English Teaching Professional 90

Issue 90

January 2014

The Leading Practical Magazine For English Language Teachers Worldwide

Pronunciation matters Robin Walker

Take five Chaz Pugliese

Get on board Louise Guyett

Seven into one Olga Makinina • practical • fresh

methodology

ideas & innovations

• classroom • new

technology

• teacher • tips

resources

development

& techniques

• photocopiable • competitions

w w w . e t p r o f e s s i o n a l . c o m

materials

& reviews

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Leen Maes, Erasmushogeschool Brussel, Belgium. Using the Oxford Online Placement Test Test since 2010.

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xford english testing .com o

For r y y oung lear ner s aged 7-12 y ear s

c a n c A m e r i

h is h s it i t a n d B r i h is h s l i E n g

Oxford Young Learners Placement Place ment Test Test

For

s s tuden t s a ged 15+

Oxford Online Placement Place ment Test Test

Online Onlin e Plac Placement ement Testin Testing g Quickly and reliably place your students at the right level Automatically marked with instant results. Range of scores to help you make the right placement decision, or to differentiate between students in mixed-ability classes: CEFR level and numerical scores. Taken and managed online, no special software needed. Accurate and reliable results: written by assessment experts, and pretested and piloted by thousands of students worldwide.

are very satised with the “ We results of the test, as they have proven to be trustworthy and very useful.

”

Leen Maes, Erasmushogeschool Brussel, Belgium. Using the Oxford Online Placement Test Test since 2010.

Computer adaptive: presents questions at just the right level of challenge, giving students a positive assessment experience.

Go to

www.oxfordenglishtesting.com to find out more

1

Contents MAIN FEATURE

EAP

PRONUNCIATION MATTERS MATTERS

4

Robin Walker emphasises Walker emphasises the importance of intelligibility

REINVENTING THE INVENTIVE

44

David Heathfield pays Heathfield pays homage to Mario Rinvolucri by adapting his ideas for academic writing

FEATURES

TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

BEYOND THE TASK

8

reveals why repetition rules James Pengelley reveals

TAKE FIVE

SIGNIFICANT OTHERS

55

Mark Krzanowski explains Krzanowski explains what a SIG can do for you

12

interviews Adrian Underhill Chaz Pugliese Pugliese interviews

MOTIVATIONAL MOTIVATIONAL MANTRAS

PREPARING STUDENTS FOR EXAMS 2

Douglas Williams suggests Williams suggests ten strategies to perk you up

13

57

paves the way for the C & G ISESOL Eva Modrá Modrá paves

DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT WITH YOUR COURSEBOOK 3

16

Rachael Roberts considers Roberts considers comprehension exercises

STARTING STARTING A CRITICAL DIALOGUE

GET ON BOARD 18

demonstrates creative use of texts Valerie Sartor Sartor demonstrates from different genres

OVER THE WALL

58

Louise Guyett offers Guyett offers three pronunciation activities for the IWB

FIVE THINGS YOU ALWAYS ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT: IWBs 25

Nicky Hockly weighs weighs up the worth of the interactive whiteboard

29

WEBWATCHER

warns of impending doom Alan Maley warns

MAKING THE MOST OF MELODY

TECHNOLOGY

Lesley Lanir mixes Lanir mixes music and language

61

63

Russell Stannard embraces Stannard embraces e-portfolios

SEVEN INTO ONE

34

Olga Makinina Makinina prompts prompts her students to plan a trip

TEXT MESSAGES 2

REGULAR FEATURES

46

Nick Dall points Dall points out practical ideas for teaching texting

DO WE NEED TO KNOW THIS?

51

Emilia Siravo appreciates Siravo appreciates the authenticity of corpus language

TEACHING YOUNG LEARNERS

HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW? Merve Oflaz delights Oflaz delights in the diversity of her s tudents

22

IT WORKS IN PRACTICE

38

LANGUAGE LOG

40

John Potts

REVIEWS

42

SCRAPBOOK

48

TALKBACK!

53

COMPETITIONS

41, 64

Includes materials designed to photocopy

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 90 January 2014 •

1

Editorial I

would like to thank all those readers who took part in our recent survey. Your replies to the questions made fascinating and instructive reading, and I have compiled quite a long list of the topics that y ou would like to see addressed in future issues of ET p. I’m pleased to say that I have articles waiting in the wings on many of these topics, and these will appear in the year ahead. Pronunciation came high on many people’s wish-lists, so they will no doubt be pleased to see a new series on the subject by Robin Walker, beginning in this issue with our main feature ‘Pronunciation matters’.

in which he asks five questions to people in different areas of ELT, beginning with Adrian Underhill. James Pengelley believes everything should be done twice; Louise Guyett has devised three interactive pronunciation activities; Douglas Williams has ten mantras to keep teachers motivated; and Olga Makinina develops a series of lessons to appeal to seven different types of learners.

In our poll of favourite sections of ET p, It Works in Practice came out top yet again. I am often short of items to put on this spread, and it is clear that readers really do appreciate quick ideas which they can implement immediately – and which they know will work because they have been submitted by fellow professionals. So why not get in touch with something that has worked for you?

Don’t forget that as a subscriber to ET p, you

Finally, Alan Maley thinks our days are numbered and gives his choice of books to read to help us as we rush headlong towards disaster.

have access to the full content of our website at www.etprofessional.com , where you can find videos, blogs, a bookshop with discount deals and a complete archive of articles from previous issues of the magazine.

I will also be trying to increase the number of photocopiable materials that we provide, as the survey revealed that these are particularly valued. Beginning in this issue, we have a photocopiable worksheet based on the Scrapbook , and we have plans for a new series of articles with worksheets to begin in March.

Helena Gomm Editor

Elsewhere in the magazine, you will find that numbers feature quite prominently. Chaz Pugliese starts a new series

[email protected]

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Pages 21 and 49– 51 include materials which are designed to photocopy. All other rights are reserved and no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted without prior permission in writing from the publishers.

2 • Issue 90 January 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

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M A I N

F E A T U R E

Pronunciation matters Robin Walker argues for more emphasis on a neglected area.

I

f you ask students which areas of learning English matter most, they’ll inevitably include pronunciation. If you ask teachers, you get much the same response. But if you look more carefully at what actually happens in the classroom, you’ll discover that all too often pronunciation is usually done on an ad-hoc basis, that it is not usually programmed in the way that grammar or vocabulary are, and that it is quite often relegated to an ‘add-on’ activity for when there is time in the class, or dropped altogether when there isn’t. This is a sad state of affairs because pronunciation matters, and it matters a lot. In fact, rather than being peripheral to learning English, it is absolutely central to the learning process. Indeed, poor pronunciation can have a very serious effect on everything else we try to do in the English language classroom, as we shall now see. 1

The impact on speaking

The first and most obvious impact of poor pronunciation is on speaking. Saying a word or a name, only to be met by the blank stare of the listener’s incomprehension is immensely frustrating for learners. We know this, of course. We’re teachers. But it is easy for us to forget just how serious the impact of poor pronunciation is on our learners’ fluency and confidence, which is why we need something to jog our memories from time to time. This happened to me recently when I was travelling in Poland. My lack of confidence in my pronunciation left me hopelessly dumb


on many occasions. And the more I struggled to get words out of my mouth, the less willing I was to try to do so. In general, when learners find a word difficult to pronounce they avoid using it. As teachers, we frequently interpret this as limited vocabulary rather than poor pronunciation. I spent over 20 years teaching English for tourism, and always asked my final-year students to give a short presentation on tourism management as part of their

Poor pronunciation can have a very serious effect on everything else we try to do in the English language classroom oral assessment. At their level, the word infrastructure is hard to avoid in a presentation like this, but for Spanish speakers of English it is also very hard to pronounce. Some of my students would go to considerable lengths to avoid the word in their presentations, and initially I would complain of their limited vocabulary. Similarly, the word usually is hard for many learners because of the / / sound. The more adept students wisely avoid usually altogether, preferring to say normally instead. But once again, they are avoiding a word because of pronunciation problems. Many learners also avoid grammar structures that they find hard to

pronounce. A classic example of this is third conditionals. These are not conceptually difficult for most learners, and they don’t cause too many problems with written practice exercises. But they are noticeably absent from most intermediate learners’ spoken English. This is usually because the contractions, vowel reductions and consonant clusters in a sentence like If I’d know about English consonants, I’d’ve learned Chinese instead are actually very difficult to articulate. Faced with the significant pronunciation difficulties of English third conditionals, learners either avoid the structure altogether, or simplify it to things like If I know, I learn Chinese. Can we blame them? No. Can we help them? Yes. Do they need more grammar exercises? No. Do they need help with pronunciation? Yes. 2

frees the brain’s processing power for other aspects of listening. At the level of full phrases, poor pronunciation skills can mean that listeners do not capture the significance of specific patterns of sentence stress. For example, if we asked a group of students working on an exercise Who’s finished? (with the stress on finished ) we would expect the students who had completed the exercise to raise their hands. In contrast, if we were to ask Who hasn’t finished? with the stress on hasn’t, we would hope that the students who were still working on the exercise would raise their hands.

Perhaps the most significant impact of poor pronunciation on listening occurs at the level of extended rather than micro-listening

The impact on listening

The second obvious problem of poor pronunciation is its impact on listening. The most immediately tangible issue here is that learners either fail to identify the sounds, words or phrases of English, or they confuse them with others. At the level of individual sounds, for example, poor recognition leads to confusion between words that differ by only one sound (minimal pairs). Classic examples are tree and three, or hat, hut, hot and heart, but there are countless more. In the 80s and 90s, of course, we were told that learners would use context to solve any ambiguities between minimal pairs. More recently, however, research has supported the need for learners to be able to distinguish clearly between individual phonemes, either because, as Jennifer Jenkins asserts, lower-level learners fail to make appropriate use of contextual clues, or because, as John Field points out, automatic recognition of individual sounds and whole words

In my own experience, whenever I ask that second question, I inevitably see students raising their hands who have finished the exercise. This would suggest that these students don’t perceive the stress on hasn’t, or that they perceive the stress but fail to give it any communicative value. Either way, their raised hands tell me that they are wrongly constructing meaning around the main verb finished . That is to say, their poor pronunciation skills have impacted badly on their understanding of meaning at sentence level. However, perhaps the most significant impact of poor pronunciation on listening occurs at the level of extended rather than micro-listening. Faced with a long recording – of one or even two minutes, say – many learners seem to switch off. As their teachers, we become aware of this when we see their eyes glaze over or their faces go blank. What is happening here is that because of poor pronunciation skills, these learners are having to use too much of the processing power of their short-term memories in the recognition of individual sounds or complete words in the flow of speech. As a result, their short-term memories simply ‘overload’, and this in turn leaves them unable to

Faced with the significant pronunciation difficulties of English third conditionals, learners either avoid the structure altogether, or simplify it

•

process new data that arrives, which means that they lose the thread of the text as a whole. On identifying a student as having problems with listening, we often prescribe additional extended listening work for that student. But unless the underlying pronunciation problems are dealt with first, this additional listening work will only create further failure, and will confirm the learner’s view that they don’t understand spoken English. 3

The impact on writing

If the impact of poor pronunciation on speaking and listening feels familiar to most English teachers, the idea that pronunciation can impact negatively on writing will probably come as a surprise. However, one of the major headaches for learners of English is the absence of any clear, simple relationship between how words are spelt in English and how they sound in speech. In another of my Polish adventures, I had to travel to a city that was called Wooch, or at least that is the way it seemed to my inexpert ears. Try as I might, I couldn’t see the name of that city on the indicator board at the station in Warsaw. This was hardly surprising in retrospect, since the name I was looking for was Łódz. ´ My invented spelling (Wooch) was the product of my poor understanding of the sound–spelling relationships in Polish. That is to say, it was a problem of poor pronunciation skills. The same thing happens with students learning English, and apart from the issue of missing trains, ‘invented’ spellings make it impossible for learners to check new words in a dictionary. Try looking up a word like photograph, for example, if you think it begins with an f . Find the word city, if you think it begins with an s. In addition, invented spellings find their way into students’ written work although, as teachers, we seldom see pronunciation as the origin. Some of these invented spellings can create real words that have a totally different meaning from the intended word. My Year 2 tourism students regularly described one of their region’s most prized fish dishes as ‘Hake in crap sauce’. The most s ignificant difference between crab and crap is the longer vowel in crab. Spanish, however, does not have the vowel length distinctions of

www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 90 January 2014 •

5

Pronunciation matters English and so, although I was saying crab correctly in class, my students were perceiving crap, and this was carrying through into their written work. Less embarrassing, perhaps, was the regular appearance of festival at the beginning of a series of points in the ‘for-and-against’ type essays my Year 3 students were required to produce: Festival, I want to talk abou t the advantages of tourism. Festival, we need to look at the history of tourism. Try as I might, I couldn’t work out where they had got this use of the word from. Eventually, I asked a group of students about it, only to be told that it was a phrase I used constantly at the beginning of my classes. The light went on – I was saying first of all , and they were hearing festival . 4

The impact on reading

Although we expect poor pronunciation to impact negatively on speaking and listening, and we can soon see how it might impact on writing, many of teachers I’ve worked with initially find it hard to see any relationship between pronunciation and reading. However, recent research shows that poor pronunciation has a very serious impact on reading, especially for learners from beginner to intermediate level. When we read a text, we process the words on the page or screen in our brain’s short-term memory (sometimes also called the working memory). This processing is controlled by the ‘central executive’ of the short-term memory, which sends the words around a ‘phonological loop’ in order to prepare them for their storage in the long-term memory. As the words go around the phonological loop, we say them ‘aloud’ inside our heads. This is known as ‘sub-vocalisation’. As you read this article, you are actually ‘saying’ the words to yourself inside your head as part of the process of storing them. Because you are an expert user of English, this process is automatic and completely efficient. However, research has shown that if we don’t know the correct pronunciation of a word, the

‘sound trace’ of that word as it is being sent around the phonological loop can suffer decay. Words that are subject to decay are not sufficiently well-processed to be dealt with by the central executive when they get back there (if they get back there at all), and so they cannot be sent off to the long-term memory for permanent storage. The overall outcome of these events in the short-term memory is that after a short while, the reader has no recollection of what they have just read. Too many words were lost in the phonological loop and failed to reach the long-term memory. Because of this, the reader has to go back to the beginning of the text and start again. As with listening, it is all

Recent research shows that poor pronunciation has a very serious impact on reading, especially for learners from beginner to intermediate level too easy for us, as teachers, to spot ‘poor readers’ and to try to help them by giving them additional reading activities. But these won’t be effective if we don’t get to the root of the problem, which is poor pronunciation. ELT author and Oxford University applied linguistics researcher, Catherine Walter, has worked on the problems of L2 reading for some time now. She surprised a lot of experienced teachers with the conclusion to her talk on L2 reading at the 2008 IATEFL conference. Later, in an article published in Speak Out! (the newsletter of the IATEFL Pronunciation Special Interest Group) she repeated her argument that everything we currently know about the way we read in a second language ‘suggests strongly that teaching phonology will help L2 learners to read b etter’. In the same article, she went on to say that ‘the sorts of activities that pronunciationconscious teachers have been using for decades will be useful for developing L2 reading comprehension skills: activities like minimal pair recognition activities, activities for recognising stress patterns and dictations of sentences containing confusable words’.


Pronunciation: the heart of the matter It should be obvious by now that I firmly believe that pronunciation is not just another aspect of learning English. Rather, it lies at the very heart of what we do, and neglecting it can have very serious implications for our learners’ chances of making adequate progress in all other areas. We’ve seen in detail how this is true for each of the four language skills, but similar arguments can be made for the impact of poor pronunciation on the teaching/learning of grammar and vocabulary. One recent grammar book, for example, includes a CD of pronunciation exercises directly related to each of the grammar areas covered in it. Similarly, good coursebooks and good ELT teaching materials tie vocabulary work into pronunciation practise.

In future issues of ET p I will consider a number of different aspects of teaching pronunciation, beginning with pronunciation for young learners, and going on to pronunciation for teenagers. I will then discuss what we can do with the learner’s mother-tongue pronunciation in the English class, and finally take a critical look at some of the technology that is now available to help learners with their pronunciation. Hopefully, through these five articles – but most importantly, through your application of their contents – we can put pronunciation back into ELT classrooms in a principled, meaningful way. Field, J Listening in the Language Classroom CUP 2008 Jenkins, J The Phonology of English as an International Language OUP 2000 Walter, C ‘Teaching phonology for reading comprehension’ Speak Out! 40 2009 Robin Walker is a teacher, trainer and materials writer. He is editor of Speak Out! the newsletter of the IATEFL Pronunciation SIG, and is the author of Teaching the Pronunciation of English as a Lingua Franca, an OUP teacher’s handbook.

[email protected]

Are you looking to get noticed at

IATEFL? We will, once again, be giving out the ever popular ETp teacher resource bag from our stand at IATEFL. We can include an item for your business or organisation into this years bag. As there are a limited number of items allowed in the bag, please book early to avoid dissapointment. For more information, or to book one of the available slots, please call

Helena hughes on 01536 747333 or email [email protected]

I N

T H E

C L A S S R O O M

Beyond the task James Pengelley explores the benefits of task repetition.

T

ask-based Learning (TBL) has become the main player in recent methodological strategies. It has formed the basis of the current trend away from form-driven approaches to teaching, as it gives primary importance to the use of language to achieve the communicative goals of a task, rather than merely to the production of a discrete number of ‘correct forms’. Since its rise in popularity, there has been much comment on the importance of task cycle repetition, in which an initial task is followed by a ‘noticing’ stage, or perhaps a more explicit language analysis stage, and then the students are encouraged to perform an identical, similar or parallel task – giving them an opportunity to implement, improve and practise the same language. The argument here, as proposed by Peter Skehan, Scott Thornbury and Jane Willis, is that completion of the first task leads to familiarity with meaning, which means that when the students move on to the second, similar or identical task, they have more cognitive resources available to devote to form manipulation and self-monitoring, and a greater long-term awareness of the linguistic forms needed to convey appropriate meaning more precisely. The fundamental features of this procedure may be summarised as follows: 1

An authentic communicative task is chosen.

2

The teacher takes a back-seat role in the first attempt at the task, allowing


the students to negotiate meaning with their own resources.

3

The language needed to do the task is analysed, discussed and improved.

4

The task is repeated, to allow an opportunity for the students to develop monitoring skills.

Provided the task itself is well-defined, this is arguably a very good framework, not just for TBL, but for an array of teaching approaches that promote fluency ahead of accuracy and, in fact, may have significantly wider-reaching applications in the development of a more generalised framework that promotes the development of communicative competency.

Doing it again I have been developing a ‘fluency-thenaccuracy’ routine using Community Language Learning (CLL) with my current group of students. CLL is a student-centred approach based on psychotherapy principles, with the primary aim of reducing the anxiety associated with language learning, and ultimately developing communicative fluency. A typical CLL lesson follows a choose–record–reflect cycle. The students work in small groups and decide on a topic they would like to discuss. The conversation is recorded, utterance by utterance, with the students putting any questions they have to the teacher, who immediately reformulates, models, drills and encourages them throughout the process. The class then reflects on the strengths and weaknesses of their completion of the task; the

conversation is transcribed and analysed, where appropriate. This is where the traditional CLL lesson stops – the transcript and/or context being the focus for more production or explicit form practice in subsequent lessons. However, some people, including Scott Thornbury, have suggested that recording the conversation again after the language analysis stage, so that the second attempt can be compared with the first, may have huge benefits for the students’ confidence and the development of desirable features of language production (particularly features of effective discourse management). If the essence of the communicative task is considered to be a stage in which students are able to negotiate and create

Feature

Task 1

Task 2

2

6

7

1

Average time per utterance

9.94 seconds

9.17 seconds

Total pauses

16

4

Broken utterances

3

0

Present simple

18

18

Future going ( to )

1

1

Adverbs of degree

1

1

Subordination

0

0

Coordination

2

7

6 : 105

6 : 105

7

7

16 : 105

6 : 105

Discourse management Range

Frequency of showing interest Accuracy

Inappropriacies of showing interest Fluency

Grammar

Recording a conversation again after the language analysis stage, so that the second attempt can be compared with the first, may have huge benefits

Range

Accuracy

Ratio of errors to total words

their own hypotheses about meaning – whether or not reformulation and input from the teacher comes immediately and in the midst of, or following completion of, the task – it is plausible to hypothesise that in order to maximise the benefit of a fluency-then-accuracy approach, a repetition of the task cycle is necessary and conducive to improving both fluency and accuracy. Catherine Doughty and Elizabeth Varela note that the use of reformulation or ‘recasting’ in CLL may only influence the lesson in as far as providing a shift of emphasis on the importance of accuracy. However, I would argue that it may instil a stronger sense of ownership of errors in individual learners and develop monitoring skills if it occurs as a part of the first task (as opposed to post-task) – provided it is done in a supportive and sensitive way.

An experiment To test the effect of task repetition in a fluency-first approach and to explore its potential benefits beyond the realm of TBL, I designed a CLL lesson, which

Phonological management Range

Frequency of effective intonation/stress Accuracy

Phonemic errors : total words Intonation errors : total clauses Sentence stress errors : total sentences

formed the basis of my experimental practice for my DELTA Module 2 assignment.

Method The experiment was conducted with a group of Colombian adult elementary students (in week six of a twelve-week course) who were joined by the school receptionist to make the numbers up to six. They were invited to choose a topic they wished to discuss, which was then recorded utterance by utterance. The dialogue was transcribed at the end of

6 : 18 17 : 8

3 : 18 7 : 10

the first task as a dictation, and then reflected on, with relevant language highlighted. This language included use of coordinating conjunctions and effective intonation across sentences. The conversation was then re-recorded, and compared to the first task according to the grid above. It was predicted that, due to the nature of CLL and the use of immediate reformulation, structural complexity would not be a true reflection of the benefits of task repetition in CLL, as Martin Bygate has shown it to be in TBL.


