Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language I
THIRD
EDITION
Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language THIRD ED ITIO N
MARIANNE
CELCE-MURCIA EDITOR
HEINLE & HEINLE
------------- * - -----------THOMSON LEARNING
U N IT E D STATES • A U ST R A LIA • C A N A D A • M E X IC O • S IN G A P O R E • SPAIN • U N IT E D K IN G D O M
Contents Foreword Acknowledgments
U N IT I.
Teaching M ethodology
vii viii
I
Language Teaching Approaches: An Overview M arian n e C elce-M urcia Communicative Language Teaching for the Twenty-First Century S a n d ra J. Savignon Guidelines for Language Classroom Instruction G rah am C rookes a n d C raig C h a u d ro n English for Specific Purposes (ESP):Tailoring Courses to Students Needs— and to the Outside W orld A nn M. Johns a n d D o n n a P rice-M achado Syllabus Design D avid N 'unan
U N IT II.
3 13
29
43 55
Language Skills
A. Listening
67
Aural Comprehension Instruction: Principles and Practices Joan M orlev Skills and Strategies for Proficient Listening P at W ilcox P eterso n
B. Speaking
69 87 101
Teaching Oral Skills A n n e L azarato n Teaching Pronunciation J a n e t G oodw in Developing Children’s Listening and Speaking in ESL S abrina Peck
C. Reading
103 I I7 139 15 1
Teaching Children Literacy Skills in a Second Language A rn e E d ig cr Developing Adult Literacies Gail W einstein Reading for Academic Purposes: Guidelines for the ESL/EFL Teacher W illiam G rabe a n d F red rick a L. S toller
D. Writing
I 53 I7 1
I87 205
Functional Tasks for Mastering the Mechanics of W riting and Going Just Beyond Elite O lsh tain Considerations for Teaching an ESL/EFL W riting Course
207
B arb ara Kroll Grammar in W riting
2 I9
J a n F ro d e se n
Contents
233
v
E. Grammar and Vocabulary Teaching Grammar D iane L arsen -F reem an Cognitive Approaches to Grammar Instruction S an d ra Fotos Vocabulary Learning and Teaching Jea n e tte S. D eC arrico
U N IT III. Integrated A pproaches
249 25 I 267 285 301
Content-Based and Immersion Models for Second and Foreign Language Teaching M arg u erite .Ann Snow Literature as Content for ESL/EFL
303
S an d ra L ee McKav Experiential and Negotiated Language Learning J a n e t L. E rrin g Bilingual Approaches to Language Learning M art M cG roartv
3 I9
U N IT IV. Focus on the L e a rn e r
333 345 357
Language Learning Styles and Strategies R ebecca L. O x fo rd Supporting Second Language Children’s Content Learning
U N IT V .
359
and Language Development in K—5 B arb ara H aw kins
367
Teaching Adults S h a ro n H illes a n d A n d re S utto n
385
S k ills fo r T e a c h e rs
401
Planning Lessons L in d a Je n s e n Textbooks: Evaluation for Selection and Analysis for Implementation Patricia Bvrd
403 4 I5
W hen the Teacher Is a Non-Native Speaker P e te r M edgves Building Awareness and Practical Skills to Facilitate Cross-Cultural Communication Eli H inkel The Use of Media in Language Teaching D o n n a M. B rin to n Computers in Language Teaching M aggie Sokolik Action Research,Teacher Research, and Classroom Research in Language Teaching K athleen M. Bailer Reflective Teaching in ELT J o h n M. M u rphy Second Language Assessment A ndrew D. C o h en Keeping Up to Date as an ESL or EFL Professional Jo A n n (Jodi) C ran d all
References Index
429 443 459 477 489 499 5 15 535 553 575
Foreword T h e p u rp o se o f this th ird edition o f Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language, also know n as “T he Apple B ook,” rem ains the sam e as the first (1979) an d second (1991) editions: to pro d u ce a com prehensive in tro d u c tio n to th e p ro fe ssio n of teach in g English to speakers o f o th e r languages. T h e goal has b e e n to m a in ta in a b alan ce betw een theory a n d p rac tic e — betw een provid ing necessary back g ro u n d inform ation a n d rele vant research, on th e one h a n d , a n d offering m any classroom suggestions an d resources for teachers, on the other. This ed ition covers the areas 1 believe to be critical to successful lan guage instruction: know ledge of past an d p res e n t teaching approaches, b ack g ro u n d on and techniques for teaching the language skills, vari ous options fo r in teg ratin g the skills, awareness o f im p o rta n t le a rn e r factors, an d info rm atio n th a t is useful for the classroom teacher's evervday p e rfo rm a n c e an d professional growth. I have tried to p ro d u ce an in tro d u c tio n to the field that would be o f sufficient d e p th and bread th to be suitable for students with som e p re vious teaching experience, vet straightforw ard enough n o t to needlessly bewilder the novice. This third edition covers m ore topics and has m ore contributing authors than the precious ones: ■ First edition (1979): 31 chapters, 27 con tributors ■ Second edition: 32 chapters, 36 contributors ■ T hird edition: 36 chapters, 40 contributors N ineteen of the thirty-six authors who contributed to the second edition have also contributed to this volume (often— but not always— on the same topic). Sixteen of the chapters appearing in this edition are rerised a n d u p d a te d versions o f ch ap ters in the second edition and, in m ost cases, the revisions have b een substantial. Ten chapters have been com pletelv rew ritten; the rem ain in g ten chapters rep re sen t topics th at appear as Forew ord
chapters for the first time in this edition (the a u th o r’s nam e is in parentheses): ■ Communicative Language Teaching for the Twenty-First Century (Savignon) ■ Syllabus design (N unan) ■ D ev eloping C h ild re n ’s L iste n in g a n d Speaking Skills (Peck) ■ C ognitive A p p ro a c h es to G ra m m a r Instruction (Fotos) ■ Bilingual Approaches to Language Learning (McGroartv) ■ W hen the Teacher Is a Non-Native Speaker (Medgyes) ■ Facilitating Cross-Cultural Com m unication (Hinkel) " ■ Action Research, Teacher Research, and Classroom Research (Bailer ) ■ Reflective Teaching (Murphv) I am m ost grateful to all forty co n trib u to rs to this th ird edition for th eir splendid work. Many o f the new topics in this edition were originally suggested bv colleagues who anonymouslv reviewed the second edition for H einle & H einle. I am very grateful for their input, which I har e used along with mv own ju d g m en t to create this volume. T he reviewers also helped to com ince me that a rerised and updated third edition was necessary, and they encouraged m e to once again undertake the daunting task o f preparing a com prehensive textbook for use in m ethods courses designed to prepare ESL/EFL teachers. As in both previous editions, each chapter concludes with discussion questions, suggested activities, a n d a n u m b er of suggestions for fu rth e r reading. These supplem entary m aterials show how the authors feel their ch ap ter can be used in m ethodology courses to stim ulate critical think ing, fu rth er reading on a topic, and application o f knowledge. T he new feature in this edition is the listing o f useful websites at the en d o f m ost chapters to m ake teachers in training atvare of the vast arrav of resources av ailable to them via the World W ide Web if they have access to a com puter, even if they are working in rem ote areas.
vii
A lthough designed prim arily as a textbook for a preservice T E SL /T E FL m ethods course, I feel th at this volum e will also be a useful refer ence a n d guide for those who are teaching ESI, o r EFL w ithout having h ad specific training and for practicing teachers who received th eir train ing som e years ago. In trying to m ake the text com prehensive. I adm it to having m ade it too long for one course. T hus I w ould advise instructors who plan to use this book to be selective an d to focus on the chapters m ost relevant to the p rep a ra tio n of th e ir students as teachers. O ne colleague has w ritten th at he prefers to em phasize Units I, IV, a n d V in his m ethods course, w hereas a n o th e r colleague inform s m e th a t she uses Units II and III as the core o f h e r class. I even know of one setting w here U nits I, IV, an d V constitute one course a n d Units II a n d III a second course. D ifferent instructors an d different training p ro gram s em phasize different topics a n d organize courses differentlv. This is un d erstan d ab le. I personally like to give students options when I assign chapters to read. For example, after evenone has read and discussed the five chapters in U nit I, students can select the chapter(s) that best m eet their current or anticipated needs:
■ Read one of the two chapters on listening • Read two of the three chapters on speaking, reading, and writing and so on
A nother approach I have used is to ask every one in a class to skim a particular unit o f the book (or subsection in U nit II). T hen I ask students to form pairs or small groups that are responsible for presenting and leading discussions on individual chapters. (The instructor m ust of course proride a m odel and explicit guidelines for what is expected in such a presentation.) The textbook chapters that are not covered in a course as a result of needs analvsis and careful selection then becom e useful reference m aterials for the teacher in train ing, whose interests and needs and target students mav well change after com pletion o f the m ethods course and the training program . Also, if one goes to an o th er region or countrv or works in a rem ote area, it is useful to have a single, com prehensive reference for language m ethodologv— just as it is useful to have a com prehensive dictionary and a com prehensive reference grammar. This volume is mv attem pt to compile and edit such a reference for language methodologv. I welcome com m ents and feedback on thi edition. In ou r role as teachers, we all hat e m uch to learn from one another. -M a ria n n e (ielce-M nrcia. e d ito r
Acknowledgments help and support from Sherrise Roehr, Sarah Many colleagues, students, and friends have been Barnicle, and Eunice Yeates-Fogle of H einle 8c o f invaluable assistance in the preparation of this volume. My greatest debt is to all the colleagues H einle in the com pletion of the m anuscript and once again had the pleasure o f working with who graciously accepted my invitation to write chapters for this edition. T he breadth and d epth of Tuncle A. Dewev of Dewev Publishing in the final their expertise make this collection tmlv unique. phase of production. Mv warm and sincere thanks I am especiallv indebted to Brent Green, my to evervone m en tio n ed in this paragraph. Finallv. I w ould like to note that I have in co r research assistant, who helped to prepare the cum u lative list o f references and the index. I could not p o rate d into this edition m anv suggestions for have finished this book without his and Jo Flilder’s im proving the second edition th at readers, stu dents. and colleagues have graciously shared assistance and offer them mv heartfelt thanks. with me oxer the tears. I offer special thanks to Many people at H einle 8c Heinle have helped in the shaping and production of this large volume. the anonvm ous reviewers who co m pleted H einle & H einle s q u estio n n aire, designed to elicit I had my initial discussions with Erik G undersen, suggestions for revision a n d im provem ent. T he th en h a d fu rth e r discussions an d signed the con tract with Eric B redenberg, who th en tu rn e d the responsibilitv for the choices m ade a n d for am critical om issions is m ine alone. pro ject over to Sherrise Roehr. I received m uch
I : T eaching M ethodology
I
Teaching Methodology In this first section, Celce-Murcias chapter gives the reader a historical perspective and outlines the principal approaches to second and foreign language teaching that -лere used during the twentieth century. Then Savignon's chapter goes into detail in describing the com ponents of communicative language teaching, the currently dominant approach. In their chapter Crookes and Chaudron discuss classroom research and its implications for developing a principled approach to language teaching. The following chapter by Johns and Price-Machado introduces the reader to the English for S p e o fc Purposes movement, which has had a profound influence on ail English language teaching. Finally, N unan’s chapter gives the reader an overview o f the syllabus design process, bringing us full circle, since tne syllabus ideally goes hand-in-hand with the materials and approaches used in the language classroom.
UNIT
UNIT
Language Teaching Approaches: An Overview1 MARIANNE
CELCE-MURCIA
In “ Language Teaching Approaches; An O verview ," Celce-Murcia gives some historical background, then outlines the principal approaches to second and foreign language teaching that w ere used during the twentieth century. She previews the book as a w hole and projects some trends for language instruction in the new millennium.
IN T R O D U C T IO N The field o f second (or foreign) language teach ing has u n d e rg o n e m any fluctuations and shifts ver the years. D ifferent from physics or chem i'trv. in which progress is m ore or less steady until a m ajor discovery causes a radical theoreti:oil revision (K uhn 1970), language teaching is a held in w hich fads and heroes have com e an d gr.ne in a m a n n e r fairly consistent with the kinds ut changes that occur in youth culture. I believe shat one reason for the frequent swings of the oendu lum that have been taking place until fairly recently is the fact that very few language teachers have a sense of history about their profession and are thus unaw are o f the historical bases o f the many m ethodological options they have at their disposal. It is h o p e d th at this b rie f and neces sarily oversimplified survey yvill encourage m any language teachers to learn m ore about the ori gins o f th eir profession. Such knotvledge yvill ensure som e perspective w hen teachers evaluate any so-called innovations or new approaches to m ethodology’, which yvill surelv continue to em erge from tim e to time.
Pre-twentieth-Century Trends: A Brief Survey Prior to the tw entieth century, language teaching m eth o d o lo g y vacillated betw een two types of approaches: getting learners to use a language li.e., to speak an d u n d e rsta n d it) versus getting learners to analyze a language (i.e., to learn its gram m atical rules).
Both the classical G reek and m edieval Latin periods were characterized by an em phasis on teaching people to use foreign languages. T he classical languages, first G reek and th en Latin, were used as lingua francas. H igher learn in g was con d u cted prim arily th ro u g h these languages all over E urope. They were used widely in philoso phy. religion, politics, and business. Thus the educated elite becam e fluent speakers, readers, and yvriters of the ap p ro p riate classical language. We can assum e that the teachers or tutors used inform al and m ore or less direct approaches to convey the form a n d m eaning o f the language thev were teaching and that they used aural-oral techniques with no language textbooks p er se, but ra th e r a small stock of hand-copied written m anuscripts of som e sort, perhaps a feyv texts in the target language, o r crude dictionaries that listed equivalent words in two o r m ore languages side by side. D uring the R enaissance, the form al study of the gram m ars o f G reek an d Latin becam e p o p u lar th ro u g h the mass p ro d u ctio n of books m ade possible by the invention of the p rin tin g press. In the case o f Latin, it was discovered that the g ram m ar of the classical texts was d ifferent from that o f the Latin bein g used as a lingua franca— the latter subsequently being labeled vulgate Latin, i.e., Latin o f the com m on people. M ajor differences had developed betw een the classical L atin d escribed in th e R enaissance gram m ars, yvhich becam e the form al object of in struction in schools, a n d th e Latin b ein g used for evervdav purposes. This o c cu rred at about the same tim e that Latin beg an to be a b a n d o n e d
as a lingua franca. (No one was speaking classi cal Latin anym ore, a n d various E u ro p ean ver naculars h ad b eg u n to rise in respectability and popularity.) Thus, in retrospect, strange as it may seem , the R enaissance p reo c c u p a tio n with the form al study o f classical Latin m a t hat e con trib u ted to the dem ise of Latin as a lingua franca in W estern E urope. Since the E uropean vernaculars h ad grown in prestige an d utility, it is n o t surprising that people in one country or region began to find it necessary a n d useful to learn the language of a n o th e r country or region. T hus the focus in lan guage study shifted back to utility' ra th e r than analysis d u rin g the seventeenth century. Perhaps the m ost fam ous language teacher and m eth o d ologist o f this p eriod is J o h a n n Amos Com enius, a Czech scholar an d teacher, who published books ab o u t his teaching techniques betw een 1631 an d 1658. Som e o f the techniques that C om enius used a n d espoused were the following: ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
Use im itation instead of rules to teach a language. Have your stu d en ts re p e a t after vou. Use a lim ited vocabulary initially. H elp your students practice read in g an d speaking. Teach language th ro u g h pictures to m ake it m eaningful.
T hus C om enius, p erhaps for the first tim e, m ade explicit an inductive a p p ro ach to learning a foreign language, the goal o f w hich was to teach use ra th e r th an analysis o f the language b ein g taught. C o m en iu s’s views h eld sway for som e time; however, by the beg in n in g o f the n in e te e n th cen tury, the systematic study of the gram m ar o f clas sical Latin an d o f classical texts h a d once again taken over in schools an d universities th ro u g h o u t E urope. T he analytical G ram m ar-Translation A pproach becam e firmly e n tre n ch e d as a m eth o d for teaching n o t only Latin but, by extension, m o d ern languages as well. It was perhaps best codified in the work o f Karl Ploetz, a G erm an scholar who h ad a trem endous influence on the language teaching profession during his lifetime an d afterwards. (He died in 1881.)
However, the swinging o f the p en d u lu m continued. Bv the e n d of the n in e te e n th centrin', the D irect M ethod, which once m ore stressed the abilitv to use ra th e r th an to analyze a language as the goal o f language instruction, had begun to function as a viable alternative to G ram m ar-T ranslation. Frangois G ouin, a F renchm an, began to publish in 1880 c o n cern ing his work with the D irect M ethod. H e advo cated exclusive use o f the target language in the classroom , having b e e n influenced by an o ld er friend, the G erm an philosopher-scientist .Alexander von H um boldt, who had espoused the n o tio n th at a language c an n o t be taught, that one can only create conditions for lea rn in g to take place (Kelly 1969). T h e D irect M ethod becam e very p o p u lar in France and G erm an y a n d has enthusiastic followers am ong language teachers even today (as does the G ram m ar T ranslation A pproach). In 1886, d u rin g the same p erio d th at the D irect M ethod first becam e p o p u lar in E urope, th e In te rn a tio n a l P h o n e tic A ssociation was established by scholars such as H enry Sweet, W ilhelm V iftor, a n d Paul Passy. They developed the In te rn atio n a l P honetic A lphabet (IPA) a n d becam e p art of the R eform M ovem ent in lan guage teach in g in the 1890s. These p honeticians m ade som e of the first truly scientific c o n trib u tions to language teaching w hen they advocated principles such as the following: ■ ■ ■ ■
the spoken form o f a language is prim ary a n d sh o u ld be tau g h t first; the findings of phonetics should be applied to language teaching; language teachers m ust have solid train in g in phonetics; learners should be given p h o n e tic training to establish good speech habits.
T h e work o f these p h o n etician s focused on the te a c h in g o f p ro n u n c ia tio n a n d o ral skills, which they felt h ad b een ignored in G ram m arT ranslation. Thus, a lth o u g h the R eform Move m e n t is n o t necessarily considered a full-blown pedagogical a p p ro ach to language teaching, its a d h e re n ts did have an in flu en ce on fu tu re approaches, as we shall see.
Q uite apart from the work o f the Reform M ovement, the influence of the Direct M ethod grew; it crossed the Atlantic in the early twentieth century w hen Emile de Sauze, a disciple of Gouin, cam e to Cleveland, O hio, in o rd er to see to it th at all foreign language instruction in the public schools there im plem ented the Direct M ethod. De Sauze’s endeavor, however, was not com pletely successful (in C leveland o r else where) since there were too few foreign language teachers in the U nited States, who were fluent speakers of the language thev taught. Later, the M odern Language Association of Am erica, based on th e C olem an R ep o rt (C olem an 1929), endorsed the R eading A pproach to language teaching, since given the skills and lim itations of most language teachers, all that one could rea sonably expect was th at students w ould com e away from the study o f a foreign language able to read the target lan g u a g e — with em phasis on some o f th e great works o f literatu re a n d philos ophy th at h ad b e e n p ro d u ce d in the language. T h e R eading A pproach, as reflected in the work o f M ichael West (1941) a n d others, held sway in the U n ited States until the late 1930s and early 1940s, w hen W orld War II broke out and m ade it im perative for the U.S. military to quickly and efficiently teach foreign language learners how to speak a n d u n d e rs ta n d a language. At this tim e, the U.S. governm ent h ired linguists to help teach languages and develop materials: the A udiolingual A pproach (Lries 1945), which drew heavily on structural linguistics (Bloomfield 1933) a n d behavioral psychology (Skinner 1957), was born. In Britain the same historical pressures gave rise to the O ral o r Situational A pproach (e.g., Pittm an 1963), which drew on Firthian Linguistics (codified in the work o f F irth ’s bestknown student, M. A. K. Hallidav [1973]) as well as draw ing on the ex p erien ce of B ritain’s lan guage educators with oral ap p ro ach es to foreign language teaching. .Although som ew hat influ en ced by, b u t less dogm atic th an , its A m erican c o u n te rp a rt (the A udiolingual A p p ro ach ), the O ral o r Situational A pproach advocated o rg an izing structures a ro u n d situations th at would provide the lea rn er with m axim um opportunity to practice the target language, with “p ractice”
nonetheless often being little m ore than choral repetition. Some historians o f language teaching (e.g., Howatt 1984) believe th at the earlier Reform M ovem ent played a role in the developm ent of both Audiolingualism in the U nited States and the Oral-Situational A pproach in Britain.
Nine Twentieth-Century Approaches to Language Teaching In addidon to the Grammar-Translation Approach, the Direct A pproach,2 the Reading Approach, the Audiolingual Approach, and the Oral-Situadonal A p proach— whose historical developm ent I have sketched above briefly— there are four o th er d iscernible ap p ro a c h e s to foreign language teaching that developed and were widely used d u rin g the final q u arter of the tw entieth century'. Thus, there are nine approaches altogether th at I shall be referring to: 1. 2.
3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
G ram m ar-Translation Direct R eading A udiolingualism (U nited States) O ral-Situational (Britain) Cognitive Affective-Hum anistic C om prehension-B ased C om m unicative
However, before listing the features o f each app ro ach , I w ould like to digress a m o m e n t to clarify som e term inology that is crucial to this discussion. Namely, what do we m ean by the term s approach, method, a n d technique? Are these term s synonymous? If not, how do they differ? A nthony (1963) has provided a useful set of def initions for o u r purposes. An approach to lan guage teach in g is so m eth in g th at reflects a certain m odel o r research p a ra d ig m — a theory, if vou like. This term is the broadest o f the three. A method, on the o th e r h and, is a set of p ro ce dures, i.e., a system th at spells out ra th e r precise ly how to teach a second or foreign language. It is m ore specific than an ap p ro ach b u t less specific than a technique. M ethods are typically c o m p a tib le w ith o n e (o r som etim es two)
approaches. A technique is a classroom device or activity an d thus represents the narrow est o f the th re e concepts. Som e techniques are widely used a n d fo u n d in m any m ethods (e.g., dicta tion, im itation, an d rep e titio n ); however, some techniques are specific to o r characteristic of a given m eth o d (e.g., using cuisinaire rods = the Silent Way [G attegno 1976]). T he m ost problem atic o f A nthony’s three term s is method. M ethods proliferated in the 1970s. Thev were typically very specific in term s o f the procedures a n d m aterials that the teacher, w ho req u ired special training, was supposed to use. They were alm ost always developed and defined by one person. This person, in turn, train ed practitioners who accepted the m eth o d as gospel and h elp ed to spread the word. Some m ethods an d th eir originators follow: ■ ■ ■ ■
Silent Wav (G attegno 1976) G om m im itv L anguage L earning (C urran 1976) Total Physical R esponse (Asher 1977) Suggestologv, Suggestopedia, o r A ccelerated L earning (Lozanov 1978)
However, the lack o f flexibility in such m ethods led som e ap p lied linguists (e.g., R ichards 1984) to seriouslv q u e stio n th e ir usefulness a n d aroused a healthy skepticism am ong language educators, who arg u ed that th ere is no such th in g as the best “m e th o d ”: the com plex circum stances o f teach ing a n d le a rn in g lan g u ag es — with d ifferen t kinds o f pupils, teachers, aim s a n d objectives, a p p ro a c h e s, m eth o d s, a n d m aterials, classroom techniques a n d standards of achieve m e n t— m ake it inconceivable that any single m e th o d could achieve o p ti m um success in all circum stances. (Strevens 1977, p. 5). At this p o in t I will outline each of the nine ap p ro ach es listed above. In addition, I will note any special proficiency o r role th a t the tea c h e r is exp ected (or not expected) to fulfill. 1. Grammar-Translation Approach (an ex ten sion of the approach used to teach classical languages to the teaching of m odern languages)
a. Instruction is given in the native language of the students. b. T h ere is little use o f the target language for com m unication. c. Focus is on gram m atical parsing, i.e., the form an d inflection o f words. d. T h ere is early read in g o f difficult texts. e. A typical exercise is to translate sentences from the target language into the m o th e r tongue (or vice versa). f. T h e result o f this ap p ro ach is usually an inability on the p a rt o f the student to use the language for com m unication. g. T he teach er does n o t have to be able to speak the target language. 2. Direct Approach (a reaction to the Gramm arTranslation A pproach and its failure to produce learn ers who could com m unicate in the foreign language thev had been studying) a.
b. c. d. e. f. g.
No use o f the m o th e r tongue is p e rm itted (i.e., the teach er does not n e e d to knew the stu d e n ts’ native language). Lessons begin with dialogues a n d anecdotes in m o d e rn conversational stvle. A ctions a n d pictu res arc used to m ake m eanings clear. G ram m ar is learn ed inductively. Literary texts are read for pleasure a n d are n o t analyzed gram m atically. T he target culture is also tau g h t inductively. The teacher m ust be a native speaker or have nativelike proficiency in the target language.
3. Reading Approach (a reaction to the prob lems experienced in im plem enting the Direct Approach; reading was viewed as the m ost usable skill to have in a foreign language since not many people traveled abroad at that time; also, few teachers could use their foreign language well enough to use a direct approach effectively in class) Only the gram m ar useful for read in g com p reh e n sio n is taught. b. Vocabulary is controlled at first (based on fre quency and usefulness) an d then expanded. c. T ranslation is once m ore a respectable class room pro ced u re. a.
d. R eading com prehension is the onlv language skill em phasized. e. T he tea c h e r does n o t n e e d to have оgood oral proficiency in the target language. 4. Audiolingualism (a reaction to the R eading - oproach an d its lack of em phasis on oral-aural -sails: this ap p ro ach becam e d o m in an t in the V nited States d u rin g the 1940s, 1950s, and zoOs: it draws from the Reform M ovem ent and me D irect A pproach but adds features from m u c tu ra l linguistics [B loom field 1933] an d tehavioral psychology [Skinner 1957] ) a. b.
c. d. e. :. g. b. i.
Lessons begin with dialogues. Mimicry a n d m em orization are used, based on the assum ption that language is habit form ation. G ram m atical structures are sequenced and rules are tau g h t inductively. Skills are sequenced: listening, speaking— reading, w riting postponed. Pronunciation is stressed from the beginning. Vocabulary is severely lim ited in initial stages, A great effort is m ade to prevent lea rn er errors. L anguage is o fte n m a n ip u la te d w ith o u t regard to m ea n in g o r context, T he teacher m ust be proficient onlv in the structures, vocabulary, etc. that he or she is teaching since learning activities and m ateri als are carefully controlled.
5. Oral-Situational Approach (a reaction to the T rad in g A pproach an d its lack of em phasis on ral-aural skills; this ap p ro ach was d o m in a n t in brttain d u rin g the 1940s, 1950s. a n d 1960s; it araws from the R eform M ovem ent an d the Direct A pproach b u t adds features from F irthian anguishes an d the em erg in g professional field : language pedagogy) a. T he spoken language is primary. b. All language m aterial is practiced orally b efo re b e in g p re s e n te d in w ritten form i read in g a n d w riting are tau g h t only after an oral base in lexical an d gram m atical form s has b e e n established). c. Only the target language should be used in the classroom.
d. Efforts are m ade to ensure that the m ost gen eral an d useful lexical items are presented. e. G ram m atical structures are g rad ed from sim ple to com plex. f. New item s (lexical an d gram m atical) are in tro d u c e d a n d practiced situationallv (e.g., at the post office, at the bank, at the d in n e r ta b le ). 6. Cognitive Approach (a reaction to the behaviorist features of the A udiolingual A pproach; in flu e n ce d bv cognitive psychology [X eisser 1967] a n d C hom skyan linguistics [Chom sky 1959,1965]) a. L anguage learn in g is viewed as rule acquisi tion, not habit form ation. b. In struction is often individualized; learners are responsible for th eir own learning. c. G ram m ar m ust be taught but it can be taught deductively (rules first, practice later) a n d / or inductively (rules can either be stated after practice or left as im plicit inform ation for the learners to process on their own). d. P ronunciation is de-em phasized; perfection is viewed as unrealistic and unattainable. e. R eading and writing are once again as im por tant as listening and speaking. f. Vocabulary instruction is once again im por tant, especially at interm ediate and advanced levels. g. E rrors are viewed as inevitable, to be used constructively in the learning process. h. T he teacher is expected to have good general proficiency in the target language as well as an ability to analyze the target language. 7. Affective-Humanistic3 Approach (a reaction to the general lack o f affective considerations in b o th A udiolingualism an d the Cognitive Approach: e.g., Moskowitz 1978 and C urran 1976). a. R espect is em phasized for the individual (each student, the teacher) a n d for his o r h e r feelings. b. C om m unication that is m eaningful to the lea rn er is em phasized. c. In struction involves m uch work in pairs a n d small groups.
d.
("lass a tm o sp h ere is viewed as m ore im p o r tant than m aterials o r m ethods. e. P eer su p p o rt and in teractio n are viewed as necessarv for learning. f. L earn in g a foreign language is viewed as a self-realization experience. g. T he teacher is a counselor or facilitator. h. T he teacher should be proficient in the target language and the stu d e n t’s native language since translation may be used heavilv in the initial stages to help students feel at ease; later it is gradually phased out. 8. Com prehension-Based Approach (an o u t growth o f research in first language acquisition that led some language m ethodologists to assume th at second o r foreign language learn in g is very' sim ilar to first language acquisition; e.g.. Postovsky 1974; Winitz 1981; K rashen an d Terrell 1983) a. Listening c o m p re h en sio n is very im p o rtan t and is viewed as the basic skill th at will allow speaking, reading, an d w riting to develop spontaneously over tim e, given the right conditions. b. L earners should begin by listening to m ean ingful speech and bv responding nonverballv in m eaningful wavs before thev produce anv language themselves. c. L earners should not speak until thev feel ready to do so; this results in b e tte r p ro n u n ciation th an if the le a rn e r is forced to speak im m ediately. d. L earners progress bv being exposed to m ean ingful in p u t that is just one step beyond th eir level of com petence. e. Rule learn in g mav h elp learners m o n ito r (or becom e aware of) w hat they do, b u t it will n o t aid th eir acquisition o r sp ontaneous use o f the target language. f. E rro r correction is seen as unnecessarv and p erh ap s even co unterproductive; the im p o r ta n t th in g is th at the learners can u n d e r stand a n d can m ake them selves u n d ersto o d . g. If the teacher is n o t a native (or near-native) speaker, appropriate m aterials such as audiotapes and \ideotapes m ust be available to pro vide the appropriate input for the learners.
9. Communicative Approach (an outgrow th of the work of anthropological linguists [e.g., Hymes 1972] and Firthian linguists [e.g., Hallidav 1973], who \iew language first and forem ost as a svstem for com m unication; see Savignon’s chapter in this volume) a. It is assum ed that the goal of language teach ing is le a rn e r abilitv to com m unicate in the target language. b. It is assum ed that the co n ten t of a language course will include sem antic notions and social functions, n o t just linguistic structures. c. S tudents regularlv work in groups or pairs to transfer (and, if necessarv, negotiate) m ean ing in situations in which one person has in form ation that the o th er(s) lack. d. Students often engage in role play o r d ram a tization to adjust th eir use of the target lan guage to different social contexts. e. Classroom m aterials a n d activities are often au th en tic to reflect real-life situations an d dem ands. f. Skills are integrated from the beginning; a given activity m ight involve reading, speak ing, listening, and also writing (this assumes the learners are educated and literate). g. The teacher's role is primarily to facilitate com m unication and onlv secondarily to cor rect errors. h. T he teach er should be able to use the target language fluentlv and appropriately. To sum up, we can see that certain features o f several o f the first five approaches arose in reaction to perceived inadequacies or im practicalities in an earlier ap p ro ach o r approaches. T h e fo u r m ore recentlv developed approaches also do this to som e extent; however, each one is g ro u n d e d on a slightlv different theorv or view o f how p eo p le learn second o r foreign lan guages o r how people use languages, a n d each has a central p oint a ro u n d which everything else revolves: Cognitive Approach: Language is rule-governed cognitive behavior (not habit form ation). Affective-Humanistic Approach: L e a rn in g a foreign language is a process of selfrealization and of relating to o ther people.
Comprehension Approach: Language acquisition occurs if and only if the learner com pre hends m eaningful input. Communicative Approach: T he p u rp o se of language (and thus the goal of language teaching) is com m unication. These four m ore recent approaches tire not necessarily in conflict or totallx incom patible since it is not difficult to conceive of an inte grated approach which would include attention to rule form ation, affect, co m p reh en sio n , and c o m m u n ic a tio n a n d w hich w ould view the lea rn er as som eone who thinks, feels, u n d e r stands, and has som ething to saw In fact, many teachers would find such an approach, if well con ceived and well integrated, to be very attractiv e.
A Note on Approach, Method, and Syllabus Type We now u n d erstan d that an approach is general (e.g., C ognitiye), that a m eth o d is a specific set o f pro ced u res m ore or less com patible with an approach (e.g., the Silent Way), and that a tech nique is a y e n specific type of learning activity used in one o r m ore m ethods (e.g.. using col ored rods of varying lengths to cue and facilitate language practice in the Silent Wav). Historically, an approach o r m eth o d also tends to be used in conjunction with a syllabus, which is an inv en tory o f objectives the lea rn er should master: this inventory is som etim es presented in a recom m en d ed sequence and is used to design courses a n d teaching m aterials. W hat sort of syllabuses have been used with the approaches discussed above? Most o f them have used — implicitly o r explicitly— a structural syllabus, which consists of a list of gram m atical inflections an d constructions that the tea c h e r is expected to teach a n d the lea rn er is expected to master. T he Gram m ar-Translation A pproach, the Direct A pproach, the Audiolingual A pproach, the Cognitive A pproach, and even some m ethods following the C om prehension A pproach have all em ployed a structural syllabus. In o th e r words, teachers and textbook writers following these a p p ro a c h e s have o rg a n iz e d th e ir lan g u ag e courses a n d language-teaching m aterials a ro u n d
g ram m ar p o in ts, with A u diolingualism also specifying p ro n u n cia tio n points a n d the OralSituational A pproach often specifying vocabu lary objectives in additional to gram m ar. In contrast to the structural svllabus, the R eading A pproach is text-based: this kind of language course is organized aro u n d texts a n d vocabulary item s with only m in o r consideration given to gram m ar. In the Oral-Situational A pproach, th ere is often a dual-objective svllabus in which various situations are specified for instruction (e.g., the post office, a restaurant, a bus, the doctor's office, etc.), along with some of the structures and the vocabulary that one m ight n eed to p ro duce the language n eed ed in these situations. In the Com m unicative A pproach, one type of sv llabus is organized around notions (m eanings such as spatial location, time, degree) and func tions (social transactions and interactions such as asking for inform ation or com plim enting som e one). In this svllabus form at, gram m ar and vocaltularv are secondary, being taught not as ends in themselves, but only insofar as they help express the notions and functions that are in focus. Many adherents of the Com m unicative A pproach, how ever. reject anv sort of atomistic svllabus, w hether structural or notional-functional. They advocate instead a comm unicative svllabus (i.e., a processbased or task-based svllabus) in which real-world tasks and authentic materials are used to design language courses (Yalden 1983). T he .Affective-Humanistic A pp ro ach has p ro d u ced the most radical svllabus type— the learner-generated svllabus. Thus, in m ethods like Communitv Language L earning (C urran 1976) and Project W ork (see Evring's c h ap ter in this volum e), the learners decide what thev want to learn and what thev want to be able to do with the target language. For a fuller discussion o f syl labus design, see X unan's ch ap ter in this volume.
C O N C L U S IO N W hat is the solution for the ESL/EFL teacher, giv en the abundance of past, cu rren t, an d future approaches.- T he only wav to m ake wise decisions
is to learn m ore about the various approaches a n d m ethods available and to find out which practices have proved successful (see the ch ap ter by C rookes and C h audron in this volum e). This c h a p te r has just scratched the surface. F urth er inform ation is available in the rem a in d e r o f this volum e a n d in m any o th e r books, in journal articles, at professional conferences and work shops, an d on the W orld W ide Web. T here are also five o th er things the teacher should do to m ake good decisions concerning the choice o f an approach, a m ethod (or m ethods), and finally techniques and materials: 1. Assess student needs: Whv should thev be learning English? For what purpose? (See Jo h n s and Price-M achado’s chapter in this v olum e). 2. E xam ine in stru ctio n a l constraints: tim e (hours p er week, davs p er week, weeks per term ); class size (nature o f enrollm ent): ma terials (set syllabus and text, or com pletely open to teacher?); phvsical factors (classroom size, AV support). T hen decide what can rea sonably be taught. 3. D eterm ine the attitudes and learning styles (see O xford's c h ap ter in this volum e) of individual students to the extent that this is possible, and develop activities and m aterials consistent with the findings. 4. Identify the discourse genres, speech activi ties, a n d text tvpes that the students n e e d to learn so th at you can in co rp o rate them into m aterials an d learn in g activities. 5. Specify how the students' language learning will be assessed (see C ohen's ch ap ter in this volum e.) H aving do n e all these, the teach er will be in a position to select the m ost useful techniques or principles a n d to design a productive course o f studv by draw ing from available approaches, syllabus types, a n d existing research findings. Clifford Prator, a fo rm e r professor a n d col league of m ine, sum m ed up the professional EST te a c h e r’s responsibility nicely (personal c o m m u n ic a tio n ): Adapt; don 4 adopt.
Teachers are certainly in a b e tte r position to f klow P rator's advice if they are fam iliar with the history an d the state o f the art o f o u r profession Som e suggestions for fu rth e r read in g are pr o vided below to aid the re a d e r in attaining the>r objectives. In fact, all of the chapters in this volurtencl with discussion questions, suggested actruties. suggestions for fu rth e r reading, and. whenu relevant, useful Web sites. Section 1 o f this y.; tim e discusses topics in language m e th o d o lo r Section 2 focuses on teaching the individual lan guage skills. Section 3 presents som e integrate 1 ap p ro ach es to language teaching, Section о focuses on specific groups o f learners, an. a Section 5 provides language teachers with back g ro u n d inform ation and skills th a t will heir them becom e m ore know ledgeable a n d skill: vk practitioners.
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1. W hat has been the attitude tow ard the teach ing of (a) p ro n u n cia tio n , (b) gram m ar, and (c) vocabulary in the n in e approaches dis cussed in this chapter? Has th ere been .swinging of the pendelum ? Why o r whv not? 2. W hat changes have occurred regarding the position of spoken language a n d w ritten lan guage in the carious approaches? Why? 3. W hich of these approaches have you person ally experienced as a language learner? W hat were vour impressions and what is your assess m ent of the effectiveness of the approach (es i? 4. W hich a p p ro ach (es) do vou, as a teacher, feel m ost com fortable with? Whv?
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1. Select an in teg rated skills E SL /EFL text that vou have used o r expect to use. Exam ine its contents to d eterm in e which ap p ro ach it seems to follow m ost closelv. S u p p o rt your decision with exam ples. Discuss any m ixing of approaches that you observe.
2. Exam ine any English language proficiency test, standardized or otherw ise. See if you can d etect a m ethodological bias in the test. S upport your conclusion (s) with exam ples. '3. W hat kinds of language learn ers do you teach (or expect to teach)? Be as specific as possible. W hich ap proach (es) would s e n e such a p o p u latio n best? Why?
FU R T H ER R EA D IN G .reciters interested in the history of the language reciting profession should consult: H w att. A. P. R. 1984. A History of English Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Wily. L. G. 1969. Twenty-Five Centuries of Language Teaching. New York: Newbury Elouse. Teachers interested in the current state of the art in _ ;лцс teaching methodology should consult: Larsen-Frecman, D. 2000b. Techniques and Principles in Language 'Teaching. 2d ed. New York: Oxford University Press.
Richards, J. C., and T. S. Rodgers. 1986. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. New York: Cambridge University Press. Stern. H. H. 1983. Fundamental Concepts of Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
ENDNO TES 1 Precursors to this chapter were published in the Mextesol journal (Celce-Murcia 1980) and Practical English Teaching (Celce-Murcia 1981). This is a revised and updated version based on these and several other sources, notably Kelly (1969), Madsen (1979). Blair (1991), and Prator with Celce-Murcia (1979). and Celce-Murcia (1991b). - The term Direct Method is more widely used than Direct Approach: however, the former is a misnomer, since this is reallv an approach, not a method, if we follow Anthony’s (1963) terminology. The term humanistic has two meanings. One refers to the humanities (i.e.. literature, history, phi losophy) . The other refers to that branch of psy chology concerned with the role of the socioaffective domain in human behavior. It is the latter sense that I am referring to here. However, see Stevick (1990) for an even broader perspective on humanism in language teaching.
Communicative Language Teaching for the Twenty-First Century S A N D R A J. S A V I G N O N
In "Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) for the Twenty-First Century" Savignon identifies five components of a communicative curriculum. She sees the identification of learner communicative needs and goals as the first step in the development of a teaching program that involves learners as active participants in the interpretation, expression, and negotiation of meaning.
You may not loiter downtown in ire cream stores. You may not ride in a carriage or automobile with any man unless he is your father or brother. You may not dress in bright colors. You must wear at least two petticoats. You must start the fire at 7 Л.М. so the school room will be warm by 8 л.М. Rules for teachers, G oodland, Kansas (1915)1 W hat d o you th in k of the above 1915 Rules for Teachers? Do they seem som ew hat strange o r o u t dated? Do they m ake you smile? If vou had been a tale n te d new teach er in G oodland, Kansas, in 1915, you m ost likely w ould have fo u n d these rules to be the m ark o f a school system with high standards. No d o u b t the standards set for stu dents were as high as those set for teachers. Teachers in G oodland could co u n t on students to be respectful a n d diligent. In tu rn , teachers w ere expected to set a good exam ple. Teachers have alwavs been expected to set a good exam ple for learners, to provide a m odel of behavior. But as the 1915 rules for teachers so d early rem in d us, the m odel can an d does change. W hat seems a good exam ple in one tim e or place, a given context of situation, may seem quite strange or in ap p ro p riate in a n o th e r tim e or place. A nd so it is with language teaching. As this v o lu m e ’s in tro d u c to ry c h a p te r by M arian n e Celce-M urcia shows, teachers have fo u n d m any ways o r m ethods for teaching languages. All have b een ad m ired m odels in som e tim e or place, often to be ridiculed, perhaps, or dism issed as
in ap p ro p riate in yet another. Times change, fash ions change. W hat may once ap p ear new and prom ising can subsequently seem strange and outdated. W ithin the last q u a rte r century, com m u nicative language teaching (CLT) has b een p u t forth aro u n d the world as the “new,” or “innova tive," way to teach English as a second o r foreign language. T eaching m aterials, course descrip tions, a n d curriculum guidelines proclaim a goal o f communicative competence. For exam ple, The Course of Study for Senior High School, guidelines p u b lish e d by th e J a p a n e s e M inistry o f E ducation, Science, a n d C ulture (M om busho) state the objectives o f ELT: “To develop stu d e n ts’ ability to u n d e rsta n d a n d to express them selves in a foreign language; to foster stu d e n ts’ positive attitu d e towards com m unicating in a foreign language, and to heighten their interest in lan guage an d culture, thus d e ep en in g international u n d e rsta n d in g ” (Wada 1994, p. 1). M inoru Wada, a university professor a n d a senior advisor to M om busho in prom oting ELT reform in Japan, explains the significance o f these guidelines: T h e M om busho G uidelines, or course o f study, is o n e o f the m ost im p o rta n t legal precepts in the Ja p an e se educa tional system. It establishes national standards for elem entary an d second ary schools. It also regulates co n ten t, the stan d ard n u m b e r of a n n u al teach ing hours at lower level secondary [junior high] schools, subject areas,
subjects, an d the stan d ard n u m b e r of req u ired credits at u p p e r level second ary [senior high] schools. T he course o f study for the teach in g o f English as a foreign language a n n o u n c e d bv the M inistry o f E ducation, Science, and C ulture in 1989 stands as a landm ark in the history of English ed u cation in Japan. For the first tim e it in tro d u c ed in to English ed u catio n at b o th sec ondary school levels the concept of communicative competence. In 1989. the M inistry o f E ducation, Science, and C ulture revised the course o f study for prim ary as well as secondary schools on the basis o f proposals m ade in a 1987 re p o rt by the C ouncil on the School C urriculum , an advisory g roup to the M inister of E ducation, Science, an d C ulture. T he basic goal o f the revision was to p rep a re students to co p e with th e rapidly o c c u rrin g changes toward a m ore global society. T h e re p o rt u rg e d Jap an ese teachers to place m uch m ore em phasis on the developm ent o f com m unicative com p eten ce in English. Parallel efforts are underw ay in nearbv Taiwan for sim ilar reasons. Based on in-depth interviews o f e x p e rt tea c h e r educators, W ang (in press) rep o rts on the progress (see also W ang 2000): M uch has b een d o n e to m eet the d em an d for co m p eten t English users a n d effective te a c h in g in Taiwan. C u rren t im provem ents, according to th e te a c h e r experts, in clu d e the change in en tran ce exam inations, the new curriculum with a goal of teaching for com m unicative com petence, and th e island-w ide im p le m e n ta tio n in 2001 o f English education in the ele m entary schools. However, m ore has to be d o n e to ensure quality teaching and learn in g in the classrooms. Based on the teach er ex p erts’ accounts, fu rth e r im provem ents can be stratified into th re e in te rre la te d levels rela te d to
teachers, school authorities, an d the governm ent. Each is essential to the success of the o th ers' efforts. This c h a p te r looks at the p h e n o m e n o n of com m unicative language teaching (GET). W hat is GLT? How and whv did it develop? W hat are the theoretical u n d e rp in n in g s o f this ap p ro ach to language teaching? How has GET b een in te r p re te d an d im p lem en ted in various contexts? K eeping in m ind the needs a n d goals of learners a n d the traditions o f classroom teaching, w hat are som e wavs for teachers to shape a m ore com m unicative ap proach to ELT in the context o f th eir own situation?
W H A T IS CLT? Xot long ago, w hen A m erican structural linguis tics and behaviorist psychology’ were the prevail ing influences in language teaching m ethods and m aterials, second 'foreign language teachers talked about com m unication in term s of four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and w riting. T h ese skill categories w ere widelv accepted and provided a readv-m ade fram ew ork for m ethods m anuals, learn er course m aterials, and teacher education program s. Speaking and writing were collectively described as active skills, reading and listening as passive skills. Todav. listeners and readers no lo n g er are reg ard ed as passive. Thev are seen as active particip an ts in the n eg o tiatio n o f m eaning. Schemata, expectancies, a n d top-down/bottom-up processing are am ong the term s now used to cap ture the necessarily com plex, interactive n a tu re of this negotiation. Yet full and w idespread u n d e rsta n d in g o f com m unication as negotiation has been h in d e re d bv the term s th at cam e to replace the earlier active/passive dichotom y. T he skills n e e d e d to engage in speaking a n d w riting activities were described subsequently as productive, w hereas listening an d reading skills were said to be receptive. While certainly an im provem ent over the earlier active ’'passive representation, the term s “productive" and “receptive’’ fall short of captur ing the interactive nature o f com m unication. Lost
in this p ro d u ctiv e,/recep tiv e, m essage sendin g /m e ssa g e receiving re p re se n ta tio n is tlte collaborative natu re o f m aking m eaning. M eaning appears fixed, to be sent an d received, not unlike a football in the bands of a team q u a rte r back. T he interest of a football gam e lies of course n o t in the football, but in the m ores and strategies o f the plavers as tliev punt, pass, and fake th eir wav along the field. T he interest of com m unication lies similarlv in the m ores and strategies of the participants. T he term s that best represent the collaborative natu re of what goes on are interpretation, expression, and negotiation o f m eaning. T he com m unicative com petence n e e d ed for participation includes not onlv gram m atical com petence, but pragm atic com petence. T he inadequacv o f a four-skills m odel of language use is now recognized. And the short com ings of audiolingual m ethodologv are wiclelv acknow ledged. T here is g e n e ra l a ccep tan ce o f the com plexity and in terrelatedness of skills in b o th w ritten and oral com m unication and o f the n e e d for learners to h are the experience o f com m unication, to participate in the negotia tion of m eaning. Newer, m ore com prehensive theories o f language an d language behavior have replaced those that looked to A m erican structuralism and behaviorist psvchologv for support. T he ex p an d ed , interactive view of lan guage behavior they offer presents a n u m b e r of ch allen g es for teachers. A m ong th em , how should form and function be in teg rated in an instructional sequence? W hat is an ap p ro p riate norm for learners? Hots is it determ ined? W hat is an error? A nd what, if anvthing. should be do n e w hen one occurs? Hots is language lea rn ing success to be m easured? A cceptance o f com m unicative criteria entails a c o m m itm en t to address these adm ittedlv com plex issues.
H O W A N D W H Y D ID C L T D EV ELO P? T h e origins of con tem p o rarv CLT can be traced to c o n c u rre n t developm ents in b o th E urope a n d N orth Am erica. In E urope, the language needs of a rapidlv increasing g ro u p of im m igrants and guest workers, as well as a rich British linguistic
tradition in cluding social as well as linguistic context in description of language behavior led the C ouncil o f E urope to develop a svllabus for learners based on notional-functional concepts o f language use. Derived from neo-F irthian sys temic o r functional linguistics that views language as meaning potential and m aintains the centrality of context o f situation in u n d e rsta n d in g lan guage systems an d how thev work, a T h resh o ld Level o f language abilitv was described for each of the m ajor languages o f E urope in term s of what learners should be able to do with the lan guage (ban Ek 1975). Functions were based on assessm ent o f lea rn er needs a n d specified the e n d result, the goal of an instructional program . T he term communicative attach ed itself to p ro gram s that used a functional-notional syllabus based on needs assessm ent, and the language fo r specific p u rp o se s (LSP) m o v em en t was launched. O th e r E uropean developm ents focused on the process of com m unicative classroom language learning. In Germanv, for exam ple, against a backdrop of social dem ocratic concerns for indi vidual em pow erm ent, articulated in the writings o f th e c o n te m p o ra rv p h ilo s o p h e r Ju rg en H aberm as (1970). language teaching m eth o d o l ogists took the lead in the developm ent o f class room m aterials that e n co u rag ed le a rn e r choice (C andlin 1978). T h e ir svstematic collection of exercise tvpes for com m unicatively o rie n te d English language teaching were used in teach er in-service courses a n d workshops to guide cu r riculum change. Exercises were designed to exploit the varietv of social m eanings co n tain ed within p articular gram m atical structures. A sys tem of "chains" en couraged teachers a n d learn ers to define their own learning path th ro u g h p rin c ip le d selection o f relevant exercises (P iep h o 1974: P iep h o an d B redella 1976). Similar exploratorv projects were also initiated bv C an d lin at his th e n academ ic h o m e, the L'niversitv of Lancaster in England, and bv H olec (1979) an d his colleagues at the University o f N aurs in France. S upplem entary tea c h e r resource m aterials p rom oting classroom CLT becam e increasinglv p o p u lar d u rin g the 1970s (e.g.. Males and Duff 1978).
M eanw hile, in the U n ited States. Hemes (1971) h a d reacted to Chom sky's (1965) ch ar acterization o f the linguistic com p eten ce of the “ideal native speaker” a n d p ro p o sed the term communicative competence to rep resen t the use of language in social context, or the observance of sociolinguistic norm s o f ap p ro p riat e. His concern with speech com m unities and the integration of language, com m unication, and culture was not unlike th at of Halliday in the British linguistic tra dition (see Hallidav 1978). Hvmes's com m unica tive com petence mav be seen as the equivalent of Hallidav’s m eaning potential. Similarly, his focus was n o t language learning, but language as social behavior. In subsequent interpretations of the sig nificance o f Hvmes's views for learners, m eth o d ologists working in the U nited States ten d ed to focus on native speaker cultural norm s and the difficulty, if n o t impossibility, of authentically representing them in a classroom of nonnative speakers. In light of this difficulty, the ap propri ateness o f com m unicative com petence as an instructional goal was questioned (e.g., Paulston 1974). At the same tim e, in a research project at the University7 o f Illinois, Savignon (1972) used the term “com m unicative com petence” to charac terize the ability of classroom language learners to interact with o th er speakers, to m ake m eaning, as distinct from their ability to recite dialogs or perform on discrete-point tests of gram m atical knowledge. At a tim e when p attern practice and erro r avoidance were the rule in language teach ing, this study of adult classroom acquisition of F rench looked at the effect o f practice on the use of coping strategies as part of an instructional pro gram . By encouraging learners to ask for inform a tion, to seek clarification, to use circum locution an d w'hatever o th er linguistic and nonlinguistic resources thev could m uster to negotiate m eaning and stick to the com m unicative task at hand, teachers were invariably leading learners to take risks and speak in o th er than m em orized patterns. T he coping strategies identified in this study becam e the basis for subsequent identification bv Canale and Swain (1980) of strategic competence w hich— along with gram m atical com petence and sociolinguistic com petence— appeared in their
three co m ponent fram ew ork for com m unicative com petence. (The original Canale and Swain fram ew ork with su b seq u en t m odifications is discussed below.) Test results at the end o f the instructional p eriod showed conclusively that learners who had practiced com m unication in lieu o f lab o ra to ry p a tte rn drills p e rfo rm e d with no less accuracy on discrete-point tests of gram m atical structure. O n the o th er h and, their communicative competence as m easured in term s of fluency com prehensibility, effort, an d am o u n t of com m unication in u n reh earsed oral com m u nicative tasks significantly surpassed th at of learners who had h ad no such practice. L earner reactions to the test form ats lent fu rth e r su p p o rt to the view that even beginners resp o n d well to activities that let them focus on m eaning as opposed to form al features. A collection of role plavs, games, an d o th er com m unicative classroom activities were subse quently developed for inclusion in adaptating the French CREDIF- m aterials, Yoix el Visages de la France. T he accom panying guide (Savignon 1974) described their purpose as that o f involving learners in the experience of com m unication. Teachers were encouraged to provide learners with the French equivalent of expressions that would help them to participate in the negotiation of m eaning such as ‘'W hat's the word for . . . ?” “Please repeat," “I d o n 't u n d e rsta n d .” Not unlike the efforts of C andlin and his colleagues w orking in a E uropean EFT context, the focus here was on classroom process and lea rn er autonom y. T he use o f games, role play pair work, and o th er small-group activ ities has gained acceptance and is now widely reco m m en d ed for inclusion in language teaching program s. CLT thus can be seen to derive from a m ul tidisciplinary perspective that includes, at a m in im u m , linguistics, psychology, philosophy, sociology, and ed ucational research. Its focus has b een the elab o ratio n a n d im p lem en tatio n o f program s and m ethodologies th at p ro m o te the developm ent of functional language ability th ro u g h lea rn er participation in com m unicative events. C entral to CLT is the u n d e rsta n d in g of language learn in g as both an ed ucational a n d a political isstte. L anguage teaching is inextricably
tied to language police. Viewed from a m ulticul tural /н/m national as well as /м/m iatio n al p er spective, diverse sociopolitical contexts m andate n o t only a diverse set of language learn in g goals, b u t a diverse set of teaching strategies. Program design a n d im p lem en tatio n d e p e n d on negoti a tio n b etw een police m akers, linguists, re search ers, a n d teach ers. A nd evaluation of p rogram success requires a sim ilar collaborative effort. T he selection of m ethods an d m aterials a p p ro p riate to both the goals and context of tea c h in g begins with an analvsis of sociallv defined lea rn er needs and stvles o f learning.
not include the abilitv to state rules o f usage. O ne dem onstrates gram m atical com petence n o t by staling a rule b u t by using a rule in the in te rp re tation, expression, or negotiation of m eaning.
H O W H A S C L T BEEN IN TE R P R E TE D ? T he classroom m odel shows the hvpothetical integration o f four com ponents that hat e been advanced as com prising com m unicative com pe ten ce (Savignon 1972. 1983.1987. in press: Canale and Swain 1980: Canale 1983a: Bvram 1997). A dapted from the fam iliar "inverted pvram id ” classroom m odel p roposed bv Savignon (1983), it shows how. th ro u g h practice and expe rience in an increasinglv wide range o f com m u nicative contexts and events, learners graduallv ex pand th eir com m unicative com petence, con sisting of grammatical competence, discourse compe tence, sociocult and competence, a n d strategic competence. A lthough the relative im portance of the various com ponents depends on the overall level of com m unicative com petence, each one is essential. Me ireover. all com ponents are in te rre lated. They cannot be developed o r m easured in isolation an d one cannot go from one com po n e n t to the o th er as one strings beads to m ake a necklace. Rather, an increase in one co m p o n en t interacts with o th er com ponents to pro d u ce a cor resp o n d in g increase in overall com m unicative com petence. Grammatical competence refers to sentencelevel gram m atical forms, the abilitv to recognize the lexical, m orphological, svntactic, and p h o n o logical feature o f a language and to m ake use of these features to in te rp re t and form words a n d sen ten ces. G ram m atical c o m p e te n c e is n o t linked to anv single theorv o f gram m ar an d does
Figure 1. Components of Communicative Competence
Discourse competence is con cern ed n o t with isolated words or phrases b u t with the in terco n nectedness of a series o f utterances, w ritten words, and or phrases to form a text, a m eaning ful whole. The text m ight be a poem , an e-mail message, a sportscast. a telephone conversation, or a novel. Identification o f isolated sounds or words contribute to interp retatio n o f the overall m eaning of the text. This is known as bottom-up protessing. On the o th er hand, u n d erstan d in g of the them e or purpose of the text helps in the in terp retatio n o f isolated sounds o r words. This is known as top-down processing. Both are im portant in com m unicative com petence. Two o th e r fam iliar co n cep ts in talking about discourse com petence are text coheimce and cohesion. Text coherence is the relation of all sentences or utterances in a text to a single global proposition. T he establishm ent of a global meaning, or topic, for a text is an integral p art of
both expression and in terp retatio n and makes possible the in terp retatio n of the individual sen tences th at m ake up the text. Local connections or structural links betw een individual sentences provide cohesion. Hallidav and H asan (1976) are well-known for their identification of various cohesive devices used in English. and their work has influenced teacher education m aterials for ESL/EFL. (for illustration, see Celce-M urcia and L arsen-Freem an 1999). Sociocultural competence extends well bevond linguistic form s and is an interdisciplinary field o f inquiry having to do with the social rules o f language use. S ociocultural c o m p e ten c e requires an un d erstan d in g o f the social context in which language is used: the roles of the partic ipants, the inform ation thev share, and the func tion o f the interaction. .Although we have vet to p ro tid e a satisfactory description of gram m ar, we are even fu rth er from an adequate description of sociocultural rules o f appropriateness. And vet we use them to com m unicate successfully in mamdifferent contexts of situation. It is of course not feasible for learners to anticipate the sociocultural aspects for even context. M oreover, English often se n e s as a lan guage o f com m unication between speakers o f different prim arv languages. Participants in m ul ticultural com m unication are sensitive not onlv to the cultural m eanings attached to the lan guage itself, but also to social conventions con c e rn in g lan g u ag e use, such as tu rn-taking, appropriacy of content, nonverbal language, and tone o f voice. These conventions influence how m essages are in te rp re te d . C ultural awareness ra th e r than cultural know ledge thus becom es increasingly im portant. Just knoyving som ething ab o u t the culture of an English-speaking country will n ot suffice. W hat m ust be learned is a general em pathy and openness towards o th er culture'. Sociocultural com petence therefore in clu d e ' a willingness to engage in the active negotiation <>f m eaning along with a willingness to 'in p e n d ju d g e m e n t and take into consideration the oo>sibilitv o f cultural differences in con v en tio n ' or use. T ogether these features m ight be 'u b 'u m e d u n d e r the term cultural flexibility < i Co on/ awareness.
T he "ideal native speaker." som eone yvho knows a language perfectly and uses it ap p ro p ri ately in till social interactions, exists in theory onh. N one of us knows all there is to know of English in its many- m anifestations, both aro u n d the world and in o u r tnvn backyards. C om m unicative com petence is alwavs relative. T he coping strategies that we use in unfam iliar contexts, with co n strain ts d u e to im p e rfe c t knoyvledge of rules or lim iting factors in thenapplication such as fatigue or distraction, are rep resen ted as strategic competence. W ith practice and experience, we gain in gram m atical, dis course. and sociocultural com petence. T he rela tive im portance of strategic com petence thus decreases. Hoyvever. the effective use of coping strategies is im p o rtan t for com m unicative com petence in all contexts and distinguishes highly co m petent com m unicators from those yvho are less so. Bv definition. CLT puts the focus on the learner. L earn er com m unicative needs provide a fram ew ork for elaborating program goals in term s of functional com petence. This im plies global, qualitative evaluation o f le a rn e r achieve m en t as opposed to quantitative assessm ent of discrete linguistic features. C ontroversy over a p p ro p riate language testing m easures persists, an d m anv a curricu lar innovation has b e e n u n d o n e by failu re to m ake correspondingchanges in evaluation. C u rren t efforts at ed u ca tional reform favor essay writing, in-class p rese n tations, a n d o th e r m ore holistic assessm ents o f lea rn er com petence. Some program s have initiated portfolio assessment, the collection and evaluation o f lea rn er poem s, reports, stories, videotapes, and similar projects in an effort to b e tte r re p re s e n t a n d e n c o u ra g e le a rn e r achievem ent. A lthough it now has a new nam e and is enjoving w idespread recognition and research attention, CLT is not a neyv idea. T h ro u g h o u t the long history of language teaching, there always have been advocates of a focus on m eaning, as opposed to form , and o f developing learn er abil ity7 to actually use the language for com m unica tion. T he m ore im m ediate the com m unicative needs, the m ore readily com m unicative m ethods
seem to be ad o p ted . In h e r book Breaking Tradition, M usum eci (1997) provides a fascinat ing account o f language teaching reform efforts dating back to the M iddle Ages w hen Latin, not English, was the lingua franca. Breaking Tradition is a favorite read in g of mv students. Then find it a refreshing an d reassuring rem in d er that dis cussions of m ethods and goals to r language teach in g pred ate the tw entieth cen trin ' bv far. D e p en d in g u p o n th eir own p rep aratio n a n d experience, teachers them selves differ in th eir reactions to CLT. Som e feel u n d e rsta n d able frustration at the seem ing am biguity in dis cussions o f com m unicative ability N egotiation o f m ean in g mav be a lofts goal, but this view of language behavior lacks precision an d does not provide a universal scale for assessm ent of indi vidual learners. Ability is sie v e d as satiable and highly d e p e n d e n t u p o n context an d purpose as well as on the roles and attitudes o f all involved. O th e r teachers who welcom e the o p p o rtu n ity to select a n d /o r develop th eir osvn m aterials, p ro sid in g learners with a range o f com m unicative tasks, are com fortable reiving on m ore global, integrative judgm ents of le a rn e r progress. An additional source of frustration for some teach ers are seco n d lan g u ag e acquisition research findings that show the route, if not the rate, o f language acquisition to be largely unaf fected bv classroom instruction. First language cross-linguistic studies o f developm ental universals initiated in the 1970s were soon followed bv sim ilar second language studies. Acquisition, assessed on the basis of expression in u n re hearsed, oral com m unicative contexts, appeared to follow a describable m orphosvntactic sequence regardless of learn er age or context of learning. A lthough thev served to bear out teachers’ infor m al observations, namelv that textbook presenta tion and drill do not ensure lea rn er use of taught structures in learners' spontaneous expression, th e findings were nonetheless disconcerting. Thev contradicted both gram m ar-translation and aucliolingual precepts that placed the b u rd en of le a rn e r acquisition on teacher explanation of gram m ar and controlled practice with insistence on learn er accuracy. They were fu rth e r at odds with textbooks that prom ise •‘m astery” o f "basic”
English, Spanish. French, etc. Teacher rejection of research findings, renervecl insistence on tests of discrete gram m atical structures, an d even exclu sive reliance in the classroom on the learners’ nativ e or first language, w here possible, to be sure thev "get the gram m ar.” have been in some cases reactions to the fru stration o f teach in g for com m unication.
S H A P IN G A C O M M U N IC A TIV E C U R R IC U LU M In rec e n t vears. m am innovations in curriculum p lan n in g have been p ro p o sed th at offer both novice an d veteran teachers a dizzying array of alternatives. G am es, voga, juggling, a n d jazz have been p ro p o sed as aids to language learning. Rapidiv increasing o p p o rtu n ities for c o m p u te r-m e d ia te d c o m m u n ic a tio n , b o th synchronous— online chat room s — an d asyn c h ro n o u s— the full spectrum of inform ation an d interactions available on the In te rn e t as well as specialized bulletin boards an d e-m ail— hold prom ise for fu rth e r integration o f com m unica tive opp o rtu n ities for learners worldwide. In attem p tin g to convev the m ean in g of CLT to both pre-service a n d in-service teachers o f English as a second o r foreign language in a wide range of contexts. I have fo u n d it helpful to think of a com m unicative curriculum as p o te n tially m ade up of five com ponents. These com p o nents mav be reg ard ed as them atic clusters of activities or experiences related to language use a n d usage, providing a useful wav o f categoriz ing teaching strategies that pro m o te com m u nicative language use. Use o f the term component to categorize these activities seem s particularly a p p ro p riate in that it avoids am suggestion of sequence or level. E x p erim en tatio n with com m unicative teaching m ethods has shown th at all five co m p o n en ts can be profitably b len d e d at all stages of instruction. O rganization o f learn in g activities into the following com p o n en ts serve n o t to sequence an ELT program , b u t ra th e r to highlight the range of options available in cu rricu lum p lan n in g and to suggest wavs in which th eir very interrelated n ess benefit the learner.
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L anguage Arts L anguage for a P urpose My Language Is Me: Personal English Language Use You Be, Г 11 Be; T h e a te r Arts Beyond the Classroom
Language Arts, o r language analysis, is the first c o m p o n e n t on th e list. L anguage Arts includes those things th at language teachers often do best. In fact, it may be all they have been tau g h t to do. This c o m p o n e n t includes m any o f the exercises used in m o th e r tongue program s to focus atten tio n on form al accuracy. In ELT. L anguage Arts focuses on form s o f English, including syntax, m orphology, and phonology. Spelling tests, for exam ple, are im p o rtan t if w riting is a goal. Fam iliar activities such as trans lation, dictation, an d rote m em orization can be helpful in bringing atten tio n to form . Vocabulary expansion can be e n h a n c e d th ro u g h definition, synonyms, a n d antonym s as well as attention to cognates a n d false cognates w hen applicable. P ro n u n ciatio n exercises an d p a tte rn e d repeti tion o f verb paradigm s and o th e r structural fea tures can be useful in focusing on form , along with the explanation o f regular syntactic features, rules o f gram m ar. T here are also m any Language Arts games th at learners o f all ages enjoy for the variety an d group interaction they provide. So long as they are n o t overused and are n o t pro m o ted as the solution to all m an n e r of language learn in g problem s, these gam es can be a wel com e addition to a te a c h e r’s repertoire. Language for a Purpose, or language experi ence, is the second com ponent. In contrast with language analysis, language experience is the use o f English for real a n d im m ediate com m unica tive goals. N ot all learners are learning English for the same reasons. A ttention to the specific com m unicative needs of the learners is im p o r tant in the selection a n d sequencing o f m aterials. Regardless of how distant or unspecific the com m unicative needs o f the learners may be. evenprogram with a goal o f com m unicative com pe tence should give atten tio n to o pportunities for m eaningful English use, opportunities to focus on m eaning ra th e r than on form .
In an ESL classroom w here English is the language o f instruction, th ere is an im m ediate an d natu ral n e e d for learners to use English. W here this h appens, L anguage for a P urpose is a built-in feature o f the learn in g environm ent. In an EFL setting w here the teach er may have a language o th e r th an English in com m on with learners, special a tte n tio n needs to be given to providing o p p o rtu n ities for English language experience. Exclusive use of English in the class room is an option. In so-called content-based instruction, the focus is o th e r th an the English language. T he content, fo r exam ple history, m usic, or literature, is tau g h t th ro u g h the иле of English. Immersion program s at the elem entary, secondare, o r even university level w here the en tire curriculum is tau g h t in English offer a m axim um am o u n t of Language for a P urpose (see Snow's c h a p te r in this v o lu m e). In addition, task-based c u rricu la are d esig n ed to provide lea rn ers with m axim um o p p o rtu n ity to use L anguage for a Purpose (see chapters by N unan; Jo h n s a n d Price-M achado; an d C h a u d ro n an d C rookes in this volum e). L earners who are accustom ed to being taught exclusively in th eir m o th e r tongue may at first be un co m fo rtab le if the teach er speaks to them in English, expecting them n o t only to u n d e rsta n d but, perhaps, to respond. V ire n this h appens, teachers n e e d to take special care to help learners realize th at they are n o t expected to u n d e rsta n d ev en word, any m ore th an they are expected to express them selves in nativelike English. M aking an effort to get the gist an d using strategies to in te rp re t, express, an d neg o tiate m ean in g are im p o rtan t to the d evelopm ent o f com m unicative co m p eten ce. F or learn ers who are accustom ed to gram m ar translation courses tau g h t in th eir m o th e r tongue with an em phasis on gram m ar an d accuracy, th e tra n sition will n o t be easy. Kivoko Kusano H ubbell (in press), a Japanese teacher o f English in Tokyo, recounts some struggles in h e r determ in ed effort to teach communicatively: Мапл Jap an ese students have b een tau g h t th a t they have to really know evert word in a sentence o r a phrase
in o rd er to u n d e rsta n d a foreign lan guage. They are n o t taught to use the strategies th at they already use in their native Japanese, th at is, to guess the m eaning from the context. W hen the blackboard is full o f writing a n d I am busy in class, I ask a student, “Please erase the blackboard!”, h an d in g him an eraser a n d p o inting to the dirtv blackboard. If he does n o t move, it is n o t because he is offended. H e ju st did n o t recognize the w ord “erase,” and to him that m eans he did not u n d erstan d m e. If he is willing to accept the am bi guity', he gets up and cleans the board. W ith en c o u ra g e m e n t an d h elp from their tea c h e r in developing the strategic com petence they n e e d to in te rp re t, express, an d negotiate m eaning, learners express satisfaction and even surprise. Kusano H ubbell goes on to rep o rt the positive reactions she receives at the en d of the term . (All com m ents have b een translated from Ja p an e se by the author.) “C om pletelv different from anv class I ’ve ever h a d !” “I have never expressed my own ideas in English before. W ork was alwavs to translate this section, to fill in the blanks o r read. It was all passive.” “In my career o f English education from Jr. H igh to C ram School th ere was no tea c h e r who spoke English o th e r th an to read the textbooks.” My Language Is Me: Personal English Language Use, the third co m p o n en t in a com m unicative curriculum , relates to the le a rn e r’s em erging identity' in English. L earner attitude is w ithout a d o u b t the single m ost im portant factor in learn er success. W hether a le a rn e r’s m otivations are inte grative o r instrum ental, the developm ent o f com m unicative c o m p e te n c e involves th e w hole learner. T h e m ost successful teaching program s are those th at take into account the affective as well as the cognitive aspects o f language learning. They seek to involve learn ers psycho logically as well as intellectually.
In p la n n in g for CLT. tea c h e rs sh o u ld rem e m b e r th at n o t evervone is com fortable in the sam e role. W ithin classroom com m unities, as within society at large, th ere are leaders and th ere are those who p refer to be followers. Both are essential to the success of g roup activities. In group discussions, there are always some who seem to do the m ost talking. Those who often rem ain silent in larger groups typically partici pate m ore easily in pair work. O r they may prefer to work on an individual project. T he w ider the variety of com m unicative, or m eaning-based, activities, the greater the chance for involving all learners. Mv L anguage Is Me implies, above all, respect for learners as thev use English for selfexpression. .Although Language Arts activities provide an app ro p riate context for atten tio n to form al accuracy Personal English Language LTse does not. Most teachers know this and intuitively focus on m eaning rath er than on form as learners express their personal feelings o r experiences. However, repeated em phasis on structural accuracv in textbooks or on tests mav cause teachers to feel uncom fortable about their in atten tio n to non-nativelike features that do n o t im pede m eaning. .An un d erstan d in g of the im portance of opportunities for the in terpretation, expression, and negotiation o f m eaning in CLT an d o f the distin ctio n betw een L anguage Arts a n d My Language Is Me can help to reassure teachers that the com m unicative practice thev are providing is im portant for their learners. Respect for learners as thev use English for self-expression re q u ire s m o re th a n sim ply restrain t in a tten tio n to form al “e rro rs” th at do n o t in te rfe re with m eaning. It includes recog nition that so-called “nativelike” p erfo rm an ce mav not, in fact, even be a goal for learners. L anguage teaching has com e a long way from aucliolingual davs w hen “native” p ro n u n cia tio n a n d use was held up as an ideal. R eference to the term s "native” or "nativelike" in the evaluation o f com m unicative co m p eten ce is in ap p ro p ria te in todav's postcolonial, m ulticultural world. As observed earlier, we notv recognize that native speakers are never “ideal'' and, in fact, varv widely in range and style of comm unicative abilities.
M oreover, as the English language is increasingly used as a language of global com m unication, so called “non-native" users of its m am varieties overw helm ingly o u tn u m b e r so-called "native speakers.” T he decision of what is or is not one's “native” language is arbitrary and irrelevant for ELT a n d is perhaps best left to the individual concerned. C hennv Lai. a graduate MATESI. candidate studying in the U nited States, expresses his views: As to the definition of "native" or "first" language we discussed in today's class. I cam e up with the idea that we have no say about w hether a person's native lan guage is this one or that one. It is the speaker whet has the right to FEEL which language is his native one. The native language should be the one in which the speaker feels most com fort able or natural w hen m aking dailv com m unication, or m ore abstractly, the one in which the speaker does all his thinking. T here are two m ajor lan guages spoken in Taiwan: M andarin an d Taiwanese. I d o n ’t have any slight est problem using eith er of them since I use both even' clav in equal p ro p o r tion. But w hen I do mv thinking, con sidering things, or even kind o f talking to mvself', mv “m ental" language is M andarin. Because of this. I would say th a t mv native language is M andarin. . . . we probable can sav that a person's native language can actually “switch” from one to a n o th e r d u ring stages o f his life. Since a personality inevitable takes on a new dim ension th ro u g h expression in a n o th e r language, th at dim ension needs to be discovered on its own term s. L earners should not only be given the o p p o rtu n ity to say w hat thev want to say in English, thev also should be en co u rag ed to develop an English language personality with which they are com fortable. They mav feel m ore com fortable m aintaining a degree o f form ality not fo u n d in the in terp erso n al transactions of native speakers. T he diary entrv of a Jap an ese le a rn e r o f English offers im p o rtan t insight on the m atte r of identity:
I just d o n 't know what to do right now. I m ight have b e e n wrong since I began to learn English: I always tried to be b e tte r and w anted to be a good speaker. It was wrong, absolutely wrong! W hen I got to California. I started im i tating A m ericans and picked up the words that I heard. So mv English becam e just like -Americans. I c o u ld n 't help it. I m ust have b een funnv to them , because I am a Japanese and hat e mv own culture an d background. I think I alm ost lost the most im portant thing I should not have. I got California English, including intonation, p ro n u n ciation. the wav thev act, which are not m ine. I har e to have my own English, be mvself w hen I speak English (Preston 1981. p. 113). On the o th e r hand, learners mav discover a new freed o m o f self-expression in th eir new lan guage. W hen asked what it is like to write in E nglish, a lan g u ag e th at is n o t h e r native tongue, the K orean w riter Mia Ann, a u th o r of House of the Winds (1998), replied th at it was “like pu ttin g on a new dress." W riting in English m ade h e r feel fresh, see h erself in a new way, o ffe red h e r fre e d o m to e x p e rim e n t. W hen expressing them selves in a new language, writers are not the onlv ones to experience the feeling of "putting on a new dress." My L anguage Is Me calls for recognition a n d respect for the indi vidual personality o f the learner. (We will re tu rn to the m atte r of the "native 'non-native” dis tinction with respect to users of English later when discussing sociolinguistic issues.) You Be. I'll Be: Theater Arts is the fourth com p o n e n t of a com m unicative curriculum . “.All the w o rld ’s a stage." in the fam iliar w ords of Shakespeare (As You Like It, II, viii; 139). A nd on this stage we plav manv roles, roles for which we improvise scripts from the m odels we observe aro u n d us. Child, parent, sister, brother, em ployer, em ployee, doctor, or tea c h e r— all are roles that include certain expected ways o f behav ing and using language. Sociocultural rules of appropriateness have to do with these expected wavs. Familiar roles may be plated with little
conscious attention to style. O n the o th er hand, new and unfam iliar roles req u ire practice, with an awareness of how the m eanings we in te n d are being in te rp re te d bv others. Som etim es there are no m odels. In the last h a lf o f the tw entieth century, w om en who suddenly found them selves in w hat had b e e n a "m an's world," w h eth er as firefighters, professors, o r CEOs, had to adapt existing m odels to ones with which they could be com fortable. And the transition is far from com plete. W ith the exception o f G reat Britain, no m ajor w orld pow er to date has h ad a wom an h e a d o f state. Bv the e n d o f the twentv-first cen tury th ere no d o u b t will be n u m ero u s m odels from which to choose. If the world can be thought o f as a stage, with actors and actresses who plav their parts as best they can, th eater mav be seen as an o p p o rtu nity to experim ent with roles, to trv things out. Fantasy and playacting are a natural and im por tan t p art of childhood. Make-believe and the "von be, I’ll b e ” improvisations fam iliar to children the w’orld over are im portant to self-discoverv and growth. They allow voting learners to experim ent a n d to try things out, such as hats and wigs, m oods and postures, gestures and words. As occa sions for language use, role-plaving an d the m anv related activities that constitute T heater Arts are likewise a natural c o m p o n e n t o f language learn ing. They allow learners to ex p erim en t with the roles thev play o r mav be called upon to plav in real life. T h e a te r Arts can provide learners with th e tools thev n e e d to act, that is. to in terp ret, express, a n d negotiate m ean in g in a new lan guage. Activities can include both scripted and u n scrip ted role plav, sim ulations, an d even p a n tom im e. E nsem ble-building activities fam iliar in th e a te r training have been used very successfully in EET to create a clim ate o f trust so necessary for the in co rp o ratio n of T h e a te r Arts activities (see Savignon 1997). T he role of th e tea c h e r in T h e a te r Arts is th at o f a coach, providing sup port, strategies, an d en c o u ra g e m e n t for learners as they explore new ways of being. Beyond the Classroom is the fifth an d final c o m p o n e n t of a com m unicative curriculum . Regardless o f the variety of com m unicative activ ities in the E SL /EFL classroom , th eir purpose rem ains to p rep a re learners to use English in the
w orld beyond. This is the wrorld u p o n which learners will d e p e n d for the m ain ten an ce and developm ent o f th eir com m unicative co m p e tence once classes are over. T he classroom is b u t a rehearsal. D evelopm ent o f the Beyond the Classroom c o m p o n e n t in a com m unicative cur riculum begins with discovery o f lea rn er interests and needs an d of opportunities to n o t only respond to but, m ore im portantly, to develop those interests and needs th rough English language use bevond the classroom itself. In an EST setting, opportunities to use English outside the classroom abound. Systematic "field experiences" may successfully becom e the core of the course, which then could becom e a w orkshop in which learners can com pare notes, seek clarification, an d e x p an d the range o f dom ains in which thev learn to function in English. Classroom visits to a courtroom trial, a public auction, or a church bazaar provide introductions to aspects o f the local culture that learners m ight n o t experience on their own. C onversation p a rtn e rs, a p p re n tic e sh ip s, an d activities with host families can be arranged. Residents of nearbv retirem ent com m unities can be recruited as valuable resources for a range of research projects. Senior citizens often welcome the opportunity to interact with international vis itors or new arrivals and offer a wealth of knowl edge and experience. Thev could be interview7ed about notew orthy historical events, child rearing in earlier decades, or their view’s on politics, health care, or grandparenting. In an EFT setting, on the o th er h and, the ch allen g e fo r in c o rp o ra tin g a B eyond the Classroom c o m p o n e n t may be greater, b u t cer tainly n o t insurm ountable, a n d is essential for both teacher a n d learners. As a child, I looked forw ard to receiving letters from my pen pals. Thev would arrive bearing colorful stam ps from France. Wales, Jap an , Taiwan, and Australia. I had vet to learn a second language, so o u r corre spondence was all in English. However, this reg u lar ex c h an g e o f letters p u t a sm all town m idw estern .American girl in touch with o th er places aro u n d the globe a n d with o th e r users of English. Technology has since b ro u g h t the whole w orld m uch closer. English language radio an d television program s, videos, an d feature length
films are readilv available in m am F F f settings, along with new spapers and m agazines. English speaking residents o r ■visitors m at be available to visit the classroom . T he In te rn et now provides o p p o rtu n ities to in teract with English speaking peers on a varietv of topics, to develop gram m atical, discourse, sociocultural, and strategic com petence. These o p p o rtu n ities for com puterm ediated com m unication (CMC) will increase dram aticallv in the years ahead. T he following except from an e-mail exchange betw een classes of secondary school students in G erm any and the Lhrited States on the topic of the death penalty reveals th e p o ten tia l for dev elo p in g socio cultural and strategic skills in addition to gram matical and discourse com petence (R oithm eier and Savignon in press): Death Penalty— an inhuman punishm ent . . . Finally. I th ink nobodv has the right to kill o th e r people but to kill a person because of m erev is inhuman an d should never be a law in certain dem ocratic states or countries. . . . LbSA 2: . . . I can see b o th sides o f the death penalty. I believe w hen discussing this inhuman tre a tm e n t vou m ust think ab o u t the victims o f these people. USA 4: . . . Basically, I think the d eath penalty is w rong and inhumane. USA 6: T he d eath penalty is inhumane . . .
GER 1: GER 3:
Exam ples such as the above provide strong su p p o rt for the claim that m em bers of a discus sion g roup are strongly influenced bv p rio r post ings an d that the language thee use is influenced bv what the\ read from participants. In addition to p rea rra n g e d exchanges, learners can check W orld W ide Web sites for a range o f inform ation, schedules, rates, locations, descriptions, and the like.
Arts, and Be\ ond the Classroom? These questions must be answ ered bv individual language teach ers in the context in yvhich they teach. Cultural expectations, goals, and styles o fle a rn in g are but some o f the ways in yvhich learners mav differ from each other. To the complexity o f the learn er m ust be added the com plexities of teachers and of the settings in which they teach. Established routines, or institutional belief about what is im portant, weigh heavily in a te a c h e r’s decisions as to yvhat and horv to teach and often m akes innovation difficult (see Sato in press; W ang in press). Finally, the need for varietv m ust be taken into account. Learners yvlm are b ored with rule recitation or sentence translation mav ju st as easily lose interest in games o r role play, if these are allowed to becom e routine. Difficult as it is. the teacher's task is to u n d e rsta n d the many factors involved and respond to them creatively. Teachers cannot do this alone, of course. They n e e d the su p p o rt of adm in istrato rs, the comm unity, and the learners themselves. M ethodologists and re a d ie r education program s have a responsibility as yvell. They should provide classroom teachers with the perspective and expe riences they need to respond to the realities of their world, a changing yvorlcl in yvhich the old way s of ELT mav not be the best wavs. T he optim um com bination of the analytical and the experiential in ESL EFF for a given context is a focus o f ongoing research. However, a noyv yvellestablished research tradition in second/foreign language learning teaching has clearly shoyvn the im portance o f attention to language use, o r expe rience, in addition to language usage, or analysis. But the ovenvhelm ing emphasis in most school program s is on the Fitter, often to the com plete exclusion of the former.
W H A T A B O U T GRAMMAR? P U T T IN G IT A L L T O G E T H E R How do we put it all together? Is there an opti m um com bination of Language Arts. Personal Language Use, Language for a Purpose. T heater
Discussions of GET not infrequently lead to questions of gram m atical or form al accuracy. T he perceived displacem ent of attention to morphosvntactic features in lea rn er expression in favor of a focus on m eaning has led in some cases to the im pression that gram m ar is not im portant,
o r that p ro p o n en ts of CLT favor lea rn er selfexpression w ithout re g a rd to form . W hile involvem ent in com m unicative events is seen as central to language developm ent, this involve m en t necessarilv requires attention to form . T he natu re o f the co ntribution to language develop m en t o f both form -focused and m eaning-focused classroom activitv rem ains a question in ongoing research. T he optim um com bination of these activities in any given in stru ctio n al setting depends no doubt on learner age. nature and length o f instructional sequence, opportunities for language contact outside the classroom , teacher preparation, and o th er factors. However, for the developm ent of com m unicative abilitv, research Findings overw helm inglv su p p o rt the integration o f form -focused exercises with m eaning-focused experience. G ram m ar is im portant, and learners seem to focus best on gram m ar when it relates to their com m unicative needs and experiences. C om m unicative com petence obviouslv does not m ean the wholesale rejection o f fam iliar m aterials. T here is n o th in g to prevent com m u nicatively-based m aterials from being subjected to gram m ar-translation treatm ent, just as there may be n o th in g to prevent a teacher with onlv an old gram m ar-translation book at his or h e r dis posal from teaching communicativelv. W hat m at ters is the teacher's conception of what learning a language is and how it happens. T he basic p rin ciple involved is an orientation towards collective participation in a process o f use a n d discovery achieved bv c o o p e ra tio n betw een individual learners as well as betw een learners and teachers.
S O C IO L IN G U IS T IC ISSUES N um erous sociolinguistic issues await attention. V ariation in the speech com m unity an d its relationship to language change are central to sociolinguistic inquire. As we have seen above, sociolinguistic perspectives on variability and change highlight the folk of describing native speaker com petence, let alone non-native speaker com petence, in terms of "mastery " or “com m and” o f a system. .All language systems show instabilitv and variation. L earner language systems show
even greater instability and variability in terms of both the am ount and rate o f change. Moreover, sociolinguistic concerns yvith identity' and accom m odation help to explain the construction by bilinguals o f a “variation space" that is different from that o f a native speaker. This mav include reten tio n of anv n u m b er of features of a previ ously acquired code or sy stem o f phonology and syntax as well as features of discourse an d prag m atics. in c lu d in g c o m m u n ic a tio n strategies. T he p h e n o m e n o n may be individual or. in those settings yvhere there is a com m unity o f learners, general. Differences not only in the code itself b ut in the sem antic m eanings attrib u ted to these different encodings contribute to identification yvith a speech com m unity or culture, the yvav a speech com m unity views itself and the world. This o ften in clu d es code m ixing a n d code switching. the use bv bilinguals o f resources from m ore than one speech comm unity. S ociolinguistic perspectives have b e e n im portant in u n d e rsta n d in g the im plications of norm , appropriaev, and variability for CLT and continue to suggest avenues o f inquiry for fu rth er research and m aterials developm ent. Use of authentic language data hits u n derscored the im portance of context, such as setting, roles, and genre, in in terpreting the m eaning of a text. A range o f both oral and written texts in context provides learners yvith a variety of language expe riences. which they n eed to construct their own "variation space" and to m ake determ inations of a p p ro p ria te in their own expression of m eaning. "C om petent" in this instance is not necessarily synonym ous with "nativelike." N egotiation in CLT highlights the n e e d for interlinguistic, that is. intcrcidturcd, awareness on the part of all involved (Byram 1997). B etter tm clerstanding of the strategies used in the negotiation o f m eaning offers a potential for im proving classroom prac tice of the n e e d ed skills.
Natives and Foreigners We m ight begin bv asking ourselves whose lan guage we teach and for what purpose. W hat is o u r own relationship with English? Do we con sider it to be a foreign, second, or native language?
Webster's New International Dictionary. 2nd edition, published in 1950. a tim e w hen language te a c h in g in the U n ite d States was on the th re sh o ld o f a p e rio d of u n p re c e d e n te d scrutiny, ex p erim en tatio n , an d grow th, p ro tid e s the fol lowing definitions of these term s we use so often with respect to language. Foreign derives from M iddle English forein. forene. O ld French forain a n d Latin fonts, m ean in g outside. Related words are foreclose, forest, forfeit. M odern definitions include “situated outside one's own country; born in, belonging to, derived from, or characteristic o f some place o th er than the one u n d e r consid eration; alien in character; not connected or p e rtin e n t,” etc. Those identified as teaching a foreign lan guage, p erhaps even in a D ep artm en t of Foreign Languages, should ask. "Whv?" W hat does the label “foreign" signal to colleagues, learners, a n d the com m unity at large?- Toclav we are c o n ce rn e d with global ecology an d global economy. A nd English has b een describe as a “global lan gu ag e” (Crystal 1997). N onetheless, one m ight object, “fo re ig n ” is still a useful term to use in distinguishing betw een teaching English in. sat-. Pattava, T h a ila n d , a n d te a c h in g E nglish in Youngstown, O hio. In Youngstown. English is taught as a second language w hereas in Pattava it is a foreign language. T he contexts of learning are n o t the same, to be sure. N eith er are the learners. N o r the teachers. But do these facts change the n a tu re of the language? A nd what ab o u t the teaching of Spanish in Chicago, in B arcelona, in B uenos Aires, in G uatem ala City, in M iami, o r in M adrid? In what sense can Spanish in each of these contexts be described as “fo reign” or “seco n d ”? And what are the im pli cations of the label selected for the learners? For the teachers? H aving tau g h t F rench in U rbana, Illinois, for m an \- years, I can easily identify with the problem s o f teachers of English in Pattava. M ore so, p e rh a p s, th an those w ho teach ESL in U rb an a with easy access to English speaking com m unities outside the classroom . O n the o th e r h a n d , teach in g F rench in U rbana or
English in Pattava is no excuse for ig n oring or avoiding o p p o rtu n ities for com m unication, both w ritten an d oral. T he potential o f com puterm ed iated negotiation o f m ean in g for language learn in g and language change in the decades ah e ad will be increasingly recognized, b o th inside and outside language classrooms. W hat mav be a p roblem is the te a c h e r’s com m unicative co m petence. Is he or she a native speaker? If not. does he o r she consider him- or herself bilingual? If not. whv not? Is it a lack o f com m unicative com petence? Or, rather, a lack of com m unicative confidence? Is he or she in tim id ated bv “native" speakers? Native Speaker is the title of a m oving first novel by C hang-rae Tee. an A m erican raised in a K orean im m igrant family in New Jersey. It docum ents the struggle and frustration o f know ing two cul tures an d at the same tim e not com pletely belonging to e ith e r one. As such, it serves as a p o ig n an t rem in d er of the challenges o f bilin gualism a n d b icu ltu ralism . How does o n e "belong”? W hat does it m ean to be bilingual? To be bicultural? To be a native speaker? Again, the exam ple o f English is im portant. Such w idespread a d o p tio n of one language is u n p re c e d e n te d . English users todav in clu d e those who live in countries w here English is a pri mary language — the U nited States, the U nited Kingdom . Canada. Australia, and New Zealand; those who live in countries w here English is an additional, m /ranational language o f co m m u n i c a tio n — fo r e x am p le. B an g lad esh , In d ia, N igeria, Philippines, a n d Tanzania; those who use English prim arily in /н/rrnational co n tex ts— countries such as C hina, Indonesia, Ja p a n , Saudi A rabia, a n d Russia. Bv conservative estim ates the n u m b e r of non-native speakers of English in the w orld todav o u tn u m b e rs native speakers by m ore th an 2 to 1. a n d the ratio is increasing. M odels of appropriaev vary from c o n tex t to con text. So m uch, in fact, that som e scholars speak n o t onlv of varieties of English b u t of World Englishes, the title of a new journal devoted to discussion of descriptive, pedagogical, and o th e r issues in the global sp re a d o f the English
language. As лее have seen above, d e p e n d in g on the context as well as le a rn e r needs, "native" speakers mav or m ar- n o t be a p p ro p riate m odels (see also K achru 1992).
W H A T C L T IS N O T D isappointm ent with both gram m ar-translation an d audiolingual m ethods for th eir inabilitv to prep are learners for the in terpretation, ex pression, and negotiation of m eaning, along with enthusiasm for an arrav of alternative m ethods increasingly labeled communicative, has resulted in no small am ount of uncertaintv as to what are and are not essential features of CLT. Thus, this sum m ary description would be incom plete w ithout brief m ention of what CLT is not. CLT is not exclusively co n c ern e d with faceto-face oral c o m m u n ic a tio n . T h e prin cip les o f CLT apply equally to reading and writing activities th at involve re a d e rs a n d winters engaged in the in te rp re ta tio n , expression, and n e g o tia tio n o f m ean in g : the goals o f CLT d e p e n d on lea rn er needs in a given context. CLT does not require sm all-group or p air work: g ro u p tasks have been found helpful in mans contexts as a wav of providing increased o p p o r tu nity a n d m otivation for c o m m u n ic a tio n . However, classroom g roup or pair work should not be considered an essential feature an d mav well be in ap p ro p ria te in som e contexts. Finally. CLT does not exclude a focus on m etalinguistic aw areness o r know ledge of rules o f syntax, discourse, and social appropriateness. T he essence o f CLT is the en g ag em en t of learners in com m unication in o rd e r to allow them to develop th eir com m unicative com pe tence. Terms som etim es used to refer to features o f CLT include process oriented, task-based, and inductive, o r discoi'ery oriented. Inasm uch as strict a d h e re n c e to a given text is n ot likelv to be true to its processes and goals, CLT c a n n o t be fo u n d in any one textbook or set o f cu rricu lar m ateri als. In keeping with the n o tion of context o f sit uation, CLT is properly seen as an ap p ro ach or
theory o f in tercu ltu ral com m unicative com pe ten c e to be used in d ev e lo p in g m aterials an d m ethods a p p ro p riate to a given co n tex t of learning. C ontexts change. A w orld o f carriages an d petticoats evolves into one of genom es and cyberspace. N o less th an the m eans a n d norm s of com m unication thev are designed to reflect, com m unicative teach in g m ethods designed to e n h a n c e th e in te rp re ta tio n , expression, and negotiation o f m ean in g will co n tin u e to be e x p lo red an d adapted.
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1. If vou h ad to choose th re e adjectives to describe CLT, what w ould thev be? 2. W hat m ight be som e obstacles e n c o u n te re d bv teachers who wish to im p lem en t a com m unicative ap p ro ach to language teaching? How m ight these obstacles be overcom e? 3. Do vou feel English to be a foreign, second, or native language? How m ight vour feelings influence vour classroom teaching? 4. O f the five described co m p o n en ts o f a com m unicative curriculum , which are the m ost fam iliar to vou as a language learner? As a language teacher? 5. W ho sets the norm for English language use in vour p articular context o f situation? How? Whv?
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1. Request perm ission to observe two or th ree d iffe re n t in tro d u c to ry level ESL or EEL classes. N ote the interaction betw een the tea c h e r an d the learners. W ho does m ost of the talking? How m uch of the talking that vou h e a r is in English? Whv? 2. Interview som e language learners for their views on whv thev are learn in g a foreign o r second language.
3.
Look at the inverted pyram id diagram of com m unicative com p eten ce on page 17. Do you agree with the p ro p o rtio n s drawn? Draw your own diagram to show the relationship betw een the fo u r co m p o n en ts o f com m u nicative com petence. 4. Select one of the five co m p o n en ts o f a com m unicative c u rricu lu m d e scrib ed in this chapter. Make a list o f co rresp o n d in g lea rn e r activities or experiences th at vou would like to use in your teaching.
FU R T H ER R EA D IN G Breen, M., and C. Candlin. 1980. The essentials of a communicative curriculum in language teaching. Applied Linguistics 1(1) :89—112. Byram, M. 1997. Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence. Cleveclon. UK: Multilingual Matters.
Hollidav. A. 1994. Appropriate Methodology and Social Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Xunan. D. 1989a. Designing Tasks per the Commu nicative Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Savignon. S. J. 1997. Communicative Competence: Theory and Classroom Practice. New York: McGraw Hill.
ENDNO TES 1 The author copied this passage mam years ago while visiting the Union School, a country school building that teas moved to the citv of Goodland, Kansas, bv the Sherman Countv Historical Society. It is owned and operated as a school museum bv the Society. - CRTDIF is the acronym for Centre de Recherche et d'Etude pour la Diffusion clu Francais. It was an institution specializing in French as a foreign language and functioned in association with the Ecole Xormale Superieur de Saint-Cloud from 1939 to 1996.
Guidelines for Language Classroom Instruction 1 GRAHAM
CROOKES
• CRAIG
CHAUDRON
In "Guidelines for Language Classroom Instruction," Crookes and Chaudron review research and practice in both second and foreign language contexts. The main areas of classroom instruction described are: presentational modes and focus on form, types of activities and parameters of tasks and interaction, classroom organization, teacher control of interaction, and corrective feedback.
I. IN T R O D U C T IO N W hat goes on in th e lan g u a g e classroom betw een the tea c h e r a n d students is obviously the core area o f inform ation p e rta in in g to for mal second language (SL) teaching a n d lea rn ing. “O ut-of-class’' know ledge o f lan g u ag e teach in g in areas such as needs analysis, curricu lum design, lesson planning, m aterials design, a n d evaluation is, o f course, necessary for a truly professional op eratio n , but so long as th ere is a teach er w orking with a g roup o f students, the essence of classroom SL teaching resides in the n a tu re of instruction an d interaction betw een teachers an d students. In this c h a p te r we identify and discuss som e o f the m ore im p o rta n t characteristics and p rin ciples o f this in teractio n .- O u r co n ception o f the tea c h e r is som eone with a great n u m b e r o f deci sions to m ake at even m o m en t o f classroom instruction. In som e cases, research findings can guide those decisions. In others, research can info rm professional ju d g m e n t, b u t decisions m ust be based on experience a n d in tu itio n ra th e r th an know ledge. However, decisions will be aided bv a know ledge o f the range o f instruc tional alternatives available, as well as by an awareness o f the cultural context an d personal values o f the tea c h e r an d students. W hen a second language is taught, a num b e r o f m ajor steps m ust be taken. First, elem ents of the language o r its use. or skills such as learn ing strategies, m ust be bro u g h t into the classroom and presented or highlighted. T he teach er and,
u n d e r certain learn er-cen tered conditions, the students select elem ents of the SL in this p h ase.3 Second, th at which has b e e n selected a n d p re sented m ust be learned; the tea c h e r has to arran g e m atters and events to brin g this about. T h ird, the tea c h e r m ust provide know ledge of results, th at is, co rrectio n o r feedback, to the students. We should n o t ignore that these processes take place in a social m ilieu, and that because of the wav language functions betw een individuals, these processes c an n o t be totally separated from the social clim ate which develops am o n g stu dents a n d betw een teach er an d students, th o u g h space does not p erm it us to address this im p o r tant p o in t here. Finally, let us note th a t consci entious SL teachers usually com e o u t of a class asking them selves how the class w ent— in o th e r words, engaging in a process o f self-evaluation. We believe that this is a vital process for profes sional self-developm ent, a n d one which needs to be explicitly structured into SL teachers’ routines. See M urphv’s ch ap ter on reflective teaching in this volum e, for a full discussion.
2. L A N G U A G E P RESEN TA TIO N 2.1 Meta-Planning for Lesson Objectives W hich elem ents of language are u n d e rta k en d e p en d s on the objectives a tea c h e r has in m ind for the lesson. Thev are th en the result o f lesson
p lan n in g and the general syllabus for the course (see the ch ap ters by J e n se n an d N'unan in this volum e). D espite considerable variation, generally the first elem en t of a lesson is the first c o m p o n e n t o f the traditional "present-practiceevaluate” seq u en ce, w hich co n stitu tes m any teachers’ u n d erstanding of basic lesson structure. Let us assume for present purposes that a teach er has selected a particular elem ent of language, or aspect o f language leanring, to be focused on as the first m ajor stage o f a class period. T here are then two types of choices to be made: those concerning the phvsical characteristics of the presentation, that is, materials, use o f audiorisual (AY) equipm ent, etc.; and those concerning the deductive o r inductive procedures that learners will be engaging in in o rder to acquire rules, items, analogies, and other aspects of the target language. T he fo rm er are considered in the following section, the latter in section 2.3.
2.2 Modalities (Materials, AV) W hile n o t espousing anv particular approach in this chapter, we feel that m anv professionals rec ognize the im portance o f practice in the acquisi tion o f anv cognitive skill. T here is increasing recognition4 of SL learning as a process of skill acq u isitio n (O 'M allev, C h am o t, a n d W alker 1987), which im plies the im portance of practice, o r ou tp u t, rath e r than m ere input (cf. Pica et al. 1996; Swain and Lapkin 1995). Teachers thus n e e d to rem ain aware that thev are not in the classroom to fill np the tim e with the sound of th eir own voices, b u t to arrange m atters so that th eir students do the talking (or writing, o r lis tening). Particularly in EFL ra th e r th an ESL situ ations, class tim e is so valuable that we believe the teacher should move on to practice phases o f a lesson as soon as possible in a m an n e r consistent with an adequate p resentation of m aterial and the giving o f clear instructions for som e practice exercises. Assum ing th at the instructor decides that a given teaching objective calls for som e su p p o rt in the wav of m aterials, w hat then? T he m ajor resource is o f course the textbook. In addition, o th e r tea c h in g aids fall into two categories
(Celce-M urcia 1979): n o n te c h n ic a l aids a n d technical aids (not counting the students th em selves, who can of course plav a stim ulating role in the p resentation stages of a lesson). T he for m er include the chalkboard, realia. flashcards, m agazine pictures, and charts. T he latter include the overhead projector, audio and video reco rd ings, CD-ROM. and In tern et. Both types o f aids are considered elsewhere in this book (see chap ters bv B rinton and Sokolik in this volum e). D espite in cre asin g rese a rc h in to som e m edia, the range o f classroom and cultural con texts for T E S /F L m eans that deciding w hether or not to use AY aids is usuallv a m atter for indi vidual teacher judgm ent, su p ported by general considerations. Does th eir use in a given circum stance aid com prehension? Do thev stim ulate m ore student talk than would have otherwise occurred? Above all, does their use constitute an efficient use o f class tim e, particularly taking into account the teach er tim e req u ired to p ro d u ce them o r the logistics o f setting up an d rem oving am nccessarv equipm ent? This is an area in which careful teacher investigation and rep o rtin g of successes and failures in practice would benefit the profession. P erhaps because o f the com plexitv of the q u e stio n , a su rprisinglv sm all a m o u n t o f research inform s teachers of how to use a text b o o k (b u t see T om linson 1997). F o r the u n tra in e d teacher, a good textbook can stand in for a syllabus an d training program , while an e x p erien ced teach er can use the text as an aid, a d o p tin g som e parts, ad ap tin g others (Stevick 1971), or can even dispense with it completely. T he utilitv of the average textbook for a tvpical present-dav ESL EFL course is norm ally u n q u es tio n ed (but see Allwright 1981 and O ’Neill 1982 fo r positions on both sides o f this p o in t). N onetheless, лее urge teachers to rem e m b e r th at m ost textbooks in a given p erio d o f tim e are often verv m uch alike (Ariew 1982); thev are the p ro d u ct of the pressures o f the m arket, as im perfectlv in te rp re te d th ro u g h the p u blisher and m aterials writer, an d can often run c o u n te r to legitim ate ed ucational pressures. W hat sells mav n o t be w hat works; w hat works mav n o t necessarilv have a form at which book publishing
com panies can utilize or produce. Above all, th erefo re, a critical stance is called for (see Bvrd's c h a p te r in this volum e). Som e general points can be m ade about the p resen tatio n stage o f a lesson. First, the in stru cto r is, in fact, ra th e r free from constraints despite the various p ro ced u res suggested bv the teachers' notes tvpicallv accom panying the text. Texts designed for b eg in n in g an d in term ed iate learners still com m onlv p rese n t th e m aterial of each u n it via a dialogue, an d the tea c h e r is often in structed to have the students work with the dialogue. In m any traditional classroom settings (especially EFL settings), this involves having the class rep eat the dialogue in unison, possible m oving next to partial m em orization. Yet, an equally efficient p ro c e d u re for som e classes w ould be to have students p air off an d read the dialogue aloud while the teach er circulates and checks individual p erfo rm an ce. T he p o in t is th at teachers have the rig h t an d responsibilitv to utilize the m aterial in w hatever wav seem s a p p ro priate, hopefully m aking use o f the findings that SL research suggests. For exam ple, an increasinglv well-established line of work has stressed the role of attention and awareness in SL learning (Schmidt 1990, 1995) and the im portance of drawing the learner's atten tion to certain characteristics of the language which m ight otherwise be missed (referred to as “in p u t e n h a n c e m e n t”; see R u th e rfo rd 1987. Doughty an d Williams 1998a). It follows, th ere fore, that the teacher should usually present the text o r illustrative m aterial with an im m ediate focus on the target points. O n the o th er hand, research over the last two decades has m ade clear th at SL learning does n ot take place in a simple linear fashion with one linguistic elem en t being ad d ed to the next. In the svntactic dom ain, learn ers p ro ceed at different speeds th ro u g h fairly reg ular sequences (P ienem ann a n d Jo h n sto n 1987). It is unlikely that structural target points will be internalized by rnanv in a class after one expo sure.0 C o n seq u en ts, the particular aspect o f lan guage to be learn ed should alm ost certainly com e up on o th er occasions, in o th er lessons. T he fact th at SL learning involves the learning o f a cogni tive skill im plies th at the first stage o f use (the
“cognitive stage”) will be erro rfu l a n d difficult for the learner. M ovem ent Uwvards autom aticity will req u ire a great deal o f active, realistic prac tice in the use o f the target language, w'hich may n o t be susceptible to general e rro r correction. Finally, at the p resen tatio n stage, it is relevant to consider w hat little is knowm ab o u t the le a rn e r’s d e v e lo p m en t o f co n tro l over the pragm atic aspects of the SL. An em phasis on realistic, com m unicative language use in the classroom from an early stage is th erefo re justified, as is the d evelopm ent of the m etalinguistic term s n e e d e d to talk a b o u t language use (Flenriksen 1988). As a final com m ent, although we have used the generallv accepted term textbook th ro u g h o u t this section, it is clear that sole reliance on a text book within the classroom is becom ing less com m on in richer countries or m ore wTell-resourced schools. D evelopm ents in technology have m ade the c re a tio n an d alm ost im m ed iate use o f in-house m aterials increasinglv possible. T he advantages of personalization and localization of m aterials are clear. In addition, o f course, the ease of access to all kinds o f supplem entary resource m aterials an d stim ulus m aterials via the Web has helped teachers supplem ent textbooks while at the same tim e raising students' expectations.
2.3 Rule Presentations and Explanations A great deal of research in the 1960s was con cerned with w hether and when to present explicit second language g ram m ar rules to students (L.evin 1972; see rec e n t discussion o f the issue in Borg 1999). T he upshot o f those studies was that explicit gram m ar instruction was n o t consistently superior in the long run to o th er practices. As a result, the various com m unicatively oriented language teaching m ethods a n d prescriptions developed after this tim e de-em phasized the use o f explicit gram m ar rule p rese n tatio n and even qu estio n ed the use o f gram m atically based m aterials. However, subsequent research on second language acquisition has increasingly established the legitimacv of a focus on form (see m ost recentlv Doughtv and Williams 1998a, 1998b; and
N orris and O rtega 2000), while still questioning the desirability of a persistent focus on correct ness at all times in a syllabus o r course of stitch. (These issues are dealt with in m ore detail in the chapters by Larsen-Freem an and Fotos in this yolttme.) Based on the claims o f most theorists that som e focus on form can be req u ired by learners o r bv a given classroom sequence, it is reason able for teachers to be aware of options in how to m ake a rule explicit or not; w hether or not to isolate a rule; w h eth er an ex p lanation should involve a deductive or inductive presentation; who should give the e x p lan atio n — the teacher, the text, o r a n o th e r student: w h eth er the lan guage is abstract or not; and w h eth er the expla natio n is provided orallv or in writing. Teachers m ust ensure the clarilv and sufficiency of their explanations bv checking stu d en t c o m p re h e n sion, preferably n o t m erely bv solicitation o f a “yes” o r a nod. Follow ing th e a p p ro a c h of C h a u d ro n 's (1982) description o f teachers' vocabulary elab oration, Yee and W agner (1984) developed a discourse m odel o f teachers' vocabulary and gram m ar explanations. T h eir m odel contains several m ajor segm ents (a fram ing stage, a focusing stage, the explanation itself, an d a re s ta te m e n t), w ith several su b c ate g o rie s as optional features (e.g.. with or w ithout m ention of the topic item , m etastatem ents, teacher solicits of students, exam ples, etc.). At each stage, thev point out that com prehension checks bv the teacher are optional. .An exam ple of their m odel in a brief gram m ar explanation follows: T kach hr: Can we say “these" in a tag?
Focus + solicit
Student : You can 't use the w ord “th ese” in a tag.
Explanation + explicit rule
T eacher : W hat do we n e e d to use?
+ solicit
Taking a functional approach to analysis o f rules a n d explanations, Faerch (198bi found th at a typical sequence in teacher rule presenta tio n involved (1) a “Pro b lem -fo rm u latio n ": (2) an “Induction" with the teacher eliciting
student opinions: and (8) the te a c h e r’s “Ruleform ulation": followed optionally bv (4) “Exem plification" bv the teacher or students. Alert teachers will adapt this typical p attern to their circum stances, eith er shortening the sequence if a rule is judged to be quickly learned, o r devel oping m ore student-generated ideas and interac tion if the students have difficulty.
3. TASKS T he next m ajor step in executing classroom lessons involves practice a n d “learning" of the m aterial. In this section we will identify the pri mary units of classroom teaching and evaluate the co m p o n en ts of those that m ost influence learning. To aid discussion an d com m unication am ong teachers (as well as for the sake o f com parative research), it is useful to have a set of term s to describe sim ilar teaching procedures. O ver several decades o f classroom research, standard term inology for what ought to be the basic units for p lan n in g a n d executing lessons has b een lacking. In the following sections we will utilize the yvords adroit у an d task, a n d attem pt to show how these can be m ore system atically classified, described, and analyzed for their co n trib u tio n to instruction.
3 .1 Subsections of a Lesson— The Activity Probably the m ost comm only used an d general term for the parts of a lesson is activity. Most teachers will use this уvot'd in discussing th eir lesson plans a n d behaviors, although specific activities often have p articular nam es. In m uch recent analy sis o f SL. classrooms, m aterials, and syllabi, the term task has been used to discuss those less-controlled activities yvhich p ro d u ce realistic use of the ST (Crookes a n d Gass 1998a, 1993b). This term has also characterized certain c o m m u n icativ e approaches*1 yvhose u p su rg e m arks the c u rren t era of ST teaching. In fact, the yvidespread use o f the label task-based has in ntanv cases simply replaced the o ld er term communicative. In discussing both c o n tro lled and fre e r ty pes of classroom learn in g procedures, yve
will utilize activity as a b ro a d e r term ; task will apply to a separable elem en t o f a lesson that is prim arily geared to practicing language p rese n t ed earlier (or otherw ise lea rn ed ), usually involv ing students w orking with each other, to achieve a specific objective. It is often said that for each specific lea rn ing point, learners n e e d to develop from m ore controlled and m echanical to fre e r an d com m u nicative behaviors. T herefore, a classification of activity types along such a con tin u u m provides the options from which the teach er can select a given sequence w ithin a lesson. Yalcarcel et al. >1985) have developed a tentative list of activity types. We have g ro u p ed this list according to fo u r phases o f in stru c tio n a l se q u e n c in g in lessons (see E delhoff 1981. p. 57): Inform ation and M otivation (in which learners' interest, experience, a n d relevant language knowledge are aroused); In p u t C ontrol (in which learners are involved in d e e p en in g their u n d e rsta n d in g by close atten tio n to detail): Focus W orking (in which individual linguistic and them atic difficul ties can be isolated and exam ined in d e p th ): and T ransfer/A pplication (in which new know ledge and the learn er's refined com m unicative abili ties can be put to active use). Teachers should be fam iliar with each of these activity tvpes and pav atten tio n to the various discussions in the litera ture of th eir benefits and disadvantages.
Information and Motivation Phase Warm-up: m im e, dance, song, jokes, plan etc.: the purpose is to get the students stim ulated, relax ed , m otivated, attentive, or otherw ise engaged and reach- for the classroom lesson; not necessarily related to the target language.
Story telling: oral presentation bv the teacher of a story or an event as lcngthv practice, although not necessarily lesson-based; it implies the use of extended discourse; it usually aims at m aintaining attention or m otivation and is often entertaining. A propos: conversation and o th e r socially ori e n te d in te ra c tio n /s p e e c h by teacher, students, or слеп visitors on general real-life topics; typi cally au th en tic a n d genuine.
Input/Control Phase Organizational: m anagerial structuring of lesson or class activities; includes reprim anding of stu dents an d o th er disciplinary action, organization of class furniture and seating, general procedures for class interaction and perform ance, structure and purpose of lesson, etc. Content explanation: explanation o flesso n con tent and gram m ar o r o th e r rules a n d points: phonology, gram m ar, lexis, sociolinguistics, or w hatever is being "taught." Role play demonstration: use of selected stu dents or teacher to illustrate the procedures (s) to be applied in the following lesson segm ent; it includes brief illustration of language or o ther content to be incorporated. Recognition: students identify a specific target form , function, definition, rule, or o th e r lessonrelated item, eith er from oral or visual data, b ut w ithout pro d u cin g language as a response (e.g., checking off items, draw ing symbols, rearranging pictures, m atch in g u tte ran c e s with pictures, u n d erlin in g significant inform ation from a text.)
Setting: focus is on lesson topic: either verbal or nonverbal evocation of the context that is relevant to the lesson point: teacher directs attention to the upcom ing topic bv questioning, m im ing, or picture presentation, or possibly a tape recording.
Language modeling: p resentation o f new lan guage bv the teacher th rough isolated sentences with the help of visuals, drawings on blackboard, realia. m im ing, recorded m aterial, etc.; involves students' participation in the form of repetition, question-answer display, translation, etc.; it usually aims at checking correct pronunciation and syn tax. or m eaning com prehension.
Brainstorming: free, un d irected contributions by the students an d teacher on a given topic to gen erate m ultiple associations w ithout linking them ; no explicit analysis or in terp retatio n is given by the teacher.
Dialogue Narrative presentation: reading or lis tening passage in the form of dialogue, narration, song. etc., for passive reception (students becom e fam iliar with the text w ithout being asked to per form am task related to the con ten t); it usually
implies students’ listening to a tape o r the teacher reading aloud while students follow with or with out the text.
of interaction; distinguished from mechanical drills in th at students have to m ake a choice with respect to the m ean in g conveyed.
Question-answer display: c o n tro lle d activity involving p ro m p tin g of student responses bv m eans o f display questions (teacher o r questioner already knows the response o r has a very lim ited set o f expectations for the appropriate response); these are distinguished from referential questions bv m eans of the likelihood of the questioner know ing the response and the speaker being aware of the questioner knowing the response.
Preparation: stu d e n ts p la n th e s u b s e q u e n t activity (in pairs, individually, o r in groups) by m eans of rehearsing, m aking notes, or simply thinking.
Review: teacher-led review of previous w eek / m o n th or o th er period; a form al sum m ary and assessm ent o f stu d en ts’ recall and perform ance.
Foe us/Working Phase Translation: stu d e n t o r tea c h e r provides L I or L2 translations o f given text. Dictation: students write dow n orally p rese n ted text. Copying: students w7rite dow n visually p rese n ted text. Reading aloud: student(s) read aloud from a given text— distinguished from dialogue presenta tion in th at the focus is on pro n u n ciatio n and rhythm . Drill: typical language activity involving fixed p attern s o f students a n d tea c h e r resp o n d in g a n d pro m p tin g , usually with rep etitio n , substitu tion, a n d o th e r m echanical alterations; typically with little m ean in g attached. D ialogue/N arrative recitation: students recite a passage o r dialogue which they have previously le a rn e d o r p re p a re d ; e ith e r in u n iso n o r individually. Cued narrative/dialogue: students b u ild up a dialogue or a piece of narrative following cues from m im ing, cue cards, pictures, flow charts, key functional requests, or o th er stimuli related to narrative o r dialogue (e.g., filling empty7bubbles, cued dialogues, com pleting a dialogue or a text, discourse chains, etc.). M eaningful drill: lan g u ag e activity involving exchange o f a lim ited n u m b e r o f fixed patterns
Identification: students pick out and p ro d u c e / label or otherwise identify' a specific target form , function, definition, or o th er lesson-related item. Game: organized language activity th at has a particu lar task or objective a n d a set o f rules w hich involve an e le m e n t o f c o m p e titio n betw een players (e.g., b o ard games, hangm an, bingo, etc.); it usually im plies e n te rta in m e n t an d relaxation. R eferential question-answer: activity th a t involves p ro m p tin g of responses by m eans o f ref eren tial questions (the q u e stio n e r does n o t know b e fo re h a n d the response info rm atio n ); distinguished from information exchange in th at th e in fo rm a tio n o b ta in e d is n o t m e a n t to achieve a task o r solve a problem . Checking: teacher guides the correction of stu dents' previous activity o r hom ew ork, providing feedback as an activ ity rath e r than within a n o th e r activity. Wrap-up: b rie f teacher- o r stu d e n t-p ro d u c ed sum m ary of points o r item s th at have b e e n prac ticed o r learned.
Transfer/Application Phase Inform ation transfer: students extract inform a tion from a text (oral o r w ritten) w hich they apply to a n o th e r m ode (e.g., visual w ritten; oral w ritten, etc.); it im plies som e transform a tion o f the inform ation by filling o u t diagram s, graphs, answ ering questions, etc., while listening o r read in g ; d istin g u ish ed from identification in th a t students are expected to re in te rp re t the inform ation. Inform ation exchange: activity th a t involves one-wav o r two-way co m m u n ic a tio n such as inform ation gap exercises, in which one o r both parties m ust obtain inform ation from the o th er
to achieve a goal: distinguished from meaningful drill in that the pattern o f exchange is not lim ited to a fixed set or o rd er o f structures; distinguished from information transfer in th at the inform ation is not reinterpreted: and distinguished from refer ential questions in that obtaining the inform ation is critical for the resolution of the task. Role play: students act out specified roles and functions in a relatively free way; distinguished from cued dialogues bv the cuing being provided only m inim ally at the beginning, n o t during, the activity. Report: p rep ared oral exposition of students' previous work (books or stories read, project work, etc.) and elaborated on according to stu d en ts’ own interpretation: it can also be students' reports on inform ation obtained from a previous activity as long as it can be considered as prepar ation (i.e., students rep o rt back with the help of data obtained during the activity). Narration: s tu d e n ts ' lengthv e x p o sitio n of som ething which thev have seen (film, video program , event, etc.), read (news, books, etc.), or ex p erien ced (events, storv. etc.); n a rra te d in their own words an d w ithout previous p rep a r ation; distinguished from cued narrative because of lack o f im m ediate stim ulus. Discussion: debate or o th e r form of g roup dis cussion o f specified topic, with o r w ithout speci fied sid es/p o sitio n s p rearran g ed . Com position: w ritten d e v e lo p m en t o f ideas, story, dialogues, o r exposition: akin to report but in the w ritten m ode. Problem solving: students work on an activity in which a problem and som e lim itations on m eans are established; it requires cooperative action on the p a rt of participants, in small or large groups, in o rd er to reach a solution; onlv one outcom e — som etim es am ong o th er possible solutions— is allowed p er group. Drama: p la n n e d dram atic ren d itio n o f play, skit, etc. Simulation: activity that involves com plex in ter action betw een groups a n d individuals based on sim ulation of real-life actions a n d experiences.
Borderline Activity Testing: formal testing procedures to evaluate students’ progress; considered borderline because it could be included in anv phase, dep en d in g on the content to be tested.
3.2 Task Types and Parameters A n u m b e r o f the labels from this list o f activities have e n te re d into the research an d pedagogical literature on "tasks.” C urrently th ere is consider able ex p erim ental work being c o n d u c te d on factors that d ifferentiate lea rn in g tasks with respect to th eir p aram eters an d th eir influence on lea rn ers' p ro d u ctio n in term s o f fluency, complexity, a n d accuracy. Som e o f these factors are sum m arized in this section (see also the sem inal collection of studies in C rookes and Gass 1993a, 1993b). Below are th ree com m only applied defini tions o f tasks, falling on a continuum from the n o tio n o f "real-w orld” tasks to specifically focused pedagogical activities: [a] piece o f work undertaken for one self or for others, freelv or for some reward . . . exam ples . . . include paint ing a fence, dressing a child, buying a pair of shoes . . . bv "task” is m eant the h u n d re d and one things people do in evendav life, at work, at plav, and in between (Long 1985, p. 89). a task is taken to be an activity in which m eaning is primary; there is some sort of relationship to the real world; task com pletion has some priority; and the assessment of task perform ance is in term s of task outcom e (Skehan 1996, p. 38 ). the smallest unit o f classroom work which involves learners in co m p re h en ding, m anipulating, producing, or in te rac tin g in th e target language. M inimally, tasks will c o n ta in som e form o f data or in p u t (this m ight be verbal, e.g., a dialogue o r read in g passage, o r nonverbal, e.g., a picture
sequence). T h e task will also have (implicitly or explicitly) a goal and roles for teachers and learners. (Neman 1989a, p. 5). Almost anything can be used as the basis of a task, such as dialogues, public announcem ents, new spaper headlines, telephone directories, or picture strips (N unan 1989). In many SL teaching situations, tise of a variety of texts (written and spo ken) is justified, since part o f developing learners’ skill is ensuring that thev becom e familiar with as wide a range o f text tvpes as possible. C urrent research is focusing on wavs and m eans to establish a priori the relative complexity o f tasks. This will aid task selection as well as su p p o rt the developm ent o f task-based syl labuses. R obinson (2000) has recently proposed a distinction betw een task complexity, task condi tions, a n d task difficulty, which can be com pared with schem as for the analysis of task factors and dim ensions p roposed in earlier work, such as th at o f N u n an (1989), Pica, Kanagv, an d Falodun (1993), an d Skehan (1996). Robinson includes in task complexity only those factors that affect lea rn ers’ cognitive resources for atten tio n and processing of inform ation an d th erefo re affect th e accuracy, fluency, an d com plexity of their p ro duction. These characteristics are \iew ed as continua, with e n d points rep resen ted bv the presence o r absence (±) o f features: ± few ele m ents, ± here-and-now1 reference (vs. there-andth e n ), ± reasoning dem ands, ± planning, ± single task, a n d ± p rio r knowledge. T h ere are several studies which have dem onstrated, for exam ple, th a t allowing for p lan n in g in the perfo rm an ce of tasks leads to im provem ents in e ith e r accuracy, fluency, o r complexity7 or com binations o f these positive outcom es (Crookes 1989; O rtega 1999). Similarly, less com plex tasks favor the m ore posi tive e n d o f each c o n tin u u m . As com plexity increases, fluency a n d accuracy ten d to drop. W hat Robinson proposes as task conditions have often b een exam ined in the literature with respect to their effects on am o u n t of learn er pro duction, interaction, a n d feedback. Thus, ' partic ipation variables” such as op en and closed tasks, one-way an d two-way tasks, a n d convergent and
divergent tasks have been shown to have substan tive effects on interaction. Some of these are dis cussed briefly below. Tikewise, “p a rticip a n t variables" such as g en d er similarities o r differ ences, familiarity am ong learners, and powrer rela tionships can have an influence on task outcom es. Finally. Robinson makes an im portant dis tinction between those factors that can be de scribed for specific tasks and the learner-internal factors that influence the difficulty that different learners will have in ability to perform on any given task. These include learners’ motivation, anxiety, confidence, aptitude, level of attained proficiency in the L2, and intelligence. Skehan (1996) has also pointed out the im portance of various pressures on learners (e.g., tim e pres sures) that can affect how successfully thev per form on tasks. It is im p o rta n t to n o te th a t w'hatever a p p ro ach one takes to the task analysis, it m ust be em b e d d e d in an analysis o f the effects o f task sequencing. T hat is. as suggested in the listing of activities within phases in the previous section, im p lem en tatio n o f tasks in pedagogicallv ratio nal sequences can accom plish a g rea t deal toward en su rin g lea rn er success on a given task. S k eh an ’s m odel (1996, p. 57) of task im p lem en tation, for instance, suggests ways in which p re tasks help establish target language o r reduce cognitive load th ro u g h consciousness-raising or practice, and post-tasks help learners to restruc tu re a n d in teg rate target form s o r functions, increasing the in teg ratio n o f learn in g goals as fu rth e r sim ilar tasks are perfo rm ed .
3.2.1 Relevant Characteristics Several of the characteristics to be discussed are am o n g th e “task c o n d itio n s” p ro p o se d by Robinson (2000). .Although thev mav n o t affect complexity p er se, thev have been shown to affect the nature of the language used in tasks. The m ain focus of such language has b een on the p ro vision o f com prehensible in p u t as indicated by m arkers o f interactional m odification. It has been argued that language which is com prehensible to the ST learner a n d is at an ap p ro p riate level will
be o f high utility for learn in g purposes, an d that indicators o f such discourse are those deviations from norm al talk which are used to clarify mis un d erstan d in g s o r problem s in com m unication (Long 1980). T h e role o f practice in SL devel o p m en t has also been em phasized, an d Swain (1985) has refe rre d to this as th e output hypothe sis. This suggests th at valuable task characteris tics w ould req u ire learn ers to p ro d u ce m ore com plex constructions th an they w ould o th e r wise use (C rookes 1989; D uff 1986; for fu rth e r discussion see C rookes 1986; Pica, Kanagy, and Falodun, 1993). A typical task co ndition which was heavily investigated was '‘in fo rm a tio n structure" (an aspect of “inform ation tran sfer” activities — see section 3.1). In fo rm atio n gap tasks m at be designed so th at each particip an t holds different inform ation which m ust be shared verbally in o rd e r for the task to be successfully com pleted. Such a “two-way task” can be co m p ared with one in which verbal inform ation transfer is also nec essary for task com pletion, but w here the infor m ation is allocated solely to one participant, who is req u ired to convey it to the other. Classic work of this type (Long 1980) showed that two-wav tasks pro d u ced m ore interactional m odification (repetitions, expansions, confirm ation checks, etc.) than did one-wav tasks for native sp eak er' non-native speaker (XS-XXS) chads. A second set of task characteristics, in a sense com plem entary to the one-/two-wav distinction, is shared assum ptions. Some studies suggest that the extensive shared background inform ation avail able in some two-wav tasks mav work against call ing forth m ore negotiation of m eaning. It mav be. as Gass and Varonis (1985) argue, that if both par ticipants in an inform ation-gap task have a veryclear idea of the structure of one a n o th e r’s infor m ation, there will be less likelihood of partial or co m plete m ean in g breakdow ns. Similarly, as Gaies (1982) suggests, if both participants are well acquainted with each other, they will be able to m anage com m unication difficulties w ithout the n eed for the extensive negotiation that is probably useful for language acquisition. This may also apply to the availability of visual support for a task. In an investigation o f the degree to which three
d ifferen t tasks p ro d u ce d changes in le a rn e rs’ interlanguages (IL), C rookes a n d R ulon (1988) fo u n d th at o f two problem -solving tasks, the one in w hich observable IL d ev elopm ent was less evi dent was the one in which the task provided visual support to both m em bers of the dyad. Even th o u g h the pictures used were n o t identical, thev were versions of the same p icture, differing only in certain lim ited features (often called "Spot the D ifference”). A th ird feature which has b e e n posited as likelv to be relevant is recycling. If the discourse g e n e ra te d by a task requires the sam e linguistic m aterial to be used repeatedly, such a conversa tion w ould be potentially m ore useful to the XXS th an one in which m any item s o c cu rred once only (see Gass et al. 1999). A fou rth possible factor is convergence, which derives from the work o f D uff (1986). M am com m unicative tasks available on the ESL m aterials m arket require participants to “reach a m utually acceptable so lu tio n ” (D uff 1986, p. 150). often in solving som e values clarification problem . .Also quite com m on now are m aterials which req u ire students to take a stand on one side o f an issue and argue th eir positions (e.g., .Alexander, Kingsbury, an d C hapm an 1978). T he fo rm er mav be term ed a “convergent task type,” the latter a "divergent task type” (D uff 1986, p. 150). D uff fo u n d that convergent tasks lead to frequent exchange of turns and m ore com m uni cation units, whereas divergent tasks lead to longer turns of greater syntactic complexity. If convergent tasks produce m ore questions and shorter turns, one mav assume that m ore com pre hensible input is available in the discourse which accom panies their perform ance. Alternatively, if o utput and the role of practice are em phasized, divergent tasks mav be m ore highly valued, although the ex tended discourse (long turns) in [divergent tasks] reduces opportunities for negotiation o f input . . . coupled with the greater svntactic complexity of [discussion], this reduces . . . the am ount o f com prehensible in p u t avail able (Duff 1986, p. 170).
We hope that bv being aware of the factors which have been investigated, as well as the factors for which no evidence can legitimatelv be claimed (despite publishers' prom otional claims), teachers will find it easier to m ake the best possible deci sions when designing or selecting SL tasks.
4. FA C ILIT A TIO N A m ajor role o f the instructor is to arrange m at ters so the m aterial p resen ted gets used and thereby learned. This mav be far m ore critical in the learning o f a cognitive skill, in which practice assumes m ajor dim ensions, than in the learning of most school subjects, in which declarative know ledge (A nderson 1982; OAlallev, Cham ot, an d W alker 1987) is being p resen ted and clear p resentation mav be sufficient in itself to ensure learning (cf. West 1960). We need, therefore, to give som e consideration to such m atters as the overall organization of the classroom , the nature and dynamics of teacher-student and studentstu d en t interaction, and the interface betw een these m atters and the selection o f classroom learning tasks.
4 .1 Class Organization T he key participants in classroom organization are the teacher, the tea c h e r aide o r trainee, the individual stu d e n t an d groupings o f students, the class as a whole, the language p resen tatio n m aterials used (e.g., textbook. AY m edia), and any visitors or outsiders. Com binations of these result in particular structures in class organization and effects on language learning processes. T he d o m in a n t view o f second language classroom processes toclav favors stu d e n tc e n te re d lea rn in g instead o f the trad itio n al teacher-dom inated classroom (X unan 1988b). T h e tea c h e r-d o m in a te d classroom (“teacherfro n te d ”) is characterized bv the tea c h e r speak ing m ost o f the tim e, leading activities, a n d constantly passing jud g m en t on stu d e n t p e rfo r m ance; in a stu d en t-cen tered classroom , stu d e n ts typically will be o b serv ed w orking individually o r in pairs and small groups, each on distinct tasks an d projects.
L earner-centered instruction has the b e n e fits of greater individualization of learning objec tives. increased student opportunities to perfo rm using the target language (w hether receptivelv or productivelv), an d increased personal sense of relevance and achievem ent, thus relieving the teacher o f the n e e d to constantlv supervise all students. Students often will pav m ore attention an d learn b e tte r from one a n o th e r since their p erform ances and processes of negotiation o f m eaning are m ore closelv ad apted to one an oth er's level of abilitv. Teachers should thus be p rep a re d to develop fewer teacher-dom inated activities and tasks, while rem aining conscious of their students' need for guidance in setting objec tives. for appropriate m odels of and feedback about the target language, a n d for constructive and supportive evaluation of their progress. In general, the m ost a p p ro p riate a n d effec tive classroom organization is pair an d g roup work. T raditional teachers still h a rb o r negative views o f the outcom es of learn er-d o m in ated activities, b ut a small am o u n t of im p o rta n t class roo m -cen tered research has d e m o n stra ted that w hen stu d e n ts h a te m o re o p p o rtu n itie s to em plov the target language, thev m anage to p e r form equallv successfullv in term s o f gram m ati cal accuracv as w hen the teach er is leading the discussion (D oughtv and Pica 1984; Pica and D oughtv 1983; cf. discussion in C h au d ro n 1988, pp. 151-152). G roup work has been shown to result in many advantages for SL learners (see, for example, Long et al. 1976; Pica and Doughtv 1983; Pica et al. 1996): learners speak m ore frequentlv a n d with longer stretches o f speech; thev p ro d u ce m ore in te ra c tio n a l m o d ific a tio n s d ire c te d at o n e an o th er; a n d thev utilize a w ider range o f lan guage. An especially im p o rta n t effect related to cultural differences is th a t the observable in hibi tions to speak in larger classes ten d to disappear in small g ro u p work. It should also be recognized that group work results in diversity of p e rfo rm a n c e betw een groups. This suggests th at ju st as individuals contribute to a group, the different groups in a classroom can be linked through different tasks, roles, and shared responsibilities to generate whole-class tasks a n d objectives. A lthough
competitive m odels can be em ployed in this way (as described in Kagan 1986), m any favor whole-class cooperative learning projects.
4.2 Aspects of the Teacher-Fronted Class A lthough we em phasize the relative productivitv of the small g ro u p over the teacher-fronted class, tea c h e rs so m etim es n e e d to o p e ra te in a "lock-step" m ode. We will discuss two general characteristics of teac h e r-stu d e n t in te rac tio n which can fairlv easilv be m an ip u lated u n d e r these conditions to the advantage of SL learn ing: question tvpe and wait tim e.
4.2.1 Question Types Studies (Brock 1986; L ong an d Sato 1983) have shown that ESI. teachers' classroom questioning patterns are tvpicallv different from those used bv native speakers conversing casuallv with adult non-native speakers. SI. teachers ask m ore displav questions (those to which the questioner alreaclv knows the answer) than do orclinarv XSs talking to NNSs. T he latter usuallv use referential ques tions (those to which the questioner does not already know the answ er). This difference mav be because teachers tend to act as if the SL were inform ation which they must transm it to students, testing w hether it has been understood bv using display questions. T h e re are reasons to be co n c ern e d about this. First, it is generallv accepted that the m odel o f the target language provided bv the teacher in the classroom should n ot deviate greatlv from thatlikelv to be e n c o u n te re d in real life. Second, if teacher-student in teractio n is p redom inantlv th ro u g h displav questions, relativelv little real c o m m u n ic a tio n is g o in g on. As L o n g an d Crookes observe, Displav questions bv definition p re clude students attem p tin g to com m u n icate new, u n k n o w n in fo rm a tio n . Thev ten d to set the focus o f the entire exchange thev initiate on accuracy ra th e r th a n m eaning. T he te a c h e r (an d usuallv th e stu d e n t) already
knows w hat the o th e r is saving or trving to say, so th ere is no m ean in g left to negotiate (1987, p. 181). W ithout negotiation of m eaning it is ques tionable w hether students addressed by a teacher are actuallv receiving useful input, in term s of appropriateness to their c u rren t level of com p re h e n s io n a n d / o r lan g u a g e d e v e lo p m en t. F u rth e rm o re , less com plex language is likelv to be p ro d u ce d bv learners who know th at the tea c h e r is onlv asking the question to check th eir know ledge, ra th e r than really w anting a p ro p e r an d com plete answer to a real question. A fu rth e r distinction is relevant: closed ref erential questions versus o p en referential ques tions. T he fo rm er are questions to w hich the speaker does not know the answer, b u t to which th ere is e ith e r onlv one or a very lim ited set o f possible answers; the latter are questions to which the speaker does not know the answer and to which a large varietv o f answers are possible (see the the distinctions am ong activitv tvpes in Section 3.1). Long et al. (1984) fo u n d th at open referential questions p ro d u ce d m ore com plex student responses than did closed referential questions, with com plexitv m easured bv n u m b er of words p er student turn.
4.2.2 Wait-Time Wait-time refers to the length of the pause which follows a teacher's question to an individual stu dent or to the whole class. This lasts until eith er a student answers o r the teacher adds a com m ent or poses a n o th e r question. It can also apply to the p erio d betw een one stu d en t's answ er to a question and the response o f the te a c h e r or a n o th e r student. A n u m b e r o f investigations in general education have found that wait-times can be altered bv teachers but tend to be short, aro u n d one second (e.g., Rowe 1969; for a review see Tobin 1987). W hen wait-time is increased to th ree to five seconds, there is im provem ent in learning and in the qualitv o f classroom dis course. T he principal SL study o f wait-time (Long et al. 1984) found that increased wait-time after teacher questions resulted in longer SL student utterances. It did not result in m ore u tteran ces
p e r stu d en t turn, however, which mav have been cine to the low proficiency level of the students in th e studv o r possiblv to an in te ra c tio n b etw een cognitive level o f q u e stio n s a n d w ait-tim e. W hen asking "h ard e r" q u estions, teachers te n d e d to wait longer, b ut the difficulty o f such questions was n o t alwavs com pensated fo r by p r o p o rtio n a te d lo n g er wait-time. We advance the m atte r o f wail-time h ere as an exam ple o f a classroom p ro ce d u re which is easv to m anipulate a n d which w arrants fu rth e r class room investigation. Teachers m ight want to trv the effects o f simply waiting lo n g er as thev in te r act with th eir SI. students, know ing that th eir findings, if com m unicated, could aid th eir col leagues a n d fu rth e r substantiate (or perhaps dis prove) the po ten tial of increased wait-time in SL teaching.
5. C O R R E C T IO N A N D FE E D B A C K In Section 2.3 we n o ted that a focus on form al aspects o f the SL has again becom e a c o n cern of m ethodologists an d practitioners. E rro r correc tion a n d feedback have tvpicallv been consid ered to be p art o f such a focus. As C hau d ro n notes in his review of feedback in language teaching In any com m unicative exchange, speakers derive from th eir listeners inform ation on the reception and com prehension o f their message. . . . From the language tea c h e r’s p oint of view, the provision of feedback . . . is a m ajor m eans bv which to inform learners of the accuracv o f both their form al target language prod u ctio n and their o th er classroom behavior a n d knowledge. From the learners' p o in t o f view, the use of feedback in repairing their u tter ances, and involvem ent in repairing th e ir in te rlo c u to rs’ utterances, macconstitute the m ost p o te n t source of im provem ent in b o th target language developm ent an d o th e r subject m atter know ledge (1988, pp. 132-133 ).
W hile th ere is no reason to associate feed back a n d correction solelv with a form al focus, approaches to language teaching will vary in the degree to which the teacher is expected to be the source of "correcting" behavior. A traditional notion is that the teacher or m aterials provide a correction o f everv (im portant) lea rn er error, while a m ore c u rren t view em phasizes the im por tance of learners obtaining feedback (and pos sible correction) onlv w hen the m eanings thev attem pt to convex are not understood; even then, the feedback should be a natural outcom e of the com m unicative interaction, often betw een learners. Even in the m ost lea rn er-ce n te re d instruction, learners n e e d feedback in o rd e r to differentiate betw een acceptable a n d unaccep t able target language use. (See the chapters bv L arsen-Freem an and Fotos in this volum e for fu rth e r discussion.) T he provision of feedback, or even "correc tions." does not m ean that the inform ation pro vided m ust be staled in form alized gram m atical or o th er descriptive term s. T he teacher has inanv options available, from simple indicating lack of com prehension or otherwise signaling the occur rence o f an e rro r and getting the learn er to self-correct, to the most elaborate gram m atical explanation and drill of correct forms. Teachers frequently m ake the m istake of th in k in g that bv providing a correct “m o d el,” bv rep eatin g stu d en t statem ents with som e slight change in the grammatical form, learners will per ceive the correction and incorporate it into their developing grammars. This is the form of feedback known as "recasts," which is a relatively implicit focus on form (see Long, Inagaki, and O rtega 1998). As C haudron (1977) notes, and Lester (1998a) argues further, such feedback is likelv to be perceived bv the learner not as a formal change, but rather as a confirm ation, rephrasing, or clarifi cation of the functional m eaning. For example: Student : I can no go back hom e today early. T etcher : You c a n ’t go hom e early todav? Student : \ o . If th ere is in fact reason to provide form al feedback in such a case, it helps to focus on the specific correction by em phasizing a n d isolating
the m o d eled forms (C h au d ro n 1977): I can't go home, or earlv toda\. But it appears evident from studies of recasts that thev are in fact effective 20-25 p ercen t o f the tim e. This effectiveness mav be because th e r occur w hen the le a rn e r has reached a stage of gram m atical co m p eten ce that allows him o r h e r to perceive the slight differ ence in use. In som e recent research on French lan guage im m ersion classrooms in C anada, Lvster and Ranta (1997: see also Lvster 1998a. 1998b) illustrate a wide varietv o f feedback events, fre q u e n tlv in the m iddle o f c o n ten t-b ased exchanges. Thev argue that th eir data illustrate the positive value of explicit correction and nego tiated feedback in guiding learners' to the cor rect use o f target forms, since "uptake" of correct gram m atical form s occurred m ore frequentlv fol lowing such corrective mor es. It should Ire noted that a considerable higher rate of uptake of p ro nunciation and lexical errors occurred in their data when the teachers provided onlv implicit feedback in the form of recasts. O n the o th e r hand, such practices mar be less effective th an e n c o u ra g in g le a rn e rs to self-correct (see Tom asello and H erron 1988) or having o th e r learners assist in corrections. Peer correction has the potential advantage of being at the right level of developm ent in the learn er's in terlanguage gram m ar. As we noted in Section 2.3. an im portant lim itation on the effectiveness of feedback and correction, especially with respect to gram m atical developm ent, is the natural o rd e r of acquisition o f a given structure o r function. Ultimatelv. teachers m ust rem ain cu rren t with findings of research in SL acquisition, to b e tte r u n derstand when it m ight be useful to correct.
of ig n o ran ce w here ideallv th ere should be knowledge. O n the one hand, teachers should know w hat relatively firm inform ation does exist, and w here th ere is room for investigation. This should aid their decision m aking. As the SL p ro fession develops, m ore teachers are qualified to conduct their own research or to collaborate with researchers.' O n the o th e r h and, teaching trill alwavs be a series of ju d g m en t calls; its real-time cognitive complexity m eans it will never be just a science, and will alwavs rem ain som e thing of an art (cf. Clark and Lam port 1986; L einhardt and G reeno 1986). We have tried here to help the judgm ent calls be educated, inform ed ones through the teacher's com bined use of knowledge and educated professional reflection.
6. C O N C L U S IO N
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S
This introductory' review o f SL classroom teach ing as an area of studv and professional practice could be extended; indeed, m anv o th e r chapters of this volum e continue the discussion o f kev areas for classroom practice. N onetheless, it is evident that teachers still e n c o u n te r m anv areas
1. Prepare (individuallv) and com pare (as a group) a mini-lesson. Select a specific point of language form or function, rule of conver sation. o r o th e r social use o f English. Individuallv develop a sequence of activities that vou m ight use to present, develop, and
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1.
Whv should LSL teachers be concerned about keeping up with the results of classroom research and second language acquis-ition research? 2. Do vou agree that teachers should m ake their lesson objectives clear to their students? Can t on think of situations in which this would be inappropriate? Whv? 3. I low m uch place do vou think presentation, ex p lan atio n , a n d discussion of rules for language use have in the SL classroom? W hat underiving view of language and language learning supports vour view? 4. Discuss the wavs in which one m ight investi gate the most effective wav of giving feed back (or correction). W hat data w ould vou collect, and how would vou identify successful correction?
evaluate this point, a n d then com pare your suggestions in a group. Develop a jointlv agreed-upon way of teaching this point and practice it with one another. 2. A useful alternative wav o f practicing the first activity is for each person to teach a p o in t in a language unknow n to the others in the group. Discuss your feelings on once again being a second language learner. 3. W orking with a partner, discuss tvays in which a teacher with a m ulticultural g roup of stu dents can best m aintain a positive classroom clim ate, p ro m o tin g s tu d e n t in te re st a n d m otivation.
FU R T H ER R EA D IN G Bailey, К. M., and D. Xunan, eds. 1996. Voices from the Language Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. An extensive and accessible collection of recent classroom SL studies, illustrating the range of current work of a more qualitative nature. Burns, A. 1999. Collaborative Action Research for English Language Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. A practical introduction to teacher research in SL contexts based on actual investigations by a team of SL teachers in Australia. Chaudron, C. 1988. Second Language Classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. A comprehensive survey of earlier SL classroom research. Crookes, G., and S. M. Gass. eds. 1993. Tasks in a Pedagogical Context: Integrating Theon and Practice. Philadelphia, PA: Multilingual Matters.
An illustrative collection of studies of pedago gical applications of the concept o f ‘’task” in SL teaching. Lurch. T. 1996. Communication in the Language Class room. Oxford: Oxford University Press. A useful introduction to basic processes of class room interaction and teacher talk, with clear examples.
ENDNO TES 1 We are grateful to mam people named for their assistance with the previous version (Crookes and Chaudron 1991) of this paper, and we wish to continue acknowledgement of Marisol Valcarcel, Mercedes Yerclu. and Julio Roca, of the Universidad de Murcia. - Our discussion is traditional to the extent that we will not deal with approaches to SL teaching that involve going outside the classroom (e.g., Ashworth 1985: Auerbach 1996: Fried Booth 1986). 4 5Vhat "size" the elements are is not at issue here. That is to saw we are not concerned with whether the units presented are structural or functional, or if the language of a given pedagogical task is an unanalvzed whole. 4 Though the idea is not a new one— see, e.g., West (I960). J This is. of course, a problem for the syllabus design er to be aware of and to resolve bv proper choice of learning targets (see Long and Crookes 1993). b We should point out that we deliberately avoid the word "method" here: we do not accept its general validity as a term of analysis (cf. Richards 1984). ‘ This is particularly clear in the increased recogni tion of the importance of action research in the area of SL teaching (Bums 1999; Crookes 1993; Freeman 1998).
English for Specific Purposes: Tailoring Courses to Student Needs— and to the Outside World ANN
M. J O H N S
• DONNA
P R I С E -M A C H A D О
In "English for Specific Purposes," Johns and Price-Machado argue that all good teaching is specific purpose’ in approach. Using Vocational ESL and other examples, this chapter covers key questions such as " W h o are the stakeholders?" and "W h a t is authenticity in the classroom?” which are addressed using needs and discourse analysis. Various program models demonstrate how ESP values are realized in different contexts.
W H A T IS ESP? English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is a move m ent based on the proposition that all language teaching should be tailored to the specific learn ing an d language use needs of identified groups of stu d en ts— and also sensitise to the sociocul tural contexts in which these students will be using English. Most of the m ovem ent's practi tioners are teachers of adults, those students whose needs are m ore readilv identified within academ ic, occupational, or professional settings. ,\n increasing n u m b er of ESP practitioners live and work in English-speaking countries, teaching in program s offering vocational ESL (WESL) or English for O ccupational Purposes (EOP) pro grams for new im m igrant and refugee popula tions o r in contexts em phasizing academ ic (LAP) o r business langu age (English for Business Purposes). However, ESP continues to be even m ore com m on in English as a Foreign L anguage (EFL) contexts, w here an increasing n u m b e r of a d u lt stu d e n ts are e a g er to le a rn business English o r academ ic English in o rd e r to pursue th eir careers o r studv in English-m edium educa tional institutions. O ne rem arkable exam ple of the explosion o f ESP program s in EFL contexts has taken place in C hina, w here foreign trade has risen from 10 p e rc e n t to 45 p e rc e n t o f the Gross N ational P ro d u ct over the last thirty years an d the n e e d to speak English in in te rn atio n a l
trade is u rg en t (H u an g 1999). Many em ployers an d e d u catio n al institutions th ro u g h o u t the w orld are searching for E SL /EFL teachers with solid ESP backgrounds.
ESP Categories T he m ain interests of the ESP m ovem ent can be categorized in a n u m b er of ways (see, for exam ple. Dudley-Evans an d S t.J o h n 1998, p. 6). For the purposes o f this discussion, we have created a set of categories as shown in Figure 1 on page 44. Because of their c u rre n t im portance, a few of these categories will be h ighlighted in this chapter: English for O ccupational Purposes, particularlv \ TESL an d English for Business Purposes (EBP), a n d English fo r A cadem ic Purposes (EAP). It is im p o rta n t to note, however, th a t this chart is far from exhaustive; th ere is a rem ark able arrav o f ESP courses offered th ro u g h o u t the world. In various cities in Italy, for exam ple, there are project-oriented curricula for white-col lar workers in the tourist industry (English for T ourism ). In M orocco, H asan II U niversity devotes m any of its EAP courses to specific grad uate m ajors such as agronom y. In som e nations, learning English to contribute to the develop m en t o f a com m unity o r region is a central goal (Gueve 1990). As the prison p o p u latio n grows
English for Specific Purposes
English for Academic Purposes (БАР) English for Science
English for Business
English for Medical
English for
and Technology (EST)
and Economics (EBE)
Purposes (EM P)
the Law (ELP)
(Academic)
(Academic)
(Academic)
(Academic)
English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) English for Professional Purposes (EPP)
English for Medical
English for Business
Pre-employment
Occupational-
Cluster
W orkplace
Purposes (EM P)
Purposes (EBP)
V ESL
Specific V ESL
V ESL
V ESL
Figure I . Classification of ESP Categories
in the U n ited States, th ere are ESP courses in co m p u ter rep air an d o th e r areas of com puter language an d technology for the incarcerated. T his rem a rk a b le diversity o f situations a n d curricula highlights one of the virtues of ESP: the program s are ad ap ted to the contexts and needs of particular groups o f students.
* relevant to the lea rn er ■ successful in im parting learning ■ m ore cost-effective th an “G eneral E nglish."1 An ESP definition needs to distinguish betw een four absolute a n d two variable characteristics: 1.
C E N T R A L ESP C O M P O N E N TS A lthough the m odern ESP m ovem ent has evolved in m any directions since it was fo u n d ed in the m id 1960s (see Swales [1988] for an excellent overview), several com ponents have rem ained relatively constant th ro u g h o u t its history. In 1988, P eter Strevens provided the following overview o f ESP a n d its features. T he claims for ESP are th a t it is ■ fo cu sed on th e le a r n e r ’s n e e d a n d wastes no tim e
A bsolute characteristics: ESP consists o f lan guage teaching which is ■ designed to m eet the specified needs of the lea rn er ■ related to c o n te n t (i.e., in its them es a n d topics) to p a rticu la r disciplines, occupations, o r activities ■ centered on the language appropriate to these activities in syntax, lexis, dis course, semantics, and the analysis of this discourse ■ in contrast to “G eneral E nglish.”
2.
Variable characteristics: ESP mav be. b ut is n o t necessarily ■ restricted to the language skills to be learn ed (e.g., read in g only) ■ not taught according to any preordained methodology.
T he “absolute characteristics” of the m ovem ent, in particular, have provided guidance in the design of ESP curricula and teaching over the vears. Thus, they are im p o rtan t for u n derstand ing how ESP practitioners distinguish themselves from o th e r ESL/EFL teachers in professional organizations, such as TESOL, and elsewhere. Each characteristic will be discussed later in this chapter. First, however, it is necessary to lat' a fo u n dation, to consider those issues that ESP practi tioners m ust address as they plan program s and develop curricula.
ISSUES A D D R E SS E D IN ESP PROGRAM P L A N N IN G ESP pro g ram s are developed because th ere is a d e m a n d , because teach ers, supervisors, gov ern m en t agencies, professionals, students, or o thers see a n e e d for language courses in which certain co n ten t, skills, m otivations, processes, a n d values are id entified a n d in teg rated into specialized, often short-term , courses. As ESP p ra c titio n e rs a p p ro a c h course d ev elo p m en t, they m ust consider a m u ltitu d e o f fa c to rs— an d som e essential q u estio n s— before, an d during, pro ject initiation. 1. Stakeholders in the Class or Project W hat are the sources o f d em an d for this ESP program ? W ho are the clients? An employer, an agency, a governm ent, a m ore traditional educational insti tution, o r the students themselves? W hat do the stakeholders view as the essential elem ents of the ESP program they desire? These are the first questions posed— for a n u m b er of reasons, one o f which is funding: Stakeholders generally provide the m oney for courses and curriculum developm ent. A nother reason is m andates: G overnm ents and institutions
th ro u g h o u t the world require specialized lan guage training or education for certain employees and students. Som etim es m andates, funding, a n d govern m en t reco m m en d atio n s create a intricate web o f re q u ire m e n ts , resp o n ses, a n d oversight. For exam ple, vocational ESI. (VEST) program s in the U nited States2 have b een developed as com plex responses to welfare reform a n d the needs o f fu n d in g agencies such as th e A dult E ducation a n d Family Literacy Act.3 Many VEST program s, in th eir attem p t to m ee t c u rre n t re q u ire m e n ts , are in fo rm e d by th e U.S. D ep artm en t o f L a b o r’s SCANS R e p o rt1, th o u g h no fu n d in g for \T.SL com es directly from this agencv. T he SCANS R eport established two levels of criteria for w orkplace skills (see, for exam ple, M arshall 1997). At the first level, the F o u n d atio n Skills include basic components (reading, writing, active listening, quantitative operations, in te r p retin g , o rg an izin g in fo rm a tio n a n d ideas), thinking skills (learning a n d reasoning, thinking creatively, m aking decisions, solving problem s), an d personal qualities (responsibility, self-esteem, sociability, integrity, self-m anagem ent). At the seco n d level, th e W orkplace C o m p eten cies include resource management (organizing, plan ning. etc.), interpersonal skills (working in teams, teaching others, negotiating, working effectively within culturally diverse settings, etc.), informa tion management (acquiring a n d evaluating facts an d data, using com puters, etc.), systems manage ment (u n d ersta n d in g social organization and technological systems), an d technology (selecting equ ip m en t and tools, applying technology to tasks, etc.). Becattse of the influence of this report, m anv \T S L textbook writers and teachers have used SCANS as the basis for their curricula (see, for exam ple, Price-M achado 1998). In o th er contexts, the stakeholders are the stu d en ts them selves, particularly in private ESL/EFL schools th ro u g h o u t the world which professionals attend to upgrade their language skills. These students are often very precise about what thev want to learn and achieve. Even if the students do not, or cannot, initiate o r direct an ESP project, there has been considerable
attention given to wavs in which thev should be em pow ered to participate within it. Somerville (1997, p. 92), working in Australia, argues that we m ust be asking questions such as the following if we are to design workplace literacy curricula that are learner-centered: ■ ■ ■ ■
W ho are the participants in workplace literacv programs? How do the workers experience the programs? How do program s change w orker participa tion in workplace culture? (W hat happens to the workplace during and after w orkers’ participation in the program ?)
O th e r m ajor stakeholders are educational insti tu tio n s, p a rticu larlv universities in v o k e d in academ ic-purposes program s, an d private com panies that n e e d focused English language an d skills train in g for th eir professional emplovees. An exam ple of co m bined governm ent and institutional stakeholder influence has taken place in re c e n t years in Tunisia. This countrv's president, with his en to u rag e, m ade diplom atic a n d trade-related trips to countries such as South Africa w here English plavs a central role. A lthough the p re sid e n t’s m ajor advisors and business peo p le spoke F rench and Arabic, thev did n o t have sufficient com m and of business o r diplom atic English to be successful. As a result., he has req u ired all institutions of h ig h er learn in g in Tunisia to step up th eir teaching of the English language.5 2. Available Teachers A central issue to be con sidered is the natu re of the teachers who will be involved in an ESP program . W hat content, skills, a n d literacies will they be expected to teach? How m uch teacher training have thev com pleted? Are they linguisticallv sophisticated, i.e., can they dis cuss how English works and analvze specialized discourses? W hat tvpes o f cu rricu la a n d approaches are thev m ost com fortable with? .All o f these questions are cen tral to design. Inexperienced or "traditional” teachers cannot work within an experim ental ESP context, for exam ple. In nianv EFT contexts, the ESP teacher is n o t a native speaker of English (See M edgves’s ch ap ter in this volum e); this, too, will influence the type o f ESP curriculum designed.
ESP teachers face challenges that o th e r instructors rnav be able to circum vent. O ne chal lenge relates to ESP content: discerning the p ar ticular vocabularv, discourses, an d processes that are essential to the ESP training o f students w ithin a specialized context. W hat does the teach er have to know about electrical e n g in e e r ing and its practices to assist students to write a research p a p e r in that discipline? W hat does a tea c h e r have to know about the language of welding, or tourism , to address the needs of stu dents who have chosen these vocations? Manv ESP practitioners argue that if thev can analvze language an d discourses a n d study language use. thev do n o t n e e d specialist expertise. O th ers argue that tit least som e fam iliaritv with the students' discipline or vocation is valuable. In all cases, the te a c h e r/p ra c titio n e r con ducts some research in the form of needs assess m e n t a n d targ e t situ atio n analysis b efore designing the curricu lu m — and often, th ro u g h out the course. In English for Academ ic Purposes program s, practitioners often analyze the dis courses of the stu d en ts’ discipline, visit classes, talk to faculty, and study the strategies and lan guage that students use to succeed. In business or diplom atic English, as discussed in the Tunisian exam ple above, the p ractitio n er may have to accom pany a delegation to an Englishspeaking country in o rd er to u n d erstan d the required language for that context. In VEST, this needs analysis research often includes inter viewing vocational instructors or em ployers and atten d in g vocational classes. In Fairfax County (Virginia) Adult EST Program s, for exam ple, [The \T.SL. teacher attends vocational classes], taking notes on troublesom e vocabularv, idiom s, slang, concepts, cultural differences, an d th en s /h e addresses these things in the EST class. This makes up most o f the co n ten t of the EST class with additional practice in the developm ent o f reading, listen ing. speaking, writing and problem solving skills (Schrage, personal com m unication, 2 /2 6 /0 0 ) • A n o th e r c h a llen g e fo r ESP tea c h e rs involves a tta in in g th e necessary b re a d th of u n d e rsta n d in g about successful com m unication
w ithin a context that they, a n d th eir students, n e e d to develop. How is a good w orking and com m unicative relationship established am ong professionals from differen t cultures who are negotiating o r p resen tin g papers in English? W hat kinds o f problem s a n d relationships exist betw een L2 w orkers a n d th eir supervisors? How should a person use language to be polite, give orders, or perform o th er English language func tions within the target context? Or, to give one very specific purpose area, how does a pilot estab lish contact with a n d give clear messages to air traffic controllers? These are subtle and not-sosubtle com m unications issues that can m ake or break businesses and affect safetv and good work ing relationships. 3. Authenticity Issues Because ESP involves special Englishes an d contexts, n o t "G eneral E nglish,” efforts to achieve m axim um linguistic, strategic, a n d situational authenticitv are m ade in designing curricula. O n e of the m ost advanta geous “a u th e n tic ” possibilities is provided bv courses offered wholly, or in part, on site in the target location: at a w orkplace, such as a factorv o r shipyard, or w ithin specific academ ic con texts, such as an en g in e e rin g or biologv d e p a rt m ent. On-site ESP provides o p p o rtu n ities for an accurate a n d rich needs assessm ent a n d o n going training an d evaluation, as well as for in p u t from the stakeholders involved. In univer sities, on-site language training may occur in ad ju n ct courses o r o th e r tvpes o f content-based arran g em en ts th at p erm it students to ex p eri ence language a n d literacies in th eir n atural contexts (see J o h n s 1997). If on-site courses c an n o t be offered, practi tioners search for o th e r wavs to provide students with authenticitv. T h e re is a long a n d som etim es contentious historv o f in tro d u c in g in to th e class room w ritten o r oral discourses th at are central to, b u t rem oved from , the target situation in w hich th e students will eventually be using English. Manv curriculum designers analyze and segm ent these discourses so th a t they can be studied w ithin a curriculum . However, som e experts argue th a t when practitioners im p o rt into the classroom target situation texts (or “g en res”) taken o u t o f th eir original settings,
these texts lose th eir authenticity of context, audience, an d o th e r factors: a traditional belief that now appears problem atic is that genres for use in one co n tex t— historv lessons o r office w ork— can be straightforw ardlv taught in a differen t co n tex t such as the English lesson. . . . Producing an exam ple o f a genre is a m atter n o t ju st of generating a text with certain form al characteristics b u t o f using generic resources to art effectivelv on a situa tion th rough a [written or spoken text] (Freedm an and Medway 1994, p. 11). Supporting this claim, som e practitioners argue that authenticitv should relate to the transferabili ty of strategies or activities rath e r than to spoken or w ritten texts from target contexts. Thus, for exam ple, if students practice politeness strategies in the target language, thev may be able to use these approaches in a variety o f som ew hat u n p re dictable contexts. In the following quote, which continues to influence ESP curricula, W iddowson argues the following: [a] process-oriented ap p ro ach accepts from the outset th at the language data given to the le a rn e r will n o t be p re served in store intact, b u t will be used in the m ental mill. H ence the lan guage c o n te n t of the course is selected not because it is representative of w hat the learner will have to deal with after the course is over b u t because it is likelv to activate strategies for learning as the course progresses (1981, p. 5). Efforts at activating strategies and processes in ESP classrooms can take m anv forms. For exam ple, after research in g the targ et EFL situation, Souillard (1989. p. 24) found certain oral activities for French students to be relevant and transfer able to their disciplinary classrooms in which English was the m edium o f instruction: dictating calculations, describing a geom etric figure, giving instructions for a p ro ce d u re , describing a p lan t site, p rep a rin g a schedule, a n d describing a g rap h or flowchart.
4. Curricular Decisions O th e r chapters in this volum e address the issues o f curriculum . (See especially those bv N unan, Snow, Erring, and M cGroarty.) All o f those issues m ust also be addressed in ESP. In m aking curricular decisions. ESP practitioners have b een influenced over the years by trends in applied linguistics and general ESL/EFL teaching, w hen relevant to their stu d en ts, m oving th ro u g h th e m eth o d o lo g ical variations, from gram m ar-based to com m unica tive, to process-based, an d to genre-based curric ula. But whatever the c u rre n t trends, it is a basic responsibility' o f an ESP practitio n er to be con text- a n d student-sensitive. Thus, in several EFL contexts, only ESP reading is taught, often using m ethods such as intensive reading that are most am enable to local student learning. In o th er con texts, the con cen tratio n is u p o n o ra l/a u ra l skills. (See L azaraton’s c h ap ter in this volum e.) T he purpose of any ESP curriculum , then, is to m eet the specific linguistic and pragm atic needs of students as they p rep are for identified Englishm edium contexts. No texts and discourses and no tasks or activities should be extraneous to student needs a n d the req u irem en ts of the target context. O f course, this makes the selection of o ff the-shelf textbooks very difficult, as Swales (1980), am ong others, has noted. Should a text book be Avide-angled" an d inclusive, such as m any English for Business texts are. losing some o f the specificitv of local student needs? Should textbooks be “narrow-angled," addressing some o f the focused needs of the learner? State-of-theart ESP classes often m ust also include the inte g ratio n o f c o m p u te r technology. Plow this technolog)' is used, and which skills are integrat ed, will again d e p e n d u p o n the specific needs of the students. K appra (2000), for exam ple, makes these suggestions for integrating SCANS ATSL and co m puter technologies: a. Have students keep co m p u te r records of th eir progress a n d assess that progress bv com pleting reports, b. Assign co m puter-related tasks such as dis trib u tin g disks an d trouble-shooting. c. Use problem -solving activities that require basic c o m p u te r skills (p. 14).
W h eth er practitioners choose p u blished textbooks or develop th eir own m aterials, revi sion an d u p d atin g m ust occur constantly in ESP. In "adjunct" EAP classes in universities, for exam ple, the ESP teachers m ust consult fre quently with the c o n te n t instructors to adjust or ren egotiate th eir assignm ents. In E O P A U S L program s, job shadow ing can be used to u p d ate curricula. \T S L program s are also frequently revised an d new m odules created to reflect the language and o th e r skills n e e d ed for jobs that becom e available in the com m unin'. 5. Assessm ent All ESI. EFL teach ers m ust consider issues of assessm ent, discussed in the c h a p te r bv C ohen in this volum e. W hat is partic ularly c h allen g in g in ESP pro g ram s is that students and th eir sponsors, governm ents, or academ ic institutions are anxious to see im m e diate a n d fo cu sed assessm ent results th a t address specific objectives. Tims, the dem ands of assessment, both in terms of formative and summative evaluation, are great. In a work on ESP testing. Douglas (2000) points out the following: [a] specific purpose language test is one in which test c o n te n t a n d m eth ods are derived from an analysis of the characteristics of a specific target lan guage use situation, so that test tasks and c o n te n t are authentically rep re sentative of the target situation, allow ing for an in teractio n betw een the test taker's language activity a n d specific pu rp o se c o n te n t know ledge, on the one h an d , and the test tasks on the other. Such a test allows us to m ake inferences about a test taker's capacity to use language in the specific p u r pose dom ain (p. 19). ESP assessment m ust also be appropriate to the instructional context. In \T S L program s, for exam ple, interviewing supervisors or the students themselves about language, content, and task pro ficiency can be m ore effective than anv traditional oral exam ination or reading and writing test. Some ESP experts, particularh- in large YESL and EAP program s, are now testing students on-line to
encourage the developm ent of com puter skills and to m ake testing m ore efficient. In EAP pro grams, th ere is a long history o f attem p tin g to design discipline-sensitive exam inations at insti tutions such as the Universitv o f M ichigan.
PREPARING A N ESP C U R R IC U LU M
3.
After this discussion of the questions and topics th at m ust be addressed before a curriculum is p rep ared , we notv tu rn to the "absolute charac teristics” m en tio n e d bv Strevens (1988) and their application to curriculum design. T h ough ESP shares m uch with "G eneral English" curric ula a n d overlaps with content-based designs, there are certain features which distinguish it from o th e r approaches. N eeds A ssessm ent In everv g e n u in e ESP course, needs assessment is obligatorv. and in m ant' program s, an ongoing needs assessment is integral to curriculum design and evaluation. In perform ing an assessment, practitioners attem pt to determ ine as closelv as possible what students will need to d o — and how thev will need to do it— in English language contexts or with English language literacies. Over the tears, m ethods of assessing learner needs have becom e increasinglv sophisticated a n d process-based. H e re are a few of those em ploved, often for the same curricular design: 1.
2.
Q uestionnaires a n d survevs: These can be given to the students them selves, th eir em ployers or supervisors, or the audiences to w hom then will be w riting o r speaking. Thev can be adm in istered as “precourse questionnaires" (Ducllev-Evans a n d St. John 1998), th ro u g h o u t the course, o r after it is com pleted. Interviews o f experts, students, an d o th er stakeholders: Particularlv useful for aca dem ic English are som e o f the interviews about uses and functions of specific linguistic items in discourses, a practice th at has becom e increasinglv popular after a land
4.
5.
6.
m ark study o f the uses of the passive p u b lished in The ESP Journal/ (Tarone et al. 1981). In VESL (Vocational ESI.) a n d Business English, interview ers ten d to rely u p o n the supervisors and experts w ithin the target situation in which the students w ould be working, as well as the w o rk e rs/stu d e n ts themselves. O bservation, job-shaclowing, a n d analysis: T hese ap p ro ach es can take place on the job. in academ ic contexts while students are reading and writing (i.e., “processing”) texts, while individuals are speaking, work ing in groups, etc. ESP needs assessments have been greatlv influenced bv recent qual itative research, specificallv ethnography. M uch o f the c u rren t work is "thicker” in term s of description than that o f the past, so careful observation tends to be integrated with o th er forms o f needs assessment. Job-shadowing is very valuable to YES I. teachers, who explore the linguistic, cultural, and pragm atic experiences of workers as they experience a tvpical dav on the job. M ultiple intelligence an d lea rn in g stvle .survevs of the students: ESP practitioners use standard instrum ents as well as o th er m eth ods for d eterm ining stu d en t approaches to learning and text production such as pro tocols and interviews (see S t.Jo h n 1987). M odes o f working: W orking in team s is a n o th e r aspect o f job p erfo rm a n c e th a t is com m on in m anv VEST contexts as well as in som e academ ic classes. A needs assess m en t may thus include analysis o f how team s work in the target context, break downs in negotiation in culturally m ixed groups, a n d o th e r factors th a t may in hibit or e n h a n ce success. Spoken or w ritten reflections by the stu d e n ts — or th eir supervisors— before, d u r ing. o r a fter in stru ctio n : In reflectio n , stakeholders are able to look back cm what thev h a te experienced with an ESP p ro gram . Reflections can be used to determ ine how a current program should be revised or future program s should be designed.
T here is im portant literature distinguishing between student needs, wants, and larks (see, for exam ple, H u tc h in so n a n d W aters 1987, p. 55), and for adults, these are im portant distinc tions. Readers interested in exploring these issues are encouraged to consult the considerable litera ture in both ESP an d jo b training program s on needs assessment for curriculum design. From the established needs, specific objec tives for students are w ritten, an d from these objectives, the classroom tasks a n d m ethod s for assessm ent o f th e p ro g ram a n d its students are d e te rm in e d a n d revised as th e course progresses. Relating to Content (of Occupations, Disciplines, etc.) Since 1988 w hen Strevens wrote his ESP overview, th ere has been an explosion of research and theory on co n ten t (see, for exam ple, Snow’s ch ap ter in this volum e), as well as on the wavs in which values established within com m unities of workers and practitioners influence the m an n er in which c o n ten t is ap proached and visually dis played. B erkenkotter and H uckin (1995, p. 14), discussing academ ic content, argue that "what constitutes true . . . knowledge . . . is knowledge of appropriate topics and relevant details.” O ne exam ple from the litera tu re may show how u n d erstan d in g the uses of c o n ten t influences stu d e n ts ’ success in universities. G iltrow a n d Valiquette (1994) asked teaching assistants from psychology a n d crim inology to read their stu d e n ts’ papers a n d critique their ability to m anage the knowledge o f their respective disciplines. T he teaching assistants found that successful student papers were quite different, d ep en d in g on the field. In psychology, students were required to dem onstrate how thev could m anage details in texts by including some inform ation and exclud ing o th er topics. In criminology, on the other hand, the m ost im portant skill involved relating concepts to exam ples, again m aking the co n ten t work within a disciplinary framework. W hat does this m ean about co n ten t selec tion for curricula? It tells us that in all ESP situa tions, practitioners m ust continuouslv assess what types o f c o n te n t are central, how content is used a n d valued, and the relationships betw een vocab ulary and central concepts. A nother essential
e le m e n t o f successful c u rric u lu m d esig n is selecting c o n te n t th at m otivates students: those topics that these im p o rta n t stakeholders w ant to address. In a volum e on adult participatory literacv instruction a n d VESL, A uerbach et al. (1996) argue the following: verv o ften , [a d u lt stu d e n ts] are im m ersed in the struggles o f adjusting to a new cu ltu re, sep aratio n from families, p reo ccu p atio n with the polit ical situation in th eir hom e countries, trving to find work, a n d so on. R ather th a n seein g th ese p re o c c u p a tio n s as obstacles to lea rn in g , a participatorv ap p ro ach allows them to focus on th em as p art o f learn in g . . . [and thev are] m ore engaged in c o n te n t (p. 158). Identifying and Analyzing Essential Language and Discourses Since ESP can be co n sid ered a subdiscipline of applied linguistics, practitioners have m ade effective use of the trends in this area to analvze, for curricular purposes, the language a n d discourses (genres) o f the targ et situations in which th eir students will be studying, living, or working. In the 1960s, language analysis te n d e d to c e n te r on the p articu lar gram m atical o r lexi cal features (i.e.. “registers”) of discourses. Thus, researchers fo u n d th at certain verb form s p re d o m in a te d in scientific discourses (B arb er 1966), th a t a lim ited g ro u p of cohesive devices are fo u n d in business letters (Johns 1980) and th at abbreviations are characteristic o f telexes (Zak a n d Dudley-Evans 1986). Now, o f course, m uch business and academ ic com m unication takes place via e-mail, so p ractitio n ers are researching the registers of e-mail com m unication in o rd er to develop m ore authentic curricular m aterials (see, for exam ple, Gim enez 2000). .As com m unicative syllabus design (especially N otional Functional syllabi) becam e popular, the types o f discourse analyses conducted relied m ore upon language function th an u p o n counts o f spe cific linguistic item s. M atsunobu (1983), for exam ple, fo u n d th at university business profes sors used th re e m ajor types o f speech acts in th eir lectures: inform atives, m etastatem ents, and
discourse m arkers: thus, she developed a listen ing curriculum in which these acts were the focus. As it has m atu red , research into com m u nicative functions has drawn increasinglv from pragm atics, showing, lo r exam ple, that the wavs in which individuals are polite to each o th er d e p e n d upon their disciplines an d u p o n their rel ative status. Hyland (1998) found that when pub lished authors in the sciences write to their peers, they ten d to “hedge" their conclusions, m aking com m ents such as, “T he data ap p ear to show . . or “Perhaps this indicates . . . " Nett surprisingly, com puters are now used to d e te rm in e the gram m atical features shared bv large num bers o f spoken or w ritten discourses within certain genres (Biber 1994). A related app ro ach , m ore tvpical o f the British ESP spe cialists, is c o n c o rd a n c in g (Jo h n s 1989). a m eth o d for d e te rm in in g lexical collocations in a large n u m b e r of spoken and w ritten texts. In con co rd an cin g , p ractitio n ers d e te rm in e what language most com m onlv surrounds a word in authentic discourses. Tliev m ight explore a com m on word such as take, and through exam ining a large n u m b er of written and spoken discourses from particular situations, they can determ ine the linguistic environm ents in which take appears. This work is a boon to ESP. of course, since teach ers organize their curricula according to the most com m on contexts of central vocabularv. C on co rd an cin g and corpus linguistics tend to be m ost co n c ern e d with bottom -up studies of texts, m easuring the natu re and interactions of various gram m atical and lexical features. O th e r ESP practitioners have co n c en tra te d upon the m acro features o f texts — and th eir co n tex ts— bv studving the relationships betw een the structure an d language o f w ritten texts a n d the situations in which these texts appear. John Swales’s Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings (1990) set the tone for ESP research of this type, an d mans others have followed his lead. Drawing from earlier u'ork in applied lin guistics. ESP specialists have studied genres from a variety of occupational and academ ic com m u nities such as the law (Bhatia 1993) and business (Eustace 1996). T hough using curricula in which genres are central has been characteristic of EBP for a n u m b er of t ears ( Johns 1987). these
approaches h a te onlv recentlv influenced the teaching of reading an d waiting in academ ic set tings, particularly at the graduate level (see Swales and Feak 1994).
PROGRAM M ODELS W hat do ESP program s look like? It should be clear from this discussion th at th ere is a wide range o f courses an d program s in a wide range o f locations, always keved to the language needs, skills, co n ten t, an d processes req u ired . Perhaps one of the best articulated a n d w idespread sets o f program m odels in EST contexts falls u n d e r the \T S E rubric. It includes the following: Preem ployment VESL This is a m odified ver sion o f a "general" EST class in that the c o n te n t is den oted to job readiness and g en eral “soft” job skills as ou tlin ed in the SCANS R eport. Students practice general jo b functions such as resp o n d ing to com plaints, m aking requests, an d answer ing the p h o n e. Tliev mav also p rep a re for job interviews and o th e r initial job skills. Occupation-Specific VESL H ere, the c o n te n t is related to a particu lar job such as nu rsin g assis tant o r electronics assembler. It can be tau g h t eith e r as p rep a ra tio n for. or con cu rren tly with, a vocational program . An exam ple m ight be a th re e -h o u r class, th ree d ais a week, in w hich stu dents studv vocabularv an d o th e r skills they will n eed for an electronics assem ble class th at also enrolls native speakers o f English. .After the VESL class, thev atten d the regular electronics assembly class— or thev mav attend both concurrently. T here is freq u en t com m unication betw een the W S L and vocational instructors. Cluster VESL These classes include students from differen t vocations in one classroom . Students studv all four "skills” (listening, speaking, reading, and writing), often in a them e-based pro gram (e.g., "The World of W ork”). In one class, for exam ple, students read about how to m eet people and make small talk in the workplace. T hen, they m eet in pairs or teams answering jigsawr com pre hension questions o r com pleting a problem solring or writing exercise. Later, students work
on individualized m odules devoted to th eir cho sen professions a n d are assessed on this work. (Note: Because o f the a tte n d an c e req u irem en ts in m any ad u lt schools, this is probablv the most com m on type o f program .) Workplace VESL This term applies to skills a n d c o n te n t o f a specific w orkplace. It can be job-specific, such as for electronics assemble, or it may have a b ro a d e r em phasis. O ften, the em ployer pays for som e o r all o f the course, and em ployees are excused d u rin g th eir workdav to a tte n d (Thom as, Bird, a n d G rover 1992, p. 108). English for Business program s are the m ost p o p u la r in the English as a Foreign Language world. Businesses, o r individuals, req u ire classes in negotiation, co rresp o n d en ce, bid and rep o rt w riting, a n d in su p erv isin g b ilin g u al a n d E SL /E FL workers. N ot surprisinglv, program design com es in m any shapes an d sizes d e p e n d ing u p o n the large variety o f contexts an d stu d en ts served. (See the special Business English issue o f English for Specific Purposes, 15(1), 1996.) English for Academic Purposes also has a long historv o f program specialization, particularlv in science and technology areas at advanced levels (see Swales 1988). Some excellent research and curricula (see, for exam ple, Swales and Feak 1994) have been developed for graduate students in the areas o f research p a p e r analysis and advanced academ ic writing. U nfortunately for m any ESL contexts, the EAP tradition at the undergraduate level has been clouded with con troversy. T here is little agreem ent on how, or what, EAP should consist of for those students who have n o t yet advanced into their academ ic majors. ESP and the Future T here is no question that ESP is well established, particularly in EFL aca dem ic an d business contexts and in VESL pro gram s in English-speaking countries. O u r largest professional organization, TESOT, has an active ESP Interest Section whose m em bers represent a wide variety o f EFL and ESL contexts. T here is considerable dem an d for ESP teachers who can p erfo rm a variety o f needs assessment tasks, such as collecting authentic discources and analyzing them , m aking appropriate observations, and con
sulting various stakeholders— and th en produce curricula sensitive to the students and context. T h e re is also a n e e d for discourse analysis research, particularlv in English for Business a n d \T.SL contexts. In ad d itio n , th e re is a grow ing d e m a n d for specialists who can develop com puter-based curricula and m ore a u th en tic tests. T eachers with professional tra in in g in these areas find them selves in great d e m a n d in tern atio n allv — an d often thev are leaders in adult school sites within th eir ho m e countries. In the future, ESP mav include m uch m ore studv o f genres, particularlv the “hom ely” genres of the workplace and community. It may lead to the developm ent of m ore sophisticated, learnercentered or team -oriented curricula, particularly in \T S L and professional program s. T here may also be greater involvement of ESP in econom ic developm ent and nation building. ’W hatever its directions, ESP will rem ain central to ESL and EFL teaching th ro u g h o u t the world.
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1. How can a \T S L teacher (or am - ESP teacher, for that m atter) integrate the essential areas o f sociabilitv, teamwork, and self-esteem into his or h er teaching? 2. Your supervisor has decided th a t you will initiate a VESL class (an ESP program ) at your school. W hat are som e of the questions you n e e d to ask a n d things you n e e d to do to p rep a re for th at class? 3. W hat areas of ESP appeal to you most? Why? If you were to teach a class in the m ost appeal ing area, what would its focus be? Why? 4. How can a perso n effectively assess the results of an ESP program ? .After consulting the c h a p te r bv C ohen in this volum e or the work bv Douglas (2000), discuss som e possi bilities for assessment. 5. T h ro u g h o u t this chapter, the au th o rs ju x ta pose "G eneral E nglish” a n d ESP. W hat is “G eneral E nglish” in vour view? To w hom should it be taught?
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1. D esign a “tria n g u la te d ” needs assessm ent for a particu lar class, which includes obtaining the same data in d ifferen t ways. C onsider questionnaires, observation, interviews, and discourse analysis. 2. W h ere does c o m m u n ic a tio n b reak d o w n occur? W here do E SL /EFL students face the m ost difficulty in using English in target situations? O bserve a class, a lab, bilingual workers on-line or at a construction site. D ecide what th e areas of breakdow n are (e.g., question-posing skills) and how vou m ight teach them . 3. LTsing inform ation from needs assessments o r o th e r sources, develop some g roup activ ities that relv u p o n e ith e r strategies for achieving ends (e.g., negotiation) o r essen tial linguistic features (e.g., hedging). Assign these activities to a class. 4. W hat are the features o f a p articular genre th at students will n e e d to read or write? Classify som e o f these features an d discuss how you m ight p resen t them to a class. 5. If available, survey the th ree ''wide-angled" VESL textbooks listed below. Make a list o f sim ilarities and differences am ong these volum es that considers: a. the use a n d w eighing o f the SCANS com petencies, b. the te x t’s organization. c. central activities. Does one textbook seem m ore ap p ro p riate for certain groups of students? Whv? ■
Price-Machado, D. (1998). Skills for Success. New York: C am bridge University Press.
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Magv, R. (1998). Working It Out. Boston: H einle 8c H einle Publishers.
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English ASAP (1999). Austin, TX: SteckYaughn.
FU R T H ER R E A D IN G Douglas, D. 2000. Assessing Languages for Specific Purposes. New York: Cambridge CYriversitv Press. This is the first volume devoted exclusively to assessment, a central issue in ESP and in other specific purposes languages (ESP). A text that is accessible to nonexperts, it includes a variety of actual test tasks taken from a num ber of LSP areas. Dudlev-Evans, T, and M. f. St. John. 1998. Develop ments in ESP: A Multi-Disciplinary- Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. This is a verv good text for those new to ESP. It includes discussions and examples of all the “absolute characteristics” of the movement and provides a variety of examples from EAP and English for Occupational Purposes (both pro fessional and \TSL). English for Specific Purposes: A n International Journal (formerly The ESP Journal). Founded in the earlv 1980s, the journal includes articles on all of the "absolute characteristics” of ESP (needs assessment, discourse analysis, etc.) as well as discussions of research and the practical issues of curriculum design. .Also included are metre infor mal discussions of ESP issues and book reviews. Gillespie. M. 1996. Learning to Work in a New Land: A Review and Sourcebook for Vocational and Workplace ESL. Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied linguistics. This text examines the role of immigrants in the workforce, the status of English language learning in vocational and workforce educa tion. and the wavs the educational and govern mental systems can enhance opportunities and productivity for the English language learner. Grognet. A. 1997. Integrating Employment Skills into Adult ESL Education. (A project in adult immi grant education. PAIE). Washington, D.C.: National Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Educa tion. [Sponsoring agenev: Office of Educational Research and Improvement, Washington, D.C.] (ERIC PRODUCT 071). This question and answer text discusses how employment preparation can be integrated into an English as a Second Language curriculum, whether in a workplace or general ESL program. Johns. A. M.. and T. Dudlev-Evans. 1991. English for specific purposes: International in scope, specific
in purpose. TESOL Quarterh. 26(2): 297-614. Commissioned for TESOL’s twentv-fifth anniversary, this article provides a short overview of the ESP movement and its history.
EN DN O TES 1 “General English” is enclosed bv quotes throughout this chapter because the authors do not believe that such a language exists. All language and language classes are specific to the learner, the context, and the content.
- The authors would like to thank Gretchen Bitterlin, ESL Resource Teacher, San Diego Community College District: and Brigitte Marshall, Educational Programs Consultant, Adult Education Office, California Department of Education, for their assis tance in the \TiSL discussions found in this chapter. 4 As Title II of the Workforce Investment Act (WTA). 4 Secretary of Labor's Commission on Achieving Xecessarv Skills. ■’ The authors are indebted to Mohamecl Daoud, one of Tunisia's foremost ESP experts, for this anecdote. b Now called English for Specific Purposes: An Inter national Journal.
Syllabus Design DAVI D
NUNAN
in “ SyMabus Design," Nunan describes and evaluates a range of syllabus types including grammatical, notional-functional, content-based, task-based, and integrated, he also sets out and illustrates key procedures for developing syllabuses.These include needs analysis, goal and objective setting, and the development of competencies.
O V ER V IEW In o rd e r to define svllabus design, we n e e d to start with the b ro a d e r field o f curriculum devel o pm ent. Curriculum is a large messy co ncept which can be looked at in a n u m b e r o f warns. A very b ro ad definition is that it includes all of the p la n n e d lea rn in g experiences o f an educational system. T he field o f curriculum developm ent was first system atized bv Tr ier in 1949, who artic ulated fo u r fu n d am en tal questions that m ust be answ ered bv anv cu rriculum developer: 1. 2.
3. 4.
W hat educational purposes should a school seek to attain? W hat educational experiences can be pro vided that are likelv to attain those purposes? How can the educational experiences be effectively organized? How can we d eterm in e w h eth er these p u r poses have b een attained?
In the context of language teaching, the first two questions have to do with syllabus design, the th ird with language teaching m ethodology, and the fo u rth with assessm ent an d evaluation. Syllabus design, then, is the selection, sequencing, and justification of the content of the curriculum . In language teaching, c o n te n t selection will include selecting linguistic features such as items o f gram m ar, pronunciation, and vocabulary' as well as experiential content such as topics and them es. This selection process is guided by needs analyses o f various kinds. Needs analysis provides the designer with a basis both for content specifi cation an d for the setting of goals a n d objectives.
In 1976, David W ilkins p u blished an influential b o o k called Notional Syllabuses, in w hich he argued th at the p o in t o f d e p a rtu re for syllabus design should n o t be lists o f linguistic item s, b u t a specification of the concepts th at learn ers wish to express (notions such as tim e a n d space), an d the things th at learners w ant to do with language (functions such as co m p lim en tin g o r apologiz ing). M ore recen tly th ere have b een calls fo r the ad o p tio n o f a process approach, in which the point o f d ep a rtu re is n o t lists o f linguistic or notional-functional content, b u t a specification of com m unicative and learning processes. This has resulted in proposals for task-based syllabuses. A nother significant trend, particularly in second as opposed to foreign language contexts, has been the em ergence of content-based syllabuses. Most recently, an integrated approach has been called for. In such an approach, all or m ost o f the ele m ents and processes described above are incorpo rated into the svllabus. In this chapter, I wall elaborate o n the con cepts an d processes described in the p reced in g p aragraph. W here a p p ro p riate, the concepts will be illustrated with extracts from syllabuses of differen t kinds.
Grammatical Syllabuses T raditionally the p o in t of d e p a rtu re for design ing a language syllabus has b een to select a n d sequence lists o f gram m atical item s, a n d th en in teg rate these with lists o f vocabulary items. Lists o f phonological item s have som etim es b een throw n in for good m easure.
G ram m atical syllabuses are still very p o p u lar today, alth o u g h thev were at th eir most p o p u la r th ro u g h th e 1960s. w hen virtually all syllabuses were crafted in gram m atical term s. T he assum ption underlying these syllabuses is th a t language consists o f a finite set of rules which can be co m bined in various wavs to m ake m eaning. T he task for the language lea rn er is to m aster each rule in the o rd e r p resen ted bv the svllabus before m oving on to the next. T he w hole purp o se o f the gram m atical svllabus teas to control in p u t to the lea rn er so that onlv one item teas p resen ted at a tim e. This created a dilem m a, which becam e m ore and m ore press ing with the advent of Com m unicative Language Teaching: How co u ld one co n tro l in p u t at the same tim e as one is providing learners with exposure to the kinds o f language thev would e n c o u n te r outside the classroom? This problem can be addressed in a n u m b er o f ways. O n e solution is to ab andon anv attem pt at structural grading. A nother is to use the list of graded structures, not to d eterm in e the language to which learners are exposed, but to d eterm in e the items that will be the pedagogic focus in class. In o th e r words, learners are exposed to nat uralistic samples o f text which are onlv roughly graded, and which provide a richer context, but thev are onlv expected form ally to m aster those items which have been isolated, graded, and set o u t in the svllabus (X unan 1988a, p. 30). D uring the 1970s, the gram m atical svllabus cam e u n d e r attack on two fronts. In the first place, the linear sequencing entailed in gram m atical syllabuses did not rep resen t the com plexity of language. Secondly, evidence from the field o f second language acquisition showed that learners did not necessarily acquire language in the o rd e r specified bv the gram m atical svllabus. For exam ple, Dulav and Burt (1973) and Bailey, M adden, and Krashen (1974) showed that cer tain gram m atical items ap p eared to be acquired in a p red e term in e d order, and that this o rd er ap p eared to be im pervious to form al instruction. This led K rashen (1981. 1989) to argue that we sh o u ld a b a n d o n gram m atically stru c tu re d syllabuses com pletely in favor o f a "natural a p p ro a c h ” to language learning. In the natural a p p ro ach , gram m atical g rad in g is eschew ed.
replaced bv com m unicative activities that pro m ote subconscious acquisition following the ''natural" o rd e r ra th e r than conscious learn in g based on classroom instruction. An alternative explanation for the lack of congruence between the input provided by gram matical syllabuses and the language actually used bv learners at different stages of developm ent has been provided bv P ienem ann a n d Johnston (1987). These researchers argue that the o rd e r in which learners acquire a p articular item will be d eterm in ed , not bv the gram m atical com plexity of the item , but bv its speech processing complexity. T h eir hypothesis predicts that the third person singular verb inflection (present tense) s. which is grammatically simple but com plex in term s of speech processing, will be acquired relatively late in the language acquisition process, and this is indeed what we find. T hird person s is one of the first gram m atical m or phem es to be taught, but for m am learners it is one oi the last items to be acquired. In fact, some learners never acquire it. T he speech processing theory predicts that the following items will be acquired in the o rd e r below, and that this is th erefo re the o rd e r in which thev should be in tro d u ced in the svllabus: W hat's the tim er W hat's so u r nam e? How do vou spell X? Are vou tired? W here are vou from? Do vou like X? P ienem ann and Johnston (1987) argued that the structural svllabus should be retained. However, the o rd erin g of item s in the svllabus should follow a very different sequence — that established bv th eir research as being “learnable." Thus. гг/equestions with do would not be taught until learners had m astered tr/equestions with be. T he problem with this proposal, particularly in light o f Com m unicative Language Teaching, is that m am of the items that are required for com m unication are "late acq u ired ”— for exam ple, re/z-questions with do. Teachers w orking with such a sv llabus w ould be able to use few com m u nicative tasks in the earlv stages o f learning. Critics of the P ienem ann an d Johnston proposal have argued that “u n learn ab le” structures can be introduced, but thev should be p resented as
holistic form ulae. In o th e r words, learners would be taught question forms such as Whal do \ou do ? and Where does she live? as single “chunks” for use in com m unicative tasks such as role plats, infor m ation gaps, and so on. They would not be expected to break these down into th eir con stituent parts immediatelv; this would h appen gradually over time. In fact, som e second lan guage acquisition researchers argue that this pro cess of learning strings o f language as unanalvzed chunks and then later breaking them down is a key psycholinguistic m echanism in the acquisi tion process (Ellis 1994).
T H E “O R G A N IC ” A P P R O A C H TO GRAM M AR U nderiving the traditional linear svllabus is the notion that learning is a process of m astering each item perfectly one at a time. In fact, when the structural svllabus teas at its height of popular ity, masterv learning was an im portant m ovem ent within educational psvchologv. In m etaphorical terms, it teas believed that a language develops in the same war as a building is constructed— one (linguistic) brick at a time. However, the complexitv of the acquisition process revealed bv a growing bodv of second language acquisition (SLA) research led some syllabus designers to argue that language develop m ent is basicallv an organic process. A ccording to this m etaphor, a new language develops in a wav that is m ore akin to plants grotring in a garden ra th e r th an a b u ilding being constructed. Learners do not acquire each item perfectlv. one at a time, but num erous items imperfectlv. all at once.
developed to assist designers a d o p tin g such an approach. W hile needs analysis was a crucial tool for those working in the areas of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and English for Academic Purposes (EAP), it was also widely used in General English svllabus design. T he appearance of needs analysis in lan guage education (it had existed in o th er areas of educational planning for manv years) was thus stim ulated bv the developm ent of Com m unicative Language Teaching (CLT). Proponents of CLT argued that it was neith er necessary n o r possible to include every aspect o f the target language in the svllabus. Rather, svllabus c o n te n t should reflect the com m unicative purposes and needs of the learners. Language-for-tourism syllabuses will contain different content from svllabttses designed for teaching academic English. (See Johns and Price-Machado's chapter in this volume). N eeds analysis includes a wide variety of techniques for collecting and analyzing inform a tion. both about learners and ab o u t language. T he kinds o f inform ation that svllabus designers collect include biographical inform ation such as age. first language b ack g ro u n d , reasons for learn in g the language, o th e r languages spoken, tim e available for learning, an d so on. T he most so p histicated in stru m e n t for d o in g a needs analysis was developed bv M unbv (1978). Called the communicative needs processor, it involved spec ifying the following: ■ * * *
N EED S A N A LYSIS W ith the advent o f C om m unicative Language Teaching (CLT) in the 1970s. a very different ap p ro ach to svllabus design was p ro p o sed by a n u m b e r o f linguists. This ap p ro ach began, not with lists o f gram m atical, phonological, a n d lex ical features, but with an analysis o f the com m u nicative needs of the learner. A set o f techniques an d procedures, know n as needs analysis, teas
*
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particip an t (biographical data ab o u t the le a rn e r): purposive dom ain (the purposes for which the language is req u ired ); setting (the environm ents in which the lan guage trill be u s e d ): in teractio n (the people that the le a rn e r will be com m unicating with); instrum entality (the m edium : spoken versus written: the m ode: m onologue or dialogue, face-to-face or indirect): dialect: target level (degree o f m asterv req u ired ); com m unicative event (productive and re ceptive skills neded); com m unicative kev (interpersonal attitudes and tones req u ired ).
Brincllev (1984, 1990) draws a distinction betw een “objective” needs and “subjective"needs: Objective needs are those which can be diagnosed bv teachers on the basis o f the analysis o f personal data about learners along with inform ation about th eir language proficiency and p at terns o f language use. . . . w hereas the “subjective” needs (which are often “w ants,” “desires,” “expectations" or o th e r psychological m anifestations) c an n o t be diagnosed as easily, or, in m any cases, even stated bv learners them selves (Brincllev 1984. p. 31). Objective needs analyses result in c o n ten t derived from an analysis o f the target com m u nicative situations in which learners will engage, as well as an analysis of the kinds of spoken and w ritten discourse they will n eed to c o m p re h en d a n d pro d u ce. Such analyses were fu n d am en tal to the d evelopm ent o f an im p o rta n t and e n d u r ing m ovem ent within language tea c h in g — that o f language for specific purposes. N eeds-based course design, particularly w hen it results in tightly specified learning out comes, has been heavily criticized. W'iddowson (1983), for exam ple, claims that such courses are exercises in training ra th e r than in education because learners can only do those things for which they have been specifically prepared. He argues th at learners should be to able to do things for "which they have not been specifically p rep ared . However, the extent to which learners are able to transfer learning from one context to a n o th e r is basically a m ethodological issue rath e r th an a syllabus design issue. Syllabus designers can facilitate learning transfer by building into the svllabus opportunities for recycling. A n o th er criticism of needs-based course design is that, "while it m ight be relevant in sec o n d language contexts, it is often irrelevant in foreign language contexts, w here learners have no im m ediate, o r even foreseeable, n eed to com m unicate orallv. In such contexts, subjective needs, relating to such things as learning strat egy preferences, mav be m ore relevant than objective needs.
Goal and Objective Setting N eeds analysis provides a basis for specifying goals and objectives for a learn in g program . Goals are broad, general purposes for learn in g a language. At the b roadest level. Halliday (1985) argues that individuals use language ■ ■ ■
to obtain goods a n d services, to socialize with others, and for e n te rta in m e n t an d enjoym ent.
These t e n broad goals can be elaborated and refined, as the following goal statem ents illustrate: Instruction should enable learners to 1. 2. 3.
4. 5. 6. 7.
8. 9.
participate in conversation related to the pu rsu it o f com m on activities with others; obtain goods and services th ro u g h conver sation or correspondence; establish and m aintain relationships through exchanging inform ation, ideas, opinions, attitudes, feelings, experiences and plans; m ake social arrangem ents, solve problem s, an d com e to conclusions together; discuss topics of interest; search for specific inform ation for a given purpose, process it, a n d use it in som e way; listen to or read inform ation, process it, an d use it in som e way; give inform ation in spoken or w ritten form on the basis of p ersonal experience; listen to or read, a n d /o r view a story, poem , plav, feature, etc., and respond to it person ally in some wav (Clark 1987, p. 186).
Having established the goals o f a learning program , the syllabus designer articulates a set of objectives desig n ed to realize th e goals. Objectives are th erefo re m uch m ore specific th an goals, an d n u m ero u s objectives will be specified for any given goal. Form al p e rfo r m ance objectives have th ree elem ents: a “task” o r p erfo rm a n c e elem ent, a standards elem ent, an d a conditions elem ent. T he task elem ent specifies w hat the lea rn er is to do, the standards elem en t sets out how well the p e rfo rm e r is to carrv out the task, and the conditions elem ent establishes the circum stances u n d e r w hich h e or she is to perform .
T he following exam ples illustrate just how specific p erfo rm an ce objectives are:
n o rm -referen ced a n d this is the m ajor differ ence betw een the two approaches.
1.
Exam ple o f a com petence statem ent:
2.
In a classroom role plat' (co n d itio n ), stu dents will exchange personal inform ation (p erfo rm an ce). T h ree pieces o f info rm a tion will be ex ch an g ed (standard). W hen listening to a taped w eather forecast (condition), students will extract inform a tion on m inim um and m axim um tem pera tures and o th er relevant inform ation such as the likelihood of rain (perform ance). All key inform ation will be extracted (standard.)
In the field o f general education, the objec tives ap p ro ach has been criticized over the years. O ne criticism th at is relevant to language educa tion is th at trulv valuable learn in g outcom es cannot be accuratelv specified in advance. (This belief is c a p tu red bv the aphorism . "E ducation is w hat’s left w hen evervthing th at has been taught has b e e n forgotten.") In language teaching, our aim is to help learners develop the abilitv to com m unicate m eanings, attitudes, and feelings that can onlv be prespecified in a verv general sense. Proficiencv requires creativitv. a n d profi cient language users know m ultiple wavs of achieving com m unicative ends th ro u g h lan guage. Identifving objectives a priori m ar th e re fore be problem atic. A n o th er criticism is that the prespecification o f precise an d detailed objectives p rese n ts the tea c h e r from taking advantage o f instructional opp o rtu n ities occur ring unexpectedlv in the classroom .
C O M P E T E N C E -B A S E D LA N G U A G E T E A C H IN G (CBLT) A ccording to Richards (in press), com petencvbased training developed as an alternative to the use o f objectives in program planning, although th ere are m anv sim ilarities betw een the two approaches. As with the objectives m ovem ent, CBLT focuses on what learners should be able to do at the en d of a course o f instruction. As with objectives, com petencies are co n c ern e d with the attain m en t of specified standards ra th e r than with an individual's achievem ent in relation to a group. Thev are th erefo re criterion- ra th e r than
T h e le a rn e r can n e g o tia te c o m p le x / p ro b lem atic spoken exchanges fo r p ersonal business a n d com m unitv purposes. H e or she * * и * ■ *
■ *
Achieves purpose of exchange and provides all essential inform ation accurately Uses a p p ro p ria te staging, for exam ple, o p e n in g an d closing strategies Provides and requests information as required Explains circumstances, causes, consequences, and proposes solutions as required Sustains dialogue, for exam ple, using feed back. tu rn taking Uses gram m atical form s an d vocabulary a p p ro p riate to topic an d register; g ram m at ical errors do not in te rfe re with m eaning Speaks with pro n u n ciatio n /stress/in to n atio n that does not im pede intelligibility Is able to in terpret gestures and o th er paralinguistic features (Adult M igrant Education Service 1993).
T he com petencv-based a p p ro ach has had a m ajor influence on svllabuses in p articular sectors o f th e e d u c atio n a l systems in m ost English-speaking countries, including Australia, New Zealand, the U nited K ingdom , and the U nited States. CBLT first em erged in the U nited States in the 1970s and was widely ad o p ted in vocation ally o riented education and in adult ESL pro grams. By the en d of the 1980s, CBLT had come to be accepted as the "state-of-the-art” approach to ESL bv national policvmakers and leaders in curriculum developm ent (A uerbach 1986). If we look at the sample com petency state m ent provided above, we will see that it has several points of similarity with the objectives described in a prerious section. It contains a "task" statem ent and a n u m b er of "how well" or standards state m ents ("achieves purpose o f ex ch an g e,” “p ro vides all essential inform ation accurately,” “uses a p p ro p riate staging," "errors do n o t in terfere with m eaning." "p ro n u n ciatio n does n o t im pede intelligibility").
T H E STA N D A R D S M OVEM ENT T h e m ost re c e n t m anifestation o f perform ancebased ap p roaches to syllabus design, in the U n ited States at least, is the standards move m ent. T h ro u g h o u t the 1990s, th ere was a con c e rted push for national ed u catio n standards. This push was seen at all levels o f governm ent, a n d it resu lted in legislation m an d atin g the d evelopm ent an d im p lem en tatio n o f standards. For exam ple, the A dult E ducation Act an d the N ational Literacy Act of 1991 req u ire ad u lt basic ed u cation program s in all states to develop indi cators of pro g ram quality' a n d to attach p e rfo r m ance standards to these quality indicators (see website at the e n d of c h a p te r). In manv ways, ju st as the com petency move m en t was a repackaging of concepts from the objectives m ovem ent, the same is true of the stan dards m ovem ent. “O b jectiv es/co m p eten cies" are redefined as standards, which can also be used in work done in o th er areas such as m ath and language arts. For exam ple, the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE 1997) standards docum ent for English language arts states, “By c o n te n t standards, we m ean statem ents th at define what students should know and be able to d o ” (p.1-2). In ESL, the TESOL organization has comm issioned several sets o f standards in areas such as pre-K -12, ad u lt education, a n d w orkplace education. T he m ost fully developed o f these are the pre-K -12 standards (S hort et al. 1997). T hese are fram ed a ro u n d th re e goals an d nine standards. T h e standards are fleshed o u t in term s of descriptors, progress indicators, and classroom vignettes. T he nin e c o n te n t standards “indicate m ore specificallv [than the goals] w hat students should know an d be able to do as a result of in stru ctio n ” (p.15). D escriptors are “b ro a d categories o f discrete, rep resen tativ e behavior” (p.15). Progress indicators “list assess able, observable activities th at students mav p er fo rm to show p rogress tow ards m ee tin g designated standards. T hese progress indicators rep re sen t a varietv o f instructional techniques th at may be used by teachers to d eterm in e how well students are d o in g ” (p. 16).
T h e follow ing e x am p le from th e ESL Standards illustrates the d ifferent co m p o n en ts of the standard. It is w ritten for grades pre-K-3. Goal: ■
To use English to com m unicate in social settings
Standard: ■
Students will use English to participate in social interactions
Descriptors: *
Sharing a n d requesting inform ation
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Expressing needs, feelings, and ideas
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Using nonverbal com m unication in social interactions
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G etting personal needs m et
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E ngaging in conversations
*
C o n ducting transactions
Sample Progress Indicators: ■ Engage listener's a tte n tio n verbally or nonverballv ■
V olunteer inform ation and requests about self and family
resp o n d
to
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Elicit in fo rm a tio n a n d ask clarification questions
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Clarifv and restate inform ation as n eeded
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D escribe feelings an d em otions after w atch ing a movie
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Indicate interests, opinions, o r preferences related to class projects
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Give a n d ask for perm ission
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Offer and respond to greetings, compliments, imitations, introductions, and farewells
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Negotiate solutions to problem s, interper sonal m isunderstandings, and disputes
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R ead a n d w rite in v itations a n d th a n k you letters
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Use the telep h o n e (Short et al. 1997, p. 31)
N O T IO N A L -F U N C T IO N A L SY LLA B U SE S The b ro ad er view of language as com m unication that em erged during the 1970s was taken u p bv syl labus designers. .As indicated earlier, an im portant figure here was Wilkins (1976), who argued for syllabuses based on no tio n s a n d functions. Notions are general conceptual m eanings such as time, cause, and duration, while functions are the com m unicative purposes th a t are achieved through language such as apologizing, advising, and expressing preferences. Like m ost syllabus proposals, n o tionalfunctionalism was n o t im pervious to criticism. Early versions of notional-functional syllabuses e n d e d u p n o t being so very different from the g ram m atical syllabuses th a t thev rep la ce d . Instead o f units en titled “sim ple past,'' we find units e n title d “talking a b o u t the w eek en d .’’ W iddowson (1983) also p o in te d out that simplv replacing lists of gram m atical item s with lists of notional-functional ones n e ith e r re p re se n te d the n a tu re of language as com m unication n o r reflected the way languages were lea rn ed anv m ore th an gram m atical syllabuses did. W hen syllabus designers began tu rn in g away from gram m atical criteria as the p o in t of d e p a rtu re in designing th eir syllabuses, selection and grading becam e m uch m ore problem atic. .As soon as one looks beyond linguistic notions of simplicity7 and difficulty, the n u m b er of criteria begins to multiply. These criteria include situa tional, contextual, and extralinguistic factors. T h ere are no objective m eans for deciding that one fu n ctio n al item is m ore com plex th an another. In addition, m ost functions can be expressed in m any d ifferent ways an d at m any different levels of complexity. A pologizing, for exam ple, can range from Sorry to I really must apologize— I do hope you can forgive me. The relative arbitrariness of selecting and sequencing can be seen in the following list of func tional com ponents from a well-known EFL course: 1. 2.
Ask a n d give nam es; say hello; ask a n d tell w here people are from Say h ello form ally a n d inform ally; ask a b o u t an d give personal inform ation
3. 4.
D escribe people; tell the tim e D escribe places; give com plim ents; express uncertainty; c o n firm /c o rre c t inform ation 5. D escribe houses a n d apartm ents; m ake a n d answ er tele p h o n e calls 6. Express likes a n d dislikes; ask ab o u t and describe habits an d routines 7. Ask a n d tell ab o u t quantity 8. Ask for a n d give directions; ask for a n d tell a b o u t physical an d em otional states 9. Talk about frequency; express degrees of certainty7 10. Describe p e o p le ’s appearances; write simple letters; give com plim ents (Swan a n d W alter 1984)
C O N T E N T -B A S E D SY LLA B U SE S C ontent-based instruction (CBI) com es in m any d iffe re n t guises (see Snow’s c h a p te r in this volum e). However, all variants share o n e charac teristic— language is n ot p rese n ted directly, b ut is in tro d u c ed via the c o n te n t o f o th e r subjects. In school settings, this c o n te n t is typically the reg ular subjects in the curriculum such as science, geography, and m athem atics. Learners acquire the target language in the course of doing o th er things. T he approach draws strongly on the expe riential view of learning, th at is, th a t active engagem ent in com m unicating in the language is the m ost effective m eans of acquiring it. .As we saw at the beginning o f this chapter, the three core tasks for the syllabus designer are select ing, sequencing, and justifying content. In CBI, the justification comes from the content area itself. For example, if the content area is general science, the topic of photosynthesis would be introduced on the grounds that it is a core topic in the field. A rec e n t book on content-based in struction presents teaching suggestions in the following categories: ■
Information management: H e re learn ers sift data into different categories, or are given categories and are required to find examples to fit these categories.
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Critical thinking: Learners go beyond classify ing to evaluate or analvze data, for example, by determ ining a point of view or arguing from a given stance. Hands-on activities: T hese involve m an ip u lating data th ro u g h games, experim ents, a n d o th e r experiential activities. Data gathering: These tasks involve learners in scanning fo r specific in fo rm a tio n a n d / or collecting and assem bling facts, data, and references. Analysis and construction: This final category involves “ (a) breaking a text into its com p o n e n t parts, elucidating its rhetorical pat tern, an d exam ining text flow (cohesion a n d co h eren ce) o r (b) applying know ledge o f oral an d w ritten discourse conventions to create a specifically p a tte rn e d text with the goal of increasing fluencv, accuracv, or b o th ” (M aster an d B rinton 1997, p. vi).
T he following is a fairly com m on exam ple of a pedagogical task: In pairs, students com plete an infor m ation gap task to get instructions on how to get from o n e ’s hotel to the nearest subwav station. S tu d en t A has a m ap of the town c e n te r with the hotel m arked. S tudent В has the same m ap with the subwav m arked. Having specified target and pedagogical tasks, the syllabus designer analyzes them in o rd er to identify the knowledge and skills that the learner m ust have in o rd er to earn- out the tasks. T he next step is to sequence and integrate the tasks with enabling exercises designed to develop the requisite knowledge and skills. O ne kev dis tinction betw een an exercise and a task is that exercises will have purely language-related out comes, while tasks will have nonlanguage-related outcom es, as well as language-related ones.
TA SK -B A S ED SY LLA B U SE S
Exam ples of exercises:
Task-based syllabuses rep resen t a particular real ization of Com m unicative Language Teaching (N unan 1989, see also Crookes an d C h a u d ro n ’s c h ap ter in this volum e). Instead o f beginning the design process with lists of gram m atical, functional-notional, an d o th er items, the designer conducts a needs analysis, which yields a list of the com m unicative tasks that the learners for w hom the syllabus is in te n d e d will n e e d to carry out. In syllabus design, a basic distinction is draw n betw een target tasks an d pedagogical tasks. A target task is som ething that the learner m ight conceivably do outside of the classroom. Examples of target tasks include
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Taking p a rt in a jo b interview C om pleting a credit card application Finding o n e ’s way from a hotel to a subway station C hecking into a hotel
Pedagogical tasks are unlikely to be deploved outside the classroom. They are created in order to “push” learners into com m unicating with each other in the target language, on the assum ption that this comm unicative interaction will fuel the acquisition process.
■ ■
Read the following passage, from which all prepositions have been deleted, and reinstate the correct prepositions from the list provided. Listen to the dialogue a n d answ er the following tru e /fa lse questions. Rearrange these questions and answers to form a conversation, and practice the conversation.
E xam ple of a task: ■
Listen to the w eather forecast an d decide what to wear. (Such a target task m ight be carried out in the classroom by having students circle pictures o f clothing and accessories such as jackets, shorts, um brellas, and sunglasses.)
T Y P E S O F TASKS A n o th e r wav of distinguishing betw een tasks is to divide them into reproductive an d creative tasks. A reproductive task is one in which the learn er is rep ro d u cin g language following a m odel pro vided bv the teacher, textbook, tape, o r o th er source. A task is reproductive if the language that the learner is to use is largely predeterm ined and
predictable. This does not m ean that such tasks are necessarily noncom m unicative. Many com m u nicative tasks, such as the following, are o f this type. Class survey. Find som eone yvho lik es/ d o e sn ’t like the following: likes
d o e sn ’t like
E ating chilis
_________
_________
Playing tennis
_________
_________
W atching sci-fi movies
_________
_________
D oing homeyvork
_________
_________
This task is reproductive because we know that if the students are d o in g it right, thev will be saying, “Do vou like eating chilis?" “Do y o u like playing tennis?” etc. It is com m unicative in that the person asking the question does n o t know w hether the classm ate's answer will be y« or no. Creative language tasks, on the o th e r h and, are less predictable. L earners m ust assem ble the words an d structures thev have acq u ired in new and u n p red ictab le wavs. H ere is an exam ple of a creative task. Pair -work. W ho is the best person for the job? Read the following resum es, and decide who the best person is for the following jobs: И
School building supervisor
И
R eceptionist
И
L ibrarian
И
Bookstore clerk
In this task, the language used bv the students is m uch less predictable. If we were to eavesdrop on the task, we m ight p red ict th at we w ould h ear utterances such as: “I th ink . . . “ “We should . . . " “This person m ight . . . ” However, th ere is no wav o f p red ictin g precisely the language that will be used.
A N IN T E G R A T E D A P P R O A C H TO SY LLA B U S D ESIG N In this chapter, I have ou tlin ed the m ajor trends an d developm ents in syllabus design over the last twenty years. In my own work, I have tried to em brace an in te g rate d a p p ro ach to syllabus design in which all of the elem ents and options discussed above are b rought together into a single design. T he follofong exam ple illustrates one way in which this m ight be done. 1. 2.
3.
