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

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.

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.

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

WATERSTONES

WHSMITH

AMAZON BOOKS

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. 

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. 

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

Links to articles

• ICT 4 ELT- Well researched article by Graham Davies explains benefits and the use of technology in language classrooms both by teachers and students
• ICT in ELT-
• discussion at Education Forum- language teachers discussing their experiences with using ICT in teaching
• ICT GUIDE FOR TUTORS
• ICT in Language Teaching in 6 points

Useful blogs created by and for language teachers

• Alice Ayel's Blog: http://aliceayel.posterous.com
• Suzi Bewell's Blog: http://www.allsaintslanguagesblog.typepad.co.uk
• Alex Blagona's Blog: http://alexblagona.blogspot.com
• Helena Butterfield's Langwitch Chronicles: http://www.helenabutterfield.net
• Marisa Constantinides' TEFL Matters Blog: http://marisaconstantinides.edublogs.org
• Mary Cooch's Blog: http://www.moodleblog.org
• Joe Dale's Blog: http://joedale.typepad.com
• Chris Fuller's Blog: http://chrisfuller.typepad.com
• Chris Harte's Blog: http://chrisharte.typepad.com
• Simon Howells' Blog: http://simonhowells.typepad.com
• Isabelle Jones's Blog: http://isabellejones.blogspot.com
• Samantha Lunn's Blog: http://languagesresources.wordpress.com
• Modern Foreign Languages Environment (MFLE): http://ltsblogs.org.uk/mfle
• Nik Peachey's Blog: http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com
• Jame Pearson's Blog: http://elblogjimmyp.blogspot.com
• José Picardo's Box of Tricks Blog: http://www.boxoftricks.net
• Amanda Salt's Blog: http://amandasalt.blogspot.com
• Clare Seccombe's Blog: http://www.changing-phase.blogspot.com
• Lisa Stevens' Blog: http://lisibo.blogspot.com

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

Randall's ESL Cyber listening lab

English Listening Lounge

PARAPAL ONLINE

4. ICT in reading

Web resources

reading exercises

various reading skills

Pulp Friction

Using different web quests

Webquest UK

sample ELT webquest

In addition, Internet is full of authentic text materials for extensive reading, short stories, classic novels, newspaper articles

5. ICT in teaching Grammar/Vocabulary

EFL NET

ACTIVITIES FOR ESL STUDENTS

GRAMMAR AND ENGLISH USAGE

GRAMMAR ACTIVITIES

ICT in speaking: audio and video

Podcasting

According to Wikipedia, a podcast is a series of digital media files, usually either digital audio or video that is made available for download via web syndication. It is generally in mp3 or AAC format. Podcasts, videocasts or vodcasts can be downloaded and retrieved later by the user in a computer or portable audio device. The more popular podcasts hosts are audacity, podbean, podomatic and blip.tv. There are other Web 2.0 audio tools like: skype, snapvine, google talk; and video tools like you tube, for example.
Podcasts allow you to capture any show and watch it at any moment or place and as many times as you wish, usually for free.
According to Podcasting in Plain English there are three main reasons to podcast: the first one is that anyone can do it because it is very easy; the second reason is that you can subscribe to any web site that has great podcasts and the third reason is you can take it with you in the computer or in an MP3 device or an IPod.

Educational uses
There are many activities that you can design for students with podcasts in order to help your students practice the language. You can do role plays, news programs, podcast dramas, spelling bee and book talk. This way, students can be more involved in their learning process and they may be more comfortable due to the fact that they are used to deal with technology all the time.

Experiment podcasting using Audacity downloadable from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/

Youtube Videos

ICT in teaching writing 2: more about blogs and wikis

Blogs
According to Wikipedia, a blog, the contraction of the term ‘web log’, “is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order” Blogs are Web 2.0 sites.
In other words, blogs are web pages that work as personal or grupal journals that are written in chronological order. Blogs are very helpful for students to share information, to practice the language, to publish anything for free and to complement classes.

