Using the L1 in the EFL Classroom

Should you or shouldn’t you use the students’ first language (L1) in the classroom? This is one of the questions which most divides EFL/ESL teachers – whether they are for it or against it, there are few who don’t have a strong opinion about it.

The main argument against the use of the L1 in language teaching is that students will become dependent on it, and not even try to understand meaning from context and explanation, or express what they want to say within their limited command of the target language (L2) – both of which are important skills which they will need to use when communicating in the real situation.

But there are other, historical reasons why the use of the students’ mother tongue went out of favour. Initially it was part of a reaction against the Grammar-Translation method, which had dominated late 19th and early 20th century teaching, and which saw language learning as a means towards intellectual development rather than as being for utilitarian, communicative purposes. The Direct Method of the early 20th century reacted against this – it aimed at oral/aural competence and believed languages were best learnt in a way that emulated the “natural” language learning of the child – ie with no analysis or translation. The move away from L1 use was later reinforced by Audiolingualism (1940s-1960s) which saw language as a matter of habit formation. The L1 was seen as a collection of already established linguistic habits which would “interfere” with the establishment of the new set of linguistic habits that constituted the target language, and was thus to be avoided at all costs.

This theoretical opposition to the use of the L1 was compounded by the development of the TEFL “industry” – there are now many situations in which the teacher simply doesn’t speak or even understand the students’ language – for instance, teachers who move from country to country every year or so, or who are teaching multi-lingual classes in their (the teachers’) own country.

In the last thirty years or so, there have continued to be some methodologies which avoid the use of the L1 – Total Physical Response is one. But others, like Suggestopaedia and Counselling Language Learning, (1) have included it as an integral part of the methodology. Mainstream methodology, on the other hand, has had an ambivalent approach, coming down neither on one side nor the other but maintaining an “it depends” attitude.

Depends on what? The risk of creating L1 dependence is obviously valid, but there are also strong arguments for using the L1 if the teacher is able to do so:

• It can prevent time being wasted on tortuous explanations and instructions, when it could be better spent on language practice. With beginners, it may even allow the teacher to use activities which would be impossible to explain otherwise.
• It can be used contrastively to point out problem areas of grammar, false cognates etc. Various coursebooks, like Headway, now encourage students to translate model sentences into their own language in order to compare and contrast the grammar.
• Students’ receptive competence (their understanding) may be higher than their productive competence (their ability to use the language). In some circumstances the course objectives may even focus primarily on receptive competence, not expecting productive competence to reach an equivalent level – for example reading skills courses for student doctors who have to understand medical textbooks and journals in English. One way of letting students demonstrate receptive competence is by allowing them to respond using the L1. I have already mentioned the use of bilingual conversations (2) in a previous article, but students can also demonstrate receptive competence by discussing their understanding of a text in their L1. I use this frequently with beginners classes. After reading or listening I ask them to tell me what they understood (based on the pre-set task) in the L1. Once I’m sure they’re on the right lines I ask them to repeat what they said in English. In this way they don’t have to think about the answers themselves, and about how to formulate them in English, at the same time.
• It can be used with beginners for pre-lesson small talk which allows the teacher to get to know the students as people, and for discussions to explain the course methodology etc. In addition, beginners will be less tense if they know they can at least ask for, and possibly receive, explanation in the L1.
• When students are trying to say something but having difficulty, they can say it in their own language and the teacher can reformulate it for them (3), possibly rephrasing and simplifying to show them how they could have expressed themselves within the language they already know.
• If the teacher does not speak the students language, it can be useful for them (the students) to have a bilingual dictionary in the classroom so that they can double check their comprehension of lexical explanations.
• Some students need to combine the two languages – for example those whose jobs involve translation and interpreting. Translation is a skill which needs to be taught.

Sometimes then, the use of the L1 can be more productive than counter-productive. Whilst the aim should be to wean students off the L1 as soon as possible (I’ve talked previously about how this might be done when giving instructions (4)), it may still be extremely useful at certain stages.

Notice that not all the uses of the L1 listed above may involve the teacher in actually speaking the language. Some, like reformulation, only need her to understand. This can provide a sort of “middle way”. The students are re-assured by the fact that they can ask questions etc in their own language, but they are still stimulated to try and understand the teacher who is speaking only English. It can also be a useful approach for those teachers who have recently moved to a country and are starting to learn the language, but don’t yet feel fully confident in using it (which should make them appreciate how their students feel!)

What about the teacher with multi-lingual students who speaks some but not all the languages of her students? Should she ever use, or allow those students to use, the L1?

Again, there are strong arguments against it, the main one being that it could cause resentment amongst the others, who might see the teacher as giving extra help to her “favourites”. Two situations spring to mind where it could be useful, however. Firstly, if one of the students was particularly weak and tended to hold the class up. In this situation, while the rest of the class were working on a task, the teacher might check with that student that he had really understood the grammar, what he had to do, or whatever. The second possibility would be to explain activities which needed instructions above the current receptive competence of the students. In this case the teacher might explain the activity in the L1 of the students whose language she spoke, and then get those students to demonstrate the activity to the others. Used in this way, the students should appreciate that the teacher’s “special attention” was actually for the benefit of the whole class, and would be less likely to react negatively against it.

Notes

1.You can hear Sue discussing TPR, CLL and Suggestopaedia in a podcast on eslteachertalk

2. See Teacher Talking Time : Part Three

3. For another interesting article which discusses TTT in general and reformulation in particular, see this article by Vincent Ferrer

4. See Giving and Checking Instructions

Photo provided under Creative Commons Licence by brookesb via flickr

Teaching Exam-Based Writing Skills

Today’s guest writer is Jenny Bedwell. Jenny has been working in EFL for 10 years - mainly in Europe, but also with a short spell in Japan - teaching a full range of levels and ages in general English, as well as English for exams and business. Other experience has included teacher training and materials writing. She is now based in Barcelona where she works for the British Council. She also runs a website, IELTSuccess which provides practice for the Academic Writing section of the IELTS exam.

Getting students to participate in writing activities in class can be an arduous task. Despite our best efforts as teachers to make the prospect of writing a fun and collaborative activity, it is often met with groans of reluctance. This could be for a number of reasons. Perhaps students have had negative experiences of writing in the language classroom in the past, perhaps they see it as a waste of class-time, which could be better spent practising their oral skills, or perhaps they simply find writing a difficult and laborious task even in their first language. Whatever the reason, getting adult students motivated to write in class can be tough!

