Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
EDUCACIN SECUNDARIA
DIDCTICA
DEL INGLS
Classroom Practice
Susan House (coord.)
Jorge Bascn, Beatriz Calle, Mike Downie, Gavin Dudeney,
Ramiro Durn, Nicky Hockly, Katharine Scott, Paul Seligson,
Karina Vidal
Vol. II
MINISTERIO DE EDUCACIN
Secretara de Estado de Educacin y Formacin Profesional
Instituto de Formacin del Profesorado, Investigacin e Innovacin Educativa (IFIIE)
Secretara General Tcnica
Catlogo de publicaciones del Ministerio: educacion.es
Catgolo general de publicaciones oficiales: publicacionesoficiales.boe.es
Editorial GRA, de IRIF, S.L.
C/ Hurtado, 29. 08022 Barcelona
www.grao.com
Susan House (coord.), Jorge Bascn, Beatriz Calle, Mike Downie, Gavin Dudeney, Ramiro Durn,
Nicky Hockly, Katharine Scott, Paul Seligson, Karina Vidal
De esta edicin:
Editorial GRA, de IRIF, S.L.
Ministerio de Educacin, Secretara General Tcnica
1. edicin: junio 2011
NIPO: 820-11-257-7
ISBN: 978-84-9980-090-5
D.L.: B-24.109-2011
Diseo: Maria Tortajada
Maquetacin: Albert Lpez
Impresin: CEVAGRAF, S.C.C.L.
Impreso en Espaa
Quedan rigurosamente prohibidas, bajo las sanciones establecidas en las leyes, la reproduccin o
almacenamiento total o parcial de la presente publicacin, incluyendo el diseo de la portada, as
como la transmisin de sta por cualquier medio, tanto si es elctrico como qumico, mecnico, ptico,
de grabacin o bien de fotocopia, sin la autorizacin escrita de los titulares del copyright. Si necesita
fotocopiar o escanear fragmentos de esta obra, dirjase a CEDRO (Centro Espaol de Derechos Reprogrficos, www.cedro.org).
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1. Transforming the Curriculum into Activities and Work for the Classroom,
Katharine Scott . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Organisation of the syllabus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Units of work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
From units to lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
The shape of a lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Classroom activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Mixed-ability classes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Common problems with classroom activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Assignments/Further reading/References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2. Choosing and Developing Classroom Material, Mike Downie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Choosing and changing materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Selecting a coursebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Writing checklists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Who am I teaching? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
What level am I teaching? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
What are the official requirements?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
General and detailed checklists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Educating, not just teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
What else do I want from materials?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Pilot, consult and gather opinions: learning by doing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Developing and supplementing materials: plan ahead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Using technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Assignments/Further reading/References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3. Digital Literacies and the Language Classroom, Gavin Dudeney and Nicky Hockly . . . 51
Technology today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Today's learners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Digital literacies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Practice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Assignments/Further reading/References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
INTRODUCTION
Susan House
Coordinator
Didctica del Ingls. Classroom Practice is the second of three volumes for the subject of English which make up the Formacin del profesorado. Educacin secundaria collection. This
volume of work provides eight chapters dealing with some of the most important aspects of
planning and carrying out classroom practice. Your first taste of classroom practice will be in
your Practicum, which can be a rather nerve-wracking experience. Careful planning of your
lessons and classroom strategies will help you cope with some initial problems, but it should
be stressed that good teaching practice involves both careful planning and an ability to respond to situations on the spot.
We mentioned in Volume I (House, 2011)1 of these works that there is no such thing as teacherproof theory, meaning that your practice cannot be simply informed by attention to theoretical
models. Jerome Bruner coined the expression folk pedagogy to underline the importance of
teachers beliefs about how learners learn and how teachers should teach. His observations show
us that teachers often hold onto unexamined principles as to how we should carry out our
practice. These beliefs tend to be grounded in our own experience as learners and our experience
of teachers during our own education. Some of these beliefs, although unreflective, are eminently
sensible, whilst others would benefit from a more considered and systematic scrutiny.
It may come as some surprise to you to know that what is considered to be good teaching practice varies widely in different educational environments. And this is because teaching practice
is not simply the putting into practice of universally held theoretical principles. Teaching is a
socially and culturally embedded practice. It reflects other, more general values found in our
social communities. In some cases these can be defined along national or regional lines, but you
will find others that are much more local in nature. One difficulty for English language teachers
is that much of our literature is global in scope and, furthermore, has been forged from experiences in very different social, cultural and educational environments. This means that you
will be required to examine these principles from the point of view of your own educational
environment, but you must also be prepared to put your own folk pedagogy on hold and be
open-minded when examining alternative approaches.
Teaching practice affords teachers many possibilities for engaging in their own research
and testing different approaches. You should embrace these possibilities not just now, during
1. Ingls. Complementos de formacin disciplinar. Theory and Practice in English Language Teaching.
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
your Practicum, but throughout your professional career. As students we have all experienced the dull, boring teachers who limit themselves to repeating established models of work
year after year without any attention to variety and changes of approach. And we all know
that this is not good teaching practice! We have also experienced teachers whose constant
revisiting and reviewing of methods and materials made their lessons exciting, engaging and
motivating, and it is to this good teaching practice we should all aspire.
The chapters in this volume are all independent articles written by a variety of specialists in
different themes. Most of the chapters in this volume have a practical focus to provide you
with strategies and blueprints of activities you can use in the classroom. We have also included some more academic articles to provide you with a rich source of both academic and
practical material. It is important that you remember that teaching is not an exact science
and you will come across differences of opinion and approach to teaching and learning. The
purpose of exposing you to a variety of ideas and opinions is to encourage you to develop
your own teaching style. The chapters have been placed in an order from the more general
themes to the more specific themes, but you can read these chapters in any order depending
on the themes you are working on in your teacher-training classes.
This Volume begins with two chapters dedicated to general aspects of classroom practice. The
first discusses the transformation of a curriculum into a syllabus for classroom activities and
the second considers how we make choices regarding the materials and activity types we use
in the classroom. Other chapters address specific aspects of language teaching such as working with language skills; dealing with vocabulary; dealing with grammar; and how to work
on pronunciation skills. There is a further chapter on using ICT in the language classroom with
a comprehensive selection of technologies and related activities. Finally there is a chapter dealing with classroom management and organisation.
Within the body of each chapter there is a series of tasks for you to carry out as you are working with the contents. These tasks are designed to help you examine the issues raised in the
chapter more carefully and to develop activity types for working in the classroom. It is important that you become accustomed to observing and being observed whilst you are working with students on these activities. Receiving feedback on your performance in the
classroom and giving feedback to your colleagues is an essential part of reflective teaching
and will help you to adjust and modify your working practice.
At the end of each chapter there are some assignments for you to work on which will help
you further your knowledge and understanding of the issues that have been addressed in the
chapter. These are longer pieces of work and require you to use a variety of different sources, including other chapters in Volume I (House, 2011): Ingls. Complementos de formacin
disciplinar. Theory and Practice in English Language Teaching, and Volume III: Ingls. Inves-
INTRODUCTION
11
CHAPTER CONTENTS
Katharine Scott
Author and Teacher Trainer
This article is aimed at clarifying the main issues involved in planning a syllabus, the subsequent units of work and the final classroom activities. The principal purpose of the article is to consider what to teach and what to do in the classroom, rather than how to teach
(methodology). However, these two issues are related. How you teach has an impact on
what you do in the classroom and so methodology inevitably influences the shape of a
syllabus. In general terms, the main direction of English language teaching at all levels in
recent years has focused on the importance of meaningful communication. This is reflected both in recent methodological developments and in the Spanish state curriculum for
foreign languages:
[] el eje del currculo lo constituyen los procedimientos encaminados a conseguir una competencia comunicativa efectiva oral y escrita, en contextos sociales significativos, que permita a alumnos y
alumnas expresarse con progresiva eficacia y correccin y que abarque todos los usos y registros
posibles, incluido el literario. (Real Decreto 1631/2006)
12
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
This would imply that the analysis and study of formal elements of the language should
come after exposure to and use of the language elements to be studied.
Finally, the fourth block of the Enseanzas Mnimas has a sociocultural focus designed to increase students awareness of and interest in countries where the foreign language is spoken.
In addition, the Spanish curriculum calls for the development of a range of learning skills called competencias bsicas throughout all curricular areas. Eight types of learning skills have
been identified (Real Decreto 1631/2006):
1. Competencia en comunicacin lingstica.
2. Competencia matemtica.
3. Competencia en el conocimiento y la interaccin con el mundo fsico.
4. Tratamiento de la informacin y competencia digital.
5. Competencia social y ciudadana.
6. Competencia cultural y artstica.
7. Competencia para aprender a aprender.
8. Autonoma e iniciativa personal.
TRANSFORMING THE CURRICULUM INTO ACTIVITIES AND WORK FOR THE CLASSROOM
13
See Chapter 4, Understanding the Curriculum, by House, in Volume I for a more detailed description of the curriculum (House, 2011a).
Since they focus on knowing how, rather than on a body of information (knowing what),
these skills are often present in many of the communicative, task-based activities that make
up an English language class.
It is worth noting that the curriculum contains no specification as to the methodology that
should be adopted beyond its insistence on the communicative purpose of language. Teachers and learning centres are expected to decide on and adopt a methodology or methodologies which enable the objectives, broadly outlined in the curriculum, to be achieved.
Task 1
1. Design activities for competencias bsicas:
Make a list of activity types for the English language classroom that could develop one or more
of the competencias bsicas.
Example: a survey competencia matemtica.
Think of one or more topics to provide the subject matter for the activities in your list.
Develop activities to cover all the competencias bsicas.
Justify in your work how the competencias bsicas are developed through the activities.
Present and describe your activities to your colleagues.
2. Analysis of the CEFR:
Download a copy of the CEFR from:
Common European Framework for Languages: www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/cadre_en.asp
Find and list the different communicative functions for each linguistic skill identified in the
CEFR.
14
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
mean that a progressive development of syntactical awareness should not be included in the
syllabus. It is, rather, a reflection on the role of grammar as a part of the communicative process. Grammar is not the end product effective communication is.
The communicative approach, outlined in the Spanish curriculum, calls for syllabus
organisation based on topics or themes that promote communication. Language is a
communicative tool and we need something to talk about in the classroom. With
a communicative approach the emphasis is not on correct pronunciation or producing
grammatically perfect sentences but rather on meaning: Clear, meaningful and interesting
contexts provide settings in which new language is understandable, and familiar language
becomes more memorable and useful (Curtain, 2004). The focus of the class is not on the
language in itself, but rather on a topic or theme which provides a context for the learning
process. For example, rather than learn a list of means of transport, students learn about the
transportation links between mayor cities in their area. In this way, a thematic organisation
leads students to take part in activities that involve thinking skills and avoids the isolated
decontextualised practice of grammatical structures.
The key questions for identifying suitable themes are often What will motivate students?
or What are students interested in?. While this approach ensures that the themes are connected to students reality, it does not always lead to subjects that provide rich and varied
opportunities for exchanging information and communicating ideas and opinions. Additional questions needed to identify a suitable theme include:
What language can students learn with the theme?
What else can students learn? Does the theme add to their general knowledge and understanding of the world?
Does the theme provide opportunities for crosscurricular links?
Does the theme provide opportunities for developing competencias bsicas?
Does the theme help develop thinking skills?
Does the theme provide opportunities for developing sociocultural understanding?
Does the theme have the potential to develop different communicative situations and
functions?
Does the theme provide opportunities for a variety of task-based activities?
What type of materials (print, audio or video) can I use with this theme?
For a theme to provide material for meaningful communication, it cannot simply be a lexical focus. Transport, for example, on its own may lead to nothing more than a list of different means of transportation. However, Transport in the future, The history of aviation
or Transport networks in my town are richer themes that are more likely to engage students and have a wider potential for the exchange of opinions, meaningful information and
ideas that make up communicative situations. Themes are typically:
TRANSFORMING THE CURRICULUM INTO ACTIVITIES AND WORK FOR THE CLASSROOM
15
Discuss the following list with your colleagues and identify the features you think are essential parts
of a syllabus:
Speaking skills.
Language analysis.
Writing skills.
Pronunciation focus.
Listening skills.
Crosscultural focus.
Reading skills.
Projects or WebQuests.1
Syntactical development.
Crosscurricular activities.
Vocabulary development.
Literacy focus.
Write a description of any other features you think should be included. Justify your reasons.
1. WebQuests: an inquiry-based approach where all or nearly all information is researched on the internet by students
in order to complete the assignment.
16
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
What is not clear is how to establish a rationale for the teaching of syntax. In other words, in what
order should students start using different language structures? It is interesting to note that most materials for teaching a foreign language deal with grammar as a progression of structures that build on
from one to another. The verb to be leads on to the present continuous. The present simple is taught
before the past simple and so on. It is clear that this progression of language is not based on purely
communicative reasons. If we analyse which verb tense we use most often in English, the answer
would probably be the present perfect. Yet this tense is not formally taught until an intermediate stage.
Another aspect to bear in mind is that students are not beginners at the start of ESO. They have
been learning English for at least six years and maybe for as many as nine. Many of the language structures at the start of a traditional grammar progression are not new to students in
1. ESO. While there is (often) no formal study of grammar in Primary Education, most students
are familiar with and have used present, past and future verbal constructions.
It would seem, then, that the traditional feeding-in of grammar, which means a child with
years of experience in English classes starts with to be at the beginning of 1. ESO, as if
they had no previous experience of the language, does not have to be the invariable starting
point for a syllabus of work for ESO.
Task 3
Choose a selection of four or five textbooks for secondary-school English language teaching.
Work with a partner and draw up a chart showing the standard progression of a grammar
syllabus through the four secondary-school years.
Identify common ground and differences in the syllabuses.
Summarise your findings in an essay and give reasons for the similarities.
Finalise your essay by writing a critique of the standard progression and describing any differences you would make.
There are other possible criteria for feeding in language structures. Examples include:
Language structures are chosen because of their relevance to the topic.
Language structures are chosen according to their frequency of use.
Language structures are chosen because they are perceived to be easy, perhaps due to
a similarity to the first language.
Units of work
There are several practical considerations to bear in mind when drawing up a syllabus. The number of lessons per week and the length of the lessons will determine the scope of the syllabus.
TRANSFORMING THE CURRICULUM INTO ACTIVITIES AND WORK FOR THE CLASSROOM
17
In other words, how much work can be covered in the academic year? The number of students is also a determining factor in the scope of a syllabus. In general terms, more material
can be covered with fewer students.
A syllabus is usually divided into units of work (Figure 1), with the length of each unit, in
terms of lessons, a key question in the overall design of the syllabus. When a unit of work
is based on a theme, one consideration is its range. How many lessons can be based on the
theme? How long can students interest in the theme be maintained?
Within each unit of work, all the different component parts of the syllabus should be present so that the work is systematically and evenly distributed throughout the academic year.
At the centre of the planning process is the theme for the unit.
Figure 1. Structure of a unit
Communicative functions:
Listening.
Speaking.
Communicative functions:
Reading.
Writing.
Lesson objectives
Unit theme
Competencias bsicas
Language:
Lexis.
Structures.
Language analysis
Crosscultural focus
Pronunciation focus
As well as the features in the diagram above, a syllabus may contain other features, such as
a crosscurricular focus or a literacy focus, which would be included in each unit.
Task 4
1. Planning a content-related unit of work.
Choose a theme from another subject area in the school curriculum and do the following tasks
with a partner:
Brainstorm and make a list of vocabulary the students would need to know.
Discuss the theme with your partner and make a note of the structures most likely to occur when
working on this theme.
Choose and describe a literacy focus you could include.
18
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
TRANSFORMING THE CURRICULUM INTO ACTIVITIES AND WORK FOR THE CLASSROOM
19
should include, then, not only the linguistic functions that are being practised, but also a
learner-centred objective connected to the unit theme that gives context and meaning to
the learning process. Learner-centred objectives (or student outcomes) often describe
what the students will do during the lesson: Students will carry out a class survey to
determine how their classmates travel to school.
This point is addressed directly within any CLIL programme of work, be it a subject class
such as Music taught in English, or an English language class doing a unit of content-related
work. CLIL is described as dual-objective learning because each lesson has two objectives,
one linguistic and one taken from an area of the general curriculum (content objective). In
terms of language learning, the linguistic objective has more significance, but in terms of the
students it is the content objective that provides meaning.
There are many different formats for planning lessons. They typically include some or all
of the features given in Figure 2:
Figure 2. Features used in lesson planning
Unit theme:
Lesson title:
Linguistic objective:
CLIL objective:
Student outcome:
Language:
Structures:
Lexis:
Materials:
Outline of activities:
Assessment criteria:
Lesson title: describing the individual lessons through a lesson title helps to ensure that
the topic of the unit is coherently developed and to make each lesson unique by distinguishing it from the rest of the unit.
Linguistic objective: this should be expressed in terms of communicative functions:
Students will be able to .
CLIL objective: within a CLIL programme, the area of the curriculum and the specific
content objective should be listed for each lesson.
Student outcome: this is needed to describe the aim of the lesson from the students
perspective rather than a linguistic perspective. This section should help students answer
20
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
the question What have I learnt/done today?. It should also serve as a descriptor for
what the students are going to do in the lesson.
Language: all the language that is the focus of the class should be listed here. It is
important to emphasise that this by no means represents all the language that will
be used during the class. This section indicates the language that will be used by the
students either receptively (reading materials or oral instructions) or productively
in speaking or writing activities. It may be useful here to categorise the language
according to whether it is new to the students or has been seen before.
Materials: these may include posters, audio materials, realia, printed materials, ebooks
and DVDs, as well as the standard textbook. It is important to make a list of the
materials for simple reasons of personal organisation. Many English language teachers
have a huge number of students and various different classes within the same working
day. A checklist of materials ensures that the teacher does not forget vital material for
a class.
Outline of activities: this includes a detailed description of the class activities and an
indication of the estimated time for each activity. It could also include an indication
as to the class dynamic for each activity (individual, pair work, small groups).
Assessment criteria: assessment procedures are essential as a means of checking students progress and ensuring they are assessed continuously at all stages of their learning and not just in a final evaluation. The procedures do not need to be formal and
much of the most effective assessment is based on classroom observation. However,
in order for the observation to acquire relevance within an overall marking scheme,
students must be systematically observed and the results recorded. Checklists and observation sheets can be very useful as a means of recording individual students performance in class.
Task 5
Choose a theme and make a note of some language objectives that fit well into the theme.
Plan a lesson using the outline above.
Write a checklist for recording classroom observations for the lesson you have planned.
Deliver your lesson and make notes in your lesson plan to indicate successful activities and
problems.
After delivering your lesson, assess the efficiency of your checklist and how you used it.
Make any adjustments you need following your assessment of the efficiency of the checklist.
Plan and deliver a PowerPoint presentation of your checklist for your colleagues.
TRANSFORMING THE CURRICULUM INTO ACTIVITIES AND WORK FOR THE CLASSROOM
21
This pattern, however, allows no space within a lesson for reviewing and recycling language that has been learnt previously. It does not build on previous linguistic knowledge, or
2. Caretaker speech: a description of how careers talk to and encourage speech in infants learning their first language.
3. For a more detailed description of caretaker speech and its role in Krashens comprehensible input theory see Krashen
(1981, p. 125).
22
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
indeed on any other kind of knowledge. In this lesson plan, the emphasis is placed on the
linguistic objectives, with other learner-centred objectives taking second place.
An alternative lesson plan could place the emphasis on developing the student outcome as
the focus of the lesson.
Example outline
1. Initial phase: the teacher introduces the lesson through a whole class activity. Examples: brainstorm
holiday destinations. Ask about types of holiday activities at the different destinations and list on
the board. The purpose of this stage is to prepare the students both linguistically, cognitively and
conceptually. In other words, they should be stimulated to start thinking.
2. Class work: students work individually, in pairs or in groups to carry out the proposed activities. At
this stage they put into practice both the language and the concepts introduced earlier.
3. Round-up: the final phase can again be a whole class activity that focuses on both the key concepts and language of the lesson. It is useful to end the lesson with activities that encourage students to connect what they have learnt in the class with their wider reality. It is notoriously difficult
to take activities in the English language classroom outside the classroom walls. This final phase
can be regarded an opportunity for students to transfer the focus to themselves and use the new
language to talk about their own experiences.
Task 6
List at least four different student outcomes related to a theme of your choice. Include different types of outcomes (roleplays, written texts, oral presentations, etc.).
Justify your choices by describing the communicative functions that will be developed
through the student outcomes.
Choose one of these and develop a lesson plan.
Deliver the lesson in your Practicum. If possible ask a colleague to observe you as you work.
If you have been observed, ask your colleague to write a short, critical report. If you have not
been observed, write your own critical report.
Classroom activities
For classroom activities to meet the lesson objectives, they should develop the linguistic objectives at the same time as leading to the final student outcome.
TRANSFORMING THE CURRICULUM INTO ACTIVITIES AND WORK FOR THE CLASSROOM
23
As meaningful communication is the purpose of an English language class, all classroom activities must develop communicative skills. It is important not to mistake communication for
drills or other mechanical, oral activities. There is very little communication involved,
for example, in describing elements of a picture that are obvious to everyone: The boys
got a red shirt.
For communication to take place a message, a piece of information or an opinion has to be
expressed and exchanged. Sometimes this can be achieved simply by changing an aspect of
a standard activity. If the activity above is presented as a game and the student is relying on
memory to describe the elements in a picture, then the activity becomes communicative. It
has both a context for communication (the game) and a purpose (winning points are earned for each correctly remembered item).
Within the CEFR, communicative situations are classified into three broad groupings or communicative modes. In the interactive mode, there is a two-way flow of communication
where participants are both producers and receivers of information. In other communicative situations the flow of information is one-way from the producer of the message, in written or oral form, to the receiver(s). These situations can be productive, when students
produce the message, or receptive, when students receive the message.
