ELTWeekly Issue#15 Contents
By Tarun Patel
April 11th, 2009
ELTWeekly Issue#15, Tip of the week
By Tarun Patel
Pictures in the classroom
By Tarun Patel
Activity: Building a story
Select a picture of a person going to work. After showing the picture, ask the students to give a name to the individual.
Write the name on the board and make further notes of answers to the following questions.
Is he or she married?
Has he or she got any children?
How many?
What did he or she have for breakfast?
Where is he or she going?
What is he or she going to do?
Gradually build up a story about the person in the picture. Let the students tell the story, sentence by sentence. Make sure all the students participate.
You will have a story, created by the class, which all the students will be able to tell.
This activity is very good for building up spoken fluency and confidence. It also helps the students’ creativity and their need to listen carefully to each other.
ELTWeekly Issue#15, Worldwide ELT events
By Tarun Patel
The 2009 Asia TEFL International Conference, Thailand, August 7-9
The Asia TEFL International Conference Committee is now accepting presentation proposals for its7th conference to be held in Bangkok, Thailand. The official language for the conference, including presentations and submissions, is English. Under the Conference theme of “Collaboration and Creativity in English Language Teaching and Learning in Asia,” proposals are being accepted in the following content areas:
Subtopics (Content Areas)
The Conference Organizing Committee invites abstracts and presentation proposals on the following subtopics (content areas):
- Approaches and Methodologies
- Curriculum / Materials
- Distance Education
- Education / Language Policy
- International / Intercultural Communication
- Language Acquisition
- Material Writing and Design
- Multiple Intelligences and Learning Styles
- Teacher Education
- Teaching Young Learners
- Testing, Assessment, and Evaluation
- The Use of IT in Language Teaching
- Using Local Literatures in English or translations for teaching English
Types of Presentations
Presentations may be made in one of four forms:
- Colloquium (60 min.): Panelists (and audience) participate in the discussion.
- Workshop (60.): Audience actively participates in the presentation.
- Demonstration (30 min.): Presenter shows a technique to the audience.
- Research Paper Presentation (30 min.): Presenter reports research and results.
Speakers
Invited Speakers: Six to eight internationally renowned scholars will each give a 50-minute plenary presentation as well as a 30-minute concurrent session presentation. The Conference will also feature six or eight well-known speakers from the Asian region. These featured speakers will give 40-minute presentations on topics related to the Conference theme.
Registration Fees
Thailand TESOL members: US $100
Asia TEFL members: US $100
Non-members: US $110
For further details and pre-registration, please visit: http://www.asiatefl.org/2009conference/conference2.html
C/ESL 2009, Taiwan, May 16-17
The Language Center of National Central University has held the “Chinese/English as a Second Language Conference on Reading and Writing Instruction” bi-annually since 2003. We are pleased to announce that this, the 4th C/ESL Reading and Writing Conference (or C/ESL 2009), is the first to be an international conference. The invited and keynote speakers will be leading international scholars, and anyone who is interested in Teaching Chinese/English as a Second Language is cordially invited to the meeting.
Keynote Speaker: Carol A. Chapelle
Carol Chapelle is Professor of TESL/Applied Linguistics and Chair of the Cross-disciplinary Linguistics Program at Iowa State University. She has served as President of the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL), Editor of TESOL Quarterly, and Chair of the TOEFL Committee of Examiners. She is current Co-Editor of the Cambridge Applied Linguistics Series of Cambridge University Press. She is widely recognized as the pre-eminent scholar in the field of CALL.
Registration Dates:
from 2009/03/12 to 2009/05/01
*Due to the complicated application procedures to visit Taiwan, attendees from Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao should complete their registrations before April 15, 2009.
Registration Rates:
- Early Registration (3/12-4/15): Regular NT$1500, Student NT$600
- Registration between 4/16-5/01: Regular NT$2000, Student NT$800
LANGUAGE AND CULTURE: NEW CHALLENGES FOR THE TEACHERS OF EUROPE, Vilnius, Lithuania, October 8-9
THEMES:
- LANGUAGE TEACHING
- TEACHER TRAINING
- LINGUISTIC STUDIES
- INTERCULTURAL STUDIES
- LANGUAGE PROJECTS
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:
- MARIO RINVOLUCRI
EFL teacher, teacher trainer and writer at PILGRIMS, UK
mario@pilgrims.co.uk; www.pilgrims.co.uk; www.hltmag.co.uk - Dr. EMILIJA SAKADOLSKIS
Vice-president of the Lithuanian Education Council - Prof. Dr. ANNELIESE FEARNS
Expert in teaching foreign languages for specific purposes, co-author of „Handbuch des Fachsprachenunterrichts“
University of Applied Sciences, Konstanz, Germany - Prof. Dr. THIERRY LEBEAUPIN
Centre of Applied Linguistics, Besançon
ADDRESS:
