I Jornada de Investigación sobre la Enseñanza Secundaria

Trascendiendo el salón de clase: aprendizajes de inglés dentro y fuera del aula de alumnos de Enseñanza Secundaria

Ponencia realizada en la Cátedra Alicia Goyena, Montevideo, Uruguay.

14 de noviembre de 2019.

Descarga la presentación.

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SouthernCone TESOL Conference: Students’ Voices about English Language Learning at School and beyond

This is a summary of my talk Students’ Voices about English Language Learning at School and beyond at the SouthernCone TESOL Conference in Curitiba, Brazil. July, 17 – 20, 2019

Questions and suggestions about the topic are greatly appreciated as well as feedback on the presentation itself.

Thanks for having joined me at the event!

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Is it true that learners of English in EFL context don’t have enough exposure to English?

True or False?

The idea that EFL learners have limited amount of exposure to English may not be true anymore. If you teach in a context where internet access is limited or too expensive and you don’t have enough books, magazines, audios, films or other resources in English which cater to your students’ level and interests, then the answer may be: true. Otherwise, the answer is: False.

Ten years ago, I started to get interested in High school students whose high level of English could not be explained by the time they had been studying English either at school or with private tutors. I realized these students used English just for pleasure through activities they found interesting: listening to songs or reading whatever book in English they could get.

The world has changed a lot since then, now the accessibility to material and technological resources in English is much easier and cheaper. Two years ago I decided to research the topic for my master thesis (that will be available to be shared in a few months). You can see a poster with some data from my research at Research Gate.

One of the aims of my investigation was to analyse the uses of English outside of the school of 122 High School students (16-18 years old) in an EFL context (Uruguay) and these were the main results:

N/S: not specified
N/I: not identified
No private lessons: students who do not attend private English lessons outside of school.

The most common practice in English carried out by students beyond the classroom is watching films and series, followed by watching videos online.

Surprisingly, the students who get more involved in English-based activities autonomously do not attend English private lessons.

More girls than boys get involved in out-of-class activities in all modes except for online games.

Therefore, students are exposed to different types of English input outside of school, so teachers may take advantage of these affordances (Menezes, 2011) and integrate them into their classrooms. Below, you will see some ideas:

How to take advantage of students’ beyond the class modes of  learning English

• Setting class time to discuss which activities they have performed using English, what they have learnt and what strategies they have used to cope with difficulties.

• Checking what activities in English they engage in and bring them to the classroom, for example watching an episode from one of their favourite TV series or watching a music video of their favourite singer/group. You may also ask for volunteer students to prepare a lesson based on it.

• Another alternative is to provide activities to be performed as homework to foster language awareness. However, teachers should refrain from focusing too much on grammar or vocabulary activities out of context (i.e.: focusing on isolated items without considering the context of use). As each student may engage in a particular activity and it’s likely that you can’t design an individual piece of homework for each of them, a good idea is to ask them to keep a learning log where they record the activity they have done, what they have learnt by doing it and again the strategies they have used to cope with unknown language. 

Whatever option you choose, remember to take into account your students’ interests, as it is this personal interest and the student’ s capacity for autonomy which make these affordances so powerful for language learning.

Also, try to encourage these kinds of engagement by valuing them, offering suggestions and helping less motivated students to try out new ways of being in contact with the English language.

Reference

Menezes V. (2011) Affordances for Language Learning Beyond the Classroom. In: Benson P., Reinders H. (eds) Beyond the Language Classroom. Palgrave Macmillan, London

 

 

Pardon my bad English, but I have something to say.

If you are not a native English speaker, you’ll probably find your English being corrected more often than you’d want or need.

This is especially common in social networks where people feel free to give opinions without much consideration for others or the consequences that such opinions may have on other people’s lives. Online forums, Facebook groups and pages, even personal profiles can be the arenas for unsolicited corrections.

Don’t get me wrong. I know my English is not perfect and I still have a lot to learn, but believe me it won’t help that you correct me in public.

I don’t know if it is an occupational habit, but many ESL teachers are very prone to doing that. There are students who want to be constantly corrected, it is their way of learning, but for the rest of the mortals it is disrespectful.

Language is not a neutral medium of communication, it is a site for struggle where voices fight to be heard (Heller, 1987) and I fight with my bad English because I know you can understand me.

I write (or speak) to express my opinions, to share my knowledge and experience, to connect with other people, I don’t write to be exposed by the ‘deficiency’ of my language. I write because, in spite of not being a native speaker or a highly proficient English speaker, I have something to say.

 

Reference

Heller, M. (1987) The role of language in the formation of ethnic identity. In J. Phinney
and M. Rotheram (eds) Children’s Ethnic Socialization (pp. 180–200). Newbury Park,
CA: Sage

 

Image credits

stock.tookapic.com

 

My former students say they didn’t learn in my class

Does it ring a bell? Sometimes you end up discovering that your efforts and hard work were not enough for your students. If you are a school teacher, you most probably get to know about the issue through your former students’ new teacher or, because your new students make the same complaint about their former teacher.

This may happen to school teachers or to teachers who work at language institutions, where students change teachers every year. For private tutors, the issue may arise when the students quit for no clear reason.

