tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86809571856823007492024-02-19T13:58:18.288+01:00How I see it nowMy fluid ideas about teaching and learningAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02407302558747461727noreply@blogger.comBlogger178125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8680957185682300749.post-3737709241563517772015-05-05T17:57:00.001+02:002015-05-05T18:02:20.972+02:00The story behind the chip card<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I love the kind of lessons when you manage to successfully complete something you have always wished to try. I'm not talking about completing a grammar exercise or something likewise commonplace. I'm talking about methods, approaches and principles you strongly believe in, but which you somehow never have time (or the courage) to apply. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">For example, I always listen in awe to <a href="https://twitter.com/jamiekeddie">Jamie Keddie's</a> talks about the power of storytelling and I'm also a fan of teaching with the use of realia. By realia I mean <span style="line-height: 20px;">objects or activities used to relate classroom teaching to the real life. I believe that when these two methods merge in one, the lesson can become amazingly authentic and interesting. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;">I should point out that although I love listening to people telling stories, I'm actually not exactly confident in telling stories myself - be it in my mother tongue or English. One of the reasons may be my deep-rooted conviction that I'm hopeless at storytelling, as well as telling jokes. Perhaps I also believe that nobody would be interested. Who cares about my life anyway? My students have better anecdotes to listen to. Well, the trouble is that once you start to believe something, it usually becomes part of your reality. It simply becomes the truth. So, perhaps, I'm a bad storyteller just because I'm convinced I'm a bad storyteller. </span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 20px;">Anyway, enough of self-flagellation. Earlier today, I stumbled upon a blue plastic card - </span><a href="http://www.expatica.com/nl/about/Dutch-transportation-Trains-metros-buses-and-taxis-in-the-Netherlands_100594.html" style="line-height: 20px;">the OV-chipkaart</a><span style="line-height: 20px;"> - which I had got hold of while on a short visit to the Netherlands. As soon as I came back to the Czech Republic, the card obviously became totally unusable, so this morning, </span><span style="line-height: 20px;">I was about to dispose of it for good</span><span style="line-height: 20px;">. But then I remembered the story behind the card and the unusual way I had obtained it, and I decided to keep it and exploit it in class. </span><br />
<span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span> <span style="line-height: 20px;">The story goes like this: <i>As soon as I arrived at Eindhoven Airport, I needed to take a bus to get to the main station. While standing at the bus stop, desperately looking for some change for the ticket machine, a stranger (presumably an Englishman) approached me and said: "Here's a bus card. I thought it might come in handy. There's still some money left on it, but I'm leaving the country, so you can keep it." I was taken aback by his generosity and the fact that he knew what I was up to, so I stammered a few words of thanks and appreciation. Nevertheless, he was in a hurry to catch his plane and disappeared instantly. </i> </span><br />
<span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span><span style="line-height: 20px;">Since it was a very pleasant experience, I knew immediately that at some point I'd share the story with my students. However, I soon forgot about it and/or there wasn't an opportunity until earlier today. But as I know that I'm not a great raconteur, and the punchline of my story is always lost in translation, I decided to share it in a different way; I decided to turn the activity into a classic guessing game and leave some of the responsibility up to the students (cowardly me!). For starters, I gave away a small part of the story: <i>Look at this card. I wanted to throw it away this morning, but I changed my mind because there is an interesting story behind it. I want you to find out how it came into my possession.</i> The students were only allowed to ask yes/no questions to get to the true story, </span><span style="line-height: 20px;">as close as possible</span><span style="line-height: 20px;">. </span><br />
<span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span> <span style="line-height: 20px;">I did the activity in two classes (with pre-intermediate 16-year-olds and intermediate 18-year-olds) and the course of events was similar in both cases; at first the students were pretty confused by the aim of the activity and that's probably why they asked some totally ineffective questions. However, as they got closer to the denouement of the story, they became really interested. Their questions got more sophisticated, complex, as well as to the point. Needless to say, I was over the moon. </span><br />
<span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span><span style="line-height: 20px;">You know, something strange happens when students get really involved in a speaking task; even the best learners start making quite a few errors, maybe because their excitement and the need to get their message across switch off their accuracy guard. They start messing up conditionals and all the tenses in a way they normally don't. Suddenly, they get all the prepositions wrong without even noticing. Although this is seemingly undesirable for a teacher to observe, for me it's a sign that my students are really communicating in the L2. This is one of the </span><span style="line-height: 20px;">signs of the authenticity of a task. </span><br />
<span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span> <span style="line-height: 20px;">One thing is for sure; stories are powerful tools, no matter whether they are real or made up. If the story strikes a chord with us, it evokes imagination and incites curiosity. In addition and most importantly, in an L2 classroom, stories are likely to make the language more memorable. </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02407302558747461727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8680957185682300749.post-17331168412752949922015-05-03T12:01:00.002+02:002015-05-03T12:50:42.953+02:00Fighting my personal biases <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The debates about discriminatory hiring practices in ELT are giving me sleepless nights. Although I'm trying hard to be a good girl and stay on the right side of the barricade, I can't pretend there are no fleeting moments of hesitation and doubt. I mean, I strongly admire all those educators who publicly stand up for the rights of non-native teachers of English. As a NNEST myself, I am happy to see that brave people all over the word are fighting for my rights. Thanks for your bravery; I honestly appreciate it.<br />
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My problem is that most of my formal education took place at the time when such a debate was absolutely unthinkable. <i>What? NNESTs can be as good as NESTs? Are you kidding me?</i> We used to look up to them and what they said was taken as the ultimate truth. Ironically, later on at university, right after the fall of communism, when there was a boom of 'backpackers' from the west, we students preferred NNESTs - probably because they seemed more organized in what they did and because they could teach us the rules of the language. Lessons with NESTs were generally fun and truly beneficial acquisition-wise, but they were utter and complete chaos (with some exceptions, of course). But still, whenever there was a problem, we were told to go and ask a native speaker.<br />
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Anyway, the debate which is going on these days is intriguing. Sometimes, though, to my utter consternation, I catch myself <b>not </b>nodding all along the way. Throughout my career, I've taught very young kids, as well as teenagers and adults. I also became a student at the tertiary level again for a while back in 2011. I apologize for my impudent generalization, but judging by what I've observed so far, I can't say that here in the Czech Republic we are ready to claim that qualified NESTs are as good as qualified NNESTs. Based on my random observations, in other countries the situation is slightly different - they have a much longer tradition of learning languages, their mother tongue is somehow related to English and thus they acquire it faster or easier, they have been able to travel more, etc. It's getting better here, it surely is, and I believe there are loads of teachers who are already exceptions to the rule, but generally speaking, there's an awful long way for us to go before we're able to join the crowd of confident NNESTs fighting boldly for their rights in the ELT business. We need to remain humble and work hard rather than 'join the demonstration' just because everybody else has. If you are from the Czech Republic and you feel I'm being biased and unfair, I'm sorry but that's how I see it....<br />
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The debate about discriminatory hiring practices in ELT I'm following with great interest constantly makes me ask hypothetical questions: What if there are two equally qualified teachers, with the same amount of experience, applying for the job of an English teacher at a Czech school - one NEST and one NNEST? What criteria come into play in such a situation? I'm sure that the employer will probably have to consider other factors, sometimes equally discriminatory, without explicitly saying so, such as the applicant's ability to speak the students' L1, her pretty face, his congenial manners, or the fact that one of the applicants is a young female about to start a family.<br />
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Or what if a school really likes to have a mixture of NESTs and NNESTs, which is perfectly justifiable in our teaching environment, and as they already have six NNESTs and no NESTs, they desperately need to hire one NEST. Is this discriminatory?<br />
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In one of my <a href="http://how-i-see-it-now.blogspot.cz/2015/04/some-of-my-nostalgic-linguistic.html">previous posts</a>, I had a fruitful discussion with Vedrana Vojkovic, touching on the issue of NESTs vs. NNESTs. When re-reading the comment section, I realized I had sounded pretty biased. Unfortunately, I can't change my view yet. The debate revolved around teaching English to very little kids, precisely those at kindergartens (which, by the way, wasn't Vedrana's original intention, but I stubbornly stuck to the topic anyway). As I see it, the more proficient the teacher, the higher level they usually want to/are asked to teach. So it goes without saying that those who have achieved a native-like proficiency are not likely to end up teaching English in kindergarten, unless they really love small kids. They will become teachers at the tertiary level or do something completely different. Yet, quite a few pre-school institutions offer optional English lessons. These are usually taught by someone, anyone, who can speak some English. These teachers are either fully qualified kindergarten teachers, who are, however, not qualified to teach English, or students who need some pocket money. One way or the other, it seems to be a general consensus that after all, you don't need to be terribly proficient if you want to teach little kids.<br />
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One thing is certain; as far as I know, there are no teacher training programs for language teachers working at a pre-school level. Taking into account L1 acquisition principles, I'm convinced that if you want to teach very young learners, you need special training, very different from the one we normally get as teachers aiming at the primary/secondary/tertiary level. And I'm not only talking about methods but also about one's language proficiency. This lead me to a conclusion that a chatter with a NEST might be more valuable at this level than a lesson with an unqualified teacher of English, who teaches a few random words a day. Needless to say, little kids acquire these words precisely the way they hear them, i.e. out of context, sometimes with totally wrong or imprecise pronunciations, which later on hinder understanding and communication. I was once told by an owner of a language school: "Just go there and do something. It doesn't really matter what you'll do, does it?"<br />
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These were some of the random thoughts that are swirling in my head these days. If you happen to have sensed some kind of bias in my voice, I'd like to make it clear that the way I reason stems from my life experience. Also, I realize that some of my convictions may appear as mere generalizations. However, I'm not saying that what I claim here is right or wrong. It's just the way I see it now.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02407302558747461727noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8680957185682300749.post-58574725288120444962015-04-29T18:56:00.002+02:002015-04-29T18:56:53.796+02:00How much risk are you willing to take? <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Whenever you ask your students to use English, you actually ask them to take risks. For many learners, speaking (or writing) in English is a real challenge. It's as if somebody asked you to do a bungee jump saying that it's easy because many people have already done it before. It's as if you were asked to do karaoke - it's basically a piece of cake but once you are not confident in singing, it can turn into a truly embarrassing experience.<br />
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Earlier today, I asked my students to read a text about a very embarrassing situation a teenage girl had experienced on her first date. My lesson objective was clearly stated: it was an authentic blog post, full of useful, informal language items I wanted my students to acquire and put in use. After some language work and follow-up practice, it was time for personalisation: I asked my students whether they had experienced a similar situation at some point in their lives. Although this is a very talkative class of 18-year-olds never afraid to express their opinions, I was suddenly faced with a complete silence. But it was not the blank stares type of silence. It was the silence complete with unspoken ideas desperately wanting to be put into words. However, after a couple of seconds, instead of answering my question, a student struck back: <i>And you, teacher? </i>At that moment, I realized how my students felt. I experienced the moment of hesitation they must go through on a regular basis when bombarded with all sorts of personal questions: Shall I say something or shall I pretend that I've nothing to add to the discussion?<br />
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I hesitated for a fraction of a second and then I decided to take the risk: <i>Yes, I have. I actually experienced something very embarrassing.</i>... All of a sudden, they were all on alert. The inevitable happened. <i>Tell us about it, then</i>, someone begged. I hesitated for another fraction of a second and then told them my story as I remembered it, making it as dramatic as possible.<br />
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I could see that their expressions had changed completely. Some of them were still processing the information they had just received; they were probably visualizing the situation and judging the degree of awkwardness. But I noticed that a couple of them were already getting ready to share their own embarrassing moments - they'd probably remembered something resembling my story, or they'd simply gained confidence to come out of hiding. And the most courageous ones finally did share their stories. And I thanked them for their bravery and support - because my story suddenly didn't seem so embarrassing. The awkwardness had somehow been watered down, so to speak. Also, it seemed that the act of sharing our moments of embarrassment made us feel like a close-knit community for a while. But more importantly, it made our conversation genuine, real-life and meaningful; it was about us after all - not just about the language or the coursebook exercise.<br />
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It's not easy to share something you are ashamed of, and for some students, be it the weak ones or the introverted ones, it's often equally embarrassing to speak in front of the class, even when it's something pretty commonplace. Having said that, if we want our students to share bits and pieces of their private lives, we need to create an environment of equity and trust. And hopefully, if the teacher takes the risk, the students are likely to follow his/her example...<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02407302558747461727noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8680957185682300749.post-79618636267738504742015-04-25T19:09:00.001+02:002015-04-25T19:11:10.270+02:00Some of my nostalgic (linguistic) memories of the Netherlands<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWf_4M7Nbm6nx7CQddUOjHDpiJCJM9Bzu2qp6g_jdb9ZjfQnGQdy4x_YJbQnBhx0OfGll0Q3J_o8IUFJaHgr_8uoXAPBuZc-BRP5LpnX3Oyt-Gj3nZXubTx6BEzZYJ3d0EVnbu5xecD9sy/s1600/IMG_0355.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWf_4M7Nbm6nx7CQddUOjHDpiJCJM9Bzu2qp6g_jdb9ZjfQnGQdy4x_YJbQnBhx0OfGll0Q3J_o8IUFJaHgr_8uoXAPBuZc-BRP5LpnX3Oyt-Gj3nZXubTx6BEzZYJ3d0EVnbu5xecD9sy/s1600/IMG_0355.JPG" height="239" width="320" /></a>I'm finally back home from a short visit to a lovely Dutch town called Valkenswaard. My heart still aches a bit since I'm missing all the friendly people I met there - the students and teachers from six European countries that had got together to work on a music/poetry project. But I know the memories will soon fade and life will return to normal. Well, not quite, I'm afraid.... Things will never be the same.<br />
