Teaching methodology skills ma

Teaching Methodology: Language Skills

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Course SyllabusCourse Objectives:The course attempts to get us familiar with the various

theoretical and practical aspects of understanding and teaching language skills and sub-skills. It will act as a foundation course for the related courses such as Practical Teaching, Materials Preparation, Testing, and ESP.

Course Requirement:Students are required to prepare for scheduled classes

and actively participate in the class discussions. They will be asked to summarize and comment on

parts of the course materials. They are to submit a term project concerning the

course related issues. 2

Required texts: Long, M. H., & Doughty, C. J. (ed.) (2009). The Handbook of

language and teaching. West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.

Richards, J. C. & Renandya, W. A. (ed.) (2002). Methodology in language teaching: an anthology of current practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Related Articles Additional texts: Brown, D. H. (2001). 2nd ed. Teaching by principles: An interactive

approach to language pedagogy. NY: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc. (Part IV of the book).

Celce- Murcia. M. (Ed.) (1991). Teaching English as a second or foreign language. 2nd ed. Boston. MA: Heinle & Heinle Publishers.

Harmer, J. (2001). The practice of English language teaching. Essex, UK: Pearson Education Limited. (Chapters 13-19).

O'Malley, J. M., & Chamot, A. U. (1990). Learning strategies in second language acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ellis, R. (1990). Instructed second language acquisition. London: Basil Blackwell. 3

Teaching Listening ComprehensionThe Communicative language teaching &

Listening Listening: a channel for comprehensible input

(Krashen)Listening: an important feature of interlanguage

for acquiring languageSources of meaning in text comprehension:1.

input and 2. listener’s knowledge of language, general knowledge and context of interaction (limited by memory limitations)

In conversational listening, comprehension is the result of joint action: listeners and speakers carry out individual communicative acts coordinately.

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Three main topics involved in Teaching Listening:Cognitive & social dimensions of listeningApproaches to teaching listeningAssessment of listening

Cognitive Dimensions of Listening:Anderson’s (1995) model of perceptual

processing, parsing & utilization ( a connectivist model). It explains interactive processes taking place in short-term memory, listening strategies, and listening problems

Connectionist Model: Proposes processing through a vast activation of interconnected and associative neural networks in the brain.

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Cognitive Dimensions of Listening (Cont.)

The processing and storage of information have been explained through Working memory which includes:

The phonological loop and the visual-spatial sketchpad responsible for short-term processing

The central executive directing attention to the input and coordinates various cognitive processes

The episodic buffer integrating information processed through previous processing systems into a single mental presentation

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Cognitive Dimensions of Listening (Cont.)

Fundamental principles concerning cognition and listening:

1. For processing to take place, attention must be directed at the input and some amount of decoding and analysis of the signals must occur.

2. As new information is being processed, it is acted upon by existing knowledge or schemata retrieved from long-term memory. (top-down)

3. The ability to process speech successfully depends on how much linguistic information is processed quickly.

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Social dimensions of listeningListening happens in texts or utterances. Face-face communication: gesture, other

non-verbal / culturally bound cuesThe status relationships between

interlocutors / power relationshipPragmatic comprehension: understanding

speaker’s intention (implicature), making inferences and determining implied meaning

The important role of language proficiency in processing both linguistic and contextual information

Psychological dimension: language classroom, anxiety associated with listening and its effect on listening performance, motivation

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Approaches to Teaching SL/FL ListeningBottom-up processing: Perception

of sounds and words in speech stream The primacy of the acoustic

signal in listening comprehension Adequate perception of lexical

information as the first stage of using background information for interpreting the input

Word segmentation a major challenge for ESL and EFL listeners

Parsing the stream of speech into meaningful units and determining word boundaries are difficult to do

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Solutions: 1. Native language segmentation

procedure applicable to the new language with different rhythm

2. Calling attention to prosodic features (stress and intonation) useful for determining word boundaries

3. Attending to pause-bounded units more useful than syntactic units

4. Inserting word boundaries before stressed syllables useful in identifying words

5. Using word-onset (initial phonemes of a word) a useful word-recognition strategy

6. Using lexical information and stress cues 10

Word recognition:Hulstijn’s (2003) six-step procedure in

word recognition: 1. Listening to the oral text without

reading the written version 2. Determining your level of

comprehension 3. Replaying the recording as often

as possible 4. Checking the written text 5. Recognizing what you should have

understood 6. Replaying the recording until you

understand it without written support11

Word recognition (Cont.):Word-recognition training:Analysis of parts of the text transcription,

dictation, and analogy exercisesListening to “i-1 level” texts: texts where

most words are knownDealing with prosodic level e.g. understanding

the prominence (word stress in the context of discourse)

