a policy of supporting the building of new grammar schools had been dropped. Now Mr. Cameron has said there might be a

Unit 3 Module 28

Page 10: Unit3 Mod2

few in selected areas. In a BBC interview he insisted he hadn’t buckled under pressure.

A man has appeared in court charged with the murder of a 32 year old Kate Beadley, who disappeared after going out on a date in West London. Police discovered a woman’s body in woods near Watford yesterday. Carl Joseph Taylor, who’s twenty-seven, was remanded in custody until September.

The former White House aide to the US Defence Secretary, Dick Cheney, has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for perjury. Louis Libby lied to an investigation into who leaked the name of a CIA agent to the press.

The Palestinian president, Mahmood Abass, has marked the 40th anniversary of the start of the six-day Middle East war of 1967 with a warning that his people are on the brink of civil war. He said internal fighting was at least as dangerous as the occupation which followed Israel’s capture of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem.

In the City, the 100 Share Index closed down 21 points, at 6642 (read as sixty six - forty two)

And the weather tonight will stay dry with clear periods, and some misty cloud across eastern and central areas. Tomorrow, that cloud will clear, leaving warm sunshine. The best of the sun will be in the west.

1. What level do you think you could use this for and why?

Unit 3 Module 29

Page 11: Unit3 Mod2

2. What words and phrases might students find difficult?

3. What topics in the bulletin are fairly easy to understand?

4. What topic do you think is the most obtuse or complicated?

5. Underline the numbers in the transcript.6. Underline the names in the transcript.

7. Can you find any areas of vocabulary that you could exploit in a lesson?

8. What section of the listening would you choose for an intensive listening activity?

9. What section would you not focus on at all?

Unit 3 Module 210

Page 12: Unit3 Mod2

COMMENT

1. This is not suitable for beginners but low intermediates could access this text in the form of a gap fill listening activity focusing on certain words:

President Bush has made a direct appeal to Russia to embrace plans for a ………..system in mainland Europe. In a speech in the Czech Republic, Mr. Bush said that the ………was over, and Russia had nothing to fear. He went on to criticise the Russian government’s record on ……………

Note that the missing words are thematically linked and could be a basis for discussion. Do not choose words to miss out at random.

2. The students will struggle with idioms like making a U turn and buckling under pressure. Concepts such as the idea of ‘in the public interest’ and ‘gross disrespect’ are also hard work. There are a number of words connected with crime that will need to be dealt with - perjury, remanded in custody, leaked information and so on.

3. The two easiest topics to understand are the weather and the body found in the woods as these are written in a very straightforward way.

4. The hardest one without explanation is probably the one on the Princes. The sentence structure and flow of ideas is not straightforward, there is a concentration of difficult vocabulary and the story is difficult to pin down as it mentions the Royal Family and the TV and two political parties!

5 and 6. Note that you can use numbers as a focus IF there is some teaching point to be gained - for example a lesson about phrases using numbers like marked the 40th anniversary or sentenced to 30 months. Names should not be asked for - you could possibly ask the students to provide Russia but no others.

7. The most obvious vocabulary area is crime and punishment - perjury, remanded in custody, sentenced, charged with murder, in the public interest etc.

8. Probably choose the murder? For a longer section maybe that and the stories either side of it.

9. You do not need to include the share index or the weather unless you want to do a lesson on weather!

Unit 3 Module 211

Page 13: Unit3 Mod2

Now consider the following extract:

Students can improve their listening skills - and gain valuable language input - through a combination of extensive and intensive listening material and procedures. Listening of both kinds is especially important since it provides the perfect opportunity to hear voices other than the teacher's, enables students to acquire good speaking habits as a result of the spoken English they absorb and helps to improve their pronunciation.

Extensive listening Just as we can claim that extensive reading helps students to acquire vocabulary and grammar and that, furthermore, it make students better readers (see below), so extensive listening (where a teacher encourages students to choose for themselves what they listen to and to do so for pleasure and general language improvement) can also have a dramatic effect on a student's language learning.

Extensive listening will usually take place outside the classroom: in the students' home, car or on personal MP3 players as they travel from one place to another. The motivational power of such an activity increases dramatically when students make their own choices about what they are going to listen to.

Material for extensive listening can be obtained from a number of sources. Many simplified readers are now published with an audio version on cassette or CD. These provide ideal sources of listening material. Many students will enjoy reading and listening at the same time, using the reader both in book form and on an audio track. Students can also have their own copies of coursebook CDs or tapes, or recordings which accompany other books written especially at their level. They can download podcasts from a range of sources or they can listen to English language broadcasts online, either as they happen or as 'listen again' events on websites such as www.bbc.co.uk/radio.

Of course, radio broadcasts are authentic and as such they may cause some learning problems for students at lower levels. However, in a short article about listening to the radio, Joseph Quinn advised students not to worry if they don't understand everything. They don't actually need to, and they're bound to take in a lot of language even if they are not aware of it. To make the most of this kind of input, students should set themselves a simple listening task, adopt a relaxed posture and 'lie down and doodle' while they listen (Quinn 2000: 14).

In order for extensive listening to work effectively with a group of students - or with groups of students - we will need to make a collection of appropriate tapes, CDs and podcasts, clearly marked for level, topic and genre - though John Field thinks that it is very difficult to judge the difficulty of a text and, therefore, difficult to grade listening (Field 2000a: 195). These can be kept, like simplified readers, in a permanent collection (such as in a self-access centre or on a hard disk so that students can either listen to them on the spot or download them onto their MP3 players). Alternatively, they can be kept in a box or some other container which can be taken into classrooms. We will then want to keep a record of which students have borrowed which items; where possible, we should involve students in the task of record-keeping.

The keenest students will want to listen to English audio material outside the classroom anyway and will need little encouragement to do so. Many others, however, will profit from having the teacher give them reasons to make use of the resources available. We need to explain the benefits of listening extensively and come to some kind of agreement about how much and what kind of listening they should do. We can recommend certain CDs or podcasts and get other students to talk about the ones which they have enjoyed the most.

In order to encourage extensive listening we can have students perform a number of tasks:

Unit 3 Module 212

Page 14: Unit3 Mod2

They can record their responses to what they have heard in a personal journal or fill in report forms which we have prepared, asking them to list the topic, assess the level of difficulty and summarise the contents of a recording. We can have them write comments on cards which are kept in a separate comments box, add their responses to a large class listening poster or write comments on a student website. The purpose of these or any other tasks is to give students more and more reasons to listen. If they can then share their information with colleagues, they will feel they have contributed to the progress of the whole group. The motivational power of such feelings should not be underestimated.

Intensive listening: using audio material Many teachers use audio material on tape, CD or hard disk when they want their students to practise listening skills. This has a number of advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages: recorded material allows students to hear a variety of different voices apart from just their own teacher's. It gives them an opportunity to 'meet' a range of different characters, especially where 'real' people are talking. But even when recordings contain written dialogues or extracts from plays, they offer a wide variety of situations and voices. Audio material is portable and readily available. Tapes and CDs are extremely cheap, and machines to play them are relatively inexpensive. Now that so much audio material is offered in digital form, teachers can play recorded tracks in class directly from computers (either stand-alone or on a school network). For all these reasons, most coursebooks include CDs and tapes, and many teachers rely on recorded material to provide a significant source of language input.