5 Universiteto St.
Vilnius LT – 01513
Ph.: +370 5 268 72 63, +370 5 268 72 64
Fax.: +370 5 268 72 65
ORGANIZERS:
Institute of Foreign Languages,
Vilnius University
CONFERENCE FORMATS:
- Plenary speeches
- Presentations
- Workshops
- Speaker’s fee: € 90
- Visitor’s fee: € 15
ELTWeekly Issue#15, Cool ELT resources
By Tarun Patel
ELTgames.com ELTgames.com features 100 activities written by professional ESL/ELT writers. No downloading PDFs – just choose, print and go. Quick and easy to use, even over a dial-up connection. The games are written keeping the following areas in mind:
- Elementary GRAMMAR GAMES
- Pre-intermediate GRAMMAR GAMES
- Intermediate GRAMMAR GAMES
- Upper Intermediate GRAMMAR GAMES
- Elementary – intermediate CONVERSATION
- Intermediate – advanced CONVERSATION
Explore ELTgames.com at http://eltgames.com/
ESL Printables
ESL Printables is a website where English Language teachers exchange resources: worksheets, lesson plans, activities, etc.
Their collection is growing every day with the help of many teachers. If someone wants to download he / she has to send one’s own contributions too. Explore ESL Printables at http://www.eslprintables.com
Instant Ideas
Instant Ideas has been supplying a weekly pack of up-to-the-minute, authentic teaching materials covering topics of real interest since 1996.
The contents of the pack are written and prepared by TEFL professionals with over a decade of experience in the sector.
There is no contract to sign, no minimum membership period and no up-front payments. We rely on the quality of our product to keep clients, not legal documents.
Explore Instant Ideas at http://www.instant-ideas.com
ELTWeekly Issue#15, Subscriber space: Research article by Mukesh Modi
By Tarun Patel
Inducing Uniformality in ELT through DLL
By Mukesh Modi, Head, Dept. of English, D.M.Patel Arts and S.S.Patel Com. College, Ode. (Anand) Gujarat, India.
It’s only since recently that specialists and professionals are prepared in Indian Universities and colleges to teach English language to the varied degree of this large country. Most of the times, it is assumed, even today the practice is going on, unfortunately, even today. In most of the undergraduate colleges in India ‘General English’ or ‘Compulsory English’ is supposed and is taught by a degree holder in M.A. in English. Sometimes that M.A. in English might have studied one or two papers in Post-graduation on the theory, structure and usage of linguistic, grammar etc. But surely the emphasis is never on English Language Teaching as A Second Language or Foreign Language. And ironically most of the teachers in colleges have to teach English Language to vast number of students, which may include communication skills classes, again in which they are not systematically trained!
What are the areas of concern as a product of the existing phenomenon of teaching English by apparently non-professionals? How does the process of ELT suffer a major setback due to such state of reality? Following are some of the grave concerns and variations which imply that there is no ‘accepted uniformality’ in teaching ELT, and that is why Digital Language Laboratory is a call of the hour:
- Mostly, the general English classes are conducted to teach traditional English in isolation.
- English is taught as a subject, which it is not, and not as a skill.
- Some teachers take a luxury of wish-fulfillment of teaching a text with the zeal of a literature teacher ignoring the language aspect they are supposed to teach.
- Some teachers teach textbooks to teach the moral aspect only.
- Even the syllabus is designed in a way to deal with the written aspect of the language.
- Some teachers very religiously believe in completing the syllabus even at the cost of ignoring the basic tenets of imparting the skills of English.
- In very few classes, the emphasis is laid on the spoken part of the language. Sometimes even when it is done, it is done theoretically only. Sounds like teaching swimming on a terrace!
- Very few times the items taught in grammar are given the drills of applying in written or spoken form of the language.
In short, ELT is at the mercy of a growing up, environment, skills, attitude-aptitude, and beliefs etc of an individual teacher than relying on the systematization of the process which it should be.
Digital Language Laboratory comes here to play a huge role to induce uniformality in ELT which is a need of the hour. So many human hours have been wasted in trying to teach English through the methods which have never been systematic, and more importantly never been the successful one. The test lies in the simple test: how many of our graduates are able to be in communication in English after learning English for three years?
The skills of English, if imparted through DLL, can bring following make over in the area of ELT;
- First of all teachers of English will be turned into learning facilitator which will enhance the self-learning capacity of a pupil.
