Tag Archives: methodology

Simple Tasks For Teaching

by

Recently on the EFL Classroom 2.0 blog, I posted 3 lists of 50 tasks that teachers can use in their teaching – asking students to do them and “practice” language, the skill that is language speaking/reading/writing/listening.

Surprised to death at how popular these lists were! I know we all like lists but I guess I touched on a big need with teachers. Short, concise, easy to implement ideas that can easily be done in the classroom. No fuss, no muss teaching. I also think the “materials light / prep light” aspect of these really went over with teachers. We all know how overwhelming it can be when you get a good idea but it is an impossible circus act of 4 pages of instructions and how to dos. Just impossible to put into action in one’s own classroom.

So here are the three lists consolidated in one place. The lists may be downloaded on the original blog post, for the convenience to use offline and share offline. Enjoy and share your own ideas in these veins when you have the chance.

 

50 tasks for the English Language Classroom

 

 

 



 

50 Tech tasks for the English Language Classroom

 

 

 

 

 

50 tasks using only a blank piece of paper.

 

 

50 Holiday Friendly Activities for the classroom.

The “Blank” Dialogue Updated

by

The blank dialogue is a very “natural” teaching approach. Something intuitive about it. I used it in my early days of teaching – just pausing a dialogue on cassette tape and asking students to respond. You had to get skilled with using those big buttons! That is what being a teckkie used to entail!

Most blank dialogues are receptive – students listen and fill in. Then repeat the lines and try to do it “without looking”. That’s okay – Molinsky and Bliss would be in bliss – however, nowadays with video and technology, I believe we can do more.

Blank dialogues are highly engaging to students because they do some important things:

1. They embrace a powerful principle of teaching – anticipation. Students don’t know what will be coming and must respond. So it is very engaging. Also, it teaches (in a controlled fashion) how to tolerate the “ambiguity” of language.

2. They recycle language and are repetitive. The form is controlled and students just substitute.

3. They allow production of language by students in a controlled fashion. Students can produce language and self correct themselves immediately against a model. Swain and Long are two researchers who stress the importance (and value) of production for language acquisition.

4. Students can personalize language. They utter the words, they can change them about, say them differently. Even respond differently than the original model.

Practical examples.

Let me show you clearly, how I envision the video blank dialogue.

1. Here is a standard dialogue for language learning. The teacher plays. The students repeat. The teacher asks questions. blablabla…. Standard and non anticipatory.


2. Here is the video as a blank dialogue. Much more engaging. The teacher can even get this in Karaoke and slow the dialogue ever so slightly and make it easier for the students. I even made a book using 20 dialogues with cloze scripts.


You can even go one step further and get students to record the lines and produce their own video! This is the direction I want EnglishCentral to go. Where the actual recording is interactive and there is simulated communication (however controlled). This I believe would revolutionalize the now a bit tired and too true blank dialogue.

What do you think ?

Here’s my own recording! I just used NCH’s Wavepad to “silence” selected parts of the audio. Then put that into Audacity and recorded over the track. Finally, used the karaoke editor to put it all together (Studio version allows you to produce a video). Get all this on the Software for Education page I put together.

Following your nose ….

by

blake2

It’s Sunday a day of repose. Re – Pose.  Re Position.

If there is one thing in my life I’ve done well – it is to “dance to the beat of my own drummer” a la Thoreau or that other great quote of Blake’s, “No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings”.

It’s something I’ve insisted upon as a teacher and more so as a teacher trainer. We are all to create our own methodology and best practices. Not that we ignore the advice of others but that we use it and smudge it to form our own teaching collage.

English language teaching and too our commercial driven lives,  is full of “the new, best thing”.  Do not be entranced by snake oil salesman. Do not offer blind allegiance to anyone. Be they a Nunan (tasks), Krashen (input), Thornbury/Meddings (Dogme) or a whole flock of others.   These are only “ideas” and we know so little about second language acquisition that we’d be so wrong to bet “All In !”.  I say that with the most respect to those offering up new approaches and methods. Same goes for a textbook or a technological approach. They aren’t to be blindly implemented – rather, follow your nose.

Same with the flip side of the coin, learning a language. Some will benefit from intensive memorization of vocabulary, some will need a lot of extensive listening. Others benefit from reading.  Find what works for you and stick with it – until it is time to “reposition”.

Beware of systems. Ideologically or as part of your teaching beliefs. Questions, criticize and adapt to your own teaching style and classroom/school environment. Same goes for teaching certification and training.  A CELTA is one way of teaching English. So too your own trainer’s approach and instruction.  Even the hallowed “CLT” or communicative approach is just that – a suggestion. There is nothing proven in terms of efficacy. We are human and that’s the rub and difficulty. There is nothing foreign to us – in terms of learning.

The best teachers weave and dance to their own music. They make magic happen, learning happen, precisely because they are not “tunnel visioned” but adapting and testing, trying and changing. No guru, no method, no teacher – like Van the Man said.

Just like spring, always be ready to begin anew. But stronger, given the knowledge and experience gleaned from one more winter…..

The “Flipped” Classroom

by

This video opens the door into the actual practice of the flipped instructional model. (not a language classroom but think of what it would mean for one). A very interesting way to think of “teaching”. Basically, it means for ELT that the heavy lifting, the explanation and focusing on form is consigned to the language lab, to self directed learning, to homework (videos of the teacher/a teacher teaching stand and deliver style). The classroom becomes a place where time is spent using the language socially, testing, risking, trying …… This is a little different than the Flipped Model for content subjects.

I see the new nature of learning as following not just a blended model but a “Flipped” model. David Truss has written a real nice summary of this. Classrooms become laboratories and places of practice. Content delivery is outside the classroom in an either formal or informal environment. Teachers no longer teach in the classroom. They teach in the sense of arranging content,  mixing/blending and then delivering it for student consumption outside of class. In class, students practice what was “digested”.

For ELT this means that classroom instruction just skips the “Prepare” and “Practice” stages (or “Engage” / “Study”.). The old instructional delivery models are wiped away and the classroom is about students coming together to practice and perform tasks based on their learning outside the classroom. The teacher deals with emergent language “in situ” and corrects/remediates as needed, on the spot.

The flipped classroom is perfect for those teachers already familiar with task and performance based curriculum. Much like “station” teaching also. However, more unstructured and when students come to the classroom – they are making the choices about what they will practice.

For many teachers though – it will entail a lot of “letting go”.  Read this Ira Socol piece and wonder about your own classroom “design”.  So too for publishers, who will have to provide books and online materials not tailored to the question 1,2,3 Speak / Grammar / Practice / Pronounce / Read / Write models they use.

I’ve a lot more to say about the specifics of “The Flipped Classroom”. Hope to share more in the coming weeks/months. See my directory of Flipped Classroom links/resources for lots more reading!

This video – The 21st Century Learner is a must watch for any teacher trying to understand the direction and implications of new “disruptive” technologies. The classroom no longer has 4 walls and learning is taking place outside the classroom (informally) through social media and “connected” learning.


__________________________

If you liked this post, you might like: Learning as a self organizing principle or More About Getting Out Of The Way

Stickiness – What makes what you do stick?

by

stickinessI’m putting together an online presentation for some Brazilian teachers and I’ll be talking about “Stickiness”. I thought it would be worthwhile to air my own thoughts specifically about what makes our teaching “stick”. In other words, how to make what we do transfer into the heads and the production/fluency of the learner (now or over time).

I think at bottom, this metaphor is what drives most teachers. It drives a lot of schools and administrators that’s for sure. Progress, success, results….. I also think it is something students desperately want. However, the pickle is that both time and the differing needs of students make it very hard to make things sticky for everyone of your students.

Here though, are my top 5 things teachers can do to make language stick (and let’s be clear, sometimes you can do all these and still fail through no fault of your own).

1. A Warm, Comforting, Social Environment

Krashen’s concept of an “affective filter” gave this a name but teachers at all times and places have always been aware about how important it is to “relax” students. Anxiety, tension really does inhibit unconscious acquisition of language – the best way to learn English long term. A great teacher can relate personally to his/her students, relax them and make them willing to take risks. Risk taking is the most important characteristic we should promote and form in students – research supports this. The only way to do this is to create a safe, nurturing environment.