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As a Czech tourist, when you land in Eindhoven, you immediately notice a few things. The architecture is slightly different from what you can see in a typical Czech town. The lovely traffic lights that look like children's toys make you feel you've just come to see Legoland. But the main difference can't be perceived visually - it is when you open your mouth to speak and prick up your ears to listen that you finally realize you are in the Netherlands; everybody speaks English there. Every bus driver, every shop assistant, and every waitress will reply fluently once you start asking them questions in English.<br />
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This is something you will hardly experience in the Czech Republic. In an extreme situation, once they are approached by a foreigner, people will even run away or pretend they don't speak English. The reason is simple - generally, Czechs are not very confident in English.<br />
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So while in the Netherlands, I asked myself (and other people too) the same question over and over again: How come Dutch people are so proficient in English? I always got the same reply: we don't dub English programs and thus we're exposed to heaps of English from a very early age.<br />
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But I think there is another reason behind their high English proficiency. Dutch is a Germanic language and it is closely related to English and German. Dutch shares with German a similar word order, grammatical gender, and largely Germanic vocabulary, which contains the same Germanic core as German and English. Nonetheless, the fact that Russian is a Slavic language closely related to Czech didn't help me achieve a native-like proficiency in it when I was forced to learn it back during the communist regime. Apparently, one ingredient vital for a successful acquisition of an L2 was missing - motivation.<br />
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Now, considering the fact that the Netherlands has a tradition of learning languages and almost 90% of the population can easily converse in English, it's obvious that the L2 proficiency of their English teachers reflects the situation. I met a Dutch (as well as a German and a Belgian) teacher of English, whose L2 proficiency was absolutely stunning. Hadn't I known what their nationalities were, I wouldn't have guessed they were non-native speakers of English. The NNEST vs. NEST dichotomy suddenly seemed useless and redundant. If I had ever doubted that non-native speakers of English can achieve native-like proficiency, this was the final proof that they can.<br />
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But I also met a German teacher of geography and a Belgian music teacher whose fluency in spoken English (and several other languages) was equally astounding. I remember a few occasions in the past when my English had been described as flawless but honestly, now I think people were only trying to be nice to me; most of the time in the Netherlands I felt humbled. In spite of this, I'm immensely thankful for this experience.<br />
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If only I could spend more time at the school - observe lessons, talk to the teachers, students, and other members of the staff. I would like to get under the surface and find out if their approaches to learning and methods of teaching English are very different from what we do here. I'd like to interview more people in the streets and pubs; I'd love to ask about their motivation and general attitudes to foreign languages....<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02407302558747461727noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8680957185682300749.post-29423169043341100452015-04-13T14:06:00.000+02:002015-04-18T08:33:03.521+02:00Stressing out about stress<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I can't remember how many times I've told my students that stress - the emphasis placed on the sound or syllable spoken most forcefully in a word or phrase - is a very important aspect of spoken English. I tell them that although this linguistic feature may seem trivial to native speakers of Czech, it can be a matter of communicative survival in English. The trouble is that Czech has a fixed stress, meaning that its position can be predicted by a simple rule, i.e. it almost always comes on the first syllable. It's not a big issue if you place the stress elsewhere - you will likely be understood, provided you get other aspects of pronunciation right.<br />
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My students often struggle with sentence stress - the stress placed on words within sentences - and I wrote about ways of handling it <a href="http://how-i-see-it-now.blogspot.cz/2015/03/shadow-reading-experiment.html">here</a>. They also find it difficult to deal with lexical stress - the stress placed on syllables within words. There are two notorious words I repeatedly correct - <i>hotel </i>and <i>event</i>. It doesn't matter how many times I model the pronunciation; in most cases my students will get it wrong the next time again. There are obvious reasons for this: as already mentioned above, it's natural for my students to speak stressing the first syllables in words. Moreover, despite the fact that in written Czech the word for <i>hotel </i>is identical to its English counterpart, we pronounce it slightly differently, i.e. we place the stress on the first syllable.<br />
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Now, my students are not the only ones who sometimes struggle with this aspect of spoken English. I remember at least two occasions when my message seemed totally unintelligible to my Australian friend, just because I placed the word stress incorrectly. For example, I remember that my friend looked really puzzled when I told him about the problem with mosquitoes. I pronounced it <span style="background-color: white;">[</span><span style="background-color: white;">ˈ</span><u><span style="background-color: white;">m</span><span style="background-color: white;">ɒ</span></u><span style="background-color: white;">skitəʊs] instead of </span><span style="background-color: white;">[məˈ<u>ski</u>ːtəʊs]. I had to repeat the word several times and even describe the insect before my friend got the meaning. I was pretty frustrated because to my Czech ear, the difference is not so dramatic, and if I heard the word pronounced in different ways, I think I would always understand. By the way, this is one of the dangers of monolingual classes taught by a teacher speaking the same L1 - we understand one another and easily ignore things that seem unimportant to us. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">Another communication breakdown happened when I used the word teetotaller. I said </span><span style="background-color: white;">[</span><span style="background-color: white;">ˈ</span><span style="background-color: white;"><u>tiː</u>təʊtlə] instead of </span><span style="background-color: white;">[tiːˈ<u>təʊ</u>tlə]. Neither repeating the word nor raising a glass of beer helped my friend to get the meaning. I had to spell the word (which got me into even more trouble, as you can imagine)! I know that this isn't a very frequent word but this situation clearly demonstrates what an important role word stress can play. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span> <span style="background-color: white;">I'm really happy I experienced those two communicative failures since I can share these stories with my students; I can show them what pitfalls there are waiting outside the safe L2 classroom. </span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02407302558747461727noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8680957185682300749.post-91555597871011312072015-04-11T10:22:00.001+02:002015-04-14T19:03:25.399+02:00Challenging one of my personal myths ...If you have been a teacher for some time now, there are probably certain principles you strongly believe in. It is possible that you consider some approaches better than others. For example, you might believe that communicative language teaching is better than the grammar translation method. Or, and this is my case, you may believe that certain seating arrangements work better for your classes than other alternatives.<br />
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I've always felt a strong dislike of teaching language classes in the traditional classroom layout - straight rows facing the front of the classroom. Ironically, although this straight row arrangement has been widely criticized, mostly because it is said to inhibit experimentation in the classroom, it still predominates in most educational settings. It is not surprising that the majority of classrooms in the school where I work are arranged this way.<br />
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I've always preferred the horseshoe arrangement, mainly because I believe that it's best for both student-student and student-teacher interaction. I like it when I can face all my students and I like the space this type of layout provides. But more importantly, I think it's good when students can see one another's faces (and mouths) all the time. This is particularly important in a language classroom, where people listen and talk to each other most of the time. In fact, whenever I had to teach in a room where this arrangement wasn't possible, I felt extremely uncomfortable.<br />
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But some time ago I became a student again and I started attending seminars and workshops, where both types of layouts were common. Suddenly, seen from the student perspective, the one I disliked as a teacher didn't seem much worse than the one I preferred. On the contrary, I remember occasions when I felt physical and psychological discomfort when sitting in the horseshoe arrangement; either because I had chosen an inconvenient spot - one of those places where I was forced to keep my head and neck in a very unhealthy position when looking at the board - or because the room was jam-packed with people and I felt I had lost my personal space - the intimate zone reserved for close friends and family members.<br />
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Back to my teaching context, though. <a href="http://how-i-see-it-now.blogspot.cz/2014/02/the-physical-aspects-of-my-classroom.html">I teach in a small room</a> which can accommodate up to 22 people. The size of the room allows you to make a horseshoe out of 8 double desks at the most. However, as I started teaching slightly larger classes back in September, and I didn't really want to move into a different room, I simply brought three more desks and created an additional, smaller horseshoe inside the big one. As you can see below, although it looked pretty cosy and learner-friendly, it was crammed with quite a few students. This realization, as well as my personal experience, nudged me into a small experiment.<br />
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<table align="center" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifjkGIXCPde-PjuMMzryPF-GL4KCJsQJKRCrKCXrWtKvlDSvl-8lgp5yq1kI1PxPqZ1yOm1ANebQ7LSH3t0r6UnoTCJe38R0xQhPSiXQJo5Fw0uQNWlxyToFUfyIsCb6Ts5ZdZne0JuyuL/s1600/1709201426912.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifjkGIXCPde-PjuMMzryPF-GL4KCJsQJKRCrKCXrWtKvlDSvl-8lgp5yq1kI1PxPqZ1yOm1ANebQ7LSH3t0r6UnoTCJe38R0xQhPSiXQJo5Fw0uQNWlxyToFUfyIsCb6Ts5ZdZne0JuyuL/s1600/1709201426912.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Before ...</td></tr>
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One day, before the first group entered the room, I had changed the current layout to the traditional one (see below). As it is quite a small room, the change didn't look too dramatic to me, but I felt that at least I had created some space around each desk. Nevertheless, it was interesting to observe my students' first reactions to the tweak. I had to smile when I overheard some of the comments the kids uttered upon entering the classroom: "What? " Oh no! " What's this supposed to be? " "Oh dear!" "This is terrible!" Some just looked puzzled thinking that this was only a mistake which was going to be fixed as soon as their lesson started.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg55_D7q2ouST72Orr_v_enMDE05AWUEU3Xa_BLHQCzVLZPTGCXDp1XOEvK-K0oYZsnjc0K04blfPawmC4KO4bb1IwnOE7wjnd3ogOYJw8uPF7882OpLlcqe9RQJKFfmDa4BVwsSq0lrOuM/s1600/100420153728.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg55_D7q2ouST72Orr_v_enMDE05AWUEU3Xa_BLHQCzVLZPTGCXDp1XOEvK-K0oYZsnjc0K04blfPawmC4KO4bb1IwnOE7wjnd3ogOYJw8uPF7882OpLlcqe9RQJKFfmDa4BVwsSq0lrOuM/s1600/100420153728.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">After</td></tr>
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The whole point of the post will be revealed soon. I obviously might have changed the layout right after having heard the initial negative reactions, but I decided to wait for a couple of more lessons and enjoy all the psychological impact this alternation had on my students. I want to stress that all my students are in their teens, which means that their negative reactions may only be a type of adolescent rebellion. Anyway, after the second lesson spent in the 'new' room, when they seemed to have adjusted to the change a bit, I asked each group the following question: <i>I know you said you felt discomfort when you entered the room for the first time, but I'd like to ask you to share with me some potential advantages this seating arrangement might bring. </i><br />
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I was really surprised at some of their ideas. Although some students still kept the defensive pose, others had already changed their mind. <i>Well, actually, it's not that bad. I'm enjoying it after all.</i><br />
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Here are some of the perks they eventually came up with. The tongue-in-the-cheek ones are indicated with a smiley face.<br />
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<i>1) I can hear my partner better during the speaking activities, probably due to the fact that our personal space is not invaded from all directions.</i><br />
<i>2) I don't have to look at other people's faces :-) </i>My personal note: I believe that some students might also find it embarrassing to be constantly observed by their peers.<br />
<i>3) At least it doesn't feel like the awful evening language course we attend. :-)</i><br />
<i>4) My neck doesn't hurt anymore.</i><br />
<i>5) I can rest my arm on the radiator, which I couldn't before. :-)</i><br />
<i>6) The teacher can't spot the mobile phones hidden under the desks. :-)</i><br />
<i>7) We can concentrate better.</i><br />
<i>8) Swinging on chairs is safer now. :-)</i><br />
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The most obvious conclusion is that most people resist change and they don't hesitate to express the resistance as soon as they are confronted with something new. But once they adjust to the new thing, they may discover that it's not that bad in the end. It's possible that sooner or later they will want to come back to the old and traditional, or maybe they'll want to move one step forward. I myself made a step forward when I tried something I had always been reluctant to do. I should add that from a technical point of view, there are some advantages to this seating arrangement, such as the fact that the students can easily and smoothly change partners without even having to stand up. But this is for another post.<br />
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<a href="http://www.theonion.com/articles/oh-god-teacher-arranged-desks-in-giant-circle,38418/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_campaign=Pic:2:Default">...and this is probably a parody of my post :-))</a><br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02407302558747461727noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8680957185682300749.post-37092729995711282452015-04-07T19:16:00.000+02:002015-04-07T20:53:09.221+02:00Google Fight<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv4qeCX_j0R7MVRlYaD1D_wRDzvxUsmOWDsrrDob7ZS02Oi4GK-9Pep2DvHU87PP6w0vgXJJyrX9_JCQcJ3Qzlq6cTGgCfo5zKUewMmNQhQBlVYz-ETn9U91K6Q0cy8SwHaNOgWaXDyv8l/s1600/V%C3%BDst%C5%99i%C5%BEek.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv4qeCX_j0R7MVRlYaD1D_wRDzvxUsmOWDsrrDob7ZS02Oi4GK-9Pep2DvHU87PP6w0vgXJJyrX9_JCQcJ3Qzlq6cTGgCfo5zKUewMmNQhQBlVYz-ETn9U91K6Q0cy8SwHaNOgWaXDyv8l/s1600/V%C3%BDst%C5%99i%C5%BEek.PNG" height="281" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">A couple of days ago I came across a <a href="https://eltcation.wordpress.com/2015/04/04/just-google-it/">post</a> by Svetlana Kandybovich, in which she shares some great ideas for using Google in an L2 classroom. One of the tips I particularly liked was <a href="http://www.googlefight.com/">Googlefight</a>, <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">a website that allows users to compare the number of search results</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"> returned by Google</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"> for two given queries.</span> </span><br />
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This tool is generally used for entertainment; you type two keywords and click on the 'Fight' button. The winner is the one which gets the biggest number of results on Google. So, I originally planned to use the tool in class for fun too, as a warm-up after Easter holidays, but at the same time, I secretly hoped for a sudden influx of sophisticated ideas related to language learning.<br />
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What obviously first came to mind was the concept of word frequency. It occurred to me that my students would find it interesting to see the differences in frequency counts of two words belonging to the same category/lexical set. To spice the activity up, we played a bidding game - each student made a bid on one of the words before I displayed the actual results on the screen. So, for example, we found out that <i>cat </i>got more hits than <i>dog</i>. Those who had voted for <i>cat </i>won a point. But you can go further with this; you can develop this somewhat meaningless game into a useful linguistic exercise. If you check <a href="http://www.lextutor.ca/freq/lists_download/longman_3000_list.pdf">Longman Communication 3000</a>, you'll see that both <i>cat</i> (as a noun) and <i>dog </i>(as a noun) are in the list of