However, for teachers it can be very useful to monitor students writing in class. You are at hand to answer any language difficulties, give advice on how to structure sentences in a more natural way, provide vocabulary that students are lacking and generally be available to deal with individual needs as well as noting common problem areas. This is of great benefit to students too of course, much more so than receiving a marked piece of written homework covered in red pen!

Students who are studying for exams do tend to be slightly more motivated when it comes to writing in class but still often prefer to do the actual task for homework. The following activity ideas are ways in which we can teach the nuts and bolts of academic writing in an analytical way, illustrating a step-by-step approach that will hopefully show students the value of writing in the classroom without the pressure of simply being told to put pen to paper!

Each of the six activities focuses on a different writing task (formal letter; article; report; transactional letter; discursive essay) and one specific area (planning; layout; organisation; content; style; accuracy). However, the activities are fairly general and could be easily adapted to suit most task types.

Activity 1 – Comparing model texts/candidate answers (Report ~ Layout)

· Students look at 2-4 model texts (real candidate answers are ideal if you can get them) ranging in level from a fail to a strong pass.
· Students note the good and bad points about each answer and write comments under headings such as layout, organisation, content, style and accuracy. (You could easily focus on just one of these areas and discuss in more detail)
· Students share their comments with each other before looking at the real examiner’s comments if you have them. (Cambridge Exam Handbooks are a good source for these) Alternatively, you give the students your own opinion on the model texts.

Rationale ~ students get a good idea of what examiners are looking for and learn how to avoid making common mistakes while also picking up tips on good examples of language.



Activity 2 – Register Transformation (Formal letter ~ Style)

· Students receive a formal letter which has several phrases written in the wrong register, ie informal/slang.
· Students identify which phrases they think are unsuitable for a formal letter and underline them.
· Then, they try and rewrite the phrases using a more formal style of language.
· Finally, students choose the correct answers from a list provided.

Note: You can make this activity more communicative by dividing the class into two groups and giving each group a different letter to work on. When they have rewritten their phrases they pair up with a student from the other group who has the answers for their letter and vice versa.

Rationale ~ students are made aware of differences in register and appropriacy of language, while building up a stock of suitable phrases they can use in formal letters.



Activity 3 – Error Correction (Transactional letter ~ Accuracy)

· Divide class into three groups (each group will focus on a different area for correction – spelling, vocabulary or grammar).
· Each group will look at an example letter which contains 10 mistakes (tell them that all the mistakes are either spelling, vocabulary or grammar).
· First, students identify what type of mistakes are contained in their letter and then they work together to try and correct them. (Each group has the same letter but the mistakes are different).
· After a set time limit, regroup the students so that there is one person present from each of the original groups. They compare their letters and in doing so they find the answers to the mistakes they have corrected.

Note: This works particularly well if you have carefully selected errors which are often made by your students.

Rationale ~ students are made aware of common errors and learn the invaluable lesson of self-correction.



Activity 4 – Topic Sentences (Discursive Essay ~ Organisation)

· Students are given a set of topic sentences taken from a model composition.
· They work in pairs to put the sentences in a logical order.
· Then, students are given the missing paragraphs from the composition.
· They match the paragraphs with the topic sentences.
· Finally, they compare their order with the model text in a class round-up.

Note: To make this a longer activity you could have 4 sets of topic sentences/paragraphs which students pass around the class, taking turns to complete the activity.

Rationale ~ students are made aware of how topic sentences function to produce a logical, coherent set of ideas.



Activity 5 – Removing irrelevant details (Article ~ Content)

· Students are given a list of sentences each with an extra word which is not necessary. They have to identify which words needs to be omitted.
· Then, students look at an exam question and a list of points relating to that question. They have to decide which points are not really relevant and which they would therefore not include in their answer.
· Then, students are given a model text containing superfluous sentences which they have to identify and omit due to their irrelevance. Each time, they have to justify their decision.

Rationale ~ students are made aware of the need to be selective in the details they choose in order to present their ideas clearly and concisely.



Activity 6 – Guided brainstorming (Any text type ~ Planning)

· After reading an exam question students brainstorm all related vocabulary on the given topic. This could also include a list of expressions used for making suggestions or giving opinion, depending on the text type. (Content/Style)
· Then, they make a list of key points that they need to include in their answer. (Content)
· Then, they organise the content under suitable headings depending on the layout of the text type. This could be a simple paragraph plan including an introduction and a conclusion for a discursive essay. (Layout/Organisation)
· When students have a comprehensive plan of what they are going to include, they are ready to write their answer.

Rationale ~ to get students into the habit of planning their answer before they start writing to ensure it is well-structured and logically ordered.
Conclusion


By using this very guided approach to exam writing it is hoped that some of the fear that students feel when faced with a blank piece of paper and told to write will be removed.

All of the activities are intended to facilitate each stage of the writing process, from planning a first draft to editing the final answer. By analysing both good and bad model texts, students are made aware of what examiners are looking for and can learn to avoid common errors.

The overall aim is to provide the students with a solid framework from which they can construct their answer and to encourage useful exam techniques such as planning and self-correction. As students become more familiar with the various structures of different text types they will feel more comfortable in approaching written exam tasks. As a result, they are then able to focus their attention on expanding their range of vocabulary and improving their grammatical accuracy.


Acknowledgement

Photo provided under Creative Commons Licence by topgold via flickr



Recommended Reading

Harmer, J. How to Teach Writing, Pearson

Colour Idioms

Here's the next in our Language Snippets series of brief activities that you can use as fillers at the beginning or end of the lesson, or just if something "comes up" in the course of other work.
This activity could be done in various ways. If students have met colour idioms before, it could be used as a quick revision test. However, if they haven't, how can it be used to help them discover the idioms?

Firstly, you could ask them to read the sentences and discuss with their partner what colour they would expect to fill the blank, by comparison with their own language and the colours it associates with emotions, or by the logical meaning of the idiom (for instance, if someone is pale, then it is logical that the colour might be white), and then elicit their ideas and confirm the answers. However, with some, for example no.8, they may have no reason to prefer one colour over another. Alternatively, therefore, you could ask them initially to try and guess, but then to check the colours in a dictionary which includes idiomatic expressions. They can look first at the colour which they imagine to be the answer, but if they don't find the expression there, look at others. Again, at the end you would elicit and confirm the answers.

Colour Idioms

Colours are often used in idiomatic expressions in English. Here are some common expressions and their meanings - but the colours are missing. Can you guess what they are? You sometimes need to use the same colour more than once.