2. Local and Culturally relevant content

Context is queen with language teaching (content – the words/language are still king).  You can’t teach a student what a rutabaga is unless you can provide context, words won’t suffice. The BEST context is the student’s own world and neighborhood – their life. Use local maps, celebrities, songs and issues. It works! Here’s a talk where I expound on CST (Culturally Specific Content) for the Korean context.

3. Consistent Monitoring and Feedback of Student Achievement

Motivation is the pink elephant in any classroom. We have to deal with it and one way is to give students lots of success and especially feedback. They need to be monitored and self monitor their learning through structured feedback and testing. No, I’m not advocating those big standard tests – rather more authentic assessments (quizzes, reflection, repetition, journals, projects).  We have to realize that small but consistent feedback in the way of quizzes, really motivates but also helps students learn language. See this NYTs article for an interesting take on this.
4. Purpose: Linking class activity to real goals and actions

The classroom is a test tube of sorts. It is where we test our language. But it is only half of what makes a fluent speaker. The real test is the real world. Nowadays, it is much easier for teachers to link the trials of the classroom to the big test of the real world.  Multi-media, web 2.0 tools, bringing in people from the community, projects etc… – any way to make what the students do in the classroom “meaningful” and “real” is crucial. Students will get motivated and learn better if they know what they are doing is more than just “killing time” or “getting a mark”. Language is a skill, let our students know it isn’t just a video car game and put them in the real car!

5. Differentiation and flexibility through an enacted curriculum

When I teach curriculum development courses – I drill into my students the importance of having an “enacted curriculum”. Not one set in stone as the textbook pretends. One with a plan but a plan that you can alter and shift. It has to be so. If your students don’t know many basic verbs – you can’t march on through a unit on modals! But teachers do, believe me, they do…..  Let’s be honest and try to make the classroom an organic place where the teacher is contantly assessing student’s needs and adjusting for their levels and differing learning styles. One size won’t fit all.  These issues are in part why I’m such a big fan of SDL, self directed learning.

________________________________

One additional thing I would mention is the need to focus on “verbs”. Verbs are the fly paper of language. Get your students mastering many verbs and all the other functional and concrete vocabulary will “stick”.

I’m sure you have your own thoughts – please leave a comment and tell us what you’d put on the list.

If you like this post – you’ll probably enjoy: TEFL Non-stick teaching

Faking it …..

by

Today, my “much better half” insisted that our dog Chico could understand Korean. She showed me how he could understand Korean and sit and stay, even give paw. I had a good chuckle. Not much different to many teachers who believe their students understand them in the classroom! Chico, like so many students, was great at “faking it”. Doing the right thing for the wrong reason.

I think all of us teaching English, have to remind ourselves that though it might seem that our students understand – a lot of time, even most of the time, they are faking it.

I remember especially in my first years of teaching, fully thinking that the nodding, the “yeah, yeah”, “ok” of my students indicated that they’d understood. However, what was happening was probably much like this famous Far Side comic.

ginger far side Our students often are “bewildered” (to borrow a term Frank Smith uses often in reference to children learning to read). There is overload and the brain is overcome. But there exists a powerful need to believe in the pragmatic elements of communication (the facial expressions, gestures, eye contact etc..), also the hints and inferences of half meaning that pass along as communication. We want to understand so much and we want to communicate and please the other so much – that we “fake it”. Nobody wants to say, “I don’t understand”.

Not that faking it is all bad. It is only bad if “learning” is your aim. If you want to be social, faking it can be a great strategy. Or if you are asking for directions in Spanish and are confronted with a flood of Spanish that you can’t understand at all – it can be a quick way out of a sticky situation.

Still, as a teacher, we should be aware of how learners, “fake it”. Otherwise, we can’t adjust our lessons and content appropriately and we become teachers who “fake it”. And yes, they exist! In my experience, “faking it” is an art undertaken in abundance by teachers. Like the Cuban joke about communism, “they pretend to pay us and we pretend to work”, — “teachers pretend to teach and students pretend to learn”. It happens a lot.

So be aware of the dynamics of communication in the classroom. Do your students really understand you? (and they don’t have to understand everything but they also shouldn’t be overwhelmed). If they are faking it, it is time to think through your lesson delivery and maybe do a few of the following;

1. Model more, explain less. Think through how you’ll explain the stages and activities of the lesson.

2. Get Ss speaking and doing the explaining. They’ll bring it down to the level of the audience and the communication will be much more effective.

3. Ask follow up questions to assess student understanding. A very handy request for teachers is, “So, could you repeat back to me, what I want you to do / what I said / explained?”

4. Speak less – decrease teacher talk time and let students have more opportunity for production rather than reception of language.

But the important thing to remember is to ask the question – “Do my students understand me?” and conversely, as a learner, to ask, “Do I understand?” Start from there and stop faking it – that is unless faking it provides some side benefits outside of learning. If you know what I mean……

SCC coursebook updated sample

by

Here is a sample of the SCC (student created content) coursebook that I will be publishing this December.

I’ll be posting my lead in forward, detailing specifically my beliefs about SCC and why it is a new, essential methodology for ELT, especially given the new technological resources available to teachers.

The basic idea rests the same. The teacher guides and the students build and create content/language from their own self/selves. Get more materials like this sample HERE. I’ll be formatting and adding lots of color etc…. when I get to that stage.

You might also be interested in the English Raven’s views on an “unplugged” course book.

SCC Sample of proposed Coursebook

Teaching as chopping wood 2

by

Here is a quick update to a post I really think valuable to teachers – Teaching as Chopping Wood. The update is me chopping wood and really just to get others to read a blog post I am proud of and which I think has some valuable though general advice…….. But teaching is like chopping wood! Here I am new in Canada, reacquainting myself with the old chopping block….

Chopping Wood from David D. on Vimeo.

The #1 … (activity which fosters language development)

by

Number One** Not your ordinary, endless list – just what’s number 1. Get the full eBook

Retelling

campfireGetting our students retelling, even in a very simple form, is SO powerful! It creates active listeners and learners and really enlivens the learning process. Throughout my own career as an EFL teacher, retelling is something I plan into my lessons for all levels of learners. Just “remembering” what we’ve learned is a simple form of retelling and something that allows repetition and a “jellying” of the learning experience. Retelling is also incredibly social and we are hard wired for this – think of how we are captivated around the campfire by “story” or how powerful a hold gossip has on us. You can harness this ancient force in your classroom too!

The best way is to give students a variety of language material – audio / video / written. Doesn’t have to be what we commonly associate with retelling – a story. I usually use 4 different types of material for a larger class. Allow them time to understand the material and then put them in groups to retell / share what they were given. Monitor and then when most have retold, split them up into other groups to retell again to new partners. Continue until the final step – have them retell what someone else told them! This type of jigsaw style lesson works well for retelling.

Language is intimately tied to memory. And we understand too little about memory. However, over the years I’ve understood how student’s with higher levels of fluency in a second language have a great ability to retell and “remember” language. So retelling is also a perfect placement/level test. Give students a very simple paragraph or story. They should even at a very low level, understand all the vocabulary/ideas. Next, create checklist of main ideas and information. Ask the student questions and check if they can recall the information. The more information recalled, the higher the level. A simple and effective formative test. See the power point below for some examples.

Here is my number 1 story for use in retelling! It works great. Here too, are some great funny stories for a wonderful retelling lesson for higher levels.

In Praise of Praise

by

Thumbs_up_by_WakalaniI sat down this morning, coffee at the ready, ready to write some advice to new teachers about the coming school year. I thought about the usual things – classroom management, organization, icebreakers, action research, personalizing, then for some strange reason I started thinking of Mr. Worth, my high school math teacher.

Mr. Worth was a string bean of a man always smiling. He always was standing outside of his classroom greeting every student and not just his own. Smiling, grinning, with a kind of Jim Carey stance – he’d shout out to each student, “Hey, James looking good today!” or “David, wow, what a game yesterday!” . He would do this all the time, over and over. To me, he was my educational human growth hormone. I felt good, I believed in myself, I tried my best because of him. And he did this for everyone in the school AND outside of school. You’d meet him in the mall and as you tried to avoid contact, he’d come rushing up and pat you on the back, saying, “I heard you are thinking of coaching soccer – great idea, you’d be wonderful at it!” or something such.

