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Teaching methodologies and the Practical English challenge

Simon Smith

ELC Teacher & President’s Office Special Assistant

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Waving my axe at Ban’s door?

Methodology is TESOL! Inspiration for this workshop

– Lovely and David W Today

– Methodology curriculum

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Lang acq 101 Acquisition

– Gradual development– Communicative situations

Learning– Conscious process of accumulating knowledge

Babies acquire language Long-term residents of a country acquire

language

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Language proficiency Acquisition usually leads to greater proficiency Some parts of the language are more difficult to

acquire than others– Conrad effect– Think about linguistic strata

Lateralization Teenagers are quicker at learning language (and

math) than young children– Cognitive skills are important too

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Affective (emotional) filter A term used by Stephen Krashen A barrier to acquisition/learning What activates the filter?

– Teenage self-consciousness– Embarrassment about making funny sounds– No empathy with the foreign culture or its speakers– Boring textbooks– No interesting activities– Bad classroom environment– Exhausting schedule

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Teaching methods: (1) Grammar translation

Like learning any other subject Students learn vocabulary and (prescriptive)

grammar rules “Does not enable students to use language in the

country”– This depends on the student!– It is probably not true of the people in this room

http://www.nthuleen.com/papers/720report.html

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(2) Audiolingual method Advocated by Robert Lado Essentially now discredited, because we now know that la

nguage acquisition is not a mechanical process Habit formation

– Based on drills (mechanical or meaningful)– Keep doing it until students perform without errors– (but of course they make errors in real life)

Based on form, not function– This week: Present tense, not this week: Going shopping in the U

SA

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Designer methods The silent way

– Teacher mostly remains silent. Students figure out language patterns using colored rods?!

– Facilitates learning through discovery TPR

– Mostly for kids– Language input with body motions– Acting out stories, giving commands– Not really useful at advanced level

Suggestopedia– “LEARN ENGLISH IN THREE WEEKS!!!”– Flashcards, soothing music– Students are at a good state of “relaxed alertness”– Both it and TPR are supposed to stimulate right brain motor activity

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Communicative approach Emphasis is on function, not form And on fluency and communicative quality,

not grammatical and pronunciation errors Different attitude to errors

– They are part of the learning process – Just like broke – breaked – broke

Interesting and meaningful input– Materials from the real world

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Nunan’s five features of CLT

interaction in the target language authentic texts focus on learning process as well as target

language include learner’s own personal experiences link to language activities outside the

classroom

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Is CLT the only valid approach? Bax (2003) says NO

– Most Czechs and Dutch (e.g.) are taught by traditional means (GT)

– It is arrogant to assume that the Western CLT model is the best for all countries and all contexts

Others might say – Many authentic texts are way too difficult– Personal experiences are too difficult for students to ex

plain or discuss– Or, students’ personal experiences are limited– “Most of my language learning was NOT via CLT”

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Which methodology are we using now?

(And I mean in PE-EMW…) A CLT approach

– promotes interaction, sharing of personal experiences– (not especially successfully)

Some not especially authentic texts– (some are very well written, but really really hard)

A rote memorization task (GT?)– Random items of vocabulary are learned for test– Alarming washback effects

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What approach should we adopt?

We need a framework – or a curriculum – which – takes account of students’ actual English needs– is not committed to any one methodology– adapts to a range of tasks / activities which coul

d be characterized as GT, CLT, LA, AL… – generates positive washback (not memorization

and non-participation)

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Discussion 11. Is it important – or even possible – to teach PE-EMW in a

communicative way?2. How did you learn your second language? 3. What is the single biggest challenge (or constraint) of

teaching PE-EMW?4. Which challenges

a. can we control?b. can we not control?

5. Talk about your own teaching methodologya. How do you overcome the PE-EMW challenges?b. Do you use much group work? Pair work? Whole class work?c. Do you do any peer teaching?d. What’s your favorite activity for each level that you teach? Is it in

the EMW book?e. How much time do you spend with the EMW book?f. Do you or your students use any Chinese in class? Are you OK with

the situation?

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Communicative tasks

I like these, and they motivate students They have a non-linguistic outcome The learner is rewarded by something real,

or kind of real– résumés and interviews: get a “job” (applause)– study abroad emails: get a personal email from

a university

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Audiolingual activities

Pronunciation drills Substitution drills

– can be student led, in small groups– can be whole class, in shuffling lines

Choral repetition of discussion questions

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GT activities

Conversion– keywords declarative sentences– declarative sentences questions

Group translation– getting the gist of a paragraph– getting nuances of key sentences

Cloze tests (with function words missing)

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Lexical approach: yet another methodology

Brain stores linguistic knowledge– vocab (+features) and a bunch of grammar rules– that’s basically what we have to learn

Lewis (1993) and Schmitt (2000) say– the vocab is stored in chunks and collocations – kith is stored with kin– scotch is stored with rumour, and snake, and whisky

Saying strong car or powerful tea or broken house gives away non-native speakers– a bit like the Conrad effect

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Collocations and chunks An activity “In your own language?!? In Chinese?!? ”