Example : I saw red = I got very angry

1. I was ......................... with envy = I was very envious
2. What's the matter? You look ................... as a sheet = You look very pale
3. I was tickled ....................... when I heard the news = I was really happy
4. It came out of the ........................... = It was a surprise
5. I’m really ..............ed-off about it = I’m really fed up, annoyed about it.
6. Suddenly she ..........................ed out = Suddenly, she fainted
7. He has ............................ fingers = He can grow plants successfully

8. It only happens once in a .............. moon = It only happens very occasionally
9. This is a .................. opportunity which we mustn't miss = a very good opportunity10. I was in a ........................ funk = I was very scared


Answers : 1. green 2. white 3. pink 4. blue 5. brown 6. black 7. green 8. blue 9. golden 10. blue

Postscript

I noticed that this article had been mentioned on the forum of thorntree.lonelyplanet and several people hadn't heard of browned-off or blue funk. So I decided to check and googled them both to check that they were current. I was looking for uses from the year 2000 onwards.

Browned off came up a lot in British journalistic contexts. It was often used in headlines as a play on words in articles about Gordon Brown : Blair browned off with Gordon - that sort of thing. But it did occur in other contexts too. And then I did a blog search, and it comes up a lot in blog writing too.

A lot of blog writers also find themselves in a blue funk. But looking at the entries, something that was suggested on the forum but which I hadn't known before was obvious : it has different meanings in US and UK English. The British blog writers were using it as I suggested to mean scared, but in American English it means to be depressed.

Notes

Photo provided under Creative Commons Licence by fooosco via flickr

Further reading 

Webb and Nation, How Vocabulary is Learned, Oxford


 

(Don't forget that Amazon often have both new and used copies of the books you want at prices much lower than those shown here. Click on the link to check.)

Setting Objectives : Part Two

If you are following a training course, such as the CELTA or DELTA, you will be asked to write out your lesson objectives as part of the lesson plan you present before your teaching practice. Why is this necessary? Firstly because your tutor needs to understand what is in your mind, exactly what you are trying to do, in order to be able to evaluate whether the lesson was appropriate for the students and how well you succeed in doing what you wanted to. But even more important, writing out your objectives (as with all the other sections of the lesson plan) forces you to clarify your own ideas. If you have difficulty formulating a clear and precise objective (and don’t worry, everyone does!), it’s often a sign that you haven’t really thought through what you want to achieve in the lesson.

What are the different types of objective which may be included in the lesson ? Those that spring immediately to mind are language system objectives (functional/structural, lexical, phonological) and skills objectives. Here are some examples :

Functional/Structural Objectives

• Students will be able to talk about past events with a present result using the present perfect simple
• Students will be able to make polite requests for action using Would you mind + Ving

Lexical Objectives

• Students will consolidate and extend their knowledge of lexis associated with crime and the police : robbery, fraud, a trial, to be tried …, to be charged with … to be sentenced … etc
• Students will understand the use of the prefix over- with adjectives and verbs to mean too much : overweight, overtired, overcook, oversleep etc.

Phonological Objectives

• Students will be able to distinguish receptively and productively between the phonemes /k/ and /g/
• Students will be able to produce the rising then falling tones of questions offering closed alternatives : Is he French or Spanish? Is her name Louise or Luisa?

Skills Objectives

• Students will consolidate their ability to infer unknown words from context in a reading text.
• Students will start to develop the ability to “listen between the lines” to infer implicit but not explicitly stated information.
• Students will consolidate their ability to use circumlocution strategies to explain words which they don’t know in English.
• Students will be able to recognise and produce topic sentences for paragraphs in a text discussing the advantages and disadvantages of a particular thematic area.

Objectives are not always fully clear without knowledge of the teacher’s assumptions. For example the objective focusing on the present perfect. Have the students already met other uses of the present perfect? If so, then obviously the teacher can assume knowledge of the structure itself and needs to focus only on the new use. If not, then the focus must include the structure – the use of Have auxiliary + the past participle, and the negative and interrogative patterns.

However, the lesson may also have other objectives concerned not so much with what the students learn but rather with how they learn. These objectives may focus for example on learning strategies, or affective variables and classroom culture :

• Students will be discuss five different methods of recording vocabulary in their vocabulary notebooks and evaluate their effectiveness for promoting learning.
• Students will start to get to know each other as people and to develop a group identity.
• Students will start to get used to changing seats and partners regularly during the lesson.

What traps do teachers often fall into when formulating objectives? Each of the following objectives illustrates one or more common problems. See if you can identify them before you read the analysis which follows.

• To teach the present continuous
• Students will learn question tags
• Students will do a roleplay

Let’s look at the first objective : To teach the present continuous. Two problems here. Firstly, it’s very imprecise. Which functions of the present continuous – temporary on-going events or future arrangements. And which forms – affirmative? negative? interrogative? short forms? The second problem is the verb to teach. Stated like that, I could lecture to a group of teddy bears and still claim to have reached my objective. Objectives need to focus not on what you do but on what the students will learn.

So is the second objective OK? No. Learn is still too imprecise. What does it mean – understand the meaning when they see or hear the tags, or be able to use them appropriately themselves? And again, which question tags are we talking about – those used to invite confirmation (It’s cold today, isn’t it?) those used when the speaker is genuinely not sure (What do you mean you’re going to the hospital. Your appointment’s tomorrow, isn’t it? ) or those used when the speaker is being ironic or confrontational (Oh, so I’m a fool, am I?) Not only does the use differ but so do the structural and intonation patterns of the three types.

What about the third? This is actually not a lesson objective at all but an activity. The objective is not the roleplay itself but the language or skills the students will consolidate by doing it.

Once you know what your objectives are, you can start to think about how you need to stage the lesson in order to reach them. We'll look at this in the next article in this occasional series on lesson planning.

Notes

Photo provided under Creative Commons Licence by Dyl-tron! via flickr

Further Reading ...