Mr. Worth did a few other things that I think are important to note. He always spent time asking us about our lives and talking “shop”. He’d sit at the front and blather back and forth with us about “Mork and Mindy” or the latest U2 album (I’m showing my age!). He’d laugh with us and be jovial – then, he’d roll up his sleeves and say – let’s get to work!

Doug (I’ll now call him Doug – I got to know him well enough after I left school) also had a unique way to give tests. We always had a review before a Friday test. He’d wink and say, “I can’t tell you these questions will be on the test but if you do these well – you’ll see much the same on the test!”. And we’d do the algebra problems and as we solved them, he’d keep winking and nudging as if it were a big game and he was telling us the answers. But HE WAS TELLING US THE ANSWERS! Sure enough, the next day, test day, the same questions were for the most part on the test. At least enough of them so a duffus at math like myself could do well and could learn.

Why am I telling you this – this personal stuff from my past? Well, I think that Doug knew what it takes to get a student to succeed – success! Nothing breeds success like success, so the old saying goes. Doug bred success not just through accomplishment but through the power of praise. We’d do well on the test and he’d personally say to those struggling (like myself), “wow, you did quite good, great work, keep at it!” And I did, I tried harder at math and though I didn’t have the greatest mark, I learned, I really learned!

Praise is so, so, so underrated by teachers. In my own years teaching, I’ve become convinced that teachers should be taught to praise students ad infinitum. We are as much cheerleaders as teachers. Failure is learned. Smart kids and not so smart kids can “fall off the map” if they don’t encounter praise from their teachers. It happens every minute of every day in our classrooms.

However, there are several things that a teacher has to do right when praising.

1. Make the praise specific. Don’t use generalities. Doug always praised a specific act, a specific state. He referenced the praise and in that way, we knew it was genuine and not just robotic, soulless. We knew he was aware and connected to us as individuals.

2. Make the praise about the “doing”, the achievement and not intelligence. Meaning, don’t praise a student saying, “You are so smart” , “You are the best”. This actually demotivates students and turns them off of learning at school. Why try when you are so smart and teachers think so? Read about Carol Dweck’s amazing research into praise and about the student Thomas – this should be read by all teachers at some point in their careers.

3. Praise is not encouragement. Praise is something that is sincere. If you endlessly encourage students, they will “achieve” to please others and not for the sake of learning. Praise can be an intrinsic motivator if it is sincere, spontaneous and given without any intention of manipulating the student’s behavior. Praise must be without conditions – encouragement usually comes with the unspoken, “you’re still no good – you aren’t there yet” feeling.   This article outlines well these principles.  Alfie Kohn scoffs at praising students – thinking we will create, “praise junkies”. I completely disagree. It is all in how it is done. Human behavior and psychology are not black and white or push button. I can only say he should stop self showmanship and aggrandizing and think a little deeper about things. If he ever wants to debate this, he knows where to find me.

So if I have one piece of advice to new teachers – accentuate success and the positive through praise. Be like Mr. Worth, as much as your personality will allow you.

And in ending, a big thank you to Doug. You’ve passed the torch and that’s all that a life needs to do – to be a “success”.

Interested in reading more on the notion of “Praise”?  Start  with Joe Bower’s powerful essay in ebook form.

The Teenaged Language Learner

by

 

Teenage Second Language Learning

Why they are different and why that matters

[see  my workshop materials for teaching teens - here. / Also this post is a reply to this post- The Captive Mind]

The best substitute for experience is being sixteen.

                                                                                          ~Raymond Duncan

Teaching teenagers is often the dread of many language teachers. In America, middle school teachers have an alarming professional drop out rate and the frustrations are evident if one talks with any teacher teaching teens. Consider these teachers’ comments from a podcast on teaching English to teenagers (Harmer, 2003 pp. 1-5) ;

“I am teaching a class of teenagers for the first time but I find it difficult to get through to them. They are so unmotivated compared to adults.”

 

“I’ve found that when I’ve taught a good group of teens, it’s been really good, but when I got a bad group? I don’t want to remember!”

 

“It’s so difficult that (getting them to study outside of school), isn’t it? “We” know that you get along much faster if you do some self-study, but teens don’t get it.”

Frustration and classroom management issues take precedence over learning. Why is this so? Is it true they really don’t care? Or is it something to do with who they are and how they encounter classroom learning? We need to examine the reasons for teen “apathy” and also how teachers might better adapt their pedagogy to this very unique age group.

Teenagers are different. They are not children nor are they adults. They bring to the classroom and the learning situation a very unique set of cognitive, emotional, social factors which teachers must consider when delivering content. They learn differently, they are “wired” differently. This paper will outline some of the major unique features of the teenage learner and most importantly, suggest what they mean for the language teacher.

Backdrop

 

A quick review of second language acquisition literature shows a startling dearth of attention to this very important age group.  Most comparative studies focus on children and adults to the neglect of the teenage learner. Teenagers are just “sort of in the middle”. When attention is paid to teenagers, it is mostly about pedagogy and how to “entertain” them, not how they learn language differently. Other times it is with exaggerated claims. For example, that teen laziness and emotional “angst” is because of genetic or developmental differences (small frontal cortex). In fact there is no evidence to suggest such (Epstein, 2007, p. 60).

Age and Second Language Acquisition

 

There is a popular misconception (even among teachers) that children are better at languages. In fact, there is no real “innateness” about language and even children have to learn language (Singleton, 1999 pg. 56) In general, adult learners are much better at the initial learning of language (Gaas , Selinker 2001, p. 336) because of their conscious metalinguistic skills but children perform better in the later stages of language acquisition (obtaining vocabulary, accent, patterning). This may be because of great plasticity and natural acquisition strategies in the young brain. Risk taking and affective factors also play a part. In any case, it can be said that the apparent “ease” by which children learn language is because of the immense opportunity they have and also the amount of time they can spend “learning” and not from greater ability.

I argue teenagers have the best of both worlds. They still have a very flexible and still developing cognitive network. Yet, they also have more “conscious” control of language and the ability to categorize, manipulate and test logically, the language they encounter.

Recently, a good deal of attention has been paid to teenagers as digital learners or as Prensky ( 2001) in his seminal paper labeled it, “Digital Natives”.  Teenagers learn differently, they have hypertext minds. They don’t learn in a linear fashion anymore. Images are the driving force of learning and text supports. Experience teaches and changes or “trains” their brain as they spend hours upon hours using computers, watching video, text messaging. This too often is not considered by the language teacher.

The Teenage Language Learner – Main Differences.

In so many ways, teenagers are like all learners. They respond to different forms of motivation, they take in language and try to make sense of it, they struggle with pronunciation and remembering vocabulary……. Still there are some very important differences (mostly in the affective realm) that need to be highlighted and noted so that teachers can adjust their curriculum.

Learner Autonomy

Teenagers are ego driven. They are becoming adults and want more control over the learning situation. Their world revolves around one question; “What does it mean to ME?”. Anderson ( 2008)  sees a need to let students have more choice and begin to take responsibility for their own learning.  Harmer (2003 p.1) states;

“Get them to write the questions, cut up texts (a bit too primary – like sometimes), write their own grammar exercises.  I mean somehow getting the ownership of the material over to them……put them in the center of the frame”.

Harris ( 1991, pp. 1-5 )  suggests many ways on how to get students more “into the frame”. These include; giving them roles to help the teacher and the class, highlighting students in a positive fashion and using rewards.

Teenagers learn language because it is meaningful to them. Children learn language because they have a natural affinity and also there is evidence of a deep need. Adults learn languages for many intrinsic reasons (and this may be a reason why they can be so good at learning languages, all things considered). Teenagers learn a language not only for marks but because it is meaningful.  Relating the rationale and purpose of language learning is a must with teenagers. As well,  a thematic curriculum should be developed that centers on their interests and their world. Presentations, role plays, projects are all language activities that give learners more autonomy.

It should be noted here that it is very difficult to learn a second language in “a class”. There just aren’t enough hours in the school year and the classroom is also a very artificial and many times “wasteful” language learning environment. Giving students more autonomy also means giving them more opportunity to become independent learners. Teachers should direct students to resources for learning outside the classroom and provide them with these opportunities. In the present age of telephony, this will become increasingly the case with successful language classrooms. Students can learn much more efficiently by themselves through input and the classroom can be time for more social and instructional focus on language.