Within an English language class all three communicative modes should be present at different times. When the teacher explains activities or outlines a theme, the communicative mode
for students will be receptive. When students produce a piece of written work or do an oral
presentation in class, the communicative mode is productive. It is interesting to note that in
bilingual programmes, where another subject area is taught in English, the communicative
modes that are practised are largely one-way with a strong emphasis on the receptive mode.
This is not surprising as teachers are focused on transmitting knowledge (both information and
skills) related to their subject rather than on developing language competence.
The interactive communicative mode, however, is central to language development. Interactive communicative activities, with students working together in pairs or groups, should
be part of all language lessons once students are old enough to work with a degree of autonomy. Cooperative learning tasks, where students need to work together to achieve the set
goal, hold great potential for the English language classroom. When students work together,
the opportunities for language use are greatly increased and group tasks provide a natural
and meaningful context for practising language. These activities have to be carefully planned and managed and teachers should expect a certain level of noise in the classroom. In
order for students to stay on task and keep using English, it is essential that they are equipped with the language they need to carry out the task. This may mean providing vocabulary
sheets and examples of model sentence structures for the students to use. In cooperative
24
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
learning tasks the teacher takes a back seat, although this by no means implies a passive attitude. The teacher should be moving around the class monitoring language use and the development of the activity, as well as solving problems and providing extra language as needed.
Mixed-ability classes
While all students start Secondary Education with previous experience of learning English as
a foreign language, by no means do they all start at the same level of language competence. English language classes are notorious for the differences in levels of ability among students. Some students may attend extra language classes and some students may have
studied under a bilingual programme for Primary Education, while other students experience will be more limited. Classroom activities should have an inbuilt flexibility to address
mixed ability in the classroom. One way of dealing with a mix of abilities is to make it a factor when organising groups. Stronger students can be placed to work with students who
have a lower level of language competency to help them carry out class activities. However, faster students should not only be treated as teachers helpers. Their use of language also
needs to be developed and encouraged. Activities that are open ended can be extended for
faster students. For example, faster students should not be expected to work from a closed
list (for example, of holiday experiences), but should be asked to draw on their wider knowledge. The round-up at the end of class can also be a moment when students express themselves using a wider range of language.
In short, planning classroom activities consists of engineering communicative situations in the
classroom that allow students to interact linguistically in order to fulfil a goal or objective (student outcome). The following aspects should be considered when planning an activity:
Type of activity: exchanging information, a survey, giving directions, etc.
Procedure: a list of the steps students will follow to carry out the activity. This information can be given to students orally.
Language: this includes lexis and structure.
Final outcome: a description of what students will have produced when they finish the
activity. Examples: a completed text, a graph, a map.
Grouping: pairwork, groups, whole class, individual, etc.
Timing: an indication of how long the activity will take.
Assessment: the criteria for assessing the activity which could include: the use of target language whilst carrying out the activity, the standard of the final product, the accuracy of language use, and so on. The assessment of an activity also needs to fit into
an overall marking scheme.
TRANSFORMING THE CURRICULUM INTO ACTIVITIES AND WORK FOR THE CLASSROOM
25
Task 7
1. Analysis of classroom materials: linguistic skills and activity types:
Look through the English language textbook used by your class in your Practicum and make a
list of common activity types.
Draw up a chart showing the linguistic skills developed in these activities.
2. Review of a unit of work:
Choose a unit of work and write a critical review. Consider the following:
- Balance of language skills.
- Focus on student outcomes.
- Opportunities for communicative exchanges.
- Group dynamics.
- Assessment procedures.
Conclude your report with your personal opinion of the unit of work and any changes you
would make.
26
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
Conclusion
The work of transforming the curriculum into classroom activities relies on careful, layered
planning from the design of the syllabus through to the structure of each unit, the objectives
of the lessons within the unit and, finally, to the classroom activities needed to achieve the
objectives. The component elements of the syllabus should be chosen to meet the broad objectives in the official curriculum. Thematic planning of units within the syllabus ensures
that its distinct elements are distributed evenly throughout the course and worked on systematically. Lessons within the units are planned to establish the linguistic objectives and student outcomes that make class work relevant and meaningful. Once these stages of planning
have been carried out, the design of each activity becomes clearer. They are, in essence, communicative situations that are constructed as a means of achieving the lesson objectives.
ASSIGNMENTS
Assignment 1
Assignment 2 Essay: What are the advantages and dangers in bilingual education programmes?
An increasing number of Autonomous Communities and regions are moving towards a bilingual model
of education programmes. However, some specialists think that this move has been made without paying due consideration to the possible difficulties and problems thrown up by this model of education.
TRANSFORMING THE CURRICULUM INTO ACTIVITIES AND WORK FOR THE CLASSROOM
27
Draw up a questionnaire to find out teachers opinions on bilingual education in the school where you are doing your Practicum. Ensure you ask both English language teachers and
teachers of other subject areas.
Use your findings and your own opinions to write a critical essay titled: What are the advantages and dangers in bilingual education programmes?.
Consider the question from the perspective of both an English language teacher and a teacher from another subject area.
Assignment 3
FURTHER READING
Books
CURTAIN, H. & DAHLBERG, C.A. (2004). Languages and Children. Making the Match. Harlow: Pearson Education.
A comprehensive guide to implementing a communicative model for language learning in the
classroom. It includes a discussion of language-acquisition theory as well as more practical
guidelines for a thematic approach to syllabus planning, classroom activities and assessment.
GILLES, R.M. & ADRIAN, F. (eds.). (2003). Cooperative Learning: The Social and Intellectual
Outcomes of Learning in Groups. London: Routledge.
A collection of articles that discuss the role of groupwork in the learning process. The articles
range across the spectrum of formal education from preschool to university and link theories of
group dynamics to their application in the classroom.
28
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
KRASHEN, S.D. & TERRELL, T. (1996). The Natural Approach. Language Acquisition in the
Classroom. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
A research-based examination of second-language acquisition which underpins Krashens
hypotheses of language learning, including the theory of comprehensible input.
MARSH, D. & LANG, G. (eds) (2000). Using Languages to Learn and Learning to Use Languages. Jyvskyl, Finland: University of Jyvskyl.
An outline to the CLIL approach and its benefits for young learners. The article examines different CLIL classroom experiences.
Website
Common European Framework for Languages.
www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/Source/Framework_EN.pdf
This website contains the full document describing the CEFR and its role in language teaching.
TRANSFORMING THE CURRICULUM INTO ACTIVITIES AND WORK FOR THE CLASSROOM
29
REFERENCES
CURTAIN, H. & DAHLBERG, C.A. (2004). Languages and Children. Making the Match.
Harlow: Pearson Education.
HOUSE, S. (coord) (2011a). Ingls. Complementos de formacin disciplinar. Theory and Practice in English Language Teaching. Vol. I. Barcelona: Gra.
HOUSE, S. (coord) (2011b). Ingls. Investigacin, innovacin y buenas prcticas. Teacher Development. Vol. III. Barcelona: Gra.
KRASHEN, S.D. (1981). Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. Oxford:
Pergamon Press.
Legislation
Real Decreto 1631/2006, de 29 de diciembre, por el que se establecen las enseanzas mnimas correspondientes a la Educacin Secundaria Obligatoria. Boletn Oficial del Estado
(05/01/2007), 5, 677-773. Also available online at: <www.boe.es/boe/dias/2007/01/05/pd
fs/A00677-00773.pdf>.
31
CHAPTER CONTENTS
Mike Downie
Author and Teacher Trainer
If I had more time, I would spend it surfing the net looking for materials, downloading and
then adapting them for each of my groups. And of course if my students had more time (and
were more self-motivated), I would get them to search for materials and create their own
activities to bring into class too. Unfortunately the reality is that I dont have the time and
the majority of my students dont either. So, like most teachers, I make compromises. Published materials and coursebooks offer us the possibility for that compromise, providing a bank
of materials that cover our syllabus requirements and which, with creative management, can
be supplemented and developed to better suit our individual needs. Personally, I try to be
32
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
pragmatic with these materials rather than dogmatic (following the book to the letter) or
dogme(tic) (not following the book at all).
But what do I choose? There are so many different kinds of materials available. No study that
I am aware of has ever established the absolute efficiency of one particular method, approach
or type of material over another. Indeed, practice suggests the reverse: different strokes for
different folks. Of course, some of our choices will be inappropriate (or even wrong). We all
sometimes make mistakes when we choose materials; the difference between a good teacher
and bad one is that good teachers will learn from their mistakes. Looking for material, then,
is not the search for the holy grail; it is rather a reflection of who we are as teachers and what
kind of relationship we want with our students. Materials should help define our relationship
not only with the changing use of language but also with individual learners and their
learning. This article will look at some of the questions we need to reflect on before making
that choice and how, once it is made, we can best develop the materials with our students
over the duration of their course.
33
If you hardly ever use your coursebook in class, it is definitely time for a change. It is unfair
to make students buy materials that are not working. Such a situation is a good opportunity to find resources that will be more effective for your teaching circumstances.
Of course, sometimes we are required to change materials that have been working for us
because of educational reform. It is important in this case to think about what the reform
implies in terms of contents, goals and methods and what different kinds of material are
needed. Our choice of new materials will be conditioned by what we are expected to teach
and how we are expected to teach it.
Task 1
Interview three practising teachers and write a report. Include the following information:
The teachers reasons for last changing their classroom materials.
Were any of the above reasons mentioned? Which ones?
Any other reasons they gave.
Classify their reasons in order of importance and discuss them.
Summarise your findings.
Present your report to your colleagues.
Selecting a coursebook
Working with a coursebook in class should never mean shouting aloud the page number and
following to the letter everything the book suggests. Selecting and developing materials implies
we are taking control. We should be in charge of the material, not the reverse, and we can
only do this from a position of awareness. We need to know what we are doing and why
which implies knowing who we are teaching and why.
So why are we teaching a modern foreign language? The answer to this question is critical
for choosing materials we feel comfortable with. Our reasons for teaching English as a
modern foreign language will inform our method and inspire the techniques and activities
we employ.
A recent study carried out by the Council of Europe into why teachers around Europe are
teaching modern foreign languages suggested three important reasons shared by most of them
(Council of Europe CUP, 2001). The first reason is that we are teaching a living language, and
teaching students to communicate in that language. The second reason is that we are teaching
34
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
students for lifelong learning, that is, helping students to become more independent both in
and outside the classroom by equipping them with the strategies and attitudes to carry on
learning foreign languages not only in school but also outside and throughout their life. The
third reason is to provide relevant and recognisable qualifications so our students can travel
within education and employment around Europe. Whilst the study itself was not prescriptive
in its approach to either method or technique, but rather described good practice, it did
nevertheless highlight the close link between communicative approaches and success in
meeting these three objectives: developing communicative language skills, encouraging
independent learning strategies and attitudes and providing useful qualifications.
The answer to why we are teaching, then, requires some reflection on who we are as teachers and our assumptions about learners and learning. Reading the CEFR provides an interesting overview of recent trends and practices in teaching and learning modern foreign
languages in Europe. Importantly, the reasons for teaching a modern foreign language as
described in the CEFR (communication, lifelong learning and relevant qualifications) are
also reflected in official documents describing curricular requirements in Primary, Secondary and Bachillerato not only in Spain but throughout Europe.
Task 2
Examining and reflecting on our motives and goals in teaching English as a foreign language can
help us make a more informed choice as to which materials we will use.
Write answers to the following questions:
Why are you teaching English as a modern foreign language?
What are your main aims with respect to your students progress?
What should materials be like as a result?
Write a description of the themes, activity types and methodological approach you would like
to work with.
Writing checklists
When looking at new coursebooks it is always a good idea to read the blurb on the back of
the book. This gives you a sense of who the book was written for, its components and some
of the authors concerns: a two-level course preparing students for university entrance;
extends students knowledge of vocabulary and grammar in a clear systematic way;
focuses on strategies needed for autonomous language learning.
35
Does the blurb sound interesting? If so, the book is worth us investigating further.
There are many ways of analysing a coursebook, depending on the time we have available and
our experience. Checklists are a useful way of identifying features we expect coursebooks to
contain, although it should be noted that some writers like Sheldon (1988) see coursebook
assessment as fundamentally a subjective, rule-of-thumb activity, one for which no neat formula,
grid or system will ever provide a definite yardstick. Checklists can be more general or more
detailed, more objective or more subjective. Hutchinson and Waters (1987), in an attempt to
make checklists more reliable, created lists of questions which were both subjective and objective.
So, for example, they suggested asking both a subjective question, What language points should
be covered?, and a more objective one, What language points are actually covered in the
material?. They saw the best materials as the ones that provided the closest match between both.
So whilst good checklists can provide us with an understanding of a writers approach and
a clear description of contents, they can also reveal discrepancies between what we want
and what the materials contain. To this extent they are very useful for shortlisting possible
contenders for our course. But which checklist should we use, or rather, whose? Using an
off-the-peg checklist is timesaving and if we have never written one before it can inform us of
areas of concern that we should take into consideration. However, even the most professionally crafted general checklist needs to be tailored to our needs if it is to be effective. Writing our own checklist makes us more aware of our own learning and teaching situation
since in order to prepare a checklist we need to know both what we are supposed to be teaching (the syllabus) and how (the method or approach). Knowing these things will form the
basis for developing our checklist and for subsequent evaluation of materials.
Task 3
When we choose materials for teaching we need to be very clear as to our students needs and
characteristics, which may vary considerably from class to class and level to level.
Consider the following questions:
Who am I teaching?
What level am I teaching?
What are the official requirements for the course?
Are there any official exams?
What do I want from materials?
Now use your answers to create your own checklist.
Compare your checklist with those of your colleagues and discuss any differences.
36
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
Who am I teaching?
I have unfortunately been in too many classrooms where teachers use material written for
older students with younger children. In the past this was understandable, as fewer materials
were available and we used what we had. Sometimes materials inappropriate to the age
group were chosen because of their higher level, especially as younger and younger
children were being entered for higher-level examinations. Nowadays there are plenty of
good materials for students of all ages. Books written for adults with a range of adult topics
should not be used with teenagers. Their interests are different, the kinds of interaction and
activities are different and if we want to motivate students, finding books with the kinds
of activities and topics that reflect their world is vital.
Task 4
It is important to match your classroom materials closely to your students field of interest. It is necessary to introduce students to themes that you think they will find interesting, not just ask them
to come up with a list.
Design a list of topics for different age groups.
Brainstorm some ideas for different age groups with your colleagues and justify your choices.
- 11- to 13-year-olds.
- 14- to 16-year-olds.
- 17- to 18-year-olds.
Then interview some students from each age group and compare your choices with theirs.
Summarise your findings and report back to your colleagues.
37
especially as international and European language exams have been benchmarked to these levels (Table 1). We should check that the materials we choose reflect the CEFR levels and that the
evaluation they provide tests appropriate Can Do descriptors. The key questions are:
Are the materials linked to the CEFR levels?
What qualifications do the materials prepare students for?
Table 1. Comparison of exams in ALTE
ALTE LEVEL
CEF LEVEL
PITMAN ESOL
TOEIC TOEFL
Level 5
C2
7.5+
CPE
Advanced.
910+
276+
Level 4
C1
6.5 - 7
CAE
Higher .
701 -
236 -
Intermediate.
910
275
Intermediate.
541 -
176 -
700
235
381 -
126 -
540
175
246 -
96 -
380
125
Level 3
Level 2
Level 1
B2
B1
A2
Breakthrough A1
level
5-6
3.5 - 4.5
1-2
FCE
PET
KET
Elementary.
Basic.
Task 5
Use the information in the chart above and find additional data on the following websites:
The Association of Language Testers in Europe: www.alte.org
Council of Europe: www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/cadre_en.asp
Map the Secondary and Bachillerato qualifications onto the Common European Framework levels
and the exams in ALTE.
Download some sample exams (both secondary-school exams and the ALTE exams). Compare:
The types of skills that are tested.
The vocabulary contents.
The structures tested.
Write a report comparing the three modes of assessment.
38
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
The descriptor suggests that materials develop skimming, scanning and gist reading skills
(see Chapter 5, Vocabulary Instruction in Secondary Schools, by Vidal, in Volume II, for
a more detailed explanation of these skills), but doesnt mention the kinds of texts to be used,
only that they be simple authentic and adapted texts relevant to the age group and, tantalisingly, that they should have a crosscurricular link. A lot is left to teachers and coursebook writers in deciding which specific texts are most appropriate.
Does the material develop basic strategies for storing and reviewing vocabulary?
However, the descriptors also allow for more detailed questions which could be either open
What types of activities does the material use to develop strategies for storing and reviewing
vocabulary?
39
40
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
Task 7
Write an analysis of the coursebook your pupils are using in your Practicum and answer the following questions:
What is the ethnic mix in the materials?
Does it reflect my students reality?
Are different kinds of social reality represented?
Are other social issues dealt with?
How are they dealt with?
Are they relevant to my students lives?
Prepare a PowerPoint presentation of your analysis and present it to your colleagues.
Where they are available, look carefully at descriptors of sociocultural content. Some of the
descriptors in the LOE documents, for example, deal specifically with sociocultural content:
1. ESO: Valoracin del enriquecimiento personal que supone la relacin con personas pertenecientes a otras culturas.
Yes/No
How:
Through listening.
Yes/No
How:
Through speaking.
Yes/No
How:
Yes/No
How:
Other.
Yes/No
How:
Related to this is the fact that materials should explore the richness and diversity of the world
students live in and encourage them to reflect on their place within it. The amount of personalisation in materials is of paramount importance in this respect. Activities about my
41
42
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
Other questions can address practical issues such as whether instructions are clear, how
easy activities are to manage and so on. Another advantage of piloting is that we can ask our
students for their opinion too.
Task 12
Prepare a questionnaire for your pupils in your Practicum about their materials. Include the following questions and some more of your own:
Do you enjoy the material? Why? Why not?
Are you able to follow the structure of the coursebook easily? Why? Why not?
43
Unfortunately, we are not always able to pilot materials in class; in this case consultation
and gathering opinions become more important. Talking to users of the material who are in
a similar situation to ours can give us a good idea as to whether material will work for us.
Task 13
Use the coursebook your pupils are using in your Practicum. Prepare a questionnaire based on the
list below, and ask a colleague to rate the material on a scale from 0 to 4:
0 = not at all
1 = a little
2 = OK
3 = quite a lot
4 = a lot
44
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
45
notes on how they can be used. Well-stocked and well-resourced schools are infinitely better places to work than those that are resource poor, but it is important to have clear routes
into this wealth of complementary and often competing materials.
Students should also be encouraged to keep supplementary materials. They can be given
simple files or encouraged to use the dossier section of a Language Portfolio. Language Portfolios are a collection of individual students work put together by them in a file or a ring
binder. The Portfolios belong to the students and can be updated as language learning continues by adding to and taking away pieces of work. Portfolios are a good way not only of
encouraging students to reflect on learning goals and helping them keep track of work done,
but also are a useful tool for getting them to start to take control of their learning. See Chapter 5, The Common European Framework of Reference, by Snchez Reyes, in Volume I
(House, 2011), for a more detailed description of Language Portfolios.
Task 14
The European Language Portfolio forms part of the assessment strategies recommended in the
CEFR:
Read the documents describing ELP from: www.oapee.es/oapee/inicio/iniciativas/portfolio.html
Find out and describe the characteristics of the three parts of a Language Portfolio.
Consider and describe how you would encourage students to use their Portfolio.
Using technology
Where technology promotes our goals in relation to communication and lifelong learning,
we can safely judge it to be a valuable resource. However, do the ways in which technology is delivered have any other knock-on effects on classroom interactions?
Task 15
Evaluate the technology used in your Practicum by answering the following questions:
Do the technology platforms allow students to work more independently?
Are they time-efficient?
Do they offer equal access to all students in large groups?
Do they discriminate against different learning styles or aptitudes?
Compare your answers with a colleague and say what changes you would make to improve your results.
46
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
We should be careful, for example, in the case of digital whiteboards to ensure that the
materials do not remain solely in the hands of the teacher, without ever passing to the student. Technology should encourage students to take the initiative and become more confident
and independent in the classroom. What perhaps is less controversial is the use of technology to find and prepare supplementary material for the classroom. There are many excellent sites for teachers and students to find ready-made materials and a plethora of other sites
(text, audio and video) that we can visit and select material from. It is worth building up a
list of the best EFL sites.
Task 16
Do an internet search for EFL sites.
Make a list of your top ten EFL resource sites.
Classify your list into different types (articles on teaching theory, useful activities, resources, forums and discussion groups etc.).
Hold a class discussion with your colleagues and make a database which you can all share.
47
Conclusions
Choosing a relevant, well-designed coursebook which allows for adaptation and learner
spontaneity is vital in developing a balanced teacher/learner relationship. Of course we can
be more pessimistic or more optimistic about the amount and quality of present-day materials for the teaching and learning of English. The optimist sees more opportunities whilst the
pessimist sees more confusion. Neither would be wrong. More is not always better and
we know the real constraints on us in the classroom: time, space, technology and the official syllabus will all limit and define our relationship with our material. Indeed, more is often
not even possible.
Yet we also know that the materials we use are enormously important in shaping the kind of
relationship we have with our students as well as the learning outcomes they achieve. Choosing
the best materials from the plethora of resources available can become one of the keys to a
successful course. Perhaps in the past it was easier and less stressful, since there was less to
choose from, but language changes, students change and so do we.
We have seen that there is no one right answer. Nevertheless, just as a well-stocked
and well-resourced school has greater potential than a resource-poor school, so a class full
of material choices is richer too. However, without clearly understood relevant objectives
and clear routes into competing materials, we will suffocate and confuse our students rather
than help them. We need to take control, most importantly by understanding the why and
how of what we should be teaching.
