Handouts

 

Mozambique & South Africa, 15, 16 & 17^th November 2012

The Art Of Communication – Listening & Speaking

What problems do your students have communicating in English?

• Not enough English
• Frustration
• Not enough practice
• Not enough support
• No motivation
• Think other skills are more important
• Can’t understand classmates
• Feel silly speaking English

Support

• Contextualised
• Modelled
• Focus on language
• Focus on phonology
• Success-oriented
• Fun to act out
• Subtitles available on dvd, too

Students need

• Supported activities
• Regular practice
• Motivating tasks
• Role-plays
• Fun!

Reading and Writing

Why is writing hard?

• It is often a solitary task, given as homework
• Composition titles are boring
• Students feel like failures when they have writing returned to them covered in red ink
• It’s not communicative
• It’s not fun
• Writing compositions in formal examinations  is stressful
• Writing is a difficult skill even in our mother tongue

Staging a writing lesson

• Personalisation
• Reading (model)
• Focus on grammar and/or vocabulary
• Question prompts / Frame
• Speaking
• Writing
•  

Breaking down sub-skills

·         Correct grammar

·         Range of vocabulary

·         Accurate punctuation

·         Correct layout

·         Correct register

·         Accurate spelling

·         Good range of sentence structures

·         Linking

·         Imagination

·         Planning / Drafting / Proof reading

·         Communication

Strategies

• Link reading and writing (and other skills)
• Create reasons to read and write
• Work on different sub-skills separately

Suggested further reading:

Writing, Tricia Hedge, OUP

Reading, Catherine Wallace, OUP

Developing Writing Skills

Writing versus Speaking:

•         The secondary form

•         Relatively recent

•         Learned by puberty, if at all

•         Quantitatively the minor form

•         Has high prestige in the First World

•         Leaves traces

•         Largely pre-meditated

•         No immediate opportunity to monitor reader feedback and effect repair

•         A lonely activity – often relegated to homework

A lack of competence in writing English results more from the lack of composing competence than the lack of linguistic competence.

             

Alexandra Krapels

If writing requires particular attention to correctness then there is the problem that unless syntactic rules have been thoroughly automated, then mental resources will be so preoccupied with achieving linguistic correctness that there will be little spare capacity for communication.

             

Henry Widdowson, 1979

Skills required:

•         Motor skills

•         Lexical and grammatical

•         Appropriacy / Register

•         Structuring

•         Ideas / creativity

Writing in class should be:

•         Supported

•         Integrated

•         Fun

•         Varied

•         Success-oriented

A portfolio is a collection of an individual child’s work, which shows her/his abilities, attitudes, strategies, effort and language development over time.

Our job as teachers is not to point out differences between our students’ language and standard English. That is too negative a role. Our job is to encourage the growth of language by appreciating the learning steps.

Mistakes and Correction, Julian Edge, Longman

Ideas for correcting written work:

•         Use any colour except red

•         Use a correction code

•         Write notes outlining positive points and main areas of error

•         Write a comment on the meaning of the writing

•         Students mark each others’ work

•         Use errors to devise games or quizzes

•         Tell the students what scheme you’ll use before they write

Watering the plants:
developing literacy skills

Spain:

Barcelona, Saturday 28th April

Madrid, Saturday 5th May

What makes early reading and writing hard?

Hand-eye coordination

Dexterity

Concentration

Volume

Lack of meaning & context

Interest and motivation

Memory Game

Happy Sad Dictation

Clever Parrot

Words to text, students need:

grammar and punctuation

models

frames

motivation

e.g. Comparisons:

A bus is bigger than a car.

An elephant is bigger than ..........

My teacher is ............... than..........

It’s big and grey.

It lives in Africa and India.

It has a trunk.

It’s a....

an elephant

It has no legs.

It is green or brown.

Sometimes it’s dangerous.

It’s a.....

a snake

Fairy tale chains:

Once upon a time there was a giant who lived in a forest.

Texts:

Jenny is eight years old. She has a brother, Tom. He is six.

Jenny’s mum is a doctor and her dad is a teacher.

Jenny has a dog. His name is Charlie. Jenny loves Charlie and plays with him every day.

What now?

Comprehension questions

e.g. How old is Jenny?

