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Session 2: Creating materials
Danny Norrington-Davies
King’s College London/IH London
Ideal scenarios• Giving the learners what they need at their point
of need
• Helping learners to pay attention to salientfeatures of the language whilst and after beingengaged in meaning focused activities(Masuhura, H. 2017)
• Accurate descriptions of language
• Opportunities for meaningful language use
Potential blocks
• Comprehension questions
• Rule discovery activities
• Controlled practice activities
Engaging texts ( Speak Out Upper-Intermediate 2011)
Engaging texts (Speak out Elementary 2011)
Comprehension questions
• Questions that test comprehension are not particularlycognitively demanding (Mishan, F. 2014)
• Comprehension questions often only focus on parts ofthe text chosen by the writer (Roberts, R. 2014)
• …noticing is most salient when a learner has beenengaged in a text affectively and cognitively and thenreturns to it to investigate language use (Tomlinson 2009)
Guided discovery
“Knowledge which is gained by one’s own efforts is muchmore likely to stick and to be used than knowledge whichis handed over on a plate” (Willis, D. 2000:8)
“Consciousness-raising tasks cater for discovery learningthrough problem solving, in accordance with the generalprinciple that what learners can find out for themselves isbetter remembered than what they are simply told” (Ellis,R. 2003:163)
A linear approach
“It is simply not the case that language learners acquiretarget items perfectly, one at a time” (Nunan, 1998:101)
“Teachers may teach one grammar structure at a time, andstudents may focus on one at a time, but students do notmaster one at a time before going on to learn another”.(Larsen-Freeman 1997)
Controlled practice
• repetition should be meaningful and relevant tothe learners ….. and not merely (or entirely) amechanical parroting of structures (Swain, M. &R. Lapkin, 2008)
• Using language productively means goingbeyond the kind of language display required bymany controlled practice activities(Willis, J. 1996)
Controlled practice
“If we want to examine what a piece of language isintended to do we cannot avoid thinking in termsof choice. Clearly, speakers do not go roundproducing decontextualized grammatically correctsentences: they have reasons for sayingsomething, and for saying it the way they do”(Thompson 2004:8)
Controlled practice
“When teaching lower levels there may be feweropportunities to improvise or engage in dialogic talk thanwith higher proficiency learners” (Richards, 2017)
The role of our participants
The writer
chooses the answers
The learners
find the answers
The teacher
validates the answers
Guy Cook on grammar translation
“All this entails a mode of learning which is highlydependent of the textbook. It entails teacher-centred andteacher-led learning, whole class procedure, lock-stepprogress and norm-referenced testing” (Cook 2010:11)
3 ways of tweaking our practice
Personal response tasks
Exploring reasons, not rules
Using replication or transposition activities
Personal response tasks
• What should Jade do?
• Who do you think needs to change the most?
• What do you think will happen?
• Why on earth did she marry him?
Feedback
From reasons to rules
• Why is Jade using ‘used to’?
• Why is Jade using ‘got used to’
From reasons to rules
• Jade is using ‘used to’ to describe hishabits before they married
From reasons to rules
Looking at language in this way helps us moveaway from unsupported intuitions and to base ourdescriptions on actual occurrences of use. In manycases, we will reinforce or probably refine ourintuitions. In some cases though, we will be ableto see important facts about language that are noteasily accessible to intuition
Thompson (2004:40)
From rules to reasons
• Jade is using ‘got used to’ to describe strange before but now it’s normal for Jade
From rules to reasons
• At first it was strange but she becameaccustomed
Feedback and language input
A replication task
•When I first met Jade…..
Examples from learners
• “I used to play computer games before we got married so I don’t know what her problem is””
• “She used to call me everyday so I got a lot of stress”
• “She would come to my home and she’d be sitting behind me when I was playing games”
• “I soon got used to her strange behaviour”
• “Unfortunately we got married”
Transposition
• Interview Jade
Language emerging in preparation• Why do you still stay with him?
• Didn’t you realise that it was a big problem at the beginning?
• What about your friends? Did they tell you anything when you decided to marry him?
• Have you ever thought to hide his computer?
• Did you suggest he sees a phy?
Emerging needs
• Have you tried to suggesting to help something?
• Have you thought to hide his computer?
• Have you joined playing videos together?
• you should threatening to leave him
Evaluative reading/listening tasks
What the students said
• I go looking for cities
• I don’t same people on the long journey
• I like aeroplane and train. I bus not comfortable
• I know new cities and people
• half
• So many people. Too stress
• I don’t like itineraries. I prefer to do my ownthing*
From rules to reasons
• Why are we using ‘would’?
From rules to reasons
• We are using ‘would’ to talk about futurewant, make possible plans, like see visitplace, learn languages
From rules to reasons
• The OZ bus is the longest bus ride in the world
• On the OZ bus people can see the most beautiful places in the world
• It travels 16,000 km through twenty countries
• In Tehran the bus broke down
From rules to reasons
He is using superlatives to emphasise the goodthings and persuade the reader. To convince.Advertisement
From rules to reasons
• There are many options. This trip is the bestoption. It is unique (superlatives)
• He’s using superlatives to persuade/convince thereader/customer
• Present simple is the itinerary
• Can is possibility. It explains to customers thetravel
A replication task
Create your own adventure from the following
• The world’s best cruise
• The best space trip
• The best UK trip
• The best drive/cycle ride in your country
• The Rus bus
Emerging language
• You can see the most beautiful sunset
• You can also have relaxing massage
• This will be unforgettable experience or your money back
• If you like x, you must/should go to….
Emerging language
Yuya: “We can go climbing, diving andbungee –jumping”
Ernesto: “I wouldn’t do that because Iphobia the high places. Is wouldn’t orcan’t?”
A transposition task
Imagine you went on the OZ bus/Rus bus.Interview your partner using the questionson the handout
Replication & transposition
“contextualised practice is still controlled,but it involves an attempt to encouragelearners to relate form to meaning byshowing how structures are used in reallife situations” (Ellis, R. 2002:68)
The role of our participants
The writer chooses the answer
The writer supplies the raw materials
The learners find the answer
The learners develop ideas, definitions, opinions and questions
The teacher validates the answer
The teacher works with what emerges
A working template
Your turn
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