“The Cool Factor”

 

Teenagers are forming their social identity. As such,  they are heavily influenced by their peer groups (Waqui , 2000) . Learners of a second language want to “belong” and not be “strange”.  Speaking in a foreign language can be a scary experience and very necessary comprehensible output can be hard to achieve. Teachers must be sensitive to this and spend much time creating a very warm, inviting and risk taking atmosphere in the classroom. Teachers need to reflect upon the activities they undertake in the second language classroom and ask themselves – “Does it help or hinder peer bonding?”

Group work is essential and a less teacher centered delivery method a must. Teenagers along with control, want to learn in and by their peer group. Social networking and Web 2.0 tools are a big help for the computer literate language teacher in this area. Teachers need to move toward more richly interactive language use  and more cooperative learning.

The social nature of learning will only grow in importance. Teenagers are much more “social learners” and networking will become a larger focus of the learning paradigm. Chaos theory and everything being related to everything – knowledge growing exponentially – new technology which allows us to be “everywhere”, this will all change how we learn and live. The burgeoning field of “connection” will also play a part in describing this changing world (Siemens, 2005)

“Anxiety”

The downside of the “cool factor” is learner anxiety. Language learning can be traumatic and frustrating. Learners very often suffer from acute anxiety which effects acquisition and leads to fossilization. Many studies have concluded that anxiety and achievement are negatively correlated. (MacIntyre and Gardner, 1994). Hoffman (1986, p. 261) suggests, “affect can determine the extent to which semantic and non-semantic modes of processing are brought into play”.

Na (2003) in her study of high school students in China, found significant anxiety negatively correlated with achievement. Boys suffered more and it often became a vicious circle (anxiety – low achievement – more anxiety – low achievement ……). She suggests teachers plan appropriately and focus on making a positive classroom environment (no negative evaluations, less error correction, no ranking, less test focus, allowing students to express their own views).

Anxiety depends on the language learning situation students encounter (Gass, p. 357 ). It is situational and depends on a multitude of factors. For example, in some classrooms competition and games may be seen as “anxiety producers” whereas in others, they may be a very beneficial way to foster language acquisition.  Best practices would dictate that we give our learners the 2nd language anxiety survey (appendix) in their L1 to see if anxiety is indeed, a serious issue.

“The NOW”

Nothing dampens the spirit of the teenage learner more than drudgy, old, 30 year old language learning materials. Teenagers crave “the new” and “the now” , driven as they are by peer socialization. Content should be up to date and authentic materials promoted. Further, teachers should students more opportunity to produce materials in their classrooms and thus “ensure” current content.

We are only just now starting to understand the brain and recent efforts in SLA research into connectivism may shed light into how the teenagers use their brain and learn language. They crave rich and multimodal content. An adult might not like all the sensory input that a teenager would.

Prensky (2001, p. 3) elaborates;

Children raised with the computer “think differently from the rest of us. They develop hypertext minds. They leap around. It’s as though their cognitive structures were parallel, not sequential.”

Oblinger (2005, p.16) notes a number of differences with the “Net Generation”

Visual – ability to read visual images

Visual – Spatial skills – integrate the virtual and real

Inductive Discovery

Attentional Deployment – shift attention quickly, focus on only what concerns them.

Quick Response Time

These have important implications for the second language instructor. Teenagers brains are quite malleable and instructors need to provide very “rich” content. Text to Speech and video / music are essential for not only motivating teenagers with the “new” but also allowing them to learn effectively. Instructors should limit activity time (Anderson, 2008) . Language teachers should use more media and visual content to assist learning. More control should be given to students in terms of what they wish to study. Games will become an important component of any future successful language learning curriculum.

The “Romantic” Learner

 

Teenagers respond to the “humanistic” learning environment. They are very idealistic and emotions seem to dominate their character. “ Loving at one moment, monsters at the next”, as one teacher put it.  Waqui (2000, p.3) suggests that the success of a language teacher is partly in being a good, empathetic role model. Learners will respond to a teacher that cares, especially teenage learners who carry a romantic spirit and crave authenticity, personality and presence over content.

The affective filter can also be reduced by giving students an emotional attachment to language and words (Harmer 2006, p. 58). Language is best retained when it has personal relevance and teachers can foster this. Further, as the preeminent psychologist Carl Rogers noted , “learners need to feel what they are learning is personally relevant to them, that they have to experience learning (not being taught) and that their self image needs to be enhanced”.

Taking care of the affective side of the teaching equation can be a huge task. Further, it should not be done at the expense of attention to the cognitive and intellectual development of the equation. Still, it can be accomplished through a teacher that shares their life with the students and also encourages language learning through personal growth and sharing. Anything creative is a proven classroom winner for the teenager “romantic” learner.

Conclusion

I have briefly outlined some important considerations for teachers when teaching teens. Teenagers crave autonomy (and there are some critics who see the problems of the teen years as arising from restricting teenagers and delaying their adulthood (Epstein, 2004) ), they also want to be “cool” and desire “new” materials. Teens also need much peer interaction. Personalization of content and delivery is essential and attention must also be paid to the “anxiety” levels of language learners.

The future is like a double edged sword for today’s teenage students. The world is changing under their feet. Will technology and rich content enable them to learn languages much quicker than traditionally? Or will it be a crutch, decreasing motivation, full of translators and “help” and allow them no “drive” and need to learn the language?

We should certainly hope for the former.

(get more resources/info. about teaching teens HERE)

References

Anderson, Gary, (2008), “Teaching Teenagers English”, English in Mind, Cambridge Univ. Press, Retrieved Aug. 01, 2008, http://www.cambridge.org/elt/englishinmind/teacher_resources/teaching_teenagers.htm

Driscoll, M. (2000). Psychology of Learning for Instruction. Needham Heights, MA, Allyn & Bacon.

Epstein, Robert, (2007) “The Myth of the Teen Brain”. Scientific American Mind, pg 57-63.

Epstein, Robert,. (2004), The End of Adolescence. Philip Graham. Oxford University Press.

Gardner, R., and Lambert, W. (Eds.) (1972). Attitudes and motivation in second language learning. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

Gass, M. Susan and  Selinker, Larry.  (2001). Second Language Acquisition, an introductory course, London., Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,

Harley, B. (1986). Age in second language acquisition. London: Multilingual Matters

Harmer, Jeremy,. (2006). The Practice of English Language Teaching, 4th Edition, Essex, Pearson Longman.

Harris, Robert,. (1991) Some Ideas for motivating students, Retrieved Aug. 01, 2008, http://www.virtualsalt.com/mla.htm

Hoffman, M.L., (1986), Affect, cognition and motivation. In R.M. Sorrentino & E.T.

Higgins (Eds.), Handbook of motivation and cognition (pp.244-280). New York, Guilford.

Jeremy Harmer,.“Teaching Teenagers”, ELT Forum, Sept. 2003. Retrieved August 01, 2008 from http://www.eltforum.com/articles/free/transcripts/23.pdf

Little, D. (1999). “ Developing learner autonomy in the foreign language classroom: a social-interactive view of learning and three fundamental pedagogical principles”, Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses 38: 77-88.

Marc Prensky, “Do They Really Think Differently?”, On the Horizon,. MCB University Press, 9(6), 1-6. Dec. 20001.

Marc Prensky, “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants”, On the Horizon,. MCB University Press, 9(5), 1-5. Oct. 20001.

Na, Zhao., (2003) “A Study of High School Students’ English Learning Anxiety.”, Asian EFL Journal 9 (3)  Article 2,

Oblinger, G. Diane and Oblinger, L. James, (2005), “Educating the Net Generation”, Educause.

Rogers, C., (1969) Freedom to Learn, Charles Merrill.

Siemens, George,. (2005) Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age, Retrieved Aug. 01, 2008, http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jan_05/article01.htm

Singleton, David,. (1989), “Language Acquisition, The Age Factor.”, Multilingual Matters, Avon, England.

Twyford, Charles William,. (1988), “Age Related Factors in Second Language Acquisition”, NCBE Winter (2) 1-9.