the 3000 most frequent words in both spoken
and written English, but <i>dog </i>is a bit more frequent in written English than <i>cat</i>. If you're brave enough to play with corpora a bit, you can go to <a href="http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/">COCA</a>, where the word <i>cat </i>gets 17, 284 hits, while the word <i>dog </i>gets 40, 020 hits. Now, you can ask your students why they think it is so. Why the different results? Is it because there are more cats than dogs or vice versa? Does the word <i>dog </i>have only one meaning? Is it always a noun? What about <i>cat</i>? Does the fact that Google doesn't sort out words according to parts of speech influence the frequency counts? Are the words displayed plural, singular or both? What about various <a href="http://www.cat.com/en_US/products/new/equipment.html">abbreviations </a>and <a href="http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/DOG">acronyms</a>?<br />
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The exact numbers are not terribly important, but through these activities, you can develop in your students the ability to notice some very important aspects of lexis. This can be a nice lead-in to some dictionary work. I personally like working with a paper edition of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Longman-Dictionary-Contemporary-English-Paperback/dp/1408215330">Dictionary of Contemporary English</a> because the meanings of words are listed in order of frequency, i. e. the most common meaning is shown first. The 3000 most common words in English are printed in red letters, which shows which are the most important words to learn/know. This is a very important piece of information some dictionaries neglect, and as a result, students can't work with it.<br />
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I was very pleased with my students because they asked me some interesting questions during today's lesson; for example, they asked me to type in pairs such as colour/color, favourite/favorite because they wanted to see which spelling was more frequent. Once again, it was interesting to think about the why. This pushed the discussion into a different dimension. Ironically, here in the Czech Republic we like to say and believe that we teach British English, using coursebooks published in the UK, yet from the global perspective, the American way of spelling of certain words seems to be more common. This finding may subsequently lead to an interesting debate about the role of English in today's changing world. Some other words my students were interested in were: football/soccer, black/white, film/movie, cinema/theatre, etc.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02407302558747461727noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8680957185682300749.post-63782095114890069172015-04-06T10:38:00.001+02:002015-04-12T17:03:27.693+02:00Making lessons authentic via the use of corporaIn one of my previous <a href="http://how-i-see-it-now.blogspot.cz/2014/08/using-corpora-in-class-simple-way.html">posts</a>, I talked about a simple way of using corpora in class. I truly believe that a corpus can be a handy tool for any language learner, but the size of a corpus, as well as its layout, usually appears daunting at first glance, especially to less proficient learners of English. There's no need to ask your students to laboriously analyse L2 data from a huge corpus when they still struggle with the language itself. In other words, as corpora are collections of authentic language, I estimate that an average A2 learner will find the enormous amount of data and the level of the language somewhat off-putting. From a teacher's point of view, one of the prerequisites of a successful corpus-based lesson is its simplicity; it's sufficient to show one simple, practical thing at a go.<br />
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Let me give you an example. My intermediate students (B1-B2) need to practise various written genres. Last time they were asked to write a formal letter as a reply to a job advertisement. I normally stick to a very commonplace procedure: I collect the assignments and correct and grade them at home, using various colour codes and abbreviations. I select the most recurring errors from all the essays, and afterwards I give my students detailed feedback (I wrote about it in detail <a href="http://how-i-see-it-now.blogspot.cz/2015/03/collective-feedback-on-written.html">here</a>). However, I'm convinced there is more you can do for your students' language progress.<br />
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Here are a couple of excerpts from a student's writing I've just corrected:<br />
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<i>Dear Sir or Madam,</i><br />
<i><br /></i> <i>I am <span style="background-color: lime;">writting</span> to apply for <span style="background-color: cyan;">the post of a part-time job</span><span style="background-color: white;">,</span> which I saw on a billboard next to the hospital. </i><br />
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.......... <i>I consider myself to be accommodating, hard-working and I am good <span style="background-color: lime;">in</span> talking and playing with children. </i><br />
<i><br /></i> <i>....... I am enclosing my CV.</i><br />
<i>....... I look forward to hearing from you. </i><br />
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For starters, you can teach your students a very simple thing - how to check the frequency of certain phrases and how to look for alternatives. As you can see, my student had decided to use <i>Dear Sir or Madam </i>at the beginning of the letter. This is fine, but I can ask the class if they are familiar with other ways of addressing people in formal correspondence. Let's first look at the student's choice, namely at how frequent it is in comparison with other possibilities. <i>Dear Sir or Madam</i> got 7 hits in the British National Corpus.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5ZwVbIljA_rg4x-LrzOBaqFy9aVrraKkHm_7cgIQdkCgqCWe7DGfR9uWZRSMGIj0K4NQhtt5snVt0afpifJ1xbY3lDXnaNB458TAQnGV_lK1RRwXgPS6r4oNQKVPUmf9crkgtIPxKWh5b/s1600/V%C3%BDst%C5%99i%C5%BEek.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5ZwVbIljA_rg4x-LrzOBaqFy9aVrraKkHm_7cgIQdkCgqCWe7DGfR9uWZRSMGIj0K4NQhtt5snVt0afpifJ1xbY3lDXnaNB458TAQnGV_lK1RRwXgPS6r4oNQKVPUmf9crkgtIPxKWh5b/s1600/V%C3%BDst%C5%99i%C5%BEek.PNG" height="147" width="640" /></a></div>
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I remember that when I was an intermediate learner myself, we were taught that we can also use a plural form, <i>Dear Sirs or Madams. </i>Let's check what the BNC has to say ...<br />
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The empty result may imply that this way of greeting people is pretty unnatural. When checking out other possibilities, you'll come across an option that is more frequent than the other two above - <i>Dear Sir/Madam </i>(26 hits). However, although the corpus shows that this way of addressing people is quite common, it doesn't say if it's always the best option. It turns out that under certain circumstances, it is safer to opt <a href="http://www.businesswritingblog.com/business_writing/2009/11/theres-no-excuse-for-dear-sir-or-madam.html">for a different greeting</a>.<br />
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Let's have a look at another chunk from the student's writing I find worth focusing on a bit: <i>I am writing to [apply for]. Now, </i>I'd zoom in on <i>I am writing to</i> ... The first question I would ask my students is: Apart from <i>apply</i>, what other verbs can follow? You can find out by looking at the right collocation candidates. You'll get the following examples:<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0iUNQEczufKbcojWJL6lRpace-GCIa7zHywU3aDjsJvQ8pTSGfU3UesADbEDzMfdNvKD44uGBRZFvO1H3Yvc7GpYo1i3IVmnUp8Jpaff9NPMKjEfzp19Yxe03OeGpQEqrc5OTmoCvsufy/s1600/V%C3%BDst%C5%99i%C5%BEek+4.PNG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0iUNQEczufKbcojWJL6lRpace-GCIa7zHywU3aDjsJvQ8pTSGfU3UesADbEDzMfdNvKD44uGBRZFvO1H3Yvc7GpYo1i3IVmnUp8Jpaff9NPMKjEfzp19Yxe03OeGpQEqrc5OTmoCvsufy/s1600/V%C3%BDst%C5%99i%C5%BEek+4.PNG" height="302" width="320" /></a><br />
I am writing to <b>confirm</b> ...<br />
I am writing to <b>express</b>....¨<br />
I am writing to <b>inform</b> ...<br />
I am writing to <b>thank </b>....<br />
I am writing to <b>offer </b>....<br />
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You might want to work with the above chunks and ask your students to complete them with their own answers. What do we normally <i>confirm/express</i>? What preposition do we typically use with <i>thank/inform</i>? What can you <i>offer</i>? Alternatively or additionally, you can check the corpus again; by clicking on a few example sentences you can see what other users of English opted for.<br />
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There's one more thing I'd definitely elaborate on in a follow-up lesson and that is the phrase: <i>I consider</i><i> myself</i> .... You can let your student figure out for themselves that it's possible to say <i>I consider myself <b>to be</b> [adjective/noun]</i> or just <i>I consider</i><i> myself </i><i>[adjective/noun].</i> I believe that their own discovery will make the structures more memorable than if they just saw them in a grammar table in their coursebook. Encourage your students to only focus on the red parts of the sentences and their immediate surroundings. Although there are tons of other things you can do with the sample sentences, this is, for the time being, just enough for an intermediate learner of English.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNQwEjNbbEDPcTsqGYXQLxrPujfME_B7HazXQ1h-nKinoEWYeY095MGMvZy-j6GSn7qidk5gNqMuPiHZaXko0FhjJEltg5fbXE528pukBRgoZkzj9eBiuGyg0bmhOfqanQjufPI4Kfg7-o/s1600/V%C3%BDst%C5%99i%C5%BEek5.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNQwEjNbbEDPcTsqGYXQLxrPujfME_B7HazXQ1h-nKinoEWYeY095MGMvZy-j6GSn7qidk5gNqMuPiHZaXko0FhjJEltg5fbXE528pukBRgoZkzj9eBiuGyg0bmhOfqanQjufPI4Kfg7-o/s1600/V%C3%BDst%C5%99i%C5%BEek5.PNG" height="356" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
What comes to mind now is a personalised speaking activity. What qualities would you ascribe to you/your friends/other members of your family? <i>I consider myself/my best friend/my brother ...</i><br />
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The activities I describe above constitute the base of a very authentic lesson, which draws on students' own written production, as well as examples of writing of other users of English. Such a lesson elaborates on what students already know, plus it demonstrates how to work with a very useful online tool.<br />
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Apart from corpora, there are other tools that work in the same vein, such as <a href="http://fraze.it/n_search.jsp?q=I+consider+myself&l=0">FrazeIt</a>, <a href="http://www.just-the-word.com/show_examples.pl?triple=dear_ADJ+mod_of+Sirs_N">Just The Word</a>, or <a href="http://www.netspeak.org/#query=I+consider+myself+to+be+">Netspeak</a>, which are probably more user-friendly since you don't need to register for them. Needless to say, Google is the easiest and most accessible web-based tool for working with authentic language, and it comes in handy when one needs to look up something really quickly.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02407302558747461727noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8680957185682300749.post-77921402794284989532015-04-05T10:38:00.000+02:002015-04-12T16:56:06.795+02:00How others see it now<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTvY3z5d7Hadjn79wc_x1Wr_Mi9TDeRIBVzuCajoyKV0PS0zs039s4jq8IsVVyr1MWqDiEDbs2Gzh8IkANclK-tUc3St2hDmJtfuDD2EAkFSjEa0lhAeiOZnjHrU0uLWpkfkD-xF4CUeKJ/s1600/151220143233.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTvY3z5d7Hadjn79wc_x1Wr_Mi9TDeRIBVzuCajoyKV0PS0zs039s4jq8IsVVyr1MWqDiEDbs2Gzh8IkANclK-tUc3St2hDmJtfuDD2EAkFSjEa0lhAeiOZnjHrU0uLWpkfkD-xF4CUeKJ/s1600/151220143233.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
The other day, my 18-year-old son said the following momentous sentence: <i>"If something is not on Wikipedia, it's not important and thus I'm not going to waste time searching for it elsewhere".</i><br />
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Let me explain the context first: my son got an F after he had refused to complete one of his History homework assignments. The task was simple: find some information about a particular locally important figure. The figure was probably so unimportant that the name was virtually unsearchable online. Anyway, I thought he could have done more to successfully complete the task, and I asked him if he didn't mind having had his overall score lowered; I knew this small incident might influence his final grade. Well, all I got was the above memorable answer.<br />
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You can imagine how angry I was at first about his rather naive perspective on the credibility of certain Internet sources. But also, to me his behaviour indicated laziness, reluctance, and arrogance - all the possible negative approaches to learning in one. I obviously knew about my teenage son's overall pragmatic view on life, but this was simply too much. I started explaining how tough his time at university might be some day; he won't be allowed to cite Wikipedia as a credible source once he does some serious research. What will he do then? The trouble is that like most of his peers, he's not used to going to the library to look for learning materials. Why bother when all (he thinks) he needs is just one click?<br />
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But then I calmed down and tried to look at the situation through his pragmatic eyes for a while. Why should he waste time learning things that are not important for him when there is so much information out there. By the way, he will probably never need to have a perfect command of the world's history as he's doing well in science and he's definitely planning to go this way. However, and I tried to explain this to him, certain skills, such as the ability to search for rare data, are transferable, and if he learns how to look for seemingly unsearchable information now, his life will be much easier in the future.<br />
<br />
I'm following the debate related to the issue of technology in the classroom closely and attentively. For example, I'm a big fan of <a href="https://twitter.com/ShellTerrell">Shelly Terrell</a>, a strong and passionate proponent of technology and innovation in teaching. I also like to visit <a href="https://twitter.com/timbuckteeth">Steve Wheeler</a>'s blog, where he gives highly plausible reasons why <a href="http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.cz/2015/04/not-so-shallow.html">technology and innovation</a> are inevitable in education. On the other hand, I really liked t<a href="http://tdsig.org/2015/04/shaving-and-innovation-in-education/">his post by Anthony Gaughan</a>, in which the author shares some of his scepticism regarding innovation.<br />
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There's something to both opposing views. Now, all one needs is to be critical; the biggest danger lies in the fact that some voices are louder than others. Also, it's important not to get enchanted by something just because the majority out there claim that it's the best solution to our problems.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02407302558747461727noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8680957185682300749.post-9573449453940829602015-04-02T14:27:00.000+02:002015-04-02T14:39:53.435+02:00Preferences, approaches and aspirations<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGdxlWoo_CH0N0a440O7653J5RYftAT2VA8XLP_jyq4glmLmG4Pe6KRFWysMsQS3eR6_FaVBIwp-ZWujCeOFBn3n9TOa5J4uLjcwMHnHs3OCUQ3WOlASMO_FUIVhFXqMghcIUtuNbMfKch/s1600/M%C5%A0+dort.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGdxlWoo_CH0N0a440O7653J5RYftAT2VA8XLP_jyq4glmLmG4Pe6KRFWysMsQS3eR6_FaVBIwp-ZWujCeOFBn3n9TOa5J4uLjcwMHnHs3OCUQ3WOlASMO_FUIVhFXqMghcIUtuNbMfKch/s1600/M%C5%A0+dort.jpg" height="243" width="320" /></a></div>
The other day I went over to Steve Wheeler's blog and watched a short <a href="http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/game-changers.html">interview</a> recorded at the <span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px; text-align: justify;">INTED 2015 conference in Madrid, Spain. I highly recommend watching the video, in which </span><span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px; text-align: justify;">Steve talks about the importance of technology in education.</span><span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px; text-align: justify;"> The progressive, yet moderate view on technology resonates with me but what really struck a chord with me was the following line: <i>Every student has different preferences, approaches and aspirations.</i> Nothing new under the sun, right? Yet, it got me thinking and inspired me to write this post. When I heard the line, I immediately thought of learning styles and the heated debate they have recently inspired, and I realised that it's much better to think of students' differences in terms of their preferences, approaches and aspirations than in terms of the looked-down-on learning styles, which, to me, represent a rather narrow perspective. However, as you'll see, it'd probably be more comfortable and easier to deal with just <a href="http://www.edudemic.com/styles-of-learning/">seven learning styles</a> than with a plethora of different preferences, approaches and aspirations. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px; text-align: justify;">It's obvious that each and every student wants a different thing - hence the different preferences. When learning English, one student prefers grammar tables; another favours picking up the language through reading books. You don't need to prove this scientifically because you can tell what your students want - they show you, implicitly or explicitly, or they just tell you if you ask. Also, it's beyond doubt that each and every student deals with school work in a different way. You can observe this directly, provided you give your students some choice and control over their learning approaches. For example, some like learning vocabulary by underlining words and recording them in their notebooks; others use apps on mobile phones to memorise and revise lexical items. As for aspirations, it's unlikely that you'll find two students who aspire for the very same thing. Few students will do without English when they leave school, but there might be some in the end. Maybe they'll need German or Russian instead - not English. Not all students will need to be able to speak the language at a high level; some will get by with passive knowledge of vocabulary since they won't use the language to communicate orally. For instance, they will only read texts for academic purposes. Others won't have to do a lot of writing, so they won't have to panic about spelling and linking words a big deal. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px; text-align: justify;">Now, if you take into account that there are at least 3 constants - preferences, approaches and aspirations, </span>which, by the way, can be highly variable - and you have a class of, say, 25 students, then it's really difficult to adjust your teaching to satisfy every student's needs. You'd have to have an inventory of up to 25 times 3 different teaching approaches/methods/techniques/styles/magic tricks, which you obviously can't perform all at once. i e. in one lesson. Plus you would sometimes have to be a fortune teller to be able to tell what exactly you students want on a particular day, in a particular lesson.<br />