Creating checklists from our curriculum and syllabus is a good starting point as it allows us
not only to choose more effective and better-targeted materials but also to understand better when to extend and supplement them and how to pace our materials over the duration
of the course. Getting to know ourselves as teachers and the circumstances in which we
teach are prerequisites for building a relationship with our students. The real constraints
(time, money, location, class size) and the expectations (exam, official syllabus, specific
goals) should all help frame the questions we set to evaluate and develop materials.
48
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
ASSIGNMENTS
Assignment 1
Create a checklist
Choose one of the compulsory school years for learning English and write a comprehensive checklist using all the considerations in this chapter based on the official curricular requirements for that year.
Then compare your checklist to the coursebook you are using in your Practicum and write
a critical review describing any failings or missing elements.
Assignment 2
Assignment 3
FURTHER READING
Books
For general methodological reflections on why we are teaching modern foreign languages, what we
are teaching and how we can do it, some useful further reading is provided by the following:
BROWN, H.D. (2001). Teaching by Principles: an Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
HARMER, J. (1998). How to Teach English. Harlow: Longman.
49
Website
Dogme ELT.
www.thornburyscott.com/tu/portal.htm
50
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
REFERENCES
CHAMBERS, F. (1997). Seeking consensus in coursebook evaluation. ELT Journal, 51(1), 29-35.
COUNCIL OF EUROPE (2001): Common European Framework of Reference for Languages:
Learning, Teaching, Assessment. Strasbourg. Council of Europe. Available online at:
<www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/cadre_en.asp>.
COUNCIL OF EUROPE STANDARD (COE). What your language level means.
HOUSE, S. (coord) (2011). Ingls. Complementos de formacin disciplinar. Theory and Practice in English Language Teaching. Vol. I. Barcelona: Gra.
HUTCHINSON & WALTERS. (1987). English for Specific Purposes: A Learner-centred Approach. Chapter 9, 96-106. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
THORNBURY, S. & MEDDINGS, L. (2002) Dogme and the coursebook. Modern English Teacher, 11(1), 36-40. Available online at: <www.thornburyscott.com/tu/MET3coursebo
ok.htm>.
SHELDON, L.E. (1988). Evaluating ELT Textbooks and Materials. ELT Journal, 42(4), 237-246.
Legislation
Ley orgnica 2/2006, de 3 de mayo, de Educacin. Boletn Oficial del Estado (04/05/2006),
106, 17.158-17.207. Also available online at: <http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2006/05/04
pdfs/A17158-17207.pdf>.
Websites
The Association of Lenguage Testers in Europe.
www.alte.org
Council of Europe.
www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/cadre_en.asp
51
CHAPTER CONTENTS
Technology today
Today's learners
Digital literacies
Practice
Conclusions
Gavin Dudeney
E-learning Consultant at The Consultants-E
Nicky Hockly
E-learning Consultant at The Consultants-E
In this chapter we look at technology access and the changing face of today's learners.
We consider the concept of new digital literacies before moving on to examine how these
can be addressed through the use of new technologies whilst not significantly impacting
on the current pedagogical or methodological approaches favoured by the average classroom teacher.
Technology today
Young people in Spain today have more access to technology than ever before: from gaming
machines to mobile phones, fast internet access at home and on the move and, increasingly,
at school as new initiatives bring interactive whiteboards, electronic content, netbooks and
other technological tools into their learning.
52
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
In terms of leisure, a recent study by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) and the Fundaci Catalana de l'Esplai concluded that almost 97% of Spanish adolescents between the ages
of twelve and eighteen have had some access to the internet, with nearly 54% of those users
having taught themselves the basics, and a mere 16% having received some training at school.
Other noteworthy statistics from the ongoing study include almost 95% use email as a form of
communication (though Messenger remains the preferred communication tool for most) and a
preference for mobile phones as a primary source of communication between social groups.
This study supports data from other countries in terms of primary uses of technology, which
are mostly combined to the synchronous, social side of real-time communications with
friends, online (and offline) gaming and the use of media such as music and movies online,
with very few engaging in productive activities such as keeping blogs or similar, though photoblogs continue to prove popular among adolescents. This lack of the use of participatory
technological tools is worth noting (see Today's learners below) having, as it does, real
implications for any introduction of technology in the classroom.
What is apparent in most studies on youth technology use is that they are more connected than
ever before: connected to each other outside of class time, primarily through synchronous tools
such as Microsoft Messenger and the ubiquitous mobile phone, but also (for those who use the
internet to help with their learning: nearly 70% of the users in the study) to other sources of information and learning which can impact on how they view what they do and learn in class.1
Although advances in educational uses of ICT are now more commonplace within the Spanish school system, there is still some way to go in terms of implementation of infrastructure, development of suitable electronic content and teacher training. This last factor is crucial
in terms of teacher use of technology in the classroom, and breaking down the digital literacy divide between teachers and today's learners.
Task 1
Conduct a Technology Use Survey. This will help you evaluate which technologies you
should be considering incorporating into your classroom teaching in your context.
Write a survey to do in your Practicum to find out which technologies are most prevalent
among your learners.
53
Investigate which technologies they use and what they use them for.
Summarise your findings.
Compare your finding with your colleagues and note any differences from school to school.
Today's learners
Much has been made in recent years of the perceived digital divide in terms of technological knowledge between what Prensky (2001) popularised as the digital natives (those born into
a world with widespread access to technology) and digital immigrants (those born before
such access became commonplace in much of the developed world).
Whilst Prensky himself has since moved on from these (recently) polemical terms to a more
knowledge-based view of the changes occurring in society (Prensky, 2009), much stock is still
placed in the supposed difference in skills level and experience between young people and their
elders, and this difference is equally widely deemed to be leading to a significant disjunct in what
learners expect from their school and college experience, and what they actually receive.2
The so-called Net generation (Tapscott, 1999), it is argued, are highly-skilled and regular
users of technologies such as blogs, wikis and podcasts, spend most of their time online and
are rarely parted from their games machines or mobile phones. Whilst it is certainly true that
most young people in Spain today have extensive access to various types of technologies
(see above), there is still quite a gap in what they do with these technologies and what educators in the immigrant fold might otherwise imagine.
In fact, many commissioned reports across the globe reflect what might be called a purely
social use of technologies. One such report carried out for the Channel 4 television station
in the UK concluded:
However, the research explodes this myth by showing that young peoples immersion in these devices
and the time spent on them is not due to an obsession with the technology per se, but largely due to
the gadgets ability to facilitate communication and to enhance young peoples enjoyment of traditional pursuits. For most, the focus of their passion is not so much the device itself, but more about how
it can help them connect, relax or have fun. The technology itself is invisible to the young consumer.
(OTX Research, 2009)
2. For a critique of this view, see Bennett, Maton & Kervin (2008).
54
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
Task 2
Prevailing research suggests that the predominant use of technologies is social in nature, and this
sits comfortably with our language teaching objectives (communication and the sharing of knowledge).
Write an essay: How could you use this tendency to impact positively on classroom learning of
English in your context?. Use the following guidelines:
Defend the idea that the predominant use of technologies is social in nature, giving examples
from your students.
Describe examples of how you would use this tendency in classroom activities.
This gives some credence to Prensky's assertion that digital natives tend to speak of technology in the form of verbs (whereas educators generally tend to use nouns [Prensky, 2001])
and also fits in with Bax's notion of normalisation (Bax, 2003), where technology only realises its potential when it ceases to be noteworthy or special within any given context.
However, this level of comfort with certain technologies, this invisibility does not necessarily carry over into any tangible or positive benefits in terms of their learning. As Sansone
(2008) notes, natives are too often described as tech savvy when what we really mean
is that they are tech comfy: that is that they are comfortable with technology, but not
necessarily in a good position to put it to work in service of their knowledge and learning.
He argues that perhaps a part of a new educator role may be to assist in the transformation
from practical, social use of technology to a more rigorous, pedagogical use.
Given the kind of data revealed in reports such as the OTX one (above), it is difficult to see
how an educator's view of technologies in teaching will work towards bridging the gap between the natives and the immigrants. ELT exponents well-versed in the use of technologies regularly assume that the ubiquity of technologies in their learners lives will lead to
a ready acceptance, say, of the use of blogs and wikis for reading and writing, podcasts for
audio practice and other such approaches, whereas these may simply be written off as insufficiently social or entertaining by their intended audience.
As the OTX report concludes:
Traditional activities such as hanging out with friends, listening to music, and seeing boy/girlfriends
dominate the top three favourite pastimes of young people, while digital behaviours such as creating user-generated content have a much lower penetration than commonly perceived (only 16% of
young people have written a blog and less than a quarter (21%) have filmed and uploaded a clip to
a site like YouTube).
55
Whilst these kinds of tools certainly can work in classroom contexts, it is often in the face
of considerable resistance on the part of younger learners. In these circumstances, teachers
can engage in more successful and constructive technology-driven instruction by integrating
more traditional tools and techniques in their standard repertoire, and it is these that we will
be concentrating on in the Practice section of this chapter (below).
More advanced techniques such as the use of blogs, wikis and other social-constructivist
media along with the use of synchronous tools such as voice and text chat, video-conferencing and similar may be introduced at a later date, when teachers have reached a
comfort level with such tools, and learners have seen stimulating and attractive examples
with which they can identify. The bibliography section of this chapter references several
works which will be of use.
Task 3
Digital literacies
Traditionally, literacy has referred to the basic skills of reading and writing, occasionally
coupled with basic numeracy and referred to as the 3 Rs (reading, writing and arithmetic).
With the proliferation of digital media, however, commentators have come to consider a wider
range of skills as figuring in a new definition of digital literacy. Pegrum (2009) explores
these new literacies in some detail, highlighting, amongst others:
Print and texting literacies. Whilst print literacy is a familiar typology, texting literacy
remains the domain of regular mobile phone users and is much maligned in educational circles for the purported detrimental effect it is having on literacy. In fact, as
Crystal (2008) points out, typically less than ten percent of the words in text messages are actually abbreviated in any way.
Personal, participatory and intercultural literacies. These literacies come to the forefront
in social-networking spaces and other online media where personalisation occurs. They
may include blogs and wikis, as well as social networks such as Facebook. In such
spaces users not only write about themselves and their lives, but also participate in
56
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
wide social groupings which transcend more closed groupings in terms of ethnicity,
religion, geography, etc.
Search and information literacies. In many ways, these are two of the most important
literacies for any learner to acquire: the ability not only to find information amongst
the mass of sites and sources afforded by technologies, but also to evaluate that information according to a set of criteria relevant to its intended purpose.
Remix literacy. This form of literacy refers to the modern trend of remixing pictures,
videos and other media to often striking effect. This may refer, for example, to the trend
for making literal versions of music videos (http://tinyurl.com/l397zp), through
remixing music videos for political or satirical ends (http://preview.tinyurl.com/yffh
gnb) to the doctoring of digital images such as that afforded by sites such as PhotoFunia (see the Practice section below). In each instance, a recognition of the remix
that has taken place is crucial to an understanding of the media being viewed.
Task 4
Try the quiz below. How many of the questions can you answer in ten minutes?
What is the capital of Outer Mongolia?
Who was the second man on the moon?
What is the weather like in Tokyo today?
What was the name of the 24th president of the USA?
Who wrote Anna Karenina?
Who is the prime minister of Italy?
How many albums did the Beatles record?
What products is Jamaica famous for?
How much is the entrance fee to the London Dungeon?
Where in the world is Jakarta?
Now use the following guidelines/questions to write a report:
Make a list of the search strategies you used did you use one search site or several? Did you
go to specialist websites (perhaps for weather information)?
How do you know the information you have collected is accurate?
How did you evaluate the websites you visited for your answers?
What implications do these skills have when working with websites in the classroom?
What sort of activities will you need to take into class to ensure that your learners are sufficiently
well versed in these strategies?
Clearly, then, this is a complicated mix of skills to master, and teachers can play a part in helping learners acquire some of the necessary skills by integrating them into their classroom
57
practice alongside the regular content they deal with. In this way we can make a difference
to our learners' comfort level, helping them beyond the tech comfy to the tech savvy
which will contribute to their life beyond school as they move into the professional workplace and (increasingly) knowledge-based economies.
Practice
We move on now to look at how the theory relates to practice in terms of classroom
work. It is certainly not our intention to suggest that teachers make an immediate switch
from current practices and instantly implement a wide range of technologies in their
classrooms, combining computers, interactive whiteboards, mobile phones and computer games to entertain and pander to the perceived needs of a new generation of learners.
Instead, in this section, we look at how teachers can begin to engage with these digital
literacies whilst not significantly changing their current working practices and pedagogical approach.
The practice section is broken up into the following areas:
Working with websites.
Working with images.
Working with video.
Working with audio.
Working with words.
Miscellaneous tools.
For each section there is a short introduction and overview and a sample class or activity,
followed by further resources for teachers to explore after reading the chapter itself. For most
of the tools and resources you will notice that the suggested activities and applications fit
quite comfortably into the day-to-day practice of the average classroom teacher and make
no significant demands on their methodological knowledge.
58
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
In many respects, it is static websites which work the best in combination with a traditional
coursebook, allowing teachers to teach to the syllabus and exam content which govern most
annual teaching schedules, whilst making use of these more motivating resources. Being
able to unlink the syllabus from the delivery method (the texts, listening materials, etc. in
the prescribed coursebook) and reposition it in the context of more relevant and interesting
content can have a significant impact on the success of classroom activities.
When choosing websites, it's important to assess them both for language content and level,
as well as in terms of other criteria such as their currency (how up-to-date they are), appropriateness and functionality. For more on evaluating websites, see the UC Berkeley Library
resources on the subject of teaching using the internet.
Sample class
Our sample class makes use of a regularly updated news source for creative writing and
speaking practice. Many coursebooks feature units or activities on news, but suffer (as noted
above) from the perennial issue of their content either being hopelessly dated, or perhaps
worse fabricated for the book itself. Whilst the news can be a stimulating source for classroom
language work, the materials used do need to be current and of direct interest to learners.
Our material for this sample comes from the Yahoo News site (http://tinyurl.com/2ga), from a
section called Odd News (http://tinyurl.com/mj8crk). These are curious, short stories from
around the world which should provide opportunities for discussion and creative follow-up activities in class.
In terms of preparation, the teacher needs to visit the site and make a note of a few headlines which she thinks will interest her learners. Headlines at the date of writing this section
included the following:
Authorities: Boy, 12, robs store with a toy gun.
Airline pickpocket strikes as passengers sleep.
Napoli fans to bid for Maradona's earring.
Speeding motorist fined $290,000.
Once any vocabulary needs from the headlines have been cleared up, the class is divided
into groups, with each group receiving one of the headlines. The groups then work on discussing what they think their stories are about and on making a list of six words they might
expect to encounter in their story.
Once this stage has been completed, the groups are rearranged so that one member from each
original group forms a new group. Learners share their stories with each other. The class then
comes back together and the teacher gets the vocabulary from each group up on to the board.
59
At this point the groups can read their stories (either online, if computers are available, or as
printed versions if not) and compare their versions of the stories with the real ones. They
should also keep an eye out for the six words they thought might be in the articles.
This is a simple activity which can be repeated often, since the stories are updated each day.
At the end of the activity the teacher has a set of learner-generated vocabulary items which
can be used for further follow-up activities such as article writing, storytelling, etc.
The key here is current and stimulating materials which can be chosen to fit in with coursebook units by subject or by language point or whatever approach the teacher herself takes
in the classroom. It does not impact on the effective coverage of syllabus but does provide
a stimulating vehicle for learner engagement.
The stories themselves are short and not overly complicated (especially when coupled with
the use of online dictionaries or translating services such as that offered by Google) and the
entire activity can be done with or without technology in the classroom. It is precisely this
effective low-tech use of technology which is both easy to train teachers to engage in and
extremely effective in practice.
Task 5
Try the sample news class with your learners as part of your teaching practice. Plan the class
using today's headlines. When you have taught it, write a short summary of your experiences,
including personal reflection on the class itself, and an evaluation of its impact and acceptance
amongst your learners.
Choose one of the themed units from the coursebook you are using in your Practicum, then find
one or two relevant websites. Plan and teach a class around the theme using the websites
you've found. When you have taught it, write a short summary of your experiences, including
personal reflection on the class itself, and an evaluation of its impact and acceptance amongst
your learners.
Websites
Since this is such a wide area, any list of websites would be impractical. Instead we direct
you to a teacher in the US who publishes regular lists of websites in particular areas. On his
website you can sign up for email updates to his site content.
Larry Ferlazzo, teacher: http://tinyurl.com/4kzlnf
60
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
In many cases teachers will have built up quite a stock of photos and flashcards, but these may
not appeal to the more tech-comfy learners of today, and so it is advisable to make use of online sources of graphic material which may impact more positively on their acceptance in class.
Sample class
Our sample class is a creative speaking activity, building on the remix literacy (see above).
In this activity teachers present a set of images (Image 1) from their lives before they became teachers and invite learners to piece the story together by putting the images in order and
deciding what happened in the story.
61
The images are, of course, invented and designed to provoke strong reactions in the learners as they
try to invent a creative story which encapsulates the events depicted. Again, this is not so much a
large departure from traditional teaching techniques and approaches, but a visually attractive way
of introducing an activity, which it is hoped will capture the imagination and energy of the class.
Until recently, putting together a visual such as this would have involved a sophisticated
level of graphic design skill, but sites such as PhotoFunia (http://tinyurl.com/59qmg4) make
the preparation of this kind of images as simple as uploading a digital photo of ourselves and
choosing the effects we wish to apply to it.
The impact of such images cannot be underestimated in a classroom scenario, though like
most tricks of the trade tools such as these should not be overused. In this sample activity
we have clear opportunities for speaking and creative writing, as well as the construction of
personalised fictions by the learners, with both written and spoken follow-up activities.
PhotoFunia is one of a number of sites where photos can be retouched to make alternate realities. Other sites allow for collages of images, image books, cartoon-style strips with
speech bubbles and other such creative possibilities. These can all be used in a variety of
ways to bring some creative language practice to the classroom.
Image sites
Flickr: http://tinyurl.com/d3uum
PhotoFunia: http://tinyurl.com/59qmg4
EffMyPic: http://tinyurl.com/q5wmk7
StumblePics: http://tinyurl.com/yje26ow
LIFE Photo Archive: http://tinyurl.com/69z8ke
Bubblr: http://tinyurl.com/lhp8gt
Bookr: http://tinyurl.com/63wgrp
YouTellYou: http://tinyurl.com/yahh5um
Task 6
Try out the PhotoFunia class with your Practicum group. Model your own alternative biography (with pictures) before going on to let your learners create their own pictures and put
together their own alternative biographies.
Invite your learners to present their new selves to the class.
After the class, reflect on this use of images compared to your normal use of images. Did the
use of technologies have an impact on the success of the class?
Did it have an impact on your learners enthusiasm and language output?
Write a report of your lesson.
62
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
3. For an alternative viewpoint on non-authentic video in the ELT classroom, see Viney (1997).
63
siting, but including enough clues so that people can identify it, to interviews with Matt (you
will find plenty more information about him here: http://tinyurl.com/6ffwcc), and even
more complex multimedia practice with the creation of audio or video interviews, etc.
Again, however, there is no real challenge to the teacher's current practice or approach,
with the video material simply providing a stimulating media wraparound to the content the
teacher is practising or revising. For more on YouTube video in the classroom, visit Jamie
Keddie's TEFLClips site (see video sites below).
Learners can also benefit greatly in their speaking and listening practice from producing their
own videos. This can be done using any of the inexpensive video cameras currently on the
market (such as the versatile and extremely easy-to-use Flip cameras: http://tinyurl.com/
yhshz52) and can help pronunciation, presentation skills and other areas such as creative
writing, interviewing and more. For more on using video cameras in class, see Tom Barrett's 45 Interesting Ways.
As with audio recording devices and software (see below), learners have the opportunity to
revisit and refine their work, as well as edit it and produce polished final versions. Creating
such digital artefacts can also help with the preparation of an electronic language portfolio which learners may use in the future to demonstrate their language proficiency to potential employers, colleges and others.
Video sites
YouTube: http://tinyurl.com/9zza6
TEFLClips: http://tinyurl.com/d3uum
Viral Video Chart: http://tinyurl.com/ctvbws
MixTube: http://tinyurl.com/kw9csy
Google Video: http://tinyurl.com/6ek8l
ScreenJelly: http://tinyurl.com/mjxerf
Task 7
Work with your colleagues to produce a video for use in your Practicum. Use a digital camera if
you have one, or a mobile phone:
Chose a theme from the coursebook and create a three-minute news item about it. Prepare
accompanying activities to exploit the video material.
Then, ask your learners to prepare a similar video, but with a different angle on the story.
How does this kind of technology-driven production affect the language output in your teaching practice class?
64
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
65
For more on the use of podcasts in ELT see Graham Stanley's (2005) article on the British
Council Teaching English Website.
Sample class
Our sample activity involves another tool, VoiceThread. With VoiceThread you can combine documents, photos and videos to create stimulating multimedia projects, presentations
and teaching aids accompanied by a recorded audio commentary. An example of one made
by an American teacher living in Turkey (Image 2) can be found from this source: http://tin
yurl.com/ydy2gu7. You will see that the teacher combines images, audio commentary and
notes on the side of the video window as well as the handwritten vocabulary key cards in
the presentation itself.
This activity involves learners preparing and scripting a presentation of their own, about a
subject which inspires them, perhaps a hobby or interest. In order to make their presentation they will need to research the subject, source suitable royalty-free or Creative Commons
images,4 prepare their script and record the presentation using VoiceThread.
This kind of activity is a welcome change from more traditional ways of presenting such as
the American idea of show & tell and, again, allows for multiple edits as well as feedback
from a global audience.
4. For more on Creative Commons licences, and Creative Commons image searches, see the Creative Commons website. Retrieved 11 January 2010 from: http://tinyurl.com/3d3c8r
66
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
Audio sites
PodOmatic: http://tinyurl.com/2yseuf
Voxopop: http://tinyurl.com/yjp2afg
VoiceThread: http://tinyurl.com/2jbnxz
Audacity: http://tinyurl.com/7xp2v
Task 8
Ask your pupils to plan and record a show & tell related to one of their hobbies. They will
be able to use their search skills to find pictures to illustrate it.