You feel disappointed and may even ask yourself, what’s the point? What happened to all the efforts you devoted to:

• preparing the lessons
• delivering the lessons
• preparing the following lesson based on how the last one worked
• searching for new resources to motivate your students
• searching for new approaches to teaching the topic to those learners who didn’t get it
• preparing different types of evaluation and correcting them
• setting up a good classroom atmosphere where every learner feels secure and appreciated
• Etc., etc., etc., etc…..?

Well, maybe you are doing too much. Yes! You are doing too much.

How come? Well, last year I researched how high school students learn English as an L2 beyond the class (not published yet) and one of the findings was that:

What most students need in order to learn is to have a demanding teacher.

Does it sound odd? Well, in fact, it is not a new idea. Vygotsky claimed a long time ago that to learn a person must go beyond his/her current level of knowledge/competency/proficiency. If a person is always in his/her ‘comfort zone’ (sort to speak), no learning is possible. Learning occurs when the person is ‘forced’ to go beyond what he/she already knows (Zone of Proximal Development); in any other case, he/she would be just practising with his/her previous learning.

In the field of SLA, Krashen uses the idea of comprehensible input to explain how learning takes place. Learners should be exposed to input which is a bit further from their current level of knowledge to learn.

Your students won’t probably tell you that they want you to be demanding because they feel comfortable doing what they already know, but you may try talking to your former students in an informal setting asking them for their feedback on your teaching.

Besides, as important as learning is that students feel they have learned so they will feel confident about using the L2 and motivated to learn more.

However, how can a student feel that he/she has learned if nothing new is presented to him/her? What is new may be different to different students, so checking their prior knowledge is essential to offer the right challenge for each learner.

If you teach large classes, what you expect from all the learners may be the starting point, then you can suggest more challenging activities or contents for more advanced students. Let them choose their own learning path offering additional resources as needed.

If you need more ideas, you can watch Jim Scrivener’s talk Demand High

Have you ever been through this experience? Share your thoughts with us!

Desire to learn: motivation in L2 education

It is no secret that a motivated person can achieve whatever goal he/she pursues, sometimes in spite of physical or environmental limitations. And it is no secret that every now and then, teachers face one or two students in a class whose interest in what is being learnt is absolutely zero. Unfortunately, sometimes it is a whole class which is totally uninterested in learning an L2.

Let’s start talking about motivation by defining it:

The motivated individual

‘is one who wants to achieve a particular goal, devotes considerable effort to achieve this goal, and experiences satisfaction in the activities associated with achieving this goal’ (Gardner and MacIntyre 1993, p. 2).

If we analyse the definition above, supposing the definition properly describes the complex phenomena of human motivation, what we have can be simplified as follows,

A motivated learner is one who:

• Desires to learn a second language (L2).
• Devotes considerable effort to learn an L2.
• Experiences satisfaction in the activities associated with L2 learning.

If you come across a class where every student has the desire, puts the effort and experiences satisfaction in learning the L2, then you are in heaven! Or you are teaching adults who are clear about why they are in your class or young learners who will learn anything you teach provided it is by playing.

For the rest of the teachers, lack of students’ motivation is usually a day-to-day challenge. Motivation in L2 learning is a complex phenomenon which can be defined in terms of two factors: learners’ communicative needs and their attitudes towards the second language community.

If learners need to speak the second language in a wide range of social situations or to fulfil professional ambitions, they will perceive the communicative value of the second language and will, therefore, be motivated to acquire proficiency in it. Likewise, if learners have favourable attitudes towards the speakers of the language, they will desire more contact with them.

Robert Gardner and Wallace Lambert (1972) coined the terms

• Integrative motivation: language learning for personal growth and cultural enrichment
• Instrumental motivation: language learning for more immediate or practical goals.

Research has shown that these types of motivation are related to success in second language learning. On the other hand, we should keep in mind that an individual’s identity is closely linked with the way he or she speaks. It follows that when speaking a new language one is adopting some of the identity markers of another cultural group. Depending on the learner’s attitudes, learning a second language can be a source of enrichment or a source of resentment. If the speaker’s only reason for learning the second language is external pressure, internal motivation may be minimal and general attitudes towards learning may be negative.

Looking at motivation from a different perspective

There are very good reasons to learn an L2, but for every reason, you will probably receive a good counter-argument when learners are unwilling to learn. Look at the examples I recall from my years of teaching,

If we cannot convince the learner of good reasons to learn an L2, why not starting the other way round?

Let’s go back again to the motivated learner,

We said that a motivated learner is one who:

• Desires to learn a second language (L2).
• Devotes considerable effort to learn an L2.
• Experiences satisfaction in the activities associated with L2 learning.

Let’s help the learner to experience satisfaction in the L2 activities. How?