– note that this activity is intended for use in (eg) UK– the teacher not knowing the language is irrelevant

“We have students who can barely string a sentence together, this is much too hard”– Well, take a look at a PE vocab list!

www.sketchengine.co.uk egs

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Council of Europe Framework (CEF) distinguishes

Declarative knowledge– knowing a word– knowing a grammar pattern– knowing a specific cultural taboo

Existential competence– how to elicit help (like Randy’s list)– paying attention– awareness of the risk that a taboo might exist

Skills & know-how– Using a dictionary or thesaurus– Using a CALL program, or the web, or Sketch Engine

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CEFR linguistic activities

Reception Production Interaction

R + P Mediation

– “occupies an important place in the normal linguistic functioning of our societies”

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Discussion 2 Do you think, ideally, we should be teaching

– grammar?– vocabulary?– English skills needed in the workplace?– English skills needed for a student’s MCU studies?– any non-linguistic skills? – any translation or mediation skills? (Again, ideally)

How would you use the Sketch Engine to teach, or prepare for class?

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Student needs PE7 and 8 kind of target “The Workplace”, and

rightly so– students write emails– They should be able to handle a phone call– but we do not train them in some common office

English tasks OK, very few MCU students

– work or study overseas– work in foreign companies

They work in Taiwan companies, but they do use English!

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A huge chunk of the population uses English regularly

7/11 clerks and Starbucks baristas need it Emails and faxes come in to companies Reports have to be read and summarized English instructions have to be written Translations have to be made

– Formal/informal; oral/written Email correspondence to/from Chinese and other

Taiwanese colleagues is often in English!

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Taiwan is bilingual anyway People naturally code-switch all the time, using T

aiwanese– for informality– to give an impression of informality (eg with the boss)– to exclude non-Taiwanese speakers

Nowadays, to move in certain circles, you must be able to switch to English

Translate this:– Please fax me the candidate’s résumé, as I have an inte

rview with her tomorrow Answer (overheard in my wife’s office)

– 麻煩你把 candidate 的 résumé fax 給我 , 我明天要跟她 interview

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Study at MCU and English

For many students, in many disciplines, study involves English– Big textbooks– Big, incomprehensible textbooks– Big, incomprehensible textbooks taught by

teachers without specialist skills We offer the departments no help with

this??

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All students at MCU study Chinese language and/or lit

These programs are tailored to the different majors

We should investigate ways of tailoring PE– upper program years– not necessarily fully-blown content-based

instruction (CBI)– although that, if possible, would make a huge

difference to language acquisition

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English for Academic Purposes?

Academic reading skills Library/ internet research skills Essay writing skills Making inter-disciplinary connections

– eg linguistics and sociology, physiology, psychology, information science

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English is a school subject?

This is all they get from high school– Just rules and vocab

No, it’s a means of communication! Emphasize this by shock treatment

– Early exposure to native speakers?– Set the tone for 4 years of English study– Not 1 year + 3 years

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Materials platform EMW style hardcopy publication?

– No, not dynamic– Went wrong here before!

Total reliance on e-classroom technology?– Students need something to clutch– Equipment breaks

So, somewhere between the two– Teachers have to get packs printed up at semester start,

for example How about Moodle?

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MoodleFunctions: • Setting up teaching materials, such as docu

ments, audio/video files, powerpoint slides.• Creating teaching activities, such as hando

uts, discussions, self-assessments.• Engaging students’ involvement.• Assigning homework and online tests/quizz

es.

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Next steps on curriculum Needs analysis

– Establishing what our goals for the PE Challenge are Linking goals to a recognized reference framework (eg CE

FR) Later… populating the framework

– creating tasks and activities – validating existing ones– uploading them

Going live on PE1 in the Fall (2007) And then year by year, in parallel with Testing 2010, there

after

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We can’t change the world We can’t change the Taiwan education system. We can’t really affect university policy. We can’t make optimal textbook choices We can’t change the class sizes. We can’t stop failing students taking 2, 3 or even 4 levels

of PE concurrently We have no way to ensure MCU entrants know about the

4 year English program– There will always be a motivation problem here

We will work hard to implement English ability streaming, but not any time soon!

– There will be many abilities in our PE classes

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What we can do for students Target students’ real MCU and workplace

English needs– include academic skills if possible– include appropriate mediation skills

Show students that – English is relevant to their lives– English is a means of communication, not an

academic subject

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What we can do for teachers Free teachers to use the approaches and methodologies tha

t work best for them– fewer constraints on writing goals for each level– less reliance on vocab memorization– reading tasks at appropriate level

Provide dynamic curriculum and materials– correct errors– remove things that don’t work

Gradual implementation– evaluation on the fly– doesn’t seem such a mammoth task!– curric and materials designers eat own lunch

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Implementation: emphasis on

participation– consultancy– needs analysis

careful reflection decisiveness transparency

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A big vision for 2010: firsts for the Chinese-speaking world

MCU – the first US-accredited university

ELC– the first professional university English test– the first 4-year English curriculum targeting the

pre- and post-graduation needs of students Realizable? Yes!