Encourage them to develop the script that will accompany the presentation, before they
move on to record it.
Use their recordings to do some corrective language work. Don't forget, though, that this
kind of activity should largely concentrate on fluency rather than accuracy.
Record the lesson and write a report.
67
Sample class
Since a lot of what is done in this area often involves shorter activities, here we offer a couple of samples of using online tools to deal with vocabulary. The first looks at word clouds;
the second, at concordancers.
Word clouds present vocabulary in an attractive and memorable format. In this sample, retrieved from www.wordle.net (Image 3) learners are presented with the following word
cloud and asked to guess what the article they are going to read is about:
Wordle takes a text and makes images like the one above. The more common the word in the
original text, the bigger it will appear in the word cloud. Thus from the example above we can
infer that the article is about Barcelona, a city in Spain, on the Mediterranean, etc. We might even
try creating a sample text using the words in the cloud, before reading. You can find the original
text about Barcelona on the Simple English version of Wikipedia (http://tinyurl.com/ybe2jqt),
which is designed for readers whose first language is not English.
This is a motivating way of reviewing vocabulary or introducing new vocabulary and of helping learners approach texts in various formats. Word clouds can also be used after working
with texts, for reconstruction purposes as well as for working with specific structures such
as question forms (Image 4):
68
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
Task 9
Word-cloud grammar
Choose a grammar point that has been causing difficulties with your learners.
Prepare a lesson plan involving word clouds and try it out.
When you have delivered the lesson, reflect on the following and write a report:
Did the word clouds help?
How did your learners react to them?
Do you think their language processing was deeper than usual?
What might you change in similar activities in the future to make them even more successful?
A powerful online concordancer, on the other hand, allows learners to work with large
amounts of English and use the data they access to work out usage rules, collocations and
other more advanced facets of the language. Concordancers search large databases (corpora) of written or spoken language and display results in the following way:
1. of reply to Mr's counter motion. Well Mr took a
terrific
swipe at
terrific
amount
terrific!
I got one
terrific
er
terrific,
he had
No,
Here we searched for examples of the word terrific, a word that some Spanish speakers
may have trouble with (terrific, terrifying). The concordancer returns some examples (in this
case it is from the British National Corpus of Spoken English), with a little context before and
after the word searched for. From the results, learners should be able to work out some very
general rules for when terrific is used.
Higher-level learners will benefit from this kind of exposure to large quantities of real language but, as noted above, concordancers can also be used with lower levels. An example
of such an activity might be the following:
69
1.
since
Christmas and if
since
Boxing
since
eighteen ninety
since
since
since
since
since
last
since
nineteen sixty
since
Saturday now
for
couple
of
for
couple
of
for
for
a couple of a
for
couple
of
for
couple
of
for
couple
of
for
couple
of
for
for
a little while,
night!
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
October.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
70
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
Here we have done two concordances, one on the word since and one on the word for.
We have then edited the results to make them more suitable to our lower-level class, who
now have the job of working out when we use these two words from the contextualised
examples they have been given.
Task 10
Low-level concordancing
Choose a grammar point in your practice class coursebook which you think will be problematic
for your learners.
Prepare a concordance for them, and help them to work out guidelines for usage as part of your class.
When you have delivered the lesson reflect on the following and write a report:
Did this approach help or hinder them?
Are your learners used to working things out for themselves, or being told the rules?
What implications do these kind of discovery activities have for the way you teach?
Word sites
Wordle: www.wordle.net
Corpus Concordance English: http://tinyurl.com/6y3muw
VocabGrabber: http://tinyurl.com/ck65mu
WordSift: www.wordsift.comc
Word Magnets: www.tritico.co.uk/doconload/
VisuWords: www.visuwords.com
Edublogs: http://tinyurl.com/ytgznw
PBWorks: http://tinyurl.com/y9j5oyb
Miscellaneous tools
The explosion of Web 2.0 tools has made the process of keeping up-to-date with everything that
is available virtually impossible to the average teacher with limited free research time. In
this section we offer a small selection of other tools which we have enjoyed using with
learners and which teachers may find useful in their own lesson preparation or teaching. For
each resource there is a link and a small description.
Dvolver MovieMaker: http://tinyurl.com/56y3um. Make animated, dialogue-driven
cartoons.
Bookr: http://tinyurl.com/63wgrp. Make photo stories from Facebook photos.
DotSUB: http://tinyurl.com/yjarwfu. Upload and subtitle videos (or subtitle YouTube
videos).
Slideshare: http://tinyurl.com/2au2g8. Upload and share presentations.
71
For a more comprehensive list of tools and ideas for exploiting them in the language classroom, see Nik's Learning Technology Blog (http://tinyurl.com/3ml7uz).
Conclusion
In this chapter we have looked at the changing face of today's learners with particular
reference to evolving digital literacies, and at ways in which teachers can address these
literacies through the use of simple creative technologies in class.
We saw that although younger learners (the so-called digital natives) are comfortable with
technology, they are not necessarily adept at using it for learning, preferring to use it
for communication with peers. In this sense we can characterise the Net generation as tech
comfy (comfortable with technology), rather than tech savvy.
We discussed how teachers can integrate a range of free web-based tools into their current
teaching practice. Integrating technology into teaching does not necessarily mean having to
embrace an entirely new approach to pedagogy. Simple tools and websites can serve well
as a first step to integrating technology into teaching, with the use of more complex tools
that rely on user-generated content (such as blogs or wikis) being implemented with learners
later on, once both parties have become accustomed to the presence of technology in the
classroom context.
We also outlined a number of digital literacies in the chapter, such as print and texting literacies, collaborative and intercultural literacies, information and search literacies, and finally remix literacies, and saw how these are fundamental skills needed by learners for the
knowledge society we now inhabit. We suggested that the teacher's role is to help learners
acquire these literacies, and that this can be done through the integration of a range of practical activities based on a range of technologies. We provided example activities in the form
of sample classes, in which teachers and learners work with web pages, images, audio and
video, and a number of other miscellaneous online tools.
72
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
ASSIGNMENTS
1. Review and write a summary of what you have learnt about digital literacies in this chapter, and
the tools and approaches which can be used to address them in class:
Choose one unit from your Practicum coursebook and prepare a series of lessons which
cover the coursebook material, but use some of the tools and approaches from this
chapter.
Write an essay using the following questions as guidelines:
- Compare your materials with others. How have you integrated the technologies?
- Do they complement the existing materials?
- How would you go about adopting the same approach for a whole academic year?
- What do you think would be the advantages and drawbacks of this kind of approach?
2. Plan an Introduction to New Technologies in the Classroom workshop for colleagues not on
this course:
Decide what you can show them in three hours and plan some hands-on activities for them
to try some of the tools and websites.
Deliver the workshop to your colleagues.
Write a reflective journal on your experience with the training session.
- What sort of difficulties did you encounter and how did you solve them?
- What implications does this have for introducing similar tools to your learners?
3. Set up a blog at Blogger.com and use it to chart your development as you integrate more technologies into your teaching. Invite your colleagues and tutors to read and comment.
73
FURTHER READING
BABER, E. (2007). 50 Ways to Improve Your Business English Using the Internet. Oxford: Summertown Publishing.
This book is an excellent primer for those involved in teaching skills and career-orientated English. You will find plenty of practical activities involving new technologies.
BABER, E. & GORDON-SMITH, D. (2005). Teaching English with Information Technology.
Chichester: Keyways Publishing.
Although a little dated, this book still offers a solid overview of how ICT fits into the teaching
process. It also contains practical ideas easily implemented in the classroom.
DUDENEY, G. (2000, 2007). The Internet and the Language Classroom. Cambridge University Press.
This book divides into a theoretical overview and a large selection of lesson plans, all of which
use some kind of internet-based technologies. Lessons are graded by difficulty, theme, language point, etc.
DUDENEY, G . & HOCKLY, N. (2007). How to Teach English with Technology. Harlow:
Pearson Longman.
This book gives a highly practical overview of technologies in English teaching with plenty of
practical ideas and lesson plans. It looks at a variety of different technologies, not all of which
are web based.
HOCKLY, N. & CLANDFIELD, L. (2010). Teaching Online: Tools and Techniques. Peaslake:
Delta Publishing.
This book concentrates on teaching online and looks at the skills needed as well as the wide variety
of online tools available to teachers wishing to experiment with distance teaching and learning.
KEDDIE, J. (2008). Images. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
This book focuses on the uses of digital media in the classroom, most notably images and video.
LEWIS, G. (2007). The Internet and Young Learners. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
This is one of the very few books available to teachers of young learners looking to integrate
technologies into their teaching practice. There is plenty of sound advice and some good teaching ideas.
LEWIS, G. (2009). Bringing Technology into the Classroom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
This short, practical guide explains how to use new computer technology, including interactive whiteboards, in the classroom. This title is intended for teachers of students aged 14-18.
74
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
SHARMA, P. (2003). The Internet and Business English. Oxford: Summertown Publishing.
This is another publication looking at Business English and technologies. Although much may
not be of interest to the general English teacher, some of the sections on presentations and similar skills may well prove useful.
SHARMA, P. & BARRETT, B. (2007). Blended Learning. London: Macmillan.
This book looks at blended learning, examining what makes a good blended approach and the
kind of balance needed between face-to-face and technology-mediated instruction for effective learning.
SHERMAN, J. (2003). Using Authentic Video in the ELT Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
This book guides and supports teachers with practical suggestions for activities, which can be
used with films, drama, soap operas, comedy, sports programmes, documentaries and adverts.
75
REFERENCES
ARENA, C. (2006). Level 4 Transmitting Loud & Clear. Retrieved 11 January 2010 from:
<http://tinyurl.com/yavnx5w>.
BAX, S. (2003). CALL Past, Present and Future. System 31, 1328. Retrieved 7 December
2009 from: <http://tinyurl.com/yk6v6u6>.
BENNETT, S; MATON, K; KERVIN, L. (2008). The digital natives debate: A critical review
of the evidence. British Journal of Educational Technology, 39 (5), 775-786. Draft version
retrieved 7 December 2009 from <http://tinyurl.com/dbd5j7>.
CRYSTAL, D. (2008). Txtng: The Gr8 Db8. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
(2008) On the Myth of Texting. Retrieved 7 December 2009 from: <http://tinyurl.com/
yhwb5dj>.
GOLDSTEIN, B. (2008). Working with Images. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
More than a Thousand Words: Images and ELT. Retrieved 7 December 2009 from:
<http://www.cambridge.org.br/catalogue/books-for-teachers?uk>.
OTX RESEARCH (2009). A Beta Life - Youth. Research report, commissioned by Channel 4.
Retrieved 7 December 2009 from: <http://tinyurl.com/yza799c>.
PEGRUM, M. (2009). From Blogs to Bombs: The Future of Digital Technologies in Education.
Crawley: UWA Publishing.
PRENSKY, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1-6. Retrieved
8 December 2009 from: <http://tinyurl.com/ypgvf>.
(2008). Are you Lecturing about Nouns or Facilitating Learning with Verbs? Retrieved 7
December 2009 from: <http://www.marcprensky.com/blog/archives/000066.html>.
(2009). H. sapiens digital: from digital immigrants and digital native to digital wisdom. Innovate, 5(3). Retrieved 7 December 2009 from: <http://tinyurl.com/yj7mo4l>.
SANSONE, M. (2008). Hey Teachers! Your Digital Natives Still Need You. Retrieved 7 December 2009 from: <http://tinyurl.com/4m3dlq>.
SIEMENS, G. (2005). Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning. 2 (1). Retrieved 8 December 2009
from <http://tinyurl.com/6e5fd>.
STANLEY, G. (2005). Podcasting for ELT. Retrieved 11 January 2010 from:
<http://tinyurl.com/4n9wxy>.
TAPSCOTT, D. (1999). Educating the Net Generation. Educational Leadership, 56(5), 6-11.
Retrieved 8 December 2009 from <http://tinyurl.com/yaxb4jl>.
UC BERKELEY. Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply & Questions to Ask. Retrieved 10
January 2010 from <http:www.lib.berkeley.edu/teachinglib/guides/internet/evaluate.html>.
UNIVERSITAT OBERTA DE CATALUNYA & FUNDACI CATALANA DE LESPLAI. Estudio
sobre el Uso de las Tecnologas Digitales en el Ocio de los Jvenes. Retrieved 8 December 2009 from: <http://sociedadinformacion.fundacion.telefonica.com/url-direct/pdf-gene
rator?tipoContenido=noticia&idContenido=2009110210030001>.
76
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
VINEY, P. (1997), Non-Authentic Video for ELT. Retrieved 7 December 2009, from <http://tinyurl.com/ku59mn>.
Website
Tom Barretts 45 Inteesting use your Rocket Video Camera in Class.
http://tinyurl.com/l3mos3
77
CHAPTER CONTENTS
Ramiro Durn
Universidad de Salamanca
78
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
communicative approach suggests that the process is the reverse: we learn to communicate
through verbal interaction and it is in this interaction that the suitable syntactic structures are
developed. In short, we learn by doing things with the language. A communicative orientation is focused more on comprehension and negotiation of meaning than on the mere reproduction of structures. Furthermore, the communicative approach gives great importance
to the educational nature of interpersonal communication since communicative interaction,
through the use of the four skills, favours the development of attitudes of cooperation and
solidarity among the students, which besides being beneficial for their psychological growth
also helps to attain both linguistic and social educational objectives.
Many different classifications of communicative competences may be found in the wealth
of literature on second-language teaching. For example, the Common European Framework of
Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEFR) (2001) describes the
different competences necessary for successfully approaching the communicative situations
in which the students will find themselves, establishing a distinction between general and
communicative competencies: the former are divided into declarative knowledge, skills
and knowhow, existential competence and the ability to learn, while the latter are formed
by linguistic competences (lexical, grammatical, semantic, phonological, orthographic and
orthoepic competences), sociolinguistic competences (register, politeness conventions,
linguistic markers of social relations, etc.) and pragmatic competences (discursive, functional and organisational):
Communicative language competence can be considered as comprising several components: linguistic, sociolinguistic and pragmatic. Each of these components is postulated as comprising, in particular, knowledge and skills and know-how. Linguistic competences include lexical, phonological,
syntactical knowledge and skills and other dimensions of language as system. Sociolinguistic competences refer to the sociocultural conditions of the language use. Pragmatic competences are concerned with the functional use of linguistic resources, drawing on scenarios or scripts of interactional
exchanges. (CEFR 2001, p. 13)
If we exclusively focus on the skills more closely associated with the teaching of a foreign
language, two main kinds of competences may be distinguished (Table 1). Linguistic competence, which refers to the language system and is usually divided into the four components mentioned below, and communicative competence, which refers to language skills
and is directly linked to listening, speaking, reading and writing.1
1. Instead of the classical division into four skills, the CEFR (2001, p. 14) establishes four different language activities
by which the learner's communicative competence is activated: reception, production, interaction and mediation
(interpreting and translating). Each of them is possible in relation to texts in oral or written form, or both.
79
COMPETENCES
Linguistic
Communicative
Even a superficial analysis of the competencies mentioned, both linguistic and communicative, clearly shows their degree of complexity and richness and situates the communicative
approach to language teaching far from the antigrammatical model which even today it is
occasionally and erroneously associated with. A foreign language classroom based on the
communicative approach involves work on both the different elements of the language
system and the four skills, though particular emphasis is placed on one or the other depending on the teaching situation. For example, most teachers tend to start a class working on
a language skill and later focus on learners attention to particular aspects of the language
system: vocabulary, tenses, prepositions, etc.
Task 1
Work with a partner and classify the following classroom activities as either skills based or system
based. Specify which skill/sub-skill or which language system is mainly worked on:
The teacher chats with his/her learners about their plans for their holidays.
Learners underline all adverbs of frequency in a magazine article.
The teacher writes a text with gaps on the board. Students copy it and fill the gaps with the missing prepositions.
Learners write an email to the teacher, send it and receive the corrected version.
The teacher uses a map to teach eight words related to geography.
The teacher asks: What adjectives are used to describe Paola? Learners listen to a CD.
Learners listen to tomorrows weather forecast and decide if they can go cycling.
Learners read a film review and then discuss if it is worth watching the film.
After reading a text, learners match vocabulary and definitions.
Check your answers with other colleagues.
80
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
81
Although we have acknowledged that both in everyday life and in classroom communication skills tend to be integrated and are hardly ever used in isolation, for the sake of clarity
we have decided to use the receptive-productive distinction to deal with them in this paper
as there are some common elements in the way listening/reading and speaking/writing are
used in the EFL classroom. Consequently, in the next sections of this paper we will analyse
aspects such as the different sub-skills involved in each skill, the most common procedures
to work with receptive and productive skills and strategies and activities to develop the four
skills in the classroom.
Task 2
Use the example of a lesson about volcanoes:
Plan a lesson for your Practicum, with the main focus on communicative skills.
Collect or design your materials and describe how you will address the skills.
Deliver the lesson in your Practicum.
Write a report about your lesson and discuss the outcome with your tutor.
Receptive sub-skills
The way we read or listen to a text depends on our reason for listening or reading as we do
not read or listen to every kind of text in a similar way: our purpose when facing a text will
determine the sub-skill, or sub-skills, we are going to use and this is also going to have a direct influence on the different tasks we might consider using in the EFL classroom to develop our learners receptive skills.
When we read a text, we can use the following sub-skills, which can also be applied to listening:
Skimming (or reading/listening for gist): fast reading/listening to get a general idea of
what the text is about. For example, when we browse a magazine in a shop before deciding if we are going to buy it or not or when we listen to a weather forecast to find
out if it is going to rain.
Scanning (or reading/listening for specific information): reading/listening to a text to
find specific information. When we read a TV guide in a newspaper, we dont read it
from beginning to end, but focus our attention exclusively on the information we are
interested in: a particular time period, a particular kind of programme or a particular
channel. This same skill is also used when we listen to the sport news on TV to find
out the result of a particular football match.
Close reading/listening (or reading/listening for detail): for example, if we are technophobic and we need to install a new antivirus software in our computer, we will probably
82
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
read the instructions carefully about how to install it step by step, just as when we listen
to a famous cook on the radio explaining a recipe we are interested in, we need to identify and recall all the relevant information.
Task 3
Choose a reading text related to a theme from the coursebook your Practicum class is using.
Design three activities to work on:
Skimming.
Scanning.
Close reading.
Do the activities in your Practicum and report back to your tutor.
83
Task 4
Put the following stages of a reading lesson (based on a film review) in a logical order:
Read the text in three minutes and answer the following questions: Did the reviewer like the
film? Why (not)?
Write a review about the last film you watched.
Match the following vocabulary with its definition.
Chat with students: When was the last time you went to the cinema? What film did you watch?
What kind of films do you like?
Read the text again and decide if the following statements are true or false.
After examining the poster of the film, predict what the film is going to be about.
Underline all the adjectives in the text the reviewer uses to describe the film.
Once you have decided on the correct order, describe the order of activities and justify your reasons.
84
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
by telling students to identify a particular group of words in the text, usually by asking them
to complete some phrases with the exact words from the listening. In the post-listening stage
there may be an opportunity for an in-depth study of the script using the same kind of activities which were suggested in the post-reading stage, particularly those dealing with analysing opinion, attitude and personalising the topic.
Task 5
Choose a listening activity from the coursebook your Practicum class is using.
Design three activities:
Pre-listening.
While-listening.
Post-listening.
Indicate how these activities are related to the types of listening skills described in the paragraph above.
Productive sub-skills
In our personal experience we have found that most learners consider speaking the most difficult skill to master as it involves using many different sub-skills in a very limited period of
time. Its complexity is easily understood when we mention the twelve qualitative categories,
based on different elements of communicative language competence that the CEFR (2001)
distinguishes to characterise the speaking skill:
Turntaking strategies:
- Cooperating strategies.
- Asking for clarification.
- Fluency.
- Flexibility.
- Coherence.
- Thematic development.
Precision:
- Sociolinguistic competence.
- General range.
- Vocabulary range.
- Grammatical accuracy.
- Vocabulary control.
- Phonological control.
85
These twelve categories are divided into five broader elements for practical reasons: range,
accuracy, fluency, interaction, and coherence. Consequently, in order to master the speaking skill, an English language student needs to learn, among other things, to use a variety
of vocabulary, to use complex sentence forms, to use grammar correctly (i.e. range), to pronounce utterances in a correct way, to use stress, rhythm and intonation appropriately, to
use tenses correctly, to correct his/her own mistakes (i.e. accuracy), to avoid hesitation and
to express him/herself spontaneously with a natural flow (i.e. fluency), to start speaking when
the other speaker stops, to ask for clarification, to respond adequately (i.e. interaction) and
to plan what he/she is going to say, to use connectors and other cohesive devices in discourse, and to use organisational patterns (i.e. coherence).
On the other hand, if learners want to be able to write in English, they will need different
sub-skills, some of them related to form (spelling with reasonable accuracy, building sentences in a grammatically correct way, selecting the correct vocabulary, linking sentences
appropriately, using paragraphs in a suitable way, etc.), and some others related to content
(using relevant ideas, organising them correctly, choosing the right register, etc.). When developing our students writing skills we need to focus not only on accuracy in writing but
also on having a message successfully communicated to other people. Sometimes teachers,
particularly non-native teachers, are so concerned with correcting learners mistakes that
they forget to react to content.
Task 6
Read the five paragraphs below taken from the general descriptors for the CEFR B1 Reference
Level (2001) for qualitative aspects of spoken language use and match them to their corresponding category (justify your answers):
Can keep going comprehensively, even though pausing for grammatical and lexical planning and repair is very evident, especially in longer stretches of free production.
Can initiate, maintain and close simple face-to-face conversation on topics that are familiar or of
personal interest. Can repeat back part of what some has said to confirm mutual understanding.
