ELE Saturday Seminar

Motivating your students to speak--exploring a content-based approach

to teaching speakingSpeaker: Ms LEE Ching Lam, Jessica Date: 13.04.2019

Any

volunteers? Hello

Overview

Part One (9:45-11:00)

● Factors affecting students’ motivation to speak

● A content-based approach to teaching speaking-

-why and how?

Overview

Part Two (11:15-12:15)

● Lesson 1: That’s NOT a good idea! (Lower primary)

● Lesson 2: Top 10 Hong Kong Dishes (Upper primary)

● Lesson 3: Logical Fallacies (Secondary)

Leaving

at 12:30

3 Things in Common

1. Divide into small groups and introduce yourself.

2. Find three things all group mates have in

common.

a. The three things we have in common are…

b. There are three ways we are alike…

c. We all share…

Part 1: Factors affecting

students’ motivation to

speak

The problem of reticence

● ‘Being hesitant and anxious about speaking

in the target language’ (Bailey 2005, p.163)

● A common problem in HK classrooms (e.g.

Tsui 1996; Liu & Littlewood 1997; Littlewood

2000; Lee & Ng 2009)

How reticence hinders oracy skills

● Fewer practice opportunities

● Learners are less likely to notice the gap between

what they can say and what they intend to say

● Less likely to challenge themselves and make

progress

Swain (1985)

Causes of reticence

In interviews with teachers

● Students’ low proficiency

● Students’ fear of mistakes

● Students’ fear of peers’ derision

Causes of reticence

According to classroom data

● students’ fear is often teacher-induced.

Tsui (1996)

Discussion

1. Consider the scenarios and share your views

to others.

2. Would you conduct your teaching differently if

you were one of those teachers?

Scenario A

T: ‘Offered,’ that means…can you give me another word

for ‘offered’? Another word?

S: Give.

T: Given, not give, because it’s passive voice…

Tsui (1996, p.151)

Scenario B

● T: Don’t just look at the books. Just think from your general

knowledge. Can you think?

● T: Timmy, can you hurry up? What are you doing?

● T: Okay, Ryan? Hurry up. Think. Can you all write down. What

are the effects? Write down. What did you say just now? Die.

What else? Pardon? Louder please. Priscilla, can you say it

louder? Louder, louder.

● S: Skinny

● T: Anything else? Affects, how does it affect you and your…

(Tsui 1996, p.152)

Classroom practices which incur anxiety in

speaking:

● Teacher’s unrealistic expectations (e.g. high

challenge without high support)

● Teachers’ intolerance of silence

● Teachers’ incomprehensible input

● Teachers’ uneven allocation of turns

Reticence and Chinese culture

There is a relationship between reticence in

Chinese learners and the Confucian values of

‘face’ and ‘silence’. (Liu 2002; Woodrow

2006; Karas 2016)

Why are Chinese learners often quiet and

passive in class?

I need to fully absorb what is

being taught first.

I need to respect my teacher and

preserve harmony.

I don’t want to ask a stupid question.

‘Productive silence’

If they present the same idea

as mine, I pay attention to

their errors. By noting

classmates’ errors, I can

mentally correct their

mistakes….

During new or unfamiliar

topics, I preferred to wait for

others to speak, I will listen to

what other people say and

then I will present my idea.

(Karas 2016)

Motivation and self-concept

● Believe in their ability

● Associate successes

with effort

● Success → pride and

confidence

● High motivation

● Doubt their ability

● Associate successes

with factors beyond their

control

● Success → not

rewarding as they don’t

feel responsible

● Low motivation

Types of motivation

● Learn purely for the

personal

satisfaction it brings

● Intrinsic motivation

● Learn in order to

gain some reward or

to avoid negative

consequences of

not learning

● Extrinsic motivation

No dichotomy between both.

● Both types of motivation are important and can

be mutually supportive.

● Student may become intrinsically motivated as

learning becomes enjoyable and rewarding.

Strategies to reduce

reticence and improve

motivation

Emotional support

● Build good rapport with students.

● Regard for students’ perspectives, interests

and needs.

● Foster a sense of community and mutual trust

among students.

● Value hard work and encourage proactive

problem solving.

Classroom organisation

● Consider seating and class size.

● Use pair/ group work, not just

whole-class discussions to

maximise speaking opportunities.