Disadvantages: in big classrooms with poor acoustics, the audibility of recorded material often gives cause for concern. It is sometimes difficult to ensure that all the students in a room can hear equally well. Another problem with recorded material in the classroom is that everyone has to listen at the same speed, a speed dictated by the recording, not by the listeners. Although this replicates the situation of radio, it is less satisfactory when students have to take information from the recording (though see below). Nor can they, themselves, interact with the speakers on the audio track in any way and they can't see the speaking taking place. For many of these reasons, students may wonder why they should get involved with such material. Finally, having a group of people sit around listening to a tape recorder or CD player is not an entirely natural occupation.

Despite the disadvantages, however, we will still want to use recorded material at various stages in a sequence of lessons for the advantages we have already mentioned. In order to counteract some of the potential problems described above, we need to check audio and machine quality before we take them into class. Where possible, we need to change the position of the tape recorder or CD player (or the students) to offset poor acoustics or, if this is feasible, take other measures, such as using materials to deaden echoes which interfere with good sound quality.

An issue that also needs to be addressed is how often we are going to play the audio tracks we ask students to listen to. The methodologist Penny Ur points out that in real life, discourse is rarely ‘re-played' and suggests, therefore, that one of our tasks is to encourage students to get as much information as is necessary or appropriate from a single hearing (Ur 1996:108). It is certainly true that extracting general or specific information from one listening is an important skill, so the kind of task we give students for the first time they hear an audio track is absolutely critical in gradually training them to listen effectively. However, we may also want to consider the fact that in face-to-face conversation we do frequently have a chance to ask for clarification and repetition. More importantly perhaps, as Penny Ur herself acknowledges, this ‘one listening' scenario conflicts with our wish to satisfy our students' desire to hear things over and over again.

If students are to get the maximum benefit from a listening, then we should replay it two or more times, since with each listening they may feel more secure, and with each listening (where we are helping appropriately) they will understand more than they did previously. As the researcher John Field suggests, students get far more benefit from a lot of listening than they do from a long pre-listening phase followed by only one or two exposures to the listening text (Field 1998a, 2000b). So

Unit 3 Module 213

Page 15: Unit3 Mod2

even when we set prediction and gist activities for Type 1 tasks, we can return to the recording again for Type 2 tasks, such as detailed comprehension, text interpretation or language analysis. Or we might play the recording again simply because our students want us to. However, we do not want to bore the students by playing them the same recorded material again and again, nor do we want to waste time on useless repetition.

As with reading, a crucial part of listening practice is the lead-in we involve students in before they listen to recorded material, for, despite John Field's comments about long pre-listening phases, what students do before they listen will have a significant effect on how successfully they listen, especially when they listen for the first time. In a recent study Anna Ching-Shyang Chang and John Read wanted to find out what kind of listening support was most helpful for students who were doing listening tests. Overwhelmingly, whether students were ‘high' or ‘low-proficiency' listeners, they found that giving students background knowledge before they listened was more successful than either letting them preview questions or teaching them some key vocabulary before they listened (Ching-Shyang Chang and Read 2006: 375-397). Of course, listening practice is not the same as testing listening; on the contrary, our job is to help students become better listeners by blending Type 1 and Type 2 tasks so that they become more and more confident and capable when they listen to English. But what this study shows is that activating students' schemata and giving them some topic help to assist them in making sense of the listening is a vital part of our role.

Who controls the recorded material? We said that a disadvantage of recorded material was that students all had to listen at the same speed - that is the speed of the recording, rather than at their own listening speed. Nevertheless, there are things we can do about this.

Students control stop and start: some teachers get students to control the speed of recorded listening. They tell the teacher when they want the recording to be paused and when they are happy for it to resume. Alternatively, a student can be at the controls and ask his or her classmates to say when they want to stop or go on. lt is possible that students may feel exposed or embarrassed when they have to ask the teacher to pause the recording. One possible way of avoiding this is to have all students listen with their eyes closed and then raise their hands if they want the recording to stop. No one can see who is asking for the pause and, as a result, no one loses face.

Students have access to different machines: if we have the space or resources, it is a very good idea to have students listen to different machines in small groups. This means that they can listen at the speed of a small group rather than at the speed of the whole class. Having more than one machine is especially useful for any kind of jigsaw listening.

Students work in a language laboratory or listening centre: in a language laboratory all the students can listen to material (or do exercises or watch film clips) at the same time if they are in lockstep (that is all working with the same audio clip at the same time). However, a more satisfactory solution is to have students working on their own. All students can work with the same recorded material, but because they have control of their own individual machines, they can pause, rewind and fast forward in order to listen at their own speed.

The three solutions above are all designed to help students have more control even when they are members of a large group. Of course, students can go to learning/listening centres on their own and they can, as we saw above, listen on CD, tape or MP3 players (or computers) to any amount of authentic or specially recorded material in their own time.

Unit 3 Module 214

Page 16: Unit3 Mod2

Intensive listening: 'live' listening A popular way of ensuring genuine communication is live listening, where the teacher and/or visitors to the class talk to the students. This has obvious advantages since it allows students to practise listening in face-to-face interactions and, especially, allows them to practise listening-repair strategies, such as using formulaic expressions (Sorry? What was that? I didn't catch that), repeating up to the point where communication breakdown occurred, using rising intonation (She didn't like the ... ?), or rephrasing and seeing if the speaker confirms the rephrasing (You mean she said she didn't know anything? if the speaker says something like She denied all knowledge of the affair). Students can also, by their expressions and demeanour, indicate if the speaker is going too slowly or too fast. Above all, they can see who they are listening to and respond not just to the sound of someone's voice, but also to all sorts of prosodic and paralinguistic clues.

Live listening can take the following forms:

Reading aloud: an enjoyable activity, when done with conviction and style, is for the teacher to read aloud to a class. This allows the students to hear a clear spoken version of a written text and can be extremely enjoyable if the teacher is prepared to read with expression and conviction.The teacher can also read or act out dialogues, either by playing two parts or by inviting a colleague into the classroom. This gives students a chance to hear how a speaker they know well (the teacher) would act in different conversational settings.

Story-telling: teachers are ideally placed to tell stories which, in turn, provide excellent listening material. At any stage of the story, the students can be asked to predict what is coming next, to describe people in the story or pass comment on it in some other way.

Interviews: one of the most motivating listening activities is the live interview, especially where students themselves think up the questions. In such situations, students really listen for answers they themselves have asked for - rather than adopting other people's questions. Where possible, we should have strangers visit our class to be interviewed, but we can also be the subject of interviews ourselves. In such circumstances we can take on a different persona to make the interview more interesting or choose a subject we know about for the students to interview us on.

Conversations: if we can persuade a colleague to come to our class, we can hold conversations with them about English or any other subject. Students then have the chance to watch the interaction as well as listen to it. We can also extend storytelling possibilities by role-playing with a colleague.

Intensive listening: the roles of the teacher As with all activities, we need to create student engagement through the way we set up listening tasks. We need to build up students' confidence by helping them listen better, rather than by testing their listening abilities. We also need to acknowledge the students' difficulties and suggest ways out of them.

Organiser: we need to tell students exactly what their listening purpose is and give them clear instructions about how to achieve it. One of our chief responsibilities will be to build their confidence through offering tasks that are achievable and texts that are comprehensible.

Machine operator: when we use audio material, we need to be as efficient as possible in the way we use the audio player. With a tape player this means knowing where the segment we wish to use is on the tape, and knowing, through the use of the tape counter, how to get back there. On a CD or DVD player, it means finding the segment we want to use. Above all, it means testing the recording out before taking it into class so that we do not waste time trying to make the right decisions or trying to make things work when we get there. We should take decisions about where we can stop the recording for particular questions and exercises, but, once in class, we should be prepared to respond to the students' needs in the way we stop and start the machine. If we involve our students in live listening, we need to observe them with great care to see how easily they can understand us. We can then adjust the way we speak accordingly.