Draw and label

Read and discuss

Jumbled text / match sentences

Find mistakes

Match to pictures

Use frame to write new text

Read and draw:

Morgink is a monster from Mars. He is very tall and shaped like a ball. His body is covered in yellow fur. His head is round and his nose is like a pig’s and he has five small eyes. He is always smiling and you can see his big yellow tooth.He’s got four arms and only three legs.

Draw and write:

Haiku

Green pond

Frog jumps

Splash!

Acrostic poems

Frogs like

Rain

Outside then

Goes in water

Comfortable in front of fire

Asks for fish with a miaow

Thinks he’s the best

Frame:

Once upon a time there was a ....................  girl who lived in a .................... village.  Her mother and father were very .................. She liked to play in the ................... with her ..................... friend, who was called .......................

One day they found a ........................... and they took it to the police station. The policeman was very ......................... and told them they could keep it. They were very ..................................

reading and writing in class should be:

supported

integrated

fun

varied

success-oriented

personalised, if possible

21st Century skills

Barcelona, 28 April & Madrid 5 May

 

The old world of learning:

Classroom: long dry texts with comprehension questions, compositions / summaries / translation / examinations

The World: books, essays, letters, academia, elitism

High prestige in the First World

Charles Dickens, Hard Times

“NOW, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them.”

School isn’t working in 2012

In the UK school children are

stressed

particularly by pressure to succeed academically / exams

lack confidence – are in a ‘failure cycle’

feel school is not preparing them for real life

don’t enjoy learning

Problems

·         One size fits all

·         Idea of fixed ability

·         Examination success is the goal

Accurate transcription and retention are not the most important life skills for the 21^st century.

Guy Claxton, What’s the point of school?, 2008

The New World -

Emails, internet, blogs, computers, text messages, tv and dvd…

Studying through English in English speaking countries

Increased literacy & education

English is the lingua franca (LWC – language of world communication) in the world of business, finance, politics, entertainment..

Students today

want to be doctors, pilots, vets, teachers, architects, scientists, business people, lawyers, pop stars, designers, photographers, geologists, engineers......

           

the aim of education is to enable children to understand

6^th century BC, Heraclitus

Professor Stephen Heppell

·         use of technology

·         ingenuity

·         creativity

·         Imagination

·         collaboration

            - will be main focus in education by 2016

Skills that were appropriate 20 years ago no longer prepare children for the world beyond school.. Changes in society are accelerating  so rapidly that it is difficult to assess what factual knowledge will be needed for the future.. To be prepared for the challenge of the future, children will need skills that will give them control over their lives and their learning, for of their learning there will be no end.

Robert Fisher, Teaching Children to Think, 1990

           

The most important attitude that can be formed is that of the desire to go on learning..

John Dewey, 1938, (1859 – 1952,  American philosopherand educational reformer)

The Scottish Curriculum for Excellence

The goal of education is to equip all pupils with the foundation skills, attitudes and expectations necessary to prosper in a changing society

….support them in different ways to achieve their potential

… help understand diverse cultures and beliefs

UK National Curriculum Report, 1988, lists the following attitudes as ‘important at all stages of education’:

Curiosity

Respect for evidence

Willingness to tolerate uncertainty

Critical reflection

Perseverance

Creativity and inventiveness

Open-mindedness

Co-operation with others

Change of focus

From what we know about language

to what we can do with it

Common European Framework of Reference

           

... a paradigm shift towards English as a basic skill

David Graddol, 2006

SO...Language is a tool we need to get things done

Thinking skills need to be developed

What can we do about this?

           

Research in nursery schools by Tizard and Hughes showed that the girls they were researching asked 26 questions an hour at home and only 2 an hour at school. The teachers dominated the discussion with questions, only giving the children a short time in which to reply. Unintentionally the teachers were conveying the message that it was the children’s role to answer the questions rather than ask them.

           

The child is curious…wants to make sense of things… is open and receptive… experimental.. bold… not afraid of making mistakes… is patient…can tolerate an extraordinary amount of uncertainty, confusion, ignorance and suspense..                            

John Holt, How Children Learn, Penguin, 1967

Bloom’s taxonomy of thinking skills

Create

Evaluate

Analyse

Apply

Understand

Remember

I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.