Types of blogs
Aaron Campbell (2003) in Izquierdo (2009) affirms that there are some blogs that can be used in language teaching such as: tutor blog, class blog and learner blog. In the first one, the teacher leads the blog and it can be used for assignments, homeworks, course information and syllabuses. Students can not write or post unless they are allowed by the teacher. In the second blog, both, teachers and students, can write and share opinions, information and thoughts. It is mainly used for discussion and extracurricular activities (practice writing skills for example). Finally, the learner blog requires more work and time from the teacher not only to set up but to moderate it. It is an online space for students, in which they are encourage to write in the target language and to practice, it is specially for them.

Advantages of blogsSome of the advantages of blogging are the opportunities for our students to practice language outside the classroom, it leads to cooperative learning because students read their classmates' post and can help each other with mistakes and share ideas, it encourages and motivates students to use the language.


Wiki
According to Wikipedia, a wiki “is a website that allows the easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language”. In a wiki you can include texts, videos, pictures, photos, gadgets and widgets, among others.
Basically, a wiki is a free web site that is really easy to create. It is a very friendly space that encourages people, students in particular, to participate and to share opinions and materials. It helps developing creativity and promoting collaborative work.
Most wikis serve a specific purpose and off topic material is promptly removed by the user community. Some examples of wikis are Wikipedia, Wikibooks, City Wiki and some more. PBworks, Webpaint, Wikia and Wikispaces are the most popular pages for those interested in creating a wiki.

Educational uses of a wiki
According to Izquierdo (2009) wikis are used for:
• Course syllabus and course contents
• Course projects
• Institutional web sites
• Forum – Discussions
• Events
• Online presentations
• Workshops
• A resource for teaching and learning

References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
Izquierdo, E. (2009) Wikis

why and how ICT in ELT?

In this post, I will quickly put together my ideas on how to make good use of technology in ELT classrooms. In addition, I give a sample lesson plan where I use the following tasks designed and carried out with the help of technology.

Why would I want to use ICT in my classroom

1. It is motivating. It truly motivates students to carry out tasks, activities in a more engaging way

2. Writing. Word processor is really effective for process writing where students are encouraged to plan, draft, write, edit, rewrite etc. All of these could be complicated and demotivating when students are asked to write on a piece of paper and pen. On PCs, on the other hand, teacher can refer Students to Mic.Word for text repairing, writing, editing. Blogs and wikis can be used for collaborative writing.

3. Smartboards are really useful for brainstorming ideas. Brainstorming has been really successful way of activating schemata for a long time. Teacher can do brainstorming activity on any topic/task that he/she is going to teach. Teacher can then save the brainstorming activity on pdf, print it off and distribute to students in class for future use.

4. Listening and speaking. Internet is full of listening and speaking activities. With careful searching and selecting, any teacher can find a material to suit the objectives of his/her class. Watching video-clips in target language from youtube is a simple example of this. Finding authentic audio or video files has become easy with the help of the internet. A teacher can then design a task based on authentic material. Some websites has been developed to teach fully or partly listening skills

http://www.esl-lab.com/

http://www.englishlistening.com/

http://www.parapal-online.co.uk/listening.html

5. Power Point- is a really good way of presenting: language use/forms/structures, pictures, diagrams that could be a part of task. However, teacher can design a number of communicative activities with PPT such as Twenty Questions, Maze, Millionaire and Jeopardy.

6. Reading. Internet is full of authentic reading materials that teachers can use in classrooms. Again, with careful selection of text, teacher can design a meaningful task that suits the needs of his/her students. The advantage of internet is it gives us authentic text with a wide range of topics, situations, contexts and genres. Hence, it becomes easier to find a text that can serve as a basis for functional, notional, task-based teaching frameworks.

I am very far from suggesting that ELT classes should heavily be based on ICT. However, hence we use advanced technology in every aspect of our lives outside classroom, using it effectively in classroom would also be seen as reflecting the real-life situation. Students will be using ICT in real-life in one way or the other. The use of ICT in language teaching can be motivating, it is effective to teaching the receptive and productive skills. Teachers can access a wide range of web-based activities that probably would be impossible to find without the help of Internet. ICT activities encourage automaticity, leading students to do extensive reading and listening outside classroom.