Walqui, A. (2000). Contextual Factors in Second Language Acquisition. Washington D.C., Center for Applied Linguistics

Appendix 1

Twelve Things to Keep in Mind when Teaching Teenagers

by Gary Anderson

  • It seems that all teenagers are interested in pop songs, so exploit that interest by bringing music – and the feelings that can be expressed through songs – into the classroom.
  • Teenagers (perhaps especially the current need-to-know generation) like to be seen as cool and up-to-date, so bring in topics of current interest from IT, sport, entertainment and media, and English-speaking cultures that is personally relevant to your learners.
  • Teenagers are discovering (often with difficulty) a different relationship with others and group work allows individuals to interact with different classmates in a less stressful, collaborative atmosphere.
  • Teenagers are starting to define their proper personalities (sometimes it seems they have multiple personalities!) and role-play activities can allow them to try to express different feelings behind non-threatening, face-saving masks.
  • Part of growing up is taking responsibility for one’s acts and, in school, for one’s learning, so a measure of learner autonomy and individual choice can be helpful for teenagers.
  • It’s amazing how some teenagers will have an almost encyclopedic knowledge of a particular field, so let individual students bring their outside interests and knowledge into the classroom through cross-curricular work.
  • Variety – including surprise and humor – is the spice of classroom life (perhaps particularly with teenagers and their infamous short attention span), so try out different warmers, starters and fillers to change the pace and enliven the organization of your lessons.
  • Teenagers are discovering their (often awkward) bodies so use movement by giving students an opportunity to move around during class.
  • Teaching in secondary school often means teaching multi-level classes, but effective classroom management can help even with very large classes.
  • Use of the mother tongue can not only steer a whole class activity away from misunderstanding, confrontation and potential discipline problems (always a risk with teenagers), but also help avoid pressure on an individual by removing the impression that one person is being tested and put on the spot.
  • Games can provide not only purposeful contexts in which to use language but they also stimulate interaction, provide competition and are fun – as long as rules are clear and clearly followed by all participants.
  • Project work offers each individual a chance to use their individual talent to do something personally meaningful and motivating with the language they are learning – and the resulting posters and other visuals can be displayed around the classroom (just as teenagers decorate their rooms at home).

_____________

Extracted from -  http://www.cambridge.org/elt/englishinmind/teacher_resources/teaching_teenagers.htm

 

Appendix 2


English version of FLCAS (Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale)


1. I never feel quite sure of myself when I am speaking in my foreign language class.
2. I don’t worry about making mistakes in language class.
3. I tremble when I know that I’m going to be called on in language class.
4. It frightens me when I don’t understand what the teacher is saying in the foreign language.
5. It wouldn’t bother me at all to take more foreign language classes.
6. During language class, I find myself thinking about things that have nothing to do with the course.
7. I keep thinking that the other students are better at languages than I am.
8. I am usually at ease during tests in my language class.
9. I start to panic when I have to speak without preparation in language class.
10. I worry about the consequences of failing my foreign language class.
11. I don’t understand why some people get so upset over foreign language classes.
12. In language class, I can get so nervous when I forget things I know.
13. It embarrasses me to volunteer answers in my language class.
14. It would not be nervous speaking in the foreign language with native speakers.
15. I get upset when I don’t understand what the teacher is correcting.
16. Even if I am well prepared for language class, I feel anxious about it.
17. I often feel like not going to my language class.
18. I feel confident when I speak in foreign language class.
19. I am afraid that my language teacher is ready to correct every mistake I make.
20. I can feel my heart pounding when I’m going to be called on in language class.
21. The more I study for a language test, the more confused I get.
22. I don’t feel pressure to prepare very well for language class.
23. I always feel that the other students speak the language better than I do.
24. I feel very self-conscious about speaking the foreign language in front of other students.
25. Language class move so quickly I worry about getting left behind.
26. I feel more tense and nervous in my language class than in my other classes.
27. I get nervous and confused when I am speaking in my language class.
28. When I’m on my way to language class, I feel very sure and relaxed.
29. I get nervous when I don’t understand every word the language teacher says.
30. I feel overwhelmed by the number of rules you have to learn to speak a foreign language.
31. I am afraid that the other students will laugh at me when I speak the foreign language.
32. I would probably feel comfortable around native speakers of the foreign language.
33. I get nervous when the language teacher asks questions which I haven’t prepared in advance.

Student Created Content – “It’s about LEARNING not teaching”

by

I would like to share one of the ideas that most invigorates and informs me as a teacher. The idea of “Student Created Content” or SCC. I borrow the term from UGC or UCC, “user generated/created content” that is the motor of Web 2.0 and the internet.

What is SCC?

It is an approach that tries to simplify the teaching/learning process and equalize the power relationship that exists between teacher/learner (much like CLL – community language learning does with its focus on the teacher as a language “knower”. ). It also is a way of instruction that completely focuses on the student’s world/context. That all language learning must start from that focal point, no where else. The teacher models and then the students create the content and re-practice based on the teacher’s modeling as an “expert”.

I believe we focus too much on “teaching” without giving due attention to “learning”.  We need to turn things upside down and get out of our tired and worn delivery methods. SCC as an approach does that. Those interested might listen to this podcast – an excellent summary of the teaching/learning divide.

It is an approach. There is no “one way” but rather some basic tenants to be followed. These are:

1. The students create the content (worksheets, words, sentences, topics, dialogues that will be used for instructional purposes). It is a complete “Personal” approach to language instruction.

2. It is REAL. Not about anything artificial or from a textbook. It is about the lives and times of the student and teacher. The classroom situation is no longer treated as an artificial “studio” but rather as a meeting place for real events, for real talk about real things that interest the students.

3. The teacher is also a learner and does what the students do. In this fashion, the teacher is not all knowing but a participant. In this “low level” way, the power barrier that exists is diminished and better learning occurs and better modeling of the language.

4. It is an inductive approach. It is a wholistic approach. The students are first engaged and prior knowledge elicited on the topic. Only then, are the students asked to create the content and practice the language first modeled and encountered holistically and in context.

5. It is simple in design. There is not a lot of planning for the teacher. The focus is on instruction, the art of “how” and not “what”. Teachers using an SCC approach don’t have to spend time planning, making materials, preparing. Their energy and reflection goes into developing their teaching skills as they happen, during instruction. The students create the text and textbook.

I now have 60 strong lessons I’ll be sharing in the near future in an ebook where I’ll also expand my thoughts on the SCC approach. Get some of them HERE and start mucking about with your students. But let’s look at one example. Also, search on EFL Classroom 2.0 using “scc” to see many other examples.
Travel Talk Lesson


The lesson delivery is always the same.

1. The teacher uses a photo/picture to elicit student response. Student prior knowledge is primed as they try to communicate with the teacher. The students talk about “the teacher’s world/life”. In the example below – Travel Talk, the students ask the teacher about his/her last vacation. It is always about “reality”.

2. The students are asked to create the content. This can be in the form of words, questions, brainstorming, drawing etc….. In this example, they choose items of a dream vacation. The materials are created simply so that the student can easily add the content based on their life experience and knowledge.

3. Using this content the students in small groups or pairs, practice with it. The teacher sets up the target language but from the nature and simplicity of the materials, this is usually self evident. In this example, the students ask about each others dream vacation using the question prompts. The teacher monitors and even participates with students.

4. A student or students become the teacher. Step 1 / activity 1 is repeated but this time a student is the teacher. In this example, a student is asked about their last vacation just like the teacher was to begin the lesson. The teacher is off the stage and to the side as the language is reviewed and used purposefully.

Philosophies of Education….

by

Sooner or later, every teacher who is around long enough, will be required to submit/produce/write up, their philosophy of education.

I really think it invaluable to make this “thought visible”. The process itself helps to solidify your already held beliefs and give you some “clear road” as a teacher (but don’t make it too solid…life is a highway sang one great Canadian crooner!).

So in this spirit, let me share my own below. See the longer version too, if interested (16 pages). Why not link your own and share it? It can’t but help us and help us grown as teachers….

……………………………………………………………………….

Statement of Educational Philosophy

David Deubelbeiss

“I’d rather Summerhill graduate a happy street sweeper than a neurotic prime minister.”
— A.S. Neill, Summerhill.

