Music and Song in Classs

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

1/77

Programme of the Day:

8:00 : Reception & Registration

9:00 : Opening Ceremony

9:05 : Honor Guest Speaker: HMA Francis Guy- British Ambassador to Lebanon

9:10 : Mr. Michael Hajj ATEL President - Lebanon

9:15 : Mr. Fadi Yarak - General Director of the Ministry of Education - Lebanon

9:20 : Prof. Zalpha Ayoubi - Dean of the Faculty of Education

at the Lebanese University

9:30 : Thank You Award Distribution

9:40 : Key Note Speaker 1: Martin Curtis Pearson

9:55 : Key Note Speaker 2: Prof. John McRae - British Council - Lebanon

10:30 : Coffee Break

11:00 - 14:00 : Parallel Presentations & Workshops

Presentations/Workshops

Abstracts & PAPERS

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

2/77

AUDITORIUM

11l:00-12:00 :Professor John McRae - University of Nottingham, UK

British Council Lebanon

FIVE SKILLS ENGLISHWorkshop:

Reading as empowerment in language learning

12:05-13:05 : Martin Curtis- Pearson

Workshop: United Colours of Error Correction

13:10-13:40 : Dr. Mohammad Al-Zubi- Albalqa Applied University, Aman

Presentation: Using Mobile-based Email for EFL Learners

ROOM 1

11:00-12:00 :Sue MageeTeacher Training Coordinator

British Council - Jordan

Workshop:Music and Songs in the ELT Classroom

12:05-13:05 : James GoodmanBritish Council - Lebanon

WorkshopMaking reading more learner-centred

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

3/77

13:10-13:40: Edward Russell- Member of ETAS (English Teachers Association of

Switzerland)

Mini-Workshop:Addressing the issue of discrimination and developing

intercultural communicative competence

ROOM 2

11:00-11:30 : William DeGenaro -American University of Beirut

Presentation:Linking Beirut and Dearborn: Cross-Cultural

Exchange in the Writing Classroom

11:35-12:05: Tharwat Dabaja- British Council - Lebanon

Presentation: Incidental Vocabulary via Word Games

12:10-12:40 : Yvonne Stead Nasr- Director of Education, Hampshire Academy - Beirut

Presentation:A Brief Introduction to the SATReasoning Test, Detailing

Appropriate Reading and Writing Skills for Students

who speak English with 2ndor 3rdLanguage Fluency

12:45-13:15 : Dr. Sahar Farouk Altikriti & Dr. Dima Alomari

- Al Isra University - Jordan

Presentation:Communication is a key: the role of teachers and

students to achieve effective classroom communication

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

4/77

AUDITORIUM

Professor John McRae - University of Nottingham, UK

British Council Lebanon

FIVE SKILLS ENGLISHWorkshop:

Reading as empowerment in language learning

Abstract

The four skills approach in language teaching and learning has been found wanting:

integration of the skills has had only limited success, and both teachers and learners are lookingfor a way forward.

The fifth skill, developed through the use ofrepresentationallanguage from the earliest stagesof language learning, actively encourages the cognitive processing skills and use of imagination

which the system has until now actively discouraged.

Critical reading, bringing togetherlanguage awareness, text awareness and cultural awareness,encourages the empowerment of readers in both receptive skills and productive language skills,

when the right enabling language is used.

Target audience: Secondary teachers & university/college professors

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

5/77

Paper

The four skills approach to communicative language teaching has been with us for a long time. It

is not perfect, but in many ways it is seen as the best and most effective way of teaching Englishas a Second or Foreign Language.

Listening, speaking, reading and writing are taught as separate or integrated skills, and are tested

in ways which allow for right and wrong answers, and grades which confirm a target level of

achievement reached. It is usually possible to get 100% correct answers in most language tests.

This indicates that the testing system is predominantly closed, rather than open in its choices andvariables. Progress in language learning is seen as measurable, quantifiable, in terms of language

items, lexical items, structures etc. acquired, produced, recognised and manipulated.

As long ago as 1977 Jonathan Culler wrote:

Our examinations are not designed merely to check whether (a student) has read andremembered certain books but to test his or her progress as a reader of literature.

This statement was made in the context of the teaching of literature with a small l, and useshighly debatable terminology with regard to the subject of testing and evaluation. However, its

basic thrust is very significant and merits reflection on the question of progress as a learner of

language, and the abilities and skills that are required of language learners after the so-calledcommunicative language teaching "revolution."

There is a distinction to be drawn between testingand evaluation oflearners' progress. Testing

suggests a closed system of right/wrong, evaluation a more opensystem.

In large part, the language system that is taught in the four skills approach focuses on referential

language. This is language which means exactly what it says, where one word has one meaning,and where grammar and syntax follow the accepted rules. It is a rule-based approach, and

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

6/77

usefully gives a basis for language use, a linguistic skeleton which learners can move on to

fleshing out .

However, the four skills approach frequently ignores representationallanguage. That is languagewhich is open to interpretation, contains plurality of meaning potential rather than one single

denotational meaning, and requires negotiation and judgement by its receiver in order to be fully

understood.

No living language in the world can remain only at the referential level for very long. Every

language in use is hugely representational, and perhaps no language more so than English.

Most communicative language teaching is based on an assumed idealised communicative

situation where interlocutors say what they mean and mean what they say, and are received and

understood as such. This is fine for communicative practice simulation. But, as the work ofDeborah Tannen and others has shown this assumption is patently false in the world outside the

classroom.

Recent work on corpora of spoken English goes a long way to confirming that language in use israrely as prescriptive and definitive as the kind of language learned in a communicative

methodology. English in use is hedged about with modality, with vague language, withhesitations and lack of commitment, whereas learners of English are encouraged to use definiteverbs, assertion, affirmation.

It is this that leads to the necessity for a fifth skill to be incorporated into the currently

widespread four skills communicative approach to language teaching and learning.

The fifth skill is the skill ofprocessingand thinking. Any text spoken, written, or heard has to beprocessed and thought about in order that its implications be decoded, its frame of referenceunderstood, its context and connotations assimilated, its ideological standpoints assessed, where

it is coming from and who it is directed at, all being incorporated into the overall understanding.

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

7/77

Comprehension is widely perceived, especially by learners, as the ultimate aim, the point of

arrival, the main target of learning achievement. This is a misapprehension both of how language

works and of what language acquisition and proficiency are all about.

Where the four skills approach has tended to focus on comprehension as a testable aim, the five

skills approach sees comprehension as a starting-point, the point zero in the processing of the

text, whether it be spoken or written .

Five skills offers aprocess-basedrather than aproduct-basedapproach. Experience of the

language and how it works is frequently seen as more significant than information. Of course,

information transfer on a purely referential level is vitally important in many fields ofcommunication and language use. But it is limited in its applications to specialised areas of,

particularly, professional language use.

Referential texts and representationality

Even a text which purports to be referential , such as a dictionary entry , lends itself to fruitful

processing. The following text is, as the graphology shows, a dictionary entry:

Beans on toast

is a popular snack, eaten at any time of the day. Heinz, the most popular brand of baked beans,originally canned beans in tomato sauce in 1895, and when they were imported into Britain a few

years later they were sold as an expensive luxury. Everyone can afford their beans now and

many companies sell them. Heinz alone sells approximately 2,500,000 cans every day.

See Snack.

What students can be invited to see in this text is some sort of ideological construct: who iswriting and to whombecomes a highly useful question. The apparatus would concentrate on

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

8/77

where the text's frame of reference covers (it is wholly British- centred) , how much information

is given for anyone who knows nothing about the subject (colour, size and type of beans are not

mentioned, toast is never mentioned). Frequently, students read this as a veiled advertisement forHeinz, as it seems to stress the brand name more than might seem necessary. Questions such as

"who is everyone?" also reveal something about the assumptions the text (and possibly its

producer) make. The fact that at current supermarket prices in the UK Heinz beans cost threetimes the price of a supermarket's own economy brand might give another insight to the question.