Unit 3 Module 215

Page 17: Unit3 Mod2

Feedback organiser: when our students have completed the task, we should lead a feedback session to check that they have completed it successfully. We may start by having them compare their answers in pairs and then ask for answers from the class in general or from pairs in particular. Students often appreciate giving paired answers like this since, by sharing their knowledge, they are also sharing their responsibility for the answers. Because listening can be a tense experience, encouraging this kind of cooperation is highly desirable. It is important to be supportive when organising feedback after a listening if we are to counter any negative expectations students might have, and if we wish to sustain their motivation.

Prompter: when students have listened to a recording for comprehension purposes, we can prompt them to listen to it again in order to notice a variety of language and spoken features. Sometimes we can offer them script dictations (where some words in a transcript are blanked out) to provoke their awareness of certain language items.

Film and video So far we have talked about recorded material as audio material only. But of course, we can also have students listen while they watch film clips on video, DVD or online. There are many good reasons for encouraging students to watch while they listen. In the first place, they get to see 'language in use'. This allows them to see a whole lot of paralinguistic behaviour. For example, they can see how intonation matches facial expression and what gestures accompany certain phrases (e.g. shrugged shoulders when someone says I don't know), and they can pick up a range of cross-cultural clues. Film allows students entry into a whole range of other communication worlds: they see how different people stand when they talk to each other (how close they are, for example) or what sort of food people eat. Unspoken rules of behaviour in social and business situations are easier to see on film than to describe in a book or hear on an audio track. Just like audio material, filmed extracts can be used as a main focus of a lesson sequence or as parts of other longer sequences. Sometimes we might get students to watch a whole programme, but at other times they will only watch a short two- or three-minute sequence. Because students are used to watching film at home - and may therefore associate it with relaxation - we need to be sure that we provide them with good viewing and listening tasks so that they give their full attention to what they are hearing and seeing.

Finally, it is worth remembering that students can watch a huge range of film clips on the Internet at sites such as You Tube (www.youtube.com) where people of all ages and interests can post film clips in which they talk or show something. Everything students might want is out there in cyberspace, so they can do extensive or intensive watching and then come and tell the class about what they have seen. Just as with extensive listening, the more they do this, the better.

Viewing techniques All of the following viewing techniques are designed to awaken the students' curiosity through prediction so that when they finally watch the film sequence in its entirety, they will have some expectations about it.

Fast forward: the teacher presses the play button and then fast forwards the DVD or video so that the sequence shoots past silently and at great speed, taking only a few seconds. When it is over, the teacher can ask students what the extract was all about and whether they can guess what the characters were saying.

Silent viewing (for language): the teacher plays the film extract at normal speed but without the sound. Students have to guess what the characters are saying. When they have done this, the teacher plays it with sound so that they can check to see if they guessed correctly.

Unit 3 Module 216

Page 18: Unit3 Mod2

Silent viewing (for music): the same technique can be used with music. Teachers show a sequence without sound and ask students to say what kind of music they would put behind it and why. When the sequence is then shown again, with sound, students can judge whether they chose music conveying the same mood as that chosen by the film director.

Freeze frame: at any stage during a video sequence we can freeze the picture, stopping the participants dead in their tracks. This is extremely useful for asking the students what they think will happen next or what a character will say next.

Partial viewing: one way of provoking the students' curiosity is to allow them only a partial view of the pictures on the screen. We can use pieces of card to cover most of the screen, only leaving the edges on view. Alternatively, we can put little squares of paper all over the screen and remove them one by one so that what is happening is only gradually revealed. A variation of partial viewing occurs when the teacher uses a large ‘divider’, placed at right angles to the screen so that half the class can only see one half of the screen, while the rest of the class can only see the other half. They then have to say what they think the people on the other side saw.

Listening (and mixed) techniques Listening routines, based on the same principles as those for viewing, are similarly designed to provoke engagement and expectations.

Pictureless listening (language): the teacher covers the screen, turns the monitor away from the students or turns the brightness control right down. The students then listen to a dialogue and have to guess such things as where it is taking place and who the speakers are. Can they guess their age, for example? What do they think the speakers actually look like?

Pictureless listening (music): where an excerpt has a prominent music track students can listen to it and then say - based on the mood it appears to convey - what kind of scene they think it accompanies and where it is taking place.

Pictureless listening (sound effects): in a scene without dialogue students can listen to the sound effects to guess what is happening. For example, they might hear the lighting of a gas stove, eggs being broken and fried, coffee being poured and the milk and sugar stirred in. They then tell the story they think they have just heard.

Picture or speech: we can divide the class in two so that half of the class faces the screen and half faces away. The students who can see the screen have to describe what is happening to the students who cannot. This forces them into immediate fluency while the non-watching students struggle to understand what is going on, and is an effective way of mixing reception and production in spoken English. Halfway through an excerpt, the students can change round.

Subtitles: there are many ways we can use subtitled films. John Field (2000a: 194) suggests that one way to enable students to listen to authentic material is to allow them to have subtitles to help them. Alternatively, students can watch a film extract with subtitles but with the sound turned down. Every time a subtitle appears, we can stop the film and the students have to say what they think the characters are saying in English. With DVDs which have the option to turn off the subtitles, we can ask students to say what they would write for subtitles and then they can compare theirs with what actually appears. Subtitles are only really useful, of course, when students all share the same L1. But if they do, the connections they make between English and their language can be extremely useful.

Unit 3 Module 217

Page 19: Unit3 Mod2

Listening lesson sequences

No skill exists in isolation (which is why skills are integrated in most learning sequences). Listening can thus occur at a number of points in a teaching sequence. Sometimes it forms the jumping-off point for the activities which follow. Sometimes it may be the first stage of a 'listening and acting out' sequence where students role-play the situation they have heard on the recording. Sometimes live listening may be a prelude to a piece of writing which is the main focus of a lesson. Other lessons, however, have listening training as their central focus. However much we have planned a lesson, we need to be flexible in what we do. Nowhere is this more acute than in the provision of live listening, where we may, on the spur of the moment, feel the need to tell a story or act out some role. Sometimes this will be for content reasons - because a topic comes up - and sometimes it may be a way of re-focusing our students' attention. Most listening sequences start with a Type 1 task before moving on to more specific Type 2 explorations of the text. In general, we should aim to use listening material for as many purposes as possible - both for practising a variety of skills and as source material for other activities - before students finally become tired of it.

Examples of listening sequences In the following examples, the listening activity is specified, the skills which are involved are detailed and the way that the listening text can be used within a lesson is explained.

Where possible, teachers can bring strangers into the class to talk to the students or be interviewed by them. Although students will be especially interested in them if they are native speakers of the language, there is no reason why they should not include any competent English speakers. The teacher briefs the visitor about the students' language level, pointing out that they should be sensitive about the level of language they use, but not speak to the students in a very unnatural way. They should probably not go off into lengthy explanations, and they may want to consider speaking especially clearly.

The teacher takes the visitor into the classroom without telling the students who or what the visitor is. In pairs or groups, they try to guess as much as they can about the visitor. Based on their guesses, they write questions that they wish to ask. The visitor is now interviewed with the questions the students have written. As the interview proceeds, the teacher encourages them to seek clarification where things are said that they do not understand. The teacher will also prompt the students to ask follow-up questions; if a student asks Where are you from? and the visitor says that he comes from Scotland, he can then be asked Where in Scotland? or What's Scotland like?