9

Beyond the task Rather, elements of discourse and phonological management would be improved in the second task cycle, as negotiation of meaning had been effectively dealt with in the first.

Results The transcripts and recordings of both tasks were analysed, using raw data and basic ratios based on Bygate’s investigation of the benefits of task repetition in TBL. Because of the nature of the conversation that the students produced, it was not possible to establish the benefits of a full range of discourse management strategies (asking follow-up questions, for example) and these figures are intended only to serve as indicators of the broader potential that task repetition may have, and to encourage further investigation.

Analysis These results suggest that task repetition may be a powerful tool for improving the following elements of performance, all of which produce a better effect on the listener: Effective management of communication strategies. Smoother, more continuous delivery, and developing familiarisation with natural pace of speech. Development of an awareness of sentence complexity. Greater grammatical accuracy. Phonological accuracy, especially over longer phrases and sentence structures. (Crucially, it is these suprasegmental features which are considered by Adrian Underhill to be primary in the phonological management of spoken discourse.They are notoriously difficult for learners of English to manage and, as Chia Suan Chong points out, are often neglected by mainstream materials.)

Improvements in the accuracy of language use have been demonstrated by Bygate in TBL task cycle repetition. The

idea is that in the first task, negotiation of meaning is the primary focus, and in the second, the students have more cognitive resources available to selfmonitor and to attend to and incorporate highlighted language from a language analysis stage. Importantly, these benefits actually extend beyond simple measures of linguistic accuracy and include essential (yet too often neglected) features of communication such as communicative and phonological competency. The results of this experiment are intended only as an exploratory suggestion to highlight the extent of the potential benefits of extending the concept of the communicative task and the benefits of task repetition beyond those established by proponents of TBL to all fluency-then-accuracy approaches. Bygate, M ‘Effects of task repetition: appraising the developing language of learners’ In Willis, J and Willis, D (Eds) Challenge and Change in Language Teaching Macmillan Heinemann 1996 Doughty, C and Varela, E ‘Communicative focus on form’ In Doughty, C and Williams, J (Eds) Focus on Form in Classroom Second Language Acquisition CUP 1998 Skehan, P ‘Second language acquisition research and task-based instruction’ In Willis, J and Willis, D (Eds) Challenge and Change in Language Teaching Macmillan Heinemann 1996 Suan Chong, C ‘Dogme’ Presentation given at the IATEFL conference, Harrogate 2010 Thornbury, S ‘Awareness, appropriation and autonomy’ English Teaching Professional 40 2005 Thornbury, S ‘Reformulation and restructuring: tasks that promote noticing’ ELT Journal 51 (4) 1997 Underhill, A Sound Foundations: Learning and Teaching Pronunciation Macmillan 1994 Willis, J A Framework for Task-Based Learning Longman 1996 James Pengelley is currently a teacher at the British Council in Hong Kong, having previously worked in Australia, Thailand and Colombia. He is an avid swimmer, baker and consumer of vast amounts of dark chocolate, and loves the occasional discussion on dealing with phonology in the classroom. [email protected]


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TAKE FIVE

In a new series, Chaz Pugliese poses five questions to people involved in the world of ELT. In this issue, he talks to Adrian Underhill.

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Adrian, perhaps not many people know that, in addition to being a teacher, you’re also an accomplished jazz guitarist. The first question I’d like to ask you is: What have you learnt as a teacher from being a jazz musician?

I think I have learnt s omething about listening to what other people are saying and doing. There’s a big link between music and language, and I think that in listening carefully to music, and to individual notes inside fast phrases, I’ve been helped to listen to how people articulate speech: things like sounds within a cluster, pitch, rhythm, emphasis. The second thing is that I think jazz, and perhaps all music, gives you the skill of boldness, of confidence to jump in, even if you’re not quite ready. When playing jazz, you can’t just lean the ladder and climb up it when you are ready. Sometimes you have to climb the ladder before knowing where to lean it. Part of this is knowing that you will make so-called mistakes – and that’s another thing, mistakes are part of performance and, in language, they are part of both creativity and learning. Caleb Gattegno used to say that mistakes are a gift to the syllabus. Jazz has taught me to love mistakes – and to encourage them, not to be dismayed by them.

2

Jazz great Miles Davis famously said ‘Music is the silence between the notes’. Is silence important in the ELT classroom?

Of course. The trouble with language is that it’s associated with speaking, filling the airspace. Yet silence is the most underused resource in the classroom, so no one gets respite from the clamour – to look inside, to reflect for a few seconds, to touch base with their learning. Lack of silence is exhausting, and can take the shape and meaning out of a lesson. With

Adrian Underhill is a teacher, trainer and consultant; he is a past president of IATEFL and author of Sound Foundations, published by Macmillan.

music, it’s the space and timing between the notes that makes melodies what they are, as much as the notes themselves. Silence is free, it allows us teachers to wait, reflect, before leaping in, and it allows students to rehearse, reformulate, listen to their inner v oice. Silence offers the working structure to the lesson, and reminds us to search for the least that is enough in all class interventions. One intervention, plus holding a certain space, can be more powerful and effective than two interventions – and quicker, and less exhausting. There’s another type of silence which is ‘loaded’, not comfortable, impatient, somehow judgemental rather than watching and waiting. Everyone has experience of that and even brings it to class, and we have to rediscover the first kind, which is part of creativity.

3

Could teaching without a coursebook be compared to playing jazz, in that jazz musicians don’t normally follow sheet music?

They may not follow the sheet music, but there is still the effect of that sheet music there in the background, providing the key, tempo, number of bars, feel, etc. And this provides the structure within which the musician improvises. And I think this may be similar to teaching a lesson, in that you have a lesson plan but, hopefully, you do not follow the plan too closely because, as the lesson unfolds, it becomes a living/ learning interaction, not a pre-scripted exchange. Thus the teacher departs from the plan just as a jazz player does from the sheet music, but both plan and sheet music are needed to provide a framework to contain the improvisation. This is what makes games so attractive and creative. Take football: there are very few rules, just ‘Get the ball down there and don’t touch it with your hands. And try to do this more often than the other side’. And what a


magnificent game! I don’t teach very often these days, but if I did, I wouldn’t use a book, I would use games. If I had to use a book, it would be only as a route map. I think spontaneity is more meaningful for the students. Spontaneity doesn’t mean ‘no structure, anything goes’. It means allowing the students the right space, without providing too many rules, knowing how to adjust the structure. Facilitators have a nice phrase for this, it is called ‘holding open the space’.

4

Your definition of teacher development is ‘Being the best teacher I can be’. Would that also apply to yourself as a musician?

Yes, we’re all learning beings; we’re all hard-wired for learning. If you put a toddler down in the middle of the room, you’ll see how they’ll head for the thing that offers the right amount of challenge. They won’t go for something too easy or too difficult; they know what they have to do to get ‘in the zone’. Personally, I love the act of finding myself a learner, experiencing myself as a learner. I think it is synonymous with living.

5

What are you working on right now?

I’m interested in the notion of systems and system thinking, which is a way of looking at things to help us to ‘make sense’ of things that seem too messy and complex to make sense of! It steers us towards different kinds of solutions, characteristically involving less control and more connection. So, yes, I’m interested in participatory yet control-free ways of getting things done. And this is relevant to teaching, staffroom, schools, management, and leadership. And jazz playing, too! Chaz Pugliese is an independent trainer and author, living in Paris, France. [email protected]

TESTING & EVALUATION

Preparing students for exams 2 Eva Modrá gets her students ready for the City & Guilds ISESOL exam.

C

ity & Guilds (CG) exams require fewer ‘exam skills’ than some other language tests. Students who possess balanced speaking skills at any level from A1 to C2, as defined by the Common European Framework, stand a very good chance of passing the CG ISESOL (International Spoken English for Speakers of Other Languages) exam at that equivalent level. The main enemies are usually fear – stemming from a lack of familiarity with the exam format – and insufficient practice. So, how can you prepare students to feel comfortable in the exam situation? How can you incorporate exam practice into a ‘textbook course’? Glossa, a leading language school in Prague, Czech Republic, has been a CGapproved testing centre s ince 2004. Hundreds of learners have been successfully prepared for CG exams there, and this article aims to share the Glossa teachers’ know-how with other teachers who hope to get their students through the CG exams. 1

including the sample videos of the spoken exam. Check that you know what the criteria for your target level are (and for comparison, also the criteria for one level above and one below). Find out what is assessed in each part of the exam. While some language schools will be able to offer a lot of know-how in the form of books, seminars and tutors, in others you may at least find a colleague or two with some experience of the exams who can help you. You should also locate your nearest City & Guilds centre, who will be able to answer your questions. 2

Swallow the syllabus.

Study a sample exam (practice paper) and the level descriptors from the City & Guilds ISESOL Qualifications Handbook which are relevant to your students’ target level. The handbook is available from the CG website. Highlighting the interlocutor’s parts and reading them out loud are strongly recommended. Imagine you are performing the exam with one of your students, pausing to let the imaginary candidate speak. Make sure to time the parts. This will help you to get accustomed to the s ituation, so that you can help your students do the same. You will develop a feel for how long, or rather how short, each part is. You will be better able to predict potential

Do your homework.

Naturally, you will have to start by familiarising yourself with the exam. Go through the website information on the CG website (http://www.cityandguilds.gr/ en/ESOLqualifications/oraltestsISESOL),

•

banana skins: areas of language that your students don’t know yet, possible misunderstandings, etc. Think about the expected outcome. What vocabulary, grammar and phrases do your students need to learn before they can complete this part successfully? 3

Study the syllabus with the students.

Next, introduce the practice papers to your students. Make sure they have their own copies to work with. Encourage them to add notes and to underline or highlight successfully accomplished parts, as well as any questions deserving further attention. A working copy of the practice papers helps the students to ‘own’ the exam. On the big day, they will know exactly what words the stranger in front of them will use to give the task instructions. Nevertheless, don’t forget to tell your students that the topics and questions will be different. First, give your students a ‘tour’ of the practice paper, explaining or letting them find out who says what, and what each part looks like. Practise the first two questions (‘Spell your surname’ and ‘Where are you from?’). After that, let them answer a few further questions in pairs, and then have them mark all the questions with smileys and frownies or points, according to their individual


13

Preparing students for exams 2 preference or preparedness. Discuss which parts they find easiest and hardest, and why. These first impressions often reflect your students’ needs very accurately, both in terms of language learning and psychological training, so do listen carefully. 4

Extend the practice opportunities.

Even if there are few ISESOL-like activities in your coursebook, practically any topic introduced by any coursebook offers immense possibilities for exam practice. You can create exam-format questions yourself, and/or involve your students in creating them. Afterwards, they can swap their questions between pairs, answer them and share feedback. As a small illustration, let’s look at some possible questions for the topic of ‘animals’ at B1 level. For a higher level, the topics could involve conservation, drug testing on animals, even reincarnation!

Level: CEF B1 – Achiever

ISESOL part

Possible questions/topics

1

* What is your favourite animal? Why? * Is there an animal which you are afraid of? Why? * When you were a child, did you have a pet? What? Why not? * How often do you go to the zoo? * Do you think you will have a pet in the future? What?

2

* I am a vet. You have brought your pet to me. I start: ‘So, what seems to be the problem?’ * I am your neighbour. I start: ‘Your dog is barking all the time! Could you do something about it?’ * I am your neighbour. You have found a stray cat in front of the house. You start.

Do it in small doses.

Working on exam preparation little by little, part by part, is definitely better than trying to cover it all in one or two lessons. Over time, the students will get more used to the exam format, and will actually remember what they are expected to do in each section. It is easy to incorporate a bit of exam preparation into each lesson. You can do so by assigning part of your lesson time for ISESOL, using the practice papers and parts of the ISESOL Qualifications Handbook . However, if you are using a regular coursebook, you will probably find that there are many speaking activities which closely resemble the CG exam format. All you have to do is tell your students, or later elicit from them, which part of the exam any given task corresponds to. Sometimes an activity may require only a small change (setting a time limit, creating the first line for a conversation, etc) in order to make it match the exam more closely. 5

Topic: Animals

3

We have to choose the best present for our friend’s birthday. (The options in the pictures involve some of the animals the students know.)

4

6

Animals in your town.

Proceed part by part.

You will find exam tips in the ISESOL Qualifications Handbook . Below are some of the most important ones. In each part, the candidate may be stopped by the interlocutor once the time assigned for this part is up. Assure your students that this does not reflect the quality of their performance. Part 1

Tell them not to worry about time. Keeping track of the duration of the parts is not their problem. Explain that while they are speaking, the interlocutor is probably scribbling down the minutes and seconds as part of the role of timekeeper, not making a record of their mistakes.

Candidates should answer the questions in a natural way. They shouldn’t give a pre-prepared speech. One or two sentences will do.

Part 2

The conversations are not supposed to be longer than two to four turns. (You may like to draw a simple picture with six bubbles to help your students realise how short the expected outcome is.)

Part 3

A frequent mistake is that the candidate dominates the discussion and pushes their own solution to a task. (Teach your students to ask for the interlocutor’s opinion and to listen and react to it.) The assigned time may not be enough to reach agreement, but that doesn’t matter, as long as the candidate has done what they can while demonstrating rich and appropriate language.

Part 4

Candidates should make the most of the 30 seconds before speaking, whether they prefer jotting down key words, outlining a rough mind-map, or playing the beginning of their speech in their head. Students who fear a lack of ideas need to learn the magic word ‘because’, eg I don’t know what to say about animals in my town, because animals

are not very important for me. Many people have

dogs and cats, but I have never had a pet because my parents don’t like animals. I often see people walk their dogs in the street, and I don’t like that because ...


7

Teach the students to disagree and improvise.

In parts 2 and 3 of the exam, the student will have to interact with the interlocutor. The conversations may easily die away if the two parties agree on everything too easily. This will lead the candidate to display insufficient speaking skills. How can the interlocutor know that the candidate speaks brilliantly, if all they hear is Sure, no problem, Yes, I agree, Of course, go ahead , etc? Promoting negativity can be facilitating. Here is an example: ‘Excuse me, could I use your phone for a moment?’ Version A:

‘Of course, no problem.’

Version B:

‘Actually, I’m not sure about that. How long are you planning to speak?’

The second version obviously creates the necessity to explain, negotiate and stipulate, which means that the student has more opportunities to impress. The most important tip of all is: Speak! Don’t pause for 20 seconds trying to remember a word. Say it simply. Say something different, even if it is not true. Or just skip it and keep talking. To put it cynically, what you say is not important; what matters is the fact that you say it, and the way you say it. 8

Keep feeding back on the format.

As with any speaking practice, your students will profit from your close monitoring and feedback – both immediate and delayed, individual as well as mixed (you write up on the board what good and bad chunks of language you have heard, without saying who said what; then elicit what is correct and how the incorrect chunks should be corrected). The key is to use the exam format in class over and over again, while referring back constantly to the exam structure: Which part of the exam is this? How many questions will they ask you? Referring your students to the sample tests helps them absorb the format and understand the requirements and possible pitfalls of each part. Encourage them to start an exam portfolio and collect additional sample papers, topics and questions, as well as useful functional language – marked 1, 2, etc for the respective parts of the exam.

9

Let the students do the work.

You don’t always have to be the one who prepares the exam format tasks. After your students have seen some examples, you can ask them to prepare questions on a new topic. They can also work in pairs and assess each other, guided by your questions: Did your partner speak for the whole minute? Did he stop a lot, or did he keep talking? Did he use the past tense correctly? This way, the students will get used to the actual assessment criteria, all of which should be shared with them. In class or at home, the students can say or write exam-shaped monologues or dialogues, practise them alone or in pairs, or even memorise them – as long as it sounds natural in the end. 10

Raise the tension.

As the exam approaches, the students get more nervous but also more open to taking the practice seriously. Now is the best time to practise the whole exam in pairs under the teacher’s supervision, using other sample papers. It is important at this stage to give your students some detailed individual feedback. If you cannot cover the whole exam with every student, make sure you hear at least one part from each candidate, giving thorough feedback, both written and oral. How do you do that? Simply take a lot of notes while each student is speaking. Pay attention to both the good language (rich, natural-sounding, elegant, correct) and the relevant errors (eg pre-intermediate students may not be able to use the future perfect, but they need to be able to distinguish

between present, past and future). Afterwards, go through the notes with each student, praising them, encouraging them to identify the mistakes on their own, helping them to enrich their vocabulary where suitable. Tell the student whether they would pass this part or not, and why, and assign areas for improvement.

Having taken advantage of the tension, you can always lower it. If time allows, let your students make fun of the exam at least a couple of times. This will help to dissolve fears and boost confidence. You can achieve this by changing the framework. The otherwise innocent conversation starting, ‘I’m your neighbour. I start. “I’ve run out of coffee. Could you lend me some, please?”’ can bring some laughs if you first show them a picture of the ‘neighbour’ who is a scary-looking man, a gorilla, the Prime Minister, or perhaps a little baby. Assign an absurd topic for Part 4, such as Transport in Antarctica or The importance of wearing green. Hopefully, the smiles your students wear while preparing will appear again when they receive their certificates. Eva Modrá has taught English in Prague, Czech Republic, since 1997. She has introduced many colleagues to ESL through seminars and personal tutition at Glossa language school. An experienced interlocutor, she has helped over 100 candidates to prepare for the ISESOL exam. [email protected]

C & G ISESOL: Test Overview The City & Guilds tests in General English are made up of International ESOL (IESOL) and International Spoken ESOL (ISESOL) tests. IESOL, the written examination, covers the three skills of reading, writing and listening, while ISESOL tests speaking only. The spoken and written examinations can be taken independently of each other and at different times, which allows for specific preparation of the different skills. Both the IESOL and ISESOL tests can be timed flexibly

throughout the year, with test dates being decided by the approved examination centres. The ISESOL test can be taken at six levels: A1 to C2 (known as Preliminary, Access, Achiever, Communicator, Expert and Mastery). The task types and number of tasks differ from level to level, but there are four basic parts: 1 Personal information, 2 Social situations, 3 Exchange of information, 4 Topic presentation. Candidates are assessed on accuracy, range, pronunciation and fluency.


15

R E S O U R C E S

Do something different with your coursebook 3 Rachael Roberts continues her series on adapting your coursebook to suit your classes. In this issue, she does something different with comprehension questions.

O

ver the last few years, people have been starting to ask, as Catherine Walter did in her presentation at IATEFL in 2008: Is teaching reading skills mainly a waste of time? Walter suggested that most learners already have perfectly adequate reading skills, which they can quite easily transfer across to L2. Do we, in fact, need to teach learners to skim and scan, or is it patronising and unnecessary? In my experience, many learners do not actually have very good reading skills in their first language and, equally, many do not seem able to transfer them automatically. So I would still be in favour of activities which help learners to develop, or at least transfer, these skills. I also believe that learners need to have a task or a reason to read, and that comprehension questions can, at least partially, provide this. And good comprehension questions can guide the learner through the text, helping them to make sense of it. Having said this, it cannot be denied that coursebook readings tend to follow a fairly established formula:

1

Use a warm-up activity to introduce the topic.

2 Present

a set of comprehension questions, using true/false, multiple choice or something else that isn’t too open-ended.

3

Get the students to read the text and answer the questions. a follow-up discussion and/or do some language work.

on the other hand, is highly personalised. No two people will understand a text in exactly the same way, because we all bring our own experience, knowledge, attitudes, and so on to everything we read. So, what could we do with a text in the classroom that might reflect real-life reading more accurately?

4 Conduct

Student-set questions

Let me say now, I think that this is a perfectly good formula. It works, and I use it myself. However, while I understand why coursebooks want to present clear, unambiguous activities, which follow a set pattern, I think we can enliven our classes and engage students more by trying to do something a little bit different from time to time.

Let the students set their own questions before they start reading, based, perhaps, on the title and/or any illustrations. The obvious benefit to this is that it should increase their motivation to read. Of course, the answers to their questions may not, in fact, be in the text, but that actually reflects real-life reading pretty well, and while they’re looking for the answer, they’re reading.

Alternatives to comprehension questions One of the problems with comprehension questions is that they obviously only focus on specific parts of the text, chosen by the materials writer. Real-life reading,


Collaborative reading Another possibility is to get your students to read collaboratively, in small groups. I’m not suggesting reading aloud (though there are some arguments for this), but reading one paragraph at a time and then discussing with the rest of

the group what they think they have understood so far. This is known as a ‘think aloud’ task because we are getting the students to articulate the reading process to each other. Tony Lynch says of this process: ‘My experience is that think aloud tasks make some learners aware of textual clues which other learners in the group have recognised, which would pass unnoticed in individual reading.’ A slightly more structured way of doing this is something called ‘reciprocal teaching’. In this version (taken from Sara Cotterall), a different person is chosen to lead the discussion after each paragraph, using four main points: Clarifying any problems Stating the main idea Summarising the content of the paragraph Predicting the likely content of the next paragraph The great thing about getting students to read as a discussion task is that you are given an insight into the workings of their minds – how they are approaching reading tasks. This can then help you decide where they might need further help or guidance with developing their skills.

Summarising Summarising seems to have fallen somewhat out of fashion, but it is actually one of the very best ways of seeing whether students have really understood the key points of a text. Students can start to learn to summarise by carrying out reading tasks where they match summaries or headings to paragraphs. This is, in fact, already quite a popular form of comprehension task. Once they are familiar with this task, ask them to write their own heading or sentence for each paragraph, summarising the main idea. Finally, they can select the most important ideas and use these to write a paragraph summarising the whole text. As they become more proficient, the students could be asked to summarise a text for different audiences. For example, to make it suitable for a child, someone from a very different culture, and so on. This means that they have to think about what background knowledge the reader would need to understand the text – which is a good way into thinking about how they themselves use their background knowledge to build meaning as they read.