Why task-based teaching?

First, Task Based Language Teaching (TBLT) gained popular support among methodologists and teachers (Richards and Rodgers 2007: 222). TBLT proposes the notion of task as a central unit of planning and teaching. Task is a “piece of work which involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is principally focused on meaning” (Nunan 1989: 10). Early application of TBLT was the Bangalore project which proved employing tasks for meaningful communication promoted learning (Prabhu 1987). In addition, Skehan argues tasks produce functional and interactional models of language. Tasks are classified to “have a clear didactic function” that require the use of language (Skehan 1998: 101). TBLT presents logical application of CLT due to interactional dimensions of tasks. Hence, meaning, conversation and lexical units play a key role in teaching (Willis 1996: 5-6). TBLT has strong theory of learning (Richards and Rodgers 2007: 226). Prabhu believed that language is “taught best by bringing about in the learner a preoccupation with meaning or with a task to be performed resulting in a desire on his part to communicate” (1987: 16). In addition, Willis suggests task activities and achievements are motivational (1996) while some argue that tasks help to monitor learning difficulty in a classroom (Long and Crookes 1991).

Second, “the role of tasks has received further support from some researchers in second language acquisition (SLA)” (Richards and Rodgers 2007: 223). In the 1980s researchers turned to tasks to develop pedagogical applications of SLA theory (Long and Crookes 1993). SLA research focused on cognitive processes and strategies in L2 learners. The research reassessed the role of formal grammar instruction in language teaching. It is argued that there is no evidence that grammar-focused teaching activities reflect the cognitive learning processes outside classroom (Skehan 1996). Engaging learners in tasks provide a better context for the activation of learning processes, hence, provides a better opportunity for language learning to take place (Skehan 1998)

In conclusion, because of its support both from methodologists/experienced teachers and SLA, I have decided to use TBLT in my classroom.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Richards, J. C. & T. S. Rodgers. (2007). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. New York: Oxford University Press.

Nunan, D. (1989). Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Prabhu, N. S. (1987). Second Language Pedagogy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Skehan, P. (1998). A Cognitive Approach to Language Learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Skenan, P. (1996). ‘Second language acquisition research and task based instruction’. In J. Willis & D. Willis (eds.) Challenge and Change in Language Teaching (pp. 17-30) Oxford: Heinemann.

Willis, J. (1996). A framework for Task Based Learning. London: Longman.

Long, M., & G. Crookes. (1991). ‘Three approaches to task based syllabus design’ TESOL Quarterly 26 (1): 27-56.

Long, M., & G. Crookes. (1993). ‘Units of analysis in course design- the case for task’ In G. Crookes & S. Gass (eds.) Tasks in a Pedagogical Context: Integrating Theory and Practice. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Sample lesson plan. Topic- "Employment". Instruction- task-based.

The lesson fit

Previous lesson- Introduction to Employment .

1. Group discussion: why do students choose to work during their studies? What are the challenges?

2. Vocabulary development- Occupations. Activities: a) match the occupation on the left with the job description on the right b) write the occupation beside the description

3. Reading. Group work. Read ‘position desired’ section from three different application packs in three groups and decide what occupation they are recruiting for

4. Writing. Write a description to three the most prestigious occupations in your home country.

5. Form focus. Teacher goes round and helps students with constructing their thoughts and sentences while students writing. Individual questions can be answered at this time.

6. Students report back to class. Teacher gives feedback.

7. Teacher recaps the lesson and gives homework.

Following lesson- Employment terms and application forms

1. Pair- work task. Information- gap. Two students each have the same application form but some information is missing from each. Complete the form by asking each other question. Ex. What is the applicant’ surname? Is the applicant male/female?

2. Vocabulary development- application forms. Match the expressions on the left with the correct meaning on the right.

3. Reading. Group work. Read three different application packages in three groups and find at least 15 common employment terms.