During the interview the students make notes. When the interviewee has gone, these notes form the basis of a written follow-up. The students can write a short biographical piece about the person - for example, as a profile page from a magazine. They can discuss the interview with their teacher, asking for help with any points they are still unclear about. They can also role-play similar interviews among themselves.

We can make pre-recorded interviews in coursebooks more interactive by giving students the interviewer's questions first so that they can predict what the interviewee will say.

Unit 3 Module 218

Page 20: Unit3 Mod2

A popular technique for having students understand the gist of a story - but which also incorporates prediction and the creation of expectations - involves the students in listening in order to put pictures in the sequence in which they hear them. In this example, students look at the following four pictures:

They are given a chance, in pairs or groups, to say what they think is happening in each picture. The teacher will not confirm or deny their predictions. Students are then told that they are going to listen to a recording and that they should put the pictures in the correct chronological order (which is not the same as the order of what they hear). This is what is on the tape:

ANNA: Morning Stuart. What time do you call this? STUART: Er, well, yes, I know, umm. Sorry. Sorry I'm Late. ANNA: Me, too. Well? STUART: I woke up Late. ANNA: You woke up Late. STUART: 'Fraid so. I didn't hear the alarm. ANNA: Oh, so you were out last night? STUART: Yes. Yes. 'Fraid so. No, I mean, yes, I went out last night, so what? ANNA: So what happened? STUART: Well, when I saw the time I jumped out of bed, had a quick shower,

obviously, and ran out of the house. But when I got to the car ... ANNA: Yes? When you got to the car? STUART: Well, this is really stupid, but I realised I'd forgotten my keys. ANNA: Yes, that is really stupid. STUART: And the door to my house was shut. ANNA: Of course it was! So what did you do? How did you get out of that one? STUART: I ran round to the garden at the back and climbed in through the window. ANNA: Quite a morning! STUART: Yeah, and someone saw me and called the police. ANNA: This just gets worse and worse! So what happened?

Unit 3 Module 219

Page 21: Unit3 Mod2

STUART: Well, I told them it was my house and at first they wouldn't believe me. It took a long time!

ANNA: I can imagine. STUART: And you see, that's why I'm late!

The students check their answers with each other and then, if necessary, listen again to ensure that they have the sequence correct (C, A, D, B). The teacher can now get the students to listen again or look at the tapescript, noting phrases of interest, such as those that Stuart uses to express regret and apology (Sorry I'm late, I woke up late, 'Fraid so), Anna's insistent questioning (What time do you call this? Well? So what happened? So what did you do? How did you get out of that one?) and her use of repetition both to be judgmental and to get Stuart to keep going with an explanation she obviously finds ridiculous (You woke up late, Yes, that is really stupid, Quite a morning! I can imagine). The class can then go on to role-play similar scenes in which they have to come up with stories and excuses for being late for school or work.

Adapted from The Practice of English Language Teaching, Jeremy Harmer 2007, Longman.

Unit 3 Module 220

Page 22: Unit3 Mod2

TASK FOR SUBMISSION TO YOUR TUTOR

TASK 2

You are going to prepare a listening exercise which will firstly train extensive listening skills, then move on to develop intensive listening skills.

Because we have already mentioned the importance of using authentic materials, your task is this:

1. Record the news from: (a) the radio OR (b) as a podcast from a website. Ideally you need a 2-3 minute bulletin with at least 8 different news items. Make a written transcript of the broadcast.

2. Make a list of at least 12 general topic areas, such as 'politics', 'sport', ‘famous personalities' etc.

3. Set a pre-question for your students, to prepare them.

4. For the first listening, your students will have to identify which of the twelve topics are mentioned and which are not. It is therefore important to have some distractors in your list. To make it more challenging, ask students to number them in the order in which they are mentioned.

5. For the second listening, you could use a range of question types to focus students on one or two sections of the news to help develop intensive listening skills.

6. Decide on ONE topic in the news recording that you think is interesting and make a few suggestions on how you might develop it with a class.

So TASK 2 is:

- record the news and transcribe it - set a pre-question to arouse interest in the recording- make a list of 12 general topics and set a task for extensive listening practice.- write 2 different types of exercise to practise intensive listening skills on sections of the text avoiding very short exercises and questions that require difficult names or simple numbers as answers.- suggest one way that you could extend or develop a topic in the broadcast

NB DO NOT send your recording. You must include a transcript of the news and your exercises, but NOT THE RECORDING.

Unit 3 Module 221

Page 23: Unit3 Mod2

PART 2 READING SKILLS

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE READ IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE?

It does not necessarily follow that because students can read in their own language that they will be efficient readers in English. Training in the skills involved in reading must be given, as reading is not an inbuilt skill. It is also not a passive process, contrary to traditional belief. Reading is an active process in which practice in all the sub-skills is vital as no improvement can be effected without guided practice.

When we listen to someone and try to make sense of what they say we use all sorts of clues. When we read, if we read well, we also use clues. We look at the layout and pictures. We go quickly through the text to see how long it is and what it is about. We use the words we know to help us decide the meaning of the words we don’t know. We try to understand the overall meaning. We do this from the time we first begin to read in our own language. But sometimes, something happens when we start to read in another language. We start to read word by word and we reach for the dictionary all the time. We get stuck on trying to read details instead of trying to find out the overall meaning. In short, we stop using our reading skills.

THE WRITER AND READER

The writer is someone who has something to say through written text to the reader. However, it is important to remember that the writer and reader are not identical and the message intended by the writer may not be the message the reader extracts from the text. Readers bring both knowledge and opinion to what they read. For example, a text may include the following sentence:

He lived his life like a typical bank manager.

Now answer the following questions:

1. How do bank managers travel to work?2.3. What do they wear to work?4.5. What do they do in the bank?6.7. What time do they finish everyday?

Unit 3 Module 222

Page 24: Unit3 Mod2

None of the answers to those questions were in that sentence. The writer’s message comes to us and we interpret it. If we answer the questions in a certain way then we are sharing experience with the writer. We may think we know about bank managers and how they are bywords for respectability and regularity.

But if we think bank managers are crooks who take bribes as a matter of course and have henchmen to kill their enemies then the sentence will mean something very different to us and the answers will be very different.

SELF-CHECK 3:2 3

Read the following paragraph and think about the answers to the questions. Do not use a dictionary.

You are very unlikely to nulp a grizza, because they fozzle at night and not with other grizzas. If you want to see one fozzling for gawls among the loobs, you have to spult nabbly for many hours without making a gank.

1. What do you think a grizza is?

2.What do you know about its habits?

3. What do you think ‘fozzle’ means? And ‘gank?’

ANSWERS LATER IN THE MODULE

Don’t let students use the dictionary every time. Make them guess meanings of words from context, as you did in the exercise above. Only after they have guessed can they look up the word. Give them time limits for reading and an easy task so that they do not have time to find every word on the page. Teach them to discuss their reading with their classmates by putting them into reading groups. Teach prediction skills by using texts with pictures and headlines. If students see an article headed: RABBIT SAVES FAMILY IN HOUSE FIRE they should be encouraged to predict / guess the story. Help your students to use the Internet. Do not accept downloaded material in your lessons as ’research’, but only material that has been edited. If a student brings in unedited material, show them how to pick out the information they need.

Unit 3 Module 223

Page 25: Unit3 Mod2

Good readers: Guess from context Practise at home Get the whole meaning of a text. Read anything (signs, adverts, packets) Enjoy reading and try out new things

TYPES OF READING

A student needs to be able to read on different levels, both extensive, and intensive. Think back to the listening section. The purpose for which the student requires the language determines the particular sub-skills of these types of reading which will be needed. As with listening, extensive reading is for gist, or general understanding of the passage as a whole. Intensive reading is to find specific details within the text, disregarding the rest.

