Use of technology in English Language Learning

by Pushpa Dixit

Technology Aids for English-Language Learners:

A growing number of software programs and Web tools help educators teach academic English. Students work under an encouraging computer lab or language lab. They learn along with brightly colored posters and an impressive array of computers, projector, digital cameras, scanners, and printers, sets a vibrant scene. But it’s the students who bring character and action to the fore with their laughter, curiosity, and multimedia productions. An array of technology helps engage students and provides the structured one-on-one English practice they need. Computers should be provided in every classroom, and they should use the computer lab for their English Language Learning purpose.

Computers are most popular among students either because they are associated with fun and games or because they are considered to be fashionable. Student motivation is therefore increased, especially whenever a variety of activities are offered, which make them feel more independent. Imagine a language classroom where both students and teacher use technology effortlessly and naturally, integrating its multiple elements of learning and interaction-a classroom where students weave their learning into various studies and formats, reaching into spheres of knowledge previously it was unavailable. Imagine that you are that teacher, facilitating and scaffolding learning through the components of technology integration, leading your students into areas of inquiry that invite collaboration, cooperation, and construction of knowledge. Your daily lesson plans still aim for understanding, but in new and exciting ways, challenging students and teacher alike, supported by technology-infused learning. Your students might connect with students from another country–discovering, sharing, and communicating current issues in order to publish a collaborative news story online. They would conduct research in new ways-through virtual chat rooms, Web resources, online discussions with experts, and tele-collaboration with peers. In fact, the concept of “school” and “college’ become much more expansive, extending into other areas where networked learning is accessible. Students will be able to learn with assistance from online – tutors, from electronic dialogue journals with their peers, and from experiencing real-world situations. Teachers will be able to accommodate individual learning styles through use of different technology-enhanced learning modules. And, finally, assessment and evaluation will take on new meaning, addressed in part by technology’s ability to meet different learners’ needs. To some, this vision might be perceived as a bold, unattainable aspiration, full of uncertainties and complexities, destined for failure. But, if one believes that learning with technology has potential for greatness and is a precursor of the future, then these scenarios should become our goals. Time may prove our vision is true or false, but one thing is clear: The Pandora’s box of information technology has been opened. We cannot close it again and make our society or our schools and colleges the same as they were before.

One of the most promising uses of technology in education involves teachers helping students actively engage in learning. One can encompass many objectives, driven by the desire and need to help English teachers effectively integrate technology into the curriculum. However, the objective should be- to provide English teachers with examples, ideas, and a conceptual framework for integrating technology within the four basic skills for English Language Learning -reading, writing, listening, and speaking -through an online resource guide of lesson plans.

By demonstrating ways to integrate technology in everyday language learning curriculum through organizing instructional ideas by the four basic skills of language teaching/learning, teachers might be better equipped to understand, modify, and use technology in their own classroom. For example, telecommunications could be used for peer editing (writing), for use in literature circles (reading), or in discussions with an author (speaking and listening). Students who have difficulty in understanding text can be aided by technology’s ability to offer learning in multiple formats. They can access multimedia resources, for instance, in real-time through the Internet or stand-alone software, can get definitions of specialized vocabulary, link to other textual references, get additional background information, and listen to pronunciations of unknown words. These are just a few examples of how language teachers could use technology-integration models to enliven and increase learning. Through planning and teaching with technology, teachers will simply gain more knowledge, confidence, and expertise in the field, possibly acting as mentors and tutors to other teachers, spreading the excitement of technology-enhanced learning.

Language Learning

* Honing Skills by Integration of Technology:

Online tools and other technologies help students hone basic language skills they can later apply in authentic social settings. The students spend most of their day listening and not interacting with the language as much. But technology mixes things up, captures students’ attention, and engages them in a way traditional classroom instruction doesn’t. Students go to the computer lab and make PowerPoint presentations and write a lot of letters and essays. They like writing on the computer better than writing with a pencil. A multimedia reading program that helps students develop English fluency is one of the programs they use in the lab. Another application is language-learning software, which helps those associate images with English words and sentence structures to build their vocabulary. It’s really great, because it’s geared to individual students. The idea is that they are always being challenged.

Designing effective lesson plans using the Internet helps students explore ideas, acquire and synthesize information, and frame and solve problems. Internet projects provide students with opportunities to become more creative problem-solvers through understanding inter-relationships and experiencing real-life situations. Also, increasing the possibilities for tele-collaboration enables students to learn more about worlds beyond their physical spheres, further expanding their understandings and horizons.

1. Writing Skill – Publishing online:

One way to increase interest within and among students is to make writing authentic. And now, teachers have multiple ways to create and encourage writing with an audience in mind-through the vastly expanding technologies of the Internet. Students can experience the thrill of seeing their words made public, with the increasing popularity of online publishing and web pages. The writing process, when it is experienced online, has a new dimension, a distinct interactive quality. Research shows that using computers to write and publish is highly valuable, identifying levels of skills and ability. Writing skill is also improved by integrating computers and it makes a difference. It is seen  that the students who used computers for writing at least once or twice a month had higher average writing scale scores than those who reported never or hardly ever using computers for this purpose. It also infers that publishing one’s writing is correlated with higher performance level of writing. Researchers found that students whose teachers asked them to define purpose and audience once or twice a month outperformed their peers whose teacher never or hardly ever asked them to do so. The difference what the students found is expressed in the comment of one of these students.

“The difference I feel when I am writing for the Internet is that you know everyone is going to see it-not just the teacher. I try to use stronger words. I try to be more careful in how I say things. You know that it will be seen by everybody. I say things in different ways than I would in something that was just going to be a grade. Something tells you that this has to be good, so I try to put more thought into it.”

Through this student’s words we can sense how important the process of writing becomes when it is authentic, when it is for someone else besides the teacher. English teachers have always struggled with the fact that they are usually the only reader of students’ writing. Now they have viable alternatives through technology integration that not only provide students with opportunities to experience an authentic audience, but increase student motivation to refine and improve writing. As it is realized that writing can and should be for someone else besides the teacher is a powerful incentive to becoming involved in English Language Learning. Publishing and reading online is one of the many ways the Internet can capture and maintain interest in the English Language Learning classroom.

Some of the teachers believe that students don’t really acquire language by performing computer tasks divorced from an authentic learning environment. Instead, they need social interactions that make them actively use language to negotiate meaning. Much of today’s language-learning software is rooted in old Second Language Acquisition and English as a Second Language research that treats listening, speaking, reading, and writing as separate areas and posits that students can learn general language out of context, and then apply it specifically later. The key is to use technologies that allow learners to focus on text and to engage with real-life audiences and issues. The biggest problem related to English-language learning is not so much developing oral-conversation skills, but gaining academic written-language skills. One of the things that has been seen is that when students talk about things in online discussions, they use more complicated vocabulary, because it is easier to see what’s been written by others and incorporate it into their own writing.

The Internet itself can provide a lot of food for thought. The final outcome of their research can be typed using a word processor. A word processor can be used in writing compositions, in preparing a class newsletter or in producing a school home page. In such a Web page students can publish their project work so that it can reach a wider audience. That makes them feel more responsible for the final product and consequently makes them work more laboriously.

2. Reading skills hrough Internet

When someone announces they have been online, they have most likely been reading and writing. Most of us correspond on a daily basis by using e-mail and have trouble logging off of the Internet because there is always something more to read. Yet reading the Internet is an aspect that is oftentimes overlooked or de-emphasized in classroom curriculum. Navigating the sources on the Internet gives teachers the opportunity to teach analytical skills, helping students evaluate authenticity and appropriateness. The Internet has explicitly taught students that different methods of discourse need to be read differently. The acquisition of English Language Learning places great demands upon the reader, since it imposes various forms of interpretive constructs. And through reading the Internet, students experience the multiple aspects of reading, of bringing personal meaning to text. Web site, for example, lists several methods for analyzing and judging. Internet sites that can help both students and teacher decide if it is worth further research. Reading advertisements, brochures, journals, job-requirements, etc. online enriches reading ability as well as provides information too. Reading emails, newsletters and reports makes a student more comprehensive in English Language. To develop the reading skill, student can be given a role play of a news reader. It should be recorded and later on it should be shown to the class and judged by the teacher as well as the students that what mistakes were made by the particular student while reading the news. The criteria should be given to the students and made them aware of those criteria well in advance. Another and most interesting task is to read e-books and one can hone the reading skill.