- There is a systematic pattern to be followed while teaching English through DLL.
- So there is a less place for the individual beliefs with reference to ELT in DLL atmosphere.
- There is availability and possibility of end number of practices and exercises in DLL format, in all the four departments of language- Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking, which can assure the fast and consistent learning.
- May not have the direct effect on ELT, but it can be assumed that the students particularly, from the rural background can be easily converted into technology loving lot.
- There will not be wasting of human hours in discussing the literariness of a text, which is very good but not in ELT class.
- Teaching becomes less and less. Learning becomes more and more.
- The syllabus will be a flexible phenomenon. As a student wants, the syllabus can be expanded into endless learning.
- And DLL does not require specially trained people.
- Still there is a scope for innovation on the part of the teacher. The more innovative the teacher is, the process would be livelier and output oriented.
- The most useful outcome of the technology is, as stated by Prof. Kamal Mehta: “Earlier, he (the teacher) was addressing all the students in the class simultaneously, now he can address all of them, some of them and even one of them at a time.”
- The learner autonomy is created in the DLL format of ELT. Research shows that students do not learn a language at the same speed. The levels of competence for the learners are also diversified.
- Through DLL, the shift from learning to e-learning is given speed and support.
- In DLL format Task-based Language Teaching(TBLT) has a wider scope than in the traditional format.
- Digital media/soft wares provide a variety of contents and delivery vehicles for diverse nature of learners to meet their requirements.
So in one and all DLL can be a very effective tool of teaching and learning English language to English as foreign language learners. By removing the idiosyncrasies of ELT, and not removing the innovativeness, it can induce the much needed uniformality in ELT. And what more, the students will be technology friendly in the process of learning.
References
Burns A. (2000) Starting All Over Again: From Teaching Adults to Teaching Beginners. Teacher Learning in Language Teaching. Cambridge: CUP. 1996.
Chakra borty, Prasanta. ‘Teaching-Learning Strategies in the English Class Room- Some Reflections’. The Journal of English Language Teaching. Vol.XLVI No. 6 Nov-Dec. 2008.
Choudhury, Anindya Syam. ‘Task-based Language Teaching: The Pedagogy of Learner-Centeredness’ The Journal of English Language Teaching. Vol.XLVI No. 1 Jan-Feb. 2009.
Ellis R. (1985). Understanding Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: OUP.
Mehta, Kamal. ‘Guest Editor’s Note’ Technology in ELT. VOL. 1 ISSUE 1 Jan. 2009 (http://ecchanga.ac.in/telt).
ELTWeekly Issue#15, Subscriber space: Research paper by Mohammad Bagher Shabani & Saeed Najafi Sarem
By Tarun Patel
The Study of Learning Strategies Used by Male/Female Monolingual and Bilingual Speakers as EFL Learners
By Mohammad Bagher Shabani & Saeed Najafi Sarem, llam University
Abstract
This study was an attempt to investigate the learning strategy use of monolinguals and bilinguals in approaching English as a foreign language. It is also an attempt to compare the strategy use of male and female bilinguals. For this purpose, 30 Persian-speaking monolinguals (15 males and 15 females) and 30 Kurdish-Persian speaking bilinguals (15 males and 15 females) were selected from among Iranian EFL learners studying English Literature at Ilam State and Azad universities. They were asked to fill out Oxford’s (1980, 1990) the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL). The result of the independent t-test revealed that there wasn’t any significant difference between the two groups in their strategy use. The results of the chi-square test also indicated that there was not any significant difference in the strategy use for individual items between the two groups except for three items. After that, running the independent t-test showed that the difference between male and female bilinguals’ strategy use was statistically significant in favor of male bilinguals. The use of separate t-tests for the six categories of the SILL indicated that the strategy use was again statistically significant in favor of male bilinguals. Then, the use of chi-square test showed that for 12 items on the SILL the difference between the strategy use of male and female bilinguals was statistically significant in favor of males.
Keywords: Language Learning Strategies (LLS), Monolingual, Bilingual
Click here to download / read the full paper
ELTWeekly Issue#15, Book of the week: Teaching Content to English Language Learners
By Tarun Patel
Teaching Content to English Language Learners
By Jodi Reiss
Book Description
Teaching Content to English Language Learners, by Jodi Reiss, shows content-area teachers how to transform second-language learning theories into useful tools for ensuring the success of their ELL students. The book’s three parts present easy-to-incorporate techniques to make content more accessible, strengthen vocabulary, and increase student participation. The book offers: *practical strategies for building on common classroom techniques and activities to increase teaching effectiveness for language-learning students *techniques to recognize cultural differences, develop alternative assessments, and adapt written assignments and oral language for ELLs *abundant models, graphics, and authentic examples that show how to help students build content-area fluency as well as general language skills
From the Back Cover
Teaching Content to English Language Learners, by Jodi Reiss, shows content-area teachers how to transform second-language learning theories into useful tools for ensuring the success of their ELL students. The book’s three parts present easy-to-incorporate techniques to make content more accessible, strengthen vocabulary, and increase student participation.