4.
5.
Identify- the g en eral contexts a n d situations in w hich the learners will com m unicate. Specify the com m unicative events th at the learners will engage in. M ake a list of the functional goals th at the learners will n e e d in o rd e r to take p art in the com m unicative events. List the kev linguistic elem ents that learners will need in order to achieve the functional goals. Sequence and integrate the various skill elem ents identified in steps 3 a n d 4.
In developing integrated syllabuses, I find that cross-reference planning grids are very use ful, because thev enable me to m ap out a n d coor dinate the different elem ents in the svllabus. H ere is a cross-reference grid integrating func tions and structures for the first few units in a syl labus u n d e rp in n in g a textbook series for yo unger learners. N ot only does the grid help guide m e in selecting which items to teach w hen, it also shows m e w here and w hen recycling is necessary-. I can also see if there are gaps in the svllabus.
C O N C L U S IO N In this chapter. I have provided an in tro d u ctio n to the field o f svllabus design. I suggest th at syl labus design is that part o f curriculum develop m ent which is co n cern ed with selecting, grading, integrating, and justifying the c o n te n t of the cur riculum . D ifferent ty pes of syllabuses, from gram m atical to task-based, are in troduced, described, a n d critiqued. T he key theoretical a n d em pirical
Structures F u n c tio n s
'i Introduce yourself
Simple present tense +
W h at questions
Demonstratives: this, that
Prepositions: on, in, u nd er
be
X
Identify ownership
Simple present tense + have
X
X
Introduce people
X
X
Talk about where things are Talk about likes and dislikes
W h ere questions
X
X
X
X
(Source: Nunan 1999a)
influences on the field are also in troduced. In th e last p a rt o f the chapter, I argue for an inte g rated syllabus which draws on a n d incorporates all o f the key experiential an d linguistic elem ents discussed in the body o f this chapter.
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1. W hat do you see as the role o f the classroom teach er in syllabus design? 2. W hat do you see as the advantages a n d disadvantages o f an objectives-based syllabus? 3. W hat do you think that content-based and taskbased syllabuses m ight have in comm on? How m ight they differ? 4. If you w ere asked to design a syllabus fo r a new ESL o r EFL course, w hat are som e o f the first things you w ould do as prep aratio n ?
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1. L ook a t th e “C ourse Overview” in A ppendix В o f J e n s e n ’s c h a p te r on lesson p la n n in g in this volum e. Is this a syllabus? E xplain your answer. 2. D esign a needs analysis q u estio n n aire fo r a specified g ro u p o f learners. 3. C om pare th e selection a n d seq u en cin g o f fun ctio n al an d gram m atical co m p o n en ts in several g en eral E SL /E FL textbooks. W hat sim ilarities a n d differences are there? Is th ere a “com m on c o re ” o f elem ents across the textbooks? 4. Identify a target group o f learners a n d carry o u t the five p lan n in g tasks suggested in the section on the integrated syllabus on page 64. Develop a cross-reference grid sim ilar to the one set o u t in the chapter. 5. Design four three-part perform ance objectives for the group of learners in Activity 4 above.
FU R T H ER R EA D IN G Dubin, F.. and E. Olshtain. 1986. Course Design. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. This hook is designed for teachers who have the planning and development of courses as part of their duties. It covers what the authors call the “fact-finding" stage — establishing realistic goals, surveving existing programs, realizing goals through instructional plans, selecting the shape of the syllabus— and the considera tions involved in constructing communicative syllabuses. Brown, J. D. 1995. The Elements of Language Curriculum. Boston. MA: Heinle if- Heinle. Although it is a book on curriculum, and there fore deals with issues that go bet ond svllabus design, it also provides an accessible introduction to svllabus design issues. Graves, K.. ed. 1996. Teachers as Course Developers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. This book contains six interesting case studies of teachers as course developers and svllabus
designers. The narratives of these teachers, who work in very different contexts worldwide, illus trate the process of course development from the perspective of the teacher. Nttnan. D. 1988a. S\llabus Design. Oxford: Oxford University Press. This book explores the principles involved in selecting, grading, and integrating the carious components of a language svllabus and demon strates how teachers can go about analyzing the syllabuses in use in their own classrooms. It offers analytical tools and techniques for evaluating, modifying, and adapting syllabuses.
W E B S IT E S Both the U.S. National Literacy Act of 1991 and the U.S. Aclult Education Act of 1991, along with related police resources, arc available on-line at www.nifl.gov lines/collections/policy/resource, html
: L istening
UNIT
11 A
< HH HH
Language Skills
H
z
Listening Until quite recently, listening comprehension had been neglected with regard to both its place in second or foreign language teaching methodology and the development of techniques and materials for use
in the
classroom. As
Morley's
chapter points out. listening
comprehension is now felt to be a prerequisite for oral proficiency as well as an important skill in its own right. She offers guidelines for developing activities and materials, including the development of a selfaccess, self-study listening program. In Peterson's chapter the acquisition of listening skills in a second or foreign language is explained with reference to a cognitive processing model. She presents a taxonomy of exercises and activities, showing how at eacn stage of learning, students can be assisted in developing bottom-up and top-down strategies and skills.
listening
Aural Comprehension Instruction: Principles and Practices IO A N MO R L E Y
In "Aural Comprehension Instruction: Principles and Practices," Morley first traces the changing patterns of second language listening instruction, outlines four generic instructional models, and discusses some of the psycho-social dimensions of listening. She then goes on to present suggestions for developing activities and materials for coursework, including detailed guidelines for developing a self-access self-study listening program.
IN T R O D U C T IO N D uring the past thirty rears, theory and practice in language learn in g an d language teaching have ch anged in som e fu n d am en tal wavs. In retrospect, the fo u r them es that d o m in ated the S econd AILA (In te rn a tio n a l A ssociation o f A pp lied linguistics) C o n fe re n c e in 1969 (C am b rid g e, E n g la n d ) seem to h a te b een pro p h etic in p o in tin g the wav toward tren d s in s e c o n d /fo re ig n lan g u a g e (S /F L ) e d u c a tio n d u rin g the last q u a rte r o f the tw entieth century. They h e ra ld ed new views on the im portance of 1. individual learners an d the individuality of learning; 2. listening an d read in g as nonpassive a n d very com plex receptive processes; 3. listening c o m p reh en sio n 's being recognized as a fu n d am en tal skill; 4. real language used for real com m unication as a viable classroom m odel. Every facet of language study has b e e n influenced bv these trends, b u t n o n e m ore d ra matically th an listening co m p reh en sio n . In the 1970s, the status o f listening began to change from one of neglect to one of increasing im p o r tance. Instructional program s e x p a n d ed their focus on pragm atic skills to include listening as
well as reading, writing, a n d speaking. D uring the 1980s special a tte n tio n to listening was in co r p o ra te d in to new in stru c tio n a l fram ew orks. P ro m in en t am ong these were form ats th a t fea tu red functional language a n d com m unicative approaches. T h ro u g h o u t the 1990s, a tten tio n to listening in language instruction increased dram atically. A ural c o m p re h e n sio n in S /F L acquisition becam e an im p o rta n t area of study. .Although aural c o m p reh en sio n is notv well recognized as an im p o rta n t facet o f language learning, m uch work rem ains to be d o n e in both theory an d practice. U nfortunately, as Brown (1987) observed, a significant n u m b e r o f p u b lished courses on listening co m p reh en sio n a n d classroom practices in m anv schools in m any countries continues to d em o n strate th a t listen ing is still reg a rd e d as the least im p o rta n t skill. T he first three parts of this ch ap ter discuss general aspects o f listening and language learn ing. (See Peterson's ch ap ter in this volum e for additional inform ation.) T he last three sections outline principles and guidelines for developing a n d /o r adapting listening com prehension activi ties and materials. Lesson suggestions are given for class, small-group, and pair work a n d for indi vidualized self-studv using equ ip m en t in the class room , at hom e, o r in a language laboratory setting.
T R A C IN G T H E HISTORY: L IS T E N IN G A N D LA N G U A G E L E A R N IN G
Emerging Recognition of the Importance o f Listening in Second/Foreign Language Study
Today the centrality o f listening in language lea rn in g is well established. An a p p ro p riate a u ra l c o m p re h e n s io n p ro g ra m th a t targets le a rn e r listening at all levels of instruction is an essential fo r se co n d lan g u a g e c o m p e te n c e . A ural co m p reh en sio n establishes a base for the d e v e lo p m e n t o f oral lan g u a g e w ithin the “speech c h a in ” o f listening a n d speaking (D enes an d Pinson 1963, p. T). It is im p o rta n t to note th at m ultiple benefits accrue to the learn er beyond the obvious im provem ents in listening skills. In particular, listening com p reh en sio n lessons are a vehicle for teaching elem ents of gram m atical structure a n d allow new vocabulary item s to be contextualized w ithin a bodv of com m unicative discourse.
It is easy for us to take listening for granted , often with little conscious awareness of o u r p e r form ance as listeners. W eaver c o m m en ted on the elusiveness o f o u r listening awareness: “After all. listening is n e ith e r so dram atic n o r so noisy as talking. T he talker is the center of attention for all listeners. His behavior is overt and vocal, and he hears and notices his own behavior, whereas listening activity often seems like m erely b ein g — doing nothing" (1972, pp. 12-13). Much o f the language teaching field also has taken listening for gran ted until relath'ely recent times (but see G ouin 1880; Xida 1953; Palm er 1917; Sweet 1899). M odern-dav argu m ents for listening com prehension began to be voiced in the mid-1960s an d earlv 1970s by Rivers (1966) and others. Xewmark and Diller u n d e r scored "the n e e d for the systematic developm ent of listening com prehension not only ns a founda tion for speaking, but also as a skill in its own right . . . " (1964. p. 20). Belasco expressed his concerns as follows; "I was rudely jo lte d bv the realization that it is possible to develop so-called 'speaking ability' and vet be so virtually incom pe tent in u n d e rsta n d in g the spoken language. . . . [Students] were learning to audio-com prehend certain specific dialogues and drills, but could n o t u n d e rs ta n d [the lan g u ag e] o u t o f the m ouths of native speakers" (1971, pp. 4 -5 ). Morlev decried the fact that "virtually' no special ized textbook m aterials exist in the area o f in ter m ediate an d advanced listening” (1972, p. vii). a n d Blair (1982) observed that special attention to listening just d id n 't "self’ until recen t times.
Making the Case: The Importance o f Listening in Language Learning It has taken m any vears to bring the language teach in g profession a ro u n d to realizing the im portance o f listening in second and foreign language learning. As observed bv Rivers, long an advocate for listening com prehension. "Speaking does n o t of itself co nstitute com m unication unless what is said is c o m p re h en d e d bv a n o th e r person. . . . T eaching the com prehension o f spo ken speech is therefore of prim ary im portance if the com m unication aim is to be rea c h e d ” (1966, pp. 196, 204). T he reasons for the nearly total neglect of listening are difficult to assess, b u t as M orley notes, “Perhaps an assum ption th at lis tening is a reflex, a little like b re a th in g — listen ing seldom receives overt teaching atten tio n in o n e ’s native language — has m asked the im por tance and complexity o f listening with u n d e r standing in a non-native language” (1972, p. vii). In reality, listening is used far m ore than any o th e r single language skill in norm al daily life. O n average, we can expect to listen tyvice as m uch as we speak, four tim es m ore th an y\e read, a n d live times m ore th an we write (Rivers 1981; W eaver 1972).
Four Perspectives— Four Models of Listening and Language Instruction In the English language teaching program s of the 1940s. 1950s, an d 1960s, n e ith e r the British Situational A pproach to language teaching nor th e A m erican A ucliolingual A p p ro ach paid m uch a tten tio n to listening bevond its role in
Procedure: Asks students to (a) listen to an oral text along a co n tin u u m from sentence length to lecture length a n d (b) answer pri marily factual questions. Utilizes fam iliar lo pes of questions ad ap ted from traditional reading com prehension exercises; has been called a quiz-show form at of teaching. Value: Enables students to m an ipulate dis crete pieces o f in form ation, hopefully with increasing speed and accuracy o f recall. Can increase students' stock of vocabulary units a n d gram m ar constructions. Does n o t req u ire students to m ake use o f the infor m ation for am real com m unicative purpose beyond answ ering the questions; is n o t interactive two-wav com m unication.
gram m ar a n d p ro n u n cia tio n drills and learners' im itation o f dialogues. T he language learn in g theories of those tim es a ttrib u ted little im p o r tance to listening beyond the sou n d discrim ina tion associated with p ro n u n cia tio n learning. Listening, along with reading, was reg ard ed as a "passive” skill a n d was simply taken for granted. However, slowlv an d steadily, m ore a tte n tion has b e e n given to listening co m p reh en sio n . Today, the role o f listening a n d the purp o se of listen in g c o m p re h e n s io n in stru c tio n in the S /F L curriculum , can be one of fo u r different perspectives. A generic instructional m odel for each perspective that reflects underlying beliefs about language learn in g theory an d pedagogy is o utlined below.
■
Model # I Listening and Repeating
Model # 3 Task Listening
Learner Goals To pattern-m atch: to listen and im itate: to m em orize.
Learner Goals To process spoken discourse for functional purposes; to listen an d do som ething with the inform ation, that is. carry o u t real tasks using the inform ation received.
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Instructional material: Features audiolingual style exercises a n d or dialogue m em oriza tion; b ased on a h e a rin g -a n d -p a tte rn m atch in g m odel. Procedure: .\sks students to (a) listen to a word, phrase, or sentence pattern; (b ) repeat it (imitate it); and (c) m em orize it (often, but not always, a part o f the procedure). Value: Enables students to do p attern drills, to repeat dialogues, and to use m em orized p re fa b ric a te d p a tte rn s in conversation: enables them to im itate pro n u n ciatio n pat terns. H igher level cognitive processing and use o f propositional language structuring are not necessarily an intentional focus.
Model # 2 Listening and Answering Comprehension Questions Learner Goals To process discrete-point infor m ation; to listen and answer com prehension questions. ■
Instructional material'. F eatures a stu d e n t response p a tte rn based on a listening-andquestion-answ ering m odel with occasional innovative variations on this them e.
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Instructional material: Features actisities that require a student response p attern based on a listening-and-using (i.e., “Listen-and-Do”) model. Students listen, then im m ediately do som ething with the inform ation received: follow the directions given, com plete a task, solve a problem , transm it the gist o f the inform ation orallv or in writing, listen an d take lecture notes, etc. Procedure: Asks students to (a) listen and process inform ation an d (b) use the orallv transm itted language in p u t im m ediately to com plete a task which is m ed iated th ro u g h language in a context in which success is judged in term s of w h eth er the task is p erfo rm ed . Value: T he focus is on instruction that is task-oriented, not question-oriented. T he purp o se is to engage learners in using the in form ational c o n te n t p re se n te d in the spoken discourse, n o t just in answ ering questions about it. Two tvpes o f tasks are (a) language use tasks, designed to give stu dents practice in listening to get m eaning from the in p u t with the express purp o se of
m aking functional use of it im m ediately a n d (b) language analysis tasks, designed to h elp learners develop cognitive an d m etacognitive language learn in g strategies (i.e., to guide them tow ard personal intel lectual involvem ent in th eir own learning). T he latter features consciousness raising a b o u t language a n d language learning.
Model # 4 Interactive Listening Learner Goals To develop a u ra l'o ra l skills in sem iform al interactive academ ic com m unica tion; to develop critical listening, critical think ing, an d effective speaking abilities. ■
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Instructional material: Features the real-tim e,' real-life give-and-take of academ ic com m uni cation. Protides a variety of student presenta tion and discussion activities, both individual and small-group panel reports, that include follow-up audience participation in question / answer sessions as an integral part of the work. Follows an interactive listening-think ing-speaking m odel with bidirectional (twoway) listening/speaking. Includes attention to group bonding and classroom discourse rules (e.g., taking the floor, yielding the floor, turn taking, interrupting, co m prehen sion checks, topic shifting, agreeing, ques tioning, challenging, etc.). (See Morley 1992 and 1995.) Procedure: Asks students to participate in dis cussion activities that enable them to devel op all three phases o f the speech act: speech d eco d in g , critical thinking, a n d speech encoding. These phases involve (a) continu ous on-line decoding of spoken discourse, (b) sim ultaneous cognitive reactin g /actin g upon the inform ation received (i.e., critical analysis a n d synthesis), an d (c) instantresponse encoding (i.e., p roducing personal propositional language responses ap p ro p ri ate to the situation). Value: T he focus here is instruction that is c o m m u n ic a tiv e /c o m p e te n c e -o rie n te d as w'ell as task oriented. Learners have o pportu nities to engage in and develop the com plex arrav of com m unicative skills in the four
com petency areas: linguistic com petence, discourse com petence, sociolinguistic com petence. and strategic com petence (Canale a n d Swain 19
SOME P S Y C H O S O C IA L D IM EN SIO N S OF LA N G U A G E A N D T H E L IS T E N IN G A C T The Dynamic Process of Communicative Listening: Active, Not Passive Listening, along with reading, has b een labeled a "passive" skill. N othing could be fu rth e r from the truth. A nderson and Lvnch (1988) reject a conceptualization of listening as a passive act, calling it a "listener-as-tape-recorder" explana tion. Thev argue that such a perspective fails to account for the in te rp re ta tio n s listeners m ake as thev h e a r the spoken text according to th eir own purposes for listening an d th eir own store of b ack ground knowledge. Implications for Instruction O ne of the obvi ous im plications for instruction is to brin g stu dents to an u n d e rsta n d in g that listening is n o t a passive skill, but an active receptive skill which needs special a tte n tio n in language study. This goal can be accom plished gradually as a p art of listening skill-building activities. I.earners can be guided to realize that achiev ing skill in listening requires as m uch work as does becom ing skilled in reading, writing, and speaking in a second language.
Listening in Three Modes: Bidirectional, Unidirectional, and Autodirectional If we consider the roles we plav in o u r listening interactions, we can identify th re e specific com m unicative listening m odes: bidirectional, u n i directional. and autodirectional.
Bidirectional Listening M ode T h e obvious m ode is two-wav or bidirectional com m unicative listening. H ere the reciprocal speech chain of ' p e a k e r/liste n e r is easilv observed (D enes and Pinson 1963). Two (or m ore) participants take turns exchanging speaker role and listener role as they engage in face-to-face o r tele p h o n e verbal interaction. Unidirectional Listening Mode A second m ode is one-wav or unidirectional com m unicative listen ing. Auclitorv input surrounds us as we move th ro u g h th e dav. T h e in p u t com es from a varietv of sources: overheard conversations, nublic address an n o u n cem en ts, recorded mes sages (including those on telephone answering m achines), the m edia (e.g.. radio, television, films), instructional situations of all kinds, and oublic perform ances (e.g.. lectures, religious services, plavs. operas, musicals, concerts). As eve hear speakers but are unable to interact, we often talk to ourselves in a reactive or self-dialogue m an n er as we analvze what we hear. We mat sub vocalize or even vocalize these responses. Autodirectional Listening M ode T he th ird com m unicative listening m ode is autodirectional. We can th ink o f this as self-dialogue communication in which we mav not be aware o f o u r interned ■des as both speaker and listener reacto r in ur own thought processes. Som etim es we re-create language internallv and "listen again" as we retell and relive com m unicative interludes. Som etim es we simple' a tten d to o u r own internal language which we pro d u ce as we think th ro u g h alterna tives, plan strategies, and make decisions — all bv talking to ourselves and listening to ourselves. In all o f these com m unicative listening modes, notice that listening is not a passive expe rience. Each listening m ode is a highlv active, clearly participators, verbal experience. Implications for Instruction S FL learners need to have instruction and practice in both the bi directional com m unicative listening m ode and in the unidirectional m ode. In addition, self-dicdogue'm the autodirectional com m unicative listening m ode should not be ignored. It is ;m im portant feature of language behavior which should be discussed with students. A utodirectional "talk” is som ething which learners should be led to develop as a skill
in its own right, as well as a tool to be used in connection with bidirectional and unidirectional listening.
Psychosocial Functions of Listening: Transactional Listening and Interactional Listening Brown and Yule (1983а) suggest dividing language functions into two m ajor dirisions: language for transactional purposes and language for inter actional purposes. Then note that transactional language corresponds to Hallidav’s notion of ideational, while interactional language corresponds to his term interpersonal (Ilallidav 1970. p. 143). Transactional Language Function Transactional language is message oriented and can be viewed as "business-tvpe" talk with the focus on co n ten t and conveving factual o r propositional inform ation. Transactional language is used for giving instruc tions. explaining, describing, giving directions, ordering, inquiring, requesting, relating, checking on the correctness of details, and veribdng under standing. The prem ium is on message clarity and precision. Speakers often use confirm ation checks to make sure what thev are sating is clear; they mav even contradict the listener if he or she appears to have m isunderstood. Interactional Language Function T he m ost im portant difference betw een the two tvpes of language use is that interactional language is "social-tvpe" talk; it is person oriented m ore th an m essage o riented. Its objective is the establish m ent and m ain ten an ce of cordial social rela tionships. Brown and Yule co m m en t that a great deal o f casual conversation contains phrases o r echoes of phrases which ap p ear to be in te n d e d m ore as co n tributions to a conversation than as instances of inform ation giving. Im p o rta n t fea tures of interactional language are those o fid e n tifving with the o th e r p e rs o n ’s concerns, being nice to the o th e r person, a n d m ain tain in g an d respecting "face." Implications for Instruction Teachers n eed to provide practice experiences in both transactional talk and interactional talk. While the contrast
betw een the two types of talk is usually clear, som etim es it is n o t so obvious in an interaction w here the two functions mav be intertw ined. S tudents n e e d in struction an d listening practice to h elp th em recognize w hen one of the two functions is o p e ra tin g and how they can resp o n d appropriately.
Psychological Processes: Bottom-Up and Top-Down Listening Schemata In accounting for the com plex nature of listening to u n d erstan d spoken language, it is hypothe sized that two different m odes work together in a cooperative process. O ne is the externally based bottom -up m ode while the o th er is the internally based top-down m ode. (See Peterson's ch ap ter in this volum e for m ore inform ation.) Bottom-Up Processing T he bottom -up m ode of language processing involves the listener plaving close atten tio n to every detail o f the language input. Bottom-up refers to th at part o f the aural co m p reh en sio n process in which the u n d e r standing o f the “heard" language is w orked out pro ceed in g from sounds to words to gram m atical relationships to lexical m eanings. T hat is, the m eaning o f the message is arrived at, bottom to top, based on the incom ing language data. Top-Down Processing O n the o th e r h an d , the top-down facet o f listening involves the listen e r’s ability to b rin g p rio r in form ation to bear on the task o f u n d e rsta n d in g the “h e a rd ” language. This in te rn al resource includes a ban k of p rio r know ledge an d global expectations ab o u t lan guage a n d the world. It is used by the listener to m ake predictions ab o u t w hat the incom ing m essage is expected to be at any point, a n d how the pieces fit into the whole. C h au d ro n and R ichards (1986) no te, “Top-down processing involves p red ictio n an d inferen cin g on the basis o f h ierarchies o f facts, propositions, a n d expec tations, a n d it enables the listener o r the rea d e r to bypass som e aspects o f bottom -up processing" (pp. 114-115).
Implications for Instruction Teachers need to provide students with practice in both kinds of language processing. Manv published m aterials focus heavilv on one or an o th e r of these pro cesses, w ithout necessarily labeling them as topdown or bottom-up. T aking dual perspectives in to a cco u n t, R ichards (1990) proposes a m odel o f m aterials design for second or foreign language listening com prehension that com bines language functions (interactional and transactional) and language processes (top-down and bottom -up). He observes that the extent to which one or the o th er process dom inates is determ ined bv (a) w hether the pur pose for listening is transactional or interactional, (b) what kind of background knowledge can be applied to the task, and (c) what degree of famil iarity listeners have with the topic. H e concludes: Too often, listening texts require stu dents to adopt a single approach in lis tening. one which dem ands a detailed u n d erstan d in g of the c o n te n t o f a dis course and the recognition of ever}' w ord an d structure th at occurs in a text. Students should n ot be req u ired to resp o n d to interactional discourse as if it were being used for a transac tional purpose, no r should the}' be expected to use a bottom -up approach to an aural text if a top-clown one is m ore app ro p riate (p. 83). Richards’s Functions/Processes Chart Richards com bines the functions and the processes into the following verv useful chart. It provides teachers with a wav to construct a listening lesson which can be cross-classified according to the dem ands of both the listening function involved and the listen ing process which can be expected to be m ost prom inently involved.
TO P-D O W N
T R A N S A C T IO N A L
R ichards gives an exam ple for each o f the fo u r cells as follows. In the hottom-up mode: Cell #1: Listening closely to a jo k e (interac tional) in o rd e r to know w hen to laugh. Cell #3: L istening closelv to in structions (transactional) d u rin g a first driv ing lesson. In the top-down mode: Cell #2: L istening casuallv to cocktail partv talk (interactional). Cell #4: E xperienced air traveler listening casually to verbal air safe tv instruc tions (transactional) w hich have b een h e a rd m any tim es before. O th e r exam ples o f transactional uses are instructions, descriptions, lectures, a n d news broadcasts. O th e r exam ples o f interactional uses are greetings, small talk, jokes, and com plim ents. Richards notes that in m anv situations both inter actional and transactional purposes are involved and suggests that effective classroom particip ation requires both. 1. In teractio n al — to in teract with the teacher a n d o th e r students while accom plishing class tasks (i.e., “classroom " talk). 2. T ransactional— to assim ilate new inform a tion, construct new concepts, and acquire new skills.
Linguistic and Nonlinguistic Cues to Affect As the old saying goes, it's n o t what you say, it’s how vou sav it) But how can ESL a n d EFL listen ers learn to recognize a n d in te rp re t aspects o f the how as well as the what in two-way a n d onewav oral com m unication? How can they becom e skilled at processing both nonlinguistic a n d lin guistic affective inform ation? In b id ire ctio n a l interactive co m m u n ic a tion. messages are conveyed in at least three wavs: linguistic (i.e., the words an d th eir m ean ings). paralinguistic (i.e.. vocal m eaning) and extralinguistic (i.e. th e m e a n in g tra n sm itte d th ro u g h various aspects o f body language). In unid irectio n al com m unication, the visual cues o f extralinguistic inform ation may be missing, an d the listener m ust th en rely on only the lin guistic an d paralinguistic inform ation Linguistic M essages (the Words) M eanings begin in people. But som etim es m eanings d o n ’t com e across clearly , and we hear speakers protest, "But that's not what I meant! In an attem p t to convev an in te n d e d m eaning, speakers choose words and arrange them into sentences or partial sentences, groups o f sentences, and larger pieces of m onologue o r dialogue discourse. Both the words chosen, an d th eir intrasentential and in tersen ten tial arrangem ents, m ap affect (i.e.. feelings) o n to the linguistic inform a tion. As speakers do this, they may o r may n o t be conscious of e ith e r the n a tu re o r the stren g th o f the affective coloring; on the o th e r h an d , they may use it deliberately, with careful design. Examples:
A F F E C T A N D A T T IT U D E S
That was an Iinteresting/'excellent/ good/fair,/so-so/terrible) movie.
In developing activities an d m aterials for listening instruction, it is essential to consider the affective domain, which includes attitudes, em otions, and feelings. H ere the focus is on (1) the ways attitudinal and em otional inform ation may be con veyed, both linguistically and non linguistically, and (2) som e of the attitudinal language functions that second language learners need to experi ence via instructional listening materials.
I like him a lot but . . . Even though she's my best friend, I must tell you t h a t . . . Clearlv. affective interpretation m ust be a p art of listening com prehension activities. This m eans that instructional experiences m ust be con textualized and must reflect real-world situations an d feelings.
Paralinguistic M essages (Vocally Transmitted Meaning) T he very way the voice is used in speaking transm its m eaning. T hat is, the wav words, sentences, and groups of sentences in spoken language are program m ed vocally enables them to ca n y inform ation about how thev are to be in terp reted . A lthough the speaker mav not be aware of it, the speaker's attitude toward what he or she is saying is tra n sm itte d b\ vocal features. In the im portant realm o f intonation, the work by Brazil, C oulthard, and Jo h n s (1980) an d Brown, Currie, and Kenworthv (1980) has explored a variety o f aspects o f intonational m eaning in oral discourse. T he vocal elem ents that m ap affective inform ation onto the linguistic message are those beyond the neutral patterns of basic stress, rhvthm , and intonation. N uances of m eaning can be transm itted by subtle changes in tone qualitv, rate, rhvthm , stress, and mans- o th er features. Extralinguistic M essages (Meaning Transmitted through Body Language) Speakers also convey m eaning th rough bodv language. T hat is. simul taneous physical messages are being transm itted with the words and vocal inform ation and m ust be in te rp re te d bv the listener. O nce again, the speaker mav or may not be fully aware of this aspect of his or h e r com m unication. Elem ents involved include body postures, bodv m ovem ents, bodv and h a n d gestures, facial expressions, facial gestures, eve contact, and use o f space bv the com m unicators. It is im p o rtan t to help students learn the m eanings of specific features o f body language in the second language; thev also n eed to recognize that body language differs greatly betw een languages and betw een cultures.
Intellectual, Emotional, and Moral Attitudes As n o ted above, an im p o rta n t p a rt of co m m u n i cation is the expression and c o m p reh en sio n of attitudes. Van Ek (1976) lists six basic language functions, in clu d in g th re e w hich are attitudinal: intellectual, em otional, an d m oral attitudes. Intellectual Attitudes These include expression and com prehension of agreem ent/disagreem ent:
co n firm ing/denying: a ccep tin g /d eclin in g ; for g e ttin g / rem em bering; possibility/im possibility: capability/incapabilitv: uncertainty; obligation, perm ission; and m ore (pp. 45-47). Emotional Attitudes Included in this area are expressing pleasure/'displeasure; in te re st/la c k of interest; surprise: hope; fear; worry; satisfaction,dissatisfaction; disappointm ent; preference; grati tude: sympathy; intention; wants and desires; and m ore (pp. 47-48). Moral Attitudes M oral attitudes are expressed in the lan g u a g e o f apologizing; expressing a p p ro v a l/d isa p p ro v a l; a p p re c ia tio n ; in d iffe r ence; regret; a n d m ore (p. 48). (For additional inform ation see M unbv 1978; Wilkins 1976).
D E V E L O P IN G L IS T E N IN G C O M P R E H EN S IO N A C T IV IT IE S A N D M ATERIALS This second section focuses on instructional considerations, while keeping in m ind the fol lowing th re e im p o rtan t points about listening as a language act. 1. Information Processing Listening com pre hension is an act o f inform ation processing in which the listener is involved in bidirectional com m unication, o r unidirectional com m unica tion, a n d /o r autodirectional com m unication. 2. Linguistic Functions Broadly speaking, realworld spoken com m unication can be Mewed as serving two linguistic functions: interactional and transactional. 3. Dim ensions o f Cognitive Processing The cognitive processing o f spoken language appears to involve sim ultaneous activation o f b o th topdown a n d bottom-up e n g a g em e n t in o rd e r for lis teners to construct what they believe to be the in te n d e d m ean in g o f the spoken message. W ith these features of listening as a lan guage act in m ind, we begin with a discussion of th re e im p o rta n t principles o f m aterials develop m ent. Next, we outline six kinds of com m unica tive outcom es, with lesson suggestions for each. In the final section we p rese n t som e suggestions
for creatin g a self-access, self-study listening center. C entral to th e underlying belief system reflected in this c h a p te r is a com m unicative lan guage teaching perspective which values m ea n ingful tasks a n d com m unicative activities. (See Savignon’s c h a p te r in this volum e.)
Principles In o rd e r to get le a rn e rs’ atten tio n , to keep them actively an d purposefully engaged in the task at h an d , an d to m axim ize the effectiveness of listen in g /lan g u ag e-learn in g experiences, th ree m aterials d evelopm ent principles are suggested: relevance, transferability /applicability, an d task orien tation. These th ree principles are im p o rta n t in m aking choices ab o u t both language c o n ten t ' i.e., th e info rm atio n p resen ted ) a n d language outcome(s) (i.e., the way the inform ation is put to use).
I. Relevance Both the listening lesson content (i.e., the inform a tion) and the outcome (i.e., the nature of the use of the inform ation) need to be as relevant as possible to the learner. This is essential for getting and holding learner attention and protides a genuine motivational incentive. Lessons need to feature content and outcom es that have "face validity" for students. T he m ore that lessons focus on things with real-life relevance, the m ore they appeal to students, and the better the chance o f hatin g learners’ w anting to listen. And if students reallv want to listen, we have accom plished at least part of the task which Strevens (1988) calls encouraging the intention to learn. Relevance is east- to control in self-created classroom listening activities. However, tvhen using pu b lish ed m aterials, it is necessary to choose those lessons with topics th a t are relevant to o n e ’s students. It mav be necessary to modify both the way the m aterial is p rese n ted a n d the way students are asked to use the inform ation. Richards suggests som e ways to ad ap t m aterials, in c lu d in g m odifying th e objectives; a d d in g prelistening activities; ch anging the teaching procedures for class presen tatio n ; a n d devising postlistening activities (1983, pp. 237-238).
2. Transferability/Applicability W hatever is relevant is also likelv to have potential for transferability. Insofar as possible, at eith er the content level or the outcome level, or both, listening lessons need to have transferability/applicability value, internally (i.e., can be used in o th er classes), externally (i.e., can be used in out-of-school situa tions), or both. In o rd er to foster transfer of train ing, the best listening lessons present in-class activities that m irror real life. For exam ple, the use of radio or television news broadcasts in adult classes can provide not only a real experience in listening com prehension, but such lessons also contain content that can be applicable outside of class as a source of conversation topics.
3. Task Orientation In form al language classes for teenage a n d adult students a n d in language activity lessons for chil d ren , it is productive to com bine two d ifferent kinds o f focus: (1) language use tasks a n d (2) language analysis activities. N otions o f task have developed o u t of com m unicative teaching a n d m aterials p ro duction. Jo h n so n defines task-oriented teach in g as teach ing which provides “actual m ea n in g ” by focusing on tasks to be m ed iated th o u g h language, a n d in which success is judged in term s o f w h eth er the tasks are p e rfo rm e d (Brum fit and Jo h n so n 1979, p. 200). Maley a n d M oulding focus on instruc tion which is task-oriented n o t question-oriented, providing learners with tasks wTiich use the infor mation in the aural text, ra th e r th an asking lea rn ers to "prove" th eir u n d e rsta n d in g o f the text by answ e rin g questions (1979, p. 102). C andlin and M urphv note, "The central process wre are con ce rn e d with is language learning, an d tasks pres e n t this in th e fo rm o f a p roblem -solving negotiation betw een know ledge th at th e lea rn er holds a n d new know ledge. This activity is con d u cted th ro u g h language in use, w'hich may, itself, be seen as a negotiation o f m ea n in g ” (1987, p. 1). 3a. Language Use Tasks T he p u rp o se h e re is to give students practice in listening fo r in fo r m ation and then im m ediately d o in g som ething
with it. This kind of lesson features specific Listenand-D o com m unicative outcom es such as these: ■
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L istening a n d p e rfo rm in g actions (e.g., co m m an d gam es and songs such as “Do the H okey Pokev,” “\la v I?" “Sim on Savs”). Listening an d p e rfo rm in g operations (e.g., listening an d constructing a figure, draw ing a m a p ). Listening and solving problem s (e.g., riddles, intellectual o r logic puzzles, real-life num er ical, spatial, o r chronological problem s). L istening a n d tran scrib in g (e.g., taking tele p h o n e messages, w riting notes). L istening a n d sum m arizing info rm atio n (e.g., outlining, giving the gist o f a message e ith e r verballv or in w riting). Interactive listening a n d n eg o tiatin g of m ean in g th ro u g h q u estio n in g /an sw erin g routines (e.g., questions for rep etitio n of in fo rm a tio n , q u e stio n s fo r verification, questions for clarification, questions for e la b o ra tio n ).
learning. (See Peterson's ch ap ter in this vol um e.) T he goal is consciousness raising about language, which can be accom plished th rough what W endin a n d Rubin (1987) term awareness raising tasks. Some language analysis tasks can be designed to help students becom e know ledge able about how language works. Activities can focus on one or two points at a tim e a n d can include attention to a variety o f features o f gram mar. p ro nunciation, vocabularv, an d discourse as well as sociolinguistic a n d strategic features (Canale and Swain 1980). Specific activities can include: ■
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These listening an d language use tasks help students to build the following two things:
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(i) A Base o f Content Experiences This will help them to develop expectancies, increase their vocabulary, and build a repertoire o f fam iliar topdown networks of background knowledge in the second language. This, iir turn, increases predic tive pow er for future com m unicative situations, including schemata (i.e., the larger-order m ental fram ew orks o f know ledge) an d scripts (i.e., the situation-specific m ental fram ew orks th at allow us to pred ict actors, events, action sequences, an d alternative o u tco m es). These include form u laic speech routines an d assum ed elem ents in the physical setting.
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(ii) A Base o f Operational Experiences This will h elp learn ers to acquire a rep e rto ire of fam iliar inform atio n -h an d lin g o p erations in the second language th a t are applicable to future com m unicative e n co u n ters in th at language. 3b. Language Analysis Tasks T h e p u rp o se h e re is to give students opp o rtu n ities to analvze selected aspects o f b oth language structure i i.e.. form ) an d language use (i.e., function 1 and to develop som e personal strategies to facilitate
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Analvsis o f some features of “fast speech”; tasks can help students learn to deal with the rapid patterns of contextualized speech. Analvsis o f p h rasin g an d pause points; a tte n tio n to the wavs the g ro u p in g o f words into functional units (ones th at “follow” gram m ar) can be used to facilitate listen ing; ''chunking" the in p u t into units for in terp retatio n . Analvsis of both m onologues and dialogue ex ch an g es, with a tte n tio n to discourse organizational structures. D escribing an d analvzing sociolinguistic d im en sio n s, in c lu d in g p a rticip a n ts an d their roles and relationships, settings, p u r pose of the com m unicative episodes, and expected outcom es. D escribing a n d analvzing com m unicative strategies used by speakers to deal with misc o m m u n ic a tio n . c o m m u n ic a tio n b re a k downs. distractions, etc.
R ecordings of real-life conversations, talks, a n d discussions can be used to in tro d u ce listen ing analvsis tasks. (See M orlev 1984 a n d 1985.) Lynch (1983), I T (1984), Davis and Rinvolucri (1988), an d M endelsohn (1995) all give a variety o f language analvsis tasks.
Communicative Outcomes: An Organizing Framework It is clear bv notv that a Listen-and-Do form at— that is, inform ation gathering and inform ation using— is recom m ended for listening instructional
activities in the ESL or EFL curriculum . Listening com prehension in today’s language curriculum must go far beyond a 20-minute tape a day or a paragraph or two read aloud followed by a series of "test” questions about the factual content. Listen-and-Do in the listening co m p reh en sion context implies an outcom e “objective.” The purpose of oral com m unication in the real world is to achieve a genuine outcom e; it may be verv simple (e.g., enjoying sociable conversation) or it nrav be very com plex (e.g., un d erstan d in g intri cate instructions), but an outcom e is achieved. This same attention to outcom e m ust be a part of any listening com prehension activity p lan n ed for use in the second language learning context. M inim um req u irem en ts for two-wav oral com m unication are two active participants and an o u tco m e. P a rtic ip a n ts a lte rn a te roles of speaker-sender a n d listener-receiver. One-wav com m unication requires one active participant (a listener-receiver), one long-distance partici pant (a speaker-sender), either “live" or recorded, and an outcom e. W hat is an outcome} According to Sinclair (1984), an outcom e is a realistic task that people can envision themselves doing and accom plishing something. An outcom e is an essential com ponent in both two-wav and one-way com m unication lis tening com prehension activities. Six broad categories of outcom e are dis cussed below. Each, o f course, can be subdivided into m ore narrowlv focused specific outcom es, which can be m odified to suit a given student group. Lesson outcom es can be graded toward gradual expansion of difficultv, complexity, and increasing p erform ance expectations for students. A lesson mav contain m ore than one o ut com e, a lth o u g h too m am outcom es for a given activitv mav be overw helm ing. Any outcom e can be used at any age, as long as it is a part of a task th at is a p p ro p riate to the age, interests, a n d lan guage proficiency level of the learners. T h e re is overlap betw een som e outcom e categories, a n d no atte m p t is m ade h ere to m ake them m utually exclusive. They are p rese n ted as an organizing fram ew ork for co nsideration byteachers in developing class or listening library m aterials.
This categon- includes responses to things such as directions, instructions, and descriptions in a varietv of contexts. Examples include listening and ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
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Drawing a picture, figure, o r design. Locating routes of specific points on a map. Selecting a picture of a person, place, or thing from description. Identifying a person, place, or th in g from description. P erfo rm in g h a n d or bodv m ovem ents as in songs an d gam es such as “Sim on Savs” o r "Do the H okev Pokey.” O p eratin g a piece of e q u ip m e n t such as a cam era, a recorder, a microwave oven, o r a pencil sharpener. C a rn in g out steps in a process such as a m ath problem , a science experim ent, or a cooking sequence.
Outcome 2. Listening and Transferring Information Two kinds o f inform ation transfer are featured: spoken-to-written (i.e., h e a rin g inform ation a n d w riting it) an d spoken-to-spoken (i.e. h ea rin g infor m ation a n d transm itting it in speech). Spoken-to-written T he following are some activi ties for spoken-to-written practice. ■
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Listening an d taking a m essage (in person or bv telep h o n e) by transcribing the entire m essage word for word if it is very sh o rt o r bv w riting down a list of the im p o rta n t items if it is long; the purpose is to give an o th e r person a clear sense of the message. Listening and filling in blanks in a g apped storv gam e in o rd e r to com plete the story. L istening a n d com pleting a form o r ch art in o rd er to use the inform ation for a later p u r pose. such as m aking a decision o r solving a problem . Listening and sum m arizing the gist o f a short storv, rep o rt, o r talk in o rd e r to re p o rt it to a th ird person.
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Listening to a “how to" talk and w riting an outline o f the steps in the sequence (e.g., how to cook som ething, how to use a piece o f eq u ip m en t, how to pkiv a gam e) in o rd e r to e a rn o u t the action. Listening to a talk or lecture a n d taking notes in o rd e r to use the inform ation later for som e a purpose.
A p o p u lar activity called jigsaw listening is suggested by G eddes an d Sturtriclge (1979). In o n e form o f jigsaw listening, small groups o f stu dents listen to different parts of a set o f infor m ation and write down the im p o rta n t points of th eir portions. T h e n they share th eir inform a tion with o th e r groups so that a story or a sequence o f actions can be com pleted, a p ro b lem solved, or a decision m ade. Spoken-to-spoken Jigsaw listening also can be used with a spoken-to-spoken transfer o f infor m ation. O th e r activities in this m ode are the following: ■
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Listening to directions, th en passing them along to a th ird person who m ust use the info rm atio n to e a rn ' out a task. Listening to p art of a storv an d rep eatin g it to others.
(For exam ples see Davis a n d Rinvolucri 1988. pp. 29-30 a n d M orlev 1984. pp. 68-69.)
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M inute m ysteries in which students, listen ing to the tea c h e r or a tape, read a verv short mvsterv storv: this can be followed by small g roup work in which students fo rm u late solutions. A jigsaw mvsterv in which each group listens to a tape which provides one of the clues. G roups then share inform ation with every one in o rd er to solve the mvsterv.
M ore d em a n d in g varieties of problem solving are found in riddles, logic puzzles, and o th e r intellectual problem -solving activities. Real-world problem s can include: *
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C om parison shopping tasks using reco rd ed conversations for practice (e.g., asking for prices from several rental car agencies, llorist shops, or b arb er shops, th en choos ing the best bargain), followed bv similar field trips. Short descriptions of court cases, with listen ers asked to make a decision and defend it.
Field trips can be assigned in which pairs of stu dents go out to do com parison sh o pping for products or services, th en rep o rt back to the entire class.
Outcome 4. Listening, Evaluating, and Manipulating Information
Many kinds o f activities for e ith e r groups o r indi viduals can be developed in this category. O ne is gam es and puzzles:
These outcom es are intellectually challenging ones in which the listener evaluates a n d /o r m anipulates the inform ation received in some m anner. Lesson activities for individuals, pairs, o r small gro u p s can take m am d irectio n s, including the following:
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Outcome 3. Listening and Solving Problems
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W ord gam es in which the answers m ust be derived from verbal clues. N u m b e r gam es a n d “story" a rith m e tic problem s. Asking questions in o rd e r to identify som e thing, as in “Twenty Q uestions" o r “Anim al, Vegetable, o r M ineral." C lassroom versions of “Passw ord,” “Jeo p ard y ,” o r "Twenty Q uestions” in which careful listening is critical to the successful com pletion of the gam e.
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W riting in form ation received a n d review ing it in o rd e r to answer questions or solve a problem . Evaluating inform ation an d reviewing it in o rd er to m ake a decision o r develop a plan of action. Evaluating argum ents in o rd e r to take a position. Evaluating cause-and-effect inform ation. M aking p re d ic tio n s from in fo rm a tio n received.
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Sum m arizing o r giving the gist o f inform a tion received. Evaluating and com bining o r condensing inform ation. Evaluating and elaborating or extending inform ation. O rganizing unorderecl inform ation into a p a tte rn of orderlv relationships: c h ro n o lo g ical se q u en c in g , spatial re la tio n sh ip s, cause-and-effect. or problem -solution.
Field trips are challenging and useful for interm ediate and advanced learners. Students can be assigned fact-finding, inform ation-gathering tasks for panel presentations or use in a project. At m ore advanced levels, preparing for and e a rn in g out a debate or discussion assignm ent on cur ren t local, national, o r in tern atio n al issues can use b oth aural a n d w ritten inform ation and involves the student in evaluating and m an ip u lating inform ati o n .
m ust keep questioning the listener-questioner to m ake sure of the n a tu re an d in te n t o f the his or h e r questions. V ideotape o r audio recordings of these class sessions with subsequent viewing an d discussion of selected segm ents cjuicklv d em o n strates the im portance of negotiation o f m eaning and how m uch tim e a n d energv m ust som etim es be ex p en d ed in o rd e r to arrive at a consensus on m eaning. A wide variety of question types can be used in this kind o f activitv, b u t for each lesson it is useful to have onlv a lim ited n u m b e r o f question tvpes used. Som e exam ples are the following: *
R epetition— questions asking only for ver batim repetition o f inform ation (“C ould vou repeat the part about xx?").
«
Paraphrase — q u estio n s asking only for restatem ent in different words, often words that tire sim pler and easier to u n d e rsta n d ("C ould vou sav th at again?" “I d o n ’t u n d e r stand what vou m ean bv xx."). Verification— questions seeking confirm a tion that the inform ation was u n d e rsto o d correctlv bv the listener ("Did I u n d e rsta n d vou to sav that xx?" "In o th e r words, vou m ean xx." "Do vou m ean xx?”).
Outcome 5. Interactive Listeningand-Speaking: Negotiating Meaning through Questioning/Answering Routines H ere the focus of the outcom e is on both the product o f tran sm ittin g in fo rm atio n an d the nrocess o f negotiating m eaning in interactive reciprocal listener speaker exchanges. Initiallv. m small groups, (i.e.. four to ten students), one student cam give a b rie f p resentation such as a W ort set of locallv relevant an n o u n cem en ts, a :ive-minute "how-to" talk, a personal store or anecdote, o r an explanatorv talk using visual aids. (See M orlev 1992.) E ither d u rin g or im m ediatelv after the pres entation, each listener is req u ired to ask at least me question in a questioning answ ering ro u tine. At first listeners can be given a card listing a question tvpe and assigned the responsibilitv tor asking that kind of question. T he listenerquestioner m ust continue with follow-up ques tions as necessarv until both participants are uttisfied that clear m eaning has b een negotiated. This m eans that the speaker is also a listener and
Clarification — q u estio n s seek in g m o re details o r an e x p la n a tio n o f an item ("C ould vou tell m e what vou m ean by xx?” "Could vou explain xx?" "Could vou give us an exam ple of xx?"). 4
Elaboration— questions that ask for addi tional inform ation on a p oint in tro d u c ed in the p resen tatio n (“Could vou tell us m ore about xx?").
*
Extension— questions th at ask for inform a tion on a new point, one th at was n o t in tro du ced in the p resen tatio n (“W hat a b o u t xx?" "How is this related to xx?”).
e
Challenge — q u e stio n s th a t c h a llen g e points given or conclusions draw n (“W hat did vou base xx on?” "How did vou reach the conclusion o f xx?” "How did vou xx?” "Whv did vou xx?”) .
Tasks with this outcom e can include listening to songs, stories, plays, poem s, jokes, anecdotes, or, as suggested by Ur, “general interesting chat im provised by the te a c h e r’ (1984, p. 29). Som e of the activities in this categorv com e u n d e r the head in g o f interactional listening, different from the previous outcom e categories, which bv and large are focused on transactional outcom es. For these tasks, U r notes th at setting anv outcom e o th e r th an enjoving, for instance, macb ecom e superfluous o r even harm ful to the com pletion o f the outcom e o f just enjoying. U r makes an especiallv good case for infor mal “teacher-chat” as an excellent source of listen ing m aterial and observes that it se n es as a relaxing break from m ore intensive work. She sug gests “teacher-talk” on personal topics (e.g., vour favorite hobby, plans for the future, your opinions on topical or local issues) (pp. 62-63). She notes that this, in turn, mav lead naturally to “studenttalk” on similar subjects for loosely structured and com fortable com m unicative classroom interludes, ones that afford student “practice” opportunities in both listening and speaking.
S E L F -A C C E S S /S E L F -S T U D Y L IS T E N IN G A N D L A N G U A G E L E A R N IN G The purpose o f a self:access/self-study resource is to provide an inviting listening center within a con ventional language laboratory or a broader lan guage resource center. This self-studv facility needs to offer a wide choice of appealing audio and \ideo materials on a variety of topics and at a range of pro ficiency levels. Books to accom pany tapes are use ful, of course. However, in addition to (or in place of) commercial books, a library of listening m ateri als m ight also include carefully designed worksheet materials that present listening tasks for self-studv. pair-study, or small-group study, both on the school premises and for checkout and hom e use. Materials for free-listening time like freereading time) can be provided and students can be given a chance to self-select from a Intoning
library th a t includes stories a n d poem s, talks and lectures, plays a n d literary classics, participatory gam es, puzzles, riddles, a n d read-along o r singalong stories, songs, an d games. Com m ercial audio- and videotapes can easily be adapted for lis tening library use. M ore innovatively, a collection o f local audio o r video recordings o f conversa tions, songs, music events, lectures, or panel dis cussions can be com piled. H om e videos can be an appealing addition to a listening library Such locally produced auditory m aterials have a special relevance and applicability potential that com m ercial m aterials lack.
Setting Up a Self-Access/Self-Study Listening Resource Center A self-access-''self-studv listening resource center can be started with a m odest listening library of audio and video rec o rd e d m aterial an d the teacher-time needed to p u t materials into self-study packets or modules. Ideally, listening materials can be m ade avail able to students in a special language learning cen ter or m ultipurpose stuck room that also features reading and writing materials and has a teacher or m onitor present at all times to guide students in the selection and ttse of materials and equipm ent. Alternatively, self-access self-studv materials can be used in a m ore conventional language lab oratory setting. W hatever the setting, the most im portant point is that the individual learner has com plete personal control over the materials. It is essential that students be able to control the source o f input so that thev can pace it— stop it, start it, replav it— at will. Such control allows stu dents to regulate their own schedules o f study, ra th e r than having a rate and volume of auditor}’ in p u t im posed on them . This helps reduce the anxiety and pressure that m any students, particu larly beginners, seem to experience when listen ing in the second or foreign language. Some m aterials m ight be m ade available for checkout a n d hom e stud}-. However, a study facility often has fewer distractions than a hom e or dorm itory envi ronm ent, and its atm osphere is usually m ore con ductive to the self-discipline necessary for concentrated listening in the second or foreign language.
T he p ro ced u res for using self-access selfstudy m aterials m ight be organized in the fol lowing wav: 1. S tudents check out a listening packet or m odule that contains the audio- or video tap e, p re liste n in g in tro d u c to rv m aterial, w orksheets (an d p e rh a p s som e visuals), answer kev (and perhaps a script), instruc tions, a n d postlistening tasks. 2. Students plav the tape on th eir own schedule o f starting, stopping, and replacing. 3. S tudents check th eir work them selves for verification o f co m prehension. 4. Students consult the teacher o r m onitor w hen necessarv. Self-access listening m aterials can be o rg an ized in to self-studv packets or m odules o f m an ageable lengths. Thev can be cross-referenced in a variety of wavs to m eet the needs o f individ ual students or groups of students (i.e.. c o n ten t or topical groups, no tio n al categories, fun c tional categories, situational o r activitv categories, level-of-difficultv groupings, specific listeningtask groupings, English for Specific Purposes groupings). M odules that feature up-to-date, locallv rele vant, authentic aural texts are especiallv effective and are recom m ended wherever possible. In addi tion, segments from selected com m ercial listening materials can be adapted to fit into this format.
Guidelines for Developing Self-Access / Self-Study Listening Materials In addition to relevance, transferabilitv. task ori entation, a n d the com m unicative outcom es tramework, the following guidelines are suggested m a reference in preparing self-access selfstudv listening practice materials: 1.
A focus on listening as an active process with instant or onlv slightlv delaved m an ip ulation o f the inform ation received.
2.
A focus on purposeful listening (a) in order to process inform ation and immediately do som ething with the inform ation, by perform ing a task o f som e nature, and (b) in o rd er to analyze particular features of the message (i.e., linguistic features, sociolinguistic fea tures, discourse features, strategic features), a n d (c) in o rd er to build a base o f content experiences and outcomes experiences. 3. A focus on a variety o f practice m aterials that includes a mix o f authentic, sem i-authentic, and sim ulated language activities. 4. A focus on in tern al com m unicative in terac tion, as the listener receives language in p u t (aurallv a n d visuallv), restructures it, an d m akes a response that is e ith e r a refo rm u lation of som e of the in form ation o r an analvsis o f som e o f its features. 5. A focus on providing learners with verifica tion o f c o m p reh en sio n (i.e., im m ediate or onlv slightlv delaved feedback) with self check answer kevs or scripts as n eed ed . 6. A focus on enco u rag in g guessing an d fol lowing “hunches" w hen in doubt. 7. A focus on selective listening, ig n o rin g irrelevant m aterial, an d learn in g to tolerate less than total un d erstan d in g . 8. A focus on self-involvement with an emphasis on selfstudv and taking responsibility for o n e’s own work and pride in o n e’s accomplishments. 9. A focus on providing learners with less threaten in g listen in g /learn in g experiences; a self-studs listening m ode w here students hat e the freedom to regulate their own w?ork and can stop the tape, rewind, an d replay as thev wish. 10. A focus on in tegrating auditory a n d visual language bv com bining listening, reading, a n d writing, an d observing relationships betw een spoken form s a n d w ritten forms. 11. A focus on gracluallv increasing expectations for levels of com prehension (i.e., encourag ing students to challenge themselves an d to move themselves along toward increasingly dem anding expectations). 12. A focus on the fun o f listening!
F IN A L CO M M EN TS Since the 1960s, the im p o rtan ce o f listening c o m p re h en sio n in language learn in g a n d lan guage teach in g has m oved from a status o f inci d en tal a n d p e rip h e ra l im p o rtan ce to a status of significant a n d cen tral im p o rtan ce. W hereas only a few instructional m aterials were available in the 1970s, today th ere are m am - texts an d tape program s to choose from and, in general, m ate rials are becom ing m ore carefullv principled, with serious a tte n tio n to theoretical considera tions. Each year m ore diverse m aterials are devel oped, an d m any now focus on the narrowly specified listening needs of particular groups of learners, including English for Specific Purposes. Finally, it is im p o rta n t to em phasize that the S /F L listening curriculum c a n n o t focus onlv on buying the right books a n d tapes. Skill b uild ing in listening co m p reh en sio n is n o t som ething th a t can be accom plished in a half-hour lesson th re e tim es a week, n o r can a tten tio n to listen ing be lim ited to language laboratorv tapes. Listening, th e language skill used m ost in life, needs to be a central focus— all dav, ev en dav— lim ited only by the availability o f the target lan guage in the school, the com m unin', a n d the m edia. L istening in struction needs to include b o th two-way interactive listening activities and tasks an d one-way reactive Listen-and-Do activi ties a n d tasks. M aterials developers should pav careful atten tio n to principles o f design, com m unicative outcom es, language functions, lan guage processes, an d affective considerations.
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1.
C haracterize each of the three com m uni cative listening modes: bidirectional, unidirec tional, and autodirectional. From vour own personal experience, give examples of each of these three kinds of com m unicative listening. 2. Discuss why listening has b een called "the n eglected skill” of language teaching. 3. For th re e daws, keep a rec o rd o f how m uch tim e you spend each day in each of the fo u r skill areas: listening, speaking, reading, an d writing. In small groups, m ake a com posite
of the tim es rec o rd e d for each of the four language skills. 4. Review th e th re e principles o f m aterials developm ent discussed in this chapter. Give exam ples o f wavs they can be im p lem en ted in listening lessons. 5. Discuss the differences betw een interactional language use and transactional language use. Give exam ples from vour personal experience and com pare them with those given by others in your class.
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1. Ask perm ission to observe two o r th re e ESL or foreign language classes. O bserve the n atu re o f the interactions in the class. N ote the am o u n t o f tim e in which students are engaged in listening a n d the a m o u n t o f tim e thev are engaged in speaking, reading, or writing. 2. Write a lesson plan that focuses on two or three wavs to include specific listening o p p o r tunities in a class where the central focus is on a n o th e r aspect of language learning. 3. W orking in pairs, use the R ichards m atrix (Richards 1990) and com e up with two or th ree exam ples for each of the fo u r cells.
FU R T H ER R EA D IN G Anderson. A., and T. Lynch. 1988. Listening. Oxford: Oxford University Press. This book stands back from the surface detail of comprehension materials and provides an over all perspective on listening as a communicative activity and as a language learning activity. It includes a research design focus. Brown. G.. and G. Yule. 1983. Teaching the Spoken Lan guage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Using an approach based on the analysis of con versational English, this book examines the nature of spoken language and presents prin ciples and techniques for teaching spoken pro duction and listening comprehension.
Nunan, D., and L. Miller. 1995. New Ийул in leaching Listening Comprehension. Alexandria, YA: TF.SOL. A ven useful compendium of activities for plan ning language lessons with a listening locus. Mendelsohn, D., and J. Rubin. 1995. A Guide for Teaching Second [winguage Listening. San Diego. CA: Dominie Press. An excellent collection of diverse topics in teach ing second language listening. Contains mav practical examples and suggestions for lesson development. Morlev. J. 1999. Current Perspectives on Imploring Aural Comprehension. LSL Magazine2 (1 ): 15-19. This is an easv-to-read article for the beginning TESL/TEFL student. It presents current perspec tives in the area of ESE EFL aural comprehension instruction.
Ur. P. 1984. Teaching Listening Comprehension. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Analyzes real-life listening characteristics and the problems encountered bv language learners. Presents a wide range of exercise types, ranging from elementary to advanced, and appropriate for both adults and children. Special periodical issues devoted comprehension:
to listening
Applied Linguistics 7 (2). Summer 1986. ELT Documents Special, "The Teaching of Listening Comprehension." 1981. foreign Language Annals 17 (4), September 1984. JALT Newsletter 19 (4). 1982. TF.SOL News let ter 19 (6). December 1985.
Skills and Strategies for Proficient Listening PAT
W I L C O X
P E T E R S O N
In "Skills and Strategies for Proficient Listening," Peterson offers a developmental view of second language listeners at beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels. She describes the comprehension processes of proficient listeners as being both top-down and bottom-up in nature, and offers exercises for building listening skills and strategies at all profic iency levels.
IN T R O D U C T IO N : T H E IM PO RTA N CE OF L IS T E N IN G IN L A N G U A G E LE A R N IN G Teachers who want to provide the most effective classroom experience for their second language students should consider this: Xo o th er tvpe of language input is as easv to process as spoken lan guage, received through listening. At the begin ning stages of language studv, before students have learned to read well, it is bv listening that they can have the most direct connection to m eaning in the new language. T hrough listening, learners can build an awareness of the interw ork ings o f language systems at various lev els and thus establish a base for m ore fluent productive skills. At the interm ediate level, w hen students are refining their understanding of the gram m atical systems of their second or foreign language, lis tening can be used to stim ulate awareness of detail and to prom ote accuracv. At advanced levels, w hen students are able readers and written lan guage has becom e a viable source of input, listen ing should still occupv a central place in their language use. A regular p rogram of listening can extend learners' vocabularv and use o f idioms a n d b u ild th e ir a p p re c ia tio n for cultural nuances. M oreover, successful academ ic study in English req u ires a m asterv of the listening dem ands in form al lectures as well as in the in ter active exchanges which are com m on to sem inar settings an d conversational lecture stales.
T here is such a wide range o f listening tasks for different purposes and for all proficiency levels that teachers can find listening activities to pro m ote learning at every stage. This ch ap ter will present a brief developm ental view of listening skills: how people learn to listen and how listening prom otes learning. Sample exercises will be given to facilitate listening at beginning, interm ediate, and advanced stages of language developm ent.
T H E O R IE S O F L A N G U A G E C O M P R E H EN S IO N The following ideas about the listening process had their beginnings m ore than fortv years ago and have recently gained wide acceptance in the field.
Listening Is the Primary Channel for Language Input and Acquisition Proponents o f com prehension approaches recog nize the primacv of listening in the processes of co m p re h en sio n , re te n tio n o f in fo rm a tio n in memory, and acquisition of second language com petence. X ida (1957) describes the language learning experience of people in Africa, where m ultilingualism w ithout form al instruction is a com m on phen o m en o n . People simply go to a place to live and work, they listen w ithout attem pt ing to speak, and quite soon they find that they can "hear" the language. Only after internalizing some part of the language do they try to speak. Xida concludes. "T eam ing to speak a language is verv largely a task of learning to h e a r it” (p. 53).
This emphasis on the primacv of listening contrasts dramatically with audiolingual practices of the 1960s and 1970s. which prom oted early intensi\e oral practice. In an essay entitled "Win not start speaking later?" Postovsky (1977) called for an extended period of listening with delayed oral pro duction. Asher's (1969) Total Physical Response approach featured a long preproduction phase in which students listened, followed comm ands, and dem onstrated their com prehension through non verbal actions. The Natural Approach (krashen and Terrell 1983) also set a prespeech period for lis tening only, to be followed bv an early production phase in which students gate an steers in single words or short phrases. The prespeech period could last for a few hours in the case of adult stu dents, or for up to six m onths with children. A ccording to N ord (1981). reception should p recede production because reception enables production. W hile it is possible to learn to u n d e r stand without speaking, it is not possible to learn to speak w ithout understanding. Prem ature pro duction has several negative effects: Lacking T9 com p etence, students are forced back on LI p ro d u ctio n habits and m at m ake m any LI trans fer errors. T he n e e d to p ro d u ce utterances max in te rfe re with the ability to c o m p re h e n d the lan guage completely, a n d thus in terfere with learn ing and m em o ry T he overload of task dem ands on th e lea rn er produces anxiety, which fu rth e r inhibits learning.
Listening Comprehension Is a Multilevel, Interactive Process o f Meaning Creation W hen good listeners involve themselves with am type o f spoken discourse, a n u m b er of processes work on various lew is sim ultaneously to produce an u n d erstan d in g of the incom ing speech. The h ig h er level processes (top-dow n) are driven bv listeners' expectations and u n d e rsta n d in g ' ot the context, the topic, the natu re of text, and the natu re o f the world. T he lower level p a r c h e s (bottom -up) are triggered by the so u n d ', words, and phrases which the listener h e a t' he 1>r 'h e attem pts to decode speech and a "ig : meaning.
The acoustic signal itself carries few cues to the meanings that are encoded within it: the listener must use his or her knowledge of the language to recognize m eaningful sound units, to determ ine sellable boundaries, and to identify words. This phase of com prehension is known as perceptual pro cessing (Anderson 1983). Next the listener works with the words and phrases he or she has decoded to form m eaningful units, which are stored in short term memory. This is the parsing phase. Finally, the listener searches long-term m em ory for ideas that relate to the new information: when a match is m ade between old and new information, com pre hension occurs. This is the utilization stage. With h igher lew is of language proficiency, the listener works m ore efficiently and is able to m aintain activity on till levels simultaneously. At b e g in n in g proficiency levels, p e rc e p tu a l (bottom -up) operations require great am ounts of conscious attention, so that little capacity rem ains for h ig h er level operations. Later, after lower level skills have been rehearsed m any times, they can be p erfo rm ed autom atically and the learner's intention can be freed up for topdown operations (M cLaughlin. Rossman. and M cLeod 1983). In proficient listeners, top-down and bottomup processes interact, so that lack of inform ation at one level can be com pensated for bv checking against inform ation at the o th e r level. For exam ple. advanced listeners max use their knowledge of lexis and topic to in terp ret the confusing sounds in the speech stream and to aid in xvord recognition. On the o th e r hand, they max’ also use their basic decoding skills to check the progress o f the argum ent and to determ ine w h eth er the discourse is going in the direction thev had predicted. Listening in their natixe lan guage. people newer hear all the inform ation in a message, and thex do not n eed to; proficiency in c o m p reh en sio n is the ability- to fill in the gaps an d to create an u n d ersta n d in g that m eets one's purpose for listening. Rost (1990) credits the contributions oi second language reading research for pointing to the im portance o f the student's prior knowledge in m aking sense of incom ing linguistic data. This general com prehension m odel has been extended to listening as well. T here are mans’ terms for the
m eaning structures in the mind; they have been called frames (Minskv 1975), scripts (Schank 1975). and schemata (R um elhart 1980). We will use Rum elhart's terminology. H e defines a schem a as "a data structure for representing generic concepts stored in memory" (p. 34). Carrell and Eisterhold 1 1983) suggest that background inform ation in the l eader's m ind is of two kinds: content schem ata and form al schemata. C ontent schem ata include cultural knowledge, topic familiarity, and previous experience with a field. Formal schem ata have to do with people's knowledge of discourse forms: text types, rhetorical conventions, and the struc tural organization of prose. Both content and for mal schem ata can aid the reader (and the listener) m com prehending text (Flovcl and Carrell 1987).
Models of the Comprehension Process One view of listening com prehension describes com prehension of a speaker's message as the inter nal reproduction of that message in the listener's mind, so that successful listening reproduces the m eaning m uch as the speaker intended (Clark and Clark 1977). This is the inform ation processing view of listening. A second view (Rost 1990) places m ore emphasis on the goals and internal m eaning 'tructures of the listener: in this view, the listener does not receive m eaning, but rather constructs m eaning. The constructed message differs some what from the intended message and is influenced bv context, purpose for listening, and the listener's own prior knowledge. Both views acknowledge the complexity of the listening process and the im por tance of both top-down and bottom -tip operations. Nagle and Sanders (1986) offer a m odel of com prehension that incorporates the distinction between controlled and autom atic processing as well as the active role of the listener in attention and m onitoring. Thev propose an executive decision m aker that decides how to deal with input, a n d a feedback loop that allows the listener to m onitor ongoing com prehension. T heir m odel is specifi cally in ten d ed to describe com prehension in a second language. Thev m ake the point that while com prehension is not exactly the same thing as learning, successful com prehension makes m ate rial available for learning.
Principles for Listening Comprehension in the Classroom The above findings suggest a set of principles for teaching listening in the second language classroom. Increase the amount o f listening time in the second language class. Make listening the prim ary chan nel for learning new m aterial in the classroom. Input must be interesting, comprehen-sible, sup ported bv extralinguistic materials, and keved to the language lesson. Use listening before other activities. At begin ning and low-interm ediate levels, have students lis ten to m aterial before thev are required to speak, read, or write about it. Include both global and selective listening. Global listening encourages students to get the gist, m ain idea, topic, situation, or setting. Selective listening points student attention to details of form and encourages accuracy. Activate top-level skills. Give advance organizers, script activators, or discussions which call up stu dents' background knowledge. Do this before stu dents listen. Encourage top-down processing at even proficiency level. Work towards automaticity in processing. Include exercises which build both recognition and reten tion of the material. Use familiar m aterial in novel combinations. Encourage overlearning through focus on selected formal features. Practice bottomup processing at ev e n proficiency lev el. Develop conscious listening strategies. Raise stu dents' awareness of text features and of their own com prehension processes. Encourage them to notice how their processing operations interact with the text. Prom ote flexibility in the m any strate gies thev can use to understand the language. Practice interactive listening, so that thev can use their bottom -up and their top-down processes to check one against the other.
Skills and Strategies Before p ro ceed in g with a developm ental de scription of listening proficiency, it is helpful to d iffe re n tia te betw een th e follow ing term s: listening process, listening skill, an d listening strategy. T he m odels in the p reced in g section
p rese n t a view o f som e sim ultaneous, interactive op eratio n s w hich are hvpothesizecl to constitute th e successful c o m p re h e n sio n process. T hese o p erations are m ade up o f various subprocesses: chunking input into svllables, recognizing words, recalling relevant schem ata, and m atching key words to the sem antic structure of the text. These subprocesses are the skills of the co m petent lis tener. If these skills are practiced enough, thev becom e autom atic and are activated m uch m ore quickly. W hen things are going well, the listener is n o t conscious of using skills at all. At the point w hen the com prehension process breaks down for some reason, the listener becom es aware of the need for repair and seeks an appropriate strategy for com prehension. A m ajor difference betw een skills and strate gies is that strategies are u n d e r the learner's con scious control; thev are operations which the learner chooses to use to direct or check his or h er own com prehension. C ham ot explains:
time, and in a m anner appropriate to the learners’ proficiency lexel. Strategv train in g does not replace language practice, but rather is inter spersed with practice th roughout a course. In fact, u n tu to re d students use strategies anyway, b u t thev do n ot alxvaxs choose wisely. E astm an (1991) points o ut th at students som e tim es use ineffectixe strategies such as on-line translation. T ranslation o f single words max- be the only strategv that beg in n in g listeners th ink to use, b u t it restricts listeners to the surface fea tures of the language and uses up all o f th eir available processing capacity. T he urge to trans late is so natural at lower proficiencx lexels that students m ust be explicitly e n co u rag ed to avoid it. Teachers can help th eir students to practice m ore productixe strategies such as atte n d in g to longer chunks o f language a n d relating new info rm atio n to what thev already know.
WITs d esirab le fo r basic cognitive skills to becom e autom ated, the same is not true for strategies, which n eed to be controlled consciouslv if learners are to m aintain awareness of different lea rn in g co n d itio n s turd select the strategies most appropriate for specific tasks (1995, p.16).
Taxonom ies of learn in g strategies haxe b een p ro p o sed for second language use in general (O xford 1990). Strategies specific to listening co m p reh en sio n are based on these general lists and include the categories of metacognitix'e, cognitive, an d socioaffectixe strategies. M etacognitix’e strategies inxolxe planning, m o n ito rin g , and evaluating c o m p re h e n sio n . Cognitive strategies are used to m an ip u late inform ation. Exam ples of cognitixe strategies are rehearsal, organization, sum m arization, a n d elaboration. Socioaffectixe strategies hax’e b een less studied but are th o u g h t to be particularly im p o rtan t xvhen the listening is two xvay and m eaning can be n eg otiated betw een speaker an d listener, as in conversations. Exam ples of socioaffectixe strategies are cooperatix’e lea rn ing. q u estioning for clarification, a n d m anaging o ne's em otions in the learning situation. A com plete list o f strategies w ould be quite lengthy, since it xvould haxe to describe all the possible actions that a le a rn e r could take in the face of xvidelv different texts and tasks. Strategx' use xaries xvith proficiencx1, a n d so the relationship betw een strategx' use a n d profi ciency lexel is an im p o rta n t one. M ore advanced learners use a g rea ter n u m b e r of strategies th an
C om petent listeners tend to m onitor their com prehension rath er steadilv and, when necessarv, to select appropriate strategies for the task at hand. Field (1998) points out the com pensatoiv nature o f strategies in that thev make up for a lack of linguistic skill or topic knowledge. As the lis tener's abilitv improves, strategies mav be used less frequendv (or mav develop into unconscious skills). Students mav not im m ediatelv see the bene fits o f strategy use or thev mav feel that strategy instruction takes time awav from the practice of language skills. According to MacIntyre and Noels (1996), teachers can motivate students bv showing them how and w hen to use strategies. Teachers m ust also show students how effective strategy use can be th ro u g h successful experiences. M endelsohn (1995) calls for strategy instruction to be delivered gradually oxer an extended period of
Types o f Strategies
beginners do, a n d they also use th em with m ore flexibility, choosing strategies to fit a specific sit uation. O ’Malley, C ham ot, a n d K upper (1989) fo u n d th at effectiye learners select strategies ap p ro p riate to the processing phase. In the p e r ceptual phase, they use focused, selective a tte n tion; in parsing, thev p refe r top-dow n strategies: and in the utilization phase, they draw on p e r sonal experience an d world knowledge. Several studies have fo u n d that advanced learners are able to process larger chunks o f inform ation and to draw on linguistic a n d w orld know ledge sim ultaneously in building m ean in g (Rost and Ross 1991; V andergrift 1998). In contrast, beginning and low-interm ediate listeners relv too m uch on inform ation at one level, either at the top or at the bottom , a n d fail to check one level against the other. Thev matcome to the listening experience with a fixed idea of what thev will hear, and be unwilling to change their idea as the text com es in. Thev are less able to revise th eir schem ata w hen faced with contradictory inform ation an d e ith e r ignore the contradiction or shift their conceptual fram e works too frequently. Alternately, such learners may be b o u n d to surface features o f the data, m aking all th eir inferences at the local level and lacking anv overall schem a for u n d e rsta n d in g (V andergrift 1998).
A D EV E LO P M E N TA L V IE W OF L IS T E N IN G SK ILLS Profile o f the Beginning-Level Student in Listening True b eginners in a second language lack ade quate bottom -up processing skills because thev have n o t yet developed the linguistic categories against which the language m ust be heard. They perceive the new language as und ifferen tiated noise. They are not vet able to segm ent the speech stream into w ord units — to tell w here one w ord begins an d a n o th e r ends. T he new p h onem ic svstem is an u n b ro k en code: Sounds which native speakers consider sim ilar may be perceived a n d classified as different; sounds which native speakers consider d ifferent may be
perceived a n d classified as the sam e. If the stress p attern s of words differ from those in the L I, true b eginners may have trouble identifying L2 word boundaries. Thev h a te no idea ab o u t phonological rules th at change sounds in cer tain environm ents o r cause reductions of sound. To decode the sensory data as a native speaker would, learners m ust first build a linguistic struc ture of im p o rta n t sou n d distinctions a n d cate gories. B eginners’ structural com p eten ce also places lim itations on th eir bottom -up processing skills. They are n o t fam iliar with rules for w ord form ation, inflections, o r w ord order. T h eir vocabulary store is practically nonexistent. T h e novice stage is of very sh o rt du ratio n . Alm ost im m ediately u p o n h e a rin g the new lan guage, learn ers begin to sift an d sort the acoustic info rm atio n by form ing categories a n d building a representation of the L2 svstem. If the teacher follows principles o f com prehension training, learners will have m any opportunities to work with a lim ited am o u n t o f language th at is focused on dearly illustrated subjects. T he sim plified code that is used in the classroom at this point helps learners direct their attention to the im portant features of the message. .After a few hours of instruction, the learners know a tiny bit o f the language very well an d can use th eir em erging u n d e rsta n d in g o f linguistic categories to decode new utterances. Despite its brevity, the notice stage is im por tant for the developm ent of positive attitudes toward listening. Learners should be encouraged to tolerate ambiguity, to venture inform ed guesses, to use their real-world knowledge and analytical skills, and to enjov their success in com prehension. The world outside the classroom asks, Do you speak English? and ignores the verv form idable accom plishm ent of skilled com prehension. Rarely does anyone ask, Do you understand English ?Teachers can help correct this situation bv attaching value to stu dents' progress in listening skills. True beginners are found in beginning classes for immigrants to English-speaking countries and in F.FL classes abroad. Many of the teachers in the second setting are not native speakers themselves, and some ntav lack the confidence to provide stu dents with the kind of global listening experiences thev need (see Medgyes’s chapter in this volume).
Yet, considering the great value of exposure to spo ken English, all teachers should attem pt to provide this im portant input. The following suggestions are m eant to encourage such teachers. 1. 2.
3.
4.
5.
Global listening selections should be short— one to three m inutes in duration. The teacher does not have to speak as if he or she were addressing colleagues tit a professional meeting. Teachers' m onologues are most effec tive at beginning levels if thee- are delivered in a simplified code. Such language involves short, basic sentences, d e a r pronunciation, repeti tion o f ideas, limited vocabularv. and risual or situational support for new words. It is best to ad d new m aterial (vocabularv a n d structures) graduallv. E xperience with recom binations of fam iliar m aterial builds lea rn ers’ confidence and lessens the am ount of totallv new texts the teacher m ust prepare. Global listening exercises such as short teacher m onologues can be given to large classes, which are often found in the EFL setting w here it is m ore difficult to proride speaking activities for the same n um ber of students. Students should be kept active with a task to perform while listening, so the teacher can be sure that he or she is using class time wiselv. Selective listening exercises, which focus on structures o r sounds in contrast, are relatively easv to prepare. Most EFT teachers have come through educational svstems w here gram m ar was em phasized and are quite com fortable with this kind o f task. Listening discrim ination tasks can focus on tenses, singular/plural dif ferences, w ord order, or new vocabulary; there are manv possibilities.
Techniques for Global Listening O n e im p o r tan t use of global listening is the p resen tatio n of new m aterial. Until students are skilled readers, it is best to p rese n t new m aterial orallv. T he teach er may select anv p art o f the lesson for a global listening experience, o r he or she may write a text based on the lesson. In tro d u ctio n of new m aterial th ro u g h global listening is com m on to m anv o f the new er com p reh en sio n approaches, vet the tech n iq u e is n ot described in language textbooks. O nce the teacher has m astered a few sim ple principles and routines, he o r she can use the tech n iq u e daiiv
Texts for global listening should be short, and preceded bv a prelistening actiritv. W herever pos sible. the them e and situation of the story should be presented risuallv bv drawing on the chalk board. overhead projector, or a large poster. If the new material is a dialogue, draw- the participants and tell their ages and relationships to each other. Setting the scene in this wav activates the learners’ background knowledge and encourages them to make predictions about the text. New vocabularv can be used in short, illustrative sentences before learners hear it as part of the lesson. If possible, use new vocabularv in a personal wav, supported by the context of the classroom, so its m eaning is clear. Descriptive words, colors, num bers, sizes, shapes, action verbs, and spatial relations are easv to m odel and to support with tangible examples. T he prelistening stage should develop learn ers' curiositv about how all the phrases and words thev have heard will fit together in a context. The new text should be m odeled at norm al speed, b ut with pauses betw een natural phrase groups. Teachers should not slow their speech, because the students' short-term m em orv capacitv is too lim ited to rem em ber sentences w hen they are ex tended bv slow speech. T he psvcholinguistic processing m odel described above indicates that short phrases can be held in working m em ory until the next pause: d u ring the pause, the phrase is anah zed. in terp reted , related to the rest of the message, and com prehended. If objects a n d actions are d em o n strated clearlv an d if the message contains a clear dra m atic structure, even beginners will soon begin to perceive p attern s o f sound. Vocabulary from the prelisten in g phase will stand out especially clearlv from the rest o f the speech stream , p ro viding listeners a pleasant experience of recog n itio n . W orking with a few c o n te n t words, learners can use top-down processing to fill in the gaps a n d guess the general m eaning o f the text. C om prehension of every function word a n d gram m atical m arker is really n ot necessary w hen the goal is simple to get the gist. It should be clear from this description of global listening that com prehension at the begin ning stage is not total— rath e r real-life com pre hension does not d e p e n d on u n d erstanding even- word. Students on the first dav of class will
be able to u n d erstan d some words o f the storv through use o f these techniques. They will not rem em ber the words o r be able to produce them , but the\’will quite likely recognize the words when they h ear them again in a familiar context. At the least, they have been exposed to three to five m in utes o f the new language with its own distinctive 'o u n d svstem, intonation patterns, pause system, and word order. C om prehension theorists such as Xida (1957) point out that during this time a great deal o f active processing has been going on just below' the students' level of conscious awareness. Selective Listening Techniques T he o th er half of the listening plan is to bring some of the new con trasts a n d p attern s into conscious awareness through selective listening exercises. H ere are the listening goals for beginners with exercise types. T he classification of exercises as bottom -up or top-down does not indicate that onlv one kind of cognitive activity can occur during each exer cise, but rather that some foster predom inantly bottom-up responses, and some exercises prom ote predominant!}' top-down processing. An exercise is classified as bottom -up if focus is on form and the exercise deals with one of the structural sys tems of English. Alternately, this designation mav indicate selection o f specific discrete items from the listening text such as listening for details. .An exercise is classified as top-down if the focus is on m eaning and the listener uses global listening strategies. Alternately, this designation mav indi cate a reliance on extralinguistic skills which the learner brings to the listening task. All listening is to some degree interactive due to the nature of the processing m echanism . An exercise is classi fied as interactive if the listener must use inform a tion gained by processing at one lev el to check the accuracy of his or her processing on an o th er level.
Bottom-Up Processing Goals and Exercise Types, Beginning-Level Listeners Goal: Discriminate between intonation contours in sentences ■ Listen to sentences with e ith e r rising or falling in to n a tio n a n d m ark th em with a p p ro p riate p u n c tu a tio n for statem ents (.),
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questions (?), surprise (??), or excitem ent (!) (Rost a n d U ru n o 1995, p. 54). Listen to pairs o f sentences spoken by a driver a n d a policeofficer. In each case the police officer’s words are the sam e as the driv er’s. Use the in to n a tio n p a tte rn o f the policeofficer to d e te rm in e w h eth er he is rep eatin g o r q u estioning w hat the driver said (Foley 1994a, p. 83).
Goal: Discriminate between phonemes ■ Listen to the tea c h e r read pairs o f words. Each p air differs by one sound. T h en listen again as the tea c h e r reads onlv one o f the w'ords in each pair a n d circle the word you h e a r (Benz a n d Dworak 2000, p. 126). ■ Listen to th ree words a n d d e te rm in e which w ord is different from the o th e r two (Rost an d U ru n o 1995, p. 55). Goal: Listen for morphological endings ■ Listen to a num ber of verbs that end in -s or -es. For each verb, note the pronunciation / s / , / z / . or / 3 Z / (Benz and Dworak 2000, p. 189). ■ Listen to sentences a n d decide if the verb is in the p rese n t tense o r the past tense. T h en listen to a list o f verbs that en d in -ed an d note the p ro n u n cia tio n / t / , / d / , o r / a d / (Benz a n d Dworak 2000, p. 226). Goal: Recognize syllable patterns, number of syllables, and word stress ■ Listen to a short radio commercial. In each word, count and note the num ber of sylla bles, and underline the stressed syllable. T hen practice reading the com m ercial aloud to vour partner, preserving the stress pattern (Benz and Dworak 2000, pp. 47-48). Goal: Be aware of sentence fillers in informal speech. ■ Listen to sentences and identify' sentence fillers such as: "well," "I m ean," "like,” “vou know" (Folev 1994b, p. 82). Goal: Select details from the text ■ L isten to a re c o rd e d te le p h o n e m en u about the movies playing, the theaters, and th e show times. Circle the n u m b e r th a t you m ust press at each p o in t to work down the m enu (Benz and Dworak 2000, p. 69-70). ■ Listen to som e conversations about sick ness. R efer to a list o f sym ptom s and check
to the sh o rt dialogues to confirm your prediction. Analvze features of the speech (tone, speed, w ord choice) to d eterm in e w hat m akes an in tro d u c tio n m ore form al (Benz a n d Dworak 2000, pp. 5 -6).
those symptoms which are m entioned in the conversation (Benz and Dworak 2000, p. 112).
Top-Down Processing Goals and Exercise Types, Beginning-Level Listeners Goal: Discriminate between emotional reactions ■ Listen to a statem en t a b o u t a vacation and decide w h eth er o r n o t the speaker enjoved the vacation (Richards 1995, p. 29). Goal: Get the gist or main idea of a passage ■ Listen to a dialogue an d decide what tvpe o f w eather is being described. Find the picture th at shows the w eather (Benz and Dworak 2000, p. 80). ■ Listen to a series o f short conversations and for each one m ark a picture that shows w here the conversation took place (Rost a n d U ru n o 1995, p. 49). ■ Listen to a n u m b er of short biographies and for each one write a title that expresses the m ain idea o f the passage (Benz and Dworak 2000, pp. 142-143). Goal: Recognize the topic ■ From a list of possible topics predict the topics that people will discuss when they d o n ’t know each other well. Listen to a series o f short conversations in different settings and note which topics are actually discussed (Benz and Dworak 2000, pp. 71-72). ■ Listen to a series of process descriptions, telling how to do so m eth in g a n d m ark a pictu re th a t tells the topic of the descrip tion (Rost an d U ru n o 1995, p. 78).
Interactive Processing Goals and Exercise Types, Beginning-Level Listeners Goal: Use speech features to decide if a statement is formal or informal ■ Look at five pictures which show people m eeting each other. Based on extralinguistic inform ation such as setting, age. and profes sions of the people, predict w hether the lan guage will be form al or inform al. Listen
Goal: Recognize a familiar word and relate it to a category ■ Review the nam es of objects th at are sold in differen t stores. Listen to statem ents that tell w hat people want to buy and select a picture of the store thev will visit. T h e n m ark the picture o f the item thev will buy (Rost a n d U runo 1995. p. 41). Goal: Compare information in memorу with incom ing information ■ Read a sentence and th e n listen to a sen tence on tape to decide if the m ean in g is the same or different (Foley 1994a, p. 71). ■ Listen to a passage that describes a dram atic event such as a natural disaster. T hen listen to a sentence from the passage a n d rem em b er its m eaning. O n a w orksheet, read two se n te n c e s a n d d e c id e w hich se n te n c e w ould best follow the sentence you heard (Foley 1994b. p. 107). Goal: Compare information that you hear with your own experience ■
Listen to statem ents about receding in the U nited States Com pare them with recycling in vour countrv. Tell w hether your country' is the same or different (Foley 1994b, p. 116).
Profile of the IntermediateLevel Learner
Interm ediate-level learners co n tin u e to use lis ten in g as an im p o rtan t source o f language input to in crease th e ir vocabularv a n d stru ctu ra. u n d erstan d in g . A lthough they have internalizec > the ph o n em ic system o f the language fairly well they mav have little u n d e rsta n d in g of the com plexities of phonological rules that govern fast speech: reductions, elisions, assim ilation, a n d S' forth. Thev n e e d practice in word recognition in discrim inating fine differences in w ord orde: a n d gram m atical form , in registers o f speakinc an d in em otional overtones. !
Interm ed iate-lev el lea rn ers have m oved beyond the limits of words a n d short phrases: their m em orv can retain longer phrases a n d sen tences. Thev can listen to sh o rt conversations or narratives that are one o r two paragraphs in length. Thev are able to get the gist, to find the m ain idea an d som e su p p o rtin g detail (ACTFL Proficiency G uidelines 1988). Thev are reach to practice m ore discourse level skills: p redicting what will h a p p e n next and explaining relations betw een events an d ideas. Techniques for Global Listening At the in te r m ediate level, it is no longer necessary to protid e learners with sim plified codes and m odified speech. In d eed , learners n eed to h ear authentic texts with red u c e d form s, fast speech features, false starts, hesitations, errors, som e n o n stan dard dialects, and a variety o f different voices. T here are several definitions of authenticity in materials. Porter and Roberts (1987) state that authentic texts are those "instances of spoken lan guage which were not initiated for the purpose of teaching . . . not intended for non-native learners" ip. 176). Rogers and Medlcv (1988) use the term authentic to refer to till language samples which "reflect a naturalness of form, and an appropri ateness of cultural and situational context that would be found in the language as used bv native speakers" (p. 468). With this definition, verv good teacher-m ade or adapted materials mav qnalifv as authentic. Techniques for Selective Listening At the interm ediate-level, students n e e d a well-organ ized p rogram of selective listening to focus their atten tio n on the systematic features of the lan guage code. Accuracy in discrim inating gram m atical features is verv im p o rta n t at this level. If learners c a n n o t h e a r certain unstressed endings, articles, inflections, and function words, thev are less likelv to in co rp o rate them into th eir gram matical com petence. Interm ediate-level students who were train ed with sim plified codes a n d with clearly p ro n o u n c e d m odels mav not recognize the sam e words and phrases in norm al fast speech. G ilbert (1995) suggests th at som e p ro nunciation training has an im p o rta n t place in the listening class — to draw stu d e n ts’ conscious atten tio n to the features o f natural speech.
Finally, the interm ediate level is an appro priate tim e to teach explicitly some strategies of interactive listening: how to use one's knowledge of form al gram m ar to check the general m eaning of a speaker’s statem ent and how to use o n e ’s background knowledge to predict and direct the process of com prehension.
Bottom-Up Processing Goals and Exercise Types, Intermediate-Level Listeners Goal: Differentiate between content and function wonts by stress pattern e Read a series of sentences and predict which words will be stressed (content words) and which will be reduced (function words.) Listen to the sentences and confirm vour predictions (Hagen 2000, p. 8). Goal: Find the stressed syllable * Listen to a list of multisyllable words. Repeat each one and check w hether the stress is on the first, second, or third syllable. Note which syllables were m ore frequently stressed (Carlisi and Christie 2000, pp. 153-154). Goal: Recognise words with reduced vowels or dropped syllables Listen to a series of statem ents ab o u t sports activities and use word stress to d eterm in e w h eth er the speakers are saving "can” or "can't" (Gill and H artm an n 2000, p. 81). Read a list o f polysyllabic words and predict which syllabic vow el will be d ro p p ed . Listen to the words an d confirm vour predictions (H agen 2000. pp. 6-7). Goal: Recognise words as they are linked in the speech stream * Listen to a series o f short sentences with c o n so n an t vowel linking betw een words. M ark the linkages on the answ er sheet (H agen 2000. p M 6 ). Goal: Recognise pertinent details in the speech stream * Listen to a short dialogue between a boss and a secretary regarding changes in the daily schedule. Use an appointm ent calendar. Cross out appointm ents that are being changed and write in new ones (Schecter 1984, p. 36).
Listen to a short telephone conversation between a custom er and a service station m an ager. Fill in a chart which lists the car repairs that must be done. Check the part of the car that needs repair, the reason, and the approx im ate cost (Schecter 1984, p. 26).
Top-Down Processing Goals and Exercise Types, Intermediate-Level Listeners Goal: Discriminate between registers of speech and tones of voice ■
Listen to sentences with e ith e r flat o r varied in to n a tio n a n d d e te rm in e w h e th e r the speaker is enthusiastic, friendly, o r sincere by the am o u n t o f pitch change an d energy in the voice (Gill a n d H artm an n 2000. pp. 120-123).
Interactive Processing Goals and Exercise Types, Intermediate-Level Listeners Goal: Use word stress to understand the speaker’s intent ■
Goal: Recognize missing grammar markers in collo quial speech and reconstruct the message ■
«*
Goal: Listen to identify the speaker or the topic ■
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Listen to fo u r short conversations with p e o ple m aking small talk and m atch each to a picture o f the speakers an d the setting (Gill an d H a rtm a n n 2000. pp. 10-11). Read the headlines for live different news stories on th e topics o f e n v iro n m e n t, health, an d lifestvie. Listen to the news stories an d m atch each one with the a p p ro priate h eadline (Gill and H a rtm a n n 2000, pp. 187-189).
Goal: Find main ideas and supporting details ■
Listen to a short conversation betw een two friends. O n vottr answer sheet are scenes from television program s. Find and write the nam e o f the program and the channel. Decide which speaker watched the program (Schecter 1984, p. 22).
Goal: Make inferences ■
Listen to a wom an an d a m an o rd erin g d in n e r in a restaurant. Based on the food choices thev m ake, tell which person is m ore conscious o f health concerns (Gill and H artm an n 2000, p. 72).
Listen to a series of statem ents about m onev problem s. In each statem ent, circle the words that are em phasized. With a partner, discuss what is im p o rtan t to the speaker a n d how the speaker feels about it (Garlisi and C hristie 2000. p. 116).
Listen to a series of short questions in which the auxiliary verb and subject have been deleted. Lse gram m atical knowledge to fill in the missing words: "(1 lave vou) got some extra?" (H agen 2000. pp. 9-10). Listen to a series of questions with assimilated verb auxiliary and subject, and use gram matical knowledge to identify the missing verb (does d/is it). Example: "Zit need m ore salt?" and "Zit Ok?" (Hagen 2000, p. 17).
Goal: l 'sc context and knowledge of the world to build listening expectations: listen to confirm expectations *
Based on vour know ledge o f o th er cultures, predict w hether their topics of conversation in an academ ic setting will be personal or im personal, direct or indirect. T hen listen to a new com er describe his experience in that culture and note what kind of culture shock actually occurred. After listening, discuss with a p a rtn e r w hether vour initial idea was correct and how vou have to revise vour ideas because of to u r added knowledge (Garlisi and Christie 2000. pp. 4 0 -4 2 ).
Profile of the Advanced Learner T h e re is evidence that in the learn in g c o n tin u um . som ew here betw een high-interm ecliate and advanced levels, a qualitative shift occurs in the le a rn e r's p ro cessin g stvle (C um m ins 1981). C um m ins notes that truly proficient bilinguals are able to use th eir second language skills fully to acquire knowledge: Thev h a te cognitive and
academic language proficiency (CALP). Advanced students are no longer simply learning to listen or listening to learn the language. They are listening in the language to learn about the content of other areas. To build toward this level, curriculum and program planners have established courses in English for Specific Purposes (ESP), English for Academic Purposes (EAP). and adjunct courses in which m ainstream content classes offer language support (see chapters bv Jo h n s an d PriceM achado. and Snow in this volume). The ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines (1988) list the following com petencies for advanced listeners: Thev can listen to longer texts such as radio and television program s and academ ic lectures. T heir vocabulary includes topics in cur rent events, history, and culture: thev can deal with a certain degree of abstraction. The listeners begin to fill in gaps and can make inferences when the text is incom plete or their background knowledge is lacking. How сл ег, their understanding of the lan guage rem ains on a iairlv literal plane, so that thev may miss jokes, slang, and cultural references. Academic lectures in English-speaking coun tries mav employ a m uch less form al delivery style than the lectures that international students know from their hom e countries. Instead of the rcadaloud lecture. Am erican lectures tend to be con versational a n d even interactive (Flowerdew 1994). Professors mar include jokes, cultural ref erences, asides, and digressions: thev mar allow interruptions from students who ask questions, which ther then go on to weave into the inform ation structure of their lecture. T he non-native lis ten er needs to determ ine what is relevant and what is not. Rost (1994) suggests strategies for learning from lectures, including form ulating questions to ask the lecturer, searching lecture notes for logical relationships, and building a list of'kev term s to form a lexical base. Manv advanced learners are m ore skilled at read in g than ther are at listening. This is partic ularly tru e of students who h are learn ed th eir English in a foreign language context and whose trainin g has em phasized gram m ar, vocabulary, an d reading. Such students mar learn to com p re h e n d spoken discourse m ore easily if thev can activate th eir know ledge bv com pleting the assigned read in g before the lecture (M ason
1994). Som e experts also suggest judicious use of lecture transcripts in listening classes as a m eans o f using students' fam iliarity with w ritten text to m ake an explicit co n nection with the spo ken form of the language (L ebauer 2000). For m anv in te rn atio n a l students, red u c tions in norm al speech p resen t a m ajor co m p re h e n sio n p ro b le m . L isten in g classes at th e advanced level mar- n eed to include a systematic p ro g ra m o f e x p o sin g le a rn e rs to re d u c e d speech. A review of stress, pause, pitch, a n d into nation patterns can serve to unlock m vsteries of discourse structure and p o in t students toward recognition of organizational m arkers, cohesive devices, and definitions in context. For listening to fit the interactive m odel of the skilled native speaker, both top-down an d bottom -np processes m ust be learned. T h e fol lowing reco m m en d atio n s for advanced listeners assum e an intern atio n al stu d e n t p o p u latio n th at needs to develop cognitive an d academ ic lan guage proficiency for effective study in English.
Bottom-Up Processing Goals and Exercise Types, Advanced-Level Listeners Goal: Use features of sentence stress and intonation to identify important information for note taking a L isten to a n u m b e r o f se n te n c e s a n d extract the c o n ten t words, which are read with g rea ter stress. W rite the c o n te n t words as notes (Lint an d Sm alzer 1995, p. 50). Goal: Recognise contractions, reduced forms, and other characteristics of spoken English that differ from the -written form ® Listen to sentences c o n ta in in g red u c e d form s an d write the sentences as they would ap p ear w ithout reduction in form al, w ritten English (Leshinskv 199.5, pp. 1-6). Goal: Become aware of common performance slips that must he reinterpreted or ignored * Listen to and look at sentences that contain fillers (hesitation p h en o m en a such as “u h ,” "er." and "um") and phrases such as “I m ean." "you know," "sort of,” and “like.” Rewrite the sentences w ithout the fillers;
om it any words that d o n 't add to the infor m ation (Leshinskv 1995. pp. 6- 8 ). Goal: Become aware of organizational cues in lecture text ■ Look at a lecture transcript and circle all the cue words used to e n u m e rate the m ain points. T h e n listen to the lecture segm ent an d note the organizational cues (L ebauer 2000, pp. 14-15). Goal: Become aware of lexical and suprasegmental markers for definitions ■ Read a list o f lexical cues that signal a defi nition; listen to signals o f the speaker's in te n t such as rhetorical questions: listen to special in to n atio n pattern s a n d pause pat terns used with appositives (L ebauer 2000. pp. 52-54). Goal: Identify specific points of information ■ R ead a skeleton outline of an interview a b o u t s o u th gangs a n d n e ig h b o rh o o d watch clubs in which the m ain categories are given but the specific exam ples arc left blank. Listen to the interview and take notes on the inform ation which belongs in the blanks (X um rich 1995. p. 51).
Top-Down Processing Goals and Exercise Types, Advanced-Level Listeners Goal: Use knowledge of the topic to predict the content of the text ■ Before listening to a conversation about food, write a description about the was that food is p rep ared and eaten in so u r culture: share this inform ation with others. Use sour ideas to write questions that sou think mav be anssvered in the listening text (Leshinskv 1995, pp. 27-28). Goal: Use the introduction to the lecture to predict its focus and direction ■
Listen to the introductory section of a lec ture. T hen read a n u m b er of topics on so u r answer sheet and choose the topic that best expresses w hat th e lec tu re will discuss (L ebauer 2000, pp. 49-51).
(dial: Use the lecture transcript to predict the content of the next section ■ Read a section of a lecture transcript. Stop reading at a juncture point and predict what will com e next. Then read on to confirm vour prediction (L ebauer 2000. pp. 18-20). Goal: Find the main idea of a lecture segment ■ R ead a skeleton outline for a lecture about A m erican svork habits, noting the n u m b er o f m ain ideas and digressions. W hile listen ing to the lecture, fill in the outline and identify the m ain points and digressions (Lim an d Sm alzer 1995. pp. 24-25). Goal: Recognize fwint of view Take notes on a debate about w hether or not it is ethical to keep dolphins in captivity. Afterwards, organize vour notes u n d e r two headings: the argum ents for keeping dol phins and the argum ents against keeping them (Leshinksv 1995. p. 95).
Interactive Processing Goals and Exercise Types, Advanced-Level Listeners Goal: Use knowledge of phrases and discourse markers to predict the content in the next segment of the lecture *» Identify the lec tu re r's in te n tio n bv his choice of discourse m arkers and predict the kind of inform ation that will follow (Ваше 1995. pp. 221-224). Goal: Make inferences about the text. Listen to a conversation about restaurants, ethnic cuisine, and good food. Read a num ber of statements about people's food preferences and decide if thee are possible inferences based on the text (Leshinskv 1995, p. 22).
Directions for Future Research Recent re\iews of research in the field of listening com prehension have pointed to the need for additional research in a n u m b er of areas. A com m on them e is the link betw een proficiency level and strategy use. We need to know m ore about what good listeners do and how thev learn th eir strategies. Introspection, self-report, an d in te r view m ethods show great prom ise in this elusive
area. Rubin (1994) calls for a prioritization of the im p o rtan ce o f elem ents in bottom -up and top-down processing that affect listening at each proficiency level. Since the selection of strategies can also be influenced by factors o th er than proficiency level, it seems im portant to investigate some of these variables as well: learning stvle, personality type, previous educational experience, task constraints, and text ty pe. M uch o f the research to date has concentrated on schem a use and top-level pro cessing. However, given the im portance o f automaticity in perceiving and parsing, it would also be helpful to know about the effects of m ore inten sive classroom practice on bottom -up processing. O ne of the difficulties of comparative studies with low and high proficiency groups is that there is no com m only accepted m easure of proficiency in ESL listening. Thus, it is difficult to com pare the results of studies; some use TOEFL1*, CELT,1 or MLA test scores, some use teacher assessment, and some use the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview as a global m easure. Rubin (1994) reports that ACTFL and the Interagency Language R ound table are working on tests that mav sen e as a stan dard in future listening com prehension research. O ther research areas include the effect of social, cultural, and affective factors on listeners. Me need to know m ore about the dem ands placed on students bv formal and informal classroom styles, interactional teaching styles, and group work. As m ultim edia resources becom e m ore avail able, and as we come to value the visual elem ent in listening com prehension, a studv of the effects of \ideo and other visual m edia is of growing interest (Rubin 1995). Finally, it would be verv instructive to repli cate a studv do n e bv B erne (1998) in which she asked practicing foreign language teachers about their areas o f research interest. T he list from teachers onlv partly overlaps with the topics given by academ ic researchers. Teachers w anted guide lines for setting appropriate goals for different levels of proficiency; for using the appropriate am o u n t of repetition; for in co rp o ratin g support m aterials such as visual aids and physical activities into listening tasks; for choosing the LI or L2 in assessing co m p re h en sio n ; fo r re d u c in g the am oun t o f m ental translation that students do;
for assessing the level of difficulty of a listening text; for incorporating authentic and culturally relevant texts; and for com bining listening with o th er skills. How7 m any o f these issues would em erge from a similar survey o f ESL/EFL teachers and what additional issues would the responses of ESL/EFL teachers raise?
SUMMARY ESL/EFL teachers have several responsibilities with respect to the listening skill. First, they must understand the pivotal role that listening plays in the language learning process in o rd er to utilize lis tening in wavs that facilitate learning. Second, they must understand the com plex interactive nature of the listening process and the different kinds o f lis tening that learners m ust do in ord er to provide their students with an appropriate variety7 and range of listening experiences. Finally, teachers m ust und erstan d how listening skills typically develop in second language learners— and m ust be able to assess the stage of listening at which their students are — so that each student can engage in the most beneficial types of listening activities given his or h er level of proficiency7.
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1. In a group, recall the stages that you went th rough in listening when vou learned a second language. W hat elem ents did you h ear first? MTiat elem ents took a long tim e to hear? W hat part did m em ory play in your listening at each stage? 2. In vour o p in io n and based on vour experi ence, what is the m ost effective relationship betw een teach er talk an d stu d en t talk in the L2 classroom? 3. D escribe the differences in texts with sim pli fied codes an d au th en tic language. MTiat purp o se does each text type have in the L2 classroom? 4. T he learner proficiency profiles given in this ch ap ter are loosely based on the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines for listening. T he pro files assume a certain learning context, one in which the target language is n o t spoken out side the classroom (similar to an EFT co n tex t).
5.
Discuss wavs in which context variables m ight lead to a different learner proficiencv profile at each level. (Consider class size, age of learners, am ount of exposure to the language, length of instruction, and similar factors.) Review the results of Berne's studv, listed in the last section o f this chapter. Survev vour classmates a n d /o r colleagues and find out w h e th e r these issues are o f in te rest to ESL/EFL teachers. Do vour classmates and colleagues have o th er issues to add to the list?
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1. Prepare a presentation o f new m aterial from an ESL/EFL text. Choose a short dialogue or narrative passage. Plan a prelistening phase in which you use visual and situational support to teach the new words and concepts. T hen pres en t the text orally. Your presentation should last no longer than three to five m inutes. 2. Prepare a selective listening exercise which focuses on language form and guides students to discrim inate between structural features. 3. Choose a listening com prehension text that has been published in the last five tears. Select a typical chapter and analvze the cognitive pro cessing dem ands of its exercises. How many are top-down? How manv are bottom-up? Inter active? W hat is the plan for sequencing the exercises? 4. R ecord one or two m inutes o f authentic text from the radio or television. Develop a fram e work of language support for the text and show how you could use it in an interm ediatelevel class. 5. W ith a partner, conduct an experim ent to dis cover your (or vour p a rtn e r’s) preferred lis tening strategies. O ne of you trill act as the investigator and the o th er trill serve as the consultant. Choose a language which you both know but which is not native to the consultant. T he investigator trill prepare a one- to threem inute tape in that language and transcribe it, noting junctures w here there are natural pauses (approximately evert' two or three sen tences). The investigator will plat the tape, pausing at the junctures, and ask the consultant to report what he or she is doing mentally to
com p reh en d the tape. Make note o f all the lis tening strategies m entioned and classify them as cognitive, m etacognitive, or socioaffective. W hat does this tell to n about vour listening strategies? W hat hat e t on learned about doing this kind of research?
FU R T H ER R EA D IN G Blair. R.. ed. 1982. Innovative Approaches to Language Teaching. New York: Xewburv House. "Learning to Listen." the third chapter of Nida’s (1957) hook, is reprinted in Blair, pp. 42-53. Also, this anthologv includes representative articles bv Asher. Postovskv. Xord, and Krashen. Xagle. S.. and S. Sanders. 1986. Comprehension Theorv and Second Language Pedagogy. TESOL Quarterly 20(1 ):9-26. Presents the information-processing model of listening comprehension with suggestions for classroom applications. Flowerdew. J.. ed. 1994. Academic Listening: Research Perspectroes. Cambridge: Cambridge L’niversitv Press. A collection of chapters bv experts in the field of English for Academic Purposes, with insights into the structure of various tvpes of lectures and information on how students understand. Joiner, E. 1997. Teaching listening: How technology can help. In M. D. Bush and R. M. Tern-, eds.. Technology Enhanced Learning (pp. 77-120). Lincolnwood. 1L: National Textbook Companv. Describes the kinds of technology that are avail able for teaching listening (audio, video, radio, computers, videodisc, multimedia workstations 1 and how to use them. Mendelsohn. D.. an d j. Rubin., eds. 1995. A Guide for the Teaching of Second Language Listening. San Diego. CA: Dominie Press. .An excellent collection of articles on the full range of listening issues, with consideration o: teaching and assessment. Vandergrift. I.. 1998. Constructing meaning in L2 listen ing: Eridence from protocols. In S. Lapkin, cd. French as a Second Language in Canada: Recen: Empirical Studies. Toronto: Toronto University Press Presents the methodology" for a study of listen ing strategies and includes a lengthy taxonomy of tvpes of listening strategies.
ENDNO TE 1 CELT is the Comprehensive English Language Test bv Harris and Palmer (1986).
Speaking
UNIT
II В
Й
Language Skills Speaking This section focuses on
how
H HH z
p
ESL/EFL teachers can facilitate their
students' acquisition of oral skills. Lazaraton's chapter draws on current practice in oral skills pedagogy to show teachers how to develop the speaking skills of their students through appropriate course design and materials developm ent The chapter by G ood w in describes a principled and systematic approach to pronunciation, recognizing that intelligible pronunciation is critical for effective oral communication. She treats the skills needed for comprehension, self-expression, and monitoring. Peck's chapter discusses the teaching of listening and speaking skills to young learners, emphasizing how' children differ from adults when learning aural-oral skills in the classroom. According to Peck, these differences require the use o f special resources and activities.
Teaching Oral Skills ANNE
LAZARATON
In "Teaching Oral Skills," Lazaraton discusses current practice in o ral skills pedagogy in terms of how to structure an oral skills class and determine its content, along with implementing a variety of classroom activities that prom ote skills development, anc understanding issues related to classroom evaluation of speaking skills and testing via large-scale о ’'a examinations.
IN T R O D U C T IO N For m ost people, the ability to speak a language is synonym ous with know ing that language since speech is the m ost basic m eans ok h u m an com m unication. N evertheless, "speaking in a second o r foreign language has often been s iev ed as the m ost d e m a n d in g of the lo u r skills" (Bailev and Savage 1994. p. vii). W hat specifically makes speaking in a second o r foreign language diffi cult? Brown (1994) m en tio n s a n u m b e r of features that interact to m ake speaking as chal lenging a language skill as it is. To start, fluent speech contains red u ced forms, such as contrac tions, vowel red uction, a n d elision, so that lea rn ers who are not exposed to or who do not get sufficient practice with red u c e d speech will retain th eir ra th e r form al-sounding full forms. T he same can be said for the use of slang and idiom s in speech: W ithout facility in using these ubiquitous features o f spoken language, learners are apt tea sou n d bookish. Students m ust also acquire the stress, rhvthm . a n d in to n atio n of E nglish, a c o m p lic a ted task for m anv (see G oodw in's c h a p te r on teaching p ro n u n ciatio n in this volum e). Perhaps the m ost difficult aspect o f spoken English is that it is alm ost always accom plished via interaction with at least one o th e r speaker. This m eans that a variety of d em ands are in place at once: m o n ito rin g and u n d e rsta n d in g the o th e r speaker(s), thinking ab o u t o n e ’s own con trib u tio n , p ro d u cin g that c o n trib u tio n , m o n ito rin g its effect, an d so on.
This is one reason whv m anv o f us were shocked and disap p o in ted when we used o u r second or foreign language for the first tim e in real in te r action: We had not been p rep a re d for sponta neous com m unication and could not cope with all of its sim ultaneous dem ands. T hat is. speak ing is an "activity req u irin g the in teg ratio n of mans' subsystems. . . . all these factors com bine to m ake speaking a second or foreign language a form idable task for language learners. . . . vet for mans people, speaking is seen as the central skill" (Bailev and Sasage 1994. p. s i—s ii). O ral skills base not alsvass figured so cen tralis in second and foreign language pedagogy. In classes th at utilize co m p re h en sio n -b a se d approaches to language teaching, listening skills are stressed b efore speaking, if speaking is stressed at all (see the section on listening skills in this solum e). Esen in a production-based approach such as the Silent Was; student speech is carefully controlled for structure and content. And while audiolingualism stressed oral skills (evi d enced bv the am ount of time spent in the language laboratory practicing drills), speech production was tightly controlled in o rd er to rein force correct habit form ation of linguistic rules. But with the advent of the theory o f com m unicative com petence (Hvmes 1972) a n d the practice of com m unicative language teaching (see Savignon's c h a p te r in this so lu m e), the teaching o f oral com m unication skills as a con textualized sociocultural activity has becom e the focal point in mans' ESL classroom s. Briefly,
C anale a n d Sw ain's (1980) a d a p ta tio n of Hym cs's theory o f com m unicative com petence proposes that the ability to com m unicate in a language com prises four dim en sio n s:1 grammati cal competence (including rules of phonology, orthography, vocabulary, w ord form ation, and sen te n c e fo rm a tio n ), sociolinguistic competence (rules for the expression an d u n d e rsta n d in g of a p p ro p riate social m eanings and gram m atical form s in different contexts), discourse competence (rules of both cohesion — how sentence ele m ents are tied to g eth e r via reference, repetition, synonymy, etc. — a n d c o h eren ce — how texts are co n stru cted ), and finally, strategic competence, (a rep e rto ire o f com pensatory strategies that help with a variety of com m unication difficulties). T he im pact of com m unicative com petence theory on second an d foreign language teaching c a n n o t really be overstated: few ESI. m aterials published in the last decade or so fail to claim th at th eir m aterials reflect "the com m unicative a p p ro a c h .” W hat features of this theoretical ap p ro ach are relevant to teaching oral skills? P erhaps the m ost obvious wav in which oral skills pedagogy has evok ed as a result of this theory is th at it is no longer acceptable to focus on!у on developing the gram m atical com petence of o u r students, as was the case with a n u m b er o f lan guage teaching m ethodologies which were p o p u lar in the past. Todav. teachers are expected to balance a focus on accuracy with a focus on fluency as well. A ccording to H edge (1993. pp. 275-276) the term fluency has two m eanings. T he first, which is “the ability to link units of speech to g eth e r with facility an d w ithout strain o r in ap p ro p ria te slowness o r u n d u e hesitation." is w hat is com m only u n d e rsto o d as fluency in language teaching m aterials and in language assessm ent procedures. But H edge proposes a second, m ore holistic sense of fluency that of “natu ral language use," which is likelv to take place w hen speaking activities focus on m eaning a n d its negotiation, w hen speaking strategics are used, a n d w hen overt correction is m inim ized. This second, b ro a d e r definition is certainly c o n sistent with the aims of m any ESL classroom s todav w here the negotiation o f m ean in g is a m ajor goal.
A second im plication is that m ultiple skills should be tau g h t w henever possible. In fact, M urphy (1991) believes that oral skills teachers should always co nnect speaking, listening, an d p ro n u n cia tio n teaching although the focus in an\- one class or activity mav highlight one or another. M ore broadly oral skills classes m at- use reading an d writing activities as the basis or follow up for speaking activities. T raining learn ers to use strategies a n d enco u rag in g strategy use is a n o th e r p ro m in e n t feature o f today's oral skills classroom . Books such as Language Learning Strategies: What Lx’ery Teacher Should Know (O xford 1990) discuss this topic in detail: while the utility of teaching "com m unication strategies" is a deb ated theoretical issue (see Dornvei 1995). it is clear that language le a rn e rs m ust b eco m e c o m p e te n t at using strategies, such as circum locution, hesitation devices, an d appeals for help, and that the oral skills teach er should at least advocate and m odel their use. A final feature which characterizes the cur ren t ESI. classroom is that students are e n co u r aged to take responsibility for their own learning. No longer is learning seen as a one-wav transfer of know ledge from teacher to student; todav we u n d erstan d that students learn from teachers, from classmates, and from the world outside the classroom , and the m ore the lea rn er seeks these opportunities, the m ore likelv he or she will learn to use the language. In the oral skills classroom , students should be allowed and en couraged to initiate com m unication w hen possible, to d e te r m ine the co n ten t of their responses or co n trib u tions. and to evaluate their own p roduction and learning progress.
The Oral Skills Class In deciding how to structure and what to teach in an oral skills class, questions such as the fol lowing should be considered: W ho are the stu dents? Whv are thev there? W hat do thev expect to learn? W hat am I expected to teach? O ne basic consideration is the level o f the students an d th eir perceived needs. Level mav be d e te rm in e d bv a p lacem ent test adm inistered
bv the institution o r by a diagnostic test given bv the teacher. Info rm atio n on lea rn er needs c an be o b tain ed bv m eans o f a stu d e n t inform ation sheet on which tliev rep o rt the am o u n t of lim e they spend speaking English, th eir fu tu re goals, th eir goals for the course, a n d th eir assessm ent (p erh ap s a four-point scale from “poor" to “excellent") o f th eir overall speaking abilitv. co n fidence in speaking English, th eir p ro n u n cia tion, social conversation, and listening abilitv W ith low level adults, the teach er nun need to find El speakers to help him or h er get infor m ation on stu d e n t experiences, ed ucational background, and needs. It will be especially im p o rtan t with this student group to build on th eir experiences, to share expertise, and to use realia in o rd e r to keep learning as concrete as possible. M ore often than not. oral skills courses for n o n a c a d e m ic adults focus on survival English a n d basic co m m u n icatio n functions based on a strong struc tural com ponent. On the o th er hand, academ ic learners will n eed practice with different sorts of activities. Based on su n e v responses from university faculty. Ferris and Tagg (1996a. 1996b) suggest that, in general, what academ ic ESL students need most is extensive authentic practice in class participa tion, such as taking part in discussions, interacting with peers and professors, and asking and answer ing questions. In fact, these students mav be facing some sort of exit exam ination at the conclusion of the course that will determ ine w hether or not thev are com petent to teach in English, to take other academic courses for credit, and so on. As a result, these learners take their course work seriously and have high expectations of the teacher. Yet even these students can probable benefit from (and mav even ask for) some instruction on the m ore interpersonal aspects of oral com m unication. Nowadays, oral skills classes at all levels are often structured around functional uses of lan guage. In a nonacadem ic context, these m ight involve basic greetings, talking on the telephone, interacting with school personnel, shopping, and the like. In Xeie \'islas: (ielting Started (Brown 1998), a multiskills book for beginners, students learn to introduce themselves and greet other people; give and request personal inform ation,
directions, and prices; talk about family m em bers; tell time; give and accept invitations; describe clothing; and give and accept com plim ents. With academ ic adults, practice in activities such tts leading a n d taking p art in discussions and giv ing oral reports is n e e d ed to be done. For exam ple, in Speaking of Business (E ngland a n d Crosse 1993). a text for high-advanced learners in business Helds, students learn to plan and conduct business m eetings, give speeches, m ake oral presentations, participate in conferences, and socialize with colleagues. With (prospective) in tern atio n al teaching assistants, course activi ties mav be even m ore specific— sim ulations of teaching a lab section, h o ld in g office hours, or in teractin g with regular faculty. In m ore inform al conversation courses, the c o n ten t can be stru ctu red a ro u n d speech acts, which are actions such as g reeting an d apologiz ing that are en co d ed in language in "ro u tin ized ” form s (e.g.. "hi" and "hello" for greeting, “sorrv” for apologizing). O ne of the stan d ard text books for this purpose is Speaking Xalurally: Communication Skills in American English (Tillitt and Bi n d e r 1983). which has chapters covering o p e n in g an d closing a conversation, in tro d u cin g a n d a d d re ssin g p e o p le , giving invitations, expressing thanks, apologizing, com plim enting, getting atten tio n and in te rru p tin g , agreeing a n d disagreeing, controlling the conversation, and getting inform ation. Teachers mav. o r mav not, be given text books or m aterials for teaching the oral skills class. Buver beware: N ot all m aterials live up to th eir claims about what thev p ro m o te or teach in term s of language content, teaching m eth o d ology. and textual task authenticity. In an analy sis of a n u m b e r of ESL speaking texts published betw een 1(176-1993. L azarato n a n d S k u d er (1997) found that even the m ost recen t texts fell short on the authenticity criteria used (for mality. turn taking, quantity o f talk, etc.). For this reason, teachers need to becom e critical con sum ers of published m aterials bv asking questions such as the following: Is the text appropriate for the level audience being taught? W hat sorts of c o n te n t topics are used, an d are thev a p p ro p ri ate for this group of students? Is the focus on
a u th en tic com m unication? Does th e text in te grate speaking, listening, an d p ro n unciation? M ore often than not, teachers will decide to pick a n d choose activities from a variety o f sources a n d create som e o f th eir own m aterials as well.
Activities T here are m any ways to p rom ote oral skills in the ESL/EFL classroom. T he discussion below cen ters on the m ajor types o f speaking activities that can be im plem ented: discussions, speeches, role plays, conversations, audiotaped oral dialogue jo urnals, and o th er accuracy-based activities.
Discussions Discussions are probably the m ost connnonlv used activity in the oral skills class. Tvpicallv. the students are in tro d u c ed to a topic via a reading, a listening passage, o r a videotape and are th en asked to get into pairs or groups to discuss a related topic in o rd e r to com e up with a solu tion, a response, o r the like. Teachers m ust take care in p lan n in g an d setting up a discussion activity. First, p lan n e d (versus ran d o m ) g ro u p ing o r p airing of students mav be necessary to ensure a successful discussion outcom e. W hile th e re is no one "right way" to g roup students, considerations such as gender, ethnicitv, back g ro u n d , talkativeness, etc. mav com e into plav. Second, students n eed to be rem in d ed that each p erso n should have a specific responsibility in the discussion, w h eth er it be to keep tim e, take notes, or re p o rt results; these decisions can, and should, be m ade by the g roup m em bers. Finally, students n e e d to be clear ab o u t what thev are to discuss, why they are discussing it, an d what out come is expected. In o th e r words, it is insufficient to tell students, “G et in groups a n d discuss this to p ic.” T h ere should be guidance b e fo re h a n d a n d follow -up afterw ard. T h in k a b o u t how success o r completion can be defined for the activ ity a n d ob serv ed in th e g ro u p s. G reen , C hristopher, a n d Earn (1997) believe th a t stu dents will be m ore involved with and m otivated to participate in discussions if they are allowed to select discussion topics an d evaluate th eir
p eers' perfo rm an ce: this idea is in line with the principle o f students taking responsibility for th eir own learning. Books such as T he Son-stop Discussion Workbook and Let's Start Talking (Rooks 1988, 1994) contain mans' excellent ideas for in terest ing and provocative discussions that can be m od ified to suit learners at different ability levels. A well-known exam ple is the "D esert Island" dis cussion activity w here students are p resen ted with the task of choosing five survivors out of a g ro u p o f ten possible candidates to start a new civilization after a nuclear war. O nce groups reach a consensus, thev m ust p rese n t th eir choices to the o th e r groups and argue for them if the groups disagree. A creative s atiatio n on the discussion is the "Cocktail Parts " activity (Tester 1994), svhere an actual social occasion is sim ulated. Students are given nesv identities, which thev com m it to m ent ors. T hen thes' try to find th eir partner, th ro u g h in tro d u ctio n s a n d questions, w ithout revealing th eir osvn identity (for exam ple, Bill and Hillary C linton; a vegetarian a n d a m an a g e r of M cD onald's). .After partners are located, the stu dents can write a dialogue consistent with their identities.
Speeches A nother com m on activity in the oral skills class is the prepared speech. Topics for speeches will sTaiv d ep en d in g on the level of the student a n d the focus of the class, but in anv case, students should be given some leeway in determ ining the content o f their talks. In o th er words, the teacher can pro vide the structure for the sp eech — its rhetorical genre (narration, description, etc.) and its time restrictions— while the students select the con tent. For exam ple, asking students to “tell us about an unforgettable experience you had" allows them to talk about som ething that is per sonally m ean in g fu l while at th e sam e time encourages n arration and description. Speeches can be frightening for the speaker and, after a while, b o ring for the listeners, so it is a good idea to assign the listeners som e responsi bilities d u rin g the speeches. This is an excellent
tim e to req u ire p e e r evaluation o f a classm ate's speech. Generally, one o r two students can be assigned beforehand the responsibility for evaluat ing a certain speech, using guidelines created bv the teacher o r — with m ore advanced students— by the learners themselves. W ho better to decide what is or is not im portant w hen listening to a peer's speech? At the speech's conclusion, the evaluators can be asked to summarize its content, note strengths or weaknesses, or relate the speech topic to a personal experience. V ideotaping o f speeches allows all evalua tors (the speaker, peers, and teacher) to do a m ore in-depth critique at a later tim e with the videotape. For self-evaluation, students th em selves can com e up with their own evaluation guidelines, use teacher-m ade criteria, or a com bin atio n o f the two. Students are usually sur prised to see how thev ap p ear and sound on the tape a n d can often com e up with their own ideas about how to im prove th eir perform ances. If the speeches are a u d io tap ed or videotaped, som e of the language analysis activities described below can be used to en courage learners to becom e aware o f th eir individual problem s with p ro n u n ciation, gram m ar, vocabulary, an d fluency. T eacher evaluation of speeches can also benefit from the availability o f videotapes since thev allots' for m ore sustained a tten tio n to both the overall speech and to the details o f p e rfo r m an c e th a n real-tim e ev aluation does. O f course, the evaluation criteria used should be consistent with the goals of the class: categories o f p erfo rm a n c e that ntav he considered include deliver (Was the volum e loud enough? Was the speed appropriate? Did the speaker stay within the tim e lim its?), interaction,/ rapport with audience (How were the visual aspects of the p rese n ta tio n — eve contact, posture, gestures, nervous ness?), content and organization (Was it easy to locate a n d u n d e rsta n d the m ain event o r m ain p oint of the talk? Was there an ap p ro p riate in tro duction a n d conclusion?), a n d language shills (Were there anv particular problem s with gram mar, fluency, vocabulary, or pronunciation?). A second tvpe of speech is the impromptu speech, which can sen e several purposes in an oral skills class. O f course, this actirity gives students m ore actual practice with speaking the language.
but it also forces th em to think, an d speak, on th eir feet w ithout the benefit of notes or m em o rization. A variation on this activity can be part o f a lesson on using hesitation m arkers, such as um. eh. well, sent of, and like. Students are told that using hesitation m arkers is a speaking strategy that is an acceptable, if not p refe rre d , alternative to silence, which can cause em barrassm ent and confusion and can also perm it o th e r people to take over a conversation. .After going ewer a list of hesitation m arkers and letting students practice their pro n u n ciatio n and intonation, each learn er is assigned a topic he or she is likelv to know little about. For exam ple, in university academ ic English classes, topics such as finding a derivative in m athem atics or describing the m olecular struc ture of carbon are likelv to be unfam iliar to at least some m em bers of the class. With nonacadem ic learners, describing how a cam era works or explaining how to p re se n e fruit or to change spark plugs in a car mav be suitable topics. O nce students understand the task and are familiar with the markers, they are given a strip of paper with the topic on it just before being asked to speak. Thev are then asked to give a one-m inute, unpre pared response in which thee should keep talking using the hesitation m arkers— not be silent, and give as little actual inform ation as possible. This is actually a quite a hum orous activity that students enjov: it can be expanded bv basing students who do know the topics give a short explanation of their own after each attem pt.
Role Plays A th ird m ajor speaking activity tvpe is the role plav. which is particularh suitable for practicing the sociocultural variations in speech acts, such as com plim enting, com plaining, a n d the like. D ep en d in g on student level, role plavs can be p e rfo rm e d from p rep a re d scripts, created from a set of prom pts and expressions, or written using and consolidating know ledge gained from instruction or discussion of the speech act and its variations p rio r to the role plavs them selves. O lshtain and C ohen (1991) reco m m en d several steps for teaching speech acts. First, a diagnostic assessm ent is useful fo r d e te rm in in g what students already know about the act in question.
A m odel dialogue, p resen ted aurallv and or in writing, serves as language in p u t, after which the class is e n co u rag ed to evaluate the situation so as to u n d e rsta n d the factors that affect the linguis tic choices m ade in the dialogue. Students can listen to and practice prototvpical phrases used in the speech act. and th en perform a role plav (a fter c o n sid e rin g a p p ro p ria te in fo rm a tio n ab o u t the participants and th eir ages, genders, relationship, etc.) as a final practice. Because sociocultural factors are so crucial in the p ro d u c tio n o f speech acts. Lee a n d M cChesney (2000) suggest that discourse rating tasks, in which students rate dialogues or scenar ios on various co n tin u a of fo rm alin ’ and the like, can raise awareness about language a n d can h elp transfer this know ledge to p ro d u ctio n activ ities such as role plavs. Adclitionallv. requiring students to observe native speakers interacting can su p p le m e n t in-class p ro d u ctio n activities such as role plat s. For exam ple, when teaching a u n it on com plaints, one assignm ent m ight be to have students go to places w here com plaints m ight be com m on (the re tu rn desk at a discount store, for exam ple). T h ere, thev can listen care fully for how com plaints are stated and re sp o n d ed to, perhaps using a checklist that the students them selves create for observing that particu lar speech act.
Conversations O n e of the m ore recent trends in oral skills pedagogv is the em phasis on having students analyze an d evaluate the language that thev or others p ro d u ce (see. for exam ple. R iggenbach 1999). In o th e r words, it is not adeq u ate to have stu d e n ts p ro d u c e lots of language; thev m ust b ecom e m ore m etalinguisticallv aware o f the m any features o f language in o rd e r to becom e c o m p e te n t speakers a n d in te rlo c u to rs in English. O ne speaking activitv which is p articu larly suited to this kind o f analysis is conversa tio n , th e m ost fu n d a m e n ta l form o f oral com m unication. Alm ost till ESL/EFL students can benefit from a unit o n 2 an d practice with inform al conversation, but few students rep o rt having e ith e r the o p p o rtu n ity o r the confidence
to engage in u n p la n n e d conversations with native speakers. A conversation assignm ent car. be helpful in this regard. O ne wav to approach this activitv is to assign students to find a native speaker (or near native speaker) thev know — a friend, room m ate. or colleague — and arrange to taperecord a 20- to 30-m inute interaction with this person. O f course, not all of the discourse that results from this e n c o u n te r will be trulv "natural con versation"— the native speaker mav fall into the role of "interview er" and ask all the questions while the non-native speaker m erely responds; therefore, the instru cto r mav want to encourage the lea rn er b e fo re h a n d to com e up with a few questions to ask the native speaker. In anv case, the resulting interaction will provide a sam ple of sp ontaneous p roduction from (and for) the lea rn er to analyze. The next step is for the students to tran scribe a p o rtio n of th e ir in te rac tio n . T ran scription involv es a faithf ul reproduction of what was said on the tape onto paper and can provide a genuine awareness of what speech is rcallv like. O ne can "see" speech the wav one can "see” writ ing. and students mav be surprised to discover that native speaker speech is far from "perfect.” Students are shown an exam ple o f a tran script and its no tatio n before starting, an d are rem in d ed that transcription is tedious an d frus trating for native speakers, too. T h ere is no need to require a very detailed transcript although som e students mav want to use p h o n etic svmbols for th eir p ro n u n ciatio n . Students should be w arned not to correct gram m ar o r p ro n u n cia tion mistakes, an d to include all the hesitation m arkers, false starts, and pauses. O nce the transcript is produced, there are various activities that can be pursued. O ne that works well is to have students find several instances of "com m unication difficulties.” Thev can be asked to define and exemplify the ones, on their own tapes and then ask them to determ ine what happened, whv. and how the difficulty’ could have been avoided or repaired. In a class where stu dents feel com fortable with each other, tapes can be switched and critiqued, or the teacher can use critical incidents from each for a group or wholeclass activitv on com m unication breakdow n and
repair. Additionally, the tea c h e r can highlight several in terestin g sections in each stu d e n t tra n script a n d th en ask th e students to analyze the in te ra c tio n a n d d e te rm in e why th e te a c h e r p o in te d them o u t as interesting. In a variation of the conversation assign m ent, learners are req u ired to tape-record an interview with native speakers on a topic o f their choice a n d th en re p o rt the results to the class. For exam ple, students can b rain sto rm som e c o n troversial issues (abortion, gun control, illegal im m igration), choose the topic th at m ost in te r ests them , a n d th en alone, in pairs, o r in groups, survey native speakers ab o u t th eir opinions. T he results o f th e survey can th en be p rese n ted in the form o f an oral p resen tatio n which in tu rn can be au d io tap ed a n d /o r videotaped for self-, peer, an d tea c h e r evaluation.
Audiotaped Oral Dialogue Journals T he activities discussed so far have em phasized fluency a n d m ean in g neg o tiatio n ra th e r th an accuracy. O n e activity that lends itself well to b o th concerns is the oral dialogue jo u rn a l (Allan 1991; Foley 1993). Like w ritten jo u rn als, which are used extensively in w riting classes, the oral dialogue jo u rn a l has m uch to offer both the tea c h e r a n d the students in the oral skills class room . O ral dialogue jo u rn a ls are one form at w here practice with fluencv an d atten tio n to accuracv can be accom plished at the same tim e. Ordinarily, the student gives an audiocassette tape to the teacher, who starts the oral jo u rn a l on the tape by giving some directions for the assign m en t an d perhaps suggesting a topic, such as Tell me about yourfirst day in the United States. Be sure to rem in d students to speak extem poraneously and explain why; some students will w ant to write their entries an d read them , or tu rn the tape recorder on an d off so that they can sound “p e rfe c t.” R em ind th em th at the purp o se o f the activity is to work on u n p la n n e d speaking; also give them som e guidance as to the exp ected len g th o f th eir responses. T h e tape is th en re tu rn e d to the student, who reacts to the tea c h e r p ro m p t, an d th en retu rn s the tape to the teacher, who can resp o n d in various ways. It is always nice to m ake some com
m ents about the co n ten t of the response to rein force that what is said is as im portant as how it is said. Nevertheless, these audiotapes are an excel lent resource for the teacher to provide individual feedback and instruction on pronunciation or gram m ar problem s since the student has a record ing o f speech to which he or she can refer. In a small class, it is n o t unrealistic for the teach er to listen to all the tapes on a regular basis: perhaps five o r six tim es a semester. A large class, on the o th e r h an d , m akes this u n fea sible, so several variations are possible. T h e tapes can be tu rn e d in on a ro tatin g basis, som e one week, an d som e the next. O r students can switch tapes with each o th e r a n d provide feedback, given som e guidance from the instructor. Even in a small class, this sort of p e e r exchange can be useful. Lucas-Uvgun (1994) describes an activity called “Secret A udio Pals,” in w hich students are paired anonvm ously a n d exchange tapes for sev eral weeks before trying to guess who th eir p art ners are. She suggests th at the activity can be e x te n d e d to students from o th e r classes, o r to exchanges o f videotapes. Finally, a grad u ate stu d e n t may be willing to resp o n d to the stu d e n t tapes in o rd e r to have access to th e m for research purposes (M arianne Celce-M urcia, p e r sonal com m unication, 8/ 1 / 00).
O ther Accuracy-Based Activities Still o th er classroom activities can be used for accuracv practice.3 In the past, speaking activities that focused on accuracy inv ariably involved drills (com m onlv uncontextualized p a tte rn practice exercises), which have, for the m ost part, fallen out of favor in language teaching. Brown (1994) rec om m ends that if drills are to be used, they should be short, simple, and snappy, they should be used sparingly, and they should lead to m ore authentic co m m u n icatio n activities. In th e activities described below, a drill using the particular struc ture may prove useful as the first step towards m ore com m unicative output. Activities th at pro m o te stu d e n ts’ getting acquainted with each o th e r lend themselves to practice with specific structures b u t in a realistic context. For exam ple, W ong (1994) recom m ends an activitv called “Two-Minute Conversations: “If I
W ere . . in which students becom e acquainted with each o th e r by taking on the identity of vari ous foods, anim als, buildings, etc. using the struc ture “If I were (a /a n ) ____ , I would be (a /a n ) _____ because . . . M ore advanced students w ould be expected to produce m ore than just the structure; lower-level students would probablv benefit from som e preteaching o f the vocabulary, a n d all students could benefit from some instruc tion on the p resent unreal conditional! A n o th e r early course activity is a stru ctu red interview in which students talk to th eir class m ates using an interview form which requires th e use o f wh- a n d /o r ves-no questions. A varia tion on this is an activity in which students n eed to “Find som eone who . . . .” H ere, thev are given a sheet of habits or characteristics (smokes a pipe, runs m arathons, has a tattoo) a n d m ust find at least o n e o th e r classmate who can answer yes to th e question “Do you . . . ?” T h e first stu d e n t to “find som eone who" can answ er each question wins th e gam e. Before closing this section, a word about e rro r correction is in order. In the m eaningcen tered activities discussed here, explicit erro r correction will probablv be out o f place because it disrupts the com m unication that is going on. Teachers may note errors that occur at these times for som e later instruction to the class as a whole or to individual students, as necessarv. During accuracy-based activities, the basic deci sion to be m ade is w hether to treat anv actual erro r o r to ignore it, which will d ep en d on several factors, including the erro r being m ade and the context in winch it occurs. In the unreal condi tional activity above, it may be instructive, if not necessary, to correct errors in the conditional form , b u t n o t errors in subject-verb agreem ent. Som e teachers choose to correct onlv those errors which im pede com m unication (such as incorrect w ord order) and ignore less serious errors (such as th ird person singular -s or p h o n em e confu sion). Teachers m ust determ ine, perhaps in con sultation with their students, how these errors sh o u ld be co rre c te d , an d by w hom . Brown (1994) presents som e useful guidance on the topic o f e rro r co rrection, b u t he stresses th a t teachers should strive for “optim al feedback,” which shows that learner contributions are valued
in their own right rath er than representing im per fect native speaker speech that needs rem ediation (see also Pica 1994 for a sum m ary o f research on erro r correction and language learn in g ).
Teaching Oral Skills in an E F L Context This c h a p te r is prim arilv w ritten with the ESL teach er in m ind, teaching a h etero g en eo u s (by native language an d ethnicitv) class of learners in an English-speaking environm ent. However, hom o g en eo u s EFL classes, w here all students speak the sam e first language an d English is not used outside the classroom , p resent certain addi tional challenges for the teacher. In a survey of EFL teachers, X u n an (1993) fo u n d the biggest challenges in the EFL classroom to be lack of m otivation, getting students to speak (a cultural issue for som e w here speaking in class is p ro h ib ited except w hen called o n ), an d the use o f the first language. In addition, large classes are often the n o rm overseas, lim iting b o th stu d en t o p p o r tunities to talk and teacher o p p o rtu n ities to pro vide feedback. O th e r problem s may arise if the curriculum does n o t stress speaking skills or views them solelv as an avenue to gram m atical accuracv; fu rth e rm o re , if the tea c h e r is a n o n native speaker of English, he or she may n o t be c o m p e ten t o r con fid en t in speaking English. W hile solutions to these problem s are bevond the scope of this chapter, some general suggestions can be m ade. W hen teaching speak ing skills, EFL teachers need to be particularlv adept at organizing class activities that are authen tic, motivating, and varied. T he use of authentic, engaging materials should be the basis for in-class activities. If the necessan' technology is available, showing movies or recorded television program s and placing audiotapes o f program s can be enjoy able for students and can provide them with authentic practice in listening to native speaker speech. T he teacher can also assign out-of-class learning activities, such as watching a n d /o r listen ing to an English-language film, television show, or radio program . This m aterial then becomes input for subsequent in-class activities such as oral reports or discussions. Students can be encouraged
or assigned to go to English-speaking businesses or em bassies/consulates to find native speakers to observe or interact with. Thev can also be encour aged to start an English club or to find a Englishspeaking conversation partner. Finallv, the teacher can incite native English speakers to the class to give speeches, talks, or presentations, followed bv questions from the students: learners can also be assigned to inteniew or interact with the guest speakers.
Assessment T he oral skills teach er mac be req u ired to m ake decisions about two kinds o f oral assessment. T he first, evaluation of classroom p erform ance, has b e e n discussed above along with various oral skills class activities. Brown an d Yule (1983) m ake several useful reco m m en d atio n s for class room oral assessment. First, w henever possible, e x te n d e d chunks of speech that have a purpose an d that are stru ctu red o r organized should be elicited. This m eans that isolated sentences, spontaneous p ro d u ctio n with no p lan n in g time, and decontextualized tasks do not m ake for the best p erfo rm an ce. A second im p o rtan t sugges tion is that the in p u t given to students, w hether it be visual (e.g., a picture for description), aural (e.g., a directive to "tell m e about the most excit ing clay vou have h a d "). or interactive (e.g., ques tions in an interview ), be consistent for all exam inees. This can be especially problem atic in an interview situation w here the interviewer must respond to the turn-bv-turn interaction taking place and, in the process, may inadvertently devi ate from the in te n ie w agenda (see Lazaraton 1996 for m ore on this issue). Finally, the results of oral assessment should be rep o rted using term s that are clearlv defined for an d u n d erstan d ab le to students. For exam ple, term s such as commu nicative effectiveness d o n 't m ean m uch unless they are o p erationalized in wavs th at are consistent with course goals, the student level, a n d the speaking task itself. N ote the difference in speci ficity betw een “generallv effective com m unica tion” and "can answer questions about hom e, familv, and work with a range of simple vocabu lary and accurate linguistic structures with confi dence and can find o th er wavs o f expressing
m eaning th ro u g h parap h rase.” Obviously, learn ing how to write these operational definitions, to create assessment procedures which test such constructs, an d to elicit language which d em o n strates this com m unicative abilitv takes a great deal of training (but see C o h e n ’s chapter on lan guage testing in this volum e and U n d erh ill’s [1987] useful guide to oral testing techniques). A second assessm ent situation with which the oral skills teacher mav be c o n fro n ted is p rep arin g students to tak e— in te rp re tin g results fro m — large scale oral exam inations, successful p erform ance on which has becom e increasingly com m on as a req u irem e n t for adm ission to u n i versities. as a m inim um standard for teaching assistantships. and as a qualification for various tvpes of em plovm ent. O ral skills exam inations from fo u r intern atio n al testing organizations are described here: in terested readers should consult the websites for m ore inform ation. T he Universitv of Cam bridge Local Exam inations Svndicate (UCLES: www.cambridgeefl.org) offers two large-scale speaking tests (which are in d ep en d en t parts of larger test batteries in o th er language skills). O ne is the Oral Interaction test in the Certificate in Communicative Skills in English (CCSE). in which candidates take p art in three task-based interactions, lasting about 30 minutes: an in ten iew with the exam iner, a pre sentation with an o th er candidate, a n d a discussion with the exam iner and the second candidate. The test can be taken at one of four levels; at any given level the test taker is aw arded a Pass or Fail based on the degree of skill in five areas: accuracy, appropriacv, range, flexibilitv, a n d size of c o n tri butions. T he second test is p art o f the Business Language Testing Service (BULATS), a language assessm ent p ro ce d u re for businesses an d o rgani zations to assess the English language skills of th eir em plovees. jo b applicants, o r trainees. T he 1 2 -m inute face-to-face speaking test, consisting o f an interview, a presen tatio n , a n d a discussion, is co n d u c te d bv a tra in ed ex am in er a n d th en rated bv the ex am in er and a n o th e r assessor. Results are re p o rte d on a five-point scale of over all speaking abilitv and are su p p lem en ted with a detailed abilitv profile which describes w hat the candidate should be able to do in English in the w orkplace.
T h e E d u c a tio n a l T esting Service, who ad m inister the TOEFL* (Test of English as a Foreign Language; www.toeIl.org), offers the Test of Spoken English (TSE). a test of overall speaking abilitv, whose scores can screen p o te n tial in te rn atio n a l teaching assistants and health professionals, am o n g o th e r uses. T he 20-m inute test is co n d u cted a n d rec o rd e d on audiotape and is com posed o f 12 speech-act based tasks th a t are p rese n ted in a p rin te d test booklet and on the audiotape. C andidates are given some tim e to plan what to sav. an d th en given 30-90 seconds to resp o n d to each task. T he test answer tapes are scored in d e p e n d e n th bv two trained raters using the five-point TSE rating scale of com m unicative effectiveness; each point c o n tains descriptions of functional abilitv. response appropriaev, cohesion and coherence features, and linguistic accuracv. Results tire reported to candidates as a single score on a scale of 20 to 00. T he Educational Testing Service also provides institutions with the Speaking Proficiency English Assessment Kit (SPEAK), an ''off-the-shelf version o f the TSE, that can be adm inistered and scored bv institutional staff. A third large-scale oral exam ination, adm in istered by the .American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL: tvww.actll.org). is the ACTEL Oral Proficiency Interame. The interv iew can be used to assess the language com petence of teachers, workers, and students in a num ber of lan guages, including English. The 10- to 30-minute tape-recorded interview is adm inistered (either over the telephone or face-to-face) bv a trained Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) tester who care fully structures the interaction to elicit the best pos sible perfo rm an ce from the candidate. T he interviewer and a different tester independenth rate the tapes bv com paring the speech perfor m ance with the ACTEE Proficiency Guidelines— Speaking (Revised 1999); (Breiner-Sanders et al. 2000), which define proficiencv at ten lev els, from S u p e rio r to Novice Low. Each level in the Guidelines is accom panied bv an extensive descrip tion of what the speaker can do in various settings and with various tasks. Finally, a relativelv new spoken English test is PhonePass (www.ordinate.com), which provides an assessment o f English speaking and listening
ability that can be used to place students in ESL courses, screen international teaching assistants, and judge the English language abilitv of (poten tial i employees in the health care, hospitalitv, and inform ation technology industries. T he 10-minute test, which is given over the telephone and graded bv a com puter svstem. presents the candidates with a n u m b er of interactiv e tasks, such as reading aloucl. repeating sentences, producing antonvm s of cue words, and answering questions. .An overall sum m ary score on a two- to eight-point scale is reported, along with subscores in listening vocabularv, repeat accuracv. pronunciation, reading fluency and repeat fluency
Conclusion/Future Trends Oral skills are not onlv critical for com m unication in the ESL classroom, thev are necessarv for com m unication in, and with, the English-speaking world. As a result, all ESL EFL teachers will want to do whatever thev can to prom ote the develop m en t of speaking, listening, and pronunciation skills in their students. This chapter has given an ov erv iew of the theoretical basis for teaching oral skills com m unicatively described some features of the oral skills class, detailed a n u m b er of speak ing activities that prom ote oral skills develop m ent. and discussed some considerations that go into oral assessment and some large-scale oral exam inations that ESL EFL students mav be required to take at some point in their learning. While it is difficult to predict with certainly what the future holds for language teaching in general, and oral skills pedagogy in particular, it is reasonable to assume that the focus on the sociolinguistic and sociocultural dim ensions of oral com m unication will continue. .As we learn m ore about how people behave in real life and how this behavior is encoded in speech (bv accum ulating research on speech acts and different varieties of English, for exam ple), we will be in a better position to teach and design materials based on authentic language and com m unication patterns. Content- and task-based teaching seem cer tain to rem ain im portant aspects of oral skills pedagogy as well. In particular, teaching materials for specific speaking contexts will likelv becom e m ote prevalent. For example. Tarone and Kuelm
(2000), in their studv of non-native speaker ( \ \ S ) perfom iance in a social services oral intake inter\ie\v, found that the XXS used little or no backchanneling (uh huh. right) and fewer responses, suggesting lack of understanding. Thcv point out that m isunderstandings in this context can have potentiallv serious consequences, such as the applicants' failing to receive needed funds, or in the worse case scenario, inadvertentlv com m itting welfare fraud. Thev suggest developing teaching materials for this specific context, which m ight include a description of the purpose and the nature of the encounter, actual forms used during the interview, audiotapes and transcriptions of sample interactions, and exercises based on these m aterials. Clearlv. these suggestions can be applied to o ther special purpose situations as well and we can expect m ore such teaching materials and courses to suit the special needs in these inter actional contexts. But perhaps the most p ro fo u n d im pact on language teach in g will com e from the neveren d in g developm ents in technologv. Video tech nology allowed the Czech a n d G erm an KFI. learners in Gersten and Tlustv's (1998) studv to u n d e rta k e stu d en t-g en erated video exchange projects, which prom oted learning in a num ber o f areas including practice with self- and peer eval uation, fluency in using English, and increased cultural sensitivitv. Various forms of technologv have also m ade recording and analvzing large cor pora o f spoken English m ore easilv accom plished. As a result, we have a m uch better idea of what “spoken gram m ar" is like (see. for exam ple. McCarthy [ 1998j for a corpus-based account of spoken English gram m ar). How will we as ESI. EFI, teachers deal with this spoken grammar? Should we teach it alongside o u r rules of written grammar? Will features of written gram m ar be seen as incorrect in speech as features o f spoken gram m ar tire in writing toclav? Furtherm ore, because recorded sound can now be transm itted over the Internet, it will be possible for learners to com m unicate with teachers and other learners w ithout having to use audiotapes. Distance learning courses alreach' perm it teaching, learning, and interaction with others who are not present in the actual classroom. .Aid it is probablv not too far in the future that speech recognition
software will allow actual oral com m unication betw een a student and a com puter to take place. As language educators, we must rem ain open to these new developm ents in o rd er to provide the best possible instruction for our students.
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1. T h in k about a foreign o r second language class von have taken. How were oral skills addressed? How do you ju d g e your speaking abilitv as a result of the class? How could the class have been im proved so th at your ulti m ate a tta in m e n t m ight have been better? 2. W hat are the advantages and disadvantages of having (a) a native English speaker or (b) a non-native English speaker as the teacher in an oral skills class (see Medgves's chapter in this volume)? 3. W hat role, if anv, should the first language play in the ESI. oral skills class? Would vour answer change if the class were in an EFL, context? 4. W hat would vou tell a student who asks you to correct all of his or her oral language errors (pronunciation, gram m ar, lexical choice) in till of his or her oral production work? 5. W hat considerations go into g ro u p in g or pairing students lo r speaking activ ities? 6.
How would von prepare vour students to take anv one of the large-scale oral exam inations m en tio n ed in this chapter?
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1. You teach an ESI., oral skills class w here som e students, perhaps due to th eir personalities a n d or cultural backgrounds, are the m ost talkative an d d o m in a te class discussions, while others never speak up in class and, even when called on. m erelv agree or claim thev have no opinion. Develop a set of con tingencies vou can chaw on to equalize o p p o rtu n ities for class participation. 2. Imagine that vou hav e access to audiotapes and transcripts of authentic native speaker/native speaker and native speaker/'non-native speaker conversation, such as the excerpts from taped
tele p h o n e closings shown below. W hat sorts o f activities could be developed based on this type of m aterial? (1) B ro th er a n d sister (native speakers of A m erican English); T elephone 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
B: S: B: S: B: S: B:
okav Viola. Em g o n n a get going, okay. alright? alright. see vou this evening. okay bve bye. bye. ( (clicks))
(2) MATESL stu d e n t (NS) and universitv ESL course stu d en t (NNS); T elephone (B argfrede 1996)34 1
NS:
right, right, well it'll com e, d o n 't worry. 2 NNS: okay, th an k vou. (.5) oh alright. I will (.8) finish mv conversation. 3 4 NS: okay 5 NNS: okav? u h have a good tim e. okay 6 NS: 7 NNS: bye bve 8 NS: bye 9 ((clicks)) 3. You suspect th at the classroom text that vou have b een assigned to use in your 1M. I l l oral skills class presents dialogues containin g stilted, awkward language. How could vou test this assum ption? In o th e r words, what criteria w ould vou use to evaluate dialogue authenticity? 4. Im agine vou have b een assigned to teach a university-level oral skills class for in te rn a tional teaching assistants. You are req u ired to cover m aterial specificallv tailored to th eir fu tu re teaching needs, b u t vou find that nearly all the students n e e d practice with a n d ask for m aterial on inform al conversa tion. W hat should vou do in such a situation?
Ask at least two e x p erien ced ESL/EFL teach ers w hat thev w ould do. Did vou offer sim ilar solutions? 5. You have been h ired to tu to r two rank begin ners, m arried w om en who are highlv educat ed in th eir native languages but have alm ost no abilitv in English. Thev w ant to learn how to m ake travel plans over the telep h o n e for an anticipated trip to Disney W orld in Florida with th eir families. How would you go about teaching oral skills to these learners? P repare a course outline for this teaching situation.
^
^
FU R T H ER R EA D IN G
Bailee, К. M., and L. Savage., eds. 1994. Sew Ways in Teaching Speaking. Alexandria. YA: TESOL. A useful "how-to" book containing over 100 speaking activities developed bv professional teachers which focus on fluencv. accuracv. pro nunciation. and speaking in specific contexts. \Iurphv. J. M. 1991. Oral communication in TESOL: Integrating speaking, listening, and pronuncia tion. TESOL Quarterly 25(1):51-75. One of the most comprehensive journal articles on teaching oral communication. The "concep tual framework" Murphv proposes is accompa nied bv an extensive list of activities that focus on accuracv and or fluencv lor beginning- to advanced-lev el ESL students. Riggenbach. H. 1999. Discourse Analysis in the Language Classroom. Volume 1. The Spoken Language. .Ann Arbor. MI: Universitv of Michigan Press. This book is designed to assist ESL EFL teach ers in becoming familiar with discourse analysis as a both of knowledge and as a language anal ysis technique. It presents various student activ ities that focus on many aspects of spoken language. Underhill. X. 1987. iTesting Spoken Language: A Handbook op Oral Testing 'Techniques. Cambridge: Cambridge Universitv Press. A practical, teacher-friendlv gttide to the testing process which covers numerous testing tech niques and suggests how to elicit and rate spoken language and how to evaluate tests themselves.
ENDNO TES 1 Canale and Swain's model did not include dis course competence until Canale (1983a), and it has since been modified a n d /o r expanded; see. for example, Bachman (1990) and Celce-Murcia. Dornvei, and Thurrell (1995). 2 Of course, students can also benefit from some explicit instruction about the structure of conversa tion. Markee (2000) presents a theoretical overview of the nature of conversation and its relevance to SLA theon and research; Dornvei and Thurrell
(1994) highlight the basics of conversational struc ture and suggest some ways these issues can be cov ered in the ESL/EFL classroom. -1 A number of useful resources are available for teaching grammar in contextualized, interesting wavs; see Rinvolucri and Davis (1995) and the end-of-chapter “Teaching Suggestions” in CelceMurcia and Larsen-Freeman (1999); CelceMurcia, Brinton, and Goodwin (1996) contains m am valuable and innovative techniques for teaching pronunciation.
Teaching Pronunciation A N E T
G O O D W I N
In "Teaching Pronunciation." the goal of instructor s t - 'e e 'c c: to e^ab'e our (earners to understand and be understood, to build their confidence in enter rg c c ' - o c i i ,e situations, and to enable them to m onitor their speech based on input from the e w re-m em . To accomplish these goals, G oodw in describes the tools we need to teach pronunciat c r
n a s-stemate and pr'rc p ed wav.
“/ feel that I am judged hv my way of talk ing English. In other classes, teachers often treat me as inferior or academic disability because of my muttering English."
pairs.] In recent vears. the locus has shifted to include a b ro ad e r em phasis on suprasegmentalfeatures. such as stress and intonation. How ever. m am teaching m aterials still do n ot m ake d e a r that pronunciation is just one piece of the whole com m unicative com petence puzzle. As Seidlhofer (lT.fifi) states, '’p ronunciation is newer an end in itself but a m eans of negotiating m ean ing in discourse, em bedded in specific sociocul tural and interpersonal contexts" (p. 12). Indeed, pronunciation instruction needs to be taught as com m unicative in teractio n along with o th e r aspects of spoken discourse, such as pragm atic m eaning and nonverbal com m unication.
U n d e rg ra d u a te stu d en t in an ESL p ro n u n ciatio n course “Sometime when I speak to native American. I guess because of my Chinese a sense or m/spronunciate the word, they ask me wind did you say. can you repeat, or I beg your pardon. Sometime my face turn red. and become so embarrassed in front of them. I remembered once my tears were in my eycc " G raduate student in an ESL p ro n u n ciatio n course
T H E SEG M EN TA L/ SU PR A SEG M EN TA L D EBATE IN T R O D U C T IO N The above quotes highlight whv the teaching of p ro n u n ciatio n is so crucial to o u r students. P ro n u n ciatio n is the language feature th at most readily identifies speakers as non-native. It is a filtet th ro u g h which others see them a n d often discrim inate against them . W hen we witness o th erwise proficient learners who are barely intelli gible while speaking, we can u n d e rsta n d their frustration an d the h o p e then place in us. In the past, p ro n u n ciatio n instruction usu ally focused on the articulation of consonants and vowels an d the discrim ination o f minimal
Pronunciation instruction historicallv has em pha sized masters of individual sounds. With the advent of Com m unicative Language Teaching (see Savignon's chapter in this volum e), the focus shifted to iluencv rather than accuracv, encourag ing an almost exclusive emphasis on suprasegm entals. However, just as ESL. teachers have acknow ledged that an emphasis on m eaning and com m unicative intent alone will not suffice to achieve gram m atical accuracv pronunciation has em erged from the segm ental suprasegm ental debate to a m ore balanced view, which recognizes that a lack of intelligibilitv can be attributed to both m icro and m acro features. It is clear that learners whose com m and of sounds deviates too I 17
broadiv from standard speech will be h ard to understand no m atter how targetlike their stress and intonation m ight be. Thus, it is no longer a question of choosing between segmentals and suprasegm entals but of identifying which features contribute most to kick of intelligibility, and which will be most useful in the com m unicative situa tions in which our learners will need to function.
S E T T IN G R E A L IS T IC G O A LS M orley (1999) has ou tlin ed four im p o rta n t goals for p ro n u n cia tio n instruction: functional intelli gibility, functional com m unicability, increased self-confidence, and speech m o n ito rin g abilities. For o u r purposes, intelligibility is defined as spoken English in which an accent, if present, is n o t distracting to the listener. Since learners rarelv achieye an accent-free pro n u n ciatio n , eve are setting o u r students up for failure if we striye for natiyelike accuracy. Eradication of an accent should not be our goal; in fact, some practi tioners use the term accent addition as opposed to accent reduction to acknowledge the indiyidual’s first language (L J) identity w ithout dem an d in g it be sublim ated in the new second language (L2 ). Functional com m unicability is the learner's ability to function successfully within the specific com m unicatiye situations he or she faces. Be exam ining the discourse ou r students will need to use in real life, we can see which features of pro nunciation m ight be particularly im portant for them to master. Ideally, this entails obserying or videotaping the target com m unicatiye situa t io n ^ ) , be it a bank transaction, a friendly conversation with neighbors, a patient-doctor interview, or some o th er situation. At the very least, it is useful to distribute a survey to students at the beginning of instruction that elicits their needs and interests. This inform ation guides us b oth in the features we choose to em phasize and in the co n ten t into which the pronunciation prac tice should be em bedded. Dalton and Seidlhofer list six com m unicathe abilities related to pronunciation: ■
Prom inence: how to wake sat.lent the important points we make
? *
■ ■
■
Topic m anagem ent: how to signal and recog nize where one topic ends and another begins Inform ation status: how to mark what we assume to be shared knowledge as opposed to something nrw Turn-taking: when to speak, and when to he silent, how
iess D egree o f involvement: how to convey our attitudes, emotions, etc. (1994, p. 52)
If we teach learners how to em ploy pauses, pitch m ovem ent, an d stress to achieve the above com m unicative goals, th en thev will have attain ed a great deal of "functional com m unicability.” As ou r students gain com m unicative skill, thev also need to gain confidence in their ability to speak and be understood. To accom plish this, we can design ou r materials aro u n d the situations learners will actually face, move carefully from controlled to free production in our practice activ ities. and provide consistent targeted feedback. Bv teaching learners to pay a tte n tio n to th eir own speech as well as th at of others, we help o u r learners m ake b e tte r use o f the in p u t thev receive. G ood learners "atten d ” to certain aspects of the speech thev h e a r and th en try to im itate it. Speech m on ito rin g activities help to focus learn ers' atten tio n on such features both in o u r courses a n d bevond them .
A D E S C R IP T IO N O F T H E S O U N D SYSTEM O F E N G LIS H Traditionally, the sound svstem has been described and taught in a building block fashion: sounds "» syllables phrases and thought groups extended discourse T hough this mav m ake sense from an analytical point of view, this is n ot how our learners experi ence language. As speakers, we d o n 't usually think about what w e're saying sound bv sound, or even syllable bv sellable unless com m unication breaks dow n. So the bottom-up approach of m astering one
sou n d at a tim e a n d eventually stringing them all to g eth e r is being replaced by a m ore top-down a p p ro a c h , in w hich th e so u n d system is addressed as it naturally occurs— in the stream of speech. In this m ore balanced approach, both suprasegm ental and segm ental features can be addressed th ro u g h a process akin to that of a zoom lens. Global aspects are addressed first: vet w henever the "picture” of speech is unclear, we "zoom in" to exam ine it at a m ore m icro level. This approach recognizes that all features of the sound svstem work in tandem .
m em bers o f the clergy, ten d to pause m ore fre quently in o rd e r to em phasize th eir ideas m ore strongly a n d m ake them easier to process. In a speech, a politician m ight u tte r as a conclusion:
Thought Groups
Prominence5
In natural discourse, we use pauses to divide ou r speech into m anageable chunks called thought groups.-’’ Ju st as p u n c tu a tio n helps the rea d e r process w ritten discourse, pausing helps the listener to process the stream of speech m ore easily. L earners u n d e rsta n d the co ncept of paus ing b u t do not alwavs m anage to pause at a p p ro priate junctures. In fact, the m ost com m on erro r o f less fluent speakers is pausing too frequently, thereby overloading the listener with too m am breaks to process the discourse effectively. Since th o u g h t groups usually rep resen t a m ea n in g fu l gram m atical un it, the sen ten ce helow could be divided up like this:
W ithin each th o u g h t group, th ere is generally one prominent elem ent, a sellable'5 th at is em p h a sized. usually bv len g th en in g it and m oving the pitch up or down:
I was speaking to him /on the phone \este>rla\. b u t not like this: I was speaking to/him on the/phone yesterday. Som etim es utterances can be divided in m ore th an one way. This is illustrated nicelv bv G ilbert (1987), who m akes use of am biguous phrases to show how pausing in different places can cause a change in m eaning. Read these exam ples aloud to vourself. Gan von figure out echo is stupid )412 1. Alfred said/the boss is stupid 2. Alfred/said the boss/is stupid (G ilbert 1987. p. 38) T h ought group boundaries are also influenced bv the speaker's sp eed — faster speakers pause less frequently and have fewer but longer tho u g h t groups. Public speakers, such as politicians and
Ms fellow eilizens/this/is/our/moment. O r a fru strated p a re n t m ight sav to a recalcitrant child: Come/here/ right/ now! In each case, the speaker has a clear com m unica tive reason for w anting to em phasize each word.
I was SPFAKing to him/on the PHONE sesterdas. T he p ro m in en t elem ent depends on context b u t generally represents inform ation th at is eith er a. new: (I got a postcard from Sue.) She's in MEXieo. b. in contrast to som e o th e r previous ly m en tio n ed inform ation: (Are sou leaving at five thirty?) No, SIX thirty. c. o r simplv the m ost m eaningful or im p o rta n t item in the phrase: He's studying ecoNOMies. Keep the following phrase in your m in d for a m om ent: "I am rea d in g .” Now, answ er these questions: What are you doing? Who's reading? Whs aren't sou reading?!!
I am reading. I am reading. I am reading.
W hat word did y o u emphasize most in each reply? It should have been reading, I, and am respectively. Each question provided a context for the reply. Since the speaker chooses the p ro m in e n t e le m en t
b ased on th e c o m m u n icativ e c o n te x t, this feature should be p resen ted and taught only in context.
Intonation Tims far, we have looked at how speech is divided up into thought groups m arked bv pauses, and how within each thought group one prom inent elem ent is usually stressed. Each thought group also has an o th er distinctive feature, namelv its intonation — the m elodic line or pitch pattern. T he interplay o f these pronunciation features becom es evident as we note that the pitch move m ent within an intonation contour occurs on the p ro m in en t elem ent: Going Out T ed : Are
yo u
/r EAD y vet?
L ee : N o , I n e e d to call/D A \T first. T ed : Whv's/TElAT? L ee : B ecause/HE'S [the o n e w ho's giving tts a/LII In tonation patterns do vary but certain general patterns prevail.' G eneral rules about intonation patterns are not m eant to denv the regional and individual variation of authentic speech. Still, by offering o u r learners at least some generalized patterns for specific contexts, we give them an appropriate option, if not the sole appropriate one. Certainly, it is crucial to provide continued exposure to real speech for listening analysis so th at students can be aware of the contextual m eaning o f intonation choices. A lth o u g h in to n a tio n c e rta in ly c arries m ean in g , it is d a n g e ro u s to m ake one-to-one associations betw een a given e m o tio n an d an in to n a tio n contour. O ften, in to n a tio n is one facto r am o n g m any th at co m m u n icate an atti tude. W ord choice, gram m atical structure, the situational context, facial expressions, and body m ovem ent all c o n trib u te to infusing an u tte r ance with em otion.
Rhythm Just as lo n g er and sh o rter notes m ake tip a m usi cal m easure, longer and sh o rte r syllables occur in speech. This altern atin g of longer (stressed) a n d sh o rte r (unstressed) syllables can be a p p re ciated in poem s read aloud. Even if not as noticeable as in poetrv. regular spoken English has rhvtlnn as well. English speech rhythm is usually referred to as stress-timed, i.e.. with stiesses or beats occurring at regular intervals: •
•
•
She would 've liked to have gone to the movie. (11 syllables but only 3 beats) This contrasts with so-called syllable-timed lan guages. such as fre n c h and Japanese, in which each syllable receives roughly the same tim ing and length. In reality, natural English speech is not p er fectly stress-tim ed an d the "one syllable, one beat" explanation for svllable-timed languages is also an oversim plification. N onetheless, the highlighting of certain syllables over o thers in English th ro u g h syllable length, vowel quality, and pitch is a crucial road m ap for the listener. How can a learn er of English predict which words should be stressed and which unstressed: In general, content words (words that carrv more m eaning, such as nouns, m ain verbs, adjectives, and some adverbs) are stressed whereas function words (structure words, such as articles, pro nouns. auxiliary verbs. and prepositions) are not. A point of clarification should be made here. Rhvthm . or sentence stress, refers to ALL the syllables that receive stress in a though: group, typically the c o n ten t words. Prom inence refers to ONE of those stressed elem ents, the one which receives the m ost em phasis within the th o u g h t group:
• She attends the University of MARy/and. (of the th ree stressed syllables, the th ird is p ro m in en t) Traditionally, p ro n u n cia tio n m aterials haw included analytical exercises in which learnerlook at w ritten utterances and carefully analyze the part o f speech o f each word in o rd e r n d eterm in e which syllables will be stressed anti
w hich unstressed. A lthough such an exercise can help an analytical le a rn e r u n d e rsta n d the con cept of rhythm , th e speaker does n o t have tim e to do this d u rin g a conversation. C hela Flores (1998) rec o m m e n d s th at teachers help learners develop an awareness of rhythm by highlighting rhythm ic patterns apart from words and m eaning. To rep resen t rhythm graphically, she uses written dots and dashes to em phasize the short and long syllables. To intro duce a new pattern orallv, she uses spoken n o n sense syllables, such as ti for unstressed syllables, ТА for stressed syllables, a n d TAA for the prom i n e n t elem ent in a th o u g h t group. H ere are two possible four-syllable patterns a teacher m ight present: Teacher writes on board:
Pattern A
Pattern В
. ___ . .
__ . . ___
While clapping or stretching a rubber band, the teacher says: “ti ТАЛ. ti ti" “ТА ti ti TAA" First, the teacher pronounces one o f the two pat terns that students distinguish bv pointing to it on the board. O nce students are able to hear and also reproduce the selected patterns themselves using the nonsense syllables, thev can trv to distinguish actual phrases (adapted from Chela Flores 1998): Listen and circle the pattern you hear. Student hears: 1. (A little one)
Student circles: a. . __ . .
b. __ . . __
2. (Lots to be done) a. . __ . .
b. __ . . __
3. (It’s marvelous)8
b. __ . . ___
a. . __ . .
By first divorcing rhythm from its c o n tex t and co n ten t, we can draw the le a rn e rs’ a tte n tio n to it, help th em internalize it, a n d th en , finally, practice m eaningful phrases with it.
Reduced Speech W hen we speak in th o u g h t groups in a rhythm ic way, we find wavs to highlight im p o rtan t syllables and to de-em phasize others. L earners will have
less difficulty7stressing syllables than they will миstressing them . O n e wav to w eaken unstressed syllables is to sh o rten them . A n o th e r is to relax the m o u th w hen articulating the vowels a n d to use less energy or m uscular tension. Because we are not spreading o u r lips so widely or letting the jaw d ro p so far, these reduced vowels can be spoken m ore quickly, help in g us to m aintain a m ore or less regular interval betw een stressed syllables. T he m ost com m on red u c e d vowel is called schwa / э /. This is the vowel vou m ake w hen your m outh is com pletely relaxed with no p articular effort to raise or lower your jaw or to spread o r ro u n d vour lips. Exam ples include the unstressed vowels in the words ban an a and police.9 Since m any function words are unstressed, thev have b o th a citation form (also know n as full, strong, or stressed) a n d a reduced form (unstressed o r weak). H ere are two exam ples: Citation Form
Reduced Form
HAS He has? Inez '
What has he done now? / э г /
TO
a ticket to Tucson Д э /
Do vou want to?/tuw,
T he red u c e d form of has exhibits two tvpes o f reduction: ( 1 ) loss o f full vowel quality (the vowel fe has been red u c e d to a schwa / э / ) an d (2) loss of a sound, the initial h. In the second exam ple, to, onlv the vowel ,/u w / has b een reduced.
Linking Words that non-native listeners can co m p reh en d easily in isolation can som etim es be unrecogniz able to them in connected speech. T he b o u n d aries betw een words seem to disappear. Linking is a general term for the adjustm ents speakers m ake betw een words in connected speech. Say to your self: Why don 7 you fin d cm/ / ? W hen you say find out, it probable sounds a lot like fine doubt. In o th er words, you have linked the syllables to g eth er (and m ade them easier to p ro n o u n ce ) by shifting the final c o n so n an t o f fin d to the next syllable, w hich begins with a vowel. Som e speakers, p ar ticularly in N orth A m erican English, also p ro n o u n c e don’t you so th at it sounds like don-chew.
In this form of linking, sounds b len d to g eth e r to form a th ird sound. M orphological inform ation (plurals, verb form and tense, possessive, etc.) can be conveyed bv endings, which are often easier to pro n o u n ce an d becom e m ore salient to the listener when linked: She change-dit is easier to p ro n o u n ce th an She changed-it. If learners simple leave off an ending, im portant inform ation can be lost. Instead, we need to focus learn ers’ attention on the linked sound, which, in the exam ples below, provides the listener with the distinction betw een present and past: P resen t They live in Miami. (T he e should be linked clearlv betw een live an d in) Past
They live-din Miami. (T he d should be linked to the next sellable in)
We n eed to m ake learners aware that all of these pronunciation features (thought groups, p ro m in e n c e , in to n a tio n , rhythm , red u c e d speech, linking) work together to package our utterances in a wav that can be processed easily by o u r listeners. So, rath e r than being m ore com prehensible bv speaking each word separately, o u r learners actuallv becom e less fluent a n d less intelligible.
Consonants C on so n an t sounds are characterized by place of articulation (where the sound is m ad e), manner o f articulation (how the sou n d is m ad e), and voicing (w hether the vocal cords are vibrating or not). These three dim ensions are com m only illustrated in a consonant chart (see A ppendix 1). T he place of articulation is usually illustrated in a diagram called a sagittal section diagram , often refe rre d to as "The O rgans of Speech" (see A ppendix 2). To teach consonants, we first n eed to decide w hether phonetic symbols are necessarv. In m ost cases, the orthographic letter is the same as the
p h o n etic rep resen tatio n . However, for certain sounds (this, thum b, shop, decision, b u tch er, p ageant, lo n g ). a single lette r th a t represents the m ost com m on spellings is n o t available. T he In te rn atio n a l P honetic .Alphabet uses the fol lowing svmbols for these sounds: this / 5 / . th u m b / 0 / , shop /J 7 , decision / 3/ . b u tc h e r / t j / , p agean t / d j / . long / 1] / A com plete p h o n etic alp h ab et for English can be fo u n d in A ppendix 3. A second consideration is that the articulation of a consonant varies, depending on its environ ment. For example, the sound / р / occurs twice in the word paper, but the first / p / is accom panied bv a small puff of air called aspiration while the second p '' is not. This and other examples of positional variation reflect sound svstem rules that native speakers have com m and of but rarely any conscious knowledge of until it is pointed out to them. Clustering is a third feature of English conso nants that presents a challenge to our students. Since mans o ther languages never allow two. m uch less three or four, consonants in sequence, learners from such a language background struggle with words like strengths or texts. Our learners need to know how consonant clusters function in English and also that there are accept able cluster reductions for some forms. For example, in the phrase: The facts of the case are . . . , mans speakers would pronounce facts as fax, omitting' the / t without ans- loss of intelligibility.10 Learners will usuallv have difficulty7 with sounds that d o n ’t exist in their LI, such as the twc th sounds o r the 1and the r sounds. Despite these isolated difficulties, instruction should alwav focus on sounds in context. How a particular sound is articulated in real speech, or how7crucial it is to intelligibilitv, will becom e evident onh w hen em b ed d ed in spoken discourse.
Vowels W hereas consonant sounds in English occur at the beginning or end of a syllable, vowel sounds arc the se llable core, the sound within the syllable that resonates and can be lengthened or shortened
In fact, a vowel can even constitute a syllable or a word, as in eye. Unlike consonants, vowels are articulated with a relatively7 u n o b stru c te d air flow, i.e., there is usually7 no contact betw een articulators. As a result, vowels are often defined in relation to one a n o th e r ra th e r than to some fixed point. Thev are distinguished bv tongue position (front c e n tra l/b a c k ), tongue and jaw height (high 'micf'loyv), degree o f lip ro u n d in g and the relative tension of the muscles involved (tense versus lax vowels). Some of this inform a tion is conveyed in a vowel chart, representing the space within the oral cavity (see A ppendix 4). W hat are the challenges in teaching vow els? First, English has m ore vowels than many o th e r languages. Japanese has 5 voyvels; English has 14 (or 15. if you include the /-colored voyvel sound in bird). Also, there is a great deal of vari ation in vowels betyveen dialects ( Oh. you pro nounce the vowel in "doll" and "ball" differently? I pronounce it the same!). Unlike the "pure" vowels o f m anv o th er languages, several English voyvels are accom panied bv a glide m ovem ent. Trysaving eye slowlv. Do you notice lioyv your jaw glides upward? This glide feature is especially im p o rta n t for English diphthongs.11 A nother challenge for learners is the fact that most voyvels can be spelled in many different yvavs. Learners who are used to a strict sound spelling correspondence in their El will often be misled byEnglish spelling. For EEL learners, yvlio often depend m ore on the written text than on what they- hear, this can cause many pronunciation errors (see Olshtain's chapter in this volume). Finally, voyvel sounds are usually- red u c e d in unstressed sy llables: notice the difference in the p ro n u n ciatio n of the two a s in madam or the nvo as in motor. In both cases, the first syllable is stressed an d the second is not. As a result, the first vowel has its full voyvel quality, so the first syllables sound like mad and moat, respectively. T h e second vowel in each word is red u c e d so the second sy llables do N O T sound like clam atrd tore (as they w ould if they yvere stressed) b u t instead like dumb a n d ter. As m en tio n e d earlier, the process of re d u c in g o r w eak en in g a vowel involves a relaxing of the articulators, i.e., usingless effort to raise or lower one's jaw o r to ro u n d or spread o ne's lips.
T he following phrases from M orlev (1979, p. 116) help learn ers initially associate each vowel with a key word ra th e r than a p h o n etic symbol: SEE IT iy i 1 4
SAY YES /еу/ s 3 4
a FAT BIRD /ж? /зг/ 5 б
a BUS STOP л a 7 8
TW O BOOKS uyy- /о/ 9 10
XO LAW
MY COWBOY a y /aw/ h y ! 13 14 15
OW
0
11
12
Together, students should rhythmically repeat these phrases until they can rem em b er them .T he teacher can also attach a n u m b er to each key word (as shown above) w ithout introducing anv phonetic symbols at all. It is easier to tefer to the "it" vowel or the #2 vowel rath er than the /4 / vowel, since many listeners will not be able to dis tinguish iv and : when h eatin g either sound in isolation.
Word Stress T he discussion of vowels provides a good fo u n dation for u n d ersta n d in g word stress. Just as th o u g h t groups can have m ore than one stressed syllable but only one p ro m in e n t elem ent, m ulti syllabic words can also have m ore than one stressed sy llable, but only one o f those syllables receives prim ary stress ( • ) . T he o th er(s) receive secondary stress (•) o r alm ost no stress (•):
com
man
i
ca
lion
This can be com pared to the cognate word in French where the stress is m ore equal, n ot alter nating. with slightly m ore stress on the final syllable: •
•
•
•
•
com
mini
i
ca
lion
English w ord stress p attern s are som ew hat com plex a n d can d e p e n d on several factors: the his torical origin o f a word, the p a rt of speech, an d affixation.12 In very general terms: 1. Stress falls m ore often on the root o r base o f a w ord an d less often on a prefix: beLIEVE, preDICT, comPLAIXT 2.
C om pound nouns ten d to take prim ary stress on the first elem ent and secondary stress on the second: A IR
3.
p ia x e
,
BUS
sto p,
comPUter d is k
Suffixes can eith e r a. Have no effect on stress
BEAUty deEI\rer perFORM
— — ►
-*
BEAUtiful deLIYerance perFORMer
b. Take the prim ary stress them selves (m any of these are from French): picturESQUE, trusTEE, enginEER, balLOON c.
Cause the stress p a tte rn in the stem to shift to a different sellable: PERiod SEquence ORganize
—*
periODic
—►
seQUEXtial organi/Ation
While our students may still need to look up the stress of an unfam iliar word in the dictionary', these basic rules will aid them in understanding how7the system of word stress can function in English.
A C O M M U N IC A TIV E FRA M EW O RK FO R T E A C H IN G P R O N U N C IA T IO N Celce-M urcia, B rinton, a n d G oodw in (1996) p rese n t a fram ew ork for the sequencing of activ ities within p ro n u n cia tio n instruction. T h eir five teach in g stages include description an d analysis, listen in g discrim in atio n , c o n tro lle d practice, g u id ed practice, an d com m unicative p rac tic e .13
T hese stages are sim ilar to a presen tatio n , prac tice, an d p ro d u ctio n sequence. K eeping such a fram ew ork in m ind helps us to plan lessons th at m ove the students forw ard in a p rin cip led tvay, b uilding the fo u n d atio n for m ore intelligible sp o ntaneous pro d u ctio n .
1. Description and Analysis Initially, the teacher presents a feature showing w'hen and how it occurs. T he teacher m ight use charts (consonant, vowel, o r organs o f speech) or he or she m ight p resen t the rules for occurrence e ith e r inductively or deductively. For exam ple, the teacher can e ith e r p resent the rules for -ed endings o r provide m ultiple exam ples and ask the learners to figure o u t the rules them selves.14
2. Listening Discrimination L istening activities include contextualized m ini m al pair discrim ination exercises such as the fol lowing from G ilbert (1993, p. 20). T h e speaker (who mav be the teach er o r a n o th e r student) p ro n o u n ces e ith e r sentence a or b. T he listener responds with the a p p ro p riate rejoinder. a. He wa n Is to b uy mv boat.
11 ill у о и
sell
b. He wants to buy my vole.
T hat’s against the law!
it ?
In a n o th e r discrim ination activity, the student listens for e ith e r rising o r falling in to n a tio n in utterances w here e ith e r is possible. Instructions: Circle the arrow which corresponds tc the intonation you hear at the end of the uttercmc, either rising or falling: Rising
Falling
The plane's leaving
s
4
Sam finished it
A
4
You can 7
V
L'sing a transcript with a short listening pasage, learners can m ark the pauses a n d /o r circT the pro m in en t elem ents they hear. In general, tlw
listener's task should be clearly defined and focused on only one o r two features at a tim e. At this stage, we want to focus le a rn e rs’ a tten tio n directly on a feature that they m ight n o t be rec ognizing yet. T he th ree final stages, which involve prac tice an d p ro d u ctio n , actuallv progress on a co n tinuum . It is less im p o rta n t to define an exercise as strictly controlled, guided, o r com m unicative. Rather, it is im p o rta n t to sequence our oral p ro d u ctio n activities so th at thev move forw ard systematicallv.
3. Controlled Practice At the beginning, in m ore co n tro lled activities, the lea rn er's a tten tio n should be focused alm ost com pletely on form . Any kind o f choral reading can work if the learn er's atten tio n is clearly focused on the target feature. Poems, rhvmes. dialogues, dram atic m o n o lo g u es— all o f these can be used if the c o n te n t and level engage a le a rn e r’s interest. W hen p e rfo rm e d with student p artners, contextualized m inim al pair activities (as m en tio n e d above) are a com bination of con trolled practice for the speaker an d listening discrim ination for his or h e r partner.
4. Guided Practice In guided activities, the learn er’s attention is no longer entirely on form. T he learner now begins to focus on m eaning, gram m ar, and com m unica tive intent as well as pronunciation. Teachers need to develop a continuum of bridging activities, which shift attention gradually to a new cognitive task while the learner attem pts to m aintain con trol of the pronunciation target. As an example, Hewings and Goldstein (1998. p. 127) m ake use of a m em ory activity while practicing -s endings. Students are instructed tea stuch a picture contain ing a n u m b er of com m on objects for one m inute (two bridges, three suitcases, four glasses, etc,.). With the picture hidden, thev then try to recite the correct n u m b er of each item, while concen trating on p ronouncing the plural -s correctly.
5. Communicative Practice In this stage, activities strike a balance betw een form and m eaning. Exam ples include role plays, debates, interviews, sim ulations, a n d dram a scenes. As the activities becom e gradually m ore com m unicative, the le a rn e r’s attention should still Ire focused on one o r two features at a time. It is overw helm ing to suddenly m onitor all p ro n u n ciation features at once. Set an objective, which can be different for different learners, and let stu dents know it in advance. For exam ple, “W hen p erform ing this role play, Marco, pay special attention to linking between words.” Feedback should then be focused on the stated objective.
SOME T E A C H IN G T E C H N IQ U E S A wealth of good m aterial has been published fo r tea c h in g p ro n u n c ia tio n . This is n o t an exhaustive list o f techniques; instead, ju st a b rie f overview of possibilities with sources for the tea c h e r to investigate.
Contextualized Minimal Pair Practice Bowen (1975) was one o f the first to stress the im p o rtan ce o f teaching p ro n u n cia tio n in m ean ingful contexts. R ather than just distinguishing pen and pan as isolated words, Bowen em b e d d e d these m inim al pair contrasts into contextualized sentences and rejo in d ers:1'1 This pen leaks. This pan leaks.
Then, don't write with it. Then, don’t rook with it. (p. 17)
C ontextualized m inim al pair drills include m ore th an individual sou n d contrasts as shown, for exam ple, in Clear Speech (G ilbert 1993): Word stress Is it elementary? Is it a lemon tree?
Лo, it’s advanced. No, an orange tree. (p. 69)
Rhymes, Poetry, and Jokes
Prominence I didn 7 know she urns out there.
I thought she was inside.
I d id n ’t know she was out there.
I thought it was ju st him. (p. 117)
Cartoons and Drawings C artoons an d drawings can be used to cue p ro du ctio n o f particu lar sentences or an entire story as well as for showing language in context. Rhythm and Role Play (G raham a n d A ragones 1991) uses h u m o ro u s cartoon stories to illustrate sh o rt plays to practice rhythm in English. In the description a n d analysis stage o f teaching a p a r ticular feature, cartoons can be shown on an overhead for the students to read a n d analyze: W hat’s going on here? W hat’s funny?
Gadgets and Props To help learners u n d e rsta n d the rhythm ic pat te rn in g o f stressed an d unstressed syllables, G ilbert (1994) suggests using a thick ru b b er b a n d . T h e te a c h e r holds th e ru b b e r b a n d betw een two thum bs. W hile p ro n o u n c in g words or phrases, the teach er stretches the ru b b er ban d widely ap art for the stressed syllables and lets it relax for the unstressed ones. As kines thetic rein fo rcem en t, students each ttse a sim ilar ru b b e r b a n d to stretch while speaking, first at the word level an d th en with phrases. G ilb ert (1994) also rec o m m e n d s using kazoos to highlight in to n a tio n patterns. Since learners can have difficult} a tten d in g to in to n a tion, the tea c h e r can speak into a kazoo, which focuses the le a rn e rs’ atten tio n on the m elodv o f speech ra th e r th an the m eaning. C uisenaire rods, often used in the Silent Way, can illustrate various p ronunciation features. These rods (each color is a different length) can illu strate rh v th m bv u sin g lo n g e r rods for stressed syllables an d sh o rter rods for unstressed syllables. L in k in g b etw een syllables can be shown by m oving the rods nex t to each other. F or tactile learners, m an ip u latin g objects p ro vides a pow erful learn in g tool.
Nursery rhymes, lim ericks, a n d mans poem s all have strong p attern s o f stressed and unstressed syllables th a t help o u r learners h e a r (and to a certain ex ten t feel) the rhvthm o f English. O ne well-known use of rhythm ic chants is G ra h a m ’s jazz Chant series. These short, easy to learn chants have a strong beat an d can be ttsed with adults as well as c h ild re n .10 Vaughan-Rees (1991) has devised poem s to illu strate a n d re in fo rc e som e o f th e basic spelling rules in English. Since English spelling is usually p rese n ted as com plex, he deliberately presents exam ples w here p ro n u n cia tio n an d spelling are predictable so that learners can begin to internalize these associations: “W hat's the m atter!" said the H atter to his m ate bv the gate. "The cat ate mv hat a n d notv it's m ade m e verv late.” (p. 36) Jokes can also be used in the p ro n u n cia tio n classroom . Noll (1997) suggests using knockknock jokes to illustrate an d practice linking and red u ced sp eech :1' A: Knock Knock. B: Who's there? A: Jamaica. B: Jamaica who? A: Jamaica mistake?
(=l)id you make a mistake?)
Drama D ram a is a particularly effective tool for p ro n u n ciation teaching because various co m p o n en ts o f com m unicative com petence (discourse in to n a tion, pragm atic awareness, nonverbal com m uni cation) can be practiced in an in teg rated wav. Stern (1980) proposes a m eth o d for using eight- to ten-m inute scenes, usually involving two characters. Each pair o f students receives the script to a different scene. R ather than m em o rizing the lines, they are sim ple to provide a d ra m atic re a d in g — looking u p frequently at their p a rtn e r an d read in g with feeling. T he teach er
helps th em p rep are bv m odeling each line and having students repeat, draw ing a tten tio n to aspects of p ro n u n ciatio n as they appear. After rehearsing, the pairs are videotaped p erfo rm in g the scene. Following this, the pair o f students, rem ain in g in character, are first interview ed bv the audience a n d th en perfo rm a sh o rt im provi sation based on the scene.
A N IN T E G R A T E D W H O L E -B O D Y A P P R O A C H TO T E A C H IN G P R O N U N C IA T IO N 19
Kinesthetic Activities “We speak with our voral organs, but we converse with our whole bodies. " (A bercrom bie 1968. p. 53) O ne im p o rtan t wav to effect change in p ro n u n ciation is th ro u g h kinesthetic techniques. In addition to relaxation and b rea th in g exercises. C han (1987) m akes use of basic h a n d gestures to teach p ro n u n c ia tio n .14 Svllables are shown bv the n u m b e r of fingers one holds up or b\ tap ping out the n u m b er with o n e ’s hand. An open h a n d indicates stress while a closed h an d shows a lack of stress. Linking th u m b and forefingers betw een both hands illustrates linking. A sweep ing h a n d m otion for rising a n d falling pitch illus trates in tonation. O nce students are fam iliar with the gestures, the teach er cam use them as silent correction techniques. In the film. The Wizard of Uz. Dorothv. the Tin Man, and the Scarecrow walk arm in arm down the vellow brick road worriedlv repeating the phrase. "Lions. Tigers, and BEARS. O h MY!" G rant (2000) suggests a technique in which learners stand up and take a step in svnchronv with each stressed sellable while repeating the above phrase at least three times. In the next stage, learners create new phrases in the same four-beat pattern. For example:
1
2
HyEXas and
trving to imitate the both movements, gestures, and facial expressions of an o th er speaker, w hether face-to-face or on video. Acton recom m ends this approach for helping fossilized learners develop m ore acceptable rhvthm patterns.
3 CROC.oddes and PYthons
4 oh M Y
L earners should take steps at regular, natural intervals regardless o f the n u m b e r o f syllables betw een beats. In this wav. thev begin to in ter nalize the rhvthm of English. A cton (1984) m akes the p o in t that to “p ro n o u n c e like a native one m ust move like a native as well" (p. 77). T he technique of mirroring involves
D eveloped out of Isaac's (1995) spoken fluenev ap proach an d Stern's (1980) use of dram a, the basis of this in teg rated ap proach is spoken in te r action. W h eth er one is co n trib u tin g to a class discussion, giving instructions to an em plovee, o btaining directions to the bank, or simple ch at ting. the intelligibility of one's p ro n u n ciatio n is m easured bv the success of the interact ion. This approach involves using short (60 to 90 second) videotaped interactions as the spring board for instruction. O ne possibility would be actual videotaped interactions of communicative situations vour learners face. Otherwise, clips from film or television can be used (with copvright perm ission). T he class analv/es the video, first shown silently for general nonv erbal cues an d then with sound to confirm predictions about the content. O nce a context has been established, each line is carefully analvzecl (th ro u g h rep eated listening) for prosodic features, accom panying gestures, and pragm atic m eaning. Students m ark pauses, p ro m in en ce, and in to n atio n on a copy o f the transcript and note gestures. This intensive lis tening focus is followed bv intensive speaking practice in which learners trv to im itate the p ro n u n ciation as well as the m ovem ents o f each line. C horal and individual rep etitio n of lines allows the instru cto r to provide feedback on errors. Individual practice is particularly effec tive in a co m p u ter lab using software th at allows the lea rn er to b oth h e a r each line a n d see a visu al pitch trace of its in to n atio n p attern . Learners com pare both the sound of their utterance and the visual contour of it with the m odel. In the next stage, learners work in pairs to rehearse the inter action while the teacher m onitors p erfo rm an ce
a n d provides m ore feedback. T h en , the teach er videotapes each pair p e rfo rm in g the interaction. S tudents review th eir p erfo rm a n c e outside of class (if a video lab is available) a n d fill in a guid ed self-analysis sheet. T he p erfo rm a n c e is evalu ated bv the instructor, who m akes decisions a b o u t w hat p ro n u n cia tio n features to cover in m ore d ep th . Finally, pairs are given role cards for a situation sim ilar to the original interaction a n d asked to p erfo rm it w ithout a script. This allows the instru cto r to see if learners can trans fer w hat they have le a rn e d to a new b ut sim ilar in teraction.
M EDIA A N D T E C H N O L O G Y Audio A udio rec o rd in g is the m ost basic way to capture s o u n d — e ith e r a m odel or the student's own sp e e c h — for the le a rn e r to review. Tapes from a variety o f textbook series can be m ade available in a language lab o ra to ry e ith e r for use in class with teach er supervision o r as self-access. Bevond com m ercial atidio program s, learn ers should p e rio d ic a ls record th eir hom ew ork on tape for the instructor to respond to. As a p er sonal resource, learners can create a p ro n u n cia tion tape log bv bringing in a blank tape and a short w ritten list of words and phrases thev find hard to p ro n o u n ce. T he teacher or a tu to r aide th en records each student's phrases (the teacher should em b ed any individual words the student requests into a phrase) onto the cassette. This m otivates learners to m ake choices about what they want to learn and gives the instructor insight into learners' needs a n d interests. If vou hold office hours or if learners have access to p ro n u n c ia tio n tu to rin g , encourage them to rec o rd the session. T utoring can be very effective, b u t w ithout a reco rd in g of the advice a n d corrections it will be nearlv im possible for th e le a rn e r to co n tin u e w orking with the feed back on his o r h er own. Sim ilar to w ritten dialogue jo u rn a ls, stu dents can reco rd oral entries on an audiocas sette in an exchange with the teacher. T he entries can be stru ctu red bv the teach er o r left
com pletely to the student's choice. Such oral jo u rn a ls can be an effective wav of h elp in g stu dents to locate e rro r patterns, review the instruc to r ’s feedback, direct th eir own learning, an d note progress over time.
Video A growing n u m b er of com m ercial videotape pro gram s focus on p ro n u n c ia tio n -0 an d usuallv involve the a u th o r teaching pronunciation lessons o r actors perform ing a scene with exercises. Such videotape program s serve as additional m odels that the instructor can bring into class: most les sons are no m ore than 15-30 m inutes long. As suggested earlier in this chapter, vou can videotape local com m unicative situations th at vour learners m ight face. If vou teach in te rn a tional teaching assistants (ITAs), tape skilled teaching assistants in the same disciplines at vour universitv. If vou are teaching recent im m i grants. find out what th eir em ploym ent goals are an d trv to set up a m ock job interview and reco rd it. If vou are teaching voting adults in an intensive program , trv to find a g roup of th eir “age-mates" from vou r area an d record a conver sation. R ecordings can provide m otivating p e e r target m odels for vour learners. C om m ercial films a n d off-air television recordings can be used to teach p ro n u n cia tio n but are subject to copvright law. T he showing of short clips from a film to illustrate a p o in t in a lesson is perm issible if the instructor uses a p u r chased video and not an illegal copy. Off-air recordings for educational purposes are subject to a tim e lim it from the date of recording. For m ore inform ation on ITS. copv right code, check the following websites: http: / vwwv.nolo.com/encyclopedia/ articles pet/nn72.html http: / vvYvw.law.cornell.edu topics copyright.html A video cam era is a w onderful tool for reco rd in g stu d en t perform ances. It allows the lea rn er to see the en tire com m unicative p e r form ance. not just the sound. T he teach er can also evaluate the p erfo rm a n c e in m ore d e p th than would be possible from notes taken d u rin g
the p erfo rm an ce. In a class w here students are v id eo ta p ed regularly, class m em bers can be trained to operate the camera.
Computer Software A n u m b er of CD-ROM program s now exist that target pro n u n ciatio n . These w in1 in scope, price, type of hardw are needed, platform (Mac or W indows), a n d ease o f use. Some program s focus prim arily on sounds, whereas others visually dis play the length, pitch, and loudness of an u tter ance. Some program s have a u th o rin g systems in which the instructor can upload his or h er own c o n ten t to the program : others com e with a stock set of utterances for the lea rn er to practice. In some cases, the visual feedback that is provided is hard for students to in terpret or is inconclusive, i.e., even native speakers cannot m atch their pitch trace to the m odel. Most teach ers who use com puterized visual feedback stress that it is necessarily useful in and of itself— the learner m ust be trained to make effective use of these visual representations of speech. O th e r program s function m uch like a tradi tional language lab — students record their voice and th en press a button to plav it back— but thev still use their own perception to hear the differ ence betw een their production and the m odel utterance. An overview of mans' of the software p ro gram s available for teaching p ro n u n ciatio n has been com piled bv D eborah Hcalev and can be found at this website: h ttp ://o su .o r st.e d u /d e p t/e li/ junel998.htm l This overview contains a b rie f description of each program with ap p ro x im ate cost a n d con tact inform ation.
Internet The In tern et offers a wide array of resources for both teachers and learners o f pronunciation. W hile not replacing CD-ROM program s, the Internet protides a continually expanding num ber of websites which can be m ined for pronunci ation instruction. These include articles about
teaching, lesson plans, charts, diagram s, audio and video listening tasks, dictionaries with p ro nu n ciatio n features, and so on. B rinton an d I.aBelle (1997) created an a n n o ta ted list o f p ro n u n ciatio n websites. It is available at: http: / / www.sunburstmedia.com/ PronWeb.html Using voice-encoding technology, the in structor can e-mail sound files back an d forth with students. This type of software com presses the speech signal into a com pact digital fo rm at.21 For activities such as oral dialogue journals, the p ro n u n ciatio n log, and oral hom ew ork exercises, this option elim inates the n eed for exchanging audiocassettes. O ne of the m ain stum bling blocks for ou r learners is access. Although we may have sophisti cated com puters and Internet connections where we teach, m am of the new websites require exten sive plug-ins. In general, the m ore interactive the site, the m ore powerful the hardw are and plug-ins need to be. In addition to a fairlv sophisticated com puter with Internet capability, m any sites will require a sound card, headphones, speakers, and a m icrophone.
A SSESSM EN T In this section we will exam ine three types of pro n u n ciatio n assessm ent: diagnostic evaluation, ongoing feedback, and classroom achievem ent testing. (See C ohen's ch ap ter in this volume.)
Diagnostic Evaluation T h e m ost com m on form s o f diagnosing a learn er's p ro d u ctio n are the use o f a diagnostic pas sage an d a free speech sam ple. In the first, learners read a passage designed to co n tain a variety o f features a n d sounds. In the second, learn ers are p ro m p te d by a topic, a series of questions, or an illustration. In o rd e r to obtain the truest sam ple o f speech proficiency, learners should have tim e to form ulate a th o u g h tfu l resp o n se — however, thev should not write it o u t a n d read it aloud. A n o th e r possibility includes an oral interview rec o rd e d for later evaluation.
Ongoing Feedback Think about the rules we have learned con cerning -word stress. Listen carefully to your tape white looking at your transcript. On the transcript, underline any words that you think you stressed incorrectly and draw an arrow to the syllable that you should have stressed. Here is an example: f\
Feedback during instruction gives learners a sense of their progress and indicates where they need to focus their attention for improvement. With a growing awareness of progress, learners also gain confidence in their pronunciation. There are three main wavs of providing ongoing feedback.
My name is Lee and I study economics.
Self-Monitoring O n e wav to guide learners to self-correct is to point out their errors silentlv (rather than sim ply p r o n o u n c in g it correctly for them ). We can use various means to cue correction: 1.
2.
As m entioned earlier, hand ges tures can represent different aspects of pro nu n c ia tio n (e.g.. n u m b e r o f syllables, linking, rising or falling intonation, etc.). P ronunciation co rrection signs Signs can be placed around the room, displacing the fea tures that you have taught. Once learners understand what is meant bv each sign, it becomes shorthand for error correction. O ne sign might sac -ed. which cues a learner to think about past tense endings in his speech (which he might have either omitted or pro nounced incorrectly). O ther signs might sac: G estu res
-s 3.
Intonation
Ifvou have introduced a vowel chart (see Appendix 4) and have a lai ge version of it hanging in the classroom, t on can point to the vowel con hear the learners making and guide them toward the correct one. An understanding of the vowel chart can guide learners toward raising or lowering their jaw, gliding, or spreading or rounding their lips to better approximate a particular vowel.
Charts
A second way to encourage self-monitoring is to record student speech, in either audio or video format. Learners can m onitor their own perform ance with the guidance of a self-analvsis sheet. This is particularly effective if the learners’ first task is to transcribe their speech (not ph o n et ically, just regular orthography). Working with their transcript while listening to their tape, learn ers can monitor for a specific feature. For example:
Peer Feedback During a traditional minimal pair activity, rather than Inning students onlv work in pairs (one speaker and one listener who responds with the appropriate rejoinder), students can be placed in groups of four. In this scenario, the first speaker reads one of the two minimal pair options and the three o ther group m em bers each mark what thev hear. If onlv one listener is giving the feed back. it is less reliable a n d convincing to the speaker since that listener might have difficulty hearing that particular distinction. If a role pla\ betw een two students is recorded on tape, then the two can transcribe it together and also fill in the analysis form together. In this case, it would be good to pair students together who don': necessarily share the same pronunciation difficul ties. Learning from someone who is onlv a little fur ther along than vou can be an effective alternative to instructor feedback alone.
Teacher Feedback During class, the teacher can use gestures or pr< nunciation correction signs to provide feedback silently. Out-of-class feedback can be provided th ro u g h audiocassettes or c o m p u te r sound filein an e-mail exchange. Which errors should we correct? Rathe: than overwhelming the student with feedback or. even' possible error, follow the guidelines below: 1. 2.
3.
Errors which cause a breakdown in commu nication Errors which occur as a pattern, n o t aisolated mistakes Errors which relate to the pronunciatior. points we are teaching
This last point is not to be viewed as the least important; it is related to the first two in an inte gral wav It is the errors that learners make that guides ns toward what to teach. Thus, what we a ttend to in o u r lea rn ers’ speech is the feedback we m ust have in o rd e r to navigate o u r teaching in a targeted wav.
Classroom Achievement Tests Classroom achievem ent tests evaluate learners' progress according to what has been taught and are consequentlv m ore focused than diagnostic assessment. T he testing tasks should resemble the classroom teaching tasks in o rd e r to reduce the effect of an unfamiliar format on learner perform ance. Am oral p erform ance to be evaluated for a grade should be recorded on tape. This is not only to m ake the teacher's evaluation of it easier (although this is the case); it also allows the learner to review and revise the tape before tu rn ing it in. In fact, since one of ou r goals is to help learners m o n ito r their own speech, this step is crucial. A lthough our ultimate goal is intclligibilitv du rin g spontaneous speech, for assessment purposes it is also critical to know w hether learn ers can control their p ro n u nciation du rin g a communicative task when thev are m onitoring for specific features. This abilitv to determ ine what m ight have gone wrong in their p ro n u n c i ation allows learners to recover from a c o m m u nication breakdown in real life. In o th e r words, w hen thev notice the puzzled look or blank stare, thev can mentallv run through what thev just said and in all likelihood, reform ulate the same utterance intelligible.
C O N C L U S IO N The discussion of assessment brings us full circle back to the goals we have set lor ourselves an d our learners. These goals are realistic— the ability of our learners to understand and be understood in the communicative situations they face, the confi dence to enter these communicative situations with ease, and the abilitv to m onitor their speech in ord er to make adjustments and improvements
based on input from the environment. If we con sider the frustration expressed by the learners quoted at the beginning of this chapter, we now have tools to respond to their pronunciation needs in a systematic and principled way.
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1. T hink about a foreign language vou have learned. How good is vour accent? W hat fac tors have contributed to how well you p ro nounce this language? 2. T hink of one communicative situation vou engage in even’ day. W hat kinds of language do vou use? What aspects o f p ro n unciation do you n e e d to know to function well in this situation? 3. W ho is better eq u ip p e d to teach p ro n u n c ia tio n — a non-native who speaks the LI of her learners or a native English teacher who does not? U pon which factors m ight vour answer depend? 4. W hich aspect of p ro n u nciation is the hardest to teach? Whv?
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1.
Consult one o f the references listed below that contain contrastive analyses a n d sum marize the inform ation for a language that vou know well (other than English). W hat are the predicted pro n u n cia tio n errors for learners from that language w hen learning English? How does this com pare with your knowledge of the sound svstems o f the two languages? Averv. P., and S. Ehrlich. 1992. Teaching American English Pronunciation. Oxford: Oxford Lhiiversitv Press. (Chapter 8) Deterding, D. H., and G. R. Poedjosoedarmo. 1998. The Sounds of English: Phonetics and Phonology for English Teachers in Southeast Asia. Singapore; Prentice Hall. Swan, M.. and B. Smith, eds. 2001. Eearner English. 2d ed. Cambridge: Cambridge Lhiiversitv Press.
2.
Choose one pronunciation teaching point (e.g., word stress in c o m pound nouns, / 1/ ver sus / г / , one rhythm pattern). Develop one or two activities for each of the five stages of the communicative framework to teach this point. 3. Interview a non-native speaker of English who has a good accent. How did this person achieve good pronunciation? 4. Exam ine a textbook for teaching p ro n u n c i ation a n d evaluate it in terms of ■ ■ ■ ■
Layout: Is it user-friendly? Are the diagrams, charts, and explanations clear? Use of phonetic symbols Focus: segmentals, suprasegmentals, or both? Exercises: logical progression from con trolled to communicative? .Are the instruc tions clear? Is the language authentic? (See Byrd’s chapter in this volume as you do this activitv.)
FU R T H ER R EA D IN G Teacher References Avery, P., and S. Erlich. 1992. Teaching American English Pronunciation. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Celce-Murcia, M., D. Brinton, and J. Goodwin. 1996. Teaching Pronunciation: .4 Reference for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. Dalton, C., and B. Seidlhofer. 1994. Pronunciation. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Morlev, J., ed. 1987. Current Perspectives on Pronun ciation. Washington, DC: TESOL. ---------, ed. 1994. Pronunciation Pedagogy and Theory. Washington, DC: TESOI.. Student Texts Dauer, R. 1993. Accurate English: A Complete Course in Pronunciation. Engleyvood Cliffs, X }: Prentice Hall Regents. Gilbert, J. 1993. Clear Speech. 2d ed. Neyv York: Cambridge University Press. ---------, 2001. Clear Speech from the Start. Neyv York: Cambridge University Press. Grant, I.. 2001. Well Said: Pronunciation for Clear Communication. 2d ed. Boston, NLA. Heinle & Heinle. Heyvings, M. and S. Goldstein. 1998. Pronunciation Plus: Practice through Interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Miller, S. 2000. Targeting Pronunciation. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. Collections o f Pronunciation Activities Boyven, T., and J. Marks. 1992. The Pronunciation Book: Student-Centered Activities for Pronunciation Work.
London: Longman. Hancock, M. 1995. Pronunciation Смит. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
TESOL Speech and Pronunciation Interest Section Contains information about pronunciation issues, resources, activities, articles, and links to relevant sites. http: / / www.public.iastate.edu/~jlevis / SPRIS
LATEFL Pronunciation Special Interest Group .At international site for teachers of English. Contains links, articles, bibliography, and infor mation about SPEAK. OUT! (the neyvsletter for this group). http: / / m em bers.aol.com /pronunciationsig/
Prolinks John Murphv's list of sites related to phonology and teaching pronunciation. Includes Murphv's annotated list of resource books, journal articles classroom texts, etc. http: / /www. gsu.edu/~esljm m /ss / prolinks.htm
The Internet TESL Journal's pronunciation links This site includes a variety of links for botf. learners and teachers. http: / / w w w .a itech .a c .j p / - ite s lj /lin k s /E S L /Pronunciation/
Dave's ESL Cafe Web Guide for Pronunciation Dave Sperling's source of annotated pronuncia tion links. yvww.eslcafe.com search Pronunciation
Lessons A nice selection of lesson ideas and links T both British and American English. h ttp:/ / eleaston.com /pronunciation/
Pronunciation Information and resources covering British .. yvell as American resources. Well organized : learners and teachers. http: / / esl.about.com /hom ew ork / esl / msuh 17.htm
ENDNO TES 1 A minimal pair is a set of two words that are alike except for one sound, e.g., bet and bat, or great and crate. - The term segmentals refers to the actual consonant and vowel sounds. The term suprasegmentals refers to the features which occur “above the segments." e.g., the stress, rhvthrn, and intonation. 3 Other terms for this include tone units, breath groups, and intonation units. 4 1. Alfred said, "The boss is stupid.” 2. “Allred." said the boss, "is stupid." ° Other common terms for this include nuclear stress, tonic syllable, focus word, emphasis, and primary phrase stress. 8 When words of metre than one sellable are promi nent, it is onlv the sellable receiving primarv stress that is prominent (e.g.. SPEAKing. ecoXOMics). ' See Bolinger (1986); Brazil. Coulthard. and fohns (1980); Celce-Murcia, Brinton, and Goodwin (1996) for descriptions of intonation patterns. 8 The correct answers are a, b, a. 9 In many North American learner textbooks, the schwa / э / svmbol also represents the full stressed vowel / л / , as in "bus." This pedagogical simplifi cation thus describes the two vowels in the word “above" as being similar in quality if not in length. 10 See Celce-Murcia. Brinton. and Goodwin (1996). for further explanation of cluster reduction. 11 A diphthong is a sound that combines two vowel sounds in one vowel nucleus. 12 See Dickerson (1989). (1994) or Celce-Murcia. Brinton, and Goodwin (1996) for further expla nation of word stress rules. 13 These stages are not necessarily meant to occur in one 50-minute lesson. They simply represent a pedagogical sequence which could take place over several lessons.
14 The -ed ending has three realizations in English, depending on the sound preceding the ending. Following any voiceless sound except / X/ , the ending is pronounced / X/ . Following am voiced sound except / d / , the ending is pronounced / d / and following the sounds /X/ or / d / , the ending is an extra syllable: /э й / or /id /. l j Good sources for minimal pair contrasts include Bowen (1975), Grate (1987), Henrichsen et al. (1999), and Xilsen and Nilsen (1987). A very thorough list of minimal pairs for British Received Pronunciation can be found at http :/ www.stir.ac.uk/departm ents/hum an sciences / ce lt/sta ff/h ig d o x / w ordlist/index.htm
1,1 The series includes: fritz Chants (1978), Jazz Chants for Children (1979), Crammarrhants (1993), Small Talk (1986). Mother Goose Jazz Chants (1994). 1' Noll has many more examples in her book, American Accent Skills: Intonation, Reductions and Word Connections, available at http: / / www.anieri-talk.coin /books.htm l
18 Videos bv Marsha Chan include “Using your hands to teach pronunciation” and “Phrase by Phrase." both available from Sunburst Media: http: / / www.sunburstmedia.com
19 I am indebted to Anne Isaac for a workshop she gate at UCLA in 1998. Her presentation, “An inte grated approach to teaching spoken fluency” and the video "The rhythm of language” (1995) inspired mv version of the approach described here. 2n These include Phrase by Phrase by Chan, Pronunciation for Success bv Mevers and Holt, and Breaking the Accent Banierhs Stern. 21 One such technology is "PureYoice,” available for download at http:/ www.eudora.com /purevoice
P la c e Manner of A rticulation *
Stop
Bilabial
Labio dental
of
A r t ic u la t io n
Dental
Alveolar
Palatal
Velar
P
t
к
b
d
9
Fricative
f
e
s
I
V
б
z
3
Glottal
h
tj
Affricative
d3
Nasal
m
Liquid Glide
N o te:
n 1
w
q
r
У
the voiceless sounds are in the top p a rt o f each box, voiced sounds are in the lower half.
Ma n n e r o f A r t ic u l a t io n * W h at happens to the air stream as the sound is articulated Name
How the Sound Is Pronounced
Stop
A ir stream is blocked completely before it is released
/р/
Fricative
A ir stream is compressed and passes through a small opening, creating friction
Ы
Affricative
Combination of a stop followed by a fricative
/tj*/
Nasal
A ir passes through the nose instead of the mouth.
/m/
Liquid
A ir stream moves around the tongue in a relatively unobstructed manner
/г/
Sound is close to a vowel
/у/
Glide
Example
A P P E N D IX 2 Organs of Speech
A. nasal passage B. alveolar (tooth) ridge C. hard palate D. velum/soft palate E. lips and teeth
F. tongue 1. tip 2. blade 3 . body 4 . root
G. uvula H. jaw
I. pharynx
J- trachea K. larynx and vocal cords
P o in t s o f A r t ic u l a t io n (from the front of the mouth to the back) E x a m p le
N am e
W h e r e th e Sound Is P ro n o u n ced
Bilabial
Two lips together
/Ы
Lab io d e n tal
Lower lip and upper teeth
/V/
D e n ta l
Tongue tip and inner edge of upper teeth
A lv e o la r
Tongue tip on tooth ridge
/0/ /d/
Palatal
Body of tongue on hard palate
/У
V e la r
Back of tongue on soft palate
G lo tta l
Throat passage
/д/ /h/
A P P E N D IX 3 The Phonetic Alphabet for English The Consonants of North American English
1.
/р/
pat, clap
13.
/JV shy, dish
2.
/Ы boy, cab
14.
/3/ leisure, beige
3.
/t/ tan, sit
15.
/h/ his, ahead
4.
/d/
dog, bed
16.
/tj/
5.
/к/ cry, side
17.
М3/ just, bridge
6.
/д/ go, beg
18.
/m/ me, trim
7.
/f/ fine, safe
19.
in/ not, van
8.
/v/ vein, glove
20.
/ц/ sing(er), long
9.
/0/ thumb, bath
21.
/1/ last, ball
10.
/5/ this, bathe
22.
/г/ rib, tar
1 1.
/s/ sun, class
23.
/w/ win, away
12.
/z/ zoo, does
24.
/у/ yes, soya
cheek, match
The Vowels of North American English
1.
/iy/ bee, seat
8.
/ow/ code, low
2.
/i/ gr|n, fix
9.
/и/ put, book
3.
/еу/ train, gate
10.
4.
/е/ set, then
1 1. /ау/ line, fight
5.
/ж/ fan, mad
12. /aw/ pound, foul
6.
/а/
hot, doll
13.
/оу/ noise, boy
7.
/0/ taught, walk
14.
/л/ gun, but
15.