3. Speaking skill: Using Technology

The teacher can ask a class to develop a multi-cultural calendar. After discussing two or three different cultures, brainstorm with students various other cultures and have pairs of students decide what ethnic or religious culture they would like to learn about. After researching holidays and customs of cultures have students enter data in a calendar layout. Create the calendar by using the Calendar Wizard. In a separate word document, have students write a synopsis of the holiday customs. Display the calendar in class and discuss the various holidays as they appear through the school year.

Through the interaction of computer-based learning, teachers of language learning should be able to increase student interaction, learning, and reflection, empowering students to create their own knowledge structures and become active participants in the learning process. It is through this understanding of the unbreakable relationship between technology and language learning that English teachers can move their students to a deeper level of understanding-beyond a surface knowledge of mere facts to a more intense and satisfying scrutiny of the world around them. And, by making technology-integration a viable and essential part of their everyday instruction, these teachers can take advantage of technology’s abilities to effectively transform learning in the classroom, creating unlimited opportunities for excellence.

By sending E-mail and joining newsgroups, students can communicate with people they have never met. They can also interact with their own classmates. Furthermore, some Internet activities give students positive and negative feedback by automatically correcting their on-line exercises. Although students can still use their books, they are given the chance to escape from canned knowledge and discover thousands of information sources. As a result, their education fulfils the need for interdisciplinary learning in a multicultural world.  A foreign language is studied in a cultural context. In a world where the use of the Internet becomes more and more widespread, an English Language teacher’s duty is to facilitate students’ access to the web and make them feel citizens of a global classroom, practicing communication on a global level.

4. Listening skill: Use of Language Labs

If a student is desired of enhancing his/her listening skill one has to communicate with electronic pen friends, something that most students would enjoy. Teachers should explain how it all works and help students find their key pals. Two different groups from different countries can arrange to send E-mail regularly to one another. This can be done quite easily thanks to the web sites providing lists of students looking for communication. It is also possible for two or more students to join a chat-room and talk on-line through e-mail. Chatting will provide you both the skills simultaneously, listening as well as speaking with the native speaker.

There is a wide range of on-line applications which are already available for use in the foreign language class. These include dictionaries and encyclopedias, links for teachers, chat-rooms, pronunciation tutors, grammar and vocabulary quizzes, games and puzzles, literary extracts. The World Wide Web (www) is a virtual library of information that can be accessed by any user around the clock. If someone wants to read or listen to the news, for example, there are a number of sources offering the latest news either printed or recorded. The most important newspapers and magazines in the world are available on-line and the same is the case with radio and TV channels.

The Internet and the rise of computer-mediated communication in particular have reshaped the uses of computers for language learning. The recent shift to global information-based economies means that students will need to learn how to deal with large amounts of information and have to be able to communicate across languages and cultures. At the same time, the role of the teacher has changed as well. Teachers are not the only source of information any more, but act as facilitators so that students can actively interpret and organize the information they are given, fitting it into prior knowledge. Students have become active participants in learning and are encouraged to be explorers and creators of language rather than passive recipients of it. This allows the learners of a language to communicate inexpensively with other learners or native speakers. It also provides an opportunity to develop both the skills- listening and the speaking skill simultaneously. Audio-video aids and also listening of BBC and CNN channels can help the students in honing the listening skills.

Conclusion

The conversation about technology in class-rooms is trapped in the wrong subject. The question should not be: “Does the technology work as a fix for the old?” It ought to be: “How can we develop and choose visions that will use this immensely powerful technology to create and support powerful new forms of learning?”  These technology-integration ideas are just a few of many that could be used to develop lesson plans organized through the four basic Language Learning Skills, supporting English teachers in their instructional planning. By showing teachers how technology can be incorporated into the curriculum, as well as offering additional ideas for technology integration within the technology-based learning could be a natural part of all instructional design for teachers of English Language Learning. After all, our relationship with language is very much like what students experience when learning with technology-working in spaces unbounded by rules and amenable to adaptation and creativity. Examples of technology-enriched curricula that link the basic skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening with corresponding models and ideas for instructional intervention might just well create the spark that English teachers need to develop instruction that benefits from new and multiple ways of English Language Learning.

As we approach the 21st century, we realize that technology as such is not the answer to all our problems. What really matters is how we use technology. Computers can/will never substitute teachers but they offer new opportunities for better language practice. They may actually make the process of language learning significantly richer and play a key role in the reform of a country’s educational system. The next generation of students will feel a lot more confident with information technology than we do. As a result, they will also be able to use the Internet to communicate more effectively, practice language skills more thoroughly and solve language learning problems more easily.

The teachers who adapt technology for English language teaching as a second language are really benefited. The students I have seen using it really enjoy it and are learning a lot of the academic words they need. Their vocabulary is enriched and they can become fluent in English speaking. The audio-visual aids make the class room environment live and interesting to the students. They can learn English by the direct method and in a very natural way.

** ELTWeekly would like to thank Pushpa Dixit for contributing this research paper.

ELTWeekly Issue#29 No Comments August 14th, 2009

Bridging the gap:  Vernacular medium to English medium

Sunil Shah & Surendra Gohil, Lecturers, H.M. Patel Institute of English Training and Research, Vallabh Vidyanagar, Dist: Anand , Gujarat – INDIA

Abstract:

“CAN A CHILD STUDY IN A HINDI/VERNACULAR MEDIUM SCHOOL TILL CLASS 4 OR 5 AND THEN BE SHIFTED TO A GOOD ENGLISH MEDIUM ONE?” is a question asked by a parent in the ‘Sawal’ section of the website http://www.ibibo.com. This is also a concern of many other parents in India.  This paper seeks to answer this question with the help of a study, wherein the researcher has prepared and tryout  some material based on Functional English to develop oral competence of the students of class IV and V who are at zero level  or near to zero level competence. In such a task it is obvious that  structural approach may not prove to be fruitful, hence  the researchers  prepared and tried out  some materials based on Functional English for initial level of language instruction.

The  significant questions which the paper deals with  are as follows:

• Can the students at zero level be taught through Functional English?
• Is there significant improvement in students’ oral skills through the material prepared?
• What are the difficulties for compiling and preparing material for the zero level language

instruction level students?

• What should one keep in mind while preparing materials at the initial level of language instruction ?

Introduction:

The medium of instruction is very important at every level of education and more so during the elementary education, as that is the time when a child is exposed to the vast world of knowledge. It is a long held debate in India whether the medium of education should be the  universally recognized English language or the regional language. There are pros and cons of both the options. While English is important when one grows up and goes into a professional life, regional language has an advantage of being easily understood, thus helping the students grab the right information and understand better. Educationists around the world have debated this issue but to no concrete result. In India, with its  multilingual background, there cannot be one accepted  medium of instruction. Though Hindi has been accorded the status of the  national language, it is yet to gain a whole-hearted acceptance in  many parts of India like South and East India. Thus, many state-run schools follow the language of their region to impart education. However, in urban India, English is the preferred medium of education for obvious reasons. Even people from economically weaker backgrounds and those who do not speak English themselves prefer to send their children to English-medium schools.

The prime reasons are preference of English as a medium of instruction in higher education and its worldwide acceptability. There are no good professional courses available in regional languages. Thus, it is believed those who study through regional languages tend to lag behind to those who have studied in the English language. Studies have been conducted worldwide to find out a better medium. Purists reckon that language is not just a means of communication but also a cultural window which introduces one to the social and intellectual surroundings. Language development leads to educational development, which in turn leads to national development. Till a long time, the medium of instruction in India was the dominant regional language from primary to the high school level. English was only introduced as a subject after the primary level. English as a medium of instruction throughout schooling was only found in a few schools. This trend worked in the favor of many but gave inferiority complex to a lot others. People who could not speak or understand English started feeling that they were no good. The point is highly debatable.