My philosophy of education has changed over the years. First, I thought teaching was about imparting knowledge. A classroom was a place to learn facts and subjects. A place to compare, judge and get marks. Then over time and with much reflection, teaching came to have a “softer” meaning. It was about guiding students and the art of discovery. It was no longer just about knowledge but about understanding and putting information to use. Now, after many years of experiencing the real thing, I think it is a much broader concept. Especially so with EFL teaching.

Education can’t be just “one” thing. We are all an experiment of one. There are so many people and so many teachers. The world is such a diverse place, it can’t be so. But I do think education can be minted into a few golden nuggets.

First and foremost, education is about “happiness”. As the A.S. O’Neill’s quote suggests, it is the teacher’s prime obligation to help ensure that the goodness of the child takes root and that the child’s happiness is the goal of education. Education is not just an intellectual enterprise but an emotional one. All our activities should be directed with this in mind.

Further to this, education to me is about “passion”, a kindling of a fire and thirst for “knowing”. The world never rests and it moves under our feet. We should prepare youth for change in general, not some specific point of change. Education therefore is about the process and involvement and not the product, knowledge. Education is not about teaching but about learning. This is something I constantly remind myself of.

Secondly, it is a teacher’s obligation to be passionate about their subject and through their own joy and curiosity, allow the students to be enflamed and educated. Much research has been undertaken on “good” teaching. Foremost on the list of what makes a good teacher is a passionate love of their subject. It is my hope to always be teaching in a contagious spirit that exudes joy and passion.

Teaching is much more about motivation than the subject/content itself. Especially in the EFL / ESL context, there simply aren’t enough hours in a classroom course to master a language. A teacher should be a great educational psychologist, knowing what buttons to push, to have the student(s) most effectively learn. We are guides and cheerleaders and counsellors in the modern process (rather than product) based learning environment. Teaching is “the art of assisting discovery”, as one great teacher (Mark Van Doren) once wrote.

Thirdly, education to me has a Deweyian like social agenda. Teachers are role models preparing students to meet the challenges of living together in a rapidly changing future. Particularly in EFL, education is about teaching tolerance and acceptance as we become a global community through the glue of the English language. EFL instructors are truly the missionaries of the 21st century. Education is about power – particularly the power of a person to create their own future and destiny. Teachers are often the key to that door into the room of power. We should always remind ourselves of this responsibility.

Finally, education to me means educating one person at a time. It means making a difference to one student, to one classroom, at a time. “Cultivez votre jardin” said Voltaire, “tend your own garden”. Education is about that special relationship between teacher and student. Trying each day to do the best job one can – to make a difference. I don’t want to ever be the teacher this student writes about in Brautigan’s fine poem, “The Memoirs of Jesse James”

I remember all those thousands of hours
that I spent in grade school watching the clock,
waiting for recess or lunch or to go home.
Waiting: for anything but school.
My teachers could easily have ridden with Jesse James
for all the time they stole from me.

Happy teaching and learning to you all who might read this.

David Deubelbeiss

A Philosophy of Education

Using Flashcards to Teach Languages

by

Using Flashcards and Teaching English
View more documents from David Deubelbeiss

DOWNLOAD AND PRINT THIS OUT (also see our hundreds of online sets in our Quizlet Group!)

WHY? Games are fun and motivational. They increase student talk time (production).
Visuals add context to the language learning. They are quick and easy to
use. They allow for repetition and proper scaffolding of the learning.

WHERE? Flashcards are now freely available all over the internet. Just download and
print. (see the sites I’ve listed below or visit EFL Classroom’s sharing area).
Vocabulary power points can easily be printed [File – Print Preview – “x”
slides/page – Print] and cut up by students for use. If you have the time, print
an empty BINGO card and have the students draw/label their own cards! You
can also just photocopy from books then cut these pictures up.

WHICH? Use flashcards in the L2! Either without a label or with a label on the back. If
you print and they don’t have labels – get your students to label them!

WHEN? Anytime! They can be used to assess student ability/knowledge. As a review
or formative tool. As an “study” part of the lesson to practice language
in a controlled fashion. Or just as a fun, “activating” part of a lesson.

TIPS? ** Laminate your “good” card sets.
** Keep in labeled envelops or zip lock bags.
** Set up your classroom so it is easy for students to be grouped or spread out.
** Have a strict set of signs and signals to manage students.
** Model the game in front of the whole class with a few students. Go slow!
** Get students to invent their own games!

___________________________________________________________________

HOW? There are literally a zillion ways to use flashcards to teach. Here are a few of
them lumped into some main categories.

1. MEMORY
This is probably the most simple and repetitive type of game. There are many variations.

a) Recall. One student shows the student(s) a flashcard and the others try to make a sentence or simply state the name of the card. The student “teacher” checks on the back label and if correct puts in a “correct” pile. If incorrect, it is set aside for review later.

b) Memory Story. One student picks up a card and makes a statement using some target language. For example. “Yesterday I went shopping and bought ……..” The next student turns up a card and continues. “Yesterday I went shopping and bought a … and a ……”

c) Concentration. There are two sets of flashcards. Either picture/picture or picture / word. Students attempt to turn over and match from both sets. If they do so, they may continue. The student with the most pairs at the end, wins. Here’s an online example. http://tiny.cc/MZwhY Many like this on our Game page.

d) Snap. The cards are face up on the table. The teacher says a sentence and the first student to “snap” or slap the right card gets to keep it. The most cards at the end, wins. You can play this full class by putting large flashcards on the board and having students run up to the blackboard and slap the correct flashcard.

_______________________________________________________________________

2. GRAMMAR

These games use some target language which the teacher models and puts in the board. Students play the game using the flashcards and the designated language structure. Many times, the language can be a closed question / answer (ex. Did you ….. last night? – Yes, I did / No, I didn’t)

Some example grammar structures:

Do you like …… / Do you usually …….. / Do you have …….

Did you ……… yesterday? Have you ever ……… ? Will you …… tomorrow?

a) Go Fish. Use two sets. Students in groups of 3 or 4 ask each other questions using the target language. If the student asked has that card, they must give it and that student collects a pair. They may continue until they don’t collect. If a student runs out of cards, they pick up some more cards to continue. Most pairs at the end wins.

b) Survey. Give each student a card. They survey others around the class using their vocabulary flashcard. Ex. Have you ever…..? Report back to the group or the class using the structure –

All
Most
Some of us ………
Few
None

c) Conversation prompt. There is one pile of cards in the middle. One student turns over a card and using the flashcard as a prompt – asks another student a question. That student responds with one sentence. The other students in the group must ask one follow up question each.

Some example prompts:

When did you last ……? / Have you ever …….? / Do you prefer ……. Or ……….?

If someone ……… , what would you do? / What do you think about ………?

d) Find your match! Copy some flashcards in different numbers. 6 of one, 5 of one, 4 of one 3 of one etc… Give one card to each student. Using the target language on the board, the students must go around the classroom and find other students with a similar card. If they find a match, they link arms and continue trying to find others with a similar card. (Ex. “ I love ……. What about you? “ “Oh, I love …… . Bye.” ) Alternatively – students can choose their own response from the items brainstormed on the blackboard. Have them use a post it to create their own flashcard!

e) The “You Can” Game. A person in a group turns over a flashcard. They must make a statement/sentence using “can”. Ex. You can …….. or An / A ……. can….. Continue around the group awarding a point for each statement.

f) Guessing Game. Create some sets of flashcards with common people / places / things. One learner picks up a flashcard and describes it using

It is a thing that ….
It is a place where ….
It is a person who ….

The first student to correctly guess it, wins the card. Most cards when time is up, wins.

_________________________________________________________________________

3. CLASSROOM ACTION GAMES

These games use flashcards to get students moving around the classroom and competing.

a) Charades. Bring a student to the front of the class. Show them a flashcard. They must act out the object / action. The other students guess or a team guesses as many as possible in one minute. The next team tries to beat them. Make sure they use full sentences! (ex. He is an elephant!) . After a whole class demonstration, get students doing this in small groups.

b) Pictionary. Same as charades only this time instead of acting out the flashcard, they must draw it. You can also have multiple teams drawing on the board – first team to guess the correct word wins.

c) Telephone Whisper. Put your students in rows. Show the last person in the row a flashcard. They must make a sentence with an adjective (ex. It is a huge elephant) and whisper it to the next person. Continue until it gets to the front of the class. That student writes the phrase on the board. If it is a the same as the flashcard – a point is awarded.