/зг/ bird, curtain
/uw/ boot, threw
g Pronunciation
1 37
Developing Children’s Listening and Speaking in ESL SABRINA
PECK
In "Developing Children's Listening and Speaking in E SL .1 Peck addresses teachers of adult ESLVEFL
who are beginning to work with children. She ouhmes how children differ from adults as classroom learners of oral language. She also discusses how со maire use of resources such as songs, chants, drama, and storytelling.
IN T R O D U C T IO N Perhaps you have taught ESL or EFL before, but never to children. You mav have some hunches about how child second language learners could differ from adults. In manv wavs, children who are learning ESL are different from adult stu dents. Consider these anecdotes: 1. An ESL teacher instructs a group of 7 children even- dav for 45 minutes. Thev sing "I'm a Little Teapot" over and over again. Standing, they use on e arm as the spout of the teapot. Bending, they use the o th er arm to show the tea p o u rin g out. It feels like an eternitv to the teacher: “I ’m a little teapot, short and stout, he re is mv handle, he re is mv spout. W hen I get all steam ed up, he a r me shout, just tip m e over an d p o u r me out." And then the g roup starts again. 2. A kindergarten child, alreadv in school for six months, still declines to speak in English. She hides u n d e r the table during group lessons. She speaks u n d e r her breath in Japanese to the other children, who speak English a n d / o r Spanish. 3. In visiting the class o f a n o te d a n d successful ESL teacher, you are struck that each activity lasts no m ore than ten minutes, that chil d r e n are usually in m o v e m e n t— m aking s o m e th in g , h o ld in g s o m e th in g , m oving their h ands or walking somewhere. T he class looks like an art class.
There are a few major contrasts that we can make between child and adult ESL learners. Children are m ore likely to play with language than adults are. Children can be m ore effectively engaged through stories and games. Younger children are less likely to notice errors or correct them. In general, children are m ore holistic learners who need to use language for authentic com m unication in ESL classes. In this chapter, I explain some wavs in which children often differ from adults as developing listeners and speakers of a second language. I suggest listening and speaking activities and ways to focus on gram m ar within the authentic and communicative language of a children's ESL class.
H O W C H IL D R E N D IFFER FROM A D U LT S AS L A N G U A G E LEA RN ERS In an ESL class for adults, the materials are books, papers, the blackboard, an overhead projector, and little else. In a children’s class, all sorts of materials are used— magnets, hamsters, stuffed animals, art supplies, costumes, and so on. Activities n e e d to be child c e n te re d a n d c o m m u n ic a tio n sh o u ld be a u th e n tic . This m eans that children are listening or speaking about som ething that interests them , for their own reasons, and n o t merely because a teacher has asked them to. Many authors (e.g., E nright
1991; Enright a n d Rigg 1986; Genesee 1994: Phillips 1993; Rigg a n d Allen 1989; McKeon and Samwav 1993; Scott an d Ytreberg 1990: Mile 1995) advise teachers to teach ESL holistically a n d to focus on the whole child. Several themes repeatedlv com e up:
the characters and read aloud a version of the storv written on word cards an d sentence strips. Eventuallv, some will copy their own version of the storv and make a small book to take home. «
T reat learn ers ap p ro p riately in light o f their age and interests. At the e n d of an
■
Focus on m eaning, not correctness. Eight-
vear-olds, in groups, decide on themes for a class partv: cowbovs. dancing, or dinosaurs. Each group makes a poster and presents an argum ent for their theme. Children speak, write, listen, or draw according to their abil ity. T he teacher does not correct errors. ■
Focu s on collaboration and social develop ment. Twelve-vear-olds form groups in which
thev compare maps of North America that were drawn in different centuries. Thev dis cuss the comparison as a group, prepare an oral report, and do a written report. Each child has a role in the group. ■
*
T reat language as a tool fo r children to use fo r their own social and acad em ic ends.
Eight-vear-olds enjov being part of a group as thev sing an d chant the same pieces in ESL class. Tiles' enjov activities that allow them to work with friends in the class.
F o cu s on the valu e o f the activity', not the value o f the lan guage. Advanced beginners
each receive a potato. Each child has to nam e his or h e r potato, p rep are an oral introduction (e.g., "This is mv potato. H er nam e is Patricia."), a n d make a poster with an image of the potato that could be used if the p o ta to were to get lost. (Activitv described bv Perros 1993.) ■
ESL co n te n t unit on volcanoes, eleven-yearolds plav bingo using vocabulary a n d pic tures from the unit.
■
U se language fo r authentic com m unication, not as an o bject o f analysis. Eleven-vear-olds
in one class do not know the term modal verb, but enjov making up role plays in which characters are polite to each other. (Activitv from Ur 1988, p. 178). Thus, the principles that underlie children’s ESL classes are those of progressive education: that teachers adjust to the child's developmental level, use materials and techniques that appeal to children, and stress com m unication a n d the expression of authentic meaning. This progressive stance is not alwavs carried out in schools.
Provide a rich context, including m ove m ent, the senses, objects and pictures, and a variety o f activities. Six-vear-olds learn
terms for c om m unin' occupations such as doctor, teacher, and police officer. Thev wear appropriate hats, line up in order, fol low directions bv the teacher, act out brief scenes, an d sing a song while moving and pointing. Note that in this wav teachers accom m odate the kinesthetic and visual learning slvles favored bv most children (Keefe 1979). ■
T each E S L holistically, integrating the fo u r skills. Seven-vear-olds listen to the storv of
Tittle Red Riding H ood. Later, thev repeat a refrain in the storv a n d supplv some miss ing words. Thev help the teacher retell the storv, and discuss the qualities of each char acter. Thev label cards with the names of
H O W ESL C H IL D R E N APPROACH ORAL LAN GU AGE In some wavs, children approach oral language differentlv than adults do. T h e role of language plav within language learning is e xam ined bv Cook (2000). C hildren a ppear m ore likely than adults to plav with language (Peck 1978) and mav learn th ro u g h language plav (Peck 1980; Tarone 2000). Thev enjov rhythmic a n d repeti tive language m ore than adults do. Thev plav with the intonation of a sentence, an d m ost are willing to sing. Thev enjov repeating a word or an utterance in a plav situation. With less aware ness of the wavs in which languages can differ, children are m ore likelv to laugh at the sounds
of a second language, or to be rem inded of a word in the first language. Young children such as kindergartners mac comfortably talk to them selves, perhaps as part of a fantasy role plav.
T E C H N IQ U E S A N D R ESO U R C ES Using Songs, Poems, and Chants Given c h ild re n ’s greater ability to plav with lan guage, teachers n e e d to use songs, poems, and chants m ore than thev would with adults. Mamchildren do n o t tire of practicing a repetitive and rhythmic text several times a dav, manv davs a week. They build up a repertoire of songs or chants an d delight in reciting them , or plavfullv altering them . O ften thev incorporate gestures and m ovem ent into their songs an d chants. Some suggested poem s are M other Goose rhymes. Anthologies of children's poem s from language arts anthologies for children are also useful (e.g., dePaola 1988). A guiding principle in choosing poems, chants, a n d songs is to pick the ones that you like, both as a teacher an d as an individual. This is im portant because vou will find yourself listening to them again and again! Sometimes the line between poems and chants can be thin. In general, chants have a strong a n d catchv rhythm. Manv are written for two parts, with a call an d a response, such as for two groups or an individual an d a group. Manv reflect jazz or rap rhythms. Carolyn G raham originated the term jazz chants an d has p u b lished several books of chants for children and for adults (am ong them , G raham 1978; 1979; 1993). Mans- c urrent EST materials for children, such as Into English! (Tinajero a n d Schifmi 1997) include a chant (and a song an d poem ) in each them atic unit. In the following example, note the two voices or parts and how simple past forms o f irregular verbs are practiced. Y o u D id It A gain !
You did W hat You did W hat
it again! did I do? it again! did I do?
I told you n o t to do it, an d you did it again! I ’m sorry. I’m sorry. You broke it! W hat did I break? You took it! W hat did 1 take? You lost it! W hat did I lose! You chose it! W hat did I choose? I told vou not to do it, a n d you did it again! I ’m sorrv. I'm sorrv. You score it! W hat did I wear? You tore it! W hat did I tear? I told vou not to do it, a n d you did it again! I'm sony. I’m sorrv (Graham , Jazz Chants for Children , 1978, p. 25) Written collections of children’s folklore (for example, Opie and Opie 1959) are an o th er source of chants. You will need to make sure that the values conveved in a folk chant fit with your own values and the overall requirem ents of your school. Much of this folklore conveys rebellion against authority, put-downs of various ethnic groups, and joking about body parts and sexuality. Still, as vou read Opie and Opie, you may rem em ber less offensive rhvmes from your own child h o o d that sou s\ ill be able to use. Chants and ju m p rope rhvmes overheard on vour own school plavground might also be used in EST lessons. Printed versions of these chants mav exist, but children usuallv learn them from their class mates. In the process, ESL students become familiar with the culture of their English-speaking classmates. H ere are some examples from my childhood and from a child in the year 2000: Made vou look, You clirtv crook, Stole vour m o th e r ’s pocketbook. (Massachusetts, LTSA, 1950s) Down bv the banks o f the hanky panky W here the bullfrogs j u m p from bank to bankv
With an eeps, opps, soda pops, Down by the lilies and 1 got vou. (California, USA, 2000) G randm a, G randm a, sick in bed, Called the doctor an d the d octor said, L e t’s get the rhvthm of the head: ding-dong [touch head], L e t’s get the rhythm of the hands: clap-clap, L e t’s get the rhvthm of the feet: stomp-stomp. L e t’s get the rhvthm of the H O T DOG [move hips]. Put ’em all together an d what've vou got? Ding-dong, clap-clap, stomp-stomp. H O T DOG. Put it all backwards and what've vou got? H O T DOG, stomp-stomp. clap-clap, ding-dong. (California, L’SA. 2000)
T h e re are several issues to consider when you choose songs for children's ESL instruction. First, vou n e e d to like the song vourself. For exam ple, I could happilv sing “T h e Eensv Weensv Spider'' (also known as “T he Itsv Bitsy Spider”) or “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” almost every day for an entire school t ear. Those songs speak to m e of persistence an d ho p e an d of looking u p to see beautv. But I quickly tire of “O ld M acDonald H ad a Farm ” an d have seldom taught this song to ESL learners. Your feelings ab o u t a song will c a n y over to the children, so it is im p o rta n t to consider vour own likes a n d dis likes. After all, there are manv songs available. You could also choose to set some new and appropriate words to a familiar tune. You might choose songs because they fit with your ESL or interdisciplinary thematic focus. For instance, if vour class is stitching water, t on may want to teach them songs featuring rivers, oceans, or the rain. Rivers i "Shenandoah")
C hants b uild c h ild re n 's proficiencv in English in manv wavs. Thev build vocabularv. Learners he a r pronunciation m odeled and then they practice the same sounds repeatedlv. Often the rhythm, intonation, and stress patterns of the chant exaggerate a tvpical pattern in English. Learners h e a r and produce the same gram m ar structures again and again. In addition, thee are exposed to culture. For instance, in "You Did it Again,” cited earlier, learners pick up the u n d e sirability' of breaking, tearing, or losing objects. They learn to apologize as well: "I'm sorrv. I'm sorry.” A five- or ten-minute session of chanting or singing for an ESL class with varied levels can be fun and effective. T he beginners mav mostly lis ten. They will get the gist of the chant if you intro duce the vocabularv and context clearly. Providing visuals and objects, and having other students role-plav the chant will all help. The beginners will probably enjoy the rhvthm of the language, and enjoy being part of a larger group. Intermediate a n d advanced children can participate fully if thev desire. Many will take part in the chanting and singing, thus memorizing the text. Students that choose only to listen can still benefit.
O h. S henandoah. I long to he a r vou Awav. vou rolling river Oh. S henandoah. I long to he a r vou Awav. I'm b o u n d awav. 'Gross the wide Missouri. (Boni 1947) Oceans ( "Sk\e Boat Song”) Speed, bonnv boat like a bird on the wing, Onward, the sailors civ. Carry the lad who's bo rn to be king, Over the sea to Skve. (Boni 1947) Rain ( "It's Raining. It's Pouring'') It's raining, it's pouring T he old m an is snoring, Went to bed with a cold in his head And he c ouldn't get up in the m orning. (source unknown) In the U nited States, a good source of folk songs is the Wee Sing series edited bv Beall and Xipp. Each title includes a book a n d cassette tape. Some o f the titles are Wee Sing Children's Songs and Fingerplays (1979), Wee Sing Sing-alongs
(1990), Шг Sing Silly Songs (1982), Wee Sing Fun ‘n ’ Folk (1989), and Wee Sing and Play: Musical Games and Rhymes for Children (1981). A British source is Jingle Bells (Byrne a n d W augh 1982), which includes a book of songs for children and an accom panving cassette. Sometimes the language o f a song or poem seems archaic or unusual (“the lad,” “I ’m b o u n d away.”) Some teachers do not teach songs witli lines such as "Meat n o r drink n o r m oney have I n o n e ,” a n d some teachers trv to m odernize the language, substituting "food” for “m e a t,” for instance. O th e r teachers (and I am one) go ahead and teach songs with archaic language. In singing an u n altered folk song, children can pick up language, vocabulary, an d culture in combination. Students usually sense that the archaic vocabulary is not appropriate in their own speech. For example, voting children learn the nursery rhvme "Jack and Jill." but I have never h e a rd a child complain that som eone has broken his or h e r "crown." Children realize that the language of songs and nurserv rhvmes is not the language o f evervdav life. It is a n o th e r regis ter a n d not for use with family or classmates. Choose songs with bodv m ovem ent and h a n d motions. Mans' children are kinesthetic learners: They learn best th ro u g h lessons that involve m ovem ent. Just as Asher proposes with his Total Physical Response A pproach (1969). they- seem to learn language quicklv and thor oughly w hen the brain an d the bods svork together. You can find songs, particularly for soung children, that base m ovem ents set to them (Beall a n d Xipp 1979), or sou can make up the m ovem ents sourself. O n e way of teaching a poem , chant, or song is to start with the context and vocabulary, and gradually move the students from listening to r e p e a tin g to i n d e p e n d e n t rec ita tio n or singing. This m e th o d is similar to traditional m eth o d s for in tr o d u c in g a u d io lin g u a l dia logues. H ere is a suggested sequence of steps: 1. Familiarize the children svith the vocabulary a n d co n te n t by using pictures and objects. For instance, in teaching "The F arm er in the Dell,” sou could start svith a picture of a farm , s o u r osvn drawings, o r dolls a n d
stuffed animals representing the characters in the song. You m ight also ask children to svear hats or masks that correspond to the characters. Your goal here is for the children to understand the socabularv while you use the visuals. 2. Recite the poem or chant. Sing or play a tape of the song. You mas point to a poster or oserheacl transparencs as you sing. The children listen. 3. Recite (sing, plav) about o n e line at a time, an d hase the class repeat after you. 4. Recite the whole text svith the class. 5. If the text has tsvo parts, you now take one part, an d the class takes the other. 6. Dis ide the class in tsvo groups an d have the children pe rfo rm both parts on their own. 7. Practice the chants (poems, songs) for about fise m inutes a dav. 8. Make costumes an d props. 9. Hase the class present the chants, poems, or songs to o th er children. In sum m ars. EST teachers w ho have svorked svith adults n e e d to keep in m in d that mans' children enjoy playing with language an d svelcome the repeated a n d rhythmic language of songs an d chants. Teachers n e e d to choose texts svith care a n d be p re p a re d to work with them repeatedly ewer a long period of time.
Dramatic Activities Children can be engaged in a lesson th ro u g h dram a m ore easily than th ro u g h explanations or instructions. Som e shv c h ild re n will speak th rough a p u p p e t but are reluctant to speak on their osvn. Dramatic actisities can be beneficial for children svhether tiles' has'e a big or small part in the production. Even if a child has a n o n speaking role, he or she mav listen intently while silently playing the part of a tree or a river. All in all, children are m ore willing to take p a rt in dram a actisities than are adults. Commercially published skits an d plays are available in magazines for children. W ithin the U n ited States, a children's magazine called Plays an d others such as Cricket a n d Ladybug are good sources.
Role plavs can grow out of a story read or told in class. Alter the children are familiar with the story, assign them parts. C hildren m ight act out the story itself, or react in character to a sit uation that you describe for them. G raham 's Jazz Chant Fairy 1'alrs (Graham 1988) are dramatic retellings of favorite fairy tales bv a chorus and individual parts. Then are suitable both for a mixed-level or a h o m o g e neous class. Mane' are appropriate for younger children (e.g., "Little Red Riding Hood") and two (“Rumpelstiltskin,” "The Fisherman and His Wife”) have them es that appeal to children up to eleven or twelve years old. Before introducing the jazz chant fairv tale, the teacher needs to tell or read the traditional version so that everyone in the class is familiar with the tale. C hildren enjov the rhvthmic language, the repetition, a n d the call an d response structure of the dialogue. Many adults enjov the jokes and productions. Graham has e m b ro id ere d the fairv tales with h e r sense of rhvtlnn. For instance, in “Goldilocks an d the T h re e Bears." this chant details preparations for breakfast before the bears go for a walk: Papa Bear: Mama Bear: Babv Bear: Chorus:
I'll make the porridge. I'll p o u r the milk. I'll set the table. I'll set the table. And thev did (clap clap). A nd thev did (clap clap). Babv set the table. M ama p o u re d the milk. Papa m ade the porridge. And thev all sat down.
Narrator:
W ho set the table?
Chorus: Narratin': Chorus:
Babv set the table. W ho p o u re d the milk? M ama p o u re d the milk, [continues] (Graham 1988. p. 4i
Rehearsals of jazz chant fain tale' could take place over several weeks or month.', mj that the children can easily perforin with notes or without. T h e class should make costum e', props, an d perhaps a backdrop for the final pn Auction.
Reader's theater takes m uch less time and preparation. In reader's theater, children read aloud a store- (usually from a children's book) that has been rewritten in plav form. You can write vour own reader's theater script by basing it on a children's book that is interesting to your students a n d at a suitable level for them. Your script can be almost the same as the book, except that eon will have several narrators (for example, narrators 1 . 2 . and 3) to spread out the parts and give each child enough to read. A m ore difficult task is to use a store such as a Greek nrvth, a folk tale familiar to vour students, or an event that h a p p e n e d in the c h ild ren ’s neighborhood. T h e n eon will need to write out the store at the chil dren's level, making sure to divide the narration a m o n g several children. You m ight want to read the original story first with the class a n d then, if necessary, to read the script aloud to them. To include the whole class, groups of children can be assigned to each part. As a culm ination, children can make cos tumes and p e rform the reader's theater for a n o th e r class. You can purchase reader's theater scripts from Reader's T h e a tre Script Service (PO Box 178333. San Diego. GA 92177). Scripts are also available on some of the websites listed at the e n d of this chapter. Ghilclren can also make up their own skits orallv or in writing. Some teachers assign groups to m ake up skits at the e n d of a unit. For instance, after the class has studied recycling, groups are asked to dramatize ( 1 ) an a rg u m e n t between people who want to recycle a n d those who don't, or (2 ) a ne ig h b o r h o o d that learns about recycling.
Storytelling Stories are a powerf ul m eans o f language teach ing. A skillful teacher can use stories to develop “m ore efficient listening, m ore fluent speaking and the ability to read and write easily an d com petently" (Garvie 1990, p. 161). Ghilclren usual!' enjov hearing the same store mans' times. The teacher cam easily vary the presentation. Fo: instance, sou can tell the story using a picture book, or a flannel board and movable character' You can tell or read the store while children
move puppets or dolls, or as they wear masks and act out the store. You can tell the story while chil dren draw it. You can tell a version of a familiar store such as "Bille Goats G ru ff’ by a different a u th o r and illustrator. Children may listen to a tape-recorded store to g e th e r o r inclieidualle. using earphones. Mane follow-up activities are possible. When thee have he a rd a store' several times, children can retell it. act it out, or write a script for the store. As described be D onna Brinton (personal com m unication) and others, store activities can also be games. For example, the teacher chooses a brief store, such as a fable be' Aesop, and rewrites it so that there is one sentence for each student to memorize. After the teacher checks each student's abilitv to recite his or h e r sen tence, the students must first decide how to line up in order, and then recite the entire store. In an o th er activitv. three students leave the room, and the teacher tells a short anecdote or store to the rem aining students. When m em bers of the class are able to tell the store themselves. student X (who eras in the hall) comes back to the class room, and the o th er students tell him or her the story. Next, student Y rejoins the class a n d stu dent X tells the store’, and so on. Afterwards, the class can discuss how the store changed in the retelling. Wright (1995) provides activities to use before, during, and after a store as well as stories and lesson plans for children of different ages. Ur a n d Wright (1992) describe brief activities that include stories, such as a chain store : O ne student begins a store and others take turns adding sentences, w hether orallv or in writing.
Gesture and Movement C hildren n e e d to move a r o u n d m ore than adults do. As m en tio n e d above, e c u can com bine gesture and m ovem ent evith songs, poems, or chants, with dram a, a n d with stories. You cam ask children to answer a question th ro u g h move ment: for instance, to sav yev bv raising one h a n d and no by looking at the floor. With voting chil dren, some teachers break up the lesson even five or ten m inutes for a m inute or two of phvsical exercise or dancing.
Total Physical Response (TPR) T he best known F.SL a pproach involving move m en t is Total Phvsical Response (Asher 1969). In TPR. the teacher gives com m ands, models them, an d gradually weans the student from watching the teacher's model. Soon students are able to carrv out a variety of com m ands. Thev u n d e r stand most of what is said, a n d in the process acquire receptive language, especially vocabu lary and grammar. A lesson m ight start like this: Teacher:
Stand up. (pauses, then stands up) Touch vour shoulder, (pauses, then touches shoulder) Sit down, (pauses, then sits down) Stand up. (continues modeling)
I.ater. some students und e rsta n d an d follow the teacher's c o m m a n d s : Teacher:
Touch vour head.
Erika. Jose. M ahmoud: (Touch heads) Most o ther students: (follow others an d touch heads) Teacher:
Good! Great job, Erika and Jose a n d M ahmoud!
TPR fits within comprehension-based approaches such as the Natural Approach (Krashen and Terrell 1983). G ram m ar is not overtlv taught, the locus is on com prehension, and the input is sup posed to be comprehensible. While books of TPR com m ands are avail able. manv teachers write their own com m ands, perhaps relating them to the topic of study. For instance, if children art' studying the water cycle, com m ands such as Touch/Poirl to/Pirh up the Cloud/Paver/Raindrop can be carried out using pictures or word cards. With a series of com mands. teachers can ask students to e a rn out a simple process such as making a terrarium in which water will evaporate and condense: lake the glass terrarium. Put mater in the pool. Sprax water on the sides Put plastie wrap on lop. Pul the terrarium hу the window.
Total Physical Response (TPR) Storytelling TPR storytelling (Rav an d Seelv 1998; Seely and Romijn 1998) is a m e th o d o f second o r foreign language teaching that includes actions, p a n tom im e, an d o th er techniques. Much is taught th ro u g h stories. T he instructor begins by teach ing the words of a store th ro u g h associated ges tures. Each word has its own gesture, perhaps a sign in Am erican Sign Language (the language of the de a f in the U nited States) or perhaps a gesture that the teacher invents. Students then practice the vocabulary in pairs: O n e speaks and the o th e r makes the gesture. After the vocabu lary has b e e n covered, the teacher tells a m ini story to the students, trving to incorporate the students' nam es and characteristics. .After about a m o n th o f instruction, a teacher m ight tell a mini-story, such as the one below, m uch of which students would u n d e rs ta n d because o f the previ ous stories, gestures, and pantomimes: Tamm}' has a cat in the chair. T he cat runs away. Tammy looks everywhere for the cat. She comes back and sits down. Oh! T he cat is asleep in the chair.
grammatical errors. How are vou to respond? In EFL situations, where time is short an d class is perhaps the onlv place where the child speaks English, manv teachers are careful ab o u t noting errors, a n d plan lessons a n d h o m ew o rk in response. Some of the strategies an d materials that Celce-Murcia an d Hilles (1988) present for g ram m ar lessons could be used with children. U r ’s g ra m m a r practice activities (1988) are a rranged bv grammatical category (adjectives, negative sentences) a n d manv can be used as is or adapted. In the U nited States, where manv teachers favor the Natural Approach, errors are often seen as indicators of the child’s knowledge, but n o t as invitations to correct. Teachers of younger children (ages 5—10) often ignore errors. These teachers respond to the child's ideas, perhaps rephrasing the incorrect language in correct form. All in all, w hen teachers notice errors in grammar, vocabulary, an d pronunciation, they can choose from a range of strategies: ignore the error, m ake a m ental note, rephrase the sen tence. rephrase a n d expand, or present a lesson to a gro u p or the whole class later on.
(Seelv a n d Romijn 1998. p. 42) Later on, students are able to tell the storv th em selves, while others act it out. In the next step, the teacher tells a m ain storv which students later retell a n d revise. Last, students create their own stories an d tell them. Tests focus on vocab ulary. In the second or third vear, g ram m ar is tau g h t by telling the stories from a n o th e r point o f view, thus requiring the lea rn er to change tenses, pro n o u n s, and so on.
Teaching Grammar Younger children are less likely to focus on the vocabulary or pro n u n cia tio n errors of others, or to correct them . As children grow older, their metalinguistic awareness (ability to analyze lan guage) grows, an d thev do te n d to notice errors m uch the same as adults do. As you work with children who are devel oping their oral language, you will notice many
SUMMARY A N D FU TU R E D IR E C T IO N S I have focused here on activities that are usually associated with ESL or EFL children's instruc tion: songs, poems, chants, dram a, stories, ges ture. m ovem ent. TPR. a n d TPR storytelling. At the same time, manv activities associated with co n te n t classes can also give children oral lan guage practice. Some examples are class discus sions. pairwork. cooperative group work, oral reports, interviews an d lectures. The main point of this chapter is that chil dren's ESL instruction needs to parallel their developmental levels. Since plav is a child's suc cessful work, the programs allow for m am kinds of plan with talk built in. Since children learn from each other and crave interaction with peers, group activities are provided. Since children often enjov language plav, am ple time is given
for rhvmes, chants, and jokes. Since children are restless a n d n e e d to learn th ro u g h m ovem ent, gestures a n d m ovem ent are inco rp o rate d into songs and games. In addition, TPR along with TPR storvtelling are used. C hildren also move a ro u n d as they work on experim ents an d art projects, a n d as thev h andle objects that relate to their topic of study. Stories, told with various kinds of visuals and sometimes supplem ented with dram atic activities, provide children with a context for the language thev are learning. These are examples for just some of the princi ples given at the beginning of this chapter. In addition, ESL materials published for children often reflect sensitivity to different learning stvles (Peck 1995). Since the 1960s. oral language has been emphasized m ore than written language in chil d re n 's ESL. In the U n ited States, children would often take part in listening and speaking activities in ESL classes, but would get most of their reading a n d writing instruction in English in a m ainstream class. Currently, in the schools of test-driven states such as California, reading seems to be the skill most taught and tested. G overnm ent agen cies test children's reading a n d publicize scores. Publishers m a rk e t "teacher-proof" m aterials such as Success for All and Open Court, asserting their usefulness with all children, including English-language learners. It is likely that pub lishers will decide that m ore work on oral lan guage needs to go along with reading and writing activities. At the same time, materials such as Into English! mav start to incorporate m ore written language. In all, the pen d u lu m mav swing back to oral language a n d then to an u n d e rsta n d in g of how all four skills can be taught so that thev nourish each other. O f curre n t ESL m ethods, TPR storytelling seems ripe for further developm ent a n d dissem ination. W hen additional materials are p ro duced and m arketed — teachers’ guides, student books, tra in in g videos — m o re tea c h e rs can learn to use this a pproach on their own, as well as t h ro u g h the existing tra in in g program s. Research mav fu rth e r d o c u m e n t the success of an a pproach that relies on gesture, movement.
h u m o r an d stories. Perhaps o th e r techniques will em erge in which students learn stories, act them out. retell, and v a n them. Teachers who move from ESL instruction for adults to ESL for children mav find that their focus on the structure of English changes to a focus on the interests and characteristics of chil dren. Teachers' knowledge of English grammar, of the children's native languages, of lesson plan ning. and of the contrasts between their own cul ture and the children's native cultures will stand them in good stead. Thev also mav need to spend time observing some children, w hether language learners or not. to become sensitive to ch ild ren ’s classroom behavior and preferences. In a way, their task is to adapt tasks that children already enjov (such as guessing games or ju m p rope rhvmes) to the language classroom. They also can take advantage of some excellent published materials, as well as books and materials written for child native speakers of English. So. if vou are starting a new position as a teacher of ESL or EFT to children, vou bring at least th re e resources: your know ledge of English, vour experience with language teaching techniques, and vour intuitions about children. As vou learn m ore about children, you will see them m ore cleavlv as language students. You will note their learning stvles, their n e e d for work in listening and speaking, and their openness to language plav: in the process, vour work as a lan guage teacher of children can be increasingly successful a n d enjoyable.
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1. T hink of an incident when the oral language of a child surprised vou. Write down, as far as vou can rem em ber, what the child said. Was there language plav? How can you describe the unusual qualities of the c h ild ’s language? 2. Are there other wavs that vou can think of in which children's oral language (both listening and speaking) differs from adults’ language? 3. Games, such as jum p rope rhvmes a n d guess ing games, can be used with children who are learning a language. In one game, children
line up according to the m onth and year in which they were born. T hen each is invited to tell about his or her birthday. The teacher accepts correct responses and understandable ones: “I was born on March 23” is accepted as well as “Me, September." What oral language games did vent enjoy as a child? Which ones could you use or adapt with child EST learners? 4. Consider an oral language game such as “Simon Savs” or “Mr. Wolf." How would you adapt it to a class, for instance, with beginners and intermediate learners? 5. W hat three stories would y o u most like to learn to tell to a class of ESL children? The stories could come from children's literature or be your own experiences. What visuals would you use?
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1. Talk with some children between six and ten years old. Ask them to teach y o u their favorite b oard games. Examples m ight be "Clue." “Candvland,” “M onopolvjr." (United States), o r “P a rch e e si” a n d “Snakes, C hutes an d L adders” (worldwide). Tape record the play ers’ language during one of these games. Write a paragraph or two explaining what ESL level (s) m ight plav this game a n d why. 2. Choose a storv, a poem , or song that tells a story. O btain or m ake three sets o f objects which you could use in presenting the storv Types of objects or visuals could include p u p pets, masks, dolls, pictures, posters, over h e a d transparencies, props, craft activities, art activities, an d so on. Tell the story to vour classmates, using each set of objects in turn. 3. Observe an intermediate- or advanced-level ESL class for children. Take special note of the grammatical errors in writing and in speaking. List them. Write a brief report listing the most frequent errors. Suggest two communicative activities that would be worthwhile to use in addressing the most com m on error. 4. Write a brief p a p e r (one or two pages) about an adult's m em ory o f studying a second or foreign language as a child. You may inter view som eone else or write about your own
5.
memories. What feelings are rem em bered? How do you think learning occurred? In addi tion, how m ight a person's past experience influence his or her approach as a teacher? Choose a storv to teach to a group of chil dren. Draw a picture or make a collage, using pictures from magazines and newspapers, that will help children to learn the story.
FU R T H ER R EA D IN G Each book can be adapted to an EFL/ESL context. Claire, E. 1998. ESL Teacher’s Activities Kit. EnglewoodCliffs. XJ: Prentice Hall. Experienced or inexperienced teachers can draw from this variety of games and activities. Directions and materials are clearly spelled out. Some unusual categories are Total Physical Response activities and activities in which stu dents build social contacts. Law. B.. and M. Eckes. 2001. The More-Than-JustSurviving Handbook: ESL for Even Classroom 'Teacher. 2d ed. Winnipeg, Canada: Peguis Publishers. This comprehensive guide covers all four skills and is useful for teachers who have two or three ESL students, or a whole class. The book is prac tical, concise, and filled with examples. The authors discuss how child ESL learners feel and how their language proficiency grows. Their dis cussion of assessment is practical and realistic. Phillips. S. 1993. Young Learners. Oxford: Oxford L'niversitv Press. Phillips provides children's EFL activities in sev eral categories: listening, speaking, reading, writing, vocabulary and grammar, games, songs and chants, creative activities, and videos. The last chapter. "Putting It All Together,” deals with the content and planning of lessons as well as with classroom management. Scott. W. A., and L. H. Ytreberg. 1990. Teaching English to Children. London: Longman. A concise, practical and easv-to-read book about children's EFL. The authors also provide a help ful discussion of how voting children differ from older people as language learners. Ur. P. 1998. Grammar Practice Activities: A Practical Guide for 'Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Communicative activities are provided to remedv grammatical errors in areas such as adjectives, interrogatives, and tag questions. Thirtv-four areas are given, and Ur provides several activities for each one. While written with the needs of secondare and adult students in mind, mam of the activities can be adapted to children.
TPRS (Total Phvsical Response Stomelling) http: / /www. tprstorytelling.com/story.htm
This page is sponsored bv Education World and shares a site with pages on foreign language resources. http: / / www.education-world.com/ foreign lang/classroom/esl.shtml
Aarmi Shepard's Reader's Theater site. http:
W E B S IT E S Young Learners: Web Resources (Young Learners Special Interest Group. International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language) (LATEFI.) This organization is based in the United King dom. The site contains more than 150 links to sites in several countries relating to ESI- and EFL for voting learners. This is the most detailed and complete site that I have seen relating to children's ESI.. http: / / www.countryschool.com ylresources.htm
www.aaronshcp.com rt indcx.html
An index of websites dealing with reader's theater, drama, stomelling. etc. http:
falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/drama.htm
E-mail Discussion Group TESI.K-12 (Teachers of English as a second language to children) is an e-mail discussion group (newsgroup) for teachers of children ages 5-18 (kindergarten through 12th grade). To subscribe send a message to LIST SER V ta C U N Y V M .C G N Y .E D U
Or on BIT NET to LIST SER V ta CU N YV M with а message consisting of one line: Subscribe TESLK-12 vour name
Language Skills Reading Teaching reading skills to non-native speakers of English involves unique problems and challenges at all conceivable levels of instruction. ESLTEFL teachers working with young children will be greatly assisted by Ediger's chapter, which provides background and review of issues and standards while also recommending many helpful teaching activities and techniques.The chapter by Weinstein is addressed to teachers of adult ESL learners; such teachers must start by understanding the special contexts in which adult literacy is taught. Weinstein synthesizes current curricula and pedagogical approaches, including a number of promising practices. In the final chapter of this section, Grabe and Stoller cover theory and practice as they apply to reading for academic purposes. After a discussion of curriculum-related issues, they recommend specific practices for facilitating effective academic reading.
R eading II C :
II С
UNIT
UNIT
Teaching Children Literacy Skills in a Second Language A N N E
EDIGER
“Teaching Children Literacy Skills in a Second Language" describes the background factors and issues influencing children's literacy development in a second language, Ediger brings together unique needs of child L2 learners, contributions of various instructional methods and recent ESL and English Language Arts literacy standards. She recommends a wide range of specialized approaches and techniques for teaching ESL/EFL reading and writing.
IN T R O D U C T IO N In recent rears, there has been increased focus on the teaching of reading an d o th er literacy skills to c h ild ren (Pre-K-6 ). both in N orth .America an d abroad. Part of this mav relate to the recognition that reading is probable the most im p o rta n t skill for second language (L2 ) learners in academ ic contexts (Grabe 1991). and part of it mas come from tin increase in the num bers of children worldwide who are learning English as a second or foreign language (here after ESI. or EFL). It m ar also be a result of the recent im plem entation of standards in m uch of public education in North America, a movement built upon the belief that basic literacy instruction should be a fundam ental c o m ponent of public education. In the last few years, m any states and provinces in the U nited States and Canada have established literacy standards and im plem ented large-scale standardized testing of literacy skills. .Another possible factor contributing to an increased focus on literacy instruction to chil d ren in EFL contexts mav be the growing n u m bers of countries that are moving toward m aking English language instruction m andatory from a younger age. For example, in Korea an d Taiwan, English is now a required subject, beginning in the third grade. Given the portability o f books and o th e r reading materials (as well as the increasing availability of reading material over the Internet), reading is gradually being recognized
as a valuable source of language input, particu larly for students in learning environm ents (as in some EFL contexts) in which fluent speakers of English are generally not available to provide o th e r kinds of language input. Notions of literacy are exp a n d in g as well. Although many different definitions of literacy can be fo u n d in the literature on the subject, and reading still seems to be prim ary to most of them (see U rq u h a rt a n d Weir 1998 for a dis cussion of this), the teaching of writing and oral skills is increasingly being integrated with rea d ing instruction for both native English speakers (NFS) a n d English language learners (ELLs). Manx of the new standards, both for EI.Ls and NFS children, also integrate expectations for the development of all four language skills— reading, writing, listening, and speaking (see examples of standards provided later in this chapter). In fact, increasingly, the large-scale standardized tests ask students to bring together all of these skills, requiring students to dem onstrate com petence in synthesizing in fo r m a tio n fro m m u ltip le sources, or b ringing in form ation they have he a rd or read into written responses (see Board of Education of the Gits of New York 1997 for examples). This chapter, then, takes a similar approach: It investigates the developm ent o f L2 reading, addressing writing and oral skills to the extent that thev are also involved in literacy developm ent.
R EA D IN G A S A C O M P LE X , IN T E R A C T IV E P R O CESS Various theories exist to explain what is involved w hen we read, an d m u ch of what we know about reading an d literacy comes from research on first language (LI) learners. However, c u rre n t research generally views reading as an interac tive, sociocognitive process (B ernhardt 1991), involving a text, a reader, an d a sorted context "with in which the activity of reading takes place. In reading, “an individual constructs m e a n in g th ro u g h a transaction with written text that has been created bv symbols that represent lan guage. T h e transaction involves the reader's act ing on o r i n te r p r e tin g the text, a n d the interpretation is influenced bv the reader's past experiences, language background, a n d cultural framework, as well as the reader's purpose for reading" (H udelson 1994, p. 130). However, our expectation an d intent when we read is to make m eaning, to c o m p re h e n d what we read (Grabe 1991; Rigg 1986). W ithin the com plex process of reading, six general c o m p o n e n t skills an d knowledge areas have been identified (Grabe 1991. p. 379): 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Autom atic recognition skills — a virtually unconscious ability, ideally requiring little m ental processing to recognize text, espe cially for word identification Vocabulary and structural know ledge— a sound u n d e rsta n d in g of language structure an d a large recognition vocabulary Formal discourse structure knowledge — an un d e rsta n d in g of how texts are organized and how information is put together into various genres of text (e.g.. a report, a letter, a narrative) Content/w orlcl background knowledge — prior knowledge of text-related inform a tion an d a shared u n d e rsta n d in g of the cultural inform ation involved in text Synthesis an d evaluation skills strategies — the ability to read and compare information from multiple sources, to think critically about what one reads, and to decide what information is relevant or useful for one's purpose
6.
Metacognitive knowledge and skills m oni to rin g — an awareness of o n e ’s m ental processes and the ability to reflect on what one is doing and the strategies on e is employing while reading
W h e n flu e n t rea d e rs read, they b rin g to g eth e r all of these c o m ponents into a com plex process. Exactly how thev do this is som ething that is still the subject of great discussion an d research; however, we know that all of these sys tems play a part in the process. Fluent readers recognize a n d get m eaning from words they see in print, an d use their knowledge of the struc ture of the language to begin form ing a m ental notion of the topic. Thev use the semantic an d syntactic inform ation from the text together with what thev know from personal experience a n d knowledge of the topic to form hypotheses or predictions about what thev are reading and what thev are about to read. As they continue reading, thev trv to confirm or reject these pre dictions. asking. Does this make sense? Does what I'm seeing on the page fit the ideas in my head? If thev are able to confirm their predictions, they read on. If not. thev mat- reread the text, paying closer attention to the print, and reformulating their predictions. .And thus the process of sam pling text, making hypotheses, a n d confirming them continues. W hen some part of the process breaks down, and begins not to make sense, the reader often must re-examine the process being used, and must call upon strategies to trv to repair the process and facilitate com prehension again. Some of the strategies mav involve compensating for a lack of content or language knowledge by making m ore use of the print or of o n e ’s back ground knowledge: others mav involve changing one's wav of leading: slowing down, rereading part of the text, or looking for key words. T hese are things flu e n t rea d e rs do. Similarly, for ELLs to read fluently, they m ust develop the ability to bring all of these elem ents together simultaneously a n d rapidly. However, sometimes there arc gaps in their knowledge of the language o r culture. Thus, it is the task o f an effective reading program to provide inform a tion and practice in all of the systems which con tribute to m aking the process work.
B EC O M IN G LITER A TE IN A S E C O N D L A N G U A G E There are many similarities in the process of learning to read for ELL a n d NES children, and as will be seen later in this chapter, similar approaches are often used in classes o f both native an d non-native readers; however, there are also some im p o rtan t differences (H udelson 1994; Aebersold a n d Lield 1997). Thus, while some researchers argue that 1.2 learners should not be segregated from L.1 learners (Laltis and Hudelson 1994: Van den Branden 2000), teach ers of ESL students need to be specially p re pared an d may need to adjust their instructional strategies in certain wavs in o rd e r to teach 1.2 lit eracy skills effectively.
Oral Language Skills and Academic Literacy Skills First of all, NFS an d ELL children often differ in terms of the language background thev bring to the task o f acquiring literacy. Children learning to read in their LI generalh are already faith fluent in speaking and u n d e rstanding the target language when thev begin school, and can build on the oral language thee already have. Often, words that they are learning to read are already present in their oral language vocabularies. ELLs, on the o th er hand, do not necessarily have oral ability in the L2 vet and generalh can not fall back on an oral knowledge of what thee are learning to read o r write. Thus, the language or vocabulary thee e n c o u n te r in reading is often completely new to them. At the same time, research shows that ELLs' informal oral lan guage skills usually develop m ore quickly than their academic language and reading writing abilities (Collier 1989). While teachers can build on this growing oral language ability thev need to keep in m ind that some aspects of it are still developing. Furthermore, when initially assessing students' com petence in reading and writing, particularly with children who are a little older, teachers must be careful not to assume that oral language proficiency is necessarily an indicator of reading and writing abilities. In o th e r words, it is
im portant to assess b o th oral an d "written lan guage abilities in d ep endently in o rd e r to obtain a true u n d e rsta n d in g of a child's overall lan guage proficiency level. Research suggests, however, th at even though ELLs are at a beginning level in their L2 developm ent, thev ma\ not n e e d to wait until thev are orallv fluent to begin learning to read and write. First of all. children living in Englishspeaking environm ents have been shown to be able to acquire a substantial am ount of English from dealing with the English thev are exposed to in their dailv lives; thev are often able to begin reading what thev see in the environment around them. For example, children have been able to identify the meanings of words on packaged prod ucts. signs, and in comic books thev h ate seen (Hudelson 1984). Also, children have shown that thev are able to develop L2 knowledge from writ ten language input, in addition to oral input (Eller and Mangubhai 1983), suggesting that [t]he relationships am o n g listening, speaking, reading and writing during developm ent, then, are com plex rela tionships of m utual support. Practice in anv one process contributes to the overall reservoir of L2 knowledge, which is then available for o th er acts of listening, speaking, reading, or writ ing. For this reason, it is im p o rta n t to provide a b u n d a n t exposure to func tional. m eaningful uses of both oral and written language for all learners ( P e re g o v a n d Bovle 1997. p. 102).
The Role of the First Language in Literacy Development Just as XES children bring valuable oral lan guage knowledge to learning to read and write, the LI and literacy b a c kground that ELLs may bring with them is a valuable asset to their L2 an d literacy learning. Even if teachers cannot speak the 1.1 (s) of their students, their accept ance of the child's LI and support of its use can greatly benefit students learning the L2 (Lucas an d Katz 1994; Fallis and H u delson 1994).
F urtherm ore, although the research presents mixed findings on the transferability of specific LI reading skills to L2 l eading (Bernhardt 1991), there is clear evidence of a strong relationship between children's prior native language literacy and their developm ent of English literacy (Lucas an d Katz 1994: Cum m ins 1991). If children already understand the symbolic role of charac ters or letters or are familiar with some of the functions of print in society, this awareness can help them move to the next stages in their 1iteracy developm ent.
Varied Experiences, Background Knowledge, and Cultures o f E S L Students In ESL learning contexts, teachers must be cau tious about m aking a m assumptions about the cultural or language backgrounds of F.LLs. In a single ESL class, students mat have widely dif fe r e n t LI b a c k g ro u n d s, e d u c atio n a l back grounds, language proficiency levels, cultures, or prior experiences with literacy. This has several implications for teachers of ESL literacy. First of all, this mav mean that ELLs bring differing world and background knowledge, as well as different degrees of topic familiarity, to the task of reading and writing, something that is likely to iniluence their c o m p re h en sio n of what tliev read (Steffensen andjoag-dev 1984). This variability of background in the classroom also suggests several things. First, teachers need to incorporate “responsive teaching" (Faltisand Huclelson 1994). bv being prepared to employ a variety of teaching approaches and techniques with ELLs. It also sug gests the importance of learning as much as pos sible about the students' cultural backgrounds and experiences. Furthermore, it means using var ious m ethods to activate the students' schemata. i.e., their knowledge of and beliefs about events, situations, and actions, based upon their experi ences (Rumelhart 1980). through such activities as prereading discussions, pictures, diagrams, drawings, videos, or role-playing. Finally, it also suggests choosing (or haying the children choose) reading material on topics that are familiar, which
they can identify with because they relate to their own cultures, backgrounds a n d present lives, or which are of high general interest (Faltis a n d Huclelson 1994; Dav and Bamford 1998). (See Opitz 1998 for a list of m ulticultural c h ild r e n ’s b o o k s.)
First Language Literacy ESL learners often com e with very different prior experiences with literacy in their native cultures, an d tliev mav have experienced differ ent values and functions ascribed to literacy. O r they may even have had y e n little exposure to literacy in the LI and may be learning to read and write for the first time in their L2, English. Some mav have had their formal schooling inte rru p ted bv yvar or the econom ic or political situation in their country, with the result that they first e n c o u n te r learning to read and yvrite as somewhat older students. Children yvho arrive at a voting age mav have an easier time fitting into a neyv environm ent than older children. T here are several reasons for this. First, yvith younger ESL children, their NFS peers are also developing literacy skills for the first time, and they have less far to go to "catch up" to their peers' level of academic language an d literacy developm ent in English (Hamavan 1994). Also, classes for younger children are usually oriented toward facilitating the natural em ergence of lit eracy. whereas classes for older XES children tend to assume that some literacy background already exists and treat the learning of language m ore abstractly and m ore th rough the p rinted text th a n orally (Lucas an d Katz 1994). However, older first-time literacy learners may bring greater cognitive developm ent, m ore reallife experience, or even m ore maturity to the task of learning to read and write. For older beginning ELLs. then, it is im portant to provide reading materials that appeal to their age level and interests, even if they are at beginning levels of reading and writing ability. For this, it will be helpful to find reading materials at lower levels of difficulty, but which are not overly- childish in their content. (See Huclelson 1993 for lists of lowlevel. high interest materials that are appropriate
for these students.) Teachers n e e d to be careful, though, not to assume that children with lowliteracy backgrounds will com e with the same understandings about literacy or p rin t as thev do. Children learning to read a n d write for the first time (including some beginning NES read ers) may n e e d assistance with developing an un d e rsta n d in g of notions such as the following: So m e A ssu m p tio n s We M ake about Print
■ ■ * ■ ■ ■
Pictures go with text. We read from left to right, from to back, top to bottom. Words are written separated from each other. Quotation marks m ean that someone is speaking. Punctuation marks separate notions or ideas from each other. Written language has different rules and cont entions from oral language.
A phonics approach generallv emphasizes teaching children to match individual letters of the alphabet with their specific English p r o n u n ciations, with the idea that if children can "sound out" or "decode" new words, they will be able to re a d inclependentlv. In a p h o n ics approach, children are explicitlv taught soundsymbol patterns, and often the conscious learn ing of rules. T he belief underiving this approach is that if children first learn individual sounds, thev will be able to put them together into com binations. and then into words. .Although phonics approaches varv. most teach the following basic concepts in approxim ated this order: C onsonants (C)
s * •
IS T H E R E A N O P TIM A L W AY TO T E A C H R EA D IN G A N D W R IT IN G ? Over the vears. num erous approaches to teaching beginning reading have appeared. Wear er (1994) divides these approaches into two larger cate gories: part-centered (also called code-emphasis or bottom-up) approaches, which view reading instruc tion as moving from learning the "parts" and building u p to the "whole": an d .sociobsycholinguistic (also called meaning-emphasis or top-down) ap p ro a c h e s, which em phasize the overall construction of m eaning from connected or whole texts, and draw on the rea d e r’s and writer’s schem ata and personal experiences. Several of the more com m on approaches in each group are reviewed here. Part-C en tered
(Code-Emphasis)
Methods Part-centered a p p ro a c h e s include phonics aporoaches, so-called linguistic approaches, a sight word approach, and a basal reader approach.
к «
for which there is a single sound b. d. f. j. к, 1. nr. n, p. r. s, t, v, / for which there is m ore than one sound c. g. h. w, v which occur in two-letter combinations, or "blends" with /: bl. cl. fl, gl, pi, si with n br. cr, dr, fr. gr. pr, tr with v: sc. sk. sm, sn. sp. st. sw which occur in three-letter blends scr. spr. sir. squ which com bine to form a new sound, or digraph ch. sh. th. wh. gh. -nk. -ng
Vow els (V)
long vowels
short vowels /-controlled vowels digraph d ip h th o n g
CY
be
CYe
ate, like, rote
(A AC \ < or
cat;
paid, boat it, hot
Yr or CAT
art. car, her
\A ’
saw, book; boil, out
Phonics, then, generallv involves teaching students the sound-letter relationships used in reading and writing. A related tvpe of knowledge, phonemic awareness, invokes a student's u n d e r standing that speech is m ade tip of individual sounds, including such things as the ability to tell
if two words begin or en d with the same sound, and the ability to focus on the form of speech apart from focusing on its m eaning or content (Strickland 1998). Although there is some dis agreem ent over which of these two kinds of awareness children really need, phonemic aware ness is also considered im portant for literacy developm ent and frequently taught with phonics. A linguistic approach utilizes a scientific knowledge of language a n d exposes children to certain carefully selected words containing teg ular spelling patterns so that they can infer the letter-sound relationships in those words. For example, similar looking word groups such as take-bake-lake-cake or went-cent-tent-bent an d com m on rhvme or word-ending patterns such as -ate. -ell, or -ight are used to teach the sound patterns. O n e linguistic approach uses a special alphabet (the i.t.a., or “initial teaching alphabet") con tain in g 44 u n iq u e letters to re p r e s e n t the approxim ately 44 individual p h o n e m e s of the English language. It was believed that if children could be taught using a m ore regular soundsymbol system (with exactly one svmbol for each sound), they could learn to read m ore easily Books were prin te d using the i.t.a.. a n d mam ' children learned to read using this system. A sight word or look-sas m eth o d teaches chil d ren to recognize whole words, comm only using flash cards or o th er techniques to help children quickly identify such c om m on words as op, and, an d the. It is based u p o n the notion that if chil d ren can recognize about 100 of the most fre quently occurring words, they will be able to read about half o f the words thev e n c o u n te r in most texts. Teachers who use this m e th o d often do so because thev believe that knowing the most fre q u e n t words will help students learn to read m ore efficiently. T he sight word approach is often included with phonics approaches, with many p ro p o n en ts emphasizing rapid recogni tion or “decoding"; however, notions of co m p re hension are generally not addressed, possibly because it is assumed that once children can rec ognize words, com prehension takes care of itself. A basal reader approach is based upon the notion that children should be taught to read through careful control and sequencing of the language a nd the sounds that they are exposed to.
As a result, basal readers are carefully graded, sequenced to present sounds, vocabulary, and individual skills at increasing levels of difficulty, and also to provide carefully controlled practice, recycling, a n d testing of the language an d skills. In many cases, the reading texts are specifically written to have exactly the right com bination of vocabulary structures, a n d skill practice de te r m in e d necessary for optimal learning at each level of ability Present-dav basal readers g e n e r ally com e in com plete series which seek to pro vide a total reading a pproach from beginning to adv a n ce d levels. Thev are often "eclectic,” including phonics, regularly p a tte rn e d words, an d basic sight words, a n d view reading as the masters of individual reading skills.
Socio-Psycholinguistic
(Meaning-Emphasis)
Approaches T he socio-psschohnguistic m ethods included here are the Language Experience Approach (LEA), a literature-based approach, an d the Whole Language approach. T he Language Experience Approach (LEA) builds upon the notion that if children are given material to read that thev are already familiar with, it will help them learn to read. This m eth o d is based on two related ideas; that learn ing should move from the familiar to the unknown, and that readers whose world knowl edge or schemata are similar to that underlying the text thev are reading will be more able to make sense of the text. In fact, this approach goes one step further, proposing that if the actual lan guage and content of the stories is familiar to readers, thev should be able to learn to read it even m ore easily The LEA accomplishes this bv having students generate their own stories; tran scripts of these stories then becom e their read ing material. Typically a class would follow a series of steps like this: 1. The student or class dictates a "story" usually based upon an experience thev have had. that the teacher writes down on a large sheet of paper. The teacher tries to maintain the exact wording and expressions that the children
have dictated (if it contains errors, the chil dren can correct them later as their profi ciency increases). 2. T he teacher then either reads the store to the class (if the children are beginning read ers), or has the class read back the store thee h a te com posed, proeiding any help thee n e e d along the xvax to figure out indieidual words. This "reading" may be re p e a te d seeeral times, be different people o r the whole class, until the children are familiar with what thee hat e written. Eventually, the children should be able to read the store themselves. 3. D e p e n d in g on their level of ability and needs, the class will then engage in various e x te n d e d activities based u p o n the original store, in c lu d in g focusing on indieidual words, letters (e.g.. those at the beginnings o f words or rhem ing endings), or meanings of various noteworthy parts. The children mat also select some of the words to write on cards to practice later individually. In each case, the material comes out of. and is dis cussed within, the b ro a d e r context of the original store. Additional exercises mat also be constructed from the original reading, such as cutting the store up into sentence strips, or even into individual words, and having the children put them back in order. 4. Ultimately, the children are expected to move from the stories thee have dictated toward being able to read those written be others. (See Dixon an d Xessel 1983 for m ore about the LEA). The LEA can be used with ее re beginning readers and writers because thee onlv need to dic tate the stories oralle. and even this can be done collaboratieele. bringing together the combined abilities of the entire class. Because it involves sto ries that are first dictated, the LEA allows children to see a direct link between oral and written lan guage. In essence, it involves "writing to read." Because the children hat e "composed" the stories themselves, there is a close match between their knowledge or experience and the texts thee read. A litem Iи re-based approach is one that uses children's literature with the intention of focusing
on m eaning, interest, and enjoym ent, while addressing indieidual children's needs in teach ing them to read. In this approach, children often select their own books (generally, regularly published books) an d read them on their own or with others. If the children are b e g inning or nonreaders, the teacher or a metre proficient p e e r mae read the book to them . Alternately, if the reading is done individually, the teacher may follow up be holding an indieidual conference with the child, asking the child questions about what he or she und e rsto o d from the store or how he or she felt about the store. Children may also be asked to read portions of their stories aloud, and the teacher mae take notes on the tepes of miseries thee make as thee read (as one m eth o d of diagnosing areas to address in the future). Some p ro p o n e n ts o f this ap p ro a c h maintain that individual skills should not be taught — the\ will em erge as the child reads. In am case, the overall focus is on the child's u n d e rsta n d in g of the store. Latter, the same books mae be used as springboards for writing, dram a, or discussion activities, such as writing alternate endings to the store, role-plaeing parts of it. or describing one of the characters in m ore detail. Sometimes m ore than one book on the same them e or genre or multiple books be the same a u th o r (an "author study") may be read and com pared. Use of this approach generally requires that students have access to a collection of books on a range of topics a n d at varying lexels of difficultx (either in the classroom or in a libraiw). Teachers xvho use a literature-based approach can greatle facilitate their stu dents’ success and skill dexelopm ent bx helping them find books which best fit their interests an d are either at or just slightly abox e their reading level. T he idea is that if children find that thex can be successful at reading, an d their interest is held bx the books thee hax e selected, thex will want to continue reading. The Whole Language approach is a philoso phy of learning. Proponents o fW h o le Language believe that thex are not just teaching reading; rather, thex are guiding and assisting learners to develop as in d e p e n d e n t readers, writers, and learners. Thex- beliexe that language s e n e s per sonal. social, and academ ic aspects of c h ild re n ’s
lives, an d that children becom e literate as they grapple with the m eaning an d uses of print in their environm ents. T h ro u g h such activities as storvbook reading (being read to or reading the same stories multiple times) an d writing their own texts, children become aware of storvbook structure, a n d can identify (and use) the specific language tvpicallv used to tell stories. In fact, researchers have found that children go through a variety of developm ental stages as thev create th eir own written texts: ( 1 ) scribbling, and ascribing m eaning to it (as if it were writing): (2 ) seeing print an d drawing as the same: (3) using letters of the alphabet, often in continuous strings, without realizing that letters have a rela tionship to sounds; (4) using one or two letters (usually consonants), each representing a whole word (but still not segm ented into words); (5) using letters to represent one or two of the sounds in a word, including vowels, and often applying a strategy of using names of letters instead of the sounds the letters make: (6 ) usingtransitional spelling, in which some words use conventional spellings a n d some do not: and finally, (7) using conventional spelling (Hudelson 1994; G underson 1991). LEA activi ties a n d literature, though described as separate approaches above, are often used along with o th er activities and content within the Whole Language approach. Whole Language incorpo rates all of the language skills, based on the belief that as stories are read to children, as children recount what they have heard (and he a r others do so), and as thev e xperim ent with putting their ideas in writing, thev wrestle with sound-letter correspondences and with the structure of writ ten material. T h ro u g h these activities, children figure out how written language works a nd how it relates to oral language; through these attempts at written language, in fact, they also learn how reading works. In W hole Language, the use of “au th e n tic ” texts from various genres is vital. This comes from the belief that only th rough e n c o u n tering a n d attem pting to deal with ''real" texts an d functions of literacy can children learn effec tive strategies and techniques for understanding an d using them themselves. (See Heald-Tavlor 1991 for m ore about Whole Language for ELLs.)
The Phonics/Whole Language Debate N u m erous studies have a ttem pted to d eterm in e the relative effectiveness of manv of these m e th ods. U nfortunately, results have often b e e n inconclusive or even contradictory. How does each approach work for ELLs? Phonics approaches presuppose that learners already know the sounds of the language, and that once a word is sounded out, thev onlv need to match it up with a word they know. But ELLs don't vet know mane of the words, even if thev can sound a word out. thev will still probably not understand what it means. Even m ore difficult, if thev can't hear the difference between two sounds, for example. / 1/ in hit and i in heal, thev niav have a hard time learning the letters that represent or distinguish these sounds. Phonics approaches have also been criticized because thev don't address issues of com prehen sion. Rigg (1986) found that the children in her studv who were most concerned about pronounc ing words "right" showed less comprehension of what thee had read. Another reason a pure p h o n ics approach mac cause difficulty for ELLs is that mans of the most comm on -words in English con tain sounds and patterns which do not follow basic sound-svmbol correspondences that the children niav have been taught, e.g.. come, or through. A sight word approach to reading, like pho nics, gives little focus to getting m eaning from a text. As eve can see from Grade's (1991) six com ponents of leading that were identified earlier, vocabulary recognition is but one small piece o: what it takes to be able to read. Also, common words encountered in a sight word approach, e.g.. have. of. or do d o n 't provide learners muck, assistance, either with recognizing or with sound ing out less frequently encountered words. Criticisms of an id. a. approach include the finding that children who learned with thiapproach had difficulty making the transition tr conventional spelling (Bond and Dvkstra 1997), awell as the lack of sufficient material written in thi' alphabet (Gunderson 1991). Basal leadershcwe pri marily been criticized because in the process o: sequencing all the language, vocabulary, and skillso carefully, m am end up with boring and artificial readings; thev contain stilted sentences, pieces o: stories, and literature p resented out of context
F u rth e rm o re , thev take a “one-size-fits-all" approach to the teaching of reading. As for indi vidual skiUs-lxised teaching approaches, Strickland (1998) reports that teachers have found that their students have difficultv transferring skills learned in isolation to real reading and writing activities. Some of the findings concerning these initial teaching approaches are promising, however. In the 1960s. the large-scale Cooperative Research Program in First-Grade R eading Instruction, comprising 27 studies comparing manv of the m ethods and materials described above, was con ducted. Among the conclusions Bond and Dvkstra (1997) t eached from their review of these studies were: 1.
2. 3.
4.
5. 6.
Regardless of what re a d in g instruction a pproach is used, svstematic emphasis and teaching of word studv skills is necessarv. Eclectic program s p ro duced better results than did o rth o d o x approaches. Not all reading programs work equallv well in all situations. Within particular programs, factors such as teacher and learning situation characteristics rather than m ethod mar- be m ore important to students' ultimate success in reading. Children are able to learn to read bv various methods and materials. With each approach, some students were successful, but others experienced difficultv. \ o single approach was so clcarlv better than the others that it should be used exclusivelv. A writing co m p o n e n t is likelv to be an effec tive addition to a reading program . "The relative success of the Xonbasal pro grams com pared to the basal programs indicates that reading instruction can be improved. It is likelv that improvements would result from adopting certain elements from each of the approaches used in this studv" (p. 416).
In recent times, the debate over m ethods has con c en tra te d mostly on the choice between the n e e d for phonics instruction a n d / o r p h o n e mic awareness on one side and Whole Language on the other. Part of the difficultv in this debate lies in the fact that p ro p o n en ts of each side cite different kinds of research to support their
m ethod: Phonics supporters cite experimental studies assessing perform ance on standardized tests: W hole L anguage supporters cite basic research on how children learn to read and write, as well as classroom-based studies looking at long term effects (Weaver 1994). Strickland (1998) concludes that "the debates about phonics and phonem ic awareness have less to do with their value than with the am ount and type of instruc tion thev require" and suggests that even in this controversv. there are points of agreement. She explains. Educators on both sides of the phonics debate agree that, ultimatelv, reading and writing for m eaning is param ount. Both sides are keenlv aware of the im portance of good literature in the lives of children and the n e e d for responsive adults who support chil d re n 's na tu ra l inclinations toward making sense of print. Needless to say, both sides recognize the im portance of the alphabetic code in learning to read and write (p. 8 ). Increasinglv. the evidence seems to support addressing such a complex process as literacy with less simplistic solutions. Hamavan (1994) argues that because ESL students represent a very diverse g ro u p of learners, thev require a range of approaches. Faltis and Hudelson (1994) sat- that teachers need to be flexible, taking their cues from students and adapting their pedagogies to meet students' needs. O ther reading researchers (e.g.. Weaver 1994: Strickland 1998) are increas ingly advocating a more "balanced a pproach” or "whole-to-part-to-whole" a pproach— one that is engaging and rich with meaning, but focuses sys tematically on specific textual features so that chil d ren can draw their own conclusions about language and applv them to their reading and writing. Strickland provides the following instruc tional guidelines for such an approach: 1.
Skills and m eaning should alwavs be kept together. Children need instruction focusing on the alphabetic code to be taught together with that which stresses com prehending, thoughtful responses to literature, and the creation of m eaning in writing.
3.
4.
5.
Instead of rigid, systematically predeterm ined instruction that is identical for all learners, such acti\ities as word recognition skills and phonics, as well as invented spelling, can be systematically integrated into programs that take learner variability into account. Intensity instruction on individual skills or strategies should only be provided to those children who dem onstrate clear need for them. Regular doc u m e n tatio n and assessment of students' learning are still the best war to dete rm in e how skills should be addressed and to what degree. Language arts instruction must be integrated with a school's or district's standards and the specific curricular objectiyes of the target grade lcyel, as well as of the grades below and aboye it.
STA N D A R D S A N D S E C O N D L A N G U A G E L IT E R A C Y D E V E LO P M E N T In recent years, as a m easure designed to ensure accountability for learning and to set up uni formly high expectations for all learners, many states, proyinces. school districts, and profes sional organizations have established standards for their students to attain. In setting up these standards, m uch has been accom plished simply th ro u g h the yen difficult process of bringing together stakeholders in the educational system to sit down and come to some agreem ent about what reasonable expectations m ight be. For m anv teachers, finally seeing a list of standards in writing has greatly helped to clarify the objectiyes toward which they should guide their students. At the same lime, while the establishment of these standards represents a ye n yaluable first step in improying the overall quality of educa tion for many students, they hare also d e m o n strated that they are not the end point in the process of proyicling an equitable a n d uniform quality of education for everyone. First of all. manv of the standards dealing with the various
c o n te n t areas covered in public edu c atio n , including language arts, social studies, m ath, an d science, have been developed with the assum ption that students are able to u n d e rsta n d a n d use English well e n ough to engage yvith their respective content. In fact, while some of th e m recognize that th e ir stu d e n ts have extremely diverse cultural, ethnic, an d linguistic backgrounds, m am do not address the kev role of language in the acquisition of content. T he large-scale standardized tests that are often based on these standards a n d that d o c u m e n t their achievem ent (or lack of it), m ake it diffi cult to obtain a true picture of the academic achievement of many FLLs because the tests do not take into account the interaction between c ontent knowledge and language proficiency. In o th er words, if ELLs are not able to read, u n d e r stand. yvrite. or respond to tire test questions and content, the test results will very likely not pres ent an accurate picture of their true abilities. An incorrect answer on a test, for example, cannot distinguish yvhether the student did not know that concept, or yvhether he or she simply did not hav e the necessary language ability or test-taking strategies to answer correctly. As such, the cur rent plethora of standards that now exist, while providing useful goals to aim for, may also lead to the unfair assessment or treatm ent of ELLs. Second, although there tire поуу finally some standards to teach to. the task of designing cur riculum and instruc tion to meet them is still a complex task. This is partly because, depending on where one is. there are поуу multiple standards that one may be expected to meet simultaneously. For example, teachers of ELLs in New York City schools who wish to apply the Pre-K-12 ESL stan dards developed bv the professional organiza tion. Teachers o f English to Speakers of O th e r Languages (TESOL), поуу must synthesize three different sets of standards because they must also teach to the standards of Xcw York state and those of Neyv York City as well (see Charts 1 and 2 (pp. 164—165) for the TESOL Standards an d the English Language Arts Standards used in Neyv York City schools). O ne o ther issue relevant to the im plem enta tion of literacy standards for ELLs is the fact that many of the standards, because of their likely
application to a wide variety of types a n d levels of students, do not specify in detail the level of com petency n e e d ed for “m ee tin g ” the standard. This means that teachers who attem pt to teach to them must still apply a great deal o f judgm ent in identifying exactly to what degree o f sophisti cation or accuracy a child must, for example. “ [ d e m o n s tr a te a basic u n d e rsta n d in g o f rules of the English language in written a n d oral work" (see Chart 2. English Language Arts Standards Used in \ e w York City Schools, Standard E4a on p. 165). This is not to sat' that having the stan dards is not worthwhile: simply knowing the range of types of competence a child should be able to demonstrate is immensely useful. However, this raises serious questions about the degree to which assessments of the achievement of the standards are reliable (see Stotskv 1997 for a critical evalua tion of 28 current standards documents). Nevertheless, given the variety of standards relevant to the teaching of literacy skills to EI.L.s which are now available, a look at a few of these may be helpful here. O ne docum ent which specif ically addresses the needs of ETI.s is the TESOL Standards for Pre-K-12 Students (TESOL 1997). These standards recognize the special needs of ETI.s. providing a continuum of descriptors for docum enting the developm ent of all of the skills for students at beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels lor each grade range (Pre-K-3. 4 - 8 , and 9-12), as well as for those with limited formal schooling. T he TESOL Standards are designed to p ro tid e educators with directions and strategies to assist ESL learners to attain the language thev need for learning content. In o th er words, thev are in te n d e d to be used as a “bridge" to o th e r general education standards (See Chart 1 [p. 164] and TESOL 1997 for m ore information about the c ontent a n d im p lem e n ta tion of these standards). A n u m b e r of states and districts also h a te established their own special standards for ELLs (see California D e partm ent of Education 1999 for an exam ple of this). T he use of special standards for ETI.s varies: Some states and school districts use TESOL’s stan dards, some have designed their own, building u p o n those fro m TESOL, a n d som e have designed their own apart from TESOI.'s (see Short 2000 for m ore inform ation on wars in
which standards have been a d o p te d bv various states an d school districts). It is also helpful for ESL teachers to be famil iar with the standards designed for NES learners, given the fact that m am districts and states, at least for the time being, have opted to hold ELLs to the same English Language Arts standards expected of NES. .Although many of these standards do not take into account the unique developmental needs of ELLs, ESL teachers nevertheless can b e n efit from knowing the kinds of expectations their ELLs will eventually be required to meet. O ne exam ple is the New Standards Perform ance Standards— English Language Arts (Elementary), presently being implem ented in New York City school districts (Board of Education of the City of New York 1997).
S T R A TE G IE S T O FA CILITA TE S E C O N D LA N G U A G E L IT E R A C Y D EV E LO P M E N T A N D H ELP S T U D E N T S A C H IE V E STA N D A R D S T he following strategies can help ELLs develop their literacy abilities as well as provide practice in some of the areas required bv literacy standards.
Expose Students to the Many Uses o f Print around Them *
■ ■
■ ■ ■
Label items in the room. Hat e students (with or without help) make the labels themselves, in multiple languages, each in a different color. Foe us attention on the print around the class room, school, or neighborhood. Manage aspects of classroom business in writing. Include attendance lists, classroom chores, or charts showing the n u m b er of books read. Establish a regular place to post announcements or messages. Record class discussions on chart paper; keep these posted as long as a theme is being studied. Create areas in the room for specific literacy pur poses. A reading, listening, or writing corner.
CHART I T E S O L ’s P re-K -12 E S O L Standards Goals for E S O L Learners Goal I : To Use English to Communicate in Social Settings Standards for Goal I Students will: 1. use English to participate in social interaction 2. interact in, through, and with spoken and written English for personal expression and enjoyment 3. use learning strategies to extend their communicative competence
Goal 2: To Use English to Achieve Academically in All Content Areas Standards for Goal 2 Students will: 1. use English to interact in the classroom 2. use English to obtain, process, construct, and provide subject matter information in spoken and written form 3. use appropriate learning strategies to construct and apply academic knowledge
Goal 3: To Use English in Socially and Culturally Appropriate Ways Standards for Goal 3 Students will: 1. use the appropriate language variety, register, and genre according to audience, purpose, and setting 2. use nonverbal communication appropriate to audience, purpose, and setting 3. use appropriate learning strategies to extend their sociolinguistic and sociocultural competence (So u rce:
T ESO L 1997, pp. 9-10)
Display different genres of reading and writing material or books. C h ild re n ’s books, newspa pers, magazines, dow nloaded messages or
printed-out inform ation from the Internet, and students' own writing— display every one's work, not just the “best” papers.
CHART 2 English Language Arts Standards Used in New York City Schools New Standards Performance Standards— English Language Arts (Elementary) E I . Reading EI a Read at least twenty-five books of the quality and complexity illustrated in the sample reading list, Elb
Read and comprehend at least four books on the same subject, or by the same author, or in the same genre.
E lc
Read and comprehend informational materials.
EI d Read aloud fluently.
E2. W riting E2a Produce a report of information. E2b Produce a response to literature. E2c Produce a narrative account (fictional or autobiographical). E2d Produce a narrative procedure.
E3. Speaking, Listening, and Viewing E3a Participate in one-to-one conferences with the teacher. E3b Participate in group meetings. E3c Prepare and deliver an individual presentation. E3d Make informed judgments about TV, radio, and film.
E4. Conventions, Grammar, and Usage of the English Language E4a Demonstrate a basic understanding of rules of the English language in written and oral work. E4b Analyze and subsequently revise work to improve its clarity and effectiveness.
E5. Literature E5a Respond to non-fiction, fiction, poetry, and drama using interpretive and critical processes, E5b Produce work in at least one literary genre that follows the conventions of the genre. J:_ rc e :
B o ard of Education in the C it y o f N e w York 1997, p. 23)
Use c ontent study as the context tor literacy developm ent; have students investigate topics of interest related to the co n te n t or them e being studied, writing up their findings or presenting them orallv to the class. Extensive reading can also be very effective for increasing reading skills of children in EFL contexts (Mee and Moi 1999). In te rn e t research an d projects are excel lent sources of extensive reading material.
whole class discussion with facilitation bv the teacher or with a peer of a different level of lan guage proficiency thev were able to c o m p re h en d what they read better than if the text had been simplified for th e m to rea d on th eir own. Encourage cooperative groups of mixed-level stu dents to work together to read or write various texts. Also, har e students first explain orally what thev will later be asked to write. Or, after working together in groups on a task, have students from each group report back to the class what their group discovered or accomplished. T h e n have them put the same information into written form.
Provide Authentic Purposes for Reading and Writing
Focus Students’ Attention on Reading and Writing Strategies
Use stu d e n ts ’ natural urge to com m unicate w hen they n e e d inform ation for authentic p u r poses; set up g enuine com m unication contexts involving e-mail messages, dialogue journals, or research projects, or develop class-to-class infor m ation exchanges th ro u g h the In te rn e t (see Ediger a n d Pavlik 2000 for m ore on this).
First, call attention to anv strategies students are alreadv using, e.g., ( 1 ) thinking about what thev alreadv know about a topic; (2) asking, Arc there anv o th er words I know which are similar to this word in some wav?; (3) looking backward and forward from a word or phrase thev d o n ’t u n d e r stand (using the context) to see if that can give them m ore inform ation for c o m p re h en d in g what thev are reading; (4) m onitoring whether thev understand what thev are reading and, if not, changing how thev are reading. Then, mode! some of these strategies for students bv thinking aloud the thoughts going through vour m ind avou use them.
Provide Opportunities for Children to Read More Extensively on a Subject
Provide Scaffolding for Learning Scaffolding involves the setting up of “tem porary supports, provided bv capable people, that p e r mit learners to participate in the com plex process before thcv at e able to do so unassisted” (Peregov an d Bovle 1997, p. 81). As students becom e able to do m ore com plex language tasks, supports can be decreased or removed. Use predictable books; have children write their own stories using the same structure as one they have read in a book; provide sentences that stu dents then com plete or elaborate on (e.g.. "I think (character from book) is (adjective). T he parts of the book that make me think this a r e _____ .")
Use Oral Skills to Support Reading and Writing Development Van den Branden (2000) found that when chil d ren were allowed to “negotiate the meaning" of an original text thev were reading, either through
SUMMARY This has been just a brief introduction to teach ing literaev skills to ELTs. It has described three elements involved in reading: the text, the reader and the context that the reading activity takeplace in. It has also presented the various com p o n e n t knowledge areas which readers use, anc which children learning to read in their L2 ah need to master, as well as c om m on characteritics of L2 readers a n d writers. In addition t u n d e rs ta n d in g the reading process and com m o n characteristics of their students, teacher-
n e e d to be familiar with various approaches to teaching reading so that thev can m ake wise choices about how to teach. It is ultimately the te a c h e r’s challenge to p u t to g ether this inform a tion a n d what has b e e n lea rn ed from research on literacy developm ent with a knowledge of lit eracy standards and effective teaching strategies in ways that will allow the teacher to address the various needs of individual ESL students.
Whv ? Look at the two examples of standards in this chapter. What kinds of special instruc tion or adaptations might a teacher use to help ELLs achieve these standards?
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1.
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1. As p art of your assessment process for vour second grade class, vou have asked one child if she can read you a book she has chosen. W hen vou sit down with her, she reads it verv carefully a n d deliberately; vou notice that she is able to read almost all of the words accurately. However, when vou later ask her what the store was about, she has trouble explaining it to vou. How would vou account for this? How would vou describe her overall reading ability? What are some other reading activities vou might ask h e r to do in order to assess her ability m ore thoroughly? 2. If children who are taught to read using the Language Experience A pproach are able to dictate the c ontent of the storv. have the teacher write it down for them, and assist them with reading it back, are thev really reading and writing? Whv? What is the real value of this m ethod? W hat o th er learning concepts from this c hapter does the LEA illustrate or m ake use of? If vou were to use the LEA to write a n d then read som ething in a language vou d o n 't know verv well, what do you think vou would learn? 3. If teachers do activities to elicit students' back ground knowledge before thev read a text, isn’t the teacher merely helping them handle the particular text thev are working on? Will this help students be able to read or handle the next text thev encounter any m ore easily? W hat else could a teacher do to help students better handle future reading tasks? 4. Do vou think having literacy standards can help teachers improve instruction in literacy?
O ne wav to familiarize children with different tvpes of print is to show them that literacy sen es a variety of functions in society (adapted from Hallidav 197o). including: ■
* * ■ ■ ■ * * ■
Providing wavs people learn ab o u t the world and share these experiences with others Accomplishing various tasks of living Establishing an d m aintaining communic-ation with others Expressing differences an d similarities a m o n g people Reflecting and acting u p o n personal and social problem s C hanging conditions in p e o p le ’s lives Enjoving the beautv of language Recognizing different people's cultural heritage U n d e rs ta n d in g what it m eans to be hum an
For each function, identify an activity or reading/ writing task which vour students might be able to perform to learn more about that literacy function. For example, in order to teach students that liter acy "provides ways people learn about the world and share these experiences with others, ” vou could have them read and discuss a news story, or have them write a report about a Field trip thev took recently. Can vou think of some others? 2.
For one or m ore of the following, select a book or storv that vou think would be partic ularly suitable for it, and which would allow vou to develop a teaching lesson to illustrate that particular concept to vour students. T h e n design the actual lesson. Explain whv vou think vour chosen b o o k /sto rv is suitable, a n d whv vou designed the lesson in the m a n n e r that vou did.
a.
Scaffolding
b.
Eliciting students' world knowledge
c.
Identifying qualities that characterize a particular genre of text (Some possible genres: a letter, an invitation, a report, a description of a process, a film review, etc.)
d. Identifying the way a text is organized A storv (narrative) A piece of non-fiction 3. Ask two beginning-level ESL/EFL children to write a story ab o u t an e x p e rie n c e they recently had together. If thev have difficulty writing, have th em draw a picture to illus trate their experience, then have them dic tate the story to yon while you help them write it, using the Language Experience Approach. W hen they/you are finished, either ask them to read the story or read it for them, d e p e n d ing on their abilitv. W hat did vou learn from this activity? 4. Read aloud a story to some children learning ESL, stopping at several points along the wav to ask them to predict what will happen next. Do their predictions give you anv eridence about w hether they have understood the storv so far? T hen read further and ask them to tell you when thev hear something in the story that confirms or disconfirms one of their pre dictions. T hen discuss with them how well they were able to predict what would happen. Were the children able to make reasonable predic tions? Were they able to identify’ information later in the reading which dealt with their pre diction? W hy or why not?
Provides tremendously practical information about elementary ESI. curriculum development and literacy teaching, lists of books, and an actual sample curriculum. Crotchett, K. 1997. .4 'teacher's Project Guide to the Internet. Portsmouth. XH: Heinemann. Prorides manv useful ideas for developing literacy projects using the Internet. Fulwiler, T.. ed. 1987. The Journal Booh. Portsmouth, XH: Heinemann. Explains wavs to incorporate journals into literacy development. O'Malley J. M., and E. Valdez Pierce. 1996. Authentic Assessment for English Language Learners. Reading. МЛ: Addison-Weslev. Describes classroom-based assessment of all skill areas: provides numerous samples of authentic assessment rubrics and methods of document ing literate development.
W E B S IT E S On-line Reading and Whiting Opportunities
Intercultural E-Mail Classroom Connections www.stolaf.edu/network/iecc/
E-Pals (electronic penpals) wvcvv.epals.com
Global SchoolXefs Internet Projects Registry Listing of collaborative Internet projects. Leant about ongoing projects or post vour own idea' and invite collaboration. http: / / www.gsn.org/pr/index.html Children’s Literature
The Children's Literature Web Guide http:
www.acs.ucalgary.ca ~dkbrown/
Internet Public Library
FU R T H ER R EA D IN G Day, R., and }. Bamford. 1998. Extensive Rending in the Second Language Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Discusses die value of extensive reading and pro vides many ideas on incorporating such activities into literacy instruction. Hudelson, S., ed. 1993. Teacher Resource (,uirh for ESL. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
http: //wwvv.ipl.org/
Multicultural Book Review Homepage www.isomedia.com/homes/jmele/homepage, html Teacher Resources
Teaching with technology h ttp ://ilt.colum bia.edu/kl2/livetext/
International Reading Association http:/ /www.ira.org
Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators A wonderful Internet site for teachers, with manv project ideas and ways to use them in the classroom.
Website providing a downloadable (.pdf) version of the 1999 California ELD (ESL) and Language .Arts standards. www.cde.ca.gov/statetests/eld/eld.html
h ttp :// discoveryschool.com/schrockguide / Language Arts/Literacy Standards
Information about ESL literacy and teaching: links to other related websites. www.cal.org
I.istserv for communicating with others about ESL standards. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to the above address. In the subject of the message, ripe ''subscribe": lease the remainder blank. eslstds-requestla caltalk.cal.org
ENDNO TE 1 thank Evelvn Hatch and Barbara Hawkins for the ideas used here which originally appeared in their chapters in earlier editions of this book.
Developing Adult Literacies1 GAIL
W E IN S T E IN
In "Developing Adult Literac es," W einstein invres ’‘e?.ders no examine the role of language and
literacies in learners' lives, examines critical contexts Am ESL Itemc-/ instruction, and provides a synthesis of orientations to cummuium and teaching. See concludes with fve "promising practices" that challenge both new anc ex p eo e rcec eeacners to --efect individual's and collectively on their potentially life-transforming woi'k.
IN T R O D U C T IO N Profiles in Diversity and Strength Socorro Tinajerowas born in Mexico and is raising h e r c h ild ren in the "borderlands" betw een Mexico and the U nited States. Described as tin energetic an d efficient woman, she works long hours in the family restaurant u n d e r difficult conditions. H e r fatalism is quickly revealed: "A cada quien lo que toca" [Everyone has their lot in life]. Researcher Valdes tells us that this is a fairlv c o m m o n belief a m o n g those in S ocorro’s com m unity— that life simply deals different luck to different people. Socorro rem em bers with some nostalgia h e r davs in Juarez, where neighbors were able to watch out for each other. Given h e r h a rd work and determ ination, one thing to which Socorro will not resign herself is that h e r children are being held back in school and are getting into trouble. She did not have an opportunity to go to school in Mexico. She wants to develop the language and literacy she needs to be able to intervene m ore successfully with their teachers (Valdes 1996, p. 91). Pao Joua Lo was a retired soldier an d was considered a war hero in his own community. Like 70,000 o th e r H m o n g refugees who reset tled in the U nited States in the 1970s, he lied the hills of Laos in the throes of the wars of Southeast Asia. In his Philadelphia hom e. Pao Jo u a was often s u rro u n d e d bv his many g ran d
children and guests, and until his d eath in 1998, was considered both an elder an d a leader bv many H m o n g th ro u g h o u t the U nited States. Pao Jo u a ha d atte n d ed classes at the local com m unity college but d ro p p e d out after only one semester. His English literacy skills, while minimal, allowed him to scan the newspapers for articles about Southeast Asia, which he then passed along to m ore literate m en in the com munity. Besides keeping cu rre n t on events in his hom eland. Pao J o u a was also interested in devel oping literacy skills to be able to record tradi tional H m o n g courtship songs so that first his sons and later his grandsons could find desirable brides (Weinstein 1997). Michel a Stone works as an accountant at a comm unity center serving immigrants from her native Byelorussia, as well as from the Ukraine a n d Lithuania. Many who frequent the center are university professors, businesspeople, doc tors. or scientists who hope to be able to resume their professional lives when they have acquired the language nee d ed in their new hom e. Michela teaches Russian on the side, both for some extra m oney and also for the chance to interact with Americans. She likes soap operas an d reads People magazine. Bv reading up on movie stars, Michela figures she can start conversations with A m erican friends an d practice h e r English. Although she has little time to study between her two jobs an d caring for her aging father, she hop e s to p r e p a r e for A m erican citizenship (Nesbit 1997).
Adults like these have different histories, cir cumstances. and purposes for wanting to develop and improve language and literaev skills. To understand the possibilities for language and lit eraev instruction, it is necessarv to know some thing about learners, their resources, their needs, and their goals for learning English.
What is English as a Second Language (ESL) Literacy? f h e learners described above bring different needs and resources to their desire to learn Knglish language a n d literaev. Soccoro. who teas born in .Mexico, tom es from a societv with a rich litcrarv tradition, but she herself has had little access to the formal education or native language literaev that others in her countrv mat enjov. Learners in this situation have been described in the literature as iioulilerate. Pao Joua Lo. on the o th e r hand, comes from a farm ing societv where subsistence living posed verv little need for print. In fact, the H m o n g language did not have a writ ten form until just a few decades ago. when mis sionaries created a writing svsteni to teach the Bible. Learners in this situation are often called preliterate, because then come from a society that does not have a tradition with prim. Michela illu minates vet an o th er dimension of a complex lin guistic picture, since she has higlilv developed literaev skills in her native language, but has not h a d prior experience with the Roman alphabet. She has m am strategies for learning in formal set tings, and is comfortable with the format and dis course of formal teaching situations. As she adds English to her repertoire. Michela will become biliterate, or proficient with prim in two languages. Until fairlv recentlv, little attention teas given to the role of native language literaev in lea rn er acquisition of English. Research on sec o n d language learners either assumed native language literact or did n o t investigate native language literaev as a factor in learner needs and strategies. In the 1970s. w hen a huge inllux of Southeast Asian refugees found their wan to our classrooms, teachers knew that this go mo wets different. Rural Vietnamese, Khmer. Lam. and H m o n g learners who were not literate in. their
native languages were not m anaging as well as their literate counterparts in the language class room. Techniques that had been used in the past were no longer effective. In the 1980s, with the passage o f the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA). a second wave of u n d o c u m e n te d learners flocked to our classrooms to qualifv for "amnestv." These students had limited literacy in their native languages and could not access infor mation the wav we provided it, without first acquiring literaev ESL classroom teachers were a m o n g the first to raise to national conscious ness the unique characteristics of this g roup of learners. Those of us who worked closelv with these two groups of newcomers were struck bv their resourcefulness. We learned that the Southeast Asian refugees had escaped through jungles, run th rough minefields, e n d u re d starvation, and crossed lit ers on ru b b er tires at night with their children. In short, thev were extraordinary sur vivors. Me saw that most u n d o c u m e n te d amnestv applicants had been living on the margins, m an aging to take care of their families while staving invisible from authorities who could deport them. Me began to see the kinship a nd social net works that people relied on for solving problem ' and for helping one a n o th e r navigate a new set ting. While eve became aware of these enorm ous resources, it was also clear that som ething critical was lacking— literaev skills that would provide these adults with access to the English language, and through English, to o th er information and education.
Many Learners, Many Literacies While teachers of ESL were grappling with liter aev issues face-to-face in their dailv work, mam changes were gating on in the field of adult liter aev (also called Adult Basic Education, or ABE as well. Am ong these were attempts to movt bevond the problem atic notion of ''grade level in o rd e r to define a n d m easure literacy in waw that were m ore informative and accurate fo: adults. T he most com prehensive a ttem p t ir recent historv to survev the literacy levels o: adults in the United States was the Xationai
Adult Literacy Survey (NALS). This instrument was designed to measure three areas of knowledge or skill: ■ ■
■
prose literacy (u n d ersta n d in g texts such as news stories, poems, etc.), document literary (locating and using infor mation found in docum ents like job appli cations, transportation schedules, etc.), and ejuantitative literary (applying arithm etic operations using n um bers fo u n d in printed materials like o rd e r forms, etc. (Kirsch et al. 1993, p. 3).
T he problem for English language educators was that this assessment tool could only measure English literacy— the results do not distinguish between the Cam bodian peasant farm er who had never held a pencil and the Russian engi n e e r with a Ph.D. who had not ret added the Roman to the Cyrillic alphabet in h e r repertoire of symbol systems. T he portraits of Socorro. Pao Joua. and Michela are the result of e thnographic studies in which the researcher seeks to m ake explicit how an individual or group makes sense of the w orld— in this case, with a focus on functions and uses of language and literacy in learners' lives. Ethnographic research can illuminate many forms of diversity am ong learners regarding their language and literacy resources. Mans Asian for eign students in the United States, for example, are highly literate in their native language and have facility with written academic English, but have trouble com m unicating orally. In contrast, many Latino learners with fluent spoken English struggle with writing, particularly in academic genres. A new set of issues has begun to emerge with a growing population of immigrants who came to the U nited States as older children. Many of these voting m en and wom en do not speak “targetlike" (standard) English, ret are n e ith e r literate n o r are thev any longer orally proficient in the language of their parents. We do not yet have labels to neatlv nam e what we see. Learners v a n - along dimensions of profi ciency in English versus a n o th e r language, spo ken versus written proficiency, an d academic versus social language, a m o n g o th e r dimensions of literacy
While there is not vet a universally accepted definition of literacy, there is a growing consensus that to be literate entails different things in dif ferent situations. .All of us, including those of us who consider ourselves to be fairly literate, e n c o u n te r situations in which we m ust master a new literacy genre, such as learning HTM L for Web design, writing for a particular journal for the first time, or reading a p a p e r from a differ ent discipline. While there is no a g re e m e n t on one definition of literacy, there is growing recog nition that there are many literacies, a n d in the case of im m igrant learners, there are potentially biliteracies with many dimensions.
C O N T E X T S FO R L IT E R A C Y IN S T R U C T IO N Literacy for What? In 1991 the United States Congress created a set of educational goals for the nation, including Goal 6 for Literacy and Lifelong Learning: “By the year 2000. even adult American will be literate and will possess the knowledge and skills necessary to com pete in a global economy and exercise the rights and responsibilities of citizenship." To explore what this would entail, members of the Equipped for the Future Initiative asked adult learners what thee hoped to gain from formal learning opportu nities. From the responses of more than fifteen h undred adults, four themes or purposes for lan guage and literacy learning emerged: ■
■
■
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Access: to inform ation [as well as jobs and resources] so adults can orient themselves in the world: Voice: to be able to express ideas a n d o p in ions with the confidence thev will be he a rd a n d taken into account; Independent Action: to be able to solve p ro b lems a n d m ake decisions on o n e ’s own, act ing independently, without having to rely on others; Bridge to the Future: learning how to learn so adults can keep up with the tvorlfi as it changes (Stein 1997, p. 7).
A National Literacy Sum m it followed by m eet ings th ro u g h o u t the U nited States resulted in the following Call to Action: Bv 2010, a system of high quality adult literacy, language and lifelong learn ing services will help aclidts in every com m unity make m easurable gains toward achieving their goals as family members, workers, citizens and lifelong learners (National Literacy Summit 2000, p. 1 ). This section briefly provides models for instruc tion that currently speak to those roles and raises issues specific to each context that must be con sidered if this vision is to be achieved.
Basic Adult ESL/Literacy and Lifelong Learning Adults have pursu e d their desire to improve language an d literacy skills for personal, profes sional, or academ ic reasons th rough a wide range o f venues such as adult schools, co m m u nity colleges, communitv-based organizations, libraries, workplaces, or in their own hom es th ro u g h one-on-one volunteer program s. Nearly 50 pe rc e n t of the learners enrolled in federally fu n d e d adult education program s are English language learners, a n d most adult education program s (70%) offer some ESL instruction (TESOL 2000). Trends in imm igration, attitudes toward immigrants, a n d educational a n d labor policies all have an impact on ESL/literacy instruction, no m atter the context in which it occurs. In the 1990s, for example, the U.S. Congress began a series of efforts to cut, com bine, an d streamline federal program s. O n e result was a bill that com bined literacy efforts with workforce training. Literacy initiatives for the first time were linked directly to adult employment, j o b training, and retraining. This bill has been followed bv several legislative initiatives that place a he aw emphasis on jo b preparation. T he cluster of initiatives pop ularly known as welfare reform, for example, places enorm ous pressure on families t<> get off welfare a n d find jobs. T he result' are telt not only in workplace program s, but abo m General
ESL, family literacy and o th er program s that are pushed to incorporate em ploym ent preparation into their curriculum and provide evidence of job outcom es to m aintain their funding.
Family or Intergenerational Literacy T he terms family literacy and intergenerational lit eracy have been used to describe how literacy is \a lu e d and used in the lives of children and adults. These terms h a te also been used to describe e d u c atio n a l pro g ra m s de sig n e d to strengthen literacy resources bv involving at least two generations for a variety of stated goals (Weinstein 1998). In the U nited States, the term family literacy has gained recognition through the growth o f private initiatives such as the Barbara Bush Family Literacy Foundation and Tovota Families for Learning, as well as federal program s such as H ead Start and Even Start.
Family Literacy Program Goals and Models Many initiatives state that their goal is to support parents in prom oting children's school achieve m ent. with an emphasis on parental involvement with schools. Promising programs resist a model that is unilinear— that is, they recognize that it is not onlv that parents must understand and sup port schools, but also that school personnel have an obligation to understand and better respond to patents and families. With greater reciprocal connection as a goal, while parents learn about schools, teachers learn a b out families, anc. schools respond to the realities of the com m uni ties they serve (McCaleb 1994). A second goal often found in family literacy program s is to foster a love of reading amonc both adults and children, or m ore specifically, tc help adults transmit a love of reading to thei: children. In the case of immigrants, experience shows that parents are rarclv in a position tc know m ore English than their children, o r thin to read comfortably to them in their newlv devel oping language. Innovative program s may use a variety of wavs to encourage reading and foster love of literature while minimizing the stresse' on adults. T h e re is evidence, for example, tha:
older children learn as m uch by reading aloud to their parents as bv listening to their parents read. This allows adults to support their children's development without losing face. In other pro grams, Latino adults practice reading Spanish children's literature in order to read to their chil dren, thus fostering native language literacy along with pride in the heritage language. A third goal put forth for some programs is to provide literacy to support adults in addressing family concerns. These programs attend to the role of hom e language and culture, and include activities to enable adults to develop a critical understanding of schooling to "evaluate and rehearse appropriate responses and develop net works for individual or g ro u p advocacy" (Auerbach 1992. p. 35). Learners are supported in reflecting collectively on parenting, developing a voice in the education of their children, and in advocating for their families (Nash et al. 1992). Finally, some programs aim specifically to rec o n n e c t the generations in positive wavs. Children of immigrant families who have more exposure to English are often placed in a position of translating and solving other problems for par ents, reversing traditional roles and creating addi tional stresses for all involved (Weinstein 1998). W hen the goal of imergenerational work is to restore channels for transmission of culture and values, children and adults can be resources for one another. In one family literacy class, for example, participants create a family Web page: adults proside stories of their past which children illustrate a n d input into the c o m p u te r (Hovanesian 1999). Projects like these draw on the resources of children (for English and com puter facility), while tapping the memories and knowledge of adults.
Issues and Agendas in Family Literacy While the goal of mans family program s is to improve c h ild re n ’s school achievements, th ere is clearly m ore to famih' life th an school success. T he work o f Valdes, cited at the beginning of this chapter, is o ne of mans ethnographic studies that illustrate tensions when the culture of schooling violates the norm s of family s’alues. O th e r studies
illustrate the ways in which teachers a n d o th er school personnel can inadvertently u n d e rm in e parental authority— by valuing certain kinds of knosvledge. svhile discounting the knosvledge of the hom e culture. Second, a majority of family literacy p ro grams are designed in a was- that seems to foster participation primarily of children an d their mothers, to the exclusion of fathers or o th e r sig nificant caretakers who mat be equally critical in children's lives. Elders continue to be an u n d e r tapped resource with a wealth o f knowledge that can help to a n c h o r children in their own culture an d history at a time of en o rm o u s change and poten tia l disc o n n e c tio n . Such g r o u n d in g is especially critical at a time w hen children long for connection an d belonging so that they do not n e e d to seek it in o th er forms such as gang m em bership. Finally, famih literacy programs often grow from sources in earls childhood education. If pro grams grew directly from the needs of adults and their own priorities as parents, how would thev be different? When adults are asked about the family issues that concern them most, thev rarelv m en tion their toddlers— the targeted participants of most federally funded family literacy programs. Rather, uprooted adults tend to be most con cerned about their older children who face the perils of adolescence, such as drugs, gangs, and other dangers associated with coming of age in m odern times. As fu n ding and support c ontinue to grow for famih literacy programs, there will be many challenges a h e a d to e n s u re that p ro g ra m s strengthen families, h o n o r the authorin' of par ents. recogni/e and celebrate the wisdom o f eld ers. an d address the needs that adults themselves see in the challenging work thev have to raise a famih' in a complex world.
PRE-EM PLO YM EN T A N D W O R K P L A C E L IT E R A C Y In the 1970s. the influx of guest workers in west E uropean countries caused British educators to reevaluate the efficacy of grammar-based and audiolingtial m e th o d s an d tu rn th eir focus
instead to the linguistic tasks required on the job. At the same time, the U nited States was cop ing with an influx of almost 1100.000 refugees who n e e d e d language and literacy for work m ore urgently than they n e e d e d bookish accu racy in pro d u cin g carefully sequenced gram m ar structures. This laid the groundwork for a growing shift toward employment-related ESI., which mat be woven into a general ESL course or offered in pre-workplace classes on the job. by a union, or bv a consortium of several partners. Programs gen erally entail a needs analysis of participants, an analysis of tasks entailed in a giv en job or setting, a plan for instruction, and an evaluation proce dure (see chapter bv Johns and Price-Machado in this volume).
Goals of Pre-employment and Workplace Programs It has been suggested that there are goals for learners that cut across settings. Bv synthesizing literature from across the manufacturing, techni cal, service, and agricultural domains. Grognet (1997) proposed a set of competencies that are useful in ant workplace setting. Below are exam ples of language functions associated with each of three goals. To get a job: ■ ■ ■
read want ads and com plete application forms give personal information answer an d ask questions (etc.)
To survive on a job: ■ ■ ■
follow oral and written directions u n d e rs ta n d a n d use safety language ask for clarification (etc.)
To thrive on a job (and h a te job mobility): ■ ■ ■
participate in group discussions give as well as follow directions state a position (etc.)
O th e r goals identified grow from research on skills required for the workplace. In 1992. the Secretary of Labor's Commission on Achieving
Necessary Skills (SCANS) issued a report based on the collaborative work of business and educa tion leaders. The Commission identified five competencies and three foundation skills needed for success in the workplace, which have been ada p te d to adult workplace curriculum in many settings. This framework is one that is supported and e x p anded upon bv the E quipped for the Future initiative, which identifies skills n eed ed bv adults in their roles as workers, as well as those underlying areas of knowledge and skill that cut across roles a n d contexts (Stein 1997).
Issues and Agendas in Literacy for Workers: Workplace or Workforce Education? In the two decades when workplace instruction was developing, the techniques used for needs assessment primarily involved surveys and inter views with employers, managers, and supervi sors. Inform ation from workers generally was gathered from the most successful employees to break down the functional and linguistic com ponents of a given task or job in o rd e r to teach it m ore effectively to new workers. This implicit goal is to make employees m ore productive and efficient in meeting the needs of their employers (McGroartv and Scott 1993). However, the agendas of workers may be different from that of their employers. Many workers want to improve their language and lit eracy skills to get out of low-paving or dead-end jobs, to get better jobs within an organization, or to better support their roles in family life. In addition, workers may n e e d skills to cope with dow nsizing, layoffs, an d o th er jolt dislocations in o r d e r to find new em p lo y m en t (Macias in press). T he recognition o f the needs of learners themselves has fostered a distinction between workplace education, to improve productivity in a given job, an d workforce education, which is more oriented toward education of the whole person in his or her roles as a parent, community member, and even as a union member. This approach assumes that the workplace may be a good venue lor addressing literacy needs, but that curriculum should be driven bv the needs of the learner,
w hether for a particular job, for upward mobility, or for o th er personal goals as a lea rn er and as a h u m a n being. Clearly, those programs that prove most suc cessful will be the ones that take into account the agendas of all constituencies a n d that create opportunities for those agendas to be negotiated. Employers need to see the value of program s to be willing to fund and support worker participa tion in them: workers need to feel that their own needs will be met if the\ are to participate and benefit from language and literacy instruction.
organizations. The classes m ar constitute distinct "citizenship” classes or thev may be woven into the general ESL curriculum. Citizenship classes are sometimes taught bilinguallv, especially in community-based organizations. Classes focusing on naturalization test prepa ration. according to Nixon and Keenan (1997), are most effective when thee use a variety of materials, when thev provide as much context for learners as possible, and when thee use authentic materials and Usual aids, especially for low-literacv learners. Classes m a t include traditional EST activities geared to naturalization test preparation, such as:
Civic ESL/Literacy Education Civic education lor newcomers is almost as old as immigration. Earlv in the twentieth e e ntun. for example, "settlement houses" were created to assist immigrants in assimilating to life in the United States and to prepare them for citizenship. What does it m ean for am adult to be a "good cit izen"? What skills, knowledge, or values should a person demonstrate to be accepted as a nets citi zen? These are questions that have been around as long as there have been neighbors and as long as there h ate been newcomers. While it has long been required that new cit izens be able to speak some English, it is a recent development that literacy was added to the list of requirements. In 1930. a reading and writing com ponent teas added to screening procedures for prospective nets citizens. Today, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) administers an examination that evaluates the applicant's knowl edge of U.S. history and government bv quizzing applicants from a list of 100 questions, as well as testing basic knowledge of spoken and written English (Becker 2000).
Goals of Civic ESL/Literacy Education O n e goal of citizenship classes is simply to assist learners in prep a rin g to take the naturalization exam. Public monies, as well as private support from sources such as the Soros F oundation's Em m a Lazarus Fund, have m ade it possible to provide assistance to immigrants through educa tion program s and com m unity or social service
Question Division — learners arrange the 100 INS questions according to them e Inform ation gap activities — learners match questions with answers Flash cards — learners create their own flash cards with questions on one side, answers on other to facilitate hom e studv. etc. (Nixon and Keenan 1997. p. 2). A second goal related to civic and citizen ship education is to encourage learners who have been naturalized to exercise their newlv earned franchise with the vote. Л no Citizens Vote, for example, is a voter education kit developed "to increase the skills and self-confidence of participants regarding voting a n d o th e r local decision-making processes" (Northern California ( .ra in m a k e rs 1998). T h e kit. available in English. Chinese. Vietnamese, or Spanish from ywvw.ncg.org. contains interactive exercises including, a m o n g others
t
a mock election to illustrate the importance of each individual's vote: voting basics: eligibility requirem ents, regis tration. and voting procedures: how and where to find inform ation about political parties, issues, a n d candidates.
Л third goal focuses more broadly on many forms of civic participation. In Civic Participation and Communis Action Sourcebook (Nash 1999), for example, a group consisting primarily of teachers share activities that move learners into action bevond voting. With this expanded notion of civic engagement, the sourcebook presents a range of tools that are aimed at helping readers
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exam ine their beliefs about community, citizenship, democracy, etc; identify and analyze issues that concern them; and build skills an d strategies to take inform ed action (Nash 1999. p. ix).
These materials provide accounts bv teach ers o f projects they have done, such as a group of formerly homeless women studying the history of welfare policy a nd th e n teaching others about the issue, or an ESL class that rallies to help a family that has been b u r n e d out of their hom e. T h e teacher-authors discuss the challenges of trying to incorporate com m unity action into the culture of adult education.
Issues in Civic E S L Literacy Education There are some poignant ironies that em erge in the conflict between preparing learners to be active, engaged citizens in their communities and the stresses of preparing learners for the INS nat uralization test. This conflict is exemplified in SHINE, Students Helping in the Naturalization of Elders, a project I codirect in San Francisco. T h ro u g h SHINE, we train a n d place volunteer university student “coaches” in citizenship classes to support older learners who are preparing for naturalization, as well as in o ther ESL literacy classes (Weinstein et al. in press). We aim to incorporate learner-centered them atic units into o u r coaching curriculum th ro u g h the “First A m e n d m e n t Project." for which we collect narratives from learners and teachers ab o u t their personal experiences with freedom of expression. O u r personal stories of standing up (or not) to parents, bosses, and o th e r authority figures, participating in d e m o n strations, a n d suffering censorship cut to the core of civic engagem ent. We find enthusiasm for this initiative from participants across the ESL literacy an d academ ic spectrum. o\rqM for participants in citizenship classes, whose overrid ing c oncern is to cram, as quickie and efficiently as possible, for the naturalization test. Given the high stakes, this comes as no surprise.
This schism illuminates the irons' that the citizenship exam, as it is currently conceived and administered, does little to prom ote engagem ent for learners in the life of their communities. It continues to be a challenge for c o n c ern e d ESI, teachers to p rep a re learners for a test that has grave consequences for their lives, while also e n c o u ra g in g th e m to develop a voice and becom e inform ed and active m em bers of their communities.
O R IE N T A T IO N S TO C U R R IC U LU M A N D IN S T R U C T IO N T here are a wide variety of approaches to ESL instruction, each with underlying assumptions about teaching and learning, as well as associated techniques and procedures. While it is problem atic when a program pursues one approach with such rigidity that it precludes responding to lea rn er styles or changing learner needs, Wrigles a n d Guth (2000) caution that there is equal cause for c oncern when program s becom e so “eclectic" that tliev have no philosophical coher ence or unifying vision. This section briefly examines two general orientations to ESL literacy instruction, as well as a variety of approaches a n d activities consistent with those orientations. A set of questions to investigate "what works" is provided, along with a set of dichotomies (or continua) for observing characteristics of E S L T iteracv classrooms. Finally, the section concludes with a discussion ol assessing learner success, an d some of the chal lenges that face the field in terms of accountal> ility in the decade ahead.
Mastery or Transmission o f Knowledge Most program s aim to help students learn facts, concepts, a n d skills (procedural knowledge through guided a n d sequenced practice. In adult ESL, a “M asteiy’-based orientation is exemplified bv focus on linguistic structures, language skills, specific content, a n d / o r competencies.
T h e teaching of language structures is as old as language teaching itself. From earlv tech niques such as g ram m ar translation to c o n te m porary textbooks organized bv verb tense and language form, mastery of language structures appears in most curricula to a greater or lesser extent. A glance at the table o f contents of am ESL textbook will reveal the degree of prom i nence that language structures h a te in the organization of material that is taught. Language skills are also featured in most cur ricula, with varying degrees of attention to the tour skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Focus on listening and speaking activi ties, a c c o rd in g to the “W hat Works" study Pelavin R esearch C e n te r an d A m erican Institutes for Research 1999). constitute an ESL Acquisition Model, and mav include vocabulary, oronunciation. language functions, and strate gies to engage in oral com m unication with native speakers. In contrast, an ESL Lileraes Model. according to this study, is constituted bv reading and writing skills development. This mas email providing ESI. literacy learners with op p o rtu n i ties to engage with print, skills and strategies for fluency in reading, and the goal of automaticitv in decoding. Fluency skills include practicing let ters o f the alphabet, letter and word recognition, recognizing sound svmbol relationships, and blending sounds. Activities frequently associated with developing these skills include supported or choral reading and using "environmental" print (signs that su rro u n d us in daily life). Content-based approaches to F.ST literacy instruction are those in which the language and literacy curriculum is woven a round specific sub ject matter. While this approach was initially developed to prepare refugee children for school subjects, there are many applications to adult con texts. Workplace literacy programs have long incorporated the specific vocabulary and lan guage functions needed for a given job or profes sion into their curricula. Family literacy programs often provide language for teaching childhood development or an orientation to the structure of schools in the United States. Citizenship classes may provide English language vocabulary and skills in the context of the citizenship exam, such as the H7/-construction needed to understand the
"]00 questions.” Even the alphabet mav be taught and practiced through kev words in U.S. history (e.g.. "/us for Flag”). (For m ore on content-based approaches, see Snow’s chapter in this volume.) Competency-based education (CBE) em e rg ed in the late 1970s in a shift awav from grammarbased curriculum w hen nevvlv arriving refugees n e e d e d English for im m ediate application in their new lives. A com petency is an instructional objective described in task-based terms such as "Students will be able to . . . e n d in g with a verb phrase describing a dem onstrable skill such as "find information in a bus schedule.” During the p eriod of intense refugee resettlem ent, this approach was aimed at helping learners use pub lic transportation, shop, interact with a doctor, etc. The goal was not only to teach learners about lan guage and grammar, but also to enable them to use language to accomplish a nonlinguistic end (Crandall and Pevton 1999). Competencies for earlv literacy might include items such as “can rec ognize letters of the alphabet" or “can write tipper and lower case English letters."
Meaning-Making or Constructivism A constructivist orientation to teaching and learning is one in which it is assumed that knowl edge is not only transm itted to learners from teachers or books, but also that both m eaning and knowledge can be created collectively by learners or bv learners an d teachers. A variety of approaches, m ethods, and techniques mav1 be associated with this orientation. This section m entions a few. including participatory and whole language approaches. Learners' Lives as Curriculum (LLC). an d project-based learning. These approaches have significant overlap, dif fering primarily in emphasis. A participators, or "Ereirian ” approach, to adult literacy education revolves a ro u n d the tenet that education and knowledge have value insofar as thev help people recognize and liberate them selves from the social conditions that oppress them. Paolo Freire was a Brazilian educator who helped initiate, develop, and im plem ent national literacy campaigns in a n u m b e r of developing countries. In his classic Pedagogy oj the Oppressed,
Freire (1972) outlines an approach to teaching lit eracy in which researchers studv the conditions in a community and identify generative words to describe situations familiar to learners, and then literacy teachers develop materials using these gen erative words to help learners decode the syllables as well as deconstruct their social conditions. Most ESL educators who relv on a Freirian ap p ro a c h do not have the luxury of reiving on social scientists to study learners' communities, n o r do they focus on the analysis of syllables as the only wav to attack the m echanics of lan guage. However, those who ascribe to the pri m ary tenets of participatory education (see A uerbach 1992), tend to agree on ■ ■ ■
Use of generative words and them es draw n from learners' experiences T h e notion o f teachers as facilitators rather titan transmitters of knowledge Use of “problem-posing," a technique in which learners look at pictures or objects to discuss their situation and explore solutions to problems encoded in those situations, (see Auerbach 1992).
T he whole language approach, a movement bo rn in U.S. elementary classrooms, grows from a perspectiye on language learning and teaching in which language is seen as social, and is learned in interaction with other speakers, readers, and writ ers. In whole-language o rie n te d classrooms, learners work together to read and write for and with each o ther and evaluate products together. While phonics or o ther bottom-up m ethods that break down language are not precluded, they are used in service of larger communicative events. As my colleague Carole Eclelskv once explained to me, ‘You teach the sound 'IT not because it is ‘H tveek,’ but rather, because som eone wants to write instructions for how to take care o f the hamster.” The Language Experience Approach, or LEA, a technique related to the whole language tradition, enables adult ESL literacy learners to engage with print from the outset by drawing on stories that they dictate to a teacher or m ore able classmate, either in the native language or in English. These stories becom e the basis for a lan guage or literacy lesson (see Ediger's chapter in this volum e).
An extension of the principles behind these techniques is found in a m odel called Learners’ Lives as Curriculum (Weinstein 1999), in which learner texts (e.g.. language experience, dicta tion, poem, storv, folktale, or interview) are used as catalysts for discussing them es of interest or concern to learners. A thematic unit, according to this model, provides learners with personal sto ries of others like themselves, along with an opportunity to respond to those stories, generate their own narratives, and prepare for a collective project while learning specific language skills and structures. In a predesigned thematic unit on neighborhoods, for example, Tekola Beyene com pares his new ho m e in Virginia, where "houses are verv far apart" and “people are afraid of me because I am a Black m a n ” with his neigh b o rh o o d in Ethiopia, ■where “mv sons played in neighbors' houses every day. . . . if vou n e e d ed help, som eone was alwavs there!" This narrative is used to invite discussion about the learners’ own neighbors and neighborhoods, with a focus on the them e of giving and getting help. The unit leads toward a project in which learners compile a local c o m m u n in ’ resource directory, incite a guest speaker from a sendee that is of interest to the group, and then create a classroom trading post to swap skills and sendees within their classroom community. According to LLC, thematic units include four main components: ■ ■ ■
■
Narratives with a contextualized focus on themes and "hot topics" of interest to learners Language skills, structures, and competencies O pportunities to d o c u m e n t cu rre n t lan guage use an d m o n ito r progress towards learner-selected goals O pportunities to build a classroom com munity in which learners get acquainted, solve problem s together, and engage in authentic projects (Weinstein 1999)
C ertain projects f u r t h e r illustrate the potential w hen learners are invited to collec tively construct knowledge th rough telling sto ries for real readers or listeners outside the class room. Mien hill tribe women work in groups to describe photos of village life in Laos. With help from a bilingual aide, they create a book that will be given to their children born in the United
States. Newly arrived immigrants at the cite college develop a handbook for new(er)c.omers on how t<> survive the first semester in the United States, complete with a campus resource guide and tips for handling homesickness (Weinstein 1999). Students at El Barrio Popular investigate neigh borhood problems that thev themselves hav e iden tified, and compile their research for collective advocacv (Rivera 1999). In an Internet project that draws many "hits." English language learners from across the countrv contribute to a Web page lor folk remedies, thus pooling their knowledge to the benefit of all. (Gaer. http: www.otan.dni.us webfann/emailproject re m .h tm ). These activities illustrate project-based learn ing, in which learners investigate a question, solve a problem , plan an event, or develop a product (Moss an d Van Duxer 1998). Learners not onlv receive knowledge from a teacher or book, but also, thev collectiv elv share and create knowledge. A m ong the potential benefits are effective advocacv. support for problem-solving, and intergenerational transmission of culture. In addition, materials created bv learners are often m ore powerful and compelling tor future learners than anvthing the most dedic ated m ate rials writer can dream up.
What Works? Continua for Observation and Inquiry English as a Second Language program s are the fastest growing c o m p o n e n t in federallv funded adult education efforts. Notwithstanding a gen eral sense of "prom ising practices" (Wriglev 1993), there is a dearth of empirical research about what works for whom and nuclei' what cir cumstances. T he National (llearinghou.se for ESL Titeracv Education (1998) proposed an agenda for adult ESL literacv. including research on the efficacv of different approaches in differ ent circumstances. T he "What Works” stuclv, m en tio n e d earlier, svstematicallv explores one set o f contrasts within a Masters orientation, that is, the efficacv of focusing on oral com m unica tion versus reading writing skills in ESL literacv instruction. O th e r variables which the stuclv seeks to investigate pose useful questions for
observation of ESL/liieracv classes an d food for thought for ESL literacv teachers both within and across orientations. What is the relative emphasis on reading, writing, listening, and speaking? How m uch emphasis is given to linguistic versus nonlinguistic outcomes? What is the extent of focus on structure versus m eaning-m aking (i.e.. on activities associated with masterv versus constructivist o rie n ta tio n s )? What is the extent of "language practice" versus authentic com m unication? f o r how m uch time in the class do learners actuallv use language and literacv? Is curriculum p re d e te rm in e d or does it reflect evolving learner interests? To what extent do learners know the objec tives of the lesson and have an opportunitv for input? Teachers (and teacher trainees) do not have the luxurv of waiting for federal studies to come in with answers. With observation and reflective practice, these questions can guide our own inquirv. as we observe "what works" for different learners in different situations.
Setting Goals, Monitoring Progress In am language or literacv program , there are several sets of "stakeholders." each of which want to know certain things about how things are going. Learners want to know how well thev are doing vis-a-vis o ther students and if thev are mov ing toward their own learning goals. Teachers want to know which m ethods work (and which ones don't) with various learners. Program staff need inform ation in o rd e r to place learners in appropriate levels or classes, decide course offer ings. plan the curriculum , and generallv find out if thev are m e e tin g th eir p ro g ra m goals. Funders as well its taxpavers are interested in the retu rn on investment of literacv dollars and mav be interested in com paring learner achievement across programs. Policvmakers want to know which practices are successful e n o u g h to repli cate as guidelines for allocating future funds.
Stakeholders from the learner's c o m m u n ity family, a n d / o r workplace mat also want to know if the time spent bv the learner is paving off. and if so, in what wav (Van Duzer a n d Berdan 2000). Assessing success has been verv problematic in the fields of both ESL and adult literacy, partly because of the different inform ation needs of the different stakeholders, a n d partly because of an absence of a coherent, com parable system. Such a system would require ag re e m e n t on the nature of language a n d literacy, the goals of instruction, an d a resulting a greem ent on a com parable way to m easure progress toward those goals. N one of these agreem ents is yet in place, which creates e n orm ous challenges to programs lor d ocum enting progress in a way that is specific to the needs of stakeholders within their program s while providing information for funders that is comparable with other programs. The Equipped for the Future Initiative (EFF) has worked to build consensus a ro u n d these areas in o ld e r to create a perform ance-based system which aligns student, program , and policymaker goals within one framework. With a growing emphasis on accountability, this is going to be a kev area for the future of the field in the decade to come. In general, there are two broad categories of assessment — general a n d program -based. General assessments are those that allow com pari son across programs. Standardized tests such as CASAS or BEST- are com m only used, a n d have several advantages an d limitations. Some advan tages of standardized general assessments are that they ■ * ■ ■
Have construct validity and scoring reliability Are cost effective and relatively east’ to adm inister Are a c c e p te d bv fu n d e rs for p ro g ra m accountability Allow for comparisons of learner progress within an d across program s
Some disadvantages are that they ■ ■
D on't reflect what has been taught, or cap ture what has been learned D on't capture changes in language use and literacy practices beyond the classroom
■ ■
D o n ’t discriminate well at the lower e n d of literacy achievement May be inappropriately used for "gatekeep ing” purposes, especially in the workplace (Wriglev and G uth 2000, p. 135)
Program-based assessments, on th e o th e r hand, reflect the a pproach of the program and the co n te n t of the curriculum . They may be based on comm ercial materials used in the p ro gram (e.g.. “Heinle 8c Heinle's Collaborations Assessment Package); or they mav be developed bv teachers th ro u g h checklists o f skills an d com petencies, surveys, teacher observation forms, as well as th ro u g h learner writing, reading, and speaking logs. Some advantages of well designed program -based assessments are that thev * » is
«
Reflect a program 's underlying philosophy of instruction Are learner centered, reflecting strength' a n d goals of individual learners Are done "with” not "to” learners, who par ticipate in setting goals, discussing interest' and reflecting on their accomplishments Involve a variety o f tools, giving a m ore com plete picture of each learner a n d his or he: needs and progress (Van Duzer and Berdar. 2 0 0 0 . p. 2 2 1 ) .
Unfortunately, without guidelines a n d rigo:ous procedures, until a system is agreed upon alternative assessments do not vet produce rehable hard data and are difficult to compare aero" programs. This is a serious drawback for funders who are extremely im portant stakeholders.
PRO M ISING D IR E C T IO N S IN A D U L T ESL L IT E R A C Y IN S T R U C T IO N Anyone who goes into adult ESL literacy instrtution for the m oney o r prestige is tragically m;guidecl. Those who are adventurous, curiom able to tolerate ambiguity, anxious to m ake a d e ference. a n d willing to learn about the won: from others' eves, however, are in for an extr. ordinarily rich experience. For those who wis:
|
to take on the adventure, there are several prom ising directions for effective practice that can su p p o rt if not transform all involved.
1. Take an Inquiring Stance Practitioners who learn about learners are in the best position to help th em address their evolving needs. If teachers do not have the luxurv of m eeting with learners on their h o m e tu rf (bv doing eth n o g ra p h ic research, visiting learners at hom e, a tte n d in g com m unitv events, etc.), there are many tools for bringing inquire into the classroom. Learners can talk about their prac tices, concerns, a n d needs (and successes!) using a variety of tools associated with anv of the orientations an d approaches outlined in this chapter. By identifying needs as learners th em selves define them , practitioners can work to address those needs, either th ro u g h the curricu lum or, if necessarv, between the cracks when institutional constraints m ake it impossible to do so directly. Those who m ake it a practice to learn about learners bv observing a n d listening may be in for some inspiring surprises.
2. Balance Skills and Structures with Meaning-Making and Knowledge Creation Those who were trained in structural linguistics or in competency-based approaches tend to be good at teaching language structures a n d func tions b u t less practiced at starting conversations with students about things that they care about deeply. O n the o th er hand, experienced partici patory educators an d com m unity advocates tend to know how to engage learners in exploring “h o t” issues, but may be less skilled in presenting the mechanics of language a n d literacy in a sys tematic way. To gain proficiency with language a n d literacy, it is necessary to have both the build ing blocks as well as the opportunity to use them for a d e e p e r purpose. T he linguists would do well to learn how to invite heart-felt conversation a n d collective problem-solving; the advocates a n d organizers n e e d tools to help learners mas ter the m echanics of language an d literacy as an
integral p a rt o f th e ir project-based work. Practitioners can also learn from an d collaborate with peers who have com plem entary strengths in skill-building an d m eaning-m aking— b o th essen tial parts of the language a n d literacy learning enterprise.
3. Develop “ Vision-Making” Muscles As we learn new techniques, follow new trends, or react to changing pressures, it is easy to forget what m oved us to becom e teachers. We may set tle into a m o d e of only reacting to outside m a n dates, losing track of the m an d a te th at comes from ou r own vision. W hat is o u r purpose? W hat are ^ve ho p in g to m ake h a p p e n for learners who e n te r o u r classrooms w hen they com e in and after they’ve left? Articulating a n d p u rsuing a vision is, in my view, work that m ust be d o n e on several levels. This happens in the daily fabric of lesson p lanning (What is the p urpose o f this les son?); in providing in p u t to the program s we work for (How should ou r curricula change?); in advocating for policies that s u p p o rt effective learning a n d effective teaching (What are the conditions that we a n d ou r learners n e e d to p u r sue this vision?); as well as in how we assess the degree to which we are moving toward o u r vision. With too few full-time jobs a n d difficult working conditions, it can be challenging to re m e m b e r an d pursue such a vision an d to be proactive rath e r than reactive to the day’s cir cumstances. I believe that, as educators, we all n e e d m ore practice a n d su p p o rt in flexing ou r “vision-making” muscles.
4. Demand Mutual Accountability With a growing emphasis on “accountability,” it will becom e increasingly im p o rta n t for practi tioners to have their own vision o f what they are trying to accomplish th ro u g h their literacy work a n d to seek wavs of assessing the degree to which they are succeeding. Merrifield (1998) talks ab o u t a svstem of “mutually accountable” rela tionships in which evert’ “player” would be both accountable to o th e r players a n d held account able by th em . Learners would hold teachers
accountable for m eeting their learning needs, but teachers would hold learners accountable for a ttending an d doing their work, while also holding p rogram directors an d funders account able for providing them with a dequate resources such as materials, space, or training. While Merrifield's vision is far from the cur rent reality, it is crucial for practitioners to know an d articulate what thev are trving to achieve, and to advocate for conditions thev need to achieve it. Just as learners should not be asked to “wait” for m ea n in g fu l c o m m u n ic a tio n until “after” learning the m echanics of language, prac titioners m ust n o t wait for ideal conditions before engaging in vision-making work. Articu lating ou r goals, inviting learners to articulate theirs, finding ways to m easure how we are mov ing toward them , an d fighting for conditions to m ake the process possible must be part of our ongoing practice in ou r classrooms, in conversa tions with ou r colleagues, and in wider arenas.
5. Create Communities of Learners and Communities o f Teachers In many of the orientations described in this chapter, attention is given to creating c om m uni ties o f learners who support one an o th er in learn ing language an d literacv while reflecting collectively (and sometimes taking resulting action) on their lives. Learner stories and experi ences are the raw materials that can begin the con versation for planning such actions. Teachers who engage this wav with the adults in their classes rep o rt enorm ous satisfaction when learners make individual or collective strides. Learners who have felt marginalized find strength a n d support in the safetv of a n u r tu r in g classroom community. Technolog}' provides new opportunities for learn ers to build com m unities both within the class ro o m as well as beyond its boundaries. The examples are n u m ero u s an d continue to grow as lea rn ers collaborate to com pile a n d create knowledge. Teachers are also learners. Thev must con stantly respond to new circumstances as the stu d e n t population, legislative m andates, program constraints, a n d o th er conditions change. Like
language a n d literacv learners, teachers must often m anage despite difficult conditions. And like anv learners, teachers also n e e d time to tell stories of their teaching and to com pare and analvze their experiences, both within program s an d across them. Instruction will be strongest where teachers are su p p o rte d in taking time to discuss program goals, reflect collectively on their practice, frame questions, explore them systematically, an d take action based on what they’ve learned. Such shar ing mat take manv forms, w hether it is through sharing lesson plans, pe e r observation, “studs circles" about teaching issues, or collaboration on projects. In addition, national electronic lists such as those listed in the resource section belov. create opportunities for teachers to reflect collectivelv with a wider circle of colleagues without the constraints of in-person m eeting time o r the boundaries of geographic space. Communitieof teacher-learners, w hether in person or on-line can provide support in one o f the most challeng ing but rewarding endeavors imaginable— that o: fostering and witnessing transformations that are associated with nurturing the developm ent o: adult literacies.
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1. Who are some of the ESL literacv learners ir. vour communitv? What language and literac resources do thev bring, and what resourcedo thev need or want? What are their goalfor language and literacv learning? 2. W hat kinds of program s are available in you,: c o m m u n itv for ESL literacv le a rn e r'Brainstorm a list of programs. You may wis: to investigate such program s m ore fully as . term project. 3. What do vou think the qualifications shoulc be for teaching ESL literacv? W hat should br the salarv and benefits? Find out about qual ifications required an d working conditionin program s in vour c o m m u n in ’. Were th e n anv surprises? 4. What are some of the debates that are cu:rentlv on electronic literacv lists? Find a debatT
or discussion and then summarize the kev points from the c urrent list or from the archives. What is vour opinion about this issue?
FU R T H ER R EA D IN G Auerbach. E. 1992. Making Meaning. Making Change:
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1. Learn m ore about a bilingual family or com m u n in ’ in vour neighborhood. Investigate language use in a varietv ol'wavs— through interviews, observation, a n d / o r attendance at c o m m u n in ’ events. Write up a family or co m m u n in ' profile, including patterns of who uses what language to whom and when. 2. A rrange to observe one or m ore classes in an adult school or ESL literacy instruction in a family, workplace, or c o m m u n in ’ literacy context. Begin with a brief description of the setting, the students, a n d the course content. Note in nonjuclgmental log form at exactly what the teacher does and what the students do for the duration of the class. Write up the log. along with a discussion of the questions on page 181. or o th er questions sou develop with s o u r class. Interview the teacher when feasible. Find out as m uch as possible about the program and the funding and how thev shape instruction. 3. Find examples of teachers and or program s which ■ Have learner input at the classroom level (deciding topics, projects, etc.) ■ Have lea rn er input at the program level (deciding curriculum , approaches, etc.) ■ Offer instruction in students' native lan guage literacy ■ Engage in project-based work ■ Proside opportunities for com m unity building am o n g students an d teachers What creates the conditions that enable these programs to engage in promising practices? 4. Im agine that the Paradise F oundation has g ran te d sou unlim ited funds to design a pro gram for the target group o f s o u r choice. Identify a group of ESL literacy learners in your community. Provide a description of their n eeds and resources. Describe the ideal program sou would create to m ee t their needs, while tapping their resources.
Partiei/jatory Curriculum Development for Adult LSI. Literary McHenry IF: Delta Ssstems. Inc. and
Center for Applied Linguistics. Crandall. }.. and J. Pevton. eds. 1993. Approaches to Adult ESI. Literacy Inst) action. McHenry 1L: Delta Ssstems. Inc. and Center for Applied Linguistics. Weinstein. G.. ed. 1999. Learners' Lives as Curriculum: Six Journeys to Immigrant Literacy. McHenry II.: Della Systems. Inc. and Center for Applied Linguistics. Wrigles. H. S.. and G. Guth. 2900. BringingI.itmux to Life. Res. ed. San Mateo. CA: Aguirre International.
W E B S IT E S The
National Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education (NCI.L) provides information on adult ESL literacy education to teachers and tutors, program directors, researchers, and polics’inakers interested in the education of refugees, immigrants, and other U.S. residents whose liable language is not English. This site has scores of ERIC Digests. О N As. annotated bibliogra phies. and other concise resources for ESI./literacs' educators which can he downloaded for free. http: /www.cal.org/ncle.
The National Institute for Literacy (NIFL) is the host of the Literacy Information and Communication Ss’stem (LINGS), an information retrieval and communication netsvork for the literacy commu nity also presiding access to all published and unpublished literacy related materials and major literal's related databases. LINCS hosts several lists and collections, including • the XIEI.-ESL list, which focuses on topics such as instructional practices, program design, research, and policy. http: wvcvv.nifl.gov lines/discussions/ nifl-esl about nifl-esl.html
• the LLXCS Adult ESL Special Collerliou. which provides practitioners with curricular materials and resources, news in the held, and a forum for issues. http:
literacsiiet.org/esl/
• UXCS FIFE Special Collection, which features resources related to Equipped for the Future (EFF). XIFL.'s standards-basecl svstem reform initiative. http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/collections/ e ff/ eff.html
NIFF also archives messages of the National Literacy Advocacv (NLA) list. The focus of this inde pendent list, moderated bv David ). Rosen, is national and slate level adult literacy public policy information and advocacy, especially concerning legislation and funding. h ttp : / / w w w . n i f l . g o v / l i n c s / d i s c u s s i o ns nifl-nla/nla.html
The National Center for the Studv of Adult Teaming and Literacy (XCSALL). according to their yvebsite. aims "to help the held of adult basic education define a comprehensive research agenda; to pursue basic and applied research under that agenda: to build partnerships between researchers and practitioners; and to disseminate research and best practices to prac
titioners. scholars, and policy makers." It con tains an on-line version of Focus on Basics, yvhich has many useful articles for practitioners. http: / /gsew eb.harvard.edu/-ncsall
Both the U.S. National Literacy Act of 1991 and the U.S. Adult Education Act of 1991, along with related policy resources, are available online at w w w .nifl.gov/linc/collectio n s/p o licv / resource.html
ENDNO TES 1 I am grateful to Man .Ann Florez, Joy Pevton. Brigitte Marshall. .Amanda Enoch, and Andv Nash for their helpful comments, and to David Rosen for pointing me to several useful resources. Anv yvrongheaded assertions or conceptual errors are strictly mv (jyvn. - CASAS is the acronvm for the Comprehensive Adul: Student Assessment Svstem. BEST is the acronym for the Basic English Skills Test.
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IN T R O D U C T IO N
Purposes for Reading
\ l a n \ have argued in the past 13 sears that read ing is the most im portant academic language skill for second language students. Supporting these claims are several student and facultv sur veys at post-secondars- institutions that highlight the im portance of reading lor academic p u r poses. In academic settings, reading is assumed to be the central m eans for learning ness infor m ation and gaining access to alternative expla na tio n s a n d in te rp re ta tio n s . R e ading also provides the foundation for svnthesis and criti cal evaluation skills. In addition, reading is the p rim arv m eans for i n d e p e n d e n t learning, w hether the goal is perform ing better on aca demic tasks, learning m ore about subject matter, or improving language abilities. In this chapter, eve describe how readingabilities cum be developed and how teachers can guide student learning. The c hapter opens with brief com m ents on the purposes for reading, a definition of reading, and implications for effec tive Knglish for Academic Purposes (EAP) read ing in stru ctio n . We th en h ig h lig h t m ajor differences in first language (1 .1 ) an d second language (1 .2 ) reading an d consider curricular goals and instructional practices that support reading. The c hapter concludes with ou r views of future trends in L2 reading practices.
W hen we read, we read for a variety o f purposes. We sometimes read to get the main idea but not m uch m ore (e.g.. skimming a newspaper story), an d sometimes we read to locate specific infor m ation (e.g.. scanning for a nam e, date, or term ). Commonly we read texts to learn infor mation (i.e.. reading to learn), and sometimes we are expected to synthesize inform ation from multiple texts, or from a longer c hapter or book, in o rd e r to take a critical position with respect to that inform ation (i.e.. reading to inte grate and evaluate in fo rm a tio n ). Perhaps most often, we read for general co m p re h en sio n (i.e., reading to u n d e rstand main ideas and relevant supporting inform ation). We also read for pleas ure. with the intention of being en te rta in ed or informed, but not tested. In academic settings, almost evert m ajor purpose for reading comes into plat. Thus, an EAP reading curriculum must account for how students learn to read for multiple purposes, including at least the reading 1.
to search for information
2.
for general com prehension
3.
to learn new information
4.
to svnthesi/c and evaluate inform ation
Although these purposes might give the impres sion that there are very different tuns to read a text, these differing purposes actually d e p e n d on a stable set of processes and skills that underlies all reading, though in differing combinations of relative im portance. Thus, we can still talk about reading in the singular and define it as such, as long as we recognize that processes an d skills com bine in differing wavs d e p e n d in g on the re a d e r’s purpose (Grabe 1999a).
A Definition o f Reading T h e abilitv to r e a d — taking general c o m p r e h e n sion as the exam ple — requires that the reader draw inform ation from a text a n d com bine it with information and expectations that the reader alreadv has. This interaction of information is a com m on wav to explain reading comprehension, though it does not reveal much about the specifics of reading. Recentlv, research on T1 reading has highlighted the n e e d for readers to develop essential reading processes and abilities such as rapid w7o rd recognition, vocabulary develop m ent, text-structure awareness, an d strategic re a d in g (as o p p o se d to le a rn in g individual strategies). Yet, all researchers recognize that the actual ability to c o m p re h e n d texts comes about th ro u g h reading, an d doing a great deal o f it, as the core o f reading instruction. A good wav to understand reading is to con sider wThat is required for fluent reading (see Grabe 1999b). Fluent readers, especially good Tl readers, typicallv do all of the following: 1. Read rapidly for c o m p rehension 2. Recognize words rapidly a n d automatically (without seem ing to pay any attention to them) 3. Draw on a verv large vocabulary store 4. Integrate text inform ation with their own knowledge 5. Recognize the purpose(s) for reading 6. C o m p re h e n d the text as necessarv 7. Shift purpose to read strategically 8. Use strategies to m o n ito r c o m p rehension 9. Recognize an d repair m iscom prehension 10. Read criticallv a n d evaluate inform ation
Using these characteristics of a fluent rea d e r to create an e x p a n d e d definition of reading reveals the multiple skills a n d strategies that L2 learners n e e d in o rd e r to becom e fluent readers.
General Implications from Research for Reading Instruction Based on these criteria for fluent reading and findings from reading research in Tl and T2 con texts. we see ten kev implications for К А Р reading instruction. Basicallv. EAP teachers can addres' the academic reading needs of their students bv doing the following: 1. 2.
3. 4.
5.
6.
7.
8. 9. 10.
H elping students build a large recognition vocabulary Providing explicit language instruction to help students build a reasonable foundation, in the T2 Addressing the range of skills n e e d e d for successful com prehension In troducing students to discourse-organiz ing principles th ro u g h the use of graphic representations and o th er practices H elping students becom e strategic reader' bv focusing on metacognitive awarenes' and strategv learning Giving students mane opportunities to rear, so that thcv develop reading fluency and automaticitv Making extensive reading and broad expo sure to T2 texts a routine practice, in and out of class M otivating students to read Integrating reading an d writing instruction Developing effective content-based instruc tion for authentic integrated-skills tasks
Bevoncl these ten implications is the overarching principle that students becom e better reader' onlv bv doing a lot of reading. There are no short cuts. .All researchers agree on this principle.
L 2 Readers and Sociocultural Factors in Learning to Read O u r definition of reading and the implication' for in stru ctio n th a t e m e rgоe fro m curre n t research reveal the complexity of reading and
corresponding instruction. A m ore complete picture of EAP reading requires that we exam ine the differences betw een L I a n d L2 readers and the ways in which these differences influ ence instruction. L2 readers generally have weaker linguistic skills and a m ore limited vocab ulary than do LI readers. They do n o t have an intuitive foundation in the structures o f the L2. and they lack the cultural knowledge that is sometimes assumed in texts. L2 students nrav also have some difficulties recognizing the wavs in which texts are organized a n d inform ation is presented, leading to possible com p re h en sio n problems. At the same time. L2 students, work ing with (at least) two languages, are able to relv on their LI knowledge an d LI reading abilities when such abilities are useful (as opposed to instances when LI knowledge could interfere). O lder academically oriented L2 students typic ally (but n o t alwavs) have been successful in learning to read in their LI and know that thev can be successful with academic texts and tasks. L2 students also have certain resources for read ing that are potentially strong supports: bilingual dictionaries, word glosses, m ental translation skills, a n d the ability to recognize cognates ' dep e n d in g on the LI and L2). L2 students often come to class with a range of motivations to read that mav be different from many LI students' motivations. Another potential L1/L2 difference stems from students' social and cultural backgrounds. L2 students generally come from a variety of family, social, and cultural backgrounds. Some families read verv little, have few7 reading materials available, and do not encourage in d ependent reading. Some social set tings do not encourage reading. Lor example, prior schooling mav not have emphasized read ing, o ther community institutions mav not have encouraged reading, and libraries mav have been 'carce or inaccessible. Some cultures an d social groups place m ore emphasis on spoken com m u nication for learning, and reading plavs a m ore limited role there. In some cases, educational and religious experiences mar- center m ore on the un q u e stio n e d truth o f powerful texts, lead ing to the m em orization of kev text inform ation rather than the evaluation of com peting infor mational resources. Because such issues have
the potential to cause problem s for students, teachers n e e d to inform themselves ab o u t these issues and adjust their teaching accordingly to reach as many students as possible. In addition to the varying linguistic and soci ocultural factors that distinguish L2 readers from LI readers, differences between ESL and EEL set tings are worth mentioning. Prototvpicallv, one thinks of ESL instruction as occurring in an LI English-speaking country, tvpicallv with immi grant students in secondary schools and foreign students in post-secondarv settings. In contrast, EFL students mav be sitting in an English class in China. Morocco, or Belgium, learning to read English as part of a four-skills curriculum , with three to six hours of English instruction per week. In ESL and EFL settings such as these, croals for language instruction varv, levels of English proficiency differ, an d expected reading outcom es are likelv to be different. T h e differences in tr o d u c e d h e re plav m ajor roles in establishing goals for reading instruction a n d specifying the levels of reading ability that constitute successful learning in a given curriculum . Each instructional setting defines somewhat different goals for reading achievement, purposes for reading, an d uses of text resources. These are issues that all teachers must be sensitive to a n d that should guide the developm ent of EAP reading curricula.
Goals for an Effective Reading Curriculum In this section, we consider curricular issues that should be relevant across a wide range of EAP settings. We recognize, however, that we cannot anticipate every L2 reading context, and that recom m endations must be adapted to teachers’ individual situations. Nonetheless, we feel that there are at least six im portant goals that should be considered in planning anv e x te n d e d EAP reading curriculum: 1. C onduct needs analyses to in te rp re t institu tional goals an d expectations for learning 2. Plan (or fine-tune) reading curricula in rela tion to specific goals, topics, texts, an d tasks
3.
Select appropriate text materials and sup porting resources 4. Diversify students' reading experiences 5. Work with texts bv m eans of a pre-, during-, and postreading framework 6. Recognize the com plex na tu re of reading th ro u g h m eaningful instruction These goals, discussed in m ore detail in the rem a in d e r of the chapter, offer a m anageable structure for planning effective EAP reading instruction in almost anv setting, t h e n where curricular guidelines are p red e term in e d , explo ration of these goals can significantly impact stu d e n t learning outcomes.
Conducting Needs Analyses Reading instruction, m uch like anv instruction, needs to take into account institutional expec tations in addition to students' goals, language abilities, an d Id and L2 reading experiences, ft is especially im portant to exam ine students' motivations a n d attitudes toward reading in gen eral, 1.2 reading m ore specifically, an d the par ticular goals of the curriculum (e.g.. topics to be covered, material to be read, m eans for assess m ent). In some settings, a certain a m o u n t of inform ation can be collected bv interviewing students’ previous teachers an d bv becom ing acquainted with institutional guidelines, assess m e n t expectations, a n d re a d in g resources (including textbooks). Teachers also have a responsibility to gather information about students' goals, prior reading experiences, and attitudes toward 1,2 reading from o th e r sources, most comm only the stu dents themselves. O n e quick way to collect use ful inform ation is to co n d u c t a short survey and have brief follow-up interviews with students. Questions can focus on how m uch reading stu dents have done, what students like to read, what thes have read, an d when thev read their last book and for what reason(s). O th e r ques tions can be directed at de te rm in in g how stu dents feel about reading an d how successful they perceive themselves to be as readers. Even a simple set of questions gives teachers access to useful inform ation that can be used to plan (or fine-tune) a reading curriculum.
Planning (or Fine-Tuning) Reading Curricula After conducting a needs analysis, the goals of the curriculum can be spelled out (or interpreted) it. m ore detail. Because there are mans possible goals for a reading curriculum, curricular priori ties need to be determ ined based on institutional goals, n u m b e r of hours of instruction per week available resources, and students' abilities, needs and interests. (See Johns and Price-Machado c hapter in this volume.) Regardless of the n um ber of student contact hours, all reading curric ula should focus on com prehension of key text' but thee m ight also emphasize extensive react ing. the developm ent of strategic reading. .. large increase in students' recognition vocabu laries. greater fluency in reading, svstematn analyses of difficult material, an d the study < : discourse-organization features. .After goals am priorities are determ ined, texts a n d topics car. be selected and tasks designed, with an evtowarcl creating a m eaningful, motivating, an: challenging curriculum.
Selecting Appropriate Text Materials and Supporting Resources A reading curriculum is heavilv d e p e n d e n t o: the reading materials used: T he choice of pr marv texts and textbooks, supporting resource' an d classroom library materials have a m a j t . impact on students' motivations to read an. their e n g a g em e n t with texts. Text material should c o m plem ent students' intellectual levelan d be at appropriate levels of difficulty; po ten tial sources of difficulty for L2 readers incluciassum ed b a c k g ro u n d know ledge, culltuv. assumptions, d e m a n d in g topics, grammatica complexitv. length of texts, new conceptua knowledge, organization, unusual formatting an d vocabulary. T h e text materials selected fee EAP settings should be interesting a n d coher ently linked (e.g., by topics, tasks, and overa. themes) to simulate the dem ands of academi: courses. Text materials a nd lessons should buif in a degree of complexity th ro u g h the introduc tion of new. though related, inform ation and
differing perspectives so that students feel some challenge and base the opportunity to develop smne expertise an d pride in what thev are learn ing. Ideallv. free-reading materials should be easily accessible, plentiful, attractive, an d avail able for learner use bevond class time (Dav and Bamford 1998).
Diversifying Students’ Reading Experiences Effective reading instruction should not be limited to activities done in the classroom. .Vn ideal read ing curriculum comprises reading in class, in a lab (see Stoller 1994a). in a library, and at hom e, in addition to reading for different purposes. As noted earlier, reading can develop successfully only if'students read a large am ount of material. A major task of a reading curriculum, then, is to guide students in doing as much reading as pos sible in the am ount of time available. Silent read ing should be part of even reading lesson: extended silent reading should be a major com p o n e n t of reading labs and libran visits, and stu dents must be encouraged to read at home.
Working with Texts by Means of a Pre-, During-, and Postreading Framework If the heart of learning to read is the act of read ing itself, then the heart of reading instruction is the set of tasks that students engage in to achieve learning goals. Countless instructional tasks are used in reading classes (Dav 1994): some are m ore effective than others. Teachers" choices should be guided bv instructional goals, student readiness, text resources, and implications from research and theory. O ne m ajor implication from theory is a general framework based on pre-, during-, and postreading instruction (see Stoller 1994b. for practical applications). Premiding instnu lion can serve live im portant purposes. It helps students access background information that can facilitate subsequent read ing, provides specific information n e e d e d for successful c om prehension, stimulates student
interest, sets up student expectations, and models strategies that students can later use on their own. Some com m only used p re re a d in g activities include the following: 1.
2.
3.
4. 5.
Previewing the text (bv examining distin guishing features of the text such as the title, subheadings, illustrations and captions, and sections) to determ ine (or at least hypothe size) the general topic of the reading, rele vant vocabulary, and possible challenges Skimming the text or portions of the text (e.g.. the first and last paragraphs) to decide what the main ideas of the text are Answering questions about inform ation in the text or form ulating questions for which students want answers Exploring kev vocabulary Reflecting on or reviewing inform ation from previously read texts in light of the topic of the new text
I)un ng-icnding instruction guides students th ro u g h the text, often focusing on u n d e rs ta n d ing difficult concepts, m aking sense of complex sentences, c o n s id e rin g rela tio n sh ip s a m o n g ideas or characters in the text, a n d l eading pu r posefully and strategically. Some com m only used dttring-reading activities include the following: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
O utlining or summ arizing kev ideas in a dif ficult section Exam ining emotions and attitudes of kev characters D eterm ining sources of difficulty an d seek ing clarification Looking for answers to questions posed du rin g prereading activities Writing down predictions of what will come next
Poslrcuding instruction tvpicallv extends ideas and information from the text while also ensur ing that the major ideas and supporting informa tion are well understood. Postreading activities often require students to use text information in other tasks (e.g.. reading to write). Some com monly used postreading activities are 1.
C om pleting a graphic organizer (e.g., table, chart, grid) based on text inform ation
3. 4. 5.
Expanding or changing a semantic m ap created earlier Listening to a lecture and com paring infor m ation from the text an d the lecture Ranking the importance of information in the text based on a set of sentences provided Answering questions that dem onstrate com prehension of the text, require the applica tion of text material, d e m a n d a critical stance on text information, or oblige stu dents to connect text information to per sonal experiences and opinions
T h e pre-, during-, a n d postreading fram e work described here is easily ada p te d to differ ent classroom contexts. All three c o m ponents of the framework m a t be integrated into a single lesson (with a short reading passage on a famil iar topic) or thev ntav run across n u m erous les sons. T h e activities in tro d u c ed in the upcom ing sections of this c hapter can also be integrated into the pre-, during-, and postinstructional framework.
Addressing the Complex Nature o f Reading through Meaningful Instruction R eading is a complex skill— as d e m onstrated bv o u r definition of reading, the abilities of fluent readers, a n d the mans purposes for which we read. Meaningful LAP reading instruction can account for this complexity bv addressing the following: vocabulary d e v e lo p m e n t, careful read in g of texts, awareness of text structure and discourse org an iz atio n , the ttse o f graph ic organizers to support com prehension, strategic reading, fluency developm ent, extensive rea d ing, student motivation, a n d integrated-skills tasks. Because it is virtually impossible to develop each and even area with equal intensity, reading teachers need to decide which areas to focus m ore attention on, while n o t losing sight of the prim ary m eans for rea d in g developm ent: Students n e e d to read extensively. Vocabulary D evelopm ent T here is overwhelm ing evidence that vocabulary know ledge is closelv related to reading abilities Schoonert,
Hulstijn. and Bossers 1998). Students need t< recognize a hu ge n um ber of words automatical!' if thev are to be fluent readers. Some part o: rapid word recognition skills comes from reading extensively and learning new words while read ing. However, reading bv itself does not provide full support for vocabulary developm ent. I: addition to reading extensively, students bene: from being exposed to new words throng:, explicit instruction, learning how to learn word' on their own. familiarizing themselves with the), own word-learning processes, and becom iru word collectors (see (.rates 2000: Stahl 1999 (See also D eC arrico’s c hapter in this volume.) With so m am worth for students to learn. . teacher needs to decide how mans and wliic: words to focus on. Inexperienced teachers me have difficulties selecting kev words for institu tion. Rev words themselves should be the mo-' im portant words for a text, the most useful f organizing and working with o ther vocabulary and the most likelv to be helpful to studen:bevond the text being read. Often textbookhighlight specific words for instruction; howeve: there m ar be o ther words that need attention. useful approach for teachers is to preview' tlw text to be assigned and identify words likelv to bunlam iliar to their students. Words should bplaced in one of three categories: 1. 2.
3.
+ + : Words that are critical for compre h e n d in g the text and useful in other setting+ - : (Voids that are necessary for com pre h e n d in g the text, hut not particularly use ful in o th er contexts - - : Words that are not necessary f e c o m p re h e n d in g the text, n o r particular'.' useful in o th er contexts
Words that fall into the + + and + - cate gories should he considered for direct instruc tion. Vet. when texts are difficult for students. . teacher m ight identify 40 to 50 words in these two categories. I he problem here is that trying to teach a large n u m b e r of words directly at am one time is not an effective teaching strategy. Ir. am given lesson, it is m ore efficient to locus or. four to five kev words, because that n u m b e r o: words is likeh to be learned and re m e m b e re d i:
used multiple times a n d in multiple wavs. Mam of the o th er useful an d im portant words in a text can be built into exercises a n d activities (e.g\. sem antic maps, tables, word families) an d explored as p a n of discussions about the text and what the text means. Icleallv, kev words can be used to build tip sets of related words. For example, the word comj)uter can bring up words such as monitor, electricity, software, printers, calculators, robots, e-mail. Internet, pro g ra m ming. writing, and graphics. A semantic m ap ping activity mat place all of these words on a blackboard just bv association with the keyword. In this wav. students gain exposure to o ther words without treating each one as a ke\ word. Manv words that are difficult for students mav be u n c o m m o n , specialized, u n im p o rta n t for the text, or a nam e or place word. These can be addressed simple b\ providing glosses, good svnonvms. or practice in guessing word m ea n ings from context. More generally', teachers and students need to keep words active in the class room environm ent through explicit instruction (see Figure 1 ) and the intentional recycling of words, an d bv putting words on walls (see Evraucl et al. 2000) and in notebooks, and incor porating them into larger learning projects. Analysis of word parts Associations Cognate awareness Definitions Dictionary activities
Students can also be taught how to learn words on their own, using, for example, a dic tionary. yvorcl-part information, and context clues. Students can be encouraged to take responsibility for their oyvn yvord learning by collecting words from texts (perhaps on index cards), recycling vocabulary from past texts, discussing words that they like, experim enting with yvords that have m ore than one meaning, and bringing neyv words to class to share with classmates. Careful Reading o f Texts In academic settings, the careful reading of texts is a c o m m o n task, one that requires readers to dem onstrate a good un d e rsta n d in g of details in the text, to learn inform ation from it. an d to use that inform ation for o th e r tasks. In FAP classrooms, careful read ing activities typically center on questions that ask students to recognize main ideas an d analyze supporting information, argum ents, or details that explain the main ideas. Activities that require careful reading often focus on unravel ing inform ation in long an d com plex sentences, de te rm in in g e m b e d d e d definitions, exploring inferences that connect sets of inform ation, dis tinguishing m ore im p o rta n t ideas from less im portant ones, exam ining the discourse struc ture of parts of the text, a n d using text inform a tion for o th er activities (e.g.. filling in a table, writing a summary, com paring inform ation from one text yvith an o th er). Many of the postreading activities listed earlier can be used to p rom ote careful reading; others include the folloyving: 1.
Discussion of word meanings Flashcards
2.
Games Illustrations, drawings, realia
3.
Matching meanings and collocations Mnemonic techniques Parts of speech tables Semantic mapping and semantic grids Synonyms and antonyms W ord family exercises Figure I. Sampling o f Explicit V o cab u lary Teaching Techniques
4.
Filling in parts left blank in an e x tended summary D eterm ining the attitude of the yvriter, the in te n d e d audience, an d the goal(s) of the writer and identify ing clues in the text Lasting examples that ap p e ar in the text, adding o th er p e rtin en t examples to the list, an d explaining one's reasons for doing so M atching inform ation or evaluating possi ble true false statements
In carrying out careful reading activities, there are some im portant guidelines to keep in mind. If a text is too difficult for students, additional support should be provided by, for example, putting students into groups to work out
answers together. A second option is to provide Mime of the an steers (and review strategies for how other questions can be answered), thereby m aking the re m a in d e r of the task easier. Students, when reporting answers or working on tasks, should occasionallv be asked to explain how thev arrived at their answers and point out where the\' found kev information in the text. These confirming activities, though often quite timeconsuming, help students sharpen their strategies for careful reading, give teachers insights into how texts are understood, and provide op p o rtu nities for discussions about strategic reading. Awareness o f Text Structure and Discourse Organization Students in academic settings are often expected to learn new information from difficult texts. It is im portant that L2 students do not becom e confused bv the larger organization of the texts (e.g.. comparison-contrast, problemsolution, narrative sequences, and classification) and features of different genres (e.g.. newspaper stories, letters to the editor, "how-to" proce dures). A consistent effort to guide students to see the wavs that texts are structured will help th e m build s tro n g e r c o m p r e h e n s io n skills. Activities that fonts spedficallv on the wavs in which discourse is organized and on specific aspects of text structure (e.g.. transition phrases, words that signal patterns of text organization, pronoun references, headings, and subheadings) are often part of exercises that emphasize careful reading. Some of these activities use graphic organizers (discussed in the next section of this chapter), but there are mane o ther tuns to explore discourse organization and text structure: 1. 2.
3.
4.
5.
IdentilYing the sentences that ccmvev the main ideas of the text Exam ining headings and subheadings in a text and then deciding what each section is about Adding inform ation to a partiallv com plet ed outline until all kev supporting ideas are included U nderlining transition phrases and. when thev signal m ajor sections of the text, describing what the next section covers Explaining what a set of p ro n o u n s refers to in prior text
6. 7. 8.
9.
Examining an inaccurate outline an d adjust ing it so that it is correct Reorganizing a scrambled paragraph and discussing textual clues used for decisions Creating headings for a set o f paragraphs in the text, giving a label to each, an d dis cussing die function of each paragraph. Identilving clues that indicate m ajor pat terns of organization (e.g.. cause-effect, comparison-contrast, analvsis)
These text-analvsis activities, as rep re sen tative samples of a larger set, help students u n d erstand that texts have larger patterns of organization bevond the sentence. Students benefit from being aware of these patterns w hen thev read for academic purposes. U se o f Graphic Organizers to Support Compre hension and Discourse Organization Awareness An effective was to e a rn out reading instruction that focuses on careful reading c o m prehension and discourse organization is th rough the use of graphic organizers (i.e.. visual representations of text inform ation). T he main goal of graphic rep resentations is to assist students in c o m p r e h e n d ing difficult texts. B\ using graphic organizers, students are able to see the kev inform ation in a text, the organization of text inform ation, the tuns that information is structured, a n d rela tionships am ong ideas presented in a text or a portion of a text. Graphic organizers are some times generic: at other times, thev are tied to spe cific patterns of text organization. For example, outlines and semantic maps can be used across a large n u m b e r of texts regardless of the wav they are organized. As graphic representations, simple lines are versatile too. allowing students, for example, to chart events chronologicalh or rank characters' opinions on a continuum (Mach and Stoller 1997). Grids (or matrices) lend th e m selves nicelv to com parison and contrast texts. Texts with causes and effects can be represented in two-column grids, but thev can also be char acterized bv a series of unidirectional or bidirec tional arrows, indicating causes and effects. A classification text (e.g., about different types of whales) m ight be sketched out with m ajor cate gories to one side an d descriptors across the top, with details in c o rresponding cells.
Graphic organizers com e in many shapes and sizes (e.g.. Grabe 1997; Parks an d Black 1990. 1992: and websites listed at the e n d ok this chapter). But not all graphics work with all texts. Thus, the te a c h e r n e e d s to rea d over the assigned text carefully and d e term ine what types of graphic representations will assist students and what kinds of graphics-related activities will e nhance learning and com prehension. There are manv options for teaching with graphic rep resentations. including: 1.
2.
3.
Using a circle with arrows flowing in a cir cular direction to show an iterative process described in a text Using a Venn diagram to highlight differ ences an d similarities between characters, places, events, or issues in a text Using a flowchart to trace events or steps in a process highlighted in a text
Activities such as these tire effective means to help students improve their reading comprehension. Strategic Reading A m ajor goal for academic reading instruction is the developm ent of strate gic readers (rather than the disconnected teach ing o f read in g strategies). Strategic leaders u n d erstand the goals of a reading activity, have a range of well-practiced reading strategies at their disposal, apply them in efficient combinations, m onitor com prehension appropriately, recog nize m iscom prehension, and repair c o m p r e h e n sion problem s effectively. Strategic readers make use of a wide repertoire of strategies in com bi nation ra th e r than in isolated applications. Commonly used strategies include ■
Previewing a text
■ ■
Predicting what will come later in a text Summarizing
■ *
Learning new wot els th ro u g h the analysis of word stems a n d affixes Using context to m aintain com prehension
**
Recognizing text organization
• ■ я
G e nerating a p p ropriate questions about the text Clarifying text m eaning Repairing m iscom prehension
T h e d e v e lo p m en t of strategic readers requires a com m itm ent to teaching strategies. The introduction of strategies, their practice, and their uses should be part of even lesson. Indeed, it is not difficult to talk about strategies m class if everv session requires reading, focuses on text com prehension, and includes discussions about the text and how it is understood (see Ja n ze n and Stoller 1998). Ultimately, the goal is to develop (a) fairlv autom atic routines that work to resolve m ore general reading c o m p re hension difficulties and (b ) a m ore elaborate set of problem-solving strategies that can be used when routine strategies do not work well. O ne instructional approach that is particu larly effective is known as Transactional Strategies Instruction (TSI) (Presslev 1998). TSI is tvpicallv characterized bv the following tenets: 1. 2.
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Strategy instruction requires a long-term com m itm ent from teachers. Teachers explain and model effective com prehension strategies. Tvpicallv onlv a few are emphasized at am time. The teacher coaches students to use strategies as needed. Minilessons are О mven about when it is appropriate to tise certain strategies. Teachers and students m odel uses of strate gies for one another, explaining aloud what strategies thev are using. T he usefulness of strategies is emphasized continually and students are re m in d ed fre quently about the benefits of strategy tise. Issues of when an d where to use strategies are discussed regularly. Strategy instruction is included in discus sions about text com prehension, focusing on not onlv what the text might mean but also how students come to understand infor mation in the text.
A similar approach, known as (hiestioniug the Author, centers on the internalization of com pre hension strategies through discussion focused on texts and their meanings (see Beck et al. 1997). T he goal of making every student a strategic reader is central to academic reading instruction. All reading instruction should be tied to reading strategies, their development, and their use in
effective combinations. For any approach to strategy developm ent, students n e e d to be intro duced to only a few strategies at a time. Each strategy should be discussed, explained, and m odeled. From that point on, the strategies should be rein troduced on a continual basis th ro u g h teacher rem inders, discussions, wall charts, student modeling, and student explana tions. Certain strategies, such as summarizing, stiggesl multiple activities. It is c om m on practice to ask students to summarize a short text verballv. In instructional contexts where reading and writ ing are combined, summarizing takes on a larger role, integrating the two skills and leading to m ore d e m anding types of writing tasks. Aside from discussions centered on text com prehension and strategv awareness, an o th e r a p p ro a c h to b uilding strategic c o m p e ten c e involves “elaborative interrogation.” This instruc tional approach involves the addition of “whv” questions to class discussions, after students have answered com prehension questions. The “why” questions oblige students to explain their answers and specifv where the text protides appropriate support. Fluency D evelopm ent O n e o f the m ost neg lected aspects of L2 reading instruction is the developm ent of reading fluency, even though research stronglv argues that fluency is one of the central foundations for efficient reading. Fluency involves rapid and automatic word recognition, the ability to recognize basic grammatical infor mation, an d the rapid combination of word meanings an d structural information to create larger m eaning units. There are a n u m b e r of rea sons whv fluencv instruction is not prom oted in L2 settings: 1.
2.
Reading fluency depends on knowing a fairlv large n u m b e r of words so that a rea d ing task itself is n o t too difficult. Manv L2 students do not recognize a large n u m b er of words quickly or easily, so thev are verv slow at initial efforts in fluency training. However, the best way to develop these skills h through methodical training in reading fluencv. Teachers sometimes feel that iluer.cv n am ing is too m echanical a n d not relevant to reading com p re h en sio n instruction. O ther
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teachers question the benefits of fluencv training because it requires a long-term co m m itm en t a n d students’ reading gain' are not immediatelv obvious. However, the developm ent of rapid a n d autom atic recog nition of words is an essential com ponent o f skilled reading com prehension. Fluencv training often involves readm e aloud an d manv teachers believe that the' should never prom ote reading aloud iit class. However, fluencv training is one of the areas in which oral reading is a helpful sup port for reading development. Teachers are topically given few guideline' for building reading fluencv into reading curricula. T here are, however, a n u m b e r o: wavs to pro m o te fluency without requiring a significant investment in resources.
Fluencv activities— classified here as activi ties that develop overall fluencv, rate, and wort, rec o g n itio n — can be in c o r p o r a te d into ait reading program regularly. Extensive reading (discussed m ore fullv in the next section) heh: students in all three areas. Activities that speci: cally target overall fluency include rere a d im practice a n d re re a d in g for o th e r purpose Activities that p ro m o te reading rate induct tim ed readings and paced readings. Activitiethat develop rapid recognition skills incluch word-recognition exercises, flashcard practice te a c h e r reacl-aloucls (with stu d e n ts re a d im along silently), an d rereading practice. Student benefit from hearing about the advantages such activities a n d the n e e d to work on the: consistentlv to see long-range improvementT h e use of progress charts assists students :: visualizing their gradual im provem ent. O n e pan ticular advantage o f most fluency activities is tht they take on a gamelike qualitv as students wo: • against themselves rather than com pete wit. o th e r students. (See Anderson 1999; Samue.Schermer, an d Reinking 1992.) Rereading practice involves reading alou an d should be done with texts that students cat read without great difficultv or that have alreac been read and used for c om prehension activitieTypicallv— though there are manv variations— Uvo students work together. The first studeti
reads aloud from the beginning of a text while the second student keeps time an d helps with anv difficulties. After o n e m inute, the first stu d e n t stops a n d marks the place in the text where he or she stopped. T h e students may make a few very quick com m ents on the difficulties e n c o u n tered. T h e n thee switch roles. T h e second stu de n t reads from the beginning of the same text for one m inute while the first student keeps time a n d helps with anv difficulties. After one minute, the second student stops and marks the stopping point in the text. Thev switch roles again. At this point, the first student starts reading from the beginning of the text again for one m inute with the goal of moving bevoncl his or h e r first stop ping point. T h e second student again keeps time an d helps if needed. The process is repeated for the second student. The students then note how many additional words thev read the second time through the text and note their gains on a chart. R ereading texts for new purposes provides a n o th e r option for general fluencv. .After read ing a text for com p re h en sio n purposes, a text m at- be rere a d to decide what the author's p u r pose is, to fill in a chart, or to com pare the infor m ation with a n o th e r source of inf orm ation (e.g.. a new text, a text read earlier in the course, or. for that matter, a video or lecture). In all forms of rereading, the goal is to give students enough time to actuallv read the text again, rather than simple skim the text to com plete the follow-up exercise. Wh en students reread a text that thev are alreadv familiar with, thev often read m ore fluently, with h igher rates of com prehension, thereby getting the feel for m ore fluent reading. They also extend their reading experiences bv reading for different purposes. Reading rates can be directly improved through two c o m m o n techniques: tim ed rea d ings an d paced readings. In timed readings, stu dents time themselves while reading a passage (typically not very difficult and of a reasonable length) from start to finish. Tim ed readings are usually followed bv a set o f fairlv simple c o m p re hension questions that can be answered and scored quickly. T h e results of timed readings are e n tered o n a progress chart so that gradual gains in reading rate and com prehension are notice able to students. Tim ed readings, w hen used as
part of a rate developm ent program , n e e d to be a consistent activity th ro u g h o u t the semester or r ear, usually once or twice a week. In this way, the cumulative practice leads to rate improvements as well as overall reading fluencv (sec Frv 2000). Paced readings work on the same principle but oblige students to read at a specified pace (e.g.. 120 words p e r m inute) rath e r than at their own pace. Tvpicallv. paced readings are shorter than tim ed readings, ab o u t 400 words in length (though shorter passages can also be used for tim ed readings). Passages are o f a consistent length, with marks of some sort (e.g., a check car dot) in the m argin to indicate e v e n 1 100-word segment. Thus, a 400-word text would have three marks, the first indicating the first 100 words, the second indicating the second 100 words, an d so forth. In a paced reading, students are directed to read at a pace specified (and m aintained) by the teacher. Fear example, at 100 wpnt, students would h e a r a signaling noise (e.g., a light tap can the desk bv the teacher) at regular intervals, in this case even- 60 seconds, indicating that they should either be at the first m ark or move down to the first mark and continue reading front that point. W hen the signal is repeated again, at the next in crem en t of time, students move to the second m ark if thev have n o t vet reached it. Again, simple com p re h en sio n questions ap p e ar after the text is completed. After answers are corrected, students enter results on a graph. Because paced readings are com pleted m ore quicklv than timed readings, two or three are usu ally done in a row. sometimes with carving paces (e.g.. the first at 150 wpnr. the second at 1 1 0 wpm, and the third at 120 wpm). f \ 1 ten students are familiar with the process, it is carried cant quickly and three paced readings can be finished in less than 20 minutes. (See Spargo 1989, 1998; Stoller 1994a.) A n o th e r wav to develop reading fluencv is th ro u g h practice in word recognition u n d e r lime pressure. W ord-recognition exercises gen erally involve a set of about 20 key words or phrases down the left-hand side of a page, each one followed bv a row of four or five words — one of which is identical to the key word, whereas the others are similar in shape or are m orphological
variations o f the keyword (see Figure 2). Students are asked to work as quickie as possible to mark the exact match for each kcv word. Upon com pletion, students check their work and record the n u m b e r correct and the time spent on a chart. Tvpicallv, a word-recognition lesson includes three consecutive 20-word exercises and will take no m ore than 7-10 minutes total after students understand what is expected o f them. (See Stoller 1993 for suggestions on creating recognition exercises and using them in ( lass. ) Two o ther activities for improving the speed of word recognition involve (a) the use of flashcards for sets of keywords that appear in readings for the week and (b) teacher read-alouds. Flashcard practice mat' seem t e n traditional, but recent research has shown that it works for fluency pu r poses (Nicholson and Tan 1999). Teacher and students make up 20 cards per text, and for 7-10 minute intervals, the teacher works with the class, or pait's of students work together, to read words aloud that are Hashed t e n quicklv. usually within one second. This flashcard practice should be done once or twice per text, or two to three times per week if time permits. Words that cause ongo ing difficulty should be recorded in a notebook to be studied and used at later times in student pairs. Extensive Reading Extensive reading, the prac tice of reading large amounts of text for extended periods of time, should be a central c o m ponent of am' course with the goal of building academic reading abilities. T he sustained silent reading of level-appropriate texts is the single best overall activity that students can engage in to improve their reading abilities, though it is not sufficient by itself for an effective reading program . The point is simple. O n e does not becom e a good reader unless one reads a lot (see Anderson 1996; Ellev 1991). Extensive reading, however, is
npicallv not prom oted in 1.2 reading courses. Teachers sometimes do not feel that thev are teaching when students are reading silently in class: the\ think that extensive reading is some thing that should onh be do n e tit hom e. Sometimes there are limited re-sources for good class or school libraries. In some cases, schools have resources but thev do not include books that interest students or thev do not allow students to check out books to be read at home. There are cases in which teachers do not believe that reading large am ounts of level-appropriate text is an appropriate goal for academic-reading develop ment. Finally, some teachers would like to invoke their students in extensive reading but do not know how to incorporate it into their lessons. There tire several wavs to engage students in extensive reading, both in and out of class. We recogni/e that not everv teacher has access to all possible resources for extensive reading, no r do thev have unlimited time in their reading course' to prom ote as m uch extensive reading as should occur. Below we list ideal conditions for extensive reading, though we expect that am teacher car. pursue onh a subset of them. 1.
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Provide time for e x tended silent reading in everv class session, even if it onh' involve' reading from the textbook Create opportunities for all tvpes of reading
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Find out what students like to read and win
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Make in teresting, attractive, a n d levelappropriate reading materials available Build a well-stocked, diverse class librar. with clear indications of topic an d level o: difficulty for each text Allow students to take books and magazine' hom e to read, and hold students account able for at-home reading in some simple vuv
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Key word 1. direct
directs
donate
direct
detect
desire
2. trial 3. through
cruel
serial
trail
trial
frail
through
though
thorough
borough
thought
F ig u re
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S a m p le W o r d - R e c c g " :
E x e rc is e F o r m a t
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8. 9. 10.
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Create incentives for students to read at hom e Have students share and re c o m m e n d read ing materials to classmates Keep records of the am ounts of extensive reading com pleted bv students Seek out class sets of texts (or at least group sets) that evervone can read a n d discuss Make use of g raded readers, provided that thev interest students, are attractive, create sufficient challenge, a n d offer a good am o u n t of extensive reading practice Read interesting materials aloud to stu dents on a consistent basis Visit the school librarv regularlv an d set aside time for browsing an d reading C reate a reading lab and designate time for lab activities
There are a n u m b er of specific instructional practices to consider when engaging students in extensive reading. In-class extensive reading is most often carried out bv giving students 10-15 minutes of silent reading time. During this time, students mav read a class reader: read a book or magazine of their choice while the teacher circu lates to answer questions and offer assistance (free-reading): or engage in sustained silent reading (SSR). In SSR. the teacher does not cir culate; rather he or she reads silentlv th roughout the entire SSR period, serving as a role model of an engaged reader. (The teacher should not grade papers or plan future lessons during this time.) Students need to see that teachers reallv do read and that thev enjov it. After an u n in te r rupted SSR period, the teacher an d students should take a m inute or two to share ideas or make recom m endations about their reading. Students may be asked to keep a simple log of what an d how manv pages thev read so that a record of reading is built up over time. In SSR periods, there should be no evaluation, no instruction, and no interruptions. Extensive reading, m uch like any new rou tine, is e nhanced when the teacher discusses the goals with students and helps students find inter esting a n d readable materials. T h e tea c h e r should recognize that extended free-reading time or SSR mav generate resistance from certain stu dents. Over a n u m b e r of sessions, with support
from the teacher, students will becom e engaged and even look forward to extensive reading. Teachers also n e e d to u n d e rsta n d that extensive reading is n o t an occasional end-of-the-week, or end-of-the-dav “reward." It is fu n d am e n ta l to the developm ent o f fluent reading abilities. If p u r sued as an instructional goal, it must be do n e consistentlv or students will not believe the teacher's rationale. Extensive reading at school should be cou pled with extensive reading at hom e, with as m uch reading as students can be persu a d e d to do. At a m inim um , the books an d magazines read at h o m e should be discussed in class, with re c o m m e n d a tio n s m a d e to o t h e r students. T h e re should also be an ongoing log of what is read, how long the student read, a n d how manv pages were covered; this log should be checked regularlv bv the teacher. (See Dav and Bamlord 1998 for advice on prom oting extensive reading.) Student Motivation Motivation is a n o th e r kev to successful reading, one that is tvpicallv ignored in discussions of reading instruction. T h e m is. Iron ev er, a significant bodv of research that argues that motivation has an im portant impact on reading developm ent. Motivation is a com plex concept with manv associated notions (e.g.. interest, involvement, self-concept, sclfefficacv). We discuss motivation here (following Guthrie et al. 1999) as an individual trait, related to a person's goals an d beliefs, that is observed though task persistence and positive feelings toward an activitv. The kev idea for teachers is that motivation makes a real difference in stu dents' reading development, and teachers need to consider how to motivate students to engage as activelv as possible with class texts and in extensive reading. T h e re are a n u m b e r of wavs to develop pos itive motivation to read. First a n d foremost, teachers should discuss the im portance of read ing and the reasons for different activities used in class. Second, teachers need to talk about what interests them as read ers a n d why. Students are often surprised to learn about what a n d whv their teachers like to read. Likewise, teachers should invite students to share interests with classmates. Third, all class activities should be related to course goals to which students have
b e e n introduced. Fourth, all reading tasks (short and m ore extended) should have lead-ins (i.e., prereading activities) that develop initial interest. Fifth, teachers need to build their students' knowledge base so that students can manage complex ideas and develop a level of expertise on some topics. Sixth, teachers need to select texts an d adapt activities with students' reading abili ties an d the inherent difficulties of the reading passages in mind. Seventh, teachers should nu r ture “a com m unin' of learners" am ong students, thcrebv ensuring that students learn to relv on each o ther cl’fectivelv while working through complex tasks and associated reading materials. Finally, teachers need to look for wavs to help students e n c o u n te r "flow" in their reading. Flow is a concept (developed bv the psvchologist Csikszentmihalvi [1990]) that describes optimal experiences. People e n c o u n te r flow when thev are engaged fullv in activities in which their growing skills m atch well with task challenges. Commonlv, the tasks have w ell-defined goals, the m ea n s for d e te r m in in g success are d e a t h understood, a n d the achievement of success is not east but is possible. People h a tin g How expe riences typicallv lose track of time, do not get distracted, and lose ant sense of personal p ro b lems. Csikszentmihalvi has consistently fo und (across many studies and h u n d red s of inter views) that a prim arv wav to e n c o u n te r flow is bv becom ing engaged in reading. Thus, flow expe riences lead students to seek out reading as an optim al experience, resulting in intrinsic m oti vation to read regularlv.
reading, writing, an d academic skills. T he m ost obvious a n d generic options — such as summary writing, rep o rt writing, and o u tlin in g — should not be downplavecl as too traditional. T h e re is clear evidence that summary writing an d outlin ing. w hen taught well, improve both reading an d writing abilities (Grabe 2001). A n u m b e r of o th er writing activities can be developed from read in g resources:
Integrated-Skills Instruction In academic set tings, a c o m m o n expectation of reading is that it is used to e a rn out fu rth e r language- and content-learning tasks, most topically in c o n n e c tion with writing activities, th o u g h listening and speaking activities m a t also be linked to reading. A lth o u g h integrated-skills activities take on greater significance as students move to higher language proficiencv levels, a goal for EAP cur ricula should be the use of reading as a resource for integrated-skills tasks. Taking reading and writing as a primary example, there are manv wavs in wTiich these skills can be integrated and serve the developm ent of
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Students keep journals in which reactions to readings are rec orded a n d elaborated upon. Teachers collect journals periodically and add comm ents. Students keep double-entrv notebooks in which thev summarize text ideas o f particu lar significance on one side of the page. In later rereadings, students (and the teacher) write additional com m ents on the opposite side of the page. Students write a simple response to some prom pt (e.g.. a minilecture, an object, a short video clip, a quick skim of the text to be read) to prepare themselves for the upcom ing reading. Students create graphic organizers to iden tify main ideas from the text, restructure inform ation, or com pare content from cari ous texts. Students then write an explanation or critique of the reading(s) based on the graphic organizer. Students connect new texts to previously read texts through speed writes, graphic organ izers, or discussions. Students d e term ine the author's point of view in a text and then adopt a different point of view (not necessarily opposing). Thee develop the alternative point of view th rough an outline an d consultation with o th e r resources, an d then write a critique of the text a n d the author's viewpoint. Students make a list of ideas from the text, prioritize the list bv level of im portance, get into groups a n d prioritize a group list, an d th en develop a visual representation of their response (in the form of, for example, a dia gram. outline, o r figure) to be shared with classmates.
T here are additional reasons for centering EAP reading instruction within an integratedskills framework. Aside from the authenticitv of integrated-skills activities for advanced students, integrated activities op en up valuable o p p o r tu nities for extensive reading (during which stu dents search for ad d itio n a l in fo rm a tio n i. F urtherm ore, integrated-skills activities engage students in complex tasks that co m p le m e n t their academic goals and require strategic responses. Finally, students inevitable learn a considerable am o u n t of connected, coherent, and stimulating content knowledge from complex integrated tasks. T he resulting masters of a topic and sense of expertise often motivate them to learn even more. T he most logical extension, then, from a reading course with integrated-skills activities is a reading course centered on a content- and language-learning foundation. In this wav. aca demic reading instruction leads naturallv into various tvpes of content-based instruction.
C O N C L U S IO N This chapter has outlined com ponents of effec tive academic reading instruction. W hen looking across the range of com ponents ivocabularv. fluenev, strategies, graphic representations, exten sive reading, etc.), a natural response might be to say that all of these ideas cannot possible lit into a reading course that is coherent and focused. Yet. over the past 20 vears. we have become firmlv con vinced that all of these com ponents can be draw n together coherentlv and effectivelv in an appropriatelv developed content-based instruction approach. (There is. wc must add. nothing magi cal about content-based instruction: it needs to be g rounded in the criteria discussed above, just like anv other program or course in reading.) In a content-based approach to reading, one can assume that reading multiple sources of inform ation will be the norm and that there will be many opportunities for m eaningful extensive reading. Yocabularv instruction should grow in complexitv an d there will be ongoing o p p o rtu nities to rec e d e vocabularv as students explore sets of related c ontent material. Similarly, there will be m am occasions to reread texts for new tasks, for new inform ation, for comparisons, and
for confirm ing inform ation. F urtherm ore, stu dents will have the chance to extend complex learning, e a rn out purposeful integrated-skills tasks, build expertise on a topic, an d becom e m ore motivated. T he m ore com plex language and c ontent learning that occurs in contentbased classrooms will also open tip opportunities to discuss com prehension and focus on the strategies that students use to build c o m p r e h e n sion abilities. In brief, we see content-based instruction as providing the best foundation for academ ic reading instruction if it is p lan n e d and carried out well (Stoller and Grabe 1997). It is likelv that the developm ent of new wavs to engage students through content-based instruc tion will be a major locus of advanced reading instruction for the com ing decade. (See Snow’s c hapter in this volume.) Before closing this chapter, we would like to address briellv three other future directions for reading instruction. First, we see technology as growing in importance, and related issues as cen tering on how to use technology to support read ing development. At the moment, the options for computer-based reading instruction are not verv advanced: in most cases, thev involve little more than putting reading passages on the screen with a few tricks and gadgets. We expect that in the next live to eight vears. this situation will change, and com puter tec hnologies and instructional software will create new options for reading instruction. Second, we have not addressed reading assessment in anv wav. but it is an issue that can not be ignored. Although assessment m ight not be considered a direct c o m p o n e n t of instruc tion. it certainly should be. Teachers n e e d to know how to assess students' progress in addi tion to assessing the effectiveness of various practices in a reading course. W hat works and what does not work should not rest only with a teacher's subjective judgm ent but should be de te rm in e d th ro u g h both formal a n d informal assessment procedures. (Good sources on rea d ing assessment include Alderson 2000; Hamavan 1995. See also C ohen's c hapter in this volume.) T hird, in addition to assessing student progress, teachers need to evaluate course and teaching effectiveness. T he most effective wav to do this is th ro u g h teacher-initiated inquiry
(i.e., a ction re s e a rc h ). T h r o u g h systematic reflection a n d data collection, teachers can investigate aspects o f their own reading class room s to improve future instruction. They can investigate aspects of reading (e.g., rate, recog nition, vocabulary, skimming) in relation to dif ferent instructional techniques or learning activities (e.g., the use of graphic organizers, strat egy training, rereading) to determ ine their effec tiveness, or classroom materials to ascertain their appropriateness, or a range of other issues. Action research provides teachers with a nonthreatening means for exploring what works best in their own teaching contexts (Grabe and Stoller in press). W h e th e r or not reading teachers design content-based courses, engage in action re search, or use technology in reading classes in the future, we can be fairly certain that EAP instruction will continue to be im portant for F 2 students. F2 teachers, w hether thev teach in ESL or EFL settings, owe it to their students to make the most of the time they have allotted for read ing instruction. If teachers are obliged to use m an d a ted materials, as most teachers are, thev should evaluate them carefullv, keeping in m ind the complexities of fluent reading an d effective reading instruction. T he goal should be to aug m e n t and improve m an d a ted materials so that students have the fullest reading developm ent experience possible. For teachers who are in a position to create academic reading curricula a n d select materials on their own, this chapter provides m any of the “ingredients" needed. It is tip to the teachers to put them together to m eet students’ reading needs. Regardless of setting, teachers must r e m e m b e r that students most often rise or fall to the level of expectation of their teachers. Thus, teachers should set high expecta tions for their students and assist them in achiev ing those expectations by m eans of purposeful and principled reading instruction.
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1.
Flow has your conception of reading changed since reading this chapter? Identify three ideas or concepts from the chapter that vou think are im portant and rank order them. Provide a rationale for vour decisions.
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Consider the characteristics of a fluent FI reader (page 188) as the ultimate goal for an F2 reading curriculum. What instructional prac tices would vou incorporate into an F 2 reading class to move vour students toward that goal? What activities would vou assign to address each characteiistic or cluster of characteristics? Reflect on vour own experiences in reading for academ ic purposes. Which purposes for reading have b e e n most im p o rta n t for you? W hat have vou do n e to c o m p re h e n d texts that have been challenging for vou? What can vou applv from vo u r experiences to your teaching? Consider the constraints that vou m ight face if vou were teaching reading for academic purposes in an instructional setting of your choice. W hat would vou do to maximize the effectiveness of vour reading instruction? In this chapter, Grabe an d Stoller assert that there is a difference between facilitating the developm ent of strategic readers an d teach ing r e a d in g strategies. How w ould you explain the distinction thev are making? W hat is the relationship between contentbased instruction (CBI) a n d reading devel o p m e n t in F2 settings? How can CBI contribute to reading development?
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1.
Create a graphic organizer that depicts your current view of reading for academic purpose^ 2. Select a short text (e.g., from a magazine newspaper, textbook) that m ight be of inter est to a class of F2 students. a. Analyze the text from the perspective o: these F2 students. W hat aspects of the text m ight prove difficult to them? b. Identify 10-15 words in the text that m ight be unfam iliar to these students Place each word into one of the follow ing categories: + +, н— , — . How woulc vou introduce words falling into the + category? c. Design three postreading tasks that will oblige students to engage in careful read ing. Each task should focus on a different
aspect of careful reading (e.g., recogniz ing main ideas: analyzing support infor mation. arguments, or details that explain the main ideas: inferencing; unraveling information in complex sentences: deter m ining author's attitudes: applying infor mation). Be prepared to explain the aim of each task that von design. 3. Select three L2 reading textbooks. Examine them carefully to determ ine their effective ness. Do thev include motivating readings? To what extent are the following aspects of reading covered: strategy development, fluency training, opportunities for rereading, graphic organizers, vocabulary building activities, different purposes for reading, exercises on discourse organization and text structure, integrated-skills activities, pre-. during-, and postreading activities, etc.?
Dav. R. R.. ed. 1993. New Vbns in Leaching Reading. Alexandria, YA: TESOL.' Oast R. R.. and J. Bamford. 1998. Extensive Reading in the Second Language Classroom. Xew York: Cambridge University Press. S ilb erstein .
.8. 1994.
lea c h in g
Techniques and Resources in
Reading. X ew York: O x fo rd U niversity
Press. 1998. Reading in a Second Language: fhocess. Product and Practice.
Urquhart. A. H.. and C. Weir. Xew
York: Longman.
W E B S IT E S R eposim ix to r in f o rm a tio n o n ex ten siv e re a d in g :
http:
www.kyoto-su.ac.jp /inform ation/er /
I n v e n t o r y o f g r a p h i c o r g a n i z e r s , w ith m u l t i p l e links:
http:
FU R TH ER R EA D IN G A e b e r s o l d . J. A., a n d M. L. F ield. 1997. I m a m R e a d e r to R ea d in g
’t e a c h e r :
Language
hum s
C lassroom s.
and
Strategics
N e w W)rk:
ja r Seconal
www.graphic.org goindex.html
http: w ww .sdcoe.kl2.ca.us/SCO RE/actbank/ torganiz.htm http: www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students learning lrigrorg.htm http:
www.macropress.com / lgrorg.htm
C am bridge
L’n i v e r s m Press. .A nderson , X. 1999. E x p l o r i n g S e c o n d L a n g u a g e R e a d i n g : I s s u e s a n d S t r a t e g i e s . B o s to n . MA: I le i n le X l i e i n l e .
T e a c h e r g u id e lin e s for d e s ig n in g g ra p h ic o rganizers:
http: "www.wm .edu/TTAC/articles/learning/ graphic.htm
W riting
II D
I I D:
UNIT
UNIT
Language Skills Writing T he ability to express one's ideas in writing in a second or foreign language and to do so with reasonable coherence and accuracy is a major achievement; many native speakers of English never truly master this skill. Olshtain’s chapter shows how the teacher o f even beginninglevel ESITEFL students can provide practice in writing that reinforces the language the students have learned while teaching the mechanics of writing (e.g., the Roman alphabet, penmanship, spelling, punctuation, formats)
right from
the
start. Knoll's
chapter gives the
reader a
comprehensive overview of current theory and practice in teaching writing to non-native speakers of English, with special focus on developing courses for teaching writing to these learners. Finally, Frodesens chapter explores the problematic area of grammar (i.e„ accuracy) in writing, which plagues so many non-native speakers even after they have m ore o r less mastered the m ore global features of written English such as organization and coherence,
Functional Tasks for Mastering the Mechanics of Writing and Going Just Beyond ELITE
О L S H ТА :N
Olshtain's chapter feats "".г vvvt-ng sk Is *cr сл -е.е ESl EFL !ea
perform more comncmcat -e cases socn as roTing ,sss, messages, c arc ewnes, and school assignments.
IN T R O D U C T IO N Within the communicative framework of lan guage teaching, the skill of writing enjovs special 'tatus— it is via writing that a person can com municate a variety of messages to a close or dis tant, known or unknow n reader or readers. Such comm unication is extremely im portant in the m odern world, w hether the interaction takes the form of traditional paper-and-pencil writing or she most technologically advanced electronic mail. Writing as a communicative activity needs to be encouraged and n u rtu re d during the lan guage learner's course of stuch. and this chapter 'will attem pt to deal with the earlv stages of ESL/EFL writing. Viewing writing as an act of communication 'tiggests an interactive proc ess which takes place between the writer and the reader via the text. Such an approach places value on the goal of writ ing as well as on the perceived reader audience. Even if we tire concerned with writing at the beginning level, these two aspects of the act of writing are of vital importance; in setting writing tasks, the teacher should encourage students to define for themselves the message thev want to send and the audience who will receive it. T he writing process, in com parison to spo ken interaction, imposes greater d e m ands on the text, since written interaction lacks im m edi ate feedback as a guide. T he writer has to antici pate the reader's reactions and produce a text
which will adhere to Grice's (1975) cooperative principle. According to this principle, the writer is obligated (bv mutual cooperation) to trv to write a clear, relevant, truthful, informative, inter esting. and m em orable text. The reader, on the other hand, will interpret the text with due regard for the writer’s presum ed intention if the necessary clues are av ailable in the text. Linguistic accuracy, claritv of presentation, and organization of idea'' are all crucial in the efficacy of the com municative act. since thev supply the cities for interpretation. Accordingly, while the global per spectives of content and organization need to he focused on and given appropriate attention, it is also most im portant to present a p roduct which does not suffer from illegible handw riting, num erous spelling errors, faulty punctuation, or inaccurate structure, am of which niav re n d e r the message unintelligible. T he present c hapter focuses on the gradual developm ent of the m echanics of writing, which is a necessary instrumental skill without which m eaningful writing cannot take place; the chap ter then moves on to earlv functional writing, which can be carried out with a limited level of proficiency in the target language. It is im p o r tant to re m e m b e r that in the ESL/EFL context, writing, like the o th er language skills, needs to be dealt with at the particular level of linguistic a n d discourse proficiency that the in te n d e d stu dents have reached (Raimes 1985). T he pro posed s e q u en c e o f activities wi 11 start with
prim ary locus on the m echanical aspec ts of writ ing, as the basic instrumental skill, and gradually move on to a combination of "purpose for writ ing” and language focus. Eventually, the com m u nicative perspective will become m ore central to such writing activities. (For teaching writing in m ore advanced contexts, see Kroll's chapter in this volume.)
EARLY W R IT IN G TASKS: C O P IN G W IT H T H E M ECH AN ICS W h a t D o W e Teach? The first steps in teaching reading and writing skills in a foreign or second language classroom center a ro u n d the mechanics of these two skills. Bv mechanics we usually refer to letter recogni tion, letter discrimination, word recognition, and basic rules of spelling, punctuation, and capital ization, as well as recognition of whole sentenc es and paragraphs. These activities are for the most pari cognitively unde m a n d in g unless the learners ha p p e n to come from a first language with a dilferent writing system. T he interaction between reading and writ ing has often been a focus in the methodology of language teaching, vet it deserves even stronger emphasis at the early stages in the acquisition of the various co m p o n e n t mechanics. In order to learn how to discriminate one letter from a n o th e r while reading, learners need to practice writing these letters; in ord er to facilitate their perception of words and sentences during the reading process, tliev might need to practice writ ing them first. It is therefore the case that writing plavs an im portant role in earlv rea d in g — facili tating the developm ent of both the reading and the writing skills. T he im portance of this early stage of reading a n d writing is emphasized in a study bv Ke (1996) on the relationship between Chinese character recognition and production at the earlv stages of learning. With the English a lp h a b e t this stage is m uch simpler, vet it deserves appropriate attention for learners ac custom ed to o th er script types an d for adult n o n literate learners.
Sound-Spelling Correspondences English presents the learner with a n u m b e r of un iq u e problem s related to its orthographic rules, even in raises in which the learner comes from a first language that uses a version of the Roman alphabet. Students and teachers alike often throw their arms up in despair, reach to giv e up on finding reliable rules for English orthographv: vet the English writing system is m uch more rule governed than manv realize. In fact. English has a verv systematic set of sound-spelling corre spondences (Chomsky and Halle 1968; Schane 1970: Ycnezkv 1970). These sound-spelling cor respondences enable the second or foreign lan guage te a c h e r to co m b in e the tea c h in g of phonetic units with graphem ic units a n d to give students practice in pronunciation along with practice in spelling (Celce-Murcia. Brinton, and Goodwin 1996). The English Consonants T he first rule to rem em ber about English orthography is that stu dents mav tend to look for a one-to-one lettersound correspondence and then discover that tliev get into a lot of trouble bv doing this. For most of the 21 consonant letters, this type of rule works fairlv well (if we disregard allophonic dif ferences in pronunciation, such as an aspirated initial t as opposed to a nonaspirated, iin re leased final t for m onosyllabic words in English). Vet there are consonant letters whose sound dep e n d s on the environm ent in which tliev occur: Thus, the letter r can have the sound /к when followed bv the vowel letters a, o, or и or bv the consonant letters / or к but it has the sound s wh e n followed bv the vowel letters e or i. Although these rules mav ap p e ar confusing to a learner com ing from a first language with a sim pler p h o n e m e - g ra p h e m e c o rre s p o n d e n c e system, tliev work quite consistently in English an d need to be practiced from the verv start, d he store of the letter r is not finished, however, an d now we com e to the part that is less consis tent. This is the case when r is followed bv the letter /; a n d can have the sound o f /с/ (chocolale) or к (chair). T here is no help we can give our students in this respect but to tell them to pay special attention to such weirds and trv to rem e m ber their sound according to the m eaning of the
word. T he letter c also occurs in quite a n u m b e r of c om m on words followed bv the letter l; (not initiallv, but in the m iddle or at the end of words — such as chicken or lock). T h e sound in this case is к an d the corre sp o n d en c e should create no difficulty. T he letter c in English dem onstrates that сл еп for some of the consonants (such as g to o ) we need to alert students to the fact that the cor respondence in English is not between letter an d sound but between the letter a n d its im m e diate environm ent and the most appropriate sound. In many cases such correspondences are quite predictable, while in others the rules do not work as well. Л helpful generalization for English conso nants is related to the letter h. which is v e n pow erful in changing the sound of the consonant which it follows. Thus, the letter com binations ch, sh. an d th re p re s e n t distinct con so n an t sounds, and learners need to recogni/e these graphic clusters as such. To summarize, when teaching consonant letters an d their sound correspondences, it seems that for students whose own alphabet is similar to that of English, we need to focus only on the differences. Yet for students coining from a completely different writing system, such as Arabic. Hebrew. Chinese. Japanese, or Korean, it will be necessary to work carefulh on the recog nition of every consonant letter. Here learners m ight have difficulties similar to the ones en c o u n te re d bv voting children who learn to read an d write in English as their m o th e r tongue, and thev might need some special exer cises for this pm pose (see A ppendix A). The English Vowels The vowel letters in English present m ore complex sound—spelling corre spondences. but again there is m uch m ore con sistency and predictability than many learners realize. Thus, learners need to be m ade aware of two basic types of environm ents that are very pro ductive in English o rth ography; C o n s o n a n t Vowel C onsonant (CYC) (often known as the environm ent for short vowels) and CV or CYCe (the latter ending in a silent letter e) (known as the environm ents for long towels). T he terms
.shan't and long vowels are rather unfortunate, since for the second or foreign language learner it might, erroneously, becom e associated with towel length rather than vowel quality. Thus, the main difference between the vowel sounds in the words pin a n d pine is not one of length (or production timed but one of p honetic quality. A difference in vowel length can be observed in the words pi! and pin. where the quality of the two vowel sounds is similar but the one preceding the voiceless stop t is shorter than the one preced ing the voiced nasal n . Although we often sav that the a vowel let ters of the English alphabet result in at least 11 or m ore towel sounds (d e p e n d in g on the p a r ticular dialect), these sound-spelling c orrespon dences are. at least in part, consistent and predictable. What teachers a n d learners need to take into account is the fact that in English we must consider both the towel letter a n d the environm ent in which it occurs. T he term envi ronment might be delimited here to those fea tures which mat influence the quality of the towel sound. Thus, the environm ent CYC is quite productive, and all 5 vowel letters a, /, e, o, and и will occur as simple lax (pro d u c e d with relatively relaxed muscles), nond ip h th o n g ize d vowel sounds, as in the words pan, pin, pen, pol, an d hut. However, the same 5 vowel letters occur ring in the CYCe environm ent will all becom e tense and diphthongized, as in the words pane, pine. Pete, rope, a n d cute. Similarly, those vowels that can occur in the CY or Y e nvironm ent are also tense and usually diphthongized: go, he, та, I. I m (;ts in Lulu). H ere again tve have a very pro ductive set of sound-spelling correspondence rules, vet not all of these patterns are equally fre quent in English orthography. Thus, the letter e does not often occur as the vowel in the CYCe environment, and learners have to stuclv the m ore com m on spellings as in meet and meat for the sound iy . In other words, there are some basic s o u n d —spelling c o rre sp o n d e n c e s in English, knowledge of which can greatlv facilitate the acquisition of these correspondences, but there are also quite a n u m b e r of exceptions or expansions of these rules that need to be learned individually.
In teaching the basic sound-spelling corre spondences in English, it is im portant to e m p h a size the rules which provide the learners with useful generalizations and which therefore help them becom e effective readers. O nce students have assimilated an d internalized the basic fea tures of such correspondences — namelv, the distinction between CYC and CY or CYCe sv 11ables— this will work well not onl\ for all m onosvllabic words but also for polvsvllabic ones, in which the stressed sellable can act as a monosvllabic e nvironm ent for lette r-so u n d towel corre spondences (e.g., dispose). Furthermore, some of the more advanced spelling rules related to English morphologv c an be facilitated bv this knowledge. In polvsvllabic verbs with the final sellable stressed, the spelling rules for adding the inflection -ing work in the same m an n e r as for monosvllabic ones. Thus, learners echo know the rule for consonant letter doubling when changing sit to s/7//gg will be able to applv the same rule to anv polvsvllabic verb that ends with a stressed sellable having the form CYC. Therefore, the verb begin, since its final sel lable is stressed, will undergo doubling of the last consonant in beginning, as opposed to the verb open, where the final sellable is not stressed and therefore the -/ngform of open is spelled opening. However, in spite of all that has been said so far, English orthography has a notorious reputa tion because, in addition to all these helpful and relatively reliable rules, we must account for cari ous less productive rules. Some' of these are quite predictable, such as the occurrence of the letter
(for good sources of rules on sound-spelling cor respondences. see Schane 1970: Yencz.kv. 1970). In sum m ing up this section dealing evith the leaching points relevant to the m echanics of reading an d writing, eve should emphasize the fact that it is im portant for learners of English as a second or foreign language to realize from the start that English orthographv is be no m eans a one-to-one le tte r -s o u n d c o rre s p o n d e n c e svstem: it has its oevn consistence e m b e d d e d in the com bination of letters evith their im m ediate environm ents, resulting in evhat eve tend to call sound-spelling correspondences. Bv practicing the p ro p e r pronunciation of sounds in relation to given spelling patterns, eve can provide learn ers evith a good basis for p ro n unciation as well as for the skills of reading and writing.
H o w D o W e Teach M echanics? The stage devoted to the teaching of the m echan ics of reading and writing aims at three different goals: (a) to enhance letter recognition— especiallv when learners come from a different writing system, (b) to practice sound-spelling correspon dences via all four language skills, and (c) to help the learner mov e from letters and words to m ean ingful sentences and larger units of discourse. Recognition and writing drills constitute the first steps in the developm ent of effective reading and writing habits. However, in order to acquire active masterv of the sound-spelling correspon dences. it is necessarv for the learners to arrive at relevant generalizations concerning these corre spondences. Such generalizations will lead to a better understanding of the svstematic represen tation of sounds in English orthographv, and will require learners to master some basic phonologi cal rules in English and to develop an ability to recognize the distinctive features of each letter within a spelling pattern. T hree m ajor types of recognition tasks are used at this early stage of reading an d writing, each tv pe incorporating a great variety of drills: a.
M atching tasks
b. Writing tasks c.
Meaningful sound-spelling correspondence practice
Examples of different matching tasks are given in A ppendix A. These tasks enable the learners to develop effective recognition habits based on distinctive graphic features. Mans of these bas e the form of games, puzzles, a n d o ther "fun” activities. Examples of different writing tasks are given in A ppendix B; these start with basic letter form ation and lead to m eaningful writing of words and sentences. Examples of sound-spelling c o rrespondence tasks are given in A ppendix C. T he com m on feature o f all tasks in Appendix C is that thev require the learner to focus on the p ro n unciation as well as the written shape of the spelling patterns. An im portant feature of this earlv stage of writing is the need to accustom learners to cor rect capitalization in English and to basic p u n c tuation rules. While practicing sound-spelling correspondences, students can be writing m ea n ingful sentences (accom panied bv pictures) with p ro p er capitalization and punctuation, such as the following: 1. 2.
T h e re is a cat on the m at and a cake on the plate. T he ball is near the tall bov next to the wall.
T hese sentences c ontain words which exemplifv sound-spelling correspondences and. at the same time, thev are words that students have probable just learned. Thev mav not work out too well as a store or an interesting piece of discourse since our focus in this case is first and forem ost on the s o u n d -s p e llin g c o rr e s p o n dence. But eventuallv. discourse units will grow and incorporate m ore meaningful and interest ing texts. T he language knowledge the students gain can be the basis for developing m ore sophis ticated an d interesting texts, however. At this earlv stage of writing, we n e e d to give learners "plentv of opportunities for copy ing” (Bvrne 1988. p.ISO). However, such copying activities can be cognitively m ore d e m a n d in g if students tire guided to search for the m eaningful words and to create sentences in new contexts. A ppendix В provides examples of this type of writing activity.
More Advanced Writing Tasks: Developing Basic Communication Tools More advanced writing activities which start shifting th e ir goal from th e focus on the m echanics of writing to basic process-oriented tasks will n e e d to incorporate some language work at the m orphological and discourse level. Thus, these activities will enable focus on both accuracy and c ontent of the message. In this chapter, since we are co n c ern e d with the begin ning level, we will work with categories o f practi cal writing tasks, emotive writing tasks, and school-oriented tasks (Nevo, W einbach, a n d Mark 1987). In o rd e r to develop a n d use these m ore d e m a n d in g writing activities in the ESL/EFL classroom, we need to develop a detailed set of specifications which will enable both teachers a n d students to cope successfully with these tasks. Such a set of specifications should include the following: Task Description: to p resen t students with the goal of the task and its im portance. Content Description: to present students with possible co n te n t areas that m ight be rel evant to the task. Audience Description: to guide students in developing an u n d e rs ta n d in g of the in te n d e d audience, their background, needs, and expectations. Format Cues: to help students in p lanning the overall organizational structure of the written product. Linguistic Cues: to help students make use of certain grammatical structures a n d vocab ulary choices. Spelling and Punctuation Cues: to help stu dents focus their attention on spelling rules which they have lea rn ed and even tuallv on the n e e d to use the dictionary for checking accuracy of spelling, a n d to guide students to use acceptable p u n c tu ation and capitalization conventions.
Practical Writing Tasks These are writing tasks which are procedural in nature a nd have a predictable format. This makes them particularly suitable for writing activities that focus primarily on spelling and morphology. Lists of various types, notes, short messages, sim ple instructions, and o ther such writing tasks are particularly useful in reinforcing classroom work. Lists can be of manv tvpes: '‘things to do" lists, “things com pleted” lists, or shopping lists. Each o f these list types protides us with an o p por tunity to combine some spelling rules with m or phological rules and with the logical creation of a meaningful message. “Things to do" lists are use ful for practicing verb base forms and reinforcing various sound-spelling correspondences. W hen assigning such an activity, the teacher will have to indicate w hether the list is personal or intended for a group. T he content specification will have to indicate "whether this is a list o f things to do in preparation for some event or just a plan for so m e o n e ’s daily routine. For example, a list for a group of students who are preparing a surprise birthday party m ight look like this: Things to Do 1. Buy a present for D onna (Sharon). 2. Call D onna's friends (Gail). 3. Write invitations (Dan), etc. Following up on this tvpe of list, we can eas ily move on to the “things com pleted” list, which specifies the things that have already been taken care of and is therefore useful for practicing past forms of verbs. As part of this activity, students will n e e d to review' the regular past tense formation of verbs where -ed is added and its exceptions in spelling are taught, such as the deletion of a final e before adding -ed, as in lived; the doubling of the last consonant in monosyllabic bases of the form CVC, as in canned, and the same doubling rule when the final syllable of a polysvllabic verb is stressed, such as in occurred but not in opened: the replacem ent of v with (when the base ends in C + V , as in tried. Such an activity also enable' students to practice the spelling of irregular past-tense for mations. For example, the above list m ijh t look like this when partial!}' completed:
Things Completed 1. P lanned the games for the party. 2. Wrote the invitations. 3. Bought the present. 4. Called the friends. 5. Tried to call D onna's mother. S hopping lists provide ns with a very good opportunitv to practice the spelling of the plural e n d in g of countable nouns an d the use of q u a n tifiers. T h e s o u n d -s p e llin g co rre sp o n d en c e s here consist of the plural inflection with two of its three phonetic variants— /s/. /z/— which can be com bined with the spelling pattern s as in pens, pencils, whereas in words like brushes or oranges the plural takes the phonetic form /эz . an additional sellable, with such words en d in g in the spelling pattern -es. A n o th e r tvpe of practical writing task is notes an d messages that are left for a n o th e r per son. These allow students to practice brief and simple sentences with p r o p e r p u nctuation an d a m eaningful message. To m ake the activity more interesting, students can design their own mes sage headings and th en fill them in. H ere is ar. example: Messages for M \ Little Sister Wash the dishes in the sink. Feed the dog. Watch vour favorite program on TV and har e a good time. O th e r types of practical writing activities might include the filling in of forms and the preparation of invitations, “greetings” a n d “than! you” notes, and other such written comm unica tions. All of these activities, when carried out ir. class, will require the set of specifications m en tioned above, with appropriate focus on ortho graphic, m echanical, and linguistic a c curao (For various examples of such tasks see the appendices.)
Emotive Writing Tasks Emotive writing tasks are c o n c ern e d with per sonal writing. Such personal writing primarik includes letters to friends a n d narratives describ ing personal experiences, as well as persona.
journals and diaries. W hen dealing with letter writing, emphasis can be placed on format, pu n c tuation, and spelling of appropriate phrases and expressions. W hen writing about personal experi ences— usually done in a narrative form at— spelling of past-tense forms can be reviewed and practiced. Entries in diaries and journals can take the form of personal letters and serve as a review of letter writing in general. It seems that emotive waiting, to serve the personal needs of the learners, has to be quite fluent. How can this be do n e in the earlv stages of an ESL/EFL course of study? The different tvpes of emotive writing activities are, of course, suit able for the m ore advanced stages of the course, but they can be carried out, in a m ore limited manner, even at the initial stages. Thus, personal letters can be limited to the level of structural and vocabulary knowledge of the students at each point in time. Similarly, journal and personal writ ing activities can reflect the learner's proficiency level. It is important, however, in all cases to pro vide students with the specifications of the task, limiting it to their level of knowledge.
School-Oriented Tasks O ne of the most im portant functions of writing in a s tu d e n t’s life is the function it plavs in school. It is still the case that m uch individual learning goes on while students are writing assignments, summaries, answers to questions, or a variety of essav-tvpe passages. In most cases, the audience for these writing tasks is the teacher, but gradually students must learn to write to an unknown reader who needs to get the inform a tion being im parted exclusively via writing. H ere again, at the earlv stages of ESL/EFL learning, the assignments might be short an d limited. Answers m ight be single phrases or sentences, summaries (a listing of main ideas), a n d similar activities. However, all of these writing activities should be given attention, both at the linguisticaccuracy level a n d at the message-transmission level. It is the com bination of c ontent a n d organ ization with accepted formal features that will lead learners to better utilization o f the writing skill in their future use of English.
Dialogue Journal W riting at the Early Stages Dialogue journals enable students an d teachers to interact on a one-to-one basis at any level and in anv learning context. They are, therefore, also ven useful communicative events at the early stages of learning to write in a new language. The dialogue journal enables the beginner to gener ate some personal input and receive the teacher’s direct feedback on it. According to Peyton a n d Reed (1990), both voting children who are b e g inning writers in a second language an d nonliterate adults can start a dialogue jo u rn a l as soon as they are com fortable in the classroom. It can start out as an interactive pictu re b o o k in w hich first the teacher and later the learners label the pictures an d provide brief descriptions. Gradually, the texts becom e m ore detailed a n d the c o m m u n i cation process is enhanced. T he dialogue journal, like anv o th e r tvpe of writing activity, can be d o n e via e-mail an d the com m unication between students a n d teachers can take on this m ore m o d e r n form of interac tion. M ultimedia program s often include such correspondence, allowing learners to interact with the teacher, o th er learners, or a designated tutor.
C O N C L U S IO N It has been the objective of this chapter to encourage teachers to use a variety of writing tasks at all levels and particularly at the beginning level. Writing, in addition to being a com m unica tive skill of vital importance, is a skill which enables the learner to plan and rethink the com munication process. It therefore provides the learner with the opportunity to focus on both lin guistic accuracy and content organization. It has been the major aim of this chapter to emphasize the fact that the mechanics of writing are particu larly im portant at the initial stage of learning since they help students establish a g o o d basis in sound-spelling correspondences, which are im portant for effective use of reading and writing
skills a n d also for good p r o n u n c ia tio n . A carelullv p lan n e d presentation which com bines the m echanics of writing with the com pos ing process can se n e the lea rn er well du rin g the earlv stages of a language course. This is espe cially true for children, hut also true for adults whose native language uses a completely differ e n t writing system. A nd for preliterate adults, the m o re a dvanced activities suggested in W einstein’s c h a p te r in this volume can be com bined with some of the suggestions offered here to ensure that a p ro p e r foundation in writing is also established while such adults are learning to be better readers.
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1. How -would vou plan the earlv writing stage differently for students whose first language uses a Rom an alphabet co m p ared to stu dents whose first language has a completely different writing system? 2. Identify an im portant sound-spelling corre spondence in English that teas not m entioned in the chapter and discuss how vou might teach it. 3. How should we sequence the teaching o f the various sound-spelling correspondences? 4. How can writing be used to ensure the inter action of all skills at the early stages of the ESL/EFL course of studv? Give an example. 5. Give an exam ple of how the teacher of beginning-level 1 M l.l l students can com bine elem ents of the com posing process with elem ents of the m echanics of writing.
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1.
Prepare a game or a set of cards to practice the difference between the vowel sounds in the environm ent CVC and ( AX e. Example: hat, kit versus hate, kite. Incorporate mamwords as might be meaningful f a Tie intend ed student population. Vou mar hate to use
some new words that serve the sound-spellinc correspondence but tire not known to vou: students. What will vou do to present the net words to vour students before vou practice the spelling patterns? 2. Design a lesson to focus on the differera sounds associated with the letter c. First pres ent the various environments and then de velop some challenging activities to practice the relevant sound-spelling correspondence' 3. Find a picture or a n u m b e r of pictures tlva depict various words with unusual spell:: . patterns. All of these should be useful word' Plav a m em ory game with vour student' Thev are allowed to look at the picture fc two whole minutes, then the picture is take: awav. T he students write on a piece of pape all the words that thev rem em ber. How cl: this activity work? 4. Find pictures that can be used for simplclescriptions. Develop a n u m b er of activitic that will enable pairs and small groups : answ er a set of questions about each pictuix The questions should lead to a concise cl-scription of what can be seen in the picture
FU R TH ER R EA D IN G Sources for Teaching Prereading and Early Writiiu Exercises
Byrne. D. 1988. limiting Writing Skills. Londc Longman. Crittenden. J. 1978. English with Solo. Oxford: Oxf University Press. Herman. M.. and P. Sacks. 1977. Tell Me How to S: Tel Aviv: University Publishing Projects. Johnson. K. 198a. Ле;с for English. Course and Active Books 1. 2. a. Surrey; Thomas Nelson. I.lanas. A., and E. Tavlor. 1983. Sunrise 1. Sum Thomas Nelson. Olshtain. E.. et al. 1970. English for Speakers ofHebt-Prereader Workbook. Pel Aviv: l m ic:Publishing Projects. Prince. L. 1990. Write Soon! .4 Beginning Text for E' Writers. New York: Maxwell Macmillan.
A P P E N D IX A 1.
d.
U nderline the words that have n. net ben bed ten
e.
U n derline the words e n d in g in ed. ne d bed dip net
Letter recognition activities: a.
b.
Find the ODD MAN OUT. h h к
n h n
p b b
d b d
f j j
Find the same letter. b: n cl b
c к
k: j f к h i d: b P 1 d h
2.
Find all the d'\s.
M atch capital letters with lower case. C onnect the words beginning with the same letter.
Find ;til the A*
f к s n cl J s j d d b P
s к j h n d z к n b s d
Pm
tin
bib
^ pin
h f к s z m
m h n h
S
Tin
Bin
f d к i n m
f
h к h b
net
Net
s
A P P E N D IX В I. Writing Practice: Tracing Letters, Words, and Sentences
c "■ e
C
Г
..С
c
"N .
C
S
r
—
....
4
/
.
N
n
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'...e rr
'
J
ll
ч
1
V
У
\С_l-- Г Т s
гм г V
s
‘- M
ОП t
,'
” \
.
I 1_________ !___
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s
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-X
------------------ —
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'j ч
V >
-------------------
I
s
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s
4
1
h ere ’s a cuiD
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s
- 1 ----------------- --- -
N
;
% У
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Car
/
----- Г '
/
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V ✓
1 1
-1
1 ✓ . 1
1 1
,
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he ta :re . i l‘J iW. -------------- 1-
>'— • 1 4 ✓
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( a d a p t e d f r o m O l s h t a i n e t al. 19 70 )
II. Meaningful Copying Activities (Adapted from Olshtain et al. 1998. pp. 76, 85, an d 157) 1. Read and decide. Dan wants to win at tennis. He doesn't practice a lot, but when he goes to plav he takes a lucky ring with him. He thinks it can help hint win. What do von think? _ It can help Dan.
It can't help Dan.
