Monday 26 April 2010

Curriculum vs Syllabus Design: Needs Analyses

What is the difference between curriculum and syllabus. Although the two are used interchangeably in some contexts, it is important to note the distinction. Curriculum is a much broader term than syllabus. It is an administrative piece of work that includes all the relevant information about the course such as aims and objectives, rationale for studying L2, learners and their proficiency level, content of curriculum (syllabus), implementation of curriculum (method), assessment and evaluation, the role of parents, administrators etc. So, curriculum includes a syllabus as well. Syllabus, on the other hand, refers to a more specific subject area. There are two types of syllabuses. Narrow syllabus is basically identifies what will be taught in classroom, the content of language to be taught. Broad syllabus identifies which methodology to use as well as the content of new language to be taught. Syllabus is usually assessed and assessment criteria is usually part of curriculum.

So, as a teacher, we have been given a group of students who need English for certain reasons. You have to develop a syllabus. Or we have been asked by an Institution to develop a curriculum to be adopted by this specific Institution in this specific situation. Yes, I am heading towards ESP here. However, weather it is a ESP or general English course, we always have to base our rationale of teaching on some kind of syllabus/curriculum. Where do we start? We start from identifying goals and objectives of a course. But where do we find out the information? Yes, we go back to the learners. Here comes Needs Analyses.

Today, in Materials Development module, we have talked about 4 different types of needs analyses.

  • Target Situation Analyses- in which situations learners use the target language most? Over the telephone, delivering presentations, meetings, hotel reception. What do they need L2 for?
  • Learning Situation Analysis- in which style learners have been taught before? structural, procedural, communicative. What is the best way to get Learners to L2 target level?
  • Present situation Analysis- where the learners are now proficiency wise? Give them a test and diagnose their level of proficiency in reading, writing, listening and speaking
  • Means Analysis- what resources they have, what learning styles they are used to, what are their class dynamics etc
We have referred to following literature during our discussion in class.
Brindley, 1989, "The role of Needs Analysis in adult ESL programme design"
Graves, 2001, "Teachers as Course Developers", CUP
Munby, 1978, "Communicative Syllabus Design" CUP
Hutchinson & Waters, 1996, "ESP a learning centred approach" CUP
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Developing speaking and writing tasks

From receptive skills to productive skills, I now focus on what criteria should be taken into account when developing speaking and writing activities. Speaking and writing are agreed upon to be the most complex processes with writing being the most difficult skill to be developed.
Speaking is fundamentally different to writing. Since CLT, there seems to be a lot of effort to be put on developing communicative-speaking activities. However, developing speaking is still the most ignored skill in many coursebooks. There is a tendency to go back to structural syllabuses which results in putting less emphasis on speaking tasks in coursebooks.
Let us look at this quote. "Conversation is the informal interactive talk between 2 or more people which happens in real time, spontaneous, has a largely interpersonal function and in which participants share symmetrical rights". However, we have agreed in class, as it has been pointed out by Brown and Yule (1989) that in most naturally occuring real-life conversations one person does the talking, the second functions as an active listener by contributing with small words.

  • More awareness of discourse markers in listening tasks would help Ss use them in speaking and thus helps them to become more fluent. (John Field 2009, A. Hasselback, 2002, Small Words)
  • Joanne Channel talks about "Vague Language" discussing the importance of words that helps the Ss become active listeners- i.e: stuff, whatever, so on, sort of, kind of etc
  • Turn taking- raising the awareness (Bygate 2009). Importance of turn-taking effects fluency. Ss should also be introduced to backchanneling from the early stages of L2 learning. (backchanneling words such as: Ehm, Yea, right, well, huh etc). There are also adjacency pairs- set conversational phrases that always come together weather it would be Q&A form (A: Hello. How are you? B: Fine, thanks. Yourself?) or other expressions
  • Scaffolding is really important in designing speaking tasks. T should build the linguistic knowledge necessary for the participants in the class. (Robinson, 2005, "The effect of planning on fluency, accuracy and complexity")
  • Raising the awareness of language chunks in speech (Boers et al, 2007, "Putting lexical approach to the test")
Techniques:

  • Games like guessing game, Twenty Questions are usually successful only if planned well
  • Role-plays vs "real-play" (simulation)
  • debates with time limit- raises the awareness that speech is time bound
  • Practise turn-taking in conversations (confluence/contingency)
  • washback- assessment- giving scores for speaking activities
  • encourage the use of discourse markers. For example, using "well" at the beginning allows time to think, using "so" allows topic change etc
For more information on designing a speaking task, please refer to S. Thornbury and D. Slade, 2006 "Conversation from description to Pedagogy", CUP