● Call on answers from small groups

after they have discussed among

themselves.

Instructional support

● Make language input comprehensible and provide

scaffolding.

● Always begin meaning-focused activities and make sure

form-focused activities are linked to language used in the

meaning-focused activities.

● Interesting, stimulating materials (visual aids, realia,

stories, songs, Internet resources).

● Encourage out-of-class learning.

Instructional support (cont.)

Encourage/ expand language use by

● allow students to prepare for a topic in advance

● lengthen wait time

● modify questions

● accept alternative answers

● allow students to formulate answers through writing

before offering them to the whole class(Tsui 1996; Woodrow 2006; Lightbown

2014)

Interaction strategy

● Teacher-fronted strategy: results in a teacher-

dominated IRF interaction pattern.

● Facilitator-oriented strategy: enables teachers to

create ‘authentic’ dialogues with students.

● Learner-oriented strategy: results in interaction

which is basically learner initiated. The teacher only

intervene when learners come across difficulties.

❏ T: What’s this?

❏ S: A tower.

❏ T: Good, yes, a tower.

Interaction A

❏ T: How did you spend your holiday?

❏ S1: Mm...bored...I sleep every day.

❏ T: Oh, what a shame. Your holiday was boring. You slept

the whole day. Why didn’t you go out?

❏ S1: No, no money.

❏ T: Yeah.

❏ S2: No. He had money.

❏ S1: How you know I had money?

Interaction B

Discussion

1. What is the difference between reticence and

productive silence?

2. How can we help a learner to foster a positive self-

concept and motivate our students both intrinsically

and extrinsically ?

3. Do you know any other strategies which can help

students overcome their reticence and improve their

motivation which I haven’t mentioned?

● What is CBLT? ● What is the rationale for

using CBLT? ● WHat are the different

models of CBLT?● What are CBLT lessons

like?

???

What is a content-based approach (CBLT)?

CBLT is an approach which has its

origin from communicative language

teaching (CLT), which emphasizes

authentic language use within the

context of content that is

meaningful to the learners.

CLT

TBLT CBLT

What is CBLT (Cont.)?

● It is ‘...the integration of particular content with

language teaching aims...the concurrent teaching of

academic subject matter and second language skills’

(Brinton, Snow & Wesche,1989)

● aimed at ‘the development of use-oriented second

and foreign language skills’ (Wesche, 1993)

● ‘Provide both a motivational and cognitive basis for

language learning’ (Snow, Met and Genesee, 1989)

How CBI is supported by major language

learning theories

Comprehensible input hypothesis on SLA:

● All language learning begins with ‘comprehensible

input’.

● While a learner is paying attention to the meaning

carried by the comprehensible input, they are

incidentally learning elements of the language.Kasper (2000), Lightbown (2014)

How CBI is supported by major language

learning theoriesCognitive psychology on skill learning:

● Exposure to comprehensible input alone is NOT enough.

● Three stages of learning a skill: noticing → sufficient

practice (in producing comprehensible output)→

fluency/ automaticity

● Feedback is necessary to push learners to achieve

accuracy and appropriacy.

See Kasper (2000), Lightbown (2014) for more.

Why CBLT?

● People learn a second language more

successfully when they use the language as a

means of acquiring information, rather than as

an end to itself.

● CBI better reflects learners’ needs for learning

a second language.

Richard and Rodgers (2001)

Why a CBLT approach to teaching speaking?

● When there is a greater focus on content, learners are distracted

from worries about making language errors and opportunities to

develop fluency are maximised.

● Group work is often used in CBLT. Less confident learners are more

willing to speak up after having a discussion in their own group.

● CBLT develops learners’ knowledge of the world and provides

opportunities for obtaining, synthesizing and evaluating

information from different resources, which can make students

more independent and confident, helping them to break away from

their traditional role as a passive recipient of knowledge.

CBLT as a continuum

‘Models of CBI differ….All share, however, a common point of departure--the

integration of language teaching aims with subject matter instruction.’ (Snow

2001, p.303)

Content-

driven

Language-

driven

Total

Immersion

model

Adjunct

model

Theme

-based

model

Sheltered

model

Language

classes with

frequent use

of content

Content-driven vs. language-driven

● Content is taught in L2.

● Content learning is the top

priority.

● Language learning is secondary.

● Learning objectives determined

by content course goals or

curriculum. Little accountability

for language development.