Understanding phonological modifications (e.g. elision, assimilation, liaison)

Using dictogloss (noticing the differences between their reconstruction of text and a written transcription of the original after listening) Listeners focus on their problems, consider reasons for their errors, and evaluate the importance of these errors

Repeating exactly and listening to reduced speech rate12

Top-down processing: Teaching learners to reflect on the

nature of listening and to self-regulate their comprehension processes

Developing learner’s metacognitive knowledge about listening: individual’s understanding of the ways different factors act and affect the course and outcome of learning (listening)

Metacongition: attributes to effective self-directed learning having positive effect on learning

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Top-down processing (Cont.): Three levels of Metacongition knowledge about listening:

1. Person knowledge: Knowledge of personal factors supporting or holding back one’s listening

2. Task knowledge: Knowledge dealing with the purpose of a listening task, its demands, text organization and structure, factors hindering the task, and type of listening skills needed to achieve the listening purpose

3. Strategy knowledge: Strategies useful for improving listening comprehension

Tools to develop listening strategies:Listening Diaries, process-oriented discussions,

questionnaires14

Integrated Model for teaching SL/FL listening

Including both bottom-up and top-down processes

Listening curriculum to become affective involves an active, strategic and constructive process.

Supporting individual listening through collaborative activities

Including activities that involves the application of strategies (e.g. scaffolding)

Stages of Listening Instruction & Related

Metacognitive Process (Vandergrift, 2004)

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Listening in Language Learning (P. Nation)Listening and speaking : secondary skills ,

means to ends rather than ends in themselvesListening fundamental to speaking: Without

understanding input at any level no learning might happen easily

Top-down and Bottom-up: Two dominant language pedagogy since early 1980’s

Bottom-up: Listening as a process of decoding the sounds that one hears from smallest meaningful units to complete texts in a linear process

Phonemic Units Words Phrases Utterances Complete Texts

Listener viewed as a tape recorder: Takes in and stores messages 16

Top-down: Listener actively constructs (reconstructs) the original meaning of the speaker via using prior knowledge of the context and situation in which the listening takes place.

Context and situation: knowledge of topic at hand, the speaker/s, their relationship to the situation, prior events

Types of Listening: 1. Listening Purpose2. Role of Listener3. Type of text being listened to

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Listening Purpose

Listening to news broadcast for general ideaListening to news broadcast for specific

informationListening to a sequence of instructions for

operating a machineListening to a poem or short story

Practice: Listening text held constant listened to for various purposes

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Role of Listener

Reciprocal Listening:The listener a participant in the eventNonreciprocal:No chance to ask questions, answer back, clarify

understanding, or check comprehension

Listening PracticePersonalizing the listening to enable

learners have some control over the content of the lessonExtension Tasks

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Learner-centered Dimension of Listening

1. Tasked devised in a way that the classroom action centered around learners

2. Teaching materials can be given a learner-centered dimension through involving learners in their underlying learning and making them actively contribute to the learning:Instructional goals made explicit to the learnerA degree of choice given to the studentsChances given to learners to bring their experience

and background knowledge to class Learners encouraged to develop a reflective attitude

to learning and improve skills in self-monitoring and self-assessment

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Changing the Face of Listening (J. Field)A standard format for listening lesson

developed in the late 1960’s:

Pre-listening: Pre-teaching of all important new vocabulary

Listening: Extensive (general questions to be followed)Intensive (detailed questions to be followed)

Post-listening:Analysis of the language in the text

Listen and repeat

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The format of Listening now:

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The aims of pre-listening:To provide sufficient context to match what is available in

real lifeTo create motivation

Listening:Extensive/intensivePreset QuestionsListening TasksAuthentic MaterialsStrategic Listening

Post-listening: No longer “examining the grammar of the text”

No longer “Listen-and-repeat phase”23

Raising Student’s Awareness of the Features of Real-World Listening Input (W. K. Lam)

Features of Real-World Listening InputThe Use of Time-Creating Devices:

Pause fillers

The Use of Facilitation Devices Use of less complex structures such as reduced clauses

e.g. Me too, So am I, …

The Use of Compensation Devices Building Redundancy:

Repetitions Reformulation Rephrasing

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Classroom Implication

Awareness Raising Exercises Differences between Spoken and Written texts

Skills Enabling ExercisesListening Materials produced for learners are artificial, they do

not have redundancy, hesitations, repetitions, etc. , thus authentic materials are needed.