Woodward, T. Planning Lessons and Courses CUP

Setting Objectives : Part One

Why do you need to set objectives (or aims - I am not here making any distinction) for your courses and your lessons? Well, if you don’t know where you’re going, it’s very hard to decide how to get there. In this article we’ll look at how you might decide the objectives for your classes, and what you need to keep in mind while you’re doing so. Course objectives If you’re using a coursebook, then the syllabus of the book will probably provide the core of your course objectives. But it’s unlikely that you’ll find a coursebook which will exactly match the needs of the group. Your job becomes one of evaluating, adapting and supplementing what is already provided. Obviously, when choosing the coursebook one of the things you need to take into consideration is whether it is in general right for the students – is it at the right level, does it cover the language and skills which they need using contexts and topics relevant to them? To do this you will need information : at the beginning of the course a level test and needs analysis questionnaire will help you find out about your students and to see how well a particular coursebook meets their needs and where you’ll need to omit or supplement. As the course progresses your knowledge of them will increase and you may need to refine the course objectives further. The type of questions you might be asking yourself include : At this level I’d expect them to know the present continuous is used for future arrangements. But the level test shows that a lot of them are still making mistakes. Does the coursebook provide a revision activity fairly early on ? ; Four out of the seven have frequent contact with Americans while the other three need British English. Does the coursebook include examples of both?; Most of them have to write E-mails in English. Is this covered? My learners are Finnish and have difficulty distinguishing between /k/ and /g/. Is there work on this? Lesson Objectives Given the overall course objectives, you then need to plan each individual lesson so as to ensure that they are gradually reached. This doesn’t of course mean just dividing the course objectives by the number of lessons and ticking off the items as “done” after each class. When setting objectives you need to consider :

• What has gone before. Each lesson will need to balance the recycling of previously taught material – if this is not done items will easily be forgotten – with new items. For example, a beginner level lesson focusing on the infinitive of purpose might start by recycling place names (supermarket, garage, post office, library etc) in an activity where students match flashcard pictures and words, go on to incorporate these names with the present continuous ( each student has a flashcard – they have to ask and answer Where are you going? I’m going to the supermarket.) in order to find the other person in the class who’s going to the same place, and only finally use the same context to introduce the infinitive of purpose (Where are you going? I’m going to the supermarket to buy some milk / … to the library to change some books etc). The lesson has therefore included two recycling objectives and one new item.
• Assumed Knowledge. Recycling will involve you thinking about your assumptions for the lesson. If you are recycling something as the basis for introducing a new item, how sure are you that your students will remember it and therefore how important is it as an objective? There will be times when recycling is the main objective for the lesson – for example, if at intermediate level you decide to bring together all the ways that learners have previously met of referring to future events. At other times, you may be pretty sure that the students will remember and be able to use the recycled items – but only if you include a focus activity before you attempt to combine them with other material. In this case, they will probably form a secondary objective of the lesson. And finally, you may be sure that the student’s will be able to use the recycled item without any specific prior focus. In this case the item is Assumed Knowledge. Keep in mind, however, that if your assumption is wrong, it could destroy the whole lesson. If in doubt, it’s always best to include an activity focusing on just that item first.
• What will come next. In some lessons you may wish to introduce something because you know it will provide a useful basis for what is coming later. For example, if you are teaching a course where the present simple precedes the present continuous, you might decide to insert a lesson on likes and dislikes (love/like/hate etc + Ving) in the middle because having the students meet the –ing form in this context, and learn the names of a variety of activities, will make it easier to introduce the present continuous later.
• How limited should the objectives be ? They need to be limited enough both to fit into the timescale of the lesson, and to avoid creating overload for the students, but not so limited that the students go away feeling that they’ve not achieved much in the lesson. Learning is like eating – too much at one time produces indigestion, but not enough causes dissatisfaction. If you’re introducing the present simple for instance, trying to deal with the affirmative, negative and interrogative all in one lesson would almost certainly create overload. But that doesn’t mean that the affirmative needs to be your only objective. It may well be introduced in the context of a lexical area that needs to be taught first, providing another objective for the lesson.
• Variety. This last example focuses on another aspect of setting objectives – the need for variety. A lesson which focuses on one thing and one thing only risks becoming boring. To go back to our eating analogy, you may like chocolate gateau but you don’t necessarily want it for all three courses. This is a particular risk with specific types of lesson – lessons which focus entirely on phonology are, in my experience, rarely successful (though there are exceptions to every rule.) But in general, a mix of different types of objective usually provides for a more balanced and enjoyable lesson.
• Anticipated problems. When you’re defining your objectives you need to think not only about what you want to teach, but also the problems which each item will create for your students and what you need to do about it. For example, if your objective focuses on place names : library, garage, railway station, pizzeria, etc the words would create different problems depending on who you were teaching. If you were teaching French, Italian, Spanish or Portuguese learners, one problem you would have to face would be students presuming that library meant bookshop, because of the existence of a false cognate in their own language. If you were teaching Japanese learners, the problem would be the /l/ and /r/ sounds which the words contain.

In the next part of this article, we’ll look at the different types of objective which you might want to include in your lesson, and how they might be written out in a lesson plan.

Acknowledgement

Photo provided under Creative Commons Licence by CaptPiper via flickr

Teacher Talking Time : Part Three

In the first part of this article we looked at some of the disadvantages of too much “traditional” teacher talk in the classroom, and in particular the way that it will inevitably distort natural discourse patterns. Classroom discourse has rules of its own, which are not those of normal conversation.

In the second part we looked at listening, and some of the disadvantages of using recorded materials. I also suggested that Teacher Talk Listenings (TTLs) can be a way of overcoming these problems. The main reasons were :

• TTLs overcome the additional difficulties encountered by students when trying to listen to tapes which may be of inadequate acoustic quality and provide no visual contextual clues to aid comprehension.


• TTLs allow the listener (the students) to interact in a manner natural to conversation, asking for clarification, commenting on what has been said, even changing the subject. This is in complete contrast to “traditional” classroom discourse, and suggests that rather than throwing teacher talk out of the window, we simply have to change the way it is used.


• TTLs allow the teacher to “roughly-tune” the input the students are receiving – if s/he sees that they have not understood a new expression s/he can rephrase, define, indicate a contextual clue (eg point to an object) etc to ensure the input is comprehensible.


• Because the students know (and are hopefully interested in) the teacher, listening to him/her talking about real issues may be more motivating than “eavesdropping” on complete strangers talking about people, places or events which have no personal interest for the students.

Below there is a list of various TTL activities, suitable for or adaptable to various levels and types of student.

• Anecdote telling has already been discussed in a previous article, and I won’t repeat it here except to point out that the anecdote doesn’t have to be an uninterrupted monologue. Students can be encouraged to interact in the following ways :
  
  Tell the students that there will be at least five words in your story which they don’t understand. When one of those words comes up you expect them to interrupt and ask for clarification. Teach them how to do this using phrases like What does XXX mean? What do you mean by XXXX? Sorry, I didn’t catch that Sorry – you’ve lost me. What did you say about XXXX? This in fact can be done even if you are using a recorded conversation. When the student interrupts, the teacher pauses the recording  and then acts as the speaker, rephrasing or otherwise clarifying what was said.
  