4. Writing. Text repair on Word processor. Vocabulary review of employment terms

5. Form focus. Teacher goes round and helps students with repairing the employment contextualized text. Individual questions can be answered at this time.

6. Teacher presents ‘broken text’ on smartboard. Students report what correction they have made. Collaborative feedback with comments by students and teacher

7. Teacher recaps the main points and gives homework.

Lesson Plan: Personal qualities and ‘Help Wanted’ ads

Aims and Objectives:

Ø To develop students’ understanding of ‘personal qualities’ descriptions in job ads

Ø To develop students’ understanding of ‘Help Wanted’ ads in newspapers

Ø To teach new words related to ‘personal qualities and employment’

Ø To teach abbreviations in ‘Help Wanted’ ads

Ø To provide an opportunity in class for meaningful communication

Stages

Stage 1. Pretask. Pair-work: Vocabulary matching activity. Appendix 1, section A. Duration: 15 minutes.

T tries to elicit vocabulary from the Ss by asking them about qualities they think are important for certain jobs and why. Many words on the sheet may be new for the Ss. Therefore, the matching exercise has been divided into groups of four to be completed in pairs of six. Each pair will share answers with the class. T will verify the answers; explain the meaning with more examples if necessary.

Stage 2. The task. Pair-work: discussion and writing. Appendix 1, section B. Duration: 15 minutes.

T asks Ss to complete exercise B. Ss discuss ideas and write a note to report orally to the whole class.

Stage 3. Planning and report. Form focus. Duration: 30 minutes.

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. 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.

Stage 5. Abbreviations found in the ‘Help Wanted’ ads. Appendix 3. Duration: 15 minutes

T explains local newspapers do not use sentences but rather shortened forms and abbreviations. T explains the different ways abbreviations are made and give several examples. Ss take turns to read the words aloud. T monitors pronunciation and checks for comprehension.

Stage 6. Reading. Appendix 4, section A. Duration 10 minutes

Ss will read the text for ads and discuss the questions in Section A in pairs. T monitors the language and advices if necessary.

Stage 7. Recap and homework. Duration 5 minutes. T explains the homework: Appendix 5 and section B in Appendix 4.

syllabus types

There are so many types of syllabuses that it is so easy for one to get confused between any of them. The thing is, there has never been published a coursebook that solely based on one type of syllabus and didnt include the aspects of other types of syllabus. Task-based syllabus can be classed as process and procedural, functional syllabus can easily become a notional. Anyway, instead of getting myself even more confused, I will just move on to talk about different types of syllabuses in a nutshell.

1. Procedural syllabus- name associated with Prabhu and Bangalore project. Prabhu designed tasks for each class, but made the same task slightly more complicated each time. The idea is, language items are getting from simple to complex as tasks are getting more difficult. Language is learn implicitly, grammar inductively. Prabhu was against pair-work/group work. Focus was on improving writing skills.

2. Task-based syllabus- name associated with Willisis, Michael Long and Rod Ellis. Employ tasks to teach language implicitly and grammar inductively. But also have form-focus session to get students notice a language form. terms associated with TBLT are conciousness raising, risk taking, form focus

3. Lexical syllabus- again Willisis, corpus linguistics-Birmingham project, Michael Lewish. Language is a grammaticalized lexis not lexicalized grammar. Teach phraze sized chunks, prefabriacated language forms

4. Structural syllabus- grammar driven, teaching language rules one at a time, one-by-one. language is lexicalized grammar. lexis comes secondary to fill in the gaps

5. notional- developd by Wilkins in the 1960's. topic based syllabus, communicative and contextualized

6. functional- wilkins, widdowson. interactional function of language vs transactional function of language. routines in conversations, negotiation skills, negotiation of meaning

7. Content based syllabus- make english the language of instruction to teach other areas. Use english to teach science, engineering, art etc

8. CLIL- content and language integrated learning. There is some focus on form, unlike the content based syllabus. English is the language of instruction to teach science, but also focus on a particular forms of language in a given content

Although there has been written many books on each of them, this is the best written text that describes all the syllabuses in the shortest way. I am also making it very very simple and understandable for anyone who is not coming from an ELT background. Oh, how I love my notes from classes. They come in so handy for revision. And many thanks to a friend who advised me to run a blog. I dont write for weeks at times, but clearly, this has been easy way of organizing my notes when I want to do so! :D

materials development- useful terms and Brown's principles

I am really enjoying this module. I think if I am to rank all the module I take, this one would come as FIRST followed by ICT in ELT. I value these because the tutors are professionals in their own field based on their years of experience and knowledge.