Writing seems to be the most difficult task for many learners. It is hard enough to write in L1, imagine the complexity of brain operating in L2 whilst writing hey!  As with any other activity, writing need a pre-task to introduce audience, purpose of writing, genre and context. Scaffolding and planning and preparing students is really important. We have talked about product writing vs process writing. Developing learner strategies is really important in writing. Strategies are things learner do based on concious decision in order to learn. So, outlining, drafting, writing and editing are really important to produce a good piece of writing. However Ss will not be motivated enough to edit if there is no outcome at the end. So, writing tasks usually require feedback.  We have discussed advantages and disadvantaged of peer-editing in classrooms. In classrooms most learners may prefer Teacher editing their work. Outside classrooms, however, with the use of blogs and wikis, Teachers can introduce Ss to a less formal more informal ways of editing.
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Developing reading and listening tasks

When developing good reading task, we talked about scaffolding the task, making the purpose of reading clear for L2 learners, develop different reading skills such as reading for gist vs reading for specific information, prepare learners linguistic knowledge for the task, recycle the new language etc.

I would like to stop on raising the awareness of language chunks in reading tasks. There has been a lot of research recently on formulaic expressions in language and its implications on L2 learning and teaching. The literature says

  • Opaque multiword expressions could pose comprehension problems, but are so rare they generally dont. (Grant & Nation 2006)
  • Metacognition can often help learners decode opaque multiword expressions (Cooper 1999, Liontas 2002)
  • However, there is evidence that around 10% of naturally occuring text contains formulaic sequences that are not easily decoded if focusing only on individual words (by and large, when it comes to, take place) (Martinez &Shmitt, under review)
  • It is difficult to impossible to predict the interpretability of a multiword item simply as a function of its semantic properties (Spottl & McCarthy 2003)
  • Learners may not even notice or have higher perception of comprehension by focusing on individual words and making the wrong guess (Bishop 2004)
One awareness raising technique could be the following. Teacher will present a reading text that contains high number of idioms and formulaic expressions. Learners will read the text for general gist. T then asks Ss to underlie the words that they dont know. Very often, Ss only underlie part of the idioms or dont underlie them at all if all the words in the idiom are familiar to them. When asked what certain expressions mean, they often have the wrong assumption about the meaning. This task will raise awareness within Ss that the language contains some language chunks that always come together and mean certain things that could be completely different to semantic meaning of individual words in it.

When it comes to Listening skills, again, there has to be pre-listening activity that prepares learners for the listening tasks. Pre-listening should introduce the following information: how many speakers, who are the speakers, gender/age, context- how are the speakers related- friends, mother-daughter etc, situation- in which situation the listening taking place etc. Listening task always has to have a purpose, as we always listen for a purpose in real life. Scaffolding is really important. Majority of listening tasks in most coursebooks are based on listening comprehension approach. Typically, pre-listening, then listening followed by a task, i.e Listen and fill in the gaps in the dialogue, Listen and answer the following questions, Listen and discuss this etc.

I would like to stop on segmenting in listening skills. John Field (2003) promotes the idea of lexical segmentation in L2 listening, to develop Ss' accurately detecting lexical words and segmenting short extracts occuring in natural speech (might vs might as well). How do we raise awareness?
Awareness raising techniques for segmenting words

  •  Dictations. Dictation is good for developing all the skills combined together- listening, reading, writing and speaking (Montalvan 1990)
  • Have a gap-fill in listening tasks for Ss to anticipate 
  • Teaching listening strategies
  • Repetition- listen to multiple times
  • Listening comprehension approach integrated but not dominating all listening tasks
For more information please refer to Listening in the Language Classroom by John Field, CUP, 2009.
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Thursday 8 April 2010

web-based lesson: Completing Online Bookstores Webquest

Dear Students,
You are all assumed to be undertaking a postgraduate degree in MA/Med Tesol and Applied Linguistics at the University of Bradford. One of your module is called 'Materials Development' and you are provided with a reading list and £150 budget to spend on books. The money is not enough to buy all the books. However, with online bookstores, you can compare prices and try to buy as many books as possible. However, you would have to be careful with regards to return policy, delivery information, making safe payment and whether the books is new or old/used.
You may not understand certain words/phrases used in the websites or questionnaire. Dont worry!!! There are wonderful free tools that enable us to look up the words online.
Compact Oxford English Dictionary
Cambridge Advanced Learners' Dictionary
Free dictionary by Farlex

Below is the list of online bookstores you will have to explore. You will have to answer the following questions for each website and make notes.

Webquest

1. General information

Which website do you find easier to browse and why?
Which bookstores operate student discount?
Which websites stock old and used books?

2. Customer Services

Which bookstores have minimum spend policy for free delivery? What is the minimum spend?
How long does it take to deliver books for each bookstore?
What is the return policy for each bookstore? 
Which bookstores enable you to track your orders?

3. Prices

Which bookstore is generally cheaper than the others? 
Which bookstores offer student discount?
Which bookstores have offers? What kind of offers are they?

4. Making payment. 

What is each bookstore's privacy policy?
What credit or debit cards do they accept?
Can you pay by cheque?