  To encourage participation in the development of the conversation, tell students that you’re going to tell them a story – which can be an anecdote or simply an account of what you did at the weekend - a line at a time. After every line you’re going to pause and won’t go on until they’ve asked a question. For example, you start I wasn’t in (your town) this weekend and then pause. Once one of the students has asked Why not? Or Where were you? you answer and continue, pausing every time there is a question which can be asked. Once the students have done this on several occasions and have understood that you want them to punctuate your stories with questions, you can stop pausing and just tell them that you expect to be interrupted at least five times during the story.
  
  With more advanced classes, you can use the same technique to teach topic changing. Start telling your story but at certain points pause. Don’t go on until one of the students has said something like That reminds me of a time when I …… or My husband did that too when …. Again, once the students are used to the technique, stop pausing and tell them you expect at least five interruptions. As with the phrases asking for clarification, these topic change phrases need to be taught first. This can be done by analysing a recorded conversation which models them, or you can include them in the conversation if you…
  
  ..... Invite another teacher into your classroom and have a conversation in front of the students. This allows them to see native speakers interacting naturally but talking about issues which have some personal relevance for them.


• Storytelling. I usually use short stories, but if you wanted to and had the time you could also tell your students the story of a whole novel, in instalments as the course progressed. You can incorporate any of the interactive activities I described above into your story telling listenings (as in fact you can in any of the activity types that follow), or you can also allow the students to help create the story.This works in the following way: the teacher divides the students into pairs and tells them that she’s going to tell them a story. At certain points in the story s/he pauses and asks them to discuss something with their partner – to decide what a character who has just been introduced looks like (a good activity if you’ve just been working on describing people) or what the place where the story takes place is like, to decide what a character is thinking about, what is going to happen next etc. After the students have had time to discuss in pairs, the teacher asks for their ideas, chooses the version which fits the story (or if there isn’t one that’s suitable says, No, none of you have guessed. In fact … and then provides another version before continuing. I often use adapted and updated Sufi stories (1) for this. Here’s one of my favourites, The Mexican and the Bicycle :
  A policeman was working on the border between Mexico and the United States (Describe the policeman) when, one day, a Mexican arrived on a bicycle. (Describe the Mexican) The man had a large bag on his back (Describe the bag), and the policeman was sure that he was smuggling something, so he asked him to open the bag. (What do you think was inside?)
  
  But inside the bag there was only sand. The policeman poured all the sand onto the ground, but there was nothing else in the bag, (So what did he do?) and so he let the man go.
  
  For the next few years this happened two or three times a week. The Mexican arrived on a bicycle and was always carrying a bag of sand. The policeman became more and more convinced that the man was smuggling something, but he could never find out what it was. (Why do you think the man was always carrying the bag of sand?)
  
  Years later, after the policeman retired, he was drinking in a bar one evening (Describe the bar) when the Mexican came in. The policeman bought him a drink (What were they drinking?) and, while they were sitting and chatting together, said “Come on, you can tell me now. I’m retired and it doesn’t matter any more. I know that for all those years you were smuggling something. What was it?”
  
  The Mexican looked at him, smiled, and said (What did he say?) “Bicycles.”

• Describe and … games can also be used as TTLs. In Describe and Identify the teacher shows the students about ten similar pictures – see those in the article Five Picture Games for an example. The teacher describes one of them, starting with the features common to most of the pictures and gradually narrowing it down until only one is possible. For example for the same pictures illustrating the game Why are they the same? in the previous article the teacher might say : OK, this is a scene at a lake. There’s a man in the picture. He’s fishing. But he isn’t alone. His little boy is with him and he’s teaching him how to fish. The little boy is about five. He’s got red hair, and he’s wearing sunglasses, a blue T-shirt and a lifejacket. The students have to listen and identify the picture being described.
  In Describe and Draw on the other hand, the teacher describes a picture which the students can’t see. They have to listen to the description and draw what they hear. At the end they compare their versions with the original picture. Both these activities can be done either as TTLs in their own right, or as a warm-up to a pair or group work activity in which the students each take a turn in describing a picture while the others complete the comprehension task.


• If the teacher understands the students’ language, bi-lingual conversations are another possibility. The teacher starts a conversation, for example What did you do at the weekend? and continues with related questions Did you have a good time? What was the weather like? Was there much traffic on the roads? etc. The student’s task is to understand the questions, but s/he replies in his/her own language. This can be very useful at elementary level, where the students are able to understand or to speak – but not yet to do both at the same time. And it’s not an unnatural activity – the same thing happens frequently in business and professional contexts. I once attended a conference attended by about twenty French, German and British participants. The first thing we had to decide on the first morning was what language we were going to operate in. On discovering that we all understood the three languages but all felt happier at the idea of speaking our own, we decided to do just that. We spent three days in trilingual discussions, and it was one of the best conferences I’ve ever attended. I’ve heard of the same thing happening frequently at meetings concerned with European Community projects.

This is obviously not an exhaustive list of TTL activities. There are many, many more and if you use one which you feel works particularly well please leave a comment describing it. But the list should serve to show that listening in the classroom does not have to depend on the use of the tape recorder. There are other types of listening activity which can equally well be used.

Notes

1. For a collection of folktales and Sufi stories of this type, see www.storyarts.org. This site, intended for mother-tongue teachers, provides not only a library of stories (my favourites include The Boatman and The Purse of Gold) but also a rationale for using storytelling in education and suggestions for lessons and activities which can often be adapted to the ESL/EFL classroom.

Photo provided under Creative Commons License by Lydia Mann via flickr

Teacher Talking Time : Part Two

In the first part of this article I looked at the reasons why teacher talking time (TTT) can be counterproductive if used to excess and unthinkingly. But there’s another side to the coin : used intelligently TTT can also be a useful aid to learning. How?

Firstly, several of the things we mentioned previously as being positive aids to learning, involve TTT. Elicitation, for example, which can be used effectively to lead students to make their own discoveries about the language.

TTT may also be the most efficient way, in terms of time, to get a point across. Instructions and set-ups for activities are an obvious example, but also language explanations. If a new word comes up during an activity, it may be quicker for the teacher to explain than for students to use their dictionaries.

Students, especially at the beginning of a course, may expect lessons to be entirely teacher-led. The teacher then has to decide the best approach : to throw them in at the deep end of a student-centred classroom – which may create negative reactions – or to ease them in gently?

If the students are learning outside an English-speaking country, the teacher is the probably their best source of what Stephen Krashen (1) has called “roughly tuned input”. The idea behind “roughly-tuned input” is that language is acquired by exposure to discourse which is comprehensible to the learner but one step above his/her current productive competence – it contains elements which can be understood from the context but which the learner cannot yet produce accurately. It is by encountering and processing this new language in a context which ensures that it is comprehensible that the item will be assimilated.