There are various ways of reading texts; some involve a greater depth of understanding than others. One theory concerns four stages of reading.The first involves superficial understanding and is used in reading a newspaper or detective story in order to pick out the main points of a story, look for clues etc. The second can be described as 'imaginative understanding' and is used in the study of literature.

If Seamus Heaney says: ‘I rhyme to see myself, to set the darkness echoing’ - what is he trying to tell us about his attitude to poetry?

The third can be referred to as 'precise understanding' and is used in all but the most superficial reading - it involves the exact meanings of descriptive words and sentences, and accurate understanding of a text of any type - for example when we read about TEFL theory and try to understand a concept such as ‘schema theory’ in a book or article.

The final stage involves practical understanding in which a student acts upon what he reads. This is something we do with packets and instructions - which button to press to make the TV work or how many pills to take and how often!

In addition to this theory comes 'skimming' - this involves quickly running the eyes over a piece of text in order to ascertain if it is relevant to your needs. A leaflet may come through the letter box for reductions on golf equipment at a local store - you only need about 3 seconds to read ‘golf’ and ‘equipment’ before you bin it as you have never played the game in your life.

Unit 3 Module 224

Page 26: Unit3 Mod2

Before setting reading tasks for your students, you need to decide what your aim is.

Do you want to train your students to answer questions precisely? Do you want to increase vocabulary? Do you want your students to decide if the text is relevant to their needs? Are you looking at the grammar of certain types of texts? Do you want the students to act on the information?

Much of this will depend on the nature of the class - are they general English students, University students or Business English students? Where are they now? In their own country or in an English speaking environment?

SELF-CHECK 3:2 4

Look at these three descriptions. Why are they not ‘reading lessons’?

a. In a reading lesson I first ask learners to identify all the unknown words or I identify them before I go into class. I then give them explanations for all the words. I finally ask them to do the reading at home and answer the comprehension questions set in the course book.

b. I believe it is important for learners to be able to read aloud. So I ask each of the students to read a paragraph of the text aloud in the class. While they do this I correct their pronunciation errors. They repeat after each correction. Then I give them a few minutes to answer the comprehension questions. After that, I get the correct answers and we go on to another activity.

c. Well, in a reading lesson I basically start by teaching all the unknown vocabulary. The learners then answer the comprehension questions. Then we check the answers. Finally we do some grammar exercises on an area of grammar that has featured in the written text. I think that texts are a useful way to introduce new language and vocabulary.

Unit 3 Module 225

Page 27: Unit3 Mod2

COMMENT

a. In this lesson, the teacher is teaching vocabulary and developing the learners’ vocabulary. That is of course if s/he is using good vocabulary techniques that make the new words memorable. However, this teacher is not helping learners to ’unlock’ the text.

b. This lesson is one on pronunciation and perhaps stress. Asking

learners to read aloud in this manner can be called ‘barking.’ For example, read the following words aloud: Dak kelp. Do you understand what you have just read? You can read the words and I am almost certain that you have pronounced them correctly but you probably don’t understand what you have read! In reading, being able to say the words is not an essential requirement and it does not imply understanding of the text.

c. This teacher considers a reading lesson to be the same as a vocabulary lesson and especially an opportunity to teach grammar. The teacher has decided to focus on a grammar point after the learners have completed the comprehension questions. Once more the teacher is not treating this as a reading lesson.

All three of the teachers have failed to consider:

1. the features of the text (what makes an advert different from a newspaper article for example),

2. the form of the text (its paragraphs, how each part links to the next)

and

3.how people read texts.

SELF-CHECK 3:2 5

Here is an article from a newspaper. There follow three lesson transcripts showing teachers using it with a teenage class. Make notes on the focus questions that follow each lesson.

Unit 3 Module 226

Page 28: Unit3 Mod2

ARTICLE SMOKEY SAVES 10 IN FIRE

A pet rabbit called Smokey saved ten people from a terrible house fire yesterday and is fit and well at the local fire station.

The seven-week-old baby bunny began pounding his feet on the door of his rabbit hutch when he smelt the smoke that was coming from the kitchen of the house at about 4am yesterday.

His owner, Tanya Birch was woken by the noise and was able to escape with her two year old daughter, Heather, picking up the rabbit on the way out of the door. They all got out safely.

Tanya then screamed a warning to other people on the second and third floors. One mother jumped from a second floor window with her son. Firemen were able to rescue a family of five who were trapped on the third floor.

Tanya said: ‘We owe our lives to Smokey. If he hadn’t woken me up, we would have been trapped by the smoke. I’m going to buy him some extra special carrots this week.’

It is thought that the fire, in the village of Watermeet near Cambridge, was caused by an electrical problem with a heater that was left on overnight in the kitchen. Firemen are investigating.

Lesson 1

Teacher: OK, class. Thank you for telling me about your pets and your favourite animals. You have some very clever pets.Now we are going to read about a very special pet that was in the newspaper because it saved some people’s lives. On the board I am going to put some words from the article. In pairs, I want you to discuss what you think the story is about and how the animal helped the people.

SMOKE BANGING FAMILY 10 3rd FLOOR

JUMPED RABBIT

Then think about 3 questions you would like to find out from the newspaper article and write them down.

Q: What could happen next in the lesson and why?

Unit 3 Module 227

Page 29: Unit3 Mod2

Lesson 2

Teacher: Today class we are going to find out about someone called Smokey.He is very famous because he did something special.Here is the title of the newspaper article:

SMOKEY SAVES 10 IN FIRE

When we write a newspaper article we need to tell the reader:

where what

(why)?when

who

Where it happened What happened When it happenedWho it happened to.

And maybe: Why it happened

Read through the article quickly - you have about two minutes.See if you can find out WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHO and WHY

Q: What skills will the students practise in this lesson?

Unit 3 Module 228

NEWS

Page 30: Unit3 Mod2

Lesson 3

Teacher: OK, class. We have heard interesting stories about brave animals on the recording. Now we are going to read about an animal that saved some people. Let’s think about what happens if there is a fire in a house.Noriko: Gets hot a lot of sm…sm….Keiko: Smoke.Teacher: Good. What about the people in the house?Jun: can’t go out Keiko: Jump out window Noriko: Escape

Teacher: Yes. In this story some people escaped and some people jumped. Some people couldn’t get out - they were trapped But also somebody screamed, somebody smelt something somebody pounded (made a noise) and somebody picked up something. (Writes all words in bold on board and mimes some of them.)Write these verbs down in your book. Then read through the article to find out who did each of these things. Write the name of the person next to the verb.

Q: How is this introduction different from the other two lessons? How is it the same?

Unit 3 Module 229

Page 31: Unit3 Mod2

COMMENT ON THE THREE QUESTIONS

Lesson 1

Q: What could happen next in the lesson and why?This teacher has been encouraging the students to predict what is in the article and to make questions for themselves. The most natural thing for them is to read the article to see if they can find an answer to their questions. This would be a useful exercise as they will be looking for information and words that they recognise, and trying to work out the overall meaning of the article.

Lesson 2

Q: What skills will the students practise in this lesson?This teacher is encouraging them to read quickly through a text and pick out the most important points - so they will be scanning the text.She also introduces them to the idea that texts have a form - ‘newspaper articles usually tell us’……. They are also helping each other and sharing information - important when you are reading.