4. OPEN ENDED GAMES

These games are for higher level students and give them an opportunity to use language in a meaningful and fuller manner.

a) Story Dominoes. One stack of cards in the middle. A student picks up a card and starts a story, stating one sentence. The next student picks up a card and continues the story. And so on until the last card when the story concludes. Start again and see if the group can recall and repeat the story!

b) Liar, Liar pants on Fire! Each student in the group gets 3 flashcards. They must make a statement about each flashcard and their life. One must be a lie. The other students guess which one is the lie. Ex. (for animals): I like crocodiles. / I have seen a giraffe in real life. / I have kissed a dog . Which is the lie?

c) Making Connections. Use two sets of assorted flashcards. Spread them out into two groups. Students must make a sentence using a flashcard from both sides. Ex. An elephant (a) doesn’t like to swim(b). Continue until all cards are matched.

d) Not like the others. Use a set of assorted flashcards. Students turn over 4 cards and put them face up in the middle. Students must make statements why one is different from the others using the phrase, A/An ……. is not like the others because …….. A point awarded for all logical answers. When students run out of statements, start with a new set of four flashcards.

e) Discussions. Students turn over a card and state their opinion about the topic of the card. Go around the group with each student stating their opinion. Discuss.

WEB BASED FLASHCARD RESOURCES

Here’s another teacher’s nice list of flashcard games/activities (but more for an L1 class).

BogglesworldESL

English For Kids

EFL Classroom 2.0

ESLJunction

ESL Flashcards

MES English

The 7 “Deadly” sins of “new” teachers

by

One of my previous blog posts spoofed the 7 “marvellous” sins of great teachers. Now, I’d like to unspoof and great real and talk about “new” English teachers.

I just spent 2 days interviewing 29 new teachers each day! Wow, talk about a treadmill….. The teachers besides answering questions had to go through a "demo" lesson where they had 10 minutes to pretend they were teaching a class and teach a given language point. Not very helpful IMO for judging a teacher but during these lesson demonstrations, I daydreamed a bit and scribbled down my own thoughts about what I think are the main weaknesses of new teachers in the classroom. I base these on my own failings as much as my experiences talking to / watching new teachers. I’ve been there and done that and came through (but challenges still remain). I’m sure I’m missing some others and please chip in and let me know what I’ve missed. Here, I’m speaking generally about all new English teachers but in particular, new native speaking teachers.

1. Too FAST! – It is like a machine gun! There is no slowing down and enjoying the experience in this new teacher’s classroom. Bang, bing, boom! Students don’t get the time to process instructions, don’t get the time to process input. New teachers don’t wait for an answer from a student, they just jump to the next student for an answer! When speaking, they don’t pause (speak at a normal speed but count to 3 between sentences, this is a good rule for English teachers). Everything is too fast in a new teachers classroom – they try to do too much , too quickly! It’s not a race nor an assembly line. Rule 1 SLOW DOWN! ENJOY YOUR CLASS AS HUMAN BEINGS.

2. Interjections. — New teachers speak in a conversational fashion with lots of "ummms", "ughs", "like"s, "you know"s etc…. This is very confusing to students. Here’s a typical new teacher comment, " Well, you see, like, umm, you know, you must go down the street, and ummm, turn left and like, you’ll see a building on , urrr, ummm, your right. There, you know, there is a guy ….." You get the point. Rule 2 – CLEAN UP YOUR SPEECH.

3. No Routines. Good teachers have a set routine. They have an agenda on the board. Students know every lesson what will happen, in a general sense. Students need this! New teachers change their lessons daily and the students never know what’s next. Is it a game, a worksheet, the textbook? What? This is a major cause of all classroom management issues in new teacher’s classrooms. Keep a routine, students will thank you (but within that routine, change the content/curriculum). Rule 3 – AVOID CHAOS!

4. No Review. — In language classrooms, students need to encounter the lesson language many times, they need review! This should be a main part of all lessons but few new teachers do so. Why? Because of pacing (see point 1), they go too fast and seldom ever have time for it. They "stuff" too much into their lessons. Rule 4 – REPEAT, REVIEW, REDO

5. Failure to model – Many new teachers explain and seldom model enough. Students need a lesson activity or a task NOT explained but modeled. Go through it slowly with another student, demonstrating and NOT ONLY telling. Modeling will solve a lot of issues. Start and do things full class, then move to groups/pairs. Rule 5 – SHOW AND GO!

6. No Presence — Many new teachers lack what I call "presence". They don’t stand up straight, they don’t have the look and "eyes’ that a good teacher should have. They don’t move around the class and make it their home/playfield. They remain at the front. Further, new teachers many times seem frantic in moving at the front of the class. Students can’t focus on your words when you are moving so! Rule 6 – STAND AND DELIVER.

7. L1 under and overdose — Many new teachers either use too much or too little of the student’s mother tongue. The L1 can be invaluable for instruction and support but must be used judiciously and at the right times. Otherwise it becomes both a crutch and a confusion for students. Here are my guidelines for using L1 in the classroom. Rule 7 – L1 IS A HOT SPICE, USE IT WELL OR RUIN THE MEAL.

Of course, I’m speaking in a general vein. Not all this applies, to all new teachers. Next time, I’ll put my magnifying glass onto experienced teachers and what their 7 deadly sins are!

The 7 Sensational Sins of Great English Language Teachers

by

Yesterday, during a teacher training workshop, I was reminded of a theory I had about “great teachers”. Long ago over many beers, in a pub in the Czech Republic, I outlined the idea that a great teacher was a “heretic”, a kind of rebel with a cause. Great teachers broke all the rules because they had first learned all the rules (to paraphrase Lao Tze). My theory was rooted in the tradition of Illych and his “Teaching as a subversive act” – I called it “The 7 Sensational Sins of Great Teachers”. Here it is fully described and with more clarity (or perhaps less…?) than a beered up brain might offer. A confession, may I one day need to get into the big retirement home for teachers in the sky.

#1 The Teacher as a THIEF.

A great teacher will do whatever it takes to help their students learn – this includes stealing. In many foreign countries, good, authentic English materials are at a premium. So what does the good teacher do? She steals! I would walk into all the 5 star hotels in cities around the world and calmly, with an air of authority, scoop up a stack of premium travel magazines. My students would have wonderful reading material! See some brochures laying around the travel agency? Scoop them up too! A friend has a book that is laying around collecting dust? Steal it – if it will help your students! (maybe leave a note, if possible). Great teachers STEAL. They steal words from others. They photocopy and STEAL ideas from others. They do whatever it takes to get their students learning.

#2. The Teacher as a LIAR.

A great teacher tells a tall tale and a good yarn. He makes the students believe that it is “real”. A great teacher twists the facts of his life and gets the students interested in “the story”. When teaching, I would tell my students fantastic stories of my day, my life. I kept them engaged with the language, who cares if it wasn’t “fully” true? A great teacher lies — tells their students things to motivate, damn the truth! Think about it – we do this, so let’s admit the sin and come clean.

#3 The Teacher as a TYRANT.

A great teacher controls EVERYTHING, despite the illusion of student centeredness and student control. She manipulates and gets what she wants to happen, not what might happen. A great teacher pulls the strings of students and merely gives them the pretence of randomness, choice, freedom. You are choosing who will present first? The teacher does the Ennie Meanie Minny Moe but always knows where it goes! The teacher organizes the classroom, says who can go to the washroom when, says, “Open your book” and commands “close your book”. The great teacher has a look that says, “Off with your head if you so much as even twitch!”. The great teacher is truly a TYRANT.

#4 The Teacher as a FRAUD.

The great teacher not only lies but also commits fraud. We pass out cheques that will bounce. We make statements that students will learn and speak English just like the queen of England if only they do everything we say! We are frauds! We cheerlead and exhort our students to study, no matter they won’t ever learn to speak much or have the opportunity to practice in an English country. We make English sound so easy just by speaking it so well ourselves! We fool them and ask them to pay, pay, pay….. We laugh all the way to the bank. We are frauds whatever little good we do eventually do! As a young teacher, I was told by all the ivory tower types I prayed and worshiped before – “be yourself in the classroom”. What poor advice! I quickly learned that I had to be whoever I had to be – to get the students to learn. It was a confidence game, it was a con game. I put on many hats, many faces, many costumes. Whatever it took to pull off the con, the fraud. Forget being yourself! The classroom is an artificial place where we sell the students on its “reality”. We make them believe that if they do it there, they can do it anywhere…. We aren’t much better than Barnum – “There’s a sucker born every minute”. We are the used car salesmen of education.