Contrasting that text with a genuine advertising slogan for the same company illuminates useful

differences in graphology, syntax, semantics and function :

BEANZ MEANZ HEINZ

Students need encouragement to "see through language" in this way, but as soon as they realise

that it is fruitful and indeed fun, they take to it rapidly and can be encouraged to read any text,from newspapers to text-books, from the non-literary text through any kind of literature (with a

small l or a large L) with a healthy questioning attitude. With well-written texts this will of

course lead to a greater appreciation of the text's qualities and the effects it achieves.

The development of the fifth skill, and the acquisition of processing skills, involves a refining of

three levels of awareness in cognitive terms:

language awareness

text awareness

cultural awareness

The fifth skill is in itself nothing new: it effectively embodies the three ways of learning

language outlined by Halliday when he suggested that a three-part structure is needed for

discussions of language learning:

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

9/77

learning language

learning through language

learning about language

The most innovative recent textbooks and the best practice over recent years have implicitly beenincorporating materials which require interpretation skills. and which expand cultural awareness

as well as developing the basic language skills.

What is to be learned is twofold: the mechanisms of the syntax of the target language are a more

or less closedsystem, with not too many variables, a system of syntax which has more or less

clear rules of use and usage. Then there is the much more open

system of lexis and register, which necessarily involves choice on the part of the producer of thelanguage and a capacity to evaluate and respondto that series of choices on the part of thereceiver .

The factors which condition such choices are of course manifold: they are social, cultural,linguistic, ideological, historical, local, personal, affective, and can indeed be as idiosyncratic as

the individual speaker. Communicative language teaching and learning have, almost by

necessity, avoided too much consideration of these factors, in a justifiable attempt to streamlinethe learning to what is quantifiable, and can be standardised.

At various times there have been debates on linguistic competence, fluency versus accuracy, the

differences between written and spoken English. and the vexed question of standard andnon-standard English. These will no doubt continue. Their relevance to the present discussion is

considerable.

The new element which Five Skills English brings to bear on these debates is the concentration

on how the language works rather than what it says: on how it means rather than simply on whatit means.

Against reading comprehension

I once had a class tackle a First Certificate in English (FCE) Reading Comprehension, but made

the mistake of omitting to give them the passage to read: they only had the questions.They all passed.

Replicating this mistake deliberately for research purposes in several teaching contexts, I foundthat the results more or less replicated themselves: no-one got 100% correct answers. But with

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

10/77

the application of a little intelligence, a process of elimination and some guess-work it was easy

for a pass level to be achieved. This suggested to me that Reading Comprehension in that

particular form was effectively testing neitherreading norcomprehension. What students hadlearned to do was apply some mechanical techniques to a testing situation in order to get a

satisfactory result.

Of course. this is anecdotal rather than scientific evidence and I use it only to describe a seminal

classroom experience. But is often from our mistakes and failures that we gain our most useful

insights.

The question that arises is, simply, how valuable is comprehension in and of itself?

How much is reading comprehension applicable to a text such as this one, a text which has been

widely used in representational language teaching textbooks:

40LOVE

40 -- love

middle aged

couple playing

ten nis

when the

game ends

and they

go home

the net

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

11/77

will still

be be

tween them

.

It is almost impossible to consider this text in the usual classroom context of comprehension.Rather, it requiresprocessing. The "traditional" question "what is itabout?"might not be as

fatuous as it may seem. Answers could cover a range of ideas, from tennis to relationships, from

marriage to graphology. The point would emerge, however, that the text is not only about one

thing: it is as much about the themes that might arise from discussion as it is about the text itself,its layout and its form reflecting the nature of the subject-matter and content. It will be about

different things for different people. A fifteen-year-old will react differently from a forty-year-

old. As with most representational texts, it is difficult to be prescriptive about there being one

correct answer.

Apparatus

The kind of apparatus used in working with a text like 40 - Love could involve questions as

above, and such textual intervention strategies as rewriting: if the text is rewritten in sentence

form it loses much of its impact, and indeed its meaning.

This is a useful confirmation of the importance ofhow a text means going beyond what it means.

Similarly the effect orfunction of the texts can be explored by inviting students to discuss

appropriate adjectives to describe the text and it impact - the following might be suggested "sad,

witty, clever, amusing, disconcerting, or, not really poetry." Of course readers may opt forothers, for more than one of these, and may even dislike and react against the text .

Another aspect of the text which might attract learner interest may be the etymology of the word"love" meaning zero in a tennis score: it comes from the French l'oeufsince it would appear that

tennis was originally scored with a kind of abacus with egg-shaped balls, one of which

represented the score of zero. (Of course the reason might simply be that one of the balls was

egg-shaped!)

It is also worth asking students what lines appeal to them most: "be be" is often chosen, partlybecause of the surprise dividing of the word "between" ; "ten nis" is often chosen because of a

similar verbal/visual effect.

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

12/77

Open texts

The virtue of a text like this in the communicative language teaching context lies precisely in its

openness, in the text's demand on its readers that it be processed on its own merits, with thereader bringing to the text shared knowledge, familiarity/unfamiliarity with culture, context, and

subject-matter, language awareness, text awareness and cultural awareness. How the reader

reacts depends on individual response rather than on the precise correctness of an expectedanswer.

Even the word "love" is called into question, which is useful if the learner knows only one

meaning of the word. The source of the meaning of "zero" as illustrated above might also be part

of the learning aims of work with this text. Learning about

language thus becomes part and parcel of learning the language itself. This particular poem is of

course the kind of text which most easily exemplifies the teachability of representational texts,which is perhaps why it is so widely used in representational textbooks.

But many students would find themselves in difficulty if asked to respond to such a text, because

they have not been trained to produce such openness of response, and lack the confidence torespond .

However, any textrequires processing in not dissimilar ways. Most texts do not have one single

meaning: they require some kind of processing, whether they be information or opinion,

prescriptive or descriptive, fiction or fact, newspaper or recipe book. And learners have to be

enabled to develop response strategies to the ever-expanding range of open texts the modern

world presents them with: from advertisements to political speeches, from newspaper articles tosong lyrics, from tourist brochures to comics, the representationality of the language used

demands a capacity for processing, evaluating and responding to that language.

Enabling language

The enabling language which students require in order to be able to discuss the processing theycarry out with texts is the language of modality, of "might" and "may", of opinion and

possibility, rather than certainty and right/wrong answers.

Of course it can be unsettling for learners to be deprived of the security blanket of there being aright or a wrong answer - but moving beyond that restricted referential level is a vital step

forward in progress as a language learner. The analogy is of a driver learning to drive and never

moving out of first gear .

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

13/77

Until recently the jump from referential language learning to an awareness of representationality

in the language teaching context has been left to a late stage in the proceedings, if it has been

faced at all.

Teachers have to begin the awareness raising process as early as possible in the language

learning career of the student: left too late, bridging that gap becomes progressively moredifficult. If representational materials are introducedfrom the veryearliest stages of language

learning, the learner's imagination is called into play, there is an awareness that judgement and

response are part of language development, and a confidence is built that the learnerdoes havesomething worth saying, something to bring to the text, some personal contribution to offer,

rather than simply being at the mercy of the materials and the teaching of an unknown subject.

Around the world now, in the context of language-teaching textbook research and writing,

several areas have already emerged where process-based methodology can be applied. These

include:

- materials selection: where texts come from, when they were written;

- are they examples of current English? Spoken or written, or a mix of registers?

- are they British, American or another local English?

- techniques of reading such as the finding of binaries and opposites, following

through of verb tenses to find the movement of the text, individual cohesive featureswhich create phoric flow, etc.

- if translation is used. how does the text translate into the learners own current language, orback from that language into current English? Contrastive language awareness of how bothlanguages work is fundamental to process-based methodology.