2. Read about Lucky the Rock Star in Exercise 3 below. Then answer these questions. W hat is he wearing?
W hat is he doing?
3. Who is Luckv у the Rock Star? Read and check
( t / ) .
He is wearing 2 necklaces. He is wearing a lim m hat. He is wearing huge sunglasses. He is wearing new black shoes. He is wearing old ugly jeans. He is holding a guitar. He is sitting on a black chair.
4. Read and decide. Where does he live? In South-Carolina or Canada?
A P P E N D IX C Practicing Sound-Spelling Correspondences 1. T h e letter a in all an d al a. Read the following words out loud, all also ball always call almost fall although wall tall hall small but the sound is different in the word— shall
b. Use the above words to write the missing letters and then read the sentence. __1 1
th e
____ 1 1 s
s m ________ f ________ .
2. U n derline the word vour teacher savs. a. Tin tine tan
b. tam tame time
c. mit mite mat
d. bad bade bid
e. hide hid had
f. can cane cap
Considerations for Teaching an ESL/EFL Writing Course B A R B A R A
K R O L L
"Considerations fc 'T e a c R n g an ESL/EFL R 'A n rg C cw se" o ro v ce s a genera! gjide to shaping writing classes for Eng'isn language 'ea-me^s. Anaong the top cs adcressec are syllabus design, techniques to help '/enters get started, assgnn^enc design anc ceacner a no peer -'esponses to writing. It shows how t Ke choices that reachers rrare are c ues to the ■ ■oncer ung ph/osophv of reaching.
IN T R O D U C T IO N Teaching academic writing to both native and non-native speakers of English is an enterprise that unfolds in such a countless varietv of set tings and classrooms a ro u n d the world that it is not hai'd to imagine considerable \ariation in how writing gets taught. Regardless of this varia tion. however, certain facts hold true lor anv classroom where the teaching of writing takes place: Students pro d u ce written texts that are expected to exhibit increasinglv advanced levels of proficiencv as the student writers progress through a curriculum, a n d teachers must make choices about how r at ions learning experiences will p rom ote this goal. Two of the com ponents most central to anv writing course are the writ ing assignments that students are asked to do to and the m ethod(s) of feedback provided to learners on their evolving writing skills. To improve, writers must write: without feedback opportunities in a writing course, there is little reason for students to be there. These, then, are the constants of anv writing course: teacherplan n e d lessons, presentation of writing assign ments, student-written texts, an d feedback on writing. How these c o m ponents work together in anv given classroom of English language learners (ELL), be thev ESL or EFL1 students, accounts for the m am variations possible. However, it is mv belief that teachers can not adequatelv serve their students arm ed sim ply with a general u n d e rstanding of m ethods
and materials. The strong teacher is a reflective teacher (see Murphv's chapter in this volume), and part of the tiecessarv background p rep ara tion for becom ing a teacher of writing is to rec ognize that ev e n teat h e r brings to the classroom a philosophv of teaching a n d a set of beliefs about learning. To develop an approach with the goal of helping writers improv e that is consistent with their philosophv and beliefs, teachers need to familiarize themselves, at least to a certain extent, with the field of composition studies and its in te rre la tio n s h ip with ESL com position. Matsuda (199S. 1999) provides an extensive dis cussion of this topic.
B U ILD IN G B A C K G R O U N D KN O W LED GE U nderstanding current attitudes an d practices in the teaching of writing requires some historical review so that teachers can have a richer aware ness of how we have gotten to where we are todav. Prior to the mid-1960s, teaching writing to native English speakers (AES) at the high school and college levels primarilv focused on respond ing in writing to literate texts. Based on text books of the period, the model for teaching composition was fairlv standard and included the following steps: ( 1 ) instruct the students in p rin ciples of rhetoric and organization, presented as “rules" for writing: (2 ) provide a text for class room discussion, analvsis, a n d interpretation
(preferably a work of lite ra tu re ); (3) require a writing assignment (accom panied bv an outline) based on the text; a n d (4) read, c o m m e n t on, a n d criticize student papers prior to beginning the next assignm ent in this cycle. This approach is known as “the traditional p a ra d ig m ” (Hairston 1982). Because teachers following this model te n d e d to focus on evaluating student essays, the approach is also referred to as the “p roduct a p p ro a c h ,” since the primary concern was really with the c om pleted written product, not with the strategies a n d processes involved in its p ro d u c tion or with the nature of anv learning that m ight be required. In the 1960s, ESL composition teaching in North America was d o m inated bv a controlled composition m odel whose origins were in the oral approach prom ulgated in the 1940s bv Fries (1945). While the written product was also the focal point o f evaluation and concern as in first language (LI) writing, the approach for ELLs differed in that the stimulus for second language (L2 ) student writing was rarelv a genuine text, an d written tasks were not m eant to elicit inter pretive com m entary on texts. That is. whatever writing took place was m eant to se n e primarily as reinforcem ent of language rules (and not. for example, for purposes such as addressing a topic or com m unicating with an audience), and the writing task was tightly controlled in ord er to reduce the possibility for e rro r (hence the term "controlled” com position). T h e re were a n u m b e r of forces that con verged in the mid-1960s to change the way com position has com e to be viewed and taught, starting with the call bv Braddock, Llovd-Jones, an d Schoer (1963) for teachers or researchers to exam ine how writing is actually produced. In the late 1960s, Janet Emig p io n e e re d the technique of the “think a lo u d ” p r o c e d u re 2 for collecting inform ation about student writing processes; she is usually cited as the first researcher to call wide attention to the fact that the ways in which stu de n t writers p ro duce text do not necessarily m atch the m odel that ha d been traditionally p ro m u lg a te d (Emig 1971). O n e of h e r water shed observations was the fact that writers do not, in general, p ro d u ce text in the straightfor ward linear sequence that the traditional para
digm o u tlined, an observation which expose: the fact that m uch o f what textbooks suggeste: in term s of a writing "process” was based on intu itions o f textbook writers a n d n o t based or analyses of writers at work. T he insights <:: process-based inquiry began to slowlv but inex orably im pact the teaching o f first language writ ing, after which the field also cam e to have . profo u n d influence on the teaching of com postion to ELLs. Prior to the field of second-languagT com position teaching's developing its own bod' of knowledge, insights from LI pedagogy tender, to be im ported directly into the second language classroom. It has becom e com m onplace to refer to tit? do m in a n t trend in teaching writing todav as tin "process approach" or a "process classroom. This is true for both XES and ELL settingW hen first used in the context of composition this term contrasted the new classroom ideology with the "product approach." T here was a grew deal of emphasis in earlv LI process courses or developing a personal voice in writing, especial/ as this p rom oted the idea of a learner-centere: classroom. However, as the term has evolved "process" no longer describes a single philosophy or anv particular or specific curriculum (if it eve: did). Rather, the "process a p p r o a c h ” servetodav as an um brella term for many types o f wi r ing courses, each offering a curriculum shape bv o th e r considerations (see Susser 1994). A writing course can focus on general academi writing, or on personal writing, or be linked to . so-called "content" course offered by anothe: instructor; it can require students to do a greatc: or lesser am o u n t of reading (if ant ) in genres adistinct as student-written texts, fiction, busine-com m unication, academic reports, or o th e r vari eties of nonfiction prose. Yet as radically differ ent as the curriculum of such writing coursecan be. nearly all writing courses provide for . “process" approach. What the term captures ithe fact that student writers engage in their writ ing tasks th ro u g h a cyclical a pproach rather than th ro u g h a single-shot approach. Thev are no: expected to p ro duce a n d submit com plete and polished responses to their writing assignmentwithout going th rough stages of drafting and receiving feedback on their drafts, be it Iron:
peers a n d / o r from the teacher, followed bv revi sion of their evolving texts. This is what is trnlv m ea n t bv the "process" approach. As the field of L2 com position studies established itself, researchers in ESL writing replicated many of the LI research studies on the com posing processes of student writers, often with a focus on pedagogical implications. Silva provides a review of a large n u m b e r of stud ies com paring LI and L2 writers. He points out that while there are m am similarities between these populations, "thev are different in n u m e r ous a n d im portant wavs. This difference needs to be acknowledged and addressed bv those who deal with L2 writers if [thev] are to be treated fairly [and] taught effectivelv" (1993. p. 671). Such differences clearlv call for curriculum and teaching choices that factor in the specific needs of the target population. All of these research findings had pro found impacts on curriculum. An earlv general shift in the teaching of ESL writing in N orth America changed the precious "focus on form" to a “focus on the writer" (Raimes 1991), dating perhaps from the mid-1970s, as an earlv inter pretation of what the process ap p ro a c h meant. Raimes identifies two o t h e r pedagogical approaches that also came into pro m in e n ce at about the same time in the mid-1980s: a focus on content-based instruction a n d a focus on a reader-dom inated approach (Raimes 1991. pp. 410-413). It is im portant to recognize that as each new way of teaching writing evolves, the earlier focus does not necessarily disappear. Indeed, what eve find today is that multiple approaches to teaching writing coexist, often presented bv outspoken p ro p o n en ts with passionatelv held beliefs that greatlv diverge from equally passionate claims presented by p ro p o nents o f a n o th e r camp. It is n o t into tranquil professional waters that the new L2 writing teacher steps. (Several of these issues are dis cussed in Grabe and Kaplan 1996; Raimes 1998; and Santos 2001.) Thus, ESL/EFL writing teachers need to have solid scholarlv training to develop their own a p p ro a c h to the te a c h in g o f writing, enabling them to choose m ethodologies and materials which arise from principled decisions
that they can articulate to others. W ithout a stance on how to p rom ote student learning, teachers would have no choice but to make ad hoc decisions which mav or mav not be the best possible ones for their students or to rely on the choices of textbook writers, who certainlv c a n ’t know the dvnamics of even individual te a c h e r’s situation. In this chapter, I discuss several kev com p o n ents in the ESL/EFL writing curriculum and the ESL/EFL writing class for teachers to co n sider as thev develop their own approaches to teaching an d their own philosophies of teach ing. This will enable them to structure courses and program s to facilitate the im provem ent of student writing skills an d to pro m o te a variety of goals in whatever teaching situation (s) thev find themselves.
T H E W R IT IN G C U R R IC U LU M Placement Considerations Almost everv institution that offers ESL/EFL writing courses sets up a n u m b e r of different classes at various levels that are m ea n t to reflect the range of skill levels of the students enrolled in that particular program . To establish a writing curriculum (as opposed to a general language skills curriculum) that can target specific prin ciples to address in am one course of a given pro gram. it is essential that students be given a placement test that includes asking them to pro duce one or m ore writing samples. Without a placem ent instrum ent that can sort students into levels of writing proficiency', it is not possible to establish clear curricular goals, since there is no wav of assuring that students are grouped in classes that are relatively hom ogeneous, a neces sary prerequisite for curriculum planning. And it is the curriculum of the writing program that designates the goals for each course an d helps to distinguish one course from another. Although scoring writing placement tests is a complex and time-consuming procedure, indirect measures of writing, such as multiple-choice gram m ar tests, have proven to be undesirable as indicators of pro ductive skills. Creating a placement instrum ent an d scoring pro ce d u re appropriate to the goals
of a particular program thus serves as a critical m easure in providing teachers principled rea sons for selecting the materials and the m e th o d ologies thev will use in the ESL-EFL writing classroom. Teachers in the program can score place m e n t essavs using either a global holistic scale, such as the six-point scale developed for the T O E F L - Test of Written English, which awards the top score of 6 to an cssav that ''demonstrates clear com petence in writing on both the rhetor ical an d syntactic levels" a n d the bottom score of 1 to an essav that "dem onstrates incom petence in writing" ( Test of Written English Guide 1996). or a m ore detailed set of scoring guidelines, such as th e widclv used 100-point EST English Com position Profile (developed bv Jacobs ct al. 1981), which has raters assign differentiallv weighted separate sub-scores in the five cate gories of content, organization, vocabulary lan guage use, an d mechanics. Despite the ease with which raters can be trained to agree on scores for placem ent essavs. which creates a sense that students are being accuratclv slotted into courses at the appropriate level, sometimes students with different strengths and weaknesses do receive similar scores. In evitably students with m idrange scores exhibit a wider range of actual writing skills than do stu dent writers whose scores tire at the higher and lower edges of the placement scoring settle. This is because it is extremelv difficult to tease out the distinctions between a student whose writing might be quite strong at the level of language control while relativelv weak at the level of dis course structure and vice versa. In setting up placement procedures suited to their specific institutions, curriculum planners and teachers need to recognize this reality
Establishing Curriculum Principles O nce students are placed into classes, their par ticular skill levels will d e term ine to a large extent the scope of writing activities thev are able to undertake. While the ultimate goal of a writing curriculum in a postsecondary setting m ight be to have ETLs write essavs that match the level of content and masterv of language
skills required of XES students in a similar academic environm ent, it is not possible for beginning- or intermediate-level language learn ers to p ro d u ce essavs that exhibit such mastery. Writing activities that involve a varietv of gram matical m anipulations, the imitation of models constructed for teaching purposes, preparation of short texts using material supplied to the stu de n t writer, an d practice in self-expression for its own sake certainlv s e n e a function in helping students acquire familiaritv with the nature of English-language texts and in lacing the g ro u n d work for m ore complex ■writing tasks to follow. However, for intermediate and advanced stu dents. work on the creation of self-generated complete texts should constitute the bulk of their writing curriculum. (For discussions and examples of the types of writing acthities appropriate for stu dents with limited language skills, see Olshtain’s chapter in this volume and Gebhard 1996). Tasks that ask students to produce complete texts in response to a varietv of writing stimuli, such as pictures, texts whic h have been read, or simplv the presentation of some sort of "topic" to write about, can be referred to as "free" writing or o pen-ended writing tasks. The writer is free, in some sense, to work with the topic, an d the rea d e r evaluator remains open to dealing with w hatever p r o d u c t each writer g enerates. Helping students in an academic environm ent with the creation of open-ended, full-length texts is the focus of the following discussion.
T H E W R IT IN G C L A S S Regardless of how different am given writing class mav be from others, each teacher works to c a m out a somewhat predictable set of tasks. These involve designing a n d / o r implementing a svllabus. structuring individual lessons, providing students opportunities lot writing (typically in the form of assignments), and responding to that writ ing. While this listing of tasks mat seem self1 evident, how the tasks are actualized can varv quite wiclelv and potentially marks a teacher as adher ing to a particular point of view regarding optimal student learning. In the ongoing professional
debate as to how best to s e n e our ELL student population in the writing course (see. for example. Santos 2001). it is through class planning that am teacher delines his or her stance as to the purpose of a given course.
Syllabus Design A syllabus should be designed to take into account curricular goals and the particular stu dents the teacher will face. The syllabus further reflects, w hether intentionalh or unintentionally, the philosophy of teaching writing that a teacher has a dopted for that particular course in that par ticular institution. (See X unan's chapter in this volume for a full discussion, of syllabus design.) O ne of the reasons whv teaching writing is such a challenge is that most classes contain a mix ture of students— those who have placed directly into a particular level of a course and those who have passed into that course in sequence from a previous one. While this might make it difficult to plan a rigidlv outlined course in advance of the term, teachers need to consider at least the fol lowing aspects of course planning: (1 ) how much writing students are expected to complete during the term, divided into less formal work such as journals and more formal work such as assign ments: (2 ) what the timelines and deadlines are for working on and completing papers: (3) how main' of the formal writing assignments will be done in class as "timed" pieces: (4) what aspects of the composing process will be presented: (3) what aspects of English gram m ar and syntax, if ant. will be directly addressed in class: (6 ) what will be seen to constitute "progress" in acquiring improved writing skills as the term moves along; (7) how m uch reading (and possible which specific read ings) will be covered: and (8 ) how the student's grade or a decision of credit no credit will be determ ined. In general, the teacher uses the syllabus to an n o u n c e to students what he o r she sees as im portant to the course as well as what is im p o r tant to good writing. W ithout some inform ed sense o f how he or she plans to use the class to foster individual growth in writing, the teacher will find it most difficult to devise any syllabus at all or to justify evaluation decisions.
W h ether operating from a tightly organized or a fairly loose syllabus, the writing teacher needs to structure individual class sessions so that thev allow students to learn and practice princi ples of good writing. Good writing results from a time-consuming process that cannot be reduced to formulaic rules, though many EFL students in particular, typically trained for years in classes that emphasized rigidlv controlled grammatical exercises, will come to the writing class with the belief that there are rules to be learned which will yield fully conceived an d problem-free essavs. The LSI. LFL writing class is perhaps best seen as a workshop for students to learn to p ro duce academic essavs through mastering tech niques for getting started and generating ideas (discussed in m ore detail below), drafting papers which thev will anticipate revising, and learning to utilize feedback provided bv the teacher and o ther students in the class to improve the writing assignment at hand. The goal of every course should be individual student progress in writing proficiency, and the goal of the total curriculum should be that student writers learn to becom e inform ed and in d e p e n d e n t readers of their own texts with the ability to create, revise, an d reshape papers to m eet the needs of whatever writing tasks thev are assigned.
Techniques for Getting Started Regardless of the type of writing tasks the teacher might favor assigning, a good place to begin is to explore the prewriting stage, the stage prior to actual production of a working text. This is a topic well worth investing a lot of class time on because so many student writers fear the blank page. Not knowing where or how to begin causes inexperienced writers to waste time that could be better invested in working to improve a draft of a p a per in progress: there can be no p a per in progress, however, if the writer does not have a wav into the topic or assignment. Because there isn t one com posing process, the goal o f the teacher should be to expose stu dents to a variety of strategies for getting started with a writing task a n d to encourage each stu de n t to trv to discov er which strategies work best
for him or her. A few of the m ore popular heuristic devices”’ (or in v en tio n strategies) which can be explored in class for the purpose o f providing students with a repertoire of tech niques for g enerating ideas are presented below. Reid (1995), however, eighth cautions that some techniques mav ru n c o u n te r to a given student's learning preferences: students should be asked to practice all techniques but should later focus on using those that d e a t h s e n e them best. 1.
2.
3.
Brainstorming This is often a group exer cise in which all students in the class are encouraged to participate bv sharing their collective knowledge about a particular subject. It generates far m ore material than any one student is likelv to think of on his or h e r own. Students can then utilize am or all of the inform ation when turning to the preparation of their first drafts. Listing Unlike brainstorm ing, listing can be a quiet a n d essentiallv individual activitv. As a first step in finding an approach to a pa rticu la r subject area, the s tu d e n t is enc o u ra g e d to p ro duce as lengthv a list as possible of all the main ideas and subcate gories that come to m in d as he or she thinks about the topic at hand. This is an especially useful activitv for students who m ight be constrained bv u n d u e concern for expressing their thoughts in grammaticallv correct sentences. Clustering A n o th e r technique for getting manv ideas down quicklv. clustering begins with a kev word or central idea placed in the c enter of a page (or on the blackboard) a ro u n d which the student (or the teacher, u sing s tu d e n t-g e n e ra te d suggestions) quicklv jots down all of the free-associations trig g e re d bv the subject m atter, using words or short phrases. Unlike listing, the words or phrases generated are p u t on the page or b o a rd in a pattern which takes shape from the connections the writer sees as each new th o u g h t emerges. C om pleted clusters can look like spokes on a wheel or anv o t h e r p a tte rn o f c o n n e c te d lines d e p e n d in g on how the individual associa tions relate to each other. Bv sharing their
cluster patterns with others in the class, stu dents can be exposed to a wide variety of approaches to the subject matter, which might generate further material for writing. 4.
Freewriting Suggested bv Elbow (1973) for helping native speakers break through the difficultv of getting started, freewriting is also known bv various o th er terms such as "wet ink" -writing, "quick writing,” an d "speed writing." T he main idea of this tech nique is for students to write for a specified period of lime without taking their pen from the page (tistiallv about three m inutes for a first attem pt and then tvpicallv for about five to eight m inutes). For ESL/EFL students, this often works best if the teacher provides an o p e n in g clause or sen tence for the students to start with to struc ture the freewriting. T h e writing generated from this technique often contains useful raw material for student writers to work with.
It is verv im portant that students experi m en t with each of these techniques in o rd e r to see how each one helps generate text an d shapes a possible approach to a topic. T he p u r pose. after all. of invention strategies is for stu dents to feel that thev have several wavs to begin an assigned writing task a n d that thev do not alwavs have to begin at the beginning an d work th rough an evolving draft sequentiallv until they reach the end.
Using Readings in the Writing Class T he use of readings in the writing class is an o ther topic that has generated a great deal of debate am ong those searching for m ethodolo gies which prom ote improvement in writing proficiencv. Without a doubt, readings s e n e some verv practical purposes in the writing class, particularlv for EEEs who have less fluencv in the lan guage. At the verv least, readings p rotide models of what English language texts look like, and even if not used for the purpose of imitation (where students are asked to produce an English lan guage text to match the style of the model text), thev p rotide input that helps students develop
awareness of English language prose stele. In class, close reading exercises can be d o n e to draw students' attention to particular stylistic choices, grammatical features, m ethods of development, markers of cohesion and coherence, and so on. Such exercises help to raise student awareness of the choices writers make a n d the consequences of those choices for the achievement of their communicative goals. Further, readings help stu dents develop and refine genre awareness (Johns 1997), an im portant criterion for being able to produce a wide range of text tvpes. O n a n o th e r level, there is ample evidence that writing tasks assigned bv manv professors require students to do a great deal of reading in o rd e r to synthesize and analvze academic m ate rial in particular c ontent areas (Hale et al. 1996). Thus, the ESL writing class can incorpo rate lessons which assist students in preparing academic writing assignments b\ using readings as a basis to practice such skills as sum m ari/ing. para p h ra sin g , in te rp re tin g , an d synthesizing concepts. More specifically, classes that have an English for Special Purposes (ESP) locus (see J o h n s and Price-Machado's c hapter in this vol um e) are likely to put readings at the core of the writing curriculum. An exam ination of texts from a variety of different disciplines is likely to show how com plex the learning task is. Lea and Street (1999). for example, point out that look ing at hoyv texts from different fields and disci plines contrast with each o th er not only" shores how different such texts can be. but also reveals implicit distinctions disciplines make about yvhat constitutes good renting. Finally, many ESL students are not highly skilled readers, haring had limited opportunities to read extensively in English: it is highly unlikely that anvone rvho is it nonproficient reader can develop into a highlv proficient writer. For that reason alone. ESL EEL renting teachers are well advised to include a reading com ponent in their classes. From another perspective, however, readings can be problematic if a teacher uses the topic or content area of the readings to turn a generic rent ing course into a class in the subject m atter area of the readings, e.g., psy chology or history or socio logy, and loses sight of the focus on improvement
of yvriting. Sometimes the intention of the class and the readings is precisely to focus student attention on issties related to the content area. (Snow's chapter in this volume discusses contentbased instruction in m ore detail.) Multiple other contributions that reading material makes to writ ing courses are discussed in Carson an d Leki (1996) and Johns (1997).
Writing Assignments T he renting assignment is the kev c o m p o n e n t of all yvriting classes, lending it a rhythm that m ight be referred to as a "life cycle" (Kroll in press). In any given term, the writing course consists o f a series of assignments that are targeted an d u n d e rta k en in a sequence of steps followed bv a similar ro u n d an d a similar r o u n d until the timespan of the course is oy er. Since the object of any writing class is to have students work on their yvriting. till assignments and the topics they contain must be carefully designed, sequenced, a n d structured so that the teacher knows exactly what the learning goal of each p a p e r is a n d the student gains som ething bv working on any given assignment. T h e re are manv factors to consider in select ing topics for yvriting, but even if not consciously aware of it. the teacher will be primarily influ enced bv a particular philosophy about teaching yvriting which he or she (or the textbook being followed) adheres to and which significantly shapes the a pproach to topic design. In fact, even yvhen topics are chosen randomly; the teacher will probable select an assignment which seems appropriate on the basis of a felt in n er sense of appropriate, reflecting perhaps unconsciously hoyv the teacher views the goals of the course, yvhat he or she values as good writing, an d the wavs in which writers learn. For example, if the teacher yvants the students to focus on standard organizational patterns com m on to English lan guage yvriting. it is usually because the teacher values essavs folloyving discernible p a tte rn s a n d / o r believes that training students to recog nize and produce those patterns is an im portant goal of the course. If the teacher believes that writers learn best bv writing ab o u t topics they can personally relate to a n d that the best essays
are those that reveal the most about the writer’s thinking or persona, then tire assignments in that writing class will be designed to achieve those goals. If the teacher sees the writing course primarilv as preparation for students to u n d e r take writing tasks in o th e r disciplines, then assignments will be focused on what the teacher sees as “real" academic requirem ents. An assignment tvpe that speaks to the first concern m at fall within the realm of the "rhetor ical patterns" approach. Assignments along these lines ask students to create or plug in content according to a specified m a n n e r of presentation, such as com parison and contrast or cause and effect. T here is ample evidence that "real world" writing does not get p ro d u ce d in this fashion, which is one of the m ajor criticisms leveled at textbooks that encourage these approaches. Not onlv do real writing tasks not begin with a partic ular form which merelv lacks content to be com plete, but c ontent itself nsuallv does not get generated without the writer first h a tin g a p u r pose for writing. However, 1 caution against a b a n d o n in g the "rhetorical pattern" approach altogether, for there is evidence that manv aca demic writing tasks outside of English de p a rt m ents or ESI. TIFF classes do ask students to p rep a re papers which follow a particular format (Hale et al. 1996: Horowitz 1986) and the abilitv of F.I.l.s to prepare papers that m eet reader expectations has a definite value within such an a c a d e m i c e n vi го n m e n t . A completciv different philosophv of teach ing leads to viewing writing its a vehicle of self revelation and self-discovei v. and assignments are presented in which students must reflect on and analv/e their own personal experiences. Some examples ask students to write about being sec o n d language learners or to reflect on a lesson learned in childhood. The content in either case would arise from learners' personal biographies. This tvpe of assignment has the potential of allow ing writers to feel invested in their work. Perhaps m ore centrallv. writing is seen as a tool for discov ert of both m eaning and purpose. Proponents of the “discovert- approach" claim that the writing skills learned in practicing personal writing will transfer to the skills required to produce aca demic papers. However, there is no h ard evidence
to support this claim. Further, manv students from a range of cultural backgrounds do not believe it appropriate to share their personal thoughts with strangers (i.e.. the teacher and fellow classmates), and therefore find personal writing far m ore chal lenging than academic, impersonal topics. Regardless of the underiving philosophv of teaching that motivates the tvpes of assignments presented to students, these assignments must be carefullv constructed to assure their success and their contribution to promoting the goals of the course. The following set of six guidelines for the preparation of successful writing assignments (adapted from Reid and kroll 1993) should prove helpful in reviewing the eificatw of am given assignment: 1.
2.
3.
A writing assignment should be p resented with its context clearlv delineated such that the student understands the reasons for the assignment. T he content of the task topic should be accessible to the writers and allow for m ul tiple approaches. The language of the p ro m p t or task and the instructions it is e m b e d d e d in should be un-am biguous. com p re h en sib le , an d transparent.
4.
The task should be focused e n o u g h to allow for com pletion in the time or length con straints gi\en and should further stu d e n ts’ knowledge of classroom c ontent an d skills.
5.
The rhetorical spcnfications (cues) should pro vide a clear direction of likelv shape and format of the finished assignment, including appropriate references to an anticipated audience. The evaluation criteria should be identified so that students will know in advance howr their output will be judged.
6.
In sum. if one believes that students best, learn to write bv writing, th en the design of writ ing tasks is perhaps the kev c o m p o n e n t of cur riculum design. It is in the e n gagem ent with and the com pletion of writing tasks that the student will be most directlv im m ersed in the develop m ent of his or h e r writing skills; thus, a great deal of th o u g h t must go into crafting such tasks.
Responding Responding to student writing— once seen as the main task of the writing teacher and certainly the most time-consuming o n e — is a complex process which also requires the teacher to make a n u m b e r of critical decisions. Key questions to address include: 1. What are the general goals within the writing course for providing feedback to students? 2. What are the specific goals for providing feedback on a particular piece of writing? 3. At what stage in the writing process should feedback be offered? 4. What form should feedback take? 5. Who should provide the feedback? 6. W hat should students do with the feedback thee receive?
Goal-Setting Responding to student writing has the general goal of fostering student improvement. While this mav seem to be stating the obvious, teachers n e e d to develop re sp o n d in g m ethodologies which can foster improvement: tliev need to know how to measure or recognize im provem ent when it does occur. As with so m am o ther aspects of teaching writing, there rem ains no easv answer to the question of what tvpe of response will facilitate improved student masters of suit ing. Therefore, in setting goals, teachers should focus on im plem enting a variety of response types and on training students to maximize the insights of prior feedback on future writing occa sions. Students need to make the best use of com m entary provided to them. Without train ing. it is possible that students will either ignore feedback or fail to use it constructively.
Shaping Feedback Regardless of whatever repertoire o f strategies teachers develop to provide f eedback on student papers, students must also be trained to use the feedback in wavs that will improve their writing, be it on the next draf t of a particular p a per or on a n o th e r assignment. In two related case studies analyzing a verv large n u m b e r of marginal and
en d com m ents written bv an experienced ESL composition instructor on first drafts, Ferris (1997) an d Ferris et al. (1997) classified the teacher's com m ents into eight different cate gories. Ferris also fu rth e r e xam ined the second draft papers written bv the same students to d e te rm in e which tvpe of c o m m e n ts led to cha n g e, an d which changes a p p e a r e d to improve the quality of individual papers. She concludes that most changes did improve the students' papers, an d that the m ore specific and the lengthier the indiv idual com m ents were, the m ore likelv tliev were to lead to positive change (Ferris 1997. p. 330). The im portant thing to keep in m ind is that students should be taught to process and work with a te a c h e r’s comm ents, whatev er that teacher's c o m m e n tin g stvle is. As with o th er issues discussed, the question of the teacher's philosophy is a kev dete rm in a n t of his or h e r a pproach to com m enting. If teach ers view themselves as language teachers rather than as ;ceiling teachers (see Zamel 1985), the nature of their com m ents and their feedback stvle will not p rom ote growth in writing.
Forms of Feedback Up to now we have been discussing feedback that is provided in writing bv the teacher on var ious drafts of a student paper, a fairlv traditional and time-consuming m ethod, even for those teachers who do not respond to every draft as a finished product. But there are o th e r wavs for students to receive feedback on their writing that can and should be considered. Teachers should bear in m ind that feedback can be oral as well as written, and tliev should consider indi vidual conferences on student papers a n d / o r the use of tape cassettes as two additional wavs to structure their feedback. From a n o th e r point of view most writing teachers realize that tliev have m am students in one class and tliev m ight also be teaching two or m ore writing classes, thus having a verv limited am o u n t of time to provide feedback to am one student. Teachers whose philosophies embrace the value of collaborative learning therefore mav turn to the o ther students in the class to assist in the feedback process. O th e r students in the writing class can be taught
о provide valuable feedback in the form of peer re'ponse, which s e n e s to sharpen their critical 'kills in analyzing written work and also increase their ability to analvze their own drafts criticallv.
1. Oral Teacher Feedback Because o f potential com m unication problems, ELLs in a writing class need to have individual conferences with their teacher even m ore than native speaker students do. Conferences of about 15 m inutes seem to work best and can provide the teacher an opportunitv to directly question the student about intended messages which are often difficult to d ecipher bv simple reading a working draft. Further, conferences allow the teacher to uncover potential m isunderstandings the student m ight have about prior written feed back or issues in writing that have been discussed in class. Although a given student's cultural back g ro u n d can contribute to and potentiallv problematize the way that he or she processes what takes place in a conference (Patthev-Chavez and Ferris 1997), one benefit of conferences is that students can usuallv learn m ore in the one-to-one exchange than they can when attem pting to deci p h e r teacher written com m entarv on their own. Some teachers provide all their feedback orallv by asking students to submit a cassette tape with each draft. This m eth o d probably works best when the teacher reads over a stu d e n t ’s p a per an d makes com m ents directlv into the tape recorder while m arking some accom pa nying n um bers or symbols on the s tu d e n t’s text. For FLFs, this m e th o d has the advantage of p ro viding m uch m ore extensive feedback than is likelv to be m ade in writing, even th o u g h it m ight take the teacher the same a m o u n t o f time p e r paper. It also allows the student to replay the tape as manv times as necessary to u n d e rsta n d a n d benefit from the te a c h e r’s comm ents.
2. Peer Response W hen the use of peer response became an early kev com ponent of teaching writing as a process in the LI environment, many FSL/EFL teachers em braced the idea of having students read a n d / o r listen to each other's papers for the purpose of
providing feedback and input to each o ther as well as helping each other gain a sense of audi ence. But em bracing a philosophy without u n d e rsta n d in g how to translate it to the L 2 environm ent can often lead to rather disappoint ing results. T hat is. simple p utting students together in groups of four or five, each with rough draft in hand, and then hating each stu dent in turn read his or her p a per aloud, followed bv having the o ther m em bers of the group react to the strengths and weaknesses of the p a per to indicate where their needs as readers h a te not been addressed, is not a format likelv to work with even the most sophisticated class o f ELLs. Becattse ELLs lack the language com petence of native speakers who can often react intuitively to their classmates' papers, peer responding in the ESL EFL classroom must be m odeled, taught, and controlled if it is to be valuable. O n e wav to guide p e e r response is for teachers to prot ide a short list of directed ques tions that students address as they read their own or o th e r students' papers. A first exercise of this tvpe can involve giving students a short checklist of attributes to look for in their own papers, such as checking for a particular rh eto r ical feature that might h a te been discussed in class, e.g., topic sentences, or checking to assure no irrelevancies hat e been included. T he check list is subm itted with the p a p e r as a way for the student to assume responsibilitv for reading over his or h e r p a p e r carefullt. Next, students can be trained to read a n d respond to o th e r stu d e n ts’ papers bv reviewing an essat written by a student in a previous class and working through, as a class, a pe e r response sheet that asks a few spe cific questions to elicit b oth a general reaction to the p a per an d suggestions for im provem ent. As the students gain practice in reading an d analyz ing each others' papers an d their awareness of the conventions of writing increases, the ques tions can be m ade m ore com plex an d varied. Some tvpical questions to begin with might include: Wlmt is the main purpose of this paper? What have you found particularly effective in the paper? Do you think the writer has followed through on what he or she set out to do? Peer guidelines for stu dents who h a te m ore practice in the technique
m ight include the following step: Find at least three places in the essay where you can think of (/mo tions that hai’e not been answered by the writer. Write those questions in the margins as areas for the writer to answer in the next draft. In order to maximize the value oh the feed back. responses should be written, providing practice in the valuable skill of text analvsis for the student commenter. These written responses can be given to the student writer with or without the anonvmitv of the student reader preserved a n d / o r used as the basis for oral discussion between reader(s) and writer. The teacher might also want to read the student feedback sheets to assess the analvtical skills of the student readers. Despite all the potential benefits of peer interaction, it is im portant to note that mans studies conducted on L2 populations have indi cated n u m e ro u s p roblem s in im p le m e n tin g p e e r resp o n se as a re g u la r fixture in the ESL/'EFL classroom. For example, one research studs- points to a tendencv on the part of KIT.s to focus on grammatical issues in their peers' papers despite training and instructions to the contrarv (Leki 1990): some researchers base found that the purposes of collaboration are viewed differentlv in different cultures and participants in writ ing groups might operate tit cross-purposes (e.g.. Carson a n d Nelson 1994): and others base expressed reservations about the extent to which students in ESI. classes believe thee should put anv credence in comm ents offered bv their fellow students (e.g.. Zhang 1995). These concerns should not be minimized, but should be factored into how teachers train their classes to work with peer response in a m an n e r best suited to a partic ular classroom environment.
Error Correction Regardless of which agenda the writing teacher sets and the n u m ber of drafts that students pro duce. the papers that ELLs write are likely to exhib it problems in language control. Still, the question of whether or not errors should be corrected at all and the role of overt grammar instruction as a way to help students avoid or lessen the presence of e rro r in future writing u n d e rta k in g s are
lrotlv debated (see especiallv Truscott 1996). However, I concur with Ferris and Hedgcock’s claim: we p roceed on the a ssum ption— sup p o rte d by the intuitions of m anv ESI. writing teachers and certainlv bv those of their students — that g ram m ar and ed itin g fee d b a c k a n d in stru ctio n , when thoughtfullv an d carefullv exe cuted. can help mans or most students improve the accuracv of their texts (1998, p. 202). It is very important that the teacher not be swayed bv the presence of language problems into turn ing a writing course into a gram m ar course. Rather, errors must be dealt with at an appropriate stage of the composing process, and this stage is best considered part of the final editing phase. Tire role of editing, w hen seen as distinct from rewriting, is essentiallv working to elimi nate grammatical problem s an d stylistic infelici ties: this tvpe of editing is certainlv essential to the p roduction of good prose, but is probably an activitv that is best a tte n d ed to w hen a text is considered com plete in terms of having been shaped bv content, organization, attention to the needs of the reader, an d a consideration of its purpose. In fact, teacher editing of or correc tion of grammatical errors on first drafts can be a counterproductive activitv, possible- exacerbat ing whatever insecurities students m ight have about their writing an d drawing their attention awav from the o th er kinds of revision that must be atte n d ed to. T he long-term goal on the path to becom ing a better writer is for students to develop techniques for learning to edit their own work (see Bates. Lane, and I.ange 1993). In addition to deciding when to correct errors, teacher must also decide who will correct the errors, which errors to correct, a n d how to correct errors. Besides the obvious role the teacher plat s as a corrector of errors, the student writer a n d o th er students in the class can be called u p o n to p ro tid e feedback on errors as p a rt of the pe e r feedback process. (For a discus sion of activities for training students in e rror detection procedures, see F ro d c se n ’s ch a p te r in this vo lu m e .)
T he decision w hether to address all or selected errors is a complex one. and probably depends a great deal on the level of writing the student is capable of producing. However, cor recting all of a student's errors is probablv rarelv called for, unless there are t e n few errors present in the text. The teacher should probable concen trate instead on calling the student's attention to those errors which are considered m ore serious a n d / o r represent a pattern of errors in that par ticular student's writing. Lastly, the "how" of calling students' atten tion to their errors is also complex. Teachers can choose ( 1 ) to point out specific errors bv using a mark in the margin or an arrow or o ther symbol ic system; (2 ) to correct (or model) specific errors by writing in the corrected form; (3) to label spe cific errors according to the feature then violate (e.g., subject-verb agreem ent), using either the complete term or a symbol system: (4) to indicate the presence of error but not the precise location, e.g. noting that there are problems with word forms; or (5) to ignore specific errors. Most teach ers use a combination of two or m ore of these methods, depe n d in g on what thev perceive to be the needs of the student; studies of teacher feed back are inconclusive as to what the best m eth o d ology might be. The best approach to feedback on errors undoubtedly derives from considering the circumstances of the individual student cou pled with the goals of the course and the stage of the composing process a particular draft reflects.
C O N C L U S IO N P roducing a successful written text is a complex task which requires sim ultaneous control over a n u m b e r of language systems as well as an ability to factor in considerations of the wavs the dis course must be shaped for a particular audience a n d a particular purpose. Given that language use is both culturally and socially d eterm ined, it is no less the case that written texts are shaped by factors that differ not onlv from one culture to a n o th e r but also within a single culture. Teaching ESL/EFL students to becom e success ful writers, able to weigh and factor in all of these issues, is an especially complex task. But it can be a trem endously rewarding one as well.
This c hapter has presented some of the general issttes involved in establishing a writing curriculum and in teaching the writing class. But there are no "general" classes or “general" students. Each writing class must be shaped for a t e n specific population of English language learners. Since the ability to write well in a sec o n d language is no doubt even m ore difficult to achieve than the ability to read, speak, or u n d e r stand the language, it is not surprising that manv students take several tears to achieve even a m odicum of success. W’hat must be emphasized to teachers in training is the im portance of designing curricula and shaping classes with a clear und e rsta n d in g of how the acquisition of written skills can be fostered. O u r real goal is to graclualh wean our students awav from us, pro viding them with strategies and tools for their co n tin u e d grow th as writers and for the success ful fulfillment of future writing tasks thev might face once the\ have com pleted their last writing course with us. Just a few decades ago. as second language writing courses moved awav from a "drill and skill" approach, curriculum planners and teach ers m odeled their methodology and practices on what teas going on in XES writing courses and ten d e d to assume that research insights in LI composition applied to 1.2 composition as well. W ith increasing professionalization in the field of English language teaching in general, that is no longer the case. Second language writ ing has becom e a held with its own bodv of research and its own internal debates as to what constitutes the best transfer of research into practice. In fact, the interplay between research and practice in the field of second language writing is a two-wav street. Research insights drive practice and concerns for practices that do not seem to be w orking drives a d ditional research. This makes for a vibrant environm ent in which to teach ESI. EFT writing. Earlier hopes of finding the best m ethod "were based on the faulty assumptions that there was a best m ethod and one just had to find it, that teaching writing teas a m atter of prescribing a log ically ordered set of written tasks and exercises, and that good writing conform ed to a predeter m ined and ideal m odel” (Zamel 1987, p. 697).
T h e re can be no "best” m e th o d w hen students' learning styles are so different; ou r h o p e notv is rath e r to find m ethodologies which em pow er students ra th e r than restrict them , a n d to create courses which arise from principled reasons derived from th o rough investigations.
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1. W hat are some of the specific wavs in which the teaching of writing to English language learners has cha n g ed over the past 20. 00. or 40 tears? 2. What would be the consequences of claiming that there is just a single composing process? 3. In what wavs can a svllabus for a writing course reflect the underiving teaching phi losophy of a particular teacher? 4. How should a teacher react if a student can't seem to do one or m ore of the techniques for getting started identified in the text? 5. Discuss some wavs to establish guidelines that teachers should consider in preparing feedback for students.
4.
5.
Some of the questions vou might ask are: Are ESL students folded into classes for NFS stu dents or enrolled in separate ESL courses? Are ESL courses considered lower level or parallel level to courses for XES? Do the current place m ent procedures work? To whose advantage does it work to provide separate or combined courses for LI and L2 students? Arrange to tutor for two to four sessions a single EEL enrolled in a writing course. II ave the student bring samples of his or her writing for vou to work on together. After reviewing several examples of the student's writing, be prepared to report on the strengths and weak nesses of vour student writer and analyze the extent to which his or her present writing course seems to be addressing his or her needs. Design a brief survey of six to eight questions aimed at identifying whether faculty outside of English departments have different expecta tions for written work produced bv XES and ELL students. Distribute vour survey to a few faculty members in three or lour departments at vour school that have heavy enrollment of ESL students and summarize the results.
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1. Observe a single ESI. EFT writing class for three to four class meetings in a row (with the teacher's permission!). O n the basis of your observations, design a set of criteria that could be used to evaluate the extent to which the students are m aking progress in their writing. 2. Collect several com position textbooks designed for use in an ESL or EFL writing course. Review each textbook to determ ine the view each a uthor adopts as to what consti tutes the best wavs to have students become more proficient writers. To justify vour con clusions. use such "data" as the a u th o r’s intro duction to the teacher, the nature of the readings presented in the text, the type of writing assignments included, and so on. 3. Conduct an interview with the director of the English language composition program on vour campus to explore how the composition program addresses the needs of students whose first language is o th er than English.
FU R T H ER R EA D IN G Background Resources Campbell. C. 1498. Teaching Second Language Writing: Interm ting u'ith Text. Pacific Grove. CA: Heinle 8c Heinle Publishers. A short and practical guide that peeks into the author's own ESL writing classrooms and those of several other experienced teachers, provid ing verv practical ideas for a varietv of teaching situations. Focused primarily on immigrant rather than foreign students. Ferris. D.. and J. S. Hedgcock. 1998. Teaching ESL Composition. Purpose. Process and Practice. Mahwah, XJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. An extremely thorough teacher-training text providing extensive coverage of classroom concerns, well grounded in current theoretical perspectives. Harklau. L.. к. M. Losev, and Л1. Siegel, eds. 1999. (,encration 1.5 Meets College Composition. Mahwah, XJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
An anthologv of 12 articles addressing a variety of issues related to how best to meet the writing needs of English language learners who have graduated from U.S. high schools. Leki, I. 1992. Understanding ESL Writers: A Guide [or Teachers. Portsm outh. XH: Bovnton/Cook Heinemann. A brief and highly readable compendium of information identifying the special characteris tics and problem areas of ESL students, framed within a discussion of the field of ESL writing as a profession and its connections to second lan guage learning. Especially helpful for those with little background in applied linguistics. Silva, T., and P. Matsuda. eds. 2001. On Second Language Writing. Mahwah. XJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. .An anthology of 15 articles exploring central issues in theory, research, and instruction. Authors are leading scholars in the field and pro tide a state-of-the-art analysis of their particular area of focus. Resources Containing Classroom Ideas for E F L Writing Teachers
Brookes, A., and P. Grundv. 1998. Beginning to Write: Writing Activities for Elementary and Intermediate Learners. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Grellet, F. 1996. Writing for Advanced Learners of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hedge, T. 1988. Writing. Oxford: Oxford University Press. White, R. V.. ed. 1995. Xew lU/y.t in Teaching Writing. Alexandria. УА: TESOL.
W E B S IT E S Journal of Second Language On-line Homepage for this specialized journal, pub lished three times a tear since 1992. providing solid scholarly articles. Website includes all tables of contents and helpful links. h ttp ://icdweb.cc.purdue.edu/~silvat/jslw/
Purdue Lhiiversitv Online Writing Lab Provides extensive writing help in all areas con nected to written composition for both native and non-native English speaking writers, with helpful links for teacher resources as well. http://owl.english.purdue/edu/
Second Language Writing Research Network Forum Facilitates the exchange of information bv pro viding links to bibliographical information, a directory of specialists, a discussion bulletin board, and related websites. h ttp ://icdweb.cc.purdue.edu/~silvat/forum /
ENDNO TES 1 While there are numerous distinctions to be drawn between writing classes for ESL students (in English-speaking countries) and writing classes for EFL students (studying in countries where English is not an official language), the discussion in this chapter addresses issues of concern in shaping writing courses for both populations. Rather than focusing on the differences between these groups, I have chosen to blur the boundaries for the pur poses of this chapter. Where ESL is noted in the chapter, the claim is limited to courses offered in North America and or reporting on a study con ducted in this environment: where ESL/EEL is noted in the chapter, the discussion applies to either locale. ELI. is used to designate an English language learner in am context. Further, Gumming (2000 ). in a study of both ESL and EFL writing classes in a number of countries around the world, found a certain core level of common approaches and practices. - In this procedure, the writer is asked to verbalize all of his or her thoughts while composing and to write down only those words and thoughts that form part of the task of text production. The event is either aucliotaped or videotaped, and a tran script, referred to as a "protocol," is prepared for subsequent analysis, also known as "protocol analysis." Я A heuristic device refers to a specific set of steps one can follow in order to work through personal discoveries as a wav of finding a solution, answer, or path to adopt in a given circumstance. While there are guidelines for utilizing heuristic devices, the important thing to remember is that thev will vielcl highly individual results, i.e. there are no "right" or "■wrong" answers. In contrast, algorith mic devices are steps which are tightiv controlled and invariable: thev vielcl the same results for all those who follow a given algorithm, such as the process of addition. A full discussion of a wide variety of heuristic devices useful in ESL, teaching is presented in Httghev ct al. (1983), pp. 62-84 and in Ferris and Hedgcock (1998), pp. 101-113.
Grammar in Writing JAN
F R O D E S E N
"G ram m ar in W ritin g ” emphasizes that a hocus on norm in composition can help writers develop rich linguistic resources needed to express .deas effectively in addition to providing assistance in error correction, Fnodesen summarzes cuirent controversies about the role of grammar in writing, discusses learner and situational variables, and describes activities for incorporating grammar into writing nstruction.
IN T R O D U C T IO N In a California elementary school one morning, the teacher of a class of bilingual fifth graders was preparing her students for a standardized English test which required them to demonstrate their knowledge of English gram m ar rules bv choosing appropriate forms to fill blanks in a set of decontextualized sentences— a typical, discrete-item, multiple-choice test. Up to this point in the class, the students had been creating their own illus trated bilingual storybooks about fantastical beasts, writing their texts first in Spanish, their natiye language, and then in English. To help her students develop their awareness of the need to m eet readers' expectations, the teacher had been serring as a careful reader of their stories, letting them know wheneyer she had a problem u n d e r standing their m eaning and proriding vocabulary and gram m ar explanation as needed. As the students p ored oyer example sen tences to prepare for the required exam, a task both teacher and students found tedious (espe cially in comparison to their story-writing activity), they encountered one item in which they had to choose the correct pronoun for a subject slot. The choices were the nominative p r o n o u n she and the object p r o n o u n her. As the teacher was p ro m p tin g the correct form for the blank, one of the students exclaimed. "But teacher, this is a bad sentence! We d o n't know who she is'.”
This store, related years ago to me by Barbara Hawkins, has rem ained one of mv favorite real-life examples of what "grammar in writing” and the teaching of it should mean: helping writers de velop their knowledge of linguistic resources and grammatical systems to convey ideas m eaning fully and appropriately to intended readers. It is also a wonderful example of how even voung second language learners can discover and use dis course-level grammatical principles, in this case creating a cohesiv e text bv making sure each pro noun has an identifiable referent. Not only ran students of all ages learn p rin ciples of gram m ar in context, but a focus on form appears to be necessary to some extent for optimal second language learning. Second lan guage acquisition (SLA) researchers Doughty an d Williams (1998 ) report that years of research on classroom immersion and naturalistic acqui sition studies suggest that when instruction is m eaning focused only, learners do not develop m am linguistic features at targetlike levels. In second language writing, the role of gram m ar in writing— both explicit explanations of grammatical principles and teacher correction of errors— has rem ained a topic of controversy since the 1980s for several reasons. O n e has been the influence of first language (LI) composition research and pedagogy on second language (L2) writing practices. Hillocks’s (1986) synthesis of research on native English speaking writers
indicated that formal gram m ar instruction has little or no effect on writing improvement. In the paradigm shifts within composition th e o n from a focus on writing products to writing processes, and, m ore recently, to a focus on writing as a social activity (see Kroll's chapter in this volume), explicit gram m ar instruction in LI writing class rooms has tvpicallv been relegated to teachers' direct correction ol errors, if dealt with at till. A nother and perhaps even m ore significant influence on the weakened role of gram m ar in L2 writing instruction has been the widespread adoption by m am second language teachers of Krashen’s (1982) stated beliefs that form-focused instruction is not onlv unnecessary but thwarts natural acquisition [trotesses. In fact, carlv LI composition theorists' argum ents against explicit gram m ar instruction, one of the most notable being Hartwell (1985). drew on Krashen's work as support for the noninterveulionist position, a term used bv Long and Robinson (1998) to describe the stance that Krashen and others have taken in rejecting explicit focus on form. T h e wholesale adoption of LI composition theories and practices for L2 writing classes seems m isguided in light of the m am differ ences between first and second language w riters, processes, a n d p ro d u cts (Silva 1993).While F.SL/EFL writing teachers certain.lv need to be knowledgeable about LI composition th e o n and practices, thee also need to address the spe cial needs of second language writers. The neglect of form-focused instruction for second language writers seems to b ate been most prevalent in the United States due to the adop tion of communicative models of language learn ing that con sid e red c o m p re h en sib le inpu t sufficient for language acquisition. As Scarcella (1996) has discussed, the eff ects of this instruction have been especially unfortunate for students who need advanced level writing proficiency for aca demic work or careers. Scarcella echoes the views of SI A researchers such as Lightbown (1998), who earlier had adopted the noninterventionist position but who, after seeing the results of deem phasizing corrective feedback an d limited formfocused instruction, now believe that students need input on structure.
In addition to the influence of LI com posi tion research and noninterventionist positions regarding second language learning, miscon ceptions about the m eaning and scope of the term grammar have fostered negative attitudes about the role of gram m ar in FSL/EFL writing. T here is a great difference between the teaching of linguistic forms apart from a m eaningful con text. on the one hand, and a focus on language form to develop learners' ability to com m unicate meaningfully and appropriately, on the other, as Hawkins's bilingual classroom so beautifully exemplified. In the hitter view, gram m ar is an integral part of language use: it is a resource to be accessed for effective com m unication, not just an isolated bodv of knowledge. As Widdowson (1988) states. "Language learning is essentially gram m ar learning and it is a mistake to think otherwise’hp. 154). This orientation leads writers to conceive of gram m ar as an essential com po nent of language, a system that thev can discover and exploit for their com m unicative needs, rather than as a tedious and complicated set of rules to be m em orized or as a template to be used solelv for identifying an d correcting their errors. From the perspective of g ram m ar as a resource in shaping accurate an d effective com munication. it seems clear, then, that focus on form should to some extent be an integral part of the instructional design for second language writing classrooms. This does not m ean, however, that till kinds of gram m ar instruction are useful in the ESL LFL writing classroom. Xor does it m ean that students will automatically be able to transform input received through explicit gram m ar instruction into productive output. Such transfer from input to output, or uptake, as it is term ed in the SLA literature, requires that teach ers consider and reflect on mans learner, situa tional. and linguistic variables relevant to their students and classroom contexts. Awareness of these variables can greatly assist teachers in deciding when and how to incorporate gram m ar into writing instruction, as well as in selecting those grammatical features most deserving of students' attention and practice for anv given context.
G E N E R A L G U ID E L IN E S FO R IN T E G R A T IN G GRAM M AR IN W R IT IN G IN S T R U C T IO N W here should a teacher begin in deciding what kinds of g ram m ar focus are appropriate and rel evant for students' needs in the writing class room? h o n g and Robinson (1998) state that deciding w h ether the starting point should be the learner or the language to he laughl is one of the most critical choices in course design; thev note that in mans classrooms worldwide, course design starts with structures to be learned. In the U nited States, however, m uch F.SL pedagogy em phasizes le a rn e r-c e n te re d course design. Echoing this focus on learners. Bvrd and Reid (1998) contend that teachers should begin with students and not structures to make decisions about gram m ar in ESL writing. I lere. too. is where1 our discussion of variables will begin.
Learner Variables Celce-Murcia (1983) suggests that the following learner variables be considered in making choices about gram m ar instruction: age. proliciencv level, and educational background. According to her schema, a focus on formal aspects of language is increasinglv useful as writers become older, more advanced in English proficiency, and mot e highlv educated literate. Ferris and I ledgcock tl99S) note that students in ESL. composition classrooms are tvpicallv a verv heterogeneous population, characterized bv m a m differences in back grounds and abilities, including linguistic, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds as well as cognitive and metacognitive strategy use. Reid (1998) adds to this list the importance of considering different learning steles, pointing out contrasts in steles such as concrete learners, echo prefer practical, hands-on activities working evith others versus abstract learners, echo learn best alone through theory and planning. Reid demonstrates how dif ferent kinds of lessons speak to one or more of these different learning .shies. All of these vari ables can in turn create differences in learners' motivation and attitudes toward language learn ing in general and the acquisition of academic skills in particular.
With the ever-growing population of n o n native English-speaking imm igrants in Englishspeaking countries, differences in students' e d u cational backgrounds and English acquisition hat e becom e extremelv im portant in developing second language curricula. In the U nited States, one of the most im portant distinctions in types of learners relevant to gram m ar instruction at h igher education levels has been that between international students who h a te received their education in their native country p rior to a tte n d ing an English-medium school a n d p e rm a n e n t resident students who have received some, if not most, of their education in the U nited States. (In EF1. contexts, of course, most students will have educational backgrounds similar to the in te rn a tional students in English-speaking countries.) International (orF.FI.) students have tvpi callv learned most of their English in the class room and generally base received considerable explicit g ram m ar instruction; thus, thev are often aisle to access a n d explain gram m ar rules when doing text analysis a n d writing activities. T heir writing mas exhibit m ore "non-nativelike” structures, such as unidiom atic phrasing, than the writing of perm anent residents does, but it mas also demonstrate better skill in producing the complex structures typical of formal academic English. P erm a n e n t residents, in contrast to inter national students, often acquire English "bv e a r” from exposure- to the language in oral contexts, including, of course-, the classroom, but in manv informal, conversational contexts as well. For this reason, an d because explicit g ra m m a r instruction has not been a significant part of their English language education, the knowl edge that p e r m a n e n t residents have a b o u t English gram m ar tends to be implicit, similar to that of native English language speakers. Thev mac know that an ungram m atical form "doesn't sound right" but mac not be able to explain why, just as most native speakers would not be able to explain whv thee use definite article the rather than a in mane contexts. Drawing on this same implicit knowledge, im m igrant F.Sl. students mac regard structures used in formal written English, but seldom occurring in conversational English, as incorrect or sounding "strange,” just
as many novice native English language writers do. Like developing native English language writers, ESL writers often inappropriatelv import informal oral expressions and syntactic struc tures into academic writing contexts (e.g.. using I mean rather than that is before a clarifying state m ent, or using object p ronouns as grammatical subjects, such as Me and in\ fam ih are . . .). Because o f their educational backgrounds, per m anent resident students may be unfamiliar with most grammatical terminology, and thev also may be less aware than international students tend to be of their errors in English m orphology an d syntax. Since terminology can be useful in provid ing learners with teacher feedback on syntactic and m orphological e rro r patterns in their writ ing, an awareness of individual learners' knowl edge of grammatical terms is im portant. The instructor could ask students to describe briefly their backgrounds in a questionnaire at the beginning of a course and or could give stu dents a list of grammatical terms (subject, verb, gerund, infinitive, etc.) and ask the students to give examples of the ones thev know, to indicate the ones thev have heard of but d o n 't really understand, an d to note the ones yvith which thev are totally unfamiliar. O f course, there y\ill be some basic terms that the teacher yvill yvant all students to be famil iar yvith in ord er to help them develop editing skills. Terminology in general should be kept as simple as possible. For example, progressive verbs, gerunds, and present participles in adjective/aclverb phrases might be distinguished as -ing main verbs, -ing modifiers, and -ing nouns, respectively. Infinitives could be referred to as to + verb. Relative clauses could be referred to as which/who/that adjective clauses. Such designa tions link grammatical functions yvith actual m o rp h e m es or words that students will see in writing so there is less need to m em orize terms. O n e final student variable that deserves consideration is the degree to which learners take risks in exp a n d in g their productive abilities or, conversely, employ avoidance strategies to reduce chances of errors. Schachter and CelceMurcia (1977) c o n tributed to e rro r analysis research by showing that some learners avoid
errors bv not attem pting constructions thev find difficult, such as relative clauses o r passives. Schleppegrell (2000) describes two very differ ent strategies a d o p te d bv three ESL university students writing science lab reports: two of them used a strategy of "saving little but try ing to sav it right." while the o th er writer drew u p o n com plex sentence structures a n d phrasing to elabo rate h e r points. T h e two who “said little ” p r o d u c e d fewer errors but failed in many ways to m eet the genre dem ands of the task; the writer who exte n d e d h e r language use bevond h e r mastery level p ro d u ce d considerably m ore surface errors but resp o n d e d m ore fullv and appropriately to the content dem ands. These and o ther studies rem ind us that we cannot eval uate learners' perform ance or develop lessons simply on the basis of error diagnosis and correc tive feedback. Some students who write simple to avoid difficult structures mav need gram m ar instruction that encourages them to expand their linguistic repertoire. From this discussion of learner variables, it is clear that ESI. writing teachers have m uch to consider in m eeting learners' needs. However, as Ferris and H edgcock 11998) advise, there are wavs to group and work with these variables in planning svllabi a n d lessons.
Situational Variables Situational, or instructional, variables must also be considered in developing writing activities that focus on form. Celce-Murcia (1985) points out that the more professional the use of language, the grea ter the need for focus on form. Supporting this view in discussing pedagogical g ram m ar within a communicative paradigm, Little (1994) states that a high level of correctness is required for effective comm unication in formal written and spoken discourse, and that native as well as non-native English speakers often use explicit knowledge, either from memory or refer ence books, when thev are planning, monitoring, an d editing formal written discourse. While gram m ar also has a role in less formal writing, the structural focus and emphasis on correctness will varv. d e p e n d in g on the extent to which writers
are expected to observe standard English co n ventions in settings such as academ ic or business communities. Expectations mas also va n for var ious forms of In te rn et com m unication, such as e-mail. The specific objectives of a writing class will influence greatlv how gram m ar will be integrated with writing. In ESL/EFL programs that place stu dents with diagnostic tests, some courses mav focus particularlv on error analvsis a n d editing strategies. Courses for these students m ight include considerable -work with their own writing as the core materials. Advanced courses might emphasize the grammatical choices writers make to achieve cohesion and coherence, with more extensive text analvsis followed bv production activities. The kinds of writing in which students will be expected to develop and demonstrate proficiencv are a n o th e r consideration. In academic or preparatorv settings, courses mav cover a range of genres com m on to academic writing, such as essays, lab reports, problem-solution texts, per suasive writing, or short essay examinations. Alternately, the focus mav be on particular aca demic genres such as research papers or histori cal narratives. In business writing contexts, requirem ents mav include memos, proposals, and evaluative reports. Genre-based and corpusbased studies (e.g.. Swales 1990; Biber 1988, Biber, Conrad, and R eppen 1998) have identified various grammatical features and clusters of fea tures tvpicallv used in particular kinds of writing. Biber’s (1988) analvsis, for example, character izes the gram m ar of non-narrative com m unica tion as using present tense verbs, past participle clauses, and longer and more elaborate noun phrases than occurs in narrative communication. W hatever the instructional objectives, the goal o f developing writing proficiency should be at the forefront in m aking decisions about explicit focus on grammar. In general, learners can benefit from activities that help them u n d e r stand how grammatical choices contribute to shaping m eaning and put these insights into practice. It bears repeating that too m uch focus on e rro r n ot onlv prom otes a limited perception of the role of gram m ar in com m unication but
mav c re a te — o r reinforce— negative attitudes a b out this \erv im portant c o m p o n e n t of second language writing instruction.
A C T IV IT IE S FO R IN C O R P O R A T IN G GRAM M AR IN TO W R IT IN G IN S T R U C T IO N Text Analysis In developing linguistic resources, ESL /EFL writers can benefit greatly from learning how carious grammatical features an d grammatical systems are used in authentic written texts. O n the one hand, analvsis of such texts can help learners who are alreadv familiar with prescrip tive g ram m ar rules but who still have problem s u n d e rsta n d in g and appropriately using gram matical oppositions such as definite an d indefi nite articles an d present-perfect a n d past- or present-tense verb forms. O n the o th e r hand, text analvsis can also benefit learners with mostly implicit knowledge of g ra m m a r r a th e r th an explicit rule-based knowledge; These writers often need to becom e m ore familiar with the war s in which c arious genres of written English differ structurallv from oral English forms.
Considerations for Selecting Grammar Points and Materials for Text Analysis In selecting gram m ar points from authentic texts, the writing teacher should consider the proficiencv levels of students and course objec tives. T he level of difficulty of a grammatical fea ture should not be far bevond the lea rn ers’ developm ental stages; for exam ple, students struggling to p roduce well-formed relative clauses with subject relative p ro nouns (e.g., the teacher who called me . . .) would have difficulty' with a les son on object p ro n o u n relative clauses ( the teacher to whom I gai'e mу address). This is not to say that new structures should never be introduced, but rather that students' readiness to give attention to them should be evident. As for gram m ar points relating to writing course objectives, such focus is. of course, necessary if g ram m ar is to be
su b o rdinated to comm unicative goals. Both of these issues— students' proficiency levels and course goals— are relevant to the distinction that Long and Robinson (1998) haw- m ade betw een teachers focusing on form and sIndents focusing on form: If in the course of a gram m ar lesson the teacher has not successfully engaged the student in noticing a language feature, then onlv the teacher, and not the learner, has ulti mately focused on form. Tire sources of authentic texts will van d e p e n d in g on the writing course syllabus. Like writing courses for native English speakers, manv ESL/EFL writing courses now include a variety of readings on which writing assignments are based. Such courses mac be content-based (see Snow’s chapter in this volume) or mav include' a rea d e r arranged bv text types or themes. The teacher can examine these texts to see what kinds of grammatical structures, contrasts, or sys tems are do m in a n t a n d which contain forms that students will be able to use in their own writing. In content- and theme-based courses, readings can be distinguished bv w hether thev represent models of text types, such as the researc h paper or the argumentative essav. which students will be expected to produce during the course, or w hether the readings are expository articles, short stories, poems, or plavs serving as ■'spring b oards” for generating topics. In English for Academic Purposes writing courses, assigned readings tvpicallv include examples of the kinds erf waiting expected of stu dents. In these courses, the instructor will want to consider what grammatical features charac terize these waitings. This is true even for the academ ic writing required of younger learners. In Schleppegrell's (1998) stuclv on the descrip tive science writing of middle school students, she found that this kind of writing required fea tures such as modifying phrases after nouns (e.g., a lizard with a big head), relative clauses, a n d possessive phrases, which the second lan guage learners had difficulty producing. A focus on language forms for particular genres should not be e q u ated with teaching “formulas" for wanting or conveying a view o f written texts as static sets of language rules. Such a focus simple acknowledges that certain patterns of rhetorical
strategies, such as definition, often occur in par ticular text tvpes an d that 1.2 writers, just like LI waiters, need control of the forms tvpicallv used to realize these functions. As for readings that are springboards for writing rath e r than text models. Ilolten (1997) notes that assigned novels and short stories can offer w onderful op p o rtu n itie s for gram m arfocused activities since students tvpicallv find them easier to read and are thus m ore willing to exam ine them closelv. Poetrv. while not alwavs east for students to c o m p re h en d , often provides excellent exam ples of parallel structures. Readings based on authentic or fictional oral English, such as interviews or plavs. can be rich sources lo r discussion ab o u t differences between spoken and written English, such as the use of fragments in spoken English versus com plete sentences in formal written English. O th e r kinds of variation deserving analysis d e p e n d in g on course goals are grammatical and syntactic differences in written texts, such as journalistic prose in contrast to certain forms of academic writing. In mans cases, these differences involve considerable overlap between grammatical and lexical features. Finallw a word should be said about brief supplem entary texts that can be integrated with course readings for gram m ar focus. Instructors often e n c o u n te r excellent examples of partic ular grammatical structures in dailv newspaper or m aga/ine reading, such as segments of news articles, advertisem ents, and even cartoons. These texts can provide variety, and students often find them engaging either because the topics tire timelv ones or. as in the case of car toons and mans advertisements, thev present lan g u a g e in h u m o ro u s a n d creative wavs. Especially for less advanced students, advertise ments can be excellent sources for illustrating grammatical features: thev often incorporate grammatical repetition as a rhetorical device. Creating files with short texts that exemplify gram mar structures commonly covered in a course, such as verb tenses or count noncount nouns, can s e n e as a good source for brief lessons. In summary, when selecting texts a n d grammatical points for analysis, the following considerations mat serve as guidelines.
1. 2.
3.
4. 5.
6.
T he grammatic al features should he a p p ro priate for students' developm ental stages The grammatical features should reilect students' writing needs for the course or for future writing W hen possible, assigned course readings should be sources of text analysis so that g ram m ar focus is integrated with o th er pre writing activities T he lessons should (generally be kept brief, especially for less advanced writers The instructor m at want to enhance the texts bv underlining or bolding certain ele ments. especially those that are not ven salient for some learners Productive tasks should follow text analysis so that writers hat e opportunities to practice the explicit knowledge gained from noticing features in written texts and so that teachers are able to assess to some degree what stu dents have learned from the analysis tasks.
"It makes me feel good to know I m ight help sat e som e o n e .” Briefly review com plem ent clauses with and without "that” using a few examples; then ask students to find the places where “that” could be inserted following a verb. (Either point out or delete am reduced relative "that" clauses that might confuse them.) Discuss whv speakers might omit these forms. T hen examine an academic prose passage for comparison. Discuss reasons whv writers might omit "that" and when thev might need to use this form for clarity 2.
Sample Text Analysis Lessons The following are a few examples of lessons that focus on grammatical features in texts. For each, it is assumed that the structure is appropriate for the level of the students, that the text used has sufficient examples of the particular gram m ati cal item(s). an d that the structures can be used by students in their own writing. 1.
clauses Even advanced students sometimes have difficulty u n d e r standing com plex sentence structures with out explicit markers of s ubordination such as relative p ro n o u n s or complementizers. To help writers identify clauses in which "that" is optionally deleted an d the verbs these clauses may follow, find comic strips in which the speakers have deleted “that" before a c o m plem ent clause. This feature is quite c om m on in spoken English; on one newspaper comic page, for example, the following instances were found: T
h
a
t
a
n
d
z e r o - t h a t
"Margaret thinks she's sm arter than we are just because she's sm arter than we are." "I know I'm no longer voting and prettv . . ." "But I guarantee it won't h a p p e n again."
3.
Tense and Time Frame Shifts ESI. writers are often confused about the motivations for verb tense shifts and believe that thev should not change verb tenses (e.g., from present to present perfect) or lime frames (e.g., from present to past). Review the reasons why writers shift verb tenses and time frames. (See Frodesen and Earing 2000, p. 8.) T hen give students a passage with tense and time frame shifts. U nderline and n u m b e r the verbs selected for focus. Ask them to identify' the tense and time frame (e.g., past progres sive tense, past time frame) for each u n d e r lined verb and to explain am verb tense shifts (e.g.. to support a claim about the present with examples from the past). Ask them also to circle adverbs or adverb phrases that signal time frame shifts (e.g., "last t e a r ”). Hate students look at something thev have written recently to identify tense shifts and reasons for them. Demonstrative R eference Find a text that has examples of both "this" used in p ro noun referenc e and “this"-*- n o u n used for reference. N u m b e r the lines before re p ro ducing or putting the text on a transparency. Ask students to skim the text and, with two different colored highlighters, distinguish the two t\pes of demonstrative reference. Give students a graphic organizer with two columns. Ask them to write the reference in one colum n (e.g.. "this idea") a n d the referent (a word, phrase, clause, or sen tence) in the colum n across from it. Discuss u n d e r what conditions the demonstrative
adjective + n o u n form rather than the demonstrative p r o n o u n is used. H a te stu dents edit drafts for ant unclear use of demonstrative pronouns. As the examples above indicate, these tvpes o f activities are especiallv a p p ro p r ia te for advanced level F.SL writers. However, for less advanced or vounger students, instructors can e n h a n ce text th ro u g h u n derlining an d bolding as well as limiting the scope and n u m b e r of examples for students to examine.
Guided Writing Activities T h e n otion of “guided" writing unfortunatelv retains negative connotations for some writing teachers, who mar associate it with the m e c h a n ical and noncom m unicative practices of the past. For them it mav conjure up formulaic pat tern practice or slot filling. However, like gtiidecl practice in o th e r language skills such as p r o n u n ciation or listening, guided writing s e n e s to focus stu d e n ts’ attention on language features that are difficult for them. In addition, exercises eliciting the use of grammatical structures can encourage learners to expand their linguistic resources. In fact, writing instructors often find that their students are m uch m ore receptive to gram m ar-based guided writing that offers them new wavs o f expressing their ideas. Manv of the g u id e d writing activities described below were used long before processcentered approaches to writing becam e wide spread. In the past, however, these exercises were sometimes presented without context a n d only in the framework of a structural svllabus. H ere thev are suggested as com ponents of prewriting, revising, or editing processes in communicative writing tasks. As always. decisions as to which tvpes of exercises are most helpful should be based on consideration of learner variables and the learning context.
Text Conversion In text conversion exercises, students rewrite passages and short texts, changing some feature of the grammatical structure, such as rew riting a text that is in a present time fram e as a past time fram e text or changing direct speech to indirect
speech. As Celce-Murcia and I lilies (1988) point out, most of these exercises do not involve actual com posing but rather provide practice in making structure-discourse matches. Consequently, they should be m ade relevant to learners' actual writ ing challenges. For example, rather than simplv giving students a text to change verb tenses mechanicallv without motivation for the task, an exercise might be explicitlv presented to address difficulties students are h a \in g in consistently using past tense verbs in past narratives; editing of actual writing assignments would follow. The fol lowing are some of the most com m on writing con texts that could emplov text conversion activities.
Revision and Editing Focused Exercises Perhaps the most obvious purpose for guided writing with focus on a particular grammatical structure is to address lea rn ers’ gram m ar p ro b lems. For example, if students b a te fre q u e n t subject-verb a greem ent errors, as a pre-editing exercise thev could change all third person pres ent plural forms in a text to singular and make necessary verb changes. T he content of the pas sage should be related as closelv as possible to whatever topics students are working on so that thev can review core vocabulary or concepts. Similar exercises could involve o th er frequent m orphological errors, such as regular plural nouns without -s. Students would then check their own draffs to correct similar errors. O n e c om m on use of text conversion for practice in using appropriate forms in English for science and technology is conversion of sen tences in active voice to passive in contexts where focus should be on objects and outcomes, not agents. In this kind of exercise, the instructor could create a text or use a student text from the methodology section of a research paper. The following example is from a student draft about procedures for measuring the effects of rainfall runoff on soil erosion; Ur tested velocity by placing a given trace dye on the surface of the [dot, at a measured point. After each run ice estimated the vegetation eoi'er using a five-point pin frame. We placed the pin frame in 20 places on the plot, moving dmcmcard. (used bv permission of Trisha Mai den)
Rewritten: Velocity was tested by placing a given twee dye on the surface of the plot, at a measured point. After each run, the vegetation cover was estimated using a five-point pin frame. The pin frame was placed on the plot, moving downward. In using actual texts, the teacher mav find that not till parts of a text can be transform ed. M e th odology sections o f science research papers, for example, do not usually lraye all passiye sentences. To make texts as natural as possi ble. the instructor can simply u n d e rlin e or num ber the sentences in a text to be rewritten. Afterward, students should identify'contextual fac tors that influence ttse of the passive.
Sentence Combining Prior to the paradigm shift from p roduct to process in com position pedagogy, sentence com bining was a topic of m uch research a n d dis cussion in LI composition (Mellon 1969). In its early stages, this technique for developing syn tactic fluency often involved com bining a set of kernel sentences such as the following: The The The The
man man man man
was old. had gray hair. walked down the street. walked slowly.
Com bined: The old. gray-haired man walked slowly down the street. Like many language-based actinides predating process-oriented pedagogies, this one fell into disfanor partly because the early applications often started with sets of sentences that were a far cry from authentic texts. De Beaugrande (1985) adyises that writing samples used for sentence com bining should resemble naturally occurring language; otherwise, "the whole exercise will be treated as some gratuitous yenture into a bizarre dom ain of c om m unication where people regale each o ther with inane kernel sentences” (p. 72). Most teachers yvho have used sentence com bin ing are aware that, unless carefully structured, this technique can result in confusing or eyen incom prehensible sentences.
With these cayeats in minds, sentence com bining can be extremely useful for guided prac tice in p ro d u c in g particular gram m atical structures, such as relatiye clauses or preposi tional phrases, and in helping writers develop their repertoire of linguistic strategies for high lighting key information, subordinating less important information, and improving syntactic fluency. O n e of the most useful applications of sen tence c o m b in in g for a dvanced ESL writers involves draft revision. With assistance, students a m identify passages in their writing in which sentence com bining could achieve a b e tte r flow of inform ation th ro u g h clearer connections between ideas. As one example, when learning to reference sources by introducing authors and their yvork. developing writers often use separate sentences such as the following: Oliver Sacks is a neurologist. He wrote the article "Brilliant Tight: .1 Chemical Boyhood. " In this article, he describes how his "Uncle 'T ungsten” influenced his love of science. A more experienced yvriter of academic prose would subordinate some of this information: In "Brilliant Tight: .4 Chemical Boyhood, ” neurologist Oliver Sacks describes how his "Uncle Tungsten" influenced his love of science. In this yvay. sentence com bining exercises can focus on particular rhetorical moves, such as introducing sources, that students yvill n e e d to use frequently in academic yvriting.
Guided Paraphrase O n e of the most im portant skills that students must develop for academic yvriting is the ability to paraphrase source materials to support claims a n d develop ideas. 1 Si 1 11 writers often lack th e facility with vocabulary a n d syntax to rephrase ideas in their own words; most experi en c ed teachers are familiar with the distorted paraphrases that result when novice writers “slot” synonyms front a thesaurus into the original sen tence without adjusting the grammar.
In cued paraphrase exercises, writers trans form se ntences o r parts o f se ntences fro m assigned readings, using cues as the first step. The cues, which may be words o r phrases, are designed to require syntactic restructuring in the paraphrase. H e re are a few examples based on a sociology text a b o u t bystander intervention Darley a n d Latane 1973) with possible transfor mations resulting from cues: Original: People trying to interpret a situ
ation often look at those around them to see how to react, (base reactions on) Rewrite: People trying to interpret a situa tion often base their reactions on those around them. Original: Even if a person defines an event
as an emergency . . . (decides) Rewrite: Even if a person decides that an
event is an emergency . . . As students further transform the structure result ing from the guided paraphrase cues, changing vocabulary a n d structures m ore fully so that the final version is n o t too close to the original, this activity becomes a true composing task. Students should be able to transfer these strategies to future paraphrasing tasks.
Text Elicitation In form-focused text elicitation, the instructor specifies a topic o r writing objective (e.g., a rhetorical strategy such as defining or summariz ing results) an d a grammatical structure or struc tures to be used. Certain writing topics naturally
elicit particular forms, such as hypothetical con ditionals in assignments speculating a b o u t what students w ould do u n d e r certain conditions (Celce-Murcia a n d Hilles 1988). Assigned reading responses can also incor porate practice of grammatical structures n eed ed for writing tasks. T h e shaded example below m odeled after one by H olten and Marasco (1998, p. 214) which asked students to use conditionals in discussing brief problem-solution texts. Excellent sources for eliciting summaries include surveys, graphs, or charts on topics related to writing themes, o r genres such as research arti cles. These graphic sources can elicit texts that use a range of structures such as com parison/contrast connectors, passive verbs, com m on irregular verb forms (e.g., me an d fall), frequency adverbs (e.g., often, rarely), quantifiers (e.g., most, the majority, a minority) and, d epending o n the time frame, verb tenses such as simple past or present perfect. Any o f these grammatical features could be the focus o f a summary task. For example, advanced ESL writers often have difficulty using sentence con nectors and subordinators in appropriate syntactic contexts. Even prewriting exercises such as brain storming or outlining could involve lists that use parallel structures such as n o u n phrases o r infini tives. For example, to begin a composition unit on education, students in a university writing class were asked to list all of the purposes o f higher edu cation, using infinitive of purpose phrases (e.g., to preparefor a career). The grammatical objective here is not so m uch to practice such infinitive phrases as it is to use parallelism as a systematic way of organizing information in prewriting.
Text
C o n d itio n al Sentences
In many U.S. towns, the opening of large retail chain stores known as superstores has made it difficult for the local small businesses to keep customers.
If customers shop at chain superstores instead of their local businesses, the local stores may have to close.
However, some of these local businesses are now successfully using the W eb to increase sales and improve customer service.
Unless small businesses find new ways to attract customers, such as advertising on the Web, they may not be able to compete with superstores.
In summarv. text elicitation can be list'd to focus on diagnosed structural problem s, to develop syntactic com plexity to familiarize stu dents with discourse-based gram m ar conven tions (e.g.. the use of passive in survey reports), and to provide strategies for organizing and dis playing information.
Dictation Dictation can be an effective wav to lamiliari/e students with the wavs in which gram m ar and vocabulary interact in com m on collocations as well as to address errors in writing that mat result in part from mismatches between learners' aural perception of English forms and standard English gram m ar and spelling. In one dictation procedure, the instructor reads aloud a short text several times, usually one related to the topic or genre on which stu dents are working. The text is first read at a n o r mal pace, with the students just listening. For the second reading, the teacher pauses after each phrase to allow students to write. Clare should be taken not to put u n d u e emphasis on word e n d ings or function words that are not norm alh stressed. T he third reading, do n e at a normal pace, gives students the opportunity to read over the texts and make corrections. The teacher then shows students the passage so that the\ can check their versions with the original and edit their texts. If the activity's main objective is error detection correction, the instructor could give more specific directions, such as to put a circle at the ends of all words with missed -v third person singular or -er/ endings. If the goal is to familiarize writers with particular grammatical features, stu dents could be asked to underline them; the class could then discuss meanings and or functions of the target constructions.
Text Completion Grammar-based exercises involving text com ple tion are. of course, very familiar to ESL/EET stu dents. Two of the most com m on types of text completion are the cloze passage and the gapped text. Whereas in cloze passages each blank rep
resents a single word to fill in, in gapped texts the blanks mav require one or m ore words. A third type of text completion, which focuses attention on the flow of inform ation across sentence boundaries, requires students to use the dis course context to select sentences that best achieve "flow" and create effective cohesion. The formats and purposes of each of these com ple tion tvpes will be briefly described in this section. Cloze passages can be created either bv ran dom deletion of words (e.g.. deleting every sev enth word) or bv deletion of a specific item (e.g., articles). T he second tvpe is m ore suitable for grammatical focus. The source could be a pub lished text or student writing: if a student text, the passage should be free of serious grammatical problems that might distract or confuse students. The following, from a student essay, has been m ade into a cloze passage bv deleting articles. (Blanks have also been put before nouns with no article.) 1
pollution may be defined as
2
deterioration of
3
day life’s natural resources. tion is
5
affected
9
4
pollu
global problem that has
6
we drink,
every
quality of 8
7
water
air we breathe and
land we use.
10
scientific
solutions to overcome __ LL__ problem have increased
12
destruction.
T he text above illustrates the advantage of presenting a passage rather than a gro u p of unrelated sentences for practice in article usage. In the last sentence, the definite article “th e ” is needed before the last two nouns because of second m ention: "problem" is a partial repeti tion of "global problem." and "destruction" mav be in te rp re te d as either a synonvm for “deterio ration" or as a .superordinate term for the effects m en tio n e d previously Students usually enjov exercises based on their own writing: thev could even create their own cloze passages from a paragraph thev have written a n d exchange them with a classmate. Gloze passages based on student texts can serve as
an e rror correction technique if the writer has p ro d u ce d errors in the grammatical item deleted. Whatever the source, this type of cloze passage can provide an excellent context for discussing syntactic, semantic, or pragmatic features across sentence boundaries, ones that mav influence writers’ selections of such grammatical items as articles and pronouns. Since gapped text com pletion exercises do n o t specify the n u m b e r of words required for each blank, they can be used to elicit deleted verbs that include forms with m ore than one word, such as passives, progressive aspect, and p rese n t perfect. O th e r grammatical items that could be deleted for ga p p e d exercises are com paratives, superlatives, phrasal verbs, and multi w o rd /p h ra s a l logical connectors. T h e third type of text com pletion asks stu dents to consider syntactic structures with essen tially the same m ea n in g an d to choose the m ore a p p ropriate re n d e rin g of the inform ation based on the preceding discourse context. This exer cise type focuses students' attention on how fea tures such as p ronouns, partial repetition, and passive voice interact to create inform ation flow. T h e following is an example, m odeled after one by R u therford (1988, p. 240). T he appropriate choices are indicated bv check marks: Climatologists have predicted that the con tinual wanning of the earth's surface. com monly known as “the greenhouse effect. " could have dramatic consequences. 1.
2.
(a) T h e m elting of the polar ice caps could be one result. (b) O n e result could be the m elting of the polar ice caps. (a) This m elting would, in turn, cause a rise o f the sea level. (b) A rise of the sea level would, in turn, be caused bv this melting.
This activity emphasizes the importance of context in m aking grammatical choices and shows how cohesion and coherence result from pre senting information that is familiar to the reader at the beginning of the sentence, followed bv the new information the writer wants to convey.
ERROR D IA G N O S IS A N D C O R R E C T IO N T h e discussion of g ram m ar in writing in this c hapter has em phasized the m ultidim ensional aspects o f g ram m ar a n d the im portance of formfocused instruction that does not c enter solely on errors. G ram m ar issues related to errors will, however, arise in almost every ESL/EFL writing class and for ESL writers in m ainstream classes as well. Truscott (1996) g en erated m uch debate about the wisdom of dealing with errors in com position: in response. Ferris (1999) noted flaws in Truscott's definition of e rro r correction a n d in the research he used to support his argum ent. T eachers' classroom e x p e rie n c e as well as research has indicated that EST writers expect and appreciate assistance in improving their lan guage accuracy (Ferris an d Hedgcock 1998).
Error Detection and Correction Exercises O nce the teacher has assessed students’ lan guage needs, text-based exercises can be assigned to help students identify' and correct errors and develop editing strategies. W henever possible, the students' own writing should be used for exercises: students who do not have a particular problem can contribute via pe e r cor rection. T he teacher will usually n e e d to adapt a student text (e.g.. correcting errors that are not the focus of the practice). T he following are useful e rror detection an d correction techniques: 1. In a text with different tvpes of errors, stu dents are told the total n u m b e r of each kind of e rro r to identify and correct. Example: The text below has the following errors: 1 preposition, 1 verb tense, 1 subjectverb agreem ent. 1 missing article. This paper report on survey about values. Our English class take the survey last week in UCLA. 2.
To focus on just one e rror type, students are given a text with n u m b ere d lines. Thcv are told all of the line num bers that have a cer tain tvpe of error.
Example: Identify an d correct all of the verb form errors in the following text. Use the guide below to find the errors. 1 2 3 4
The Olympics were hold in Sydney, Australia in 2000. Athletes from all over the world participaled. The Olympics have inspire many young people to excel in athletics. Guide: Errors — Lines 1. 3
3.
I se sentences from students' drafts to focus on one error type. Though the exercise will not consist of short texts, sentences from papers concerned with the same topic will preside coherence of them e and. most likely, vocabulary. T he teacher can identify the gram m ar feature for correction focus, such as articles, word forms, prepositions, verb tense, or n o u n number.
Editing Strategies and Techniques The benefits of focused work on diagnosing errors and developing editing strategies will certainlv varv for students, d epending on m am com plex variables involving the learners, the teachers' knowledge and experience in pedagogical gram mar, and the writing context. Shih (1998) identified characteristics of effective editors a m o n g F.SL students. The m ore accurate writers devoted m uch time to revising and editing, continually worked on becom ing aware of their gaps in linguistic com petence and error patterns, an d m ade a habit of reviewing their work constantly an d editing recursively. The less accurate writers often waited until the final draft to give attention to language con cerns, at which point tliev were overwhelm ed bv errors. Thus, the c om m on advice to delay a tten tion to g ram m ar and editing until the final draft did not s e n e these students well. Most ESL writers need to devote consider able time and effort to becoming good editors. Otherwise, m am trill fail to benefit from class room exercises and practice or even from indi vidual conferencing. Students should be encouraged to explore different strategies to find ones that serve them effectively
T he following are editing techniques some students find work well for them: 1. Read-Aloud Technique .Many students find that slowly reading their drafts aloud to lis ten for errors can help them in m aking cor rections. For shorter papers, some students who are aware of their e rro r patterns read through the p a per several times, listening for different kinds of errors each time. Shih (1998) notes that multiple readings are not realistic for long papers. 2. Pointing to Words Some writers use a pencil, pen. or linger to point to words one bv one. 3. “Slow-Down” Techniques This involves reading a draft in some wav that is in contrast to the normal linear process, such as starting with the hist sentence in each paragraph and leading in reverse. Such a technique may help writers detect certain kinds of m o rp h o logical errors such as missing plural endings, but would not work well for others, such as reference words or subject-verb agreement. 4. Word Processing Grammar Checkers G ram m ar checkers in word processors can flag certain kinds of errors. As long as writers do not blindly follow the suggestions (since gram m ar checkers can often create errors rather than correct them if suggestions are taken indiscriminately), checkers can be helpful in getting writers to pav attention to potential errors. If students do not u n d e r stand the suggested correction, tliev should not make the change.
Teacher Feedback on Errors The preceding discussion has focused on class room exercises for identifying and collecting errors and on strategies for student editing. A nother significant issue related to language errors in writing is. of course, teacher feedback on student writing. Kroll's chapter in this volume discusses this topic, which includes m am kinds of response o ther than error feedback. T he following are some general guidelines a n d suggestions for providing fee dback on grammar.
1.
Indirect feedback is generally m ore useful (and often m ore desired bv students) than direct correction of errors. Indirect feed back could involve one or m ore of the fol lowing: putting a check in the m argin of the lines where errors occur, u n d e rlin in g or highlighting selected errors: coding errors either in the margins or above selected errors with symbols such as W for verb tense. ?r/Tor word form, art for article, etc. (see. for example. Lane and Lange 1999): attaching a sheet to the w riter’s draft with a list of sev eral structural errors along with exercise's or handouts to help the writer better u n d e r stand the grammatical system or feature involved (Celce-Mttrcia and Hilles 1988). 2. Teachers should not provide feedback on till errors in am one piece of writing— this cam be overwhelming to students — but should focus on several errors the teacher considers as most n eeding attention. 3. Deciding which errors most deserve inten tion requires consideration of m am student variables (e.g.. m etalinguistic knowledge, proficiency level) and the instructional situa tion. Errors to be po in ted out ma\ be those representing an individual's frequent e rror patterns, errors that most seriously affect com m unication, or stigmatizing errors. 4. While the bulk of teacher feedback on errors should occur in later stages of the writing process, teachers can alert students to areas of concern in earlv drafts also, so that all the attention to language errors does not need to be given with the last draff, when many students find thev do not have sufficient time to address them effectively. If the teaching environm ent permits con ferencing with students outside of class, confer ences are excellent opportunities to provide individual help. Alternatively, the teacher can h o ld '‘m in ico n fe re n c e s" with individuals or small groups in the classroom. In conferences, teachers can dem onstrate directly the difficulties a rea d e r m ight have as a result of the gram m ati cal errors in the students' waiting. This setting allows the teacher to act as a collaborator rather than as an e rro r dete c to r/co rrec to r. He or she
can help students identify errors that create re a d e r confusion or m isinterpretation, explore the strategies for editing that best fit the waiters’ learning stvles. set goals for im provem ent, and assess progress in these goals. Students can also provide insight into the sources of error, ones that a teacher might not even have considered, such as interference from a third language or an inaccurately form ulated "rule." W hen students are able to analyze their e rro r sources, the teacher can m ore effectively suggest editing strategies.
C O N C L U S IO N Second language writing pedagogy has been greath influenced bv developm ents in LI com position teaching which have p ro m o te d the teaching of writing as a process an d as a social activity. This process and social activity is also about language, however. This chapter's discus sion of gram m ar in writing has supported the view that second language writers need attention to form in developing writing proficiency and than attention to form is not just about error but about resources for communicative goals. As Ponsot and Been (1982. p. 133) put it. "Grammar is clearlv not remedial. Like baking powder, it can't be stirred into the cake after the batter has been [toured into pans." ESI. EFL writing classroom pedagogy will certainh continue to change as the result of new research in related areas such as second lan guage acquisition, rhetoric and composition, linguistics, e d u c a tio n , an d psychology. A nd future sociopolitical and sociolinguistic develop m ents will no doubt cause us to reconsider longh e ld views ab o u t lan guage a n d language teaching. Increased globalization and the devel o p m e n t of world Englishes are even now chal lenging notions of "Standard E nglish(es).” The increasing non-native English-speaking imm i grant populations in English-speaking countries, especially in institutions of higher education, raise questions a b out what the expectations should be of "linguistic correctness,” even in for mal written English. And, of course, rapidiv devel oping com puter technology offers resources for
individual tutorials in form-focused language instruction that were u n d re a m e d of in decades past. All these raise issues that writing teachers will need to be aware of an d reflect on in m aking decisions about g ram m ar in the writing class room. Nevertheless, it seems that, in some form, the role of g ram m ar will rem ain as an essential c o m p o n e n t o f effective written com m unication.
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
In what wavs has the role of g ram m ar in writ ing instruction been characterized? How do the different attitudes about grammatical instruction in composition rellect different ways of defining what gram m ar means? How can g ram m ar instruction be considered compatible with approaches that locus on writing as a process or with writing as a social activitv? Whv is it important for gram m ar exercises to be (a) text based rather than a series of unrelated sentences, (b) developed from authentic discourse, and tc> presented in a communicative context rather than onh as practice in grammatical structures? If one of vottr students expressed disap p o in tm en t that vou did not correct all of the errors in his or h e r final drafts, how would vou respond? What are some advantages of teacher-student conferences in helping students with gram matical problem s in writing?
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1.
Evaluate one or m ore gram m ar-oriented exercises in an ESL composition textbook or workbook. Use the following criteria: (a) W hat appears to be the purpose of the exer cises? Do vou think it is pedagogicallv sound? (b) Is the exercise text based? If not. do con think it is still appropriate for its purpose? (c) Does the language seem authentic? (cl) If the exercise is included in a content-based or rhetorical framework (e.g.. as p a n of a unit on persuasive writing), is it clearlv and
a p p ro p r ia te d related to the discourse o f that context? (e) If the exercise is not part of a larger writing context, for what aspect of writing instruction do vou think it would be appropriate? (f) Does the lev el o f difficultv seem appropriate for the in te n d e d learners? (g) Based on the previous criteria a n d anv others vou think relevant, summarize the strengths a n d weaknesses of the exercise or exercises. 2. Select a text that vou think illustrates well the use of a particular grammatical structure (e.g.. n o n c o u n t nouns, frequence acherbs, agentless passives, presentative "there" to introduce inform ation). Develop an exercise to accom panv the text that students could com plete in small groups as a classroom task or individuallv as a hom ew ork assignment. Explain the objective of the exercise and the writing context in which it might be used. 3. Write a reflective essav or journal entrv on vottr own experiences with gram m ar in writ ing as a second language learner. To what extent was gram m ar associated primarilv with diagnosing and correcting errors in vottr own second language writing? To what extent were vou aware of the wavs in which expanding vottr grammatical knowledge h e lp e d vou improve vottr linguistic resources to express vottr ideas? 4. Examine several ESI. EFE compositions that have f re q u e n t a n d varied gram m atical errors. For each composition, identifv two of the most frequent or serious errors. Describe sets of exercises or activities that would help the writer to address these gram m atical problems. 5. Intel view ESI. writing teachers about the techniques, both oral a n d written, that thev have used to provide feedback on gram m ati cal errors in their students' writing. D ining what stages of com posing processes do thev address ervorsr W hich e rr o r fee dback a n d or correction tec h n iq u es have thev found to be most effective? What student variables have affected the success of tech niques used?
FU R T H ER R EA D IN G Bvrd, P., and j. Reid. 1998. Grammar in the Composition Classroom: Essays on Teaching ESI. for Collegebound Students. Boston. MA: Heinle & Heinle. A collection of essays offering theoretical dis cussion and practical information for incorpo rating grammar in writing classes. Emphasizes learner-based approaches and selection of grammatical features based on corpus text analysis for teaching academic writing. Ferris, D. Forthcoming. 'Treatment of Error in 1.2 Student Writing. Ann Arbor. MI: University of Michigan Press.
Provides a comprehensive overview of research on error feedback and other forms of grammar instruction. Discusses how teachers can prepare themselves to treat student error, describes error correction options, and other error treatment options such as revision and peer editing. Includes numerous suggestions and ideas for activities and lessons. Shill. M. 1998. ESI. Writers' Grammar Editing Strategies. College EST. 8(L):64-86. Describes characteristics of university ESL writers who developed successful editing strategies and those who were less successful. Offers suggestions for helping writers develop effective strategies and practice in all stages of composing.
G ram m ar a n d V ocabulary
UNIT
II E
Language Skills Grammar and Vocabulary
h—I
H £
G ram m ar and
vocabulary
ra re
often
been
viewed
as competing
elements in language teaching.The Reading Approach, for example, gave great emphasis to recept.ve vocaoulam learning but treated grammar only sporadically, with the
resuit that language
learners
using this
approach could read literature but could not produce coherent and accurate sentences (hn speech o r 'writing) even after several years of anguage study.The Audio ingua; Approach did the reverse: It emphasized grammar but suppressed vocabulary. The result was learners w ho had generally poor comprehens on or natural, unedited spoken o r written material, even after a vear o-~ more of intensive language instruction. W e now
know that bosh grammar and 'vocabulary are
im portant for
communication and that botn can be taught without sacrificing one for the other In this section, Larsen-Aeeman's chapter p.-esents effective grammar
instruction
as
a
multidimensional
process
that
requires
selective focus on form, meaning, and use within a communicative approach. Fotos's chapter aqgues for a cognitive approach to second or foreign language grammar instruction, using an information processing model to design grammar lessons fo r use in both traditional and communicative classrooms,The chapter by D e C a rn c o deals with issues in vocabulary pedagogy vocabulary learning strategies, and the role of collocations; she then turns to new directions in vocabulary instruction (e.g., corpus-based research, multiword phrasal units). Taken together these three chapters give us good coverage of w hat the linguist Michael Halfday refers to as lexicogram m cr. a terns that represents vocabulary and grammar as com plem entary and overlapping language resources.
Teaching Grammar DIANE
LARSEN-FREEMAN
In 'Teaching G ram m ar" Larsen-Freeman challenges conventional views of grammar Instead of simply analyzing grammatical form, she includes grammatical meaning and use as well. Then, building on w hat is known about the way grammar is learned, she offers ways to teach grammar consistent with contem porary th eo ry and the need to "focus on form " within a meaning-based or communicative approach.
IN T R O D U C T IO N Over the centuries, second language educators have alternated between two tvpes of approaches to language teaching: those that locus on analvzing the language and those that locus on using the language. T he form er have students learn the elem ents of language (e.g.. sounds, struc tures, vocabularv), building toward students' being able to use the elem ents to com m unicate. The latter encourage students to use the language from the start, however falteringlv. in ord er to acquire it. Earlv in the previous c e n tu ry, this distinctive pattern was observable in the shift from the m ore form -oriented grammartranslation approach to the use-oriented direct m eth o d (Celce-Murcia 1980). A m ore recent example of the shift is the loss of popularity of the cognitive-code approach, in which analyzing structures an d applying rules are c o m m o n prac tices, a n d the rise o f m ore com m unicative approaches, which emphasize language use over rules of language usage (Wicldowson 1978). Even though such language use approaches as task-based a nd content-based are in favor these days, educators agree that speaking an d writing accurately is part of communicative competence, just as is being able to get o n e ’s m eaning across in an appropriate manner. Further, it has been observed that although some learners can “pick u p ” accurate linguistic form from exposure to the target language, few learners are capable of doing so efficiently, especially if they are postpubescent or if their exposure is limited to the class
room. as is the case when English is taught as a foreign language. In contrast, research has shown that teachers who focus students’ attention on lin guistic form during communicative interactions are m ore effective than those who never focus on form or who onlv do so in decontextualized gram m ar lessons (Spada an d Lightbown 1993; Lightbown 1998). It follows, then, that most edu cators concur with the need to teach grammatical form. However, thev advise doing so bv “focusing on form ” within a meaning-based or com m unica tive approach in o rd e r to avoid a retu rn to ana lytic a p p ro a c h e s in which d e c o n te x tu a liz e d language forms were the object of study. Focusing on grammatical form du rin g com municative interactions rather than forms in iso lation (Long 1991) is one wav to prevent the pendulum from swinging bevond its point of equilibrium. In this chapter, we will encourage a balance between gram m ar a n d com m unication. The first step is to come to a b roader u n d e r standing of gram m ar than has usually been the case. Equating gram m ar with form and the teach ing of gram m ar with the teaching of explicit lin guistic rules concerning form are unduly limiting, representing what we have called myths (LarsenFreem an 1995). which onlv serve to perpetuate the pendulum swing between language form and language use. Gram m ar is about form and one way to teach form is to give students rules; how ever, gram m ar is about much m ore than form, and its teaching is ill served if students are simply given rules.
Thus, in this chapter, we will entertain a m ore robust view of grammar. Then, we will briefly touch upon issues concerning its learning. Finally, we will discuss its teaching.
A Three-Dimensional Grammar Framework Since our goal is to achieve a better fit between gram m ar and com m unication, it is not helpful to think of gram m ar as a discrete set of m eaning less, dccontextualized, static structures. X or is it helpful to think o f gram m ar solelv as prescriptive rules about linguistic form, such as injunctions against splitting infinitives or ending sentences with prepositions. Grammatical structures not only have (morphosvntactic) form, thev are also used to express m eaning (semantics) in contextappropriate use (pragmatics). In order to guide us in constructing an approach to teaching gram m ar that strives to m eet this definition, it would be helpful to have a frame of reference. O u r framework takes the form of a pitchart. Its shape helps us to make salient that in dealing with the complexity of grammar, three dimensions must concern us: structure or form, semantics or m eaning, a n d the pragmatic condi tions governing u se .1 Moreover, as thev artwedges o f a single pie, we note further that the dimensions are not hierarchically arranged as manv traditional characterizations of linguistic strata depict.2 Finally, the arrows connecting one wedge of the pie with a n o th e r illustrate the inter connectedness of the three dimensions: thus a change in anv one wedge will hat e repercussions for the o th er two.
In the wedge of our pie having to do with structure, we have those overt lexical2, an d m or phological forms that tell us how a particular gram m ar structure is constructed and how it is sequenced with o th er structures in a sentence or text. With certain structures, it is also im portant to note the phonem ic graphem ic patterns (see the discussion of possessives and phrasal verbs below for examples). In the semantic wedge, we deal with what a gram m ar structure means. Note that the m eaning can be lexical (a dictionary def inition for a preposition like down, for instance) or it can be grammatical (e.g.. the conditional states both a condition and outcom e or result). It is very difficult to arrive at a definition of prag matics distinct from semantics, and thus we tire sympathetic to Levinson's (1983) suggestion that pragmatics deals with all aspects of m eaning not dealt with bv semantic theorv! Since this definition is too broad for our purposes here, however, we will limit pragmatics to m ean "the study of those relations between language aircl context that are grammaticalized, or encoded in the structure of a language” (Levinson 1983. p. 9). We will leave the term con text broad eno u g h though, so that context can be social (i.e.. a context created bv interlocutors, their relationship to one another, the setting), or it can be a linguistic discourse context (i.e., the language that precedes or follows a particular structure in the discourse or how a particular genre or register of discourse affects the use of a structure), or context can even m ean the pre suppositions one has about the context. T he influence of pragmatics mav be ascer tained bv asking two questions: 1.
2.
W hen or whv does a speaker/w riter choose a particular gram m ar structure over an o th e r that could express the same m eaning or accomplish the same purpose? For example, what factors in the social context might explain a paradigmatic choice such as why a speaker chooses a yes-no question rather than an imperative to serve as a request for information (e.g., l)o you have the tiwe? versus Please tell me the time)} W hen or why does a sp e ak er/w riter vary the form of a particular linguistic structure?
For instance, what linguistic discourse factors would result in a syntagmatic choice such as the indirect object being placed before the direct object to create Jenny gave Hank a brand-new comb versus Jenny gave a brand-nrw comb to Hank ?
P O S S E S S IV E S
Despite the p erm eable boundaries between the dimensions, we have fo u n d it useful to view gram m ar from these three perspectives. We trust that the utility of this a pproach will becom e clearer as we proceed. A teacher of gram m ar m ight begin by asking the questions posed in the three wedges of o u r pie (for the sake of simplic ity, labeled form, meaning, and use) for anv given gram m ar point. Besides possession, the possessive or genitive form can indicate descrip tion (a debtor's prison). am ount (a month's holiday), relationship (Jack's wife), part-whole (my brother’s hand), and origin/agent (Shakespeare's tragedies). .Also, although all languages have a wav of signaling possession, thev do not all regard the same items as possessable. For example, Spanish speakers refer to a bodv part using the definite article instead of a possessive form. ESL/EFL students will have to learn the semantic scope of the possessive form in English. M eaning o f Possessive
Filling in this wedge requires that we ask when the 's is used to express posses sion as opposed to o ther structures that can be used to convev this same meaning. For example, possession in English can be expressed in other wavs— with a possessive d eterm iner (e.g., his, her, and their) or with the periphrastic of the form (e.g., the legs of the table). Possessive determ iners are pre sumably used when the referent of the possessor is clear from the context. While ESL/EFL books will often sav that the of the possessive is used with n o n h u m a n head nouns and ’s with h u m an head nouns, we are aware of certain conditions where this rule does not apply. For example, native speakers often prefer to use the 's even with inan imate head nouns if the head nouns are per form ing some action (e.g., the train’s arrival was delayed) / Finally, students will have to learn to dis tinguish contexts in which a n o u n com p o u n d (table leg) is m ore appropriate than either the ’s form or the of the form. U se o f Possessive
Let us consider an example. A com m on structure to be taught at a high-beginning level of English proficiencv is the 4 possessive form. If we analyze this possessive form as answers to our ques tions, we would fill in the wedges as below (analysis based on Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman 1999). This way of form ing possessives in English requires inflecting regular singular nouns an d irregular plural nouns not ending in s with ’.v or bv adding an apostrophe after the s ’en d in g of regular plural nouns and singular nouns end in g in the sound /s/. This form o f the possessive has three allomorphs: /z/, $/, a n d /az/. which are phonetically conditioned: z/ is u sed w hen it occurs after voiced consonants and vowels, s/ following voiceless consonants, and b z ! occurs after sibilants. F orm o f Possessive
Thus, by using ou r ternary scheme, we can classify the facts that affect the form, m eaning, an d use of the possessiye structure. This is only a first step. Teachers would not necessarily present all these facts to students, recognizing that stu dents can a n d do learn some of them on their own. A nd certainly no teacher would choose to present all these facts in a single lesson or on on e occasion. Nevertheless, distributing the fea tures of the target grammatical structure am ong the three wedges of the pie can give teachers an u n d e rs ta n d in g of the scope a n d m ultidimensionalitv of the structure. In turn, this u n d e r standing will guide teachers in deciding which facts c o ncerning the possessive will be taught a n d when an d how to do so. Before continuing to explore these deci sions, however, it might be worthwhile to applv ou r approach to an o th er gram m ar structure. Let us analyze phrasal verbs this time. Bv considering the three questions posed earlier, we can state the following about phrasal verbs (analysis based upon Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman 1999): PH RA SA L VERBS
F o rm o f Phrasal Verbs Phrasal verbs are two-part verbs comprising a verb and a particle (e.g.. to look up). Sometimes, they can be constructed with three parts in that a preposition can follow the particle (e.g., to keep up with). As with all other verbs, phrasal verbs are either transitive or intran sitive. A distinctive feature of phrasal verbs is that for manv of them the particle can be separated from its verb bv an intervening object 1 e.g.. Alicia
looked the word up in the dictionary). Phrasal verbs also have distinctive stress a n d juncture patterns, which distinguish them from verb phis preposi tion combinations: Alicia looked iip#the word. .Alicia w alked#up the street. T here are literal phrasal verbs, such as to hang up, where if one knows the m eaning of the verb or the particle or both, it is not difficult to figure out the m eaning of the verb-particle combination. Unfortunately, for the ESL./EFL student there are far m ore instances of figurative phrasal verbs (e.g., to run into, m ean ing "meet bv chance") where a knowledge of the m eaning of the verb and of the particle is of little help in discerning the m eaning of the phrasal verb. Moreover, as with single-word verbs, phrasal verbs can have m ore than one m eaning (e.g., to come across, m eaning "to discover by chance” as in 1 came across this old book in the library, or when used intransitively, "to make an im pression” as in Richard came across well at the convention. M ean ing o f Phrasal Verbs
W hen is a phrasal verb p refe rre d to a single-word verb that conveys the same m eaning (e.g., put out a fire versus extin guish a firef: For the most part, phrasal verbs seem to be m ore c om m on in informal spoken discourse as opposed to m ore formal written dis course. W hen is one form of a phrasal verb pre ferred to another: i.e.. when should the particle be separated from its verb (e.g., put out a fire versus put a fire out)} Erteschik-Shir’s (1979) principle of dom inance seems to work well to define the cir cumstances favoring particle movement: If a noun phrase (XP) object is dom inant (i.e., a long, elab orate XP representing new inform ation), it is likelx to occur after the particle; if the direct object is short, old information (e.g., a pro n o u n ), it would naturally occur before the particle. U se o f Phrasal V erbs
Again, we would like to underscore the fact that it would not be rea sonable for the ESL/EFL teacher to present all of this information to students at once. T he frame work does, however, help to organize the facts. Furtherm ore, by doing this, teachers can more easily identify’ where the learning challenge (s) Identifying the Challenge
will lie for their students. Identifying the chal lenging dim ension(s) is a kev step which should be taken p rior to any pedagogical treatm ent. All three dimensions will have to be mas tered bv the learner (although not necessarily consciously). For phrasal verbs, it is the m eaning dim ension which ESL/EFL students struggle with most. It is often the fact that there is no sys tematic wav of learning to associate the verb and the particle. A dding to the stu dents’ woes, newphrasal verbs are constantly being coined. Bv recognizing where students will likely struggle, an im p o rtan t clue is given the teacher as to where to focus work on phrasal verbs. We will amplify this point later. For now, however, it is worth noting that although it is gram m ar struc tures which we are dealing with, it is not alwavs the form of the structures which creates the most significant learning challenge. We should pause h e re to acknowledge that as im portant as it is to develop our understanding of the grammatical facts of the language we are teaching, it is not these facts that we wish o u r students to learn. We are not inter ested in filling o ur students' heads with gram m at ical paradigms and syntactic rules. If thev knew all the rules that had ever been written about English but were not able to applv them, we would not be doing our jobs as teachers. Instead, what we do hope to do is to have students be able to use grammatical structures accurately, m ea n ingfully, and appropriately In o ther words, gram m ar tea c h in g is not so m u ch knowledge transmission as it is skill development. In fact, it is better to think of teaching “gram m aring" (L arsen-F reem an 1997; 2001), ra th e r than "grammar." Bv thinking of gram m ar as a skill to be mastered, rather than a set o f rules to be memorized, we will be helping ESL/EFL stu dents go a lon g way toward the goal o f being able to accurately convcv m eaning in the m a n n e r thev deem appropriate. “ G ra m m a rin g ”
The Learning Process However im portant an d necessary it is for teach ers to have a com prehensive knowledge of their subject matter, it is equally im portant for them
to u n d e rsta n d their students’ learning process. This u n d e rsta n d in g can be partly inform ed bv insights from se c o n d lan g u a g e acquisition (SIA) research c o ncerning how students n a tu rally develop their ability to inte rp re t a n d p ro duce grammatical utterances. T h re e insights are g erm ane to o u r topic: 1.
Learners do n o t learn structures one at a time. It is not a m atter of accum ulating struc tural entities (R utherford 1987).’’ For exam ple. it is not the case that learners master the definite article, and when that is mastered, move on to the simple past tense. From their first e n c o u n te r with the definite article, learners m ight master one of its pragmatic functions — e.g., to signal the uniqueness of the following n oun. But even if thev are able to do this appropriately, it is n o t likely that thev will alwavs p ro duce the definite article when n e e d ed because learners ty pically take a long time before thev are able to do this consistently. Thus, lea rn in g is a gradual process involving the m apping of form, m ea n ing. and use; structures do not spring forth in learners' interlanguage fully developed and error-free. 2. Even when learners appear to have mastered a particular structure, it is not unc o m m o n to find backsliding occurring with the introduc tion of new forms to the learners’ interlan guage. For example, the learner who has finally mastered the third person singular m arker on present-tense verbs is likely to over generalize the rule and applv it to newly em erging modal verbs, thus producing errors such as She cans speak Spanish. Teachers should not despair, therefore, at regressive behavior on the part of their students. Well-formedness is usually restored once the new additions have been incorporated and the system selforganizes or restructures. 3. Second language learners relv on the knowledge an d the experience they have. If they are beginners, thev will rely on their LI as a source of hypotheses about how the L2 works; when thev are m ore advanced, they wall relv increasingly on the L2. In un d e rsta n d in g this, the teacher realizes that there is no n e e d to
teach everything about a structure to a group of students: rather, the teacher can build u p o n what the students already know. It also follows that the challenging d im e n sion for a given grammatical structure will shift from class to class d e p e n d in g on the students' LI backgrounds and level of L2 proficiency. Successful tea c h in g involves identifying the relevant challenge for a par ticular g roup of students. To these three observations, we will add a fourth one that is not to our knowledge treated in the SLA research literature, but rather one based upon o u r observations and supported bv learning theorists (e.g., Gagne a n d Medsker 1996). 4.
Different learning processes are responsible for different aspects of language. Indeed, given that language is as complicated as it is, one would not expect the learning process to be any simpler. It is clearlv an oversimplifica tion to treat all gram m ar learning as resulting from habit formation or from rule formation. Being aware that different learning processes contribute to SLA suggests a need for the teaching process to respect the differences. How the nature of the language challenge and the learning process affect teaching deci sions is the issue to which we turn next.
The Teaching Process Consistent with the wav we are conceiting gram m ar in this chapter, teaching gram m ar means enabling language students to tise linguistic forms accurately, meaningfully, and appropriately. In this section we discuss various teaching strategies that can be employed to m eet this goal. In keeping with language form approaches, traditional gram m ar teaching has employed a structural syllabus and lessons composed of three phases: presentation, practice, and production (or com m unication), often referred to as "the PPP” approach. As we saw earlier, underlying this ap p ro a c h is the assum ption that one -vuematically builds towards com m unication. However, as m e n tio n e d in the introduction to :hi> chap ter, these davs, most teachers em bim c a m ore
communicatively o rie n ted approach, starting with a com m unicative activity such as taskor c o n tent-based m aterial (see ch a p te rs bv Savignon an d Snow in this volume). T h e gram m ar that is taught is not scheduled in advance as it is with a structural syllabus/PPP approach, but rather supports students in their com pletion of the comm unicative task or their m aking sense of a particular content area. In addition, or alter nately. teachers respond to gram m ar errors that students commit when engaged in com m unica tion. As such, it reverses the norm al sequence (Skelian 1998b). putting com m unication first, rather than selecting and presenting a gram m ar structure in advance of its use in context. Even if the gram m ar to be worked on is derivative rather than scheduled in advance, a teacher must still decide how to address it. A variety of options have been suggested (see Doughtv a n d Williams 1998: R. Ellis 1998), although the research findings u n d e rp in n in g them are somewhat sparse and sometimes con tradictory (see Mitchell 2000 for a recent review). O ne option is simple' to bring to students' atten tion, or to prom ote their uoticingoi. some feature of a grammatical structure. For example, if a stu dent makes an error and the teacher decides to respond to it. then the teacher might recast or reformulate what the student has said or written incorrectly in a m ore accurate, meaningful, or appropriate manner. For instance, if it is an error of form, the teacher would recast the stu d e n t’s production accurately. Student : This is Juan notebook. T eacher : Oh. T h at is Ju a n 's notebook. (perceiving the e rro r to be the form of the possessive) If m eaning is the problem , the teacher would recast what the student, has said in a m eaningful wav. Student :
I need to look at the word in the dictionary. T eacher: You n e e d to look u p the word in the dictionary. (perceiving the phrasal verb look up to be a better form for what the stu d en t m eans to sav)
A nd if use is the problem , the teacher would recast what the student has said in a m ore a p p г о p ri a t e ill a n n e r : Student : I arise at six in the m orning. T EA( ;her : OK. Yon get up at six in the m orning. (perceiving that a phrasal verb would be m ore appropriate to convev the student's in te n d e d m eaning) A m ore proactive way to p ro m o te students' noticing a particular grammatical structure is to highlight it in a text in some fashion. Enhancing the input (Sharwood Smith 1993) m ight be an especially effective war to focus students' a tten tion on g ram m ar structures that operate at the discourse level of language, such as articles or verb tenses. Bv boldfacing all the normally insalient articles in a given passage, for instance, the students' attention could be drawn to them. Even simple choosing texts in which a particular structure or structural contrast is especially fre q u e n t would e n h a n ce its salience and thus might p rom ote noticing, a practice sometimes called input flooding. Still a n o th e r option is to use a consciousnessraising task, in which it is the students' job to induce a grammatical generalization from the data thev have been given. For example. Fotos and Ellis (1991) ask students to work out the rule for indirect object alternation in English (e.g., The\ g m ]e a gold watch to him./Thes gave him a gold watch.) bv giving the students example sen tences where indirect object alternation can and cannot be successfully applied. Indirect object alternation is difficult in English an d therefore is an ideal candidate for this sort of explicit rule articulation. Indeed. Carroll and Swain (1993) suggest that when the rules are not that clear-cut, detailed instruction with explicit metalinguistic feedback m at be the most helpful response to student errors. A n o th e r option for pro m o tin g stu d e n ts’ awareness is to use the garden path strategy (Tomascllo an d H e rro n 1988; 1989). As applied to g ram m ar teaching, this m eans giving students in fo rm a tio n a b o u t s tru c tu re w ith o u t giving them the full picture, thus m aking it seem easier than it is, or in o th er words, "leading them down
the garden path." If ESL EFL students were told that the English past tense is fo rm e d with -eel, for example, this would be leading students down the garden path as there are manv irregular verbs in English where this rule will not work to p ro duce the past tense. T he reason for giving students onlv a partial explanation is that they are m ore likelv to learn the exceptions to the rule if thev are corrected at the m o m e n t the overgeneralization e rro r is m ade th an if they are given a long list of "exceptions to the rule” to m em orize in advance. A n o th e r technique for directing stu dents’ attention to form is called input processing (Van Patten 1996). R ather than working on rule learning an d rule application, in p u t processing activities push learners to a ttend to properties of language du rin g activities where the structure is being used meaningfully. For instance, if stu dents tire asked to carrv out com m ands that teachers issue, thev are working on m atching the imperative form to its use in a m eaningful wav. O f course, sometimes a comm unicative task itself requires that students a ttend to relevant features of the target language (Loschkv and Blev-Yroman 1993). such as when using a partic ular grammatical structure is essential to com pleting the task. An exam ple of this is w hen students have to use particular prepositions to accurately give each o th er directions using a map. T he a d d e d value of using a comm unicative task to pro m o te noticing is that students are enc o u ra g e d to use the target structures, thereby generating "o u tp u t” that attracts feedback from a teacher or a n o th e r student. Speaking of output, it might be suiprising to experienced teachers to read descriptions of all these teaching options with veiw little mention of student production. But, of course, students’ pro duction plat’s a veiw important role in learning grammar. It is not enough to have awarenesses raised if students can’t produce the language. Output production is, therefore, extremely impor tant. For one thing, it pushes students to move bevoncl semantic processing to syntactic process ing (Swain 1985). Then, too, when students attempt to produce structures, they get to test their hypotheses on how the structure is form ed or what it means or when it is used. Following these
attempts, as we have seen, they can receive feed back on their hvpotheses and modifv them as necessary. Indeed, D onato (1994) has shown how stu d e n t s ’ p a rticip a tio n in collaborative dialogue, th rough which learners can provide support for each other, has spurred developm ent of learners' interlanguage. O th e r research (Swain and Lapkin 1998) corroborates the value of an interactive dia logue as both a cognitive tool and a means of com m unication which can prom ote grammatical development. Beyond these reasons for giving students an opportunity to pro d u ce the target grammatical structures, we have alreadv presented the idea that g ram m ar teaching can better be thought of as developing “gram m aring," i.e., helping stu dents be able to use g ram m ar skillfullv. a goal that requires significant practice. To this point. G a tbonton an d Segalowitz (1988) have argued th at practice of gram m atical patterns can lead to autom atization of certain aspects of p e rfo rm ance, which, in turn, frees up students' attentional resources to be allocated elsewhere. It used to be that the practice phase of a les son was devoted almost exclusivelv to gram m ar drills an d exercises. Ever since the ineffective ness of using drills which do not engage stu dents' attention was acknowledged, there has been little by way of guidance offered on how to give students m eaningful practice. W hat follows, therefore, is an a ttem p t to fill this void. Practice activities will be addressed in terms of which dim ension of language thee relate to.
Form From what we know of skill acquisition theory (e.g., Anderson and Fincham 1994), fluency or proceduralization of declarative knowledge (e.g., knowledge of a gram m ar rule or pattern) requires practice in which students use the target language point meaningfully while keeping the declarative knowledge in working m em ory (DeKevser 1998). It is im portant to emphasize meaningful prac tice of form for several reasons. First of all, m ea n ingless mechanical drills, such as repetition drills, commonlv associated with behaviorist approaches to learning, do not engage the learner in the
target behavior of conveving m eaning through language. Furthermore, because students are not engaged in target behavior, the inert knowledge problem (Whitehead 1999) is likelv to materialize. Inert knowledge is knowledge that can be recalled when students are specificallv asked to do so but is not available lor spontaneous use. in. sav. problem solving, even when the knowledge is relevant to the problem at hand. Knowledge remains inert when it is not available for transfer from the class room context to the outside world. We know that when the psvchological conditions of learning and application are m atched what litis been learned is more likelv to be transferred (e.g.. Blaxton 1989). Thus, rules and forms learned in isolated m ean ingless drills mav be harder to retrieve in the con text of communicative interaction (Segalowitz and G atbonton 1994). Finallv. student motivation is likelv to be enhanced if students are able to interact in a wav that is meaningful to them. Then, too. then are likelv to be more attentive if thev are saving something meaningful. Identifying the tvpe of learning involved helps us to think about the desirable characteris tics of am practice activity. For instance, for declar ative knowledge to be proceduralized a great deal of meaningful practice would be required. Further, students would have to receive feedback on the accuracy with which thev produced the target form. Then would have to be restricted to using just the particular target form: in other words, structural diversitv would not be permitted.'" Finallv. for proceduralization to occur, it would seem important to concentrate on onlv one or two forms at a time, although, of course, the target form could be introduced in contrast to forms that the student alreadv controls. Let us take an example and see how these characteristics are applied. If our students show us that thev are struggling with the inversion of the subject and operator in ves-no questions, it would be clear that their immediate learning chal lenge is linguistic form. We will need to design or select an activity that encourages meaningful prac tice of the pattern, not verbatim repetition. We want the students to concentrate on producing onlv ves-no questions. A gam e like Twenty Questions would appear to meet the criteria. Students get to ask 20 ves-no questions about an
object or person in an attem pt to guess the iden tity; hence, they receive a b u n d a n t practice in form ing the questions, an d the questions thev produce are meaningful. T he teacher would work with each student to enable him or h e r to produce the pattern accurately, perhaps provid ing an explicit rule, perhaps not. An example of a game that would work on the form of the English possessive comes from Kealev and Inness (1997). Students are given a family portrait in which the child’s face is missing. They are also given clues as to what the child looks like, e.g., the child has the m o th e r’s eyebrows or the father’s chin. A person from each small group into which the students are divided comes to the front of the room , takes a clue, memorizes it, a n d brings it back to his or h e r g roup so that the feature in the clue can be drawn. This contin ues until the child, a composite of his m o th er and father, is fullv drawn. In sum, certain games are good devices for practicing gram m ar points where the challenge resides in the formal dimension. While not an activity in an d of itself, a n o th e r useful device for working on the formal dimension is the use of cuisenaire rods. T he rods are ideal for focusing student attention on some syntactic property' u n d e r scrutiny. O n e example that comes to m ind is an adaptation of Stevick's (1980) Islamabad technique. Practicing the form of OS' relative clauses, students m ight be asked to use the rods to construct a view of some spot in their h o m e town. The students would be encouraged to use OS relative clauses where appropriate (e.g., There is a fountain that is located in the center of ins town; Around the fountain there are m am people who sell fruits, vegetables, and flowers, etc.).
O ne final example of a type of useful activity for working on the formal dimension is a problem solving activity. The problem to be solved could be most anything, but if we are dealing with the for mal dimension, then we would want it to conform to the characteristics described above. An example might be an information-gap activity' where the students are given a class information sheet with certain items missing (see bottom of this page). Students could circulate asking one an o th er II7equestions (e.g., What is Beatrix’s major? How old is Werner?) in o rd e r to com plete the chart. A nother example m ight be a sentence-unscram bling task. This is a useful problem-solving activity' when the challenge is getting students to produce correct word order, such as when the objective is to have students use auxiliary verbs in the proper sequence. It is im portant to take note that there is n othing in h e re n t in the three examples we have provided (games, use of rods, problem-solving activities) which make them useful for address ing the formal dimension; i.e., we could easily use rods to work on some aspects of the m eaning or use dimensions. What is significant to rem e m ber is that the activity should be structured in such a wav that it is compatible with the charac teristics presented earlier.
Meaning If the teacher has decided that the challenge of a particular structure lies in the semantic dim en sion. then a different sort of practice activity should be planned. It would seem that meaning would call for some sort of associative learning (X. Ellis 1998), where students have opportunities
N am e
Age
C o u n try
Language
M ajo r
Beatriz
18
Bolivia
Spanish
Dentistry
Mohammed
19
Algeria
jean Claude
France 18
Werner
17
Accounting
Education Swiss German
Going to the movies Painting
French
Brazil
H o bby
Business
Hiking
to associate the form an d the m eaning of the particular target structure. It has been o u r expe rience that repetition is not n e e d e d to tire same extent as it is when teaching some aspect of the formal dimension. Sometimes a single pairing of form and m eaning suffices. Due to m em ory constraints, it seems p ru d en t to restrict the n u m ber of new items being practiced at anv one time to between two and six (Asher 1996). T he stu dents would r e c e d e feedback on their ability to dem onstrate that thev ha d acquired the form m eaning bond. Celce-Murcia a n d Hilles (1988) m ention that w hen dealing with the semantic dim ension, realia a n d pictures are very useful. Thus, for example, if the teacher has decided to work on the semantics of comparative forms in English to su p p o rt some communicative task or content, he or she m ight show students pairs of pictures a n d work with th em to m ake comparisons using the form that reflects the relation depicted (e.g., as _______ as, more________ than, less________ than). Actions, too, can m ake m eaning salient. T h e initial challenge for ESL/EFL students grappling with prepositions is to associate the “c o re ” m ea n in g with each. Thus, prior to having students work on direction-giving tasks using maps ( Walk to the corner. Turn right at the corner. The cinema is near the corner, next to the bank.), a good strategy’ might be to work with students on having them make an association between a preposition an d its m eaning in locating objects in space. O ne way of doing this is to conduct a Total Physical Response sequence where students act out a series of com m ands along with the teacher, involving the placem ent of objects in various parts of the room; e.g., Put the book next to the desk, Put the pen on the book, Walk to the door, Stand near the door, etc. O nce students appear to have m ade the c onnection between form an d m eaning, the teacher can assess their ability to discriminate one form -m eaning b o n d from a n o th e r bv having them carry out com m ands on their own and by issuing novel com m ands— e.g., Put the pen on the desk— and assessing their ability to comply. We said earlier that a persistent challenge for stu dents’ learning phrasal verbs was the fact that the m ea n in g is often n o t detectable from com bining the m ea n in g of the verb with the
m eaning of the particle. Sometimes teachers have ha d their students play Concentration, a version of the game in yvhich the students have to associ ate a phrasal verb written on one card yvith its def: inition written on another card. A nother example of an activity that would address this semantic chal lenge is an operation (Nelson and Winters 1993). In an operation, a series of separate actions are perform ed to accomplish some task. T he teacher m ight issue commands, or mime the actions yvith the students as she or he describes them. I want to call up m\ friend. First, I look up the phone number. Then I write it down. I pick up the receiver and punch in the num ber. The number is busy. I hang up and. decide to call back later. Bv practicing this operation several times, the students can learn to associate the form and m eaning of certain phrasal verbs (call up, look up. pick up, etc.). If students are given an operation yvith yvhich to associate phrasal verbs, recall at a later time will likelv be enhanced. To determ ine if students can distinguish a m o n g the various phrasal verbs, students m ight be given phrasal verbs out of sequence and asked to m im e the appropriate action. Feedback on their ability to m atch form a n d m eaning can be given.
Use W hen use is the challenge, it is because student' have shown that they are having a h a rd time selecting the right structure or form for a partic ular context. Working o n use ys ill involve stu dents learning that there are options to bv exercised a n d that thev must select from am or., them the one yvhich best suits a given context. Thus, relevant practice activities will proviciv students with an opportunity to choose from tw or more forms the one most suitable for the con text and how they wish to position themsefve' (e.g., in a cooperative way, a polite wav, an assertive wav, etc.). Students would receive feedback on the appropriateness of their choice. In some cases their choice might involve selecting between two options (e.g., when to use the passive versus the active voice). O ther times, their choice would be from am ong an array of options (e.g., which
modal verb to use when giving advice to a boss): hence, the n u m b e r of forms being worked on at one time would be at least two, but could involve manv more. Role plat's work well when dealing with ttse becatise the teacher can systematically m anipu late social variables (e.g., increase o r decrease the social distance between interlocutors) to have stu dents practice how changes in the social variables affect the choice of form. For example, if students h a te shown that they do not know how to use modals to give advice, thev might be asked to role-plav having a ■'dilemma.'' In this role plav. one person has a problem: (e.g., the kevs to the car have been lost. T he car is locked and the person wants to get in.) Students are asked to use modal verbs to give advice to the person with the problem: e.g.. You might try breaking the -window. You could try call ing the police. The teacher could next alter a salient feature of the context, thus creating a new social context in which a different modal verb would be m ore appropriate. For example, the teacher might ask. "What if it were a toting child that had this dilemma?" A m ore appropriate form and content for the advice, then, might be You had better wait for your mother to come! On a n o th e r occasion, students might be asked to plat the role of an advice columnist. Thev are to write a colum n and give advice to a classmate who is h a tin g a particular problem. Having students work with the same structure in writing and in speaking activities can highlight differences between written and oral grammars Carter and McCarthv 1993). Role plavs are useful for highlighting o ther structural choices as well. Often we find that it is neither the form no r the m eaning of the English tenses that presents the greatest long-term chal lenge to ESL EFL students: rather it is when win to use one tense and not the other. In o ther words, it is the pragmatic usage of the tenses that is the major obstacle to their mastery. Giving stu dents practice with situations in which a contrast between two tenses is likelv to arise may sensitize students to the usage differences. For instance, a notorious problem for ESL EFL students is to know when to use the present perfect versus when to use the past tense. A situation where a
contrast between them would occur m ight be a jo b interview. In such a context, the perfect of experi ence is likelv to be invoked (e.g., Have you ever done any computer programming?). .An elaboration to an affirmative answer is likelv to contain the past tense (e.g.. Yes, I have. I once worked on . . . or simplv, Yes. 117ten I worked a t .. .). Students can take turns roleplaving the inteniew er and interviewee. As was m entioned earlier, it is not onlv the social context that will be involved in the choice of which forms to use, but also it is often the linguis tic discourse context that will make a difference. Thus, it is verv important to consider teaching dis course gram m ar (Celce-Murcia 1991a: Hughes and McCarthv 1998). Such is the case with the pas sive voice. Its use is not particularlv sensitive to social factors; i.e.. whether one is using the active or passive voice does not necessarily de p e n d upon with whom one is conversing. W hat usuallv does cause students considerable clifficultv with the passite voice, however, is determ ining when to use it. The fact that the agent of an action is defocused motivates the use of the passive. Furthermore, if the agent has alreadv been established in the lin guistic discourse, it would likelv not even be m en tioned in subsequent discourse. Thus, most passive sentences are agentless. Challenges of this na tu re call for textgeneration or text-manipulation-tvpe exercises. As the passive is used m ore often in written than in spoken English, teachers m ight give their stu dents a text-completion exercise in which the first few lines of the text are provided. For exam ple. from the first few lines in the following text, it should be clear to the students that the them e of discourse is on the "issues,” not the agents (i.e., participants), at the town meeting. Town meetings were held th ro u g h o u t New E ngland vesterclav. Many issues were discussed, although the big one for m ost citizens was the issue of growth. Manv changes have been m ade recentlv. For example, . . . Students then are asked to complete the text using the appropriate voice. As not all the sen tences should be in the passive voice, students will be making choices, in keeping with a characteristic of practice actuaries designed to work on the use
d im e n sio n . T h e te a c h e r will give fee dback to the students on the appropriateness of their choices. Before leaving ou r discnssion of the passive voice, it would be useful to illustrate whv we feel that identifying the challenging dim ension is a worthwhile step to take before teaching any g ram m ar structure. W hen we are clear where the challenge lies, the challenge can shape ou r lessons. For instance, as we stated earlier, it has b e e n ou r experience that the greatest long-term challenge for students working on the passive voice is for them to figure out when to use the passive. Keeping this in m in d will help us avoid a c om m on practice of ESL/EFL teachers, which is to introduce the passive as a transform ed version o f the active (e.g., "Switch the subject with the direct object . . ."). Presenting the passive in this way is misleading because it gives the impression that the passive is simply a variant of the active. Moreover, it suggests that most passive sentences contain agents. W hat we know in fact to be the case is that o ne voice is not a variant of the other, b u t ra th e r the two are in com plem entary distri bution, with their foci completelv different. We also know that relativelv few passive sentences contain explicit agents. Thus, from the first, the passive should be taught as a distinct structure which occurs in a different context from the active. (See Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman 1999, for several examples of how to do this.) It should be noted that the pie chart, the observations about learning, and the characteris tics of practice activities enum erated here mav not significantly alter the wav gram m ar is taught today. Indeed, manv of the activities recom m ended here are currently being used. What these tools do offer, how-ever, is a principled means for dealing with grammar. Thev should help teachers to make clear decisions they teach grammar. They should help teachers to design effective activities or to choose from a m ong those in a textbook without assuming that just because a textbook activity deals with the target structure, it necessarily addresses the partic ular learning challenge that their students are experiencing. This brings us to the close o f ou r discussion on how to design practice activities for gram m ar points.
Providing Feedback Providing learners with feedback, negative evi dence which thev can use to correct their misap prehensions about some aspect of the target language, is an essential function of language teaching. Even such indirect feedback as asking a learner for clarification of something he or she has said mav be helpful (Schachter 1986). It has always been a controversial function, however (Larsen-Freeman 1991). T here are, for instance, those who would proscribe it, believing that a teacher's intervention will inhibit students from freely expressing themselves or that there is little evidence dem onstrating that learners make use of the feedback thev have been given — there is little immediate "uptake" of the correct form. While there are clearlv times that such intervention can be intrusive and therefore unwarranted (e.g., in the middle of a small-group communicative activ ity). at o ther times focused feedback is highlv desirable. Further, immediate uptake cannot be the sole criterion of its usefulness. Negative evi dence gives students the feedback thev need to reject or modifv their hvpotheses about how the target language is form ed or functions. Students understand this, which explains whv thev often deliberatclv seek feedback. The same pie chart that we tised when identifving the lea rn in g challenge an d creating practice activities can also be a useful aid in diag nosing errors. W hen an error is com m itted by a student, a teacher can mentallv hold it up to the pie chart to determ ine if it is an error in form, meaning, or use. O f course, sometimes the cause of an error is ambiguous. Still, the pie chart does provide a frame of reference, and if the diagnosis is accurate, the remeclv mav be m ore effective. More than once we hat e observed a teacher give an explanation of linguistic form to a student, w hen consulting the pie chart would have suggested that the student's confusion lav with the area of use instead. As for how the feedback is to be provided, w;e hate alreadv m entioned several useful options— recasting, for instance. Getting students to selfcorrect is an o th er (see Lyster and Ranta 1997). Giving students an explicit rule is a third. Some teachers like to collect their students' errors.
identifV the prototypical ones, and then deal with th em collectively in class in an anonvmous fashion. Which of these options is exercised will de p e n d on the teacher’s style, the proficiency of the students, the nature of the error, and in which part of the lesson the error has been committed. N one o f these have to be used exclusively, of course. For instance, Aljaafreh an d Lantolf (1994) offer a g raduated 12-point scale ranging from implicit to explicit strategies, beginning with student identification of errors in their own writing, moving to where the teacher isolates the e rro r area a n d inquires if there is anything wrong in a particular sentence, to where the teacher provides examples of the correct pattern when o th e r forms of help fail to lead to a self correction on the part o f the student.
RELA TED P E D A G O G IC A L ISSUES Sequencing Earlier we no ted that gram m ar structures are n o t acquired one at a time th ro u g h a process of “agglutination” (R uth erford 1987). Rather, dif ferent aspects of form, m eaning, an d use of a given structure mat be acquired at different stages o f L2 developm ent. This observation con firms the n e e d for recycling— i.e.. working on one dim ension of a form and then re tu rn in g to the form from time to time as the n e e d arises. To some extent this will occur naturally, as the same structures are likelv to be e n c o untered in different communicative tasks and content areas. However, it is also the case that not all linguistic structures that students need to learn will be avail able in the language that occurs in the classroom. T h e refo re, it will be necessary for the teacher to "fill in the gaps,” i.e., to introduce structures that don't naturally arise in classroom discourse (Spada and Lightbown 1993). For this reason, teachers might think in terms of a gram mar checklist, rather than a grammatical sequence. By this, 1 m ean that it would be a teacher’s respon sibility to see that students learn certain gram matical items by the end of a given course or
period of time, but n o t bv following a prescribed sequence. Many structures would arise naturally in the course of working on tasks a n d content and would be dealt with then. O th e r structures m ight be introduced as the teacher determ ined that the students were ready to learn them. R ather than adhering to a linear progression, the choice of sequence would be left up to the teacher and would d e p e n d on the teacher’s assessment of the students' developmental readiness to learn. Manv teachers, of course, have little control over the content or sequence o f what thev work on. Thev must adhere to prescribed svllabi or textbooks, although even in such a situation, it mav be possible for teachers not to follow a sequence rigidly. But for those teachers who have m ore flexibility, research on acquisition orders is germ ane. Some SLA research has shown that learners progress through a series of predictable stages in their acquisition of particular linguistic forms. O n e explanation for the o rd e r rests on the complexity of the speech-processing strate gies required. Thus, all structures processable bv a particular strategy o r cluster of strategies should be acquired at roughly the same develop mental stage. This approach has been shown to account for certain acquisition orders in ESI. (Pienem ann and J o h n s to n 1987). Despite these findings and their potential implications for grammatical structure sequenc ing. there has been no definitive acquisition order established, and thus teachers are still left to their own resources for judgm ents on how to proceed. We should also note that even if an acquisition order were to be fullv specified for English, there might be justification for preem pt ing the acquisition order when students’ c om m u nicative needs were not being m et a n d when, therefore, certain structures would need to be taught, at least formulaicallv. F u rth e rm o re , Lightbown (1998) has suggested that even if stu dents are asked to work on structures before they are readv to acquire them, such effort mav not be in vain because such instruction might prim e sub sequent noticing on the part of the students, thereby accelerating acquisition when they are indeed readv.
Inductive Versus Deductive Presentation An additional choice teachers face is w hether to work inductively or deductively. An inductive activity is one in which students infer the rule or generalization from a set of examples. In a deduc tive activitv, on the o ther hand, the students are given the rule and thev applv it to examples. For instance, when practicing an inductive approach to the m ass/co u n t noun distinction in English, students could be presented with a language sam ple, such as a grocerv advertising circular. Thev then would be encouraged to make their own observations about the form of mass and count nouns. The teacher m ight listen to their observa tions a n d th en m ight summarize bv generalizing about the two categories of nouns. If practicing a deductive approach, the teacher would present the generalization an d then ask students to applv it to the language sample. As we see, if a teacher has chosen an induc tive ap p ro a c h in a given lesson, a fu rth e r option exists— w h ether or not to give or have students articulate an explicit rule. Earlier, we stated that equating the teaching of g ram m ar with the p ro vision of explicit rules was an undulv limited view of what it m eans to teach grammar. We said this because what we are trving to bring about in the lea rn er is linguistic behavior that conforms to the rules, not knowledge of the rules th em selves. Having said this, we see no reason to avoid giving explicit rules as a m eans to this end, except perhaps if one is working with voting chil dren. Usually students request rules a n d re p o rt that they find them helpful. Moreover, stating a rule explicitlv can often bring ab o u t linguistic insights in a m ore efficacious m anner, as long as the rule is not oversimplified or so metalinguistically obtuse that students must struggle h a rd e r to u n d e rsta n d the rule than to apply it implicitly (Robinson 1996). R e tu rn in g now to the inductive versus deductive question, we again find that the choice is not one resolvable with an e ith e r /o r approach. T h e r e are m anv times w hen an inductive approach such as using a consciousness-raising task is desirable because by using such an
approach one is nurturing within the students a way of thinking, through which thev can arrive at their own generalizations. In addition, an induc tive approach allows teachers to assess what the students alreaclv know about a particular struc ture and to make am necessarv adjustments in their lesson plan. Ulearlv. a teacher's anticipation of where the challenge lies is not alwav s borne out when he or she assesses students' actual behavior. O th e r times, when students have a particular cognitive stvle that is not well suited for language analvsis or when a particular linguistic rule is rather convoluted, it mav make more sense to present a gram m ar structure deductivelv. In d e e d . C o rd e r's sensible observations offer comfort: What little we know about . . . second language learning . . . suggests that a com bination of induction and d e d u c tion produces the best result. . . . The old controversv about w hether one should provide the rule first an d then the examples, or vice versa, is now seen to be merelv a m atter of tactics to which no categorical answer can be given (('.order 1973 in R utherford and S h a rv o o d Smith 1988. p. 133).
Patterns and Reasons, Not Rules Before concluding, we should make two final observations about gram m ar teaching. With the increased access to large corpora of language data that com puters afford, it has becom e clear that grammatical structures an d lexical items occur in a large n u m b e r of regularlv occurring patterns (Sinclair and Fox 1990; Biber, Conrad, and R eppen 1998). Not all lexical items can be freelv substituted into a particular pattern. O nce one lexical item is selected, the likelihood of a particular item or phrase following is increased. For example, if the verb insist is chosen, either on or that is verv likelv to follow. An implication of corpus-based research is that teachers of gram m ar should pav m ore attention to conventional ized lexicogrammatical units, and not simply focus on teaching gram m atical rules (Pawley a n d Svder 198.3; N attinger an d DcCarrico 1992;
Lewis 1997). Indeed, connectionist m odeling has d e m o n stra ted that m orphology (Ellis and Schmidt 1997) a n d syntax (MacWhinney 1997) acquisition mav be accounted Гог by simple asso ciative learning principles (X. Ellis 1998), rather than as a pro d u ct of rule application. A nother challenge to equating the teach ing of rules with the teaching of g ram m ar comes from Larsen-Freem an’s (2000a) suggestion that teachers concentrate on teaching “reasons, not rules." Larsen-Freeman points out that although rules d o n 't allow for change, language is chang ing all the time. A consequence is that most rules have "exceptions." F u rth e rm o re , m anv rules a ppear arbitrary because thev are form based, ignoring the m ea n in g and use dimensions. For instance, rather than telling students thev must use an indefinite n o u n phrase after the verb in a sentence beginning with existential there. There is a snowstorm coming. help them und e rsta n d the reason: there intro duces new inform ation in the n o u n following the verb, a n d in English, new inform ation is m arked with indefinite determ iners. This reason is b road based a n d explains a n u m b e r of English word-order p h e n o m e n a . While rules provide some security for learners, reasons give them a d e e p er u n d e rsta n d in g of the logic of English and help them m ake it their own. Besides, rea sons are m ea n in g based and use based and are in keeping with the m ore robust view of gram mar we have been pro m o tin g in this chapter.
P R O FE SSIO N A L D EV E LO P M E N T Finally, the form, m eaning, a n d fram ework can be used bv teachers to assess where there are gaps in their own knowledge o f English gram mar. W hen thev can't fill in all the wedges in the pie chart for a given structure, thev can consult reference gram m ars. O f course, there are manv gaps in what is known about the three dim e n sions. In particular, there is m uch to learn about the pragm atic conditions governing the use of particular structures. For this reason, the pie chart can also be used to generate items for a research agenda. Bv exploring the three dim e n
sions of g ram m ar a n d how to teach ers will continue to develop their knowledge base, which will, in turn, students as thev strive to e n h a n ce matical proficiency.
them , teach professional benefit their their gram
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1. T h in k of all the language tea c h in g a p proaches with which vou are familiar. Can you categorize them according to w hether thev favor language form or language use? 2. In explaining the pragm atics of phrasal verbs, the p rin c ip le o f d o m in a n c e was invoked. Explain whv the principle of d om i nance falls in the pragmatic dimension. 3. T he effect of the native language on second language learning has traditionally b e e n seen to be one of interference. How does observation 3 on the le a r n in g process (pp. 255-256) differ in its perception of LI influence? 4. Whv was it stressed that the repetition in a practice activity for working on form should be meaningful? 5. Whv is it im p o rtan t to identify the challenge in a particular gram m ar structure for a p a r ticular group of students, even if the aspect of structure vou are planning to teach lies in a different wedge of the pie from where the challenge lies?
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1. T hink of a language teaching a p p ro a c h which tends to favor language use over lan guage form. How could the a pproach incor porate m ore language form? Now think of an a p p ro a c h that favors lan guage form over language use. How could a focus on language use be integrated? 2. Analyze restrictive relative clauses in terms of the three dim ensions o f the pie chart. What has been the most challenging d im e n sion for the students with whom vou have worked? 3. Design practice activities for dealing with the pragmatics of the following:
a.
falling versus rising intonation in tag questions b. indirect object alternation c. presence or absence of existential there
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ENDNO TES 1 S o m e t i m e a f t e r 1 h a d b e g u n view g r a m m a r in this way, t h e w o r k o f C h a r l e s M o r r is (1 9 8 9 ) was b r o u g h t to m y a t t e n t i o n . A l t h o u g h h e uses t h e t e r m s in a s o m e w h a t d i f f e r e n t m a n n e r . M o r r is a p p li e s t h e t e r n a r y s c h e m e o f syntactics, s e m a n ti c s , a n d p r a g m a t ics in p o r t r a v i n g t h e field o f s e m io tic s o r t h e s t u d v o f signs. T h e t e r n a r y s c h e m e w e a r e a d o p t i n g h e r e m as also s o u n d r e m i n i s c e n t o f K e n n e t h P i k e ’s "p a r tic le , wave a n d h e l d " (1 9 5 9 ) . A l t h o u g h t h e r e is s o m e o v e rla p , t h e r e is n o i s o m o r p h i s m b e t w e e n t h e m o d e ls .
FU R T H ER R EA D IN G
B y g ate, M., A. T o n k v n . a n d E. W illiam s , eels. 1994. Grammar and the Language Teacher. H c m e l H e m p s t e a d . UK: P r e n t i c e H a ll I n t e r n a t i o n a l . O f f e r s wavs t h a t g r a m m a r in l a n g u a g e t e a c h i n g c a n b e r e a f f i r m e d a n d m a i n t a i n e d in o r d e r to a v o id t h e p e n d u l u m swing. C e lc e - M u r c i a , M.. a n d S. H ille s. 1988. Technique.', and Resources in Teaching Grammar. N e w York: O x f o r d U n iv e r s itv Press. D iscu sses issues g e r m a n e to t e a c h i n g g r a m m a r a n d provides a b u n d a n t e x a m p le s o f te c h n iq u e s a n d m aterials structures.
ap p lied
Celce-Murcia. M.. and
D.
to
te a c h in g
Larsen-Freeman.
E nglish
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a r c h y b e g i n n i n g w i t h t h e s o u n d s o f l a n g u a g e as t h e lo w est level f r o m w h i c h all e ls e is c o m p o s e d a n d f o l lo w in g in t u r n w ith m o r p h e m e s , le x i c o n , s v n ta x . a n d d i s c o u r s e . ■’ We i n c l u d e lexis h e r e , a c k n o w le d g i n g ; t h a t g r a m m a r a n d lexis a r e ju s t tw o p o l e s o n a c o n t i n u u m a n d th a t t h e r e a r e m a n v p a t t e r n e d m u l t i w o r d p h r a s e s t h a t a r e b asic i n t e r m e d i a t e u n i t s b e t w e e n lexis a n d g r a m m a r . F o l l o w i n g H a lli d a v (1 9 9 4 ) , t h e n , it is p r o b a b l e m o r e a c c u r a t e to t h i n k in t e r m s о f " 1e x i с о g r a m m a r."
1999. The
Grammar Book: An ESE/EEF Teacher's C.tnnsc. 2d B o s t o n . MA: Heinle К Ileinle. S e e k s to g u i d e t e a c h e r s to a n u n d e r s t a n d i n g o f t h e g r a m m a r o f t h o s e s t r u c t u r e s then will h a v e to t e a c h ( t h e i r f o r m , m e a n i n g , a n d u se in c o n te x t ) a n d o ff e rs r e l e v a n t t e a c h i n g s u g g e s t i o n s fo r th o s e sa m e stru ctu res. D o u g h t v , C.. a n d J . W illia m s , ed s. 1998. Em us on Form
eel.
in
Classroom
Second
Language
Acquisition.
C a m b r i d g e : C a m b r i d g e U n iv e r s ity Press. P ro v i d e s a n o v e rv ie w o f s e c o n d l a n g u a g e a c q u i s i ti o n r e s e a r c h t h a t h a s in v e s t i g a t e d "f o c u s o n f o r m ."
Teaching Language: From Grammar to Grammaring. B o s t o n . MA: H e i n l e &:
L a r s e n - F r e e m a n , D. 2 0 0 1 .
1 F o r m o r e e x c e p t i o n s to th is r u l e , c o n s u l t C e lc e M u r c i a a n d L .a r s e n - F r e e m a n (1 9 9 9 . p p . 3 1 4 - 3 1 6 ) . ■' F o r this r e a s o n . R u t h e r f o r d h a s s u g g e s t e d t h a t a n o p t i m a l a p p r o a c h to d e a l i n g w ith t h e n o n l i n e a r i t y o f g ra m m a tic a l acq u isitio n m ig h t be o n e w h ere t e a c h e r s h e l p s t u d e n t s a c h ie v e a n u n d e r s t a n d i n g of g e n e r a l p r i n c i p l e s o f g r a m m a r , e.g.. h o w to m o d i f y b asic w o r d o r d e r , r a t h e r t h a n c o n c e n t r a t in g o n t e a c h i n g s t r u c t u r e - s p e c i f i c ru le s. h
H e in le . A rgues for a re c o n c e p tu a liz a tio n o f g ra m m a r a n d t h e wav it is t a u g h t , f e a t u r i n g g r a m m a r as a c o m p l e x , n o n l i n e a r , d y n a m i c system . R u t h e r f o r d . W. 1987. Second Language Grammar: T r e a t s g r a m m a r in a n i n t e r e s t i n g a n d p r o v o c a tive w av t h a t c h a l l e n g e s t h e view t h a t l e a r n i n g g r a m m a r is a n “a c c u m u l a t i o n o f e n ti ti e s ." LTr, P. 1988. Grammar Practice Activities: A Practical Gaide Press. D is c u s s e s p e d a g o g i c a l is su es f o l l o w e d lw a n u m b e r o f g r a m m a r t e a c h i n g activ ities g r o u p e d a c c o r d i n g to t h e g r a m m a r s t r u c t u r e for w h ic h t h e v w o r k b est.
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Learning and Teaching. L o n d o n : L o n g m a n .
for Teachers. C a m b r i d g e : C a m b r i d g e University'
F o r e x a m p le , th e m o d e l o f la n g u a g e th a t d e sc rip tive li n g u is ts p r e f e r is o n e in w h i c h v a r i o u s a r e a s o f l a n g u a g e a r e d e p i c t e d as s t r a t a in a li n g u is ti c h i e r
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in g t h e s t r u c t u r e a n d , h e n c e , n e v e r h a v e a n o p p o r t u n i t y to tr u ly l e a r n it. A n O S re la tiv e c la u s e is o n e in w h ic h t h e s u b j e c t of t h e e m b e d d e d s e n t e n c e is r e p l a c e d bv a relative p r o n o u n b e c a u s e t h e s u b je c t is id e n t ic a l to a n o b ject o r o b je c tlik e n o u n in t h e p r e d i c a t e o f t h e p r e c e d i n g m a i n clause. ( F o r e x a m p l e : I like t h e b o o k t h a t h e w ro te .) ° s
Cognitive Approaches to Grammar Instruction S A N D R A
FОТО S
Fotos's chapter presents a cognitive approach to second/foreign language teaching. An information processing model is used to design a grammar lesson that develops formal grammatical knowledge of the target grammar structure and promotes its acquisition through meaning-focused use of the form in communicative activities,This approach can be used in both traditional and communicative classrooms.
IN T R O D U C T IO N This chapter presents a cognitive approach to teaching English gram m ar in the ESL or EFL con text. We will consider different perspectives on the relationship o f language to thought to see where a cognitive approach fits in. examine the com po nents of a cognitive m odel from the perspective of language teaching, and then develop a cognitive approach to gram m ar instruction for both com municative an d traditional classrooms. This approach is designed to help learners develop both fluencv and accuracv.
What Is a Cognitive Approach? Cognitive science is a relativelv new field em erg ing in the mid-1950s with the work of cognitive psychologists, linguists such as Chomskv (1957). and the establishment of artificial intelligence as a research area. It is cross-disciplinarv, with contri butions from psvchologv. philosophv, psvcholinguistics, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and cognitive anthropology but the shared focus of research is the working of the mind. Within psvcholinguistics and applied linguistics are a n um ber of cognitive approaches which, unfortunately cannot all be addressed in this short chapter. We will therefore treat language learning and gram m ar instruction from the information-processing perspective, the dom inant cognitive paradigm, and the reader is referred to cognitive scientists such as Eysenck and Keane (1995) or Elarlev (1995) for a discussion of o th er approaches.
In a review article on cognitive approaches to second language acquisition (SLA), on e m ajor researcher (N. Ellis 1999) notes th at the stuclv of cognition in language learning deals with "mental representations an d inform ation processing" (p. 2 2 ) and seeks to develop “func tional an d neurobiological descriptions o f the learning processes which, th ro u g h exposure to representative experience, result in change, developm ent and the em ergence of knowledge” (p. 23). In this definition, both first a n d second language learning are seen to use the same gen eral information-processing mechanism s that are responsible for all forms of knowledge and skills developm ent. Language learning is thus placed within the context of cognitive developm ent in general. This approach differs from views which hold that language developm ent takes place within a special m odule in the brain, a point which will be discussed in m ore detail later.
The Need for a Cognitive Approach T he usefulness of a cognitive ap p ro a c h to gram m ar instruction in E SL /EF L becom es clear when we consider the problem s with purely communicative approaches. These ten d to be based on theories which distinguish between language acquisition— an unconscious process similar to the wav children learn their first lan g u a g e — a n d lan g u a g e learning, o r form al instruction on rules, forms, a n d vocabulary. These theories claim that the best way to learn a language, either inside or outside a classroom, is
n o t bv treating it as an object for stud\ but bv experiencing it meaningfully, as a tool for com m unication— perhaps with target gram m ar struc tures phvsicallv highlighted or em be d d e d within communicatiye ac ti\ ities as recom m ended by cur rent “focus-on-form" approaches to gram m ar instruction (see Doughty and Williams 1998). This yiew may be acceptable for many ESL. classrooms, although considerable research shows that when students receive only communicatiye lessons, with no instruction on gram m ar points, their leyel of accuracy suffers (see R. Ellis 1997 and Mitchell 2000 for reviews). However. such an approach is not useful bv itself in EFL contexts because adequate access to communicatiye use of English is usually not available. and students need to deyelop accurate English grammar, vocabulary, and translation skills to pass high school and uniyersitc entrance examinations. Thus, in the EEI. setting, formal gram m ar instruction is usually the norm, even though main teachers would like stu dents to develop communicative skills as well. It is therefore not surprising that m am E S E /E F T teachers look for a co m p ro m ise between the two extremes of a structure-based curriculum, with its teacher-led classrooms and formal instruction on a series of isolated lan guage forms, versus a purely communicative classroom, with its emphasis on group work and no focus on linguistic forms whatsoever. Many teachers now prefer an eclectic approach, adm in istering some type of gram m ar instruction within a communicative framework, and this is reflected in the mixture of activities in the newer multi dimensional textbooks for ESL EEL students. T h e re is considerable research su p p o rt for this position, an d it is c o m m o n to distinguish between two ty pes of classroom activities: mean ing-focused, referring to purely communicative practices where the goal is to process meaning, a n d form-focused, referring to practices that draw attention to the wav language forms are used in discourse. This distinction is y e n ’ im p o rtan t in c u rre n t pedagogy, a n d both meaning-focused a n d form-focused activities are th o u g h t to be necessary for successful developm ent of both flu ency and accuracy in se co n d /fo re ig n language learning (DeKeyser 1998; R. Ellis 1997: also see R u therford and Sharwood Smith 198m.
T h e value of meaning-f ocused co m m u n ic a tive activities that provide learners with c o m p re hensible input (also called "positive evidence”) an d opportunities to improve an d correct their own o u tp u t through interaction with others has been d e m o nstrated repeatedly. However, formfocused activities emphasizing the features of particular gram m ar points are also necessary in ord er for learners to develop accuracy. Such activ ities range from indirect approaches to gram m ar instruction, such as the focus-on-form activities m entioned above, to traditional formal instruc tion where students are presented with gram m ar rules, examples, and practice exercises. Such form-focused approaches have been found to be effective in developing the learner's ability to use gram m ar forms communicatively if instruction is then followed bv opportunities to e ncounter the instructed gram m ar point frequently in c om m u nicative usage, a consideration which will be dis cussed in detail later. Below we will consider different views of the relationship of language to thought as a wav of understanding whv a cognitive approach to com municative gram m ar instruction is recommended.
T H E R ELA TIO N S H IP B E T W E E N LAN GU AGE AND T H O U G H T Fossil evidence indicates that Broca's area, the part of the h u m a n brain associated with lan guage. existed in hom inids m ore than two mil lion years ago. a n d m ain scientists believe that the capacitv for symbol construction and lan guage use dev eloped from this time as the brain increased in size an d complexity. T h e origin ot language has been linked to the developm ent o: consciousness, and it is suggested that the ability to use language has been d e te rm in e d by the process of Darwinian natural selection1 (Pinker 1994). It is no w onder that the nature of the rela tionship between language and th o u g h t ha' been debated for the past two th o usand wears Theories of g ram m ar instruction must therefore be inform ed bv this debate. A major controversy has been the initial state of the mind. Is it blank at birth, a tabula rasa wait ing for experience to determ ine the structure o:
thought and language, as empiricists such as the philosophers Locke a n d H u m e have argued, or are there preexisting mental modules, inborn templates which organize language and thought in the developing child, as suggested by rational ists (including Chomsky) ever since Plato? The empiricist-rationalist debate continues to the present, and in our field of second language tea c h in g /lea rn in g these two general positions continue to influence gram m ar instruction. Currently there are four main views of the relationship between language an d th o u g h t (for a fuller discussion, see the overviews in Bialvstok an d H akuta 1994 a n d in Harlev 1995). O n e view derives from the attempts of structural linguists in the early p art of the twentieth centurv to char acterize cultures bv the features a n d complexitv of their languages. This is repre sen te d bv the Sapir-W horf hvpothesis (see Carroll 1956). which suggests that both th o u g h t and language are d e te rm in e d bv culture. For example, cultur ally d e te rm in e d p h e n o m e n a such as the time of events or the color or shape of objects m ight becom e especially im portant for g ram m ar learn ing in a given language, and, bv extension, in thinking as well. Known as linguistic d e te rm in ism, this position refers to the idea that people's thought processes are culturallv d e te rm in e d bv the features of the language thev speak. However, research indicates that the strong version of the Sapir-Whorf hvpothesis. that lan guage dete rm in e s th o u g h t, is u n s u p p o rte d whereas the weak version has significant implica tions for intercultural communication. If a con cept exists in on e language but ca n n o t be expressed easilv in another, this difference may have an impact on cognitive style and the ease of cross-cultural com m unication involving the con cept. For example, it has been suggested that Chinese or Japanese ESL/EFL learners might avoid using articles since their languages lack this gram m ar form. Likewise, teachers must be aware of learners' culturally determ ined rhetorical pat tern preferences when teaching academic writing ii ESL/EFL classes. The second view of the relationship between language an d thought is held by researchers such as the child psychologist Piaget (1967). and sug gests that cognitive d evelopm ent in the infant
occurs in clearly defined stages a n d precedes language. Thus, before infants can learn lan guage forms such as nouns, they m ust possess certain cognitive prerequisites such as an u n d e r standing that objects have a p e rm a n en t existence. However, research does not support a strong version of this view either and it is not currently a central focus of investigation. A third theory derives from the rationalist concept of innate m ental structures an d views lan g u a g e a n d c o g n itio n as separate. This ap p ro a c h is rep re sen te d bv the work o f Chomsky (1957) and, m ore recently, bv Pinker (1994) who argue that language is an innate, hum anspecific abilitv which is not d e p e n d e n t on o th e r cognitive processes. C hildren are genetically e q u ip p e d to acquire language in infancy, w hen thev are not capable of com plex thought, a n d therefore instinctivelv do so without extensive exposure to a varietv of language forms (an a rg u m e n t called the "poverty o f stim ulus”). Thus some type of language tem plate m ust alreadv exist in the m i n d — an a u to n o m o u s m odule of "universal gram m ar,” awaiting m ini m u m input for activation and "setting” accord ing to the rules o f the specific language. Language is considered to be syntax and m or phology— and, more recently, also grammatical features encoded in the lexicon. Syntax and m or phology are the grammatical rules that determ ine how m orphem es are com bined into grammatical units to produce meaning. Features com m on to all languages, term ed language universals, include nouns, verbs, and certain word order rules which link syntactic categories to functional roles such as "agent.” Although the existence of innate principles has received some empirical support, it has also been suggested that social interaction is of major im portance in developing language capacity. This fourth view comes from interactionists such as Yvgotsky ([ 1934] 1962), who hold that th o u g h t and language are initially separate but become inte rd ep e n d e n t during acts of com m unication since m eaning is created through interaction. Empirical support for the sociocultural position is not vet abundant; however, c urrent research on the form ation of “com m unities o f practice” in second foreign language classrooms (see, for
example, D onato an d McCormick 1994). this defined as “a social area in which learning is constructed as gradually increasing participation in the values, beliefs and behaviors takes place" (Donato and McCormick 1994. p. 454). suggests that such collaborate construction of m eaning promotes proficiencv gains. A related social interaction thcorv comes from investigation of infant grammatical develop m ent in Western Samoa and Papua New Guinea by Ochs a n d Schieffelin (1995). These re searchers recom m end a language socialization approach to gram m ar acquisition, where socio cultural contexts, rather than innate structure or grammatical frequence, are suggested to guide gram m ar development. For example, verv com m on gram m ar structures may not be used bv children if these structures are not sociallv or cul turally appropriate, whereas gram m ar structures seldom used in general mav be used often bv children if such use is expected and appropriate. An additional contribution in this area is the cross-discipline field of Cognitive-Functional Linguistics, as r e p r e s e n te d bv the work of Tomasello (1998) an d others. These researchers view g ram m ar as a functional response to com municative needs shaped bv the social contexts in which these needs arise.
A Cognitive Perspective As the noted cognitive psvchologist Trevor Harlev (1995) observes, support exists for the weak ver sion of all four positions and the relationship between thought and language is most likelv quite complex. Thus it reasonable to suggest that all these positions have a part in the language d e v e lo p m e n t sequence. L anguage capacity appears to be innate, but its developm ent is medi ated by prior cognitive development, social inter action, and culture-specific concepts expressed through structures and vocabulary. Whereas the im m ature brain appears to be “wired” for u n c o n scious and rapid language acquisition, successful activation of this capabilitv appears to change with time so that the cognitive functions of atten tion an d effort becom e increasingly necessary for older children and adults to learn a second lan guage, just as for learning any skill. Today’s c.og-
nitive perspectives n eat language learning within the context of general skills developm ent, “not as an auto n o m o u s 'm ental organ' but rath e r . . . [as] a com plex mosaic of cognitive a n d social comm unicative activities closely integrated with the rest of h u m a n psvchology" (Tomasello 1998, p. ix). As a consequence, Bialvstok a n d Flakuta observe (1994). there are no barriers to second language acquisition and there is no single cor rect m e th o d for language teaching. T hese researchers rec o m m e n d that [A]n integrated view that assembles c o m ponents from carious disparate sources in both theorv and practice . . . then attempts to piece them together in a complex pattern, is preciselv what practitioners need in order to allow them the freedom to interpret these pat terns for their own purposes and from their own point of Mew (1994. p. 218).
THREE CO M PO NENTS OF A C O G N IT IV E M ODEL O F S E C O N D /F O R E IG N L A N G U A G E LE A R N IN G Researchers using cognitive models to studv sec ond foreign language learning (e.g., McLaughlin 1987: Ellis 1999; Skehan 1998: Tomasello 1998) note that psvcholinguistic perspectives have been underrepresented due to influences from struc tural linguistics and Chomskian theories of an innate language acquisition module. As m en tioned. although granting that innate processes appear to guide first language acquisition in small children, m ain researchers suggest that after a certain age (called the "critical period," suggested to be at puberty, when mvelination of n e u ro n connections occurs [Pulvernniller and S c h u m a n n 1994]) s e c o n d /f o r e ig n language learning can be explained cognitive/,- using the three com ponents of an information processing model: (1) input, (2) central processing, and (3) output. These three com ponents will be discussed on the following pages.
Input In a cognitive ap p ro a c h to s e c o n d /fo re ig n lan guage learning, access to target language input is seen as perhaps the most critical req u irem e n t for language developm ent. In fact, one influen tial researcher asserts that "second language acquisition is shaped by the input one receives" (Gass 1997, p. 161). I n p u t provides essential pos itive evidence, the language data that allows acquisition to occur. Although a direct relation ship between language learning an d input has vet to be d eterm ined, there has been consider able work on m anipulating in p u t to m ake it eas ier for students to und e rsta n d (see R. Ellis 1997 and Gass 1997 for reviews). For example, teach ers have simplified the g ram m ar and vocabularv of written or audio material, decreased sentence length, decreased the speed of audio material, provided clarifving interaction du rin g the input process, and phvsicallv highlighted im portant gram m ar points an d vocabularv. or repeated them m am times du rin g communicative activi ties. These operations make it m ore likeb that the learners will be able to selectivelv perceive or notice the in p u t— a necessarv step since people cannot take up and process all of the in p u t thev constantlv receive, but rath e r can select onlv cer tain input for attention, uptake, and processing. Since the brain's input processing capacitv is limited, researchers such as Skehan (1998a) and Tomascllo (1998) emphasize that mans' ESL EFT students, especiallv those at lower levels of profi ciency, cannot process target language input for both m eaning an d form at the same time. T here fore, it is suggested that students have to be able to selectivelv perceive or notice target forms in input before processing can take place. This is a cognitive explanation for the research finding that a purelv communicative approach to lan guage instruction for all but the youngest learners will usually not develop high levels of accuracy. The students process input for m eaning onlv and do not attend to specific forms. Thus, the forms are not taken up and processed and are conse quently not acquired. T h e stages for processing selected noticed input are: ( 1 ) the e ncoding stage, where existing knowledge located in long-term m em orv is acti-
vatecl and used to interpret the new input and construct m eaning from it; (2) a transformation stage, where the input is transform ed to m eaning, this taking place in short-term or working m em oп . and (3) a storage stage, in which the m eaning is rehearsed and then transferred for storage in 1о n g-term memorv.
Information Processing Inform ation processing refers to the mans' com plex m e n ta l tra n sfo rm atio n s which o c cur between input an d output. Two basic psycholog ical concepts are used to und e rsta n d the m in d ’s construction of m eaning from language input: bottom-up a n d top-down processing. T h e first refers to the process of decoding specific bits of inform ation from input. For example, a reader recognizes the individual letters that m ake up words and the svntactic rules which organize the words into sentences, or a listener recognizes the individual sounds which m ake up words an d the words which m ake tip sentences. In contrast, top-down processing refers to the use o f world knowledge, past experience, expectations, pre dictions, a n d intuitions stored in the individual’s m in d in o rd e r to m ake sense of input. Top-down processing is necessarv to u n d e rsta n d the impli cations. context, a n d pragm atic m ea n in g of input. In an inform ation processing approach, top-down and bottom-up processing are suggested to operate simultaneouslv to interpret incoming information. Here the individual combines the new information from input with existing infor mation stored in long-term m em orv— new knowl edge being developed from the interaction of input with prior knowledge. From the language teaching perspective, it is clear that ESL EFT students can use top-down processing to understand the general m eaning of communicative input without needing to u n d e r stand all of the gram m ar forms or vocabulary. This is an o th e r reason that purely communicative approaches often fail to develop accuracy in pro ducing the target language, even though students appeal' to c o m p re h en d it reasonable well. Short-Term and Long-Term Memory Cognitive scientists make a distinction between short-term,
or working memory, and long-term, or second ary memory. Short-term m em ory receives input b u t is limited in storage capacity. Research sug gests that generally only seven items can be stored for about a m inute in short-term memory, whereas long-term m em ory is limitless. Transfer from working m em ory to storage in long-term m em ory is therefore yen' im portant, and has been suggested to be facilitated by noticing an item in input, a process that recently has becom e very im portant in seco n d /fo re ig n language p e d agogy. Two types of long-term m em ory arc dis tin g u is h e d — semantic memory, which is the organized knowledge an indiyidual possesses, considered to exist in hierarchies or schemata, a n d episodic memory, the global m em ory of a particular event. Howeyer, both types of memory, short- and long-term, are im portant in the dcvelo p m e n t of knowledge about a language. Two Forms o f Knowledge Knowledge has been diyided into two general types: ( 1 ) declar a b le o r explicit knowledge an d (2 ) procedural o r im plicit k n o w le d g e .2 D e c la ra b le explicit knowledge is knowledge about something. It is factual inform ation which is conscious, and is th o u g h t to consist of propositions (languagebased representations) a n d images (perceptionbased re p re s e n ta tio n s ). For exam ple, when students are able to re m e m b e r gram m ar rules, they are drawing on their explicit knowledge. In contrast, procedural implicit knowledge is knowing how to do som ething and is usually unconscious. Like any o th er skill, such as driving a car, singing a song, or playing the piano, the ability to speak a second, foreign language flu ently is a skill that is d e p e n d e n t on procedural knowledge used automatically. W hen discussing the difference between the two forms of knowl edge, one language researcher stiggests that declarative know ledge is factual knowledge, for exam ple . . . knowing that most English verbs take “s” in the third person. Procedural knowledge encodes behaviour. It consists of con dition-action pairs that state what has to be d o n e u n d e r certain circum stances or with certain data . . . Fully a u to m a tiz ed p ro c e d u ra l knowledge
means, for instance, that one uses the 3rd person "s" . . . without having to think about it (DeKevser 1998, pp. 48-49). These two types of knowledge are suggested to exist in long-term m em ory as different systems. For example, a student mav have formal knowl edge of the gram m ar rules for English indirect object placement but be unable to use indirect objects correctly in conversation. This is because formal gram m ar lessons develop only explicit/ cleclaratii e knowledge, or the ability to talk about gram m ar rules, whereas the ability to use the form correctly depends on the operation of implicit procedural knowledge. In the past, many advocates of com m unica tive language teaching argued that these two knowledge si stems lacked am interface, so to teach students the gram m ar rules of a s e c o n d / foreign language only gave them explicit knowl edge and did not develop their ability to use the gram m ar points in real communication. How ever. recent research (see X. Ellis 1999; DeKevser 1998: Skehan 1998; and Schmidt 1990) suggests that the two language knowledge systems are, in fact, connected hi noticing or awareness, a connection which has been referred to as the ■'Noticing Hypothesis" (Schmidt 1990). Noticing and Awareness Noticing works as fol lows. O nce a student becomes aware of a partic ular g ram m ar point or language feature in input — w h e th e r th ro u g h formal instruction, some type of focus-on-form activity, or rep e a te d exposure to communicative use of the struc t u r e — he or she often continues to notice the structure in subsequent input, particularly if the stru c tu re is used fre q u e n tly (Fotos 1993; Schmidt 1990). Repeated noticing an d contin ued awareness of the language feature is im p o r tant because it appears to raise the s tu d e n t’s consciousness of the structure an d to facilitate restructuring of the learner's unconscious sys tem of linguistic knowledge. Thus, when a stu d e n t pais attention when receiving a gram m ar lesson and doing practice exercises, he or she becom es aware of the g ram m ar feature. W hen that feature is subsequently e n c o u n te re d in comm unicative input, the student often tends to
notice it, recalling that he or she learned about it previouslv. W hen this hap p e n s frequently, his or h e r unconscious language system begins to deyelop new hypotheses about language struc ture, altering his or h e r existing language system or interlauguage. T h e s tu d e n t tests the new hypotheses— again unconsciously— by noticing language input and by getting feedback on the accuracy of his or h e r own ou tp u t when using the form. In this way, explicit knowledge developed by formal instruction about a language feature has led to the acquisition of that feature although indirectly and over time. Schmidt's Noticing Hypothesis has stimu lated the developm ent of teaching m ethods which are "consciousness raising" (see discus sions of the term in Fotos 1993 and R utherford a n d Sharwood Smith 1988) in that they p rom ote noticing and continued awareness of the target lan guage form . A g o o d ex a m p le of this a pproach to teaching is the "focus on form" approach, a term defined in the words of its originator, as "Overtlv drawing students' a tten tion to linguistic elem ents as thev arise inciden tally in lessons whose overriding focus is on m ea n in g or com m unication" (Long 1991. pp. 45-46). As m e n tio n e d earlier, focus-on-form activities (Doughty and Williams 1998) usually constitute implicit g ram m ar instruction only, a n d include "flooding" communicative material with target forms, phvsicallv highlighting them within purely communicative activities in such a wav that students' attention is drawn to them, and structuring communicative activities so that students must use the forms for successful p e r form an с e ,/ с о m p 1e ti о n . Serial and Parallel Processing A final point concerns the distinction between serial an d par allel processing of inform ation. Serial processing'll linear or sequential a n d takes place one step at a time, whereas parallel processing is a special model of cognition based on the idea th at m any processes occur simultaneously a n d are inter connected. form ing neural networks of various levels of activation d e p e n d in g on what is being processed. Initial processing steps are usually d o n e serially; in p u t is received an d selectively taken into short-term m e m o ir with the aid of
attention an d various strategies. However, the enc o d in g car organization of in p u t is com plex since some items are e n c o d e d consciously, with effort, attention, and o ther strategies, whereas o ther items are encoded unconsciously, an d it is слеп possible for a particular item to be encoded both consciously and unconsciously at the same time. Thus, a parallel processing m odel o f lan guage input better represents the nature of this complex co-occurring process (see the A ppendix in Harlev 1995 for a discussion of connectionism and parallel processing).
Output O utput is the final part of an information pro cessing m odel. In s e c o n d /f o re ig n language learning theory it has been suggested that giving learners the opportunity for ou tp u t is just as im portant as giving them input (Swain 1985) because output s e n e s critical functions in the learning process. W hen language learners experi ence difficulties as thev attem pt to use the target language to communicate, they often become aware of what thev need to know to express them selves effectively. 1 hev mav ask their fellow stu dents or their teacher for help, or use their textbook or dictionary to locate the required phrases or forms. Such effort tends to focus attention on the difficult language form a n d prom otes noticing of it. C om p reh e n sio n alone does not pro d u ce this favorable result since, as m entioned, it is possible for students to u n d e r stand the general m eaning of what is being said bv using top-down processing— guessing, p re dicting an d world know ledge— w ithout fully u n d e rsta n d in g all the gram m ar or vocabulary. Furthermore, according to the Interactionist view of the relationship of language to thought, when students produce the target language or ask answer questions about gram m ar points or vocabulary, thev are focusing on form, which assists them in extending their knowledge of the target language. This is particularly true when learners are forced to deal with their own pro b lematic utterances an d modify or elaborate them so that listener understanding is facilitated, a process called "negotiation o f meaning" (see R. Ellis 1997 for a fuller discussion).
Negative Evidence W hen learners p ro d u ce utterances with errors, if they receive corrective feedback from teachers peers explaining the correct use of the form, or if the te a c h e r/p e e r "recasts'" or repeats the utter ance so that the correct form is used, such e rror co rre c tio n can pro sid e "negative evidence." thereby facilitating learners' noticing of the cor rect form. In addition, e rro r correction can encourage students to build form -m eaning rela tionships and, tit ro u g h self-correction, to “p u s h ” their o u tp u t fu rth e r in the direction of improved accuracy (Swain 1985). In fact, the learner's p r o d u c tio n of o u tp u t — particularlv w hen the ou tp u t has been successfullv corrected as the result of feedback from others — can then serve as new input.
Practice in a Skills-Based Approach A n o th e r pathwav for con c ertin g explicit to implicit knowledge is suggested by skill acquisi tion theory, a branch o f cognitive science study ing how people develop skills (see A nderson 1995). In this theory, knowledge is first seen to be declarative (although not all knowledge starts off as conscious knowledge); then, th ro u g h prac tice an d the application of learning strategies, declarative knowledge becom es proceduralized so that it becomes automatic. Automatic processes are quick a n d do not require attention or conscious awareness. For example, many secon d /fo re ig n language learners memorize and practice vocabulary items or "chunks” of language such as greetings or collocations (words which are always used together). Frequent practice in using these forms helps the language items to become automatic in the sense that the learner can use them quickiv and unconsciously. Autom atization can take place with both implicit an d explicit knowledge. An exam ple of n o n au to m atic explicit knowledge is m onitoring, p aring conscious attention to the use of correct form s d u rin g language p ro d u ctio n , whereas n onautom atic processing of implicit knowledge can be seen in the use of hesitation p h e n o m e n a d u rin g the English speech p ro d u c e d by an
FSL /E F L lea rn er as he or she unconsciously searches his or h e r long-term m em ory for the correct form. From the autom atization perspec tive, practice drills and repetitions of instructed g ram m ar points — m ethods now y e n - m uch out o f favor in c o m m unicative ESL pedagogy because tliev rem ind people of the behaviorist Audiolingual A pproach of the 1950s an d early 1960s — are useful in that they facilitate both autom atization of the practiced form a n d notic ing (DeKevser 1998). so that the form can make its was into the implicit knowledge system.
The Teachability Hypothesis .Ait important consideration at this point relates to the Chomskian concept of a natural or pre-determ ined "universal" order for language acquisition. Is there a set order for language development in the brain, in which case formal instruction mav be ineffective if the student is not at the appropriate stager This question has been investigated since the 1960s (see Corder 1967), and has received new a ttention recently as a Teachability Hypothesis (Pienem ann 1989). proposing that second, foreign language learners will not acquire a new structure until tliev are developmentalb reads to do so. If there were no connection between the development of explicit knowledge about a gram m ar point and the eventual restruc turing of the unconscious linguistic system to accom modate the point in the learner's interna) interlanguage, then, indeed, gram m ar instruction would not be of much use. However, it has been suggested that there is a connection, so grammar instruction is ultimately useful. Further, as the pre\ious section emphasizes, practice of language points can lead to automatization, thus bypassing natural order teachability considerations.
A C O M M U N IC A TIV E ESL/EFL GRAM M AR LESSO N Shortly we will present a cognitive m odel for second foreign language learning showing the relationship between explicit knowledge, gained
th ro u g h instruction, a n d implicit knowledge, developed th ro u g h both restructuring of the internal target language system an d th rough practice. This m odel also emphasizes the facili tating role of p roduction a n d strategy use. Let us work th ro u g h the model, using as an exam ple a comm unicative ESL/EFL g ram m ar lesson com bining explicit formal instruction with p e rfo rm ance of a structure-based communicative task (for m ore discussion of this task type, see Fotos 2 0 0 1 ), followed bv practice and pro d u ctio n exercises an d subsequent comm unicative expo sure to the g ram m ar point. From the students' perspective, the im portant features of this gram m ar lesson are that students 1. 2.
3.
4.
becom e aware that a particular gram m ar point is difficult for them; bec o m e aware — eith e r th ro u g h teach er instruction (a deductive m ethod) or bv their own discoverv lea rn in g (an inductive m e th o d ) — of gram m ar rules which deter mine the correct forms of the gram m ar point and the varietv of meanings it can convev in communicative language; are p ro d d ed with examples of the structure in communicative input so that thee can notice the various form-meaning relationships: are provided with opportunities to produce the g ram m ar point.
Pedagogical Grammar C om bining the terms communicative with gram mar teaching m ight seem to be a contradiction to manv teachers, but let us recall that research stronglv supports adm inistering some type of gram m ar instruction within otherwise c o m m u nicative language lessons (see the review in Mitchell 2000 ). Thus, the concept o f pedagogical g u m mars, or the wav a gram m ar p o in t is in structed, is im portant here because of its e m p h a sis on th e various c o m m unicative roles a particular g ram m ar point can serve within n a tu ral language ttse. Pedagogical grammars have been defined as “the ty pes of grammatical analysis and instruction designed for the needs of second language stu dents" (Odlin 1994, p. 1) and are a concept of
gram m ar which differs from “linguistic gram mars,” which are complex linguistic analyses of language forms a n d functions. For pedagogical grammar, teachers select g ram m ar points on the basis of their students' comm unicative needs, considering the language functions thev will encounter. Such a functional app ro a c h to gram m ar is not new, but recently there has b e e n a strong emphasis on the use of authentic materials (e.g.. materials used bv native English speakers to com m unicate with o th er native speakers, in contrast to simplified material written especially for use with ESL/EFI. students) to provide examples of the various discourse functions that g ram m ar points can serve in com m unication (see Odlin 1994 for m ore discussion). It is th e re fore essential to teach students that m ea n in g can be expressed in a varietv of ways, using various g ram m ar forms, an d that often there is no single "correct wav" to express a particular m eaning. .\n overview article on gram m ar instruction in applied linguistics (Mitchell 2000) notes that gram m ar teaching learning research has not yet determ ined ( 1 ) which model of language acquisi tion best informs pedagogic grammar; (2) how gram m ar forms should be chosen an d sequenced; (3) how necessary it is for students to know gen eral rules about grammar; and (4) what types of corrective feedback are best. Nonetheless, the same author presents a useful set of research-based general principles which can guide the teaching of gram m ar in second/ foreign language classrooms: 1. gram m ar teaching should be p lanned and systematic, driven by a strategic vision of eventual desired outcomes; 2. gram m ar teaching should nevertheless be "rough tuned," offering learners at slightly different stages a range of opportunities to add increm ents to their g ram m ar u n d e r standing; 3. gram m ar teaching may involve acceptance of classroom code switching and m other tongue use, at least yvith beginners; 4. gram m ar teaching should be “little and often." yvith m uch redundancy and revisiting of issues; 5. text-based, problem-solving gram m ar activi ties mav be needed to develop learners’ active, articulated knowledge about grammar;
6. 7.
active corrective feedback and elicitation will prom ote learners' active control of grammar; gram m ar teaching needs to be supported and em bedded in meaning-oriented actirities and tasks, which give immediate oppor tunities for practice and use (Mitchell 2000, p. 297).
Guided by these considerations and the cog nitive principles of language learning explored earlier, the next section introduces a model gram m ar lesson.
An Example o f a Communicative Grammar Lesson Using Explicit Instruction In this gram m ar lesson, the m edium of instruc tion is English, the target language. Use of English rather than the students' native language ( L I ) — often the default choice in EFL situa tions— prom otes the developm ent of implicit knowledge since the students are focused on the m eaning of what is being said, even though what is being discussed is English grammar. However, w hen the students do not understand, the teacher uses the students’ LI to facilitate com prehension. The lesson consists o f the following five parts: (1 ) a general orientation to the lesson followed bv explicit instruction on the target gram m ar struc ture; (2 ) perform ance of a communicative task in which the task content is a problem involving the gram m ar structure; (3) review of the gram m ar structure as it is used in the task material; (4) mul tiple postlesson exposures to communicative material containing the gram m ar structure; (5) systematic review of the structure after each com municative activity. Part 1: Using an Advance Organizer, a learn ing concept developed by the cognitive psychol ogist Ausubel (1968) which has been p opular in general education since the 1960s, the teacher begins bv giving the students a general orienta tion to the activities to come. To assist com pre hension, this introduction may be given in the students’ LI. First the teacher tells the students a b out the purpose an d procedures of the task
activity, then he or she explains the target gram m ar structure. Use of an Advance Organizer is believed to activate the students' previously devel oped knowledge for top-down processing, and assist them in linking the new information to what they alreadv know. In this case, the students are told that thev will studv a problem atic g ram m ar s tr u c tu r e — in d ire c t object p la c e m e n t. T h e teacher explains that English indirect object p lacem ent is often confusing because there are different rules for different verbs. T he teacher th e n presents three patterns for indirect object p lacem ent in English verbs, writing examples on the board. The first pattern allows placem ent of the indirect object either after the verb or as a p rep o sitional phrase at the end of the sentence (e.g., He gave me the book. He gave the book to me.); the second allows placem ent onlv as a clause-final preposition phrase, which is generallv the case for Latinate verbs (e.g.. She translated the letter for him.): and the third, applicable to a limited set of verbs such as "cost." places the indirect object immediatelv after the verb, (e.g., T he book cost me twentv dollars). This lesson takes a deductive approach to instruction in that the teacher presents the gram m ar rules. Alternatelv. the teacher might take an inductive approach, allowing the students to infer the placement rules themselves from considera tion of specific examples. Reference is m ade to previously studied patterns of English verb usage to assist the stu dents in organizing the new inform ation in rela tion to what thev have learned before, a n d the teacher writes additional examples of indirect objects on the board, eliciting them from the students as a wav to p rom ote noticing o f the form. Such g ram m ar instruction assists the stu dent in becom ing familiar with the structure they will use in the communicative activitv, thereby lessening anv diversion o f their attention away from processing meaningful input during subse quent task perform ance, a n d perhaps facilitating the processing of both m eaning and form at the same time. Part 2: After the g ram m ar lesson, students work in pairs or groups to p erform a structure-
based communicative task which contains multi ple uses of the target structure. Furthermore, in the lesson described here, the task content is actu ally studs of the structure itself. The task goal is to determ ine which English verbs fall u n d e r the dif ferent placem ent pattern types; thus, there is an explicit focus on grammar. Each student has a task card with three or four sentences using different verbs and indirect objects, an d he or she must read the sentences to his or her partn e r/g r o u p members. The listeners must write down the sentences and note the position of the indirect object. As a task solution, each p a ir/g ro u p makes a list of the verbs in the sen tences and assigns each verb to one of the three patterns of indirect object placement presented at the beginning of the lesson. To further focus attention on the target structure, the indirect objects on the task cards are written in italics. Regarding use of a task with explicit gram m ar c ontent instead of a purely communicative task, it must be no ted that most p ro p o n en ts of task-based curricula re c o m m e n d use of c o m m u nicative tasks onlv. although the target structure rnav be e m b e d d e d in the task or its use niav be required to reach the task solution (see Loschkv and Blev-Woman 1993 and Skehan 1998a). Reallife communicative situations are strongly rec o m m e n d e d as task content, especially for 1 M . learners who have to master survival English skills such as going to the post office, shopping, asking directions, filling out forms, an d so forth. However, without denying the usefulness of purely communicative tasks, especially in the ESL context, insisting that thev are the onlv appropriate subject m atter for interactive task content assumes that ESI. EEL students do not want to talk about the language thev are study ing an d that there is no point in their doing so. These assumptions do not take into account the fact that many ESL-EFT students come to the lan g u a g e classroom with rears of study of English g ram m ar b e h in d them, an d therefore may actually enjov discussing grammar. This is especially true in the EFI. context, where the stu dents' overwhelming “real-life" need is to develop target language accuracy to pass examinations. Moreover, research, even in ESI. situations, suggests (e.g.. Willing 1988) that some students
prefer explicit gram m ar teaching to com m unica tive activities with no grammatical com ponent. Thus, it is up to the teacher to ju d g e which task type best meets his or her students’ needs and learning stvle preferences (for a review of learn ing stvles, see C ohen 1998). Part 3: After task performance, the teacher reviews all the sentences, listing the verbs under the coirect pattern tvpe and asking for m ore examples. Part 4: After discussing the task solution, the teacher provides the students with practice exercises. In a traditional classroom, this might involve moving from highly structured, fill-in-theblank exercises to open-ended exercises, where students use supplied verbs and indirect objects to make sentences, to communicative exercises, yvhere they develop their own sentences contain ing indirect objects. After this activity, the students read their sentences to their p a rtn e rs /g ro u p m em bers and receive corrective feedback. The Imeractionist yieyv of cognition regards such feed back as critical for creating m eaning and promot ing notic ing of communicative functions served by the grammar structure. In a predominantly comm unicative class room. practice might include activities such as reading listening material containing many uses of the target gram m ar structure and haying the students ask and answer questions which require production of the structure (e.g.. What did Ann tell \nirt Who did Ra\ translate that paragraph for? What did \ou give sour friend?).
For several classes after the g ram m ar lesson on indirect object placement, the students are given communicative material to read or listen to. This material contains many instances o f the target structures, which mav be highlighted or placed in italics to p rom ote noticing. Following each presentation of the communicative material, the teacher again reviews the rules for indirect object placement and points out the com m unica tive function seived bv the structure. This step facilitates activation of the new material which has been linked and subsum ed within a fram e work of previously lea rn ed material. Such spiral review, or the systematic review o f recently instructed material within increasingly bro ad e r contexts, has been found to be an im portant
Figure I. A Cognitive Model of a Grammar Lesson
m em ory strategy for the successful developm ent of explicit knowledge a n d an awareness of formm eaning relationships (see C o h e n 1998).
Applying a Cognitive Model to the Communicative Grammar Lesson Figure 1 is a model of the cognitive steps involved in processing the lesson described above. It is based on the assumption that there is an interface between implicit and explicit knowledge. However, these two forms of knowledge are not fixed but dvnamic, with constant reorganization taking place as a result of unconscious linguistic hypothesis generation and testing done against new input. Implicit linguistic knowledge, explicit linguistic knowledge, and hypothesis testing are seen to be dynamically related, as connectionist models suggest. As m en tio n e d earlier, connectionism views cognition as associative patterns in neural networks operating in parallel, for a par allel processing perspective. Let us now consider what cognitive processes occur during perform ance of the above task on indirect object placement. Step 1: Sensory Reception in p u t is received.
Auditory and visual
Step 2: Selective Perception The student is already par ing attention and consciously focuses on the location of the indirect object. Does it com e directly after the verb or is it a clause-final prepositional phraser Are both positions possi ble? At this point, the location of the indirect object is selectively perceived in input. Step 3: Short-Term Memory C orrect place m e n t of the indirect object with different verbs enters short-term m em ory th rough conscious effort gained by directed attention and o th e r cognitive strategies such as practicing, analyzing, a n d reasoning, a n d by creating structure for the new in p u t, often t h ro u g h written m eans (Oxford 1990). These strategies are also used for the next step.
Step 4: Encoding into Long-Term M emory Manv educators believe that encoding or enter ing information into long-term memory7 is the most significant event of the learning process. The m odel presented here shows two encoding processes. The first is a conscious process involv ing effort, attention, and strategy use. T he second encoding process is unconscious— the first stage in language acquisition wherebv those forms which successfully convev m eaning to the learner are somehow flagged for entry into long-term memory. Step 5: Storage in Long-Term M emory Although the m odel shows implicit knowledge and explicit knowledge existing separately, we hat e to ask w hether they differ in location or in representation (the form in which the knowledge is stored). In the gram m ar lesson and com m u nicative task performance, explicit knowledge involved learning rules for indirect object place ment. Therefore both syntactic: and semantic forms mat be stored because students can often recall exact sentences as well as give paraphrases of grammatical rules. Step 6: H ypothesis Generation and Testing; Restructuring o f Implicit Knowledge Cognitive theorists have suggested that the language learner unconsciously goes through the following three steps when processing language: 1. 2.
3.
The learner notices linguistic features in processed input. T he learner makes a com parison between his or h e r existing linguistic knowledge, or interlanguage, and the newlv processed input. T he learner th en constructs new linguistic hypotheses on the basis of the new infor m ation and his o r her existing system.
Step 7: Retrieval from Long-Term M emory C onnectionist models of parallel processing sug gest that there are "prom pts'’ which either excite or inhibit elem ents in long-term memory, result ing in a pattern of activity am ong sets of inter related elements. Experience is seen as strength ening the connections which exist am ong the ele ments. thus allowing easier retrieval.
Step 8: Production Strategies and Output In the interactive task for indirect object place m ent, the students do not have to pro d u ce the correct form, only recogni/e it. so there is no n e e d for simplification or correction of ou tp u t d u rin g task perform ance. However, subsequent practice activities will require output, a n d the use of planning an d correcting strategies will be helpful at this time (McLaughlin 1987: O xford 1990). It is im portant to recogni/e that since im provem ent o f perfo rm a n c e is related to the a m o u n t o f autom aticitv. the res tru c tu rin g process often results in discontinuities which delav successful production. T herefore, even th o u g h students can recogni/e which pattern of indirect object placem ent various verbs take, they cannot be expected to im m ediateh p ro duce the g ram m ar forms correctly in c o m m u nicative utterances. However, student output d u rin g task perfo rm a n c e — reading sentences from task cards and discussing which pattern of indirect object placement the various verbs take— becomes new input that then provides feedback to the learners' implicit knowledge system. Step 9: Feedback Feedback on the correctness of language is essential for hypothesis testing and the developm ent o f implicit linguistic knowl edge. T he learner tests hypotheses in two main ways: receptively, bv com paring input to existing interlanguage, and productively, bv producing utterances in the target language a n d assessing their correctness from the feedback receiv ed. In the gram m ar lesson a n d task described earlier, the students receive feedback from the teacher on the correctness of the indirect object place m en t patterns.
Strategy Use Strategies can be defined as conscious tech niques for achieving a goal and have been shown to m ediate cognitive change (O xford 1990); they have also b e e n d e fin e d as “lea rn in g processes which are consciously selected by the le a rn e r” (C ohen 1998, p. 4). Both definitions emphasize the learner's conscious decision to use strategies. In fact, extensive research in ge n eral e d u c a tio n indicates that stu d e n ts who
report active use of strategies are likelv to be m ore successful in learning new skills than are students who do not use strategies. W hen stu dents have clearlv defined goals, high motiva tion, a n d control of their learning through strategy use. favorable learning outcom es result. Therefore, no cognitive m odel of se co n d /fo reign language gram m ar learning would be com plete without considering strategies. Although there are manv researchers inves tigating strategies for language learning (e.g., see the literature review and strategy taxonomy in C ohen 1998). Oxford's a pproach (1990) is useful because she uses a simple taxonomy, dividing strategies into direct a n d indirect types, a n d th en r e c o m m e n d s specific pedagogical applications. Direct strategies consist of m em ory strategies, cognitive strategies, and com pensa tion strategies, all of which involve conscious m anipulation of the target language structure. T he first type, m em ory strategies, facilitates stor age and retrieval of new inform ation through grouping, associating, an d contextualizing new inform ation. Cognitive strategies include prac ticing new language items, analyzing new m ate rial such as g ram m ar rules, an d organizing structure for new material. T he last step is often written practice and mav involve summarization. Indirect strategies enable the student to control learning, and include ( 1 ) metacognitive strate gies. such as using Advance O rganizers to approach new material at a h igher level o f gen erality. and goal setting: (2 ) affective strategies for m anaging em otion a n d developing motiva tion: and ( 3 ) social strategies for interaction and the collaborative creation of meaning. Manv educators have suggested that students should receive special training on the active use ol strategies to control and e n h a n ce their language learning process (see Oxford's c hapter in this volume and C ohen 1998).
Summary This cognitive m odel of language processing illustrates how a g ram m ar lesson given in the tar get lan g u a g e a n d c o n ta in in g b o th form al instruction a n d communicative activities can be e x p e c te d to p r o m o te lan g u a g e acquisition
th ro u g h d e v e lo p m e n t o f b o th im plicit a n d explicit knowledge. Even th o u g h the nature of the relationship between these two forms of knowledge is still u n d e te rm in e d , the critical process in language acquisition— a n d all learn in g — is the modification o f the le a r n e r ’s existing knowledge system on the basis of comparisons between it a n d newlv processed input. An im por tant pedagogical implication of the model is that there will necessarilv be a lag between the pres entation of the gram m ar lesson an d the lea rn er’s ability to use the target form successfully in com m unication. However, practice will help the process bv allowing the proceduralization of explicit knowledge, and communicative activities containing the gram m ar form will facilitate the developm ent of implicit knowledge.
P E D A G O G IC A L IM P LIC A TIO N S T h e p receding sections have identified an d dis cussed the following features of a cognitive a pproach to g ram m ar teaching: 1.
2.
3.
4.
It is useful if students receive an orientation in advance of the gram m ar lesson to acti vate their previous knowledge and to p ro m ote the integration of the new material into their existing knowledge hierarchies. Some tvpe of gram m ar instruction is necessarv for students to attain high levels of accuracv in the target language. This instruction mav be explicit or mav be implicit (involving only communicative use of the target struc tures). and rule presentation mav be induc tive or deductive. Communicative activities used alone are not considered to be suffi cient for development of learner accuracy in the use of gram m ar points. Extensive communicative exposure to the instructed g ram m ar point is essential for s tu d e n ts to notice, th e n process, the instructed form, linking it to previously developed linguistic knowledge. Production activities are essential to p ro vide practice in the use of the form, to raise awareness of the form, and to give students the chance to receive feedback on the cor
5.
6.
rectness o f th e ir language. P ro d u c tio n activities also proside new input. Group work and task performance are recom mended since they give students the chance to receive communicative input and produce output; such interaction allows the collabora tive construction of meaning to occur. Postlesson activities include further com m u nicative exposure to the gram m ar point as well as a systematic review of the instructed form that points out its use in a variety of communicative contexts.
A Cognitive Approach to Traditional Grammar Teaching Traditional gram m ar instruction has generally consisted of a presentation of g ram m ar rules fol lowed bv practice drills, sentence production, an d translation. This ap p ro a c h is still p ro m in e n t in m am parts of the world although a c o m m u nicative c o m p o n e n t has often been added. T he following is a generalized version of an English lesson currently used in m any EFL settings. 1. 2.
3.
4. 5. 6.
T h e new7g ram m ar po in t is explained: new words an d phrases are explained and there mav be a pro n u n cia tio n lesson as well: a tape of a dialogue containing the new g r a m m a r stru c tu re a n d vocabulary is plaved: students practice the dialogue in chorus or in pairs: students translate the dialogue into their native language; as a final activity, listening exercises and practice drills are presented.
From a cognitive perspective emphasizing skills development, the problem with this lesson is that the gram m ar point is not presented in a wav that facilitates its processing a n d procedural ization; n o r have form -m eaning correlations been tirade through the presentation o f co m m u nicative activities designed to p rom ote noticing of the form's variety of meanings in discourse. Transforming the traditional lesson, therefore, m eans adding communicative activities using the
Form in various wavs. These activities are struc tured to require both interaction and output using the form, as well as corrective feedback from group m em bers or the teacher. T he lesson is reinforced bv subsequent communicative activ ities which use the form to perform a variety of discourse functions, and also bv teacher review. Repeated communicative practice of instructed forms can lead to their eventual automatization.
A Cognitive Approach to Communicative Teaching Researchers now agree that it is essential to inte grate some form of g ram m ar instruction within a communicative framework if students are to attain high levels of target language accuracv, particularly in the F.FL context, where o p p o rtu nities to e n c o u n te r communicative use of the target language are rare. As an alternative to cleliverv of a formal g ram m ar lesson, task work has been r e c o m m e n d e d to supple students with comm unicative use of target gram m ar points, as well as to p rom ote interaction, production, and opportunities for corrective feedback (Skehan 1998a). T he use of purely communicative tasks which nonetheless requite com prehension and production of target gram m ar points has been r e c o m m e n d e d (Loschv and Blev-Yroman 1993). In addition, gram m ar problem-solving tasks in which students discuss the structure as task con tent, such as the previous example requiring stu dents to assign verbs to patterns of indirect object placem ent, are also useful since thev com bin e com m unicative task p e rf o r m a n c e with explicit instruction on gram m ar points. Such tasks have even been suggested to be equivalent to traditional gram m ar lessons in the develop m en t of explicit knowledge (Fotos 1993: 2001). vet do not com prom ise the essentially meaningfocused n a tu re of com m unicative pedagogy. Furtherm ore, when students discuss the language thev produce during task perform ance, it is sug gested that this "meratalk" helps them develop awareness of the relationship of form to m eaning (Swain 1983). It should also be acknowledged that such structure-based interactive tasks, with their obvious grammatical content, provide an
acceptably serious tvpe of communicative activity within the framework of a traditional approach to gram m ar instruction.
C O N C L U S IO N This chapter has presented a cognitive approach to language learning and gram m ar instruction. A cognitive model has been ttsed to design a gram m ar lesson which develops both explicit and implicit knowledge of a gram m ar point, supplies opportunities for information exchange through task perform ance, and then provides purelv com municative input containing the target structures so that students can notice form-meaning rela tionships. 'fh e approach described is useful for traditional institu tional settings as well as prim a rily meaning-focused classrooms.
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1 . W hat are the general features of a cognitive a pproach to g ram m ar teaching learning? 2. What is the Noticing Hypothesis and whv is it considered important for gram m ar teachin g/ learning- Discuss this hypothesis in relation to explicit and implicit approaches to gram m ar instruction. 3. Manv theories of second language acquisition maintain that practice is not necessary for learning to take place. However, a cognitive approach to gram m ar instruction suggests that it mav be useful. Do vou agree or dis agree? Whv? 4. What tvpe of language learner would find a cognitive approach to gram m ar tea c h in g / learning most effective and whv? Would a cog nitive approach work for vou? Whv or whv not?
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1.
Select a g ram m ar point with easily explained rules a n d develop the outline of a lesson using the cognitive approach suggested for teaching indirect object placement.
2. Using the same g ram m ar point, design a focus-on-form activity featuring onlv com municative use of the g ram m ar structure. T h e c o m m u n ic a tiv e m aterial sh o u ld be designed so that the students will notice it an d have to use the target structure to com plete the activity. 3. Develop an interactive structure-based task requiring students to rea d each o th e r sen tences containing the structure, to write the sentences down, an d th en to develop gram m ar rules for the stru c tu re ’s use. (Possible stru c tu re s with easily ex p la in ab le rules in c lu d e adverb p lac e m e n t; the m odals would, could, a n d should; o rd e r of adjectives: cause and result with so, such, vers, and too: \Xh + n o u n questions; comparisons.) 4. Design three follow-up communicative activi ties for the task in Activitv 3. The c om m u nicative activities should prom ote noticing of the structure in a varietv of functional contexts.
FU R T H ER R EA D IN G Bialvsiok. E.. and K. Hakuta. 1994. In Other Words: The Science and Psychology of Second-Language Acquisition. New York: Basic Books. An easv-to-read survey presenting theories of second language acquisition illustrated bv realworld examples. The book pats special atten tion to issues of bilingualism and the impact of culture on language learning. Ellis, R. 1997. Second Language Research and Language 'Leaching. Oxford: Oxford Universitv Press. An essential reference for ESL. EFT teachers, this book accessible summarizes the extensive bodv of research on language learning and links the findings to classroom practice and opportu nities for action research. Evsenck. M.. and M. Keane. 1995. Cognitive Psychology: A Student’s Handbook. East Sussex, UK: Psychology Press. A psychology textbook useful as a general refer ence because of its clear explanations of the
workings of memory, knowledge creation, attention and awareness, and language com prehension and production. Hinkel. E., and S. Fotos. eels. 2001. .Yew Perspectives on Grammar Teaching in Second Language Classrooms. Mahwah, Nj: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. A useful collection of articles presenting a range of grammar teaching approaches and activities for ESL/EFL classrooms. Skehan. P. 1998a. A Cognitwe Approach to Language Processing. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press. A kev book for understanding the cognitive aspects of language acquisition and the role of individual differences, such as learning style, in promoting favorable learning outcomes. The book also presents a strong rationale for taskbased instruction. Tomasello. \E. eel. 1998. The Sew Psychology of Language: Cognitive and Functional Approaches to Language Structure. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. This edited volume presents papers bv authors working in the area of Cognitive-Functional Linguistics, an approach to grammar develop ment based on consideration of the communica tive function of a form and the cultural context for expressing that function. Tomasello's intro duction is especially useful.
ENDNO TES 1 Give)n (1998) suggests that the use of grammar appeared relatively late in human cognitive evolu tion. commenting that hominoids appear to possess both noun and verb concepts as well as the necessan brain neurology for semantic and episodic memory. He therefore considers grammar to con sist of the following components: (1) morphology; (2) intonation, including clause-level intonation contours and word stress; (3) rhythmics, including length and pattses; and (4) sequential order of words and or morphemes (pp. 48-49). - In this chapter, declarative knowledge is consid ered to be the same as explicit knowledge and pro cedural knowledge is considered to be the same as implicit knowledge. However, some researchers distinguish among each type. For a fuller discus sion. see Skehan 1998a.
Vocabulary Learning and Teaching IEANETTE
S.
D EC ARRICO
"Vocabulary Learning andTeaching" focuses initially on current issues in teaching, i.e., deciding which items to teach and how to teach them; on explicit and implicit learning and vocabulary learning strategies; and on the role of collocations.The other focus is recent corpus studies and their implications for analysis of multiword phrasal units and for new directions in vocabulary instruction.
IN T R O D U C T IO N Vocabulary learning is central to language acqui sition, w hether the language is first, second, or foreign. A lthough vocabulary has not always been recognized as a priority in language teach ing, interest in its role in second language (L2) learning has grown rapidlv in recent years and specialists notv emphasize the need for a system atic and principled approach to vocabulary bv both the teacher a n d the learner. T he increased interest in this topic is evidenced bv a rapidly expanding body of experim ental studies and pedagogical material, most of which addresses several kev questions of particular interest for language teachers. For example, what does it m ean to know a word? Which words do learners n e e d to know? How will they learn them? These questions reflect the c urrent focus on the needs of learners in acquiring lexical com petence and on the role of the teacher in guiding them toward this goal.
H IS T O R IC A L O V ER V IEW T h e re is now general a greem ent am ong vocabu lary specialists that lexical c om petence is at the very h e a rt of communicative com petence, the ability to com m unicate successfully an d a p p ro priately (Coaclv and H uckin 1997). Given the cu rre n t focus on vocabulary study, many n o n specialists m ight be surprised to learn that, in past years, this area o f teaching was often neg lected because it was th o u g h t that vocabulary
could simply be left to take care o f itself. .Although bv the late 1970s a n d early 1980s m ore an d m ore voices began to challenge this view (Judd 1978; Meara 1981; McCarthy 1984; Laufer 1986), in 1988, Carter an d McCarthy were still taking note of the relative neglect o f vocabulary in previous years. By th en its rep u ta tio n as the p o o r relation in language teaching was rapidlv com ing to an end. T h e low status of vocabulary stuciv and vocabulary teaching was in large part due to lan guage teaching approaches based on А т г а . о . linguistic theories that had been d om ina nt th ro u g h o u t the 1940s, 1950s. and I9b0s. Most influential in the earlv years was Charles Fries's Teaching and Learning English as a Foreign Language (1945), based on American structural linguistics, which emphasized grammatical and phonologi cal structure. Fries believed that gram m ar should be the starting point of language learning, and he also adopted the view, borrowed from behaviorist psychology, that learning was a m atter of habit formation. His audiolingual m eth o d incorporated these ideas bv paving systematic attention to inten sive drills of basic sentence patterns and their pro nunciation. Because the em phasis was on teaching grammatical and phonological struc tures. the vocabulary needed to be relatively simple, with new words introduced only as they were n eed ed to make the drills possible (LarsenFreem an 2000b; Zim m erm an 1997). The assump tion teas that once students learned the structural frames, lexical items to fill the grammatical slots in the frames could be learned later, as needed.
Although the shift to generative (transfor mational) linguistics in the 1960s brought about revolution a n 1 changes in linguistic theorv, trig gered bv Chomskv (1957). it did little to chal lenge the idea that the role of lexis was secondary to that of grammar. Chomskv rejected the behaviorist notion of habit formation and supplanted it with a rationalist framework, the central assump tion being that language is represented as a speaker's m ental grammar, a set of abstract rules for generating grammatical sentences. The rules generate the svntactic structure, and lexical items from appropriate grammatical categories (noun, verb, adjective, etc.,) are selected to fill in the corresponding slots in the svntactic frame. The interests of generative linguists centered mainlv on rule-governed behavior and on the grammati cal structure of sentences and did not include concerns for the appropriate use of language. Language learning approaches based on this the orv viewed learning as rule acquisition, not habit formation, and emphasized grammatical rules. Vocabularv was afforded somewhat m ore im por tance, but the focus on rules of gram m ar still served to reinforce the idea that lexis was some what secondarv (Carter and McCarthv 1988). Hymes (1972), while not rejecting Chontskv's model, extended it and gate greater emphasis to the sociolinguistic and pragmatic factors governing effective use of language. Hvmes was especiallv concerned with the concept of communicative com petence, which emphasized using language for meaningful communication, including the appro priate use of language in particular social contexts (for example, informal conversation at the dinner table versus formal conversation at the bank, etc.). T he teaching approach that evolved from these notions (see also Hallidav 1973), referred to as communicative language teaching, prom oted fluencv over accuracv and consequently shifted the focus from sentence-level forms to discourselevel functions (e.g., requests, greetings, apolo gies, and so on). Once again, though, vocabulary was given secondarv status, taught mainly as sup port for functional language use. As in precious approaches, it was generally assumed that vocabu lary would take care of itself (Schmitt 2000). This picture has changed dramatically within the last two decades. The challenge to the status
quo began in the late 1970s an d early 1980s, and bv the late 1980s an d early 1990s, vocabulary studies were dev e lo p in g e x p o n e n tially a n d vocabularv teaching was com ing into its own. O n e reason for the resurgence of interest on the p a rt of researchers was that com puter-aided research was providing vast am ounts o f inform a tion that ha d not previouslv been available for analvsis, such as inform ation about how words behave in actual language use, larger units that function in discourse as single lexical items, and differences between written an d spoken com m unication. Further, psvcholinguistic studies were pro v id in g insights c o n c e r n in g m ental processes involved in vocabularv learning, such as memorv, storage, and retrieval. Interest in these issues led in tu rn to related studies con c e rn e d with developing m ore effective vocabu larv teaching an d learning strategies.
C U R R E N T ISSUES A central debate em erging from these studies deals with w hether effective vocabularv learning should focus on explicit or implicit learning. In the 1970s and 1980s, the communicative a pproach led naturallv to a focus on implicit, incidental learning. Teachers e n c ouraged stu dents to recognize clues to word m eanings in context and to use m onolingual dictionaries rather than bilingual dictionaries, and textbooks emphasized inferring word m eaning from con text. Currentlv. however, while acknowledging that exposure to words in various contexts is extremely important to a deeper understanding of a w ord’s meaning, most researchers recognize that provid ing incidental encounters with words is only one m ethod of facilitating vocabularv acquisition, and that a well-structured vocabulaty program needs a balanced approach that includes explicit teaching together with activities providing appropriate con texts for incidental learning.
Explicit Learning In explicit vocabulary learning students engage in activities that focus attention on vocabulary. Sokm en (1997) highlights several kev principles of explicit learning that can help guide teachers in deciding basic questions of what to teach an d
how to teach. These principles include the goal of building a large recognition vocabulare. inte grating new words with old, providing a n u m b e r of encounters with a word, p ro m o tin g a deep level of processing, facilitating imaging, using a varietv of techniques, and encouraging inde p e n d e n t learning strategies.