<span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px; text-align: justify;">What is the solution, then? Individualisation? Yes, but there are 25 individuals with various preferences, approaches and aspirations in your class, remember? Personalisation? Yes, but there are 25 persons sitting in front of you ready to start talking about what concerns them. Making your teaching l</span>earner-centred? Absolutely! However, there are 25 learners to be focused on. Give them tasks to complete? Yes, but what if they prefer to absorb knowledge through listening and taking notes, and it bugs them when they are forced to learn through completing inauthentic tasks. Dogme? Well, yes, but imagine how much variety would suddenly emerge at one point if you were really liberal; would you be able to handle it? Let them use technology then? Good idea but there are some who prefer to see things on paper and they hate looking at the computer screen. The matter is complicated by the fact that I, too, have my preferences, approaches and aspirations, and beliefs.<br />
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I'm not exactly pessimistic but whenever I enter the classroom and see those 25 little heads, I can't help feeling I'm not doing enough - I can never do enough. What is my role as a teacher then? Mind you, this is not a philosophical question; this is a question I ask as a practitioner with some experience in the classroom and I bit of theoretical knowledge. Can we do anything at all or would the whole system of schooling have to change completely, as some argue? Before this happens, I guess I'll just be there for my students trying to do what I believe is best for them ...<br />
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<span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6000003814697px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02407302558747461727noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8680957185682300749.post-41592948785718515122015-03-31T21:42:00.000+02:002015-03-31T21:47:00.602+02:00Errors in disguise<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A colleague of mine has a very weak student in class and she's worried that he might fail his final English exam, which he's taking in May. Now and then, during our regular coffee chats, she comes up with a little rant. Last time she looked really frustrated when she told me that the student, who should by now be somewhere around the B1-B2 level, can't use basic grammatical structures correctly. I should stress that my friend does her best to help this particular student and she has spent lots of extra hours with him after school explaining stuff.<br />
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Nevertheless, she is desperate that, for example, the student uses the present simple tense when talking about past events. So instead of saying: <i>The other day I went to Prague</i> ... he says: <i>The other day I go to Prague</i> .... I couldn't but agree that this could be a real problem during his state exam, but then I thought of the last conference I went to, and I remembered Piotr Steinbrich's plenary speech, in which he mentioned the fact that although the present simple is considered one of the most basic grammatical structures, i.e. A1 structures as described by <a href="http://www.examenglish.com/CEFR/cefr_grammar.htm">CEFR</a>, it can actually indicate a fairly advanced level of English when it's used for talking about past events. So in an attempt to console my friend, I told her humorously that during the actual exam we can pretend that the student uses the structures on purpose.<br />
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My colleague smiled faintly but immediately went on to tell me another example of the student's ignorance. "Just imagine, I asked him something about dinner and he started describing his typical lunch at the school canteen. I couldn't believe my ears!" I sympathised with her but then I remembered another conference, particularly Nikki Fořtová's workshop, during which she talked about differences in lexis across various cultures. She told us, for example, that *pond* is not what Czech people think it is and that *dinner* may actually be *lunch* in a particular cultural context. So again, I tried to lift my friend's spirits by telling her that if this happens, we can pretend that the boy is actually on topic.<br />
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Now, this chat I had with my friend got me thinking. We have all sorts of errors, such as typos, slips of the tongue, errors related to interlanguage, random errors, systematic errors, etc. But sometimes students use structures which may be correct under certain circumstances but as their regular teacher you know that they use them because they can't use the ones you expect them to use. I mean, the student mentioned above does not know that dinner may be lunch or that present simple can be used for past events. He simply messes things up and his teacher knows it because otherwise he makes mistakes which imply that his level is not that high. The question is whether and/or how to penalise those errors in disguise.<br />
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I face a similar dilemma when teaching reported speech or the past perfect tense. The rules are not always clear-cut and as a fairly advanced user of English I know that it's not always necessary or even desirable to use a more complex structure, simply because it's not natural.<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">The obvious conclusion is that as long as the student is understood, everything's fine. On the other hand, our students are required to take exams which are designed to test their level of proficiency, and we teachers need to take this into consideration when assessing a student's performance. On a more learner-centred note, maybe we shouldn't be afraid to push our students to acquire the more complex structures, even though we know they will easily do without them, because without this extended linguistic knowledge they might not be able to come back to the simple structures and use the language naturally. I might be completely wrong but that's how I feel it being an L2 learner myself.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02407302558747461727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8680957185682300749.post-46267751050853986732015-03-30T22:28:00.000+02:002015-03-30T23:03:20.546+02:00Shadow-reading experiment<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhr8nWrRqU8Qt3qWVzMakxWTnXCRQhU0b9pXzwU56FT7MCK6BkhmZlID4KsA9i75rGDH65cdIRjohCGPQr5rMkN1Sb0VvPADGQoi_0KnR8U5eZQWsQm_N317dadKfjDM96-hfL-ClEJCCI/s1600/reading+book+in+the+grass+garden+(7).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhr8nWrRqU8Qt3qWVzMakxWTnXCRQhU0b9pXzwU56FT7MCK6BkhmZlID4KsA9i75rGDH65cdIRjohCGPQr5rMkN1Sb0VvPADGQoi_0KnR8U5eZQWsQm_N317dadKfjDM96-hfL-ClEJCCI/s1600/reading+book+in+the+grass+garden+(7).jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
I've recently done some research into <a href="https://peerspectives.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/shadow-reading1.pdf">shadow-reading</a> and at some point I promised myself that I'd soon experiment with it a bit in the classroom. I was curious to see what this technique, which I had never heard before, looked like in practice, and I wondered what benefits there were related to this method.<br />
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Let me briefly describe what we did in class earlier today:<br />
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1) Ss listened to a short recording, following the transcript silently. This helped them understand the gist of the text as well as see how the text was chunked.<br />
2) I played the recording again and asked Ss to read along with the speaker. However, they could only mouth the words silently.<br />
3) I played the recording for the third time; this time Ss were asked to read along with the speaker, quietly.<br />
4) Finally, Ss read the text along with the speaker at a normal volume, trying as much as possible to mimic their intonation, stress and pronunciation. I turned the volume of the recording up and down at this stage, and at some point I even switched the sound off completely.<br />
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As this was only a singular trial, I can't draw any definite conclusions as to the benefits of this procedure. However, I noticed a few interesting things. Apart from the fact that all the students were fully engaged in the activity, there were some directly observable learning outcomes.<br />
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The enormous differences between English and Czech, especially those related to suprasegmantal features of pronunciation, make it very difficult for Czech learners to learn to speak this L2. First of all, we normally speak with a rather flat intonation, which may sound impolite, even rude, to other speakers of English. Worse still, what we say may easily be misunderstood and misinterpreted. In addition, Czech has fixed stress - the lexical stress almost always comes on the first syllable of a word. In English, unfortunately, the position of stress in a word is variable and thus less predictable; it must be memorised as part of the pronunciation of a particular lexical item. Then there is sentence stress, i.e. patterns that apply at a higher level than the individual word. Furthermore, whereas English is a stressed-timed language, Czech is a syllable-timed one. This means that, unlike in English, every syllable is perceived as taking up approximately the same amount of time. The situation is only complicated by the fact that in English, vowel reduction may occur when a vowel changes from a stressed to an unstressed position.<br />
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During shadow reading, all the above features of English pronunciation were practised. I should point out that regardless of age, Czech learners often find it slightly embarrassing to imitate English intonation, probably because it moves up and down in such a funny way. When shadow-reading, however, they seemed to feel more comfortable, perhaps due to the fact that they all spoke at once, so their imperfections and/or exaggerations were less audible. Nevertheless, I could hear each and every student quite clearly whenever I focused a bit. Also, they had to get the stress and rhythm right, including all the reduced syllables, if they wanted to keep up with the speaker. The fact that they could not stop whenever they made a mistake made their speech more rhythmical, as well as cohesive. The recording they heard in the background helped them stress the correct words and syllables, so it finally almost turned into a chant.<br />
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Based on my observations, apart from practising supersegmental features of English pronunciation, the students also learnt to pronounce a few separate, tricky words (refugees, heroine, to name some). In the follow-up lesson, I'd like to give them a test to see if they can read the text as fluently as they did last time (I'm going to concentrate on suprasegmental features again), plus I'd also like to get them to write the tricky words to see whether this technique has had some influence of their spelling skills. Finally (or alternatively), I'd like to give them a short vocabulary test to find out if having encountered certain lexical items in context multiple times has helped them remember them. In other words, I'd like to see whether the technique was beneficial for their L2 acquisition as opposed to conscious learning.<br />
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I had learnt that there is also a karaoke version of the shadow reading technique. So in today's lesson, as a bonus activity, I chose a popular English song for children with a wordy lyric. We followed the same procedure described above, but this time with a fun tweak; in the end I asked the kids to take out their mobile phones and record their voices as they were singing. Normally, this would be a problem and nobody would agree to sing aloud in front of their peers, but as each and every student felt kind of camouflaged among the singing crowd, they didn't find it embarrassing to perform publicly. Then I asked them to listen to their recordings and it was rewarding for me to see them burst into genuine laughter once they heard the outcomes. <br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02407302558747461727noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8680957185682300749.post-4723491023496660492015-03-29T19:17:00.002+02:002015-03-29T19:56:10.760+02:00On the NEST vs. NNEST issue<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span lang="EN-GB">When this happened for the first
time, I thought it was pretty insignificant. I pondered for a while and then let go of
the thought immediately. When it happened for the second time, I realised it was worth a
mention here on my blog. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Scene 1: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB">I'm sitting in the
classroom, cooperating with Margaret, a lady from the UK (a native speaker
of English). We’re working on a task Daniele, the presenter of the workshop
we are participating in, has just asked us to complete. We're looking at a list
of some vocabulary items when Margaret mentions that she's really enjoying
the day here at the conference. Later on I ask her about her background
and she briefly explains that she used to be a primary teacher in the UK. Now
she's retired and she's been travelling a bit around the world and she's
having a great time. S</span>he's come to the Czech Republic to visit her son - a teacher trainer based in Brno. Suddenly, Daniele, whose name and surname definitely
sound English to me, utters a Czech male name with such a perfect pronunciation
that it occurs to me that her L1 might actually be Czech. I've noticed that it
is particularly people’s names, as well as, say, names of Czech places that
reveal your true identity when you pronounce them in front of a Czech audience.
Anyway, I mention to Margaret in passing that Daniele is one of my
favourite presenters and I wonder whether she's a native speaker of
English. Margaret stops to think for a second and then she says:
"Well, I really don't know but she sounds English to me". And
then she adds: "And Paula, the presenter I saw before, sounded English to
me too." I'm a bit surprised because I know Paula is Czech and although
her English is flawless, it's definitely her L2. </div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Scene 2: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB">I'm sitting in the
classroom listening to Nick, a very friendly-looking native speaker of English, who's giving a presentation on a brand new, bottom-up, approach to teaching listening and reading.
At some point he asks if there are any native speakers present in the
classroom. I think he wants to explain how difficult it is for NSs, let alone
NNSs, to understand spoken English and he wants somebody to confirm his
assertion. One guy puts up his hand – it’s James. Nick nods and then he looks
at David, a nice guy I saw presenting at conferences in the past too, and, a
little puzzled, asks: "And you? You<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><b><i>are<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></i></b>a native speaker, too, aren't
you?" David shakes his head - he's actually Dutch. "Really?? I
thought you were a native speaker", adds Nick a little doubtfully. His puzzlement doesn't surprise me because I heard David speak on many occasions before and he
sounded perfectly native-like. But I'm a NNEST, so you can trick me easily,
you know. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB">And that's the
point. Being a native speaker of Czech, I'm convinced that I can tell with an absolute certainty whether somebody's Czech is their L1 or L2, and I
was really surprised to see that native speakers of English can't. This is truly intriguing. Although
both Nick and Margaret came from totally different environments, they had
something in common; Nick probably works with teachers all around the
world, so he may have adjusted to all sorts of accents which he accepts as
fully-fledged varieties of English. Margaret loves travelling, so like
Nick, she may have stopped distinguishing between 'real' English and other
Englishes long ago. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB">So it made me
wonder why there's so much the fuss about NESTs and NNESTs because apparently,
even NESTs can't tell the difference between native and non-native Englishes.