Students can produced their own listening materials.They can be helped to write semi-scripted simulated authentic

speech i.e. just the main ideas are given to the studentsStudents can be asked to give their own authentic speech on

selected topics

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Listening Self-study Nation, P. & Newton, J. (2007). Teaching

ESL/EFL listening and speaking. Chapters 1-3

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Four roughly equal strands in a well-balanced language course:1. Learning through meaning-focused input via

listening and reading where the learner’s attention is on the ideas and messages conveyed by the language.

2. Learning through meaning-focused output via speaking and writing where the learner’s attention is on conveying ideas and messages to another person.

3. Learning through attention to language items and language features (language-focused learning) via

direct vocabulary study, grammar exercises and explanation, attention to the sounds and spelling of the language, attention to discourse featuresthe deliberate learning and practice of language learning and

language use strategies.27

4. Developing fluent use of known language items and features over the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing (fluency development)

Meaning-focused Input: Learning through Listening and Reading

Certain conditions necessary for the existence of the strand: 1. Most of what the learners are listening to or reading is already

familiar to them. 2. The learners are interested in the input and want to

understand it. 3. Only a small proportion of the language features are unknown

to the learners. In terms of vocabulary, 95 percent to 98 percent of the running words should be within the learners’ previous knowledge, and so only five or preferably only one or two words per hundred should be unknown to them (Hu and Nation, 2000).

4. The learners can gain some knowledge of the unknown language items through context clues and background knowledge.

5. There are large quantities of input.28

Meaning-focused Output: Learning through Speaking and Writing

The same kinds of conditions apply to meaning-focused output as apply to meaning-focused input:1. The learners write and talk about things that are

largely familiar to them.2. The learners’ main goal is to convey their

message to someone else.3. Only a small proportion of the language they need

to use is not familiar to them.4. The learners can use communication strategies,

dictionaries, or previous input to make up for gaps in their productive knowledge.

5. There are plenty of opportunities to produce.29

Swain’s (1985) output hypothesis clarifying the role of speaking and writing in second language learning.

A reaction to Krashen’s (1985) input hypothesis and its failure in explaining the effects of immersion education.

Definition: “Put most simply, the output hypothesis claims that the act of producing language (speaking and writing) constitutes, under certain circumstances, part of the process of second language learning”.

Three functions for output: (1) the noticing/triggering function, (2) the hypothesis testing function, (3) the metalinguistic (reflective) function.30

Three functions for Output1. The noticing/triggering function: when

learners are attempting to produce the second language and they consciously notice gaps in their knowledge. That is, they do not know how to say what they want to say.The effect on acquisition of noticing a gap through

output could be significantly greater than the effect of noticing through input in two ways: First, productive learning involves having to search for and

produce a word form, whereas receptive learning involves having to find a meaning for a word form. Productive learning typically results in more and stronger knowledge than receptive learning (Griffin and Harley, 1996).

Second, generative use involves meeting or using previously met language items in ways that they have not been used or met before and produces deeper learning than the simple retrieval of previously met items (Joe, 1998)31

Three functions for Output

The full effect of the noticing/triggering function is complete after learners have had the chance to make up for the lack that they have noticed which can occur in several ways:First, having noticed a gap during output, the learners

then notice items in input that they did not notice before. If learners notice that there is something they do not know when writing, they later “read like a writer” giving attention to how others say what they wanted to say.

Second, having noticed a gap during output, learners may successfully fill that gap through a lucky guess, trial and error, the use of analogy, first language transfer, or problem solving.

Third, having noticed a gap during output, learners may deliberately seek to find the item by reference to outside sources like teachers, peers, or dictionaries.

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Three functions for Output2 . The hypothesis-testing function involves the

learner trying out something and then confirming or modifying it on the basis of perceived success and feedback. The function is particularly important in interaction when learners negotiate with each other or a teacher to clarify meaning. The feedback provided in negotiation can improve not only the comprehensibility of input, but can also be a way for learners to improve their output.

3. The metalinguistic (reflective) function involves largely spoken output being used to solve language problems in collaboration with others. Common classroom applications: activities like the strip

story, and dictogloss where learners work together to construct or reconstruct a text, communication tasks (explicit structure-based tasks) involving learners in solving grammar problems through meaning-focused output with grammar structures being the topic of communication

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Language-focused Learning

Various names—focus on form, form focused instruction, deliberate study and deliberate teaching, learning as opposed to acquisition, intentional learning, and so on

Involving deliberate learning of language features such as pronunciation, spelling, vocabulary, grammar, and discourse.