- continuous variation of question-types is necessary: from lower-order to higher-orderquestions, and with as much variation in question-types as possible, according to the

requirements of the individual text .

- formulation of questions for open response rather than pre-determined correct

answers.

- perceptions of interpretation, ideology and spin contained within the text

- implicatures and cultural assumptions

- evaluation of lexical choice, rather than an emphasis on vocabulary acquisition -

consideration of how frequently usable a new lexical item might be, for example.

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

14/77

- learner awareness of teaching/learning outcomes

- the text-book as a starting-point rather than an end-point in the learning process

- the importance of graphology, layout and visual stimuli as part of the process of

meaning creation and response

- the question of thoroughness versus flexibility, standardisation versus

individuality

- the evaluation of appropriateness of response: best answers rather than single possible rightanswer

- the contextualisation of closed and open choices.

Clearly all these areas merit considerable reflection and research, and there will be many more

which will emerge as work on Five Skills methodology expands. All four currently recognisedskills will require separate work on process-based approaches, and a priority will be the testing

and evaluation system. with its current inflexible approach to correctness of response.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES

The texts: the Beans on toast entry is from Nation 1991; 40-Love by Roger McGough is in

McRae and Pantaleoni, 1990.

Andrews, Stephen, Teaching Language Awareness, CUP, 2007

Arnold, Jane,Affect in Language Teaching, Cambridge, CUP, 1999

Cameron, Lynne and Graham Low.Researching and Applying Metaphor, Cambridge, CUP,

1999

Carrell, Patricia, Devine Joanne, and David Eskey,Interactive Approaches to Second Language

Reading, Cambridge, CUP, 1988

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

15/77

Carter, Ronald,Language and Creativity, London, Routledge, 2004

Carter, Ronald,Investigating English Discourse, London, Routledge, 1997

Carter, Ronald, and Michael Long. Teaching Literature, Harlow, Longman, 1991

Carter, Ronald, and Michael McCarthy,Exploring Spoken English, Cambridge, CUP. 1997

Carter, Ronald, and John McRae,Language, Literature and theLearner, Harlow, Longman,1996

Carter, Ronald, and Walter Nash, Seeing Through Language, Oxford, Blackwell,1990

Crystal, David,English as a Global Language. Cambridge, CUP, 1997

Culler, Jonathan, Structuralism and Literature in Hilda Schiff, ed., Contemporary Approaches

to English Studies, London, Heinemann, 1977, pages 59-76.

Graddol, David, The Future of English?, London, The British Counci1,1997

Hall, Geoff,Literature in Language Education, London, Macmillan Palgrave, 2006

Halliday, Michael,Language as Social Semiotic, London, Edward Arnold, 1978

Hasan, Ruqaiya.Linguistics, language, and verbal art, Oxford: OUP, 1989

McRae, John,Literature with a small l, London: Macmillan/ Prentice Hall. 1991/1997

McRae, John, The Language of Poetry, London, Routledge, 1998

McRae, John and Luisa Pantaleoni. Chapter and Verse: an interactive approach to literature

.Oxford, OUP, 1990

McRae, John and Malachi Edwin Vethamani.Now Read On : a course inmulti-cultural reading,

London, Routledge,1999

Nation, Michael, A Dictionary of Modern Britain, London, Penguin. 1991

Nattinger, James R., and Jeanette S. De Carrico,Lexical Phrases and Language Teaching,

Oxford, OUP, 1992

Pope, Rob, Textual Intervention, London, Routledge, 1995

Simpson, Paul,Language, Ideology and Point of View, London, Routledge,1993

Simpson, Paul,Language through Literature: an introduction, London, Routledge,1997

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

16/77

Stockwell, Peter, Cognitive Poetics, London, Routledge, 2002

Tannen, Deborah. Talking Voices, Cambridge, CUP, 1989

Van Lier, Leo, Introducing Language Awareness, London, Penguin.1992

Martin Curtis - Pearson

Workshop: United Colours of Error Correction

Abstract

Have you ever wondered how written errors affect a students development and motivation?

How does teacher-led correction hinder their progress? How does this correcting on the part of

the teacher affect a learners editing skills?How can you address learner errors in a positive and meaningful way and encourage class

collaboration? How can teachers facilitate rather than merely lead this?

This workshop will present a number of colourful methods in which errors can be identified and

exploited to enhance a learners language development. Colour coded error highlighting can bemuch less negative & helps practice the skills of self-correction and peer-work. Just as

importantly, it also gives the teacher clearly visible pointers on the language areas which need to

be addressed by the individual learner and/or the group.In this highly interactive and engaging workshop, the teachers will take part in several activities

which will reflect the usefulness of this approach:

Correction agendas

Kinaesthetic editing activities Competitions with corrections

Writing up student reports and grades

Workbook correction

Paper

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

17/77

Workshop:

Dr. Mohammad Al-Zubi - Albalqa Applied University, Aman

Presentation: Using Mobile-based Email for EFL Learners

Abstract (Did NOT attend)

This study aimed at investigating the role of using electronic mail and mobile phone in

improving Ajloun College English Students' Achievement, It attempted to answer the following

questions:

1. What is the role of mobile phone and electronic mail in improving English skills?

2. What is the role of electronic mail in improving English skills?

3. What is the effect of mobile phone and electronic mail on attitudes of the studentstowards English compared with conventional method?

To answer the questions of the study, the researcher prepared a project based on mobile phone

and electronic mail for the experimental groups. 120 female students in were purposefully

chosen from Ajloun College- English Department in the first semester of the academic year

2011. The participants of the study consisted of three assigned sections. The experimental groupswere taught according to mobile phone and electronic mail; while the control group was taught

according to the conventional way. The three groups were found equivalent upon analyzing the

data in the pre-achievement test. Two instruments were used in this study, namely, a test and asurvey. Finding from survey and test revealed some positive responses and negative ones. On the

basis of the results of the present study, the researcher proposed a number of recommendations

and suggestions for future research.

Target audience: Teachers of English & postgraduate students specialized in English

methodology

Back to Top

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

18/77

ROOM 1

Sue MageeTeacher Training Coordinator

British Council - Jordan

Workshop:Music and Songs in the ELT ClassroomAbstract

Music can play a really important part in the language classroom but how and why do you use

music in your classroom?

In this workshop we will discuss briefly why using music and songs is beneficial for learners of

all ages and what we need to consider when choosing music and songs to use in the classroom.

Music in the classroom doesnt always mean listening to a song and using the lyrics in some

way. It can be used in a multitude of ways. We will do some activities with music and songs

other than the traditional gap fill and multiple choice ones; for example, as a springboard forspeaking and writing activities.

Aims:

By the end of the workshop, teachers will have

Discussed briefly

a) the positive (and possible negative) effects of using music in the language classroomand

b) what factors to take into consideration when choosing which music to use

Practised some classroom activities which use music in a variety of ways

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

19/77

Target audience: This workshop is aimed at teachers of teenagers and adults.

PAPER

Outline & Paper

James GoodmanBritish Council - Lebanon

WorkshopMaking reading more learner-centred

Abstract

What is reading? How and why do we read? For those interested in promoting reading in theirclassrooms, these are important questions. In this workshop we will find some answers and

consider how they might impact upon our teaching.

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

20/77

We will start by considering some 'traditional' approaches and methodologies and then evaluate

them against our beliefs about reading as a skill. It is interesting to notice significant gaps

between reading as it is sometimes done in the classroom and as it is done in 'real' situations.

We will finish by considering some ways in which materials can be adapted in order to be more

learner-centred and to more closely resemble situations in which learners read outside of the

classroom context.

Aims:

By the end of the workshop, we will have:

Considered reading as a process

Evaluated the effectiveness of 'traditional' approaches to reading in ELT

Thought about ways in which reading in the ELT classroom can be made to closer mirror

the reading process

Target audience: This workshop is aimed at teachers of teenagers and adults.