However, when it comes to higher education and especially the professional courses  English medium is a must. It would not be proper to think that streams like Engineering, Medical, MBA or any technical course can be imparted in a regional language.  When we talk about professional courses in vernacular medium the problems which we come across are acceptability and terminology. There are not enough terms in the regional languages that can define the concepts in these fields. Also, even if one were to get this education in the regional language, he/she cannot use it professionally as the whole world does no understand the same language and they end up becoming misfits.

This discussion leads us to   further discussion about whether a child studying in Gujarati or Vernacular medium  be shifted  English Medium from  class IV or Class V .

“CAN A CHILD STUDY IN A HINDI/VERNACULAR MEDIUM SCHOOL TILL CLASS 4 OR 5 AND THEN BE SHIFTED TO A GOOD ENGLISH MEDIUM ONE?” is a question asked by a parent in the ‘Sawal’ section of the website http://www.ibibo.com. This is also a concern of many other parents in India.  This paper seeks to answer this question with the help of a study, wherein the researchers  prepared and tried out some material based on Functional English to develop the oral competence of the students of class IV and V who had had no exposure to English language or were  at zero level or near to zero level of English language competence. In such a task it is obvious that   structural approach may not prove to be fruitful, hence the researchers  prepared and tried out some materials based on Functional English for initial level of language instruction.

The  significant questions which the paper deals with  are as follows:

• Can the students at zero level be taught through Functional English?
• Is there significant improvement in students’ oral skills through the material prepared?
• What are the difficulties for compiling and preparing material for the zero level language

instruction level students?

• What should one keep in mind while preparing materials at the initial level of language

instruction ?

The research was taken up  at Swaminarayan Vidyapith[English Medium  Girls School CBSE], Karamsad. The school also encourages admissions to students from vernacular medium (Gujarati) in class IV and class V English medium.  The English language competence of these students is at zero or near to zero level. These students are admitted on the basis of their aptitude towards learning.

It is also misleading to think that such children will only learn simple language, such as colours and numbers, nursery rhymes and songs, and talking about themselves at the initial stage. Of course, if that is all they are taught, that will be all that they can learn. But children can always do more than we think they can; they have huge learning potential, and the foreign language classroom does them a disservice if we do not exploit that potential(Cameron,2001). Hence it is extremely necessary to prepare and try out materials to help such learners in bridging the gap of 6 years. The researchers prepared some materials which they got validated from experts, which would help such students to develop the required communicative competence.

Objectives of the study:

The researchers undertook the project with the following objectives.

1.      To prepare material based on functional English, which will be helpful at the zero level of language instruction.

2.      Try out of the material prepared for the initial levels of language instruction.

3.      To find out the effectiveness of material based on Functional English at the initial level.

Variables:

In the present study, the Material prepared by the investigator is manipulated as  the independent variable to verify its effect in the development of the  oral skills the sample group is assumed to be dependent variable.

Limitations of the study:

The present study includes preparation and tryout of   some material based on Functional English. These prepared materials covers only limited topics and techniques. The researchers  focused  only on developing oral skills and not other skills related to general competence of English. The study is limited to a few samples only, namely a group of 25 students admitted to  class IV and V with zero or near to zero level of competence in English. The study  only covers the geographical area under Swaminarayan Vidyapith , Girls School. The duration of the experimental teaching was that of thirty hours including the input session.

Research methodology:

The present study is experimental in nature. The researchers followed the One group pretest-posttest design.

Materials for teaching the beginners:

Teaching absolute beginners requires the teacher to pay special attention to the order in which new language is introduced. The teacher lesson plan plays an essential role in making sure that new language is introduced slowly and incrementally. This 20 point program provides a syllabus to take students from speaking no English at all, to being able to fulfill basic communication needs including; giving personal information, and describing their daily routines and the world around them.

Obviously, there is a lot more to speaking English confidently than these twenty points. This 20 point program has been designed to provide a strong base on which to build while, at the same time, providing learners with the most important language skills they will need to get going.

When teaching absolute beginners, it is very important to proceed methodically building on what has been introduced. These exercises will appear very simple.  But we should remember that the students are taking very little steps to quickly establish a base on which to build. To  begin teaching absolute beginners it is important to use gestures, pointing and what is often called “modeling”.

Some of the teaching points included in the course are as follows:

- Introducing oneself/ others

- Identifying items or people in the classroom and the school

- Introducing  and asking for identification.

- Seeking information

- Basic Greetings

- Personal Information

- Telling the Time

- Talking about their Daily Routines

Methods of data collection:

• The investigator followed the following method for data collection
• Internal pretest (prepared by the investigator)
• Internal posttest (prepared by the investigator)

The researchers  prepared the questions  to check the oral skills at the initial level, the researchers took the pretest in the form of audio-recording of the  responses. The marks were allotted as per the marks allotted to questions asked by the researchers at the time of actual  audio -recording. Following the treatment of the material produced by the investigators posttest was taken in the same manner as the pre-test.

Analysis and interpretation of data:

The data were analyzed on the basis of the scores obtained by the sample group  in pretest and posttest. Several types of statistical parameters were used to verify the validity of the findings of the experiment. They were-

i.                  Measures of Central Tendency or averages- the mean, the median and the mode;

ii.                  Measures of spread or dispersion- S.D.;

iii.                  Measures of relationship- correlation, C.V.;

The data was analysed on the basis of the scores obtained by the students in the pretest and posttest. Simple statically methods were used to interpret the data.

Highlights of the analysis :

• The mean scores made by the students in the pretest are 3.6 and post experimental test 11.6.
• There is a difference of 8 marks between the pretest score and posttest score which is positive.

• Mode of the score showed positive increase of +7, where as Median showed positive increase of +7. ( Mode pretest=5, posttest=12, Median pretest =+5 and posttest=12)

• There is a high standard deviation ( 3.588 ) in posttest score compared with low standard deviation ( 2.638 ) in pretest score. The standard deviation is seen high in the posttest as some of the students who did not do well in the pretest have done extremely well in the post test.

• The correlation of coefficient between scores of pre and post experimental test was positive and worked out at + 0.364.

• Coefficient of variation is also low ( 30.93 ) in post test score compared with coefficient of variation in pretest score ( 73.277 ).

• All the students of the sample group have improvement in their score in post test. However there is difference in level of improvement in all the students.

Observation by the investigator:

Although the learners were new to the language they actively participated in the different activities conducted during the tryout of the materials for the initial level of language instruction. Initially the students were not comfortable with the new language they were learning but different games and activities motivated them. However, it was the brighter students who took initiative in answering the question and participation in class. But gradually all the 25 students started taking active interest in these classes.

The results show that all the 25 students have shown improvement .However, there were a few students who were not able to cope with the  level of the class. The reason behind this could be lack of effort on the side of the learner.  One of the students confessed that they were listening to the language for the first time. It was observed that the students were gradually gaining confidence to use the new language.

They were more involved and seemed motivated in learning English Language. Add the end of day 7 of   they were able to use language more confidently and fluently than they have thought of.   It was observed that the learners made a conscious attempt to talk in English language with their  peers. They were able to comprehend each others language. Other qualities as cooperation, negotiation, consensus making and leadership developed as they worked together. Communication was not only with the students but also with the teacher.

At the end of the treatment it was observed that the  students were able to communicate in a purposeful manner appropriate to the context. They were found more enthusiastic to use the language with these teachers of other subjects and their seniors. Their stage fright   decreased as some of them were able to perform well in the school assembly. They also appeared to listen to each other more carefully.

Suggestions for further research:

Materials for the Initial level of language instruction should be prepared in consultation with the needs of other faculty teachers also. Through such a coordinated effort materials will become more relevant for the learners. These materials will teach language items but students should feel that they are learning something relevant to their studies. More materials should be prepared which will take care of other language skill i.e. listening , reading and writing. These materials which are for the initial level of language instruction will be liked by the students if it is related to their subjects and needs. Such material should be prepared and tried out as it will helps the students to bridge the gap between them and  English language as they have not got the exposure to the language in vernacular (Gujarati) medium schools.