Anyway, I just wanted to note down some of the terms that came up in the last two sessions. This is solely for my own revision so that I can get back and take a quick view to recall some of the things we learnt in class. Oh, yes, one more reason why I fell in love with these, I find the knowledge learned through the modules soo relevant to my teaching experience with my daughters. So many things I need to be aware of and to take into account when designing some materials for my treasures and for my students (awaiting me in the near future hopefully!)

1. Scope and sequence- referring to the proportion and the order in which language items are presented. Scope and sequence are usually given at the beginning of the book. What this books includes and in which order.

2. "Small c" is the term associated with C. Kramcsh who makes a distinction between culture with big C and culture with small c. Big C refers to what is generally known as culture- art, music, pop-culture, food. Small c refers to cultural customs, values, ways of thinking, feeling, acting etc. Whenever we teach a language, we also teach a part of small c that comes with it.

3. Washback- one can have positive or negative view of washback. Washback is working from an assessment towards a syllabus. For example, If I have a group of students to prepare for IELTS and have at least 6 in all the areas of IELTS assessment, I can work at each skill area of IELTS examination, check which skills are they assessing and how does the exam take place and work out a syllabus to prepare students for that exam

4. Carrier content- topics selected for the materials

5. Surrender value- is a term coined by Pit Corder. Some language items are perceived to be very useful by the learners- so they have high surrender value. On the other hand, something that a teacher decided to teach based on students' weaknesses could be valuable thing to learn, but could be perceived to be less valuable for students. So, when materials have low surrender value(cognitive), students resist to learn it

6. Scaffolding- is very important when designing tasks. Teacher needs to ensure that learners unsderstand the instructions clearly and feel confident to carry out the task

7. Dogme- in a nutshell, in very extreme case refers to teaching with no materials at all

8. synthetic vs analythic approach is usually associated with Wilkins (1960's, functional notional syllabuses). Synthetic approach is atomistic, systematic, building up the language system one by one, learning one item at a time. a+b+c. most schools teaching English for general purposes adopt this approach to learning. Analytic approach, on the other hand, holistic and there is no clear cut order to learning. Teacher presents what learners find valuable to learn and learners internalize and expected to analyze the language items much later on. No structured teaching of grammar. most ESP course adopt analytic approach

Next, we discussed Douglas Browns 12 principles of designing materials

1. automaticity

2. meaningful learning

3. anticipation of reward

4. intrinsic motivation

5. strategic investment

6. language ego

7. self-confidence

8. risk taking

9. the language culture connection

10. the native language effect

11. Interlanguage

12. Communicative competence

These principles are very much coming from learners' point of view. Based on this, the role of instructions and materials should mainly focus on developing learners' skills, hence most of learning is going to take place outside classroom.

ICT in teaching writing

These are my notes from today's ICT class. As an ELT teacher, we all have to incorporate different language skills into the syllabus and they should be given more or less equal proportion. So, when it comes teaching writing skills, what help can we get from ICT? Is the use of ICT effective in teaching writing? If so, in what ways? My answer is, YES, ICT comes in very handy to teach writing skills. Here I will explain my reasons.

1. At the very elementary level, let us look at the use of word processor in teaching writing.

Most writing activities are generally divided into 2 categories: a) product writing and b) process writing. In the past, many writing activities were organized around product writing. For example, teacher gives a sample of the letter and asks students to produce a similar kind of letter of their own. Process writing, on the other hand, involves a lot of stages of writing.