Uses reasonably precisely a repertoire of frequently used routines and patterns associated with more predictable situations.
Has enough language to get by, with sufficient vocabulary to express him/herself with some
hesitation and circumlocutions on topics such as family, hobbies and interests, work, travel,
and current events.
Can link a series of shorter, discrete simple elements into a connected, linear sequence of
points.
Range
Accuracy
Fluency
Interaction
Coherence
86
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
87
a subject with their partner. Jigsaw reading gets pairs of learners to put a mixed-up text in
the correct order. Finally, problem-solving activities are activities in which students need to
work out the answer to a problem in a collaborative effort.
Task 8
Choose three of the seven different speaking practice activities described above.
Design a classroom activity for each one.
Do the activities in your Practicum and record the activities.
Listen to the recording and write a report on the activities. Indicate any changes you would
make to the original design.
In his now classic book Teaching Writing Skills (1992), Byrne presents different activities
where students, working together and in a relaxed atmosphere, have to write things which
they can later do something with. In the early stages, Byrne mentions writing questionnaires, short quizzes, puzzles, TV or radio programmes, writing a dialogue, which is then cut
up into separate sentences and given to another group of students to put together, writing
role descriptions for roleplays, imaginary diaries for a famous person, writing about pictures
or speech bubbles, etc. The aim of these activities is to develop learners writing skills while
at the same time giving them the opportunity to express themselves imaginatively. Apart
from adapting the previous activities, for intermediate students Byrne suggests the following
writing activities: posing problems and finding solutions, writing clues for crosswords, instructions for board games, inaccurate accounts with deliberate mistakes of fact for their partners to find the inaccuracies, instructions for drawing a map or a picture, giving learners a
headline and asking them to write a related story, etc.
None of the previous activities is designed to develop learners composition skills as this
is a specific activity which involves a more complex process. Once the teacher has set
the task and created an audience, the following stages are usually distinguished when
writing a composition:
1. Think of ideas (a brainstorming session is a very useful strategy for this aim) and ask
learners to take notes.
2. Plan your writing, organising the most relevant ideas into a logical sequence using a
mind map.
3. Write a first draft where your notes are turned into full sentences and paragraphs. This
draft is only rough and it is bound to be changed.
4. Edit your draft, correcting, reorganising and improving the text where necessary.
5. Write a final draft and check for mistakes again.
88
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
ASSIGNMENTS
1. Read about the different classifications of communicative competences and write your conclusions about which exercises worked best for you as a student to develop your own competences and subcompetences (both communicative and linguistic). Give reasons for your
answers. Prepare a PowerPoint presentation with your explanation and conclusions and present it to your colleagues.
2. Look at a unit in a coursebook of your choice and write a critical review, taking into account
the following questions:
How does it work with the four skills?
What sub-skills does the unit focus on?
What activities are put forward?
How are activities organised?
Would you change anything? Why (not)?
Compare your review with a colleague who has chosen a different book. Discuss the differences.
FURTHER READING
HEDGE, T. (2000). Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
This comprehensive book on language teaching is divided into four parts: A Framework for Teaching and Learning; Teaching the Language System; Developing Language Skills; and Planning and Assessing Learning.
SCRIVENER, J. (2005). Learning Teaching (2nd ed.). Oxford: Heinemann Macmillan Books for
Teachers.
This book offers a valuable introduction to the world of ELT in an easy writing style. Though
less detailed that Harmer (2007), it deals with topics such as planning lessons, classroom management, receptive and productive skills, language awareness, aims and activities. It also
provides many different resources such as lesson plans, questionnaires, worksheets and ideas
to make your own resources.
89
SPRATT, M. et al. (2006). The TKT Course. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
This coursebook was designed for Cambridge TKT (Teaching Knowledge Test) candidates as
an introductory ELT handbook. Its main aims are to introduce readers to basic ELT terms and
give examples of different theories, approaches, resources and activities.
MEHISTO, P., FRIGOLS, M.J. & MARSH, D. (2008). Uncovering CLIL. London: Macmillan
Books for Teachers.
According to David Marsh, CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) refers to situations
in which a particular subject or part of a subject is taught in a foreign language with a dual objective: to learn the content while at the same time learning the foreign language. This awardwinning book has been designed to guide both language and subject teachers to the different
techniques involved in CLIL teaching.
THORNBURY, S. (2006). An A-Z of ELT. Oxford: Macmillan Books for Teachers.
A useful dictionary of the main terms and concepts used in English language teaching.
90
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
REFERENCES
BYRNE, D. (1979). Teaching Writing Skills. Harlow: Longman.
COUNCIL OF EUROPE (2001). Common European Framework for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. Strasbourg: Council for Cultural Cooperation Education Committee.
Language Policy Division. Retrieved 8 March 2010 from: <www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguis
tic/CADRE_EN.asp>.
HARMER, J. (2007). The Practice of English Language Teaching. Harlow: Pearson Education.
HOUSE, S. (2007). CLIL: a new model for language teaching. In R. Durn Martnez & S. Snchez-Reyes Peamara (eds.), El componente lingstico en la didctica de la lengua inglesa
(pp. 123-129). Salamanca: Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca.
(coord.) (2011) Complementos de formacin disciplinar. Theory and Practice in English Language Teaching. Vol. I. Barcelona: Gra.
MARSH, D. & LANG, G. (eds.). (2000). Using Languages to Learn and Learning to Use
Languages. Finland: University of Jyvskyl.
WATCYN-JONES, P. (1997). Pair Work 2. Conversation Practice for Intermediate to Upper-Intermediate Students. London: Penguin.
91
5. VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION
IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS
CHAPTER CONTENTS
Fundamental concepts
Some criteria for teaching vocabulary in secondary schools
Karina Vidal
Universidad Autnoma de Madrid
The following acronyms are used in this chapter:
L1: first language, mother tongue.
L2: second language. The language a person knows or is learning in addition to their first
language.
ESL: English as a Second Language. This term is used to describe English language learning by
students from non-English-speaking backgrounds in countries where English is the official language. For instance, Chinese students learning English in the USA.
EFL: English as a Foreign Language. This term is used to refer to English language learning by students from non-English-speaking backgrounds in countries where English is not spoken outside of
the classroom. For example, Spanish students learning English in Spain.
Foreign language vocabulary teaching in secondary schools has usually been taken for granted. In a large number of classes, vocabulary teaching is reduced to introducing the vocabulary included in the syllabus of the coursebook the teacher has decided to use. No
decisions are usually taken as regards selection and sequencing. Although there is still
no generally accepted theory of vocabulary acquisition, at least we have a broad idea of
how acquisition might occur, built up from the wide range of studies conducted so far. It is
therefore the purpose of this chapter to provide teacher trainees with an overall picture of
the nature of EFL vocabulary acquisition based on the research available and to describe a
92
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
set of strategies and techniques which have been found to help students acquire and learn
how to acquire and retain new words.
Fundamental concepts
Levels of word knowledge
A number of studies have sought to define what it means to know a word or the different levels and types of knowledge we may have of the items in our lexicon. Nation (1990, p. 30),
for example, proposed the following description of word knowledge, which consists of eight
knowledge categories:
The spoken form of the word.
The written form of the word.
The grammatical behaviour of the word.
The collocational behaviour of the word.
The frequency of the word.
The stylistic register constraints of the word.
The conceptual meaning of the word.
The associations the word has with other related words.
As can be seen, this type of word knowledge list facilitates the conceptualisation of vocabulary knowledge and can act as framework with which to evaluate vocabulary learning activities and tests (Schmitt et al., 1999, p. 389).
Task 1
Choose two words (you can use words from a piece of text you are using in your Practicum).
Write definitions of knowledge of these words using the eight points above.
Another description of the different levels of word knowledge developed in order to determine how vocabulary knowledge can affect reading comprehension is that of Jenkins and
Dixon (1983). These authors make a distinction between expressive and receptive vocabulary knowledge: expressive knowledge (also called productive knowledge), where the student can give a label to the idea she wants to convey, versus knowledge at the level of
recognition, where the individual can associate a word with a given meaning only when seeing it. Within receptive vocabulary they differentiate several varieties of knowledge: full
concept knowledge, which is achieved when one is able to recognise uninstructed examples of the concept as examples; partial concept knowledge, which comprises knowledge of
several of the features of the word; verbal association knowledge, which implies learning a
label for a concept which is completely or partially known (for instance, to learn that
93
altercations means fights); and derived knowledge, which is used when the individual
encounters a word and infers enough about its meaning so as to go on reading. In fact, the latter is not really word knowledge since it is not usually retained. As Kameenui et al. (1987)
point out, this is actually knowledge of a strategy for inferring at least part of the meaning of a
word. Another type of knowledge related to prompting is that which is referred to as prompted recall: the reader encounters a word he has come across elsewhere but not retained well.
On seeing it, he makes use of the context to prompt its recall at some level.
Task 2
1. Chose a piece of text (you can use any piece of authentic text) and:
Identify words you do not have full concept knowledge of.
Identify what type of knowledge you have by using the other four categories.
2. Design an activity to get pupils to develop productive knowledge of lexical items:
Choose a piece of text to work on in your Practicum. You can use texts from the students
coursebook.
Identify the words you think your students may have difficulty with.
Design an activity to help them develop productive knowledge of these lexical items.
Present your activity to your colleagues and discuss their feedback.
Types of vocabulary
Nation (2001, pp. 11-12) provided the following classification of items of vocabulary.
High-frequency words: these are the most frequent 2,000 words of English (West,
1953).1 They have a wide range, may occur many times in a text, and account for at
least 85% of the words on any page of any book. Their coverage of spoken language
may be even greater.
Academic vocabulary: these 570 headwords, which make up the Academic Word List
(Coxhead, 2000)2 cover about 9% of the words in academic texts and in newspapers.
Technical vocabulary: these words, which account for about 3% of the words in specialised texts, have a small range since they are used within a specialised field. They may occur
several times within a subject area, but they are not usually found in texts outside that area.
Low-frequency words: these types of words make up a very large group and occur very
infrequently. They cover approximately 2% of any text.
94
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
Task 3
Make use of the information presented in this section to write a short essay reflecting on the type
of vocabulary secondary-school instruction should focus on.
Give examples in your essay.
Learning words
Evidently this is a very complex process which involves, among others, the following stages
and tasks (Graves, 1987). It should be noted that this aspect of vocabulary learning has been
partially dealt with above, though from a different perspective. Therefore here I will only
expand on those tasks which I find more relevant to secondary-school instruction and which
have not been fully developed above:
Learning new meanings for known words: according to empirical evidence (Graves,
1987), L1 students find this task really difficult, and the same seems to be the case with
ESL/EFL students (Laufer 1990, 1997; Vidal 2003, forthcoming 2011), who tend to
stick to the first meaning they learnt.
Learning new words representing known concepts: this long-term word-learning task
is one of the most demanding tasks both L1 and ESL learners have to deal with.
Learning new words representing new concepts: this is, according to Graves (1987),
the task that causes the most difficulty to L1 students. As regards ESL/EFL students,
those new concepts they are likely to find more difficult are those which express
features of the new culture or factors which are language-specific.
Clarifying and enriching the meanings of known words: not too much attention is devoted to this task in L1 instruction and, as Graves (1987) points out, encountering
words in context is a slow process which does not guarantee the development of this
type of word knowledge. This task seems even more complex for ESL/EFL students,
considering their disadvantaged position as L2 learners as well as the few probabilities
they have of recurrently encountering the same words.
Moving words from receptive to productive vocabularies: as L1 empirical evidence
shows (Duin, 1983, cited in Graves, 1987), instruction in this direction leads students
95
to use the given words more frequently. Similar findings were also obtained from L2
research (Newton, 1995).
96
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
97
preference for more open and natural approaches to teaching and learning which are
usually considered to lead to better learning due to the learners emotional wellbeing.
In my view, there seems to be no point in defending one form of vocabulary acquisition at
the expense of the other, since both incidental and instructional learning have a different role
to play in vocabulary growth. What is at issue here is when and in what cases to apply each
of these approaches.
As Chall (1987) clearly states, not all students can profit equally from learning word meanings
from context and this is mainly the case, as research evidence shows, with children from lowincome families, minorities and bilinguals. In the same vein, McKeown and Curtis (1987) provide research evidence that the power of increasing vocabulary through reading is significantly
diminished for less-able readers. For example, it has been shown that less-intelligent students
find it very difficult to acquire information from context because they cannot differentiate between relevant and irrelevant information and, what is more, they cannot combine the new information acquired with their prior knowledge so as to store it in a way they can access later.
Therefore, it is believed that instruction should target these at-risk and less-proficient students
(Chall, 1987; McKeown & Curtis, 1987). Needless to say, L2 learners are even more in need of
direct instruction, at least at the early stages of second-language acquisition.
Another significant contribution of vocabulary instruction is that it provides students with
some of the skills they need in order to become independent word learners (Meara, 1993).
In other words, through instruction, they are made sensitive to new words in their environment and therefore recognise them when they appear in other contexts. Students should be
trained, then, to develop strategies to learn the words encountered.
As regards when to apply direct instruction and when to advise incidental learning (learning
words from context), Carter (1987) points out that at the initial stages of L2 learning, items should
be introduced directly and internalised as single or paired items. In other words, he claims that
at this learning stage words cannot be effectively learned in context. In the same vein as Channell (1988), he stresses the importance of phonological patterns to aid retention in lexical store
and therefore the need to identify words as individual entities so as to be able to recognise them
in subsequent pragmatic social encounters with other words in contexts of actual use.
Carter also claims that as the learners become more advanced, they start benefiting from context and therefore making use of more inferential and learner-centred vocabulary learning
strategies. Nevertheless, as he wisely adds, in learning there are no clearly marked stages of
transition, which means that it is difficult to indicate when exactly to move from direct instruction techniques such as keyword, translation pairs or dictionary/word lists to context-based
inferential strategies.
98
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
Even at advanced levels, vocabulary can be acquired either directly or incidentally. To give
an example, if advanced learners need to acquire certain lexical items for specific purposes in
a very short period of time, they can do so both quickly and efficiently by rote learning, a method not always regarded as respectable in the literature (Nation, 2001), but which is effective in situations like these. In other words, teachers should be eclectic and choose and
encourage students to adopt the most adequate techniques for their needs and learning stage.
Task 5
Write a short essay considering the following question: do you think academic vocabulary should
be introduced directly in class or do you think it should be studied by the students on their own
(through rote-learning)?
Vocabulary selection
West (1953), Gairns and Redman (1990) and Nation (2001) propose several criteria for vocabulary selection. Those considered more relevant to secondary-school vocabulary teaching are reviewed below.
Frequency: even though frequent words are not necessarily useful, there is a significant correlation between frequency and usefulness (Gairns & Redman, 1990) Therefore, the different frequency word-counts (Coxhead, 2000; West, 1953) and corpora
available can be of help, mainly at the initial levels. The flaws of these lists indicate
that frequency alone is not enough: these lists and corpora should only be used for
reference and in combination with the other criteria.
Need and level: Gairns and Redman make a point of the difficulty of selecting vocabulary for students of English for Specific Purposes with a low level of English proficiency. They believe that current practice frequently errs on the side of asserting the
supremacy of level over need (1990, p. 60), as a consequence of which the students
lose interest in the learning of the language input they are exposed to. Gairns and Redman, then, suggest that the lexical input selected should be relevant, which will indirectly contribute to the effectiveness of the overall programme.
Expediency: some words will have to be introduced as soon as possible in order for
the students to be able to understand and participate in classroom explanations and
activities.
Necessity: West (1953) holds that an important factor to be considered in vocabulary
selection is the range of necessary ideas the word covers.
99
Learning burden
According to Nation (2001), the learning burden of a word has to do with the amount of effort the student has to devote to learning and remembering it. He considers that this depends
on three things:
1. Learners previous experience of English and their mother tongue.
2. The way in which the word is learnt or taught.
3. The intrinsic difficulty of the word.
As regards the latter, a research study conducted by Ellis and Beaton (1993a) tried to determine the psycholinguistic factors that affect the ease of L2 vocabulary learning. Their findings showed that there is a significant correlation between ease of learning and the
phonological and orthographic similarity that exists between the native word and the target
word. That is to say, it is easier to learn a foreign word when it conforms to the phonotactic patterns of the native language and is, consequently, easier to pronounce, and when
there is similarity between the orthographic patterns of both languages.
The part of speech and the imageability of the concept also have a strong influence on the
learnability of the lexical item. This means that nouns are the easiest words to learn, followed by adjectives, verbs and adverbs. Besides this, concrete words are easier to learn than
abstract ones (Ellis & Beaton, 1993a; de Groot et al., 2000). De Groot et al. tried to account
for the different acquisition rates for concrete and abstract words by resorting to contextavailability theory. According to this view, context-availability ratings are usually higher
for concrete than for abstract words because more information is stored for them. In
other words, the larger number of elements stored in the memory representations of
concrete words provides relatively many opportunities to anchor the new L2 words in
memory (de Groot et al., 2000, p. 38). Ellis and Beaton (1993a) also demonstrated that cognates are easier to learn than noncognates. Similar findings were obtained by de Groot and
Keijzer (2000) and Vidal (2003).
Drawing on empirical studies, Laufer (1990, pp. 296-303) also provided a description of the
factors that affect the ease or difficulty with which L2 words are learned. Those which are
of relevance to secondary-school vocabulary teaching will be described below.
Phonological factors
Pronounceability: a foreign language learner finds it easier to perceive and pronounce words which follow a familiar phonological pattern to those in his L1 sound system
(Laufer, 1990).
Length: apparently longer words are more difficult to learn than shorter ones. However, empirical results are inconclusive.
100
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
Multiple meanings
Once students learn one of the meanings of a polysemous word, they find it difficult to learn
and use any of its other meanings (Laufer, 1990, 1997; Vidal, 2003, forthcoming 2011).
101
Task 6
Make use of the information introduced in this section to discuss with a group of your colleagues which kinds of vocabulary should be held back and presented later on in the course.
Then discuss and estimate the learning burden of three high-frequency words.
Report your conclusions back to the rest of the class.
Vocabulary sequencing
Based on Nations (1990) classification of vocabulary levels, Nation and Newton (1997) suggest high-frequency words should be learnt first since they are essential to communicate in
any normal way. They believe considerable time and attention should be spent on them.
In the case of students who intend to read newspapers, study in university or do any other
academic study, Nation and Newton propose continuing instruction with academic vocabulary. This is also essential for learners in secondary schools where content subjects are
taught through the medium of English. If the students only need English for social purposes
instead, the next level at which learning should aim is the low-frequency word level. For this
type of words Nation and Newton suggest incidental learning. Since these words are very
infrequent, it is not worth devoting them time from direct instruction. They recommend, instead, teaching students strategies for coping with them: guessing from context, using word
parts and using mnemonic and rote vocabulary learning.
As regards technical vocabulary, it is usually best learnt within the content area of the given
subject. In the case of content-based programmes, the presentation and teaching of technical words should be left in the hands of the given science, geography, or mathematics
teacher, to give some examples.
Task 7
In pairs, find and consult a high-frequency list (you can do an online search for highfrequency lists).
Then individually, identify and justify:
- The words you would recycle the first week of class with second-year ESO students.
- The high-frequency words you would introduce the second week of class.
Discuss your conclusions with your partner and compare.
102
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
Type of vocabulary
By the end of their secondary-school instruction students should have mastered the 2,000
most frequent words of English. Words which are not included in the 2,000 most frequent
but which are relevant to the learners immediate situation should also be introduced early
on in the course. Words which are of interest to the given group should also be included in
the syllabus (ODell, 1997).
The secondary school curriculum should also cover at least part of the academic vocabulary
as listed in Coxhead (2000). This is especially relevant for students in secondary schools
where content subjects are taught through the medium of English. Academic words are
equally important for learners who intend to go onto university study in English-medium institutions. As regards low-frequency words, students should be exposed to different vocabulary-learning techniques and encouraged to become independent learners and take the
approach that suits them best. They should be trained gradually to identify and focus on
those words which are relevant to their immediate situation and future pursuits. It also seems
advisable to encourage students to concentrate on words which provide precision to general concepts they already handle (Beck et al., 2002).
Task 8
Choose a piece of text you are planning to use with your students in your Practicum and identify:
The words you would introduce directly.
103
104
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
ASSIGNMENTS
1. Consult one or two first-year ESO coursebooks, for example:
DURA, R. (2007). Everything for ESO 1. Madrid: Richmond Publishing.
QUINN, R. (2001). Switch 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
On the basis of the vocabulary selection criteria enumerated in this chapter and of the vocabulary content in these materials, design and write the vocabulary component to a first-year
ESO syllabus. You need to:
Decide which words you would introduce in class and which words you would get the learners
to work on, on their own.
Determine how you would sequence these new words and the type of tasks you would ask the
students to carry out.
Describe when and how you would recycle these words.
105
2. Access: www.academicvocabularyexercises.com/index.htm
Go through the ten sub-lists and decide which academic words you would include in a secondyear Bachillerato syllabus.
Determine and describe how you would sequence and introduce them.
Prepare a PowerPoint presentation of your work and present it to your colleagues.
FURTHER READING
Books
MILTON, J. (2009). Measuring Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition. Bristol: Multilingual
Matters.
This book provides useful insight into measures of vocabulary knowledge and development.
Websites
British National Corpus.
www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk
The British National Corpus is a collection of 100 million words of written and spoken British
text. It allows for a wide range of searches. You can find, for instance, the frequency of words
and phrases in any combination of registers that you define (spoken, academic, etc.).
Academic Word List. Victoria University of Wellington.
www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/resources/academicwordlist
The Academic Word List consists of 570 word families of English which occur frequently over
a very wide range of academic texts. This is a very useful resource for students preparing for
university studies.
Vocabulary Levels Test. Universit du Qubec Montral.
www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/r21270/levels
The Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) is widely used to assess ESL/EFL learners' vocabulary size.
