THE ANALYSIS OF A READING LESSON
INTRODUCTION
I chose a lesson from www.english-to-go.com. This website offers ESL lessons with fun, engaging, up-to-date resources based on Reuters® news articles. The reading text used in the lesson is taken from the Reuters® news article “An Eel Pet” dated January 7, 2003 (see Appendix 1-5). When noticing that the lesson is intended for elementary level, I assume it will be suitable for Year 8 students (second grade of Junior High School) in Indonesia. The skill focus is reading. However, at the end of the session, students should engage in a speaking activity using similar topic. I am going to analyse this lesson using current approaches in ELT listed below:
1. Genre-based approach to learning (Mauchlan 2005, Hammond, et al 1992)
2. Task-based approach to learning (Sanchez 2004)
3. Autonomous learning
4. Content-based approach to learning
5. Focus on form, focus on forms, and focus on meaning
6. Language-based theory of learning (Halliday 1993)
7. Problem-based learning
1. GENRE-BASED APPROACH TO LEARNING
This approach, which draws on the functional model of the language, was developed by Halliday (1978, 1994). Students are encouraged to analyze different text types available in daily life to develop the communicative competence. They are guided to identify that each text type has its own function, schematic structure, and grammatical pattern. The terminal objective of applying this approach is to that students are able to produce different kind of text types related to their needs.
The types of text include transactional conversations, interpersonal
conversations, short functional texts, monologs and essays of certain genres. Based on Well’s taxonomy (1987), the junior high school literacy level is the functional level. After graduating, students are expected to use English for survival purposes such as carrying transactional exchanges, reading for fun, or reading popular science for teenagers. Therefore the genres for this level will be procedure, descriptive, recount, narrative, and report.
ANALYSIS
The genre (text type) of the lesson is a news item taken from an authentic news (Reuters® news article “An Eel Pet” dated January 7, 2003). Based on Well’s taxonomy, news items is more appropriate for senior high school level. However, this news is very short so I think it is not too difficul for Year 8 students (not far beyond the ZPD). The social function is to inform readers about an unusual event. The text has a specific schematic structure (logical structure) :
· headline : Family Keeps Pet Eel in Bath -- for 33 Years
· summary of event : 1st sentence
· background event : what happened, to whom, in what circumstances
· sources : comments by participant, “He’s a part of our family,” said Hannelore Richer of Bochum in western Germany.
This text is using particular grammatical patterns: verbs of actions to retell story (Simple Past and Present Perfect).
According to Vygotsky (1978) teaching should provide systematic guidance and support to "scaffold" learners in achieving their potential level of performance. By the interaction and assistance from experienced others (teachers and peers), learners can finally achieve their potential by completing the task alone. Based on scaffolding, a teaching-learning cycle is proposed to teach genre. The cycle has five stages (Feez & Joyce 1998; Hyland 2004):
(a) Context building: experiencing and exploring the purpose, context and audience of the genre
# This lesson build up and extend vocabulary relevant to the topic. It can be seen in Activity A, B, and C
(b) Modelling: analyzing the genre to reveal structural patterns and linguistic features
# Students are guided to find the sequence of the event (activity D)
(c) Joint construction: guided, teacher-supported practice of genre;
# This is done through Activity C and D to explore the content of the text.
While in Post-Reading Activity A, students are guided to use the grammatical pattern used in the text.
(d) Independent construction monitored by the teacher
# In Post-Reading Activity B and C, students are working in groups.
(e) Comparing; linking what is learnt to other genres and contexts
# In Activity D, students use the vocabulary and grammatical pattern learnt in a conversation. They link what they learnt from the text to other genre (transactional exchanges). This enables learners to critique and exploit the linguistic possibilities of the genre (Macken-Horarik 2002).
2. TASK-BASED APPROACH TO LEARNING
Unlike in the past, teachers nowadays are required to design tasks or projects which are not aimed to reinforce one particular structure, function or vocabulary group but to exploit a wider range of language. In many cases, students may also be using a range of different communicative language skills such as in producing posters, brochures, pamphlets, oral presentations, radio plays, videos, websites or drama.
In task-based approach to learning, the tasks are central to the learning activity. Developed by N Prabhu (1987), this approach is based on the belief that students may learn more effectively when their minds are focused on the task, rather than on the language they use. Jane Willis presents A Framework for Task-Based Learning in a three stage process:
· Pre-task - Introduction to the topic and task.
· Task cycle – Task, planning and report
· Language focus - Analysis and practice.