The use of word processor is valued highly in process writing. Students can write, rewrite, review and restructure as many times as they would like to whereas writing with pen and paper would make it too much time consuming. Moreover, teachers can comment on students' writing and students can see the feedback and improve. Finally, it makes students work a good looking product and thus motivates them to do more writing outside classroom.

2. L2 learners generally have positive feelings about the use of WP in language classrooms. They see writing as a fluid process and pay more attention to writing. It can also help them to spend more time composing outside classroom. Teacher has to make sure that L2 have access to WP either at home or learning resource centres at school. In addition, learners are assumed to have basic IT skills to use WP.

3. The class can agree on the use of spell checks and grammar checks. Personally, I would let them have spell check but disable the grammar check. That is because we all use spell check in real life and in my opinion accuracy is not always the important issue in communicative way of teaching.

4. You can set up a task on WP such as text repair, text manipulation and guided dictations.

Now, let us look at web-based writing. Can we use web-based tools to teach writing?

1. Blogs and wikis are now widely available to everyone to use at no cost. Creating blogs and wikis to publish their own work can be very motivating to any level of students and blogs look very good. End result could be learners spending more time composing, structuring and writing.

2. Teacher add comment on specific language forms. Peers can add comment so it is evaluated collaboratively. Everyone can see each other's work, compare and learn from one another as well

3. Learners can show finished work at no printing cost, easy distribution and it becomes a reading task for other students in class

In general, I think the use of ICT in teaching writing is highly valued in language classrooms. Although I beleive that there is still certainly a place for handwriting, ICT could be incorporated into writing activities to make the activity more attractive. Especially, those who are used to a different script in their own language might find it really discouraging to do writing exercises in L2, only because they find it hard to write in a completely different script. In addition, elementary and pre-intermediate level students will find it more motivating to do web-based collaborative writing activities.

Some tools that can be used to teach writing

1. Web Rhubarb and Sequitur from Creative Technology. Both softwares are only free with short texts and will need licensing for longer texts. They can be downloaded from

http://www.cict.co.uk/software/textoys/index.htm

2. Blogs can be created at http://www.blogger.com/home and wiki at http://pbworks.com/

3. Writeboards http://writeboard.com/

4. Google documents https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=writely&passive=true&continue=http://docs.google.com/%3Fhl%3Den%26tab%3Dwo&followup=http://docs.google.com/%3Fhl%3Den%26tab%3Dwo&ltmpl=homepage&nui=1&rm=false

5. ZOHO online word processor http://writer.zoho.com/home

your child to you!

Today Sofiyya had her last vi-sit session at the nursery. She is starting tomorrow inshaAllah. She seems to like it there. However, I am not really sure how she goes on as she has always been very clingy to me.

Anyway, today she had her last visit session to help her settle in well. Unlike the first two visit session where I stayed and played with her, I was supposed to leave her and wait outside. So, I sneaked out without her realizing mommy was gone.

The nursery is located inside a big building that has everything- primary school, community centre, children's centre and family services. I went to family services where they provide a nice lounge for parents. I sat on the sofa and picked up one of the books from the corner shelf. Interesting, very interesting. Bradford Council has a Parental Involvement Learning Group that helps parents how to help with their children's learning. I sat and read that small book called Let's Talk- Ideas in 40 minutes. And I think I learned or was reminded a lot of things that I learned in the past.

I just got back from the nursery and put Sofiyya to sleep. While my feelings of the book still fresh, I decided to jot down some thoughts. Here comes your child, talking to you. How can you help her learn better and have a better understanding of the world around her/him? Talking, explaining and playing tips

1. Travelling a long journey- why dont you keep a small notebook and a pencil to scribble on the way. Children absolutely love when their parents draw something and let them to guess. This works even with the youngest kids. Draw a funny looking cat and tell your child that it is a dog. You could be amazed by how little one argues that it is not a dog. You can then ask her/him to make the picture look like a dog- few improvements by a child and the picture is nowhere near dog. In fact, it is not even a cat any more. However, this time your child will proudly announce that it is a perfect looking dog. You can carry on the conversation as you wish and try any animal or any other theme to draw

2. Make faces with different feelings and let your child guess. You can start with easy ones like "happy, sad, angry, surprised" and then move on to complicated ones like "right after you had a medicine" or "mommy's face when she/he doesnt do what he/she is told to" etc

3. In and around the house. Pretend to have a power cut for a short while. Use torches to light the rooms and to find things around the house. The houses feel quiet and the voices feel loud. Seems like a perfect time for story telling. And you can tell your own stories from childhood- these always make the best stories. In the light of a candle, you can all sit cosy and mommy starts "When I was a young girl ......"