W h a t to Teach How do we decide how manv words to teach and which ones to teach? Manv researchers notv advo cate that learners should initially be taught a lai ge productiv e vocabularv of at least two th o u sand high frequence words. Meant (1993). for example, argues against earlier "vocabularv con trol’' approaches in which students were taught only a basic vocabularv of several hunch ed words, and l ead restricted sorts of texts such as language textbooks and graded readers. He maintains that students should learn verv large vocabularies when thev first start to acquire a language. In fact, this base of two thousand words now seems to be the most commonly cited initial goal for second language learners. T he justification for this view is that, first, any given language has a small n u m b e r of words that occur manv times in material we see most often and a large n u m b e r of words that occur only once or twice. The actual figures for English suggest that a basic vocabulary of about two th o u sand words accounts for approximately 80 per cent of what we regularly see or hear. For almost any com m on context, a learner restricted to five h u n d r e d words or so would e n c o u n te r a verv large n u m b e r of unfamiliar words and the reallv im portant meanings would be carried bv the words that the learner is not likeIv to know. Meant concludes that a vocabularv of five h u n d red words is relatively useless, while a vocabu lary of two thousand words goes a long wav towards achiev ing a realistic level of lexical com petence. A second reason whv it would be sensible to teach beginners a yen large vocabulary verv quickly is that most learners expect to have to learn vocabularv, and it would be a mistake not to capitalize on these expectations. T he most famous list of high-frequency words is the General Semite List of English Words
(West 1953). It contains about two thousand words with semantic and frequency inform ation drawn from a verv large corpus of several million words and. though quite old. has still not been replaced. It is often cited as the most useful list available because it lists the different parts of speech a n d the different m eaning senses and, in terms of frequency, gives the frequency of the main headw ord plus the relativ e frequency o f its m eanings (Nation 1990: Sbkmen 1997; Schmitt 2000). It has been verv influential, perhaps because "it is claimed that knowing these words gives access to about 80 p ercent of the words in anv written text a n d thus stimulates motivation since the words acquired can be seen lw learners to have a dem onstrably quick r e tu r n ” (Carter 1998. p. 207). However, it is based on very old word counts and is currently being revised. Some researchers also emphasize that, for certain groups of students, a base of two th o u sand words will be inadequate. Learners with special goals, such as university stuclv, n e e d to acquire a further one th o u sa n d high-frequency words beyond the initial two tho u sa n d base, plus the strategies to deal with the low-frequencv words they meet. A list to consider for academic English is the Academic Word List, in an appendix in N ation (1990), u p d a te d in Coxheacl (2000 n Another ven' im portant consideration is that we can maximize vocabularv' considerably by teaching word families instead of individual word forms. A word family is a set of words that includes a base word plus its inflections a n d / o r derivations. For purposes of teaching, especially, it makes more sense to view sets such as talk, talked, talking, and talks as members of a closely related "family,” not as four single words, and to help students rec ognize them as such. Presenting word families, with manv words built around a particular root, gathers words together so that associations am ong them can be seen. The psychological literature also supports this view, providing evidence that the m ind groups members of a word family together. An important implication is that when we think of teaching a productive vocabularv of two to three thousand "words," we should actually be thinking in terms of word families as the unit for counting and teaching (Schmitt 2000).
M eaning associations attached to words are also im portant. Words a p p e ar to be organized into semantically related sets in the mind, an d thus the associations attached to a word will affect the wav that it is stored in the brain. Psychologists investigate these associations by presenting subjects with a word and asking them to suggest o th e r words that it brings to mind. For example, they present the word table an d ask what o th er words first come to mind. For table, the most c o m m o n association is chair; for boy it is girl, a n d so on.
Teaching Techniques and Activities New words should not be presented in isolation and should not be learned bv simple rote m em o rization. It is im portant that new vocabulary items be presented in contexts rich e nough to provide clues to m eaning and that students be given multiple exposure to items thev should learn. Exercises and activities include learning words in word association lists, focusing on highlighted words in texts, and plating vocabulary games. More recently, com puter programs that include the sounds of the words as well as illustrative pictures provide opportunity for practice with a variety of contexts, both written and spoken. Especially at beginning levels, the teaching o f word lists through word association techniques has proven to be a successful wav to learn a large n u m b e r of words in a short period and retain th em over time. N ation (1990) notes, for instance, that knowing meaning and hopeful can m ake the learning of meaningful easier. This result should not be surprising, given that words are associated in various wavs and that these associa tions reflect underlying relationships in the mind. That is, as noted previously, the m eaning of a word depends in part on its relationship to simi lar words, and words in a word family are related to each o ther through having a com m on base. Semantic m apping is an activity that helps bring into consciousness relationships am ong words in a text and helps d e e p en understanding bv creating associative networks for words (see especially Stahl and Yancil 1986). A text is chosen based on the words to be learned a n d students are asked to draw a diagram of the relationships
between particular words found in the text. A variation on this technique, a ''vocabulary net work,” could be designed to help even beginning students learn to make semantic associations within particular superordinate headings. As a somewhat simplified example, consider a text describing a scene with a red house, a blue skv, and a vard with green grass and puppies and kit tens plaving on it. The teacher could first discuss the chosen words, provide superordinate categoiy7 headings such as animal and color in circles on the chalkboard, and then help students learn to illus trate the relationships am ong the words bv hav ing them first identify the related words in the text, then draw circles below each category head ing connected bv associative lines, and finally write the appropriate related words in the circles con nected to the headings (e.g.. animal connected with puppy and kitten in associated circles: color connected with red. blue, and green in associated circles). Word association activities can also be con structed with lists of words that are to be learned. For example, students could be given word-match lists such as the following and asked to draw lines from words in the left colum n to those that seem most closelv related in the right column. cough grass
blue pepper
red salt
tea kitten
pupp\ coffee
sneeze green
The pairs. to be m atched should have a clear associative link, such as those given in the list, but closelv related svnonvms or antonvms should probable be avoided. Research shows that simi larities between words can make learning m ore difficult because of interference, or "cross-associ ations." In particular, care should be taken with pairs whose meanings are verv similar. Learners can easily confuse pairs such as left a n d right, for example, because thev have the same semantic features except for “lateral direction." Research indicates that 25 percent of similar words taught together are typically cross-associated. Antonvms are a particular problem because the\ ten d to
come in pairs such as deep/shallow and rich/pour. Synonyms and o ther closelv related semantic groupings (food, clothing, bodv parts) are also problematic. T he way to avoid cross-associations in closely related semantic groups is to integrate new words with old by teaching the most frequent or useful (i.e., "unm arked”) word first (e.g.. deep). and only after it is well established introduce its less frequent ("marked”) antonym p artner (e.g.. shallow) (Nation 1990; Schmitt 2000). For presenting word families, one wav is simple to introduce such a family along with the definitions for each word, as for example, the derivational set act, action, active, actively, activate, actor. A n o th e r wav to isolate the word families that occur in a particular text is bv highlighting them so that students can see the relationships. Highlighting passages in texts has tire advantage of prov iding a more natural context in which stu dents can trace words through the discourse and observe how the forms change according to dis course function. Texts mav be authentic materials or, for initial learning, mav be simple but natural texts constructed bv the teacher. For example: A conductor o f tm orchestra must spend years studying music and must also learn how to conduct other musicians so thev can plav together. The proper conduct of'each musician will contribute to the success of the performance. A n o th e r consideration in teaching vocabu lary is p ro m o tin g a deep level of processing. T he reason is that learning mav involve either short-term memory or long-term memory. Short-term m em ory has a small storage capacity and simply holds inform ation temporarily while it is being processed, usually for only a m atter of seconds. T he im portance of prom oting a deep level of processing is to transfer information from short term m em ory to long-term memory, which has almost unlim ited storage capacity. The m ore stu dents m anipulate and think about a word, the m ore likely it is that the word will be transferred into long-term memory. Research indicates that efficient learning of vocabulary is an increm ental process, one that requires meaningful recurring encounters with a word over time. With respect to classroom activities, for instance, a semantic
m a p p in g o r o th e r semantic network activity could be followed later with pair m atching activ ities. along the lines illustrated earlier. For sug gestions on how to use word set grids a n d o th e r gamelike tasks for m ore advanced learners, see Carter (1998). Teachers can add variety to the techniques employed in the classroom bv alternating other activities with language games that recycle vocab ulary. e.g.. Scrabble. Word Bingo, Concentration, Password. Jeopardy. Language games have the added advantage of being fun, competitive, and consequently, memorable. These games are also activities that students can be encouraged to do on their own.
Implicit Learning Incidental vocabulary learning is learning that occurs when the m ind is focused elsewhere, such as on understanding a text or using language for communicative purposes. A com m on view in vocabulary studies is that we have not been explic itly taught the majority of words that we know, and that beyond a certain level o f proficiency in a second language, vocabulary learning is m ore likelv to be mainly implicit (incidental). Various researchers have concluded that learners should be given explicit instruction an d practice in the first two to three thousand high-frequency words (i.e.. word families), while beyond this level, most low-frequency words will be learned incidentally while reading or listening. The reason that ex plicit learning is thought to be necessary in the ini tial stages is that, unless a high percentage of words on a page are known, it is very difficult to guess the meaning of new words from context. A two to three thousand word base is considered a mini m um "threshold" that enables incidental learning to take place when reading authentic texts. just as having multiple exposures to a word is im portant in explicit learning, so it is im por tant for incidental learning. Tack o f exposure is a com m on problem facing language learners; a good wav to combat this problem is to expose stu dents to extensive reading, sometimes referred to as a "book flood" approach, in which reading is do n e consistently over a period of time. For beginning students, graded readers will probably
give the best access to a huge am o u n t of input. For interm ediate students just on the threshold of reading authentic texts, it ntav be appropriate to read nu m ero u s authentic texts, blit till on the same topic (narrow reading) so that the texts will provide multiple exposure as topic-specific vocabularv is rep e a te d throughout. Advanced students, on the o th er hand, should be e n c o u r aged to read a wide varieiv of authentic texts (wide reading). This tvpe of exposure is im por tant because m eeting a word in different con texts expands what is known about it, thus improving qualitv of knowledge, with additional exposures helping to consolidate it in memorv. Given an increm ental view of vocabularv acqui sition. both elaboration a n d consolidation are crucial (Schmitt 2000).
V O C A B U L A R Y LE A R N IN G ST R A TE G IE S Incidental learning from exposure to texts will be greatlv facilitated if learners use vocabularv learn ing strategies. These strategies will undoubtedlv be required initiallv. in anv case, as students are encouraged to make the transition to in d ep e n d ent learning bv determ ining meanings of the less frequent words tliev read or hear. Strategies should aid both in discovering the m eaning of a new word and in consolidating a word once it has b e e n e n c o u n te re d . Thus, learners should approach in d e p e n d e n t learning of vocabularv bv using a combination of extensive reading and self-stuclv strategies.
Guessing Meaning from Context O n e of the strategies most often discussed in the literature is guessing word m eaning from con text. M aking the transition to in d e p e n d e n t learning can be easier and m ore efficient if teachers help students learn to recognize clues to guessing word m eaning from context. This strategy is a kev vocabularv learning skill for dealing with low-frequencv vocabulary, particu larly in reading authentic texts. Factors that affect the likelihood of success in inferencing include a context rich e n ough to
provide adequate clues to guess a word's m ean ing. Because many contexts are not rich enough, a single context is often not sufficient to allow students to guess the full word meaning. This fact underscores the need for repeated e n c o u n ters with a word in diverse contexts. It is clear, of course, that background knowledge about the topic and the culture greatlv aid inferencing and retention bv providing a framework ("schema”) for incorporating the new word with information already known, but even without such a back g ro u n d learners can become skilled in guessing. T he kev is to learn what clues to look for and where to find them. Clarke and Nation (1980) propose a guess ing strategy based on such clues (also in Nation 1990). A beginning step is to get the learner to look closclv at the unknown word, next to look at its immediate context, and then to take a much broader view of how the clause containing the word relates to other clauses, sentences, or para graphs. Clarke and Nation also include a svstem for learners to check that the guess tliev m ade was the best one possible. The basic steps in this svstem include first deciding the part of speech of the unknown word (e.g.. noun. rerb. adjective, adverb), and then examining the context of the clause or sentence co n ta in in g the word. For instance, if the unknown word is a noun, what adjectives describe it? What verb is it near- If the nets word is a verb, what nouns does it go with? Is it modified bv an adverb? If the new word is an adjective, what n o u n does it go with? The next step is looking at the relationship between this clause or sentence and other sentences or paragraphs. Signals to look for might be a coordinating or subordin ating conjunction such as but, bemuse, if. when or an adverbial such as however, or as a result. Fven if there is no explicit signal, it is h e lp ful to be aware of the possible types of rhetorical relationship, which include cause an d effect, contrast, inclusion, time, exemplification, and summary. P unctuation mav also be helpful as a clue, since semicolons often signal a list or an inclusion relationship, an d dashes mav signal restatem ent or clarification. Reference words such as this, that, an d such also provide useful inform ation if the an te c e d en t can be identified.
Final steps include using knowledge gained from such clues to guess the m eaning of the word, an d then checking in the following wavs to see if the guess is correct: See if the part of speech of the unknow n word is the same as that of the guess; if so. replace the unknow n word with the guessed word; if the sentence makes sense, the guessed word is probably a good par aphrase for the unknow n word. As a final check, break the unknow n word into its prefix, root, an d suffix, if possible, to see if the m eanings of the prefix, root, an d suffix correspond to the guessed word; if not, check the guessed word again but do not m ake changes if it still seems to be the correct choice. T h e steps in this strategy focus mainly on context ra th e r than looking at word parts, a step that is delaved until last. T he reason is that, in the experience of Clarke and Nation, using affixes an d roots alone is not a very reliable aid to guessing, whereas using the context is m ore likely to lead to correct guesses. An im portant assumption of this procedure is that, once the strategy is mastered, learners can begin to skip some of the steps a n d the o th e r steps will becom e m ore automatic. A sec o n d assum ption is that guessing word m eanings in context also leads to dictionary work, but only as a final wav of checking since learners will often be unable to choose the m ost suitable m eaning from those given unless they already have some idea of what the word might mean.
Mnemonic Devices A m ong various o ther strategies often discussed in the literature, one that requires a considerable a m o u n t of m anipulation and deep processing is the Keyword Method, an aid to memory, or a “m nem onic device." which helps to link a word form and its m eaning and to consolidate this linkage in memory. There are three stages. First, the learner chooses an T1 or 1hi word, preferably a concrete entity, based on a phonological or orthographic similarity with the T2 target word. T h e n a strong association between the target word and the keyword must be constructed so that, w hen seeing or hearing the target yvord, the learner is rem in d ed immediately of the keyword.
Finally, a visual image is constructed to com bine the referents of the keyword an d the target word, preferably an o d d o r bizarre image that will help m ake it m ore m em orable (Hulstijn 1997). T he im p o rta n t point to re m e m b e r is that the student m ust learn to concentrate on rem e m bering the image of the interaction between the keyword a n d the foreign yvorcl. .An example cited bv Kasper (1993) illustrates this point. T he target word is the Spanish word payaso (“clown”), and the keyword is the English pie. The association between the target word and the keyword is to think of the image of a clown thrcnving a pie at a friend. Students can also be encouraged to draw simple pictures with stick figures to illustrate the image and thus further aid m em o ry — in this case, stick figures representing the clown a n d the friend, with the pie in midair between them.
Vocabulary Notebooks A fu rth e r suggestion for a m em ory aid in in d e p e n d e n t learning is setting up vocabulary n o te books. Schmitt an d Schmitt (1995) re c o m m e n d arranging the n o teb o o k in a loose-leaf b in d er or index card file, in which, for instance, students yvrite yvord pairs a n d semantic maps which help th em visualize the associative network of rela tionships existing between neyv a n d familiar words. O th e r activities related to the notebooks include keeping a tally of every time they he a r or see a neyv yvord yvithin a certain p eriod a n d n o t ing its frequency, learning roots a n d derivatives in the word's family7by studying what affixes are used to change its part of speech, m aking notes on sty listic aspects of the yvord, o r writing a sen tence illustrating its use.
Other Learner Strategies Various o th e r learner strategies can help in dis covering yvord m eaning an d in consolidating it in memory. Teachers can encourage students to check for an LT cognate, study an d practice in pe e r groups, connect a yvord to personal experi ence o r previous learning, say a neyv yvord aloud yvhen studying, use verbal an d written repeti tion, a n d engage in e x te n d e d rehearsal (review neyv material soon after initial learning a n d then at gradually increasing intervals).
It is, ofcour.se, neither possible n o r desirable for learners to try to use all strategies all the time, but they mav find it useful to vary strategies that seem m ore appropriate to a given situation, for example, d e p e n d in g on w hether the context is explicit classroom learning activities or in d e p e n d e n t learning such as reading or speaking. Often, individual preferences will d e term ine strategy use.
C O L L O C A T IO N S So far we have considered vocabulary onlv in term s o f single words a n d w ord families. However, vocabulary knowledge involves consid erably m ore than just knowing the m eaning of a given word in isolation: it also involves knowing the words that tend to co-occur with it. These patterns, or collocations, consist of pairs or groups o f words that co-occur with very high frequence a n d are im p o r ta n t in vocabulary le a rn in g because, as N attinger notes, "the m eaning of a word has a great deal to do with the words with which it com m only associates" (1988. p. 69). These associations assist the lea rn er in com m it ting these words to m e m o ir and also aid in defining the semantic area of a word. If collocational associations are not learned as part of L2 vocabulary knowledge, the resulting irregularities will immediately m ark the learner's speech or writing as deviant or odd in some wav an d as decidedly non-native. Native speakers of English, for example, refer to "spoiled" butter as rancid butter a nd "spoiled" milk as sour milk, but not as ^sour butter or *rancid milk. A few examples of wrong word combinations that have occurred in non-native speech are *feeble tea, *laugh broadly, *hold a burial, and *healthy advice (Balms 1993). It is also im portant for learners to recog nize that collocational relationships are n o t equally powerful in both directions, so that ran cid strongly suggests the collocate butter, for instance, but butter onlv weakly suggests rancid, if at all. Thus rancid does not readily co-occur with o th e r nouns, but butter can co-occur quite freely with any n u m b e r of o th er adjectives, such as sweet butter, soft butter, dairy butler, unsalted butter, creamy butter, tasty butter, artificial butter, an d so on. T h e word in the com bination that is restricted in
this way, such as rancid or sour, is known as the "key” word of the collocation. T he key word does n o t always occur as the first word in the colloca tion, as for example, the keyw ord fire in set/start a fire, b u t not *begin/ commence/ initiate a fire. Very commonly, collocations are associated pairs such as adjective-noun o r verb-noun, b u t it is misleading to think of them in terms o f pairs onlv. O n e reason is that thev often occur as m ul tiword linear sequences three to five words long, e.g\, a short-term strategy, to pay attention to some thing/ someone. A n o th e r reason is that a collocate m em b e r mav co-occur with a cluster or range of words, rath e r than being limited to one word with which it pairs. Thus even a highly restricted pair m em ber such as rancid co-occurs with several o ther nouns, mainlv rancid lard, rancid oil, rancid dressing (as in salad dressing). Likewise, sour co occurs with other nouns, as in sour cherries, sour apples (i.e.. describing the taste o f nonsweet fruit, or a similar non-sweet fruit taste in certain candv). or even metaphorically, as in sour note, sour disposition. However, the range of restricted collocates for words like rancid a n d sour is quite limited. We do not normally sav, for instance, rancid cheese, rancid jam. rancid syrup or sour meat, sour beets, sour fish. These restrictions mar- at first glance seem to present additional learning problem s to over come. but in fact thev mav be in co rp o rated into vocabulary studv as useful aids in learning. This is what Nattinger has in m in d when he maintains that collocational associations assist the learner in com m itting these words to m e m o ir a n d help in defining the semantic area of a word. C oncerning collocational associations as m em ory aids, researchers have noted that vocabulary is best learned in context and that words that are naturally associated in a text are m ore easily learned than those haring no such associations.
Semantic Associations With respect to their usefulness in helping to define the semantic area o f a word, note that in the examples discussed earlier the words in each collocational range are clustered according to certain semantic features they have in com m on. For instance, rancid co-occurs with butter, lard, oil,
salad dressing, all of "which have in c o m m o n the semantic feature of “oily” as part of their base, thus disallowing rancid cream, rancid milk, rancid cheese, rancid jam, rancid syrup- Similarly, sour co occurs with milk or fruit, having in com m on the semantic feature “tvpe of bad taste” o r “tart taste," both of which are associated with causing the lips to pucker, thus disallowing sour butter, sour lard, sour meat, sour beets, sour fish, sour tomatoes. Teachers can exploit these characteristics of restricted collocational clusters bv presenting them in contexts in which they naturally occur and by pointing out the semantic links am ong them. Notice also that the words in these clusters, while having semantic features in com m on, are not so similar as to be a likely cause of confusion. Recall the cautionary note m entioned earlier con cerning the problem of cross-association when teaching closely related semantic pairs or groups such as synonvms and antonyms. Cross-association difficulties are not likely to be caused bv these clus ters because, although the collocational members have associated semantic links, their meanings are not nearly as closely associated as are svnonvms or antonyms, which either have verv similar m ean ings or have only one opposing feature.
Syntactic Collocation Types Collocations fall into two main syntactic groups. They mav he either grammatical collocations or lexi cal collocations. Grammatical collocations are those in which a noun, verb, or adjective frequently co occurs with a grammatical item, usually a preposi tion. Examples are reason for, account for, rely on, afraid of, leery of, by accident, in retrospect. Lexical col locations differ in that they do not contain gram matical words, but consist of combinations of full lexical items, i.e., nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. They include combinations such as verb + noun (spend money, inflict a wound), adjective + n o u n (rancid butter, densefog), verb + adverb (laugh loudly), and adjective + adverb (deeply absorbed). Bahns (1993), in a contrastive study o f col locations, reports that learners seem to rely on a “hypothesis o f transferability,” w hereby the majority of collocational errors fo u n d in learner English can be traced to LI influence. Examples are *drive a bookshop instead of run a bookshop,
based on influence from a Polish equivalent; '■'■make attention at instead of pay attention to, from a F rench equivalent; a n d *finish a conflict instead o f resolve a conflict, from a G erm an equivalent. Bahns rec om m ends that, whenever possible, it would be helpful to identify those collocations (of the set to be learned) that a lea rn er with a p a rtic u la r L I b a c k g ro u n d “knows a lre ad y ” because of an equivalent in the LI a n d in English. Teachers could th e n h e lp students focus on identifying the differences for a chosen g roup of semantically equivalent L 1 /L 2 pairs.
Teaching Activities As we have seen in the previous discussion, col locations plav an im p o rta n t role in vocabulary learning. "Knowing a w ord” includes not only knowing the m eaning o f a word, its p a rt of speech, a n d its word family a n d o th e r associa tions, but it also m eans knowing if its occurrence is restricted bv certain collocations. And if so, it also m eans knowing the range o f these colloca tional patterns (for a m o re detailed discussion of various collocational sets, ranges, and restric tions, see Garter 1998, C h a p te r 3). For m ore a dvanced learners, know ing a word should include at least some knowledge of collocation' to the extent possible. Classroom activities can be designed for this purpose. For example, following presenta tions in which collocations have b e e n illustrated in context, perhaps by highlighting them in pas sages from texts, word-match activities can help in consolidating the patterns. As an illustration, a n o u n such as intellect can be given with lists of adjectives with which it does an d does n o t co occur, with directions to circle the appropriate collocates an d th en check answers against a key given on a separate sheet. rkeen
H e has a
key: keen, sharp,
sharp
superior,
high
exceptional
superior exceptional strong , healthy
intellect.
A similar m atching exercise can be constructed for verbs (in traduce collocates with a person, a bill, a motion, an amendment, but not an idea, an object, a conclusion), for adjectives (likely collocates with choice, prospect, story, tale, but not article, memoir, belief), and so on. Gap-filling activities provide another type of practice. Students are asked to choose all possible words from a thematicallv related list, some of which will be needed m ore than once, and some of which will not be needed at all. For example: job position
work task
labor occupation emplovm ent
a. T hat j o b requires h ard phvsical______ .
b. In to d a v 's ______ market, co m p u te r skills are im portant. c. I ’ll m eet vou for d in n e r a f t e r ______ todav. d. You n e e d to concentrate on t h e ______
at hand. e. W hat line o f _____ are vou in? f. H er c h o s e n _____ is carpentrv. g. He was p ro m o te d to a supervisorv
Finallv, with respect to when collocations should be introduced, a word of caution is in order. For vocabularv instruction in the earliest stages, some researchers recom m end that colloca tions not be included at all. Thev represent a more advanced tvpe of word knowledge that should be left to higher-level students who are enhancing a n d consolidating vocabularv alreadv partially learned. Beginners should focus instead on devel oping a large basic vocabularv and learning the typical contexts in which the words occur.
Idioms are multiword units that are com pletely fixed. Thev are fu rth e r distinguished as having a unitarv m eaning that ca n n o t be derived from the m eanings of the c o m p o n e n t parts. T h a t is, the com bination of words in blow one’s mind have the u n i ta n m eaning astonish; those in be under the weather have the unitarv m eaning feel ill. This unitarv m eaning is the main characteris tic that sets idioms apart from ordinarv colloca tions. in which the m eanings do reflect the m ea n in g of each constituent part. It is the unitarv m eaning of idioms that makes them particularlv troublesome for second language learners since the m eaning cannot normally be guessed bv the m eaning of the words that make them up. Learners are likelv to be mys tified bv idioms such as to let the cat out of the bag (to reveal a secret), to shoot the breeze (to engage in casual conversation), to shed crocodile tears (to be insincere), or to bite the dust (to die). O n the other hand, thev are likelv to be entirelv misled bv what appears to be a transparent literal m eaning of other idioms such as to have cold feet (to lack courage), to hair second thoughts (to have doubt), to tighten one's belt (to be m ore economical), or to have a good heart (to be a kind person). Idioms are a commonlv occurring tvpe of multiword unit in English, especiallv in informal conversational settings, and should not be ignored in vocabularv studies. Activities for the classroom could include presentation in authentic texts, such as dailv newspaper cartoons comic strips and dialogues from m odern drama, and exercises that match idioms and their meanings, similar to the matching activities suggested earlier for other tvpes of collocational units.
Idioms
R E C E N T D EV E LO P M E N TS
In the previous section, collocations were dis cussed in terms of restricted pairs or sets of multi word combinations. Restrictions on patterns are described in terms of kev words and the range or set of associated words that can co-occur with them. Not all collocational patterns are entirely equal, however, as some are relativelv m ore "fixed” than others.
Corpus Studies Recent developm ents in corpus studies have led to m ajor changes in language description and have greatlv e x p a n d ed ou r knowledge of collo cations. idioms, a n d o th e r multiword units (see especiallv Sinclair 1991). O n e problem in teach ing collocations, for example, is deciding which
ones ought to he included. Researchers h a te p o in te d out that, given the huge n u m b e r of pos sible collocations for even a limited n u m b e r of words, there needs to be some principled wav to limit the total to a m anageable num ber. Data from corpus studies have provided new possibil ities for finding solutions to such problems. Computers have made possible the collec tion of huge databases of language ranging in length from short phrases or sentences up to entire books. These corpus studies allow access to a variety of samples from language as it is actually used in real-world settings in a wide range of gen res, both written and spoken. O ne of the most often cited studies is the COBUILD project (The Collins-Birmingham University International Language Database), with a corpus of many mil lions of words. This project has also produced several dictionaries and grammars, including a dictionary of collocations. O ne insight from corpus studies is that mamwords collocate with other words from a definable semantic set. This insight gives teachers guidance by providing a n o th e r criterion for choosing which collocational sets to include in vocabulary lessons. Stubbs (1993). for instance, shores that cause tvpicallv collocates -with unpleasant things such as problems, difficulties, trouble, damage, death, pain, anguish, and disease. Conversely, provide col locates mainlv with positive things such as insights, information, sendees, aid. assistance, support, and money. This difference can be highlighted with the word work. To provide work is considered a good thing, but to cause work is not. T he results of corpus studies has been in co rporated into recent dictionaries such as the Collins C 0BL1ID English Dictionary (1993) or the Dictionary of Selected Collocations (Hill a n d Tewis 1997). Advanced learners can be e n c ouraged to use these dictionaries themselves to look up col locations for p a rtic u la r words they mav e n c o u n te r incidentally in reading or elsewhere. Also, teachers can refer to such dictionaries to select collocational sets for words chosen from frequency lists for explicit vocabulary studies. A nother innovation from corpus research concerns Sinclair's observations of patterns that extend bevond the collocational units them selves. In particular, there are cases in which a
word that is chosen guides an d constrains the lex ical choices several words awav. Schmitt (2000) discusses this discourse pa tte rn in g in relation to the word sorry. He describes various contexts and patterns for this word and notes that, for example, one of its collocates is so, creating the sequence so sorry. If the c oncordance data from the corpus are exam ined m ore carefully, how ever. it turns out that the pa tte rn in g is m uch m ore restricted. T he main occurrences of so sorry are in two patterns, one with so sorry to an d o n e with so sorry for. T he form er is usually followed bv some in c o n v e n ie n c e the sp e ak e r regrets having caused, such as being late or troubling someone. An exam ple is I'm so sorry to have to ask you these personal questions. The latter, on the o ther hand, is normally followed bv a reference to people who have experienced some tvpe of unfortunate situa tion such tts injure or loss of a loved one, and it tends to cluster with some form of the verb feel, as in / feel so sorry for that dead boy's family. Schmitt notes that, from this perspective, we see that words are not chosen in isolation, but rather, can have ramifications some distance awav from their actual placement in the discourse. While it is difficult to see how this sort of patterning could be taught explicitly, it does seem worthwhile to at least point it out in vocabu la n lessons. Ifle a rn e rs are m ade aware of such patterns as part of the context in which colloca tions occur, thev can then be encouraged to pav attention to similar patterns in the context of new words thev encounter.
Lexical Phrases Lexica!phrases represent an o th e r com m on tvpe of multiword unit. Xattinger and DeCarrico (1992) define lexical phrases as "chunks" of language' of varying length, conventionalized form /funclion composites that occur m ore frequently and have m ore idiomatically determ ined m eaning than language that is put together from scratch. Some are completely fixed expressions such as by the way. how do you do?, give me a break. Others are relativelv fixed phrases that have a basic frame with slots for various fillers. Thev include shorter
phrases such as a ___ ago, or longer phrases or clauses such as the___erX, the___ er Y; If I X, then I ’ll Y. Examples with the slots filled are a year ago; a month ago; the higher the mountain, the harder the climb; the longer you unit, the sleepier you get; if I hear that one more time, I'll scream. Lexical phrases are tvpes of collocations a n d thev are m ore or less idiomatic (e.g., m ore so in by the way, how do you ?, but less so in the high er the mountain, the harder the climb). However, they differ from idioms and o ther ordinary collo cations in that each is associated with a particular discourse function, such as expressing time, greetings, relationships a m o n g ideas, or condi tion. T he evidence from various studies, espe cially c o m p u te r analyses of texts, indicates that lexical phrases a n d o th e r prefabricated units are pervasive in language.
Types of Lexical Phrases In o rd e r to make lexical phrases m ore pedagogically useful, thev har e been classified according to function and g rouped into three broad cate gories. A few representative examples are the fol lowing (for m ore detailed lists of tvpes and functions, see Xattinger and DeCarrico 1992): Social Interactions greetings/ closings: politeness/ routines:
hi; how are you?; what's up?/ gotta run now; see you later thanks so/very much: if you don 7 mind; if you please
requesting: Modal + P ronoun + Verb phrase (i.e., would/could you [mind] X?) complying:
how much is X?; 1 want to buy/see X; it tdoesn 7) jilts)
etc. Discourse Desires logical connectors: tem poral con nectors: qualifiers: relators: exemplifiers:
as a result (of X); nevertheless; because (of) X; in spite o fX the day/week/month/year/before/ after X; and then if depends on X; the catch here is X; it \ only in X that Y on the other hand: but look at X: in addition: not only in X hut ) in other words: for example; to give you an example
etc. In general, social interactions and discourse devices proride lexical phrases for the framework of the discourse, whereas necessary topics proride them for the subject at hand. These phrases are the primary markers which signal the direction of dis course. whether spoken or written. When they s e n e as discourse devices, their function is to sig nal. for instance, whether the information to fol low is in contrast to. in addition to. or an example of information that has preceded. Those such as on the other hand, hut look at X signal contrast; in addition, moreover signal addition: it depends on X, the catch here is A signal qualification of previous comm ents, a n d so on. W hen lexical phrases serve as social interactional markers, on the o th e r hand, their primary function is to describe social relations and. in general, to help structure discourse in wavs appropriate to m aintaining social relations.
of course, sure thing; I'd by happy to; no problem (at all)
W h y Teach Lexical Phrases
etc. Necessary Topics language:
shopping:
do you speak X?; how do you say/spell X?; I speak X (a little)
time:
when is X?; to X for a long time; a X ago; since X; it '.s X o’clock
location:
where is X?; across from X; next to X; how far is X?
Lexical phrases offer various advantages for teach ing conversation and other tvpes of discourse. Lor example, because they are stored and retrieved as whole chunks, they allow for expressions that learners mav as yet be unable to construct cre atively. Thus even for lower level learners, thev can help ease frustration and prom ote motivation and a sense of fluency. These phrases also ought to
prove highly m em orable, since thee are e m b e d de d in socially a p p ropriate situations. More importantly, they provide learners with an effi cient m eans of interacting with others about selfselected topics. A n o th e r advantage in te a c h in g lexical phrases is that they can first be learned as unseg m e n te d wholes, together with their discourse functions, and in later encounters can be ana lyzed an d learned as individual words, thus pro viding additional vocabulary.
Teaching Activities O n e wax of teaching lexical phrases is to start with a lew basic fixed routines, which learners th en analyze as increasingly variable patterns as thev are exposed to m ore varied phrases. Thus, practice with a few phrases in appropriate con texts can be followed fix pattern drills as a wax of pro m o tin g fluency with certain basic fixed ro u tines. T he challenge for the teacher is to use such drills to allow confidence and fluencx. \et not overdo them to the point that thev become mindless exercises, as was often the u n fortunate result in strict aucliolingualism. T he next step is controlled variation in using these basic phrases with the help of simple su b stitu tion drills to d e m o n s tra te that the chunks learned previously tire not invariable routines, but instead patterns with open slots. For example, in teaching formulas for sympathy the phrase I'm treally/so i ivery) sorry to hear (that/about) X can be in tro d u c ed first as. I'm sorry to hmr that you ain't come to the part y. followed later bv substitution drills with m ore expanded patterns, such as Гт very sorry to hear that you haul the flu, an d then later on. I'm really very sorry to hmr that there was a death in your family. To high light the appropriate variation for given con texts. the first version should be practiced in the c ontext of m in o r inconvenience (missing a parts), the second, a m ore serious misfortune (Taxing an illness), and the third, a very u n fo r tunate situation (a death or o th er personal tragedy). Xattinger and DeCarrico (1992) also provide suggestions for incorporating lexical phrase activities into listening or reading classes (see especially C hapter b).
Lexical Approaches W hereas N attinger a n d DeCarrico emphasize that c urrent texts and teaching approaches can be adapted to include lexical phrases, some a p p lie d linguists have recently' p r o m o t e d approaches that take lexis itself as the basis for organizing the syllabus or the overall teaching ap p ro a c h (Sinclair an d R e n o u f 1988; Wallis 1990: I.exvis 1993: 1997). T he basic organizing principle of these approaches is the frequency and usef ulness of words and xvord combinations. Lewis (1993). for instance, concentrates on lexical chunks themselves as the foundation of teaching. For I.exvis. "language consists of grarnmaticalised lexis, not lexicalised grammar," and language teaching needs to develop awareness of and ability to "chunk" language successfully (p. vi). C om m on words are co m m o n precisely because thev occur in so m am expressions. Lewis stresses the im portance of learning chunks of language m ade up of lexico-grammatical patterns, a large n u m b e r of which tire prep a tte rn e d an d can be used by learners in form ulaic, r e h e a rs e d wavs. T hese c hunks include lexical phrases, but also include o ther txpes of collocations, such as nouns learned in appropriate chunks with adjectival and verbal collocations, verbs learned with probable adver bial collocates, c o m m o n m e ta p h o rs an d m e ta p h o r sets, an d so on.
C O N C L U S IO N Lexical com petence is a central part of c om m u nicative competence, and teaching vocabulary a central part of teaching language. While some questions remain concerning how to teach and what to teach, considerable progress has been m ade concerning the issues of explicit versus implicit learning, which strategies to teach, and which and how many lexical items to include in initial instruction. Recently, corpus studies have yielded important insights concerning the nature of lexis. As these studies continue to expand inves tigations into patterns of lexis in discourse, they hold great promise for exciting new directions in vocabulary learning and teaching.
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
In the past century, vocabulary was a neg lected area of study in the ESI- EFE class room. Discuss several reasons for this period of neglect as well as the major influences that resulted in the c urrent emphasis on vocabulary studv. Should m o re emphasis be given to explicit or implicit vocabulary learning at the begin ning level? At m ore advanced levels? Whv do you think so? From vour own experience, e ith e r as a teacher or as a learner of an 1 .2. which vocab ulary learning strategies or com bination of strategies do vou feel would be the most effective for incidental learning? Which do vou feel m ight be m ore helpful in motivating students to learn vocabulary at a faster rate while at the same time helping them to co n solidate words in long term memory? Do vou agree that collocations, idioms, and lexical phrases should be included in vocab ulary studv? Whv or whv not? If thev are to be included, what are some of the difficulties that need to be considered? What are some possible solutions? Explain some of the wavs in which insights from corpus studies pro tid e guidance for incorporating collocations and o th er pat tern e d phrases into vocabulary teaching and learning.
a.
Do the words seem to vou to be fre q u e n t and useful ones: b. Are at least some words presented in sets of word families, either inflectional or derivational? c.
Does the text involve explicit learning only? d. Does it include suggested strategies for implicit learning? 3. Select one beginning reading text and one advanced reading text. From one chapter in each, identilv ten lexical items that vou think might present problems for learners. Discuss how vou would approach teaching these lexi cal items, first for the beginning level learn ers and then for the m ore advanced learners. 4. Explain how von would use the following dialogue to teach m ore advanced learners various lexical phrases as appropriate to par ticular tvpes of contexts. Situation: The two speakers are acquaintances who work for the same company and live in the same apartm ent building, but are not close friends. [Man knocks on J o h n ’s apart ment door.] J: Well, hello. M an. What a surprise. M:
Hello. Jo h n , i l l I'm sorry / didn't call before coming over (apology), but my p h o n e is out of order.
}:
O h well. (2) that's OK (acceptance of apology). (3) (dome on in (invitation).
M:
Look Jo h n , the real reason I came over is that I need a favor. I have to catch a plane to Chicago an d I just discovered mv car has a flat tire. (4) / wonder if sou would mind terriblу driving me to the airport right own у (request).
J:
(3) Sure thing (com pliance). Mary. I know vou'd do the same for me.
M:
(6 ) Thanks so much. (7) You saved ms life! (6 a n d 7: expressing gratitude)
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1.
2.
Select ten words a n d com pare their entries in three or four dictionaries. W hat differ ences do vou find in the definitions? Does it seem to vou that some entries would be m ore useful than others for second language learners? Whv? Select a n d evaluate a vocabulary text accord ing to the following criteria:
FU R T H ER R EA D IN G
— 2000. Vocabulary in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Learning Strategies
Classroom Activities and Exercises
Nation, I. S. P. 1990. Teaching and Learning Vocabulary. Boston, MA.: Heinle & Heinle. (Also good for classroom activities and exercises.) Schmitt, N. 1997. Vocabulary learning strategies. In Vocabulary: Description, Acquisition, and Pedagogy, edited by N. Schmitt and M. McCarthy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Allen. Y. F. 1983. 'Techniques in Teaching Vocabulary. New York: Oxford University Press. Gairns. R.. and S. Redman. 1986. Working with Words: .4 Guide to leaching and Learning Vocabulary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Redman, S.. and R. Ellis. 1989. A Way with Words. Book 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
UNIT
III
Integrated Approaches Since the 1980s, w e nave witnessed a gradual movement away from rather narrow language teaching methods toward broader integrated approaches in language teaching, approaches that encourage the team -g of all four skills within the general fram ework of using
o 'g w g e w *
learning as well as for communication.The first such appro am w e s e m e : in this section is content-based language teaching, which s c s c w s e c Snow's chapter This approach assumes that language
s cost
'
ewe:
when it is used as a medium of instruction for learning s ec ern ' g e m such as academic content. McKay's chapter advocates a oem swe-sese; approach by showing the teacher how to use well-se^ctec c ece: w literature in the target language as content for a variety of act . ces mat enhance language learning, Eyring's chapter shows how the leame-s
w
experiences (those he or she has already had and those the class initiates,! can form the basis for meaningful language development and use. Finally M cGroarty's
chapter surveys the
various
models
used
in bilingual
education, noting that the more effective maintenance and two-way models offer learners an opportunity for quality content education along with a mastery of at least tw o languages. All four of these multiskills approaches prom ote effective language development; they indicate both the cutting edge and future directions for the profession,
Content-Based and Immersion Models for Second and Foreign Language Teaching M A R G U E R IT E
A N N
S N O W
n "Content-Based and Immersion Models," Snow orcvices a rationale for Integrated language and content instruction as well as detailed descriptions of orogmm models in both second and foreign language teaching. She also provides examples of instructions, strategies that can be used by language and content instructors and discusses current and future trends in content-based teaching.
IN T R O D U C T IO N T h ro u g h o u t the history of second foreign lan guage teaching, the word contmt has had mans different interpretations. Historically in m ethods such as gram m ar-translation, content was defined as the gram m atical structures of the target lan guage. In the aucliolingual m ethod, content con sisted of gram m atical structures, vocabulary or sound patterns presented in dialogue form . Metre recently com m unicative approaches define con tent in an altogether different was. C ontent in these approaches generally is defined as the com m unicative purposes for svhich speakers tise the second 'foreign language. Tims, in a class follow ing a notional functional orientation, the con tent of a unit m ight be im itations, and individual lessons m ight cover question types, polite versus inform al im itation forms, and wavs to accept or decline im itations. Similarly the co n ten t o f a Natural A pproach lesson m ight be a game in svhich students m ust locate the person who m atches a certain description bv asking each o th er questions, thereby using language for prob lem solving. M ore recently a n o th e r definition o f con ten t has em erg ed in an ap proach th at is the focus o f this chapter. C ontent, in this in te rp re ta tion, is the use of subject m atter for s e c o n d / foreign language teach in g purposes. Subject m atte r mas consist o f topics o r them es based on stu d e n t interest or n eed in an adult EFL setting,
or it mas be s e n specific, such as the subjects that students are currently studsing in their elem en tary school classes. This approach is in keeping with the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) tra dition. w here the vocational or occupational needs of the learn er are identified and used as the basis for curriculum and m aterials develop m en t (see the c h a p te r bv Jo h n s and PriceM achado in this volum e). C ontent-based second language in stru ctio n generally has a stro n g English for Academic Purposes (EAP) orienta tion. in which the m ain instructional goal is to prepare second language students for the types of academ ic tasks they will en co u n ter in school, col lege. or university. C ontent-based m odels can be fo u n d in both the foreign and second language settings. They can be im p lem en ted to teach foreign lan guages to English-speaking ch ild ren at the ele m entary school level in im m ersion program s or applied to secondary a n d postsecondary set tings. M odels of content-based instruction differ in im plem entation cltte to such factors as educa tional setting, program objectives, a n d target p o p ulation. .All share, however, a com m on p oint o f d e p a rtu re — th e in te g ra tio n o f lan g u ag e teaching aims with subject m atte r instruction. This c h a p te r begins with a rationale for contentbased instruction followed bv descriptions of well-established m odels a n d m ore re c e n t varia tions. Later, sam ple activities for in teg ratin g lan guage and c o n te n t are presented. T he c h a p te r
concludes with a discussion of current and future tre n d s in in te g ra te d language an d c o n te n t instruction.
C O N T E N T -B A S E D IN S T R U C T IO N :A R A TIO N A LE T h e theoretical fo u ndations for content-based instru ctio n can be draw n from a variety o f sources, including second language acquisition research a n d work in educational a n d cognitive psychology. C ontent-based instruction fulfills a n u m b e r of conditions which have b een posited as necessarv for successful second 'fo re ig n lan guage acquisition. A ccording to K rashen (1984), second language acquisition occurs w hen the le a rn e r receives c o m p re h e n sib le in p u t, not w hen the le a rn e r is m em orizing vocabularv or c o m p le tin g g ra m m a r exercises. T h e re fo re , m ethods that provide students with m ore com p reh en sib le in p u t will be m ore successful. He states th a t “c o m p re h e n sib le su b je c t-m atter teach in g is language teaching" (p. 62) since learners acquire language w hen thcv u n d e r stand messages in that language. In contentbased instruction, the focus is on the subject m atter a n d n o t on the form or. as Krashen says, on “what is being said ra th e r than lwur (p. 62). B ased on m anv large-scale studies of C anadian im m ersion program s. Swain (1986. 1993) suggests that in o rd e r to develop com m u nicative c o m p e te n c e , le a rn e rs m ust have e x te n d e d o p p o rtu n ities to use the second for eign language prodttctivelv. Thus, in addition to receiving com preh ensible input, thev m ust p ro duce com prehensible output: in o th e r words, explicit atten tio n m ust be paid to the productive language skills o f speaking and writing. She m aintains th at learners n e e d to be "pushed tow ard the deliverv o f a message th at is . . . convevecl preciselv, c o h e re n tly an d ap p ro p riately ” (1986, p. 249). C ontent-based instruction can provide this push since students learn to p ro duce language which is ap p ro p riate in term s of b o th c o n te n t an d language. M ore re c e n tly sociocultural ap p ro ach es which draw theoretical support from the work of Yvgotskv have been used to prom ote first lan guage (L.1 ) literacy developm ent in m ulticultural
e le m en ta rv school settings (see T h a rp a n d G allim ore 1988) an d offer prom ise for e n h a n c ing o u r u n d e rsta n d in g of second language (T2) lea rn in g (L antolf a n d Appel 1994: SchinkeLlano 1993). Yvgotskv's notions of (1) the zone of proxim al developm ent (in which learners are assisted bv teachers or "m ore capable peers” in their developm ent) and (2 ) inner speech (inter nally directed speech as strategies for problem solving and rehearsing) can be effectively realized in content-based settings w here students have opportunities to negotiate not ju st language, bttt content as well, in increasinglv com plex wavs. G rabe and Stoller's (1997) review of the research foundations of content-based instruc tion looks outside the second language acquisi tion literature to research in educational and cognitive psvchologv for some of the most per suasive support. Research in learning theorv (A nderson 1993) has b een used to support the Cognitive A cadem ic T anguage L earning A p p ro ach (CALLA) (C ham ot an d O ’M ailer 1994). A nderson's theorv reinforces teaching approaches which com bine the developm ent of language and co n ten t knowledge, practice in using this knowledge, and strategy training to pro m ote in d ep e n d e n t learning. A nother area of cognitive investigation, depth-of-pi ocessing research, reveals that when learners are exposed to co h eren t and m eaningful inform ation and have opportunities to elaborate the inform ation their linkages are m ore com plex and recall is bet ter (A nderson 1990). Content-based approaches prom ote extended practice with c o h eren t con tent coupled with relevant language learning activities such as teaching how knowledge struc tures can be realized through language and con tent (see M ohan 1986; Tang 1992. 1997). Research on the nature of expertise also pro vides sup p o rt for content-based approaches. B ereiter and Scardam alia (1993) argue that expertise is a process in which learners reinvest their knowledge in a sequence of progressively m ore com plex problem-solving tasks. As learners are exposed to increasing complexitv in learning activities, their learning improves and thev develop intrinsic m otivation. They seek connections between sets of inform ation, acquire the relevant skills to accomplish tasks, and becom e increasingly
m ore adept at problem solving. Grabe and Stoller (1997) note that effective content-based instruc tional approaches “com bine coherent and interest ing informational resources to create increasing, but manageable, task complexity" ip. 14).
M O DELS O F C O N T E N T -B A S E D IN S T R U C T IO N M odels of content-based instruction can be dis tinguished from each o th e r by several different m eans. O ne is by setting; som e m odels are typi cally im p lem en ted in the foreign language set ting while others are m ore com m on in the second language context. A n o th e r wavy to distin guish content-based m odels is by instructional leyel. T h ere are m any well-developed exam ples re p o rte d in the literatu re o f in teg rated language and c o n te n t teaching at the elem entary school level; o th e r m odels have tvpicallv b een im ple m ented successfully at the secondary or postsecondarv levels with adolescents or adults. A third wav to capture underlying differences in contentbased models is to look at the degree of emphasis on language and content which underlies a partic ular program (Met 1998). In Figure 1, Met (1999. p. 7), envisioning a continuum , places ''contentdriven" models at one end while "language-driven" models appear at the other end. In the sections that follow, five m odels of content-based instruction are described. T he first two are w ell-developed exam ples of m odels designed to teacli foreign languages to Englishspeaking children at the elem entary school level. The last three m odels hav e been im plem ented in secondary and postsecondarv second language
settings. Some can be classified as m ore “languagedriven," others as m ore “content-driven," d epend ing upon the objectives o f the program , its target student population, and the dem ands o f the instructional setting.
Immersion Education T he im m ersion m odel of foreign language ed u cation is perhaps the prototypical content-based approach. First established in 1965 in a suburb of M ontreal. Canada, im m ersion program s can now be found across C anada and the U nited States, providing education in such foreign languages as F rench. Spanish. G erm an, C hinese, a n d Japanese. 1 In the total im m ersion m odel, Englishspeaking elem entary school students receive the majority of their schooling th ro u g h the m edium of their second language. Im m ersion students, in Culver City. California, for instance, learn to read, to do m athem atics problem s, an d to conduct science experim ents in Spanish; in fact, they go about the business o f school like all o th er children, albeit in their second language. T he im m ersion m odel is one o f the most carefully researched language program s (see G enesee 1987: J o h n so n and Swain 1997). Im m ersion children consistently perform at o r above grade lev el scholastically, are on par with th eir m onolin gual peers in English language developm ent, and bv the end of the elem entary school, becom e functional bilinguals. T he Culver City Spanish Im m ersion pro gram is an exam ple of early total im m ersion; in earlv im m ersion the foreign language is generally used for most or all academ ic instruction begin ning in kindergarten or grade 1. O th e r variations
C on ten t-D riven
Language-Driven
-< Total Immersion
► Partial Immersion
Sheltered Courses
Adjunct Model
Theme-Based Courses
Language Classes with Frequent Use of Content for Language Practice
Figure I . Content-Based Language Teaching: A Continuum of Content and Language Integration
have developed over the years which differ with respect to the am o u n t of tim e the foreign lan guage is used for instruction an d the grade in w hich the p rogram begins. In m iddle o r delayed im m ersion, onset o f instruction in the foreign lan g u a g e b egins in the m id d le e le m e n ta ry grades, usuallv in the fou rth grade. Late im m er sion program s do not tvpicallv begin until the e n d o f elem entarv school or the b eg in n in g of secondare school. In earlv partial im m ersion program s, th ere is usuallv a 50 50 tim e alloca tion o f English a n d the foreign language to teach academ ic co n ten t.- W hile the bulk o f im m ersion program s exist in C anada and the Lhiited States, the m odel has also been im ple m e n te d in in te rn a tio n a l settings such as H ungary, Spain, a n d F inland (Johnson and Swain 1997). A ccording to Cloud. G enesee, and Ham ayan (2000). despite differences in program design and deliverv, most im m ersion program s share the following four objectives: 1. 2. 3.
4.
grad e-ap p ro p riate levels of prim arv lan guage (LI) developm ent. g rad e-ap p ro p riate levels of academ ic achievem ent, fu n c tio n a l pro ficien cv in th e seco n d foreign language, an understanding of and appreciation for the culture of the target language group (p. 5).
Content-Enriched Foreign Language in the Elementary School D uring the 1950s an d 1960s. Foreign Language in the E lem entarv School (FEES) program s were w idespread across the L n ite d States. In this m odel, “traveling” language teachers m et with elem entarv school children for approxim atelv 20 to 30 m inutes, several tim es p e r week, for instruction in the foreign language. These classes ten d ed to focus on form al studv o f the foreign language and were often criticized for their fail ure to produce functional users of the foreign language. “C ontent-enriched" FLES offers an u p d ated approach to traditional FEES, in which subjects from the standard school curriculum are selected for introduction o r reinforcem ent in
the FLES class (Curtain and Pcsola 1994). In this content-based approach to the teaching o f foreign language, teachers find points of coincidence with the standard school curriculum which can be paired with the objectives of the foreign language curriculum . So. for exam ple, terms and structures for describing weather are coordinated with a science unit on m eteorology rather than being presented in isolation. T h e re are a n u m b er o f advantages that the c o n ten t-en rich ed approach has over traditional FLES. First, students in c o n ten t-en rich ed FLES have a m ore relevant, m eaningful context for language learning. They use the foreign lan guage to talk ab o u t the c o n te n t o f the unit instead o f com pleting gram m ar exercises, which was m ore tvpical of traditional FLES. Second, since students base alreadv been exposed in English to the c o n te n t u n d e r study th ere is a rich er context for use o f the foreign language for m eaningful com m unication, which is especiallv im p o rtan t given the learn ers' lim ited expo sure to th e fo reign language. T h e foreign language class thus takes on the new role o f p ro viding reinforcem ent o f content. Finally the foreign language teacher does not have to search for m aterial for the language class because the school curriculum provides a wealth of ideas which can be incorporated into instruction. T h ere are at least th ree distinct m odels ol content-based instruction that have b een devel oped in the second language instructional set ting (B rinton. Snow, and W esche 1989). These ten d to be fo u n d in ele m en ta ry seco n d ary and postsecondarv school settings.
Theme-Based Model T hem atic curricula h a te been widelv im ple m e n te d in L.S. ele m en ta rv schools serving native English-speaking populations (see, for exam ple. Walmsley 1994; Kovalik with Olsen 1997). special ed u cation students (Falvcy 1995). and second language learners (Gianelli 1997). T he them e-based m odel is a tvpe o f contentbased instruction in which selected topics or them es provide th e c o n te n t from which teachers extract language learn in g activities.
T h e m odel has also b een widely im ple m en te d in language institutes at the college or university level, w here classes are often com posed of students o f diverse language backgrounds or interests whose com m on goal is to atten d college or university' in an English-speaking country. T he tea c h e r’s goal is to select topics suitable for a h e t erogeneous class o f in te rn atio n a l students who n e e d to im prove th eir academ ic English (EAP) skills. T hus, a u n it on advertising m ight engage th e students in a variety of EAP activities such as designing a n d adm inistering a m ark etin g survey, p lotting a graph o f the survey results, a n d com p aring a n d contrasting co n su m er attitudes. To gauge the ex ten t of im plem entation of them e-based instruction in intensive English pro grams, H afernik, M esserschm idt, and Yandrick (1996) analyzed the results o f a survey o f 32 pro gram s to see how thev defined an d incorporated con ten t-b ased in stru ctio n in th e ir curricula. W hile the majority of the program s surveyed described their curriculum as still predom inantly skills-based (60% ), the results indicated that skills instruction integrated with them atic co n ten t was increasing. T he program s rep o rted that content was incorporated th rough a variety of m eans. O ne approach was the adoption of content-based, com m ercial ESL textbooks. O th e r program s in c o rp o ra te d c o n te n t th ro u g h instructordesigned them atic materials. Still a n o th e r avenue for incorporating content was the developm ent of them atic courses such as C om puter English, or English for Special Purposes (ESP)-tvpe courses such as Business English. Stoller a n d G rabe (1997) offer the first sys tem atic fram ew ork for them e-based instruction. T h eir Six T ’s Approach is a p rin cip led ap p ro ach to th e organization o f co n te n t resources an d the selection of ap p ro p riate language learn in g activ ities.3 T he first T is theme. T hem es are the central ideas that organize m ajor curricular units selected for their appropriateness to student needs and interests, in stitu tio n a l ex pectations, p ro g ra m resources, and teacher abilities an d interests. Insects m ight constitute an elem entary school them e while dem ography m ight be chosen for a postsecondary ESL program . T he second T, topics, is the subunits o f c o n ten t which explore m ore specific aspects of the them e. A them e unit on
Native A m ericans m ight include as topics the Navajo, the H opi, a n d the Apache. Texts, the th ird T, are defined in a broad sense as the con ten t resources which drive the basic planning of them e units. Texts could include readings from various genres, videos, audiotapes, maps, soft ware, lectures, graphic representations, guest speakers, or field trips. Threads, the fou rth 1] are linkages across units th at create greater curricular coherence. They are relatively abstract concepts (e.g., responsibility, ethics) that provide a natural m eans of linking them es. T he thread responsibility, for exam ple, m ight be used to link the units developed aro u n d the them es of civil rights, pol lution, or Native Am ericans. T he fifth T, tasks, is the day-to-day instructional activities utilized to teach content, language, and strategy instruction. Tasks in a typical RAP curriculum include listen ing to lectures and taking notes, participating in small group discussions, p erform ing reading and writing activities across various genres, an d prac ticing test-taking strategies. Finally, transitions, the sixth T, are explicitly p lan n ed actions which p ro vide coherence across the topics in a them atic u n it and across tasks within topics. An exam ple of a topical transition in a them e unit on dem og raphy would be shifting the em phasis from trends in global population to trends in developing countries, to developed countries, and, finally, to students’ hom e countries.
Sheltered Model S heltered courses currently exist in a variety of secondary a n d postsecondary settings. T h e term sheltered derives from the m o d e l’s deliberate sep aratio n o f se c o n d /fo re ig n language students from native speakers of the target language for the pu rp o se o f c o n te n t instruction. T he original sheltered program was im plem ented in the post secondary setting at the University o f Ottaw a in 1982 as an alternative to the traditional university foreign language class (Edwards et al. 1984). At the University of Ottawa, students could o p t to take a c o n ten t course such as In tro d u ctio n to Psychology- conducted in th eir second language in lieu o f taking a traditional second language
class. All instruction in the sheltered class was given in the second language by c o n te n t faculty m em bers who gauged th eir in struction to an aud ien ce m ade up o f second language stu d e n ts .4 F rench sections were offered for native English speakers a n d English sections for native French-speaking students. At the b eg in n in g of each c o n te n t lecture, the ESL/FSL instructors h eld sh o rt sessions of ab o u t 15 m inutes in which th e\’ w ould go over key term s o r provide stu dents with useful expressions, such as polite wavs to in te rru p t the professor to request clarifica tion; however, th ere was no separate language class p e r se. C om parisons o f sheltered psychologv stu dents with students atten d in g m ore traditional ESL an d FSL classes have found no significant differences in the gains of the two groups in sec o n d language proficiencv despite the fact that the sheltered students did n o t “stud}” the second language. In addition to th eir gains in second language proficiency, the sh e lte re d students dem o n strated m astery of the co n ten t course m aterial at the same levels as did com parison stu dents en rolled in regular native-speaker sections o f psychologv. F urtherm ore, the sheltered stu dents rep o rted greater self-confidence in their abilities to use th eir second language as a result of participation in the sheltered class. Since the first sheltered courses were developed in the early 1980s, several form ats for discipline-based instruction have been tried, including adjunct classes which require fewer financial resources (see Burger, W esche, and M igneron 1997 for an u p d a te d discussion of “late, late” im m ersion at the Universitv o f Ottawa). In elem entarv an d secondary school set tings in the U nited States, ESL students are often placed in sh eltered c o n te n t courses such as “ESL M ath” or “ESL Social Studies.” These courses are frequentlv an alternative to c o n te n t courses tau g h t in the stu d e n ts’ native languages in settings w here train ed bilingual teachers are n o t available or the stu d e n t p o p u latio n is so h e t ero g en eo u s as to p reclu d e prim arv language instruction. S heltered courses offer language m inority students an alternative to traditional ESL classes, which are often taught in isolation from the rest o f the school curriculum , giving
th em access to school subjects from w hich they m ight otherwise be barred on the basis o f their lim ited English proficiency. Students in sheltered classes follow the regular curriculum ; however, instruction is geared to their developing levels of second language proficiency through the use of various instructional strategies and m aterials (see Rosen and Sasser 1997; Echevarria and Graves. 1998; see also Strategies for C ontent-B ased Instruction in this chapter). W hen properly con ducted, sheltered courses can offer an effective approach to integrating language and content instruction for interm ediate ESL students whose language skills nrav not vet be developed enough for them to be m ainstream ed with native English speakers in dem anding content courses.
Adjunct Model T he adjunct m odel is a content-based approach in which students are concurrently enrolled in a language class and a co n ten t course. This m odel is tvpicallv im plem ented in postsecondary set tings w here such linking or “adjuncting” between language and content departm ents is feasible. However, it has also been successfullv im ple m en ted in paired biology/ESL or historv/ESL classes in a California high school (WegrzeckaKowalewski 1997). A kev feature of the adjunct m odel is the coordination of objectives and assign m ents between language and content instructors. T he language class becom es content based in the sense that the students' needs in the co n ten t class dictate the activities of the language class. In the Freshm an S um m er P rogram (FSP) at the Universitv of C alifornia, Los Angeles, for exam ple, native and non-native English speakers concurrentlv enroll in one o f six u n d e rg ra d u a te survev courses and an English or ESL com posi tion class. T he m aterial o f the c o n te n t courses becom e a springboard for activities an d assign m ents in the E nglish/E SL classes, as students have their im m ediate academ ic needs treated as well as being exposed to m ore general academ ic skills that could be tran sferred to o th e r co n ten t courses. C om parison of the ESL students who have p articipated in FSP with students who have
followed a m ore typical EAP curriculum revealed that, despite h aring significantly lower ESL place m en t scores, the FSP students p e rfo rm e d as well as the higher proficiency students on a task requir ing them to use lecture and reading m aterial in the com position of an essav (Snow and Brinton 1988).'’ In the EFL setting, a m odified adjunct m odel was im plem ented in the People’s Republic of C hina at the Social Science English Language C enter (SSELC) in Beijing. In the SSELC pro gram , Chinese students atte n d ed English-lan guage lectures in selected social science topics given by visiting American professors. T he EFL classes focused on general academ ic skills devel opm ent before the professor’s arrival a n d then coordinated with the content course once it was u n d e r way.6 A n o th e r exam ple of an ad ju n ct m odel can be fo u n d in Project LEAP: L earning English for Academ ic Purposes, a p roject at C alifornia State University, Los Angeles (Snow 1997; Snow an d Kamhi-Stein in press). In this m odel, language m inority students were concurrently en ro lled in two linked courses: an u n d e rg ra d u a te general education course (e.g., In tro d u c tio n to C ultural A nthropologv, H um ans a n d th e ir Biological E nvironm ent) an d a studv g ro u p team taught bv a p e e r studv g ro u p lead er an d a language spe cialist. P articipating c o n te n t facultv m odified th eir syllabi a n d teach in g m ethods to integrate language and content instruction with the aim of improving the academ ic literacv skills of the stu dents enrolled in the adjunct courses. Evaluation of the project revealed that, overall, the perform ance of students in the adjunct courses approxi m ated o r exceeded that o f the students who had not been enrolled in the studv group courses in which content-based acthities were introduced and practiced (Snow and Kamhi-Stein 1997).
Expansion o f Content-Based Models The five content-based models described in the preceding section present well-docum ented proto types of content-based instruction. In recent vears, the m odels har e evolved into new formats and dif ferent features have been borrow ed, blurring
manv o f the key distinctions. B rinton, Snow, and Wesche (1989) anticipated this trend: “T he key p oint to be m ade is that d ep en d in g on the set ting, the configuration o f the m odel may differ significantly, and the features o f the three m odels [them e-based, sheltered, and adjunct] may ten d to blend to g eth er” (p. 23). N um erous exam ples exist in re c e n t litera tu re of the application o f a m odel d esigned for one pop u latio n to a d ifferent target p o p u latio n or of a program traditionallv im p lem e n te d at a p articular educational level b ein g used in another. O n e such exam ple took place at UCLA in the ESL Service Courses; the curriculum of the multiskill courses has evolved from them ebased units used in the 1970s an d 1980s to the "sim ulated" a d ju n c t m o d el cu rren tly in use (B rinton an d Je n se n in press). In this hybrid m odel, videotapes o f actual lectures by UCLA c o n te n t facultv a n d assigned course readings provide the c o n te n t base for the ESL courses. .Another case is the them e-based m o d el’s growing popularitv in the EFL context. M urphey (1997) reports on the challenges of im plem enting “work sh o p ” courses (e.g., “Rock ’if Roll History',” "H ealth and Fitness Awareness”) in a traditional university EFL setting in Jap an . A n o th e r area o f significant expansion for content-based instruction is foreign language teach in g at the postsecondarv level. Ryan a n d K rueger (1993 ) p rese n t an in terestin g set o f case studies o f "discipline-based” program s devel o p ed bv foreign language a n d discipline faculty, reflecting a variety of configurations a n d ways to com bine language an d co n ten t. For exam ple, the Foreign Languages across the C urriculum (FLAG) p rogram at the Lhiiversity o f M innesota links the m ajor E u ro p e an languages with social science disciplines. Students enroll in weekly sem inars co n d u c te d in the target language an d devoted to com parison o f news coverage in the A m erican press an d a m ajor dailv new spaper p u blished in Spanish, F rench, or G erm an. In a n o th e r variation, an anth ro p o lo g y professor, an East Asian studies d e p a rtm e n t professor, a n d an a n th ro p o lo g v g ra d u a te s tu d e n t at Brown LTiiversity d e sig n e d “Ja p a n e s e C u ltu re a n d S ociety” an existing course to which a contentbased co m p o n e n t in Jap an ese was added.
Two o f the m ost dram atic exam ples of the changing configurations of m odels can be seen in the U nited States. Starting in the mid-1980s, two-way im m ersion program s began to appear. Also called bilingual immersion o r dual language, they are a b len d in g of im m ersion a n d develop m en tal bilingual program s. L anguage m inority (lim ited English speaking) an d language m ajor ity stu d e n ts (native E nglish speaking) are g ro u p ed in the same classroom with the goal o f academ ic excellence an d bilingual proficiency fo r b o th stu d e n t groups. Bv 1995, after ap proxi m ately a decade of im p lem en tatio n , m ore than 182 two-way program s have b e e n established in the U n ited States (C hristian et al. 1997). T h e second exam ple, also an application of the im m ersion m odel, is the use o f "structured im m ersio n ” (also called English im m ersion) in states such as C alifornia to teach lim ited English p ro fic ie n t stu d e n ts (K u h lm an a n d M urray 2000). O f English im m ersion, Cloud, G enesee, a n d H am ayan (2000) state: T here is no generallv accepted defini tion o r set of criteria to define English im m ersion program s. Thev are recom m en d e d by some educators and policvm akers as pro g ram s for English language learners in the U.S. It can refer to regular program s for native E nglish speaking stu d en ts w here English is the only language o f instruc tion. They may o r mav not include spe cial provisions for English language learners such as ESL instruction. They aim for proficiency in oral and written English a n d full academ ic achieve m ent; thev do not aim to m aintain or develop language m inority students’ prim arv language o r culture (p. 205). According to Ovando and Collier (1998), struc tured im m ersion is a “m isnam ed program m odel that was prom oted bv English-only proponents with a political agenda in the 1980s” (p. 56). T here are strong feelings in manv quarters that struc tured im m ersion represents a m isapplication of the original C anadian im m ersion m odel designed to teach French to English-speaking students.
Strategies for Content-Based Instruction This section is divided into two parts. T he first provides instructional strategies for use by lan guage teachers to exploit c o n te n t m aterial. T he second part is directed to co n ten t teachers to pro vide ideas for m aking co n ten t m ore accessible to se co n d /fo re ig n language learners while simultaneouslv teaching language skills. Sample lessons are provided for both settings to illustrate the strategies in use. T each ers C ontentbased in struction provides a rich context for teaching the traditional fo u r skills— listening, speaking, lead in g , an d w riting— in the E S L / EFL class. In addition, since the focus of m any content-based ESL EFL courses is on academ ic language learning, teaching strategic com pe tence is essential. To be successful academically, all students m ust, for exam ple, be able to take good lecture notes. Thev m ust develop strategies for co n d en sin g large am ounts of reading m ate rial in to re a d in g no tes o r p re p a rin g study guides. Clearlv. students n e e d to learn to m an age th eir tim e wiselv and to develop effective test-taking strategies. These and o th e r study skills are perhaps even m ore critical for the ESL EFL students who mav n eed m ore tim e to read a n d m aster c o n te n t m aterial an d who may lack fam iliaritv with the e d u c atio n a l system a n d or lack experience with com m on W estern m odes of critical thinking an d writing. Strategies to teach the fo u r skills, discussed inclividuallv in o th e r chapters o f this volum e, can be used effectivelv in content-based instruction. T he purpose o f this section is to illustrate how the four skills, plus study skills, can be in teg rated in content-based instruction. T h ree sam ple units are p rese n ted (see pp. 311-312) that integrate the teaching o f the five skills w ithin an instruc tional unit. T he units were developed for use in the ad ju n ct p ro g ram at UCLA for a high in te r m ediate ESL course paired with Introductorv Psvchology.” T he units reflect a “receptive to productive” teach in g cycle. Each u n it begins with a recognition o r exposure activity. Students are p rese n ted with m odels which illustrate the Strategies fo r L a n g u a g e
teaching p o in t o f the unit. These m odels mav be in the form of a passage taken from the c o n te n t textbook a n d used for a dictation, as in U nit 1: alternatively, the m odel m at take the form of an exam ple text to in tro d u c e the n o tion of co h e r ence, which is the locus of U nit 2. T he second activity of each unit engages the students in a d irected exercise with the teaching point. So, for exam ple, in Unit 1. students u n d e rlin e the logi cal co nnectors of classification or, in U nit ?>, thev com plete a cloze passage constructed from the ESL instructor's m odel lecture notes in which key term s or inform ation has been deleted. S ubsequent activities provide e x te n d e d practice;
for instance, in U n it 2, students reco n stru ct a p arag rap h (i.e., dictocom p) after listening to the instructor read it aloud. T he culm inating activity of each unit requires the students to put their newlv acquired knowledge to work in the produc tion of a text, such as a com position or a summ a n . In som e cases, th e re are im m ed ia te follow-up activities such as analysis of com m on e rro r pattern s found in the com positions as in U nit 1. In o th e r cases, persistent problem s such as essay organization, source m aterial d o c u m e n tation. or p u n ctu atio n becom e the focus o f peer-editing groups or are recycled into o th e r types of practice activities th ro u g h o u t the term .
Unit I: Focus— Classification SKILL: Listening
AC TIV ITY I: Dictation— Model paragraph of classification on the topic “ Personality”
SKILL; Prewriting
A C TIVITY 2: Using their dictations, students underline the nouns describing categories (e.g., types, kinds, stages) and the logical connectors of classification; discussion of the rhetorical organization of classification
SKILL: Prewriting
A C TIVITY 3: Using a list of characteristics of individuals, students classify the information into the appro priate categories and label them (e.g., shyness, assertiveness, aggressiveness)
SKILL: Reading
AC TIV ITY 4: Students reread their content text to check their categories and the accuracy of their classifications
SKILL: Speaking
A C TIVITY 5: In groups, students compare/defend theircategories
SKILL: Writing
A C TIVITY 6: Students are giventhe following prompt:“ Grace Ursini, a junior high school student, has an IQ of 140. She does well in school, especially in English, Spanish, and music." They are also given several explanations such as “ Grace’s mother is president of the local Parent-Teacher Association” to use as supporting data for their claims. Using this situation, students take the example of Grace Ursini and compose a classification essay on the topic “ Environment vs. Heredity”
SKILL:
A C TIVITY 7:
Grammar
Group w ork— Students examine sentences taken from their compositions, determine the error patterns, and make the appropriate corrections; review of passive voice based on error analysis of compositions
and classifications
Unit 2: Focus— Text Coherence SKILL: Reading/ Speaking
AC TIV ITY 1: Instructor introduces notion of text coherence; students read passage from content text on “ The Development of Language” and underline elements of cohesion (e.g., pronouns, logical connectors, lexical chains, etc); discussion of different ways in which ideas can be joined (includes a review of articles/pronouns and a review of synonyms/word forms)
SKILL: Listening/ Prewriting
A C TIVITY 2: Dictocomp— Teacher reads a short passage on “ Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Develop ment” two times; the students listen the first time, take notes during the second reading, then recreate the passage in their own words; students compare their reformulations with the original passage from the content text, noting the different types of cohesive devices used
SKILL: Writing
AC TIV ITY 3: Students compose an essay comparing Bruner’s and Piaget’s theories of child development
SKILL: Speaking/ Writing
A C T IV IT Y 4: Students critique each other’s essays in peer editing groups and discuss ways to improve their papers; students revise their papers based on the feedback
Unit 3: Focus— Understanding Lectures SKILL; Listening
A C TIVITY 1: Lecture on “ Altered States of Consciousness” (simulated by the ESL instructor or pre sented on video); students take notes
SKILL: Study skills
A C TIVITY 2: Students complete a cloze passage constructed from instructor’s model lecture notes
SKILL: Speaking
A C TIVITY 3: Group work— Students compare their notes with the model notes and discuss ways to determine relevant/extraneous material, use of abbreviations, organization of notes
SKILL: Writing
A C TIVITY 4: Students prepare one-page summaries of the main points contained in their lecture notes
Strategies fo r C o n ten t Instructors T he first part
o f this section p rese n ted techniques which tiie ESL 'EEL instru cto r can use to teach language skills th ro u g h co n ten t. In this case, the instruc to r is using the c o n te n t as a vehicle to p resen t a n d practice language in the ESL, EFL class; the prim ary objective is the teaching o f language skills, alth o u g h the c o n te n t is clearly reinforced in the process. In c o n te n t classes, on th e o th e r h an d , the in stru cto r is prim arily c o n c ern e d with delivering subject m atte r instruction. Im m ersion a n d sh eltered m odel instructors, for exam ple, are resp o n sib le fo r p re s e n tin g cognitively d e m a n d in g subject m atter in a m a n n e r th a t is c o m p re h en sib le to s e c o n d /fo re ig n language students. T he same is true for regular classroom teachers who have ESL students in their classes. T he ch allenge to c o n te n t teach ers lies in “unpacking"— to use a new te rm — difficult con tent in wavs appropriate to the learner's develop ing language svstem. To do this, teachers must utilize a variety o f techniques and strategies for m aking c o n te n t in stru ctio n com p reh en sib le. These instructional techniques fall into lo u r gen eral categories: Recalling that second lan guage learners have difficulty with the cognitively dem and ing language of academ ic texts, it is criti cal that content teachers adapt the delivery of instruction to the second language learners' level of proficiency. T he following techniques are use ful wavs to modilv input: 1. Modifying
a. b. c.
Input
slower (vet natural) rate of speech; clear enunciation: controlled vocabulary lim ited initial use of idioms.
2. Using C o n tex tu al C ues C o n te n t teachers m ust provide second language learners with m ul tiple cues to m eaning so that thev do not have to rely solely on the spoken or written word to und erstan d difficult m aterial. These contextual cues include a. b. c.
gestures: dram atization o f m eaning th ro u g h facial expressions, pantom im e, role plav; visuals, in clu d in g pictures, p h o to g ra p h s, slides, maps, graphs, diagrams:
d. realia (i.e., actual physical objects); e. bulletin boards; f. word banks (e.g., charts which associate m ath vocabulary with their corresponding symbols); g. b u ild in g p red ic ta b ility in to in stru c tio n a l routines such as o p e n in g and closing activi ties. directions, a n d hom ew ork assignm ents so that students can figure o u t w hat to do from the context even if they do not com pletely u n d e rsta n d the spoken instructions; h. building redundance' into lessons through repetition, restatem ent, and exem plification. 3. Checking for Understanding T here are a variety of techniques which can be used to insure that students understand both the language used in instruction and the concepts being im parted. Am ong these checks of com prehension are a. asking students to decide if inform ation is true or false; b. asking students to proside exam ples; c. having students parap h rase im p o rtan t term s in their own words; d. having students sum m arize kev inform ation; e. asking students both factual questions (e.g., Who?, What?) a n d re fe re n tia l q u estio n s ( Why? an d What would you do if. . . ?); f. hasing students ask each o th e r questions. 4. Designing Appropriate Lessons All effective instruction requires adequate pacing, attention to students' developm ental levels, specification of appropriate objectives, a variety of actisity types, and ongoing, formative evaluation. In addition to these basic considerations, content teachers work ing svith second language learners must take extra m easures in lesson planning in the following areas: a. Vocabulary instruction Systematic activities for vocabulary instruction m ust be devised since second language learn ers often lack the basic and specialized vocabulary th at characterizes academ ic texts. b. Prioritizing objectives T he c o n te n t teacher m ust d ecid e w hat kev co n c ep ts sh o u ld receive the m ost a tten tio n since covering all o f the m aterial may not always be possible. c. Providing schema-building activities T ech niques such as reviewing previously covered
m aterials, relating ideas to the students' own experiences, an d using brain sto rm in g or clustering activities help students develop a fram e of reference for cognitiveh d e m a n d ing cp o n te n t m aterial. Advance organizers such as outlines, charts, and studs' guides also help students see the in h e re n t structure o f academ ic m aterial. d. Learner grouping strategies A variety of grouping arrangem ents should be emploved. Students can work in pairs, in small groups, and in stru c tu re d cooperative learn in g groups to maximize different sources of input and output and to increase interaction.
C U R R E N T A N D FU TU R E T R E N D S IN C O N T E N T -B A S E D IN S T R U C T IO N O n e o f the m ore noticeable current trends is the innovative wavs in which teachers have incorpo rated com m unicative teach in g practices into
content-based instruction. T he recen t literature is rich in exam ples. Stoller (1997). for instance, describes how she in teg rated project work into c o n ten t-b ased in stru ctio n a n d S hort (1997) reports on the use o f graphic organizers to teach social studies: similarlv. B rinton an d H olten (1997) applv ''into, thro u g h , an d bevond" tech niques into a content-based lesson p lan n in g fram ew ork. Teachers are also in teg ratin g technologv into content-based instruction, increasinglv looking to the Internet as a rich resource for language and content activities. The need to teach inform ation c< im potence in ESL classes to prepare students lot content-area classes has also been u n d e rsto re d t Minima and Son 1999). A rich col lection of teaching techniques for integrating language and content can Ire found in Brinton an d Masters i 1 9 9 / !. Expansion and innovation in content-based instruction will undoubtedh be boosted bv the tren d toward stanclards-based instruction and assessment. In the U nited States, educational reform has led to federal legislation supporting the developm ent of standards for the public
Making Lectures Comprehensible8 O b je ctiv e :
To make lectures more comprehensible by defining, simplifying, and recycling contentspecific and noncontent vocabulary.
R a tio n a le:
Defining, embedding, and restating terminology helps students learn new contentspecific terms (e.g., com m unalist, d em ocratic, centralism ) and noncontent terms in new contexts (e.g., the left, a w a tershed event).
P ro c e d u re s:
I. It is very important to expose ESL students to sophisticated academic vocabulary during lectures. 2. Before the lecture, review lecture notes to anticipate difficult or unfamiliar contentspecific and general academic vocabulary items. D uring the lecture, monitor what you are saying to help yourself become aware of your use of difficult terminology. Use the strategies below to help students understand new terms and expand their academic vocabulary. • Define and explain new terms—whether or not they are content specific. • Embed and restate new terms. For example, “The impetus for reform, that is, the driving force or stim ulus for reform , was the Watergate scandal.” • Break down terms for the students so that they can understand the meanings. For example, bicam eral: b i- t w o , ca m era = chamber. • Explain the meaning of colloquialisms or slang expressions. For example, take care to describe what a phrase like to beat a d ea d horse means and clarify its relevance to the conceptual point.
schools in arts, chics an d governm ent, economics, foreign languages, English, history, geography, m athem atics, and science (Gomez 2000). Reform has also influenced se co n d /fo re ig n language teaching. T he standards of the Am erican Council on the Teaching o f Foreign Languages were p u b lished in 1996 (ACTFL 1996; also,'see AGTFLs website), and the ESL Standards for Pre-K-12 Students in 1997 (TESOL 1997; also, see TESOL’s website). Both docum ents prom ote an expanded role for integrated language and co n ten t learning. For example, in Goal 2 of the EST Standards, stu dents are "to use the second language to achieve academically in all content areas.” Standards 3.1 and 3.2 of the AGTFL Standards call for students to "connect with o th er disciplines and acquire inform ation." With the developm ent o f national standards (and state local standards in some locales) for foreign language and ESL. teachers h a te useful guidelines around which to design curricula and instruction. It should also be pointed out that the standards m ovem ent is a broadlv based reform. Work on bandscales in Australia (National Languages and Literacy Institute of Australia 1993) and learner outcom es in Canada (Alberta Education 1997) indicates the interna tional scope: moreover. TESOL has begun to explore the feasibility of international standards for English language institutions (Fujimoto 2000). Perhaps one of the greatest challenges in the ongoing expansion and innovation of contentbased instruction is the search for the right bal ance of language and content teaching. Swain prophetically stated in 1988 that "not all content teaching is necessarily good language teaching” (p. 68). Echevarria. Vogt, and Short (2000), B rinton (2000). Crandall (1998), Lorenz and Met (1988). and Peterson (1997). am ong others, have pursued this issue from the p oint o f Mew o f tea c h e r p rep aratio n . W hat are the requisite skills n e e d ed in o rd e r to be an effective teach er o f c o n te n t-b a se d in stru ctio n ? O th e rs have a p p ro a c h e d the issue with a call for m o re systematic planning of instruction. T here seems to be an in terestin g reversal, with “languagedriven" models seeking a stronger emphasis on content (see Stoller and Grabe's Six T ’s Approach) and the “content-driven" models prom oting a stronger language focus (see Kinsella 1997 ).
To this end, Snow, Met, a n d G enesee (1989) developed a fram ew ork in which language and c o n ten t teachers work collaborativelv to define two tvpes of language teaching objectives. T he first tape of objective is content-obligatoiv language. Content-obligatory language is the language (e.g., vocabulary, functions, structures) w hich is required for students to m aster concepts o r m ate rial in anv given co n ten t class. W ithout contentobligatorv language, students will n o t be able to handle the dem ands of academ ic tasks which are cognitively d e m a n d in g a n d co n tex t-red u ced . T he second objective is content-com patible lan guage. This includes specification of the types of language which pair naturally with co n ten t m ate rial. C ontent-com patible language instruction allows teachers to proMcle students with extended practice with a troublesom e gram m ar point, such as irre g u la r past-tense form s, for exam ple, through contextualized academ ic tasks. A final tre n d is a grow ing c o n cern with em pow erm ent an d equity within content-based instruction m ethodology. Kinsella (1997) argues that "the pedagogical em phasis on c o m p re h e n sibility and contextualization o f instructional delivery in m uch o f CBI [content-based instruc tion] has been som ew hat too ‘teach er d riv e n ’ a n d 'cu rricu lu m c e n te re d ,’ with less careful con sideration given to the developm ent o f effective, self-directed learners" (p. 50). She takes aim at sh eltered instruction, in particular, n o tin g th at this ap proach does n o t "necessarily c o n trib u te to the ESL students' ability to confidently a n d com p e te n tly e m b a rk on in d e p e n d e n t le a rn in g endeavors. . . . students instead [are] frequently assigned a relatively passive role . . . ” (p. 51). T he faculty d evelopm ent c o m p o n e n t in Project LEAP described earlier in this ch ap ter is a n o th e r wav to address the equity and em pow er m ent issue. In a significant d e p artu re from the traditional adjunct m odel, in which ESL instruc tors tvpicallv have had lim ited in p u t in the instructional decisions of content faculty, partici p a tin g c o n te n t faculty in this project were req u ired to revam p their syllabi, assignm ents, and instructional styles to m ake their courses m ore accessible to language m inority students. Snow an d Kamhi-Stein (in press) p resent a case study of the successes and challenges of requiring c o n te n t
faculty to assum e g rea ter responsibility for m eet ing the needs o f second language learners. Still oth ers in content-based in struction have looked to critical pedagogy, with its roots in Freire's a p p ro ach (1970, 1998). in discussions of le a rn e r em pow erm ent. B enesch (1993) notes th at EAP has developed an "accom m odationist ideology instead of an ideology of opposition an d change" (p. 714), a n d calls for teachers to “n e g o tia te academ ic cu rricu la responsive to social, econom ic, and political issues, rath e r th an serving one th at is so narrowly focused on c areer p rep aratio n " (p. 714). An exam ple of an ideology o f change can he fo u n d in Benesch (1996), w here she, as the EAP teach er in an ad ju n ct ESL /psvchologv course, co n d u c te d a “critical needs analysis" which revealed co n tra dictory dem ands on h e r students h o rn the aca dem ic hierarchy (university, college, English, a n d psychology dep artm en ts) and developed a set o f activities to help students m anage these dem ands a n d create possibilities for change. O n e such activity teas having the students gen er ate questions for the professor to answ er in the psychology class; a n o th e r was to invite the pro fessor to the ESL class to engage in m ore infor m al in te ra c tio n with the students. A n o th e r exam ple o f stu d en t em pow erm ent com es from H ones (1999), who created a content-based course on the L.S. justice svstem. with particular focus on the provocative case of death row in m a te M um ia Abu-Jam al. T he course teas designed to challenge international students to im prove th eir English language skills while devel oping th eir awareness of issues of social justice.
C O N C L U S IO N C ontent-based in struction differs from m ore tra ditional second language teaching m ethods in a n u m b e r of wavs. First, the roles of the language te a c h e r and the c o n ten t teach er are necessarily ex p an d ed . Since the c o n te n t dictates the selec tion a n d sequence of teaching points, the lan guage teach er m ust learn to exploit the c o n te n t m aterial for its language teaching potential. This m eans that the language teach er m ust select c o n te n t m aterial judiciously, o r in the case
w here the m aterials are already selected (such as in adjunct classes), seek o u t m aterial which is m ost suitable for language teaching aims. It also m eans that the language teach er m ust becom e fam iliar e n o u g h with the c o n te n t m aterial to p u t it to m eaningful use. This is one o f the m ost dif ficult. vet indispensable, requirem ents of contentbased teaching. Bv the same token, the c o n te n t teach er in content-based approaches needs to becom e sensitized to the language needs of se co n d fo re ig n lan g u ag e stu d e n ts. F or the im m ersion teach er who wears two hats, both lan guage an d c o n te n t considerations m ust stay indelibly at the forefront. No m atter the model, content-based teaching entails systematic planning of integrated instruction using a rich repertoire of strategies and techniques. C ontent-based instructors m ust also develop appropriate curricula and m aterials which reflect the assum ptions of the approach. Thus, while com m ercial language texts mav be appropriate for some activities and are certainly useful refer ences. con ten t-b ased in stru ctio n necessarily requires extensive developm ent of curricula and m aterials which integrate the teaching of lan guage skills with content, and hence, mav be yen' labor intensive. T he sample lessons presented previously in this chapter reflect m anv hours of preparation and planning. Content-based instruction is a student-cen tered approach. Choice of content should revolve aro u n d considerations of students' current profi ciency levels, academ ic or vocational objectives, interests, and needs. W hen selecting a contentbased instructional m odel, these considerations must be taken into account. Assessment, there fore. plavs an im portant role on a n u m b er of levels. First, the needs of the learner m ust be determ ined. These mav be very general in the case of students who are enrolled in college prepa ratory program s in intensive language institutes, or verv specific, as in the case of ESL students in the public schools who will be m ainstream ed quicklv into regular content classes. T he needs of foreign language students m ust be considered as well, guided bv the standards developed for this particular teaching context. Second, the stu d en ts’ language proficiency levels m ust be carefully assessed in determ ining the type of content which
will be most appropriate to select for instruction. Finally, once a content-based approach is im ple m ented. assessment m ust be carefully plan n ed to take into consideration both language develop m ent and co n ten t master}' (see C o h e n ’s chapter in this v olum e). T he teaching o f language th ro u g h c o n te n t is n o t so m uch a m eth o d as a reo rien ta tio n to w hat is m ean t bv content in language teaching. T h e literatu re offers strong th eoretical su p p o rt fo r content-based ap p ro ach es a n d a b u n d a n t exam ples of successful program s in b o th the foreign a n d second language settings which effectively teach language th ro u g h content. As we have seen, content-based in struction crosses over age groups a n d settings an d is very m uch in k eep in g with the com m unicative a p p ro ach to second language teaching.
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1.
If vou were studying challenging content in vour second language, which of the tech niques and strategies listed in the chapter do you think would be particularly helpful in m ak ing the subject m atter m ore com prehensible? 2. T he a u th o r states th at the im m ersion m odel m ig h t be c o n sid e re d the pro to ty p ical content-based program . U pon com pletion o f elem entary school, im m ersion students have acq u ired nativelike read in g a n d listen ing skills, but tvpicallv are n o t nativelike in the productive skills of speaking a n d writing. How m ight these findings be explained in term s of the notio n s of co m p reh en sib le in p u t a n d com prehensible output? 3. Recall Kinsella's concern with "teacher-driven" and "curriculum -centered" m ethods. She sug gests that students in content-based classes be taught strategy usage or "learning to lea rn ” strategies. W hat do vou think she m eans by this? Give exam ples o f "learning to lea rn ” strategies. 4. Several points were raised at the end o f the chapter about wavs in which content-based instruction differs from m ore traditional m eth ods. Can vou think of anv other differences?
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1 . im agine th at you are a fo u rth grade teach er who has lim ited English proficient students in vour class. You are p lan n in g a u n it on explorers o f the New W orld. W hat contentobligatory language skills should vou antici pate? W hat c o n ten t-co m p atib le language could vou reinforce in vour lesson? 2. T he a u th o r describes five different m odels currently in use which integrate language an d c o n te n t instruction. C om pare an d co n trast them in term s of a. the degree to w hich they are “languagedriven” o r "content-driven”; b. the degree of explicit language teaching; c. the types of curricula a n d m aterials used; d. the role of the language a n d /o r c o n te n t teacher; e. the purp o se o f assessment. 3. Ellis (1985) states: “D ifferent features mav aid developm ent at different times. For in stance, in [his studv] teach er self-repetitions were m ore fre q u e n t at an early stage o f developm ent, and teacher expansions at a later stage. . . . Both the learn er an d the native speaker adjust their behavior in the light of the continuous feedback about the success of the discourse with which they provide each other" (p. 82). C onsider these findings in term s of the list of techniques and strategies for co n ten t instruction. C onsider the four cat egories (modifying input, using contextual cues, checking for understanding, and de signing appropriate lessons) and decide which techniques m ight be m ost appropriate for a. beg in n in g students; b. advanced students; c. teaching m athem atics; d. teaching history; e. im m igrant students; intern atio n al students. 4. Using the receptive to productive cycle illus trated in the sample ESL/psychology units, design an integrated content-based unit for teaching: a. com parison /co n trast b. conditionals c. guessing the m ean in g o f words from context
f.
FU R T H ER R EA D IN G e loud, N., Genesee, F.. and E. Hamavan. 2000. Dual Language Instruction: .4 Handbook for Enriched Education. Boston. MA: Heinle &
Heinle Publishers. A handbook for K-12 teachers, educational pro fessionals, and police makers who teach students in two languages. Genesee, F. 1987. Learning Through Two Languages. New York: Newbury House. A thorough discussion of the history of the immersion model and research findings in Canada and the United States. Johnson, R. K., and M. Swain, eels. 1997. Immersion Education: International Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Descriptions of both U.S. and Canadian immer sion programs and those in other international settings such as Spain, Finland, and Hungary. Kasper, L. F., ed. 2000. Content-Based College Instruction. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. A collection of articles by experienced contentbased professionals dealing with issues such as the role of technology, grammar, and materials development. Snow, M. A. 1998.Trends and issues in content-based instruction. Annual Rrview of Applied Linguistics. 18: 243-267. A review of recent research in content-based second/foreign language instruction. Snow, M. A., and D. M. Brinton. eds. 1997. The Content-Based Classroom: Perspectives on Integrating Language and Content. New York: Longman.
A comprehensive anthology covering theoretical underpinnings, K-12 and postsecondarv instruc tion, teacher preparation, assessment, alternative models, and practical issues.
О
W E B S IT E S
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL): www.actfl.org Center for Applied Linguistics: www.cal.org
Project LEAP: http://curriculum.calstatela.edu/facultyri asnow/ProjectLEAP/ Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL): www/tesol.org
EN DN O TES 1 A list of existing U.S. immersion programs and key programmatic information for each program can be found on the website of the Center for Applied Linguistics. To locate the list, look under the head ing "Databases and Directories." - For a more detailed discussion of the features of immersion programs, see Genesee (1987). 3 For a more detailed description of the Six T ’s Approach, see Stoller and Grabe (1997). 4 For an interesting discussion of the strategies used bv a French-speaking professor and an Englishspeaking professor lecturing in psychology, see Wesche and Ready (1985). ■’ For a more detailed discussion of the Freshman Summer Program, see Brinton. Snow, and Wesche (1989). b For more information on SSELC, see Brinton, Snow, and Wesche (1989). ' These units were jointly developed bv the author and Donna Brinton. s This activity was devised bv Project LEAP partici pants and political science professor Dr. Nadine Koch for use in ''Introduction to American Politics and Society" at California State University. Los Angeles. This activity and others designed to teach academic literacy skills can be found on the Project LEAP website.
Literature as Content for ESL/EFL SAND RA
LEE
MCKAY
In "Literature as C ontent for ESL/EFL," McKay ai'gues that using literature as content provides three major benefits for learners: ( I ) it demonstrates the ''importance of authors' choice of form to achieve specific communicative goals. (2) it is an ideal msource for integrating the four skills, and (3) it raises cross-cutural awareness. Example classroom activities are developed based on tw o short stories.
IN T R O D U C T IO N Whv use literature in ESL EFL classes? T here are those who m aintain that due to the special nature o f literarv texts, literature can contribute little to language learning (see МсКах [1982] for a summ an of these argum ents). However, in this chap ter I argue that using literature as content in ESE EFL classes provides three m ajor benefits. First, because literarv texts depend on how the language is used to create a particular effect, literature dem onstrates for learners the im portance of form in ad h e rin g specific communicative goals. Second, using literature as content in the 1.2 classrooms provides an ideal basis for integrating the four skills. .And third, in an era when English is used in a great varietv of cross-cultural encounters, literarv texts are valuable in raising students' and teachers' cross-cultural awareness. (See also Hinkel's chapter on cross-cultural com m unication in this volume.) This chapter opens with an exam ination of what is m eant bv literarv texts. T hen each advantage listed above for using literature is exam ined in detail. T hroughout the chapter, examples of classroom activities are prorided to show how such activities can be designed.
D E F IN IN G L IT E R A R Y T E X T S The H ow of Literary Texts Tvpicallv. language is used to convex a message bv relaving inform ation. Although literarv texts exemplifv o th er features of norm al com m unica
tion. thee generally lack this purpose. Rather, their aim is to convex "an indiridual aw areness of reality ” (Widdowson 1975. p. 70). W hat makes literarv texts unique is that in literature the what and how of the text are inseparable. As Widdowson puts it, .An u n d erstanding of what literature com m unicates necessarily involves an u n d e rsta n d in g of how it com m uni cates: what a n d how are n o t distinct. It is for this reason that literarv works cannot be satisfactorilv paraphrased or explained bv anv single interpretation: to do so is to recast their essential ambiguitv into the definite shape of conven tional statem ent. T he basic problem in the teaching of literature is to develop in the student an awareness o f the what how of literarv com m unication and this can onlv be done bv relating it to, without translating it into, norm al uses of language (1975. p. 70). T he fact that in works of literature the "what and how are not distinct" m akes literatu re valuable for ex ten d in g learn ers' awareness that how thev sav som ething is im p o rtan t in two wavs. First, how so m eth in g is said often c o n trib u te s to speakers' achieving their purp o se in co m m u n i cation: and second, in deciding how som ething is said, speakers often com m unicate som ething about them selves — thev establish th eir voice. kram sch (1993) offers a simple illustration of the im portance ol form in conveving inform a tion. At a conference workshop she attended, the
linguist A. L. Becker asked the participants to describe in one sentence w hat he was ab o u t to do. H e then walked up the steps to the podium a n d laid a book on the desk. Following this, he asked a variety of participants to read th eir descriptions. A fter several people read th eir sen tences, it was clear that even in describing such a sim ple act, each text provided a u n iq u e p e r spective on what h ad been observed. W hereas som e participants referred to Becker as “a lin guist," o thers refe rre d to him as "the m an," “von,” or “he." W hereas som e stated that Becker “p u t” the book on the podium , others stated that he “slapped” or “placed" the book on the podium . W hereas some described the action in the simple past (“vou step p ed o n to the stage"), others described it in the past continuous ("he teas walk ing up the steps”) (p. 107). For Kramsch, this exercise is significant because it dem onstrates that even w riter has available a variety o f choices for conveying a m essage. For exam ple, the fact that the partic i pants wrote ra th e r th an spoke affected the shape o f th eir text. T he choice of gram m atical form en a b le d th em to relate the act to a particular tim e a n d place and to define what teas new and old inform ation. P erhaps m ost significantly, the participants had a choice of what to sac an d what n o t to say. For Kramsch, the particularity of lit erary texts rests on an a u th o r's use of six aspects o f text developm ent. Specifically, in creating a literary text, au th o rs shape the m edium of writ ten texts, m ake gram m atical and lexical choices th at enable th em to define spatial an d tem poral fram es o f referen ce, n eg otiate in terp erso n al relationships with th eir readers, look th roug h language to a believed world, evoke p rio r lan guage, an d leave m anv things unsaid. It is these dim ensions o f literary texts that c o n trib u te to th e "w h a t/h o w o f literary c o m m u n ic a tio n ." m aking them difficult to paraphrase. C arter (1996) makes a case for ex ten d in g the n otion o f literary texts to include such things as advertisem ents, new spaper headlines, jokes, and puns since the\ all provide exam ples of verbal play. As he points out. "the language used in such texts does n o t refer to activities, entities and events in the external world; it displays an d cre atively patterns its discourse in such a wav as to
invite readers to interpret how7 it represents that world" (pp. 7-8). He supports this by providing several instances of the literary qualities present in evetvdav examples of language, such as an adver tisem ent from a British airline on its wider and m ore com fortable seating, which states "Relief from aches on planes." or an advertisem ent for the Swiss chocolate bar Toblerone, which reads "The one and Tobleronlv." Such examples offer a com incing argum ent for introducing learners to the playfulness ofiiterarv language bv drawing on selected instances of evet vdav language use.
Literary Texts and the Reader W hereas Wicldowson. Kramsch, and C arter define literary texts bv their unique form . Rosenblatt (1978) defines literatv texts primarily in term s of how readers interact with them . She m aintains that the com m on wav of distinguishing literary works of art from o ther o pes of texts has been to exam ine the text itself. For Rosenblatt, a text is merely an object of paper and ink until a reader interacts with it. H ence the question of defining Iiterarv texts does not d epend on exam ining how7 literary and nonliterarv texts differ, but rather depends on considering what a reader does in these different kinds of reading. A ccording to R osenblatt, readers perform verv different activities d uring aesthetic and nonaesthetic reading. To illustrate these differences, she relates the exam ple of a m o th er whose child has just swallowed a poisonous liquid and is fran tically reading the label to discover what course o f action to follow. T he m other's m ain concern is to get the essential inform ation in the text. R osenblatt describes the type of reading in which the m ain purpose o f the read er is to d ecip h er what message cati be carried awav from the text as efferent, from the Latin, efferre “to e a rn awav.” In efferent reading, the read er focuses on the message of the text. In contrast, in aesthetic read ing. "the reader's prim ary concern is with what happens duririgxh^ reading process” (p. 24). The distinction between efferent and aes thetic reading rests on the stance a read er adopts in relation to a particular text. Rosenblatt m ain tains that the same text can be read either efferentlv or aesthetically. H ence, a reader could read
a literary text aestheticallv so that his o r h e r "attention is c e n tered directly on w hat he [or she] is living th ro u g h d u rin g his relationship with that particu lar text" (p. 25) or he o r she could read it efferently bv g a th erin g specific inform ation. For R osenblatt, too often literature classroom s focus on the latter type o f read in g in th at they analyze the form o f the text and thus red u ce learn ers' en g ag em en t with literature. This co n cern with conscious atte n tio n to form in a literatu re class reflects an ong o in g debate am ong teachers of literature. T h ere are m any who argue th a t stylistics, or literary text analysis, can be o f great value to lan guage learners (e.g.. Wicldowson 1975; C arter 1996). Carter, for exam ple, sum m arizes the advantages of using stylistics in language class room s in the following wav: (i) stylistics provides students with a m eth o d o f scrutinizing texts, a "wav in" to a text, o p e n in g up starting points for fuller in te r p retation. . . . (ii) basing in terp retatio n on systematic ver bal analysis reaffirm s the centralitv of lan guage as the aesthetic m edium of literature. (iii) non-native students possess the kind of conscious, systematic knowledge about the language which provides the best basis for sty listic analysis. In m am respects, therefore, non-native students are often better tit stylistic analysis than native speakers ( 1996. pp. 5-6). O thers, however, argue that a focus on styl istics underm ines the reading of a literary text fo r enjoym ent, for an aesthetic ex p erien ce. Gower (1986). for exam ple, poses the following question: "Can we. then in am sense, sav that 'sty listic analysis' helps the EFL student, when its declared aim is to illum inate the 'm echanism ' of a 'tex t' u n d e r the m icroscope . . . ? This, as 1 have said, is a very different thing from reading: the students operate on the 'tex t' rath er than let a poem or novel speak to them " (pp. 129-130). Gower, like R osenblatt, believes that literary texts should be read and enjovecl and that literary analysis necessarily u n derm ines this possibility. The question o f w hether or not to use stylis tics o r language analysis in L2 classroom s depends on what is m eant bv stylistics. Clearly, if
stvlistics entails m ere analysis of literature to sup p ort one central m eaning o f a text, usually one arrived at by so-called literary scholars, th en th ere is little possibility th at this will engage lan guage learners o r contribute to th eir enjoym ent of reading a literary text. If, on the o th e r hand, stvlistics p ro tid es learners with the tools to justify their own opinions of a text, th en the analysis o f the text can be related to the stu d e n t’s own aesthetic reading o f it. W iddowson (1992) term s this approach one of practical stylistics in which the goal is "to stim ulate an engagem ent with prim ary texts, to encourage individual in te rp re tation w hile re q u irin g th a t this sh o u ld be referred back to features o f the text” (p. xiv). C arter (1996) m akes a distinction betw een what is traditionally tho u g h t o f as stvlistics and what, he term s a language-based approaeh to literature. For Carter, a language-based approach is student centered, activity based, and process o rie n ted in that classroom tasks help students su p p o rt th eir in terpretation o f a text by engaging them in the process of m eaning-m aking. How then can language analysis be p roduc tively used in L2 classrooms to enhance students' enjoym ent in reading literature and develop their awareness o f language?
U SIN G L IT E R A R Y T E X T S TO D E V E LO P L A N G U A G E Comparing Two Short Stories In o rd e r to illustrate how literary texts m ight be a p p ro a c h e d in L2 classroom s, let us com pare how two short stories that rec o u n t the ex p eri ence of voting adolescents in th eir school envi ro n m e n t m ight be used ("Eleven” bv Sandra Cisneros [an excerpt from h e r novel entitled Woman Hollering Creek] and "O ut o f O rd e r” by W illiam Sarovan). "Eleven" tells the story o f Rachel on h e r eleventh birthday. T he storv takes place at school w here the teacher, Mrs. Price, asks who in the class owns a red sweater th at has b een "sitting in the coatroom for a m o n th .” No one in the class savs it belongs to th em until sud denly one of the students, Sylvia Saldivar, savs, “I think it belongs to R achel.” A lthough Rachel
states that it is not hers, the teacher answers, “O f course it's vottrs. . . . I rem em b er y o u w earing it once.'' W hen Rachel shoves the sweater to the edge o f h e r desk, Mrs. Price tells her, "You put that sweater on right notv an d no m ore n o n sense." T he incident ends right before the bell rings for lunch w hen Phvllis L ope/, a n o th e r stu d en t in the class, rem em bers that the sweater is Iters Rachel takes it o il and gives it to her. “O ut o f O rder" tells the store o f William Saroyan's first clav in seventh g rad e at L ongfellow Ju n io r H igh School. T h e store begins with the an cient historv teacher. Miss S henstone, telling the students to tu rn to page 192 in th eir books. W illiam com m ents that "it w ould seem m ore in o rd e r to tu rn to page one for the first lesson." T he tea c h e r responds be telling William to be quiet and let h e r clo the teaching. T hen she points to a p h o to g ra p h in the textbook of two stones that she savs are 20,000 \ea rs old. William questions how she knows this. This leads Miss S henstone to "fling" h erself at W illiam, resulting in his leaving the room . H e returns five m inutes later, and again Miss S henstone "dings" herself at William. This results in W illiam going to see Mr. M onsoon, the principal of the school, to tell him whv he left the class. Mr. M onsoon m eanw hile wants to know W illiam's nam e a n d who he is. specifically what nationality he is. W hen William tells him th at he is A rm enian, the p rin c ip al replies. “N obodv but an A rm enian w ould have asked a question like that." W illiam's m eeting with the principal ends with the principal saving that he “m ust give him a thrashing." At this point. W illiam goes h o m e a n d tells his U ncle Alecksancler what occurred. He th en retu rn s to the school accom panied bv his uncle, who talks to the p rin cip al alone. A fter a sh o rt tim e. W illiam is asked to com e into the office to talk with the principal, Miss S henstone, and his u n c le a n d is told bv his u n c le th a t Miss S henstone has agreed to look into the m atter of how the age of the stones was d e te rm in e d . H e is also told th at it was with “ad m iratio n ” th at Mr. M onsoon co m m en ted that only an A rm enian w ould ask a question like that. In the en d William has to spend the rest o f the day away from school an d th en re tu rn to his classes the
next day as th o u g h "n o th in g h ad h a p p e n e d .” W hen he retu rn s to school, William apologizes to b o th th e p rin cip al a n d Miss S h en sto n e. However, after lo u r davs. Miss S henstone leaves the school. M eanwhile. Mr. M onsoon talks ab o u t m an n ers at several student both m eetings, but after a m onth he leaves, too. In o rd e r to p ro m o te aesthetic reading, it is im p o rtan t to begin bv having students read and enjov the stories. Obviously students will enjov reading literature onlv if the text is accessible to them . H ence, it is im p o rtan t in selecting literary texts to ensure that the th em e o f the text is engaging for the students and that the text itself is not too difficult on e ith e r a linguistic or con ceptual level. To encourage aesthetic reading, the initial discussion o f the stories should focus on having students discuss what they enjoyed or d id n 't enjov about the story, what it m eans to them , how it relates to their own personal expe riences. and so on. It is this very kind o f discus sion that can lead to what W iddowson (1992) term s practical stylistics, in which students are e n co u rag ed to express individual in te rp re ta tions and m ust refer these in terp retatio n s back to the text. To illustrate how this m ight occur in L2 classroom s, let tts consider how stu d e n ts’ individual in te rp re ta tio n o f the characters in the two stories described above could be the basis for a literary task.
Characterization Readers assess characters in a story based on what the ch aracter savs an d does, what others in the storv sav about the character, and how the a u th o r describes the character. To encourage students' own responses to the stories, a teacher m ight begin bv having students describe both Rachel and William. This could involve stu d e n ts’ listing the adjectives they believe best describe each character, describing each in a short p ara g rap h . g a th e rin g p ictu res th a t d e p ic t th e ir im age of Rachel a n d William, o r com paring each ch aracter with som eone they know. T he next part of the literary task should encourage students to retu rn to the text to justify their interpretations. O ne activity m ight be to have students com plete a character web, such as
the one suggested by McCloskev and Stack (1993, pp. 154-155) for each character. Students would com plete the following type of chart, citing spe cific details from the story. H ow O thers
W i l l i a m ’s O w n
See W illiam
W o rd s a n d A ctions
D escriptions
Y our Ideas
o f W illiam
a b o u t W illiam
bv th e A u th o r
T he list o f w hat W illiam says w ould include the following passages from Saroyan’s story. “How do vou know?’’ “She said the rocks were twenty th o u sand years old . . . .All I said was, ‘How do you know?’ I d id n 't m ean they weren’t th at old. I m eant that maybe the}' were older, mavbe thirty th o u sand years old. How old is the earth? Several m illion t ears old, isn't it? If the book can say the rocks are twenty th o u san d years old. som ebody ought to be able to say how the book got that figure. This isn't Em erson School, it's Longfellow Ju n io r H igh. I cam e here to learn. I d o n 't expect to be p u n ish ed because I want to learn." T he list of w hat Rachel says, on the o th e r h and, w ould include the following: “T h a t’s not, I d o n 't, you're not . . . Not m in e .” “But th a t’s not." O nce students com plete th eir individual webs, teachers can th en encourage them to exam ine the language o f the text. T he contrast in length o f both characters' responses illus trates aspects of th e ir personality. However, m ore subtle features such as the false starts in Rachel's speech an d the use of questions in W illiam ’s speech also suggest differences in th eir characters.
Because b o th stories are told from the first person p o in t o f view, stu d e n ts’ in te rp re ta tio n of W illiam a n d R achel will u n d o u b ted ly be affected bv w hat they learn ab o u t the characters from their thoughts. H ence, with these stories, the teacher may w ant to draw atten tio n to the con cept of first person p o in t of view. In using litera ture in the classroom , exactly w hat tasks are developed should d e p e n d on what features of the text are salient in the story and on what ele m ents o f the text are relevant to stu d e n ts’ in ter p retation o f it. Let us then consider how teachers m ight address the elem en t o f point o f view in relation to these two stories.
Point o f View Fowler (1986) distinguishes three types o f point of riew: (1) spatio-temporal, (2) ideological, and (3) psy chological. The spatio-tem poral point of riew refers both to the sense of time that the a u th o r conveys bv using such techniques as flashbacks or the interweaving of stories (the tem poral dim ension), and to the m an n er in which an a u th o r depicts items such as objects, buildings, and landscapes in relation to one an o th er (the spatial dim ension). T he ideological p oint of riew, on the o th er hand, refers to the “set o f values, or belief system, com m unicated bv the language o f the text” (p. 130). T he psychological p o in t o f view is the one m ost frequently refe rre d to in literary analysis a n d involves the question o f “who is p rese n ted as the observer o f the events of a narrative, w h ether the a u th o r o r a participating c h a ra c te r” (p. 134). Fowler delineates two types o f psychological points of view: in tern al and external. In the internal psychological p o in t o f view, e ith e r the storv is told from first person p o in t of view by a ch aracter who shares his or h e r feelings ab o u t the events a n d characters o f the story o r it is told bv som eone who is n o t a p articipating ch aracter b u t who has know ledge of th e feelings o f the characters, the so-called om niscient author. In the external psychological p o in t o f view, the n ar rato r describes the events a n d characters from a position outside o f the m ain c h aracter with no access to the ch a ra c te rs’ feelings a n d opinions.
Psychological Point of View
"E leven”
“Eleven” an d “O u t of O rder" are both told from the first person point o f view bv Rachel and W illiam, who share th eir feelings ab o u t the events. In both stories, the authors let the read er into the thoughts o f the ju n io r high student. T he o p e n in g o f each storv illustrates this first person p o in t o f view.
1. W ho does tlm refer to? Why do you think the au th o r chose to ttse they rath er than a specific reference? W ho do vou think you refers to? Why do you think the au th o r chose to use уout 2. W hat effect does the a u th o r achieve bv h a t ing Rachel list all of the years of h er life rath er than just saving "W hen vou're eleven, vou’re also all the o th er vears of t o u r life"?
“Eleven” begins with the following: W hat thev d o n 't u n d e rsta n d about birthdavs and what they never tell to n is that w hen you're eleven, vou're also ten, and nine, and eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four, and three, and two, and one. And when von wake u p on vour eleventh birthday von expect to feel eleven, but you don't. You open vour eves and everything's just like yesterday, only it's today. And t on d o n 't feel eleven at all. You feel like vou’re still ten. And von a re — u n d e r neath the vear that makes vou eleven. “O ut of O rd er,” on the o th e r h and, begins in the following wav. Longfellow High was not strictly speak ing a high school at all. It teas the sev enth and eighth grades of gram m ar school, and its full nam e was Longfellow Ju n io r High School. The Longfellow in question was of course the Mr. Longfellow, o r H enrv W adsworth, although nothing m uch was ever m ade of that. It was in ancient history class that I first astonished mv class into an aware ness that h ere was a truly original m ind. It h ap p en ed that this was the first class of the v e il first dav. In o rd e r to help students recognize how the difference in tone betw een the two openings is achieved, a teach er m ight pose a series of questions for students to consider, such as the following.
“O i l
of
O rder”
1. W illiam is in seventh grade vet points o ut the first a n d m iddle nam es of Longfellow. Why do vou th in k W illiam Sarovan (the adult a u th o r o f the storv) has William, the seventh grader, p o in t this out? 2. W hat kinds o f things astonish vou? W ht do to n think S arotan chose to describe him self as a seventh g rad er using that word? Whv do vou think S arotan described him self as a tnils original mind} The aim of such questions is to help students rec ognize the wav in which their assessment of the two characters has been influenced bv how the authors have used first person point of tietv to develop a childlike voice for Rachel and a self-confident and arrogant voice for William. In the case of “O ut of Order." the relationship of the author and narrator is even m ore complex since Sarot an, the author, is writing about his own youth. A nother activity that could be used to high light the m an n er in which the authors depict the characters is to have students list all of the sen tences in "Eleven" that sound childlike. This list m ight include such sentences as the following: 1. "Like some davs you m ight sav som ething stupid, and th a t’s the part of vou that's still ten." 2. "O r mavbe som e davs you m ight n e e d to sit on vour m am a ’s lap because v o u ’re scared, and that's the p a rt o f you that's live.” Students m ight also m ake a list of com m ents William makes that dem onstrate his outspoken self-confidence. This m ight include com m ents like the following:
1.
"I rem arked th at it would seem m ore in o rd er to turn to page one for the first lesson." 2. “I was asked mv nam e, w h ereu p o n , I was only too glad to say honestly, ‘William Saroyan."' T he m ain p o in t o f such activities is req u irin g stu dents to re tu rn to the text to exam ine how the story is told and in w hat ways this has influenced th eir ju d g m e n t o f the characters.
Spatio-Temporal Point ofView Cisneros chose to tise th e p re se n t tense to reco u n t h er storv while Saroyan uses the past tense. To explore the difference that verb tense has on telling a storv, teachers m ight refe r to pas sages such as the following a n d ask students which of the two accounts thev felt thev were actually witnessing. “E i .fat.x " “W hose is this?" Mrs. Price savs, and she holds the red sweater up in the air for all the class to see. "Whose? It's been sitting in the coatroom for a m onth." “O ut
of
O rder"
Miss S henstone flung h erself at me with such speed that I was scarcely able to get awav. For h alf a m o m en t she clung to mv hom ek n it sweater, and dam aged it before I got awav. Such com parisons are useful in helping students recognize that the use of the present tense in sto rytelling suggests the im m ediacy o f events, incit ing the reader to witness them . T he tem poral point of view also involves the o rd er in which the events of a store are told. In some instances the store time and real time are identical, whereas in others the au th o r uses flash backs so that the store time and real time differ. In dealing evith such stories, teachers m ight have students com plete a chart such as the one at the bottom of this page in which students use clues from the text to guess at the actual time o f the event. This tvpe of chart is particularly useful in situations where the store- line is quite com plex temporally. Tine N u m b er
H istorical Tim e
A n o th er way of addressing the tem poral p o in t o f view is to ask students to visualize key events in a story by com pleting a collage. In the case o f “O u t o f O rd e r,” students could be asked to identify what they consider to be central events erf the store, such as Miss S h e n sto n e ’s chas ing William, the p rin c ip al’s q u estio n in g William, and U ncle A lecksander’s com ing to the p rin ci pal's office. T hen individually o r in small groups, students create a collage o f these events using photo g rap h s, objects, line drawings, a n d texts. As m en tio n ed earlier, what Fowler calls the spatial p o in t ofview addresses how objects, b uild ings. and landscapes are described. For exam ple, in "Eleven" the red sweater is in tro d u c ed in the storv when Mrs. Price “holds the sweater u p in the air for all the class to see.” E ater she takes the “ugh sweater with red plastic bu tto n s a n d a col lar an d sleeves all stretched out like you could use it for a ju m p ro p e ” an d puts it on R achel’s desk. This leads Rachel to "move the red sweater to the co rn er o f mv desk” until eventually she shoves “the red sweater to the tippv-tip c o rn e r” of h e r desk an d "it's hanging all over the edge like a waterfall." To address the spatial dim ension, teachers m ight begin bv asking students why they think Rachel felt so hum iliated bv having the teacher insist that the sweater was hers. This undoubtedly would lead to a discussion of what the sweater was like. At this point, students m ight be asked to list all o f the descriptions of the sweater in the storv. T he goal o f such an activity’ is to help students recognize th at th eir o p inion of the sweater has been influenced by how the a u th o r chose to describe it.
Ideological Point ofView Exam ining stories' ideological point of view is closelv related to what has been term ed critical literacy or critical reading, Kress (1985) m aintains that readers should approach all texts with three questions in m ind; namelv, whv is the topic being written about, how is the topic being written about, and what o th er wavs could the topic have been written about? In critical reading, readers are encouraged to exam ine the values and belief L ocation
C haracters
Events
systems th at u n d erlie a text or what Fowler (1986) refers to as the ideological p oint o f view o f a storv. A ccording to Fowler, the n a rra to r or characters in literary texts frequently rely on m odal structures to convey th eir beliefs an d atti tudes. These structures include such things as m o d al auxiliaries (e.g., may, might, should), m odal adverbs or sentence adverbs (e.g., surely, perhaps, It is certain that . . .), evaluative adjectives a n d adverbs (e.g., lucky, fortunate, regrettably), an d verbs o f know ledge, prediction, and evaluation (e.g., seem, believe, foresee, dislike). O n e suggested wav of enco u rag in g students to see the ideological p o in t o f view in "O ut of O rd e r” is for the tea c h e r to begin bv asking stu dents why thev think the storv was en titled "O ut of O rd er.” As a follow-up to this question, a tea c h e r could have students u n d e rlin e all the references to the “old school" (i.e.. w hen teach ers do the questioning) and the "new school" (i.e., w hen students do the questioning) and have them use these references to d eterm in e w h eth er or n o t they th ink the a u th o r is sympa thetic to the old or the new school, citing sen tences from the text to su p p o rt th eir view. Such an a p p ro ach would lead students to consider such passages as the following one. which occurs after W illiam questions how Miss Shenstone knows the age of the stones tit Stonehenge. W illiam com m ents that "the tru th of the m atter is that n e ith e r Miss Shenstone . . . n o r Mr. M onsoon himself, the principal, had anything like a satisfactory answer to am legitim ate ques tion o f this sort, for thev (and all the o th e r teach ers) had always accepted what thev h ad fo u n d in the textbooks.” T he goal of this tvpe of an exam ination of a literary text is to help students see th at au th o rs often have a particular set o f values that inform how thev choose to tell a storv. In concluding this com parison of these two short stories, it is im portant to em phasize several points regarding the use o f literary texts to develop students' language awareness. First, in o rd e r to pro m o te students' enjoym ent of reading literary texts, classroom actirities should alwavs begin with haring students individually or in small groups share their personal reactions to a literary text. Second, as a wav of developing students' awareness of how th eir in te rp re ta tio n o f the text
has been influ en ced bv how the storv is told, classroom tasks should encourage students to go back to the text to su p p o rt th eir in terpretations. Finally, exactly what tvpe o f classroom tasks are used will d e p e n d on what features of the story a re m ost salient (e.g., te m p o ra l o r spatial description, p oint of view, or characterization).
U SIN G LITER A R Y T E X T S TO IN T E G R A T E SKILLS Reading Using literature as c o n ten t provides an ideal way to integrate the developm ent o f the four skills. As the previous discussion has m ade clear, en co u r aging students to carefully exam ine a literary text to support their interpretations prom otes stu dents' close reading of texts, a skill which will b e n e fit th e ir re a d in g o f o th e r m aterial. Literature, of course, is also ideal as c o n ten t for extensive reading program s in L2 classrooms. Becom ing engaged with a piece o flite ra tu re will certainly increase students' interest in reading often and widely in English. (For a good source of literature for language learners, see Dav and Bam ford [1998], which includes six h u n d re d titles divided bv levels of difficulty as well as bv age group, genre, and region o f the world.)
Listening W hen read aloud, literatu re also offers an excel lent c o n tex t for developing global listening skills. T he m any books available on audiotape can be used as a basis for an extensive listening library. O n e clear advantage o f enco u rag in g stu dents to listen to literature read bv professionals is that such m aterial exposes students to a variety of dialects an d voice qualities. A nother type of listening task that can be used in L2 classroom s involves storvtelling. M organ and Rinvolucri (1988) in their book, Once Upon a Time, argue convincingly that the quality of listening that occurs when som eone is telling ;t storv "is radically different from that during
listening c o m p r e h e n s io n fro m is a l w a y s
third-person
dropping
that
a tape. T h e latter
listening,
is s t r a n g e l y
a kind
o f eaves
u n com pelling.
To
be
previously o c c u rre d . S tu d e n ts th u s have a g reat deal o f relevant in fo rm atio n
to d r a w o n to w rite
a dialogue.
th e contrary,
Plavs p r o v i d e a ric h c o n t e x t f o r d e v e l o p i n g
involves o n e in 'I-tb o u ' liste n in g , w h e r e th e liste n
stu d e n ts' sociolinguistic a n d p ra g m a tic aw aren ess
ers
(see M cKav
t o l d a s t o r e b v a live s t o m e l l e r , o n
can
T heir
directly book
in ilu en ce
contains
a
the
telling”
variety
of
(p p.1-2).
strategies
for
u s i n g s t o r y t e l l i n g t o d e v e l o p l i s t e n i n g skills.
[ i n p r e s s ] ) . It is i m p o r t a n t , h o w e v e r ,
to r e c o g n i z e from
th a t plavs d iffe r in s ig n ific a n t wavs
natural
points
out.
conversation.
dram a
and
As
S im pson
naturally
(1997)
o ccurring
dis
c o u rs e a re n o t id e n tic a l types o f c o m m u n ic a t io n .
Speaking Perhaps
The
th e
greatest
b en efit o f using
the
literature
guage
learn in g
offer a d etailed
w ritten
texts,
for
d ialo g u es
м о гу
account
trad itio n al
o f the
lan
w ardly
tvpicallv
speakers'
back
are in
th e a p p r o p r ia t e n e s s o f lan g u a g e use. F o r e x a m p le ,
w hy W illiam
is a p o l o g i z i n g
and
background to w h o m
naturally
straightfor
itt
dram a
dia
o f co m m u n icatio n
l a y e r s at. w o r k
. . . O n
the
one
th e
character-to-character
w hich
the
text.
is d i s p l a y e d O n
th e
on
other,
stage
there
is
c o m m u n ic a tio n b etw een th e d ram atist a n d a u d i e n c e o r r e a d e r (p. 164).
on
he
lace,"
discourse.
is
o r in
about
t i r e t r o u b l e I m a d e . I w o n ' t d o it a g a i n . " B e c a u s e th e sto re itself h a s p r o v i d e d th e
to
channel
dram a
dialogue
c o m e to a p o lo g iz e . I d o n 't w a n t a n v sp ecial privi sorn
the
is
tw o c o m m u n ic a tiv e
this
c i p a l a n d h is t e a c h e r , s a v i n g to Mr. M o n s o o n . "I'v e
" I'm
w hereas
h a n d , t h e r e is i n t e r a c t i o n w i t h i n a p l a y :
in " O u t o f O rd e r." W illiam a p o lo g izes to th e p r i n
M iss S h e n s t o n e .
that
that in ter
are. A n o th e r
is m o r e c o m p l e x . T h i s is b e c a u s e t h e r e
lo g u e s p r o v id e s tu d e n ts w ith a basis f o r ju d g in g
to
t h e wav
co nversation
"hue
lo g u e
g ro u n d s a n d role relationships. I Ience. such d ia
leges." a n d
is
occurring
in
conv ersatio n
difference
th e ir sociolinguistic a n d p ra g m a tic c o m p e te n c e .
betw een
t w o is t h a t c h a r a c t e r s i n p l a v s a r e
lo c u to rs in
d e v e l o p i n g s t u d e n t s ' s p e a k i n g skills, p a r t i c u l a r l y
d ialo g u es
obvious d iffe re n c e
n o t real p e o p le
in t h e l a n g u a g e c l a s s r o o m lies i n its p o t e n t i a l f o r
U nlike
m ost
is
N e v e rth e le s s , plavs c a n b e u s e d to e x a m i n e
ap o lo g izin g , stu d e n ts have a c o n te x t for evaluat
such
ing
v e rs a tio n . sttiied a n d i m p l i e d m e a n i n g s , ellipsis,
th e
form s.
app ro p riaten ess S tudents
also
o f p articu lar
have
a
d eterm in in g w hen
discourse
as.
w hen
for
W illiam ,
exam ple, "I
m ight
just s h u t u p
and
lull
co n tex t
S henstone
M is lc r W i l l i a m
saw
do
for
is n o t a p p r o p r i a t e
M iss
let m e
linguistic
the
tells
Sarovan.
teaching
o f the
a n c i e n t h i s t o r y class."
h av in g
students
w rite
their
own
dialogues.
F o r e x a m p le , in " O u t o f O rd e r," S aro v an
leaves
as t h e
a n d so o n . Fish
sequencing
o f tu rn s
in
con
(1989) suggests o n e strategy for
in creasing stu d en ts' aw areness o f th e
n atu re
of
c o n v e rsa tio n . H e r e c o m m e n d s giving s tu d e n ts a list
of
the
includes
cast
som e
characters
T e a c h e r s c a n also u se lite ra ry te x ts as a basis for
th in g s
athlete, th e
characters
(e.g..
a
to
and
setting
m ake
W ith of
in
a
plav.
inform ation
journalist,
a sponsor).
title
asked
of
background
this th e
hypotheses
a
coach,
w hich on a
the
black
in fo rm atio n plav.
about
and
students th e
are
plav
in
u n t o l d w h a t W il li a m 's u n c l e a c tu a lly says to t h e
te rm s o f th e plot, th e m e , a n d so o n . T h e n
prin cip al
the
s u g g e s t s gi v i n g s t u d e n t s a s e c t i o n o f t h e p l a v w i t h
o f W i l l i a m ’s n a t i o n a l i t y .
t h e lin e s blit w ith th e c h a r a c t e r s ' n a m e s d e le t e d .
r e g a r d in g W illiam 's b e h a v io r a n d
p rin c ip a l's
q u estio n in g
Fish
H ow ever. S arovan does re c o u n t w h at a g re e m e n t
S tudents
th e u n c le a n d p rin c ip a l r e a c h at th e c o n c lu s io n
t h e list o f c h a r a c t e r s . F in a l ly , s t u d e n t s a r e a s k e d
o f their
to
as
to
m eeting,
what
learn ers
m ight
have
giving have
a sense
learn ers
been o f b o th
said. th e
several In
clues
addition,
u n c le 's
and
M r. M o n s o o n 's p e rs o n a litie s , b a s e d o n w h a t h as
f i r s t t r v t o g u e s s w h o is s p e a k i n g f r o m
sequence
students can
th e
lines o f th e
dev elo p
plav.
sensitivity to
In
d o in g
so,
th e fact th at
"conv e rs a tio n s a re c o m p lic a te d , b u t o r d e r ly a n d ru le -g o v e rn e d events" (B u rto n
1 9 8 2 , p. 8 6 ) .
Writing L iterature can be used to develop students' writ ing abilities bv having students react in personal jo u rn a ls an d form al essavs to the literarv texts they read. L'sing writing in this wav offers two benefits. First, it provides students with a way to express their personal in te rp re ta tio n of a story, thus pro m o tin g the tvpe of aesthetic response to readin g literary texts referred to earlier. Second, to the extent that students are asked to refer to the text to justifv th eir conclusions about the lit erary selection, tliev learn to support their opin ions with relevant inform ation, an im portant skill for various types of academ ic writing. Using literary texts in writing classes is also valuable for helping students becom e aware of voice a n d p o in t o f view in written texts. For exam ple, with "O ut o f O rder" a n d "Eleven.” one strategy for developing point o f view w ould be to have students rew rite these stories from the p o in t o f view of the teacher. A n o th er possibilitv would be to have students rew rite "Eleven" as if told an d ex p erien ced bv William. In this case, students w ould n eed to consider how William, given what thev know of him from "O ut of O rd e r,” w ould react to being wronglv accused of ow ning an old red sweater, a n d th en assum e W illiam's voice in reco u n tin g the storv. O ne excellent genre for develop fluencv in writing, particularly for less proficient language learners, is poetrv. Because p o e m is less restricted by the gram m atical and lexical constraints of o th er types o f discourse, poem s can provide learn ers with a m edium for exploring and plating with language. Malev and Duff (1989) present a variety o f strategies for enco u rag in g students to create their own poems. O ne strategy, for example, involves having students draw several familiar shapes, such as a ladder or staircase. Next, students list words that thev associate with this shape. T hen they use some of these words to write a poem in the shape of the object itself. To increase students' awareness of the im portance of word choice, Malev and Duff suggest giving students poem s in which descriptive words have been deleted and haring students fill in the blanks. Students th en com pare their choices and discuss the differences in effect that arise from m aking specific wTord choices.
W iddowson (1999) m akes a convincing arg u m en t for using poetrv in the language class room . H e argues that, although the c o n te n t of poem s can often be red u ced to ordinary obser vations (e.g.. tim e passes, life is lonelv), "the essentials o f poetrv lie in the wav language is used to elaborate on such sim ple propositions so that thes apre reform ulated in unfam iliar term s which som ehow cap tu re the underiving mvstery of the com m onplace" (p. 9). T he simple them es of poetry and the unconventional m eth o d of expressing these them es thus provide an avenue for language learners to use the English thev have to express sophisticated ideas, unrestricted bv the typical constraints of conventional discourse.
U SIN G L IT E R A R Y T E X T S TO D E V E LO P C U L T U R A L A W A R EN ESS A third benefit o f using literarv texts in the lan guage classroom rests in their potential for devel oping cross-cultural awareness. This is especially im portant in an era when learners com m unicate in English, not onlv with native speakers of English in Western countries, but also with other non-native speakers aro u n d the globe. In o rd er to discuss the benefits of using literarv texts to develop cultural awareness, it useful to distin guish various dim ensions of culture. Aclaskou, Britten, and Fahsi (1989) distinguish four dim en sions of culture: the aesthetic sense in which a lan guage is associated with the literature, film, and music of a particular country; the sociological sense in which language is linked to the custom s and institutions of a country; the semantic sense in which a culture's conceptual system is em bodied in the language: and the pragmatic sense in which cul tural norm s influence what language is a p p ro priate for what context. A literarv text frequently exemplifies several dim en sio n s o f cu ltu re. For exam ple, w hen considering “Out. o f O rd e r” an d "Eleven." the aes thetic sense o f culture is evident in the m ention of H enrv W adsworth Longfellow and Stonehenge. T he sociological sense of culture is dem onstrated
in various ways— in the assum ption in “Eleven" about the im portance of clothes in A m erican schools and in the accepted role o f the teacher to question and com m and students. The sem an tic sense of culture is clear in word choice when, for exam ple, William reports that the teacher "flung herself” at him rather than saving she chased him or ran after him, and it is evident in the m etaphorical use of language in “Eleven" w hen Rachel, for exam ple, states, “T he wav vou grow old is kind of like an onion or like the rings inside a tree trunk or like my little wooden dolls that fit one inside the other, each vear inside the next one." Finallv. the pragm atic sense of culture is exem plified in the dialogue passages in “O ut of O rder" when, for exam ple, the form al contractual sense o f U ncle A lecksander an d Mr. M onsoon's a g reem en t reg ard in g William is sealed with the exchange of the uncle saving. "I shall be in te r ested in his progress." a n d Mr. M onsoon responding. “We all shall." T here are those who argue that a language c a n n o t be tau g h t w ithout cu lture. Kramsch (1993). for exam ple, m aintains that if language “is seen as social practice, culture becom es the verv core of language teaching. C.ultural aware ness m ust then be viewed both as enabling lan guage proficients and as being the outcom e of reflection on language proficients" (p. S). She argues, however, that knowing about a culture (i.e.. gaining cultural com petence) does not m ean that one has an obligation to behave in accordance with the cont entions of that culture. Thus the ultim ate goal of cultural learning is not to convev inform ation about a culture no r to pro m ote the acquisition o f culturallv influenced wavs of behaving, but rath er to help learners see their culture in relation to others so as to prom ote cross-cultural understanding. If one accepts this view of cultural learning, it is clear that literals texts preside an ideal context for ex ploring cultural differences. However, approaching literature to develop cross-cultural understanding requires that teachers first carefullv exam ine the cultural assumptions present in a par ticular literals- work and then structure activities that help students gain an understanding of those assum ptions. Teachers and students n e e d to explore how their cultural assum ptions differ.
both from each o th e r’s and from those portrayed in the literarv text. As a wav of clarilving this approach, let us consider how a specific text m ight be used in a second language classroom to pro m ote cross-cultural un d erstan d in g . In general, im m igrant literatu re offers a rich context for exploring cultural differences since the stories frequentlv deal with individuals who have literallv and figurativelv crossed borders and, hence, have experienced m am cultural dif ferences in their lives. A short store be Hi save Yamamoto entitled "Seventeen Svllables” exem plifies this type of cultural b o rd e r crossing. It recounts the experience of a Jap an ese im m i g ra n t familv w orking as to m a to pickers in California. T he Havashi family is com posed o f Rosie, a young teenager, a n d h e r parents. Rosie is involved in m am aspects o f A m erican culture an d has acculturated to the ex ten t o f p referrin g to use English instead o fja p a n e se . In the course o f the store she falls in love with Jesus, a n o th e r young im m igrant worker, who is H ispanic. T he store revolves a ro u n d Rosie’s m other, Tome, who assum es a pen nam e for w riting haiku to subm it to a contest sponsored be the Mainichi Shimbu newspaper. Mrs. H ayashi’s talent in writ ing haiku results in h e r receiving an award from the ed ito r of the newspaper, one o f his favorite H iroshiges prints depicting fo u r sam pans on a pale blue sea. Hoevever, Rosie’s father, u p set by the disturbances that the haiku w riting has caused the familv, destroys the H iroshige his wife receives. T he storv ends with Mrs. Havashi ad m itting to h e r d a u g h te r that she cam e to the U nited States as part of an arra n g e d m arriage after Inn ing given birth out o f wedlock to a still b orn son. After the birth. Tom e had w ritten to h e r favorite sister in the U nited States, th re a te n ing to kill herself if h e r sister did n o t send for her. H e r sister then had arra n g e d a m arriage for h e r in the U nited States with a voting m an who h a d recentlv arrived from J a p an . T he storv con cludes w hen Rosie's m o th e r kneels on the floor and takes Rosie bv the wrists: “’R osie,’ she said urgently. 'Prom ise m e vou will never m arrv!”’ T his storv contains several cultural schem as— the schem a of the Japanese im m igrant familv in which various Japanese traditions such as arranged m arriages and particular g en d er
roles are still upheld; the schem a of A m erican p o p u lar culture, with references to movie stars like Shirley Tem ple and songs like "Red Sails in the Sunset”; an d finally, the schem a o f farm w orkers with expectations ab o u t tom ato picking a n d p o o r housing conditions. W hich schem as are fam iliar to teachers and students depends u p o n th eir cultural background. In teaching the story, however, the first step the teach er needs to u n d e rta k e is to exam ine what cultural schem as the story portrays. This m ight be accom plished by sim ple clustering all of the exam ples in the text th at relate to a p articular cultural schem a. Next, teachers need to design wavs to make these differences accessible to students. O ne strat egy for doing this is to merely present some of the assum ed cultural inform ation. In this case, a teacher m ight show pictures of farm workers, read some exam ples of haiku, or familiarize students with relevant aspects of U nited States' popular cul ture. This level of cultural awareness is not difficult to exemplify. The significant cultural differences in the story, however, rest in such factors as the assum ed gen d er roles of the Japanese father and m other, the acceptance of arranged marriages, and T om e’s thoughts of suicide as a result of a sig nificant loss of face. With these kinds of cultural assum ptions, the goal should not be to evaluate these assum ptions but rather to help students understand why the characters acted as tliev did. Ultimately, this should lead students to clarify their own understanding of such culturalh bound p h en o m en o n as gender roles, l o s s of face, and m arriage. How these aspects o f c u ltu re are a p p ro a c h e d in the classroom d ep en d s largely on the background o f the teach er and the students. If, for exam ple, the store is taught in Japan with Japanese students and a Japanese teacher, then the classroom participants most likelv share mans cultural assum ptions evident in the behavior of Mr. a n d Mrs. Havashi. W hat m ight seem unusual to this class is the fact that Rosie has not kept up h e r Japanese and is willing to m eet secretly with Jesus. O n the o th er hand, if the store is taught in the U nited States with an Am erican teacher and some Japanese students, the teacher, while fam iliar with mans' references to Am erican
culture an d svith an u n d erstan d in g of the farm svorker com m units. mas not u n d erstan d the mans' references to Japanese culture n o r be willing to accept Mrs. Havahsi's svillingness at the end o f the stors to gis e up her writing o f haiku. In short, to the extent drat English language class room s represent indis iduals from sarious cultural backgrounds, the cultural inform ation in particu lar literal's- texts mas be known to and accepted by some of the classroom participants, s et unfam iliar to others. Ultim atels. sshat the literals text provides is a m edium for sharing and illum inating the cross-cultural differences it exem plifies. T he s alue of selecting texts that portras' aspects o f the culture of some o f the classroom m em bers is that those students who com e from this culture can explain mans of the cultural elem ents that mas not be un d ersto o d 1m m em bers o f o th e r cul tures. Idealist the cultural discussion that occurs will illum inate svhs particular characters from a specific cultural background acted as tliev did. Such an ap proach hopefttlls will avoid the cul tural stereotvping that can occur svhen dis cussing cross-cultural differences, since these discussions ss'ill be g rounded in specific behasior portrased in a particular literal's context. This is one of the m ajor cross-cultural benefits that literal's' texts can bring to L2 classrooms.
C O N C L U S IO N Using literature as co n ten t in EST EFI. classes has a s ariets’ o f benefits. W hile read in g literature should be prim arily an enjoyable aesthetic expe rience. using literature in T2 classroom s can also deselop stu d e n ts’ language awareness. Because literals texts are u n iq u e in th eir ability to illus trate that what is com m unicated cannot be sepa rated from how it is com m unicated, thev provide an ideal context for dem onstrating the im por tance of form in language learning and language use. Exactly how thes are used in a particular class room depends on a wide variety of factors— students' language learning goals, proficiency les el in English, and personal interests, as svell as the
teachers' knowledge of and interest in literature, the teacher's teaching philosophy, and his or her classroom objectives. Perhaps the greatest benefit of using literature as content in an era of increas ing globalization is that literary texts provide an ideal context for exam ining cross-cultural differ ences and exploring them in a m anner that partic ularizes rather than stereotypes these differences.
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1. Drawing on the ideas presented in this chap ter. discuss what you believe are the essential differences between literary and nonliterarv texts. 2. Discuss what vou believe are the m ajor advantages and disadvantages of using liter ary texts with second language students. 3. Do vou think explicit atten tio n should be giv en to exam ining the form of literary texts in L2 classrooms? W hat reasons do vou have for vour opinion? Do vou believe this a tte n tion to form detracts from students' aesthetic experience with a text? Whv? 4. This c h a p te r has argued that even though th ere are differences betw een dialogues in literary texts and natural conversation, such m aterial is valuable in developing students' pragm atic com petence? Do vou agree or dis agree? Whv? 5. Discuss wavs in which vou would find infor m ation ab o u t unfam iliar cultural schem as in literary texts.
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1. Select a short storv th at vou believe would be engaging for a g roup o f language learners vou are fam iliar with. T h en design one o f the following: a. an activity that encourages students to draw on the text to su p p o rt th eir opinion of a p articular ch aracter in the store b. an activity that encourages students to explore how the text w ould be different if told from a n o th e r p o in t o f view
c.
a series o f activities that involve the devel o p m e n t of all fo u r skills— reading, writ ing, speaking, a n d listening 2. Select a piece of literatu re that involves sev eral cultural schem as. Begin bv analyzing the cultural schem as th at exist in the text, listing specific details th at c o n trib u te to each schem a. T hen describe how vou w ould m ake those schem as accessible to a p a rtic u la r g roup of language learners. 3. Select a second language textbook that uses literary texts as content. Review the follow-up activities that are inclu d ed in the text and discuss w h ether vou believe the activities c o n trib u te prim arily to stu d en ts' aesthetic reading o f the text, th eir efferent read in g of the text, or both. 4. Observ e an F.SL o r EFT class th at uses liter ary texts. Describe the activities in the class that c o n trib u te to stu d e n ts’ awareness o f the language in the text an d the activities th at develop students' awareness o f the cultural schem as in the text.
FU R TH ER R EA D IN G Carter. R.. and J. McRae. 1996. L a n g u a g e , Literature a n d the Learner. London: Addison Wesley Longman. T his collection of essays is derived from three international seminars on the teaching of liter ature in second and foreign language class rooms. held at the University of Nottingham. The editors note that the papers in the volume share a commitment to practical, classroombased activities, particularly those that are lan guage based and student centered. Collie. |.. and S. Slater. 1987. Liter a tu r e in the L a n g u a g e Classroom: A Resource Book oj I de as a n d Activities.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1he opening chapter of this book examines whv literature should be included in second language classrooms, how texts should be selected, and how thev should be used. The other chapters are devoted to illustrating specific classroom activi ties to use with literary texts in the prereading, while-reading, and postreading process.
K ram sch,
С.
1993.
C o n te x t a n d C u ltu r e in L a n g u a g e
o f tasks a n d activities t h a t t e a c h e r s c a n d o o n
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a r e p a r t ic u l a r ly r e l e v a n t to u s i n g l i t e r a t u r e as c o n t e n t . T h e first, " S t o r i e s a n d D i s c o u r s e . " e l a b orates o n trib u te
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1995,
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2 0 0 0 . Voices in Literature. B o s t o n . \ L \ : H e i n l e & H e in le Publishers. T h is three-level series o f lite ra tu re -b a se d s e c o n d
“T e a c h i n g t h e L i t e r a r y T e x t , " d e s c r i b e s v a r i o u s
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g e n r e s . Al l o f t h e l i t e r a r y t e x t s h a v e a s e r i e s o f
Lazar,
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1993.
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C a m b r i d g e : C a m b r i d g e U n iv e rs ity Press. T his
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th e ir c lassro o m s. T h e b o o k consists o f a series
tra te d w ith p h o t o g r a p h s a n d line draw ings.
Experiential and Negotiated Language Learning JA N ET
L.
EYRING
Eynngs chapter derives the W e s te rn “ Experiential and Negotiated Language Learning" movement from the humanistic classroom of the 1960s and I 970s and the community-based learning and project w o rk of the 1970s and 1980s. Because it provides rich opportunities for negotiation and attends to individual and collaborative learning, teachers of all cultures may find this approach relevant well into the 2000s,
IN T R O D U C T IO N E x p erien tial learn in g , a c o n c e p t as old as Socrates, Confucius, and the G arden of Eden, m ade a com eback in schools in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when educational and social institu tions were u n d e r attack in the L'nited States and in o th er industrialized nations aro u n d the world. An exam ple o f this was the "open classroom" of the 1960s, in which traditional seating arrange m ents and classroom levels were dissolved and students of different ages were allowed to freelv interact on tasks or larger projects without sepa ration of walls. Experiential language learning, borrow ing from these experiential learning roots, is right fully placed within the context of the C om m u nicative Language Teaching (CLT) m ovem ent which began in the mid 1970s and continues until todav (see Savignon’s chapter in this volume). Legutke and Thom as (1991) label it a "strong ver sion of CLT” and a solution to the negative class room cultures o f so-called “com m unicative classrooms," which thev have observed as being characterized bv ( 1 ) dead bodies and talking heads: (2 ) deferred gratification and the loss of adventure; (3) lack o f creativitv; (4) lack of o ppor tunities for com m unication: (5) lack of autonom v; and (6) lack of cultural awareness (pp. 7-10). Thev emphasize that experiential language learn ing is not a new m ethod but an “educational framework" aro u n d which to organize learning tasks. T h e roots o f this prom ising fram ew ork in
hum anistic and dem ocratically organized class room s and its reliance on “negotiation” in the learning and teaching of com m unication will be discussed in this chapter. Guidelines for organiz ing an experience-oriented curriculum using project work will also be discussed.
E X P E R IE N T IA L A C T IV IT IE S IN A H U M A N IS T IC CLA SSRO O M To u n d e rs ta n d e x p e rien tial le a rn in g in the W estern world, it is im p o rta n t to review the soci ocultural clim ate of A m erican societv in the m id 1960s. D uring this period, awareness o f the n eed for warm, h u m an ex perience was raised to new levels as large num bers o f individuals railed against the bureaucracv a n d depersonalization of m o d ern societv. Legutke an d T hom as (1991) provide a concise discussion of this period: This was a crisis whose m ain character istics were the d eadening o f hum an c o m m u n ic a tio n w ithin tech n o cratic and bureaucratic institutions, the pro gressive destruction of livable space in the cities, the aggravation of spiritual im poverishm ent a n d poverty in spite of a rapid growth of affluence, the obvi ous chauvinism o f the so-called civi lized world and its dem ocracies towards
the countries of the T hird W orld and th e exploitative rela tio n sh ip with n a tu re w hich led to a progressive red u ctio n o f the qualitv o f life in the nam e o f progress (p. 41). Some psvchologists arg u ed that the solution to this alienation and lack of awareness was to raise p erso n al consciousness a n d self-recognition. R ogers’s work in client-centered psvchotherapy 1961) , Maslow's psvchologv o f self-actualization 1 962) , a n d P e ris’ G estalt T h e rap v (Peris, H efferline, an d G oodm an 1951) were widelv dis cussed in psvchological and psvchotherapeutic circles. Subsequcntlv, these ideas infused into the field of education. Legutke and Thom as (1991) >tate that “G onfluent E ducation” (Galvean 1977) fo llo w e d greatlv from psvchotherapeutic princinles and pro m o ted certain awareness-raising prin ciples such as sensitivitv training, perception and activation of em otions, bodv training (relaxation, breathing, m ovem ent), psvchodram atic expres sion of feelings (dram a), em pathv training, train ing in com m unication skills, and the stim ulation of im agination, projection, and creativitv (p. 47). NTot surprisingly confluent education m ade cm im pact on language teaching m ethods as well. Counseling-Learning (Curran I960) adopted the client-counselor relationship. Total Phvsical Response (Asher 1977) adopted bodv m ovem ent for language train in g rein fo rcem en t, and Suggestopedia (Lozanov 1982) adopted relax ation training. Moskowitz's (1978) then innova tive book Caring and Sharing in ike Foreign Language Class offered m am suggestions for intro ducing trust building and em pathv into the lan guage classroom. Today, the aspect of experiential language learning which acknowledges the socioaffective co m ponent of the learning process and the im portance o f the learner in instruction (learnercenteredness) is well established (X unan 1995). Teachers wishing to hum anize the classroom experience treat students as individuals, patientlv enco u rag e self-expression, seriously listen to learner response, provide opportunities for learn ing by doing, and m ake learning m eaningful to students in the here an d now.
E X P E R IE N C E FO R D EM O C R A TIC LE A R N IN G Incorporating experiences that address the affec tive needs of learners has been an im portant them e in the educational literature. Providing learning experiences as a backdrop to learning about cooperative principles has also been an im portant em phasis in western education. Dewey (1916) believed that the classroom should reflect societv outside the classroom. He argued for dem ocratized classrooms in which students were not simple funneled inform ation but w here they participated with the teacher and with each other in Socratic dialogue about subjects near to their own life experiences. Schm uck (1985) sum m a rizes Dewev s philosophv: Dewev argues that if hum ans are to learn to live cooperatively thev must experience the living process of coop eration in schools. Life in the class room should represent the dem ocratic process in m icrocosm , and the heart of dem ocratic living is cooperation in groups. Moreover. Dewev argues that classroom life should em bodv dem oc racy not onlv in how students learn to make choices and carrv out academ ic projects together, but also in how thev learn to relate to one another. This approach could involve being taught to em pathize with others, to respect the rights of others, and to work together on rational problem solving (p. 2 ). In an egalitarian learning communitv such as this, all hav e the opportunity to voice opinions. Consensus is favored in decision m aking but majoritv rules. W hat gets done or does not get done is d e p e n d en t upon individual initiative and group cooperation. Logical reasoning and discus sion tire essential in group problem solving. Kilpatrick (1918) fu rth er explicated Dewev’s ideas and p ro p o sed that classroom s should "provide it place for the adequate utilization of the laws of learning” but no less “for the essential elem ents of the ethical quality of conduct" (p. 9). He also introduced The Project Method. Kolb (1984) has extended Dewev s and Kilpatrick's ideas by
em phasizing th at observation o f experience is insufficient for learn in g but m ust be followed bv abstract conceptualization, reflective observa tion. a n d active ex p erim entation. Dewey introduced projects as an ideal expe riential m ethod to develop citizens for a dem o cratic societv. T he a d o p tio n o f the project m ethod, sometim es called Project Work or com munity-based learning, within the Com m unicative Language Teaching approach, has again rein forced the im portance o f groups working toward mutually beneficial goals. Students learning collaboratively have been shown to use h igher level learning strategies (Johnson and Jo h n so n 1985). are m ore m otivated to learn (Dornvei 1997), and are able to learn th rough cooperative problem solving (Swain and Tapkin 1998). Thev also pro duce m ore significant projects than thev could have as individuals. Some o f these include con d u c tin g large-scale surveys, cataloging large am ounts of inform ation, writing m ultiai tid e m ag azines. and producing feature films. In addition, these projects often have social benefits (e.g.. to orient handicapped individuals to accessible sites in a citv or to teach elem entary school students about intern atio n al cultures), which hearken back to the original political and ethical goals of the project work m ethod.
L E A R N IN G A S A N E G O T IA T IO N P R O CESS T he "experiential" classroom of the tventv-first centurv com bines features of the two aforem en tioned philosophies— experiences that address the needs of the individual in the learnercentered classroom and experiences that reinforce the goals of a group in a dem ocratic classroom in which the teacher is an active coparticipant in the learning process. T he potential conflict in this arran g em en t, betw een the needs and interests of the individual, the group, and the teacher, is resolved through som etim es difficult negotiation. Breen (1985) claims that all classrooms are jointly constructed bv teachers and learners; this is even m ore a p p a re n t in the experiential classroom with its restru ctu rin g o f power, in which learners are
elevated to assum e m ore responsibility for deci sions a n d teachers suppress th eir d o m in a n t roles to becom e facilitators an d colearners. This p a rt nership ap p ro ach to language learn in g som e times involves conflict resolution as teachers train them selves to stand back an d su p p o rt while learners are trained to initiate, cooperate, and explore (E rring 1989; Foster 1998). Besides the social negotiation of roles and goals, experiential learn in g provides o p p o rtu n i ties for the negotiation o f m eaning betw een learners in pair work and g roup work activities. M uch research has confirm ed the im p o rtan ce of such interaction for second language acquisition (Ivrashen 1978; Swain 1985). This sociocultural explanation for learning has also been con firm ed in studies of le a rn e r developm ent based on Vygotsky's (1978) zone of proxim al develop m ent. in which learning is conceptualized as a m ediated process betw een experts and novices (teachers and students), peers and peers, self (through private speech), an d o th e r sources such as com puters an d the com m unity th ro u g h which people learn various subject m atters with the assistance o f others (L antolf 2000). E xperiential classroom s in which learners negotiate with th eir classmates and the teacher th ro u g h o u t a course w hat thev want to learn, how thev want to learn, an d how thev want to be assessed acquire “process com petence" (L.egutke and Thom as 1991). N egotiating infor m ation inside an d outside the classroom with som etim es unsym pathetic in terlo cu to rs a n d n at ural. unsim plified texts creates an extrem ely rich language learn in g en v iro n m en t for the developm ent of "com m unicative c o m p e ten c e ,” which includes not onlv linguistic com petence, but sociolinguistic, strategic, and discourse com petence as well (Canale 1983).
T H E N E G O T IA T IO N OF C U R R IC U LU M Ntm an (1995. 1999) claims that students can be moved m ore or less easily along the continuum of a "negotiation curriculum" as thev learn how to learn. His first three steps relate to course content and the last six to course learning processes.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Make instructional goals clear to learners. L earners m ust u n d e rsta n d what thev are doing and why. Teachers should ensure the topic and focus of learning activities are appropriate for learners and should explicitly identify an d explain to them what the goals are. Students also benefit from a simple review o f goals accom plished after a lesson. Allow learners to create their own goals. Some learners mav be com fortable with teacherselected goals. However, learn ers should increasingly be given o p p o rtu n ities to create th eir own goals, or at the verv least, choose from am ong a set of provided goals. These self-selected goals are som etim es m ore pow erful if they are written up in the form of learning contracts o r have been negotiated bv consensus with o th er m em bers o f the class. Encourage learners to use their second language outside the classroom. W hen purposes are real a n d au th en tic, learners will be m ore m oti vated to obtain language input from a u th e n tic sources a n d real people outside the classroom (Strevens 1987). Teachers need to prepare students for the language dem ands a n d unp red ictab ility of natu ral discourse settings. Functional language use and negotia tion strategies should be emphasized. Raise awareness of learning processes. Students taking greater responsibility for their own learn in g in a cooperative classroom n eed to be m ade aware o f possible learning strate gics (W endeii a n d R ubin 1987: O xford 1990), such as m em ory, cognitive, c o m p en sation, m etacognitive. affective, and social strategies, an d be given opp o rtu n ities to overtlv verbalize while using them d in in g learn in g tasks (Swain 2000). G reater aware ness o f strategies as well as rehearsal in the classroom can lead to fu tu re transfer of learn in g to in d e p e n d e n t learn in g situations. Help learners identify their own preferred styles and strategies. Inventories for identifying one's learning stele an d strategies are now avail able (see O xford 1988 for an exam ple). Knowledge of these preferred ste les and strate gies, which som etim es differ according to cul tural background of the students (O xford and A nderson 1993), makes it possible for the
6.
7.
8.
9.
teacher to include learn in g activities which address these p referen ces. L earners also b eco m e m o re p ro fic ie n t at c h o o sin g approaches that reinforce their p articular wavs of learning. Encourage learner choice. Learners should be presented with opportunities to m ake choices of various tvpes— from whom thev want to work with, to which task thev want to do first, to what task thev want to elim inate altogether. Allow learners to generate their own tasks. Students who have d e te rm in e d th eir own goals are now reach' to create som e o f their own learn in g tasks, such as bringing in th eir own texts, w riting quizzes to test th eir class mates. o r d eterm in in g pretasks leading to a final target task. Encourage learners to become teachers. A lea rn er who is able to logically plan tasks is also able to plan learning environm ents for others. In the learn er-cen tered classroom , students can s e n e as tutors and teachers for each other, sharing th eir expertise or p resen tin g infor m ation that thev have m astered. Encourage learners to become researchers. In a true experiential course, learners will becom e researchers o f inform ation thev want to know. Thev m at state hypotheses, verify th em through data collection, and analyze and report their results to o th er m em bers of the class or to o th er audiences.
PRO JECT W O RK: T H E Q U IN T E S S E N T IA L E X P E R IE N T IA L LA N G U A G E LE A R N IN G A P P R O A C H Legutke and Thom as (1991) note that it was not until the m id 1970s that language teachers real ized the rich potential of projects for prom oting m eaningful interaction and seriously began im ple m enting this approach in the language classroom. Project work epitom izes every dim ension of Ixohonnen's (1992) experiential education m odel in term s of its view of learning, power relations, teacher and learner roles, view of knowledge, view of curriculum , learning experiences, control of
process, m otivation, a n d evaluation. It also provides the ideal context to move learners along a neg o tiated curriculum , as described bv N'unan (1999). Successful projects have been im plem ented in kindergartens, elem entarv schools, secondare schools, intensive language program s, com m u nity colleges, adult schools, and university7settings from the beginning to advanced levels. They have also been im plem ented in ESL and EFT settings, although some argue with far greater case in English-speaking contexts and with westernized populations (Evring 1989; Legutke and Thom as 1991; X unan 199b: Beckett 1999). T he greater integration of m ultim edia, com puters, a n d the In tern et in language projects th ro u g h o u t the world, however, has m ade the advantages o f living in the target culture less im portant for authentic com m unication and discourse-oriented learning todav (Sved 1997: W arschauer 1997; Adair-Hauck, 'Willingham-McLain. and Youngs 1999). Because of the difficulty o f train in g stu d en ts to w ork on e x te n d e d projects, som e researchers have advised doing projects along side o th e r regular classroom activities in o rd er to provide traditionally-oriented students with fam iliar classwork (Evring 1989: H aines 1989). O th e r researchers have suggested "preparatory projects" (H enrv 1994) to p rep a re students for project work bv giving them practice w orking in groups on stru ctu red m ini-projects before the actual project begins. At the very least, m ost have h ig h lig h te d th e n e e d fo r lead-in activities (H aines 1989) o r pretasks (Legutke and Thom as 1991) along the wav. This allows for rehearsal a n d m o deled problem solving of various positive g ro u p work routines a n d research structures necessary for project com pletion.
O R G A N IZ IN G A PRO JECT Various authors have provided guidelines for organizing projects (see Fried-Booth 1982, 1986; H aines 1989; Henrv 1994 for exam ples). T he use of different skills (listening, speaking, rea d ing. and writing) a n d com binations of skills are m ore im p o rta n t at som e stages th an others. S to ller's (1997) ten-step m odel a p p lie d to
English for Academ ic Purposes content-based classes is a straightforward wav to design m eaning ful projects at anv level of ESL/EFL instruction: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Agree on a them e D eterm ine the final outcom e Structure the project P rep are students for the language dem ands of Step b G ather inform ation Prepare students for the language dem ands o f Step 7 Com pile and analyze inform ation P repare students for the language dem ands o f Step 9 P resent final p ro d u ct Evaluate the project
Steps 1 and 2 rep re sen t the stages in which the teacher a n d students are negotiating the n a tu re o f the course project. First, learners con sider several topics the tea c h e r has provided or brainstorm som e of th eir own from scratch. O nce students have reach ed a consensus about the topic, thev consider a final outcom e they w ould like to p ro d u ce , such as a booklet, a d Lo . a dem o n stratio n , or a debate. W hen stu d e n t' have determ in ed the final outcom e, thev work backward with the help of the teacher to organize how thev will accomplish their final goal. In Step 3. thev mav specify an outline, flow diagram, learning contract, or project proposal for what needs to be done and when. At Step 4, the tea c h e r in consultation with the students plans language intervention lessons activities which they will require for gath ering inform ation from text materials, nativelanguage inform ants, m edia broadcasts, or other sources. These activities may include reviewing a p p ro p riate citation p ro ced u res in academ ic research, exam ining question form ation for inter views. or listening for transition cues in spoken dis course. D uring Step b, students actually gather inform ation inside and outside the classroom. Again, in Step 6. the teacher discusses with stu dents techniques for com piling and analyzing the large am ounts of written or spoken data thev have accum ulated, alwavs with the final project out come in m ind. This step mav involve guiding stu dents to categorize inform ation in grids or charts.
In Step 7, which is often considered the m ost difficult step in term s of tim e and effort, stu dents think about what they have collected, how one p art relates to another, and begin sum m ariz ing and extrapolating from their data. In Step 8, students again receive input from the teacher on possible language dem ands in the final activity. If students are involved in creating a poster, organ izing a debate, o r writing a booklet, language con ventions and audience expectations m ust be discussed. In this wav bv Step 9 students will be readv to present their research and findings to fellow classmates or to a n o th e r audience. Step 10, which is in m any wavs the most im portant, is a tim e for reflection on and evaluation of the entire project— what worked, what didn't, whv it d id n 't, how it could be im proved if redone, and what m ight be the next logical step. Legutke and Thom as (1991) also present a similar process for organizing projects. T heir seven phases are opening, topic orientation, research and data collection, preparation of data presentation, presentation and sharing, evalua tion, and follow-up. A ppendix 1 elaborates on these phases and includes detailed inform ation ab o u t in p u t options and exam ples of stimulus questions, activities, and learner texts. Im portant to note is the inclusion of awareness raising, trust building, and values clarification activities in the first three phases of the project, anticipating the ch allen g e o f n e g o tia tin g m eanings betw een teacher and learners in this pow er-reconstructed classroom. In both Stoller's and Legutke and Thom as's frameworks, assessment occurs not only at the e n d but th ro u g h o u t a project. It is normally col laborative in the sense that both the teacher and individual students pro tid e input in the evalua tion process. Ty pes of com m on progress assess m ent m easures include checklists, questionnaires, weekh' reviews, draft evaluations, frcew riting, notetaking, class discussions, reflective journals, observation tasks, and oral presentations. G rading scales and rubrics are often tailored to the needs of a particular project task. Sometimes an unbiased evaluator or an invited audience mat' participate in the evaluation process.
PRO JECT T Y P E S Many types o f projects have been rep o rted in the literature. Table 1 presents four general tvpes with their accom panying final products. Some have been com pleted in F.SL settings; others in EFL o r foreign language classroom settings (in which case this is no ted ). Collection projects require students to collect m aterials or phy sical objects in o rd er to meaningfully categorize or interrelate them . Informational projects, probably the most typ ical. require extensive am ounts of interpersonal contact (through intervieyvs or surveys) o r exten sive am ounts of leading or library research to obtain inform ation about a yvide range of topics. Orientation projects also require extensive am ounts of research, but th eir m ain purpose is to o rie n t people to a nets place. Social yvelfare projects, the m ost altruistic of the projects, are designed to se n e the needs of audiences o th e r th an the students them selves. They can be considered the most experiential o f the projects because they truly reflect the hum anistic, social, and dem ocratic principles of this frameyvork. "Process'' has generally been considered what is most im portant in the project yvork expe rience. Hoyvever. final "products" such as the ones listed in Table 1. highlight the im portance of group-selected goals and the negotiated curricu lum to motivate students to participate and stay engaged for long periods of time.
C O N C L U S IO N This c h a p te r has revieyved the benefits o f an experiential learn in g env iro n m en t for language acquisition o p p o rtu n itie s. This e n v iro n m e n t provides for the em otional and social needs of learners as they negotiate m eaning inside and outside the classroom . Projects, yvhicli have been exceptional environm ents for p ro m o tin g language learn in g in the W estern yvorld, exem plify the best of the hum anistic ap p ro ach es in facilitating negotiation of m eaning.
Table I. P ro je cts and T h e ir P ro d u cts
Collection Projects a. Scavenger hunt to collect items from a list (a twig, something red, something brittle, etc. (Jerald and Clark 1983) b. Map display showing the origin of various collected bottles, food labels, wrappings on cartons, tins, packets from around the world (Fried-Booth 1986) c. Cookbook with favorite collected recipes from around the world (G aer 1995) d. Creation of a rock and fossil museum for real audience after collecting and borrowing various rock and fossil specimens (Diffily 1996) e. Classification guide for authentic English language materials (newspapers, tourist brochures, letters, etc.) for a library for future project work use (EFL setting) (Haines 1989) f. Report on how English-speaking cultures have influenced the way of life in the students’ native country after collecting photographs, realia, videos, etc. (EFL setting) (Haines 1989) g. Report on potential English language institutes or schools for students wishing to study English out side their native country after collecting language school prospectuses, maps, and tourist information (EFL setting). (Haines 1989)
Informational Projects a. Report on recorded interviews between students and English-speaking travelers in airport (EFL setting) (Legutke 1984/1985) b. Article for local newspaper based on a news event (EFL setting) (Fried-Booth 1986) c. Cafe-Theater Evening/Day which informs guests of food, music, and entertainment of target culture (foreign language/EFL settings) (Semke 1980; Haines 1989; Fried-Booth 1986) d. Buffet luncheon for invited second language guests hosted by students preparing for an overseas assignment (foreign language setting) (Kaplan 1997) e. Report on interviews with performers (members of a circus and of the Theater Royale) about their crafts (Victoria Markee 1988, personal communication) f. Report on training and education needed for jobs after researching employment information (W rigley 1998) g. Correspondence project report after students write letters and get information from school waste basket or junk mail or from a week’s post delivery from another school (EFL setting) (Legutke and Thomas 1991) h. Survey report after interviewing townspeople about their knowledge of English (EFL setting) (Haines 1989) i. Simulated political debate related to American elections after reading newspapers and magazines, writing letters to political parties, locating relevant organizations (Stoller 1997) j. Videotape and dossier on a contemporary topic incorporating sketches, interviews, discussions, music, etc. (foreign language setting) (Coleman 1992)
Orientation Projects a. City guide for Los Angeles after investigating beaches, parks, amusement parks, restaurants, and night spots (Eyring 1989) b. Slide show and oral presentation to Rotary Club and elderly residents on cultural and recreational opportunities in one city (Candlin et al. 1988) c. Magazine to assist international students adjusting to American life (Gertzman 1988) d. Leaflets and advertisements for university self-access center to orient other students to available computer software, satellite channel access, magazines, etc. (Aston 1993) e. Orientation handbook for women after researching no-cost activities in the city (Cray 1988) f. Videotape documentary on a field trip to places in a city (Padgett 1994)
Social Welfare Projects a.
Report on the homeless situation after interviewing homeless people on the street (Victoria Markee 1988, personal communication)
b. Jumble (rummage) sale after collecting items to sell for charity (Legutke and Thomas 1991) c. “Animals in Danger” article and poster about threatened species (Hutchinson 1991) d.
Oral histories created for elderly interviewees (Jerald and Clark 1983)
e. W heelchair guide for handicapped visitors, which was shared with city tourist offices and the media (Fried-Booth 1986) f. Third W orld display and shanty house based on research of people living in developing countries (Fried-Booth 1986). g. Videotape of spastic unit in a hospital which was shown to prospective patients’ parents (Fried-Booth 1986) h. Storytelling performance of native Laotian folktales to middle school children (Gaer 1998) i. Teaching four-day unit to elementary school students following extensive preparation in the subject matter (C arter and Thomas 1986)
Looking ahead, we need to know m ore about the best conditions for achieving negotia tion o f m eaning betw een learners an d their teachers as well as between learners and their environm ent in o rd e r for this approach to be im plem ented on a wider scale. T he effects of age, language proficiency, and educational context on student learning m ediated by teacher experts, peers, texts, and com puters d em an d fu rth e r inv estigation. M ore also needs to be known about how to train teach ers to im p le m e n t this approach. Tim e will tell if experiential learning,
cultivated largelv in W estern civilizations and dem ocracies in the tw entieth century, will be adopted bv learners and teachers aro u n d the world in this new inform ation age. If the trans lated and fam iliar words o f Confucius in 451 B.C. are a reflection o f what, was and is to com e in Eastern populations aro u n d the globe, it is very likelv that project-based learning will take root and be adapted to cultures far different politically and culturallv than the ones in which it originated. Confucius savs, ‘‘W hat I hear, I forget: what 1 see, I rem em ber: W hat I do, I understand."
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1. Is experiential language learn in g a viable a p p ro a c h fo r fo ste rin g se co n d lan g u ag e acquisition? W hy or \vhv not? 2. W hat are th e sim ilarities a n d differences betw een S toller’s a n d L egutke a n d T hom as's steps for organizing project work? W hich fram ew ork do you p refer an d why? 3. W hat rela tio n sh ip does “p o w er” have to neg o tiatin g a curriculum in an experiential language lea rn in g classroom? 4 . W hat are some of the challenges an d benefits o f incorporating com puter-assisted language learning into the project work classroom? 5. Based on student backgrounds, ages, inter ests, learning styles, etc. o f English learners in your community, how well do the goals of experiential language learning correspond to the goals for vour schools?
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1. Review Table 1 sum m arizing class projects and products an d th en brainstorm various topics for large-scale relevant projects which co uld be c o n d u c te d in so u r com m unity. C hoose one o f these topics an d outline how lib rary rese a rc h , ob serv atio n , interview s, q u e stio n n a ires, a n d field trips could be in co rp o rate d into the learn in g process. 2. Read the pivotal work on experiential learn ing by J o h n Dewev (Experience and Education. Xew York: MacMillan. 1938). T hen, jo in the Detrey discussion group linked to the website for the C enter for Dewev Sttidies at Southern Illinois University at C arbondale. Provide com m ents about how Dewey's original ideas can be applied to experiential language learn ing today a n d sum m arize for vour classmates the on-line responses to n receive. http: / / www.siu.edu/~deweyctr/ 3. N egotiation is a kev elem en t o f project work instruction. W ith a g ro u p of th re e o r four o th e r te a c h e r train ees, sp e n d o n e h o u r negotiating a topic an d a plan for a ten-week social welfare project in vour com m unity. W rite a sh o rt re p o rt on (1) the roles that g ro u p m em bers assum ed (e.g., secretary.
leader, passive observer) d u rin g the discus sion and (2) the problem s or surprises which o cc u rre d d u rin g th e n eg o tiatio n process.
FU R T H E R R E A D IN G Haines. S. 1989. Projects for the EEI. Classroom. Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson and Sons. A practical handbook with case studies of past projects in EFL settings, resource material, and step-bv-step instructions for additional projects to be implemented in international contexts. I.egutke. M.. and H. Thomas. 1991. Process and Experience in the Language Classroom. Harlow, UK: Longman. A comprehensive book about the theoretical roots of experiential language learning and key components of the framework. Xunan. D. 1995. Closing the gap between learning and instruction. TESOL Quarterly 29 (1): 133-158. An article that proposes that giving learners a kev role in selecting experiential content, learn ing processes, and language content will lessen the gap between teaching and learning.
W E B S IT E S This on-line version of Eocus on Basics, a publication of the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy, focuses on project-based learning. It includes the Gaer and Wriglev articles mentioned in this chapter. http:/ g sew eb.h arvard .ed u /-n csall/fo b / 1 9 9 8 / fobv2id.htm
EORl'M. a traditional paper-based as well as on-line journal, published bv the United States Information Agency, focuses on the teaching of English abroad. This particular issue presents a use ful framework bv Stoller for organizing projects. http: e . u s i a .g o v / f o r u m / v o l s / v o l 3 5 / n o 4 / p2.htm
The National Society for Experiential Education is a national organization committed to all forms of experiential learning in the classroom, workplace, or community. It sponsors conferences and publi cations for anvone wishing to extend their knowl edge in this area. http: / / wvcvv.nsee.org
The National Service [.earning Clearinglmme. main tained bv the University of Minnesota, is a consor tium of various organizations committed to service learning project work opportunities from
kindergarten to university levels. Consult the Frequently Asked Questions page, which has special links to English and foreign language projects. www.nicsl.coled.umn.edu
A P P E N D IX I General Structure for Project Work Inputs (teacher/learner)
Process Phases (examples)
Stimulus Questions (examples)
Activities (examples)
Learner Texts
• what did l/we feel doing the task? • what was the purpose for me/ us of the task? • how did 1 communicate with others? • how did we organize ourselves? • what communication difficulties did we have?
• awareness and trust building • information sharing • problem solving • process evaluation • imagination gap
-
• what do we know about
• imagination-gap
- word-roses
(1) O P E N IN G - process materials - information materials
• introducing learners to a communicative approach • developing group dynamics • introducing use of media for text retrieval and production • introducing texts as data for research
posters profiles stories drawings/ photographs and captions - diary entries - collages
PR O JE C T ID EA
(2) T O P IC O R IE N T A T IO N - open-ended stimuli (pictures, words, sentences,
• sensitizing towards the theme • mobilizing existing
the problems, the theme as
projection
(word clusters)
shown in pictures or texts?
• awareness activities
- associograms - slogans
• how do 1 react to the picture?
• communicative tasks
- short texts
• arousing curiosity
• what do we associate it with?
• values clarification
- collages
- slogans
• exchanging personal
• what makes us stop and think?
• plus/minus interesting
- posters
titles)
- preceding learner texts and information materials
knowledge
experiences • creating awareness of the research area • appreciation of difficulties • formulation of hypotheses after evaluating prior knowledge and experience
• what does not seem interesting at first glance? • which of the items attract me most or least?
evaluation • brain/heart-storming
OHP-hypotheses poster-hypotheses
Inputs (teacher/learner)
Process Phases (examples)
Stimulus Questions (examples)
Activities (examples)
Learner Texts
• which of the items, topics
• communicative tasks
- list of themes - project plan - work contracts
(3) R ES E A R C H A N D DATA C O L L E C T IO N - teacher lecture - language input
• focusing on the theme
- information
• articulating
materials
interest
- process materials - preceding learner texts
• defining project tasks • weighing up time factors • determining areas of deficit in terms
would 1 like to w ork on? • who would 1 cooperate with? • how much time is needed to accomplish the task? • does the group have sufficient knowledge to go about working on the tasks? • how can 1 collect more information on the topic?
(interpersonality and interaction: values clarification) • language exercises • skills training • determined by the group themselves • interim plenary process evaluation
of skills and competence • carrying out the target tasks of the project (4) PR E PA R IN G DATA P R E SE N T A T IO N - information materials - process materials - preceding learner texts
• selecting results for presentation • deciding on the form of the presentation • practicing the presentation • allocating areas of responsibility • creating the presentation texts
• which parts of our results would be interesting for the
• determined by the group
whole class?
- minutes/essays
• how can we put our results
- commentary
across to the class?
- summary
• what should we tell the others in spoken text, in writing. pictures?
- listening text - information handout
• what could be difficult
- programme o f events
• do we have to produce extra worksheets? • do we want to use media for our presentation (OHP, blackboard, tape, film)? (5) PR ESEN T A T IO N A N D S H A R IN G texts
to a video film • giving a short lecture • acting in a drama/ sketch/mime • giving a show-andtell session • presenting a tape/ slide show • singing a "song"
- drama script - mime instructions
• what kind of help do our understand our presentation?
• giving a lead-in
- film text - song texts
to communicate? classmates need to
- preceding learner
many types of texts: - poster/collage
• determined by groups: many forms of communicative task possible (learners as leaders and participants)
Inputs
Process Phases
Stimulus Questions
Activities
(teacher/learner)
(examples)
(examples)
(examples)
Learner Texts
(6) EV A L U A T IO N - teacher lecture - teacher feedback - group feedback (evaluation sheets)
• evaluating process and product • extending ability to make judgements • raising cognitive sensitivity • evaluating input materials • evaluating the roles of the experts • evaluating the group dynamic processes, etc.
- preceding learner texts
• further w ork on areas of language weakness • w ork on gaps in knowledge of content • agreeing on follow-up projects • changing to related/non-related themes as basis for new project idea
how did the project tasks, the demonstration w ork out? which activities/presentations were particularly effective, ineffective? what could o r should be improved? were there any language problems? what could or should be done about them? how did the group cooperate with the teacher? could the group make use of his/her competence? was the textbook/workbook/ resource package a satisfactory help? etc.
(7) FO LL O W - U P
E X T E N S IO N PR O JEC T S
(So u rce : L e g u t k e a n d T h o m a s 1 9 9 1 . p p . 1 8 2 - 1 8 6 . U s e d b v p e r m i s s i o n . !
• process-evaluation activities
- theme list for follow-up
Bilingual Approaches to Language Learning MARY
MCGRO ARTY
"Bilingual Approaches to Language Learning” describes the various bilingual models found at different levels (elementary, secondary, post-secondary, and adult education), identifying key instructional features
and
emphasizing the
drive for quality
instruction. The
chapter makes
reference to
consideration of the political contexts as well as pedagogical factors affecting the choices and outcomes related to bilingual instruction.
IN T R O D U C T IO N In m anv parts o f the world, the attain m en t of proficiency in two o r m ore languages is viewed as a highly desirable goal. Som etim es the devel o p m en t o f bilingual skills takes place outside the b o unds o f form al education, im pelled bv indi vidual factors in the sociocultural context. This c h a p te r is not co n c ern e d with persons who becom e bilingual outside the bounds o f form al in stru ctio n . (R eaders in te re ste d in lea rn in g m ore about the m any wavs people mav becom e bilingual should consult am o f the several good general intro d u ctio n s to bilingualism a n d lan guage learning, such as Bialvstok and H akuta 1994; H offm an 1991; H a k u ta 1986; an d G rosjean 1982. am o n g o thers.) R ather, the em phasis here is on u n d e rsta n d in g how two (or m ore) languages are used within an educational system to p rom ote the goal of bilingual profi ciency for en ro lled students. Some definitions are in order, because both the term s bilingual and bilingual education are used to refer to a great variety of p h en o m en a (indeed, lack of uniform ity regarding the term bilingual education is one of the manv reasons whv it is dif ficult to com pare program data; see H akuta 1986 and H o rn b erg er et al. 1999). In this chapter, bilingual, when used to refer to an individual, m eans a person who has age-appropriate lan guage skills in two languages, though the nature and extent of skill in each language will vary according to m any individual and situational
in flu en ces.1 A person with bilingual oral skills in two languages may o r may n o t be bilitemte, that is. able to read an d write in two lan g u a g e ' (H o rn b e rg e r a n d Skilton-Sylvester 2000). A bilingual education ap p ro ach is o n e in which tw< languages are used as m ed ia o f classroom instruction for the same g ro u p o f s tu d e n t'. ' that students receive som e o f th eir instrtictn : : one language an d som e in the other, wub nature and p ro p o rtio n of each language •. amw._ according to p rogram tvpe. instruction..-.; _ To. a n d various contextual in flu e n ce '.- B L m g u . L program s may or mav not be aim ed at p ro d u c ing students with biliterate skills; this is one ot the features on which they differ, as will be dis cussed presently. Before p ro ceed in g to describe bilingual approaches, a crucial clarification is in order: T h e re is no necessary opposition betw een use of bilingual instruction a n d English as a second language (ESI.) in stru ctio n . In d ee d , in the U nited States and w herever the language o f the d o m in a n t society is English, it is generally expected that ESI. should be a p art o f any good bilingual p rogram because a principal goal of any instructional program is the developm ent of high-level academ ic language skills in the lan guage (s) used as the m edium o f instruction. Such developm ent does not com e about auto matically th ro u g h sim ple exposure to a lan guage: it re q u ire s in stru c tio n th a t is well p lan n e d and carefully sequenced. For this rea son. it is im p o rta n t that any bilingual program
include systematic attention to the developm ent o f students' first as well as second language skills, necessitating a sound, com prehensive curricula to support increased proficiency in each lan guage. H ence. ESL should be a part of any bilin gual program in an English-speaking context. This c h a p te r first discusses the audience for bilingual approaches, then presents the m ost com m on p rogram types found u n d e r the b ro ad b a n n e r o f bilingual education: next, it discusses the pedagogical features that help to d eterm in e the level o f quality in anv bilingual instructional program ; and, last, it notes som e c u rren t educa tional concerns th at bear on provision o f bilin gual education.
W H O C A N B E N E FIT FROM B IL IN G U A L A P P R O A C H E S? Any stu d en t has the potential to benefit from a bilingual ap proach to instruction as long as the p articu lar ap proach chosen suits the student's linguistic situation and provides good quality instruction. Bilingual education is not onlv for re c e n t im m ig ran ts: th e re are p a rtic u la r approaches aim ed at m onolingual students who speak onlv the majority language and wish to develop strong proficiency in an o th er language (TESOI. 1992). It is potentially appropriate for linguistic m ajority stu d en ts — students whose native language is that spoken in the larger natio n al co m m u n ity e.g.. native speakers of English in the U nited States or in A nglophone C anada— as well as linguistic m inority students— students whose native language is not the same as that used in larger national community, e.g., native speakers of Spanish. Chinese, or Navajo in the U nited States. F urtherm ore, som e of the approaches used in bilingual education may also prove useful for bidialectal students (that is, stu dents who regularly use a dialect different from the sta n d a rd , such as speakers o f AfricanAm erican V ernacular English in ET.S. schools, for whom Adgcr. Christian, and Taylor [1999] suggest some particularly pertinent issues). ’W hile the lin guistic and sociocultural circumstances of bilin gual and bidialectal students are not com parable
in m any respects (Baugh 2000; Dillard 1978), there are reasons to explore the utility o f bidialec tal approaches, particularly in the area of initial literacy acquisition (Rickford and Rickford 1995; Siegel 1999) and expansion oflinguistic range in a hom e language (Wildes 1995). H ence, bilingual approaches are potentially useful for anv student at anv educational level. However, their appropri ateness and feasibility for particular instructional levels and settings varies and depends in part on school-related factors and in part on m atters o f the social context su rro u n d in g the school. T he following review of typical bilingual program tvpes provides some sense o f the wide range of bilingual approaches note fo u n d in various parts of N orth Am erica.
B IL IN G U A L A P P R O A C H ES: PROGRAM T Y P E S T he following discussion of bilingual program s is m ean t to illustrate the co n sid erab le variety observed in program s designated bilingual. It is not exhaustive and is based on program tvpes most com m on in N orth America, draw ing on the descriptions in Crawford 1999: G enesee 1999; H o rn b e rg e r et al. 1999: a n d K uhlm an a n d Murray 2000. It should attain be noted, though, that the degree to which anv educational pro gram in N orth .America or elsewhere can reason ably be called bilingual can onlv be established by direct observation of the language use p a tte rn s— oral and literate — observed in the classrooms concerned. Program s are labeled bilingual for a variety of reasons, onlv some of which reflect the actual language of instruction, the criterial feature em phasized here. Each of the program m odels sum m arized here has different implications for program length, type of curriculum , materials n eed ed , teach er qualifications expected, an d nature of assessments used to determ ine success. Most bilingual program types com bine considera tions of the language of instruction with the age of the students involved. H ence, it is com m on to see somewhat different types at elementary, sccondan. and postsecondary levels.
Elementary-Level Program Models Bilingual program s fo u n d at the elem entary school level are generally one of three types: early-exit (or transitional) bilingual instruction; late-exit (or m aintenance) bilingual instruction; o r im m ersion/dual-language im m ersion (see also Snow’s ch ap ter in this volum e for m ore inform a tion on the im m ersion approach to language education). Each o f these is explained below. Early-exit, or transitional, bilingual educa tion program s are usually developed to serve voting students who are rec e n t im m igrants to a new country (and thus are language-m inoritv students). T hese program s aim to use two lan guages for classroom in struction u p until the p o in t at which children have developed suffi cient oral a n d literacy skills to receive all class room in stru ctio n in th eir second language. (Thus the label transitional; two languages, the ch ildren's native language an d the d o m in an t societal language, are used in classroom instruc tion onlv until the ch ild ren can m ake the transi tion to receiving all instruction in the do m in an t language.) Earlv-exit program s alwavs include oral use of the c h ild re n ’s native language in the classroom ; thev mav o r mav n o t include the active teaching o f literacy skills in the children's native language. To the degree thev do, thev may aim to develop biliteracv. hut onlv the degree o f biliteracv n e e d ed to m ake a transition to literacv in the d o m in an t language. Program length varies, usually from one to th ree tears. Most such program s begin in kind erg arten or first grade. T he goals of transitional bilingual program s are to ensure m astery o f grade-appro p ria te acad em ic c o n te n t a n d facilitate the speedv acquisition o f the d o m in an t language so that children can move into m ainstream class room s within th re e tea rs o f p rogram entry (G enesee 1999, p. 14). Transitional program s req u ire a sufficient n u m b e r of certified bilingual teachers able to teach at the c o rresp o n d in g grade level; access to sufficient academ ic m ateri als in the stu d e n ts’ native language; specialized in struction in the second language (English, in m ost cases in the U n ited States) so that students are p re p a re d to move into classroom s using onlv th at language, a n d specialized linguistic support for students d u rin g a n d after the transition;
a p p ro p riate an d reg u lar assessm ent of stu d e n t progress; a n d su p p o rt for an d from stu d e n ts’ family an d com m unity m em bers. O n e such p ro gram , b e g in n in g at k in d e rg a rte n level a n d described by G enesee a n d his collaborators (1999, pp. 17-19), is fo u n d at a school they call Kinney Elem entary, located in a Spanish-speak ing com m unity. E x p erien ced bilingual teachers a n d th e bilingual program c o o rd in a to r work with students e n te rin g the school in grades К a n d 1 to assist th em in developing literacv skills a n d conversation skills in Spanish an d English. Teachers in grades 3 and 4, with t ears o f experi ence in h elp in g students in the process o f tra n sition, use m anv sh eltered English techniques (see Snow’s c h a p te r in this volum e) to su p p o rt stu d e n ts’ academ ic progress d u rin g th e transi tion to m ainstream English-m edium instruction. Late-exit. or m ain ten an ce (or developmental bilingual, in som e sources), m odels also aim to serve voting students who are e ith e r im m igrants to a country o r who are m em bers o f relatively' large groups w ithin a country a n d who speak a native language d ifferent from th e d o m in a n t one. T hus such program s, too, have b e e n estab lished to serve language-m inority students. The goals of such program s ty'picallv include develop m en t o f literacy skills in both the nativ e language an d the second language, a n d developm ent of academ ic literacy skills in both languages th e oretically continues fo r the d u ratio n of the program . Thus such program s explicitly aim to develop biliteracv. (T he designation of mainte nance refers to the p rogram goal o f m aintaining the use of the c h ild ren ’s native language all the wav th ro u g h the program . This goal does n o t in am wav exclude the learning of academ ic literacy skills in the second language. O n the contrary', m aintenance bilingual program s are m eant to use and develop two languages to the point o f ageapp ro p riate academ ic literacy skills.) Because such program s aim to m aintain and develop skills in two languages, there is no theoretical limit on the n u m b e r of vears thev m ight extend. In prac tice. however, such progrants are usually fo u n d at the elem entary level, and ex ten d from grades К th ro u g h 6. d e p e n d in g som ew hat on how the p a rtic u la r school system organizes levels o f instruction.
W hat kinds o f resources are req u ired to im p lem en t a n d sustain such program s? Like transitional bilingual program s, m ain ten an ce bilingual program s req u ire a sufficient n u m b er of certified bilingual teachers to teach all the grade levels inclu d ed in the program ; access to sufficient academ ic m aterials in the stu d e n ts’ native language a n d in the second language (English, in the U nited States): specialized sec o n d language instruction; a p p ro p riate assess m ent; an d paren tal an d com m unitv support. Because the program s ex ten d lo n g er th an tra n sitional program s, thev require a greater n u m b e r o f certified bilingual teachers and native language academ ic m aterials that cover a wider range o f grade levels. In m ain ten an ce bilingual education, teachers are enco u rag ed to keep the languages separate, a n d the entire school staff a n d com m unitv is expected to create an atm os p h e re o f eq u al status fo r b o th languages involved. M a in te n an c e b ilin g u al p ro g ra m s d e p e n d to som e degree on the interest of a p ar ticular language com m unitv in suppo rtin g the academ ic use o f its language, along with the sec o n d language, a n d insisting on high academ ic standards in both languages. G enesee and col laborators (1999, pp. 21-24) describe a K-5 m ain te n a n c e bilingual p ro g ram at M ariposa E lem entarv School, which grew out of a previouslv im p lem en ted transitional bilingual p ro gram . C ah n m an n (1998) shows how the deliverv o f bilingual in stru ctio n at o n e P hiladelphia school shifted over tim e from transitional to m ain ten an ce to transitional, in p art as a result of changes in fu n d in g sources a n d leadership. Im m ersion program s, pioneered in C anada to serve language majoritv students, in this case, native speakers of English desirous of developing high levels of skill in French (see also G enesee 1987, and Snow's chapter in this volum e), aim to im m erse students in a language different from their native language. T he ultim ate goal is to build strong academ ic literaev skills in that lan guage and to give students access to subject m at ter taught entirelv through the second language. In the classic im m ersion m odel, students receive in stru ctio n com pletelv o r alm ost com pletely through the m edium of the second language for the first few vears of their educational experience,
with literaev instruction in their native language ad d e d once thev have established a base of liter acy in the second language. Bv the latter vears of the program , thev usuallv receive instruction in each language about half the time. This progres sion of tim e allocation is thus referred to as start ing with 90 10 (most instruction initiallv takes place in the second language, with little or no use o f the students' native language) and moves to 50 50. Im m ersion m odels mav extend all the wav through elem entarv and even secondarv educa tion. For exam ples of im m ersion approaches used in various in te rn a tio n a l contexts, see G enesee 1987 and Jo h n so n and Swain 1997. In the U nited States, there is a great deal of interest in dual-language im m ersion (also called two-wav im m ersion), a variant of the im m ersion m odel, designed to serve both language-m inority and language-majoritv children who wish to learn through the m edium of two languages and de velop literaev skills in b oth languages (see Christian 1996 and Christian et al. 1997). Such program s tvpicallv begin in k in d erg arten or grades 1 or 2 and extend all the wav through ele mentarv school. Instructional allocation of lan guages follows one of several patterns: It mav be based on subject m atter (i.e.. m ath taught in one language, social studies in the o th er): on partic ular davs of the week (e.g.. two days p e r week are "English" davs. three davs are "Spanish" davs, then the allocation is changed the following w eek); on parts of the dav (e.g.. m orning in Spanish, after noon in English): or on weekly assignm ent (a week in Spanish, then a week in English, etc.). W hatever pattern is chosen, the teaching staff and students know and follow it. Initiallv. children entering such program s are proficient in only one of the two languages but, because the enrolled stu dents are nativ e speakers of each of the languages used, children teach each o th er in addition to learning from the adult m odels around them . Because there are native-speaker or highlv profi cient m odels of both languages am ong both teaching staff and student participants, the likeli hood that students will in fact dev elop high lev els of proficiency in both languages is increased. Freem an (1998) provides a com prehensive description o f the history and function of a Spanish-English dual language program at the
Oyster School in northw est W ashington, D.C. H e r acco u n t offers m any insights into the con fluence o f p aren tal an d com m unity interest, presence of qualified a n d ded icated teachers a n d adm inistrators, a n d o th e r issues to be con sidered in im p lem en tin g such program s.
Secondary Bilingual Approaches At the secondary level, issues o f program m odel and choice o f instructional language are affected by the departm entalized nature o f instruction found in m ost secondary schools. Moreover, the greater cognitive dem ands of secondary school instruction also create pressures for both students an d teachers to cover m ore, and m ore challeng ing, co n ten t m aterial in a lim ited p eriod of time. H ence, bilingual program s found at the second ary level are usuallv some variant of earlv-exit or transitional bilingual program s in which the stu d e n ts’ native language is used just long enough to help them m ake a transition to the sociallv and politically do m in an t language, which thev are th en expected to use th rough the rest of second ary school. Because o f the specialized nature of instruc tion at the secondarv school level, it is rare to find an entire program th at is com pletelv bilingual. Some secondary schools serving students who com e largely from a single language background have b een successful in establishing bilingual in struction th a t continues th ro u g h school; for an exam ple o f one such p rogram serving Navajo students, see M cLaughlin 1992. N onetheless, th ere is grow ing interest in devising adaptations o f the two-way im m ersion a p p ro ach for second arv schools (M o n to n e a n d L oeb 2000). A lthough the n u m b er o f two-wav im m ersion (TWI) program s in m iddle schools a n d second ary schools is still quite small, mans' districts a ro u n d the L’n ited States, especiallv those in which elem entarv level dual im m ersion p ro gram s have b eco m e b e tte r estab lish ed , are exploring the possibilitv of ad apting this m odel to suit older students. Tim e a n d subject alloca tions v a n considerable, according to stu d e n t p o p u latio n a n d tea c h e r expertise. For exam ple, at Bowen H igh School in Chicago, a 5 0 /5 0
Spanish-English two-way im m ersion p rogram , students spend m ost of the day to gether; con ten t courses such as algebra, biology, an d w orld historv are tau g h t in b o th languages, with lan guages altern atin g by u n it of instruction w ithin am given subject. T he program -w ithin-a-school m odel is also followed at Casey M iddle School in B oulder, C olorado, w here TWI students are in structed to g eth e r for two o n e-h o u r blocks, one in science an d social studies a n d the o th e r in language arts. For all o th e r classes, TWI students are m ixed with o th e r students. O th e r secondarvlevel TWI program s have b een established in A rlington, Virginia; Brooklyn, New York; and Santa M o n ic a /M a lib u a n d Valiev C enter, C alifornia (all p rogram in fo rm atio n cited is from M ontone an d Loeb 2000). A dditionallv, in som e localities, notably large cities w here th ere are new com er schools (or new com er program s within schools)4 th at se n e large num bers o f im m igrant students from the sam e language background, th ere mav well be bilingual content-area classes, n u m b ers o f stu dents a n d availability o f qualified teachers p e r m itting. For exam ple, core secondarv school classes such as social studies a n d science have been offered in Spanish, C hinese, and Bengali, according to the prevalent language groups en ro lled , at N ew com ers H igh in Q ueens. New York (Schnailberg 1996, p. 36). W hile som e p ar ticular classes may be offered p red o m in an tly in languages o th e r th an those used in the m ain stream , th ere is still program w ide em phasis on assisting students to develop the English lan guage skills n e e d e d to m ake a speech transition to English language instruction. H ence, while such program s are n o t called transitional bilin gual program s, certain classes w ithin them (and the overall goal of transition to English) m ake them som ew hat com parable to such program s. E ducators a n d others have som e concerns about separating new com er students from o thers for too long a period, but this ap p ro ach has been used successfullv in parts o f C alifornia a n d in som e o th e r large cities across the country with large num bers o f secondarv level students from the sam e language groups (A dger a n d Peyton 1999; C hang 1990). H ence it should figure am ong the options to be co n sid ered as teachers
a n d adm inistrators seek alternatives to provide a variety o f paths to success for secondary level students (Lucas 1997).
Postsecondary Bilingual Approaches Postsecondary institutions s e n e students beyond the age o f com pulsory attendance. In the US, postsecondary students are an extrem ely diverse lot of traditional- and nontraditional- age stu dents whose goals range from very specific occu pational training to m ore general aims such as acquiring a liberal education to highly specialized prep aratio n for fu rth e r professional study The role and extent of bilingual approaches observed for each such stu d en t g roup varies considerably Because no national body or organization is c h arg ed with collecting related data, it is quite difficult to d e te rm in e w hen a n d w here bilingual ap p ro ach es are used. Som e bilingual program s for adults in the U n ited States h a te b e e n developed to provide short-term , highly focused vocational training for special populations such as refugees who qualify for special governm ent support. W here th ere are large nu m b ers of English learners who share a native language background, native lan guage in struction mav be included as a part of relatively short (less than six m onths) program s aim ed at help in g participants find em ploym ent as soon as possible.■’ Bilingual program s that include native language literacy instruction for adults ten d to be fo u n d in the geographic areas rep re sen tin g the largest p ro p o rtio n al settlem ent o f re c e n t im m igrants: Xew York. California. Texas, and Illinois (Gillespie 1994). Postsccondarv students en ro lled in degree program s mav have access to language instruc tion designed to accom m odate various profes sional a n d personal goals. Som e universities offer im m ersion program s that are best viewed as a variant of foreign language im m ersion p ro gram s (again, see Snow's c h a p te r in this vol u m e ). U niversity im m ersio n p ro g ra m s mav com bine intensive language in struction (th at is, instruction from fo u r to six hours p e r day for a sem ester o r sum m er term ) with a p e rio d o f resi d en ce in a n o th e r country w here the language is spoken, with the goal of rapidly b u ilding profi
ciency. (In such cases, the instruction is m ainly in th e second language, so these program s w ould not necessarily qualify as bilingual pro gram s, alth o u g h they are aim ed at pro d u cin g students who becom e bilingual to som e degree as a result o f participation.) Many colleges and universities in the U nited States offer special language courses ("heritage language”) th a t may be taught e ith e r bilinguallv or entirely in Spanish for native speakers of Spanish: often, though not always, the goal o f such courses is language m ain tenance and developm ent o f form al literacy skills in Spanish for students who have received all or most of their form al education in schools in the U nited States and thus have not had the o p p o r tunity to build advanced literacy skills in Spanish (Valdes 1995). Finally, some postsecondarv institu tions in the U nited States offer courses that com bine language instruction with occupationally relevant material in courses designed for particu lar majors such as education or business. Courses em phasizing Spanish for teachers or businesspeople mav or mav not be taught bilingually, d ep en d in g on the level of proficiency shown by the students and the instructor's language capa bilities. In Canada, some univ ersities offer highly proficient students the option o f taking special content area courses com pletely th ro u g h the m edium of their second language, either English or French: such courses, a kind of te rtia n ’ "shel tered" approach, offer graduates of secondary level im m ersion program s a wav to m aintain and develop proficiency while learning new subject m atter (see Snow's ch ap ter in this volum e).
FROM PROGRAM M O DELS TO Q U A L IT Y IN D ICA TO R S From the 1960s until a b o u t 1990, m ost discus sion of bilingual ed u cation c e n te re d on the pos sible p rogram m odels. T hus, m any m ethods texts em phasized taxonom ies, often elaborate, of tvpes of bilingual ed u cation an d descriptions of various bilingual approaches (e.g., Mackey 1978). Increasingly, th ough, researchers, policy m akers, a n d practicing educators have realized th ere are, in fact, very few “p u re ” bilingual pro gram m odels in existence, a n d that, in practice,
m ost bilin g u al p ro g ra m s co m b in e e le m en ts fo u n d in various m odels. Consequently, it makes little sense to discuss educational m odels w ithout reference to the social, political, an d econom ic contexts in which they are im p lem en ted (Brisk 2000, 1998). C ontem porary discussions of bilin gual ed u catio n (August a n d H akuta 1997; Brisk 1998. 2000; D en tler an d H afn er 1997; G enesee 1999) em phasize the m atch betw een the charac teristics o f an ed ucational program , the socio cultural context o f the students it serves, an d the resources (both tangible and intangible) avail able to su p p o rt educational efforts. All these affect the n atu re o f related tea c h e r expertise, choice of instructional ap p ro ach , an d outcom es to be expected in anv instructional program , including bilingual approaches. We now turn to those quality indicators m ost closelv related to 1a n g u age t e ac h i n g.
Availability of Qualified Teachers and O ther School Staff It is im possible to im plem ent anv sort o f bilin gual p rogram w ithout qualified bilingual teach ers. For this reason, availability of qualified staff m em bers is the c o rn ersto n e of successful bilin gual program s (D entler and H afn er 1997. pp. 40-49). Teachers m ust be both highly proficient in at least one o f the languages o f the program a n d appropriately certified to teach the grade level or subject area for which thev will be responsible. M oreover, program effectiveness is e n h a n c e d if teachers share the linguistic an d cul tural backgrounds of the students then teach. A lthough teachers are vital, thev are not the onlv relev an t p e rso n n e l; th e p re se n c e o f school adm inistrators com m itted to bilingual instruc tion (Soto 1997) an d o th e r instructional p erso n nel such as classroom aides in crease the likelihood o f effective a n d consistent instruction.
stu d e n ts’ first o r native language for instruction is p art o f any bilingual p rogram , but is not bv itself sufficient to g u aran tee program quality (C um m ins 1999), which is influenced by addi tional factors. Effective bilingual ap p ro ach es exem plify the sam e characteristics as o th e r effec tive program s, including access to the core cur riculum ; close articulation of grade an d subject levels; flexible groupings; team teaching; use of m eaningful tasks and pedagogy th at actively involve the students in instruction; teaching m aterials a p p ro p riate in quantity and quality to subjects taught: p e e r a n d cross-age tutoring; and collaborative staff p lan n in g (D entler an d H afner 1997. p. 40; Brisk 1998). Such cu rricu lar m atters require careful p lan n in g and m onitoring, and must be im plem ented sensibly, keeping in m ind local conditions such as average class size, budget for m aterials and teacher training, and o ther resources, tangible and intangible, available to support and m aintain bilingual instruction. To this must be added, specifically for bilin gual approaches, the selection an d consistent im plem entation of a school- and program w ide plan for language allocation th ro u g h o u t the school dav and across the length o f the school program (Baker 1996, pp. 232-241). A ppropriate decisions ab o u t language allocation d e p e n d greatlv on the particular school, neighborhood, and com m unity context (fre em a n 1998; Perez and Torres-Guzman 1992); thus, it is impossible to m ake blanket rec o m m e n d a tio n s, e x c ep t to observe that, if both languages are to be devel oped appropriately, both m ust be accorded the status of m edium of instruction for a variety of curricular activities and. d ep en d in g on student age and program tvpe. both may also be school subjects. (For fu rth er considerations related to sound pedagogical techniques for second lan guage developm ent and subject m atter m asterv in classrooms, see chapters bv Fdiger and Hawkins in this volume.)
Sound Curriculum and Instructional Organization
Appropriate Regular Assessment
Q ualified staff m em bers m ust establish a n d fol low high quality age-appropriate curricula. Too often, bilingual ed u catio n program s are viewed as rem edial ra th e r than enriching. T he use of
G ood bilingual program s dem onstrate a regular and systematic approach to assessment o f student progress in all curricular subjects in the relevant language. In assessm ent o f overall p ro g ram
quality, these two aspects o f evaluation are related b u t distinct. Each requires attention, though the natu re and tvpes of assessments used to gather relevant data varies considerable according to local and national assessment traditions and prac tices. In the U nited States for the last several decades, public (and most private) schools have d e p e n d ed on large-scale, norm -referenced stan dardized tests given in English as indicators of stu d e n t progress, hr some states, standardized tests in Spanish may also be used, particularlv w here elem entarv level bilingual program s have existed for some tim e.1’ Tests that relv on lead in g and w riting certainly have a place in all educational program s, but researchers caution that, p articu larly for second language learners, ant test that uses a second language reflects, in part, lan guage proficiencv as well as w hatever o th e r con structs or concepts are being tested (AERA 2000). C onsiderable tension su rrounds the use o f such tests in all school program s, and bilin gual program s are no ex cep tio n .' O n the one h an d , m am politicians and state legislators are com m itted to the idea that institution of largescale testing program s will im prove education: on the other, practicing educators, researchers, and professionals in assessm ent express concerns about the inordinate im portance accorded to standardized testing (H eubert and H auser 1999). In the U nited States at present, scholars in edu cation generallv (Shepard 2000) and those con cerned specificallv with second language (Gottlieb 2000; Katz 2000) a n d bilingual assessm ent (M iram ontes, N adeau, and Com m ins 1997). call fo r a m ore diverse, curriculum -specific, and engaging philosophv of the assessment of student progress. W ithin the realm of inform ed second language practice, then, there is growing consen sus about the need for alternative m ethods of stu d e n t assessm ent, in cluding portfolio svstems. learning logs, checklists of student learning, etc. (see also C o h en 's c h a p te r in this volum e). Because m anv n o n tra d itio n al ap p ro ach es to assessment are so labor intensive to develop and score, thev require some investm ent of time and resources bevond conventional, published m ultiple-choice tests. T heir use thus dem ands increased teacher training and administrative and public support.
Multiple Channels of Parent/Community Outreach Besides h a rin g the leadership n e e d ed to recru it a n d retain qualified teaching staff and plan and im p lem en t a sound curriculum , bilingual p ro gram s o f till sorts m ust d eterm in e the m ost effec tive wavs to establish and m aintain links betw een school-level efforts and the activities of stu d e n ts’ fam ilies and com m unities (M cG roartv 1998). (O ptim ally all educational program s should do this, but the n eed for com m unitv linkages is par ticularlv crucial w hen one o f the languages in a bilingual p rogram represents a language regularlv used bv the students' families.) Individual teachers can take m anv steps w ithin th eir own classroom s to draw on parents' interests in their ch ild ren 's ed u catio n (see M cCaleb 1994 for m am relevant suggestions), but effective com munitv linkages also require schoolw ide lead er ship and support. Explicit efforts to create such links are particularlv crucial w hen teachers do not share the linguistic a n d cultural characteris tics o f their students. T he challenge is greater still w hen students rep resen t not one single lin guistic a n d cultural background b ut mans dif feren t ones, as is often the case in large urban and suburban school districts. C om m unitv out reach is an area in which verv few teachers or o th e r school p ersonnel receive am systematic training, but it is one that shows up repeatedly as a characteristic of eflective school program s for second language learners and bilingual students (D e n tle r a n d H a fn e r 1997; M iram ontes, N adeau, and C om m ins 1997).
Ongoing Concerns T he im p lem en tatio n of good bilingual educa tion program s requires co n certed efforts on the parts of teachers, school leaders, students, and families. To establish good program s, schools m ust d elin e p rogram goals an d instructional designs th at focus on the developm ent of profT ciencv in twro languages while at the sam e tim e p ro m o tin g access to the full range o f curricular subjects a p p ro p riate to students' ages and devel o p m en ta l levels. In stitu tin g a p ro g ram th a t m eets am definition o f bilingual instruction is
not alwavs an easy task, b u t it is certainly feasible given train ed personnel, leadership, an d sup port. M oreover, successful bilingual program s have been established in m am places in N orth A m erica a n d internationally. T h e re is no single best m odel for bilingual instruction; a range of possibilities exists, each with p articular requirem ents. At the same tim e, results o f bilingual program s are in p a rt a func tion o f the com m unity contexts su rro u n d in g schools. As Crawford (1998) notes, it is ironic (an d u n fo rtu n a te ) that, even as th e fo u n d atio n of research results a n d in fo rm ed practice sur ro u n d in g bilingual education in th e U nited States has becom e b e tte r established since the 1960s, public opposition, based partially on mis u n d e rsta n d in g . has grown. It is often believed th at bilingual instruction m eans instruction in one non-English language onlv, w hen, as e m p h a sized in this discussion, the bilingual approaches m ost com m only used in the U nited States ahvavs involve the use of !u>o languages, one o f which is English. Associations o f linguists (e.g.. AAAL 1996. 1997; LSA 1996) and language educators (NCTE 1982; TESOL 1992) have, for some t ears, endorsed the usefulness and potential com ple m en tarity of both bilingual o r bidialectal approaches and specific second language tech niques in education and hat e opposed ant sort of official language designation that would restrict access to bilingual instruction. As teachers-intraining an d practicing language instructors, readers of this chapter can be instrum ental in clarifying some of the m isunderstandings related to bilingual instruction while at the same timeworking to provide good quality- language educa tion program s. D e p e n d in g on co n tex t a n d resources, m am such program s m ight well include some o f the bilingual approaches to lan guage proficiency and academ ic progress described here.
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1.
In your country o r state, what is m ean t by the term bilingual? W hich languages does this term usually' refer to. an d which o f these are fo u n d in the educational svstem?
2.
In vour teach in g context, whv are teachers, students, an d fam ilies in terested in bilingual a p p ro a c h e s to lan g u ag e learn in g ? W hat kinds o f goals do they h o p e to achiev e? 3. In vour locality, are th ere any o th e r institu tions, co m m u n ity g ro u p s, o r b ro a d c a st m edia w here use o f a language o th e r th an the d o m in a n t one is usual? Identify any settings w here use of a n o th e r language is a regular occurrence; co m m en t on w h eth er and how the use o f language in such a set ting m ight pro m o te an in te rest in bilingual in struction in th at language. 4. In your view, is com prehensive academ ic liter acy in two languages a reasonable goal for students enrolled in the bilingual program s vou know about? Whv or whv not? W hat con ditions are conducive to the developm ent and m aintenance of literacy in two languages? 5. Has vour citv o r state ever considered any kind o f language legislation? W hat was the proposal, an d w hat kinds of public discus sion su rro u n d e d it? Did the discussion o f this language m easure reveal anything about atti tudes tow ard language a n d O r education?
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1. Call vour local school district to find out w h eth er they have any classroom s that follow som e sort o f bilingual m odel. If thev do. trv to visit a classroom for an h o u r o r two to observ e som e typical classroom activities and see how the teachers a n d students negotiate the use of two languages. 2. If th ere are any bilingual program s located at schools (public o r private) n e a r you, arrange to talk with one o f the teachers in the program . Ask the tea c h e r how the cur ricular design and m aterials are em ployed to develop p ro ficien cy in two languages. E xam ine the m aterials used fo r literacy instruction in each language to get. som e idea o f the language m odels used to h elp stu dents becom e biliterate. 3. G ather some inform ation on student assess m ent from one o r two schools o r school dis tricts. W hat kinds of student assessments are
regularly ad m inistered, a n d in what lan guage? If the district includes nun-native speakers of English, are testing and assess m ent req u irem en ts m odified or altered in any was to accom m odate them ? If so, how7? 4. Ask staff m em bers from schools seis ing dif feren t lev els of students (elem entary-'m iddle sch o o l/seco n d ary ) how they address issues of family contact an d com m unity outreach. G ather samples of anv com m unications sent to students' hom es. See which languages are used to com m unicate with families: find out hosv often and whs families are asked to com e to the school. Do sou think such m odes of outreach are likels to engage students' families? Whs- o r whv not? 5. Contact the legislative analyst's office for s our state to see w hether am legislation affecting language use o r studs has been proposed within the last two sears. See if s ou can iden tify the sponsors and the intent of this legisla tion. If it has passed, ask some bilingual and ESI, teachers if it has affected their work in any wav.
A cle a r a n d m ent and
re a d a b le a c c o u n t o f th e d e v e lo p
program
v a rie tie s o b s e r v e d
in c o n
te m p o r a r y b ilin g u a l e d u c a t io n p r o g r a m s in th e U n ite d
S ta te s, w ith
d is c u s s io n
o f th e
p o litic a l
i m p e t u s as w ell as p e d a g o g i c a l q u e s t i o n s r e l a t e d t o its e s t a b l i s h m e n t .
Policy and Practice in Bilingual h.ducation: l:\tending the Foundations.
G a rc ia , O .. a n d C. B ak er, ed s. 1995.
C le v e d o n . U K : M u ltilin g u a l M a tte rs. A fin e c o lle c tio n o f many- o f th e s e m in a l a rtic le s th a t h a v e s h a p e d c u r r e n t a p p r o a c h e s to b ilin g u al e d u c a tio n re s e a rc h a n d p ra c tic e . G enesee.
E.
ed.
1999.
Einguistically
Diverse
Program Alternatives for Students. ( E d u c a t i o n a l
P r a c t i c e R e p o r t N o . 1.) W a s h i n g t o n . D C : C e n t e r for
R esearch
E x c e lle n c e
on
E d u c a tio n .
D iv e rsity ,
and
C e n t e r fo r A p p lie d L in g u istic s.
A c o n c is e a n d p ra c tic a l d isc u ssio n o f th e p rin c i pal a re a s to b e a d d r e s s e d w h e n c o n s id e r in g th e c h o ic e a n d d e s ig n o f b ilin g u a l a n d E n g lish as a second
la n g u a g e
pro g ram s
fo r
sch o o ls
in
th e
l n itc c l S ta te s, w ith d e s c r i p t i o n s o l s e v e r a l p r o g r a m tv p e s .
W E B S IT E S C e n t e r to r A p p lie d L in g u is tic s (C A E ) CAL
FU R T H ER R EA D IN G T hese
s o u r c e s svill h e l p
sta n d in g
m ore
m e n ta tio n
of
about
th o se
th e
in te re ste d
d e s ’e l o p m e m
b ilin g u a l
ap p ro ach es
in
un d er
and
im p le
to
is
a
n o n p ro fit
p ro v id in g
la n g u a g e
reso u rces
o rg a n iz a tio n in
la n g u a g e
d e v o te d
to
e d u c a tio n
to
re s e a rc h e rs, e d u c a to rs , p a re n ts, a n d stu d e n ts.
http:
www.cal.org
N a tio n a l A ss o c ia tio n fo r B ilin g u a l E d u c a tio n (X A B E ) X.ABF. is a p r o f e s s i o n a l a n d a d v o c a c y a s s o c i a t i o n
le a rn in g .
d e d ic a te d to " a d d r e s s in g th e e d u c a t io n a l n e e d s
Foundations of Bilingual Education Bilingualism. 2 d e d . C l e v e d o n . U K :
B a k e r , C ., e d . 1 9 9 b .
and
B risk ,
c o m p reh en siv e.