Conclusion:

This study was undertaken with the aim of   preparation and tryout of some materials based on Functional English at the initial level of language instruction. The researcher did face some bottlenecks while carrying out the experiment.  Based on the observations, taken during the tryout of materials the researchers drew some suggestions.

During the research the researchers faced few problems. The difference in their level of understanding was a barrier as the researchers had to make some changes in the procedure of tryout of materials. These difficulties helped that the researchers how to prepare such materials, which steps to follow and how to teach students at the initial level of language instruction in a better way.

The study proved  to be useful for both the investigator and the students. These materials were useful  to develop the oral skills of the students. These  materials provided the learners the confidence which is required to learn a new language. This study will be useful for not only practicing teachers but also for future researcherss and material producers.

References:

Brumfit, C. Communicative Methodology in Language Teaching.  Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 1984.

Cameron, Lynne. Teaching Languages to Young Learners. Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Finocchiaro, M. and Brumfit, C.J. The Functional-Notional Approach from Theory to Practice.  Oxford University Press, Oxford. 1983.

Johnson, K. and K. Morrow. (eds).1981. Communication in the Classroom. Longman  Group Ltd, London.

Das, Anirban. ” How important is the medium of education.” 03 July 2008.

< http://find-read-discover.com/articledetail//How_important_is_the_medium_of_education>

About.com. March 2005. The New York Times Company. September, 2007 <http://esl.about.com/od/absolutebeginners/Teaching_Absolute_Beginners.htm>

Nunan. “Challenges in Teaching Young Learners”.April 2005.

<http://www.nunan.info/presentations/challenges_teach_young_learners.pdf>

*** ELTWeekly Team would like to thank Sunil Shah & Surendra Gohil for contributing this research paper.

ELTWeekly Issue#29 1 Comment August 12th, 2009

Bringing graded readers into the classroom

By Alex Case

Reading equals Speaking: Bringing Graded Readers into the Classroom

Most schools have at least a couple of graded readers lying around the school, if only freebies that were sent unsolicited by publishers, and if not it is easy enough to get hold of some. In too many schools, however, they lie around gathering dust on a shelf in the teachers’ room or the Self Access Centre. The obvious thing to do with them seems to be to take them into the classroom, to add a bit of variety to the class and to let the students see what is available, hopefully persuading students to take them home to read for themselves. Here, then, are some ideas on how to do so. I can’t absolutely guarantee they’ll all work with your classes, but they are all deliberately designed to avoid two potential hiccups- you don’t need class sets or for all the students to read the books for homework for the activities to work.

What makes an ‘easy reader’?

Most people think of this as just avoiding difficult vocabulary and this is certainly a major part, but there is more to it than that. To start with, ‘get’ and ‘around’ may seem like words you could include in even a beginner’s book, but if you put them together as the phrasal verb ‘get around’ the meaning is far from easy to deduce. As well as the vocabulary, the grammar has to be carefully graded, and the writer has to think about other factors such as the use of pictures and avoiding ‘dense’ texts with too much information, such as subplots and large lists of characters.

Read the remaining article here: http://www.tefl.net/alexcase

ELTWeekly Issue#24 1 Comment July 4th, 2009

Infusion of Emerging Online Technologies into ELT: The Need of the Hour

By Seyed Mohammad Hassan Hosseini* mhhosseini2002@gmail.com

Abstract

Today’s world context of the Cyber Age, which is characterised by ever-growing technological revolutions in the ongoing scenario of globalisation, has increased the value of English language, the language of the virtual world or the Second Life, as an international lingua franca (ELF). And ELT professionals’ main mission is to equip tomorrow’s citizenry with this international medium of interaction, with ELF. But the fact is that ELT has not been a success in many parts of the world, including in countries like Iran and India, hitherto (Hosseini, 2007). It is in this backdrop that the deficiencies in the present context of ELT call for new remedies and innovative approaches. This paper, as such, suggests the inclusion of online technology, as an effective educational apparatus, into the field for the benefit of language classes. The paper gives glimpse of the emerging online technologies and presents pragmatic guidelines for successful implementation of such innovations. Educational institutes – from primary to post secondary — could consider the proposed programme for enhancing the attainment of their educational objectives. The project may also be implemented state-/country-wise.

Introduction

English language, in the era of globalisation, has become a multi-purpose instrument enabling human beings not only to use it for communication in trade, business, administration and science education, but for influencing human behaviour and facilitating social cooperation as well. Interdependence in today world context is an indispensable value, and using English in communication is one way of promoting mutual understanding and interdependence. Globalisation has also contributed to the evolution of online technology, which has undoubtedly helped humans to achieve the optimum potential in every sphere of life. It is recently, however, that the present info-tech scenario has brought to the fore the significance of online technology in improving the quality of education in general and ELT in particular.

Online technology has given the language teachers a goldmine of materials for exposing learners to enormous opportunities for genuine learning, either individually or cooperatively. In virtual learning environments that take advantage of engaging activities and are scaffold by live instructors, students have the opportunities to use the language and share their language learning skills and strategies not only together but also with native speakers (Pegrum, 2007). This could happen through chat rooms, blogs¹, wikis², moodles³, podcasting⁴, vodcasting⁵, and other virtual worlds. In such virtual environments, students, with different backgrounds, learning styles, interests, and abilities and paces of learning, can acquire and practice a new language through available to them authentic, diverse, and at the same time comprehensible input. They provide portable access to learning, which can be personalised and flexible. One other major characteristic and significant feature of these virtual learning environments, as the nexus of innovation and empowerment, is that they have the capacity to supply a developmental window on to the learning process, allowing fuller formative feedback as well as providing a portfolio of learners’ contributions (Bradshaw et al., 2002). In structured implemented virtual learning environments no learner can abdicate their responsibilities.

It is such kinds of contributions of online technologies to language learning environments that have led to the success of language classes which are run with their scaffold. Comprehensible input, for instance, according to Krashen (1989), is one of the main prerequisites for the acquisition of language. Authenticity is also believed to be one of the main keys to language learning. Another reason for the success of these virtual spaces in language courses may be the fact that they are stress-free and hence contribute to lowering the affective filter of learners and encourage risk taking, which is an important predictor of SLA. Such learning spaces naturally thwart the boredom of learning the language occasioned by conventional classes and contribute to positive change in the attitudes of learners towards learning. A number of researchers like Mathewson (1976) and Zimbardo and Ebbesen (1970) have argued that favourable attitudes are likely to motivate students for further learning and help increase their attention or engagement in the learning process. And engagement in learning, as the main key to effective language learning, brings their academic success. Feeling of achievement, in its turn, escalates their confidence, positive attitudes, motivation, engagement in the learning process, and consequently academic achievement. As indicated in Figure 1, this is assumed to be a cyclical process. Such assumptions are in part based on SLA theory which clearly prioritises the significance of exposure, motivation, and confidence as three pivotal variables for the acquisition of language to occur.

Figure 1. The Cyclical Interplay among Attitude, Motivation, and Learning

Despite the importance attributed to the significant role of online technologies, as powerful resources for enhancing language learning, ELT sphere has not yet accommodated such innovations, especially in countries like Iran. This is while in some developed countries the focus is on concepts like ‘content-bound web-based collaborative language leaning’. The merits of such programs are believed to be immense in view of the fact that they have the capacity to be managed in such ways that could enhance the acquisition of academic language, in addition to language itself, more effectively.

Therefore, the infusion of online technologies into language courses must be taken into account as the need of the hour. Such programmes could be conducted independently at state level or even country-wise or in an attempt to back up the conventional language classes in schools, universities, and other educational institutes for the attainment of their ultimate curriculum goals. In the latter case, such technologies will mediate between teaching force and learning effect. That is, they will reinforce learning of students, in bona fide environments, which cater for different learning styles. With the scaffold of synchronous and asynchronous e-tutoring, learners will be able to learn in ways not previously possible. Such solutions are congruent with Piagetian, Deweyian, and Vygotskyian approaches to learning which aim at augmenting learner autonomy.