Task-based learning can be very effective at Intermediate levels and beyond because the teacher does not introduce and 'present' language or interfere ('help') during the task cycle. The teacher is an observer during the task phase and becomes a language informant only during the 'language focus' stage.
ANALYSIS
The lesson is using the learning stages suggested by Willis :
· Pre-task - Introduction to the topic and task.
# Pre-reading activities which include Discussion, Vocabulary and Predicting are aimed to introduce the topic of the text and task. This is language input.
· Task cycle – Task, planning and report
# Reading activity helps student to pay attention on the content of the text.
· Language focus - Analysis and practice
# Post-reading activities are used as remedial task to check whether students are able to produce the grammatical pattern and vocabulary learnt in some tasks (crossword, paragraph writing, and conversation). It involves collaboration, natural context for language use, and solving problem.
3. AUTONOMOUS LEARNING
In this approach, teacher gradually reduces direction and support as the learner increases in maturity and confidence. Student should undergo the ‘experiential learning cycle’ through concrete experience, observation and reflection, abstract conceptualisation, and active experimentation in order to develop independence. They are encouraged to :
· Set their own learning aims
· Make choices over learning modes
· Plan and organise work
· Decide when best to work alone, work collaboratively and when to seek advice
· Learn through experience
· Identify and solve problems
· Think creatively
· Communicate effectively orally and in writing
· Assess their own progress in respect of their aims
ANALYSIS
This lesson encourages the students to engage in problem solving and collaboration . While students engage in Pre-reading activity, Reading activity, and Post-reading activity, the teacher’s guidance decreases. However, this lesson does not give students the opportunity to select their own text for the language input and for follow up activity. The text which is not interesting for teenagers may demotivate them to learn. Students are not given guidance on self-assesment. As a result, they have no idea how to set their own aims and how to achieve them.
4. CONTENT BASED INSTRUCTION IN LANGUAGE LEARNING
In this approach, the language is utilized as the medium for teaching subject matters, such as science, social studies, biology, or mathematics. CBI allows schools to combine the goals of language curriculum and the regular curriculum, making language learning the vehicle for strengthening the language skills as well as content knowledge (Echevarria, 2000). Mohan (1986) indicates that the goal of integration in CBI is both language and content learning. The benefits of learning language through subject content are evident in learners’ language and content acquisition. When the students are studying a content area of interest (i.e. tsunami, Gulf War, immigration, etc), they are more intrinsically motivated to learn both the content and the language simultaneously. The students are actually able to use their new language. Content Based Learning is most appropriate at intermediate and advanced proficiency levels.
Some examples of content based curricula:
· Immersion program
· Sheltered English programs
· Writing across the curriculum (where writing skills in secondary schools and universities are taught within subject-matter areas like biology, history, art, etc.)
ANALYSIS
This lesson is not content-based but language based. This lesson is for elementary level students to develop their language competence.
5. FOCUS ON FORM, FOCUS ON FORMS, FOCUS ON MEANING
FOCUS ON MEANING MEANING
· IDEATIONAL (getting the message across)
· TEXTUAL (making the message readily accessible)
· INTERPERSONAL (taking account of the receiver and presentation of self)
FOCUS ON FORM (ACCURACY)
1.A focus on one or two forms, specified by the teacher.
2.Learners’ language production is controlled by the teacher.
3.The success of the procedure is judged in terms of whether or not learners do
produce the target forms with an acceptable level of accuracy.
FOCUS ON FORMS
· Isolation or extraction of linguistic features from context or communicative activity
ANALYSIS
This lesson is focus on meaning. Its function of language is ideational as it puts forward information as to what ideas the author is trying to get across. A news item is used to convey the message of the text. This is called the textual metafunction. The news is an interpersonal metafunction as the writer is communicating to the reader.
6. LANGUAGE BASED THEORY
Michael Halliday’s theory (1980) works through three main stages:
·Learning language: semantic- lexicogrammatical-graphophonic
·Learning through language: the outside language (in consciousness), and the inside
language (the imagination).
·Learning about language: field, tenor and mode
ANALYSIS
The three stages of language based theory is applied in this lesson. Student learn the lexicogrammatical (structure), use the language to understand text and to interact with other students (conversation).
7. PROBLEM BASED LEARNING
Problem-based learning (PBL) is a model that enables students to work cooperatively by finding solutions to real world problems and learning by doing, searching and involving the solution activity. PBL prepares students to think critically and analytically, and to find and use appropriate learning resources in groups. They share their ideas, discuss their thoughts, write what they agreed, go through to develop solutions, learn to speak and write effectively. Also, students develop their vocabulary, grammar knowledge and social language usage by the help of this method. In short, they construct an understanding of language as it is used in real-world contexts.
