7 Tips for Re-engaging Student Attention

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Do you sense bewilderment or boredom in your ESL classroom? Two very different teacher perspectives are presented. Gain strategies for conducting lessons that guarantee active involvement, that keep students on their toes and that most importantly, produce a communicative learning environment.

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Att e n t i o n ! !

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Seven Tips and TricksFor (Re-)Engaging Students

“For Better and for Worse, Technology Use Alters Learning Styles, Teachers Say” (New York Times, 11/1/2012, p. A 18)

• Scholars who study the role of media in society say no long-term studies have been done that adequately show how and if student attention span has changed because of the use of digital technology.

• Teachers: digital technologies were creating “an easily distracted generation with short attention spans.”

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What Happens When Attention Wanders?

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Let’s start

with a little history…

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Stephen Krashen

Input hypothesis:Comprehensible input is the only necessary condition for language learning if the learner is predisposed to pay attention (p. 159-160)

(1982, 1985, 1998)

Affective Filter Hypothesis: Ability to acquire language is affected if the learner is experiencing negative emotions such as fear or embarrassment. 8

Richard Schmidt

Schmidt (2001) "noticing requires . . . a conscious apprehension and awareness of input.” (p. 26).

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Michael Long

Interaction Hypothesis (1996)

More emphasis on the internal processing capacities of the language learner. (input + output) p. 167

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Merrill Swain

Output hypothesis point 1:

the noticing/triggering function or conscious-raising relates closely to learner output. p. 174

(1985, 1995)

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7 Tips and Tricks

II. Behavioral Problems

I. Leadership

IV. Bells and Whistles

V. Group Activities

VI. Engaging Websites

VII. Interchange

III. Use of Native Language

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• >

The Joy of Teaching

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Departmental Support

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The Syllabus

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What you cannot enforce--do not command.-Sophocles

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Leadership: Establish Authority17

Learning OutcomesLearning Outcomes

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Discipline and Order

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Classroom Control

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Who’s the Teacher?

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Use of Native Language

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Pay for language use

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Teacher Uses a Foreign Language

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Teacher = Inspiration

A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold

them together.

--Goethe (1749 - 1832)26

Bells and Whistles

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Stopwatch

(Jennifer tells experience)

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Whole Brain Learning

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Team Formation and Task

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Competition is Important

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Each Group/Pair Records Answers

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• Real-english.com

• Owl.english.perdue.edu

• online-stopwatch.com

• Youtube.com

• Slideshare.net 34

Audience Contributions

• Websites:– Flashenglish.com– Freerice.com– Wordlearner.com

• Techniques for changing the subject/regaining attention:– Throw SOFT ball from student to student in a circle– Silent game-one silent picks another student to be silent, etc.,

until everyone is silent– Clapper to get attention (louder than bell)– Give breaks!– Have areas of the room for answer, e.g., multiple choice, “a” in

the front, “b,” at the back, “ the corner for “no opinion,” etc.

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Interchange

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Summary

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Is Your Day Like This?

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Or This?

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