4. We often seem to finish the unfinished jobs while kids watch TV. Alhamdulillah, I dont have one of them in my house but I let kids watch some cartoons on my laptop sometimes. While acknowledging the fact that TV certainly has a place in child's life, we have to admit that all too often, we use it as a free babysitter. Try to watch something nice with your children once in awhile. You can ask her about the characters or what is going on at some point. Watching together is more fun and far more better. You can discuss ideas, characters and what happened afterwards. Try to think of some questions to ask depending on the age of your child. My girl is only three and loves when we watch a cartoon together. Afterwards, we have a short quiz that she really awaits

5. We adore our children. We want them to give a happy life. And happy life from the start. So, we start buying things- toys that they will not even play with. Toys industry is growing bigger and bigger with babies being introduced to all sort of gadgets like remote-controlled cars or toy mobiles. I do believe toys come in handy at some point, but I am against filling in the child's room with all sorts of toys. Surprisingly, most children are more interested in everyday objects. Instead of a mini laptop with games, she/he might prefer that plastic spoons and cups. Tea towels, old boxes from packaging, crumpled paper and plastic containers to make tower blocks- all make a perfect toy for your child. As far as it is safe, I give my daughters anything in the kitchen. My oldest loves it- she takes a plastic container out and pretends to be cooking a dinner for us. So we have some of the most hilarious conversations in our kitchen. I keep asking "What are you cooking for us today?, have you put some salt? are you going to put a sugar in a soup? do you want to turn your soup into the cake? then why dont you add some eggs too?" She grabs anything within her reach and turns it into anything she needs for her dish. So, tea towels might become an egg and spoon plays the role of cucumber.

I would like to write a little bit more. But, I am off to univ shortly, need to get going. So, the rest comes in bullet points

• Remember, your child's favourite toy is YOU. Favourite music is YOUR VOICE. So, try to turn down the background noise wherever possible and try to spend time talking to your child as much as possible.
• Try to have some "special time" with your child each day. Give her a nice cuddle, and sit her in your lap and ask "what did she like most about today?"
• Everyday activities like "bath times" and "dinner times" can be a nice "play times" and "conversation times" as well.
• Try to give her some responsible tasks every day. If you are going to a local shop for some milk, ask her to remember what you need to get from the shop. Let her pay and carry the shopping bag home (you can sew some little bag for her to carry the light things)
• Try to make some funny rhymes in and around the house. The funnier- the better. The ones that doesnt make sense at all- are the best!

Once again, I came to conclusion that interacting and communicating is the only way to make the little ones more intelligent, more sensible and more reasonable. Talking, discussing and sharing ideas help them to digest knowledge and to reason thoughts depending on their age. Their brain is like a sponge and they take what they are exposed to. Expose them to good habits, good ideas and interesting and fun conversations that make them think and come to conclusion. You will be amazed how their output is advanced than your input. In other words, they come with something even better than what they were exposed to.

evaluating web based teaching resources 2

As you can see from the title, this is the continuing part of the evaluation of web based teaching resources. Originally I thought of writing a bit longer and a little "academic"ish piece. However, since I am very busy and running short of time, I have decided to list the number of things to watch out when it comes to online ELT resources.