● Student evaluated on content

mastery.

● Content is used to learn L2.

● Language learning is the top

priority.

● Content learning is incidental.

● Learning objectives determined by

L2 course goals or curriculum.

Content is a vehicle for language

development.

● Students evaluated on language

skills / proficiency.

Examples of CBLT in HK

Learning English through

rugby

NSS English

ElectiveLearning maths

in an EMI school

Theme-based units in English textbooks

Nation’s Four Strands (2007)Meaning-focused input

Ss listen and read for

meaning.

Fluency development

Ss speak and write for the

purpose of conveying

meaning.

Meaning-focused output

Ss understand and produce

language they already know

but may not yet access

automatically.

Language-focused learning

Ss learn new language

features or more accurate/

sophisticated use of those

features + learning strategies.

All four strands are essential for

language acquisition.

Cummins’ framework (2000, p.68)

A C

B D

Cognitively

undemanding

Cognitively

demanding

Context

embedded

Context

reduced

Informal conversation

A lecture on relativity

To sum up

● Acknowledging the effect of anxiety and creating a low-

anxiety, supportive classroom are among the first

steps to reduce reticence.

● CBLT allows language learning to occur in natural,

meaningful contexts and increases students’

motivation to learn.

● Comprehensible input alone is not enough. For CBLT to

be effective, an explicit focus on language used in

the meaning-focused activities is also necessary.

Part 2: Sample CBLT

Lessons

Lesson 1: That’s NOT a good idea!

Pre-reading

Do you think the following is a good idea?

Yes, I’d love to// No, that’s not a good idea.

● Talk to a stranger

● Visit a stranger’s house

● Have dinner with a stranger

Post-reading

Hungry Fox’s friend, Hungry Fox no. 2, happens

to be in town today and meets Mother Goose. Role

-play to learn about making invitations and how to

accept and reject them.

Useful expressions

● Sure!

● Sounds fun!

● I would love to!

● Certainly.

● That’s NOT a good

idea!

● That’s really NOT

a good idea!

Would you care to…?

go for a walk

visit my kitchen

boil some water for soup

look at my soup

Further practice

You are walking down the street and your favourite teacher,

Ms Lee, appears before you. She wants to invite you for a

walk but you are busy. Instead of simply saying ‘That’s not

a good idea’, are there nicer ways to say no?

Ms Lee: How nice to see you! Would you care to _______?

You: _______________________________________.

My comments

This activity is showing a marked feature of conversational

discourse: the use of fixed expressions or “routines” (e.g.

adjacency pairs), which serves specific social functions and

gives the conversations quality of naturalness/ native-likeness.

Talks for interacting with others socially are often overlooked

in school textbooks. There are students who can give

excellent presentations but fail to talk socially.

Lesson 2: Top Ten Hong Kong Dishes

Situation

Your NET teacher is new to

Hong Kong and knows little

about Hong Kong people’s

favourite dishes. Work with

your group members to make

a video which recommends

Top 10 Hong Kong dishes to

him.

After reading a text about “Food around the world”...

Word Sort

Place the following words into different categories based on their meanings.

sweet tender salty

deep-fried sour creamy

crispy pan-fried baked

spicy steamed savoury

stir-fried crunchy chewy

Scan the

QR code

to do the

word

sort.

Watch a sample video

https://spark.adobe.com/video/2Zz7GTPhP5vM2

Pre-viewing questionsYou will watch a video about a local dish loved by many Hong Kong people. Tell me:1. What dish is it?2. Describe how is it cooked, its

taste and texture.

Planning

sheet(can be

used for

joint writing

too)

Suggested structure

Your ideas

Title

Name of dish

Type

Method of cooking

Taste and texture

Comment

My comments

● A variety of scaffolding techniques are used to support

students in their presentation (e.g. brainstorming for prior

knowing, vocabulary work, providing a model text with a

suggested structure, a planning sheet).

● Spontaneous speaking may be challenging for young learners.

Allowing students to formulate their ideas through writing,

direct teaching of vocabulary & structure, and using a video

format to allow ss to rehearse & redo their recording...all

these give the learners a greater chance to experience success

in speaking.

Lesson 3: Logical Fallacies

What is a logical fallacy?

● Mistakes of reasoning or faulty thinking.