• The content is interesting and relevant to their age and level of ability.
• The learning goals are challenging yet manageable and clear.
• The atmosphere is supportive and non-threatening.
• Tell students about forthcoming activities (at the opening stages of lessons and within transitions)
• Varying the activities, tasks, and materials.
  • Despite the importance of keeping class routines on which students can depend on (especially for students with special learning needs), lessons which always consist of the same routines, patterns, and formats have been shown to lead to a decrease in attention and an increase in boredom.
  • Varying the activities, tasks, and materials can help to avoid this and increase students’ interest levels.
• Using co-operative rather than competitive goals.
  • Co-operative learning activities are those in which students must work together in order to complete a task or solve a problem.
  • These techniques have been found to increase the self-confidence of students, including weaker ones because every participant in a co-operative task has an important role to play.
  • Knowing that their team-mates are counting on them can increase students’ motivation.
  • Cultural and age differences will determine the most appropriate way for teachers to motivate students. In some classrooms, students may thrive on competitive interaction, while in others, co-operative activities will be more successful. (Graham Crookes and Richard Schmidt, 1991).

William Glasser says, “we are born with specific needs that we are genetically instructed to satisfy” (cited in Sullo, 2007). Natural curiosity is built into our genetic makeup to help us best meet our basic needs, survive, and thrive as humans. These basic psychological needs are:

• Belonging or connecting
  • The classroom communities need to provide a space where students feel safe and welcomed by the teacher and their classmates.
  • The teacher/student relationship sets the tone for the classroom. Research shows that teachers who developed good relationships with their students have fewer discipline problems than teachers who do not make that effort (Sullo, 2007).

• Power or competence: it relates to the ability to do something successfully.
  • When we teach our students how to learn, we provide them with the confidence, skills, and tools they need to be competent and successful individuals and they are willing to take risks in their learning.
  • Modelling and feedback are important parts of mastering skills so here your attitudes and actions towards learning are important: share your experience as a language learner, tell them which strategies you use when faced with the unknown, discuss the pros and cons of a strategy according to the situation, let them share their strategies and skills with their classmates, etc.

• Freedom: by including learners in the decision-making process, they have more ownership of that process.
  • It can start with the students determining the classroom rules for the academic year or could be as simple as what topic they will write their essays about or as thoughtful as determining the criteria for grading that essay.
  • Students that have a voice in the classroom are more invested in the work they are producing for that classroom and thus more motivated.

• Fun: everything is better when there is a fun element and it does not need to be through a game all the time. An enthusiastic teacher brings passion, excitement, pleasure, and joy to the classroom. They bring their classroom to life, engage their students, and encourage exploration.

If the students enjoy the activities they do in class, they will soon start to devote more attention and effort to fulfil them and as both things happen, they will learn the L2 almost incidentally, which in turn will reinforce their desire to keep learning.

Click here and subscribe to receive in your inbox a free handout with many ideas to motivate your class! Plus my last newsletter to evaluate and choose L2 coursebooks

References and further reading

For a fuller treatment of the social psychological perspective on learners’ differences refer to Gardner (1985), Skehan (1989), and Ellis (1994, pp. 467- 560).

Church, E.B. (2003). Building community in the classroom. Retrieved July 24, 2015 from http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/building-community-classroom

Crookes, G., & Schmidt, R. W. (1991). Motivation: Reopening the research agenda. Language learning, 41(4), 469-512.

Dornyei, Z. (2006). Individual differences in second language acquisition. AILA Review, 19, 42-68.

Skehan, P. (1989). Individual Differences in Second Language Learning. London: Edward Arnold Associates.

Sullo, B. (2007). Activating the Desire to Learn. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Summary of main points of ‘Activate the desire to learn’

Younger is better to learn an L2?

How old were you when you started learning English?

Do you think you would be more fluent and accurate in English if you had started earlier?

Did you learn English ‘naturally’ or in a language institution? Is one way better than the other or does it depend on age?

Children, adolescents and adults have neurological, cognitive and psychological differences in the acquisition of L2. Children seem to be intrinsically better learners, while adolescents and adults have cognitive skills and self-discipline which enable them to utilize a larger volume of comprehensible input within the same exposure time period. On the other hand, older learners may be more greatly affected by the other factors in L2 such as motivation, anxiety and identity. The difference in the acquisition process demands different approaches to instructing learners of different age groups.

Age of acquisition: What does research say?

Age is easier to define and measure than personality, aptitude, or motivation. Nevertheless, the relationship between a learner’s age and his or her potential for success in second language acquisition is under debate.

Children from immigrant families eventually speak the language of their new community with native-like fluency, but the same does not happen to their parents. One explanation is that, as in first language acquisition, there is a critical period for second language acquisition.

Younger is better?

The Critical Period Hypothesis suggests that there is a time in human development (before puberty) when the brain is predisposed to success in language learning. Developmental changes in the brain, it is argued, affect the nature of language acquisition.

It is difficult to compare children and adults as second language learners. In addition to the possible biological differences suggested by the Critical Period Hypothesis, the conditions for language learning are often very different.

Younger learners:

• Younger learners in informal language learning environments usually have more time to devote to learning language.
• They often have more opportunities to hear and use the language in environments where they do not experience strong pressure to speak fluently and accurately from the very beginning.
• Their early imperfect efforts are often praised or, at least, accepted.

Older learners:

• They are often in situations which demand much more complex language and the expression of much more complicated ideas.
• They often get embarrassed by their lack of mastery of the language and they may develop a sense of inadequacy after experiences of frustration in trying to say exactly what they mean.