Lesson 3

Q: How is this introduction different from the other two lessons? How is it the same?This lesson is different because it concentrates straight away on language in the article and especially on verbs.It is the same because it encourages the class to think about the topic before they read. It is also a useful exercise, like 1 and 2. If the students find out the information they will understand the main story of the article. The teacher could do a further exercise with students giving reasons for the actions. Why did he pound on the door? Why were they trapped?

Note: the teacher needs to be careful with ‘trapped’ as the verb is in the passive.

Unit 3 Module 230

Page 32: Unit3 Mod2

TYPES OF TEXTS

There are different ways to use the same texts. Teachers also need to consider the types of texts to introduce as there are so many different types of texts you can use for reading. Textbooks are improving their selection of interesting and relevant materials but you can always add your own. These days it is easy to get texts from the Internet on any and every topic, so choose something your students are interested in. An interview with a celebrity? A review of a new computer game? Ask your students to look themselves for interesting articles and bring them in. Tell them to find English on packets in the kitchen and signs in the street. Even if they are not living in an English speaking country they will still be able to find examples of English. Bringing into lessons material that they have found will encourage them to read outside class.

Once you have chosen a text, think about your exercises. Choose a few short texts on the same theme and ask students to write True/False questions for their classmates to answer - reading for information. Cut up a catalogue or web page and ask students to match the product picture with the description. (skim reading and scanning for information) Cut up a long text such as a story and ask students to put the sections in the right order. (how a text fits together) Ask students to read part of a story in groups and then finish the story in a logical way. (prediction, style).

SELF-CHECK 3:2 6

Here are 5 texts and 5 activities. Match an activity to each text.

Advertisement

Health leaflet

Murder story

Problem letter

Guide book

Find the adjectives that make the car sound attractive. Give each group a different topic and ask them to design a diagram

or picture. Cut this half way through and ask them to guess the end. Each group should read and write a reply Read and mark places on a map

Unit 3 Module 231

Page 33: Unit3 Mod2

EXPLOITING TEXTS

The type of activity you do with a text should be a natural one. Read through this six page report on global warming and ‘pick out the adjectives’ is a rather pointless activity, but finding adjectives in a car advertisement helps to highlight how adverts persuade us.

Planning how to use a text involves thinking about two things:

the focus of the reading exercises

how the text will fit into a lesson or series of lessons you are doing and link with other skills work.

There are three main focus areas to think about:

The information in the text

The structure and style of the text

The vocabulary and grammar used in the text.

We have discussed these above but it is very important that you as a teacher devise exercises that are clearly focused and that will lead on from and in to other activities.

Here is an example of a confused teacher’s set of reading comprehension questions going nowhere:

TEXT

The Rise of YellowstoneYellowstone National Park is an active place - both above ground and underneath it. The park contains more than 10,000 geysers, hot springs, and steaming volcanic vents. Underground heat fuels this geologic activity in the park's central basin, says Wu-Lung Chang, a geophysicist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. And that heat comes from melted rock that seeps up from deep inside the Earth. Now Chang and colleagues have made a new discovery about the mysteries beneath the park. From mid-2004 through 2006, parts of the land in Yellowstone rose as much as 7 centimeters (2.8 inches) per year. That rise is about three times as fast as any change previously measured in the area.

TEACHER’S QUESTIONSUnit 3 Module 232

Page 34: Unit3 Mod2

True or False?

1.The park contains more than 10,000 geysers, hot springs and vents.2.The land is dangerously unstable.

Answer in full sentences

What are the mysteries beneath the park?What does ‘that rise’ refer to? What happened from mid-2004 through 2006?Who is Wu-Lung Chang?What is Yellowstone?

PROBLEMS

The teacher is asking all sorts of different questions here - about pieces of information, about text referencing, about inferring information from the text. The students will read in different ways to answer the different questions and at the end of it will not have a clear idea of what the text is about or a useful set of information. How did they arrive at this text? There is no lead in question or clue as to how the text links with previous work. Where are they going? There is no clear focus.

SELF-CHECK 3:2 7

Here are some texts and examples of a range of much more focussed exercises that could be used with the texts to improve students' reading skills. Study them carefully and make notes on:

what is being taught: in each of the set of exercises - extensive or intensive reading skills? who each text is suitable forwhat areas of language the exercises are focussing on

Then suggest a way in which the lesson could continue from these texts into a speaking, listening or writing exercise.

Unit 3 Module 233

Page 35: Unit3 Mod2

TEXT 1(The student would have a diagram to go with this text)

THE TYPICAL ENGLISH HOUSE

Read through the description then complete the exercises which follow.A detached house stands on its own. A semi-detached house is joined to the house next door along the central wall. The ‘semi’ is the most typical kind of English house. It has front and back gardens and often a garage at the side.

The outline on the next page shows the ground floor of a typical ‘left-hand’ semi. It has a lot of rooms, but if you look at the rooms you will see that they are all quite small. People often ‘live’ in the dining room, keeping the lounge for visitors. This means that they spend most of their time in a room only about 11' 6" x 10' 6". The dining room in this house is connected to the lounge by a room divider, and the kitchen is connected to the dining room by a hatch in the wall. Both the lounge and the dining room have open fireplaces. The kitchen has a sink unit on the back wall of the house and the back door is on the left. The front door opens into the hall. There is one other way in and out of the house and this is through French windows which open onto the garden to the rear of the dining room. The house from front to back measures 24' 6", the lounge being 13' in length.

Exercise 1

Answer the following questions about the house.

1. Put in the dimensions which you know.

2. Mark with a cross the location of the attached "semi".

3. ? - which room is this?

Exercise 2Unit 3 Module 234

Page 36: Unit3 Mod2

Fill in the blanks.

1. The figure 1 marks the position of a ..........

2. The figure 2 marks the position of a ..........

3. The figure 3 marks the position of a ..........

4. The two figure 4's mark the position of the ..........

5. The figure 5 marks the position of the ..........

6. The figure 6 marks the position of the ..........

7. The figure 7 marks the position of the ..........

Unit 3 Module 235

Page 37: Unit3 Mod2

TEXT 2

THE BEGINNINGS OF SCIENCE

Pre text questions.

The title of this article is ‘The beginnings of science’. Can you make a few suggestions about what information might be in it?

How do these key words relate to the topic?civilisationthe moonmetallurgyresearch

Exercise 1

Read the following text and choose the correct ending for the sentences from the distractors given.

Man has always tried to understand the world in which he lives. He is distinguished from the rest of the animal kingdom by his understanding of the relationship between causes and a. its effects - which form the basis of science b. their effects - which form the basis of science c. an effect - which forms the basis of science

The evidence provided by the tools and weapons of Stone Age hunters shows that primitive science was already being used by man in a. his fight for survival, even before the dawn of civilisation b. fighting before the dawn of civilisation c. a fight which was being carried out before the survival of man

Civilisation began with farming. The cultivation and storing of food was one of the greatest resolutions in man's history. From a. a farm a man could get all his food b. history one can learn about farms c. then one man had to learn to live in settled communities

He also had to invent digging sticks, flint sickles, querns for grinding corn and a means of bringing water to the crops. Because farming depends on the changing seasons, a way had to be found to mark the passing of time. The first farmers calculated it by the waxing and waning of the moon, a. while earlier ones counted the days in a solar year b. and then they counted the days in a solar year c. at the same time as counting the days and nights

Unit 3 Module 236

Page 38: Unit3 Mod2

This marked the beginnings of mathematics and astronomy. The more man came to rely on his tools and weapons, the greater became the need for a material stronger than wood and more easily worked than stone. He probably first discovered iron in the form of meteorites. But before he found out how to make iron from its ore he a. discovered iron could be made from meteorites b. continued the experiment and made copper

c. discovered that copper could be made by burning certain greenish rocks

When he learned, some five thousand years ago, to mix copper with tin, the Bronze Age - and the science of metallurgy - had begun.