The ultimate aim: To deal with messagesThe short-term aim: To learn language items. Typical activities: pronunciation practice, using

substitution tables and drills, learning vocabulary from word cards, intensive reading, translation, memorizing dialogues, and getting feedback about writing and deliberate learning of strategies such as guessing from context or dictionary34


Conditions for language-focused learning:1. Deliberate attention to language features 2. Processing the language features in deep and

thoughtful ways3. Having opportunities to give spaced, repeated

attention to the same features4. The features focused on should be simple and

not dependent on developmental knowledge that the learners do not have.

5. Features studied in the language-focused learning strand should also occur often in the other three strands of the course.

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Language-focused learning possible effects:

it can add directly to implicit knowledgeit can raise consciousness to help later

learningit can focus on systematic aspects of the

languageit can be used to develop strategies.

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Becoming Fluent in Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing

The fluency development strand is meaning-focused i.e. the learners’ aim is to receive and convey messages

Certain conditions needed for The fluency strand:1. All of what the learners are listening to, reading,

speaking or writing is largely familiar to them. That is, there are no unfamiliar language features, or largely unfamiliar content or discourse features.

2. The learners’ focus is on receiving or conveying meaning.

3. There is some pressure or encouragement to perform at a faster than usual speed.

4. There is a large amount of input or output.

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Balancing the Four StrandsIntegrating the Four StrandsPrinciples and the Four Strands:1. Provide and organize large amounts of

comprehensible input through both listening and reading.

2. Boost learning through comprehensible input by adding a deliberate element.

3. Support and push learners to produce spoken and written output in a variety of appropriate genres.

4. Provide opportunities for cooperative interaction.5. Help learners deliberately learn language items

and patterns, including sounds, spelling, vocabulary, multi-word units, grammar, and discourse.

6. Train learners in strategies that will contribute to language learning.

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7. Provide fluency development activities in each of the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing.

8. Provide a roughly equal balance of the four strands of meaning focused input, meaning-focused output, language-focused learning, and fluency development.

9. Plan for the repeated coverage of the most useful language items.

10. Use analysis, monitoring and assessment to help address learners’ language and communication needs.

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Learning Goals(1) language items such as sounds,

vocabulary and grammatical constructions, (2) the content or ideas of the subject being

studied such as geography, English literature, (3) language skills such as listening, writing,

fluency in using known items, and strategies for coping with language difficulties,

(4) the organization of discourse such as rhetorical

features and communication strategies

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Beginning to Listen and Speak in Another Language

The aims of a beginners course in listening and speaking:

(1) to help the learners to be able to cope with meaning-focused input and meaning focused output as soon as possible;

(2) to motivate them in their language study by getting them to engage in successful listening and speaking;

(3) to make the early learning as relevant as possible to their language use needs.

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What Should Beginners Learn? A set of learning priorities for a type of

beginners:1. Using a New Alphabet2. Phrases for Talking about Yourself3. Phrases and Vocabulary for Everyday Life4. Sight Vocabulary5. Classroom Expressions6. High Frequency Words

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How Should the Teaching and Learning be Done?

Five Principles for Teaching Beginners: MINUS

1 Meaning Focus on meaningful and relevant language

2 Interest Maintain interest through a variety of activities

3 New language Avoid overloading learners with too much new language

4 Understanding Provide plenty of comprehensible input

5 Stress-free Create a friendly, safe, cooperative classroom environment

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Activities and Approaches for Teaching and Learning in a Beginners’ CourseMemorizing Useful Phrases and SentencesThe following list is ranked in order of importance.1. The learners think of things they want to be

able to say and the teacher provides the second language phrase to say this.

2. The teacher thinks of the uses the learners need to make of the language and thinks of useful phrases to meet these needs. In some cases this may involve the teacher talking to the learners about their language needs and observing their daily use of the language.