Critique of the Critical Period Hypothesis

The Critical Period Hypothesis has been challenged in recent years from several different points of view:

• At least in the early stages of second language development, older learners are more efficient than younger learners.
• Learners who began learning a second language at the primary school level did not fare better in the long run than those who began in early adolescence.
• There are countless anecdotes about older learners (adolescents and adults) who have reached high levels of proficiency in a second language.

Does this mean that there is no critical period for second language acquisition?

Patkowski (1980) found that age of acquisition is a very important factor in setting limits on the development of native-like mastery of a second language and that this limitation does not apply only to accent. These results gave added support to the Critical Period Hypothesis for second language acquisition.

Experience and research have shown that native-like mastery of the spoken language is difficult to attain by older learners. Nevertheless, there is some research which suggests that older learners may have an advantage, at least in the early stages of second language learning.

In the Snow and Hoefnagel-Hohle study (1982), it was found that adolescents and adults learned faster than children in the first few months of exposure to L2. By the end of the year, the children were catching up or had surpassed the adults on several measures. Nevertheless, it was the adolescents who retained the highest levels of performance overall.

Snow and Hoefnagel-Hohle concluded that their results provide evidence that there is no critical period for language acquisition. However, we should also consider that some of the tasks in the study (for example, sentence judgement or translation) were too hard for young learners.

Adults and adolescents may learn faster in the early stages of second language development (especially if they are learning a language which is similar to their first language) but young children eventually catch up and even surpass them if they are surrounded by the language on a daily basis.

Adults and adolescents can also make considerable and rapid progress towards mastery of a second language in contexts where they can make use of the language on a daily basis in social, personal, professional, or academic interaction.

The role of the critical period in second language acquisition is still much debated. Some researchers conclude that there are maturational constraints on language acquisition, but there are also others who consider that the age factor cannot be separated from factors such as motivation, social identity, and the conditions for learning. They argue that older learners may well speak with an accent because they want to continue being identified with their first language cultural group, and adults rarely get access to the same quantity and quality of language input that children receive in play settings.

Many people conclude on the basis of studies that it is better to begin second language instruction as early as possible if we seek the highest possible level of second language skills, the level at which a second language speaker is indistinguishable from a native speaker. But achieving a native-like mastery of the second language is not a goal for all second language learning, in all contexts.

What are the implications for educational settings?

In the chart below you will find a summary of the most important issues to consider when deciding on the most appropriate age to start learning an L2 in educational settings. These ideas apply to both formal and informal educational contexts (i.e.: school education and private L2 classes).

Conclusions

There is strong evidence of the existence of a Critical Period for L2 demonstrating the value of early exposure to the second language.

However, the initial point of learning cannot play the same role in a naturalistic and in a classroom context; the earlier may be the better but provided that it is associated with enough significant exposure, other important conditions include that exposure to young learners should be intensively distributed giving learners opportunities to participate in a variety of L2 social contexts.

In the end, more important than the starting age of acquisition is the amount and frequency of exposure to the L2.

 

References

http://carla.umn.edu/learnerlanguage/ind_diff.html

Lightbown, P; Spada, N. (2001) Factors affecting Second Language Learning in English Language Teaching in its Social Context (pp. 28-43)

Muñoz, C. (2010). On how age affects foreign language learning. Advances in Research on Language Acquisition and Teaching: Selected Papers. Gala

Qin Zhao, A; Morgan C. (n.d.). Consideration of Age in L2 Attainment – Children, Adolescents and Adults. Asian EFL Journal

Which coursebook to use (if any)?

Some weeks ago I shared a post about the decision of using a coursebook (or not). If you haven’t read it yet, here is the link To use or not to use coursebooks? Suppose you have decided (or are compelled) to use a coursebook and you are free to decide which coursebook to use, or you have been using a coursebook for some time and you want to change it because it is out-of-date or you are just bored, what issues should you consider to make the best choice? There are thousands of coursebooks in the ELT market, which one will be the best fit for your students and your own teaching approach? Well, this post intends to help you in that choice.

If you have been teaching for some time, you probably know some of the coursebooks, especially those published by the most famous ELT editorials. Maybe some of your colleagues have recommended the ones they are most comfortable with (or the ones you should never consider!). Maybe, there are some limitations in the availability of some of the coursebooks and there are only certain books you and your students can access. Taking these considerations into account, choose two or three coursebooks to evaluate (of course you can evaluate as many coursebooks as you want, but the decision will be harder if you have to evaluate many options).

Remember that after choosing a coursebook and telling your students (and sometimes their parents) which one/ones they will need to buy, it will be troublesome to convince them later that they will have to buy another book (coursebooks are not cheap for some educational contexts) because the first one was a bad choice (your bad choice!). So, take time to evaluate your options so that you end up with the best coursebook.

Evaluation of ELT coursebooks

Tomlinson and Masuhara’s (2004:1) definition of materials evaluation is: “Materials evaluation involves measuring the value (or potential value) of a set of learning materials by making judgements about the effect of materials on people using it”.