S ta te s a n d cies
M u ltilin g u a l M atters. A
o f la n g u a g e
in te rd isc ip lin a ry
p re se n ta
and
m in o rity
stu d e n ts
a d v an cin g th e m u ltic u ltu ra l
in
la n g u a g e
th e
U n ite d
co m p e te n
u n d e rsta n d in g
of
a ll
A m e r i c a n s . " It s p o n s o r s a n a n n u a l c o n f e r e n c e to
tio n o f th e th e o r e tic a l a n d p ra c tic a l issu es c e n
e n a b le p ra c titio n e rs a n d s u p p o rte rs o f b ilin g u a l
tra l to p ro v is io n o f b ilin g u a l e d u c a tio n .
e d u c a tio n
Bilingual Education: From Compensators to Oiudity Schooling. M a h w a h , N J .:
advocacy
L a w re n c e E rlb a u m .
http:
M.
E.
1998.
A t h o r o u g h p r e s e n t a t i o n o f is su e s r e l a t e d to p r o v is io n o f g o o d q u a lity
b ilin g u a l e d u c a tio n
pro
to s h a r e t h e i r e x p e r i e n c e s , p r o v i d e s o n b e h a lf o f b ilin g u a l e d u c a tio n a n d
b ilin g u a l s t u d e n ts , a n d p u b li s h e s a n e tv sle tte r.
X atio n a l
yvwyv.nabe.org C le a rin g h o u se
for
B ilin g u a l
E d u c a tio n
iAC B E )
g r a m s d e f i n e d in lig h t o f p r e s e n t- d a y in t e r e s t in
XCBE
o v e ra ll e f f o r ts d i r e c t e d at s c h o o l i m p r o v e m e n t in
in fo rm a tio n
t h e U n i t e d S tates.
w h o s e c h a r g e is t o “ c o l l e c t , a n a l y z e , a n d d i s s e m
J. \V. 1 9 9 9 . Bilingual Education: H is to ry , Politics. Theory, mid Practice. 4 t h e d . L o s A n g e l e s :
in a te i n f o r m a t i o n r e l a ti n g to th e e ffe c tiv e e d u
B ilin g u a l E d u c a t i o n a l S erv ices.
le a r n e r s in th e
C raw ford.
c a tio n
is a f e d e r a l l y f u n d e d c l e a r i n g h o u s e f o r re la te d
to
o f lin g u istic a lly U n ite d
b ilin g u a l
and
e d u c a tio n
cu ltu rally -
d iv erse
S t a t e s . ' ' It o f f e r s m a n v
fr e e a n d lo w -co st m a te r ia ls r e l a te d to b ilin g u a l
o v ersh ad o w ed
e d u c a tio n th eo ry , m e th o d o lo g y , a n d asse ssm e n t,
e x p r e s s e d o v e rtly a n d s o m e n o t, t h a t h a v e little o r
h ttp ://www.ncbe.gwu.edu
L M R I,
co n cern s,
som e
a n d a d m in is tra to rs as th e y d e te r m in e h o w to b e st
In s titu te (U C L M R I) UC
p o litic a l
n o t h i n g to d o w ith t h e d aily c h o ic e s f a c in g te a c h e r s
U n iv e rsity o f C a lifo rn ia L in g u istic M in o rity R e s e a rc h The
by
e d u c a te th e s tu d e n ts th e y s e n e . W h ile p e d a g o g ic a l of
a n d p o litical q u e s tio n s a r e c e rta in ly re la te d , te a c h
research
e rs n e e d to b e a b le to d is ti n g u is h b e t w e e n t h e m in
e ffo rt d e v o te d to id e n tif y in g effectiv e e d u c a t io n a l
o r d e r to fo c u s th e i r e ffo rts a c c o r d i n g to th e s t u d e n t
C a lifo rn ia
p ra c tic e s
fu n d ed
sy stem ,
fo r
is
a
la n g u a g e
bv
th e
U n iv ersity
m u ltic a m p u s
m in o rity
stu d e n ts
in
C a l i f o r n i a . It s p o n s o r s r e s e a r c h p r o j e c t s , d i s s e m i
a n d c o m m u n it y c o n te x ts in w h ic h th e y w o rk . 4
n a te s in fo rm a tio n th r o u g h re s e a rc h re p o rts, a n d
I.ik e
m anv
te rm s
in
e d u c a tio n
for
lin g u is tic a lly
d i v e r s e s t u d e n t s , n n e ro n ie r p ro g ram s \vaxe a r a n g e o f
p u b lis h e s a n ew sletter.
m e a n i n g s in a c tu a l p ra c tic e . T h e y s o m e ti m e s r e f e r
h ttp ://lmrinet.ucsb.edu
sp e c ific a lly to p r o g r a m s w h e r e n e w ly a rr iv e d i m m i g ra n t stu d e n ts are se p a ra te d fro m
o th e r stu d e n ts
f o r a p e r i o d o f ti m e , u s u a lly six m o n t h s to a fu ll a c a d e m i c year, in o r d e r to re c e iv e sp e c ia lly d e s i g n e d
ENDNO TES 1
Z e n te lla
lin g u istic th e m
(1997)
a
p a rtic u la rly
at h e lp in g c lasses
a c c o u n t o f t h e w av t h a t u s e o f tw o l a n g u a g e s a ls o
o d is o v e r ( s e e S c h n a i l b e r g 1 9 9 6 f o r d e s c r i p t i o n o f
t h e life e x p e r i e n c e s o f a g r o u p
of
o n e s u c h p r o g r a m ) . I n o t h e r s i t u a t i o n s , newcom er p ro g ra m s r e f e r g e n e r i c a l l v t o a l l p r o g r a m s , i n c l u d
H e n c e , t h i s c h a p t e r is o n l v c o n c e r n e d w i t h b i l i n
in g b ilin g u a l a n d E S I. in s tru c tio n p r o v id e d as p a r t
g u a l p r o g r a m s in w h ic h th e u s e o f tw o l a n g u a g e s
o f a n e d u c a t i o n th a t o th e r w is e ta k e s p la c e in r e g u
ta k e s p la c e w ith th e s a m e g r o u p o f s tu d e n ts d u r i n g
la r c la s sro o m s e n r o llin g n o n - n e w c o m e r s tu d e n ts
t h e s a m e a c a d e m i c t i m e f r a m e . I t is n o t c o n c e r n e d
(a
w ith e d u c a tio n a l p r o g r a m s w h e re , fo r e x a m p le , a
d e s c r ib e d in C h a n g 1990; a n d D e n tle r a n d H a f n e r
m e a n in g
used
in
som e
of
th e
p ro g ram s
s in g le l a n g u a g e m a t b e u s e d in p r e s c h o o l t h r o u g h
1 9 9 7 ) . A s w i t h t h e t e r m b ilin g u a l ed u ca tio n , r e a d e r s
g r a d e 3, w i t h s t u d e n t s a n d t e a c h e r s d o i n g a fu ll
are
sc a le sw itc h
pro g ram
to a n o t h e r l a n g u a g e
(u su a lly a la n
a d v ise d
to
u s e sp ecific
sep a ra te d fro m
ity) i n g r a d e s 4 a n d o n w a r d s ( s e e M a c k e v 1 9 7 8 f o r
h o w lo n g th e p ro g ra m
p o ssib le
c o n fig u ra tio n s
e d u c a tio n ). In su c h
an
of
b ilin g u a l
a rra n g e m e n t, o n e
in fo rm a tio n
about
a
(w h e th e r o r n o t th e fo cal s tu d e n ts a re
g u a g e o f w i d e r c o m m u n i c a t i o n o r n a t i o n a l v isib il a d d itio n a l
o th e r stu d e n ts o f th e
sam e
age;
la sts; w h a t t h e c u r r i c u l a r
a l l o c a t i o n is o f a n y s p e c i a l l a n g u a g e s e r v i c e s s u c h
c o u ld
as n a tiv e la n g u a g e in s tr u c tio n , E S L in s tr u c tio n , o r
ju s tifia b ly a r g u e th a t th e e n t i r e e d u c a t i o n a l sy stem
tu to rin g ;
is b i l i n g u a l b e c a u s e o f t h e u s e o f o n e l a n g u a g e a n d
k in d s o f a d d it io n a l se rv ic e s to fa c ilita te so c ia l a n d
th en
c u ltu ra l
t h e sw itch
to a n o t h e r , a l t h o u g h
ex p erien ce at a m
a s tu d e n t's
p o i n t in ti m e w o u ld , in th e o ry ,
how
stu d en t
a d ju stm e n t
progress
m ig h t
be
is a s s e s s e d ; w h a t
p ro v id ed ,
e tc .)
to
d e t e r m i n e w h a t s u c h p r o g r a m s p ro v id e in a g iv e n
b e m o n o lin g u a l. T h is m o d e l o f "successive b ilin
set
g u a l e d u c a t i o n " r a is e s s o m e is su e s in a d d i t i o n to
r a n g e o f p o ss ib le s c h o o l s tr u c tu r e s a n d serv ices t h a t
th o se
ta n
n o te d
h ere
for
th e
m ore
c o m m o n ly
d is
c u sse d " s im u lta n e o u s b ilin g u a l " a p p ro a c h e s. 3
a im e d
w h ic h th e y m u s t a tte n d o n c e th e a llo tte d tim e p e ri
y o u n g P u e r t o R i c a n w o m e n i n X e w Y o r k C it v . 2
c u ltu ra l s e n ic e s
te llin g
c h a n g e s w ith
p ro v id es
and
m a k e a tr a n s it io n to th e m a i n s t r e a m
T h is c h a p te r c o n c e n tra te s o n p e d a g o g ic a l aspects
o f c irc u m sta n c e s. g re a tly in
The
la b e l
th e ir realiz a tio n
itse lf su g g e sts
a
a c ro ss sc h o o l d is
tric ts in t h e U n i t e d S ta te s ( A d g e r a n d P e y to n 1 9 9 9 ). -1
In th e U n i t e d S ta te s, b o t h b il in g u a l e d u c a t i o n a n d
o f b ilin g u a l a p p r o a c h e s to e d u c a t io n a n d d o e s n o t
c o n sid e ra tio n s o f p ro g ra m s d e sig n e d fo r refu g ees
e x p lo r e th e p o litic a l c o n te x ts o f b ilin g u a l in s tru c
a n d im m ig ra n ts a re o fte n m a r k e d by c o n s id e ra b le
tio n
to w ard
m is u n d e r s ta n d in g , co n tro v e rsy , a n d d is a g r e e m e n t
U n ite d
i n t h e p u b l i c ’s m i n d a b o u t t h e n a t u r e a n d e x t e n t
in d e p t h .
n a tiv ism
in
H o w e v e r, g iv e n
lan g u ag e
th e
in stru c tio n
S tates (M cK av 2 0 0 0 ) a n d th e m a m
tre n d s in
effo rts b v o r g a n
iz e d p r e s s u r e g r o u p s in th e U n ite d b ilin g u a l
in s tru c tio n
(see.
C raw ford
1992, K ra sh e n
th e
am ong
1999, a n d
S tates to b a n o th e r
o f se rv ic e s p r o v id e d . H e n c e , in s tr u c t o r s in s o m e p ro g ram s
th a t o ffe r n ativ e
la n g u a g e
in s tru c tio n
sources,
a n d s u p p o r t f o r a d u lt s t u d e n ts m a v b e r e l u c t a n t to
M c G r o a r t y in
a d m i t t o d o i n g s o . i f t h e r e is a s e n s e t h a t i n f l u e n
p r e s s ) , it is c r u c i a l t o n o t e t h a t d i s c u s s i o n o f p e d a
tial p e r s o n s w ith in f u n d i n g a g e n c i e s o r th e c o m
g o g i c a l i s s u e s i n b i l i n g u a l e d u c a t i o n is o f t e n e n t i r e l y
m u n ity at larg e d isa p p ro v e
(even w h e re p ro g ra m
re g u la tio n s
req u ire
or
p e rm it
n a tiv e
la n g u a g e
d e n t s ’ p r i o r s c h o o lin g , ty p e a n d e x t e n t o f lite ra c y
a T E S O L c o n fe r e n c e p re s e n ta tio n in th e 1990s o n
in stru c tio n ,
v o catio n al tra in in g fo r refu g ees, w h e n a p re s e n te r
and
s t a t e d t h a t h i s p r o g r a m i n C a l i f o r n i a ' s c e n t r a l v a l-
in clu d es
le v u s e d
n ativ e
m u s t also b e a d d r e s s e d
H m ong
and
la n g u a g e s
Lao
a d u lt
to
c o m m u n ic a te
stu d e n ts
but
d id
w ith not
e m p h a s iz e th is in d is c u s s io n s w ith o t h e r a u t h o r i
h
O t h e r c o n s i d e r a t i o n s s u c h as lev el a n d n a t u r e o f s tu
u se ). T h is p e rs p e c tiv e w as b r o u g h t h o m e to m e a t
te st
m atch
c o n te n t,
b e tw e e n and
th e
in stru c tio n a l p o ssib ility
c o n te n t
th at
c u ltu rally irre le v a n t o r m is le a d in g
a
test
item s
(see V ald es a n d F ig u e r o a
1994). ‘
S p ace d o e s n o t p e rm it a c o n sid e ra tio n o f a re la te d
t i e s , e s t a b l i s h i n g a k i n d o f " d o n ' t a s k / d o n ’t t e l l ”
p r o b l e m o f p u b lic p e r c e p t io n , n a m e ly , th a t in f o r
p o lic y r e g a r d in g n a tiv e la n g u a g e in s tr u c tio n . T h e
m e r d e c a d e s s t u d e n ts in th e U n i t e d S ta te s, i n c l u d
p o l i t i c a l s e n s i t i v i t y o f t h e t o p i c is a n a d d i t i o n a l r e a
i n g i m m i g r a n t s , a c h i e v e d a t h i g h e r l e v e l s t h a n is
s o n w h y d a t a o n b i l i n g u a l i n s t r u c t i o n f o r a d u l t s is
p r e s e n tly th e case. T h is b e lie f, p e rv a siv e in m u c h
h a r d to l o c a t e a n d verify.
p u b lic
It m i g h t first a p p e a r t h a t t e s t i n g S p a n i s h - s p e a k i n g
c u r r e n t in p u b lic d is c u s s io n in th e U n ite d S tates
s tu d e n ts in
sin c e a t least th e 1920s. e v e n th o u g h r e s e a r c h c o n
S p a n ish
solves p r o b l e m s o f e q u ity in
a ssessm en t, b u t c h a n g in g
th e
has
re p re se n te d
an
in flu e n tia l
o f a test
d u c te d th r o u g h a v ariety o f m e t h o d s sh o w s n o s u p
d o e s n o t n e c e s s a rily m a k e a p a r t ic u l a r test s u ita b le
p o r t f o r s u c h c la im s b a s e d o n re s u lts o f a n v ty p e o f
for a g ro u p
test (fo r f u r th e r d is c u ssio n , see R o th s te in 1 9 9 8 ).
o f stu d e n ts w h o
la n g u a g e
d isc o u rse ,
use
th a t lan g u ag e.
UNIT
IV
Focus on the Learner Many of the preceding chapters have focused on what the ESL/EFL teacher should know or what the teacher can do to facilitate student practice (and. one hopes, learning and improvement) in a language skill (o r in all four skills). H o w ever unless teachers tutor individuals, they must deal with a class— a group of individuals with different needs and ways chapter in this section by Oxford discusses learning styles and learning strategies, which are factors that can influence any student's ability to learn in a particular instructional context. Thus, the teacher needs to be aware and informed of these variables, Hawkins's chapter describes appropriate
learning environments
and
materials for teaching both
academic content and English language to ESL children, suggesting that the instructional context is a more important factor in success than the
distinction
many teachers
make
between
basic
interpersonal
communication skills and cognitive academic language proficiency. Hilles
Focus o n the L earn er
of learning, often with diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. The
special learners' needs.
UNIT
adult ESL learners with many practical tips to help teachers m eet these
I V:
and Sutton's chapter offers an insightful overview of the characteristics of
Language Learning Styles and Strategies REBECCA
L. O X F O R D
In "Language Learning Styles and Strategies,” O xford synthesizes research from various parts of the world on tw o key variables affecting language learning: srx'es, i.e.. ones general approach to learning a language: and strategies, the specific behaviors or thoughts 'earners use to enhance their language learning.These factors influence the student’s ability m a particular instructional framework.
IN T R O D U C T IO N L anguage lea rn in g steles a n d strategies are am ong the m ain factors that help determ ine how — and how well— our students learn a second or foreign language. A second language is a lan guage studied in a setting w here that language is the m ain vehicle of evervdav com m unication and w here ab u n d an t input exists in that language. A foreign language is a language studied in an environm ent where it is not the prim arv vehicle for clailv interaction and where input in that lan guage is restricted. Following the tradition in our field, the term L2 is used in this chapter to refer to either a second or a foreign language. The readers of this book will be primarilv in the field of English as a second or foreign lan guage (LSL or EFL), and most of the studies in this chapter were conducted in LSL EFL settings. However, some of the studies here focused on native English speakers learning French. Germ an. Japanese, or o ther languages foreign to them . Learning styles are the general approaches— for exam ple, global or analvtic. auditorv or vi sual— that students use in acq u irin g a new language or in learning anv other subject. These stales are "the overall patterns that give general d irection to learn in g behavior" (C ornett 1983, p. 9). O f greatest relev ance to this m ethodologv book is this statem ent: "Learning stale is the biologicallv and clevelopmentallv im posed set of char acteristics that make the same teaching m ethod w onderful for som e and terrible for o th e rs” (D unn a n d Griggs 1988. p. 3). This c h a p te r explores the following aspects o f learning stvle:
sensora preferences, personalitv tapes, desired degree o f generality, and biological differences. Learning strategies are defin ed as “specific actions, behaviors, steps, or tech n iq u es— such as seeking out conversation partn ers, o r giving onese lfe n co u ra g em e n t to tackle a difficult language task— used bv students to e n h a n ce th eir own learning" (Scarcella and O xford 1992, p. 63). W hen the lea rn er consciously chooses strategies that fit his or h e r learning style an d the L2 task at h and, these strategies becom e a useful tool kit for active, conscious, and purposeful self1 regulation of learning. L earning strategies can be classified into six tapes: cognitive, metacognitive, m em orv-related. com pensatory, affective, and social. We avail discuss each of these later. Because this c h a p te r c o n trib u te s to an instructional m ethodologv book, it is im p o rtan t to em phasize that individual stu d e n ts’ learn in g stales and strategies can work to g eth e r w ith— or conflict w ith— a giv en instructional m ethodologv. If there is harm ona betw een (a) the student (in terms of stale and strategv preferences) and ( b ) the instructional m ethodology an d m aterials, then the student is likely to perform well, feel confident, and experience low anxiety. If clashes occur betw een (a) and (b), the student often p er form s poorlv. lacks confidence, an d experiences significant anxietv. Som etim es such clashes lead to serious breakdow ns in teacher-student inter action. These conflicts may also lead to the dispir ited stu d en t’s outright rejection of the leaching m ethodologv. the teacher, or the subject matter. Now we move to the detailed discussion of learn ing stales.
L E A R N IN G S T Y L E S Elirm an and O xford (1990) cited nine m ajor style dim ensions relevant to 1.2 learning, although m any m ore stole aspects m ight also prove to be influential. This chapter discusses four dim en sions o f learning stole that are likelv to be am ong those most strongly associated with L2 learning: sensory preferences, personality topes, desired degree of generality, and biological differences. T e a m in g steles are n ot dichotom ous (black o r white, p resen t o r absent), but generally o p e r ate on a co n tin u u m o r on m ultiple, intersecting continua. For exam ple, a perso n m ight be m ore extroverted th an introverted, or m ore closureo rie n ted th an open, o r equally visual a n d audi tory b u t less kinesthetic a n d tactile. Few if anv peo p le could be classified as having all o r n o th ing in anv of these categories (F hrm an 1996).
Sensory Preferences Sensory preferences can be broken down into fo u r m ain areas: visual, auditory, kinesthetic (movement-oriented), and tactile (touch-oriented). Sensory preferences refer to the physical, percep tual learning channels with which the student is the most comfortable. Visual students like to read a n d obtain a great deal from visual stim ulation. F or th em , lectures, conversations, a n d oral instructions without anv visual backup can be verv confusing. In contrast, auditory students are com fortable without visual input and therefore enjov an d profit from unem bellished lectures, conver sations. an d oral instructions. Thev are excited bv classroom interactions in role plavs and similar activities. Thev sometimes, however, have difficulty with written work. Kinesthetic and tactile students like lots of m ovem ent and enjov working with tan gible objects, collages, and flashcards. Sitting at a desk for verv long is not for them ; they prefer to have frequent breaks and move around the room. Reid (1987) dem onstrated thatE S L students varied significantly in their sensory preferences, with people from certain cultures differentially favoring the four different ways of learning. Students from Asian cultures, for instance, were often highly visual, with Koreans being the most visual. Many studies, including R eid ’s, fo u n d th at
H ispanic learners were frequently auditory. Reid discovered th at Jap an ese were verv nonauditorv. FST students from a variety o f cultures were tac tile a n d kinesthetic in th eir sensory preferences. See also Reid (1995) and O xford a n d A nderson (1995).
Personality Types A nother sole aspect that is im portant for L2 edu cation is personality tvpe. which consists of four strands: extroverted versus introverted; intuitiverandom versus sensing-sequential; thinking versus feeling; an d closure-oriented judging versus open pcrcehing. Personality tvpe (often called psychological tvpe) is a construct based on the work of psychologist Carl Jung. Elirm an and Oxford (1989. 1990) found significant relation ships between personality ty pe and 1.2 proficiency in native-English-speaking learners of foreign lan guages. For m ore on personality tvpe in language learning, see Elirm an (1996) and Oxford (1996b). Extroverted versus Introverted Bv definition, extroverts gain th eir greatest energy from the e x te rn al w orld. Thev w ant in te ra c tio n with people and have m am friendships, som e deep and some not. In contrast, introverts derive their energy from the internal world, seeking solitude and ten d in g to have just a few friendships, which are often verv deep. Extroverts an d introverts can learn to work to g eth e r with the help o f the teacher. E nforcing tim e limits in the T2 class room can keep extroverts' enthusiasm to a m an ageable level. R otating the person in charge of leading L2 discussions gives introverts an opportunity to participate equally with extroverts. Intuitive-Random versus Sensing-Sequential Intuitive-random students think in abstract, futur istic. large-scale, and nonsequential wars. They like to create theories and new possibilities, often have sudden insights, and prefer to guide their own learning. In contrast, sensing-sequential learners are g rounded in the here and now. Thev like facts rath er than theories, want guidance and specific instruction from the teacher, and look for consistency. T he key to teaching both intuitiverandom and sensing-sequential learners is to offer variety and choice: sometim es a highly organized
structure for sensing-sequential learners, and at other times m ultiple options and enrichm ent activ ities for intuitive-random students. Thinking versus Feeling T h inking learners arc o rie n ted toward the stark tru th , even if it. hurts som e p eople's feelings. Thev want to be viewed as c o m p e ten t a n d do n o t ten d to offer praise easilv— even though they m ight secretly desire to be praised them selves. Som etim es they seem d etached. In com parison, feeling learners value o th e r people in verv personal wavs. They show em pathy a n d com passion th ro u g h words, n ot ju st behaviors, an d sav w hatever is n e e d ed to sm ooth over difficult situations. T h ough thev often wear th eir hearts on th eir sleeves, thev want to be respected for personal contributions a n d h a rd work. 1.2 teachers can h elp thinking learners show g rea ter overt com passion to th eir feeling classmates and can suggest that feeling le a rn e rs m ig h t to n e dow n th e ir e m o tio n a l expression while w orking with thinking learners. Closure-oriented/Judging versus Open/Perceiving Closure-oriented students want to reach judg m ents or com pletion quicklv and want claritv as soon as possible. These students are serious, h ard working learners who like to be given written inform ation and enjov specific tasks with dead lines. Sometimes their desire for closure ham pers the developm ent of fluenev (F.hrman and Oxford 1989). In contrast, open learners want to star avail able for continuouslv new perceptions and are therefore sometim es called "perceiving." Thev take 1.2 learning less seriouslv. treating it like a gam e to be enjoved rather than a set of tasks to be com pleted. O pen learners dislike deadlines: thev want to have a good time and seem to soak tip 1.2 inform ation bv osmosis rather than hard effort. O pen learners sometim es do better than closureoriented learners in developing fluenev (F.hrman and O xford 1989). but thev are at a disadvantage in a traditional classroom setting. Closure-oriented and open learners provide a good balance for each other in the L2 classroom. The form er are task-driven learners, and the latter knots how to have fun. Skilled T2 teachers sometimes conscioush create cooperative groups that include both tvpes of learners, since thev can benefit from collaboration with each other.
Desired Degree o f Generality This stran d contrasts the le a rn e r who focuses on the m ain idea or big p icture with the lea rn er who concentrates on details. Global or holistic stu dents like sociallv interactive, com m unicative events in which thev can em phasize the m ain idea and avoid analvsis of gram m atical m inutiae. Then are com fortable even when n o t having all the inform ation, a n d thev feel free to guess from the context. Analytic students te n d to c o n c en trate on gram m atical details a n d often avoid m o re free-flow ing c o m m u n icativ e activities. Because of th eir c o n cern for precision, analytic learners tvpicallv do not take the risks necessary for guessing from the co n tex t unless thev are fairlv sure of the accuracv o f th eir guesses. T he global stu d en t a n d the analvtic stu d e n t have m uch to learn from each other. A balance betw een generalitv and specificitv is very useful lor T2 learning.
Biological Differences Differences in L.2 learning sty le can also be related to biological factors, such as biorhythms, suste nance. and location. Biorhythms reveal the tim e' of das svhen students feel good and perform t h e i r best. Some 1.2 learners are m o rning people, sc h i l e others do n ot w ant to start learning until t h e afternoon, and still others are creatures of the evening, happilv “pulling an all-nighter" svhen necessarv. Sustenance refers to the n e e d for food or d rin k while learning. Q uite a n u m b e r o f L2 learners feel verv com fortable learn in g with a canch' bar, a cup o f coffee, o r a soda in h and, but others are distracted from studv bv food and drink. Location ins ols es the nature of the environ m ent: tem perature, lighting, sound, and even the firmness of the chairs. L2 students differ widely with regard to these environm ental factors. The biological aspects of L2 learning stsle are often forgotten, but vigilant teachers can often m ake accom m odations and com prom ises svhen needed.
Beyond the Stylistic Comfort Zone L.2 learners clearls need to m ake the m ost o f th eir stsle preferences. However, occasionally thev m ust also extend them selves bevond these
preferences. B y providing a wide range of class room activities that cater to different learning styles, teachers can help L2 students develop beyond the com fort zone dictated ba their natural style preferences. T he kev is svstematicallv offering a great variety of activities within a learnercentered, com m unicative approach.
Yet students are not alwavs aware of the pow er o f consciouslv using L2 learn in g strategies to m ake learn in g quicker and m ore effective (Nyikos an d O xford 1993). Skilled teachers help th eir students develop an awareness o f learning strategies a n d enable them to use a w ider range o f a p p ro p riate strategies.
Assessing L 2 Learning Style
Strategy Use Often Relates to Style Preferences
By far the most com m on tape of assessment tool for L2 learning sta les is the written survev in which students answer questions that reveal their partic ular style preferences. Sta le survevs v a n in reliabil ity and validitv, but in the last few decades thee have provided data from which teachers and stu dents have begun to understand L2 stales. See Reid (1995) for examples of such survevs. We have touched upon a n u m b er of im por tant dim ensions of L2 learning sta le. Xow we are ready to turn to learning strategies, which are related to learning stales but are far m ore specific.
L E A R N IN G ST R A TEG IES As seen earlier, L2 learning strategies are specific behaviors or th o u g h t processes that students use to enhance their own L2 learning. The word strat egy com es from the an cient G reek word stmtegia, w hich m eans “steps o r actions generals take for the pu rp o se o f w inning a war." T he warlike m ean in g o f strategia has fortunatelv fallen away, b u t the control a n d goal-directeclness rem ain in the m o d ern version o f the w ord (O xford 1990). A given strategy is neither good nor bad; it is neutral until the context of its use is thoroughly considered. WTiat makes a strategy positive and helpful for a given learner? A strategy is useful if the following conditions are present: (a) the strat egy relates t\Tell to the L2 task at hand; (b) the strat egy fits the particular stu d en t’s learning style preferences to one degree or another; and (c) the student emplovs the strategy effectivety and links it with o ther relevant strategies. Strategies that fulfill these conditions “m ake learning easier, faster, m ore enjovable, m ore self-directed, m ore effective, and m ore transferable to new situations" (Oxford 1990, p. 8). Learning strategies can also enable stu dents to becom e m ore independent, autonom ous, lifelong learners (Allwright 1990; Little 1991).
W hen left to their own devices, and if not encour aged bv the teacher or forced bv the lesson to use a certain set of strategies, students use learning strategies that reflect their basic learning stales (Ehrm an and Oxford 1989: O xford 1996a, 1996b). However, teachers can activelv help students "stretch" their learning stales bv living some strate gies that are outside of their primarv stale prefer ences. This assistance can happen through strategy instruction, as discussed later in this chapter.
Conscious Movement Toward Goals L earning strategies are intentionally used and consciouslv controlled ba the le a rn e r (Pressley with M cCorm ick 1995). In o u r field, virtuallv all definitions o f strategies implv conscious move m ent toward a language goal (Bialastok 1990; O xford 1990. 1996a). Let us consider Diana, whose goal is to co nduct research in chem istrv with the help of articles w ritten in the L2. She is a bust' professional with no extra tim e for rea d ing journals, but she needs the inform ation thev contain. To m eet the need, she plans a m anage able task: finding an d reading one L2 article per week on chemistrv until she develops a rapid read ing rate and is able to identity- and understand published research findings. Strategies to help Dia na accomplish- this task m ight include schedul ing time each week to search for an article in the librara or on the Internet, or preparing herself bv looking at articles on related topics in h er own lan guage. In addition, she could use strategies such as skim m ing for the m ain points, reading carefully for supporting details, keeping a notebook for L2 scientific vocabulary, using the dictionary to look up difficult words, guessing the m eaning of words from the context, and making a written outline or summ ary if needed. T he avell-orchestraied set of
strategies Divna uses m ight be called a strategy chain— a set of interlocking, related, and mutuallv supportive strategies.
Positive Outcomes from Strategy Use In subject areas outside o f L2 learning, the use of learn in g strategies is dem onstrably related to stu d en t achievem ent an d proficiency (Presslev and Associates 1990). R esearch has repeatedlv shown this relationship in c o n te n t fields ranging from physics to read in g and from social studies to science. In light o f this rem arkable association betw een learn in g strategy use an d positive learn ing outcom es, it is n o t surprising th at students who frequentlv em plov learn in g strategies enjov a high level of self-efficacy, i.e., a perception of being effective as learners (Z im m erm an and Pons 1986). In the L2 arena, earlv studies o f so-called “good language learners" (N aim an et al. 1975; R ubin 1975) d e te rm in e d th at such learners con sistently used certain tvpes of learn in g strategies, such as guessing from context. However, later studies fo u n d that th ere teas no single set of strategies alwavs used bv "good language learn ers." T hese studies fo u n d that less able learners used strategies in a ran d o m , u n c o n n e cte d , and u n c o n tro lle d m a n n e r (A braham a n d V ann 1987; C ham ot et al. 1996), while m ore effective learners showed careful o rchestration of strate gies. targeted in a relevant, svstematic wav at spe cific L2 tasks. In an investigation bv X unan (1991), m ore effective learners differed from less effective learners in th eir greater abilitv to reflect on and articulate their own language learn in g processes. In a studv of learners of English in P uerto Rico, m ore successful students used strategies for active involvem ent m ore fre quently than did less successful learners accord ing to G reen an d O xford (1995). T he same researchers also c o m m en ted that the n u m b er and type of learning strategies differed according to w hether the learner was in a foreign language environm ent o r a second language setting. In their review o f the research literature, G reen and O xford discovered that second language learners generallv em ployed m ore strategies with higher frequence than did foreign language learners.
Strategy Instruction Research To increase L2 proficiency, som e researchers an d teachers have provided instru ctio n to help students learn how to use m ore relevant and m ore pow erful learn in g strategies. In E SL /EFL studies, positive effects o f strategy instruction em erg ed for proficiency in speaking (D adour an d R obbins 1996; O ’Malley et al. 1985) a n d reading (Park-Oh 1994), although results for lis tening were not significant (O ’Malley et al. 1985). C ham ot et al. (1996), C ohen et al. (1995), and C ohen and Weaver (1998) investigated the effects of strategy in stru ctio n am o n g native-Englishspeaking learners of foreign languages an d found some positive results m ixed with neutral findings. In o th e r studies, strategy in stru ctio n led to increased EFT learning m otivation (N unan 1997) and, am ong native-English-speaking learners of foreign languages, greater strategy use and self1 efficacy (C ham ot et al. 1996). T h e m ost effective strategy in stru c tio n appears to include d em o n stratin g w hen a given strategy m ight be useful, as well as how to use an d evaluate it, a n d how to transfer it to o th er related tasks a n d situations. So far. research has shown the m ost beneficial strategy' instruction to be woven into regular, evervdav L2 teaching, alth o u g h o th e r ways o f strategy instruction are possible (O xford a n d Leaver 1996).
Six Main Categories of L 2 Learning Strategies Six m ajor groups o f L2 learn in g strategies have b een identified bv O xford (1990). A lternative taxonom ies base been offered by O ’Malley and C ham ot (1990) a n d others. Cognitix'e strategies enable the le a rn e r to m anipulate the language m aterial in direct ways, e.g.. through reasoning, analysis, notetaking, sum m arizing. svnthesi/.ing, outlining, reorganizing inform ation to develop stronger schem as (knowl edge structures), practicing in naturalistic settings, and practicing structures and sounds formally. Cognitive strategies were significantly related to L2 proficiency in studies bv Kato (1996), Ku (1995). O xford and Ehrm an (1995), Oxford, Judd, and Giesen (1998), and Park (1994), am ong
otliers. O f these studies, three were specific ally in EFL settings: Kn (Taiwan). Oxford. Ju d d , and Giesen (Turkey), and Park (Korea). The other two studies involved the learning of Kanji by native English speakers (Kato 1996) and the learning o f various foreign languages bv native English speakers (O xford and Ehrm an 1995). Metacognitive strategies (e.g.. identifying o n e ’s own learning stvle preferences and needs, plan ning for an T2 task, gathering and organizing materials, arranging a study space and a schedule, m onitoring mistakes, evaluating task success, and evaluating the success of anv tvpc of learningstrategy) are employed for m anaging the learningprocess overall. Am ong native English speakers learn in g foreign languages. P u rp u ra (1999) found that m etacognitive strategies had "a signifi cant, positive, direct effect on cognitive strategy use, providing clear evidence that metacognitive strategy use has an executive function oxer cog nitive strategy use in task com pletion" (p. 61). Studies o f EFT learners in various countries (e.g.. South .Africa [Drever and Oxford 1996] and Turkev [Oxford. Judd, and Giesen 199S]) u n covered evidence that metacognitive strategies are often strong predictors of L2 proficiency . Memory-related strategies help learners link one E2 item or concept with another, but do not nec essarily involve d eep u n d erstan d in g . Various memory'-related strategies enable learners to learn and retrieve inform ation in an orderly string (e.g.. acronym s), while o th er techniques create learn ing and retrieval via sounds (e.g.. rhym ing), images (e.g., a m ental picture of the word itself or the m eaning of the word), a com bination of sounds and images (e.g.. the keyword m ethod), bodv m ovem ent (e.g.. Total Physical Response), m echanical m eans (e.g.. flashcards), or location (e.g., on ;t page or blackboard) (see Oxford 1990 for details and m ultiple exam ples). Memoryrelated strategies have been shoxvn to relate to E2 proficiency in a course devoted to m em orizing large num bers of Kanji characters (Kato 1996) and in L2 courses designed for native-Englishspeaking learners of foreign languages (Oxford and Ehrm an 1995). Hoxvever. m em ory-related strategies do not ahvavs positively relate to L2 pro ficiency. In fact, the use of memory strategies in a test-taking situation had a significant negative
relationship to learners' test perform ance in gram m ar and vocabulary (Purpura 1997). The prob able reason for this is that while m em ory strategies are often used for m em orizing vocabulary- and structures in initial stages of language learning, learners need such strategies m uch less when their arsenal of vocabulary and structures has becom e larger and autom atic responses are expected. Compensatory strategies (e.g., guessing from context in listening and reading, using synonyms and "talking around" the missing xvord to aid speaking and xvriting. a n d — strictly for speaking— using gestures or pause yvords) help the learner make up for missing knoxvledge. Cohen (1998) asserts that com pensatory strategies that are used for speaking and writing (often knoxvn as one form of eommuniration strategies) are intended only for language use and must not Ire considered to be language learning strategies. Hoxvever. Little (per sonal com m unication. January". 1999) and Oxford (1990. 1999a) haxe contended that com pensation strategies of any kind, even though tltev m ight be used for language use. nevertheless aid in lan guage learning as yvell. .After all. each instance of L2 use is an opportunity for m ore L2 learning. Oxford and Ehrm an (1995) dem onstrated that com pensatory strategies are significantly related to T2 proficiency in their stuch of native-Englishspcaking learners of foreign languages. Apfeetive strategies, such as identifying o n e ’s m ood and anxiety- level, talking about feelings, rew arding oneself for good p erform ance, and using d eep b rea th in g or positive self-talk, haxe been shoxvn to be significantly related to L2 p ro ficiency in research by D rever an d O xford (1996) am ong South African ESL learners and bv O xford and E h rm an (1995) am ong native English speakers learn in g foreign languages. Hoxvever. in o th e r studies, such as th at of M ullins (1992) with EFL learners in T hailand, affective strategics shoxved a negative link with som e m easures o f L2 proficiency. O ne reason might be that as some students progress toward proficiency, they have less need for aff ectiv e strate gies. Perhaps because learners’ use of cognitive, metacognitive, and social strategies is related to greater L2 proficiency and self-efficacv, over time there m ight be less need for affective strategies as learners progress to higher proficiency.
Social strategies (e.g.. asking questions to get verification, asking for clarification o f a confus ing point, asking for help in doing a language task, talking with a native-speaking conversation p a rtn e r, a n d e x p lo rin g c u ltu ral a n d social norm s) h elp the le a rn e r work with o thers and u n d e rsta n d the target culture as well as the lan guage. Social strategies were significantly associ ated with L2 proficiency in studies by South African ESL study by D reyer a n d O xford (1996) a n d the investigation of native-English-speaking fo re ig n lan g u a g e le a rn e rs by O x fo rd a n d E h rm an (1995)."
Assessing Styles and Strategies in the L 2 Classroom
Assessing Learners’ Use o f Strategies
Attuning L 2 Instruction and Strategy Instruction to Learners’ Style Needs
Man}- assessm ent tools exist for uncovering the strategies used bv L2 learners. Self-report sur veys, observations, interviews, le a rn e r journals, dialogue journals, think-aloud techniques, and o th e r m easures have b een used. Each one of these has advantages an d disadvantages, as ana lyzed bv O xford (1990) an d C ohen and Scott (1996). T he m ost widelv used survev, the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (an ap p en d ix in O xford 1990), has b een translated into m ore th an 20 languages a n d used in dozens of p u b lished studies a ro u n d the world. Various learn in g strategv instrum ents h a te disclosed research results bevond those that have b een alreadv m en tio n ed . These additional findings in clu d e the following: L2 lea rn in g strategy use is significantlv related to L2 learning m otivation, gender, age, culture, brain hem i sphere dom inance, career orientation, academ ic major, beliefs, and the nature of the L2 task. A n u m b er o f these findings have been sum m arized in O xford (1999a, 1999b).
IM PLICATIONS FOR L2TE A C H IN G T he research synthesized in this chapter has four im plications for classroom practice: assessing styles and strategies in the L2 classroom, attuning L2 instruction and strategv instruction to learners’ style preferences, rem em bering that no single L2 instructional m ethodologv fits all students, and preparing for and conducting strategy instruction.
L2 teachers could benefit by assessing the learn ing stvles and the strategy use o f th eir students, because such assessm ent leads to greater u n d e r standing o f styles an d strategies. Teachers also need to assess th eir own styles a n d strategies, so that thev will be aware o f th eir preferences an d of possible biases. Useful m eans exist to m ake these assessments, as m en tio n ed earlier. Teachers can learn about assessm ent options bv reading books o r journals, atten d in g professional conferences, o r taking relevant courses o r workshops.
T he m ore that teachers know about their stu dents' stvle preferences, the m ore effectively they can orient their L2 instruction, as well as the strat egv in struction th at can be interw oven into language instruction, m atched to those style pref erences. Some learners m ight n eed instruction p rese n ted m ore visuallv, while o th ers m ight require m ore auditorv, kinesthetic, o r tactile types o f instruction. W ithout a d e q u ate know ledge about their individual students’ style preferences, teachers cannot svstematicallv provide the n eeded instruc tiоnal varietv.
Remembering That No Single L2 Instructional Methodology Fits All Students Stvles an d strategies help d e te rm in e a p articular lea rn er's abilitv a n d willingness to work w ithin the fram ew ork o f various instructional m eth o d ologies. It is foolhardy to th in k that a single L2 m ethodologv could possibly fit an entire class filled with students who have a range of stylistic and strategic preferences. Instead o f choosing a specific instructional m ethodology, L2 teachers would do better to employ a broad instructional approach, notablv the best version of the com m u nicative approach that contains a com bined focus on form and fluencv. Such an approach allows for deliberate, creative variety7to m eet the needs o f all students in the class.
Preparing for and Conducting Strategy Instruction L2 teachers should consider various wavs to p re p are to co n d u c t strategy instruction in their classes. H elpful p rep arato rv steps include taking tea c h e r developm ent courses, finding relevant info rm atio n in p rin t o r on the In te rn et, and m aking contacts with specialists. A lthough we do not yet know all we wish to about optim al strategy instruction, there is grow ing evidence that L2 teachers can and should con duct strategy instruction in their classrooms. For some teachers it m ight be better to start with small strategy’ interventions, such as helping L2 readers learn to analyze words and guess m eanings from context, rath er than with full-scale strategies-based instruction involving a vast array of learning strate gies and the four language skills (reading, writing, speaking, a n d listening). (See O xford 1990 for a table o f L2 strategies based on the six categories cross-indexed by the four language skills.) O th er teachers m ight want to move rapidlv into strategies-based instruction. Strategies-based instruction is not so m uch a separate "instructional m ethod” as it is sound strategy instruction inter woven with the general communicative language teaching approach noted above. C ham ot and O ’Malley (1996) describe the CALLA model, a form of strategy-based instruction for ESL learners that includes explicit strategy instruction, content area instruction, and academ ic language develop m ent. C ohen (1998) presents a different but some what related version of strategies-based instruction for native English speakers learning foreign lan guages. In evaluating the success of any strategy' instruction, teachers should look for students' progress toward L2 proficiency and for signs of increased self-efficacv or motivation.
D ISCU SSIO N Q U E ST IO N S 1. W hat is the difference between learning styles and learning strategies? 2. How are learning styles and strategies related? 3. Why are learning styles and strategies im por tant for L2 teachers to understand? 4. W hat do we know about “optim al” strategy' instruction?
5. N otetaking is sometim es thought of as an academ ic survival skill. W hat criteria would n eed to be present to m ake notetaking an actual learning strategy?
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1. Find a published learn in g stvie in stru m en t an d adm inister it to vourself. Score it. W hat kind of le a rn e r are vou? 2. Write down wavs that vour learning style affects vour teaching. C om pare vour findings with those of a colleague or friend. Consider in what wav s vou can build flexibility into your instruction to m eet the needs of vour students. 3. Take a strategy survey, responding according to the most recent L2 vou have learned (or to which vou have been exposed). W hat are vour patterns of strategy use? W hich categories of strategies do vou use the most, and which do vou use the least? Consider win this is so. 4. A dm inister a stvie in stru m en t an d a strategy in stru m en t to vour L2 students. Score these two instrum ents and com pare the g ro u p ’s results on both. W hat linkages do vou see betw een the students' styles and th eir strate gies? W hat differences exist? 5. Start weaving strategy instruction into vour L2 teaching. W hat effects do vou see? What m ight vou do next to strengthen strategy instruction?
FU RTH ER REA D IN G Cohen. A. D. 1998.
Strategies in
a Second L a n g u a g e .
F.hrman. M. 1996.
L e a r n in g a n d
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Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. O'Mallev. ). M.. and A. U. Chamot. 1990. L e a r n in g L o o k in g Benea th the Su rface.
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Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Oxford. R. L. 1990. L a n g i a g e L e a r n in g Strategies: W h a t L v e n Teacher S h o u ld K n o w . Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle Publishers. Oxford. R. L. 1996. L a n g u a g e L e a r n i n g Strategies A ro u n d the W o rld : Cross-cultural Perspectives. Manoa: Univ ersity of Hawaii Press. Reid. J. 1993. L e a r n in g Styles in the. L S L / K F L Classroom. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle Publishers.
Supporting Second Language Children’s Content Learning and Language Development in K-5 BARBARA
HAW KINS
Hawkins's chapter examines teaching academic content to children in their L2, basing it on teaching and learning academic content in the primary language, Sne proposes that teaching academic content in the L2 is not helped by the Basic Interpersonal Comm unication Skills and Cognitive Academ ic Language Proficiency distinction, and suggests that it is more useful to concentrate on the context required to teach academic content successfully.
IN T R O D U C T IO N This c h ap ter presents what I believe to be two principal layers involved in c o n te n t area instruc tion for second language (L2 ) students in ele m entary school (K -5): (1) effective core c o n ten t in struction in elem entarv school, in d e p e n d e n t o f L2 issues, and (2 ) the interaction of L2 issues with the above w hen teaching in the elem entarv grades. T he first laser provides the groundw ork for exam ining the second Liver bv telling us the “business" of elem en tarv school in struction; w ithout it, the second laver makes little sense. If we are to provide equal educational access to Т2 students, th en we m ust be s e n clear about the academ ic goals that exist for native speakers (XSs). Each laver uncovers elem entarv school children's learning needs, resealing correspon ding knowledge and pedagogical requirem ents for effective planning and delivers o f in struction.1 T he first laser describes svhat sve trs to teach in term s of discipline-specific c o n ten t in elem entarv school. W hat is the teaching charge as it applies to content-area education? This laser also considers the language o f tire class room as a vehicle th ro u g h svhiclr teachers e a rn o ut th eir charge to teach discipline-specific con tent to their students. Discussing the second laser. I will exam ine svhat it m eans to teach disciplinespecific co n ten t to T2 children. Can sve proside equits- of core co n ten t instruction to non-native
speakers (XXSs) of English in grades K-5 svhen sve com pare it to svhat sve trv to provide th eir XS peers?
LAYER I—T E A C H IN G D IS C IP L IN E -S P E C IF IC C O N T E N T T O C H IL D R E N As elem entarv school teachers, sw are calico u p o n to provide the m ost fu n d am en tal u n d e r standings o f the core disciplines to o u r students. T hese fu n d a m e n ta l u n d e rsta n d in g s u n d e rlie o u r s tu d e n ts’ fu tu re ability to b ro a d e n an d d eepen their knowledge o f these disciplines. T herefore, it is essential that ssre ourseKes has7e both a profound understanding o f the fundam en tals of these core subjects as well as a clear, work ing knowledge of the pedagogical principles involved in teaching them . Teachers m ust be in the position o f "knowing"; i.e.. u n d e rsta n d in g the desired concept or info rm atio n and the process th ro u g h which one m ust go in o rd e r to a n is e at such an understan d in g . W hat it m eans to teach discipline-specific c o n te n t to children in grades K-5 is a vast topic. To narrow it down, we ssill first discuss general approaches that m ight be taken in presenting such content instruction. We argue that m ovem ent toward an experiential approach, based on the
knowledge and practices of adults proficient in the disciplines is essential to d eep learning. Second, we will talk about the special role o f lan guage in the delivery of content-area instruction. Language plays a m ajor role in initially gaining entry to the disciplines, as well as in sustaining and building future understandings within them.
Some General Ideas on the Presentation o f Content-Area Instruction in Elementary School W hat is content-area education in elem entary school? A lthough we mav easily identity the m ajor or core content areas as social studies, science, and m athem atics (in addition to reading language arts), this identification is not the same as identi fying the specific content elem ents we wish it) stress in elem entary school. In general, is it learn ing about science, m athem atics, and social studies, o r is it learning to do science, m athem atics, and social studies? W hat is the difference? W hat is the role o f factual knowledge within the disciplines, a n d what is the role of process knowledge? W ithin education, there has been a push to haye students und erstan d the disciplines from the “inside o u t” (A m erican A ssociation for the A dvancem ent o f Science 1993: B ecker an d Shimacla 1997; Lemke 1993: Parker 1993). O ne wav to in terpret this is to consider learning to think about the co n ten t areas as those proficient in them think. Bv this we m ean to consider sci ence education as learning to think and do as scientists, m athem atics education as learning to think and do as m athem aticians, and social sci ences education as learning to think and do as social scientists. Dewev calls for this em phasis w hen he speaks of "the psychology of occupa tion”: “Bv occupation I m ean a m ode of activity on the p art o f the child which reproduces, or runs parallel to, some form of work carried on in social life.” (1990 [1956], p. 132). L e a rn in g to "do" a d iscip lin e m eans, am o n g o th e r things, that one gradually moves tow ard m e m b e rsh ip in th e co m m u n ity o f ex p e rts re p re s e n te d bv that discipline. This m o v em en t tow ard fellow ship with scientists,
m athem aticians, an d social scientists involves the learner in a gradual educational process, a situated process involving language as one of its main resources for constructing knowledge over time. O ne does not only learn facts about a n d /o r from the disciplines; rather, the goal is to imm erse the learner in the creative processes that direct the discipline, the belief being that students will gradually becom e know ledgeable a b o u t and control the integral, critical factual inform ation related to co n ten t as they learn and adopt the ways o f the discipline. In addition to this factual base of knowledge, they will also hav e constructed a sense of the discipline — its m ajor questions, its approaches to answering those questions, what it counts as research an d know ledge, and its limits and crossovers in relation to o th e r disciplines. It is in building this sense o f the discipline th at learners will gain factual inform ation about it; i.e.. bv learn in g to "do" the discipline, they also learn "about" the discipline. For clarification, let us present contrasting examples. Suppose that culinary arts was included in o u r curriculum . Suppose fu rth er that, as part of the curriculum for our grade lev el in culinary arts, we n eeded to teach the students to p rep are a certain recipe. O u r goals are that o u r students learn to cook this dish in such a wav that they can identify what m akes it taste good an d what the effects of various ingredients and cooking strategies are on its taste. They should be able to tro u b lesh o o t the recipe if they get less than desired results, use ap p ro p riate in g re d ien t sub stitutions for various cooking situations, and make variations based on taste, n um ber of servings desired, and dietary preferences. T he first type o f class is co n c ern e d with stu dents learn in g “a b o u t” culinary arts. H ere, we set up ou r instruction as a com pilation o f im p o r tant facts about the dish an d its p rep aratio n , using a c h a p te r o f the textbook to guide us. It describes the dish, lists the ingredients an d the am ounts n e e d ed for it, a n d discusses the p rep a ra tio n o f th e in g re d ie n ts, th e p ro c e d u re s involv ed in m ixing a n d cooking the ingredients, the time required to prep are the dish, the calories and the fat, salt, sugar, and carbohydrate gram s per serving, and the expected n u m b er of serv ings. In o rd er to prov ide context, the ch ap ter mav
include historical info rm atio n on the dish's developm ent, tim es o f year for which the dish is most a p p ro p riate, a n d the beverages th at m ight c o m p lem en t it. In o rd e r to ensure students le a rn th e in fo rm a tio n p re s e n te d , th e text includes advanced organizers, vocabularv lists, b o ld e d vocabularv a c c o m p a n ie d by m argin a n n o ta tio n , pictures o f th e in g red ien ts and processes, an outline, and discussion questions at the end of the chapter. Additionally, it includes language skill practice activities to ensure student engagem ent in reading a n d writing across tire curriculum . T he teacher's edition lists the applicable standards that will be addressed in the chapter, distinguishing betw een those to cover thoroughlv and those to reced e exposure, but not masterv. It also includes guided reading questions with pos sible stu d en t answers an d suggested class and hom ew ork activities, som e of which are "hands o n .” Also fo u n d are titles from children's litera ture that could be in teg rated into instruction, suggestions for in tegration with m athem atics, science, and social studies, an d a description of how activities can be introduced to encourage stu dents to develop an d use higher o rd er thinking skills. An assessment packet offers multiple-choice, m atching, fill-in-the-blank, short definition, and essav assessments. All qualitative assessments are accom panied bv clearlv delineated, well opera tionalized rubrics. Finallv. we note that the text book authors have taken special care to ask "real chefs" to give their stam p of approval to the con tent by m aking sure that all of the factual infor m ation contained in the chapter is correct. W hile covering the c h a p te r in class, we w ould do read in g circles with the students in o rd e r to su p p o rt th eir read in g of the text, have them attack the c h a p te r questions in c o o p era tive groups, an d have them draw and write about each step involved in the p rep a ra tio n o f the dish. We w ould give the students the various assessments provided, som e as self-m easures of th eir u n d erstan d in g , and som e as m ore form al m easures. We w ould have each student p rep are a portfolio o f his or h er work, a n d eventuallv we w ould be able to give the students a grade in the categorv on the rep o rt card labeled “C ulinarv A rts.”
Tow ard the e n d o f th e year is the stan d ard ized test req u ired by the state to h o ld b o th the students a n d the tea c h e r accountable for m eet ing the culinarv arts standards. Even th o u g h the tea c h e r could only cover the sections on d o u b ling an d halving the recipe an d alternative sea sonings in the last th ree class before the exam , he or she hopes that at least som e of the stu dents will be able to recognize those item s on the test an d to answer the questions correctlv. Tet us next give a contrasting exam ple of the same task, this tim e w here em phasis is on learn in g to "do" the discipline of culinary arts. We now n eed to look to the experiences o f the chil d ren with regard to the dish we want them to be able to u n d e rsta n d and create. “It is a cardinal p recep t of the new er school o f ed u catio n that the b eg in n in g of instruction shall be m ade with the ex perience learners alreadv have; that this experience and the capacities that have been developed during its course provide the starting point for all furth er learning” (Dewev 1948, p. 88). We m ight begin bv having the students taste sam ples of the dish as p re p a re d bv various chef s We d e a t h assum e th a t thev have tasted food, but we mav also assum e thee have p m b ab h m ■learn ed w hat creates the taste ' с т а : : : : . ' have experienced. If eve begin A T u : : : . taste the sam ples, eve can then oi e s c : : : the::: an o p e n -en d ed problem- that will direr; them w g rea ter ap p reciation of taste while incorporating th eir com m on experience of the sam ple tasting. T h e goal is to h are the students learn m ore a b o u t taste as they try to form alize th eir ex p eri ence o f it. “It is also essential th a t th e new7 objects an d events be related intellectually to those of earlier experiences, a n d this m eans th at th ere be som e advances m ade in conscious artic ulation of facts a n d ideas” (Dewev 1948, p. 90). We will pose our problem in the form of a series o f questions: How can vou explain/describe how all of these versions of the dish taste? Do all of them taste the same? Different? Are there any sim ilarities? How do s ou know? As students trv to cap tu re th eir taste expe rience. the teach er m ight help th em classify it bv having them first list the in g redients th a t they taste and then to describe the sim ilarities and d iffe re n c es thev taste a m o n g th e sam ples.
T h e students m ight spend several classes trying to characterize an d th en refine th eir ch aracteri zations o f what it is that thev taste. As they do so, thev are engaged in one o f a chef's m ost basic activities. At the same tim e, thev will be learning at least the m ost elem entary "taste vocabulary” used bv chefs. T h eir cheflike attem pts to classify th eir ex perience will m ost likelv result in m ore questions. .Among these m ight be w hether every one's perception of the food is the same when the dish is the same, w hether what thev taste is the same as what the chef tastes, w hether all of the sam ples hat e the exact same am ounts of ingredients, w hether the samples have been cooked differently (e.g., baked as opposed to grilled ). etc. These ques tions m ore closelv resem ble those of the ch ef than anv which m ight arise from the textbook-driven u n it described above, and thev can provide the class with a continual source o f new problem s a ro u n d which to organize its ongoing investiga tion. As this unit develops over tim e, the stu dents will have the o p p o rtu n it\ to ex p erim ent in a truly experiential wav with the ingredients, cook ing m ethods, p o rtio n control, etc. T h eir first trial-and-error attem pts will be fu rth e r cata logued into a growing bodv of know ledge about cooking. At the same tim e, students will be developing a "‘culinary arts script." learning to attach new a n d m eaningful language to their understandings. We will also take advantage of some tech niques used bv the first class. The students will work cooperatively, in pairs or small groups. Thev will develop portfolios, which will contain am ong o th er items an ongoing diarv of their experiences accom panied bv a notebook showing how then codified those experiences into descriptions, defi nitions, directions, classifications, etc. T here will be smaller assessments along the wav which will ask students to identify and select ingredients, clearly state whv thev chose one ingredient over another, identify ingredients bv taste both sepa rate from a n d w ithin the dish they are p re p a r ing, and critique th eir own a n d o th e r classmates' various cooking attem pts. This critiquing will help students to develop a rubric that clearly iden tifies essential elem ents surrounding the prepara tion of the dish. The final assessment will be the actual preparation of the dish, with individualized.
specific req u irem en ts as to am ounts an d varia tions for diet an d taste. W hile this second class clearly incorporates "skills"— for exam ple, read ing a n d w riting across the curriculum , h ig h er o rd e r thinking skills — the driving force is always learn in g to u n d e rsta n d the dish as a ch ef would, taking notes a n d talking ab o u t the dish as a ch ef w ould, learn in g to taste and rate the tastes of food as a chef would, an d p rep a rin g the dish as a chef would. T he u nit of instruction su rro u n d in g this one dish mav take th ree m onths to com plete, but the students will have delved deeply into the c o n ten t area, the discipline o f the culinary arts. How will thev do on the standardized test that com es at the en d o f the vear? In fact, thev should do just fine. If we teach well, the test scores will follow. T he greatest loss at this p oint is that the standardized test will not begin to cap tu re the d e p th o f the students' know ledge.3 W hat are we to m ake of these two contrast ing examples? Are both m ethods successful? It depends, of course, on how one chooses to define success. Let us re tu rn to o u r original statem ent about what it was that we h a d h o p ed to accom plish regarding the p rep a ra tio n of our special dish: O ur goals are that our students learn to cook this dish in such a wav that thev can identify what makes it taste good and what the effects o f various ingre dients and cooking strategies are on its taste. Thev should be able to trou bleshoot the recipe if thev get less than desired results, use appropriate ingre dient substitutions for various cooking situations, and make variations based on taste, n u m b er of servings desired, and dietary preferences. On paper (i.e ., the standardized test) both groups appear to bare been successful, with the first group being perhaps a little m ore successful. T he m ore serious question, however, is what if success were defined as actually being able to m eet our objectives as listed above? Just because students can read and write about cooking the dish is no guarantee that they will be able to recognize what thev have studied about in anv variation o f the
dish. T h e first g ro u p has lea rn ed to cook, taste, a n d m odify the dish in theory only. T he second g roup has an experiential, real-world know ledge of the dish and can parlay this experience into new know ledge as new ex p erien ces p rese n t them selves. Thev now have at least the begin nings of a p ro fo u n d , fu n d am en tal n o tio n o f taste, one which can be built u p o n as thev p ro ceed fu rth e r into the w orld of culinary arts. T he first g roup will probably h a te to review and re le a rn th e fo u r tastes w h en ev er th e n e x t tea c h e r decides to take up the them e, following a “reteach section'" in the te a c h e r’s guide. However, since "culinary arts'" is n o t a core c o n te n t area, how do o u r im aginary exam ples plav out in the elem entary school classroom? We can gain som e insight if we re-exam ine the sec ond ap p ro ach to teaching the students how to p rep a re a dish, analyzing this ap p ro ach to distill som e basic principles for p lan n in g instruction. First, we n e e d to start w here the children are, providing them with an experience that is easily u n d e rsta n d a b le , b u t th at will c o n n ect them directly to the fu n d am en tal issues we wish to teach. O f course, the students are not vet aware o f these connections, a n d we m ust carefully organize the lesson or u n it such th at thev even tually becom e clear to the students. The choice of the initial experience is im portant, since it will m ark the students' entrv into the instructional unit; if thev cannot relate to it. thev will be left on the outside from the verv start. Notice that the experience of tasting the various versions of the dish is easily accessible to the students. At the same time, it is an experience that can be used to move the students into a d eep er discussion and u n d erstanding of what it m eans to taste. O nce we have provided the experience, we n e e d to p resen t an o p e n -en d ed problem th at will engage students in an analysis o f the experi ence, draw ing them h ea d lo n g into the h e a rt of w hat we wish to teach. At this point, the children truly begin th eir em ulation of the com m unity o f adults who are proficient w ithin the discipline, for it is h e re th at thev begin th eir initial (i.e., to be b ro a d e n e d an d d e e p e n e d as they go th ro u g h school) investigation of a c o n cep t b o th central an d fu n d am en tal to the discipline. O nce one und erstan d s how vital the open -en d ed problem
is for guiding the rest o f th e lesson o r unit, one also realizes the en orm ous im p o rtan ce o f this step in planning. In fact, this issue o f a “good p ro b le m ” is easily overlooked as teachers often becom e ab sorbed in other, less im p o rta n t tasks, e.g., organizing cooperative groups, p lan n in g activities a n d the m aterials n e e d e d fo r them , etc. F inding o r creating a pro b lem th at will act as the vehicle for m oving the ch ild ren from th eir p e r sonal experiences to new, p ro fo u n d u n d e rsta n d ings is actually one o f the m ost difficult, even vexing, aspects o f p lan n in g instruction (Sawada 1997).4 However, this is also one o f its m ost cre ative aspects. T he problem in the culinary arts exam ple was p u t in the form of a series o f ques tions th a t re q u ire d th e stu d e n ts to try to describe a n d ,/o r explain w hat they tasted a n d to discrim inate am o n g tastes. An earn est struggle to do this engages students im m ediately in an essential activity, pivotal in th eir ability to con tinue to develop in culinary arts. O nce the problem is established a n d stu dents u n d e rsta n d it accurately, the teach er m ust now call u p o n his or h e r own d eep u n d e rsta n d ing of the fundam entals o f the discipline to guide the students with th eir observations, fin d ings, an d questions, such th a t “the new objects a n d events be related intellectually to those o f earlier ex p erien ces,” thus p ro m o tin g “advances m ade in conscious articulation o f facts and ideas'" (Dewey 1948, p. 90). This is w here teach ers really n e e d to “know th eir stuff” in term s o f the co n ten t, because if thev them selves do n o t have control of fu n d am en tal u n d erstan d in g s o f the disciplines, it will be im possible to lead chil d re n along this p ath of gradually constructing these understandings. We do n o t m ean th at teachers have to be som ething they are n o t— i.e.. scientists, m athem aticians, o r social scien tists— b u t it is essential th a t they have a p ro fo u n d u n d e rsta n d in g of the fundamentals o f each field, regardless o f the grade level taught. As Ma (1999) has term ed it w hen speaking ab o u t teachers' p rep a ra tio n for teaching elem entary school m athem atics, teachers n e e d “PUFM ”— a ".Profound F n d e rsta n d in g o f P u n d am en tal M athem atics” (p. 124)— o r to p a rap h rase Ma, a p ro fo u n d u n d e rsta n d in g of the fundam entals o f the discipline.
Thus far, we have outlined three lesson or u n it preparation steps from our sample culinary arts unit: ( 1 ) know what the students' current understandings are from their life experiences, (2) set up an experience that can sen e as a bridge to move the students from their current life expe riences to a d eep er understanding, and (3) pres en t an open-ended problem that will engage the students in the very heart o f the core conceptual understandings that to n wish them to acquire. W hat happens after these three steps are in place? T here are m anv helpful techniques that teachers can use to move students to the kind of analyses that are required to construct new, im portant understandings. For exam ple, cooperative group ing can be used verv effectively, as can carious “hands o n ” activities. A m ajor facet of instruction, however, necessarilv focuses on the classroom dis course that results from teacher guidance. This is not easilv converted into a list o f steps, but it nevertheless requires o u r full attention.
On the Role o f Language in the Delivery o f Content-Area Instruction At the sam e tim e that teachers m ust know con ten t, they also m ust know pedagogy. We now tu rn to one o f the m ajor tools o f pedagogv, lan guage. T he language o f a discipline needs to be situated in the educational process, insofar as the language of the classroom both defines and is defin ed bv the discipline. It is th ro u g h class ro o m discourse th a t m ost in stru c tio n gets accom plished. This is to say, th ro u g h watching, listening, asking, reco rd in g , a n d exam ining, learn ers fashion “m eaning out of events a n d p h e n o m e n a th ro u g h p ro lo n g e d , co m p lex processes o f social interaction" (Schw andt 1994, p. 118). As thev work to in te rp re t experiential data, learners construct a reality o f m eanings, including b o th the processes o f m ean in g con struction (i.e., how m ean in g is “m ad e ” in this field o r discipline), as well as w hat a n d how m any m eanings are involved in the instruction (i.e., w hat is to be lea rn ed in this field, the con te n t o f the discipline). How m ight this be played o u t in the elem entarv school classroom?
If the social in teractio n in the classroom prom otes learn in g about co n ten t, th en th a t is m ost likely the m eaning that learners will con struct over tim e. O n the o th e r h an d , if the social in teractio n encourages learners to do the disci pline, “to conjecture, invent, probe, search for relationships, value diversity [of explanations com m unicate and rep re sen t th eir ideas and findings as thev work b o th collaboratively and in d ep e n d e n tly to resolve com plex problem s" (Parker 1993, p. 16), th en that is m ost likely the m eaning of the discipline that will be constructed bv them over tim e.-1 A constructivist a p p ro ach to instruction relies on the integration o f cognitive, social, and linguistic features to achieve the classroom dis course that prom otes learning to do content. (Sec Schwandt 1994). To u n d erstan d or know some thing. one m ust use cognitive powers of elucida tion to construct m eaning; this only happen.' when language and social knowledge are closed integrated with cognition. Even when we worindependentlv, we are invok ed in this integrate triad of cognition, language, and social knowl edge. To separate out anv one of the three is te und erm in e the process of constructing m eaning Lem ke, in his work on discourse in science classroom s (grades 9 -1 2 ), argues th at science > a social process. “W hen we talk science we arc h elp in g to create, or re-create, a com m unity o: people who share certain beliefs a n d value' (1993. p. x). H e also argues th at language is m ajor factor in establishing a n d m ain tain in g the com m unitv o f scientists— language is “n o t jus: vocabularv an d gram m ar: Language is a system o f resources for m aking m ean in g s” (p. ix). H e iperhaps clearest w hen he states: "Talking Science” does not simply m ean talking about science. It m eans doing science through the m edium of lan guage. "Talking science" m eans observ ing, describing, com paring, classifying, analvzing, discussing, hypothesizing, theorizing, questioning, challenging, arguing, designing experim ents, follow ing procedures, ju d g in g , evaluating, deciding, co n clu d in g , g en eralizin g ,
re p o rtin g , w riting, lec tu rin g , an d teaching in a n d th ro u g h the language of science (p. x i). Finally, Lem ke argues that the role of the sci ence teacher is clear if we view science teaching as a social process. Teachers are ’'bridge people" in that thev already belong to the com m unity of people that speak the language of science; their charge is to bring their students, who do not yet understand this language, into the com m unin'. It is through their teachers that students trill be able :o e n te r the discourse com m unity o f scientists. Lem ke's argum ents about science are also true for o th er disciplines. T hat is, there is a com m unin’ of people who speak the languages of m athematics, of social science, of literature. These are the proficient adults in the com m unities of the various disciplines. Vitally im portant to recognize is that this language is socially situated within these comm unities; not to be identified with spe cific yocabularv or gram m atical constructions. To do so is to simplify- its power and to miss it "as a system of resources for m aking m eaning" (p. ixt. In fact, the language of each o f these disci plines has m uch in com m on when one com pares them purely at the level of vocabulary and gram matical constructions. Short (1994) reports on her group's research of classroom discourse used in m iddle school social studies classes. T he researchers analyzed their data in hopes of identi fying the academ ic language com petencies T2 stu dents would need in ord er to be successful. They defined the academ ic language of social studies to include semantic and syntactic features, "such as vocabulary items, sentence structure, transition m arkers, and cohesive ties" and "language func tions and tasks that are part of social studies class routines" (p. 593). Contrary to what they expected, thev found that the academic language used in “A m erican history classes was com m ensurate with m uch of the academic language in other hum anities courses, and in fact, similar to the non technical language used in math and science class rooms. . . ." (p. 395). As Lemke asserts: T he c o n te n t of every scientific and technical subject can be expressed in language (and in specialized offshoots of language, such as m athem atics). In
fact, the same scientific ideas can be expressed in m any d ifferen t wavs, because the semantics of a language always alloyvs us to use gram m ar and vocabulary- in different yvavs it) express the same m eaning. T he w ording o f a scientific argum ent may change from one book to the next, one teacher to the next, even one dav to the next in the same classroom. But the sem antic pattern, the pattern of relationships of m eanings, always stays the same: That pattern is the scientific content of what we say or write (1993, p. x). If this is the case, then yvhat is a teach er to do in term s of guiding classroom discourse in the c o n te n t areas? How does this socialized learning work? T h ere are many points Vygotsky (1978) makes. T he first has to do with how chil d ren learn to use language to accom plish goals. He gives an exam ple o f an infant learn in g to point as a m eaningful gesture (Vygotsky 1978, p. 36). Initially, the p o in tin g gesture is just an unsuc cessful attem p t by the child to grasp som e thing out of reach. T he child does n o t realize that he or she has anv pow er over the environ m ent o th er than what he or she can do physically to alter it. As his or h er hands stretch out temards the object, the m other comes to the c h ild ’s assis tance a n d gives him or h e r the object. At this point, "the situation changes fundam entally,” in that the child's unsuccessful attem p t to retrieve the object has b ro u g h t ab o u t a reaction, not from the object, but from a n o th e r person; at this p o in t, the ch ild 's g rasp in g actio n becom es pointing, a gesture for others, even th o u g h the child mav not yet know it. Eventually', the child will link this action with the situation as a whole, and he or she will u n d e rsta n d the m ovem ent as p o in tin g . "At this ju n c tu re , th e re occurs a change in that m ovem ent's function: from an object-oriented m ovem ent it becom es a move m ent aim ed at a n o th e r person, a m eans of estab lishing relations . . . . Its m eaning a n d functions are created at first bv an objective situation a n d th en bv people who su rro u n d the child" (p. 36). T h e re are several im p o rtan t points that Vygotskv m akes here. T he first is that “an o p e ra tion that initially represents an external activity
is reco n stru cted a n d begins to occur internally.” This is to sav, via the ex perience that the child has in learn in g the po in tin g gesture, th ere is a transform ation of "grasping" into "p o in tin g ,” a n d th at m eans a transform ation into a “sign using” activity. T he child has lea rn ed the m edi atin g pow er o f th e g estu re. S econd, “an in terp erso n al process is transform ed into an in trap erso n al o n e ” (p. 57). This is to sav th a t the reco n stru ctio n process begins as an actual rela tion betw een the child and a n o th e r person. T he child was n o t b o rn with the po in tin g gesture, an d did n o t u n d e rsta n d it w hen he or she first used it, com ing to u n d e rsta n d it bv Iris or h er m o th er's (or others people's) rep e a te d reactions to it. Thus, Vvgotskv savs that "even’ function in the c h ild ’s cultural life appears twice: first on the social level an d th en on the individual level: first between peo p le (interpsvchological) and then inside o f the child (intrapsvchological)" (p. 57). Finally, Vvgotskv sees in the developm ent of the p o in tin g gesture th at "the transform ation of an in terp erso n al process into an in trapersonal one is the result o f a long series o f developm ental events” (p. 57). Since the internalization process is accom plished on the basis of external signs, a n d the signs them selves also u n d e rg o change, the transform ation from in terp erso n al to in tra personal is gradual. Vygotsky’s ideas about how language devel op m en t is situated in a social context are verv pow erful, and verv helpful in term s of our discussion of co n ten t area education in elem entary school. His work provides us with a verv credible scenario for how experiences external to the learn er becom e internalized. We need to have a way of understanding how what we d o n 't originally know or understand becom es a part of ou r working knowledge, of how what is external to us gets inter nalized. A ccording to Vvgotskv, this developm ent is a m ediated social process, always situated within a specific context. W ithin any given context, there are a n u m b er of unexam ined experiences pres e n t to the learner. Som e o f these experiences will be m ore fam iliar th an others, a n d som e may be so unfam iliar th at they may go u n n o ticed . L et us re tu rn to the class tasting experience p rese n ted as the o p e n in g activity to the “lea rn ing to do” group. E xternal to the learners are the
various sam ple dishes that they will all taste. Som e o f the students mav only be able to ju d g e the dishes as good or bad tasting, while others may be able to ju d g e them as sally o r spicy. At the very m o m e n t that the discussion b egins— i.e., w hen language am ong the social actors about the experience begins— students are confronted with new possibilities for learning about taste. Perhaps the teacher m entions that one of the samples tastes "m ore garlicky" than the others. O n e stu d e n t mav have no idea of what that m eans, while a n o th e r mav agree completely. T he one who has no idea m ight ask to taste the dishes again, trying to figure out what "m ore garlicky” m eans. The teacher mav bring the student a piece of fresh garlic to smell, then ask him or h e r to com pare that with the sample dish, and next to com pare that sample with the others that seem to have less garlic. W ithin this com m unity o f learners, a com m unity of tasters is gradually being built. It mat take several instances in several different settings before the child who had no idea of “m ore gar licky" comes to a full realization of what that means. T he students have the opportunity' to internalize new inform ation based on highly con textualized interaction surrounding a com m on experience. It is via this kind of interaction that knowledge verv gradually gets built. If we th ink about the hypothesized taste dis cussion p resen ted above we can see th a t the teach er had a verv special role of being able to scaffold new in fo rm a tio n fo r th e stu d en ts. W ood. B runer, and Ross define scaffolding as "the m eans wherebv an adult or 'e x p e rt' helps som ebody who is less adult o r less expert" (1976. p. 89). Integral to the n o tion of scaffolding is the idea that learners are in the position o f solving a p roblem that is initially beyond th eir level of com petence. At the same tim e, the person who is helping them can do so precisely becattse he o r she knows b o th the c o n te n t and how one arrives at the u n d e rsta n d in g of such content. T he teacher in the above exam ple knows about taste and has p resented the students with an open-ended problem th at is initially bevond their level of com petence to solve independently; they are not vet capable of describing on their own the nuances of taste that they need to describe in order to solve the problem . T hrough the m edium
of language in the classroom setting, the teacher interacts with the students, introducing new ideas about taste. This is the teacher's m ost im portant classroom work: to provide for the social interac tion within the com m unity of learners such that the learners may move from what they know to what thev d o n 't vet know, from their own experi ences to new understandings o f the disciplines represented bv the content they are studying.
Summary o f Layer 1 As indicated earlier, know ing o n e ’s students, th en using that know ledge to offer th em experi ences of which thev hat e partial u n d erstan d in g , and th en c o n fro n tin g them with a problem that calls on them to re-exam ine those experiences to learn new inform ation satisfies the first three re q u ire m e n ts for tea c h in g discipline-specific c o n te n t to elem entary school children. Each of these req u irem en ts does its p art to situate the learn in g context such that all m em bers o f the com m unity can have access to the learning opportunity. T he next m ajor req u irem e n t for teachers is to scaffold fu rth e r lea rn in g o p p o rtu nities bv gu id in g classroom in teractio n sur ro u n d in g the sh a re d ex p erien ces an d th eir o p en-ended problem s. This involves going from “talking the discipline" (to parap h rase L.emke 1993), to doing the discipline. It is this s e n highly situated talking ab o u t co m m o n ex p erien ces within the environm ent that will lead students, very gradually, to the com m unity of proficient adult m em bers of the discipline.
LAYER 2—T E A C H IN G ELEM ENTARY S C H O O L C H IL D R E N C O N T E N T IN T H E IR S E C O N D L A N G U A G E Now that we have p resen ted and discussed tvhat we see as the dem ands placed on the elem entary school teach er for p resen tin g effective contentarea ed u cation in general, we speak to the issues su rro u n d in g content-area ed u catio n for L2 ele m entary school students. T he first p o in t to rec ognize is th at the instruction we refer to in this
sectio n is “s h e lte re d ,” also re fe rre d to as "Specially D esigned A cadem ic Instruction in E nglish” (SDAIE). (See Snow’s c h a p te r in this volum e for a discussion o f sh eltered instruction techniques.) This m eans that the first goal of instruction is to teach the content, n o t to see the co n ten t as a vehicle for the acquisition of the sec ond language. As it turns out, this is extrem ely im portant to keep in m ind, as it influences the entire discussion. T he teach er will absolutely n eed to su p p o rt the T2 needs o f the ch ild ren as he or she provides content-area instruction, and as the instruction progresses, the ch ild ren will definitely progress in th eir acquisition of the L2. However, the driving force b e h in d the instruc tion is to provide high quality co n ten t-area instruction in the sense we have b een describing it thus far. We will first consider the relation betw een XXS ch ildren's L2 proficiency an d th eir ability to learn effectively in the various c o n te n t areas that are included in the elem entary school cur riculum . A com m on idea is th a t it is im possible to teach children in c o n te n t areas u n til they first speak English. O n the o th e r h a n d , a n o th e r often expressed a n d ra th e r w idespread idea is that ch ild ren can “pick u p ” languages “n a tu rally," often m ore easily and quickly th an adults can. Bevond these ideas is th e fact th at L2 chil d re n are e n ro lled in the K -5 classroom , a n d th a t we c an n o t wait the 3 o r 7 years, o r how ever m any years it will take for them to learn English to a sufficient degree to begin the serious study of discipline-specific content. W hat, th en , do w?e do about this issue? This second layer of o u r discussion will be divided into three parts. T he first p art will con sider some of the theory that has helped shape what m anv believe about the nature o f contentarea education for L2 speakers. It will present a b rief sum m ary o f the ideas that com e from a lan guage distinction proposed bv C um m ins (1976, 1979. 1981). Basic Interpersonal C om m unication Skills (BICS) and Cognitive A cadem ic Language Proficiency (CALP). T he second p a rt suggests that we ab an d o n the BICS/C A I.P distinction, a n d presents a rationale for d o in g so. A dopting this suggestion from p art two, the th ird p art discusses th e im p licatio n s fo r c o n te n t-a re a
instru ctio n in the elem entary grades for L2 chil d ren . An effort will be m ade th ro u g h o u t to link all this to o u r discussion of laver one above.
A Brief Summary of Second Language Theory That Has Helped Shape Our Beliefs About Content-Area Education C um m ins’s work on bilingual and second lan guage acquisition (SLA) has had an enorm ous influence upon L2 instructional practices in the elem entary school setting. Manv program adm in istrators, m aterials developers, and teachers have relied upon his distinctions to organize, describe, and im plem ent their program s. In this section. I would like to revisit the work o f Cum m ins in which he delineates the BICS/CALP distinction (1976. 1979, 1981), since practitioners seem to relv upon it almost universally, and since it relates directly to the issue of core content instructional practices for L2 elem entary school children. C um m ins outlines his ideas about BasicIn terp erso n al C om m unication Skills (BICS) and C ognitive A cadem ic L anguage Proficiency (CALP) in several articles. In general, "this work has profoundly in fluenced m ethodology for all teachers of L im ited English proficient students by distinguishing betw een language used lotsocial a n d academ ic p urposes" (Sasser and W inningham 1991, p. 33). In sum m arizing the distinction betw een BICS an d CALP. C ham ot an d O ’Mallev note th at BICS is characterized by social com m unication skills which are context em b e d d e d an d cognitively u n d e m a n d in g (1994, p p . 7, 24, a n d 40). BICS has o ften b e e n described as “the language students use am ong them selves on the school plat-ground”; i.e., the language o f BICS takes place in situations which offer m an\ contextual clues and can becom e easily routinized since the interaction typically su rro u n d s evervdav transactions. (Sasser and W inningham 1991, p. 33). This social language “typically deals with fairly u n co m p licated topics th a t are fam iliar to the speaker” (C ham ot and O ’Malley 1994; p. 40). Proficiency in BICS,
which can usually be attain ed "in ab o u t two years” (ibid., p. 7). can "fool" the u n in itiated into th in k in g that learners hat e a h ig h er level o f lan guage proficiency than they actually do, simply because they ap p e ar to be very fluent. BICS. however, is not considered as critical to success in the classroom as is CALP, the context-reduced an d cognitively d e m a n d in g language of the con ten t classroom . CALP requires a "different type o f language skills" (ibid., pp. 7 an d 40). i.e., those n e e d e d for successful participation in c o n ten t classrooms. A ccording to this theory, c o n te n t classroom p resen t instruction using language that is “con text red u ced " a n d "cognitively dem anding." "The cognitive dem ands for which academ ic lan guage is used, and the fact that academ ic language is frequently not supported by the rich array or nonverbal an d contextual clues that ch aracter izes face-to-face in te ra c tio n , m ake academic language m ore difficult to learn" (ibid., p. 7 r Academic language “mav be less interactive and mac provide lim ited context clues to assist com p rehension" (ibid., p. 40). CALP is believed to develop m uch m ore slowlv than BICS, and takeabout 5-7 vears to acquire. D uring the time w hen students' com petence lies largely- in the area of BICS, thev mac not have the cognitive academ ic language proficiency to p e rfo rm well in school (C um m ins 1981). Both BICS and CALP are constructs that align closely with th e th re sh o ld hvpothesi(C um m ins 1976: T oukom aa a n d SkutnabbKangas 1976) yvhich: assumes that those aspects of bilingual ism that m ight positively influence cog nitive growth are unlikely to com e into effect until children have attained a certain m inim um or threshold level of proficiency in the second language. Similarly, if bilingual children attain only- a very low Imel of proficiency in one or both of their languages, th eir interaction yvith the env iro n m en t th ro u g h these languages b o th in term s o f in p u t and o u tp u t is likely to be im poverished (C um m ins 1981, p. 38; em phasis ad d ed ).
T he hypothesis goes on to state th at th ere are two thresholds, a lower one a n d a h ig h er one. "The a tta in m e n t o f a lower level of bilingual p ro ficiency would be sufficient to avoid any negative effects; b ut the a tta in m e n t o f a second, h ig h er level o f bilingual proficiency m ight be necessary to lead to accelerated cognitive grow th” (ibid., pp. 38-39). Im p o rta n t for this discussion is the idea th at cognitive academ ic language a n d basic social language are separated o u t from their respective settings bv m eans o f the levels o f cog nitive d e m a n d a n d c o n te x tu a liz a tio n thev involve. Cognitive d e m a n d can be m ade onlv when a certain level of linguistic proficiency has been attained; if m ade earlier, th ere can be n eg ative effects. These assertions assum e a d e p e n d ency m odel betw een language acquisition and cognition, with a th resh o ld level o f language proficiency being a prerequisite for cognitive developm ent. A causal relationship seem s to be im plied betw een context and the a tta in m e n t of the th re sh o ld level o f language proficiency, since cognitive d e m a n d is m inim al (can it be nonexistent?) d u rin g this p erio d of initial acqui sition, and is th erefo re generally unavailable for the acquisition process. O nce the th resh o ld p ro ficiency has been reached, however, context takes an increasingly sm aller role a n d cognitive forces begin to take an increasingly larger role. T he distinction Cum m ins makes between BICS and CALP seems to preclude serious content instruction for beginning or lower-level L2 profi cient children. If T2 students receive core content instruction (i.e.. in areas that are less apt to be contextualized and m ore apt to be cognitively dem anding) too early before thee base had a chance to reach a threshold level of T2 proficiency are we not pushing them exactly into the situation in which “negative cognitive effects" mat' accrue, or where developm ent in both their IT a n d T2 will be “impoverished"? M ore specifically if we accept the dichotom y between BICS and CALP, then the kind o f cognitively dem anding social interaction and language required to construct m eaning with in the first laver of content areas are simply not available to L2 learners before they reach the th resh o ld o f m inim al language proficiency. Practically speaking, in elem entary schools this
has m ea n t an attem p t to co n tro l c o n te n t a n d linguistic form s for students n o t m ee tin g a th resh o ld level of L2 proficiency.6 O n the o th er hand, there have been studies whose results call into question the BICS/CALP distinction, as well as the threshold hypothesis. Flashner (1987) “w ent on a search” for decontextualized language in a fourth grade class, exam in ing the daily oral a n d written classroom language use o f teachers, LI students, and L2 students in all subject areas over a period of two m onths. She found that the BICS/CALP distinction did n o t obtain in h e r classroom data. Rather, she discov ered a full array of language in the classroom, its uses governed by the context in which it occurred. Flashner concludes, “I suggest that there is no such thing as decontextualized language. T here are, rather, varieties o f language that have m ore of one feature than an o th er yvhen purpose, audi ence, m ode, and planning are altered” (p. 165). Hawkins (1988) reports a study in which she looked at scaffolded classroom interaction as it relates to SLA. H er data, collected daily over a twom onth period, yvas also from a fourth grade class room where the children were both NS and NNS. W hen she exam ined the data for instances of scaf folded interaction, she found that it occurred most often yvhen the classroom discourse was both interactively and cognitively dem anding. This indicates the very opposite o f w hat Cum m ins (1981) a n d T oukom aa a n d Skutnabb-K angas (1976) argue in the threshold hypothesis. T hat is, rath er than cognitively dem anding m aterial being a possible detrim ent to cognitive and linguistic developm ent, yvhen com bined yvith high interac tive dem and it is actually supportive o f both, in term s o f the learner receiving scaffolding. As we have seen earlier, scaffolding is a m ost im portant yvav for the learner to move from a position of n o t knoyving to one of knoyving.
An Alternative to the B IC S /C A L P Distinction W hat yvould h a p p e n if we were to consider the BICS/'CALP distinction as rep re sen tin g a false dichotom y? Instead o f viewing BICS as relatively' free o f cognitive d e m a n d , wc could recognize
that it “appears" to be relatively free of cognitive dem and precisely because the context is so well defined. It is the claritv of the context which allows the “seemingly rapid" acquisition to proceed, but this does not m ean that the work a learner does in becom ing proficient is cognitively undem anding. Hawkins describes h er efforts to u n derstand “play g ro u n d language," language normally tho u g h t to be a prototypic exam ple o f BICS: I have been am azed continually at the cognitively dem anding level of interac tion that occurs as students, both LI a n d L2 , explain an d describe subtle nuances o f the games they plav: thev justify; thev prove, debate and persнаde oth ers when conflict about procedures, “unfair” behavior or results arise, and compare, classify and evaluate aach others' actions in relation to the rules of the games, etc. W hen this becom es most apparent to the teacher is w hen stu dents bring a com plaint or problem to her. If the teacher decides to truly deal with the issues involved, it can becom e a cognitive nightm are in trying to sort out actual events as students inform the teacher about what has h appened . . . . Most times it is because the students have such a com plex understanding of the details of the game that have been “constructed” over time, and of how these details fit into the whole picture, that a teacher's rudim entary u n d e r standings of the gam es— e.g., soccer or kickball— are simpiv not enough to understand the issues involved. The teacher needs instruction, and the stu dents becom e the teachers (1996, p. 43). T he te a c h e r’s difficulty in u n d e rsta n d in g the ch ild ren is not because the language is d eco n textualized, since in fact, it is firmly ro o te d in the social context o f the gam es the children play. Rather, it is because the tea c h e r does n o t com pletely u n d e rsta n d the context of the c h ild re n ’s language th at m akes its in te rp re ta tio n so diffi cult. It is cognitively d e m a n d in g for the teacher to try to u n d e rsta n d the stu d en ts' language, even th o u g h one w ould classify it as BICS.
T urning to the o th er half o f the coin, what would ab an d o n in g the BICS/CALP distinction m ean about the wav we Hew CALP? L em ke’s claim is m ost helpful in this regard: “Talking sci ence does not simpiv m ean talking about science. It m eans doing science th rough the m edium ol language” (1993. p. ix). This statem ent clearlv implies that science is situated social knowledge, whose m eaning is clearlv com m unicated among those who tire proficient m em bers of the science community. As such, the problem for Lem ke is n ot that science instruction is too cognitively dem anding: rather, it is that students do not ve: belong to the com m unity of scientists, and, there fore. do not vet u n derstand what thev are talking about. For Lemke, it is the teachers’ role to “leant to see science teaching as a social process, and to bring students, at least partially, into this com m u nity of people who talk science" (p. x). An u n d erstanding of co n ten t areas as rep re senting highly situated social knowledge turns the idea of CALP on end. Instead of being decontexlualized language, the language of disciplinespecific content is so verv contextualized that u m a\ ap p ear decontextualizcd to the outsider, ti the novice, in m uch the sam e wav th at play g ro u n d “BICS" m a\ a p p e ar cognitively u n d e m an d in g to the person who fully u n d e rsta n d ' the context. Instead of thinking o f academ ic content instruction as ('C ontextualized, if teach ers thought of it as highly contextualised, thev would realize that what they need to bring to their stu dents in term s of content education is the context enjoyed by insiders. A nd instead of thinking o: social language as being cognitively u n d e m a n d ing and generally outside the realm o f academic content instruction, they yvould realize that it takes a great deal of cognitive effort to m aster the various contexts in yyhich the disciplines operate, to becom e socialised to the disciplines. Short's finding that the academ ic language used in ''A m erican history classes was com m en surate yvith m uch o f the academ ic language ir. o th e r hum anities courses, a n d in fact, sim ilar to the nontechnical language used in m ath and sci ence classrooms . . . ” (1994, p. 595), suggests tha: the decontextualized language of CALP is far m ore elusive than would be expected. T hat is, it yve vieyv academ ic language as decontextualized.
then we should be able to isolate linguistic m ark ers particular to a given co n ten t area ahead of time, and then use these features first to predict difficult}', and ultim ately to im prove o u r deliverv of instruction. Yet. th at view mav n o t be the case. If we take the perspective th at there is no such thing as decontextualized language associated with the c o n ten t areas, it dim inishes the surprise that the predicted linguistic differences were not found. Perhaps it teas because the linguistic fea tures were taken out of the context of the co n ten t area that thev did n o t prove to be significant. T hat is, bv separating o u t vocabulary7 an d o th er structures that we think would m ark the decon textualized n a tu re o f a discipline, we have rem oved them from their social situation, at which p oint thev lose m eaning. O nce again, we are left with the question of how content knowl edge gets constructed b\ learners. If we do n ot >eparate out two entities— BIOS and CAI.P— will it affect the way we teach core co n ten t to elem en tary school students?
Content-Area Instruction in the Elementary Grades for L 2 Children Fortunatelv, the ideas p rese n ted about a b a n d o n ing the BICS/CALP distinction are c o n g ru en t with o u r earlier view o f c o n te n t ed u cation as a -ituated process whose eventual goal is the m em bership of students in the com m unin' o f adults ■jroficient in the discipline. If we wish to prov ide iuality ed u cation for o u r L2 elem entarv school 'in d en ts, we n e e d to do at least what is asked of elem entary school teachers for th eir LI stu dents. T hat is, we n e e d to com e from a position of know ing the fundam entals of the disciplines we teach. A dditionally we n e e d to realize w hat it m eans to "talk a discipline" in the sense th a t Lemke (1993) describes it; i.e., we n e e d to real ize that o u r role as teachers is to guide o u r stu dents in the social co n stru ctio n o f c o n te n t know ledge such that the norm s o f the discipline eventually becom e available to them . In doing so, we need to be able to use language to scaffold new know ledge structures for o u r students as we interact with them . We n e e d to be able to build
on th eir language to help m ove th em beyond w here th eir thoughts currently take them . We n e e d to know o u r students well, and be able to provide them with experiences they can readily e n te r into, th ro u g h which we can provoke new learnings. W hen o u r students do n o t seem to u n d e rsta n d w hat we are doing, we n e e d to ask several questions: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Can they relate to the experience I have provided? Do they have the words to describe w hat it is th at they are experiencing? Do they u n d e rsta n d the o p en -en d ed p ro b lem th a t I have p rese n ted to them ? Are thev developm entallv ready for the c o n cepts I am trving to teach them ? Do they have e n o u g h situational su p p o rt to u n d e rsta n d the classroom discourse?
W hat is special for elem entarv school teach ers w hen thev teach L2 children in the c o n ten t areas? T he above questions seem appropriate for both LI and L2 students. Because o u r L2 students com e from cultures d ifferent from the “m ain stream " culture, we n e e d to be particularly sen sitive in term s o f the experiences we provide th em at the start o f o u r lessons o r units. Since it is pivotal for learners to be able to relate to the ex perience in o rd e r to proceed, the teach er m ust carefullv consider w h eth er so m eth in g he o r she has chosen is too specific to m ainstream culture. If learners have trouble w hen we ask them to describe the experience we give them , we n e e d to th in k about whv this m ight be. Is it because the e x p erien ce is too d iffe re n t for them ? Is it because thev d o n 't have the words to describe the experience? Is it because th ere is too m uch (or too little) info rm atio n in the set ting, so thev cannot use the context provided to help them out? For exam ple, if the teacher wants a child to distinguish betw een two attributes, the setting needs to provide at least one clear exam ple o f each of the two attributes (less than this would be too little inform ation) such that the child does n o t confuse them with several o th er possibilities (too m uch inform ation). If a stu d e n t has trouble with any o n e o f these areas, it m ost often m eans backing up a n d ch anging som ething in the lesson. R etu rn in g to
the culinary arts lesson, u p o n tasting the differ ent dishes in the initial experience, a stu d en t mav stum ble in ri ving to describe what he or she tastes because he or she does not know how to sav salty in English. W hat will the teach er do? It m eans backing up an d providing an experience of, for exam ple, salty, sour, sweet, a n d b itter so th a t students will be able to attach that language to th eir next experience. In th e case o f L2 stu d e n ts, preciselv because they are "fu rth er awav" from the context o f the co n ten t, one o f the biggest differences will be th at teachers will n eed to take m ore tim e to cover the sam e a m o u n t o f m aterial. T he back ing up that a tea c h e r does w hen th ere are p ro b lem s alwavs takes tim e, and for the 1.2 students th ere may be m ore instances o f backing up because the children mav n ot have the language a n d /o r cultural references to move as quicklv. T h e m ost im p o rta n t a ttrib u te s th at a tea c h e r can have are those o f being able to listen a n d reflect u p o n what the students tell him or her. In the case of elem entarv school, students are n o t alwavs able to tell the teacher directlv w hat is going on in th eir m inds, and this is m uch m ore true o f T2 students. Teachers m ust learn to listen a n d observe in new wavs, b ringing evervth in g thev know ab o u t pedagogv. developm ent, a n d language (LI and L2) to bear on the situa tion. W ith o u t having this vital in fo rm atio n , teaching a n d learn in g becom e trivialized: i.e., the teach er sets up his or h e r lesson plans, and covering the m aterial becom es the p a ra m o u n t goal, m aking evervthing else subservient to it. In such a scenario, if students d o n 't u n d e rsta n d the m aterial, in som e wav or o th e r it reverts back to them ; i.e., it becom es their fault. In conclusion, we seek a great deal o f com p eten ce from o u r elem entarv school teachers, in several arenas. Thev n e e d to know the fu n d a m entals o f th eir subject m atter; thev n eed to know pedagogv'; thev n eed to know the interplay betw een language a n d c o n te n t education; they n e e d to know the cultures a n d experiences o f th eir students; a n d thev n e e d to know how to talk a n d listen to children. Teachers can never know too m uch to teach, an d in the case of ele m entarv' school teachers w orking with second language learners this is especiallv true.
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1. A charge often given to K-5 teachers is that they m ust provide c o n ten t education to L2 learners that does not “w ater dow n” the stan d a rd curriculum . Is this an unreasonable charge? Are LI an d L2 students necessarib going to receive different coverage o f the curriculum ? "Will both groups cover the same am o u n t of curriculum ? In what wav s can the p resen tatio n of the curriculum be consid ered equallv rigorous, of equal depth? 2. Suppose von are going to teach a social stud ies unit to a group o f fifth graders who are all L2 students. You want to in tro d u ce the con cept o f the connections betw een culture, geographv. an d history as thev relate to Native A m ericans. How will von begin vour plans? Do the plans change for a m ixed g ro u p o f LI an d L2 students? Win ? Why not? 3. You have a m ixed group o f LI and L2 stu dents in vour second grade class. You have been teaching the algorithm for subtraction requiring regrouping (often referred to a* "borrowing" in the USA) for two to three weeks. T he majoritv of vour students are not able to dem onstrate that thev control the algorithm with am degree of regularity. How will vou troubleshoot what is going on in the class? Will there be problem s that exist for the L2 learners that do not exist for the LI learn ers? If so, what are thev ? W hat m ight be prob lems that both groups of students are having? 4. How can vou inco rp o rate fourth grade L2 children into a lesson that calls for them to explain in writing som ething thev cannot clearlv see? For exam ple, how can thev inves tigate and th en write an explanation of the force of gravitv ? W hat is a context that can be provided that will help with instruction and the ultim ate explanation? 5. C hildren often find it h ard to believe th at the earth is spinning. They mav sav that the world is spinning, because thev have been told that it is, but thev do not really u n d e rsta n d what that m eans. A tvpical and verv good question that often arises in th ird grade classrooms is. "Whv a re n ’t we blown off the world if it h spinning so fast?” O th e r th an the obvious.
why is this a good question? W hat can it tell the teacher ab o u t his o r h e r students? Do y o u th ink this question could com e from a L2 stu d en t who is learning the subject m atter in his o r h er second language?
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1.
Spend an h o u r or two observing children at play during recess, focusing especially on their language. Observe them playing a game or sport with which y o u arc very fam iliar (e.g., soccer, kickball, jum p rope, etc.). Have thev developed their own set of context-specific rules to au g m en t those that traditionallv accom pany the gam e/'sport? How long does it take you to understand them? If the children use higher ord er thinking skills, describe them. 2. “W hen a new m aterial is m ade bv com bining two o r m ore m aterials, it has pro p erties that are different from the original m aterials. For th at reason, a lot of different m aterials can be m ade from a small n u m b e r o f basic kinds o f m aterials” {Benchmarks for science literacy: Project 206, p. 76).Given the above b e n c h m ark on the structure of m atter for the end o f fifth grade, design an o p e n -en d ed ques tio n / problem that will in tro d u c e a unit to a fifth grade class, one which will req u ire that students learn the inform ation in cluded in the b en ch m ark in o rd e r to arrive at a solu tion. T he class for w hom y o u are designing the q u e stio n /p ro b le m has equal n um bers of L I and L2 students. 3. U sing the q u e stio n /p ro b le m you designed in n u m b e r 2 above, plan how you will m ake sure that all o f vour students u n d e rsta n d it clearly, keeping in m ind th at if students do n o t have a th o ro u g h u n d e rsta n d in g o f the p ro b le m /q u e s tio n , thev will be left out of th e ensuing activities. 4. O ne wav to help teachers ensure that thev move the class at the pace of the students rath e r than at their pace (or the book's pace) is to stop and think about how the children will receive and respond to the inform ation
an d tasks with which you present them . Using vour plans from num bers 2 and 3 above, write three short dialogues for each of the follow ing groups: a) high-achieving LI and L2 stu dents, b) m edium -achieving L I a n d L2 students, and c) low-achieving LI an d L2 stu dents. In o rd er for these dialogues to be successful, they m ust scaffold info rm atio n for the students, and n ot merely tell them inform ation or p ro n o u n ce their solutions as correct or incorrect.
FU R T H ER R EA D IN G Yvgotskv. L. 1978.
M i n d in Society: T h e D evelo p m en t o f
Processes. Cambridge: Harvard Universitv Press. This book presents manv of Yvgotskv's basic ideas in a verv interesting and readable wav. It is especially im portant for understanding Yvgotskv's notions about the mediating nature of language, wherebv knowledge begins first /«/■«personally and then nt/rr/pcrsonallv. He also presents and discusses at length his idea of the "/one of proximal development,” which is supportive of later ideas about scaffolded interaction. Cummins, J. 1979. Cognitive academic language pro ficiency. linguistic interdependence, the opti mum age question and some other matters. W o r k in g p a p e rs on b ilin g u a lis m 19: 121-129. -------- 1981. The role of primarv language develop ment in promoting success for language minority students. In S c h o o lin g a n d L a n g u a g e M in o r it y Stu d en ts: Л Theoretical Fram ew o rk (pp. 3-49). Office of Bilingual Bicultural Education, California State Department of Education. Sacramento. Los Angeles: Evaluation. Dissemination and Assessment Center, California State University. Both of these seminal works are important to read in order to understand the theory behind manv current educational practices in both bilingual and second language settings. The theory presented also forms the backdrop for more recent attempts to define and develop L2 curriculum sensitive to CALP requirements. Lemke. J. L. 1993. T a lk in g Science: L a n g u a g e , le a r n in g , a n d Values. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. H ig h e r
P s y c h o lo g ic a l
Although this book focuses on high school (rather than K-5) science classroom discourse as the context for studying the language of science, it is quite helpful in several wavs. It provides a framework for examining classroom language as it connects to the language of experts in a given content area. It also provides useful ways of looking at teacher language as a bridge between the students and the language of those who are experts in a content area. Finally, it helps define what it means to talk the language of science, with definite applications for other content areas. Ma, L. 1999. Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathe matics: Teachers' Understanding of Fundamental Mathematics in China and the United States. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. The author asked four questions surrounding four seemingly simple arithmetic problems of a group of Chinese school teachers and a group of American school teachers. The book pres ents the outcomes of her interviews with both groups of teachers, and results in a dramatic picture of the need for teachers to have a pro found understanding of fundamental mathe matics if they are going to be effective teachers. Although the book's focus is mathematics, it is verv helpful towards establishing definitions of “profound understanding," and "fundamental." Becker, J. P., and S. Shimada, eds. 1997. The Openended Approach: .4 A'ew Proposal for Teaching Mathematics. Reston, YA: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. This book presents verv helpful wavs of approaching open-ended problems for mathe matics, as well as several verv clear examples. Much of what is contained in the book is very applicable to other content areas. Schwandt, T. 1994. Constructivist, interpretivist approaches to human inquire. In N. K. Denzin and Y S. Lincoln, eds., Handbook of Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. This is a rather dense but verv informative view of constructivism, both as a theory of knowl edge, and as a research method. It summarizes the history of constructivism, and presents some of its current iterations.
ENDNO TES 1 Although space does not permit a discussion of the developmental needs of elementary school stu dents, it is a yen- important element. There are many developmental understandings about chil dren that teachers need to keep in mind when they engage their students in core content instruction. 2 We are using Becker and Shimada's (1997) defini tion of open-ended problems as those "problems that are formulated to have multiple correct answers" (p. 1 ). 3 See Carroll (1997) for the longitudinal compari son of student achievement on standardized tests for students taught via a “reform” mathematics curriculum as compared to those taught within a “traditional" framework. He also assesses the prob lem solving abilities of the two groups in wavs not specifically assessed in the standardized test for mat. In general. Carroll found that the students in the ''reform” group matched or outperformed the students in the ''traditional" group on the stan dardized tests after spending minimally two vears in the program. He also discovered that the stu dents in the "reform" group far outperformed the students in the "traditional" group on the separate problem solving assessment. Finallv. an anecdote comes from Sallv Grogg (1994 personal communication), an experienced and extremely competent third grade teacher. Ms. Grogg had spent a good two to three months on an experientiallv driven social studies unit on three Native American tribes. At the end of the unit, she gave the students the unit test from the textbook. .Although the students did all right on the test. Ms. Grogg was disappointed because she had thought they would do better. The next day, she told the students to simple write whatever they knew about Native Americans. The children wrote on and on, their knowledge seemingly inex haustible. The unit test had not been able to cap ture the true, deep understanding the children had acquired. From the official assessment point of view, the children were "adequate” in meeting the content standards for that unit, whereas in fact thev were superior in their understanding. ^ Sawada (1997, pp. 24—33) provides information on classifying, constructing, judging the appropriate ness of, and developing teaching based on prob lems in mathematics. He also includes criteria for judging students’ solutions to problems.
3 See Parker (1993, pp. 4—11) for a comparison of learning "about” mathematics with learning to "do” mathematics. b However, because of the large numbers of L2 chil dren enrolled in our schools coupled with the inabil ity of many school districts to offer bilingual education, teachers have found themselves in the position of presenting content to L2 children.
whether those children have achieved a set threshold proficiency in the L2 or not. Sheppard and his col leagues as reported in Snow found that “in sharp contrast to the widespread belief that students need intermediate proficiency to benefit from contentbased instruction, 79 percent of the programs sur veyed reported no English proficiencv requirement for participation” (Snowr 1998, pp. 244—245).
Teaching Adults1 SHARON
HILLES
• АМОКЁ
SUTTON
In "Teaching Adults,” Hilles and Sutton define adult education and briefly review its history.They give an overview of adults as second language learners and consider one program in depth to construct an adult-school teacher student, and program profile, They conclude with practical suggestions for working with this population and a review of recent research directions.
IN T R O D U C T IO N In the U nited States and Canada, the term adult education com m only refers to public education for adults that does not fall within the m ainstream c re d it/d e g re e objective program s offered by uni versities or colleges. This tvpe of ed u cation is fu n d ed prim arily bv state, local, a n d (som e tim es) federal (national) governm ents, a n d is delivered by ad u lt schools, com m unity colleges, a n d som etim es university extension divisions or o th e r units. A dult education has several purposes. First, it allows students who, for whatever reasons, were unable to com plete their elem entary o r sec o n d a ry e d u c a tio n s to g et th e ir diplom as. Second, it provides a resource for those who desire to pursue vocational train in g o r co n tinue th eir ed u cation after g rad u atin g from secondarv school o r university, b u t do n o t o p t to do this in the setting o f a college or grad u ate school. T h ird , som e adult program s allow c o n c u rre n t en ro llm en t, i.e., allow students e n ro lled in sec o n d ary schools to take ad u lt classes after school o r on w eekends, which can c o u n t towards grad uatio n o r simply provide extra in struction an d practice in specific subjects. Finally, in recen t years, the m ajor b u rd e n o f ad u lt ed u cation has b e e n teach in g English as a Second Language (ESL) to an ever-increasing im m ig ran t p o p u la tion in N o rth Am erica. For this reason, adult ed u catio n has, to a great degree, b ecom e syn onym ous with ESL. In this c h a p te r we shall con cern ourselves prim arily with teach in g adults in this setting.
A dult an d continuing education have had a long tradition in the U nited States, even though diev have waxed a n d w aned in popularity an d sta tus over the years. (For an excellent review o f the literature, see C otton 1968; M clntire 1988.) It has been suggested that perhaps the earliest exam ple of adult education in the U nited States was B enjam in F ra n k lin ’s J u n ta gro u p s in 1727 (Knowles and Klevins 1975, p. 12; M clntire 1988, p. 20), which provided weekly discussions of intel lectual subjects for adults. Josiah H o lb ro o k ’s Lvceum M ovement, begun in 1826, m ade the lec ture popular as a form at for dissem inating infor m ation, and attracted lectures by such lum inaries as Em erson and L incoln.2A ccording to P. Jo h n so n (1999), the m ovem ent targeted “young, unm ar ried m e n — bank clerks, salesmen, bookkeepers, and so fo rth — who then m ade up an astonishingly high proportion o f the population o f the new towns” and aim ed “to keep them off the streets and o u t o f the saloons, an d to p ro m o te sim ultane ously th eir com m ercial careers a n d th eir m oral w elfare” (p. 407). T he m ovem ent rapidly spread th ro u g h o u t the u n io n an d “by the e n d of the 1830s alm ost every considerable town h ad o n e ” (p. 407). Various o th er program s grew u p follow ing the Civil War, including an ab u n d an ce o f cor respondence courses, which were very p opular an d widelv accepted by the public. A ccording to Knowles and Klevins (1975), the m ain thrust of early adult education was rem edial. This began to change in 1919 w hen adult education was recog nized as “a p e rm a n e n t national necessity, an in se p a ra b le a sp ec t o f c itiz e n sh ip ” (p. 13).
Between W orld War I a n d W orld W ar II, adult ed u cation passed th ro u g h stages, from highly idealistic no tio n s characterizing it as “a m eans of brin g in g ab o u t social reform , reco n stru ctio n a n d progress" to the m ore conservative stance th a t “the country could be b e tte r served if the ideals were m odified to th at which could be ju d g ed realistic” (p. 13). A fter W orld W7ar II, governm ent a n d p h ilan th ro p ic groups began to participate in adult a n d co n tin u in g education, a n d in 1965 the B ureau o f A dult a n d Vocational E ducation was form ed as a p art o f the ET.S. Office o f Education. A ccording to M clntire (1988, p. 48), adult ed u catio n currentlv serves a diverse p o p u lation, including the following: 1.
2.
3.
4.
Students who did n o t have an o p p ortunitv to atten d school d u rin g the traditional ele m entary a n d /o r secondarv range. S tudents who d ro p p e d o u t of school. Im m igrants who are learning English as a second language, acquiring basic skills in English, preparing for citizenship, or obtain ing a high school diplom a in English. S tu d e n ts a c q u irin g v o cational tra in in g skills.
M oreover, adult learners participate in a variety o f program s. For exam ple, the breakdow n of stu dents en ro lled in B elm ont C om m unity A dult School, the largest adult school in C alifornia in term s of absolute p o p u latio n , is as follows:3 1. 2.
3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
8. 9.
E lem entarv basic skills 1,756 Secondarv basic skills 1,993 ESL 14,608 H a n d ic a p p e d /E x c e p tio n a l Adults 178 Vocational E ducation 361 P aren tin g 227 P rogram for O ld er Adults 590 C itizenship 977 H ealth E ducation 361
Non-native speakers o f English are p rese n t in all o f the above categories, th o u g h classes in ESL are often a steppingstone to o th e r adult classes. In the U n ited States, ESL classes are typ ically offered by e ith e r visa program s o r resident program s. T he fo rm er are restricted m ainly to foreign students who are in the U n ited States on
stu d e n t visas. Students p articipating in these program s m ust be p rese n t in a classroom a spec ified n u m b e r o f hours p e r week a n d m ust be m aking reasonable progress toward a degree objective in o rd e r to retain th eir visas. They are allowed up to two vears to m aster English before b eg in n in g th eir h ig h er education. M ost visa stu dents plan to retu rn to th eir respective countries after finishing th eir h ig h er ed u cation in the U n ited States. In C alifornia, visa program s are offered by colleges, universities, an d n u m ero u s private language schools. O n the o th e r h an d , the ESL program s we find in adult schools do n o t— indeed, mav n o t— enroll foreign students who h old stu d e n t visas; in fact, m any of the stu dents in resident program s are n o t in the U nited States on any tvpe o f visa at all. This category includes a n u m b e r o f b o th “eco n o m ic” a n d /o r political refugees, a n d th eir presence in ad u lt school classroom s is invariable a reflection (and often a precursor) of global events.
A D U L T LEA RN ERS W h e th e r thev are ESL students o r native speak ers, in the U n ited States o r in a n o th e r country, adults differ from “typical” o r “tra d itio n al” K-12 students in that thev brin g a great deal o f life ex perience a n d cognitive m aturity to th e class room . In m anv cases, thev have b o rn e a n d reared children, ea rn e d a living, seen life a n d d eath, and, all too often, survived extrem e polit ical a n d econom ic hardship. A dult students have a m aturin' a n d an u n d e rsta n d in g of priorities that m any younger students do not. A ccording to Knowles (1976), “a prim e characteristic of adultness is the n eed a n d capacity to be self directing" (p. 181). In o th e r words, adults will, to som e extent, “direct” th e ir own lea rn in g agen das. If the learn in g en v iro n m en t does n o t to som e degree m atch cultural expectations a n d perceived needs, the self-direction may take the form o f challenging the tea c h e r o r syllabus in class, of filtering o u t w hat they perceive as nonessential, o f simply leaving the class a n d seeking some o th er way o f learning, or of aban doning the enterprise altogether. This difference betw een adult and child learners is so crucial that
Knowles a n d Klevins (1975) m aintain th a t the term pedagogy should n o t apply to adults becatise th e w ord “taken literally from its roots m eans the leading o f ch ild ren , the im plication th e re o f being th at the le a rn e r is guided w ithin a ra th e r rigid system. A basic pro b lem with pedagogy is th at m ost teachers have know n onlv how to teach adults as if they were c h ild re n ” (p. 14). Knowles and Klevins argue that “a m ore explicit an d realistic term which may be applied to adult education is andragogy. From its root, it denotes the leading of m an; or the art or science o f help ing adults learn” (p. 14). T hough their proposed term has never really caught on in the literature, their point is well taken. W ithout question there are num erous differences betw een adults and children; m uch too frequently, however, an inex perienced adult ESL teacher mav interact with his or h er students as if they were children, perhaps because o f their lim ited English proficiency The results are often a disastrous paternalistic attitude, one svmptom of which can be babv talk. At the very least, this presents an unnatural, not to m en tion insulting, m odel o f spoken English when addressed to adults. In addition to being m ature and self-directed, adult learners are often, of necessity, m ore focused. M clntire (1988) points out that “because time is such a valuable commodity , participating in edu cational program s is often a personal sacrifice. Typically, adults can devote onlv lim ited time to th eir educational endeavors, which often trans lates into th eir being d edicated students who take learn in g seriously” (p. 47). A ccording to M c ln tire ’s survey, approxim ately three-quarters o f ad u lt ESL students work at a jo b 40 hours or m o re p e r w eek — a d e d ic a te d a n d focused group, indeed. Adult learners are also psychologically vul nerable, perhaps in a wav that children are not, precisely because they are adults and have already form ed a strong sense of who thev are. Thev have a great deal invested in their identities as profi cient speakers of their first language. In h e r ethno graphic study of adults learning Welsh as a second language, Trosset (1986) found that these learners often experienced anom ie, which L am bert et al. defined as “the feelings of social uncertainty or dissatisfaction which characterize n ot only the j
socially unattached person b u t also, it appears, the bilingual o r even the serious stu d e n t o f a second language an d c u ltu re ” (1963, pp. 38-39 cited in Trosset, p. 183). In h e r study Trosset also fo u n d th at “the process o f learn in g a new language tem porarily takes awav p e o p le ’s ability to talk, a n d the resu ltan t sense o f inadequacy leads th em to experience sh am e” (p.184). She points o ut th at Stengel h ad already observed som e 40 years earlier th at “speech is an accom plishm ent o f the ego . . . A cquiring a new language in adult life is an anachronism an d m any p eo p le c a n n o t easily tolerate the infantile situ atio n ” (Stengel 1930, p. 475-476, cited in Trosset, p.184). Trosset fu rth e r notes that m any o f the adult learners she observed e x p erien ced n o t only a sense o f inadequacy, b u t also fear of failure as well as fear of success, all o f which seem ed to be intim ately associated with feelings o f sham e. In co n n ectio n with Trosset’s observations, it is p a r ticularly in te restin g to n o te th a t S ch u m an n (1997) rep o rts that “th ere is research th at shows th at sham e experiences g en erate cortisol in the boclv, which interferes with c o g n itio n ” (p.1551. A n o th er characteristic th at seem s to set apart adults learners is the en o rm o u s variability that they display in th eir goals and reasons for tackling a second language. O n e class with w hich we are fam iliar com prised alm ost entirely K orean g ran d p a re n ts who d id n ’t particularly want to speak English, b u t w anted very m uch to u n d e rs ta n d th e ir g ra n d c h ild re n . We have know n o th e r learners who w anted som e sort of com m unicative system but w ere n o t particularly co n cern ed with gram m atical accuracy. Still others felt that language w ithout gram m atical correct ness wTas no language at all. A nother group of adult EFL students we m et were interested in studying English because at the tim e studying English was a fashionable hobby, b u t they were n o t at all in terested in speaking, reading, writ ing, o r u n d e rsta n d in g English. Blev-Vroman (1988) points out that “som e develop ju st the sub p art of foreign language co m p eten ce neces sary to wait on tables o r to lecture in philosophy; others mav becom e skilled at cocktail party story telling. Some have good p ronunciation but prim itive gram m ar. Some lay great im portance on vocabulary size. Som e work at passing for a native
speaker; others seem p roud of their foreignness ( T h e Charles Boyer p h en o m e n o n ')" (p. 21). Adults have num erous reasons for studying a sec ond or foreign language (L2), and this variety of reasons presents its own challenges to the teacher. Variability also characterizes the outcom e o f adult foreign language learn in g endeavors, th o u g h native-like proficiency in the L2 is p ro b ably unlikely.4 As Blev-Yroman (1988) points out, “ [a]m o n g adults, th ere is substantial varia tion in degree of success, even when age, expo sure, instruction, a n d so forth are held constant. A dults n o t only generally do n o t succeed, thev also fail to different deg rees” (p. 20). This som e w hat bleak prognosis is not m ean t to discourage the adult ESL/EFL teacher or to be construed as suggesting that adult school teachers ought not aim for target-like proficiency in their students; rather, it is m eant to tem per expectations so that they are realistic and so that teachers do not dem an d from their students as a whole the u n rea sonable goal of native-like proficiency. We hasten to add that in discussions such as this we feel it is im portant to rem em ber that social science statis tics can predict the behavior o f a group, but cer tainly n ot the behavior of anv one particular individual w ithin that group. E ven- stu d e n t deserves our best efforts and each new class we teach may very well be the one that houses an individual who will learn English to near native speaker proficiency. Finally, adult learners are most often volun tary learners. Lhilike their vounger counterparts, who are required bv law or bv their parents to be in school until a particular age, adult learners are in school because thev want to be, a desire which is alm ost alwavs inconvenient and often inter ru p te d by family and job responsibilities a n d com m itm ents. As a result, adult learners ten d to have little patience with classes which they perceive are n o t furth erin g their own educational agendas.
A T Y P IC A L A D U L T S C H O O L S E T T IN G P art of the challenge o f teaching ad u lt school ESL is the diversity. Iwataki (1981) describes the typical ad u lt ESL classroom as follows:
Picture a classroom o f som e 30 or m ore students, ranging in age from 18-80. T he learners com e from h e t ero g en eo u s language a n d experiential b a c k g ro u n d s . . . this is a voluntary, not a captive audience, fo u n d in churches, recreation centers, vacant elem entary o r secondary school bungalow s, or classrooms unoccupied at night (p. 24). A dult school classes h aven't changed m uch since Iw ataki’s original description. H eterogeneous classes p o p u lated bv n o n tra d itio n al students in nontraditional venues are certainly characteristic of the adult school classroom, a n d p art of itunique challenge. This notw ithstanding, we car. speak of at least a statistically typical ad u lt ESL stu d e n t a n d classroom in each n e ig h b o rh o o d Let us co n sid er B elm ont C om m unity Aduk School once again as a case in point. T he typical B elm ont stu d en t is a single, m ale Hispanic, betw een the ages of 21 an d 29, who is em ployee full tim e a n d has betw een a sixth-grade a n d a secondary school education. At one tim e, this student w ould have been en ro lled in a large class (often over 50 students) because large classes were once characteristic o f m any adult schools. Toclav, however, given the current budget, he is studying English in a class of betw een 30 and 35 students. O u r ty pical ESL student feels th at his teachers are ''excellent." an d that th ere is ade quate o p p ortunity for him to get individual help from them . Even th o u g h classes are currently o f a m ore m anageable size th an thev have traditionally been, m any seasoned teachers a n d adm inistra tors fear th at class size will increase dram atically if bud g et cuts are im plem ented. In the Los Angeles Lrinfied School District, an adult school class m ust be closed w hen it ceases to be costeffective, regardless o f w h eth er it starts o u t with 30 students o r 55. A ttrition is a natu ral p h e n o m e n o n in adult school; th erefo re, m aintaining class n um bers is im p o rtan t. O rganized a n d p re p a re d teachers have little trouble. Less experi en ced teachers, however, som etim es find this particularly challenging. It has been o u r experi ence that new ESL teachers often begin their adult school assignm ent with the reasonable
expectation that students com e to school to learn: soon thev notice, however, that students enjoy the social aspect o f adnlt education as well. For m am students, adnlt school is not only a place to learn, bnt also a place to get together with friends, catch up on the latest gossip, establish new relation ships, and even form an d n u rtu re rom ances. Unfortunately, new teachers som etim es find the social aspect of school m ore salient than the edu cational, and thev mistakenly assum e that stu dents are m ore highly m otivated by social than bv educational goals. As a result, som e teachers do not take their adult education teaching responsi bilities seriously, but rath er trv to provide an en tertain in g social atm osphere in o rd er to m ain tain class num bers. Perhaps a word o f caution based on years of experience m ight help in m ain taining class size: We h a te found that students atten d night school as long as thev perceive that thev are learning. Students expect teachers to be professional, knowledgeable, and prepared. No m atter how entertaining or charm ing the teacher ntav be, and no m atter how m uch students mav like a teacher, thev can always have m ore fun at hom e. W hen the teacher is seen as incom petent or u n p rep ared , and when perceived learning ceases, so does attendance. A dult school is also im p o rta n t in a n o th e r sense. In his book on "Am erica's u n d e rp re p ared, " Rose (1989) recounts how his adult ESL students w anted to talk to th eir ch ild ren 's teach ers, “but felt funnv about seeing the teach er for th eir English was so bad an d . . . well . . . who were thev to presum e to talk to the teach er about what she does?" (p. 130). T he teaching supervisor p o in te d out to Rose and his col leagues that th eir ESL classes w ere b ringing p ar ents "com fortably into the schools, breaking dow n som e of the in tim idating barriers th at tra ditionally keep them away, distant from the places w here th eir kids were learn in g how? to read an d write" a n d that " th e re ’s m ore to look for h e re than ju st an increase in vocabulary” (p. 131). All too often we forget that m any o f o u r students are parents, or will be parents in the n e a r future. Perhaps school was inaccessible to them in their native lands, but it will be a central and not necessarily an altogether pleasant experience for their children. It is vital for all con cern ed that
im m igrant parents be b ro u g h t “com fortably into the schools” an d adult ESE classes can help accom plish this im p o rtan t social goal. Students in a particular com m unity adult school will usually reflect the (changing) ethnicity of the neighborhood. As im m igrant populations tend to concentrate in particular areas and adult schools draw from the surrounding community, it is not unusual to see different groups reflected in different schools. B elm ont C om m unity A dult School is no exception. Its m ain cam pus student body (90 percent Hispanic, 4 percent Am erican Indian or Alaska native, 3 percen t Asian or Pacific Islander, 3 percent Black, not of Hispanic origin) is a m icrocosm of the surrounding neighborhood. At the branch locations, these num bers go up or down slightly, reflecting the im m ediate com m u nity. B elm ont has an active stu d en t bod}' of approximately 8.300 at anv one given time, with an enrollm ent of about 27,500 over the course o f an academ ic year: about 70 percent o f its students are enrolled in ESE classes.
AD U LT SC H O O LTE A C H E R S Because B elm ont C om m unity A dult School is so large, it offers 167 day a n d n ig h t classes in a variety of locations, including the m ain cam pus, th re e m ajor branches, retire m e n t hom es, rec re ation centers, churches an d synagogues, conva lescent hospitals, com m unity centers, centers for the h an d icap p ed , businesses, a n d missions an d hom eless centers. T hese classes are staffed bv 109 teachers, 78 p e rc e n t o f w hom are p a rt tim ers, w orking 10 hours o r less each week. In fact, the m ajority o f adult teachers in the Los Angeles U nified School District fall into the parttim e category. This m akes th em ineligible for benefits th ro u g h th eir ad u lt school assignm ent. T h e ty pical adult ESL tea c h e r is fem ale an d has a b achelor's degree. H e r ad u lt school assign m en t is 6-12 hours p e r week. A lthough she teaches ESL at night, she usually has day em ploy m en t outside o f the ad u lt ESL ed ucational field. She participates in district-sponsored workshops and in-service train in g a n d belongs to at least one professional organization, th o u g h n o t nec essarily one related to ESL teaching. A ccording
to H u rst (1985), ESL teachers in general have g o o d ra p p o rt with th e ir stu d en ts, a n d are rem arkably a ttu n e d to w hat thev perceive to be th eir stu d en ts' needs an d aspirations. Thev do not, however, tvpicallv read professional jour nals or rec e n t publications on second language acquisition, ESL pedagogy, or m ethodology or have specialized train in g (such as a m aster’s d eg ree o r a certificate in teaching ESL). Iwataki (1981) warns that “those who teach ESL to adults n e e d to be m ade o f sturdy stock. They n e e d special qualities o f un d erstan d in g , cu ltu ral sensitivity, adaptability, stam ina and resourcefulness to help them cope with the real ities of the ad u lt ESL classroom . F u rth erm o re, they n e e d to possess full co m m an d an d knowl edge of the subject a re a — the English language" (p. 24). Due to the c u rre n t cred en tialin g p ro ce dures in C alifornia, Iw ataki’s last p o in t (full co m m an d an d know ledge o f the English lan guage) is p ro b ab ly th e typical a d u lt ESL te a c h e r’s weakest area. T he state requires simple a b a c c a la u re a te w ith 20 se m e ste r units in E nglish fo r th e A dult D esig n ated Subjects C red en tial in ESL. Individual districts are th en allowed to set up th eir own specific standards for ESL teaching. Virtually anv teach er with a K-12 credential, regardless o f area, is “credentiallv" qualified to teach ESL. T he Los Angeles L'nified School District requires onlv a m inim um o f 8 sem ester units in English an d 12 units in anv for eign language, linguistics, o r speech to obtain a tem porary credential to teach ESL. No form al tra in in g in teaching ESL is required, which mav be why m ost adult ESL teachers do n o t have this type o f p rep aratio n . This profile, of course, is changing as m ore a n d m ore universities p ro duce ESL teaching professionals who e n te r the ranks o f ad u lt education. H u rst’s com m ent regarding the unusual sensitivity of ESL teachers should com e as no surprise. A cco rd in g to Bley-Vroman (1988), “ [sjince the early seventies, beginning with the work o f G a rd n er and L am bert (1972), num erous em pirical studies have shown significant correla tions betw een affective factors an d [language] p ro ficien cy ” (p. 24). C o m m o n w isdom has always b e e n th at affective factors are m ore im p o rta n t in adult second language learning
th an in anv o th e r tvpe o f learning. However. S chum ann (1997) in his stnclv o f the n e u ro b io l ogy o f affect5 in sustained d e e p learning, con clu d ed th at affect a n d cognition are inseparable a n d th at positive affective assessm ent is essential in o rd e r for learning to take place. Such an assessm ent causes biochem icals to be released in th e b rain th at facilitate cognition. Negative assessm ent has ju st the opposite effect; it blocks learning. In o th e r words, positive assessm ent of the stim uli associated with anv sustained deep le a rn in g (in c lu d in g le a rn in g a seco n d lan guage) is vital. O n the o th e r h an d , the kinds of factors that will be appraised as positive are highly individual, th o u g h th ere mav be shared tendencies am ong m em bers of the same cultural group. Schum ann's suggestion, that m em bers of a particular cultural group mav tend to appraise a classroom in sim ilar wavs (which mav be dif ferent from the appraisal tendencies o f individu als from a n o th e r culture) seems to resonate with ou r experience in the classroom. In general, we have found that some students are m ore com fortable with p e e r interaction an d a noise level which m ight not be acceptable to o th er ESL learners. We have also fo u n d that for some learners it appears th at p e e r in teractio n is the p re fe rre d m eth o d o f co n stru ctin g m eaning, while for o thers the p refe rre d m eth o d is taking m eaning directly from a p rin te d source. Some students p refer verbal input. This variety in stim ulus appraisal suggests to us that accom m odat ing as m anv indiv idual an d cultural preferences as possible is a logical way to offer the greatest n u m b e r o f students the best chance at a positive affective appraisal of the stim uli. This accom m o dation could be realized th ro u g h the teach er providing bim odal input, both w ritten an d spo ken. or allowing students som e latitude to nego tiate m ea n in g am o n g them selves, especially w hen a cultural o r individual preference for doing so is clear. Certainly learning strategies and preferences (see O xford's c h ap ter in this volum e) should be taken into account w henever possible. However, w?e hasten to add that stimulus appraisal is exceedingly com plex and that it is impossible for any teacher to conduct a classroom in such a wav that every student will appraise it positively every time. Even twins have sufficiently
different life experiences to appraise stimuli dif ferently. Because cognition and affect are so inter twined, S chum ann has concluded that that we are all on individual affective/cognitive trajectories as second language learners. This could account for the great variabilitv in second language learning so well do cu m en ted in the literature. A logical pedagogical conclusion of S c h u m a n n ’s work resonates with what m am professionals in the field have argued for decades: We n eed to t a n our approach in ord er to m eet the needs of as manv students as possible. In anv case, warmth, compassion, empathy, and kindness seem to be constant personal qualities in good ESL teachers, along with a keen ability to observe and respond.
U N D ER E ST IM A TIN G ESL S T U D E N T S Because we often asstime that em otional and intellectual satisfactions are incom patible (and the em o tio n al satisfaction in teach in g adult school is legendary am ong ESL professionals), and p erhaps because our students frequentlv have a lim ited form al education, we often tend to u n d erestim ate the ESL students who populate our adult school classrooms. It is widelv assum ed that adult school students have little interest in or ap titu d e for "m ore academ ic" approaches to ESL, a n d should be tau g h t "the wav children learn "— by speaking, with little em phasis at first on read in g an d writing. Instruction in gram m ar should be avoided in favor o f m ore practical "survival E nglish"— learn in g how to ride a bus or fill out a jo b application. To o u r know ledge th ere is no evidence su p p o rtin g the assertion either that adult school students do n o t have the interest o r abilitv to m aster ESL th ro u g h a m ore sophisticated ap p ro ach or that adults learn a second language the wav th at c h ild ren do. Moreover, students routinelv com plain ab o u t teachers who do n o t have an easily identifiable direction in th eir p rogram or syllabus. O u r expe rience has been that it is essential for adult stu dents to feel that thev are m aking progress; often this progress translates into m oving from one gram m atical concept to an o th e r that logicallv
seem s to follow. M oreover, m any students expect form al gram m ar in struction to be a part of lan guage learning, regardless o f w h e th e r o r n o t thet' have a particu lar ap titu d e for gram m ar study, a n d thev suspect in co m p eten ce of any tea c h e r who c an n o t provide at least m inim al gram m atical explanations. Most students who enroll in an adult school already possess a vast storehouse of knowledge. They frequently arrive in this countiv with an extensive netw ork o f family and friends who have come before them . The}’ are quickly tutored in how to take a bus, use the laundrom at, m ake a call from a pay phone, and but1 a m oney order. A ccording to M clntire (1988), m ost adult school students h a te jobs; moreover, they get those jobs th rough friends, or through sheer luck, rather than through reading newspaper ads or using other m ore conventional job-seeking avenues. Most of them are "surviting," and doing it quite well. O ne colleague p o in te d o u t the irony o f teaching "survival” English onlv (and the key w ord h e re is onh). W hen she m ade a factual mis take in h e r lesson on taking the bus in Los Angeles, several of h e r students prom ptly cor rected her. At that point she realized th a t she had been teaching som ething about which she h a d no practical, first-hand know ledge. She h ad never b een on a bus in Los Angeles. O n the o th e r h and, m ost of h e r students h ad n o t onlv com e to school bv bus th a t night, they also knew, from experience, how to use the bus to get to work, to the park, to the house o f a friend, or to a specialty shop in the San F e rn an d o Valley. T he students accepted the superfluous lesson with grace. As teachers we w ould all do well to accept a lesson from them with equal grace: d o n ’t und erestim ate adult school students. T he point h ere is not that survival English has no place in the ESL classroom , for o f course it does; it is p art o f the adult ESL te a c h e r’s responsibility to Leach skills that will help students "access the system .” These kinds of skills are essential. T hat which has no place in the ESI, classroom is th e p a te r nalistic assum ption th at students are capable of n o th in g else. We have fo u n d th a t basic science, m ath, a n d social science concepts m ake excel lent vehicles for gram m ar, conversation, p ro nu n ciatio n . reading, an d writing lessons. We can
reaso n ab ly p re d ic t th a t m ost s tu d e n ts will appraise “learn in g m o re ” m ore positively than “learn in g less.” For som e excellent suggestions on how to p u t c o n te n t back in the ESL class room , see Snow’s c h a p te r in this volum e a n d Snow a n d B rinton (1997). Follow ing F reire (1970a, 1970b), in spirit if not in letter, a n d E yring’s a n d W einstein’s chapters in this volum e, m any ESL professionals have fo u n d th a t th eir students them selves an d th eir concerns provide valid, relevant, and perhaps even essential con te n t for lessons. For exam ple, the tem porary statew ide sta te -fu n d e d C om m u n ity Based English T raining P rogram (СВЕТ) teaches p ar ents at B elm ont the skills an d c o n te n t necessary to help th eir ch ild ren with hom ew ork. We think this m ight be a w onderful base for a series of ESL lessons if o u r students have school-aged children. T he Secretary o f Labor's Com m ission o n Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) 1991, a re p o rt on skills and com petencies req u ired in the w orkplace by all workers, from top m anage m e n t down, is also an excellent source of ele m ents a ro u n d which to organize lessons; it can also serve as a vehicle for m anv parts of a class room lesson (see G rognet 1997 an d sources cited th ere in ). SCANS objectives have becom e so p o p ular th at m any ESL texts are notv in co rp o ratin g the SCANS skills an d com petencies into their scope a n d sequence. T he SCANS d o cu m en t is probably a n o th e r one o f those essential refer ences for the adult ESL teacher in that its skills a n d com petencies can (and perhaps should) be in co rp o rated into virtuallv anv lesson. As for the second assum ption m en tio n e d above reg ard in g the n a tu re o f ad u lt second lan guage learning, th ere is no em pirical evidence th at adults learn a second language the way chil d re n learn a first. In d eed , th ere is com pelling anecdotal, logical, a n d em pirical evidence th at this is n o t the case.1’ Virtually all research on child first language learn in g tells us th a t overt in struction an d e rro r co rrectio n is o f no value in learn in g a first language, but is beneficial to b o th adults an d children in learn in g a second language (Long 1983), which is good news for those o f us who have chosen teaching ESL as our profession.
A D U L T S C H O O L PROGRAM S V ER SU S T R A D IT IO N A L PROGRAM S Because o f the nature of adult learners outlined earlier, adult schools have traditionallv been m ore responsive to students' needs than o th er educa tional program s have been, and the courses thev offer reflect the changing concerns and needs of the com m unity (M clntire 1988). Adult classes usually m eet at night, and often on Saturdays. E x trao rd in ary m easures mav also be taken. D uring the 1986-87 academ ic year, over 30,000 students were tu rn e d away from ESL classes in the Los Angeles area because th ere were no funds for teachers, classroom s, etc. However. “ [i]n response to a request from the B oard of E ducation to provide ESL instruction to persons who could not be accom m odated in overcrowded classrooms." the Los Angeles U nified School District's adult education division pro d u ced an 80-lesson ESL series for television (Figueroa et al. 1988). In the 1988-89 academ ic vear, in o rd er to m eet the req u irem en ts o f am nesty students, a n u m b e r o f classes in the Los Angeles LTnified School District were co n d u c te d literallv aro u n d the clock at Ev ans C om m unity Adult School. The last class of the clav m et from 9:00 p.m . to m idnight. T he first class was from m idnight to 2:00 a .m ., and so on th ro u g h o u t the dav and night. Both sce narios are u n u su al, b ut thev illustrate how responsive adult schools can be to u rg en t and u n a n tic ip a ted stu d en t needs. A nother wav in which adult schools differ from traditional schools in reflecting com m unity needs is open enrollm ent, a pro ced u re that has grown out of the reality o f the constant change and flux characteristic o f im m igrant com m unities in the Southwest. O p en enrollm ent or entry7 allows students to enroll in and then leave a class at anv time d u ring the term , up to the last week of class. This is necessary because there are always new arrivals and sudden departures in any im m i grant community. Jo b schedules also change, m ak ing it necessary for students to switch from night to dav classes, or vice versa. T he attrition rate is high, vet it is interesting to note that students surveyed by M clntire identified changing job
or family responsibilities rather than educational dissatisfaction as the reason for their having left school (M clntire, personal com m unication). As a result of these and o th e r factors, the com position of anv one ESI. class constantly changes. T he challenge, o f course, is to m aintain class stan dards and retain students while accom m odatingо a constant stream o f new students, som e of whom have never b e e n in school before. In response to op en enro llm en t, som e schools have a m ultilevel "h o lding” class w hich accepts all newcom ers, tests them , an d teaches basic skills until an o p e n in g is available at the ap p ro p riate level. Most F.SL teachers find constant newcom ers part of the adult school challenge; regular and consistent review, in greater d e p th than m ight be expected in a class w ithout open enrollm ent, is one solution. C ontrary to what one m ight expect, such review is alwavs welcom ed bv the veteran stu dents and goes a long wav toward orienting new ones. Some teachers also assign stu d e n t “hosts” or “b u d d ies” to help the new com ers find their way a ro u n d the school and to explain classroom p ro c e d u re s, school rules, a n d schedules. Surprisingly en o u g h , according to m am adult ESL teachers, open e n ro llm en t is m ore o f a problem in principle than in fact, and once accepted bv the tea c h e r as a variable which he or she has to factor into classroom operations, it is of little consequence. This notw ithstanding. Kit Bell, C o o rd in a to r o f th e A dult ESL a n d C itizenship p ro g ra m s for th e Los A ngeles U nified School District, has com m ented. "O pen e n ro llm en t is notv being challenged in som e dis tricts th ro u g h o u t the state. It is not m an d ated bv the state an d ex p erim ental 'm an ag ed enroll m e n t’ program s are ex p eriencing great success" (personal com m unication, 7 /2 4 /0 0 ).
Multilevel Classes Multilevel classes are also a challenge in ad u lt ESL, especially at b ran ch locations. A branch is a site which is responsible to an d adm inistered by a central school, but which typically has only one or two classes, th o u g h of course it can have m any m ore. B ranches are often located in m akeshift schoolroom s in churches, com m unity centers,
libraries, or som etim es even in hospitals o r busi nesses th ro u g h o u t th e com m unity, to m ake classes accessible a n d convenient, particularly for those who m ight live som e distance from the m ain school o r wrh o m ight find it difficult or even im possible to a tte n d classes at the m ain school for anv n u m b e r o f reasons. T h ere are fre quently n o t e n o u g h students at a b ran c h loca tion to su p p o rt an en tire class at any one level. T h erefo re, a tea c h e r may have a single class in which th ere are very advanced students as well as som e beginners who are u n ab le to write th eir own nam es. In m an) ways, b ran ch locations are m uch like the old one-room schoolhouse, which was once typical of the rural U n ited States. T h e task of teaching such a diverse g ro u p to speak English m ight seem im possible, b u t the teachers we have talked to, all e x p erien ced in teaching m ultilevel classes, say' they w ould never give up th eir assignm ents for m ore traditional ones. Thev all agree th at tim ing a n d p lan n in g are the m ost im p o rtan t factors in h a n d lin g a m ultilevel class. T he first step is to divide students into m ore or less hom o g en eo u s groups. Two o r th ree groups are usual. T he second task is to structure activities so that the teach er can sp en d equal tim e with each group. For exam ple, if the class can be divided into th ree g ro u p s— beginning, in te rm e d ia te , a n d advanced — th e classroom m an ag em en t plan m ight look so m ething like the one in Figure 1 on the nex t page. N otice th at the o p e n in g activity has the whole class together. T he activity m ight include learn in g vocabulary items, p ro n u n cia tio n prac tice, o r learn in g a p o p u lar song o r a folk song. These are all activities in which students with a wide range o f proficiencies can participate on a m ore o r less equal footing. An o p e n in g activity that is an old standby of ESL teachers is bringing in a shoe box co n taining several item s from a ro u n d the house. Som etim es the tea c h e r brings item s from a p a rticu la r ro o m , such as th e kitchen (e.g.. a knife, fork, can opener, spatula, saucer, saucepan, an d w ooden sp o o n ). T he tea c h e r carries the box a ro u n d the room and various students are allowed to rem ove an item w ithout looking, w hich m akes the activity fun a n d holds the in terest o f the students. O nce all
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Figure I. Classroom Management Plan for a Multilevel Class
of the item s are distributed, each stu d e n t hold ing an item is asked to stand an d tell the class w hat he or she has. If the stu d e n t c an 't answer, the tea c h e r elicits h elp from the entire class. If n o one in th e class knot vs, the teach er provides the lexical item . A fter the p ro p e r term has been elicited, it is w ritten on the board, a n d the teacher m odels the pro n u n ciatio n several times. H e or she then allows students to repeat bv asking for the nam e o f the item being held bv their class m ate. As the list of items progresses and becom es longer, the teacher reviews them frequentlv and random ly, asking the student holding the item to stand up as the item is called. T he task becom es m ore and m ore lively as the teacher calls off items m ore quickly and students stand up and sit down, often at the en couragem ent of their classmates. For variety7, a student may volunteer to com e to the front o f the room and p ro n o u n ce and iden tify each of the objects. It is suggested that items be reviewed frequently, and after items from the house are exhausted, including cleaning supplies, teachers may substitute items from business, chil d re n ’s small toy animals, or anything else relevant to the students. After the opening acti\ity, students divide into groups according to level. It is essential that students know exactly what to do at this point. They n e e d to know w here in the room to go and exactly what activity to begin with. Early training is the key to success at this p o in t because teachers have found that tim e spent directing students to their p ro p er groups d u ring the first few days of class is tim e well invested an d results in sm ooth transitions later. A schedule o f class activities for
each g roup should be posted in each group area. A dhere stringentlv to the schedule for the first few weeks, and it will becom e autom atic for the students. It is not unusual for a tea c h e r to take a kitchen tim er to class an d set it for each activity. Som e have watches with alarm clocks, an d som e brin g in bedside alarm clocks. O nce the ro u tin e has b een established, students move from one station to the next with surprising effi ciency an d veteran students can help new stu dents get used to the routine. A ccustom ing students to transitioning betw een activities is crucial if this m odel is to work, but it can be verv challenging. D ep en d in g on th eir cultural sense o f tim e, som e students mav find p u n c tu a tin g th eir experiences in this wav to be bizarre and deeplv arb itrary Pedagogically the idea b e h in d such a tim etable is that all students spend opening and closing time with the teacher, and one-third or one-half of the rem aining time (depending on the n u m b er of groups) in teacher-clirected acthities. Each teacher-directed lesson leads to individual desk work, which can then move naturallv into com m unicative group work. Advanced students mav be able to work from written instructions, but m ost students wall n e e d verbal instructions supplied d u rin g the teacher-clirected lesson, which can be reinforced by the posted schedule. Som etim es advanced students can also help beginning students, u n d e r teacher supervision. Teachers agree that multilevel classrooms are challenging b u t definitely m anageable, as long as the students are properly grouped and sufficient time is devoted to learning the class routine.
Testing M anaging a m ultilevel class req u ires a valid a n d reliable p lac e m e n t in stru m e n t (see C o h en 's c h a p te r in this volum e). F requently textbooks have placem en t exam s in the te a c h e r’s guide th at reflect the scope an d sequence o f th e text. It is also very likely th at the school will have some sort o f placem en t in strum ent. In schools in which m ultilevel g ro u p in g is n o t dictated bv necessity, it is probably m ost efficacious to place students with others o f like proficiency. At B elm ont, for exam ple, all e n te rin g stu dents take a p lacem ent test. In the u p p e r levels, thev are tracked according to th eir language strengths a n d deficiencies. They are offered classes in gram m ar, reading, listening, speaking, w riting, a n d co m p u te r-b a se d in stru ctio n . S tudents take two classes per night. Those who are weak in gram m ar but strong in reading m ight take two gram m ar classes, or a reading class at one level and a gram m ar class at a lower level. Over the course of several years, this system changed the structure of the school's FSL pro gram from a pyram id configuration, with the majority of students at the lower levels, to a colum nar configuration. In o th er words, the attri tion rate decreased as m ore an d m ore students m oved on to the u p p e r levels and fewer students d ro p p ed out. T he school also developed exit tests for each level so that students with like pro ficiency ten d ed to rem ain grouped. It is often felt (erroneously, we think) that actual testing is so stressful that it will cause students to ab andon classes. T he B elm ont ex perience seem s to ind i cate otherw ise. O bservation suggests th a t stu dents expect a n d respect form al testing a n d are challenged ra th e r th an overw helm ed by the process. In fact, it is not unusual for a tten d an ce to be particularly high on nights d u rin g which testing is scheduled, or for som e students to insist on rem ain in g in a level, regardless of test results, until thev m eet th eir own criteria for passing the course. T h e fact th at students a p p re ciate h o n est a n d valid testing should com e as no surprise a n d is very m uch in keeping with the adult learn er profile o u tlined earlier. O f course, it is certainly q u estionable, on the face of it, w hether a paper-and-pencil test is a valid m easure
o f language at all. Surely a com m unicative test (Wesche 1987) w ould be closer to the ideal. U n fo rtu n ately , s h e e r n u m b e rs d isco u rag e a direct, com m unicative test in m ost schools. (See Stovnoff 1996 for a helpful review of th ree good testing books.) Currently, all California adult schools have m oved over to com petencv-based program s, which in theory should require com petencybased exams. M clntire (1988, p. 15) defines com petencv-based education as “[cju rricu lu m based on pred eterm in ed com petencies identified as necessary' for adults to function successfully. Students m ust dem onstrate mastery' of these com petencies successfully to com plete a class or a pro g ram .” T he idea, th en , is that a stu d en t m ight be req u ired to be able to enroll his o r h e r child in school, write a letter o f excuse to the teacher, rep o rt the child's h ealth an d im m unization his tory, a n d sim ilar details in o rd e r to pass a unit. A ccording to M clntire, “An underlying p h ilo sophical ten e t of com petency based ed u catio n is the belief that a student m ust achieve skills rath e r than 'earn credits.’ Thus adults mat' a tten d a class for a short or for an extended p eriod of tim e in o rd er to satisfactorily dem onstrate the attainm ent of com petencies . . . Success is m easured in the m asterv of specific com petencies rath e r than through hours o f attendance, com m only referred to as ‘seat tim e’” (p. 37). T he state of California has specified the proficiencies and outcom es for each level of ESL (frequently called the model standards) in the English-as-a-Second Language Model Standards for Adult Education Programs (1992). This do cu m en t (or the appropriate equivalent) is vital for teachers who are teaching in a school with m andated m odel standards. Programs, assessment, place m ent. funding, and accreditation in such a system will all most likelv be tied to the relevant docu m ent and to dem onstrable com pliance with it. At first blush it mav seem that this takes away from the autonom y and creativity o f the individual teacher; based on our experience, however, we argue that teachers can still be autonom ous and creative, an d that m odel standards simply help to focus w here the teacher’s autonom y and creativ ity can be exercised. T he m odel standards assure continuity for the students as yvell as provide
continuity ancl d irection for new teachers. For e x p e rie n c e d teach ers, th e m o d el sta n d a rd s m ake “levels of proficiency" com petencies and outcom es sufficiently explicit that teachers can m ore accurately select from or e x p an d th eir rep e rto ire o f pedagogical m aterials and strate gies. At the same tim e, the language in the doc u m e n t is sufficiently generic to allow teachers to exercise as m uch o r as little in d e p e n d e n c e and creativity as they are com fortable with, while assuring d irection an d benchm arks of progress for the student. In C alifornia, the m odel stan dards are based on the in p u t o f literally th o u sands o f practicing teachers and adm inistrators. As a result, the outcom es and com petencies are realistic a n d g ro u n d e d in practice. Thus far. they have b een well received and ap p ear to benefit both students and teachers.
The Value o f Adult Education T he w orkplace is vitally im portant for o u r stu dents, an d often the adult EST class has to take a back seat to our students' w orking overtim e or train in g for a new jo b . As Iwataki (1981) points out, ad u lt ESL students have as their fram e of reference “n ot the school but their families, jobs, th eir outside responsibilities" (p. 24). Adult ESL teachers n e e d to be aware o f the im p o r tance o f family an d econom ic factors in the lives o f th eir students. For m any adult students, eco nom ic upw ard m obility will be achieved, if not bv them , bv fu tu re generations. If thee learn e n o u g h English to survive, th eir children a n d g ran d c h ild re n will m ost likely be able to take advantage of the upw ard m obility that education can bring. Even th o u g h not all of o u r students will becom e rich as a result of th eir adult ESL classes, th ere are by-products o f education which m ost o f o u r students routinely do experience that n e e d to be considered. In addition to brin g ing students “com fortably into the classroom ," adult schools, in m am cases, are the first positive co ntact im m igrants have with A m erican social institutions. Increased self-esteem, cultural aware ness, tolerance, and a positive affective stance toward Am erican schools and teachers are im por tant e p ip h en o m en a of adult ESL classes, and
th eir significance can n o t be overstated. Both the im m igrant com m unity a n d the com m unity at large benefit greatly from such effects, even if the students do not im m ediately achieve great wealth an d native-like m astery o f English.
Future Trends W ithout question, state-m andated standards and accountability (evidence th rough student per form ance that com petencies and outcom es have been dem onstrated) seem to be the direction in which adult education as a field is headed. Many states require them , and it seems likelv that o ther states will follow. T here are also o th er factors in the field of second language acquisition that we think will hav e an im pact on adult education. R ecent so ciocultural sociohis tori c a l/la n guage socialization studies have dem o n strated that the d em ands and consequences of o u r pro fession are considerable m ore com plex th an we m ight previously have tho u g h t. A n u m b e r of research ers' have argued quite com pellinglv for a shift in second language research. They have fo u n d ev idence that learning ancl teaching a sec o n d language is considerably m ore com plex, lay ered. and p ro fo u n d than we had ever im agined, ancl that o u r c u rre n t pedagogy does not begin to reflect or take into account "the com plex social and cultural worlds into which a second lan guage lea rn er m ust enter" (Rvmes 1997. p. 143). Onlv a sea change in ou r research paradigm will illum inate these worlds and ultim ately lead to m ore effective classrooms. Virtually all o f the researchers w orking from this perspective place language learning within the m o re c o m p re h en siv e d o m ain of socialization, th e lifelong process through which individuals are initiated into cultural m eaning ancl learn to per form the skills, tasks, roles and identi ties ex p ected bv w hatever society or societies thev may live in . . . T he lan g u ag e socialization perspective im plies th a t lan g u ag e is le a rn e d th ro u g h social in te ra c tio n . It also im plies that language is a prim ary
vehicle of socialization: W hen we learn a second language, we are learning m ore than a structure for com m unica tion; we are also learning (for example) social and cultural norm s, procedures for interpretation, and forms o f reason ing (Watson-Gegeo 1988, p. 582). Prelim inary findings from this tvpe o f research suggest that using o n e ’s first language can be an act of resistance, as opposed to an unwillingness to cooperate with the teacher o r to practice English, an d that what appears to be an o p p o rtu nity for language practice can actually discourage second language use (Rymes 1996). Rymes and Pash (2000) fo u n d th at students can be so involved in “looking like they’re lea rn in g ” th at it can in te rfe re with learning. In a n o th e r stttdv of high school students in Los Angeles, Rvmes (1996) found that collaboration am ong students is vital for second language learning, though such collaboration mav be beset bv difficulty- in “inte grating students’ own perspectives an d experi ences with what collaboration is and how it works" (p. 409). Hall (1995) found that learn in g a lan guage is inseparable from issues of (shifting) pow er an d that specific social forces ra th e r than “language proficiency'” constrain the tvpe and am o u n t o f linguistic participation afforded a sec o n d language learner. In fact, the social aspects o f learn in g a second language mav be m ore basic th an the intellectual ones. Finally, learning a se co n d lan g u a g e ch an g es o n e ’s identity (Trosset 1986). Add to this S chum ann's sugges tion (1997) th at cognition an d affect are in prac tice inseparable an d th at everyone is on an individual affective/cognitive trajectory in lan guage learning. Clearly these are n o t trivial m at ters and very likelv this research d irection yvill affect the form a n d c o n te n t o f the adult class room in the twentv-first centurv.
ESL class because the ex p erien ce is so exciting a n d intense. T h e b o n d betw een ESL stu d e n t and tea c h e r is n o th in g sh o rt o f rem arkable, a n d the satisfaction teachers ex p erien ce is truly p ro found. It has b e e n said th a t in the U n ited States, the last bastion o f g en u in e respect fo r teachers and, in d eed , for ed u catio n in general is the adult ESL classroom . Perhaps Dale M clntire8 said it best: A dult ESL is yvhat you th o u g h t e d u cation yvas going to be yvhen you first decid ed to becom e a teacher.
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1. W hat are som e characteristics o f ad u lt lea rn ers which set th em a p a rt from younger lan guage learners o r from university students? In yvhat wav(s) do you th ink those differ ences should or do affect your a p p ro ach to adult school students? 2. Investigate the adult education program in the area in which you in ten d to teach. How is it different from and how is it similar to the program described in this chapter? You m ight want to consider the m ajor points covered, such as the history o f the program , its fu n d ing. the target population, classes available, placem ent, etc. 3. T he state o f C alifornia currently m andates that schools that receive public funds p ro vide quantitative and qualitatiy-e evidence that students are m aking progress. This m an date is tied to fu n d in g (am ong o th e r th in g s ), so it is taken very seriously. 1 lowever. we occasionally find learners yvho simply fail to m ake progress or who insist on rep eatin g a class with a single teach er over an d over again. W hat kind of tension m ig h t this situa tion create? How m ight th a t tension be resolved o r at least lived with?
C O N C L U S IO N A dult ESL teachers are routinely effusive when describing their adult ESL experience, as are the students. Teachers yvho come to work “exhausted” speak about renew ed energy and of taking several hottrs to “wind down" after teaching an adult
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1. If von hav e access to the internet, go to the yvebsite fo r the N ational C learin g h o u se for ESL Literacy E d u catio n (h ttp :// www.cal.org.ncle) a n d look at the ten areas in
w hich th e re are concise overviews of research a n d best practices. Select th ree th at you find particularly helpful an d share them with your group. 2. Find o u t if the state, province, o r country in which you plan to teach has m an d ated stan dards. If so, get a copy of the do cu m en t and read it carefully. (You m ight begin online with th e S tate /P ro v in c ia l/N atio n a l D ep artm en t o f Education.) Based on the docum ent, plan a lesson to teach the following to adult ESL students: a. use o f p rese n t tense b. p ro n u n cia tio n o f final /d/ in English c. w riting an absence excuse to a ch ild ’s teach er d. w riting a note of explanation to a su p er visor o r cow orker 3. Part o f a gram m ar lesson m ight include ask ing students to practice using a structure in a com m unicative context. This would occur after the presentation a n d the focused prac tice phases o f the lesson. Im agine that you are teaching the p resent perfect to an interm e diate adult ESL class and are now readv to begin the com m unicative phase o f the lesson. If you have access to the In te rn et, search u n d e r SCANS Report o r go to one o f the fol lowing w'ebsites: h ttp ://w w w .coe.tany.edu/~epsy/cded/ jennyl.htm or h ttp ://www.academ icinnovations.com / report.html. W ork o u t several com m unicative exercises th a t w ould in co rp o rate SCANS into your gram m ar lesson. 4. Plan in detail a two-and-a-half h o u r lesson for a m ultilevel ESL class. D ecide the profi ciency o f each level. W hat will your o p e n in g exercise (s) be? Why will this exercise be a good one for students at d ifferent levels? How will you tim e the rest o f the lesson? How wall you move students from one activity to another? How7 wrill vou assure that when the teacher is with one group, he o r she will n o t be n e e d ed by another?
FU R T H ER R EA D IN G For understanding and teaching English grammar Celce-Murcia, M., and D. Larsen-Freeman. 1999. The Grammar Book: An F.SL/EFI. Teacher’s Course,
2d ed. Boston. MA: Heinle & Heinle Publishers. Celce-Murcia, M., and S. Hilles. (1988). Techniques and Resources in Teaching Grammar. New York: Oxford Universitv Press. For understanding adult education and relevant pedagogy Ilvin, D., and T. Tragardh, eds. 1978. Classroom Practices in Adult FSL. Washington, DC: TESOL. Rose, M. 1989. Lives on the Boundary. New York: Free Press. Other useful resources Brown, H. Douglas. 1994. Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. U.S. Department of Labor. 1991. The Secretary's Com mission on Achieving Necessary Skills. Washington, DC: Department of Labor. Your state, provincial, or national standards document.
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W E B S IT E S
NCLE ERIC Digests and Q&A. http://www.cal.org/ncle/DIGESTS/ Both the U.S. National Literacy Act of 1991 and the U.S. Adult Education Act of 1991, along with related policv resources, are available on-line at: www.nifl.gov/lincs/ collections/policy/ resource.html
EN DN O TES 1 We are indebted to Dale Mclntire, Marianne CelceMurcia, and to the late Sadae Iwataki for their very helpful comments, suggestions, and discussions regarding earlier versions of this chapter. We would also like to thank Marianne Celce-Murcia and Kit
Bell for their invaluable input. The responsibility for any errors, omissions, or problems in interpre tation is ours, of course. 2 For the complete text of Lincoln’s eloquent 1838 address to the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, see Current 1967, pp. 11-21. 3 All the statistical data regarding Belmont Community Adult School are taken from the 1995 Application for Accreditation and current school demographics. Although many of our illustrations will be drawn from this one particular adult school, our observations will be informed by pro grams in other schools, as well as conversations and consultations with colleagues, teachers, administrators, and students throughout the United States and in other countries.
4 Work by Bley-Vroman 1988; Celce-Murcia and Hilles 1988; Higgs and Clifford 1982; Mclndre 1988; Selinker 1972 and sources cited therein discuss this issue. 0 Affect is a term from psychology, which the American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition (1991) defines as “a feeling or emotion as distinguished from cognition, thought, or action” (p. 84). 6 Studies by Bley-Vroman 1988; Hilles 1991; Johnson and Newport 1989; Krashen, Scarcella, and Long 1982; Long 1990; Richards 1985; Schumann 1997 (among others) address this issue. For a different perspective, see Bialystok and Hakuta 1994. ' For example, see Hall 1995; Markee 1994; Rymes 1997; Trosset 1986; and Watson-Gegeo 1988. 8 Dale McIntyre, personal communication.
UNIT V
UNIT
W e end with a section on the needs of ESL/EFL teachers. W hat do teachers need to know to perform their jobs effectively and professionally? W hat are the skills and competencies all too frequently left undiscussed? Jensen's chapter shows how lesson plans can be structured and prepared in the context of an entire course. Byrd's chapter then discusses textbooks: how to evaluate them for initial selection and how to analyze them to ensure effective implementation. Medgyes raises issues important for those ESLVEFL teachers who are non-native speakers of English. Since these teachers now constitute the majority of English language teachers worldwide, all ESUEFL teachers— native and non-native— should be informed of and sensitive to the issues. Hinkel’s chapter treats culture, a related matter; since all ESL7EFL learners have a non-English-speaking cultural background, their teachers must be aware of the cultural differences between their learners and native speakers of English. Hinkel gives suggestions on how to foster cross-cultural communication. Next, Brinton shows teachers the genuine usefulness of instructional media along with demonstrating how both technical and non-technical resources can be used in lessons to enhance teaching. Sokolik then gives an introduction to the use of computers, the most technical of media, in language teaching, stressing that sound pedagogy will be the most important factor in deciding the usefulness and success of this technology. Bailey defines and distinguishes action research, teacher research, and classroom research, showing their potential usefulness to language teachers. Then Murphy’s chapter on reflective teaching, presents several options teachers can explore for their long-term professional growth. Cohen’s language assessment chapter covers many issues (test types, test items, test administration, reliability, validity); every language teacher should have a general understanding of this area for every teacher is involved in assessment. Finally, Crandall reminds ESITEFL teachers of all the resources they can exploit to keep up to date,The field is growing rapidly, and a major part of any teacher's responsibility is to keep abreast of new developments.
V : Skills for Teachers
Skills fo r Teachers
Planning Lessons LINDA JENSEN
Jensen’s "Lesson Planning" chapter serves as a guide for novice teachers who need to create formalized lesson plans.The chapter covers why, when, and how teachers plan lessons, as well as basic lesson plan principles and a lesson plan template. A sample lesson plan is provided in the context of a weekly overview, module overview, and course overview.
IN T R O D U C T IO N : D E F IN IT IO N O F A LESSO N PLA N All good teachers have som e type of plan when they walk into their classrooms. It can be as simple as a m ental checklist o r as com plex as a detailed two-page typed lesson plan that follows a pre scribed form at. Usually, lesson plans are w ritten ju st for the te a c h e r’s own eyes a n d ten d to be ra th e r inform al. But th ere may be tim es when the plan has to be w ritten as a class assignm ent o r given to an observer or supervisor, an d th e re fore will be a m ore form al a n d detailed docu m ent. This c h a p te r will serve as a guide for creating these m o re form alized lesson plans. A lesson plan is an extrem ely useful tool th a t serves as a co m b in atio n guide, resource, and historical d o c u m e n t reflecting o u r teaching philosophy, stu d e n t p o p u latio n , textbooks, and m ost im portantly, o u r goals for o u r students. It can be described with m any m etap h o rs such as road m ap, b lu ep rin t, or gam e plan (see U r 1996); b u t regardless o f the analog)', a lesson plan is essential fo r novice teachers a n d conven ient for ex p erien ced teachers.
o u r students. As previously m en tio n ed , a lesson plan is also a reco rd o f w hat we did in class; this record serves as a valuable resource when plan n in g assessm ent m easures such as quizzes, m idterm s, and final exams. A record of previously taught lessons is also useful when we teach the same course again, so that we have an account of what we did the term or year before to avoid rein venting the wheel. W hen we have to miss class, a lesson plan is a necessity for the substitute teacher, who is expected to step in a n d teach w hat had been p lan n e d for the day. In addition, just as teachers expect th eir students to com e to class p re p a re d to learn, students com e to class expecting th eir teachers to be p re p a re d to teach. A lesson plan is p art o f th at p reparation. Yet in spite of the im p o rtan ce o f p lanning, a lesson plan is m utable, n o t w ritten in stone; it is n o t m ean t to keep a teach er from ch anging the duration o f an activity or forgoing an activity altogether if the situation warrants. A good lesson plan guides b u t does n o t dictate w hat a n d how we teach. It benefits m any stakeholders; teachers, adm inistrators, observers, substitutes, a n d o f course, students.
Why We Plan
When and How We Plan
D eciding w hat to teach, in w hat order, an d for how m uch tim e are the basic co m p o n en ts of planning. T he lesson plan serves as a m ap or checklist th at guides us in know ing w hat we w ant to do next; these sequences o f activities rem in d us of th e goals a n d objectives of o u r lessons for
To be perfectly honest, a certain a m o u n t o f les son p lan n in g takes place the n ig h t before a class is taught. This p lanning, taking place ju s t hours before e n te rin g the classroom , sh o u ld be the fine or m icro tu n in g o f the lesson, n o t the big pictu re or m acro p lan n in g th a t is based o n a
program m atic philosophy or syllabus design. A good lesson plan is the result of b o th m acro p lan n in g an d m icro planning. O n the m acro level, a lesson plan is a reflection of a philosophy o f lea rn in g an d teaching which is reflected in the m ethodology, the syllabus, the texts, a n d the o th e r course m aterials and finally results in a specific lesson. In brief, an actual lesson plan is th e e n d p o in t of m any o th e r stages of p lan n in g th a t culm inate in a daily lesson. Before a teach er steps into the second lan guage classroom , he or she should have devel o p e d his or h e r own u n d e rsta n d in g of second language lea rn in g a n d teaching. This back g ro u n d in clu d es know ledge o f th eo ries of second language acquisition and lea rn er charac teristics (see O xford's ch ap ter in this text) as well as fam iliarity with both historical and cu rren t trends in second language pedagogy (see chap ters by Celce-M urcia a n d Savignon in this text). This background know ledge will create a p er sonal philosophy th at is realized w henever the teach er is p rep arin g lessons, teaching classes, or grading assignm ents or tests. A good teacher c a n n o t help b u t b ring his or h e r own sense of good learning a n d teaching into the classroom. Ideally, this philosophy will be consistent with the teaching m ethodology em ployed bv the institu tion since the m ethodology will then help im ple m e n t the syllabus an d influence the choice of textbooks for m ost program s. O nce the syllabus an d texts have been decided, p lan n in g for the year or term takes place. For m am teachers, especially newly h ired ones, these decisions have already been m ade a n d the m acro p lan n in g has been taken care o f by colleagues o r supervisors. In som e cases, how ever, the new tea c h e r mav be responsible for the m acro p lan n in g as well as the m icro planning. C onsulting o r p lan n in g with fellow teachers ab o u t syllabus design a n d textbook selection can be very helpful in this type o f situation (see chapters bv N u n a n a n d Bvrd in this text). In rare cases, n o th in g mav be in place so it may be entirely up to the in stru cto r to design the course syllabus, choose the teach in g m aterials, and plan the daily lessons. G enerally the opposite is tru e for the novice teacher, however, who will
have verv little input at first in term s o f m acro a n d even m icro planning. (See A ppendices B. C, and D for exam ples o f m acro planning: a course overview, a m odule overview, an d a weekly overview.)
What a Lesson Plan Looks Like A lthough th ere are a variety of form ats to use w hen creating a lesson plan, m ost tem plates share certain characteristics. W hen creating a lesson, a teach er m ust consider the background o f the students, the objectives o f the lesson, the skills to be taught, the activities, the m aterials an d texts, the tim e constraints, and the connec tions to previous an d fu tu re lessons. Like most activities, a lesson plan has stages: a beginning, a m iddle, an d an end. As m en tio n e d previously, the am o u n t o f detail actually w ritten down will varv with individual preferences a n d experi ence. Som e instructors like to keep n o te b o o k ' of lessons plans for each class; others may use note cards or loose sheets of p a p e r th at can be shuffled a ro u n d . Manv instructors now use com puters to write up lesson plans; the advantage' of this are th at the lessons are neatly typed, easv to save, an d can readilv be copied an d m odified as n eed ed . K eeping at least one p a p e r copy filed awav in case o f a technological breakdow n is also a good idea. Most plans begin with a b rief description ot the class and students; for exam ple, the nam e ot the course and the level, and the background o f the students are useful to note. It is also im por tant to add the date as well as the week and day ot the course. Given the trend of adhering to com petency requirem ents and published standards, a lesson plan mav also need to include the com pe tencies an d standards that the lesson addresses. Som e teachers list the gram m atical stru c tu re ' a n d kev vocabulary term s th at will be introducer, as well. Teachers also find it wise to note w hat h a' been cov e re d d u rin g the previous class o r what students already n e e d to know for the particular lesson, especially if it will begin with a review o: prev ious m aterial. T he day’s goals an d objective' should be in clu d ed as should a list of texts.
m aterials, and eq u ip m en t such as audiovisual aids. Som e instructors find it helpful to list the day’s m aterials a n d audiovisual aids in a box at the top o f the page to s e n e as a re m in d e r of what they n e e d to b rin g to class. If m ore elabo rate m aterial p rep a ra tio n is necessarv before class, teachers may also list the steps necessarv to p rep a re these m aterials. N oting any hom ew ork or assignm ents to be re tu rn e d or collected that dav is also useful inform ation to have at the b eg in n in g o f the lesson plan. The m iddle com ponent o f a lesson plan is the lesson's content; this includes procedures or activities along with transition notes, as well as time m anagem ent and class m anagem ent notes such as the students' scaling arrangem ents for dif ferent activities. Novice teachers should also trv to anticipate what mav go wrong or prove to be prob lematic so that contingency’ plans are prepared in advance and written into the lesson plan. Lessons usuallv begin with warm-up and or review activities. Teachers n eed to decide how they will co n n ect the dav's lesson to the prec ious class m eetin g and how thev want to interest and m otivate th eir students for the dav's activities. O nce tvarm ed up. the class is then reach for the p resen tatio n an d practice stages of the lesson. These stages hat e been referred to with a varietv of labels such as into, through, beyond (B rinton. Goodw in, a n d Ranks 1994); engage, study, activate (H arm er 1998); lead-in. elicitation, explanation, accurate reproduction, an d immediate creativity (H arm er 1991); and verbalization, automatization. and autonomy (Ur 1996). All o f these labels describe stages in which first, the language form or c o n te n t is in tro d u ced and presented; second, com p reh en sio n is checked before a form of guided practice is im plem ented; and third, some type o f less structured, com m unicative activity takes place so that students can practice what thev have ju st learned in a less controlled, m ore natural situation. T he com m unicative stage also provides an opportunitv for students to integrate the new knowledge p resen ted in the lesson with previous knowledge. Finallv. teachers and stu dents should evaluate how well the new m aterial has been learn ed in o rd er to d eterm in e the shape of future lessons.
Som e teachers find it useful to write b rie f com m ents on a lesson plan th at help with the transition from one activity to another, so that the lesson flows well an d the various activities have a sense o f co n n ectio n . For exam ple, w hen transitioning from a listening activitv to a rea d ing activity a teach er can discuss how certain listening strategies can be a d ap ted as reading strategies. C reating sm ooth transitions and links can be challenging for novice teachers, so plan ning these moves a n d n o tin g them in a lesson plan is worthwhile a n d valuable for b oth instruc tors and students. Tim e m an ag em en t can also be challenging for b eg in n in g teachers a n d even e x p erien ced teachers c an n o t alwavs accurately pred ict how long a certain activitv will take o r w hen a discus sion will becom e so engaging that it sh o u ld be allow ed to c o n tin u e lo n g e r th a n p la n n e d . N onetheless, it is im p o rtan t to n o te the n u m b e r o f m inutes allotted for each activitv in the m ar gin o f the lesson plan; this also m eans th at the teach er should wear a watch or be able to see a clock in the classroom in o rd e r to be aware of the tim e. More often than not, an activitv is u n d erestim ated in term s o f length, so teachers should decide ahead o f tim e what part o f a les son could be skipped or sh o rte n e d or saved for the next class. This does not m ean that teachers should not overplan. T h e re are tim es when an activitv will take less tim e th an an ticipated or suddenly seem s too easv or difficult, so the teach er will decide to sacrifice it; good teachers e rr on the side o f o verplanning a n d /o r have som e useful five to ten m inute supplem entary’ activ ities av ailable in th eir rep e rto ire of teaching tricks. It can be a verv frightening experience for the novice teacher to look up at the clock and see that she has ten m inutes left until the en d o f class and no idea o f what to do. Initiallv, it is use ful for inexperienced teachers to plan th eir les sons so that each m inute of class is accounted for before thev step into the classroom. Seating arran g em en ts for various activities should also be n o ted in the lesson plan. Pre p lan n in g pair and g roup work seating arran g e m ents is m ore efficient than standing in fro n t o f the ( lass and m oving students a ro u n d random lv.
T h e re are tim es w hen ran d o m pairs o r small groups mav m ake sense b u t th ere are m any o th e r tim es w hen a rationale is n e e d e d in decid ing who works with w hom . O ften we w ant groups to contain a m ixture o f talkative and q u iet students; we probable want to mix lan guage groups o r separate best friends who talk only to each other. P la n n in g these seating arran g em en ts b e fo re h a n d helps the class ru n sm oothly and sat es tim e. Most teachers also find it useful to give instructions for g roup or pair work to the class as a whole before breaking the class up; once students start m oving a ro u n d , they may becom e so active that getting their a tte n tio n can take up valuable class time. Teachers also n eed to anticipate w here a lesson may break down. Especiallv w hen trving o u t a new activitv o r teaching a gram m ar point fo r the first tim e, not ice teachers n e e d to think ab o u t w hat mav go wrong. W hat part of the les son may be difficult for the students? W hat kinds o f questions can the instructor expect? Will there be problem s with student-student interactions? This type o f fo re th o u g h t is especiallv im portant for lessons th at relv on technology or eq uipm ent th a t may fail o r not be available as planned. A nticipating problem s and thinking o f solutions b e fo re h a n d m akes both novice and experienced teachers feel m ore com fortable an d confident w hen thev walk into the classroom. T he final section o f a lesson plan should in clu d e com m ents that e n d the lesson such as a review o r sum m ary o f the lesson and th at indi cate hom ew ork or o th e r assignm ents. A lthough hom ew ork mav be n o ted at the e n d o f a lesson plan, it is probable not a good idea to wait until the e n d of class to assign it to the students. Find a place on the b o ard w here hom ew ork can be consistently p o sted so students always know w here to check for it. Post it th ere at the begin n in g o f class or d u rin g the break so th at every one has a chance to write it down before those final hectic m inutes of class w hen students are packing up th eir belongings a n d ru n n in g o u t the door. Some teachers like to leave a space on their lesson plans to com m ent on what needs to be covered d u rin g the next class session based on
w hat w ent on d u rin g the dav's lesson. Perhaps an activity h ad to be placed on hold or a teaching point needs to be co te red again. Som e teachers also like to note students' unansw ered questions in o rd e r to research th eir responses before the n ex t class m eeting. It is also a good idea to include space for lesson evaluation bv the teach er af ter the class is over. T he evaluation co m p o n e n t o f lesson plan n ing provides an o p p o rtu n ity for h o n est reflec tion ab o u t what activities w orked o r did n o t work an d whv, as well as how the lesson could be im proved or m odified the next tim e aro u n d . Teachers also find it useful to add com m ents co n cern in g stu d en t reactions to the lesson. It is these evaluative com m ents that can m ake a les son plan a trulv useful resource for fu tu re course and lesson planning. (See A ppendices A an d E for a lesson plan tem plate and a sam ple lesson plan.)
Basic Principles of Lesson Planning As with anv skill, lesson plan n in g becom es easier over time. As teachers gain experience in the classroom, thev learn certain principles about planning. W hen seasoned teachers are asked to list som e basic principles o f lesson p lan n in g that novice teachers should be aware of, the ones that are frequently m en tio n e d are actually basic principles of good teaching: co h eren ce, variety, and flexibility. These principles have proven use ful for all teachers, not just the second foreign language teacher. 1. A good lesson has a sense of c o h eren ce and flow. This m eans th at the lesson hangs to g eth e r and is not ju st a sequence o f dis crete activities. O n a m acro level, links or threads should c o n n e ct the various lessons over the davs a n d weeks o f a course. O n a m icro level, students n e e d to u n d erstan d the rationale for each activitv; also, thev learn best w hen th ere are transitions from one activity to the next. 2. A good lesson exhibits variety. This variety needs to be p rese n t at both the m acro and m icro levels. W hile for m ost students, a
certain degree o f predictability in term s of the teacher, the texts, classmates, and cer tain adm inistrative procedures is com fort ing; however, to avoid boredom and fatigue, lesson plans should n o t follow the same pat tern day after dav. O n a m acro level, there should be variety in term s of topics (con tent), language, and skills over the length of the course. O n a m icro level, each dailv les son should have a certain am o u n t of variety in term s of the pace of the class, such as time spent on various activities, d ep en d in g on the difficulty or ease of the m aterial being covered. T he percentages of teacher-fronted time and student-centered activities should van from lesson to lesson; there are davs w hen we want our students to participate and be active, but there are o th er davs when we want them a bit calm er in o rd er to be receptive to new m aterial or practice a lis tening or reading strategy. Some teachertrainers have referred to this as the abilitv to “stir” or “settle" our students dep en d in g on the need. Each lesson should also have some variety in term s of classroom organization such as whole-class, small-group, pair, and individual activities. T he m ood of different lessons will van' as well; m ood shifts can reflect the teacher's disposition on a certain dav, the chem istrv o f the mix of students, the weather, c u rre n t events, or som ething unexplainable. 3. A good lesson is flexible. Lesson plans are not m ean t to be tools that bind teachers to som e p re o rd a in e d plan. G ood teachers th in k on th eir feet a n d know w hen it is tim e to change an activitv, regardless o f w hat the lesson plan savs. An in terestin g stu d e n t question can take the class in an unantici p a te d direction that creates one o f those w onderful “teach in g m o m en ts,” n o t to be missed. A brilliant idea can com e as the tea c h e r is w riting on the board; som etim es p u rsu in g these ideas is well w orth a risk o f failure. Even failure can be a valuable lesson for b o th the novice a n d ex p erien ced teacher.
C O N C L U S IO N Knowing how to go ab o u t p lan n in g a s e c o n d / foreign language lesson is the result o f m any o th e r stages of p rep aratio n . T he teach er m ust be fam iliar with the principles o f second lan guage learn in g a n d teaching, as well as the needs of the institution an d the stu d e n t p o p u la tion. H e o r she m ust first see th e big pictu re of the course a n d be aware o f the goals a n d objec tives for th e en tire term before p lan n in g weekly a n d daily lessons. If the big pictu re is kept in m ind, the individual lessons will c o n n ect to form a learn in g ex perience th a t benefits b o th the tea c h e r an d the students.
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1. How will vour knowledge o f second language acquisition theories inform vour decisions in lesson planning? Give som e co n crete examples. 2. List what vou consider to be the characteristics of good students and good teachers. How will this affect vour lesson planning? 3. How m uch detail do you feel is necessary in w riting your own lessons plans? W ould this change if a supervisor w anted copies of your lesson plans? 4. As a novice teacher, w hat aspects of lesson p lan n in g are the m ost daunting? How will vou go about g etting assistance in p lan n in g vour lessons? 5. How m uch autonom y are you com fortable with in terms o f lesson planning? W ould you prefer a teaching situation in which lesson plans are given to you and you are expected to closelv follow them , or would you prefer being h an d ed a textbook and told to write your own daily lesson plans? W hat are the advantages and disadvantages of each situation?
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1. O bserve several E SE /EFL classes a n d ask each in stru cto r for a copv o f the day's lesson plan. How closelv did the in stru cto r follow the plan? How is the plan sim ilar o r different from the actual lesson? 2. Interview one or two experienced teachers about their own lesson planning strategies. Ask if you can look at some of their lesson plans. Ask if over the years thev have changed the way thev plan lessons. 3. Exam ine an ESL /EFL text that von may have the o p p o rtu n ity to teach in the future. C reate th re e sam ple lesson plans with a vari ety o f skill or language foci. How w ould you avoid m arch in g th ro u g h the text page bv page? How w ould vou in co rp o rate supple m entary m aterial? 4. C reate a lesson plan for an ESL 7EFL class in a c o m p u te r lab (see c h a p te r bv Sokolik. this volum e). W hat lesson plan considera tions n e e d to be m ade for teaching in this situation? 5. List a variety of opening and closing activities. C om pare vour list with the lists of others in your class. How do these activities reflect individual teachers' personalities?
FU R T H ER R EA D IN G Harmer, f. 1998. H o w to Teach E n g lis h . (Chapter 12: How to plan lessons). Harlow, UK: Longman. Excellent discussion of lesson planning for the inexperienced or not ice teacher. Includes a “Task File" with a sample lesson plan on teach ing the comparative degree to a low-level class as well as useful activities. Harmer. J. 1991. T he P ra c tic e o f E n g lis h L a n g u a g e T e ach in g (New Edition). (Chapter 12: Planning). Harlow. UK: Longman. A more detailed chapter on lesson planning than H o w to Teach E n g lis h with a focats on the teacher’s background knowledge. Also includes a "speci men plan" for an intermediate aclnlt class. Nunan. D. 1999. Se c o n d L a n g u a g e 'T each in g a n d L e a r n in g . Boston. MA: Heinle 8c Heinle Publishers. A verv humanistic and personal account of second language learning and teaching. Enjovable to read, especially for not ice teachers. Ur. P. 1996. A C o arse in L a n g u a g e T e ach in g : P ra c tic e a n d Theory. (Module In: Lesson Planning). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. A reflective approach to lesson planning that is especially useful for experienced teachers. Woodward. T.. and S. Linclstromberg. 1995. P l a n n i n g from Lesso n
to L esso n : .4
1Ya\ o f M a k i n g Lesson
Harlow, UK: Longman. Lots of lesson planning ideas based on the metaphor of using threads to create continuity. P l a n n i n g E a sie r.
A P P E N D IX А Lesson Plan Template for a 50-minute Class Background Information:
To do before class:
course/level description of students (if necessary) aims/objectives skills focus/grammar/vocabulary
Bring to class:
texts/materials previous class work work to be collected or returned
Tim e Frame
Procedures:
Notes:
(in minutes)
3-
5
warm-up
transitions
4-
5
review
seating plans
10
introduction
potential trouble spots
10
presentation activities
15-20
communicative activities
3-5
questions/homework extra activities (if necessary)
Comments/Evaluation:
contingencies
Course Overview (10 Weeks) E S L 3 3 C / U C L A Service Courses LISTENING:
SPEAKING:
lectures:
group work
History 160 and Anthropology 9
discussions/presentations
READING:
WRITING:
A ca d e m ic Publishing Services Farew ell to M a n z a n a r
in-class essays
(APS)
(FM)
out-of-class essays
weekly paced and timed readings
3-5 pp. research paper
Insights 1
weekly journals St. M a r t in ’s H a n d b o o k
WEEK
READING
(SM)
SPEAKING
LISTENING
diag. essay
diag. intros
diag. diet.
brief def.
group work
hist. lect. 1
WRITING
Module 1— The Immigrant in America (History 160)
1
diag. essay previewing skimming/ scanning
2
FM
1-5
notetaking
relative clause paraphrasing
3
4
FM
extended def.
group work
hist. lect. 2
6-1 1
notetaking/
eye mov. 1
summary
FM
IN-CLASS W R IT IN G
12-15
comp./cont.
group work hist. lect. 3
cause/effect
notetaking/
essay exams
summary
SM ch.6/46
5
FM
IN-CLASS W R IT IN G
16-22
articles
group work
Module 11-Kinship and Marriage (Anthropology 9)
6
APS
library tour
group work
verb tenses
conferencing
anthro. lect. 1 notetaking/ summary
7
APS
argumentation
group work
8
S/V1 39—40
passive voice
group work
summary anthro. lect. 3
research
9
anthro. lect. 2 notetaking/
SM ch.5
S/V1 41-42
draft 1-paper
peer response
S/V1 44
IN-CLASS ESSAY
debate
draft 2-paper
peer response
final exam
Final Reading
final draft due
conferencing
notes/summary
10
I.
Topic = HISTORY 160-The Immigrant in America
II.
Rhetorical Modes:
Definitions Comparison and Contrast Cause and Effect
III.
Multiskill Components A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Listening:Videotaped Lecture— Prof. John Laslett 1.
Notetaking
2.
Outlining
3.
Mapping
4.
Summaries
Speaking 1.
Group work
2.
Presentations
Reading: Core Readings 1.
Previewing/Skimming
2.
Scanning for Details
3.
Vocabulary Development
4.
Comprehension Questions
5.
Rate Development
Writing/Structure 1.
Paraphrasing
2.
Summaries
3.
Brief and Extended Definitions
4.
Relative Clauses
5.
Comparison and Contrast Essay Questions
6.
Cause and Effect Essay Questions
Assignments 1.
Journals
2.
Video Notetaking: Outlining/Summaries
3.
Reading: Outlining/Summaries
4.
Skimming and Scanning Exercises
5.
Reading Comprehension Exercises
6.
Brief and Extended Definition/ln-class Writing
7.
In-class Essay
8.
Conferencing/Rewrite
W eekly O v erv iew (W eek 3) ESL 3 3 C /U C L A S erv ice C o u rse s R EA D IN G Insights I:
Assimilation and Amalgamation
Farew ell to M a n z a n a r
(ch. 3-11)
W R IT IN G using relative clauses in definitions brief and extended definitions Journal #3— //p. 124,Task 23
S T U D Y S K IL L S summary paraphrasing predicting exam content
LIS T E N IN G video seg. 2 “ Variables of Assimilation” video seg. 3 “ The Melting Pot Model”
S P E A K IN G group work class discussions
LESSON SEQUENCING H our O ne:
H o u r Tw o:
Insights
p. I 16— video seg. 2 “ Variables of Assimilation"
Insights
pp. I 17-120 (brief definitions/relative clauses)
FM
3-8, A P S p. 54 (discussion questions)
hw: APS pp. 28-30, 34—37(extended definitions) /. pp. 120-124 / F M
H o u r T h re e :
ch. 9-1 I (by Fri)
paraphrasing APS pp. 28-30 / SM pp. 596-600, 6 17-618 extended definitions in APS pp. 34—37, S/VI p. 136
H o u r F o u r:
summary / I. 123-124 I.
pp. 120-123— video seg. 3 “ The Melting Pot Model”
(Amalgamation) group work: begin extended definition— amalgamation hw: finish extended definitions/journal #3 (I. p. 124/task 23)
H o u r Five:
go over hw: extended definitions brainstorm terms for definitions for in-class writing FM
9-1 I
hw — F M ch. 12-15/prepare for in-class writing
B ackg ro u n d In fo rm atio n :
To do before class:
ESL 33C (advanced multi-skills)/
print in-class writing
content-based course studying models
prompts
of assimilation U C L A undergrads/mostly Asian
O b je ctiv e s: to be prepared for in-class writing
B rin g to class:
next class
Insights I
S k ills focus: writing extended definitions/
FM
predicting content of a midterm
SM
T e x ts/m a te ria ls:
APS
Insights I , St. M a r t in ’s H an d b o o k ,
Farew ell to M a n z a n a r
P revio u s class w o rk : group work writing an extended definition of amalgamation
W o r k to be co lle cte d and re tu rn e d : return Journal #2/collect Journal #3
T im e F ra m e
P ro ce d u re s:
N o te s:
Warm-up: greetings/questions about weekend
whole class
(in minutes) 5
plans/check roll
10
Share extended definitions of amalgamation
5 small groups at tables
finished for hw/pick one to put on ovrhd. proj.
15
10
Group presentations of amalgamation
give feedback on
definitions on a transparency in front of class
relative clauses
Remind class of in-class writing (extended
list on board
definitions) on Monday / Brainstorm possible terms to define 10
Class discussion of F M ch. 9-1 I (discussion questions in A P S , p. 53) hw: F M : ch. 12-15 for next Friday/review for in-class writing
C o m m e n ts/E v a lu a tio n :
Good idea to focus feedback on relative cla uses only with their extended definitions of amalgamation; otherwise the activity takes too much time. Students did a great job of predicting the terms that they will be asked to define.
large circle
Textbooks: Evaluation for Selection and Analysis for Implementation PATRICIA
BYRD
In "Textbooks: Evaluation for Selection and Analysis for Implementation," Byrd argues that the decisions made in selecting textbooks are different from the decisions made for implementing textbooks. A fter showing how the processes differ and the confusion that results from using the same approach for both, she provides guiaelines for selecting as well as implementing textbooks.
IN T R O D U C T IO N
EV A LU A TIO N FO R S E L E C T IO N
In addition to our students and ourselves, an o th er constant in the lives o f most teachers is ou r textbook. Few teachers en ter class without a text book— (then a required textbook— that protides c o n te n t and teaching learn in g activities that shape m uch of what happens in that classroom. For teachers, use of a textbook involves first the selection of a book and then the steps taken to im plem ent the book in class. W hile having rational a n d effective selec tion pro ced u res is surelv im p o rtan t for educa tional svstems, program s, schools, teachers, and students, the selection process is one th at is not open to m am E SL /EFL teachers w orking in set tings w here tex tb o o k s have b e e n selected th ro u g h an adm inistrative process— at the m in isterial level or bv the school b o a rd or bv the p ro gram d ire c to r o r bv a com m ittee of teachers that selects texts for the whole program , o r bv the teach er who taught the course the previous sem ester b ut who is teach in g som ething else this term . As a result, although inform ation ab o u t evaluation for selection is im p o rta n t for teachers to u n d e rsta n d , m ost teachers have different e n co u n ters with textbooks as thev m ake deci sions about how to im p lem en t and su p p lem en t m aterials for the m ost effective classes possible for th eir students an d for themselves. To reflect on the two different ways in which textbooks are scrutinized bv teachers, I will separate “evalua tion for selection" from "analysis for im p lem en tatio n ” in the following discussion.
Evaluation and selection o f textbooks is a com plex process that is carried out in many different wavs. In a few settings, teachers decide on the books that thev want to use in th eir classes. For exam ple, in university settings in the U nited States a n d elsewhere, ESI. teachers can often m ake individual decisions ab o u t the textbooks that thev will use. W ith inform ation from p u b lishers and colleagues, thev select a text or texts, have tire books o rd e re d th ro u g h the cam pus bookstore, and th en use them in th eir classes. In m anv o th e r settings, such text selections are m ade bv adm inistrators o r bv com m ittees of teachers. A n o th er scenario, centralized decision m aking bv the governm ent, can be seen in Egypt, w here decisions about the English lan guage curriculum and the textbooks used to teach it are m ade bv the M inistry o f E ducation in Cairo. In this system, a unified series of text books is created for use th ro u g h o u t the country, ra th e r than selecting textbooks from a generic collection c reated by com m ercial publishing com panies. A m uch sm aller centralized approach is seen in boards o f education in various U.S. states that have svstems th rough which textbooks are analyzed and lists of reco m m en d ed books developed. Because of the decentralized nature o f U.S. education, no national req u irem en ts exist, a n d individual schools often have consider able flexibility in im plem enting state curricular requirem ents. Textbooks and supplem ental m ate rials are. however, frequently selected th ro u g h a
system th at involves input from supervisors and colleagues, a n d does n o t em phasize the individ ual teach er m aking a personal decision. Even in schools that are not p art o f centralized m iniste rial o r b oard systems, textbook selection is often the work o f a faculty com m ittee or of a program adm inistrator. An intensive English p rogram m ight have a textbook com m ittee to evaluate textbooks an d to m ake selections as a way of en suring som e unitv across m ultiple sections of die sam e course. Overall, few E SL /EFL teachers use textbooks th at thev have them selves selected th ro u g h a process that has focused simpiv on th eir interests a n d the needs of the students in th eir individual section of a course. However, teachers can som etim es influence the decision-m aking process an d thus n e e d to be aware o f how it works in th eir own situation. T h a t is, teachers have to he aware not ju st of th e ir lives inside th eir classroom s, but thev m ust also be know ledgeable ab o u t the larger system in which thev work and about possible wavs that the system m ight allots' for tea c h e r participation in its adm inistrative processes. Influencing the selection process in these situations is not just a m atte r o f pedagogical know ledge but also of political skill.
S y stem atic E v alu atio n Systems for evaluation of textbooks (and o th e r instructional m aterials) generally provide check lists built a ro u n d n u m ero u s aspects o f teaching a n d stu d en t-teach er interactions (B ader 2000; D aoud an d Celce-M urcia 1979; Gom es de Matos 2000; Skierso 1991). In reviewing such lists, I am re m in d e d o f the tim e m am years ago w hen a col league an d I sat down to m ake a list o f things for o u r students to check as thev revised th eir com positions. O u r first list h ad over 100 item s on it. Clearly, it w asn’t going to be very useful for m any students. We quickly revised it to a m ore reason able n u m b e r th at we a n d o u r students could h andle. But we also realized that o u r checklist was useful only for a particu lar kind of writing; it w orked reasonably well for the personal essays bein g w ritten for o u r course b u t w ould not have w orked nearly so well if the students had been
writing lab reports or reviews o f books for history courses. Similarly, m aking a com prehensive yet reasonable checklist for evaluation of textbooks is an en o rm o u s challenge that requires different lists for different types of courses in different set tings. Published checklists like those referenced above are offered as m odels that p resen t im p o r tan t categories th at should be considered in the selection process. Like o th e r suggestions from colleagues, these m odels n eed to be considered carefully an d a d ap ted to lit the p articular situa tion in which thev will be ttsed. In the body of this chapter. I will provide a general rationale for the considerations that seem fu n d am en tal to such a selection-guicling checklist, d e la tin g until the "Suggested Activities" creation of detailed checklists designed to fit the situations o f the teachers using this book. T he issues that m ust be addressed in a textbook evaluation system are the fit betw een the m aterials and ( 1 ) the curriculum . (2 ) the students, and (3) the teachers.
T h e F it B etw ee n C u rric u lu m a n d T ex ts Generally, the first area in cluded in textbook analysis is the fit betw een the m aterials a n d the curriculum . For large educational systems, pub lishers create m aterials based on published cur riculum statem ents. For exam ple, in Egypt, the Ministry o f E ducation arranges for publication of its own textbooks. Because the books are cre ated for use onlv in Egy pt, the M inistry can be sure that the m aterials are ap p ro p riate and earn out its particu lar curricular goals. In the U nitec States, som e public school systems publish their curriculum guidelines and invite publishers te subm it m aterials that fit those guidelines. For states with large ESI. populations, such as Texan Florida, New York, a n d C alifornia, p u b lish er' com pete fiercely to provide m aterials that m eet the stated curricular guidelines. For these e d u cational systems with th eir considerable p u r chasing pow er a n d various m ethods for control of co n ten t, the fit betw een the textbook and the curriculum is assum ed to be a reasonable and achievable goal.
For sm aller program s and individual teach ers, the fit betw een curriculum and textbooks can be h a rd e r to achieve for two reasons. First, all too m am program s do not hare clearlv articulated curriculum statem ents; teachers have groups of students who want to learn English but the p ro gram lacks a general statem ent o f purposes and m ethods. Second, when there is a curriculum statem ent for a sm aller program or an individual class, it mav har e features that are unique to that particular program ; however, the program is not large enough for publishers to provide textbooks based on its individual curriculum statem ent. In the first situation, the textbook must be selected based on features o th er than curricu lu m — and therefore the text itself becom es the curriculum . In the second situation, textbooks are unlikely to be found that are com pletelv con g ru en t with the pedagogical goals of the program , and the p u r pose of the selection process m ust be to find books that have as good a fit as possible— with the expectation that the textbooks will n eed to be adapted and supplem ented with additional m ate rials to support the curriculum .
T h e F it B etw een S tu d e n ts a n d T ex ts Textbooks are for students. To m eet their needs, the textbook must have not just the English lan guage o r com m unication skill content dem an d ed by the curriculum , but it m ust also fit the needs of students as learners of English. Textbooks are m ade up o f three m ajor elem ents: content (and explanations), exam ples, and exercises or tasks. In support of these three elem ents, textbooks also employ a varietv of graphical elem ents, including print size and stele and white space as well as illus trations. In the evaluation-for-selection process, the person or group m aking the selection needs to knots' enough about the students to be able to answer questions such as the following. 1. Content/Explanations: Is the content likelv to be o f interest or use to the students? Is there anv chance that the content could be offen sive or inappropriate for its in te n d e d audi ence? Do the explanations work for these learn ers— do dies help learners und erstan d what thev n eed in o rd er to learn?
2. Examples: Are the exam ples ap p ro p riate to the Uses and interests of the students? Do the exam ples fit closely with the concepts they are supposed to be explaining? 3. Exercises Tasks: Do the exercises or tasks p rot ide e n o u g h varietv to m eet the needs of different kinds of learners in the class(es)? Will the\ be o f in terest to these students? 4. Presentation/Form at: Does the book look rig h t for these students? Are the illustrations a n d o th e r graphical an d design elem ents a p p ro p riate for th eir age a n d educational level? Is th e p rin te d text easy to read an d a p p ro p riate for th eir read in g level? Is the m ix betw een p rin t and white space balanced so th at readability is e n h a n c e d an d a p p ro priate? Does the book have an index, a p p e n dices, or o th e r sections th a t are usable by students? Is the book well c o n stru c te d — will it last a term of h a rd use by students?
T h e F it B etw ee n T e a c h e rs a n d T ex ts Textbooks are also for teachers. As with students, teachers seek three things from textbooks: conten t/ex p lan atio n s. exam ples, and exercises or tasks. T he evaluation-for-selection process needs to find out if the textbook can be used effectively bv the teachers to whom it will be assigned. T he basic questions will alwavs be Can our teachers han dle this material? and Will our teachers find that the textbook meets their needs and preferences for teaching materials ? Questions such as the following should be included in the analysis o f the fit between a poten tial textbook and the teachers who will use it. 1.
Content/Explanations: In all settings, evalua tors need to consider if the textbook prorides content that teachers will find useful to carry' out the goals of the course and the p ro g ram — is this a teacher-friendlv textbook? In some settings, it is im portant to ask if teachers will have adequate English to be able to u n d e r stand the content an d to be able to explain it to their students. A question of special im por tance in English for Specific Purposes texts but of im portance in all textbook analysis is, is there a reasonable fit between the content
a n d th e know ledge-base o f the teacher? O th e r questions include. Is there an instruc to r’s m anual that helps the teacher belter u n derstand the c o n ten t and wavs o f using the content with the students? Does the textbook supply or require ancillaries such as audiotapes or workbooks? If so. is the content of these ancillaries appropriate to and usable by the teachers in this program ? 2. Examples: Are the exam ples usable for the te a c h e r— can thee be e x p a n d ed on o r recast to be useful in the lessons? 3. Exercises/Tasks: Does the text provide enough things for the teacher to give his or her students to do for the period of time to be covered by the course? Are the exercises or tasks doable in this setting? Do thev pro\ide for a variety of learning styles? Is there an instructor’s m anual and does it make sugges tions for im plem entation of tlte exercises? Does it prot ide an answer kev for anv exer cises that have discrete answers, such as gram m ar drills o r vocabulary activities? 4. P resen tatio n /F o rm at: Does the illustrative m aterial provide the tea c h e r with teaching opportunities? Is there a close co n n ectio n betw een the c o n te n t and the illustrations?
A N A LYSIS FO R IM PLEM ENTATIO N A lthough th e evaluation-for-selection systems are created to m ake the selection process as rational as possible, o u r en c o u n te rs with text books in the selection process always involve a series o f value judgm ents: this is good or this is bad or this fits well or this d o e sn ’t fit at all. Evaluation is about m aking a ju d g m e n t call — ves or no, in or out, buv it o r d o n ’t buy it, thum bs up o r thum bs down. Because the types o f analysis an d decision-m aking w hen using a textbook in the classroom are radically different from those in the selection process, the experi ences o f classroom teachers with the textbook involve an evaluation th at uses different criteria. In the evaluation-for-selection process, the basic question is Does this book have the features that we
want it to have so that we ran adopt it ?After adoption, the basic question changes to, How do I as a teacher working with particular students in a particular class in a particular program make this book work to ensure effective and interesting lessons? To avoid confusion over the tvpe o f ’’evalu a tio n ” req u ired at this stage in the life o f a text book in a course o r program , I would like talk ab o u t textbook analysis in the implementation process. T he categories that a tea c h e r can use are the sam e as in the selection process: the textbook provides content, explanations, exam ples, and exercises or tasks. T he text m ight also provide illustrative or graphic m aterials that can be used for teaching purposes. A dditionally the publisher of the textbook m ight provide an instructor's m anual that should help in the im plem entation of the materials. While the categories are the same, the purpose is m uch different and often m uch m ore urgent, since teachers can find them selves analyzing a textbook only hours before going into a class to teach a lesson that will be built aro u n d the m aterials in the text.
G e ttin g a n O v erv iew o f th e R e so u rc e s in th e T e x tb o o k Prior to im p lem en tin g a textbook, a teache: needs to read the whole b o o k — from start to fin ish. including anv appendices. In w orking wit:', in ex p e rie n c e d teachers, I've found th at one : th eir mistakes in w orking with a textbook is m .' seeing it as a whole and not finding o u t abou: the text in detail before the first dav o f class. 1 have repeatedly h ad the ex perience o f having : new teacher tell m e near the e n d o f a term th.v he or she has just discovered som e useful featui v of the tex tb o o k — som ething that was in a law section o f the book o r in an appendix. A ban.; rule o f textbook im plem entation: You can or.: im p lem en t m aterials if vou know thev are there T eaching usually involves an o v e rla p p ir. cvcle of presen tatio n , practice, a n d evaluatio: Presentation can involve in tro d u c tio n o f n c m aterials or info rm atio n o r a re-introduction t : a review session; it can be d irect o r indirect; it whatever the teach er does to get students startc on a unit o f study. Practice can be anv type
activity, from a drill to w riting an essay, from the least com m unicative form o f rep etitio n to an u n scripted discussion; it is w hatever th e teacher sets up to help the students learn to do whatever it is they are studying in th at unit. Evaluation is whatever the tea c h e r does to fin d o u t w hat the students have learned. This teach in g cycle is b o u n d e d by the academ ic calen d ar o f the school system in which the class is taught; a class is always lim ited in tim e to the n u m b e r o f hours a week it will be taught a n d to any ad d itio n al tim e that m ight be ad d ed for hom ew ork, if h o m e work is a p p ro p riate in the setting.
the book? Are the instructions for th e activi ties clear e n o u g h for m e to know exactly w hat the students a n d I are supposed to do? This initial read in g of the textbook should give the tea c h e r an overview o f the features o f the book an d o f the ways th at the textbook organizes its com bination o f c o n te n t and activities. After gaining that overview, the teacher needs to ana lyze the text in m ore detail while m aking plans for using the m aterials over the tim e allowed for th e course.
A nalysis o f th e C o n te n t o f th e T e x tb o o k In itial R e a d in g o f a T e x tb o o k Before u n d e rta k in g a d etailed analvsis of the textbook to be used in a course, a teach er can benefit from doing a general overview reading of the book. A reasonable series o f questions that a tea c h e r should ask d u rin g an initial read ing shou ld include the following. 1. Presentation/Form at: W hat kinds of units does the book have? How is each organized? W hat kinds o f illustrations o r o th e r graphic elem ents are used? How m any o f these graphic elem ents are there? How are they co n n e cte d to the rest of the m aterials in the unit? W hat additional features does the book have beyond the basic units— appendices, index, glossary? Are th ere any ancillary m ate rials such as w orkbooks or audiotapes? 2. C ontent/Inform ation: W h a t does each u n it give me to present? W hat is each u n it about? 3. Practice: W hat does each u n it give m e to use with my students for practice? W here are the exercises o r tasks placed a n d how do they relate to the p resen tatio n o f content? W hat connections are m ade betw een the activities provided in the various units? 4. Evaluation: W hat does each u n it give m e to use for evaluation of student learning? W hen will assessm ent occur d u ring the term ? How long will each activity take? 5. Support for the teacher: Is th ere an instruc to r ’s m anual? Is th ere an in tro d u c tio n for the in stru cto r th at has inform ation on using
Language textbooks differ considerably from those in o th e r disciplinary areas. A biology text book, for exam ple, is d o m in a te d by p resentation o f in form ation a b o u t biology— theory, exam ples, and definitions o f term inology. T he p u r pose of the book is for students to learn a certain segm ent of the body o f know ledge th at m akes op the disciplinary area o f “biology.” Discussions of problem s with public school textbooks for o th er disciplines often concentrate on two related areas: ( 1 ) inaccurate or incom plete c o n ten t (see for exam ple, Suidan et al. 1995) a n d (2) p o o r readability for the stu d e n t aud ien ce because c o n te n t experts do n o t necessarily u n d e rsta n d how to p rese n t com plex c o n te n t for new, young learners (see for exam ple, Britton, W oodward, a n d Binkely 1993). T hese problem s should be o f c o n c e rn to E S L /E F L p ro g ram s th a t use a u th en tic m aterials as the basis fo r ESL/EFL study, especially those th at use content-area text books as reso u rces fo r E S L /E F L m aterials. Kearsev a n d T urner (1999) used genre analysis techniques to evaluate textbook m aterials written in Great Britain for secondary science courses; they reveal a text th at is m ade up o f very simple exam ples written for the audience (although probably not accessible to newcom ers to th at soci ety), interspersed with h ard nuggets o f scientific writing to provide the co n ten t th at is the real focus o f the curriculum . In contrast, E SL /E FL textbooks te n d to be m ade up o f two strands o f content: ( 1 ) the lin guistic c o n te n t (gram m ar, vocabulary, skill area)
and (2) the them atic content (“school," "gender issues," “Native Americans." and the topical con tent nsed to present and practice the linguistic co n tent). T he teacher can expect the topics in content-based m aterials to be em phasized and clearly risible. In most o th er m aterials, however, the teacher will n eed to look past the linguistic c o n te n t to find out what them es have been included in the textbook. Ik for exam ple, the teacher notices in his or h er initial analvsis that a gram m ar textbook includes num erous exam ples and passages based on biographies of famous people, then he or she can plan to supplem ent the text with o th er m aterials and activities (visits to local m useum s, readings about people fam ous in the cultures of the students, and so on). The analvsis-for-im plem cntation angle on c o n te n t involves both the linguistic and the them atic con ten t of the textbook, as shown in Table 1.
Analysis of Exercises/Tasks in the Textbook for Implementation in Classes W hile p lan n in g the wavs in which the textbook will be used for the whole academ ic term , a tea c h e r needs to be m aking co n crete if tentativ e
decisions about how different activities will be used d u rin g the academ ic term , asking ques tions such as those in Table 2.
Seeking Help in Implementation o f the Textbook Teachers have both form al a n d inform al source' of inform ation an d su p p o rt as thev analvze text books for im p lem entation. Form al reso u rce' in clu d e th e in s tr u c to r ’s m an u a l as we к as o th e r w ritten m aterials av ailable in the school or program . These o th e r m aterials can include a curriculum statem ent, course svllabi used ir. previous term s, an d copies o f h an d o u ts used lx previous teachers. Additionallv, m am school' prov ide teachers with form al help th ro u g h struc tu re d in te rac tio n s with sen io r teachers and supervisors. Inform al su p p o rt is generallv available i: teachers seek it. W hen teaching a course for the first tim e or for the first tim e with a particula: textbook, teachers can som etim es get help with im p lem en tatio n o f m aterials in a course by talk ing with colleagues who are teaching the same course or who have taught it before.
Table I. Analysis of Content for Implementation in Teaching Linguistic Content
W h a t language is b eing ta u g h t? In w h a t c h u n k s and w h a t s e q u e n c e ? W h a t a d ju s tm e n ts m u s t be m a d e t o fit t h e p ro g ra m 's c u rr ic u lu m ? A r e t h e r e an y a d ju s tm e n ts th a t I w o u ld like t o m a k e in c o n t e n t an d se q u e n c in g to b e t t e r fit m y c o u r s e an d m y s tu d e n ts ?
Them atic Content
W h a t to p ic s a r e u sed in e a c h
u nit? W h a t to p ic s r e c u r th r o u g h o u t th e w h o le b o o k ?
W h a t c o n n e c tio n s can I m a k e b e tw e e n th e s e to p ic s an d th e b a c k g ro u n d s / in te re s ts o f m y s tu d e n ts ? H o w can I m ak e e n ric h e d u se o f th e s e th e m e s ?
Table 2. Analysis of Teaching Activities for Implementation in Teaching W h i c h o f th e a c tiv itie s
The
p ro v id e d in th is t e x t
needs
b o o k w ill 1 d o in class?
te a c h e r of
is
lo o k in g
d iffe re n t
fo r
a v a r ie t y
le a rn e rs
and
to
o f a c tiv itie s a c h ie v e
th e
th a t
can
be
p ed a g o g ica l
u sed
go a ls
to
of
m e e t th e
th e
c o u rs e .
In itial d e c is io n s can be m a d e a b o u t using in d ivid u a l, pair, o r sm all-g ro u p c o n fig u ra tio n s fo r
th e
a c tiv itie s . E x p e r ie n c e d
h ig h - e n e rg y
ta sk , re q u irin g
a
te a c h e r s lo t
of
a lso
m o v in g
lo o k
fo r
ch an ge-o f-p ace
a ro u n d , b a la n c e d
by
a c t iv itie s — a
s o m e th in g
m o re
c o n te m p la tiv e . W h i c h a c tiv itie s in th e
T h is
t e x t b o o k w ill 1 assign
has
as h o m e w o r k ?
p r a c t ic e and f o r a c tiv itie s th a t m ay h ave s tu d e n ts engaging in “ o u ts id e o f c la s s” u se o f
d e c is io n in
th is
needs
to
be
p a r t ic u la r
m ade
cla ss.
on
th e
G e n e r a lly ,
basis
te a c h e rs
of
th e u se
p u rp o s e h o m e w o rk
th a t
h o m e w o rk
fo r
fo llo w - u p
English. S o m e t e a c h e r s u se h o m e w o r k t o p re p a re s tu d e n ts f o r n e w w o r k , n o t ju s t to r e v ie w an d p ra c t ic e things a lre a d y p re s e n te d . W h i c h a c tiv itie s in th e
If n o
t e x t b o o k w ill 1 h o ld
m ig h t be r e s e r v e d t o use f o r testing .
te s ts
are
p ro v id e d
by
th e
te x t
(o r th e
in s t r u c t o r ’s m a n u a l), s o m e
a c tiv itie s
b a c k t o u se f o r te stin g ? W h i c h a c tiv itie s in th e
S o m e a c tiv itie s m ig h t b e r e s e r v e d f o r re v ie w , o r a v a ria tio n o n an a c tiv ity m ig h t be
t e x t b o o k can b e used
u sed f o r r e v ie w la te r in th e te r m .
f o r r e v ie w la te r in th e t e r m ? W h i c h a c tiv itie s in th e
The
initial
t e x t b o o k re q u ir e lo n g e r
th a t
w o u ld
re a d in g
p e rio d s o f tim e to
b y th e te a ch e r.
be
of
th e
te x tb o o k
is
useful
fo r
s tu d e n ts
to
e s p e c ia lly do
but
im p o r t a n t th a t
r e q u ir e
fo r
id e n tify in g
lo n g - te rm
ta s k s
p lan n in g
a c c o m p lis h — sp e cia l p ro je c ts ? W h i c h a c tiv itie s in th e
In m o s t setting s, sp e c ific e q u ip m e n t re q u ire s e x tr a e f f o r t an d p lan n in g a h ea d .
t e x t b o o k m ig h t re q u ire sp e cia l e q u ip m e n t th a t has t o b e o r d e r e d a h e a d o f tim e ? W h e r e a re c o n n e c t io n s
B y re a d in g th e w h o le b o o k p r io r t o th e b e g in n in g o f th e t e r m , th e t e a c h e r can b e c o m e
b e in g m a d e b e tw e e n
a w a r e o f to p ic s a n d th e m e s th a t r e c u r in th e b o o k . C o n n e c t io n s can b e m a d e th a t
v a rio u s u n its o f th e
give m o r e c o h e r e n c e t o th e class.
b o o k , c o n n e c t io n s th a t m ig h t r e q u ire r e v ie w ? W h i c h a c tiv itie s
B e c a u s e th e fit b e tw e e n a n y t e x t b o o k a n d th e c u rric u lu m o f a p ro g ra m w ill s e ld o m be
in th e t e x t b o o k d o
p e rfe c t, s o m e
1 n o t w a n t t o d o a t all?
A d d itio n a lly , s o m e c o n t e n t an d a c tiv itie s m ig h t n o t fit a p a r tic u la r g r o u p o f s tu d e n ts.
p a r ts
o f th e t e x t
m ig h t n o t
b e a p p r o p r ia te f o r
a p a r t ic u la r c o u rs e .
E q u a lly im p o r ta n t, th e r e a re things th a t m ay n o t fit o u r p e rs o n a litie s as t e a c h e r s an d th a t w e m ay n o t be c o m f o r t a b le doing. ( F o r e x a m p le , a lth o u g h 1 h ave c o lle a g u e s w h o m ak e w o n d e r f u l u se o f m u sic in t h e ir classes, 1 d o n o t sing in class and w o u ld n e v e r a t te m p t an a c tiv ity th a t re q u ire d it.)