Each succeeding generation advanced in scientific knowledge, a. and wisdom b. adding to man's growing store c. and other kinds of knowledge

He used this knowledge to better himself by making his environment work for him.

By the 18th century what we now know as science was called natural philosophy. The terms science and scientist were not used until about one hundred years ago. Today, however, our ever-growing store of knowledge is so vast that it must be broken up into order parts. That is why there are separate branches of science such as chemistry, physics, zoology and botany. Modern science is not simply a boring collection of facts and figures. Scientific research is just as creative as composing a piece of music or making a film. But it is important to have some idea of what science is all about in order to appreciate its beauty and excitement.

Exercise 2

Read the full text and see if you were correct.

Exercise 3

Are the following statements true or false?

1. Some green coloured rocks when burned form copper.

2. The beginning of mathematics and astronomy was calculated by the first farmers.

3. Man used scientific knowledge to make his surroundings work for him.

4. Approximately a century ago people began to use the words science

Unit 3 Module 237

Page 39: Unit3 Mod2

and scientist.

5. Iron was probably first discovered in the form of ore.

Exercise 4

Complete these sentences

1. The science of metallurgy began when ...............................................

……………………………………………………………………………….

2. Natural philosophy is what we .............................................................

………………………………………………………………………………..

3. Today there are separate branches of science because .....................

………………………………………………………………………………..

4. To enable us to appreciate the beauty and excitement of science ......

………………………………………………………………………………..

Exercise 5

Explain what is meant by the following words ie what the author is referring to.

1. then - line 72. it - line 103. This - line 114. its - line 155. he - line 166. it - line 227. its - line 26

Exercise 6

Now write a short summary of the text.

ENDNOTE

Unit 3 Module 238

Page 40: Unit3 Mod2

What about the ‘grizzas’ earlier in the module?

Well, as you may have guessed, there is no such thing as a grizza. Any deductions you made were based on your understanding of how text and grammar work. You also brought to bear the idea of how informational texts work so you expected the text to have meaning and it looked like a text to do with animal behaviour so you started making assumptions. If anyone ever discovers a ‘grizza’, please contact INTESOL immediately and we will rewrite the module…..

Now consider the following extract:

Extensive and intensive reading To get maximum benefit from their reading, students need to be involved in both extensive and intensive reading. Whereas with the former, a teacher encourages students to choose for themselves what they read and to do so for pleasure and general language improvement, the latter is often (but not exclusively) teacher-chosen and directed. It is designed to enable students to develop specific receptive skills such as reading for gist (or general understanding - often called skimming), reading for specific information (often called scanning), reading for detailed comprehension or reading for inference (what is 'behind' the words) and attitude.

Extensive reading We have discussed the importance of extensive reading for the development of our students' word recognition - and for their improvement as readers overall. But it is not enough to tell students to 'read a lot'; we need to offer them a programme which includes appropriate materials, guidance, tasks and facilities, such as permanent or portable libraries of books.

Extensive reading materials: one of the fundamental conditions of a successful extensive reading programme is that students should be reading material which they can understand. If they are struggling to understand every word, they can hardly be reading for pleasure - the main goal of this activity. This means that we need to provide books which either by chance, or because they have been specially written, are readily accessible to our students.

Specially written materials for extensive are often referred to as graded readers or simplified readers. They can take the form of original fiction and non-fiction books as well as simplifications of established works of literature. Such books succeed because the writers or adaptors work within specific lists of allowed words and grammar. This means that students at the appropriate level can read them with ease and confidence. At their best, despite the limitations on language, such books can speak to the reader through the creation of atmosphere and/or compelling plot lines.

To encourage students to read this kind of learner literature - or any other texts which may be comprehensible in the same way - we need to act in the following ways:

Setting up a library: in order to set up an extensive reading programme, we need to build up a library of suitable books. Although this may appear costly, it will be money well spent. If necessary, we should persuade our schools and institutions to provide such funds or raise money through other sources. If possible, we should organise static libraries in the classroom or in some other part of the school. If this is not possible, we need to work out some way of carrying the books around with us - in boxes or on trolleys.

The role of the teacher in extensive reading programmes: most students will not do a lot of

Unit 3 Module 239

Page 41: Unit3 Mod2

extensive reading by themselves unless they are encouraged to do so by their teachers. Clearly, then, our role is crucial. We need to promote reading and by our own espousal of reading as a valid occupation, persuade students of its benefits. Perhaps, for example, we can occasionally read aloud from books we like and show, by our manner of reading, how exciting books can be. Having persuaded our students of the benefits of extensive reading, we can organise reading programmes where we indicate to them how many books we expect them to read over a given period. We can explain how they can make their choice of what to read, making it clear that the choice is theirs, but that they can consult other students' reviews and comments to help them make that choice. We can suggest that they look for books in a genre (be it crime fiction, romantic novels, science fiction, etc.) that they enjoy, and that they make appropriate level choices. We will act throughout as part organiser, part tutor.

Extensive reading tasks: because students should be allowed to choose their own reading texts, following their own likes and interests, they will not all be reading the same texts at once. For this reason - and because we want to prompt students to keep reading - we should encourage them to report back on their reading in a number of ways.

One approach is to set aside a time at various points in a course - say every two weeks - at which students can ask questions and/or tell their classmates about books they have found particularly enjoyable or noticeably awful. However, if this is inappropriate because not all students read at the same speed (or because they often do not have much to say about the book in front of their colleagues), we can ask them each to keep a weekly reading diary, either on its own or as part of any learning journal they may be writing. Students can also write short book reviews for the class noticeboard. At the end of a month, a semester or a year, they can vote on the most popular book in the library. Other teachers have students fill in reading record charts (where they record title, publisher, level, start and end dates, comments about level and a good/fair/poor overall rating), they ask students to keep a reading notebook (where they record facts and opinions about the books they have gone through) or they engage students in oral interviews about what they are reading.

Intensive reading: the roles of the teacher In order to get students to read enthusiastically in class, we need to work to create interest in the topic and tasks. However, there are further roles we need to adopt when asking students to read intensively:

Organiser: we need to tell students exactly what their reading purpose is, give them clear instructions about how to achieve it and explain how long they have to do this. Once we have said You have four minutes for this, we should not change that time unless observation suggests that it is necessary.

Observer: when we ask students to read on their own, we need to give them space to do so. This means restraining ourselves from interrupting that reading, even though the temptation may be to add more information or instructions. While students are reading we can observe their progress since this will give us valuable information about how well they are doing individually and collectively. It will also tell us whether to give them some extra time or, instead, move to organising feedback more quickly than we had anticipated.

Feedback organiser: when our students have completed the task, we can lead a feedback session to check that they have completed it successfully. We may start by having them compare their answers in pairs and then ask for answers from the class in general or from pairs in particular. Students often appreciate giving paired answers like this since, by sharing their knowledge, they are also sharing their responsibility for the answers. When we ask students to give answers, we should always ask them to say where in the text they found the relevant information. This provokes a detailed study of the text which will help them the next time they come to a similar reading passage. It also tells us exactly what comprehension problems they have if and when they get answers wrong. It is important to be supportive when organising feedback after reading if we are to counter any negative feelings students might

Unit 3 Module 240

Page 42: Unit3 Mod2

have about the process, and if we wish to sustain their motivation.

Prompter: when students have read a text, we can prompt them to notice language features within it. We may also, as controllers, direct them to certain features of text construction, clarifying ambiguities and making them aware of issues of text structure which they had not come across previously.