But the point is that the formal and structured integration of online technologies into language learning courses is not that easy. Van de Ven and Poole (1995) confirmed the idea when they stated, “the task of making the transition from traditional teaching to teaching with technology is much tougher than it seems. This is because the transition is as much a cultural one as one of mere methodologies. It involves a shift in teaching paradigms, a shift in the way of thinking about teaching (p. 198)”. Such a shift demands open-endedness of all the stakes involved. It exacts devotion, patience, perseverance, and expertise. For such programmes to be effective, a team of best of those experts who are committed to their profession and accountabilities are needed. Such teams, as illustrated in Figure 2, should consist of four main sectors: a Control Centre, a Teaching Sector, an Evaluation Sector, and a Logistic Sector.

Figure 2. Components of the Centre for ELT and Online Technologies

In view of the significant contribution of such a programme to the success of the profession, the following tasks are suggested for each sector (see also Appendix A):

Control Centre

………………………..

The coordinators in control centre, which is recommended to include some IT professionals, in addition to some language teaching specialists and some language testing experts, should take account of the following tasks:

• Detecting and analysing the learners’ needs;
• Clarifying the objectives;
• Designing the syllabus;
• Developing authentic and engaging instructional materials;
• Improving fair and motivating evaluation systems;
• Defining and configuring the services that are to be made available to learners, and
• Synthesizing and canalising the efforts of teaching sector and evaluation sector while keeping in mind the objectives and the curriculum.

Furthermore, the administrators in the centre should help teachers and evaluators to keep abreast of the latest developments in the areas of their concerns for the success of their online programmes. This could be done through providing them with some relevant electronic lists, electronic journals, online libraries and databases, and so forth. Formation of web-based English language teachers communities for sharing research and teaching experiences (e.g., through synchronous and asynchronous discussion forums) could also be effective. Such circles of experts contribute to the teachers’ professional success by virtue of the fact that they would serve as platforms to improve the quality of their classrooms’ wikies, blogs, and moodles. They would also be helpful for preparing shared banks of quizzes, tests, and tasks so as to lessen the burden of their responsibilities in the implementation of their innovations in their classrooms. Creating and monitoring opportunities for critical engagement of teachers, evaluators, and students through live and/or messaging systems should not be neglected.

Yeh et al. (2000) put forth the following guidelines for designing more qualified interactive websites, which could be considered by the control centre:

• Accommodating a variety of learning styles (e.g., through providing texts, graphics, and high quality audio and video media);

• Encouraging exploratory learning (e.g., via interactive tasks);
• Providing sequence instruction (in the web pages);
• Encouraging metacognition (design of learning strategies in the web pages),
• Using graphics to show relationships, and
• Providing downloadable educational software (e.g., games and songs).

And finally, the administrators should be cognizant of the fact that learners’ participation in the learning process can be stilted, or passive if they feel no control over their endeavours. Ineffective data delivery system, improper and insufficient tutor/moderator support, and absence of necessary feedback from the service providers can also jeopardise the learning process.

Teaching Sector

………………………….

The online English language teaching specialists, in teaching sector, should be aware of the fact that E-learning has changed their roles from the sole sources or transmitters of knowledge to moderators, e-learning guides, managers of a range of resources, and facilitators of the learning process. They may take into account the following accountabilities:

• Effective contextualised conveying of material through their virtual environments. This may be supported by audio and video conferencing, etc.;
• Practising participants through both online and offline exercises and quizzes;
• Providing learners with relevant, immediate, and comprehensible feedback. Mobile technologies could be fruitful in this regard also, and
• Bringing equal opportunities for all learners’ participation and enhancing their simultaneous interaction.

The important thing is that students should have primary skills in practical use of online technologies if they are to make use of such programmes more effectively. And it is teachers who need to empower them with necessary skills for entering virtual learning environments. Teachers ought to develop their computer as well as interpersonal skills. Practising them in working through different chat rooms and search engines in order to access, for example, to specific chat groups, web forums, and remote libraries and databases is essential. Teachers should also encourage them for offline interactions through emailing, messaging and / or threaded forums. Establishing and developing a culture of learning and capacity building in terms of developing their abilities for adhering to such a culture in which bilateral responsible interactive learning is emphasized should not be overlooked. These could be done through conducting some crash courses or orientation workshops.

Evaluation Sector

…………………………….

The language testing specialists who avail themselves of tools and techniques of e-assessment, including different types of rubrics and rubric generators, CBT / CAT and TOIA, the emerging assessment managing system, for example, may consider the following for contributing to the success of online courses:

• Focusing on intended ability levels of learners;
• Targeting at the assessment of test takers’ performances / abilities in real-life situations. Simulation tasks allow test developers to elicit contextualized, integrated performances that closely resemble those in real-life L2/FL interactions. (Mislevy, 1996; Mislevy, Steinberg, Breyer, Almond, & Johnson, 1999.), and
• Generating new tasks with the desired components in a structured manner which can be done based on a systematic analysis of prototype tasks with identified characteristics that are fed into a database.

Specialists, in evaluation centre, should consider that computerized delivery of tests through the internet should be on time, the allocated time for its completion should be clear, and the evaluator should be online in order to facilitate the process of test taking.

Logistic Sector

………………………..

And finally, the experts in charge in logistic centre should consider the following responsibilities:

• Appropriate course changeover and administration of new course;
• On time delivery of high-quality services, and
• Adaptation of the course for facilities, conditions, and needs.

The personnel in logistic sector should bear in mind that learners need to be provided with appropriate guidelines and time table. In addition, they need to have access to a wide range of communication tools such as more controllable video and audio programs in order to select the tools that better help them obtain ‘live’ content and information.

Conclusion

Concurrent with the shift from second to third millennium, the world is increasingly becoming digital and hence communications and the means of communications are being redefined. It is in such a context that online technologies are increasingly getting integrated into ELT via a range of approaches and programmes. The belief is that online educational spaces which are need-based, student-centred, and process-oriented make language teaching and language learning enjoyable as they offer flexible and attractive environments suitable for multilevel continues interaction. As a result, they lead to satisfactory teaching / learning experiences and thus enhance the effectiveness of language classes and lead to deeper learning.

Therefore, the prominence of the mission and the objectives of ELT need to be explored from different vantage points in this context, especially in countries like Iran. ELT has to move from instructivists to constructivists’ modes of pedagogy, which emphasizes students acquiring meta skills and knowledge for a lifelong learning. TESOL practitioners must exploit the emerging electronic tools in their language classrooms if they want to play their roles in the betterment of the profession, which is as one of the major thrust area of Education. In the process, they should also help students develop their technological savvy in virtue of the fact that it is crucial for their future professional success. Educational policy makers should also focus on establishing and developing virtual schools, universities, and other educational institutes.

Educators, however, should be aware of the fact that in spite of the ample options online technology provides to learners, it can still be harmful to them. Therefore, they should not be negligent of the pitfalls of virtual worlds as they, with their engrossing power and charm, can distance students from social life and leave them in a real island. Technology should empower learners, and not handicap them.

Notes

---

1.       A blog is virtual learning environment that could offer immense possibilities in the field of ELT, for augmenting learner autonomy. It is useful especially for large classes. The point in a blog is that every step of the way or every journal entry is a final version on its own right. It is also a good platform to record processes and stages for end-users. To help students create their own blogs, teachers can conduct an orientation workshop, availing themselves of the guidelines at www.blogspot.com.

2.       Wikies are almost similar to blogs. But in contrast to blogs that are good platforms to record processes and stages for end-users, in wikis it is the last version that counts. The best section in a wiki is the discussion where one can learn how a community interacted to get those results. This is in contrast with a blog where every step of the way is a final version on its own right.

3.       A Moodle is a free, open source virtual learning environment. It can be used to provide structured additional learning materials to supplement face-to-face classes, or even to produce a simple online distance learning course.