PAPER

Reading: Helping learners to use top-down and bottom-up strategies to understandtexts

Introduction

Two factors have informed my decision to focus on reading skills in this paper. Firstly,

I have noticed that many learners find reading a particularly difficult skill, a result I feel, of an

overemphasis on reading as the process of decoding individual words at the expense of overall

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

21/77

meaning. Secondly, the majority of English learners I have worked with in Lebanon aspire to

complete academic studies in English in the future. Reading is critical to successful academic

study and therefore for these learners, developing reading ability is a priority.

I will start by providing a brief summary of the reading process. I will then go on to discuss

difficulties students have with the reading process and finally suggest some teaching strategies

that can help overcome these.

Reading as a process

Current thinking in the field of English language teaching (ELT) suggests that reading is notsimply extracting words from a page but rather an interactive process (e.g. Grabe 1991, Nuttall

2005). Readers are not simply sponges that absorb information from a page but rather are

actively involved, evaluating, assessing and judging the information they are receiving. Forexample, as a teacher of ELT, I approach an article on teaching methodology with prior ideas

about how language is effectively taught. Reading the article, I may find some of the ideas

discussed are familiar to me, in which case I would likely read through these points quickly justto confirm my previous knowledge. However, when I come across a new idea I am likely to

change different strategies, slowing down and taking the time to focus on words and structures to

ensure I correctly understand what is being communicated.

These two strategies are commonly referred to as top-down and bottom-up strategies. I will now

briefly discuss these two processes and illustrate how they operate.

Top-down processing

Top-down processing refers to the use of background knowledge in understanding the meaningof a message. (Richards 1990: 51) This knowledge comes from context or situation. Forexample, noticing an article on the front page of a newspaper entitled Clegg on the offensive

over cuts, I activateschematic knowledge, or the mental frameworks we hold in our memories

for certain topics. (Hedge 2000: 232)

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

22/77

Content schemata

Content schemata is prior knowledge of text-related information (Grabe 1991: 381). Sources

range from: knowledge of the writer; knowledge of the world; cultural knowledge; wordassociation.

Clegg on the offensive over cuts suggests:

Content schema Assumption

Knowledge of the writer This source is usually fair. Unbiased.

Knowledge of the world Clegg is a politician. Political textCultural knowledge The UK is democratic. Leaders are criticised and

justify themselves.

Word association Clegg / cuts economy / budget / reduce

Schematic knowledge prepares the readers for typical content. The cognitive burden is reduced

as the content is already known.

In other situations, we might have an even clearer idea of what to expect. When shutting down a

computer, one expects the prompt:

What do you want the computer to do?

Are you sure?

Repeated exposure to these prompts almost eliminates the need for reading.

Formal schemata

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

23/77

Cook explains, a schema is a mental representation of a typical instance (1997). In addition to

content, readers approach text expecting conventions of organisation and language - a formal

schemata.

The newspaper reader expect articles to adhere to newspaper conventions. Beginning with a

summary of an event (a speech by Clegg) then recounting background information (the

government's planned cuts), then story development (criticisms levelled at the cuts) and rebuke.The formal schema dictates this organisation and knowledge of it determines which parts a

reader pays closer attention to. Thus, the formal schemata allows the reader to scan quickly and

economically to access specific information.

Text structure, a component of formal schemata, aids recall. Readers mirror the structure of a

text when recalling. Grabe points out that logical patterns of organization improve recallcompared to texts organised loosely around a collection of facts. (1991: 381)

In summary, schematic knowledge:

removes need to process every word.

reduces amount of information to be extracted

helps select information to be extracted

focuses on comparison between expectations and content rather than the entire content.

makes up for gaps in the message caused by poor writing or lack of systems skills

Evaluation of information

Grabe (1991: 381) states that fluent readers not only seek to comprehend a text when they read,they also evaluate the text information and compare/synthesise it with other sources of

information/knowledge. Schematic knowledge provides a basis from which to evaluate a text. It

allows the reader to anticipate text development and to assess the strength of the piece.

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

24/77

For example, when I read the headline Jail for 150kph Killer in a newspaper, I use myschematic knowledge to inform these assumptions of the text:

1. Formal schematic knowledge informs expectations of the genre. As it is in a newspaper,the text should be informative, factual and free from bias.2. Content schematic knowledge predicts likely content: Somebody driving too fast

(150kph) has hit another person killing them. As a result, the driver is going to go to jail.'3. The text is read and assessed in relation to these predictions. So did I accurately predict

the content? Does the article provide the details that I expect it to (e.g. details of the

killer, the victim, the crime, the length of the jail sentence)?

Evaluation of information allows the reader take a position vis--vis the authors intention and

decide on the value of the information presented. In this way, the reader is an active participantin the reading process.

Bottom-up processing

Bottom-up processing requires readers to use information to try to comprehend themeaning.(Hedge 2000: 230) A reader relies on knowledge of language systems to extract

meaning from a text.

Automatic recognition skills

Fluent readers read quickly and efficiently because they process vocabulary and grammaticalstructures automatically, without having to break either words or structures into individual

components.

E.g.

Dial 0 for an outside line.

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

25/77

Automatically, I access lexical meaning without analysis of letters, syllables, prefixes or suffixes

and recognise the grammatical structure as typical of instruction.

Recognition of vocabulary and grammatical knowledge

Grabe (1991: 380) suggests that fluent readers recognise between 10,000 and 100,000 words.

Readers have to make associations between the written word and concepts refered to. Fluentreaders can ascertain meaning carried by grammatical structures.

E.g.

The lion was eaten by the man.

Firstly, I associate the words (man, eat, lion) with their referents. Secondly, I recognise be +past participle + by as passive and therefore deduce subject and object.

Inferring meaning

Fluent readers decode meaning through knowledge of vocabulary and grammar.

E.g.

Language experts say Thompson's rant was an attack on teenspeak, which has developedthrough text messaging and social networking sites.

Readers deduce that 'teenspeak' is:

in the position of a noun

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

26/77

comprised of two parts: teen + speak

develops through text messaging and social networking

Using this information, the reader guesses at a likely definition (e.g. language used by teenagers).

This definition alters as the reader acquires further examples of the word and its uses.

Dealing with different text types

Different strategies are used when reading different types of text. Simply stated, reading

involves both an array of lower-level rapid, automatic identification skills and an array of higher-level comprehension/interpretation skills (Grabe 1991: 383). Contextual information (top-

down) informs the readers expectations of text and dominates until prediction process fails. Here,perceptual information (bottom-up) extracted from the text adjusts expectations and informs the

next stage of the prediction process.

So, there is a greater reliance on top-down techniques when the subject is familiar or the reader isinterested primarily in the main idea of a text. For example, casually browsing a newspaper, a

reader would rely on top-down skills, read quickly to extract main ideas rather than details. In

contrast, when reading an article on the pros and cons of nuclear power, my schematicknowledge is limited so top-down strategies quickly fail and I resort to bottom-up techniques tounderstand the message.

Learner problems and solutions

In this section, I am going to highlight some common problems that I have found learners have

with reading and suggest some possible ways to help learners overcome these difficulties.

Top-down strategies

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

27/77

Not predicting

A common problem I have found amongst learners is when given a reading, their first response

is to go straight into the text without considering issues such as the purpose or the type of textthey are reading. This suggests learners see reading as primarily about bottom-up skills. Raising

learners awareness of the need to employ top-down strategies will improve their reading skills.

Two ways in which I have done this with learners are:

a) Before giving learners the text, give them contextual clues (such as headlines, pictures or

key words). Then, encourage learners in groups to discuss and predict likely content of

the text. Following Harmer's suggestion (2007: 289), I selected five words or phrases thatI considered key to the text (amputee, death, on top of the world, make history). Then I

asked learners individually to consider likely content. Next they discussed their ideas ingroups while I monitored and fed in vocabulary as required. Finally, I gave learners thetext and asked them to read quickly to ascertain who had predicted most accurately.

b) An alternative way is to first give learners a stimulus, for example a headline (Amputeemakes history on top of the world) or first paragraph. Next, learners write a list of

questions that they like the text to answer.