Using visuals Depending on the kind of text the students are reading, you could also ask them to respond in a more visual way. For any kind of narrative, a good approach is to ask the students to highlight the main events and then work together to produce a time-line. Generally, they won’t entirely agree on the time-line – which is even better, as this means they will be forced to negotiate their answers, thus thinking more deeply about what they have read. For a descriptive text, you could ask the students to draw a picture or diagram of what is being described: a scene, for example, or one of the characters. They can then explain their pictures to a partner, revealing how the picture relates to what they read in the text. Alternatively, the students could draw a picture which has a deliberate mistake, such as making a character tall when the text describes them as s hort. The pictures can then be put on the wall and the students can go around identifying the deliberate mistakes. Students sometimes feel embarrassed about displaying their drawings, and you could, of course, use pictures from the internet or magazines instead. However, it is nearly always much easier to produce a picture than to find one, and I find that, so long as I am relaxed about my own (very) amateur drawings, my students usually are too.

Using comprehension questions differently As well as swapping the comprehension questions for a different kind of activity, you could still use the questions given, but do something different with them.

Predicting Comprehension questions should always follow the order of the text and, as they are supposed to check comprehension of the main points, they usually provide a kind of summary of what the students are going to read. You can take advantage of this by asking the students to read the comprehension questions first and then use them to predict the content of the text. You could even ask them to write their own version of the text from these questions, before reading the original to compare with their ideas.

Rewriting Comprehension questions are often written as true/false statements. Of course,

this reflects a lot of English language exam tasks, but I’m pretty sure it’s also very popular because it doesn’t take up much space on the page! You could do something different by asking your students to rewrite true/false statements as questions before they read. This will have the benefit of encouraging them to think more carefully about the information they need to find, and the added bonus of working on question formation, which many students find tricky. Less confident students could write closed yes/no questions; more confident students could write open-ended wh-questions. Alternatively, once the students have finished reading a text and answering a set of true/false questions, you could get them to rewrite the text so that the opposite is true. For example, imagine the true/false statement is Delilah was very happy about her present and the text says Delilah was absolutely delighted with her new car. The answer would obviously be true. But as a follow-up, the students could then change the text so it reads, for example, Delilah was bitterly disappointed with her cheap second-hand car. This activity leaves lots of room for creativity, and also acts as a further check on comprehension of the text. You could limit it to rewriting a few sentences, or you could get the students to rewrite the whole text, which should then tell a very different story.

Whatever coursebook you use, there are likely to be a lot of comprehension questions. I don’t think you’re wasting time with them, but any activity done in the same way every time can become a little tired and shabby. Maybe it’s time to reboot your comprehension activities, rather than booting them out! Cotterall, S ‘Developing reading strategies through small-group interaction’ RELC Journal 21 (2) 1990 Lynch, T Communication in the Language Classroom OUP 1996 Rachael Roberts is an ELT teacher, teacher trainer and materials writer, and has published a number of coursebooks. She is particularly interested in ways of exploiting published material, and has a blog, www.elt-resourceful.com , with more practical ideas and downloadable material. [email protected]


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I N

T H E

C L A S S R O O M

Starting a critical dialogue Valerie Sartor teaches her students more than literacy.

F

rom kindergarten to college, teachers use texts from a range of genres, from classical literature to hip-hop lyrics, to instil much more than literacy in their English language students. English texts of different genres can encourage aesthetic appreciation, while at the same time casting light on the cultural and aesthetic norms embedded within them. Moreover, by comparing and contrasting the way texts from various genres are constructed, both structurally and stylistically – and by a critical reading of the texts – our students can also validate their own cultural identities, while gaining an insight into those of others. This, in turn, encourages both creativity and a sense of social justice. In this article, I will discuss a multi-genre research project used as part of an ESL reading course as a way to support and amplify the students’ critical

The learning environment should allow the students to pursue solutions to the problems that matter in their daily lives


engagement with texts from a variety of cultures. The project helps the students to interact creatively with texts in different genres, and contributes significantly to an appreciation of registers, particularly the academic register.

Establishing a dialogue My philosophical framework as a teacher is underpinned by the work of Paulo Freire, whose main objective was to promote a classroom culture characterised by liberation and authentic dialogue. As a teacher, I strive to create a learning environment that allows for multicultural identity development amongst culturally and linguistically diverse students. I believe this learning environment must not be oppressive, but should allow the students to pursue solutions to the problems that matter in their daily lives, to question the status quo and to feel empowered to play a role in social responsibility. When Freire talks of dialogue, he does not simply mean talking passively with others; the word refers to active engagement. For example, he would argue that we need to analyse what we are being told by the media and engage in a dialogue with it, rather than accepting uncritically the message that is being broadcast. He sees such dialogue as key to positive social change. Teachers, too,

must strive to find ways to promote authentic dialogue to help their students to develop their global identities. Freire argues that dialogue has many benefits: it allows for true cooperation between both individuals and groups, which is helpful for tackling the problems of society; it can create unity among both individuals a nd groups, which can eventually lead to liberation from oppression; it allows individuals and groups to become organised and to stay organised; and it allows for differing cultural groups to synthesise their own unique characteristics into something new, such as new ideologies or discourses that make social equality attainable for more people. Getting individuals and groups together is only possible through authentic dialogue, for dialogue allows people to come together of their own free will and not through deceit or force.

In the course of their studies, the students can discover what is important to them, as a step towards understanding who they are genres – and ultimately represent those perspectives in their own writing by the employment of different genres within a portfolio of work. Offering students the chance to engage with diverse genres, such as poems, job applications, letters to a friend, postcards, etc encourages them to become more culturally aware, as well as more competent in English. Students are able to interact with forms of writing that are found in daily life, which differ greatly from traditional educational texts, such as essays or research reports. They draw upon their own cultural funds of knowledge to produce a portfolio of work that demonstrates their ability to produce writing in differing modes and genres. The multi-genre research project also gives students choices. In the course of their studies, they can discover what is important to them, as a step towards understanding who they are. Giving students choice also has the advantage of being a powerful motivator. As Camille Allen and Laurie Swistack point out, those who have more choice over what they can write and research tend to think more deeply about the topic they have chosen, produce richer writing and produce more creative final products, all because they have more motivation. A final significant benefit is that the multi-genre research project demonstrates to the students that conducting research and presenting the findings can be highly empowering and rewarding. Our students are the people who will make vital decisions about the future of society, so they need to be well-informed about global issues. Giving them the opportunity to do research and gain knowledge of global issues gives them a feeling of empowerment and enhances their sense of cultural identity. Most students find typical, traditional research papers uninteresting and unmotivating. However, a multi-genre research project creates a change in their

The banking model creates the misconception that the teacher has all the information and power By moving away from a ‘banking’ model of education – where the teacher ‘deposits’ information into passive student recipients – and moving toward a dialogical style of education, we can help our students to create and strengthen their own voices. The banking model creates the misconception that the teacher has all the information and power and that the students are ignorant and powerless. But with a dialogical style of education, both teachers and students learn from one another.

A multi-genre research project The multi-genre research project allows teachers and students to work interdependently within the concepts of Freirean critical pedagogy, all the while engaging in an in-depth study of texts from a variety of cultures and genres. The students research a particular topic, as in a traditional research paper, but consider multiple perspectives on the topic by studying texts in different

•

feelings towards research because the content is immediately relevant to their lives and interests.

Setting it up It was important from the beginning to present texts in a variety of genres to serve as models for culturally diverse, socially aware and technically sound writing. We searched for excerpts from world literature, international newspapers, poetry journals, songs and various online sources. We asked our students to conduct searches as well. In class, we read and discussed the texts together; at times, I would divide the class into small groups and ask them to evaluate the texts and then present their mini-analysis to the class in a series of short talks. I did not formally test the students on the texts, but I did create vocabulary cards, and we played some matching games to help them learn new words. We also played with short pieces of text in the form of scrambled sentences, and we changed story endings, rewrote obituaries, and added or edited songs and poems. After three weeks, I explained that they now had to begin to research their chosen topics and produce a portfolio of work based on this research. I began what Donald Graves calls ‘writers’ consultations’: meeting with students individually regarding their research

It was important to present texts in a variety of genres as models for culturally diverse, socially aware and technically sound writing topics and giving them a checklist of things they had to include in their portfolio and details of how it should be presented (see page 21). I then scheduled a weekly class session in the library, to give them time to do their research. In the middle of the semester, I checked the students’ progress, offered comments, and asked each of them to make sure that a peer had also signed their checklist and commented on their work. As they worked on their projects, we also worked as a class through texts in various genres: short stories, book reviews, poems


19

Starting a critical dialogue (sonnet, haiku, free verse and couplet), songs, argument essays, newspaper articles (editorial, news, features, complaints and obituaries), cartoon captions and academic essay abstracts. Our work on abstracts also included a brief examination of the structure of a formal academic essay. During the final week of class, the students made individual presentations on their topics: they could choose to explain their process and what it meant to them personally, using any type of media, or they could present their project in PowerPoint format, taking a more academic stance. On the final day, the projects were placed around the class, and students from other classes came to view them and listen to the authors’ presentations. This last class was a festive event, offering public validation to the students, as well as snacks and cold drinks to everyone.

Evaluation The multi-genre research project was a great success: my students not only gained higher levels of English literacy, but also learnt to take responsibility for their own learning and to explore a variety of texts and media. Moreover, they were actively engaged in helping and teaching each other and were highly motivated. I found that I was serving as a guide rather than as an authority dispensing information. I learnt that giving students choices is crucial to authentic learning. Allowing the students to choose their topics and genres motivated them and meant that their interest was sustained to the end of the projects. Giving them a choice gave everyone in class the freedom to reflect upon what they felt passionate about, and this freedom helped everyone to feel that their chosen topic was of value. Allowing a choice of genres was also crucial. I was amazed by the creativity and the scope of the genres used by several students. One student not only chose traditional text genres such as poetry, journalism and narrative, but also made a video that caught the attention of his classmates and our school director;

his project addressed the legality of euthanasia. Another student with an artistic background chose to portray her topic (the life of Frida Kahlo) in images as well as text. She drew sketches, imported graphics and PhotoShopped her images with a keen, artistic eye. Another student used hip-hop lyrics, which she modified, together with an embedded music track, to express the racism of US Homeland Security toward Arab visitors after 9/11. Allowing students the choice to engage with many genres demonstrated that opinions can be voiced in many different modes. It also revealed the keen political and personal interests of the students. Using a portfolio format helped everyone to discipline themselves by offering a broad structure to frame their work. One student presented her entire project digitally, creating in effect an e-book. Another created a book in traditional Chinese format, with the script and imagery running vertically rather than horizontally. Some students used digital software to create both an online as well as a paper project. If I do this project again, I might also ask my students to keep a reflective journal to record their progress. I believe this would result in higher-quality work on subsequent projects, as the students would be able to analyse their past failures and successes and see how they could improve next time.

Running this project was challenging and took careful planning. I needed to find ways to support in-depth research among the students and to source example texts in many different genres. In the end, however, I found the process extremely rewarding. The project engaged the students in critical and reflective thinking; their English proficiency increased significantly; they collaborated both in class and outside; and everyone produced a portfolio that exceeded my expectations. What more could a teacher ask for? Allen, C and Swistak, L ‘Multigenre research: the power of choice and interpretation’ Language Arts 81 (3) 2004 Freire, P Pedagogy of the Oppressed The Continuum Publishing Company 1990 Graves, D Writing: Teachers and Children at Work Heinemann 2003 Valerie Sartor is an educational researcher, currently doing fieldwork in Inner Mongolia, China. She has been a US State Department Fellow and a Castetter Fellow. Her interests include the ESL classroom and policies concerning international bilingual education.

[email protected]

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Starting a critical dialigue • Portfolio checklist Please submit six complete compositions, each in a different genre.

Please include a sheet at the front

The genres we have studied include: short stories, book reviews,

of the whole portfolio to show the

poems (sonnet, haiku, free verse and couplet), songs, argument essays,

date that this portfolio was

newspaper articles (editorial, news, features, complaints and obituaries),

presented to a peer for evaluation,

cartoon captions and essay abstracts. You may also expand on these

and the dates (minimum of two) that

genres.

it was presented to the teacher for

The portfolio must have a table of contents in APA style, generated

editorial consultation during the semester.

in Word . Each composition should have a title, with a subhead noting the genre. For example: Georgia O’Keefe: A narrative feature from a newspaper about her art show (journalism)

The peer and the teacher will write comments beside the dates, concerning the strengths of the portfolio.

The portfolio must be typed, unless the teacher agrees to an Put your initials next to the following

alternative script. The target audience and tone should be varied. For example, one essay may be in the first person addressed to a friend (eg a letter about the death of your dog); another will be formal (eg an obituary

items before handing in your completed portfolio: _____ All submissions have been

of a famous person).

revised at least once, after

You may experiment with structure and content, but you may not

someone has seen them and

use offensive or pornographic text and/or imagery.

commented.

One piece should be reflective and should discuss why you chose this subject, and what you learnt from it. In the reflective essay,

_____ I have used the Word spellcheck facility.

answer these questions: What is the big picture concerning the essays you selected? What was the process of writing and revising?

_____ I certify that the writing is my

How do the essays collected in the portfolio demonstrate your

own, unless it is cited or

creativity and your writing strengths? What areas of your writing and

quoted.

creativity will you continue working on? One composition must be a narrative of 1,000 to 3,000 words.

_____ I have thought carefully about this project and tried

One composition may be poetry, lyrics or a form of multi-media that

to be creative in organising

is approved by the teacher after a writer’s conference.

and compiling it.

One piece should offer a logical and well-supported argument, or it can be a persuasive piece in which you, as author, take a stand on a topic or issue or propose a solution to a problem.

_____ The length of my portfolio is 12 double-spaced typewritten/printed pages

You should include one piece of your own choosing; feel free to show us your best, your most experimental, your most impressive, your most creative writing.

(or equivalent, approximately 4,500 words), distributed among the six pieces.

You may incorporate as many images as you wish, as long as they are placed in the text with aesthetics in mind. The portfolio should be bound in some way. The portfolio will be offered at the end of the semester for public scrutiny and praise.


21

Howdoesyour gardengrow? Merve Oflaz exhorts

to cherish our flowers.

us

O

nce upon a time, in a land of great gardens, there were countless numbers of flowers with different colours and shapes. Sunflower, Bellflower and Snapdragon were three of these beautiful flowers. They used to bloom and grow under the bright light of their teacher, Mrs Sun. Every morning, they used to wash their petals with the drops of dew and, dancing in the morning breeze, they headed to school.


Sunflower always enjoyed the beauty around her while she was walking along, and Bellflower accompanied her by murmuring sweet melodies. Snapdragon was always in a rush and he usually ran to school. Let’s learn more about these three little flowers once they got to the classroom ...

Sunflower Sunflower always wanted to see what was going on around her. She turned her head towards her teacher Mrs Sun as she moved. When she could see Mrs Sun, she used to flip her beautiful blonde hair proudly. Anything that reflected light was a work of art for her. She thought that each colour in the rainbow gave a different meaning to the objects it painted. Whenever Mrs Sun wrote something on the board, Sunflower wanted to copy it all down, neatly and legibly. She used to get quite confused when Mrs Sun asked her to repeat something after her. If there was a word card she could read from, repeating was much easier. If not, she used to try her best to visualise the words in her mind. Then she could pronounce them easily. Sunflower loved reading. Because she read very fast, she could finish many stories in a short time . She could remember every little thing she had read, even its position on the page. When her friends asked where an

activity was, she could find it in the book immediately. There was one thing she was not happy with. If Mrs Sun explained something orally, she would often miss some parts of it and she would soon completely forget what she had heard.

something new. This was his favourite way of learning. While studying at home, he would read things aloud and imitate Mrs Sun. Bellflower always took a very active part in class discussions, and he managed to get good grades for most of his work. Unfortunately, he did not like writing and maths lessons at all. Even a little sound could cause him to lose concentration. These classes were not as exciting for him as music lessons.

Bellflower Bellflower was Sunflower’s best friend. They always used to play together in the schoolyard. Whenever there was a group game, Sunflower and Bellflower were always the champions. Bellflower loved music and often murmured and hummed. Whenever Mrs Sun turned to face the class, she would see Bellflower moving his lips. She sometimes scolded him for this. Bellflower loved speaking and he was very talkative, but he never wanted to make Mrs Sun unhappy, so he always listened very carefully to his teacher. He was all ears when Mrs Sun explained

Snapdragon Snapdragon wriggled all the time and he couldn’t sit still without fidgeting. He used to play with his hair or swing his legs while listening to Mrs Sun. When he was reading, he always followed the lines of the text with his finger. He also kept moving his hands and arms when he was speaking. He loved raising his hand to answer Mrs Sun’s questions and he never cared about whether or not he had the correct answer. He knew that Mrs Sun would never get angry, even if his answer wasn’t right. Snapdragon would jump up immediately to volunteer for drama activities and he found roleplays great fun. He also loved the card games Mrs Sun prepared for them. Once, Mrs Sun made them practise the multiplication table by using some cards, and Snapdragon loved this activity. The only problem he had was with his writing. His handwriting was very untidy: too thick and scratchy. He was good at learning through the experience of doing an activity. Although he always found it difficult to remember small details, Snapdragon’s instincts were strong.

•

Helping our flowers to grow I hope you enjoyed reading about these sweet flowers. Do you think you know any of them? You may even think that you or your students share some of their features. As you will have realised, the flowers in the story represent young learners with different learning styles. Sunflower is a visual learner, Bellflower an auditory learner and Snapdragon a kinaesthetic learner. Just like these flowers, our students all have different features, likes, dislikes, weaknesses and strengths. What we should do as teachers is to get to know the flowers growing in our classrooms well, so that we can take the best possible care of them. We should strive not to let them fade, and give them the chance to bloom and grow in their own way. Here are some ways we can nurture our own crop of flowers: Remember that not all flowers are red: We should always bear in mind that our students have different personalities, skills and abilities. As Rebecca Oxford explains: ‘While many language learners benefit from visual imagery, others have aural (soundoriented), kinaesthetic (motion-oriented) or tactile (touch-oriented) learning style


23

Howdoesyour gardengrow? preferences and therefore benefit from linking verbal material with sound, motion or touch.’ This should be taken into consideration in all stages of learning, evaluating and assessing. Allow each type of flower to find its own path: Natalie Hess acknowledges that ‘it is difficult to provide for individual learning styles’ . This is especially true in very large classes and those where the students are at different levels. To ensure that all our students participate in classroom activities, we need to encourage and motivate them. Making them believe in what they can do will open a new path in front of them. Instead of forcing them to do mechanical activities with no purpose, allowing them to discover their hidden talents will change the atmosphere of our classrooms. All this may take some time, but the results will be great. Enjoy the beauty of your flowers: As teachers, we may sometimes be tempted to skip activities which are based on different learning styles. However, if we can spend some time on selecting a range of the right activities to give each and every student a chance to shine, this will make our lives easier. The best thing to do is to let the students express themselves and share their ideas with their peers. This will help them gradually improve their critical thinking skills. Students can be more active in language classrooms when teachers are aware of the impact of learning styles and design their lessons accordingly. Not only will the teacher improve the quality of their own teaching but, by implementing a range of activities involving all types of learners, they will also help the learners to develop their lessdominant preferred learning styles.

Don’t be afraid of re-arranging your flowers: You cannot learn a language without communicating. When our students do not have the chance to use and practise the target language outside the school, our job is made more difficult. To compensate, it is important that we should provide them with many pair- and groupwork activities which focus on communication. Heather McKay and Abigail Tom state that the use of different groupings (eg whole class, small groups, pairs and individuals) is one of the features of a properly balanced lesson. Support your flowers in each phase of their growth: Never forget that age matters. According to Robert DeKeyser: ‘young children are c haracterized as haptic and manual. They do better if they respond to verbal stimuli with body movements ... As they age, learners develop a preference for a visual and/or auditory learning style.’ Gaining an understanding of the nature and abilities of different age groups will definitely have a positive effect on the lessons we design. Let your flowers enjoy their growth: Learning a language is not possible if the students feel nervous or anxious. We should help our students to cope with their fears and to believe in themselves. As Griff Griffiths and Katy Keohane point out: ‘If learners feel that what they are asked to do is relevant to their own lives, and that their feelings, thoughts, opinions and knowledge are valued, and crucial to the success of the activities, then they will be fully engaged in the tasks and more likely to be motivated to learn the target language.’ This way, they will be enjoying their journey. Love your flowers and treat them well: Developing a good rapport with the students is extremely important. It affects each step of the lesson and has an impact on classroom management as well. According to


Zoltán Dörnyei and Tim Murphey: ‘Teachers who share warm, personal interactions with their students, who respond to their concerns in an empathic manner and who succeed to establish relationships of mutual trust and respect with the learners, are more likely to inspire them in academic matters than those who have no personal ties with the learners.’

As Mrs (or Mr) Sun, I’m sure you are touching the lives of your flowers and helping them to gain new skills so that they can improve themselves. With the encouragement and confidence they gain in your lessons, finding the path to follow will be much easier. I hope the flowers blooming in your gardens will be as colourful as the rainbow, so that they will make a difference to other young lives in the future. I know that the process of growing is challenging and stressful – but remember: April showers bring May flowers! DeKeyser, R M (Ed) Practice in a Second Language: Perspectives from Applied Linguistics and Cognitive Psychology CUP 2007 Dörnyei, Z and Murphey,T Group Dynamics in the Language Classroom CUP 2003 Griffiths, G and Keohane, K Personalizing Language Learning CUP 2000 Hess, N Teaching Large Multilevel Classes CUP 2007 McKay, H and Tom, A Teaching Adult Second Language Learners CUP 299 Oxford, R L Language Learning Strategies: What Every Teacher Should Know Heinle & Heinle 1990 Merve Oflaz has been involved in teaching since 1998. She is currently affiliated with Oxford University Press, Turkey, as a teacher trainer and educational consultant. She is also a materials developer and maintains a blog at www.merveoflaz.net. She has an MA in TEFL and holds the ICELT.

merve.ofl[email protected]

a v o k i l u k _ a r a m a t / r o l i V _ / p a i s a k / m o c . o t o h p k c o t S i ©

Over the wall ... Alan Maley sees the writing on the wall.