ANALYSIS
Pre-reading activity, Reading activity and Post-reading activity i this lesson require students to work cooperatively to find solutions using the vocabulary and grammar knowledge learnt. However, the problems are not real world problems. The activities are textbook problem oriented.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
The current ELT Approaches
Annotated Bibliography 4
Annotated Bibliography 4
Kasper, Gabriele. (2000). Four Perspectives on L2 Pragmatic Development
( http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/Networks/Nwig/default/html )
The writer bases the discussion on Canale and Swain’s framework of grammatical, sociolinguistic, and strategic competence. Since then, many experiments have been conducted to examine other influential factors which may contribute to L2 pragmatic development. This paper discusses how four perspectives on pragmatic development relate to each other.
The first perspective is pragmatic and grammar. Bardovi-Harlig and Dornyei (1998) find that “pragmatic and grammatical awareness are largely independent and that their development may be associated with different learning environments in a rather complex fashion” ( p.6). L2 learners with high grammatical competence might use the grammatical rules inappropriately in real communication. For them, grammatical errors are more serious than pragmatic errors while L2 learners with low grammatical competence show the opposite tendency.
The second perspective is information process which is derived from psychological paradigm. There are two most influential proposals. Schmidt’s noticing hypothesis (1986) says language input can become intake and later on will be available for further processing if it is noticed consciously (p. 14). Bialystok’s two dimensional model of L2 proficiency development (1993, 1994) explain “the development of already available knowledge along the dimensions of analyzed representation and control of processing” (p. 14).
The third perspective is sociocognitive theory which is based on Vygotsky’s notion of Zone of Proximal Development. Learners’ pragmatic competence develops if they engage in interaction. It is true that explicit instruction pushes learners to use the language in social interaction appropriately. In contrast, some studies show that without any explicit instruction, learners gradually develop their pragmatic competence due to the interactional demand (p. 22).
The fourth perspective is language socialization. Learning a foreign language is more than learning the language. L2 learners should also learn second culture (C2) in order to interact with native speakers appropriately (p. 33). Language teachers with communicative and culture repertoire enable to support learners’ learning of L2 pragmatics effectively. Therefore, language teachers do not have to be natives of L2 but they have to be experts in L2 (p. 33).
This article is very hard to comprehend. The reader finds difficulty in understanding the main idea of each perspective. Unfamiliarity with many new terminologies related to pragmatic development has been somewhat discouraging the reader to continue reading more seriously. This burden lessens when the article is being discussed in the class. The knowledge of perspectives in pragmatic development helps the reader to analyze the phenomenon in L2 classroom.
Annotated Bibliography 3
Annotated Bibliography 3
Culhane, Stephen F. (2004). An Intercultural Interaction Model: Acculturation Attitudes in Second Language Acquisition. Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching, 1(1), 50-61.
This paper discusses approaches in sojourner research to understand how motivation to interact in the second language (L2) and in a second culture (C2) relates to attitudes toward second language acquisition (SLA). The writer reviews a variety of perspectives by an eclectic group of researchers. He proposes an intercultural model, termed as the Intercultural Interaction Model, to enhance understanding of SLA by integrating factors from acculturation research.
The writer begins with the overview of learner motivation in SLA. He referred to Gardner’s theory of learner motivation (1959) which consists of instrumental and integrative motivation (p. 4). Instrumental motivation refers to individual primary concern whereas integrative motivation is driven by social interactions. Accordingly, instrumental motivation has a primary role in learning L2.
In other studies, Berry et al (1986) view that attitudes toward acculturation also contributes an important impact on the process of SLA. Berry sees that a learner’s attitudes in perceiving home culture (C1) and host culture (C2), and a learner’s level of acculturation determine the success of his SLA. The patterns of acculturation are termed as integration, assimilation, separation and marginalization (p.5). Ward and Kennedy (1994), later on, find that “sojourners with Integrated and Assimilated acculturation attitudes demonstrated lower level of sociocultural difficulties than ones with Separated and Marginalized attitudes” (p.7). As a result, these Integrated and Assimilated acculturation attitudes can accelerate the process of SLA.
The writer combines Gardner’s integrative and instrumental motivation with Berry’s four acculturation patterns into an orientation toward learning a new culture and language within an L2 speaking community or authentic L2/C2 context. He proposes three levels of functioning: instrumental, integrative, and psycho-social functioning (p.9). The level of functioning a learner adopts shows his relative balance of instrumental and integrative motivation. This should be recognized as a fundamental and determinant of SLA and acculturation (p. 14).