Who was the amputee?

How did he 'make history'?

Was it on a mountain?

Then, learners read the article to see if they can answer their questions.

These exercises:

Arouse student interest

Build content schemata and therefore increases reading efficiency

Encourage learners to vocalise the process of predicting

Encourage students to define their own purpose for reading, which mirrors real reading

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

28/77

Insufficient content schemata

I find for certain topics students lack background knowledge or vocabulary to understand a text.

Recently I used a text about British pop history, my Lebanese learners found it particularlychallenging as they weren't familiar with either artist or music genres. Consequently, most of the

reading I had allocated for reading was spent asking about these concepts rather reading. As

teachers, we can help learners in this area by working on schematic knowledge before askingthem to read.

Some ways to develop students' content schemata:

In a lesson prior to the reading lessons, together with my learners we selected a

topic that had been in the news recentlythey chose a particularly violent localcrime. As homework, I asked the learners to research the topic in their ownlanguage. As a result, learners already had the necessary content schemata which

freed up their cognitive resources and allowed a focus on reading skills.

Another effective way is to assess what vocabulary and structures that are

essential to a text and to pre-teach or revise these prior to asking learners to read.

Finally, holding a mini-discussion on the topic before reading will enable theteacher to assess what learners already know and what they need to be taught

before reading. So for example if the article is about David Beckham, learners can

start by discussing the topic of football. The teacher can introduce vocabulary asis necessary.

Having used one of these techniques prior to reading, it is useful to ask learners how useful it

was to do so. This will contribute to learners' awareness of the importance of content schemata

and encourage them to bring their prior knowledge to further texts in the future.

These exercises:

compensate for a lack of content knowledge, reducing the cognitive burden

raises awareness of the usefulness of content schemata

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

29/77

Insufficient formal schemata

A lack of exposure to different text types (no reading habit) or differences in the way L1

organises text is problematic for learners. An academic essay in English often summarises theconclusion in the introduction, by contrast, academic French usually does not conclude until the

end.

Difficulties learner's have as a result are:

1. scanning for information which is not where learners expect it2. using text structure to organise information when recalling it

To raise students' awareness of formal schemata, it is necessary for them to examine many

different text types and to be encouraged to consider how they are typically organised. I use thefollowing procedure:

Learners are given examples of a text type (e.g. an academic essay supporting the use ofnuclear weapons and another against their use). Following work on content and the ideas

posited in the text, students look at the text in terms of organisation. I tell learners that the

essays are organised according to function (e.g. stating a position; presenting anargument; giving evidence; concluding). I then ask them to find each of these functionalparts in the two essays. Following this, a good way to consolidate the knowledge gained

would be to give learners a similar essay and a task that requires them to scan for specific

information. A strict time limit will encourage learners to making use of their newknowledge of text structure rather than reading the whole text in detail.

This exercise:

raises awareness of formal schemata

encourages students to critic the written word (see issue: 'The status of text in L1')

through presenting opposing views

Not considering text type and purpose

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

30/77

Learners who do not consider purpose, writer and audience have difficulty evaluating. Onceagain, I think this problem stems from the tendency to 'dive straight in' without employing top-

down strategies.

Scott et al. (1984) suggest a set of general comprehension questions to focus on purpose.

These are:

1) What is the text about?

2) Who was it written by?

3) Who was it written for?

4) What is the writers intention?

5) Do you like the text?

By highlighting the purpose, these questions facilitate discussion about the relationship

between author and reader and allows space for critical analysis. For example being

aware that an article on the merits of different political parties was written by a party spin

doctor encourages a critical approach.

This exercise:

focuses attention on general meaning

encourages students to see reading as interaction between writer and reader

encourages students to consider the role of the writer and critically evaluate it

The status of text in L1

Grabe states 'the social context of students' uses of reading in their first languages ... may have aprofound effect on their abilities to develop academic reading skills in English. (Grabe 1991:

389) In many languages, formal writing is a complicated skill and something that not everyone is

able to do well. When the written word is highly respected, the concept of evaluating or

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

31/77

questioning a written text might be alien to learners. Learners need to be encouraged to approach

text critically.

In order to evaluate learners firstly need to consider schematic knowledge. They can thenuse content and formal schematic knowledge to prepare questions they expect the text to

answer.

For example, in an essay addressing global warming:

Does it give causes of global warming?

Does it give solutions?

Are the solutions linked to the causes?

These questions should be used to evaluate the text. Learners read to find out if the text

answers their questions. If the text does not address all of their questions, learners caneither criticise the text as deficient or alternatively reassess their own schematic

knowledge, which further develops formal schemata.

This exercise:

provides opportunities for learners to predict

provides a learner-generated standard to evaluate a text by

develops formal schemata

Bottom-up

Deficiency of systems knowledge

I find learners often run up against the 'brick wall' of an unknown word. Encountering such aword, the easiest option for learners is to ask the teacher or revert to a dictionary. However to

many interruptions can impede fluid reading and distracts from general comprehension.

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

32/77

Nuttall (2005: 72-76) suggests a three stage program to develop inferencing skills.

1. To highlight how inferencing works, the teacher display sentences and asks what can

be inferred:

1. Turn the **** off.

Inference: **** can be turned off

2. Put **** on silent.

**** can be put on silent.

3. Answer the ****.

**** can be answered.

2. To practise, students are given a longer text with some words blanked out, they have

to choose the most suitable word from a series of options.

E.g.I never go out without my **** in case someone needs to call me.

a. cigarettes b. wallet c. mobile d. glasses

3. With longer texts, inference is an alternative to pre-teaching vocabulary. However,

there must be enough evidence in the text to make inference possible.

Importantly, both learners and teacher should vocalise thought processes throughout

to develop inferencing skills.

Once the skill has been cultivated, students gain an invaluable tool for dealing with newvocabulary, speeding up reading, developing vocabulary and allowing focus on general

comprehension.

Underdeveloped automaticity skills

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

33/77

Readers unable to quickly recognise large amounts of vocabulary in a text cannot read it quickly.

If learners have to spend a lot of mental energy in order to extract meaning from individual

vocabulary items, then general comprehension suffers.

A program of speed reading develops learners automaticity recognition ability. Nuttall

(2005: 54) suggests students are assessed. They are timed reading a text, then completesome comprehension questions. The word per minute reading rate and comprehension

score is recorded. This process should be repeated over the duration of a course. Nuttall

suggests 'an average increase is about 50 per cent.' (2005: 56)

Development of automaticity requires repeat exposure. Readers need to read as much as

possible. Nuttall suggests (2005: 128) extensive reading of text enjoyable to the student.

The texts should be of a level that is relatively easily understood so as to promote speedand enjoyment. I encourage learners to read about topics of interests in English, a huge

variety of material is available online.

Development of automaticity skills takes time. Plentiful exposure is the only solution. Extensivereading develops vocabulary and accustoms readers to the written word, speed reading pushes

the reader to read faster.

Conclusion

In this essay I have suggested that good readers are those capable of employing both top-down

and bottom-up strategies when approaching reading texts. As teachers, we should helping ourlearners to replicate these strategies in order to be better readers.