I

t is 50 years since Rachel Carson’s landmark book Silent Spring appeared – the first major wake-up call for environmental action on a global scale. Since then, awareness of humanity’s negative effect on the environment has been regularly raised. There have been 18 international summits, the International Panel on Climate Change has published five reports, and the Club of Rome has generated enough publications to fill a library, yet no substantial coordinated action has been taken to rein in the headlong gallop toward planetary disaster. It is also just 50 years since the first Chinese atomic bomb was detonated, marking the beginning of nuclear proliferation. Some progress was made in 1970 when the Nuclear N on-proliferation Treaty was signed, and the USA and USSR began to scale back their nuclear arsenals. However, since then, the number of states with nuclear weapons has continued to expand, increasing the likelihood of nuclear war, whether by design or accident. One way or another, then, the prospects for the future of humankind look pretty bleak. It seems appropriate, therefore, to review just a few recent publications touching on these issues.

10 Billion Stephen Emmott takes as the starting point for his book the fact that by 2050 the Earth will be supporting a population of about 10 billion, maybe more. He then explores the implications: ‘As our numbers continue to grow, we continue to increase our need for far more water, far more food, far more land, far more transport and far more energy.’ He then leads us through the consequences of this in pressure on land and water resources, species extinction, loss of forest, etc, with some interesting facts: ‘It takes around 3,000 litres of water to produce a burger.’ He moves on to our addiction to fossil fuels. Contrary to popular belief, there is no immediate danger of our running out of them. The danger lies in our continuing to use them. One result is that climate change is accelerating. The global carbon cycle, on which the fragile and complex balance of the world’s eco-systems depend, is being destroyed, and at an accelerating pace. Quite apart from the increase in extreme weather, this will lead to degradation of soils, depletion of water resources and widespread famine and disease. Emmott examines two possible ways out of our predicament: technology and radical behavioural change. In his view, none of the main technical solutions is feasible.

Green energy, nuclear power, desalination, geo-engineering and a second green revolution are all either unfeasible or cures which are worse than the disease. Radical behavioural change would need radical government action, yet ‘politicians are currently part of the problem, not part of the solution ... despite 20 years of pledges to tackle carbon emissions, we just keep on emitting more carbon’. The book is short and devastatingly simple. The charts are chilling: almost all show an exponential increase round about now, whether of rates of species extinction, ocean warming, growth of cars, floods in Asia, fires in America or global carbon emissions. By the way, Emmott is not some kind of eccentric: he is a p rofessor of computational science and heads a Cambridge research lab.

The Burning Question The Burning Question by Mike Berners-Lee and Duncan Clark offers a more detailed and nuanced take on the same issues. The foreword, by Bill McKibben, emphasises that two degrees is the maximum temperature increase the Earth can support, which means we can only s afely burn another 565 gigatonnes of carbon. Yet there are 2,795 gigatonnes left in the ground! ‘We have five times as much oil


25

Over the wall ...

and coal and gas … as climate scientists think is safe to burn.’ The rest of the book expands on this uncomfortable fact. In Part 1, The problem of abundance, it shows how carbon extraction is increasing exponentially, with no internationally agreed limitations in prospect. In Part 2, Squeezing the balloon, it shows how fuel economies get absorbed in the upward curve of consumption. Governments pursue contradictory policies of minimising the demand for fossil fuels while simultaneously maximising the supply. And this is exacerbated by the growth of population and of affluence. In Part 3, What’s stopping us? it examines the reluctance of those owning carbon assets to write them off, the failure so far to implement carbon capture and storage,

and the problem of a continuing belief in growth at all costs. The great global slumber , is a key chapter. Awareness of the magnitude of the problem is still insufficient. And humans are good at refusing to think about the unthinkable, especially when there is massive sabotage by vested interests. Part 4, Not just fossil fuels, looks at other major sources of global warming, especially agriculture and deforestation. Part 5, What now? offers six possible strategies to counteract the crisis. But none of them is convincing, since all depend on everyone taking responsibility and acting. Unless we do, the book’s cautious optimism that things might somehow turn out well is no more than whistling in the dark to keep our spirits up. It ends on a question: ‘… we could keep on as we are, ignoring or playing down the risks and putting responsibility for action elsewhere … that would mean taking a monumental gamble with our children’s future, and a species as intelligent as ours surely wouldn’t do that . Would it?’

Nuclear War and Environmental Catastrophe The first half of this book consists of Noam Chomsky’s interviews with Laray Polk on a range of issues, including the environment and nuclear weapons. Chomsky has long been a radical critic of the US government, so it is not surprising to find some trenchant views expressed here. Whether he is discussing the role of the US Chamber of Commerce in lobbying against environmental controls, or that of the President in condoning nuclear weapons development in some countries while condemning it in others, or that of the Pentagon in funding university research, he is unremittingly damning. In some ways, this weakens his case, since he sometimes comes across as carping and repetitive. This does not lessen the force of his argument, though. The second half of the book comprises a number of documents relating to the issues in the first half. These include the top secret transcript of a telephone conversation between two ranking US officers in 1945, where a general is trying to cover up the radiation effects in Hiroshima and Nagasaki by ascribing them to thermal burns: ‘they just got a good thermal burn, that’s all.’ Perhaps the most poignant document is a letter from a leader of the Marshall islanders affected by US nuclear testing. It reads: ‘I realize now that your entire career is based on our illness. We are far more valuable to you than you are to us … For me and the other people on Rongelap, it is life which matters most. For you it is facts and figures.’ As a postscript to the nuclear issue, you could do worse than read When the Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs. This cartoon-strip story of a naïve, gormless old couple attempting to continue their normal life in the aftermath of a nuclear strike is both very funny and utterly terrifying.

words in Gone with the Wind : ‘I can’t think about that right now. If I do, I’ll go crazy. I’ll think about that tomorrow’ and ‘I don’t believe it. You can’t prove it. Anyway, what can I do about it?’ I believe we should not short-change our students by pretending that things are other than the way they are. Remember the fate of the frog in Charles Handy’s book The Age of Unreason: ‘If you put a frog in water and slowly heat it, the frog will eventually let itself be boiled to death. We too will not survive if we don’t respond to the radical way in which the world is changing.’

As teachers focusing exclusively on language, we may find ourselves trivially correcting Bush Junior’s pronunciation of ‘nukelar’. As educators, we are up against the power of denial, apathy and wilful distortion of the facts by powerful vested interests. Reactions range from ‘Oh, not that again! How many more times do we have to do pollution?’ to Scarlett O’Hara’s


Berners-Lee, M and Clark, D The Burning Question Profile Books 2013 Briggs, R When the Wind Blows Penguin 1983 Carson, R Silent Spring Crest Books/ Houghton Mifflin 1962 Chomsky, N and Polk, L Nuclear War and Environmental Catastrophe Seven Stories Press 2013 Club of Rome see www.laetuspraesens. org/links/clubrome.php Emmott, S 10 Billion Penguin 2013 Handy, C The Age of Unreason Arrow Books 1990 Alan Maley has worked in the area of ELT for over 40 years in Yugoslavia, Ghana, Italy, France, China, India, the UK, Singapore and Thailand. Since 2003 he has been a freelance writer and consultant. He has published over 30 books and numerous articles, and was, until recently, Series Editor of the Oxford Resource Books for Teachers . [email protected]

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Making the most of melody Lesley Lanir is moved by music and believes that students are too.

M

using a different instrument, mixing genres, using unconventional phrasing, changing the pattern of sound and unfolding chords one note at a time. This builds tension and forces our brains to try to predict what will be played next. Levitin asserts that these musical modifications surprise and tease us neurologically, keep us mentally alert and provide a neural work-out in many areas of our brain, thereby encouraging creative, flexible thinking.

usic plays a significant part in all our lives, and research shows we are attracted to musical sounds from birth. István Winkler and his colleagues found that babies as young as two or three days old can detect musical beats, and Marcel Zentner and Tuomas Eerola discovered that infants are, in fact, more reactive to the rhythm and tempo of music than they are to speech. Considering this innate attraction, perhaps teachers should view songs as a valuable teaching resource and incorporate selected pieces regularly in their lesson planning.

Music and language Several studies demonstrate a link between music and language. Both are arranged linearly, using syntactic rules or definite sequences of notes, arranged with the purpose of expressing an intended message. Both are processed neurologically, component by component, with specific neural circuits handling different elements, such as pitch, duration, loudness and timbre. With language, the brain first perceives its ‘notes’: the sounds – phonemes – which inherently contain a number of the aforementioned musical elements. Moreover, findings show that when a

Why is music so attractive to humans? Musician and neuroscientist Daniel Levitin, professor of psychology at McGill University, Montreal, Canada, says that group sing-alongs release the hormone oxytocin, which raises ‘feelings of trust and social bonding’. His work demonstrates our ability to recognise melody, and how music stimulates the pleasure areas of the brain, producing a ‘feel good’ neurotransmitter called dopamine. Levitin explains that musicians instinctively exploit the way our hearing systems and brains perceive music by using a variety of ways to produce surprising, rewarding and pleasurable sounds. These arrangements are not necessarily composed, however, with any conscious consideration of the effects they may have on our cognitive processes. How do they do this? Musicians create interest by using unvarying notes and unexpected notes, by unpredictably stopping the rhythm, repeating a melody

Musicians instinctively exploit the way our brains perceive music by using a variety of ways to produce surprising, rewarding and pleasurable sounds

•

musical arrangement is interrupted, the brain areas which process language structure become activated, confirming that musical and linguistic operations take place in similar areas of the brain. Besides similarities in structure, elements and brain-processing areas, both music and language require complex, higher-order thinking processes, including attention, organisation and short- and long-term memory retention.

Music and language learning Levitin’s assertion that the human mind acquires new knowledge more quickly when it is presented in the form of a song with a rhythm should alert our attention as teachers. Modern discoveries about the parallels between language and music could explain why early humans realised that setting words and stories to music made them easier to remember; the internal constraints of music, its structure and metre and the poetic elements of lyrics, such as alliteration and rhyme, all encourage memorisation. This is an important point that Suzanne Medina demonstrated when she investigated the use of songs in language acquisition and memory retention. The idea that learning a language through music is automatic, easier and more enjoyable, because songs are repetitive and consistent, is also echoed by Elizabeth Gatbonton and Norman Segalowitz. So, using music to aid language learning may not be an original idea, but what is new these days is the availability of an enormous musical database provided by digital recording, technological advancements and internet accessibility.


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Making the most of melody Teachers and students essentially have a huge and convenient song archive and language resource at their fingertips. It shouldn’t be difficult for teachers to encourage their students to get into the habit of using this ready-made teaching and self-learning tool. Kevin Schoepp, Director of Educational Effectiveness at Zayed University, UAE, refers to studies by Jim Little in 1983 and Liz Domoney and Simon Harris ten years later, which, decades before the digital explosion, found that popular music was a major source of exposure to English for students outside the classroom environment.

Songs in the classroom Improving attitudes towards learning In addition to the benefits of using songs in language learning detailed above, there is the necessity, often mentioned by Steven Krashen, of creating a relaxed classroom atmosphere which will lower the students’ affective filters. Once their affective filters are lowered, students can adopt a positive attitude towards learning which will increase their informationprocessing capabilities. By using appropriate songs on suitable topics, teachers can both create a comfortable classroom atmosphere and use the songs to teach language structures and vocabulary. In addition, music can be used as a socio-emotional aid to encourage students to share and discover songs with their peers. Songs can introduce students to their classmates’ likes and preferences and provide a common ground for discussion. They can also encourage quieter students to join in a discussion. Taking time to discover their students’ musical tastes shows interest in the students’ needs and, by doing so, teachers can begin to create a classroom climate that encourages learning.

Choosing the music to use Students should be involved in the choice of songs, but there has to be a modicum of control. Teachers can post a list of classic and popular songs, chosen according to the age, language level and mind-set of their students, and ask the students to vote for those they would like

can be played again several times to provide reinforcement. To add variety, the students can be asked to create illustrations of key vocabulary or scenes, bring costumes or make masks for homework, all of which can be used to playact the story of the song. Preparation is an important part of song use. The following techniques will increase the children’s understanding of the lyrics and aid vocabulary acquisition:

to have in their lessons. This is preferable to asking for free suggestions from the students, which may be rejected, leaving the students feeling disappointed. However, they can be given the task of finding favourite songs which include examples of a particular structure or topic that is being studied in class. The song list does not necessarily have to be limited to current popular artists. Many students still listen to The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Bruce Springsteen and Michael Jackson, for example. At all language levels, teachers should consider providing linguistic and extralinguistic support. Linguistic help can include pointing out cognates, familiar words, how intonation conveys meaning, and giving native language support in the form of translations. Extralinguistic help can be given through gestures, illustrations and photographs, and by relating lyric content to the students’ prior knowledge.

Familiarise the children with the content of the lyrics before they hear the song. Share experiences on the topic of the song in order to activate their prior knowledge. Explain the main idea without summarising the lyrics completely. Read the lyrics while pointing to relevant pictures. Use contextual clues and images to explain new vocabulary.

Children English classes for elementary school children are mostly based on oral work, so these young students need stimulating language exercises in order to keep them focused. Songs should be chosen for their storyline – in the same way that stories are chosen. The melody must be easy, so as not to tax the children’s memories and to allow them to focus on the lyrics. The song should encourage activity but not be over-energetic; movement, gestures, dancing or acting are all recommended, as long as the activities allow the focus to be on language learning. Illustrations and photos add interest and help memory retention. Research shows that learners respond differently, depending upon whether the music they hear is familiar or unfamiliar. Introducing the melody first makes pedagogical sense because, when humans are concurrently exposed to several new stimuli, they experience ‘secondary task overloading’; such cognitive overstimulation may prevent language learners from focusing on the point of the exercise. To avoid this, consider preparing the children beforehand. The song can be introduced covertly weeks before you intend to use it in class. For example, it can be played at the beginning of a lesson while the children are entering the classroom and getting ready for the lesson. In the couple of weeks after a song has been used as teaching material, it

Teenagers and adults Older students have wider vocabularies, better listening abilities, advanced thinking skills and more life experience, enabling them to understand a wide variety of songs. As a result, songs which cover a range of topics can be used, not only to review or introduce vocabulary and grammar points, but also to provoke discussion on culture, relationship issues and topics related to family and society. In general, songs used in language classes should be clear and not too fast; they should be memorable, with subjects and word choices that take the interests and backgrounds of the language learners into consideration.

Activities


Songs provide good material for a wide variety of language activities, not just listening. A song can be taught by first handing out the lyrics, looking at the grammar and the sentence structure, noting particular vocabulary items and going on to analyse the theme and content. Some of these exercises can be assigned for homework, so the students arrive ready for the listening activity. Once they have listened to the song and gained an understanding of the meaning, class or small-group discussions can take place on the topic of the song, perhaps focusing on prepared questions.

Here are some other types of exercises you can use with songs: Gap-fill or cloze True/false questions Ordering activities, where lines have to be put in the correct sequence Dictation Adding a final verse Changing pronouns from he/she to you/them Finding the antonyms/synonyms of chosen words Replacing words with synonyms Identifying tenses Finding repetitive words

Here are some activity ideas for improving phonologcial awareness skills: Substitute some of the rhyming words with a gap. The students listen and fill the gaps. Highlight the rhyme; show how changing one sound can alter the meaning. Add more rhyming words to the common sound family in the song. Provide word cards that students have to match to the correct sound family. Count word syllables to show how the rhythm of the song is created. Produce a list of what rhymes and what doesn’t, and discover why.

Circling adjectives, connectors and other relevant vocabulary

Authentic teaching Authentic language is dynamic and ever-evolving. It is composed of many contractions, and in natural speech, words are seldom pronounced individually. For this reason, many students have difficulty deciphering spoken language. Song lyrics exemplify contractions in context. In addition, new words and phrases are continually being added to the language; some teachers may not be familiar with these and may not, therefore, include them in spoken exercises. Songs can plug this gap, by allowing the students to listen to and see many examples of popular colloquial expressions, which they may meet outside of the classroom. Not all popular songs follow accepted language conventions. Those whose lyrical structure does not follow the normal grammatical rules and language patterns can be compared with the appropriate structures – or matched with songs that offer the correct version of the structure. Language learning can happen through noticing the differences and changes taking place in language. Such comparative exercises are attention-grabbing and provide anchors which allow the teacher to point out to the students the differences in language registers, correct grammatical structures, various synonyms and unusual phrasing.

In summary, the use of music in class: offers a change from routine classroom activities; encourages a positive attitude towards language learning; allows the discussion of attitudes and feelings about topics; promotes creativity and imagination; generates a relaxed atmosphere; adds diversity and pleasure to learning; increases the students’ interest in language; unites student interests by way of mutual song choices and musical interests. In addition, music can add value to language learning by: providing authentic, memorable and rhythmic language;

Songs can be used specifically to build up phonological skills by drawing attention to the rhythm and rhyme of the lyrics, word stress, particular phonemes and syllables.

Gatbonton, E and Segalowitz, N ‘Creative automatization: principles for promoting fluency within a communicative framework’ TESOL Quarterly 22 1988 Krashen, S Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition Pergamon Press 1983 Levitin, D J ‘The music of my mind: a neuroscientist examines the recipes for listening ecstasy’ Paste Magazine 2006 Levitin, D J ‘Do you hear what I hear?’ The Wall Street Journal 2008 Levitin, D J ‘Why music moves us’ Nature 464 2010 Medina, S The Effect of Music on Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition Longman 1993 Medina, S ‘Acquiring vocabulary through story-songs’ MEXTESOL Journal 26 (1) 2003 Schoepp, K ‘Reasons for using songs in the ESL/EFL classroom’ The Internet TESL Journal 7 (2) 2001

allowing exposure to informal and colloquial language;

Winkler, I, Haden, G P, Ladinig, O, Sziller, I and Honing, H ‘Newborn infants detect the beat in music’ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2009

advancing language appreciation through exposure to sentence patterns;

Zentner, M and Eerola, T ‘Rhythmic engagement with music in infancy’ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2010

presenting an interesting way to focus on sounds, specific words and connected speech; exemplifying automaticity and fluency; supplying a memorable context.

Focused teaching

melody detection skills are strong. Using music in English teaching entertains and relaxes. Songs can motivate students to practise specific language structures or learn targeted vocabulary items. If chosen carefully, they provide a platform for representing authentic language in context and make selected grammar points more accessible and understandable. Teachers can take advantage of the students’ common interest in music by incorporating songs of all kinds into lessons in order to encourage language learning. If students sense that classroom material is relevant to their lives and interests, and that teachers have taken notice of their specific interests, they will enjoy their English classes more.

Music is an art form to which many students can relate. Research shows that music stimulates many regions of the brain and especially activates our reward and pleasure circuits. It is widely known that our memory for music and our

Lesley Lanir is a freelance writer, lecturer and teacher trainer who has been involved in teaching English for over 20 years. She specialises in learning disabilities and foreign language learning. She has a BA in English and Education, the CTEFLA/RSA and an MA in Learning Disabilities. Her website is www.foreignlanguage learningdifficulties.com . [email protected]


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Seven ınto one Olga Makinina incorporates multiple intelligences in one multiple project.

n o o p s 3 1 / m o c . o t o h p k c o t S i ©

T

eachers often complain that it is difficult to engage students and keep them active. It seems that no matter how many entertaining tasks are incorporated into the lesson, there will always be some learners who seem distracted and incapable of acquiring new information. Some professionals blame school curricula for being overloaded with complex and

sometimes irrelevant topics; others argue that the students are simply not motivated enough to work. Quite a few instructors have turned to Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences – ie that differing cognitive abilities form the basis for differences in student learning styles and preferences – to explain the reason for problems in teaching and motivating learners. Gardner’s theory is widely known and implemented, so I will omit further explanation, beyond introducing his original definition of seven intelligences: ‘We are all able to know the world through language, logical-mathematical analysis, spatial representation, musical thinking, the use of the body to solve problems or to make things, an understanding of other individuals, and an understanding of ourselves.’ In this article, I will address the problem by showing how you can incorporate all seven intelligences (plus the naturalist intelligence which Gardner added at a later date) into one project. Many teachers tend to concentrate on two or three intelligences only, which excludes students who have a different predominant type of intelligence, so in my teaching I try to compensate for this deficiency by introducing a range of activities. What follows is an example of a series of activities spread over several lessons on the topic of travelling around the USA, which is suitable for a class of intermediate-level students. The intelligences involved are verbal-linguistic, visual-spatial, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinaesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, musical–rhythmic and naturalist.


3

Day 1

Travel planning 1

Choosing destinations

Intelligences: Visual-spatial, naturalist, interpersonal

A week prior to the lesson, each student is asked to choose one state in the United States that they would like to visit and which they have to try to persuade their classmates to visit. Each student makes an illustrated threeminute presentation (using online resources such as www.prezi.com, www.kizoa.com or www.animoto.com) which gives the name and location of the state they have chosen, what it is famous for, information about the weather and the natural scenery, sightseeing places, etc. In the lesson, the students work in groups of four to hear each other’s presentations and discuss their photos. Each group then chooses one state that they are going to visit and four places in this state that they want to see.