1. Be careful when selecting exercises for teaching a specific language skill. Most recent ELT web sites have become a specific within one aspect of language skills. Some sources are particularly designed to improve grammar, some offer good source of activities for academic writing. To find out the purpose of the web site, you will have to do a quick survey. Look at the overall meta language, sections and subsection and pictures. Look at ESL Blues at http://ww2.college-em.qc.ca/prof/epritchard/ . There are lots of grammar terms, sections have been divided by grammatical categories. Although there is an attempt to keep it communicative, i.e language in the exercises are authentic and sort of contextualized, one can easily tell that this website is to practise grammar and accuracy.

2. Updates and more recent materials makes the site more relevant and attractive. Check if the links are maintained and if the content is up-to-date. Scroll down to the bottom of the home page and look for "This page was last updated in dd/mm/yy".

3. It feels almost like reading a packaging. Once you have checked the "best before date" of the website, you can move on to find out the content. Is it interesting and relevant for your age group of students? Is it funny, useful or culturally appropriate? Decide wether or not the materials provided on the webpage is suitable for your learners.

4. Finally, the technical side that include the presentation and layout of the website. Is it attractive to look at? Easy to use/navigate? Does it contain both audio/video?

This is short but useful criteria for beginners who are destined to use some online ELT resources in their teaching. Choose the right website with the right activities to make your classroom experience more successful and fun.

evaluating web based teaching resources?

Internet is full of resources, activities and materials that we can use in classroom. However, one has to spend good amount of time evaluating the resources found on the web and decide whether it would be appropriate to use the material with a particular group of students, So, basically, how do we evaluate resources and activities we found on the web? How do we decide if it is relevant and useful for our students?

It is very important to have some sort of evaluation criteria for making the decision to use a certain materials on the web. We do not send the students off to the machine just so they can have a bit of technical exercise to practise certain language form or structure. With a big debate and discussion on Communicative Language Teaching still going on, we do want to keep our approach communicative even with the use of technology in language classrooms. What are the things we are looking for on a web-based material? Let us look at communicative aspects of resources first.

1. Range of skills- does the material give equal proportion to receptive and productive skills? Or is it particularly designed to improve reading or writing?

2. Are there variety of tasks and exercises to keep the students alert and interested? Most often, we find materials featuring different aspects of language but with the same tasks and activities. Many language quizzes and tasks designed with the software called "hot potatoes" are classic example of this

3. Is the material using an authentic text, meaningful and contextualized language? We dont want to present a text at sentence level, even with beginners, it is always best to expose learners to some authentic, meaningful and contextualized language

4. Is the activity interactive enough to keep students interested? Learners tend to get bored and not pay attention to language forms if they are not actively involved in activities. Some web-based materials are more interactive than others, some are not interactive at all.

5. One of the advantages of web-based resources that it can give the learners immediate feedback. Teachers find it hard to equally divide their time among students, especially in large classrooms. With the help of resources on the web, students can practise their language skills and they would have opportunity to get the immediate feedback. Usually, appraisals such as "Well done, correct!" or warnings like"Read page x in y book and try again" pop up in the screen during the activities like quizzes and multiple choice tests.

I will look at other aspects of evaluating criteria later on this week.

Here are some websites that came up good or "ok"ish according to my criteria.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/index.shtml

http://www.eslcafe.com/

http://ww2.college-em.qc.ca/prof/epritchard/

http://www.efl.net/index.htm

Have a look and let me know what you think of these ESL websites.

1st day of blogging

Assalamu alaykum wr wb,

Here I am, at the advice of my friend, trying to get a little bit more "technical". I thought about blogging awhile ago. However I often thought to myself that "this is really something that I cant commit myself to". What if I never have time to update it? What if I don't really know how to use it the way I wanted? What if...

Here I am, leaving all my "what if"s behind, decided to create my own BLOG. This is firstly for the purpose of familiarizing myself with blogging, get to know the tools that I might need one day in my teaching experience and also share my news and thought with my family and friends.

Secondly, I will publish some of my thoughts and poems time to time. I am interested in creative writing and I often write poems too. Most in Uzbek and some in English.

I might publish some academic/educational writings in working with children, the use of specific approach/methodology/technique/activities in teaching, syllabus design and curriculum development, critical evaluation of a certain technique to promote learning or encourage independence etc.