It really makes no difference what Daniele's, Paula's or David's linguistic
backgrounds are - one of their parents may be a native speaker after all, or
they might have spent most of their lives in an English speaking country. Or
maybe they managed to acquire English in such a way that nobody can say if it's
actually their L1 or L2. Thus it's clear that it is the outcome, i.e. your
linguistic ability (plus teaching qualifications) that makes you a good teacher,
not your history, i.e. the place of your birth or the data recorded in your
passport. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Note: the storied above are real stories, both
of which happened quite recently, and the names of the people mentioned are
real too (even though I admit I might have played with the spelling a bit). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02407302558747461727noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8680957185682300749.post-48356540963862021812015-03-25T20:13:00.000+01:002015-03-25T22:17:18.719+01:00Reverse! <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVwqZe-XkXCQXhH4tWDY_kXECNSx3Mi5Qaq0_9EW7zgFK63G4lSVsvOd5wLIAfFILiz4jqG8NCaRwJg1aqL4pSSVmHrL9a1u0I5rX9WkxrbYL05AwP5zrgP4NPKpKHx9Jt0AV7RpHXAa2m/s1600/160720142252.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVwqZe-XkXCQXhH4tWDY_kXECNSx3Mi5Qaq0_9EW7zgFK63G4lSVsvOd5wLIAfFILiz4jqG8NCaRwJg1aqL4pSSVmHrL9a1u0I5rX9WkxrbYL05AwP5zrgP4NPKpKHx9Jt0AV7RpHXAa2m/s1600/160720142252.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Yesterday I stumbled upon a blog
post by Willy Cardoso, published on the <a href="https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/willy-cardoso/willy-cardoso-writing-tasks-point-need-coursebooks"><span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">British Council Teaching
English blog</span></a>. In his post, the author argues that learners' writings are
one of the best raw materials any teacher can have. I totally agree with this, but what really resonated with me was the following tip he shares: "Start a new unit
from the last page!" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">How come this had never dawned on
me before? Such a simple, clever idea... I'd always believed that the pure version of teaching
unplugged needs a lot of courage and experience on the teacher's part. Also, if the teacher's hands are tied by the administrators' restrictions and requirements, experimenting becomes much more difficult. Willy Cardoso's approach, though, looks
less daunting and does not violate any of the following <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogme_language_teaching"><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">key principles of the Dogme
teaching</span></a>. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Interactivity</b>: the most direct route to
learning is to be found in the interactivity between teachers and students and
amongst the students themselves.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="line-height: 15.2pt;">Engagement</b><span style="line-height: 15.2pt;">: students are most engaged by
content they have created themselves</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.2pt;">Dialogic processes</b><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.2pt;">: learning is social and dialogic, where knowledge is
co-constructed</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.2pt;">Scaffolded conversations</b><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.2pt;">: learning takes place through conversations,
where the learner and teacher co-construct the knowledge and skills</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.2pt;">Emergence</b><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.2pt;">: language and grammar emerge from the learning process. This
is seen as distinct from the ‘acquisition’ of language.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.2pt;">Affordances</b><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.2pt;">: the teacher’s role is to optimize language learning
affordances through directing attention to emergent language.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.2pt;">Voice</b><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.2pt;">: the learner’s voice is given recognition along with the learner’s
beliefs and knowledge.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.2pt;">Empowerment</b><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.2pt;">: students and teachers are empowered by freeing the
classroom of published materials and textbooks.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.2pt;">Relevance</b><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.2pt;">: materials (e.g. texts, audios and videos) should have
relevance for the learners</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.2pt;">Critical use</b><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 15.2pt;">: teachers and students should use published materials and
textbooks in a critical way that recognizes their cultural and ideological
biases.</span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Even if you have to follow a
syllabus (because your students are required to become familiar with a certain
number of specific grammatical structures/vocabulary/topics/whatever), you can
use this approach without failing to fulfil the red tape requirements. Even if you and your colleagues are expected to create a syllabus based on the coursebook you use throughout the course, you can
teach dogme-ish and still be sure that the administrators won't find anything
wrong with your suspiciously-looking methods. </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Now I'd like to ask myself a question: How can I go about it in my teaching
context? I'm looking at the coursebook I use with my pre-intermediate students.
Unit 1 covers the following 1) topics: personality, teenage challenges, music,
hobbies, 2) language items: present simple vs. present continuous, verb patterns (verb
+ infinitive/-ing form), 3) functions: exchanging opinions (about hobbies, likes/dislikes), and finally, 4) a writing task: a personal profile. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">So, let's say that I'll ask my Ss
to write a personal profile first. I'll see what my Ss already know and what areas they find problematic. Some of the problematic areas will probably overlap with the content of the current unit, so I'll make sure they will gradually be covered in detail. For instance, it's likely that I'll find out that my
Ss don't need to practise present simple because they can use it
confidently. Maybe they only struggle with some specific aspects; they, for
example, err when making questions and/or they keep forgetting to add an -s with the third person singular verb. So I will
focus on this a bit. Based on my experience, Czech learners can form the present continuous, but they tend to overuse it, so I might want to include some extra practice if necessary. In other words, I'll work on emergent problems plus I'll feed Ss the language items that pop up along the way. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The truth is, however, that some
language structures will have to be forced on Ss. For example, there is a list of about 30
verbs in Unit 1 whose patterns Ss need to be able to use at some point. It's unlikely that all those patterns will emerge naturally as we speak about personality traits, hobbies, etc. What could I do then? I could obviously use the texts from the coursebook or I can create my own personal
profile and deliberately include all those verbs my Ss need to acquire. The latter approach will undoubtedly be far more natural and relevant, as well as more interactive and dialogic. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">All in all, I'm convinced that this selective
approach will give me more time to cover things which are engaging - those things which
I feel I have little time for. However, I believe there's no need to avoid the
textbook completely. In the first unit there
are nice texts which I know my students love to work on, such as a
personality quiz or an article called What does your musical taste say about
you? But again, I'll already know how much time to spend on these
sections. I will be able to get rid of the redundant stuff which I now feel obliged to go through, no matter how much of it my Ss actually know already. Having said that, I will finally end up with more time on my hands, which I could use more effectively. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I think it might be a good idea
to apply a cyclic approach here - to start with the last page of the unit, work on the emergent language/problematic areas and then come back to the last page again and
get Ss to write an upgraded version of the same written assignment. It might be very interesting to compare both versions and see all the progress Ss have made since the starting point. Now that I think about it, it seems I'm up to a little experiment ... <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02407302558747461727noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8680957185682300749.post-20988779078746072532015-03-21T12:14:00.003+01:002015-03-21T12:38:07.838+01:00Dream Reader <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIE9pW4pTiM0TJu0W361CObncySgvmW9G_MhHhxCaHEpFsajy1YC7coSluhHF-Q9cTpMH2QiZ8D7JQ1zaqedMWXHF-QebykvncTmqprGtXDk6o46_hArpXZpPIPrUw3ZwZ-r38QpT5hRKQ/s1600/110120153559.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIE9pW4pTiM0TJu0W361CObncySgvmW9G_MhHhxCaHEpFsajy1YC7coSluhHF-Q9cTpMH2QiZ8D7JQ1zaqedMWXHF-QebykvncTmqprGtXDk6o46_hArpXZpPIPrUw3ZwZ-r38QpT5hRKQ/s1600/110120153559.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This post is not about books or extensive reading, as the title and the image might imply. It is about another useful teaching/learning resource I've recently learned about and used in class. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A few days ago, on his <i>A new day, a new thing</i>
blog, David Harbinson shared <a href="https://anewdayanewthing.wordpress.com/2015/03/18/day-77-dreamreader-net/"><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">a newly learned thing</span></a> that
had come to him via <a href="https://eltrantsreviewsreflections.wordpress.com/2015/03/18/an-interview-with-neil-millington-of-dreamreader/"><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Mike Griffin's blog</span></a>. If
you go to Mike's blog, which I did today, you'll find an interview with Neil
Millington, a university teacher based in Japan, who, six months ago, co-set a
website for English learners called <a href="http://dreamreader.net/">DreamReader.net</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">After reading David's post, nosey me immediately
went to the website to see what it's like. It reminded me of another website I
like and use - <a href="http://www.newsinlevels.com/"><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">News in Levels</span></a> - so
I decided to experiment with it a bit in the following lesson. This was on Friday and it
was supposed to be a small class of only 10 students. Due to a flu epidemic, though, only 4 students finally
turned up for that particular lesson, so the conditions were much more
convenient for a language experiment I was up to. It turned out that four was actually a
perfect number (but I believe it could work well with larger classes too). So, I'd like to
tell you what I did with the website. Spoiler: it went really well. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My students were pre-intermediate language
learners aged 16 (3 boys and 1 girl). The lesson was in the morning and it was
45 minutes long. <span style="background: white;">There are five categories
on the site: Easy English, Interesting English, Fun English, Practical English
and Academic English. For starters, I chose Fun English. I selected two
audios which I thought everybody would be interested in:</span> <span style="background: white;"><a href="http://dreamreader.net/lesson/minecraft/"><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Minecraft </span></a>- a PC
game everybody knows and plays (or played in the past) and</span> <span style="background: white;"><a href="http://dreamreader.net/lesson/the-simpsons/"><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The Simpsons</span></a></span> <span style="background: white;">- an animated comedy TV show that is hugely popular
over here in the Czech Republic. My plan was to exploit the two short
texts to the full.</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white;">I projected the web page on
the screen. I gave students some brief background information about what I was
doing and why, we did some brainstorming, and I started with the first
recording. I played the audio and asked Ss to answer the four simple questions
that accompany the transcript (note: I had scrolled down the page so that Ss
could not see the transcript while listening). The questions are very easy to
answer; they serve as an introduction to the topic rather than as a
listening/reading comprehension exercise. This is only to the good because it
doesn't put too much stress on Ss during the first encounter with the text.
Then we checked the answers quickly as a class. I played the audio again; this
time I let the kids follow the transcript. After that we looked at some useful
expressions, especially collocations, and put them on the board. I removed the
text and got Ss to retell (in pairs) what it said, in their own words, using
the chunks on the board. I did the same with The Simpsons. </span><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white;">I moved on to the next
stage. I'm a big fan of Paul Nation's</span><span lang="EN-GB"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white;"><a href="http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam031/2001269892.pdf"><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Learning Vocabulary in Another
Language</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white;">and I
love using some of the activities he suggests in this thick volume. So I
projected the first text (Minecraft) on the screen again. I asked Ss to
work in pairs. One student was sitting so that he faced the screen, the
other one right opposite her partner. The one facing the screen was asked to
read the text in this way:</span><i><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></i><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="background: white;">Look at the text and remember as much as possible (the
amount doesn’t really matter – it can be two words up to a whole sentence).
Then look at you partner and reproduce the bit you've just memorised. Then look
at the screen again, memorise the next bit and tell your partner. Do the same
with the rest of the text. It doesn't matter if you only manage to memorise one
word but you must not look at the text and speak at the same time. You can only
speak when you are looking at your partner. It is best if you only manage to
move your eyes. Try not to move your head too much - it makes reading more
difficult. </span></i><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This activity is called read-and-look-up
and its value lies in the fact that the reader has to carry the words, phrases,
or even sentences in his mind. The connection is not from the text to mouth but
from text to brain, and then from brain to mouth (<a href="http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/about/staff/publications/paul-nation/1991-Dictation.pdf"><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">see this pdf for further info</span></a>). <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB">
The Ss then changed roles and worked the same way with the other text (The
Simpsons). The final stage was something that I'd never done before but that I'd always
wanted to try -</span><span lang="EN-GB"> </span><span lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/scic/what-is-conference-interpreting/simultaneous/index_en.htm"><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">simultaneous interpretation.</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB"> </span><span lang="EN-GB">I asked the Ss to work as a class (which was actually a group of 4).
The Ss were sitting in a circle, facing each other. I played the audio and
asked them to take turns to translate the speech as the audio played. I only paused
the audio when I wanted another student to take over. As the students were
already familiar with the text, it made things much easier for them. However, I believe
this technique helped them make more new brain connections because once again, they received language input which they had to retain in their memory for a short moment before letting it out - this time in their mother tongue. So it offered Ss an opportunity
to work with L1 in a meaningful way. Needless to say, it was fun! <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I believe I managed to exploit the two
short text/audios in a very effective way. Also, I gave my
students a useful tip for an online resource which they can explore and use on their own. I wish there were more handy websites like this one. Hats off to those who take the time to create them and offer them for free! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02407302558747461727noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8680957185682300749.post-3374601159773065962015-03-20T19:07:00.001+01:002015-03-20T19:19:52.969+01:00Behind the scenes <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHFKkDTAEkJONB91ULKFz5olchfMBXELKxztFfxQ7xZHepgQsYRff8-tPWgeWA0nMlgDTATfHUN8gAKW_LYdttiCYdXPOW4_FwIVFt3nr7VNEG2S4YzIwWRSgijxuxLCpliUrI4E3K00GT/s1600/IMG_0236.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz1_0Ex1WpQNNKFXyt1Kac3ZkycJESImrQYRpMkW9cFBiofB4vEIByiOex7EPVDtV0n5lcgMQbIOMFXKMjTV_t-aYGb0TWLQMmhTbkyT5hecvcqIeRQ5NA6mLN4JZ-w6siMybN6O1754cu/s1600/IMG_0273.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz1_0Ex1WpQNNKFXyt1Kac3ZkycJESImrQYRpMkW9cFBiofB4vEIByiOex7EPVDtV0n5lcgMQbIOMFXKMjTV_t-aYGb0TWLQMmhTbkyT5hecvcqIeRQ5NA6mLN4JZ-w6siMybN6O1754cu/s1600/IMG_0273.JPG" height="239" width="320" /></a><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The other day I posted a couple of photos to the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/eltpics/">#eltpics Facebook group</a>. I
had taken the pics during a workshop called Design Your Ideal Coursebook. From the images one can tell that it was a truly enjoyable experience and that doing workshops is great fun. Let's look behind the scenes, though. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At first I should confess that I originally wanted to write a different post - about how much trouble I had had planning this particular workshop. However, I eventually stopped </span></span>babbling about how desperate I felt and instead I decided to <span style="font-family: inherit;">wait and
see how the workshop actually turns out.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> The truth is, though, that this post is going to be a rant anyway.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here's the story: each year, a number of subject
teachers at our school are <strike>ordered </strike>asked to come up with an idea for a workshop. The summary
of the workshop is displayed on a huge board opposite the entrance
gate. Students then choose workshops, mostly based on the content, and sign up for them. However, I believe there are other criteria students consider when opting for a particular workshop, such as the teacher's popularity. Here comes the first flaw - there are more workshops than necessary and thus some of them end up being empty or with just a couple of
names on the list. The reader might object that this approach is fine because thus students have a greater choice of topics. The trouble is, though, that the teachers who didn't succeed in attracting a satisfactory number of students take it as a failure or blame themselves (or somebody else does so) for not having tried hard enough. </span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Anyway, I passed the
first checkpoint by managing to 'gain' 13 participants. They were a mixture of 12 and 13 year olds, and I knew they were a
creative and motivated bunch of English learners, so I was really happy. The empty workshops were finally cancelled and the teachers were asked to assist their colleagues.</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As I already mentioned above, it really worried me that until the last moment I didn't have a very detailed plan of what the
workshop should look like. I had a rough idea of what I wanted to do with the
students but there was no particular order, sequence or any sign of clear structure whatsoever. So I brainstormed in bed, took notes on the bus, drew doodles in the kitchen, created mind maps; I even used
the post-it notes technique Joanna Malefaki describes <a href="https://myeltrambles.wordpress.com/2015/03/15/paper-post-it-presentation/">in her post</a>. But I was
hopeless. It was not just one lesson or a double lesson,
or even a string of separate lessons </span></span>to be thought through<span style="font-family: inherit;">; the project had to be designed so that it covered a
period of five lessons in which I had to provide my students with content that
was interesting, engaging, cohesive, meaningful, and cross-curricular. Having
said that, you can imagine that teachers are not exactly over the moon when the
day finally comes. The preparation stage is time-consuming, and the overall experience is emotionally challenging. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The night before
the workshop I gave up. I had lots of random ideas, I knew how I would start
but I decided to leave the rest up to serendipity. In was in the title after
all: Design <i>your </i>ideal coursebook. How could I prepare every detail in advance?
It wouldn't have been <i>their </i>ideal coursebook if I had planned too much. I
know it sounds like an alibi but I just had to look at things rationally once I
felt lost. </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Needless to say, my creative gang were absolutely amazing and the
workshop went really well. In the morning we looked at some old coursebooks and
we discussed what was good and what was not so good. Later on we compared those
ancient publications with modern coursebooks and argued what had improved over
time. We also carried out a small survey outside the school, and analysed and
presented the results. Based on the discussions and the results of the survey
the students then agreed on the content and the title of their Ideal Coursebook.