4.       A podcast is an online, pre-selected audio on-demand, delivered through a portable media device such as an iPod or MP3 player. Podcasting is a technology by which teachers can add to their online course, thereby diversifying the way the course content is delivered. This technology has built itself on the developments of cyber bulletin boards, web groups, weblogs, audioblogs and rss feeds. Using this technology, sound files are created in MP3 format and stored on the web. Then an XML file is created and uploaded on the same site. Users should download one of the client software to be able to listen to podcasts. They can store them on their computers, copy them on movable drives or MP3 players or ideally to their iPods and listen to them at their own discretion. Using a podcast, vocabulary, for example, can be learnt easily by listening to a corpus in which the world occurs. This gives a contextual meaning, usage, and focuses on pronunciation. Likewise, the subtle differences between synonyms can be demonstrated through examples of usage through corpus data. Similarly, collocations can be taught using examples of the linguistic units presented contextually.

5.       A vodcast is similar to podcast with the difference that it deals with visual. It is an online delivery of video content on-demand through a video -MP3 player such as an iPod video.

References

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http://www.goldenswamp.com/2007/02/17/words-about-mobile-from-the-wise-tim-berners-lee/

Bradshaw, P., Chapman, C. & Gee, A. (2002) NCSL programmes. Available online at:

http://rubble.ultralab.net/programmes/ (accessed 15 February 2005).

Crystal, D. (2001). Language and the internet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hosseini, S.M.H. (2007). ELT in Higher Education in Iran and India: A Critical Review, At

Language in India, 7(12).

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2007.

Krashen, S. (1989). Language Acquisition and Language Education. New York: Prentice

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(Ed.), Coming of age: An introduction to the new world wide web (pp. 19-28). Iiford: Terry Freedman. http://fullmeasure.co.uk/coming_of_age_v1-2.pdf

Maeroff, G. I. (2003). A classroom of one: How online learning is changing our schools

and colleges. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

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Singer, & R. B. Ruddell (Eds.). Theoretical models and process of reading (pp. 655-676).

McIntosh, E. (2006). Podcasting and wikis. In T. Freedman (Ed.), Coming of age: An

introduction to the new world wide web (pp. 71--75). Iiford: Terry Freedman. http://fullmeasure.co.uk/coming_of_age_v1-2.pdf

Mislevy, R. J. (1996). Test theory reconceived. Journal of Educational Measurement, 33, 379-

416.

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cognitive analysis, with implications for designing simulation-based performance

assessment. Computers in Human Behavior, 15, 335-374.

Pegrum, M. (2007). Talking to the digital natives: Building connections and community

on Web 2.0. Paper presented at international symposium on new and emerging technologies in ELT. August 3-5. India.

Van de Ven, A.H., and Poole, M.S. (1995). Explaining development and change in

organizations. Academy of Management Review, 20 (3), 510-540.

Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Yeh, H.Y. (2002). Applying CLT to Web English learning in Taiwan’s primary schools (pp. 128-

137). Proceedings of the 9th international symposium on English teaching.

November 10-12. Taipei.

Zimbardo, P., & Ebbesen, E. B. (1970). Influencing attitudes and changing behavior in reading. MA:

Addison-Wesley.

*The author holds an A.D. (ELT), a B.A. (ELT), an M.A. (TEFL), and a PhD (ELT). He has presented many articles in different (inter)national symposia and journals. His research interests are in the areas of teaching methodology and applied psycholinguistics with a focus on context of learning. His publications are varied including one recently published in Online Journal of ‘Language in India’-December 2007 issue. He has also presented papers in national and international symposia including recently at the International Forum on “New and Emerging Technologies in ELT”, held at Madras, India.

ELTWeekly Issue#22 1 Comment June 20th, 2009

Teaching of Speaking Skill, Gramar and Vocabulary of English Language

By Dr. Ravi Bhushan, Lecturer, Department of English, Bhagat Phool Singh mahila Vishwavidyalaya, khanpur Kalan (Sonipat)

The various reasons given in response to the question ‘what goes wrong when our students speak English’ can be as follows:

a) Students are tongue tied and shy and they refuse to open their mouth.

b) They lack confidence.

c) They are afraid of speaking, fear of going wrong and committing mistakes.

d) They grope for words.

e) They are unable to distinguish between Sea and She.

They perform well in the classroom, in predictable contexts, but are unable to tackle unpredicted situations outside the classroom.

This list of problems in speaking English is not exhaustive, you could add to this list. But such a diagnosis is necessary to decide on what kind of treatment is needed in order to develop our learners’ spoken skills.

In a multilingual society like India, two or more language plans may become mixed, leading to code switching, code mixing, transfer or so called interference errors e.g. while giving directions to the stranger, the learners may say ‘ maidan‘ or ‘pucca road‘ or ‘kachha road’ etc. as teachers, we have to make our learners aware of the contexts where such expressions are acceptable and where they are not.

In Garrett’s Model (1982), our cognitive process cause speech to pass through four levels of representation before it is actually produced as sound.

a) Message level/conceptual planning process, at which ideas and general meanings are represented.

b) Functional level plans, here broad syntactic frames are assembled and word meanings are selected.

c) Positional level, here sentence structure and word forms (with endings) are defined.

d) Production level, here actual articulation of words is produced.

Now we can define Speaking – Speaking is effective communication, when all aspects of a language are integrated into a single utterance. There are two approaches to the development of oral communication skills.

a) Learning language as a skill, in the classroom.

b) Developing spoken skills through exposure and use.

Language as a skill involves three aspects:

1. Learners have to become aware of the key features of the target performance so that they can create the mental plans.

2. They have to practice converting these plans into actual behavior.

3. Learners must be capable of expressing an idea by selecting particular structures or vocabulary.

According to Rivers (1983), the first two aspects make up the skill-getting stage and the third is the skill using stage of language learning.

Skill getting- cognition:  perception & abstraction

Production: articulation & construction

Skill using-   interaction: reception & expression- motivation to communicate

As we see in the diagram motivation to communicate must be aroused. In our classrooms, motivation will need to be fostered by the intrinsic attraction of the task proposed and the student’s interest in developing it. Here we have to accept that some people are temperamentally incapable of interacting with a babble of words, to force them to do so, gives birth to pseudo communication and into mouthing learned phrases. The quality of the interaction will be judged by the ability to-

• Receive and express meaning.
• Understand and convey intentions.
• Perform acceptably in situations and in relations with others.

The conditions, necessary for successful development of, natural spoken skills-

a) Exposure to language input: our learners in or outside the classroom are to be exposed to English through clearer pronunciation, slower pace, simpler structures and common vocabulary

b) Interaction with other people is crucial

c) motivation is the important factor: the urge to use the language fore communication has to be aroused, e.g. a child brought up in a multilingual cosmopolitan setting will pick up a new language faster than a child brought up in a monolingual setting.

Exposure to

-   Interaction with other people

-   The need to communicate Comprehensible language

Positive attitude to English and the learning experience

Internal processing of input

Development of internal grammar

Communication

(Littlewood, 1992)

As teachers we need to be more observant and see that we give enough practice in listening and provide opportunities where the learners have to be sensitive to what others are saying. We need to focus on both the aspects.

• Comprehension (is A able to follow what B is saying?)
• Comprehensibility (is A comprehensible to B?)

Techniques in developing oral communication skills:

a) Question and answer technique.

b) Lecture mode: besides content of your lecture, draw your students’ attention to the presentation skills while lecturing.

c) Group mode.

Solutions suggested for problems in speaking:

For Attitudinal Problems

• Overcome the inhibition or fear.
• Overcome nervousness.
• Think in English.
• Concentrate on whatever one is listening to e.g. a group discussion, news item on the radio or T.V.
• Have confidence in your self.

For Sounds, Stress and Intonation Problems

• Use audio tapes in recording your own speech.
• Show patience, it is a long term process.
• Exploit every situation to speak in English.

For problems concerning Vocabulary and Grammar

• Exposure through reading and listening.
• Grammatical awareness needs to be developed through reading and writing.
• Listening to as many programmes as possible on the radio or T.V.