#5 The Teacher as an ADULTERER

The great teacher loves their students – really loves them. They are intimate with them, they look them right in the eyes with love and connectedness. They talk about the most intimate details of their lives with students. A great teacher shares all their thoughts with students, allows them into the most narrow corridors of their soul. Our spouses, girl and boyfriends are unaware how we break their hearts! How we share with our students and allow them into this precious corner of our heart. We will rush out at all hours to do things for our students, with our students. Leaving our loved ones cold and alone at home…. let’s face it – we are ADULTERERS in everything but the act alone.

#6 The Teacher as a BUFFOON

The great teacher is a performer, a trapeze artist walking along a tightrope of language. We laugh, we make faces, we do the most degrading things infront of our students. We will crawl on our knees and act like a baby as we “roleplay”. TPR? We sing and dance like a monkey. We have no dignity, we have no decorum. We are buskers, shaking our tin cup of change and asking students to pay the price with their “acquisition”. We dress up and wear wigs, masks, make up, props and puppets. We are clowns that hope through laughter, learning will last.

#7 The Teacher as a SLOTH

The great teacher is slow….. They pause a lot. They have the students repeat, repeat, repeat. She asks their students to copy things a million times and makes the classroom a place of review, review, review. She is a sloth that brings language to a slow breeze that can be easily enjoyed and felt by students. No storm here! Great teachers move slowly around the class and take their time. Who cares about the lesson plan! It’s about the experience, let’s slow down and savor it together. The great teacher is the greatest of sloths, a Frenchman slowly savoring each piece of filet mignon.

Caution: there is a lot of satire in the above. Use with more than a few grains of salt.

Learning as a self-organizing principle

by

One thing I’ve become convinced of as a teacher, is the fact that WE can be our own worst enemy. Meaning, somehow our own experiences, our 1,000s of hours in the classroom observing teachers, have conditioned us to “be teachers” and that this gets in the way of the success of our language classrooms. We believe we are already experts and we then, self – perpetuate old attitudes/styles/paradigms. We play the role without thought to the outcome!

In my own career as a teacher, I’ve slowly had to ween myself from my own biases. Those biases coming from my conditioning through all that time spent watching and coming to know what a “teacher” means. Our own experiences are the greatest barrier to our success as a teacher – I believe. It is so hard to really let learning be “alive” in the classroom and to step back as a teacher and let the students take control. It is SO hard to shut up and to just let the drama unfold. We as teachers are too fond of our director’s chair and its perks! We also don’t trust our students. We also don’t believe that “play” = “learn”.

What I’m getting at is, seeing we are dealing with “language”, we should agree that it is an organic conditioning. It should be “learned” with as little evasiveness as possible. Further, we should realize that learning is primary to the human condition. Students WANT to learn, they really do. Each and every one. The problem is US and we teachers need to step aside more and realize that if we trust, if we have set down the right soil, learning will organize itself! Yes, it will.

I firmly believe that more teachers need to look at their lessons and turn them upside down! Too often, we play the role of the teacher, controlling and commanding to death. Then, when it is time to let the students free to practice and produce language – the bell rings! It is as if we went to a movie and the first hour was a never ending trailer!

I’ll even go further. We need to let our students organize the learning. Let our students share and teach. Let our students decide more of what happens. Let our students muck about and risk/try. Let our students have some fresh air and hopefully their lungs will fill up with possibility and they’ll be energized. Every student WANTS to learn, it is the conditions which stully and offer up so much oxygen empty air.

Sugata Mitra, an Indian MIT professor undertook an experiment that really highlights the issues I’ve discussed. He put a computer into a wall of a slum in Delhi and watched to see if the children could learn/teach themselves. How they did! He replicated the experiment throughout India and came to some startling conclusions. Watch his TED talk and his 4 main conclusions. You’ll really think about how just maybe we the teacher are the problem, not the students!


See it Here!
I’ll be speaking at a conference shortly about this Push / Pull dynamic in education. Asking teachers to be more inductive in approach. I’ll put up some of the material and ppts here. For now, if you have a moment, please read Andrew Finch’s great and thought provoking essay – Teachers? Who needs them? And think more about what Sugata Mitra says about teaching and learning (and also the role of technology and where we should invest dollars in educational technology!)

Another Way to teach.doc

Teachers who needs them Andrew Finch.doc

Great Teachers – What stuff are they made of?

by

Download Super Teacher.ppt Download America’s Best Teacher.doc

I’ve always wondered what is the “je ne sais pas quoi’ , that magical quality that great teachers have.

Is it simply their passion? Is it their knowledge? Is it their commitment and personal approach? Is it their creativity? Is it their ability to communicate and affect each student individually (know which buttons to push). Is it their acting and stagemanship? Is it their ……..???????

We all have a great teacher we look up to – a mentor. Who is yours? Mine was Mr. McClacherty, god bless him. Without him, I’d be in the dust bin of history. Geography teacher he was but he had a very understated way of communicating his subject. He also shared himself outside of class and cared. Qualities that endeared him to me. I remember a few days after I graduated high school and him walking over to me (on the sports field, running!!!) and shaking my hand and saying after I said, “Thanks Mr. C” , “Don’t call me Mr., just Jim now.”

I return to that mystery. What makes good teachers. Here are a few things stated at the recent American Teacher Awards (yes! they do exist!).

Here’s what some of the nation’s best teachers have in common:

Thinking Outside of the Classroom - These outstanding teachers don’t just think “outside of the box,” they leap outside of the classroom walls and take their students with them! As much as possible, these teachers try to make classroom experiences exciting and memorable for the students. Imagine how much more enjoyable your lessons would be for both you and your kids if they got to live and experience the material in full, living color, rather than from behind dreary, predictable desks. By giving their students a real world application for the knowledge they gain, these teachers take learning to the next action-packed level!

Creativity in Lesson Presentation - The teachers highlighted in this award show appear dedicated to the credo: “Learning – whatever it takes.” These teachers recognize that bored kids do not learn as well as actively engaged learners do. These teachers are willing to do anything necessary to help kids understand the material at hand and, more than that, catch the fever for knowledge! None of the teachers offered traditional lecture-type lesson presentations – no round robin reading of dry textbooks here. These instructors were dancing, singing, dressing up, and enthusiastically showing the kids how to love the process of learning. The kids enjoyed a hands-on, practical approach to learning, ensuring that many of these exciting lessons will be remembered for a lifetime. We all know how much “behind the scenes” work goes into preparing intricate and innovative lessons, but these teachers know that all of the work is worth it when kids are ready and willing to jump into learning!

A Willingness to be Themselves with the Kids - These teachers embrace the very human aspect of teaching. They aren’t afraid to look silly; they would do anything that helps make learning fun and drive the academic message home. Additionally, the teachers exuberantly love the kids for the individuals that they are, capitalizing on the energy of youth, not trying to squander it for the sake of classroom calm. The students feel respected and readily say that they consider their teachers friends, not just stuffy educators. The teachers invest time, trust, and unbridled energy in their students’ lives, which pays dividends at test time and even when class is over.

Kids Love to Enter Their Classrooms - All of the above reasons combine with the intangible magic of each teacher’s personality so that the children absolutely can’t wait to come to class and get learning! Smiles and enthusiasm permeate these students’ attitudes, regardless of race, class, region, or interests. The teachers can make even the most inaccessible subjects come alive in the sanctuary of their classrooms. The kids and teachers avoid burn-out together, looking forward to class each and every day!

But I think it is much more and also a mixture of the above……

What is it to you?

Please read the attached article about a fantastic, American teacher of the year! Or read here . Also here is a nice run down of all the possible qualities…..nice to reflect on all these. Do you have what it takes?

What makes Robin William’s character in Dead Poet Society such a great teacher…..why does the teacher stand up here/there?