Bibliography

Cook G., 1997, Key concepts in ELTSchemas, ELT Journal 51/1

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

34/77

Grabe W., 1991, Current developments in second language reading research, TESOL Quarterly

25/3

Harmer J., 2007, The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman

Hedge T., 2000, Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom, OUP

Nuttall C., 2005, Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language, Heinemann

Richards J. C., 1990, The language teaching matrix, CUP

Scott M., Carioni I., Zanatta M., Bayer E., and Quintilhanna T., 1984, Using a standard exercise

in teaching reading comprehension, ELT Journal 38/2

Edward Russell- Member of ETAS (English Teachers Association of Switzerland)

Mini-Workshop:Addressing the issue of discrimination and developing intercultural

communicative competence

Abstract

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

35/77

As part of a recently completed MA moduleLanguage Education as Intercultural Practice I

wrote an assignment critiquing materials I had created in response to discrimination against

Roma Bulgarians in a former context. The materials were written to complement a media anddiversity video collection produced by the British Council.

The workshop looks to cover similar ground I covered over a 4 year period in my professional

development, making moves from those of a well-intentioned novice,to those of a more informedand aware practitioner.

In this workshop I introduce the context and video before teachers come up with classroom

solutions to a problem. After I have introduce Dr Milton Bennett's DMIS, teachers should bebetter informed and will review and improve their activity ideas and lesson plans. We will then

debrief using participant ideas as the basis for a discussion on how I approached this puzzle.Finally, after the session we can keep in touch online sharing ideas, practice and suggestions.

PAPER

In this paper I will evaluate a set of language learning materials I created to accompany a British CouncilMedia and Diversity video on the topic of discrimination against Roma. This web page gives an overview of

the project http://www.britishcouncil.org/bulgaria-projects-media-diversity-main-activities.htm and thematerial can be found in the Appendices.

Media and Diversity Video Project - Critiquing Self-made Material

Introduction

In this paper I apply my understandings of language education as intercultural practice to a set of material Iproduced prior to my exploration of the relevant literature. The language learning lesson plan and activities

link to a Media and Diversity video project produced by the British Council Bulgaria in 2008. In this paper Iwill critique the lesson materials using a variety of conceptual frameworks but focusing on Bennett's (1993)Developmental Model for Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS);I believe that this framework and the relevantliterature may lead to insights into how to improve this material and its approach to such controversialissues in the future.

Issue

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

36/77

Though I was a well-intentioned novice in the production of intercultural communication training (ICT)materials, the offence and shock caused to newly arrived teachers, like myself, seemed to warrant anattempt to enable my students to communicate in a manner, more becoming of 21st century EU citizens.Indoing so, I also intended on improving the quality of their discourse with interlocutors from other EU states(including me). However, while trialling and training colleagues in using the material, I realised, from the

mixed reaction of students and colleagues, that there was a certain amount of trepidation about coveringsuch subject matter. For teachers, there was a sense that: (a) the material only dealt with surface leveldiscrimination; (b) the material dealt with issues they were untrained for and unwilling to tackle; and (c) thematerial was patronizing to the students and possibly represented the British imposing superficial politicalcorrectness or worse, a way of thinking on Bulgarians. Students' early feedback suggested there was asense that students had not expected this kind of topic to feature in a language course, despiteunderstanding the organisation's remit.

Context Description

From 2007-2010 I worked for the British Council Bulgaria, in the capital city Sofia, as a teacher of English inthe teaching centre. The students I worked with were typically B2 (CEF level) or above, female, young,educated, professionals, 20-50, who were from the urban, upper-middle class. Classes were taught ingroups of up to 15 students at a variety of difficulty levels and followed regular text books. Generally theteaching and learning was done within an EFL paradigm with English being studied as a foreign languagebased on a native speaker model. English was aspirational and linked to Bulgaria's recent membership ofthe European Union. However, a tension existed in some of my classes between the positivity with whichthe West was viewed and how members of their own society were viewed and treated. It was this tension Iwished to explore.

Media and Diversity Teaching Material pack

The Media and Diversity Project was being implemented to improve media representations of minoritygroups and I volunteered to research, source and make some language learning material that couldcomplement the project and enable the videos to be used in the language classroom. The pack wasdeveloped based on instinct, borrowing and limited input from colleagues and support from the teachingEnglish website which featured Tomalin (2008) as a guest blogger. The lesson I developed was basedaround a socio-linguistic aim, hedging to soften the message, that was at the time familiar to my sense ofplausibility as a language teacher. Focusing on hedging I hoped to encourage my learners to sound lessdirect when talking about the Roma minority in Bulgaria and potentially effect attitudes to Roma.

In part 1 (stages 1,2&3) of the lesson I sought to have students empathise by looking at things not from anethnic but economic, perspective and a discussion of the poverty trap. With this I hoped to raiseawareness of alternative attributions to the accepted racist ones explaining Roma's economic position.Secondly the focus was moved to make students acknowledge their lack of personal relationships withBulgarian-Roma at school or work, and then on to the lack of positive Roma figures in the Bulgarian media.Here I was making the same point as Naydenova (2010): Why is it that when a Roma commits a crime he

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

37/77

is labelled only as a Roma but when he wins a European boxing championship, like Boris Georgiev, he islabelled as simply Bulgarian?. In stages 5 and 6 the focus moves to more traditional language teachingterritory where hedging language is introduced and practised.

Decade of Roma inclusion

2005-2015 is the decade for Roma inclusion and the long history of persecution of Roma is welldocumented. However, to approach 'Roma' as my topic, a people so diverse, applying a large culture labelseems wrong. They are 5-10% of the population of Bulgarian but more than 5-10 million people worldwide.As a cultural group Roma are far from homogeneous, there are many subgroups that make up the 'Roma'community who differentiate culturally and linguistically from each other.

It is a personal decision of how to self-refer, however, the terms gypsy, tzigane and Roma are all usedwithin various parts of the large and diverse community for self-description. Using these terms, as a non-roma, needs to be done with caution. One can compare the potential use of these terms to the 'N -word', forblack Americans, the 'Y-word' for British Jews, or the 'G-word' for homosexuals, and how groups who havesuffered from discrimination take ownership of and re-brand the hateful language used against themdiffusing its power as an insult.

As I mentioned, it is the decade of Roma inclusion, and I am not Roma. My being a white, heterosexual,British man and the fact that this project does not involve or have participation from Bulgarian Roma is a

key weakness of this project. My approach is well intentioned but not participatory and thus weak in it'srelationship to the Roma community and this weakens the potential impact on my students. There areechoes of the patronizing helping Holliday refers to:

Underlying this deep and almost inevitable chauvinism within the western gaze and making it even harderto see the real problem is the embedded belief that the foreign Other is being helped. (Holliday, 2011:79)

In fact in my context and lesson, one could argue that it is I and other liberal-western Europeans that arethe real beneficiaries of these activities and that it is our sensitivities and sensibilities that are being

pandered too. This three way interplay between British teacher, Bulgarian students and Roma-Bulgariansis complex and one that needed a clear approach.

Creating a framework

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

38/77

Prior to this study I lacked the researcher qualities to look too far, not even within the same building, forinformation. I did not engage with pre-existing research on similar topics based on the Bulgarian context forexample Fay (2005), Byram (2001) and British Council's Branching Out Cultural Studies Syllabus (1998).Nor did I source available examples of lesson plans (Byram, 2001), portfolio worksheets (Little, 2003) andspecific ICC text books (Huber-Kriegler, 2003). I agree with the research Byram (1991, 1994), Risager

(1991), Damen (1987) that 'cultural content' in mainstream course books has come a long way, yet there isstill further to go

I hope that using the ideas and framework below gives some direction that can be used by languageteachers who wish to embark on ICT or uncover similar sensitive subject matter in their classes.

Symposium

In my lesson there is a suggestion of 'don't say that', 'say this', so I have used, perhaps unwisely, aprescriptive, top-down approach. Indeed the pre-determined language aims of hedging may reflectHolliday's (2007) perspective in the debates between him and Waters (2007a 2007b). Holliday suggestsWaters may be correct:

that superficial political correctness can suffer from the same sort of narrownesswhere it becomesde rigueurnot only to protect the oppressed by not speaking about them in a certain manner, but tobelieve that a superficial linguistic regime is sufficient. We need, however, to distinguish superficialpolitical correctness from the need to take action against chauvinistic perceptions which do have aserious, destructive impact. (Holliday, 2007:360)

However, I believe that the lesson attempts to go beyond 'a superficial linguistic regime' by challengingattitudes, and making students, for example, acknowledge their lack of experience with the Romacommunity. The value of experience brings to learning, and the development of skills, knowledge andunderstanding is well documented (Kolb 1984 &Bennett 1993).