Intensive reading: the vocabulary question A common paradox in reading lessons is that while teachers are encouraging students to read for general understanding, without worrying about the meaning of every single word, the students, on the other hand, are desperate to know what each individual word means! Given half a chance, many of them would rather tackle a reading passage with a dictionary (electronic or otherwise) in one hand and a pen in the other to write translations all over the page! It is easy to be dismissive of such student preferences, yet as Carol Walker points out, 'It seems contradictory to insist that students "read for meaning" while simultaneously discouraging them from trying to understand the text at a deeper level than merely gist' (1998: 172). Clearly, we need to find some accommodation between our desire to have students develop particular reading skills (such as the ability to understand the general message without understanding every detail) and their natural urge to understand the meaning of every single word.

One way of reaching a compromise is to strike some kind of a bargain with a class whereby they will do more or less what we ask of them provided that we do more or less what they ask of us. Thus we may encourage students to read for general understanding without understanding every word on a first or second read-through. But then, depending on what else is going to be done, we can give them a chance to ask questions about individual words and/or give them a chance to look them up. That way both parties in the teaching-learning transaction have their needs met. A word of caution needs to be added here. If students ask for the meaning of all the words they do not know - and given some of the problems inherent in the explaining of different word meanings - the majority of a lesson may be taken up in this way. We need, therefore, to limit the amount of time spent on vocabulary checking in the following ways:

Time limit: we can give a time limit of, say, five minutes for vocabulary enquiry, whether this involves dictionary use, language corpus searches or questions to the teacher.

Word/phrase limit: we can say that we will only answer questions about five or eight words or phrases.

Meaning consensus: we can get students to work together to search for and find word meanings. To start the procedure, individual students write down three to five words from the text they most want to know the meaning of. When they have each done this, they share their list with another student and come up with a new joint list of only five words. This means they will probably have to discuss which words to leave out. Two pairs join to make new groups of four and once again they have to pool their lists and end up with only five words. Finally (perhaps after new groups of eight have been formed - it depends on the atmosphere in the class), students can look for meanings of their words in dictionaries and/or we can answer questions about the words which the groups have decided on. This process works for two reasons. In the first place, students may well be able to tell each other about some of the words which individual students did not know. More importantly, perhaps, is the fact that by the time we are asked for meanings, the students really do want to know them because the intervening process has encouraged them to invest some time in the meaning search. 'Understanding every word' has been changed into a cooperative learning task in its own right.

In responding to a natural hunger for vocabulary meaning, both teachers and students will have to compromise. It's unrealistic to expect only one-sided change, but there are ways of dealing with the problem which make a virtue out of what seems - to many teachers - a frustrating necessity.

Unit 3 Module 241

Page 43: Unit3 Mod2

Intensive reading: letting the students in It is often the case that the comprehension tasks we ask students to do are based on tasks in a coursebook. In other words, the students are responding to what someone else has asked them to find out. But students are far more likely to be engaged in a text if they bring their own feelings and knowledge to the task, rather than only responding to someone else's ideas of what they should find out. One of the most important questions we can ever get students to answer is Do you like the text? (Kennedy 2000a and b). The question is important because if we only ever ask students technical questions about language, we are denying them any affective response to the content of the text. By letting them give voice (if they wish) to their feelings about what they have read, we are far more likely to provoke the 'cuddle factor' than if we just work through a series of exercises.

Another way of letting the students in is to allow them to create their own comprehension task. A popular way of doing this - when the text is about people, events or topics which everyone knows something about - is to discuss the subject of the text with the class before they read. We can encourage them to complete a chart (on the board) with things they know or don't know (or would like to know) about the text, e.g.

This activity provides a perfect lead-in since students will be engaged, will activate their schemata, and will, finally, end up with a good reason to read which they themselves have brought into being. Now they read the text to check off all the items they have put into the three columns. The text may not give them all the answers, of course, nor may it confirm (or even refute) what they have put in the left-hand column. Nevertheless, the chances are that they will read with considerably more interest than for some more routine task.

Another involving way of reading is to have students read different texts and then share the information they have gathered in order to piece together the whole story. This is called jigsaw reading.

Reading lesson sequences We use intensive reading sequences in class for a number of reasons. We may want to have students practise specific skills such as skimming/reading for general understanding or 'gist' or scanning/reading to extract specific information. We may, on the other hand, get students to read texts for communicative purposes, as part of other activities, as sources of information, or in order to identify specific uses of language. Most reading sequences involve more than one reading skill. We may start by having students read for gist and then get them to read the text again for detailed comprehension; they may start by identifying the topic of a text before scanning the text quickly to recover specific information; they may read for specific information before going back to the text to identify features of text construction.

Unit 3 Module 242

Page 44: Unit3 Mod2

Examples of reading sequences In the following example, the reading activity is specified, the skills which are involved detailed, and the way that the text can be used within a lesson is explained.

In this example, students predict the content of a text not from a picture, but from a few tantalising clues they are given (in the form of phrases from the passage they will read).

The teacher gives each student in the class a letter from A to E. She tells all the students to close their eyes. She then asks all the students with the letter A to open their eyes and shows them the word lion, written large so that they can see it. Then she makes them close their eyes again and this time shows the B students the phrase racial groups. She shows the C students the phrase paper aeroplanes, the D students the word tattoos and the E students the word guard. She now puts the students in groups of five, each composed of students A-E. By discussing their words and phrases, each group has to try to predict what the text is all about. The teacher can go round the groups encouraging them and, perhaps, feeding them with new words like cage, the tensest man or moral authority, etc. Finally, when the groups have made some predictions, the teacher asks them whether they would like to hear the text that all the words came from, as a prelude to reading the following text aloud, investing it with humour and drama, making the reading dramatic and enjoyable.

Unit 3 Module 243

Page 45: Unit3 Mod2

From Maximum Security by R O'Connor in the literary magazine Granta (no. 54, 1996)

The students now read the text for themselves to answer the following detailed comprehension questions:

Before moving on to work with the content of the text, the teacher may well take advantage of the language in it to study some aspects that are of interest. For example, how is the meaning of would different in the sentences I ... wondered what I would do if he refused and a teacher ... who ... would turn towards the board ... ? Can students make sentences using the same construction as He was easily the tensest man I had ever seen (e.g. He/She was easily the (superlative adjective + noun) I had ever (past participle) or I could tell you my real name, but then I'd have to kill you (e.g. I could .., but then I'd have to .. ). The discussion possibilities for this text are endless. How many differences are there between Robert O'Connor's class and the students' own class? How many similarities are there? How would they (the students) handle working in a prison? Should prisoners be given classes anyway, and if so, of what kind? What would the students themselves do if they were giving their first English class in a prison or in a more ordinary school environment? Part of this sequence has involved the teacher reading aloud. This can be very powerful if it is not overdone. By mixing the skills of speaking, listening and reading, the students have had a rich language experience, and because they have had a chance to predict content, listen, read and then discuss the text, they are likely to be very involved with the procedure.

Adapted from The Practice of English Language Teaching, Jeremy Harmer 2007, Longman.

Unit 3 Module 244

Page 46: Unit3 Mod2

TASK FOR SUBMISSION TO YOUR TUTOR

TASK 3

Find 2 different texts - they can be from any source - newspapers, magazines etc. Write 2 exercises for each text. Please include a copy of the texts and state where they have been taken from.

At the end write a short paragraph suggesting how your text could fit into a lesson.

Copyright INTESOL Worldwide 2009

Unit 3 Module 245