C O N C L U S IO N These are the fu n d am en tal questions asked by teachers: W hat am I going to do in class (to achieve the goals of the program and o f the stu dents)? W hat are my students going to do in class (to achieve the goals o f the program as well as th e ir personal goals)? W hat are thev going to do for hom ew ork (and how does that connect to what we do in class))? In the evaluation-forselection process, those with the responsibilitv for choosing textbooks need to consider not just the fit between the curriculum and the textbook but also the practical issues of usabilitv bv teachers and by students. O nce a textbook has been selected, teachers need to analvze the resources in the text book to create a plan for dailv lessons and for the whole course that helps them both im ple m en t and supplem ent what is alreadv given in the m ost efficient and effective wav (see Jensen's ch ap ter on lesson planning in this volum e). In discussions written bv some teacher e d u cators, a com m on dem and is that teachers be free agents— creating their own m aterials for their own students. Such discussions are built on a vision of the teacher as an individual, in his or her own classroom, m aking unique decisions for that unique group of students. In this vision, the commerciallv published textbook is a restraint forced u p o n teachers that limits their creativitv (Ur 1996. N unan 1988b). At the o th er extrem e, and proba bly the source of some o f the negative em otions that teacher educators express about textbooks, is the adm inistrative desire for a "teacher-proof tex t” th at can be tau g h t bv even the m ost u n tra in ed aitd unqualified of individuals; this magic textbook guarantees that the whole system or school has com plete uniform ity in the delivery of administrativelv selected content. O f course, realitv for m ost teachers lies som ew here betw een these two extrem es. We are generally p art of a larger svstem th at does have legitim ate concerns about being sure th at all students receive instruction th a t leads to a m ore o r less uniform result. At the same tim e, each of us is different in o u r b ack g ro u n d know ledge and perso n alities— as are o u r students. Having a textbook with ap p ro p riate c o n ten t an d a variety o f possible teaching activities can serve both
needs, giving som e uniform in' to the inform a tion and activities in class while expecting that different teachers will adapt, im plem ent, and su p p lem en t the m aterials based on the needs of a particu lar class in a particular academ ic term .
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1. How are textbooks selected in the K-12 school .svstem w here vou live? Discuss with a p a rtn e r in vour class. 2. If vou are teaching in an intensive English program or some o th er tvpe of college or universitv ESI. program , how are textbooks selected for that program ? How was the text book chosen that vou are using now ? How d< teachers have in p u t into the selection process? Discuss vour answers with classm ate' 3. P ublishers at TF.SOl. conventions have noticed what is som etim es referred to as the "30-second evaluation." In those 30 seconds. teacher picks up a textbook. Hips through, and then puts it down to pick up another book for a brief studv. Som etim es the short anahsis leads to a purchase or to a request for an inspection copv. Discuss what inform ation can be gained in conference exhibits. What kinds of things do vou look for when vou have onlv a m inute or so to look at books before going on to the next conference event: Discuss vour categories with classmates. 4. The appendices to this chapter provide tw< different checklists for evaluation of textbooks Discuss the categories used in the two check lists and the approaches to textbook evalua tion that appear to lie behind each svstem. 5. Reviews of textbooks in professional journal' can be valuable sources of inform ation in the evaluation-for-selection process. Textboo.-, reviews can be found in publications such a« the TESOL journal, the TESOL Quarterly, and in the newsletters or journals of regional affil iates of TESOL. Such reviews generallv pro vide brief sum m aries of the content anc organization o f a text along with some evalua tion of any of a variety of textbook feature' Because they present a colleague's considered opinion and u n d erstanding of the features o: the textbook, thev can provide the person o:
group evaluating textbooks with additional inform ation. From recent editions of one or m ore professional publications, select reviews of three textbooks that m ight be used for a course that you are now teaching or that von m ight teach. W hat criteria do the reviewers use as the basis for their evaluations of the text books? W hat additioiral inform ation would you have wanted the reviewers to include? Discuss the reviews with vour classmates.
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1. Interview a teacher who works in the Ix-12 system w here vou live to find out (a) how teachers har e input into the selection process for the textbooks thev use. (b) am flexibilitv that teachers have in selecting books (per haps choosing from a list of required books), and (c) any flexibilitv that teachers lan e in supplem enting the text with additional m ate rials. In class, com pare the inform ation that vou obtain from several different teachers. 2. Based on a course that vou have taught recemlv, that vou are now teaching, or that you m ight teach in the future, moclifv the evaluation checklist in A ppendix В to make it focus as closelv as possible on that particular course. Discuss the changes that vou have m ade with vour classmates. 3. Based on reviews in recent issues of profes sional publications, select a textbook that seems potentiallv appropriate for a course that vou are teaching or m ight teach in the future. Using as the ev aluation tool one of the checklists in the appendices to this chapter or a version that vou modify to lit the particular course, evaluate the textbook. T hen, com pare your evaluation with that of the published review. R eport to vour class on any insights that vou gained from the review and anv areas of disagreem ent betw een vou r evaluation and that of the rev iewer. 4. Select a textbook that is used in a program w here vou are now teaching, have recently taught, o r m ight teach in the future. (Select a textbook that vou have not used before.) A pproach the textbook as if vou were going
to be using it to teach a class— an d the class begins soon! Read the textbook to gain an overview of its c o n ten t an d organization. C onsider the (a) p rese n tatio n /fo rm a t, (b) co n te n t/in fo rm atio n , (c) practice activities, (d) evaluation activities/instrum ents, and (e) support provided for the teacher. Prepare a short rep o rt to share the inform ation that vou have about the general purpose and design of the textbook. Include ideas about the general p attern that you would use to im plem ent the text in an academ ic term . 5. With a partner, select one unit of the textbook that v'ott analyzed in Activity 4 above. Using Table 2 on page 421. analyze the activities in that unit. C om pare vour analysis of how vou would use the activities to vour partner's analysis. Discuss similarities and differences in vour plans for using the activities. 6. After com pleting Activities 1 a n d .5. decide on content or activities that vou would like to arid to com plem ent or su p p lem en t the text book. W hat is missing from the book that is req u ired bv vour curriculum or by vour students? O r bv vour teaching stvle?
FU R T H ER R EA D IN G B r i t t o n . B. lx.. S. G u lg o z . a n d S. G lv n n . " I m p a c t o f g o o d a n d p o o r w r it in g o n l e a r n e r s : R e s e a r c h a n d th e o r y ." In В. K. B r it o n . A. W o o d w a r d , a n d M. B in klev . e d s. L e m u n i g [ m i n T e x t b o o k s : T h e o r y a n d P r a c t i c e (p p . 1—16). H ill s d a l e , X): L a w r e n c e L rlb au m . T h i s u s e f u l d i s c u s s i o n s h o w s w hv s i m p l i f i e d l e a d i n g s can m a k e c o m p r e h e n s i o n o f c o n t e n t m o r e d if fic u l t f o r l e a r n e r s . T h e a u t h o r s also d e m o n s tra te a m e th o d for e n h a n c in g th e re a d ability o f e x p e r t w r i t i n g by a d d i n g c o n n e c t i o n s a n d m a k in g re la tio n sh ip s b e tw e e n ideas m o r e ex p lic it. C h a m b e r s . F. 1497. " S e e k i n g c o n s e n s u s in c o u r s e b o o k e v alu a tio n ." E L T j o u r n a l 5 1 (1 ): 2 9 -3 5 . T h e a u t h o r d is c u s s e s t h e a p p l i c a t i o n o f s t r a t e gies f r o m b u s i n e s s l o r g r o u p d e c i s i o n m a k i n g in th e te x tb o o k e v a lu a tio n a n d selectio n process. H e m a k e s a s t r o n g ca se f o r t h e i m p o r t a n c e o f involv e m e n t o f all t e a c h e r s in a c o n s e n s u s - b a s e d m o d e l fo r s h a r e d d ecisio n m ak in g .
C ib o ro w s k i, }. 1995. " U s i n g t e x t b o o k s w ith s t u d e n t s w h o c a n n o t r e a d t h e m . " R em e d ia l o r Special E d u c a tio n 1 6 (2 ) : 9 0 - l 02. T h e o v e r t a u d i e n c e f o r th is a r t i c l e is t e a c h e r s w o r k i n g w ith p u b l i c s c h o o l s t u d e n t s in t h e U n i t e d S ta te s w h o b a t e h a d t r o u b l e l e a r n i n g to r e a d — a n d th e r e fo re tro u b le le a r n in g fro m th e t e x t b o o k s u s e d i n t h e i r classes. H o w e v e r, t h e a u t h o r ' s t h o u g h t f u l an alv sis o f t h e wavs in w h i c h s t u d e n t s a r e r e q u i r e d to u s e t e x t b o o k s in l e a r n i n g n e w c o n t e n t a n d skills c a n s t i m u l a t e t h i n k i n g a b o u t wavs in w h i c h E S I. EFU s t u d e n t s a r e e x p e c t e d to l e a r n f r o m t h e i r E S I. F.FL t e x t b o o k s . T h i s a r t ic l e a n d o t h e r s o n s t u d e n t l e a r n in g fro m te x tb o o k s su g g est th a t E S L 'E F I. t e a c h e r s s h o u l d t h i n k a b o u t w h a t it is t h a t s t u d e n t s a r c e x p e c t e d to d o w ith t h e i r t e x t b o o k s in t h e i r E S I./'K F L classes a n d w h a t s t u d e n t s a r e s u p p o s e d to l e a r n f r o m s t i t c h i n g t h e t e x t b o o k s . N e l s o n , G. w ith f. B u rn s . 2000. " M a n a g i n g i n f o r m a t i o n f o r w r it in g u n iv e rsity e x a m s in A m e r i c a n b is to r t ." In M a r c ia Pallv. c d . S u s ta in e d C o n ten t T e a c h in g in A ca d e m ic E S L /E F L (p p . 1.52-157). B o s to n . 5LV: H o u g h t o n Mifflin. W h a t c o n t e n t to u s e in te x t b o o k s is a p a r t i c u l a r c h a l l e n g e in KSL E F L m a t e r i a ls . W e c a n t t e a c h “p u r e g r a m m a r " o r " w ritin g in t h e a b stra c t." T h e s t r u g g le to d e f i n e t h e m o s t a p p r o p r i a t e c o n t e n t h a s l e d to b o t h t h e c o n t e n t - b a s e d a n d t h e taskb a s e d a p p r o a c h e s . T h is c h a p t e r — a l o n g w ith t h e re s t o f t h e b o o k — a r g u e s f o r t h e u se o f t h e s a m e c o n t e n t a c ro s s a n e n t i r e ESI. c o u r s e r a t h e r t h a n f o llo w in g t h e t r a d i t i o n o f h a t i n g m a n s d i f f e r e n t to p ic s u s e d in a sin g le u n i t o f a t e x t b o o k o r h a v i n g e a c h u n i t w ith a sin g le to p ic . It also d e m o n stra te s h o w s u s t a i n e d c o n t e n t c a n b e u s e d to t e a c h a c a d e m i c w ritin g. T o m l i n s o n , B.. e d . 1998. M a te r ia ls D e w d o p m e n l in L a n g u a g e le a c h in g . C a m b r i d g e : C a m b r i d g e U n iv e r s ity Press. T h i s c o l l e c t i o n i n c l u d e s c h a p t e r s o n (1) d a t a c o l l e c t i o n a n d m a t e r i a l s d e v e l o p m e n t , (2) t h e
p r o c e s s o f m a t e r i a l s w r it in g . (3) t h e p r o c e s s of m a t e r i a l s e v a l u a t i o n , a n d (4) id e a s f o r m a t e r i a l ' d e v e l o p m e n t . In a c h a p t e r ti t l e d " W h a t D o T e a c h e r s R e a ll v M a m f r o m C o u r s c b o o k s . - " H. M a s u h a r a d iscu sses th e im p o r t a n c e fo r m a t e r i a l s d e v e l o p m e n t o f n e e d s an aly sis th a t p r o v i d e s i n f o r m a t i o n n o t ju s t a b o u t t h e neecU o f l e a r n e r s b u t a ls o a b o u t t h e n e e d s a n d p r e f e r e n c e s o f te a c h e r s . U r. P. 199b. A C ourse in L a n g u a g e le a c h in g : P ractice a m Theory. C a m b r i d g e : C a m b r i d g e U n iv e rs ity P r e s ' T h i s m e t h o d s b o o k i n c l u d e s a t e x t b o o k e v a lu a ti o n c h e c k l is t (see p a g e 186) a l o n g w ith h e lp f u l i n s t r u c t i o n s f o r v a t s to analv/.e t h e c r i t e r i a t l n r will b e u s e d in a p a r t i c u l a r e v a l u a t i o n p ro c e s s T h e s e c t i o n o n "U s in g a C o u r s e b o o k " e x e m p l i fies a c o m m o n p r o b l e m in m e t h o d s b o o k s . T h e e n t i r e fo c u s o f this s e c t io n is o n p r o b a b l e limita n d fa ilin g s o f a t e x t b o o k a n d wavs to o v e r c o m e t h e m w ith s u p p l e m e n t a r y m a t e r i a ls . T h a t is, n> d i s t i n c t i o n o r t r a n s i t i o n is m a d e f r o m evaluatin'., f o r s e l e c ti o n to analvsis f o r i m p l e m e n t a t i o n .
Bvrcl. P. 200 0. Is su es in t e x t b o o k s e l e c t i o n a n d use R e s o u r c e s f r o m a v a rie ty of d is c i p l i n a r y areas. D e v e l o p e d as p a r t o f t h e p r o c e s s o f w r i t i n g th > c h a p t e r , th is list i n c l u d e s r e s o u r c e s t h a t shew t h e c o m m o n c o n c e r n s a b o u t t e x t b o o k s a c ro s s v a rie ty o f d i s c ip l in e s . T h e list will b e u p d a t e d or. a r e g u l a r basis. S u g g e s t i o n s f o r a d d i t i o n s to th e list c a n b e e - m a i l e d to t h e a u t h o r s t h r o u g h a li n k p r o v i d e d o n t h e site.
http: www.gsu.edu/~eslhpb m aterial/ textbooks.htm
Sample Checklist for Textbook Evaluation
ch ild o r a d u lt le a rn e rs ; m a le a n d / o r fe m a le s tu d e n ts )? Is th e o r d e r in g o f m a te ria ls d o n e by to p ic s o r th e m e s th a t a re a rra n g e d in a logical fa sh io n ? 3.
Is th e c o n t e n t g ra d e d a c c o rd in g t o th e n e e d s o f th e s tu d e n ts o r th e
re q u ire m e n ts
o f th e e x is tin g sylla b u s (if t h e r e is o n e )? 4.
Is th e m a te ria l a c c u r a t e an d up -to -d ate?
b. V o c a b u la r y and s t ru c tu re s 1.
D o e s th e v o c a b u la r y lo a d (i.e., th e n u m b e r o f n e w w o r d s in t ro d u c e d e v e r y le s so n ) s e e m t o b e re a s o n a b le f o r th e s tu d e n ts o f t h a t level?
2.
A r e th e v o c a b u la r y ite m s c o n tr o lle d to e n s u re s y s te m a tic g ra d a tio n fro m sim p le t o c o m p le x ite m s?
3.
Is th e n e w v o c a b u la r y re p e a te d in s u b s e q u e n t le s so n s f o r r e in fo rc e m e n t?
4.
D o e s th e s e n t e n c e len g th s e e m re a s o n a b le f o r th e s tu d e n ts o f th a t level?
5.
Is th e n u m b e r o f g ra m m a tic a l p o in ts as w e ll as th e ir s e q u e n c e a p p ro p ria te ?
6.
D o t h e s t r u c tu r e s g ra d u a lly in c re a s e in c o m p le x it y t o su it th e g r o w in g rea d in g a b ility o f th e s tu d e n ts ?
7.
D o e s th e w r i t e r u se c u r r e n t e v e r y d a y language, and s e n t e n c e s t r u c tu r e s th a t f o llo w n o rm a l w o r d o r d e r ?
8.
D o th e s e n te n c e s and p a ra g ra p h s f o llo w o n e a n o t h e r in a logical s e q u e n c e ?
9.
A r e lin gu istic ite m s in t ro d u c e d in m ean in g fu l situ a tio n s to fa c ilita te u n d e rs ta n d in g and e n s u re a s sim ila tio n and c o n s o lid a tio n ?
c.
E x e rc is e s 1.
D o th e e x e rc is e s d e v e lo p c o m p r e h e n s io n and te s t k n o w le d g e o f m ain id eas, d etails, and s e q u e n c e o f id eas?
2.
D o th e e x e rc is e s in v o lv e v o c a b u la r y and s t r u c tu r e s w h ic h build up th e le a rn e r's r e p e r t o ir e ?
3.
D o th e e x e rc is e s p ro v id e p ra c t ic e in d iffe re n t ty p e s o f w r it t e n w o r k (s e n te n c e c o m p le tio n , sp ellin g and d ic ta tio n , g u id e d c o m p o s it io n )?
4.
D o e s th e b o o k p ro v id e a p a tte rn o f re v ie w w ith in lessons and cu m u latively te s t n e w m aterial?
5.
D o th e e x e rc is e s p r o m o t e m e an in g fu l c o m m u n ic a tio n by re fe rrin g to re a listic a c tiv itie s an d s itu a tio n s ?
d.
Illu s tra tio n s 1.
D o illu s tra tio n s c r e a t e a fa v o ra b le a t m o s p h e r e f o r p ra c t ic e in re a d in g and sp ellin g
2.
A r e th e illu s tra tio n s clear, sim p le , and fre e o f u n n e c e s s a r y d e ta ils th a t m ay c o n fu s e
by d e p ic tin g re a lism and a c tio n ?
th e le a rn e r? 3.
A r e th e illu s tra tio n s p rin te d c lo s e e n o u g h t o th e t e x t an d d ir e c tly re la te d t o th e c o n t e n t t o h e lp th e le a r n e r u n d e rs ta n d th e p rin te d te x t?
Totally lacking
D o e s th e su b je c t m a t t e r c o v e r a v a r ie t y o f to p ic s a p p ro p ria te t o th e in te re s ts o f th e le a rn e rs f o r w h o m th e t e x t b o o k is in te n d e d (u rb a n o r ru ra l e n v iro n m e n t;
2.
W eak
1.
3
2
1
0
i
a. S u b je c t m a t t e r
Adequate
T h e C h e cklist The Textbook
Good
Excellent
Source: D a o u c l . A .-M .. a n d C e l c e - M u r c i a , M . 1 9 / 9 . S e l e c t i n g a n d e v a l u a t i n g a t e x t b o o k . I n M . C e l c e - M u r c i a a n d I.. M c I n t o s h , e d s . T e a c h in g E n g lish as a S e co n d or Foreign L a n g u a g e ( p p . 3 0 2 - 3 0 7 ) . N e w Y o r k : N c w b u r v H o u s e .
4
e.
P h y s ic a l m ake-up 1.
Is th e c o v e r o f th e b o o k d u ra b le e n o u g h t o w ith s ta n d w e a r ?
2.
Is th e t e x t a t t r a c t iv e (i.e., c o v e r, page a p p e a ra n c e , b in d in g )?
3.
D o e s th e size o f th e b o o k s e e m c o n v e n ie n t f o r t h e s tu d e n ts t o h a n d le ?
4.
Is th e t y p e size a p p r o p r ia te f o r th e in te n d e d le a rn e rs ?
The Teacher’s Manual a.
G e n e r a l fe a tu re s 1.
D o e s t h e m an u al h e lp th e t e a c h e r u n d e rs ta n d th e ra tio n a le o f th e T e x t b o o k (o b je c tiv e s , m e th o d o lo g y )?
2.
D o e s th e m an u al g u id e th e t e a c h e r to an y s e t syllab u s f o r th a t level?
3.
D o e s th e in d e x o f th e m an u al g u id e th e t e a c h e r t o th e v o c a b u la ry , s tru c tu re s ,
4.
A r e c o r r e c t o r su g g ested a n s w e r s p ro v id e d f o r all o f th e e x e rc is e s in th e t e x t b o o k ?
5.
Is th e ra tio n a le f o r th e g iven s e q u e n c e o f g r a m m a r p o in ts c le a r ly s ta te d ?
and to p ic s fo u n d in th e T e x tb o o k ?
b. T y p e and a m o u n t o f s u p p le m e n ta r y e x e rc is e s f o r ea ch language skill 1.
D o e s th e M a n u a l p ro v id e m a te ria l f o r tra in in g th e s tu d e n ts in listen in g and u n d e rs ta n d in g th e sp o k e n language?
2. 3.
D o e s th e M a n u a l p ro v id e m a te ria l f o r tra in in g th e s tu d e n ts in o ra l e x p re s s io n ? D o e s th e M a n u a l suggests a d e q u a te and v a rie d o ra l e x e rc is e s f o r re in fo rc in g p o in ts o f g r a m m a r p re s e n te d in th e te x t b o o k ?
4.
D o e s th e M a n u a l p r o v id e d rills and e x e rc is e s th a t e n a b le th e t e a c h e r to h elp th e s tu d e n ts build up t h e ir v o c a b u la r y ?
5.
D o e s th e M a n u a l p r o v id e q u e s tio n s to h elp th e t e a c h e r te s t th e s t u d e n ts ’ rea d in g c o m p r e h e n s io n ?
6. c.
D o e s th e M a n u a l p r o v id e a d e q u a te g ra d e d m a te ria l fo r a d d itio n a l w r itin g p ra c tic e ?
M e th o d o lo g ic a l/ p e d a g o g ic a l g u id a n c e 1. 2.
D o e s th e M a n u a l h elp th e t e a c h e r w it h ea ch n e w ty p e o f lesso n in tro d u c e d ? D o e s th e M a n u a l p ro v id e su g g e stio n s t o h e lp th e t e a c h e r r e v ie w o ld le sso n s an d in t r o d u c e n e w le sso n s?
3.
D o e s th e M a n u a l p ro v id e p ra c tic a l su g g e stio n s f o r te a c h in g p ro n u n c ia tio n and in to n a tio n ?
4.
D o e s th e m an u al p r o v id e su g g estio n s t o h elp th e t e a c h e r in t r o d u c e n e w rea d in g passages?
5.
D o e s th e M a n u a l p ro v id e g u id a n c e t o th e t e a c h e r f o r in tro d u c in g v a rio u s ty p e s o f w r it t e n w o r k ?
6.
D o e s th e M a n u a l p r o v id e g u id a n c e t o th e t e a c h e r f o r e v a lu a tin g w r it t e n w o r k and
7.
D o e s th e M a n u a l a d v is e th e t e a c h e r o n th e u se o f a u d io visu a l aids?
id e n tify in g th e s t u d e n ts ’ m o s t s e r io u s m ista k e s?
d. L in g u istic b a c k g ro u n d in fo rm a tio n 1.
D o e s th e M a n u a l p ro v id e c o n tr a s tiv e in fo rm a tio n f o r th e t e a c h e r o n likely p ro n u n c ia tio n p ro b le m s ?
2.
A r e En glish v o c a b u la r y ite m s an d English s t r u c tu r e s w e ll e x p la in e d ?
3.
A r e lists o f c o g n a te w o r d s ( t r u e an d false c o g n a te s ) p ro v id e d f o r th e te a c h e r ?
4.
D o e s t h e M a n u a l p r o v id e in fo rm a tio n o n g r a m m a r t o h elp th e t e a c h e r ex p la in g ra m m a tic a l p a tte rn s p re s e n te d in th e le sso n s and a n tic ip a te lik ely p ro b le m s (i.e., d a ta fr o m c o n t r a s t iv e an alysis an d e r r o r an a lysis)?
Textbook Evaluation Checklist Source:
P a tr ic i a B m x I a n d M a r i a n n e C e lc e - M n r c i a
E v a lu a tio n o f t h e fit
Yes
Perh ap s
Probably not
Absolutely not
(a g o o d fit)
(an a d e q u a te
(a p o o r fit)
(w r o n g f o r
fit)
c u rric u lu m , stu d e n ts , a n d / o r te a ch e rs)
Fit between the textbook and the curriculum * fits c u rric u lu m / g o a ls * has a p p r o p r ia te lin gu istic c o n t e n t * has a p p r o p r ia te th e m a t ic c o n t e n t * fits th e p e d a g o g ica l an d S L A p h ilo s o p h y o f th e p ro g ra m / c o u rs e
Fit between the textbook and the students * e x p la n a tio n s u n d e rs ta n d a b le an d u sa b le f o r s tu d e n ts * e x a m p le s u n d e rs ta n d a b le and u sa b le f o r s tu d e n ts * a c tiv itie s a p p r o p r ia te f o r s tu d e n ts * th e m a t ic c o n t e n t u n d e rs ta n d a b le and c u ltu r a lly a p p r o p r ia te f o r s tu d e n ts
Fit between the textbook and the teachers * fits th e language skills o f o u r te a c h e r s * fits th e k n o w le d g e - b a s e o f o u r t e a c h e r s * p ro v id e s e x p la n a tio n s t h a t can b e u sed b y o u r te a c h e r s * p ro v id e s e x a m p le s th a t can b e u sed and e x p a n d e d b y o u r te a c h e r s * fits th e n e e d s an d p re fe re n c e s o f o u r te a c h e r s * p ro v id e s in - b o o k o r in s tr u c to r 's m an u al s u p p o rt fo r te a ch e rs
Overall evaluation of the fit of the book for this course in this program S h o u ld th e t e x t b e s e le c te d /
When the Teacher Is a Non-native Speaker P ЁТЕ R
M E D G Y E S
In "W h e n the Teacher Is a Non-native Speaker" Medgyes examines the differences in teaching behavior between native and non-native teachers of English, and then specifies the causes o f those differences. The aim of the discussion is to raise the awareness o f both groups of teachers to their respective strengths and weaknesses, and thus help them becom e better teachers,
IN T R O D U C T IO N It is com m onplace to state today that English is the unrivaled lingua franca of the world, and th at it is rolling ah ead like a juggernaut. In ou r age of globalization, Fishm an's rem ark th at "the sun never sets on the English language" (1982. p. 18) rings tru e r than ever, an d although there is no g u a ra n te e o f e te rn a l hegem onv, the chances are that English will reign suprem e for several m ore decades. T he fact that the n u m b er o f second a n d foreign language speakers of English far exceeds the n u m b er of first language speakers o f English (G raddol 1997 ) im plies that the English language is no longer the privilege o f native speakers; the suggestion that S tandard British English and A m erican English should be su p e rse d e d bv E nglish as an In te rn a tio n a l Language can be heard with increasing frequence. Nevertheless, people who speak English as their native language continue to have a distinct advan tage o \e r those for w hom it is a foreign tongue. Put differently, non-native speakers of English find it hard to com pete with native speakers on equal term s, and this linguistic handicap applies to non-native teachers of English as well. Native speakers an d non-native speakers used to be considered two different an d clearly distinguishable categories. In rec e n t years, how ever, this view has com e u n d e r heavy attack, as a grow ing n u m b e r o f researchers have discovered the am biguities with which this dichotom v is loaded. New term s, alleged to b e tte r reflect the com plex n a tu re o f linguistic heritage and profi
ciency, have been recom m ended to project new concepts and identities. .Although there are per suasive argum ents against the native/non-native dichotom v, m ost o f them legitim ate on any g round— linguistic, educational, ideological, or pragm atic— none of the alternative phrases have come into com m on use. T he controversv over native versus n o n native distinction has also b een b ro u g h t to bear on language pedagogy a n d ELT m ethodology. T h e "native English-speaking tea c h e r” (NEST) a n d its opposite, the “non-native English-speak ing teacher" (non-N EST), have b een d e e m e d politicallv incorrect phrases, a n d those who still use them can expect to be accused o f em ploying d isc rim in a to rv lan g u ag e. N ev erth eless, th e su p e ro rd in a te term s "native speaker” an d “n o n native speaker” seem to persist in the language use of researchers a n d teachers alike. T h e rea son for the perseverance of these term s may be that m ost teachers, as well as th eir students, do com e from e ith e r E nglish-speaking o r nonEnglish-speaking countries; m ost o f th em are e ith e r native o r non-native speakers o f English. But even a bilingual o r polyglot whose identity may be equivocal seem s to display d o m in a n t fea tures of belonging. T h erefo re, it is suggested that the dichotom y, for all its shortcom ings, should not be rejected, overlooked, o r blu rred , but ra th e r subjected to close scrutiny. This chapter attem pts to do ju st that: it strives to exam ine differences in teaching behavior between NESTs and non-NESTs, and then specify the causes of those differences. By draw ing on
b oth em pirical evidence and on experience, it argues that m ost of the archetypal deviations betw een the two groups of teachers are ultimately attributable to their divergent language back grounds. This is not the same as suggesting that a high d eg ree o f E nglish-language proficiency alone is a g u arantee for successful teaching. In d ee d , despite th e ir linguistic im p ed im en t, non-NESTs have an equal chance o f becom ing successful teachers, and it is the advantages that they have over NESTs with which this c h ap ter is chiefly concerned. A lthough pride o f place is g ran te d to the te a c h e r’s language proficiency th ro u g h o u t the discussion, th ere is no denving the im portance o f o th e r attributes, most notablv teaching qualifications, professional skills, and experience. (The role these attributes plav in the te a c h in g /le a rn in g process is exam ined in detail in o th e r chapters o f this volume.)
W H O IS T H E N A TIV E SPEAKER? The Linguistic Perspective W ho is a native speaker? A native speaker of English is traditionally defined as som eone who speaks English as his or h e r native language, also called m o th e r tongue, first language, o r L.l. T he n e x t question th a t springs to m ind is: W hat qual ifies som eone as a native speaker? A m ong the criteria for “native sp eak erh o o d ,” the m ost oftcited and, at first glance, m ost straightforw ard o n e is birth (Davies 1991). T hat is to sav, a native speaker of English is an individual who was b o rn in an English-speaking countrv. T h e trouble with this is th at b irth does n ot always d eterm in e lan guage identity. W hat ab o u t C hristine, for exam ple, who was b o rn in the U nited States, b u t m oved to A ustria at the age o f one, after she h ad b een a d o p te d bv A ustrian parents? Since she never learn ed to speak English, it w ould be odd to define h e r as a native speaker o f English. O r take Kevin, b o rn in the U nited States, who w ent to live in Togo with his family w hen he was four, an d subsequently a tte n d e d a F rench school. Is he a native speaker o f English or F re n c h — or b o th, o r neither? If not b irth, is it c h ild h o o d th a t u n d e rp in s native speakerhood? But what is the
range o f childhood? W here does it begin and w here does it end? T he situation becom es fu rth e r com plicated if we consider offspring from m ixed m arriages. T h e re is eight-vear-old Pablo, fo r exam ple, whose fath e r is C olom bian a n d whose m o th e r is Finnish. Provided b o th parents speak to him in th eir respective native language, Pablo becom es bilingual. However, if the familv lives perm anentlv in Australia, the bov becom es a trilingual speaker. Does this include the possibility that Pablo is a native speaker o f English? A nother problem has to do with the fuzzi ness of geographical entities. W hich countries qualifv as English-speaking countries? T he U nited States, the U nited Kingdom, Australia, and a few m ore. But how about such countries as India. Nigeria, o r Singapore, w here English, though widelv spoken, is not the native language for the majority of the population and its use is lim ited to particular spheres of life? O n the o th e r hand, these countries also differ from countries like Poland. Peru, or Japan, where very few children en co u n ter English at anv great lengths before thev have form al school instruction. Recognizing the difficulty of setting up a division line betw een English- and non-Englishspeaking countries, Kachrtt (1985) arranged countries into three concentric circles. T he Innc Circle includes nations where English is the pri mary language. T he countries in the Outer Circle have been historically affected bv the spread ot English, often as colonies; in these m ultilingual settings English is the second language, generalb the m ajor intranational m eans of com m unication. T he Expanding Circle involves nations which haw accepted English as the most im portant in tern a tional language of com m unication and teach it as a foreign language. However, in K achru’s visual representation the differences are not watertight and countries in each circle exhibit a great deal ot variation and internal mobility.
The Educational Perspective T he native speaker m odel is not only the con cern o f linguists and sociolinguists, but is an issue which has fueled debate am o n g language
educators as well. T he controversy becam e partic ularly acrim onious in the 1980s and early 1990s. T here were a n u m b er o f researchers who claim ed that there is no such creature as the native or non-native speaker, an opinion well ren d e re d bv the title of a seminal book, The Native Speaker Is Dead! (Paikedav 1985). Ferguson form ulated this radical approach as follows: “T he whole mystique o f the native speaker and the m o th er tongue should probably be quietly d ro p p ed from the lin guist’s set o f professional myths about language" (1982, p.vii). C onsidered to be useless, the n a tiv e /n o n native dichotom y was to be rep laced bv new concepts an d new term s, in clu d in g more or less accomplished an d proficient users o f English, expert versus novice speakers, and bilingual speakers to include both natives fluent in a n o th e r language and non-natives fluent in English. In similar fashion, Kachru (1992) spoke o f Tnglish-using speech fellowships to stress “we-ness” instead of the rigid “us and them " division. In spite of the cogent argum ents against the native/non-native separation, the polem ic seems to have abated these dais, and the w eathered term s “native speakers" and “non-native speakers" are as widely used in the professional jargon todav as ever. But why is this distinction so im pervious to change? T here are at least two possible answers. T he m ore down-to-earth answer is that the m ajor ity of people are not borderline: thev clearly belong to eith er the group of native speakers or to that of the non-native speakers of English. T he m ore paradoxical answer is that the native non-native ep ith et is useful, to quote Hallidav, “precisely because it isn't too closelv defined" (cited in Paikedav 1985. p. 64). In a similar vein, Davies rem arked that "the native speaker is a fine myth: we need it as a m odel, a goal, alm ost an inspiration. But it is useless as a m easure; it will not help us define o u r goals" (1996, p. 157). Speaking o f goals, what are the goals of lan guage learning? For m ost learners, the ultim ate aim is an effective use of the target language. People seldom aspire to m ore th an w hat they find professionally an d personally necessary. It is a case of quid pro quo. R em em ber that the a tta in m e n t o f native proficiency in English not
only dem ands strenuous efforts, b u t it may also lead to a loss of native identity in o n e ’s T 1— a price m any w ould find far too g reat to pay. N evertheless, can any le a rn e r h o p e to achieve full m astery o f a second language, with all its linguistic subtleties and cultural allusions? Most researchers agree that this is an im possible task for the overw helm ing m ajority after puberty, but exceptions do exist. This induces fu rth e r questions: W hat are the criteria for native profi ciency? W hat is the cut-off p o in t betw een native proficiency and various levels o f non-native p ro ficiency? R esearchers are ra th e r skeptical ab o u t the feasibility o f designing adequate m easuring instrum ents to separate the two groups. This being the case, Davies (1991) points out, m em bership to one o r the o th e r category is n o t so m uch a priv ilege o f birth, education, o r language proficiency as a m atter o f self-ascription, hr o th er words, anyone who claims to be a native speaker is o n e — with the proviso, Kramsch observes, that thev are in fact accepted “bv the group that created the distinction betw een native a n d n o n native speakers" (1997, p. 363). However, ju st as non-native outsiders tvpicallv do not w ant to tu rn into natives, native insiders are n o t always eager to adm it non-natives. In short, mobility betw een the two groups is possible but rare.
The Ownership o f English G ranted that the m ajority of non-native speakers do not m etam orphose into natives, can thev still claim ow nership o f English? O r does English rem ain the property7 of natives by virtue of their better language proficiency and stronger cultural affiliation? In this regard, W iddowson forcefully sums up the view o f m any o th er ELT professionals. H e argues that English is an international language, which implies that “it is n o t a possession which [native speakers] lease out to others, while still retaining the freehold. O th e r people actually own it" (1994. p. 385). In a similar way, N orton con tends that English “belongs to all the people who speak it, w hether native and non-native, w hether ESL o r EFL, w hether standard o r n o n sta n d a rd ”
(1997, р. 427). T he validity of these statem ents can be proven m ost spectacularly bv the exam ple o f such em in en t tw entieth-century novelists as C onrad, Nabokov, o r Sovinka, all o f them being non-native speakers of English, writing in English. Far m ore generally, however, it is claim ed that any non-native speaker who engages in genuine com m unication can use the second language cre ative!}', m olding it until it becom es an adequate tool o f self-expression. In short, the ideal o f the m ultilingual, m ulticultural speaker to replace th at o f the m onolingual, m onocultural speaker is gaining g ro u n d in the professional literature (Kramsch 1997). This brings us to the subject o f English as an In tern atio n al Language (EIL). W hile E li. as a linguistic c o n stru c t is a c c e p te d bv m ost researchers, it is m ore controversial w h eth er EIL is a special kind of S tandard English with norm s distinct from those of o th e r stan d ard Englishes, o r any kind o f S tandard English used in in te rn a tional settings. It has also been observed that, short of a p ro p e r description of its gram m ar. EIL is no m ore th an an idealization, an am algam of beliefs a n d assum ptions about rules and norm s to which people a d h e re with varying degrees of success (Medgyes 1999a). Paradoxically, it is teachers a n d learners from m onolingual EFL settings who typically are doubtful th at deviation from stan d ard norm s is acceptable (Jenkins 1998), while the staunchest advocates of EIL as a self-contained entity are m ost com m only fo u n d am o n g applied linguists and teachers who speak English as th eir native language.
Hiring Policies Let us now turn to the teaching profession within the fram ew ork o f the native/non-native dichot omy. W hile non-native speakers of English are generally co n tented with their non-native status, non-native teachers o f English often feel disad vantaged a n d discrim inated against. T h e ir com p la in t is m ainlv leveled at u n e q u a l job o p portunities: teaching applications from even highly qualified and experien ced non-XESTs often get tu rn e d down in favor o f XESTs with no such credentials. For exam ple, here is a letter o f
rejection sent to a non-XEST applicant by the principal o f a language school in London: “I am afraid we have to insist that all ou r teachers are native speakers o f English. O u r students do not travel halfwav ro u n d the world only to be taught by a non-native speaker (however good that per so n ’s English mav b e )” (Illes 1991, p. 87). Language schools which advertise th em selves as em ploying onlv native English speaker* often do so with the excuse that XESTs are better for public relations a n d im prove business. A n o th er explanation is th eir clients’ alleged needs. With reference to newlv arrived im m i grants in the U nited States, an Am erican teacher argued that "a teacher's lack o f native instinct* ab o u t A m erican English usage an d cultural expectations could be detrim ental to [the im m i grants'] chances in job interviews" (Safadi 1992 In spite of these argum ents, hiring prac tices in the two ELT strongholds, the U nitec States and the Udiked K ingdom , are in a state re transition. W hile in the past, m ajor organiza tions involved in ELT often shut th eir eyes to di*crim in atio n against non-XESTs, albeit never officially end o rsin g it, todav the sam e institu tions are in the habit of m aking clear a n d pr< gressive police statem ents. Incidentally, the mo*' im p o rtan t resolution was the one passed by tin Executive B oard of TESOL in 1991, which no: onlv expressed its disapproval of d iscrim in ato r hiring policies, but also d ecided to take steps t abolish all form s o f restriction based on tin. applicant's native language. It m ust be adm itted, though, that discrim i nation in hiring policies is not a priority issue i:. m ost parts of the world, m ainlv because the p er centage of non-XESTs in search o f a teaching j o ’ in E nglish-speaking c o u n tries is negligible Perhaps to a lesser extent todav than in the pas: non-XESTs tvpicallv work in EFL and XESTs ir. ESL environm ents. W hile brain drain does n o seriously affect the language teaching profession o th e r form s o f discrim ination are far m ore acute
The Center and the Periphery T he C e n te r/P e rip h e ry dichotom y was im porter, into ELT bv Phillipson (1992). To the Center b e lo n g pow erful W estern c o u n tries w here
English is the native language, w hereas the P e rip h e ry is c o n stitu te d o f u n d e rd e v e lo p e d countries w here English is a second or foreign language. ELT today is a huge enterprise and. as Phillipson argues, organizations as well as indi viduals from the C enter have high stakes in m ain tain in g its o p e ra tio n . R esearch projects, aid program s, an d tra in in g courses are ru n bv a n d /o r in the Center, quite often u n d e r the aus pices o f pow erful governm ent agencies such as the U nited States Inform ation Service a n d the British Council. S tandard ELT m ethodologies are often based on the needs and background o f the NEST who teaches in an ESL rath e r th an an EFL e n v iro n m en t (H ollidav 1994). R ecom m endations subm itted bv native speaker experts are often taken at face value and acted u p o n by local authorities. In ordinary classrooms in the Periphery. Phillipson states, XESTs are invariable granted jobs with a salary far exceeding that paid to local teachers. In certain co untries an d historical circum stances, even backpackers with no teach ing qualifications o r teaching experience are ex ten d ed a warm welcome. T he ELT business is backed by a book trade which s e n e s the interests o f the C enter and dissem inates its prevailing ide ologies an d m ethodologies. C om m unicative lan guage teaching often is im posed on Periphery classrooms while tried and tested m ethods are c o n d e m n e d , despite th eir popularity am ong teachers and learners (Liu 1999). Most textbooks im p o rted from the C e n te r not only destroy national ELT publishing, but also are ill-suited for local needs, projecting a “to-whom-it-mayconcern" aura. As a consequence, P eriphery experts b ecom e m ore and m ore d e p e n d e n t on th e C enter-based ELT estab lish m en t (Canagarajah 1999), and the attainm ent o f sus tainability rem ains but wishful thinking as a rule. T he needs an d attributes o f local teachers had b een all but ig n o re d until th e 1990s, w hen an interest in the non-XEST gained m om entum . This recognition was long overdue considering that, there are far m ore non-NESTs in the "world than XESTs, and that their num bers are rapidlv growing. In addition to num erous articles and a collection o f essays written on the subject (Braine 1999), a full-length book is wholly devoted to
an analysis of the distinguishing features of nonXF.STs (Meclgves 1994). Most o f the ideas p re sented below har e b een borrow ed from this book.
N E STS A N D N O N -N E S T S : PRO SAND CONS As m e n tio n e d above, native sp e ak e rh o o d is an intricate concept, which includes birth, e d u cation, the en v iro n m en t in which the individual is exposed to English, the sequence in which languages are learned, levels of proficiency, selfconfidence, cultural affiliation, self-identification, and political allegiance. T here are two wavs out of this m a/e. O ne is to shortcut it bv ab andoning the neatlv d efin ed categories o f native versus non-native, offering instead the im age of a line, along which non-natives move towards the native end. T he o th er route leads through the retention of the native/non-native construct for all its a p p a re n t weaknesses. From a theoretical stance, the first o ption appears m ore prom ising. From a practical point of view, however, the second one is m ore straightforw ard, if onlv because the larger part of the world's teaching pool falls into two fairlv clear-cut categories: XESTs an d non-NESTs. H ence the decision to choose the second route for the purposes of this chapter. Most commonly, a non-NEST may be defined as a teacher: ■ * ■ *
for w hom English is a second or foreign language; who works in an EFL environm ent; whose students are m onolingual groups of learners; who speaks the same native language as his or h e r students.
This definition only partially applies to a m uch sm aller group, th at o f non-native teachers who work in ESL environm ents, often with stu d en ts from h e te ro g e n e o u s linguistic back grounds. Bv extension, the NEST may be defined as the opposite of the non-NEST, m ost character istically as a teacher who speaks English as a native language.
T he basic assum ption, th en , is that NESTs an d non-NESTs are two different species, and teachers b elo n g to eith e r this or that category. Given this, fo u r assum ptions follow (Medgyes 1994): 1. NESTs an d non-XESTs differ in term s of th eir language proficiency 2. They differ in term s of their teaching behavior 3. T h e discrepance- in language proficiencv accounts for m ost o f the differences fo u n d in th eir teaching behavior 4.
Thev can be equallv good teachers on th eir own term s
In o rd e r to validate his assu m p tio n s. Medgyes carried out a snrvev which included 325 teachers from 11 countries; 86 p e rc e n t of the participants were non-natives an d 14 p e r cen t natives. A lthough the sam ple was fairly large, the a u th o r suggested caution in in te rp re t ing the results, largely because the project teas b ased on q u e stio n n a ire -e lic ite d self-reports, which reflect a teacher's stated behavior rath e r th an his o r h e r actual behavior; th ere mav be a wide gap betw een the two. In any case, the results re p o rte d h e re have been obtain ed from this snrvev; for detailed statistical analvses, see Reves a n d Medgyes 1994.
The Linguistic Handicap N ot surprisingly, the prim ary advantage attrib u ted to NESTs lies in th eir su p erio r English-lan guage com petence. T h eir superiority was fo u n d particularlv spectacular in th eir ability to use the language spontaneouslv an d in the m ost diverse com m unicative situations. Non-NESTs, on the whole, are well at rare o f th eir linguistic deficien cies an d of the all-pervasive n a tu re o f their handicap. In no area o f English-language profi ciencv can thev em ulate NESTs: snrvev partici pants viewed them selves as p o o re r listeners, speakers, readers, and writers. True enough, long stays in English-speaking countries, hard work, an d dedication m ight help narrow the gap, b u t verv few non-NESTs are ever able to catch up with their native colleagues. A lien asked
to identify' the m ajor source of difficulty, m ost non-NEST participants m en tio n ed vocabulary, to g eth er with idiom atic a n d appropriate use of English. This was followed bv problem s in speak ing an d fluenev. pronunciation, and listening. G ram m ar featured to a far lesser extent and so did writing skills, whereas reading skills and cul tural knowledge were not even m entioned. Manv non-NESTs participating in the survev c o m m en ted ab o u t th eir inferioritv com plex caused bv the defects in th eir English-language proficiencv and about som e kind of cognitive dissonance due to the double role thev played a> b o th teachers and learners of the sam e subject. All these problem s to g eth e r constitute the dark side of being a non-NEST. In view o f these results, the first assum ption, nam elv that NESTan d non-NESTs differ in term s of th eir language proficiencv. mav be reg ard ed as confirm ed.
Differences in Teaching Behavior W hen asked w h eth er thev perceived any differ ences in teaching behavior betw een NESTs anc non-NESTs. 82 p e rc e n t o f the participants gar г a positive answer. F u rth erm o re, thev stressec that the discrepance in language p ro fic ie n tacco u n ted for m ost of the differences found ir. th eir teaching behavior. Thus b o th the second and th ird assum ptions above seem to have beer, b o rn e out bv the survev findings. T he collator: results are supplied u n d e r com prehensive h e a d ings in Table 1. In explaining the differences, m anv partic ipants p o in te d out that non-XESTs are usualk p reo ccu p ied with accuracv, the form al featu re' o f English, the nuts and bolts o f gram m ar, the p rin te d word, and form al registers. Many lacfluenev. h are a lim ited insight into the intrica cies o f m eaning, are often in d o u b t ab o u t a p p ro priate language use, have p o o r listening anc speaking skills, a n d are n o t fam iliar with collo quial English. It is only logical to assum e that non-NESTs place an em phasis on those aspect' of the language that thev have a b e tte r grasp ot If thev have a restricted know ledge o f context thev ten d to teach unfam iliar language elem en t'
Table I. Perceived Differences in Teaching Behavior Between N ESTs and N on-N ESTs N ESTs
N on-N ESTs own use o f English
speak better English use real language use English more confidently
speak poorer English use “ bookish” language use English less confidently general attitude
adopt a more flexible approach are more innovative are less empathetic attend to perceived needs have far-fetched expectations are more casual are less committed
adopt a more guided approach are more cautious are more empathetic attend to real needs have realistic expectations are stricter are more committed
attitude to teaching the language
are less insightful focus on: fluency meaning language in use oral skills colloquial registers teach items in context prefer free activities favor group work/pair work use a variety of materials tolerate errors set fewer tests use no/less LI resort to no/less translation assign less homework
are more insightful focus on: accuracy form grammar rules printed word formal registers teach items in isolation prefer controlled activities favor frontal work use a single textbook correct/punish for errors set more tests use more LI resort to more translation assign more homework attitude to teaching culture
supply more cultural information
in a context-poor environm ent o r in isolation. Preoccupied with their own language difficulties, they are reluctant to loosen their grip over the class. As group work and pair work often create unpredictable situations full of linguistic traps, non-NESTs favor m ore secure form s of classwork, such as lock-step activities. Similar reasons were claimed to account for the non-NESTs preference
supply less cultural information
for standard coursebooks, which by their very nature provide security. For the same reason, nonNESTs are inclined to adopt a m ore controlled and cautious pedagogic approach. Incidentally, these results tie in nicely with m ore recent data reported by Samimv and Brutt-Griffler (1999). (Further divergences displayed in Table 1 are dealt with in the following sections.)
Before providing argum ents to prove the fo u rth assum ption, let us turn to a discussion of certain advantages a ttrib u ted to non-XESTs over NESTs.
The Bright Side o f Being a N on-NEST O n e item in th e q u estio n n aire in q u ired w h eth er th e participants th o u g h t the NEST o r the nonNEST was a b e tte r teacher. W hile an ap p ro x i m ately equal n u m b e r o f votes w ent for e ith e r o p tio n (27 p e rc e n t for NESTs an d 29 p e rc e n t for non-NESTs), 44 p e rc e n t in serted "both." an alternative which h ad n o t even b een supplied in the q uestionnaire. T he p ro p o rtio n of partici pants who chose non-NESTs as th eir favorites is high, especially given th eir linguistic inferioritv. It follows from this th at non-NESTs should be in possession o f certain u n iq u e features that NESTs lack. B ut w hat are they? W hat gives non-NESTs th eir com petitive edge? W hat assets enable them to m ake up for th eir linguistic handicap? Partly inspired by the teachers participating in th e survey, Medgves advanced a second set o f assum ptions. Namely, c o m p ared to NESTs, non-NESTs can: 1 . provide a b e tte r le a rn e r m odel: 2. teach lan g u a g e -le a rn in g strateg ies m ore effectively; 3. supply m ore in form ation a b o u t the English language; 4. b e tte r an ticipate a n d prev en t language difficulties; 5. be m ore sensitive to th eir students; 6 . b enefit from th eir abilitv to use the stu d e n ts’ m o th e r tongue. Below, we elaborate on these six assumptions.
I. Non-NESTs Provide a Better Learner Model Any language teacher can set two kinds of models before the students: a language m odel and a lea rn er m odel. M edgyes’s basic claim is that, while NESTs m ake b e tte r language m odels, nonNESTs can provide b e tte r learner m odels. In term s
of a language m odel, non-NESTs are relativelv h in d ere d , since thev are learners o f English just like th eir students, albeit at a h ig h er level. A lthough a m ore proficient non-XEST is likelv to provide a b e tte r language m odel th an a less proficient one, non-NESTs c a n n o t rival NESTs. In com pensation, as it were, onlv non-NESTs can be set as p ro p e r le a rn e r m odels, since thev learned English after thev acq u ired th eir native language, unlike NESTs who acquired English as th eir native language — two com pletelv different processes (K rashen 1981). A n o th er area o f investigation concerns a com parison of learning success an d teaching efficacv. In this regard, two questions may be asked. T h e first one is, Do von have to be a suc cessful lea rn er in o rd e r to becom e a successful teacher? M edgves’s answer is a tentative yes. arguing that a successful teach er by definition ia successful lea rn er o f English: p o o r language learners clo n ot m ake good language teachers. This is not to deny that th ere are unsuccessful learners equipped with outstanding teaching qual ities which help them offset their language defi ciencies. However, such teachers are few and far between, and hence onlv those non-NESTs should be set as m odels who are successful learners them selves— anvthing less is a comprom ise. T he second question is, Does every success ful lea rn er becom e a successful teacher? The answer to this question is a definite no. If a per fect com m and were a sufficient prerequisite for successful teaching, Medgves contends, NESTs w ould bv definition be b e tte r teach ers— which thev are not! W ith respect to non-NESTs, too. h is com m on experience th at successful learnertu rn out to be lousv teachers. This may be explained bv several factors, m ost evidently hi in ad e q u a te professional training. It ap p ealth en . that success in learning English is a n e c e sarv but not a sufficient condition for success ir. teaching it.
2. Non-NESTs Teach Language-learning Strategies More Effectively It is a truism th a t som e people pick up languagem ore quickly an d effectively than others. Succe-d ep en d s on several things, such as background.
m otivation, age, intelligence, ap titude, level of education, and quality o f instruction, as well as know ledge o f o th e r foreign languages. An addi tional factor with a bearing on success is the use of language learning strategies. W hat are thev? L an g u ag e le a rn in g strategies, a c c o rd in g to W enden a n d Rubin (1987), are specific actions em ployed to facilitate the lea rn in g an d recall of o n e o r several c o m p o n e n ts o f proficiencv. Facilitation implies not only m aking the process easier, but also m aking it “faster, m ore enjovablc. m ore self-directed, m ore effective, and m ore transferrable to new situations" (Oxford 1990. p. 8). All le a rn e rs em ploy lan g u ag e le a rn in g strategies. Success with learning largely depends u p o n the ability to select the m ost app ro p riate strategy for dealing with a specific learning task. G ood learners are capable of gleaning a rep e r toire o f strategies which suits their personalitv as well as th eir particular learning environm ent. However, the m ajority of language learn ers grope in the dark unless thev are fortunate en o u g h to receive tailor-m ade su p p o rt from know ledgeable teachers. .Although researchers have long been intrigued bv the question of the teachability of strategies, hardlv anv tangible results have been p ro d u ce d thus far. .After having interview ed seven extrem ely successful language learners, Stevick concludes that there is no com m on p a tte rn em erging: everyone seems to learn in his o r h e r own wav. W hat works for som e learn ers utterly fails for others: “H ardlv a clear m odel for an aspiring language student who wants to profit from th eir exam ple!” (1989, p. 138). As successful learn ers o f English, nonNESTs are supposed to be conscious strategy users, able to tell which strategies have w orked for them an d which have not. T hus they stand a better chance o f sensitizing th eir students to the em ploym ent o f strategies th an th e ir native speaking colleagues do. T h e ir ability consists in im parting th eir own learn in g experiences as well as providing assistance for students to discover o th er strategies that should work specifically for them . To be fair, NESTs have also p u rsu e d strate gies in their contact with foreign languages. However short-lived o r distant th eir learn in g experience m ar have been, they may harness it :n th eir job as teachers of English.
3. Non-NESTs Supply More Information About the English Language Any language teacher's expertise consists o f three com ponents: (a) language proficiencv, (b) lan guage awareness, and (c) pedagogic skills. W hile language proficiency implies skills in the target language, language awareness involves explicit knowledge about the language, which does n o t necessarily assume near-native language profi ciencv. In his o r h e r role as an instructor, the teacher obviously exhibits varying degrees o f p ed agogic skills as well. R etu rn in g to a com parison o f teach in g behavior betw een NESTs a n d non-NESTs shown in Table 1, non-NESTs were fo u n d to be m ore insightful th an NESTs. This follows from the dif ferences in the process o f m astering th e English language. T h e ir acquisition being largely u n c o n scious, NESTs were perceived as largely unaw are o f the internal m echanism s d irecting language use and, th erefo re, less able to give th eir stu d en ts relevant inform ation ab o u t the target lan guage. O n the o th e r h an d , non-NESTs have am assed a w ealth o f know ledge a b o u t th e English language d u rin g th eir own learning process. T h eir a n te n n a e can in te rc e p t as a possi ble source of problem s even the m in u test item which NESTs mav take no notice of. P ut differentlv, w hereas NESTs have b e tte r in tu itio n s ab o u t what is right an d w rong in language use, non-NESTs have d e e p e r insights into w hat is easy an d difficult in the learn in g process. Naturally, NESTs are also capable o f refin ing th eir language awareness. They can im prove, provided that they avail them selves o f the o p p o r tunities offered by te a c h e r education, foreign language learning, and, above all, experience. Those NESTs who have spent an ex ten d ed period o f time in a host country and have taken pains to learn the students’ m o th er tongue should be incom parably m ore know ledgeable than those who have not.
4. Non-NESTs Better Anticipate and Prevent Language Difficulties Having ju m p ed off the sam e sp rin g b o ard as th eir students, non-NESTs are intrinsically m ore p e rc e p tiv e a b o u t lan g u a g e difficulties th a n
NESTs. F or th em to discover tro u b le spots requires little tim e an d energy; messages can be exchanged m erely bv w inking an eve. Most nonNESTs have developed a "sixth sense." and those who have b e e n on the job long eno u g h are able to predict, with a fair degree of accuracy, w hat is likelv to go w rong before the stu d en t opens his or h e r m outh. In possession o f this anticipatory device, non-XESTs stand a good chance of p re venting linguistic problem s which m aterialize in the form o f deviant usage or, for want oi a better word, errors. ,\s Table l shows, NESTs and non-XESTs behave differently with regard to erro r correction. Since native speakers generally view language as a m eans of achieving some com m unicative goal, they tend not to make a fuss about errors unless they h in d er com m unication. In contrast. nonXESTs are notorious for penalizing errors, gram matical errors in particular, probably because thev regard English prim arily as a school subject to be m astered and onlv secondarily as a m edium o f genuine com m unication. A nother reason for their heavy-handed attitude mat lie in their defi cient knowledge of English. In anv case, teacher education should perhaps place m ore em phasis on strategies for e rro r /invention than on tech niques of erro r norm lion. As far as NESTs are concerned, those expa triates who stav put in one country m anage to gath er far m ore experience about their students' specific language problem s than those who drift from place to place, sear after sear. Since lan guage is a m ajor carrier of. and in fact is insepa rable from , a people's culture, familiarity svith the local language can bring NESTs closer to their students' cultural toots and shed light on the students' inability to c o m p re h en d a specific language elem ent. Speaking of culture, fable 1 indicates that NESTs an d non-XESTs also differ in term s of th eir attitude toward teaching culture, bv viitue o f com ing from an English-speaking country, NESTs are able to proside m ote inform ation about th eir native culture. Howeser. the m ore the English language spreads an d diversifies in the world, the less it rem ains the privilege of NESTs, which harks back to the issue <>f English as an In te rn atio n a l L anguage a d d r e s s e d earlier.
To be sure, the non-XEST teaching in a mot: • lingual class has far m ore background inform . ■ tion about his o r h er students than even u t m ost well-inform ed NEST can. Indirectly, tit know ledge is instrum ental in e n h a n cin g te a c h e r’s capacity to anticipate and prevt cross-cultural difficulties.
5. N on-N ESTsA re More Sensitive to Their Students As ['able 1 dem onstrates. non-XESTs are pov. tiallv m o te sensitive on several counts. First, c. can be m ore responsive to the students' :u needs. In contrast. NESTs. w orking e ith e r v.v linguisticallv h e te ro g e n e o u s g ro u p s in English-speaking country o r with m onoline groups overseas, probably have but a vague :: lure of th eir stu d e n ts’ needs and aspiratio: including th eir linguistic, cultural, and person backgrounds. Second, thanks to th o ro u g h familiarity v.u the teaching learn in g context. non-XESTs . in a position to set realistic aims for students. F exam ple, thev are m ore cognizant of the c straints of the national curriculum , the teach: . m aterials available, and the exam inations to taken. Thev are also better able to gauge u level of m otivation that students studying ir. particular tvpe of school at e supposed to ha\ Thircl. due to their d e e p e r understand:: _ of the prevalent circum stances, non-NESTs . usually stricter than th eir native-speaking c leagues. If thev are aware o f an im m in en t I. guage exam ination, for instance, them will ad. their teaching m ethods to the stringent ex. requirem ents; this mat involve having to a s e . m ore tests and m ore hom ew ork, l.iving in a k:: oi'symbiosis with the students. non-NESTs cam. a.(ford to be as casual as NESTs. It must be added, however, that a hi., degree of sensitivity is m erely a potential; jits; . ih e ie are non-NESTs who exhibit precious liu. em pathy, som e NESTs are am azingly u ik F. standing. It m ust be rep e a te d here that, in ac lion to teach er education, the best sensitive n a m in g for NESTs is to learn the language the host country.
6. Non-NESTs Benefit from Their Ability to Use the Students’ Mother Tongue As native speakers o f the local language, nonNESTs can obviously take advantage of this shared co m petence, provided they are allowed to harness it. To use or n o t to use the m o th e r tongue? This was one o f the thorniest problem s in lan guage teaching m ethodology th ro u g h o u t the tw entieth century as the p en d u lu m swung from one extrem e to the other. U ntil recently, the m o n o lin g u al prin cip le p red o m in a te d , mostly advocated by NESTs, if onlv because thev th em selves felt disabled by th eir lack of com petence in the stu d en ts’ first language (L I). As a conse quence, non-NESTs were m ade to feel either defensive or guilty at th eir inability or unwilling ness to co n d u ct a class entirely in English. In the 1990s, however, the judicious use o f the learners' native language was once again legitim ized. A m ong the reasons for its com eback is the recog nition o f the LI as the m ost gen u in e vehicle of com m unication betw een non-NESTs a n d their students in the m onolingual classroom . A nother m ajor reason is that the native language proves to be a pow erful te a c h in g /le a rn in g tool in count less situations. Suffice it to sav, todav non-NESTs may switch into the L.l at their discretion, and so may NESTs— to the extent thev can.
W H O IS MORE V A LU A B LE, T H E N E S T O R T H E N O N -N E S T ? O ne item in the survey q u estio n n aire in q u ired about the ideal p ro p o rtio n of NESTs o r nonNESTs to be em ployed in schools. W hereas 52 p e rc e n t of the participants said th a t they would prefer an equal n u m b e r o f NESTs a n d nonNESTs, 17 p e rc e n t favored m ore NESTs a n d 31 percen t m ore non-NESTs. A fu rth e r breakdow n of th e d a ta reveals th a t b o th native a n d non-native p articipants w ould ra th e r have a majority of th eir own language g ro u p in the staff; as th ere were m ore non-NEST than NEST participants in the sam ple, the balance o f choice tilted towards non-NESTs.
Be th at as it may, the idea of a m ixed staff is wishful th inking for m ost schools in m ost parts of the world. S hort o f NESTs, schools use the few a ro u n d as efficiently as possible. O n g ro u n d s of th eir native proficiency in English, in m any places NESTs are assigned advanced level groups a n d conversation classes. Elsew here, in o rd e r to m ake th e ir co n trib u tio n accessible to everybody, thev are to m into as m any small bits as th ere are grotips in the school. Needless to say, NESTs are n o t always pleased with this task allo catio n — a re c u rre n t com plaint is th at they are reg a rd e d as rare anim als in a zoo (Arva a n d Medgyes 2000). T hese results correlate strongly with the results o f a n o th e r item in the q u estio n n aire ■which asked: W ho is the b e tte r teacher, the NEST or the non-NEST? As m en tio n e d previ ously, a sim ilar percen tag e favored e ith e r NESTs or non-NESTs, w hereas nearly h alf the resp o n dents said th at the two groups h ad an equal chance o f success. W hen asked to justify th eir choice, participants typically re fe rre d to the dif ferences sum m arized in Table 1. T h e sam e attrib u te was often judged as a positive feature bv som e an d a negative feature by others. A part from a few extrem ists, survey partici pants expressed m o d erate views. They ag reed that since each g ro u p had its own strengths a n d weaknesses, thev would com p lem en t each o th e r well in am school. A p ro p o rtio n a te n u m b e r o f natives and non-natives w ould give the fu rth e r advantage o f offering a variety o f ideas and teaching m ethods. Som e resp o n d en ts refe rre d to the desirability- o f nativ e/n o n -n ativ e in terac tion an d cooperation; “T h ere is a lot we can learn from each o th e r!” one perso n rem arked. O rganized collaboration a n d its m ost in te n sive form , team teaching, have b ecom e fairly well researched areas in recen t years (N unan 1992). Team teaching is a system w hereby a g ro u p o f teachers jo in tly u n d e rta k e a p rogram of work with a g roup o f students. In the co n tex t of N E ST /non-N E ST collaboration, the largest a n d best d o c u m e n ted team teach in g initiative has b een developed in Ja p an , called the Ja p a n E xchange a n d T eaching Program , also know n as the JE T p rogram (Tajino an d Tajino 2000). T he pro g ram 's prim ary aim is to rec ru it young native speakers from E nglish-speaking co u n tries to
teach u n d e r the guidance of, an d to g eth e r with, qualified Jap an ese teachers o f English. Let us reiterate: XESTs and non-XESTs teach differently in several respects. Xon-XESTs are (m ore o r less) h a n d ic a p p e d in term s of their co m m an d o f English. Paradoxically, this short com ing is th eir m ost valuable asset, as it helps them develop capacities that XESTs m ust strug gle to acquire. XESTs an d non-XESTs are p o ten tially equally effective teachers, because in the final analysis th e ir respective strengths an d weaknesses balance each o th er out. Different does not imply better or worse! Thus the question. W ho's worth metre, the native o r the non-native? is pointless, conducive to draw ing wrong conclu sions from the differences discovered in teaching behavior, ft is suggested, therefore, that language teachers should be h ired solelv on the basis of their professional virtues, regardless of their lan guage background. T he data and the argum ents supplied thus far seem to be powerful enough to validate the fourth assum ption put forward on page 434, nam elv that XESTs and non-XESTs can be equally good teachers on their own terms.
C O N C L U S IO N : T H E ID E A L T E A C H E R In rec e n t literature, the co ncept of the ideal tea c h e r has gained som e notoriety, especially in relation to the native/non-native dichotom y. It appears that the glorv once attached to the XEST has faded, a n d an increasing n u m b e r of ELT experts assert th at the "ideal te a c h e r” is no lo n g er a category reserved for XESTs. It is becom ing a generally accepted view th at o u t standing teachers c an n o t be squeezed into any pigeonhole: all ou tstan d in g teachers are ideal in th eir own wavs, and as such are different from each other. T he co n cep t o f the ideal teacher resists clear-cut definitions, because th ere are too m any variables to consider. In o rd e r to get a b e tte r grasp o f the ideal teacher, however, let us suppose that all the vari ables are kept constant m om entarily, except for the language proficiency co m p o n en t. In rela tion to non-XESTs, the question arises: Does
som ebody with a b e tte r com m and o f English stand a b e tte r chance o f becom ing an idea) teacher? In o th er words: Is a m ore proficient speaker a m ore efficient teacher as well? Ah o th e r things being equal, the answer is yes: tin ideal non-XES'f is som eone who has achieved near-native proficiency in English. T he im por tance of this attribute is seldom questioned in the literature. Britten (198o) claims that ait excellent com m and o f English is a m ajor selec tion criterion and a good pred icto r o f a noitXEST's professional success. Lange (1990) ratelanguage proficiency as the most essential char acteristic o f a good lan g u ag e teacher, and M urdoch (1994) calls it the bedrock of the noirXEST's professional confidence. Liu’s (1999 stuclv conducted am ong non-native TESOL stu dents at a university in the U nited States confirm ' that English-language proficiency is generally rec ognized as a make-or-break req u irem en t in ESL environm ents as well. T herefore, it m ust be . valid claim that the most im portant profession,;, dutv that non-XESTs have to perform is to make linguistic im provem ents in their English. In contrast, the success o f XESTs hinges or. the extent to which thev can acquire the distin guishing features of non-XESTs. In view of thithe ideal X E ST is som eone who has achieved a fair degree of proficiency in the students' native lan guage. Cook (1999) must be right in saving that the m ulticom petent, m ultilingual teacher is qual itatively different and incom parably m ore capa ble than the m onolingual teacher. T he trouble is that "all o th e r things” arc never equal in the classroom , so the phrase “the m ore proficient, the m ore efficient" is only p ar tially valid. In this regard, Samimv (1997) m en tions certain factors which are as im p o rta n t a' language proficiency, particularly relevant teach ing qualifications and extent of one's teachingex p e rien c e . S eid lh o fer reiterates this point: "There has often b een the d an g er of an auto matic extrapolation from competent speaker to com petent teacher based on linguistic grounds alone, w ithout taking into consideration the criteria ot cu ltu ral, social a n d p edagogic a p p ro p ria te " (1996, p. 69). Indeed, an issue waiting to be addressed is the com plex relationship between the d iffe re n t aspects o f teach ers' classroom
practice. T he study o f the non-NEST rem ains overall a largely u n e x p lo re d area in language education. In conclusion, within the fram ew ork of the native/non-native division, the ideal NEST and the ideal non-NEST arrive from different direc tions but eventually stand quite close to each other. Both groups of teachers serve equally use ful purposes in their own wavs. In an ideal school, therefore, there should be a good balance of NESTs and non-XESTs. who com plem ent each o th er in their strengths and weaknesses. Given a favorable mix, various forms of collaboration are possible, and learners can onlv gain from such cross-fertilization.
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1. W hat is your native language? Are there any “com plicating factors" concerning vour lin guistic and cultural identity? 2. Do you agree or disagree with the native s p e a k e r'n o n -n a tiv e sp e a k e r distin ctio n ? W hat are vour argum ents for or against? 3. a. If vou are a native speaker o f English, do you think that the English language is vour property, or are vou willing to share the “copyright" with non-native speakers? b. If vou are a non-native speaker, do vou believe vou have the right to "tinker" with the norm s an d rules o f English to the sam e ex ten t as native speakers have? 4. Take a close look at Table 1 in this chapter. W hich are the points vour own experience supports and which are the ones it challenges? 5. In addition to the six advantages assigned to non-XESTs, can vou th ink of anv m ore? In addition to th eir linguistic superiority, can vou list anv fu rth e r assets for NESTs?
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1. In a replication study. Davies (1996) m easured differences between native and non-native speakers of English in term s of grammaticalitv judgm ents. Elis sample consisted of applied linguists with experience as English teachers. All the non-native participants (18 persons)
were highly proficient speakers of English; the native speakers (16 persons) were mostly speakers of British English. Davies included 12 sentences in his survey, an d the partici pants were required to rate the sentences on a 4-point scale as follows: 1 T h e s e n te n c e so u n d s p e rfe c t. You w ould use it w ithout hesitation. 2 T he sentence is less th an p e rfe c t— so m eth in g in it just d o e sn ’t feel com fortable. Maybe lots of peo p le could say it, b u t you never feel quite com fortable with it. 3 W orse th an (2), b ut n o t com pletely im possible. Maybe som ebody m ight use the sentence, b u t certainly n o t vou. T he sentence is alm ost bevond h ope. 4 T he sentence is absolutely out. Impossible to un d erstan d , nobodv would say it. L’n-English. H ere are the 12 sentences to be rated on the scale: 1 U n d e r no circum stances w ould I accept that offer. 2 X obodv who 1 get along with is h ere who I want to talk to. 3 We d o n ’t believe the claim th at Jim son ever had anv monev. 4 T he fact he wasn’t in the store sh o u ld n ’t be forgotten. 5 W hat will the g ran d fa th e r clock stand betw een the bed and. 6 I u rg e th a t an y th in g h e to u c h be b u rn ed . 7 All the fu rth e r we got was to Sudbury 8 T h a t is a fre q u e n tly talk ed a b o u t proposal. 9 Xobodv is h ere who I get along with who I w ant to talk to. 10 T he d o c to r is sure th a t th ere will be no problem s. 11 T he idea h e w asn’t in the store is preposterous. 12 Such form ulas should be writable down. G rade these sentences on th e 4-point scale. R em em ber to give 1 p o in t fo r a p erfect sen tence an d 4 points for a totally u n acceptable sentence.
H ere are the results o f Davies's stuclv: Sentence Mean Natives (N= 16) Non-natives (N=18)
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
2.7 1.6 1.7 2.7 1.7 3.3 1.2 2.3 1.0 1.7 3.0
1.1 3.0
1.8 1.6 3.5 2.5 3.0
2.2
4. In groups, collect as m anv features o f the successful language te a c h e r as vou car. Suppose that the "ideal teacher" is som eone who has a m axim um score o f 25 p o in t' Individuallv. allocate as m anv points as to . wish for each feature w ithin the m axim um 25 points. T h en , in groups again, com pare vour scores a n d argue for to u r allocation. 5. Interview ten non-native speakers of Englix. to find out what traits thev value most in lan guage teachers. Do thev specify any feature which are metre characteristic of non-NESTthan NESTs?
2.5
1.0 1.5 3.3
FU R T H ER R EA D IN G N ote that the aggregate m ean for all 12 sen tences for natives an d non-natives is 1.99 and 2.23, respectively. This suggests that natives are m ore to le ran t o f uncertain tv with regard to gram m aticalitv. C om pute vour own score and com pare it with the m ean of natives and non-natives in Davies's sam ple. Are vou m ore or less to leran t than e ith e r group? 2. Give an h o n est answ er to this question: Suppose vou were the principal o f a com m er cial language school in to u r country. W ho would vou prefer to emplov? a. I w ould em plov onlv native speakers even if thev were not qualified teachers. b. I would prefer to emplov NESTs, but if needed I would choose a qualified non-NEST rather than a native without ELT qualifications. c. T he native m on-native issue would n o t be a selection criterion (provided the non-NEST was a highlv proficient speaker o f English).
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Ask th ree or four colleagues about their choices. If there are discrepancies betw een vour views, justifv to u r preference. Has any one h edged their bets bv saying “It d ep en d s”? Ask them to explain their am biguous stance. 3.
If vou were asked the above question in the context o f an ordinary state school, would vour choice be different? How about to u r colleagues' choices.-
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Building Awareness and Practical Skills to Facilitate Cross-Cultural Communication ELI
H I N KEL
Hinkel's chapter points out the im portance of developing cultural com petence when teaching and learning a second language, noting that cultural assumptions affect practically all aspects o f language use, even though they may not be obvious to native speakers o r L2 learners. It offers examples of cultural impact on language use and provides guidelines for teaching culture.
IN T R O D U C T IO N In language teaching and research on language, the term culture includes m any different defini tions and considerations that deal with form s of speech acts, rhetorical structure o f texts, socio cultural behaviors, a n d wavs in which know ledge is transm itted an d obtained. C ulture may find its m anifestations in bodv language, gestures, con cepts of tim e, hospitalitv custom s, an d even expressions o f friendliness. W hile all these cer tainly reflect the cultural norm s accepted in a particular society, the influence of culture on language use and on the concepts o f how lan guage can be taught and learn ed is both broader and deeper. To a great extent, the culture into which one is socialized defines how an individual sees his o r h er place in societv. A lthough attaining linguistic proficiency is essential for learners to be considered com m u nicatively co m p eten t, particularly in the case of ESL learners, this is not sufficient. O n the whole, to becom e proficient an d effective com m unicators, learners n eed to attain second lan guage (L2) sociocultural com petence. Knowing how to say thank you, for exam ple, does n o t au to matically confer the know ledge o f w hen to say th an k vou, how often to say th an k you, a n d w h eth er any additional action is called for. Q uite reasonably, learners first apply the stan dards th at exist in the first language ( L I ) com m unities w here they were socialized. People who
in teract with ESL students have com m ented th at some learners seem to express gratitude excessively for small considerations, even to the point of em barrassing the person thev are speak ing to. O th e r learners may seem dow nright ru d e because thev do not say thank you when expected to. If a receptionist at an office spends a lot of time trying to help som eone but fails to provide con crete help, it ntav not be obvious to an ESL stu d e n t th at a thank you is w arranted. A fter all, the receptionist did n o t provide any real assistance, a n d isn't it his or h e r jo b to help? How e\rer, if no thanks is given, the receptionist may n o t be likelv to even attem p t to help in th e future. N ot u n d e rsta n d in g sociocultural expectations could im pact non-native speakers' (NNSs’) ability to function in a L2 com m unity. Expressing thanks is ju st a small exam ple. Teachers of L2 w riting often e n c o u n te r stu d e n t essavs th at contain large excerpts o f text copied verbatim from books, In te rn e t sites, or o th e r published sources. However, in the eyes o f lea rn ers from som e cultures, copying from a p u b lished source does n o t necessarily re p re se n t an u n ethical act ( “published” means for the public to use, right?). In fact, learners from som e cultures mav \iew copying from a source as a m eans o f expressing respect fo r the a u th o r’s ideas a n d dis playing th e ir fam iliarity with th e m aterial. Horvever, the negative outcom e o f copying the text in th eir papers could be severe in an English-language college o r university w here
such copying constitutes plagiarism , which mav be p u n ish e d bv the stu d en t's dismissal from the institution. H em es (1996) em phasizes that the learning o f culture is an integral part of language learn ing a n d ed u cation because it crucially influences the yalues of the com m unity, evervdav in terac tion, the norm s of speaking an d behaying. and the sociocultural expectations of an indiyidual's roles. He fu rth e r notes that those who do not follow the norm s of ap p ropriateness accepted in a com m unity are often placed in a position that exacerbates social disparities and inequality. Today, w hen the num bers of ESL EFL stu dents h are grown dram atically worldwide, it is becom ing increasingly clear that the learn in g of a second culture does not take care of itself. Thus, T2 learners cannot always m ake the best of th eir educational, professional, and yocational o p p o rtu n ities until titer becom e fam iliar with fu n d a m e n ta l E2 cultural concepts and co n structs. Most im portantly, an ability to recognize a n d em ploy culturally ap p ro p riate war s of com m u n icatin g in speech o r w riting allows learners to m ake choices with regard to linguistic, prag m atic, a n d o th e r behaviors. A lthough traditionally courses a n d texts for language teachers co n cen trate on teaching T2 linguistic skills, it mar be difficult to separate the teaching and learning of English from the culture o f its speakers. Eor exam ple, what represents polite war s of speaking and the appropriate war s o f writing an essay mar d e p e n d on culturally d e p e n d en t concepts that are closely b o u n d up with the linguistic skills n eed ed to speak o r write well in the L2.
T H E V ISIB LE A N D T H E IN V ISIB LE C U LT U R E In T2 teaching, the term culture has b e e n em ployed to refer to distinctly different dom ains o f people's lir es. It can be used to refer to the lit erature, the arts, the architecture, and the history o f a particular people. W hen asked about their native culture, m any T2 learners and ESL/EFT teachers alike would undertake to describe the
history or geography of their country because these represent a p opular u n d e rsta n d in g o f the term culture. In addition, som e definitions o f cul ture can include sti le of dress, cuisine, custom s, festivals. and o th e r traditions. These aspects can be considered the visible culture, as they are readily ap p a re n t to anyone and can be discussed and explained relatively easily. Vet a n o th e r far m ore com plex m eaning of culture refers to sociocultural norm s, worldyiews. beliefs, assum ptions, an d yalue systems that find th eir way into practically all facets of language tise. including the classroom , an d lan guage teaching and learning. T he term invisible culture ap p lies to so cio cu ltu ral beliefs a n d assum ptions that m ost people are not eyen aw are of and thus cannot exam ine intellectually. Scollon and Scollon ( 199.V state that the cu ltu r ally d e te rm in e d concepts of what is acceptable, a p p ro p riate, and expected in one's behayior is acquired d u rin g the process of socialization and, hence, becom es inseparable from an indiyidual’s identity. For exam ple, in the classroom, the roles of the student and the teacher are defined bv the sociocultural yalues of the larger com m unity and the society. If students belieye that the teacher is responsible for explaining the m aterial and that speaking up in class is considered rude, presum ptuous, and selfish, the fact that the teacher simply instructs students to participate in discussion mav do little to change learners' notions of what is appropriate and how they mav be view ed bv others if they actually speak in class. Most teachers, even those with m inim al class room ex perience o r exposure, know how diffi cult it can be to convince som e students to speak in front of th eir classmates, w hereas o th e r stu dents mav ap p e ar to have trouble allowing class m ates an o p p o rtu n ity to have th eir turn.
W hy S e c o n d C u ltu re L e a rn in g D o e s N o t T ake C are o f Its e lf T he complexity of teaching culture lies in the fact that, unlike speaking or writing, culture does not represent a separate dom ain of L2 instruction; instead, the learning of the T2 culture makes learn ers b e tte r com m unicators. In lan g u ag e
learning a n d teaching, the crucial sociocultural principles that d e te rm in e th e norm s of a p p ro priate a n d polite behavior an d language use within the fram ew orks of the society represent the invisible culture. As Stewart (1972, p. 16) com m ents, “ [T ]he typical person has a strong sense of w hat the w orld is really like, so that it is with surprise th at he discovers th a t ‘realitv' is built up out o f certain assum ptions com m onlv shared am o n g m em bers o f the sam e culture. C ultural assum ptions mav be defin ed as abstract, organized, an d general concepts w hich pervade a person 's outlook an d behavior." To m em bers of a particular com m unity and culture, these assum ptions a p p e a r to be self-evident an d axiomatic. O n the o th er hand, thev are not alwavs shared bv m em bers of o th e r cultures whose values are similarly based on unquestioned and unquestionable fundam ental assum ptions and concepts. It is also im portant to note that wavs of using language (e.g., speaking, listening, reading, and writing) and sociocultural frameworks in dif fe re n t co m m u n ities mav conflict to varving extents (H inkel 1999). L earners’ awareness of sociocultural fram e works an d the concepts thev acquire as a p art of their socialization into beliefs, assum ptions, and behaviors rem ain p red o m in an tlv first-culture bound, even for advanced and proficient learners i Hinkel 1999). .As Bvram and M organ (1994. p. 43) point out, "(1] earners cannot simple shake off their own culture and step into an o th e r . . . their culture is a part of themselves and created them as social beings . . . ."
exam ple, if learners in te n d to e n te r Englishm edium colleges or universities, th eir n e e d for L2 cultural com petencies mav be d ifferent from learners simply e n ro lled in w eekend conversa tio n classes. In m any settings, however, instru c tion highlighting the influence o f culture on second language use can be m ade effective and productive w hen w orking on p articular T2 tasks or activities. Those learners who live, studv, o r work in English-speaking com m unities have a particularly acute need to becom e aware of how the use of English thev are exposed to reflects the sociocul tural norm s of the L2 community. For these indi viduals. a lack of language skill that prevents them from speaking an d writing according to the norm s accepted in the com m unity can be partic ularly costly and even dam aging in term s o f lost opportunities for better grades, jobs, professional and econom ic advancem ent, or even social rela tionships. In the case o f teenagers, university students, and educated adults, the pragm atic and sociocultural norm s of L2 use in speaking an d writing can and should be taught, an d these learners are m ost likely to benefit from both explicit an d im plicit in struction in th e L2 cul ture. In general term s, the purpose o f teaching culture together with other language skills is to increase learners' interactional as well as linguistic com petencies.
S E C O N D O R FO R E IG N L A N G U A G E : ID E N T IF Y IN G LEA R N ER S’ N EED S A N D G O A LS
Because the culture of any com m unity has m any facets an d m anifestations, it w ould be practically im possible to deal with all o f th em in the class room a n d p rep a re students for the m any situa tions th at thev may e n c o u n te r in the course of th eir fu n ctio n in g in E SL /EFL environm ents. However, m any im p o rta n t aspects o f teaching the second culture can be b ro u g h t forth an d addressed via classroom instruction, a n d som e o f these are discussed below. T he m ost im p o r tant long-term benefits of teach in g culture may be to provide learners with the awareness and
T here is little d o u b t that learners who live a n d /o r study in English-speaking com m unities have a m uch greater n eed for developing th eir cultural com petencies th an do those who study EFL as a p a rt o f th eir foreign language req u ire m ents. T he learn ers' actual goals in attaining English proficiency mav serve as guides for d eterm in in g th eir needs in learn in g culture. For
T E A C H IN G C R O S S -C U L T U R A L A W A R EN ESS IN T H E L A N G U A G E CLA SSRO O M
the tools th at will allow them to achieve their academ ic, professional, social, a n d p ersonal goals an d becom e successful in th eir dailv func tionin g in L2 (or EFL) environm ents. R ecent studies, as well as teachers' experi ences, have shown th at XXS students in colleges a n d universities in the U nited States, C anada, an d o th e r English-speaking countries do not always follow the norm s of politeness an d a p p ro priateness com m only accepted in th eir L2 com m unities despite having lived in those countries for several years (Elinkel 1996, Elvmes 1996). Similarly, in th eir academ ic studies. L2 learners may experience difficulties because thee do not always u n d e rsta n d what is expected o f them and do n o t have access to the necessarv sociocultural concepts th at are ubiquitouslv m anifested in the academ v (Johns 1997). For exam ple, w hen thev are assigned to read m aterial at hom e, m am p ro fessors expect that universitv students will actu ally “m aster" the c o n te n t a n d be p re p a re d to discuss an d applv it. XXS students are often seen as com ing to class u n p re p a re d because thev nun n o t alwavs u n d e rsta n d that a relativelv high degree o f fam iliaritv with the m aterial is im plicit w hen academ ic read in g is assigned. To com p o u n d the problem , the learners mav have diffi culty u n d e rsta n d in g the text o r thev mav be unw illing to participate in class discussions. In anv o f these situations, the in stru cto r (and even th e native speaker [XS] classmates) mav form som ew hat negative im pressions o f the XXSs' academ ic skills an d prep aratio n .
C a u se s a n d O u tc o m e s o f S o c io c u ltu ra l V alues Because the sociocultural norm s for politeness, appropriateness, and propriety are acquired d u r ing socialization, learners, in their daily interac tions with XSs, are exposed only to the outcomes of linguistic and o th er o p es o f behaviors and not their causes. For exam ple, when their classmates are reluctant to share lecture o r textbook notes, m any learners simpiv conclude th at their XS classmates mat not like them and are unwilling to help them . However, the reluctance to share
notes m at stem from several sociocultural co n stru c ts th at are fu n d a m e n ta l in m any E nglish-speaking com m unities: th e value of intellectual propertv. self-reliance, and the right of an individual to refuse a request with which he or she is n o t com fortable. In addition, in m anv L ,S. colleges and universities, students believe that thev are expected to do their own work and are given credit based on their individ ual effort and achievem ent. However, in the situ ation above w here the lea rn er wants to borrow class notes, n eith er the ESE learn er n o r the XS classmate who has the notes mav even question whv the request was m ade and refused. In general terms, the "behacioral prescriptions," the term coined bv Stewart (1972). are assum ed to be known to most (if not all) sociallv com petent adults and. hence, are rarelv overtlv discussed: a need for such a discussion would imply one's lack of basic and essential social com petence.
T h e Im p o rta n c e o f N o ticin g In learning about the im pact of sociocultural norm s on language use. the first step is noticing that these norm s exist in all languages, including learners' Lis. To becom e p rep a re d for a practicallv infinite n u m b er of T2 interactions, learners n eed to becom e astute and consistent peoplewatchers. B uilding on their observations of their LI sociocultural norm s and behaviors, the next task in culture learning is to separate individual behaviors from those that are culturally deter m ined. For exam ple, repeated politeness routines, behaviors, and bodv language (e.g.. eve contact) probable signal that these speech acts a n d behav iors are so cioculturallv a c ce p tab le ( a n d / o r expected) in a particu lar com m unity. O nce learners note a p articular ro u tin e or behavior on several occasions from several different indi viduals. thev can investigate its sociocultural purposes a n d causes. An ability to identify the sociocultural purposes o f L2 linguistic behaviors in a com m unity allows learn ers to identify cul tural p attern s in situations, to u n d e rsta n d how thev are realized in o th e r situations, an d to anticipate th eir m anifestations in the future.
T he fu n d am en tal factors to consider in all interactions include: the g e n d e r o f the speaker o r the hearer, th eir respective ages, sim ilarities or disparities in their social statuses (e.g., even if a professor wears blue jeans to class, he o r she still has a higher status than a student d o es), the social distance betw een the speaker and the hearer (e.g.. class friends, acquaintances, or strangers), the purposes of the speech events, the time available for the interaction, and its phvsical setting loca tion. In their investigations, learners should pav careful attention to politeness routines, expres sions, and phrases that are em ploved bv speakers or hearers, and then identiiv the reasons for the use of these language devices. For exam ple, thev could observe how a student asks the teacher to take a look at his or h er paper (Could you look at my paper and see if I'm on the right track?). Were the participants in the interaction of the same age. gender, and social status? W hat politeness expresrions did the speaker use? Flow did the hearer respond? Whv did the hearer give this particular response? W hat politeness devices were used in the response and whv?
P ra c tic e , P ra c tic e , P ra c tic e The tasks associated with train in g learn ers to be careful an d sharp people-w atchers a n d observers of culturallv a p p ro p riate an d com m on in terac tional routines and expressions can serve as a basis for verv productive an d effective activities that are interesting and enjoyable fo r learners. For in term ed iate ESL learners, a tea c h e r could make a basic checklist o f linguistic a n d social fea tures o f speech events a n d in te ra c tio n s to encourage students to carry o u t th eir "field research" in cafeterias, restaurants, stores, an d libraries. In EFL settings, a sim ilar field stuclv could take place in the stu d e n ts’ L I, since the prim arv goal of this activitv a n d people-w atching is to m ake learners aware of the linguistic and social factors th at plav a crucial role in in terac tions in am language o r culture. In teaciting EFL, the next step w ould be to com pare the ooliteness an d conversational routines in the learn ers’ LI to those fo u n d in English-language m aterials (e.g., movie clips, reco rd ed audio and
video interviews, tap ed dialogues that accom pany m any student texts, o r perhaps even m aterials for standardized test p re p a ra tio n ). W hen w orking with h igh-interm ediate or advanced ESL learners, teachers can m ake simi lar checklists for e x p a n d ed an d m ore sophisti cated linguistic, social, a n d behavioral features o f interactions, such as the location w here the interaction takes place (an office, a hallwav, a street), the availabilitv o f tim e (a scheduled a p p o in tm e n t, a lunch hour, a break betw een classes), a n d /o r th e com plexity o f th e task entailed in the speech act. In ad d ition, students can be assigned to investigate various tvpes of speech acts such as m aking ap p o in tm en ts, seek ing clarifications, o r resp o n d in g to requests, an d even lo n g er conversational exchanges such as m aking small talk o r neg o tiatin g the tim e an d the place of m eetings. O n the o th e r hand, advanced EFL students can participate in role plat's, sh o rt skits, or mini-plavs, for which thev write scripts to c e n te r on linguistic features of p articular speech acts o r tvpes o f conversational exchanges in th eir L2. In addition to learning to note the linguistic an d situational variables in in teractio n , it is im portant that learners focus on the sociocultural features of speaking and behaving. In general, however, it would not be very com fortable or appropriate for interactants to becom e involved in discussing the reasons th at a p articu lar lin guistic structure is used or a specific interactional behavior is displayed. To retu rn to an earlier exam ple, if the request for notes is refused, this mav n o t be a good o p p o rtu n ity to ask why. However, at a later tim e, a n o th e r individual, such as a different classmate, a room m ate, or b e tte r vet, a teacher, can be asked to explain the sociocultural causes for a particu lar behavior. A lthough m anv native speakers of English may not be aware o f the reasons for th eir own behav iors, thev are usuallv aware of "behavioral p re scriptions" in abstract term s. T h a t is, m ost native speakers w ould be able to tell the difference betw een rudeness a n d what is considered to be polite or even acceptable in a p articu lar situa tion and, if asked, som e may even be able to say whv som e expression, phrase, o r behavior would be perceived as m ore polite than another.
T E A C H IN G C U L T U R E A N D T H E W AYS O F S P E A K IN G M uch research carried out in pragm atics a n d sociolinguistics over the past th ree decades has focused on the sociocultural norm s of politeness a n d a p p ro p ria te n e s s in p e rfo rm in g various types o f speech acts, such as requests, apologies, com plim ents, an d com plaints. T he linguistic an d social features of such specific speech acts can be tau g h t in the classroom with a focus on re p e a te d a n d frequently routinized uses of lan guage, along with the differences according to th e social status of the speaker a n d the hearer, a n d o th e r situational factors. Similarly, a p p ro priate body language a n d gestures can also b ecom e a p a rt of the explicit instruction in speaking a n d listening classes. However, m ost im portantly, the key to productive culture teach ing is to provide learners with the tools to enable them to becom e aware o f the sociolinguistic norm s reflected in the wavs o f speaking in the c o m m u n in ’. T hom as (1983) explains th at viola tions of cultural norm s of ap p ropriateness in in teractions betw een XSs an d XXSs often lead to sociopragm atic failure, uncom fortable break downs in com m unication, and the stereotyping o f XXSs. She points o u t that w hen m anv XXSs display in ap p ro p ria te language behaviors, thev are often n o t even aware that thev do. T he teach in g o f ways of speaking in the T2 has to include developing learn ers' h e ig h te n ed aware ness o f the sociocultural features o f in teractio n so as to provide them a p p ro p riate choices.
T h e P ra g m a tic F u n c tio n a n d a L in g u istic F o rm In the teaching of L2 speaking and pragm atics, two overarching goals lie at the focus of instruc tion. T he pragmatic function (i.e., the sociocultural p u rp o se/g o al) of speech acts, such as requests, apologies, com plim ents, and com plaints, can be found in practically even’ curriculum for teach ing speaking. T he linguistic form of speech acts an d conversational routines is one of the m ost easily accessible and ubiquitous areas o f teaching L2 speaking, e.g., Give me а рент vs. Could
уou/would, you give me a penny. T he pragm atic fu n c tio n o f these ex p ressio n s is th e sam e (request), but the speaker's choice o f form ma\ cause different responses from the hearer. For exam ple, in o rd e r to increase le a rn e rs’ linguistic rep e rto ire , the m ajority o f ESL/EFL textbooks for speaking devote a great deal o f a tten tio n to the form s of polite an d casual expressions, idiom s, a n d short dialogues, an d even their a p p ro p riate p ro n u n cia tio n an d in to n atio n . O ne reason for this is that transfer of in to n atio n front LI to L2 can h are verv subtle negative conse quences for interaction.
S o c io c u ltu ra l V ariables in In te ra c tio n W hat m akes a p articular expression or speech act situationallv a p p ro p riate is not so m uch titlinguistic form or the range o f the sp eak er’s lin guistic rep erto ire, but the sociocultural variedil which are rarely addressed in explicit instru:tion. Partly for this reason, it is not u n c o m n r : to h ear ESL. learners sav How is it going, Whcr up. or Later to peers, professors, and even u:t versitv deans. Such socioculturally inappropriate greetingand conversational closures, as well as otltr speech acts, are likelv to raise an eyebrow or tv b ut as has been m entioned, their im propriety It. little chance o f being overtlv discussed, and tint the learning value o f the experience may be Ь T he sociocultural variables that can m ake a pfectlv acceptable expression unacceptable in d e ferent interactions or settings reflect the invisi” .aspects of LI or L2 culture that do not easily le t themselves to textbook exercises or listingexpressions. X onetheless, it is the sociocultu: features, such as gender, age, and the social st.tt o f the participants in the interaction that can e ate pragm atic failure (Thom as 1983). For exam ple, a lesson on conversar. o p eners is verv com m on and can be found m am ’ E SL /EFL textbooks. Usually, m ost les-v : (or textbook chapters) start with a few m ode Good morning/afternoon. How are you (today ~ evening)?, How is it/ everything going?. What's • How are you doing?, How do you like
weather/Isn't this weather wonderful/terrible?, How do you like this city?. Few o f these resources, how ever. distinguish betw een those u tterances that are a p p ro p riate in peer-level interactions and those that should be used in conversational exchanges with h earers who have a different sociocultural status. In such exam ples, fu rth e r m ore, the situational variables are rarely taken into account: while it is very ap p ro p riate to o p en a conversation with a brief m ention of the weather with an acquaintance in the cafeteria, it may not be a good o p en er when asking a bank teller to cash a check or a bus driver for route details. Similarlv, What’s up? and How’s it going? are used almost exclusively in short and casual encounters with friends, but are not the best options w hen talking in a business or professional context to a waiter, a store clerk, an office receptionist, o r a doctor.
V ariability o f P o lite n e ss O ne activity for developing learn ers' awareness of the variability of politeness a n d a p p ro p ria te ness in interactions with different tvpes o f hearers and situations in which various conversational openers are used is to conduct field obsenations and experim ents. In an experim ent to determ ine the sociocultural and situational ap p ropriateness of a speech act, ESI. learners can ask th eir XS friends o r room m ates to evaluate the degree of politeness en tailed in each of the conversational openers an d explain the factors that m ake one expression "softer” o r m ore ap p ro p riate than another. For exam ple, which expression seems m ore polite: I want to make an appointment for 3 o’clock, I would like to make an appointment for 3 o ’clock, o r May/Could / make an appointment for 3 о ’clock ? W hat are the specific words a n d /o r c o n structions that m ake one expression m ore polite than the other? Whv is the question form used in one o f these? Are there situations in which the least polite expression can be used? W ho are the people (the speaker and the hearer) in these situ ations, and do thev have an equal social position? T he results of such experim ents can be dis cussed in pairs or small groups so th at with the tea c h e r’s guidance students are able to identify' the linguistic, pragm atic, and situational features o f language that com e into plat1 in conversational
exchanges. In follow-up activities an d role plavs, students can p u t to use w hat they1 have lea rn ed as an outcom e of th eir observations and experi m ents. They can be assigned to visit local shops, libraries, university offices, o r o th e r places in the com m unity w here they can practice th eir speak ing skills in real-life situations.
A P ra g m a tic F o rc e a n d th e L in g u istic F o rm A n o th e r im p o rta n t characteristic o f real-life interactions is d e te rm in in g the pragmatic force (i.e., in te rac tio n a l/c o n v e rsa tio n a l pu rp o se) of expressions used in dailv interactions. For exam ple, How are you (today/this morning)? o r How is it going? are not in te n d e d to be real questions or conversation openers. Rather, th eir pragm atic force is to be a greetin g to signal to h earers th at thev are recognized and acknow ledged. As an outcom e, these form ulaic expressions do n o t req u ire a response, bevond the form ulaic (Fine, Great, Good, OK). O n the o th e r h an d , these expressions contrast with How have you been? or How is everything/this term/your class going?. Because the linguistic form of How have you been (lately)? and form ulaic expressions, such as How are you ? is similar, m any learn ers in te rp re t th eir pragm atic force to be equivalent. T he field research o r experim ents carried o u t by pairs or small groups of students to investigate the vary ing pragm atic force of such expressions can be verv beneficial in m aking them aware o f the divergences betw een the form an d the conversa tional in te n t o f pragm atic routines in English. O th e r such investigations can include a great n u m b e r of form ulaic conversational expressions a n d exchanges, in which th e pragm atic force m at be difficult for learners to d e te rm in e since it is not always a p p a re n t from the linguistic form a n d content. Exam ples include Call me some time vs. Call me on Tuesday; L et’s get together/have lunch sometime vs. Let’s get together/have lunch on Friday; Call me if you have any questions vs. Call me any time; Do you have any questions? (it is noyv tim e to ask questions, if you have them ) vs. Fll be happy to answer all your questions during my office hours (please do not ask m e anv questions now b u t com e to my office at the designated tim e); Your
paper needs a little work (this expression does not m ean necessarily that the pap er needs only a little bit of work to be im proved) vs. Maybe sou need to spend more time on your homework (this does not m ean that spending m ore tim e without greater effort will result in better grades). Many conversational routines are closely tied to the sociocultural variables that affect the interactional effect o f an expression or routine, and these variables can be taught to learners at practically all levels of proficiencv, from begin ning to highlv advanced. For exam ple, when and to w hom to say thank you can be taught at the beginning level. In EFL settings, to raise learners' awareness of the im portant sociocultural dim en sions of conversations, students can be asked to gather similar inform ation in their native lan guage. In pairs or small group discussions, learn ers can determ ine what characteristics of language (e.g., the linguistic form , stress, o r tone) make one expression m ore polite than another. T hen learn ers can be taught to iclentifv parallel (but not nec essarily similar) L2 features that can m ake a difference in the appropriateness of L2 conversa tional expressions and routines.
C U L T U R E IN T H E T E A C H IN G O F W R IT IN G In English, what is a p p ro p riate and in ap p ro p ri ate in academ ic w ritten discourse is highly c o n ventionalized (Swales 1990). In practically all U.S. an d C anadian ESL program s in colleges a n d universities, a great deal o f atten tio n , tim e, a n d resources are devoted to the teaching o f aca dem ic writing. L2 w riting instruction focuses on such fu n d am en tal features o f w ritten academ ic discourse as the organization (e.g, in tro d u ctio n , body, conclusion, a n d o th e r discourse m oves), the presence an d the p lacem en t of the thesis statem ent, the stru ctu re of the p arag rap h (e.g., the topic sen ten ce), the rhetorical su p p o rt for the thesis in clu d ed in everv p a rag rap h , a n d an avoidance of needless digressions, repetition, a n d redundance, am ong m any o th e r factors. T h e reason that these features of academ ic writ ing n e e d to be explicitlv a n d persistentlv taught to ESL /E FL students is th at thev re p re se n t
conventionalized (and prescribed) characteristic of academ ic genres that are not necessarilv fo u r : in written discourse in rhetorical traditions othe: than the Anglo-American one. For exam ple, edu cated L2 learners who were socialized in othe: rhetorical traditions are rarelv aware that a clew thesis statem ent should be placed close to tie beginning of one's essav. Similarlv, as m en tio n t: previouslv in term s of plagiarism versus copviru various sociocultural concepts and prescript!', behaviors plav an im portant role in determ ining what can or cannot be included in academ ic rincourse. T here are even sociocultural difference regarding what can or cannot be discussed in a:, academ ic essav
T h e S o c io c u ltu ra l C o n s tru c tio n o f W riting a n d L iteracy In w riting instruction, learners are typically p re sented with m odels a n d exam ples of p a ra g ra p h an d essavs to d em o n strate the discourse p ara digm s com m onlv accepted in Anglo-Americar. writing. However, as m am teachers know from experience, learn in g to write in accordance win the rhetorical form ats an d norm s expected in English-language academ ic discourse can be difficult a n d tedious process. T 1 socialization reg ard in g w ritten discourse paradigm s usual/ has so m uch influence on learn in g to write in the T 2 that often, even with explicit instruction learners are not able to recognize the rhetoric;-) features o f the L2 discourse, m uch less produce these features (H inkel 1994). As in m ost L . interactions a n d com m unications, in the course o f writing instruction, learners are faced with the outcom es, and not the causes, of the T2 sociocu,tural norm s and conventions, m aking it h ard er fo: them to understand and apply what they arc instructed to do. ( И 7/v should the thesis be placed /r the beginning of an essay if I know that it should 1-. in the conclusion ? Why does the teacher say that the example is not clear when I think that it is very clear?) Stewart (1972, p. 3) explains that whet; faced with cross-cultural c o n tra d ic tio n s and uncertainties, "people ten d to im pose th eir own perspectives in an effort to dispel the ambiguity" created bv the norm s o f ap p ro p riaten ess found
in a second culture and to “assume unconsciouslv that their own wavs are norm al, natural, and right.” A nother outcom e o f the need to resolve contradictions is that the wavs of the o th er culture are therefore seen as "abnorm al, unnatural, and wrong.” Stewart fu rth er notes that presum ptions of the superiority of o n e ’s own culture and its wavs of being and doing are characteristic o f “most peoples of the world.” Because literacv represents one of the most highly valued and prized dom ains of socialization in m any societies, it stands to rea son that mans L2 learners of writing mav reject discourse frameworks that are at odds with those specific to their own LI socialization to literacv and the value associated with the appropriateness of writing in a particular wav. W hen teaching paragraph and essav struc ture, most ESL/EFL teachers know that the topic sentence a n d the thesis statem ent are usually placed near the beginning of a piece of writing in the .Anglo-American tradition. T he reason that the m ain idea is stated at the outset is verv similar to the organization of spoken inform ation in various languages; the teacher can work with the sociocultural factors that affect discourse organi zation in speech and writing at the same time. F or exam ple, in English, speakers are expected to p resent their points in a m an n er that is m ore direct than is com m on am ong speakers of m any o th e r languages (Scollon a n d Scollon 1995). In contrast, it is considered alm ost requi site in Japanese and Chinese cultures to engage in social conversations to establish a relationship before m aking one's purpose known. That is, in these cultures the main point o f a conversation comes closer to the end of the discourse. Similarlv, in writing, in the Chinese and Japanese rhetorical tradition, the m ain point of the piece of writing does n o t com e until the end because the writer needs to lead the reader gentlv to the conclusion, which is expected to be clear and obvious by the time it is stated at the end (or sometim es, n o t even stated at all). If in speaking, vague and indi rect hints are considered to be m ore socially acceptable, then in writing, stating o n e ’s point directly an d earlv mav be viewed as presum ptuous and excessively forward. Similarly, in the AngloAm erican rhetorical tradition, it is im portant that the m ain idea o r the purp o se for w riting is stated
at the outset, a n d writers u n d ertake to support their thesis with additional inform ation, in tended to validate their m ain points.
Writing within Sociocultural Contexts o f Language Use T eaching com bined, parallel sociocultural fea tures w hen w orking with various L2 skills n o t only helps learners to u n d e rsta n d the influence of sociocultural factors on how language is used, b u t also establishes a context for explaining whv m em bers o f a particu lar culture do things in a particu lar wav. F u rth erm o re, learners can thus see a larger picture o f the culture in w hich the language is used. In the teaching o f L2 writing, teachers may draw on m any exam ples from speaking a n d establish parallels to help learners develop cul tural awareness in language use. O n e o f the th o rn iest problem s in the teach in g of w riting in English is th at learners often do n o t provide a sufficient am o u n t o f su p p o rt a n d detail in th eir w riting to m ake th eir points m eaningful an d convincing. In m anv cultures o th e r th an AngloA m erican, the right to speak is considered to be the prerogative o f those who have the authority to speak. Similarly, in writing, learners often believe th at detailed su p p o rt is excessive an d unnecessary because readers are n o t really co n c e rn e d with “trivial” descriptions. They may also th ink that they have little o f value to sav an d th at providing too m uch detail im plies a lack of humility. To help learners take a d ifferent view of the necessary detailed su p p o rt exp ected in L2 writing, teachers may n e e d to provide explicit in struction on L2 re a d e r expectations, the value of explicit explanations in the A nglo-A m erican rhetorical tradition, a n d th eir uses in writing.
T H E T R IC K Y N A TU RE O F S E C O N D OR FO R E IG N L A N G U A G E R EA D IN G By an d large, two m ain types o f m aterials are em ployed in teaching reading; highly controlled an d often sim plified readings from E SL /EFL
textbooks, on the one hand; and authentic m ate rials that vary in their level of difficulty, on the other. Textbook m aterials are most often used to develop learners' reading tactics and strategies a n d to im prove their vocabulary base. In contrast, authentic texts can include a great variety of genres, such as introductory and advanced text books, scholarly articles, print m edia publications on hobbies, health, politics, and sports, how-to books, and literature for readers of all ages. A lthough most books on teaching reading distin guish betw een reading for pleasure and reading for inform ation, visual m edia (TV, videos, and the In te rn et), realistically speaking, have reduced the num bers of those who read for pleasure. As a result, a majority of readers, especially when thev are reading in their L2, read for inform ation.
Culture in Reading Textbooks Because ESL/EFL textbooks present a lim ited an d controlled range of ideas, vocabulary items, an d culturallv-dependent concepts, thev mav not be the best m eans of explaining how the second culture affects language use. However, even within the lim ited them atic a n d lexical scope of textbook readings, learn ers m at e n c o u n te r com prehension difficulties that have to do with culture, since cultural inferences often need to be m ade to und erstan d text (and context). For example: T reatm ents th at are unconventional, or out o f the ordinary, have gained so m uch prestige a n d a tte n tio n th at the U.S. g o v e rn m e n t has c re a te d an Office of A lternative M edicine . . . . M ant- people have lost faith in m odern m edicine because research ers have been unable to find cures for a variety of problem s, from cancer to the com m on cold (Broukal 1994, pp. 58-59). In this textbook excerpt, learners often do n o t see the co n n ectio n betw een the im plied low prestige o f unconventional treatm ents an d the creation o f a governm ent office. In fact, som e o f them believe that the sentence is constructed backwards a n d that the a u th o r of the textbook
has obviously m ade a mistake — the first sentence in this excerpt should have stated that because th e U.S. g o v ern m en t c re a te d an Office of Alternative M edicine, unconventional treatm ents gained m uch prestige. In o th er words, the gov e rn m e n t approval surelv brings about the pres tige. R eading mav tu rn out to be problem atic if learners are often expected to relv on their own experience to provide textual inferences and con struct the context. In the second sentence in the above exam ple, a reference to "m odern” m edi cine and the disappointing results o f m edian research mav be so dram atically m isinterpreted that some learners m isunderstand the text com pletely. Specifically, alternative m edicine is modern, because the interest in it has arisen onlv recentf and whv should the people be disappointed when, the governm ent is doing its best? This dem onstrates the com plexity o f the invisible culture that can con fo u n d learners even, in an interm ediate level textbook, specificaln designed for ESL/EFL reading instruction. As wr can see, a considerable am o u n t of background, teaching and explanation mav be necessary f< : learners to in terp ret the text appropriately an. to identify its m ain points. U n d erstan d in g thn text can be an even m ore d a u n tin g task when reading involves authentic m aterials.
The Cultural Load of Authentic Texts C ulture teaching in L2 reading goes far beyor. instruction in vocabulary, idiom s, and colloa tions. all o f which are essential for u n d erstan d ir.. the m eaning of the text. Context- an d culturespecific connotations and im plications o f worn and phrase m eanings also n e e d to be addressee. M ore urgently, however, sociocultural m eanineand values greatlv affect a learner's ability : c o m p re h en d text an d the context in which it em ployed. In a u th en tic texts, such as th o -т excerpted from advanced p rin t m edia (i.e., nev, m agazines a n d literatu re), culture-specific refer ences. allusions, m etaphors, a n d symbolism pl.v a p ro m in e n t role. However, instructing learnerto relv on th eir background know ledge a r.; experience is not always productive o r helpful.
In teaching ESL, it is relatively easy to obtain diverse tvpes of read in g m aterials an d to gradu ally increase their cultural an d linguistic com plexity. Most im portantly, however, the teaching of culture an d its im pact on text com prehension needs to be addressed at all levels of proficiency in o rd er to build lea rn ers’ awareness o f cultural im plications and references, w ithout which few texts can be understood. For advanced learners, m aterials on p o p u lar hobbies, science, and even introductory college textbooks can p rot ide a rel atively sm ooth transition to m ore com plex read ings such as au th en tic literature. For E S F /E F F purposes, literature should be chosen carefully to allow learners an o p p o r tunity to c o m p re h e n d the text an d enjov it. However, the a m o u n t of work e x p e n d ed on prereading a n d p rep a rin g learners for reading lit eratu re mav be sufficiently great for teachers to weigh its benefits relative to the cost (C arrell and E isterhold 1988). In EEL environm ents, in add itio n to textbooks, m aterials from m am In te rn e t sites, English-language new spapers, or free b ro ch u res for tourism and travel can p ro vide access to texts that contain fewer cultureb o u n d a n d advanced m etaphors and allusions because they are o rie n ted for readers in various geographic locations and o f varied language skills. Such m aterials allow the teach er to con centrate on the culture-specific references and sociocultural values invariably p rese n t in most texts, but they mav not be so n u m ero u s and com plex that learners are unable to co m p re h e n d the reading m aterial. For exam ple: Instead o f counting sheep, the next time vou hat e trouble sleeping, try put ting socks on vour feet. A researcher savs people with chronically cold feet m ight drift off faster if they warm their feet with socks or a hot water bottle . . . . She and h er colleagues d id n ’t directly test w hether socks or water bottles pro m ote sleep. But they did analyze data from 18 healthv voting m en who partic ipated in studies . . . . T he report appears in today's issue of the journal Xature (Seal tie Times, Septem ber 2. 1999. H ealth and Science Section, p. 3).
This passage provides a few cultural refer ences that the teacher can discuss and explain, such as counting sheep, a hot water bottle, testing data directly, and the fact that reports appear in journals (instead of, for example, are printed). W hile count ing sheep and a hot water bottle may be easy to explain, testing data directly refers to a cultural con cept associated with research and analysis that m any ESL/EFL learners find culturally bound. T hat is, events can be observed, but in academ ic reports and presentations thev are analyzed and tested to obtain pro o f and validation (Stewart 1972). This concept is also helpful in writing instruction when working with the thesis state m ent an d topic sentences a n d the need for detailed support and valid argum ents. The use of the present tense in a researcher says deals with the convention in English tense use whereby the present tense can refer to past tim e events that have present time relevance and are true regard less of when the actual event takes place. In general terms, readings selected for cul ture and L2 teaching com bined can be exam ined for discourse and text organization, cultural con cepts, vocabulary, gram m ar, an d the conventions o f writing in English. The readings can be selected relatively easily to be appropriate for various levels of reading proficiency and the range of attendant L2 skills. It is im portant, however, n o t to miss an opportunity to engage learners in a discussion of how culture impacts language use.
D E V E L O P IN G E F F E C T IV E N E S S IN T H E CLA SSRO O M Because most individuals are socialized into their first culture, thev are usually unaware of the influ ence of culture on language. To becom e effective, classroom teachers are often faced with the n eed to develop their professional knowledge o f the fundam ental sociocultural variables essential for L2 teaching. A great deal of literature was pub lished in the 1980s and 1990s on the im pact of cultural awareness and knowledge on learn ers’ overall language proficiency. In addition, it has becom e ap p aren t th at cultural concepts affect how learners learn a n d teachers teach. Teaching adult learners to be o r speak “like a native”
(Saville-Troike 1989, p. 26) is not likely to result in success because sociocultural norm s of lan guage use are acquired d u ring the LI socializa tion process. Thus, classroom teachers n eed to advance their own knowledge of how learn ers’ first cultures work a n d how it im pacts their ability to learn. For exam ple, why is it that some students rarely speak in class, why do some learners m em orize whole chapters instead o f trying to “u n d e r stan d ” the m aterial, o r why do some people never ask questions even if thev need m ore explanation from the teacher?
Teacher, Teach Yourself To develop effectiveness and a sufficient knowl edge base about learners' cultures does not m ean that a teacher needs to becom e an expert ethnog ra p h e r on the fifteen different cultures re p re sented in his o r h e r classroom . For instance, the tea c h e r does n ot n e e d to be co n c ern e d with roles and responsibilities o f children and parents, religious rituals, or wavs to celebrate holidays and life events such as weddings and funerals. The ESL/EFL teacher is primarily concerned with cul tural considerations that have a direct im pact on his or h er students’ ability to learn and do their best in a second language and in a second culture environm ent. If students from a particular culture (or several cultures) do not participate in a speak ing acthitv, it w ould be interesting to find out why this is so. O n the o th er hand, if m em bers of an o th er culture seem to dom inate m ost classroom interactions, it mav be necessary to learn why they behave in this wav, if the teacher is seeking to make the classroom a productive learning place for all students. T hus, teachers' first priority is to identify th eir own needs in culture learning, in addition to those o f th eir students. A n o th er considera tion is to investigate how tea c h e rs’ own sociocul turally d e te rm in e d beliefs, assum ptions, and expectations affect th eir views on stu d e n t lea rn ing an d behaviors. For exam ple, if a stu d e n t does n o t w ant to speak up, the tea c h e r may resp ectfu lly allow th e s tu d e n t to m ain ta in silence for the d u ratio n o f the class or take a p p ro p riate steps to m ake it m ore com fortable for all .students to vo lu n teer opinions in paired
or small-group activities o r o th er settings that a: less threatening than speaking in front of thentire class. If the student m aintains polite silent s an d the teacher accom m odates the studen: • choice of behaviors, the student is unlikely to im prove his or her speaking proficiency and fluent'
Making Choices As with teaching m ost ESL/EFL skills, teacheroften n e e d to develop th eir own ap proach : teaching a second culture. O ne o f the centm . objectives in developing effectiveness in cultu: in struction is to address the causal knowlecu about culture (Buttjes a n d Bvram 1991) and t/т sociocultural reasoning that underlies practical/ all culturally d e te rm in e d behavior. Examiniim the causes th a t lead m em bers o f a particu lar cul ture to do som ething in a particu lar way help learners m ake choices in speaking, writing, an . behaving. For exam ple, in m any English-speak ing co m m u n ities, stu d e n ts are e x p e cte d n arrive to class on tim e. O n the o th e r h an d , sue/, an expectation mav not be com m on in certain, o th e r cultures. T he reason th at students need n be p u n ctu al is th at in English-speaking culturethe value of tim e is verv high, and it is consid ered to be a scarce and im p o rta n t com m odity sim ilar to monev, In fact, tim e is often referred to in wavs sim ilar to m onev (e.g., spend time, w a r time, to be short on time, time is money). T herefore when students arrive late, thev disrupt the class, tariff o th er people's time, and display a certain level of disrespect for the teacher and o th er students. Students m ake a choice w hether to com e on time or to take the liberty of com ing late. To help learn ers make appropriate choices (or to m ake them, aware that thev are indeed m aking choices wit/, consequences), teachers need to develop cultural knowledge and classroom effectiveness.
R ESEA R CH O N C U LT U R E A N D S P E C IF IC C U LT U R E S Two parallel types of research have been carried out to identify the role o f culture in society’ an d its influence on h u m an behavior. T he research on culture as it applies to social norm s, beliefs.
assum ptions, and value systems that affect many (if not most) hum an activities is carried out in the dom ains of ethnography, anthropology, sociology and intercultural com m unication. In these disci plines, culture is exam ined in term s that applv to most h u m an societies and organizations, and research on culture seeks to determ ine the simi larities and differences that exist in hum an con structions of reality. Applied linguistics (m ore specifically, sociolinguistics) is concerned with the inextricable connection betw een language and sociocultural norm s an d fram ew orks a n d seeks to identify pattern s that can lead to an u n d e r standing of how m em bers of p articular cultures use th eir language to refer to, describe, or func tion w ithin social organizations. For exam ple, politeness is considered to be a universal feature of language use in social organizations, but its pragm atic, linguistic, social, in te n tio n a l, a n d conceptual realizations van substantiallv am ong d iffe re n t lan g u ag es a n d / o r c u ltu re s (even speakers of the sam e language or different dialects may belong to different sub-cultures and thus have different concepts o f what it m eans to be polite a n d how politeness should be realized in speech a n d behavior). In a d d itio n , re se a rc h in e th n o g ra p h v . a n th ro p o lo g y a n d a p p lie d linguistics also includes studies o f specific cultures, such as Am erican, Chinese, Japanese, or M exican. These studies iclentifV and describe wavs o f doing, speak ing, and behaving in specific cultural com m uni ties, w ithout necessarilv attem pting to d eterm in e com m onalities and differences am ong various cul tures. Both research into culture in general and into specific cultures can be useful for L2 teachers who wish to allow learners to becom e m ore aware of the connection betw een the culture o f the com m unin' and the language of its speakers.
C R E A T IN G M ATERIALS TO B U ILD C R O S S -C U L T U R A L A W A R EN ESS Because m anifestations of the influence of cul ture on language use are verv com m on, m aterials for teaching cultural concepts and implications
can be easy to create. T he following ideas for teach in g L2 sociocultural concepts and their outcom es are m erely suggestions. All these have b een used for years with m am different groups of ESL or EFT learners. Extensive culture-teaching projects and activities presented below certainlv do not need to be used as thev arc described, and teachers can choose to use onlv portions of them , which include isolatable steps. (1) In teaching ESE, one o f the m ost effec tive activities that can be used for investigating a second culture are interviews of XSs or ex p eri en ced L 2 learners because thev provide testim o nials and evidence th at com es from real p eo p le (instead o f a classroom o r textbooks). T he great est advantages of c o n d u ctin g interviews are that it allows learners to practice a variety o f L2 skills, and that several productive assignm ents can be derived from this activity. T he first step is for learners to develop ap pro priate and focused questions. These can provide a fruitful avenue for working on various form s of polite speech acts and the notions of appropriate ness (e.g.. what represents personal inform ation, what topics can be discussed, and how to ap proach them ), as well as linguistic forms of ques tions an d requests. Because interviews allow' learners access to the invisible aspects of L2 culture, the questions should focus on the causal inform a tion that deals with L2 cultural concepts and socio cultural norm s and behaviors that cannot be observed. Examples of questions can include: ■ «
* ■ ■ ■ ■
Whv do peo p le ask vou How are you a n d th en do n o t listen to the answer? Whv do teachers sac- that students have to com e on tim e if. w hen students com e late, the missed m aterial is th eir own loss? Whv do A m ericans smile so m uch? Whv is it okay to call professors bv th eir first names? Whv do strangers sav hello to m e on the street? Whv is it necessary to explain everything in so m uch detail in waiting? If mv essay explains everything (!), would readers think that I view them as a little slow ?
It is stronglv rec o m m e n d e d that the in stru cto r approve the questions before th e actual in te r viewing takes place.
In addition, learners can work at eliciting the polite a n d a p p ro p riate requests for ap p o in t m e n ts / m eetings, "softening" devices, a p p ro p ri ate tele p h o n e or e-mail skills, neg o tiatin g the tim es an d places for m eeting, a n d seeking clari fication. T h e interviews can be co n d u c te d in pairs, but it is preferable n ot to include m ore th an two students in an interview ing team . Following the interview, the inform ation can be used for a presentation to o th er small groups of students or to an entire class. In a writing class, the outcom es can be tu rn e d into a short or long paper, d ep en d in g on the learners' level o f L2 pro ficiency. In any case, the presentations or written assignm ent should not turn into m ere descrip tions of responses or behaviors but should set out to d eterm in e their causes, W hen working on the presentation o r on writing assignm ents, the cul tural co n ten tio n s of L2 public speaking (e.g., eve contact, organization of content, and dem eanor) or L2 written discourse (e.g,, thesis statem ent, topic sentences, and their detailed support) can be addressed in conjunction with the work on the assignm ent content. In general, such a project can take a p p ro x im a te d two to th re e weeks, d ep en d in g on circumstances. (2) In EFL settings, learners can work on short questionnaires that similarlv have the goals of identifying the m anifestations o f culture in lan guage use and heightening learners' awareness of politeness norm s, sociocultural variables, prag m atic functions, and linguistic forms of speech acts (such as the types of "softening" devices an d th eir variability'). T he questionnaires can be adm inistered in the learners' LI to gather infor m ation that can be later used in L2 presentations or written assignm ents. T he tasks can be simpli fied for interm ediate level learners or be m ade m ore com plex for advanced L2 speakers. (3) In either ESL or EFL, hom e videos, movie clips, and videotaped excerpts from news casts and TV program s (sitcoms, juvenile shows for younger learners, or interviews) can provide a practically’ inexhaustible resource for exam ining the influence o f culture on language (e.g., routinized expressions, "softening” device-, questions, requests, etc.), interactional practices, body lan guage, turn-taking, and the length of a pause sig nalling the end of a turn. T he inform ation on
sociocultural and politeness norm s of the com m unity obtained from such materials can be used in subsequent role plavs. skits, or short play s that learners can script and present, as well as formal presentations and written assignments. In this case, written assignments can include the aspects o f L2 speech acts and behaviors that learners found surprising, the descriptions of polite and routinized expressions that they noted, and cul turally determ ined conventions displayed in the video excerpts. These projects cam be worked on from one to two weeks, d ep ending on the am ount of the m aterial used in the video lesson.
C O N C L U S IO N It is im p o rta n t for b o th teachers and students to be aware o f the m anifestations an d outcom es of L2 sociocultural values, concepts, an d norm s on people's speech an d behavior. To this end, learn ers need to be taught to notice polite (and often routinized) expressions and behaviors com m on in the L2 com m unity because w ithout becom ing astute people-w atchers, they may find it difficult, if n o t im possible, to becom e interactionallv c o m p e ten t in the L2. Being aware of the socio cultural fram ew orks does not m ean that learners have to becom e "native-like." but an awareness o f the L2 cultural norm s can allow learners to m ake th eir own inform ed choices o f what to sav7 and how to say it. T he teacher's task is to provide learners with the tools they n eed to recognize that they are in d ee d m aking choices. .Although ESL EFL teachers devote a great deal of work. time, and attention to the teaching of F.2 linguistic skills, being linguistically com pe tent is not enough for many learners to attain their educational, professional, and social goals. Because language use reflects the culture o f its speakers, the teaching of L2 culture can be closely intertw ined with the teaching of most L2 linguistic skills. Teaching L2 culture together with speaking, listening (and noticing), reading, and writing m ore adequately rep resen ts the co n n ectio n s betw een language and culture than teaching L2 linguistic skills— o r cu ltu re— in isolation. Acknowledgments: Mv ap preciation to Bethany Plett an d Mar\ Geary, b o th of Seattle t'niversirv. for th eir helpful c o m m e n t- an d suggestions.
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1. T he article m entions th a t culture teaching does not rep resen t a separate dom ain o f L2 teaching. If this is so, w ould it be useful for learners to develop lessons to deal with folk dances, festivals, facts, an d foods (the 4-F ap p ro ach to teaching culture)? 2. T he distinction betw een the visible and the invisible culture is described as one of the m ost im p o rtan t aspects of teaching the influ ence o f culture on L2 use. W hat are the kev features of the invisible culture an d what im pact do thev have on L2 learning and use? 3. Whv does the teaching o f 1.2 culture seem to be m ore directly relevant to ESL ra th e r titan EFT learners? Whv is contrasting culturallv d e te rm in e d wavs of speaking a n d writing useful for teaching second culture to EFL learners? 4. In m am wavs, cultural references are closelv intertw ined with reading, discourse, and text. W hat is the role of linguistic proficiencv and cultural proficiencv in ESL EFL reading a n d /o r writing? W hat im portance can El literaev have in learning to read and write in ESL EFL? 5. Whv is it that m anv teacher-training pro gram s S l a v awav from p rep a rin g teachers to work with a second culture? If con were in charge of an ESL EFL program , would y o u choose to include teaching culture as a com p o n e n t o f teacher-training? Why or whv not?
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1.
C reate lists of com m on linguistic expressions or behaviors, each associated with two or th ree topes o f speech acts (agreeing, dis agreeing, inciting som eone to do som ething or visit, and, o r accepting o r declining invi tations) and arran g e them from the least polite to the most polite expressions. W hat are the characteristics o f the least polite or the m ost polite speech acts? W hat are the sociocultural variables that, would m ake each of them acceptable o r unacceptable in reallife interactions?
2. Various tvpes of writing genres require the uses of different conventions. G ather samples o f different texts and include, for exam ple, a personal letter, a popular m agazine article, an excerpt from an introductorv textbook, o r a formal essav/academ ic paper. Identify the fea tures of these texts that m ake them different in im portant wavs. What are the culturally prescribed conventions com m on in personal, expressive, or formal academ ic writing? W hat do these genres share? V iiat do the shared and d ifferent conventions sav ab o u t the culture of each discourse comnninitv? 3. O bserve a g roup of people who are sim ultaneouslv engaged in an aetivitv (e.g., standing in line, waiting for the teach er to arrive in class, or m aking small purchases in a d ru g store). W hat verbal an d nonverbal behaviors do these individuals have in com m on? How do thev. for instance, m aintain eve contact or hold th eir hands? W hat do m ost of them say and what do only som e individuals sav? How can culturallv d e te rm in e d wavs of behaving and speaking in a com nninitv be identified and isolated from those th at are based on individual choices? 4. To find out what represents a p o p u lar u n d e r standing of culture in the com m unity, find five or six individuals in a sim ilar age g roup and with sim ilar social status who are native speakers of the same language a n d ask them to tell von ab o u t th eir culture. For exam ple, ask several A m erican o r Japanese students to tell vou about th eir culture. W hat do th eir responses include? How do these individuals identifv the visible and the invisible aspects of th eir culture?
FU R T H ER R EA D IN G M cv.
J.
191*3.
Pragmatics: An Introduction.
O xford:
Blackw ell. P r e s e n t s p r a g m a t i c s as t h e stu d y o f l a n g u a g e u se in real-life i n t e r a c t i o n a n d d e s c r i b e s t h e effects o f various la n g u a g e form s o n c o m m u n ic a tio n . F o c u s e s o n e v e ry d a y c o n v e r s a t i o n a n d t h e s o c i o c u l t u r a l v a ria b le s t h a t d e t e r m i n e c h o ic e s o f l a n g u a g e f e a t u r e s m a d e bv i n t e r a c t i n g p a r t ic i p a n ts .
S av ille-T ro ik e,
M.
198V).
The
E thnography
of
Communication. O x f o r d : B lackw ell. D e s c r i b e s h o w a n d w h y l a n g u a g e is u s e d in p a r t i c u l a r wavs t h a t v a n in d i f f e r e n t c u l t u r e s . Illu s tra te s e s s e n tia l c o n c e p t s in so c io lin g u istic s a n d cites e x a m p l e s f r o m m a n v l a n g u a g e s to o u t lin e fram ew orks o f c o m m u n ic a tio n a n d cultural com petence. S c o ll o n , R., a n d S. \V. S c o ll o n . 1995. Intercultural Communication. O x f o r d : B lackw ell. A p r a c t ic a l g u i d e t o t h e m a i n c o n c e p t s a n d p r o b le m s o f i n t e r c u l t u r a l c o m m u n i c a t i o n . C e n t e r s o n p r i n c i p l e s o f i n t e r a c t iv e s o cio lin g u istics , t h e d i s c o u r s e o f m e m b e r s o f d i v e r g e n t c u lt u r e s , p r a g m a t i c s , a n d e t h n o g r a p h y . U n d e r s c o r e s th e i m p o r t a n c e o f l a n g u a g e u se in cro s s-c u ltu ra l d iscourse a n d cu ltu ral n o rm s o f in teractio n .
S in g e r , M. 1998. Perception and Identity in Inlerculturai Communication. R e v is e d e d i t i o n . Y a r m o u t h , ME: I n t e r c u l t u r a l Press. A nalyzes c u l t u r a l a n d g r o u p id e n t it ie s a n d th e c o m m u n i c a t i o n p ro c e s s to d e t e r m i n e h o w p e r c e p t i o n s o f self a n d o t h e r s affect l a n g u a g e a n d b e h a v io r. D elves in t o t h e s ig n if i c a n c e o f c u ltu re b a se d p e r c e p tu a l id en tity a n d th e ro le o f id e n tity in i n t e r c u l t u r a l c o m m u n i c a t i o n . S te w a rt. E.. a n d M. B e n n e t t . 1991. American Cultured Patterns: A Cross-cultural Perspective. R e v is e d e d i ti o n . Y a r m o u t h . M E: I n t e r c u l t u r a l P ress. D isc u s se s f u n d a m e n t a l c o n c e p t s o f A m e r i c a : : c u l t u r e in t e r m s o f s i m i l a r o r d i f f e r e n t c h a r a c teristics o f o t h e r c u l t u r e s . A lso fo c u s e s o n th e im p a c t o f c u ltu re on c o m m u n ic a tio n a n d im pli c a t i o n s f o r c r o s s - c u l tu r a l i n t e r a c t i o n s .
The Use of Media in Language Teaching1 D O N N A
M.
B R I N T O N
In "The Use of Media in Language Teaching," Brinton presents a rationale for and an overview of media materials and equipment traditionally used in the second/foreign language classroom.To better guide teachers in their use of media, she provides a five-part framework for structuring media-based language lessons, accompanied by a variety of sample lessons that illustrate this framework.
IN T R O D U C T IO N As a tool for language learn in g /teach in g , m edia have undoubtedly always facilitated the task of language learning for both instructed and noninstructed learners. Just as children learning a first or second language grasp the m eaning of words from the objects that surround them , non-native speakers (both inside and outside the classroom) make use of the here and notv or objects in the im m ediate environm ent (see H udelson 1984: Pica, Young, and Doughtv 1987: VVesche and Read}' 1985; Lvnch 1996) to process incom ing speech. In the second language classroom , the extent to which m edia are used has varied widelv, d ep ending on the m ethodology selected. In some m ethods, m edia have figured prom inently as a force th at drives th e cu rricu lu m . In the St. Cloud (or audiovisual) m ethod, which teas developed prim arily f or the teaching of French as a foreign language (Bowen, M adsen, and Hilfertv 1985; Stevick 1976), all language items were intro duced to learners via contextualized, audiovisual presentations (usually filmstrips or slide shows with an accom panying soundtrack. T he u nderly ing a p p ro a c h assum ed th a t language is an acoustic-visual whole that cannot be separated from its c o n stitu en t elem ents. Similarly, in the Silent Wav (G attegno 1972; L arsen-Freem an 1986; Stevick 1998), the sound-color charts and rods form a central visual c o m p o n e n t o f the m eth o d , allowing the tea c h e r to p resen t and
elicit language while at the same tim e providing the students with tools for the creative construc tion o f language. In o th e r m ethods, m edia are relegated m ore to the design or p ro ce d u re level.2 In C om m unicative L anguage tea c h in g (LarsenF re em a n 1986, L ittlew ood 1981; see also Savignon's c h a p te r in this volum e), for exam ple, m uch em phasis is placed on the n e e d for reallife objects o r texts (e.g., m aps, railroad tim e tables, application form s) to lend authenticity to th e com m u n icativ e situ a tio n , w hile in th e N atural A pproach (K rashen an d Terrell 1983), m agazine pictures are used as an elicitation device in the listening co m p reh en sio n an d early p ro d u ctio n stages, a n d charts, m aps, a n d props are used to m otivate a n d e n h a n ce com m unica tive in terch an g e in later stages o f acquisition. Finally, in experiential approaches to language learn in g (see E yring’s c h a p te r in this volum e), language teaching m edia are often taken o u t of the hands of the tea c h e r a n d placed in the h a n d s o f th e stu d e n ts, such th a t stu d e n ts involved in project work m ight be exp ected to p ro d u ce a scripted slide show or a voice-over video d o cum entary as th eir final class product. W hatever the approach, language teachers seem to agree th a t m edia can a n d do e n h a n ce language teaching, a n d thus in th e daily practice of language teaching we find the en tire range o f m e d ia — fro m n o n m e c h a n ic a l aids such as h o u seh o ld objects, flashcards, a n d m agazine pic tures all the wav up to sophisticated m echanical
aids such as video cam eras and com puters (see S okolik’s c h a p te r in this v o lu m e )— assisting teachers in th eir jobs, b ringing the outside world in to the classroom , and, in short, m aking the task o f language learn in g a m ore m eaningful a n d exciting one. K eeping this fact in m ind, let us exam ine the types o f instructional m edia used in the language classroom .
M EDIA: A D E F IN IT IO N Just as we often differentiate the teaching of “large C cu ltu re"— i.e., the great literature, art, a n d o th e r contributions of a societv— from that o f “small c c u ltu re ”— i.e., the custom s and habits o f a p eo p le— (Chastain 1988), it is germ ane here to differentiate betw een “large M m edia" and “small m m edia.” Certainly, as with culture, m edia m eans m any different things to different people. T he m ost im m ediate con n o tatio n of the term “m edia,” at least as related to language teaching, is th at of the “large Л/ m edia"— o f technological innovations in language teaching, o f m echanical paraphernalia, and of glossv, polished audiovisual aids— with all the m edia anxietv that these can conjure up in teachers. However, there is little evi d ence th at such glossv audiovisual aids are anv m ore effective than teacher-m ade, n o n m ec h a n ical aids (e.g., p ap er plate h a n d puppets, bu tch er p a p e r verb charts, and the like) or props from daily life (e.g., cereal boxes, cam paign buttons, travel pam phlets, b u m p er stickers) that have b een ad ap ted for classroom teaching purposes. I w ould therefore like to suggest that all these aids, m echanical and nonm echanical, glossy a n d n o n glossy, com m ercially available and teacher-m ade, should be p art o f o u r definition o f language teaching m edia.
A R A TIO N A LE F O R T H E USE O F M EDIA IN LA N G U A G E T E A C H IN G I often assum e th at the reasons whv we should use m edia w hen teaching second or foreign lan guages are self-evident to ex p erien ced classroom
teachers. All too frequentlv, however, I overhsnatches of conversation in classroom hallwavs at professional gatherings that disabuse m e of the notion. These com m ents, m ade bv colleagues regarding their inability or unwillingness to use audiovisual aids in their classrooms, fall roughlv into the following "categories": Statement 1: I'm all thum bs. I c a n ’t use m edia. Statement 2: Mv school district has no bu d g et fee media. Statement 3: I have no tim e to p re p a re meek, m aterials of mv own. Statement 4: T he syllabus I teach from is too tight/ structured to allow for m edia materials to f-. b rought into the classroom. Statement 5 : 1 teach advanced levels (alternatively . given skill area such as com position or re a : ingj and therefore d o n 't need to use media. Before p ro ce e d in g with a rationale i . using m edia in the language classroom , let afirst exam ine the underiving fallacies of faabove statem ents. The first two statem ents, I believe, can dealt with summarilv bv realizing that those wk have m ade such statem ents are subscribing to tiw aforem entioned "large ЗГ definition of med:: T hat is. these individuals are assuming that cla>'room m edia m aterials are bv definition i i m echanical (and therefore unavailable, unwield’ a n d /o r anxietv-provoking) and (2) commercial (and therefore costlv and inaccessible). In fact, aI hat e alreadv pointed out, classroom m edia need: be none of the above— they can be nonm echar.ical, unth reaten in g to both teachers and student.' teacher-produced rath er than com m ercial, easih available (especially in the case of the realia o: evervdav life), and reasonable priced (or often, even free). T he fallacies that underlie statem ents / th rough 5 are som ew hat m ore difficult to refute. O n the surface, statem ent 3 (the tim e factori. presents a som ew hat viable a rg u m en t against using m edia. Certainly, if one disregards the m ans’ attractive com m ercially available m edia m aterials th at teachers can select from (see A ppendix В for a partial list of these) and assumes th at statem ent 2 also holds true in a
given case, the p rep a ra tio n of teacher-m ade m edia m aterials does d em an d an investm ent of time and cnergv above an d bevond that o f n o r mal lesson planning. However, this statem ent overlooks the reality that any lesson p reparation is tim e-consum ing, a n d that m any m edia m aterials (such as the preparation of vocabulary flashcards or the selection of m agazine pictures to elicit and practice a given language point) do not require exhaustive am ounts of time. A dditionally and perhaps m ore im portantly the statem ent ignores the “payoff’ that can result from the hours spent p reparing or assem bling simple classroom m edia m aterials (e.g., a set of prespecified role assign m ents p rep ared on index cards to set up a roleplay situation, o r a collection of m enus from local restaurants for a lesson on food item s). In fact, this payoff, which is realized in term s of the teacher's continuouslv reced in g these same m ate rials with different student audiences (and even for different teaching purposes), is often far greater than the am o u n t o f tim e invested in m ore trad itio n al classroom lesson p la n n in g (see Jensen's ch ap ter in this volum e).3 Statem ent 4, 1 believe, is based on a com monly held m isunderstanding of m edia as "extra neous” to norm al lesson activities. In o th er words, p ropon ents of this view fail to recognize that m edia can form a viable point o f departu re for achieving lesson objectives. In fact, rath e r than taking up additional class hours, the use of m edia designed with a particular student population and teaching objective in m ind can often help to economize the teaching task. This is achieved in the sense that the m edia appeal to students' senses and help them process inform ation (H artnett 1985), thus reinforcing the teaching p o in t and saving the teacher unnecessarv explanation. Finally those who hold the view expressed in statem ent 5 are neglecting the fact, gro u n d ed in the very definition o f language, that language skills are not isolated entities, and that as language teachers we need to build bridges betw een skills. We can do so by creating a unified context in which the teaching of various skills is effectively integrated around m edia. For exam ple, we can structure multiskill them atic units4 requiring stu dents to process inform ation from a varietv of
sources (e.g., a political cartoon, a \id e o docu mentary, and letters to the editor, all concerning the same controversial topic) followed by an inter\iew assignm ent in which students poll native speakers for th eir opinions on this topic and, as a culm inating activity, write a p a p e r sum m ariz ing the opposing points o f Hew on the topic. In short, m edia help us to m otivate students bv bringing a slice o f real life into the classroom an d bv presenting language in its m ore com plete com m unicative context. M edia can also provide a density of inform ation an d richness of cultural in p u t not otherwise possible in the classroom , thev can help students process inform ation and free the teacher from excessive explanation, an d they can provide contextualization an d a solid point o f d ep a rtu re for classroom activities. T he following statem ents sum m arize the rationale for using m edia in the language classroom: *
■
*
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■
Given the role m edia play in the w orld o u t side the classroom , students expect to find m edia inside the classroom as well. M edia thus serve as an im p o rta n t m otivator in the language teaching process. Audiovisual m aterials provide students with co n ten t, m eaning, a n d guidance. They thus create a co n tex tu alized situation w ithin which language item s are p re se n te d an d practiced. M edia m aterials can len d authenticity to the classroom situation, rein fo rcin g for stu dents the direct relation betw een the lan guage classroom and the outside world. Since the learn in g stvles o f students differ (O xford 1990; Reicl' 1987; Skehan 1989; W enden a n d R ubin 1987; see also O x fo rd ’s c h a p te r in this volum e), m edia provide us with a way o f addressing the needs o f b o th visual a n d auditory learners. T he role th at in p u t plays in language learn ing is virtually uncontested (Krashen 1987). Be bringing m edia into the classroom, teach ers can expose their students to m ultiple input sources. Thus, while decreasing the risk of the students’ becom ing d e p e n d e n t on their tea c h e r’s dialect o r idiolect, they can also enrich th eir language learning experiences.
■
■
W ith referen ce to schem a theory (Schank a n d A belson 1977), which proposes that we a p p ro ach new inform ation bv scanning o u r m em ory b ank s fo r re la te d know ledge, m edia can help students call up existing schem ata an d th erefo re m axim ize th eir use o f p rio r back g ro u n d know ledge in the lan guage learn in g process. Finally, research suggests that m edia p ro vide teachers with a m eans of p resenting m aterial in a tim e-efficient an d com pact m anner, and o f stim ulating students' senses, thereby helping them to process inform a tion m ore readily (Mollica 1979).
CLA SSR O O M MEDIA: A N O V ER V IEW At the height of the audiolingual era, if we had asked the average second or foreign language teacher to designate those m edia that tliev felt were appropriate for the teaching of languages, we would no doubt have rec e d e d a fairly large range of responses, with the blackboard and o th e r simple classroom aids along with the audiotape m edium (and the ubiquitous language labo ratory) d o m in a tin g the responses. Today, needless to say, that range of responses would be even larger, as the ever-expanding horizons of technolog}’ present us with exciting new advances such as com puter-assisted instruction, satellite transm ission, a n d interactive video. Despite these expanding horizons, we find today that rather than abandoning the m ore tradi tional, or small m, m edia and shifting allegiance to the newer, m ore technological innovations, lan guage teachers are simple incorporating new tech nolog}' into their repertoire of teaching aids, with m any using sophisticated video and com puter tech nologies (see Sokolik’s chapter in this volume) alongside the less sophisticated (but tried and true) m agnetboard or overhead projector. In attem pting to prtnide an overview of the range of m edia avail able to classroom teachers today, it is perhaps best to use the traditional classification of ''nontech nical” and “technical” media, as listed below.’1
Nontechnical Media This category presents obvious advantages in sc tings w here electricity is unreliable, technic, resources are scarce, or funding is lim ited. O thc advantages of the forms of m edia included in th:category are their low cost, their availability, the.: accessibility, and their user-friendliness. Iter..that belong in this category tvpicallv include: blackboards w hiteboards m agnetboards flannelboards. pegboards flashcards index can wall charts, posters. maps, scrolls board games m o u n te d pictures photos
cartoons, line drawings objects/'realia p a m p h le ts / b ro c h u re s / flyers/m enus eq u ip m en t operation m a n n a / puppets new spapers,/ m agazines
Technical Media A lthough these form s of m edia are costlier and less user-friendiv than the n o n tech n ical m edia thev e a rn with them a larger degree o f “psycho logical reality" in that thev can brin g the outside w orld in all its com plexities into the classroom In fact, since students in today's language classeten d to su rro u n d them selves with technolog}’ ir. th eir daily lives, the/ mav grow to expect it in the language classroom as well. Item s that belong ir. this category typically include: reco rd plaver au diotape plaver reco rd er CD plaver rec o rd e r radio television video plac’d ' rec o rd e r telep h o n e teletrain er overhead pro jecto r
film strip / film p rojector opaque projector slide p rojector co m p u ter language lab co m p u ter lab m ultim edia lab self-access cen ter
In considering this group, it is im portant to make a few fu rth er distinctions— namelv, w hether the m edia constitute software (consum able m edia
items) or hardw are (eq u ip m en t), w h eth er the m aterials tire com m ercially p ro d u ce d or teachertiroduced, a n d w h eth er they are au th en tic or not.b We m ust also consider w h ether they are being used alone o r to g eth e r with o th e r m edia tn a m ultim edia en vironm ent. Finally, we must ..Iso consider the purposes for which these m edia are being used— i.e.. to aid in presentation, to orovidc practice o r stim ulate com m unicative interaction, or to provide feedback (as in the case if aud io /v id eo tap in g student oral products for 'tibsequent discussion an d evaluation). To include a description of the possible uses if all the above form s of m edia is bevoncl the mope o f this chapter. However, to take but one sam ple, the blackboard, we can see how even this simple m edium can function effectively at the various stages of a lesson. In the presentation mage, for exam ple, the blackboard can be used :or verb paradigm s, tim e lines, or o th er graphic or visual cues to elucidate a teaching point, while matrices or grids written on the blackboard can serve as elicitation tools. In the practice stage, maps, stick figures, and o th er line drawings can runction as contextualizers for a given activity. Finally, in the com m unication stage, the black board can be used to storyboard student ideas in л group-produced narrative or to cluster and m ap student concepts as thev are being developed. Suffice it to sav, then, that each form of m edia presents unique advantages— be it the availability and immediacy o f feedback that the black/w hiteboard can supply the econom y of time that pre-prepared overhead transparencies or a Pow erpoint presentation can proride the teacher, or the richness o f au th en tic in p u t that film or the In te rn e t can offer. Ultimately, each m edium leases its own im print on the tea c h in g / learning process, and it is up to the teacher to decide which one to select in o rd e r to teach a given point.
G U ID E L IN E S FO R U SIN G M EDIA IN T H E CLA SSR O O M Given the range of classroom m edia (both h ard ware and software) discussed above, it is not sur prising that language teachers are overw helm ed
bv the choices available to them . As Penfield (1987, p. 1 ) rightfully notes, “too often [m edia] are neglected because teachers are n o t always certain how to ad ap t these rich a n d com plex learn in g m aterials to stu d e n ts’ needs a n d lan guage co m p eten cies.” Clearly, guidelines for use are in order. In fact, guidelines for the selection, adapta tion, dev elo p m en t, an d im p le m e n ta tio n o f m edia-based m aterials do n o t differ radically from the kinds o f guidelines we find m en tioned m ore universally regarding lesson planning and textbook evaluation (see, e.g., J e n se n ’s and Byrd’s chapters in this volum e). Thus, such issues as the appropriateness of the m aterials for the target audience, their technical a n d pedagogical quality, their teaching objective (s), and the pre-/postprocedures to be used all play as im p o rtan t a role in the selection and use of audiovisual m edia in the classroom as thev do in those o f conventional print media. Further, and this p o in t cannot be stressed enough, m edia-based m aterials should n ot be viewed simplv as extraneous to the lesson, or as contingency plans. Rather, they should be p lan n ed as carefully as the lesson itself and should form a central (if n ot the central) com po n en t of the lesson — one that is interwoven with the o th er lesson com ponents, such as the reading text, the writing assignm ent, or the speaking task.
A FRA M EW O RK FO R S T R U C T U R IN G M EDIA LESSO N S T he fram ework presented below7 is in ten d ed to put the application o f m edia to language teaching into a unified perspective and to assist teachers in better structuring m edia lessons. In constructing this framework, I ’ve divided up the typical “lesson” into five stages: ( 1 ) the information and motivation stage, w here the topic and relevant background inform ation are presented; (2 ) the input stage, w here the teacher ensures com prehension of the item or items presented; (3) the focus stage, w here the students practice the tasks an d are provided with guided opportunities to m anipulate items u ntil thev feel co m fo rtab le a n d c o n fid en t;
(4) the m ore com m unicatively oriented transfer singe, in which students are given opp o rtu n ities to offer personal com m ents or share experi ences relating to the given context: and (5) an optional feedback stage in which audio or video recordings of students are used to gttide the assessm ent of the stu d en ts' p erfo rm an ce (e.g., a stu d e n t speech, ;m interview, a class discussion, a role plav, a g ro u p problem solving activity).8 Figure 1 presents the fram ew ork.
In applying this framework, teachers need to be aware that the above points in the fram e work outline options available to teachers it: designing and im plem enting m edia lessons anc are n ot in tended to represent procedures that m ust be followed lockstep. Note also that media can plav a role at an у or all of the live stages of the lesson, and that a variety of m edia m ight be nsec, in the various stages to com plem ent each othe: an d to achieve the designated teaching objective
I. Inform ation and m otivation stage II. Input stage 1. Teacher presents/elicits vocabulary 2. Teacher presents/elicits structures 3. Teacher presents/elicits functions 4. Teacher presents/elicits concepts 5. Teacher presents/elicits content III. Focus stage 1. Teacher models language items/procedures/tasks 2. Students practice items/tasks in context
a. Drill b. Elicitation 3. Students manipulate language/content/tasks a. Notetaking b. Information transfer c. Pair work/small-group work IV. Transfer stage 1. Class discussion 2. Students interact, using context set by media materials as a point of departure a. Role play/sociodrama b. Problem solving activity c. Information gap activity d. Game 3. Task-based assignment 4. Follow-up writing assignment 5. Sharing of personal experience 6 . Field trip V. Feedback stage 1. Teacher tapes the activity. 2. Students listen to/view the tape. 3. Students perform a self-assessment of their performance. 4. Students provide peer feedback to others. 5. Teacher provides feedback to students. F ig u re I. A F r a m e w o r k f o r Stru ctu rin g M e d ia Lessons
SAM PLE M EDIA LESSO N S T he following sam ple lessons, selected to illustiate a range o f available m edia, dem onstrate how the fram ew ork in Figure 1 can be applied in m aking
decisions about m edia use for language teaching p urposes.-1 N ote that num bers in brackets indicate the relevant parts of the fram ew ork th at have been applied in designing each lesson.
Sam ple Lesson I: T h e “ Ugly L a m p ” (magazine picture) A u d ie n ce :
Teachin g O b je ctiv e :
M edia:
Beginning-level adult students enrolled in an intensive language/visa program; intermediate level EFL students.
To provide students with the language needed to express pleasure/ displeasure; request an exchange for an unwanted item. Mounted magazine picture of woman holding an ugly lamp (see Figure 2).
Skills:
Speaking, vocabulary, writing.
T im e :
2 class periods (I hour each) plus follow-up (15 minutes).
P ro c e d u re s: 1. Teacher introduces the concept of gift giving and receiving. If appropriate (e.g., holiday time), students may want to share information about what they are giving to friends or wish to receive [I]. 2. Teacher introduces the magazine picture of the ugly lamp (see Figure 2), elic iting explicit vocabulary (e.g., lampshade, bow, frown) [II.I.] and structures (present progressive, descriptive adjectives) [II.2.]. 3. The students and teacher examine the picture more closely, and the teacher asks questions which elicit more implicit vocabulary [II. I.] and structures [Н.2.]. For example:“ W h o do you think gave the woman this gift?” (sister-inlaw, elderly relative); “W h ere do you think Aunt Harriet m ight have bought the lamp?” (She might have bought it from a thrift shop/garage sale/etc.). 4. Teacher presents language functions relevant to giving and receiving gifts [11.3] and provides students with guided practice [lll.2.a.]. In pairs (gift giver and receiver), students practice the sequence of giving the gift, opening it, and expressing thanks [ Ш . З . С . ] . 5. For homework, as follow-up writing practice, students write a letter to the giver of the gift thanking him or her [IV.4.].
6 . On a subsequent day, the context is recycled, and the language necessary for returning unwanted items to a store and requesting cash/an exchange is presented [11.4.] and practiced [III.2.a.]. 7. Students are videotaped [V.I.] role-playing the situation [IV.2.a.]. They then watch the video footage [V.2.] and receive peer [V.4.] and teacher [V.5.] feedback.
8 . As a culminating activity, students bring in unwanted items they have received and share their reactions to receiving these gifts with their classmates [IV.5.].
Sam ple Lesson 2: C o m p u te r H ardw are/Softw are A d s (m ounted advertisem ents from m agazines and jo u rn a ls)10 A u d ie n c e :
Advanced ESL/EFL students enrolled in EAP courses at the university; students enrolled in university-bound programs (e.g., advanced students in intensive language institutes).
Teachin g O b je c tiv e :
To introduce, practice, and reinforce the task of writing formal definitions for academic purposes; secondary objectives include reading practice involving skimming and scanning, speaking in small groups, in-class writing, and follow-up writing error detection.
M edia:
Mounted advertisements of computer hardware and software products with accompa nying text from magazines and journals.
S k ills:
W riting, grammar (sentences of definition), reading, and speaking.
T im e :
90 minutes plus additional follow-up as desired.
P ro c e d u re s: 1. Students are led in a brief discussion of where we are apt to find academic definitions of items— e.g., in textbooks, product manuals, journals, and magazines [I.]. 2. Teacher reviews previously covered material— i.e., the structure of sentences of definition [И.2.].
3. Teacher distributes photocopies of a computer hardware or software advertise ment. Together, the class members identify the item being advertised and locate any information relevant to writing a concise sentence definition of the product [lll.2.b.]. [Note: This advertisement and the subsequent advertisements should be carefully selected so that there is no overt sentence definition of the product.The ad should, however, contain the necessary information for students to draw from in writing their definition.] 4. Together, students construct a complete sentence definition of the product. The teacher writes this definition on the blackboard [III.I.], stressing the previously studied formula for definitions, as in the following example: A(n) [ X ] is a(n) [Y] that [Z] [X ]
[Y]
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5. Students are next divided into small groups of three or four students, with each group receiving one advertisement for a computer software or hardware item. Using the pattern provided, each group of students works for roughly four or five minutes to construct a sentence definition of the product [Ш.З.С.]. A t the end of this time period, the groups pass their ads to another group, with each group receiving a new ad. This process continues until all groups have seen all ads and students in each group have had a chance to write appropriate sentences with def initions for each product.
6. W ith the help of the teacher, students now pool their answers.They decide for them selves the most useful information to include [IV. I .]; the teacher then writes the agreed-upon definition on the board under the headings indicated above. Errors in spelling, sentence structure, etc., can be dealt with at this stage by eliciting peer correction. 7. On a subsequent day, the teacher can recycle the material in a more game-like atmosphere [IV.2.d.], either by giving students names of fictional products and having them compete to write the “ best” definition of the product or by having students play a “ sort and unscramble” game in which they are given mixed-up items from categories X,Y, and Z on separate strips of paper and asked to put the items together to form sentence definitions.
S a m p le L e s s o n 3: O v e ^ t h e - c o u n t e r D r u g s 11
Audience:
Beginning- or intermediate-level adult/community education students.
Teaching To develop an awareness of the availability, use, and potential misuse of Objective: over-the-counter preparations; to increase reading for specific informa tion skills; to expand topic-related vocabulary.
Media: Packages/containers of over-the-counter drug preparations (e.g., headache remedies, cold medications); information grid (see Figure 3).
Skills: Reading, vocabulary, and speaking. Tim e: 2 class periods (I hour each). Procedures: 1. Teacher introduces concept of over-the-counter (O TC ) drugs; elicits from students information on the types of O TC products they typi cally use [I]. 2. Common complaints (e.g., headache, allergy, cold sores, constipation) are reviewed [И.1.]. 3. Teacher introduces information grid and demonstrates the procedure students are to follow via the example (Sudafed) [III. I .].Terms in the grid are explained [1.1.]. 4. Students are divided into small groups of four or five and O TC prod ucts are distributed to each group. 5. Students work in groups to transfer information into the grid [lll.3.b.]. 6 . Once all student groups have completed the task, they share their results with the class at large. 7. Students discuss previous experiences they have had with O TC drugs (side effects experienced, etc.) [IV.5.] 8 . As a follow-up, each student is assigned a symptom (e.g., warts, fever blisters, heartburn) and told to go to the drug store and find three products intended to remedy this condition. They are to compare these products using the grid format and report back on their find ings to the class on the following day [IV.3.].
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S a m p le L e s s o n 4: P o s tc a r d D e s c r ip t io n A c t iv it y (p h o to g r a p h ic p o s tc a rd s f r o m v a r io u s c o u n t r ie s ) 12
Audience: Recently arrived international students living in the ESL context (any level). Teaching To increase awareness of cultural stereotyping; to serve as a discussion stimulus for Objective: impressions formed of the United States, its people, and its culture. Media: Picture postcards depicting stereotypical images of countries (one for each pair of students); a barrier (e.g., a notebook, manila folder) to separate students. Skills:
Speaking, cultural awareness, writing.
Tim e:
I class period (I hour) plus follow-up (10-15 minutes).
Procedures: 1. Teacher introduces the activity by discussing postcards in general and the kinds of postcards that people send to their friends when they are on vacation [l.].A model postcard (e.g., one depicting a Dutch girl wearing wooden shoes with a windmill and tulips in the background) may be shown to promote discussion. 2.
Students are asked what kinds of postcards they have sent home since arriving in the United States, who they have sent these to, and what kinds of messages they have written on them [11.4].
3.
Teacher explains/models the paired activity: Students are to form pairs, with Student A receiving a postcard from a given country. They erect a barrier between them so Student В cannot see Student A ’s postcard. It is Student A s task to describe this postcard to Student B, without mentioning the name of the country [III. I .]. Student В then attempts to discover the identity of the country [IV.2.C.].
4.
Once all students have completed the task, students share their postcards and the cultural stereotype depicted with the rest of the class.
5.
Follow-up discussion ensues on the general topic of cultural stereotyping, with the teacher eliciting a definition of cultural stereotyping from the students [IV. I].
6 . Teacher elicits cultural stereotypes of Americans and organizes these on the blackboard under the headings “ Positive” and “ Negative” [Н.4.]. Students discuss the possible harm of cultural stereotyping and share some stereotypes held about their own cultures [IV.I.]. 7.
As a follow-up assignment, students are asked to bring in postcards from their country (alternately: postcards from the United States) and share further infor mation [IV.5.]. Depending on class level and focus, they may be asked as well to write a brief paragraph defining cultural stereotypes [IV.4].
8 . Teacher videotapes the student activity [ V I .] for subsequent playback. He or she has students view the tape [V.2.]; in groups, they discuss the performances and give each other feedback [V.4.].
S a m p le L e s s o n 5: R a d io P s y c h ia t r is t (p h o n e - in b r o a d c a s t ta p e d o ff- a ir)13
Audience: High-intermediate to advanced international students enrolled in an intensive lan guage institute or other visa program; advanced EFL students in the secondary or postsecondary context.
Teaching To expose students to authentic English; to help them gain insights into issues Objective: which concern Americans; to provide them with a forum for problem solving activities.
Media: Advice column (Dear Abby,Ann Landers) on topic of audiotape (mounted on index cards); pre-prepared audiotape of phone-in radio psychiatrist show (possibly slight ly edited).14
Skills: Reading, listening, speaking. Tim e: 2-3 class periods (I hour each). Procedures: 1. Teacher introduces the lesson by asking students how people who are experi encing personal problems can get advice [1.4]. W h at forums are available (e.g., advice columns, counselors, psychologists/psychiatrists)? Students are asked to name specific situations in which people might seek the advice of a psychiatrist. 2. The first half of the advice column is distributed to students, and topical vocab ulary is discussed [II. I.].
3. In groups, students discuss the problem [Ш.З.С.] and write their “ answer” to the person requesting advice [IV.4.].They then share this with the class and compare it with the actual answer written by the advice columnist [IV.I.]. 4.
In the subsequent class period, the teacher introduces the topic of radio talk shows and asks students what kinds of talk shows they are familiar with [1.4.].
5. After a brief introduction to the topic of the taped phone-in call, students listen to the first half of the call— i.e., the caller’s explanation of the problem. As necessary, difficult vocabulary is discussed [II. I .]. Depending on class level, the students may listen to this segment of the tape more than once and may also work on answering prepared questions in groups [Ш.З.с.].
6 . As in step 3 above, students are then asked to formulate their own answer to the predicament and to predict the answer that the expert will give [IV.2.b.]. 7. Students listen to the expert’s advice (again, more than once if necessary) and subsequently discuss whether they feel this advice will be of assistance to the caller.They compare their own advice with that of the expert [IV. I.].
8 . Optionally, on a third day, students can participate in a problem solving [IV.2.b.] or role-play [IV.2. I .] activity, with situations prepared by the teacher. For each role play, one student plays the role of the advice seeker, and one or more students can play the role of the advice giver.
S a m p le L e s s o n 6: “ P e o p le ’s C o u r t ” (o ff- a ir v id e o t a p e ) 15
Audience: High-intermediate or advanced young adult or adult ESL students. Teaching To increase listening comprehension in authentic situations and to introduce Objective: specialized vocabulary items; to provide a format for problem solving; to familiarize students with one aspect of the American judicial system.
Media: Videotape of “ People’s Court,” a broadcast of actual small claims court proceedings, recorded off-air.
Skills: Listening, speaking, vocabulary, culture. Tim e: 2 class periods (I hour each). Procedures: 1.
The lesson is introduced by the teacher, who gives a brief introduction to the U.S. judicial system [I.] and explains the role of small claims court within this system [II.5.].
2.
The program “ People’s Court” is explained, and relevant vocabulary (e.g., judge, plaintiff, defendant) is presented [II. I.]. Students are asked if they have ever watched this program; those who have share their impressions of it [IV.5.].
3.
Students view a selected case (broadcasts of “ People’s Court” typically consist of two cases) up to the point where the judge retires to make a decision. Class members consider the basic points of the case, judge the arguments of the plaintiff and defendant, and predict what the judge will decide [IV.2.b.].
4.
Students then view the remainder of the tape and compare their decisions with that of the judge. They may wish at this point to suggest how the litigants could have improved their arguments, or discuss the testimony of the witnesses [IV. I .].
5.
On a subsequent day, the teacher may present students with various situations which might be heard in small claims court (e.g., a dry cleaner who damaged someone’s expensive dress, or a florist who delivered the wrong flowers to a wedding) and prepare the students for a role-play situation in which students take various roles (witnesses, plaintiff, defendant, bailiff, judge). Students are given time to practice the role play prior to performing it [IV.2.a.].
6 . Students perform the role play, which is videotaped by the teacher [V. I .] and then placed in a viewing facility so that students can review their performances [V.3.] outside of class. 7.
A follow-up to the video role play can include an actual site visit [IV.6.] to a small claims court. (These visits should be scheduled in advance by the teacher; the courts are usually glad to accommodate.)
8 . Following the field visit, a debriefing session is held, and students share their impressions [IV. I .].
C O N C L U S IO N As outlined above, instructional m edia com e in an alm ost infinite variety o f form s an d can plav equally varied roles. T he following are factors that should be considered when incorporating instruc tional m edia into ou r language teaching goals: * ■
■
■ ■
Type o f sk ill/c o n c ep t to be p rese n ted Student preference: the age, interests, expe riences, and learning styles of the students concerned T eacher p referen ce: facility with e q u ip m ent, fam iliarity/adroitness with the given m edium , teaching style Availability o f software an d hardw are Physical circum stances o f the classro o m / lab
However, as W right (1976, p. 65) notes, we should also keep in m ind that “language teaching is a collective title for a variety of activities u n d e r taken by different people in very different circum stances. T here is consequently no single m edium ideal for language te a c h in g ’ as is so often claim ed.’’ Ultimately, availability a n d teach er creativity/adaptabilitv will play m ajor roles in determ ining to what extent m edia will be used and which m edia will be selected. In closing, I encourage you to think cre atively about ways to incorporate m edia into t our language teaching and I reiterate the following useful guidelines: Use m edia m aterials w hen variety is called for, w hen they help you to rein force the points vou wish to m ake o r serve as c o n te x tu aliza tio n , w hen they e x p e d ite your teaching task and s e n e as a source of input, a n d /o r w hen they help vou to individualize instruction and appeal to the variety o f cognitive styles in your classroom. But above all, use m edia to involve students m ore integrally in the learning process and to facilitate language learning by m aking it a m ore authentic, m eaningful process.
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1.
Elsew here in this volum e, a n u m b e r o f lan guage teach in g m ethods a n d approaches (both traditional a n d innovative) have been discussed. At hom e, review these sections of
the text and com e p re p a re d to discuss the role that m edia play in these m ethods. In w hich m e th o d s/a p p ro a c h e s do you feel th at m edia play a central role (i.e., are p a rt o f the underlying philosophy)? In which m eth o d s/ approaches do m edia plav a m ore peripheral role? 2. E xam ine the rationale given in this c h a p te r fo r the use of m edia in language teaching. W hich reasons do vou feel are m ost con vincing? Can you th ink of any others? 3. Select th re e item s from the list o f technical m edia a n d th re e item s from those listed u n d e r non-technical m edia that you are likely to use in the language classroom. Draw up a list o f the advantages an d disadvantages o f each. Can you think o f specific teaching applications for these form s of m edia? 4. Is th ere a feasibility factor involved in the use o f audiovisual m edia? In o th e r words, are certain teachers or teaching situations lim ited to the types of m edia they can select? Wlrv or whv not?
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1.
Collect packaged food item s th at you have a ro u n d vour h o u se h o ld a n d design a survival level grid activity similar to the one described in this article for over-the-counter m edication. Keep in m ind that the purpose o f the grid is to proride students with guidance in selecting food items and to train them in reading pack age labels for specific inform ation. 2. Select a picture or series o f pictures from a m agazine and apply the fram ew ork for design ing m edia lessons discussed in this chapter. Bring this m aterial to class and share with oth ers your ideas on howy'ou would use it. Be pre pared as well to discuss your selection criteria. 3. O bserve an ESU class. W hat was the objective of the lesson? W lrat aids did the tea c h e r use? T h in k o f additional aids th at w ould have im proved the lesson. 4. Drawing on the suggestions given in B yrd’s c h a p te r in this volum e, develop a list o f cri teria for selecting a n d evaluating m ed ia m aterials.
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4 S ee E d e lh o f f (1 9 8 1 ) (1 9 8 9 ).
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L a r i m e r , R. E ., a n d L. S c h l e i c h e r , e d s . 1 9 9 9 ,
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Computers in Language Teaching MAGGIE
SOKOLIK
In "Com puters in Language Teaching," Sokolik examines the forms and functions of com puter technology in second language learning.These forms and functions, she contends, are separate from any particular state of technology. She concludes that good teaching methodology depends more on sound pedagogy than on access to any particular form of com puter technology,
IN T R O D U C T IO N The Shakers, a religious sect th at form ed in the 1700s, did n o t generallv believe in writing that was "scriptural." Thev felt the act o f writing m ade the m alleable less flexible, the fluid artifi cially static. In spite of this belief, the Shakers wrote tom es ab o u t th eir theology. This con trad ictio n is also true for writing about educational technology in the earlv twentyfirst century. A nyone writing for the print m edium about technology fully realizes that the technology’ will be outm oded bv the time that the book or article is published. Yet we keep writing tomes. For shat reason, this chapter will focus less on the artifacts o f technology’— hardw are and software, which will be different bv the time this book :s p u b lish e d — a n d m o re on th e te a c h in g approaches and techniques related to technology, which should still exist regardless of whatever the hardware and software of the day m ight be.
PRELIM INARY TO C L E A R V ISIO N OF T H E FU TU R E: H IS T O R IC A L O V ER V IEW With the developm ent o f new technologies, .here has b een an a tte n d a n t interest in applying these technologies in the educational arena, and m m aking predictions o f how they w ould affect the educational fu tu re o f o u r classroom s and undents. A lthough m ost p eo p le associate the
birth o f educational technology with the 1970s and 1980s, the history of educational co m p u tin g actually goes back to the 1940s. W riters such as Bush foresaw a fu tu re in which com m unication an d science w ould be e n h a n c e d with hyperlinked sy stem s o f inform ation: C onsider a future device for individual use, which is a sort of m echanized private file and library. It needs a nam e, and to coin one at random , “m em ex” will do. A m em ex is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and com m unications, a n d w hich is m echanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intim ate supplem ent to his m em ory (Bush 1945, p. 106). O f course, in the 1940s, the physical tech nology tied these ideas to m icrofilm , p h o n o g rap h ic rec o rd in g s, a n d p u n c h card-style com puting m achines. In the 1950s a n d 1960s, the most powerful com puters occupied entire room s, not corners o f desktops or small brief cases. Howeyer, th e d e v e lo p m en t o f the m icrochip and m iniaturization of com ponents enabled educational technology to move fonvard rapidlv in the 1970s and 1980s. Many of the technological restrictions o f the 1940s have m elted awav, and financial barriers instead h am p er o u r visions o f educational tech nology. Just as short a time ago as 1988, the vision o f the technological future yvas the folloyving:
W hat will h a p p e n is that in the univer sity o f the vear 2000, students will be given a c o m p u te r on th eir first day. O ver the л-ears that thev spend at the university, a fixed cost will be assessed each term . This cost will pav for the com puter, tuition, access to a mvriad o f database services, a n d online text books (Young et al. 1988. p. 259). W hile the technology certainly exists to realize this vision, the financial su p p o rt and bu reau cratic structures do not. Som e institu tions have im p lem e n te d program s such as the above, b u t they are rare. In forecasting the technological future, it is im p o rta n t to consider what the capabilities of educational co m p u tin g are. and what can be d o n e in the language classroom that will rem ain cu rren t, even if the technology does not.
W H A T COM PUTERS C A N T DO T he im age of the fullv autom ated, teacherless classroom has d isappeared from the landscape, if it in d ee d ever was there. .Although com puters are useful adjuncts in second language learning, th ere are still m anv things thev cannot accom plish. We look below at five m ajor areas into which com puters an d technology have not vet m ade significant inroads.
of the plav Cyra но de Bergerac, w ritten in French by E d m o n d R ostand (1897). T he first colum n is the original text, the second, a translation d o n e bv a h u m an translator, a n d the third, an exam ple o f m achine translation. It is d e a r that the m achine translation fails in several areas. First, it does not have a vocabulary database that allows for an understanding of a n in eteen th centurv idiom. But even m ore basic issues are at stake: the m isinterpretation of the preposition a as "with" ra th e r than "at" (“A R epresentation with the H otel of Burgundy") and an inability to appropriately detect plural forms ("Riders, middle-class man, lackev. pages”) or imperative word o rd er ("Exert we with the foil”). These mistranslations show that this software is not sensitive enough to contexts that distinguish im portant semantic, syntactic, or m orphological features. Students or instructors who seek translation assistance from com puters trill receive a text that mat- be som ew hat com prehensible: however, knowledge of the basics of the language being translated, the context in tririch words m ight be used, and an understanding of idiomatic as well as archaic usages are im portant for a fuller u n d e r standing. This last issue is particularly problem atic. even ironic: for som eone needing translation assistance, idiom atic use is the elem ent of lan guage least likelv to be known bv the learner.
1. Machine Translation
2. Providing Appropriate Feedback to Learners
T he hope of pushing a b u tto n to translate from one language to a n o th e r has, for the m ost part, gone unrealized. .Although there are dozens, if n o t hundreds, of new tools for m achine trans lation, m ost fail at creating a text that a native speaker would consider idiom atic, or even gram matical. -Although simple language with highfrequencv vocabulary and little idiom atic usage can be translated fairlv accurately, any deviations from that form ula still cause serious breakdowns in the com prehensibility of m achine-translated text. An exam ple o f a m achine translation, com p lete d July 21, 2000, is p rese n ted on the next page. T he text is a small p o rtio n of the o p en in g
Instructors in language education know that feedback, in whatever form , is a critical p a rt of learn in g an d com m unication. In face-to-face interaction, the teacher's feedback adapts to anv n u m b er of factors, including but n o t lim ited to what the instructor feels the student can u n d e r stand. the instructor's knowledge of the stu d e n t’s affective state, what is appropriate for the class or subject m atter, and so on. M echanized systems do not have the capability to custom ize feedback with the same sensitivity that a h u m an instructor does. In fact, the best feedback systems give a sim ple explanation of the right or w rong answer, and таил- m erely em it a noise, eith er pleasant or
ORIGINAL1
HUMAN TRANSLATION INTO ENGLISH
MACHINE TRANSLATION INTO ENGLISH
Acte 1. Une Representation a I’Hotel de Bourgogne.
Act 1. A Representation at the Hotel de Bourgogne. Scene l.l. The public, arriving by degrees. Troopers, burghers, lackeys, pages, a pickpocket, the doorkeeper, etc., followed by the marquises; Cuigy, Brissaille, the buffet-girl, the violinists, etc. (A confusion of loud voices is heard outside the door. A trooper enters hastily.)
Act 1. A Representation with the Hotel of Burgundy. Scene /./. The public, which arrives little by little. Riders, middle-class man, lackey, pages, footpad, the gate keeper, etc., then marquis, Cuigy, Brissaille, the saddle jib crane, violins, etc. (One hears derriere the gate a tumult of voice, then a rider enters abruptly.)
THE D O O R K EEPER (following him): Hollo! You there! Your money!
The GATEKEEPER (the prosecutor): Hola! your fifteen grounds!
LE CAVALIER: J ’entre gratis!
THE T R O O PER 1 enter gratis.
THE RIDER: 1 enter gratis!
LE PORTIER: Pourquoi?
THE D O O RKEEPER: W hy?
THE GATEKEEPER: Why?
LE CAVALIER: Je suis chevau-leger de la maison du Roi!
TH E TRO O PER: W hy? 1am of the King’s Household Cavalry, 'faith!
TH E RIDER: 1 am chevau-light house of the King!
LE PORTIER (a un autre cavalier qui vient d’entrer): Vous?
THE D O O R K EEPER (to another trooper who enters): And you?
The GATEKEEPER (with another rider who has just entered): You?
D EU X IEM E CAVALIER: Je ne paye pas!
SE C O N D TRO O PER: 1 pay nothing.
SE C O N D RIDER: 1 do not pay!
LE PORTIER: Mais...
TH E D O O RKEEPER: How so?
THE GATEKEEPER: But.
D EU X IEM E CAVALIER: Je suis mousquetaire.
S E C O N D TRO O PER: 1 am a musketeer.
S E C O N D RIDER: 1 am a musketeer.
PREMIER CAVALIER (au deuxieme): On ne commence qu’ a deux heures. Le parterre est vide. Exerqons-nous au fleuret.
FIRST T R O O PER (to the second): The play will not begin till two. The pit is empty. Come, a bout with the foils to pass the time.
FIRST RIDER (with the second): One starts only at two hours. The floor is empty. Exert we with the foil.
Scene l.l.
Le public, qui arrive peu a peu. Cavaliers, bourgeois, laquais, pages, tire-laine, le portier, etc., puis les marquis, Cuigy, Brissaille, la distributrice, les violons, etc. (On entend derriere la porte un tumulte de voix, puis un cavalier entre brusquement.) LE PORTIER (le poursuivant): Hola! vos quinze sols!
unpleasant, indicating w hether the user has p ro vided the correct answer. M ore com plete feed back mav be indirectly available in the form of links to o th er areas of a text or website to read or review. Figure 1 shows a com m on feedback m echa nism — the use of an X (usually red) to show an in co rrect answ er an d an arrow head o r sim ilar icon to show a correct answer. In this exam ple, th ere is no explanation o f e ith e r the rig h t or w rong answer. Figure 2 shows som ew hat m ore elaborate feedback. In this case, it restates the p ro m p t in different words, an d em phasizes the vocabulary item s th at are kev to u n d e rsta n d in g th e correct answer.
I’m not familiar_________ California. >■ with of X to Figure I. Sample Minimal Computer Feedback Adapted from an item from Dave Sperling’s ESL Cafe (http://www.eslcafe.com) Quizzes.The X shows the user's answer; the arrowhead shows the correct answer.
One of my best_________ already married with 4 kids! О О О О
A. В. C. D.
friend is friends are friends is friend are
“C” is correct—I have many friends, and one of them js married.)
Figure 2. Sample of More Complete Feedback Adapted from Jim Duber’s Grammar W eb Quiz #1 (http://www.sirius.com/~dub/CALL/grammar I .html)
A lthough the second exam ple has m ore com plete feedback, it is clear th a t it c a n n o t provide a user with custom ized feedback addressing an issue th a t the exercise designer m ight n o t have anticipated. P erhaps the user u n d erstan d s the stru ctu re “one of X" perfectly well, b u t does not u n d e rsta n d the con cept o f “best frie n d .” For the feedback to be rich, th e designer of the item
w ould have to anticipate all possible questions, from the use of an idiom , to the history of a w ord, to the cultural context o f the item .
3. Voice R e c o g n itio n Voice recognition refers to the capability of a c o m p u te r o r software program to accept a n d in te rp re t spoken dictation, or to u n d e rsta n d and e a rn out voice com m ands. Voice recognition is used to dictate text into the co m p u ter or to give com m ands to the co m p u ter (such as o p e n in g program s an d m enus, saving files, and so on). T he Bell Labs began a project for voice recogni tion in the 1960s (G ilbert a n d Mallows 1984). A lthough m anv m o d ern hom e and office com p u te r systems are eq u ip p ed with som e type of voice recognition software, these program s are still inefficient in accurately dividing up a n a tu ral speech stream into discrete words. It should be n o ted, however, th at speech production p ro gram s. that is. program s th at read text aloud, have b een successful for several years. These program s have been especially beneficial for sight-im paired co m p u ter users.
4. G ra m m a r C h e ck in g M odern w ord-processing software usually com es e q u ip p e d w ith g ram m ar-ch eck in g ro u tin e s. U nfortunately, as m ost users will attest, this soft ware falls short of the gram m atical editing th at is req u ired in a language classroom . T he software is not sensitive to context or conventions o f use, such as th e d iffe re n c e b etw een academ ic English w ritten for the hum anities versus th at w ritten for the sciences. C onsider the following sentence, w ritten bv a second language lea rn er in an English w riting class: "In Ty pical .American, the Cliangs becom e Americanized in order to succeed.” Since the c u rre n t gram m ar-checking routines are sensitive to passive constructions, M icrosoft W ord 97 m akes the following suggestion: Passive voice (consider revising) Unfortunately, two issues potentially' confuse the learner here. First, there has to be a full under standing of how to revise in ord er to elim inate
passive voice. This introduces the same sort of irony that лее find in m achine translation: the stu d e n t m ust already understand English gram m ar to m ake full use of the suggestions offered be the gram m ar-checking software. But m ore troubling in this case is the fact that this sentence is not easily rew ritten in an active voice. Thus, the suggestion to re\ise mav introduce additional diT ficultv for an EST/EFT student who mav trust the software m ore than she or he trusts h e r or his own ju d g m e n t about English grammar.
5. E ssay M ark in g A lthough there is software that allows instructors to insert their com m ents neatlv in students' wordprocessed text, there is no software that can “rea d ” a text an d write relevant com m ents on it. The Educational Testing Service (ETS) has developed software for the m arking o f ( .MAT (G raduate M an agem ent A dm ission Test) exam inations, called the e-rater. This software marks essavs based on the sam e six-point scale used bv h u m an graders. A uthors from ETS and H u n ter College, describing the software, explain the source of “misses” or disagreem ents with hum an raters: “[T ]he greatest source of e-rater misses mav be in the topical analvsis com ponents” (Burstein et al. 1998, p. 11). T hat is, although the software can be trained to look for structures that show certain rhetorical moves, it does not assess w hether the writer has in fact addressed the essav topic.
W H A T C O M P U T ER S
CAN
DO
A lthough the above are areas in which com puter tools are not proficient, there are manv arenas in which com puters equal, or surpass, hum an per form ance. As com puters can store a n d process enorm ous am ounts of inform ation, they excel in areas w here hum an m em orv mav be deficient, or where hum an patience mav be easily exhausted. We will look at five of these areas in this section.
1. D rills M uch of language learn in g is facilitated by re p e tition, w h eth er it is the rep etitio n o f individual sounds, in to n a tio n p atterns, conversational gam
bits, o r o th e r types o f w ords a n d phrases. C om puters are useful in delivering drills for prac tice, w hether in gram m ar, vocabulary, p ro n u n cia tion, or listening, as they are tireless in their delivery1. U nlike h u m an interlocutors who may grow wear)7 o f repeating a word for a learner, a com puter will repeat a word a h u n d re d times if the user wishes. A ccording to M cCarthy (1994), the com p u te r has som e specific advantages: organization o f m aterials, in clu d in g volum e of m aterial a n d ran d o m presen tatio n , scoring an d record-keep ing, graphics an d anim ation, in cluding allowing stu d en t control, audio-cuing, and rec o rd in g a n d storage o f stu d e n t responses. M cCarthy also sees the co m p u ter's “literal a p p ro a c h ” to checking answers an d its abilitv to focus le a rn e r atten tio n mi a specific area of the screen as advantages in gram m ar drilling in particular.
2. A d a p tiv e T estin g If we accept the prem ise th at the m ost effective language learn in g h ap p en s w hen the le a rn e r’s target is just slightly above his o r h e r c u rre n t level of u n d e rsta n d in g (som etim es called the I +1 theorv- [see K rashen 1982]), th en it becom es clear th at co m p u te r adaptive testing (CAT) can be verv useful in the language classroom . As test takers resp o n d to test item s in CAT, the test adapts itself to each user bv choosing su b sequent test item s based on the test taker's p erfo rm a n c e on p reced in g item s. For exam ple, if a lea rn er perform s well on a set o f beginninglevel items, the c o m p u te r p ro g ram will next p resen t a set of questions at the in term ed iate level. If the le a rn e r perform s poorly on the interm ediate-level questions, the c o m p u te r p res ents lower-level item s (e.g., high b e g in n er) in the next question set. T herefore, the CAT continuallv attem pts to ascertain the appropriate level for the lea rn er’s perform ance and ceases testing once perform ance at a particular level is dem on strated to be the best possible perform ance for that individual. In o th e r words, it can establish m ore quicklv than a stan d ard pencil-and-paper test what the le a rn e r’s proficiency is.
3. C o rp o ra a n d C o n c o rd a n c in g C om puters are expert at storing large am ounts of inform ation and categorizing or sorting it by u se r-d e te rm in e d categories. C o n c o rd a n c in g program s an d linguistic corpora are types of tools an d data that are increasingly being used in the language classroom . A concordance is a type of index that searches for occurrences o f a word o r com binations of words, parts of words, p u n c tuation, affixes, phrases, or structures within a corpus, and can show the im m ediate context. T he o u tp u t from a concordance search can be used in the p rep aratio n of such teaching m ateri als, such as gram m ar and vocabulary activities. Teachers can gath er exam ples of language and usage for creating exercises.
A nother wav in which concordances can be used is to create lists o f collocations, or words that are com m only found together. Figure 4 lists the twenty m ost p opular words found to collocate with the word chocolate. Again, the practical appli cation can be seen for developing classroom activities. However, as tire collocations given by the program do not indicate word order, teacher direction is n eeded in o rd er to convert these lists into m eaningful activities or inform ation. For exam ple, in the figure below, the symbol ♦ has been placed to show w here the word chocolate would com e in the phrase. (In some instances, it can go before or alter the listed word.) l.
♦ milk ♦
11.
♦ coffee
2.
♦ cake
12.
plain ♦
3.
hot ♦
13.
♦ fudge
4.
white ♦
14.
5.
♦ cream
15.
♦ egg rich ♦
Coiitu fj/ 9Г fdi (, ■ 94
%
W o rd
6.
♦ bar
16.
box (of) ♦
0 . 4 6 1 1%
all
7.
dark ♦
17.
eat ♦
IIU71%
shakespeare
8.
♦ mousse
18.
♦ biscuits
'J.3280%
years
9.
♦ bars
19.
♦ ice
0,2/119% !1. 26 6 7%
o th e r
10.
melted ♦
20.
♦ cocoa
*hi tut
Ы
0 .2 4 2 4 %
tim e
50
0 .2 3 / / %
S tra tfo rd
44 4/
0 .2 3 2 9 %
out
0 .2 2 3 4 %
41
<1.2234%
law legal
46
0 .2 1 8 7 %
their
Figure 3. Results from concordancing of “ Is Shakespeare Dead?” by Mark Twain, using MonoConc software. Numbers in the left column represent occurrences of words in the right column.“ Non-content” words (such as the, is, of, th at, and so forth) were removed from the search algorithm.
In an article about concordances, Stevens states, with concordance software and a corpus of natural English, language learners can short-cut the process of acquiring com petence in the target language, because tire com puter is able to help students organize huge am ounts of lan guage data so that patterns are m ore easily discerned (1993, p. 11).
Figure 4. From CobuildDirect Collocation, words collocated with “ chocolate" (edited from top 100).
Finally, concordances can be used to look at the context in which a given word or phrase occurs in a database. The exam ple in Figure 5 shows how the word "paradise'' appears in a vari ety o f texts taken from the Collins-Birmingham Lfiiversitv International Language Database (also known as COBUILD). which contains thousands of exemplars. -As seen in the example, learners can. following Stevens' observation, discern pat terns in the use of a word, such as the frequent occurrence of a hum an noun with a possessive inflection preceding paradise. C o n co rd an cin g techniques a n d corpus lin guistics are grow ing fields in second language acquisition a n d teaching. Onlv because of larger an d faster com puters have databases of the c u rre n t size becom e practically available for use bv second language learners, teachers, and researchers.
is also a sign of trouble in p] Grand Cayman is another diver’s Socialist Republics— the worker’s s garden, on the other hand, was a dormitory. It was a bachelor’s venerable past. Squaw is a skier’s South America, that he’d discovered Garden of Eden, but that image of of Martha’s Vineyard is known as a fee required to enjoy our shopper’s intends to erect his gambler’s Paradise” is a cliche, but come over. I’m like— it was like afforded; yet had we been even in into what they regard as the fool’s The Apostles are a vacationer’s boutiques — a shopper’s war intruded even on this island stroll about this little slice of techniques, this is a vision of a
paradise. paradise, paradise paradise paradise. paradise paradise. paradise paradise paradise, paradise. paradise paradise. paradise paradise paradise paradise paradise. paradise, paradise
9. Maintaining love isn’t almost completely surrounded by as it was once called earlier in at this time of year. Flowering Attractive, intelligent women because of the sheer variety and Columbus also happened to think doesn’t quite hold up in the 85 for artists and photographers, home to world-famous Mrs. Knott’s I am not now, and nor have I ever it is. [p] Bitter End has 81 It was just like, you know, itself with these governors, it of interdisciplinary work. If the of sunshine, clear water, and deep that may even distract you from The Coast Guard patrolled many of the animals seem to blend in with to preserve, made in the USA in
F ig u re 5. O u t p u t fr o m th e C o b u il d D ir e c t C o r p u s S a m p le r (e d ite d f o r le n g th ), se a rc h in g f o r th e te r m “ p a ra d ise .”
4. C o m p u te r M e d ia te d C o m m u n ic a tio n (CM C) The most com m on use of netw orked com puters is as a tool of com m unication between users. This makes it a natural choice as a tool for language learning. Many researchers have argued that CMC presents an opportunity for authentic language use, m aking it an excellent tool in the language classroom. T here are several forms of CMC, which are either asvnchronous or svnchronous in form.
E-M AIL E-mail has becom e the com m unication tool of choice for a lot of people. Much has been written about its use in the language classroom: for asyn chro n o u s com m unication betw een students, between students and teachers, and between stu dents and others outside of the classroom. M any in stru cto rs a n d rese a rc h e rs have designed e-mail tasks to focus its use on lan guage learn in g (Kern 1998). In te rn atio n a l cul tu re exchanges such as “key-pal”3 program s help students to com m unicate authentically. Table 1 (p. 484) provides a b rie f sum m ary of the types of
activities that h a te been designed for use with e-mail, given the different possible arrangem ents of interlocutors.
C hat C hat is real-tim e, or synchronous, com m unica tion. It has the inform al feel o f conversation, yet is m ed iated th ro u g h writing. C hat can be used to facilitate class discussions, for im m ediate feed back betw een students a n d teachers outside o f class tim e, o r for co m m unication betw een stu dents outside o f class. - - Chat logs, o r w ritten records o f a ch at ses sion, can be kept in m ost ch at program s a n d used as data for research o r fu tu re classroom work. C hat can be u sed in m any o f th e sam e ways as e-mail, b u t has the ad d ed feature o f im m edi ate response ra th e r th an the tim e lag involved with e-mail.
MUDS A N D MOOS Multi-user dom ains, MUDs, or m ulti-user dom ains object-oriented, MOOs, are both synchronous an d asynchronous in form. Thev are typically
T e a c h e r s Teacher
T e ach ers >Student
S t u d e n t s S tu d e n t
Use e-mail discussion lists for peer support
Submit assignments by e-mail rather than on paper
Discuss current events among groups of geographically dispersed students
E-mail mentoring with master and pre-service teachers
Class announcements
Peer collaboration on assignments
Receive resources such as syllabi and class materials from other instructors
Question and answer sessions outside of class time
Group work conducted electronically
text-based virtual spaces that relv on the ability of the user to (1 ) describe environm ents (asyn chronously or synchronously), and (2 ) interact within those environm ents (svnchronouslv). T he following are two b rief descriptions of areas within a virtual space called "Storytelling C entral” (part of Cafe M O O lano, the University of California, Berkeley’s M OO) written bv stu dents in the Fall o f 1999. T he first is bv a native Spanish speaker: T h e G a ra g e
You have entered a large, plain, and cold room. Three of the walls are made of solid cement, as well as the floor. The fourth wall is a large wooden door. A pole hangs above the wooden door.The pole has a dusty red cloth hanging from it that drops all the way to the floor. In the center of the room there lies an old rug, weathered by time. There is an old chest in the right corner, sealed shut by a rusty lock. You also see an artifi cial Christmas tree in the left-hand corner with a few ornaments on it.The room has makes you feel like something happened here long, long, ago ... You see mouse and Old Chest here. Obvious exits: [south] to Home Sweet Home, [north] to The Barn, [west] to Top of the Hill
T h e follow ing was w ritten by a nativr Spanish speaker who was also learn in g Arabic: T h e S u lta n ’s R o o m
Ahlan wa Shahlan, you have entered The Sultan’s Room. There is a rectangular Persian rug from the 14th century on the floor.To your right there is a big bookshelf with The One Thousand and One Books collection. One of the books contains a secret code that will enable you to open the Nightingale’s Eye Bottle located on the very top of the bookshelf. The bottle is seal with a beautiful Syrian silk scarf, soft as the touch of a rose’s petal.
MUD a n d M OO users create stories b inventing rich environm ents filled with objectthat o th e r users can m anipulate an d investigate Bv navigating th ro u g h space, students create stories in an im p ro m p tu fashion. They hole dialogues, open boxes, find secret messages anc secret passages, an d move th ro u g h “space.” This o p e o f interaction is m ore than m ere game-plaving. Aside from provoking learners te use language in b o th p lan n e d wavs (i.e., writing an d u n p la n n e d ways (i.e., in teractin g in the vir tual space), it is also satisfies the neurobiological correlate of “fo raging” for inform ation, critical in the learn in g process (Schum ann 1994).
5. Multimedia Production Currently, th ere are two widely used m edia (or sets of m edia) for m ultim edia production: ■
■
Digital video in w hich digital m ultim edia tools are used to construct, edit, and p ro duce a linear storv H ypertext,/W eb-based stories in w hich digital m ultim edia tools are used to build an d deliver stories (via the W eb o r local storage m edia) th at allow user interaction th ro u g h hvperlinks
Digital Video Digital video requires that learners b ring a storv to life with voice, images, a soundtrack o r sound effects, an d a sense of m ovem ent, th ro u g h cuts an d transitions. T he m ost com plex o f the CALL options, learners often find it the m ost satisfving. This form at allows learners to relate a storv of im p o rtan ce in the target language, with a tte n tion not only to language, but also to im age and sound an d th eir in terco n n ectio n . M u ltim ed ia p ro d u c tio n s are b e c o m in g increasingly com m on, an d are now p art o f the standard hardw are a n d software that com es with man\- h o m e com puters. Table 2 below sum m a rizes the hardw are and software n e e d e d for dig ital video p ro d u ctio n .
T he m edia for a n d process of m aking web pages is well d o c u m e n ted elsew here (see, for exam ple, O ’H aver 1995). However, an im p o r tan t p a rt o f this process is the creation of story— in particular, a discussion of the n o nlinearitv o f w riting in this environm ent. S tu d e n ts’ pages can be w ritten as storyboards in which they indicate links, sketch o u t m edia use, and create a n d edit text in a collaborative environm ent.
C R E A T IN G A N D E V A LU A TIN G C O M P U T E R -B A S E D A C T IV IT IE S W h e th e r an in stru cto r decides to create his or h e r own m aterials, or use m aterials fo u n d on the In te rn e t or on com m erciallv available software, it is im p o rta n t that several features be evaluated a n d addressed. T he follow ing list will help an instru cto r in e ith e r evaluating o r in creating com puter-delivered instructional m aterials.
Appearance G ood instructional m aterial should be attractive, b u t good design goes beyond being m erely “eye catch in g .” Several issues reg ard in g the a p p e ar ance of an application should be a tte n d e d to. ■
Hypertext/Web-Based Stories H ypertext, or interactive stories, create a m edium on the Web th rough which learners can explore issues o f nonlinearitv. M ore accessible than digital video, the Web is an e n v iro n m en t in which learners can im agine an d p ro d u ce stories.
■
Colors should be chosen carefullv. R e d / g reen colorblindness is com m on, so avoid colors th at are likelv to cause problem s for users with this. Low-glare hues are p refer able for reading; grays, soft whites, blues, an d browns are b e tte r choices th an b rig h t yellows, reds, a n d greens. Fonts should be simple and without serifs (This font has no serifs; this f o n t has serifs).
Table 2. Hardware and Software Needed for Digital Video Production Software
Hardware
Photo or image editing software
Computer capable of running software named in first column
Digital video editing software
Sound card
Audio editing software for voice recording, capturing, and editing
Video capture and output card (Necessary only if capturing from or outputting to traditional linear video)
■
■ ■
T he viewable screen should not ex ten d to the rig h t o f the viewing space on an average c o m p u te r m onitor. G raphics should be kept small for faster loading over slow In te rn e t connections. Lim it the a m o u n t of text on one page. Keep dow nw ard scrolling to a m inim um .
interactivitv. a n d n ot m erelv p re s e n te d as potential p rin to u ts to be com pleted with a pencil.
Value ■
Navigation ■
■ ■ ■ ■
■
Navigating th ro u g h an activitv should be easy. Arrows or o th e r navigational links should be clear to the user. Avoid “click h e re ’' for linking. Use c o n te n t words for text links. Provide navigation that takes the user back ward as well as forw ard when practical. Alwavs provide a wav to quit the activitv. Navigation for im p o rta n t actions should a p p e ar on the first screen o f a page. T hat is, the navigation should not be outside the norm ally visible area on an average com p u ter m onitor. Navigation should be "shallow." T hat is. learners should n o t have to click th ro u g h screen after screen in o rd e r to reach a p ar ticular piece of inform ation.
■
T he com puter activitv should be som ething that is done better with a com puter than without. That is. does the activitv require interactivitv, large databases, or o th er things the com puter does well, or could it be done as easilv (or m ore easilv) with paper and pencil? T he activitv' should address a specific n e e d in the p lan n e d curriculum .
Other Considerations ■
*
*
Instructions should be minimal. G ood plan ning should obviate the need for elaborate and com plex instructions. Require special hardw are or software onlv if vouTe certain vour users will hav e easv access to it. C heck c o m p u te r-d e liv e re d activities on different tvpes of com puters, if possible. G ood activities should be in d e p e n d e n t of co m p u te r tvpc.
Interactivity and Feedback If an activitv is in te n d e d as self-studv. feedback is ex trem ely im p o rta n t. E v e n - le a rn e r action should provide an o p p o rtu n itv for learning. ■
■ ■
■ ■
Feedback should anticipate the learner's possible w rong responses an d give full explanations. C orrect answers should also be explained, in the event that the user chose random ly. T he answers m ust reflect the full range of possible answers. Ambiguity should not be in h ere n t in the activities unless there is p lan n ed teacher interaction. Links to re\iew m aterial should be provided w hen available. T he activitv should take advantage o f inter activity. Unless form atted for printing, pages should be presented on the co m p u ter using
C O N C L U S IO N T he hope that com puters would be a panacea for those trving to learn second languages has not been realized. However, it is clear that com p uters are providing instructors and students alike with a new b a tte n of tools with which lan guage can be lea rn ed m ore effectivelv. T he adv ent o f the In te rn e t has ch an g ed the wav we look at C o m p u ter Assisted Language L earning (CALL). M achines are now used as tools for com m unication ra th e r th an simple as wav s o f deliv ering auto m ated drills o r exercises. Vast am ounts o f read in g on am topic and in m anv languages are now available on the Web, a n d the chance to participate in discussions with people from all walks of life is m otivating for manv learners.
In addition, the speed and size o f com puters now allow large databases to be m anipulated, offering insights into language that we did not have access to previously. Corpus linguistics and concordancing can help provide the data and tools that students and instructors n eed to make sense o ut of usage. T h ere is n o th in g certain ab o u t the future o f technolog}-, except th at it will no d o u b t becom e m ore ubiquitous an pow erful. It is no lo n g er possible in language education to ignore this force, which is changing global cultures. Fortunately, the same principles th at instructors an d policvm akers use to evaluate p rin t m aterials can be b ro u g h t to bear on technological m ateri als as well. In e ith e r case, it obliges us to ask and answ er this question: How can this tool be used to au g m en t the language learn in g process?
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1. C hoose a website o r a software package that focuses on English language learning. Based o n your u n d e rsta n d in g o f good educational practices, list at least five things th at you w ould im prove the website or package. 2. C reate a syllabus for a b eg in n in g English gram m ar course for E SL /EFL learners in which you integrate at least th re e d ifferent tvpes o f co m p u te r use (for exam ple, drills, e-mail, an d so fo rth ). Discuss how vour use o f technolog}- will en h an ce the gram m ar learn in g experience. 3. Look at Table 1 (p. 484). W hat activities could you add to this table? Try to think o f one new activity lo r each colum n. 4. Locate a website in te n d e d for E SL /E FL teachers. P ro tid e a sum m ary an d review of what this site offers, a n d how it is useful to E SL /EFL instructors.
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1. In vour opinion, what is the m ost useful application o f c o m p u te r technology to lan guage learning? W hat is the least useful? 2. Som e instructors worry that too m uch class tim e is spent "teaching technology" at the expense of teach in g language. Do vou agree with this observation? Why or whv not? 3. Policy m akers an d others are co n cern ed ab o u t the "digital divide"— the econom ic differences th at give greater access to tech nology to those institutions an d people with m ore m onev. Do vou th in k th ere is a digital divide? If so, how does it affect the p o p u la tion (s) of learners that co n cern you? 4. Review the section of the reading subtitled “W hat Com puters C an't D o.” Do you agree with its analysis? Could com puters do some of these things, given different o r better technolog}? 5. How have you used com puters in vour own education? How could vou teach ESL/EFL students to use com puters to their advantage?
FU R T H ER R EA D IN G B o s w o o d . T . e d . 1997. X e i v Ияул o f U s i n g C o m p u t e r s i n L a n g u a g e T e a c h i n g . A l e x a n d r i a , VA: T E S O L . P a r t o f T E S O L 's “N e w Wavs" se rie s, th is v o l u m e fo c u s e s o n p e d a g o g y r a t h e r t h a n t e c h n o l o g y . It p r e s e n t s a n a r r a v o f activities i n c l u d i n g w o r d p r o c e s s i n g a n d d e s k t o p p u b l i s h i n g , e -m a il a n d M O O s. th e W eb. m u ltim e d ia , c o n c o rd a n c in g , a n d o th e r a p p licatio n s. E g b e r t . J.. a n d E. H a n s o n - S m i t h , e d s . 19 99 . C A L L e n v i r o n m e n t s : R e se a r c h , P r a c tic e , a n d C r itic a l I s s u e s . A l e x a n d r i a , YA: T E S O L . T h i s c o l l e c t i o n o f a rt ic l e s f o c u s e s o n r e s e a r c h issu es t h a t o f f e r a t h e o r e t i c a l f r a m e w o r k b a s e d
o n ESL a n d s e c o n d la n g u a g e research , a n d d escrib es th e o ry -b a se d p ra c tic e fo r d if fe re n t te c h n o lo g ic a l e n v ir o n m e n ts a n d le a rn e rs. S p e r l i n g . I). 1998. D a v e S p e r l i n g ' s I n t e r n e t G u i d e . E n g l e w o o d Cliffs, NJ: P r e n t i c e H a ll R e g e n ts . A practical g u id e fo r te a c h e rs u sin g th e In te r n e t w ith F . S L /E F L s t u d e n t s . A g o o d c o m p a n i o n f o r t h e Dav e's ESI, C a f e w e b s ite ( h u p : ■''vvvwv.eslcafe.com).
Swaffar, J . , S. R o m a n o , R M ark lev , a n d K. A r e n s , e d s. 1 9 9 8 . Language Learning Online: Theory and
Prartice in the ESL and L2 Computer Classroom. A u s ti n , T X : L a b y r i n t h P u b l i c a t i o n s . T h is re s e a rc h -b a s e d b o o k looks at h o w s tu d e n ts u s e t e c h n o l o g y , p a r t i c u l a r l y in w r it in g . W a r s c h a u e r , M . 1 9 9 5 . E-Mail for English Teaching. A l e x a n d r i a , YA: T E S O L . T h i s t e x t f o c u s e s so lely o n e-m a il c o m m u n i c a t i o n , a n d e x p l a i n s v ery c o m p l e t e l y b o t h t h e t e c h n o lo g y a n d w h a t c a n b e d o n e w ith it. G o o d f o r t e a c h e r s w h o a r e just s t a r t i n g to u s e te c h n o lo g y in t h e i r c la s s r o o m s .
ENDNO TES 1 T h e o rig in a l e x c e r p t c o m e s f r o m P r o j e c t G u t e n b e r g ' s (h t t p : / / p r o m o . n e t p g ) a r c h i y e s . T h e h u m a n t r a n s l a t i o n also c o m e s f r o m P r o j e c t G u t e n b e r g . T h e m a c h i n e t r a n s l a t i o n teas d o n e w ith B ab el Fish soft w a re , ay ailab le at altayista.com . 2 A c c o r d i n g to K r a s h e n ' s h y p o t h e s i s , t h e l e a r n e r a c q u ir e s a s e c o n d l a n g u a g e w h e n h e o r s h e receiyes s e c o n d l a n g u a g e i n p u t ("i” ) t h a t is o n e s t e p b e y o n d his o r h e r c u r r e n t stag e o f lin g u is tic c o m p e t e n c e (+1). 3 T h i s is t h e m o d e r n i z a t i o n o f " p e n p a l" n o w t h a t u s e r s w o r k o n c o m p u t e r k e y b o a r d s a n d s e n d m a il e le c tr o n i c a ll y .
Action Research, Teacher Research, and Classroom Research in Language Teaching K A T H L E E N
M,
B A IL E Y
Bailey's chapter compares and contrasts three terms that are often confused: action research, teacher research, and classroom research. W h ile action research is an actual research method, teacher research is defined by w ho conducts it, and classroom research is defined by the setting in which the data are collected.
IN T R O D U C T IO N T he purpose of this chapter is to introduce language teachers to the research being done in language classrooms. 1 have structured the ch ap ter aro u n d a series of questions. It begins with a com parison o f classroom research, teacher research, and action research. It includes a summ a n of some recent studies directly related to the work o f language teachers, and ends with some activities readers can do to enhance their u n d e r stan d in g o f the concepts p re se n te d h ere. A lthough space constraints do not perm it a com prehensive review o f the available literature. I hope the studies cited here will encourage teach ers to learn m ore about classroom research.
D E F IN IT IO N S O F K EY TERM S In recent years there has been a m arked increase in the frequency with which studies of c l a s s r o o m r e s e a r c h , t e a c h e r r e s e a r c h , an d a c t i o n r e s e a r c h have been published in the held of language teaching. These them es occur regularly in the program abstracts at language teachers' conferences. But what do the three term s mean? Thev are som e times used interchangeable, but are they in fact synonymous? We will begin bv com paring and contrasting these th ree term s in o rd er to get a better u n d erstan d in g of what sorts of research projects are being done in language classrooms.
W H A T IS LA N G U A G E CLA SSR O O M R ESEA R CH ? O f these th re e concepts, the o n e with the longest tradition in language teaching is c l a s s r o o m r e s e a r c h (or c l a s s r o o m - c e n t e r e d r e s e a r c h , as it used to be called). As early as 1980, Long defined classroom research as “research on sec o n d language learn in g a n d teaching, a l l o r p a r t o f w h o s e d a ta a re d e r iv e d fr o m th e o b s e r v a tio n o r m e a s u r e m e n t o f th e c la s s r o o m p e r f o r m a n c e o f te a c h e r s a n d
(Long 1980, p. 3). In o th e r words, a study about language learn in g in form al instruc tional settings for which students had filled out a q u estio n n aire about th eir p articipation in lan guage lessons, while interesting a n d potentially useful, would not fit this definition of classroom research. If. however, the researchers ad d ed a classroom observation co m p o n e n t to the study, visiting classroom s to see if those learners actu ally ex h ib ited the same behaviors thev h ad re p o rte d in th eir q u estio n n aire responses, we w ould th en have an exam ple o f classroom research, according to L ong's definition. C lassroom rese a rc h , however, isn ’t ju st research w here th e data are collected within the coniines of a physical classroom . Consider, for exam ple. A llw righfs statem ent: s tu d e n ts "
C lassroom -centered research is just that — research c e n t e r e d on the class room . as distinct from , for exam ple,
rese a rc h th at c o n c e n tra te s on the i n p u t s t o the classroom (the scllabus. the teach in g m aterials) or on the o u t p u ts fro m th e classroom (le a rn e r a c h ie v e m e n t scores). It does n o t ignore in am wav or trv to devalue the im p o rtan ce o f such inputs and out puts. It simple tries to investigate what h a p p en s inside the classroom when learners and teachers com e together. At its m ost narrow, classroom -centered research is in fact research that treats the language classroom n ot just as the s e t t i n g f o r investigation bu t. m o re im portantly, as the o b j e c t o f investiga tion. Classroom processes becom e the central focus (1983, p. 191 ). Classroom research, th en , can be con d u cted bv anyone using any ap proach to data collection an d analysis, so long as it m eets the definitions above. It is not the province o f one school of th o u g h t, o n e g ro u p o f research ers, or one m ethodological tradition.
W H A T IS T E A C H E R R ESEA R CH ? T e a c h e r r e s e a r c h , in contrast, is research conducted bv classroom teachers. A lthough the idea of teachers doing research was not com m on when the experim ental approach teas dom inant, it has gained m o m en tu m in the past two decades, particularlv in first language ed u cation (see. e.g.. K incheloe 1991). T eacher research is often con n ected with the co ncept o f teach er developm ent and em pow erm ent (Brindlev 1991)— the idea being that bv investigating teaching and learn ing processes in classrooms, we ourselves learn m ore about the craft and the science o f teaching so th a t we mav im prove o u r work as teachers. T he T e a c h e r s D e v e l o p T e a c h e r s R e s e a r c h series (e.g.. Edge and Richards 1993) reports on language teaching projects that take this stance. T eacher research usuallv does take place in classroom s, an d it typicallv focuses on som e ele m en t (s) o f classroom in teraction, Inn it d o e sn ’t necessarily h are to. For exam ple, a teacher could studv the w ritten negotiation for m eaning betw een him or h e r and his or h e r interm ed iate
F.8L. students th ro u g h the students' dialogue journals a n d his or h e r responses to them . W hile ntch a studv would not be considered classroom research, it would be tea c h e r research, because it was designed and carried o u t bv a teacher. I:. this case, th e n , th e a g e n t c o n d u c tin g titresearch is the defining feature. In o u r field vot can find discussions of teach er research wrim by B urns (1993). F reem an (1998), Jo h n so n (1998, 1999). and X unan ( 1997b), am ong others
W H A T IS A C T IO N R ESEA R CH ? Finallv. the term a c t i o n r e s e a r c h does in d ee d imp) a particular m ethodological approach. T he con cept is som etim es co n fu sed with teach e. research and classroom research because in or: field, at lion research is often c o n d u c te d 1" teachers in language classrooms. In addition, n focuses on p articular features o f classroom in te r action. But action research is m ore than simp: research co n d u c te d bv teachers in classrooms. T he term a c t i o n r e s e a r c h is an approach t collecting and in terpreting data that involves . clear, re p e a te d cvcle of p ro ce d u re s. Tim rese a rc h e r begins bv p lan n in g an action t address a problem , issue, or question in his or he: own context. This action (which is also called a ''small-scale intervention") is then carried out ( This is the source of the label a c t i o n r e s e a r c h .) The next step is the svstematic observation of the out comes of the action. T he observation is done through a variet\ o f procedures for collecting data. These include audio or video recordings, teachers' diarv entries, observers' notes, etc. (Christison and Bassano L1993J provide clear exam ples o f several data collection procedures teachers can use in action research to gather inform ation from students.) .After observing the ap parent results of the action, the researcher reflects on the outcom e and plans a subsequent action, after w hich the cvcle begins again (Ixemmis and McTaggart 1982; X unan 1993; van Tier 1994). I he broad goals o f action research are to seek local u n d erstan d in g an d to bring about im provem ent in the context u n d e r studv (Bailee 1998a). Ixemmis a n d M cTaggart describe action
research as "a form of ‘self-reflective enquire' und ertak en bv participants in social situations in o rd e r to im prove the rationality a n d justice of th eir own social o r educational practices, as well as th eir u n d e rsta n d in g of these practices and the situations in which these practices tire carried out" (1989. p. 2 ). A ction research was begun in the U nited States bv Lewin (1946) in the 1940s as a m eans of addressing social problem s. A lthough this a p p ro a c h was overshadow ed in th e U n ited States for nvanv years bv psychom etric research in the exp erim en tal tradition, it has been widely used for som e tim e in E ngland, Australia, and H ong Kong. A n u m b e r of action research anthologies and a great deal o f the m ethodologi cal guidance available has been published in gen eral education (see. e.g.. C arr and Kemmis 1986: Kcmmis and McTaggart 1982; M cLean 1995: and Oja and Smulvan 1989). In recent years, however, m ore and m ore books and articles have been published about the use of action research in second or foreign language education contexts. (See, for instance. Burns 1998: X unan 1990: and Wallace 1998 for m ethodological guidance about how to conduct action research).
H O W DO T H E S E C O N C E P T S F IT T O G E T H E R ? To sum m arize, then, the term classroom research refers to the location and the locus of the study. Teacher research refers to the agents who conduct the study. Action research denotes a particular approach, a codified but flexible set of reiterated procedures, for participants to conduct research in their own settings. Action research m ight or m ight not be conducted in classrooms, and it m ight or m ight not be done bv teachers. Figure 1 depicts the overlapping relationship o f classroom research, teacher research, and action research. M cPherson (1997) provides a good exam ple of an action research project by a language teacher in h er own classroom. She teaches adult ESI, classes for recent im m igrants to Australia. O ne \e a r h e r students had a very wide range of abilities because m any had had to wait a long time for a place in the course after the initial assess-
1 = Classroom
research conducted
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approaches other than action research 2 = Research conducted by teachers outside of classrooms using approaches other than action research 3 = Action research conducted by teachers outside of classrooms 4 = Classroom research conducted by teachers using the action research approach
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2.
4.