I believe that we all have pluricultural identities. For me this means that I belong to and identify with anynumber of cultural groups including those of being: a male, a Tottenham Hotspurs fan, a teacher, a southLondoner and a man in his thirties. These identities and relationships are fluid, emergent and changing.The spaces where I live are multicultural; and in the spaces are people who have different cultural makeup and alignments to my own. As people are not homogeneous, as many family units prove, there ispotentially intercultural communication taking place when anytwo or more people interact.

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

39/77

DMIS

Bennett's (1998) Development Model for Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) is a useful tool for assessing levelsof ICC and can be used to help plan courses and lessons (Bennett, nd).

Critiquing the DMIS

The word sensitivity is itself culturally loaded. For some being more sensitive may not be a signifier ofgreater cultural competence, it may be a sign of weakness or inadequacy. It is notable that this term IDI(intercultural developmental inventory) is used instead of DMIS until 2003.

However, restating what is meant by 'intercultural sensitivity' Hammer says:

We will use the term intercultural sensitivity to refer to the ability to discriminate and experiencerelevant cultural differences, and we will use the term intercultural competence to mean theability to think and act in interculturally appropriate ways. We argue that greater intercultural

sensitivity is associated with greater potential for exercising intercultural competence. (Hammer etal, 2003:422)

This distinct link between experience and knowledge of a culture, and the skills and knowledge of how tobehave and communicate appropriately in that context is made with this framework. However, the DMISfails to considerthe sub-skills which make up intercultural communicative competence (ICC). These are:

externalisation skills: the ability to step outside usual perceptions

4. analytical skills: the ability to figure out what's going on in communication5. monitoring skills: the ability to keep an eye on how things are going in communication6. communication skills: the ability to avoid problems and repair problems7. anxiety management skills: the ability to resolve the emotional aspects of intercultural

communication8. tactical skills: the ability to know when to (and when not to) undertake appropriate action in

intercultural communication. (O'Sullivan 1994: 135-6)

Where the DMIS is descriptive of states of mind O'Sullivan's skills are more to do with online, real-time,processing skills and resemble aspects of regular communicative competence. One feels that these skillscan be informed by knowledge but would be better developed through practice and IC, particularly todevelop affective aspects. However, the DMIS:

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

40/77

is not a descriptive model of changes in attitudes and behavior. Rather, it is a model of changesin worldview structure, where the observable behavior and self-reported attitudes at each stage are

indicative of the state of the underlying worldview (Hammer 2003 423).

Another issue with the DMIS is the meta-labeling of ethnocentric and ethnorelative stages. Taking a small-culture approach, where any group of people with a similar understanding of the world can be defined as acultural group, ethnicity is not the only defining feature of difference, therefore I suggest cultural-relativismand centrism to be more appropriate terms. VanHook acknowledges this difference in his interpretation ofthe DMIS:

The model defines culture as any group with a set of similar constructs. Therefore, the intent of themodel is not limited to racial, cultural, and ethnic diversity. Rather, all forms of diversity anddifferences among individuals may be included in this definition. (VanHook, 2000:68)

The DMIS tracks the move from ethnocentric perspectives to ethnorelative ones. This echoes much of whatICT practitioners mention in their own models. Holliday talks about otherization, as: the reduction of theforeign other to less than what it actually is(Holliday 2004:24) and has strong parallels with DMISethnocentric stages.

Moreexperience

Less experienceEthnocentric stages Ethnorelative stages

Denial Defence Minimization Integration ofdifference

Adaptation ofdifference

Acceptance ofdifference

My learners in Bulgaria tended to be around the stages of DenialorDefence when it came to Bulgarian-Roma, though there was a tendency for a great degree of relativism towards western / northern cultures. Ibelieve I exist through an ethnorelative standpoint, in general, though perhaps this was less so in 2008.

Application of the DMIS to my context and materials

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

41/77

When using the DMIS to critique my lesson plan, it becomes clear that my materials were flawed in theserespects:

their was no formative testing of learners cultural sensitivity

the difficulty of stages was not incremental and some of the activities required high levels ofcultural reflexivity (the ability to quickly shift frames of reference, and communicate in a way that is

appropriate to the context)

the one off approach (there was no follow on in subsequent lessons)

the lack of Roma participation /voice (potentially adding to otherization)

Level testing is a useful start in any context, in this lesson it may not have been necessary to use

empathising activities or activities that foreignised the familiar (Elsen 2007) if the participants had beenethnorelative already and had needed theoretical frameworks and models to better develop theirpluricultural identities.

As is the default for people who have had a monocultural primary socialisation my learners were ethno-centric. The poverty trap activity was generally manageable for these learners as it addresses commonhumanity and is symbolic in its nature, yet its implied focus on dominant group (theirs) privilege requiresgreater intercultural sensitivity, according to the DMIS, than that which learners at Defence have (Bennett,nd). This points to either inaccuracies in my assessment of my students' DMIS rating or issues with the

linear nature of DMIS staging.

Focusing on the home culture first would have been a valuable activity in order to establish first what itmeans to be Bulgarian, before exploring any alternative culture or small, intra-cultural aspects of culture.After doing this I could have perhaps focused on objective aspects of Roma culture to pitch activities atlearners current level of intercultural sensitivity (Bennett 1993).

Proposed framework

The below is a logical bringing together of the key issues raised through this reflection on my practice.

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

42/77

It is a logical starting point to begin with some kind of evaluation that informs our approach. This could be aself-assessment or done via observations. As teachers it is also important that we also honestly appraiseour own intercultural sensitivity. The DMIS is very useful in this respect.

Provided our students results are ethnorelative it makes sense to begin with the home culture. Thisfronting of the familiar (Elsen 2007) or what Damen (1987) refers to by saying that cultural awarenessnecessitates uncovering ones own culturally conditioning, as well as the patterns of others, is a necessarystep that needs to be taken before engagement with 'other' cultures.

Another equally useful point is the notion that we should begin with objective cultural artefacts, if studentsare in denial, and work towards subjective culture and complexities, such as values, later. This lowering ofthe cognitive burden may enable learners to make faster progress than if they are overly challenged.

plan activities / lessons / courses that have incrementally more challenging DMIS stages in them

focus on the home culture before focusing on any other culture

include cultural content (objective culture) before subjective cultural themes (values, beliefs,histories, privilege)

define key terms like 'race', 'ethnicity' (at minimization)

The below, are suggestions for activity that may be taken at the ethnorelative stages. The development ofmultiple frames of reference is seen as an indicator ofintegration and thus learners approaching this stagecan practise shifting frames using externalisation activities (O'Sullivan 1994:99). Once integration ofdifference has been achieved. Learners can be enabled by using theories and models to help explain theiremergent understanding of themselves as pluri-cultural beings in a multi-cultural world. At the next stage,adaptation to difference, study of more advanced, subjective, cultural topics, such as humour, may providesupport as students attempt to engage as active participants across cultural boundaries. The final stageacceptance seems to suggest a reflexive, relativism, whereby students are able to participate fully andappropriately in ICC and understand the ideology of cultural relativism that they are employing.