Albert Einstein

Stereotypes are

outdated

idealised

represents upper middle class

culture is not static, it’s dynamic

‘The view contains the viewer’

Culture is a two-way process:

students need to have a sense of their own cultural reality

to appreciate own culture

to make comparisons

and see similarities

Communication is “…a process by which two individuals ‘try’ to exchange a set of ideas, feelings, symbols…meanings.”

Pierre Casse, Teaching for the Cross-Cultural Mind

Society of Inter-Cultural Education, 1981

A teacher who establishes rapport with the taught, becomes one with them, learns more from them than he teaches them.

Mahatma Ghandi

The only time my education was interrupted was while I was at school.

Winston Churchill

Teaching The World  

HUPE, Saturday 21 April 2012                         

_{What is Culture?}

_{Products: literature, folklore, art, music, artefacts}

_{Behaviours: customs, habits, dress, food, leisure}

_{Ideas: beliefs, values, institutions}

_{Culture is a learned way of life shared by a group of people.}

_{It includes languages, food, celebrations, artistic expression, the arts, sports, government, and the media.}

_{Danger of stereotypes}

_{·        outdated}

_{·        idealised}

_{·        represent upper middle class}

_{·        just plain wrong}

_{·        culture is not static, it’s dynamic}

_{·        and we observe only the tip of the iceberg}

_{Interpersonal Strategies:}

_{Learners should have contact with native speakers and cooperate with them. Learners must become acquainted with the target culture.}

_{Stern, 1992} 

_{Scottish Curriculum of Excellence}

_{The goal of education is to equip all pupils with the foundation skills, attitudes and expectations necessary to prosper in a changing society}

_{….support them in different ways to achieve their potential}

_{… help understand diverse cultures and beliefs}

_{Culture is a two-way process:}

_{students need to have a sense of their own cultural reality}

_{to appreciate own culture}

_{to make comparisons}

_Haiku

_{Ancient pond}

_{Frog leaps}

_Splash!

_Limerick

_{There was a young lady named Rose}

_{Who had a large wart on her nose.}

 _{When she had it removed}

 _{Her appearance improved,}

_{But her glasses slipped down to her toes.}

_{Communication is “…a process by which two individuals ‘try’ to exchange a set of ideas, feelings, symbols…meanings.”}

_{Pierre Casse, Teaching for the Cross-Cultural Mind}

_{Society of Inter-Cultural Education, 1981}

_{Nothing defines a culture as distinctly as its language, and the element of language that best encapsulates a society's values and beliefs is its proverbs.}

_{phrases.org.uk}

_{We focus on culture to:}

_{bring world into the classroom}

_{broaden students’ knowledge of world}

_{lead to classroom exploration}

_{allow students work on projects / blogs}

_{and practise more than just grammar and vocabulary}

_Use:

_Video

_CDs

_TV

_Readings

_Internet

_Stories

_{Students own information}

_Songs

_Newspapers

_Interviews

_{Guest speakers}

_Anecdotes

_Souveniers

_Photographs

_Surveys

_{Illustrations}

_Literature

_ACTIVITIES:

_Food

_{Where do these foods come from and what exactly are they?}

pizza

dimsum

sushi

muesli

goulash

curry

Would you eat any of these foods?

bats

snake

ostrich

bull’s testicles

mice

scorpions

Superstitions:

1. A bride looking in a mirror on her wedding day (China)
2. An itchy nose (Holland)
3. Dreaming of a white cat (America)
4. The number 4 (Japan, China)
5. Tuesday the 13^th (Spain)
6. Seeing two magpies together (UK)
7. Walking under a ladder (UK)
8. The number 13 (Italy)

1.      A bride looking in a mirror on her wedding day (China) unlucky – she sees a second wife

2.      An itchy nose (Holland) – lucky – good news is expected

3.      Dreaming of a white cat (America) – lucky

4.      The number 4 (Japan, China) – unlucky, word for four also means death

5.      Tuesday the 13^th (Spain) – unlucky

6.        Seeing two magpies together (UK) – sign for joy7. Walking under a ladder (UK) – unlucky – something will fall on you?

7.      8. The number 13 (Italy) – lucky

8.      ‘Fare tredici’ is the slogan of the National Lottery. If you get 13, you win!

Songs:

British songs like Oranges and Lemons and Hickory Dickory Dock

North American songs like When I first came to this land

Australian songs like Kookaburra and Waltzing Matilda

From Primary Music Box, Cambridge University Press

Odd one out:

a fireman

a model

a stewardess

a waiter

a policeman

an actress

a chairman

Jobs for men or women:

nurse   detective   chef  doctor  model   lorry driver  secretary body-builder

True or False:

Women earn less than men in many jobs.