The teacher may be the only person who can provide this type of “caretaker speech” for the students. Even if the students are in contact with other native speakers, “ordinary” English-speakers often have great difficulty speaking to non-native speakers in a simple, yet natural way. An example I noticed recently was of a native speaker talking to an Italian elementary level learner. In an attempt to speak “simply” the native-speaker conscientiously knocked out of her speech all the Latin based verbs in favour of phrasal verbs. At one point, for instance, she had clearly intended to say arrive but hesitated, thought about it, and replaced it with turn up.

The concept of the “silent period” – the idea that learners need a certain amount of receptive exposure to the language before they are ready to produce it – also stems from Krashen’s work. One methodology which uses this idea is TPR, which I discussed briefly in the article Receptive Practice Activities. TPR activities are perhaps a good example of the conscious use of TTT to provide the learner with both a silent period and comprehensible input.

Whether or not you wish to take Krashen’s ideas fully on board, teacher talk can be an excellent source of listening comprehension practice. I argued in Part One of the article that too much TTT, or TTT of the wrong type, can be counter-productive for the development of the speaking skill. On the other hand, used intentionally, it can be a very useful aid to developing listening ability.

The development of the listening skill is usually thought of as involving listening to taped texts, whether on audio-tape, CD, DVD or video. This type of listening is obviously necessary. It is often the easiest way that students can be exposed to different voices and accents, interaction between native speakers, and fully authentic speech. But recordings also have a number of disadvantages. Firstly, it is ironic that the main medium we have for presenting interaction is the very one which precludes the student from interacting – a recording won't reply if you interrupt it. In real life, we rarely sit and listen to other people’s conversations. We participate - if we don’t understand we ask for repetition or clarification, if we get bored we change the subject, and so on. Even when watching TV, if something isn’t clear we will frequently turn to another person in the room and ask, and if the programme isn’t interesting we’ll simply turn off.

Secondly, acoustic problems, and poor equipment quality or recording quality may make listening to the recording more difficult than the real life experience. Unless video/DVD is used, the difficulty is heightened by the lack of visual clues – the listener can’t see where the conversation is taking place, what the speakers are looking at, their facial expressions and gestures, and so on. All of these, in the real situation, will aid comprehension.

Another factor adding to the level difficulty of the taped text may be that the conversation is distanced from the personal concerns of the students. They don’t know (or care) about the speakers, and very often have no real interest in the things they are talking about.

These factors won’t all be problematic all the time of course. But the additional challenge they create, and their potential for demotivating the student, needs to be taken into consideration.

Teacher-talk listenings (TTLs) can get round a lot of these problems. Examples of activities which can be used include story and anecdote telling, dictations, interactive activities, and games like Describe and Identify, Describe and Draw, and Describe and Arrange, all of which I will talk about in more detail in the next and final part of the article.

Notes

1. For a more detailed though critical account of Krashen’s work, see this article by Peter Cullip.

Photo provided under Creative Commons Licence by Susan NYC via flickr

Teacher Talking Time : Part One

At one time teacher talking time (TTT) was seen as being inevitably counterproductive and something to be limited as much as possible. Why? There are five main arguments against it :

• A large amount of TTT necessarily limits the amount of STT (student talking time). For example, in a 60 minute class, if the teacher is talking for a total of 45 minutes, that leaves only fifteen minutes left for the students. If there are ten in the class, they’ll get only 90 seconds each to speak. Many activities, however, do not need to be teacher led – pair work (PW) or group work (PW) can be used instead. A practice activity might be set up in T/class mode, demonstrated in open pairs (students doing the activity in front of the class), and done in closed pairs (all the students working at the same time).
• A large amount of TTT inevitably means long stretches of time in T/class mode. This is uninvolving for students and is likely to lead to a drop in concentration and in pace. The lesson becomes boring and students “switch off”. To prevent this, activities and interaction patterns (T/class,PW,GW, IW) need to be be varied. How much class time can usefully be spent in T/class mode will depend on factors such as the students, the time of day, and what is being taught, but a useful rule of thumb guide is to set an absolute maximum of 30% of any one lesson, and no more than 10 minutes at a stretch.
• TTT often means that the teacher is “telling” the students things that they could be working out for themselves - for instance grammar explanations and corrections. Apart from the fact that concentration may well wander half way through the explanation, monologue gives the teacher no real clue as to whether the students have understood. This can be avoided by using elicitation rather than explanation – the teacher asks pointer questions rather than simply telling, allowing the students to formulate the rules for themselves. If students are presented with clear examples and guiding questions, they often do not need to be “told”. Discovering grammar in this way is liable to mean deeper understanding and ultimately more successful learning. Organising the activity as pair work rather than T/class work also means that all the students have the chance to work on the new language, and not just the quicker ones who get the answer immediately and “tell” the others.
• The work done by researchers such as Coulthard and Brazil on discourse analysis made it clear that T/S discourse is always distorted by the role imbalance of teacher and student – the teacher is expected to take the lead in initiating the topic, allocating turns, evaluating comments etc, while the student merely responds. A typical piece of classroom discourse might go something like : T : Right. (indication of change of topic) Can you turn to page 99 and look at the picture (instructs) What sport is that? (initiates discourse topic) Paola? (allocates speaking turn) S : Tennis (responds) T : Yes, tennis. Good. (evaluates) If students are constantly kept in T/class mode or if the teacher participates in PW or GW, there is a very high probability that the discourse will follow this sort of pattern. But this, as researchers such as Crystal and Davy, and Brown and Yule have shown is very different from the structure of normal conversation, where participants have equal rights and need to be able to carry out all the different moves in the discourse. PW and GW without teacher intervention is therefore essential for developing the speaking skill.
• If the teacher is constantly dominant and controlling, student autonomy is minimised. Students take no responsibility for their own learning but learn what the teacher decides and when. Several methodologies of the last twenty five years or so (for example, CLL and Dogme, which I will discuss in more detail in future articles) have questioned whether this sort of “imposed syllabus” can produce results and have attempted to turn the situation on its head, giving learners full responsibility for the language produced and analysed in the classroom.

Is TTT always counterproductive however? In the second part of this article we’ll look at when it can be useful, and ways it can be used productively in the class.

Notes

1. For a more detailed analysis of classroom discourse, with references for the work of the researchers I have mentioned and many others, see this article by Moritoshi.