3. The teacher consults lists of useful and frequent phrases that researchers have developed.

4. The teacher follows a course book.44

Practicing Sentence PatternsGuiding Listening and Speaking through

Techniques:What is it? Listening gridsSurveysInterviewQuizzesPuzzlesListen and doBingoListening to picturesInformation transfer

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Techniques for Early Meaning-focused Speaking

DescriptionsStage one, two and three questions:

Stage one questions ask for an answer that can be pointed to either in a picture or a reading passage

Stage two questions make the learners thinkStage three questions ask learners to use their

imaginationAsk and moveTwenty questionswalk and talkthe same or differentodd one out

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Teaching Speaking CLT: highlighted speaking as a central

skill.In all communicative models: Speaking

as a medium rather than a target skill to be considered

The problem Space:Major questions:

1. How does a stretch of speech provide evidence of a speaker’s proficiency?

2. What can be done to go beyond a specific level of proficiency?

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1. How does a stretch of speech provide evidence of a speaker’s proficiency? - The quality of the language repertoire

used by the speakers including the aspects of language needed to complete a task: phonological, morpho-syntactic, lexical, collocational, discoursal, and pragmatics evidence

- The ability to use the data to evaluate speaker’s capacities (that depends on the evaluator’s capacity to detect differences in grouping the features)

- The ability to distinguish between the proficiency levels

People assessing speaker’s proficiency might be affected due to: Their own data-based experience of the task Checking the presence of features likely to

correlate with a specific level of proficiencyKnowing the circumstances of performance

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The Construct of Spoken Language

Second Language Speaking construct:

1. The repertoire: the range of features and combinations of features that it manifests, in addition to their respective probabilities

2. The range of conditions that explain the occurrence of these features

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The Spoken RepertoireThe condition of production affecting the

shape of speaking

Three main subgroups of linguistic features:

Phonological: segmental and super-segmental)Lexico-grammatical: morphological and

syntactic resources, a lexical store, formulaic and pragmalinguistic units

Discourse: socio-pragmatic features, pragmatic discourse structures

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Macro socio-pragmatic purposes determine the use of these features to carry out a particular local social and informational purpose.

Hierarchy of linguistic abilities based on the above mentioned account:

Micro level: Phonemes serve the purpose of instantiating lexico-grammatical items

Mezzo level: Lexico-grammatical items in turn serve the purpose of conveying meaning

Overarching macro level: achieving human convergence 51

Data from corpus studies confirming two main dimensions:

Fragmentation / integrationInvolvement / detachmentFragmentation: Relative lack of group

modification and subordination, the relative frequency of sub-clause level units or fragments, and the occurrence of overt editing features

Overt editing, paratactic utterance construction,

Involvement: features signaling personal identity and group membership, features conveying personal feelings and attitudes to the interlocutor or the content of dicourseTurn taking, adjacency pairs, exchanges, repairs,

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Conditions of speechFragmentation and involvement are restricted

by conditions of speech

Presence condition: speech is used in the presence of interlocutor

Two conditions due to the presence of interlocutor:

Reciprocity: reflects the interlocutor’s speaking rights i.e. the speaker should consider interlocutor’s knowledge, interests, and expectations and his/her understanding and participation

Time-pressure: the need to allow the interlocutor time to speak

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Processes of oral language productionFour main phases of processing (usually called

Intrapersonal and information-oriented):Conceptualization:

Access of long term memory, tracking of the discourse, tracking of interlocutor knowledge and expectations, overall pragmatic purpose, and specific pragmatic-conceptual content of utterances

FormulationPrincipally lexico-grammatical selections, sequencing, phonological

primingArticulation

The physical process of segmental and super segmental processingCovert and overt monitoring

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Two important aspects within this model:1. The dimension of automated versus

controlled modes of processingControlled is associated with conceptual and

formulation phases of processing, and effective speech monitoring

Automated is associated with articulation and to some extent to formulation, is associated with fluency, complexity and accuracy

2. If the control and automation are gradable or categorical conditions

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Construct of Oral Language Development

Based on cognitive psychology and cognition of language:Declarative knowledge: factual (knowing that)

Semantic memory (memory for concepts)Episodic memory (memory of events)

Procedural knowledge: how to do something (knowing how) Much declarative knowledge is needed and accompanied with procedural one to function in communication

The other perspective considers a distinction between repertoire (declarative knowledge) and the person’s capacity to use it (procedural knowledge)

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Three major issues in development of approaches to teaching oral language

1. Range of types of knowledge required for learners: (declarative and procedural) including linguistic,

pragmatic, and discourse patterns2. The ways in which procedural abilities can

be developed in classroom:How best to distribute pedagogical activitiesHow best to use particular activities

3. The place of declarative work in managing oral language development and the role of explicit instruction

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Teaching Speaking (Richards & Renandya)

Speaking is a hard task for EFL learners: appropriate use of language in social interaction

Factors affecting adult EFL learners’ oral communication1. Age or Maturational Constraints