106
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
REFERENCES
BAHRICK, H.P. (1984). Semantic memory content in permastore: fifty years of memory for
Spanish learned in school. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 113, 1-29.
BECK, I., MCKEOWN, M., & KUCAN, L. (2002). Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary
Instruction. New York: The Guilford Press.
CARTER, R. (1987). Vocabulary: Applied Linguistic Perspectives. London: Allen and Unwin
Publishers.
CHALL, J. (1987). Two vocabularies for reading: recognition and meaning. In M. McKeown & M. Curtis (eds.), The Nature of Vocabulary Acquisition (pp. 7-17). Hillsdale,
NJ: Erlbaum.
CHANNELL, J. (1988). Psycholinguistic considerations in the study of L2 vocabulary acquisition. In R. Carter & M. McCarthy, Vocabulary and Language Teaching (pp. 83-96). New
York: Longman.
COXHEAD, A. (2000). A new academic word list. TESOL Quarterly, 34(2), 213-238.
DE GROOT, A. & KEIJZER, R. (2000). What is hard to learn is easy to forget: The roles of word
concreteness, cognate status and word frequency in foreign-language vocabulary learning
and forgetting. Language Learning, 50(1), 1-56.
DURA, R. (2007). Everything for ESO 1. Madrid: Richmond Publishing.
ELLIS, N. (1995). The psychology of foreign-language vocabulary acquisition: implications for
CALL. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 8(2), 103-128.
ELLIS, N. & BEATON, A. (1993a). Psycholinguistic determinants of foreign-language vocabulary learning. Language Learning, 43(4), 559-617.
(1993b). Factors affecting the learning of foreign-language vocabulary: imagery keyword
mediators and phonological short-term memory. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental
Psychology, 46(3), 533-558.
GAIRNS, R. & REDMAN, S. (1990). Working with Words. A Guide to Teaching and Learning
Vocabulary. New York: Cambridge University Press.
GRAVES, M. (1987).The roles of instruction in fostering vocabulary development. In M. McKeown & M. Curtis (eds.), The Nature of Vocabulary Acquisition (pp. 165-184). Hillsdale,
NJ: Erlbaum.
GU, Y. & JOHNSON, R. (2006). Vocabulary learning strategies and language learning outcomes. Language Learning, 46(4), 643-679.
HULSTIJN, J.H. (1993). When do foreign-language readers look up the meaning of unfamiliar words? The influence of task and learner variables. The Modern Language Journal,
77(2), 139-147.
HUNT, A. & BEGLAR, D. (2005). A framework for developing EFL reading vocabulary. Reading in a Foreign Language, 17(1), 23-59.
JENKINS, J.R. & DIXON, R. (1983). Vocabulary learning. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 8(3), 237-260.
107
KAMEEUI, E., DIXSON, R., & CARNINE, D. (1987). Issues in the design of vocabulary of vocabulary instruction. In M. McKeown & M. Curtis (eds.), The Nature of Vocabulary Acquisition (pp. 129-145). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
KNIGHT, S. (1994). Dictionary use while reading: the effects on comprehension and vocabulary acquisition. The Modern Language Journal, 78(3), 285-299.
LAUFER, B. (1989). A factor of difficulty in vocabulary learning: deceptive transparency. In P.
Nation et al. (eds.), Vocabulary Acquisition. AILA Review/Revue de l'AILA, 6. Amsterdam:
Free University Press
(1990). Why are some words more difficult than others? Some intralexical factors that affect
the learning of words. IRAL, 28(4), 293-307.
(1997). The lexical plight in second language reading: words you don't know, words you
think you know, and words you cant guess. In J. Coady & T. Huckin (eds.), Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition (pp. 20-34). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
MACARO, E. (2005). Teaching and Learning a Second Language: a Review of Recent Research.
London: Continuum.
MCKEOWN, M. & CURTIS, M. (eds.). (1987). The Nature of Vocabulary Acquisition. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
MEARA, P. (1993). The bilingual lexicon and the teaching of vocabulary. In R. Schreuder & B.
Weltens (eds.), The Bilingual Lexicon (pp. 279-297). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
NAGY, W. & HERMAN, P. (1987.) Breath and depth of vocabulary knowledge: implications
for acquisition and instruction. In M. McKeown & M. Curtis (eds.), The Nature of Vocabulary Acquisition (pp. 19-35). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
NAGY, W. & SCOTT, J. (1990). Word schemes: expectations about the form and meaning of
new words. Cognition and Instruction, 72(2), 105-127.
NATION, I.S.P. (1990). Teaching and Learning Vocabulary. New York: Newbury House Publishers.
(2001). Learning Vocabulary in Another Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
NATION, P. & NEWTON, J. (1997). Teaching vocabulary. In J. Coady & T. Huckin (eds.),
Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition (pp. 238-254). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
NEWTON, J. (1995). Task-based interaction and incidental vocabulary learning: a case study.
Second Language Research, 11(2), 153-165.
O'DELL, F. (1997). Incorporating vocabulary into the syllabus. In N. Schmitt & M. McCarthy
(eds.), Vocabulary: Description, Acquisition and Pedagogy (pp. 258-278). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
PARRY, K. (1991). Building a vocabulary through academic reading. TESOL Quarterly
25/ 4, 629-652.
QUINN, R. (2001). Switch 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
SCHMITT, N. & DUNHAM, B. (1999). Exploring native and non-native intuitions of word frequency. Second Language Research, 15(4), 389-411.
108
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
SKMEN, A.J. (1997). Current trends in teaching second language vocabulary. In N. Schmitt
& M. McCarthy (eds.), Vocabulary: Description, Acquisition and Pedagogy (pp. 237-257).
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
TWADDELL, F. (1973). Vocabulary expansion in the TESOL classroom. TESOL Quarterly,
7(1), 61-78.
VIDAL, K. (2003). Academic listening: a source of vocabulary acquisition? Applied Linguistics,
24(1), 56-86.
(2011, forthcoming). A comparison of the effects of reading and listening on incidental
vocabulary acquisition. Language Learning, 61(1), 219258.
WEST, M. (1953). A General Service List of English Words. London: Longman, Green and Co.
109
CHAPTER CONTENTS
Paul Seligson
Author and Teacher Trainer
110
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
Word stress
Pronunciation
Rhythm
Sentence stress
Strong and weak forms
111
But many people say that pronunciation is acquired and cant really
be taught. Is it teachable?
David Brazil (1994) said It is not so much a question of whether good pronunciation is
best taught or caught: it is rather a matter of making the catching process more effective
and efficient of enabling learners to make the best use of such experience as comes their
way.
Of course we cant physically force pronunciation changes nor, as ever, does teaching anything automatically lead to it actually being learnt. However, as teachers there is an awful lot
we can do to give students the best chance of improving, continuously monitoring and so further improving their own pronunciation. If we seem genuinely interested, they are much more
likely to be too.
We can certainly help students:
Hear and notice.
Practise and produce.
Establish priorities.
Gain confidence with and an instinct for pronunciation.
We can also:
Explain whats going on, and teach some rules/general patterns.
Provide clear pronunciation models to refer to and learn from (from us, others and
from recordings).
Offer countless activities, recipes and resources for self-improvement.
Provide feedback on performance.
Assess and inform of progress.
112
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
2. Discriminate, i.e. be able to hear the difference between Sorry? and Sorry!
3. Produce for intelligibility (i.e. different sounds, words, pronunciation patterns).
4. Have their confidence built. Its extremely disheartening to be constantly misunderstood.
5. Learn how to communicate their needs appropriately to get cooperation (intonation).
6. Recognise all aspects of written pronunciation: sound/spelling relationships, e.g. their,
theyre and there, punctuation, etc.
7. Above all, develop awareness of targets and options and self-awareness sufficient to
learn how to help themselves.
113
pronunciation work. For example, teachers often ask: Should I teach or use American or
British English materials?. All you can do is model and practise the different variations using
recorded materials, then get the students to practise as much as possible. Unless they work
extremely hard to lose their mother tongue pronunciation, most adult learners will end up with
a local accent anyway, i.e. Brazilians will speak with a Brazilian accent, Italians will sound
Italian, etc.
Personally, I find most accents endearing, even sexy at times, and dont tend to worry much
about this. It all depends on them and the time and effort they wish to invest in trying to improve.
Furthermore, accents are closely aligned with culture and many students dont mind sounding
accented, as it is part of their identity.
Although fun, this sort of thing is clearly far too technical. However, simple clear explanations like Put your hand on your throat to feel voiced/unvoiced sounds or Your tongue
has to move out between your teeth to make the 'th' sound, are helpful, and many teachers
swear by position charts. When the sounds dont exist in the learners mother tongue, they
do need to see and feel clearly what they are trying to do. Using your one hand to represent
the mouth and the fingers of your other hand to show teeth/tongue position can be very effective. Adrian Underhills work is particularly good on the physicality of pronunciation.
114
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
generally, and its an effective way to identify and correct errors. If you decide to do so, a
suggested order for introducing and teaching the script would be:
1. Learn first to recognise brackets at the start and end of symbols (//), the dictionary
stress mark (), two dots for a long vowel (:), and the schwa (//). The schwa is by far
the commonest vowel sound in English: it represents a third of all weak forms in British
English. Telling students little facts like this really helps them to get into pronunciation,
as well as remember better.
2. Elicit and teach the thirteen vowel symbols that are different from letters of the alphabet, i.e. which they couldnt work out for themselves. Many of these include the schwa
sounds and are guessable once they know that: cake /e/, five /a/, soap //, bag //,
horse /:/, foot //, sun //, girl /:/, house /a/, hair /e/, ear //, oil // and Europe //.
3. The eight consonant symbols which are different from letters of the alphabet. Be
careful with /j/ which might confuse as its the same as a letter (J), but represents a different sound.
thing //, the //, shoe //, pleasure //, church, /t/ judge /d/, sing //, yellow /j/
A very useful activity with any age group, which both teaches the alphabet and gets students
interested in sounds, is to introduce it in seven groups, reading down each column:
/e/ /i:/ /e/ /a/ // /u:/ /:/
A
H
J
K
B
C
D
E
G
P
T
V
F
I
L Y
M
N
S
X
Z
Q
U
W
Once students have learnt the symbols and can identify and produce and transcriptions, you
can do activities like the ones below.
Task 1
Do these tasks with a partner:
1. Decoding transcriptions: orally or in writing, for example, as clues for puzzles. Write these words:
/ks/, /bg/, /bred/, /kl:k/, /sn/, /ft/, /bn:n/, /ti:z/, /st:/, /g:l/, /w:l/, /mu:n/.
115
2. Giving wrong transcriptions to correct. Correct these transcriptions of the eight diphthongs in
the chart:
/kk/
/ej/
/sp/
/hows/
/hr/
/r/
/l/
/jrp/
autumn
friend
guest
sign
sword
thumb
Wednesday
half
witch
know
listen
what
116
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
Youve created different Sounds Charts. How do they help and how can I
use one well?
Well, they provide a clear, compact, attractive visual reference, particularly where there are
lots of picture words.
First students need to identify and learn the picture words:
1. In pairs, name both pictures for each vowel sound: kiss and fish, cat and bag, etc. On
another day, do the same thing for the consonant words. Dont bother with the
symbols yet.
2. Playing in pairs to practise, for example:
Choose one that you find hard to say and say it three times to your partner for
him/her to admire.
Together, say each one in a different voice that you feel is appropriate to that item,
for example, Treeeeeeeeeeeeeee! (with falling intonation as it crashes to the
ground).
3. Test yourself / a friend until youve memorised all the picture words, for example:
Point and ask Whats that in English?.
Mime an item for your partner to name.
Make the sound which one item makes for your partner to name.
Mouth (but dont say) the name of one for your partner to decide which it is.
Spell one item a letter at a time for your partner to guess as soon as s/he recognises it
S1: T-R-A-
S2: Train. P-E
Write one letter by letter with your finger on your partners back or hand while s/he
looks away, until s/he works out which it is.
Describe an item for your friend to name. Its black and white and
Then students need to identify and learn the sounds and symbols:
4. In pairs, find and say the 20 different vowel sounds within the pairs of words: kiss and
fish = //, bag and hat = //, etc. On another occasion, do the same for the 24 consonants.
5. Test yourself and a partner until you know them, as above.
6. Dictate three or four tricky spellings with a common sound for students to write and
then spot the sound, for example: u-s-e, t-h-r-o-u-g-h, n-e-w.
7. Begin to transcribe words, and check them in a dictionary, plus some of the activities
above.
8. Think of and write some more words containing each sound: // = (big, willing,
women, English). Then find all the possible spelling patterns for each sound; mainly
I between two consonants, but also O and E = //.
117
118
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
Task 3
In groups, each of you should choose a different vowel sound:
Brainstorm words containing that sound to produce a sound/spelling bank. Write a description of the spelling rules for your sound.
Produce a tongue twister, a silly sentence and a poem (for your vowel sound) beginning Its a.
Present your work to your colleagues.
119
Everything in the first column begins with /v/, everything in the second one with /b/, and you
mustnt repeat any two words. Record the time it took you to complete the chart.
Val
Bill
Comes from...
Eats...
Drinks...
Plays...
Has a pet called...
Loves...
Doesnt like...
120
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
doesnt make this distinction, so they have to think in English. Its fun, lively and has
a clear goal.
The focus: were actually introducing and practising the present simple third person
s, but the primary focus for once is on pronunciation. They see and consolidate the
s throughout the exercise, but only have to produce it when they feedback their answers, so theyre effectively getting 2 for the price of 1, (grammar and pronunciation),
which is a bargain in any culture!
Flexibility: by changing either the verb forms, e.g. to irregular past, present perfect or
going to forms, you can practise any main tense, and by changing the names, e.g. to
Willy and Brenda, Lily and Ron, Helen and Ann, you can practise most initial consonant problems, although it doesnt work for 'th' sounds as there are so few nouns to
choose from.
Task 6
Adapt the exercise for your practicum.
Choose an appropriate:
- Tense.
- Verbs.
- Two sounds to contrast.
Do the activity as pair work.
Make a note of the time it takes and any problems that arise.
Compare your results with a colleague.
quickly on the board and for students to copy it accurately. You could use capital letters (a
WINdow) but thats hard to do, doesnt help with capitalisation and capitals are best saved
for marking sentence stress: Do you MIND if I CLOSE the WINdow? You can use a
dictionary-type stress mark (a window) but thats hard to spot, especially when the stress
falls in the middle of a word, and accents (a wndow) can confuse, as English doesnt use
them. A nice technique is to elicit the stress pattern of the words on the board at the end of
a lesson as a way of rounding it up. If students find it hard to hear, put the stress on each
syllable in turn so they can hear the difference, and ask which sounds best. Its also very
useful to cross out the silent letters in words. Doing both and ensuring students do the same
really helps improve students lessons records, which after all, is the only document which
will live on long after your lesson has finished! Avoid words in isolation, even when
brainstorming words onto the board so they can copy them down in context. At least give
121
nouns + articles, or elicit adjectives and verbs in an appropriate useful phrase, (not just
to + verb).
Task 7
Mark the stress and cross out any silent letters in these phrases in British English: Heavy interest.
A lovely library
A white Christmas
Similar or different?
Comfortable slippers
122
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
123
Task 10
1. Say these phrases, making the links.
Mark the point where a new sound is produced (intrusion) and write it in the correct place.
I want to (w)eat.
I agree
Dont do it
You and me
Here or there?
Elision is when we swallow sounds. When one word ends with a consonant sound and the
next begins with a consonant sound the first consonant sound is often changed.
2. Say these words/phrases. Cross out the sound which is lost. Then write them phonetically.
Tell him - Tellim
The first three
A bad cold
Boiled carrots
124
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
1. Consistently beating sentence stress (clicking your fingers, clapping or conducting the
tonics in sentences) is very helpful so students can see and feel the language, especially if they beat with you.
2. Simple graphic exercises like this:
Say and click: 1-2-3-4. Then say and click to the same beat: 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. Then say
and click to the same beat: a 1 and a 2 and a 3 and a 4. In other words, adding more words
each time yet keeping to the same beat to show students how English rhythm and stresstiming works.
Consistently systematise marking up intonation in your board work or audio scripts. For
example: arrows for tone, tonic-syllable in capitals and double lines (//) for tone-unit boundaries.
Teach the few rules which do exist:
- Tag questions, rise for a real question but fall for a check question.
. Anything else?
. Anything else?
WAITER:
WAITER:
WAITER:
125
Students identify whats new and whats shared information, then practise and extend accordingly. Again these are only tendencies rather than concrete rules, but every time they
find an exception, remember to celebrate, for the reasons stated above.
Task 11
Choose at least three of the ideas above and build them into your next Practicum.
Summarise your feedback and discuss the results with your tutor.
126
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
Task 12
Go to this website: www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/081222_download.shtml
Download a transcript and listen to a recent news item. Mark up the audio script using the five
steps above, like this:
CALLUM: Hello / and welcome to Six Minute_English. // I'm Callum Robertson_and with me
today_is Rosie, / hello Rosie.
ROSIE:
Hello.
CALLUM: A question_about_age Rosie / which_I hope_is not too personal. // Do_you remember the 1970s?
Give your transcript to a colleague and ask him/her to read it out loud.
Record the readings and discuss them in a group.
Generating exercises
How can I create my own exercises in order to include pronunciation
in my tests?
There are five basic, simple exercise types, A-E below, found in many different guises in ELT
materials.
Task 13
Complete tasks A-E and add two more examples to each activity. Give them to a colleague to do.
1. Putting words into groups.
How is the ed pronounced in these past participles? Put three in each column.
called kissed mixed needed revised refused stayed stopped wanted
/d/
/t/
/d/
arrived
wished
ended
127
crossed,
preferred, read,
wore, stood,
played,
bought
said,
paid, caught,
lost, saw,
heard, could
2. Same or different.
Do the vowels in these words have the same or a different sound? Circle S (same) or D (different).
beer / ear
ear / wear
back / bake S
3. Odd-one out.
Cross out the word with a different vowel sound.
/e/ when read need
//
/:/
//
//
//
/:/
afternoon
morning
yesterday
tomorrow
evening
Various combinations of these five basic exercises are very simple both to teach and to include in your evaluations. Doing so makes students (and teachers!) far more likely both to
take pronunciation seriously. Students can even learn to produce them for each other too.
A further good idea in terms of continuous evaluation is to set termly (or annual) pronunciation aims for each course. For example:
128
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
Explore what students already know (usually more than we think!), e.g. from songs, TV, their travels. Ask them what
American / other English accents sound like, what English names / phrases / lines from songs they know and can
say with the best English accent they can.
2.
Ensure you present natural pronunciation models yourself as far as possible when you speak and tell stories. Use
natural sentence stress, linking, contractions and reductions to give the best model you can. Pause between short
phrases and chunks rather than say one word at a time.
3.
Use lots of gesture / mime / visual aids so you can speak both more quickly and more naturally and still be un-
4.
Use lots of gesture too to draw attention to and correct pronunciation, e.g. beating word stress with your hands, from your
Model new words in context / a short phrase rather than in isolation. For example, give nouns + article, i.e. a bike,
an orange bike, not just bike or car. Or, teach words in pairs: shoes and socks, apples and oranges. A knife and fork,
so they get used to stressing and reducing.
6.
Highlight pronunciation when presenting new language. For example, really exaggerate or lengthen sounds and
words to help students hear and notice them (a BEEEYOOO0000tiful prinCESS!) and drill specific problems.
7.
Use a pronunciation focus to introduce and practise other aspects such as grammar (as in the 2 for 1 activity
above) or vocabulary. For example, introduce/elicit/divide new lexical sets in sub-groups with common sounds:
e.g. find three b words or g words: blue, black, brown or pig, goat, dog.
129
8.
Contrast similarities / differences between L1 and English to help students to focus their efforts, especially
9.
Exploit what Adrian Underhill calls the physicality of pronunciation; the breathing, facial and body move-
students to supply the rest (can) as soon as they can. They may say /kn/ but then hear you say /kn/ and
so get continuous, non-threatening feedback too.
11. Use recognition and awareness-raising exercises: syllable-counting, prominence spotting, imitation, tongue
twisters, picking out different tones/moods from recordings, singing, etc.
12. Use rhyme, rhythm, chant, poetry, rap and all kinds of music regularly and even dance. For example, It
rhymes with foot to teach / correct put, It sounds like tree to teach sea.
13. Respond appropriately to incorrect models, as if you werent familiar with an L1 accent yourself, and encourage repetition to say it better. For example, say Pardon? in response to overly L1 pronunciation or very flat,
bored intonation.
14. Consistently mark the stress on new words for students to copy and include in their own word lists, for
example, with a circle or blob above the stressed syllable.
15. Cross out silent letters and encourage students to keep lists of words with silent letters, for example, listen,
Wednesday, dictionary.
16. Build Sound Banks (picture collages and lists of words with common sounds) and work on sound / spelling
relationships, for example, highlighting key patterns.
17. Encourage students to enjoy and play with words, to experiment, create and invent where possible, for
example, combining a crocodile and an elephant to make a CROcophant.
18. Highlight linking (a line between words: an_orange) and sentence stress shift (eliciting different meanings
according to which words are stressed).
19. Use imposed moods, characters and roleplay to practise intonation, for example the mood faces activity
above.
20. Make students aware of (at least some) phonetics, for example, the schwa sound and symbol, the /:/ symbol
for a long vowel sound, /'/ in dictionaries for word stress, etc..
21. Encourage students to use (online) dictionaries to check word stress and basic pronunciation.
22. Work on transcripts, for example, shadow read text and sub-vocalise to self, notice and underline the most
stressed words, marks links, etc.
23. Set oral homework tasks and make sure your homework contains regular listening and pronunciation exercises. For example, listen to and memorise dialogues/rhymes, listen and read activities, pronunciation games.
24. Include aspects of pronunciation in their evaluation and tests. For example, grouping words by common
sounds, spotting the odd one out, or simple stress marking.