Intelligences: Visual-spatial, naturalist, interpersonal

The students look at a map of the state they have chosen and decide on the order in which they will visit their four destinations and their mode of transport between them (for example: bus, train, taxi, bike or plane). They have to take into account the time it will take to get from one place to another, the cost of travel and the convenience (how many transfers, what time of day, etc). The students are encouraged to use additional web resources to help with their choice. For example, websites such as www.greyhound.com and www.coachusa.com contain useful information about bus routes and schedules in several US regions (predominantly the East Coast).

Working out a budget

Intelligences: Logical-mathematical, interpersonal

The students are given a certain time period for their trip, for example ten days, and a maximum amount they can spend, for example 4,000 dollars per person (to include the cost of a return flight to the USA and all in-country expenses). They do an online search to find the prices of hotels, restaurants, entry tickets to sightseeing places and travel tickets. Then they fill in a budget chart (see the example below) for their group, adding further rows as needed for the expenses they envisage. Expenses

Transport

Food

Hotels

Entertainment (tours, shopping, etc)

List of items air mattress

jeans

roller skates

coat

bottle of juice

cherry jam

book/journal

toothbrush

souvenir knife

towel

evening dress/suit

toothpaste

large bottle of shampoo

Day 2

comb

aerosol hair spray

Travel and arrival

skin lotion

pyjamas/nightgown

body spray

waterproof jacket

camera

cans of meat

hairdryer

nail polish

umbrella

manicure scissors

computer

pillow and blanket

Choosing things to pack

Intelligences: Logical-mathematical, interpersonal

The students are given a list (see opposite) of things that can be useful while travelling. Each student selects those things which they consider most necessary. After choosing the things they are going to take, they decide what will go in their check-in bag and what in their carry-on bag, and they have to pick out those things they will put in transparent plastic bags to carry through security. They are warned that they must be careful when choosing, because the list contains some things which are not allowed in hand luggage. The students are advised to check the Places to visit in California

Los Angeles

website of the US Department of Homeland Security for guidelines on allowed and prohibited items (www.tsa. gov/traveler-information). They can then add other items of their choice to the list. Each student is asked to limit their luggage to one bag to be checked in (up to 18 kilos) and one carry-on bag (according to most US airline websites, this might be a briefcase or shoulder/ laptop bag). After completing their list, the students exchange them with a partner and discuss their choices.

sweater

1 2

Deciding on a route and choosing transport

Stanford

Monterey

San Francisco

radio

2

Orientation at the airport

Intelligence: Visual-spatial

The students are given around 20 airport signs to interpret. These are displayed on the classroom walls, and the students are given a numbered list of their meanings, eg 1 telephone, 2 luggage lockers, 3 information, 4 meeting point, etc. Their task is to match each picture with the appropriate number. 3

Dealing with problems

Intelligences: Verbal-linguistic and interpersonal

Each group is given an example situation that they might encounter. They discuss the best way to respond and they create and roleplay three- to five-minute dialogues for the situations. Example situations: When you were boarding the plane to the US, the flight attendant offered to check in your carry-on bag free of charge because of the lack of space


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Seven ınto one inside the aircraft. At the baggage claim in the US, you find that your carry-on bag has not arrived. You have to go to the airline office and tell them about your problem. What will you say to get them to find and deliver your luggage as soon as possible, since you will need to travel to a different city soon? You have arrived at your hotel and found that they have no record of your reservation. All the rooms are currently occupied. You have no written evidence proving that you have reserved the room because you made your booking on the phone. What will you say to the hotel clerk?

Day 3

Cultural experiences 1

Dancing

Intelligence: Bodily-kinaesthetic

Prior to the lesson, each group of students is asked to prepare to teach the rest of the class three steps of a popular American dance (for example, country and western dance, contra dance, whip dance, West Coast swing, etc). The preparation includes finding a short instructional video of a dance (for example, the shim sham at www.youtube. com/watch?v=bjfM4Wrj9UI ) and selecting three easy dance steps that can be taught in approximately ten minutes. In class, the students watch the video and teach each other how to dance.

2

Singing

Intelligences: Visual-spatial, verbal-linguistic and musical-rhythmic

The students learn to sing an American folksong. You will need to find a recording of one and prepare printouts of the lyrics. The students first listen to a recording of the song or watch a video of it being performed, and take note of any familiar words. They then listen to the song for a second time, following along with the printed text and identifying any unfamiliar words. During a third listening, they try singing along. After practising at home, they come to the next lesson ready to sing in chorus without the recording. Videos of various American folksongs (for example, The House of the Rising Sun) are available on YouTube and you can download the lyrics from the internet. 3

Creative email writing

www.yola.com, www.weebly.com and www.wix.com). During the lesson, the students present their work to their classmates. As an extension, you could get the students to find pen-pals through various language exchange websites (for example, www.busuu.com). They may be able to start corresponding with Americans who wish to learn their language, and can share these presentations with them. 2

Intelligences: Verbal-linguistic and bodily-kinaesthetic

Intelligences: Intrapersonal

The students are asked to write an email to their friends or family, describing what they have seen and found out during their imaginary trip around the US. The email has to include the following components: a funny, dramatic or romantic story that could have happened while travelling, and a description of the differences and similarities between their country and American culture, people, traditions, etc.

Day 4

Sharing cultures 1

Cooking

Telling one’s own story

Intelligences: Intrapersonal, interpersonal, verballinguistic (possibly also musicalrhythmic and visual-spatial)

Before the lesson, the students are told that if they go to the US, they are likely to meet people who are interested in their country’s culture and sightseeing places. In groups of four or five, the students put together a five- to sevenminute presentation describing places of interest in their country or town, their traditions and holidays, and giving interesting information about themselves and their lives. They have the option of creating a traditional presentation (using PowerPoint or Prezi ) or using a website (for example,


Prior to the lesson, each group of students is asked to find a recipe for a traditional American dish. They cook it at home for the rest of the class. They then bring their dishes to class and exchange recipes.

This sequence of lessons, which can be modified for different proficiency levels, allows you to engage students with different learning styles in a collaborative group project, which encourages productive interaction and the development of s trong interpersonal communicative skills. I hope that you will find it useful for motivating your students to become more involved in their lessons. Gardner, H The Unschooled Mind: How Children Think And How Schools Should Teach Basic

Books 1991 Olga Makinina has an MA in Teaching International Languages from California State University, Chico, USA. She is now doing a PhD in Applied Linguistics and Discourse Studies at Carleton University, Canada. She has worked as an instructor of English as a foreign language and Russian in the USA and Eastern Europe.

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More tested lessons, suggestions, tips and techniques which have all worked for ET p readers. Try them out for yourself – and then send us your own contribution. Don’t forget to include your postal address. All the contributors to It Works in Practice in this issue of ET p will receive a copy of In Company 3.0 by Simon Clarke, published by Macmillan. Macmillan have kindly agreed to be sponsors of It Works in Practice for this year.

Self-guided interviews This is a very motivating activity that draws upon the students’ interests and knowledge. It allows them to practise question formation, interviewing and organising. It is student-driven and suitable for learners from pre-intermediate level upwards. The students sit in a circle. On a sheet of paper, they write the name of a famous person (the person can be alive or dead – or even fictional) whom they are interested in and know something about. They then write two or three sentences about the person, as if they were explaining who they were to someone who knows nothing about them. Each student then writes one question that they would like to ask their famous person if they were interviewing them,

before passing their sheet to the student on the right. They read the sheet they receive and write a question that they would like to ask the new famous figure, before passing the sheet on again. This continues until the sheets have circled the class and are back with their owner. To avoid confusion, the students should imagine that the famous people are all alive and being interviewed in the present. The teacher then tells the students that they are going to imagine they are their famous person and that they are going to be interviewed, using the questions on their sheet. Aided by the teacher when appropriate, the students check that the questions are written correctly, before numbering them in the

order in which they would like to answer them. At this point, they can also choose to omit some questions, if they feel they can’t answer them, or would not like to. Finally, in pairs, (possibly in front of the class, in mock ‘chat show’ format), the students swap sheets and interview each other, one person taking the role of the interviewer, one the celebrity. This activity can be followed up by getting the students to write a profile of ‘their person’, using the questions as prompts, or a piece of writing saying why they are particularly interested in the individual, and what they would ask them if they had the opportunity. Tim Ashurst York, UK

Making exam classes challenging and fun I have developed some downloadable materials and worksheets to make Cambridge exam-level classes more fun. I have grouped the materials under four headings.

Do expressions/idioms work in Spanish and in English? (I teach in Spain)

Learner autonomy SWOT questionnaires – repeat throughout the year to help students analyse and work on their own strengths and weaknesses.

Back translation from reading texts + follow-up noticing activity.

Learning strategies and course expectations questionnaires – let the students take responsibility for their progress and set realistic goals for themselves during the course. Use of L1 Questionnaire on attitudes to the use of L1 in class. Student-made vocabulary tests.

Noticing similarities and differences between L1 and L2 in context. Translating song lyrics.

Write part of a composition in class in groups – beginning, middle or end – and compare with the original text. Composition dictogloss – reconstruct and compare with the original. Target reader photos – who are you writing to? Composition overview of task-type and analysis.

Collocation dictionaries Find a better word for [x] in the dictionary. Guess the word from its synonyms and usage. Explore a word through student-made gap-fill exercises. Writing Draw a story – put pictures in order or guess which story is represented in the pictures.

Register: moving from formal neutral informal language equivalents. If you would like to download these materials and worksheets, go to this wiki and have a look – www.b1toc2materials.pbworks.com. It’s all there to share!


Elspeth Pollock Seville, Spain

Food for talk Speaking is probably one of the most daunting challenges language students face. How can we expose them to authentic audio-visual material that will break communication barriers and get them speaking English? I have found TV adverts helpful for a number of reasons. Not only are they boredom-proof – the average lasting just 30 seconds – but they are also catchy and certainly entertaining. Here are some of the benefits TV adverts offer: They expose learners to authentic language in natural situations. They expose learners to a variety of voices, accents, dialects and cultures. The topics are familiar and relevant to personal experience. They provide a situational and visual context to language interactions. They provide scaffolding to help students understand linguistic meaning. They arouse curiosity. They encourage critical thinking. They are motivating. They provide a break from classroom routine. There are adverts covering every possible language and content requirement, and the fact that they are short makes them easy to select, manipulate and prepare. Here are some adverts and suggested activities you can do with them. All the adverts can be used to present and practise topics and vocabulary, encourage extensive and intensive listening and stimulate discussion of attitudes and feelings. Hamlet cigars (the commercial set in a photo booth) www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlYMID5qCdE Activity: Running commentary The students sit in pairs, with only Student A f acing the screen. Student A describes what is happening in the ad. Student B then relates what they have understood. The students then switch roles and repeat the activity. Together, they will produce a more precise description of the advert. Activity: Discussion The slogan of the advert is ‘Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet’ . Here are some discussion topics based on this: What does ‘happiness’ mean to you? When you’re feeling down, what do you do to cheer yourself up? Should smoking be banned in public places? Should tobacco advertising be banned?

The next three adverts are useful for CLIL, as they contribute to information in the content areas common to CLIL courses. They provide scaffolding to help students understand linguistic meaning, and encourage the development of critical thinking skills. Sprite Camo TV commercial www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3paXOX2JqE Content areas: Physical properties of materials: colour, texture, shape. Animals and camouflage – the hunter or the hunted?

•

Act on CO2 www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnaKb7yZAi4 Content areas: Sources of energy: oil, gas, coal. The environment and global warming. Show in two parts: Part 1: How we waste electricity Part 2: How we can adopt energy-saving measures The Lexus GS Hybrid – 120 Heartbeats www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht-_CxBB-kc Content areas: Protecting the environment. The effects of adrenaline on heart rate and blood flow. The next three adverts are good for focusing on natural language and giving examples of different voices, accents, dialects and cultures. Nespresso – What else? www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfyeXrdZZ1o Language: Adjectives Discussion topics: Misconceptions; describing people and things Coca-Cola for everyone www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcCSa77mzWk Language: Nouns and adjectives for describing people; synonyms and antonyms Discussion topics: Describing oneself, family members, friends, etc Weetabix – Fuel for big days www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x1s60tXJtQ Language: Everyday activities; family members; have to for obligation; present simple for habits/routine Discussion topics: My worst/best day; a day in the life of … The next two adverts both have adaptations of Gloria Gaynor’s song ‘I will survive’. Weetabix: Driving Instructor www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0mq-gdGfg4 Weetabix: Vet www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho9ZrHBdnvo Activity: Play the version of the song sung by the driving instructor, then ask the students to write their own version of ‘I will survive’ for a vet. When they have finished, play the second advert for them to compare with their versions. Language: Jobs and related words and expressions; conditionals; imperatives; various verb tenses Discussion topics: Risky jobs; my ideal job In order to ensure there are no hiccups caused by a poor internet connection in class, I recommend downloading adverts from YouTube using a simple freeware application called aTube Catcher . This downloads video and converts it to the format requested for viewing offline. Get it from http://atube-catcher.softonic.com. Remember that by bringing variety and fun into learning you will be creating a relaxed classroom atmosphere which will, in turn, optimise learning. Stephanie Williams Barcelona, Spain [email protected]


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LANGUAGE LOG

Homophones, eggcorns and mondegreens John Potts shows how the wrong word can upset the apple tart.

W

hile reading online recently about the trial of the corrupt ex-mayor of Detroit, I came across this arresting (sorry) account:

‘Federal agents who poured over bank accounts and credit cards said Kilpatrick spent $840,000 beyond his salary during his time as mayor. His defence attorneys subsequently attempted to portray the money as generous gifts from political supporters.’ ( Independent 11 October 2013) I had two competing thoughts – an image of floods of agents descending on his financial records, versus an urgent question: What did they pour over those accounts? – before the penny dropped and I mentally corrected poured to pored . Unless, of course, the various agents batted at each other for possession of those incriminating data, in which case they pawed over them? On second thoughts, probably not.

The internet is a rich source (sauce?) of such mistakes, and over the years I’ve collected a few. For example, I came across the following in the online Telegraph earlier this year; it seems that if descending from the nobility is what you’re after, you’d be better off in Geneva:

‘I lived in Basle and found it OK – a bit pricey but wages were good too. I have to say I found Geneva a bit dull and boring, but Basle was OK, no heirs and graces and you could get a good kebab there.’ ( Telegraph 13 June 2013) Two of my favourites are towing the line (not to be confused with pulling your wait ), and giving free reign to one’s imagination, or even giving free rain to it.

5

Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

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When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

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I did not object to the object.

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The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

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There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

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They were too close to the door to close it.

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The buck does funny things when the does are present.

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To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

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The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

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After a number of injections, my jaw got number.

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Upon seeing the tear in the painting, I shed a tear.

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I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

Some of these examples illustrate the phenomenon of shifting stress: object (n) and object (v), for example, where the word stress is placed on the first syllable in the noun and the second in the verb. English has plenty of those, too. And number 6 has that interesting past tense form of dive – dove – that is chiefly found in North American varieties of English.

However, back to my title. The existence of homophones is well known, but what about eggcorns and mondegreens? The former is a term coined in September 2003 by the linguist Geoffrey Pullum, in a blog called (coincidentally) Language Log ( http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll ). The choice of the term was in response to an earlier post by another linguist discussing an American woman who wrote eggcorn for acorn (probably as a result of her regional pronunciation).

The example words are all homophones: words that sound

The key to eggcorns is that they seem (to the speaker/

the same but are spelled (or spelt) differently. Not to be confused with homographs – these are spelled the same but sound different. English has plenty of homographs, as attested by one of those humorous emails that does the

writer) to make acceptable sense in the original context – which takes us back to towing the line, giving free reign, etc. What’s more, their user can often come up with a plausible-sounding explanation for their creation – a sort of

rounds every now and then, and which I’ve received from many students over the years. Here’s a shortened version:

improvised etymology, if you like.

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The bandage was wound around the wound.

2

The farm was used to produce produce.

3

The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4

The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

Eggcorns abound. We’ve probably all come across texts that refer to a nerve-wrecking experience, or waiting with baited breath for something to occur. There are websites dedicated to them – I’ve included some web addresses at the end of


LANGUAGE LOG: Homophones, eggcorns and mondegreens this article. A disconcerting one (to me) is describing a ‘flop’ as a damp squid . Jeremy Butterfield took that as the title of his book about English, in which he devotes a few pages to the topic. His data show that the eggcor n just desserts is now actually more frequent than the correct version ( just

There are entire websites devoted to collecting and listing examples of mondegreens, some of which are more evocative than the lines they mishear. Smith quotes what are claimed to be the most frequently submitted examples: Gladly, the cross-eyed bear (mishearing of a line from a hymn: Gladly the cross I’ll bear ), There’s a bathroom on the

deserts ), as are miniscule (properly minuscule ) and straight laced strait-laced ( ). Still in the minority (for the moment) are preying mantis, slight of hand , chaise lounge, beknighted , at someone’s beckoned call and in one foul swoop. A bizarre

right (mishearing of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s ‘Bad Moon Rising’: There’s a bad moon on the rise ) and ’Scuse me while I kiss this guy (mishearing of ’Scuse me while I kiss the sky , from the song ‘Purple Haze’ by Jimi Hendrix).

image is conjured by working hammer and thongs to meet a deadline. I’ll leave you to puzzle that one out at your leisure.

Butterfield, J Damp Squid OUP 2008

Mondegreens are, if anything, even more beguiling. The word derives from the mishearing of the lyrics of a song. According to an article by Geoff Smith in ELT Journal , it was

Smith, G ‘Music and mondegreens: extracting meaning from noise’ ELT Journal 57 (2) 2003 If you’re curious to learn more, try these websites:

coined in 1954 by Sylvia Wright, a writer for the Atlantic Monthly. He continues:

http://eggcorns.lascribe.net www.macmillandictionaries.com/MED-Magazine/June2010/ 58-Web-Watch-Print.htm

‘Here she confessed to mishearing a line from an old Scottish

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondegreen

ballad called “The Earl of Murray” by Thomas Percy:

http://grammar.about.com/od/mo/g/mondegreenterm.htm

Ye highlands, and ye lawlands,

and this YouTube clip of 30 mondegreens in four minutes – but, be warned, occasionally the misheard language may be offensive to some: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p6rV3OKcjw&noredirect=1

Oh! whair hae ye been? They hae slaine the earl of Murray, And hae layd him on the green. She heard the last two lines as “they have slain the Earl of Murray and Lady Mondegreen.” Hence the term “mondegreen”, meaning a specious ... interpretation of

John Potts is a teacher and teacher trainer based in Zürich, Switzerland. He has written and co-written several adult coursebooks, and is a CELTA assessor. He is also a presenter for Cambridge ESOL Examinations.

an aural message.’ Geoff Smith’s article is well worth reading in full, and it focuses on attempts by ‘advanced learners ... to identify words while transcribing song lyrics’.

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[email protected]

COMPETITION RESULTS Congratulations to all those readers who successfully completed our Prize Crossword 60. The winners, who will each receive a copy of the Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners, are:

Barbara Dumas, Harrogate, UK Rachel Glanville, Cardiff, UK Laura Gormley , Dublin, Ireland Sabine Liberto, Seuzach, Switzerland Nicolas Ochsner , Kaiserstuhl, Switzerland Kevin Sales, Elfingen, Switzerland Moritz Schneider , Bad Zurzach, Switzerland William Tice, Oberwil-Lieli, Switzerland Linda Weber , Windisch, Switzerland Astrid Wimmer , Birr, Switzerland

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Aristotle


41

Reviews Teacher Development in Action: Understanding Language Teachers’ Conceptual Change by Magdalena Kubanyiova Palgrave Macmillan 2012 978-0-230-23258-7 This is a courageous book. Rather than trumpeting a success story, it documents and analyses the ‘failure’ of a project designed to radically restructure teachers’ conceptual understanding of their teaching. The study lasted one year and was conducted with eight volunteer teachers in Slovakia. Although all were well-qualified and initially highly-motivated, the course did not achieve the transformative effect hoped for. The book is a frank and determined attempt to find out why. The introductory chapter puts the study in context. It is w ritten for ‘anyone working with or researching language teachers’. Chapter 2 reviews the work on teacher change and reveals that for all the many studies conducted, the yields have been disappointing, and that the field remains confused and poorly organised. And all too often, words are not matched by deeds: ‘embracing the language of change does not always imply embracing its mindset’. The author argues for a more rigorously theoretical framework for teacher cognition research. In Chapter 3, she examines Theories of Learning and Change in Psychology . She looks specifically at Attitude change, Conceptual change and Possible selves theory . She outlines two routes to attitude change: the systematic, which involves effort and a willingness to engage deeply with the change, and heuristic, which is a short-cut based on prior experience, knowledge and beliefs, mood and feelings. The impact of the heuristic route is generally superficial and temporary. This links with conceptual change, which can either involve assimilation or accommodation. Assimilation involves simply adopting a new idea without it really impacting on our current state, whereas accommodation involves a deep process of self-questioning. Possible selves theory posits an actual self (who

we are now), an ideal self (who we would like to become) and an ought to self (who we feel we are expected to become). Chapter 4 presents a model integrating the ideas so far explored. The Language Teacher Conceptual Change Model is explained in some detail. Essentially, unless a teacher has some vision of who they want to become, feels they are implicated personally at a deep level, can recognise that there is a dissonance between where they are and where they want to be, and then systematically engages with it, there will be no change in their beliefs. The methodology of the project is outlined in Chapter 5, along with information about the Slovak context and detailed biographies of the eight teachers involved. The combination of formal input, classroom observation, field observation, formal and informal interviews, detailed field notes and student focus groups yields a ‘thick’ description for analysis. Having cleared away the theoretical undergrowth, we now come to the nitty-gritty part of the book, which for many non-specialist readers will be the most interesting and accessible. Chapters 6 to 9 document in detail the different reactions of the eight subjects/ teachers to the course. Three metaphors emerge: ‘Nice but not for me’, ‘Couldn’t agree more’ and ‘Nice but too scary’. The main concerns of one group of subjects ( ‘Nice but not for me’ ) were ‘centred around their expertise in the subject matter and maintaining a positive self-image’, rather than in engaging with the new concepts. The programme did not, therefore, implicate their ‘ideal


language teacher self’ and simply slid off them like water off a duck’s back. Another subject ( ‘Couldn’t agree more’ ) was convinced that she was already doing what the course was advocating. Hence there was no sense of emotional dissonance, no problem to confront, so no change resulted. The new was assimilated into the old on the assumption that it was the same. Others ( ‘Nice but too scary’ ) sensed in the message of the course a threat to their sense of self. They felt threatened by the discrepancy between ‘what I do, and what the course says I ought to do’. Chapter 9 explores the development of one teacher in fine detail, and reveals that the process is not linear but cyclical. This teacher’s trajectory involved a number of U-turns and false starts, yet ultimately, she did emerge as someone for whom the course had made a change. Her realisation – ‘I’ve got to teach differently’ – offers hope for her future development.