Beginning learning a second language at an early age through natural exposure different from learning at a later age (fluency and native like concerns)

2. Aural MediumSpeaking feeds on listeningSpeaking is interwoven with listening

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Teaching Speaking3. Sociocultural Factors Pragmatic perspective: lang. a form of social action i.e.

linguistic communication happens in the context of structured interpersonal exchange, and meaning socially regulated

Nonverbal communication

4. Affective Factors -self-esteem -empathy -anxiety -attitude -motivation

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Teaching SpeakingComponents Underlying Speaking Effectiveness

1. Grammatical CompetenceGrammar (morphology, syntax), vocabulary, & mechanics

(the basic sounds of letters, syllables, pronunciation of words, intonation, and stress)

2. Discourse CompetenceIntersentential relationship

3. Sociolinguistic CompetenceKnowing what is expected socially and culturally by users

of target language, acquiring the rules and norms governing the appropriate timing and realization of speech acts

4. Strategic CompetenceThe way learners manipulate language to meet

communicative goals

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Teaching Speaking

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Teaching SpeakingInteraction as the key to improve EFL

learners’ Speaking Abilities Speaking Functions:

Interactional (maintaining social interactions)Transactional (conveying information & ideas)

Small Talk

Interactive Activities

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Teaching and Testing Reading (Long &.)

Research Foundation1. Letter-sound correspondences Beginning readers need to build strong linkages between

orthographic forms and the sounds of the language. All young learners benefiting from explicit instruction in

letter-sound correspondence being also very important in L2 reading.

A strong relationship bet. Phonological awareness and text reading efficiency

Good Readers:Recognize words on average in about 200-250 millisecondsMove their eyes ahead about 8 letter spaces per focusMake regressive eye movements about 12 percent of timeFocus on more than %80 of content words and about %35 on

function words

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2. Vocabulary KnowledgeFluent readers (both L1 & L2) have very large

recognition-vocabulary knowledge which is highly correlated with reading ability

Vocabulary learning can lead to reading comprehension improvement

3. Morphology, syntax, & discourse knowledgeMorphological knowledge much more important

to advanced word recognition and reading development

Strong relationships between syntax and discourse knowledge and reading comprehension

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4. Strategic ProcessingStrategic processes ( inferencing, goal

setting, ..) and meta-cognition affecting reading comprehension

A low to moderate effect existing between strategy training and L2 reading comprehension

5. Extended Exposure to PrintExtended Reading over a long period of time

improving reading comprehension abilities. 6. Fluency

Existing a moderate correlation between word reading fluency and reading comprehension

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Teaching and Testing Reading (Long &.)L1 and L2 Reading Differences1. L2 learners having much smaller linguistic

knowledge base of the L2 when starting to read2. L2 learners having much less experience with

reading exposure 3. L2 learners experiencing L2 reading differently

due to having experiences reading in two languages

4. L2 learners experiencing a range of transfer effects, some interfering while some facilitating

5. L2 learners relying on a different combination of general background knowledge

6. L2 learners facing distinct social and cultural assumptions in L2 texts 70


Implications for L2 Reading Instruction and Assessment

The skills and knowledge resources required for RC:1. The ability to decode graphic forms for efficient WR2. The ability to access the meaning of a large number

of words3. The ability to draw meaning from phrase- and clause

level grammatical info.4. The ability to combine clause-level meanings to build

a larger network of meaning5. The ability to recognize discourse-level relationships6. The ability to use reading strategies7. The ability to set goals for reading 8. The ability to use inferences of various types

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9. The ability to draw on prior knowledge10. The ability to evaluate, integrate, and

synthesize information from the text11. The ability to maintain these processes fluently 12. The ability to maintain motivation in persisting

reading

Teaching Reading A set of more general curricular principles

when building a reading curriculum:1. Integrating four skills and conceptualizing L2

reading instruction including extensive practice and exposure to print

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2. Reading materials required to be interesting, varied, good-looking, accessible, ..