I asked them to work in pairs - each pair was responsible for one unit of the
book – but they also had to keep the integrity of the book in mind and
cooperate as a team. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To cut it short, it
was a lovely morning and we had a great time but I shouldn't forget to mention
one more drawback. After the workshop finished, all the teams gathered in the
gym for the final presentation. Each team then presented the outcomes of their
learning in the form of posters, projects, role plays, etc. This was a great
show and lots of fun, except that there was a committee that was supposed to
vote for the best three presentations. In fact, you could spend all day
preparing for the five-minute presentation, and do nothing else, and your team
might well win the first prize. Or you could spend one hour working on a super poster
and then put your feet up on the wall and listen to a guided relaxation - and
your team might still win. Or your team could work non-stop and engage in lots
of interesting activities and then prepare a nice presentation but they may
still end up 'medal-less'. I ask: How can you assess the process only based on
the outcome? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCD0QAKQRldPbsybkT5O1AtU3PYodGWyWMbOjUdmYipIbqFrN_2OA3OfnJ6c2U3PL-O4uwgvjA8eTUdLZHChkdVQixINty08MCg-k7BJHSZUr6kjyQ4fAzesQ6wMG7QT56BxbX0pOs2k4I/s1600/IMG_0264.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCD0QAKQRldPbsybkT5O1AtU3PYodGWyWMbOjUdmYipIbqFrN_2OA3OfnJ6c2U3PL-O4uwgvjA8eTUdLZHChkdVQixINty08MCg-k7BJHSZUr6kjyQ4fAzesQ6wMG7QT56BxbX0pOs2k4I/s1600/IMG_0264.JPG" height="281" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">My colleagues and I had protested against this summative type of assessment of something
that should not be judged and measured this way before. How can you assess a biology
workshop alongside with a German language one anyway? Last year my team won and
the members were on cloud nine when they got some sweets, but I felt sorry for
the kids who had been working hard for the previous 4 hours and ended up
empty-handed. This year my team didn't win and again, I felt upset about the
fact that they had been judged and assessed this way. Why do I always feel the
bitter-sweet taste at the back of my tongue? </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> I would like to enjoy the experience to the fullest but somehow I can't ... </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02407302558747461727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8680957185682300749.post-41536335085145727282015-03-16T21:01:00.001+01:002015-03-16T21:06:55.748+01:00Using self-made videos in class<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I'd like to share a nice way of working with videos in the L2 classroom. You can obviously ask your students to watch a video on
YouTube, for example, but it's more creative, motivating and fun to make your
own video in class and work with it later on. So, last Thursday we recorded a role play
of a story called The Tailor of Swaffham we had previously read in the
coursebook. The kids I worked with were a group of 12-year-olds. We did a couple of rehearsals and in the end we shot the final
version, let’s call it Take 1, which was about 4 minutes long. I used my
low-tech Nokia phone so the quality of the video was not exactly stunning, but
it was OK for the purpose of the activity. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirEAcPsEDKMED00pSDMlKunZ60pxiOLkDUwf-LPm5p2eWhDkeAE6_cKPPTkNJieMzoOmvcbbUGOxc03rHuX7Cw9U7kwHMD4_VQiCeSnorc733UUzgRkCX6DyjrXPKF-IMkesKx0wT0WZt1/s1600/120320153632.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirEAcPsEDKMED00pSDMlKunZ60pxiOLkDUwf-LPm5p2eWhDkeAE6_cKPPTkNJieMzoOmvcbbUGOxc03rHuX7Cw9U7kwHMD4_VQiCeSnorc733UUzgRkCX6DyjrXPKF-IMkesKx0wT0WZt1/s1600/120320153632.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At home I uploaded the video to my private
YouTube channel. In the next lesson, I played the video back and I asked my students the following questions. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">1) What did you like about the video - the
acting, camera, sound, etc?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">2) Is there anything we should work
on? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The students came up with lots of
interesting ideas for improvement, such as: </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></div>
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<ul type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There were too many characters involved at the beginning of the play and
thus the scene looked crowded and messy. We should do something about the
arrangement. </span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We should speak up next time or we should get closer to the camera. Or
the camera should get closer to the actors. </span></span></li>
</ul>
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<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Although the sound was ok, sometimes it was difficult to understand - we should speak more slowly and clearly. </span></span></li>
</ul>
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<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Some actors made mistakes in pronunciation (<i>once upon a time, busy</i>)
- we should practise the lines, focusing on the difficult areas. </span></span></li>
</ul>
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<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To improve the sound, we should also reduce the background noise (bags
falling, kids whispering and giggling). </span></span></li>
</ul>
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<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The camera moved around too fast at times and thus the picture was blurred. </span></span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We put the points on the board one by one.
The discussion was obviously all in English (the language the kids used was a bit less complex though). The aim of the discussion was 1)
to practise specific language points and 2) to find as many ways of improving
our video as possible. We were planning to do Take 2 (which we finally did) and
we wanted to make it better than Take 1. So while recording the follow-up
version, we kept all the above mentioned problems in mind. Eventually, we felt that the
outcome was far better than the first version, but we’ll see when we watch Take 2 together next time we meet.
And as good things come in threes, I hope to do Take 3!</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02407302558747461727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8680957185682300749.post-90594934837966359352015-03-15T14:57:00.000+01:002015-03-15T14:57:11.522+01:00A little rant <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9jFKkCSZI_7ggrperVR7fue6FUWJ4qftP9ByhENDpf31v3xifWlDJhG-cOGFWl8raUvIf5j_XN3V27s6JvGtBTbUcYV-E4KoYiPU47oddzS711Mhd-hUH5qHlH6IK8yv7ImsqPFD3oFlK/s1600/wall.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9jFKkCSZI_7ggrperVR7fue6FUWJ4qftP9ByhENDpf31v3xifWlDJhG-cOGFWl8raUvIf5j_XN3V27s6JvGtBTbUcYV-E4KoYiPU47oddzS711Mhd-hUH5qHlH6IK8yv7ImsqPFD3oFlK/s1600/wall.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
It distresses me that by writing this post I might make some people annoyed. That's why I'd like to reassure the reader in advance that it is not my intention - this post is not aimed at specific people. Please, don't take any of this personally.<br />
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It's that I just noticed something. Maybe it's always been around and it's recently become salient for me, for god-knows-what reasons. Maybe it's actually me who takes things personally. The trouble is that everywhere I look I come across a mention or a plethora of mentions of a certain internationally recognised teaching qualification. I don't mean the type of posts or articles where the author looks at things with a critical eye and questions the current status quo. I'm talking about the type of discourse which people use to promote something they deem good. I'd like to stress that I can fully understand why teachers, who I respect and admire, are proud to have achieved this particular qualification. I'm convinced that the experience was challenging and beneficial. What bugs me then?<br />
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I remember I first heard of this highly rewarded qualification at the start of my MA programme a couple of years ago. During the introductory speech the DoS said in passing: "Yes, and by the way, I shouldn't forget to mention that your two-year intensive course leading to an MA degree will actually be less valued than the four-week X course." Although I was a little surprised by his rather <strike>cruel </strike>off-topic remark, I didn't actually care very much because I was thrilled to be taking part in a programme of my dreams, and nothing else mattered to me then. Anyway, I didn't even know what course he was talking about.<br />
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After my graduation, a brand new horizons opened for me; I met lots of wonderful people (my precious PLN) and I started learning from them. However, I also realised that the DoS was right. You know, I can't help feeling excluded at times. I mean, when I'm going through the topics of an upcoming ELT-related Twitter chat and see that one, or even two, of them are directly related to the highly rewarded teaching qualification, I can't but feel discouraged. How am I going to contribute to the discussion if the topic wins? I'll be automatically excluded. It would be similar to suggest a topic in which people would be asked to discuss the following question: <i>What are the benefits of using Headway? Why did I choose it and how do I work with it in class?</i> Pardon? I don't use Headway! How on earth can I discuss the topic? And are Headway users a special group?<br />
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This reminds me that I once came across a remark that you can never provide truly valuable feedback on an observed lesson unless you hold a certain certificate and not another. Wow. This has really stuck with me. At times it feels like there are two groups out there - the one which consists of the said certificate holders and the other one including those who did a different teaching qualification. It's Us and the Others.<br />
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I felt a similar controversy when people discussed what blog creation tool is best to use. The discussion eventually narrowed down to two tools. It's quite obvious that you can only say which of the two options is better if you try both of them. Otherwise you can only say what is good for you. If you like something, for whatever reason, you obviously tend to promote it and recommend it. This is absolutely fine. But once you start feeling that you are attracted to one option just because it's been chosen by the majority out there, you should become alert. Why do you feel like that?<br />
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My point is that any type of discourse can become inherently biased. Moreover, by promoting something we like as the only and the best option we may be actually promoting somebody's profitable business. And those owning the business must be rubbing their hands together. Because honestly, the things I've discussed in my post are profitable businesses and I believe that's how they should be looked at.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02407302558747461727noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8680957185682300749.post-68239974139704522882015-03-14T20:31:00.000+01:002015-03-14T20:31:01.203+01:00Collective feedback on written assignments<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtXOcVIYxIP8TBvoSRN_Dwb4wTWQLkIj-OqZECSP145Pq1sioThRXjAx1zFFDD7mQlmgX7ioj-WLnyHoLtBfDMJw8ZIzf52QI8bh-GobZJLQm-qYIIWHDy5OCmnGmSUxzoYDHz_rxoYLIh/s1600/271120143155.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtXOcVIYxIP8TBvoSRN_Dwb4wTWQLkIj-OqZECSP145Pq1sioThRXjAx1zFFDD7mQlmgX7ioj-WLnyHoLtBfDMJw8ZIzf52QI8bh-GobZJLQm-qYIIWHDy5OCmnGmSUxzoYDHz_rxoYLIh/s1600/271120143155.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
In this post I'd like to share one of my favourite ways of giving feedback on written assignments, which I've been practising for some time now and which has proved really useful and effective in my teaching context. I usually do this with intermediate classes but I believe it can work with lower levels too. This method is a classic one, nothing really revolutionary, plus no technology needs to be involved. However, I can't think of any reason why it couldn't become high-tech.<br />
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One of the questions that may pop up immediately is: <i>How do you know that the method is effective?</i> I can tell quite easily; students pay attention during the feedback presentation, and they constantly ask questions, make comments and ask for clarification. And although they are not able to avoid all the discussed errors in their next written assignment, I notice that they do eschew some. This, in my view, is hard evidence that the feedback hit the right note and that they have improved.<br />
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So what do I actually do? I teach classes of 10 up to 23 students. When I correct and grade their written assignments, I always create a 'collective feedback' report in which I have collected the most frequent mistakes the students made. This means that a mistake is recorded only if it's made by at least two students. I don't pay attention to individual or rare errors because pointing to them when giving feedback to the whole class would not be too effective and it would also become time-consuming. Moreover, although I never mention the names of the students who made particular errors, if I picked a unique error, the author might easily recognise it and feel exposed and subsequently embarrassed. It's just safer to refer to each error as something more people struggle with.<br />
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I should mention that one of the rare positives of teaching large classes is that the more numerous the class is, the more beneficial this type of feedback generally becomes, since in a class of 23 students, each student actually learns from 22 other people. This, quite obviously, wouldn't be possible if you teach one to one.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtQV1-jPokpxaQj-APLBEGKwKiYIz6EfCE9nHNpr-ESq60pqb6D6zSwstwRYLOBsdfpoonZmWqo6b3s8viRH0e6XDbB_HTV0LWYp1KRsGrYe8Oc5u8B4NfLq6rITmoYSnxXeE2V2W-52cs/s1600/V%C3%BDst%C5%99i%C5%BEek2.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtQV1-jPokpxaQj-APLBEGKwKiYIz6EfCE9nHNpr-ESq60pqb6D6zSwstwRYLOBsdfpoonZmWqo6b3s8viRH0e6XDbB_HTV0LWYp1KRsGrYe8Oc5u8B4NfLq6rITmoYSnxXeE2V2W-52cs/s1600/V%C3%BDst%C5%99i%C5%BEek2.PNG" height="320" width="241" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">An example of a collective feedback report, page 2</span></td></tr>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXfixdmQIxJ7c-xLwdFsYO0BktHF7A7j7j6vpzaiy1PdnQ7ukZvToKmOkop-iBYWI7UJ4MmOqKg2iOlRGxd9wH8MeQauDz_o8zB1lhKcl2bVJPtxJBmnogx4_5l1RUfNNLobuTENVSVcXr/s1600/V%C3%BDst%C5%99i%C5%BEek.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXfixdmQIxJ7c-xLwdFsYO0BktHF7A7j7j6vpzaiy1PdnQ7ukZvToKmOkop-iBYWI7UJ4MmOqKg2iOlRGxd9wH8MeQauDz_o8zB1lhKcl2bVJPtxJBmnogx4_5l1RUfNNLobuTENVSVcXr/s1600/V%C3%BDst%C5%99i%C5%BEek.PNG" height="320" width="267" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">An example of a collective feedback report, page 1</span></td></tr>
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Now, I should stress that it's absolutely necessary to give this type of feedback <b>before </b>handing out the corrected assignments; otherwise it would be a complete waste of time. Each student would stare at his/her own essay without paying much attention to what I say about the other errors. So, the psychological effect of handing out the assignments after the feedback conclusions are out is clear - students listen carefully in an attempt to spot their own errors among the plethora of incorrect language items produced by their peers. This is desirable because even if Student A didn't make the same mistake Student B made, this doesn't mean that Student B's error is not a potential area of difficulty for Student A. Also, during the feedback time, students are trying to figure out what mark they got by ticking off and counting the mistakes that are presumably theirs. This keeps them in suspense and when they finally get the assignments back, they are ready to accept the grade without feeling too disappointed. In other words, they get mentally prepared for the outcome, which may be less painful than if you just served an E straight away.<br />
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To sum up, I believe that this method is more cognitively challenging for your students than just giving out corrected essays with individual feedback reports on them. Also, it may be motivating for the weaker learners to see that they are not the only ones who make mistakes. There's another advantage to this approach; this kind of feedback is a great tool for monitoring the class's progress. You can always look back at the previous reports and see what some of the recurrent problems are. Having said that, it's highly beneficial to store all the reports, either digitally or in a paper file, because then you can compare class A with class B, for example, and see what your next steps should be in case you want to help your students make progress or avoid failure.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02407302558747461727noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8680957185682300749.post-22890846544563921722015-03-12T19:47:00.000+01:002015-03-13T08:38:18.789+01:00Just a tribute ... <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpzvA1woqLBAUmjUV507QruZY6mVD87PR71N-NiKWa9sE9wHkf_ZQ305VYPP3TwrK3tf4rEepHoPARnKy70MoB4wPfV85vMyZUxICNXnIphnybPsICEZOCmwbl-hzKI62rYqHaPGQpRLU_/s1600/130220153603.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpzvA1woqLBAUmjUV507QruZY6mVD87PR71N-NiKWa9sE9wHkf_ZQ305VYPP3TwrK3tf4rEepHoPARnKy70MoB4wPfV85vMyZUxICNXnIphnybPsICEZOCmwbl-hzKI62rYqHaPGQpRLU_/s1600/130220153603.jpg" height="224" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This post is about an English teacher who's never followed fashion trends but who's always been in. No, I'm obviously not
talking about clothes here on a blog that is mostly related to ELT stuff. I'm
describing the way this teacher teaches English. I've actually had an opportunity to observe
his methods over a long period of time. At first, he was my English
teacher at high school, later on he became my boss and my teacher trainer (though an
unofficial one), and now he prepares my son for the FCE exam. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-AU">Although I've
experienced a great deal of his teaching only vicariously, I can claim that he is one of the
most intuitive teachers I've ever met. When I was in his class as a student, I
didn't really pay attention to what he did as a teacher but still, some things
stuck in my mind. Already back then I noticed things other teachers didn't do.