Reviews Students will find the focus

The final chapter explores the metaphor of teacher change related

on listening and speaking

to ‘complexity theory’. To account for

quite challenging but

it, we need to take into consideration

incredibly helpful. The

the multiplicity of factors and their

opportunity to interact with

varied inter-relationships. Kubanyiova’s

the speakers on the CD by

conclusion is: ‘If you want to walk on

means of cunningly-

water, you’ve got to get out of the

conceived exercises, where

boat.’ To do this we need to inspire a

the speaker’s words are

vision, rock the boat by provoking

given and the student is

dissonance and spread a safety net.

provided with short clear instructions about how to

This book will primarily be of interest to teacher trainers and researchers, but

respond, will also be very

teachers will also find much to reflect on,

welcome to those with

especially in the sympathetic and detailed

few opportunities for

analysis of the human data.

speaking practice. The fact that they can repeat

Alan Maley

the activity again and

Fordwich, UK

again until they are

Subscribers can get a 12.5%

happy with their

discount on this book. Go to the ET p

performance will be a

website and quote ETPQR0114 at

great confidence

the checkout.

booster, I believe. There is plenty of helpful advice and information in this book and I

Key Business Skills by Barry Tomalin

listening section giving the opportunity to

Collins 2012

hear the skills being used, a business

978-0-00-748879-7

practice section with the key language

think that students at B1 to C1 level of the CEFR will find it extremely useful. Kelly Davies Bournemouth, UK

accompanied by speaking and This book is aimed primarily at students

vocabulary practice, and a business

Subscribers can get a 12.5%

looking for a self-study business

writing section with tasks associated with

discount on this book. Go to the ET p

communication course, but it would also

the unit topic. This part ends with a

website and quote ETPQR0114 at

make a useful resource for any teacher-

reflection section to encourage students

the checkout.

led business English course. It has 12

to record what they have learnt and to

units divided into four key skills areas:

make plans for how and when they will

networking, presentations, meetings and

implement their new skills.

negotiations. Each unit is then subdivided

At the back of the book is an answer

into two parts, which follow the same

key to the activities, the transcripts of all

basic structure in all the units.

the listening material and a business file,

Part A has: aims (unit objectives), a quiz to activate prior knowledge, a briefing section presenting the target

which gives additional reference material for some sections of the units. Books with a rigid unit structure,

communication skills, a listening section

although very easy to find your way

with the opportunity to interact with a

around, often risk appearing rather dull

speaker on the accompanying CD, a

and inflexible. However, I think there is

Reviewing for ET p Would you like to review books or other teaching materials for ET p? We are always looking for people who are interested in writing reviews for us. Please email

business practice section, which presents

plenty of variety in the tasks and activities

[email protected]

key language and gives speaking and

to avoid this accusation. It is also

for advice and a copy of our

vocabulary practice, and a business

important for a self-study book to be very

guidelines for reviewers.

culture section, with information on how

transparent in its structure so it is easy for

You will need to give your postal

the target communication skills may differ

students working on their own to navigate

address and say what areas

in various international situations.

their way through the different sections

of teaching you are

and to locate the material that is most

most interested in.

Part B has: a briefing section to present the target skills in this part, a

relevant to them quickly and easily.


43

EAP

Reiventing the inventive When it comes to academic writing, David Heathfield doesn’t think it’s necessary to reinvent the wheel.

T

eachers of academic writing face a mountain of unimaginative published resources of little relevance and interest to the particular students they meet in the classroom. Disengaged students plough through repetitive assessment-based exercises, and are obliged to turn out formulaic pieces of writing which bear little resemblance to what they will actually write in their university studies. In order to find ideas that give their students the chance to manipulate text in a meaningful way, teachers of academic writing simply need to raid more creative and inventive resource books which do not have an academic focus. Many ideas are easy to adapt to the academic context and can even bring life to those materials which teachers and students may be required to use. The four activities suggested here are adapted from books written solely or in part by Mario Rinvolucri, a highly inventive, influential and prodigious creator of teaching resources. The common theme is that each activity is learner-centred and provides a framework which makes it possible for the s tudents to develop as writers of academic English. Each activity builds up the students’ awareness of conventional structures in academic writing at sentence and paragraph level, through investigative and playful techniques. These activities can make up part of an academic writing class. They are easy to adapt for use with any level, and work best if they are repeated at least once during a course. 1

‘Remove and replace’ paraphrasing

(Adapted from ‘Rub out and replace’ in Grammar Games ) Write a sentence on the board, of the kind your students need to practise in their academic writing. For example:

Each exercise is proposed for all levels, ranging from beginner to advanced.

Each activity is suggested at all levels, ranging from beginner to advanced.

Get the students to say the sentence aloud, focusing on clear pronunciation, and tell them that they are going to change the sentence one word at a time, without changing its essential meaning.

Each activity is suggested at all levels, ranging from low to advanced. Each activity is suitable at all levels, ranging from low to advanced. Each activity is suitable at all levels, ranging from low to high.

Rub out one word and tell the students that a replacement word is needed. When a student suggests one, write it in the space. Ask the student to read the sentence aloud and the class can either accept or reject the new word. If they accept it (and you agree), remove another word from the sentence. The class should end up with a new sentence, where most words are different from the original. It should be a paraphrase with minimal change in meaning (see Example 1 below, which shows one of several ways in which the sentence could change). Once the students have got as far as they can, ask them to dictate the original sentence to you and write it below their final sentence so they can compare them. Tell them they can now paraphrase the sentence again, but this time they can remove and replace chunks (see Example 2 below). Substituting chunks may seem more challenging at first, but it soon becomes clear that it is a more effective approach to paraphrasing.

Each activity is suitable at all stages, ranging from low to high. Every activity is suitable at all stages, ranging from low to high.

Example 2 Each exercise is proposed for all levels, ranging from beginner to advanced. Each exercise can be done by all levels, ranging from beginner to advanced. Each exercise can be done at any stage in the learning process, ranging from beginner to advanced. Each exercise can be done at any stage in the learning process, however much knowledge students have. All the tasks can be done at any stage in the learning process, however much knowledge students have.

The beauty of this exercise is that the students are in charge of the building of the new sentence, with the teacher acting as guide.

Example 1 (The underlined words are those that the teacher erases at each step of the process.) Each exercise is proposed for all levels, ranging from beginner to advanced. Each exercise is suggested for all levels, ranging from beginner to advanced. Each activity is suggested for all levels, ranging from beginner to advanced.


2

Sentence deconstruction and reconstruction

(Adapted from ‘Silent sentence’ in Grammar Games ) Write a complex sentence on the board, of the kind that your students need to practise in their academic writing. For example: According to recent research, the average foreign language teacher currently takes up at least 70% of talking time in the classroom; only 30% remains for the students, which does not appear to make sense in a situation where most learners want to achieve increased fluency.

The class have to edit this sentence until only one word remains. In each turn, they can remove up to three words in a row. Words cannot be added, changed or put in a different order. The sentence must always make some kind of sense, even though the meaning may change. Here is one way the process could work, using the example sentence: Student A: Remove ‘recent’. Erase recent and replace the word with an underscore line. Student A then reads out the sentence minus recent . Check that all the other students are happy with the deletion. In this case it works. Student B: Take out ‘language teacher’. Erase language teacher and replace with a longer underscore line. Student B reads out the first part of the sentence without language teacher and realises (or other class members realise) that it is not possible – because foreign is not a noun and it is not possible to change it to foreigner within the rules of the game. If no students notice this, just write the words back in yourself (after all, you are the expert) and invite another deletion. Once all the text has been removed, ask the students to copy the underlined spaces and the punctuation onto a piece of paper. The fact that the spaces are of different lengths (according to the lengths of the words they replaced) will help many students remember the sentence in the next stage. In pairs, the students reconstruct the sentence on paper, by taking turns to add up to three words at a time. Note: It doesn’t matter if the sentence the students reconstruct is different from the original, as long as it works in its meaning and grammar. Further suggestion: Each time you make a deletion, mime putting the removed words somewhere strange as you say them, eg in a pocket, under a book, into a particular student’s ear. This will help visual-spatial and/or kinaesthetic learners to retrieve the words from their memory. Extension: Encourage the students to build up a completely new sentence following a similar structure to the initial one.

3

Reordering chunks in a sentence

(Adapted from ‘Text reconstruction’ in Letters ) Write a sentence, suitable for the level of the class, on the board. This example is from the introduction to Letters: EFL has been characterised for much of its lifespan by a healthy wish for innovation. Divide it into chunks: EFL has been characterised / for much of its lifespan / by a healthy wish / for innovation. Now erase the sentence and write up the chunks in a jumbled list: for innovation for much of its lifespan by a healthy wish EFL has been characterised Ask the students to work in pairs to say and write the original sentence. Before opening the coursebook or handing out a text, choose two sentences of roughly equal length from the model text you are going to use. Give out copies of one complete sentence to the students on one side of the classroom and the other sentence to the students on the other side. Ask the students to make sure they understand the meaning of the sentence, and then to divide it up into chunks, as you did with the example, and to list the chunks of their sentence in a jumbled order on another piece of paper. Tell the students to exchange their lists with the students on the other side of the classroom. Explain that they should try to reconstruct the original text from the chunks they have received. Tell them they need to focus on meaning as well as grammar. They can work individually or in pairs, as they prefer. After a minute, stop everyone and let them put questions to the students in the other half of the classroom about the meaning of the sentence, so that they can check their answers. They now finish reconstructing the sentence before looking at the coursebook or text to compare what they have written with the original. Note: This activity can be repeated during the course and, instead of individual sentences, pairs or groups of sentences or short paragraphs can be used.

4

Reordering and analysing a paragraph

(Adapted from ‘Analysing a formal letter structure’ in Letters ) Before opening the coursebook or handing out a text, choose a paragraph with about six sentences from the text you are going to use. Ask the students to tear or cut a piece of blank paper into the same number of strips as there are sentences. Dictate the sentences in a jumbled order, one for each strip. Put the students into pairs or groups of three and ask them to: Guess what the relationship is between the sentences (ie that they are from the same paragraph). Guess the type of text the sentences come from (eg that they come from a ‘compare and contrast’ essay about education in Japan). Read each other’s slips and help each other to correct any errors and fill in any missing words. Put the sentences in the correct order (by looking for logical progression of ideas and discourse markers/reference words). Guess the main ideas in the preceding and following paragraphs (they can be asked to write their predicted ideas of the next paragraph and then compare it with the original). Choose two or three chunks of language that they want to record and use in their own writing. The students now read and study the whole text with the paragraph in context.

So, how about taking a fresh look at the many inventive ideas available, and reinventing them for your academic writing class? Burbidge, N, Gray, P, Levy, S and Rinvolucri, M Letters OUP 1996 Rinvolucri, M Grammar Games CUP 1985 David Heathfield is an English teacher, international storyteller and teacher trainer. His latest book, Storytelling With Our Students, will be published by DELTA in April 2014.

www.davidheathfield.co.uk


45

W R I T I N G

Text messages 2 Nick Dall tells us how texting can be taught.

I

n Issue 89 of ET p, I discussed the shortcomings of existing ELT materials on text messaging and, relying heavily on a corpus study by Caroline Tagg, I highlighted six key features of real text messages. This article describes a selection of tried and tested activities which help students with both recognition and production of more authentic text messages. Teachers can mix and match the activities, according to their students’ needs. 1

Formal or informal?

Formal messages usually contain full forms, ‘standard’ punctuation and measured greetings and sign-offs. Informal messages can exclude any or all of these features. This activity gets the students thinking about this distinction, and should result in them sending more appropriate texts. The students are asked to categorise sample text messages as either appropriate or inappropriate in style. Each message is printed on a mini-flashcard, and the students form two piles of messages. This activity must be done in pairs or small groups, as it is vital that the students justify their choices to their peers. Here are two examples for comparison, the first appropriate and the second inappropriate: Morning John, v sorry but train’s delayed. Gonna be a few mins late. See you soon. hiya boss v sorry but train’s delayed gonna be a few mins late cu. XXX.

In a feedback session, the students and the teacher discuss which words or expressions are inappropriate, and together they decide how they can be improved upon. 2

Re-spellings

The following two activities make use of a core list of 17 commonly re-spelt words. This short list unlocks the door to all but the most esoteric texting

communities, so it goes without saying that the students should know all of the words in it.

a) Pelmanism This is a simple pelmanism game, requiring the students to match full forms with re-spellings. You will need a set of cards like those below. They are turned face down. The students then take turns to try to find pairs. At the end of the game, the student with the most pairs is the winner. you

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want to

wanna

One word of caution, though: some published examples of this kind of activity not only have commonplace expressions (eg Y don’t u call? ) but also include others which are really only representative of ‘niche’ texting communities, such as teenagers (eg w8’n 4 U ). The danger here is that the students will think this is how all English speakers compose text messages. I believe it’s fine to include a few unusual examples, as long as you later have a discussion about how useful such expressions really are, and when it might be appropriate to use them. 3

Ellipsis is extremely common in text messages. Fortunately, it’s also quite logical: in my experience, students understand and learn to use ellipsis relatively quickly. Once they know which types of words are commonly omitted, this three-step activity takes them from recognition to production: Put full texts and their shortened equivalents on different flashcards, and give each student one flashcard. They then have to find their partners. This serves as a brief introduction to further practice. Give the students shortened texts to write out in full. This gives them an understanding of the mechanics of ellipsis. Give the students full texts and ask them which words can be removed. This is the final step before authentic production. 4

b) ‘Translation’ Another activity that works well is getting the students to ‘translate’ text messages with re-spellings into full sentences. This appeals to most students, as it is precisely what they need to do when they receive English-language text messages in real life.


Leaving words out

Lexical chunks

Caroline Tagg compiled wordform frequency lists which can be extremely useful to teachers when composing sample messages or when getting students to compose their own texts. I’ve put together three ‘top ten’ lists, which can be used for a variety of activities.

Three-word phrases

Four-word phrases

Five-word phrases

1

have a good

do you want to

hope you had a good

2

let me know

have a good day

just to let you know

3

see you soon

let me know when

see you in a bit

4

a good time

hope you had a

let me know when you

5

do you want

let me know if

did you have a good

6

how are you

have a good one

let me know if you

7

let you know

had a good time

looking forward to seeing you

8

a good day

to let you know

happy new year to you

6

Freer practice

The students should now be ready to engage in a freer-practice activity where they send each other text messages in as authentic a manner as possible. They could actually use their phones, though this requires them having each other’s numbers and enough credit to send messages. If this seems too much to ask, I use a paper-based activity where the students send and reply to each other’s messages on folded slips of paper: Student 1 writes on the top half and Student 2 responds on the bottom half. I usually provide scaffolding for the first couple of messages, with a template like this: Message:

9

happy new year

have a good week

to let you know that

10

give me a

what you up to

hope you have a good

Hi Dave I’m sorry, but _________________. Please tell the boss ___________________. Response:

OK Mark, ____________________________.

a) Complete the chunk Use one of the lists above, and white out one word in each chunk. In small groups, the students use their knowledge of texts and texting to try to guess the missing word. Over a few lessons, all three lists can be treated this way. Feedback is straightforward: just give the students the completed list, which can then be used in follow-up activities.

b) Choose the right chunk Make enough copies of ten gapped messages (they should fill an A4 page) so that every student has a set. The students cut their top ten lists up and put the chunks in the gaps. For example: Hiya. Not sure if I can make tennis. I’ll let you know tomorrow.

Conduct feedback with the whole class. Once everyone agrees on the answers, the students glue the chunks to their A4 sheet. This way, they each get a written record of the ten chunks in context.

c) Explore the possibilities Once you have put a few examples on the board, the students can brainstorm possible permutations of semi-fixed expressions, in small groups. For example:

chunks they have been working with. By giving them messages to respond to, you create a new but related context, thereby steering them away from the tendency to reuse the chunks in exactly the context in which they were initially presented. 5

Response tokens

Response tokens are a polite way of acknowledging a previous text before moving on to a fuller response. They typically come at the beginning of a message: A: Hiya, thanks for getting the milk. xx B: No problem. When are you getting home? x

The students’ attention can be drawn to response tokens (followed by fuller turns) in pairs or longer chains of authentic text messages. They could write appropriate responses to messages, making use of response tokens, followed by fuller turns. A simplified list of response tokens, with explanations, should be given to the students as a language reference, either before or after the activity. Here are some common response tokens: yes, yeah, ya ok, okay

Do you want to meet + time + place expression (eg tomorrow morning at school )?

no, nah, nope

d) Using the chunks

ha, haha, hahaha

As a follow-up activity, ask the students to respond to text messages using the

lol

no problem oh

mm, mmm

Let me know ______________________.

Thereafter, I give the students blank templates, taking care to ensure that they know not to write more than 16 0 characters. This means that even the weaker students can send two messages each, while the stronger students can send as many as they want. When the students have finished writing a message, they hold it above their head and I ‘deliver’ it. I really like the fact that this simple design automatically pairs students of similar abilities: fast finishers end up writing to other fast finishers, while slower students also write to each other. As homework, I invite the students to send me a text message asking something about the course. I respond to every message I receive. I would like to thank Alex Tilbury for his help during the process of researching and writing this article.

Tagg, C A Corpus Linguistics Study of SMS Text Messaging University of Birmingham 2009 Nick Dall has taught and lived in Italy, Argentina, Bolivia, Vietnam and his native South Africa. His interests include flyfishing, languages, American fiction and wine. He currently divides his time between writing and teaching, but this is the first time he has written about teaching. [email protected]


47

A recent subject of these pages involved the interpretation of facial expressions. Harder still can be the interpretation of words, when they hide meanings which are at odds with their face value.

Euphemistically yours ... Euphemisms are polite words or phrases used in place of expressions that are, for some reason, considered unpleasant. In the world of euphemism, people beat about bushes, go round the houses and generally skirt around the subject. There can be various reasons for this curious behaviour: To talk about things which are considered embarrassing, eg death and bodily functions. To make things less negative than they might otherwise sound. A desire not to give offence to a particular group of people, eg the old, the overweight (this is often referred to as ‘political correctness’). A desire to make things (eg jobs) sound more important than they are. In each case, the normal expression which is replaced by the euphemism is considered in some way unacceptable, inferior or vulgar. In the same way that the Victorians extended their rigid dress code to inanimate household objects and used lace frills to cover up the legs of items of furniture (which they also referred to as ‘limbs’, considering legs too vulgar a word), so we ‘dress up’ perfectly ordinary and sensible terms to make them sound a bit more acceptable to our own delicate sensibilities – and the assumed sensibilities of others. However, there are other euphemisms which have the opposite intention: they are an intentionally less pleasant way of referring to something, used for comic effect, often to make light of a serious subject.

Consider the sad tale of Fred, a man killed by euphemism: When the delivery company restructured, there was a flurry of downsizing and they let most of the more experienced staff go. They gave as the excuse for putting Fred out to pasture the fact that he was chronologically challenged, in both senses of the term. Not being a senior citizen, Fred was too young to get a pension, but he failed to find another job as a freight forwarding facilitator or a sanitation engineer, and so, while he was between jobs, he turned to a life of crime – a move which proved to be ill-advised. First, he tried burglary, but he soon discovered he was too vertically challenged and big-boned to climb up walls and squeeze through people’s windows easily – and his spell as a get-away driver for a gang of bank robbers was short-lived when his pre-owned vehicle turned out to be a bit shaky. Within a short time, the police had identified him as a person of interest and he was down at the station being economical with the truth about his involvement with the gang. The kitchens at the police station were not very clean and, after eating a ham sandwich, he started to feel a bit under the weather. He asked to use the facilities, where he lost his l unch. A few hours later, he was still not doing so well, so he was admitted to hospital, where, sadly, he passed away. Poor old Fred is now pushing up daisies.

Dealing with embarrassment

use the facilities, use the rest room, powder your nose, go to the bathroom = use the toilet lose your b reakfast/lunch/dinner = throw up pass away, depart this life, fall asleep = die Making things sound less negative

downsize, put someone out to pasture, let someone go = fire someone not very clean = really dirty under the weather = sick not doing so well = very sick a bit shaky = of really poor quality, unreliable pre-owned = used, second-hand person of interest = crime suspect ill-advised = a seriously bad idea being economical with the truth = lying between jobs = unemployed Avoiding offence to certain groups

big-boned, curvy, portly = fat chronologically challenged = late (or old) vertically challenged = short senior citizen, experienced = old Making things sound more important than they are

freight forwarding facilitator = lorry driver sanitation engineer = dustman Making light of serious subjects

push up daisies, croak, kick the bucket = die


With the greatest respect ... m o c . k c o t s r e t t u h S / n o i t c e l l o C t t e r e v E ©

We British have a reputation for trying to maintain politeness at all costs. Whether or not this is true, it sometimes means that we avoid saying what we really mean. In fact, this art form has become so highly developed over the years that the subtleties are now part of ordinary speech and are assumed to be understood by all. While this is fine most of the time, it can lead to a certain amount of confusion when people of other nationalities or non-native speakers are involved in the conversation. It must be particularly frustrating for those attempting to do business with us! Here are some examples:

What the British say

How other nationalities may interpret it

What is really meant

‘We have a slight problem.’

