What lies beneath..

Action research underpinning our content for learners and teachers (and what you could do differently in the classroom)
http://esol.britishcouncil.org

Workshop Content
o Introduction to the ESOL Nexus project o Interactive content for learners o Five examples of activities underpinned by action research o Implications for classroom practice o Other project resources o Forthcoming content and new ideas

Starter for 10
Read the statements on the handout and decide whether they are true about your classroom practice or not.
Discuss with a partner

The ESOL Nexus project

The project is funded by the European Fund for the integration of third country nationals (EIF) Our main aim is to support ESOL learners and teachers via webbased resources

The ESOL Nexus project

Three key aspects of the project: o The website o Pilot centres and link teachers o ESOL resource specialists

Interactive content for learners

http://esol.britishcouncil.org the learner homepage Speak, Listen and watch, Read, Write, Grammar and
vocabulary, English for work, UK life Activities are self-access and include sound and video Learners can rate activities and comment on them

Interactive activities
Activities are created using the Authorable Exercise Tool (AET) in-house software tool designed to create a range of activities drag and drop, true-false, multiple choice and others.

Our approach
To model good practice in designing resources for ESOL learners and also..
to do something different (and better) to take account of what is known to support language development (action research)

Listening (Dictations)
Dictations are useful because: They foster unconscious thinking They are good for differentiation They are safe for the non-native speaker teacher For English, they are a technically useful exercise And in the classroom: They keep all the learners active They are good for large groups They can lead to oral communication exercises
Rinvolucri and Morgan () Dictations new methods, new possibilities

Listening (dictations)
Example Try the gap-fill dictation activity

Compare your answers with a partner How could you use this activity in class? How could you differentiate to allow for differing levels? What oral practice could the activity lead to?

Listening (lexical segmentation)

Why do learners misunderstand words they hear? Learner cant tell the difference between two similarsounding words: e.g. wont and want Learner might know the word in writing but not recognise the spoken form e.g. vegetable Learner might overlook the syntactic implications of a phoneme, e.g. Ive lived
Field, J (2003) Promoting perception lexical segmentation in L2 listening (ELTJ Volume 57/4 OUP)

Listening (lexical segmentation)

Once identified, areas of difficulty can be tackled by simple, 5 minute exercises these might be remedial or they might anticipate problems of listening before they occur.
Field, J (2003) Promoting perception lexical segmentation in L2 listening (ELTJ Volume 57/4 OUP)

Listening (lexical segmentation)

What sort of activities help learners to develop lexical segmentation strategies? Here is one: One technique is to dictate ambiguous sentences, then to disambiguate them by adding additional words
Field, J (2003) Promoting perception lexical segmentation in L2 listening (ELTJ Volume 57/4 OUP)

Can you think of any more?

Listening (lexical segmentation)

Some other ideas: Word-counting Word identification Focussing on stressed syllables Working on weak forms Spotting assimiliation

Listening lexical segmentation

Example

Reading (repeated reading and reading aloud)

The approaches: Repeated reading:
Repeated reading is a group or individual activity where learners read a text with a fluent reader, and then re-read the text alone until they can read it as fast as the fluent reader did. It has also been shown that repeated reading of a text against the clock improves both reading speed and comprehension.

Reading (repeated reading and reading aloud)

Reading aloud: Reading aloud can be a useful tool in the classroom, particularly for practising some aspects of pronunciation and sound-symbol relationships if: the text being read is genuinely something that someone would read aloud. The purpose of the activity is clear, e.g. to practise pronunciation/intonation (not comprehension)

Reading (Repeated reading and reading aloud)

The effects on their learners overall were judged to be
very positive with regard to their enjoyment and engagement in class, their confidence and their ability to work independently. Two teachers thought that learners ability to read with fluency and expression, and reading more widely/for pleasure were unaffected; the others saw improvement. All but one considered that the strategy had an effect on comprehension.
Burton, M (2007) Oral reading fluency for adults, NRDC

Reading (repeated reading and reading aloud)

Some classroom activities:

Paired reading Choral reading Repeated reading Echo reading Performance reading

Reading (repeated reading and reading aloud)

Repeated reading example Reading aloud - example

Speaking (Task repetition)

The idea of task repetition is a key aspect of the taskbased learning approach. A typical task sequence: Priming Preparation Target task Review/focus on form Target task

Speaking (Task repetition)

The advantages of repeating tasks are many and varied. There is a fair amount of research (Ellis 2003, Lynch and Maclean 2001, Essig 2005, Pinter 2006) to show that getting learners to repeat the same task but with different partners results in a richer use of vocabulary and a higher degree of accuracy and grammatical complexity.
Willis, D and Willis, J (2007) Doing Task-based teaching OUP

Speaking (task repetition)

Example

Ender for 10
Go back to the statements on the handout. Will you do
anything differently in the classroom after what youve heard? Discuss with a partner