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———■
i J Action Research
1 C onducted j in Classroom s __________ i_____________________
L ._______________________________ .___________________
F ig u re I. C la s s r o o m R e s e a rc h , A c t io n R e s e a rc h , and T e a c h e r R e s e a rc h
m ent of their English skills. M cPherson an d 25 o th er ESI. teachers in 4 states of Australia u n d e r took action research projects, all in their own contexts but each focusing on som e aspect of teaching diverse learners. M cP herson’s article describes the three cycles of h er action research study. It is an exam ple of teacher research, using the action research m odel, situated in the wider approach o f language classroom research. In the first cycle, M cPherson reviewed the lite ra tu re on te a c h in g m ixed-ability classes, talked to o th e r teachers, an d tried various ways of g ro u p in g h e r students based on th eir profi ciency levels. She fo u n d th a t th e stu d e n ts a p p e are d to have goals different from h e r own and som etim es resisted the g roup and pair work she had organized. In the second cycle. M cPherson elicited the students' input about the activities. They were surprised that she saw m ixed levels as a problem and said they were happy to work in mixedabilitv classes. As a result of these discussions, M cPherson gave the students m ore responsibility
to select th eir own m aterials and activities. She was th en able to observe them m aking th eir own learning choices, which she carefnllv docum ented. She found that the students had reasons quite different from h er own for their choices. For in sta n c e, m anv stu d e n ts e x p e rie n c e d in tra g roup tensions (e.g., in choosing p artn ers for g roup work) related to th eir own ethnicity as well as to the political problem s o f their hom e countries. T he students had developed strate gies for m aintaining civil relations in class, but the te a c h e r’s g ro u p in g efforts h ad inadvertentlv u n d e rm in e d the delicate balance. O f th eir reti cence, M cPherson writes. “Tliev had tried in subtle ways to m ake m e aware o f the sensitive and precarious nature of the classroom dvnamics bv declining to e a rn out the activities which tliev believed could upset the equilibrium " (1997. p. 58). Allowing the students m ore choice was the first step tow ard resolving this issue. T he third cvcle o f the action research project occurred near the end of the course. A lthough the rest of the class had begun to work well to g ether, th e re w ere still two students who seem ed to be m arginalized bv the ethnic group th at was d o m in a n t in the class. M cPherson im p lem e n te d a strategv of d e lib e ra te d calling on these two students and validating th eir con trib u tio n s to class discussions. As the term en d ed , even these two students had begun to get m ore involved.
W H A T D EV E LO P M E N TS HAVE O C C U R R E D IN LA N G U A G E CLA SSR O O M R ESEA R CH ? In Bailee (1985), I published a review of the class room research literature that identified four m ajor research them es up to that point. These were (1 ) students' patterns of participation in lan guage classrooms, (2 ) investigations o f language teachers’ classroom behavior, (3) teachers’ treat m ent of learners' (oral ) errors, an d (4) individual studen t (or teacher) variables. An extensive literatu re review by C h au d ro n in 1988 also id en tified fo u r m ain areas of research: ( 1 ) teach er talk in second language
classroom s, (2 ) le a rn e r behavior in second lan guage classroom s. (3) teacher and student in te r actions in second language classroom s, and (4) le a rn in g outcom es. C h a u d ro n ‘s boo k -len g th tre a tm e n t covered a m uch g rea ter range of the available classroom research literatu re th an did the c h a p te r bv Bailev (1985). These topics have continued to be im por tant areas of classroom research. For exam ple, Kasper (1985) and Tomasello and H erron (1989) have investigated erro r treatm ent in language classes— one of the earliest foci of classroom research. But in some instances the focus o f a topic has changed to keep up with developm ents in language teaching. For exam ple, while m anv of the earlv studies looked at patterns of student par ticipation in teacher fronted classes, m ore recent investigations — influenced bv the em ergence o f com m unicative language teaching as the p re ferred approach — have com pared small group or clvadic interactions with large group interactions (see. e.g.. T ong an d P orter 1985; Pica an d Doughtv 1985: Rulon and McCrearv 1986). A n o th er area w here an earlv topical focus has b ro a d e n e d considerable is that of individual lea rn er variables and second language learn ers' behaviors. O ne wav these topics have been inves tig ated is th ro u g h language le a rn e rs' diary entries about th eir learn in g experiences. In the earlv clavs of language classroom research, m ost o f the language learning diaries were kept bv lin guists who studied a language but concurrently studied the process of learn in g that language. This p ro ced u re has b een criticized (e.g., by Seliger 1983) because it is unlikelv that train ed linguists rep re sen t the m ajoritv of language learners — the processes thev u n d erg o in learn ing a language m at not be the same as those of the m itre tvpical students in language class room s. M ore recentlv. however, diaries have been kept bv actual learners but analvzecl bv researchers. These studies include Ellis’s (1989) studv of two adult learners o f G erm an: H illeson’s (1996) investigation of reticence and anxiety am ong secondary school students in Singapore; Brown's (1985a) research co m p arin g o ld er and v o u n g e r a d u lt le a rn e rs o f S panish; a n d M atsum oto’s (1989) analysis o f a voung ja p a n e se w om an's cliarv o f h e r EST learning.
Some classroom studies have used m ultiple data collection procedures to investigate learner variables. For exam ple, Schm idt and Frota (1986) analvzed a diary kept by Schm idt as he learned Portuguese in Brazil. F rota— a native speaker of P o rtu g u ese — also c o n d u c te d p erio d ic e rro r analyses o f Schm idt's speech. In Spain, Block (1996) com pared students’ tape-recorded oral jo u rn a l entries with his observations and the teacher's journal entries to com pare the various viewpoints expressed on the classroom events. Shaw (1996) used language le a rn e rs' diarv entries, his fieldnotes, and interviews with teach ers to investigate content-based language instruc tion at the graduate level in the U nited States. Katz (1996) used classroom observations, tape recordings and teacher interviews to docum ent four different teaching stvles used bv four teach ers who were working at the same level in the same program and using the same curriculum . It is in terestin g to m e, b o th as a language teach er an d as a research er and re a d e r of o th e rs ’ re se a rc h , how m u ch d e v e lo p m e n t has o ccu rred in language classroom research since the early 1980s. T h e re have b een new m eth o d ological developm ents, to be sure, b u t m ore impressive has b een the wide range o f topics investigated in language classroom research. T he traditional foci of classroom research listed above continue to be investigated, but other kev topics have also appeared. Some of these issties. such as research on students' learning strategies (see, e.g., Chesterfield and Chesterfield 1985) have been influenced bv second language acquisi tion research conducted outside of classrooms. Some are related to sociolinguistic research on contextualized forms of com petence. For example, Rounds (1987) investigated the com m unication skills of non-native-speaking teaching assistants working in English in American universities. O th er topics, such as those in the language awareness m ovem ent (see, e.g., van Tier 1995), are m ore closely related to developm ents in linguistics. T hree specific developm ents n eed to be m entioned: (1 ) investigations of teacher cogni tion, (2) the globalization of language classroom research, and (3) em pirical studies o f washback. We will briefly exam ine these areas, each of which has significance for language teachers worldwide.
CLA SSR O O M R ESEA R CH O N T E A C H E R C O G N IT IO N T each er cognition research investigates how teachers th in k a b o u t th eir work, w hat skilled decision m aking goes into effective teaching, a n d how novice tea c h e rs’ th in k in g a n d teaching expertise develop over tim e. (See W ood 1996, for a review.) Much of this research involves having teachers review data collected in their own classrooms bv researchers. T h en the teachers tell those researchers what they were thinking and what m oti vated their decision-m aking at the time. T he p ro cedure called stimulated recall (Gass and Mackey 2000) is often used in this research context. In stim ulated recall, a researcher uses som e record of an event to p ro m p t the recollections o f that event bv som eone who participated in it. T he records, or data, can include audio or video recordings of the class, observers’ fieldnotes, or transcripts of classroom interaction. T he partici p ants verbalize th e ir recollections a n d the researchers record those recollections while the participants review the data. For exam ple, N unan (1996) and Jo h n so n (1992a, 1992b) used the stim ulated recall procedure in o rd er to p ro m p t in-service and preservice teachers to explain their m ental processes d u ring th eir lessons. T he topics o f teach er cognition an d devel o p m en t also have b een accessed in classroom research th ro u g h the use o f tea c h e rs’ jo u rn als. Som etim es the journals have b e e n analyzed by p eo p le o th e r th an the teachers them selves. For exam ple, X um rich (1996) analyzed the teaching journals kept bv teachers-in-training who were en ro lled in h e r practicum class. P e n n in g to n and R ichards (1997) analvzed the teach in g jo u rn a ls o f five novice EFL teachers in H o n g Kong. In o th e r instances, the journals have b een analyzed bv the teachers who kept them — an d thus p ro vide us with exam ples o f teach er research. These include A ppel’s (1995) booklen g th study based on a journal he k ep t for several years as he tau g h t EFL in Germany. Brock, Yu, an d W ong (1992) kept teaching jo u rn a ls o f th eir university classes in H ong Kong a n d th en read a n d dis cussed them together. T h eir re p o rt docum ents b o th th e ir jo u rn a l fin d in g s a n d w hat they
le a rn e d by sharing th eir journals. T eacher deci sion m aking is a vast a n d im p o rta n t topic, a n d we are just b eg in n in g to u n d e rsta n d its richness an d complexity.
T H E G L O B A L IZ A T IO N O F L A N G U A G E CLA SSR O O M R ESEA R CH As in d ic a te d above, lan g u a g e classroom research has b een co n d u c te d in a wide variety of contexts in rec e n t years. In the earlv 1980s, m uch o f the p u blished research teas do n e in C anada, Australia, the U nited Kingdom or the U n ited States. This is no lo n g er the case. For instance, teach ers' concerns about w orking with large classes have e m erg ed as an im p o rta n t topic with serious practical consequences in ntanv regions. This issue has b een investigated in N ig eria (C olem an 1989), J a p a n (L oC astro 1989), In d o n esia (S ab an d er 1989), Pakistan (Sham im 1996), an d South .Africa (Stein and Janks 1996). T he language used bv students an d teach ers d u rin g lessons, one of the early foci of lan guage classroom re se a rc h , has also h e e n investigated (th o u g h n o t necessarily with action research o r tea c h e r research). These studies include research on code-switching in South A frican classroom s (A dendorff 1996): students' E nglish use in Sri L an k an classroom s (C anagarajah 1993); the language choice in various situations in a French-English bilingual p rogram in Q uebec (C leghorn an d G enesee 1984); a n d th e tasks p e rfo rm e d in d u a l language program s in H ungary (D uff 1995. 1996). T h e topic o f washback illustrates this global tre n d quite well.
W A S H B A C K S T U D IE S IN L A N G U A G E CLA SSR O O M S W ashback— loosely defined as the effects of test ing on teaching an d le a rn in g — has been stud ied in m any parts o f the world. M uch o f this classroom research was co n d u c te d by external observers ra th e r th an the teachers themselves.
In Sri Lanka. Wall and A lderson (1993) col lected baseline data at the b eg in n in g of a threeyear observational studv. Baseline data refers to “info rm atio n that docum ents the norm al state o f affairs [and] provides the basis against which we m ake com parative claims ab o u t how differ e n t or unusual the p h e n o m e n a we have seen may b e ” (Allwright a n d Bailev 1991, p. 74). In the case of the washback studies, baseline data are usually collected before the im p lem en tatio n o f a new test, so that the effects of that test on teaching an d learn in g can be studied subse quently bv collecting parallel data after the test has been used for som e specific p erio d of tim e. Wall and A lderson's studv involved class room observers visiting English classes in five parts of Sri Tanka, over six rou n d s o f observa tions. before and after a new national English test was im p lem en ted . Thev fo u n d that the new exam seriously in flu e n c e d th e c o n te n t o f English lessons, an d also had som e im pact on how the Sri Lankan teachers designed th eir own in-class exams. However, it had verv little influ ence on how thev taught o r how thev graded th eir students' p e rfo rm an ce on tests. T he effects of Japanese university entrance exam inations were studied bv W atanabe (1996), who found some results s e n similar to those of Wall and Alderson. He observed two teachers, each of whom was teaching two test preparation courses. However, he found that the gram m artranslation questions on the university entrance exams did not influence the two teachers in the same wav. He felt that three factors prom oted or inhibited washback in these cases: ( 1 ) the teachers’ educational background and or experience, (2) the teachers' different beliefs about what consti tuted effective teaching, and (3) the tim ing of the researcher's observations relative to the date o f the upcom ing exam. In Israel. Shohamv, D onitsa-Schm idt, and Ferm an (1996) co n d u c te d classroom research on the washback created bv a new test o f Arabic as a second language (AST), as well as a new test of English as a foreign language (EFL). W hen th e new ASL test was im p le m e n te d , they observed that the teachers stopped covering new m aterial a n d began to review intensively;
w orksheets based on the previous year’s ASL test rep laced the textbooks; class activities becam e testlike a n d the atm o sp h ere becam e tense. O nce the test h ad b een adm inistered, these m anifesta tions of vvashback stopped. In the case of the EFL test, which in cluded an oral co m p o n en t, Shoham y e t al. observed th a t th e teach ers increased the a m o u n t o f class tim e sp en t on lis ten in g a n d speaking, using activities a n d tasks based on the EFL test. This studv confirm ed that washback at the very least influences what teachers emphasize in language classes. Alderson and Hamp-Lyons (1996) observed the same two teachers as thev taught regular ESL classes and Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) p re p a ra tio n classes in th e U n ited States. A m ong o th er things, their studv found that the test p rep aratio n classes involved m uch m ore test taking, spent less tim e on pair work, entailed m ore teacher talk and less student talk, generated m ore m etalanguage (talk about lan guage), and elicited less laughter than the nonTOEFL classes. In H o n g Kong, C heng (1997) observed the same secondary school English teachers w orking with two groups of students p rep a rin g for their school-leaving e x am in atio n s— those slated to take the old exam an d those who w ould take the new exam . T he old exam in cluded passages for the students to read aloud, while the nets’ test in c lu d e d ro le plavs a n d g ro u p discussions instead. In the new exam p rep a ra tio n classes, C heng fo u n d th at the teachers did n o t have stu dents practice read in g aloud, an d th at m ore tim e was sp en t on oral presentations an d group discussions. She p o in te d o u t th at the exam h ad changed the c o n te n t of the courses, b u t h ad had a m inim al im pact on the teaching m ethods. T h e existing classroom research studies on washback raise a n u m b er o f in teresting ques tions a b o u t how external tests influence teach ing a n d learning. From w hat we have seen so far, tests seem to have considerable im pact on w hat gets taught, b u t less influence on how th at con te n t is taught. F uture research in this area is n eed ed . To the best o f my know ledge, n o n e of the published classroom research on washback involves teach er research o r the use o f action research to investigate this im p o rta n t issue.
W H A T T O P IC S H AVE BEEN IN V E S T IG A T E D B Y T E A C H E R S D O IN G A C T IO N R ESEA R CH IN L A N G U A G E CLA SSRO O M S? As n o ted above, action research has seen a d ra m atic rise in popularity since 1980. T he advent of action research as a legitim ate a p p ro ach to investigating p h e n o m e n a in lan g u a g e class room s has o p e n e d a wide range of new topics as well as p ro m o tin g research by teachers who use this m odel. Recently, a num ber of action research studies have been published in which language teachers (sometimes working alone, sometimes collaboiating with others) have used the action research ap p ro ach to investigate issues in th eir own class room s. For exam ple, K ebir (1994) studied adult language le a rn e rs’ com m unication strategies. A special ed ition o f Orbis Linguarum ed ited by M ichonska-Stadnik an d Szulc-Kuparska (1997) docum ents a wide-scale action research investi gation o f lea rn er in d ep e n d e n c e in Poland. C han (1996) looked at action research as a vehicle for professional developm ent in H ong Kong. Also in H ong Kong, Tsui (1996) rep o rted on a study in which several secondarv school teachers in H ong Kong used action research to investigate th eir stu d e n ts’ reticence to use English in th e class room . A study o f Vygotskyan principles to p ro m ote in teractio n in a low-level ESL. class was co n d u c te d by van Lier (1992). His work with the ESL learners resulted in discussion m aterials for use in his language tea c h e r ed u cation courses, which fed back into the ESL class, an d so on.
W H A T IS T H E T E A C H E R ’S RO LE IN LA N G U A G E CLA SSR O O M R ESEA R CH ? T h e te a c h e r’s role in classroom research has grown trem endouslv (Allwright 1997; N u n an 1997). In the days w hen m ost research was experim ental, investigations were typically c o n d u c te d bv outsiders to ensure objectivity in data
collection and interpretation. Teachers were seen either as subjects in a particular study or as the im plem enters o f the treatm ent in the experim ent. Now, however, there is a m uch m ore inclu sive view of teachers as partners in the research e n te rp rise , w orking in co llab o ratio n with researchers (see, e.g., Freem an's 1992 study of a secondary school French class). It is also n ot unco m m o n these davs for teachers in our field to be producers, instead o f consum ers, o f language classroom research (C rookes 1998; Freem an 1996). Pica (1997) has described the evolving relationship o f language teaching and research as m oving from coexistence to collaboration an d com plem entarity. (See also H udelson and Lindfors 1993.)
W H E R E ARE W E N O W ? O n e clear developm ent in the last few vears is th a t th e re are now m anv m e th o d o lo g ic a l resources available to teachers and others who wish to co n d u c t language classroom research. In addition to the action research references cited above, th ere are m anv texts and articles avail able ab o u t classroom research in general. For exam ple, Allwright an d Bailev (1991) wrote an in tro d u c tio n to b o th the topics and the m ethods of classroom research for language teachers. Brow n (1985b) c o m p a re d th e cliarv studv a p p ro ach with participant observation in lan guage classroom research. Brum fit an d M itchell (1990) and Bailey (1998a) reviewed a n u m b e r of classroom research projects. Gass a n d Mackey (2000) provided step-bv-step guidance an d clear exam ples fo r researchers, in clu d in g te a c h e r researchers, who wish to use the stim u-Iated recall p ro ced u re. Santwav (1994) provided sug gestions for teachers ab o u t how to reco rd data w hile thev are actually tea c h in g . F re em a n (1998), Jo h n so n (1998, 1999), N unan (1991b), Tsui (1995), and van Lier (1988,1990) have all dis cussed how to investigate language classroom interaction. O n e sign of professional m aturity is the will ingness o f a field to critique its own work. In re c e n t years a n u m b er o f articles and books have
b een w ritten which question the procedures used in classroom research or which identify problem atic issues (see, e.g., Bailev 1991 and Seliger 1983). Schachter an d Gass (1996) have ed ited an interesting collection o f articles which candidly discuss the sorts of problem s that arise in doing classroom research. Manv o f these resources w ould be helpful to language teachers who wish to get started on th eir own classroom research.
W H Y SH O U LD TEACH ERS G E T IN V O LVED IN LA N G U A G E C LA SSR O O M R ESEA R CH ? Whv should teachers b o th e r to get involved in a ctio n rese a rc h , o r anv form o f classroom research for that m atter? D oesn't it take tim e to co n d u ct such studies? D oesn't research require discipline an d specialized train in g to carry out? T he answer is ves. certainly. In addition, in m anv situations, teachers are not given financial or strategic support, release tim e, or even recogni tion for con d u ctin g research. Allwright (1997) has addressed som e of these concerns. Also, Allwright an d T enzuen (1997) have described an a p p ro a c h called "ex p lo rato ry te a c h in g ,” which is related to action research b u t keeps the teaching central while allowing teachers to raise a n d answer im p o rta n t questions ab o u t th eir work in language classrooms. T h ere are still good reasons for teachers to co nduct language classroom research, however. T he processes involved in data collection an d analysis can help them discover pattern s (both positive an d negative) in th eir interactions with students. Thev can discover in terestin g new puzzles a n d answers, b o th o f which can energize th eir teaching. Bv reading o r h earin g accounts o f o th e r peo p le's research, thev can get new ideas for teaching a n d for th eir investigations, as well as becom ing b e tte r c o n n ected with the p ro fession at large. A nd by sharing the results of th eir own research (at conferences, in publica tions. in s ta ffro o m lu n ch talks, a n d so o n ), thev can get feedback from o th e r teachers a n d learn from th eir experiences.
In closing, I w ant to qu o te th re e sentences from M cPherson's action research rep o rt, which was su m m arized on pages 4 91-492 o f this chapter. T h e first two sentences I wish to high light follow: This action research pro ject played a m ajor role in help in g me to u n d e r stand the learn in g issues involved in ms class a n d in developing systematic ways to investigate a n d address them . As a research m eth o d , action research was flexible e n o u g h to allow me to change the focus of ms investigation from d ev e lo p in g a n d tria lin g la n guage learn in g m aterials a n d activities to addressing issues o f difference and diversity (1997, p. 61). I have a d d ed mv own em phasis in these two sentences to stress the situated, localized natu re o f M cP herson’s research as well as w hat she h e r self gained from w orking on the project. T he th ird sentence, below, provides an apt closing to this chapter, b u t also perhaps a great beg in n in g reg ard in g how to th ink ab o u t action research, teach er research, an d classroom research in general. .After she finished h e r studv, M cPherson concluded, T he events th at o ccu rred forced m e to rem e m b e r th at in the classroom th ere is m ore to learn in g a language than learn in g language (p. 60).
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1. In your u n d erstan d in g , how do language classroom research, teach er research, an d action research differ from o n e another? How do they differ from o th e r form s of research with which y o u may be fam iliar (for instance, library research o r the scientific m eth o d )? 2. W hat are the advantages and disadvantages of language teachers conducting research in their own classrooms? W hat are the advan tages an d disadvantages of outsiders conduct ing research in language classrooms?
3. W hat are th ree topics o f in terest to you as a tea c h e r w hich have been investigated in language classroom research to date? Whv are they of particu lar interest? 4. Washback has b een defined as the effects of testing on language teaching and learning. Have you ever experienced washback, eith er as a teacher o r as a language learner? W hat were the circumstances? W hat was the test and how did it influence your teaching or learning? 5. If you h a d b e e n able to do classroom rese a rc h on the w ashback situ atio n dis cussed in Q uestion 4, w hat data w ould you h are collected? W hat do you th in k the data w ould have shown vou?
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1. Tape rec o rd two or th re e consecutive lessons in the same language class. T hese tapes can provide baseline data. Listen to the tapes and write down th ree to five questions th at arise ab o u t the in teractio n in the class. 2. T h in k of som e wavs th at you could go a b o u t answ ering these questions by collecting addi tional data. How w ould your data collection procedures differ if you (a) were teaching the class, o r (b) were observing som eone else teaching the class? 3. If vou are currently teaching, plan the initial steps o f an action research project that you could conduct in your own class. Keep in m ind that your goals may change as you work through the ac tion research cycle o f planning, acting, observing, reflecting, and replanning for the next iteration. Discuss your initial plans with a colleague or fellow student. 4. Keep a diary o f your own language teaching (or language learning) for a set p e rio d of tim e for several days ru n n in g — fo r instance, for a p e rio d o f two weeks. D o n ’t rere a d vour diary en tries until the p re d e te rm in e d p erio d is over. W hat pattern s em erge in the behaviors a n d attitudes d o c u m e n te d in your diary? How could these issues be investigated further?
5.
If you are currently teaching or doing your practice teaching, ask a trusted colleague or fellow student to observe von teaching a lesson and take notes on the interaction. What issues em erge from the observation that vou were unaw are of as the teacher? How / could you an d an observer investigate these issues further?
FU R T H ER R EA D IN G If vou would like to learn more about action research, these books bv Burns and Wallace are clear sources of information: Burns, A. 1998. Collaborative Action Research for English Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wallace, M. J. 1998. Action Research for Language Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Allwright and Bailev provides a user-friendlv general introduction to language classroom research for teachers and preservice teachers. Allwright, D., and К. M. Bailev. 1991. Focus on the Classroom: An Introduction to Classroom Research for Language Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge Universitv Press. Nunan's book has manv excellent ideas and clear examples for teachers who wish to begin classroom investigations of their own. Xunan. D. 1989. Understanding Language Classrooms: A Guide for Teacher-initiated Action. New York: Prentice Hall. Freeman's and Johnson's books are ideal starting places. Thev include examples of teacher research as well as teachers' comments on doing research. Freeman. D. 1998. Doing Teacher Research: From Inquiry to Understanding. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle Publishers. Johnson. К. E. 1999. Understanding Language Teaching: Reasoning in Action. Boston. MA: Heinle & Heinle Publishers.
Reflective Teaching in ELT O H N
M.
M U R P H Y
M urphy’s chapter introduces several intriguing pathways for long-term professional growth. It features tools to learn more about w ho w e are as teachers (including students' perceptions) through such procedures as five-minute papers, teacher-assessment surveys, student focus groups, retrospective field notes, and non-supervisory peer feedback.The chapter also highlights purposes o f reflective teaching and topics explored by reflective teachers.
IN T R O D U C T IO N G aining teach in g experience, p articipating in teacher-developm ent courses, th in k in g about and discussing published scholarship, atten d in g conferences, consulting colleagues, an d getting to know students b e tte r are b u t som e of the m any wavs that English language teachers can grow as professionals. This c h a p te r adds to these resources by in tro d u c in g wavs for teachers to look inward, both w ithin them selves an d within the courses they offer, to access inform ation an d inspiration about th eir efforts in language class room s. T he c h a p te r’s purpose is to serve as an in tro d u c tio n to reflective teaching. For those in terested in learn in g m ore ab o u t this vibrant trad itio n in the field o f English language teach ing (ETT), the section titled "F u rth er R eading” provides an a n n o ta ted listing o f sources that served as the c h a p te r’s conceptual g rounding. O n e of the m ore in trig u in g characteristics th at distinguishes adults from ch ild ren is that adults have an increased capacity for self-reflec tive th o u g h t (K ohlberg 1981, Mezirow 1981). This is n o t to say th at ch ild ren are incapable o f self-reflection or o f learn in g th ro u g h in tro sp ec tive m eans. Parents know that children, especially adolescents, can be highly self-reflective. Yet in com parison with younger people, adults possess greater capacities in this area. T he challenge is to p u t such capacities to m ore productive use.
As a language teacher, have you ever finished all of vour teaching for the day only to find your m ind racing with thoughts about a lesson recently com pleted? This is a recurring experience for me, especiallv when returning hom e from work on public transportation. W hile others seated around m e seem to be reading newspapers, staring into space, or calmlv chatting with friends, my m ind often races with classroom images, including insights, puzzles, second guesses, resolutions, and plans for the future. D uring such m om ents 1 find mvself responding with a full range o f em otion that includes not only excitem ent, joy, inspiration, an d reassurance b u t also m ore tro u b lin g m om ents of boredom , annoyance, and even dis appointm ent in myself. T here are occasions when som ething particularly intriguing m ight find its wav into subsequent plans for teaching but unless I take the step o f wa iting them down, such insights tend to dissipate as the evening continues. This chapter explores ways to help ensure that such m om ents serve productive purposes.
PU RPO SES O F R E F L E C T IV E T E A C H IN G T h e purposes of reflective teach in g are th re e fold: ( 1 ) to ex pand o n e ’s u n d e rsta n d in g of th e teaching-learning process; (2 ) to e x p a n d o n e ’s rep e rto ire o f strategic options as a language
teacher; and (3) to enhance the quality of learning opportunities one is able to provide in language classrooms. To these ends, those interested in reflective teaching take steps to deepen awareness of teaching and learning behaviors bv working to improve their abilities to: ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
G ath er info rm atio n on w hatever is taking place w ithin a language course Exam ine such inform ation closelv in an effort to better und erstan d what thev collect Identify anything puzzling about the teaching learning process Build awareness and d eepen understanding of cu rren t teaching and learning behaviors Locate and collaborate with others interested in processes of reflective teaching Pose and refine questions tied to one's teach ing that are worth furth er exploration Locate resources th at mav help to clarify w hatever questions are being posed M ake in fo rm ed changes in teaching, even if only m odest changes D o c u m e n t changes in teaching-learning behaviors a n d responses C o n tinue such efforts over tim e a n d share em erging insights with others
D E F IN IT IO N O FTER M S Richards and Lockhart (1994) define reflective teaching as an approach to second language (L2) classroom in stru ctio n in w hich c u rre n t an d prospective teachers “collect data about teaching, exam ine their attitudes, beliefs, assumptions, and teach in g practices, a n d use the inform ation obtained as a basis for critical reflection” about their efforts in language courses (p. 1). They posit five basic assumptions: ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
An in fo rm e d te a c h e r has an extensive know ledge base ab o u t teaching M uch can be learned about teaching through self-inquiry Much o f what happens in teaching is un known to the teacher T eaching ex perience alone is insufficient as a basis for co n tin u in g developm ent Critical reflection can trigger a deeper under standing o f teaching
Why would we spend the time and energy it takes to develop understandings through reflec tive teaching? We т а л - find the answer by consid ering both our continuing needs as teachers and. even m ore importantly, the needs of the language learners we sen e. W hat the five assum ptions cited above share is that reflective teachers are capable of learning from , and furth er developing, their personal understandings and explanations o f life within language classrooms. A central reason to be interested in reflective teaching “is to gain aware ness of our teaching beliefs and practices” and to learn "to see teaching differently” (G ebhard and O prandv 1999, p. 4). A rationale to support reflec tive teaching certainly includes such insights, but it also extends bevoncl them . In addition to the reasons cited thus far, an integral part of reflectiveteaching is to learn to take action, when possible, on whatever we m ight be learning about ourselves as teachers and about students' responses, for the purpose of enhancing the quality' of learning opportunities we are able to provide in our class rooms. For us as language teachers, taking action m ight involve exploring instructional innovation' trving out alternatives, and m odifying— or ever, breaking— routines in teaching based upon what we learn.
T O P IC S E X P LO R E D BY R E F L E C T IV E T E A C H E R S To exam ine some of the topics ty pically explorer, bv reflective teachers, we first need to acknowl edge that each language course is unique. English language teaching and language learning are processes em bedded within com plex arrays o: dvnamic and socially interactive events. Earls stages of reflective teaching begin with a class room teacher's desire to better u n derstand the dynamics of a single language course as it is being experienced bv a group of learners and their teacher. This is not to sat that reflective teaching cannot extend beyond the scope of a single course: at later stages it often does. But as a place to begin, most teachers find an individual course to be the m ost useful place to initiate what even tually becomes systematic efforts at reflective teach ing. Some general topic areas reflective te a c h e r'
often explore are: ( 1 ) com m unication patterns in the classroom : (2 ) teach er decision m aking: (3) ways in which learners apply knowledge; (4) the affective clim ate of the classroom , (o) the instructional environm ent; an d (6) a teacher's self-assessment of grow th a n d developm ent as a professional. R e fle c tio n B r e a k #1 In a d d itio n to th e s e six g en era l areas, w h a t a re so m e o t h e r areas yo u th in k re fle c tive te a c h e rs w h o w o r k in E L T settings m ight p ro fita b ly e x p lo re ? A lte rn a tiv e ly , w h a t m ight be s o m e specific e x am p les o f th e six areas listed ab o ve?
Com m unication Patterns in the Classroom Teachers who are in terested in pattern s of com m u n ic a tio n in lan g u ag e classroom s often explore classroom m an ag em en t issues such as. W ho is d o in g w hat d u rin g lessons? As the teacher, am I the sole source o f pow er and con trol? Do learners som etim es have an im pact on what takes place? Classroom com m unication patterns is one of the m ore com m on topics explored bv reflective teachers. Most of us are in terested in b e tte r u n d e rsta n d in g how com m u nications betw een evervone p resent in the class room mav in flu en ce tea c h in g a n d lea rn in g processes. For exam ple, a teacher m ight exam ine recurring features within the instructional rou tine to better understand students' learning pref erences. A teacher interested in com m unication patterns m ight ask if lessons usuallv begin and end in the sam e wav. With video support, it is possible to divide a language lesson in to a series of m anageable segm ents for analysis. M ultiple viewing reveals how lessons begin (openings which ten d to be broadlv focused), introductions to specific activities (setting things up, giving directions, clarifving, providing support for what is to follow), core lesson segm ents (individual activities th at ten d to reflect p re p la n n e d teach ing d ecisio n s), wavs in which the tea c h e r and the class move from one activitv to a n o th e r (transi tions between lesson segm ents), how lesson seg ments are sequenced (pre-, core-, and post-activitv phases), how students respond to teacher feed back, and the teacher's wav of draw ing a lesson to
a close (calling for atten tio n , assigning h o m e work, preview ing upco m in g events). Most lan guage lessons fe a tu re id en tifiab le segm ents strad d led by transitions from one segm ent to another. An in terestin g way to increase u n d e r standing of c u rre n t wavs of teach in g is to g ath er inform ation on how to n structure, pace, and sequence lesson segm ents. By gen eratin g an audio o r video recording of their teaching, for exam ple, and then m oving betw een m acro- and microlevel exam inations o f whole lessons, reflec tive teachers can begin to b e tte r u n d erstan d such features. Close review of their ways o f teaching leads m anv teachers to th en consider ways of m anipulating lesson segments, an d some o f the features e m b e d d e d with them , to increased effect. Lesson Participant Interactions A n o th e r h e lp ful topic to explore is to exam ine m ore specific p attern s o f learner-to-learner a n d teacher-tolearn er(s) interactions in the classroom . W ho speaks to whom , how often, in what sequence, and for how long? How are speaking turns dis tributed? Is the teach er the only o n e who con trols th eir distribution? How are topics an d shifts in topic developm ent introduced? W hat are som e o f the ways in which learners take the floor as speakers in the m idst of classroom co m m u n i cations? Are th ere learners who are relativelv m ore or less participator} during particular lesson phases? Do patterns of com m unication in the classroom p ro \id e opportunities for learners to take the initiative? Teacher Decision Making This area for explo ration includes a vast, and as vet poorlv u n d e r stood. dim ension of language teaching. Acts of language teaching spring from sources w ithin us th a t in c lu d e o u r cognitive a n d e m o tio n a l responses to external classroom events. Because all o f us d e p e n d u p o n know ledge, values, and beliefs about teach in g an d learn in g in o rd e r to function as teachers in the classroom, ou r in ter nal understandings and expectations contribute to o u r teach in g decisions a n d behaviors. Specialists sketch an in trig u in g territo ry o f teacher decision m aking which Richards and Lockhart (1994) divide into pre-, during-, and post-lesson decisions. In the case o f during-lesson
decisions, teachers have v en little tim e to follow th ro u g h on what tliev decide to do since the process unfolds in collaboration with — and in front of— a group of learners. At such m om ents, a teacher's decisions mac seem nearly instanta n eo u s alth o u g h thee are in fo rm ed bv the teacher's background and precious experiences. C om m unication pattern s in classrooms, les son particip an t interactions, and teach er deci sion m aking are just a few of the topics often explored by reflective teachers. A more.- com plete listing would include learning to identih and explore: я
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T he teacher's wavs ol giving insttactions, resp o n d in g to students' errors, providing feedback, using language, in tro d u cin g new teaching strategies, enco u rag in g language ttse bevond the classroom , identifying and a tten d in g to learners' needs, w orking with relu ctan t learners, resp o n d in g to students' errors L earn ers' wavs of requesting clarifications, resp o n d in g to feedback, applying knowl edge, using language, in teractin g with their peers, resp o n d in g to changes in teaching, using learn in g strategies Even m ore general topics such as the affec tive clim ate of the classroom , debilitative and facilitative anxietv. cultural considera tions, the instructional environm ent, the physical setup of the classroom , textbooks a n d o th e r resources, stu d e n t-g e n e ra te d m aterials, resources bevond the classroom
T he above list illustrates the kinds of topics that all language teachers are interested in learn in g m ore about but that reflective teachers take d eliberate action to explore. R e fle c t io n B r e a k # 2 G e n e r a t e a list o f to p ic s re la te d to y o u r o w n te a ch in g th a t y o u th in k w o u ld be w o r t h le a rn in g m o re ab o u t. S e e if y o u can c o m e up w ith a t least fo u r e x a m p le s n o t m e n tio n e d in th e p re c e d in g se c tio n . O n c e y o u r list is c o m p le te , c o m p a re it to th a t o f o n e o r m o r e o t h e r lan guage te a c h e r (s ). H o w m igh t y o u s e t a b o u t in crea sin g y o u r u n d e rs ta n d in g o f a t least s o m e o f th e to p ic s o f in te re s t t o yo u ?
T O O L S FO R R E F L E C T IV E T E A C H IN G /G A T H E R IN G IN FO RM A TIO N Just as th ere are m anv topics to be ex p lo red bv reflective teachers, there are also m anv different wavs to g a th e r inform ation. I refer to wavs o f g athering inform ation included in this section as tools in a positive sense since these are the "tools of the trade" that growing nu m b ers of reflective teachers d e p e n d upon to explore the teaching-learning process. Teachers use differ ent tools to access different sorts o f inform ation. Bv com bining two or m ore tools over the span of an entire1 course, a teacher gains access to alter native vantage points. T hough space lim itations perm it onlv a lew tools to be featu red in this chapter, fable 1 depicts a m ore com prehensive listing of some of the m ajor tools reflective tea c h e rs use. U nless otherw ise in d ic a te d , resources for learning m ore about them are featu red in the "F u rth er R eading" section. Expanding on Table 1. I discuss five tools that should be especially useful to teachers interested in becom ing m ore involved in processes and pro cedures of reflective teaching. These tools are: five-minute papers, formative teacher assessment survevm student locus groups, retrospective field notes, and formative feedback from peers.
FIV E -M IN U T E PAPERS R egular use o f five-minute papers is a direct wav o f finding out how learners are perceiving and resp o n d in g to ou r efforts as teachers. A few m inutes before the en d o f the lesson, the teacher asks everyone to take out a sheet of p ap er and to w rite responses to one or two opene n d e d prom pts such as: (1) W hat is the one thing u iu are likelv to rem e m b e r from today's class? : if i W hat was the m ost confusing concept we covered? if) Is there anything vou would like to know m ore about? (4) Is theta1 anything vou think I should be doing differently? L earner responses to such questions are especially useful if the teach er em phasizes that th eir purpose is to provide form ative feedback on how the course is going. In m ain EEL courses teachers are able to
Table I. Some Tools of Reflective Teaching: Ways of Gathering Information ■
Formative feedback from learners Five-minute papers Teacher assessment surveys Questionnaires Dialogue journals W ritten assessments Student focus groups
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Formative feedback from other teachers Peer collaborations (Murphy 1992)
“Case” interviews Field notes and classroom ethnographies Dialogue with a supervisor (Master 1983) Observation schedules Score charts Classroom observation (W ajnryb 1992) ■
Self-generated sources of information Retrospective field notes Teaching journals and teaching logs Classroom diagrams and maps Lesson plans and lesson reporting Audio recordings Video recordings Transcript analysis Protocol analysis Stimulus recall
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Course descriptions (Graves 2000; Murphy and Byrd in press)
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Summative feedback from learners at the end of the course
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Action research (See Bailey's chapter in this volume)
ask students to com pose five-minute papers in English. In settings where it is possible, students m ight he given the option of writing live-minute papers in their first language(s). T hough fivem inute papers take time awav from the regular part of a lesson, using them at the end of class can better inform a teacher's post-lesson decisions. W ie n introducing them for the first time, 1 explain to students that: ■
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T h eir nam es should not ap p e ar on their papers (th eir writings will be kept in confi den ce). W hen read in g the papers I will not be look ing at things like gram m ar, spelling, or
vocabularv choice but onlv for the ideas thev convev. As their teach er I will be reading for the purpose o f im proving mv teaching in the course and not to evaluate th eir progress. Invariable. 1 find som ething of value in w hat stu dents have to say. I will occasionallv ask a col league to read the papers first, a n d th en discuss with me th e gist o f s tu d e n ts ’ co m m en ts. Involving som eone else is a small step toward gaining access to an outside perspective on my work. As well as providing an o p p o rtu n itv to talk about im teaching with a n o th e r teacher, it helps to ensure Г will be responsive to what students
have to sav. E xperience with five-minute papers over the past fete w a rs lias taught m e th at a te a c h e r’s sense of tim ing is essential since using them can be overdone. If students are asked to com pose them too often, thev lose interest an d mav even begin to resent being asked to do so. In courses that m eet two or th ree times a week, I line! that once even' two or th ree weeks is often en o u g h . U sing them wiselv a m serve as vivid rem inders to students that th eir responses to the course are valued a n d giv en serious attention.
FO RM ATIVE T E A C H E R A SSESSM EN T SU RVEYS: A c o m p le m e n t to five-m inute p a p e rs is to schedule several survevs of students' perceptions of how well the course is going. These m ight Lie in clud ed in the course svllabus on the first clav o f class so students will know from the start that th e ir im pressions will be valued, when their im pressions will lie solicited, a n d what the survcv will include. Som e advantages o f form ative assessm ent survevs are that thev can be clearly stru ctu red in advance, it is easv to keep students' com m ents anonvm ous. a lot o f inform ation can be g a th e red at one tim e, and the p ro ce d u re mav be carried out at regular intervals. O ne option is to im p lem en t such survevs th ree tim es durin g th e span o f an entire course. For exam ple. I
work in an ESI. setting w here the len g th of courses I teach is 13 weeks. I g a th e r form ative assessm ent inform ation th ro u g h stu d e n t survevs after the third, eighth, an d th irte e n th weeks of class. A survev earlv in the course serves as a win dow into students' initial responses to the course. Bv the eighth week their im pressions are even b e tte r inform ed since learners are bevond the m id p o in t an d have h ad am ple o p p o rtu n ities to develop u n d e rsta n d in g s a n d im pressions o f both the course an d mv role as th eir teacher. These first two survevs are the ones that directlv im pact on mv teaching decisions in the section of the course students are taking. T h o u g h I also find a stu d en t survev in the th irte e n th week to be useful, at this p o in t the course is com ing to a close and students' com m ents will have m ore of an im pact on fu tu re iterations of the course. W hen using form ative tea c h e r assessm ent survevs. a practical strategy is to place at the verv en d of the course sv llabus a copv of the first sur vev sheet to be collected. Bv positioning it at the end. students onlv have to detach the first survev sheet on the a p p ro p riate dav to com plete it an d h a n d it in. I arrange the second survev sheet (eighth week) as the second-to-last page in the svl labus. with the third one (th irteenth week) immediatelv before the second. T he following is an illustration of a formative teacher assessment survev I recenth included in the svllabus for a high-interm ediate level ESL Oral Com m unication course I offer.
F o r m a t iv e F e e d b a c k (1 s t o f 3) t o th e In s t r u c t o r P le a s e c o m p le te an d p la c e in a s ta c k o n t h e f r o n t d e s k a t th e e n d o f o u r 8 th day o f class, W e d n e s d a y , S e p t e m b e r X X X . (A lte r n a t iv e ly , y o u a r e w e lc o m e to p la ce it in m y m a ilb o x in th e m ain o ffic e .)
Directions: P le a s e
d o n o t sign y o u r n a m e . W e a r e t h r e e
weeks
in to th e c o u rs e . T h is is
a
tim e f o r s o m e fo r m a tiv e fe e d b a c k fr o m y o u as a c o u r s e p a rtic ip a n t. Yo u a r e w e lc o m e to u se b o th sid es o f th is page. Thanks.
I
W h a t a r e s o m e fe a tu re s o f th e c o u r s e th a t y o u th in k a r e w o r k in g o u t p r e t t y w e ll (fe a tu re s y o u w o u ld like t o s e e c o n tin u e d f o r th e r e m a in d e r o f th e c o u r s e )?
2.
W h a t a r e s o m e p o s s ib le ch a n g e s y o u w o u ld like t o s e e in c o r p o r a t e d in to th e c o u r s e fr o m th is p o in t f o r w a r d ?
A n o th er option is to follow sim ilar p ro ced u res b u t to use a form at that involves less w riting by providing a list o f items to w hich students can resp o n d on an easilv accessible scale, such as: Yes, I agree.
I agree somewhat.
No, I do not agree.
Illustrations of sam ple items to include are: In general, the textbooks, m aterials, and assign m ents in this course: 1 ■ ■ ■ ■
are interesting an d useful are at the right level help m e to practice and im prove mv lan guage skills require the right am ount of hom ew ork
In general, the teach er of this course: ■ ■ ■ * * ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
presents w ell-organized lessons speaks in a war that is clear a n d ease to u n d erstan d is knowledgeable about the subjects we cover answers mv questions well grades assignm ents and tests fairlv m akes good use of class tim e retu rn s work (that I h a n d in) on tim e gives m e individual help w hen I n eed it (or when I ask for it) encourages me to do mv best relates well to students provides a p p ro p riate o p p o rtu n ities for m e to participate in class
A final survev item m ight ask: I f you were in a con versation with a friend, would you recommend taking a course from this teacher? II7tv or why not?
S T U D E N T F O C U S G R O U PS T he use o f stu d e n t focus groups is a simple т е л . vet one und eru tilized in o u r field. It is m ore inv olv ed than five-minute papers or stu d en t survev s and takes careful planning. Bevond the field o f language teaching, focus groups are becom ing increasinglv fam iliar in rnanv walks o f life, includ ing advertising and politics. In language teaching, student focus groups engage eith er all m em bers of a class or a subset o fle a rn e rs in a discussion of how a course is going. T h ough eith er the class room teacher or a colleague-consultant may serve as focus group discussion leader, I prefer asking a colleague to perform this role. Som e options are as follows. Make arrangem ents for a colleague vou trust, and with whom vou have a constructive working relationship, to serve as the focus group facilitator. I deliberately avoid working with a supervisor or program adm inistrator at such times since student focus groups work best when thev are not being used for form al evaluative p u r poses. I trv to tim e mv use o f the pro ced u re for a p eriod in the course w hen things seem to be going relativelv well (or at least norm ally). Invite vour colleague to visit the class for a lesson during which vou will n ot be present b ut for which stu dents have been p rep ared in advance. As agreed u p o n with the class, your colleague’s role is to lead the whole class in a discussion o f broad topics such as: ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
R e fle c t io n B r e a k # 3
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H a v e y o u e v e r had an o p p o r t u n it y t o r e c e iv e le a r n e r fe e d b a c k o n y o u r te a ch in g ? If so, w h a t did y o u le a rn fr o m th e e x p e r ie n c e ? If n o t, d o y o u th in k su ch s o u r c e s o f in fo rm a tio n m ig h t be u sefu l? W o u l d y o u e x p e c t th e
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How is the course going? W hat do vou like ab o u t the course (or the teacher)? W hat are vour least favorite things? D oes the course te x tb o o k — o r o th e r instructional m aterial— seem helpful? W hat are som e characteristics o f the teacher’s instructional style that work well? W hat are som e characteristics you find to be less helpful? Do assessm ent pro ced u res seem fair? W hat are som e of the wavs in which the course m ight be im proved?
q u a lity o f le a r n e r fe e d b a c k t o v a r y d e p e n d in g u p o n le a r n e r s ’ c u ltu r a l b a c k g ro u n d s ? If so, w h a t c o u ld yo u d o t o c o m p e n s a te f o r c u ltu ra l d iffe re n ce s ?
T he facilitator could distribute a h a n d o u t listing the above questions or he or she m ight use a copv of the teacher assessment survev from the preced ing section. Students can then pick and choose
their preferred topics for discussion. Prior to the dav of the locus group and at the start of the actual discussion, students need to be assured that their com m ents will be kept in confidence. The facilita to r’s role is to listen carefully and empatheticallv, keep the discussion on track, and take notes (when possible) on what students have to say. W hen the class is finished, the facilitator com poses a written rep o rt ( not to be used for for m al evaluation purposes) that provides a synopsis for the teacher o f the students' suggestions for the course. No nam es should appear in the report; it needs to be phrased to protect students’ identities. O nce it is com pleted, the visiting col league gives the classroom teacher a copv and m akes arrangem ents to discuss what took place. A ven- effective situation for those interested in student focus groups is to build toward a recip rocal p eer arran g em en t in which two teachers may serve as the discussion facilitator for each o th e r’s classes. Ideally, a m utually supportive col laboration evolves betw een teachers that could develop over tim e. O n e m odification to the focus groups is to avoid involving the whole class, b u t to discuss the focus g roup process with th em an d ask for onlv a few m em bers o f the class (e.g., 20-25 percen t) to vo lu n teer to participate. In this o p tion, students choose w h eth er to par ticipate. Manx language teachers find the kind of inform ation revealed as a result of stu d en t focus groups to be trem endously helpful for fine-tuning th eir p lan n in g decisions an d increas ing awareness o f th eir strengths as well as areas thex could im prove.
on a regular basis a n d it is im p o rta n t to start xvriting soon after the en d of a class (for exam ple, within 30-60 m inutes). If too m uch time elapses, o u r m em ories of classroom exents quickly fade. T he activity is sim ilar to keeping a personal jo u r nal or diarx, xvith the difference that retrospective field notes focus on course-related events. To pro duce them , the teacher writes about whatexer is fresh in his o r h er inemoiv. G eneral guidelines are to try to keep track of classroom issues that seem relex’ant to the lesson recentlx- com pleted and to treat field notes as an eth n o g rap h er treats raw data. Rellectixe teachers using this procedure sax’e their notes oxer time, rexiexv them on a regular basis, and look for what their notes may reveal about recurring patterns. After you have rexx’orked xotir notes bx deleting or m odifying anything th at m ight be personally uncom fortable, a colleague m ight be inxited to read them an d discuss what ever concerns хеш about a course. R etrospecti\7e field notes can becom e a xaluable source of inform ation ab o u t o ne's un d erstan d in g s a n d a richlv tex tu red reco rd o f o ne's explanations o f teach in g oxer tim e. Som e general waxs to fram e fieldnotes are to respond to questions about your self as a teacher, the teaching process, students in the class, the learning process, or anything tied to the dynamics of the lesson itself. A wav to get started xvith retrospective field notes, a n d a use ful task to return to whenexer xou haxe too little to write about, is to spend time generating a list of questions xou m ight be able to use as xvriting prom pts in the future. |
R E T R O S P E C T IV E FIELD N O TES
R e fle c tio n B r e a k # 4 C o lla b o r a t e w it h s o m e o n e e ls e (a pre- o r in - s e rvic e te a c h e r ) t o p r o d u c e a list o f five to e ig h t q u e s tio n s
A less intrusive wav to gather inform ation on teaching is to d o cu m en t vour understandings and explanations o f w hat you are doing in the course th ro u g h retrospective field notes. T he word retro spective signals that such field notes are n o t gener ated d u ring lessons b u t only after a lesson has finished. Since acts of teaching are com plex and keep teachers incredibly busy, a te a c h e r’s field notes ideally should be g enerated im m ediately following the lesson. T he idea is to find a private place to write after the lesson is oxer. It takes discipline to com pose retrospectixe field notes
y o u c o u ld u se as p ro m p ts f o r c o m p o s in g r e t r o s p e c tiv e field ta rg e ts
n o te s . Plan th e m
d iffe re n t
so
d im e n s io n s
ea ch
w r itin g p r o m p t
o f c la s s r o o m
te a c h in g
and learning.
FO RM ATIVE FE E D B A C K FROM PEERS T h e re are m any ways in w hich a tea c h e r max’ col laborate with o thers to gain a d e e p er u n d e r standing a n d awareness o f the teaching-learning
process. I have previously m entioned that col leagues ntav be consulted w hen exam ining m ate rials such as five-minute papers, retrospective field notes, or survey responses. A classic wav of gaining access to formative feedback is to invite a p e e r— that is, an o th er language teacher whose opinion you respect— to visit one or m ore of vour classes. For purposes of reflective teaching, such visits should be planned to be different from the kinds of observations carried out bv supervisors (see M urphy 1992). In setting up a p eer's non-supervisorv visit to the classroom , it is im p o rta n t to discuss and clarifv the visitor's purpose in advance. Am potential visitor will have p reconceptions, atti tudes, an d beliefs about what constitutes legiti m ate purposes for visiting a n o th e r teacher's class. Som e of these attitudes and belief s mav be com patible with vour own. and others mav not be. .Along with m am o th e r educators. Fanselow (1988) points out that the prim ary purpose for observing a n o th e r person teach is to gath er descriptive inform ation on what takes place d u r ing the lesson. This purpose is crucially im p o r tant. A fterward, anv inform ation g ath ered may be e x a m in ed , analyzed, discussed, or even ignored, but if som e sort o f record of what took place is never p ro d u ced , m eaningful discussions of teaching are less likelv. A starting p o in t to p re pare for a classroom visit from a p e e r is for both parties to be aware o f the im p o rtan ce o f slaving attentive, in terested in the lesson, a n d openm inded. T h o u g h som e visitors may be able to g ath er useful inform ation bv m erely observing what takes place, visitor's recollections are m ore reliable an d ten d to be m ore helpful as starting points for discussion once the lesson is over if the visitor has written things down. W hen clari fying the purpose for a p e e r visit, 1 em phasize mv interest in engaging in discussions of teach ing that are tied to descriptive in form ation the visitor is able to g ath er d u rin g the lesson. Currently I am involved in a project that includes interv iewing six pairs o f classroom teach ers who are in the process of developing relation ships as peer-visitors to each other's classrooms. Mv purpose is to identify’ procedures that seem to be working for these teachers. .All o f them have been involved in reciprocal peer-observation of
teaching activities on m ultiple occasions. T he fol lowing is a synthesis of some of the recurring them es the teachers have m entioned. T he ideas and suggestions presented are n o t intended as prescriptions for o th er teachers to follow. For one thing, the n um ber o f teachers 1 am working with is small and w hat we are learning about peer visits to classrooms cannot necessarily be generalized to o th er settings. However, mv work with these and o th er teachers convinces me that it is possible to develop reciprocally en ric h in g relationships between teacher-colleagues for such purposes. A wav to begin mav be to review the advice offered below and to use it as a prom pt for discussing and clarifying whatever vour own preferences m ight be as either a ''visiting" or "visited” teacher. I begin with com m ents from the perspective of a teacher who is being visited by one o f his or h er peers. This section is followed bv com m ents from the perspective of a "visiting" teacher.
The “ Visited” Teacher *
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T he [peer] teacher com ing to visit my class and I alwavs set time aside to discuss the p u r pose for the classroom visit ahead of time. A couple of classes p rio r to the clav of the actual visit, 1 explain to students that som e one will be com ing to observe the class. If I trv to explain it to the class once the visitor is in the room , it’s too late. W henever I spring things like this on students w ithout p rep ar ing them , thev act differently and the visitor ends up not reallv seeing a norm al class. W hen I ask a friend to visit mv class, I already hav e a couple of things in m ind I would like some feedback on. To m ake m ore efficient use of our time. I prepare a list in advance of w hat’s been puzzling me and then we discuss each of the items together. D uring the initial conversation, I often find that the visitor's com m ents and questions help clarify what some of mv concerns about the course m ight be. Together we rearrange the list o f items in what we eventually settle upon as their ord er of priority to me. D uring this initial conversation, we also arrange a tim e to m eet in o rd er to discuss the lesson afterw ard. I prefer to schedule
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ou r post-visit conversation for a couple of days after live actual class. Even though the visitor is a colleague whose opinions and insights I respect, we both find that we n eed tim e to be able to figure out what we want to discuss. Experiences as b oth a “visiting” and “visited” teacher have taught me that visitors have m ore useful things to say if thev have a couple of days to think over what took place d u rin g the lesson. T h o u g h a few b rie f exchanges sometim es are inevitable prior to the time we have arranged in advance, I find scheduled conversations to be m ore helpful. W hen we get together, it is a time when both o f us are better p rep ared to focus on what we have learned from the experience. I usually assum e, o r som etim es we will even agree in advance, that mv colleague's co n versation o p e n e r will be som ething verv general that is in te n d e d to get m e talking a b o u t w hat I rem e m b e r from the class. A useful wav for o u r discussion to begin is if my colleague savs som ething like, "Well, w hat do you rem e m b e r from the lesson?" O r “How do vou think it went?" In antici pation, I ttse the tim e betw een the lesson visited a n d the dav of o u r follow-up conver sation to focus on w hat I rem em ber. I also review the list of topics for discussion we settled u p o n in advance a n d give careful consideration to what I think the lesson m ight have revealed about them . T h o u g h I trv to be fo rthcom ing in response to mv colleague's attem pts to get m e talk ing about the lesson, 1 am m ore in terested in looking for o p p o rtu n ities to learn about w hat the visitor noticed. I try to be p atien t an d listen carefullv w henever mv collabora tor has som ething to say.
The “ Visiting” Teacher ■
W hen we talk in anticipation of the class room visit, I trv to figure o u t just w hat it is my colleague would like m e to look for. It is easier to sort things out if he o r she giv es m e som e ideas for things to look for. Otherw ise, I m ight end up resp o n d in g to som ething of little practical value to the teacher.
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I ask things such as w here in the room I should trv to sit, w h ether or not the teacher will be com fortable if 1 take notes, how long I should stav, what I should do if smallg ro u p activ ities are used, an d how I should resp o n d if learners ask m e direct questions. I p refe r it if students are aware of why I am th ere b u t it's b e tte r if the teach er has m ade mv purp o se clear to students p rio r to the day of mv being in the classroom . If mv colleague introduces me at the begin ning o f the class it's OK, though I am m ore com fortable in mv role as the visitor if the time spent introducing me is short and kept low-kev. T he m ore attention called to me, the less I am able to watch and observe what would normallv be taking place during the lesson. Icleallv, the teacher will have prepared students ah ead of tim e so that a timeconsum ing explanation for whv I am there is unnecessarv. I am verv careful to arrive a few m inutes before the class begins. Icleallv, I like to arrive well before verv nranv o f the stu dents. If possible I find a seat at the back of the room , off to one side, an d wait for evervone else to arrive. T hough o th er visitors mav find them useful. I never bring electronic recording devices or observation schedules with me. Since I am going to be present in the classroom, I m ake an effort to limit the m aterials I bring to the kinds of things learners norm allv work with during language lessons (such as a pen and paper). I stav alert, observe carefullv, an d try to take written notes as unobtrusively as I can. Since one o f mv purposes is to call as little a tte n tio n to mvself as possible, I find wavs to a p p e ar to be busv as students are e n te r ing the room . Mv p refe rre d strategy is to have a book I reallv am in terested in read ing op en in front of m e. As students arrive to class, what thev see if thev glance in mv direction is som eone read in g a book. I keep the book open and co n tin u e reading (som etim es I am just p re te n d in g to read) up until the start o f the class. Soon after the lesson begins, I quietly close the book and
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p u t it aside. At this p o in t I find it easier to watch, listen, an d g a th e r inform ation m ore directly. I find it essential to take notes on what I see h a p p e n in g d u rin g the lesson. My notes mav seem messv b u t I am trying to write down dispassionate, non-judgm ental descriptions of classroom events. If I notice that I am writing down an opinion or suggestion, I place brackets a ro u n d it to rem ind m e that such com m ents are different from mv pri m ary purpose. Eventually, mv opinions and suggestions mav end up being helpful as part of o u r subsequent discussions but I need a way to keep these separate and clearlv identi fied for purposes of later review. T h o u g h taking notes is im p o rtan t, com pli cations som etim es arise. If I notice that som e students are paving an in o rd in ate d eg ree of a tten tio n to what I am doing. I suspend taking notes an d sim ple watch and listen. I can alwavs resum e it later in the les son. If for som e reason notetak in g is im pos sible, once the class is over I find a quiet place to begin writing down mv m em ories of the lesson as well as I can. Som etim es students address m e directiv. W hen thev do, I resp o n d to what thev sav while trying to be as b rie f as possible. Occasionally, the teacher will ask me to participate in some sort of an activity with students. I follow the teacher's cue and becom e p art o f the activity while keeping mv eve on the process o f what is happening. A few hours after the lesson is oxer, o r the next clax; I spend ab o u t an h o u r reviewing mv notes, elaborating xvlrat they include, an d relating what seem to be im p o rtan t pieces of inform ation to the them es the 'visited" tea c h e r an d I agreed u p o n as possible topics for discussion. I also create a list of som e additional ideas a n d points I w ould like to discuss with the teacher. W hen we h a te a chance to discuss the lesson, I locus on what took place, what the teacher and students were doing, things I m ight have learned, and any personal beliefs a b o u t th e teach in g -learn in g process I noticed being reinforced, fu rth er extended,
o r challenged. I prioritize th e item s for dis cussion we agreed u p o n in adxance. 1 also look for o p p o rtu n ities to relate the class I visited to my own experiences in teaching. In this p art of the discussion I often find myself saxing things stich as, “W hen you were doing X, Y, o r Z as p a rt of the lesson, it rem in d ed m e o f things th a t I do, to o .” C om m ents th at rexeal connections to my own teaching are im p o rta n t since they help tis build collaboratixe discussions relex’an t to b o th of o u r experiences. R e fle c tio n B r e a k # 5 D e sig n a list o f su g g e stio n s and g u id e lin e s y o u w o u ld like t o f o llo w
in o r d e r to c o lla b o r a t e w it h
a n o th e r
language t e a c h e r in w a y s sim ila r to th o s e d isc u sse d in th is s e c tio n . In c lu d e g u id e lin e s f o r b o th a “ v is ite d ” and a "v is itin g ” te a c h e r. A r e t h e r e an y to p ic s m e n tio n e d a b o v e th a t w o u ld
not be
o f p a r tic u la r c o n c e r n t o y o u ?
A r e t h e r e an y to p ic s le ft u n m e n tio n e d th a t y o u w o u ld like t o se e given m o r e a tte n tio n ?
T W O U N D E R LY IN G C O N C E R N S Now that we haxe exam ined some topics and tools, it is im portant to acknowledge two funda m ental challenges facing those in terested in processes o f reflective teaching: the search for m ultiple perspectixes. and the question of learn er inxolvement.
The Search for Multiple Perspectives To becom e m ore inxolved in processes of reflec tive teaching, a language teacher needs to ask, How can I begin to see an d exam ine mv class room efforts so that others m ight be able to see and exam ine them ? Access to m ultiple perspec tixes m akes it m ore like lx that we will attain d e e p e r u n d e rsta n d in g o f o u r work. T he search for m ultiple perspectives relates to two essential stages o f reflective teaching: g a th e rin g inform a tion (the data collection stage) a n d m aking sense of w hat we find (the in te rp re ta tio n stage). In the first stage, reflectixe teachers find waxs of g a th erin g inform ation on teaching and lea rn in g that include outsider perspectixes. As a
result of o u r im m ersion w ithin the process of language teaching, we are often too close to rec ognize o u r strengths a n d weaknesses. Bv way of illustration, most o f us are som ew hat surprised the first tim e we view a video reco rd in g o f o u r teaching. In response to a video recording, we m ight notice ourselves th inking such things as: “O h, mv voice sounds terrible! T h a t’s n o t what I sou n d like." "Is th at w hat I really look like?” “Why am I walking aro u n d so m uch (or so little)?” “No w onder students are having trouble following my directions; I really wasn’t very clear.” A video recording of teaching-in-action brings to the fore evidence of how others ntav view us. Recordings som etim es surprise us because thev are serving as an estrangement device. An estrangem ent device is anv tool we m ight use to gain an o u tsider’s per spective on what we mav be doing in the class room . A nthropologists refer to such a vantage p o in t as an etic perspective (an o u tsider’s view). To com plem ent the inclusion o f etic p er spectives within the reflective teaching process, it is useful to gather inform ation from course par ticipants as well. Because learners are participants in the process, their vantage points represent emic perspectives. Just as an anthropologist m ight search for wavs to learn about the perceptions and understandings of the m em bers of an o th er culture, reflective teachers d e p e n d u p o n learn ers’ perceptions and understandings. Freem an (1998) explains the im portance of the search for m ultiple perspectives succinctly: etic perspectives provide us with inform ation on "what outsiders see” while emic perspectives provide inform ation ------------------------------------------------------
on “what insiders know" (p. 70). Figure 1 sum m a rizes etic versus emic distinctions that we can apply to either the collection or exam ination of classroom inform ation. T he need for m ultiple perspectives chal lenges reflective teachers to find wavs of gathering inform ation on teaching-learning processes not only through their own perceptions and under standings, but also through those of learners who are participating in the course, and through col leagues’ perceptions.
The Question of Learner Involvement In co n n ectio n with emic perspectives, a second set of questions for reflective teachers to ask is. Do I want to involve learners in mv efforts as a reflective teacher, and if so, to what degree? T h ere are m any wavs to collect inform ation about what goes on within courses we teach. A distinction we can m ake is betw een wavs th at are "less intrusive” as o pposed to those th at are rela tively "m ore intrusive" with respect to their potential im pacts on learners' classroom experi ences. Less intrusive m eans of gath erin g infor m ation d e p e n d upon little o r no involvem ent from learners. Teachers in terested in less in tru sive m eans do th eir best to avoid direct im pact on inside-the-classroom events. For instance, a teach er m ight gath er inform ation ab o u t teach ing on a clailv basis b ut onlv after the com pletion o f individual lessons. To do so, som e teacherkeep private teaching journals o f which learnerrem ain unaw are. O th e r noil-intrusive options
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ►
emic
etic outsider’s view
insider’s view
participant understandings
consultant understandings
what outsiders see
what insiders know
teacher-peers’ and colleagues’ perceptions
classroom teacher’s and learners’ perceptions
F ig u re I. C o n t in u u m o f V a n ta g e P o in ts f o r E it h e r th e C o lle c t io n o r In t e r p r e t a tio n o f In fo rm a tio n o n T e a ch in g - L e a rn in g Pro cesses
are, after a lesson has en d ed , to com pose field notes of what h a p p e n e d inside the classroom only, o r to look back on co m p leted lessons th ro u g h o th e r retrospective p ro ced u res such as “lesson reporting." (A lesson re p o rt is sim ilar to a lesson plan but with the following twist: lesson reports are g e n e ra te d following, n o t preceding, a lesson. By com posing, saving, an d reviewing them over tim e, a teacher is able to pro d u ce a substantive record o f teaching that can be shared and discussed with others. ) T hrough adoption of such nonintrusive procedures it is possible for teachers to gain considerable inform ation about the teaching process without involving learners. Even with less intrusive procedures, reflec tive teachers are able to incorporate m ultiple perspectives into their efforts bv inciting col leagues whose opinions thev respect to review an d discuss whatever inform ation the teacher is able to gath er from the classroom . Two o r m ore teachers m ight collaborate to review a video or audio reco rd in g of teaching, transcripts o f lesson segm ents, jo u rn al entries, samples of student work, or students' responses to a survev ques tionnaire on how the course is going. Some of these options feature learn er participation to som e degree. A teacher m ight, for exam ple, arrange for a lesson to be videotaped for later review. If a video cam era is in the room , the teacher has already taken a step in the direction of invoicing learners. T he presence o f am record ing decice in a classroom inevitable has some im pact on lesson events. O f course, as a classroom teacher, vou can lessen such impacts by taking steps ahead o f time to familiarize students with w hatever m ight be the pro ced u re you w ould like to follow. You can: (1) discuss what you are plan ning to do, (2) ask for learners' perm issions, (3) take time at an earlier point in the course to in tro duce whatever the pro ced u re or recording device m ight be, a n d /o r (4) include it as a part of nor mal classroom routine. In the exam ple of video cam eras, som e suggestions are to work with as small a cam era as possible, position it in the back o f the ro o m — o r at least out of students' direct lines of vision— a n d involve one o r m ore m em
bers o f the class in its operation. T h ere are m any approaches to second language instruction that already feature recording devices as a standard p art o f the teaching routine. In such classrooms, learners may perceive a tea c h e r’s use o f recording equ ip m en t as perfectly norm al a n d p a rt o f what they have already com e to anticipate from the course. T he p oint is to be aware o f the potential im pacts o f such p ro c e d u re s a n d to m ake inform ed decisions on what you, your colleagues, a n d your stu d en ts m ig h t co n sid er to be (tin)acceptable levels of learn er involvem ent in reflective teaching procedures. Table 2 provides a synopsis of several issues discussed in this section bv featuring a m atrix of two intersecting continua for gathering inform a tion on teaching. T h ough far from a com prehensive list of options and possibilities explored by reflective teachers, Table 2 is in ten d ed to provide a svnopsis of this chapter: procedures in quadrant A com bine outsiders' perspectives with relatively m ore intrusive m eans o f gathering inform ation on teaching. Quadrant D is ju st the opposite, since these pro ced u res tap into insiders’ perspectives th ro u g h som ew hat less intrusive m eans. Quadrant В is w eighted tow ard outsider perspec tives th ro u g h less intrusive m eans. W ith the p ro cedures in quadrant C, the te a c h e r involves course participants in sharing w hat they think about the course in ways th at may im pact stu d en ts' learn in g experiences to varying degrees. Anvone in terested in learn in g m ore ab o u t the processes a n d pro ced u res o f reflective teaching mav refer to Table 2 as a re m in d e r o f its possi bilities. Teachers m ight set as a professional developm ent goal exploring o n e or m ore o f the options listed in each of its fo u r quadrants. As we co n tin u e to learn m ore ab o u t these a n d o th e r pathwavs to reflective teaching, as well as the particu lar topics we w ould like to explore w ithin the language courses we teach, this c h a p te r can rem in d us o f the rew ards o f self-discoverv, the im p o rtan ce of m ultiple perspectives, a n d the potentiallv facilitating im pacts o f le a rn e rs’ an d colleagues' co n tributions to o u r efforts.2
Table 2. Two-way Matrix for Gathering Information
E j I
More Intrusive
L e ss In tru s iv e
(A)
(B)
* videotaping (video + audio) * video- (or audio-) taping for the first time * large, bulky video camera at the front of
* a u d io ta p in g (o n ly )
the room * learners participate in analyzing video recordings of lessons during class time * trained observer inside the classroom
* le a rn e rs p a r tic ip a t e in a n a lyzin g v id e o re c o rd in g s
* in-class observer is someone unknown to learners * in-class observer takes notes or completes an observation schedule live in the classroom * a supervisor gathers information on teaching for formal assessment-of-teaching purposes
* v id e o - ( o r au d io - ) ta p in g f o r th e fifth tim e * c a m e r a is sm all o r o u t o f sigh t
o f le sso n s o n ly a f te r a c o u r s e has e n d e d * tra in e d o b s e r v e r w a tc h e s v id e o re c o rd in g o f lesson * in-class o b s e r v e r is s o m e o n e le a r n e r s k n o w an d a re c o m f o r t a b le w ith * in-class o b s e r v e r w a t c h e s an d listen s, tr ie s t o b le n d in to th e b a c k g ro u n d , c o m p o s e s field n o te s o n ly a f t e r th e le s so n has e n d e d * t e a c h e r g a th e rs in fo rm a tio n o n te a c h in g th ro u g h self-initiated c o lla b o ra tio n s w it h p eers/co lle a g u e s
(D)
(C)
E M | q
* students compose journals in which they discuss their experiences as learners in the course and how they perceive the course * teacher conducts student focus groups * frequent student interviews * whole class, inside-the-classroom discussions of learners’ perceptions and preferences while the course is in process * student focus group with whole class participating * teacher serves as focus group facilitator * students complete several instructor assessment forms at different points in the course (formative) * five-minute papers, frequent and on a regular basis * stimulated recall while the course is in process * teacher and learners collaborate to gather information on the teaching-learning process together
* t e a c h e r k e e p s a d ia r y o r p e rs o n a l jo u rn a l * t e a c h e r en gag es in le s so n re p o r tin g * a th ird p a r ty c o n d u c ts s tu d e n t fo c u s g ro u p s in w h ic h le a r n e r s ’ c o m m e n ts a re k e p t a n o n y m o u s * in fre q u e n t s t u d e n t in t e r v ie w s * ou tsid e-o f-class d isc u ssio n s w it h in d ivid u al le a rn e rs o f t h e ir p e r c e p t io n s an d p re f e re n c e s w h ile t h e c o u r s e is in p ro c e s s * s t u d e n t fo c u s g ro u p w it h o n ly s o m e class m e m b e rs p a rtic ip a tin g * te a c h e r- c o lle a g u e s e r v e s as fo c u s g ro u p fa c ilita to r * s tu d e n ts c o m p le t e a single e n d - o f- te rm in s t r u c t o r a s s e s s m e n t fo r m (s u m m a tiv e ) * tr a n s c r ip ts g e n e ra te d f o r d is c o u rs e an alysis o f le s so n e v e n ts * s tim u la te d re ca ll o n ly a f te r th e c o u r s e is o v e r * te a c h e r g a th e rs in fo rm a tio n o n te a ch in g w h ile w o rk in g a lo n e [m a y c o lla b o ra te w it h c o lle a g u e (s )]
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1. Im agine y o u h a te reached the m id p o in t o f a course in which t on have been consci entious in Irving to be an effective teacher. N evertheless, von notice th at m anv of the students seem disinterested in the course. How could y o u find o u t w hat som e o f the problem s m ight be?
2. You are te a c h in g an in term ed iate-lev el course focused on e n h a n cin g oral com m u nication abilities in an E nglish-dom inant part o f the world. T he twen tv-five studentin th e course com e from A fghanistan. China. Colom bia, Ivors Coast, Ja p an , Korea. M exico, Russia, and Turkey. C om pared to o th e r m em bers o f the class, s ou notice that a m ajoritv o f the Asian students seem s e n
reluctant to participate in class. W hat could vou do to explore whv this is so? How could y o u get them to be m ore involved? 3. You are teaching several sections of an ESI. course housed within a continuing education program located in a m ajor cite in an Englishdom inant part of the world. T he entrv-level course vou offer is designed for recent im m i grants. Over the past several Years vou have com e to realize that students mainlv use their first languages outside the classroom. A com plication is that the cite encom passes manv eth n ic n e ig h b o rh o o d s th at provide ease access to a significant n u m b er o f com m unitv services and businesses in the languages rep resented by the m em bers of the class. Since students have dem onstrated their reluctance, what can y o u do to encourage students to applv what thev tire stitching in the course to their life experiences outside the classroom? 4. You have been h ired bv a huge a n d wellorganized language program which places significant em phasis on the role and im p o r tance o f form al evaluations o f teaching. W hile interview ing for th e position, the search com m ittee m ade clear that the p li m a n - p u rp o se fo r supervisory classroom observation is qualitv control with respect to teaching. All teachers in the program are observed two to th ree times p e r term bv a train ed supervisor who is one of several “m aster teachers" on the facultv. You fortunatelv feel confident as a classroom teacher an d vour b ack ground is verv com patible with the p rogram 's instructional focus. However, in addition to the kind of feedback super visors mav be able to provide, you are in te r ested in learn in g m ore ab o u t vour teaching th ro u g h self-initiated m eans. Discuss with a p a rtn e r som e o th e r things you m ight do to learn m ore about vour teaching from both "otic” an d "cmic" perspectives. 5. You are teaching EFI. in a secondare school setting in a non-English-dom inant p art of the world (vou mav substitute some o th er ELT setting d e p e n d in g u p o n w hatever learner population and settings are most fam iliar to vou). You are verv excited about a series of new teaching procedures vou are testing out
in the classroom. How can vou do cu m en t that constructive changes are taking place in the course as vou are offering it? W ho could vou involve and what specificallv w ould you want them to do?
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1. Make arrangem ents to consult two o r m ore practicing language teachers. Ask if thev have ever h eard o f traditions such as reflective or exploratorv teaching. (Be aware that some teachers use different term s and phrases for similar concepts.) Try to discover if thev- have ever been involved in such efforts. If thev have, gather as m uch inform ation as you can on how their efforts have m ade a difference in their teaching. If thev have not, try to find out what m ight be some o f the o th er things thev do to grow and develop as language teachers. 2. Make arrangem ents to m eet with a classroom teacher im m ediately following (or soon after) a lesson he or she has just taught. Try to arrange a time when the two o f you may work u n in te rru p ted for at least 30 m inutes. O nce together, interview the teacher on what the lesson was like. Begin by asking open-ended prom pts such as, W hat were you p lan n in g to teach? How did things tu rn out? Was th ere anvthing unexpected that happened? W ere there anv complications? an d so forth. As long as the teacher vou observed consents in adv ance, consider tape-recording the interac tion for later review. If vou are serving as a classroom teacher, follow similar procedures while collaborating with som eone else who is willing to interview vou. 3. Im agine vou are interested in producing a video recording o f som eone else’s class in a language program with which vou are familiar. How would vou secure the teacher's perm is sion? How would vou approach him or her? W hat w ould you say? How w ould vou p u t the tea c h e r at ease? For this task you do n o t have to follow th ro u g h with actually p ro d u cin g such a recording. Your charge is to g en erate guidelines for doing so if you ever have an
o p p o rtu n ity in the future. W hat are likely to be som e of the classroom te a c h e r’s a n d le a rn e rs’ concerns? How w ould vou address them ? How w ould you suggest th at learners be prep ared ? W hat are som e of the steps you w ould follow on the day of the recording? W hat w ould you do with the reco rd in g once it was com pleted? 4. For this actiyity you n eed to place yourself in the position of a language learner. If you had a language teacher who was interested in reflectiye teaching, how would vou want the teacher to inyolye you in such efforts?. After referring back to Table 2, m ake a list of the kinds o f things you would be willing to do. Also, think of a specific language class you eith er are teaching now or some o th er course in which you were once a language learner. From the perspective o f a learn er in that course, what would be some of the topics vou think would be worthy ones for the teacher to explore? As a learn er in the class, what contri butions would vou be willing to make?
FU R T H ER R EA D IN G The following are arranged in a recommended order for reading. The first two focus specifically on the tra dition of reflective teaching. Each of the remaining three texts provides invaluable support for reflective teaching but also extends bevond this tradition by encouraging classroom language teachers to become explorers and researchers in their own classrooms. Richards, J. C., and C. Lockhart. 1994. Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classrooms. New York: Cambridge University Press. Certainly the most accessible, and probably the best, introduction to reflective teaching in the field of ELT. Gebhard, }., and R. Oprandy. 1999. Language Teaching Awareness: .4 Guide to Exploring Beliefs and Practices. New York: Cambridge University Press. An excellent resource for those interested in
learning more about reflective teaching. The co-authors locus on building awareness of teaching through sell-initiated means and help teachers to become more aware of their own teaching beliefs, attitudes, and practices. Nunan, E). 1989b. L'nderstanding Language Classrooms: A Guide for Teacher-initialed Action. Englewood Cliffs, \ | : Prentice Hall. One of the earliest introductions to exploratory teaching, action research, and what we now call reflective teaching in the field of EIT. Provides an impressive survey of topics and tools that continues to be of interest to reflective teachers. Also serves as an accessible introduction to lan guage classroom research for those who do not have specialist training in research methods. Allwright. D.. and K. Bailee 1991. Focus on the Language Classroom: An Introduction to Classroom Research for Language Teachers. New York: Cambridge University Press. The authors define the aims and principles of classroom research and are especially inform ative in their reviews of data collection and analysis procedures, how to gel started, what to investigate, quantitative versus qualitative issues, and research findings. The two chapters devoted to affective considerations (titled "receptivity’') are especially valuable. Freeman. D. 1998. Doing Teacher Research: From Inquin to L'nderstanding. New York: Heinle & Heinle. Similar to the purpose and scope of Nunan (1989b) and Allwright and Bailev (1991), this more recent book encompasses but also pushes bevond contemporary developments in reflec tive teaching bv focusing on the intersection of teaching and research in our field.
ENDNO TES 1 The items presented here are adapted from an unpublished "Student Formative Assessment ot Instructor" form developed in Georgia State University's Intensive English program bv Sharon Cavusgil and Alan Forsvth in 1999. - I would like to acknowledge the invaluable contri butions of Patricia Byrd and Barbara Hegyesi as this chapter's preliminary readers. Anv remaining shortcomings are mv own.
Second Language Assessment1 ANDREW
D. C O H E N
In '“Second i_anguage Assessment." Cohen considers key issues in the construction of assessment instruments. Beginning with a theoretical framework for types of instruments and types of items, he gives guidelines for reviewing or constructing tests, as well as giving insights into the types of items possible. Approaches to testing reading comprehension are provided, with sample approaches to other skills included in an appendix.
IN T R O D U C T IO N Assessment is perhaps one of the least understood areas of language teaching and learning. Students and teachers alike cringe when they hear the word “testing.” Students see tests as a threat to their com petence, because thev are afraid that thee will not perform well. Teachers often do not like to construct tests, and are not altogether satisfied with the results when thev do. Thev are also suspi cious of the standardized, professionally designed tests because thev are not always sure what these tests are actually timing to m easure. In a survey o f EFL teachers a n d students in Israeli public schools, Shoham v (198b) fo u n d a variety o f misuses of tests, of which the following are just a sam pling: ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
tests were used as p unishm ent— e.g., because no one did the homework. tests were adm in istered instead o f tea c h e rs’ giving instruction. the tests were the onlv m easure for grading. tests did not reflect w hat was taught. the tests were retu rn ed with a lack of correc tions or explanations. the tests reflected only one testing m ethod. there was a lack of teacher confidence in their own tests. students were n ot adequately train ed to take the tests. th ere was a substantial clelav in retu rn in g the tests.
.Although the survey was co nducted some years ago and in an EFL, ra th e r than an ESL con text, m am o f the points ring true for cu rren t L2 classrooms all over the world. Given the above list, it is no w onder that both students and teachers are suspicious o f tests. Fortunately, in recent years there has been a grotring interest in im proving the situation. For exam ple, two recently published volumes are geared toward dem onstrating how language assessment can be aligned m ore closely with authentic, real-world tasks; one is devoted to new ways of classroom assessment with testim oni als from scores of practicing teachers (Brown 1998) and another focuses exclusively on language perform ance assessments (Norris e ta l. 1998). A m ore constructive view o f language test ing exists w hen (a) testing is seen as an o p p o r tunity for in te ra c tio n b etw een te a c h e r and student, (b) students are judged on the basis of the know ledge they have, (c) th e tests are in te n d e d to help students im prove th eir skills, (cl) the criteria for success on the test are clear to students, (e) students receive a grade for th eir p erfo rm an ce on a set o f tests rep re sen tin g dif fere n t testing m ethods (not ju st o n e ), (f) the test takers are train ed in how to take tests— especially those involving unfam iliar form ats, (g) the tests are re tu rn e d prom ptly, an d (h) the results are discussed (Shoham v 1985). In a recen t volum e on the pow er o f tests, Shoham v (2000) proposes critical agendas for dem ocratiz ing an d lim iting the pow er of tests and protecting the rights of test takers.
This c h a p te r will consider som e kev issues in the c o n stru c tio n o f language assessm ent instrum ents. It is in te n d e d to b e tte r equip the E S I./ EFL teach er b o th to u n d e rsta n d an d scru tinize tests p re p a re d by others an d to design th eir own m eans o f assessm ent such th at they a n d th eir students will be satisfied. B eginning with a theoretical fram ew ork for types o f lan guage assessm ent in stru m e n ts a n d types o f item s, this c h a p te r should help teachers d e te r m ine ju st what kind o f test they are constructing o r reyiewing, as well as give them insights into the types of item s th at are inyolyed. W hat follows n ex t is a discussion of approaches to testing read in g co m p reh en sio n , as illustratiye o f the fac tors to be considered in assessing ant o f the lan guage skills. A discussion o f ap p ro ach es to testing the o th e r skills — listening, speaking, and w riting— is given in the ap p en d ix to this chap ter. T h e c h a p te r concludes with a discussion of test construction issues an d test-taking strategies.
T H E O R E T IC A L FO U N D A T IO N S Types o f Language Assessment Instruments In ord er to properly construct an assessment instrum ent, it is helpful to h a te some explicit notion o f what is being m easured and how it m ight be labeled. An elaborate way to describe language assessment instrum ents is according to their prim ary function— that is, for adm inistra tive, instructional, or research purposes (Jacobs et al. 1981). In fact, the same test could conceivably be used for twelve different purposes: five adm in istrative purposes (assessment, placem ent, exem p tion, certification, prom otion), lour instructional purposes (diagnosis, evidence of progress, feed back to the respondent, evaluation of teaching or curriculum ), and three research purposes (evalu ation, experim entation, knowledge about lan guage learning and language use). T he average test is not in tended to be used for m ore than sev eral purposes, and the m ajor split is often between proficiency tests in tended for administrative pu r poses and achievement tests for assessm ent of instructional outcom es.
A distinction in testing is m ade betw een norm-referenced an d criterion-referenced assessment as well. A test can be used, for exam ple, to com pare a resp o n d e n t with o th e r respondents, w h ether locally (e.g., in a class), regionally, o r nationally. Classroom , regional, or national n o rm s2 m at' be established to in te rp re t just how one stu d en t com pares with another. A test can also be used to see w h e th e r a re s p o n d e n t has m et certain instructional objectives o r criteria, h en ce the term “criterion-referenced" assessment. T he sem inal efforts bv Canale a n d Swain (1980), an d Canale (1983b) to operationalize H em es' (1972) communicative competence has p ro vided a n o th e r set o f criteria for describing tests. Tests are seen as tap p in g one o r m ore o f the four co m p o n en ts m aking up the construct o f com m unicative co m p eten ce — namelv, gram m atical, discourse, sociolinguistic, and strategic com pe ten c e . Grammatical competence encom passes "knowledge o f lexical items a n d of rules o f m o r phology, syntax, sentence-gram m ar sem antics, an d phonology" (Canale an d Swain 1980, p. 29). Discourse competence is the ability to c o n n e ct sen tences in stretches of discourse an d to form a m eaningful whole out of a series of utterances. Sociolinguistic competence involves know ledge of the sociocultural rules of lan g u ag e.3 Strategii competence refers to "the verbal an d nonverbal com m unication strategies that mav be called into action to com pensate for breakdow ns in com m unication due to p erfo rm an ce variables or chie to insufficient co m p e ten c e ” (ibid., p. 30). W hile C anale an d Swain’s strategic compe tence p u t the em phasis on "com pensatory” strate gies, that is, strategies used to com pensate or rem ed iate for a lack in som e language area, the term has com e to take on a b ro a d e r m eaning B achm an (1990) has b roken down strategic com petence into th re e com ponents: an assessment co m p o n e n t w herebv the resp o n d en ts set com m unicative goals, a planning co m ponent whereb'. the respondents retrieve the relevant items front language ability- an d plan their use, and an exe cution c o m p o n e n t whereby the re s p o n d e n t' im plem ent the plan.
Classifying an Item Tests usually consist o f a series of item s. An item is a specific task to perfo rm , a n d can assess one o r m ore points o r objectives. For exam ple, an item may test one point, such as the m eaning of a given vocabulary word, or several points, such as an item which tests the ability to obtain facts from a passage an d th en m ake inferences based on those facts. Likewise, a given objective mav be tested by a series of items. For exam ple, there could be five item s all testing one gram m atical point, say, tag questions. Item s o f a sim ilar kind mav also be g ro u p ed to g eth e r to form subtests w ithin a given test.
The Skill Tested T he language skills that we test include listening an d reading, the m ore receptive skills, and speak ing an d writing, the m ore productive skills. Nonverbal skills can be both receptive (e.g., inter preting som eone else's gestures) and productive (m aking one's own gestures).
(a) knowledge retrieval (bringing to m ind the a p p ro p ria te m aterial); (b) c o m p re h e n sio n (u n d ersta n d in g the basic m ean in g o f the m ate rial); (c) application (applying the know ledge of the elem ents o f language an d c o m p reh en sio n to how they interrelate in the prod u ctio n o f a cor rect oral or written m essage); (d) analysis (break ing down a message into its constituent parts in o rd er to m ake explicit the relationships between ideas, including tasks such as recognizing the connotative m eanings o f words and correctly pro cessing a dictation, and m aking inferences); (e) synthesis (arranging parts so as to produce a pat tern n o t clearly there before, such as effectively organizing ideas in a written com position); and (f) evaluation (m aking quantitative and qualita tive judgm ents about m aterial). It is th o u g h t th at these levels d e m a n d increasingly greater cognitive control as one moves from know ledge to evaluation. It mav be th at effective p e rfo rm ance at m ore advanced levels, such as synthesis and evaluation, w ould call for m ore advanced control o f the second language.
The Nature of the Item
The Tested Response Behavior
Item s can be m ore discrete o r m ore integrative in n a tu re , just as thev can be m ore objective or subjective. A com pletely discrete-p o in t item w ould test simpiv one point o r objective, while an integrative item w ould test m ore th an one p o in t o r objective at a tim e. Som etim es an in te grative item is reallv m ore a p ro ce d u re th an an item , as in the case o f a free com position which could test a n u m b er of objectives. The objectivity of an item refers to the wav it is scored. A multiple-choice item, for example, is objective in that there is usually only one right answer. A free composition mav be m ore subjective in nature if the scorer is not looking for any one right answer, but rather for evidence of a series of features, including, sav, creativity, style, cohesion and coherence, grammar, and mechanics.
Item s can test d ifferen t resp o n se behavior. R espondents mav be tested for accuracy in pro nunciation or gram m ar. Likewise, thev could be assessed for fluency, for exam ple, w ithout con cern for gram m atical correctness. Aside from accuracy and fluency, they could also be assessed for how quicklv thev can produce a response. As noted above, there has been an increased concern for developing m easures of p e rfo rm ance. that is, m easures of the ability to perform real-world tasks, with criteria for successful per form ance based on a needs analysis for the given task (Brown 1998; Norris et al. 1998). Such tasks m ight include "com paring credit card offers and arguing for the best choice” o r “m aking the m ost o f a dating service.” At the same tim e that there is a call for tasks that better reflect the real world, th ere is a co m m en su rate c o n cern for m ore authentic language assessment. At least one study, however, notes th a t the differences betw een a u th en tic an d pedagogic w ritten and spoken texts mav n ot be readily a p p a re n t, even to an au d ien ce specifically looking fo r differences
The Intellectual Operation Required Items mav call for different levels of intellectual effort (Valette 1969, after Bloom, ed. 1956). Thev can test for the following intellectual levels:
(Lewkowicz 1997). In addition, test takers may not necessarily concern themselves with task authenticity' in a test situation. Test familiarity may be the overriding factor.
Characteristics of Respondents Item s can be designed to cater to populations w ith c e rta in ch aracteristics. B ach m an a n d P alm er (1996) g roup these into fo u r categories: personal characteristics (age, sex, a n d native language), topical know ledge that test takers b rin g to the situation, th eir affective schem ata, an d th eir language ability (pp. 64-78). With regard to the age variable, for exam ple, a recent review suggests that educators n eed to revisit this issue a n d perhaps conceive o f new wavs to assess age-related differen ces in lan g u ag e ability (M arinova-Todd et al. 2000). W ith regard to lan guage ability, both B achm an and Palm er (1996) an d Alderson (2000) detail the manv tvpes of know ledge that respondents mav n e e d to draw on to perfo rm well on a given item or task: world know ledge and culturally specific knowledge, knowledge of anv necessary gram m ar, knowledge o f different oral and written text tvpes. knowledge o f the subject m atter or topic, and knowledge of how to perform well on the given task.
Item-Elicitation Format T h e form at for elicitation o f the item has to be d eterm in ed . An item can have a spoken, w ritten, o r visual stim ulus, as well as anv com bination of the three. Thus, while an item or task may osten sibly assess one skill, it may' also be testing som e o th e r as well. So, for exam ple, a ''listening'’ sub test in which resp o n d en ts answer oral questions bv m eans o f w ritten m ultiple-choice responses is testing reading as well as listening.4
Item-Response Format T he item -response form at can be fixed, struc tu red , or o pen-ended. Those with a fixed form at include tru e /fa lse , m ultiple-choice, an d m atch ing items. Those w hich call for a stru ctu red form at include o rd erin g (where, for exam ple,
resp o n d en ts are requested to arrange words to m ake a sentence, and several orders are possible), d u p lication— both written (e.g., dictation) and oral (e.g., recitation, repetition, m im icry), identi fication (e.g.. explaining the part of speech of a form ), and com pletion. Those calling for an open-ended form at include com posing— both written (e.g., creative fiction, expository essays) a n d oral (e.g.. a sp e ec h )— as well as o th er activi ties, such as free oral response in role-playing situations.
Elements o f Language to be Assessed Finally, as n o ted above with reference to com m u nicative com petence, items can test for gram m at ical. discourse, and sociolinguistic com petence, as well as for whatever strategic com petence respondents draw on when they lack the required c o m p eten ce. Grammatical competence, h ere includes phonology, m orphology, syntax, knowl edge of lexical items and semantics (Canale and Swain 1980, p. 29), as well as m atters of m echanics (spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and handw riting). Advances in assessm ent have b ro u g h t rela tively u n ta p p e d elem ents o f language into assess m en t m easures. Thus, for exam ple, language assessm ent mav now include m ore finely tu n ed assessm ent o f specific p u rp o se tasks (see Douglas 2000) and o f vocabulary (see Read 2000). m o re so p h istic a te d c o m p u te r-b a se d assessm ent (D unkel 1999), .w well as assessm ent of cross-cultural pragm atics (see H udson et al. 1995: Broyvn in press). With regard to p ragm at ics. expertise is accum ulating in the assessm ent of speech acts such as com plaining, apologizing, requesting, an d so forth. Additionally, the assess m en t field is becom ing m ore sensitive to the use o f the target language in specific, often tech n i cal contexts; the field is taking assessm ent o f sec o n d language vocabulary know ledge beyond simplistic m easures to b e tte r assess the d ep th a n d b rea d th of lexical control; and testers are pursu in g research an d developm ent projects to provide us with n o t only com puter-assisted assessm ent m easu res b u t co m p u ter-ad ap tiv e ones as yvell (see Chalhoub-D eville 2000).
A S SE SS IN G L A N G U A G E SK ILLS O ne way of contrasting different approaches to language assessm ent has been to distinguish betw een the testing of discrete language items and a m ore integrative or global assessment of language. .Another m ore recen t dichotom y exists betw een traditional or standard m eans of assess m ent and alternative means, such as the use of portfolios, journals, logs, conferences, and utiliz ing both self-assessment and peer assessment, as well as teacher assessment (see Brown 1998). T he following discussion of read in g assess m en t is in te n d e d to reflect m ore c u rre n t th in k ing a b o u t testing. T h e a p p e n d ix co n tain s exam ples of approaches to testing o th e r skills.
Methods o f Testing Reading Comprehension R eading c o m p reh en sio n items or pro ced u res req u ire th at learners use a certain tvpe or tvpes o f reading, c o m p re h en d at a certain level or com bination o f levels o f m eaning, enlist a cer tain c o m p reh en sio n skill(s). an d do all o f this w ithin th e fram ew ork o f a c e rta in testin g m eth o d (s). In this section, we will look at som e o f the choices available to the test co n stru cto r a n d at considerations o f c o n cern to the test user.
Types o f Reading Items and procedures can be written so that thev implicitly or explicitly call for a given type o f read ing. For exam ple, a respondent can be given a lengthy passage to read in a lim ited time fram e such that the onlv way to handle it successfully is to skim5 or to scan,'1 dep en d in g on the task. A fur th er distinction has been m ade between scanning and “search reading,” the latter being w hen the respondent is scanning without being sure about the form that the inform ation will take (i.e., w hether it will be a word, phrase, sentence, pas sage, and so on) (Pugh 1978, p. 53). A respondent could also be given a passage to read receptively." Yet an o th er approach is to have respondents read responsively, such th at the w ritten m aterial prom pts them to reflect on some point or other.
and th en possibly respond in writing. Testing for mats in which questions are interspersed within ru n n in g text may cater to such an approach if the questions stim ulate an active dialogue between the text a n d the reader. T h e type o f read in g task is raised here because it w ould a p p e a r to be n eglected at tim es in the process o f test construction. In o th e r words, read in g item s an d tasks are som etim es constructed w ithout careful co nsideration as to how the resp o n d e n t is to read them . It mav even be of benefit for the test co n stru cto r to indicate explicitly to the resp o n d e n t the type o f read in g expected. For exam ple, a certain item could be in tro d u c ed by the following: Read the following text th ro u g h rap idly (i.e., skim it) in o rd e r to get the m ain points. T h ere will n o t be tim e to read the text intensively. W hen you have co m pleted this reading, answer th e q u e stio n s p ro v id e d — w ith o u t looking back at the text. You will have ten m inutes for the exercise.
Level o f Meaning A test item o r p ro ce d u re can tap co m p reh en sio n at one o f fo u r levels of m ean in g o r at several levels sim ultaneously: gram m atical m ean in g , p ropositional m eaning, discoursal m eaning, and w riter’s in te n t (ad ap ted from N uttall 1982). Note, however, that these categories are presented as a heuristic, rather than as a hierarchy of discrete levels. Grammatical meaning deals with the m ean ings that words a n d m o rp h em es have on th eir own. Propositional meaning refers to the m ean in g that a clause o r sentence can have on its own — i.e., the info rm atio n th at the clause or senten ce transm its. This m ean in g is also refe rre d to as its “inform ational value.” Discoursal meaning relates to the m ean in g a sentence can have only w hen in context. This m ean in g is also refe rre d to as its “functional value.” Writer’s intent concerns the m ean in g that a sentence has only as part of the interaction betw een writer and reader. This is the m eaning that reflects the w riter’s feelings and atti tudes and the in te n d e d effect o f the writing u p o n the reader.
T he level o f m eaning that has perhaps got ten the m ost attention in the literature in recent years is the discoursal one, especially the re a d e r’s perception of rhetorical functions conveyed by text. For exam ple, an item mav overtlv or covertly require a resp o n d en t to identify w here and how som ething is being defined, classified, exem pli fied, or contrasted with som ething else. O ften such “discourse functions” are signaled by con nectors or “discourse m arkers.” N onetheless, u n inform ed o r un-alert readers mav miss these signals— words or phrases such as “unless," “how ever,” “thus,” “w hereas,” and the like. Research has shown that such m arkers need not be subtle to cause reading problem s. Simple m arkers of sequential points (“first,” “also,” and “finally") as well as m ore subtle m arkers mav be missed bv a reader (see C ohen et al. 1979). Actually, a level that is w orthy o f m ore a tte n tio n bv teachers an d o th e r test constructors is that o f w riter's in te n t , especially author's tone. It w ould a p p e ar that non-native resp o n d en ts are slow to perceive hum or, for exam ple. Som e years ago, an ESL P lacem ent Test at a large u n i versity in clu d ed a h u m o ro u s passage about a m an who turns to the ladv sitting next to him at a fancy b a n q u e t an d inform s h e r th at he thinks the c u rre n t speaker has n o th in g to sav and sh o u ld sit down. She asks if he knows who she is. W hen he savs “n o ,” she inform s him that she is the sp eak er’s wife. T h e n he asks h e r if she knows who he is. W hen she savs "n o .” he says, “G ood!” an d gets up a n d leaves. T he passage h ad a m ultiple-choice item in q u irin g w h eth er the text was (a) serious, (b) sad, (c) h um orous, o r (d) cvnical. Most o f the 700 resp o n d en ts resp o n d e d that it was serious. This exam ple w ould suggest that resp o n d en ts may n o t be o p e ra tin g at the a p p ro p riate c u ltu ra l/p ra g m a tic level w hen thev p e rfo rm certain tasks on tests.
Comprehension Skill A test co n stru cto r a n d user m ust be aware not only o f levels o f co m p reh en sio n b u t also o f indi vidual skills tested bv read in g co m p reh en sio n questions at one or m ore such levels of m ean ing. A lderson (1987) offered a taxonom y which included: ( 1 ) the ability to recognize words and
phrases o f sim ilar an d opposing m eaning; (2 ) identifying o r locating inform ation: (3) discrim in atin g elem ents or features within context; the analysis o f elem ents within a structure and of the relationship am ong them — e.g.. causal, sequen tial, chronological, hierarchical: (4) in terpreting of com plex ideas, actions, events, relationships; (5) inferen cin g — deriving conclusions and pre dicting the continuation: (6) synthesis; and (7) evaluation. We note that this taxonom y om its the re a d e r-w rite r relationship — e.g., the a u th o r’s distance from the text and the level of participa tion in the text that the au th o r requires o f the reader. With this taxonomy, as rvith others, the boundaries between skills are assum ed to be dis crete when, in rcalitv. thev mav not be.
Testing Method Besides considering the tvpe of reading to be perfo rm ed , the desired levels o f m eaning, and the com prehension skills to be tapped, the test constructor o r user needs to give careful thought to the testing m ethod. T he challenge is to m axi mize the m easurem ent of the tra it— i.e., the resp o n d en t's ability— while m inim izing the reac tive effects o f the m ethod. In o rd er to do this, it is useful to be inform ed about the options for testing with each m eth o d and what these options yield. We will look at some o f the innovative m ethods for testing reading: the cloze and the C-test. com puterized adaptive testing, a n d com m unicative tests of rea d in g c o m p reh en sio n . (Testing o f sum m arization skills is discussed in the appendix.)
The Cloze and the C-Test T he origins of the cloze test date back farther than m anv w ould th in k — to 1897. in fact. At that tim e. E bbinghatis proposed a series of tests that h ad one- or two-word deletions, rational dele tion. an d partial deletion from the beg in n in g or e n d o f words (E bbinghaus 1897). T h ere has been a controversy c o n c ern in g the cloze test as to w h ether filling in cloze item s is not just a m at ter of perceiving local red u n d an cy but, rather, invok es an awareness of the flow of discourse
across sentences a n d p aragraphs (O iler 1979; O iler and Jonz 1994). Chavez-Ollcr et al. (1983) 1’o uncl research evidence, for instance, that clo/e was sensitive to constraints he\ond 3 to 1 1 words on e ith e r side o f a blank. N onetheless, the results from various research studies would sug gest that traditional fixed-word deletion is m ore of a m icrolevel com pletion test (a m easure of word- a n d sentence-level read in g abilitv) than a m acrolevel m easure o f skill at u n d e rsta n d in g c o n n e c te d disco u rse (see. for exam ple, A lderson 1983; Klein-Brale\ 1981). As an alternative to the fixed-word dele tion, researchers tu rn e d to the gap-filling proce dure (A lderson 2000). originallv referred to as the rational-deletion eloze. In the gap-filling p ro ce d u re. words are deleted according to p re d e te r m in e d , prim arilv linguistic criteria, o ften stressing the area considered to be u n d e rre p re se n te d , nam elv. m acrolevel disco u rse links (fevenston et al. 1984). Research bv Bachm an (1983) with EFI. universitv students found that the rational-deletion clo/e or gap-filling procedure sam pled m am m ore inter-sentence boundaries an d som ew hat m ore inter-clausal boundaries within the same sentence than did the fixed-ratio cloze. Bachm an concluded that the gap-filling procedure was a better m easure of the reading of connected discourse, but that the question still rem ained as to w hether such tests "in fact m easure the com ponents of language proficiencv hvpothesizecl bv the deletio n criteria" [ibid.. 1983. p. 330)— that is, the flow of discourse across sentences and paragraphs within a text. A suggested alternative to the clo/e test— namelv, the C-test— was p ro p o se d bv KleinBralev an d Raatz (Klein-Bralev and Raatz 1984; Raatz 1985). In this p ro ced u re, the second half o f everv o th e r w ord is deleted, leaving the first an d the last sentence o f the passage intact. A given C-test consists o f a n u m b e r of short pas sages (m axim um 100 words) on a variety of topics. This alternative elim inates certain problem s asso ciated with clo/e. such as choice of deletion rate and starling point, representational sam pling of d ifferent language elem ents in the passage, and the in ad v erten t assessm ent of w ritten p ro d u c tion as well as reading. W ith the C-test, being given a clue (h alf the word) serves as a stim ulus
for resp o n d en ts to find the o th e r half. T he following is one passage within a C-test (Raatz 1985, p. 1 7 1: Pollution is one of the big problem s in the world today. Towns a_____ cities a_____ grow ing, in d u _____ is g ro _____ an d t_____ p o p u la tio n 0 ____ th e wo_____ is g ro _____ . Almost everv-_____ causes poll______in so____ wav о______ another. T_____ air i_____ filled wi______fum es fr______ factories a_____ vehicles, a______there 1_____ noise fr_____ airplanes a______ m achines. Riv _____ . lakes, a_____ seas a_____ po llu ted b_____ factories an d bv sewage from o u r hom es. At p resent it w ould ap p e ar that the C-test may well be a m ore reliable an d valid m eans o f assessing what the cloze test assesses, b u t as sug gested above, it is still not clear to what e x te n t it tests m ore than m icrolevel processing. Because h alf the word is given, students who do not u n d e rsta n d the m acro-context m at still be able to m obilize th eir vocabularv skills adequately to fill in the a p p ro p riate word w ithout engaging in higher-level processing.
Computerized Adaptive Testing (CA T) C om puterized adaptive testing (CAT) o f read ing co m p reh en sio n im plies an a p p ro ach to test ing wherebv the selection a n d sequence o f items d ep en d s on the pattern o f success an d failure experienced bv the respondent. Most commonlv, if the respondent succeeds on a given item, one of greater diffieultv is presen ted , but if the resp o n d e n t experiences failure, th en an easier item is presented. The testing continues until suf ficient inform ation has been gathered to assess the particular respondent's ability. Al present, such tests are mostlv lim ited to objective formats, such as multiple-choice. A m ong the advantages of CAT are the fol lowing: individual testing time may be reduced; frustration and fatigue are m inim ized; boredom is induced; test scores and diagnostic feedback mav be provided immediately; test securin' mav be enhanced (since it is unlikelv that two respondents
w ould receive the sam e item s in the sam e seq u en ce); record-keeping functio n s are im proved; and inform ation is readily available for research purposes (Larson an d M adsen 1985; M adsen 1986). T he m ain disadvantage is that CAT p re sumes that one m ajor language factor or underly ing trait is being m easured at a time. Such an assum ption runs co u n ter to the existing theories of reading com prehension, which encom pass m ultiple dim ensions, such as world knowledge, language and cultural background, type of text, and reading styles (Canale 1986b). T he line of developm ent that Canale proposed for CAT was that it should move from simply m echanizing existing product-orientecl reading co m p reh en sion item types to the inclusion of m ore processoriented, interactive tasks that can be integrated into broad and them atically co h eren t language u se /le a rn in g activities, such as "intelligent tu to r ing systems.”8 D unkel (1999) points out some of the challenges this innovative approach to assess m en t presents, including the special psychometric an d technical issues peculiar to CAT as opposed to traditional or paper-and-pencil tests. T here are still m ajor issues in the design of evaluative criteria for assessing the reliability, validity and utility of L2 CATs (see Chalhoub-Deville 2000), as well as com plexities involved in interpreting CAT scores.
Communicative Tests of Reading Comprehension For years atten tio n has been paid to so-called co m m unicative tests — usually im plying tests dealing with speaking. M ore recently, efforts have been m ade to design truly com m unicative tests o f o th er language skills as well, such as read ing com prehension. Canale (1984) points out th at a good test is not ju st one which is valid, reli able, an d practical in term s of test adm inistration a n d scoring, but ra th e r one that is acceptable— th a t is, accepted as fair, im portant, an d interest ing by test takers and test users.9 Also, a good test has feedback potential, rew arding both test tak ers a n d test users with clear, rich, relevant, and generalizable inform ation. Canale suggests that acceptability and feedback potential hare often
been accorded low priority thus explaining the curious p h e n o m e n o n of m ultiple-choice tests claim ing to assess oral interaction skills. Som e ap p ro ach es to com m unicative testing were in p a rt an outgrow th of Canale an d Swain’s theoretical fram ew ork p rese n ted above (Canale a n d Swain 1980). T he particu lar variety of com m unicative test that thev dealt with has been refe rre d to as a "storyline” test, a test with a th e m atic line o f developm ent. In such a test, a com m on th em e runs th ro u g h o u t in o rd er to assess the effects o f context. T he basis for such an ap p ro ach is that the resp o n d en ts learn as thev read on. that thev double back a n d check previ ous co n ten t, a n d th at the ability to use language in conversation or writing d e p en d s in large m easure on the skill o f picking up inform ation from past discussion and using it in form ulating new strategies (Low 1986). Swain (1984). for exam ple, developed a storyline test o f F rench as a foreign language for high school French im m ersion students. T he test consisted of six tasks aro u n d a com m on them e, "finding sum m er em ploym ent.” T here were four writing tasks (a letter, a note, a com po sition. and a technical exercise) and two speaking tasks (a group discussion and a job interview). T he test was designed so that the topic would be m otivating to the students a n d so th at there would be enough new inform ation provided in o rd er to give the tasks credibility. Swain provided the respondents with sufficient time, suggestions as to how to do the test, and clear knowledge about what was being tested. T here was access to dictionaries and o th er reference m aterial, and opportunity for students to review and revise their work. Swain's m ain concern was to "bias for best” in the construction of the test— to m ake every effort to support the respondents in doing their best on the test.10 Brill (1986), for exam ple, had 32 ninthgrade H ebrew speakers com plete a com m unica tive storvline test which in clu d e d five tasks dealing with m em bership in a youth group. T he tasks in clu d ed writing a letter as a response to a frien d in terested in th e youth m ovem ent the resp o n d e n t b elo n g ed to, p rese n tin g questions to the g roup lead er to get m ore in form ation on the m ovem ent, p rep a rin g an a n n o u n c e m e n t
ab o u t the m ovem ent to post on bulletin boards, w riting o u t a tele p h o n e req u est for inform ation on how a local fo u n d atio n could aid the m ove m ent, a n d w riting o u t a tele p h o n e response to an invitation bv a political g ro u p to jo in a d em o n stratio n o f theirs. .After com pleting the tasks, the students were th en asked to com pare th eir ex perience on this test an d on the tradi tional m ultiple-choice one thev had taken previouslv. Thev alm ost unanim ouslv en d o rsed the com m unicative test as preferable because it was m ore creative, allowed them to express their opinions, was m ore interesting, taught them how to m ake contact with others, and investigated com m unication skills in addition to reading com prehension. For these reasons, thev felt that it provided a tru e r m easure of their com petence than did the traditional test. Canale (1985) viewed com m unicative tests such as those described above as "proftciencvorientecl achievem ent tests" a n d offered five rea sons su p p o rtin g this view. 1.
2. 3. 4.
5.
Such tests put to use what is learned. T here is a transfer from controlled training to real perform ance. T h e re is a focus on the message and the function, n o t just on the form . T h ere is g roup collaboration as well as indi vidual work, not ju st the latter. T he resp o n d en ts are called u p o n to use th eir resourcefulness in resolving au thentic problem s in language use, as opposed to d em o n stratin g accuracv in resolving con trived problem s at the linguistic level. T he testing itself is m ore like learning, and the learners are m ore involved in the assessment.
(For sam ple item s testing listening, speaking, an d writing, see the A ppendix.)
ones and im p o rtan t objectives from trivial ones. Test items and procedures are th en developed to assess these objectives eith er separately or along with o th er objectives. Varying the type of items or procedures testing a particular objective, as well as the difficulty helps distinguish one stu d e n t’s grasp o f the area covered by the objectives from that o f an o th er student. As said at the outset, there is currently a prem ium p u t on the use of m ultiple testing techniques in o rd er to obtain a m ore representative sam pling o f a le a rn e r’s language behavior. T h e n u m b e r o f test item s o r pro ced u res used to m easure any given objective d e p e n d s on several things. First, is the test in te n d e d to assess mastery o f the objectives or simply som e degree o f attainm ent? If masterv is bein g assessed, th ere should be a large e n o u g h sam ple of item s to allow its m easurem ent. For exam ple, including onlv one item on tag questions is unlikely to indicate to the testers that the re sp o n d e n t has a firm grasp o f tag questions. But if the testers do not have the testing time to allow for, say, three items on tag questions, then they should at least be aware that thev are not really testing for masterv. A respondent's correct answer on one item could be a result of guessing. Testers usually do not have the time to cover all the objectives they would like to. so instead they m ust satisfy them selves with a sampling. If the test is designed for use in a course, th en the objectives covered m ight be those m ost em phasized in the course an d those o f greatest value for the students as well. As previously m en tioned, testers mav n e e d to resist th e tem p tatio n to include difficult item s o f m arginal im p o r tance simplv because thev differentiate betw een the b e tte r an d p o o re r achievers.
Constructing an Item Bank
T E S T C O N S T R U C T IO N A N D A D M IN IST R A TIO N Inventory o f Objectives Test constructors first m ake an inventor)' o f the objectives that thev want to test. This involves dis tinguishing broad objectives from m ore specific
It is suggested th at potential test item s an d p ro cedures be selected an d stored in an item bank. Before th e advent o f co m p u ter applications an d sophisticated statistical procedures fo r process ing items, test constructors w ould keep file cards of items. T he use o f com puters allows for m ore rapid and m ore efficient h an d lin g o f those kinds o f item s that len d them selves to c o m p u te r
applications. W hether com puterized or not, an item bank w ould benefit from descriptive infor m ation on each item or procedure, such as the following: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
the skill o r com bination of skills tested; the language elem en t (s) invoked; the item-elicitation and item-response formats; instructions on how to p resen t the item; the section o f the book or p a rt of the course th a t the item relates to (if applicable); 6 . the tim e it took to write the item (which gives an estim ate of the tim e n eed ed to prepare a series o f such items for a test).
It is presum ed that ant- item en tered in the bank has been piloted on sam ple groups and reviewed. An item mav seem east' or well written when it is generated b u t mav exhibit glaring inadequacies u p o n later inspection.
Test Format O ne basic issue of test form at is w hether the test progresses to increasinglv m ore difficult items or w hether easv and difficult items and procedures are interspersed. T here are argum ents on both sides. If items grow increasinglv m ore difficult, the respondents mat' give up after a while and not attem pt items after thev en co u n ter the first one th at stum ps them . Yet if respondents experience failure too frequently at the outset of a test because o f difficult items, thev mav be discour aged from attem pting the rem ainder of the items in a section. Thus, there mat' be a psychological advantage to pacing the items so that they becom e progressivelv m ore difficult. A com prom ise is to start the test with relativelv east- items and then start interspersing easv and difficult items. A n o th e r issue o f form at relates to m ultiplechoice items. Such item s len d them selves to guessing. Increasing the n u m b e r o f alternatives (from , say, th ree to four) decreases the likeli h o o d o f g etting the item rig h t by chance alone. T h e re is a 33 p e rc e n t chance o f getting a threechoice item right bv guessing, an d a 25 p e rc e n t chance o f guessing correctly on a four-choice item . This o f course assum es th a t all choices are equally attractive to the resp o n d e n t who does n o t know the answ er to the item.
Instructions T he instructions should be b rie f a n d vet explicit an d unam biguous. Exam ples mav help, but on the o th e r h a n d m at h in d e r if thev do n o t give the whole picture and becom e a substitute for reading the instructions. R espondents may need training in how to take a particular kind o f test. For exam ple, a research sttidv dem onstrated that supplying respondents with suggested strategies in the test instructions for sum m arizing foreignlanguage texts mav have a beneficial effect on the respondents' knowing how to read the text and how to prep are a sum m arv o f it (C ohen 1993). In o th er words, m ore elaborated instructions may s e n e to ensure that the respondents do the task as in te n d e d bv the test constructor. (Sample instructions for how to sum m arize can be found in the appendix, u n d e r “Assessing the Interaction of R eading an d W riting.”) In addition, the resp o n d en ts should be in fo rm ed as to w h eth er guessing incorrectlv counts against them . Thev should also know the value of each item an d section of the test. Finallv. the tim e allowed for each subtest a n d /o r for the total test should be a n n o u n c ed . If speed is a factor for a subtest, the resp o n d en ts should be m ade aware o f this. M am vcars ago, H arris (1969) adm o n ish ed teachers not to use tim ed tests that left m ore th an 10 to 15 p e rc e n t o f the g roup b eh in d . Perhaps in todav's educational clim ate (see Shoham v 2000), wc w ould not want to leave am students b ehind.
Scoring If an objective is tested by m ore than one item — sav, five item s— then it is possible to speak o f maste n - of the objective, at least according to that m eans of m easuring it. (Again, the im portance of using m ultiple m easures of the same objectives is stressed.) If Ju an gets four of the five items right, he has displayed 80 percent mastery of that objec tive, according to the test. T he test mav have a series of such items. If Ju a n 's test p erform ance is stated onlv in term s o f his masterv o f objectives, th e n the test is being used for criterionreferenced evaluation. W hat constitutes mastery of an objective is a difficult question to answer.
Is it having fo u r o u t o f five items correct on that objective? W hat ab o u t th ree out o f five? Further, w hat constitutes notable achievem ent? It could be th at m asterv of a certain objective reflects far m ore learn in g than masterv of another. For this reason, items covering one objective mav be weighted m ore than items covering o th er objec tives. For exam ple, three questions asked after presentation of a lecture on a tape mav count m ore than ten short-answer m ultiple-choice read ing or gram m ar items. W eighting also involves consideration of the ease o f the task and the tim e sp en t on it. T he test co n stru cto r has to consider how long it will take to score particu lar types of items, as well as the easiest p ro ce d u re for scoring (e.g., au to m ated scoring bv an optical scanner or c o m p u te r scoring vs. h a n d scoring). T he m ore objective the scoring is for a p articular item , the h ig h e r the scorer reliabilitv is likelv to be (i.e.. the likelihood that two different scorers would com e up with the sam e score for a p articular re sp o n d e n t's test). For exam ple, the scoring of a m ultiple-choice test w ould be considered m ore objective th an that o f an essav test, w here the sc o re r’s subjectivitv plans m ore o f a role.
O ne m easure of internal consistency is th at of split-halves reliability, which calls for correlating the odd-num bered items on the test with the even-num bered ones. O th e r m easures o f internal consistency such as K uder-R ichardson Form ulas 20 an d 2 1 , call for m ore com plex calculations (see B achm an 1990, pp. 172-178). For the p u r pose o f classroom testing, a reliability coefficient o f .70 a n d up is good. H ig h er reliability coeffi cients w ould be expected of standardized tests used for large-scale adm inistration (.80 o r b e tte r). A perfect coefficient is 1.0. T he reliability o f ratings is also an im p o rtan t test factor. Considerations include the natu re of the scoring key in term s o f detail an d clarity, the training of scorers, and the n u m b er of scorers (B achm an 1990, pp. 178-183; Reed a n d C ohen 2000). In recent vears, sophisticated statistical procedures using generalizability theory and m ul tifaceted Rasch analvsis have b een em ployed to take into account the nature of the task being rated and the person doing the rating in deter m ining the reliability o f ratings (M cN am ara 1996). Verbal protocol studies have also been con ducted to determ ine the extent to w'hich raters of compositions, for instance, adh ere to the rating schedule being used (e.g., Hamp-Lyons 1989).
R eliab ility
Situational Facto rs T he m a n n e r in which the
T h e reliabilitv of a test concerns its precision as a m easuring in strum ent. Reliabilitv asks w hether a test given to the same resp o n d en ts a second tim e w ould yield the same results. At least three crucial factors relating to test reliability have b een identified. T est Factors. Test factors include the extent of
the sam pling o f the objective, the degree of am bi guity o f the items an d restrictions on freedom of response (e.g., being given m ore specific and thus constraining topics for com positions), the clarity an d explicitness o f the instructions, the quality of the layout, the familiarity that the respondents have with the form at, and the length of the total test, with lo n g e r tests b e in g m ore reliable (H ughes 1989). These test factors contribute to the likeli h o o d that perform ance on one item on a test will be consistent with p erform ance on a n o th e r item , p roducing a test with greater internal consistency.
ex am in er presents the instructions, th e charac teristics o f th e ro o m (co m fo rt, lig h tin g , acoustics), outside noises, a n d o th e r factors can have a bearin g on how well the resp o n d en ts p e r form on the test. Individual Factors These include
(a) transient factors, such as the physical and psychological state of m ind of the resp o n d en t (m otivation, rap p ort with exam iner), and (b) stable factors, such as m echanical skill, IQ, ability to use English, and experience with such tests.
V alidity Validity refers to w hether the test actually m eas ures what it purports to m easure. Thus, the test m ust be reliable before it can be valid. Assuming that the test is p roducing a reliable m easure of som ething, the questions are then: W hat is that som ething?, and, Is it w hat the test is supposed to be m easuring?
Face Validity This aspect of xaliditx refers to w hether the test looks as if it is m easuring what it is sttpposed to. For this reason. Low (1985) referred to it as “perceived validitv." For exam ple, a test diat m easures a respondent's own English pronunciation bv assessing his or her rating of a n o th e r’s pronunciation of English tnav not be readilv accepted as a valid m easure, nor mav filling in blanks on a cloze test seem a valid wax to assess reading skills. To ntanv test takers, such m easures appear to be too indirect. T he fa d that these m easures are indirect max confuse and distract the respondent. A nother exam ple is that a test's title max1 be misleading. Л test entitled “Pragmatic Syntax Measure," for instance, max actuallx deal m ore xvith morphologx than xvith sxntax and max use stilted gram m ar-book English rather than the language o f exerxclax' situational interactions, as one would expect of a u ulx pragm atic m easure. C o n ten t Validity. This txpe of xaliditx refers to
the adequacy of sam pling of co n ten t or objec tives in a test. Som etim es even com m ercial tests constructed bv experts fail to state xvhat objectix’es are b ein g coxerecl in the test and xvhich item s specificallv are testing each of these objectixes. \ alette (1977, p. 46) notes. "For the lan guage teacher, the degree of test validitv is not derixecl from a statistical analx’sis of test p e r form ance, but from a m eticulous analx sis o f the c o n te n t o f each item and o f the test as a xvhole." Criterion-R elated Validity. A test can be validated
bv seeing how closelv respondents' perform ance on specific sets of objectives on a total test paral lels their perform ance at the same time or in the future on a n o th e r test which is tho u g h t to m eas ure the same o r similar actix ities. Concurrent Yalidily: Validation is concurrent if test results are com pared with results from an o th er test gixen at about the same time. For exam ple, a teacher mav wish to see hoxv stu dents' perform ance on a test that he or she constructed com pares with students' perform ance on some criterion m easure of reading obtained from a com m ercial test of reading. 2. Predictive Yalidip: Validity is predictive if test results are c o m p a re d xvith results from a n o th e r test o r a n o th e r txpe of m easure obtained at a later date. For exam ple, a lan 1.
guage aptitude test max be validated bv a test of a student's achievem ent in the language class in which the student was placed on the basis o f the ap titu d e test. Construct Validity. This form of xaliclitv refers to
the degree to xvhich scores on a m easure perm it inferences about underlxing traits. In o th er xvords, it exam ines xvhether the test is a true reflection of the theorv of the trait being m easured, in this case, language. L anguage assessm ent experts like Shohantv advise teachers to keep asking tlremselxes w henexer thex construct a test "xvhether the tasks and items on the test are actually a reflection of xvhat it m eans to know a language and to ax'oid those items xvhich test som ething d iffe re n t th an actual lan g u ag e knoxvledge" (Shohamx- 1985. p. 74). C o n vergen t Validity1. Validitv in testing a given
construct, such as listening co m p reh en sio n , mav be attain ed bx testing the same p h e n o m e n o n in a varietx' of d iffe re n t xvaxs. T h e classroom teach er can practice this kittcl of xaliclation. T he discussion of item tvpes p resen ted earlier in this c h a p te r (and in the appendix) proxides a n u m ber of techniques for testing the sam e objectives differentlx. Varving the item -elicitation a n d itemresponse form ats, as well as the discreteness and integratixeness of the items, can p ro d u ce items testing the sam e objectixes in different xvaxs.
Ite m A nalysis Piloting the Test. If tim e and resources perm it,
then sound testing practice includes piloting the test on a p opulation sim ilar to that for which it is designed. T he pilot adm inistration provides the test co n stru cto r with feedback on the item s and procedures. On tim ed subtests, pilot resp o n dents can be instructed to m ark how far they got xvlien the tim e ran out and th en to go ah ead and com plete the test so that th ere is feedback on all the items in the test. Item Difficulty. Item difficultx refers to the pro
portion of correct responses to a test item. A test xvhich aims to differentiate am ong respondents should haxe items xvhich, sax, 60 to 80 p ercen t of the respondents answer correctlv. (If 15 out o f 20 respondents answer an item conectlx; the item
difficulty is 75 percent.) If the purpose of the test is to determ ine w hether nearly all students have achieved the objectives o f a course, on the other hand, then the p ro p o rtio n of correct responses should be 90 p e rc e n t or better.
or o th e r exam iners, it is useful to be able to check its item analysis inform ation. P erhaps it will tu rn o u t to be a b o rd erlin e item th at should n o t have b e e n in clu d e d in the test.
Item D iscrim ination T he
T est A d m in is tra tio n C h e ck list
item discrim ination index tells how -well an item perform s in sepa rating the b e tte r students from the p o o re r ones. For a p ro ce d u re to calculate the index, see C ohen (1994). T he index is in te n d e d to distin guish resp o n d en ts who know the m ost or have the skills or abilities being tested from those who do not. Knowledge o f the m aterial is d e te rm in e d bv the re sp o n d e n t's perfo rm an ce on the total test (i.e., all subtests com bined).
T est R ev isio n If an item has a difficulty coefficient of lower th an 60 p e rc e n t o r h ig h er than about 80 p e r cent, and if the discrim ination coefficient is below .30, th en the item should probably be revised o r elim inated. It is difficult to select or reject b o rd erlin e items. Especially if the item analysis is p e rfo rm e d on a small sam ple, just one o r two responses a d d ed o r d eleted will change the index considerably. T h e re mav be justifica tion for leaving an overly east item in the test if. for exam ple, it is a lead-off item used to give stu dents e n co u rag em en t to continue. .\lso. where an item appears in a test mav affect p erfo rm a n c e on it. For exam ple, students mav do best on the item s in the middle of an exam , after they hat e tvarm ed up to the test a n d before fatigue sets in. M ultiple-choice item s can be im proved by exam ining the p ercen t of resp o n d en ts who selected each choice. If some distractors draw no responses or too ntanv, then thev should he om itted or altered. This task requires both rigor and intuition. For instance, it mav be necessary to change the syn tax or vocabulary of a distractor, or perhaps its semantic thrust. In piloting an item, it is possible to ask the respondents what their rationale was for choosing a particular distractor instead of the cor rect answer to arrive at the best set of choices. Ideally, the results of item analysis would be ad d ed to the inform ation available on each item in the test constructor's item bank. If a particular test item comes u n d e r challenge by respondents
T he following checklist applies prim arily to the adm inistering of classroom tests an d is in te n d e d as suggestive, n o t prescriptive. T he “sh o u ld ”s of test adm inistration will vary according to the testing situation. 1. T he room should have ad eq u ate ventilation or heat, light, an d acoustics. 2. If a tape re c o rd e r is to be used, it should be set up and tested in advance to m ake sure that it works well. 3. T he test ad m in istrato r should assum e an affable but stern posture. A few smiles help to put the resp o n d en ts at ease b ut the stern ness is necessary to m ake it clear that cheat ing is not allowed— unless cooperative effort am ong resp o n d en ts is an integral p art o f the p articular test o r a p o rtio n of it. 4. T he tim e that the exam begins a n d the total tim e rem ain in g for the test a n d /o r subtests should be w ritten on the blackboard. 5. If the instructions are to be read aloud, they should be read slowly with no d e p a rtu re from the established w ording. If questions arise, the tester can use p arap h rasin g but should n o t add anything substantive to the instructions (H arris 1969).
T est-T aking S tra te g ie s T he strategies that resp o n d en ts use in taking tests have im plications b o th for the issue of test validity and ‘'bias for best.” Tests th at are relied u p o n to indicate the read ers’ com prehension level mat produce m isleading results because of num erous techniques that readers have devel oped for obtaining correct answers on such tests without fully or even partially u n d erstan d in g the text. .As Fransson (1984) so aptly puts it, respon dents mav not proceed via the text b u t rath e r aro u n d it. In effect, there are presum ptions held by test constructors an d adm inistrators as to what
is being tested, and there are the actual processes that test takers go through to produce answers to questions and tasks. T he two mav not necessarily be one and the same. T he strategies the respon dents are using mav be detrim ental to their over all perform ance, o r at least not as helpful as other strategies. M entalistic m easures using verbal rep o rt have helped determ ine how respondents actually take reading com prehension tests as opposed to how thev m ight be expected to take them (Cohen 1984; 1994, pp. 190-196). Studies calling on respondents to provide im m ediate or delaved ret rospection as to their test-taking strategies regard ing reading passages with m ultiple-choice items have, for exam ple, yielded the following results: 1.
2.
3.
4.
A lthough the instructions ask students to read the passage before answ ering the ques tions, students have re p o rte d e ith e r reading the questions first o r read in g just p art o f the article an d then looking for the co rresp o n d ing questions. A lthough advised to read all alternatives before choosing one. students stop reading the alternatives as soon as thev hate found one that thev decide is correct. Students use a strategy o f m atching m aterial from the passage with m aterial in the item stem and in the alternatives, and prefer this surface-structure reading o f the test items to супе that calls for m ore in-depth reading and inferencing. Students relv on th eir p rio r know ledge of the topic an d on th eir general vocabulary.
From these findings and others, a descrip tion is em erging o f how respondents actually answer test questions. Unless trained to do other wise, thev mav use the most expedient m eans of responding, such as reiving m ore on their previ ous experience with seemingly similar formats than on a close reading of the task at hand. Thus, when given a passage to read and summarize, they may1 perform the task the same wav’ thev did their last summ ary task, rather than paving attention to what is called for in the current one. O ften this strategy works, but on occasion the particular task mav require subtle or m ajor shifts in response behavior in ord er for the test taker to perform well.
T here appears to be a fu rth er insight to be gained from the test strategy literature, namely, that indirect testing form ats— that is, those which do n o t reflect real-world tasks (e.g., multiplechoice, cloze)— mav p rom pt the use of strategies solely for the pu rp o se of coping with the test for m at. M ore direct form ats such as sum m arizing a text may be fre e r of such ad d ed testing effects. However, as long as the task is p art o f a test, stu dents are b o u n d to use strategies they- w ould not use u n d e r non-test conditions. It is largely the responsibility of test constructors and o f those who adm inister such tests to be aware o f what th eir tests are actually m easuring. Verbal report techniques can assist the test developer an d user in ob tain in g such in fo rm a tio n .1 1 Insights about the wav in which resp o n dents go about p e rfo rm in g different testing tasks can be used to m ake in fo rm ed decisions as to ( 1 ) the choice o f testing form at, (2 ) the choice an d w ording o f instructions, a n d (9) the value an d feasibility o f coaching the respondents in how to take language tests. W ork bv O'Malley (1986) an d others has already m ade use of such research findings in designing training m odules for learn in g test-taking skills.
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S 1.
Can vou think of times when, as a student of a second or foreign language, one or m ore of the abuses of languages tests were “inflicted" upon vou? W hich ones? W hat was your reac tion at the time? As a teacher o f language, have vou ever ''p e rp e tra te d ’' any o f those abuses yourself? W hat w ould be the a p p ro priate rem edies.' 2. Identify a n d describe at least one test that vou o r a colleague used for an adm inistra tive, instructional, or research purpose. Was an in stru m en t ever used for assessm ent in m ore than one o f the th re e c ategories? If so. explain. 3. W hat does it m ean to sav that an item mav test for points th at are n o t consistent with the test c o n stru c to r’s objective (s) for that item? How would this be discovered a n d how m ight it be rem edied?
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1. Take an ESL /EFL test— e ith e r your own or som eone else’s— a n d review it, using the review checklist of questions provided below: a.
In stru ctio n s
(1) Are the instructions for each section clear: Do all the items in a section lit the instructions for that section? (2) Is the vocabularv in the instructions and in the items at the desired level o f difficultv (or too h a rd — particularlv in the instruc tions sectio n ): (3) Are th ere good exam ples of how to com plete each section (where ap p licable): (4) In stru ctu red or open -en d ed sections, do the instructions indicate the approxim ate length o f the response th at is to be m ad e: (5) If the test is tim ed, or tim ed in certain sections, is the tim ing realistic: (6) Are the resp o n d en ts inform ed in the instructions as to w h eth er the section is tim ed an d how long thev will have? (7) Do the instructions indicate the value of the particu lar section with respect to the overall test score: Is the overall value of the test clear to the in te n d e d resp o n d en ts: Do thev know what the purpose o f the test is: (8) Is the m eth o d o f a d m in iste rin g the te st/q u iz carefullv established (i.e.. so that so m eo n e else w ould a d m in iste r the test exactlv as vou would, if vou were not able to give it o r in te n d e d o thers to adm inister it): b.
C o n te n t
(1) (with reference to achievem ent tests) Is the test aclequatelv covering the instructional objectives for the course: Is it testing material M o/taught/learned in the course: (R em em ber that a good test should reveal gaps in the instructor's teaching as well as in the students' learning.) (2) Is the test testing the desired receptiv e/p ro d u ctiv e language skills: Has the test adequately isolated the desired skill (if this is w hat it p u rp o rts to do)? (3) Does the c o n te n t o f the test cover the in te n d e d aspects o f com m unicative com pe tence (gram m atical, discourse, an d sociolinguistic com petence)? Is the test in te n d in g to
get at masterу o f a set (or sam pled subset) o f objectives or sim ple som e level of attainm ent o f these objectives? Is the actual test consis ten t with the expressed design? (4) Is only one register (formal, casual, inti m ate) or dialect (standard or nonstandard) considered correct in one or all sections of the test? Are the respondents aware o f this (refer to the “Instructions” section above)? If the intent is to keep the language “conversational” in, sav, short-answer listening com prehension items, do the items reflect this intent? (5) Might som e or m anv item s be testing m ore points than vou th o u g h t originallv (if vou constructed the test)? If so, w ould it help to simplify these item s or p ro ced u res to give g rea ter p ro m in e n ce to exactlv the points in te n d e d to be m easured? (6 ) Did vou write anv of vour sentences as ■'linguistic curiosities” in an effort to test cer tain lexical a n d /o r structural points (e.g., “My b ro th e r has som ething beautiful an d I have n othing uglv") from Rivers 1981, p. 376)? (7) Does the test have the right title, or m ight it mislead both the respondents and potential test adm inistrators and interpreters o f the results? c.
Item F o rm at and Test Layo u t
(1) Is the test as a whole too long o r too short? (If too short, it mav not be reliable.) (2) Is one objective or an o th er being tested too m uch or too little? (Over-testing mav start giving awav the answers and under-testing mav not give enough diagnostic inform ation.) (3) Are the items which test the same objec tive w orded and spaced in a wav that one item does not provide a giveawav for the others? (4) Are anv items or sections clearly loo dilficult or too easy to answer? (O f course, item analysis helps answ er this question. T he dilficultv o f an item is often h ard to d eterm in e on an a priori basis.) (n ) I hive the correct tru e/false and m ultiplechoice responses been adequatelv ran d o m ized so as not to set up a response pattern (e.g.. all T T items should n o t be "true” and till M-C items should n ot have eith er “b ” or “c” as the correct answ er):
(6) Are the item s paced so th at even the poo rest stu d e n t will ex perience at least a m odicum o f sticcess at the outset? (7) Are the item response form ats the m ost ap p ro p riate ones for what y o u want to test (e.g., w ould m atch in g be a m ore efficient m eans o f testing vocabulary, sav, th an com pletio n o r m ultiple-choice, or w ould you wish to use several form ats)? (8) Is the item stim ulus form at ap p ro p riate (e.g., should the stim ulus be audiotaped, ra th e r th an w ritten, o r should b o th m odali ties be used)? (9) How good is the layout? (a) Is th e technical a rra n g e m e n t of the item s on the p rin te d page easy to follow (e.g., are the m ultiple-choice alternatives h orizontal or vertical, in the sentence itself, o r to one side)? (b) Is the spacing betw een an d w ithin items adequate? (c) If the test has b een p h o to co p ied , is the p rin t legible? (10) Have the item s b een adequately reviewed bv o th er native speakers (and non natives, if possible) to elim inate poor distractors and deceptive o r confusing items?
FU R T H ER R EA D IN G A lc le rso n ,
J.
С ..
Language
C.
C la p h a m ,
and
T e st C o n s t r u c t i o n
D.
W all.
1995.
a n d E v a lu a tio n .
X ew
Y ork: C a m b r i d g e U n iv e rs ity P re ss. T h is b o o k
fo cu ses
a d m in istra tio n
on
th e
p rim a rily
d esig n lo
o f te s ts fo r
larg er
g ro u p s
of
r e s p o n d e n t s . It o f f e r s tip s o n i t e m w r i t i n g , lis t in g
th e
p itfa lls
o f fo rm a ts
such
as
m u ltip le -
c h o i c e . It c o v e r s a l l p h a s e s o f t e s t c o n s t r u c t i o n , f r o m p ilo tin g to r e p o r t i n g o f sco res. B a ile v ,
К.
M.
1998b.
A ssessm en t:
L e a rn in g
D ilem m a s,
About
D ecisio n s,
Language
and
D irections.
B o s t o n . M A : H e i n l e 8c H e i n l e P u b l i s h e r s . T h is
v o lu m e
d isc u sse s
th e
v a lu e
o f d iffe re n t
a p p r o a c h e s to a s s e ssm e n t, in c lu d in g te s tim o n i als f r o m t e a c h e r s w h o h a v e h a d s u c c e s s w i t h o n e or
a n o th e r
in c lu d e and
ap p ro ach .
d ic ta tio n ,
strip
T est
clo z e ,
ty p es
C -te sts.
sto ries, ro le p la ts a n d
d isc u sse d d ic to c o m p s
p erfo rm an ce
tests, a n d w r it in g s a m p l e s a n d p o r t f o li o s . B row n.
J.
D ..
ed.
1998.
X ew
W ays
of
C lassroom
A ssessm en t. A le x a n d r ia , YA: T E S O L .
T h e b o o k o ffe rs E S L te a c h e r s id e a s f o r e v e ry d a y c la s s r o o m a s s e s s m e n t ac tiv itie s w h ic h p r o v i d e a w av o f o b se rv in g o r sc o rin g s tu d e n ts ' p e r f o r m a n c e s a n d g iv in g f e e d b a c k o n th e e ffe c tiv e n e ss o f th e le a r n in g a n d te a c h in g in v o lv ed . In c lu d e d a r e e x a m p l e s o f a lte r n a tiv e w avs o f a s s e s s in g th e f o u r sk ills s u c h as t h r o u g h p o r t f o l i o s , j o u r n a l s ,
d.
Sco rin g
(1) Have the m eth ods for scoring the test or grading a p ro ce d u re or section been ad e quately determ ined? (2) Are the item s a n d /o r sections w eighted appropriately in scoring— th at is, do the w eightings coincide with votir notions ab o u t the m ost im p o rta n t objectives, th e ones given th e m ost em phasis in the class, the m ost useful elem ents? Drawing on the suggestions in this ch ap ter c o n c ern in g testing read in g co m prehension, design a test of read in g c o m p reh en sio n and write several sam ple items for it. T h en review this test using the checklist in Activity I. 3. Devise a wav to test for strategic com petence in test taking. T hen try it o u t on a small g ro u p of resp o n d en ts a n d discuss the results with others. 2.
lo g s,
tu rd
stu c le n t-te a c h e r c o n fe re n c e s.
It also
p ro v id e s e x a m p le s o f self-assessm en t a n d p e e r assessm ent book
such
re p o rts,
as
th ro u g h
and
o ral
ex am p les
of
and
w ritte n
a lte rn a tiv e
g r o u p in g s fo r a sse ssm e n t. H a m p - L v o n s . I ... a n d W . C o n d o n . 2 0 0 0 . A s s e s s i n g t h e P ortfolio:
P rin cip les
fo r
P ractice,
'L h e o ry ,
and
R esearch. C r e s s k ill. X J: H a m p t o n P r e s s .
T h e v o lu m e p ro v id e s a n o v erv iew o f a n d f r a m e w o rk fo r p o r tf o lio - b a s e d a s s e s s m e n t o f w ritin g , d i s c u s s e s its a p p l i c a t i o n i n c o l l e g e w r i t i n g p r o gram s
(fo r n a tiv e s a n d
n o n -n a tiv e s), a n d
p ro
ti d e s a re s e a r c h a g e n d a . T h e a u t h o r s first fo c u s o n t h e l e a r n e r v a r ia b le s t h a t c a n b e i n c l u d e d in a p o r t f o li o (e .g ., to w h a t e x te r n d o e s th e le a r n e r reveal
in fo rm a tio n
about
h im /h e rse lf
versus
w h a t is t a u g h t i n s c h o o l ? ) , t h e n o n t h e t e a c h e r , n e x t o n th e assesso r, a n d fin a lly o n t h e p r o g r a m . M cX am ara.
T.
2000.
Language
'R e s t i n g .
O xfo rd :
O x f o r d U n iv e rs ity P ress. T h is b r i e f v o l u m e d e f i n e s w h a t a l a n g u a g e test is a n d r e l a t e s t h e d i f f e r e n t t y p e s f r o m t h e m o s t
d is c r e te - p o in t to th e m o s t in te g ra tiv e , p ra g m a tic ,
A P P E N D IX
a n d c o m m u n ic a tiv e , in te r m s o f th e ir c o m m u n i c a t i v e v a l u e . I t is t i m e l v a n d r e f r e s h i n g l y o p e n i n its h a n d l i n g o f i s s u e s .
ENDNO TES I T h i s is a n u p d a t e d v e r s i o n o f a c h a p t e r w i t h a s i m i l a r title, a p p e a r i n g in M . C c l c e - M u r c i a . e d . ( 1 9 9 1 ) . le a ch in g Scw
hng/i.sh
Y ork:
Second
o r J-'orcign
X ew b u rv
as
a
H ouse
H a rp c iC o llin s
Language.
te a c h e rs
speak
(p p .
4 8 6 -500. -
S o m e tim e s
of
u sin g
a
" c u rv e ."
■which s i m p l e m e a n s t h a t t l i e v e v a l u a t e a s t u d e n t ' s p e r f o r m a n c e in c o m p a r i s o n w ith t h a t o f o t h e r s tu d e n t s in t h e s a m e c la s s o r in o t h e r c la s se s. See
th e
a p p e n d ix ,
under
"A ssessin g
S p e a k in g
S k ills." f o r a d i s t i n c t i o n b e t w e e n s o c i o c u l t u r a l a n d s o c i o l i n g u i s t i c c o m p e t e n c e o r ab ilitv . 4 It w o u l d b e p o s s i b l e to a v o i d
th is bv h a v in g th e
m u l ti p le - c h o ic e a l t e r n a t h e s a lso p r e s e n t e d o r a l h . •’ O v e r a l l
rap id
in sp e c tio n
w ith
p e rio d s
of
c lo se
in sp e c tio n .
E x a m p le T est Ite m s f o r M e a su rin g L iste n in g , V ocabulary, S p eak in g , a n d W riting Skills As p o in ted out in C ohen (1994, Ch. 6) , it is pos sible to co m b in e d iffe re n t item -elicitatio n form als (i.e., oral, w ritten, nonverbal, o r a com b ination) and item -response form ats (likewise oral, w ritten, o r nonverbal) in o rd e r to g en erate items. For this reason, lists o f sam ple item s in testin g books inav a p p e a r re p e titio n s. For instance, a listening item and a read in g item mav actually have the same item stim ulus (e.g., a w ritten question) and differ onlyw ith respect to the way the m ultiple-choice responses tire p re se n te d — orallv. in the case o f the listening item and in writing in the rase of the read in g item. This appendix provides a brief sam pling of some types of items that mav be of benefit in testing, dep en d in g upon what is needed.
() L o c a t i n g a s p e c i f i c s v m b o l o r g r o u p o f s v m b o l s — e .g .. a d a te , a n a m e o f a p e r s o n o r p la c e , a s u m o f m o n ev .
'
D isc o v e rin g a c c u ra te ly w h a t
th e
a u th o r
seeks
to
convev.
Assessing Listening Skills D iscrim ination o f Sou n ds a.
H I n i n t e l l i g e n t t u t o r i n g sy s te m s , t h e c o m p u t e r d i a g n oses th e stu d e n ts' sh ip
to
expert
str a te g ie s a n d
str a te g ie s,
and
th e ir rela tio n
th e n
g en erates
i n s t r u c t i o n b a s e d o n th is c o m p a r i s o n . 9 T h is p o sitio n
is a n
e n d o r s e m e n t o f th e
need
to
b.
ta k e in to a c c o u n t " p e r c e iv e d v a lid ity ” (L o w 1 9 8 3 ). as d is c u s s e d in t h e c h a p t e r u n d e r "v a lid ity .” 10 T h e p o i n t h e r e
is t h a t s u c h c a s e s o f b i a s c a n
he
v ie w e d as a g o o d th i n g — as i n t e n t i o n a l bias. T h e
T h e re s p o n d e n t in d icates w hich vowel sound o f th re e is different from the o th e r two. (Taped stim ulus): (1) sun (2) p u t (3) dug: (response choices): (a) 1 *(b) 2 (c) 3. These sounds could be in sentence context. (Taped stim ulus): (1) It's a sheep. (2) It’s a shoe]). (3) It's a ship. (Response choices): (a) 1. (b) 2 A c) 3.
a i m w o u l d b e t o s e t u p t a s k s t h a t t e s t - t a k e r s w ill b e
Intonation
m o tiv a te d
a.
to
p a rtic ip a te
in .
such
as
th o se
th a t
a p p r o x i m a t e re a l-life s i tu a t io n s (S p o ls k v 1 9 8 3 ). II F o r m o r e o n v e r b a l r e p o r t a s a r e s e a r c h t o o l , s e e C o h e n 1998, p p. 3 4 -8 9 . 4 9 -b l.
b.
The resp o n d en t is to indicate w h e th e r two phrases have the same in to nation. (Taped stim ulus): You're com ing?. You're com ing. (Response choices): (a) same, *(b) different The respondent m ust determ ine the m ean ing o f the phrase from the intonation. (Taped stim ulus): G ood m orning! (Response choices): (a) lrappv u> see employee, A b) annoy ed that the em ployee is late to work
Listen in g fo r G ram m atical D istinctions
T he resp o n d e n t has to listen carefully for inflec tional m ark ers— for exam ple, the respondent
(bv m anipulating the stim ulus m aterial, the task posed, the learners' response, a n d /o r the scoring criteria) to m eet different assessment purposes" (1998b. p. 20). Bailev offers the partial dictation and the gradnated dictation as alternatives to a full dictation. In the first, parts o f the text are already on the page. In the second, the size o f the phrase groups betw een pauses is gradually increased. In addition, the length o f the pauses and the speed at which the phrase groups are read can be varied.
m ust d e te rm in e w h eth er the subject an d verb are in the singular or the plural. (Taped stim u lus): T he boys sing well. (Response choices): (a) singular, *(b) plural, (c) same form for singular a n d plural. Listening for Vocabulary T h e resp o n d en t perform s an action in response to a com m and (e.g., getting up. walking to the window) or draws a picture according to oral instructions (e.g., coloring a picture a certain wav, sorting a set of objects according to instructions). Auditory Com prehension a. T he respondent indicates w hether a response to a question is appropriate. (Taped stim ulus): How’re you gonna get hom e? At about 3:30 p.m. (Response choices): (a) appropriate. *(b) inappropriate b. T h e resp o n d e n t hears a statem ent and m ust indicate the ap p ro p riate p arap h rase for the statem ent. (Taped stim ulus): W h at'd von get yourself into this time? (Response choices): (a) W hat are you w earing this time? (b) W hat did you buy this time? *(c) W hat's vour pro b lem this time? c. T he respondents listen in on a telephone conversation betw een two people and at appropriate times m ust indicate what thev would say if thev were one of the speakers in the conversation. (Taped stim ulus): M other: Well, Mary, vou know vou were supposed to call m e last week. Man". I know. Mom. but I got tied up. M other: T hat's really no excuse. M an" (Response choices): (a) Yes. I'll call him . *(b) You’re right. I'm sorrv. (c) I’ve really h ad n o th in g to do. d. T he resp o n d en t hears a lecture, with all the false starts, filled pattses. and o th er features that m ake it different from oral recitation o f a written text. After the lecture, there arc taped m ultiple-choice, structured, or open-ended questions to be responded to in writing on the answer sheet. e. D ictation can se n e as a test o f auditory com p rehension if it is given at a fast eno u g h pace so th at it is n o t simply a spelling test. As Bailey notes, “ [D ic ta tio n is really a family of related procedures that can be systematically altered
Assessing Vocabulary a.
R espondents receive sets o f six words an d th ree m eanings and are in stru cted to choose the right w ord to go with each m eaning. Thev are to write the n u m b er o f that word next to its m eaning (N ation 1990): 1. 2. 3. 4. 3. 6.
b.
applv elect ________ choose by voting jum p ________ becom e like water m anufacture ________ m ake m elt th re a te n
Respondents receive a long list of words (e.g., 10 0 ) and are to indicate w hether thev know their m eaning. T he list consists of both real a n d im aginary words (n o n ex isten t words which the resp o n d en t could not possible know) (Meant and Buxton 1987): Check the words to n know the m ean in g of. e.g.. ✓ 'milk gath erin g lovalm ent dismissal enclose
forecast flane sloping rehearsion
woclesome crope bluck turm oil
c. C ontextualized vocabulary; R espondents are asked to indicate what a word m eans within the context of a given passage. T h e response could be open -en d ed o r m ultiple-choice — e.g.. W hat does delinquent m ean in line 7? (O p en -en d ed re s p o n s e ):_______________ . (M ultiple-choice re sp o n se ): (a) naughty (b) haughtv (c) sinful *(d) irresponsible
Assessing Speaking Skills G ood practice calls for using varied m easures of speaking, such that for each learner m ore than one type o f speaking is tapped (e.g., reporting in the L2 the contents of an article read in the native language, p articipating in g roup discussion on a com m on and possible controversial them e, tak ing p art in role play, an d lecturing). T hen it would be im portant to establish which speech functions are to be assessed in each type of interaction (e.g., reporting: ability to state the m ain ideas and express an opinion about them ; discussion: arguing; role plav: appropriate execution of the necessary speech acts— request ing, com plaining, apologizing, com plim enting). C ohen (1994, Ch. 8) provides scales for rating com m unicative language ability in term s of socio cultural, sociolinguistic, an d gram m atical ability, respectively T he sociocultural scale assesses the appropriateness of the strategies selected for real izing speech acts in a given context, taking into account (T) the culture involved, (2) the age and sex o f the speakers, (3) their social class and occupations, and (4) their roles and status in the interaction. T he scale for sociolinguistic ability is in tended to assess the ttse of linguistic forms to express the intent of the speech act (e.g.. regret in an apology, grievance in a com plaint, the objective of a request, or the refusal of an im itation). For exam ple, when a student e a rn in g coffee bum ps into a professor, spilling it on the professor's dress. “SornT' would probably constitute an inadequate apology. This categoiw assesses the speakers' con trol over the actual language forms ttsed to realize the speech act (e.g.. "sorrv," "excuse me," “yen' sonw," "reallv s o i t v " ) . as well as their control over register or formality of the utterance from most intim ate to most formal language. T he grammaticality scale deals with how acceptably words, phrases, and sentences are form ed and p ro n o u n ce d in the resp o n d en ts’ utterances. T he focus is both on clear cases of errors in form , such as the use of the present p er fect for an action com pleted in the past (e.g., “We have had a great time last night at your house"), as well as on m atters o f stvle (e.g., the learner uses a passive verb form in a context w here a native
would use the active form: "The CD was lost” vs. ”1 lost vottr C D "1. Major errors m ight be considered those that either interfere with intelligibility' or stigmatize the speaker. M inor errors would be those that neither get in the way of the listen e r’s co m p reh en sio n n o r annoy the listener to any extent. Thus, getting the tense w rong in “We have h ad a great tim e last n ig h t at your h o u se ” could be viewed as a m in o r error, w hereas p ro d u cin g “I d o n ’t have what to say” by translating directly from the a p p ro p riate H ebrew language (for “I really have no excuse”) could be consid e re d a m ajor e rro r since it is n o t only u n g ram m atical b u t also could stigm atize the speaker as ru d e a n d u n c o n c ern e d , ra th e r th an apologetic.
Assessing the Interaction of Reading and W riting An exam ple o f a test o f read in g and w riting is that o f sum m arizing. Sum m arization tests are com plex in nature. T he read in g p o rtio n entails identifying topical inform ation, distinguishing su p e ro rd in a te from su b o rd in ate m aterial, a n d identifying re d u n d a n t a n d trivial inform ation. Writing up of summ ary entails selecting o f topical inform ation (or generating it if it is n o t provided ), deleting trivial and red u n d an t inform ation, substi tuting superordinate m aterial, and restating the test so that it is co herent and polished (Brown and Da\ 1983; Kintsch and van Dijk 1978). Given the lack of clarity that often accom pa nies such tasks, it mav be useful to give specific instructions as to how to go about the sum m a rization task. For example: Instructions on H ow to Read ■ Read to extract the m ost im p o rtan t po in ts— for exam ple, those constituting topic sen tences signaled as crucial bv the paragraph structure: points that the read er o f the summan- would w ant to read. ■ Reduce inform ation to superordinate points. ■ Avoid re d u n d a n t in fo rm atio n — points will be taken off. Instructions on H ow to Write ■ P repare in draft form a n d th e n rewrite. ■ Link points smoothly.
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Exact length o f sum m ary (e.g., 10 p e rc e n t o f original test, so 75 words for 750-word text) W rite in your own words. Be brief. W rite legible.
It may also be beneficial to give raters specific instructions as to how to assess the sum m aries: ■
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C heck to see w h eth er each im p o rta n t p o in t is in clu d ed (points th at were agreed u p o n by a g ro u p of experts in advance). Check to ensure that these points are linked together by the key linking/integrating ele m ents appearing on the m aster list. Points will be taken off for each irrelevant point. Points will be taken off for illegibility.
Assessing W ritte n Expression P erhaps the m ain th in g to be said ab o u t the testing of w ritten expression is that it is a p o o r substitute for rep e a te d sam plings o f a le a rn e r’s w riting ability while n o t tin d e r the pressure o f an exam situation. T he c u rre n t process-oriented a p p ro ach to w riting suggests that it is u n n a tu ra l for a le a rn e r to write a draft o f a com position an d subm it it for a grade. Instead, learners p re pare m ultiple drafts that are reviewed both bv
peers (in small groups) a n d bv the teach er at a p p ro p riate times. H ence, if writing is to be assessed on a test, it would be im portant to proride the learners with specific guidelines as to the nature of the task. For example: Your boss has asked vou to rough out an a rg u m e n t fo r whv the factory employees should not get longer coffee breaks. Try to present your argum ents in the most logical and persuasive wav. Do n o t w o rn ab o u t gram m ar and punctuation at this point. T here is no time for that now. Just concern yourself with the co n ten t of votir ideas, their organization, and the choice of a p p ro priate vocabulary to state your case. It is also im portant for the person assessing the writing to pav attention onlv to those aspects of the task that learners were requested to perform . Furtherm ore, the field of T2 writing has em braced the use of portfolios whereby the stu dents prepare a series of com positions (possibly including the various drafts o f each as well). Each entrv mav represent a different tvpe o f writing— for instance, one could be a narrative or descrip tive or expressive piece, the second a form al essay, and the third an analysis of a prose text. H ence, the portfolio represents m ultiple m easures of the students' writing ability. (For m ore on portfolios, see Hamp-Lvons and Conclon 2000.)
Keeping Up to Date as an ESL or EFL Professional J O A N N
(JODI)
C R A N D A L L
Crandall's chapter identifies a number of strategies and
resources for continuing professional
development. The strategies include participating in professional associations, serving on curriculum developm ent or textbook selection committees, researching classroom issues and practice, and working collaboratively with professionals Tom other fields. Also discussed are relevant journals, clearinghouses/centers, publishers, and Internet resources.
“That’s the best part of teaching— the learning. ” (An ex p erien ced tea c h e r serving as a Peace Corps vo lu n teer in K iribati)
IN T R O D U C T IO N T h o u g h you m ar be about to com plete o r mav have recently com pleted a program to prep are you as an English as a second or foreign lan guage teach er a n d vou've lea rn ed a lot about theories o f teaching a n d learning, language acquisition an d developm ent, the structure of English, approaches an d techniques for teach ing a n d testing language skills an d proficiency, a n d cross-cultural com m unication a n d have had the o p p o rtu n ity to read about, discuss, and research a n u m b e r of specific topics related to second a n d fo reig n language tea c h in g and le a rn in g — this is onlv a beginning. If con have b een able to teach d u rin g votir program , you know how m uch m ore you learn w hen you can test out w hat you have b e e n read in g a n d th in k ing about. T hat testing and learn in g will now becom e a p a rt o f your daily routine. It was a wise person who said th at teaching is lifelong le a rn ing. I t’s th at learn in g ("the best p a rt o f teach in g ”) w hich m otivates m anv English language professionals to keep teaching w hen the benefits from o th e r jo b s w ould otherw ise draw them away. C om pleting an academ ic program is really onlv the beginning of a lifelong quest to better
understand ou r students, ourselves, ou r discipline, and the approaches and techniques we can use to help others to becom e com petent users o f English. A n u m b er o f resources are available to stim ulate new ideas and to help us reconsider old ideas or practices. You have undoubtedly used manv of these during vour TESOL program . Tliev will becom e even m ore im p o rtan t w hen you find yourself in settings w here there are fewer colleagues to share concerns a n d ideas with on a regular basis than when vou were a student. Some of the wavs in which vou can continue to grow as a teacher and becom e a better-inform ed EST professional include: ■
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Participating in professional associations concerned with the teaching o f English or o th er foreign languages, including attending local, national, or international conferences. Subscribing to journals and regularly read ing periodicals about language teaching and learning and related fields. Placing your nam e on m ailing lists of m ajor ESL /EFL textbook publishers an d inform a tion clearinghouses o r resource centers. O ffering to review texts for publishers o r journals. Participating in electronic (e-mail) discus sion groups and using the In te rn e t to access language teaching a n d learning websites an d electronic jo u rn als. Serving on textbook selection com m ittees in vour ESL program .
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W orking on curriculum or textbook devel o p m en t team s in vour ESL. program . A ttending or giving in-service workshops an d sem inars lo r teachers. Participating in sum m er institutes or special graduate program s to augm ent and update vour knowledge and skills. Researching issues in vour own classroom or participating in research projects that will enable to n to work with colleagues from vour own and o th er institutions who are engaged in an ah zing issues relevant to vour classroom. W orking collaborativelv with professionals in o th e r fields. Being m entored bv experienced colleagues and then becom ing a m entor to novice teachers or those who are new to vour insti tution or program .
P R O FE S S IO N A L A S S O C IA T IO N S A N D O R G A N IZ A T IO N S Professional associations and organizations offer an excellent m eans of keeping in touch with o th ers in the same field. Thev provide a n u m b e r of form al an d inform al channels (publications, conferences, sem inars, workshops, and com m it tees) to learn w hat o thers in sim ilar contexts are thinking a n d doing a n d to share insights and ideas from vour own experience. Most also offer a n u m b e r o f professional dev elo p m en t o p p o rtu nities on the In te rn e t and the W orld W ide Web, such as electronic discussion groups, online sem inars or w orkshops, and e-mail question and answ er services. W hile atte n d in g conferences or sem inars in person mav provide op p o rtu n ities for interacting with manv colleagues, increasinglv it is possible to have that interaction w ithout leav ing hom e, through the In te rn et and o th er tech nology. These associations also publish a range of materials, including newsletters, journals, teacher reference books, and student texts or o th er m ate rials, each of which provides a different wav of keeping inform ed about new research, materials, o r issues in the field. Most associations also host conferences, both at a national and m ore local level. These conferences offer m ultiple avenues
for professional growth. Plenarv addresses often discuss e m e rg in g questio n s; p a p e rs analvze rese a rc h results; w orkshops in tro d u c e te c h niques o r strategies: and book exhibits provide an o p p ortunitv to exam ine new stu d e n t and teach er resource texts. Thev also offer o p p o rtu nities for inform al conversation with o th ers who share sim ilar interests or concerns, often leading to long-term professional c o rre sp o n dence and friendship. T h ere is perhaps no single ex perience with m ore potential for ed u cating a n d refreshing a professional than an intern atio n al English lan guage teaching conference. But even at a smaller, national, regional, or local level, these organiza tions and conferences are a great resource, som e tim es providing inform ation o r assistance th at is of m ore im m ediate use. since professionals in the same geographic area are likelv to share similar concerns. Professional associations usuallv also offer ongoing program s of professional develop m ent through sum m er institutes, short courses, an d sem inars, scheduled so that teachers and others who are w orking are able to attend. O pportunities to participate in these professional developm ent sem inars from one's hom e, an o th er institution, or through distance education are also increasing. T hese sem inars, institutes, an d workshops can all help revive a teach er who is feeling b u rn e d out from the dailv stress of class room teaching. T hrough a professional association, vou can also becom e m ore activelv involved in im proving the profession: in helping to set standards for instruction, in developing criteria for evaluating program s, or in recognizing exem plarv research or practice. Most organizations also have a num ber of special interest groups which com m unicate regularlv through publications, e-mail, or confer ences about specific aspects of the profession — for exam ple, the use of com puters or video in teaching, the teaching o f specific skills or specific levels, and the different roles of English language teaching professionals, such as m aterials develop m ent or program adm inistration. But reading others' work, listening to what others are learning or doing, or taking courses is also onlv a beginning. You need to trv out vour ideas bv p resen tin g som ething vou have learn ed
through vour experience, perhaps giving a poster session w here von displav the results o f an action research project y o u have undertaken in vour class or participating in an informal "swap simp" or "what works" session where y o u join several col leagues in sharing teaching techniques that y o u have fo u n d particularlv effective. T he m ore actively you participate, the m ore the profes sional association will offer vou and the m ore vou will learn. W hile there are manv professional associa tions of interest to English language teaching pro fessionals, the following are am ong the largest and m ost im p o rta n t (unless n o ted otherw ise, all organizations listed are in the U nited States):
Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) 700 South W ashington Street. Suite 200 A lexandria, VA 22314 P hone: Fax: E-mail: Website:
(703) (703) inf o@ http:
836-0774 836-7864 tesol.org 4vww.tesol.org
TESOL publishes TESOL Matters (the organiza tion's newsletter, with an excellent calendar o f upcom ing conferences), TESOL Journal (a p ra c tic e -o rie n te d m agazine, in c lu d in g "Tips fro m th e C lassroom "). 'TESOL Quarterly (a research jo u rn al), a n u m b e r of special-interest newsletters, and a range of teacher reference texts. It also m aintains tut extensive website. In addition to an annual conference, which draws about 10.000 English language teaching profes sionals, the organization also sponsors profes sional developm ent sem inars and academ ies and articulates standards for English language teach ing in diverse contexts. M embers can participate in 20 Interest Sections, with new ones form ing as new interests em erge. T here are also m ore than 90 TESOL Affiliates aro u n d the world, represent ing m ajor m etropolitan areas, states, provinces, regions, and countries. These "local” language teaching organizations tire also im portant sources o f inform ation, often sponsoring conferences, professional developm ent seminars, publications fairs, and job lists, offering teachers an opportunitv to link up with colleagues teaching in similar
contexts. Manv affiliates also publish newsletters, journals such as the CATESOL Journal, published by the C alifornia Association o f Teachers of English to Speakers of O th e r Languages, and w orking papers, such as those published bv the W ashington, DC TESOL (WATESOE) affiliate.
International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL) 3 Kingsdown C ham bers W hitstable. Kent CT5 214. E-mail: We b si t e :
UK
iatefl@ com puserve.com 1111 p :/ www. i a t e f1. о rg
This UK-based professional organization hosts an annual conference, usuallv held in conjunction with one o f the 70 national professional organiza tions associated with IATEFL. T he 14 Special Interest G roups also jointlv sponsor an annual svmpositim, often in conjunction with the British Council. IATEFL m em bers receive reduced rates on a n u m b er of professional journals, including the ELL Journal, Modern English ’Teacher, and English Teaching Professional. IATEFL also makes available teacher reference texts, some of which consist of papers from past IATEFL conferences. T he web site provides an extensive conference calendar, as well as news of the association.
International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA) с о Am erican Association for A pplied Linguistics (AAAL) PO Box 21686 Eagan. MX 55121-0686 Phone: Fax: E-mail: Website: All.A Website:
(952) 953-0805 (952) 431-8404 aaaloffice@ aaal.org h ttp :/,/www.aaal.org h ttp ://w w w .b ra d .a c .u k /a c a d /aila
AILA. is an international association m ade up of national associations o f applied linguists. Because it has no fixed secretariat, the easiest wav to find out about AILA is th rough a national affiliate such as the Am erican Association for A pplied Linguistics (AAAL) or th rough the AILA website. AILA hosts a W orld C ongress on A pplied Linguistics in a different country every 3 vears,
providing an excellent opportunity to becom e acquainted with research and practice in m ore than 30 areas in applied linguistics. In addition, the association publishes AILA Xews and the A ll A Review (them atic occasional papers). A VAL, the U.S. affiliate, convenes an annual conference, with a n u m b er of plenarv speakers and colloquia on a range of topics in applied linguistics. It also publishes the AX\Letter (available at the website) with notices about conferences, issues of concern to applied linguists, and a m em bership directory, as well as a directorv o f graduate program s in applied linguistics in N orth America. It also m ain tains an electronic m ailing list for posting job notices and o th er inform ation.
National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) 1030 lo th Street, X\V, Suite 470 W ashington, DC 20005-1503 P hone: Fax: E-mail: W ebsite:
(202) 898-1829 (202) 789-2860 NABE @n a b e .о r g h ttp :/ / www. n a b e .org
Focusing on the ed u catio n o f language m inority students in the U n ited States. NABE offers a n u m b e r of services o f interest to ESL and EFL language professionals, including an extensive w ebsite, w here back issues of the Bilingual Research Journal a n d ЛABF. Xews (the associa tion's new sletter) are archived. A m ong XABE's 18 Special In terest G roups are ones focused on Earlv C hildhood, Elem entary. A dult /V ocational o r H ig h er E ducation, Global E ducation, Critical Pedagogy, a n d Inform ation Technology. T h ere is also a Special In terest G roup for Parents.
NAFSA: Association of International Educators 1307 New York Avenue, XW, 8th Floor W ashington, DC 20005-4701 P hone: Fax: E-mail: Website:
(202) 737-3699 (202) 737-3657 inbox@ nafsa.org h ttp :/ Avww.nafsa.org
With a focus on international exchange of scholars to and from the U nited States, this association
(formerly the National Association for Foreign Student Advisers) includes am ong its m em bers directors of international program s, educational advisers and admissions officers, and ESL. teachers and program administrators, working principally in h ig h er education. T he association hosts a national and several regional conferences, pub lishes International Educator (a quarterly news letter), and proticles an electronic news service which keeps m em bers current on legislation and policy discussions, as well as m ore routine news of the association.
Linguistic Society of America (LSA) 1325 18th Street. NAG Suite 211 W ashington. DC 20036-6501 Fax: E-mail: Website:
(202) 835-1717 [email protected] http: / www.lsadc.org
An association principally o f theoretical an d descriptive linguists, ESA publishes the jo u rn a l Language and the LSA Bulletin, convenes an a n n u a l scholarly m eeting, sponsors sum m er institutes, and offers a n u m b e r o f journals at red u c e d rates to m em bers. Its website provides an extensive listing o f publishers, journals, and o th e r inform ation of interest to ESL/EFE lan guage teach in g professionals. While participation in language and linguis tics professional associations m ight seem an obvi ous source of professional growth, what mav be less obvious is the role that related professional organizations can plav in helping to broaden and deepen one's understanding of language teaching and learning. For exam ple, attending a confer ence of reading or writing professionals or read ing a jo u rn al c o n c ern e d with cross-cultural com m unication or curriculum developm ent can offer insights relevant to ESL /EFI. teaching. Participating in a related professional organization can bring the insights of that field to o n e ’s own teaching and also bring together professionals who have m uch to share and learn from each other. With expanding linguistic and cultural diversity in national populations and increased stuclv or use of English as an instructional m edium for some por tion of education in m any countries of the world,
links with o th e r professional associations will becom e increasingly im portant for English lan guage teaching professionals. These organizations exist in m any parts of the world. In the United States, the International Reading Association (800 Barksdale Road, Newark, DE 19711; h ttp ://w y m re a d in g .o rg ), the National Council of Teachers o f English (1111 Kenyon Road, Urbana, IE 61801; http://w w w .ncte.org), The Am erican Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (6 Executive Plaza, Yonkers, NY' 10701; h ttp ://w y m a c tfl.o rg ), and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum D evelopm ent (1793 B eauregard Street, A lexandria, УА 22314; h t tp : / /w y m ascd .o rg ) all provide publications, conferences, a n d professional developm ent opportunities relevant to ESL and EFL profession als. T heir websites, as well, are excellent sources of inform ation about topics of relevance to ESL and EFL professionals. Most of these organizations also have regional, state, or local affiliates that provide a m eans o f developing professional relationships or collaborations with those closer to hom e.
P R O FE S S IO N A L JO U R N A LS A nother wav to keep current is to read and respond to journals in the field (some of which are published by the professional associations dis cussed above) and to subm it com m ents, book reviews, and articles to them . Because the num ber of journals relevant to the teaching and learning o f language continues to grots, only major, repre sentative ones are described below. In the section on Electronic Resources, a n um ber of websites are provided which can lead vou to o th er journals of interest. Mans of these journals also provide some portion of their current or past issues online. If vou are unable to locate pap er copies o f these journals, you may be able to access at least por tions of them through their svebsites.
Annual Review of Applied Linguistics (ARAL) C am bridge University Press 110 M idland Ave. Port Chester, NY 10573-4930 Or
Shaftesbury Road E d in b u rg h Building C am bridge CB2 2RU UK Website: h t t p : / / u k .c a m b rid g e .o rg /jo u rn a ls A i annual, them atic issue with invited contribu tions, ARAL provides a comprehensive, up-to-date review o f research and practice in an area of applied linguistics. Each article gives a critical sum mary o f one topic, followed bv an annotated bibli ography o f key references and a list of other references o f interest. A broad range of topics is covered, including language teaching and testing, literacy, and language policy.
Applied Language Learning D efense L anguage Institute, Foreign Language C enter Presidio o f M onterey, CA 93944-5006 Websi te : http: / / cli-wwvv. army, mil / p a g e s/ jou rn al/all9 8 -0 9 .p d f Published semi-annually bv the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language C enter and Presidio of M onterey this journal focuses on the application of research from a num ber of fields to language teaching m ethods and techniques, curriculum and materials, testing and evaluation, and o ther con cerns related to language professionals.
Appi led L i ngu isties O x fo rd U n iv e rsity P ress G reat C larendon Street O xford OX2 6DP UK Or 2001 Evans Road Can-. NC 27513 E-mail: journal.info@ oup.co.uk Website: h ttp ://w w w .o u p .c o .u k /jo u rn als Published in cooperation with the Am erican and British Associations for Applied Linguistics and the International Association of A pplied Lin guistics. this jo urnal includes theoretical and research articles discussing first and second language acquisition, language teach in g and testing, bilingualism and bilingual education, discourse analysis, an d o th e r topics of in terest to ap p lied linguists in diverse fields. Book reviews are also included.
E LI' Journal O xford University Press G reat C laren d o n Street O xford 0 X 2 6DP UK Or 2001 Evans Road Carv, NC 27513 E-mail: journal.info@ oup.co.uk Website: http: / / w vvw 3.oup.co.uk/eltj/ Formerly the English Language leaching Journal, the ELT Journal “seeks to bridge the gap between the evervdav practical concerns of the ELT pro fessional and related disciplines such as educa tion, linguistics, psychology, and sociology" In addition to reviews of new publications and arti cles relating theory to classroom practice, ELTJ reviews a “key concept in ELT" yearly providing a synthesis and suggesting av enues for furth er read ing. Key concepts have included deductive and inductive language learning, learner training, learning strategies, and project work.
English for Specific Purposes Elsev ier Science P.O. Box 945 New York, XT 10159-0945 Or T h e Boulevard, L angford Lane K iddington, O xford 0 X 5 1GB UK E-mail: [email protected] Website: http://w w w .elsevier.com Known formerly as the ESP Journal, this quarterly is the m ajor source of inform ation about research, program design, materials, teacher education, and o th er issues in the teaching of English for Specific Purposes around the world, including contentbased language instruction and vocational ESL. Also has reviews of text materials and scholarly books on topics of interest to ESP professionals.
English Teaching Forum 301 4th Street, SW, Room 312 W ashington, DG 20547 Website: hup: ex ch anges.state.gov/fo ru m / W hile in te n d e d for teachers o f English outside th e U n ited States a n d d istrib u te d by US em bassies a ro u n d the world, the Forum is a m ajor source o f in fo rm atio n on practical issues
in language teaching and teacher education for ESL EFT professionals in the U nited States, espe cially those interested in international perspectives on language teaching and learning. The Eorum occasionally publishes thematic issttes and regu larly includes practical discussions of innovative teaching techniques. O rdering information and back issues are available on-line at the address listed.
ESL Magazine B ridge Press 220 M cK endree Avenue A nnapolis. MD 21401 E-mail: eslm agazine@ com puserve.com Website: h ttp :/ vvvvvv.eslmag.com A relative newcom er, this practical m agazine includes articles about teaching in a variety of con texts (mostly second language) and instructional approaches and techniques especially for the K-12 teacher. Some articles are available on its website.
Issues in Applied Linguistics D epartm ent of Applied Linguistics and TESL UCLA 3300 Rolfe Hall, P.O. Box 951531 Los Angeles. CA 90095-1531 E-mail: ial2@ hum net.ticla.edti Website: h ttp :/, w w w .hum net.ucla.edu/ lium net TESTAE ial Published bv the graduate students in applied linguistics at UCLA, this journal focuses on new departures and cross-clisciplinarv applied linguis tic research in areas such as discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, language acquisition, language e d u c atio n , an d language assessm ent. Book reviews of teacher references and student texts are also frequently included.
Journal of Second Language Writing Ablex C orporation с о Elsevier Science P.O. Box 945 New York. NY 10159-0945 Or T he Boulevard, L angford Lane K iddington, O xford 0 X 5 1GB UK E-mail: [email protected] Website: h t t p : / /wwvv.elsevier.com
This journal features theoretically g ro u n d e d reports of research and discussion o f issues central to second and foreign language writing and writ ing instruction, including characteristics and atti tudes o f L2 writers, features of th eir texts, an d read ers' responses to and evaluation of their writing in a variety o f contexts.
Language Learning Blackwell Publishers 350 Main Street M alden, MA 02148 Or P.O. Box 805 108 Cowlev Road O xford 0 X 4 1FH UK Website: h ttp ://w w w .blackw ellpublishers.co.uk A “jo u rn a l of research on language studies," Language Learning includes research and theoret ical articles on child, second, and foreign language acquisition and learning, language education, bilingualism , literacy, pragm atics, a n d culture, as well as book reviews, notes, and a n n o u n cem en ts. It also provides an an nual su p p lem en t to sub scribers in e ith e r the Best of Language L earning Series or Language Learning M onograph Series. While directed primarily it) language researchers, it also includes articles of interest to language teachers.
Language Leaching C am bridge University Press 110 M idland Ave. Port Chester. XT 10573-4930 Or E d in b u rg h Building Shaftesbury Road C am bridge CB2 2RU UK Website: http: / /u k .c a m b rid g e .o rg /jo u rn a ls Language Teaching abstracts articles in applied linguistics, language studies, foreign languages, and E SL /LFL teaching from journals published in several languages, with particularly co m p re hensive coverage o f E u ro p e a n sch o larsh ip . O f special interest is the feature sum m ary article, which presents a state-of-the-art overview of some im p o rtan t area in the field, such as lea rn er
strategies, m otivation, o r bilingual education. Also published is an annual research reriew that identi fies trends in language teaching and learning from the prerious vear.
Language Testing A rnold Publishers Jo u rn a l D ep artm en t 338 E uston Road L o n d o n N W 13B H UK W'ebsite: http: / /a rn o ld p u b lish e rs.c o m / Language 'testing is an international journal con cerned with issues of testing and assessment o f first, second, and foreign languages and is of interest to researchers and practitioners in ESI, and EFL test ing. .Articles and research reports discuss testing theory and procedures and their practical implica tions. .Also included are book and test reviews.
Modern Language Journal Blackwell Publishers 350 M ain Street M alden, M assachusetts 02148 Or P.O. Box 805 108 Cowlev Road O xford OX4 1JF UK Website: h ttp ://w w w .blackw ellpublishers.co.uk M L / focuses on foreign languages, but has articles on ESL as well. A range o f research, reriew, and response articles is included, as well as publication and m edia reviews, a calendar of events, and news.
Reading in a Foreign Language In te rn atio n a l E ducation C entre University College o f St. M ark a n d St. J o h n D erriford Road Plym outh PL6 8BH UK This journal focuses on research a n d instruc tional issues related to read in g in a second or foreign language.
Studies in Second Language Acquisition C am bridge University Press 110 M idland Ave. Port Chester, XT 10573-4930 Or
E d in b u rg h B uilding Shaftesbury Road C am bridge C.B2 2RU UK W ebsite: h ttp :/ / uk. cam bri d g e .o r g / Each year, one issue of SSLA is devoted to a par ticular them e. T he o th er two issues are concerned with theoretical and research topics in second and foreign language acquisition and learning.
TESOL Journal 700 South W ashington Street, Suite 200 A lexandria, VA 22314 E-mail: info@ tesol.org Website: http: / /www. tesol.org/' T h e Journal p u b lish es articles on te a c h e r research, teaching techniques, and issues of im p o rta n c e to classroom te a c h e rs w orking directly with E ST /EFL students. Also in cluded are classroom tips, m aterials reviews, a n d a spe cial section on websites a n d technology in lan guage teaching. Special issues devoted to them es such as secondary school students o r contentbased language instruction.
TESOL Quarterly 700 South W ashington Street, Suite 200 A lexandria, VA 22314 E-mail: info@ tesol.org Website: h ttp :/' / www.tesol.org/ TESOL Quarterly publishes scholarly articles of in terest to researchers, teach er educators, cur riculum developers, a n d teachers of English a ro u n d the world. It also publishes book reviews, len g th ie r review articles, book notices, a n d b rie f research reports an d sum m aries. A special fea tu re is a forum for debate on issues th at have been raised previously in the journal.
World Englishes Blackwell Publishers 350 M ain Street M alden, MA 02148 Or 108 Cowley Road O xford 0 X 4 1JF UK Website: http:/,/wvvw. blackw ellpublishers.co.uk/
As the of variety of Englishes increases, so does the interest in studying them in th eir cultural a n d sociolinguistic contexts. This journal focuses on the studv a n d teaching o f these '‘W orld Englishes,” with an international perspective on language, literature, and m ethodology of English language teaching. T he C om m ents/R eplies and O p en Forum sections encourage lively discussion o f the issues. O th e r periodicals that deserve m entioning include TESOL Matters (the newsletter of the TESOL association, which pro\ides inform ation on m eetings, conferences, legislation, and publi cations o f interest to ESL/EFL professionals); Cross Currents (a journal which is particularly con cerned with cross-cultural issues in English lan guage teaching); the RELC Journal (a publication of the SEAMEO Regional Language C entre in Singapore, which focuses on language teaching and learning in Southeast Asia); the JALTJournal and The Language 'Teacher (publications o f the Japan Association of Language Teachers, the latter offering them atic issues dealing -with special topics in English and other foreign language teaching); the TEST ReJjorter (a slim journal with timely sug gestions for ESL/EFL classroom teachers); the Canadian Modern Language Rei’iew (a jo u rn al with parallel articles in English and French concerned with language teaching and learning); TESL Talk (a "journal for teachers o f ESL,” especially those w orking with im m igrants a n d refugees, p u b lished bv the M inistry of Citizenship in T oronto, C anada); English Teaching Professional (a new/ practical quarterly m agazine in te n d e d prim arily for classroom teachers o f English in secondary schools); Reading in a Foreign Language (with a focus on research an d practice in second and fo reig n lan g u a g e re a d in g ); a n d Language Teaching Research (which publishes both q u an ti tative and qualitative research related to teach ing of second and foreign languages [including English], with topics such as m aterials design, m ethodology, teaching of specific skills, and lan guages for specific purposes). In addition, associations of professionals in the fields o f reading, waiting, foreign languages, teacher education, and curriculum developm ent publish journals an d magazines of relevance to
English language teaching. For exam ple, the In te rn a tio n a l R eading A ssociation publishes Reading Research Quarterly, with theoretical articles and reviews of research o f interest to reading researchers; the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literary (previously the Journal of Reading) focuses on theoretical and practical articles -which are rel evant to ESL/EFL literacy teachers at secondary school or adult levels; and The Reading Teacher, for elem entary school teachers. T he National Council of Teachers of English, with an ESL Assembly at its annual conference, publishes jour nals on writing with increasing discussion of sec o n d language issues, including Research in the Teaching of English, Teaching English in the Two-Year College, and College Composition and Communication. T he Association for Supervision and C urriculum D evelopm ent publishes Educational Leadership, the single m agazine for keeping current on program m atic and political issues confronting public school education in the U nited States, with recent issues focusing on m ultiple intelligences, technol ogy in teaching, and constructivist teaching. Eoreign Language Annals, published bv the .American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, is in te n d e d for foreign language administrators, researchers, and teachers in the U nited States, but contains theoretical, practical, and poliev-oriented articles of interest to English language teaching professionals.
P U B LISH ER S A N D C L E A R IN G H O U S E S To keep c u rre n t on stu d e n t textbooks, teacher referen ce m aterials, audiovisual m aterials, and software, you will want to have your nam e or the n am e o f vour educational in stitution ad d e d to the m ailing lists o f the m ajor ESL /EFL and applied linguistics publishers and inform ation clearinghouses so that vou can receive regularm ailings o f th eir catalogs or c u rre n t m aterials and services. M am publishers also provide a list an d description of their publications online. You can consult the websites listed below to see what m aterials and o th er sen-ices (e.g., newsletters, answers to questions, or lists o f local marketingrepresentatives) are provided.
T he expanding role of English as an interna tional or additional language has led to the devel opm ent of an un p reced en ted quantity o f English language teaching texts and reference materials, published bv a wide range of publishers. It is impossible to list them all here. W hat follows is a representative list of those that produce diverse types of ELT publications. Readers o f a form er edition o f this chapter trill note that m any of the previously listed publishers are now p art of larger publishing houses. Since the form er publishingim prints are still in distribution, I have listed them u n d e r their new publisher. T he m ajority o f addresses provided below are for the L’nited States an d U n ited K ingdom . Most publishers also m aintain offices an d distri bution centers in a n u m b e r o f countries. If vou work outside the U nited States and the U nited K ingdom , consult th e p u b lish er th ro u g h its web site or bv mail for inform ation ab o u t publication distribution closer to hom e. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS 40 West 20th Street New York, NT 10011 Or T he E d in b u rg h B uilding C am bridge CB2 2RU UK Website: http: / /u k .c a m b rid g e .o rg /jo u rn a ls III INI M \ \ \ Eurospan G roup 3 H e n rie tta Street L o n d o n WC2 8 LU UK "Website: h ttp ://w w w .h e in e m a n n .c o m /
HEINLE & HEIXLF, PUBLISHERS (publishers o f H einle & H einle an d Newbury H ouse) Division of T hom son L earning, Inc. 25 T hom son Place Boston. MA 02110 Websi t e : h ttp :/ /■www. heinle. com h t t p : / / w w w .thom sonlearning.com HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 222 Berkley Street Boston, _\L\ 02116 Website: http: / / www.hrnco.com
JOSSEY-BASS 350 Sansom e Street San Francisco, CA 94104 Website: h t t p : / / w w w . jo s s e Y b a s s . c o m
Website:
i MVR1-NCF ERLBAUM ASSOCIATES. INC. 10 Industrial Avenue M ahwah, NJ 07430-2262 Website: http://tMMv.erlbaum.com
ALTA BOOK CENTER PUBLISHERS 14 A drian C ourt Burlingam e, CA 94010 Website: h t t p :/ ' tvtvtv.ahaesl.com
h t t p : / / t M
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v . m h e d u c a t i o n . c o m
McGRAW HILL COMPANIES 1221 Avenue o f the Am ericas New York, NT 100202 W ebsite: http://4M nv.m cgratv-hill.com ML LTII4NGLAL MATTERS F rankfurt Lodge, Clevedon Hall Clcvedon BS21 7H H UK Website: h ttp :/' /www.multilingualm atters.com NATIONAL TEXTBOOK COMPANY N il 4255 West Touhv Avenue L incolnw ood, IL 60712-1975 Website: http: / /wwtv.ntc-school.com OXFORD UNRTRSITY PRESS ESL D ep artm en t 198 M adison Avenue New York, NY 10016 Website: http://4vtvw .oup-usa.org esl Or English L anguage Teaching Division Great. C larendon Street Oxfor d 0 X 2 6DP UK Website: h ttp ://w w w .o u p .u k PEARSON ED U CAT IО N (Publishers of Longm an, Prentice Hall Regents, Scott Foresm an, a n d Addison-Wesley) 10 Bank Street, Suite 900 W hite Plains, NY 10606-1951 Or E d inburgh Gate I larlow Essex GM20 2JE UK Website: h ttp :/ /tvtvtv.longman-elt.com UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PRESS 839 G reene Street, Box 1104 A nn Arbor, MI 48106-1104
http:
tM M v.press.um ich.edu/esl
Two o th e r publishers 'b o o k distrib u to rs also Fill orders for books from o th e r publishers:
DELTA SYSTEMS CO.. INC. 1400 M iller Parktvav M cHenry, IL 60050-7030 Website: h ttp /' tMvtv.deha-svstems.com T h e re are also three major e-connnerce sites for book orders that can prot ide inform ation about c urrent (and some out-of-print) books: http: ' tMvtv.amazon.com http: tMMv.barnesandnoble.com http: / tvtvtv.borders.com
C L E A R IN G H O U S E S A n u m b e r o f inform ation clearinghouses car. provide timelv inform ation a n d answers to ques tions that mav arise as y o u work in the ESL/EFL field. Som e o f these, such as the E ducational Resources Inform ation C en ter (ERIC) system are long-standing; others develop as the need for them arises, onlv to dissolve w hen the issue' are no lo n g er as pressing o r w hen fu n d in g is m lo n g er available. You will want to ask to b e placed on regular or electronic m ailing lists and to consult th eir websites for fu rth e r inform ation Also be on the lookout for new clearinghouses r : centers that mav arise. Some of the m ost use!/., include the following: ERIC CLEARINGHOUSE ON LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS (ERIC (11. C enter for A pplied Linguistics 4646 40th Street. MY W ashington. DC 20016-1859 E-mail: W ebsite:
e ric @cal.org h ttp: / / www.cal.org / e riccll
ERIC CEL is one of 16 US-govcrnm ent funded educational clearinghouses. Its m ajor objective >
to m ake available to practitioners and researchers c u rre n t inform ation a n d resources on topics related to language teaching and learning, or m ore broadly, to applied linguistics. It abstracts and summarizes articles from journals, conference presentations, and o ther sources and inputs these into a com puterized database to which all the clearinghouses contribute. It is possible to search the database online or to have searches conducted by the clearinghouse. Searches conducted for previous clients are available as well. ER1C/CLL also publishes the ERIC/CLL News Bulletin (a quarterly electronic new sletter), Language Link, R esource Guides, Digests, and “Q & As" which synthesize answers to questions frequentlv asked of clearinghouse personnel. M am of these are available at its extensive website, which also con tains a list of "In tern et Resources for Teachers of English as a S econd L anguage" an d a n o th e r for teachers of foreign languages. An adjunct clear inghouse, the N ational C learinghouse for ESI. I.iteracv E du catio n , dissem inates answers to questions on topics related to adolescent and adult literacy, workplace and worker education, and o th er topics related to adult second language education. For inform ation about other ERIC Clearinghouses and svstem-wide scnices. see the website: www.accesseric.org. CENTER FOR .APPLIED LINGUISTICS (CAL) 4646 40th Street, NAV W ashington, DC 20016 E-m ail: W ebsite:
i n fo @cal.org h ttp :/,/www.cal.org
T he mission of CAL is "to prom ote and improve the teaching an d learning of languages, identifv and solve problem s related to language an d cul ture, and s e n e as a resource for inform ation about language and culture.” CAL carries out research, analvsis, and dissem ination o f inform a tion, design and developm ent of instructional m aterials, technical assistance, teacher education, and policy analysis in a range of areas, including second, foreign, and heritage language educa tion. It operates a n u m b er o f clearinghouses and technical assistance centers (including the ERIC Clearinghouse), and collaborates with a range of educational institutions in conducting research,
providing technical assistance, and dissem inating inform ation. CENTRE FOR INFORMATION ON LANGUAGE TEACHING AND RESEARCH A ll I 20 B edfordbury L o ndon WC2N TLB UK E-mail: Website:
library@ cilt.org.uk h t t p : / / www.cilt.org.uk
H o u sed in L o n d o n , b u t with links to centers th ro u g h o u t the U nited K ingdom , CILT collects and dissem inates inform ation on all aspects o f m o d ern languages an d the teaching o f m o d ern languages. It houses a resource library, with an extensive collection of books, periodicals, and language teaching m aterials of all types (texts, visual aids, softw are, videos, e tc .), su p p o rts research, organizes courses an d conferences, and answers questions bv e-mail a n d on-site. T he website has an extensive set of helpful links. MODERN LANGUAGE CENTRE O n tario Institute for Studies in E ducation 252 Bloor S treet West T oronto, O n tario M5S 1V6 C anada Website:
h ttp ://w w w .o ise.u to ro n to .ca/M L C
T he M odern L anguage C entre at the University o f T oronto offers courses, hosts sem inars and colloquia, conducts research, a n d dissem inates in form ation on curricu lu m , in stru ctio n , and policies for second, foreign, and m inority lan guages. with particu lar referen ce to English and French in C anada, b u t also to o th e r languages and settings. Its library has o n e o f the m ost extensive collections o f lan g u ag e e d u c atio n m aterials in Canada. NATIONAL CENTRE FOR ENGITSH LANGUAGE TEACHING AND RESEARCH (NC.ELTR) M acqu a rie U n ive rsi ty N orth Ryde NSW 2109 A ustralia E-mail: Website:
nceltr@ m q.edu.au h t t p : / /w w w tnceltr.m q.edu.au
NCELTR's mission is to provide leadership and prom ote excellence in English language educa tion through innovative and high quality research, professional developm ent program s, publications, resources support, and English language courses.
NCELTR, in partnership with the Institute for E ducation at La Trobe University, also houses the Adult M igrant English Program Research Centre, p ro d d in g research and professional developm ent for A ustralia’s adult m igrant program s. NATIONAL CLEARINGffOUSE FOR BILINGUAL EDUCATION (NCBE) G eorge W ashington University C en ter for the Study o f Language and E ducation 2121 К Street, NW, Suite 260 W ashington, DC 20037 E-mail: W ebsite:
askncbe@ ncbe.gw u.edu h ttp :,//wtvw.ncbe.gwu.edu
NCBE focuses on policy a n d practice in the e d u cation o f language m inority students in the U n ited States. It offers a website th at is easy to navigate, with links to n u m ero u s professional resources. It also has an online new sletter (with back issues archived) that provides timelv infor m ation on legislative debates, new policy, funding opportunities, and o th er inform ation of interest to those teaching linguistically and culturally diverse students, principally in the U nited States. SEAM КО REGIONAL LANGUAGE CENTRE (RELC) 30 O ran g e Grove Road Singapore 258352 Republic o f Singapore E-mail: W ebsite:
adm in® relc.org. sg h ttp :/ / www. r e 1с .о r g .sg
A regional educational project o f the Southeast Asian M inisters o f E d u catio n O rg anization (SEAMEO), RELC is a center for research and info rm atio n dissem ination "dedicated to lan guage teacher education.” with special attention to Southeast Asian contexts. RELC offers courses (on-site and bv distance), publications (including the RELC Journal) , and an annual them atic con ference on a state-of-the-art question in language teaching, the proceedings of which it publishes. It m aintains one o f the best libraries an d inform a tion centers in applied linguistics in the world. RESEARCH CENTRE ON MULTILINGUALISM Brussels University K.U.B. V rijheidslaan 17 B-1080 Brussels Belgium
Website:
http: /wwm.kubrussel.a c .b e / cen tra ovm eng.htm l
Focusing on language contact and language con flict in m ultilingual settings, the Research C entre on M ultilingualism carries out research, convenes conferences, coordinates and disseminates infor m ation, and publishes a series (Plurilingua) on contact linguistics.
IN T E R N E T R ESO U R CES: W E B S IT E S , E-M AIL D IS C U S S IO N G R O U P S ,A N D O N L IN E P U B L IC A T IO N S T he In tern et has created global access for profes sional developm ent th rough e-mail, electronic lists (e-mail discussion groups), and the W orld Wide Web. w here accessing one website m at- lead to scores of o th er interesting sites linked to it. Most associations, publishers, journals, clearing houses. an d o th er resources have m ade it possible to get at least some of the inform ation tradition ally available in print or th rough personal visits by accessing a website or subscribing to e-mail o r a list. Electronic journals and newsletters are also becom ing increasingly available, published by research institutes, educational institutions, pro fessional associations, and the like; many of these can be easily dow nloaded or printed for future access. T he online form at also supports the dis sem ination of m ore tim e-bound inform ation such as notices of conferences, em ploym ent o p portuni ties. and political issues, and prom otes interaction through related e-mail or discussion groups. Even if vou have onlv lim ited access to resource centers, libraries, journals, or colleagues, the In tern et can provide m uch of the inform ation vou need.
Websites Attem pts to categorize websites are doom ed to failure because m ost language and linguistics wTebsites have m ultiple audiences, foci, and purposes. W hat follows, th en , is a representative sam ple of the vast w orld o f websites available for E SL /EFL language teaching a n d learning. T hose with the greatest n u m b e r an d diversity o f lists a n d links are listed first.
h ttp :// alt.venus.co.uk/VL/A ppLingBBK / welcom e.htm l This site is a good general web resource in applied linguistics, with lists o f conferences, dissertations, and theses in applied linguistics, societies and associations, publishers, a n d ESL/EFL electronic m ailing lists, m any with links to o th er sites. h ttp ://www.linguistlist.org This extensive and easilv-navigated list includes a conference calendar an d calls for papers, m ore than nine pages of linguistic associations with links, an extensive list of journals with descrip tions an d subscription inform ation, inform ation on subscribing to a n u m b er o f electronic discus sion groups (listservs), an d a host of o th er resources for language educators. http:/ / www. eslcafe. com Possibly the best-known site for ESL/EFL, Dave's ESL Cafe has n u m ero u s pages o f Quizzes, Q uotes, Slang, Idioms, Discussion Forum s, and C hat C entral, o f interest to students, and sections such as T he Web Guide and the Jo b Center, of interest to teachers. Special discussion lists are also available on this site. h ttp :// owl.english.purdue.edu P u rd u e Universitv's O nline W riting Lab offers a w ealth of m aterials on general w riting concerns, professional writing, writing across th e c u rricu lum , Power Point presentations, an d online writ ing resources. http:/ / www. esl-lab .com R andall’s Cyber Listening Lab has an impressive am ount of listening m aterial for students, including general and academ ic listening quizzes, longer conversations, and short listening exercises. h t t p : //m em bers.tripod.com / -tow erofenglish ESL students can practice th eir English as they roam th ro u g h th e various room s o f the Tower o f English, including the Studv Hall, the Gam e Room , the Movie T heater, the Post Office, the D ebate Hall, a n d the Library.
h ttp ://www.thinkquest.org/ T hinkQ uest, an an nual intern atio n al contest, invites students betw een 12 and 19 years o f age to create inform ation-rich, web-based educational tools and materials. Past submissions are available for viewing at this site. h ttp ://u s.im d b .co m / T he In te rn et Movie D atabase site offers a w ealth o f inform ation on movies an d is very p o p u lar am ong students and teachers alike. h ttp ://www .gutenberg.net/ T he goal o f Project G u ten b erg is to create digi tal versions of im p o rta n t books. T he list o f books already online is lengthy. h ttp :// ww w.oup.co.uk/elt/m agazin e/w ork sh / worksh.html This site offers a variety of inform ation an d hands-on teach in g m aterials, m any o f them designed for use with O xford University Press’s textbook series a n d o th e r m aterials, such as the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of English Idioms. http://www.library.ubc.ca/ejour This site has links to hundreds o f electronic jo u r nals on the web. It is excellent for those with little co n fidence in o r know ledge o f electronic research. It is an electronic library, with links to the most im portant journals available on the web. http:/ / www.gsu.edu/-wwwesl/jegw / index2 .htm This site seeks to prom ote discussion o f topics that have not been discussed elsewhere and to serve as a forum for the publication o f previously u n p u b lished research articles and book reviews, princi pally relating to gram m ar theory and pedagogy. h ttp ://llt.m su.edu This site focuses on computer-assisted language learning and teaching, including on-line publica tion of articles on current research. h ttp :// wwwvkyoto-su.ac.jp/information/ tesl-ej /ind ex.h tm l This site is an electronic jo u rn a l for teachers of English as a second o r foreign language, TESL-EJ.
http://w w w .aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj At this site is the Internet TESL Journal, an elec tronic journal lor ESL and EFL teachers.
learners in a varietv of contexts. Listproc@ literacv.nifl.gov Subscribe NIFL-ESI. Your first nam e Your last nam e
www.google.com This is one o f the m ost "intelligent" search engines. It ranks each hit based on the n u m b er of links to it. It can help locate publishers, journals, libraries, and o th er resources on an im m ense array of topics.
E-mail Lists/Electronic Discussion Groups A n u m b e r o f e-mail lists or electronic discussion groups of interest to ESI. EFE professionals exist. Thev are an excellent place to get quick response to questions from colleagues with simi lar experiences. Many also discuss teach in g m aterials, provide suggestions for o th e r places to search, a n d m aintain archives of previous arti cles which can be searched. Regional, national, a n d intern atio n al lists all exist. T he following provides a sam ple o f the intern atio n al lists, with instructions on how to subscribe to them . For each, the e-mail address is provided, followed bv what should be tvpecl in the both of the message. (Do not tvpe anvthing else.) CALI.-ED An e-mail discussion list for teacher trainers a n d educators in terested in com puter-assisted language learning. M a j о rdom o@ coe.m issouri.edu Subscribe call-ed LINGUIST A m ajor resource for all areas of theoretical and applied linguistics. Lis tse rv@ tamvm l.ta m u .e d u Subscribe linguist Your first nam e Your last nam e NIFF.-F.SI. O ne of several lists o f the N ational Institute for I.iteracv, this list focuses on issues in literacv theorv and practice for adult second language
SI.ART-I. An e-mail discussion list on second language acquisition o f interest to researchers and teachers Listserv@ cunw m .cunv.edu Subscribe SF.ART-I. Your first nam e Your last nam e TESLA. With 20.000 m em bers, this is one of the most extensive lists. .After subscribing, sou mav want to narrow vour list to one of the sul>lists (K—12, Jobs, CALL, etc.) TESL-L also has substantial archives of prior discussions that can be searched. Listserv@ cunw m .cunv.edu Subscribe TESL-I. Your first n am e Your last nam e
M ATERIALS REVIEW , S E L E C T IO N CO M M ITTEES, A N D C U R R IC U LU M D E V E LO P M E N T T E A M S Publishers and journal editors are continuallv in need of professionals to review m anuscripts, teacher reference books, o r stu d en t texts and m aterials. Publishers routinelv require evalua tion o f textbooks or o th e r m aterials by outside reviewers before publishing them . If vou wish to serve as a reviewer, contact the publishers, usually through their ESL EFL editors, or contact book review editors of newsletters or journals to let them know of vour interest. Indicate the skill, level, or focus that vou are particularly interested in and vour qualifications, and vou may find your self regularlv keeping up to date, since vou mav be reading new books o r m anuscripts even before thev are published. An additional benefit of writ ing reviews for journals is that vou usually are sent the book for vour own professional library. To get started, vou mav want to write reviews lor a newslet ter or a publication of a local affiliate (T one o f the professional associations discussed above. Abu may
soon find that y o u are being sent books for review on a regular basis, keeping y o u current and enhancing Your own librarv. Text and m aterials selection com m ittees of Your p rogram or textbook a d o p tio n com m ittees for local, state, or regional ed ucational agencies offer a n o th e r source of professional growth. These com m ittees usuallY request copies of several relevant, new publications from a n u m b er o f publishers from which the com m ittee m akes their final selections. By participating in these com m ittees, y o u haYe an opportunitY to keep cur rent on the kinds of techniques and strategies that are included in the latest ESI. EFL. materials and to enrich t our ow n teaching, lesson planning, and m aterials writing projects. You are also likelv to broaden Your circle of English language teaching colleagues and to benefit from their unique edu cational backgrounds and experiences. You m at find, after reeiewing m anuscripts an d books and s e ttin g on m aterials selection com m ittees, that to n tram to create m aterials or books o f t o u r own o r serve as a m em b er of a cur riculum w riting team , p rep a rin g new m aterials. In the process of researching, developing. and field-testing these m aterials, y o u will learn a great deal about c u rren t practice in ESI. EFL classroom s and will u n d o u b ted lt ad ap t som e of to u r own teaching accordinglt. You will also h a te the benefit of w orking with o th e r profes sionals, so that y o u can learn from each o th e r as y o u collaborate on the writing projec t.
W O R K SH O P S, SEM INARS, IN S T IT U T E S , A CA D EM IES, A N D G R A D U A T E PROGRAM S Naturallv, one of the best wars of keeping up to date is to participate in local, state, national, or international in-sercice workshops or seminars, some of which are notv being provided bv distance learning. These continuing education program s may be sponsored bv a professional association, a university-based teach er ed u cation program , a resource or technical assistance center, or bv a d e p a rtm e n t or m inistrv of education. Thev mat offer graduate credit or help lead to emplovm ent advancem ent. O f equal im portance, thev
offer a forum for sharing problem s and p o te n tial solutions, as well as ways o f e x p a n d in g o n e ’s te a c h in g r e p e rto ire o r id en tify in g areas o f potential classroom -based research. W hile you mat begin p articipating as a learner, over tim e, von are likelv to find Yourself increasing vour con trib u tio n s to th e discussion, particip atin g as a m em b er of a colloquium or panel, o r leading one o f the professional dev elo p m en t program s vourself. You mav also lind vourself becom ing part o f a teach er research group, sharing your findings with colleagues in b o th vour own and o th e r com m unities. Deserving special m ention are the sum m er professional developm ent institutes for students and teachers that are hosted bv a varietv of profes sional associations and universities. It is possible to enroll in intensive, short courses with English language teaching colleagues from manv parts of the world, learning from them as well as from the instructor, in what is usuallv an inform al, collabo rative learn in g experience. T he o p p o rtu n ity to participate in one of these intensive program s should not be missed: von are likelv to em erge from the ex perience feeling renew ed as a p ro fessional an d reassured th at you have chosen the right profession. You will also u n d o u b ted ly m eet professional colleagues with w hom you will cor resp o n d or collaborate for m anv years to com e.
R ES E A R C H A N D C O L L A B O R A T IV E PRO JECTS f h e m ore y o u teach, the m ore likelv y o u are to begin asking questions about vour own class room . learners, or teaching practice. These ques tions can serve as the basis of a series o f ongoing research projects o f vour own. C onsider keeping a teaching journal or diary in which you record some of the '’episodes" in vour classes and some o f vour em erging insights about vourself, your teaching, or vour students. This journal may h igh light some areas for research, beginning, per haps, with studv ing the progress o r problem s of a few students in vour classes. You m ight want to see how a change in vour own approach to teaching (for exam ple, substituting som e extensive read ing for the intensive reading in vour svilabus; introducing electronic discussion in vour writing
class; involving students in projects in your con versation class; o r developing them atic units based on the students' o th er academ ic classes) affects your students’ m otivation or proficiency. You may also want to becom e part of a larger research group or project that is investigating questions o f interest to you. You can identify p o te n tia l research collab o rato rs o r o n g o in g research projects by contacting educational insti tutions o r centers n ear you or bv talking with col leagues at conferences. You m ight be surprised to learn that some university' researchers have diffi culty identifying teachers with whom to collabo rate or classrooms with which to work: thev are likely to welcome your interest in some kind of jo in t project, one th at will have as its objectives som ething that can be applied to vour classroom o r your particular teaching situation (see Bailee's ch ap ter in this volum e). O th e r interesting and broadening collabo rations can occur within your own educational institution. L earning what is expected o f students a n d w hat kinds o f m aterials and instructional techniques are used in the teaching of natural a n d social sciences, m athem atics, or technical a n d professional fields can provide vott with ideas for including m ore academ ic or professional con ten t and discourse in vour ESL/EFL classroom. Similarly, the science, m athem atics, social sci ence, technical, or professional instructors mav becom e m ore sensitive to the nature of the dis course dem ands o f their disciplines w hen thev talk o r work with you or observe vour classes. C ollaborations such as these are valuable at ele m entary, secondary or tertia n levels, and across the curriculum , especiallv w here English is used as a textbook or instructional m edium . A brief exchange in the hall about a particular student or assignm ent can grow into ongoing collaborative research, curriculum developm ent, or even team teaching, all o f which are likelv to be profession ally rew arding experiences. You may also want to link up with the testing and assessment team s in yrntr institution o r at a local, state, or national level, h elp in g to develop o r field-test new item s o r tests, an d m ore im p o rtan t, b rin g in g the class ro o m te a c h e r's persp ectiv e to e d u c a tio n a l assessm ent (see C o h e n ’s c h a p te r in this vol u m e). This is especiallv im p o rta n t w hen the tests
are in te n d e d for students who at e proficient (or native) users of the language an d vour students, who are only learning the language, are expected to pass them . Parents and com m unity m em bers can also be p o ten tia l collab o rato rs in your research a n d teaching. T he increasing availabilitv of e-mail and elec tronic discussion groups makes it possible for long-distance collaborations. You may want to link up with an English language teacher o r program in a n o th e r citv or countrv and use this as a basis for some of vour instruction. Students can write to e-mail pals; groups can work on a variety of research an d writing projects; or classes can con duct m ini-ethnographies on aspects o f their com m unities that are of interest to the o th er class, perhaps com piling an introductorv guide to each o th ers’ schools or com m unities.
C O A C H IN G A N D M EN TO R IN G N EW TEACHERS D uring vo u r first vears as a teacher, it will be very helpful if vott can find an e x p erien ced colleague who can provide vott with guidance a n d advice, som eone to act as a so u nding b o a rd as vou think th ro u g h challenging situations or students. You mav want to observe that te a c h e r’s classes o r dis cuss hom ew ork or grading policies with him or her. As vou becom e m ore exp erien ced , you are likelv to notice the challenges facing new col leagues and to rem e m b e r how vou felt early in vour assignm ent or career. O ffer to m en to r b eg in n in g teachers or colleagues new to your institution. M eeting regularly with them , inviting them to observe vour classes, co-teaching with them , or h elp in g with paperw ork, policies, o r p ro ced u res can not only alleviate som e of th eir b u rd en , but also illum inate som e of vour own growth as a professional, help in g vou to articu late m ore clearlv vour own teaching assum ptions and practice. O ng o in g coaching an d m en to rin g is also likelv to h ighlight areas of vour own teach ing that vou mav w ant to research or lead you to search for instructional m aterials o r reference works on topics th at you may n o t have considered previouslv.
C O N C L U S IO N
D IS C U S S IO N Q U E S T IO N S
C om pleting a TESL/TEFL program is the begin ning of a lifetime of professional growth. Teaching is, in itself, a continual growth experience, since one really “learns" som ething only when asked to explain o r teach it to others. Students are often ou r best teachers, and you will learn from new stu dents each term . If y o u have the opportunity of teaching different courses, grades, o r levels or of adding a new role or responsibility as a tester, pro gram adm inistrator, resource center coordinator, or m entor, vou will find that vour understanding of the field and o f vour own practice will continue to grow. T here are many wavs in which being an ESL or EFL teacher is a growth experience. The suggestions offered here are onlv a few o f the wavs to keep up to date.
1. This c h a p te r has discussed a n u m b e r of ways in w hich ESL an d EFL professionals can keep c u rre n t in the field. W hich are you already doing? W hich do you th in k will be m ost helpful to you? 2. Are th ere o th e r ways o f "keeping up to d a te ” that are n o t in clu d e d in this chapter? Get to g eth e r -with colleagues who are en ro lled in a TESOI. program an d see if vou can id en tify o th e r sources of in form ation o r m eans of sharing ideas that are n o t discussed here. 3. Why is it im p o rta n t to belong to a profes sional association in vour field? W hat kinds of professional d evelopm ent op p o rtu n ities do then offer? If vou c a n n o t b elo n g to one of these associations, are th ere o th e r ways in which vou can benefit from th eir services? 4. Why do vou think th at it is so difficult for teachers to keep c u rre n t in th eir fields? W hat are som e of th e factors th a t m ight affect vour ability to keep up to date? 5. W hat kinds of resources for professional d e v e lo p m e n t are available th ro u g h th e In te rn e t or e-mail? How m ight you involve vour students in this?
ENDNO TE U pdating this chapter while on leave in Kiribati (a small country of islands in the C entral Pacific, where one In te rn et service is mv m ajor link to the academ ic and professional world) has heig h t en ed my appreciation of the value o f online resources for English language teaching profes sionals and also of the im p o rtan t role that col leagues in m ore resource-rich environm ents can play fo r those w ith o u t access to academ ic libraries, receipt of journals or o th er serial publi cations, o r opportunities to engage in discussions with m any colleagues. A n u m b e r o f people helped in updating this chapter. Silvio Avendano, Caitlin Jam es. M ora H ockstein, H e a th er Williams, a n d Je an n e Yacoubou (u ndergraduate an d grad uate students at UMBC) tracked down addresses, p h o n e num bers, websites, and o th er inform ation that eluded me. In addition, Neil A nderson, Dora Johnson, C hristine Meloni, Jen' Reid, and Dick Tucker all m ade im portant suggestions o f publi cations, websites, or o th er resources to include, a n d mv brother, R obert C randall, a n d niece, M argaret C randall, also provided a great deal of long-distance help. Mv thanks to all o f them .
S U G G E S T E D A C T IV IT IE S 1. Even if vou are not a m em ber, a tte n d o n e of the in tern atio n al, national, o r local conven tions or m eetings o f o n e o f the ESL/EFL professional associations. Trv to a tte n d som e plenary (large group) sessions, som e papers an d workshops, a n d the book exhibits. If th ere are poster sessions w here colleagues inform ally share th e ir teach in g ideas o r research, spend som e tim e there, talking with colleagues a n d g etting ideas for related posters th at you m ight develop to share with colleagues back hom e. Allow yourself tim e to get to know som e o f your colleagues by a tte n d in g social activities, engaging in in fo r mal discussion groups, o r sp e n d in g tim e at the p o ster sessions.
2. Visit an inform ation clearinghouse or center in vour area or visit online or write to one described in this chapter. Find o ut about the services thev provide a n d the publications they offer. Have vour nam e ad d ed to any m ailing lists (including electronic lists) they m aintain. 3. Develop a form letter to send to publishers, describing your background and interests as an E SL /E FL professional. Leave e n o u g h room so that vou can ty pe in the nam e and address of the publisher. T hen mail this letter to a n u m b er of publishers. If vou send the letter to the attention of the ESL/EFL Editor, this letter can serve both to get vour nam e ad d ed to th eir English language-teaching m ailing list and also to indicate vour interest in serving as a m anuscript or m aterials re\ie\\'er. 4. Choose three o f the journals listed in this chapter to exam ine m ore cioselv. W hat articles are included? W hat kinds of colum ns or infor m ation does the jo u rn a l provide? W ho is the
in tended audience? Do vou think the jo u rn al will be useful to vou? hr what wavs? Share vour findings with a colleague. 5. Make a list o f individuals or groups with w hom vou m ight collaborate an d indicate som e o f the wavs in which vou m ight work to g e th e r or sh are ideas a b o u t lan g u ag e teaching an d learning.
FU R T H ER R EA D IN G Crandall. J. A. 2000. Language teacher education. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 20: 34-55. Freeman. D.. series eel. Teacher Source Series. Boston, MA: Heinle &: Heinle Publishers. Underhill. A., series ed. The TeacherDrcelopmen! Series. Oxford: Heinemann. Warschauer. M.. H. Schetzer. and C. Meloni. 2000. Internet Par English Teaching. Alexandria, VA: TESOL.
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