The reader finds this article worth reading. The reader’s prior knowledge of integrative and instrumental motivation helps her understand further studies on motivation in SLA. In the reader’s point of view, Berry’s four acculturation patterns and Culhane’s three levels of functioning can be applied only for L2 learners in authentic L2/C2 context. Further study on motivation should be conducted with L2 learners who never have any contact with authentic L2/C2 context. The future findings may eliminate the failure of SLA in L1/C1 context.
Annotated Bibliography 2
Annotated Bibliography 2
Bongaerts, Theo. et al (1995). Age and Ultimate Attainment in the Pronunciation of a Foreign Language. SSLA, 19, 447-465.
This article reports on two studies which aim to find out whether late L2 learners can achieve authentic, nativelike pronunciation of a foreign language. The experiments are conducted to provide some evidences that former theory on a critical period for second language acquisition needs reviewing. In the experiments, experienced and inexperienced native speakers of English are asked to rate the pronunciation of highly successful Dutch learners of English.
The writers start the article with the review of Lenneberg’s argument (1967) on the impossibility of complete mastery of L2 owing to the loss of neural plasticity around the onset of puberty (p. 447). Then, Schovel (1988) beats the predictions of the critical period hypothesis for some superexceptional learners (p. 450-451). To examine both opinions of the critical period hypothesis, the writers design two experiments with a carefully selected group of highly successful Dutch learners of English. The result of the studies reveals that some individuals in both groups can achieve nativelike pronunciation despite the fact that they already passed their puberty when starting learning L2. This fairly exceptional phenomenon may relate to some factors. Firstly, these individuals have greater neurocognitive flexibility than normal population of late L2 learners. Then, they constitute very highly motivated learners. Most of them are English teachers at the university levels. Therefore, being able to speak English without a Dutch accent is very important. Another important factor is that all learners in both groups have received intensive training both in the reception and in the production of the speech sounds of British English (p. 462-463).
The reader would find difficulties to understand the article if she did not have prior knowledge of Critical Period Hypothesis in SLA. The explanation of how the experiments are done is easy to follow. It enhances the reader’s comprehension of the issue. However, the reader suggests that a further study be conducted with late L2 learners whose mother tongue is not typologically related to English. The findings might be different. In addition to this, “pronunciation is the language performance that has a neuromuscular basis” (p.448). Thus, the reader believes that every late L2 learner will achieve different level of attainment in the pronunciation of L2 from the other learner due to their different neuromuscular system.
Annotated Bibliography 1
Annotated Bibliography 1
Canale, Michael and Merril Swain. (1979). Theoretical Bases of Communicative Approaches to Second Language Teaching and Testing. Applied Linguistics, 1 (1), 1-47.
This article is the proposal of a theoretical framework for communicative competence and its implications for second language teaching and testing. The authors base on their proposal on various theories of communicative competence that have been proposed by former linguists.
Chomsky (1965) introduced the concepts of competence and performance (p.3). A few years later many applied linguists broadened his concepts. Van Ek (1976) says that students can develop their communicative competence at early stages with the basic communication skills. These skills help them to survive (linguistically speaking) in temporary contacts with foreign language speaker in everyday situations (p.9). While Halliday (1973) and Hymes (1972) who bring the sociolinguistic perspectives into Chomsky’s linguistic view of competence claim that communicative competence is concerned with the interaction of social context, grammar, and social meaning (p.19). According to Widdowson, communicative abilities have to be developed at the same time as the linguistic skills; otherwise the mere acquisition of the linguistic skills may inhibit the development of communicative abilities. He distinguishes two aspects of performance : “usage” (learner’s knowledge of linguistic rules) and “use” (learner’s ability to use his linguistic rules for effective communication).
Canale and Swain, then, study that those theorists have a little attention to communication strategies, the establishment of grammatical and semantic concepts, and the evaluation and levels of achievement (p.25). They propose their own theory of communicative competence that minimally includes three main competencies: grammatical, sociolinguistic and strategic competence. Grammatical competence includes knowledge of lexical items and of rules of morphology, syntax, and semantics. This competence is important for providing learners with knowledge of how to determine and express accurately the literal meaning of utterances. Sociolinguistics competence is made up of two sets of rules of use and rules of discourse. This competence is important in interpreting utterances for social meaning. Strategic competence is made up of verbal and non-verbal communication strategies that may be used to compensate for breakdowns in communication due to performance variables or to insufficient grammatical competence.