Information Gap Activities

An information gap is created when one person has the information and the other is left in the dark. Such activities can be thought of at the beginning of a session when your students get to know each other. Involve yourself by telling something about yourself.

Opinion Gap Activities

This is based on the principle of the value clarification approach which originated in the USA. This may be a very motivating experience, because the student feel that they are communicating about something meaningful, as well as being taken seriously as people; on the other hand, a situation in which the participants have to reveal some of their more private thoughts may appear threatening. Thus practice such exercises in a supportive and relaxed atmosphere.

Role Play

This is a way of bringing situations from real life into the classroom. We ask students to use their imagination. There are many suitable roles for school/college classes such as: teacher, bank officers, clerks at a post office, passers by, co passengers in a train journey, enquiry counter and a station or airport etc.

Goals of teaching spoken English can not differ essentially from goals of teaching meaningful speech, which is governed by thee sets of rules.

a)     Rules specific to spoken English: they pertain to the bounds of English, word and sentence stress, rhythm and intonation.

b)     General speech rules, concerning the features, qualities and contexts of speech.

c)      Rules of discourse concerning the semantics and structure or rhetoric of speech. This evoked meaning is both substantial and interpersonal. Language is essentially discourse and its markers.

Spoken English courses, which currently have little or no place in the formal mode of education; have an important place in the non formal stream. In teaching spoken English in India, we must accommodate regional variation and the goal should be shifted from articulation competence to discourse competence. We must use the learner’s mother tongue in teaching English, and revert to our heritage and tradition to grammar as the supreme instrument of language learning.

Teaching Grammar

An essential part of the teaching of any language is the teaching of its grammar. Grammar is a term of great antiquity that has been understood and defined differently overtime resulting in teaching methodologies that range from the teaching of rules as an end in itself to the opposite extreme position of no grammar teaching at all. Whatever the case may be, some sort of knowledge of grammar is essential. It is important for the mental growth of a child and acts as a source of disciplining the mind.

Types of grammar

GI (Functional): it is the total mechanism which a language possesses and through which its users (literate/illiterate) are able to communicate with each other.

G2 (formal): it is formal analysis and description of the rules of the language.

G3: it refers to the rules for the correct use of a language, which may be prescribed for its users. A grammar of the kind produced by Nesfield consists largely of rules which a student is expected to master. But some modern grammars merely describe the facts, instead of prescribing rules. So a linguist is concerned with G2 where as a language teacher is concerned with G3.

Now the question is , which grammar the teacher should teach G1, G2, or G3? The Indian situation seems top [provide a ready answer to that question. Many of our students know a lot of G2 or G3 (at lest their marks in the school examination indicate), but they can neither speak nor write correctly; their G1 is poor. On the other hand, a student can certainly be made proficient in G1 with out any exposure to G2 or G3 through constant exposure to the language. This is what we find in the case of students of the best English medium schools in our country.

G2 has to grow out of G1, the explanations are derived from exposure to language, and explanations can not precede the exposure. Grammar does not exist in isolation from language: language is grammar. The objective of teaching grammar to ordinary student is to improve his/her receptive and productive language skills-to make learner a better user of language and not give him/her a lot of specialized information about language. The grammar lesson should emerge out of the language material being used to develop the skills of reading and comprehension, as well as should form the basis of the grammar lesson too.

Methodology:

1.       Grammar teaching should be done in context and in relation to language skills.

2.       Inductive teaching moving from examples to rules. Because our aim is communication rather than learning forms of the language. This was used earlier in the teaching of classical languages. (Sanskrit, Latin, grammar translation method).

3.       Focus should be on meaning rather than on forms.

4.       Fluency is to be promoted before accuracy can be demanded. If vice-versa happens, learners are de-motivated to use the language at all.

Vocabulary Teaching

The teaching of four skills of English language viz. listening, speaking, reading and writing faces a common hindrance, lack of strong vocabulary. So it is very important, that our learners have good vocabulary. Let us try to ponder over the techniques, which can be used for developing vocabulary. Before that, let us discuss the types of vocabulary. This is of three types:

Ad-hoc vocabulary: those words which may be important for a given piece of text, but are unlikely to have any utility outside the text.

Passive vocabulary (recognition vocabulary): words which are likely to be encountered frequently, in speech or writing, though a learner may never use them in his/her own speech or writing.

Active vocabulary: words which a student will require for his/her own use, in speech or writing.

I would like to focus more attention on passive vocabulary because a learner should recognize the words, on his/her encounter with them. A teacher can use her/ his introduction, to present in advance the words which he/she judges to be important for passive vocabulary. For example, he/she can plan an anecdote for use in leading up to the text, and can weave the words, he wants to present into the same anecdote. The teacher may write them up on the blackboard, for the effect of highlighting the difficult words. Use the words naturally in a meaningful context, not necessarily giving meaning equivalents. For some words equivalents can be given even in the mother tongue.

Use of mother tongue

No doubt use of mother tongue in a class of English language is perfectly legitimate but with great care. Indiscriminate use of MT interferes with the practice of certain skills in the target language. The prime consideration for the teacher must be to provide s much practice in the use of the target language as possible.

Techniques for teaching vocabulary

a)     using objects:

i)                    labels

ii)                  magazine pictures

iii)                Props-objects that can be shown in the class.

iv)                Slides for conveying the cultural difference of ordinary words e.g. house in a village, in a town, in the hills, in England.

b)     Using gestures and symbols.

i)                    Descriptive adjective-tall, thin, happy.

ii)                  Prepositions of place-on, in, into.

iii)                Action verbs-go, sing, throw.

iv)                Symbols.

c)      Using known vocabulary.

i)                    Synonyms-probe-investigate.

ii)                  Antonyms-progress-decline.

iii)                In sentence contexts- e.g. Ravana was a cruel man. Ashoka was a kind king.

d)     Using word categories.

i)                    Stationery-pen, pencil.

ii)                  Cosmetics-cream, powder.

iii)                Utensils-spoon, ladle, kettle.

e)     Definition and paraphrase.

i)                    E.g. parasite-animal or plant living on or in another.

f)        Using MT- judicious use of MT for giving equivalents.

g)     Verbal context-e.g. expensive-glass bangles are cheap but gold bangles are expensive.

h)      Familiarity/experience.

E.g. Oboe: a learner has never heard this word before, but he/she can make out these two sentences.

i) He used to be the oboe player in the town (game).

ii) He never liked to play the clarinet after he started playing the Obey. (Musical instrument).

i)        Semantic grouping: retention of vocabulary is equally important. This is done through semantic grouping. Words are easily learnt if they are organized into semantic groups e,g. shore, ocean, island etc.

Vocabulary expansion

i) Wide reading is recommended s the best way of increasing one’s vocabulary.

ii) Direct instruction- lists of words are studied deliberately for word power exercise in Reader’s digest.

iv)                Incidental instruction, a combination of wide reading and direct instruction.

Lastly, vocabulary becomes permanent only if it is transferred to writing, speaking and thinking vocabularies. Learners should be encouraged in this direction.

Role of a Teacher

I learning/teaching various skills of a language, the role o a teacher is paramount. So the fundamental questions, who is a good teacher? Does experience of number of years makes one a good teacher? It is often thought that a teacher, old in teaching experience is a good teacher. Well, this is not really true. There is nothing like experience, rather it should be quality of experience. Experience should help us to grow, not to keep us crystallized in a particular pattern of behavior. For some people experience only means years, regardless of outcomes. The criteria for a good teacher can be broadly classified under two heads:

Personal Attributes

• personality traits(confident, calm, witty, sense of humor)
• attitudes ( patient, encouraging, tolerant, can take criticism, tries to learn)

Professional Expertise

• Professional skills (classroom techniques and skills)
• Knowledge (of subject and of the psychology of learning).