Teachers interested in the evaluation of ELT materials can find many frameworks and criteria developed by researchers and coursebook authors (Byrd, 2004; Cunningsworth, 1995; Harmer, 2007; McGrath, 2002; Sheldon, 1988; Tomlinson & Masuhara, 2004; Williams, 1983). However, as McDonough, Shaw & Masuhara (2013: 52) state “(…) there does not seem as yet an agreed set of criteria or procedures for evaluation”.

In this post I will discuss two frameworks: McDonough, Shaw & Masuhara’s (2013) which attempts to provide a comprehensive framework which might be applied in the majority of ELT situations worldwide; and, Littlejohn’s (2011) framework which aims to evaluate the materials ‘as they are’, not the ‘materials-in-action’ (i.e. as the teacher thinks the material should be used).

1 Coursebook evaluation in two stages

McDonough, Shaw & Masuhara (2013) examine materials in two stages: an external evaluation (cover, introduction, table of contents) and a more detailed internal evaluation.

The external evaluation “(…) aims at examining the organization of the material as stated explicitly by the author/publisher by looking at: the ‘blurb’, or the claims made on the cover of the d/students’ book, and the introduction and table of contents” (op. cit.: 54). To achieve this the  following information should be gathered (op. cit.: 55-58):

• target audience
• the proficiency level
• the context in which the material will be used
• how the language is organized into units, modules, etc.
• the authors’ views on language, methodology and the relationship between the language, the language process and the learner
• whether the material will be used as the ‘core’ course
• whether  it is locally available
• visuals, layout and presentation
• presence of vocabulary lists or appendixes
• cultural bias, representation of minority groups
• the inclusion of digital materials (CDs, DVDs, downloadable materials), and the inclusion of a teacher’s book and tests

According to these authors, after this stage and having in mind the profile of the learners, we will have enough information to identify if the material is potentially appropriate and is worth a deeper inspection. 

The internal evaluation seeks to find information about:

• the presentation of the skills (coverage, proportion, integration)
• grading and sequencing (the type of progression, principle underlying progression, levels)
• whether discourse skills are included
• the ‘authenticity’ of the listening materials
• the nature of interaction in oral dialogues (natural or artificial dialogues?)
• the relationship of tests and activities to learners’ needs and the content of the book
• suitability for different learning styles and access to self-study
• the possibility of engagement for learners and teachers in terms of needs, goals, skills and beliefs.

Then, an overall evaluation can be made considering:

• the usability factor (possibility of integration to the syllabus)
• the generalizability factor (whether the whole coursebook can be used or only a part of it)
• based on the previous factor, the adaptability factor
• the flexibility factor (how rigid is the sequencing and grading?).

However, these authors as well as Tomlinson (2004), state that the success or failure of a material can only be fully determined after a while and post-use evaluation.

2 Coursebook evaluation based on methodology and linguistic aspects

Littlejohn (2011) does not take into account the ‘superficial aspect’ of materials or their content, his framework focuses on the methodology and the linguistic nature of the coursebook.

The author identifies three levels of analysis: objective description, subjective description and subjective inference.

In level 1 ‘objective description’, we will find the information about:

• publication date
• intended audience
• type of material (general, specific, main course, etc.)
• the amount of classroom time required and type of use (self-study, order, etc.)
• published form, number of pages, use of colour
• components (teacher’s book, student’s book, CDs, etc.)
• the division into sections, access (indexes, detailed content, hyperlinks, etc.)
• how the sections are distributed between teachers and students, length of sections and any pattern in them.

In the ‘subjective analysis’ in level 2, we analyse what teachers and learners will have to do in each task to test the claims made by the material (a task is defined by this author as any proposal made to students whose aim is bringing about the learning of the L2). For each task we need to identify:

• the process, including turn-take (the learners’ role in classroom discourse),
• focus: on meaning? form? or both?
• mental operations: the mental processes required, like repetition, deducing, hypothesizing
• type of classroom participation: alone? pair work? in groups?
• and the content of the input and of the learners’ output (written or oral? individual sentences or discourse?), source (from the material? the teacher? or the students?) and nature (grammar explanation? fiction? or personal information?).

Based on the previous levels of analysis we can determine the aims of the material and the basis for the selection and sequencing, the following step is to identify the teacher’s and the learners’ roles implied in it. Finally, a conclusion about the material as a whole can be done (subjective inference).

Littlejohn proposes a further step which is to analyse the teachers/students/institutions situation and their expectations from the material to decide its rejection, adoption, adaptation or supplementation.

Material analysis

What aspect should you consider to evaluate the coursebook itself? Littlejohn summarizes them with the following image

Aspects of an analysis of language teaching materials. (Taken from Littlejohn – 2011 p. 18).

With the analysis of the material and the analysis of your teaching context in mind, you might have enough information to reject, adopt, adapt, supplement or use the material with its pros and cons and discuss them with your students (it would be a great source of discussion at least).

Are you ready to evaluate a book? You can download the free PDF workbook How to evaluate coursebooks with both frameworks to apply right away and choose the one you feel most comfortable with.

 

 

References

LITTLEJOHN, A. 2011. The analysis of language teaching materials: Inside the Trojan Horse. In Materials Development in Language Teaching (2^nd Edition). Cambridge University Press.