This article is considered hard to read but very beneficial to widen the reader’s knowledge on the background theories of communicative approach development in language teaching and testing. According to this approach the objective of foreign language teaching and testing is to help learners to develop their communicative competence. Therefore, the reader now understands that syllabus design, teaching methodology, teacher training, and material development should be planned on the basis of communicative functions.
The Advantages of Using L1 in L2 Classroom
The Advantages of Using L1 in L2 Classroom
Audiolingual method, the communicative approach, or task-based learning have advocated L2 only method. One reason of using this method is that the exposure to L2 outside the classroom is rather scarce. As Cook says that “the use of L1 is perceived to hinder the learning of L2 “ (as quoted in Zacharias 2000). On the contrary, many ELT professionals have suggested reexamining the English only approach in the L2 classroom. Prodromou reminds us that there is much potential for using L1 in language learning contexts rather than abusing it (as quoted in Juarez and Oxbrow 2008). Therefore, when not used excessively, L1 is beneficial in L2 classroom.
First of all, the use of L1 enhances relaxed classroom atmosphere. Both teacher and students are given the opportunity to use L1 in certain situations. In such a less threatening classroom, students’ anxiety can be minimized. Rivera finds that allowing students to use L1 makes them feel less intimidated (Auerbach 1993). In addition, students feel freer to express their ideas. Whenever they do not know a particular lexical item in L2, they can switch to the one in L1, for example “How do you say menerkam in English ?” Bolitho sees this phenomenon as a valuable humanistic element in the classroom (Atkinson 1987). When this happens, learning takes place.
In addition, L1 is useful in managing the class. Explaining grammar concept through L1 saves time. Piasecka states that for novice students, grammar explanation in L2 is useless because their language repertoire is limited (as quoted in Auerbach 1993). Atkinson advises teachers to use L1 “when a correlate structure does not exist in L1 such as a verb tense” (as quoted in Harbord 1992). Checking students’ comprehension and correcting errors can be conducted in L1, too. This strategy is believed to be very helpful to avoid misunderstanding (Harbord 1992). Giving instruction in L1 helps teachers keep the class moving at early levels. Harbord (1992) asserts that teacher can use L1 to simplify a complex activity. Moreover, a research done by Lameta-Tufuga reveals that students can fully understand the content of the written task through L1 (as quoted in Nation 2003). Eventually, these procedures help teachers to achieve the objective of the lesson.
Most important, permitting students to use L accelerates students’ L2 acquisition process. Students learn new vocabulary faster through L1. Laufer and Shmueli claim “studies comparing the effectiveness of various methods for learning always come up with the result that an L1 translation is the most effective” (as quoted in Nation 2001). If students are aware of similarities and differences between L1 and L2, they can avoid errors which could be derived from the transfer of their L1. Ferrer (2005) takes the view that the use of L1 enable students to “notice the gap between their inner grammars and the target language and ultimately, through constant hyphotesis testing, achieve higher levels of grammatical as well as communicative competence”. This awareness contributes to L2 acquisition process.
Even though many language teachers oppose the issue of L1 use in L2 classroom, literature provide evidence that L1 use in L2 classroom is advantageous if not overused. Due to friendly classroom atmosphere, students feel more comfortable so they are motivated to learn. The use of L1 makes it possible for teacher to manage the class more effectively. Through L1, students experience faster L2 acquisition process.
References
Atkinson, D. 1987. “The mother tongue in the classroom: A neglected resource”. ELT
Journal, 41(4): 241-247.
Auerbach, Elsa Roberts. 1993. “Reexamining English only in the ESL classroom”. TESOL
Qarterly, 27(1): 9-31.
Ferrer, V. (2005). “ The use of the mother tongue in the classroom: Cross-linguistic
comparisons, noticing and explicit knowledge”.
(Online: http://www.teachenglish worldwide.com/Articles.htm.).
Harbord, J.1999. “The use mother tongue in the classroom”. ELT Journal, 46(4):
402-423
Juarez, Carolina Rodriquez and Gina Oxbrow. 2008. “L1 in the EFL classroom: More a
help than a hindrance ?” Porta Linguarum, 9(1): 99-109.
Nation, Paul. 2003. “The role of the first language in foreign language learning”.
Asian EFL Journal, 5(2).