For example, he had those small cards that he kept looking at throughout the
lesson. The cards were always the same - the same colour, the same size (about
10x15 cm), the same material, and I think they had thin, colourful lines on them. Back
then I thought of them as notes; in retrospect I realize that
they were actually concise <b>lesson plans</b>. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He made us learn
vocabulary systematically but in a meaningful way (in <b>chunks</b>, to use modern
terminology). Most importantly, he wanted us to absorb vocabulary in manageable doses. I was quite good at English so I obviously couldn't be
bothered to revise for vocabulary tests. When I got a B in a test though, I
felt aggravated and I protested wildly (not really) because I thought that it
was OK to use a<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Go with me</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>instead of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Come along with me</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(my goodness, I can't believe I still
remember this language point!). He, very patiently, said something along these
lines: "Your phrase is fine and you will be understood if you use it but
if you don't expand your vocabulary you'll soon get stuck." (on the
<b>intermediate plateau</b>, I should add now). <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One of his virtues
was impartiality. He was always fair to all students. I still remember an
argument I overheard during the final Maturita examination - one of the examiners was
questioning his decision concerning a student's score in the oral part of the exam.
She maintained that it was not fair to give Student X an A because she was
worse than Student Y, who had also got an A. My teacher tried to convince her though that it wasn't fair to compare those two students - Student Y was brilliant at English and
didn't have to try really hard to achieve such a high grade, but Student X made a lot of effort to succeed, even though she didn’t use such a great variety of
vocabulary items and grammar structures as Student Y. I was impressed with his
attempt at what now we might call <b>formative assessment</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Although he was a really serious
guy, and rather conservative, he wasn’t afraid to experiment now and then. For
example, he once made the whole class (of 32 students!) meditate. I still remember the beginning of the guided
relaxation: <i>Clasp your hands</i>. <i>Clasp </i>was one of the words that were new to me, and this technique helped me remember it instantly and for good. I suspect he
might have been researching some unusual methods and techniques, such as <b>Suggestopedia</b>,
or maybe it was just an activity he had come across somewhere and liked so much
that he decided to try it out with his students. One way or another, it
definitely spiced up the lesson. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When he later
became my boss, he gave me lots of valuable <b>feedback </b>on my lessons, which he occasionally came to <b>observe</b>, mainly at the start of my career. I admit that at that time I
considered the way he provided feedback a little patronizing. Now I realize it
was due to my inability to accept anything but positive feedback. However, many
years later, when he observed another lesson of mine, he said how much I had
developed as a teacher. I believe I managed to improve my teaching partly because I had followed his advice. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Another thing I
remember is that he would lend out <b>graded readers</b> and encourage his students to
read as much as possible outside regular classes. He asked me to do the same in
my lessons. I considered this a bit of a nuisance because the paper work, i.e. keeping track of who's borrowed/returned what, kept me from doing more
'important' stuff. Plus it drove me crazy when some of the books got lost.
However, he introduced the principles of <b>extensive reading</b> long before I fully
realized its benefits for <b>language learning/acquisition</b>. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-AU"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At the moment he's
helping my 16-year-old son to prepare for the FCE exam, so I can peek into his lessons
again, though just in the metaphorical sense of the word. Judging by what my
son tells me, I couldn't wish for a better teacher. When I look at the vocabulary lists he creates and photocopies for his students, I can't but think
of the <b>lexical approach</b>. Also, I like the fact that he doesn't hesitate to
reject an essay that I would normally deem acceptable in my teaching context.
His approach is good because it challenges students and makes them think
about possible ways of improving their writing skills. The truth is that he makes his students a
little upset too, but not too upset to become frustrated. He actually practises <b>Demand High</b>, and I dare say he does so absolutely intuitively and
naturally. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-AU">What
I most appreciate and admire about this particular teacher is the fact that
he's been consistent throughout his teaching career. He's been immune to all
the lures and fashionable trends, but he's always been able to pick what's good
for his students and I'm bound to say that his teaching has always been <b>learner-centred</b>.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02407302558747461727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8680957185682300749.post-53309718136235102352015-03-10T18:59:00.001+01:002015-03-10T19:32:21.168+01:00Dear Me with an educational twist<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<i style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-GB">What advice would I give to my younger teacher self?</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;"> This question was originally asked by
Joanna Malefaki in a new blog challenge she had invented and spread around the
blogosphere. It's similar to the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbqT_ubkT0Y">YouTube #DearMe challenge</a> but with
an educational twist. At the end of her</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><a href="https://myeltrambles.wordpress.com/2015/03/09/dearme-with-an-educational-twist/">post</a></span>, Joanna tagged a couple of educators, inviting them to follow in her footsteps. Apart from the fact that I was tagged too, I really
liked the idea, so I decided to give it a go. </span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Dear Me, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk9GthL5fV4ePf9W2lTMM0McrvhtYAQN5JEA6NeMVhWjhDrUfN1tguk8HCK1Lg615i9Xaeb_yBdWp54o3BxASAbZSwamqwXQqbYRrSoSMFLKYIzGvbB3i9Qw9jzNmZ5M5Nl8VJH7EYXc3L/s1600/HPIM1605.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk9GthL5fV4ePf9W2lTMM0McrvhtYAQN5JEA6NeMVhWjhDrUfN1tguk8HCK1Lg615i9Xaeb_yBdWp54o3BxASAbZSwamqwXQqbYRrSoSMFLKYIzGvbB3i9Qw9jzNmZ5M5Nl8VJH7EYXc3L/s1600/HPIM1605.jpg" height="320" width="237" /></a><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As you're reading this, somebody has
probably invented the time machine, which enables people to travel in time.
That's good because I can tell you a few things you might want to know. However,
if you're not interested in hearing what your future holds for you, burn this
letter straight away. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You might be surprised, Hana, that
although I like you, I'm not going to say that I want you to avoid the mistakes
I have made throughout my life. This is because I believe that mistakes are an
inevitable part of learning and life in general; and this is the first thing
I'd like you to remember - as a teacher as well as a human being. The mistakes
I have made have led me to where I am now; and I like the here and now. So,
don't be afraid to step into the same river twice if you feel you want to. But
if you suspect it would hurt too much, don't. Just follow your intuition. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I remember that when I was your age, the
only thing I wished for was perfection - in all areas of life. Does that sound
familiar to you? I don't mean to be cruel but you should know that there's no
such thing as perfection - there's only frustration which springs from the
desire for perfection. Save your energy for something more worthwhile, such as
your pursuit of happiness. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">On a more professional note, I imagine
that as a teacher you strongly believe in a purely communicative approach (in
case you’re not sure what it is, it<span style="background: white;"> is
an </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language-teaching_approach" title="Language-teaching approach"><span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">approach</span></a><span style="background: white;"> to </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_teaching" title="Language teaching"><span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">language teaching</span></a><span style="background: white;"> that
emphasizes </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interaction" title="Interaction"><span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">interaction</span></a><span style="background: white;"> as both the means and the ultimate goal of
study).</span> I've just found the definition on Wikipedia - a
virtual place you'll learn about at some point in the future). Anyway, the
principles of the communicative approach are what they implicitly taught you at
university. I just want to point out that although mistakes are natural, they
shouldn't be neglected or overlooked by the teacher. Your teaching won’t be
less communicative if you correct your students' persistent errors. On the contrary, your well-timed intervention will
prevent their errors from fossilizing. Oh, I've just realized you've never
heard the term fossilization in relation to language learning, so go and google
it. Oh, sorry, I forgot that you haven’t got a computer, let alone Google. So
you might need to go to the library and look for something written by Michael
Swan, for example. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You completed your BA studies back in 1995
and then, right in the middle of your MA programme, you suddenly realized you desperately wanted a baby.
At first you thought you would resume your studies right after Tom got a little
older, but in reality, you never did. I know this makes you feel a bit
frustrated now and the truth is that most people, even your husband and your parents, think it's
a pity you didn't finish what you had started. I have to tell you that although
you will feel the pain of guilt for almost ten more years, you needn't worry; one day you'll realize that what you did was the best
thing ever. And you'll finally get an MA - at a much better time - and this will take you
to places (mostly virtual ones) you've never dreamed of. Plus you'll meet
people you would never meet if you had stuck to your original plans. But you'll
truly believe this much later in your life. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Although most people think you're pretty confident, I know
you're not. Your students ask you lots of questions which you don't know answers to. By
the way, why do you think you should know all the answers? As I already said,
there's no such thing as perfection. Do you realize that sometimes you even try to hide your
vulnerability and a lack of confidence behind a veil of arrogance? Don't do
it, dear. S</span></span>ooner or later p<span style="font-family: inherit;">eople will detect this vice of yours. And stop wasting
your time looking for tons of teaching resources and exploit what you have at
your disposal instead. Don't you know that less is more?</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Obviously, there will be times of hopelessness and
despair. But this will never be a permanent state. You should remember, however,
that the worst enemy of your happiness and personal growth is stagnation. So
don't be afraid to burn the bridges behind you and learn to say NO. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Love,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Your Older Teacher Self <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now, I’m
tagging three of my favourite people I would have never met had I stuck to the original plans of my younger teacher self :-) </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">@ZhenyaDnipro</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">@ Ven_VVE</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">@ AnneHendler</span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02407302558747461727noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8680957185682300749.post-68384925803503388092015-03-08T10:42:00.002+01:002015-03-08T10:53:19.831+01:00Snippets from a conference<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-ICWnwURQObPYmAFQ2-qxaFDkO7h6-bAd92u9KOjcCKqe7MetnWrh7SbkhNRTYI5oipfmFSw_Rl0eP4swIB1bJm2NTwJMHgB1PnfJMPVDc-9zHZ3C98yt6-Vo_hefUhQX_gGe9Y0L0B-Y/s1600/070320153626.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-ICWnwURQObPYmAFQ2-qxaFDkO7h6-bAd92u9KOjcCKqe7MetnWrh7SbkhNRTYI5oipfmFSw_Rl0eP4swIB1bJm2NTwJMHgB1PnfJMPVDc-9zHZ3C98yt6-Vo_hefUhQX_gGe9Y0L0B-Y/s1600/070320153626.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My regular readers might have
noticed that I write a lot about <a href="http://how-i-see-it-now.blogspot.cz/2014/11/the-insights-of-regular-conference-goer.html">conferences </a>here on my blog. So they won't be surprised that I've come up with another post related to the topic. Yesterday I
went to Brno to attend the annual spring<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.ilcbrno.cz/">ILC IH</a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>conference.
I took part in four workshops, had some interesting conversations with some
interesting people, and learned some interesting things, some of which are not necessarily related
to English teaching. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">First thing in the
morning I attended <a href="https://twitter.com/Shaunwilden">Shaun Wilden's</a> workshop. When I learned on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/269119403185068/">Facebook </a>that
Shaun was going to present in Brno, I was really thrilled to meet him (primarily out of curiosity, to be honest) and I was a bit doubtful too. Do they really mean that Shaun, one of the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/eltchat">Twitter</a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/eltchat/">#eltchat</a> moderators? Are they talking about the Shaun
who's currently based in Oxford? Oxford is not exactly nearby, you know. Anyway,
it's always lovely to get the opportunity to meet the people you only know from the online environment. To me, shaking hands with them is the ultimate proof of their existence.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here are some random things
I learned about Shaun: 1) Although I would have probably recognized his face
immediately, had I bumped into him incidentally anywhere in the world,
in reality, he's much taller than I had expected. By the way, this stature thing is
intriguing. I know, for example, that <a href="https://twitter.com/michaelegriffin">Mike Griffin</a> is very tall too; in all the
photos I've seen online there was nobody taller than Mike. I know this proves
nothing (maybe Mike chooses short people to stand next to him when posing for the camera because he wants
to look tall - Tom Cruise allegedly does that after all). Nevertheless, I infer
that Mike is the tallest guy I know. But Shaun's body height is also impressing.