They have a small problem.

We are in trouble!

‘I hear what you say.’

They accept my point of view.

You’re wrong!

‘With the greatest respect ...’

They are listening to me.

You are an imbecile.

‘That’s not bad.’

That’s good.

That’s bad.

‘That is a very brave proposal.’

They think I have courage.

You’re insane.

‘Quite good.’

Quite good.

Disappointing.

‘I would suggest ...’

Think about it – it’s your decision.

Don’t think about it – just do it!

‘Oh, incidentally ...’

This isn’t very important ...

The whole point is ...

‘I was a bit disappointed.’

It doesn’t really matter.

I was livid!

‘ Very interesting.’

They are interested.

Obvious nonsense.

‘I will bear it in mind.’

They will probably do it.

There’s no way I am going to do that!

‘I’m sure it was my fault.’

They think it was their fault.

It was your fault!

‘ You must come for dinner.’

I expect an invitation soon.

Goodbye for ever.

‘I only have a few minor comments.’

They have found one or two small errors.

This is a load of rubbish.

‘Could we consider other options?’

They haven’t made a decision yet.

Your idea stinks.


49

Benefiting from fine views of the Hampshire countryside ... Traditional culprits of misleading language are British estate agents, who over the years have found many ingenious ways to gloss over the less attractive aspects of their wares.

Here are some examples in a worksheet that you might like to use in class. Cut out and jumble the cards and see if your students can match up ‘Estate agent speak’ with the correct English ‘translations’.

Estate agent speak

Translation

Estate agent speak

Translation

In need of some modernisation

The property hasn’t been updated s ince the 1970s; the plumbing doesn’t work; and the place needs completely disinfecting.

Conveniently located

Set on a busy road, next to a pub and above a 24-hour take-away burger bar.

A cosy cottage in a rural location

The property is tiny and the nearest shop is half an hour’s drive away.

Tremendous scope for improvement

Demolition would be advisable.

An easy-to-maintain living space

There is really nothing big enough to require maintenance.

A real blank canvas

Demolition is imperative.

Reduced

The owner is desperate to sell as no one has even been to see the property for nine months, let alone put in an offer.

A garden flat

A dark and damp basement flat, underneath a garden which is owned by someone else in the building and to which you have no access.

Within easy reach of local schools

Gangs of noisy teenagers will gather outside your house at lunchtime and toss litter over the fence into your garden.

Low-maintenance rear garden

The previous owners have concreted over the garden.

Ideal as a buy-to-let investment

The property is in such an undesirable area that there is no way you would actually want to live in it yourself.

Full of character features

On most of which you will bang your head.

A three-bedroom house

A two-bedroom house with a cupboard that is just large enough to fit a mattress on the floor.

A stunning southerly outlook

The other three sides of the property ‘benefit’ from views of a sewage works, a recycling facility and a sheet-metal factory.

Set within a purposebuilt residential development

The property is right in the middle of a vast housing estate with a notorious reputation for drugs and gangs.

Sea view

If you stand on the toilet and hang out of the window, you can just catch a glimpse of the sea between the gasworks and the high-rise flats.

Excellent transport links

There is a motorway or a busy railway line within ten metres of the property.

Deceptively spacious

A mirror completely covering one wall makes the living room appear twice the size it really is.

Unexpectedly re-available

The previous buyer pulled out at the last minute when the survey revealed that the property was about to fall down.

Located in a vibrant area

You would be ill-advised to venture out at night.


Scrapbook compiled by Ian Waring Green

I N

T H E

C L A S S R O O M

Do we need to know this? I

n his 2007 TED talk, Sugata Mitra quoted the late Arthur C Clarke stating: ‘A teacher that can be replaced by a machine should be.’ Although Clarke’s comment is very true, given we live in the age of information and technology, we cannot underestimate the importance of using computers to embellish (not replace) our teaching practice. Corpus data, which is now available online through various websites, provides language teachers with essential information that can refine course curriculums and can increase relevance in the classroom. In a talk for The New School on corpus linguistics in 2012, Randi Reppen stated that corpus data can ‘provide insight into language where intuitions often fail – or, worse, give us the wrong information’. This article describes why corpus research is essential in language classrooms, and highlights how it can be used to supplement classroom learning.

Emilia Siravo finds that corpora bring a touch of reality into language lessons.

Ensuring relevance Although I have spoken English all my life, I had never even heard of the grammatical rules governing the use of will and going to for making future arrangements until I went on a CELTA teacher training course. When I first learnt these rules, I was mortified, ashamed and frustrated. I felt grammatically robbed, and I wondered why I had not learnt these things before. Embarrassed by my lack of grammatical knowledge, I briefly became an English grammar fundamentalist – reading grammar books became my favourite hobby, and my students were exposed to what I failed to know for so long – the rules of proper (or what I

•

thought to be proper) English. Throughout this English grammar purification phase, I taught and reinforced grammatical rules prescriptively. On one cold December morning, my pedantic choices were questioned. I had decided to dedicate an entire lesson to teaching the difference between will , going to and the present continuous for future plans. During a grammar exercise

Corpus data provides teachers with essential information that can refine course curriculums and can increase relevance in the classroom on this topic, a bright and eager student inquired, ‘Emilia, do we really need to know this?’ ‘Of course, Markus,’ I retorted. But he continued, ‘Are you really saying that you would have difficulty understanding what I meant if I said “I am visiting” instead of “I am going to visit”?’ Once again, I was quick to respond with a Yes and continued referring to our grammar book, stating that one was used for a future plan and the other for a future intention, and that there was a difference. But he pressed on: ‘But do people really use this when they speak?’ I lied and convincingly said what in reality I did not believe: ‘Yes, those who speak English well certainly do.’ I reflected for days and months on Markus’s question and on my response – and I still do so now. Initially, I thought that listening to native speakers would


51

Do we need to know this? offer proof that these rules reflected reality. However, during a summer visit to New York City, I listened intently to random conversations between native speakers, speakers, and heard endless violations of these prescriptive rules! Appalled, I turned to the BBC and read news transcripts from their website, website, hoping that the BBC’s English would prove that these rules are indeed valid. I was saddened to see the same grammatical violations. violations. At this point, I felt utterly confused. I no longer knew what to teach my students, and questioned whether I should teach prescriptively (by the book) or descriptively (as used). Upon reflection, I realised those students who questioned my pedantic rules were absolutely right. They did not need to know these rules, because the rules did not reflect their reality. reality. Instead of using class time to teach relevant, frequent language items, I had wasted hours teaching rules that were irrelevant.

Providing insights While the battle between prescriptive and descriptive teaching is likely to continue, corpus data can at least provide some interesting insights into what we should be teaching. A corpus is a collection of language usage in various registers, and corpus linguistics attempts to capture how language is actually used in the real world. Prior to the internet, this data was assembled manually. With the ability of computers to manage, collect and analyse data more efficiently, corpus data and research has boomed in recent years. There are various corpus data sets which can be used for research. These include the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), the British National Corpus (BNC) and the Longman Corpus of Spoken and Written Written English (LSWE). According to its website, COCA ‘contains more than 450 million words of text and is equally divided among spoken, fiction, popular magazines, magazines, newspapers, and academic texts’. texts’. Similarly, the BNC has over 100 million samples of written and spoken language, while the LSWE has about 20 million words from four registers. Together, these tools can provide valuable insight for language teachers.

Shaping the curriculum Theoretical grammatical rules may still serve a purpose and certainly should not be completely ignored. However, However, to avoid avoid being overly prescriptive, these rules must be checked with how language is really used. Corpus data helps provide provide this insight. Had I used corpus data to to and the research the use of will , going to and present continuous for talking about the future, I might have found that the prescriptive rules I was preaching do not necessarily apply in either spoken, written, academic or general discourse. In fact, corpus studies, such as that by Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad and Finegan, show that, regardless of the rules, will is is used in most situations that express the future. future.

To avoid being overly prescriptive prescr iptive,, theoretic theoretical al grammatica gram maticall rules rules must must be checked with how language is really used Tony McEnery and Andrew Wilson assert that ‘non-empirically-based teaching materials can be positively misleading and … corpus studies should be used to inform the production of materials, so that the more common choices of usage are given more attention than those which are less common’. common’. While using corpus data as part of my action research, I realised that I spent most of my class time focusing focusing on rather questionable grammatical topics, while avoiding highly frequent language usage. For example, I noticed that in all my lower-intermediate groups, I never reviewed the 12 most commonly-used get, go, go, know, know, think , lexical verbs (say (say,, get, see, see, make, make, come, come, take, take, want, want, give and give and mean and mean and the irregular irregular usage of most of them in the past, even though, according to Douglas Biber and Susan Conrad (cited by Reppen), these 12 verbs account for about 45 percent of occurrences of all lexical verbs. As Biber and Conrad point out: ‘In many cases, we simply don’t notice the most typical grammatical grammatical features features because because they they are so common.’ Using common.’ Using corpus data helps us avoid these mistakes. In addition to informing the curriculum, corpus data can help raise language awareness. For example, many

• www.etprofessional.com • 52 • Issue 90 January 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional professional •

coursebooks provide provide very clear-cut rules regarding how the four conditionals work. However, David Maule and, later, Christian Jones and Daniel Waller show that these rules are not reflective of reality. In fact, Maule used his own set of data to prove to his students that their books’ grammatical rules were limiting. While some critics, like Penny Ur, questioned the extremity of Maule’s Maule’s findings, in her response to Maule, Ur did recognise the importance of making our students aware of the many types and forms of conditionals (beyond what is prescriptively presented in coursebooks). Corpora are invaluable tools for doing this.

Teaching vocabulary Corpus data can also be an essential source for teaching vocabulary. For example, for one of my lessons I used a corpus to research how the word actually is used in American English. According actually is ranked as the 396th to COCA, actually is most commonly-used word in American English and has over 124,000 occurrences in COCA, with the majority of these being in speech. COCA also shows that actually is on the rise. use of the word actually is Corpus data resources also provide provide a KWIC (Key Word in Context) facility that gives teachers and students additional information information regarding how a word is used in different registers. For example, example, using concordance data one can see the typical patterns, various meanings and common collocations for actually. the word actually. Having vocabulary frequency, connotation and usage patterns helps teachers prepare what to teach and also helps learners become more aware of vocabulary vocabulary and its various meanings and uses in different registers. registers.

While using corpus data may seem time-consuming and daunting, I believe teachers should incorporate some essential elements from it in the classroom. These may include: 1

Thinking about about choosing corpus-certified coursebooks corpus-certified Recognising Recognising the importance of corpus data, leading publishers have started including it in their textbooks. When selecting a new coursebook, look for a ‘Corpus certified’ symbol on the front cover. While this should not be the only criterion for selecting a coursebook,

using one where the author has thought about language relevance and frequency is clearly important.

Biber, D, Johansson, S, Leech, G, Conrad, S and Finegan, E Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English Pearson English Pearson Education 1999

2

Enabling students students to use corpus data themselves While some teachers may hesitate to teach their students how to use corpus databases, databases, learning how to track vocabulary, to check a word’s usage, meaning and form and to derive its connotation by using relevant corpus data will provide students with a more complete insight into the target language. As a minimum, teachers should consider promoting the use of online databases databases Google and, in particular, the (such as Google and, Google Ngram Viewer Viewer)) to check word Google is not as and phrase frequency. Google is refined as either a corpus such as COCA or the BNC, but it can provide some additional insight on vocabulary usage.

Jones, C and Waller, D ‘If only it were true: the problem with the four conditionals’ ELT Journal 65 65 (1) 2011 Maule, D ‘Sorry, but if he comes, I go’ ELT Journal 42 42 (2) 1988 McEnery, T and Wilson, A Corpus Linguistics: An Introduction Edinburgh Introduction Edinburgh University Press 2001 Ur, P ‘Response to “Sorry, but if he comes, I go”’ ELT Journal 43 43 (1) 1989 Online resources Mitra, S ‘How kids teach themselves’ TED Audio podcast retrieved from from www.ted. com/talks/sugata_mitra_ com/talks/sugata_mitra_shows_how_kids shows_how_kids_ _ teach_themselves.html

Reppen, R ‘Corpus linguistics’ Video of talk given at the New School in February 2012 retrieved from www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Qf46lOnMCfs Corpus data sources www.wordandphrase.info/analyzeText.asp http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/ http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/ www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/

3 Avoiding Avoi ding

prescriptive teaching At the very least, teachers themselves should try using corpus data so that they are reminded that there are no black and white rules in English. I did a great disservice to my students when I presented them with supposedly hard and fast rules for talking about the future. These rules do not necessarily reflect reality and, as English teachers, being aware of the language’s language’s various shades of grey helps reinforce the fact that we should be guides who help foster meaningful communication, rather than police officers who enforce language rules.

Emilia Siravo is a freelance ESL teacher in Zurich, Switzerland. She has CELTA, DELTA I, DELTA III and SVEB certifications, certification s, and recently graduated from The New School’s MA TESOL Program, receiving the 2013 Award for Academic Excellence.

TALKBACK! T ALKBACK!

I

think it is rather simplistic to abandon the whole idea of repetition because it takes time

away from students and reduces their motivation to speak – as Nicholas Northall claims in ‘Echo,

echo, echo ...’ (ET p Issue p Issue 88). I can see that it sounds nonsensical simply to repeat what a student says, as in his example, but there are certain advantages to repetition: The teacher can can correct or clarify what the student said. Students hear a native-speaker level of pronunciation. Hearing their own words reflected back gives the speaker a chance to confirm or qualify what they said. Maybe even more useful than straight repetition is paraphrase, saying the same thing in a different way. way. This can help the class in various ways: The students hear different different ways of expressing themselves,

[email protected]

extending their vocabulary or varying their sentence structure. The student who is speaking feels listened to and encouraged. After all, if the teacher takes the time to rephrase what has been said, this can be gratifying for the student concerned.

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Finally, repetition or paraphrase can help slower students to

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formulate their own contribution to the conversation or discussion when the teacher opens it out to the class. Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater – echoing has its advantages, so let’s speak up in praise of paraphrase! Sheila Levy Cambridge, UK

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • • Issue 90 January 2014 •

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TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

Significant others Mark Krzanowski brings like-minded people together for special purposes.

SIG

stands for ‘special interest group’, a community whose members work together to discuss their particular field of concern and expertise, to promote best practice within that field and to produce solutions to any issues that arise. Within the IATEFL organisation there are around 15 SIGs, which bring together teachers with a particular interest in, for example, teaching young learners and teenagers, business English, pronunciation, ESP, and materials development. Members of IATEFL are asked to choose one SIG, which they can join as part of their membership fee. Additional SIGs may be joined for a fee. (Within TESOL, the teaching association based in the US, there is a similar system of interest groups, known as ISs or ‘interest sections’.)

share ideas with teachers working in the same field but in different countries around the world is especially valued. Membership numbers differ according to the nature of the SIG. The Business English SIG probably has around 500 members, whereas the ESP SIG has approximately 350.

The ESP SIG The aims of the ESP SIG, of which I am a member, were set out in 20 05. The main objective was ‘to disseminate good practice in ESP through its membership and to promote models of ESP excellence to ELT professionals in the UK and abroad’. Its aims include: to raise better awareness of ESP in countries where it is not yet fully developed; to organise systems of support for fellow ESP practitioners;

The IATEFL SIGs

to support individual or organisational projects which may not prove feasible without the SIG’s recommendation;

ELT professionals enjoy being members of IATEFL SIGs for a variety of reasons. Possibly the most important are that it gives them a chance to consolidate their specialism within the wider field of ELT, to network with fellow professionals who share their experience in a specific area, to share expertise and benchmark good practice and to promote the interests of colleagues and potential colleagues across the globe. SIG members find this last item particularly appealing. IATEFL is, as its name proclaims, an international organisation, and the opportunity to get in contact with and

to provide consultancy and relevant educational advice; to organise joint events with organisations of a similar interest or profile. In attempting to meet these aims, the ESP SIG has been very active. It has reached out to developing and emerging countries (the second book published by the SIG in partnership with Garnet Education is devoted to ESP and EAP

•

in developing countries). The SIG’s most recent success lies in its contribution to the creation of the Ivorian English Teachers’ Association (CI-IATEFL), whose main interest lies in ESP and which has just been confirmed as an IATEFL affiliate. Its newly-elected president is, himself, a member of the IATEFL ESP SIG. This association is bound to set new ESP trends in Côte d’Ivoire and in West Africa. Over the last eight years or so, the ESP SIG ‘support’ network has gone from strength to strength, and it now unites colleagues across all the continents. In addition, over the last three years, close links have been established with its TESOL counterpart, the TESOL ESP IS. The SIG embraces both ESP in its general sense as well as its special variations, eg English for Work, English for Occupational or Professional Purposes and, last but not least, English for Academic Purposes (EAP).

Publications Collaboration with Garnet Education has seen the publication of three topical ESP SIG edited books (see page 56). As former Co-ordinator of the ESP SIG, I edited all three books, and the new Joint Co-ordinator, Dr Prithvi Shrestha, is currently working on a fourth book. Garnet Education also sponsors the ESP SIG journal (The Journal of Professional and Academic English) which is published bi-annually and replaces an earlier newsletter. This journal has been particularly successful in reaching out to


55

TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

Significant others traditionally disadvantaged voices from emerging and developing countries and providing a forum in which they can express their views. Members of the ESP SIG receive free copies of the books and the journal. There is also a website (http://espsig. iatefl.org ) redesigned and maintained by Dr Semih Irfaner from Bilkent University (Turkey). Non-members are able to

Events Every year, the ESP SIG hosts its own ‘day’ during the IATEFL annual conference. Every effort is made to ensure that such a day is ‘democratically’ devoted to ESP and EAP topics – the six or seven

CALL FOR PAPERS IATEFL Annual Conference HARROGATE: 2–5 April 2014 English for Specific Purposes (ESP) Special Interest Group (SIG) Pre-Conference Event (PCE)

Theme: ESP and learning technologies: What can we learn? One of the future themes proposed by

the use of learning technologies is an

the IATEFL ESP SIG members and the

emerging field in ESP, it deserves a

participants who attended the ESP SIG

platform for ESP practitioners to

PCE in Liverpool in 2013 was the use

discuss it and the ESP Pre-Conference

of technology in ESP.

Event (PCE) would seem an ideal space

Responding to this suggestion, the

We expect that this theme will bring

this the theme of the ESP SIG PCE to

together a diverse range of researchers

be held in Harrogate in April 2014.

and practitioners in professional and

There have been a number of

academic English to share views and

conferences and events where

practices which are applicable to other

research and good practice in terms

ESP contexts.

learning have been shared. However, the use of learning technologies for English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is rarely talked about. In addition, the use of learning technologies in both professional and academic English contexts has the potential to provide administrators, trainers and teachers with a rich

Being part of the ESP SIG, and of any IATEFL SIG, means not being alone, but knowing that you are part of a very vibrant and inclusive network of like-minded experts and practitioners. In addition to conferences and events, there are ways of sustaining contact with fellow members electronically and online, be it webinars or email discussion groups. The growth in new technologies and the rapid expansion of their availability throughout the world make it certain that lively ESP activity takes place 24/7 – anywhere and anytime!

for this discussion.

ESP SIG committee would like to make

of learning technologies and language

talks delivered on this day are given by a range of international ESP and EAP experts, normally representing tertiary and further education as well as the private sector. These talks are selected by the SIG committee, who pay particular attention to achieving a balanced geographical spread. Since 2007, the ESP SIG has also held regular pre-conference events (PCEs), each of which is devoted to a particular theme. Below you will see an abbreviated ‘Call for Papers’ for our PCE at the IATEFL conference in Harrogate in April this year.

access some of the information about the SIG on the website, but full access is granted only to members of IATEFL who have selected the ESP SIG as one of their chosen SIGs. Members of the SIG can contribute to its books and journals with articles, and can propose talks to be delivered at SIG events.

Proposals for papers should follow the

Krzanowski, M (Ed) Current Developments in English for Academic, Specific and Occupational Purposes Garnet Education 2008 Krzanowski, M (Ed) Current Developments in English for Academic and Specific Purposes in Developing, Emerging and Least-Developed Countries Garnet Education 2009 Krzanowski, M (Ed) Current Developments in English for Work and the Workplace: Approaches, Curricula and Materials Garnet Education 2012 More information on joining IATEFL SIGs can be found at www.iatefl.org.

standard IATEFL conference proposal format (Title: 10 words, Abstract: 60 words, Summary: 250 words). Please submit your proposal to Aysen Guven ( [email protected] ) and Prithvi Shrestha [email protected] ). (

source of information that can enhance

Our PCE will be held on

the teaching and learning of ESP. As

1st April 2014.

Mark Krzanowski is Editor-in-Chief of the ESP SIG’s journal. He was the ESP SIG Co-ordinator from 2005 to April 2013. He is based at the University of Westminster, UK, where he is Lecturer in English Language, TESOL and Linguistics in the Department of English, Linguistics and Cultural Studies. He is also Senior Adviser in ESP and EAP for Garnet Education. [email protected]


TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

Motivational mantras Douglas Williams has ten timely tips for teachers.

W

e’ve all had days when we question what we do, doubt ourselves as teachers – perhaps even consider quitting altogether. Here are some motivational points to remember after a bad day in the classroom; their aim is to guide the disaffected teacher back to a positive mindset and, ultimately, more job satisfaction. 1

Value your contribution.