(Online: http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/june 2003 Rn.html )
Zacharias, Nugrahenny T. 2000. “Teacher’s belief about the use of the students’
mother tongue: A survey of tertiary English teachers in Indonesia”. English
Australia Journal,22:44-52.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Language Testing
Preparing a test is one of teacher's obligation to evaluate the teaching learning process. To be able to construct a good test, teacher should know the principles of designing a good test. A test must be valid, reliable, and practical.
Validity
Test is valid when it tests what is supposed to test. Therefore it is not valid, for example, to test students' speaking ability on delivering a persuasive speech whereas the teacher never taught them how to prepare a persuasive speech before. The test should look also valid on the 'face' . It means the test should contain information about the level of student, the day/date of test, the name of the subject. In addition, test should be readable.
Reliability
A good test should give consistent result. For example, if the same group of students took the same test twice within two days - without reflecting on the first test before they sat it again - they should get the same results on each occasion. Thus, the test instructions should be clear, the scope for variety in the answers should be restricted, and the test conditions should remain constant.
Practicality
A good test should be practical. It should be easy to administer in terms of time, finance and scoring. For example, the number of the pages should be reasonable. It will be impractical for both teacher and students when the test consists of 10 pages.
A a language teacher, I have written a lot of tests. Yet, I still find it extremely difficult to design a test which fulfills the above criteria. When I think I can not rely on the result of the test, I usually observe my students' achievement from their daily assessments. By doing this I can assure myself that they have understood what I have thought them.
Practical
Friday, May 9, 2008
Designing a syllabus
Last month, I recieved an email from my old student. She used to be my student in a secretarial academy. Now she is working in a company which supplies toiletries to several hotels and aviation industries. She was asking me to teach a group of employees in her office. She said that her boss asked her to find a teacher who has been experienced in teaching business English. And the choice went to me. I was elated. It's been several years since I taught a business English class. This will be a great opportunity to me to develop a syllabus.
My first encounter with business English class was in 1999 after I attended a workshop on designing a business English class held by The British Council. Since then, I feel more confident when I have to teach and design a syllabus for a business English class.
These are several steps I usually do :
- Need analysis is done by giving a questionnaire and interviewing the students to find out their need and competence.
- Determining the goals and objectives can be negotiated with the students. They should be told what the will have to do to achieve their goals and objectives.
- Conceptualising content is done by selecting the backbone of the content.
- Selecting and developing material and activities will be easier when I know the students' background of their proficiency, learning preference and objectives. I can select material and activities which will make them interested in learning.
- Organisation and content of activities should be designed systematically so the students can follow the lesson easier.
- Evaluation is done in accordance with the materials presented and activities done in the class. This will eventually assess what the students have learned.
- Constraints which may occur in the class should also be anticipated by writing a journal teaching. With this, I can predict what obstacles I may find in the future and try to find a solution for them.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Teaching Grammar
After teaching for 15 years, I still feel overwhelmed everytime I teach grammar. Teaching grammar has been a topic of the debate among linguists concerning its place within the ESL/EFL curriculum. One of them, Scott Thornbury is against the grammar- based lessons which do not lead to oral fluency. It is oral fluency that most students want. He says language is acquired, rather than learnt. Therefore teaching grammar should be based on a process (Process Teaching) and should not be on the traditional hierarchiel model of transmision.
Thornbury lists 10 fudanmental rules that can be used as gudelines for Process Teaching :
- The resources used for teaching are the teacher and students themselves
- The teacher should only use the listening material which is recorded from the students doing pair work or group work activities for re-play and analysis
- The teacher must sit down at all time the students are seated, except when monitoring group or pair work.
- The questions must be real questions like "Did you read the newspaper yesterday ?" not "Is there a clock on the wall ?"
- Slavish adherence to a method is unacceptable.
- Pre-selected and graded grammar items is forbidden. Any grammar that is the focus of instruction should emerge from the lesson content, not dictate it.
- The topics generated from the students should be prioritized.
- Students should not be graded into different levels. Diversity of competence should be accomodated.
- The criteria and administration of any test should be negotiated with the students.
- Teachers will be evaluated according to only one criterion : that they are not boring.
Lesson Planning
This semester I am assigned to supervise some students from the eight semester doing pratice teaching. They learned approaches in ELT, lesson planning, and teaching techniques last semester. They are 9 students participating in this program. Before they teach the real class, they are trained to do peer teaching. With this experience, they should be ready to teach the real class with real students.Then, I asked every student to prepare a lesson plan. Knowing that they already got the knowledge of preparing the lesson plan in the previous semester, I directly told them to choose a topic which is suitable for teaching children class.