2) And he speaks very loudly. Well, I reckon this might be related to the
height issue. Anyway, I suppose his commanding presence must prevent all naughty
students from doing the things Shaun doesn't want them to do and make them do
what he wants them to do. 3) Finally, he loves playing mobile games - and he
plays them all the time. You rarely see him not constantly tapping an electronic
gadget. Now that I think about it, he would probably get into serious trouble
if he were my student (not sure whether I'd find the courage to tell him off though). By the way, mobile devices in ELT were the topic of his
workshop, which I really enjoyed. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As I said, I attended three
more workshops and I was pleasantly surprised by several things. For example,
they were all totally different from one another. This only proves how beautifully diverse
teaching is and may be. In one of the four workshops, technology was not talked about
and it wasn't even used (not even a projector). Nevertheless, I loved the calm and intimate atmosphere and I learned some
really handy tips there. In another workshop, technology was only touched upon
briefly during the warm-up activity (the participants were asked to take out
their mobile phones and look at the latest text messages), but overall the topic
didn’t revolve around technology, even though it was not explicitly excluded as
an option for presenting and practising language. In one of the four workshops, technology was used by the presenter, but it was not the subject of
the talk either. Finally, as already mentioned above, in Shaun’s workshop,
technology was used by the presenter as well as the participants, and it was also discussed
profoundly. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I was pleased to see that in one of
the workshops (the technology-free one), the trainer demonstrated a classic ICQ. I liked the way she used it quite naturally to make sure we knew what to do. As I'm currently looking into <a href="http://how-i-see-it-now.blogspot.cz/2015/03/ccqs-and-icqs-mental-exercise.html">the topic of ICQs</a>, I immediately
knew what she was up to and was the first one to react to her seemingly
redundant question (feeling proud of myself). Once again I realized how important ICQs are for the students as well as the teacher. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Apart from recognizing
some familiar faces in the audiences, which is always a positive aspect to social events of any kind, I met lots of new people. For example, I
had a chat with a young woman, a student studying the same teaching programme at
university I completed a couple of years ago. She knows the same teacher
trainers and so we had a lot to talk about. Plus I love listening to young people sharing their future plans and dreams related to teaching. I also met a girl who teaches Czech to
foreigners. This impressed me because I think it must be really
difficult. Thus I asked her lots of questions and learned about a <a href="http://www.czechstepbystep.cz/en/otazky.html">coursebook</a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>which I can recommend in case somebody
asks me about some useful resources for teaching Czech. I also talked to a lady from
Great Britain - a former pre-school teacher, now retired - who came to the
Czech Republic to visit her son - a teacher trainer based in Brno. I met her in
one of the workshops and it was great to collaborate and chat with her. She was really
enthusiastic and in awe of all the wonderful teaching ideas the presenters were
talking about. She regretted that she hadn't known these tips back when she was
teaching. I was impressed by her purely intrinsic motivation and interest in something she may never need. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDiuSfpQ1kFdUkbbUAyMiGZKIc7EaYZXz0oQH577f8amlTFpBnal0-n27esb7wIgHXbcWLwbq6JmBV-zB1k8rr6wwxkBGH3fZWK_8BAHzJhgSMevnla1hqsO-xT72diak3MAI0MIGgrXnH/s1600/070320153627.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDiuSfpQ1kFdUkbbUAyMiGZKIc7EaYZXz0oQH577f8amlTFpBnal0-n27esb7wIgHXbcWLwbq6JmBV-zB1k8rr6wwxkBGH3fZWK_8BAHzJhgSMevnla1hqsO-xT72diak3MAI0MIGgrXnH/s1600/070320153627.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, </span></span>on my way back home, <span style="font-family: inherit;">feeling totally exhausted but happy, carrying a heavy bag full of books and materials I had got for free at the conference, I already made plans for the next conference. </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02407302558747461727noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8680957185682300749.post-2361281242828279052015-03-06T17:41:00.002+01:002015-03-06T17:44:22.987+01:00CCQs and ICQs - a mental exercise<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihCocOwYr-tVdVskZgQvHM71GvDljag2fYxXOP3h8Y7BaizSDvoBrjDj6lOIHUu9H5eNIclE7eG7qRU3cXOKEd9MsCo1VDmtqRoznoQ51ycTyiQuk5X85B3I-JDgDXLFJQnkxGihXDL9Hi/s1600/120220153588.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihCocOwYr-tVdVskZgQvHM71GvDljag2fYxXOP3h8Y7BaizSDvoBrjDj6lOIHUu9H5eNIclE7eG7qRU3cXOKEd9MsCo1VDmtqRoznoQ51ycTyiQuk5X85B3I-JDgDXLFJQnkxGihXDL9Hi/s1600/120220153588.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I've recently caught myself asking
a lot of CCQs (<a href="http://marisaconstantinides.edublogs.org/2010/10/04/what-about-your-concept-questions-the-famous-ccqs/comment-page-1/#.VPce_PmG9Pc">concept
checking questions</a>). Maybe I don't use them more often than I did but I definitely focus my attention on the way I explain things and give instructions, and on how my explanations and instructions are accepted. </span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the TEFL jargon, CCQs are the questions teachers
ask to find out if their students understood a vocabulary item, for example. Apart from CCQs, there are also ICQs (<a href="http://efl-resource.com/icqs-making-sure-your-students-know-what-to-do/">instruction
checking questions</a>), which, as the concept implies, are the questions
teachers ask to discover if their students know what to do.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The problem my
students generally have is not a lack of understanding, though. I normally ask
ICQs for a different reason and that is whenever I suspect that my students are not paying attention. This lack of concentration on their part then results in disturbing others, or even worse, in struggling to complete the task.
I should stress that the kids I teach are quite smart and it's not necessary to ask millions
of ridiculous ICQs every time I assign a task, but as they can get terribly inattentive at times, a well-formed question actually serves as a means of drawing their attention
back to the task.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The situation gets worse whenever I ask the kids to open their coursebooks and
complete an exercise. No matter how engaged they were in the previous activity, it's suddenly as if I told them to switch off. This simply drives
me crazy and I often find it more effective to remain silent and just write the
number of the page/exercise on the board and keep pointing to it until everybody is looking
at me. But even if I make my students finally open the books on the
corresponding page, they switch off again. There's no point in repeating the instructions
over and over again - some kids wouldn't listen anyway. What helps is to ask one of the students to read the instructions, or even better - to
ask an ICQ.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I believe ICQs are vital before listening exercises or any type of task where students are limited by time or where they don't get another chance to try again. Students need to be 100%
alert when the listening starts since they don't have too much time to orient
themselves whilst listening. Thus understanding the following instructions, for example, is important for completing the task successfully. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span lang="EN-GB">a)
You'll hear three speakers talking about their travelling experience. Match the
opinions (a-f) to the speakers (1-3). </span></i><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span lang="EN-GB">b)
You'll hear five short dialogues. Match the situations (1-7) to the dialogues
(a-f). There are two situations you don't need.</span></i><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now, what most
students see is numbers and letters they are required to match in some way. The
problem is that they normally keep chatting about random stuff (related to the previous activity) until I start
playing the listening - the sound of the recording eventually stops the chatter - so they have no time to thoroughly process
the information. This is the moment when I need to draw their attention to the
task by asking an ICQ. I usually ask the least attentive/the weakest student
because it provides more time for everybody to start concentrating again. I ask
something along these lines:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span lang="EN-GB">a) T: There are three speakers and six opinions. What does it mean? What do you have
to do now? - S: (Silence) I'll use two opinions for each speaker. - T: Exactly. Thanks.</span></i></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span lang="EN-GB">b) T: There
are five dialogues and seven situations. What does it mean? What will you do? - (Student pondering for a while). S: I don't need to use two of the situations.- T: Perfect. Thank you. </span></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I really feel
good about asking ICQs if they naturally emerge during the lesson. It rarely occurs to me to prepare them beforehand, but I believe it might be helpful, particularly for less experienced teachers. I actually find ICQs even more helpful than the instructions
themselves; I'd say it's more efficient to ask and elicit rather than tell people what to do. Also, the
open-your-coursebook command is not exactly attractive and it is so frequent that </span></span>sooner or later <span style="font-family: inherit;">students start ignoring it. So, based on my experience, it makes a huge difference if you change instructions into a mental exercise and make students think right from the start. </span>Finally, ICQs can be a sort of a natural switch from one phase of the lesson to another.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02407302558747461727noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8680957185682300749.post-59607902327995597982015-03-04T09:18:00.001+01:002015-03-04T09:18:25.501+01:00On pleasure and happiness<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXnDTua3TzdV1jcnMpKjwkWM0CRCxlAlvUObnxXZRzC4DD9D1L_0bF9qmHy8-V1XxNXh68-RmEffucsV67LeEH8Ba1ay_eog7E8yBSsxGdiDnqKIzdglIfZWkkmvTmasLEe0RUcaAmK29x/s1600/051020142825.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXnDTua3TzdV1jcnMpKjwkWM0CRCxlAlvUObnxXZRzC4DD9D1L_0bF9qmHy8-V1XxNXh68-RmEffucsV67LeEH8Ba1ay_eog7E8yBSsxGdiDnqKIzdglIfZWkkmvTmasLEe0RUcaAmK29x/s1600/051020142825.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">There are times
when teaching goes really well. My students are motivated and enthusiastic.
They diligently complete all the tasks I designed for them, and they appreciate
my creative ideas. The truth is that most of this just happens and I have little control
over the situation. The positive simply occurs and it makes me feel happy. Deep inside I wish I could experience the intoxicating feelings of success every
day but .... </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">.... there are times
when teaching sucks. My students are tired and they look bored. They refuse to
do the tasks I ask them to do and they explicitly show their reluctance. Again,
I have little control over this. Negativity comes uninvited, no matter how much I have prepared
for the lesson or how desperately I try to change the situation on
the spot. My plans fall through, which makes me feel sad and frustrated. I hate the painful feelings that accompany failure, and I secretly wish I could avoid them completely. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And there are times
when teaching doesn't go really well. My students don't respond to my questions
and, overall, they are terribly passive throughout the lesson. Sometimes they
even say things which I’d rather not hear. However, this doesn't get me down.
Somehow, I can handle the lifeless atmosphere easily and my students' negative
frame of mind is not a problem. This is a scenario I neither like nor dislike.
It happens and although it seems I have no control over the situation, I
actually do. The control comes within. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The first situation above is what most people (and teachers) would call sheer happiness. The teacher is
excited because things are going according to plan. However, in the <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38210.The_Art_of_Happiness">book </a>I'm currently reading, Dalai Lama calls this state of mind pleasure, not
happiness, because he distinguishes between pleasures that depend on the
circumstances and genuine happiness, a state of mind that endures life's ups
and downs. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Having said that,
the first situation can never last for long because our happiness is dependent
on external sources - our students' state of mind, the equipment we use, the
weather, etc. In other words, this kind of happiness will inevitably lead to
unhappiness (or emptiness) because our students are not the same every day and the
circumstances vary from minute to minute. On the other hand, unhappiness won't last
forever either. A</span></span>t first sight, t<span style="font-family: inherit;">his sounds like good news, but going through an
unhappy state of mind is rarely pleasant. We may try to convince ourselves that
this period is only temporary, but who wants to feel pain? </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So the third state of mind seems to be the one we should strive for. Regardless of what happens
outside us, we should stay detached. I believe it's important not to take things
personally because our students' intention is
not to make us feel unhappy. Although they do bug us at times, I dare say they do
so quite unintentionally, and the only thing they crave, like all human beings, is happiness. It means then that it's not them who actually make us
feel all the negative emotions; it is us, the teachers, who are to blame for the way we feel. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Dalai Lama says that real happiness is
determined more by the state of one's mind than by circumstances or events. Now, logically, if you can't change your students and the circumstances, you need to
change yourself. Wouldn't it be liberating to find the source of happiness that
would be absolutely independent of external conditions? Wouldn't it be
wonderful to be able to train one's mind for happiness? Wouldn't it be fabulous
if this type of training was a compulsory part of teacher training courses? Imagine how
amazing each lesson could be! Imagine how genuinely happy ours students would
eventually be! :-) <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02407302558747461727noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8680957185682300749.post-17575811745283780842015-02-25T17:53:00.001+01:002015-02-25T17:53:03.162+01:00The precious moments of team spirit<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxYwWc7ezq3nWWHgr13Y9LLFs8ohMMJaE3ulkRwT0KBWJe2M_zvIcCR97qgSgTrZZ8VnrECUhvBJfmcE_I8XpBPGwqYqWIXN7AcywyeY4f1hJ764YwFKSVCSUG_22QRT1PQ-5KVGHvM-oU/s1600/041220143162.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxYwWc7ezq3nWWHgr13Y9LLFs8ohMMJaE3ulkRwT0KBWJe2M_zvIcCR97qgSgTrZZ8VnrECUhvBJfmcE_I8XpBPGwqYqWIXN7AcywyeY4f1hJ764YwFKSVCSUG_22QRT1PQ-5KVGHvM-oU/s1600/041220143162.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Earlier today I experienced a lesson
which left me with a feeling of deep professional satisfaction. Let me share some of the moments here on my blog.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I singularly
taught a double lesson (90 minutes altogether), which meant plenty of time to
do stuff I don't normally do. Plus I decided to set up
group work which was not part of my original plan. Not that group work is
something extraordinary or unusual in my teaching, but for the sake of effectiveness, when
grouping my students, I usually ask one pair to quickly join another pair (quite obviously the nearest
one). This only requires little movement and almost no changes to the seating
arrangement. This technique has proved quite effective over time, particularly with larger
classes. However, today, with all the extra time on my hands, I approached group work a bit differently. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There were 21
students present - 2 were missing. I quickly estimated that I needed to make 5
groups: 4 groups of 4 and one group of 5. I chose five kids who I knew are
really motivated language learners, as well as good writers. Then I asked the appointed 'leaders' to choose kids they'd like to work
with. This is not always feasible but I felt I could afford to give the kids some freedom (the time factor again). There is a little psychological drawback to this approach though; the last kids that remain to be chosen may feel sad. However, if a grouping technique
like this is done sporadically, it doesn't do any harm to the overall
atmosphere. To the contrary, it reveals a lot about the class dynamics, which can
be quite useful for the teacher in the long term perspective. I should point to the fact that I'm the homeroom teacher of this particular class and this type of information is very important for me. Next time I'll be able to work with the data I collected in today's lesson; for example, I may appoint the former 'outsiders'
as the leaders and see how it works. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As I said, the
leaders I chose today are quite responsible language learners, and I noticed that
they tried to select the team players very carefully; apparently they tended to
avoid some of the notorious spoilsports. This part of group making went really
well and nobody made any obstructions, which, inevitably, sometimes happens in a
class of 14-year-olds. When the kids finally settled down, I set up a writing activity
where the strongest student was in charge of recording the story, while the
other members had to help and participate actively in the writing
process. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I was surprised
how well they all worked during this stage. I walked around the class monitoring,
making sure that even the weakest students were contributing in some way. I
noticed that the writers sometimes changed the wording of a sentence other
members of the group had come up with, which was beneficial because it helped
the weaker students learn some new words and structures, and it made them
become aware of some of the mistakes which were made along the way. In
addition, the strongest students were motivated since they had the right to
change things if they felt it was to the good. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Again, while
monitoring, I didn't catch anybody arguing or mocking others, and it seemed
nobody felt offended or even bored. Later on, during the presentation stage,
everybody seemed involved too. I had asked the team to choose one member (it could
be anybody but the writer) to present the story to the class. The rest of the
team had an important job to do during the presentation; they made background sounds such as barking, knocking, shouting, blowing, coughing, etc. (note: the story had originally been presented as a
story in sounds, and after the listening stage and subsequent language work, the
students’ task was to reconstruct the story into the said verbal version). At this point I concentrated on the weakest students to check if they knew where to make a particular sound. As there were lots of new vocabulary items, being able to make the right sound at the right time meant that the listeners understood the reader and that they had collaborated actively during the writing process. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As you can see, I didn't do anything special in today's lesson, and I'm sure that you teachers have done something similar many times in your life. So have I after all. Sometimes it worked; sometimes it was a complete mess. But today it just worked the way it should. Overall, it was a quick and effective activity, and I believe everybody took away something new. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02407302558747461727noreply@blogger.com0