MCDONOUGH, J., SHAW, C., AND MASUHARA, H. 2013. Materials and Methods in ELT. A Teacher’s Guide (3^rd edition). Wiley-Blackwell, UK.

Project-based Learning

What is a project in an educational context? Can we work with projects in the same way we usually work? Is a project a longer version of a lesson? What are the advantages and the disadvantages of Project-based learning? Is it incompatible with traditional ways of evaluation? In this post, I intend to give answers to these questions acknowledging that more questions may come up from my writing.

Characteristics of project work

Project work is defined by Ribé and Vidal (1993: 5) as “(…) a full implementation of a second or a third generation task”, but it is longer and more complex than a task, it is a macro-task. It consists of micro-tasks that can be expanded or reduced according to the negotiation carried out between the teacher and the students. The steps, length, process and product are pre-planned by the teacher, “but not totally predetermined” (Idem).

Grant (n.d: 1) states that Project-based learning is an instructional method centred on the learner that allows in-depth investigation of a topic. Having more autonomy, students take more responsibility for their learning process (Tassinari, 1996; Wolk, 1994; Worthy, 2000 in op. cit.: 1); “(…) project-based learning and the construction of artifacts enable the expression of diversity in learners, such as interests, abilities and learning styles” (Grant, n.d.: 2).

Project-based learning takes ideas from constructivism in which learning is seen as the construction of knowledge through interaction (Perkins, 1991; Piaget, 1969; Vygotsky, 1978 in op. cit.: 2), and constructionism (Harel & Papert, 1991; Kafai & Resnick, 1996 in op. cit.: 2) which takes the notion that people learn best when they construct an artifact that can be shared and reflected upon (ibid).

From a language learning point of view, project work requires comprehensible language input (Krashen), comprehensible language output (Swain), the process of content and language learning, negotiation of objectives, and self-access materials (Ribé & Vidal, 1993: 6-7).

Project work is also aligned with Widdowson’s notion of ‘authenticity’:  how the reader responds to a text (in Ball & Hockly, n.d.) See my post Reading in an L2: the idea of ‘Authentic Reading’  for more details on authenticity. From this perspective, a text may elicit an authentic response from the reader independently of its nature (i.e.: whether it is an original text in English or an adaptation of one).

Advantages and disadvantages of project work

Project work or Project-Based Learning (PBL) has many advantages such as,

• enhancing learners’ autonomy
• fostering motivation and engagement
• developing language learning and skills
• catering for individual differences
• authentic use of the L2
• developing problem-solving skills
• enhancing cooperative learning
• integrating content and language learning

However, some teachers may be overwhelmed by the changes necessary for its implementation. There are three main aspects of PBL that teachers and learners might find challenging:

• classroom management changes radically
• students and teachers need to undertake different roles and they might probably feel uncomfortable with that change.
• students without experience in group work may have difficulties negotiating compromise (Johnson & Johnson, 1989; Socha & Socha, 1994 in Grant, n.d.: 9)

To overcome these problems, it is important to begin slowly, a short-term project about a topic students are familiar with might be a good choice (Grant, n.d.:9). Working with group dynamics before starting the project is advisable. Assessment should provide constructive and authentic feedback; to achieve that, the most appropriate assessment tools are rubrics, learning diaries or portfolios.

Evaluation of project work

In a project work, different types of assessment are needed to evaluate content, language, presentation, effort, attitude and cognitive development. Therefore, we will need both formative and summative assessment tools. Each aspect of the project can be evaluated from different points of view (Ribé & Vidal, 1993: 82). Common tools used in project work are, 

• self-assessment
• peer assessment checklists
• questionnaires
• learning diaries
• rubrics
• portfolios.

However, as teachers usually must fulfil institutional requirements too, traditional testing can be included in the project and integrated as another way of evaluating students’ progress.

Main elements of a project

• Understanding the dynamic of a project.
• Provide a context for the project (situation, audience)
• Which problem/ questions should the project respond to?
• Which is the final outcome?
• How will the final outcome be evaluated?

Instrumental elements of a project

• How to divide the project into stages?
• Division of roles
• Content learning needs
• Language learning needs
• Resources needed
• Estimated time of the project
• Evaluation throughout the project  (assessment tools? schedule?)

Project-based learning into practice

In this section, you will see how I planned a project about a tourism blog for teenagers or young adult learners. The name of the project is Show the world why your city is worth visiting. A collaborative blog. 

Cover of the project

 

Below, you will see the first two pages of the Teacher’s notes to show you how I included the main and some of the instrumental elements of a project into a teaching plan.

Teacher’s notes p. 1

Teacher’s notes p. 2

*If you want to get the rest of the Teacher’s notes and the students’ handout for this project, you can buy it at Teachers Pay Teachers

Have worked with projects? Which projects are you proud of? Would you add more advantages to Project-based learning? And more disadvantages? What have you learned from Project-based learning?

If you haven’t worked with projects yet, what prevents you from doing so? Do you think it is too time-consuming? Do you think it requires too much effort and skills from teachers? Can all learners benefit from project work?

Share your thoughts with us!

 

 

References

BALL, P. AND HOCKLY, N. (n.d.). Developing Language Skills in the Classroom. Funiber.