In the USA women are paid on average 75% of what a man earns for the same job.

In Europe the pay gap between men and women is growing.

Breaking down strereotypes

Just because I’m a blonde, it doesn’t mean I can’t change a tyre.

Just because I’m a woman, it doesn’t mean I’m not tough.

Just because I’m a teacher, it doesn’t mean .....

(Thanks to Hugh Deller for this idea)

Creative and cultural education - focussing on the arts in all their forms, communication, observational, performance and making/creating, collaboration and appreciation of diversity and heritage – will be the key to developing collaborative communities capable of innovating, dealing with the world’s unprecedented volatility and navigating the future.

Sarah Knowles

By examining other cultures it highlights what is special, or different and unusual about our own culture. 

US versus UK English

<><><><> </><><><><> </><><><><> </><><><><> </> <><><><> </>

Vacation Chips Purse French fries Candy Cookie Fall Elevator Movie Pants Apartment Sidewalk Yard Garbage

Trousers Film Garden Lift Holiday Handbag Crisps Chips Sweets Biscuit Autumn Flat Pavement Rubbish

GREETINGS:

Bow (Japan)

Rub noses (Eskimo)

Kiss (mediterranean and latino)

Shake hands (Western European and USA)

High five (young USA)

Hands as in prayer and low bow (Thailand)

The future belongs to a very different kind of leader with a very different mind and very different values: those who can create and connect; those with compassion; story tellers and meaning makers

Richard Hames, The Five Literacies of Global Leadership, 2007

Intercultural Language Activities, John Corbett, Cambridge University Press

Tips for Teaching Culture: Practical Approaches to Intercultural Communication by Ann C. Wintergerst & Joe McVeigh © 2010 Pearson Longman.

Oxford Basics: Intercultural Activities, Gill & Cankova, 2002, OUP

Primary Music Box, traditional songs and activities for young learners, Sab Will with Suzannah Reed, CUP

Hugh Deller, speaking at IATEFL 2012

Motivating Young (and older) leaners

Antalya, Turkey, 7 April 2012

fruit = first name

vegetable =family name

number between 1-100 = age

Are you a teacher? = Are you married?

favourite movie star = spouse

How many shoes do you have? = children

John Holt, Natural Learning Style

The child is curious…wants to make sense of things… is open and receptive… experimental.. bold… not afraid of making mistakes… is patient…can tolerate an extraordinary amount of uncertainty, confusion, ignorance and suspense..

UK National Curriculum Report, 1988, lists the following attitudes as ‘important at all stages of education’:

Curiosity

Respect for evidence

Willingness to tolerate uncertainty

Critical reflection

Perseverance

Creativity and inventiveness

Open-mindedness

Co-operation with others

                                                                         

In the UK school children are

•         stressed, particularly by pressure to succeed academically / exams

•         lack confidence – are in a ‘failure cycle’

•         feel school is not preparing them for real life

•         don’t enjoy learning

And in Turkey?

I                       B                      E                      A

N                     R                      D                     C

possibly lots of different answers

collaborative

time limit = adrenalin

challenge

everyone can be successful

Human beings feel best in flow, when they are fully involved in meeting a challenge, solving a problem, discovering something new

Csikszentmihalyi

Dropouts don’t leave school because we don’t give them enough facts, but because they don’t find any meaning in them.

Gertrude Moskowitz, 1978

           

... a paradigm shift towards English as a basic skill

David Graddol, 2006

Good (motivated) learners

are curious

have courage

are good at exploration & investigation

experiment

have imagination

able to think carefully, rigorously & methodically

collaborate

are reflective                                              

Guy Claxton

The only time my education was interrupted was while I was at school.

Winston Churchill

.................................................................................................................

Watching television can be dangerous. In June 2008 a Norwegian woman was killed when her TV exploded. (true)

The football world cup was first televised in 1954. (true)

Today on average girls aged 10-17 watch more TV than boys. (false)

In January 2008 a 380cm plasma TV screen was put on the market in Japan.  (true)

A typical US child consumes 28 hours of media per week (tv, radio, dvds, computer, video games).  (false – 38)