3. Some degree of reader’s choice4. No need for special materials to introduce

reading skills5. Lessons including pre-reading, during-reading,

and post-reading activities6. The developmental goals to be followed

through curriculum: a) Developing WR skills b) Building a large recognition voc. c) Building awareness of discourse structure d) Practicing comprehension skills e) Promoting strategic reading73

Teaching and Testing Reading (Long &.) f) Practicing reading fluency g) Developing extensive reading h) Developing motivation i) Combing language learning with content learning

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Teaching Reading (Richards & Renandya) 26

Nine Dilemma concerning reading research and instructional practices:

1. Many different contexts for L2 reading instruction2. The irrelevance of much of SLA research for L2

reading research3. Lack of sufficient formal aspects of language and

genre structure contributing to reader’s developing comprehension and inferencing abilities

4. The difficulty with learning large amount of voc. 5. The social context of student’s home environment

strongly influencing reading development (e.g. social class)

6. Learning to read by reading a lot (i.e. extensive reading)

7. Using appropriate reading strategies, when and with what combinations

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Teaching Reading (Richards & Renandya)8. Schema theory is hardly a theory, very little

research indicate how it works and how it helps reading

9. Students must learn transition from learning to read to reading to learn other information

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Teaching Reading (Richards & Renandya) 27Teaching Strategic Reading Plans for solving problems faced in

constructing meaning

A comprehensive Approach (transactional)1. Embedded in content area2. Strategies taught via direct explanation,

teacher modeling, and feedback3. Strategies constantly recycled over new

texts and tasks4. Strategy use developing over the long time

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Teaching Reading (Richards & Renandya) 27 Analysis of Strategy Use

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Teaching Reading (Richards & Renandya) 28 Extensive Reading (ER)

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Students read large amount of materialStudents usually choose what they want to

readReading materials vary in terms of topic and

genreThe materials are within their level of

comprehensionStudents usually take part in post-reading

activitiesTeachers read with their studentsTeachers and students keep track of student

progress81

Teaching Reading (Richards & Renandya) 28The benefits of ER

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Teaching Writing (Long & …)

Lack of coherent theory of writing, none of the existing ones are comprehensive

The focus:L2 writers’ processesL2 writers’ knowledge ( that the writers bring to

the writing task)L2 writing needs:

Learning an L2Creating a textAdapting it to a specific discourse community

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Teaching Writing (Long & …)Cognitive Factors in Learning to WriteL2 should be acquired and generated to write

into itWriting can help L2 in return1. Writing as focus on form and pushed output

Teacher’s attempt to draw students’ attention to form, however paying attention to form is possible without teacher’s help

Attention to form and meaning at the same time is possible

Collaborative writing activities (e.g. dictogloss) cause the increase of attention to form

Swain believes learners need to complete tasks that helps them go beyond their current levels by producing pushed output.

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Planning opportunities causes effectiveness of form focused and pushed output activities

2. Grammar Error CorrectionIts effectiveness is under questionIt facilitates language acquisition

The Writing Process & Process ApproachThe expressivists consider writing as a process

of discovering meaning and personal voiceThe cognitive approach consider writing as a

problem-solving activity85

Teaching Writing (Long & …)Process writing:

an exploratory & recursive, rather than linear, pre-determined process

1. Second Language Learners’ Composing Processes Think aloud protocol (the writers talk about what they

are writing as they do it)Writing process after a specific kind of instruction such

as Pre-writing (e.g. generating ideas before writing)2. Teacher Feedback

More research on Teacher’s feedback on content and organization

Usually students respond to feedback when rewriting their papers

Teachers and students should communicate on feedback86


3. Peer Response Attitude: Ss prefer feedback by Teacher’s rather

than learner’s, sometimes both preferredThe quality of feedback: Learners started

negotiations when did not understand the meaning but never corrected grammar

Peer response training on the quality of writing: not a great difference between those trained and the ones not trained.

Peer response instruction (not the peer response) is beneficial

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Teaching Writing (Long & …)Post-Process Approaches1. Genre-based Writing Instruction

The early emphasis of process writing on individual voice and self-discovery is objected, due to lack of knowledge on the part of most learners, and also less attention to form

Genres are socially constructed and goal-oriented.Written genres to be only understood within a

specific context and are produced for specific social purposes.

Different schools:Some focus on linguistic features (Sydney School & Halliday)

How registers are constructed from linguistic resourcesNew Rhetoric: language is inherently dialogic connecting the

past to the present new texts to previous texts, speakers and writers to their social context,(their audience) 88

Teaching Writing (Long & …)Situated learning approaches: learning is

viewed as a social process, embedded in relationships between experts and novices, rather than as the transfer of knowledge

Advantages of genre-based over process based Genre -based is explicit and systematicThe Genres chosen for instruction are based on

students’ needDisadvantages:

Genres are so embedded in their contexts that it is too complex to divorce them from these contexts and teach them

Genres are merely recipes. No communicative purposes were given.

Very little research exists in the field.