Yesterday, we started the fisrt peer teaching. There were three students presenting their lesson plans. The first student was teaching some language expressions used in speaking activities. It ran well. I could see that this student learned a lot. However, I was dissapointed when the second and the third students did their micro teaching. The second student was supposed to teach a pre school class. The topic was writing a letter A. The presentation was done well but the practice stage was too unrealistic. He asked the student to discuss in group. The students were given a task to find things which starts with A. Then he asked the students to guess what things another group found. How could students aged 3 - 5 years old do this ? It shows that he didn't utilize the principle of teaching children, therefore, he couldn't demonstrate the appropriate instructional stategies for students.
Before the next student took his turn, I decided to explain the principle of lesson planning once again. I emphasized that the lesson plan should be visible or doable. If someone else is replacing them, she/he would know what to do. A good lesson plan ensures thet several things happen in your lesson :
1. A lesson plan should be based around one language point.
2. If you are going to use games and activities, they should be age/level appropriate.
3. A Lesson should keep building. The students will be lost if the lesson plan jumps from here to there as they won't be able to follow where you are going.
4. A lesson plan can help you overcome the problem the students usually encounter when learning a new language points.
I hope that next students' presentation will be a lot better.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Teaching English to Adult and to Children
After graduating from Universitas Negeri Jakarta (formerly IKIP Negeri Jakarta) in 1995, I feel that it's time for me to widen my horizon in English Language Teaching in a formal institution. I, therefore, decided to take the post graduate program (Linguistik Terapan Bahasa Inggris) Atma Jaya Catholic University. This will give me the opportunities to meet many experts in ELT and teachers from various regions and to learn the current teaching methodologies.
I was required to do three kinds of tests, which are writing an essay, TOEFL, and interview. In the writing test, I was asked to write a 1000 word essay on the similarities and differences between teaching English to adult and to children. It's quite a difficult task. I need to synthesize my knowledge and my teaching experience on this particular topic in an essay so the reader can see that I have known some ELT theories. While writing the essay, I was unable to quote all theories. What I did was writing the basic principles of how adult and children learn foreign language and showing my own experience of teaching those two groups of learners.Then, at home I was trying to browse some articles for the above topic to make sure that what I had written was not beyond the theories. The findings are as follows :
Adult learners are notable for a number of special characteristics (Harmer, 2000): “They can engage with abstract thought, have a range of life experiences, definite expectations about the learning process, their own set patterns of learning, and are more disciplined than children. On the other hand, adult learners have a number of characteristics which can make learning and teaching problematic: can be critical of teaching methods, anxious and under-confident because of previous failure and worry about diminishing learning power with age”. They more often than young learners face certain linguistic problems like ‘fossilized’ errors – persistent deviations from the L2 norm, language transfer - negative influence of the mother tongue on the productive skills.
Research in error analysis shows that over half the errors are interference errors. Adult learners are believed to be focused on form or correctness: “they are particularly conscious of deviations from the established networks, and seek to understand the nature of the rule system” (Rivers, 1992).
In one respect, however, adult learners are similar to young learners. All may be grouped according to their preferred learning styles. Differences in cognitive styles influence learners’ priorities for particular approach to learning. Learners employ different learning strategies, i.e. “specific actions taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, and more transferable to new situations” (
- concrete - learners use active means of processing information;
- analytical - learners prefer logical and systematic presentation of new material;
- communicative - learners prefer social approach;
- authority-oriented - learners prefer the teacher’s authority.
While children learn English much faster than the adults. They imitate the teacher’s pronunciation, sentences, phrases, and words more easily. They do not ask for explicit rules which explain how sentences are put together, produced, and pronounced. They may ask for the meanings of words, but they are able to intuitively identify salient features of the meanings of a word and use the word more or less correctly.
An important prerequisite for effective learning and retention appears to be that instruction should be activity-based, rather than explanation- or theory-oriented. The activities should be of an engaging nature. The teacher should be pleasant and sweet-natured, able to communicate at the level of the children. She should not be a terror! Use of audio-visuals is more important than the printed text. The printed text should be colorful, full of pictures, and should have only few language elements such as words, phrases, and sentences.
Language learning should be encouraged in all the classes and in all the environments. Children have a natural curiosity to investigate the environment in greater detail. When they go to the bazaar, the see a lot of signboards and they start reading the same. They start reading the road signs with great interest. The teacher can create a bazaar inside the classroom for reading and conversation purposes. Pretend situations are greatly enjoyed by children, and they do actively participate in such game.