5. Deciding and buying

After you have compared the prices and other information, decide which books you are buying from which bookstore. 
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web-based lesson plan: Teacher's Notes

Topic- Online Shopping: Buying Books. Level- intermediate to upper-intermediate. Teaching: Task Based.
1. Pretask. a) Brainstorming b) discussion. Duration 15-20 minutes
  1. On interactive smartboard T tries to elicit the vocabulary on buying books from online bookstores.Vocabulary:    compare, price, receipt, total, change, value, discount, ‘search for’ functions: author, title, keywords, ISBN etc, browse by categories: adventures, childrens', autobiographies, academic etc; eBooks, bestsellers, credit cards. Many words on the board may be new for the Ss. Therefore, T explains the meaning with as many examples as possible by bringing up the sample online bookstores on smartboard. T saves the document in PDF and distributes to the class.
  1. Discuss the following questions:


  1. Why do you think people choose to buy books online? Advantages vs disadvantages
  2. What do people need to know about buying books online? (how do you find delivery information and return policy)
  3. How can you compare prices on different online bookstores?
2. Task cycle. a)Task. b) Planning c) Report. Duration 30 minutes
  1. Task.  
    T asks Ss to complete Webquest in pairs. Each pair has £250 budget to buy as many books as possible from their reading list for one of their modules at university. In doing so, they will have to go to several websites, fill in the worksheet for each, compare the prices of the books and decide which ones they are going to buy. 

  2. Planning. Ss discuss ideas and write a note to report orally to the whole class. Ss draft and rehearse what they want to say while T goes around to advice Ss on language, suggesting phrases and helping Ss correct their language. 

  3. Report.
    T asks groups to report briefly to the whole class so everyone can compare findings. T comments on the content; rephrase expressions but no overt public correction.
3. Language focus. a) Analysis b) Practice. Duration 30 minutes
  1. Analysis. T sets some language-focused tasks based on the text of websites. I.e: Find words and phrases related to a) customer services b) making payment; Find all the verbs in the simple present form. Say which refer to future time and which do not.  T starts off, Ss continue. T goes around to help and Ss ask individual questions. T reviews and writes relevant language up on the smartboard. Ss can have copy of the note in PDF after class.
  2. Practice. T conducts practice activities. I.e: choral repetition of the phrases identified, memory challenge games (Kim's game) with new words and phrases, sentence completion in teams with jumbled word order. Sentences are taken from the text of the websites.
4. Recap and homework. a) Recap. b) Homework. Duration 5-10minutes
  1. Recap. T explains more people are deciding to buy books online and Ss may have to decide to do so for various reasons during their studies at university. T emphasises the importance of understanding terms and phrases when buying books online and how to compare prices and other information
  2. Homework. T explains the homework and emphasises it is very important to complete the homework before next class. 

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Thursday 1 April 2010

Useful links to "How can ICT contribute to language learning and teaching"

Links to articles



Useful blogs created by and for language teachers

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LINKS to web-tools and web-resources

How do you organize your classes in terms of teaching skills? Some teachers choose to organize integrated skills teaching classes where they focus on all aspects of language skills: reading, listening followed by speaking and writing during the course of one class. Duration of classes vary obviously the shortest one being around one hour- 60minutes. One can effectively integrate four skills in one class while some teachers choose to focus only on one language skill per class; 1st lesson on improving reading skills, 2nd listerning, 3rd speaking and 4th lesson on writing and the cycle will go until the end of term. The order of skills not necessarily the same with each teacher.
Most coursebooks develop units and materials and tasks within each unit integrate all four language skills. Most web-based resources, on the other hand, specialize in one area of language skills. Today we will have a look at some of these web-resources and web-tools we can use to design different materials for using in teaching different skills.

1. ICT in writing: writing has become interactive with the facility of publishing on the web. Students can be motivated to write knowing that they can easily share their thoughts with friends and knowing that others might comment on their writing.
Blogger - ask students to create their own blog where they can share their experiences and thoughts
peanut butter wiki- create a wiki for collaborative learning. it is easy, free and learning shared with the whole class
writeboard- write, share, revise and compare.

2. ICT in speaking: again different features of different softwares bring an extra level of interaction and communication when teaching speaking. Students can really benefit from podcasting and videos used in class.

audacity students can podcast to build up confidence in their pronunciation skills and improve general speaking
Youtube approporiately selected videos can be used in class for specific interaction skills. Instructions on how to cut parts of video clips from youtube videos can be found at http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/
powerpoint- can help to design speaking tasks/games such as Millionare, Maze, Twenty Questions and Jeopardy

3. ICT in listening

In addition to podcasting and videos, these web-resources can be used for listening skills

4. ICT in reading

Web resources


Using different web quests


In addition, Internet is full of authentic text materials for extensive reading, short stories, classic novels, newspaper articles
5. ICT in teaching Grammar/Vocabulary
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