Even If and Even Though

Learners are often confused about when they should use even if and when they need to say even though. Look at the examples : what’s the difference?

1a. I didn’t take the job, even though they offered me twice my current salary.
1b. I like my work, even though I have to work till nine thirty in the evening.
1c. He went out, even though it was still raining.

2a. I wouldn’t take the job even if they offered me twice my current salary.
2b. Don’t tell John I’m here, even if he says it’s urgent.
2c. I’m going out later, even if it’s still raining.

Even though introduces a fact – they offered me twice my salary, I have to work until 9.30 in the evening, it was still raining. It could be substituted by the expression despite the fact that. Logically, even though can never be used with future events, as the future is never factual.

Even if, on the other hand, usually introduces something which is not a fact. It may be completely hypothetical as in 2a , where the speaker doesn’t really think that they will offer her twice her salary, or just a possibility – maybe John will say it’s urgent or maybe he won’t; it might still be raining or it might not. It could be replaced in the sentence by whether or not.

Even if is sometimes used to replace even though when talking about factual events, with the meaning whether or not it's true or it doesn't make any difference if : Even if he's a Harvard professor, it doesn't mean he doesn't have to listen to other people's opinions. You might want to avoid this complication at first though, and present it only at an advanced level.

Once your learners have understood the basic difference through analysing sentences like 1a-c and 2a-c, give them a quick exercise like the following to check their understanding.

Choose an ending from sentences a-f for the beginning of each sentence 1-6, and combine them into a sentence by using even if or even though.

1. David is unlikely to be promoted …
2. Chris insisted on driving …
3. I wouldn’t have arrived on time …
4. We won’t make a profit this year …
5. I went to work this morning,
6. I wouldn’t give up work …

a. … I had a terrible headache.
b. … sales rise considerably in the next few months.
c. … I won the lottery.
d. … he’s the most senior person in the office.
e. … I had taken the earlier train.
f. … she had been drinking.


Answers : 1 even though d; 2 even though f; 3 even if e; 4 even if b; 5 even though a; 6 even if c.

Acknowledgement

Photo provided under Creative Commons Licence by iirraa via flickr.

Who do they sit with ?

In the article Where do they sit? we looked at the advantages and disadvantages of seating students in different positions in the classrooms. However, once you have decided the general seating arrangement that you want to use for the class, or for an activity, you then need to decide who they sit with. Do you let them choose? Do you group at random?(1) For some groups and some activities this may work well, but just as the group dynamic can be affected by the seating pattern, the way the students are grouped, paired or just who they are sitting next to can determine the success or failure of an activity or a whole lesson. Here are some of the things which you need to take into consideration:

Friends, enemies and strangers : it would seem likely that if students are sitting with their friends they will be more relaxed and participate more fully in the class. However, it doesn’t always work that way. Sometimes they may know each other so well that in a discussion, for instance, there is simply nothing to say. Or they can sometimes be too disinhibited with each other, sending each other up or correcting each other sarcastically if they make a mistake. Similarly husbands and wives often need to be separated if they become hyper-critical of each other’s performance.

It can also sometimes happen that two students dislike each other or do not co-operate well. Whilst it seems obvious to keep them separated, this can also lead to them finding themselves on “opposing“ sides, for example in a debate, which only worsens the situation. We saw in the previous article that people antagonistic to each other will tend to sit opposite each other. Someone supportive of another person will often sit on his/her right (it’s not by chance that the language includes expressions like the opposition and a right-hand man). Try placing the antagonistic student on the right of the person s/he doesn’t get on with, and see if the situation improves. And in any case, avoid letting them sit opposite each other.

Strong students and weak students (2) : mixing ability levels within pairs and groups has the theoretical advantage that the stronger students can help the weaker ones. It can sometimes result, however, in the stronger ones taking over and the weaker students doing very little. On the other hand, grouping weak students with weak and strong with strong has the advantage that they can all work at their own pace, but means that the class will soon be out of lockstep. You can usefully use this type of grouping if you want students to work on different activities – to give a very simple example, after the presentation of enough used with adjectives and nouns, the students might be asked to work on exercises from Murphy’s Essential English Grammar Unit 90. But whilst the weaker groups work in pairs on the simpler exercises 1-3, the stronger ones will be asked to do the exercises 3-6. Whilst the strong students are working on exercise 3, the teacher can monitor the weaker students' progress with exs 1 and 2, and then leave them to help the stronger students with exs 4 and 5. At the end they can re-pair weak/strong and check their answers to ex 3 together.

Dominant and quieter students : Again, the risk of grouping a dominant student with quieter students is that the dominant student will take over. The first danger is that the dominant student will do all the work, controlling the discussion, giving all the answers etc. If you want or have to use this type of grouping, think carefully of how you can channel the student’s dominance positively. For example, in a discussion s/he might be asked to gather the opinions of the others in order to report back on the group. This ensures that s/he will bring the others into the discussion and make sure that they express their views. A second and equally important factor however, is that an uncooperative dominant student can sometimes ruin the whole group dynamic. I recently watched a class in which the students were divided into two groups. One group was working well – they were all on task, participating actively and obviously wanted to complete the activity. The other group consisted of two extremely quiet students and one dominant student who was extremely negative towards the lesson in general. She was constantly off-task, talking about other things or checking her phone messages, and actively prevented the other two students from doing any work. Had the teacher immediately rearranged the groups and swapped her with a more "positive" student from the first group, that student could have got the quieter students going on the task, whilst the other students from the first group would have probably been strong enough to involve the negative participant, or at least not be distracted by her.

There are various other factors that also need to be taken into consideration when forming groups, amongst them age, gender, first language, learning style and culture. As in the cases above, there is no necessarily right answer. Grouping by sameness may initially make the students feel happier, but over the long term may split the class into factions. Mixed groupings on the other hand may create their own problems.

To find the ideal mix, you’ll need to experiment. Try out different variations that you think might work, and see if they do. Notice the group dynamic which is forming and why, and arrange the seating and grouping patterns so as to maximise the positive effects. If something doesn’t work, change it – in the middle of an activity if necessary – until you are happy with the result. And be prepared for the fact that the next group may be different.

Notes

1. There are times, when the group is fairly homogeneous, when you may want to group students completely randomly. There are a number of ways you can do this, and I’ll write about some of them in a future article.

2. Strong and weak can refer to two distinct situations : a group where some students are more advanced than others, or a group where the students are all at the same level, but some are slower learners than others. For the moment I am not distinguishing between the two cases.