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Teaching Writing (Long & …)2. Sociocultural Approaches

The most important forms of human cognitive activity develop through interaction within these social and material environments

Internalization: the process of making what was once external assistance a resource that is internally available to the individualAssistance is called scaffolding Collaborative learning precedes and promotes individual

development3. Critical Pedagogy

Previous pedagogies reinforce power relationships and simply teach writers to adopt stances and genres that maintain their powerless positions, however, Critical Pedagogy helps learners get familiar with these relationships, articulate them, and challenge them. Classroom is seen as a social and political context with its own power relationships .

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Teaching Writing (Richards & Renandya)Ten steps in planning writing course and

training teachers of writing 1. Ascertaining goals and institutional

constraints 2. Deciding on theoretical principles 3. Planning content4. Weighing the elements 5. Drawing up a syllabus

1. Structural2. Functional3. Topical 4. Situational 5. Skills and processes6. Tasks 91

Teaching Writing (Richards & Renandya)6. Selecting Materials

Topics, Types of writing, Opportunities for and instruction in methods of generating ideas, instruction on principles of rhetorical organization, opportunities for collaboration, opportunities for revision, instruction in editing and proofreading

7. Preparing activities and roles8. Choosing types and methods of feedback9. Evaluating the course10. Selecting the teacher’s experience

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Selecting type of feedback (by teachers)

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The writing Process and process writing

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A genre-based approach to content writing instruction

Teaching students to self-edit

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Teaching Grammar Formal grammarians assume a faculty of language must provide

first a structured inventory of possible lexical items second the grammatical rules or principles that allow infinite

combinations of symbols, hierarchically organized Functional grammarians believe that the USE determines the

FORM that is used for a particular Purpose. Pragmatics and meaning are central Three types of meaning in grammatical structure:

1. Ideational meaning: how our experience and inner thoughts are represented 2. interpersonal meaning: how we interact with others through language 3. textual meaning: how coherence is created in spoken and written texts

Newer functional and cognitive linguistics focus on the use. These theories are called usage-based holding the idea that grammatical rules do not precede but emerge from language use.

Grammar defined pedagogically which consider both traditional and newer approaches: A system of meaningful structures and patterns that are governed by particular pragmatic constraints. (Form, Meaning, Use)

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Teaching GrammarApproaches to Teaching Grammar:PPP, Input-processing, Focus on form,

grammaringPPP

An understanding of the grammar point is presentedStudents practice the grammar structureAutomatic and accurate use of grammar is promoted

through communication

Non-interventionist: explicit grammar instruction has very little impact on the natural acquisition process, since studying grammar rules can never lead to unconscious use in fluent communication. So being exposed to comprehensible input in an affectively non-threatening situation is the only way to acquire language.

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Teaching GrammarInput-processing

Due to the problem of difficulty in attending simultaneously to meaning and form, VanPatten believes that learners are guided to pay attention to a feature in the target language input that is likely to cause a problem.

Focus on FormDue to the need for awareness to some aspects

of L2 to learn them, there is a call for the focus on form within a communicative or meaning-based approach to language teaching such as task-based or content-based language teaching Input enhancement: attempts to make certain

features of the input more outstanding e.g. visual enhamncement98

Teaching GrammarOutput production: comprehensible input alone is not

adequate for L2 acquisition, comprehensible output forces learners to move from semantic processing of input to syntactic processing in order to produce target output.

Grammaring: The ability to use grammar structures accurately,

meaningfully, and appropriately. Explicit versus implicit revisitedMetalanguageSyllabus DesignIndividual DifferencesError Correction/feedbackSpoken vs. Written Grammar99

Teaching Grammar ( Richards & Renandya)

Seven Bad Reasons for Teaching Grammar-and Two Good ones

1. Because it’s there2. It’s tidy3. It’s testable4. Grammar as a security blanket 5. It made me who I am6. You have to teach the whole system7. PowerTwo Good Reasons:

ComprehensibilityAcceptability

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Addressing the Grammar Gap in Task Work

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Teaching Pronunciation

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An Outline of one way to incorporate phonological components into ESL lessons: 1. Speaking involves two or more people who use

language for international or transactional purposes. It is not the oral expressions of written language.

2. Spoken language imparts referential and effective meaning. Revealing our interest, attitudes, towards topics or people we talk to via prosodic features: stress, intonation, pitch variation and volume.

3. Native like speech takes time.4. Not all problems will be at the level of production,

some are associated with perception.5. Learners should have some understanding of the

role of phonology plays in language leaning.

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