The book offers:
- practical strategies for building on common classroom techniques and activities to increase teaching effectiveness for language-learning students
- techniques to recognize cultural differences, develop alternative assessments, and adapt written assignments and oral language for ELLs
- abundant models, graphics, and authentic examples that show how to help students build content-area fluency as well as general language skills
- Paperback: 144 pages
- Publisher: Pearson ESL (November 26, 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0131523570
- ISBN-13: 978-0131523579
- Price: $34.67
This book goes along the same line of those books that tell you pre-made recipes on how to teach language. All the techniques and strategies presented don’t take the student’s perspective into concern. They are mostly teacher-oriented and may work for some situations but not for a changing climate like the language classrooms.
ELTWeekly Issue#15, Video of the week: How to Teach Basic Conversational English
By Tarun Patel
Teach basic conversational English to people by keeping things simple, practicing introductions that provide personal information and discussing topics relative to their homes and family. Teach English sentence structure, grammar and vocabulary with help from a teacher in this free video on education.
ELTWeekly Issue#15, Expert article: English Language Error Correction
By Tarun Patel
English Language Error Correction – A Key Language Skills Development Tool
A Lot of English Language Mistakes
English as a foreign language learners make a lot of mistakes in class, don’t they? Speaking, writing, grammar and spelling errors are practically way of life with teachers and learners alike. It’s a “healthy” problem though because with errors come corrections. And with correction comes learning. (J. D. Brown, 1988) The more errors learners make the more correction is done. The more correction is done, the more leaning that takes place. We most often learn much more from our mistakes than our successes. True or False?
Why Use Error Correction?
When learners are producing language I class, whether speaking or writing, they usually want to know when they make any serious mistakes in their production. Do your learners ever ask, “Teacher, is that okay?” Certainly, they most probably do. In that case then, some form or forms of error correction techniques should prove to be useful. While it’s not typically recommended to correct learner errors while they are speaking, some speech or pronunciation correction should be done immediately after their discourse. If many of the learners produce similar speech or pronunciation mistakes on a consistent basis, a lesson on that particular aspect may well be called for. English or other foreign language learners might also self or peer correct written work and reading in class. (M. Spratt, 2003)
Peer Correction vs. Self-Correction
There are essentially three basic forms of error correction:
• Self-correction
• Peer correction
• Teacher correction
Of these the most effective in English or foreign language skills acquisition is self-correction. When learners realize and correct their own mistakes, they are more effectively internalizing the language. The next most desirable and effective form is peer correction. When learners are able to recognize and correct their mistakes collectively, they actually help each other to develop English language skills with less interference of their respective Affective Filters. (Krashen-Terrell, 1983) Finally, there is correction of errors by the teacher. An effective means, but one that should be last and the least frequently used form of English or other foreign language correction. In cases where the EFL teacher may not be a native or near-native speaker, has grammar or pronunciation problems, heavy accent or speech traits or may otherwise desire to do so, recorded audio or video materials could be used to provide corrective modeling. (B. Kashru, 1983)
Identify the Errors and Correct
Just for fun, let’s try a few interesting examples. Can you identify and correct the tag question, modal and other errors in the following sentences? Also, the corrected sentences should be true.
Today is Wednesday, aren’t they?
It’s raining today, isn’t we?
She doesn’t have a book, do he?
He like coffee, do you?
Students should be allowed to fail exams.
Teachers must to study everyday.
Students can fail all their exams and pass the course, does he?
You don’t must to pay the university registration fee, can’t you?
Yesterday was Monday, isn’t they?
So, how well do you think you did? If you have any doubts or questions, feel free to contact me. Remember, the more errors learners make the more correction is done. The more correction is done, the more leaning that takes place. Let your learners know that making mistakes in English class is okay. Errors can be highly effective learning tools. We often learn much more from our mistakes than our successes, now don’t we?
Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an EFL Teacher Trainer, Intellectual Development Specialist, author and speaker. He has written ESP, foreign language learning, English language teaching texts and hundreds of articles used in more than 80 countries. Get your FREE E-books, English language teaching and learning information at: http://bettereflteacher.blogspot.com
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