Conclusion

English language has glamour and offers jobs, so there is a rush. Job seekers are in a hurry to get a degree some how and there is no time or need to read the original texts or get ennobled. Bazaar notes have replaced the original texts and the only aim is top get through the examination. The departments of English, along with B.Ed have become money spinners for the universities. There is no quality control and universities have become graduate manufacturing factories, graduates without any competence either in literature or language.

A particular university in Haryana has well more than 1000 students on its rolls for M.Phil (English) through distance mode. Isn’t it ironical, the scholars of M.Phil/PhD head toward spoken English institutes, where tutors are mere graduates? It needs serious introspection.

The English’ tsunami’ has come with an economic incentive backed by modern technology. The demand of good communication skills in English is increasing day by day. English has become a sought after commodity. We teachers of English should strive to raise the discourse competency level of our learners of English language. Teaching of English has to be viewed as mastering of language skills and not s a portion to be covered.

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References

Krishnaswamy, N. The Story of English in India, Foundation Books, New Delhi, 2006.

Kapoor, Kapil. English in India: Issues and Problem, Academic Foundation, Delhi, 1991.

Littlewood, William. Teaching Oral Communication: A Methodological Framework, Blackwell Publishers, Oxford, 1992.

Methods of Teaching English (PGCTE), CIEFL, Hyderabad, 1996.

Rivers, W.M. Communicating Naturally in a Second Language, Cambridge University Press, 1983.

*ELTWeekly would like to thank Dr. Ravi Bhushan for contributing this research paper.

ELTWeekly Issue#21 1 Comment June 14th, 2009

Semiotic Approach and Its Contributions to English Language Learning and Teaching

By Sert, Olcay

Abstract

Semiotics is a progressing and promising discipline with its applications in many fields of study. As a bridge between semiotics and foreign language teaching (FLT), educational semiotics has started to attract attention of many scholars, English Language Teaching (ELT) instructors and teachers all over the world. It is obvious that the consideration of semiotic approach in FLT has promising results and may lead to long-term success in learning a foreign language with its applicable and pertinent techniques that are learner-centered. In this article, basic terminology of semiotics and its possible applications to foreign language learning settings are introduced in order to help teachers of English to have a heightened awareness of the semiotic approach.

Throughout the paper, it is claimed that the consideration of the semiotic signs of the target culture in teaching a foreign language is vital, since a language cannot be separated from its culture. (Contains 4 figures.)

[Abstract and title are provided in English and Turkish. Extended abstract provided by Uzun Ingilizce Ozet.]

Download the full paper in pdf format by visiting http://www.eric.ed.gov

ELTWeekly Issue#20 No Comments June 6th, 2009

The Ecology of Communicative Language Teaching: Reflecting on the Singapore Experience

By Zhang, Lawrence Jun

Source: Online Submission, Paper presented at the Annual CELEA International Conference (Guangzhou, China, Nov 11-13, 2006)

Publication Date: 2006-11-11

Pages: 14

Abstract

This paper addresses the ecology of communicative language teaching (CLT) by reflecting on the Singapore experience. It reviews how CLT was conceptualized, advocated and implemented in stages/phases as reflected in the different syllabuses by the Ministry of Education, Singapore.

In anchoring the discussion against a historical backdrop and examining the ecology and evolution of English language teaching in Singapore, it focuses on two English Language syllabuses published in 1991 and 2001 respectively.

It illustrates the operational issues in reference to the two syllabuses, with a focus on the ecology of such pedagogical innovations and how the ecological nature of CLT is mirrored in the syllabuses.

Highlighting issues such as mismatches between what the syllabus documents stipulate and what practitioners bring into English language classrooms and how success in implementation can be achieved when training is provided timely, it also discusses theory-practice connection and the integration issue that is most often debated in the teacher-education literature.

It concludes with a discussion of possible implications of the Singapore CLT experience for ELT in China. (Contains 1 table, 2 figures, and 1 footnote.)

To access the full paper, please visit: http://www.eric.ed.gov

ELTWeekly Issue#18 1 Comment April 28th, 2009

The Washback Effect of TEFL University Entrance Exam on Academic Behavior of Students and Professors

By Maleeheh Mousavi, Payamenour University & Mehrdad Amiri, Iranian Architectural Center

Abstract 

The present study was an attempt to investigate the washback effect of the Knowledge test of TEFL MA University Entrance Exam on students and professors. This section of TEFL MA UEE consists of three parts. They are related to the three areas of Linguistics, Testing, and Methodology. To this end, an observation checklist and two questionnaires, one for professors and the other one for the students based on the underlying theories of washback were developed. The questionnaires were answered by 32 professors and 210 students, in addition, 13 Linguistics, Testing, and Methodology classes were observed.  Finally, to find the answers to research questions, the Chi -square test and frequency analysis were performed through SPSS. The result indicated that TEFl MA UEE has weak washback on students and professors academic behavior.

1. Introduction

One of the issues which has attracted the attention of not only testers in the general education, but also language testers is the “effect of the test on teachers, students, and their classroom behaviors” (Alderson& Wal,1993. Hughes,1989) which is called backwash. Scholars like Alderson, Wall, Watanabe, Davis and … have worked on this phenomenon and investigated it from different perspectives ‘psychologically’ and ‘educationally’ since 1990’s.

Wantannabe (nd) has also found that “backwash is not a monolithic phenomenon and different factors such as the stake of test and the use of the tests’ score mediates the effect of it.

It should be, moreover mentioned that the intensity of the backwash of the tests depends on the social and educational use of the tests’ score. Cheng (1998) clarifies this issue by suggesting that the intensity of the washback may be a function of how high or low the stakes of the test are. That is, if the test is a low stake one, it will have a weak washback, and in case of being a high stake test, it will have a strong washback.  Luxia (2005) also states that there is a general consensus that high stake tests produce strong washback.  Bachman and Palmer (1996) defined high-stake decisions as “those decisions that are likely to have a major impact on the lives of large numbers of individuals, or on large programs”.   Since high stake tests are employed to make important decisions all over the world, researchers have conducted several researches in order to determine the backwash effect of these tests; Meanwhile, Studies on backwash and it’s consequences have recorded a poor score in Iran, a country with a centralized educational system in which almost all youngsters at various levels are highly influenced by the effects of high stake tests. The only available research carried out on high stake tests in Iran backs to 2005 by  Nikoopour who has investigated the washback effect of State and Azad University English major test on Iranian EFL candidates and high school EFL teachers. Not only did he consider the washback effect of NDEMT, but also he took into account the content and the form of NDEMT. Nikoopour has finally reported some 7 positive and 15 negative washback of NDEMT. The significant negative washback effects reported could be taken into account by the Iranian Ministry of Education in order to revise the test and bring about positive washback, the very point which has been almost totally neglected by the authorities.

Hence, the washback effect of Azad University TEFL MA UEE was investigated as a step in this direction in the present study.   

Doanload the full paper by clicking here: http://eltweekly.com/TEFL_University_Entrance_Exam.doc

 

ELTWeekly Issue#18 No Comments April 28th, 2009

Culture Influences on English Language Teaching

By Zhang, Xue-wei; Yan, Ying-jun

Abstract

It’s obvious that the teaching situation and teaching methods used in English Language Teaching (ELT) in China need to be changed to involve culture instead of language knowledge only. To further explain the importance of culture teaching, teachers need to know to what extent cultural background knowledge influences language learning and teaching, and how teachers can take advantage of that influence. To account for the roles culture plays in language learning and teaching, it is necessary to demonstrate the functions it may perform in the components of language learning and teaching, such as listening, speaking, reading, and translating. [This paper was supported by the Foundation of Harbin Institute of Technology at Weihai.]

To access the full paper, please visit: http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/Home.portal?_nfpb=true&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ELT&searchtype=basic&NARROWpubDateRangeTo=2009&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=kw&NARROWkeyword_search=ELT&NARROWExtSearch_FullText=true&pageSize=10&eric_displayNtriever=true&eric_displayStartCount=1&NARROWpubDateRangeFrom=0&_pageLabel=RecordDetails&objectId=0900019b80176aad&accno=ED497373&_nfls=false

ELTWeekly Issue#16 1 Comment April 17th, 2009