Whoever the student is, you can teach them something. Even the strongest advanced student can learn new vocabulary, work on their pronunciation and develop their skills. Conversely, an absolute beginner with seemingly no language learning aptitude (perhaps the most challenging kind of student) will show progress if the correct approach is chosen by the teacher – and they are given enough time.

4

In many teaching situations, the chances are you will be teaching one class or learner for a short time, so setting achievable objectives is key. To avoid disappointing yourself and your students, make it clear what they can expect to learn (or acquire) in the time that you have available. 5

Don’t take all the blame for a bad class.

It may seem obvious, but the success of the class depends not only on you; it depends on the students as well. Whilst reflection by the teacher on what has happened when things go wrong is essential for improving rapport with a class and meeting their needs, for teachers to put responsibility for the learners’ achievements solely on themselves is dangerous. The flip side of this, of course, is that you can’t take all the credit for a good class! 3

Look for the positive aspects of the job, not the negatives.

Yes, the pay is low and the students can drive you mad, but moaning about those things day in day out in the staffroom is a real morale-killer. Although I can sympathise with a heart-felt complaint from a fellow teacher, it’s important not to let negative vibes be the norm. Remind yourself that you are making a difference and doing a creative, intellectually stimulating job. Find positives in the teachers you work with, bounce ideas off each other and learn from your colleagues.

Mix it up.

Variety is the spice of the ELT job, whether it be in materials, correction techniques or classroom layout. Adding variety will avoid the common ‘Groundhog class’ syndrome, where you get into a predictable cycle of doing the same kinds of activities every lesson, using the same lesson shape or methodology. Both you and your students will benefit from breaking the routine. 6

2

Be realistic with your aims.

Be open to humour.

Take every opportunity in class to have a laugh with your students. Encourage spontaneous anecdotes. Don’t rush past funny mistakes students make; often these are the most memorable parts of the lesson and can be valuable in terms of language feedback. 7

Be prepared for criticism.

It’s a difficult balancing act at times, and it’s often a case of keeping most students happy for most of the time. If a student complains about your class, don’t sulk about it and hold a grudge; respond positively by talking to them one-to-one and finding out the root of their complaint. Be approachable and attentive, or they will have no choice but to go over your head to your superiors. 8

Develop, don’t stagnate.

One reason for feeling demotivated as a teacher is the uncertainty of what can come next on your CV. There are numerous avenues for continuing your professional development, from speaking at conferences to getting an article published in a teachers’ magazine or taking on further responsibilities in your school.

9

Become a student yourself.

By learning another language, you increase your ability to empathise with the situation your students face. Take every opportunity to learn about your students’ native languages in class, too. 10

And finally ... don’t work too hard!

Limit the amount of time you spend preparing classes by using this time more efficiently. Re-use or adapt existing materials, and if creating new materials, set a deadline and stick to it. Some of the best lessons I’ve taught have used either no traditional materials or those I’ve whipped up in a panic with ten minutes to go! Mark with a correction code or focus on particular types of mistake, politely decline students’ requests to mark work unrelated to your lessons and think carefully before adding students as friends on Facebook ! Aside from the risks of appearing unprofessional, if your students start seeing you as more a friend than a teacher, unfortunately there will always be some who will try to take advantage of that.

So, at the end of a bad day, just remember: there’s no such thing as the perfect teacher. The best we can do is to walk into every class with optimistic assumptions, pay attention as much as possible to our students’ needs and regularly evaluate our own performance. Douglas Williams is a freelance trainer for the London School of English and, since starting his first TEFL job in 2006, has taught in Indonesia, New Zealand and the UK. He holds the Cambridge DELTA and is currently taking an MA in ELT and Applied Linguistics at King’s College London, UK. His academic interests include assessment, learner autonomy and technology in the classroom. [email protected]


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T E C H N O L O G Y

Get on board Louise Guyett suggests three interactive ways to practise sounds and the phonemic script.

Diagram 1

L

ast year, the college that I work for had interactive white boards (IWBs) installed in all of the classrooms. All the teachers were provided with training as we were now required to use them in class. At the time, I was undertaking action research on how I could integrate the use of the phonemic chart and script in my lessons. In the latter stages of the IWB training, we were encouraged to share ideas on how we could build activities for the IWBs to use in class. So I decided to think about how I could use the features of the IWB to create activities for practising pronunciation and the phonemic script. I developed the following three ideas, which are all based on well-known classroom activities.

Phonemic ‘Back to the board’

This is, of course, based on the wellknown activity ‘Back to the board’, but instead of writing the words on the board, the teacher can prepare an interactive version for the IWB, using the target language written in phonemic script. 1 Create

a table with the same number of cells as words you want to test.

2

If you are preparing the lesson on the board itself, you can use the IWB pen to write the target lexis in phonemic script in the cells of the table. If you are using a computer or laptop to prepare your lesson, then you could use an online IPA typewriter, such as: www.e-lang.co.uk/mackichan/call/pron/ type.html .

3

Next, highlight all the cells, right click and select ‘Add cell shade’. This will add shading on top of all the words so that they are no longer visible.

4 Finally,

choose a shape from the tool bar (I like the star best). Once the shape is created, click on it and select ‘Infinite Cloner’. This means that the object, in this case the star, can simply be replicated or ‘cloned’ an infinite number of times by touching it and dragging it to the desired location on the screen. Use this to keep the scores for the teams. (See Diagram 1.)

5

Divide the class into two teams and have them sit in two semi-circles facing the board, with two students (one from each team) sitting facing their team with their backs to the board. Ask any of the students to choose a cell by calling out the column letter and the row number, for example B2. Click on that cell to remove the shading and the word underneath will be revealed. The teams of students then have to explain the word to their teammate at the front who can’t see it, without saying the revealed word. The first person to guess the word correctly wins a point for their team. This point can be marked by moving a star into the column that represents that team.

This is a great activity for revising vocabulary at the end of a lesson, especially if you have included the pronunciation while introducing the language earlier in the lesson.


3

Activity builder

The ‘Activity builder’ feature on the SMART Notebook 11 is very easy to use and it allows you to create interactive activities based on categorising. For pronunciation, it can be used for any sounds that your students are having trouble with, voiced and unvoiced sounds, and is an excellent way to practise minimal pairs. You choose the sounds and words you would like to focus on, according to your students’ needs and level. First, prepare one circle for each of your chosen target sounds. Next, write the words on the board; it’s best to organise them as shown in Diagram 3, as you can later use this as your answer page when the activity has been completed. Next, select the first circle. Select the ‘puzzle’ icon on the left-hand bar, click on ‘Activity Builder’ and then on ‘Edit’ (see Diagram 4). Diagram 2 2

‘Sound maze’ board run

This idea for this activity came to me in the middle of a lesson while my students were completing a vowel maze from Mark Hancock’s Pronunciation Games. The maze focuses on the long vowel sound / /. The learners have to find a path through the maze to the Finish, only moving through spaces that have words containing the target sound. Before the lesson, I had scanned a copy of the maze onto a SMART Notebook 11 file so that, during the feedback session, the students would have a visual to refer to for correction. While I was monitoring the students, I had the idea to change the way we would give feedback. So I cloned the maze and put one copy on each side of the board (see Diagram 2). The students were divided into two teams and formed two lines in front of the board. The first student in each team ran to the board and made the first move on their maze. They then ran back and passed the pen to the next player, who ran up and made the next move. They continued in this relay style until one team reached the Finish. We then checked both teams’ answers and drilled any problems. The learners were highly engaged and the competitiveness generated motivation. Warning: This activity might not work on older models of IWBs, where it is not possible to use more than one pen at a time.

Diagram 3

Diagram 4

•


59

Get on board Highlight all of the words that belong to the first circle, in this case / /, and drag them into the top box in the Activity Builder that says ‘Accept these objects’. In the box underneath (‘Reject these objects’), click ‘Add All Remaining’ (see Diagram 5). Then click on ‘Settings’, add your desired animations and click ‘Done’ (see Diagram 6). Repeat the same process for the second circle and the words that belong there. Finally, scatter the words around the page at random (see Diagram 7). Increase participation by nominating a student to come up to the board. The student has to choose a word and put it in the circle they think it belongs to. If it is correct, the word will disappear or swirl (depending on the animation you chose) and if it’s incorrect, the word will bounce back. As with the two activities described above, you can make this competitive by dividing the class in half or putting the students into pairs. Each pair has to come to the board and choose one word to move into the correct category. If they get it right, they win a point and choose another word. If they get it wrong, the next pair comes to the board. Provide a link to the answers so that when the activity is finished, the learners can have the answers confirmed (see Diagram 3 on page 59). You can follow up this activity by giving the students some sentences with

Diagram 5

Diagram 6

the target words missing or with one item from a minimal pair. Read the sentences out, and the students have to decide which word it is. Likewise, you can have them work in pairs to write sentences with words missing, and they

then have to read them to another pair. This is great for receptive and productive practice.

As always, variety is fundamental, and overusing the IWB can lead to a loss of novelty. However, supporting your pronunciation lessons with activities such as these can motivate and engage your learners. Hancock, M 1995

Pronunciation Games CUP

Louise Guyett has been teaching in Kaplan International Colleges, Dublin, Ireland, for over five years. She also manages the colleges’ self-access centre. She has recently passed her Trinity Diploma in TESOL and has developed a huge interest in phonology.

Diagram 7


[email protected]

T E C H N O L O G Y

In this series, Nicky Hockly

Five things you always wanted to know about the

IWB

(but were too afraid to ask)

1

What are IWBs?

The term ‘interactive whiteboard’ pretty much says it all. An IWB is a board which can usually be found at the front of the class, either mounted on the wall or free-standing. It’s white, and it’s connected to a computer and projector. The interactive part refers to the fact that IWB software allows the teacher (or students) to touch elements projected onto the board, and to move them around with a special electronic pen, or even with a finger. Actually, it’s easier to see an IWB in action than to describe it. If you’ve never seen or used one, watch any of the demonstration videos at www.itilt.eu/advanced-search.

2

Who uses IWBs?

Well, let’s first look at where and when IWBs started being used in schools. They first appeared in large numbers in primary education in the UK in the early 2000s. Partly as a result of political decisions (the New Labour government wanted to be seen to be doing something for education), and partly owing to pressure from IWB manufacturers, boards started being installed in schools all over the country. Other countries soon followed suit, with government-funded initiatives putting IWBs into state schools in many p arts of the developed world. IWBs started to feature in English language teaching in the early 2000s, too. The best-known implementation in ELT was funded by the British Council, with IWBs introduced into many of their teaching centres worldwide. Publishers were encouraged to produce IWB-compatible courseware, and they obliged by producing electronic versions of popular coursebooks to display on IWBs, and to take advantage of the interactive features these offered. These days, many primary and secondary schools, universities and other educational institutions (such as private language schools) have IWBs installed in some or all classrooms – that is, when the institution can afford what can be a very expensive piece of hardware.

So, to answer our question, people in all the above situations are using IWBs.

3

Why are IWBs so popular?

This is a good question. IWBs are an example of an educational technology that has largely been imposed in a ‘top down’ way. In other words, they are often introduced into schools as part of a management (or government) decision, rather than because of pressure from teachers or students. Research into the actual potential of IWBs to improve learning remains contentious. Simply put, there is no conclusive proof that having an IWB in your classroom results in your students learning better. However, schools and publishers were quick to jump on board (as it were) IWBs, perhaps because the ‘board’ idea is one that is fairly easy for teachers to accept and integrate into classroom practice. Another reason IWBs continue to be popular with management is that, by having them, a school appears to be using the ‘latest’ technology – which, it is assumed, will somehow automatically lead to better learning.

4

I have an IWB in my classroom, but I’m not sure how to use it. What should I do?

You’re not alone. Many schools (those with the necessary resources) have IWBs installed in classrooms, so they are a reality for many teachers. However, stories abound of IWBs collecting dust in cupboards and in corners, while teachers continue to use the standard non-interactive board. Research has shown that continuous training and support is needed if teachers are to use IWBs effectively. Using them effectively means not just manipulating pre-packaged IWB courseware from publishers, but also learning how to use the IWB as a digital hub and a space for sharing students’ digital work, which they can produce on digital devices. If you are not receiving support in your institution to learn to use your IWB, you can suggest holding regular short teacher development sessions to share ideas and

explains aspects of technology which some people may be embarrassed to confess that they don’t really understand. In this article, she looks at IWBs (interactive whiteboards).

exchange tips. This needs to be ongoing, rather than a few one-off sessions. There are also some useful IWB resources freely available on the internet. For example, take a look at those provided by the European Union-funded Interactive Technologies in Language Teaching (iTILT) project, which includes videos of IWBs being used effectively, a handbook and IWB materials: www.itilt.eu.

5

I don’t have an IWB. Should I have one?

As you’ll have gleaned by now, I’m personally not convinced they are worth the investment. IWBs are expensive, and they also require a significant investment of time in teacher training if they are to be used well. With the rise of mobile and handheld devices, IWBs are starting to appear redundant. One can easily have an ‘interactive’ classroom with a teacher device (smartphone, tablet or laptop) connected to a standard projector. Interestingly, publishers are now producing less IWB course content, and are moving towards providing courseware online, which can be accessed by teachers and students, both in and outside the classroom. So my advice is: if you have a budget, rather than spending it on expensive hardware, invest it in training your teachers and developing their digital literacies. That way, they are ready for a w ide range of technologies, and are equipped to deal with an ever-changing digital landscape. After all, today’s cutting-edge technology is tomorrow’s obsolete piece of junk. In the words of cyberculture expert Howard Rheingold: ‘If you want to keep up, don’t try to keep up with the technologies. Keep up with the literacies that the technologies make possible.’ Nicky Hockly is Director of Pedagogy of The Consultants-E, an online teacher training and development consultancy. Her most recent book is Digital Literacies, published by Pearson. She has published an e-book, Webinars: A Cookbook for Educators ( the-round.com ), and is currently working on a book on mobile and handheld learning. She maintains a blog at www.emoderationskills.com. [email protected]


61

www.tesolconvention.org

Webwatcher E -portfolios is a word you hear quite often these days. It

Russell Stannard takes us from blooging to e-portfolios.

Portfolios produced by LiveBinders can be shared, so a

comes up in much of the literature produced by the

student can allow the teacher and other students to leave

European Union, and I see that several of the British

comments, ask questions, etc. So again, thinking of the layout,

Council courses for teachers are assessed via an e-portfolio.

the student can organise their portfolio in such a way as to display clearly the comments and suggestions from other

Assessment blogs

students or the teacher. E-portfolios, by their very nature, are

My interest in e-portfolios really developed out of the work I w as

formative assessment tools as their production is a process, and

doing with blogging while at the University of Warwick. We were

the students can re-write, edit, change or adapt them as they

using blogs as a way of assessing our students on the MA in ELT

develop. Here, I am concentrating on a situation where each

course. The students were producing a lot of digital content –

student produces their own e-portfolio but, of course, an

mind-maps, videos, cartoons, chats, audio recordings, etc – and

e-portfolio could also be a group-based project.

we got them to embed all the content into a blog and then write about what they did and how they might apply it in their own

‘Live binders’

teaching context. Blogs have come a long way since the

One of the best features is the LiveBinders button. You can add it

text-based blogging tools that people used before the

to your browser (you simply drag it from the LiveBinders website

introduction of Web 2.0. They now have much greater potential

when you sign up) and then when you want to add any content

as they allow for all sorts of content to be embedded into them.

from the web into the one of your e-portfolios, you simply click

I realised that, in essence, these students’ blogs were a form of e-portfolio. They were a digital record of all their work, covering a broad range of skills that were developed during the

on the button and add it into any of the binders you have created. It really is a one-click process. Of course, e-portfolios don’t have to be just for students. I

course, and they offered information about the student’s

could produce an e-portfolio of all the work I have done in ICT. It

progress to a wide range of stakeholders. The student could

could include links to my presentations on YouTube, links to my

show the blog to a future employer as proof of their ICT skills; the

blog, to my training videos, pictures from talks, uploads of articles

audio recordings could be proof of their speaking skills; the chat

I have written and even the podcasts I have made. It can be

and collaborative content could be used as examples of how

updated whenever and wherever, and could be a useful way of

they work in groups; the written commentary in the blog could be

bringing all my work in ICT together in one place. It would be very

evidence of their written work. It was all online, in one place and

useful for potential employers, especially as I have recently gone

easy to share and even re-purpose.

freelance! An excellent example of an e-portfolio of that type is the one produced by Shelly Terrell ( www.livebinders.com/play/

LiveBinders

play/202342?present=true ) which includes a mass of pages and

However, there are more specific tools on the internet that could

tabs relating to all her work in the domain of ICT and education.

be used for the purpose of creating an e-portfolio. One of these tools can be found at LiveBinders.com. In its basic form, the tool is free and allows the students to keep a whole range of digital

LiveBinders is not that hard to use. It doesn’t have an especially

content inside an electronic binder, which is organised by tabs

modern look and feel, and it could do with a bit of an update.

and sub-tabs (rather like menus and sub-menus). The students

However, it really is a quick and easy way to bring together a

could have examples of videos they have produced, articles they

huge range of digital content in one place. I have provided some

have written, audio they have recorded, texts they have read, etc

free help videos (see below) to take you through everything you

– all in one place. What I especially like is the whole range of

need to know.

layouts that the students can choose from, allowing for really interesting ways of organising their work.

Help videos for using

One example is the ‘divided screen’ layout. The students can upload a text they have written on the left-hand side of the screen and their commentary on the text on the right-hand side. They could do the same with a video, uploading a video on one side of the screen and then, perhaps, adding an audio commentary on the other side. They can combine the resources in all sorts of ways. As a result, over the duration of a course, a

LiveBinders:

http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/binder/index.html Russell Stannard is the founder of www.teachertrainingvideos.com , which won a British Council ELTons award for technology. He is a freelance teacher and writer and also a NILE Associate Trainer.

student can build up a digital record of various ‘artefacts’ they have produced and display them in the portfolio. It can be used for assessment and as evidence of the skills they have acquired.

Keep sending your favourite sites to Russell: [email protected]


63

Prize crossword 63 ET p presents the sixty-third in our series of prize crosswords. Once you have done it successfully, let your students have a go. Send your entry (completed crossword grid and quotation), not forgetting to include your full name, postal address, email address and telephone number, to Prize crossword 63, ENGLISH TEACHING professional , Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd, Rayford House, School Road, Hove, BN3 5JR, UK. Ten correct entries will be drawn from a hat on 10 April 2014 and the winners can choose one of these titles: Macmillan Collocations Dictionary or Macmillan Phrasal Verbs Plus. Please indicate your choice on your entry. 12

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VERY FREQUENT WORDS *** To protect someone from attack *** A member of an army *** Owned by someone else before you *** Frightened *** To move quickly on foot *** To try to find something by looking carefully *** Important or serious *** The Heart ___ a Lonely Hunter (novel by Carson McCullers) *** The whole physical structure of a person or animal *** A table you sit at to write or work *** A thought you have about how to do something FREQUENT WORDS ** Something that looks or seems different from what it is ** A curve in a road ** Your hand when your fingers are closed tightly ** The reason you do something ** To use your teeth to bite food into small pieces ** An ancient story about gods, heroes and magic ** The meat from a cow FAIRLY FREQUENT WORDS * Someone who has more than a million pounds or dollars * Very suitable * Soft hair on the body of some animals * Interesting or exciting because of being unusual * Part of a song that is repeated several times

* One of two organs that fill with air when you breathe * The quiet noise made by a clock every second * A door that leads out of a public building * The son of your brother or sister * A small picture on a computer screen that you click on to open a program LESS FREQUENT WORDS – A pile of wood for burning a dead body at a funeral – Abbreviation for company – Loud enough for people to hear – Abbreviation for north-east – Relating to horses – A long stick with a flat end for rowing a boat – A prefix that gives a word the opposite meaning – Any serious disease that spreads quickly and usually ends in death – A former wife or husband – A poem about a particular event or person – The ability of a substance to stretch and then return to its original shape – A pattern made of many small coloured pieces of stone or glass – Abbreviation used when you are explaining exactly what you mean by something – A piece of electronic equipment that produces light, used especially in computer screens – A wheel in a machine that makes something turn

– A document with your name, address, etc and sometimes a photo – A strong fear of something – A strong but pleasant smell – An old word meaning you – A serious infection of the lungs – A soldier from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps – Someone who looks after a large building, such as a school or office – Someone who looks after a golf course – Used for saying you should pay attention to what follows – A short piece of trumpet music to announce a special person or event – To treat someone without respect (informal) – The distance round something thick and round – Abbreviation used before a date that is not exact – Fish eggs eaten as food – For each year (abbreviation) – A feeling of strong dislike between people – A playing card with only one symbol – A pleasant rising and falling pattern in music or speech – An informal word for a military or medical operation – Abbreviation for street – Computer technology to make computers think like humans – A computer program that works automatically, especially one that finds information on the internet

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To solve the puzzle, find which letter each number represents. You can keep a record in the boxes above. The definitions of the words in the puzzl e are given, but not in the right order. When you have finished, you will be able to read the quotation.

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4

18

26

13

11

4

22

20

’

13

13


20

26

4

22

13

14

4

14

26

20

22

8

12

14

4

20

4

20

17

18

George S Patton

“IELTS develops the skills that students need at university”

IELTS puts people first • The face-to-face interaction in speaking tests prompts the most realistic performance from the candidate. • IELTS recognises the skill our stakeholders are looking for: the ability to communicate in real-life situations. • Over 2 million IELTS tests were taken in the last year in over 130 countries around the world; each test centre offers unparalleled customer service and support. For further information visit www.ielts.org

English Teaching Professional 90

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