Finally, from the literature and my experience I suggest the following for longer term opportunities that existto explore 'culture' in, or around the language classroom:

facilitate independent student research

facilitate engagement with cultural mediators

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

43/77

encourage diary/portfolio keeping on key incidents where they experienced cultural difference(Little, 2003)

use open ended material to encourage all students to participate to their best ability in mixed (ICC)level groups

work on a small, personal scale but with thick description (Holliday, 2011:28)

acknowledge the complexity of culture

incorporate (inter)cultural themes frequently

acknowledge the ideological nature of intercultural communication

Target Language and level

As foreign language teachers, if we take and emergent view of language system development, it is possibleto approach lessons using the suggested framework and approach learner language issues as they arise.This entails dealing with learners interlanguage forms, extending these, and providing scaffolding. Eventhough we are language teachers we should also be aware of the opportunities that exist for us to raiseimportant global citizenship topics or to demonstrate citizenship, through our own commitment to personalchange .

Conclusions

My production of a stand alone lesson integrated into a few general and business courses, is not adequateto develop my students ICC and I need to fully integrate ICT, just as I do with pronunciation or motivation,into my praxis. Using the framework my ICT can become more responsive, reflective and analytical. In thelesson where I have imposed a viewpoint on the students this top-down moment is conflictual and ispotentially derailing. The use of symbols and the more subtle activities in the lesson are compromised andthis may lead to the learners sensing the superficial. However, the opportunity to challenge was taken andit is one I am personally proud of.

It is troubling that static, large culture, reductionist, nationalist, ethnocentric viewpoints currently occupymuch of the popular and political mindset in Europe (Evans, 2010). Yet, the actual situation in Europe ismulticultural, and the identities of people both at national and continental levels are post-modern,pluricultural, imagined, diverse, fluid and complex. In my view intercultural communication is the norm andnot the exception and certainly will be relevant to any learning situation I find myself in.

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

44/77

Language teachers have an opportunity to address reductionist ideas and chauvinistic language and canchallenge learners to develop their ICC by using language that is culturally appropriate and considers theircontext and interlocutor. At the same time teachers need to be cautious of dealing with issues only from alinguistic point of view. Failure to explore deeper may create the wrong impression in students.

A further word of caution about otherizing through 'help' and of confusing their own judgements and needswith those of a target community in a top-down way that excludes the participation of the 'helped' group.

Challenging learners with this kind of work brings 'authenticity' to the classroom, which is likely to bemotivating. These kinds of lessons may also develop interpersonal and cognitive skills, and move learnersaway from inhibiting constructs to becoming confident citizens in a world, that for most people, is growingmore diverse.

Word count 3,355. References

Bennett, M. (1993) Towards a Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity in R. Michael Paige, ed.Education for the Intercultural Experience. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press, 1993.

Bennett, M. (1998) Basic Concepts of intercultural communication:Selected Readings Yarmouth,ME.,Intercultural Press

Bennett, M. (nd) Developmental model of intercultural senstivitywww.library.wisc.edu/edvrc/docs/public/pdfs/SEEDReadings/intCulSens.pdf

British Council (1998). Branching out: a cultural studies syllabus Sofia: British Council Bulgaria .

Byram, M. and Esarte-Sarries, V. (1991), Investigating Cultural Studies in Foreign Language Teaching:A Book for Teachers, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Byram, M., Morgan C., & Colleagues. (1994). Teaching and Learning Language and Culture.Clevendon: Multilingual Matters.

Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence, Clevedon:Multilingual Matters.

Byram, M. Nichols, A. & Stevens, D. (eds.) (2001). Developing intercultural competence in practice.Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Damen, L. (1987). Culture learning: The fifth dimension in the language classroom, Reading, Mass.:Addison-Wesley.

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

45/77

Elsen, A. & St. John, O. (2007). Learner autonomy and intercultural competence. In Sercu, L.

and M. Jimenez Raya (eds.), Challenges in Teacher Development: Learner Autonomy and

Intercultural Competence. Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang. pp.15-38.

Evans, S. (2010)Germans Wrestle with Multi-cultural identity http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12090328?goback=.gde_2740568_member_38979467 retrived January 2011

Fay, R. and Davcheva, L. (2005). 'Interculturalizing education in Bulgaria: the contribution of

the National Helpdesk for intercultural learning materials', Intercultural Education,16(4), 331 350

Hammer M.R., Bennett,M,J Wiseman, R. (2003). Measuring intercultural sensitivity: The interculturaldevelopment inventory International Journal of Intercultural Relations 27, 42144,

Hinkel, E. (1999). Culture in Second Language Teaching and Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress.

Holliday, A. (2007).Response to ELT and 'the spirit of the times'ELT Journal Volume, 61(4), 360-366.

Holliday, A. Kullman, J. & Hyde, M. (2004). Intercultural communication: an advanced resource bookOxford: Routeledge.

Holliday, A. (2011). Intercultural Communication and Ideology. London:Sage.

Huber-Kriegler, M., Lzr, I. & Strange, J. (2003). Mirrors and Windows.An intercultural communication

textbook. European Centre for Modern Languages. Strasbourg: Council of Europe.

Kolb, D. A. (1984) Experiential Learning, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.: Prentice Hall

Little, D. & Simpson, B. (2003). English language portfolio: The intercultural component and learning how tolearn. Retrieved January 17, 2011, fromhttp://www.coe.int/T/DG4/Portfolio/documents/Templates.pdf

Naydenova, V. (2010). Proud to be Bulgarian, European and Roma. Retrieved January 17, 2011, from http://www.sofiaecho.com/2010/11/12/992204_proud-to-be-bulgarian-european-and-roma

O'Sullivan, K. (1994). Understanding ways: Communicating between cultures. Alexandria, NSW: Hale &

Iremonger.

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

46/77

Risager, K. (1991), Cultural References in European Textbooks: An Evaluation of Recent Tendencies, inButtjes, D. and Byram, M. (eds.), Mediating Languages and Cultures: Towards an InterculturalTheory of Foreign Language Education, Clevedon:Multilingual Matters, pp. 181-192.

Tomalin, B. (2008). My teaching English blog. Retrieved January 17, 2011, from

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/barry-tomalin?page=2

Waters, A. (2007a).ELT and 'the Spirit of the Times'ELT Journal Volume, 61(4), 353-9.

Waters, A. (2007b). Ideology, reality, and false consciousness in ELT ELT Journal Volume 61(4), 367-8.

VanHook, C, W (2000) Preparing Teachers for the Diverse Classroom: A Developmental Model ofIntercultural Sensitivity.In: Issues in Early Childhood Education: Curriculum, Teacher Education, &Dissemination of Information. Proceedings of the Lilian Katz Symposium (Champaign, IL,November 5-7, 2000);

Appendices

All material referred to in this essay are available online via ara-bic-pen.blogspot.com, bycontacting the [email protected] or as google docs:

c) worksheets:https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B1K1CWvIp_zqMDA0NjgxOTYtNzcwZC00YjRjLTkzNmYtY2Q5ZmQ5YzU2ZTRm&hl=en_GB&authkey=CJDctkc

d) Lesson Plan. -https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B1K1CWvIp_zqZjIxZTQ1Y2EtYzZhZi00ZTE3LTkyYTItOTM1N2I0YmJmZTBl&hl=en_GB&authkey=CInglKAG

Back to Top

ROOM 2

William DeGenaro -American University of Beirut

7/29/2019 Music and Song in Classs

47/77

Presentation:Linking Beirut and Dearborn: Cross-Cultural

Exchange in the Writing Classroom

Abstract

Dearborn, Michigan, U.S.A., contains the largest Arab diaspora community in the Western world

and has become a bicultural and bilingual city, a cosmopolitan site in the midst of the otherwisemostly homogenous Midwest rust belt. Beirut, Lebanon has for centuries been a place where

the east and west have intersected and coexisted. During the Fall, 2010, two writing courses

at Universities in the two respective cities linked up via Skype, Facebook, and email, so thatstudents in the courses could interview one another about literate practices and write literacy

narratives about overseas peer-partners. Some students in Dearborn expressed surprise that their

peer-partners in Beirut consumed western popular culture while students in Beirut were surprised

to learn that so many Arab-Americans in