● Knowing about common logical fallacies can

help us explain other people’s mistakes and

construct effective rebuttals in a debate.

My comments

● Learners will feel more confident when knowledge of debate is

made explicit to them.

● Learners are allowed to initially focus on content, the task is

then followed by an activity with explicit attention to

language.

● Discussing the terms in groups allows students to discuss in a

low-risk environment as they have the safety and support of

the group.

Concerns about using a CBLT approach

1. Students may feel they aren't improving their language skills when

little attention is paid to the development of language skills and

strategies.

2. Students feel overwhelmed by the cognitive demands coming from

the content.

3. Students may use their mother tongue rather than the target language

during collaborative work.

4. It is hard to find information sources that are pitched at the right level

for the students.

My responses

1. CBLT should promote both content and language learning. Nation’s four

strands are useful for conceptualising learning in CBLT, which emphasizes

all four strands are essential for successful learning of content and language.

Research also shows most learners actually prefer more T feedback on their

language. They prefer immediate and selective feedback (instead of focusing

on every error). Opportunities for frequent recalls of correct form from

memory are actually beneficial.

1. According to Cummins’ framework, high cognitive demand + unsupportive

context → use input with less challenging language and provide high

language support; low cognitive demand + supportive context → use input

with more challenging language and provide less language support.

My responses (cont.)

3. This concern does have some foundation. But there is really no need to totally

exclude L1 as L1 can facilitate learning when used wisely. Also when tasks

are well planned and organised according to the language abilities of the Ss

and teachers are able to use a variety of scaffolding techniques, it is possible

to ensure students can participate in group work without reverting to their L1.

3. Teacher can modify/ adapt the sources/ their own language (speaking slowly,

repeating, paraphrasing) to aid comprehension. Another way is to let ss

engage in group work/ peer work so as to allow students to work in their ZPD

(zone of proximal development) with the support of peers.

References● Bailey, K. M. (2005). Practical English language teaching: speaking. New York : McGraw-Hill

ESL/ELT.

● Brinton, D., Snow, M.A., & Wesche, M. N. (1989). Content-based second language instruction. Boston:

Heinle & Heinle Publishers.

● Hedge, T. (2014). Teaching and learning in the language classroom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

● Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz, M. B., & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety. Modern

Language Journal, 70(2), 125.

● Karas, M. (2016). Turn-taking and silent learning during open class discussions. ELT Journal, 71(1),

13-23.

● Kasper, L. F. (2000). Content-based college ESL instruction. In L. F. Kasper (Ed.), Content-based

college ESL instruction (pp.3-25). Mahwah, New Jersey: LAwrence Erlbaum Associates.

● Lee, W., & Ng, S. (2009). Reducing student reticence through teacher interaction strategy. ELT

Journal, 64(3), 302-313.

● Lightbown, P. M. (2014). Focus on Content-Based Language Teaching (Oxford Key Concepts for the

Language Classroom). Oxford University Press.

● Littlewood, W. (2000). Do Asian students really want to listen and obey?. ELT Journal: English

Language Teachers Journal, 54(1), 31-36.

● Liu, N., & Littlewood, W. (1997). Why do many students appear reluctant to participate in classroom

learning discourse?. System, 25(3), 371-384.

● Liu, J. (2002). Negotiating Silence in American Classrooms: Three Chinese Cases. Language and

Intercultural Communication, 2(1), 37-54.

● Richards, J., & Rodgers, T. (2001). Approaches and methods in language teaching (2nd ed.,

Cambridge language teaching library). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

● Swain, M. (1985) Communicative competence: Some roles of comprehensible input and

comprehensible output in its development. In Gass, S. and Madden, C. (Eds.), Input in Second

Language Acquisition, pp. 235-256. New York: Newbury House.

● Tsui, A. M. B. (1996). Reticence and Anxiety about Second Language Learning. In K. Bailey & D.

Nunan (Eds.), Voices from the Language Classroom (pp.145-167). New York: Cambridge University

Press.

● Woodrow, L. (2006). Anxiety and Speaking English as a Second Language. RELC Journal,37(3),

308-328.

● Wesche, M. B. (1993). Discipline-based approaches to language study: Research issues and

outcomes. In M. Krueger & F. Ryan (Eds.) Language and content: Discipline- and content-based

approaches to language study (pp.57-82). Lexington, MA: D. C. Health.