GRANT, M. (2002) “Getting a grip on project-based learning: theory, cases and recommendations” [online], Meridian: A Middle School Computer Technologies Journal a service of NC State University, Raleigh, NC, Vol. 5(1). Available at https://www.ncsu.edu/meridian/win2002/514/project-based.pdf [Retrieved: 19^th February 2016]

RIBÈ R. AND VIDAL, N. 1993. Project Work; Step by step. Heinemann. England.

To use or not to use coursebooks?

Reasons to/not to use coursebooks

It is difficult to imagine a classroom around the world without any kind of ELT material. The most traditional and wide-spread examples of these materials are coursebooks. As Hall (2013, online) states “Textbooks are the main source of teaching ideas and materials for many teachers around the world; indeed, it’s almost impossible to imagine ELT without textbooks”. There are good reasons why many teachers use published coursebooks, amongst them:

• They provide language input for learners.
• Well-designed coursebooks can be motivating and provide a logical organization of content.
• They offer a written record of what has been studied and allow students to review it later.
• They reduce the amount of time needed for preparation.
• In some L2 teaching contexts, the use of a given coursebook is compulsory.
• Coursebooks are usually organized around an identifiable principle and follow clear patterns.
• They are easily stored.

However, coursebooks have also received criticisms on the part of researchers and teachers. Sheldon (1988:237) cites Greenall’s concept of coursebook credibility gap referring to the “(…) potential conflicts of interest in their creation, commercial exploitation, public assessment, selection, and ultimate classroom use”. In short, there are contradictions between educational aims and financial viability.

Following Sheldon (op. cit.), we can distinguish two levels of disappointment on coursebooks: on the level of design and on the level of theoretical premises. On the level of design, sometimes textbooks do not adequately describe the language level of the target learners (with terms like ‘beginner’, ‘starter’, ‘intermediate’); they have an inadequate handwriting to economize space in each page; there are omissions of course rationale; there are teacher’s books whose only value is their answer keys; the terminological looseness which makes it impossible to compare textbooks (op. cit.: 239); the presence of stereotyped images of English language users (focus on native speakers’ lives and language varieties) and the absence of images about poverty, disability, etc. In addition, as Hall (2013) adds, they may create a dependency culture in which the teacher just does what the textbook says. On the theoretical level, there may be a lack of cultural appropriacy; failure to recognize restrictions in many teaching situations; and, inconsistency with the pedagogical implications of current research on linguistic and language learning (Sheldon, 1988; Williams, 1983).

The criticisms mentioned above have important implications for those responsible for managing the learning processes, the teachers. Teachers have responded to these challenges in two main ways according to their training, experience and the teaching situation where they work: adapting materials or designing their own materials.

Materials adaptation

Littlejohn (2011) suggests that the following aspects of the target situation should be taken into account when adapting ELT materials:

• the cultural context,
• the educational institution,
• the course aims, content, methodology and means of evaluation,
• the teachers,
• the learners.

Only after integrating this information with the material evaluation will teachers be in a position to decide if the material should be rejected, adopted, adapted or supplemented.

On the other hand, McDonough, Shaw & Masuhara (2013: 69) argue that the following principles should guide materials adaptation:

• Personalizing, “(…) increasing the relevance of content in relation to learners’ interests and their academic, educational or professional needs”.
• Individualizing, addressing “(…) the learning styles both of individuals and of the members of a class working closely together”.
• Localizing, taking “(…) into account the international geography of English language teaching”.
• Modernizing, “(…) not all materials show familiarity with aspects of current English usage, sometimes to the point of being not only out of date or misleading but even incorrect”.

The authors distinguish the following techniques for adaptation: adding, including expanding and extending; deleting, including subtracting and abridging; modifying, including rewriting and restructuring; simplifying; and reordering (op. cit.: 70).

Materials writing

Materials writing should be guided by principles rooted in SLA research and successful teaching and learning practices. Richards (2005: 9-10) for example explains that the main underlying principles of contemporary versions of CLT to consider are:

• L2 learning is facilitated when learners are engaged in meaningful interaction.
• Students need to be given the opportunity to negotiate meaning and notice how language is used.
• Content must be relevant, purposeful and interesting.
• Communication is a holistic process involving the use of several skills.
• L2 learning is facilitated by both inductive and deductive methods.
• Language learning involves creative use of language and trial and error.
• Learners progress at different rates and through different routes.
• Learning involves the use of learning strategies and communication strategies.
• The role of the teacher is that of a facilitator.
• The classroom is a community where learners learn through collaboration.

Therefore, he notes that “The challenge for material writers is to turn these principles into lesson plans and teaching materials”

(op. cit.: 10) and adds that principles derived from research might not be adequate to all educational contexts, in such cases a situation analysis is necessary based on teachers’ expertise and their knowledge of students.

With regards to the authenticity of classroom materials, the author recognizes some issues that make real-world sources inadequate for some educational contexts:

• When the students´ level of English is not advanced.
• In the real world, most people already know how to read and write in their L1 but L2 learners are just starting to learn the new language.
• Authentic oral exchanges are full of unclarity and non-specificity and they usually have little relevance to anyone else.
• Dialogues amongst native speakers may differ considerably for those that ESOL learners will have in the future (most possibly with other L2 learners).
• The wrong expectation that L2 learners must achieve native-like proficiency.