Your total:
/ 24
130
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
Above all,
Dont unconsciously transmit negative values about pronunciation, e.g. by prioritising
grammar or vocabulary over it.
Do enjoy the fun and excitement that exploring and learning about pronunciation can
offer. Keep your pronunciation antennae alert at all times!
Dont feel insecure about your own pronunciation and then use this as an excuse to
deny students access to pronunciation activities.
Do try to exploit regularly the many opportunities that pronunciation offers, and so
(hopefully!) inspire students to be interested and to want to help themselves.
ASSIGNMENT
Use the activity ideas that you practised in the tasks in this chapter to develop a digital activity bank for working with pronunciation skills in your classroom.
Classify the activities into the different aspects, provide a plan for each one with model and
answers.
Indicate how these activities cover the points in the checklist above.
FURTHER READING
Most publishers' websites are full of good exercises you can use in class, or to practise your
own pronunciation. Googling the area of pronunciation you wish to pursue will lead to
plenty of articles too. Below are the more recent books Ive found most useful. All of them
are rich with practical ideas. Hancock is the best purchase to recommend to students for selfstudy as it is now available at three different levels. Kenworthy was the book which first gave
me real confidence as a teacher to delve more into pronunciation. The other titles are all useful in their specific areas and the contents are self-explanatory.
BAKER, A. (1981). Ship or Sheep? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
BRADFORD, B. (1988). Intonation in Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
131
CELCE-MURCIA, M.; BRINTON, D. & GOODWIN, J. (1996). Teaching Pronunciation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
DALTON, C. & SEIDLHOFER, B. (1994). Pronunciation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
HANCOCK, M. (2003). English Pronunciation in Use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
HAYCRAFT, B. (1971). The Teaching of Pronunciation. A Classroom guide. Longman: Longman.
HEWINGS, M. (1993). Pronunciation Tasks. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
JENKINS, J. (2000). The Phonology of English as an International Language. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
This book identifies the features of the Lingua Franca Core crucial for intelligibility. The author argues that these are the key areas which prevent communication and should be prioritised in teaching English as a global language. They include:
All consonant sounds except for th (both unvoiced as in thin and voiced as in the)
and dark l (as in hotel).
Vowel length contrast (the difference between short and long vowel pairs, e.g. live /lv/
v leave /li:v/).
Tonic stress (the main/shifting stress indicated by capital letters in I come from SPAIN
or Where are YOU from?).
For Jenkins, most other areas of pronunciation are non-core, including many features traditionally emphasised, such as individual vowel sounds, word stress, or the typical rhythm
of British English, where lots of little words (articles, prepositions, etc.) are so weak they
are barely audible.
KELLY, G. (2000). How to Teach Pronunciation. Harlow: Pearson.
KENWORTHY, J. (1987). Teaching English Pronunciation. London: Longman.
LAROY, C. (1995). Pronunciation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
ROACH, P. (2002). Phonetics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
SELIGSON, P. et al. (2010). Richmond Essential English Course Level 5. London: Richmond
Publishing.
In this book you will find examples of different ways to mark up audio scripts for pronunciation purposes.
132
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
VAUGHAN-REES, M. (editor-in-chief). (from 1986 onwards). Speak Out! Journal of the IATEFL Pronunciation Special Interest Group.
133
REFERENCES
BRAZIL, D. (1994). Pronunciation for Advanced Learners of English. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
(1997). The Communicative Value of Intonation in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
CRUTCHLEY, C.J. (1978). Pronunciation poem cards. In H. Moorwood (ed.), Selections from
MET. Harlow: Longman.
GRAHAM, C. (1978). Jazz Chants. New York: Oxford University Press. Also available as an
ebook from: <www.ebook3000.com/Carolyn-Graham-_-Jazz-Chants--an-amusing-wayof-learning-English-_18599.html>.
SEROME, J.L. (2009): Three Men on the Bummer. LLC. Serenity Publishers.
SELIGSON, P. (1997). Helping Students to Speak. London: Richmond Publishing.
UNDERHILL, A. (1994). Sound Foundations. London: Macmillan.
135
CHAPTER CONTENTS
Jorge Bascn
ELT Consultant
Beatriz Calle
ELT Consultant
Task 1
Before you read this chapter, read and discuss the following statements with your colleagues:
When we acquire our first language we do not need to learn grammar rules, and neither do
students learning English as a foreign language. They just need to be exposed to the language.
Grammar rules have to be taught formally in order to learn English successfully. Mere exposure is not enough.
Students need to work out grammar rules for themselves in order to learn English successfully.
Most of the work we do in secondary school should be designed around the grammar rules
of the language.
There are many other skills a teacher has to work with in a class which are more important
than grammar.
136
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
The role we give to teaching grammar in English language classes and how we approach teaching grammar depends greatly on how we view language, or perhaps, more to the point,
the trends that influence our conception of what language is and, therefore, how it should
be taught. Over the years this conception has changed considerably and this has had a noticeable influence on our work in the classroom.
There are two main views of language that impact on our work as English language teachers:
language as a system of structures and language as a socially constructed tool for communication. These two views are not necessarily antagonistic, but they do place the emphasis
on different forms of teaching practice. If we view language as a system of structures then
our priority in the classroom will be to explain and practice the structures so that our students are able to internalise the system and put it to use. If, on the other hand, we view language as socially constructed and essentially a tool for communication, then our priority in
the classrooms shifts from placing the focus on the structures themselves to placing it on effective use of language.
The tension between these two positions has led to changes in methodology in English
language teaching over the years from traditional methods such as Grammar-Translation to
methods where the communicative focus is paramount, such as Communicative Language
Teaching. More recently there has been a shift away from the orthodoxy of specific methodologies towards eclectic methods where teachers pick and choose different approaches for
different purposes.
Phonology
Phonological knowledge allows the speaker to do things such as produce sounds which form
meaningful utterances, recognise a foreign accent, add the appropriate phonetic segments to
form plurals and different verb tenses, produce aspirated and unaspirated voiceless stops in
the appropriate context or to know what is or is not a sound belonging that language.
Although knowing the sounds (the phonetic units) of a language is only a small part of
the phonological knowledge of a native speaker, this will be a main focus as English
137
language teachers. When learning a foreign language we have to learn which speech sounds
occur in the target language and how they form patterns according to patterns and rules.
Task 2
1. Write a questionnaire for your pupils to find out what is most difficult for them with regard to
sounds, pronunciation and intonation in English. Use the questionnaire in your Practicum class
and summarise your findings.
2. Work with your students in your Practicum class.
Write the following words on the board : tree, three, car, cat, coat.
Ask your students to pronounce them and correct their pronunciation.
Discuss any difficulties with them.
Draw up a list of minimal pairs for your pupils (words that differ in just one phoneme, which
can be either a vowel sound ship / sheep or a consonant sound very / berry).
Tell them to work in pairs and take turns dictating the words to each other.
hey should then check against the original list and correct their dictations.
Morphology
The fact that the internal structure of words is subject to rules is easily seen in the following example.
Nobody doubts that words such as uneaten or untangled are words in English, whereas
eatenun or tangledun are not. That is due to the fact that in English we do not form a negative
meaning of a word by suffixing un, but by prefixing it. By means of this morphological rule and
by many others, speakers of the language engaging in word building. These new words, depending
on the rules applied in their formation, are called derivates, compounds, blends or back-formations.
Teaching pupils how to recognise the morphological structure of English is an important part of
the work we do in the classroom. We concentrate on two different categories of morphological
rules: inflectional rules (for example, pluralisation where elements are added to the existing word)
and word formation (for example, compounds that we build out of existing words). We begin
with inflectional rules such as forming plurals or comparative adjectives and progress to word
building, which requires a larger repertoire of language. It is useful to think of the game element
involved in this kind of activity and to present it initially as a physical manipulation. One of the
problems that pupils face when tackling grammar rules and patterns is trying to hold the concepts
as abstract ideas rather than something they can actually play around with and move about. For
example, instead of listing the rules for forming the plurals in English, we can make a card game
as follows.
Chose a list of singular nouns to cover all the possibilities for plural formation (dog - s, fox
- es, fly - yies, wolf - fves, mouse - irregular, sheep - no plural). You can use a lexical
138
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
set of words or a mixed set but you will need about five examples of each form. Make
a set of cards using these words.
Make another set of cards with the possible plural endings. Ensure you have one for
each noun.
Shuffle the cards in their sets and place them in two piles.
The pupils take turns turning over a card from each set and seeing if they can pluralise the noun using the form on other card.
You can extend the activity by asking the pupils to come up with the morphological
rules once they have played.
Task 3
1. Look up the following terms (either online or in a grammar reference book), and find morphological rules:
Derivates.
Compounds.
Blends.
Back-formations.
Give an example for each term.
2. Design and make a game to show your pupils how to manipulate morphological rules (either
inflectional rules or word building) in English.
Play the game with your pupils during your Practicum and then ask them to work out the rules.
Record the results of your activity.
Present your activity to your colleagues (together with your feedback from the lesson) and
ask them to offer critical comments.
Syntax
Knowing a language also includes the ability to put words together to form phrases and sentences that express our thoughts. This part of grammar, which represents a speakers knowledge of the structure of phrases and sentences is called syntax.
In English, and indeed in every language, every sentence is a sequence of words, but not
every sequence of words is a sentence. Sequences of words that conform to the rules of
syntax are said to be well formed or grammatical and those which violate the syntactic rules
are, therefore, ill formed and ungrammatical. In some cases ill-formed sentences result in
confusion or a lack of understanding, but in many cases the interlocutor is able to apply a
series of strategies to clarify the meaning.
139
However, the rules of syntax do not only account for the grammaticality of sentences. They
also account for the double meaning, or ambiguity of expressions such as fresh orange
juice, which could be interpreted either as orange juice which is fresh or as juice made out
of fresh oranges. Syntactic rules also reveal the relationships between the words in a
sentence and tell us when structural differences result in the differences in meaning, and
when they do not. And finally, it is also syntactic rules which permit speakers to produce
and understand an unlimited number of sentences for the first time, which linguists have
called the creative aspect of language use.
Task 4
1. Look at the following sentences and write an explanation of the double meanings.
They can fish.
He ate the pie with relish.
The police shot the robbers with guns.
The girl hit the boy with a book.
Now indicate which double meanings are the result of lexical ambiguities and which are the
result of structural ambiguities.
2. Draw up a list of sentences with double meaning (both lexical and structural) to work on with
your Practicum class.
Semantics
Semantics describes our linguistic competence and is responsible for our capacity to combine words to produce phrase and sentence meanings. We are not free to change the meanings of words at will, for if we did we would be unable to communicate with anyone.
However, the capacity to speak a language involves more than just knowing the meaning of
the words. We comprehend sentences because we know the meaning of individual words
and we know the rules for combining their meanings.
140
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
means students need to be exposed, as much as possible, to English input. Traditionally learners practice a target structure but if they do not have enough input to internalise those
structures, they may well not get beyond the specific examples of the target structure.
We also know that what English learners listen to and observe may be not processed; in
other words, the input does not go in. If the process for learning a foreign language were
simply a question of providing input, we would all be effortlessly accomplished language learners. We need to distinguish between the input in terms of what the teacher attempt to
put in and the part that actually does go in. That is, intake (Corder 1967), is not the same
as input.
When English teachers want to facilitate the intake of language, oral and written input
should be used systematically and with clear specific purposes.
Task 5
With a group of colleagues, choose a selection of secondary-school coursebooks.
Make a note of the how grammar is presented, and sequences of grammar input.
In some cases the differences and similarities are the result of a practical orthodoxy (we
have always done it like that), but in others there may be deeper, more structural reasons.
Discuss this question with your colleagues and draw conclusions.
141
142
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
Task 6
Choose a grammar structure to teach in your Practicum:
Design two different lessons, one based on the explicit model and the other on the implicit model.
Then integrate the two models to provide a third lesson design that provides a mixed approach.
Inductive grammar instruction works the other way round. First we expose the students to
several examples of the target structure (preferably within a clearly defined context), then we
draw their attention to the structure, often through questions and answers, then we ask them
to apply the structure, and finally we ask them to formulate some rules.
Example
Look at this information about... (defined context). Underline all the verbs. Do you notice anything about
the verbs? Do some of them end in an s? Which ones? What do these verbs refer to? Is (it) singular or plural?
Are there any other changes? Which ones? How do we write these verbs in the other cases? And so on.
Now write information about...
Now tick the correct rules / Match the sentence halves to make rules / Write rules for the present simple.
The deductive approach has several disadvantages over the inductive method:
As teachers we all know that knowing language rules and how to apply them in a written exercise rarely ensures correct use of the target structure in communicative situations. Students may well complete the exercises perfectly but when they are using the
structure in either an oral or written activity, they fall back into the same old errors.
Grammar rules are notoriously elusive. Try formulating something simple such as the rules for
pluralising nouns, and you will see that it is much harder than it would seem at a first glance.
143
In teaching grammar rules we rarely deliver everything from the start because it would
overload the students. So when we teach them how to use a verb tense, for example, we do
not teach them all the cases at the same time, the common, the less common and the
exceptions. If we start from a rule we face the problem of how to articulate the rule without
leading the students into errors. For example: We use the present continuous for actions that
are happening now. But this is not strictly true. I can use this verb tense for something that I
am not actually doing at the moment but for something that I am doing within a set period
of time: Im painting my house (not this minute but during this month). Or for future plans:
My sister is having lunch with us on Sunday. Or for a repetitive action that is annoying:
Hes always breaking the TV. And so on. When we formulate the rule we have to do so
in such a way as to leave the door open for feeding in these cases in the future. This makes
the rules sound not so much like rules anymore, but if we do not do this the rule is incorrect.
Very often the rules are so unwieldy that the students get lost in all the complexity of
the meta-language.
Task 7
Choose a grammar structure to teach in your Practicum:
Plan a lesson using the inductive approach and pay special attention to the contextualisation of the language.
Deliver the lesson to your colleagues and discuss their feedback.
144
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
Task 8
Design a grammar activity to work with each of the strategies described above. You can use
models from the coursebook used in your teaching practice class but you should write your
own activities.
Write an explanation showing how these activities serve to develop each strategy.
Conclusion
The considerations we have examined briefly here lead us to the conclusion that a sensible methodological approach to teaching grammar should take account of both input practice and
communicative output. While students need a lot of input, and while there must be an emphasis on communicative activities which improve students ability to communicate, there is
also a place for controlled presentation of input and semi-controlled language practice.
Notional or functional syllabuses may provide an alternative to the emphasis on formal
language teaching, where the content of a course is organised in terms of the meanings
learners require in order to communicate in particular functional contexts. Major communicative notions include the linguistic expression of time, duration, frequency sequence,
quantity, location and motion. Major communicative functions include evaluation, persuasion, emotional expression and the making of social relations. In this model the functions
and notions drive the structures, rather than the other way round.
Communicative methods have attracted universal interest and have much influenced the practice
of English language teaching. But there has also been a critical reaction, as linguists and teachers
encounter problems in providing a principled basis for interrelating the proposed notions and
functions. Of particular importance is the need to provide learners with principles that will enable
them to make a bridge between functional aspects of language and the correct use of formal
structures. Proponents of the approach have recognised these problems and there has been
considerable discussion of the way communicative teaching might develop in the future.
Example activities
Activity 1. The Money Game
Instructions
Divide the class into two groups.
Give each member of the class ten coins or counters.
145
Place two sheets of paper on the floor between the two groups. The sheets of paper are labelled: The speaker is right / The challenger is right.
Tell the groups to draw up a list of conversation topics (one per person). You will need to guide them by
giving them examples.
Explain the rules
Group A gives Group B a topic to speak on. A member of the group begins talking on the topic.
If anybody in the Group A hears a grammar mistake, he/she stops the speaker and says: You said:
.. Its wrong.
At this stage the challenger must not propose a correction.
The members of Group B vote by placing a coin/counter on one of the sheets of paper depending on
their opinion.
The teacher then gives a verdict.
If the teacher declares the challenge correct, Group A must attempt a correction. If this is right Group A
take all the coins/counters.
If the correction is not right, Group A takes only the coins on The challenger is right.
If the teacher declares the challenge incorrect, Group B takes all the coins/counters.
Swap roles and continue playing.
The winner is group member with most coins after an allotted time of, say, fifteen minutes.
Activity 2. Right that seems wrong and wrong that seems right
Instructions
Draw up a list of ten sentences.
Five sentences should be sentences that are grammatically incorrect but seem right to the students.
Five sentences should be sentences that are grammatically correct but seem wrong to the students.
These sentences are often examples where they transfer structures from L1 to L2. For example: The people at the airport was all waiting for the weather to get better (singular verb instead of plural). Happiness is difficult to find (no article before an abstract noun).
Mix up the order of the sentences and give each student a photocopy.
Tell them to cut the sentences into strips, work in pairs and decide which ones are right but seem wrong
and which are wrong but seem right.
Discuss their decisions and ask them to give reasons as to why this happens.
146
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
ASSIGNMENTS
1. Work in groups. Prepare a database of activities to cover the following aspects of grammar:
Adjectives and nouns.
Articles.
Subject-verb agreement.
Verb tenses (present simple, continuous and perfect; past simple, continuous, and perfect;
zero, first and second conditionals; present and past passive voice; modal verbs like
can/could/must/should; adverbs and adverbial clauses; questions and answers.
Remember to contextualise your activities and present them using an inductive grammar model.
Choose an activity and integrate it into a lesson plan describing the work you will do initially
to present the grammar structures.
2. Prepare a list of the most common and most repeated grammar mistakes in both oral and
written work, for example: missing off the s in the third-person present simple.
Identify the reasons why you think students make these mistakes, for example: interference with L1.
Design an activity for each case focussing on:
Awareness of the problem.
Strategies for solving the problem.
3. The Silent Way of teaching grammar was first proposed by Caleb Gattegno in the 1970s. The
theory suggests that students learn best when they discover features about the language
rather memorising and repeating, and when their activities are designed around problem
solving using physical objects (Cuisenaire rods) to represent elements of language.
Find out more about the Silent Way and develop a set of your own physical objects (you can
use coloured sticks or straws).
Choose three grammar structures to illustrate using the Silent Way and design activities.
Deliver the class to your colleagues and discuss their feedback.
147
FURTHER READING
This list proves a variety of work with both guidelines for teaching grammar and a variety of
exercise types and activities for working in the classroom.
HARMER, J. (1998). How to Teach English. London: Longman.
This work provides both theoretical background and practical ideas for teachers training to be
English language teachers, especially Chapter 5.
RINVOLUCRI, M. (1985). Grammar Games: Cognitive, Affective and Drama Activities for EFL.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Good for active grammar activities and games for working in the classroom.
THORNBURY, S. (1999). How to Teach Grammar. London: Longman.
This work provides a rich source of practical ideas for teaching grammar.
UR, P. (1988). Grammar Practice Activities: A Practical Guide for Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers.
This book is divided into two sections: the first deals with background information and guidelines for teaching grammar; the second provides an extensive and systemic list of practical
activities for the classroom.
WATCYN-JONES, P. (1995). Grammar Games and Activities for Teachers. London: Penguin
Books.
You will find a wealth of photocopiable activities for the classroom in this book.
148
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
REFERENCES
CORDER, S.P. (1967). The significance of learners errors. IRAL, 5, 161-170.
KRASHEN, S. (1985). The Input Hypothesis: Issues and Implications. Beverly Hills, CA: Laredo Publishing Company.
KRASHEN, S. (1999). Three Arguments Against Whole Language & Why They Are Wrong.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
LARSEN-FREEMAN, D. & LONG, M.H. (1991). An Introduction to Second Language Acquisition Research. New York: Longman.
MOON, J. (2000). Children Learning English. Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann ELT.
149
8. CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
CHAPTER CONTENTS
Manage the room and the students dont let them manage you
Manage your board well
Six more key tips
Think and teach visually
Really trust pairwork
The six key ingredients of good pairwork
Monitor well
Use mother tongue intelligently
Comment
Pause often and elicit fairly
Exemplify at least as much as you instruct and avoid echo
Echo
Routines are important but so is variety
Keep trying to improve your timing
Dont be a dinosaur like me!
Paul Seligson
Author and Teacher Trainer
The number of different roles we teachers take on is amazing. As well as linguistic specialist and instructor, a language teacher has sometimes to play coach, personal trainer, referee, translator, assessor, coordinator, doctor, detective, spy, social worker, prison officer,
interior designer, entertainer, storyteller, artistic director, mime artist, DJ, torturer, IT technician, psychiatrist, editor, ego builder, recipient of excuses, executioner, form filler, stationer, pencil sharpener, coat finder, glasses lender, nose wiper, surrogate parent, peacemaker,
matchmaker, scapegoat and walking encyclopaedia, to name a few.
150
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
Above all we are decision-makers. My research suggests that language teachers perform around
650 different activities every class, and are constantly making innumerable decisions: Shall
I ask him or her? Shall I elicit or tell them? Shall we switch activities/partners/skills? Shall we
do this on the board or orally, skip the rest of this exercise, check the homework now or
later, should I stand or sit?, and so on. This constant, ongoing, internal dialogue is one of the
main reasons why teaching can be so tiring.
Task 1
Look again at the thirty-seven roles in the first paragraph:
Think and make a note of a different decision you have to make with each hat on, for
example: as a coach you have to decide the best tactics and methods to use to get the best
performance from your students.
It should quickly become clear that most are managerial, focused on organising, illustrating,
clarifying, orchestrating, stimulating, maintaining, gluing together, oiling and repairing classes.
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
151
about what the rest of the group are doing. Are they listening? Able to hear? Interested? Making the best use of their time? Likely to switch off? Its all too easy for us to slip into private-class mode, where we try to ensure or simply allow each student in turn to have a
go. While this might seem fair, and even preferable with a small group of say 2-5 students,
the moment you have any more than that, and most classes are much nearer to 20, it can
take ages, and the pace of the lesson become grindingly slow. For example, its often far preferable to postpone answering the question (till the end of the class or the next lesson), or to
answer it alone with the individual while the rest of the class are doing something else, so
all are kept busy. All too often teachers answer each and every individual question, at the
expense of the rest of the class.