Acknowledgement
Photo by brookesb via flickr


Recommended Reading

Hadfield, J. Ckassroom Dynamics, OUP

(Don't forget that Amazon often have both new and used copies of the books you want at prices lower than those advertised. It's always worth clicking on the link to check it out.)

Another Day in the Life : Teaching in Sarajevo, Bosnia

In the next in our occasional series Another Day in the Life of …, Katie writes about teaching in Sarajevo, where she previously lived.

I wake up at 9:30 and walk to the bakery five minutes from my door. I pay 25 cents for a buhtla cokoladna – a warm roll with chocolate inside that I buy regularly but can never pronounce correctly. Back at home, I watch an old episode of Oprah, which, as with all television programs in Sarajevo, is in its original language with local language subtitles.

I leave my flat at 11, stopping by the Internet café to check email – there are two computers with Internet at the school, but they are ancient and slow and often busy with eight teachers there at the same time. I take a shortcut through the vegetable market and when I arrive at the school, I make photocopies and short notes for my one-to-one lesson. Another teacher and I head across the street for lunch, the main meal of the day. The classes run from 5 to 9:40, so dinner will be yogurt and fruit at my desk during the twenty-minute break between classes.The one-to-one lesson goes smoothly. I work with a law student and she’s chosen to go through the nuts and bolts of grammar with a local teacher and to have “just” conversation with me. After nearly a year, it gets challenging to come up with innovative ideas and topics to talk about, but today we both take a personality test and it goes over well.

After this lesson, I have about two hours to prepare for four hours of classes. I’ve taught the same lessons before, so I can get ready quickly, but for new lessons, I would probably need most of that time: to decide what order to do things in, find supplementary material like games or songs, and make sure I can present and explain the grammar points well. I run out the door to buy my dinner at 4:45.

My first class is an elementary class. I can speak enough of the local language to translate if I need to, but I avoid that. The book is set up so that translation shouldn’t be necessary, and the students signed up for the course knowing they would be “forced” to communicate in English with a native speaker. Occasionally we have trouble with instructions, but we always figure it out somehow. I like this level because students can see their own progress easily after each class.

My next class is upper-intermediate. Most of the students are teenagers and I ask how they spent their weekend, killing time while the late ones trail in. Only a few have done their homework, so we spend ten minutes working on that and then check answers together. Whispered conversations are not infrequent; sometimes I interrupt them by calling on one of the chatters, sometimes I just ignore them.

After classes end, I record what I covered in the register and two other teachers and I decide to go out for a beer. We head down the street to the noisy, smoky and dark pub. We order cheap beer, gossip about students a bit, and try to come up with something fun to do on the weekend. At 11 I say good-bye because the trams stop running at 11:30 and at this point I’m too tired to walk all the way home.

Acknowledgement
Photo provided under Creative Commons Licence by damselinredr via flickr

Using On-Line Courses : Part Two

In the first part of this article we saw how the success of an on-line course could be affected by at least two factors – the quality of the materials provided and the attitude of the students following the course. One way of solving the second of these problems is to use a Blended Learning approach.

In blended learning, the on-line course is not used in isolation, but as one component of the course. It may or may not be the major component, but in any case is backed-up and supplemented by other methods of instruction – face to face teaching, “pen and paper” activities, or whatever. The exact mix of components and types of instruction can vary from situation to situation, making the approach very flexible in terms of student needs and wants, available budget etc. Some examples of the way we have organized blended learning courses for company clients are :

• A course with a 50/50 split between traditional teacher-led classes (1.5 hours per week) and autonomous on-line study (1.5 hours per week).
• A course with a 50/50 split between traditional classes and autonomous study – but with the students having a choice between using “pen and paper materials” or on-line study.
• A course similar to the above but where the on-line course was an additional option. The students could choose or not to follow the course, but if they opted in were expected to commit themselves to a minimum of one-hour on-line per week.

However the courses were organised, certain aspects remained the same, with the aim of preventing or at least minimising the problems which I diiscussed in the last article :

• The courses started with an orientation session in which the students were introduced to the on-line course materials, the problems they were likely to face were discussed, effective learning and time management strategies were taught and, perhaps most importantly, they got to know the person who would be acting as their on-line tutor, correcting their written work (sent by E-mail) and who they would be contacting by phone for speaking practice. Students are frequently apprehensive about contacting someone who they have never met by phone, and this first meeting helps to get over this problem. Where it is possible, we also use Skype rather than an ordinary phone, with a webcam added so that the student can see the tutor as s/he speaks.
• The on-line tutor made sure that s/he had regular contact with the students from the first week. All students were asked to complete various tasks within the first few days and to send the results to the tutor. This was intended to get them started and, if the results did not arrive promptly, the tutor immediately contacted the student to find out if there were problems. From then on weekly contact was maintained, whether initiated by the student or the tutor and whether by phone or E-mail. The tutor also monitored constantly, and contacted students immediately if they seemed to be falling behind.
• The class sessions and the on-line course were closely integrated. In the most extreme case, the group was kept in lockstep : new language points would be presented in class, specific on-line activities set for the week, and in the following week there would be a brief test, a discussion of the topic featured in the on-line materials or some other type of related activity. In other cases the connection was more relaxed, and the students left free to work at their own pace, but the class sessions still followed the same syllabus as the on-line materials. In the initial stages we found it preferable if the presentation of new language points occurred first in the classroom and was then consolidated by the on-line course. This allowed the students to resolve any doubts they had with the teacher before being asked to use the new language.
• About two thirds of the way through the course a second orientation session was held, again by the on-line tutor. As well as discussing any problems which had become apparent by that time in the course, and the students’ feelings about the course, their knowledge of learning strategies was also extended. One activity used was intended to check that they were in fact noticing when they didn’t fully understand : they were asked to study the presentation of a new piece of language where the explanation for deliberately contradictory (though the students were not told that). Their task was to decide if they understood, and if not to formulate an E-mail request to the on-line tutor asking for help. From that point on, the classroom sessions were less rigid in ensuring that all language was pre-presented – though this was still done with areas known to cause problems, or where the explanation in the materials was not considered adequate.

There are students, of course, who do not need all this back-up. Students who like studying on-line and are already effective autonomous learners can often be left to “get on with it”. In fact they are more likely to swamp the tutor with more e-mails and phone calls than s/he can cope with than to need constant monitoring. However, in our experience they tend to be a minority and usually at a fairly advanced level. Many students, especially beginners who are new to language learning, need the help and support of a tutor and a structured and integrated course if they are to succeed and gradually to develop the skills which will allow them ultimately to become autonomous learners.

Acknowledgement

Photo provided under Creative Commons Licence by mobology via flickr