Richards concludes that what is important in writing materials is that they provide the means of successful communication both within and outside the classroom.

From a linguistic-oriented perspective, Cook (1998: 12) suggests that SLA research has the following implications for materials design:

• “L2 users are speakers in their own right, not imitations native speakers”. Cook agrees with Richards that L2 users use the target language for their own specific purposes and in their own way; the important fact is that they can use the L2 effectively with other speakers and the most probable interlocutors will be other L2 users.
• L2 learners have two or more language systems in their minds, consequently, their minds are different from that of monolinguals. “The L1 is always present in the students’ mind at some level” (Cook, 1998: 13); therefore, the coursebook should not pretend that the learners will not use their knowledge of their L1.
• “Learners tackle some aspects of L2 learning in different ways” (op. cit.: 14). Learners vary according to demographic features and personality traits; to cater for as variability as possible, a coursebook should present alternative paths for the students.
• “The aspect of syntax that needs to be acquired mostly concern vocabulary” (op. cit.: 15). According to Cook (based on Chomsky, 1992), all the language-specific aspects are in the lexicon so syntax does not need to be taught because it is already imposed on the language by the learner’s mind; the implication for coursebooks is that the core aspects of grammar should not be taught, they will be built up in an autonomous way by the students.
• “The important early aspects of syntax to be acquired concern word order, not inflections” (op. cit.: 16). in earlier stages the basic word order (Subject-Verb-Object) should be taught to acquire other word orders later, at this stage questions needed for classroom interaction and management can be introduced as formulas. However, this principle applies only to the level of production, at the level of reception students must be exposed to rich input to progress to the next stages.
• “Vocabulary items need to be linked to structural contexts and concepts” (op. cit.: 18). The selection of vocabulary should be based on their structural possibilities not on their frequency or teachability. Therefore, concepts that are universal (e.g.: pizza) and universal relationships (e.g.: this, the same, all, say, know, feel, etc.) should be taught first and presented in structural contexts.
• “Pronunciation is needed for internal purposes in the learners’ minds” (op. cit.: 19). Information is quickly lost in the short-term memory so it needs to be recycled many times either aloud or silently. Working memory depends on the phonological information that is being processed in the mind, therefore pronunciation activities should be provided not only as part of communication but also to help students to handle sounds internally.
• “L2 users need to learn about the properties of the L2 writing system” (op. cit.: 20). Coursebooks should take into account that different languages have different writing systems and these differences should be taught. Also, they should include activities to develop low-level writing skills (e.g.: spelling) or even writing direction if necessary (e.g.: for Chinese students).

Some of Cook’s assertions may seem debatable, but it reminds us that materials design must be grounded in SLA theories. In addition, there are two points of views which are crucial to design good teaching materials: teachers’ knowledge of the learning context where the material will be applied and students’ voices about successful L2 learning practices. Unfortunately, these points of view are seldom taken into account by coursebooks authors and those responsible for materials choices in educational institutions.

What is the right answer to the question of using/not using coursebooks?

There is not a correct answer, unluckily (as in most issues in ELT). Following Littlejohn (op. cit.) above, a positive or negative answer will depend on the educational context, including the educational institution, the aims, methodology and evaluation of the course, your teaching approach and beliefs about L2 learning, and your learners’ needs and expectations. The following infographic may help you to reflect on the appropriacy of using a coursebook in your teaching practice. You need to answer yes/no to each question and follow the suggestion in each case.

*Teachers Pay Teachers (This link is part of a referral program)

I hope the infographic helps you to reflect about the usefulness of a coursebook in your specific teaching situation, however, it is not intended to be a ‘recipe’ to decide whether or not to use a coursebook, instead, it is a help guide to think about the issues you should consider when making a choice. If you have more ideas on the topic please share them in the Comments section below.

References

COOK, V. 1998. “Relating SLA Research to Language Teaching Materials” [online], Available at https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/CJAL/article/view/19807 [Retrieved: 12th January 2016]

HALL, G. 2013. “This house believes that published course materials don’t reflect the lives or needs of learners” [online], Available at http://oupeltglobalblog.com/2013/04/05/this-house-believes-that-published-course-materials-dont-reflect-the-lives-or-needs-of-learners/#comments [Retrieved: 26^th October 2015]

LITTLEJOHN, A. 2011. The analysis of language teaching materials: Inside the Trojan Horse. In Materials Development in Language Teaching (2^nd Edition). Cambridge University Press.

MCDONOUGH, J., SHAW, C., AND MASUHARA, H. 2013. Materials and Methods in ELT. A Teacher’s Guide (3^rd edition). Wiley-Blackwell, UK.

RICHARDS, J. 2005. “Materials Development and Research – Making the connection” TESOL Convention [online] Available at http://www.professorjackrichards.com/wp-content/uploads/materials-development-making-connection.pdf [Retrieved: 24^th November 2015]

SHELDON, L. 1988. Evaluating ELT textbooks and materials. ELT Journal Vol. 42(4) pp. 237-246. OUP.