To my mind at least, class management is all about making the best use of class time and
generating the maximum amount of practice and learning opportunities for all the group,
and doing so simultaneously rather than individually wherever possible.
Indeed, efficient group management is in many ways the key teaching skill. Too many ELT
techniques tend to prioritise either of the following:
1. The individual over the group leading to an unnecessary lowering of pace and bored
students, wasting time doing little or nothing whilst the teacher interacts with one student at a time. For example, activities like individuals taking turns to read aloud, repeat a word, phrase or sentence, answer comprehension questions one by one: all can
be perfectly effective activities in a 1-to-1 lesson, but poor, inefficient choices of activity in large classes. All of them are usually better done in pairs, groups, or as a whole
class or, for example, with the teacher quickly writing up the correct answers or missing words for a gap-fill on the board for students to quickly self-check, then only have
to deal with those that caused difficulty, rather than trawl through them all one by one.
2. Stronger students at the expense of the weak, leading to division, time-wasting and
missed opportunity. For example, elicitation, the heartbeat of communicative language teaching, all too often leads to the same few stronger students always answering
first, or at least mostly, leaving the majority of the class excluded and usually frustrated. Im not saying Dont elicit not at all but I do believe that many teachers need
to learn to elicit more democratically, to give most students more of a chance of answering more often. I will offer several alternatives below.
This chapter focuses on ten key areas of classroom management and offers a host of practical tips based largely on what I feel were errors in my own teaching over the years, as well
as things learnt from recent observations as a trainer.
152
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
Manage the room and the students dont let them manage you
Move chairs and students to your advantage and mix students up regularly so all levels of
ability, weaker and stronger, work together and dont fossilise into fixed groups. For example, in my room, I have a sign on the wall which says:
Please change partners every class. If you dont, Ill have to move you.
Life is short so please move! Thanks a lot!
When they dont move, or whinge about moving, I just point to the sign and tell them its a
rule. It soon becomes a habit, and the issue goes away. Of course they dont have to sit next
to every single class member an ex-boyfriend, or a current enemy for example just keep
switching partners so the dynamic of group interdependence takes priority.
Most teachers let students sit where they want to until they have learned their names, then
ask them to move and it becomes a big fuss because students have got used to sitting in the
same place. Whose fault is that? The key to becoming a better manager is noticing what goes
wrong one year, then learning and anticipating from that experience the following year, so
you avoid making the same mistake again.
If they really insist on not moving then make them look in different directions, using the famously flexible human neck to work with the person behind, to the left and right of them.
As soon as they realise you will impose all this neck twisting they should conclude that its
both easier and more desirable to change partners regularly rather than keep twisting!
Task 2
1. Try this last activity in your Practicum:
Insist pupils change partners three times in a lesson, moving for example from checking answers in pairs, to working in threes, to larger groups and then back to different pairs for the
final activity.
Notice how the energy changes each time once activities get started, even if they seem reluctant when you first give the instructions. As Mary Underwood (1987) says, Its easy to
get used to an unsatisfactory environment and fail even to make the changes which can be
made with little or no trouble.
2. Look at your classroom. Write a description of how you could improve position of furniture,
lines of vision, acoustics, wall displays, space for different activities. Think about what you
could easily improve.
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
153
154
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
So, ensure you input language visually as much as verbally. Remember, the more you show,
the faster you can go! Below are three key suggestions:
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
155
1. Try to design and teach in a dedicated ELT room, with rich linguistic input on the
walls, even on the ceilings why not! Not just photos from the Anglophone world or
a decontextualised list of irregular verbs but things like:
quotations
riddles
short jokes
funny sentences
our favourite mistakes
facts about English
classroom language
useful expressions
posters e.g. Our
favourite adjectives their own projects phonetic charts newspaper headlines,
articles and clippings
cartoons
captioned photos
Seeing these all around them facilitates students switching into and actually believing
they both can and will speak English in this environment. It also gives them plenty of
rich input to read, digest and reflect on while waiting for others to finish.
2. Illustrate as much as you can using the board, flashcards, drawings and realia. In monolingual classes, its all too easy to translate everything, feeding only students analytical or linguistic intelligences. And in these digital days, its all too easy to show
photos of everything, and forget the kinaesthetic joy of seeing, touching and passing
round real objects, which can be far more memorable.
3. Be generous with your own body language. This will allow you to speak faster. Exemplify rather than instruct, for example, give visual as well as verbal examples of what
to do/say rather than rely on verbal or written instructions. Consistent use of gestures
from teachers usually transfers to students too as they start to join in and copy what
you say and do. Personally, I think of language teaching as a very kinaesthetic activity,
feeling, shaping, showing and sharing words physically with students as I speak, guide
or correct them. Consistently doing this involves students much more fully, and makes
your teaching much more generous, personal and memorable too.
Task 4
Work with a colleague. Together, decide how best to gesture/facially express:
Past/present/future.
-ing
Stand up.
Listen to me.
Repeat
Repeat - altogether.
Come here!
Nearly.
Work in pairs.
Contraction: It is Its
To/at/in/on.
Behave yourself!
Homework.
Third person s
Practise your gestures on another pair of colleagues and see if they can work out the meaning of
your gestures (imatge 1).
156
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
Past
Present
Past perfect
Future
Future perfect
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
157
the centre of the room, to avoid leaving you out on the edge of the class and so unable to
monitor the majority.
Many teachers have a go at pairwork activities, hear too much noise and mother tongue,
lose control and give up, returning to more traditional types of teaching. Students need to
be trained how to do pairwork, get used to, enjoy and trust it. Sell it to them and give it a
fair chance! Its well worth investing a bit of time explaining why its the most effective formation, the weaknesses of the alternatives, and how to get the most from it. You could write
a simple one-page letter to them at the start of a course, explaining your methodology.
Make it your basic modus operandi for doing/checking activities to maximise practice and
give all an equal opportunity. Pairs can predict, write, read, compare and check answers
after each phase of a listening, find the answers to half the comprehension questions each
then share answers, practise speaking, test each other, indeed, do almost anything in (and
out of) class more efficiently together. Their doing so allows you in turn to do what teachers
do best: observe and decide what to do next! You can see/hear what each individual is thinking/has understood, not just the strongest students with the confidence to speak to you, and
decide where, how or how not to intervene/continue the lesson.
158
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
Monitor well
Im often surprised when observing more experienced teachers to see that so many could
still significantly improve their monitoring skills, especially when students are working in
pairs or groups. The eight purposes of monitoring are to:
1. Assess learners performance on tasks or more generally on their language progress/recent skills development.
2. Be able to decide what to do next (revise, re-explain, go on, give up!).
3. Ensure theyre on-task, in English and working hard, achieving as much as they can
from their time invested in the activity.
4. Maintain discipline where necessary, and enthusiasm both for the activity and for pairwork itself.
5. Listen for errors and equally, for good performance.
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
159
6. Give ourselves opportunities to micro-teach individuals or pairs who need additional help.
7. Add in extra words/phrases/tips as they might need them.
8. Provide appropriate feedback and correction, either during or after the activity.
However, many teachers make the following mistakes:
Stand so close that they overshadow or interrupt rather than purely witness and take
note.
Make themselves too available to students so that they talk to the teacher rather than
a partner.
Are too far away from students, only vaguely looking and listening to whats going on,
making it hard for them to believe that theyre actually being listened to at all.
To avoid problems like this, you need to:
1. Monitor hard to include as many students as you can. In larger classes, you need to
learn to tune into several conversations at once, or at least appear to.
2. Initially stay central while you sweep the class with your eyes to check all are on-task,
not immediately wander off to the right or left.
3. Move around as/if necessary, but stay discreetly available, using eyes and ears in different directions to really (appear to) be listening. Unobtrusive monitoring is often best
achieved from behind learners, especially when theyre writing, so move chairs away
from the walls to facilitate this.
4. Avoid dwarfing students (especially if youre tall or wearing high heels) by sitting on a
chair (preferably one with wheels so you can whiz around the class!), kneeling or
squatting, so your eyes are at about the same level as theirs.
5. Avoid spending too much time with one individual, pair or group, and ensure that all
learners feel monitored. Especially in larger classes, train learners to self-monitor,
i.e. note down any questions to be asked at the end of the activity.
6. Take notes or intervene quietly as necessary. As long as it looks as if youre monitoring and preparing to give some useful feedback, then at least they will think youre
listening. Like Venice, the faade of monitoring is almost as important as the act itself!
Task 6
In your Practicum, or when you next observe a class, pay close attention to how the teacher monitors and write short answers to the following questions:
Which of the eight purposes for monitoring do you notice?
Are steps 1-6 above followed?
Does the teachers monitoring mainly help or hinder fluent, speedy, intensive pairwork?
How might it have been done better?
160
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
Task 7
Discuss the following questions with your colleagues:
How would you feel as the teacher if your students were working like this?
Would it put you off using pairwork in class?
How could you get them to speak more in English?
Comment
At first sight it may look and sound pretty awful but actually, of the 41 words, 8 are in English, which is nearly 20%! Admittedly its only the same few simple words, but what often
seems superficially annoying, even pointless, with closer scrutiny can often seem much less
bad, even positive, especially if its an early attempt at pairwork. As with most other areas
of language leaning, pairwork is a process, and thats what counts, as they learn to work together in English. Remember, the focus is on English, theyre processing English using some
and then, little by little, ever more English and, with training, help and appropriate language input, this proportion can be significantly improved quite quickly. The aim of speaking
only English in monolingual pairwork is generally overambitious, idealistic, unreal and
even inappropriate. Mainly English would be a really significant achievement, of which
you and your students should all be proud.
Pupils coming up from primary school are well versed in pairwork because they do it all the
time but, ironically, it often stops in secondary school because the teachers think its too
noisy, or because students slip into Spanish. Even two words in English is better than nothing
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
161
at all. Language learning takes a long time. Frankly, sometimes its best just to get on with
it, and not worry too much about small details like a few words in L1.
Dont simply try to police the students output. Every time you say No Spanish only English!
think what that really means. Whos likely to respond? It wont be the shy, the reluctant or even
the middle-level students, all of whom know that others in the class can do it better than them.
They will look down and wait. So, once again, this inevitably feeds the strong at the expense
of the weak as theyre the only ones likely to operate exclusively in English. If you ask them
instead in pairs, to tell each other the answer to your question or prompt, everybody is equal.
You may get 80% Spanish but at least all are active, processing English and choosing
individually whether they want to respond in English, Spanish, or a combination of the two,
rather than being forced into silence by only being able to choose English. Be happy for small
mercies: 20% English is a great result!
In addition, try to distinguish between laziness and lack of knowledge. If they arent using
English it might be because:
It is too hard for them.
They dont know how to express their ideas simply with the English they know.
They are too tired or unmotivated by this particular activity.
If youre hard on them when the task itself is the problem, this may well backfire.
Let them use L1 while you use L2. For example, feedback in L2 whenever they use L1. Rather than prohibit it dogmatically and thus hold back weaker or shyer students, its best to be
especially lenient about students using it when in closed pairs, e.g. to check what they have
to do, to compare what they understood from a listening, to confirm answers, etc. We should
generally expect a blending of languages in monolingual classrooms. Students will inevitably
mix languages on the way to greater fluency in English, so help them to enjoy it, whilst at the
shaping it by feeding in classroom language, the phrases they need to do more together in
English and so on. (See Seligson, 1997, for a Classroom Language Phrasebook). Eventually,
they will start to use more English. Set up tasks so that even if theyre using L1 to discuss
how theyre going to perform the task, the final output requires them to use English.
However, try not to allow them to get away with using L1 lazily, e.g. for what they can paraphrase or express without any L1, in (broken) English, via gesture, mime, drawing or other
strategies. For many teachers, preventing L1 is like the finger in the dyke: once you let
the water start creeping in, the whole class will flood. But if students appreciate where
youre trying to take them, trust and respect you as a teacher, understand how they can help
themselves, and in particular are rewarded for their efforts through some form of continuous evaluation, this generally gets better and better with time.
162
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
Task 8
In your Practicum, notice every time students use:
- Only L1.
- A combination of L1 and English: e.g. Can you prestar me your goma?
ITry to work out why they arent using only English.
IConsider some of the factors mentioned above.
IHow important do you think this really is in the greater scheme of things?
Discuss your conclusions with your colleagues.
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
163
Do this several times then, instead of calling out to the whole class, put them in pairs or threes
if you have a very large class) and make them whisper the next word youre going to say to each
other, both so they get used to working in pairs, but also to give them all an equal chance.
We need to elicit fairly too, and that means asking for smaller amounts from students. If a student asks Whats the difference between lend money and borrow money?. Most teachers
would throw it back to the class to see if anybody could explain. To do so without translating
isnt easy, and only the stronger students would probably volunteer. If instead you say When
you lend money you give it. When you borrow money you (short pause) Finish the sentence in pairs. All they have to say is take it, so the task becomes much smaller, simpler and
better cued, the strong cant shout out the answer and all have an equal chance.
So, dont always feed off the strong. Too much in language teaching is based on requiring
an immediate response, yes or no, true or false, instant gratification. Most students need a
bit more time to process and think before they can respond, especially at lower levels. Regularly ask or field questions from them then say Dont tell me tell your partner! to give
everyone a chance to formulate an answer (or at least understand the question and think) in
pairs first. They compare, confirm or whisper the answer to a partner. before you take an
answer, and so the middle or weaker students may be more willing to offer an answer if their
partner has reached a similar conclusion. Pair-checking like this is one of the best ways
to allow everybody to be as involved as they can, or least want to be.
Here are a few more ways to equalise dominant students, and give the shyer, less-able or
slower students a better chance to respond to your elicitation.
Ask a question then
Give (ten) seconds thinking time, so more hands go up, and tell students to write instead of say the answers, to give them all more thinking time.
Say No more (girls). Lets have a (boy) this time, as a way to show them you want
others to answer.
Ask Somebody else?, plus a gentle restraining hand and a finger over mouth in the
Sh! gesture has a similar effect. Try using a remote control to pretend to turn off
over-keen students.
Simply nominate: No volunteers! You please (pointing to a quieter student). This
needs to be done with care, as it can terrify the really shy.
Count One-two-three! as a cue for all the class to call out the answer together.
Whether they do so or not is up to each of them, i.e. their choice, not yours.
Building this sort of levelling elicitation into much of your teaching will prevent the strong
from dominating and help democratise your classroom.
164
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
Task 9
Record your next Practicum class:
As you work try to get students to pong after each of your short pings, i.e. respond to
much shorter bursts from you.
As soon as you find yourself talking for as much as a minute, pause at an appropriate moment and see if they can predict (in pairs) what youre going to say next, or answer a simple question / piece of elicitation in pairs.
Do this repeatedly and see what happens.
It can help you to pause better, at appropriate moments, ask shorter questions, and avoid
excessively long explanations.
Listen to the recording and summarise your observations.
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
165
Echo
Its all too easy to repeat exactly what students have said, almost like a parrot, echoing everything
they say. For example, when checking answers or when they volunteer words during eliciting and
brainstorming. The more you do this, the less they will listen to each other simply because they
dont have to. Personally, I have trained myself only to use echo for errors, so when they hear
me repeating something they have said, pupils know its because theres an error and I want them
to correct it. I will often place emphasis on the part which is wrong to help them notice more,
with rising intonation too. They went AT the beach?, You GO there yesterday?. But thats the
only time I will echo what they say, except perhaps when repeating their names when I first hear
them for initial bonding: Liliana? Hmm. Thats a nice name. The more purposes you choose to
use echo for (because they said it too quietly, some werent listening, to speed things up, etc.), the
more confusing it gets, as students wont immediately know why youre saying it at all.
To avoid echo
1. Instead of getting close to students when they speak to you or ask a question, walk back, away
from them, cupping your hands behind your ear, to force them to speak louder, so all the class
can hear. Break eye contact with them, looking instead at the rest of the class to see if they can
hear and are listening in order to help the speaker recognise that theyre talking to the group, not
just to you. Say Pardon? and make them say it again (and again). Repeat this as necessary, so
they get used to what youre doing and to speaking to each other in English across the class.
2. Sometimes ask the class What did (Maria) just say?. Tell your partner, to see how
many of them heard and took in Marias words. If they didnt, get Maria to say it again,
to encourage her to turn, look at and speak to the rest of the class.
3. Work hard to resist echo by noticing when you do and dont do it. Ask yourself each
time Why did I say that? Was it necessary? Who was I talking to? The speaker, the
class or myself?. You can train yourself not to echo using the task below.
Task 10
In your Practicum, make an audio recording of yourself (on your phone or a small recorder), by
turning on the recorder just before you begin to give instructions or check answers to a book exercise, homework, etc. You can do this quite discreetly, so students arent aware of this.
After the class, listen and count the number of times you echo. Do this in groups with your colleagues to get their feedback.
Ask yourself the questions in Point 3 above. Which of the echoes could you have avoided and how?
Summarise your conclusions.
166
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
167
In the middle of any skills or language exercise you can always change something to help
them break it up and get to the end with more energy. If you dont, whose fault is it that they
didnt enjoy the exercise as much as they could have done?
To conclude, its generally advisable to try to involve students in your pedagogy by letting
them know what your managerial intentions are, why youre doing crazy things like this,
and giving them choices to respond to. By teaching in different ways on different days and
inviting comments, you should certainly get a better response. Youll certainly learn more
about teaching yourself. And, if learning is your objective, what have you got to lose?
Task 11
Look through your plan for your next Practicum class:
Count the number of physical, partnership changes there are going to be. Ensure there is
some small physical or mental change every three minutes.
If there isnt, think of a few small tweaks you can make and adjust your lesson plan.
168
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
It isnt an easy thing to improve, as many more experienced teachers will confirm. However, the best and simplest way to improve your timing is:
1. To keep guessing how long each stage and activity will take before you do them.
2. Ensure you note the time when you begin and end them.
3. Reflect afterwards on how long it actually took.
4. Work out why it may have taken more (or less, but its usually more) time than you thought.
Then, when you use the activity or material again, build into your planned timing what you
learnt the last time you did it. Ask other teachers too how long they think things will take to
share ideas on shortcutting.
A final point worth remembering, as in so much else in teaching, is that its best to share responsibility with your students. Set and vocalise time limits to students so they too are aware
of how much (or how little) time they have for any activity and so should try to work appropriately, usually with greater urgency. This will inevitably give you additional feedback.
Each time they ask for Just two more minutes when you thought they would have finished, youll get the ongoing feedback you need. This is particularly important for example
when reading, where you may want them to skim or scan quickly but give them too long so
they read painfully, word by word.
Task 12
Estimate the timing for each activity in your next Practicum.
Teach the class, making a note of the real time each one took.
Reflect on how accurate your guesses were, any distortion and the reasons why. Tick any
of the reasons below and add any other factors.
Students questions required additional explanations or practice.
Students needed more time to complete an activity, or preferred to do an activity in plenary
format/speaking rather than smaller groups/writing.
A natural digression occurred: unexpected errors, a funny incident, an interesting and relevant discussion emerged, an anecdote came to mind, etc.
You suddenly had a better idea on the spot.
You realised your students could handle a further challenge, so you presented or asked for
more than you originally intended, e.g. additional questions or tasks.
Students hadnt done their homework or had forgotten something you had assumed.
Some students took far too long.
Others?
Then, if possible, teach the lesson again, preferably with an observer there to give you a second opinion, and see what changes the second time.
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
169
FURTHER READING
Most recommended titles below are self-explanatory.
Books
ATKINSON, D. (1993). Teaching Monolingual Classes. Harlow: Longman.
CROSS, D. (1995). Large Classes in Action. New York, NY: Prentice Hall.
DELLER, S. & RINVOLUCRI, M. (2002). Using the Mother Tongue. Peaslake: DELTA Publishing.
In typical Rinvolucri style, the authors turn the issue on its head, with some intriguing ideas for
judiciously exploiting the mother tongue. Id recommend almost any book by Mario Rinvolucri to teachers looking for new, practical ideas.
DRNYEI, Z. (2001). Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Good ideas on often neglected areas like presence, and ways to motivate.
170
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
Journals
SELIGSON, P. (1999). Two heads are better than one. English Teaching Professional, 11, 16-18.
(2001). Personalisation and pairwork. English Teaching Professional, 18, 18-20.
Both articles offer practical suggestions for implementing a range of pairwork activities.
Websites
There are also a lot of good ideas on:
British Councils Teaching English website.
www.teachingenglish.org.uk
Just type in class management or google ELT classroom management.
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
171
REFERENCES
Harmer and Scrivener are the two classic manuals for new teachers both rich, full and practical introductions to teaching EFL.
HARMER, J. (2007). The Practice of English Language Teaching (3rd ed.). Harlow: Pearson.
MALEY, A. (2000). The Language Teacher's Voice. London: Macmillan Heinemann.
SCRIVENER, J. (2005). Learning Teaching. London: Macmillan Heinemann.
SELIGSON, P. (1997). Helping Students to Speak. London: Richmond Publishing.
UNDERWOOD, M. (1987). Effective Class Management. London: Longman.
ZIMMERMAN, M. (1989). The nervous system in the context of information theory. In R.F.
Schmidt & G. Thews (eds.), Human Physiology (pp. 166-173). Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
4. Educacin fsica
VOL. I
VOL. II
VOL. III
5. Fsica y Qumica
VOL. I
VOL. II
VOL. III
6. Filosofa
VOL. I
VOL. II
VOL. III
7. Francs
VOL. I
VOL. II
VOL. III
8. Geografa e Historia
VOL. I
VOL. II
VOL. III
9. Ingls
VOL. I.
VOL. II
VOL. III
12. Matemticas
VOL. I
VOL. II
VOL. III
13. Msica
VOL. I
VOL. II
VOL. III
14. Tecnologa
VOL. I
VOL. II
VOL. III