“This language is meaningful and understandable, because the activities are meaningful and understandable. Children are taught in English; children are not introduced to English language in an artificially pre-determined sequence of grammatical structures or functions; the input from the teacher, and their learning about their world, is in English” (Vale and Feunteun 1995). They
suggest the following orientation when we teach English to children:
- build confidence;
- provide the motivation to learn English;
- encourage ownership of language;
- encourage children to communicate with whatever language they have at their disposal (mime, gesture, key word, drawings, etc.);
- encourage children to treat English as a communication tool not as an end product;
- show children that English is fun;
- establish a trusting relationship with the children, and encouraging them to do the same with their classmates;
- give children an experience of a wide range of English language in a non-threatening environment.
Physical activities help in learning the words and sentences. An actitvity-based approach is always better than mere classroom teaching mode with repetition, imitation drills, etc.
Teaching both groups is interesting. It's rewarding when I observe that they can show their improvement after a series of teaching. In the mean time, I keep on reading more articles on ELT methodology to improve my teaching techniques. Eventually, I feel that teaching has enlightened my mind.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Teaching large classes
The new semester has just started. All lecturers in our institution including me are busy preparing the lesson, designing teaching aids, writing handouts and quizzes. Before doing these, they usually look at the attendance list. How many students are they in my class ? When they see more than 25 students in the class, they start to complain "How can I teach Public Speaking with 27 students ?" "How am I supposed to correct students' essays if I have more than 25 students ?"
Well, I do really understand those complaints. Indeed, teaching large classes is not easy but it doesn't mean that it is impossible. As a lecturer who happens to help the head of the department, I can understand the difficulty of accommodating lecturers' need to have classes with 'an ideal size'. The first reason is that there aren't enough rooms. Being less than ten years old, the institution doesn't have enough budget to build a new classroom let alone a new building. The second is the number of lecturers available to teach in particular hours decreases. The last one is to cut the operational expenses, which is usually determined by the management.
What should the lecturers do then ? Drop the class ? Of course not. They have to find some techniques which are suitable for teaching large class. Below is an example of a lesson plan proposed by Andi Hoodith from Saitama University in Japan :
Promoting Oral Fluency via Group & Pair Work
Andy Hoodith
Saitama University
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| TIME: 60-90 Minutes AIM: To provide speaking practice for a class of 40 students |
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| WARM-UP | Ask the class: "What will happen on December 31st 1999?" Elicit or teach the phrase "Turn of the century". Now ask, "Who is or was the most important person of the 20th century?" (alive or dead, any nationality: they needn't have been born this century, but must have been alive during some part of it). Then take 4 or 5 examples at random and write them on the blackboard, asking if other students have the same opinion. | ||||||
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| ACTIVITY 1 | Introduce your own example (unless one the students has named him), Albert Einstein. Write his name and then ask the following questions as you write them on the board:
Explain "field" if necessary (or use another word), and elicit answers. Make sure students understand the difference between questions with factual answers and those which require that they give an opinion. | ||||||
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| ACTIVITY 2 | Give students 10 minutes to write down the names of the 10 most important people to have lived this century. Stress that there is no moral judgment here, so that personalities seen in general as "bad", e.g. Hitler, can be included. Also make it clear that students must be able to provide some basic information about each of the people they choose, as you did with Einstein. | ||||||
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| ACTIVITY 3 | Now divide the class in to small groups. If possible, these should be of a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 5. Tell students to take it in turns to introduce the people they have selected, with the other students asking fact and opinion questions about them. Ask students to be open-minded: they should change their lists if other students in their group suggest more appropriate people, although they can stick to their original lists if they want to. | ||||||
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| ACTIVITY 4 | Depending on how the time is going, Activity 3 can be repeated by forming a set of different groups. Alternatively, you can ask students to find one new partner to discuss the choices with as a pair. This option might give the more shy students an opportunity to give his/her opinion. As the students do activities 3 and 4, go round and make a note of the names which seem to be coming up most often. You'll need these later to make the final activity more "doable". | ||||||
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| ACTIVITY 5 | To finish the class, conduct a rough survey to arrive at the whole class decision on the 10 most important people of this century. You may want to make the voting more strict, but this may take considerable more time. You could tell the class that there will be a formal vote at the beginning of the next lesson, and that they can change their opinions in the intervening period. | ||||||
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| ALTERNATIVES Of course, there are several variations on this theme, both in terms of the initial question (you may choose the last millenium, for example), and the way the discussion is structured. You should always tailor the activity types and the items you wish to focus on on your students: you know them best! | |||||||
